On this week’s 51%, some of the most highly regarded works of art portray sexual violence… we’ll hear from a professor about sexual trauma in art. And following the U.S. women’s soccer team World Cup win amid members’ lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation, New York has a stronger equal pay for equal work law on the books.
Though the #MeToo movement took off in the fall of 2017, sexual misconduct and the activism confronting it are not new. Over the past five decades, feminist artists have been breaking the silence around sexual violence in the U.S. by documenting its trauma, though paintings, installations, video, sculpture and performance. The latest book from Vanderbilt University art history professor Vivien Green Fryd explores the topic and is called “Against Our Will: Sexual Trauma in American Art Since 1970.”
There was a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan July 10 celebrating the U.S. women’s soccer team World Cup win. The women also hope to score another victory, off the field, in their pay discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. Just before the parade kicked off, Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that expands equal pay laws to prohibit unequal pay for substantially similar work, closing a loophole that employers could use to say it was not equal work, it was similar work. Cuomo says that now, if the work is basically the same, the pay has to be the same. The governor also signed legislation that bans employers from asking prospective employees about their salary history. Before he signed the legislation, Cuomo called on U.S. Soccer to pay the women's national team the same as the men's national team.
That’s our show for this week. Thanks to Elizabeth Hill for production assistance. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock. Our theme music is Glow in the Dark by Kevin Bartlett. This show is a national production of Northeast Public Radio. If you’d like to hear this show again, sign up for our podcast, or visit the 51% archives on our web site at wamc.org. And follow us on Twitter @51PercentRadio
