Posts by Derek Hogue
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Web Features
Steubenville, De-carceration, and Rape Culture
Trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault and rape culture. On March 17, 2013, Judge Thomas Lipps handed out guilty verdicts to the now-infamous rapists in the Steubenville, Ohio case. On a literal level, justice was done. But on an emotional level, witnesses are left wanting more. READ MORE
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Web Features
Web Coding & Anxiety
Everyone has their own suggestions to help me escape the anxiety: A therapist says relaxation methods – tensing all of my muscles and releasing my negative energy – will calm me. A former professor of mine swears by meditation. My doctor is quick to write me a prescription for the latest, greatest pick-me-up drug. But there is usually only one fix that works for me. READ MORE
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Web Features
Courts Rule on Rights for ?Non-Traditional? Families
Family law regulates one of our most basic social institutions: the family unit. Under the current law, this may include a longer-term relationship between two adults or the relationship between parents or guardians and children. The scope of what family law deals with has changed and expanded over the years. This is because society’s idea of what a “family” is has changed and expanded. The age-old heteronormative model of the family, one rooted in narrow … READ MORE
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Web Features
MMA Shows Mixed Feelings for Transgender Fighter Fallon Fox
Trigger warning for transmisogynistic slurs. As a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) athlete with three amateur and two professional wins on her record, Fallon Fox’s world drastically shifted on March 5, 2013, when news broke that she had undergone sex reassignment surgery six years earlier. That news sparked a contentious debate within the MMA community as to whether or not Fox should be allowed to continue to fight professionally. In becoming the first openly/out trans woman in the … READ MORE
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Web Features
Take Back the Night : Take Back the Night: 32 Years in Toronto
Take Back the Night (TBTN) and the movement to end rape and rape culture is more than a protest about the fear of sexual violence and working toward ending it . TBTN has a rich history of working in solidarity with survivors and anti-oppressive radical movements in Toronto, working to create awareness around the issues that survivors of sexual violence face. Each TBTN is also informed by particular ideologies, activisms, and actions, but Herstorical context … READ MORE
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Web Features
Comic: By Coco Riot
Coco Riot’s full-colour comic from the Winter 2012 print issue of Shameless … READ MORE
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Web Features
Remembering Eco-Feminist Rosalie Bertell
Transcription by Vidhya Elango Rosalie Bertell, an eco-feminist, biometrist and mathematician who did groundbreaking work in health promotion relating to breast cancer and its social and environmental factors, recently passed away. In remembrance, Frieda Werden, host and creator of the Women’s International News Gathering Service (WINGS), a weekly radio series by and about women from all over the world, produced a program which looks at some of Bertell’s contributions to public health. Today we bring you … READ MORE
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Web Features
Aboriginal Women’s Cultural Safety and Sexual Health
Transcription by Vidhya Elango On this episode of the podcast, Robyn Spilker, Coordinator of the Women’s Radio Collective at CFUV 101.9 FM in Victoria, B.C. interviews Charlotte Reading, an academic and Aboriginal women’s sexual health advocate. Reading explains how the sexual health of Aboriginal women is compromised by the lack of cultural safety many experience when accessing public healthcare. Curious to hear what she has to say? Take a listen here: For a transcription of ‘Aboriginal Women’s … READ MORE
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Web Features
Self-Care DIY: A How-To Just for You
Self-care is the act of intentionally and unintentionally engaging in thoughts and actions that have positive and affirming impacts on our mind, body and spirit. It looks different for everyone based on preference, culture and lived experience. It can change depending on our ages, our location, even the season. Self-care is one of the most valuable activities that we can engage in. It keeps us resilient and able to take care of others in a … READ MORE
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Web Features
Sexual healthcare for youth needs a revamp
Katie, a 29-year-old retail worker, was searching for an alternative to the birth control pill. A few months ago, she went to a walk-in clinic in Toronto to inquire about the copper intra-uterine device (IUD), a more affordable, non-hormonal birth control option. She figured it would be safe to address sexual matters with her doctor, also a young woman. To Katie’s surprise, the doctor claimed that IUDs are “only for older, monogamous, … READ MORE
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Web Features
Feminism on Film
Transcription by Vidhya Elango In ‘Feminism on Film’ guest producer Janan Dean takes us across the pond to consider the health of a cinematic project. She talks to several of the actors who’ve contributed to creating the ‘Louder Now’ feminist film screening series, which takes place monthly, in Newcastle, UK. Dean also speaks to community members who attend these events to find out what draws them to the Star and Shadow Cinema to watch films about … READ MORE
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Web Features
“Nobody describes a flower in the same way”: “Nobody describes a flower in the same way”
The day is cloudy and rain is falling on Toronto, but the program room of The Bloor Gladstone Public Library is filling with the smell of fresh coffee. It’s 9:50 am when I show up and set my green binder down in front of me. A few minutes later, a dozen other women have joined me around the table, sharing jokes, talking, all of us with matching binders bearing stickers that read “Sister Writes.” It’s a … READ MORE
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Web Features
Eating healthy on a budget: Eating healthy on a budget
The healthiest I have ever been was in 2008 when an unpaid summer internship plummeted my grocery budget to a hefty $15 a week. I never resorted to ramen noodles; instead I based my meals entirely around vegetables. After my internship, I bumped my budget up to the student rate of $25 a week, and once I started working, it plumped slowly to about $40 a week. The increase didn’t mean I was eating better … READ MORE
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Web Features
Modelling Workers’ Rights: Modelling Workers’ Rights
Working as a model has always seemed to promise a lifestyle of fame, fortune, and luxury. Remember supermodel Linda Evangelista’s famous quip, “We don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day”? This is not what most of us think of when we think about work. The Model Alliance aims to disrupt these superficial assumptions and expose the decidedly less glamorous aspects of modelling, which are deeply tied to issues of workers’ rights. The Model … READ MORE
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Web Features
Media Savvy: Don’t Insult Me!: A Glossary of terms
Note: This is a glossary of terms used in the Media Savvy column “Don’t Insult Me!”, published in our Spring 2012 issue. You can read the full column in the print version of our Spring 2012 issue—purchase an individual copy or subscribe to receive future issues in the mail! For people who might find these terms to be confusing, here is a quick summary: Sex is about a person’s physical body (genitalia, hormones, etc.), e.g. male, female, … READ MORE
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Web Features
Kickstarting your career: The art of negotiation
The first murmurings of the women’s movement may seem like eons ago, and many think that it quelled the issue of gender inequality in the workforce. In actual fact, there remains a deplorable amount of inequality in North America’s workforce. Statistics Canada’s Publication Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report indicates that a woman still earns approximately 71 cents for every dollar a man earns. READ MORE
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Web Features
Body Politics: In Praise of the Vulnerable Femme: Loving your breasts
Note: This is the full version of the Body Politics piece we published in the Spring 2012 issue. “My political obligations? I am a Black woman … in world that defines human as white and male for starters. Everything I do including survival is political.” —Audre Lorde A few months ago I wrote a poem called ‘In Praise Of The Vulnerable Femme’. I composed it as an ode to Femme Of Centre folks and particularly Of Colour … READ MORE
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Web Features
Pump Up the Jams
Walking onto the track, the first thing you notice is the women are taller and faster on skates. Much faster. They bump and pass each other, and in the last jam the crowd is screaming, cheering, and pumping their fists. Margaret Smackwood blocks an opponent; her teammate Viktory Lapp overtakes the pack. It looks like they’ve done the impossible, that they’ve got this in the bag with only a breathless 25 seconds left in the … READ MORE
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Web Features
Sharing Skills at School
Somewhere along the way, I missed out on some pretty useful life lessons, from sewing buttons, to fixing bike chains, to DIY hair care and styling, to properly stretching after sitting in front of the computer all day. When I thought about all the things I wanted to learn, I realized I already knew my potential teachers: my friends. Everyone is an expert in something, or wants to be, and since most of us can’t afford … READ MORE
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Web Features
Sex Work: A Feminist Legal Perspective
Selling sex is controversial. And exchanging sexual services for money is a difficult issue to discuss amongst feminists: some say sex work is always violent and a form of exploitation; others consider it a viable job choice. Right now, this debate is once again front and centre in Canadian courts. As a feminist lawyer, I take direction from my clients and I respect their experiences and their knowledge. This past year I’ve been part of a … READ MORE