woman – The Positive Feminist Philosopher

Positive news from the Netherlands: yesterday parliament has agreed to a women’s quota of thirty percent for boards of directors. It only applies to companies that are connected to the stock market. Eighty companies in total of which fourty-seven of them to not have this percentage. Of course, a quota of one-third women is not revolutionary and it took my country years to follow Norway, Spain, France , Iceland, Germany and India in this, but still it is very good news.

It is a very important step in the road for an equal gender balance in all decision-making bodies in society. Not just those who are political or who are democratically voted for. It is a crucial step in the awknowledgement of women as equal citizens and of the importance of their participation in decion-making. For an elaboration of this argument, read my book Feminism and Citizenship.

What pleases me was the overall argument in the debate. By having more women in these boards, we will get a better quality of the conversation, they said. More inclusive. More representative of different opinions, interests, qualities of people. And yes, it is all that. Not one aspect with a guarantee, for instance that one woman will represent always women’s interests or that this one woman will add feminine qualities. More modest and honest. On the whole when we get more women in decision-making bodies, the quality of our debates and decision-making will get better because they are more inclusive.

So what other decision-making bodies will follow? Universities? Hospitals? Health-care insurance companies? Banks? Courts? Military organizations? Churches? I am not kidding. They are all deciding about where and how our money, effort and opinions should be directed. Raise your voices! I hope we are looking forward to interesting times.

https://www.ser.nl/-/media/ser/downloads/adviezen/2019/diversiteit-in-de-top.pdf

Women in Positions of Power

Carnaval and the Emerging Princess

5 Mar 2019 animapublicacom

*Princess Suus I from Ohé en Laak, Volkskrant.*

Yesterday I went to Carnaval in Breda and I am happy to report that the Princess is gaining power at the Dutch Carnaval. I don’t mean sexual power. Women have had that always. So also at Carnaval. No, I am referring to that bastion of power: the function of Princedom. In this, someone chosen by the Carnaval’s Council of Eleven receives the town’s key from the Mayor to rule over town for five days in a different way.

*Princess Gerrie I from Afferen, Carnaval 2018.*

For centuries this position was reserved for men only, just like the position of the Council of Eleven itself. Strange in fact. Because Carnaval is about the reversal of roles. The king becomes a jester. A reserved woman becomes a witch. The rich man is dressed up as a beggar. An old lady is suddenly Little Red Riding Hood. And so on. This includes the dress-ups as members of the other sex. Women have for centuries dressed-up during Carnaval as Robin Hood, knights, firemen and sailors. In some places like in the Belgium Aalst, men have also done this for centuries.

A few Dirty Jeanets from Aalst. Carnaval 2019. Photo Marieke van der Velde. Volkskrant.

In Aalst, this figure is called Dirty Jeanet and it arose out of poverty. Workers did not have money to buy a Carnaval costume, so they used their wives’ or mothers’ clothes and underwear. Yesterday in Breda I have seen an enormous number of men dressed up as Queens, Countesses, actresses and maids. Good for you: men! So sex reversals have existed at Carnaval for a long time. Except for the position of the Prince!

*Prinses Rachelle en Prins Calvin from Son en Breugel– Carnaval 2019*

Yet, recently even at that bastion of power the Princess is coming up. To my knowledge, the first Carnaval Princess appeared in the Netherlands in 1969: Princess Bep I in Someren-Heide and ruled there for six years. In 1998 Betke I was chosen in Valkenswaard. She called herself Prince Betke I, because as she argued: it is a position, just like the Mayor. And in Ossenisse, Princess Margaretha has already ruled for 25 years, with an all-female Council of Eleven.

Lately, we see in many villages and town a Youth Princess and her female Adjudant. And even the adult position of the Princedom is now and then given to women. Yet, in the biggest Dutch Carnaval cities, the opposition against this is severe. The people in power say that we have to respect the century-old Carnaval traditions or that the Statutes of the Carnaval clubs do not allow this.

*Princes Linda van District Antwerpen Belgium, Carnaval 2019.*

But now something interesting is happening. In the Carnaval cities Weert and Tilburg, female members of the official city councils have raised questions in council meetings about that male monopoly and have asked a change in the Statutes at this point. In Weert they have lost, but in Tilburg they have won! Already a female member of the Council of Eleven has been admitted. So members of city councils and of Carnaval clubs elsewhere: please follow this example and pave the road for the Carnaval Princess in this way.

After all: Carnaval is about the reversal of roles!

Sexuality

Sex, Tea and the King-Servant Game

2 Jan 201928 Aug 2020 animapublicacom

Sexual desires

Last time I wrote about the simple statement ‘Stop, I don’t like it’ when someone , it does not matter who, touches you and it does not feel right. https://animapublicacom.wordpress.com/2018/12/20/your-body-is-your-body/

A while ago I had an incident about this with someone who claimed: “but we had agreed we could have friendship AND sex!?”

Sex like a cup of tea

Yes we can. But not at ANY moment! Like my good friend Ingrid, I compare this with drinking a cup of tea. You may have asked yesterday for a cup of black tea with milk and no sugar yesterday and really enjoyed drinking it. Yet this does not mean that you want the same tea today. Maybe you want it without milk and with sugar. Or pure. Or herbal tea. Or no tea at all, but a strong cup of coffee now.

Lap dog

Well my reply did not go very well in the above-mentioned incident. He became angry and said he felt like a lap dog having to beg for a cookie each time. So that was that. End of the friendship too. But it can also open a great time of experiments for both of you of what you like and in what way at a particular time.

King-Servant game

An easy and pleasurable way to practice this with a partner playing the Yin-Yang or King-Servant game. You put the alarm-clock for twenty minutes and the person who starts of being the king or queen declares a very specific wish and the way it should be executed. The ‘servant’ feels whether he or she can do this within his or her boundaries and tries to do it exactly as requested. If it is beyond the other person’s boundaries, he or she proposes something that lies within it and still goes in the direction of the request. After twenty minutes the roles will be reversed.

So be aware of routines and always ask what and how the other person would like now. Have fun in playing!

Woman enjoying a cup of tea. — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Geen categorie, Sexuality

Your body is YOUR body

20 Dec 2018 animapublicacom

Recently I read that Emperor Joseph II of the Austrian empire abolished serfdom `by royal decision’ in 1781.

Serfdom; I thought, what is that exactly? In Dutch it is called lijfeigenschap,in German Leibeigenschaft,in Spanish servidumbre and in French bondage servage. It means according to Wikipedia: `the situation that someone’s body is considered as the property of the ruler in a certain geographical area’. In England it became obsolete in the 15th till 16th century, claimes Wikipedia.

Oh really? How many husbands, boyfriends and those who consider themselves boyfriends find it normal or `their right’ to touch you everywhere without asking you whether you like it. As if your body was theirs, their property to serve them. How many of them consider themselves implicitly as being the rulers in the geographical area: your bed, your house or anywhere near them. (The same applies of course to women touching men.)

Yet as I told my son since he was 3 years old,` your body is your body and yours only. If someone, it does not matter who, touches you and you don’t like it, tell them. Say with an earnest face and with your hand upwards: Stop/No, I don’t like it. That is all. No explanations needed’.

So it does not matter whether we are married or had incredible sex yesterday. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. Full stop. Of course you must not have put your feelings away. Otherwise you will ignore the warning signs of your body. And then you lose the control over your life. You only have one life and one body, so remember…

your body is your body!

Tag: woman

A Dutch Women’s Quota in the Industry