Tinkerbell and Cinderella were arrested earlier this week, in the middle of a protest for workers’ rights. Don’t get too excited: Disney hasn’t come out with an unexpectedly awesome new movie. Instead, a group of Disneyland workers, many in costume, shut down a major thoroughfare in California trying to prevent Disney from taking away their benefits.

According to CNN:

The dispute involves about 2,300 maids, bell hops, cooks and dishwashers at three Disney-owned hotels: the Paradise Pier, the Grand Californian and the Disneyland Hotel.

The workers’ contract expired in February and their union says Disney’s latest proposal makes health care unaffordable for hundreds of employees and creates an unfair two-tier wage system. The union also says Disney wants to create a new category of part-time employees who would receive greatly reduced benefits.

Personally, I just like the image of Snow White with a picket sign, chanting slogans and getting hauled away in handcuffs. It’s actually a role model I could get behind, much more than Belle saving an abusive relationship with the Beast or any of the other gender and cultural stereotypes that Disney is well known for (and we’ve posted about them before here and here and here).

This week, Shameless co-founder Nicole Cohen was a guest on Q, CBC Radio’s arts and culture show. Nicole joined BUST founder Debbie Stoller in a lively discussion on why feminist magazines matter.

BUST just turned 15, a huge accomplishment for independent media. (When BUST turned five, Stoller was quoted as saying “much like crime, BUST doesn’t pay.”)

If you missed the show, catch it again online.

I have a lot of stress. I have a day job, a secret identity as the editor of this very fine magazine, a whack of hobbies (some of which, like making wedding cakes, are a lot of work), a ton of great friends, a fantastic relationship, and at the end of the day, I still have to find time to cook, do laundry, and, once in a while, sleep. I’ve always been a “workaholic”, and so have many amazing, super-accomplished women I know. Leisure time, what’s that?

Of course, society has taught us all to believe that stress is harming us: it makes us more likely to get sick, and less likely to get a good night’s sleep, conceive a child and all kinds of good, healthy things. Which is why I enjoyed Peggy Orenstein’s column in last weekend’s New York Times Magazine. It makes the case that some of what we believe about stress is anti-feminist crap.

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The Scream Literary Festival is coming up again, and there are a few events that we at Shameless are particularly excited about.

First of all, Julie Wilson, who runs the delightful Seen Reading blog is going to be running a writing workshop for teens called Seen Writing. The workshop, which is free, will be followed by readings by young poets Rupi Natt and Aaryn Zhou. Check out the event on Saturday, July 5th at 4:30 at the Tinto Cafe, 89 Roncesvalles Ave.

On July 11, the Toronto Women’s Bookstore is going to be hosting poets Camille Martin, Harmony Rice and Monica Rosas.

Camille Martin, a poet and collage artist, works with both found and original materials; Harmony Rice is a reporter for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, publisher of SPIRIT Magazine and a burlesque dancer; Monica Rosas is an educator/agitator/artist whose work aims to challenge and provoke discussion on gender, the environment and the visible minority experience. Readings will touch on issues of language, authorship and power, space and place, land and its ownership, the body, and belonging.

And last but not least, on July 14, the Scream in High Park mainstage event has a terrific lineup this year including Dani Couture, rap-storytelling-poet Motion and Skim author Mariko Tamaki. Sigh.

Find out more about the Scream Literary Festival on the website.

Women on Waves, the amazing Dutch abortion activism group, has hit a snag, but isn’t letting that stop them. We wrote about WOW in the last issue: the group captains a ship called Harmony, which drops anchor in international waters off the coast of countries where abortion is illegal, and gives women access to safe, medical abortion. In doing so, they have been successful at getting reproductive rights back on the public agenda (and Portugal, where Harmony was met by warships four years ago, finally legalized abortion last year).

After dealing with bureaucratic mess where the ship lost its Dutch license, Harmony was back on the water, headed this time to Ecuador, where the World Health Organization estimates that 95,000 illegal and dangerous abortions take place every year. Unsafe abortion leads to 30,000 hospitalizations and is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in Ecuador.

Unfortunately, the ship ran aground in a tropical storm. But they’re not letting that stop them. (more inside…)

I’m very excited to announce that our own blogger Cate Simpson has taken over as web editor of the Shameless blog!

Last January, Cate left her native Edinburgh, philosophy degree in hand, to take over Toronto as a freelance journalist.

Now, in addition to blogging for us on everything from trends in queer rights cases in the U.S. to Grand Theft Auto, Cate writes for Xtra and Torontoist.

She’s completely shameless, and really, really nice. We are totally lucky to have her on the team.

Welcome, Cate!

The Shameless launch party is tomorrow! Come by and grab the new issue, silkscreen your own Shameless gear, win tons of raffle prizes and more!

We’ll have great performances by Lisa Bozikovic, Emma McKenna and DJ Winnie.

Our raffle prize list has seriously gotten out of hand. Here is our list of terrific donors and sponsors:

Good for Her
Groundwood Books
Vintagelove
SK Clothes
Sugarfire Jewellery
Bad Dog Theatre
A Heart Apart
Grapefruit Moon Café
Margie Jewellery Studio
Ariella Meinhard, Acupuncturist and Massage
Worn Magazine
Briarpatch Magazine
Make/Shift Magazine
THIS Magazine
Shaimaa (www.craftabulous.etsy.com)
Shelly Hering
Nicole Cohen
Thea Lim
Myna Wallin
Tightrope Books
Anarres Natural Health Practitioners
Repeating Pig Press

So make sure to come by — March 15 from 1-4 at the Gladstone Hotel. And make sure to say hello!

Yours Shamelessly,

Megan and the Shameless Team

We’re thrilled to be nominated for FOUR Canadian F-Word Blog awards:

Best Canadian Feminist Blog
Best Entertainment Blog
Best Group Blog
The Support Bro: Best support by a male

The first round of voting continues today and tomorrow, so please swing on over and lend us your support. While you’re there, check out some of the other amazing sites that have been nominated.

UPDATE: Sorry, I missed Wesley’s category earlier. He snagged two nominations for this award, congrats, Wesley!

The Guerrilla Girls take on the problems of Hollywood. (gurerrillagirls.com)

A few weeks ago, filmmaker Erin Laing sent me an e-mail about the lack of attention female directors have been getting by mainstream bloggers. What pissed her off, specifically, was Filmshowing’s list Why 2008 Will be an Awesome Year for Movies. Fifty-four films, and not a one made by a woman. (You can read Erin’s own blog about the list here).

Other most-anticipated lists are not very different. Slash Film’s list of 55 must-see films does include one woman: Mira Nair’s film Shantaram, set for release this fall. At least The Times’ list of 50 biggest movies of 2008 includes a whopping three pictures: Persepolis, 27 Dresses and Mamma Mia!)

Clearly, the criteria used to make these lists are, well, pretty subjective. (I know I can’t wait until the April release of Repo! The Genetic Opera!, a paranoid apocalypic musical starring Paris Hilton [no, not really].)

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