As a follow-up to the discussion of female-positive comix below, allow me to direct you to this article the Montreal Mirror just published about Julie Doucet. A bunch of her old comics are being reissued, which is exciting, though ironically enough the article is mostly about how she’s not really interested in comics anymore, partly because it’s such a man’s man’s man’s man’s world. Sad to hear that even someone who’s devoted much of her life to that arena still feels like an alien at times. But then again, don’t we all. Anyway, it’s a worth a read, and some nice visuals as well.

The New Standard (one of my favourite independent media organizations) has an articleup about students at a Georgia high school fighting to start and maintain a gay-straight alliance. The administration at White County High School have resorted to banning all “non-curricular” student group meetings on campus, asking for a “list of prospective members” and sending an assistant principal to sit in on every meeting. According to the article, some staff at the school “slammed PRIDE students into walls and hurled insults like ‘piece of shit lesbian.’” The students involved are now in court, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Regarding my post below about grrrl, Jennifer Whiteford sent in a couple of corrections, so I’m posting them in case you haven’t read her comments. She won’t be appearing in Toronto after all. Bummer. But consider checking out the show at Renaissance anyway - it could be fun, and word on the street is they might be having an open mic, so bring your writings/instruments/puppets/dancing bears anyway. And look for grrrl at an independent bookstore near you. Peace.

Ladyfest Ottawa is looking for applications for performers, bands and workshops for the fifth annual festival (Sept. 29-Oct 1). You can apply online here by July 1!

Here’s some info from the ladyfest crew:

Ladyfest Ottawa (LFO) is a non-profit, primarily women-organized music and arts festival that is open to everyone.

Now in our fifth year, LFO seeks to showcase women’s artistic expression and share ideas through music, performance, film and video, exhibitions, panels and workshops. LFO is part of a tradition of grassroots-organized festivals showcasing the talents of women artists. The first Ladyfest took place in Olympia, WA in 2000. This event inspired women around the world, from New York City to Berlin to Indonesia, to organise their own festivals. Other Canadian Ladyfests have taken place in Toronto, Guelph and Halifax (Ed note: and Winnipeg!).

Ladyfest Ottawa is an inclusive, feminist organization. We feel that providing a venue for women artists counters the obstacles and discrimination that women often face, including sexism, homophobia and racism. We also try to address these issues in our workshops, along with encouraging a D.I.Y.(do-it-yourself), hands-on approach to skill sharing. We believe that political action can be fun and creative!

Pride week has started in Toronto and amid the crazy street parties and the always awesome Dyke March (Saturday, June 24), there are some pretty great youth events, including the rocking Fruit Loopz stage and the Pride Prom, where Prom Ace, King and Queen will be crowned!

On Wednesday (June 21), Debra Anderson, author of Code White (McGilligan Books) has organized Get Your Lit Out!, a night of readings featuring some our favourite local lit stars: Mariko Tamaki, Zoe Whittall, Debra Anderson, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Kristyn Dunnion (a.k.a Miss Kitty Galore) and Sandra Alland.

The event is free, all-ages and will have refreshments. Art Metropole (788 King St. W.), 7-10 p.m. Looks like it’s going to be a busy week.

Hey Holland, thanks for reminding me that I had a book question for our readers!

I just finished reading Black Hole by Charles Burns. I sorta recommend it: it’s very upsetting. It’s about high school, and even though the plot revolves around a pretty fantastical idea, it still manages to evoke a horrifyingly realistic portrait of some of high school - likely to cause gruesome flashbacks if you had a rough time between the ages of 13 and 19.

But here’s my question: I’ve read a lot of graphic novels recently, and while I enjoy them, I hate the way the women are drawn. Even in stories like Black Hole, where the women are real characters - not just there to flesh out some aspect of a male character - they are often drawn naked, or in a way that’s extremely graphic. That would be fine, except for the fact that they’re always thin with big boobs and wide hips. A comic book illustrator explained to me that it’s just easier to draw women that way, but I’m not sure I buy that. Does anyone know of some good female-friendly graphic novels?

Okay, I’m rewriting my comments from below as a post so more people will see it. Ah, the limitless power of being a Shameless blogger!

For fans of grrrl (and judging from Holland’s post below, there ought to be plenty), Jennifer Whiteford is on a book tour right now as part of the Perpetual Motion Roadshow. If you’re in Montreal, she’ll be reading from the novel at Bibliograph/e Zine Library‘s first birthday party on Wednesday June 21st. Also featured will be satirist/puppeteer Jeff Cottrill, ephemera artist Daniel Trese, Daniel McKell and Mark Harris. Did I mention cake, zine sale and dancing? Bibliograph/e is part of Cafe Toc Toc, 6091 Ave. du Parc (corner Van Horne). Show starts at 8, pay-what-you-can.

In Toronto, Jen will be reading on June 23rd at Renaissance Cafe (1938 Danforth Ave.) w/ irreverent songwriter Shawn Sage and post-modern theatrical poet Andrea Thompson! Check out the Roadshow’s website for the rest of the tour dates, and more info on the Roadshow itself, which is pretty rad.

For those of you who can’t make it, I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

I’ve been meaning to start blogging regularly about books and Thea’s post (and Wesley’s response to it) about Al Gore’s new movie/book The Inconvenient Truth reminded me that I have been delinquent in that regard. So to start things off, here’s what’s on my bedside table at the moment:

1. JPod by Douglas Coupland
2. Solitaire: The Intimate Lives of Single Women by Marian Botsford Fraser
3. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
4. What to Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating by Marian Nestle
5. grrl: a novel by Jennifer Whiteford

Haven’t started these ones yet:
- Adverbs: A Novel by Daniel Handler
- Exact Fare Only: Good, Bad & Ugly Rides on Public Transit Ed. by Grant Buday
- David Suzuki: The Autobiography
- The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery

The best of the bunch is grrrl, Ottawa writer Jennifer Whiteford’s first novel. It landed in the Shameless mailbox last week and I took it along on an overnight trip to Kingston because it was small and fit well in my bag. It’s the story of a Grade 10 girl named Marlie told through her diary entries (dated 1991). The confessions this suburban Toronto girl scrawls in her journal remind me so much of feeling awkward in junior high (circa 1994), it’s uncanny! If you love Susan Juby’s Alice (from the book, and now TV show, Alice, I Think), you’ll find a kindred misfit in Marlie.

So, what are you reading?

The cover of the Toronto Sun on June 13th featured a close-up photo of a woman’s face, her eyes wide in surprise, a strawberry dangling suggestively from her mouth. The headline read “THE LADY IS A TRAMP.”

The woman in the photo was Heather Mills. Most Canadian readers, according to my extensive poll of my four roommates, have no idea who Heather Mills is. Some careful investigation into high quality magazines like Hello! and In Touch reveal that she is the soon-to-be ex-wife of Paul McCartney - a big name in the UK, but not so notorious over here. So why was she paraded about as a “tramp” on the cover of a Toronto newspaper?

The breaking news reported on June 13th was the discovery of an 80’s porn book Mills starred in. This unearthing of Mills’ “sordid” past has gossip columnists wetting themselves. Being able to call a woman celebrity a tart, without risk of legal consequences, is a chance that comes along pretty rarely. The pure joy that the media is experiencing has trickled all the way down to little Toronto, where nobody knows, or really cares that much, who this woman is.

Why is the press having this “hey! you’re getting divorced! let’s make it worse!” party for Heather? Is it just that blood-thirsty readers love to hear about the downfalls of rich and famous people? But there has been very little negative press directed towards Paul McCartney. If anything the tone the press takes with him is “poor old Paul.” It would seem that the caustic coverage is reserved solely for Heather. Call me a hairy-legged feminist if you want, but it seems like our papers enjoy reporting the pain of women far more than they do men.

One of the cruellest pieces of post-divorce print I’ve come across (since I often diligently research gossip magazines in preparation for moments like this) was an open letter to Paul McCartney, written by Chris Terrill, the man that Mills dumped when she met McCartney. In it Terrill invents the term “heathered” and states that Mills collects fiances “like other people collect stamps.” Perhaps what is most shocking about the pure malice of this piece is that it was published in the Sunday Times, which is a fairly respectable paper - not quite a gossip rag.

This reminds me of the time that Brad and Jennifer split up (an upset I have still not recovered from) and the mags all proclaimed it was because Jennifer didn’t want to have babies - later reported to be quite false. There were no allegations that they split because Brad was a stinkin’ adulterer, a claim that could easily have been made. Imagine if it was the other way around, if Jennifer had quickly paired off with say, Antonio Banderas, a few weeks after their separation? It’s hard to believe she would’ve received the gentle press reaction Mr Pitt got.