High Water

- Ulf Lundell var på Babel igår. HUR kan han vara så tråkig och samtidigt så provocerande? -_- Och nästa vecka blir det fler tråkgubbar - Franzen och Umberto Eco. Jösses. NÄSTA TORSDAG ÄR INSTÄLLD P.G.A. GUBBÖVERSKOTT.



- Kulturgrammatik börjar småirritera mig. Författaren ska vara så jävla förstående och förklara precis allt om kulturella skillnader men verkar ändå har visa... döda vinklar, så att säga... som han är helt omedveten om. Han skriver t.o.m. om en kvinna som på en av hans föreläsningar försökte påpeka en sådan. Han tyckte ju att hon var lite dum. Sorry to say, gubbe, men det ÄR möjligt att kvinnor kan ha lite bättre kol på könsdiskriminering än vad du gör.



- Nu vill jag sjunga dig milda sånger verka i alla fall vara en bättre bok än grabben i graven bredvid, MEN. Det känns ganska underredigerad. Jag vill ta en röd penna till det och kryssa ut typ minst ett stycke onödig beskrivning i varje kort kapitel, och det upprepar sig själv ganska mycket, och människor pratar på något jävla konstigt sätt som ibland känns helt orealistisk. Alltså... människor i böcker pratar inte som människor i verkligheten, och det är helt OK, men det ska vara en stiliserad avbildning som känns i alla fall trovärdigt, va, eller som funkar på något annat sätt som del av bokens stil. Ehh... ja, det som jag ville säga var att det är sällan ett bra tecken när man känner att man redigerar en bok som man läser.



- Alliansen jag hatar er. Ja jag vet, vilken överraskning. Men! liksom! Alliansen smygavskaffade mål om delad föräldraledighet. -__________________- Visst kan man bli trött på hela grejen med föräldraledighet som Enda Stora Jämställdhets Mål, men inte för att det är en dålig grej i sig - snarare för att fler saker behövs utöver detta, och för att jämställdhetsdebatten som det ser ut i riksdagen är så jävla hetero. (Fast det är tillsyntes inte längre någon pågående debatt överhuvudtaget.)

I alla fall. Man får inte bestämma hur folk ska leva sina liv, eftersom man är liberal, säger jämställdhetsministern. Det vill säga, man får inte FÖRUTOM NÄR MAN FÅR, alltså, när det är en grej som vi tycker om går det jättebra! :D Liksom, det är helt OK att bestämma hur transpersoner och invandrare ska leva, men man får inte ens ha åsikter om att det kanske vore bra om kvinnan i ett heteroförhållande inte förväntades ta hand om barnen ensam. Nej. Det vore att ingripa i folks liv och inskränka dem. MAN FÅR HA FRITT VAL! JA! MAN BEHÖVER VÄL INTE JOBBA MED FOLKS ÅSIKTER ELLER STIFTA LAGAR FÖR ATT NÅ ETT JÄMSTÄLLT SAMHÄLLE, DET KOMMER UTAN ATT MAN GÖR NÅGOT ALLS. DET ÄR TYP TROLLERI VET DU VÄL. :D

Alliansens liberal"feminism", what the hell.



- Ja förlåt mitt svenska är säkert helt obegripligt idag, jag känner mig fortfarande ganska förkyld och jättetrött och jag sitter här och skriva inlägg istället för att läsa Kulturgrammatik. Suck. XD

From Med vänlig hälsning.


[Image: one-pannel cartoon with a tiny police officer in one corner. Swedish text.

"TIPSA POLISEN OM BROTT!

"Kvinnomisshandel och kvinnofridskränkning är de mest populära brotten bland svenska poliser. Är det verkligen de bästa brott de kan komma på? Som hjälp få de här några tips på olika vis mer spännande och givande brott som de kan syssla med istället, om de nu absolut tvunget inte kan hålla sig på rätt sidan av lagen:

"* Innehav av något ovanligt djur t.ex kängaru! * Skändning av flaggan! * Högmålsbrott! * Ohörsamhet mot tjänsteman! * Helikopterrån! m.m!

"VARSÅGOD FÖR TIPSEN! LYCKA TILL!!!!

"Tipsa gärna polis om fler brott!!"]


Translation:

TIP OFF THE POLICE ABOUT CRIMES!

Mistreatment of women and the violation of womens' integrity are the most popular crimes among the swedish police. Are those really the best crimes they can come up with? To help them out here are a few tips for them about different kinds of more exciting and rewarding crimes that they can commit instead, if they absolutely can't manage to keep themselves on the right side of the law:

* Possession of an unusual animal, e.g. a kangaru! * Violation of the flag! * High treason! * Contempt of an official! * Helicopter theft!

YOU'RE WELCOME FOR THE TIPS! GOOD LUCK!!!!

Feel free to give the police tips about more crimes!!


----


That's all I've got. I have an exam for several hours this evening in Stockholm, J has just been shipped off on a school trip for the week, and this morning the cat burnt his foot on a hotplate. We dunked him in the sink for a while and then sat with him and forced him to have cool things against it.

He is viewing this as a kind of tripple betrayal on the part of Everything He Knows And Loves, but it doesn't seem to be a bad burn, thank fuck.

Two leftover prompts:


1. eggcrack asked about my favourite people from Swedish history, and I have to admit that my understanding of Swedish history is still fairly surface. I do think that, for example, Queen Christina is completely fascinating - but I still haven't got around to reading up on her properly! And I don't even have so many more names.

On the other hand, we do have a great big book of Swedish queer history sitting on a shelf, as well as a number of feminist books which probably have some history in, so I should get working on my knowledge! I guess I'll try to remember to report back on my findings later.

(Actually, most of my understanding of Swedish history comes from Valborg's brother, who has a job related to this stuff, and it's slanted heavily towards "funny stories about kings." And from Valborg's parents, who mostly share information about more recent political history. Although this stuff can be really interesting, it hasn't really turned up any people who make me fantastically gleeful; though I'll admit that Olof Palme was really interesting, he also strikes me as more than slightly infuriating. For example.)


2. silveradept asked about intersection of identities (british, queer, feminist, nerd, in sweden). This is complicated because my identity is pretty unstable in some ways, but!

First: queer and feminist sit together comfortably for me. Although I've met feminists who try to make it into a problem, I haven't met them regularly, probably because I've been selective about spaces. The thing they don't always sit together well with is being a nerd, especially if I try to take myself out into mixed nerd spaces, instead of the internet ones I inhabit (which are generally either queer-dominated or female-dominated or both, and to some extent invested in equality).

Essentially it doesn't actually feel that safe to be visibly queer or to express feminist opinions in a lot of in-person nerd spaces I've found myself in.

I usually do both anyway, and then there's a fight and I go look for somewhere else to hang out, because man, life is too short. (I am, however, gratified to hear that one former group I went through this process with has apparently done some thinking after the event about things I said and the only unrepentant member has left in disgust.)

I've had huge problems finding a roleplaying group, for example, which isn't full of misogynistic bullshit or homophobia or both. I think I've only had one, actually. I don't think they don't exist, but I do feel like I have to look really hard, and if I wanted to put up a notice to try and find a group to play with right now I would probably do it in a queer space - not a general nerd one.


Second: Being British is actually an identity which I can use more easily now I'm in Sweden than I could when I was in Britain. It felt uncomfortable there, which has a lot to do with the way I was treated growing up - that is to say, I'm part Ukrainian, and it's often been used as a way to make me Not British Enough and therefore fair game for all kinds of bullshit. Children are bastards.

Extra context - growing up in the late 80s/90s with an eastern european surname in a tiny rural community where most other people had family roots in the local area going back a few hundred years. It was fantastic. There is also the thing where a surprising number of people have asked me in all seriousness which country I came from and complimented me on my English (even without having seen my surname, in some cases!). Being British is not really an identity that Britain likes to let me take for granted, but Sweden is quite happy to. Probably as a result of this I actually feel a bit more at home in Sweden, if only because I know where I stand; I have a definite identity as a British-born immigrant. People can hear from my accent that I'm probably British, and here I am. Ta-da.


Third: my queer feminist identity has actually undergone a good bit of development in Sweden too. I had read quite a lot of theory and fiction in the UK, and thought a lot about these issues, but somehow I've built up a much more systematic picture while I've been here. I've actually enjoyed reading feminist theory in Swedish even more than in English, which I do admit is more than a little perverse of me. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that moving to another country is the kind of change which, in some odd way, makes it easier to re-focus when it comes to other parts of one's life.

I think somewhat differently in Swedish than I do in English. I have different words and concepts. And I lack words for some things; that means I have to think around them. And that might be a good thing in this respect as well, in terms of examining concepts.




P.S. PRODUCTIVITY REPORT: I finished tidying the patio, which basically meant pulling up all the tiny trees that were trying to start growing between paving stones (other random dandelions etc. can stay, do I look like I care - but one has to draw the line somewhere, and that line is somewhere around "fucking lilac bushes everywhere"). I have cleaned a winter's worth of grime off the bench, table and windowsills out there. I have chucked a bunch of herb seeds (basil, thyme, dill, oregano, chives, parsley) all over everywhere that wasn't full of tulips, because we are basically really bad at flowers anyway and we eat herbs like you would not believe. And we went for a pretty long walk up to Val's parents on the other side of town; I was in the wheelchair for a lot of it, but I still feel kind of accomplished. (The wheelchair is basically perfect for my needs, because the moment I feel a bit like I'm starting to be in pain I can sit down, and then the pain calms down - if I have to first find a bench I'm generally in too much pain for sitting to really cut it by the time I get there and that's when I end up back in bed in a heap, whimpering.)

Current fascination: Barbro Alving, also known as Bang. Journalist, feminist, pacifist, badass butch dyke. Yes, they named that magazine I keep talking about after her. She was just that awesome I guess.



One day when I have read ALL about her I'll come back and inflict the full details on you.

Branch asked: Do you think the Third Wave of feminism is making a new start, or covering a lot of ground that's already been covered? - and I do have Thoughts on this, but I am not actually that eloquent, so I've been fighting with it for a while.

And then yesterday my 20th anniversary edition of Bang arrived in our mailbox, and when I sat down to read it one of the first things I found was an article about feminist magazines over the last 150-odd years, written by Ulrika Knutson. And it basically covered a bunch of the stuff I'd been thinking about.

Continuing on the translation spree!

First today we have some pages from "With best wishes" from Sara Granér. She's another feminist comic artist, and generally political. She, like Karolina Bång, is a member of Dotterbolaget, a group of feminist comic artists started in Malmö in 2005.

Med vänlig hälsning/With best wishes from Sara Granér

( Read more... )


And then we've got a bit of Nanna Johansson. Nanna Johansson specialises in 1. turning opressive situations and ideas upside down to make a point, and 2. deliberate ugliness.

The book these are from is in fact called "Ugliness".

Fulheten/Ugliness by Nanna Johansson

( Read more... )


And then finally, a quick one from Liv Strömquist!

100% Fat by Liv Strömquist

( Read more... )


NEXT TIME: Liv Strömquist gives us the results of the "Take care of a man!" competition.

So today I'm introducing another member of my little personal pantheon of Swedish queer feminist comic artists (OK, I will grant you, it is a very specific pantheon): Karolina Bång! Handboken (The Handbook) is a mix of stories about people who fall outside of various norms, bits of queer & feminist history told in comic form, and bits of how-to guide to alternative relationships!

This time I've got a little selection of mostly one-page comics to offer you, about queerness, norms and boundaries. This post is NSFW & some comics deal with rape culture.


There's something that most girls have learnt...

( Read more... )


Shake That Norm

( Read more... )



The norm ghost: It's trying to get you!

( Read more... )



The end of the nuclear family: A Utopia

( Read more... )


Previously translated strips:

- Snapshots of a patriarchy: The myth of the stone age, by Liv Strömqvist
- Creativity - a comic about making things by Liv Strömqvist

A quick & messy scan & translation job (full of improvisation), all done with a cat glued to my side! I've been away from home for a few days, staying with Val's parents, and the cat is making sure that I won't vanish again in the only way he knows how: lying on me and purring in the hope that I will become stuck to the bed with cat-drool and unable to get away.

Anyway, presenting...

( Creativity )

Handboken av Karolina Bång: Helt fantastiskt och väldigt uppiggning på nåt konstigt sätt. Queera & feministiska serier. Till och med rolig. Hoorah!

Här kan man läser lite från boken. ("Tema: alternativa relationer")

Det gör mig lycklig!

"Att säga "vi måste tala om gränser i sex" förändrar inget - sprängkraften ligger i att faktiskt göra det." (Det räcker nog för varning? Diskussion om personliga gränser och sexuell övergrepp, förstås.)

Prata om det

Jag har inte velat prata om det av Anna-Karin Lind

Därför prata vi inte om det av Martin Halldin

Känns självklart att man bör prata om det, men det är också klart att vi ofta vill inte. Jag har ju inte velat prata om det heller. Det finns många saker som jag har helt enkelt aldrig pratat om för nån och har nästan inte orkat tänka på, mer och mindre traumatisk, saker som jag skäms för eller är arg över eller både och. Jag har inte haft en bra förhållande med min egen kropp, jag har inte haft respekt för mig själv, jag har inte vågat sätta gränser.

Många av oss har inte haft nån som har lärt oss att göra det. Vi har behövde lära det själv, och det har tagit tid, och vi har hamnat i idiotiska, obekväma eller farliga situationer medan vi har lärt.

Och vi har inte känt att vi få prata om det. För att det inte kändes så allvarlig. Eller så var det våra egna fel. Eller... det finns ju många möjliga skäl.

Men det är nog dags for mig att prata om det snart. Vi får se om jag känner mig tillräcklig modig.

Tyckte att några av er som kan svenska skulle vara intresserad av diskussionen ändå.

(Summary: The Swedish feminist part of the internet talks about sex and boundaries. Hoorah, people having interesting conversations in the wake of THE ENTIRE INTERNET NAY WORLD being stupid in countless different directions re: Assange.)

(P.S.: this entire discussion was apparently started by Johanna Koljonen, of Nördorama, which is still the best radio programme evah.)