A symposium presented by Federica Caso, Hora Zabarjadi Sar, and Sameema Zahra
Public spaces belong to men. Men have no doubt about this and neither have women. However this asymmetry in the appropriation of the public spaces is not cross-culturally universal unequivocally. In this session we are going to engage with this asymmetry while keeping in mind cultural and racial differences. We will watch a very short film, “To Pee or not to Pee”, made in a light mood about men’s ability to pee while standing and the privilege that comes with it. We will try to question this film in the backdrop of Simone de Beauvoir’s discussion of male privilege that accompanies this particular aspect of male anatomy. The discussion will be focused around the accessibility and appropriation of public spaces for women in different cultures and will try to question whether western interpretation of feminism misses the point?