Aistė Diržiūtė7/18/2023 Aistė Diržiūtė you are best known for the role of Austė in The Summer of Sangaile (Lithuanian: Sangailė or Sangailės Vasara) by Alanté Kavaïté for which you became the first Lithuanian actress named as one of the European Shooting Stars, alongside actors such as Maisie Williams and Moe Dunford at Berlin Film Festival in 2015. You also won the award for Best Lithuanian Actress at the Vilnius International Film Festival and was nominated for both Sidabrinė gervė and KINFO awards. How that made you feel and what attracted you to the role of Austė? It wasn’t my awards, it was our awards. Without director, crew and of course Julija, I couldn’t have done anything. Maybe because from the very beginning we were all focused on the idea and how to spread it, we didn’t think about a journey the film could have, so everything what came after was a big and pleasant surprise. Though my most important award is people who decided to come out, to change their lives, find and accept themselves after watching The Summer of Sangaile. When I was invited for the first audition for Auste, I was so impressed by the amount of similarities I have with her as a character. My mother is a sewer, so I knew how to sew, favourite Auste’s song was my entry’s exam to the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre song etc. On the second round I’ve met with Julija, who is actually my very very very old and dear friend. We know each other since we were 13 years old, we were very close friends and when we reached 16-17 we just stopped talking, nothing happened, just our lives have changed, and we’ve met in audition room after not seeing each other for around 3 years. This part was crazy and it was more or less clear that a destiny brought us there to make that film together. After a film we became inseparable. Being more particular about Auste, I was really impressed by that kind of a character, positive and happy lesbian character, who knows herself, who is confident and who is accepted by her family (mother). Usually LGBT characters are shown in more melancholic way and I think we need to show more positive stories to inspire the ones who are still fighting with their sexuality to accept themselves and enjoy the love. Can you tell us where your inspiration, knowledge, perhaps even experiences came from for playing Austė? For sure there was a good guidance by the director Kavaïté, however the way you portrayed the role it depended solely on you. Me, Julija and Alante (director) became friends, we were spending a lot of time together, talking a lot and just enjoying our time together even before shootings. That helped us a lot during all the process, we were friends who built a world together and lived in it for some months. As it was my first ever role in a film, I was following Alante and absorbing every word of her. Though all of her guidance worked with everything what I’ve had in mind about Auste. First of all I’ve found an animal of her which is fox. Auste is cute and charming fox and sometimes a Teddy Bear, when you really need it. I am a ‘giver’ one by myself, so just needed to work on that part of mine even more and be very open, loving and sincere. For the lesbian sex part of the character, I watched The L World and talked a loooot with my lesbian friends, because we wanted to make it as real and beautiful as possible. To get the flow for the character I watched many films from 40s, 50s and 60s and listened a lot of music from that time. And I was madly in love at that time, that probably helped too : )) Do you think that sexual orientation of the actresses and/or director matter in making a lesbian film? I know acting is acting and good acting shouldn't influence the performance of which ever form of love portrays, however do you think that a certain experience adds to the quality of the role portrayed? Do you think film art should be progressive and portray certain values and attitudes (i.e. portraying more diverse, inclusive, equal, free, democratic relationships and world)? I don’t think that sexual orientation or gender matters. I do believe that everyone of us is bisexual, some more into heterosexual part, some more into homosexual part, some equally in love in both genders. I don’t think that I would play a lesbian character better if I would have had more experience with girls, after all, love is what matters. It would be worse if I would have never been in love before the shooting. I think film or in general art shouldn’t portray certain values or attitudes just because it’s progressive or trendy now, you should want to talk about it and care a lot about that matter. However nowadays I see another a bit dangerous thing when many people try to talk about it just because it’s “not good not to talk about it” without really caring, believing and changing the world. I read that after playing Austė you, your co-star Julija Steponaitytė (who played Sangailė) and director Kavaïté got many love letters, how that made you feel? Surprised and inspired! I could have never imagine how many people from all over the world would be inspired by the film and get connected with characters and the story. The most amazing thing is that even though the film was released in 2015, we still get so many beautiful letters from people who got inspired by The Summer of Sangaile! People’s love is the greatest award. In 2016 you stared in Kings' Shift directed by Ignas Miškinis and the short film Back directed by Gabrielė Urbonaitė. Both films premiered at the Vilnius International Film Festival. Can you tell us about those roles and alongside the role in The Pagan King (2018)? Julija, Alina and Lauga. All of them are very different. Julija in Kings’ Shift is typical up and coming millenial, who doesn’t care much about anything but fun and easy life. She works at the private hospital as a nurse, just because her grandpa was an important doctor etc. That kind of a person, who is not bad by herself, she just grew up in particular circumstances. She has everything, but in fact doesn’t have anything. She is lost and she doesn’t even understand that. Alina in Back was more or less a small and joyful cameo in my friend and really good director Gabriele Urbonaite film. Lauga in The Pagan King is my first ever lead female role in English were I worked with such an amazing actors like Edvin Endre and James Bloor. Lauga is a pagan girl who became queen and managed to remain that wild spirit. I had to learn how to throw knives, fight with swords, ride a horse, hold grass snakes in my hands, get well super fast with dogs and of course how to love and trust without any doubt. Julija, Alina and Lauga were such a pleasure and joy to live in! You played Marina Malich in Kharms by Ivan Bolotnikov (2017). How come you decided for that role and you played Joana in Ashes in the Snow (so called Baltic Schindler's List, 2018) based on the best-selling book Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. Both films are about the times of the Soviet Union. Marina came to me out of the blue. Casting director just wrote me on Facebook and asked if I can speak in Russian, I said “no, but I can learn” and that’s how it all started. Beautiful journey of Marina, from shootings in Saint Petersburg to the premiere in Shanghai IFF. One friend was helping me with a language, another friend was translating a small book of Marina memoirs from Russian to Lithuanian and all people around were just supporting me a lot. I fell in love with her from the first sentences, such a character! Such a story! Filmmakers should make a film based on her life, seriously! I would always remember my days off and shooting days in Saint Petersburg, walking around city, museums and exploring everything through Marina’s eyes. Ashes in the Snow is a very special film for me too. It all started with readings of script some years before shootings and ended up with a beautiful story based on a great book. Joana is that sparkle of joy and happiness in a scary, sad and tough world in Siberia that reminds you about the bright days before the war. What is your biggest inspiration (film or not film career wise) and what are your plans for the future projects? I watched an interview where you mention actresses like Merly Streep, Irene Jacob, Tilda Swinton and Ingrid Bergman as your biggest inspiration. Love. In all possible and impossible ways and senses, love is my biggest inspiration. Love for people, world, life and amor. Actors, books, films, art, fights for good, it all melts in the power of love. I’m very superstitious and never talk about the future, because I know very well from my own experience, if I say something, that usually doesn’t happen or happens in a bit different way. So let’s say, we’ll see.
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Lara, I've known you for a very long time, since my childhood, when we were at primary school (1977–1980). Then I went to another primary school and we only met again when I was at university (1992). After that we haven't seen each other since 1994 until »now«. Can you tell us what you studied in Ljubljana and why you decided to continue your studies abroad? And how did you go from working for Gucci, Costume National, Lanvin and Julien Macdonald to designing your own label? Can you tell us more about that? Lara, poznam te že zelo dolgo, še iz otroških let, ko sva bili v osnovni šoli (1977–1980). Potem sem šla na drugo osnovno šolo in sva se ponovno začeli družiti šele v študentskih letih (1992). Potem se nisva več srečali od 1994 do »danes«. Nam poveš kaj si študirala v Ljubljani in zakaj si se odločila, da nadaljuješ študij v tujini? In kako si prišla od tega, da si delala za Gucci, Costume National, Lanvin and Julien Macdonald in se nato odločila, da oblikuješ svojo lastno znamko. Nam poveš kaj več tudi o tem? I studied industrial design at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. I went to London to study at the Royal College of Art, specialising in jewellery and metalwork. I came into contact with Gucci because they noticed my headpiece jewellery and the editor of Vogue noticed it as well and published it, which was my first media breakthrough – that's how I became known and started working at the invitation of various mentioned companies, but I've always designed my own jewellery. V Ljubljani sem študirala industrijsko oblikovanje na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje. V London sem šla študirati na Royal College of Art, smer oblikovanje kovin in nakita. Do stika s podjetjem Gucci sem prišla tako, da so opazili moj nakit za na glavo head pieces in kar je opazila tudi urednica Vogue ter ga objavila, kar je bil moj prvi medijski preboj – na tak način sem postala prepoznavna in na povabilo različnih podjetij sem začela sodelovati z njimi, vendar sem vedno oblikovala svoj nakit. When you were studying in Ljubljana, you focused mainly on jewellery design. In one of the interviews (2022), you said that if you hadn't designed furniture, you could have designed cakes or arranged flowers. I've also known you as a person who has always had a versatile talent for design. I know that when you were a student you designed and sewed your own clothes, you crocheted, you cut our hair and did our make-up. I also remember you telling me several times that every woman can be beautiful if she is fashionable. If I look at it that way, at that time you were mainly interested in beautifying and enriching a woman in different ways. That's why it seems to have been such a natural decision to chose design jewellery as a profession – what was your biggest inspiration back then and what do you think about it now? Ko si bila še na študiju v Ljubljani, si se usmerila predvsem v oblikovanje nakita. V intervjuju leta 2022 pa si dejala, da če se ne bi ukvarjala z oblikovanjem pohištva, bi lahko oblikovala torte ali aranžirala cvetje. Tudi jaz te poznam kot osebo, ki si bila od nekdaj vsestransko talentirana za oblikovanje. Vem, da si si v času študija sama oblikovala in šivala obleke, kvačkala ali da si nas znala tudi modno postriči in naličiti in kar si tudi omenila v enem od intervjujev. Spomnim se tudi, da si mi večkrat rekla, da je lahko prav vsaka ženska lepa, če se modno uredi. Če tako pogledam, te je v tistem času zanimalo predvsem olepšati in obogatiti žensko na različne načine. Zato se zdi, da je bila odločitev za oblikovanje nakita tako naravna – kaj je bil takrat tvoj največji navdih in kaj meniš o vsem tem danes? I've been always interested in different kinds of design, from graphics, fashion, architecture and jewellery. At that time I felt that jewellery as a 3D object design was a kind of mixture or medium of all of the above, but since jewellery design is limited to the body, which can only have certain shapes and weights, I started to focus on designing larger objects that can be put in different spaces and configurations that jewellery doesn't allow – that's how I got into furniture design. Od nekaj so me zanimale različne vrste oblikovanja, od grafike, mode, arhitekture in tudi nakita. Takrat se mi je zdelo, da je bil nakit kot oblikovanje 3D predmetov nekakšna mešanica ali medij vsega omenjenega, vendar pa ker je oblikovanje nakita omejeno le na telo, ki ima lahko le določene oblike in težo, sem se čez čas začela posvečati oblikovanju večjih predmetov, ki jih lahko postaviš v različne prostore in konfiguracije, kar nakit ne omogoča – tako sem prišla do oblikovanja pohištva. I don't know if you know this, but with your versatile design you seem to be very close to the ideal of the ancient philosophers, so called sophists, who also thought that philosophers should be able to design practical objects out of wood, to sew something, as well as to write a poem or to lecture someone about their knowledge, skills and experiences. Have you ever thought about teaching and educating the younger generation? Ne vem, če veš, toda s svojim vsestranskim oblikovanjem se zdi, da si blizu idealu t.i. antičnih sofističnih filozofov, tudi ti so menili, da morajo sofistični filozofi znati oblikovati praktične predmete iz lesa, si znati kaj sešiti, enako kakor napisati pesem ali koga poučiti o svojem znanju, veščinah in izkušnjah. Si kdaj pomislila, da bi tudi predavala in izobraževala mlajšo generacijo? I occasionally lecture or give seminars at schools, but so far no one from a major educational institution has approached me with a serious, attractive offer to become lecturer on a regular basis. Vsake toliko časa imam predavanje na šolah ali vodim kakšen seminar, vendar zaenkrat še nihče iz kakšne večje izobraževalne ustanove še ni pristopil k meni z resno, privlačno ponudbo, da bi redno predavala. How much do you think it is necessary to listen to the client and how much following your own ideas? Do you think that general awareness, knowledge of different artistic styles and some abstract (philosophical, sociological theories) can contribute to good design ideas? Koliko meniš, da je pri oblikovanju potrebno poslušati naročnika/ico in koliko slediti svojim zamislim? Meniš, da splošna razgledanost, poznavanje raznih umetniških slogov in tudi kakšnih abstraktnih (filozofskih, socioloških teorij) lahko pripomore k dobrim oblikovalskim zamislim? When you get an order of a certain product, you have to follow the customer's wishes. However designing your own collection is an art that requires the designer to have a wide and versatile knowledge of techniques, shapes and materials. Če dobiš izdelavo nekega izdelka po naročilu, moraš slediti želji stranke. Sicer pa pri oblikovanju določene kolekcije velja, da je dizjan umetnost, ki od oblikovalca zahtevo raznovrstno poznavanje tehnik, oblik in materialov. How important is promotion and advertising for the success of a collection, and how much do you invest in it? I remember that you were aware of this very early on, because back in the old socialist days you promoted your jewellery by having the singer of the then famous Slovenian band Videosex wear it. You also organised exhibitions of your jewellery with events to which you always invited celebrities from the entertainment and art scene. Koliko je pri uspešnosti določene kolekcije pomembna promocija in oglaševanje ter koliko ti vlagaš v to? Spomnim se, da si se tega že zgodaj dobro zavedala, saj si še v davnih socialističnih časih svoj nakit promovirala tako, da ga je nosila pevka takrat znane slovenske skupine Videosex. Prav tako si organizirala razstave svojega nakita z dogodki, na katere si zmeraj povabila znane osebnosti z estrade. Yes, you have to invest a lot in advertising and promotion, because that's how you make yourself accessible to people, therefore you ought to have promotional material ready in advance for each collection. But people come to you and order your products because they like your design and find it attractive to buy and have them in their homes. Da, v oglaševanje in promocijo moraš veliko vlagati, saj na tak način postaneš dostopen ljudem, zato moraš imeti pri vsaki kolekciji vnaprej pripravljen promocijski material, ljudje pa nato pristopijo k tebi in naročijo tvoje izdelke, ker jim je všeč tvoje oblikovanje. Speaking of socialist times, do you remember how we used to think (back in 1992 or so) that we were more unique with our clothes and accessories, even though we lived in a social system that emphasised uniformity rather than diversity? How do you feel about that today? Ko že omenjam socialistične čase, se spomniš, kako sva nekoč (tam okoli 1991) razmišljali, da smo bili nekoč bolj unikatni v oblačenju in modnih dodatkih, čeprav smo živeli v družbenem sistemu, ki je bolj poudarjal uravnilovko kakor raznolikost. Kako o tem razmišljaš danes? I don't know if we were unique, but we were certainly creative because there was 'nothing' back then, so for instance I sew my own clothes, but now there's so much variety in design that it's cheaper to buy something that's already made than to make it yourself. Ne vem, če smo bili ravno unikatni, bili pa smo ustvarjalni, ker takrat ničesar ni bilo, zato sem si jaz takrat šivala obleke, danes pa je že toliko raznovrstne dizajnerske ponudbe, da je cenejše kupiti že nekaj narejenega, kot pa da bi si to sami naredili. In terms of diversity, what about the diversity of lifestyles? At that time (around 1992) we also went to the LGBT club to party, and that's where you met some gays and lesbians. What do you think about the situation of LGBT people in Ljubljana then and now? And you probably also met LGBT people in London at that time, did you notice any differences between the Slovenian and the English scene and now, if so, which ones? Kar zadeva raznolikost, kaj pa raznolikost življenjskih stilov? V tistem času (okoli 1992–1994) sva hodili žurati tudi v LGBT klub in takrat si spoznala nekatere geje in lezbijke. Kaj meniš o položaju LGBT ljudi v Ljubljani v tistem času in danes? In verjetno si v tem času v Londonu spoznala tudi LGBT-osebe, verjetno si opazila kakšne razlike med slovensko in angleško sceno; če da, katere? I don't know about the LGBT scene in London because I don't go there, but there is certainly more diversity in London than in Ljubljana, both in terms of the LGBT scene and different races and ethnicities. LGBT scene v Londonu ne poznam, ker je ne obiskujem, vendar je v Londonu gotovo večja raznolikost glede vsega, tako LGBT scene, kakor je tudi različnih ras, pa etničnih pripadnosti kakor v Ljubljani. What are you most proud of and what is your biggest inspiration? Na kaj si najbolj ponosna in kaj je tvoj največji navdih? I am most proud of my daughter. The thing about inspiration is that it varies a lot, when I start researching something I'm interested in one thing at the beginning, but eventually it changes and I'm interested in different direction. Na svojo hčerko. Glede navdiha pa je tako, da se ta zelo spreminja, ko začnem nekaj raziskovati, me na začetku zanima nekaj, sčasoma pa se to spremeni in me zadeve zanimajo v različnih smereh. What are your current projects and what are your plans for the future? Kakšni so tvoji trenutni projekti in kaj načrtuješ za prihodnost? I've finished a new collection of stone products that we can put things on, like tables, and I'm currently working on a ceramic collection for a client in Italy. Zaključila sem z novo kolekcijo izdelkov iz kamna, na katere lahko postavljamo različne stvari, kot so mize, trenutno pa delam kolekcijo iz keramike za naročnika iz Italije. I wish you many more successes. Želim ti še veliko nadaljnjih uspehov. Lily Martinez Evangelista, you are an adjunct professor of translation at the University of Brasília and you teach a variety of language, culture, and translation courses. You are also a member of the USA Society for the Philosophy of sex + love (SPSL). Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background, your study and why did you decide to invite some SPSL members and some authors outside SPSL to contribute articles for the book Erotism, Feminism, and Empowerment (Erotismo, Feminismo e Empoderamento)? What were the invitation criteria?
I was born and raised in the United States from Mexican parents. As a consequence of my experience within the Latino community in the U.S. and as a daughter of immigrants, I consider myself a feminist Chicana who strongly believes in equality for all genders. Growing up in a conservative and religious community I found the erotic in graduate school to be quite powerful at the personal and intellectual level. I owe my ability to connect heart with mind to my advisor, Dara E. Goldman, who also focused on eroticism and guided me on the topic throughout my doctorate degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a result, I dedicate all of my research, may it be in works of literature or translation to the erotic as a source of self-consciousness and empowerment. The idea of the book arose from living in Brazil and seeing how the erotic does not have much visibility in the book stores or in our translation conferences. Furthermore, since we have a press in the university (Editora UnB) I found myself thinking about how an erotic book could capture all the talent within the university which goes invisible to many. First, I began to invite academics from all over the world to consider submitting a chapter on the erotic, with a central focus on analyzing it within a feminist framework, one where the erotic can challenge normative views in order to expand and be more inclusive. After I received enough submissions through colleagues teaching in academia and through more specialized circles I met in conferences or by interest, I began to invite students from our Spanish translation program to translate each chapter, originally written in English, into Portuguese. Once I had all the chapters translated, I set up another committee of student editors to review and discuss the translations with me. Lastly, I invited my colleagues from our program, to revise the translations one more time. Before and during submission process I also read each chapter to make sure nothing was lost in the translation process, including formatting the texts in the style the UnB Press required. In my mind, I wanted to showcase the ideas of international thinkers on the erotic and make it available for Portuguese readers, who already have to deal with the limitations of books printed in Portuguese, as well as bring to the forefront the talent of our students in our Spanish translation program, and the collaboration from my colleagues. This book project is one I am very proud of because it was made by a collective effort from beginning to end. This book, Erotismo, Feminismo e Empoderamento belongs to all of us. How do you think the audience will respond to different topics presented in the book? Brazil is dealing with extreme political divisions and although some will disagree with our central focus on equality and inclusion, we have the privilege to already have our first academic review, which will be included in the back of the book when published. M. Emilia Barbosa from the Missouri University of Science and Technology has written that our book brings the necessary discussion of the erotic and pleasure, within a current feminist theory and movement of sexual subjects into conversation. Barbosa states that each chapter critically discuss various examples or possible alternatives of current normative values on gender and sexuality. As the compiler of this book, I believe in the erotic potential, and the need to make desire and inclusion visible and available for all. Sophia Kanaouti, you are an Adjunct Lecturer to the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, in the field of Social Exclusion, and adjunct lecturer for the Hellenic Open University, in the field of Political Science. Can you tell a bit about yourself, your background, your study and why did you decide to participate in the book? I am an adjunct lecturer for the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where I teach about social exclusion and a researcher about sexual harassment and cyber harassment, as well as for women in politics, and for the University of Crete, where I now teach Gender and Politics - and lastly, for the Hellenic University, where I teach Political Science. I come from a media and politics background, and I am concerned with the exclusions we face in the political terrain that the media form for us, a ubiquitous and universal terrain. In your paper »Feminism and Emotion in Female Heterosexual Desire: media stories ...« you propose the view of emotion as engagement in the political sense, and propose that feminism uses emotion the way it is socially »allowed« to femininities as something that can change the political. Can you tell us what you wish to achieve with your paper and does this change involve a singular and universal, and if so, how? In my work I use Cornelius Castoriadis and Hannah Arendt, Castoriadis being a psychoanalyst as well as a political philosopher - Arendt we all know as a political theorist. Thus, through the links of psychoanalysis with politics, it is my contention that, as our creativity, so our political action and speech are linked with our subconscious - and therefore with our freedom to express (and sublimate/ transform) our desires. Therefore the media use of our desires is of central concern for the politics we want - and for the politics we will be allowed to express in the public sphere: inclusive, free, or excluding and elitist in the most negative sense if the word. Lily's book gave me an opportunity to address the issue of emotions and the ways in which women are socially "crowned" the guardians of feelings for the rest of the species. Juxtaposed to the more valued "logic" (Arendt would call it, I think, logicality, as extreme stress on logic at the expense of everything else), feelings are seen as less valid, less 'political', and yet they are what makes it possible to care for each other in the public space. All democratic politics involve both the singular and the universal; we cannot be fit to elect others and to be elected ourselves if we are not singularly standing on our own two feet, as we say in Greek - if we are not autonomous, expressive individuals, free in our speech and action. And we cannot be autonomous if the environment doesn't allow us to be so - it is no accident that no artist can create in authoritarian regimes - as artists are when they work on their art, the most autonomous of individuals, and the most creative. I think that feminism has moved on from taking for granted the validity of the male narrative that sees emotion as weakness, and logicality as strength; my own article adds, I hope, to that move, towards a fuller autonomy for women and all genders, allies in the fight for equality/democracy. It is time we claim the political space for emotions, which was previously granted merely to cries and whispers - time to shout #MeToo, time to laugh and be happy with justice, time to defend democracy and peace, as feminists did with the most recent war in Ukraine. And time to be heard and seen, clearly, politically, with the full emotion that determination involves. Irune del Rio Gabiola, you are a professor of Spanish, and Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies Butler University, USA. You were also director of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the same university. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background, study, and reason to participate in the book? I grew up in the Basque Country and I discovered my passion for literature and history when I was in high school. After studying English at the University, I decided to pursue grad school in Latin American and Caribbean cultures in the US at the University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana, where I wrote a thesis on women's cultural productions in the Caribbean. Back then, I familiarized myself with gender studies, feminism and postcolonial studies developing a deep interest in queer studies, and blackness in Latin America. As I professor, I diversified my interests to include Central America and Spain. In recent years, I published one book on queerness and gender in the Caribbean and a second one on social movements and activism in Honduras. In the essay »The Color Of Seduction ...« you examine the visual representations of racialized and fetishized black female bodies ensuring white supremacy through the film Palm Trees in the Snow directed by Fernando González Molina (2015). Can you tell us more about that, how the director aims to achieve it and what is your criticism of that? Similarly, I had the change to teach a course on afroconciencia and blackness in Spain and this is how my interest in critically analyzing the film Palmeras en la nieve grew. Disturbed by the visual representations in this film, I felt the urge to write about the deficiencies, stereotypes and limitations at constructing racialized bodies. The film perpetuates colonialism by depriving African bodies of histories and subjectivities and reinforcing hypersexualization and colorism: the blacker the bodies of the African women are, the more objectified and sexualized they are. A similar representation occurs when depicting the African male body. The visual representations constructed by the director fail to convey the complexity of blackness, black subjectivities, and black bodies. Sebnem Nazli Karali, you are a literary critic, writer, actress, and currently a Ph.D. Candidate/Researcher at the School of Arts and Humanities, Australia. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background, versatile study, and reason to participate in the book? Katarina, firstly, thank you very much for inviting me to interview for LL Passion. It is a great pleasure to be interviewed by you. I was born in 1990 into a multi-cultural family that has always put education before everything else. I readily admit that their open-minded attitude towards life has fed my passions and talents lying in critical and creative thinking, often addressing »high-risk« areas which require a level of bravery and diligence in thinking and analysis. I count myself very fortunate that I did my BA in English Language and Literature, with a certificate in Linguistics, at Bogazici University, Istanbul, in a culturally diverse campus environment that promotes free expression and inclusion at all levels. Planning to become a linguist, I attended Uppsala University, Sweden on a student exchange programme. In my senior year, however, I changed my mind about what I wanted to do. I did a master’s degree in Acting, composed of a research thesis and stage performance – in a nutshell, centered on the presence of transgender/transsexual on the Turkish stage. My professional life as a performer permeated all aspects of my life, as an enriching and informative experience that was exciting and intellectually adventurous. After my master’s degree, I resolved to benefit from my professional and academic experiences by doing a PhD in a topic where I could bring theatre and literature together as a theatre scholar-performer. Currently, I am a final year PhD student at Edith Cowan University, completing a thesis on the dramatic and theatrical representations of genocide in the works of post-generational female playwrights with a focus on Brecht’s dramatic theory. My long-lasting interest in gender, sexuality and feminist studies goes back to my undergraduate years. My master’s thesis and theatre performances only enhanced my knowledge in the field. During my PhD studies, at an international conference – Exploring the Erotic: Bodies, Desires, Practices – I met Lily Martinez, the editor the upcoming book, Erotismo, Feminismo e Empoderamento, to which I contributed with a chapter on the sexuality and erotic in Toni Morrison’s Sula. In the article »The Color Of Erotic Potential: Sula, By Toni Morrison ...« you address the eponymous protagonist’s escape from the black heteropatriarchy through the power of the erotic. What is the argument for that and how are gender, race, erotic, and art intertwined to achieve that? In my chapter on Morrison’s Sula, I address Sula’s escape from the heteropatriarchy through the power of the erotic. I shy away from using the word »lesbian« to describe the characters, or the novel, for fear of being reductive in approach. I also know that Morrison dismissed Barbara Smith’s labeling of the novel as »a lesbian novel«. Once we closely look at how Sula perceives herself and is perceived by her surroundings, Sula’s body constitutes at least a »triple non-entity«, in whom black, female, and lower-class identity co-exist. And these attributes are highlighted by her friendship with Nel, set against the then hegemony of the »straight white middle-to-upper class male«. The ‘black’ erotics – hence the title »the colour of the erotic potential« – in Sula’s and her ‘bestie’ Nel’s »female friendship« serves to empower Sula against an exclusive European-American male model of power, aka »stale, pale, male, and straight«, which has long prescribed the relations we all have with ourselves and others. It is thus a big deal that Sula’s tough yet inspiring journey of self-discovery via the power of the erotic leads Sula to practice self-agency and self-affirmation, in a society dominated by the rotten politics of hegemonic masculinities. I say »masculinities«, since it is not only the dominant form of white masculinity that Sula subverts(!) through the erotic as a »source of power«, to use Audre Lorde’s words. Sula leaves its signature on the underrepresentation of race and social class by the »second wave of feminism«. And it brings into discussion the misogynistic bent of the Black Arts and Black Power movements, as Morrison states »conventional black society«. The erotic imagery in the novel is conveyed in Morrison’s erotically charged language, underscoring the inevitable triumph of the unruly and irresistible erotic. The erotic flows on the level of writing, brought about by Morrison’s exceptionally powerful writing style. Set against the troubled history of its time, the novel explores the »black erotic potential« at the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality, juxtaposed with oppressive male systems of power and domination, firmly rooted in the long history of tradition. Robert Scott Stewart, you are a Canadian professor of philosophy and former chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia. You are also the author of several books on love and sex. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background, study, and reason to participate in the book? I grew up in a small town in Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. I was very uncertain what I wanted to do for a career though I had a vague notion of becoming a lawyer. But I loved my first year philosophy class and ended up eventually completing a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Waterloo (Canada) in 1991. My dissertation was on the influence of Romantic poetry and aesthetics on the social, political, and ethical thought of John Stuart Mill. I started teaching at Cape Breton University 32 years ago. It has turned out to be a good place for me. It's a small university so you have to teach a wide variety of courses not all of which are in your particular areas of expertise. That's how I came by my interest in the philosophy of love and sex. We were looking for courses that would attract students so on a sabbatical in the later 1990s, I did some research in the philosophy of love and sex, and since roughly 2010, it has become my main research focus. I gave a talk on friends with benefits at a conference in Prague in 2016. It was a great conference and I met some wonderful people, many of whom are working on this book project. In your paper Is »Feminist Porn Possible?« you explore what such porn looks like and how it represents sexuality in ways that feminists should find less problematic than typical, heterosexual, mainstream porn. Can you tell us more about how you achieved this argument and how does such porn actually looks like, can you attach a picture? The main feminist arguments against pornography are either that it leads to harm against women or, as a speech act, actually constitutes harm in its very utterance. These arguments certainly have some plausibility when one considers typical mainstream pornography, which all too often objectifies women in a way that also degrades and humiliates not just the women particpating in the film but, by extension, to all women. I wondered, though, whether one could distinguish between such pornography and a different pornography that is slowly emerging. In such alternative and feminist porn, women's pleasure is central as is women's agency. So, for example, the 'money shot', where a man ejaculates on a women, is no longer the focal point and culmination of the scene. Women thus become subjects as well as objects in such representations, and there is a partiular focus on their pleasure. Lawrence Buttigieg, you are a Maltese artist, architect, and freelance researcher. Can you tell a bit about yourself, your background, your study and why did you decide to participate in the book? Besides pursuing a career in architecture, I am also an artist and freelance researcher. In 2014 I was awarded a PhD from Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. Consequent to a practice-led doctoral research, I started creating box assemblages—three-dimensional, body-themed, artifacts––through which my association with the female subject is taken to an acutely intense level. While for more than two decades the recurrent theme of my studio work and research has essentially been the representation of womanhood, over the past two years I’ve been experimenting with film, doing research through this medium <www.aboutlawrence.eu>. In your paper »The box assemblage and Luce Irigaray’s écriture feminine« you, as an artist and Idoia, as your model wanted to create a particular kind of artifact, an exclusive space where libidinal desires are freed from societal inhibitions. Can you tell us more about the artifact-space and have you achieved what you aimed for? Prior to answering your question, I wish to say a few words about my studio and the resultant artifacts. This workplace doubles into a realm that seductively invites us to detach ourselves from the mundane world, and our own private lives; and to direct our complete attention onto ourselves, maturate our trust in each other, and concentrate on the project in hand. While shielding us from the inquisitiveness and prying eyes of others, it provides us with an intimate space, both physical and metaphorical, where we may share things such as feelings, disclose ideas to each other, and give free rein to our creativity. All this works well because the traditional dichotomy of male artist as creator and female model as object has long been dismantled in our rapport. To return to your question, maybe I can answer it by making a direct reference to Tabernacle for Alakazam, an artifact whose title is inspired by the enigmatic protagonist in Dandy Warhols’ 1995 song Just Try. Its interior features body-parts of Idoia and myself that in turn are sheltered inside a fragment of Stéphanie’s maternal body.* Employed as a spatial metonymy of my studio, this mother’s abdomen provides us with a secure space wherein we ‘celebrate’ our propinquity. However, while tantalizingly close to each other, the ultimate erotic touch between us will not happen—our convergence is arrested in space and immortalized in time. Nonetheless, Stéphanie links us and nurtures us through her flesh. I am mindful that Idoia’s assimilability is finite and her allurement is forever coupled by the elusiveness of her alterity; this knowledge on one hand frustratingly increases my sense of lack, on the other hand, it makes me more zealous for her. The box assemblage is a perpetual reminder of that which is other, that which is transient and enticingly real at the same time. While Idoia’s simulacra, real body-part relics, and memorabilia collectively catalyze the box assemblage’s powerfulness, its modus operandi is dependent on the sequence of covert spaces that contribute to its versatile and contradictory nature––from one point of view implying confinement and control, from another permitting the grouping of unrelated objects. In the aforementioned physically defined areas, contrariety, such as that between the antipodal concepts of the sacred and the irreverent, is addressed. * Stéphanie is a friend; I produced a cast of her tummy when she was pregnant with her second child. As far as my contribution to the book. I have been an independent researcher for a long time and haven't been part of academia except for a brief period at the beginning of my academic path as a research assistant at the Educational Research Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Afterward, all my work and achievements were done through my own work, will, and persistence. I responded to the call for submissions by Lily E. Martinez on the list of Society for the Philosophy of Sex + Love and sent my article in December 2018 therefore it has been a long wait for the publication of this book. In the paper Diotima And The Platonic Concept Of Love/Diótima E O Conceito Platônico Do Amor I write that ancient Greek society praised male homosexual love as the highest and divine form of love. Alongside that, I am offering the possibility of divine love also between women in the example of Plato who says through Socrates that his concept of love was offered by a woman named Diotima. If we believe Socrates's words that he merely repeats what he was told by Diotima then this is the only (philosophical) concept of love in the world that was created by a woman. And if someone would argue that we can’t know exactly whether Diotima was a real or a figurative person, the paper can still serve as an intellectual exercise into the possibility of accepting Diotima's concept of divine love as a possibility of love between women. Rebecca Chalker, you are an American feminist, certified sex adviser, and health writer. Can you tell us more about yourself, your background, your study, and your work as a sex and health adviser? In the late 1970s I worked at the Feminist Women's Health Center in Los Angeles, editing their book, A New View of A Woman’s Body, and also worked in their clinic as a lay health worker advising clients on gynecological self-help issues and assisted in abortion procedures. Both the book and my work in the clinic enhanced my work on A New View, on my other books, public lectures and teaching. I later moved to New York City and began writing medical self-help books at HarperCollins and then at Seven Stories Press with a book on abortion and later on women’s sexuality. I also taught in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at Pace University in New York City for 20 years, where I taught two courses that I developed, »A Cultural History of Sexualities from Prehistory to the Present,« and »Hot Button Issues in Sexuality« for first year students. I'm currently putting a webinar together called »Sex From Prehistory ‘til Tomorrow!« based on my course, that should be up by early June. In 2010, I received my PhD in sexology from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. In addition to enhancing my knowledge in various areas, I was able to view video presentations by important sexologists who had lectured at the Institute from its beginning. I used the 1st edition of The Clitoral Truth in my classes at Pace and was aware that professors in various universities we're also using it as a text. This edition stayed in print for 18 years and the German edition, Klitoris: Die Unbekannte Schone, was published by Orlanda in Berlin in 2018. Also, in 2018, the updated and enhanced English edition entitled The Clitoral Truth About Pleasure, Orgasm, Female Ejaculation, the G Spot, and Masturbation was published. What myths, misconceptions, and truths do you wish to especially emphasize? Glad you asked! The so-called G spot is, well, global (!) and is even in American dictionaries (!) »G spot« is a serious misnomer. Beverly Whipple and John Perry who wrote »The G Spot« book did not do their homework…they only popularized a partial idea of the female prostate. Nonetheless, they became famous, made millions of dollars, won prizes, and have never correct their errors, although Dr. Whipple and I are now on good terms, and she in interested in my work on the female prostate. Early on, Dr. Whipple worked to explain the then mystifying phenomenon of female ejaculation, and even made a movie about it, and I give her credit for that. How this book contributes and adds to the understanding of lesbian sexual pleasure since research on female orgasms shows that lesbians give and receive the highest percentage of orgasms. For instance, a USA national study on Differences in Orgasm Frequency Among Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Men and Women (2018) showed that lesbian women (86%) are much more likely to orgasm during sexual activity than bisexual women (66%) and heterosexual women (65%). I'm familiar with Elizabeth Lloyd's work on orgasm and I'm sure she made important contributions and critiques to this study. This result is no surprise, but I would like to see the same questionnaire done on non self-selected populations… although I believe the results would be somewhat similar. The study demonstrates on many levels is that heterosexual women are limited by men’s ease of orgasm and not asking for what they like or not knowing how sexual activities that lesbians take for granted could enhance pleasure and satisfaction. What is your professional opinion on the difference in orgasms between lesbian women (86%) and bisexual women (66%)? In this instance, this study’s results are no surprise, and these are not the first researchers to affirm this. Recently I read the book Ars Erotica - Sex and Somaesthetics in the Classical Arts of Love by Richard Shusterman (2021) - a history book about lovemaking through time and places but written entirely from a male perspective. I was disappointed because on 440 pages there was almost nothing on female sexual anatomy and her pleasure, therefore your book makes an even more valuable and important contribution to understanding female physiology and pleasure. What is your perspective on ordinary books on female pleasure and jousiannce? Are you familiar with the term and how would you describe it? Jousiannce, an intense, complex psychological and bodily experience that goes beyond momentary satisfaction. Regarding sexuality, the term asserts heightened fulfillment of desire(s), but when applied to sexuality, it doesn’t readily translate into English, in the United States anyway, and it isn’t used by sexologists here to describe sexual experience. Where do you think a real story/reason behind the notion of women like Medusa and Pandora come from and the notion of their excessive lustful nature? Medusa and Pandora were created by Greek men to symbolize their contempt for women, even though they had mistresses and routinely made use of sex workers. I’ll give you a example: Like »a wild animal even more polluted than an asp is the woman who dabbles in poisons.…An asp destroys with its poison, but a woman has only to touch her victim to kill it.« Medusa was often drawn with snakes roiling around her face that have been compared to pubic hair. Pandora was originally a lifegiving goddess, but the poet Hesiod was largely responsible for her transformation into the hapless woman who opened the box or jar of troubles, and like Eve, ruined it for everyone. How do you think that coronavirus affected sexual activities and their quality? Do you think the health and public services tackled the issue in the right way? This is not an easy question to answer, but some research shows a general decrease in heterosexual partner sex, but an increase in masturbation and online pornography, and masturbation with sex toys also increased in women. What inspires you most in your work and in your personal life, and where your inspiration comes from? With the exception of gay men, over the years I have found many people are eager to talk about sex and learn what other people think and do. Once I had a dinner party for about a dozen people, average age 35 to 45. men and women, probably all heterosexual, and instead of going home around midnight, something came up about my work and the party ended at 3:00 AM after a rousing Q & A and a give and take session. Personally, I have required a wealth of information on sexuality and a few things I learned enhanced my sexual interests and practices, but it did not promote any dramatic changes in what I prefer or do sexually. It certainly did change the way I think about sex though. I'm relatively nonjudgmental about whatever people do as long as no one is hurt, but I also understand that for a minority of people what hurts may be a sexual turn on, and, unfortunately, some end up in emergency rooms. The same thing happens in American football, and occasionally in other sports, but even with traumatic brain and physical injuries, money is being made and change is slow in coming. At last but not least, what are you currently working on and what are your plans for the future? I am sure you are currently working against the absurdity of the GOP and Supreme Court wanting to overturn the 40 years old law about the right of abortion. I'm working on a webinar called »Sex from Prehistory ‘til Tomorrow!« that should be posted in June and when it is ready I will send you an Announcement which you may post to your readers if you like. Of course I'm disgusted with the radical ideologues on the Supreme Court who are poised to hand over control of women’s reproductive, professional, and personal lives to the patriarchy and their women enablers. There is and we'll be more accurate information on abortion on the Internet which will likely be women most available resource, but also Websites and posts with accurate information. There will be telephone advice from reliable sources, activist groups that will help women with travel and lodging, and a host of other resources. Claudine Monteil, first let me say that it is an honor to have you as my interviewee. You are a French writer, feminist, historian, and a former French diplomat. Your doctorate was on the study of Simone de Beauvoir's writings and life. Can you tell us more about yourself, your background, your study, and your work as a diplomat? I was born in 1949 into a French academic scientist family, where both my parents were scientists. But it was so much more difficult for my mother to achieve her passion and her career because French society, very catholic and conservative, would hardly tolerate women scientists at the time, even though Marie Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie were great scientists. Though she was finishing her PhD in chemistry, the male scientists academics tried to prevent her from receiving the promotion she deserved. But she went on, fought inside the French male system, and succeeded into becoming the equivalent of President of Harvard and Smith College in the US, director of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Jeunes Filles and later director of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS Ulm). Since I was a little girl, as there were often scientists at home, my mother would always show me the ones who were »antifeminists« and opposed to her career. I must add that my mother had read The Second Sex, the essay written by Simone de Beauvoir and published in 1949 (a world bestseller translated into almost fifty languages) while she was pregnant with me, and it had given her even more strength to fight. She was an amazing pioneer and I owe her so much. She always supported me to give me the best education as I wanted to become a writer and a diplomat. For instance, I had the chance of also going to school in the US almost every fall as my father, a mathematician had a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for a few months every year. So, as a teenager wanting to become a diplomat during the Cold War, I started to learn Russian language at school very young, and went for six years every July to the USSR to take courses in Russian universities, including two summers in Kyiv, which in Russian was called then Kiev. So, during the Cold War, where it was very difficult to cross the Berlin Wall, I, then a teenager, did indeed cross it many times, and therefore could compare life in the US, France, and a communist country, quite an experience for a teenager. At university I started learning literature, comparative and French, went for a year in a US College, but at the same time I was very active in the Student Revolt, revolution of May 1968. So because of my activism it took me many years to write my Ph.D on Simone de Beauvoir. At the same time I was first hired as a free lance journalist at the daily newspaper Le Monde (equivalent of The New York Times for France) and then hired as a diplomat on the Eastern European Desk, travelling to communist countries, which was, at the time, quite tough due to the Cold War I cannot say much about my job as a diplomat, as I need to remain discreet. So I will make it short. First, being a diplomat was a fascinating and diverse job. I loved every minute of it, as you need to understand every aspect of a country, political, economical, cultural. You must also understand people’s history and feelings about their condition and their history. But, as a diplomat, you also change of assignment every three or four years. It is an obligation. So after dealing with communist countries, I was in charge of negotiations with Eastern Africa and South Africa, and countries of the Indian Ocean. This is when I managed to go to South Africa regularly, as Nelson Mandela’s liberation was on its way. Because I am always considering social conditions, I wrote some reports on South Africa which seemed with a broader human strategic view than reports written by men, so I had the honour to accompany the wife of the French president to greet Nelson Mandela when he came to France, a few months after his liberation, and to follow him during his official trip in Paris. As I was in charge, at one moment, of negotiations for women’s programs at the UN, it was such an emotional position for me, having been so active in the Women’s Liberation Movement so young, and suddenly representing my country to talk about these issues at the UN. After this, I was at the French Delegation at UNESCO. As a philosopher, I was really impressed when I learned that you worked with famous feminist philosopher and icon Simone de Beauvoir. Can you tell me more about what kind of person, woman, and philosopher de Beauvoir was? Was it easy to converse and work with her or was she a tough, demanding person and intellectual? What are the most memorable and cherishable things that you took from working with de Beauvoir and how did these benefit you as a person, scholar, and feminist? Before meeting Simone de Beauvoir in 1970 at 20 years old, I had been involved in the Students revolution of May 1968 in France, and had created a Women’s Consciousness raising group in a factory. So Sartre had talked to Simone de Beauvoir about me. This is to say, she was the one who wanted to meet me and offered me to participate in every Sunday’s meetings talking place from 5 to 7 at her home. The Womens’ Libération Movement was founded in late August 1970, and I joined it in October of the same year. Simone de Beauvoir, one of the most respected feminist icon at the time in the world, had wanted to join it. It was both easy and tough for a simple reason. She spoke extremely fast, very straight forward, and at the same time very respectful. So she made you feel she was speaking to you from equal to equal. The first time I was at her apt, she stared at me, and asked me what I, at 20 years old (42 years younger than she!), was suggesting for a campaign for free abortion. I discovered that I had to reply immediately. So she treated me with a great sense of equality and respect, but expected from me to reply as fast as she had spoken. And it went on like this for sixteen years! She was so bright, you needed to remain totally concentrated as if you were in front of a jury and pass an examination! So, every time I left her appartment, I was exhausted, even though I was 42 years younger than her… She was both warm and impressive, but, influenced by her aristocratic education. So, at first, she did not want to show her feelings. So a British friend of mine compared her behaviour to Queen Elizabeth’s, never complaining, never showing her emotions. As a matter of fact she could seem to be cold, where in reality when was a very warm, generous person. For instance, she helped so many women financially, but with the condition that they would never know who helped them or saved them from poverty. She was very patient also with the young feminist I was considering that she would spend days and nights to save all women of the world and never relax… In reality she had a great, great heart. And I will always love her dearly and be grateful to her. The most memorable and cherishable moments with her were first the moments on Sundays, and after a few years, the moments when we were the two of us only when I became a diplomat and wrote my Ph.D on her life and activism. We would be the two of us together, chating, and she would always be tender to me in a very modest way. She would always be very supportive of me, any time, and after her sister, the painter Hélène de Beauvoir, had become a very close friend of mine, she would always ask me about my diplomatic trips and missions, as there were, at the time, very few women diplomats in France. Was Beauvoir more inclined towards women or men as intimate partners or to equally both? Both. She loved men, first the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel prize in literature, the great love of her life, in parallel the American writer Nelson Algren, afterwards the French writer and movie producer Claude Lanzmann. But she also had affairs with two or three young women, 17 years old, during her youth when she was a high school teacher. It was reproached to her, but nevertheless these young women remained her friends until her passing. So to me, she was bisexual, but she never acknowledged it in public, because she had been fired from the French educational system during World War II for having had private affairs with students. She had been very hurt by this. Besides, during her life time, lesbianism was very poorly considered, and it is still a difficult issue in France, due to the influence of Catholicism. I feel sorry for her for not having been able to express her bisexuality openly. I could see how painful it was on her. But, please, may I ask you not to blame her, as it is important not to forget the historical context in which she was living. Speaking of Beauvoir and feminism, you yourself are also a very important person for French feminism, being one of the founders of the French women's rights movement in 1970. That was surely an important and exciting time that the younger generation has no proper insight and knowledge of but you being in at that time and place can surely describe what was the thought and emotion behind your activism that started sisterhood in France and around the world? It was an amazing lively moment, where we wanted to change the world, right away, and not wait for a possible revolution or change of government. Also our decision that only women could participate in the meetings was right to the point. There, we were not interrupted by patronizing men, or being judged. It was a wonderful feeling, which permitted us to express our imagination to change the world, and we did it ! Also, all our meetings were full of humour, discussions with laugh, drinks, songs, so different and opposite to co-head meetings where only men could take the floor and would speak in a patronizing and arrogant tone. I was also very active with some American feminists, amazing brave women who had founded the Feminists Women’s Health Centers, all around the US, and which were providing abortions for a very cheap price in a very healthy condition. I visited these clinics many times between 1974-1980 but years after years, due to Reagan having become president of the United States, these feminists women received death threats, were harassed, and soon their clinics were bombed. Even though Simone de Beauvoir, the French feminists and I were supporting them, at the time the networks did not exist so it was much harder to launch an international campaign of support. Some of these clinics still exist, and they do an amazing job. The founder of these clinics is Carol Downer, a remarkable woman I admire and I recommend you to consult on Wikipedia. How do you perceive the relation between feminism and lesbianism in France in the '80-'90s and today? What needs to be done and what did you achieve? In the 80-90 ies there were no division between feminists, lesbian or not. The question was mentioned from time to time, as there were many lesbian women in the feminist movement, but the top priority of our activism was concentrated on free abortion. It seems to me that, though it is easier now to declare yourself a lesbian, there is still a ways to go. I think it is still hard for many men to accept the reality that some women love other women and feel attracted to men. But at the same time, I see younger men being much more open and tolerant to lesbianism, as a one form of gender. Of course, there are still terrible men, but lesbianism is becoming more accepted around French society. And as you know, women can get married now. So families get more open about their lesbianism. In a a way, it seems to me that same sex marriage has been an incredible useful tool to incite families to accept the reality of lesbianism inside their own environment. Families are, at last, considering that what counts the most now is that their daughter, sister, sometimes colleague or mother, can be happy in her love life with another woman. You worked at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a diplomat (retired in 2014) that was tackling the relations between France and institutions of the United Nations (such as UNICEF, UNFPA, and alike). Please, name one of the most challenging, one of the most successful, and one of the happiest achievements during your work. It has been a very happy achievement to work for France on women issues, to pronounce feminists words at the United Nations that Simone de Beauvoir and I had already written, and fought for fifty years earlier. There, fifty years later, I was been able to pronounce them at UNFPA, UNICEF, UNWomen. It has been an incredible feeling of accomplishment, as es for years in the 70-ies, I had had the impression that whatever we were denouncing, no one was paying attention to us and to the issues of women’s oppression and women’s rights. How do you think that the corona-virus period changed the prospects of the sisterhood and feminist movement in France and around the world and how do you think politics, especially diplomacy tackled the issue? The corona-virus has been a disaster around the world for women and women’s rights. Millions of young women have been stuck, incapable of going to school, married by their parents at even a younger age, raped, becoming mothers at 14, 15 years old, abandoning school now. Unesco and the UN have calculated that for many millions of women around the world their rights have gone 30 years backward. A disaster. Also million of women did not have access to family planning during this time, have had unwanted pregnancy and will never go back to school. Politics and diplomats have tried to take this reality into consideration but due to Covid, now to the war in Ukraine and the blocades, it is very difficult for international UN institutions, like UNPA and UNICEF, and UN Women programs to be implemented. We were both part of Sandrine Rousseau's eco-feminist campaign in primaries in September 2021 but you were more insidious while I was only a foreign contributor/supporter. How did you help Mrs. Rousseau with your vast knowledge and experience in feminism and diplomacy and how do you access Rousseau's campaign from a political and sisterhood point of view? Why do you think she didn't win the Green candidacy for this April presidential race? France is still a very patriarchal society, not ready at all to elect a woman president, even inside the Green party which remains a macho party. But she has been amazing in forcing men and women to hear about women’s issues and issues on environment and trying to protect and promote women’s rights. She may not have won the election, but she won in people perception’s of women and climate change issues much more than public opinion is ready to acknowledge at the moment. And she was very badly treated by the medias, the social networks, as Simone de Beauvoir was when she published The Second Sex and as we feminists were insulted in the 70-ies. These insults, in a way, are a good sign. They mean Sandrine Rousseau is getting right to the point in her speeches and actions and is threatening patriarchy. Good for her. What inspires you most in your work and in your personal life, where your inspiration comes from? International affairs, writing and women’s issues and actions for human rights. I am a fighter, an activist, and I cannot imagine writing without being active on the field. I feel very close to people needs, women’s needs, and get very angry at injustice, humiliation so many women face every day. Since my childhood, I feel very aware of the fact that everything is political. I started learning Russian and going to Russia in 1964, in the middle of the Cold War, when I was a high school kid. I saw how women’s situations in the USSR was not idealistic as the Soviet regime pretended. Therefore, when I started being involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement in France in 1970, my first purpose was to change the women’s conditions in France immediately, and not wait for a future revolution where women would be put back in the kitchen and would have to obey to men. Of course, the great inspiration comes first from my mother, secondly from Simone de Beauvoir. I have heard about Simone de Beauvoir by my mother and father since I was a little girl. They admired her so much, and were so surprised and fascinated when I became, though I was so young at 20, a friend of Simone de Beauvoir who was 62 at the time and so respected and well known. But it is thanks to my parents. Then Simone de Beauvoir introduced me to her sister, the painter Hélène de Beauvoir, who grew up in the shadow of Simone, accomplished a body of work of 3000 paintings and engravings, some representing women oppressed, attacked, women and nature, problems of pollution, and women liberating the world. Hélène de Beauvoir had exhibits of her work all around the world. Hélène de Beauvoir and I became intimate friends and I have published my Memoirs on my friendship with Simone and Hélène, translated into ten languages including in English, named The Beauvoir Sisters (Seal Press, 2004). So these 3 women, my mother, Simone and Hélène de Beauvoir, have been and still are an inspiration in my life. At last but not least, what are you currently working on and what are your plans for the future? I have published a biography a few months ago on three remarkable women, which title is Marie Curie and Her Daughters (Calmann-Lévy, 2021) and which will have some translations to be published at the end of this year in five countries. Marie Curie, twice Nobel prize in physics and chemistry, and her daughters, Nobel prize Irène Joliot-Curie, and her youngest daughter, a fighter who fought against the Nazis, Eve Curie. Marie Curie lived a rich life as a scientist, a woman and a mother. Sadly, tragedy strikes in 1906 with the sudden death of Pierre Curie, and she is left alone a widow. Still this does not hinder the education that she provided for her two daughters which leads each of them to a great destiny. Irene Joliot-Curie will follow the scientific path of her mother: from the age of seventeen she is on the battlefields of the Great War to save the wounded using new medical materials. Then, later, alongside her mother in the research work of the Radium Institute. In 1935, together with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie, she wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry. A committed activist she took part in the struggle for women's rights and against Nazism, long before the Second World War. She becomes the first female member of the French government in 1936, despite the fact that French women still do not have right to vote. Just as her mother Marie Curie, who dies in 1934, was never allowed to vote in the country where she changed the history of the world. After a successful career as an international pianist, Eve Curie, the youngest daughter, chooses to pursue literature and diplomacy. She writes the first biography on her mother—the award-winning "Madame Curie,” which receives the prestigious National Book Award in 1937. Eve Curie was the only non scientist in her scientist family who received five Nobel prizes. She became one of the first and most important French diplomat in the nineteen forties and fifties, meeting thousands of people to persuade the US to join the Allied forces alongside de Gaulle against Hitler. She was a close friend of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and rubbed shoulders with the greatest thinkers of the time, from Gandhi to Winston Churchill during World War II. Years later, she will become the special Senior Advisor of the first General Secretary of NATO during the Cold War giving her the highest diplomatic position for a French woman diplomat. These are three pioneering, inspiring, free, and powerful women. I have started writing a new biography on some remarkable women, as my goal is to make visible women who have made history but have been totally forgotten or put aside. I am also currently very active in actions in France, Europe on women’s rights. I am president of a women’s group NGO called Femmes Monde, Women World, which organizes meetings with women who have can be an inspiration to other women. I am also the godmother of a young women’s group Feminists in the City, who promote guided visits and Masterclasses about women’s history both in French and English, and which have thousands of women from around the world which follow them and come to France to enjoy the feminists visits on women painters at the Louvre, at Versailles, and so on. Their president is Julie Maranger, a very dynamic young feminist, who graduated from the Political science Institute. Julie Marangé is now acknowledged all over France and in some countries like the UK, the US, and Australia. I always remind the young feminists what Simone de Beauvoir said to me in 1974, when public opinion was starting to become in our favour and when, at last, there was an opening from the French government to change the law on abortion, which was considered a crime at the time: »Simone, we have won!« I said to her, so excited, as I was 24 years old. Simone remained still: »No Claudine, we may have won presently, but not permanently. We could lose our rights again, just with another political, economical and religious crisis. All your life, you will need to remain vigilant.« She so was right, of course. Just think at the young Afghan women who, fifty years ago, could wear skirts and walk without a veil. Now their lives are a disaster. And my conclusion will be: Feminism keeps you young and alert! Edith Escobar, Founder of LesWorking Sweden10/25/2021 Edith Escobar, you are a chairman and co-founder of LesWorking Sweden with Micaela Kallaris. LesWorking Sweden is a branch of the Spanish LesWorking network founded by Marta Fernández Herraiz in 2013. Can you tell us something about yourself, what is your background, education and what made you come to work in Sweden? I am a woman born in Chile and I have lived for over 20 years in Sweden. I came to this country because I fell in love with a Swedish woman. I have an education in IT and I work as an IT service owner in the country's third largest municipality, Malmö. Can you tell us what led you to found LesWorking Sweden in 2019 that provides greater visibility of lesbian and bisexual women, their role models, and help with employment and work for LB women in Sweden? What are the main activities and achievements of the organization and how many women work in the network? I found LesWorking in an online search. I contacted the founder, Marta Fernandez and I took the concept to Sweden, because we did not have anything similar here. The network's main activities are to make lesbian women visible, network with other LGBTQ organizations and make lesbian women visible in various workplaces. We arrange an annual lesbian conference, we arrange workshops and other social activities. We help and support and encourage our group to work at their respective workplaces after we together develop different tools to make it possible. We have a board with 6 women. I am the chairman of the board and with the other 5 women we plan different activities. We have 55 members who pay to belong to the network. We use the money from membership fees for various activities. We have activities only for our members and other activities such as the lesbian conference, which is open to all lesbian and bisexual women in the country. You also work or take part in the Pride event (organization). How was Pride 2021 due to coronavirus this year in Sweden, what was similar, and what was different? Do you think lesbian and bisexual women are properly taken care/taken into account during the coronavirus period? Of course, Pride was different during the Corona Pandemic. It became much more digital, but a positive thing was that in that way we could reach more people. I do not think that lesbian or bisexual women are adequately included in Pride. Had we been included and more visible, we would not have had to start LesWorking Sweden. During the Pandemic, lesbian or bisexual women, who were already invisible, were even more invisible. How many lesbian and bisexual women seek your help, advice per week or month, and what kind of advice and information do they ask for most? We have no statistics on that. And the questions vary in number. We are usually contacted regarding legal issues, but we do not have that support, even though we wish we could have a lawyer who could help with that. Remember that our organization was formed just before the pandemic. What are you most proud of and what do you think should be done more and better? I am very proud to have dared to take LesWorking to Sweden. Much can be done better. We need a financing strategy, we need more women who want to help us with our work. We need to develop the network and have good plans in the short and long term. We need to get better at recruiting new members. We need to get better at our communication. But all this is part of our work to develop the network into something good for even more people. What inspires you most in your work and in your personal life, where your inspiration comes from? Both in my regular work and in my voluntary work with Lesworking, what inspires me is problems. In other words, problems that need to be solved so that people can feel good. Not just LGBTQ people, all people! When a person feels good, feels included, feels loved, then we are all kind to each other and accept that we are different. In my private life, I am inspired by my wife and our son. My inspiration comes from my grandmother who always helped others, even though she had no higher education, just the desire to help others At last but not least, what are you currently working on and what are your plans for the future? Right now I work with large IT integration projects at my regular job. I'm also working on planning for our lesbian conference on November 13th. My plans for the future are to make LesWorking Sweden grow so that more lesbian women can help to have a better world for ourselves and others. Thank you very much! Katarina Majerhold Sandrine Rousseau, you are a French economist, writer, and politician; the former spokesperson for Europe Ecology – The Greens (EÉLV) which you left in 2017 and re-joined in 2020. Now you run for the environmentalists' primary as a candidate for the presidential election of 2022. You are mostly interested in the economy and the environment, focusing on social and environmental inequalities. Your candidature is supported by actresses, such as Salomé Lelouch, dancer, and director Andréa Bescond, singer and actress Lio, and other well-known French women. What are the three main points you want to achieve with your candidacy? I present my candidacy as carrying ecofeminism. I indeed wish to highlight the links that existed between the predation of women, of the dominated bodies in general, and of nature. My first measures will be protective measures: economic protection with a guaranteed basic income, so that no one falls into great poverty and that no one is afraid of the future. Protection of nature through strong measures such as the prohibition of concrete construction or even giving a price to the carbon that escapes into the atmosphere. Democratic protection with the launch of a reform of the constitution. Democracy is what protects us collectively the best, and in this reform, the guarantee of the rights of minorities will be a priority. In France, these rights, our freedoms, are strongly diminishing at this moment. What is your stance regarding ecology in general – do you consider and fight for 'deep ecology' according to the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess or 'shallow ecology' by the French philosopher Luc Ferry. The core theme of deep ecology is the claim that all living beings and things have the same right to live and flourish, whereas shallow ecology puts human's interests before other beings. How do you assess the state of nature's rights in France, what is done, what needs to be done? I do not wish to lock myself in a particular current of thought but I do think on the other hand that human activities must absolutely be limited by a certain number of natural rules. We cannot cut, sell wood if it generates deforestation. It is simple but today it is not the case. For instance, we have to decide how many forest areas we need to make carbon sinks and then regulate the timber trade. For animals, in French law, they have no rights today. They can be mistreated and exploited as much as we wish. We have to get out of this, to respect animal welfare and their sensitivity. However, you don't fight only for ecology but also for women's rights and against gender-based and sexual violence since it is something you experienced yourself in EÉLV party from which you withdraw in 2017. The same year you founded Assocation Parler, promoting mutual aid between victims of sexual violence as part of the MeToo movement and you also wrote a book Speak: (of) Sexual violence to end the law of silence (2019). What is the main message of your book and Assocation Parler? You also fought for your justice in court and won – can you please tell us more about that too? When I denounced the sexual assault I suffered within my political party, we were a year before #metoo. Of course, I did not know what a huge fight against sexual violence would be, but after my speech, I nevertheless felt, how women are fed up. They no longer wanted to go through this, I felt them ready to fight, to speak, to radically change things. This is also one of the reasons for my candidacy today. I think we have to literally take the power to make that change. Of course, this is not my only reason for running in the presidential election. I am an economist, I have been working on my research in the field of ecology and inequalities for 20 years. I have plenty of things to say in this election. Violence against women is one of the important issues. And not just as a line of a program but as an embodiment of the fact that it is no longer possible to abuse women, that today it is no longer possible to silence them or to make them invisible. How much is your feminist politics based on an important French female intellectuals, such as Simone de Beauvoir, Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva. I also have great respect for French historians, such as Georges Duby who wrote about eminent French historical and fictional women and co-edited four volumes about History of Women In the West (from Ancient to Modern time). I am a researcher. So when I tackle a topic I'm starting by reading and listening to the research on the subject. It's a sort of professional deformation! I really like the writings of Geroge Duby but we must not forget that he wrote them with Michelle Perrot! Moreover, the feminist movements are starting to organize themselves around my candidacy. Several activists, but also several intellectuals see my candidate as a possibility to shake up something. Little by little, the idea that a feminist president would change things profoundly took hold. After all, France has some intellectual and historical figures who took an interest in the place of women very early on. But the political system remains very closed. We will have to mobilize all social categories to succeed. How is the fight for women's rights connected to the lesbian and bisexual women who especially lack visibility and representation in politics and are also prone to hate, violence and poverty? Do you think it is enough done for the rights of homosexual women and LGBTIQ people in France? LGBTIQ people are regularly subjected to discrimination and violence. The latest example was the march for the visibility of lesbians held on Saturday, April 24th which was attacked by far-right activists. Alice Coffin who plays a very important role in France in the fight against LGBTphobias is my supporter. She is currently cyber harassed after asking for legal aid for assisted reproduction. We must step up the fight against all forms of violence and achieve equality for all. Not a principle of equality but real equality under the law. In France, lesbianism has emerged as a theoretical dialogue in the work of several French feminists. In the late 1970s, a group of French feminists loosely aligned with the Mouvement de libération des femmes (MLF) began to forge a theoretical practice around the notion of aféminité that opposed the masculine bias present in Western modes of thought. Writers such as Marguerite Duras, Marguerite Yourcenar, Monique Wittig and especially, Hélène Cixous created what has become known as »l'écriture féminine«, or writing by/of/for women. I mentioned them because you also write detective novels with strong women while trying to avoid gender-biased codes. Is there any similar intellectual literature feminist and lesbian movement today and does your writing follow the suit of the aforementioned writers? We take great care in all of our campaign publications to use non-discriminatory writing. Myself, as you said, I deconstructed the stereotypes in my writings. It will also make a difference in the way you make women visible. You are also the vice-president of the University of Lille where you teach environmental economics, domestic jobs, and corporate social responsibility. Since 2008 you have been also a vice-president in charge of »Student life, Campus life/sustainable development and gender equality« of the university. Can you explain more about your work and how does it connect with your politics? As a researcher, I work on the compatibility of our economic and social system with planetary and human constraints. How can we ensure that our economy does not destroy the planet? Should we believe in technical progress only? Or should we change our social relationships to a better respect for the environment? I think that we have to deeply review our social and economic organization if we want to build a serene future. Some of this Biden does a bit since he is in power; he tackles ecological and social issues head-on in order to reassure the population while taking strong measures such as the summit of the earth. How much corona time affects women, lesbian and bisexual women and students? These populations are very hard hit by the coronavirus crisis. They are even more isolated, locked up than usual and many people in France have symptoms of depression or distress. This also applies to people with disabilities or the elderly, in short, all people who have personal and social vulnerability. President Emmanuel Macron has not taken this into account at all in his measures and we risk paying a very high price for this indifference. This is why we need a president of the sensitive republic! I hope I am not being 'silly' by asking you this question. I watched an excellent French TV series Baron Noir where someone can learn how the French revolution is the origin of the modern French Republic and how the French revolution became the role model of the modern democracy with philosophers like J. J. Rousseau and historians like J. Michelet, the first historian to use and define the word Renaissance is a period in Europe's cultural history. In this series, you learn that ideas, concepts, and thinking are very important for the art of governance and government and you learn the importance of secularity. I also loved the series with its portrayal of strong, intelligent, and pragmatic women and there is also a minor lesbian character. Have you perhaps watched or heard about it and if yes, how much is the series true to nowadays French politics and the Greens you represent? Of course I saw the Baron Noir series. It is very interesting how politics works. But it emphasizes negotiations and malignancies. I am a more honest, simpler political woman. I think this series shows a policy from the past, French style, but the future seems to me to be in another way: closer to the people, less strategist, more sincere. Thank you very much! I root for you – best of luck! Katarina Majerhold Heidi Lynch, you are a Canadian actress, producer and creator of TV series Avocado Toast (2020). Can you tell us more about yourself, what did you study and why did you decide to become an actress and producer? On a crisp fall day in October 1987 the youngest sister of three boys was born. When she came out her mother thought she was a boy, despite being told “it’s a girl!” and called her Joseph. Joseph was quickly named Heidi after her Swiss grandmother. Heidi wasn’t born a writer/producer/actor. She became one through her desire to tell meaningful stories that uplift, change and comfort others. She now splits her time between Toronto and London (U.K.), spreading her stories and living her life. Hahaha. I read somewhere that you created the series after your own experiences and therefore your lesbian relationship and coming out issues of the main character in the series are the same as in your life. How your life has changed ever since you came out and are you still with that 'special person'? Firstly to be super clear I wrote Molly’s story to create representation for BISEXUAL characters. Molly is bisexual as am I. I never saw myself represented on screen when we started writing the show. I am overjoyed that there are more bi characters I can reference now. The derision and relative lack of representation is even more jarring when you remember that there are more people who identify as bisexual-plus — a spectrum that includes bisexuality, pansexuality, queerness, and everything in between — than those who identify as lesbian or gay combined. My life has changed for the better because of my partner but not really because of my bisexuality. I got to come out with the beautiful announcement that I was in love and was starting a relationship so although I built it up to be a potentially challenging conversation it went very well. I know how lucky I am about that. I must say that I am bit baffled about coming out issues. I come from the former socialist country and I came out in 1988 to my parents, to some of my former classmates from secondary school in 1989 and to all my former university classmates and professors in 1993. It is true that because I unexpectedly felt in love with woman I started questioning if there was only one right notion of love which lead me to professionally research concepts of love and emotions. However, I thought societies throughout the world became more progressive towards inclusion and acceptance of different sexual orientations and sexual identities in the past decade. Where do you think these doubts and questions regarding being (not)accepted by the parents, friends and peers (still) come from? If you watch or read the news there are cases every day of targeted homophobic attacks. I live in London and there was a stabbing just last week of a gay couple. On a double decker bus a bisexual woman and her lesbian partner were punched in the face because they wouldn’t kiss for a group on young men. I come from a wonderful family but no one is queer in the entirety of it. We are scared of the unknown and everything in the world we live in contributes to our fears. I don’t want anyone to feel fear of non-acceptance when they are coming out but I think it is inevitable. Creating representation for stories where coming is accepted is key. Was it intentional to emphasize the notion of a monogamous exclusive relationship in the series? I have to say that I strongly agree with you about that, however I get the feeling that people think of those who want to be in a long term monogamous faithful relationship as somewhat conservative. Do you agree? No I don’t agree but I think loving authentically and honestly is all that matters. As long as both people in the relationship consent to be in it with all the honest communication that specific relationship provides that is good! I am a monogamous person but I don’t judge anyone who isn’t, as long as being truthful to the people in their lives and protecting others’ hearts. I learned that some of your female colleagues are also bisexual and which I applaud. Was intentional to look for co-stars with the same sexual orientation? How do you think that actresses playing lesbian or bisexual characters being themselves the same sexual orientation contribute to the quality of acting and the series in general? It’s impossible to ask people their sexuality in an interview or audition. If people haven’t come out yet it puts them in a tough position. If people are out and can bring an authentic perspective to the role that is beneficial for everyone but not required. In some ways Avocado Toast is similar to Feel Good series where a Canadian gal also falls in love with English woman and series presents coming out issues of a woman who never before felt in love with a woman (it is interesting that both women work in primary schools too), however the added value of your series is that you deal with parents' sexuality and happiness as well. It is brave to tackle the sexuality of the parents and as you said in one of interviews we are all progressives regarding our parents just not when it comes to their sexual life and putting their happiness and independence as successful adults above their children. Finally, someone addressed this issue that parents as successful adults have the right to be happy and live their life independent from 'worrying' about their grown up children issues all the time. That is all true! Yep! I know!!! I watched Feel Good after we were done our show and was like “DAMN, we will never be on Netflix!” I like the idea how you presented being in love as 'work' of hormones of love and happiness, such as oxytocine, serotonin, noradrenaline. It is believed that the aforementioned hormones have boast for the first two years of the relationship and that is why the excitement and enthusiasm is the strongest in that period and then slowly goes back to normal, afterward partners should work on relationship to boast the levels of hormones if they wish to maintain its excitement. Why did you decide to include that in the series? Molly is trying to find a pragmatic way to write her feeling for The One off so she tries to change them into logic. Which lesbian film(s) and TV series has been the best in your opinion and why? Orange is the new black Brooklyn Nine Nine (bisexual xo) The Bisexual What inspires you most in your work and in your personal life, where your inspiration comes? NEW and FRESH stories. People or places or things that I know nothing about. I want to learn and explore and give voice to the NEW and FRESH. At last but not least, what are you currently working on and what are your plans for the future? I am producing a new web series in development called Womb Envy. I am assistant producing a dating show. I am researching a feature film. Katarina Majerhold Natalia Zamilska, you are Polish creator, composer and producer of electronic music. You graduated from Uniwersytet Śląski in Cieszyn with a degree in social and cultural animation and cooperated with a local Foundation of Audiovisual Culture »Strefa Szarej«, by leading workshops in electronic music production and working for Galeria Szara. Can you tell us more about yourself - how come you decided to study social and cultural animation? What do you wish to achieve by that and when did you start making electronic music and found out it could be a profession as well? A friend persuaded me to continue onto higher education. There were pros in doing so: I would’ve been further from home but still in Silesia, the degree was culture related, university campus looked like Woodstock, and most importantly the program had an easy syllabus. I knew that eventually it would drop everything I was doing to make music. The campus really was like Woodstock, you could write a book about it. I am surprised we survived. Reality hit after graduation, there was no work, no one would employ me, not even in retail. I was recording music during the day and drinking beer in the evening while pondering, how I am going to pay rent. Then I made Quarrel. My favorite genre of music is melodic techno and I grew up with all kind of techno music, however your industrial techno is really good and when I first listened to your music, especially debut album »Untune« from 2014 I thought it reminded me a bit of the music from Tresor Club in Berlin at the end of 90'ies through 2000 when techno was at its peek. This is of course my personal opinion. Who was your biggest inspiration and/or musicians that influenced you the most in regard to your music as well as videos you make for your songs? I listen to so many different genres of music that it is hard to pinpoint one specific source of inspiration. I'm a patchwork of everything. When I was working on my fist album, I had no agenda. No plans, no expectations. I let it flow. I remember, when I was recording Quarrel, my main focus was to connect elements that on their own would never work together. I wanted to give listeners goose bumps. I generally have a DIY approach when it comes to recording. I can convert very poorly recorded sound bits from a market in Morocco in to a melody line, and you would never know that it didn’t come from an expensive synthesizer. Same goes for visual content. I am able to create a story from various, unrelated video clips. Total punk rock and garage. Some despise it, others like it. Did you know, that one of the melodic lines on Uncovered comes from porn? Someone asked me if they were bisons. Album »Untune« has been also very popular with more then 800.000 views of your videos/songs Duel 35 and almost 400.000 Closer on YouTube. How does it feel to see your music have been listened/watched so much? They will play Duel at my funeral. I am sure of it. Honestly? When I look at these statistics, I worry that they are low. Your second album »Undone« from 2016 and song Ost to the game »Ruiner« also from »Undone«, was nominated in the Electronic Album Of The Year category of Fryderyki 2017 and Digital Dragons 2018 award for the best game soundtrack. How come that you wrote a song created for the game and how is it different making songs for games from other fields? How did it make you being nominated for the awards and what influence the award had on your work, people recognized your more, you got more offers for concerts and tours? Winning the soundtrack category at the Digital Dragon gala was a great experience. The more so because I do not come from the gaming world and my music wasn’t really popular in that community. The fact that music from »Undone« was included in the Ruiner soundtrack was a milestone for me. Since then I’ve developed a strong fan base among gamers. You can see that in YouTube statistics. It also shows in the comments, there are many slogans from the game: “get them puppy” or “kill them all”. I am very amused and happy when I read them. Being nominated for a Fryderyk Award was fun. It is the most prestigious music award in Poland. It is usually awarded to popular musicians. When I was a kid I used watch the gala on TV. So you can imagine that it was a great experience to be there and be nominated. This year Unocovered, my third album, was nominated in Electronic Album of the Year category. But the awards were postponed due to pandcemic. Let this be my comment on importance of these types of awards. You third album »Uncovered« is quite different from the two previous ones, as Bob Cluness (2019) wrote you fine-tuned your production skills and buffed up your beats to a crisp clean, minimal finish and added your voice. I agree with him that it is your best album. I particularly like songs Alive, Hollow, Back. How come you decided to start singing as well and what do you wish to achieve by adding lyrics to your songs? I envied my friends - female vocalists. Adding vocals was a wet dream. I thought about it for a long time, but there came a moment in my life that I needed words as another source of communication. Like an additional instrument. It was another big challenge for me as a producer. Maybe that's why this album is considered the best - because I surprised everyone, myself included. So, what do I have to do on the next album? Do you think music could or should reflect certain »sign of times/zeitgeist« and also should it represent certain values, such as democracy, equality, freedom, peace? I am asking this because when I watched videos for songs Duel 35, Closer, Army (from »Untune«) all deal with violence, aggression and war. Why does this topic interest you in connection to your music/videos, do you wish to make a statement about the aforementioned topics? I think that every young musician must come to the point where he begins to understand that music cannot be non-political. This is impossible by the very assumption of especially electronic music which was founded on the foundations of struggles for human rights and the proclamation of equality slogans. Techno was created in black neighbourhoods, in gay clubs. I am under the impression that nowadays many people in Poland forgot about it. My main premise while recording, especially »Undone« was to remind everyone that electronics can carry a message. In addition, I have been fascinated by the music and customs of other cultures since I was a child. I have always been always under the impression that our white race did a lot of damage. There was a lot about that on my second album too. It was the result of total anger at what is happening around the Word. I think globally, less locally. How is your music connected to your sexual orientation? In song Hollow we can hear you sing »She said what should I tell you?«, in song Alive (both songs are from album »Uncovered«) you sing »She is a girl, She is alive«. Do you sing about your personal experiences? Do you find it important raising awareness regarding different sexual orientations through music? I always talk only about myself and my feelings on my albums. I couldn't create a fake story. I can't make up and lie, which is often my curse because I talk too much. I never hide my orientation. I never had a big coming-out, although one newspaper tried very hard to make it seem that way a few years ago. For me this is my way of "fighting" - NATURALITY. I do not scream, I do not stomp my feet, but in interviews I use the phrase "my ex-girlfriend” without batting an eye. I never pretend, I never lie about myself. I usually don't take part in any actions because I just don't like them and I don't like the way, dealing with the problem, that associations working for LGBT people in Poland have chosen. Very often they lock themselves in a certain enclave, instead of opening to different environments. So I think that more important than expressing yourself directly in music is how you behave on a daily basis. However you are not working only as a music maker and producer. In the years 2017–2019 you were a host of a programme "Nocny TransPort" in national radio station Czwórka. For instance I have tried to raise awareness about the representation of different sexual orientations and identities through my books, work on radio and television and even editorial work. What was your work about? Have you also included a topic on homosexuality? I returned to the radio during the pandemic. I try to raise many different issues regarding other cultures, human rights, current and difficult social situations. I never leave matters without a comment because I consider it an obligation if I have such a platform as a radio. Not only that - I work on Polish National radio which 99% were taken over by the current regime authorities. I can't imagine not taking advantage of this opportunity and smuggling out different content in a thoughtful way. However, I don’t focus solely on LGBT. There are really many issues in which people in our country needs awareness. Music from different cultures is a great link. How do you perceive current situation of LGBT people in Poland? It’s bad. No one goes to prison for homosexuality yet but I’m not sure if we should consider "bad" from prison for sexual orientation. We currently have a very right-wing party in power which spreads propaganda in national media that LGBT is a group that will pervert your children. And these are the lightest hits. Of course, we don't have any rights. I’m ashamed of that, but Poland is not a tolerant country. There are of course many groups that are fighting for LGBT community, but isn't it sad that in the 21st century we have to prove to someone that a gay or a lesbian is not a perverse creature lurking to stalk your children? Many people have to leave the country if they want to start a family. There is violence at parades, like the one in Bialystok last year. It's terrifying. This is unacceptable. Forget about holding your hand on the street if you don't want to hear insults. I live in the capital city and I can't imagine how scared kids from smaller towns are, who discover their sexuality. Something must change. This is a violation of human rights. I hope that finally someone will weigh it, hear it. This should finally be dealt with by the European Union, to which Poland, after all, belongs. What inspires you most in your work and in your personal life? I don't think I have such a specific thing. Life in itself, simply. At last but not least, what are you currently working on and what are your plans for the future? I'm trying to get together and focus only on myself and recording a new material. It's hard work. Believe me, I'm the least focused person I know. Katarina Majerhold Interviews with women in film industry, research institutes, art organizations ...Archives
July 2023
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