Blog posts by Jolene Tan: 2010
2 + 2 = 5
by Jolene Tan // 14 November 2010, 12:49
How's about this advertisement from Malaysia for a bit of obnoxious, cynical doublethink? (Hat tip: twostoreys)For those who can't watch the video, it shows a series of smiling women dancing, while music plays, accompanied by the following voiceover:Brown and beautiful....
Katie Makkai's Pretty
by Jolene Tan // 29 October 2010, 08:55
Check out this powerful poetry slam performance by Katie Makkai, indicting the beauty imperative and its hollow, reductive joylessness....
Sakineh's son and lawyer arrested
by Jolene Tan // 13 October 2010, 19:33
From the International Committee Against Stoning, further developments in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who is at risk of a judicial punishment of stoning in Iran:Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and lawyer, Houtan Kian, were arrested along with...
Against recruitment fees for migrant domestic workers
by Jolene Tan // 11 October 2010, 14:12
From United for Foreign Domestic Workers' Rights, a press release accompanying a protest by Indonesian workers against the Indonesian Consulate in Hong Kong:...more than 350 Indonesian migrants trooped to the Indonesian Consulate from East Point Road in Causeway Bay to...
Weekly round-up and open thread, 27 September 2010
by Jolene Tan // 27 September 2010, 15:29
Here's Monday, and with it comes the weekly round-up and open thread. Have at it in comments!Craftivists at London Fashion Week (mr x stitch)Summerskill voices opposition to same-sex marriage (Pink News)Pregnancy clinics 'should be set up in schools' (Guardian)Recent Belfast...
Pakistan flood relief
by Jolene Tan // 23 August 2010, 11:22
Many of you will be aware of the devastating flood which has hit Pakistan, causing what the director of UNICEF's emergency operations has described as the largest humanitarian crisis "in decades".Sindh, in the south of Pakistan, is now being described...
Update on Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani
by Jolene Tan // 12 August 2010, 10:04
Iranian Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, at risk of execution, has appeared on television "confessing" complicity in the murder of her husband. The Guardian reports:Speaking shakily in her native Azeri language, which could be heard through a voiceover, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani told...
"As though they are dirty and diseased"
by Jolene Tan // 7 August 2010, 18:57
Yesterday the Guardian ran a piece (bizarrely, in the "Life & Style" section) about the situation of migrant domestic workers in the UK:The London-based charity Kalayaan is the only one in the country that deals specifically with migrant domestic workers;...
One domestic worker's story
by Jolene Tan // 20 July 2010, 09:14
In February I wrote about the gross maltreatment and dehumanisation of domestic workers in Singapore. It's received a comment from MaidinSing, one such worker who blogs to raise awareness of the way in which migrant labour is exploited in Singapore....
Women in prison: Inspectorate report
by Jolene Tan // 16 July 2010, 20:21
Last week the Inspectorate of Prisons released a thematic report on women's prisons.Prisons are mostly populated by people who have been socially excluded in any number of ways, but there are, as you might expect, gendered aspects to these experiences....
First, do no harm
by Jolene Tan // 17 June 2010, 21:01
[Note: I've changed the wording of this post because children with clitorises may not necessarily be girls. In the interests of transparency, I've indicated my earlier error with the strikethrough tag. My apologies for the earlier sloppiness. It seems to...
O brave new world
by Jolene Tan // 7 June 2010, 23:52
Brace yourselves: you’ll need a strong stomach for this one.Here is a story (via Womanist Musings) of girls in the Sodavas and Girvas villages of Rajasthan, many of whom are kidnapped in infancy and brought there. When aged 6-10, they...
"A little place where I live safe"
by Jolene Tan // 27 February 2010, 23:24
Human Rights Watch have released a report on the use by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) of Detained Fast Track (DFT), an accelerated procedure for asylum cases, for the cases of women whose circumstances raise complex gender-related issues. Many of...
Diplomats and migrant domestic workers
by Jolene Tan // 25 February 2010, 21:26
There've been some stories in the news this week about the abuse of migrant domestic workers by diplomats. From The Times:Diplomats at several London embassies have been accused of using migrant domestic workers as “modern-day slaves”, depriving them of food...
Misreading Lolita
by Jolene Tan // 24 February 2010, 21:07
I posted an earlier version of this as a Facebook note last September, when Polanski was arrested, but given the award he's just won and a renewed spate of celebrity support for him, I thought I might revisit it.I am...
Race to the bottom
by Jolene Tan // 17 February 2010, 00:35
Much has been said about the racism in mainstream Western beauty standards. As Latoya Peterson puts it: the message for white women is "try harder", but the message for women of colour is "never". The legacies of colonialism and the...
Important questions from Gita Sahgal
by Jolene Tan // 7 February 2010, 23:47
The detention of Moazzam Begg and others in Guantanamo Bay was and is a violation of their human rights, which Amnesty International is right to criticise.Moazzam Begg and his organisation, Cage Prisoners, are not defenders of human rights, and are...
Same garbage, different continents
by Jolene Tan // 7 February 2010, 17:22
Over at Racialicious, Thea Lim discusses an American website, "Classy Asian Ladies", which fetishises Asian women ("Asian" is used in the American rather than the British sense, referring to the Asian continent more generally rather than specifically South Asia). Drawing...
A False Necessity: Singapore's Maid Trade
by Jolene Tan // 2 February 2010, 17:34
In my gleamingly modern home town of Singapore, trading in women has been refined to a stomach-churningly efficient art. The women in question are foreign domestic workers (FDWs), locally known as “maids”, who travel from poorer countries - principally but...
Founder of The F-Word, Catherine Redfern, has co-authored a new book with Kristin Aune. Find out more at the 
