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Feminized and sexualized.
It is one of the words that Karoline Holmboe Høibo uses about the image that characterizes the cover of Hadia Tajik’s book «Freedom. A political and personal history ».
Høibo is a director of the Faculty of Education Sciences and Humanities at the University of Stavanger, and believes in the debate post in Stavanger Aftenblad that Tajik is destroying herself with the cover of the book she has chosen.
Høibo receives strong criticism for publishing the debate, including from Anette Trettebergstuen, leader of the Labor Party women’s network. Read Trettebergstuen’s proposal below in the case.
Dagbladet has tried to get a comment from Hadia Tajik, so far without success.
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“A strange choice”
In posting the debate, Høibo argues that the image itself is not problematic. However, he believes that the use of images indicates that women’s opinions are not interesting enough in and of themselves.
Among other things, Høibo writes that Tajik appears to be “on his way home from a glamorous party”, which he believes undermines the credibility of Tajikistan’s political narrative.
“It is not the way we know it from the media image, and the political message is reduced with such an image, almost drowned in the sensual, as if its message did not stand on its own.”
Høibo also draws associations with the erotic book and film series “50 Shades of Gray”, where a young woman is sexually dominated by a more experienced man:
“The choice of the color palette is also worth noting. The color red usually accompanies all the other politicians in the Labor Party, but Tajikistan has cold and harsh colors. She is placed on a bench made of ground concrete and with cement around her, slightly bent forward, with a wide leg position and her hand resting on her thigh. Is the choice of color and pose meant to bring ’50 shades of gray ‘to mind? In that case, it is an inferior option, in light of the internal challenges they have had in the Labor Party in recent years, where older men in positions of power, the sexualized vision of the young female party colleagues has been in the center of the problem “.
This became too much for the Finns
Trettebergstuen responds to Facebook
Høibo’s proposals have sparked reactions.
The representative of the Storting, Anette Trettebergstuen, writes on her Facebook profile that the publication of the debate belongs to the 1950s.
She has disguised herself. Because she can. A few weeks ago, the Prime Minister of Finland had to go public because she had lined up with a suit jacket with too much fur underneath, in a fashion magazine. I myself went to a castle ball in a tuxedo last year because I’m so tired and so angry about this here – that ladies are expected to dress up and joke in certain ways, still. “
Trettebergstuen also reacts to the link that Høibo goes to the metoo settlement in the Labor Party:
“What a conclusion.
So I must clearly say this out of the blue: Metoo is not about women dressing too nicely, but about the abuse of power by men. Women in the Labor Party and elsewhere can dress as well as they want, they shouldn’t be women for that reason! “
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“Police of women”
Tajikistan is also supported by Kristine Gramstad Wedler, who has previously been an active politician in the Labor Party.
In a Stavanger Aftenblad debate post titled “Women’s Police,” Wedler writes that she is absolutely certain that the Tajik woman has the shoulders to bear “misplaced and degrading criticism.”
“On the other hand, as a woman and a sister, I cannot find myself in the fact that policewomen tell other women how we should behave and how we should dress,” Wedler continues.
She concludes with the following conclusion:
“In 2020, there should be no contradiction between being crude and being serious.”
Do not doubt Giske’s notice
American expectations
Karoline Holmboe Høibo is familiar with the criticisms of Trettebergstuen and Wedler. She thinks it’s a shame that the post of the debate is read as an attempt to limit how women should look, dress and dress.
-It’s the opposite, which is the intention, says Høibo to Dagbladet.
– The intention of the discussion message is to open up more women, regardless of their appearance, to have the opportunity to be heard on an equal basis with men.
Høibo has no doubt that Tajik and the apparatus that surrounds her have a clear idea behind what clothing and appearance communicate in different contexts.
He fears that the Tajik with the book cover will drag Norway in the direction of American expectations for how women should appear, where one “must play with the feminine and often sensual to be heard.”
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She cites Hillary Clinton as an example. In the documentary “Hillary” (2020), American politics tells how she was encouraged to decorate her appearance so as not to ruin her husband Bill Clinton.
– We have seen that it limits, that it is not so easy to get a political message in the United States, if it cannot be wrapped in a nice look.
– Should women in 2020 have to cover up to be taken seriously?
– Absolutely not. No way. But they don’t have to play with the sensual to be heard either. One should hope that one is listened to for being oneself, for the book to be interesting, says Høibo.
– In this context, the cover image has a reducing effect on very important, well written and good content.
Hadia Tajik on her hidden illness
Explain the link “50 shades”
She elaborates on the link between the Tajik book cover, “50 Shades of Gray” and the Labor Party’s metoo agreement as follows:
– The image supports a vision of women as primarily sensual, before their opinions and political messages attract attention. The discussion post does not at all legitimize that men should be able to approach women who have not covered.
Høibo emphasizes that the debate post is not a critique of the image itself, or of Hadia Tajik, but arises from the desire to discuss structural frameworks and social and cultural conditions.
– I really think that my goal is quite similar to that of many of my critics: I want to open the space for women.
– Can’t you say that Tajikistan is expanding women’s room for maneuver by posing like this on the cover of the book?
– I think it becomes an unnecessary sexualization. When Kristine Gramstad Wedler says that Tajikistan is free to be herself, I think the image used here is not in line with the way I know her from other images or other public appearances.
