I have encountered many crossroads when wanting to make a complaint.
I feel like two people:
The first one thinks it will be a lot of wear and tear, both physically and mentally.
It fills out forms, makes calls in two or three different languages, and explains repeatedly. It seems to be very exhausting. In the end, I think it’s better not to do anything.
Entering the system just the idea of entering the system becomes so exhausting that there is no point in doing it. I feel anxious about entering that Kafkaesque world full of dead-end paperwork.
The second one, motivated by reading Sara Ahmed’s book, thinks that making the complaint and taking it to its ultimate consequences is exhausting but satisfying. At least I now know the system’s methods for wanting to stop me. I can already name them (nodding, circularity, blanking), which makes me able to overcome them.
Also, if no one complains, nothing will happen, but if, little by little, everyone starts complaining, things may take a different turn. The most important thing is that I know that I am not the only person in the middle of this. Unfortunately, many have suffered some violence, which perhaps has led to a complaint process. For better or worse, there are many of us, and we can help each other in the process.
Questioning the idea of complaining about how to face that big wall, that door, made me want to share it with my friends, how they had suffered some violence that they had complained about and how the institution responded to them. Also, what they perceive when they are inside the institution.
I talked to them and explained what the book I was reading was about. We set up a meeting and spoke about these types of situations. I was amazed at how the system consumes all of us, but I was even more surprised at how they continue to fight within the system. It is something that we cannot avoid, but we can accompany each other, listen to each other, be the feminist ear. And try to change the system, some from the inside and others from the outside.
“Not complaining becomes a virtue, a kind of calm patience, a positive outlook, as if waiting is what would make something fine, as if the best way to approach a wrong is to wait for it to right itself. “(Ahmed 2021: 76)
I identify with this quote from Ahmed because I have often decided not to complain, and when talking to my friends, I have realized that we are very used to enduring and staying in this “calm patience.” I think we are changing that, little by little.
The next post will be written in the first person about some experiences that some of my female friends experienced.
“In trying to get a complaint through the system, you end up taking on a role to modify the system” (Ahmed 2021: 53)
I wanto to belived that sentece of Ahmed, I want to modify the system.
Why would anyone compare a person to the character King Kong?
Why has racism been so present in Colombian elections in the last months?
What is the problem with the color of our skin?
“Francia Márquez is an Afro-Colombian human-rights and environmental activist in Colombia. In August 2020, Márquez announced her candidacy in the 2022 Colombian Presidential Elections. She is the first Colombian woman of African descent to run for the presidency. Márquez’s coalition is Pacto Histórico. In her campaign, she has advocated for women, Afro-Colombians, and indigenous communities, who have been largely excluded from Colombian politics. After a great run in the primaries, Francia became the Vice Presidential candidate for Gustavo Petro’s presidential campaign.”1
And yes, she has been compared to King Kong.
Twitter MarbelleTwitter Gustavo Bolívar
Marbelle, a famous Colombian singer and actress, used her Twitter to launch this racist media attack a couple of days ago. And I cannot understand why this is still happening. Statements like Marbelle’s only want to spread hate and intolerance through the internet. And make me also reflect in why are usually women who attack women. Where does so much hatred and envy for destroying each other come from? Without any answer, I only wanted to use this platform to complain about this nonsense attack and to share my personal opinion about Francia Marquez (even if I am not going to be able to vote from Germany this year):
She is probably the best option Colombia has to see a fundamental change in the politics of violence and corruption we are used to living in.
A reflexion on the harsh realities, mechanisms & driving forces
of discrimination & sexual assault especially within academia.
INTRODUCTION
In this paper the topics analysed are those of discrimination, sexual assault, and the mechanisms and institutions around them.While discrimination is a prejudicial treatment of a human in reference to a certain socio-physical trait; sexual assault is a non-consensual act that usually involves coercing a human into sexual activity. Both practices are irreversible and psychologically damaging to the victims. However, these traumatizing and unjustifiable behaviours are awfully recurrent among us humans.
Why are discrimination and sexual assault such common phenomena, especially within Academia; and what happens after their occurrence?
The subjects at hand will be tackled through a parallel analysis of three distinct works. Michaela Coel’s 2020 series ‘I may destroy you’, Sara Ahmed’s 2021 book ‘Complaint!’, and Karine Tuil’s 2019 book ‘Les choses humaines’.
The approach consists of linking Coel’s introspection on rape and racism along with Ahmed’s scrutiny of academic institutions with Karine Tuil’s thorough depiction of the ‘mechanisms’ of Justice.
PARALLEL ANALYSIS OF A TRIPTYCH
With her TV series ‘I may destroy you’, Coel shook small screen viewers by boldly tackling rape, racism, and institutional agencies around them. This artwork is an autobiographical fiction that challenges the status quo and faces TV viewers with touchy subjects that were long avoided on the small screen. Coel’s introspection on rape is thus a daring endeavour. Her choice to present these topics on screen was not of an easy task since they are based on events she had experienced. Yet she did it so beautifully throughout the 12 episodes of 20 mins each. Her work is a cry to make people see what they are avoiding.Much like Ahmed and Tuil did with their books; these three women chose to publish, broadcast, and be vocal about the awfully traumatic experiences of sexual assault and discrimination.
The prevalence of sexual assault & the normalisation of rape in society.
The three works at hand show us how prevalent and common sexual assault is. For instance, in Coel’s series the narrative is inspired from real life events that personally happened to her. And Ahmed’s book is a collection of heart wrecking stories that occurred in educational institutions around the world. Despite Tuil’s book being a fictional novel set in Paris France, some parts of it are openly inspired by the famous 2016 Stanford student rape case: ‘People v. Turner’. Sadly, all these testimonies are as real as it gets and occur more often than we imagine.
With the protagonist, her friends & acquaintances, Michaela Coel creates a vibrantly diverse spectrum of multidimensional characters, who all have experienced some sort of sexual assault or discrimination, and in some instances have also been the offenders. The intensified flow of information and traumatic stories sets viewers on the edge. It also uncovers the bitter reality that anyone is prone to be a victim of sexual assault and discrimination, and anyone is also capable of doing it.
Throughout Ahmed’s book one can see how easily and organically borders between public and private get crossed. How blurred together academic and intimate lines get. One complainer tells Ahmed the following:
“[…] so at the time, and especially because it happened so gradually, I didn’t really read that what he was moving through was actually a grooming process, trying to see how far he could push that boundary. It moved from on campus to slightly off campus, to his house, to dinners out.” Complaint! p.112.
It is in this grey ‘academic’ sphere that people gradually tend to abuse and get abused. Through this intimate ‘educational’ proximity, the notion of consent gets lost between the blurred lines of academic complicity and authority. Sexual assault becomes somewhat of an unspoken statement of power and dominance amongst familiar academic relationships.
When sexual relationships between members from different bodies of the academic hierarchy are somewhat normalized what happens when something goes wrong? Does the banalisation of sex, banalize sexual assault or as per Sara Ahmed: “enable it”? And if so, does this disable any form of complaint over sexual assault?
“Hierarchies can make handling harassment hard, which is how hierarchies enable harassment.” Complaint! p.120.
Remembrance & rape.
When it comes to sexual assault, most victims go through the painful process of ‘reliving the trauma’ repeatedly, especially if they want to file a complaint. This explains why so many complaints are unpronounced, unvoiced, and sometimes unheard. They are so because the victims find it very difficult to go through the process complaining. Because it requires one to remember the events of the assault which means reliving the trauma. And when institutions ask victims for ‘proof’, they forcibly re-immerse complainers back into traumatic experiences. The notion of remembrance and traumatizing memory is a common theme amongst the three works studied.
The introspective dive into the protagonist’s memory sets the pace of Michaela Coel’s series. Arabella is slowly picking up bits of memories, visions, scents of the night during which she got assaulted. The young woman is struggling to bind together pieces of her fragmented memory. She is battling between figuring out what has happened to her and staying in this limbo state of confused ignorance. And when it settles in it’s so sad and so painful to watch.
Picking up the pieces of traumatic experiences is a big mountain to climb. With every description with every flashback, complainers relive the trauma. They not only have to relive traumatic experiences but also, they’re faced with having to prove them in front of demanding ‘truth seeking’ institutions. The agonizing struggle of one having to prove their version of events is meticulously depicted in Karine Tuil’s book. This fictional novel is set in Paris around rape accusations made by an 18-year-old middle class girl: Mila Wizman against a 21-year-old upper class Stanford student Alexandre Farel. The book is a sort of an arm-wrestling match between two diametrically opposed perceptions of the same occurrence. The psychological assessment of Mila Wizman during the trial in chapter 7 shows the impact of the assault on the young girl and how hard it has been for her to be expressive about it:
“She sometimes has a hard time exteriorising her feelings, which explains the psychological collapse in reaction to the events of which she has been victim. […] She developed a very severe anxio-depressive syndrome, punctuated with anxiety attacks; she gained weight” Les choses humaines p.240.
“Elle a parfois du mal à exprimer et à extérioriser ses sentiments, ce qui explique l’effondrement psychologique réactionnel aux faits dont elle a été victime. […] Elle a développé un syndrome anxio-dépressif très sévère, ponctué de crises d’angoisse ; elle a pris du poids.” Les choses humaines p.240.
The impotence of institutions.
There is something undoubtably wrong and perverse about the mechanisms of ‘prestigious’ institutions, the values they cherish, their hierarchies and their ways of addressing (or not) discrimination and harassment. Academia, being part of these high-status establishments, is sometimes mistaken for what it truly isn’t. Just like sports, academia has always been an exclusive arena. Whilst in sports the benchmark is a certain physical ability or capability. In the latter being ‘educated’ and pertaining to a certain intellectual tribe is the prerequisite. However, academics proactively participate in the perfected art of burying their heads in the sand and ignoring the mammoth in the room. Academic institutions are torn (or seem to be) between the pretence of a renewed all-inclusive diverse image and what they historically and prestigiously stand for. This paradoxical conflict of interests between inclusivity and exclusivity is hypocritical.
“This is how turning equality into a positive agenda can become part of an institutional agenda.” Complaint! p.65.
Complaining about the impotence of institutions and their hypocrisy is asking for some sort of an academic revolution; a drastic change in the core values that constitute the essence of academia. Educational institutions are still very reluctant to endeavour in the process of rigorous effective, well implemented and meticulously followed up equality reforms. Several excerpts from Ahmed’s book show how flagrant this reluctance is:
“She also described diversity work as a “banging your head against the brick wall job,” suggesting the ease with which diversity travels has something to do with the difficulty of getting through.” Complaint! p.54.
“And that is a good way of describing what complaint often feels like: so much work not to get very far.” Complaint! p.58.
“We need to learn from this: the people who head equality initiatives can be the same people who try to suppress complaints, often by threatening and silencing those who make them.” Complaint! p.64.
In addition, in our hyper capitalistic world, academia is gravitating towards a corporation like structure. Academics are feeling less powerful and more dependent on funding and investors. This makes money and investments the agent driving all values. Funding means power, and since money is agglomerated with a handful of decision-making individuals, the shape of academia is thus in the hands of a restrained number of high-profile people. These individuals pertain to tribes that are used to a certain preferential treatment and have no interest in changing the way the world is already established. Therefore, expecting equality initiatives within academia to be fruitful and rightfully implemented is some sort of wishful thinking. We ought to start looking at academia the way it sadly is an enterprise not an inclusive charity. It has become a results-demanding economic body, an organism that invests in diversity initiatives just to create an illusion of equality.
On racism, tribalism, & the mechanisms of truths.
“wir machen die Warheit”
With all the impotent trials regarding sexual assault and the abuse of power around the world, be it in academia or outside of it, one cannot but question the system itself and the dysfunctional way society chooses to deal with such matters. The ongoing masquerade that is the Epstein, Maxwell, Prince Andrew case perfectly portrays how awfully wrongful prestigious institutions are. The mutism of institutions when it comes to certain crimes committed by the mighty powerful is just abominable to follow up with.
When pictures become irrelevant. Who makes the truth?
When testimonies are rendered to null. Who says the truth?
When people with power get away with it. Where is the truth?
“The story of what happens to a complaint is often the same story complaints are about: who controls the situation, who controls the narrative.” Complaint! p.128.
As it was mentioned earlier, control is within the hands of the rich and powerful. Money is the main agent in power relation nowadays. One can use Noam Chomsky’s ‘Manufacturing consent’ as an analogy in terms of discrimination and harassment. Institutions manufacture consent and truths that less powerful individuals are rendered incapable to contest. Institutions are not in the position to understand nor protect people at the lower end of hierarchies. This dynamic is flagrant in Tuil’s book, through it all one can see how members of the elite are capable of bending and distorting the truth in their own favour. They form a narrative out of the madness that is beneficial to them. The socio-economic & ethnic background of an offender is an incredible factor affecting the outcome of their sentence in the eyes of ‘justice’.
“It can be difficult from the outside to identify who is bullying because bullies often represent themselves as bullied.” Complaint! p.150.
At some point in the series Coel brings up the topic of racial agencies in dating. Specifically, when she talks about how appalling it is when her white female friends nonchalantly say that they prefer dating black men over white males because of the way black men treat them. This brings up the notion of preferential treatment in terms of race and how it still is an agent in human relationships. This brings us to the unanswerable question: Can we ever do or undo race judgement and discrimination?
Ahmed’s book shows us that there is “[…] that idea in people’s heads that we’ve done race, when we very clearly haven’t done race.” Complaint! p.60.
Tribalism in academia is real, the discrimination is real and so is the harassment. A specific set of people have the edge. And believing that it is becoming a unconditionally welcoming ground of diversity and inclusion is expecting too much out of it.
Looking at academia with a high regard is the wrong way of looking. One should actually focus on the rotting structures supporting the beautifully crafted facades on display.
CONCLUSION
This reflexion not only showed how critically linked power, discrimination and sexual assault are, but also how extremely common this type of abuse is. The recurrence of these damaging phenomena within academic and non-academic environments is bound to the hierarchies of institutions and the power relations these structures behold.
Power legitimises sexual assault, since notions like truth and consent can be easily fabricated or manufactured by those ‘lucky’ few with the adequate set of controlling strings. It is time to call out prestigious institutions on their wrongdoings. Complaining about the horrors of discrimination and harassment within academia is a big step forward. Now more than ever people are being vocal about their traumatic experiences and resorting to ‘unconventional’ ways to share with the world their version of events.
‘[…] or it is not true that the work of man is finished,that we have nothing more to do in the world,
that we are just parasites in this world,
that it is enough for us to walk in step with the world,
for the work of man is only just beginning and it remains to conquer all,
the violence entrenched in the recess of his passion,
and no race holds a monopoly of beauty, of intelligence, of strength, and,
there is a place for all at the Rendezvous of Victory.’
A close friend called me one afternoon a few weeks ago and asked me how and what I was doing. “I am doing great. I am currently taking pictures of benches in the train station”, I answered. This happened right after I read Chapter 4 of Sara Ahmed’s »Complaint!« in which she addresses the issue of power structures, more specifically occupied spaces. With the following quote, she primarily referred to mental spaces and invisible institutional structures that exclude and discriminate against people with certain characteristics:
“When spaces are intended for specific purposes, they have bodies in mind.”
(Ahmed 2021: 137)
However, it reminded me of classical music being played loudly in train stations during the night, spikes on balustrades and benches divided by arm rests. Those are all types and mechanisms of »Hostile architecture«. Hostile architecture describes design practices that shape public spaces to allow only the use intended by the owner (cf. Hu 2019). Through this, “a subtle expression of social division through urban design, mostly associated with the homeless” is transported (Karthik & Sanjiv 2020: 247). More specifically, hostile architecture purposefully discriminates, especially against minorities.
»Hidden Hostility« by Theresa Güldenberg & Magdalena Meißner
The art project »Hidden Hostility« by Theresa Güldenberg & Magdalena Meißner aims to create awareness for invisible design strategies by directing the view of people on the pedestrian zone on examples of hostile architecture. To achieve this, the artists selected archetypal examples of hostile architecture expressed in benches and seats and dealt with them in various installative ways. (cf. Güldenberg & Meißner 2022)
Hidden Hostility (Güldenberg & Meißner 2022)
For instance, they have wrapped various materials, like barrier tape, foam material and metal wire around public seating facilities. Watching the wrapped benches, it becomes visible how either gaps or arm rests ensure that nobody can lie down or even linger comfortably for a longer time.
In addition to using different materials, the artists also employ statements, graphics and questions to draw attention to the mechanisms of discrimination and control inherent in the public furniture presented. Metal signs, which are attached to benches and seats by Theresa Güldenberg & Magdalena Meißner, play a particularly central role in conveying these statements. Phrases like “Der Feind ist der Freund dieser Bank” (Engl: The enemy is the friend of this bench) (Güldenberg & Meißner 2022) and illustrations, like the ones on the pictures below, express criticism and stimulate the pedestrians to think.
In the various installations of “Hidden Hostility,” the two artists repeatedly refer to a central point that constitutes the core of their work. Thus, they state that hostile architecture serves social control, unnoticed but aggressively expressing political power in public space. (cf. Güldenberg & Meißner 2022)
»Hidden Hostility« and »Complaint!«
In addressing design mechanisms that are politically used to discriminate against minorities, the artists take up what Sara Ahmed refers to as invisible power structures. The key point here is that these mechanisms usually remain hidden. In the case of hostilely designed seating in public spaces, this means: as long as you don’t have to spend a longer time in public, or even sleep there, you won’t be irritated by uncomfortable benches. Invisible power structures define whose feelings matter more (cf. Ahmed 2021: 169) – the feelings of supposedly “normal citizens” are more important than those of homeless people.
On closer examination of hostile architecture against the background of this argument, it becomes clear: public space becomes an occupied space in Ahmed’s sense through hostile design mechanisms. As Sara Ahmed puts it: “you notice a structure when it stops you from getting somewhere or from being somewhere: it can hit you” (Ahmed 2021: 141). This means that even if our society is claimed to be social and solidar, it systematically discriminates against homeless people.
The way Theresa Güldenberg and Magdalena Meißner approach this fact in their installations can be understood in itself as an act and expression of a complaint. In particular, the metal plaques with messages are an expression of complaint in Ahmed’s sense and, at the same time, have an activist character due to the aim of making people think. However, the artists do not complain about a specific institution and thus not to a specific person in charge, but address society as a whole. With their work, they try to invite people to hear their thoughts, pick them up and turn them into other complaints.
Reflection on hostile architecture
Understanding both, the art project »Hidden Hostility« and Sara Ahmed’s book »Complaint!« as an invitation for reflection, I took pictures of hostile architecture in my regular surroundings, as mentioned in the beginning.
In these pictures you see a train station that I frequently use – a train station that is equipped with divided benches and that plays loud music in the hallways the whole night. A train station that claims to be part of public transport, but in fact excludes people who can not afford to take trains, but intend to use it as a shelter in the public. Feel free to do the same and scan your environment with a critical eye, being conscious that hostile architecture turns our environment into an occupied space. And feel free to complain about it in a creative way.
References:
Ahmed, Sara. Complaint!, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2021.
Karthik, Chadalavada; Sanjiv, E. Sripadma. Defensive architecture – A design against humanity. In: International journal of advance research, ideas and innovations in technology, 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1).
It was the Summer of 2020. Sad girl summer. I had been saving over a year to update my old digital camera. I could not really afford a new one but I had seen some pretty decent ones over at Ebay Kleinanzeigen.
When I first found that website, it blew my mind. In Colombia that would never work. There‘s also ebay there and other auction websites but all transactions always go thru a middleman that gets the money and does not give it to the seller unless he delivers the goods. This classified ads website, where people list items to sell and then actually post them after getting the money without big brother micromanaging every transaction can only work in the global north, where people actually follow thru, or so I thought.
After a few days of looking I found a good camera that was a bit cheaper than the rest of the cameras offered, not that much cheaper so I thought nothing of it. First red flag. The seller looked legitimate. Account created 5 years before, good reviews, several items posted. I contacted him asking about the camera. He said he lived in Leipzig and could post the camera to me, no problem. Signed Dirk Constantin. We even spoke briefly on the phone and he sounded like any other guy. He accepted Paypal but only with this option called friends and family which is like a direct deposit. Friends and Family has no purchase insurance. Second red flag. I transferred him the money and 5 min later he took down all other items he had for sale. Final red flag. I started panicking and realized I had made a huge mistake. I tried calling him again. No response. I wrote to him again. No response. The next day I knew i was not going to get the camera and had wasted my savings on the most stupid con imaginable.
I had to tell someone. I reported him to the admins at ebay and wanted to get his personal data if possible but they told me that information was confidential. I called the bank and they said they couldnt reverse the transaction. I called pay pal and told me to contact the bank which I did, again, and they said I should call pay pal. The most boring game of ping pong.
My German is very basic so having to make these phone calls and explaining my situation to the incorporeal corporate rep on the other side of the line was quite an ordeal in itself. I would just sometimes default to one of the questions I dread asking the most: Do you speak english? I could just hear so many „Wie Bitte?“ In a single day.
My wife advised me to go talk to the police. They do their job here in Germany, she said. I went to the police station behind the atrium and had to wait a few minutes until someone came to the front desk. I once again explained my situation and she told me to wait in a little room that had a window to the street. This was such an odd room. I inspected it thoroughly as I was left there waiting for 45 minutes. I read all the posters on the walls, checked the wanted list on a cork board, looked through some outdated magazines with scribbles on them. I imagined other people waiting in that same room before me. Also bored, also waiting, also in for a little disappointment.
A police officer arrived in the room and asked me what my problem was. I explained everything again the best I could. As the story progressed he looked more and more annoyed. He lowball told me I was just too gullible and that it was basically my fault for not being safe when buying things over the internet. Fair but not really what I was expecting. The officer then went away for a few minutes and when he came back he handed me a letter with the Bundespolizei letterhead and told me to write down all of the details i had just told him. He said I could just bring the written statement the next day. I was cleaning my desk drawer last week and found the letter, still unfinished.
Sarah Ahmed writes in Complaint! „Complaints often end up in filing cabinets or dustbins“. I just didn’t realize that sometimes they belong to the person complaining.
I would like to share this poem from poetess Adrienne Rich, whom I discovered while researching about the artist I chose for the essay writing for this course, Alfredo Jaar. He takes her as inspiration for titling one of his exhibition´s at Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, Finland in 2014.
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve, (2007) Adrienne Rich
Saw you walking barefoot taking a long look at the new moon’s eyelid
later spread sleep-fallen, naked in your dark hair asleep but not oblivious of the unslept unsleeping elsewhere
Tonight I think no poetry will serve
Syntax of rendition:
verb pilots the plane adverb modifies action
verb force-feeds noun submerges the subject noun is choking verb disgraced goes on doing
now diagram the sentence
Adrienne Rich, Baltimore USA (1929-2012), Poetess, writer and activist
When a person is deprived for their rights, is art and poetry ways in which is possible to mend irreparable wounds?
