As you may have heard, Toronto’s Women Bookstore is in danger of closing its doors. A number of fundraisers have been arranged to help out…
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OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

OTHER TONGUES: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out

Co-editors Adebe D.A. and Andrea Thompson are seeking submissions for an anthology of writing by and about mixed-race women, intended for publication in Fall 2010 by Inanna Publications.

The purpose of this anthology is to explore the question of how mixed-race women in North America identify in the 21st Century. The anthology will also serve as a place to learn about the social experiences, attitudes, and feelings of others, and what racial identity has come to mean today. We are inviting previously unpublished submissions that engage, document, and/or explore the experiences of being mixed-race, by placing interraciality as the center, rather than periphery, of analysis.
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Shameless Wire, our new training program for young journalists, is in
full swing. Over the next few months, we’ll be publishing a number of
guest posts by Wire participants. This first series responds to
Toronto city councillor and mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti’s
platform, which calls for a city-wide teen curfew.

by BerBer Xue

Councilor Giorgio Mammoliti has been pushing for a teen curfew for half a decade now, and he’s not stopping because of his run for Toronto mayor. I, for one, do not like the fact that Mammoliti wants to pass a curfew that will dictate how our lives are lived.

Mammoliti’s logic for this curfew is that it will reduce the number of murders in Toronto, but he is playing on fear, not logic. People are afraid of guns. People are afraid of teenagers. A natural instinct would be to suffocate that threat of teenagers wielding guns until it is gone. But last time I checked, there are not many teenage murderers in Toronto. Watching the news these days, I do hear my fair share of murders and shootings (more so last year). But the majority of these are done by people over 18.

In any case, this curfew would be an overreaction. This is akin to enforcing the War Measures Act during the October Crisis, over-the-top and unnecessary. Parents should reserve the right to set their own curfews, at their own discretion. It should be the parent’s right, not the government’s, because they know their children far better than an impersonal law.

Finally, let’s talk logistics. How is this going to work? There is no efficient way to keep teenagers off the streets at night. It would take a tremendous amount of people and organization to execute this well. Toronto isn’t a small town; there are so many places where teenagers could be. No matter how much the city spends, most of the night owls will be able slip away - we’re like Jell-O in that way.

Mammoliti wants to use teenagers as a scapegoat, but his plan will backfire. I know parents who are not voting for Mammoliti just because of this curfew issue, because they do not appreciate Mammoliti’s insinuations. If only youth could also vote, just for this one election - we would show Mammoliti a real reason to fear Toronto’s youth.

Every other 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 awesome Leanne Prain…

Vancouver, BC graphic designer and author Leanne Prain is passionate about creativity: yarn, fabric, street art, design, handmade goods, art, publishing, pop culture, antiquarian printing, typography, social media, and technology. She has a particular interest in how handmade skills can flourish and be taught in the digital age. Co-author of the subversive knitting graffiti book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti, Leanne also blogs about knit graffiti at www.yarnbombing.com and about design, publishing, writing, and life at www.leanneprain.com and is this week’s Shameless Woman.

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(via flickr user masaaki miyara)

Over two weeks have passed since the death of mystified literary icon, J.D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye and creator of its angst-ridden and much-loved antihero Holden Caulfield. Headlines and obituaries emphasize Salinger’s reclusive and secretive lifestyle, mentioning diehard fans’ wild goose chases for the man in his small town of Cornish, New Hampshire.

Although Mikki Halpin at Salon.com says she understands the appeal to see Salinger as a “higher intellect who has rejected it all,” she also finds this portrait of him “curious,” suggesting it conveniently bars the public from facing some uneasy assertions about the late writer’s relationships with women.

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Shameless Wire, our new training program for young journalists, is in
full swing. Over the next few months, we’ll be publishing a number of
guest posts by Wire participants. This first series responds to
Toronto city councillor and mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti’s
platform, which calls for a city-wide teen curfew.

by Diana Faria

City Councillor Georgio Mammoliti thinks that we need a curfew for Toronto’s teenagers. Mammoliti is wrong. He is also making way too many assumptions about teens, implying that we are all irresponsible, that we all need this.

We probably shouldn’t be taking Mammoliti seriously anyway – after all, his platform includes a casino and a red-light district in downtown Toronto, and giving bylaw officers guns. Strangest of all, Mammoliti argues that a curfew would reduce the murder rate. That is ludicrous. To quote Statistics Canada, “in 2008, 55 youth aged 12 to 17 were accused of committing homicide.”

Does he realize that with Canada’s population at 30 million and growing, having only 55 youths accused of committing murder is extremely small? We can clearly state here that youth homicides are both rare and unusual. Statistics Canada also points out that “80% of solved homicides were committed by someone known to the victim.” The main problem does not lie in strangers on the street, attacking other strangers at random.

If the problem is that teenagers are murderers, as Mammoliti seems to believe, than why not focus on the biggest problem, which is gang violence, instead of trying to label every teenager by making a curfew? In 2008, gang violence was on the rise. Why didn’t Mammoliti look at those statistics before trying to force a curfew on every teenager, peaceful and violent alike? Of course there are teens out there who are lost and confused, some even involved with gangs. But most teens do not need this curfew, and Mammoliti should leave them alone.

Shameless Wire, our new training program for young journalists, is in
full swing. Over the next few months, we’ll be publishing a number of
guest posts by Wire participants. This first series responds to
Toronto city councillor and mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti’s
platform, which calls for a city-wide teen curfew.

by Rachel Lee-Thomas

Given the chance, some teenagers are practically nocturnal. We stay up late. Some of us stay out to odd hours of the night. Some drink alcohol, abuse drugs, do whatever they want on the darkened streets. Georgio Mammoliti, a city councillor and mayoral candidate, wants to put a stop to this - he thinks that we need a curfew for teenagers. He believes that it would help to decrease the crime rate.

On some levels, I do agree with Mammoliti. Having a set curfew for teens under a certain age would really help to keep them safe. The curfew would keep youth off of the sometimes dangerous streets, and into a hopefully safer environment. One of the things some teenagers do when they are out alone at night is experiment with drugs and alcohol. If teens are wandering outside, under the influence, it can be pretty dangerous. While teenagers are out in the streets having fun, their grades are suffering. If students were to be inside after a certain point, they would have more time to focus on school work.

If teens were inside at night, they might be a lot safer. While it’s true that teens can still drink and do drugs indoors, it’s a much safer environment than being alone outside. But it’s going to take a lot to get teens to listen. A curfew is a good idea in theory, but in the real world, it would be almost impossible to implement.

Unfortunately, these rules and restrictions would make most teenagers angry. Teenagers don’t want to be babied. We want to feel as adult and independent as we can. If teens are told that they must stay inside after a certain time, they might feel a need to rebel. The demand for fake IDs would increase. Teens might be more willing to pay for a fake ID, figuring they need it to stay out late. But owning ID would then give them the power to do all sorts of other things, from buying alcohol to going to clubs.

Overall, I feel that a curfew is a smart idea. It would keep teenagers safe, and in line. Their grades could improve, and there might be less crime. But realistically, it would never work in today’s world. Once the boundaries are set, most teenagers will find it almost thrilling to bend around the rules, and stay out anyway. It would take a lot to ever get this law off the ground.

Being a word/books person, I do a lot of thinking about the power of language. The more progressive blogs and new sources I read, and the more I talk and think about feminist and progressive issues on a daily basis, the more I notice the words people drop into casual conversation that make me pause.

Language is more powerful than we realize. At its best, it can facilitate communication, bridge huge distances and build communities. But as we’ve heard, with great power comes great responsibility, and I believe that as feminists, it’s important for us to be conscious of the words we choose when communicating and to avoid problematic and alienating language as much as possible – not only to avoid offending or alienating others, but to hold ourselves to the highest standards and set a positive example.

Problematic or triggering language is all around us: everything from “that’s so gay” to “what a pussy” to “that exam totally raped me.” Examples like these are obvious, but some that are more often overlooked include “that’s so lame” and “you’re insane” (ableist, physically and mentally, respectively). Personally, expressions that are dismissive of mental/emotional differing abilities (“insane,” “crazy,” “stupid”) are ones I’m currently working on eliminating from my vocabulary.

I’m not necessarily advocating becoming the language police, and I know that different social situations have different standards of communication. It’s just something to think about.

I’ve only given a few examples in this post. What are some of your personal language peeves, and are you working on being more conscious of your words? Do you call out others who use problematic language?

Do you have role-models? Mentors? A woman you look up to for some reason or other?

Every other week I profile “positive female role models for young women” in my Shameless Women column. They are amazing ladies that I hope inspire the women who read each interview. However, the women I interview tend to be “regular” people.

Back in December, columnist Kate Carraway wrote in her article, “What’s next for sex? Feminism didn’t really work. Oopsie!” that the reason for the lack of motivation and accomplishment (and in her opinion, the failure) of the “third-wave” of feminism is because we have no visible leaders:
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