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WHY BURQA BANS PORTRAIT OF THE ARE CO-OP DON’T HELP ARTIST AS BROTHELS WOMEN A MOTHER THE ANSWER?
BUY CANADIAN WOMEN’S NEWS & FEMINIST VIEWS | Winter 2011 | Vol. 24 No. 3
PORN AGAIN THE ISSUE THAT WON’T GO AWAY THE CHARTER WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO EQUALITY? GENDER $6.75 Canada/U.S. OUTLAWS Publications Mail Agreement No. 40008866; Display until March 15, 2011 S. BEAR BERGMAN & KATE BORNSTEIN her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:24 PM Page C2 PRECARIOUS WORK AFFECTS US ALL
In Canada and around the globe, employers are accelerating the transformation of work into more temporary, contract and part-time jobs. They’ve got cheap labour on their mind. In doing so they undermine stable incomes, a decent quality of life and the hope of a strong economic recovery. Precarious jobs means more insecurity, unstable hours, low wages and minimal benefits. More than 1 in 3 Canadian workers now hold jobs that are temporary, part-time or in self employment. Increasingly, unemployed workers say that’s all there is. Canadians must hold employers and government accountable for the quality as well as the quantity of new jobs. More precarious work means a more precarious future. SPEAKSPEAK SPEAK OUT. OUT.PRECARIOUS WORK OUT.PRECARIOUS WORKAFFECTS US ALL. PRECARIOUS WORKAFFECTS US ALL. AFFECTS US ALL. To find out more go to caw.ca/en/7688.htm
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WINTER 2011 / VOLUME 24 NO. 3
news SECOND WAVE JOURNEY BEGINS ...... 6 by Shari Graydon
CAMPAIGN UPDATES ...... 8
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO EQUALITY? ...... 10 by Shelagh Day
AFGHAN WOMEN’S MAGAZINE LAUNCHED ...... 11 by Lauryn Oates 32 features BENDING GENDER, BREAKING BINARIES ...... 16 Herizons talks to Kate Bornstein, who has teamed up with fellow author and performance artist S. Bear Bergman to publish an anthology of new transgender voices, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation. by Mandy van Deven
PORTAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A MOTHER ...... 20 Are artist mothers still expected to make the impossible 6 choice between creative self-expression and their motherhood? KC Adams, Jennifer Linton and Leslie Sorochan explore the issue. by Connie Jeske Crane ARE CO-OP BROTHELS THE ANSWER ...... 24 An Ontario court has struck down the criminal code provisions on prostitutions as an infringement on the rights of prostitute. Meanwhile, Susan Davis continues to work to establish co-op brothels to protect women in the sex trade. by Joanna Chiu PORN AGAIN ...... 29 Anti-porn feminists were voted off the island 20 years ago by their critics who argued that their focus on violent and degrading images was “anti-sex.” Today, two new books have reignited the discussion on the effect of pornography on sex, women and men. by Lisa Tremblay
COVER UP: BURQA BAN REBUFFS EQUALITY ...... 32 Quebec’s proposed bill banning full head coverings for women was, its supporters said, introduced out of respect for women’s equality. The author of this essay says burqa bans are thinly disguised acts of bigotry. by Margaret Sankey 20 HERIZONS WINTER 2011 1 her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:40 PM Page 2
VOLUME 24 NO. 3
MAGAZINE INK
MANAGING EDITOR: Penni Mitchell FULFILLMENT AND OFFICE MANAGER: Phil Koch ACCOUNTANT: Sharon Pchajek BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Phil Koch, Penni Mitchell, Kemlin Nembhard, Valerie Regehr EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: Gio Guzzi, Penni Mitchell, Kemlin Nembhard ADVERTISING SALES: Penni Mitchell (204) 774-6225 DESIGN: inkubator.ca RETAIL INQUIRIES: Disticor (905) 619-6565 PROOFREADER: Phil Koch COVER PHOTO: Bull Pusztai/radiantpage.com
45 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 $6.00. arts & ideas International subscriptions add $9.00. Cheques or money orders are payable to: HERIZONS, PO Box 128, Winnipeg, Manitoba, MUSIC TO KEEP YOU WARM ...... 36 CANADA R3C 2G1. Ph (204) 774-6225. This is Good by Hannah Georgas; Together by SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES: [email protected] The New Pornographers; The Strong Survive by EDITORIAL INQUIRIES: [email protected] Nikki Lynette; Sticker Album by Lauren Best; ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: [email protected] Tiger Suit by KT Tunstall; Imaginings by Hilary Grist. WEBSITE: www.herizons.ca RADICAL READING ...... 39 HERIZONS is indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index and heard on Voiceprint. The Knife Sharpener’s Bell by Rhea Tregebov; Her GST #R131089187. ISSN 0711-7485. Mothers Ashes III edited by Nurjehan Aziz; An The purpose of HERIZONS is to empower women; to inspire hope Unexpected Break in the Weather by Deborah Schnitzer; and foster a state of wellness that enriches women’s lives; to build Girl Unwrapped by Gabriella Goliger; Maternity Rolls awareness of issues as they affect women; to promote the by Heather Kuttai; Victims No More edited by Ellen strength, wisdom and creativity of women; to broaden the bound- Faulkner and Gayle MacDonald; Reluctant Bedfellows aries of feminism to include building coalitions and support among by Meredith Ralson and Edmna Keeble. other marginalized people; to foster peace and ecological aware- Poetry Reviews: Bone Dream by Moira MacDougall; Joy is ness; and to expand the influence of feminist principles in the so exhausting by Susan Holbrook; forage by Rita Wong. world. HERIZONS aims to reflect a feminist philosophy that is diverse, understandable and relevant to women’s daily lives. FISH TANK ...... 45 Views expressed in HERIZONS are those of the writers and do not by Maureen Medved 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 columns Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. PENNI MITCHELL ...... 5 Sisters in Spirit HERIZONS gratefully acknowledges the support of the Manitoba Arts Council. SUSAN G. COLE...... 15 Publications Mail Agreement No. 40008866, Return Undeliverable The Boys of Bountiful Addresses to: PO Box 128, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3C 2G1, Email: [email protected] LYN COCKBURN ...... 48 Herizons is proudly printed on Forest Stewardship Thin Ice Council-certified paper. Please recyle.
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letters
MIXED MESSAGES ABOUT SEX community. Keep up with the awesome channelling of feminist In the Fall 2020 issue of Herizons, I read with much voices to your readership! interest the article “The New Sexual Exploitation,” LISA A. an exploration of Sharlene Azam’s book, Oral Sex Winnipeg, MB is the New Goodnight Kiss. It strikes me as ironic that some ads and images in Herizons TIME HONOURED (and other feminist media) send what I consider to be mixed mes- I read Penni Mitchell’s editorial on Time maga- sages. On one page, I see Azam’s message “Stop sexually zine’s cover photo of Bibi Aisha in the Fall 2010 exploiting girls!” and on other pages I see sexy images of issue of Herizons as I was en route to Kabul, women. Case in point: In the same issue of Herizons, in the arts & and I wanted to let you know that I found it culture section, I saw what I perceived to be Cyndi Lauper’s sultry slightly misleading. repose with heavy makeup and sensually parted lips on her CD I actually felt that the Time magazine cover was cover in your reviews section. refreshing. It’s not very often that a mainstream news magazine puts The protector in me said, Oh great—another message of woman- the fate of women front and centre in questioning policy decisions. I as-sex-object from one of our own. I ask, do these publicized thought it was important that they did not hide the brutality of what images in feminist mags still facilitate the objectification of girls and happened to Aisha, because this is the reality of what happens in women, giving a message that our identities must centre around Afghanistan sometimes and it should be confronted. our sexuality? Is there an age women reach when it is safe (in the I’ve been in touch with Aryn Baker, the Time journalist who many interpretations of the word) to publicly honour and express our wrote the story and lived a long time in Kabul. I think she told the sexual/sensual sides? When and where is it okay for women to open story as it should be told. up our souls and our bodies to sexual bliss and empowerment? Did you know that the Afghan women’s movement by and large But then the feminist in me says, Right on—that chick is so supports NATO’s continued presence in Afghanistan and actively groovin’ with her sexuality and confidently expressing it in her advocates against its premature withdrawal? Member of Parlia- way! I applaud Lauper for presenting herself as a 50-plus-year- ment Fawzia Koofi, for example, who is mentioned in the editorial, old-woman who celebrates her sexuality/feminity/identity—whose has vocally and publicly insisted that NATO not leave yet and has image says she is proud of who she is. specifically appealed to Canada to keep its troops in Kandahar And so I ask, with utmost humility and genuine confusion?what (though, of course, that is not happening now). is a feminist to do? This fence-straddling is starting to get painful! I Many Canadians assume that Afghans see NATO as an occupy- see mixed messages in not only this magazine but other feminist ing force, but this could not be farther from the truth, according to media. Please know I am not slamming Herizons—I love its local- 15 opinion polls conducted in the last five years in Afghanistan. ity and its mission. And I’m not saying we should be girl-cotting The poll results affirm what I’ve found in my own interactions with Cyndi Lauper over her CD cover. But what am I supposed to say to Afghans. I’ve yet to meet an Afghan in Afghanistan who wants NATO girls who look at images such as this? out. The feminist organization CW4W Afghan, for example, is work- Perhaps your readership could help me down from the fence by ing hard to listen to Afghan women, who have consistently warned pointing me to some feminist blogs, websites or literature, so I can against international forces leaving Afghanistan too soon. resolve this heated inner debate. LAURYN OATES, Thank you for the opportunity to enlist support from the feminist Bowen Island, B.C. contributors
ROZENA MAART CONNIE JESKE CRANE Rozena Maart is a writer and educator who Connie Jeske Crane is an inexpert but lives in Guelph, Ontario. She is the author of enthusiastic lover of art. A Toronto-based Rosa’s District 6, a collection of five short freelance writer who wrote “Portrait of the stories set in Cape Town, South Africa, and The Mother as Artist” in this issue, Connie Writing Circle, a novel chronicling the legacy of frequently writes about health and wellness, violence against women in South Africa through the lives of the parenting and environmental issues. members of a fictional women’s book club. KEMLIN NEMBHARD MANDY VAN DEVEN Kemlin Nembhard is a Herizons board member The founder of the blog Feminist Review, and sits on the magazine’s editorial advisory Mandy van Deven is a freelance writer whose committee. She is the executive director of the work has been published in AlterNet, In These Daniel McIntyre/St. Matthews Community Times, make/shift and VenusZine. Mandy Association , a neighbourhood renewal interviewed S. Bear Bergman and Kate corporation in Winnipeg. Kemlin also hosts a radio show called Bornstein in this issue. Check Ca on CKUW 95.5 FM.
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first word BY PENNI MITCHELL
SISTERS IN SPIRIT
It turns out that you can decimate entire nations by deci- You might expect the federal government, which just set mating the power of their women. It helps if you’ve got aside $10 million to beef up efforts on the missing Aborigi- superior firepower, too, but as far as the colonizing of the nal women file, would have consulted the Native Women’s upper half of Turtle Island is concerned the decimation of Association of Canada (NWAC) when it set out to put some Aboriginal societies was successful in large part because of resources behind the problem of missing Aboriginal women. the sexism that was infused into them under the laws of But it didn’t. And you might think the Harper government European colonists. would want to keep Aboriginal women involved by contin- The Indian Act of 1870 was a masterful piece of work. It uing to fund the Sisters in Spirit initiative begun under banished not only the potlatch ceremonies by which Aborig- NWAC. After all, Sisters in Spirit provided the impetus for inals shared community wealth, but under new rules laid out the national campaign that has led to a national profile for it allocated rights over reserve affairs to male Indians. After an issue that, five years ago, didn’t exist outside of Aborigi- all, that’s the way the Europeans did things, and it worked nal communities. just fine. No more tracing your lineage through your mother’s Again, Ottawa didn’t. In fact, Ottawa excluded Sisters in side of the family. No more women speaking up at gatherings Spirit from receiving a nickel of the $10 million, and it set up where decisions are made. a new law-and-order campaign to be run by the RCMP to To speed up assimilation further, the federal government address the missing “persons” problem. forced the removal of children from their families under res- Does this sound familiar? A campaign of law and order cre- idential school laws. Languages were banished, religions ated the very legacy of abuse, poverty and destruction that led demonized and the bond between mothers and children was to generations of abuse. More law enforcement isn’t the solu- severed. It worked well. Aboriginal women went from being tion. Laws—for example, those that stipulate who is Indian central forces in their communities to having little value. and who is not—are part of the problem. It isn’t that Aborig- Today, there is no clearer symbol of the lost power of Abo- inal women don’t want these 582 crimes solved. But giving riginal women during colonization than the 582 missing more firepower to a policing institution in which Aboriginal Aboriginal women who are counted in the database of the women have no say isn’t what NWAC had in mind. And it’s Sisters in Spirit project. Their lost lives are the imprint of the not the justice Aboriginal women seek. racialized and sexualized discrimination and violence deliv- Sisters in Spirit has identified gaps and procedures in law ered under the enforcement of colonial laws. The status of enforcement that need to be changed in order to improve Aboriginal women—who are five to ten times more likely to results in the cases involving missing and murdered Aborigi- be assaulted than non-Aboriginal women—is denigrated nal women and girls. By squelching the voices of these further when law enforcement agencies show little concern experts and not funding their groundbreaking work, the gov- for Aboriginal women who are victims of violence. And ernment is pushing Aboriginal women aside once again. when Aboriginal women come into conflict with the law, Giving more resources to the RCMP, an institution domi- they are imprisoned at a much higher rate than non-Aborig- nated by white men who carry guns, isn’t going to fix this. inal women. Until a few hundred years ago, Aboriginal women served In other words, there are trust issues here. The treatment of as advisors on matters of war, oversaw the equitable sharing Aboriginal women at the hands of law enforcement authori- of food and were valued as negotiators between traders. They ties is part of a larger problem that has to be fixed. The served as peacemakers and translators. Their voices were culture in which law enforcement officials work and the ways heard. Today, Ottawa owes it to the Aboriginal women at crimes are prioritized must be corrected if Aboriginal women Sisters in Spirit to listen to their voices, involve them in the are to stop disappearing. process and treat them with the respect they deserve.
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nelliegrams DOCUMENTING LEADER FREED FEMINIST HISTORY The November release of Aung BY SHARI GRAYDON San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Burma—also known as Myanmar— spurred qualified commendation from women’s groups in the country. The Women’s League of Burma said it hopes that Suu Kyi’s freedom of movement will be restored. The group was careful to parse the news. “Though her release brings us joy and hope, we also clearly recognize that this alone does not fully ensure democratic progress for the country unless all political prisoners are released unconditionally.” The leader was released from house arrest after seven years. Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democ- racy, won the country’s first election in decades by a landslide victory 20 years ago. The military regime did not honour the result and has kept her under house arrest for 15 of the last 20 years. In that time, she demonstrated political leader- ship, provided inspiration to the country’s pro-democracy movement and garnered respect from people around the world. She received the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
NIQAB DEFENDED The Ontario Court of Appeal has con- firmed that a sexual assault complainant can testify wearing a niqab. The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund intervened in support of the rape victim in R. vs. N.S. LEAF legal Beth Atcheson, Beth Symes and Constance Backhouse at the Toronto launch of Feminist Journeys in October. director Joanna Birenbaum said “This is a significant decision affirming the importance of fair trials and access to Margaret Thatcher once said she owed found themselves deploring the fact that no justice for Muslim women and all sexual nothing to feminism, which always made one had truly captured the spirit and impact assault complainants.” me wonder how she figured she came by of second wave feminism. So they decided The Court of Appeal judgment recog- the right to vote, let alone run for office and to remedy the situation in time for the sec- nized the powerful nature of the serve as prime minister. ond wave’s 50th anniversary last year. complainant’s decision to wear her And yet Thatcher’s apparent ignorance of “We’d had a bottle of wine,” Backhouse niqab while testifying, as well as the the decades of activism that were neces- confesses, “so nothing was beyond our particularly vulnerable position suffered sary to win suffrage for women is shared by grasp!” many in Britain and in Canada. Despite the The former law school roommates by women who report sexual assault. work of feminists to document women’s his- brought 25 feminists from across the The court also recognized that Muslims tory, it’s fair to say that most people remain country together in February 2008, and the are a “minority that many believe is largely unaware of the investments previ- Feminist History Society was born. A non- unfairly maligned and stereotyped in ous generations made to secure women’s profit venture with the mission of contemporary Canada” and said a fail- hard-fought equality rights. publishing books about the women’s ure to adequately consider Legal historian Constance Backhouse and movement in Canada between 1960 and complainants rights could “legitimize of the Women’s Legal Education and Action 2010, the society recently released its first that negative stereotyping.” Fund (LEAF) co-founder Beth Atcheson are volume, Feminist Journeys, edited by The court held that the ultimate deci- working to change that. Over dinner, the two author Marguerite Andersen, a regular
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Herizons contributor. The collection brings Atcheson explains that women’s history together more than 90 short essays from a comes with unique challenges. nelliegrams diverse group of women exploring the “Much of the work that’s gone on is invisi- roots of their feminism. ble,” she explains. “It resides in our hearts, sion on whether a witness can testify As Backhouse explains, 1960 was the minds and basements. We chuck it out when wearing a niqab must be determined on year the peace advocacy group Voice of we move. But we need to record it because it a case by case basis. LEAF asked the Women in Canada was founded, 10 years constitutes a challenge to the dominant story. Court of Appeal to consider the demand before the Royal Commission on the Status We had to push our way to do the work, and that a sexual assault complainant of Women reported. Although feminist we’ll have to push our way to report it. remove her niqab in the context of the activism predated these events by decades, “Movements are by definition ad hoc, tran- long history of sexual assault com- many characterize the second wave as sitional and varied,” she continues. “There plainants being harassed, re-victimized, beginning at this time. are many, many stories to be told. We intend humiliated and intimidated, especially at Backhouse was inspired by early Ameri- to honour the diversity, the different interests a preliminary inquiry. can feminists who documented the history and tensions. And we need to write about of the U.S. suffragist movement in a six-vol- these in the first person because we know PAKISTAN FORUM ume series of books edited by Susan B. there will be a pile of third-person histories.” APPOINTS WOMAN Anthony and others. The excitement is palpable and infectious. Human rights activist Asma Jahangir was “My daughter had just been born and I At one of a series of launch events held in elected the first female president of Pak- lusted after those books.” She recalls scour- 2010, 40 women gathered in the apartment istan’s Supreme Court Bar Association, ing second-hand bookstores before she of Ottawa feminist lawyer and co-founder of Reuters reported. The Supreme Court Bar eventually found a set, which now occupies the National Association of Women and the Association is Pakistan’s most influential a prominent spot on her shelf. She says the Law Shirley Greenberg. The event had the forum for lawyers. purpose of the Feminist History Society is feel of a celebratory reunion and the con- similarly to “describe, document, preserve versation quickly turned from the DRIVING and celebrate the work of our times.” importance of preserving second-wave CHANGE For her part, Atcheson recalls studying activism in books to the need to supplement We’re not sure the law case of Edwards vs. Canada, which the effort with oral histories and video ele- this is a big established the “living tree” doctrine. In rul- ments to engage younger people. equality mile- ing on the case, the British Privy Council So much of what feminists achieved over stone, but it’s an ruled that a constitution is organic and must the past 100 years is now taken for granted, interesting trend. LeaseTrader.com, a U.S. be read so as to adapt to changing times. according to Backhouse and Atcheson. car leasing marketplace reports that for But it was not until Atcheson became They tick them off: the right of married the first time the number of women under involved in establishing LEAF that she real- women to keep their wages; the right to 30 driving luxury vehicles is greater than ized Edwards vs. Canada was the Persons vote; the right to attend university; the right the number of men. Case, which established that Canadian to birth control and reproductive choice; the The announcement comes on the female British subjects were eligible for right to a share of a partner’s estate and heels of U.S. reports that in certain aca- appointment to the Senate and had the pension. And it’s because these rights are demic and financial areas the number of same rights as male subjects. well-established that many simply don’t female students has begun to surpass At the time, she says, “I’d had no idea of know how hard-fought the battles were. the number of male students. According its relevance, or its significance.” Backhouse notes that the “great man” to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau data, women Soon, Atcheson and Backhouse were tradition of history that focuses on wars and in metropolitan centres between 22 and making their own contributions to feminist battles is usually better financed. In con- 30 earn up to eight percent more than trast, the largely volunteer-run Feminist activism alongside Diana Majury, now a law their male counterparts. LeaseTrader.com History Society—although it has benefited professor at Carleton University, and lawyer found that 51.2 percent of luxury vehicles from some donations—is heavily reliant on Beth Symes, who took on a pivotal Supreme are driven by women, compared with 42.6 reader subscriptions. For $100 a year, mem- Court case that sought to secure child care percent in 2005. bers receive the hardcover book of the year expenses as a tax deduction. In the early Sergio Stiberman, founder of Lease- and a charitable receipt for $30. Some sub- ‘80s, the four worked with others to estab- Trader.com said that “especially as it scribers have purchased multiple lish a Toronto women’s health clinic to relates to education, young women com- memberships as legacy gifts for friends, perform abortions. Thirty-five years later, manding higher salaries are becoming a daughters or granddaughters. Majury and Symes are volunteer members larger customer base in shopping and The subscription plan allows a kind of of the society’s steering committee. trading for luxury leases.” independence that wouldn’t be possible if Backhouse remembers the exhilaration they had approached a traditional publisher. they felt. “We learned so much and we WOMEN TO UNITE “Because we’re publishing ourselves,” were so gutsy. We phoned people up and IN OTTAWA explains Atcheson, “we can control the Women from around demanded they meet with us…. And they process. There’s no intermediary. We can the world will gather in all agreed!” tell as many stories as possible. And we Ottawa this summer Although the group was unsuccessful at can be more sensitive and open in the way for a global women’s establishing a clinic, Backhouse describes we do it.” conference called the effort as one of the most meaningful Backhouse acknowledges that poses its Women’s Worlds, billed as a gathering experiences in her career. “We were one of own challenge. for academics, activists, researchers, many cyclones of feminist energy all across policy-makers, advocates and artists. Canada doing exciting, revolutionary work.” (Continued on page 8)
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(Continued from page 7) second volume, due out in 2011, journalist Michele Landsberg will revisit her Toronto nelliegrams “Sometimes the idea of writing a book Star columns, chronicling Canadian femi- sounds scary. It’s weighty, [We imagine] it Among the speakers announced for nism’s second wave, discuss the movement’s has to be written in a certain way.” But, she the July 3 to 7 conference are Monica successes and failures. Also planned is a counters, “most women in the first book are Chuji Gualinga, a one-time youth activist biography of retired Chief Justice Claire not primarily writers. We want women to during the 1990 uprising who thrust L’Heureux Dubé to be written by Backhouse. know they don’t have to be writers in order Indigenous rights onto Ecuador’s Atcheson has high hopes for the series’ to contribute. We will support them.” national stage. She was a member of potential impact. “We learned from some of The first volume reflects that approach. the constituent assembly that wrote the tactics of the first wave,” she says, cit- The initial call to contribute to Feminist Ecuador’s new constitution in 2008. ing women who were “tough, funny and Another presenter will be Devaki Jain, Journeys was essentially an invitation for smart …, who did not back down.” a feminist economist who is internation- women to tell the stories of how they By chronicling and honouring the second ally known for her innovative work on became feminists. Disseminated on a blog wave, the society’s books are on course to development in India. She frequently and forwarded by individuals, it generated deliver comparable value. contributes to governmental forums enough responses for a book—and they’re “History becomes very flat and static and civil society initiatives in the still coming. when it doesn’t talk about what’s going on in areas of equity, development, self-gov- “That’s the miracle,” says Backhouse. communities, when it’s not focused on why ernment and population. Andrea Smith “But there are 9,000 others! We want those things change. Without women’s voices, you Provoker will also be on the podium. on the record. And the great thing is, with a lose colour and context. The story is neither She is an anti-violence activist from the website we can do that.” as interesting nor as accurate.” Cherokee nation, a co-founder of To celebrate the society’s first book, For more information on the Feminist INCITE! Women of Color Against Vio- launch parties held in several cities. In the History Society, visit feministhistories.ca. lence and a professor in the department of media and cultural studies at the Uni- versity of California. The purpose of the conference is to negatively affected by the presence of pro- develop strategies to mount effective testers, including feeling upset, frightened challenges to the dominant attitudes that CAMPAIGN or bullied. Sixty-four percent of clinics perpetuate inequality; highlight and share say they have tried to reduce the impact successes and strategies; and amplify UPDATES of protester activity by obtaining private women’s voices and ideas within the dis- injunctions, recruiting volunteer escorts for course on globalization. patients and staff, using security guards or Registration begins in January and BUBBLE ZONE PROTECTION calling local law enforcement, or training conference fees start at $385 for four According to the Abortion Rights Coalition of staff on how to respond to protestors. days ($100 for students). See Canada (ARCC), “bubble zone” protection The harassment of protesters at 21 per- www.womensworlds.ca. may be the answer to unwanted harassment cent of clinics surveyed was significant of clients and staff at Canada’s abortion clin- enough that they obtained private court WOMEN ics. An ARCC-backed study found that 64 injunctions to protect staff and patients LEADERS HIT percent of abortion clinics in Canada cur- from protesters. Only two clinics are pro- 20 PERCENT rently experience unwanted interference tected by B.C.’s provincial law, the Access Dilma Rousseff, from protesters. The level of protesting may to Abortion Services Act (which creates Brazil’s first be related to the fact that 73 percent of clin- protest-free bubble zones around clinics female president-elect, brings the num- ics have no bubble zone protection—bylaws and hospitals where abortions are provided, ber of female heads of state among to prevent the harassment of clients and as well as around the offices and homes of leaders of the G20 states to a record- staff near abortion clinics or in their homes. abortion service providers). All clinics with breaking four, or 20 percent. At the “The court injunctions and B.C.’s law have injunctions or bubble zones reported heavy recent summit in Seoul, South Korea, been quite successful—they have signifi- and/or aggressive protest activity prior to Rousseff was joined by Argentinean cantly reduced protest activity at every clinic obtaining their injunction or bubble zone. President Cristina Fernadez de Kirchner, that uses them, sometimes completely elimi- The full report is available at German Chancellor Angela Merkel and nating it,” says Joyce Arthur, coordinator for http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/presentations/ Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. ARCC and co-author of the study. “Women ARCC-survey-protest-activity.pdf. have a right to access necessary health FGM RECIPE FOR SUCCESS services privately without being bullied.” MCIVOR TAKES UNICEF has released a report urging The survey, conducted by a University of FIGHT TO UN intervention programs that address the British Columbia law student, was based on Fed up with Canadian needs and wishes of the entire commu- interviews with staff at all 33 abortion clin- courts’ slow pace of nity in eradicating female genital ics in Canada. The survey asked clinics progress on the issue of mutilation. An estimated three million about the effect of protesters on patients Aboriginal women’s girls and women are at risk in Africa and staff and also about the effectiveness Sharon McIvor has rights, Sharon McIvor is each year, but interventions from West- of measures undertaken to protect them. vowed to take her filing a sex discrimina- fight for Aboriginal ern aid agencies motivated by outrage Sixteen clinics, 53 percent of those sur- women to the United tion complaint at the are unlikely to succeed, says the report. veyed, reported that patients and staff are Nations. United Nations.
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“Just like eating a box Please mail this form to the Feminist History Society, of chocolates,” 2938 Dundas St. W., P.O. Box 70573, “Really sublime,” Toronto, ON, M6P 4E7 www.FeministHistories.ca “An immensely CHEQUES PAYABLE to the Women’s Education valuable work.” and Research Foundation, Inc. These are among the early reviews of Name ______Feminist Journeys/Voies féministe, the Address ______first book published by the Feminist History Society/Société d’histoire City ______Feminist Journeys/Voies féministe. Province ______Postal Code ______féministe, is a collection of almost 100 short stories from women from all parts of Canada about how they came to feminism. E-mail ______To order your copy, join the Feminist History Society/Société Phone ______d’histoire féministe by sending in your Membership Form to support Enclosed our publishing efforts. You can also become a member on line at www.feministhistories.ca R $100 (1 year membership) R $300 (3 year membership) R $500 (1 year membership plus donation) R $1000 (1 year membership plus donation) R $______other, including gift memberships www.feministhistories.ca (please provide addresses on separate sheet)
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“Canada continues to discriminate against issue. The new coalition has asked 54 nelliegrams Aboriginal women and their descendants in selected companies to improve the gender the determination of eligibility for registration balance within their organizations. The most successful projects build up as an Indian,” she says. The Indian Act has “We view gender equality and women’s local trust by reinforcing positive aspects historically “given preference to male Indi- empowerment as strategic business and of local culture, as well as incorporating ans as transmitters of status and to investment issues,” says Joe Keefe, presi- development projects into their work with descendants of male Indians,” says McIvor. dent of Pax World. “Companies that advance local communities. Canada refuses to change the legislation. and empower women are, in our view, better Despite amendments made when the long-term investments. We are encouraging FIRST TRANS Charter came into effect in 1985, Aboriginal companies in our portfolios to enhance their JUDGE ELECTED women are still not treated equally as trans- performance on gender issues.” IN U.S. mitters of status. Many thousands of The investor initiative is a response to a Victoria Kolakowski, descendants of Aboriginal women are set of women’s empowerment principles an administrative denied status as a result. developed by the United Nations Develop- law judge with the California Public Utili- McIvor contested the discriminatory provi- ment Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the ties Commission, was elected Superior sions of the act under the Charter and, after United Nations Global Compact. The Court judge in Alameda County, Califor- 20 years, has achieved only partial success. Women’s Empowerment Principles are nia, becoming the first openly “Canada needs to be held to account for designed to help companies take specific transgendered person to serve as a trial its intransigence in refusing to completely steps to advance and empower women in judge in the U.S. eliminate sex discrimination from the Indian the workplace, marketplace and community. The 49-year-old defeated rival John Act,” McIvor says. The members of the coalition are signa- The B.C. Supreme Court ruled that sec- tories to the UN-backed Principles for Creighton, with 162,082 votes to his tion 6 of the Indian Act violated Section 15 Responsible Investment (PRI). 152,546, according to the San Francisco of the Charter. However, when Canada “This engagement shows that gender Chronicle. For Kolakowski, the victory is appealed, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled balance within senior corporate manage- especially celebratory. When she that although the Indian Act was discrimi- ment is not just a social issue but also a applied to law school, the Louisiana natory, the bulk of the discrimination was shareholder issue,” adds James Gifford, State Bar Association first rejected her justified because the government’s purpose executive director of the PRI Initiative. application. was to preserve the existing rights of the “Companies that effectively attract, hire, “I was initially denied because they said Aboriginal men and their descendants who retain and promote women are often better I was not of a sound mind,” she recalls. had been given preferred status. equipped to capitalize on competitive Kolakowski, who is married to Cynthia Parliament is poised to amend the act with opportunities than those who do not.” Laird, was called to the bar in 1990. Bill C-3, which would make some female line “Gender equality is an important aspiration descendants newly eligible for status. But for our own business as well as the compa- PHONE APP FIGHTS they will still have a lesser ability to transmit nies in which we invest,” says Barbara J. HARASSMENT status than their male line counterparts. In Krumsiek, president and CEO of Calvert Hollaback, a group that confronts the addition, Bill C-3 will exclude many descen- Group, which recently released its own street harassment of women, has dants of Indian women who were unmarried. report “Examining the Cracks in the Ceiling.” released an iPhone application that “Many people in Canada, Aboriginal and That report notes that while women make allows users to report harassment in sec- non-Aboriginal, recognize that this long- up more than half the U.S. workforce, 56 onds, according to the New York Times. standing discrimination against Aboriginal percent of companies in the Standard and The data is used by Hollaback to send a women and their descendants is wrong and Poor’s grouping have no female or minority follow-up email asking for more detail should end,” says McIvor. representation in their highest-paid execu- regarding incidents of harassment. “Before me, Mary Two-Axe Early, tive positions.” Jeanette Corbière Lavell, Yvonne Bedard Krumsiek adds that “without a pipeline of REMEMBER THIS ALZHEIMER’S and Sandra Lovelace all fought to end sex female and minority executives in highly PREVENTION TIP discrimination against Aboriginal women in paid, highly responsible positions, it will be For people with Alzheimer’s, neurons in the status registration provisions in the very difficult to achieve board diversity, certain areas of the brain are unable to Indian Act,” she said. “I will continue … which is critical to strong governance and take in glucose. According to research until Aboriginal women enjoy equality.” good management.” conducted by Dr. Mary Newport, coconut In Canada, 13 percent of directors on the oil may help because it is a good source MIND YOUR BUSINESS boards of the country’s Top 500 companies of medium-chain triglyceride (MCT). The A coalition of investors managing over $73 are women. Some European countries have liver converts a key ingredient of MCT billion US in assets called on companies to legislation stipulating that a minimum of 30 into ketone bodies, which can help increase representation of women on boards percent or 40 percent of the board members reverse dementia, she believes. of directors and in senior management. The of publicly traded companies must be MCT increases a person’s metabo- call from Pax World, Calvert and Walden women (the Netherlands, Norway and lism. The upshot is that Newport Asset Management came in response to a Spain). Four other countries are considering observed improved gait, conversation survey of 4,200 global companies that found similar legislation (Belgium, France, Ger- skills and short term memory after that only 9.4 percent of directors on U.S. cor- many and Sweden). coconut oil therapy. porate boards are women. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Com- For more information check out The findings led these investors to identify mission adopted new rules for proxy www.coconutketones.com gender balance and diversity as a strategic disclosure in 2010 that include a require-
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ment for companies to disclose how their opposed to infanticide. The result is that commit the offence in a state of panic, nominating committees consider diversity in these women face life imprisonment with no intense pain, shock, disassociation, identifying board nominees. eligibility for parole,” says LEAF legal direc- exhaustion and alienation.” In Canada, 21 of the top 1,000 companies tor Joanna Birenbaum. “The offence of infanticide is treated dif- have female CEOs—representing two per- LEAF points out that the offence of infanti- ferently in law than murder because of the cent. In the U.S., three percent of the top cide, which carries a maximum sentence of many overlapping social, cultural, psycho- 1,000 companies have female chief execu- five years imprisonment, “is intended to logical and medical factors which may affect tive officers. account for the complex and gendered the state of mind of accused women follow- social, economic, psychological and medical ing childbirth,” she adds. “It is a very serious INFANTICIDE DEFENCE DEFENDED context in which the offence occurs.” crime, but it is a crime which recognizes the In the fall, LEAF intervened in an appeal Birenbaum says those who commit infan- reduced culpability of women whose minds court trial to offer its feminist perspective on ticide tend to be young, poor, socially are disturbed due to the interaction of these the ongoing relevance and importance of isolated and without adequate social and complex factors related to childbirth.” infanticide as a homicide offence that is sep- economic supports to cope with childbirth Infanticide applies only to women who arate and distinct from murder. or caring for a child. They have often expe- have recently given birth. LEAF’s factum In the past few years, LEAF says, there rienced sexual or other abuse and have argues that where the elements of infanticide has been “an emerging trend of the Crown often denied the pregnancy to others, and are present, the infanticide offence should be charging women who have killed their even to themselves. Additionally, many of available to women, regardless of whether newly born children with murder as these women “have given birth alone, and the Crown seeks murder charges.
analysis
are not the only way that equality has been PROGRESS ON undermined by governments. Equality rights expert Gwen Brodsky notes in her contribution to the book Poverty: Rights, EQUALITY STALLED Social Citizenship and Legal Activism, that in some cases, attorneys general have BY SHELAGH DAY argued for interpretations of Section 15 that drain it of substantive content and, in When Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of ways that advance substantive equality, the particular, of any capacity to deal with Rights and Freedoms came into force 25 answer has to be no. Basic programs and women’s material conditions. years ago, no one imagined that govern- protections that should be firmly in place in a Provincial and federal governments ments would become major obstructers to constitutional democracy committed to have argued in Charter cases that the right the promise of equality enshrined in the women’s equality are absent, partial or to equality does not impose any obligations Constitution. Yet that is what has happened. shaky. These include equal pay for work of on governments to redress social inequal- Women were excited and hopeful in the equal value, a national child care program, ity or to alleviate conditions of poverty. early 1980s when they fought for strong lan- adequate civil legal aid, reliable police pro- They have also argued that courts cannot guage in the equality provisions in the tection from male violence, adequate income review government decisions about the Charter in Section 15. They argued from the assistance and housing, and concerted allocation of resources. outset for a substantive version of equality, strategies to move Aboriginal women and The case of Newfoundland (Treasury that is, for equality in the substance or con- girls out of entrenched disadvantage. Many Board) vs. Newfoundland and Labrador tent of the law, for a version of equality essential programs and services have been Association of Public Employees (NAPE) capable of addressing and transforming the weakened by years of government restruc- provides a good example. The government real conditions of inequality that women turing, cuts and privatization. negotiated a series of payments to compen- face, including economic inequality. If the Turning the equality promise into reality sate female health care workers for right to equality was given a substantive would require deliberate action and spend- long-standing discrimination in their pay. interpretation, it would help women to us ing by governments, not withdrawal and But in 1991, the province said it was experi- address the deeply rooted social inequali- deference to the market. Moving towards a encing a financial crisis and cancelled the ties that affect them because of sex, race, more equal society would require setting $24 million in pay equity adjustments. NAPE colour and disability. goals and allocating resources to achieve challenged the government on the grounds So when Section 15 came into force in them. But this has not happened. that the cancellation violated Section 15. In 1985, with its new guarantees of equality Studies by the Standing Committee on response, the province’s attorney general before and under the law, and equal benefit the Status of Women and by Auditor-Gen- argued that government had no obligation and equal protection under the law, women eral Sheila Fraser have said that Canada to address sex discrimination in wages and expected, in the words of constitutional has no working gender machinery. There that the repeal of a non-obligatory scheme scholar Melina Buckley, the development of have been no plans, or paper plans with no cannot constitute discrimination. a governmental “ethos of equality.” resources behind them. The result is that The attorney general of British Columbia However, when we now ask whether conditions, particularly for the poorest then intervened in support, arguing that the Canada’s Section 15 has moved governments women, have worsened since 1985. courts have no role in reviewing decisions to design policies and allocate resources in Cuts to essential programs and services (Continued on page 13)
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(Continued from page 11) There have certainly been Charter victo- Appeal, allowing the government to con- ries in the last 25 years, and some that have tinue to deny status to many Aboriginal about public expenditures. In effect, the con- set out significant interpretive principles. In women and their descendants. sistent position of governments is that the Eldridge, for example, the court ruled that So far, Section 15 has not been the pow- courts cannot enforce a right to substantive governments were obligated to ensure serv- erful tool that feminists hoped would help equality because that would engage them in ices are provided in a way that takes the shape public policy and spending priori- commenting on, or interfering with, govern- needs of disadvantaged groups into ties. Canada’s governments have ment decisions about spending. account—in this case, the need for a hospi- obstructed women’s advancement and And the courts have agreed. In fact, tal to provide interpreter services for a deaf even diminished women’s equality while although courts have been accused of judi- woman giving birth. In Vriend, an Alberta Section 15 has been in effect. And the cial activism, they have been the most court ruled that the province’s human rights Supreme Court has not given Section 15 activist in protecting governments from hav- legislation was not compliant with the Char- the forward-looking, steady and tough- ing to deal with the full implications of the ter because it did not include protection from minded interpretation that is needed to rights they enact. Louise Arbour, when she discrimination based on sexual orientation. give full reality to the concept of substan- was the United Nations High Commissioner Another Charter victory came in the case tive equality. for Human Rights, called the Supreme Court of Ewanchuk, in which the court rejected There is nothing wrong with the wording of Canada “timid,” and with good reason. The the defence of “implied consent” in cases of Section 15. But there is something wrong court has been fearful when faced with the of sexual assault. Falkiner struck down the when governments refuse to live up to the remedial consequences of finding violations. “spouse in the house” rule in Ontario’s wel- Charter’s promise of equality and when And from an apparent desire to deny or nar- fare legislation, and more recently the court courts permit government backsliding. row the remedy, the court has reasoned ruled in McIvor vs. Canada that the status Now, because the cancellation of the backwards, with rights to equality and secu- registration provisions in the Indian Act dis- Court Challenges Program, women (as well rity of the person thinned out as a result. criminate against Aboriginal women and as members of other Charter-identified In NAPE, the court ruled that canceling their descendants. groups) have no access to the modest pay equity adjustments violated Section 15. However, in some of these cases, victory funds that were once available to bring for- But it also determined that the government was qualified. Ewanchuk prevented a step ward Section 15 cases. Perhaps the worst was entitled to cancel them because the backwards in sexual assault law. Eldridge irony of this moment, 25 years later, is that province faced a financial crisis—that is, it was followed by a decision which ruled that we have constitutional rights that we fought was expecting to run a deficit. As feminist governments were not obliged to bring in scholar Sheila McIntyre has noted, the new programs to ensure equality, only to for, and helped to shape, but now cannot court tends to defer to governments, even ensure that existing ones did not discrimi- afford to use. when cost-cutting reallocates social bene- nate. And the remedy in the original McIvor Shelagh Day is a director of the Poverty fits away from disadvantaged groups. ruling was narrowed by the B.C. Court of and Human Rights Centre in Vancouver.
(KABUL) Transformative change has taken MAGAZINE RALLIES hold of Afghanistan since the ousting of the Taliban in 2001, and, thanks to a new magazine focussed on women’s AFGHAN WOMEN empowerment, women are documenting more of those changes. BY LAURYN OATES Legal reform in the country, which has been characterized by both progress and regress, has seen a gradual, overall improvement. Last year, Afghan women secured domestic abuse legislation under the Elimination of Violence Against Women law. They also managed to win reforms to legislation drafted by the conservative cleric Mohammad Asif Mohseni that would have given Shia husbands power over their wives, including the right to decide whether they work outside the home and how often they must submit to sex. The bill was passed by the lower house of Parliament, the Wolesi Jirga, but only after women, together with supportive MPs, lobbied for amendments. The development of the Afghan media sector stands out as a particular success story. Independent media outlets have Humira Saqueb started Afghanistan’s first women’s magazine, Negah-e-Zan dedicated to women’s empowerment, in May. (Photo: Lauryn Oates) burgeoned. New television and radio
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stations, newspapers and magazines, as barring them from empowerment. I try to against women,” she tells me. well as an active blogosphere, are help women by showing them you are “The Taliban doesn’t make a lot of sense flourishing. Exposure to regional and powerful. I try to support them spiritually for Afghanistan’s history because women international programming, and the and mentally, to show them, you are not have been more free in the past than they runaway popularity of shows like Afghan weak. I want to show, through my are now.” Star, a kind of American Idol have changed magazine, famous and powerful women It’s a past she is helping to regain. Saqeb the media scene over the last decade. both inside and outside of Afghanistan, to has won praise and appreciation from Within this increasingly vibrant media show that women can be powerful.” readers thirsty for content relevant to environment, a new women’s magazine is Saqeb is consciously connecting the women in a changing society and for the fighting to find a foothold. Negah-e-Zan lives of women from the East and the West, progressive views espoused by the (“vision of women”) was launched in May placing a long article, for example, on magazine. But with the first issue also came 2010. It’s a unique effort in the buzzing new Afghanistan’s revered poetess of the 9th the first threats against her. By the second media environment: a political magazine for Century, Rabia Balkhi, next to an essay issue, the phone calls had a serious tone to women. Behind its artistic card-stock cover about Virginia Woolf. Women musicians are them and the mother of three closed the are black-and-white pages filled with profiled on a page opposite to news about magazine’s office and set up shop at home. feature articles on inspiring women from all medals won by female athletes. Feature She changed her cellphone number, but she over the world, including Afghanistan. articles look at women’s status in different still received threats. Gracing the pages are women like Nobel- countries, such as Saudi Arabia and India, One caller speaking in Pashto asked her: Prize-winning Iranian activist Shirin Ebadi, allowing Afghan women to connect their “Do you want to live or do you want to keep the humanitarian Princess Diana, British struggles within the broader global your magazine? Make a choice.” writer Hilary Mantel, Finnish President Tarja women’s movement. Another challenge is financing the Halonen, U.S. Congresswoman Nancy magazine. Saqeb has used her own savings Pelosi, Mother Theresa, South African to supplement Negah-e-Zan’s advertising singer Miriam Makeba and German revenue, which covers a third of its Chancellor Angela Merkel. The latest cover expenses. She had hoped to print the includes a photo of a young woman’s hands magazine monthly but instead prints an held in front of her face. On one hand the issue whenever she can afford to. Negah- word “woman” is written in Dari script and e-Zan has a circulation of 3,000 and is on the other hand is the word “man,” with distributed only in Kabul. Saqeb’s focus is to an equal sign inked onto her thumbs. attract more advertising and increase its Editor Humira Saqeb proudly flips through readership. By the second issue, two the neatly laid-out pages. women members of Parliament were paying “There is nothing ordinary in our to take out ads for their election campaigns. magazine, like beauty or actresses. It’s Saqeb anxiously ponders Afghanistan’s political,” she asserts, her fingers tapping a future. She is critical of the latest effort at page of the magazine over a photo of peace talks, pointing out that only nine of politician Rachida Dati, the first woman of the 69 peace council members are women. North African descent to hold a cabinet She is also wary of talk of international position in the French government. A popular topic in Negah-e-Zan is forces looking for ways out of her country women in Parliament. Current Afghan as the war enters its ninth year. “We don’t women MPs are interviewed in order to have enough security at this point. We need share their ideas with the magazine’s small them to stay in Afghanistan for the near urban-based readership. The importance of future,” she says, referring to NATO and voting is discussed in another article, Saqeb honed her media skills working for U.S. coalition troops. drawing comparisons between the small magazines, then as editor-in-chief of Space for women in public life, the kind suffragette movements in the West of the Ehmarehsola, a publication focused on that Negah-e-Zan models in its profiles of 19th and 20th centuries and Afghanistan’s peace-building. Like many Afghans, Saqeb powerful and influential women, is a struggle to make the ballot box accessible spent a good part of her life living in exile. precious commodity in Afghanistan and one to women. She spent 24 years in Iran, where she that is highly vulnerable in any future Afghan women political figures of the devoted much of her time to researching power-sharing agreement with the Taliban. past are profiled, too, including Queen women’s history in Afghanistan. There, she It is this space that Saqeb wants to Soraya, the popular modern wife of Shah discovered a rich legacy of queens, poets, expand. She tosses her black scarf over her Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan who revolutionaries and social activists and shoulder, learning forward, her expression appeared unveiled in public in the 1920s. decided that her countrywomen needed to impassioned. As we sip chai sabzi (Afghan green tea) better know the heritage they inherited. “This is the first step for women to in Kabul’s hip coffee house the Wakhan Saqeb recalls being perplexed that the recognize their own power,” she says. “I Café, Saqeb, a psychology graduate of ultra-misogynist Taliban rose to power in a believe that if you want to have a powerful Kabul University, explains to me her society that was once a modernizing force society, you need powerful women, magazine’s approach: “I emphasize the in the Muslim world. “I am really against the because it’s women who educate the psychological problems women face as Taliban because they are fundamentally children and shape the society.”
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cole’s notes BY SUSAN G. COLE
PICK YOUR POISON
What do the pornography and polygamy debates have in com- Those supporting the Bountiful boys talk about having mon? Both make me feel like women don’t have much choice. freedom from the constraints of marriage that is steeped in I’ve been fascinated by the current B.C. trial attempting to patriarchal privilege from a historical perspective. But, as determine whether the boys over there in the community of with sex work, freedom does not automatically equal equality. Bountiful ought to be allowed to continue to take multiple While it’s tempting to accept the liberal fiction that opening wives. Lawyers for the Bountiful patriarchs are arguing that the polygamy door will expand women’s sexual horizons, I making polygamy illegal is tantamount to discrimination can’t help but notice that organized communities of women based on religion, an attack on the religious freedom guaran- who have multiple husbands are not exactly, er, bountiful. We tee in the Canadian Charter of Rights. have to look at the power dynamic here, just as we have to Lawyers on the other side are defending the two-person take into account who’s buying and who’s selling when it model of marriage. The crown’s argument is that polygamy is comes to prostitution. really another word for the abuse of women and children, and Feminist observers, including Queen’s University gender there are women who have managed to leave Bountiful who studies prof Beverley Baines, are searching for ground that agree. In online chatter, however, there are other warnings, takes women’s experience into account. Baines has argued namely that decriminalizing polygamy will lead to an influx that keeping polygamy illegal makes abused women in polyg- of undesirables—Muslims, in particular—who will flock to amous relationships fearful of escaping or speaking out Canada with their many wives. against the abuse because of what might Talk about picking your poison. Where happen to others in the family. There are exactly does a lesbian-feminist who is Freedom does already laws that deal with violence against opposed to marriage, period, fit in to that women, she says, and they are enough to dichotomy? I can either support patriar- not automatically handle the problem. chal polygamy, with all its male privilege, equal equality. But isn’t that what some said about or the plainer patriarchal model of mar- wife-abuse laws—that women wouldn’t riage that hasn’t suited women’s needs call for help because they didn’t necessar- either, if my memory serves me right. ily want their breadwinner husbands put in jail? Besides, It reminds me of the dilemma we faced during the famed polygamy poses more than the problem of individual abuse. pornography debates of the ’80s. Then, we were supposed to Communities organized to fulfill the sexual power desire of choose between two models of sexuality: the pornography male patriarchs—who have been known to pimp their 16- model and its unremitting colonization of women’s sexual- year-old daughters to men decades their seniors, while ity, or a more repressive model based on a fundamental fear shipping out young men as slave labour in other Mormon of sexuality—and, in particular, women’s sexuality. Hey communities to make sure the young studs don’t get in the women, choose between oppression and repression, be a way—constitute systemic abuse. whore or a virgin. As I write this, the court case is in full swing. And Feminists like me ache for better options—expression though the details are intriguing, the debate itself is dis- instead of oppression, empowerment in sexuality instead of tressing—yet another example of how both sides in a the simplistic either-or binary of the shiny, happy porn star situation can claim to be promoting women’s interests, on one side and the enforced chastity promulgated by the while not fully understanding exactly what freedom and religious right on the other. choice really mean.
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Kate Bornstein’s Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us exposed the cracks in the construction of gender in 1995.
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n the 15 years since Kate Bornstein’s groundbreaking gender-affirming surgery prior to a change in gender status. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us Given the increasing visibility of this subject, it seemed I exposed the cracks in the construction of gender, the like perfect timing for an update to Gender Outlaw. And so world has seen some significant changes. Not only has it Bornstein teamed up with fellow author and performance begun to see the inclusion of trans and genderqueer people artist S. Bear Bergman to compile an anthology of new in popular films and television series, but their experiences transgender voices in the newly released Gender Outlaws: The and needs are also being addressed in academic discourse and Next Generation, published by Seal Press. on legislative agendas. The collection of personal stories and comic drawings is an British Columbia Member of Parliament Bill Siskay is exploration of trans activism, as well as a call to action. In working to include the protection of trans people in Canada’s Gender Outlaws, Bergman and Bornstein have compiled an Human Rights Act and Criminal Code, and the U.S. State accessible resource that captures the many ways trans people Department recently eased its requirements for altering gen- are challenging the status quo with creativity, intellect, sin- der identification on U.S. passports, no longer mandating cerity and humour.
BREAKING BINARIES BY MANDY VAN DEVEN
HERIZONS: Your book Gender Outlaws: The Next Gener- ation is an outgrowth of a similarly titled book authored by Kate Bornstein in 1995. How do you view this version in relation to the original? S. BEAR BERGMAN: The original Gender Outlaw was really the first book that talked in ways anyone could grasp about what a big mess culturally constructed and enforced gender is—and how it’s possible to be a dissident. That idea has been growing, becoming more and more accessible and visible, and it has influenced people’s lives, relationships and genders in a very real way. I don’t think Kate would credit her work this way, but I know it’s true. Our new book builds not just on the original ideas, but also on the results of those ideas. When we started this project, we said we wanted exponential thinking about gender, another quantum leap forward. And I think we got it.
In the book’s introduction, Bornstein talks about these essays reflecting a “cultural version of epigenetics.” Can you explain the meaning of that idea? KATE BORNSTEIN: Some stages of evolution take thou- sands of years, but it is possible that other—often S. Bear Bergman teamed up with Kate Bornstein to compile the anthology Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation. (Photo: Bull Pusztai/radiantpage.com)
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major—evolutionary changes take place in just one generation. less enlightened. And I don’t think that’s true. But I do think Epigenetics is the study and science of that big-change-in-one- enforcing the binary is less enlightened, and most of the generation evolution. Cultures primarily emerge slowly over institutions and ideologies that are served by it aren’t things hundreds or thousands of years, adjusting themselves to the I support. lives of those who live in them. But sometimes a culture or sub- Binaries are fantastic for quickly categorizing people and culture turns on a dime. That’s what’s happened with things, for separating people from their true natures, making transgender subculture—big changes in just one generation. outliers feel disenfranchised, creating ideal conditions for privilege to thrive unchecked and supporting the spread of What brought those changes about? capitalism. Best ally ever. Super-great. KATE BORNSTEIN: Epigenetic changes occur by reason of a major disaster: pestilence, war, famine and death. It takes Are we still in the defining stage, which is to say the undefining one or more of the four horse-riders of the Apocalypse to stage, of a gender binary-less existence and activism? cause a species or a culture to undergo a verifiably major evo- KATE BORNSTEIN: A teeny-tiny percentage of people on lutionary shift. For us, it was AIDS in the ’80s that pretty the planet are talking about binary-less gender existence. An much decimated our gay male and drag cultures. Young trans even smaller number than that are doing activism in the women, trans men and genderqueer trans things, as yet name of binary-less gender. Gender theory, art, practice and undefined have risen from those ashes. politics beyond the binary are cracks Over the last 20 years, the cultural face in the door, moonbeams through a of transgender has shifted from mid- prison-cell window, a couple of leaks dle-aged man in a dress trying to be a in the dike. The next generation of real woman, to hot young female-to- gender outlaws has accomplished the male folks who are defining their male cultural equivalent of splitting the gender as they go along. atom, and no one in major media is Two primary points of reference in paying attention to that part … not this shift have been feminist theory even on The Rachel Maddow Show. and postmodern theory. Then we ended up with queer theory—which What can feminism learn from trans itself is rapidly being outstripped by politics? genderqueer theory. Oh, what a ride S. BEAR BERGMAN: That feels it’s been! And in this book our authors like a super-complex question. I wish represent a surprisingly large percent- that trans politics and feminism could age of this newly emerging generation go away on one of those Outward of gendernauts. Bound-style trips together, you know, where you have to rely on your team- In a couple of places, being a gender out- mates or face the elements alone. I law is discussed as a position of mean, we’re there in real life, but I enlightenment. Do you see the destruction don’t think we notice it. We need the of the gender binary as a sort of evolutionary path to liberation? microcosm experience because the wilderness of a culture KATE BORNSTEIN: Yes, primarily as a template for the that privileges gender normativity, maleness, heterosexuality, deconstruction of other culturally enforced, oppressive bina- Christianity, middle class-ness and so on is already starving ries. Binaries are useful to the same degree that binary us and freezing our extremities off. And we are feeling the computer code is useful to programming: garbage in, garbage pain. We just don’t have the tools yet, I fear. out. But the value of breaking the gender binary will be to use what we’ve learned to help break down the false binaries Do you think the Internet aids trans and gender nonconforming masking hierarchal vectors of oppression—namely age, race, people’s ability to discover and settle in to their identities? class, religion, looks, ability, language, citizenship, family and S. BEAR BERGMAN: A lot of trans-related information— reproductive status and sexuality. We did something really even medical information—is still anecdotal. Much of the smart with gender and we did it while having a whole lot of research that’s at all useful is qualitative, not quantitative. fun. Now it’s our job to help do that with all those other isms. Trans people have more and better opportunities than ever S. BEAR BERGMAN: I find myself a little resistant to this before to try things out, seek help, get support, buy things pri- question because I’m afraid it contains a continuum in which vately, read things privately. I also think that the Internet has people who feel comfortable within the binary are somehow normalized so many more things in its wild, woolly way
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of having a place for everything. So many things feel like respects, I wish I could rewrite parts of my intro with Kate they have come out of the closet, if you will, as people get now, ever how many months later, but that ship has sailed. peer support, join Facebook groups and make themselves The places of trans intersection with religion aren’t commonly visible and known. It’s truly amazing. explored, yet Zev Al-Walid beautifully discusses how his transi- KATE BORNSTEIN: I think it comes down to this: in tion affected his identity as a Muslim in the contribution cyberspace, we’re not tied down to any identity, desire or “Pilgrimage.” Was this a piece you specifically sought out? power that may be based in any number of cultural factors triggered by our physical bodies. In cyberspace, we are dis- S. BEAR BERGMAN: We tried to include a lot of intersec- embodied and that’s a big freedom. To that, add the tions. Gender is so much about context that those possibility of anonymity. Anything we say or ask isn’t going intersections have to be made explicit in order for work to be to come back to our wives, or our husbands, or the kids, or taken seriously. And we were lucky to have several pieces that our bosses or the bully down the block. We get to ignore all talk about religion or spirituality. We loved Zev’s piece the taboos and explore our lives’ most fun mysteries: our sex- because it is so lyrical and also so hopeful. ualities and our gender expressions. KATE BORNSTEIN: Religions depend for their power upon most everything binary because religion is most usually “Tranny” is a hotly contested word that reflects a lot of trans people’s expressed as a system of morals based in an ironclad concept of struggles, and it is generously peppered throughout this book in a good and evil. We are the evil. Look—one of the signs of the seemingly intentional way. Why is language, especially the policing Apocalypse is gonna be that the walls come tumbling down. of it, a common place where struggles of privilege get played out? And the people who fuck with gender are tearing down the KATE BORNSTEIN: I’m a bad one to answer this because walls. We’re crossing the borders. We’re the illegal aliens that I’ve written extensively (and crankily) on the subject. A whole the Tea Party, the Christian right lot of people disagree with my using and any fundamentalist religion the word tranny. And these folks are “Gender is so much about should be worrying about. And even angrier about FTMs using the whenever we fuck with gender in word tranny. Even GLAAD [Gay context that those any way, we break the binary visibly. and Lesbian Alliance Against intersections have to be And that’s sure to break the rules in Defamation] got involved to protect most every religion. We get the “poor, helpless trans commu- made explicit in order for branded evil, and growing up with nity” from those who would dare work to be taken seriously.” that sort of belief in ourselves makes use the word. it important to include introspec- Horse pucky! Any objections to —S. Bear Bergman tion about the places where gender the use of the word tranny are and religion intersect. based in classism and anti-sex sentimentality. And that’s all I’ve got to say on the subject. As is the case with most social and cultural movements, the newest S. BEAR BERGMAN: This is a really hard one for me. incarnation of trans activism faces many of the same issues trans I’m clear about the following things: One, “tranny” is a and gender nonconforming folks have always faced. How do you complex and loaded word, and no one should ever call any- respond to people who see this as stagnation? one else a tranny without that person’s agreement. Two, we S. BEAR BERGMAN: We’re ripshit pissed right now! We did not police people’s language in the book. If they wanted have organizations to address our issues now and some legal to use that word, fine. If not, also fine. We likewise standing to sue the people who perpetrate crimes against us. respected every other decision people made about trans- The battlegrounds may be the same, but increasingly we’re specific language. Some people felt super-keen about using showing up much better prepared than our opponents. a space, for example, between trans and man/woman, to KATE BORNSTEIN: Shifts in subculture move in waves make clear that trans was a modifier, not a whole separate through the meta-culture. It doesn’t happen all at once. sex. We worked against standardizing. The fact is, there are more and more colleges, houses of Personally, I’ve gone through so many iterations on this, worship and public buildings that do have clearly marked and every new argument I hear sways me again, because gender-neutral bathrooms. There are more and more doc- they’re all so heartfelt and serious. I think there are some tors who are sensitive to trans people’s needs and care. It’s good things about the word, to be honest. However, I’ve all just moving slowly, that’s all. And in places where basic but stopped using the word tranny myself, not because of the issues like bathrooms and health care are serious, there is political arguments, but because I see that it hurts people. I some serious trans activism facing that down. No, trans don’t want to prioritize being right over being kind. In some activism is not stagnating.
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portrait of the
ARTISTas a MOTHER ARE ARTIST MOTHERS STILL MARGINALIZED AND EXPECTED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN CREATIVE SELF-EXPRESSION AND THEIR CHILDREN? THE REACTION FROM THESE ARTISTS MAY SURPRISE YOU.
BY CONNIE JESKE CRANE
t’s not the reaction I expected. I’m in my Toronto living world,” she says, “I don’t know that I support that now.” room screening the 2008 documentary Who Does She Another attendee, 30-something, believes that today it’s about I Think She Is? Director Pamela T. Boll profiles five competency, not gender. A sculptor in her 50s worries more American women and presents a sobering portrait of the about our consumer culture’s devaluing of artists. contemporary artist-mother—dismissed by a patriarchal art I’m confused. Are these women in denial about lingering world, financially strapped, dangerously overloaded and con- inequities? I do more research. Soon, I’m getting Linton’s flicted at home. Sculptor Janis Wunderlich appears saying, “I assertion that she’s free to “just kind of do what I do.” The do feel a little bit like I’m not quite an artist, I’m not quite a challenges facing Canada’s female visual artists haven’t evap- good parent. Since I am so many things, I’m not quite really orated. But there’s been this groundswell of change. good at anything.” “Let’s talk about the Venice Biennale,” Linton says of the The documentary spits out a depressing his-story. As pre-eminent contemporary art exhibition. At the first bien- Maura Reilly, director of the Sackler Center for Feminist Art nale in 1895, 2.4 percent of the participating artists were at the Brooklyn Museum, intones, “The statistics for solo women. A hundred years later, it was nine percent. In 2005, [female] exhibitions at some of the major museums are so 38 percent of artists in the curated group shows were women. horrendous that I don’t even know if we want to hear them. Noting that the biennale had two female curators in 2005, The Guggenheim from 2000 to 2004, it was 11 percent. It Megan Williams wrote for the CBC that, “For the first time was much lower for Tate Modern … around two percent. Los in its 110-year history, women are running the show… If one Angeles County Museum of Art, it’s about two percent.” limit has been pushed at this year’s Biennale, it’s the histori- Wine has been flowing, candles flicker. As the credits roll, cally immutable boundary that has kept many women out of I’m on the edge of my seat, awaiting the reaction of an assem- contemporary art.” blage of thoughtful women. I don’t see it coming, the buzz-kill, Winnipeg artist KC Adams concurs. “In Canada, there’s but Toronto artist Jennifer Linton gets things started. “I’d like definitely a shift going on with the type of work being exhib- to know where they got some of those numbers!” ited.” She credits vehicles like the Canada Council for the Terms like “old-school feminism” get tossed around. Linton Arts’ equity office and Aboriginal curatorial fund. A glance says even the featured art forms in the documentary (painting, at the Art Gallery of Ontario reveals a three-woman exhibit sculpture) are uniformly traditional—where is the ground- in September 2010, a new female curator and a photo exhi- breaking work? “Of the notion of the male-dominated art bition by Girl Guides, no less.
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Nursing Ridley, by Jennifer Linton, 2006, coloured pencil, thread and ink on Mylar, 44" x 49". B is for Bomb, from the series My Alphabet for Anxieties & Desires, 2006-10, coloured pencil on illustration board, 9” x 12”. Image courtesy the artist.
And according to 2009 Statistics Canada figures, Canadian voices that we never would have heard of 20 years ago.” female artists keep multiplying. Forty percent of artists in 1971 Curious about these voices, Herizons talked with three were female. By 2006, the proportion of female artists had Canadian artists undertaking groundbreaking personal grown to 53 percent, according to Statistics Canada, and this explorations. I asked them about their work, their support percentage is based on a much larger number of artists. system and whether they feel forced to choose. But what of Boll’s contention that women still feel pres- sured to choose between art and motherhood? “I did have a Jennifer Linton couple of people say to me ‘Well, you’ve had a good run,’ like www.jenniferlinton.ca my career was over,” says Adams, recalling colleagues’ “Gravid continues my diaristic approach to image-making with responses following the birth of her son. As for letting female an exploration of pregnancy and motherhood. As my role as pri- experience creep into your work, U.S. feminist Courtney E. mary caregiver to my child develops and evolves, so too does the Martin told Boll, “Art about women’s bodies, motherhood, content of my work to reflect the many corollary issues relating childbirth, these things are always ghettoized … none of that to motherhood, including gender identity, sexuality and body is seen as integral to mainstream art-world exhibition.” image. My aim is to present an honest and unsentimentalized Yet in Canada, more artists are creating unique personal view of motherhood that challenges the clichéd images often work, accepting the professional risk and the chaotic personal found in the mainstream media.”—Jennifer Linton balancing act. Woodstock, Ontario artist Leslie Sorochan says, “It seems to me my life would have been a lot easier. I mean, Recently, there has been more honest talk about motherhood. sometimes I think, if only I was just doing the one thing, In 2002, Naomi Wolf discussed post-partum anxiety and wouldn’t that be peaceful?” But third-wave feminism seems to identity loss on Oprah. Writers from Judith Warner to French involve getting on with it and hopefully reducing that 34-per- feminist Elizabeth Badinter have ruthlessly examined issues cent income gap. In 2006, Canadian male visual artists earned plaguing modern mothers (arguably, middle-class ones). Yet on average $17,271, females $11,421. the visual landscape keeps offering the same stereotypes— For art lovers, it’s a feast. “You are getting a plethora of dif- sylphlike celebrities, soccer moms battling stains, real ferent subject matters,” says Adams. “You’re getting the voice housewives. Why the dearth of more thoughtful imagery? of somebody who’s new to Canada. You’re getting the voice Judith Mintz, a masters’ student at Trent University in of a woman who does have children. You’re getting different Peterborough, Ontario who is researching Canadian female
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artists, says, “You can write a paragraph while your child is in the bathtub, or call a friend. But to make work you need to have time, usually away from your kids.” This sounds like Jennifer Linton’s cue. In the absence of a wealthy benefactor, Linton, 42, has cobbled together sup- port—her partner Richard Martin, a great daycare, teaching jobs. It’s a common juggling act. But since she focuses on intimate subjects like pregnancy and motherhood, Linton also worries about how to avoid cloying sentimentality. “You don’t want to go the Anne Geddes route,” she says, referring to the photographer’s famed images of babies swaddled in flower petals and peapods. “I mean, this is the thing. You want to be taken seriously.” I recently immersed myself in Linton’s new book, My Alphabet of Anxieties and Desires. Born of compromise— she nixed studio lithography for pencil drawings she could do between feedings—Linton’s work reflects the hope and fire of her life stage. It’s precisely because she’s a new mother that she compels us to revisit contemporary themes with works entitled G is for Gender, P is for Pol- lution. Small details are the most startling—the way her subjects (Linton and her two young sons) gaze unwaver- ingly, unsmiling. And, as Mintz says, “One of the things that I love about Jen’s work is that she’s not afraid to make the body look less perfect. There’s one piece she did … where the [mother’s post-partum] belly is all stretched out.” The horror! Having earned her masters of fine arts degree at Toronto’s
York University, Linton now teaches art at places like the Welfare Mom, Cyborg Hybrid Cynthia, by KC Adams, New York Series, 2009 digital print Ontario College of Art and Design and will hopefully keep making work that critics call “boundary-pushing, feminist, six-month residency in Australia, bringing along husband witty.” She’s all too aware of her unprecedented freedom and Josh Gray and her two-year-old son. support. “I feel very privileged.” Adams studied at Concordia University in Montreal (“It took seven years”) and says she loved the rigours of academia: KC Adams “If you couldn’t defend your work, you were a cut-up fish in www.kcadams.net a tank full of sharks. It was pretty brutal if you couldn’t defend yourself. So it was very exciting.” “Cyborg Hybrids is a photo series that attempts to challenge our Of her success, she says, “I’ve never really felt barriers because views towards mixed-race classifications by using humorous text I think the work that I’ve been creating has been stirring some and imagery from two cultures. The Cyborg Hybrids are digital chords with people, especially dealing with identity.... My work prints of Euro-Aboriginal artists who are forward thinkers and kind of fills a gap because I’m dealing with people who are of plugged in with technology. They follow the doctrine of Donna mixed descent and trying to recognize that Aboriginals are very Harroway’s A Cyborg Manifesto, which states that a cyborg is a much part of the present and part of the future.” creature in a technological, post-gender world free of traditional Adams’ experience also shows how a traditional structure Western stereotypes.”—KC Adams (the Aboriginal community) can nurture a contemporary KC Adams is a face of the future. In a country where female artist-mother. Unlike the mainstream insistence on bound- Aboriginal artists are paid least in a low-paying profession, at aries between work and family, Adams’ route has been more 39, this Métis multi-disciplinary artist is a nonchalant suc- holistic. When Winnipeg’s Urban Shaman Gallery asked cess. Adams’ work was exhibited at the 2010 Vancouver her, then a new mother, to serve as director, she agreed, pro- Winter Olympics. Twenty pieces from her 2006 Cyborg vided she could bring her baby to work. “The Aboriginal Hybrids series are in the National Gallery of Canada’s per- community is completely different, I have to say. It’s much manent collection. When we talked, she was anticipating a more supportive and much more family-oriented.” Her co-
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workers helped out. “I mean, I would be breast-feeding in what I’ve found is it isn’t that personal. People experience front of everybody, and everyone was great with it.” loss and they experience all of these different qualities, these Adams says we’ll soon see motherhood explored in her art. emotions. And it is universal.” “There’s a video piece that I’m going to start working on and Sorochan is a popular high school art teacher and a work- it’s called Lullabies of the 21st Century…. It’s sort of based on ing artist with a string of solo exhibitions. Reflecting on mother’s guilt. The work is a video of mothers holding their what’s made it all possible, her husband tops the list. “When children and rocking them to sleep but instead of singing I first started out, I was the one with the full-time job and lullabies, they’re singing commercials, jingles.” he’s the one who stayed home with the kids, “she explains. “We were in a small, conservative town and I think he was Leslie Sorochan the only dad wearing the snuggly on the street.” lesliesorochan.com While the Globe and Mail noted a rise in paternity leaves “My journey as artist, as is likely for most, has led me steadily in 2008, Sorochan and husband Chris Ruland were pioneers. from the universal to the intensely personal. The growing reality Sorochan also appreciates the support and critiques she’s of time passing has developed into a psychological interpretation received from fellow artists. Finally, craving quiet studio of my role as parent in the Water series. These images depict the time, she’s been taking a semester off from teaching every concurrent experiences of buoyancy and drowning, freedom and year-and-a-half. subservience, privilege and duty. This internal dialogue contin- I’ve caught her at a crossroads. Thanks to a new school ues into my most recent series of drawings.”—Leslie Sorochan board policy, Sorochan will lose her seniority if she takes another leave. Pondering her next move, she asks, “Can you Warm and full of laughter, Leslie Sorochan, 47, is another call yourself an artist if you don’t do art?” Her experience explorer of intensely personal territory. Her work is accessi- illustrates the uncertainties of an artistic career. Yet ble yet contains powerful, lingering emotional undercurrents. Sorochan—who always told her kids to do whatever they’re “As much as I try and get away from that as being an issue,” most passionate about—also gets to watch the cycle begin says Sorochan, “my role as mother of a 22-year-old is still the role of a mother, and it still comes through in the work all anew. Her middle daughter has received a scholarship. “She’s the time…. A lot of it goes way back when I first started. going into art this year.” Hopefully, this young woman One of the reasons that I started doing the work again was encounters an art world even more open to new voices and that I lost a child. And because of that, I did a show that was explorations, the “crazy quilt” as Adams calls it, ever more a cathartic experience that was about motherhood, even exciting and diverse. though I had only mothered this child for three or four Connie Jeske Crane is an enthusiastic lover of art. A Toronto- months. And that was pivotal…. I’ve always thought, you based freelance writer, she frequently writes about health and know, this stuff is too personal, nobody’s going to get it. And wellness, parenting and environmental issues.
Breathe, by Leslie Sorochan, charcoal, pastel, conte and metallic pigment on paper, 33” x 47”, 2007, private collection.
Watermark, by Leslie Sorochan, charcoal, pastel, metallic pigment on paper, 39” x 54”, 2005, private collection.
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Susan Davis is a tough-minded Vancouver reformist who believes co-op brothels are safe and should be permitted in Canada. her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:26 PM Page 25
ARECO-OP BROTHELS THEANSWER? BY JOANNA CHIU
usan Davis, leader of the West Coast have used it to improve their quality of life on Co-operative of Sex Industry Profes- so many different levels.” S sionals (WCCSIP), smiles wistfully Davis found enthusiastic support for the when asked what will happen if her dream of a idea and since 2007 the WCCSIP has been co-operative brothel materializes. working to build community and promote “It will be so good for morale for every- solutions that will minimize the potential risks body—oh man, for the girls!” of sex work. Since outdoor sex workers face Davis has been an escort for 24 years and is disproportionate dangers, the WCCSIP’s pro- one of the best-known sex workers’ rights grams are particularly focused on working to activists in Canada. Her tough-minded and end violence against outdoor sex workers. cautiously optimistic attitude keeps her going, The group’s most ambitious project is its despite laws that punish sex workers, and in proposed co-operative brothel in Vancouver’s particular those who work indoors. Downtown Eastside. The WCCSIP is offer- Davis first thought of forming a sex workers’ ing the City of Vancouver detailed plans on co-operative after meeting members of India’s how it intends to create a place where sex thriving sex workers co-operative, the Durbar workers can bring their clients and rent Mahila Samanwaya Committee a feminist affordable rooms, starting at two dollars, for conference in 2006. the amount of time they need, rather than “They started a sex workers co-operative in paying for expensive hotel rooms. The co-op
Photo: Sarah Race 1995, and it now has 65,000 members. They brothel would offer safety features such as
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“Within my own apartment, I control the situation....Whereas if I went on outcalls, I would go into foreign territory.”—Susan Davis
emergency buttons in each room, 24-hour working on the street, you just don’t have the security and front desk reception. same level of control,” Pacey says. When Davis first moved to Vancouver from Although the majority of sex workers do Halifax 20 years ago, she worked on the streets work indoors, the minority of sex workers who for three months, and she does not want to go work outdoors are unsurprisingly the most at back. Once Davis established herself in the risk for violence and exploitation. The WCC- city, she started to work out of her own SIP’s proposed co-op brothel would offer all home—a situation that provides her with sex workers the opportunity to take control of safety and peace of mind. However, she their safety. The recent case of Robert Pick- believes brothel environments offer the most ton, convicted of killing women who lived or safety for sex workers. worked on the streets of the Downtown East- “If something goes wrong, I’m hoping that side, demonstrates the need for laws that allow my neighbours will hear me. But if you’re all sex workers affordable access to safer working in a brothel, then people are all indoor workplaces. around you,” Davis explains. “With the way the laws are now,” Davis Davis spoke to Herizons on a sunny summer laments, “outdoor sex workers have to jump afternoon in her apartment in downtown Van- into the car before they negotiate their terms couver. She explains that she and her boyfriend of employment. So they don’t get to say that sleep in the living room area, while she reserves they’re not willing to be tortured for five dol- the bedroom for work. She describes the bed- lars. When they get into the car, they have room as “what you would envision for a room to negotiate their way out, and that’s just in a brothel,” with black velvet drapes hanging not safe!” from the walls, a king-sized bed and plenty of In addition to providing a safer alternative, sex toys and lingerie. the profits from the co-op brothel would “Within my own apartment,” says Davis, “I improve other aspects of the lives of sex work- control the situation.... Whereas if I went on ers. The WCCSIP would direct profits to outcalls, I would go into foreign territory. I scholarships for sex workers, offer micro-loans would not know if the client had a gun. When for sex workers to start their own businesses, you look at it from that perspective, it’s all and provide alternative employment opportu- about control of space.” nities for those who wish to exit sex work. Katrina Pacey, a lawyer at PIVOT Legal Interestingly, government and the courts— Society who has represented sex workers and those with domain over Canada’s prostitution residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, laws—appear to be heading in opposite direc- echoes Davis’s sentiment about the impor- tions. In September, Ontario’s Superior Court tance of sex workers having control over their Justice Susan Himel struck down three com- workplace. ponents of Canada’s prostitution laws—the “Women and men who work indoors are bawdy house law, the communication law and able to control the conditions of their work. the law that prohibits living off the avails of They could have all the harm-reduction prostitution—in a 131-page ruling that con- things, such as condoms, that they need to be cluded Canada’s current prostitution laws safe and healthy in the workplace. If you’re violate the Charter rights of sex workers. The
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case is expected to make its way to the enforcement increases, Lowman found sex Supreme Court. workers are displaced and pushed into even This decision is in sharp contrast to the more dangerous circumstances. Conservative federal government’s views. In Pacey says it’s a shame sex workers “have to August, Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson choose between their liberty and their safety.” announced harsher regulations for those She hopes that the Ontario ruling will set a involved in sex work under the guise of precedent for the decriminalization of bawdy “strengthening the ability of law enforcement houses and lead to the adoption of other pro- to fight organized crime.” visions for sex workers’ safety in other The new regulations, passed without public provinces. “This is an exciting time, and I’m hearings, impose sentences of five or more optimistic about our constitutional challenge years for anyone involved in the operation of coming up next year in Vancouver.” brothels. This may include managers of broth- Whether or not British Columbia courts els, as well as drivers, security guards or anyone strike down Canada’s prostitution laws, WCC- else the courts may deem to be living off the SIP continues to gather public support for the avails of prostitution. co-operative brothel idea and hopes to proceed Prostitution is technically not a crime in without having to break any laws. Canada, although many aspects of prostitution Davis explains: “Just like at the Pan Pacific remain criminalized—at least for now. It is Hotel, prostitution may occur there, but that illegal to communicate for the purposes of doesn’t make it a brothel because of the privacy prostitution, to keep a bawdyhouse, and to live of their rooms. With our plans for the co-op off the proceeds of prostitution. Section 210 of brothel, sex workers would rent private the Criminal Code defines a bawdy house as “a rooms—therefore avoiding breaking any laws. place that is kept or occupied, or resorted to by We will apply for the same licenses that steam one or more persons for the purpose of prosti- baths and massage parlours have, so I don’t tution or the practice of acts of indecency.” think we will need a federal exemption from In sharp contrast, Ontario’s ruling could be the Criminal Code.” a pivotal first step in redressing Canadian There is potential for legislative change that laws that focus on prohibition rather than could make a real difference in sex workers’ lives, harm reduction. In Vancouver, Katrina Pacey but there is still a long way to go. Despite possi- is one of the lawyers leading the constitu- ble setbacks or struggles to acquire funding, tional challenge of Canada’s prostitutions activists such as Davis and Pacey will continue to laws in British Columbia. fight for sex workers’ human rights. “The bawdy house law does not achieve “We will keep pushing our plans for the co- any valid objectives around sex workers’ op brothel forward,” says Davis. “I think that safety or protection,” she says, “and in fact, this project could really transform our commu- does the exact opposite, which is to make sex nity and build momentum for all efforts to workers work in much more dangerous and improve sex workers’ rights.” vulnerable circumstances.” For more information or to make donations to the Pacey also points out that Ottawa’s recent West Coast Co-operative of Sex Industry Profes- toughening of the regulations relating to sionals, go to www.wccsip.ca. For more information bawdy houses has had the biggest impact on on the decriminalization efforts underway in the most vulnerable of sex workers. This is in Canada, see the decision from Ontario Superior keeping with the findings of Simon Fraser Court at http://www.ontariocourts.on.ca/scj/en/. University criminology researcher John Low- And visit Out of the Shadows: Why Canada Must man, who has demonstrated how enforcement Decriminalize Consensual, Adult Sex Work at patterns are related to violence patterns. As http://www.firstadvocates.org.
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Demeter Press New her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:26 PM Page 29
PORN WHY IT’S TIME TO TAKE AGAIN ANOTHER LOOK AT A DIVISIVE ISSUE BY LISA TREMBLAY
n light of a new documentary celebrating Hugh Hefner as the grandfather of the sexual revolution, feminists might I be wondering how mainstream heterosexual pornography has evolved since Playboy was launched in 1953. In the definitive new book Pornland: How Pornography Has Hijacked Our Sexuality (Beacon Press), Dr. Gail Dines takes readers on a journey from Playboy’s first issue to the porn cul- ture we live in today. Dines begins with Hefner’s efforts to liberate American men from the emasculating domesticity of family life. Accord- ing to Dines, Playboy’s literary articles legitimized soft-core pornography with the middle class paving the way for more explicit and hard-core magazines to emerge. Pornographic images escalated from simple nudity to include depictions and cartoons of sexual violence, torture and sado-masochism. In the 1980s and ’90s the home videocassette recorder inspired the growth of a vast porn video market, and the Internet provided consumers with porn that was even more easily accessible, widely available and safely anonymous. According to Dines, by 2006 the global porn industry was worth about $96 billion US. Statistics from 2009 indicate that on the Internet alone there were “420 million porn pages, 4.2 million porn websites and 68 million search engine requests for porn daily.” Dines describes the two porn streams consumers can now choose from: features and gonzo. Features, although still hard-core, have storylines and are not as rough as gonzo, making them more attractive to men who want to view porn with their female partners. Gonzo (also known as “wall to
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“They feel inadequate because their heterosexual experiences don’t emulate the mind-blowing sex they see in porn.”—Gail Dines
wall” because it depicts one sex scene after another) is “body Dr. Jennifer Johnson, who reported results of her analysis of punishing hard core porn” and is, according to Dines, what the online porn industry at a Stop Porn Culture conference in many users prefer. Boston last June, believes men who use porn do so to resolve Cheap to make and one of the biggest money-makers for their loss of control over women in the economic sphere. the industry, gonzo is known for inventing new sex acts like According to Johnson, women’s movement gains result in “a multiple men penetrating all three female orifices at the same masculinity gap.” It’s a gap, she says, that’s “mediated through time; double anal penetration; double vaginal penetration; porn.” Robert Jensen agrees. “As women encroach on tradi- throat fucking that makes women gag and vomit; bukkake, tional all-male space, where do men push back for a sense of where many men ejaculate on a woman’s face or in her mouth; power and authority? They do that in the intimate sphere.” and ATM—which, in porn parlance, is ass to mouth. The impact of porn that is degrading remains a hotly According to Dines, these acts take a significant toll on debated topic. On one side are the pornography producers women’s bodies. Women in porn have walked away with pro- who say that porn is fun and harmless fantasy. But for lapsed anuses, torn vaginas, STDs, chlamydia in their eyes researchers like Dines, the evidence says something else. and bacterial infections, which are of par- Increasingly, men who have used porn dis- ticular concern in ATM because the penis close troubling truths about “how porn is withdrawn from a woman’s anus and affects their sexuality, relationships and immediately shoved in her mouth. interactions with women.” They feel inade- Like many other porn researchers, Dines quate because their heterosexual experiences describes the desensitization process that don’t emulate the mind-blowing sex they see leads porn consumers to habituate to sex in porn, and many are unable to reach acts, crave increasingly more extreme images orgasm without conjuring up porn images. to get off and become immune to the degra- Dines believes that “porn is probably the dation of women. Several industry strategies most visible, accessible and articulate teller are employed to facilitate this process. One of sexual stories to men.” She contends that tactic is to call the female actors “cumbuck- In her new book: Pornland: How Pornogra- men who use it “come away with a lot more ets,” “bitches” and “whores” during phy Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, Dr. Gail than just an ejaculation, because the stories Dines takes readers on a journey from Play- penetration and ejaculation while assuring boy’s first issue to the porn culture we live in seep into the very core of their sexual iden- viewers that women like being degraded. today. tity … strengthening and normalizing the The result is that, as men ejaculate to porn, Dines believes they ideology that condones oppression.” are being groomed to rationalize and distance themselves from To many feminists who have studied the effects of pornog- the brutality. raphy, the claim that porn is “a gateway to better sex” is a lie. The problem is that in the highly competitive porn mar- In her video release The Pornography of Everyday Life, Jane ket, producers have to find ways to hook and keep customers. Caputi argues that porn is not about sexual freedom but rather And the solo stroking male consumer is not interested in about keeping women in their place. Jensen points out that it intimacy—so brutality stands in its place. keeps men in their place, too: “Pornography claims to take us In his book Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Mas- … into a garden of sexual delight…. But … it leads us into a culinity (South End Press), Robert Jensen, who has also prison cell…. It constrains [our imaginations], handing us a studied mainstream heterosexual pornography, points out sexual script that keeps us locked up and locked down.” that “the more pornography becomes normalized and main- In her entertaining memoir Indecent: How I Make It and streamed, the more [it] has to search for that edge. And that Fake It as a Girl for Hire (Seal Press), feminist Sarah Kather- edge most commonly [employed] is cruelty, which emotion- ine Lewis, who spent more than a decade in the sex industry, ally is the easiest place to go for men, given that the dynamic including working in pornography, sums up her main prob- of male domination and female submission is already in place lem with the industry: “When we take part in it, we increase in patriarchy.” our alienation from each other…. We take something as
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According to Dines, the nastiness of the feminist porn wars scared a lot of women away from anti-porn activism.
beautiful and communicative as sexual ecstasy and we com- business that raised no particular moral or political con- modify it, and in doing so we destroy everything that it cerns.” This, he says, is “the normalization or mainstreaming stands for…. The more we become accustomed to buying of pornography.” He adds, “The pornographers had won.” and selling sexual service, the less space we permit in our Dines acknowledges that without a robust feminist move- lives for the real thing.” ment it’s difficult to organize a campaign against pornography. Dines argues that at this point in history “porn is so deeply This time, she contends, feminists would need to partner with embedded in our culture that it has become synonymous parents, health professionals, men, schools and community with sex.” All of us, regardless of our porn use, are “bom- groups to mount a successful fight. barded with images (in magazines, fashion ads, TV, music In the meantime, the porn industry will keep looking for that videos and box office movies) that would have, a decade ago, new edge. Dines predicts children are it. Although mainstream been defined as soft-core porn.” pornographers—including Hefner—have always incorpo- The impact of this hyper-sexualized pornography culture is rated images and cartoons making light of incest and child particularly felt and expressed by young people. The common sexual abuse, the number of Internet sites dedicated to teen practice of removing pubic hair is rooted in porn and searches for teen porn has exploded the porn industry, which has no qualms in recent years. Because it’s still illegal to use about sexualizing pre-pubescence. On the anyone under the age of 18 in the production other hand, more than 90 percent of 8- to of pornography, producers dress 18- and 19- 16-year-old boys have viewed pornography year-olds in little-girl clothes and borrow online. While 30 years ago boys had to rifle “symbols, codes, conventions and narratives through their fathers’ closets to find a copy that are found in actual child pornography” of Playboy, today they can just open up their to make what is known as pseudo child porn laptops to access porn that is—in quality (PCP). Dines believes that when men get and quantity—vastly different from what bored of standard porn fare some will turn to was available to their fathers. Dines, who PCP, which may be the “first step into the
speaks at colleges and universities across Author Robert Jensen believes that as world of child pornography.” And that North America, has heard innumerable sto- women “encroach on traditional all-male means more children will be used in the pro- space” men push back for a sense of ries from young women about the pressures power and authority in the intimate sphere. duction of child pornography and more they experience from male sex partners to children will be sexually assaulted by men have anal sex, accept ejaculate on their faces and use pornog- acting out their porn-fed fantasizes. As Dines reminds us, “the raphy as a sex aid. research on the relationship between consuming pornography Given pornography’s widespread acceptance, resistance is and actual contact sex with a child suggests that there are a per- a marginal exercise. It’s not that feminists haven’t tried. In centage of men who will act out their desires on real children the late 1970s, feminist anti-violence activists made the links after viewing child porn.” between violence against women and pornography. But As survivors of child sexual abuse already know, children arguments about the value and impact of porn erupted. have never been sexually off-limits to men. What’s taboo is Many women equated porn with empowerment, and they public acknowledgement of the extent of this abuse. At the called those who were against it anti-sex. According to same time as the adult entertainment industry is youthifying Dines, the nastiness of the feminist porn wars scared a lot of its adult women, popular culture is adultifying little girls. women away from anti-porn activism. Take a look at high heels for preschoolers, padded bras for The result? According to Jensen, who documents this his- seven-year-olds and pole dancing classes for twelve-year- tory in his book, “by the mid-1990s, the feminist critique of olds. Are we promoting fun and harmless entertainment for pornography mostly had been pushed out of the public dis- little girls or publicly advertising their sexual availability? cussion and a new economic framework emerged. Journalists Whatever the case, we have pornographers to thank for began writing routinely about pornography as an ordinary helping us get here.
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WHY BANNING THE NIQAB IS NOT THE ANSWER
BY MARGARET SANKEY
France recentlyUP enacted a bill banning veils which cover the face. Similar moves in Quebec, Belgium, Hol- land and some Spanish municipalities to penalize Muslim women who wear full body coverings such as the niqab or burqa are based on inconsistent and illogical arguments, and they infringe on citizens’ rights, argues the author in this essay.
uebec’s Bill 94, tabled in 2010, proposes to allow The responsible school authorities and immigration offi- provincial employees to refuse delivery of services cials cited pedagogical reasons for her expulsion, the idea Q to people wearing facial coverings, citing “reasons being that communication in French requires the audience to of security, communication, and identification.” All provin- see the speaker’s features. (This seems doubtful, since fran- cial services would be covered by the proposed bill, including cophones manage to communicate by telephone—non?) schools, child care, hospitals and nursing homes. Quebec Immigration Minister Yolande James declared, “If The application of the law, currently in public consulta- she wants to attend the classes, we need to be able to see her tions, would be decided by each department or institution. face.” And yet, Ahmed attended the second course for 45 The bill is meant to establish guidelines only. Theoretically, days without any complaint from her teachers. It was the however, niqab wearers could be turned away or denied serv- province’s immigration ministry that intervened, interrupt- ices in situations where communication is the only issue. ing an exam to expel her. This was what happened to Naema Ahmed, an Egyptian- An equivalent Belgian proposal, approved by the country’s born pharmacist and mother who was twice expelled from lower chamber and stalled before reaching the upper house publicly funded French courses in Montreal for refusing to by the collapse of government and subsequent elections, is remove the veil covering her face. set to criminalize “clothing that covers all or most of the
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“If a ban is introduced in Quebec, the only option for those who feel strongly about the full veil may be to consider leaving the province.”
face” in any public space based on the belief that it is a threat Despite the small proportion of Muslims in each of these to security. The penalty would be a fine of up to 25 euros nations—France’s is the highest, at about six percent, and ($35 Cdn), or a week in prison for a second offense. includes a large proportion of people from Muslim back- “We cannot allow someone to claim the right to look at grounds who are not observant—there seems to be a lot of others without being seen,” said MP Daniel Bacquelaine, concern over the “Islamification” of the West. who proposed the Belgian bill. This raises a few questions in Often journalists and politicians exploit the fear of losing my mind. No more tinted windows on cars, then? No more one’s culture as part of their arguments—as though a tidal security cameras? wave of Islamic strictures were imminent, and Nantes or In August 2010, the government of France approved a bill Montreal might soon become another Riyadh or Kabul. that will ban covered faces in public, with a penalty of 150 Such critics treat the burqa as a gateway to radical Islami- euros ($210 Cdn) and/or mandatory citizenship classes. As cism, and they may even feel that tolerating the display of a in Quebec, a constitutional challenge is likely, although the symbol of oppressive Islam is akin to allowing Afghanistan’s proposal is widely popular. The French bill, while couched in Taliban a foothold in their country.This, I suspect, is the true the terminology of police effectiveness, is being championed reason for the burqa bans. If a ban is introduced in Quebec, by politicians using entirely different language. the only option for those who feel strongly about the full veil “The burqa is not an expression of religion, but a sign of may be to consider leaving the province. Indeed, the simple subjection,” according to French Prime Minister Nicholas fact that a niqab ban could discourage certain Muslims from Sarkozy. Rather, he says “the full veil is contrary to the dignity immigrating may even be responsible for some of its wide of women. The response is to ban it.” French Justice Minister popular support. Michèle Alliot-Marie agrees. “The integral veil makes the Most ridiculous of all is the argument that these bans are identity of a person vanish into that of a community,” she says. somehow feminist in nature. Those who hold this view seem “It contradicts the French model of integration, founded on to have forgotten that feminism is meant to be about the acceptance of our society’s values.” empowering women to make their own choices. Christine Such a law may run afoul of both the French constitution St-Pierre, Quebec’s minister responsible for the status of and European human rights legislation, but nonetheless may women, has called niqabs “ambulatory prisons” and pro- work well for gathering votes. Many seem willing to over- claimed that Quebec is a “world leader” when it comes to look what it would really mean to criminalize everything that gender equality. With Bill 94, she said, “We prove it once could be considered “contrary to the dignity of women” so again.” The fact that hospitals and universities are included long as a statement is made about the majority’s opinion of as agencies that may be allowed to refuse services to those fundamentalist Islam. The legislation is scheduled to come with covered faces makes one wonder: How on earth does into effect in the spring. denying women access to higher education or health care Dutch MP Geert Wilders, whose 2007 proposal would count as progress? have made wearing a burqa in the Netherlands a crime pun- The statement published by the Non/No to Bill 94 Coali- ishable by 12 days in prison, plays the integration card as tion sums up the problem with this view: “Instead of singling well. “We don’t want women to be ashamed to show who out a minuscule percentage of the population, government they are,” he explains. “Even if you have decided yourself to resources would be better spent implementing poverty do that, you should not do it in Holland, because we want reduction and education programs to address real gender you to be integrated, assimilated into Dutch society. If peo- inequality in meaningful ways. Barring any woman from ple cannot see who you are, or see one inch of your body or social services, employment, health, and education, as well as your face, I believe this is not the way to integrate into our creating a climate of shame and fear around her, is not an society.” Wilders was unsuccessful at the national level (con- effective means to her empowerment…. ‘Rescuing’ women is stitutional troubles again), but the ban is in force at all Dutch paternalistic and insulting. Further marginalizing Muslim school grounds and universities, and public servants are for- women who wear the niqab and denying them access to bidden to cover their faces. social services, economic opportunities and civic participa-
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“Each time a woman gets dressed, there is a calculation that goes on, a weighing of how best to maximize her looks, including the right balance of sex appeal.”
tion is unacceptable. Forcing a woman to reveal part of her stone of Québécois identity. This may be more accurate in body is no different from forcing her to be covered.” modern Quebec than in France, but still, where is this equal- As for the argument that veils are a symbol of the dom- ity, please? Hours of unpaid work in the home, a lack of ination of women, I would argue that a better symbol of representation in government and executives, wage gaps, the subjugation of women by hardline Islamists would be gender-based violence and poverty—need I go on? When the rocks thrown at women accused of adultery, the acid true equality between women and men happens, let’s talk. splashed in the faces of schoolgirls or the victims of “hon- Until then, please don’t pretend that Muslims are the only our killings.” oppressed women around. The veil itself does not cause subjugation. In fact, it seems It is a form of denial to try to act as though veils and the likely that most women in Western countries who veil them- social forms of modesty they represent are something com- selves do so by choice. Those who are being forced into it pletely foreign to Western culture. In 2002, lawyer Laura Joy certainly deserve protection from tyranny, and we must also was kicked out of an Ontario court by Judge Micheline be aware that women who are being controlled by a spouse Rawlins for wearing a suit with a V-neck top. Last year, a or family member are not free to publicly state their true symposium of American judges exchanged views about feelings. A different French bill, which accompanied the courtroom attire. Some where critical of women lawyers who burqa ban through Parliament, gives a large fine and a year wear “blouses so short there’s no way the judges wouldn’t in jail—doubled when the niqab wearer is a minor—to any- look.” Legal professionals debated the issue online, one argu- one who forces the full veil on another person, and I find this ing that women shouldn’t have to change their clothing rather more justifiable than the ban itself. But in any case, choices just because “men can’t control themselves,” while even if most women who wore the niqab did do so for fear another complained of women using sexuality to get what of being punished, why would banning it help things? they want. Strict interpretations of Islam forbid men and women to Each time a woman gets dressed, there is a calculation mix in non-familial situations such as socializing, work and that goes on, a weighing of how best to maximize her looks, public life. The niqab and burqa are attempts to reconcile including the right balance of sex appeal. We know that this with the need of women to appear in public, although how we are treated depends on how we look and that a cer- the garments themselves are not mandated by most interpre- tain kind of power accrues to those who are perceived as tations of the Koran. A Muslim man posting on the Internet attractive. But to wear a top that is too tight is to risk los- stated that he’s against the niqab because the reason it is ing respect instead of gaining it. Consider that a 2005 U.K. worn is to “pretend” that a woman is not in fact interacting poll by Amnesty International found that 26 percent of with unrelated men; he believes that women should not those asked thought a woman was partially or totally really ever be in a situation where they would have to wear responsible for being raped if she was wearing sexy or the niqab in the first place. They should just stay at home, revealing clothing. Non-Muslims have rules about modesty and attend mosque, separated from the men by a wall, of and appropriate attire for women, too. In this context, a course! For Muslim women who normally wear the full veil, niqab ban comes across as just one more thing women are a ban could mean that they would simply avoid public life being told we can’t do. altogether. This, of course, would result in a further erosion The most paternalistic argument against full veils is that of their ability to integrate into society, not to mention they interfere with women’s movement and are therefore impeding their freedom and independence. I do not agree unsafe for the wearer. Ban them for that reason? I guess a law with those who place the responsibility for men’s sexual against high heels should be coming soon! morals on women—either in Islamic or non-Islamic com- While there are circumstances in which it may be justified munities—but banning a garment is the wrong remedy for to require an uncovered face, bans on the niqab go too far views that have sexist origins. and interfere with individual liberties. The erosion of per- Another facetious argument is that niqabs and burqas sonal freedom is too high a price to pay for irrational don’t belong because women’s equality with men is a corner- measures that only serve to solidify anti-Muslim bigotry.
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arts culture MUSIC
KT TUNSTALL tion with electronic and dance textures, as other countrified side projects. Case’s vocal TIGER SUIT evidenced in “Push That Knot Away,” promiscuity is the music world’s gain. Virgin “Fade Like a Shadow,” and “Glamour REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO Puss,” as well as the vaguely psychedelic LAUREN BEST STICKER COLLECTION With her debut single “Black Horse and “The Entertainer.” This time out, Tunstall Independent a Cherry Tree,” KT Tunstall set herself may have more in common with Bj?rk than miles apart from her Top 40 contempo- with her U.K. contemporaries, but she’ll REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO still have you humming. raries. The follow-up, “Suddenly I See,” Sticker Collection is an impressive debut for proved the “Black Horse” writer was no a singer-songwriter who is barely out of one trick pony—a trend that happily con- THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS high school. According to the press bumph, TOGETHER high school is when the now 20-year-old tinues with the release of her third studio Last Gang Records album, Tiger Suit. Lauren Best actually penned the 12 num- A gifted songwriter, the Scottish popster REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO bers that make up Sticker Collection. uses the all the arrows she has in her Revered alt-country artist Neko Case is What’s most surprising about Best’s more than just one of the most dramatic songs is the style in which she writes them, quiver to craft hooky songs with melodies country solo acts to come out of the Pacific an auditory fiesta that could be described as that creep into the subconscious humming Northwest since Loretta Lynn took the stage klezmer meets cabaret with flourishes of of even the most casual listener. The at the Linden, Washington Fair when she pop and jazz. While this unusually musical secret? Choruses that are almost meaning- was just another 19-year-old mom with four amalgamation is charming because it actu- less lyrically, but have a lovely cadence that kids at home. (Yes, I know she was from the ally works, it’s her lyrics that make the songs burns the notes into our reptilian brains. It’s Appalachians, but the coal miner’s daughter come off sounding fresh and fun. She’s not a cool trick, and one that has been a main- launched her career out on the Left Coast.) Noel Coward yet, but she could be. stay of Brit pop since The Beatles first Tacoma-born and raised, Case got her start Check out the chorus from “Biography of wanted to hold our hands. in Vancouver’s flourishing indie scene of the a Good Girl”: “Being good was never good What makes Tiger Suit much more inter- ’90s, playing with a variety of hard-edge enough for me/Being a good girl don’t make esting than her last studio effort, Drastic bands, including Cub. for much mystery/Self-loathing, self-help Fantastic, is that Tunstall has expanded her Now, when she’s not collaborating with and a little self-pleasuring/Is what gives a musical scope and traded in her earnest- folks like fellow Corn Sister Carolyn Mark, young lady a best-selling biography.” Not ness for a sense of humour about herself. sitting in with The Sadies, opening for Bob sure? Read it out loud. Now imagine those Take the self-revelatory, folky “(Still A) Dylan, or drowning in accolades for 2009’s words sung in a smoky alto with a wry and Weirdo,” in which she acknowledges that Middle Cyclone, she’s a full-fledged mem- sophisticated cabaret delivery. Likewise she’s “still a weirdo, after all these years.” ber of Vancouver’s The New Pornographers imagine the chorus of the deliciously down- If not exactly weird, she is experimental. a supergroup of the super-hip, much in the beat “The Nihilism Song”: “My solution for Tunstall chose to record the eclectic Tiger same vein as Broken Social Scene. sensitivity/ Lies in my nihilistic tendencies/ Suit at Berlin’s famous Hansa, the same stu- Case’s vocals on TNP’s new release If I don’t believe in you/Then you can’t dio that brought the world David Bowie’s Together show the immense power behind believe in me.” groundbreaking Heroes and U2’s Achtung the cultivated and controlled country croon- With its themes of alienation and identity, Baby. (Listen to either of these albums— ing that has elevated her to cult status. in some ways Sticker Collection is exactly they do not sound 33 and nearly 20 years Check it out for “If You Can’t See My Mir- what would be expected come from a old, respectively.) rors,” “Silver Jenny Dollar” and “Crash young artist. What makes this first-time One of the bigger ideas explored on Years.” Together allows for the re-emer- effort stand out is how it’s been executed. Tiger Suit is a sound Tunstall calls “nature gence of a side of Case that’s been buried Talented and unique, Lauren Best is defi- techno,” a mixing of organic instrumenta- under the weight of her solo career and nitely one to keep an ear out for.
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arts culture MUSIC
HILARY GRIST piano, is a Norah Jones-style ballad for on a Rhianna or Beyonce Knowles album, IMAGININGS contemporary adults (or whoever it is that we’d all be tired of it by now. Independent listens to adult contemporary) that sounds REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO like a Juno shoo-in. But it’s on tunes like HANNAH GEORGAS Cabaret cool meets ethereal pop, then “Back in Town,” “Better” and “Stick of THIS IS GOOD Hidden Pony gets completely subjugated by the wittiest Dynamite” that the spectrum of her unique lyrics to recent memory—welcome to talents truly synthesizes. REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO Hilary Grist and her new CD, Imaginings. Calling a CD This is Good is a ballsy move, Grist is best known as a CBC artist, as NIKKI LYNETTE as it opens up an artist to all kinds of nasty THE STRONG SURVIVE remarks that pass for wit when scrawled by national radio is one of the few places her Independent brand of eclectic pop fits. snide music reviewers. Hannah Georgas A grad of the highly acclaimed Capilano REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO need not fear that her full-length debut’s University Jazz Program, on her fourth If you’ve got an ounce of funky diva in your title will bite her in the ass, though, because album she’s finally working with a producer soul, DIY artist Nikki Lynette’s first EP The this is exactly the kind of disc that’ll make Strong Survive will have you looking for her who loves her, literally. Imaginings is pro- people hand it to friends, saying, “This is full-length debut. A self-proclaimed “laptop duced by her new husband, Mike good.” celebrity,” Lynette first gained critical expo- Southworth. Playing drums, a plethora of From “Bang, Bang Your Dead,” a bouncy sure when she took part in MTV’s reality guitars and percussion, Southworth is also little pop-rocker about friendship and series The City. Now she’s taking it to the the second half of what is effectively a duo. betrayal, to the sober, piano-centric aching masses on her own terms through her web- Recorded in part in the apartment occupied love ballad “Shine,” This is Good is a show- site and an army of fans known as Team by the multi-talented, multi-instrumental case of excellent songwriting. Melding Bad Ass. In fact, the only place the EP, now Grist-Southworths, Imaginings’ production catchy melodies with thoughtful lyrics, expanded to a typical debut length of 10 Georgas is adept at evoking powerful emo- values are excellent. songs, is available is through her website tional imagery. The one flaw here may be the album’s www.nikkilynette.com. Take this line from “Thick Skin”: “We can musical diversity. By the middle of the Lynette’s got a killer voice and until now all get along for the first five minutes/ from album, any listener will have it figured out: has earned her bread and butter singing on Grist is a flexible, extremely talented and commercials. (She may be the only vegan to there just hold your breath.” Who hasn’t intelligent artist who’s impressed us with a ever sing on a national McDonald’s com- been at that party? cornucopia of skills. The only problem is mercial.)This Chicago radio personality is A transplanted Ontarian who now calls we’re not sure what exactly it is that has also a well-known MC, honing her produc- Vancouver home, Georgas has been com- us impressed. tion chops by creating and distributing pared to indie darlings Feist and Kate Nash. Grist clearly has talent but Imaginings mixed tapes. Instead of looking to the majors to help lacks a focus. Even the two tracks with the She’s also an extremely talented and nim- shape her career, she opted to sign with the best chance of being successful singles ble rapper as demonstrated on the otherwise tiny West Coast label Hidden Pony. have little in common. On “About You,” perfectly pop “Love U Crazy,” the more tradi- Georgas’s style takes the best from roots, Grist comes across like a more jaded Zoey tionally hip-hop “Whatever I Want” and the folk and pop, a sound proving to be both Deschanel of She & Him—the sound du title track. Those skills get lost on “Model in accessible and immensely popular. Despite jour for hipster chicks with lovely alto the Mirror (Fashion)” which sounds a little no major-label push, her music is every- voices. It’s the kind of pleasant acoustic derivative. However, any of the other five where, from Starbucks’ iTunes chits to pop used to hawk back-to-school clothes songs on The Strong Survive could be sin- Wal-Mart commercials. Let’s hope more of at Zellers. gles. In fact, if “It Doesn’t Matter,” with its it gets on radio waves—this woman “Something Beautiful,” with its haunting plaintive refrain and soulful backbeat, was deserves a massive audience.
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THE KNIFE SHARPENER’S BELL RHEA TREGEBOV Coteau Books REVIEW BY SHAWNA DEMPSEY Tales of immigration to the New World are often told but the return voyages, from New World to Old, are less storied. Likewise, those of us who grew up during the Cold War devoured spy fiction that chronicled daring escapes from the Soviet Union, but there was no literary genre that docu- mented the tale of those who willingly immigrated to Russia to join the socialist revolution. Yet it is precisely this odyssey, one that runs against the stream of domi- nant cultural narratives, that Rhea Tregebov charts in The Knife Sharpener’s Bell. shoes. Something mutable and transient Fiction. A talented wordsmith, Schnitzer has The novel explores the little-known history but, nonetheless, finally, there.” been compared with Mordecai Richler, of those who left their homes to participate in Michael Ondaatje. I would add Anne building a newly minted Soviet Republic. Told AN UNEXPECTED BREAK Michaels. Despite the accolades it received, through the eyes of a Winnipeg girl, Annette IN THE WEATHER however, the book’s cast of characters was Gershon, the tale encompasses world events DEBORAH SCHNITZER too ornate and flowery for my liking. I found as varied and far-flung as the Great Depres- Turnstone Press myself lost at times, as the book conjured up sion on the Canadian prairies, the massacre REVIEW BY KAREN DARRICADES images rather than thoughts or feelings. of Odessa and the Stalinist Gulag system. Deborah Schnitzer’s An Unexpected Break However, if you like plenty of descriptive Through it all, a profound love for family pulls in the Weather highlights the warmth and prose, this book might be for you. against dogged and systemic anti-Semitism. winds of Winnipeg’s Corydon strip as As a child, Annette asks, “Winnipeg. Are Schnitzer weaves a story of connection, HER MOTHER’S ASHES 3 there really other places? In the middle of estrangement, change and endings—both STORIES BY SOUTH ASIAN winter, in Winnipeg, it doesn’t seem there the orchestrated and inevitable kinds. The WOMEN IN CANADA AND THE are even other seasons.” And yet the story centres around A Rose on Corydon, a UNITED STATES impossible transpires. In 1936, the idealism bridal shop that is the celebratory and heal- EDITED BY NURJEHAN AZIZ of her parents is strong enough to move her ing headquarters of aging couple Mildred TSAR Publictaions halfway around the globe. and Gertrude’s chosen family. REVIEW BY ROZENA MAART Her frustrations with the Cyrillic alphabet The shop begins its last walk down the This new collection containing stories by are paralleled by her father’s dismay at aisle when Mildred’s sudden slip on the ice 24 South Asian writers in North America Soviet bureaucracy and identification papers forces the couple to face the reality of their brings a quality of writing to the page that that state “Jew” as the family members’ limited ability to maintain the energy the makes the book a must-read for short nationality. As committed socialists, the fam- shop demands. With no one to take over the story enthusiasts. ily is entirely secular. However, like victims of business, the shop’s place in their lives will Her Mother’s Ashes 3 was preceded by fascist regimes elsewhere in Europe, the be a loss to them and to many others entan- Her Mother’s Ashes and Her Mother’s Ashes family’s lack of religious practices and faith gled in this community corner. 2 published in 1994 and 1998, respectively. are no protection from hatred. When wedding-happy friend Perfume The contributors are diverse in terms of This remarkable novel illuminates a decides to marry for the fourth time, Millie origin and background. Many of them were period of history long shielded by the Iron and Gertrude agree it will be A Rose’s last born on the South Asian subcontinent, then Curtain, as well as the complex relationship hurrah. Determined to control this ending by lived in the United States or Canada and between immigration and homeland. It is orchestrating a smashing party deserving of subsequently moved back to Asia, though also beautifully written. The page-turning A Rose’s legacy, everyone attending the not necessarily where they were born. epic begins in the 1920s in Winnipeg, wedding is invited to parade the bridal shop’s Thus, they brought their South Asian identi- spends two decades in the Soviet Union, wears at the extravagant ceremony, to be ties across the Atlantic and back to Asia. then finds its way back to contemporary hosted by the shop. That control is snatched Along the way, many of these writers Toronto. It is as much an exploration of away when long-time friend Wordie fights gained a clarity for detail in their surround- what is home as it is of history. cancer and faces death, forcing them to say ings, savouring not only tastes and smells, And, like all meaningful journeys, after their goodbyes to the places and people they but the way in which certain languages many cliffhanging twists and turns, it leads graciously took for granted, until …an unex- twist tongues in ways that cannot be trans- Annette to herself: “The eye squinting this pected break in the weather hits. lated into English and are best said in very moment in the late sun, the hand draw- An Unexpected Break in the Weather won Gujerati, Hindi or Punjabi. ing the facade, toes cramped in their worn Schnitzer the Margaret Laurence Award for There is an element to the stories that
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ECHOES FROM THE OTHER LAND AVA HOM A These haunting stories beautifully evoke the resistance of modern women in Iran. “This is a voice that we all need to hear.” —SUSAN HOLBROOK “Homa announces new beginnings—less irony, more hope—and from a breathtaking multicultural and international perspective.” Eakkaf_Oge]f$Eakkaf_F]ok2;gn]jaf_;jakakaf D]Ynaf_l`]Klj]]lk2Klgja]kg^;YfY\aYfQgml` —LOUIS CABRI NYf[gmn]jk Jewels and Other Stories DAWN PROMISLOW The landscape of 1970’s South Africa lives and breathes in these stories, populated by a wide and surprising range of unforgettable characters. “Wonderful reading from an astonishingly fresh and original writer.” —OLIVE SENIOR 9D]_Y[qg^Dgn]2J]e]Z]jaf_Emja]d New fromUTP Anne’s World A New Century of Anne of Green Gables Queering Bathrooms edited by Irene Gammel and Benjamin Lefebvre Gender, Sexuality, and the Hygienic Imagination ‘As Anne begins her journey into the next millennium, after her first 100 years, by Sheila L. Cavanagh Gammel and Lefebvre have proven that there are startling new facets to uncover... The public bathroom is one of the These new approaches reveal that Anne is as last strictly gendered spaces, but new today as ever.’ Holly Blackford, editor of 100 Years of Anne with an ‘e’ for some - queer and trans people 9781442611061 / $29.95 especially - gender identity isn’t as clear as the sign on a bathroom door. In Queering Bathrooms, Is It Just? Cavanagh explores how public A Classic Feminist Novel toilets demarcate the masculine by Minnie Smith and feminine and condition With an introduction by Jenny Roth and Lori Chambers ideas of gender and sexuality. Smith’s 1911 first-wave feminist novel tells the story of a woman whose lazy, selfish husband loses their land in the Okanagan Valley. Roth and Chambers provide a critical introduction that puts ‘Queering Bathrooms is a compelling work... Cavanagh’s top- the work in historical perspective. notch scholarship addresses issues pertinent to gender studies, 9781442611573 / $24.95 trans studies, queer theory, and critical studies in sexuality.’ Christopher Shelley, University of British Columbia University of Toronto Press 9781442610736 / $29.95 www.utppublishing.com 40 WINTER 2011 HERIZONS her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:28 PM Page 41 arts culture WINTER READING can only be described as homely—a tex- ture that allows the reader to feel as though they are a family member who has been invited to come along to the dance, the pag- eant or the wedding and taste the mango juice, the flaming kebabs and the curries, mouth dripping with sauce, turning one page after another. There, the reader meets the smell of flowers at a naming ceremony, the sound of a violin as memories of a wed- ding flash across the page, and savours the anticipation of a golden sunset in India while inhaling the flavours of chai as it leaps out of the cup, onto the page, in the story titled “A love story.” The stories, beautifully composed, are lively, vibrant, well-written and show an ting her first bra to sharing a kiss with her of age and coming out as Toni struggles intensity that gives the collection its husband-to-be at a high school dance, to within and against the claims on her identity deserved place on the top shelf of every giving birth to two children—they learn as a daughter, a Jew, a Canadian whose par- bookcase—not only in Canada and the about what it means to live in a social world ents have funny accents, and a girl who United States, but around the world. that has no tools for imagining persons with simultaneously admires and is repelled by the disabilities as dynamic agents with hopes, feminine norms of the time. MATERNITY ROLLS: dreams and complex inner lives. Toni’s struggles take on the form of a PREGNANCY, CHILDBIRTH Maternity Rolls is offered as a corrective heroic quest as she battles internal and AND DISABILITY to this imaginative gap. “While I wrote,” external demons in search of a life that is HEATHER KUTTAI explains Kuttai, “I kept the hope that by both acceptable and expressive of her real Fernwood Books telling this story of disability I was putting a feelings. Her journey moves across social REVIEW BY CAROLINA PINEDA face to disability issues, illuminating the classes and neighbourhoods, Jewish com- Heather Kuttai masterfully brings the per- social oppression that exists for people with munities in Montreal and in Israel, and sonal and the political together in her book disabilities, offering solutions to those prob- down the torturous paths of first loves. Maternity Rolls: Pregnancy, Childbirth and lems and presenting another way of Nothing comes easily to Toni. Her difficult Disability. This exploration of a life lived out- thinking and acting,” she explains. relationship with her parents, who are suffer- side able-bodied norms combines critical On all accounts, she is successful. For this ing the damaging effects of their traumatic social theory with the intensive self-reflex- reason, Maternity Rolls gets a high score in losses in the Holocaust, is echoed in the diffi- ive methodologies of auto-ethnography to my books. For Kuttai, a three-time Paralympic culties she encounters at Loulou’s, the explain the myriad ways socio-cultural medalist who is now championing the martial old-fashioned lesbian bar caught between forces shape individual life trajectories and art of critical disability studies and disability- repressive heterosexist laws and an emerg- biographies. rights activism, I imagine no less will do. ing lesbian feminist movement. Kuttai’s discussion of gender and disabil- One of the strengths of the novel is the ity is particularly poignant. Through vividly GIRL UNWRAPPED sure way Goliger incorporates social and recollected memories of her childhood and GABRIELLA GOLIGER political issues of the times into Toni’s life. adolescence, Kuttai shows that despite cre- Arsenal Pulp Press Phenomena as diverse as the Six-Day War ative and sometimes humorous acts of REVIEW BY DEBORAH YAFFE and tensions between bar dykes and les- resistance, ablist assumptions amounting to Are you tired of flashy postmodern novels bian feminists form parts of the intense degrading representations of her as asexual that leave you admiring but unmoved? Are discussions swirling around her. and unlovable deeply marked her own you interested in Canadian social history, or Whether you are old enough to remem- sense of self, her relationship to others and Jewish Canadians, or post-Holocaust fiction ber them or young enough to want to know her visions of the future. or lesbian fiction that leaves you with some- about them, you’ll find lots to engage your “I made steps towards realizing my own thing to think about? interest. The book is written in language intrinsic worth as a sexual person, but in the Have I got a book for you. Award-winning poetic enough to be interesting, while never end I did not realize how much I had inter- author Gabriella Goliger’s Girl Unwrapped fits distracting from the feel of a good read. nalized the notion that to live with a disability beautifully into the growing stack of literature is to live without sexuality, until I became about Jewish lesbian daughters of Holocaust RELUCTANT BEDFELLOWS pregnant for the first time. It was then that survivors. Born in a working-class neighbour- MEREDITH RALSON AND EDNA KEEBLE my sexuality could no longer be denied by hood of Montreal in the 1950s, Toni Goldblatt Kumarian Press anyone; not even me,” she writes. yearns to achieve the social acceptance REVIEW BY KATIE PALMER As readers follow Kuttai in an exploration desired for her by her parents. Girl Can a pair of Western academics really make of her most intimate moments—from get- Unwrapped combines the themes of coming a tangible difference in the lives of socio- HERIZONS WINTER 2011 41 her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:28 PM Page 42 arts culture WINTER READING economically marginalized women in the ment to global feminism is the entry point to colonial values. It will also be useful to global South? And, equally important, should their travels to the Philippines to embark on a those who teach on the subjects of gender, they even attempt to “do something” in terms five-year development project. By developing development studies and human rights. of development work in a foreign country and gender-sensitivity and social-context training risk practising neo-colonialism? These are workshops, the authors discuss how they VICTIMS NO MORE: the two guiding questions that Meredith Ral- reached their goal of producing contextual- WOMEN’S RESISTANCE TO ston and Edna Keeble examine throughout ized social change in relation to the attitudes LAW, CULTURE AND POWER their engaging book Reluctant Bedfellows. among locals towards—and the working EDITED BY ELLEN FAULKNER AND Reluctant Bedfellows follows the intel- conditions of—prostitutes in Angeles City, a GAYLE MACDONALD lectual and civic journeys of Ralston and thriving red-light district for sex tourists. Fernwood Publishing Keeble, two Canadian university professors In addition, the authors provide living REVIEW BY MAYA KHANKHOJE who extend their commitments to global proof of the validity of their thesis. That is, The title of this book says it all. Victims No feminism and global citizenship far beyond by conducting qualitative interviews with More: Women’s Resistance to Law, Culture the confines of the ivory tower. In the members from the organizations they and Power is a much-awaited alternative to beginning chapters, they draw ample atten- worked with in the Philippines, Rolston and a large body of feminist literature that treats tion to the theoretical debate as to whether Keeble show how geographic location, cou- women as passive victims, rather than as Western feminists should attempt to under- pled with identity politics, must not prevent active agents of resistance against patriar- take development work in developing us from “doing something” about human chal forms of oppression. countries. Drawing on the critiques of iden- rights abuses across the globe. The authors Its two editors and 16 authors—mostly tity politics, post-structuralism and argue that positive change can occur as a academics, a few lawyers and a couple of post-colonialism, the authors take a very result of development work. social workers—make the strong point that strong position that social change is a polit- Although there are a few righteous the concept of woman-as-victim plays into ical responsibility of individuals, especially undertones in the book, overall Reluctant the neo-liberal agenda by encouraging pas- those with access to networks, financial Bedfellows is theoretically rich and highly sivity and hopelessness. The authors capital and social resources, regardless of practical fur those who want to participate propose, instead, a movement towards a their geographic location. in overseas development work, yet are more encompassing framework of resist- Ralston and Keeble’s theoretical commit- afraid of reproducing ethnocentric and neo- ance at an individual, collective, local, Da ao_]la` pda cqji]j* The ?]j da ao_]la pda iaiknu; December Man (L’homme de décembre) by Colleen Murphy F=JQ=NU .3 ) BA>NQ=NU -/( .,-- GI IFEDIEH;:8O0 C;:?7IFEDIEH0 42 WINTER 2011 HERIZONS her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:28 PM Page 43 arts culture WINTER READING national and even international level. emancipatory laws for which it asks the gen- Finally, section five provides dramatic The book is divided into five sections. Sec- eral public’s active participation. Section examples of how literary criticism has been tion one invites readers to think critically three traces collective resistance strategies a historical form of women’s resistance. The about the damaging effects that neo-liberal that go beyond the law. An example is the tragic example of Sethe (the protagonist in policies have on violence against women and Raging Grannies, who use humour and civil Toni Morrison’s Beloved) who murders her children. It also makes a distinction between disobedience to promote radical change. child in a bid to escape the continued equity feminism and what the editors refer to Section four highlights the importance of enslavement of her family is analyzed. as “victim feminism.” resilience in questions related to identity and Victims No More reminds us that justice Section two analyzes current legal prac- issues such as gender, culture, motherhood for women is an integral part of social justice. tices and resistance strategies. It advocates and drug abuse. This book deserves to be read mindfully. poetry reviews BONE DREAM dichotomies that cover everything from MOIRA MACDOUGALL tics to art preferences. Dividing people Tightrope Books neatly into mutually exclusive camps, REVIEW BY MARIIANNE MAYS lines sing with slightly absurd divisions It may sound like a strange criticism, but such as “There are people […] who clean my biggest complaint about Moira Mac- their mouse regularly and people who Dougall’s Bone Dream is that I wish its title think Something’s wrong with my mouse were Saltwater Bone. Bone Dream makes over and over,” and “You think Modigliani painted nipples too small or you think the work sound dryer, more literal, and less Emily Carr painted trees too big,” and mysterious, lyrical and sensual than it in “Smashing through the guardrail and fact is. Former dancer MacDougall brings a plummeting to your death you shout ‘I synesthetic intelligence to the oceanic love you!’ or you shout ‘Fuck!’” inner worlds she presents, which range Holbrook turns up the categorical silli- from an embodied, droll every day that just ness with the long final poem of the happens to be peopled with mythic charac- book, the curiously tender “Nursery,” in ters (Oedipus, Cupid and Psyche, to name a which left and right breast distractedly few) to the logic of the dream, “quivering muse on motherhood and other subjects between dread and hunger.” while breast-feeding, without losing I feel admiration and a deep affinity for political points. the dark vision and gorgeous, rhythmic sensibility that inform this book. Though FORAGE occasional lines, metaphors or poems RITA WONG seem at times a little unfocused or slap- Nightwood Editions dash, and at others slightly overcooked, REVIEW BY MARIIANNE MAYS and sometimes the poet’s sensibility reverts Too often, an overeager didacticism creeps too easily to a predictable vocabulary of into politically charged poetry and her yogic practice, overall Bone Dream is squashes aesthetic considerations. Hap- dense with surprising images and searing pily, this is not the case for forage by Rita insights. MacDougall’s blend of memory, Wong, her second book. Wong’s powerful, miraculous way “faith hides in little pock- “reptilian mind” and healing “pose” uncoils impassioned perspective is always accom- ets like the heart/ and the throat” in this vividly throughout this debut collection. panied by careful attention to language and collection, for the way Wong adjudicates her clear-eyed, moving observations. the shameful circumstance of “a gay boy JOY IS SO EXHAUSTING Wong ably works between the problem- who made the best damn bannock i’ve SUSAN HOLBROOK atics of consumerism and eco-waste on ever tasted./ there’s no justice for him to Coach House the one hand and the assimilation of eth- die,” for terrible efficiency of the grief and REVIEW BY MARIIANNE MAYS nicity into mainstream culture on the other. anger in “the dance of the dutiful daugh- Susan Holbrook’s second book Joy is so With an overview this brief, it should go ter,” for the way a “walled mind becomes exhausting is another bright gem, a without saying that it’s not enough to be a coffin,” for how the poet “hears trees delightful, witty romp through language fair to the work. But forage is so filled with creak a careful warning.” Wong’s com- and body language. Poems like “Good Egg the urgency of heart and heartbreak and manding voice commences a cry that Bad Seed” will make you laugh aloud at the demand for justice that I want to quote seems to incite the entire earth and its Holbrook’s playful, tongue-in-cheek entire poems in full, in order to attest to the peoples into a vital song of resistance. HERIZONS WINTER 2011 43 her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:28 PM Page 44 University of Ottawa A piece of history Graduate Studies at the Dave Mullington’s Institute of Women’s Studies t1I%BOE."JO8PNFOT4UVEJFT CHARLOTTE 5XPöFMETPGTQFDJBMJ[BUJPO The Last Suffragette t(FOEFS 1PXFSBOE3FQSFTFOUBUJPOT t8PNFO 3JHIUTBOE$JUJ[FOTIJQJOB 408 pages (MPCBMJ[FE8PSME t$PMMBCPSBUJWF."JOTFMFDUFEEJTDJQMJOFT $30 + HST XJUIBTQFDJBMJ[BUJPOJO8PNFOT4UVEJFT Charlotte Whitton was, in turns, a social welfare leader, a nationally prominent consultant www.grad.uOttawa.ca and the first woman mayor of a Canadian city (Ottawa). Famed for her acerbic tongue and her volatile temper, the longtime feminist was named Canada’s Woman Newsmaker of the Year six times during the 1950s and ’60s. Dave Mullington’s new biography is available from: GENERAL STORE PUBLISHING HOUSE 1-800-465-6072 www.gsph.com [email protected] DO YOU TEACH WOMEN’S STUDIES? Herizons is a great educational tool and women’s studies HERE’S WHAT PROFESSORS ARE resource for your classroom. SAYING ABOUT HERIZONS: Bulk Herizons Subscriptions for women’s studies students are “I love having copies of Herizons to hand available for $6 each—or 75% off the regular price. out to my intro women’s studies students!” Ann Braithwaite, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Women’s Studies, University of Prince Edward Island, Here’s How It Works: Charlottetown, P.E.I.,Canada “Herizons always makes my work for You place an order for 40 or more Women’s Studies women exciting and worthwhile.” 1. Subscriptions at $6 each (minium order $240). Cheryl Gosselin, Women’s Studies Coordinator, Bishop’s University, We will ship them directly to your office immediately upon Lennoxville, QC, Canada 2. publication during the academic year. You distribute them in class—there are no names to keep track of. Just email [email protected] to order—let us know how 3. many Women’s Studies Subscriptions you want. We’ll send the next issue when it’s published. Women’s studies professors tell us that Herizons is an invaluable source of feminist news and analysis, covering topical issues, public policy debates. Herizons research is useful in the classroom and students attest to its value as well. Herizons, a great teaching tool for women’s studies professors. 44 WINTER 2011 HERIZONS her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:28 PM Page 45 arts culture FILM In Fish Tank, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, Andrea Arnold handles her sub- ject with an unflinching lack of sentimentality. FISH TANK Mia, believes in her talents and treats her like a Directed by Andrea Arnold peer. All this plus Connor’s brooding sexuality REVIEW BY MAUREEN MEDVED disturb as much as they intrigue. The film suc- Fish Tank, the second feature film by U.K. cessfully walks this delicate line as we wonder writer/director Andrea Arnold, is a close study of and worry about how the paradox between rage and its workings within female adolescence. Mia’s rage and vulnerability will fit through the Mia, played by Katie Jarvis, is a young teen eye of tension provided by Connor’s arrival. living in a council flat with her neglectful mother The world offers Mia very little in the way of and younger sister. Mia is stuck and tough. But encouragement or inspiration. Mia wants to within her, she protects a sliver of vulnerability. dance hip-hop. It is the single staple in her life, a The film reminds us repeatedly that she is a tremulous, uncertain thing. In Arnold’s deft hands, teen heading for trouble and begins with Mia the dance slips out of consciousness then resur- head-butting and breaking another girl’s nose. In faces. Will it save Mia from a hellish existence or another early scene, a group of boys attack Mia will it, like everything else, die or disappoint? until another boy steps in and releases a dog to The viewer forgets that dance is part of the scare the attackers off. Mia’s mother seems to film. More than part, it is the thematic essence. be a permanent adolescent herself—a single The fish that Katie helps Connor catch during a mother who has never grown up and despises family outing. The dance. The horse. Love. Mia’s and fears her daughter’s fledgling sexuality. very self. Everything on the verge of uncertainty. The brutality of Mia’s world causes her to Slipping, slipping away. watch it all—her physical environment, bad tel- At the end of this world is hope. The sun evision, her peers, her mother’s negligence and casts its rays through the murk. We sense that sexual exhibitionism—safely through a long lens as in life, sometimes, a chance, an escape. of adolescent detachment. Mia meets everything Fish Tank, which won the Jury Prize at either from this distance or with scorn. The only Cannes, is a superb example of the new wave of sign of tenderness exhibited is when she sees a British realism. Andrea Arnold handles her sub- sick horse chained to a post. That is, until Con- ject with an unflinching lack of sentimentality, nor, her mother’s new boyfriend, played by close control of characterization and a keen Michael Fassbender, appears. cinematic eye. At moments the film becomes With Connor’s appearance the film picks up tightly wound, reaching heights of suspense an unsettling tension. Connor is interested in that Hitchcock would have applauded. HERIZONS WINTER 2011 45 her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:28 PM Page 46 Help Build a Sustainable ee your name in print in each issue of Herizons when you join the growing community of Herizons S Sustaining Subscribers. 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Heather McDonald J.C. Prior Harold Shuster Ashley McGhee Erminia Profiri Muriel Sibley Send your authorization, (‘VOID’ cheque) to: Selma McGorman Kathleen Quinn Melanie Sicotte Herizons Sustaining Subscribers Susan McGrath Samantha-Lee Quinn Sylvia Sigurdson PO Box 128, Winnipeg, MB Canada R3C 2G1 Debra McIntyre Helen Ramirez Joan Simeon Check if applicable: Do not publish my name on this page. Melanie McIntyre Jean Rands Ruth Simkin her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:28 PM Page 48 on the edge BY LYN COCKBURN POLITICS ON THIN ICE Bristol Palin says it was prayer that got her through Dancing Then there were the many cruel jibes about her weight. with the Stars. “It is faith that got me through this and just “Fat” and “chubby” were the kindest words used. Bristol is an praying all the time and just relying on God and knowing that attractive young woman who is admittedly not thin. And why He is on our side and we’ll get through this,” said Sarah’s should she be thin?—especially since some of us don’t lose daughter after the finals in which, thank God, she placed third. the extra pregnancy pounds until the kid is in Grade 12. So, I can relate. I too got through this 11th season of DWTS is Bristol supposed to be thin because thin is a virtue, because thanks to prayer. Week after week, I prayed that Bristol many young models are one pound this side of anorexia? Or would be voted off the show, and finally my prayers were because she’s female? answered. Kyle Massey, 19, the adorable actor who deservedly came Okay, so I watch Dancing with the Stars. Religiously. And in second after the winner Jennifer Grey is?well, chubby. I no wonder, considering that five Anglican priests in Britain searched the Internet and could not find any remarks about recently announced they’re defecting to the Catholic church his weight. But Bristol? She is evidently not just a slut, she is because their own church won’t back off plans to permit a fat slut with fat legs and fat arms and a fat face. Some com- women and gays to become bishops. They’ll be welcomed ments were so vicious I considered shooting my computer. with open arms by Pope Benedict, who recently promised However, unlike Steven Cowan in Wisconsin, who shot his disaffected Anglican bishops safe haven in The Church. This TV after watching Bristol dance, I do not have instant access occurrence is a good reason for keeping up my membership to a gun. So I said a prayer instead. in the Church of DWTS, rather than in one that purports to The only significant point here is that Bristol is, at best, a do God’s work. Poor God. mediocre dancer who should have been voted off in week Anyway, I like the entertainingly mindless Dancing With two. Note that I, and, I suspect many other DWTS parish- the Stars. However, as a loyal Canadian, I am a trifle ashamed ioners, know something about dancing badly. In fact, I am an of the fact that I like it more than Battle of the Blades. I has- expert. I rather think if I were on DWTS I’d be dumped ten to point out that I have been watching BoB on Sundays, after—or perhaps during—the first show. but not the Monday eliminations when DWTS is on. And Bristol stayed on beyond her expiry date because of the while I’m doing confession, I admit that Alexander Ovechkin popular vote which totally ignored the judges’ scores. Some, is my favourite hockey player. So beat me with a maple leaf. including me, say it’s because she’s Momma Grizzly’s daugh- However, my faith in DWTS was sorely tested over the past ter, and because those dreadful Tea Party people phoned, 14-week season, as Bristol the Pistol strutted her stuff. I has- texted and tweeted in droves, gaggles and herds to vote for ten to point out that Bristol Palin seems like a nice young Bristol as though the DWTS contest were the run-up to the woman. Her only sin, an unavoidable one, is that she picked 2012 U.S. presidential election. a regrettable mother. As for her becoming a teen mom, who All in all, this season of DWTS could tempt a person to am I, considering some of my youthful indiscretions, to crit- change churches again, and I’m considering converting to icize. Note that the Biblical “let he who is without sin chuck ABC’s new show Skating With the Stars. Besides, it is the first rock” stuff has not deterred countless folk from rush- rumoured that Dancing with the Stars will soon allow same ing to their computers to post sanctimonious judgments of sex couples to compete?and that’s surely enough to make a Bristol, which sadly often contain words like “slut.” person dance in a different church. 48 WINTER 2011 HERIZONS her-052 Winter 2011 v24n3.qxp 12/15/10 12:29 PM Page C3 FEMINISM NOW! Demonstrate your support for Herizons! Order your very own subscription. Subscribe on-line through our secure site: herizons.ca or use the pre-paid envelope enclosed if you prefer. HOUSTON, WE HAVE A LESBIAN MEN’S HEALTH IS A MAYOR FEMINIST ISSUE FATIGUE IS A VIRUS! Do you want media to ABORTION & look at the world as MS. MAGAZINE THE BISHOPS: WINTER 2010 PLAYING POLITICS WITH WOMEN’S LIVES if women mattered? If you answered yes—you are the personC we are trying to reach. 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