Screams from the Pink Collar Ghetto: April 2013

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Art, Music and Literature that made an impression in 2012

A few of the pieces of art, literature, and music that I liked and that inspired me in 2012.

Literature:

Kate Atkinson: Behind the Scenes in the Museum
William Boyd: Waiting for Sunrise
Graham Greene: A Burnt-Out Case
Hillary Mantel: Wolf Hall
Marguerite Duras: The Lover

Art:

Contemporary Vietnamese Artists from Apricot Gallery in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City:

Trang Nguyen Dung

Quach Dong Phuong

Hoang Hai Anh

Le Minh

Dai Hong Phong

Le Quang Ha

Ta Thi Thanh Tam

Tran Luu Hau

Ateneum in Finland: Helene Schjerfbeck retrospective

Modigliani and Soutine at the Pincotheque de Paris

Pre-Raphaelites in Tate Britain

Music:

Austra: Lose It

Honey Claws: Digital Animal

The Civil Wars: Kingdom Come

The Storm: My Crown

The Frank Popp Ensemble: Breakaway!

What is a Pink-Collar Ghetto?

Pink Collar Ghetto describes women stuck in certain jobs, mostly low-paying and usually because of their sex. “Pink Collar” denotes historically female jobs like maids, secretaries, waitresses, and nurses. "Ghetto" is where marginalized people are forced to live.

I chose this title for my blog from a book I started to write when I was 22 and working in South Carolina as a bartender (barmaid according to my mother) and a receptionist/ temp. As a feminist, I was worried that I would never break out of the pink-collar ghetto. I read Barbara Kingsolver's book "The Bean Trees" and it inspired me to leave SC and go back to school.

Now I am a feminist humanitarian working on gender-based violence in humanitarian settings. It's been a long way from that pink collar ghetto in South Carolina but I never forget my roots.