Missed the RHEA Gender Lecture Series? Here's our take!
Wie is er bang van gender?
We kicked off the series with the panel "Wie is er bang van gender?" as the inaugural Machteld De Metsenaere lecture. Inspired by the work of Judith Butler, four speakers entered into conversation about the anti-gender movement and potential counternarratives for this hateful ideology, moderated by Rhea-director Prof. Dr. Gily Coene.
First, literary Professor Inge Arteel delivered a splendid introduction sharing her insights on the work of Judith Butler. Next, Green Party politician Celia Groothedde spoke passionately about the struggle, but also the opportunities of political action for countering anti-gender rhetoric. LGBTQIA+-activists' Joppe de Campeneere (entrepreneur) and Rémy Bonny (Forbidden Colours) highlighted the challenges activists now face and the different ways to resist and get your message across. Finally Rylan Verlooy (CCINDLE, UA) contributed a fascinating evidence-based perspective, sharing insights they gained in their research on anti-gender movements and co-creating inclusive, intersectional, democratic spaces. With over 200 registrations, this was one of Rhea's biggest events in recent years, and even technical difficulties could not contain its success!
Our takeaway: see anti-gender ideology for what it is - a movement that has made an illusory enemy out of "gender" but is aimed at destabilizing democratic practices, and which we need to resist through research, politics and activism alike. We are not afraid of gender!
Decolonial Feminism and Palestine
The second lecture focused on Decolonial Feminism and the Palestinian Struggle for Justice, with Assistant Professor of Decolonial Approaches, Gender and Black Studies Dr. Zuleika Sheik (University of Utrecht) and Belgian-Palestinian journalist Fatena Al-Ghorra. The aim of the evening was to explore how alternative epistemic practices and alternative sources of knowledge, as present in feminist methodologies, can be used to understand and document the Palestinian struggle.
Fatena Al-Ghorra introduced the evening with a recitation of her poem "Eighteenth message: A cigarette between two deaths" written in her 2024 war diary while trapped in the Al-Quds hospital in Tel al-Hawa, Palestine. Dr. Sheik delivered a lecture on decolonial approaches to feminism, poetry, and how both can help us to understand the Palestinian struggle for land and justice, and contrasted this with practices of pinkwashing and coloniality. The clarity with which she did this provided the audience with a solid base to now further explore decolonial feminist practices, and connect her insights to their own work in feminist, decolonial and gender studies. We ended the evening with a response by Fatena Al-Ghorra, who connected Dr. Sheik's work to her own experiences and spoke of the conflicting role land plays in her life, and of the love and grief she felt for her country, through the example of her favourite fruit tree: "the jumaiz tree". She completed her emotional testimony with a call to action for students and a message of hope for the future, followed by singing a traditional Palestinian song.
The audience was visibly moved by this courageous testimony, which allowed them to really understand what alternative, decolonial knowledge production as explained by Dr. Sheik can look like. A night to remember!
The Women's March + Coming Soon: Docu-screening intersex & Pride!
Finally, Rhea and GreenTeam VUB paired up for the Women's March, and will do so again for Pride (stay tuned)! On Saturday the 8th of March (International Women's Day) we gathered at the VUB to paint signs with feminist messages to take with us to the March. From statistics about violence against women, to messages of trans inclusion and drawings inspired by Margaret Atwood's "the Handmaids Tale": everyone painted their own, unique colourful sign.
Around 20 students joined us for the March, the biggest one in years with 10.000 attendees!
Want more? You can still register for our last Gender lecture of the semester, Intersex, Beyond the Medical: Docu-screening and Sofa Talk!