The crafts that once connected us and the earth have faded from view and taken with them fundamental relationships. A political enquiry into these media allows us to take craft seriously, as a tool to imagine and shape more cooperative, sustainable and liberating ways of life. This has never been more necessary than amidst our epoch of rapid accumulation, consumption and disconnection.
One needs to explore how the discourse around “saving” Muslim women, in particular, often comes from a colonial, culturally superior gaze that strips them of their agency. Instead, by using the distinct lens of radical films like Joyland and Seed of the Sacred Fig, we see how gender, sexuality, artistic expression and resistance take shape in very specific cultural and political realities.
The global rise of right-wing gender discourse and advocacy is a testament to the fact that there is no monolithic gender system that exists in any given society.
