Globalization before globalization and the 1920s girl

Bobbed hair, cigarettes, slender athletic bodies, and sexy clothes — the “golden” 1920s are often looked upon as a time of freedom for women, and its accessories and fashion have become icons. But how did this image come to be? And was it only a Western phenomenon as common images of girls in Paris, London, Berlin and New York suggest?

Turns out research across the world shows that globalization existed before the word became the everyday currency to comprehend ongoing contemporary entanglements. In a fascinating row of vignettes six researchers in six different countries and additional authors collaborated (image all the phone conferences and e-mails back and forth they must have gone through) looked at how this image of the modern girl arose in China, India, Germany, the Soviet Union, Australia, Japan and South Africa. While often people in the U.S. and Europe assume that colonization brought Western culture into other parts of the world, this thoroughly researched book of case studies shows how Asian, black and other influences flowed into shaping what we now think of the 1920s girl.

The authors look at the image of the girl — which is understood as a style rather than a biological age category — through cosmetics ads and beauty products. Issues such as tanning, face powders, and hair products became objects of daily use rather than luxury items. More so, they became linked to political debate about the situation of women. After all, it gave women time for themselves, to prepare to go out into public space, and by selling beauty products to become entrepreneurs with own incomes. While we perhaps only think of the link between political  statements and soap ads when remembering Dove’s Real Bodies campaign to feature healthy-looking women without sickly thin-looking bodies — beauty products in the past signaled national agendas, the movement to empower (black) women, and “tanning” strategies to signal race hierarchies.

Anyone interested in the depth of what the 1920s meant for being a woman and how the image of the modern girl was used for politics, not only in the West, should pick up The Modern Girl Around the World. Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization by the Around the World Research Group. It is very readable despite being historic sciences, features many photos of ads, and chapters can be read independently of each other if you’re only interested in a particular country or phenomenon. It’s introduction can give you more of the theoretical background if needed, while second chapter gives you a good idea of how ads on skin coloring flowed back and forth between different countries, weaving together beauty ideals across boundaries before the age of social media.

The book was published in 2008 by Duke University Press and should be available to be ordered in your favorite local bookstore, in a college or university library nearby or online.

Another detailed extended review by Jan Bardsley (from Intersections: Gender and sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, Issue 25, February 2011).

Think you’re brave? The stories of seven women activists in rural India

A review of Playing with fire: feminist thought and activism through seven lives in India by the Sangtin writers collective. Published 2006 by the University of Minnesota Press.

This is not a usual post but the second of three book reviews I am writing as part of a seminar I am taking this spring semester in Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland. We are asked to write a book review geared to a blog audience. As it happens, I do have you as my wonderful audience and thought: ‘Why not?’

“A cumin seed in a camel’s mouth,” “the churning of our minds and souls,” and “using one set of teeth to show and another one to chew.” You think you are reading poetic fiction but lo and behold you are reading the impressive, real stories of seven women activists in rural India.

They are the Sangtin writers in the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh; with Sangtin meaning closest female companion. Seven of them are field workers for an NGO that aims to empower women. They take you on their  journey during which they write diaries and read them to each other to discuss why their lives as women are they way they are. In their beautiful metaphors, they bravely tell you about the humiliations and abuse they have had to endure during childhood, youth, matrimony and motherhood and which continue because they are women, of a certain caste (and there are so many of them!), and religion.

Their tales of intricate and complicated family lives will give you a deep if often shocking view into rural Indian society but they also avoid sensationalism to foreground realistic ideas of what can be changed. Change, they teach us, can be achieved if it is “carried out in thoughtful and respectful manner” so that everyone can accept it. Their boldness to put their own lives and livelihood at risk by simply talking about it can only startle and impress anyone who takes individualistic expressions as a given.

This becomes particularly clear in the beginning and ending which explain the intriguing political backlash their book sparked in the “confusing, vicious circle” of NGOs: attacks on each of the writers and resignation from a job for one of them. Playing with fire merges gripping accounts of non-fiction writing a la Truman Capote with the best of feminist science. It is a must-read for anyone seriously thinking about the power of hierarchies and rituals that keep change from happening while avoiding the easy out of sarcastic resignation to work toward change and new ways to measure it. 

Check your local and university libraries for Playing with fire. Otherwise your local bookstore of choice can order it (apart from online selling sites.)

The original version was published in 2004 in Hindi and is titled Sangtin Yatra: Saat Zindgiyon Mein Lipta Nari Vimarsh (A Journey of Sangtin: Feminist Thought Wrapped in Seven Lives). It is available here.

Other review of Playing with fire:
Project Muse/ NWSA Journal 

Unbedingt hören! “Zwei Sommer lang Indianer”

Selten habe ich etwas aus solch großer Überzeugung empfohlen. Aber nun habe ich Gelegenheit Euch eine der besten Radio-Reisereportagen, die ich bisher über die USA gehört habe, ans Herz zu legen.

Der freischaffende Leipziger Journalist Philipp Seitz hat “Zwei Sommer lang Indianer. Eine literarische Reisereportage” mit absolutem Herzblut und großem Aufwand als Ein-Mann-Projekt gestemmt. Nun ist sie endlich, endlich im deutschen Radio zu hören, und weltweit als Livestream am 2. März ab 14 Uhr.

Durch eine Zufallsbekanntschaft in einem Leipziger Hostel lernt Philipp einen Native American kennen, oder wie man deutsch gerne sagt, Indianer. Robert heißt er und im Gegensatz zu vielen, die sagen, ich würde Dich so gerne mal besuchen und es dann doch nicht tun, hat Philipp Robert in dem Reservat seiner Familie, den Chippewa-Cree, in Rocky Boy, in Montana im Sommer 2010 besucht. Mehr noch, er hat dort rund einen Monat gelebt, in der sweat lodge geschwitzt, auf dem pow wow getanzt, im Alltag zugeschaut, Friedenspfeife geraucht, kurzum die zeitgenössische Kultur und Lage dieser Minderheit in den USA respektvoll und treffend eingefangen.

Ich hatte die Ehre die volle 120-minütige Reportage schon vorab hören zu dürfen (und auch für ein Handy für das Abenteuer zu sorgen.) Vorneweg, es war ein absoluter Genuss, seiner literarischen Reise zu folgen, auch weil sie mein Lieblingsterritorium der deutschen und U.S.-Amerikanischen Welten und ihrer gegenseitigen Begegnung verbindet. Es hat mich sofort reingezogen, durch die Musik und dadurch, dass Philipp den — besonders ostdeutschen — Hörer bei Bekanntem abholt, mit den Geschehnissen um 1989 und einer DDR-Kindheit. Einer meiner Lieblingsabschnitte war die sweat lodge. Wie auch bei seinen anderen Erlebnissen habe ich als Hörer das Gefühl gehabt, dabei zu sein, mit Hitze, Kräutergeruch, Schweiß, fast bewusstlos werden, nicht aufgeben wollen und doch nicht weiter können, der schwache Weiße zu sein.

Philipp hat auch nicht davor gescheut, die Probleme von Arbeitslosigkeit, Armut, Alkoholabhängigkeit und Konflikte mit Rest-Amerika anzusprechen, warum sie existieren, den historischem Kontext und seine Folgen. Das Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühl der Native Americans, das Philipp anhand des Dilemmas vor allem der jungen Chippewa-Cree aufzeigt, hat mich an Ostdeutschand erinnert, an die letzten die in der DDR geboren sind und noch immer dem Wandel der Einheit unterliegen, bis es niemanden mehr gibt, der sich als Zeitzeuge an die DDR, die Wende-Zeit und den Beginn des wiedervereinten Deutschland erinnern kann.

Großartig sind auch seine Musikauswahl (witzig auch die deutsche Musik mit Nena zur magic reality) und das Annähern an die verschiedenen Figuren mit vielen sprachlichen Bildern und wie er seine eigenen (deutschen Stereotypen) von Indianern demontiert.

Philipp hat ein unglaubliches Talent die konkret spannende Geschichte seines Besuches, mit der DDR-Indianerkultur, und philosophischen Ansätzen von Friedrich Engels zu verweben und die Hörer so mit seinen anregenden Selbstreflexionen und Klängen. Es ist wahrlich als ob mensch dabei ist. Als großer ARD-Radio-Tatort und ARD-Radio-Feature-Fan und ehemalige Radiojournalistin kann ich seine Arbeit Geräusche, Gespräche und Stimmung zu erhaschen und in so ein herausforderndes langes Format in ARD-Sendequalität umzuwandeln nur absolut bewundern. Höchster Respekt! Abgesehen von der professionell angebrachten Lobhudelei, ist seine Reportage fantastische (ja, fast im magischen Sinne, ihr werdet noch hören warum) Unterhaltung und Pause für die rasenden Denkprozesse in unseren überfüllten Köpfen.

Deshalb eine Herzensempfehlung von mir, gönnt Euch im Livestream oder direkt am Empfänger am 2. März via Radio Blau (Leipzig) ab 14 Uhr zwei Stunden feinsten deutschen Radio- und Reisejournalismus zu einer leider benachteiligten Bevölkerung in den USA, die zwar so viele Mythen hoch beschwört aber im eigenen Land ins Abseits geraten ist: “Zwei Sommer lang Indianer. Eine literarische Reisereportage” . Zur Sendung gibt es auch Philipps Blog, in dem er noch mehr seiner Abenteuer preisgeben wird.

Eine Seltenheit und in dieser Länge eine einzigartig brilliant geschliffene Radioarbeit: zwei Hörstunden im Land der “Indianer” zwischen deutscher Vorstellung und U.S.-Amerikanischer Realität. Unbedingt hören, unbedingt weiterreichen!!

Lifeline, Therapist, Teacher, Friend – The Meaning of Books in U.S. Prisons

This is not a usual post but the first of three book reviews I am writing as part of a seminar I am taking this spring semester in Women’s Studies. We are asked to write a book review geared to a blog audience. As it happens, I do have you as my wonderful audience and thought: ‘Why not?’

A book review of Meagan Sweeney’s Reading Is My Window. Books and the Art of Reading in Women’s Prison.

It’s easy to apply Megan Sweeney’s title metaphor to Reading Is My Window itself. Her 258 pages offer a window into a walled off world amidst U.S. society. But her window still has bars: The mostly African-American and white women, who are the book’s protagonists and focus, are locked up in the prison-industrial complex that since its building in the 1970s has morphed into a dysfunctional system to hide the “human evidence of our social failures,” as she writes.

Her well-organized book is based on the yearlong meticulous interviewing of 94 women in three prisons in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina on their reading practices during book club meetings she organized. But before we hear the women speak, Sweeney sets up the tight framework in which the women are tied. She starts with a dense historic overview of U.S. prisons and their libraries to then drill deeper into the specific conditions of women, books, and reading in prison. She details the often arbitrary restrictions and local politics for women to obtain books and the “Underground Book Railroad” they have built in defense. She follows up with individual chapters on popular genres such as urban fiction and self-help books highlighting the therapeutic, educational, and friendship-like nature the books take on for many women. She also introduces us to Denise and Monique in two portraits that carve out how these two avid readers make meaning of their lives with the help of books.

Zooming back and forth between sprinkles of theory, her observations, and the self-reflections of the women, Sweeney gives a lot of space to the women’s voices so that they shine on their own; she even includes copies of their reading notes. Above all, Cassandra, Maisey, and Solo remind us about the joy of reading books but also their value for intellectual and emotional survival in the struggle for human dignity when a world of fleeting meanings has forgotten some of its own citizens. As Maisey says: “A book has a why. TV just is.”

Meagan Sweeney. Reading Is My Window. Books and the Art of Reading in Women’s Prisons. Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press. 2010

In the spirit of informal book networks and counter the arising culture of digitally locked e-books, I am also happy to lend my copy to anyone interested. Alternatively, ask your local library. If you want to own a copy, the cheapest copies currently available are used paperbacks starting at $14.90 on Amazon.

Further reading: Read the Executive Summary of Unlocking Potential: Results of a National Survey of Postsecondary Education in State Prisons. May 2011. Laura E. Gorgol and Brian E. Sponsler. Institute for Higher Education Policy. Sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

A “Germanican Weihnachtmas”

Some hand-decorated Christmas cookies, including my nit-picky approach of placing each decorative pearl separately.

I have been extremely fortunate again with Christmas coming to me from two countries this year. While I couldn`t make the trip to Germany this time it felt like German Weihnachten arrived in the United States in parts nevertheless.

Of course, it remains impossible to have all the people around I would like to see in person at this time of the year but in my mind I felt surrounded by everyone important to me. Thus, rather than missing out I’m getting the best of both worlds. Plus, German-American “Weihnachtmas” sometimes also means that it stretches from the middle of December to the middle of January as cards, cookies (lots of them as you will see below!), and little packages waited for me at every stop of my winter break in Ohio, Washington, and Maryland!

So, thank you all for making this such a happy Christmas time. Please enjoy my visual Germanican Weihnachten-Christmas celebration below.

The yule log — a U.S. tradition that is a huge chunk of chocolate and cream formed into a mini log, resembling a branch of a tree. It is very tasty, smooth and sweet. But mostly more than one piece is impossible to eat. I remember that you have to pre-order it and then pick it up in the supermarket or so.


I love the reindeer cookies. They lack a red nose, I was told, but they just so elegantly jump into your mouth that the red nose would vanish in an instant anyway. These reindeer were created by J.’s mom.


Another reindeer — they have become pretty common in Germany, too, as a symbol for Christmas. This one is a U.S. version overseeing the snow in Ohio and glowing in the dark with lights.

Another goodie I associate with Christmas in the U.S. are Chukar Cherries. They are a Seattle product: different kinds of cherries, which grow abundantly in Washington state, covered with different kinds of chocolate and cocoa powder. Very delicious and not too sweet. I hear that they are favorite gifts among neighbors here…




See’s chocolate is also around during the entire year, but I again associate it with Christmas when the fancy boxes appear under the Christmas tree. It’s made in California and its candy collection even features Marzipan pieces (a ground almond paste common in German candy), but also peanut-caramel and marshmallow fillings. In any case, one piece is pretty much a whole dessert.


Staying a bit longer with sweets: Coconut Islands are among my favorite cookies. They come for Christmas but also for special occasions. I remember being pretty miserable once during an internship far away from everyone, living in a sketchy neighborhood, having nothing to do at work — not even coffee brewing or copying papers. J. baked and shipped a load of Coconut Island to me, which I treasured for days and which were my best and only consolation. (J. also soon afterwards picked me up from the internship, the best thing that happened after sending the Coconut Islands.) The Coconut Islands you see here were also baked by J.’s mom. We had at last five or six trays of them going in and out of the oven.


Literally sticking with the baking theme here, another master piece, also by J.’s mom, was a beautiful Stollen. It is a typical German Christmas cake with raisins, pieces of candied oranges and lemons — which are being soaked into rum or other tasty liquor here. The Stollen is even listed in the standard U.S. tome for cooks: The Joy of Cooking.


You know a yummy cake is evolving and it’s hard to keep your hands of the dough while it is rising. The Stollen, as is told in The Joy of Cooking, is supposed to resemble baby Jesus in a blanket. That’s why you have to fold the dough from both sides in. I think I also heard the lore that the shape you get when you cut a slice resembles the entrance to a mine. Mines for also called Stollen in German.

But there are many other stories around this cake, which Germans have made since the Middle Ages. Especially bakers in Dresden have laid claim to it. Then there is the story of the “butter ban” for Stollen in the far past and the ongoing hot competition among bakers which Stollen in which city is the best.

I clearly know that this Stollen above is the best this year! A fun fact: the powdered sugar you see here is U.S. powdered sugar and we found out that this means that starch is added to it. German Puderzucker doesn’t contain starch and thus melts more quickly on the tongue. In any case, sugar, raisins, and candies in the Stollen are a delight that the original Stollen eaters hundreds of years ago didn’t have. Stollen was bread for fasting, thus very plain.

And as corny as it sounds: it was a white Christmas in North Ohio with about 20 cm of snow, in some parts up to your knee. We were cozy inside while the flakes fell softly to the ground outside.

Now a bit more to the German part. My clever friends sent me greetings to all my stops over the winter break. I am always most delighted to read the German words and this time even receiving some very cool books. (For my German-reading friends: The book you see in the photo, titled Wir neuen Deutschen, is very informative and convincingly tells the story of three ZEIT journalists who grew up in Germany after their parents from Vietnam, Turkey, and Poland immigrated there. It’s a great contribution to the “integration/immigration” debate right now.) One friend even sent German Christmas cookies. Her mom always enters into a baking marathon producing at least half a dozen different cookies before Christmas. I’m lucky to be among the receivers of their little goodie bags sent all over. Miraculously all the different cookies with jelly, nuts, almonds, and powdered sugar on top arrived in perfect shape, without any crumbling! They were so tasty that by the time I took the photo they were already devoured.

My mom and dad have always sent me a Christmas package. But this year proved to be especially tricky. While my dad attempted to send it to Ohio, knowing I would be there, it came exactly a day after I left. My mom sent another package to Maryland, alas, it almost didn’t make it. Today was the last day to retrieve it from the post office.  I bicycled against the minus degrees Celsius coldness and gusty winds to be the first person in the morning there. After a few agonizing minutes during which the postal lady took my two pink reminder sheets behind the scenes she finally produced the box. I got lucky! Meanwhile my dad’s package got kindly forwarded to Maryland… arriving with three baby Stollen, Knusperflocken, and Hallorenkugel — two East German chocolates — and two wonderful books I have been wanting to read.

Another messenger from Germany came. Albeit a little while ago and as a gift to J.’s family. It’s a Christmas tradition in the Ore Mountains [Erzgebirge] region: a “Räucher-männchen,” or in proper regional dialect “Raachermannel,” exhaling white smoke (sometimes via a pipe) fueled by lighting a small cone of typical Christmas incense. The cone is placed inside the wooden body which opens by taken off the top part. Its fragrance immediately transports me back to German living rooms when I close my eyes.

Clearly a proper home-made snow angel! Snow always reminds me of Germany. And since I’ve been living in the U.S. it also has become clear to me how much more homogeneously everyone moves through the seasons in Germany. Living in the U.S. with its four different time zones and at least as many different climate zones, celebrating Christmas in Ohio resembles the weather as it would most likely be in Germany this time of the year. But that’s not a given thinking of the milder Pacific Northwest or down South. I hear from people who spend Christmas time in Florida that there the equivalent of a snowman is a sandman on the beach. Instead of sleds, golf carts abound, and instead of reindeer materializing in the air, manatees [Seekühe] poke their noses out of the water.

And after so much reading and virtual eating, we perhaps need a drink. Egg nog is a beverage that many people in the U.S. have around for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, either store-bought or home-made. It tastes not quite like German Eierlikör, mostly because you can also drink a non-alcoholic version (which I like better.) It is thicker and more like a very creamy, sweet pudding. Plus, one drink fills you up for the night. In this sense, a (belated) toast to everyone: Prost & cheers for a new healthy and happy year!

PS: For my German-language readers: The German radio magazine SWR Info Medien broadcast a neat report about the tricky question of Christmas in the U.S. and the threat to it by the so-called “war on Christmas,” fueled by ultraconservative media. You can listen to it in the ARD-Mediathek, beginning at 10:45 minutes (URL: http://www.ardmediathek.de/swrinfo/swrinfo-medien?documentId=12804740).

Inauguration Impressions

I just returned from my trip into D.C. to witness the inauguration atmosphere in the city. Alas, we didn’t make it onto the National Mall completely, instead watching the ceremony at an also very crowded public viewing spot at the Washington Monument.

The photos below trace our journey starting at L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station where a bevy of vendors clustered around the entrance to loudly announce their Obama paraphernalia — from the standard items like t-shirts, caps, posters, hats, key chains, and mugs to “presidential water,” tote bags, hot dogs and burgers, special Washington Post copies and every other item you could print his and Michelle Obama’s image on.

Originally trying to get into the 12th entrance, the gate was closed about ten minutes before we got to it. We headed down to 18th street where the Washington Monument became a gathering place for all the others who also hadn’t gotten in. But the audio and video of the public screen was very glitchy: speeches, songs, announcements — all scrambled and garbled. So instead of touching emotions we heard more giggles and jokes. The song “America, the beautiful” sounded more like “Aaa- mm-mm -rr— eu–tt-tti—ffff–” and so on. The irony of “the most powerful nation in the world” versus the incapability of running a video screen with proper audio on a day that was planned for four years ahead of time didn’t escape the crowd. When Obama finally took the oath of office, huge cheers broke out, people chanting “O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma.”

We took to listening to speeches on the radio via iPod mini and iPhone streaming, still, Obama’s speech was not really eliciting lots of emotion because the broadcasting was too delayed, skipped parts or was scrambled. In rare moments when the speech could be heard clearly the crowd was totally silent and we could hear the echo of the other broadcasts along the Mall floating in the air.

After Obama’s address, which I overheard at least one guy saying was “good,” we headed toward U-Street, first up on 18th, then 14th Street. Suddenly a crowd of people slowly marching broke out into singing the U.S. national anthem, people clapped. A vendor called out “Yes we did!”

We met another friend at Busboys & Poets where we enjoyed a well-deserved melted Brie panini and sweet potato fries, warmth and rest for our feet. It actually was not as cold as feared but still hours of standing and walking take their toll. Busboys & Poets was packed and showed CNN coverage on large screens. I noticed how different the inauguration looked on CNN: white reporters and experts mostly during the time we were there when they covered the time between the inauguration and the parade. On the Mall at least two thirds were African-American, probably more.

As we were leaving D.C., more people still came into town for the parade. Lots of them with U.S. flags, pins, special clothing in red, white, blue, prints of Obama. But see for yourself below, in my inauguration impressions.

 

Nordisch-deutsche Weihnachten: NDR-Weihnachtshörspiel

Ein weiterer seltener Eintrag auf Deutsch, aber ein angebrachter. Denn wer noch gerne etwas länger in Weihnachtsstimmung bleiben möchte, dem empfehle ich ganz dringend das wunderbar produzierte NDR-Weihnachtshörspiel. Das Hörspiel dreht sich in seinen fünf Folgen a circa drei Minuten um den Weihnachtsstreik eines Jungen dessen Mutter im Krankenhaus liegt. Das heißt er muss Weihnachten auf der Insel beim Großvater verbringen:

Doch dann erlebt er ein Weihnachtsfest der norddeutschen Art. Er entdeckt “Adventsschiffe”, betätigt ein Weihnachtsnebelhorn und begegnet Engeln, Hirten und Sterndeutern in maritimer Gestalt. Den Inselbewohnern gelingt es, dem Jungen – entgegen seinen Erwartungen – ein frohes Weihnachtsfest zu bereiten.

Nicht nur dass ich es schon angehört habe und sehr gelungen finde, ich freue mich auch, dass meine Freundin Julia eine der AutorInnen des Hörspiels ist — praktisch eine Garantie für tolle Radioarbeit. Mir hat vor allem die 4. Folge mit den Sterndeutern im Nebel gefallen, einmal weil die ganze Gemeinde zusammenkommt, damit niemand verloren geht und weil es die Erinnerung enthält, dass man manchmal innehalten muss (oder “nach oben schauen” wie es im Hörspiel heißt), um das große Ganze zu sehen. Beides erscheinen mir die wichtigsten Weihnachtsbotschaften zu sein. (Und ohne es vorher zu wissen, habe ich heute erfahren, dass tatsächlich Julia auch die 4. Folge geschrieben hat!)

Also entweder alle Folgen in einem Rutsch hören, für 16 Minuten Harmonie zum Frühstück oder als Pause vom allem was schon wieder im frischen Jahr anfällt oder sich in der kommenden Woche je eine Dosis Weihnachtszauber und Gemütlichkeit täglich gönnen. In jedem Fall, hier anhören!

URL: http://www.ndr.de/kultur/kirche_im_ndr/weihnachtshoerspiel115.html