How much do I love the Onion?

Evangeline Lilly Wins ‘Best Wet T-Shirt Fight Scene’ At Strong Women In TV Awards

Feministing.com has just reported a win for the feminist blogosphere. After a reader found these panties for sale at her local Walmart,

the blog banded together to have them removed. And they were successful:

“We have directed our stores to remove this merchandise from our shelves,” Linda Brown Blakely, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, told FOXNews.com Wednesday.

The undergarments had caused a stir on some blogs prior to Wednesday’s announcement. Scarlett, a reader of Feministing.com, alerted the blog to the holiday-inspired undies, which she found on a rack in the juniors department of a Wal-Mart in Cary, N.C.

Congrats go to Feministing and their readers!

This is a Facebook post written this morning by my good friend and cultural critic, Dave Hudson. (Psst: we are reviewing his band Spymachine 16 in the next print issue!) I have been watching this media coverage and working a 12 hour shift at work today (I’m on my lunch break), so I don’t have time to write about it myself, but Dave has given me the ok to repost this to the Shameless Blog:

“I’m saddened and outraged to hear, in the news, of a 16 year old girl killed by her father, apparently over her choice of dress & lifestyle.

But the mainstream media and dominant public reaction I’ve seen has been disturbing. In particular, a lot of folks have been turning it into a case of a “clash of civilizations,” drawing on characterizations of “the immigrant” as a source of brutal patriarchal violence in contrast with the freedom that so-called “Western culture” has to offer. In an environment in which anti-immigrant sentiment seems to be intensifying, I’ve been hearing folks who I’d never have expected been making offhand comments about immigrants (read: non-white immigrants) as a threat to “Canadian values” (of “tolerance,” “liberalism,” etc.).

Canada has a long legacy of violence against womyn that continues with brutal acts of physical violence & murder, lifetimes of gendered economic violence, constant day to day abuse through social norms of beauty and propriety, and on and on. And our foreigh policy — from our increasing inaction on climate change to the dealings of our companies abroad to our role in Haiti & Afghanistan — is no small source of violence for womyn in the majority world.

The murder of Aqsa Parvez happened less than a week after December 6th, yet the mainstream media coverage does little to situate her death within the context of a *mainstream* society in which womyn face violence and, yes, murder because of how they choose to live their lives, dress, and so on.

It seems to me that focusing on this matter as one of a “clash of cultures” does a disservice to efforts to address the violence that womyn face on a societal scale, drawing attention away from Western cultural complicity in such violence.

How do we go about talking about such incidents, recognizing that, yes, narratives of culture may figure into them, without recourse to the kinds of racialized legacies described above?

Here are a few insightful speeches on violence against womyn from the “Women’s Resistance: From Victimization to Criminalization” conference in 2001 (hosted by the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres):

UBC professor and feminist cultural critic Sunera Thobani:
http://www.casac.ca/conference01/audio/PLEN1/1-4.MP3

OISE’s Dr. Sherene Razack:
http://www.casac.ca/conference01/audio/PLEN6/6-02.MP3

I’ve left a lot out because I’m writing fast. So fill me in. Thoughts?”

In the wake of our recent reports on pro-life rhetoric masquerading as unbiased information, I just wanted to report on some great sexual health websites I recently stumbled across. The first, sexualityandu.ca, you may already be familiar with, but its worthy of note because it offers this fantastic Birth Control Selection Tool. As someone who was in the market for a new bc method, I found the easy to complete questionnaire (and the report it produced to take with me to my doctor) a really handy tool for exploring my options. The site, put together by The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, does a nice job of being unbiased and not resorting to scare tactics - just smart, realistic and informative, while giving teens the tools they need for making informed decisions.

Sexetc.org is yet another unbiased, practical and intelligent resource for a variety of sexual health related concerns and questions. The site is put together by Answer at Rutgers University, a leading national organization dedicated to providing and promoting comprehensive sexuality education in the US. Their print magazine and website reflect the idea that young people can be trusted with honest, medically accurate and balanced information about sexuality. They’re even looking for teen Editorial Contributors to write for them.

Don’t forget! Giving the gift of Shameless is a great way to support vital independent media. Shameless is Canada’s award-winning independent voice for smart, strong, sassy young women. $10 SHAMELESS MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS MAKE THE PERFECT GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST! Order today!

From Quill and Quire:

“Reuters has picked up on Wonder Woman’s 66th birthday – not much of a milestone, admittedly, but 2007 is, incredibly, the first year that the comic is being penned by a woman, one Gail Simone.”

From an interview with Simone:

“I don’t feel that being a female writer makes it so that I will be any better than any male writers. But it kind of catches people’s attention because we do have stereotypes about the industry. It’s no longer a little niche industry of white guys who hang out in comic book stores and don’t have girlfriends.”

Holy Smokes! If like me you have days where you doubt the ability of The People to make a difference, here’s an excellent example from the CBC:

Paralyzed refugee claimant Laibar Singh can stay in Canada for the time being after more than 1,000 people protested his scheduled deportation at Vancouver International Airport’s departures terminal Monday morning, blocking traffic and causing delays.
…
Singh initially sought refugee status in 2003 on the grounds that he would be persecuted by police in Punjab, where officials have accused him of links to separatist militants, but his refugee claim was denied that year.

This is the third time Singh has avoided deportation.

For more on No One Is Illegal Vancouver and Laibar Singh: http://noii-van.resist.ca/

Robert Pickton was found guilty on six counts of second-degree murder, for the deaths of Sereena Abotsway, Andrea Joesbury, Mona Wilson, Georgina Papin, Brenda Wolfe and Marnie Frey, all of whom had disappeared from Vancouver’s downtown eastside between 1997 and 2001. He will be back in court to face 20 more first-degree murder charges.

The missing women story — and the fact that it took police so many years to act on the disappearance of dozens and dozens of women – has been really horrific. I haven’t followed the trial closely, but since the verdict I’ve been trying to find some insightful feminist analysis (anyone have any good tips of where to look?).

What I did find was an interesting piece by Jessalynn Keller, who interviewed three women journalists covering the trial to find out why mainstream coverage was unable to reveal the major issues that swirled around this case: ongoing and systemic violence against women, racism, and poverty. “Why is it,” she asks, that “media coverage of the case still so reflective of dominant cultural stereotypes of women, violence, sex and race?”

She makes a very good and important argument:

“The issues seem to cloud when [the women journalists] try to articulate these values through a mainstream media lens. They see their power residing primarily in practical journalistic decision-making such as language choices. The result is feminism light - news content without the conceptual tools or framework to help readers see and understand the structural challenges the Missing Women faced, the role of feminism historically and the continued struggle of many women in Vancouver today.”

The major problem, it seems, is that feminist politics don’t jive with the (somewhat problematic) principles journalists are supposed to uphold: objectivity, accuracy, facts. It’s interesting to see how journalists working for large newspapers and wire services try to negotiate the limitations placed on them, particularly when it comes to language choices.

There are also some moments that drive home the structural problems we face, particularly the way in which sex work is regarded in the mainstream media. Because the women missing from downtown eastside are poor, racialized, sex workers or drug users, they were depicted in a much different way than, say, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, who were murdered by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. The names of the women Pickton murdered are not household names, and I wonder if they will ever be.

Because Fridays have become a fine excuse to post things that we love, which are only sorta kinda about feminism, can I present my new favourite song? I love this so much I could vomit.

Either as super way to congratulate yourself if you had the best week ever, or in a shocking act of defiant optimism if you had a disgusting week, ditch your fashionable cynicism and come sing along with Mary after the jump:

(more inside…)