LAS KELLIES

An Argentinian all girl punk group. 

They are talented, charming, and hilarious.

Here’s a small excerpt from an interview by The Original Sin

CONFESS US SOMETHING….WHAT’S THE MOST ROCK ‘N ROLL-THING YOU DID IN YOUR LIFE?

Everyday is a rocknroll extreme. We make doing the laundry look like a Suicide gig. Or did you want to hear about that time Betty’s dress fell off on stage in London?

ps-esta cancion la escucho cuando quiero decirle JODETE a toda la humanidad. 

@3 months ago with 5 notes
#las kellies #girl punk rock #riot girl #argentinian punk #girl power 

What does it feel like to be a woman on the street in a cultural environment that does nothing to discourage men from heckling, following, touching or disparaging women in public spaces?

Filmmaker Maggie Hadleigh-West believes that the streets are a War Zone for women. Armed with only a video-camera, she both demonstrates this experience and, by turning and confronting her abusers, reclaims space that was stolen from her.

War Zone is an excellent discussion starter for both men and women. It gives voice and expression to a disturbing daily aspect of being a woman in this society. It also gives men a direct personal feeling for what harassing behavior looks and feels like to a woman. Young men who may think such behavior is cool or funny will be forced to rethink their assumptions.

War Zone is a classroom, documentary edition of Maggie Hadleigh-West’s first film by the same title. Her film has been screened and applauded at scores of festivals in the U.S. and abroad. She has appeared to discuss the film on the Today Show, CBS News, 20/20, BBC, NPR, CNN, and Eye to Eye with Connie Chung.

@3 months ago with 8 notes
#women #feminism #respect #sexism #war zone #cat calling #catcalling #girl power 
At first I didn’t know what to graffiti as the wall was so big and the spray cans took time to get used to but Chu was a really good teacher. I wanted to do something about women’s rights in Afghanistan and the burqa, but in an ironic way and take the idea of the burqa away from how we are used to seeing it. But when I was working I had images of all the problems in Afghanistan and all the problems women have here. It was all in front of me, and I felt I wasn’t doing them justice. I worked on an image of a woman in burqa sitting on the ground and had made up a poem about her life. I did few others like her as I wanted to mix the modern style of my painting with their past life to show what kind of life women have in this age. Click on the picture to watch Shamsia in action! 

At first I didn’t know what to graffiti as the wall was so big and the spray cans took time to get used to but Chu was a really good teacher. I wanted to do something about women’s rights in Afghanistan and the burqa, but in an ironic way and take the idea of the burqa away from how we are used to seeing it.

But when I was working I had images of all the problems in Afghanistan and all the problems women have here. It was all in front of me, and I felt I wasn’t doing them justice. I worked on an image of a woman in burqa sitting on the ground and had made up a poem about her life. I did few others like her as I wanted to mix the modern style of my painting with their past life to show what kind of life women have in this age.

Click on the picture to watch Shamsia in action! 

@3 months ago with 13 notes
#afghan #feminism #girl power #graffiti #self #self expression #street art #street art #women #graffiti women 

The discussion of feminism and how it is taken and understood by people who do not identify with it, can be a lengthy and sometimes redundant exchange of words and ideas that continuously clash creating sudden conflict. Feminist Killjoys highlighted so thoroughly what those continuous clashes are, how they happen and why they continue to happen. There is indeed, something inherently unapologetic about taking on feminist politics; this unapologetic attitude is obstructed, misunderstood and pushed right back when it is explored by people who are not likely to understand what exactly is being argued or fought for. Therefore, as a feminist you have to explain bit by bit what feminism is and how simple it really is, but as a result feminism is being sold short of its powerful impact and historical importance. What happens when feminism is pushed as a side effect, rather than the cause of change?

I ask this question because of my own experiences of explaining feminism to family, friends, and strangers. I became an expert at naming social shifts not as feminist actions, then surprising my audience by saying, “that was feminism!” Oh, too late. I had already dislocated a political action from feminism, disenfranchised it from the revolutionary changes it has created. As a feminist, one has to also fight for people to understand what it exactly is, with no care of how violently your words are tossed aside.  I will borrow Sara Ahmed’s metaphor of the table. The table is located in different places, serves different purposes, carries complex identities that have to inhabit in harmony, or attempts of cordial understanding. My table became a battleground when I moved back to my parents’ home last year due to losing my job from being hospitalized for a month as a result to acquiring an infection after a surgery. I have learned to identify why the clashes in my family happen. My family is luckily open minded to having an open minded daughter. This seems to be a positive statement, and indeed, it is not a negative one but it is a limiting one. I have analyzed what this means for our relationship in the future and how seriously they will be able to take my life choices that are influenced by my feminist thought and actions. I read their responses to my opinions as: feminism is rebellion, rebellion is so passé, and it is simply a stage that will be shed out once real responsibilities set in, once it becomes too complicated to be a feminist this will all go away. But how can a phase that changes personal and global histories go away? How is social change something that an individual experiments with for a few years then abandons completely?

I do not want to constantly defend who I am and how it affects my feminism or how my feminism affects who I am, because it should not be questioned so often.  But alas, I am an idealist and when my idealism is met with resistance, it becomes problematical to gather my thoughts and express what I truly want people to know about feminism and my role in it. I still have yet to come up with a just feminist elevator speech, because what it means to me is always changing, growing and metamorphosing and increasingly becoming a part of me.

@6 months ago
#feminism #feminist killjoys #killjoys #girl power #self expression #latina feminist 
3 months ago
#las kellies #girl punk rock #riot girl #argentinian punk #girl power 
At first I didn’t know what to graffiti as the wall was so big and the spray cans took time to get used to but Chu was a really good teacher. I wanted to do something about women’s rights in Afghanistan and the burqa, but in an ironic way and take the idea of the burqa away from how we are used to seeing it. But when I was working I had images of all the problems in Afghanistan and all the problems women have here. It was all in front of me, and I felt I wasn’t doing them justice. I worked on an image of a woman in burqa sitting on the ground and had made up a poem about her life. I did few others like her as I wanted to mix the modern style of my painting with their past life to show what kind of life women have in this age. Click on the picture to watch Shamsia in action! 
3 months ago
#afghan #feminism #girl power #graffiti #self #self expression #street art #street art #women #graffiti women 
3 months ago
#women #feminism #respect #sexism #war zone #cat calling #catcalling #girl power 

The discussion of feminism and how it is taken and understood by people who do not identify with it, can be a lengthy and sometimes redundant exchange of words and ideas that continuously clash creating sudden conflict. Feminist Killjoys highlighted so thoroughly what those continuous clashes are, how they happen and why they continue to happen. There is indeed, something inherently unapologetic about taking on feminist politics; this unapologetic attitude is obstructed, misunderstood and pushed right back when it is explored by people who are not likely to understand what exactly is being argued or fought for. Therefore, as a feminist you have to explain bit by bit what feminism is and how simple it really is, but as a result feminism is being sold short of its powerful impact and historical importance. What happens when feminism is pushed as a side effect, rather than the cause of change?

I ask this question because of my own experiences of explaining feminism to family, friends, and strangers. I became an expert at naming social shifts not as feminist actions, then surprising my audience by saying, “that was feminism!” Oh, too late. I had already dislocated a political action from feminism, disenfranchised it from the revolutionary changes it has created. As a feminist, one has to also fight for people to understand what it exactly is, with no care of how violently your words are tossed aside.  I will borrow Sara Ahmed’s metaphor of the table. The table is located in different places, serves different purposes, carries complex identities that have to inhabit in harmony, or attempts of cordial understanding. My table became a battleground when I moved back to my parents’ home last year due to losing my job from being hospitalized for a month as a result to acquiring an infection after a surgery. I have learned to identify why the clashes in my family happen. My family is luckily open minded to having an open minded daughter. This seems to be a positive statement, and indeed, it is not a negative one but it is a limiting one. I have analyzed what this means for our relationship in the future and how seriously they will be able to take my life choices that are influenced by my feminist thought and actions. I read their responses to my opinions as: feminism is rebellion, rebellion is so passé, and it is simply a stage that will be shed out once real responsibilities set in, once it becomes too complicated to be a feminist this will all go away. But how can a phase that changes personal and global histories go away? How is social change something that an individual experiments with for a few years then abandons completely?

I do not want to constantly defend who I am and how it affects my feminism or how my feminism affects who I am, because it should not be questioned so often.  But alas, I am an idealist and when my idealism is met with resistance, it becomes problematical to gather my thoughts and express what I truly want people to know about feminism and my role in it. I still have yet to come up with a just feminist elevator speech, because what it means to me is always changing, growing and metamorphosing and increasingly becoming a part of me.

6 months ago
#feminism #feminist killjoys #killjoys #girl power #self expression #latina feminist