Heres something exciting: according to the Canadian Press, a Quebec alcohol industry group, Éduc’alcool (which is funded by Quebecs liquor agency), wants beer companies to stop using sexy women in their ads to sell beer.

Im actually pretty amazed to hear an industry group use words like “sexism,” especially when it comes to beer advertising. Beer ads are notorious for their regular, textbook-use of skimpily-dressed women to sell ideas of hetero-sex, popularity and a general good time.

Éduc’alcool apparently wants to adopt a code of ethics that, writes Dene Moore, forbids sexism or the association of products with sexual performance, sexual attraction or popularity any implication that alcoholic products improve physical or intellectual capacities or has health benefits. It bans the use of images of people who look younger than 25 and any that make alcohol particularly attractive to people under 18. And the new rules also forbid excessive discounts or promotions and anything that encourages drinking games or drunkenness.

A panel will be set up to field complaints and make decisions about how to act. Moore writes that in 2004, 230 complaints were made to Advertising Standards Canada about offensive beer ads that were degrading to women. I wonder what came of those complaints?

At the end of the article, someone suggests that the public simply refrain from purchasing beer products that have offensive ads. What do you think? Do we need a group that will monitor this kind of advertising, which many think is harmless, but really presents a distorted and pretty degrading view of what it means to be a woman? Or do we just keep our mouths shut and stop ordering many brands of beer? Im thinking of the frustration Thea felt with those Kokanee ads.

PS: That headline is a quote from the Canadian Press story that ran in the Toronto Star.

I don’t know that much about these kinds of comics but a quick Google search informed me that Shojo/Shouja are Japanese comics created primarily by women for girls and women.

Sounds like it could be an interesting exhibit…

The Japan Foundation, Toronto presents:
Shojo Manga! Girl Power! GIRLS’ COMICS FROM JAPAN
September 6 - October 4, 2006
The Japan Foundation, Toronto
131 Bloor Street West (Bay subway station)
2nd Floor of the Colonnade building
Free Admission

The Japan Foundation, Toronto presents the exhibition Shojo Manga! Girl Power! Girls’ Comics From Japan curated by Dr. Masami Toku of California State University. The exhibition will be on display from September 6 - October 4, 2006 at the Japan Foundation, Toronto. Featuring more than 200 works by 23 artists, this exhibit is the first of its kind to explore the unique styles of female manga artists and examines their contributions to the development of Shojo Manga.

Here are some feminist-friendly events to hit up in the next few weeks:

1. The Ryerson Women’s Centre and McClung’s, Ryerson’s feminist magazine, are hosting a screening of the doc I Was A Teenage Feminist on Monday, Sept. 11 at 6:30p.m. According to the press release, “Join filmmaker Therese Shechter as she takes a funny, moving and very personal journey into the heart of modern Feminism. Armed with a video camera and an irreverent sense of humor, Therese talks with Feminist superstars, rowdy frat boys, liberated Cosmo girls and Radical Cheerleaders, all in her quest to find out whether Feminism can still be a source of personal and political power.” Shechter will be on hand after the film for a Q&A. Tickets are $5 at the door (Thomas Lounge at Oakham House, Ryerson University, 63 Gould Street, Toronto). Thanks to Shameless scribe Angela Kozak for the tip!

2. The lovely ladies of Ladyfest Ottawa present Chicks and Giggles, featuring Rebecca Kohler (Toronto), Kamal Pandya, Wendi Reed and Carrie Gaetz, hosted by China Doll (Friday, Sept. 15, Shanghai Restaurant, 651 Somerset St. W., Ottawa, 9pm/$5). You are promised by the ladies to “laugh so hard you’ll split your panties!” Ladyfest Ottawa is happening Sept. 27th to Oct. 1st and Oct. 3rd — the festival lineup will be announced next week.

The good people at Seal Press sent me a copy of Inga Muscio’s celebrated Cunt this week and there’s no way I can properly thank them. It’s as if they knew that the change in weather has got me in a terrible funk of a mood, and that the only possible cure for girls like me is a tub full of bubbles and a library of books that celebrate, among other things, my vagina. Cunt‘s been on store shelves now for four years, but this is my personal message to those who haven’t read it to go get their hands on a copy to cure their itchy-fall-sweater-clad blues.

My now bathwater-soggy copy of Cunt is page after page of powerful and empowering wisdom on the word and the “anatomical jewel” we call “cunt,” and as I plow through it I find myself feeling beautiful, lied to, special, sacred, ethereal and royally pissed off- all at the same time. It makes me want to go out and change the world.

Now if only I could only get out of the bathtub…

Among the million and one reasons to feel good about being a woman this wonderful book presents, Muscio gives a nod to none other than Pippi Longstocking (“Swedish rebel and feminist role model”) on the topic of, well, being Shameless:

“The children came to a perfume shop. In the show window was a large jar of freckle salve, and beside the jar was a sign which read:
DO YOU SUFFER FROM FRECKLES?
“What does the sign say?” asked Pippi. She didn’t read very well because she didn’t want to go to school as other children did.
“It says ‘Do you suffer from freckles?” said Annika.
“Does it indeed,” said Pippi thoughtfully.
“Well a civil question deserves a civil answer. Let’s go in.” She opened the door and entered the shop, quickly followed by Tommy and Annika. An elderly lady stood back of the counter. Pippi went right up to her.
“No,” she said decidedly.
“What is it you want,” asked the lady.
“No,” said Pippi once more.
“I don’t understand what you mean,” said the lady.
“No I don’t suffer from freckles,” said Pippi.
Then the lady understood but she took one look at Pippi and burst out, “But my dear child, your whole face is covered with freckles!”
“I know it,” said Pippi, “but I don’t suffer from them. I love them. Good morning.”

Thanks Inga, thanks Pippi, thanks Seal Press- I feel better already.

Lisa Heggum has edited a fine and fabulous collection of short works in Orca Book Publishers’ latest release, All Sleek and Skimming. The book works on the rather revolutionary premise that there is a strong overlap between quality teen fiction and adult fiction, and in doing so provides an entertaining collection of some of the finest contemporary writers around, focusing on the often overlooked older teen audience. The book touches on a variety of relevant and (thankfully) uncensored topics and includes a couple of my literary faves, Ivan E. Coyote and Sheila Heti. There’s a little something for everyone here, each addition to the collection a short, strong gem of a read that refuses to believe that younger readers need a filtered down version of the truth. I highly recommend it from cover to cover.

If like me, instead of extreme camping or writing a 72-hour novel this weekend, you are trapped in the house with an over-excited cat, here are two websites that I lurve.

I really like Kerblog, the blog of Mazen Kerbaj, an artist and musician who lives in Beirut. It’s often difficult to 1) understand what massive political events mean on a personal level and 2) keep past crises in mind, especially after the media has stopped reporting on them and moved on to the next one. Kerblog is great for both of these, because it details the war in Lebanon from the point of view of someone living with it in their kitchen, as well as the post-war fallout, which is just as devastating but rarely well reported in the news. Kerbaj’s drawings are evocative, profound and also adorable. His work website is here.

Here is a great article by Rachel Cook of The Observer about Marc Quinn’s statue of Alison Lapper pregnant. Lapper is an English artist who was born with shortened legs and without arms. She is a woman, disabled and a single mother - all things to which we often say “oh dear” - but she makes her life into art in a way that is tear-worthy and inspiring, and all totally without being cheesy or glossing over the very real bad parts of her struggle. This is her website.

I (heart) the internet.