Recently, the Polish Museum, citing "shouldnot directly display works related to sex", put off the work of Natalia LL, a Polish artist who has been on display in the museum for several years - only because the film features a picture of a woman eating a banana, a move that has sparked controversy in Polish society and attracted international attention. We would like to ask, why when a woman's lust is presented in an artistic way, it is considered to be a bad treat? Why are women's lust being perceived as causing "psychological harm" to the next generation when they are talked about publicly? This week's Gender Newsletter brings you a look at the Polish gender environment.
Poland, with the 10th largest land area in Europe. But the country's gender awareness ranking may be much lower than the land area.
On April 26, 2019, Jerzy Miziolek, director of the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland, took some of the works off the shelves with reasons such as "Gender-related works that should not be so straightforward" and "Limited museum space". It includes a 1973 "Consumer Art" film by the Polish artist Natalia LL, which completes the process of a woman eating a banana.
As soon as the news prompted a discussion of the matter in Polish society, the wave of support and opposition also sprang from all over, some supported the removal of the work, and the work itself was indecent and corrupt moral sense, and some people opposed the removal of the work, further stating that eating bananas was not a sexual innuendo, but a "symbol of freedom". Nearly a thousand people went to the museum on the 29th to express their dissatisfaction with the museum in the form of a "collective banana" protest.
Why does a banana-eating video make people think of it as "indecent"? Why has the new museum director put on display works of art for years? What kind of gender awareness issues are hidden?
Source:Associated Press
Museums, Culture Departments: Parents Say Children Will Be Psychologically Traumatized When They See
After the removal of the artwork, activities such as "#bananaselfie" and "#BananowyProtest" were launched in the community to invite solidarity and response from all walks of life, in the interest of the embassy to feel the pressure. Coupled with the protests, which gathered in thousands of people, the curator, Miziolek, issued a statement saying that "the artwork will be re-exhibited, but only until May 6, when the museum will be rearranged." 」
Poland's Ministry of Culture later issued a statement on its official website, setting aside the decision not to take part in the decision to take down the artwork, while publicly casting a book by a parent who claimed that his children felt "psychologically traumatised" because of the museum's display of works of art such as women's leniency. (Recommended reading: Halfway out of home feminism!) "The liberation is not only about lust, but the freedom of all people"
Both the response of the National Museum of Poland and the statement of the Polish Ministry of Culture imply gender discrimination and gender inequality. Works containing "injury and vulgarity" are not included in the art category; The whole incident, on the grounds of upholding morality and considering the psychological state of the next generation, once again depresses women, does not allow them to talk about sex and express their lust, and makes Poland's feminist process a step backwards.
Works by Polish artist LL Natalia. Pictures s/youscreenshots
Why is it always not allowed to be displayed in an artistic way when women are in the mood?
The banana-eating video was taken down, in fact, there are three different levels of the problem stack entanglement, and then let us comb the veins and the consciousness behind it.
First, curator Miziolek, citing "limited museum space" and "should not directly display works related to sex", asked that natalia Len's works be put down, in addition to showing once there are environmental restrictions, women's consciousness and lust will be the first to be abandoned and ignored mentality, nor do women's lust to be appreciated and seen in an artistic way. In the process of erotic exploration, the female experience was rarely touched and cared for, and when we used art as an export expression, it was also considered by the polish museum director to be "bad."
Second, in the statement of the Polish Ministry of Culture, we can see a further advance in the suppression of female lust. Poland's Ministry of Culture could respond to the "removal incident", but at the same time published a popular submission to convey parents' concerns and anxieties about the impact that a culture of nudity might have on their children. Without thinking about how to make the next generation aware of "sex and lust" in a healthy and comprehensive way, the unilateral hope of removing all sex-related discussions and works is undoubtedly a requirement that women must shut up and be absent in sexual discussion.
Third, polish photographer Justyna Piechuta says he can't imagine that, to this day, people are still banning art from being exhibited in their own eyes, according to CNN. Natalia Len's work is a symbol of feminism for Justyna Piechuta, a work in Poland still under communist rule, and bananas were regarded as "luxury goods" by society at the time, so the bananas in the film are a sign of freedom and have no direct connection to sexual innuendo.
There is an interesting idea here that, according to the "de-gendered" interpretation, banana seditability is a symbol of freedom and should not be removed.
So if the work itself is to talk about sex, talk about female desire, will lose the value of the art, should be off the shelf?
Source:AFP
Our distance from Polish bananas
In addition to the nearly 1,000 protests, many Polish celebrities, including actress Magdalena Cielecka, Matylda Damiencka and director Andrzej Saramonowicz, joined the community. According to the Associated Press, Magdalena Cielecka added that "to create an artist, it has to be in a free situation." holding a banana in a gun-holding position to protest that the artist's work should not be treated this way.
Polish actress Magdalena Cielecka. Pictures . . . . . . . . .
According to the Critical Review Network, in a new report published by Human Rights Watch, "Government Pressure Persists: An Attack on Women's Rights in Poland," it says: "The Law and Justice Party of Poland (Prawo i Sprawiedliwo? Since coming to power in 2003, it has often cracked down on women's rights groups with almost unalerted inspections and cuts in funding. It is not just women's rights activists and non-governmental organizations who have been hit. Many civil servants who support or cooperate with feminist groups have also been referred to disciplinary action, or even insecurity. 」
The controversial banana-eating film was also part of a number of crackdowns on women.
Taiwan, 8,000 kilometers away from Poland, does not appear to be directly related to the incident, but it is in fact in the same situation as Poland. Today, there are still many women's rights activists and groups in Taiwan, including Taiwan International Women's Film Festival, Yang Yaqing and others, who have been working hard to win over women's desire.
Founded by the Taiwan Women's Imaging Society, the Taiwan International Women's Film Festival (hereinafter referred to as Women's Film) has been in Taiwan for more than 20 years and is often able to see the female shadow in the heart of the theatre, community, campus and art. They convey to the people through art, film and other art forms of pluralistic, multi-angle feminist ideas, imagine that if the Polish example used to Taiwan, the Government on the "female film is a bad taste" as the reason, the ban on female film travel around the world, how much harm to the process of fighting for women's rights?
Yang Yaqing in 2009 began to implement the "100 Kiss Paris" plan, attracted countless public opinion, said she was not censored, how to have a face to kiss so many people, will not marry out. Let her begin to recognize the Taiwan society's depression of female lust, but also arouse her will, she began to speak, write books, called on women should take back the autonomy of lust, because that belongs to us. (Recommended reading: Yang Yaqing TED speech full text: "Dear girl, you want your body, your passion, your rights"
Yang Yaqing was verbally abused and condemned at the time, and the logic behind Poland's film of women eating bananas today was the same. We must see that female lust and art are not binary, they can be closely related and are the only ones that merge; we must understand that female lust is never a shame; we must always talk about the situation of women, the experience of women, the desire of women, until no one is attacked for talking openly about lust.
We'll keep talking.