Posts by Cate Simpson

  • In the Blog

    Yes Means Yes!

    February 16th, 2009     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Power & A World Without Rape is on tour right now. Edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Feministing’s Jessica Valenti (who Shameless interviewed last year), Yes Means Yes includes an essay by Shameless publisher Stacey May Fowles, as well as some other familiar names from the feminist blogosphere (Feministing’s Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Racialicious’ Latoya Peterson, and Feministe’s Jill Filipovic). I talked to Jill Filipovic last night about her essay, “Offensive Feminism: the … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Messin’ With Broke Bankers

    January 28th, 2009     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    This blog, Dating a Banker Anonymous, sprung up some months ago as a gathering place for women whose Wall Street boyfriends have been laid off or made to work all the hours to hold onto their jobs. I’d swear it was a hoax, only the New York Times seems convinced that it isn’t. The NY Times article plays up the aspect of women supporting one another and commiserating about the jerks their men have turned into. … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Snow Bunnies

    January 14th, 2009     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    Burton Snowboards have just released a line of snowboards by Playboy, featuring bare-assed women with the word “Love” slapped unimaginatively over the top. The boards have caused some heated discussion on the slopes of Vermont (where Burton’s headquarters are located). The above post on Creativity Online takes an even-handed approach to the controversy, mentioning the numbers of children who frequent the slopes and then citing boarders strapping their feet to images of nearly-naked women as an … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Time Periods

    November 18th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    gURL.com has this brief history of menstrual products through the ages, which also doubles as a fascinating social history of periods. It includes some awesome tidbits, like that when the makers of Midol first started marketing the drug as a painkiller for period pain they shied away from actually, you know, using any of those words - instead promising Midol would “lessen pain and discomfort on certain days.” Amazing. … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Eww: Organ Donation Edition

    November 15th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    Apparently you can use sex to sell anything, even organ donation: This is so gross. If this woman was actually in need of someone’s organs, she’d be laid out in a hospital somewhere at death’s door. These are not acceptable circumstances to want to be “inside” someone. Also, do people think sex is the only reason men do anything? Why don’t they get more worked up about the fact that most advertising assumes that men are callous … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Are we still at the oppression olympics?

    November 6th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    There are a lot of mixed emotions flying around now that the election’s over, especially from the queer community and their allies. Like many, I’m elated about Obama’s victory, but I’m angry and disappointed that the bluest of blue states, California, voted 55% for Obama and yet 52% in favour of banning gay marriage. But some of this anger is both misdirected and dangerous. Like that of sex columnist Dan Savage, who basically places all the … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Nowhere to hide?

    October 31st, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    There’s an interesting article in the Guardian today about social networking and privacy, written by Cory Doctorow who runs Boing Boing. He points out that adults wax hysterical on young people’s cavalier attitudes towards privacy, while staying absolutely quiet on the increasingly scary amounts of surveillance our governments are placing us under. “For centuries adults have been deriding young people for their laziness, venality, sexuality, shallowness and lack of moral fibre. Now they’ve added another item to … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Eww: Debate Liveblogging Edition

    October 15th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    John McCain just said his running mate Sarah Palin is “a role model for women.” Could this be more condescending? As if we’re just scratching around, desperate for somebody to look up to, and she’s the only available candidate? Guess what, girls! You can be Vice President someday too! Gee, thanks John McCain. … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Feeling Blue?

    October 15th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    So, the eleection results are in, and they aren’t great but they could have been worse. But, before we turn our attention to the final American presidential debate tonight, let’s take a few more minutes to talk about Canada. Thanks to Student Vote, there was a second vote yesterday, a mock election that took place in schools across Canada and involved more than 400,000 elementary and high school students. The idea is that if you get … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    “Women are Weapons-Grade Haters”

    October 11th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    This gem is from an article in Time Magazine, which argues that women hate Sarah Palin because she’s too pretty and too confident. Is anyone else really tired of media commentators seeing a couple of girls fall out on the playground and extrapolating this behaviour to our entire gender? Not that men are spared ridiculous stereotyping in this article either: “When men disagree, the steps to resolution are reasonably clear and unsophisticated. Acts of physical violence are … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    New bloggers!

    October 9th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    It’s a big week here at Shameless. We’ve got four fantastic new bloggers joining us, and because they’re all starting at once, we decided to let them all introduce themselves in this one handy post. Jenna Owsianik is a chipper young writer and activist from Steel City, a.k.a. Hamilton, Ontario. She recently finished her undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies and French and dreams of a career in journalism. Since 2005, Jenna has been on the steering … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Hillary Duff’s Public Service Announcement

    October 8th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    Wenesday evening moment of random: Hillary Duff appears like the good fairy in this PSA to explain what’s wrong with saying, “That’s so gay.” Except that she doesn’t actually explain what’s wrong with it. I mean, not to pick holes, but if I had literally no idea what was offensive about using “gay” to mean “kind of lame”, I’m not sure this video would totally nail it for me. Thoughts? … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Shameless needs new bloggers: Application Deadline Extended

    September 9th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    Shameless is still looking for new bloggers to join our team, and we’ve extended the application deadline until Friday, September 19. See below for details and how to apply. We’re looking for new people to join our team of bloggers. Bloggers post once a week or more, keep up with what’s happening on the blog and contribute to discussions in comments. Like all other positions with our volunteer-run magazine, blogging is unpaid. We are also looking for someone … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Reasons to bring back Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    August 25th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    So, I’m really usually not the type to read young adult romance novels. Don’t get me wrong, if that’s your thing then that’s great, but it’s not generally mine. Also, at 23 I’m slightly stretching the definition of “young adult”. But we all need holiday reading and last weekend when I was readying myself to lie on a beach for a couple of days I picked up Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. For those of you who aren’t … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    How advertising invents standards part II

    August 16th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    This ad from 1934 (see here for full size, and also this ad from the 60’s) is a reminder of how long the media has been in the business of convincing women to change their bodies. It’s also a reminder that we can couch defenses of the current fat-hating trend in society in health terms all we want, but when it comes down to it - it’s about fashion. Curves are out, thin is in. … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Shameless needs new bloggers!

    August 15th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    We’re looking for more people to join our team of bloggers. Bloggers post once a week or more, keep up with what’s happening on the blog and contribute to discussions in comments. Like all other positions with our volunteer-run magazine, blogging is unpaid. We are also looking for someone to take over our Film Friday column. Like our Comics are for Everybody and Wired Wednesday columns, Shameless Film Fridays look at films from a feminist perspective, or … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Women of Colour and Beauty Carnival

    August 14th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    You’d be forgiven for not knowing what a blogging carnival is, but lately they’ve been catching on in popularity. Basically, one person introduces a theme and calls for others to blog about it and send them the links, and then they collect them all together into a single post. Angry Black Woman held a Carnival of Allies back in April, and this week the organizer of yennenga - a LiveJournal community for women of colour - … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Woman: a place to park your pint…

    July 29th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    …while you and several of your friends have sex with her. Beer commercials have started to swing towards the rapantly sexist lately, but this is the worst I’ve seen so far. And there I run out of words. Correction: Diageo has confirmed that Guinness didn’t make the ad, which was in fact made by some guy with his own money, and for no apparent purpose. See comments below for Guinness’ response to a letter from one of our … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Fat camp goes to school

    July 28th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    There is nothing worse than being fat. That’s the message we get from every magazine that obsesses over the weight of (mostly female) celebrities, and every movie that places someone heavy in the leading role only to make them ridiculous and asexual (again, this mostly applies to women: think chubby teenage Monica from Friends, who miraculously stops being a total spaz about dating once she loses the fat suit). Now there’s a special boarding school opening in … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Condoms Save!

    July 25th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

    One of our readers, Danielle, was outraged enough by Catherine’s post about a ridiculously over-the-top anti-condom poster, that she was inspired to create this pro-contraception t-shirt: Who says we can’t fight back and have a sense of humour about it? Check out Danielle’s blog here. … READ MORE

Newer →

← Older