Today the Department of Extraordinary Upcycling is enjoying the work of its newest member, Japanese paper artist Chie Hitotsuyama who uses tightly rolled strips of wet newspaper to create uniquely textured animals sculptures that are hauntingly lifelike.
“More than anything else, I’m particular about the realistic feel of the animals,” she shares with Kokusai Pulp & Paper. “Animals that live in nature are equal to us in the sense that we live together on this planet. Sometimes they sleep. Sometimes they eat. They are living ordinary everyday lives just like us. I would like keep insisting on reality and producing my life-sized work as much as possible in order to convey their lives.”
I am so so utterly fed up of how oblivious men seem to be (and if they’re not oblivious it’s conscious selfishness which is even worse) when it comes to their taking of women’s time. i’m talking strange women, women who have no connection with these men except to be unfortunate enough to be a captive audience.
This morning i made a nine hour journey from one country to another, beginning with a 6am tram ride to the train station. I was the only person at the tram stop apart from a middle-aged man, no one anywhere else around (to be expected that early on a sunday). He asked me when the tram was coming, i politely told him, and then went back to checking train times on my phone. He proceeded to ask me where i was going, where was i coming from, what was i doing in the city, did i have family here, how long had i been staying, where was i born, what was i studying. i kept my answers short, not wanting to refuse to engage with him (as there was no one else around and i didn’t want to aggravate him) but not in any way trying to encourage him. He then sat down next to me and started telling me his life story until the tram arrived.
Later, i’m on the plane and this one guy is standing next to the queue and trying to banter with the air stewardesses while they’re boarding people. The same man ends up sat in the row behind me, next to a woman maybe 5-10 years older than me. same thing happened to her: this man talked at her for the entire two hour plane journey, ignoring her short, blunt responses and obvious lack of interest. he talked at her about his children, his opinion about schools these days, about national service, about politics. He made full use of his captive audience- she had quite literally nowhere to go, and women are taught to be polite. we cannot bring ourselves to say “I’m not interested in talking to you, please leave me alone.” In some situations, it could be dangerous to say that.
A few months ago I was on a train to Coventry, a long journey for which I’d brought a book to read, so I could use the time to study. I took the window, and a man sat in the aisle seat next to me. He talked at me for the entire journey. I was polite, I nodded, I responded where expected, and every time the subject was clearly over, I opened my book up and began to read again. Literally every time, for the whole journey, no sooner had I started to read than this man would begin a new topic of conversation. At one point he’d clearly run out of topics and asked me about the book, and I quite bluntly told him it was something I needed to read for my studies, and turned back to the page. He launched into his opinions about philosophy. The cycle continued.
Another time, I was on the train from King’s Cross to Cambridge and a man sat next to me and struck up conversation with me quite at random- he would stop and turn back to his newspaper when he felt like it, and I would start reading my book, but then he would start talking to me again when he got bored of his paper. The entire interaction was on his terms, for his benefit; he didn’t care that I was reading, he only cared that he didn’t want to read, but wanted to talk to the strange woman sitting next to him.
I am so tired of men assuming they are entitled to women’s time as a form of entertainment when they want, of men seeing women as receptacles for male opinions, of men taking advantage of social situations that women can’t easily leave. It doesn’t seem to matter if you don’t engage in the conversation, if your body language says you’re not comfortable, if you’ve got a book or headphones or some other prop that clearly shows you’re doing something else and don’t want to interact with them. I am so tired of social conventions that teach women to feel ashamed if they don’t politely accept these intrusions.
This is when I find that being partially deaf in one ear comes in very, very handy.
Not joking, because I can legitimately ignore them.
Working in the service industry, I couldn’t tell you how many times I’m subject to this, I know that the man isn’t in the gallery to buy art, he sees me there, by myself and decides this is his opportunity to make conversation, and only the arrival of another customer will get him to leave, even if I’m on the phone, or typing on a keyboard and making certain he knows I’ve got shit to get done.
You know what works wonders to shut this shit down? Talk about your period. I mean seriously, just slot it randomly in between his sentences, how bad the cramps are, and how the bloating makes everything you wear feel gross and too tight, and it really sucks how little men actually bother to learn about a woman’s biology, and how you’ve always felt it was important to correct that whenever someone gave you the chance, so hang on, dude, we’re gonna talk all about the bleeding cootch, unless and until you back the fuck up and leave me alone tight now. KTHXBYEEEEE
You could probably just get away with asking if he knows the closest place to buy tampons, and maybe some Midol (or your country’s equivalent) because these cramps are a bitch. If that’s not enough, worry out loud to yourself about getting to a restroom soon enough, because you’re flowing really heavily.
