We’ve decided to slash our marketplace ad prices for one issue only! There’s still a limited amount of time to get in on this great deal!

We’re selling the marketplace ads in our print magazine for the low price of only $20! That’s right, for a mere $20 you can run an ad in our winter issue for your product or service.

This week is the final week you can book a $20 black and white marketplace ad in the pages of Shameless Magazine! This offer is only good until Friday, December 21st! Book today - contact us at advertise@shamelessmag.com!

Want more information on advertising in Shameless Magazine? Click here.

The daytime television show “The View” has long been famous for the “problematic” opinions of a few of its co-hosts (see here and here and here) and this discussion around gender roles and children is no exception. Though I have to say - every time one of these clips pops up on the internet, I like Whoopi Goldberg more and more.

Being a feminist blogger on a feminist blog is a fantastic experience. You get to share stories and opinions on the world wide webbernets - always having an outlet and community to turn to when the news headlines leave you shaking your head. Blogging and the interaction with people who read and link to your blog posts makes you feel like you’re part of a greater community- much bigger, and with more supporters, than you may have previously imagined while isolated, alone at your keyboard. Then there’s the emails from parents thanking us, the supportive blog posts and letters that arrive in our mailbox from the girls whose lives we’ve changed for the better, and the people we meet at panels, conferences and book fairs who let us know that Shameless Magazine means a lot to them.

But then there’s the other (sometimes nasty) side of feminist blogging. You know what I’m talking about. Whenever you put your words, thoughts and opinions out into the world you’re bound make yourself vulnerable and on rare occasion we receive commentary that doesn’t fit within our definition of “fostering a safe space.” This usually happens when we’re linked to a site outside the usual networks, much like Feministing’s recent slew of comments when Fox News linked them on their homepage. In fact, today Feministing is opening up its mailbag to expose some of the (more hatfeul and hilarious) responses they’ve received in the recent past.

Here at the Shameless Blog we’ve always found that our site is a bit of a haven, and while we disagree on the issues and the details, in general the site is a safe, friendly space. In the coming year we’ll be making changes to the blog in the hopes of recruiting more readers while making the site more enjoyable for our current audience. (Want to help? Why not donate or subscribe?) The goal is to bring more feminists together on the space, but this also means that we’ll have to deal with the reality that some comments could be offensive or inappropriate. (more inside…)

A month ago Nicole helped us confirm our love for Tina Fey - (“Be still my beating heart.”) We’ve also found that feminism can come from some unexpected sources, including Playboy. Well now, Tina Fey talks to Playboy. According to AfterEllen.com, “Talk she did, and hold back she didn’t.”

In an interview in the January issue Fey states (among a variety of other things) that “Paris (Hilton) is a terrible role model and a terrible young woman. She needs to be ignored. I work with people who have 12-, 13-, 14-year-old girls who are fascinated by her. They look up to her, and that’s not great.”

Playboy goes on to name Fey the “Goddess of Geeks.”

I know the world is not black and white, divided into “feminist” and “not-feminist” camps, but I am curious to find out what a) readers think of Fey being interviewed by Playboy and b) her criticizing other women during the interview (she also goes on to slam Paula Abdul.) Me? I’m still undecided. (more inside…)

I have a suspicion that everyone has a piece of pop culture they don’t want to look at too closely. Something you love so much and have derived such pleasure from that you just can’t face being analytical about it, in case it all comes apart on you. I mostly feel that way about childhood icons. She-Ra/He-Man, Thundercats (holy proselytizing batman!), Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, The Muppets.

So because I can’t do it, I’m going to invite your comments and insights on a short list of childhood holiday movies. I’m not assuming there are feminist faults to be found, but I’m interested in other people’s associations with these movies — positive or negative. Did the muppets eating a vegetarian Christmas dinner warm the bunny-loving cockles of your heart? Did Hermey the gay dentist elf make you more comfortable in your sexuality?

I preface this by saying that I’m a die-hard atheist (it’s my dream to be banned one day by the Halton Catholic school board). I watch these movies from the secular side of the holidays, so I won’t be pointing out any missing baby Jesuses.

* A Muppet Family Christmas *
Muppets in a truck driving up to the farm? Forget about it. You had me at “haul out the holly”. The icy patch? Kermit in a plaid vest? A fraggle rock tie-in?!

(more inside…)

There’s been an Always ad on television lately regarding how “girls living in sub-Saharan Africa can miss up to four days of school each month because they lack the basic necessity of sanitary protection and other resources to manage their periods.” Apparently, Always maxi pads aims to do something about this. This struck me as an odd initiative, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and went online to hunt down the P&G (Always’ parent company) news release on the subject:

According to research, 1 in 10 school-age African girls do not attend school during menstruation or drop out at puberty because of the lack of clean and private sanitation facilities in schools. And, if a girl has no access to protective materials or if the materials she has are unreliable and cause embarrassment, she may be forced to stay at home while menstruating. This absence of approximately 4 days every 4 weeks may result in the girl missing 10 to 20 percent of her school days. The Protecting Futures program will provide products and services to help keep girls in school as well as help foster the overall health and well-being of every child in the targeted school communities.

The bloggers at Red Tent Sisters (a fantastic Toronto-based business dedicated to serving the reproductive and sexual health needs of women) weigh in on the Always campaign, its pros and cons:

1) I think it’s great that they’re going to be improving the sanitation facilities, providing nutritious feeding programs [using local, sustainable food sources?], and providing health support.

2) I don’t have a problem with education and hopefully increasing openness about women’s reproductive and sexual health but I do have concerns about mainstream menstrual product companies doing it!

Ellen Macro, the resident blogger at Red Tent Sisters, continues on to share the following concerns:

3) If only 1/10 girls miss school, what are the other 9/10 doing already?
4) Not only is P&G going to “help” the 1/10 girls but they are probably going to influence the other girls who already have sustainable methods of “managing” their menses.
5) P&G is going to make all/most girls reliant on imported products which cost money, drain resources, pollute the environment when produced and create a nightmare for disposal.

The blog entry is certainly worth a read because it explores “the whole question of it being a BAD thing that young women are missing some time from school during their menstruation” and suggests “a world in which women’s cycles are honoured and respected.” Thoughts?

Canada lags well behind Europe in terms of public facilities. I heard once that Toronto has a public washroom at Dundas Square, but I think that’s just a rumour. More promise than substance. Sort of like Dundas Square itself…

Toronto has no city-owned washrooms except within property already owned by the municipality. That is, unlike other international urban centres, there are no dedicated public washrooms scattered helpfully throughout the city. The powers-that-be in Toronto are just hoping anyone who is downtown and needs to pee is already at City Hall and within working hours.

But picking up the public infrastructure slack is Mizpee.com Now with listings for Toronto, it is a collaborative website which catalogues publicly accessible toilets throughout the city. Know one? Add one. Washrooms are rated for cleanliness and accessibility, as well as indicating baby-changing facilities, and whether a purchase is required or not. Check in advance of your outing, or if you’re out and already desperate, you can look it up with your phone.

The future is friendly, and it wants you to be comfortable.

I will at some point discuss here my experiences, demons, and obstacles around being a feminist who got married. But in the interim, a related rant…

I am considering changing my last name. I am currently undecided. There are many things I like about changing my name, and many I don’t. I’ve done the Grade 4 test, and it was positive — I do in fact like my signature using his last name. But that is fluff. My list of pros and cons is much more substantial and much more confusing. At the moment, as I sit in the 3-month limbo before we get our marriage certificate and I decide officially, isolated events tip me wildly back and forth between wanting to change my name, and wanting to tattoo my ‘real’ name on my forehead so that people don’t forget.

The most recent event, and the one that has me heading to the tattoo parlour, is getting mail addressed to “Mr & Mrs [his initial] [his last name]”.

WTF people. W.T.F. I made a public commitment to be with someone, I didn’t disappear.

I’m amazed that this still happens. In part it’s attributable to a generation gap — people a couple of generations older than me think of this as a formal way of addressing a couple. There is no malice intended, and I doubt there is much thought around it at all. But I’m shocked at how many people my parents age, and even younger, think nothing of addressing post this way. And without the excuse of generational differences are the telemarketers, who are also extremely guilty of this practice: “Is Mr or Mrs [his first name] [his last name] available?”

Many women I know who have changed their last name have not felt that it impacted their sense of their identity because they identified more strongly with their first name than their last. But choosing to take your partner’s last name (in either direction) is not the same as saying ‘call me whatever’.

I have a very short catalogue of hardcore peeves in this world. But having /my name/ completely wiped away — without consulting me and as if it were no big deal? That’s going on the list.

A young woman who was sexually assaulted after getting into a man’s car on the promise he would drive her to a bus depot was called “stupid” and “naive” by the Calgary judge who tried her case. Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse executive director Deb Tomlinson had this to say about Justice John Rooke’s comments:

“I think by making these comments, this judge is doing a disservice to all of society… By pointing the finger at the victim, and not at the offender where it belongs … it is going to keep more women from coming forward and reporting these crimes.”

In Canada, only 8% of sexual attacks are reported. I’m guessing this climate of victim-blaming has something to do with that statistic.