October 25th, 2015
by Nat
- “Officers routinely picked up women who appeared to be intoxicated, drove them out of town and left them to walk home in the cold.” Indigenous women in Val D’Or, Quebec, have been sexually assaulted by police for years, and while allegations came forward last May, officers involved were only put on leave – or placed on administrative duty! – this week, when a Radio-Canada report was released. In the face of a corrupt and racist police force and state apparatus, the courage it must have taken to come forward is amazing. Believing and supporting the women who come forward will continue to be crucial.
- So, that election happened. You, too, probably have a range of feelings about it. Maybe you’re just glad it’s over. If you’re reading this, it’s very unlikely that you’re sad Stephen Harper is no longer Prime Minister, but maybe you also have a mixed reaction to our new Prime Minister designate. Personally, with the Liberals’ support for Bill C51 and the Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, I think they’ve given us a clear indication of how they plan to govern, and the idea that a new PM who is the son of an old PM is ‘real change’ is a serious overreach. I wish that “well, at least it’ll be better than Harper!” wasn’t the best we could hope for.
- Scaachi Koul gave a great defense of why cynicism is the appropriate response to Trudeau’s win: “For many of us, this is not an inspiring win. We didn’t vote for a Liberal majority or for Trudeau specifically because we really felt that he was talking to us. We voted for him and his candidates because they ignored us the least.”
- Another tough part of election night, for me, was watching incredible MPs who represented their ridings so well lose their seats. The loss of Megan Leslie in Halifax, a city that desperately needs her voice and leadership, was especially painful. Ardath Whynacht wrote a beautiful open letter to Alexa McDonough and Leslie on what it has meant to have feminist leaders in Halifax: “I don’t think I realized how powerful it was – to be welcomed into a community of feminists who were unafraid.” Get ready to cry.
- What do you think about the results on election night? Are you feeling hopeful, cynical, ready to work hard? Are you excited by the promise of gender parity in cabinet? Do you have thoughts about Justin Trudeau and objectification? Let’s talk about it! Let us know in the comments, or, if want to really get into it, send us a pitch for the blog at submit @ gutsmagazine.ca!
- “Cause if it’s 50 percent Maritime, it’s 50 percent lesbian.” Partner is your new favourite band, and once you listen to this song it’ll probably be in your head all day. Sorry/you’re welcome.
- “I can say without any reservations that my year of student labour was far and away more degrading than the two years of sex work I have under my belt.“: on bent dicks and sex work
- “Canada is really bad. The overall sentiment here when talking about race, even amongst people I went to university with at Concordia, which is a liberal arts school, is that it should be approached with a kind of colour blindness, because that’s all they’ve ever been taught, and it’s just so deeply ingrained and indoctrinated in Canada. There’s just so little visible critical discourse happening.” Nafisa Kaptownwala and Canadian models of colour!
- On the connection between sex, depression, and low libido, and why we don’t talk about it more.
- “The women that made we want to write again” aka all the cool web writers in one handy list
- The huge buried lede in this piece on a new Mi’kmaq Place Names Digital Atlas for Nova Scotia: “Pictou is the Mi’kmaq word for fart”!
- The profile of Marie Henein, Jian Ghomeshi’s lawyer, is very interesting, and I would definitely watch the TV show that fictionalizes her life.
- “What’s really going on here is we are discriminating against people who have to care for others, which is a role that society needs people to play. Right now we’re focusing on the problem that, if you’re at the top and take time out to take care of others, you’re knocked off your leadership track. But much more important is that, if you are a woman in the middle class or a low-income woman and you take even a day or two off to care for others, you could lose your job. You get docked pay. You don’t have access to affordable day care.” Ann-Marie Slaughter is talking about caregiving as valuable work, and as the unfinished business of feminism. This has the potential to be very important!
- What Drake means for ‘the real Toronto’: “communities in rapidly changing strange lands are not a luxury but a necessity and survival tactic for the resourceless. the connectivity (at most) and acknowledgment (at the very least) of black and brown immigrants in the many mid-rises turned condos and townhouses turned walk-ups is a feeling i don’t yet have the vocabulary to explain to those who didn’t come up in its presence.”
- “As feminism becomes more integrated into mainstream publications and conversation, I feel weary of an obsession of celebrity culture masquerading as activism or as conversation or action.” Tavi Gevinson and Rookie are the best
- “There are certain acts of emotional labour that I don’t wish to perform, like the emotional labour of pretending that I’m okay. Academia requires that you conceal your feelings all the time, because, god forbid someone (a professor, supervisor, administrator, colleague) be confronted with the fact that you’re a human being and you have feelings.” “There’s no crying in academia”, featuring quotes from our very own Dear bb! p.s., if you need advice from bb, send it in here!
