Women’s Day is upon us, which means we can expect four five things:
* Meaningless speeches by politicians (presumably our president knows about the importance of women; he’s consorted with enough of them).
* Ghastly twee sermonising about the Importance of Women.
* Women’s Day ad campaigns for ugly furniture.
* Debates about whether Women’s Day makes any meaningful difference (for Helen Moffet’s brilliant rant on the pointlessness of Women’s Day, read here).
* Groupon handbag offers.
I’d like to skewer those marketers who so cynically exploit a day meant to commemorate the 1956 march of 20 000 women on the Union Buildings but that would make me a total hypocrite, because I’m taking advantage of it as much as anyone. All my clients will be putting out Women’s Day tweets, and I’m launching a Women’s Month exhibition, so I’m as bad as OK Furniture.
The only thing I can say in my defence is that half of the proceeds from the sale of each of the 31 hearts at the 31 days 31 ways exhibition will go to Home of Hope, which I’ve blogged about before.
Why hearts, you ask, and why 31 of them? Well, I didn’t want to hold an exhibition of Johannesburg-themed work so soon after my exhibition at Velo. I needed a concept, and because I started painting angry sad broken hearts after being dumped in March 2010, I thought a heart for every day of August made sense. 31 is doubly significant, of course, because August 31 is my birthday, and I’m dreading it.
So, 31 hearts, 31 different and contradictory ways to be a woman.
The title of the exhibition is “Seeing Life Feelingly”. It was inspired by a quote from Shakespeare’s King Lear: “I see it feelingly,” Gloucester says in one scene, and this is how I see both my art and my experience as a woman. I chose hearts because we all love (even me) and we all feel, and hearts are one of those iconic shapes we can all relate to – the whole point is to raise money by selling them after all, so they need to have a market. All of them are beautifully framed, and the idea is that there is something for everyone, from sisters to friends, from the happy to the heartbroken. They’re R300 each; R150 goes to cover the costs of materials and the high quality framing, and R150 goes to the NGO.
No ghastly twee sermonising though. Often occasions like Women’s Day and Women’s Month prompt us to celebrate with glutinous outpourings of sentiment that homogenise our human quirks. We are women, filled with both light and dark. Our imperfections make us who we are. The exhibition celebrates that and gives others an opportunity to take home a piece of it while helping to raise funds to give vulnerable girls who would otherwise face a short and nasty life on the streets of Hillbrow a shot at going to university and taking charge of their own lives.
It’s a small difference. A very small one. But small differences matter too.
The exhibition will be up for the duration of August. Come along to Odd Café at 4pm on August 9 for a themed menu including choc chilli cupcakes and gluhwein. If you can’t make it then, there will be plenty more opportunities to come along and buy a piece of work for a really good cause.
Its puzzling as to why you choose to belittle President Zuma yet you’ve NEVER spoken out against Helen Zille’s choice of an all male cabinet when she ran CT.
Equally puzzling is why you chose to ignore the great strides we’ve made since liberation by significantly increasing the participation of women in ALL levels of government, which the President wants to speed up by fast tracking the Gender Equality Bill. Is the President “sermonizing” when he seeks to enforce gender parity measures across all sectors of society including the private sector where some companies have had no women representation in director and executive manager positions! These improvements, which you call “sermonizing” make a REAL difference to the lot of millions of women and young girls in our society, not feeble attempts of your self-serving art exhibitions or the lip service paid by the NGOs and our media mafia with hidden political agendas.
Dave Harris talks about ‘hidden political agendas’ with a straight face???? Ha ha ha ha ha….
Haha Graca M, you can say a lot of things about DH, but not that his agendas are hidden. His philosophy is really simple and he expresses it quite clearly in a few easy rules:
1. If you are white, you are wrong
2. Apartheid was driven by whites, therefore, refer to #1
3. The DA is supported by many whites, refer to #1
4. This blog is written by a white person, refer to #1
5. Black people are not white. Racism is wrong. According to #1, therefore, blacks cannot be racist.
6. The majority of ANC members are black. Refer to #5
7. Dave Harris has a European name, therefore probably white, therfore…. o sh|t
Dave “EQ” Harris:
What a lovely post. You have come a long way. Previously you were patronising and twee about Sarah and her art. But you’ve grown up since then.
I like your writing. You’re a good kid, but it’s better when you don’t talk about politics
Well done on insulting Sarah’s art on Women’s Day.
Sahra – nice effort. SA is surely (?) the only country in the world that has a Minister (and Ministry) for Woman, Children and people with “OTHER” Disabilities.
The grouping of the three categories together ……………….Words fail me at the level of stupidity.
One has to gasp with incredulity to see Jacob Zuma doing a public address on Women’s Day. Damn, is there no end to the sheer audacity and duplicity of the man? Lord preserve us.
Add to your things:
Offers of expensive hearts of which 50% of the proceeds goes to a “good course”.
A very local event, with lots of advertising of the local pub when pressing the link.
Luckily for me, the distance of 1400km one way puts the brakes on my generosity towards the good course.
Instead I tipped the staff of a local restaurant some R500 after a marvellous dinner for 20 friends.
And I know it went to some good homes.
I do not know that about your 50% that did not go to the “good course”.
Indeed I do not believe in the merits of those special days. Just marketing of products and seats in parliament.
On Women’s Day we can expect six things: you forgot the ghastly twee columns by would-be feminist activists who are in the position to link arms, minds and energy to help get something done before this time next year.
To Pregs I said it will take 20 000 women all of one mind; to you I add, that 20 000 men joining them in heart and soul would do it even better.. How about it? Is your generation up for this? Or do you all just want to do what makes you look good as individuals? At least let the women of SA see that people do care about them, that they have the backing of thousands.
DH just doesn’t get it, shame. Zille prefers the merit system. No matter what you have in your pants or the coloured of your skin, you are chosen on what your skills are. No idiotic equality arithmetic, quotas etc. If you make it onto the team it’s a REAL honour as you know that person is not a quota-filler or ‘deployee’ as the ANC like to call their unskilled cadres.
@ bernpm as a big tipper you should know that most goes to management anyway, not to a good CAUSE..
Gender Equity just means that the ANC elite have BOTH their own men AND women employed with qualifications for the job or ability being irrelevant.
Gender Equity actually discriminates against men and against the cultures where the men are the main breadwinners, and is therefore Unconstitutional.
The ONLY culture where the men don’t work, and the main workers and only “farmers” are women, is Black African Culture.
Dave Harris, you are plain wrong when you say the the government’s increasing the representation of women at all levels makes a difference. The vast majority of women in South Africa, who are black, derive no benefit in their lives from having more women MPs or CEOs. You might as well claim that if we had a female president the lot of women would improve, and there is more chance of Jesus popping in to Woolworths than that happening. It surely will not. They will still be treated as goods and chatels by most South African men. And for all his charm and dancing skills President Zuma himself does not set a good example.
@Gavin Storrie Can you substantiate why I am “plain wrong” and why you believe the presence of women in influential positions in both government and the corporate world, which is what the Gender Equity Bill encourages, has ” no benefit in their (black women) lives”? Elsewhere in the world, the presence of women in positions of authority has been a huge success!!
Your reasoning is just as bizarre as the mindset of the DA who see no issue by fronting their white tribal party with black faces and then claiming it to be multiracial representing our country’s demographics!
I find that I look for Dave Harris’s comments after each of Sarah’s postings – they’ve become a bit like Jekyll and Hyde for me. I keep checking to see if Dave has returned to his witty self, which I prefer to his role of caustically reviewing other people’s ideas. It was Dave’s writing that first attracted me to Thought Leader several years ago.
I trust there will be 31 happy owners of hearts at the end of the month – they are quirky and the cause is good.
Personally, I like the word ‘nice’!
The gender issue as I see it is one of equal social valuation of both genders no matter what their sexual orientation be it straight, bi-sexual. transgender or homosexual. For that to truly happen, I think, the penis and the vagina needed to be accorded equal value in the common mind but because the vagina is physically hidden from view it will only gain a fair space in the common mind if it is brought into public discourse and that is very much up to its possessors.
Harris, you defend the Traditional Courts Bill, which does not, in its current form, make provision for the participation of women.
So you have not refuted Gavin’s point that women MPs and CEOs does not benefit the majority of women. Rural women are still at the mercy of patriarchal traditional leaders.
Also, it is quite appropriate for Sarah to bring up Zuma. Let us face fact, polygamists would not tolerate women taking multiple husbands, for them, it only operates one way: one man, multiple wives. It is a sexist and patriarchal institution.
@impedimenta
Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not in the business of being witty or entertaining. I care deeply for ALL who live in SA. Even though I and disagree with Sarah’s politics l like her art and respect her as a human being. I can’t understand why you view me as a Jekyll & Hyde.
@Reducto
You need to remove your head from that dark orifice and free yourself from your eurocentric indoctrination and try learn about other cultures where polygamy and polyandry have been practiced since the dawn of mankind. Traditional Courts are essential to create a more humane justice system that reflects African culture, since I should remind you that we live in AFRICA not in Europe or one of its colonies, duh!
Ah Harris, as usual, you have spouted nonsense rather than dealing with any substantial points.
Firstly, you ignore the fact that the Traditional Courts Bill currently does make provision of the participation of women.
Secondly, you ignore my point that polygamists would never tolerate polygamy being practiced the other way, a woman taking multiple husbands. It does not matter how long it has been practiced (since when did age justify a discriminatory tradition?), does not change the fact it is patriarchal and sexist.
Just because “we live in AFRICA not in Europe” does not mean the Constitutional requirement of gender equality gets overridden by patriarchal tradition.
can we view your women’s month hearts anywhere, i am in CT and cannot make it to the exhibition, but I’d love to buy one….
@Dave: I admit, I still enjoy your observations – they are relevant and pointed – but I do miss the cleverness of your earlier writing. You still expose the worst of SA politics and our actions/thoughts/prejudices, but a couple of years ago you did this satirically. Maybe one day you will tell us what happened to trigger this perceptible change?
@Nguni: “bernpm as a big tipper you should know that most goes to management anyway, not to a good CAUSE”
Not this time my sweet, I handed it personally to each of the kitchen workers. Over and above, I do know -as in most little places- the owner/manager of the restaurant who has a good heart and often gives her staff a lift if an evening runs to late in the evening.
In this context your reference to “big tipper” sounds a little stupid for a show of appreciation to a hard working staff and serving with a smile on their faces.
I love that the funds are going to a good cause – so important to build up under-privileged youth! (And the chocolate-chilli cupcakes are tempting
)
negativism, racism and protectionism is still crystal clear and very difficulty stains to remove amongst our commenting society, whilst it is too hard to embrace and sermonise the common ideation and values that share and make us to call ourself a nation.
values that we share, errored omission.