Faculty of Humanities of CU invites Professor Lisa Duggan to the Queer Film Festi ****************************************************************************************** * Gender, Justice and Neoliberalism: Faculty of Humanities of CU invites Professor Lisa Du Film Festival ****************************************************************************************** During November, Mezipatra’s Queer Film Festival came to 10 different cities across the Cz commemorate a hundred ranking films on lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and queer themes, to LGBT community, investigate their representation in media, and to educate, debate and spre of gender studies and topics. Mezipatra changed the popular event‘s name to Queer Film Fes “new decade with a change in the attribute – from gay and lesbian festival to a queer film this attribute name change we manifested what we desired since the beginnings of the festi gay and lesbian festival only for gays and lesbians. The term queer embraces all who find gender categories too tight.” Their website claims that over ten thousand attend the festival each year:  “we did not as would have become the biggest queer event in the Czech Republic in few years… Mezipatra [ www.mezipatra.cz/en/"] has become a natural constituent of the social dialogue concerning It succeeded to provide the most prioritised value of all the enlightenment, openness and people meet in one space, so there is no room left for a one-sided discussion in a kind of As an active feminist and allie to the LGBT movement, with an avid fascination of the boun dimensions of gender and sexuality, I was keen to go along to the numerous exhibitions, wo and films the festival had to offer when it arrived in Prague. My favourite of them all wa Lisa Duggan [ URL "http://sca.as.nyu.edu/object/LisaDuggan"] ’s (New York University) eye- entitled Gender, Justice and Neoliberalism [ URL "http://www.mezipatra.cz/en/program/dopro diszkuze-gender-justice-and-neoliberalism"] , co-organised by Faculty of Humanities of CU, her research in queer theory , the history and politics of gender, sexuality and race and of these against the backdrop of modern neoliberal society. Duggan was funny and modest, and began by briefly explaining her work, which includes nume titles like The Twilight of Equality? : Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack o (2003) and Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Violence and American Modernity (2000). Her research and lectures contribute to a momentum of worry over modern capitalism and its peaking strain o outside of the straight, white, able-bodied male model, who she says, benefits almost enti current system in place. I was apprehensive that Duggan’s lecture on neoliberalism’s impac would be similar to one I’ve listened to before (which was a two hour ramble on Karl Marx) the audience with a talent of being radical but balanced, using clear-cut, relatable examp progressive and analytical attitude towards change without jumping on the anarchist bandwa She defined neoliberal political systems as correlative to the late 1970s/early 1980s and (1989) in the Czech Republic; going hand in hand with the Velvet Revolution of Czechoslova of communism and establishment of the Czech Republic. The commonality between countries pr experimenting with neoliberal politics during this time was modernity; post-war individual that focused on civil liberties, the outright rejection of socialism after its stagnating Europe, and the strong presence of conservative leaders such as Thatcher. When Duggan brou was apprehensive that she would begin an anti-Thatcher crusade in the room (in Britain I a to a fierce divide of either fanatical admiration or fanatical hatred whenever her name is and I’ve received the most confused looks from Brits when I explain that I’m somewhat in b she was refreshingly balanced and analytical, which makes a change from being a bystander students hurling abuse at each other for hours on end (tip – don’t mention Thatcher at a B Duggan enlightened us to the key neoliberal scholars from the 1930s onwards, the most prom Rand, who hit fame after the publication of The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (19 that were largely responsible for making neoliberalism fashionable – she is also a heroine rationalists, libertarians and entrepreneurs alike and was a leader in this new egotist ec and its fellowship up until its practical implementation in the late 70’s. This isn’t surp her work nearly surpassed the Bible in global book sales. Duggan made an intriguing case that oppressed groups of people were surprisingly drawn to she argued thoroughly and articulately, to be failing modern challenges and the needy of s resulting in the greatest fiscal and social inequalities ever.  She presented how neoliber the individual, which was upheld and romantised by Rand’s writing and notorious interview Duggan showed us clips of her, where she spoke inspiringly and wrote poetically of success fantasy, rebellion, creativity- and even made neoliberalism sexy in the Hollywood film ada Fountainhead, which grossed 2.1 Million Dollars. Despite her hardline ways, the movement i attracted young people, women and members of the LGBT community, which Duggan put down to demonisation of the state and focus on anti-normality. In context, I understood this. Rand loud, different, a breakthrough in circular politics and it’s common for people to turn to or outside political parties as a protest tactic. Yet, in reality, Randian neoliberalism i political alternative that Duggan claimed to be “a brutal oppression of the needy… present a social good and depicting people as either makers or takers” and her critique of this ki on-your-own-two-feet”, anti-nanny state dogma was put perfectly, with witty metaphors: “pe sacrificed for the fiscal sanity of neoliberal politicians, who are zombies with their soc politics. Capitalism has been historically and in its nature, immune to issues of sex, rac colonialism and justice”. Duggan used relatable, recent instances of European austerity measures to justify this – c and social services, mass privatisation, deregulation and reduced taxation of corporations She discussed the cross-country impact of these and referred to the daily news for us to o precedence of these actions; Europe has suffered from extensive cuts and the people have r ongoing disorder and blame. I agreed with her perspective on the sociological naivety and victim-blaming nature of thi and white politics from my experience in the UK, where the impacts of neoliberalism are co largely ignored by both Labour and the Conservatives, the two leading political parties in dominate UK stateship in a pendulum manner, wastefully spending debate time on reckless at other, thus losing scope on the crucial issues – how our privatised travel and heating are extortionate, previously free services such as mental health counselors now rely on patien youth unemployment is at an all-time high, small family-run businesses cease to exist in m charities and services are financially choking, the high street is crushed by transnationa and drastic cuts have been imposed on councils, the police and NHS, causing them to be und overworked. Enormous privatisation measures have taken hold of services (most recently bei Mail) and frighteningly on our educational institutions too. Student fees have been treble there’s dwindling electoral turnout and participation yet frequent protests and occasional devastating being the 2011 London riots) plus flourishing Islamaphobia and xenophobia stem from the tabloids tendency to scapegoat migrants and Muslims for it all. Furthermore, Dugg it is the needy of society who have suffering the brunt of this and it is neoliberalism’s individual and rejection of society that ignores the diversity and hierarchy of it; theref facilitate special rights and representation, and failing again to recognise any importanc Duggan concluded this failure of neoliberal governments to be the driving cause for lack o political interest, with people’s political energy instead being channeled into “outside” like Occupy, protests, liberation movements like feminism and LGBT rights, which provide i nature, radical democracy and an alternative voice – and I cling to her final motivating p organisations of misrepresented people are the real driving force of pressure, justice, ac change. During the question and answer session that followed, the audience was lively, diverse and their questions to Duggan, which I found to be a refreshing change from the dialogue you’l when discussing liberation topics in a non-specified setting – my favourite being “what ab from my experience as a woman who likes to talk about women’s rights. Similarly, you’ll fi “what about Straight Pride” coming out of people’s mouths in 2013 (sigh). So what I enjoye and notably during her lecture was the openness and safeness of the environment that allow deep into the core fundamentals of gender and sexuality. In other words – the things that need to be said but often aren’t and which can be such surprisingly touchy and divisive to public and political discourse that you have to normally sugarcoat them in order for anyon taste what it’s all about. Here, there was a comfortable and unified atmosphere, and an am change. All in all, the festival was an outstanding, well organised success with all credit going volunteers, organisers and lecturers, who accomplished a broad debate, unifying many diffe revolutionary ideas. Lisa Duggan’s enlightening lecture exemplified just why such events a and necessary, and if you turn on the news, I hope you’ll agree. Poppy Gerrard-Abbott is an Erasmus student studying BA write for the iForum to build on her journalism skills Czech culture and life in Prague through attending loc Poppy saw the iForum as an exciting opportunity to pur experience that has brought some exciting opportunitie such placements to future students.