Tag: Recommended Reading
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: In Transition (Ryerson Review of Journalism)
When even Canada’s top LGBT publication struggles to find the right words, will journalists ever accurately reflect the complexities within the trans community? The Ryerson Review of Journalism has a piece up about Elisha Lim, friend of Shameless, and their struggle to have their preferred pronouns used in queer media: “There was this one moment where I said I prefer the pronoun ‘they,’” Lim says. “It was kind of my shaky first attempt so I wasn’t too … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended reading: Caitlin at the Mamafesto
Our own front-of-book editor, Caitlin Blennerhassett, is featured [being awesome] in an interview at the Mamafesto: My feminism is always changing, as I engage more with the literature, and as I experience living in different communities around the country. My feminism changed radically when I took a class in my Masters degree where we read Peggy McIntosh’s famous essay, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” and many other relevant pieces like John Howard Griffin’s “Black Like … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Viewing: It Gets Fatter
It Gets Fatter is a project started by three self-identified fat people of colour, with the intent of building a dialogue around being fat people of colour in a fatphobic world, eating together and being in safe spaces together. “… maybe it could be a project, like It Gets Better, but actually better, because people of colour are doing it.” They have so far posted an introductory video that can be found here, and a version with … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: Hate Crimes Always Have A Logic: On The Oak Creek Gurudwara Shootings
Highly recommended piece from the amazing Harsha Walia over at Racialicious. While these murders were abhorrent, they were not ‘senseless’. The ad nauseaum suggestion that the killings were senseless attempts to construct the shooting as random and without logic, when in fact racist hate crimes operate through the very deliberate and precise logic of white supremacy. White supremacy, as a dominant and dominating structuring, actually necessitates and relies on a discourse that suggests that hate crimes are … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading Round-up: Responses to Ian Brown’s Male Gaze article
Globe and Mail columnist Ian Brown recently wrote a piece in the Globe and Mail called “Why men can’t - and shouldn’t - stop staring at women.” There have been a variety of responses, and we’ve collected some of them here for you. What do you think about the piece? Are there other responses you’ve seen and liked? From Kasia Mychajlowycz at Archive Kasia: It’s part of male privilege to feel that writing a long feature about … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Relationship Advice from the National Association of Women and the Law
Just in time for Valentine’s day, the National Association of Women and the Law (with funding from The Law Foundation of Ontario) created an in-depth, accessible resource to help inform diverse women across Ontario about their legal rights regarding money, relationships and the law. It includes relevant information for those entering into happy relationships, and leaving problematic ones. You can take a look at the online manual, as well as a series of podcasts available … READ MORE
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Web Features
Shameless Book Club: Shameless Book Club: ‘Feminism For Real’!
Our first episode of the Shameless Book Club podcast features anthology ‘Feminism for Real.’ This text asks big questions about the relationship between feminist theory and practice, and discusses the frustrations of trying to relate to ideas about feminism that don’t fit no matter how much we sometimes squeeze and unbutton to make them. In this podcast you’ll hear Shameless contributors and staff rolling around questions the book has posed, and talking about where they look to … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: The Shit Girls Say meme: friendly prejudice, but prejudice all the same
We have lots of thoughts about the “Shit Girls Say” meme (unfunny) and about the “Shit X Says to Y” meme (in many cases, poignant). We’d like to refer you to Thea Lim’s piece at the Guardian for some reading: What’s friendly prejudice? The most common defence of racism is: “But I didn’t intend to be racist.” This response relies on the idea that if we didn’t intend to offend someone, then their feelings can’t possibly … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
Yesterday (Saturday, December 17) was the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. From the Incite! Women of Colour Against Violence blog, we recommend Indigenous Peoples in the Sex Trade: Speaking for Ourselves. This piece was also recommended reading in supplement to our piece on Indigenous Sovereignty in the Fall 2011 issue of Shameless. The piece is best read as a whole and not in excerpt, so go check it out! … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: Fist-of-Cuffs: A response to ‘Toronto, City of Sissies’
Jeff Perera is a friend of Shameless, founder of the Ryerson University White Ribbon Campaign chapter, event director of TEDxRyersonUWomen, the only TEDxWomen event in Toronto, and co-director and curator of the annual discussion-focused “What Makes a Man” White Ribbon Conference at Ryerson. Along with being an all-around fabulous person, Jeff has written a piece in response to a hateful piece by the National Post’s Christie Blatchford that asserted the Toronto is a city full of … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: Ask Lesley: How Do I Stop Hating My Body?
Note: we know about the diversity of opinion on the merits or lack thereof of the revitalized xojane.com, and we’re just going to leave that alone. This is a recommendation for this particular article. Emily asks: “Do you have any advice for getting from a place of body-loathing to body-loving?” And Lesley does, because she is awesome: I DO. I can actually erase those five pounds entirely with one simple suggestion: Get rid of your scale. No scale, … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: “Hostile clashes dominate women’s conference”
Three of your Shameless staff attended the Women’s Worlds conference held in Ottawa on July 3-7. You can find notes from the first day here, and more will be forthcoming; we need to debrief about our experiences after the first day and will then share our thoughts with you. In the meantime, check out this article from Xtra Ottawa about the strong anti-sex work agenda that emerged at the conference. This anti-sex work bias alienated and … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: Challenging Genital Shame with the Red Tent Sisters
Friends of Shameless, the Red Tent Sisters, have a great post on a book that challenges the notion that genitals should fit a particular aesthetic. One way to combat this distorted view of women’s bodies is by utilizing resources like the self-published book, I’ll Show You Mine. This photo essay of sixty women’s vulvas is edited by Wrenna Robertson in response to her concern about the increase in labiaplasty popularity. Each woman was photographed in exactly … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: Live Once, Juicy
This post from Shaunta at Live Once, Juicy has my head spinning all over. I’ll be honest. I really struggled with buying that the statement “fat is unwanted” is a myth. I mean, fat is clearly unwanted, right? Few people really, truly want it, and in my mind as I was thinking this week about the wanted-ness of fat, I was startled to find that when I tried to think about people who might actually really want … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: Raped in the U.S.A.
I came across an excellent post by Amy Andronicus on the Texas gang-rape case that I think is a must-read in addition to the post on Shakesville. An excerpt: In what constitues a FOX-worthy example of editorializing “the news,” the journalist in question, James McKinley, chooses quotations only from those residents of the town who saw the victim as responsible for her own rape. The piece therefore emerges as an appallingly biased depiction of a rape … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Recommended Reading: Today in Rape Culture at Shakesville
[Trigger warning for sexual violence, victim-blaming, and rape apologia.] There is an awful story in the New York Times today: Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town. It’s about the arrest of 18 boys and men, ranging in age “from middle schoolers to a 27-year-old,” for the gang-rape of an 11-year-old girl. As horrible as this story is, the article serves as a great example of exactly what we mean by “rape culture.” Check out the entire blog post on … READ MORE