{"id":23230,"date":"2023-03-08T20:03:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T20:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=23230"},"modified":"2023-04-11T14:18:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T14:18:22","slug":"international-womens-day-2-zan-zedigi-azadi-art-monsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2023\/03\/08\/international-womens-day-2-zan-zedigi-azadi-art-monsters\/","title":{"rendered":"International Womens Day 2 &#8211; Zan Zendigi Azadi and Art Monsters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>As our second contribution to \u00a0International Women&#8217;s Day, we are posting Zan, Zendigi, Azad (Women, Life and Liberty), written by Pauline Bradley, and a review of the film <em>Tar,<\/em> by Meaghan Delahunt, which was first posted by <a href=\"https:\/\/bellacaledonia.org.uk\/2023\/03\/08\/art-monsters\/\">bella caledonia<\/a><\/strong><strong>. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>1. ZAN ZENDIGI, AZAD (WOMEN, LIFE AND LIBERTY)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Zan, Zendigi, Azad by Pauline Bradley<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Zan Zendigi Azadi sung by Protest in Harmony Glasgow\" width=\"990\" height=\"557\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V9Yvu1-NA-Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>2. ART MONSTERS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/fileN1DWNNMZ.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-23231 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/fileN1DWNNMZ-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"433\" height=\"244\" srcset=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/fileN1DWNNMZ-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/fileN1DWNNMZ-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/fileN1DWNNMZ-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/fileN1DWNNMZ-1536x864.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/fileN1DWNNMZ-800x450.jpg 800w, http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/fileN1DWNNMZ.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cate Blanchett\u2019s role as a world-class conductor in <em>Tar<\/em>, her latest film, has attracted acclaim and controversy for her portrayal of a female predator. In a world in which men hold most positions of power and in which power and male predation are often linked ( think Weinstein, Horovitz, Spacey, various politicians, comedians, academics, police officers\u2026 ) it\u2019s fair to question such a portrayal of a non-hetero woman artist. Does \u2018genius\u2019 excuse monstrous behaviour? And why is \u2018genius\u2019 almost exclusively applied to men? These are all questions which have been raised by generations of women and pulled into sharp focus in the post-#MeToo era. They are all questions which the film raises and to my mind, that can only be a good thing.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of genius as male is encoded in its Latin masculine ending. We do not speak of \u2018genia.\u2019 The traditional notion of genius is not only male, it is white and heterosexual, often involving entitled, ruthless and uncompromising behaviour. To see Cate Blanchett enact a version of such \u2018genius\u2019 is both unsettling and strangely, perhaps transgressively, thrilling. It\u2019s unsettling because it shows how absolute power corrupts, how entitlement at a certain level corrupts, how patriarchal institutions ( therefore, most institutions) can have a corrosive effect on the few women and \u2018minority\u2019 representatives allowed a seat at the table. It shows the reverberations of this on those around them. It is thrilling for completely different reasons, which we\u2019ll get to.<\/p>\n<p>A woman in the role of the genius\/art monster is powerful. It is more powerful and therefore more disturbing than seeing a man in that role. By defamiliarising the \u2018male genius\u2019 trope, it is handed back to us in a different form, made strange, if you like. We are then better able to dissect it and analyse it. Imagine a man in that role, some commentators have said. The problem is that women don\u2019t have to imagine a man in that role. We experience the blunt end of this kind of behaviour throughout our lives \u2013 in the workplace, in the home, on the street. It\u2019s a reality for the majority of the world\u2019s women, it does not require imagination. If it had been a man in that role, we would invariably have seen grooming and rape and the blocking of a woman\u2019s progress in ways that are familiar to us and often voyeuristic.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, here we sit up, we take notice, we watch Cate Blanchett\u2019s Lydia Tar rise and fall and (perhaps) rise again. Just like a man in that position, only made strange, made different. It requires of us a heightened sort of attention. In a film all about music, this is the dissonance. It is a visceral experience.<\/p>\n<p>The truly thrilling aspect of watching Cate Blanchett in this film \u2013 a brilliant woman conductor in an overwhelmingly male world \u2013 has been overlooked. It\u2019s incredible to see her walk on stage and command an orchestra and an audience. We realise how few examples of women\u2019s artistic brilliance we see in the culture. She takes up space, she leads, she performs without apology, without self-deprecation, without having to show her vulnerability, without having to perform her femininity or display her wounds in public, without having to be likeable. It\u2019s still so bracing to see a woman in public life dispensing with all these things. It\u2019s her confidence which is so thrilling. I saw this film with a writer friend and at the end we were silent for a while and then turned to each other at the same time, saying we could do with more of that. What we meant wasn\u2019t the terrible behaviour. What we meant was Cate Blanchett\u2019s confidence as an actor in fully inhabiting that role, and the idea of being able to unapologetically express our creativity and artistic ambition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Tar.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-23239 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Tar-300x158.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"423\" height=\"223\" srcset=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Tar-300x158.webp 300w, http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Tar-1024x538.webp 1024w, http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Tar-768x403.webp 768w, http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Tar-800x420.webp 800w, http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Tar.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 423px) 100vw, 423px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As a writer and as a teacher of creative writing for many years, what I most often see in women who want to write is a lack of confidence in their own abilities and a feeling that they are \u2018selfish\u2019 in carving out time for themselves to write \u2013 especially if they have children or other caring responsibilities. They need permission, almost, to take this time for themselves, to step into what has been traditionally a male role \u2013 to take centre stage in their own creative lives.<\/p>\n<p>In Jenny Offill\u2019s novel The Dept. of Speculation, the narrator says: \u201cMy plan was to never get married. I was going to be an art monster instead. Women almost never become art monsters because art monsters only concern themselves with art, never mundane things. Nabokov didn\u2019t even fold his own umbrella. Vera licked his stamps for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All the great male art monsters have traditionally had wives and muses to do their laundry and keep them fed and to tend their flame after they\u2019ve gone. Women artists, by contrast, have generally had to do their own laundry, keep themselves and their children fed, fold their own umbrellas and still get the art work done. Resisting the cultural template of woman-as-muse and-helpmeet and stepping into the central role of creator in our own lives can be daunting. But women are carving out new templates. To make art we don\u2019t have to be monsters. We can do it differently. We can do away with the category of the \u2018difficult genius\u2019 altogether.<\/p>\n<p>Cate Blanchett\u2019s portrayal of a woman artist in full pomp raises disturbing questions about power, about corruption, about hierarchy and monstrous gendered behaviour. However, thrumming underneath this film is something slightly off-key to our ears and equally unsettling. Almost a counter-point. If we listen closely, it takes us in a different direction. What does it mean to move beyond the category of art monster\/genius, to create a more collaborative, inclusive vision? What does it mean, as a woman, to assume the role of conductor in your own life, and, having done that, to hand the baton onto other women?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>8.3.23<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">___________<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">also see:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2023\/01\/31\/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review-an-ahistorical-film-that-rings-hollow\/\">\u2018The Banshees of Inisherin\u2019 review: An historical film that rings hollow &#8211; Jenny Farrell, Culture Matters<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2023\/03\/08\/its-time-torreclaim-international-working-womens-day\/\">It&#8217;s time to reclaim International Women&#8217;s Day \u00a0&#8211; Grace Blakeley, Tribune<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As our second contribution to \u00a0International Women&#8217;s Day, we are posting Zan, Zendigi, Azad (Women, Life and Liberty), written by Pauline Bradley, and a review of the film Tar, by Meaghan Delahunt, which was first posted by bella caledonia. \u00a0 1. ZAN ZENDIGI, AZAD (WOMEN, LIFE AND LIBERTY) Zan, Zendigi, Azad by Pauline Bradley &nbsp;&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1858,1867,1859,8833,1868,1847,1862,8977,1863,1870],"tags":[9176,4401],"class_list":["post-23230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oppression-liberation","category-emancipation-liberation-and-self-determination","category-womens-liberation","category-queer-liberation","category-against-imperialism","category-the-eu","category-ideology-and-religion","category-science-secularism","category-cultural-celebration","category-middle-east-and-north-africa","tag-author-meaghan-delahunt","tag-author-pauline-bradley"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/mastodon.scot\/@rcfscotland\/109989450389729705","error":""},"views":2110,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23230"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23546,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23230\/revisions\/23546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}