Feminism

2021 International women’s day graffiti Photo (detail): Jordi Boixareu © ZUMAPRESS.com

What are the vital issues that women and feminists in South Asia and Germany today consider to be of burning importance, what are they concerned about? And what else is there still to do? This is a showcase of people who are involved in the field of culture and who are dealing with the hottest feminist issues and debates of the moment.

Antifeminism und Populism

In an exchange of letters, our authors from Brazil, Germany, South Korea, India and Mexico describe the anti-feminist developments they observe in their countries. They present a local perspective on the question: “To what extent does antifeminism threaten our democracy?”







Brave, new world – how do we want to live together?

How do women juggle the demands of their relationships, caring for the family and being gainfully employed? In German society single mothers or fathers are equally as prevalent as patchwork families, queer, trans or polyamourous relationships. Women are still being forced into the classic role of nursing and nurturing. But what ways of living together fit in with today's world?







Women and Sustainability

Ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me – and ain’t I a woman?

Sojourner Truth





Video Series “Leading Women”

Women in top-ranking positions modernise skylines and infrastructures. They run international enterprises and use technology in the service of a fairer world. Our video series shows ten women from different countries and professions. What motivates them? What are their views on hierarchies and teamwork? What makes them leaders and pacemakers of society?

© prounenweb

Leading Women
Tomomi Nishimoto

Every breath she takes: When Tomomi Nishimoto performs with her orchestra, hundreds of musicians follow her every little move. This video portrait shows the Japanese conductor in her element and points out the challenges involved in a position that carries so much responsibility.

© prounenweb

Leading Women
Sigrid Nikutta

As the first woman to serve as CEO of the Berlin Transport Authority, Sigrid Nikutta is shaping the future of urban and, above all, sustainable mobility in the German capital. She talks about the character traits that are decisive for her career.

© prounenweb

Leading Women
Angelika Eggert

For Angelika Eggert, head of Pediatrics at Berlin’s Charité hospital, power is not an end in itself, but an opportunity to make a difference. But there’s also a price to pay for that opportunity, as she explains.

Selftest: How feminist am I?





For a long time feminism was “yuck” in Germany and the term alone triggered fear and damnation. Those days, however, are now over. Feminist slogans are emblazoned on the T-shirts of all the big clothing chains. What better time than now to put yourself to the test! Leaving all the short-lived fashion trends aside, has the feminist mindset also managed to gain a foothold in my life? Just how feminist am I? Find it out: click on [Start].
Choose an answer!

Reception in Literature and Digital World






PERSISTENCE AND DIALOGUE – FEMINISM WORLDWIDE

What do women in India think of role clichés in Bollywood films? Why is it difficult for married women in Japan to be feminists? - The following articles show how societies worldwide deal with equality and how the framework conditions for feminism and feminist activism are in different countries.






Children, children – who does my belly belong to?

“To have a child or not – that’s the choice we’ve got.” For a long time the sovereignty over a woman’s own body was one of the most important feminist demands. This is still, in fact, the case, but under different circumstances. In the meantime, people can have children who in the past would not have been able to reproduce. At the same time, it is possible these days to detect genetic abnormalities. Thus, the ethics of reproduction have been overrun by technological progress. Six people active on the cultural scene give their personal point of view. By Kirsten Achtelik

  • Frl. Wunder AG Photo (detail): © Frl. Wunder AG


    Frl. Wunder AG: “Withstanding confusion and opening up new paths”

    Be it abortion, artificial insemination or cloning – the more medically and technically possible things become, the more difficult it becomes to take a clear stance on them – also from a feminist point of view. Both on the subjective level as well as on the macro-social level, these frequently emotionally charged debates raise complex ethical questions that go beyond such important demands as the right to self-determination over the female body. Via theatre and performance, we can create other approaches, bring normative structures to light and make them negotiable. They can be personal, touching, provoking and, at the same time, make people laugh. This creates a utopian space in which we develop something with the audience that goes beyond clear facts – something that can withstand confusion and open up new paths.

    The Theatre and Performance Collective, Frl. Wunder AG, consists of seven people of different sex, has been through abortions as well as conflicts with infertility and today has seven children (not only biological ones) .

  • Ninia Binias Photo (detail): © Nina Binias


    Ninia Binias: “Too small to have a child.”

    “Don’t worry, it will not be like you," says the prenatal diagnostician and gives me a cheerful smile. Not like me. Not so flawed. Not so small. Not so different.
    “Is it going to stay small, too?! asks a man in the street, a man I don’t know. As small as I am. So small. Too small. It is going to have to grow first, if it is going to be that small. “How big is the father?” Does the child still have a chance? Could it possibly be normal? Will it be big? “Is that your child?” shouts a woman. “You're still a child yourself,” she continues. At 34 still a child – but one that is having a child. Too small to have a child. “No abnormalities,” says the human geneticist. No abnormalities. No cause to take action. A cause to feel reassured. Everything going to plan. Everything OK?!

    Ninia Binias, stage name Nina LaGrande (born in 1983) is a poetry slammer who lives and works in Hanover. For 34 years, she has been experiencing the world from a different perspective and writing about it, so as to avoid banging her head against tables all the time.

  • Sookee Photo (detail): © Sookee


    Sookee: “I am working on creating a problem awareness.”

    Queer perspectives in the field of sexual and reproductive rights and the family are something I particularly care about. They also play an important role in my music. As a pan* -cis* woman, I am glad that the possibility of becoming pregnant and raising a family ran smoothly for me. ([Editor’s note: pan* denotes a person who is attracted to people regardless of their gender, cis* a person who lives in harmony with their ascribed sex]. It is absolutely untenable that non-binary people, homosexuals and transsexuals have to face so many obstacles if they want to start a family. I have addressed this topic with my song Queere Tiere (Queer Animals) and by adopting the seahorse as the symbol of (trans) masculine pregnancy and parenthood. I have also embraced it again and again beyond my music, for example, in interviews and it seems to work quite well – in many conversations I have often heard the penny drop, I have no pragmatic solutions on hand, but I am working on creating a problem awareness.

    Sookee lives as a rapper and feminist in Berlin, and from there she radiates idealism and critical analyses on stages and podiums, not to mention into the lives of many people.

  • Milo Rau Photo (detail): © IIPM/Thomas Müller


    Milo Rau: “Weeded out during pregnancy, feted by the art scene”

    For The 120 Days of Sodom I worked with actors and actors of the HORA theatre group at the Zurich Schauspielhaus theatre. Almost all the actors live with trisomy 21 and this prompted me to find out a little more about prenatal diagnosis – the possibility of examining the condition of the foetus. In itself a good thing (like anything else that enhances the freedom of pregnant women or couples to make decisions). Unfortunately, however, in Switzerland it has led to nine out of ten foetuses with trisomy 21 being aborted. A paradoxical situation – the hard-won right to have an abortion has in practice turned into a rooting-out process. This paradox has been exacerbated by the fact that the HORA group has been awarded the most renowned prizes on the European theatre scene. Weeded out during pregnancy, feted by the art scene. It was this contradiction – or this dialectic of freedom – that we focused on in The 120 Days of Sodom.

    Milo Rau is an author, film and theatre director and the artistic director of the IIPM - The International Institute of Political Murder.

  • Anne Zohra Berrached Photo (detail): © Anne Zohra Berrached


    Anne Zohra Berrached: “Many of those involved are ashamed and remain silent.”

    Late-term abortions, surrogate mothers, egg donation – there is hardly any medical branch that has developed so rapidly in recent years as reproductive medicine. It is now possible to “outsource” pregnancy and to have your own fertilised egg carried to term by another woman. Women can bear children with whom they are not biologically related. As is the case with late-term abortion, there is hardly any public discussion about these issues in Germany. Many of the people involved are ashamed and remain silent. What I want is for society to look at these topics without condemning them, but, instead, to ask what fears, worries, and desires are concealed behind them. In my own works, I try to make people and their stories tangible without any moralising undertone.

    Anne Zohra Berrached is the director and screenwriter of the films 24 Wochen ( 24 Weeks) and Zwei Mütter (Two Mothers).

  • Moira Zoitl Photo (detail): © Moira Zoitl


    Moira Zoitl: “The view of the foetus has changed.”

    The title of my work Misplaced Concreteness refers to “concretion in the wrong place, in a weird place,” as the medical historian, Barbara Duden, put it, and is an allusion to Lennart Nilsson's photographs of the origins of life. The images of the foetus in the uterus appeared in Life magazine in 1965. It was not possible to depict the foetus using normal photographic means, and so he created an interpretative depiction of reality with the aid of montage. This led to the “portrait” of the foetus becoming a living creature worthy of protection even in the prenatal stage. This changing view of the foetus legitimised more and more state control of pregnancy. This in turn then led to the individual woman’s sense of responsibility and the way she perceived herself with respect to her bodily processes taking more and more of a back seat.

    Moira Zoitl is a visual artist. In her video installations she deals with ritual objects, illustrations and representations of fertility. She then relates this to the way the human body is dealt with in the health care system.

Further Projects on Feminism



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