Table of contents for February 2017 in Womankind

Much has been written on the plight of factory workers in capitalist societies. In the 19th century, German philosopher Karl Marx stressed that factory workers suffered from fragmented, monotonous, and repetitive work - alienating them from the fruits of their labour (meaning that the owners of production profited from their daily grind). Low-paid factory workers, however, are indispensable for the smooth functioning of the capitalist system - they’re an essential form of exploitation. Since the industrial revolution, big company profits have been severed from the busy hands of factory workers. In 1974, sociologist Ann Oakley interviewed 40 London housewives. Housewives, like factory workers, suffer from fragmented, monotonous, and repetitive tasks like mopping floors and making beds. Housewives, too, are crucial for capitalism to succeed - their domestic labour enabling men…

I went to a Russian kindergarten, and until the age of six I hadn’t spoken the Uzbek language. My grandmother was getting worried. I was Uzbek by birth but I couldn’t say a word in my mother tongue. “She is a Muslim! Why doesn’t she know the language?” my grandmother would ask my parents. In Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, it is very important to speak Russian - people treat you differently and look at you with respect. To be multilingual is a huge asset so many Uzbeks speak Russian and those who don’t are learning it. My mother graduated from a Russian school and she wanted me to follow in her footsteps. But my grandmother insisted and I ended up in a local Uzbek school. For the first couple…

The women in your paintings often take up a large part of the canvas, and they often overlook a ‘miniature’ town. This composition makes your women powerful. Is this something that you consciously try to achieve?  I do it on purpose. It’s an expressive means so the space shrinks around the main character. There is an infinite world between the character and the edge of the painting. This gives the picture monumentality, importance. It was a technique employed by Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Hans Memling, and others. With this composition the image remains expressive, no matter whether you see the large original or a smaller copy. The image of women in my paintings possess universal qualities like grandeur and mystery. My characters are not real women, but…

WHEN MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS CONTINUE TO DEFLECT, DENY OR DENOUNCE A WOMAN’S SUBJECTIVE HEALTH CONCERNS AS ‘EMOTIONAL’ THEY TAKE MEDICAL PRACTICE BACK SEVERAL CENTURIES. Women’s physical and emotional wellbeing has received a changing medical focus. Unfortunately the focus has not always been a positive or helpful one conducive to optimising our health and wellbeing. ‘Femaleness’ was often seen pejoratively, and women’s medical issues were too frequently dismissed as women’s emotional reactivity - hysteria. The word hysteria draws its roots from ancient Greek and Latin. Initially associated with a ‘wandering womb’ it was later used to describe exaggerated or uncontrollable emotions or excitement. In the 19th century hysteria was a diagnostic term for female psychological disorder. Note that the word hysterectomy is derived from this - that by having a hysterectomy a…

Saira Manns Day One: Sleepily, I reach for my phone and check the time. 6:45am. I go to begin my usual morning ritual of scrolling through social media - but wait! It’s day one of Womankind’s ad-free challenge! OK. I can do this. Instead, I try to make the most of things and roll over to snuggle into my partner... who’s on his phone. Argh! It’s my second day of annual leave. I manage the social media platforms of a not-for-profit organisation so this challenge is extra challenging (heck, I CREATE advertising for a living!) but it’s come at an opportune time; it’s not often I can turn my phone completely off. I’m treating myself today, heading into the city for a massage and to take myself to the movies. I…

A poor peasant walking in a field saw a hare under a bush and was overjoyed. He said: “Now I’m in luck! I will catch this hare, kill him with a whip, and sell him for twelve kopeks. For that money I will buy a sow, and she will bring me twelve piglets; the piglets will grow up and each bring twelve piglets; I will slaughter them all, and have a barnful of meat. I will sell the meat, and with the money will set up housekeeping and get married. My wife will bear me two sons, Vaska and Vanka. The children will plow the field, and I will sit by the window and give orders. ‘Hey, you boys!’ I will cry. ‘Vaska and Vanka! Don’t overwork your labourers; apparently…

Though remembered as a novelist, in his own lifetime Count Leo Tolstoy was just as well known as a philosophical guru. His letters, diaries, and treatises reveal a man constantly exploring meaning and identity. Tolstoy himself traced this obsession back to his old nanny who loved to listen to the clock. Its ticking sounded like a question, she explained, one that asked over and over: “Who are you? What are you?” A fascination for self-examination is evident in Tolstoy’s early journals. The Count aspired to frugality, industry, justice, moderation, and chastity. Using columns and lists, the brothel-visiting, gambling young Tolstoy documented his copious failures with candour. Years later, he gave these journals to his bride-to-be. Eighteen-year-old Sofia was shattered by his many affairs, particularly with Axinya, a woman who lived…

A kite - the kind held by a string - was sailing in the sky, and looking down, observed a butterfly. From such a height, its lowly fluttering seemed hardly flight at all. “I say,” the insect heard it call. “Just look at me, riding so high that I can hardly see you! I dare say you can’t help envying the way I spurn the ground, and wishing you could do the same”. “Far from it,” came the prompt reply; “for whereas you just dance attendance on someone else’s idle pleasure, I fly in perfect independence; and that’s a blessing beyond measure.”…

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Case’s Search Law is an Internet adage asserting that when a random search term is typed into a search engine the user will inevitably encounter a woman’s bare rump, pushed-out breasts or nearly naked form in one guise or another. Choose a random term and hit ‘search’. Scroll down the list of image results and the chances of eventually viewing a sexualised image of a woman approaches 1. Interestingly, Case’s Search Law does not apply to the naked male form, for which very specific search criteria must be used to arrive at similar results.…

I did my first tattoo myself. My tattoo instructor said that I would never understand what it meant to do a tattoo on another person until I did one on myself. I have a rose on my leg and I must say that doing your own tattoo is very ambitious. It hurt so much! I know that the rose looks a bit awkward but I’m not going to change it; it will always remind me of the experience. Besides the rose, there are eight tattoos on my arms and legs; not so many since I can’t stand the pain. My boyfriend is from Kursk Oblast (about 500km away from Moscow). When we visit his hometown and I tell people that I’m a tattoo artist, their eyes get wider and wider.…

THEIRS WAS AN UNHAPPY MARRIAGE, A CASE OF ANTIPATHY RATHER THAN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT - NOT UNUSUAL IN A WORLD IN WHICH MARRIAGE WAS A MECHANISM OF POWER AND DIPLOMACY. Recently, at an exhibition of masterpieces from The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, I moved through rooms slowly, dazed by the sublime works on display: Rubens, Titian, Velázquez, and Van Dyck among many others. The delicacy and tenderness of Rembrandt’s Young Woman Trying on Earrings (1657) made my eyes prick. Beauty can have that effect. Much of the Hermitage collection is the legacy of Catherine the Great, Russia’s longest-reigning female leader (1729-1796), a compelling figure who was at once the greatest patron of the arts of her era and a ruthless autocrat, still somehow larger-than-life centuries later. Wonderful portraits…

We tend to take on new endeavours only when we think we’ve got a good chance of success. But this attitude can prevent us from taking on worthwhile projects because we shy away from anything that’s difficult. What would you do if success didn’t matter? To which projects would you commit your time and energy if doing it made not an ounce of difference to anyone else? In other words: something that you’d do because you believe in it, or you enjoy it, or deep down you feel that it’s something that’d give meaning to your life. With this in mind, take a pen and write down some ideas on the following page.…

A true utopia: can it exist? Throughout Russian history, some have argued that it can. Collective living, though most often associated with the kolkhoz, or collective farm, of the Soviet era, stretches back in Russia to the time of the tsars. Before Alexander II freed the serfs in 1861, many lived on obshchina, communal farms that allowed serfs to more easily pay their taxes to the crown. Romantics of the era used these farms as evidence of some purer peasant spirit; even Karl Marx wrote enthusiastically of their existence. Happier, though, were the devotees of the Life and Labour Commune. The commune, founded first outside of Moscow in 1921 and then resettled in Siberia following persecution from the Bolsheviks, followed the pacifist principles of the novelist Tolstoy. Meals were vegetarian;…

EXPLORES THE CONCEPT OF Urban Living AWARD XI The contest explores urban living, which includes city and suburban environments. You may wish to focus on a feature of urban life such as how people live, work, play, eat, and dress in the city or its surrounding suburbs. Win $500 and get published in the next issue of Womankind magazine. Modelling shots are not accepted. Nor do we accept sexual or violent images, or images depicting nudity or semi-nudity. OPEN TO ALL READERS. DETAILS Closing date: 31 May 2017 Format: One photograph per entry. Applicants: Open to all amateur and professional photographers. Entries must also include a separate photo of an edition of Womankind. File size: Please send large file sizes (larger than 3,000 pixels wide, 300dpi). Entries must be provided…

It resembles a daisy, but this wild flower is edible and has been used for centuries to calm nerves and upset stomachs. There are two kinds of chamomile - German and Roman (also known as Russian or English chamomile) - which share similar medicinal qualities but differ markedly in the garden. German chamomile is taller, reaching as high as one metre in height, and has fragrant flowers that attract birds and bees. The Roman chamomile plant, in contrast, is a creeping ground cover often seen growing like a mat in English gardens. The slight apple taste of chamomile flowers can be tossed into a salad or dried to make herbal tea. And the strong scent of chamomile flowers can also be a handy pest deterrent when planted alongside other plants…

“WE HAVE A LITERACY RATE ABOVE 90 PER CENT OF THE POPULATION. WE HAVE RADIO, TELEVISION, MOVIES, A NEWSPAPER A DAY FOR EVERYONE. BUT INSTEAD OF GIVING US THE BEST OF PAST AND PRESENT LITERATURE AND MUSIC, THESE MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION, SUPPLEMENTED BY ADVERTISING, FILL THE MINDS OF MEN [AND WOMEN] WITH THE CHEAPEST TRASH, LACKING ANY SENSE OF REALITY, WITH SADISTIC FANTASIES WHICH A HALFWAY-CULTURED PERSON WOULD BE EMBARRASSED TO ENTERTAIN EVEN ONCE IN A WHILE. BUT WHILE THE MIND OF EVERYBODY, YOUNG AND OLD, IS THUS POISONED, WE GO ON BLISSFULLY TO SEE TO IT THAT NO ‘IMMORALITY’ OCCURS ON THE SCREEN. ANY SUGGESTION THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD FINANCE THE PRODUCTION OF MOVIES AND RADIO PROGRAMS WHICH WOULD ENLIGHTEN AND IMPROVE THE MINDS OF OUR PEOPLE WOULD BE…

A road trip through the outer cities of most Western countries can feel rather dystopian: car yards, big-box factory outlets, signs and billboards, fast food and liquor stores abutting roads and freeways. On road trips I often shake my head and think, “We could have fashioned the world in any number of imaginable ways, and this is what we’ve done with it.” Many Western cities look like a meteor has struck - steel and metal cast-offs as far as the eye can see. I often imagine what towns and cities would look like if they were fashioned by women, a kind of ‘social daydreaming’ if you will. Because it’s clear that the social scaffolding we live amongst - its freeways, high-density living, car parks and shopping malls, its roundabouts and…

When I was a kid, I dreamt about an acting career. Many people tried to talk me out of it, explaining how hard and competitive it would be. I remember my grandmother saying that if I wanted to become an actress, I had to be successful, otherwise I shouldn’t even try. My parents loved spending time with all types of artistic people. I remember I was in my 7th grade when we were visiting my parents’ friends. We kids had lots of fun - dancing, playing, and singing - and at some point my father’s friend said that I should consider acting. And I thought: “Hmm, he is a writer, he probably knows what he’s talking about!” His words stuck in my mind. Some time later the same man notified…

Neither of my parents is Russian, but I grew up as if they were Bolsheviks. As a child, I slept with a woolly black sausage dog. He had a mournful face, floppy ears, and a bell on his nose. My father christened him Mr Krushchev. I had no idea the name referred to an actual person, but I liked the sound of it. Later, when I saw the real Mr Krushchev on television I thought he had the short neck and round head of a bulldog or a mastiff, rather than my elongated, snouted dachshund. Back in the USSR was in the charts, but at home, we listened to more authentic Soviet sounds: on Sunday mornings, the massed voices of the Red Army Ensemble, played at blaringly loud levels, flooded…

AVOIDING EXCESSIVE SELF-CRITICISM IS EASIER IF YOU DON’T FEEL TOO RESPONSIBLE WHEN THINGS GO WRONG. A personal conundrum confronts any of us who aspire to grow and improve, but who also seek contentment in life. Feeling chronically dissatisfied with ourselves, and in particular thinking there is a chasm between the kind of person we are and the kind of person we would like to be, might sound like a powerful motivator for change. But when there’s a big gap between our ‘actual self’ and ‘ideal self’, all the research shows this leads to unhappiness and also increases our risk of developing depression. The obvious antidote is self-acceptance, and certainly if we can manage to embrace ourselves as we are, we’re more likely to experience inner contentment. And yet, not far…

Self-help books today inform us that we - and we alone - are in charge of finding our own path to personal salvation. Let’s say you decide one morning to start making your bed. You tuck in the sheets, organise the pillows, and leave it all straight and tidy for the day. The next day you follow the same steps, and the next day too, until making your bed becomes just a mundane, everyday habit. Can this trivial act change who you are? My question is: can this minor morning ritual radically alter the course of your life? In other words, can making your bed change your life? For real change, most of us turn to momentous, one-off, events. A grand wedding, a holiday to some exotic locale, a week-long…

The first person to travel into space almost didn’t make it back alive. On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin successfully shot into the stratosphere. But on the return journey, his rocket became burning hot, twisting and turning, hurtling down at terrifying speed.  “I was in a cloud of fire rushing toward Earth,” Gagarin remembered later. Thankfully, he was able to escape. He ejected himself from his capsule and parachuted into the countryside. Seeing a woman and small girl walking towards him, Gagarin began to shout and wave: “I said I was a Soviet and had come from space.” Gagarin’s flight was short: just 108 minutes. But for the Soviet Union it marked a mammoth victory against their sworn enemy the United States. Hearing the news on the radio, people flooded the…

It’s windy, stark and the winters are long. Windchill can freeze bare skin in a matter of seconds. But humanity has thrived in these conditions for centuries. In 2002, photographers Maxim Shapovalov and Slava Schoot began preparations for their first exhibition into the Tundra. Located just below the polar cap, and covering some 20 per cent of the Earth’s surface, the Arctic Tundra is home to nomadic reindeer herders, Nganasan and the Nenets. Today, preserving the unique culture, dreams, language, myths, and beliefs of the world’s indigenous cultures is as urgent as actions to save our biosphere from pollutants and industrial destruction. While there are almost 6,000 languages spoken in the world today, only half of these languages are being taught to children. Losing another language from the planet means…

HOME WINNER As long as we’re together , by Kerry Fragar. “The photograph was taken while travelling through the Alentejo region of Portugal, approaching Elvas near the Spanish border. A fleeting glimpse into the lives of a nomadic Romani family whose challenges are so very different from our own. The varied expressions on the faces provide a little insight into the characters and roles within this close-knit family unit. While the encounter was brief, it had a real and lasting impact on my perspective.” SECOND PLACE Rainy days , by Sarah Harris. THIRD PLACE Luys (Light) , by Sophie Vranian. “In 2015, I spent three months living in Gyumri, Armenia, on the border with Georgia and Turkey. There were only three of us volunteers in the city for a few…

Getting to Know the Real Catherine the Great Catherine the Great was one of Russia’s greatest rulers. In 1767 she issued a famous edict known as the ‘Instruction’, in which she advocated social and economic reforms. However, she also insisted that Russia’s vast territory needed a strong central government and that she as Empress should, therefore, have absolute power. Bolshoi Babylon In January 2013, Sergei Filin, artistic director of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet, was attacked by an unknown assailant who threw acid in his face. The Bolshoi ballet company had long been part of the nation’s identity, but this mysterious and vicious attack thrust it into the limelight, pulling back the curtain on the scandals and infighting plaguing the iconic institution. The Path Harvard professor, Michael Puett shares his wildly popular…