Mick Hartley

Hibbing modernism

John Vachon, August 1941. "Residential section. Hibbing, Minnesota."

[Photo: Shorpy/John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration]

Dylan, that other Hibbing modernist, is just three months old.

Feminism as Colonial Tool

For many on the left, the arguments by Western leaders that military intervention in Afghanistan was motivated in part by a desire to help women out of the servitude of a life behind the burka was self-serving nonsense. Naomi Wolf, no less, argued that the Taliban were demonised because they denied western companies a ready market in the sale of cosmetics and beauty aids, and in fact the treatment of women in strict Muslim societies is just fine - "not rooted in repression, but in a strong sense of public versus private".

Unsurprisingly, as Terry Glavin notes, this kind of woke nonsense is now being appropriated:

According to a recently published editorial, the thing about Western-world feminism that you probably don’t know is that it does not owe its origin to the 19th-century first-wave suffragists, abolitionists and socialists of song and story, but rather to men — specifically European imperialists and colonialists. From “time immemorial,” the invaders of Muslim lands have always put ideas about women’s equality to crude use in a “colonialist saviour complex” that has persisted in justifying imperial conquests around the world, most recently and notoriously in the case of Afghanistan. “It is typical colonialist nonsense,” the editorial says.

You could mistake the above proposition for an overwrought passage from the lecture notes of some painfully white gender studies professor who is determined to attract public notoriety sufficient to have her (or his) colleagues take him (or her) seriously. You could throw up your hands and utter some hoarse jibe about the absurdity of wokeness, or about “political correctness gone mad.” You’d be dead wrong about the passage coming from a gender studies professor, but it isn’t going too far to suggest you could be making an honest mistake.

It’s the lexicon that would throw you off. Like this: “Western cries of ‘women’s rights’ appear a harmless demand. But when coupled with the incompatibility of much of these rights with the Islamic religion, their destructive effects on human society, their historical origins and the dangerous agendas for Muslim societies curtained behind them, a more sinister perspective emerges.” It’s the diction that would lead you astray. “The feminist ideology has been utilized for decades as a western justification for the invasion, subjugation and bullying of Muslims. Today, the West seeks to ideologically subvert Muslim cultures through ideologies such as feminism.”

You shouldn’t require any familiarity with the irrational excesses associated with the social sciences and humanities departments of certain third-rate universities to notice something a bit off about these claims. But if you find yourself agreeing with this sort of thing, you might want to check your head. The passages quoted above come directly from “Feminism as Colonial Tool,” an editorial published only last week in Voice of Jihad, the English-language propaganda organ of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, otherwise known as the Taliban.

It’s clever, in the same way the effort mounted by proxies of the Chinese Communist Party to subvert and weaponize the recent and urgently necessary “Stop Asian Hate” mobilizations in western countries — a mischief rarely noticed outside the community of Uyghur human rights activists and pro-democracy diaspora Hongkongers — is also quite clever.

Real Afghanis, meanwhile, are not buying:

Afghan women aren’t taking their cues from any “colonialist saviour” in wanting to maintain what few gains they’ve made in law, education, social status and employment since the brutally misogynistic Taliban satrapy of Pakistan’s intelligence establishment was overthrown in 2001. And that desire for basic human freedom runs across Afghan society.

In its 15 years of intensive public-opinion polling in Afghanistan, the Asia Foundation has consistently found that Afghans overwhelmingly support the rights of women to work outside the home, vote, run for political office and so on. Now that the United States is determined to pull its troops out of the country by September, a crushing anxiety has set in among Afghans. Nobody wants peace more than Afghans do, but still, a series of Asia Foundation polls conducted since last September show that between 82 and 85 per cent of respondents say it’s “very important” that women’s rights be protected in any so-called peace deal with the Taliban.

Whatever the Voice of Jihad claims about what Afghans want, “troops out” has never been a top concern among ordinary Afghans, at least not since the days of the bloody Soviet occupation in the 1980s. In the Asia Foundation’s last 15 years of barometer readings, popular Afghan support for anti-government forces like the Taliban has rarely broken the double-digit barrier.

The thing about “woke” politics is that anyone can play the game.

No women only spaces

As I noted the other day, the new head of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, transwoman Mridul Wadhwa, was loud in her condemnation of a move to allow rape victims to choose the sex - rather than the gender - of the person examining them after an attack. You might think that, just for once, the needs of a rape victim would come before the ideological demands of trans activists, but of course you'd be wrong.

Now the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre makes its priorities quite clear:

Our specialist trauma-informed support services are open to women, all members of the trans community, non-binary people and young people aged 12 – 18 who have experienced any form of sexual violence at any time in their lives, by abusers of any gender. This includes rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, child sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation...

We will listen, believe and support young people (aged 12 -18) and women and all members of the trans community of any age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity (and non-binary people), religious and cultural background....

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) people may may experience negative attitudes in society and prejudice, and have concerns about public revelation of their sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status. All our support workers have been fully trained to be sensitive and respectful through awareness raising training from the Scottish Transgender Alliance. Trans men and non-binary people will be provided with specially tailored individual services with respect to their identities. Trans women will be provided with the same quality of individual and group support as other women....

We offer women only spaces (which are inclusive of trans women) in our centre on Tuesdays 4pm – 7pm, Wednesdays 12.30pm – 4pm and Fridays 9am – 12.30pm. 

In other words, they don't offer women only spaces. At - let's remind ourselves - a rape crisis centre. 

At Hadley Common

Car in the woods:

Friendly tree:

 

Fourteen-year-olds sent to a labour camp for listening to K-pop

The preservation of purity and the prevention of contamination, whether from Covid-19 or from South Korean culture, are the chief preoccupations of North Korea's rulers. 

From the Daily NK:

Three teenagers from Kujang County in North Pyongan Province recently received sentences of reeducation through labor for “anti-socialist behavior,” Daily NK has learned. Their families were also expelled from the county as a result.

“The Ministry of Social Security arrested three 14-year-old middle school students living in Kujang County for anti-socialist behavior. [The students] allegedly had cut their hair like South Korean teenagers and were singing South Korean songs. After their preliminary examination in early April, the authorities sent the teens to a labor camp for reeducation.” 

The source claims that in March, a classmate – who was the son of an inminban (people’s unit) leader – caught the three students cutting their hair like K-pop idols, hemming their pants above their ankles, and singing along to music videos of South Korean songs such as “Man” by singer Na Hoon-a. The students were then reported to the Ministry of State Security.

After the Ministry of State Security arrested the three teenagers, they underwent a preliminary examination and were sent to a reeducation camp for youths on Apr. 3. Meanwhile, the authorities expelled the students’ parents to Changsong County in North Pyongan Province for turning a blind eye to their children’s anti-socialist behavior and providing an environment that encouraged the behavior to continue.

And that's it. Not just the poor kids sent off to labour camp, but their families sent to the NK equivalent of Siberia. Let it be a warning:

“County officials responded to the incident by conducting a series of intensive lectures targeting educators and local residents. The lectures were titled: ‘Let’s stay on high alert to unequivocally reject the influx of the imperialists’ impure elements and enemy propaganda.’”

According to the source, the lecturers claimed that “the devious imperialists are jealous that we [North Koreans] are living a better life because we hold our socialist values high, so they are ruthlessly trying to use their punk capitalist media to manipulate our impressionable youths because they are still growing up,” and emphasized that the people must be alert to the influx of outside culture into the country.

The authorities also gave attendees a strong warning during the lectures. “Don’t expect that students who are not yet adults will receive a lighter punishment,” they reportedly said. “If parents can’t control their children, [the MSS] will send the youths to receive reeducation and expel their families just like in the case of these three students.”

No lessons needed in North Korea about the evils of cultural appropriation.

The Bookshop of Chengdu

Perhaps this is what Borges' Library of Babel looks like - with a nod to M C Escher. The bookshop in Chengdu features interlocking archways, a reflective tile floor, and a mirror embedded in the ceiling to create a seemingly endless loop of stairways and shelving. Designed by X-Living.

[All images: X+Living]

The Socialist Patriotic Youth League

The Democratic Youth League of North Korea was founded by Kim Il-sung on January 17, 1946. It became the youth wing of the Workers' Party of North Korea, later the Workers' Party of Korea. In May 1964 it was renamed the League of Socialist Working Youth of Korea, and then assumed the name Kim Il-sung Socialist Youth League on its 50th anniversary in 1996.

Keeping up at the back there?

The Kim Il-sung Socialist Youth League was renamed as the Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League at its 9th Congress held on 27–28 August 2016.

And it's just held its 10th congress:

The 10th Congress of the Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League is to open in Pyongyang from April 27 at a time when all the people of the country are speeding up the grand revolutionary advance for a new victory in the socialist construction.

The congress is to analyze and review in depth the achievements, experiences and the mistakes with their causes and lessons found in the youth league work during the period under review, and to discuss tasks and ways for the youth league to fully display its might as the militant reserve of the Party and as vanguard and shock brigade of the socialist construction in the struggle for carrying out the decisions made at the 8th Congress of the Worker's Party of Korea.

So what great decisions were taken? Well - they decided on a name change:

A resolution of the 10th Congress of the Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League "On renaming the youth league" was adopted on April 28.

The struggle for winning a fresh victory in the socialist construction is a sacred patriotic struggle for realizing the noble patriotic desire of President Kim Il Sung, Chairman Kim Jong Il and the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un for building a powerful country, the resolution said. It noted that it is the honorable task and bounden duty of our youths before the times and the revolution to make the breakthrough of advance in the van of this struggle.

It is the unanimous will, desire and aspiration of all the youth league officials and the youths to enshrine the firm faith in validity and victory of the socialist cause and keep to the path of our own-style socialism to the last by dedicating their patriotic blood and sweat under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, the resolution said.

Kim Jong Un saw to it that the youth league is renamed the Socialist Patriotic Youth League (SPYL), deeply considerate of the fresh requirements of the Korean revolution and development of the youth movement, and the unanimous will and desire of the youth league officials and the youths, it noted.

It said that the name SPYL clearly reflects the essence and patriotic nature of the youth league, and means that it is the reserve force for the socialist construction.

It stressed that the SPYL will regard it as its general goal and general task to model the whole league on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism and regard the loyalty to Kim Jong Un as its lifeline.

It will certainly accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered on Mt Paektu generation after generation, enshrining the immutable faith that the eternal happiness and rosy future lie in upholding with loyalty and following Kim Jong Un, the great leader of our Party, state and armed forces and the banner of victory and glory of our people who ushers in a new heyday of the Juche-oriented youth movement while bringing up the youths to be the reserves of the Party and advancing group for the socialist construction with great care after setting it as the strategic line of the Party to value the youths, the resolution said.

What next, at the 11th congress? The Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist-Kimjongunist Youth League? We can only wait and see.

Shadows in The Sky

A new video from Phoenix-based storm chaser Mike Oblinski, blending his favorite clips from the last few years, and set to Eric Kinney and Danica Dora’s “The Last Goodbye.”

Dramatic speeded-up cloud action, changing to colour near the end. Best on full screen.

Oblinski previously here and here.

On Vimeo and Instagram.

The Middle Way

The Biden White House has set out its policy on North Korea:

Following a months long internal review, the White House on Friday announced a general overview of its North Korea plan. The policy attempts to take a middle approach between those of Biden's recent predecessors.

"Our policy will not focus on achieving a grand bargain, nor will it rely on strategic patience," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. "Our policy calls for a calibrated, practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with the DPRK and to make practical progress that increases the security of the United States, our allies and deployed forces."

A perfect diplomatic evasion. It sounds like a sensible and reasoned approach, but is saying absolutely nothing really apart from making clear that they won't be like Trump - trying to achieve "a grand bargain" - or Obama - relying on "strategic patience".

Fair enough, frankly. What else could they say? Park it for the moment - there are other more pressing problems - and see what happens. North Korea is suffering badly now, from sanctions, and from its self-imposed coronavirus restrictions. Let it stew. Yes, it may be hard to tell that approach apart from Obama's "strategic patience" - but really, who's counting?

Apart from the North Koreans, of course:

In their statements Sunday, North Korean officials slammed recent joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises. It also accused the Biden administration of "insult[ing] the dignity of our supreme leadership" by criticizing Pyongyang's human rights record.

Last week, the U.S. Department of State issued a statement noting the "millions of North Koreans who continue to have their dignity and human rights violated by one of the most repressive and totalitarian states in the world."

In response, a North Korean Foreign Ministry official said Sunday that Pyongyang "will be forced to take corresponding measures." "We have warned the U.S. sufficiently enough to understand that it will get hurt if it provokes us. The U.S. will surely and certainly regret for acting lightly, defying our warnings," the official said.

Like a toddler being naughty, and getting more and more angry that it's being ignored.

More pressure on South Korea, meanwhile - and in particular on their craven ban on sending propaganda balloons over the DMZ - might be a better way for the US to proceed.

No Harry Potter-themed event

The fun and games in New Zealand continue. After the country's official statistics unit decided that data should be collected on gender rather than sex, on the grounds that “a person’s sex can change over the course of their lifetime”, and the concept of female or male bodies is a “Eurocentric model and construct”, we have the entirely unsurprising cancellation of a Harry Potter event, "after consultations with the LGBTQ community":

A literary festival in New Zealand has cancelled plans for a Harry Potter-themed event because of JK Rowling’s comments on gender issues.

Peter Biggs, chairman of the Wairarapa book festival, reportedly decided to drop the annual children’s quiz after consultations with the LGBTQ community.

Seven Harry Potter novels and a multibillion-pound film franchise helped make Rowling, 55, the most famous author in the world, but she has faced stern criticism since expressing her views on whether men who identify as women are the same as biological females.

For the crime of suggesting that sex is real.

According to the New York Post, organisers said they consulted literary experts and LGBTQ community members first.

“The overwhelming response was there was a risk around causing distress to particular members of the community and that was the last thing we wanted to do,” Biggs said. “We always thought Booktown should be an inclusive, welcoming place.”

"A risk around causing distress to particular members of the community" seems to be the over-riding concern everywhere now. The trans community. that is. Women - or Harry Potter fans - not so much.

A loud and consistent advocate for the rights of trans women

The perfect man for the job:

A new Chief Executive has been appointed at the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. Mridul Wadhwa takes over from Caroline Burrell who has led the organisation for 16 years.

Mridul said: “I am very excited to be moving to ERCC. Having been involved in the violence against women and equality sectors in Scotland since 2005, I am really looking forward to leading the committed team of women who do such incredible work supporting survivors of sexual violence. 

“I am especially pleased to be joining the organisation at a time when it is seeking to increase its accessibility to and inclusion of survivors of gender based violence from marginalised and easy to ignore communities. As a passionate, loud and consistent advocate for the rights of trans women and Black Minority Ethnic women, I look forward to working alongside my new colleagues to ensure that we provide inclusive and flexible support.

“As we emerge from the pandemic, we know that more people will need support to cope with trauma they have experienced. It is an honour to be in the position to provide this support.”

Mridul Wadhwa is a trans woman. You might think that a real woman would be better placed to head a major Rape Crisis Centre - but then you'd only be demonstrating your transphobia.

The last time we heard from Wadhwa, (s)he was protesting an amendment that allowed rape victims to pick the sex rather than the gender of the person examining them after an attack. In other words, (s)he thinks it's fine for traumatised rape victims to be examined by men pretending to be women.

Mridul Wadhwa, a male transgender activist who self-identifies as a woman, is one of many who has shared the letter, which he referred to as not “just a call out but a call for action.” Mr Wadhwa, who has no Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), was recently selected as an SNP candidate for next year’s all-women election shortlist. The practice of all-women lists was started to guarantee women a voice in politics, but recent years have seen a rise in men taking seats once set aside for women. Mr Wadhwa secured the position of manager at Forth Valley and Stirling Rape Crisis Centre by concealing his biological sex. 

By concealing his biological sex? Oh yes.

And now (s)he's manager at the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. Yep, perfect.

Cisgender privilege

Envious perhaps of the success of "white privilege" and other such features of our new cultural landscape, "cisgender privilege" is the latest concern of universities anxious to keep up with the latest in wokeness:

University lecturers have been told not to say "I wanted to be a boy when I was a child" to transgender people, under a list of "microinsults" in new guidance.

Edinburgh University has drawn up phrases that staff cannot use, including saying "all women hate their periods" and "all people think about being the opposite gender sometimes". Scholars should also not place "excess focus on anatomical sex markers".

These are "microaggressions" that "negate or nullify the thoughts, feelings or lived reality of trans and non-binary people" and undermine their transition to different genders, according to the guidance.

It comes as several Russell Group universities are training scholars on "cisgender privilege", where people whose birth sex aligns with their current gender identity are said to enjoy structural advantages in British society.

In diversity training documents, Newcastle University tells staff: "Being cisgender comes with social privilege. That's even for people who are socially disadvantaged in other ways." Imperial College and LSE also remind lecturers to use their "cis" and "gender-straight privilege" to be trans allies.

"People whose birth sex aligns with their current gender identity"? Oh those lucky few! Many young people won't even be aware of their gender identity, not being at all sure where they should go to look for it.

Other "microinsults" in Edinburgh’s guidance include saying "you’re either man or a woman", "you’re just dressing for effect" or uttering "you’re just trying to be special". Another is engaging in "avoidant behaviour" around trans people.

If staff witness such remarks they should "disarm the microaggression, step in and stop or deflect" by stating the university’s standards of conduct, and "educate the offender" by teaching them to "recognise their biases", according to the guidance. 

Lecturers are urged to wear rainbow lanyards around campus "as a visible sign that you are safe for trans and/or non-binary people" and put their pronouns in email signatures.

Meanwhile, trans guidance at universities such as Edinburgh, Warwick and Exeter refers to a "cisnormative society", where trans people are offended that gender binaries are assumed to be the norm.

The prospect of trans people being offended is of course the very worst thing that could possibly happen. So yes, down with cisnormativity! But - hold on - aren't trans people the ones who keep talking about gender binaries? In fact isn't the whole gender binary thing the basis for their decision that they're not one gender but the other? - because that binary is there, and it's fundamental, and they've come to realise that they're on the wrong side of it. Sex, on the other hand, as we've come to acknowledge thanks to modern philosophers like Judith Butler, is just a western construct and an imposition which doesn't correspond to anything in particular and can be dismissed as biological essentialism.

An Edinburgh University spokesman said its guidelines were "designed as a resource to support staff, inform discussion, and help promote a respectful, diverse and inclusive community". They added: "We will always seek to respond sensitively to any concerns staff or students might raise."

A Newcastle University spokesman said: "We want our campus to be a welcoming and safe place for everyone who studies, works or visits here, regardless of gender, race, class, age or disability."

No mention of sex, naturally. That's not important.

Night Store

Jack Delano - July 1940. "Negroes from Florida and Georgia travel by car and truck, following the crops northward. The company store at Camden, North Carolina, where migrants buy anything from clothing to Coca-Colas."

[Photo: Shorpy/Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration]

The women who fought ISIS

I'm not normally a great fan of military photos, with ranks of armed soldiers lined up on parade - but I'll make an exception for this:

Kurdish female fighters of the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) take part in a military parade as they celebrate victory over the Islamic State in Qamishli, Syria, on March 28, 2019. [Rodi Said/Reuters/File]

From an interview with Gayle Tzemach Lemmon on her new book, “The Daughters of Kobani: The Women Who Took On The Islamic State".

Q: For them it really was an existential battle. If they didn’t win, their lives – literally and metaphorically – would be taken from them. In the midst of battle, they hear ISIS fighters saying over the radio, “Women, surrender,” and another telling a female commander, “I’m going to behead you, Azeema.” In spite of their fear, you write that you’d never seen women more comfortable with power and less apologetic about running things. 

I have thought a lot about the why behind this. They tested themselves, day in and day out, against one of the most brutal fighting forces the world has ever seen. They couldn’t separate the political piece from the fighting; without the military victories, the political experiment could not take hold. They believed – as one fighter put it – that “if we can lead in battle, we can govern in peace and no one can question that.” To win means living in a world where you [don’t] have to survive under the horrors of ISIS and their political structure. And it would also mean showing girls and women around the world what women can do. 

Q: And the YPJ soldiers were closely watched on the world stage. The wives and partners of U.S. special operations teams on the ground in Syria followed their battles on social media, right?

So many people spoke with me about this, because they were so deeply moved by the courage and the heart of these women, including the U.S. special operations forces. One of them said, “At the beginning, I wasn’t sure what it would be like working with them. But their warrior ethos is the same – we kind of want our daughters to be like them.”

It was new for the special operations teams that their families would be following their work in real time and rooting for them. Some of their partners went on social media to learn more about Rojda and the others, and started following them on Twitter and Facebook.

Their families were very much like the American public, watching this David versus Goliath story play out – except that David was a woman. 

It just isn't fair

Here's a surprise - a welcome one, though:

Caitlyn Jenner, candidate for California governor and former Olympic gold medallist, says she opposes trans girls participating in women's sports.

Ms Jenner, who came out as a trans woman in 2015, told a reporter: "It just isn't fair. And we have to protect girls' sports in our schools."

The Republican candidate for governor gave what appeared to be an impromptu interview to the TMZ website.

A number of US states are considering a ban on trans girls in women's sports.

Mississippi signed such a ban into law in March, although it is expected to face appeals. The Human Rights Campaign - the largest LGBT advocacy group in the US - says some 17 other states are considering similar legislation.

Well good for them. And good for Caitlyn Jenner.

Ms Jenner's views on trans athletes put her at odds with many activists in the trans community, who argue that legislation targeting trans children is dangerous and discriminatory.

On Friday, another transgender celebrity, Elliot Page, criticised the moves to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls' sports teams in some states.

Yes, we heard from the miserable Page yesterday: a new cultural hero, it seems, for having her breasts surgically removed. That's where we've got to, and the level of misogyny we've reached, with "gender identity".