In case you haven’t heard the reports about R&B megacouple Chris Brown and Rihanna:

“Singer Chris Brown has been booked on a felony charge of making criminal threats after turning himself in to Los Angeles police.

Brown, 19, was arrested at 6:30 PM Sunday and stands accused of felony battery, in which the alleged victim suffered visible injuries…Bail has been set at $50,000.

Both Chris and Rihanna bailed on their Grammy performances after the incident leading to Brown’s arrest. It remains unconfirmed whether Rihanna was the victim…”

While the LA Times says its “sources” have confirmed that Rihanna is the alleged victim in this case, neither Brown nor Rihanna have confirmed that.

So I’m not gonna comment on the personal lives of people I’ve never met (no matter how much I like the song We Ride, I have to admit Rihanna is not actually my friend). It’s still unconfirmed what actually happened.

But this is what I do think: if it is actually true that Chris Brown hit Rihanna in the face, I am slightly in awe of the courage it must’ve taken for Rihanna to report the incident.

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Earlier this week Forbes.com published an article on the World Economic Forum’s Best Countries for Women study:

“Norway, Finland and Sweden are ranked the best countries for gender equality, according to a recent study from the World Economic Forum, the nonprofit organization known for its annual economic summit in Davos, Switzerland, for global leaders. Those Nordic countries and their Western European neighbors account for 16 of the top 30 countries with the greatest gender parity in the world.

Meanwhile, the U.S. ranked surprisingly low at No. 27, behind Lesotho (No. 16), Mozambique (No. 18) and Moldova (No. 20). Not surprisingly, the worst-ranked countries were sprinkled throughout the Middle East and Asia. Garden spots like Chad (129th), Saudi Arabia (128th) and Pakistan (127th) populated the bottom of the list.”

It’s a pretty standard article - though I have to say I didn’t share the writer’s CAN YOU BELIEVE THE US IS NOT FIRST??? sentiment. (Annnd I also didn’t care for the flippant way the Middle East and Asia were called out. Not that I’m doubting the numbers, I just don’t like your tone, young man.)

However, I did have two thoughts:

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Read Shameless’ take on the Aqsa Parvez murder here.

Join the Urban Alliance on Race Relations in Calling Toronto Life on their Misrepresentation of Aqsa Parvez’s Murder

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 10:30 AM
YWCA, Main Lounge
80 Woodlawn Avenue East,
Toronto

The December 2008 edition of Toronto Life features the story of Aqsa Parvez, a young Muslim girl who was killed in her home in Mississauga last winter.

While featuring Aqsa’s story is recognition of a young woman’s life cut tragically short, the Toronto Life article perpetuates common stereotypes about Muslim and immigrant communities, diverting attention from the urgent issue of violence against women across Canada.

On Tuesday November 11th, join the Urban Alliance on Race Relations in a “Don’t’ Believe the Hype” Campaign! The group is asking you to raise your voice on the important issue of violence against women, racism, and Islamophobia.

Get Involved in Three Ways!

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Attention youth bloggers, journalists, photographers, video artists, writers, community organizers, musicians and artists in Toronto!

Are you tired of media depictions of our communities and of youth by the mainstream media? Do you want hear YOUTH telling our stories about our communities, our lives, our issues?

Freedom Youth Collective (FYC) wants YOU! We are looking for youth bloggers, community organizers, journalists, photographers, musicians and artists that want to share their ideas, stories and images with other youth. FYC wants to showcase the amazing art, music, photographs, writing, videos that youth are creating in the city. We also want to feature pieces about youth doing amazing grassroots community work and the issues you care about. The pieces will be featured on FYC website highlighting the leadership, initiative and passion of youth in Toronto.

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From Daily Kos:

Muslim Children Gassed at Dayton Mosque After “Obsession” DVD Hits Ohio

On Friday, September 26, the end of a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West — the fear-mongering, anti-Muslim documentary being distributed by the millions in swing states via DVDs inserted in major newspapers and through the U.S. mail — were distributed by mail in Ohio, a “chemical irritant” was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, where 300 people were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. The room that the chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers.

Recently I’ve heard a lot of talk about how the deaths and abuse of women and children of colour are not taken as seriously as the deaths and abuse of white women and children.

Why We Want Our Kids Back Too
From Racialicious:

There were no crush of grief counselors when our 11 year olds got shot by strays or on purpose. There were no pundits filling column space and air time when our girls got raped or became pregnant too soon. And when our children came up missing… when our children came up missing…I saw enough missing and dead black kids coming up that it taught me something about black folks, or at least the way black folks are perceived:

Black children are disposable expectations.

Justice Delayed, Denied, Disgraceful
From TransGriot

It seems that no matter where we live or what decade we’re talking about, when the justice system concerns transwomen of color, justice is delayed, denied, and disgraceful.

The argument - that the media and the public in general respond more when a white woman suffers - used to give me some pause. While I know, for example, that the numbers of missing and murdered Aboriginal women is collosal, the numbers of women in general who experience violence in Canada are just as shocking:

Half of Canadian women (51%) have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16; Every minute of every day, a Canadian woman or child is being sexually assaulted; One to two women are murdered by a current or former partner each week in Canada. (Source: Canadian Women’s Foundation).

But if racism is not a factor when it comes to reporting acts of violence against women and children, why are there virtually no stories in major North American media about last Friday’s attack on Muslim babies and children?

If you have a blog, if you are a journalist, if you just have a lot of friends on your email contact list - write about this. It is completely abhorrent to me that almost no one, so far, is talking about this. Let’s prove to ourselves that our society is not as horrifyingly racist as it appears to be today.

Hat tip to Muslimah Media Watch

Rebecca Traister has an article about Sarah Palin in Salon where she asks: “how did I, a die-hard feminist, end up terrified at the idea of a woman in the White House?”

What Palin so seductively represents…is a form of feminine power that is utterly digestible to those who have no intellectual or political use for actual women. It’s like some dystopian future … feminism without any feminists.

Traister is a great writer and I heartily recommend the article.

But I couldn’t help but feel a whirling sense of deja vu.

Back in March, the Shameless Team and I had the pleasure of attending WAM. There we heard the legendary Helen Thomas assert that feminists should vote for a female candidate, just because she’s a woman.

At that point, I suddenly became aware of the fact that I was in a woman of colour in a room that didn’t have a lot of women of colour.

At the same conference, the very ugly rift between grassroots feminists of colour and grassroots non-anti-racist feminists was brought to the harsh light of day. And it was that weekend when I really started to feel worried, and a little heartbroken, that the movement I’d poured so much of my life into, didn’t - at present - feel like it was for me anymore.

McCain picked a woman to run as his VP on purpose - in the hopes that Republicans might be able to pick up female voters who were still holding to that dream of a woman in the white house. But when Traister says in her article, “Plz, Palin is a woman but that doesn’t mean anyone should equate her with feminism - in fact, please don’t,” I am reminded of how I felt about Hillary.

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I shook my fist alongside Catherine when she blogged about the Yogurt Wars. However, I have my own yogurt scandal: the conspiracy to deny me fatty yogurt. (I spurn you Liberté, for denying me yogurt that is both organic AND full-fat!!) So I loved this video poking fun at the bananas notion that all a gal needs is her pilates mat and (fat-free) yogurt to weather the trials and tribulations of life…

(Found on Salon)

We’re thrilled to announce that we have another new blogger! Tiina Johns is going to be writing Comics Are For Everybody, our new Monday comics column and we’re super excited.

A little bit about Tiina:

Tiina Johns lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she plays music with the Stolen Minks and sells comic books at Strange Adventures Comic Shop. She has given talks about ladies, queer folks and comics at the Anchor Archive Zine Library, on Halifax’s campus and community radio station, CKDU, and at Dalhousie and St. Mary’s Universities. Tiina is currently conducting a scientific experiment to see how many projects she can take on before her head explodes.

Welcome friend!

Film Friday is on hiatus this week!

In its place please enjoy this clip from one of my favourite movies. No, it’s not Fellini’s 8 1/2, it’s the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie!

SpongeBob and his best friend Patrick are sure that they’ll never make it to Shell City to rescue King Neptune’s crown. They lack the chops, they’re nothing but bubble blowing babies. But then suddenly and mysteriously they grow facial hair. Never mind where it came from - now armed with their new manliness they “can do anything.” Or can they? An incisive commentary on modern masculinity. For serious!

This clip is so subversive that Youtube has disabled the embedding function. No matter, you can still view it right here.