The masculine art of cooking

When celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s chain of eateries were snubbed from the world’s best restaurants list, I revelled in the joy of knowing that the British vanguard of hyper-macho  professional cooking will need a little humbling-up to do. Though the reign of men in the great kitchens of the world is far from over: somewhere [...]

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Race and sexuality in film workshop at Ladyfest Oxford (2009)

Hello all, I’m organising a workshop for Oxford’s Ladyfest where we’ll be discussing race and sexuality in film and media. If you happen to be in the area, please come!
Ever wondered why images of ethnic minority women in film and media are often reduced to stereotypes or simply pushed into the background to the point [...]

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Men and feminism

One of the things anti-feminists find hard to swallow is the idea that patriarchy permeates the mechanics of our society. Okay, correction: far from existing as just an idea or theory as many would believe, the patriarchal problem is very real and it hurts men, too. Some would rather be persuaded to use another term [...]

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Review: He Likes Guys

My review of the gay short film collection, He Likes Guys, is now out on Feminist Review:
As a member of my college cinema club, I would show a film a couple of nights every month. Usually, the featured movie would be preceded by a surprise short film—nothing too long, but always something entertaining. Recently, I [...]

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Polygamy: A woman’s right?

While digging out the image library on my hard drive, I found some pictures taken of an Indonesian ‘edutainment tabloid’ called Poligami. I found the line, Hak dan Kebutuhan Perempuan (the rights and needs of women) across the cover of the magazine interesting – mainly because here polygamy is pitched as pro-women rather than the [...]

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Famous, female, and divorced? That’s hot!

Crossposted at Muslimah Media Watch
If you think that divorce brings shame and stigma squarely upon women only in conservative societies, think again. Because according to a ”news” report published in the Malaysian tabloid, Metro Ahad, celebrity divorcees are apparently the hottest thing on the market at the moment. I usually read the stuff on local [...]

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Guest post: Redefining Malay womanhood in Yasmin Ahmad’s films

The following was written by guest contributor and fellow Malaysian feminist, Mohani Niza. Writing on the “New Malaysian Femininity’ in the films of Yasmin Ahmad, she presents a Malay womanhood that contrasts squarely with the misogyny and whore/virgin stereotypes typically found in Malaysian cinema.
In 2004, Yasmin Ahmad, famed for her Petronas advertisements depicting multi-racial [...]

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The ideal Muslim man is… blond and blue-eyed.

Isn’t it depressing that according to Nesrine Malik the so-called ideal Muslim man is blond and looks suspiciously white? Apparently, this beautiful mythical creature can be found in the popular Turkish soap opera, Noor, where he can be seen observing Islamic customs like a good Muslim son-in-law (*half-hearted sarcasm*). She writes:
[…] the male protagonists (Muhanned [...]

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Cinema of sexism: Misogyny in Malay films

Because woman did not fight back, man quickly took over the advantage and made her the scapegoat for all his vices and fears. […] He was intimidated by woman’s sexual desire, and so he invented the mutually exclusive virgin and whore. […] He was ashamed of growing old and ugly, and even more ashamed of [...]

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The first Asian Women Blog Carnival!

This is a delayed therefore somewhat unnecessary announcement, but the first Asian Women Blog Carnival has been launched. Hosted by ciderpress, the carnival covers themes of racism, identity and cultural appropriation – all great stuff. My featured post “Foreign Bodies as Sexual Playgrounds” has been getting crazy amounts of attention in the last few days [...]

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