Tag: Guest Blogs
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In the Blog
Update: 160 Girls Demand Justice in Kenya
This post is an update to “A Long Fight Ahead: 160 Girls Demand Justice in Kenya” by Melissa Reiter which appeared on the Shameless blog on March 11, 2013. In a landmark ruling, 240 young women in Kenya who were sexually assaulted as minors have won a constitutional claim against the Kenyan government. The Equality Effect, a Toronto-based charity which aims to achieve justice for women and girls through law and policy reform, launched the case … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Funny & Feminist: Alliteration That Works
by Abby Plener Scene: A group of white, university-educated, twenty-somethings gather at a hip Toronto bar. The conversation turns to comedian Daniel Tosh and that stupidly offensive rape joke he made. A male member of the group tries man-splain to us all that you can’t have comedy without offending people. A female member of the group tries to the counter his argument. It’s annoying. The conversation goes nowhere. It’s still annoying. Well, I think I found my … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Building Equality: An International Partnership Helps Women Find Justice in Tanzania
by Melissa Reiter I recently learned a Zulu proverb: “One does not cross a river without getting wet.” There are some experiences that stay with us even as we come out on the other side, reminding us where we’ve been and forming a lasting connection to a place or a person. This is what happened when my friend David Fitzpatrick went to Tanzania. In 2004, David visited Tanzania with a program called Global Volunteers, where he taught … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest Series: Part 3 - Adventures in Admissions and Toilets
If you’re new to this series, read parts 1 and 2 first. by Jenny Blaser As I settle in to 1217A, I find myself alone for the first time. I am without a friend or support person and it is just me and Penny. The nurse, Kelly, is familiar to me from my previous admission to the unit and remembers the things I need. We get me into the bed and Penny joins me, taking up residence … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest Post: Carrying on his Legacy
by T. Sunday I was packing up at the end of a workday, a while back, and a coworker, we’ll call him “Tim,” invited me to join him and some friends for dinner. I told him I couldn’t, because I’d already made a commitment: I was going to a pro-choice rally outside an abortion clinic in Toronto. “But we’ve already won the right to choose!” Tim smirked. Then, clearly not the kind of guy who quits when … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Cross-Post: Goodbye, Dr. Morgentaler
Originally posted at Abortion Gang by Peggy Cooke This morning [Wednesday, May 29, 2013] Dr. Henry Morgentaler died of a heart attack in his Toronto home. He was 90 years old, in increasingly failing health these last few years, and with a lifetime - many lifetimes - of work behind him. May we one day win a world where all abortion providers can safely die of old age in their own homes. Thank goodness Dr. Morgentaler was … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest Series: Part 2 - Of Duct Tape and Half-Lives
Read part 1 of this series here. By Jenny Blaser “Do you know how to do a two person lift?” I ask. “No,” replies the nurse with a look of fear and apprehension. “Great. Then just do that however you want,” I retort, attempting to shield my sarcasm. At this point I am laying out on the floor, spasming and twitching about without any control of my body or its movements. I am straining to speak because the spasms … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest Series: Part 1 - Like a Fish Out of Water on the Doctor’s Floor
by Jenny Blaser This is my most recent narrative. It is one that I am still living and experiencing in a number of ways. It is a story that undoubtedly will shape the person who I currently am and define how I continue to grow and live my life. I want to share it because it is a story not often told - one of disability, sickness, pain, support, and change. This is a story of … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest Post: Woman in Niqab Asking for it?
by Farrah Khan A consistently held myth is that women who are sexually assaulted “ask for it” by the way we dress or act. However, government reports and community organizations have demonstrated that this doesn’t matter. A woman of any age, physical type, or dress can be assaulted. Violence is violence, and believing in the myth that women “ask for it” is harmful. Not only does it absolve the perpetrators of violence, it also serves as … READ MORE
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In the Blog
MyMSG: We all need positive messages
by Afi Browne For the past 10 months I have been working with Springtide Resources, an agency committed to ending violence against women and everyone who faces oppression, such as queer and trans people, people with disabilities, Deaf people, immigrants and refugees. Along with four other youth and our project coordinator we have been creating curriculum around our own experiences of oppression and using that curriculum to encourage youth to create positive messages to counteract the … READ MORE
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In the Blog
American Pie, Superbad and Lessons from Anxious Male Teens
by Abby Plener During a discussion about how the media contributes to teens’ sexual education, a classmate of mine in a feminist political theory seminar declared “I learned everything I needed to know from American Pie. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the 1999 hit teen comedy, the movie follows four male friends who make a pact to lose their virginities before they graduate high school. As their ringleader Kevin astutely puts it: [Transcription after … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest Post: Film review of The World Before Her, directed by Nisha Pahuja
by Nish Israni I love to explore the neighbourhoods in Toronto, and sometimes find myself walking along streets that I have never been to, just taking in the sights. The other night, I was walking by Royal York station when I came across the Kingsway theatre. Right away, a poster for The World Before Her, a documentary by Nisha Pahuja, grabbed my attention. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The World Before Her had won the … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest Post: Film review of Augustine, directed by Alice Winocour
by Nish Israni I love watching movies, especially good ones, and those are hard to come by. I feel like having a feminist approach to life has made going to the movies like going to the dentist. All I can do is clench my fists tightly to my sides and tense my body until he’s done attacking my teeth with a variety of instruments. Mainstream media can be so saturated with sexism, misogyny, homophobia, racism and more, … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Chick/Lit: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary
by Carolyn Dineen I mentioned in my previous installment of Chick/Lit, I am not a great reader of chick lit. Instead, I read Jane Austen. As such, I find it suitable that one of the genre’s most famous novels, Helen Fielding’s 1996 Bridget Jones’s Diary, would draw its inspiration from Pride and Prejudice. In my mind, Austen is very much the ancestor of modern-day chick lit, and certainly an influence on the work of many women … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Media Action Media sparks a Canadian conversation on media representation of women
By Layla Cameron The media, in all of its forms, defines and constrains who women are, what they can be, and what they look like. As most women live outside of these constructions, these media images and representations are incredibly damaging on both an individual and societal level. That’s where the REPRESENT. project steps in. REPRESENT. is the latest initiative from Media Action Media, an organization that seeks to promote gender equity for women-identified individuals through media criticism and … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest post: LGBTQ youth homelessness: A growing problem in Toronto
By I. Alex Abramovich Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) youth are overrepresented in the homeless youth population. Approximately 12 years ago, it was estimated that 25-40% of homeless youth identified as LGBTQ, but we do not have enough research in Canada to know how much that estimate has changed. In Canada, we have extensive research on youth homelessness; however, little is known about the phenomenon of LGBTQ youth homelessness. What we do know, … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest Post: Why “men’s rights” groups are wrong
By Jesse McLaren Originally published at Socialist Worker “Men’s rights” groups are a growing phenomenon, with “men’s centres” and “men’s issues awareness” clubs appearing on campuses. Manipulating men’s anxieties faced with neoliberalism and austerity, “men’s issues” groups ignore the poverty, racism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia that men and women face, and instead scapegoat the women’s movement and progressive movements in general. Men’s Issues Awareness at UofT claims it wants to “build a movement centered on Men’s Issues which … READ MORE
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In the Blog
An Open Letter to the AGO About Frida Kahlo’s Unibrow
by Sarah Mortimer Dear AGO, The week of October 20, while walking past the Drake Hotel, one of your employees handed me a card that said I should wear this unibrow in order to get 50% off the price of admission to your exhibit “Frida and Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting.” I am glad that Frida Kahlo’s work is here in Toronto and that you are eager to have people come see it, but I can’t help … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Misogyny in Geek Culture
Seventh grade was the year I realized that I definitely Wasn’t Cool. Until that point, my relative coolness had been up for debate - sure, I was a brainiac know-it-all who spent most of her spare time with her nose stuck in a book, but I’d always done well socially and had a fairly sizeable group of friends. Something happened, though, during that summer before seventh grade. Some kind of paradigm shift went down among the … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest Post: Language can be so Crazy-Making!
by Jenna MacKay with special thanks to Kate-Christine Miller Crazy. Bonkers. Bananas. Disturbed. Maniac. Psycho. Psychopath. Mental. Nutter. Throughout history, people labelled with mental health issues have been stigmatized. This continues today and is inseparable from the language we use. Take for example the shooting of men with mental health issues by the Toronto police. The actions of the police are informed by labelling certain men’s behaviour as “crazy.” This label is accompanied by … READ MORE
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