Infoshop Budapest

Sunday, 19th of January at 15h in Klit

DEGETOAICA, 3′

photos by: Cosmin Bumbuț, 2011

Location: Tîrgșor Women Penitentiary, România

This is a photo-reportage of queer/ genderbending people in romanian women-only prison. Degetoaica would have a rather awkward translation as part of the prison culture of “girlboys”. So, only with reservations termed girlboys are usually described as women who, during prison detention, assume a male identity. They go by their male names and male pronouns, that even the guards acknowledge. They have “wives” who tidy up, do the laundry and wash the dishes for them. Girlboys protect them, fulfill their emotional needs and offer them sexual pleasure. They clinch their fists and demand respect. Out of the prison some of these women are married, have children, assumed/complied to a cis identification. Many keep returning to the prison. The situation with prison staff is very ambiguous and some of them have complained that having had assumed this “degetoaica” identity, it affected and decreased their chances to get an earlier release.

These are declared non lesbian relationships that some have only in detention. Other, continue their relationships after they are released. Most of them are old offenders. Almost all have suffered sexual abuse. One of the individual stories is of a woman who became a degetoaica in prison, there began a relationship with a woman, continued their relationship after being freed and now they are again imprisoned together, for committing a theft [also together].

Our sunday presenter Rox, tackles on this most interesting phenomenon further on: “Btw, “degetoaice” comes from “deget” which means a finger. maybe i could somehow translate the term as: “big woman-finger”, “big finger-woman” if that makes any sense? One of them was saying how between the degetoaica and their female partner, the roles are fixed, and only the degetoaica is allowed to take the “active role” during sex. I am quoting: “only the “boy” is allowed to touch her girlfriend, without the latter being active in any way” and “the difference between us and lesbians is that they use their tongues on one another,”” Our comrade Infoshop activist and gender student from Romania will be willing to discuss and answer our questions on this topic.

Additionally to this exceptional, short photo reportage we will screen another documentary film, from different cultural context and will try to reflect on gender/sexuality/race (class) of them in critical dialogue.

The AGGRESSIVES, 2005

By: Daniel Peddle

Duration: 75′

another gender bending variant of female sexual/racial negotiation in harsh social environments. Remember the gay drag ball culture in Paris is burning, from beginning of the 90ies by which we were able to learn on performativity of gender? Could AG be considered a masculinity without men, as Halberstam phrases it?

“Aggressive” is the term used by women of color, much like the way “butch” is used to describe some lesbian women. (In fact, the only thing the film didn’t do which I would have liked is mention the use of the word, how it came about, how it’s different or perceived as different from butch by the women who use it to describe themselves.) Effectively “aggressive” describes women who are more masculine in both appearance, physique, and attitude. Some of them identify as trans, yet many were also very clear about the fact that they are women and lesbians.

The film told the stories of five different aggressive women over a five-year period. One was Korean, the others of African-American descent. They talked about who they liked to date (lesbians for the most part, though one also dated transwomen, and got fed up with dating them by the film’s end, and wanted a “real girl” for a girlfriend instead); how they experienced their identities, and what it was about them that was masculine, and how they made it work. (from Helen Boyd blog post on the Aggressives)

Join us for screening and discussion, on Sunday, 19th of January at 15h in Klit.

For the exact location of Klit, please write to fork@riseup.net

http://klitbudapest.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/infoshop-and-rqac-joint-sunday-documentary-film-screening-event/

https://www.facebook.com/events/600867166648809

We will talk about current situation in Hungary. It will concern the scandal with the Taxation Agency, student movements, political moods and pr-electoral mood, as well as about many other things.

Monday 6 Jan

18:00

Klit

Saturday at 6pm in Golya, Budapest

Mali Prijatelji (Little Friends) is a DIY kindergarten run out of an infoshop in the Karaburma neighborhood of Belgrade. It is collectively and autonomously operated by a committed group of people sympathetic to anarchism and anti-fascism; it has no legal status and it does not work with NGOs. The children come from one of the poorest and largest Roma settlements in Belgrade, Deponije, and range from 4 to 7 years old. This presentation will discuss the aims, development, trials and successes of this project and and answer your questions about it. Donations for Mali Prijatelji will be accepted to help with purchasing new supplies and toys as well as feeding and clothing the children throughout the winter.

Presentation in English by Freddie Schulze.

viciouslyoffcenter.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/little-friends/

[magyar]:

The Budapest Infoshop invites you to a discussion about the recent resistance movements in ukraine and romania. In Kiev, hundreds of thousands of people are on the streets, protesting the government and the political system. In Pungesti, local villagers are resisting the riot police and the thugs of Chevron, as the oil company tries to set up fracking gas facilities in the area. We will talk about these issues and other related movements in these regions.
Also, on Monday we release the third issue of the zine ‘Buruieni‘, dedicated to more than ten years of anarchist and anticapitalist struggles in romanian cities. Other zines and printed materials related to the discussions will be available. tea and popcorn as well.  bring a friend!
WHEN: Monday, 9 december, 18:00
WHERE: Klit feminist queer social space (for exact adress email fork@riseup.net)
free entrance

The Infoshop invites you to the screening of RUINS (2013, 57′), a documentary directed by Zoe Mavroudi, about the criminalization of HIV in Greece. The story of a group of HIV- positive women who were detained by the Greek Police, forcibly tested, charged with a felony, imprisoned and publicly exposed, when their mug shots and personal data were published in the media, in the run-up to the country’s 2012 national elections.
The screening will be followed by a discussion.

When: next Monday at 6pm, December 2nd, 2013
Where: KLIT, Budapest (for the exact address of the venue, please contact us at fork@riseup.net ).

RUINS website: http://ruins-documentary.com/en/

KLIT: http://klitbudapest.wordpress.com/

To commemorate the international day against fascism and antisemitism, the Budapest Infoshop invites you to a discussion about the current situation of the far-right in Hungary. Extreme right ideas are finding a fertile ground in this country. Racism is manifested through hate speech and violent actions against Roma and Jewish people, and not only. Far right groups have paramilitary organisations that harrass people while patrolling in the villages and towns of the countryside. Budapest is also the scene of numerous far-right street actions, far-right symbols, statues of nazi leaders, and even shops with far-right merchandise. At the same time, the public reaction against these problems is still very low. Join us next Monday for an open discussion about all these things, where everybody can bring and share their own experiences.

When: Monday, 11.11., 7pm

Where: Klit

[Klit is a non-authoritarian, non-racist and non-sexist space. for more information, please visit http://klitbudapest.wordpress.com/ ]

cows against fascism!

Monday, 4th November, at 7pm, Budapest Infoshop will show a movie about the Ungdomshuset squat in Copenhagen. “69” is a documentary about a large group of young people who did not see themselves, culturally or politically, as part of established society. In 1982 they lawfully occupied what was known as the Youth House (Ungdomshuset) at Jagtvej 69, on the outskirts of Copenhagen’s inner city. The film portrays the group’s situation in 2007, documenting the stormy last six months of the Youth House’s history, where the radicalized group rage against the establishment. By following the inner circle of activists, we learn more about the group, the reasons for their actions, and the cause of their predicament.

Place: Klit (for the exact location, write to fork [at] riseup.net.)

Time: 7pm

Considering the 4th of October (World Animal Day), 5th of October (International Action Day for Stray Dogs) and recent events in Romania, we’d like to invite you to the screening of “Man’s Best Friend” film, followed by a discussion.

‘Man’s Best Friend’ is a raw and vivid investigation into the love-hate relationship between Romanians and strays, using expert interviews, secret footage and graphic images of dog capture and abuse.
Objective and non-intrusive, this Romanian-British documentary reveals how the stray dog crisis is a symptom of a new EU nation’s struggle to find an identity two decades after its brutal Communist dictatorship.
http://mansbestfriend.ro/

***
More on the situation of stray/homeless dogs in Romania:

In September 2013, a 4-year old boy who ventured too far away from his grandma was supposedly mauled to death by some dogs on the terrain of an abandoned factory. Along the euphoria of tens of thousands of people going out in the streets against the Rosia Montana gold mining project, what followed was mass panic in the media and mass mobilization against all stray/homeless dogs of Bucharest and other big cities of Romania. Random killings of homeless dogs are still undergone by some people through rudimentary methods, while most local authorities have hired dog-catching companies to “clean” the streets. Shelters, which look more like prisons considering the poor conditions, have become in just a few days overpopulated. Last week, the Parliament has deemed constitutional a new law allowing “euthanasia” (actually brutal killings) of all homeless animals who have been caught but not adopted within 14 days – hence the overnight flourishing of a new dog-catching dog-killing industry.

Beyond all of these events lies the concept that non-human animals belong to human animals, they are ours to be used and disposed of as we wish.

***
– the entrance is, of course and as always, free.