In the Blog
Media literacy camp this Saturday!
There’s still space left in this incredible event happening in Toronto this weekend. And leading one workshop is our very own art director (and genius) Sheila Sampath. Full (exciting) details below from Michelle Cho from the Urban Alliance on Race Relations:
Ever wonder why we see the same kinds of images of women in the media all the time? Wanna see women in the media as being something more than just a video ho? Tired of the lack of diversity in the media? Want to see your story? Want to learn how to make your own media (video, podcasts, magazines)? Come to the Making Noise Media Camp for Young Women! For women 14-25 Saturday May 30 rsvp: michelle cho, 416-703-6607 x 3 michelle@urbanalliance.ca Challenge stereotypes about women; bring your own t-shirt to silkscreen; meet other young women from around the city! Free breakfast and dinner, free TTC tokens, free childcare. This year, we’ve started a program called Making Noise which is a media literacy initiative for young women in this city to connect the negative portrayals of women in the media with the gender violence women face on our bodies, in our neighbourhoods in our homes. We want to talk about the politics of media ownership but also give spaces for young women to create their own media, with the sole goal of launching a summer campaign against street harassment. Summer is almost here, and rates of violence always go up in the summer…we’re tired of being hollered at the in the streets and feeling unsafe, but want more creative ways of challenging gender violence. We’ve organized a media camp FOR THIS SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2009 to start to bring young women together to plan a summer campaign to challenge street harassment in Toronto using media they’ve created themselves. We want to talk about how violence is experienced differently by women of colour and how it is made invisible by the media or sensationalized to be soley about being because they do not fit into the “mainstream”. i.e. Jane Creba - Her story flooded the media and was seen as this ‘bright light’ that was taken away from our city… vs. Chantel Dunn - her murderers who are still not found…a case which got way less coverage and funding… vs. Reena Virk, 14 year old South Asian woman that was killed by a group of seven girls and one boy. The media coverage that followed became all about girl on girl violence and not about racism. vs. Aqsa Parvez, strangled by her father, grew up in a home with abuse issues, but the media framed it as an “honour killing” and became an attack on “fundamentalist Islam”. We want to use popular education, pop culture and media creation to talk about how we can support each others work and build a movement together where an analysis of violence includes a critique of gender violence, including one that is critical of violence against queer folks…but in a fierce, media savvy way. I know in some way, all of us have built spaces for young women, but we also need to make spaces for young men to talk about masculinities, gender roles, homophobia etc and how this is tied into how we experience violence different in our communities.
