For the 8th of March, LezFem joined forces with the girls from “Bori se zenski” in an initiative dedicated to the promotion of gender equality via encouraging a debate in the public sphere. The two groups, assisted by the LGBTI Support Centre and the Coalition “Sexual and health rights of the marginalized communities” have realized their first joint event, which occurred within a two-day period.
On the 7th of March there was a film projection of Virginie Despentes’ film titled Mutantes, which focuses on the punk-porn feminist movement. The movie was shown in order to display the not-so-available perspective of feminism towards pornography in our region.
As opposed to other feminist movements which see pornography as exploiting and humiliating, punk-porn feminism sees sex and pornography as tools of liberation, where women choose and control the way of expressing themselves sexually, believing that this embodies feminism. The film covers topics such as the campaign for legalization of prostitution in the US, S&M feminist pornography, transgender erotica and queer activism.
After the projection, there was a discussion on the topic of “Feminism, sexuality and resistance” with Katerina Kolozova and Slavcho Dimitrov, experts on this subject.
Katerina Kolozova is a director and senior researcher in the Institute of social sciences and humanities – Skopje, professor in philosophy and gender studies at the American College University of Skopje. Apart from working at her Institute, she is also visiting professor at several universities in the countries of former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. She is author of “The Lived Revolution: Solidarity with the Body in Pain as the New Political Universal” (2010; in English), “The Real and ‘I’: On the Limit and the Self” (2006; in English), „Conversations with Judith Butler: Crisis of the subject“ with Judith Butler and Zarko Trajanoski, as well as editor of several books in the area of gender studies and feminist theory.
Slavcho Dimitrov graduated on the department of General and comparative literature at the “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” University and is MA in Gender studies and philosophy at the Euro Balkan Institute. At this time he is enrolled in doctor studies at the Department of Gender and Philosophy at the Euro Balkan Institute, where he works as a researcher, assistant and project coordinator. In the recent years he has coordinated several projects on human rights and non-discrimination of minority communities in Macedonia. He is also Director of the Coalition “Sexual and health rights of marginalized communities”. He has published several texts on topics from literary and film theory and interpretation, gender, sexuality and identity and modern art in Macedonia, in different publications from the area of academic work and art in the country and abroad. His main theoretical and author interests are related to questions on gender, cultural theory, political philosophy, identity and narrations, deconstruction of the subject and queer theory.
On the 8th of March, LezFem, together with Bori se zenski, went out on the streets to place transparents with short biographies of women fighters from the past and the present, which are rarely spoken of and mentioned in the official documents of the history of the Republic of Macedonia. we have decided that for this day, it is important that we show that they exist, hence we did it symbolically, placing their photos and short biographies on strategic places in the city. The action was very successful and even during the placement of the signs, we get the attention and interest of the people walking by. Furthermore, even though it was not planned, both groups had a meeting with women fighters from Macedonia, who had gathered for the 8th of March in “Zena park” (Park of the women fighters). Experiences and viewpoints were exchanged, and the action got an unusual turn of events, which aided the effort of making the passers-by more familiar with women fighters.
You can see more of the action on the following link.
On the 8th of March, LezFem presented itself as an informal group for the first time, on the event titled “Prvo pa zensko”, which was an initiative by “Tiiit!Inc“, whose goal was to encourage rethinking of the meaning of the 8th of March – International Women’s Day. The event took place in the Youth Cultural Centre in Skopje.
With several workshops in the “Women’s room”, an exhibition of photographs, a bazaar and a film programme, several civil organizations, activists and artists were discussing and exchanging creative experiences in order to influence the policies concerning women. LezFem presented its goal as increasing the visibility and political relevance of lesbian and feminist activism and to promote new strategies of resistance against dominant ideological concepts of patriarchy, heteronormativity, chauvinism and nationalism.
The presentation was informal and open for discussion. The people present were familiarized with the goals and activities planned by LezFem and were invited to attend all future events and involve themselves in the planned actions.
More about the participation of LezFem on this event can be seen on the following link.
