Vatican Sport Femen

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Eurozine Review

The Vatican of sport

Krytykatracks the rise and rise of FEMEN; Index on Censorshipputs sport on trial;L'Hommegazes at spectacular women; New Humanistasks whether Mormonismwill matter in November; Mehr Lichtburlesques meditations on Albanian nationalidentity; L'Espillpays tribute to Joan Fuster, the critical Catalanist; Dilema vechedetects waning Francophone influence; and Dialogijogs folk memories of Maribor'sancient heritage.

Krytyka 4/2012

In Krytkyka (Ukraine), Marian Rubchak tracks the rise of

FEMEN, postindependence Ukraine's secondwave feminist

movement. Founded in 2008 by Anna Hutsol, FEMEN soon

developed its parodic style of protest to target prostitution,

trafficking and sexual exploitation in universities, writes

Rubchak. But it was only with the advent of Viktor

Yanukovych, and with it the reversal of the small steps

towards gender justice achieved under the Orange government, that FEMEN

widened it sights and entered a new stage of radicalization:

"Carnivalesque attire remained in evidence," writes Rubchak, "but by 2009

FEMEN activists were also topless and street theatre had given way to rallies

and a new array of political confrontations" best exemplified in February

2010, when FEMEN activists protested seminaked at the polling station in

which Yanukovych was to cast his vote, unveiling placards reading "Don't sell

your vote! Don't be a slut!" By 2011, "FEMEN was being perceived as a

formidable pressure group and its members were becoming increasingly

vulnerable to arrest."

So is FEMEN the precursor of a bold new protest pattern, or has it been

reduced to an organization of exhibitionists? As long as gender injustices

multiply in Ukraine, the strength of FEMEN's message remains undiminished,argues Rubchak: prostitution in Ukraine is flourishing, sexism is an everyday

feature of parliamentary debate, and violence against women exemplified

in the rape and murder of 18yearold Oksana Makar remains tolerated,

often by the same women who enjoy the official, "saccharine endorsement of

their own 'femininity'".

"Before rushing to judgment about the appropriateness of FEMEN's

expressions of protest, as many have done, we might ask ourselves whether

there is a more effective way to 'market' their messages than resorting to

women's halfnaked bodies," says Rubchak. "To be sure, seminudity must

eventually, inevitably, lose its force as a political statement. For the present,

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however, it could be the most viable means of generating public dialogue on

women's rights as a preliminary step toward achieving that elusive goal of

gender justice."

Also: George G. Grabowicz on the longue dure of Ukrainian literature and its

interaction with Europe.

The full table of contents ofKrytyka 4/2012

Index on Censorship 2/2012

The Bahrain Grand Prix and the UEFA Euro Championships

in Ukraine, which took place without significant protest from

participating teams and nations over civil rights abuses in both

countries, are the most recent examples of international sports

associations' willingness to turn a blind eye to moral issues.

"The attitude of international sport bodies towards engaging

with authoritarian regimes can range from brazen disregard forthe country's human rights record to idealistic notions of sport as a force for

good," comments Index editor Jo Glanville.

Running for the money: Sports journalist and historian Mihir Bose contrasts

the lip service paid to civil rights by sport officials over the last 150 years of

modern sport to actions taken. Of all sporting associations, it is the rhetoric of

the IOC that bears least relation to reality. Witness Beijing 2008: despite

assurances that it had weighed up the moral pros and cons of awarding the

2008 Olympics to China, the IOC's decision was purely geopolitical, writes

Bose. Paradoxically, Munich '36 served not as an example of the dangers of

the political abuse of sporting events, but as a precedent for administrators to

act as "the Vatican of sport, beyond the control of any authority but their own".

Branding London 2012: Anything remotely political has been removed from

the branding of the London Olympics, writes Natalie Haynes from the torch

relay (a Nazi invention) to the racist colour scheme of the Olympic rings (blue

for Europe, green for Australia, red for America, yellow for Asia, black for

Africa). Organizers Locog seem to be taking their branding pretty seriously

"so seriously in fact, that it released a 61page document of guidelines to

explain how we can all not infringe on their rights." Of course, Locog argues

that Olympic brand protection is for the greater good. "If their sponsors aren't

protected, then they might pull out. And if they do that, there will be a big fat

chasm in the Olympics budget, and you and I will be left with the bill. At no

point does it seem to have occurred to them, in their mesmerising arrogance,

that every London council tax payer is also one of their sponsors and has beenfor years."

Olympian chutzpah: Stephen Escritt and martin Polley ridicule the IOC's

draconian trademark regime: "By creating only one type of activity that can

legally be called 'Olympic', the IOC has monopolized a word that was in

general use over centuries before Pierre de Coubertin established the modern

Olympic Games in 1896."

The full table of contents ofIndex on Censorship 2/2012

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L'Homme 1/2012

In L'Homme, Anneke Ribberink compares historians'

treatment of Margaret Thatcher's creation of her own

"spectacle of perfection". This spectacle was cultivated by

Thatcher while she was in office hiring a former TV

producer shortly after becoming Tory leader in 1975, she was

a forerunner of contemporary "spin" as well as afterwards,her twovolume autobiography "contributing to a burgeoning

market in political apologia".

Thatcher's selfrepresentation has not gone unchallenged, notes Ribberink,

noting the degrees of sympathy with which historians and journalists have

portrayed various aspects of Thatcher's persona. Hugo Young's 1989 biography

stressed her "gender bending", in which she combined displays of martial

resolve with sartorial fussiness and maternal domesticity. John Campbell's two

volume biography (2000/2003), on the other hand, dwelled on Thatcher's

competitiveness and aggressiveness, which he tendentiously attributed to a

loveless childhood rather than a need to survive in the maledominated world

of politics.

A more sympathetic view comes from journalist Brenda Maddox (2003), who

concentrates on Thatcher's vulnerability as female leader and the class

dilemmas she faced, caught between southern English snobbery and northern

workingclass hostility. Ribberink dismisses criticism of the film The Iron

Lady as "calculated unkindness", arguing that, if anything, the portrayal of

Thatcher as senile old woman increases our sense of her humanity.

"Controversy between her adherents and her enemies seems to be as strong as

ever," concludes Ribberink. "But this is all the more a token of her historical

importance, whatever view of her policies one may have."

Warriors and nurses: Women played a major role in the Yugoslav partisan

movement, not only as fighters during combat itself but also as objects ofpropaganda and mythmaking in postwar socialist Yugoslavia, writes

Natascha Vitorelli. Paradoxically, gender equality was greater during the War

than afterwards. The existence of female frontline fighters was either

emphasized or by stressing the importance of civilian resistance and

infrastructural activities such as nursing, caring or couriering marginalized.

Both narratives made a decisive contribution to the heroization of women's

involvement in the "war of liberation", according to Vitorelli.

The full table of contents ofL'Homme 1/2012

New Humanist 4/2012

New Humanist's US political correspondent Abby Ohlheiser

discusses religion's role in the presidential election campaign

and, in particular, how Mitt Romney's Mormonism will

impact on the Republican vote in November. Because

Evangelicals still treat Mormons with deep suspicion,

Romney and Republican leaders have been deploying the

language of "common ground", writes Ohlheiser. Alongside

opposition to samesex marriage, common ground includes a sense of

religious persecution:

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"Christian persecution always more a complex than a reality in the US

is important to the ways in which many conservative evangelical Christians

define themselves against socalled 'secular' American culture. Persecution,

here, refers more to a sense of discrimination and infringement upon

constitutionally protected notions of 'religious liberty' than on actual bodily

harm or oppressive suffering."

How far moral majority issues can overcome denominational differences wasindicated by controversy over Democrat moves to provide free access to

contraception, which Evangelical and Catholic leaders contrived to represent

as an infringement of religious freedoms. Whether Mormon Republicans can

capitalize on ecumenical outrage is an open question, as is whether

denomination, or religion at all, will play a role in the presidential race: "It may

come down not to a vote for Romney but to a vote against Obama", Ohlheiser

comments.

Hopelessness: Can a secular world view provide the same degree of hope as a

religious one? And do we need this kind of hope to live? These are Julian

Baggini's questions in a philosophical excursus on religious optimism versus

enlightened despair: "It must be possible to believe in the possibility of

improvement. But given the fundamentals of human psychology, the fragility

of social institutions and material prosperity upon which peace depends, and

the everpresent possibility of natural or anthropogenic disaster, truly rational

hope seems to be extremely limited."

Also: Caspar Melville meets defence lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, founder of

Reprieve, the international NGO offering free legal representation to people

facing the death penalty.

The full table of contents ofNew Humanist4/2012

Mehr Licht 42 (2012)

Introducing the latest issue ofMehr Licht(Albania), editor

Mira Meksi recalls the intensity of the "complicit, secret

reading" of banned books during communism. "In those years,

our forbidden reading and our secret writing not only enabled

us to create an untainted spiritual life, and to wave our

personal flags of freedom, but allowed us to communicate

with one other and create our own religion of faith in literary

creation." In the years since, this faith has lost some of its simplicity. Arian

Celnikasi describes the annual Tirana Book Fair, "accompanied by the moans

of booklovers, complaining that nobody reads any more, that there's nobodynow who hasn't written a book, that competition is unfair (politician scribblers

elbow aside real writers), that translations are appalling, and that books are

sold on the pavements like secondhand clothes."

Between patriarchy and stereotyping: An interview with the longstanding

novelist and women's rights activist Diana Culi suggests continuities in this

fractured literary culture. Her thoughtful story, "Rainy Day in April" describes

an educated Albanian woman working as a cleaner in Italy a victim of

patriarchy at home and national stereotypes abroad. Albana Krisafi overhears

the chatter of the dinner guests of the Italian family where she works: "So you

have an Albanian cleaning woman? Really? And nothing's gone missing so

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far? Wonderful... of course they're cheaper. Perhaps a good solution... or not,

time will tell."

Albania 19122012: This year sees the centenary of Albanian independence.

Elsewhere an occasion for solemn meditations on national identity, in Mehr

Lichtthey are burlesqued by Idlir Azizi, the translator ofUlysses into

Albanian, in the fantasy, "A Thousand and One Nights of Independence". Here

the fans of the national football team insist that "Albania" must be turned into amasculine noun, and accuse politicians of "recycling the Albanian matriarchy

exploited by the former communist regime". A less cynical meditation on

independence day is provided by Fan Noli, who sees the Albanians scattered

through the world "like the raven's young", and prays: "Oh just and merciful

God, save our wretched people and country, and honour them again with

freedom, under our twoheaded eagle, the flag of Skanderbeg."

In translation: A rich crop of translations of fiction by Julian Barnes,

Gabrielle Roy, and Jonathan Safran Foer, and essays by David Grossman and

Tim Parks. The latter's suggestion that the international book market and the

concept of "world literature" work to reinforce rather than subvert national

stereotyping fits well with this issue's theme of the porosity of identities.

The full table of contents ofMehr Licht42 (2012)

L'Espill 40 (2012)

"It defined an era, it inspired a new way of seeing ourselves, it

shook consciences", declares the editorial ofL'Espill,

introducing a special issue to mark the fiftieth anniversary of

the publication ofNosaltres, els Valencians ("We, the

Valencians"), the most influential book by the writer and

essayist and the magazine's founder Joan Fuster(19221992). Writing during the last years of the Franco

regime, Fuster sought to explore and reassert the identity of the

Catalanspeaking people of the Valencian provinces, to reaffirm their

linguistic unity with other Catalanspeaking territories and to shake them out

of their political and cultural inertia. "It is difficult to exaggerate the effect of

this call to rethink Valencians' past and change attitudes of passivity and

mental subordination profoundly rooted in a society devastated by the

Francoist dictatorship," the editors write.

The magazine considers Fuster's legacy after fifty years of political and social

change, in which the early hopes of Fusterian nationalism have often been

frustrated and political power increasingly held by an intolerant andnotoriously corrupt Right in the local Partido Popular. The limited success of

nationalism in Valencia, Antoni Furi writes, has to be seen in the light of the

ferocious campaign of condemnation and opposition launched against it by the

Right in the first years of democracy, with acts of violence including bomb

attempts against Fuster himself, for which none of those responsible were ever

arrested. Furi defends Fuster against those who accuse him of proposing a

narrow, ethnicist nationalism at odds with modern conditions. Fuster, he

writes, was always a sceptic, and sought above all to stimulate critical thinking

in a society in which it was lacking, as reactions to his work between

adulation and brutal condemnation have gone on to show.

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Militancy: Writings on nationalism, Joan F. Mira points out, in fact

represented only a small part of Fuster's huge output, and "he insisted time and

again that in his nationalism there was no emotional enthusiasm. He would

have preferred not to have felt obliged to be a militant of anything, and still

less of any kind of nationalism." And Xavi Sarri suggests that the new

resistance and protest movements spurred by the global crisis among youth in

Valencia, many educated in the Catalan language, represent a new form of the

kind of radical, critical community Fuster inspired.

The full table of contents ofL'Espill 40 (2012)

Dilema veche 430435 (2012)

Is Francophone culture all that it used to be? Or is it indeed

the case, asks Mircea Vasilescu in Dilema veche (432), that

the erstwhile grandeur of French culture is on the wane, now

that Berlin (and not Paris) is increasingly taken as Europe's

cultural and intellectual benchmark, with the UK also gainingground on France in cultural terms?

Moving from the "crisis" of French culture to the history of FrenchRomanian

cultural relations, Vasilescu emphasizes that, because of France's charitable

interest in Romania after the collapse of communism, "the West was

rediscovered through France's mediating role". Talking in interview, the

former Romanian ambassador in Paris, Teodor Baconschi, says that the

"special relationship" is a strong as ever: "With Romania's liberty and

democracy, the revival of the relationship has begun a new and more

widereaching chapter."

Territorial politics: Greater conflict surrounds the RomanianHungarian"dialogue". Historical disputes recently ignited over the question whether the

nationalist TransylvanianHungarian writer Nyiro Joszef was due an official

state burial on Romanian territory. Ovidiu Nahoi (434) is dismissive of the

conflict, seeing no point in "awakening the ghosts of the past" rather than

collaborating in ways based on the mutual interests of both countries. Turning

to another territorial dispute, Catalin Stefanescu writes about mixed feelings in

the Moldovan capital Chisinau, "which was once Romanian" (431).

Russophiles scrawl "Down with Romanian history" on walls while Romanian

speakers chant "Bessarabia is Romania".

Also: Alexandru Ofrim (431) discusses the Romanian book market during

communism and Romanians' "hunger for reading" in the absence of other types

of entertainment media before 1989.

The full table of contents ofDilema veche 430435 (2012)

Dialogi 12/2012

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Dialogi (Slovenia) devotes an issue to cultural heritage in and

around Maribor, a European Capital of Culture in 2012. Biba

Terzan, Matija Cresnar and Branko Music report on

archaeological research on Postela, a settlement on the slopes

of the Pohorje mountain range that developed between the

ninth and eight centuries BC. Postela, they write, was not just

a hill fort from the early Iron Age and one of the most

important centres between the Alps and Pannonia, but also a mysterious "oldcity" preserved in the folk memory. Although the importance of Postela and its

burial grounds transcends the regional, it is known only to a handful of

heritage campaigners.

Tragically, the Postela ruins are being threatened by treasurehunters and

motorcyclists. "Once a site is damaged or destroyed, it is impossible to bring it

back from the dead," comments Mira StrmcnikGulic from the Maribor

Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, herself credited with a number

of discoveries of ancient settlements in this part of Slovenia.

Art with a capital A: Editor Boris Vezjak derides the media's "adulation" of

the enfant terrible of Slovenian theatre, the director Tomaz Pandur, whoseproduction ofWar and Peace is part of the programme of Maribor 2012. "As a

relationship towards the Artist with a capital A, it embodies everything that the

ECC is about: the silly but calculating idea that we will be great with the help

of grandeur. It is about the blindness of this grandeur and the grandeur of this

blindness. Both will end up costing us dearly, and the cost would be even

higher were it not for the grace of God in creating a recession."

The full table of contents ofDialogi 12/2012

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