Every Thursday I profile a new incredible woman, each from a different walk of life. Different professions, causes, backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, and anything/everything else!

So without further delay, let me introduce the wonderful Willa Black…

Vice president of corporate marketing at Cisco Canada, Willa Black has developed and built groundbreaking, award-winning programs like the Globe and Mail Business Incubator, and most recently came up with the idea for One Million Acts of Green, which has resulted in people from over 50 countries, logging 1,201,532 acts of green and saving a total of 69,344,703 kilograms of greenhouse gases to date.

“The One Million Acts of Green initiative has set an example for the world as to what is possible when people come together and work towards a common goal,” Willa says.

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Continuing with this week’s theme of Shameless people doing awesome things, I’m incredibly excited for the launch of Tuval Dinner‘s new blog, masc!

masc is an alternative magazine for guys that aims to be a positive space for men to explore how masculinity affects their lives, examine stereotypes and talk about gender, sexuality and health. The first few posts are up already.

It’s maybe a little odd to promote a magazine for men on the website of a magazine for girls and young women, but in many ways masc is committed to the same feminist goals as Shameless.

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Piece from Canada Day (Theresa Sapergia)

Prince George-based artist, tattoo artist, and art professor, Theresa Sapergia, just returned to the snowy hinterland from Montreal where she was promoting her new show, Canada Day. Hanging at Parisian Laundry until February 14th, Sapergia’s work reflects “on a post-apocalyptic Canada where animals have over taken (or taken back) nature” (source). It’s a treasure for me that Prince George gets to be privy to her company as an artist, small-business owner in a tirelessly patriarchal industry, an educator, and a feminist. If you happen to be in Montreal or traveling through make some time to see her show. And if ever, ever, you’re in Prince George let me know: we’ll get coffee and I’ll take you to her shop, Handsome Cabin Boy Tattoo.

In an inspiring bit of news amid so much horror and bloodshed in Gaza, a group of brave women activists have just been arrested for staging an old-fashioned sit-in.

As part of ongoing protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza, a group of Jewish women have occupied the Israeli consulate in Toronto to protest the violence and destruction that is being waged in their name.

The group– which includes social justice activist and professor Judy Rebick, filmmaker Cathy Gulkin, psychoanalyst and president of Science for Peace Judith Deutsch, fimmaker B.H. Yael, and Canadian-Israeli peace activist Smadar Carmon – is being arrested by the RCMP for staging a sit-in.

They are demanding that Israel stop its military assault, lift its 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip, and allow desperately-needed humanitarian aid into the territory. According to their press statement, “Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008. At least 660 people have been killed and 3000 injured in the air strikes and in the ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009. Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing to allow food, adequate medical supplies and other necessities of life into the Gaza Strip.”

“There are Jews that do not follow the Israeli line and are sickened by what is happening in Gaza,” Cathy Gulkin told the Toronto Star.

Can you imagine this wee thing asking you tough questions about your feminism? Disarming, indeed!

As Jessica Yee posted a few days back, the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre / Multicultural Women against Rape has been hosting a series of herstory (instead of history) events designed to recount our stories, remember our common purpose, embrace the activist in all of us, and to redefine feminism on our own terms. All of these reasons to get together sounded noble, so off I went.

Plus, it was just fun to see Thea Lim get interviewed by a lovely, well-worn pink plushy pig with pearls, who spoke from the comfortable position of Thea’s right hand. And this puppet piggy asked some tough questions! Only Thea Lim would dream up interviewing herself in such a way. I laughed so hard I almost dropped my Bundt cake. Here are a few highlights from Thea’s irreverent take on her developing years in feminism as a novelist, blogger, waitress, and cultural activist.

While I love Thea’s silly style, I really love how she connects her learning about feminism to everyday life. “I learned the most about feminism from working in a bar,” she explained, where she saw how women were treated, or ignored by customers, and was once told by someone that he and his friends had a bet going on her ethnicity. At her cocktail waitress job, she also spent a great deal of time watching television. Although Thea expressed some misgivings about the medium (“If TV is to be trusted, women would only be interested in rich hunks and clump-free mascara”), she also told of her love for pop culture as a way of connecting to feminism.

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Our beloved Thea Lim over here at Shameless has not yet departed to the United States and will grace us once more before she goes with her intelligence, brilliance, and general feminist awesomeness this Sunday at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape for their monthly Feminist Activist Herstory Forum!

If I weren’t in the US myself, I’d be there! So I hope you can be!

Here are the deets:

Date: Sunday, January 4th
Time: 2-3:30pm
Where: 17 Phoebe St, The TRCC/MWAR Centre (Just northeast of Queen and Spadina)

This is a FREE event open to all and includes snacks

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Let’s face it – water is so dull. But vitaminwater, with its kaleidoscopic pinks, peaches and violets, is like Vegas in a bottle!

- NYU’s science line on “Is vitaminwater good for you?”

I’m in over my head here. I saw someone drinking a bottle of smartwater, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. So I Googled the company’s website.

Now I’m just thirsty.

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I love it when “girly issues” refuse to be glossed over and come exploding out in everyone’s face.

Dancing with the Stars contestant Julianne Hough left the show this week due a ruptured ovarian cyst. She has been diagnosed with endometriosis and is sharing her story on her blog. Endo (who has time for six syllables?) is a little-understood and often extremely painful condition that affects the female reproductive organs.

People Magazine and TV Crunch quote Hough, who personally blogged on Fancast:

“Last week my management and the other people around me were trying to think of something else I could say that was wrong with me, but I was like, don’t worry. I want to be a good role model. I want to be honest. Maybe some girl out there won’t wait too long like I did. I’m just glad I’m taking care of it now because I want to have babies some day. I don’t want to jeopardize my health.”

When Hough’s illness was first reported, we heard she had stomach pain and a burst appendix. I understand there are a few reasons why they wouldn’t want to come out with the truth.

For one, endometriosis is a gateway word. Say it out loud and before long you’re also saying things like “ovary” and “uterine tissue” and “internal bleeding” and “ruptured cyst” and “I black out from pain that feels like burning shrapnel is expanding endlessly throughout my entire pelvic region.”

It’s not pretty.

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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. What better way to celebrate than by becoming better acquainted with your own personal pair?

Not sure where to begin? Check out this introductory ritual:

Create Some Atmosphere
Find a quiet place by yourself, or hey – invite some adventurous friends over, eat thematic cupcakes and turn it into a “Love Your Boobies” party!

Cupcakes at Come As You Are’s Erotic Arts and Crafts Fair. (http://www.eroticartsandcrafts.com/fair.html)

Take a few moments to breathe deeply and tune in to yourself.

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