Adrienne Rich, a poet of towering reputation and towering rage, whose work — distinguished by an unswerving progressive vision and a dazzling, empathic ferocity — brought the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse and kept it there for nearly a half-century, died on Tuesday at her home in Santa Cruz, Calif. She was 82.

More from the New York Times

Kristen Tedder, or Tutu as she is known to friends, was never going to react to breast cancer in a conventional way. This is the performance artist whose Doris Day meets Courtney Love routine had the Gallagher brothers whooping for more at a London club in the late 1990s.

Her latest project is Punk Cancer: a visceral, disrespectful and decidedly un-pink approach to fighting breast cancer. “All the pink, fluffy breast cancer imagery didn’t do it for me, so I went down a different road,” Tutu explains. “I learned to love breast cancer because it’s part of my body and it taught me a lot about my life. But I also wanted to kick its ass.”

When we meet, Tutu, 45, is wearing a T-shirt, created with London label Earl of Bedlam. It features a stencil of herself, boldly one-breasted, and, in Never Mind the Bollocks lettering, the phrase: “Cancer Sucks: Fight it, Love it, Live it, Survive it.”

More from the Guardian here

A new report from the Research Advocacy Unit (RAU):

Do you have the PHD Syndrome?
By Kudakwashe Chitsike

“Unless and until we get rid of PHD, women will not go far in any field.” In this context a PHD is not a doctorate degree, it is an acronym that stands for Pull Her Down. The Pull Her Down Syndrome is sadly one that most women suffer from regardless of status in society. Upon hearing the term for the first time I was shocked as it seemed in the group there were a few of us who had never heard of the PHD, I knew what it was but I hadn’t realised that the behaviour had its own acronym! The syndrome is based on an inferiority complex, “We look down upon each other and ourselves by saying we are not able to do it, let the men do it.”

The Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) held 11 focus group discussions with women from different parts of the country to talk about politically motivated violence against women. The focus group discussions also explored what women are likely to face as we draw closer to elections, looking at what happened in past elections and what efforts are being made to protect women from violence.

Inevitably these discussions also brought about the issue of encouraging women to participate in national processes and aspire to hold positions of authority. It is within this context that we established that the PHD is holding women back as women do not support other women to occupy leadership positions. W “We grew up being told that men should be the ones’ to lead so we still have that mentality and letting it go is a bit difficult.” It was stated repeatedly that when a woman is standing for a political position, she has to struggle for acceptance from her peers as petty jealousies based mainly on gossip rear their ugly heads. The main reason for women selling out other women is seldom for their political affiliations but mostly because of the PHD syndrome; politics provides a perfect cover for women to settle scores that have accumulated over years.

Another issue that features in the political PHD syndrome is marital status; if a woman is single, involved in politics and successful the most common misconception is that she used unscrupulous mainly immoral means to get to the top.”A married woman is said to be more honourable than one who is not married so when an unmarried woman runs for office she is judged harshly.” If she is married then she doesn’t have a strong husband who can bring her to order as politics and marriage do not mix, never mind that men have been doing it for time immemorial.

A woman involved in politics, as with women in other male dominated fields has to work twice as hard to gain respect and ironically the people she has to impress the most are other women. Women would rather nominate a man than another woman for a political position, as “men are more educated and politically astute”, but when we asked how the women will ever become educated and astute if we do not give them opportunities, the women had no response.

The women in the focus groups acknowledged that women need to be given the opportunities to learn on the job but stated that there is a need for a total change in mindset, so that we accept that women can do the same as men in politics and any other fields considered to be male domain. The way to address this is by having confidence building sessions for women, which should start with confidence in the home before addressing what happens in the public arena. The inferiority complex results in “women not standing up for what they want so if someone says that we are unable to do something then we start to doubt ourselves and believe that we will fail and thus we fail before we even begin.”

For there to be a change in mindset it is important to look at cultural and religious beliefs that perpetuate the myth that women are below men and they are overstepping their bounds when they participate in politics. It is important to involve the men and older women, as they are the custodians of the beliefs that oppress women. Women’s organisations have to take on a much bigger role and increase visibility particularly in the rural areas where cultural and religious beliefs, which discriminate against women, are deeply rooted.

It has been said often enough by women in high political positions that it is an uphill journey to the top for a woman to stand against a man for a position. They have to contend with sexual harassment and or sexual violence, superiority complexes from their male counterparts without having to deal with the PHD from women. Instead of supporting the efforts of those who are brave enough to say ‘bring it on’ to the men, other women are scheming to find ways to bring her down. The women stated that many times when a woman is elected, she stops behaving and thinking like a woman and takes on a ruthless male persona, where she has forgotten the struggles she endured as a woman to get there, she forgets about the women left behind in the struggle.

Women in these discussions varied in age, geographical locations, backgrounds and political affiliation but their responses were very similar with regard to PHD, “we women are our own worst enemies as we don’t want to see our peers succeed.” The PHD syndrome however is not confined to the political realm it appears in every aspect of every woman’s life. It is about undermining the efforts of another for usually very superficial reasons. As women we should implement programmes that encourage women and girls to grab equal opportunities with men as well as support each other in whatever areas we decide to venture into.

Taking photographs on Friday at the House of Smiles showcase I was reminded of Dr Watch Ruparanganda whom I interviewed last year about his book Genitals Are Assets. In our pre-interview conversation he spoke about how there was little space for the girls who live on the street. As the streets were a means of making money these, and other public spaces were largely dominated by boys.

During the event dance trainer Rahim Solomon mentioned how hard it was to get girls who lived on the street to participate in their workshops. They had been lucky and had found three, as compared to over 28 boys. It was easy to see why the girls would be reluctant to participate; their only performance was dominated by boys, who stormed onto the stage to dance. And during ciphers they didn’t have a chance to dance at all.

Our discourse about feminism and the girl child largely centres on those who live somewhere, with family, or their parents, even in orphanages, but we never speak about creating a space for young women who live on the street. It does seem as though they have become invisible, even to those us who are supposed to be defending them. It is very difficult to speak of someone’s rights when the greater imperative is survival, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

I attended a presentation by a remarkable young Zimbabwean woman at the US Embassy Harare Public Affairs Section on Tuesday. Nyaradzo Mashayambombe is a gospel artist and founder of Tag a Life International. Having grown up in rural Shurugwi, Nyaradzo witnessed the challenges faced by girls and young women. Their circumstances inspired her to found Tag A Life International in 2010.

Of forming TaLi and her work she says,

“TaLi was borne out the vision of a need to create a safe world where girls can dream as much as boys, and gain access to resources so they can become who they want to be. I began to believe that the empowerment of the girl child couldn’t be complete without the involvement of the communities in which they are socialised. “

In her presentation Nyaradzo stated strongly that men could also play an important role in the lives of girls and young women,

“Our strategies are based on a strong belief that harm should never happen to girls and we cannot remain on the sidelines without taking a proactive stance. This stance involves educating our communities, men and boys, that they have equal responsibility towards their female counterparts. Men ought to play a role in improving a girl’s life. If you are a relative, compliment them; be interested in their talents and education. Make her feel important such that she won’t think that getting it from a man is worth losing her own life.”

On 27 February, VIDA published statistics on the gender of contributors at a number of literary magazines and journals, with Granta emerging as the only publication with a ratio that favoured women.

So, subscribe to Granta this International Women’s Day!