February 28, 2016
from Nat
- Brooklyn Magazine published a series of conversations on diversity in publishing – an industry currently dominated by white women. There are responses from 50 people who work in the industry, as well as a series of recommendations/next steps. GUTS editors have been thinking and talking about this issue a lot recently – if you’re someone with thoughts about how we can do better, please consider emailing us at editors @ gutsmagazine.ca!
- Stella, an organization that supports sex workers in Montreal is losing a significant portion of its funding to Quebec government austerity.
- The Native Women’s Association of Canada has released its recommendations on how the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women should be conducted.
- This bleak article points to a looming economic crisis for traditionally female-dominated industries: “Nearly 4.8 million office and administrative jobs will disappear globally by 2020. Currently, women fill more than half of those roles around the world.” Luckily we still have lots of people to tell us that the reason women aren’t succeeding in the workforce is because they say “sorry” too much.
- Crucial reading on Tumblr porn: get searching, everybody, and please share your fave porn tumblrs in the comments!
- “Recognise the expansive aesthetic possibilities of a world where people can dress the ways that represent them – and recognise that we currently live in a world where that is not yet possible.” DarkMatter, the poetry and performance duo, are brilliant artists with the best lipstick, and here they talk about fashion and their new zine.
- I guess the Oscars are tonight? Here are all your favourite actors/producers talking about what Hollywood is like if you aren’t a straight white dude.
- “Because single women often put friendship at the center of our lives, it can be hard for us to be friends with people who see friendship as peripheral, as many partnered people do.” Relying on friends in a world built for couples
- Our friend Kiva Reardon of cléo wrote about keeping feminist film criticism subversive in Hazlitt.
- “Drake’s evolution into a sentient “no invite? ;)” text has played out in YouTube clips and GIFs seen ‘round the web. And the recipients of his most lit-up eyeball emojis are visibly, notably, and undeniably black women.” Drake belongs to black women, Hannah Giorgis is a genius, I think about the line below many times a day.
- “I see women who have experienced more violence than me, and women who have experienced less violence than me, but I don’t see women who don’t experience violence. The fact that some women have experienced more, worse sexual violence only means that they need more help not that I need less help or that my emotional response to a traumatic event is invalid.” What I learned from dating women who have been raped (tw).
- “We had hijacked the refugees’ narrative, sidelining what they were escaping in favour of where they had landed. Stories about local folks doing good deeds for the newcomers elbowed out more sober reflections on the events that led to their exodus.” I needed to read this reminder by Kamal Al-Solaylee in the Walrus – I’ve certainly been guilty, recently, of favouring heartwarming stories about communities welcoming refugees over stories about the situation in Syria or ongoing challenges for newcomers. Maybe you have too!
- On Monday I saw The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 and learned a lot. Mostly that there’s so much more history to learn! Luckily, the African American Intellectual History Society put together this Black Panther Syllabus for our post-Formation world.
- Tomorrow is a Leap Day! Wikipedia says that Ireland celebrates Bachelor’s Day on February 29th, where a woman can propose to a man, and if he refuses, he has to give her a silk gown. In Aurora, Illinois, single women are allowed to arrest single men on Leap Days. Anyways, you should do something special tomorrow – it only comes every four years!
Image: Angela Davis from The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975