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VANDANA SHARON MCIVOR’S EMBER SWIFT SHIVA FIGHT FOR THE CORRIDORS ORGANIC FARMING WILL SAVE PLANET EQUAL STATUS OF QUEER
WOMEN’S NEWS & FEMINIST VIEWS Summer 2010 Vol. 24 No. 1 Made in Canada TEGANTEGAN AND AND SARASARA ON THE ROAD WITH LILITH FAIR KIM CAMCAMPBELLPBELL HOW TO GET MORE WOMEN INTO PARLIAMENT HIV DISCLOSURE ARE WOMEN BEING UNFAIRLY PUNISHED?
$6.75 Canada/US Publications Mail Agreement No. 40008866; PAP Registration No. 07944 Return Undeliverable Addresses to: PO Box 128, Winnipeg, MB R3C 2G1 Canada Display until September 15, 2010 her-050 Summer 2010 v24n1.qxp 6/1/10 2:51 PM Page C2 Let’s expand the Canada Pension Plan *SVHIGEHIWSYVKSZIVRQIRXERHFYWMRIWWPIEHIVWLEZIXSPH'EREHMERWXS JIRHJSVXLIQWIPZIWMRVIXMVIQIRX[MXL6674W 8LI]LEZIGSRZMRGIHYWXS “RRSPs have TYXSYVVIXMVIQIRXWEZMRKWEXKVIEXVMWOF]MRZIWXMRKTVMZEXIP]MRXLIWXSGO been a colossal QEVOIX[LMGLF]MXWZIV]REXYVIMWTVSRIXSWTIGYPEXMZIFYFFPIW°JSPPS[IH failure.” F]GVEWLIW-RWXIEHSJTVSZMHMRKMRGSQIWIGYVMX] 6674WGSRXMRYIXS Don Drummond, TD Chief Economist GSQTPIXIP]JEMPPS[ERHQMHHPIMRGSQI'EREHMERW October 2, 2009, Toronto Speech 8LIVIMWERSXLIVQSVIWIGYVISTXMSR SYV'EREHE4IRWMSR4PER 5YIFIG4IRWMSR4PER “. . . the CPP will 8LI'%;WYTTSVXWXLIGEQTEMKRXSHSYFPI'44FIRIJMXWSZIVXLI remain viable RI\XWIZIR]IEVW for the next 75 years . . .” 4PIEWIXIPP]SYV1IQFIVSJ4EVPMEQIRXXSHE] Jean-Claude Menard, Chief Actuary, CPP July 15, 2009, News Release ±)\TERHERHWXVIRKXLIRXLI'EREHE4IRWMSR4PER °JSVXLIWIGYVMX]SJ EPP'EREHMERW²
Every generation is counting on it. For more information visit: www.caw.ca
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SUMMER 2010 / VOLUME 24 NO. 1 news SHARON MCIVOR’S FIGHT FOR EQUAL STATUS 6 by Shelagh Day and Joyce Green
6: Sharon McIvor (third from left) and supporters HIV-POSITIVE WOMEN TARGETED 8 By Kaj Hasselriis 10 FILM EXPLORES PITFALLS OF MALE RULE 11 LILITH FAIR IS BACK! features WHY ORGANIC FOOD WILL SAVE THE WORLD 16 Environmentalist Vandana Shiva led successful grassroots movements against Wal-Mart in India and against multi-national companies’ efforts to force farmers to use genetically modified seeds. Her mission is to ensure the biological diversity of agriculture— a cause in which women are front and centre. by Brittany Shoot
THE CORRIDORS OF QUEER 20 What happens when a queer woman marries a man? As Ember Swift explains, the corridors of queer aren’t wide enough for the experience of many. 20: Corridors of Queer TEGAN AND SARA 24 With six studio albums under their belt, Tegan and Sara will rock on the road with Lilith Fair this summer. Their latest offering, Sainthood, is the inspiration for this interview, in which Sara laments that there aren’t enough women in the music business. by Anna Lazowski
JUSTICE FOR ALL 29 Kim Campbell is alive and well and living in Paris. Canada’s first female prime minister is more committed than ever to increasing the number of women in parliaments around the world—Canada’s included. by Lyn Cockburn
IRISH WOMEN STILL UNLUCKY 33 Irish women must go to England to terminate unwanted pregnancies. A three-woman case at the European Court of Human Rights may pave the way for the predominantly Catholic country to offer abortions at home. 29: Kim Campbell by Katherine Side HERIZONS SUMMER 2010 1 her-050 Summer 2010 v24n1.qxp 6/1/10 2:27 PM Page 2
VOLUME 24 NO. 1
MAGAZINE INK
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Photo Illustration: Michele Buchanan 36: Joni Mitchell HERIZONS is published four times per year by HERIZONS Inc. in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. One-year subscription price: $26.19 plus $1.31 GST = $27.50 in Canada. Subscriptions to U.S. add $8.00. arts & ideas International subscriptions add $9.00. Cheques or money orders are payable to: HERIZONS, PO Box 128, Winnipeg, Manitoba, MUSIC MUST-HAVES CANADA R3C 2G1. Ph (204) 774-6225. 38 Good Stitch Gone by Yael Wand; Black Flowers Vol SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES: [email protected] 1-2 by Lynne Miles; Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter EDITORIAL INQUIRIES: [email protected] by L. Poushinsky; The Promise by Corrine West; ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: [email protected] Soldier of Love by Sade. WEBSITE: www.herizons.ca HERIZONS is indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index and heard SUMMER READING on Voiceprint. 41 Claudia by Britt Holmström, Back and Forth by GST #R131089187. ISSN 0711-7485. Marta Chudolinska; The Sudden Disappearance of The purpose of HERIZONS is to empower women; to inspire hope Seetha by Andrea Gunraj; Animal by Alexandra and foster a state of wellness that enriches women’s lives; to build Leggat; Oonagh by Mary Tilberg; The Last River awareness of issues as they affect women; to promote the Child by Lori Ann Bloomfield; Love Children by strength, wisdom and creativity of women; to broaden the bound- Marilyn French; Truth and Other Fictions by Eva aries of feminism to include building coalitions and support among Tihanyi; Poverty: Rights, Social Citizenship and other marginalized people; to foster peace and ecological aware- Legal Activism, edited by M. Young, S. Boyd, G. ness; and to expand the influence of feminist principles in the Brodsky and S. Day; Laid, edited by Shannon T. world. HERIZONS aims to reflect a feminist philosophy that is Boodram; Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith; diverse, understandable and relevant to women’s daily lives. Captive Bodies by Mary Ruth Marotte; Feminist Views expressed in HERIZONS are those of the writers and do not Mothering, edited by Andrea O’Reilly necessarily reflect HERIZONS’ editorial policy. No material may be reprinted without permission. Due to limited resources, HERIZONS does not accept poetry or fiction submissions.
HERIZONS acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publication Assistance Program columns (PAP) and the Canada Magazine Fund toward our mailing and edito- rial costs. PENNI MITCHELL Mommies Yes, Women No HERIZONS gratefully acknowledges the support 5 of the Manitoba Arts Council. SUSAN G. COLE Publications Mail Agreement No. 40008866, PAP Registration No. 13 Cover up 07944. Return Undeliverable Addresses to: PO Box 128, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3C 2G1, Email: [email protected] LYN COCKBURN Herizons is proudly printed on Forest Stewardship 48 Choice Words Council-certified paper. Please recyle.
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letters
HAIR PIECE FAKE here in Fredericton. And I happened to have a copy of the issue in I was both excited and my briefcase yesterday when, as it turned out, I was seated suspicious when I saw the beside Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff on a panel on Parliament title of Renée Bondy’s article Hill that focussed on where women are at 40 years after the Royal “Rhymes with Cubic Pear” Commission on the Status of Women. (Herizons Spring 2010). I At that meeting, Day’s piece was referred to by the moderator hoped I was about to enjoy a as well as by Ignatieff. I hope the article inspires others in the critique of the issue, but also Liberal party to put women’s equality needs front and centre. wondered, why the cutesy wordplay? Is seeing pubic hair in print WENDY ROBBINS supposedly as offensive as seeing it in real life? Fredericton, N.B. From the moment Bondy felt “bold and empowered” to be challenging women to reconsider social pressure to shave, all DON’T DUCK the while continuing the practice herself, the article was OXFAM HONOUR disappointing. Her experiment of not shaving while she was I was disappointed that there was no mention researching the article, only to recommence once it was of the Oxfam Canada Jack and Muriel finished, was clichéd and pointless. By then she had twice Duckworth Fund for Active Global Citizenship challenged the assumption that women must shave, and twice in the Herizons news item about Muriel discovered freedom of thought and personal empowerment. Duckworth’s passing (Herizons, Spring 2010). And yet she twice decided to succumb to the pressure for the I would have thought that her 100th same reasons that most women use (personal preference being birthday party that served as a launch for the my favourite). fund was newsworthy and of interest for people learning of her Where was the critique? What was the point of writing this death. The fund was a tangible contribution to something article, other than perpetuating the lies fed to us by industries Duckworth believed in. selling us consumable and disposable goods (razor blades, PATRICIA KIPPING magazines, Sex in the City)? There are so many interesting angles Halifax, N.S. to this issue, and so many opportunities to challenge it. Editor’s Note: The Jack and Muriel Duckworth Fund is intended LARA SMITH to stimulate new initiatives in Canada, Africa, the Americas and Vancouver, B.C. Asia. These initiatives, such as exchanges and scholarships, will be intended for young women and men to build leadership THE LIGHT OF DAY abilities and prepare them to become active citizens. Check out I can’t think of an article that the lasting legacy of Muriel Duckworth on Oxfam’s website at: I have photocopied or www.oxfam.ca/what-you-can-do/make-a-donation/jack-and- referred to more times in murial-duckworth-fund-for-active-global-citizenship . recent months than Shelagh Day’s “Will Michael Ignatieff Stand up for Women?” SHAMEFUL ERROR (Herizons, Winter 2010). In the Spring 2010 issue of Herizons, writer Hilary Barlow was I drew it to the attention of Liberal status of women critic Anita incorrectly identified as Hilary Brown in the book review of the Neville as soon as it appeared (she was aware that it was being book She’s Shameless that appeared on page 43. We’d like to written, but had not at that point seen the publication.) I also apologize to Hilary Barlow for this error. brought it to the attention of Pam Campbell, a Liberal candidate
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contributors
SARAH FELDBLOOM LYN COCKBURN Sarah Feldbloom is a Toronto-based writer. Lyn Cockburn has written for various She has worked in the community media newspapers across Canada. And she’s recently sector as a host/producer for alternative started a blog, where many of those columns women’s radio shows in Toronto and in appear. Lyn also tutors high school students in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Sarah has English, a fact that, she feels, gives her the coordinated youth and feminist media projects with right to sometimes commit maimery upon the English language. organizations including the Association for Media Literacy, Lyn’s blog is at lyncockburn.blogspot.com. and For the Love of Learning, Inc. JOYCE GREEN SHELAGH DAY Joyce Green is a professor of political Shelagh Day has worked with governments and science at the University of Regina. She non-governmental organizations on the interpre- edited the book Making Space for Indigenous tation and implementation of constitutional Feminism (Fernwood Press in Canada and Zed equality rights, anti-discrimination law, and Books elsewhere, 2007). Her heritage includes Canada’s international human rights obligations. English, Ktunaxa, Metis and Scottish ancestors, and she She received the Governor General’s Person’s Award in 2008 for her struggles to honour them all. contributions to advancing the equality of women in Canada. SOOK KONG MAYA KHANKHOJE Sook C. Kong loves reading. Her poorly paid Montreal-based Maya Khankhoje is transition- father bought her Mother Goose’s Nursery ing from simultaneous interpretation into Rhymes to fend off bullies on the school bus. full-time writing. Mexico, her birth country, and Her mother never had the chance to go to India, her ancestral home, inform her writing. school. Loving writing, Sook worked as a Her three grandchildren have revived her inter- journalist in Singapore. She went to grad school in Canada and est in children’s literature. Maya has recently translated Paulina has been teaching on visual culture as well as Canadian and and the Ailing River (EugenioCanoEditor, Madrid, 2009) a book world literature. She received an American award for poetry. whose protagonist is a young ecofeminist. She is tending to her memoir of lives on various continents.
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first word BY PENNI MITCHELL
MOMMIES YES, WOMEN NO
If women would just shut the fuck up, things would be so ulation were a spiteful political manoeuvre that appeared to much easier. boost Harper’s popularity among anti-choice voters. Prime Minister Stephen Harper could be seen as a saviour of But it was doomed to backfire in mainstream Canada, dark-skinned mothers and their babies in faraway countries, where the vast majority of voters are pro-choice. In fact, there and perhaps boost his support from female voters at home, too. was no reason for Harper’s Conservatives to hive off repro- But what a lot of people discovered in the lead-up to the ductive rights in the first place. Organizations including Care G8 is that when it comes to human reproduction and mater- Canada, Plan International and UNICEF have developed nal health, nothing is automatically safe and everything blueprints to improve maternal health—and they don’t nec- comes with a risk. It’s a lot like politics. essarily talk directly about abortion. Save the Children says There are 8.5 million illegal abortions performed each year that if women had access to trained midwives in their com- that kill an estimated 100,000 women and cause permanent munities, the number of women who die from complications damage to one million more. In Ethopia alone, one third of in pregnancy and childbirth could be reduced by more than maternal deaths are a result of illegal abortions. In searching half. There is a worldwide shortage of 4.3 million health for reasons why African women are desperate for abortion workers, Save the Children calculates, and 350,000 of them services, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Rwanda come to mind. are midwives. They are all countries where hundreds of thousands of Training midwives would be a great place for the G8 to women were victimized in sexual atrocities committed during start—it’s a grassroots approach that would improve training genocidal campaigns. opportunities for local women and pave the way to contra- Giving birth remains even riskier than having an illegal ceptive use, too. abortion for many women. Throughout the world 350,000 However, until the underlying conditions of women’s lives women die annually during pregnancy and childbirth. It is improve, maternal deaths will remain high. Carol Bellamy, estimated that 3 million newborn deaths could be prevented former head of the aid organization UNICEF told the Globe by improving maternal health. The causes are multiple and and Mail recently that maternal deaths have been ignored largely preventable. In Ethiopia, the births of 80 percent of “because women are seen as second-class citizens.” Ditto women are unattended. One in seven women in Niger will from former UN high commissioner Mary Robinson: “The die in pregnancy or childbirth. These are colossal failures of reason that women are still dying is because women’s lives are humanity that the G8 summit must address. not valued, because their voices are not listened to.” And this is why a successful global plan can not separate Canadian Senator Nancy Ruth is not the first politician to abortion from maternal health. Girls forced into early mar- tell women that abortion does not belong with international riage are prone to high-risk births because their bodies aren’t aid. Former U.S. President George Bush’s gag rule was a cen- equipped for pregnancy. The best way to prevent their deaths trepiece of his foreign aid policy. No funds could be used to is not merely financing more interventionist deliveries for speak of abortion, let alone facilitate terminations. Any pubescent girls sold into marriage, but to support women’s health agency doing so was gagged and their funding was cut. efforts to ensure their daughters do not become chattel in the Sound familiar? Whether it’s called a gag policy or a shut- first place. Tens of thousands of girls endure female genital the-fuck-up policy hardly matters. mutilation each year and are later prone to hemorrhage dur- Mr. Harper created an opportunity to woo middle-of- ing childbirth. The way to help their health is not merely to the-road female voters by developing a global maternal ensure that a refrigerated blood supply for their difficult health plan, but the backlash against pro-choice organiza- births is available, but to ensure that girls’ genitals are not cut tions was the deal-breaker. You simply can’t help mothers in the first place. without helping women. It was another reminder that In Canada, the deliberate cuts in funding to groups that human reproduction is a messy and complicated affair. support abortion and equality rights for half the world’s pop- It’s a lot like politics.
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nelliegrams analysis
FASHION VICTIMS The National Eating Dis- SHARON McIVOR’S order Information Centre challenged the fashion industry in the spring to FIGHT FOR EQUALITY chub up its models (a.k.a. role models) in an effort to stem eating BY SHELAGH DAY AND JOYCE GREEN disorders among girls and women. The Toronto organization sent greeting cards to fashion magazines’ editors that read, “Thanks for helping to make me such a successful anorexic.” Fashion advertisers, meanwhile, received black little T-shirts with six-inch waists and a note urging them to “try this on to experience how your ads make us feel.” Best of all, the campaign urged maga- zine consumers to toss fashion magazines into a bin. —For more information check out NEDIC at www.nedic.ca.
STOPPING TRAFFIC South Africa has proposed a human trafficking law that would make any trafficking offence punishable by life in prison. The law would also include pro- visions to punish those liable for “providing premises for traffickers, transporting victims and failing to report suspected cases,” according to the Associated Press.
MOTHERS’ TREATMENT RANKED In Save the Chil- Sharon McIvor, left, with Danielle Guay, won her case of discrimination in the Indian Act only to see a Conservative bill introduced that won’t remedy the problem. dren’s annual ranking of the health and well-being of mothers and babies worldwide, Norway, (OTTAWA) Its intent may be to promote determines eligibility for certain federal Australia and Sweden have been ranked gender equity in Indian registration, but programs. In some instances, status is also the world’s best countries to live. Bill C-3 does not ensure that women and linked to entitlement to live on reserves and In compiling its 11th Mothers’ Index, their descendants will be treated the same participate in the political and community the charity analyzed such factors as as men and their descendants for the pur- life of reserves. Although some bands access to health care, education and poses of determining Indian status. choose to have members who do not have economic opportunities. Countries where Witnesses told Parliament’s standing Indian status, most bands make status a women are well paid, have good access committee on Aboriginal affairs in spring precondition of band membership. to contraception and are entitled to gov- that the Conservative government’s bill to The act has a long history of discrimi- ernment-mandated generous maternity address sex discrimination is a remedy nating against women. Until recently, the leave were generally those with the high- they cannot support. The bill is Ottawa’s Indian Act defined an Indian as “a male est rankings. Canada ranked 24th, a response to McIvor v. Canada, a 2009 B.C. Indian, the wife of a male Indian or the designation that has caused health offi- Court of Appeal ruling that found that sec- child of a male Indian.” Indian women who cials to demand better birthing policies. tion 6 of the Indian Act violates section 15 married non-Indians were stripped of their The United States ranked number 28, of the Charter. The court gave Ottawa a status and could not pass Indian status on below Estonia, Latvia and Croatia, year to fix the legislation. to their children. Indian men who married dragged down by high rates of maternal Indian status, defined in the Indian Act, non-Indians passed on their status and mortality (one in 4,800) and infant mortal- determines which persons of Aboriginal band membership to their wives and chil- ity (eight per 1,000), low pre-school descent are eligible to be treated as Indi- dren, and thus to their grandchildren. ans by the federal government. Status In the early ’70s, Jeanette Corbiere Lavell
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and Yvonne Bedard challenged section ber 4, 1951. And yet grandchildren who enrolment (61 percent) and one of the 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act for violating the trace their Aboriginal descent through the least generous maternity-leave policies. 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights’ guarantee of male line will not be denied. Afghanistan, ranked last. The report sex equality. They lost at the Supreme Court Further, by proposing only to correct sex calls for the hiring of 300,000 midwives as of Canada in 1973, but Sandra Lovelace discrimination against the grandchildren of well as other health care professionals went on to challenge Canada for violating women who lost status by “marrying out,” worldwide to drastically reduce the esti- the International Covenant on Civil and Bill C-3 would continue to exclude grand- mated 350,000 women who die annually Political Rights, and won. The UN Human children who are descended from status during and after childbirth. Rights Committee found that Canada’s sta- Indian women who had children with non- —Read the whole report at tus provisions deprived women and their status men in common-law unions. It would www.savethechildren.org. children of the fundamental right to enjoy also continue the exclusion of female chil- their culture in their communities. dren and grandchildren of status Indian IRISH EYES When Canada’s new equality guarantees men who partnered with non-status women SMILING in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Free- in common-law unions. Male children and A new fund dedicated to doms came into force 25 years ago, the grandchildren of status Indian fathers who improving the lives of co-parented with non-status women in Mulroney Progressive Conservative govern- women was launched in common-law unions will have status. ment moved to amend the status provisions Dublin by Irish President After hearing the witnesses, opposition of the Indian Act with Bill C-31. But that fix Mary McAlees. The Women’s Fund for party members on the standing committee was incomplete. Bill C-31 retained full Ireland will tackle problems including amended to the bill to remove sex dis- Indian status for Indian men, their wives poverty, violence and improving access crimination from the status registration and children, but it put women and children to health care and education. It will also provisions. By some estimates, the who had lost status because of sex discrim- support grassroots projects in areas such amendments would include about 200,000 ination in a second-class category, rather as the arts, literacy and training. people who have been wrongfully than giving them full status. Tina Roche, chief executive of Philan- excluded from having Indian status As a result, Indians who never lost their thropy Ireland and the Community because of sex discrimination. status may confer status to their children Foundation for Ireland, which matches The amendments were adopted by the and grandchildren, while reinstated Indians donors with charities or community committee but on May 11 the Speaker of have a diminished status—one that stipu- groups, pledged 100,000 British pounds the House ruled that the amendments lates that they can confer status to their (about $171,000 Cdn) to begin the fund, were out of order. children, but not to their grandchildren. which organizers hope will increase ten- In protest, a group of women in Quebec, Under section 15 of the Charter, Sharon fold. Roche noted that there are at least lead by Michele Audette and Viviane McIvor challenged the sex-based hierarchy 200 women’s funds worldwide. in the status registration sections of the Michel, set out on a 500 kilometre walk Indian Act, not just for treating men and from Wendake, Quebec, to Parliament Hill. CLIMB TO THE TOP Their walk was scheduled to end June 1 women who married out differently, but for In April, Oh Eun-sun of on Parliament Hill. The AMUN march, giving preferred treatment to men as trans- South Korea became the which translates to Great Gathering, is a mitters of Indian status, and to descendants first woman to climb the show of support for McIvor’s call for the of male Indians. McIvor won in the B.C. world’s 14 highest moun- removal of all gender discrimination from Supreme Court and the B.C. Court of Appeal tains. South Koreans the Indian Act. and, as a result, the federal government have named her a The ball is in the Conservatives’ court. was required to amend the Indian Act. national hero, reports The New York Times. The Conservative government maintains Are they willing to end discrimination Bill C-3 would provide Indian status to against all Aboriginal women and their descendants by replacing Bill C-3 with leg- HORRAY FOR BOSSY WOMEN 45,000 descendants of Aboriginal women The percentage of female executives islation that does the job right? If not, the who were previously ineligible. However, in Canada’s public service is approach- opposition parties should vote this flawed McIvor, the Native Women’s Association of ing the 50 percent mark, according to bill down, and force the Conservatives Canada and other witnesses at the com- the government’s latest demographic back to the drawing board. mittee hearings say it will still give women snapshot. If the opposition parties support Bill C- and their descendants an inferior form of Today, 43 percent of federal public Indian status than it offers to men and their 3, Aboriginal women will be forced to spend the next 20 years litigating, once service executives are women. In descendants. Known as the second gener- Ottawa, 12 of 29 deputy ministers—about ation cut-off, it would apply to descendants again to prove that the Indian Act vio- lates the Charter. 40 percent—are women. Among the of women one generation earlier than it Financial Post’s top 500 companies, how- applies to male lineage descendants. Shelagh Day is chair of the Human Rights ever, just 18 CEOs are women, while In addition, Bill C-3 will still leave out Committee at the Canadian Feminist women make up about 17 percent of some Aboriginal women and their descen- Alliance for International Action (FAFIA). board appointees in corporate Canada. dants. For example, grandchildren who Joyce Green is a professor of political sci- In 1983, women held less than five per trace their Aboriginal descent through the ence at the University of Regina and editor cent of executive jobs in the federal pub- maternal line will continue to be denied of Making Space for Indigenous Feminism lic service. One explanation is that more status if they were born prior to Septem- (Fernwood Books).
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nelliegrams hiv disclosure
men took buyouts and left the public gence charges laid against her. She was service than women during the downsiz- ARE sentenced to two years in jail for putting ing of the 1990s. In the last decade, more him at risk. women than men have taken jobs in the “As a woman living with HIV,” says federal government. WOMEN Parks, “I feel frustrated, disappointed and almost insulted that these particular cases FILMMAKER are pursued.” SEEKS UNFAIR In some instances, Parks believes crimi- ASYLUM nal charges are justified. She points to the An international infamous Mabior case in Winnipeg, where petition has been launched to support TARGETS? an HIV-positive man was charged with lesbian Iranian filmmaker Kiana Firouz, aggravated sexual assault for lying about BY KAJ HASSELRIIS who has been refused asylum in the his status to as many as 45 female partners. U.K. and fears she could face the Nonetheless, Parks feels strongly that When should someone be charged with death penalty if she’s sent back to her spreading HIV? it’s up to both sexual partners—not just homeland. According to Angel Parks, an HIV-posi- the HIV-positive one—to ensure that sex Alternative culture magazine Coilhouse tive woman who works at the AIDS is safe. The Ontario Working Group on wrote of Firouz’ story: “When clips of her Committee of Toronto, the answer is only Criminal Law and HIV Exposure agrees. video documentary work featuring the in “extreme cases.” “Criminalization disproportionately places struggle and persecution of gays and les- Yet the number of HIV-positive people the responsibility for preventing transmis- bians in her country were acquired by going to jail on questionable convictions is sion on people living with HIV/AIDS,” the Iranian intelligence, agents began to fol- rising—and a surprising number of those group says in its position statement on HIV low Firouz around Tehran, harassing and convicted are women. criminalization. intimidating her. She fled for England Not disclosing one’s HIV status has been According to Ryan Peck and Anne Marie where she could safely continue her considered a potential sex crime since 1998, DiCenso, the working group’s co-chairs, work and studies.” when the Supreme Court (in the case R v. “Obligations to disclose HIV status could Firouz plays a starring role in Cul de Cuerrier) agreed that an HIV-positive man result in violence against some people liv- Sac, a documentary about lesbians in could be charged with aggravated assault ing with HIV/AIDS, especially sex workers Iran. The 27-year-old has been denied for having sex with two women without and women in abusive relationships.” asylum in the U.K., and there are fears using condoms or disclosing his status. Parks adds that since heterosexual she will be forced to return to Iran. Les- Since then, there have been 92 prose- women are more likely to be tested for HIV bian sex is punishable by 100 lashes in cutions related to HIV exposure and seven than heterosexual men—and thus more Iran upon first conviction; a woman con- of those convicted were women. Over two likely to be the first in a relationship to find victed of “unrepentant homosexuality” thirds of the total cases have taken place out about their status—women actually could face execution by hanging. since 2003. may be more likely than men to be charged. You can go online to sign a petition to ”HIV criminalization has snowballed,” In general, Parks believes that HIV crim- help save Firouz from deportation at according to Parks, “and it isn’t just limited inalization actually discourages people www.petitiononline.com/kianaf/petition- to men as aggressors.” from being tested. “Criminalization can sign.html. She cites two cases in particular where make people less willing to approach the she believes women were unfairly charged. health system for support,” she says. It NAVY CHARTS NEW WATER In Montreal, a woman with HIV started doesn’t help, she adds, when police put The U.S. military’s ban on women serving a sexual relationship with a man before out public health warnings that identify on submarines was finally lifted in April. disclosing her status to him. After she did, people—including women—with HIV. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates they stayed together for five years. It was “Having HIV is not a death sentence notified lawmakers in mid-February that only after he was arrested for assaulting anymore,” Parks says, but the criminal jus- the Navy would be lifting the ban, unless her that he counter-charged, accusing her tice system still treats the virus as if it is. Congress took some action against it. of endangering his life because she had HIV/AIDS organizations like the AIDS Navy spokesperson Lt. Justin Cole said sex with him before disclosing she was Committee of Toronto are trying to lobby April 29 that the deadline for Congress HIV-positive. the federal government to write a law that to act had passed. Even though their sex was consensual creates specific guidelines for HIV crimi- Women make up 15 percent of the and he was never infected, the woman nalization. But they’re not getting very far. active-duty Navy in the U.S. was found guilty of sexual assault and In the meantime, they’re trying to inter- In Canada, women won the right to sentenced to one year in jail—while her vene in cases like the ones in Montreal serve on naval vessels 20 years ago ex-lover walked away with an uncondi- and Toronto. following a federal human rights com- tional discharge. Parks and other HIV/AIDS advocates are plaint. Last year, Commander Josée Meanwhile, in Toronto, an immigrant also trying to convince provincial govern- Kurtz became the first woman to woman from Thailand broke up with her ments to issue prosecutorial guidelines for command a Canadian warship, the husband of seven years and then discov- cases of criminalization. It’s a harm-reduc- HMCS Halifax. ered she was HIV-positive. He found out tion method that, according to Parks, has about her status and had criminal negli- shown positive results in Great Britain.
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Sheilagh’s Brush: spring equinox gale, prominent in Newfoundland culture and lore.
On the cusp of the Depression, Sheilagh Driscoll of isolated Rennie’s Bay nearly dies while giving birth prematurely to baby Leah. Sheilagh is attended by a traditional Mi’kmaq midwife, Mrs. Mary, as well as by Leah Clarke, a nurse from England. Baby Leah Mary survives but develops serious asthma, which requires treatment throughout her childhood. Traumatized by the birth, Sheilagh learns about age-old ways of preventing pregnancy. The result is an awakening that impacts on Sheila’s relationship with all the women around her, especially her younger sister Claire.
Maura Hanrahan is the author, co-author, or editor of ten books in several genres, including creative non- fiction, history, etc. Her writing has won awards in Canada, Britain and the U.S. She is a member of the Sip’kop Mi’kmaq Band. For about 14 years, she has been a self-employed consultant on Aboriginal issues and has worked mostly with Aboriginal organizations on health, education, land claims, and cultural survival issues. She lives in St. John’s with her husband, the novelist Paul Butler. She has won several book awards including: 2007 Good Read Novel Competition: Honourable Distinction for Sheilagh’s Brush (unpublished novel); 2005 History and Heritage Award for Tsunami: The Newfoundland Tidal Wave Disaster.
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(Continued from page 8) nelliegrams
SOLIDARITY Parks believes that the characterization close [their status].” LEADER of HIV-positive people by the media also Now that she works as a program REMEMBERED keeps people silent. She says HIV-positive coordinator at the AIDS Committee of Polish solidarity people are often depicted as irresponsible, Toronto, Parks sees that her experience leader Anna Walen- cavalier, lethal, self-centred and reckless. is not universal. tynowicz, died in an April 10 plane crash When Parks told her family and friends As a result, she’s more motivated than that also killed Poland’s president and about her HIV status, they were very sup- ever to speak out against the criminaliza- many of the country’s political leaders. portive. “Because my own experience tion of some of her HIV-positive peers. Walentynowicz, 80, became an important was so positive,” she says, “I didn’t “I’m being more proactive in speaking figure in the solidarity movement after understand why other people didn’t dis- out,” she says. “I won’t remain silent.” being fired from her job at a shipyard in 1980. She led an 18-day strike that inspired the first independent worker’s movement in then-communist Poland. women’s under-representation in Canada, the U.S and the U.K. DISCRIMINATION DOESN’T PAY FILM What difference it would make to have Female employees at Birmingham City more women in government? Why aren’t Council in England won a sex discrimi- EXAMINES there more women in government? How nation case that is expected to pay out can we elect more women? These 600 million British pounds, or more than questions are all explored. $900 million Cdn. Women in several MALE RULE The filmmaker’s great-aunt, a suffra- types of positions, including care work- gette named Gert Harding, is Kelbaugh’s ers, cleaners and clerical workers, muse. Among those interviewed is former were excluded from bonus payments Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell, the that were offered to men in the same only woman to head a national govern- pay grades. ment in North America. Academics and —Report from Women’s Grid other experts are also featured. According to the film, not only does a DOULAS ATTEND ABORTIONS large gender imbalance fail women, it fails Volunteer doulas in New York City have almost everyone. Issues like pensions, begun a project that sees them accom- child care, pay equity, gun control and pany women for abortions performed at violence against women are more Joanna Everitt, of the University of New Brunswick’s important to women than to male voters. a public hospital. The doulas provide political science department, appears in Menocracy, Research indicates that female politicians relaxation assistance during the proce- Gretchen Kelbaugh’s documentary video examining how also rank these issues higher than their dure and other forms of support, as well male-dominated governments short-change citizens. male counterparts. as advocacy. Many other democracies do Lauren Mitchell, a health educator A new documentary explores Canada’s significantly better than the U.K, the U.S. who co-founded the Doula Project, told record of electing women to national poli- and Canada at electing women politicians. Bust magazine that abortion is often an tics and casts a wider view of the issue Menocracy points out that if nothing emotional experience. Doulas receive internationally. Gretchen Kelbaugh’s changes in the Canadian political system, education on the procedure and are a Menocracy looks at the ramifications of it may be well over 200 years before half of useful resource. Often just “being the under-representation of women in Canada’s politicians are women. there” is the most important thing, adds determining a nation’s priorities, and in Mary Mahoney, another co-founder of developing solutions. For ordering information, check out the project. The documentary explores the effects of www.menocracy.ca.
VIOLA DESMOND PARDONED Nine years before Rosa Parks refused to MOTHERING GROUP take her place in the back of a bus, Nova Scotia beautician Viola Parks was hauled SPAWNS NEW ORG out of a movie theatre for refusing to move out of the white section of a New (TORONTO) Following the closure of the Involvement (MIRCI). Glasgow, N.S. cinema. Association for Research in Mothering MIRCI, which bills itself as Canada’s fem- In 1946, the successful business owner (ARM) this spring, ARM founder Andrea inist scholarly and activist organization on was carried out by police and jailed for O’Reilly announced the founding of a motherhood, launched its inaugural mem- refusing to pay the proper tax on a cin- new organization, the Motherhood Initia- bership drive May 1. Like ARM, which tive for Research and Community operated for 12 years and was based at
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York University, MIRCI will keep a watchful ema ticket. Everyone knew what she was eye on the Journal of the Motherhood really guilty of—refusing to sit in the Initiative (formerly The Journal of the black section of a segregated cinema— Association for Research on Mothering), but it took 64 years for the town of New as well as on initiatives like Mother Out- Glasgow to pardon Desmond. laws, the International Mothers Network; Desmond, with the support of the the Young Mothers Empowerment Project; local NAACP, appealed her conviction, and the Motherhood Studies Forum. which included a $20 fine and 30 days in Like ARM, MIRCI is also partnered with jail. She lost her case at the Supreme Demeter Press. Court, but her case galvanized the black ARM sought $20,000 in institutional sup- community in Nova Scotia. Desmond’s port from York University, but was fights led to a repeal of segregationist unsuccessful. O’Reilly, who now heads policies in Nova Scotia in 1954, two MIRCI, is asking former ARM members, years before Parks provoked the supporters and subscribers, as well as oth- Andrea O’Reilly is the founder of the Motherhood Initia- Alabama bus boycott. ers committed to maternal scholarship and tive for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI). activism to make a MIRCI donation on-line. SHORTCHANGED WOMEN Over 12 years ARM hosted 35 interna- Museum of Motherhood. A U.S. federal court ruled in April that a tional conferences, produced 22 journal The first major initiative of MIRCI will be class action suit of female Wal-Mart issues, as well as 10 Demeter Press titles an October conference on mothering and employees can proceed. The employees (with another 15 in production or under the economy, followed by a February con- charge that they were paid less than men contract). ARM attracted a paid member- ference on mothering in the 21st century and given fewer promotions. ship base from 25 countries. ARM also in Portugal. The Washington Post reported that the spawned a large and vibrant Australian For information or to make a 6-to-5 decision by the U.S. Court of arm that has hosted five international con- donation to support MIRCI, Appeals in San Francisco is the latest ferences. ARM also co-founded the see www.motherhoodinitiative.org. step in a nearly decade-long battle to bring the case to trial. The original class was made up of women who worked at Wal-Mart stores Twelve artists and their bands will since 1998, estimated to be about 1.6 mil- LILITH perform at each Lilith concert. Canadian lion. If it proceeds, the case could be the performers on the bill include McLachlan, largest sex discrimination case in North Tegan and Sara (read out interview on America. IS BACK! page 24 of this issue), Nelly Furtado, Chantal Kreviazuk, Hannah Georgas, Emily CANADIAN Hanes (Metric), and Frazie Ford (Be Good RELEASED Tanyas). On stages in Canada—depending FROM SAUDI on location—will be Sheryl Crow, Ash ARABIA Koley, Sugarland and Colbie Callat, Erykah Nazia Quazi, a 24-year- Badu, La Roux and Mary J. Blige. old former Ottawa U.S. concerts will see appearances resident, was released in May after being by—depending on location—Butterfly held against her will for almost three Boucher, Ximena Sarinana, The Go-Go’s, years in Saudi Arabia. Loretta Lynn, Martina McBride, Emmylou Quazi's father seized her travel docu- Harris, Queen Latifah, Nora Jones, The ments while she was visiting him in the Sarah Maclachlan’s Lilith Fair will perform in 35 cities Indigo Girls, Sheryl Crowe and Nneka. ths summer. Saudi capital Riyadh. An Indian national, If you’re traveling in the U.S. or within her father had reportedly disapproved After an 11-year hiatus, Lilith Tour 2010 Canada this summer, make your trip in sync of Quazi's relationship with a fellow Uni- kicks off on June 27 in Calgary and will with Lilith by checking out the dates. If you versity of Ottawa student, Bjorn Singhal, host Canadian concerts in Edmonton, can’t make it to one of the 35 concerts, you of Ottawa. Saudi law prevents women Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Lilith can buy a CD sampler. Lilith Fair from travelling without a male will wrap up on August 16 in Dallas, Texas. Productions/Arista Records has released guardian's permission. Quazi is a Cana- From 1997 through 1999, Lilith Fair was one Lilith 2010 Tour Compilation, a collection of dian citizen. of the highest-grossing touring festivals in 16 tracks from some of the artists Quazi's mother and brother flew from the world, with over 1.5 million fans in performing at Lilith 2010. Ottawa to Saudi Arabia to facilitate her attendance and over $10 million dollars A local female performer from each city voluntary release by Quazi's father, raised for national and local charities. will also perform at each concert. A dollar Quazi Malik Abdul Gaffar. Quazi and Founded by Sarah McLachlan, along from each ticket will support local women’s Singhal were reunited in United Arab with Dan Fraser, Marty Diamond and Terry charities. Emirates, where they were subse- McBride, Lilith Fair was the only tour of its Visit www.LilithFair.com and quently married. kind—a celebration of women in music. www.LiveNation.com for information.
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A CANADIAN COLLECTION OF LESBIAN SCENES AND MONOLOGUES MATERNITY ROLLS OUTSPOKEN Pregnancy, Childbirth and Disability Much of the writing about the FEATURING: experiences of women and mothers excludes the stories TREY ANTHONY of women with disabilities. MARIKO TAMAKI Established norms dictate that a JESS DOBKIN mother’s body be “healthy” and ALEC BUTLER “whole.” Heather’s experiences ROSE CULLIS as a woman with a disability experiencing pregnancy and LOIS FINE childbirth offers insights into MARIETTE what is already known about SLUYTER women’s bodies. JOVETTE “The lack of expectations that MARCHESSAULT surrounded me as a woman by Heather Kuttai 9781552663424 $18.95 LISA LOWE with a disability were not ones ANN-MARIE I had to necessarily live with. AVAILABLE ATYOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE I am an agent. It is hard work. ORVISIT US ONLINE MACDONALD But it is good work.” AND MORE… – from the Epilogue FERNWOOD See our website for Heather’s EDITED BY SUSAN G. COLE tour dates in Vancouver, PUBLISHING Edmonton, Saskatoon, critical books for critical thinkers ZZZSOD\ZULJKWVFDQDGDFRP Winnipeg and Toronto. www.fernwoodpublishing.ca
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cole’s notes BY SUSAN G. COLE
COVER UP Are you creeped out by the niqab worn by some Muslim sexuality and homogeneous standards of beauty that many women? You’re not alone, let me assure you, but you might want Muslim women say they are resisting by wearing the niqab. to check your assumptions—and your feminist principles They don’t want to participate in the hyper-sexualization of Some clarification and background first. The niqab refers Western culture. That doesn’t make them asexual, by the way. to the veil that has openings for the eyes. It is distinct from To see what I mean, have a look at Ruby Nadda’s excellent the burqa, which covers the face entirely, and from the hijab, and underappreciated Canadian film Sabah. In one sequence which covers the head only. the film’s central female characters are seen out of their house In April, Quebec’s Liberal government introduced all covered up. Once they’re in their home, though, they fling legislation that would bar women from receiving or off their robes to reveal colourful, even gaudy clothes—and delivering public services while wearing the niqab. The move these women are hot! created a firestorm of debate that could potentially divide I do understand that the niqab raises the spectre of feminists. Muslim feminists promoting a petition opposing everything from women in fundamentalist Muslim countries the new law have been having difficulty getting non-Muslim being denied education to their being stoned for stepping women to sign on. outside male control. But that is not necessarily the situation When I wrote a column for Toronto’s NOW magazine for Muslim women here in Canada. supporting women’s decision to wear the niqab, I got a hunk Nonetheless, for argument’s sake, let’s say we all agreed of flak. Some reactions defended the Quebec strategy for that the niqab represents fear of female sexuality and the security reasons. How could these women be identified, was patriarchal desire to control it. Would banning the niqab get the question. us any further in encouraging Muslim women to discard it? I Try retinal scans and fingerprints, things to which don’t think so. Such a move would only drive women back Muslims do not object. into their own communities, make it difficult for them to Others argued that conceding women’s right to wear a gain access to services they need and isolate them completely. niqab—they would be asked to drop it only in front a female If you’re looking to change attitudes within the Muslim government representative—would constitute “unreasonable community, engagement, not isolation, is the way to do it. accommodation.” I don’t buy that, either. For example, only Speaking as a Jew whose grandparents came to this 10 out of 118,000 people seeking services in Montreal were country wearing all the accoutrements of Orthodox Jewry, wearing the niqab. Accommodating niqab wearers would not I’m reminded of how they, too, were seen as threatening and exactly force a reconfiguration of the entire civil service. dangerous by the Anglo-Saxon majority. As a matter of fact, But most of you reading this column won’t be worrying considering that Orthodox men aren’t allowed to see the hair first about security or unreasonable accommodation. You’re of women other than their wives—an example of toxic more concerned about a clothing practice emblematic of pollution ideologies within fundamentalist Judaism—will we patriarchy at its most problematic. I say it’s time to challenge be attacking Orthodox women’s wigs next? our self-satisfied Western attitudes. As feminists, if we’re trying to make change in patriarchal Is the niqab worse than what many women put themselves cultures, let’s go after our own. I’m distressed by the violence through in order to meet the West’s cultural standards of against women that the beauty and diet industries engage in. conventional beauty? Consider breast implants, liposuction But I blame the fact that men benefit from it, as do the profit- and other cosmetic surgeries—all risky, costly procedures seeking industries that promote th1e beauty and diet performed primarily on women who hope to look more industries. attractive. The niqab’s a piece of cloth—it doesn’t cut up I don’t trash women addicted to their Botox hit. So women’s bodies the way a surgeon’s knife does. when it comes to the wearing of the niqab, why are we In fact, it’s precisely the Western obsession with hyper- targeting women?
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According to Vandana Shiva, the merger of capitalism and patriarchy has led to the dangerous industrialization of the world’s food supply. To find out more about Vandana Shiva’s work, check out www.vandanashiva.org
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whyORGANIC FARMING will save BY BRITTANY theWORLD SHOOT
Vandana Shiva’s philosophies on food sovereignty, consumption, community development and economics have transformedO progressive politics around the world. She has also inspired efforts to protect the environment and promote sustainable agriculture. Her foundation, Navdanya, operates a school based in Uttranchal. It promotes organic farming, seed sovereignty and biodiversity. Navdanya means “nine crops,” a reference to India’s food security, and the organization operates in 16 Indian states. Shiva spoke to Herizons in Copenhagen during the December 2009 UN Climate Conference, where she encouraged women around the globe to resist the privatization of seed and to promote organic farming and ecofeminist values.
Herizons: Why is ecofeminism so important to the world right On the other hand, a recognition of the relationship now? between the marginalization of women and the subjugation VANDANA SHIVA: The merger of capitalism and of nature—looking at the world through an ecofeminist patriarchy has given us the planetary-scale destruction that lens—allows us to reconstruct the world with women at the we face. It has redefined nature from a living mother to dead centre, with nature at the centre. That means that rather than matter. It gave a licence to loot. the economy of war, defined by false measures of growth and It has defined women as unproductive and uncreative— technology, we can see economy as maintaining the living because creativity and production are now defined within an systems on this planet. industrial system and science is defined as reductionist. This If you look at that as economy, women are the most combination of the assault on nature and the assault on important economic players. They provide all the water, they women is at the root of both the ecologic crisis and the provide all the food, they take care of the babies and they social crisis. take care of the old. They are in the care economy. We now Photo: Samuel Kobam, Getty Images
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“We were made to believe that liberation from the kitchen means handing over power to corporations.”—Vandana Shiva
need to build a care economy centred on care for the natural really thought this would be a dictatorship, and so I started world and care for human relationships. That is what the to save seeds—not as the property of corporations, but in world is waiting for, and ecofeminism is the world view that the commons for the community. The biggest one is in can help us move towards that. Dehra Dun [Uttarakhand, India], where we now have a teaching farm and a research farm. I run a school of the How does genetically modified food affect the rights of women seed because I think there is so much we need to learn from and children? seed in terms of resilience, renewability and the capitalist VANDANA SHIVA: This industrial system makes women capacity for resurgence. and children victims in multiple ways. The capitalist patriarchal world view has made each of us Women have been the seed-keepers of the world. When internalize passivity. It has made each of us internalize Monsanto takes control of seeds for genetic engineering, linearity, and it has made us forget that we live in cycles, and women’s power is eroded. With that power, diversity is that each of us has creativity built into us because we are part eroded. With that power, nutrition is eroded—quality, taste, of a creative world. The seed teaches us, very humbly—the everything goes out of the window. Instead, we get seeds seed that you plant, and it sprouts and becomes a tree or a generated only for two things: to own the seed through crop—teaches us that we have that power in us. patents and intellectual property, and to create traits that maximize the profits of the company. Monsanto sells How can people use the Navdanya model in their own lives? Roundup-resistant soy to sell [its product the herbicide] VANDANA SHIVA: I think the value of the Navdanya Roundup as well as soybeans. These are ways in which you experience is that we began for the poorest farmers in India. control—economically as well as politically. We began with women as seed-keepers and women as the The hierarchy is very clear. When food becomes a ecological farming experts. Through this, we have increased commodity—and genetic modification makes food a food production. We have increased farm incomes tenfold commodity—it first goes to run the cars of the rich. That’s compared to genetically engineered cotton. where soy and corn is now going. It then goes to feed We run a grandmothers’ university because it is animals in prisons called factory farms. It then goes to the grandmothers’ knowledge that has been marginalized, and it rest of society to make foods that are reformulated corn is grandmothers’ knowledge we need for the future. When and soy. Kellogg’s advertises on Indian television, it makes fun of the Then it goes a bit to the global South to capture new grandmother. When Nestle sells products, it makes fun of markets. We have wonderful dhals [lentils] in India. They are the grandmothers. disappearing. And now we have something called an i-dhal We said they’re making fun of the grandmothers to steal that is a blend of wheat and soy. It is not a dhal at all. It won’t the minds and bodies of our children. We will celebrate the have any of the nutrition of pulses. grandmother to help the children reclaim their identity and We are now treated as an economic superpower just their sense of who they are. For us, the grandmothers are a because [India’s] economy grows at nine percent, but in that big line of defence, and the grandmothers’ university is one same period we’ve also become the capital of hunger, with very important course we run every year. women and children suffering the worst malnutrition. Every Ecuador gave constitutional rights to Mother Earth in 2008, second Indian child today is severely malnourished. and even though Bhutan is one of the world’s poorest countries, its Tell us about your seed bank. government chooses to focus on the country’s GNH: Gross VANDANA SHIVA: We have 55 community seed banks! National Happiness. Tell me about the power of these small My work [with Navdanya] to start seed saving began when nations, who are leading the way in ecologic justice. I heard the corporations talk about [how] five of them VANDANA SHIVA: The small countries are building would control the seed, and the food, and the health. I another world, just as movements are building another
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“You protect biodiversity because without biodiversity authentic organic farming cannot happen.”—Vandana Shiva
world. I believe they’re building an ecofeminist world country. Both politically—as a place to create earth because countries like Ecuador are saying the Earth is living. democracy—and ecologically—as a way of living more She is our mother. Her rights come first. They’ve put this in sustainably—food is definitely the place to begin, and the constitution. organic farming is the real answer. Similarly, Bhutan is saying the welfare of our people is Can this type of food model set an example for other struggles the most important thing. Therefore, the right to protect against privatization and for people’s own sovereignty? the natural world and the right to protect culture—the duty to protect both—as well as to provide for everyone, is VANDANA SHIVA: Definitely. Once you start to see the basis of happiness. They have said that we will not food as a product of the gifts of nature and nature’s strive for gross national product and maximizing financial processes—which is why organic farming is vital, because flows through our economy. We will maximize gross we work with nature and not against her—you realize that national happiness to maximize the vital energy of nature the seed is not your property; it belongs to the commons. and society in our economy. You realize that the river from which you get the water to irrigate your fields is a commons. You realize that the Some larger countries have leading movements as well, such as the amazing water cycle, which brings water from the air onto organic movement in China. your soil, is a commons. VANDANA SHIVA: I think the organic movement is a From food, another political economy begins to infiltrate major transition movement, a shift away from the fossil-fuel every aspect of life. If we take the initiative to reorganize era, and in my view it’s vital. I’ve written about this in Soil the food system through food democracy, then we can Not Oil, and it’s the subject of The Manifesto on Climate reshape how our cities look. We start to reshape how our Change and The Future of Food. health systems look. We start to reshape how the energy Farming is the single biggest human activity and today systems look. [farming genetically modified crops] is destroying the If we were to have more local food distribution, half of the planet, the soil, the water and the air. It’s robbing us of traffic across Europe could be shut down tomorrow, because healthy food and it’s destroying our countryside and rural when I travel, I see mostly trucks. Most trucks are just producers. Just by going organic, you solve multiple carrying food around, probably carrying the same food from problems. You solve ecological problems, you reduce one country to another, and it’s a big food swap where there emissions and you conserve water because you reduce isn’t really additional food, just additional trade. water use tenfold. You protect biodiversity because without biodiversity What are the most important things women can do for the authentic organic farming cannot happen. Rural livelihoods environment right now? are rejuvenated because organic is best done on a small scale. VANDANA SHIVA: The single most important thing We get healthy food and address the crises of obesity, that women can do is reclaim the food economy, but not be diabetes and the hunger of a billion people. the only ones who do the work. We have to reclaim the There is another reason why this transition to organic kitchen. Industry wants to make the kitchen disappear. farming is so important. It is something people can start on They want us to eat frozen dinners and false foods, and the and believe in without waiting for governments. Unlike the only defence against it is to know what we’re growing and shift in how you will generate energy, whether you will do what we are eating. it through coal, or nuclear, or solar—that depends on We were made to believe that liberation from the kitchen government decisions. The investment patterns drive it. means handing over power to corporations. We need to But you can begin organic on a smaller scale and then liberate the kitchen for ourselves with our partners and our farmers and consumers can come together. The economy families. I think that is the single most important liberation will start to shift, and it has happened in country after step for women and the planet.
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the
BY EMBER SWIFT
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e all know the story. A woman, married for 20 years, goes to a party. There, she locks eyes with a woman withW a confident stance and comfortable shoes, and tingles in a way she’s never felt before. They talk all evening and exchange phone numbers. Eventually, the first woman leaves her husband and the two women move in together. The queer community embraces her. The more the mer- rier. We are a small rank in the big, bad hetero world and we need numbers. Most queers aren’t open to hearing about her ex-husband, though, unless she’s expressing disgrace for being with him in the first place. Time passes. It’s getting easier to call herself a lesbian. Why not? She wouldn’t want to be with a man again. Now, let’s switch channels. A queer woman who has been in an open relationship with a woman for nine years goes to China. She notices a beauti- ful, long-haired woman walk confidently into a music venue. Tall and slender, floral jacket, her profile shows dimples, a killer smile. Then the woman turns around and she realizes that it’s not a woman. He has a small goatee. Perfect skin. They lock eyes. Sure, there were a few male lovers she regarded as temporary or else wrote off as “genital research.” None stood out, however—until now. She didn’t expect to see him again, but several months later, there he is, two days into her second trip. They become friends and, eventually, lovers. Her relationship in Canada ends. Two years later, they get married. The heterosexual community neither embraces nor rejects her. It’s indifferent. She feels invisible. No one really sees her. Some of her friends know about her queer identity, but she notices their discomfort when she references it. She recog- nizes the glance of homophobia when it turns her way. Yet she still identifies as queer and always will. It’s about a personal identity and not about her partner. Yes, she’s in love with her partner, but she knows that she’s capable of love and attraction for women and always will be. She won’t dishon- our her experiences or that truth in herself. No way. In the heterosexual community, no one pressures her to identify as straight, they just assume she is. It’s annoying. But she’s living in the now, honouring love. And why not? That’s what she’s always done. The woman in the second story is me. When I came out about my marriage to a man recently, it felt exactly like com- ing out about my attraction for women when I was 19—scary, but necessary. I received a lot of responses, including many from women with similar stories. Immediate camaraderie. Five of those women from five countries (Eng- land, Canada, the U.S., Australia and China) agreed to talk
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to me about their experience. Why, I asked them, don’t sto- The fact that he understands these distinctions and respects ries of queer women who end up with men get talked about my right to define my identity is part of the reason I married more openly? him. (And let’s not forget the dimples!) One notion is that an us-against-them mentality still Regardless of how we identify, people generally have a exists between the queer and straight communities. It’s a hard time understanding another’s journey when it is not a black-and-white, gay-or-straight dichotomy that leaves no conventional one. The women I interviewed said they avoid room for grey. So when someone chooses to engage with a talking about their past relationships with their straight member of the opposite team, they are seen as switching friends. Some choose to “put it behind them” for the sake of sides, abandoning the fight, changing uniforms—as traitors. peace in their current relationships. It’s sad in a community whose core values are diversity and One woman I spoke to rejects sexual orientation as part of acceptance. her identity. “I’m in a heterosexual relationship,” she says. “First Canada and now women?” wrote a fan I’d never met “That’s what it is. Not who I am. I am guided by my heart. in an email to me, “Can you spell ‘A-B-A-N-D-O-N-M-E- I identify as happy.” N-T’”? Apparently, my life amounts to two error messages I wondered whether rejecting the notion of identity might with one click of fate’s mouse. in fact be an identity in and of itself—a non-identity iden- I made a decision to follow my heart, but the social effect tity. Would picking up a grey scarf and wrapping it around has been like downloading the one’s neck by claiming a sexual iden- wrong software for my operating tity like queer or bisexual be an system and then crashing the whole affront to the greater heterosexual motherboard. Yes, there have been “First Canada and now society? In other words, when we congratulations and confessionals, women?” wrote a fan I’d don’t claim our non-conventional too, but they were flanked by identities, are we are electing invisi- staunchly worded delete requests never met in an email to bility for the sake of safety and from my mailing list. Having a me, “Can you spell ‘A-B-A- peace, socially? And what is that public persona gives you a clear per- about? Only one thing, it seems to spective on the pulse of one’s N-D-O-N-M-E-N-T’” me: homophobia. community, that’s for sure. Another issue is visibility. The The women I spoke with almost queer community needs it and the all expressed a feeling of rejection by their inner GLBTQ straight community doesn’t. Visibility gives the oppressed a circles. They felt that their friends’ lack of effort to stay in face, a name and a voice, which will hopefully quell the fear touch created a gap that grew over time. One woman, who in others who don’t understand, and who therefore say or do had temporary relationships with women in the in-between homophobic things. Hopefully it will one day erase homo- years after the birth of her son and before the subsequent phobia. I know all of this. I stood on stages for years birth of her daughter, was told by a lifelong lesbian friend advocating on behalf of the community and lyrically pushing that she was getting back together with her male partner in for a celebration of love regardless of social norms. order to achieve genetic consistency for her children. I’m still doing that, but it’s not easy. We are not currently On one level, it is fascinating. Love needs no apology, nor direct targets of homophobia, shielded by our male lovers, does identity, even when others see the two as contradictory. but we can’t forget our wounds. They’re scars now. And our I still wave my rainbow flag, it’s just harder to see. Worse is current state of safety as a result of the assumptions being that when they do notice, many people don’t get it. It’s just a made about us breeds a newfound guilt, a distinct crisis of pretty flag blowing in the breeze. conscience. We’ve been given the armour of heterosexual My interview subjects acknowledged that it can be con- privilege, whether we want it or not. That gift doesn’t jibe fusing and hard to wrap one’s head around. A queer woman with having been comfortable for years on the front lines married to a man? What? This problem stems from the wielding weapons of queer words, music, picket signs, identification of others through the lens of partnership, haircuts and T-shirt slogans against hetero-normative when, in fact, identity is an individual’s right to determine, assumptions. The sudden emergence of a shield that I not an outsider’s. never asked for seems wrong, like a lie I can’t avoid taking My partner is not queer, he is straight. He is married to a advantage of, no matter how ethically opposed to its exis- queer. I am not straight, but I’m married to a straight guy. tence I am.
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At the same time, I know there is no need for guilt. There ual, said that while she still identifies with the GLBTQ has been no harm done. Guilt has no place in love or truth. movement, being part of the inner circle “feels like cheat- You’d think, in a climate of homophobia, that a woman ing. Like I need to come with a mile-long proviso. A who used to be straight but now identifies as a lesbian would disclaimer. A story of my history that would make my cur- be quiet and fearful about her relationship with a woman. rent engagement acceptable.” But the queer community has been victim to so much This was echoed by another interviewee when I asked if oppression that it wraps its arms around newcomers in pro- she was still active in the GLBTQ community. tective solidarity. Although the newly out woman knows that “I feel unwelcome and unsure of my place,” she wrote. “I her previous heterosexual relationship and her current les- feel like I am intruding. I feel like I don’t belong.” It’s as bian relationship are both real, she knows it’s easier to call though venturing out to check out the buildings on the herself a lesbian. If she doesn’t, those protective arms may opposite side of Genitalia Street costs you your access key to loosen their grip. Queer Club. You’re no longer a card-carrying member. This safety-in-numbers thinking makes it easier for I reject this entirely, and here’s why. I believe our identi- women with a GLBTQ history to erase their pasts, at least ties are inside us, whether or not we are visible at the pride publicly, and start fresh in their heterosexual partnerships. rallies or the gay bars, whether we hold hands with men or And that’s what the world wants: binary clarity at the women. What’s more, people like me have an amazing expense of diversity and honesty. opportunity to infiltrate and edu- As a result of this invisibility as cate. With assumptions that I’m bisexual or queer—whether chosen It’s as though venturing straight, my experience of homo- or imposed—women like me who out to check out the phobia has expanded. My identity come from the GLBTQ world into isn’t dangling from rainbow earrings the straight world often experience buildings on the opposite or cresting off a shaved head and abandonment by the GLBTQ side of Genitalia Street mohawk anymore, but it’s powerful community. It’s a punishment for enough to dispute, counter chal- leaving the fringe, for taking the costs you your access key lenge, and hopefully expose these easy path, for holding my lover’s to Queer Club. moments for what they are: oppres- hand and not being scowled at. sive, violent, cruel, destructive, The result is a quiet, silencing homophobic. In other words, my effect. None of the women I interviewed was comfortable sudden invisibility has advantages. with her name being printed, for example. It’s a fear that I Once an activist, always an activist. Like an activist who understand. Coming out for the second time was scary. becomes a politician, I continue my activism from within. I Coming out always is. am a queer woman in a straight relationship. It’s the truth. But do we abandon the GLBTQ community, or are we We women with these life stories are learning to accept pushed out? Does loving a heterosexual person belie forgiv- that there will times when we will feel invisible, both to the ing, if not joining, the perpetrators of homophobia? Should GLBTQ community and to the straight community. We we ignore the loves we stumble into with men for the sake of occupy a unique space and we haven’t quite decorated yet. It’s the political movement? Wouldn’t that be the abandonment a space that few have acknowledged and it’s a space that his- of the self? tory hasn’t taken much notice of. One woman, newly married to a man, explained that, “The Hopefully, our neighbours on both sides will welcome us assumptions people make about me are that I’m heterosex- and recognize us for not only our existence, but also for our ual, as though being in this relationship has effaced all of my contributions to the cause. We’re here, getting louder and experiences, political inclinations and beliefs. I’ve really prouder. We are part of the GLBTQ community for better struggled with that feeling of erasure.” or for worse, whether the neighbourhood welcoming com- Here we are again, coming full circle, back to the original mittee brings us a fruit basket or not. us-against-them theory at the beginning of this article. Are Ember Swift lives in Beijing and Toronto when she’s not on the we or are we not still part of the GLBTQ club when we have road touring with her band. She has released 10 albums and one fallen for men? Surely our histories of having fallen for DVD, the most recent project being LENTIC. She continues to women aren’t null and void? perform throughout Canada, the U.S., Australia, New Caledo- One of the women I interviewed, who identifies as bisex- nia, and Asia.
HERIZONS SUMMER 2010 23 her-050 Summer 2010 v24n1.qxp 6/1/10 2:52 PM Page 24 DIGGING into the DEEP Singer-songwriter Sara Quin discusses her musical and political influences, and muses about what the future might hold for Tegan and Sara.
INTERVIEW BY ANNA LAZOWSKI
Sara Quinn (foreground), with Tegan Quin in the studio. her-050 Summer 2010 v24n1.qxp 6/1/10 2:40 PM Page 25
hile working on their latest album, Sainthood, Tegan and Sara spent a month at Sound City W Studios in Van Nuys, California, where Tom Petty, Pat Benatar, Fleetwood Mac and Nirvana have recorded. One day, Sara Quin found herself in the midst of a truly memorable moment. “There was this amazing grand piano that was all worn down and I was playing with Chris [Walla, producer] and Jason [McGerr, drums], recording the bed tracks for ‘Alliga- tor.’ We would come in each day and play the song 30 to 60 times, so seven or eight hours into the day, I was singing and playing and I just thought, I’m in L.A. and I’m in this amaz- ing studio and playing a piano Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty used, making an album 10 years in. I had a big moment where the wall goes down and you realize how cool the life is you’re suddenly having. Then you go back to drinking coffee that gives you indigestion, eating cheese puffs and not remembering how cool your life is.” Tegan and Sara Quin hail from Calgary. Approaching their 30th birthdays in the fall, they have released six studio albums. It’s that ambition they bring to the music business, driven to build and maintain a very strong connection with their fans. To do this, they use twitter, post blogs, release books and maintain a strong Web presence with audio, videos and enough merchandise options for even the most avid fan. “They’re all just ways of being creative and directly com- municating with our audience. We started the band when the Internet started to explode. At first we weren’t getting press, and then we didn’t like the press we were getting, and it allowed us to balance it with our own message,” Sara explains. Over the years, that message has gotten out, as fans have latched on to the way the sisters explore all different kinds of relationships in their music, tapping directly into a topic everyone can relate to. Sara isn’t one of those writers who need to be in either a happy or a sad place to be prolific. What she usually needs is a bit of distance from her subject matter. “I rarely am writing about what’s happening currently— it’s usually in a reflective place or this strange kind of foreshadowing. “On our last record, The Con, I was dealing with the death of my grandmother, who was the centre of our family. I was
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Tegan (left) and Sara released their sixth album, Sainthood, and are on the road with Lilith Fair this summer.
Just a few minutes into a phone interview with Sara from Given that, it’s interesting to think about sensitivity as a her home in Montreal, it’s easy to understand how her song- value when you’re immersed in an industry like the music writing style has found an audience. She is candid, business. Tegan and Sara played one of the final shows of self-reflective and really seems to understand her own actions Lilith Fair about 10 years ago and will be part of the lineup and motivations, although that desire to be open and con- when the tour hits the road again this summer. While Sara nected does have its limits. acknowledges there has been some evolution since they’ve “Tegan and I can dissect lots of things publicly, but there’s been in the business, change can be fairly slow. a whole other part of me that I don’t talk about. I have a rela- “Yes, look at Lady Gaga and Beyonce. There are lots of tionship, I feel all the normal things people feel—insecure, really fantastic women selling records. But a good majority tense, excited,” she says. aren’t going to be asked to do festivals like Bonnaroo, Sara admits to being fascinated, even obsessed, with inti- Coachella, Lollapalooza. I mean, we still play festivals with macy and connections, but says she really isn’t as wrapped up no other women on the bill.” in turmoil as you might expect from listening to her music. Sara sees the need to incorporate more women into the “When I step outside my songs, I always find my situations business as going beyond the artists who step up onstage are less dire than they seem. You can’t tell much about me as to play to the crowds. “[It’s also] the guitar techs, sound a person on a detailed level, but at the core of the music you engineers, program directors on radio—ninety per cent of
can tell how sensitive Tegan and I are in our lives.” the time we’re surrounded by men. And yes, you can Photo: Pamela Litky
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“I wanted to be exactly who I was and didn’t understand why I couldn’t make music for the masses as a queer, alternative woman.”
actively go out and seek out women, but when I go to look by a single, feminist mom who showed them avant-garde for someone to hire in my company it’s easier to find to films and brought them up in a political environment. men to do it.” “I remember deciding I wanted to be in a band, and telling The songwriter thinks a lot about identity, gender politics my parents at 17 I was gay, and going to live an alternative and what it means to be a feminist at this point in time— lifestyle. There was friction and boundary-pushing, but not something she acknowledges can be complicated. really. It wasn’t coming out of left field. Our mom practically “One thing I find in general is how little people truly gave us the manual of how to do it, which I think is a posi- understand what it means to be a feminist—and that it’s still tive result of my mom’s feminism. I wanted to be exactly who a necessary movement, not a project that ended. I’m always I was and didn’t understand why I couldn’t make music for telling people being a feminist is like being part of any the masses as a queer, alternative woman.” human rights movement—it’s ongoing and should always Despite the changes Sara has seen over the years, there are exist, no matter how much has been accomplished.” a few issues that continue to nag her. “It happens all the Although Tegan and Sara have been accomplishing their time—people come backstage and say, I can’t believe how goals as a musical force together, they don’t live in the same many men, or how many straight people are here. It makes city. Both driven to create, they work independently on var- me crazy. It offends me when people say our music is for ious side projects, continuing to evolving as artists. more than lesbians. Everything I listened to transcended sex- So alhough she’s not sure when it will happen, Sara uality, and I still have to explain how Bruce Springsteen’s acknowledges that there is a desire to start pushing the music is for more than just straight, white men.” boundaries of the Tegan and Sara identity. This ongoing dialogue about gender and musical politics “What would make me feel uncomfortable—we haven’t might explain why Sara says a lot of the music she listens to dug into yet. I think there’s a fear in tampering with what is pretty far removed from Tegan and Sara’s own style. “I you know works. For this project, we know what feels good [often] pick really impenetrable music with no vocals. I read, and what our audience feels comfortable with, so we haven’t listen to talk radio and get my emotional human contact ripped the tablecloth off the table. I don’t want to put out through things other than music.” something too existential and have people wonder what the Aware that she does not want to hold herself back as an fuck we’re talking about.” artist, Sara says working with other people and trying new But she is interested in exploring a more politically driven projects is a great way to explore new possibilities. When project and expanding on the medium of her musical message. you’re a collaborator and not the focal point, you can stop As Sara starts talking about her childhood, the motivation for explaining things, just dig into the deep, dark stuff and not that evolution becomes clear. She and twin Tegan were raised have to worry about telling people why you went there.
Sara Quin and Tegan Quin
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Connect. Converse. Inclusions, Exclusions,Seclusions:Living in a globalized world 3–73–7 J Juuly 22011.011. womensworldssworldworlds.c caa
From 3–7 July next year, feminists and their allies The congress theme — “Inclusions, exclusions, and from across the planet will converge in Ottawa- seclusions: Living in a globalized world”— invites Gatineau for Women’s Worlds 2011. you to connect and converse about globalization as it relates to women. This will be the largest gathering of women from around the world in Answer the ‘Call for Participation’ to join academics, Canadian history. advocates, researchers, policy-makers, workers, activists, and artists from around the world in sharing And the conversation includes you. inspiring ideas and experiences. See you there.
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JUSTICE FOR ALL BY LYN COCKBURN
The woman who made history as Canada’s first female prime minister is alive and well and living in Paris. Kim Campbell says that while some countries have made laudable gains towards gender equity in their parliaments, Canada could—and should— do a better job. Kim Campbell isn’t a fan of quotas, but favours two-member ridings to increase the number of women in parliament.
t is said that Mario Cuomo, New York’s governor from “abortion on demand” while pro-choice groups insisted it set 1983 to 1994, is the best president the United States back women’s right to abortion that was established when I never had. There are more than a few Canadians— the Supreme Court ruled in 1988 that Canada’s abortion law especially women—who believe Kim Campbell is the best violated the Charter of Rights. Bill C-43 passed in the prime minister Canada had for far too short a time. House, but was defeated in the Senate when pro-choice Campbell was sworn in as Prime Minister on June 13, female Conservative senators joined Liberals to oppose it. To 1993. Her reign lasted just 132 days, but Campbell made her this day, Canada does not have an abortion law. mark in Canadian politics long before she was PM. First While many feminist groups criticized Campbell for not elected in 1988 as a Progressive Conservative MP in Van- doing enough for women, the anti-feminist lobby REAL couver Centre, Campbell spent five years as a cabinet Women denounced her outspoken feminism. But it wasn’t minister, serving as minister of Indian affairs, minister of jus- just the far right that came down on Campbell. After she tice and minister of defence. won the progressive Conservative Party leadership race, she As Canada’s justice minister from 1990 to 1993 in Brian called an election. During the ensuing campaign, Campbell Mulroney’s government, Campbell pushed for tighter gun faced criticism in the media and from her opponents for control in the wake of the 1989 killings at École Polytech- everything from her weight and twice-divorced marital sta- nique. She was also instrumental in reformulating Canada’s tus, to her supposed lack of political experience. Note that rape shield law after it was struck down as unconstitutional. her predecessor, Brian Mulroney, had not held public office Campbell’s subsequent Bill C-49 made the questioning of a before becoming party leader of the party. rape victim about her sexual history largely a thing of the past. At any rate, the conservatives were resoundingly defeated But it was her support of Bill C-43 in 1990 that became and Campbell stepped down. Whatever caused her defeat— her most controversial act as justice minister. The bill would sexism, dissatisfaction with Brian Mulroney, or a desire for have restricted the conditions under which abortion could be change—you can bet Campbell has no regrets. She now lives performed at the same time that it would have permitted it in Paris and travels the world.
Photo: Peter Bregg/Macleans in almost every circumstance. Anti-abortion groups called it Since her exit from Canadian public life, she has contin-
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“Leadership is seen as masculine.” —former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell
ued to work in the political realm. After taking a fellowship sentation. There has to be a pool of women to choose from in 1994 at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at and some members of that pool will inevitably be found in Harvard, she was appointed to a four-year term as Cana- boardrooms. Again, Norway is a good example with its 2002 dian Consul General in Los Angeles. Her resumé also lists law that gave companies until 2006 to have 40 percent co-founding the Club de Madrid, along with Mary Robin- female membership on their boards or face being dissolved. son, former president of Ireland. An organization of current Canada, of course, is nowhere near that—neither in its and past leaders of democratic countries, the Club de boardrooms, where 17 percent of corporate officer positions Madrid is dedicated to strengthening democratic values in the country’s 500 largest businesses are held by women, and leadership around the world. Campbell was also chair- nor its federal cabinet, where there are 10 women in Prime person of the Council of World Women Leaders from Minister Stephen Harper’s 38-member cabinet. That’s 26 1999-2003, a network of women leaders, past and present, percent. The number of women elected to Parliament from that works to change the view that leadership takes place in all parties combined is lower, at 21 percent. That’s 65 women a masculine arena. in a parliament of 308 MPs, a ranking that places Canada We sat down recently in Vancouver to discuss the state of 27th in the world. Kim Campbell, the state of politics and the state of women It is easy to see that both tradition and society’s attitude in politics globally. towards women leaders still hold influence in politics— So why is Campbell living in Paris and why is she off to something Campbell knows a thing or two about. Addis Ababa and then Moscow, to mention but a couple of “Leadership is seen as masculine,” she says. places where she’ll be attending meetings and giving But there are more practical aspects that contribute to a speeches within weeks of our interview? shortage of women in government, too. If a woman goes to Today, Campbell spends much of her time giving speeches Ottawa, does she maintain two residences? If she’s married, and attending conferences designed to promote women in does her husband give up his job to follow her? politics. She and her husband, musician Hershey Felder, “Women are more likely to live with their husbands,” wanted to live in a city they loved, where it would be easy for Campbell observes, adding that in the past it was no accident them to travel as they plied their trades. They rent a house that many female parliamentarians were widowed, divorced just outside Paris and an apartment in the city. or single. It seems the right moment to ask her what can be done to And the hockey-game-sans-sticks atmosphere that per- encourage more women to go into politics. meates Parliament is part of why many women decide “It’s a question that makes most feminists crazy,” I offer. against politics. Campbell sees it a bit differently. “[The “And I’m one of them,” she says, adding, “Any moment debate] becomes more confrontational when women aren’t you’ll see little specks of foam coming out of my mouth.” there,” she says. First, we deal with some of the many reasons many women Confrontational tactics are why Campbell is not a fan of find their enthusiasm turning into discouragement when our televised question period, which, she insists, inevitably they consider politics as a profession. The topic of quotas motivates MPs to play to the camera instead of interacting comes up promptly. reasonably with each other. “In normal debate, it’s not that “The Nordic countries have done well,” Campbell admits. confrontational,” she insists. Norway’s government sports a cabinet comprised of 50 per- These are only some of the obstacles that can make a polit- cent women and has 38 percent women in its parliament, ical career unappetizing for women. The big question, of thanks in part to a quota system. Only Rwanda (47 percent) course, is whether or not there is a solution. Campbell is not beats out Sweden (43 percent) with the highest percentage of a fan of quotas, even though she does praise what they have women elected as parliamentarians. accomplished. She sees that method as unnecessarily con- Yet Campbell says it is not enough to aim for equal repre- frontational.
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“If you want more women in politics, write a cheque.” —former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell
Instead, Campbell would like to see a two-member riding men in cabinet that my fertility has been a major part of my system, something with which she has experience. When existence as a woman.” Campbell was first elected as an MLA in B.C. in 1986, Van- (I for one would have paid an exorbitant admission fee to couver-Point Grey was one of five Vancouver ridings that be in the room for this discussion.) were then two-person ridings. She and the NDP’s Darlene “I pointed out that, for a large part of my life, I was either Marzari represented the riding, and the same thing happened trying to get pregnant or trying not to get pregnant” She later, in the federal election of 1988, when Campbell and told them that no one method of contraception is either Mary Collins were both elected in Vancouver Centre. foolproof or healthy, and “a lot of men don’t want to use Campbell’s two-person ridings would consist of one male condoms.” and one female representative. “Instant parity,” she says. Vot- Her conclusion? “We shouldn’t assume that all unwanted ers would vote for two people on their ballots instead of one. pregnancies occur because people didn’t use contraception.” She believes this system would have the added benefit of Afterwards, several of her male colleagues thanked her for removing the confrontational aspect of men and women the frank remarks that had opened their eyes. fighting for one seat at a very small table. Campbell “If we can speak in our own voices, we can learn from each acknowledges that this would likely result in a larger Parlia- other,” Campbell continues. “There’s nothing radical about ment, although she doesn’t think it would double the number the idea that one of the things public policy must be based of representatives. on is women’s reality.” “Some ridings need to be reconfigured,” she believes. And she is quick to point out that one woman cannot rep- “There’s no hard-and-fast rule on numbers.” resent all women. As for the possibility that the two elected MPs might not “Tokenism does not work,” she stresses. “I was a white, mid- be from the same party, she says, “No big deal.” dle-class, university-educated, urban woman when I was justice Campbell doesn’t expect this system would cure all the minister. It would have been arrogant of me to say I represented problems. But she does believe it would move Canada in the all women—I couldn’t. So we met with women from all walks direction of a 50-50 makeup of Parliament in general, and of life—women of colour, women in poverty, women in the sex cabinet in particular. trade—women whose reality was not my reality.” “It would create an expectation,” she believes, and it would She explains that was the only way to draft legislation become an important step in correcting “a deep-rooted “that would be in the best interests of the majority of hypothesis about how the world works.” women.” And the benefits? Her advice on how to get more women involved in politics? “There is a lot of evidence to show that the presence of “If you want more women in politics, write a cheque,” she critical masses of women in legislative bodies does make a says flatly. This doesn’t mean large sums. “It can be a very difference to the agenda—the issues dealt with,” she says. small amount.” It’s a concept U.S. President Barack Obama Campbell is enthusiastic and adamant. used to great effect during his presidential campaign. “What the research shows is that when you have diversity “And you don’t have to run for office. You can get involved in legislative bodies, you tend to avoid the extremes,” she in your party to become a player. You have to be a player to says. “When you have a balance, you tend to have a richer have influence.” discussion.” Would Campbell’s idea of two-member ridings lead to What diversity means to Campbell is that more groups of gender parity in politics? Maybe. What is certain is that the people “can articulate reality as they experience it.” Here, she efforts of women like Campbell on the international stage draws on her own experience—a meeting that took place in and the rest of us, who perform behind the scenes and write cabinet when she was justice minister. those cheques, will eventually succeed in getting more “This came out of a discussion about abortion. I told the women into politics.
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BABIES WITHOUT BORDERS BEYOND EXPECTATION TRANSFORMING LABOUR Adoption and Migration across Lesbian/Bi/Queer Women and Women and Work in the Americas Assisted Conception Postwar Canada by Karen Dubinsky by Jacquelyne Luce by Joan Sangster
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IRISHIRISH WOMENWOMEN hopehope forfor LUCKLUCK EUROPEAN COURT COULD FORCE IRELAND TO LIBERALIZE LAW BY KATHERINE SIDE
Ireland’s restrictions on abortion, which amount to a virtual ban, are being challenged by three women at the European Court of Human Rights, pictured above.
here were 5,585 women in 2005 who trav- of the state at the time she sought an abortion. She elled from the Republic of Ireland to worried that a pregnancy would jeopardize efforts to T England for abortions. Three of them, iden- reunite her family. Unable to afford the costs or public- tified as A., B. and C., are at the centre of an ity associated with a legal hearing, or the travel and costs international legal case that aims to force the predom- necessary for an abortion in England, her application inantly Catholic country to allow women to obtain for public aid was refused. She borrowed money from a abortion services in Ireland. local moneylender, at a high rate of interest, and
Photo: Brad Gibb A. had four children who were in the temporary care obtained an abortion at a private clinic in England.
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In Ireland, abortion is legally and constitutionally prohibited and carries a penalty of life imprisonment.
B. had taken the morning-after pill, but it failed to woman’s request. However, in Ireland abortion is prevent her pregnancy. At risk of an ectopic pregnancy, legally and constitutionally prohibited and carries a she, too borrowed money to travel to England for an penalty of life imprisonment. Its Constitution, abortion. On her return to Ireland, she developed amended in 1983, explicitly recognizes the right to complications and returned to England, again at her life of “the unborn” alongside the right to life of the own expense. mother, and it requires these to be balanced. But C., a Lithuanian woman living in Ireland, under- legal abortions are only permitted when a pregnant went three years of treatment for a rare form of women’s life is at risk from suicide. There is, how- cancer. She discovered she was pregnant while her ever, no legislation to implement this stipulation, cancer was in remission and worried that the med- and in 2008 the Irish government told Thomas ical tests to determine her health status could Hammerberg, the European Community Commis- jeopardize the fetus and that a pregnancy could risk sioner for Human Rights, that it has no intention of her life. Because her pregnancy was detected early, developing such legislation. an abortion administered by drugs was possible. Yet Women in Ireland have challenged the restrictions no clinic would provide the procedure, which they face on abortion, but with few results. Arguing requires follow-up treatment, because she was classi- that a legal case in Ireland wasn’t possible, A., B. and fied as a non-resident. C. waited eight weeks before C. took their case directly to the European Court of travelling for a surgical abortion in England. When Human Rights. They allege that Ireland has failed to she returned to Ireland, she required subsequent respect the rights outlined in the European Conven- treatment for complications resulting from an tion of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, incomplete abortion. including their right to life, the right to privacy in the A., B. and C. have chosen not to remain indistinct family, home and personal matters, the right to be pro- from thousands of other Irish women who travel tected from inhuman and degrading treatment and the abroad for abortions. They’ve joined together to chal- right to protection from discrimination. lenge Ireland’s existing law. Assisted by the Irish In response, a legal team led by Ireland’s Attorney Planning Association and Legal Momentum (for- General Paul Gallagher defended Ireland’s law merly NOW Legal Defence), a U.S.-based legal before the court and maintained that no human defense fund, they filed a case against Ireland at the rights were violated. He argued the current law, European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, “based in profound moral values deeply embedded in France. Their case was heard in December 2009. the fabric of Irish society,” is justified. Classifying Sometime within the next year, 17 judges of the Grand this challenge as “a significant attack on the Irish Chamber of the European Court will determine system,” he advised the court not to interfere with whether Ireland’s restrictive abortion law violates Ireland’s autonomy and suggested that bringing Irish women’s human rights. The court’s determinations on law into line with the European Convention on the admissibility and merits of the case are final and Human Rights could undermine stability in Euro- binding. European countries with similarly restrictive pean relations. abortion laws, such as Poland, Malta and Andorra, are Gallagher also argued that A., B. and C. should have watching the case closely. tried to obtain legal abortions in Ireland. A., he said, The U.S.-based Centre for Reproductive Rights should have tried to access legal aid to decide whether reports that 44 of 47 European countries provide her circumstances were within the current law. But he abortion services, and most allow for abortion at a provided no comment about the possible outcome for
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A., B. and C. were forced to act in clandestine ways that risked their health and potentially their lives, counsel argued.
A. should she have been found ineligible to receive European Court of Human Rights required Poland legal aid or a legal abortion. B., he argued, provided no to uphold its law in relation to a woman who was medical evidence of a possible ectopic pregnancy, and denied access to a legal abortion under Polish law. he said that C. provided insufficient evidence that However, Irish officials have indicated that unless medical treatment was denied to her. forced to do so, Ireland’s government doesn’t intend Characterizing the law as “capable of development,” to make any changes to its current interpretation of Gallagher claimed there is no shortage of doctors in its law. Ireland willing to perform abortions. But he did not “What this will mean is that Ireland will have a place provide statistics on the number of legal abortions per- outside of the human rights family in Europe, which is formed in Ireland. A 2010 Human Rights Watch a fairly cold place to be,” said Niall Behan, chief execu- report was unable to document a single case where an tive of the Irish Family Planning Association. abortion was provided in Ireland. In the meantime, publicity surrounding this case Attorneys Julie Kay and Carmel Stewart repre- continues to highlight discrepancies between Ireland sented A., B. and C. in court. They told the judges that and the rest of Europe, and between the law and pub- the case pivots on Ireland’s obligation to recognize and lic opinion within Ireland. A March 2010 poll apply human rights, not on standards of medical evi- commissioned by Marie Stopes International con- dence. A., B. and C. were forced to act in clandestine firmed that public opinion in Ireland favours the right ways that risked their health and potentially their lives, to abortion, and 79 percent of those surveyed support they argued. Their legal argument focused on the vio- abortion if a woman’s health is endangered. lation of human rights, including the right to freedom Behan says, “This is only one in a series of opinion from discrimination. Under the European Convention polls which indicate that the people of Ireland want on Human Rights, the attorneys argued that “crimi- better access to abortion in Ireland. The Senior Coun- nalizing or neglecting health care that only women sel for Ireland, in A., B. and C., argued that need constitutes sex discrimination.” In the cases of A. criminalization of abortion was based in the moral val- and B., they argued, it also constitutes discrimination ues of Irish society.This is clearly not the case, and this based on economic status. public opinion poll, and many others, shows that the Kay and Stewart characterized the law as “reluctant people of Ireland understand the difficult dilemmas and constrained” and argued that appealing cases at that women face in pregnancy.” the Irish courts, as Gallagher suggested, would be Ireland’s restrictive abortion law continues to unwise because a woman can be required to pay the attract widespread international criticism from the state’s legal costs as well as her own. Few doctors, if United Nations Human Rights Committee, the any, in Ireland, they noted, are willing to risk their United Nations Committee on the Elimination of medical licence, their practice and their personal safety Discrimination against Women, the European Com- by performing abortions in a hostile climate. munity Commissioner for Human Rights and The views of Liam Fay, a reporter, reflect the views Human Rights Watch. of many. “Thankfully,” he wrote in London’s Sunday As a result of this case, Ireland may be on the brink Times, “reality has again gatecrashed the fool’s para- of change. It may finally be forced to lift its restrictive dise.” Covering the trial, Fay wrote that lawyers for A., abortion law and to recognize and uphold women’s B. and C. won in the “early skirmishes” in court. human rights. There is a precedent that may bode well for the Katherine Side teaches women’s studies at the Memorial reproductive rights of Irish women. In 2007, the University of Newfoundland in St. John’s.
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JONI MITCHELL PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A BLACK MAN BY EVELYN C. WHITE
s a black woman raised against the backdrop of the I was amazed to discover, decades after the release of the U.S. civil rights movement, the songs of Aretha Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young tune, that Mitchell had A Franklin, Nina Simone and James Brown, were and composed the iconic “I came upon a child of God” anthem remain, central to my identity. But I was also wowed by and inspired Graham Nash to craft the “two cats in the yard” flower power hits such as “Our House” and “Woodstock” by harmonics that helped define a generation. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Then came the shock of reading a 1990s article about Joni To be sure, I’d heard of Joni Mitchell. But Odetta was the Mitchell that appeared, if memory serves, in Vibe magazine.
folksinger that reigned in my blue-collar, black neighbourhood. The context? A major music-industry soiree in Los Angeles. Photo Illustration: Michele Buchanan
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Indeed, Mitchell’s respect for black culture—from traditional African rhythms to slick urban hip-hop moves—courses throughout the The Fiddle and The Drum.
As the reporter told it, Mitchell dismissed the glitzy gather- Period, by Michelle Mercer. A mesmerizing mélange of ing, noting that she had been “the only brother in the house.” memoir, biography, interviews and criticism, it takes its title That’s right, the blonde, Saskatoon-raised artist likened her- from Mitchell’s song “California,” from her acclaimed 1971 self to a black male performer. Now that I’m better versed in release Blue. Mitchell’s extraordinary life and career, her self-assessment In the opening pages, Mercer details the importance of seems less audacious. Blue, which includes “River,” “A Case of You,” and “Carey.” Indeed, Mitchell’s respect for black culture—from tradi- “I wanted to lie next to someone who experienced the same tional African rhythms to slick urban hip-hop ravishment of self-reflection when he listened [to Blue],” she moves—courses throughout the The Fiddle and The Drum. writes. “A soul mate would hear the ingenuity of Joni’s The rightly celebrated dance work, first performed in 2008, chords, the novelty of her song structure. … Was the power showcases Mitchell’s music and multi-media designs. In of her words and music animating new reaches in him?” doing so, the piece offers a hard-hitting but ultimately Mercer notes that Mitchell has found disconcerting the ennobling meditation on war, love and global destruction. impact of Blue on her career. “Everything was compared Program notes reveal that during rehearsals, Mitchell unfavourably to Blue,” Mitchell explained. “They wanted me exhorted the predominately white Alberta ballet to “find the to stay in that tortured way. I peeled myself down to the Afro-American groove” in her work, coaching its members bone, there was no place left to go. I had to start building up to respond to “the saxophone’s entry into the score here, the and healing myself and looking outward.” guitar refrain there, the voice.” On that note, Mitchell, who is now 66 and has been an As I watched the performance in Victoria (a cultural com- unrepentant smoker since age nine, cites tobacco as a posi- ponent of the Winter Games in Vancouver), I was mindful tive influence on her craft. “It’s a focusing drug,” she told that the cover of her album Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter Mercer. “Everybody should be forced to smoke.” (1977) features an image of an Afro-coiffed Mitchell dressed As for her enduring alliance with blacks, Mitchell as her reputed alter ego, a black hipster named Art Nouveau. responds with her trademark candour: “They’re my best Her 1979 album Mingus stands as a landmark project with audience. The ‘Joni Mitchell, she don’t lie school’.” the eccentric black jazz bassist Charles Mingus Central to her truth-telling is the fact that the pride of (1922–1979). Saskatchewan has never distanced herself from visible River: The Joni Letters garnered for pianist/composer Her- minorities. Consider the video projections of a black male bie Hancock the 2008 Grammy Award for the best album of soldier and a traditional Aboriginal mask that appear in The the year. Then there’s Mitchell’s oft-voiced appreciation of Fiddle and The Drum. “Trouble Man.” It’s a gutsy musician of any race who’d dare Behold, by Mitchell’s masterful design, the luminous to sing the signature Marvin Gaye soul tune. YouTube shows image of her face, in both. Mitchell letting it rip before a live audience. Evelyn C. White is the author of Alice Walker: A Life and An intriguing portrait of Mitchell can be found in the Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone: A Photo Narrative of Black new book, Will You Take Me as I Am: Joni Mitchell’s Blue Heritage on Salt Spring Island.
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arts culture MUSIC
one will do and her melodies have a true- to-form familiarity. Reminiscent of sister roots players Carolyn Mark and Neko Case, Wand has a voice that is as much an instrument as the guitar on which she composes her deceptively simple songs. On the standouts “Empty Page,” “Light Speeds” and “Jaybird,” she manages to create a timeless Nashville sound. Thanks to Corwin Fox’s sensitive production, the vocals on these songs—and on most of the CD’s 13 tracks— are where they need to be: front and centre. While Wand’s tunes are straightforward, her choice of instrumentation isn’t. An Israeli-Canadian, Wand also borrows from traditional klezmer music, incorporating accordion, mandolin and non-traditional percussion, as in the case of the lovers’ lament “Ballad of You and I.” She’s also willing to raid the musical tool box for some jazz and gospel elements. Instead of making a hot mess of the collection, these flourishes only add to the strength of her work and demonstrate her courage as an artist. Good Stitch Gone could best be summed up by one of the best songs on the disc: “God Damn Beautiful.”
Sade wants us to fight for love. HEART SHAPED COOKIE CUTTER L. POUSHINSKY Independent Love is almost hypnotic, thanks to sophisti- SOLDIER OF LOVE REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO cated bass arrangements. But behind the SADE There’s nothing cookie-cutter about L. Sony Music lulling sounds are words that speak simple Poushinky’s debut album Heart Shaped REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO truths about love—lost, found and feared. Cookie Cutter. Using traditional cabaret Remember making out to the jazzy strains of At 51, Sade has seen it all, experienced a musical structures and borrowing heavily “Smooth Operator”? Then you’ll love the whack of it and wants to let us know that from modern jazz, the songs on this initial new Sade album, Soldier of Love. Just as it’s OK to join her army and fight on for love. solo offering are impressive. you have likely traded in the Ikea futon Mellow, warm and sophisticated, Solider Poushinksy describes her music as couch for a comfier seduction pit, the Niger- of Love is sure to be the soundtrack for a lot “feverish cabaret folk-rock for lovers and ian-British artist has changed with the of cocktails this summer. Just make sure wolves.” After a couple of listens to her times. there’s not a Björn convertible futon sofa new CD, this makes sense. While she Her latest collection shows that the within earshot. clearly loves the musical forms she singer-songwriter who burst onto the scene employs, she never lets her engaging with the multi-single Diamond Life in 1984 is GOOD STITCH GONE melodies take over—she knows her words at the peak of her vocal abilities. The years YAEL WAND are worth listening to, and, damn it, she’s have added a decidedly smoky edge to her Independent going to make you listen. voice, making it even more compelling. REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO While her angsty songs like “Heavy She’s also cut the abundant saxophone that Yael Wand’s third album Good Stitch Gone Shoes” and “Pity The Hammer” are pigeonholed her as a “smooth jazz” artist. highlights a singer-songwriter of uncommon perfect for wallowing in romantic self-pity, The song cycle that makes up Soldier of restraint. She never uses two words when it’s Poushinksy’s more upbeat numbers
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that make a listener realize she’s a throwback to the time of the singer as entertainer. For example, on the Calypso- flavoured “Vacation,” she comes across like a contemporary Keely Smith. Likewise, on “Air,” with its killer trumpet solo, she puts a sweet twist on the ’60s lounge sound that will have you grooving while mixing pink ladies. An alumna of rock bands Red Fey and Hollow Water, Poushinsky is an excellent songwriter. She knows the value of a good hook and she’s not afraid to use it.
THE PROMISE CORINNE WEST Make Records REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO Corinne West is one of those unusual American artists whose loudest accolades come from across the Atlantic. West, who has just released The Promise, her third album, has one of the most pleasingly unassuming voices to come along in ages. Sounding like a slightly more forceful Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls fame, West is an effortless singer. Her version of “Everybody’s Talking” incorporates a deceptively simple vocal delivery, matching the emotional range of Harry Nilsson’s take for 1969’s Midnight Cowboy soundtrack—a paean to the exhausting hustle of New York City. West writes beautifully crafted songs that could best be considered acoustic carves a window into an unusually being a full, rich sound that encompasses atmospheric folk. Often labelled a country confident and self-aware soul. bass, melody and percussion lines. or Americana artist because of her Her songs—which often get defined as affection for bluegrass and slide guitar—as BLACK FLOWERS folk, despite their pop melodies—are witnessed on the extraordinarily beautiful VOLUME 1-2 marked with unpredictable chord changes, “Lily Ann”—West’s songs are those of a LYNN MILES witty lyrics and catchy tunes. Another travelling troubadour. As someone who took True North performer who admits a debt to Tom to the road at age 15, West has seen more REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO Waits, Miles is a consummate storyteller. than her share of honky-tonks, small towns Black Flowers Volume 1-2 is one of the best She’s also an enthusiast of irony and and fellow travellers, and their ghosts live Canadian albums I’ve heard in the last year. wordplay with lyrics like “You’re in my on in her lyrics. Lynn Miles has been creating and teaching rear-view mirror now and you’re getting “You’re a stranger in my town, when you music for more than 20 years. Her sixth smaller because I’m over you”; “the rust leave your home ground,” she warns a album is a 20-song sprawler that will leave and the scars, that’s what I love about prospective lover on the waltz “The you scratching your head as to why you you”; and “Let’s break the bank, the rules Stranger.” aren’t familiar with her. and chains and do everything we ever Whether she’s singing to the spirit that A truly solo effort, Black Flowers features dreamed of.” makes living on the edge attractive (“Lady Miles, her guitar and piano. Her finger-style As a writer and a guitarist, Miles could Luck”) or encouraging herself to “shine guitar playing allows her to perform several be Shawn Colvin’s sister by another mother. through the storm” in the title track, West musical elements concurrently, the result Sublime.
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pçéÜá~=jìëí~Ñ~ The Tanganyika Way
The story of Tanzania’s independence from Britain “The eyes of the world are upon us.” SOPHIA MUSTAFA, one of Africa’s first female members of parliament, describes the Tanzanian struggle for independence from Britain in the 1960s. Edited by Fawzia Mustafa with rare photographs, contextual essays, and updated original text. An indispensable work of African History and African Women’s studies. ISBN 987-1-894770-5-14 $28.95, paperback, 172pp TSAR Publications www.tsarbooks.com
NEW from DEMETER PRESS First Feminist Press on Motherhood
Giving Breastmilk Body Ethics and Contemporary Breastfeeding Practice Edited by Rhonda Shaw and Alison Bartlett Spring 2010, paper 6" by 9", 250 pages, $34.95 Cdn/U.S. (add 5% GST)
This fascinating collection samples new trends in research on breastmilk and the conditions of its production, consumption, and exchange. Imagining breastfeed- ing as more than an aspect of maternal being, Giving Breastmilk is interested in the ethical relations it generates, as well as it being valuable work that women do. Chapters trace the social anxieties around breastmilk into courts of law, news media, cinema and international politics, analyse the experiences of mothers, children, intensive care nurses and recipients of donated milk, and consider the impact of milk pumps, AIDS, wet-nurses and marketing campaigns.
Rhonda Shaw teaches in the School of Social & Cultural Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her work on body gifting practices, including shared breast- feeding, ovarian egg donation, surrogate pregnancy arrangements, and organ donation and transplantation processes, has been published widely in international journals.
Alison Bartlett teaches Women’s Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her previ- ous books include Breastwork: Rethinking Breastfeeding and Jamming the Machin- ery: Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing. Her research on cultural meanings of maternity, embodiment and breasted knowledge has also been widely published. www.demeterpress.org
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CLAUDIA BRITT HOLMSTRÖM Coteau Books REVIEW BY SHAWNA DEMPSEY Claudia, an expansive novel by Saskatchewan’s Britt Holmström, spans generations and continents. With the lightest of literary hands, Holmström manages to explore the currents of violence that shape women’s lives, and she does it without a hint of didacticism. Each and every word rings true, elucidating the detailed and textured experiences of a seemingly ordinary woman. We follow Claudia from young girl to matriarch as she traces the formative OONAGH throughout the narrative. Chauncey’s own events of her life in Sweden, Canada, Spain MARY TILBERG life story—told in slightly contrived pillow and Latvia. Decades are spent fulfilling her Cormorant Books talk to Oonagh—is perhaps a little heavy- role as a doctor’s wife who is devoted to REVIEW BY ALICE LAWLOR handed, yet Tilberg brings a fresh children, dinner parties and lunch with Set in the 1800s, Oonagh tells the story of one perspective to the issue. From the opening other ladies. girl’s journey from poverty-stricken Ireland to chapter to the heartbreaking conclusion, the As she says of herself, “God knows there prosperous Upper Canada. The eponymous story moves with wonderful pace, never is not much to me; I need every bit, no Oonagh Corcoran is just 18 when she’s given pausing to take a breath. This is one of those matter how bourgeois, how cosseted, how the opportunity to join her brother in Ontario. rare books that effortlessly transports the removed….” And yet the simplicity of Naturally, she’s apprehensive. Although her reader—sights, sounds, smells and all— Claudia’s voice, her honesty and her family is struggling to make ends meet in to an important time in the history of Canada. evolving self-awareness add up to a rich, Ireland, tales of the journey to Canada— often profound journey—one that in weeks on a crowded, dirty ship—are enough BACK AND FORTH Holmström’s hands reveals resonant and to put anyone off. MARTA CHUDOLINSKA unsettling truths. But village life in Ireland has its limitations Porcupine’s Quill Cosmetic surgery leaves Claudia for a headstrong girl like Oonagh, and when REVIEW BY SARAH FELDBLOOM blessed—or cursed—with a heightened she arrives in Ontario, she quickly finds her It is exciting to be able to add Back and sense of smell, enabling her to “sniff out the feet. The developing community she finds is Forth to the catalogue of contemporary difference between false and genuine a mix of characters from the old and new women’s stories being told through sincerity.” Try as she might, her efforts to worlds, including many who fled their pictures. Marta Chudolinska takes her retreat into ease, beauty and traditional homelands for better lives. place alongside graphic novel artists such notions of successful womanhood are Chauncey, the local barber and a former as German illustrator Anke thwarted by her own visceral intelligence. slave, made the dangerous journey from the Feuchtenberger, author of W The Whore More significantly, her life is underscored Southern U.S. to live as a free man. Despite and W The Whore Makes Her Tracks, by intersections with violence against their different backgrounds, Oonagh feels a Israeli comic artist Rutu Modan of Exit women, and it is these senseless acts that deep connection to the barber: “Everything Wounds and Jetlag, and Iranian graphic drive the trajectory of her story. changed when I met Chauncey,” she says. novelist Marjane Satrapi, author of In this way, what seems like a quiet Her resolve “never to take a husband but to Persepolis and Embroideries. novel is in fact devastating in its capacity work hard for myself alone” dissolves in a Chudolinska’s wordless graphic novel to understate all-too-often unspoken heartbeat and the bond they develop will depicts a sensual picture of a young woman realities. The contrast between a well- threaten both their lives. travelling in her mind between two periods ordered existence and the pervasiveness Oonagh is a compelling tale. Its people of life, experienced in two visually distinct of gendered hatred enables the character and places feel very real, so it’s no surprise Canadian locations—Vancouver and Claudia and the eponymous novel to sneak that the story is based on historical facts. Toronto. The story is told in 90 linocuts that up on you and get under your skin. Oonagh’s harrowing experience of sailing to use naturescapes and cityscapes to induce Claudia tells us: “There are days when I Canada, for example, is told in grim detail: a primarily emotional narrative. want to holler for justice, but I know better “We almost became used to the foul odours The protagonist moves back and forth than to expect the impossible.” But the below,” she says, “as one becomes used to through dimensions. In one, she wanders moving and unexpected ending to this the stink of a pigsty.” It’s an experience that the naturally lush city of Vancouver in powerful novel is transformative, a has been documented in history books; solitude. In a second realm, which takes satisfying and profound resting place after here it is brought to life in vivid detail. place in a Toronto consciousness, a darn good read. The issue of race relations is woven Chudolinska depicts a relationship with a
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answer doesn’t quite cut it for you, well, this rich text provides plenty of material from which to form an alternate theory.
ANIMAL ALEXANDRA LEGGAT Anvil Press REVIEW BY MEGAN BUTCHER My favourite Alexandra Leggat story doesn’t appear in this collection, though it, too, is about an animal of sorts. In “Impala,” from her second collection Meet Me in the Parking Lot, a man ostensibly mourns a car, and the last sentence spins the whole meaning of the story on a dime. In her aptly titled third collection, she displays that male romantic partner who becomes and longing to escape both each other and same skill with plot, although here the abusive. This psychological territory is Marasaw. While math prodigy Navi wins an animals are mostly sinew and bone. marked by iconic city views that seem to academic scholarship, Neela spurns her The collection opens with “Wide”— jump into the characters’ sightlines, asking family and her friends to elope with local a reference to Jess’s mouth as he silently readers to feel the story through the bad boy Jaroon to a tourist resort, Eden, in screams. In the novel’s middle story, the main landscape instead of the plot. the rainforest. character defends herself after having a 60- Chudolinska is one of the few female The Caribbean is labelled a tourist year-old maple tree chopped down: “I don’t storytellers to experiment with the wordless paradise, but what is the cost to the locals? relate to trees, Gabe, okay? Not like animals. graphic novel form. The first was Czech Eden is anything but idyllic, for corruption I have an affinity for animals. I like the way artist Helena Bocharakova, whose book breeds at the heart of this enterprise. trees look, but I don’t sympathize with them.” Childhood: A Cycle of Woodcuts, published Neela, who planned to be a schoolteacher, This sentiment will ripple back over your in 1932, is acknowledged by printmaker discovers the school building is comprised memories of the previous stories and carry George Walker in the foreword to Back and of four sticks on a concrete slab and then you through the rest: the not-pretty sister Forth. learns that she won’t be paid for her work. who is adamant that she only wants to Walker is the editor of the series of Inevitably, Jaroon prospers in this system meet the dog in “Sweet Tea,” or the wordless graphic novels to which Back and while an isolated Neela faces his abuse. panoply of dead and butchered animals in Forth belongs. The newest title in this The powerlessness and humiliation “The Market.” series was released in May, by Toronto experienced by victims of domestic There is one exception to the living woodcut artist Megan Speers. Wanderlust violence is searingly described. animals in the stories of this collection. A tells a story about a young woman Neela, slapped by Jaroon, feels thrust into glinty-eyed blown glass bird is the sanest participating in the punk, anarchist “that clumsy, in-between condition of part- character in “The Blue Parrot.” As Leggat counterculture of Sault Ste. Marie, child, part-woman, foolish and slighted and see-saws your sympathy between warring Ontario, at the close of the 20th century. put in her place.” When Jaroon spirits away sisters-in-law, the parrot becomes the Chudolinska and Speers are in good their baby daughter Seetha, Neela must look fulcrum between them. In a collection of company with other Toronto-based for help from the family and friends she once strong stories about almost-likeable people narrative artists, including Shannon Gerrard discarded. Her search for Seetha provides in tense and strange situations, this is one of the comic book series Hung and cousin the note of suspense in this story. of the strongest stories emotionally and one team Mariko and Jillian Tamaki of Skim. Gunraj, whose parents immigrated to of the most surprising plot-wise. Canada from Guyana, deals with other Leggat’s prose style tends to be elliptical THE SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE weighty themes, including racism and the and clipped. In the last story, which seems OF SEETHA bitter aftertaste of colonialism, in this intentionally cheerful and assured, the ANDREA GUNRAJ layered tale. The most intriguing detail, for language often has a sombre tone: “The Alfred A. Knopf Canada me, was Neela’s mysterious magic. Her gift, doctor writes in his notebook. I don’t even REVIEW BY NIRANJANA IYER which has been passed down the maternal care what he’s writing. I’m not the insecure The Caribbean town of Marasaw is home to line, enables Neela to influence certain one. I look out the window at the half-lit sky. young Navi and Neela, whose mother must events. Rain spits against the window.” leave to find employment in the West as a This power vanishes, however, upon her Most short story collections are up and child minder. That bleak reality sets the tone move to Eden, and Gunraj provides no down. Unlike most, however, Animal is more for Toronto-based Andrea Gunraj’s novel, explanation for this loss. My guess: Neela’s than the sum of its parts. Without linking The Sudden Disappearance of Seetha. thoughtlessness in abandoning her family any of the stories through character, or Brother and sister grow up under their and friends kills her abilities; such power place, or plot, Leggat is able to build upon grandmother’s care, competing for attention cannot flourish without goodness. And if my and echo them through one another.
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THE LOVE CHILDREN MARILYN FRENCH The Feminist Press REVIEW BY MAYA KHANKHOJE The Love Children is the story of children born to a generation that defied its government, fought against the Vietnam War, struggled for women’s rights, experimented with psychedelic drugs, had a taste of free love, lived in communes and started the organic food movement. It is also the story of East Coast intellectuals, with echoes in their West Coast cohorts, who were bold enough to envisage another paradigm for what it means to be human, but wise enough to know that utopias designed by flawed TRUTH AND OTHER FICTIONS you announce that you’re leaving.” humans are inherently doomed to failure. EVA TIHANYI The 13 stories in this collection span Jessamin is the narrative voice that Inanna Publications time, place and subject matter. They’re sustains the novel. We meet her when she REVIEW BY KERRY RYAN dotted with historic figures of 20th-century is an unhappy 14-year-old and we say In her first collection of short stories, Truth art, music and science as often as they goodbye to her when she is a reasonably and Other Fictions, Eva Tihanyi employs the represent the lives of everyday women. But happy woman in her early 50s. Her matter- powerful word choice of a poet, the careful they share common themes: art-making, the of-fact voice, expressing the concerns of attention to detail of a researcher and search for truth and meaning, complex her peers, sometimes merges with that of academic and the precise eye of a relationships—strong threads that create a her mother Andrea, a Harvard professor photographer. cohesive whole, just as Tihanyi has built who manages to leave her abusive husband And for good reason: Tihanyi’s with her own artistic practice. and build the career and personal life that remarkable resume includes all of those she yearned for. pursuits. She is an accomplished poet with THE LAST RIVER CHILD The reader sometimes gets the five books to her name, as well as a LORI ANN BLOOMFIELD impression that Andrea and Jessamin freelance journalist, a professor and a Second Story Press actually represent the author during photographer who has exhibited her work REVIEW BY KERRY RYAN different stages in her life. Jessamin’s throughout North America. From time to time, we’ve all felt a bit like struggles, however, are more difficult than In the story “Body and Soul,” Tihanyi Peg Staynor, an outcast who can never fit in those of her mother. While Jessamin tries to compares a day in the lives of two women (no fault of her own, of course). The target put into practice different ideals, only to be in the summer of 1959: Billie Holiday on her of whispers behind backs, pointing fingers disillusioned, her mother simply lives her life deathbed and Mary Leakey making a key and sideways glances, Peg is the perpetual on her own terms in a quiet and consistent discovery of an early fossil skull. Wearing loser at the mercy of the cosmos. But what manner. A love of good food and other her academic hat, Tihanyi builds the story is paranoia for most of us is reality for Peg, simple pleasures permeates the story. by comparing and contrasting the two the protagonist in The Last River Child who The tone of the novel is free from the strong, unconventional women, their is the victim of cruel, enduring superstition. anger that I recall in some of Marilyn relationships with men and their very In this first novel by Toronto writer Lori French’s earlier work. It calls to mind different approaches to life in the spotlight. Ann Bloomfield, Peg is marked at birth by a Beyond Power, her non-fiction analysis of The lovely “No Ordinary Eyes” is a study small-minded small town in the early part of the links between patriarchy and violence. of Hungarian photographer Gyula Halász the last century. Born with an unusual eye In fact, it could be considered its fictional (famous for his black-and-white images of colour and linked to a series of coincidental counterpart. Paris). Tihanyi imitates the photographer’s natural and man-made disasters (a meteor There are some very slight own dreamy, bohemian style in her portrait: strikes the churchyard as she is being inconsistencies in the plot, but it would not “Gyula Halász peers through the window of baptized), Peg is ostracized. The town be fair to judge the book’s literary merit on the Café Bijou, where he has never before decides she is a river child, part of a long- the basis of uncorrected proofs. What is fair been, considers going inside for a café running local legend about a devilish to say is that The Love Children embodies crème. He will write a long-overdue letter to creature that lures children to the riverbank, Marilyn French’s lifelong quest for a sane his parents.” possesses them and spreads bad luck. Every society. This book is her legacy for the love Tihanyi’s poetic sensibility lends a spare dry season or crop failure is Peg’s fault. children of the 21st century. certainty to her language. For example “The Peg’s only confidant and champion is her Maya Khankhoje is a Montreal-based writer Art of Dying” chronicles the sudden end of mother—who has herself been an outcast who regrets having once challenged French a relationship: “Five days later. Days. Five. I and lived through the loneliness of public in public to “give men a chance.” still reel when I think of it. Five days later, scorn. Sarah, Peg’s sister, is a reluctant
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playmate and is unwilling to act as a protector. Even Peg’s father believes she is cursed. Like the myth within the novel, The Last River Child is almost a fairy tale. The characters are simple stereotypes: Peg is innocent and earnest, steady and stoic about her life of household chores and caring for others. Sarah is self-centred and irresponsible, making rash decisions with no thought of how they affect others. Even the bleak backdrop seems like a fable: a family struggling with poverty in a community where farmland has turned dust dry and boys are returning from war utterly damaged. But, just as I was worrying that it was a Cinderella story, some flashes of the In part two, five authors further develop she made the challenges of reading unexpected occurred, including a mystery the concept that full citizenship requires American writer David Foster Wallace that brings new energy to Peg’s grey life as positive actions on the part of the state to intelligible, explaining that there were good well as a powerful and sustaining ensure a social policy agenda that combats reasons for all of his fear. (Foster Wallace friendship. And while I was satisfied that poverty. The third section examines the took his life in 2008.) Smith clinched me with the underdog prevails, I was relieved that international context for claims to social her essay on voice. In that essay, “Speaking the story tackled some tough territory citizenship and economic rights, including where not everyone lives happily ever after. in Tongues,” she writes clear-heartedly on Canada’s own international commitments. It why people who have many locations that POVERTY: also examines social and economic rights in form them (and many other locations they RIGHTS, SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP Northern Ireland and South Africa. choose) and are not mono-voiced, even if AND LEGAL ACTIVISM Parts four and five articulate a theory of they have to be, at times, to enter particular EDITED BY MARGOT YOUNG, law that would enable courts and other discourses. Smith, the precocious British SUSAN B. BOYD, GWEN BRODSKY AND legal institutions to approach social and novelist, is herself multiply located. SHELAGH DAY economic rights claims in a way that would She follows what she sees as the UBC Press support substantive equality. This section Henry James dictum—that you have to REVIEW BY LORNA TURNBULL also discusses how to approach legal write and therefore experience as many Now is the time to read this book! Although activism with realistic expectations as well nuances as possible, so that you and your it was published before the recent profound as a sense of hope. As Margot Young reader are given the option of being “richly downturn in the global economy, Poverty: concludes in the introductory chapter, responsible.” Richly responsible is not Rights, Social Citizenship and Legal making Canada more just and equitable some dusty sense of duty, but is instead Activism speaks eloquently to the times in benefits not only those who live in poverty, the reason for being, and for being which we live. but all Canadians. simultaneously complicated and simple Each editor has long been committed to A recent poll suggests that 80 percent creatures in complex but clarified times. equality and to social and economic rights. of Canadians want their governments to Smith also writes reassuringly of people Together, they began this project in response take concrete steps to meaningfully who have to criss-cross borders almost to the dramatic withdrawal of governments in address the poverty afflicting our fellow constantly, including herself, U.S. President the 1990s from their previous role in citizens; 71 percent say this is even more Barack Obama and Shakespeare. protecting citizens from poverty. The book’s important in a recession. This book pro- Smith writes touchingly about her underlying theme is that poverty and vides inspirations and ideas for all who discovery of author Zora Neale Hurston economic inequality undermine the want to address these issues. Now, as and about how she refused to read her citizenship of some members of society demands on food banks increase and books at age 14, fearful that she would be In Canada, concerns about poverty are more Canadians find themselves home- tagged “Black and female,” only later to more frequently being expressed as issues less, we must take up the cause. realize that Hurston is simply a great of human rights. The book opens with a look writer, not Black and female—although at the case of Louise Gosselin, the first CHANGING MY MIND: that she is. major Supreme Court of Canada case OCCASIONAL ESSAYS The rest of the essays, and there are 17 where rights-based claims about income ZADIE SMITH altogether, range from literary classics to support were considered under the Hamish Hamilton Canada screen icons Katherine Hepburn and Greta Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms REVIEW BY SOOK C. KONG Garbo. In her essay on literary philosophers and the Quebec Charter. The first section I had a magnetized New Year’s walk with Vladimir Nabokov and Roland Barthes, Smith highlights how misconceptions about Zadie Smith through her book of essays, makes points that writers and readers will poverty lead courts to poor decisions. Changing My Mind. She had me lured when like: Nabokov basically says the writer is his
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or her own ideal reader—to read a writer isn’t that sexy. And despite the open culture whole, not a sexy picture. well, one needs to read like they do. Barthes of today’s youth, with the trademarks of That is undoubtedly the underlying says the reader is supreme once the text is Facebook and twitter, easy access hasn’t message of the collection. Boodram started already published. Fundamentally, you can’t made sex any better. her journalistic career as a sex educator do without both locales or reading positions. Editor Shannon T. Boodram has collected who went on to create a seven-part sex-ed Best of all, Smith says that reading well is confessionals, poems and short fictional podcast. She stresses the need for as much of an achievement as writing is. pieces from a range of young adults information, for making smart decisions, Sook C. Kong writes, teaches and meditates representing the landscape of teenage sex. and for waiting until the situation feels right. in Vancouver. She sometimes feels she has The writing is from young people across And, true to teenage years, few of the been cast as a silent actor. North America and includes an ethnic scenarios in Laid reflect good sexual diversity as well as a gender mix. situations. The truthfulness and immediacy LAID: YOUNG PEOPLE’S The landscape Laid depicts is divided of the writing is undoubtedly valuable to EXPERIENCES WITH SEX IN into five chapters that range from hookups both adults and young people. AN EASY-ACCESS CULTURE gone bad to no sex at all. Thrown into the When I was young, my mother told me EDITED BY SHANNON T. BOODRAM mix is a sample of good sexual experiences, that sex wouldn’t hurt if I had it with Seal Press nights where sex came with infection or someone I loved. Vague though the REVIEW BY MARIA STANBOROUGH disease, and sex that was not consensual. information was, my fear of sex meant that I Despite the sexiness of the title, Laid: Young As a collection of writing, Laid presents waited for the right situation with the right People’s Experiences with Sex in an Easy- honest and interesting prose that shows person. After reading Laid, I am grateful to Access Culture reminds us that teenage sex how teenagers encounter sex. It is, on the my mother and wonder if that simple
rock the cradle, rule the world
CAPTIVE BODIES: know it before, but now it’s like part of me, AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS more than something stuck in me, REDEFINE PREGNANCY AND growing in me, making me bigger.” CHILDBIRTH Sixty years after O’Connor’s story, it’s MARY RUTH MAROTTE clear that modern fiction has gotten Demeter Press bigger, too, as narratives of childbirth and FEMINIST MOTHERING pregnancy fill ever more pages, gain EDITED BY ANDREA O’REILLY greater validity and open the gates for State University of New York Press more positive accounts. At least that’s what Mary Ruth Marotte argues in her REVIEWED BY SARA CASSIDY nimble collection Captive Bodies, where The main character of Flannery she deliciously states that all pregnancy O’Connor’s 1946 story ”A Stroke of Good of captivity—with a wink at the term narratives are transgressive. “confinement” and openness to the Fortune” grittily denies she’s pregnant, Until Kate Chopin’s 1899 novel The rapture of “captivation”—she aligns instead deciding that her swollen ankles Awakening, pregnancy and birth nearly women’s stories of pregnancy and and belly are due to heart trouble. “They always happened off the page, “more childbirth with the progress of feminism, very well couldn’t remove your heart,” often in the gaps ... than in the text itself,” where choice and self-determination argues Ruby Hill, who has watched her as the critic Michael Lund put it. But allow women to celebrate their bodies own mother at 34, grey-haired and Chopin, followed by Charlotte Perkins wrinkled as “a puckered up old yellow Gilman (Herland), Edith Wharton, Tillie above the suspicion of privilege or apple,” become “a little deader” with Olsen (Silences, Yonnondio), Meridel Le apolitical essentialism. each of her many pregnancies. Ruby Sueur (The Girl, The Ripening), Toni If women are held captive by pregnancy believes she’s unlike the other women of Morrisson (Beloved, The Bluest Eye), and by the strictures of maternity and her neighbourhood who are resigned to Alice Walker (The Color Purple, In Search femininity that accompany it, pregnant continuous pregnancies: she has “get,” of Our Mother’s Gardens) and others women living in poverty or under the thumb she won’t be invaded. bravely gave these subjects the ink they of racism—or, indeed, in slavery— Contrast this depiction with Precious, warranted, documenting both the dire and are doubly, triply so. Marotte’s study is the protagonist of Sapphire’s novel Push. the profound. substantially devoted to working-class and Having learned to read after the traumatic Marotte, a white university professor African-American narratives. She believes birth of her first child, Precious can and married mother of three, fully the explosive potential of pregnancy and consider her second pregnancy with a recognizes that pregnancy and childbirth childbirth to deepen and enlarge women’s sense of ownership: “Not that I didn’t are not the same for all. Using the theme lives can be championed only when all our
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message may be enough for a teenager to so much about whether he had abused a girl; and other Black men, he states. bypass a lot of the unsexy sex that is out Kelly’s defence aimed to prove she was 18 at Osayande’s short, powerful volume is there. It worked for me, anyway. the time of the encounter. The sickening polemical for good reason. Taking on the Maria Stanborough is a writer and a city misogyny of peeing on a woman was not a spectrum—from BET and misogynist white planner living in Kelowna, B.C. crime as much as her potential underage— rappers like Eminem to organized religious and thereby girl—status. Kelly, no stranger institutions that harbour similar (if more MISOGYNY AND THE EMCEE: to sex scandals, has not been found guilty in subversive) hatred for Black women—it is SEX, RACE AND HIP HOP a court of law. The court of public opinion, for easy to see that corporations and laws will EWUARE X. OSAYANDE both Brown and Kelly, is another matter. do little, if anything, as long as the community Machete Media In Misogyny and the Emcee, Osayande remains permissive and turns a blind eye. REVIEW BY BRITTANY SHOOT repeatedly asserts the most fundamental Most invigorating, Osayande calls for a Writing before hip-hop rising star Chris arguments for healing sexism within the boycott of misogynist rappers and their Brown plead guilty to assaulting his Black and hip-hop communities. While many entertainment industry counterparts. When songstress girlfriend Rihanna earlier this insist that discussions about specific men degrade women and stand to profit year, cultural analyst Ewuare X. Osayande community-based violence and degradation from these actions, we should send a dissects another high-profile case of a be silenced or ignored, he argues that the signal: No more. No more Academy Awards badly behaving hip-hopper: R. Kelly. Black community’s dirty laundry should be for songs about how hard it is for a pimp. In his brilliantly concise collection of discussed in public, critically examined and No more Nelly videos featuring a man essays, Osayande explains that the original resolved. Black men must critically challenge swiping a credit card down a Black child pornography case against Kelly was not the violent oppression of both Black women woman’s ass. We can do better.
harrowing stories are acknowledged. ignored, maligned, deeply feminine demanding more involvement from fathers, Marotte quotes Tillie Olsen: “You can’t talk subject is tantalizing. One reward is a insisting on a life outside of motherhood— about loss without talking about gain,” formidable reading list of relevant theory only with feminist mothering does this which translates easily to “you can’t talk and—yum—novels (where, it suddenly involve a larger awareness of, and about gain without talking about loss.” seems, the unique complexity of challenge to, the gender (among other) As Marotte notes, philosopher Iris pregnancy is best expressed). inequities of patriarchal culture.” Marion Young (Throwing Like a Girl and If Captive Bodies is, fittingly, tightly Unfortunately, not all the essays in this Other Essays) challenges the idea that focussed, Feminist Mothering is blissfully book rise to the deliberate politics O’Reilly there are two usual ways of experiencing wide-ranging. This feast of essays, edited espouses for feminist mothering. However, the body—as subject and as object. She by Andrea O’Reilly, formerly the director of most contributions are strong and are argues that pregnancy “provides a the Association for Research into steered surely by feminist vision, from the radical challenge ... to this dualism” and Mothering, proposes that feminist mothers consideration of the “outlaw mother” that birthing requires “extreme are not the same as empowered mothers. against the text of John Irving’s novel The suspension of the bodily distinction O’Reilly’s earlier essay collection, World According to Garp, to the “the between inner and outer.” Mother Outlaws (2004), was devoted to power/powerless paradox of motherhood” Marotte warns that while women gain empowered mothers who expand their as written in the works of Louise Erdrich, power and identity from their bodies’ lives beyond mothering—by sharing the racialized construction of motherhood transitions, medical technology and an childcare, taking paid work, nurturing in America, or mothers as feminist mentors “ever-increasing desire to decipher friendships and engaging in activism— to their children. pregnant bodies” threaten those gains. and whose children benefit from this wider The essays of the final section High-level ultrasound and amniocentesis, life. Feminist mothers are more politicized. powerfully delve into feminist activism by for example, though often helpful, can “[Empowered] mothers resist patriarchal mothers. One of my favourites is a critique distance a pregnant woman from her motherhood simply to make the experience by Pegeen Reichert Powell of the work-life fetus. Referring to Karen L. Carr’s essay of mothering more rewarding for or children-career balance prerogative. on ultrasound imaging, she notes that themselves and their children,” O’Reilly Feminist acts, Powell asserts, aren’t about with ultrasound “the captive is allowed no explains. “In contrast, feminist mothers balance: Instead, they knock things off- mysterious knowledge that the captor is resist because they recognize that gender balance and into action. Hear! Hear! not privy to.” inequity, in particular male privilege and Captive Bodies is narrowly focussed. power, is produced, maintained, and Sara Cassidy writes articles and fiction in The writing is unarguably academic (it’s perpetuated (i.e. through sexist child- Victoria. She both purposely and the only place I’ve seen the word rearing) in patriarchal motherhood.... Thus, accidentally models feminism to her three “palimpsestic”) but the window on this while in practice the two seem similar— children.
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on the edge BY LYN COCKBURN
CHOICE WORDS FOR FEMINISTS
So Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth dropped the F-bomb. of the fact that the criteria for such funding is that the event Who cares? Not anyone who understands the issues involved is financially beneficial; Toronto Pride brings in millions of in the incident. Not anyone who thinks it’s just fine that dollars to city coffers. women, even senators, on occasion talk dirty in public. Not But back to the meeting in which Ruth voiced her opinions. anyone who understands that the days of ladies wearing hats It opened with news that Match International, an organization in public and a zipper on their mouths are long over. That that for over 30 years has championed equality for women in means a whole ton of Canadians don’t give a shit. developing countries, has had its federal funding slashed. This Besides, anyone who hasn’t heard the word fuck in school organization has long worked to eradicate female genital corridors, the boardroom, on buses, airplanes, the street and— mutilation—surely a necessary and laudable effort. given Ruth’s training as a United Church minister—in church, And CIDA, Canada’s international development agency, does not live in our galaxy. See reference to Pluto below. has evidently been doing weird things of late. According to Anyway, so Ruth told women’s groups it would be best to Joanna Kerr, incoming chief executive with ActionAid “shut the fuck up” about abortion. Who cares? Everyone who International, the government is deliberately targeting gets it that it is not acceptable to tell women to keep quiet. organizations that promote equality for women. About anything. Everyone who deplores the decision by the In a recent interview, Kerr said one organization that Harper government to omit funding for safe abortion for applied for CIDA funding was told to remove the words women in developing countries from its G8 initiative on gender equity from its cover page if it wanted its proposal to maternal health. And, of course, the irate teacher who penned have a chance. That is exactly, and sadly, just the sort of thing a letter to the editor of a big-city newspaper in which he Ruth warned about. grumped that his life was about to become far more difficult. “Another organization was told that CIDA can no longer He cares. Why? Seems the poor chap teaches English, support initiatives that focus on women’s leadership– ‘It is something almost impossible now that his students can point not part of our priorities’” Kerr said. to Ruth as a reason for employing improper language. The Women and men—gay or straight—ought not to be quiet man commutes every day from his home on Pluto. about this sort of thing. Instead, all of us should make the That’s myriadsfull of people who care a ton about biggest noise possible—repeatedly. Women’s groups, rather supporting women who speak up. than being careful, must loudly draw attention to funding cuts. Perhaps Ruth’s remarks were well-meant. She is pro-choice Government intimidation, on any level, must be made public. and well-known for her feminist views. At the time of her If women don’t speak up for women, then who will? Not explosion, she was addressing a group of women’s the CBC or CTV. While covering this story, both organizations, purportedly to give sound advice. Evidently, networks featured panels composed of four men eruditely she was trying to get across the idea that continued criticism discussing abortion as though it were something on which of government policy was not going to get them anywhere. they were writing essays for a political science class. Nary a Using the closeness of the June G8 meeting in Toronto as woman in sight. her rationale, Ruth posited that speaking out might well have Hopefully, Nancy Ruth, however inadvertently, has started negative results. “It’s just if you push it, there’ll be more backlash,” she said. a process. In telling women to shut up, she may have Of course, Ruth was right, not about telling women to shut publicized the need for women to start shouting. up, but about the backlash if they didn’t. There are concerns So Senator Ruth, maybe you should rephrase your advice that some 12 women’s organizations have had their funding to women. cut because they’ve been critical of government policies. And “Fuck it—speak out!” might do nicely. the Toronto Pride organizing committee was rudely told it Lyn Cockburn is a Vancouver-based columnist who has penned was not getting any federal funding this year. This in the face more than 100 columns for Herizons.
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