Denise Litchfield Knits Newtown!

Denise Litchfield (and Baxter) tagging in the May Lane Art Project, St Peters. (photo Sahlan Hayes)

Go Denise! I know Denise through Roomies Artspace. She's been a great champion for Clarrice Collien's amazing window wire and wool tapestries and I'll post on the upcoming Roomies Exhibition at Parliament House February 5th to 27th.

I love Denise's take on knitting: "It redefines street art and is also a reference to graffiti," the Stanmore woman said. "It's absurd and feminine and fun."

Knitta is the global outlier of guerilla knitting. As mentioned in the SMH article by Sunanda Creagh, January 14 2009. Which I'm quoting in full because... GO DENISE!

WHERE other graffiti artists use spraypaint, Denise Litchfield uses wool. Litchfield is part of a growing global movement of guerilla knitters, who stitch their handmade creations onto trees, poles, street lights and other objects in the public domain.
"It redefines street art and is also a reference to graffiti," the Stanmore woman said. "It's absurd and feminine and fun."
Using recycled or cast-off yarn, Litchfield has attached her creations to poles and trees in Newtown and Rozelle and her long-term goal is to knit cosies for fire hydrants and bollards.
Ms Litchfield also pokes fun at the notion of a graffiti "tag" by creating cardboard swing tags similar to those attached to items in a boutique.
"I write messages on them and put them on bikes and dogs. One friend said she was walking down King Street and saw a tag that said 'All your problems have been taken care of' and thought, 'Yeah, I needed to hear that,' " Litchfield said.
"I have been doing it for about six months and I don't know of anyone else doing it in Sydney. I haven't been intercepted by a council ranger yet but often when I put them up people stop to ask what I am doing and to have a chat," she said.
Litchfield has won the support of a Marrickville councillor, Peter Olive.
"I'd be only too happy for her to do some knitting in the Marrickville local government area," he said. "I see it as a form of art and it's not harmful or anyone else's property or the public space. I think it should be encouraged."
Emily Howes, an expert from University of Technology, Sydney, and author of a PhD thesis on "indie craft", said guerilla knitters operated in Scandinavia, the US, Japan and South Africa. She thinks Litchfield might be Sydney's first.
"I think there is a groundswell of activity. The really big guerilla craft group is a collective called Knitta, which has outposts around the world," she said. "They see craft as a subversive and politically motivated act - a way of jolting people out of their comfortable reverie."

My Feminist T-shirt Idea !

Is 'box' a specifically australian slang for cunt? Or is it just very 70s?

Does anyone remember "The Box" a classic Oz sex and soap opera like "Number 96". I can't believe I was allowed to stay up late and salaciously watch those shows at such a tender age!

Saw some other great feminist t-shirt ideas at ....

The Dawn Chorus
Coyotescorner
NOW
Ariel Gore and the infamous "got breastmilk?" shirt saga

of course you can just search Red Bubble, Zazzle, CafePress and others for 'feminism' or some such but you'd be surprised how many "I support Sarah Palin" shirts that turns up!

I think my other favourite all purpose t-shirt is.. "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!"

Thank you Zazzle for your t-shirt designing tools. If I get round to making an account I'll post this shirt for sale.

Hey Lolcats - get a job!

Tama the cat, stationmaster on the Kishigara line in Japan - world's first professional lolcat?

But it is not her labours on the platform which have seen the cash rolling in. It is rather Tama's irresistible charm which has brought tourists flocking in their thousands to the western city of Kinokawa to see the feline worker patrolling in the uniform of her office - a Wakayama Electric Railway cap.

With 55,000 more people having used the Kishigawa Line than would normally be expected, Tama's contribution to the local economy is calculated to have reached as much as Y1.1 billion ($A13.5 million) in 2007 alone, according to a study announced last week. from SMH

Tama's mother was a stray adopted by the station cleaner. So adopt a stray today. Cat Protection Society.

Feminism's Great Leap Forward? Virtual Boyfriends are the NEW BIG THING!

Or simply curing loneliness 2.0? Reportedly, 52% of members are Japanese females in their twenties, with thirty-somethings accounting for 18% of the user base. Could such an idiosyncratic approach also succeed in the US or Europe?

I can certainly see the need, but currently a webkare seems as satisfying as a wii-fit. I'm looking forward to the customisable, hackable virtual boyfriend. Kind of like waiting for my gps to do passive male aggressive with an Australian accent.

clipped from www.techcrunch.com Japanese Girl Sensation: Virtual Boyfriends (Webkare) In Japan, girls are crazy over virtual boyfriends. Webkare (Web Boyfriend in Japanese), a mix between a social network and dating simulation site, is Nippon’s newest web sensation. Geared exclusively towards girls, the site attracted over 10,000 members just 5 days after its release on September 10, racking up 3.5 million page views in the same time frame. The site is a huge hit over here. Girls sign up and become members of a social network but also users of a dating simulation in cartoon style. They have to try to hook up with one of four male Anime characters (who are the “stars” of the site) through “conversations” and must collaborate with other Webkare members in order to move on in the game. Eventually they conquer the heart of the chosen cartoon boy. Reportedly, 52% of members are Japanese females in their twenties, with thirty-somethings accounting for 18% of the user base. Could such an idiosyncratic approach to curing Loneliness 2.0 work in the US or Europe?

Self Fulfilling Prophecies not Fun, Fearless Females

women who read glossys are voting for glossy women.

clipped from www.smh.com.au Fifi Box took the top honours at the Fun, Fearless, Female awards as voted by 80,000 readers of Cosmopolitan magazine. The awards recognise women's achievements in TV, radio, fashion, sport, music and business.

Geek Illustrated - so glad i found it

clipped from www.geekillustrated.com Touch me Will Robinson ...what self proclaimed geek hasn’t felt a frisson of excitement or stroked up a frenzy with all that gorgeous touchscreenery that’s become the mainstay of small hand-held devices. Recent talk and media coverage surrounding University of Maastricht’s artificial intelligence researcher, David Levy’s thesis "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners," in which he proposes that robots will become so human-like in appearance, function and personality that many people will fall in love with them, have sex with them and even marry them, has had my mind spinning in all directions, reflecting on the kind of current relationships I have with the machines in my life – none of which I think can be seriously considered “robots”, although even the definition of “robot” if Wikipedia is to be believed, seems as contentious and fraught with complexity as the actual prospect of considering a life-long attachment to a robot partner .

Alpha Mummy vs Slummy Mummy - WWF heaven

Go see the Times crew who led me to the next post Super Mummy.

Truthfully, I rather like the old Slummy Mummy too, and Slummy Mummies in general. Only be extraordinary when you feel like it.

The rest of the time, Frankly Scarlet! Don't give a damn!

Damn, I wish I'd called one of the kids, Frankly Scarlet!

Lipstick Jungle - it's Spinal Tap for feminists.

Damn those superwomen! There's a kind of dirty pleasure, a schadenfreude or frisson in this show, it's feminism as commodity fetishism.

Literally. It's not about making women powerful. It's about making powerful women sexy. Which as we all know becomes a contradiction in terms unless we're getting a bit bdsm here.

Feminism is dead but someone's tanned its hide and the heels are to die for! These boots are made for walking kind of hell on wheels happening here. It's murderballicious, babe.

If you must, then you must read the recaps. http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/lipstick_jungle/pilot_45.php

Sexualisation vs Infantilisation!

must write this down when we get back from yet another xmas dinner! (needs finishing!)

there is an industry around promoting the sexualisation of women and young girls. i find it disturbing that fashion seems to incorporate a lot of 'baby' stuff at the same time as teens and tweens are being sexualised. the line is being blurred in both directions.

what does this mean in terms of maturity? or wanting not to be mature? i know an 18yr old who is very proud of wearing clothes from the childrens' section. this ties in to body image and eating disorder issues.

Blood Sports 3

New sports and hybrids continually emerge, breakdancing, parkour, cheerleading, freestyle skydiving, wind tunnel acrobatics, inflatable track tumbling.

Who can predict what will emerge as a new sport? Why not insist that emerging sports areas forecast maximum allowable skills to minimise permanent disability or death and to prevent the exploitation of the young.

Where do we draw the line on how much punishment an athlete is expected to take for their sport and how is that influenced by how much money is in the sport... or how entertaining the prospect of the big crash is?

Lets compare life expectancies competitively in a range of sports and the injury/disability rate. Netball is supposed to be quite bad for knees etc, but does a competitive lifespan of 10 years make that better than aerial skiing with a 2 year lifespan? Or being a jockey?

Blood Sports 2

Sports do not stay the same. It's rarely just a social change, such as turning volleyball with 6 players into beach volleyball with 2 players in bikinis. New sports are developed as new equipment makes things possible.

New equipment has radically changed gymnastics in the last 20 years. The routines that existed when Olga Korbut stuck her saults on beam and captivated the world seem incredibly easy. But equipment was wooden and not very springy.

Now certain skills are being prohibited from competition as being too dangerous. Yes, some people can do them, but they shouldn't be included in the allowable set of skills because of the extreme physical risk.

Example: saltos ending in a roll (1 ½ or 1 ¾ ) are now prohibited for women but not men (greater shoulder strength).

At the same time as this questionable progress, aerial skiing has been endorsed as an Olympic sport and in Australia we, scenting medals, are offering scholarships to any gymnasts or divers who want to change... especially retired gymnasts and divers who get a second bite at a sport doesn't yet prioritise girls over women.

Trouble is, it's a killer.

We don't let women box but we pay them to take up aerial skiing? I can't figure that out. I'd like to get per athlete per gender injury statistics for all of our sports and see what really makes sense!

Blood Sports

I am unable to ignore the fact that women's sporting bodies are prepubescent, while men's are not. Simply, champions are men and girls. Boys are not the highest achievers in any sport, yet girls are in many sports rather than women.

With the massive professionalisation of sport occuring in the last century, there has already been focus on the exploitation of the young, but there is little addressing the underlying dilemma where in some sports, the best competitors are the youngest. Diving, gymnastics, trampoline, swimming? and how many others? where female power to weight ratio is critical.

The closest we have come to addressing this is to codify minimum ages for olympic competition (for example) for some sports. The reality is that creates a very short sporting life for top athletes who are out of the sport post puberty (often delayed until 18 to 22 tops).

So where to? It's not enough to blame excessively competitive gyms or pushy parents or eastern european (now american) or chinese training regimes, bleat in the press and insert token minimum ages!

Competitive sports that privilege the prepubescent body are an issue in themselves, but they are sports I love and would like them to be available for women. How to?