March 22, 2015
“Our Bodies Are Not Terra Nullius.” (TW) Fierce Indigenous Feminism responds to the maddening results of the trial for the violent killing of Cindy Gladue, and reflects on the media’s ambivalence about her death.
A preview of some of the excellent female artists performing at SXSW. And while you’re at it, read about two new tech-centric films engaging with gender dynamics at the SXSW film festival (the cover photo this week is from one of the profiled films).
“Brown Broads, White TV” tackles Broad City this week, beginning with the question of why they feel alone in their dislike of the show. They do a good job of zoning in on the assumptions about race and economic class that underpin many of the show’s jokes, including Abbi’s role as a cleaner.
A queer couple on the emotional and economic drain of trying to conceive using assisted reproductive technology. “We need to be able to talk about the sometimes obstacle-filled journey to parenthood openly, but without fielding tons of intrusive questions that further fracture our already tenuous privacy. And as queer people, we need culturally competent health care providers who understand and sympathize with what we’re going through.”
Kyle T. Mays writes eloquently about the struggle in contemporary culture to do away with essentialist notions of “Indigeneity,” focusing on Indigenous Hip Hop as an art form that challenges old stereotypes.
This is sort of amazing—even if you have reservations about the Bechdel test, Pitchfork’s adaptation of the test to music is worth checking out, if only to find out which artists on the list pass.
“This week, Starbucks announced that it would encourage its baristas to write ‘Race Together’ on coffee cups and engage customers in conversation about the state of race relations in the United States.” The real kicker? Employees must take on this extra work without compensation.
“Love and Friendship on the Picket Line.” This week in labour news!
A long overdue win in Toronto: this week it was announced that the 2015 operating budget would include funding for round-the-clock drop-in shelters for women and trans people. The struggle for these services has been spearheaded by OCAP. We are deeply grateful to all of the people who worked hard to make this happen. In Sol!
Metro News profiled a group of students in Edmonton who have started a blog called F.E.D. U.P. (Feminist Eatery Database Undercover Project), which captures sexist and racist practices in the city’s service industry through surveys and personal testimonies.
We all know that Pixar is notoriously unoriginal (and racist) when it comes to illustrating female characters. This article explains why uniformity is about more than a lack of creativity.
Casey Plett, author of “The Rise of the Gender Novel” (an article that focused on the inaccurate rendering of trans characters in fiction), has put together a list of five excellent books by trans authors.
For the secret or not-so-secret fanfiction lovers out there, you may enjoy this delightful Autostraddle interview with eight femslash fanfic writers. Because let’s be real, Hermione/Ginny may be the ultimate OTP.
