Why we need more femalestorytellers

Our storytelling has been extremely androcentric

Thucydides or Herodotus were among the first historians: since 2.500 years, the

construct of history is a male product.

Women’s acts and experiences have been largely unrecorded and ignored

We perceive historical events from a white catholic male heterosexual perspective

• Example: Columbus day– Genocide or discovery?

–Mistake or historical turning point?

Crusades: Holy war or terrorism and slaughter?

In the past, our religious texts havebeen written and assembled by men

And today men own most of our media outlet

“On TV, men speak, women listen.”

And other narratives are silenced

• Speaking louder• Speaking on behalf of

others• Occupying the space• Interrupting the

conversation• Not listening to others• Making fun of the other

Only one Palme d’Or of Cannes has been awarded to a woman so far

In France, litterary prizes are mostly awarded to men

At the last BD festival in Angouleme, no woman was even nominated

Triggering many reactions

Even our language is androcentric

• Male is generic: mankind, manpower, manmade…

• The masculine, by the presence of even one male, is the default.

• "Every student in the classroom did his best on the exam."

• Even greeting mixed groups

Stories are written by men…mostly about men

Oscar’s nominated movies are mostly directed by men and don’t pass the Bechdel test

Or if women are portrayed, it is through male gaze

We see the world through one eye only

Stories are incomplete

Stereotypes are pervasive

Stories are biased

There is a contradiction between women’s central active role in creating society and

marginality in meaning giving process• Women are essential and central to

creating society.• Women have made history, yet they have

been kept from knowing it.• Women have been excluded from creating

symbol systems and theory formation.• Women lasted 3.500 years to realize their

own subordinate position in society.

Your significance in history is key for psychic well being

• The myth that women are marginal to the creation of history and civilization has profoundly affected the psychology of women and men.

• The denial to women of their history has reinforced their acceptance of the ideology of patriarchy and has undermined the individual woman’s sense of self worth.

• Men’s version of history has become the universal truth.

• One cannot think universal when oneself isexcluded from the generic.

Women are more targeted by negative narratives

Youarefat

Youcan’tplease yourpartner

Youareabadmother

Youarenotenough

Womendon’tknowhowtodrive

Womenlie

Womenchangeopinionallthetime

Womenareemotional

These constant messages have a huge impact in terms of self-esteem

When we see with one eye, our vision is limited in range and devoid in depth.

• Men and women live on a stage. • But men have written the play and

directed the show.• Equal parts will not make women

equal if the script is still written by men.

From “you are invisible” to “you are half of the reality”

We need to reclaim power at individual and collective level

• Women’s history is indispensable and essential to the emancipation of women.

• It changes their lives.• We need a shift of consciousness.

Like the one from Ptolemaic to Copernic vision

We need to reclaim women’s role in history

And we need more female storytellers!

We need to show the world through a woman’s lens

She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World

We need more female painting our streets

PamelaCastro

We need more female DJs, rappers or musicians

We need movies from and about women

Broadcast Miss Representation in your organization

You can be what you can see

We do it together is a nonprofit Production Company created to finance and produce media uniquely dedicated to the

empowerment of women.

Reese Witherspoon Pacific Standard production company

Birds Eye View « She Writes »

Broadcast inspiring female roles

Global Girl Media teaches young girls to be citizen journalists

We need new media channels featuring the other half of the

story

We are the XX media collective

We need to restore diversity in the media

Shonda Rhimes:You should get to turn on the TV

and see your tribe.

The firstnetworkdramawithablackwomanasitslead innearlyfourdecades

The Shonda effect

ViolaDavis,the firstblackwomantowintheEmmyforBestLeadActressinaDrama

DuVernay, who made ‘‘Selma,’’ pointed out that of the 100 top-grossing films last year, only two

were directed by women. • She urged constant vigilance and proactive

searching within the industry:• ‘‘We have to ask our agents about that script

by the woman screenwriter. We have to ask, ‘Hey, are there any women agents here that I could talk to?’ We have to ask our lawyers about women in the office. We have to ask, when we’re thinking about directors or D.P.s, ‘Will women interview?’ ’’

Male

Authority in

Muslim

ContextsWOMEN’S

S TOR I E SL IV ES

A publication by Musawah,

the global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family

P r e f a c e

Musawah is a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family.

Launched in 2009, it seeks to link scholarship with activism, bring fresh perspectives

on Islamic teachings and contribute constructively to the reform of Muslim family

laws and practices.

The Global Life Stories Project is a central element in Musawah’s ongoing

and multifaceted research programmes aimed at producing new egalitarian

knowledge from within Muslim legal tradition.

In Musawah (‘Equality’ in Arabic), we draw on the latest Muslim reformist thought

and feminist scholarship in Islam, and ground our claim to equality and our

arguments for reform simultaneously in Islamic and human rights frameworks. We

recognize two blind spots in approaches to gender issues in Islam and human

rights. On the one hand, many scholars of Islam are unaware of the importance

of gender as a category of thought and analysis. On the other hand, many

feminists and human rights advocates have little knowledge or appreciation

of religious categories of thought and religion-based laws, considering them

The quest for gender equality in Muslim contexts involves reclaiming the egalitarian ethos of Islam’s sacred texts and creating a public voice for it.

D e m o c ra t i z i n g t h e P ro d u c t i o n o f R e l i g i o u s K n o w l e d g e