”Mi lascia in pace, per favore”: la città di Roma

Uno dei posti dove mi è toccata vivere è Roma. Quella città vecchia e bellisima. A molti piace, a me invece... Di solito la chiamo una città per turisti e politici, e dico che per il resto della gente la cosa è più complicata.

I Studied This for Five Years. You Have an Opinion

One of my 'favourite' pastimes (as in, not) is when I find myself discussing something I know a lot about with a person who knows … less much about it. Being an anthropologist, 'something I know a lot about' will usually be along the lines of social and cultural determination, how do we define power, what are human rights really. That sort of thing. Gender is one of my favourite topics (for real), and so I spend a lot of time reading about it, thinking about it, researching, how do we understand female sexuality, how do we socially define women? I may not be the most expert in the whole wide world, but I dare say I do know my stuff.

Hvad ønsker vi for vores børn?

Konfirmationssæsonen er sat ind, og traditionen tro mødte vi alle sammen op for at fejre den unge konfirmand (i dette tilfælde af hankøn). Der var mad, og der var sang, og der var taler, og alt var fryd og gammen. Men så var der en af talerne. Et ældre familiemedlem holdt en tale, som afsluttedes med at ønske det unge menneske et langt og lykkeligt liv, og andre gode og rare ting, og så nogle ting mere: ”et godt og lukrativt arbejde og en sød og dejlig partnerske”. Med andre ord: du skal helst blive lige som alle os andre.

Gender equality. Right here, right now?

I originally wanted to post this on the 8th of March, being International Women's Day, but something known as 'real life' got in way. Anyway, I would like to grab the occasion to take a look at how all that feminism* and gender equality is working out. Right here, right now. I have talked about it before, in Spain, and I gave an overview of the situation on the streets of Denmark. But really, where are we?

Jolene, If He Wants to Go, You May Keep My Man

When talking intimate relationships, all sorts of stuff is relevant; who, what, how, when, is it even the right person? And much prose and music has been made about just about every aspect of all of this mess (no, really, it can be a mess, I'm sure you agree). One thing to worry about, or that people worry about whether they ought to or not, is: will that special someone stick around? Will somebody come and whisk away your someone?

Når i Danmark de dig tiltale

Sidste sommer skrev jeg et længere indlæg om, hvordan jeg oplevede street harassment i Spanien. Kort opsummeret for ikke spansk-læsende brokkede jeg mig langt væk over ikke at kunne læse en bog på stranden i fred, uden at den ene og den anden mandsperson spurgte til mit helbred, min alder, min civilstatus eller kommenterede andre menneskers bryststørrelse. Jeg erklærede også en intention om for fremtiden at give svar på tiltale, og fortælle d'herrer, hvad jeg mener om deres opførsel (også de damer når nødvendigt). Et halvt års tid og et nyt land senere finder jeg øjeblikket inde at vende tilbage til emnet og undersøge, om jeg har fulgt mit eget fortsæt, og om konteksten gør en forskel, for både kommentarer og reaktioner.

Blowjobs, Rape and Preeclampsia

Hello again! This time around in English, perhaps some of you will appreciate that ;)

Today the subject will be more serious, I'll be discussing science! And it's implications for society, and I'll even touch upon censorship of science. But let me start with a little story about how I got to find the particular piece of science that lead to all these reflections.

So, there I was, procrastinating and flipping through random web pages, when I came upon this article, ”Eight things you didn’t know you could do with human sperm” - fascinating reading, though I personally wouldn't eat anything cooked with sperm, and also... skin softener. Seriously? Just.. ew.

Escenas españolas

Antes que todo, perdonadme por tardar tanto en actualizar el blog. Mi pc personal ha decidido dejar el mundo de ordenadores funcionantes, y no he podido acceder a algo tan simple como blogspot.com. (En efecto, esto se publica desde un ordenador que apenas se le ve la pantalla.. espero volver pronto con mejores condiciones de trabajo!)

De todas formas, esta vez trataré un tema que superficialmente puede parecer más puntual, pero aún así pienso que tiene una influencia más alargada y por eso también una cierta importancia.

Empecemos con algunos escenarios que he visto e vivido durante mi año en Barcelona y viajando por España.

Men wink at me

And it annoys me. Immensely. Except when it sends my heart racing and I smile like an idiot for the rest of the day. And perhaps even then. Most of the time it annoys me.

Today I shall philosopher a bit about winking. Why do people do it, what do they want to tell the world, and why do winkers generally seem to be men?

Now, much has been written about this topic (just try googling it), and I have done a bit of research besides my involuntary fieldwork (being female in Barcelona). Below I will present to you some of my most important findings.

First, the statistics, after the jump.