Meka Jean. Photo by Ali Ghandtschi
Is the future female? Feminist institute director Ines Kappert would argue not – during the panel of the same name on Sunday, she argued that the slogan was a type of “kitsch” which proliferates the faulty idea that all women are inherently more good or valuable than men. Kitsch or not, the slogan and its associated democratic manifestations resulted in an interesting, if slightly nebulous, discussion of the role and rights of women. Author Laurie Penny was especially outspoken on issues of the alt-right and ownership of female bodies, claiming that the far right is “obsessed with sex.”
Fellow panelists (and author/activists) Sharon Dodua Otoo and Sadaf Saaz discussed everything from “militant masculinization,” which Kappert traces back to the 1999 movie Fight Club, to black feminism. Quite a range for an hour of discussion. So is the future, in fact, female? Can the divided factions of feminism unite for a better world? Perhaps some form of conclusion was best reached by Penny, who ended the hour by saying, “I would like to bring about a world in which gender is less painful for everyone.”
To end out our democracy-packed weekend, we, along with six panelists, asked ourselves, “What can art do?” A lot, it would seem, judging from the rousing performance given by Iowa-based artist Meka Jean. After an hour of discussing the politics and products of artistic expression, Jean performed several songs from her rap album, Ivy League Ratchet. It was loud and insanely aggressive and angry and passionate. It was, by far, our favorite moment of the weekend.
Elderly German women clutched their ears fearfully; younger attendees screamed, “Fuck white supremacy!” at Jean’s prompting. One fellow artist, Eliot Weinberger, stormed out mid-performance, telling Jean that she was a “phony” from the University of Iowa. Weinberger later apologized, but the erasure inherent in his words took a toll on the performer. A fellow panelist, A.L. Steiner, stood up mid-song and hugged the emotional Jean. We couldn’t think of a better show of solidarity to round out this weekend of democratic union.