March 27th, 2016
from Nat
What a fucking week. Rob Ford died on Tuesday and that somehow seems so long ago, right? I’ve been thinking about this Kay Ryan poem a lot this week.
There was a lot of great writing and thinking about the Ghomeshi verdict, and what needs to happen next. For various reasons, I know that lots of people don’t want to be thinking about that case right now, so I’m going to put everything related to it in the asterisked section below, which you can skip over if you want to!
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I spent a lot of time on social media this week, and while the verdict in the Ghomeshi case was awful and so was some of the commentary, what I was bearing witness to was the strength and power of thoughtful, caring, funny people who were holding each other up and taking care of themselves and one another. I believe you, we believe you, we can change things.
Scaachi Koul hopes that the verdict makes you furious
Lucy Decoutere is a genuine hero, and her interview with Chatelaine is painful to read but important
In the Walrus, six women talk about the trials of their assailants
Naomi Sayers and Samantha Peters offer a re-imagining of future sexual assault trials
Beautiful survivor love letters
Witness Number 3 is gathering stories and sharing resources about sexual assault
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Black Lives Matter Toronto has been holding space outside of Toronto Police headquarters since last Sunday, and yesterday they held a huge rally. If you aren’t in Toronto, you can sign this in solidarity with Black Lives Matter Toronto and their goals, and you can send funds to info@blacklivesmatterto.ca
A photo essay on faces of the protest
Anti-trans bathroom bills were passed this week in North Carolina, and some parents of children in Alberta schools are trying to create a similar “bathroom panic”. Clearly, the point of these initiatives is to make it more dangerous to be a trans person, and we must fight back against this dangerous precedent. Melissa Gira Grant wrote about how feminists need to take responsibility for the transphobia and transmisogyny that conservatives have borrowed from feminist conversations.
The Trudeau government released its first budget on Tuesday, and lots of folks are parsing it. You can read it here, get lots of analysis from the CCPA here, read Pam Palmater on why the funding for First Nations is insufficient, and Kate McInturff on why the budget doesn’t have enough Real Change™ for women. Then let us know what you think!
Brilliant WOC spoken word artists! This article also introduced me to gal-dem, a gorgeous online magazine for and by WOC out of the UK. Go check out the whole thing!
Not everyone likes cunnilingus (this is pretty hetero-focussed, and it seems like the one big takeaway is that a lot of dudes are bad at giving head)
Lucas Crawford’s outgoing reflection as critic-in-residence at CWILA is a really important read, especially for feminists in the literary community. Crawford reflects on the ways the gender binary is policed within Can Lit, and offers some solutions on how to do better.
An illustrated conversation on living between continents – and between genders
Seven books that Tracey Lindberg loves
Why millennial women are burning out
Polyamory/Relationship Anarchy/Dyke Ethics/Significant Otherness/All my relations: the Critical Polyamorist on what to call it.
A new Claudia Rankine poem that is also a brilliant essay on why Donald Drumpf is gaining power
GUTS is looking for a volunteer acquiring and developmental editor! We are especially interested in hearing from BIPOC – if this is you and you are interested in joining the GUTS team, please send us an email at editors @ gutsmagazine.ca by Tuesday, March 29th. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Sorry I don’t have more fun/funny things for you to look at. My consolation is this cute video of my parent’s baby goats wearing sweaters and jumping on their mom.
