My name is Sandra Dwyer. I am a final year student doing Social Science in Cork University. As part of my research project, I am covering the Pussy Riot case in Russia, while drawing on the possibility of what some people have coined the term a new wave of transnational feminism. I read alot of the work on 'feminist ezine', which has greatly assisted any material I address on feminism. I think your opinion on this subject would add great depth to my work. I have a few specific questions, but in general terms, I am mainly concerned with your opinion on the entire situation that has taken place in Russia, and if you do think that these women have in fact started a new wave of transnational feminism?
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Very kind regards,
Sandra.
A new wave of transnational feminism? No, I don't think that has been started.
Did you hear about this in the news?
"A 15-year-old girl in the Maldives who was allegedly raped by her stepfather has been sentenced to 100 lashes for having premarital sex.
Her stepfather hasn't faced trial for accusations he raped the teen and killed their baby, BBC reported.
The girl and her stepfather were charged in June 2012, Amnesty International stated, after the body of a baby was found outside their house on Feydhoo Island. The human rights group said the stepfather had allegedly sexually abused the girl for years.
Zaima Nasheed, a spokeswoman for the juvenile court, told BBC the girl was also placed under house arrest for eight months and defended the punishment saying the girl had willingly acted outside the law.
Under Maldivian law, the girl won't receive her punishment until she turns 18, Amnesty International said.
"Flogging is a violation of the absolute prohibition on torture and other cruel inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment," Amnesty International said prior to the sentencing.
The nation of islands is located southwest of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean."
If a new wave had started people would be more worried about things like that and try and stop it.
Now back to your question...
No, there is no "new wave". If anything its the old adage "two steps forward, three steps backwards". Now I am not saying we aren't making progress, we are making progress. But it is a very slow process.
And if we want to make radical / rapid progress then we need to start thinking outside the box and going for more radical thinking.
Which is funny because I don't consider myself to be a radical feminist. Or a militant one. But the older I get the more I wonder if there is radical / militant alternatives.
Take for example Japanese whalers. I think we should be ramming their ships and sinking them. Torpedoes if necessary. Then rescue the survivors. Make it clear that whaling as an industry has to stop and that whalers will be dealt with the same way we deal with pirates off the coast of Somalia - we kill them. If we are killing pirates for hijacking oil tankers, why aren't we killing whalers for killing whales?
Now I realize that is a controversial thought. But lets apply that same logic to rapists. 99% of the world's rapists are walking around free. Why? Because only 10% of women report sexual assaults to the police. A tiny percentage of them goes to court. And convictions are rare, even when there is physical evidence. So it really is no surprise so many rapists walk free.
Plus, even if we do convict them... we later release them years later, back in to society. And many sexual offenders are repeat offenders. So the only permanent solution is to remove them from normal society entirely - which is why I think we should build a penal colony on Greenland or some other remote island and send all of the world's rapists there. Yes, it is an unusual solution, but it would work.
So if you're looking for a new wave of international feminism then it should be happening in the courts and in politics first - and it will require some radical new laws to deal with people not fit to live with the rest of society.
On the topic of Russia, the Pussy Riot case is evidently motivated by politics - the silencing of political enemies. It isn't so much that Pussy Riot is a feminist group. They're a political group, and the Russian government wants to silence them. But it backfired and now the media spotlight has hold of it.
It would be nice if things backfired more often. Karmic, really.
Sincerely,
Suzanne MacNevin
