January 25, 2015
- “Women are the glue. It’s invisible, what women do.” You have probably read this Björk interview by now—if not, head over to Pitchfork, you won’t regret it! It’s wonderful!
- According to Maclean’s, thirty-one percent of Canadian women under 45 have had an abortion, yet medical schools are still reluctant to teach the procedure. For more insight into our country’s abysmal approach to women and trans* people’s reproductive health, check out GUTS editor Cynthia Spring’s article “Canada’s Abortion Problem.”
- More news related to health care: Health Canada continues to delay its decision on whether or not to approve the drug mifepristone (also known as the “abortion pill”), and the former Morgentaler clinic in Fredericton will reopen its doors (but under a new name), thanks to the efforts of NB activists and a crowdfunding campaign.
- Maclean’s published another important piece this week; “Welcome to Winnipeg: Where Canada’s Racism Problem Is at it’s Worst” debunks the myth of the prairie city’s signature “friendliness,” but also offers some hope, noting that Indigenous activists believe that Tina Fontaine’s death has “marked a turning point in race relations.”
- “Breastfeeding 101 for Sexual Assault Survivors” tackles a subject that is often overlooked in our medical system. “Lactation consultants, postpartum doulas, and other support providers should be better educated in sexual trauma and prepared to help parents with such history recognize if that may be what is causing difficulties.”
- Shameless article “Fat Girl at the 5k: Five Truths for Walkers and Runners of Size” is a really honest examination of the ways sizeism and fatphobia creep into running culture.
- The podcast Serial has long been over, but with new development’s in Adnan’s case, commentary about Sarah Koenig’s journalistic approach continues. The Crunk Feminist Collective considers the racial politics of Koenig’s “white gaze” and the ethical implications of storytelling.
- The Jacobin traces Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s political trajectory, focusing on his break from the Democrats, and his eventual shift to the left. “Johnson and the Democrats had come to rely on King’s nonviolent tactics and his support for their party as an important counterweight to the growing numbers of radicals in the rising Black Power revolt. When King denounced the war in 1967, the Democrats regarded him as a traitor.”
- A recent study on male college students’ attitudes towards rape reveals upsetting data: “Almost a third of the men (31.7 percent) said that in a consequence-free situation, they’d force a woman to have sexual intercourse, while 13.6 percent said they would rape a woman.”
- Collier Meyerson’s “When the Opera Acts Like It’s Never Seen a Black Person Before” busts open the race problems of the “polite” world of theatre.
- With the debut of Friends on Netflix a few weeks ago, critics have been newly examining the show’s politics. “‘Chandler’s treatment of his gay father is appalling’: Everything critics realized while watching ‘Friends’ in 2015″ addresses this issue.
- Hazlitt’s “The Scars to Prove it” is a heartbreaking, mesmerizing read about the physical legacy of residential schools. “I asked Kristal the same question I’ve asked other cutters: why do it? Many adults say they started as kids in the residential schools—it was a coping mechanism in places where violence was the norm and kids weren’t allowed to complain—and continue now because it provides a release, a way to numb that internalized pain.”
