Feminist Fare Friday: Edition #13

...took a little break last week.

I apologize, I think it must have been all of the shovelling that I had to do thanks to an early Alberta Snowmageddon! I was TUCKERED out all week long. On top of the snow, I had an on again, off again stomach flu-y, sick kid, which is why, parents of the world, I can not stress enough how important it is to tech your kids how to use a puke bucket EARLY in life!

On that note, here is a little bit of what the femisphere has spit out in the past week or so...

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1. Girls like to build things. Last week (and just in time for holiday shopping) the Goldieblox video was everywhere! Amidst all the RA! RA! GIRL POWER!! posts, there were some that brought up deeper issues regarding gendered toy marketing and girls in STEM and it is these reasons that are part of  why, while I like the product and the idea behind it, I am still somewhat disillusioned by the flaxen-haired, perfect little Goldie who is the one doing the building. Seems I am not the only one not buying into the hype of this toy and a lot of kids are just not that into it. Not only that, but this week, we learned that the marketing team used the music from the Beastie Boys song "Girls" without permission for the commercial that sparked all this discussion and is now in a legal battle with the band. Either way this goes, I don't think we'll be getting a Goldieblox at the SAHF house - we build lots with Lego and blocks and whatever else the kids find that works around here. And like one parent commented about the toy,

"...it is very unlikely that we will be able to buy our way to equality." 

2. #FeministSelfies. Last week the folks at Oxford Dictionary unveiled that "SELFIE" was the 2013 world of the year. And then the fine folks at Jezebel, decided to publish a post examining the phenomenon and the writer concluded that selfies are an insecure lady's cry for help!  {Insert collective internet eye-roll here.} And then insert totally awesome #FeministSelfies here.... 'cause when someone writes something particularly asinine on the internet, we feminist types like to respond with a hashtag (thanks to @thewayoftheid and @convergecollide for this one) and TAKE OVER the interwebs! I added my own particular "cry for help" and posted 13 (THIRTEEN!) selfies. We are all beautiful people and it's more than OK to celebrate that! Or to just be silly and post funny faces on the internet --- because we can!

3. How to be a good feminist. This infuriating debate is ever ongoing. Women live in a damned if you do, damned if you don't world and the only common denominator seems to just BE DAMNED! I read Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett's "I'm a half-arsed, accidental feminist.." article in The Guardian this week and while I don't agree with her "Who has time for all of this, it's just all TOO HARD!" kind of thinking, I understand her frustrations with the feminist movement.

"The constant litany of "you're doing it wrong" is dispiriting.

It's been a huge struggle coming into this movement as a young woman. All the ideological quibbling at that debate, for example, meant that such topics as sexual and domestic violence and the pay gap went undiscussed, as they are going undiscussed here now again. I fear sometimes that feminism will never have any mass appeal. There are some people who I truly believe don't want to share it. Because it is a movement centred around oppression, there are a lot of angry people involved in it. I am not saying that that anger is not righteous. I became more interested in feminism myself after I was attacked by a man. But such anger can be alienating.

The in-fighting and the vitriol are turnoffs to a new generation."

4. Michelle Obama was called a "feminist nightmare" this week and I had coffee with a friend yesterday who has a hard time telling people that she is a full-time Stay-at-Home Mom. Both of these occurrences have lit my brain on fire and as such, they deserve a whole post all on their own. Stay tuned folks, I'll address these issues and some of #3 as well. It's coming soon and it may not be pretty....

In the mean time...

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. And Happy Chanukah-Thanksgiving-Thanksgivukah to all those celebrating family and friends and love and light!

Cheers,

natasha~

Feminist Fare Friday: Edition #10

Halloween is done, my husband came home yesterday to end my solo-parenting stint, birthday presents are bought and wrapped for this weekend's party (there is seriously one a week for us in Oct/Nov/Dec!) and I am finally sitting down today to write the weekly Feminist Fare round up. So while I know it is late on a Friday night, here are the posts and videos that caught my eye this past week.

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1. In case you don't know this already. I am a HUGE Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan. I own the box set of the series and named my dog after Willow. And while I loved the Buffy-Angel relationship, my true love of the show was the darker Buffy-Spike dynamic. It spoke to the bad-boy lover in me. I could go on and on and on here... but, let me actually get to my point... and that is, that I think Joss Whedon is a genius. Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Serenity... this man writes kick-ass stuff people (and a lot of it involves really strong female characters), and it seems that whenever he is on a press junket, reporters have one particular question for him. Here are his replies to this much repeated query...

[youtube]http://youtu.be/cYaczoJMRhs[/youtube]

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2. I am not sure how much more "Listen up girlies, don't get drunk so you don't get raped" bullshit I can read anymore. If a dude got so blitzed that he could hardly walk home and then got mugged would anyone be telling him that he deserved it? That he shouldn't have had that last half-dozen beers? Probably not. Add to this the Men's Rights Group claiming that men are just as much victims of false-accusations as women are of rape (or that rape-culture doesn't even exist!) and it is enough to make a girl want to... oh, I don't know, get REALLY, REALLY drunk and forget that this is the world that she lives in and is raising her children in!

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3. And really, on that note. I have nothing better (or worse?) to leave you with than this amazing, painful, powerful, and haunting spoken word poetry...

[youtube]http://youtu.be/zgQRkHcEyq8[/youtube]

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Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Natasha~

"Likes" don't save lives: #UNICEFDay 2013

Halloween is upon us and when it comes to this childhood tradition, like many things in my life, I am a purist. I like to encourage my kids to think outside the box (or racks) of traditional gender-biased costumes, I like to decorate our front porch with that crazy spider web stuff and DANGER tape everywhere and like the good hardy Canadian kids that they are, my children don their snow pants, squeeze their costumes on over top and go door to door in our neighbourhood screaming "TRICK OR TREAT" at the top of their little lungs. It's how I did it as a kid and I feel it is important to maintain these traditions for my kids. One of the things that I do miss from my childhood and that was always part of Halloween growing up were the little orange UNICEF boxes that everyone had as the ultimate accessory to their costume. My brothers and I used to have a little bit of a competition every year to see who could collect the most pennies and whoever had the heaviest box at the end of the night would get to pick something from the others candy haul. Those were some good {cavity-inducing) times.

And while the orange boxes may not be around anymore (UNICEF Canada cancelled the program in 2006), UNICEF continues to do amazing things for children all over the world. I had a chance to talk to some wonderful UNICEF representatives while I was at Blissdom Canada a few weeks ago and got a mini tour of UNICEF's main programs and humanitarian efforts that directly affect children around the world.  It was an eye-opening, tear-inducing, heart-breaking and hope-creating experience for me.

From tasting the Plumpy Nut high protein therapeutic food that they provide for malnourished children, to following the trajectory of a vaccine from manufacturing to a child in a tiny village in a remote area of Mongolia, to picking up the VERY HEAVY  jugs that children have to haul miles every day just to have safe drinking water for their families, it was humbling and inspiring to see what all those pennies we used to collect have done and what donations to UNICEF continue to do today for children the world over.

The one program that touched me the most was UNICEFs work with children in refugee camps. In the UNICEF room at Blissdom, hanging on the walls were pictures that were drawn by Syrian children from refugee camps and I am still haunted by their artwork. I have two children who love to express themselves through art. My 7 year old loves to draw pictures of dinosaurs and his latest Hero Factory toy and my daughter draws pictures of animals and her family daily. This is what Syrian kids are drawing...

And not because they saw these images on some superhero-to-the-rescue cartoon show, this is their REAL LIFE. We hear about Syria every other day in the news and the focus is always on drone warfare and chemical weapons and trying to figure out who is the bad guy in this particular war and what, if anything, we are to do about it. What we don't hear about are the over 3 million children IN Syria living in dire situations and caught in the lines of fire or about the over 1 MILLION children that have been displaced from their homes and are now living in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and other regions of North Africa.

UNICEF has multiple ways that they help in these situations and one of them is through their Survival Gifts donation program. For just over $200 dollars you can send a whole school in a box to a refugee camp. Or an early childhood development box. These are literally big steel boxes with enough supplies for up to 50 kids that get shipped to the areas that need them. A tent can be turned into a school. The shade of a big tree can become a play area for toddlers. In the grand scheme of things this 'gifts' may not seem like much, but for a child who has lost everything and who is in a strange place and has a terribly uncertain future, a slice of normalcy-reading a book, learning his or her letters and numbers or stacking some blocks-can be just what is needed so that all hope is not lost and so that they don't forget what it means to just be a kid. There are many other much needed survival gifts that can be purchased and some for as little as $10.00. It really doesn't take much to help save a life.

Thursday, October 31st, 2013 is national #UNICEFDay. Won't you please join me and support UNICEF's work and NOT "LIKE" THIS POST at all! Instead, please visit Unicef.ca and purchase a life-saving survival gift. Think of it as a your little orange box and fill that sucker up with as much as you can. Somewhere in the world there is no Halloween, no trick-or-treating and no dress-up school parties to attend today. There is only fear, and hunger, and sickness, and despair, and no amount of "likes" is going to change that.

A gift of medicines, of tools for education, of blankets and nutritional supplements, these are the things that offer hope and comfort to these kids. So please, Tweet about #UNICEFDAY all day long, post it all over your Facebook page, and then walk the walk and let everyone know that your support goes further than just sharing something on your timeline.

I just bought a School-in-a-Box.

In my mind, it is one ginormous orange UNICEF box and someone now owes me some of their candy!

Happy #UNICEFDay Everyone!

Natasha~

P.S. Disclosure - I was not compensated in any way for this post, but thanks to the generosity of Hallmark, because of this post, 10 children will be getting a live-saving vaccination.

P.P.S. Want to get in on that action? Head on over and give UNICEF your email address and you too can help a child get vaccinated. One email address = one vaccine = one child's life.

Feminist Fare Friday: Edition #8

I am very sorry, it's been two weeks since I've served up some yummy feminist fare for you. As you can imagine, a lot has been going on in the feminist realm and I'll do my best to get myself {and you} up to speed and back on track. This is what happens when a certain 41-year old goes to a blogging conference and stays up carousing until 2 AM for three nights in a row. At my age, it takes exactly 10 days to recover and get one's head out of the fog that those three days created!! But, I did have a REALLY, really good time and you can read all about it here. Now, onto the good stuff.

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1. Last week the internet was all up in arms about a T-shirt.  Granted it was a masturbating, menstruating vagina t-shirt from American Apparel and artist Petra Collins, but still a simple t-shirt none the less. And while I am not about to go out and buy this particular t-shirt, I do get that it is art and art is meant to provoke. And really folks, there are a lot more crazy and WAY more offensive things put on t-shirts these days than a depiction of someone's lady parts. Now, if it wasn't enough that the internet went all bat-shit-crazy on Petra over her t-shirt, her Instagram account was recently deleted as well. Why exactly is still not clear, but Petra herself has some thoughts on why an image of part of her unaltered body (that contains no nudity) may have caused this level of online censorship to occur and it is making me feel very, very angry.

"Through this removal I really felt how strong of a distrust and hate we have towards female bodies. The deletion of my account felt like a physical act, like the public coming at me with a razor, sticking their finger down my throat, forcing me to cover up, forcing me to succumb to societies image of beauty. That these very real pressures we face everyday can turn into literal censorship."

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2. And while we are on the topic of the female body, I came across this powerful poetry reading last night from Lily Myers called "Shrinking Woman".

[youtube]http://youtu.be/zQucWXWXp3k[/youtube]

This piece really gave me pause, especially because I have a daughter and I don't want her to absorb that kind of "accidental inheritance" from me about food, about my body or hers or about how much space women are "allowed" to occupy in this world.

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3. It is that time of year yet again. Halloween. Or as I like to call it at our house, "Hallo-avoid every commercial store and costume EVER because MY 5 YEAR OLD IS NOT SEXY AND SPIDERGIRL DOESN'T WEAR A PINK TUTU-ween". Beth Greenfield at Yahoo Shine examines what kind of messages these over-prettified and hypersexualized costumes send to our children. HINT-not good ones!

“I think it says to girls that everything they do has to fit in one small box—because even if they don’t want to be a princess, the Spider Man costume looks like a princess,” developmental psychologist Christia Spears Brown, author of the forthcoming book “Parenting Beyond Pink and Blue,” tells Yahoo Shine. “It says, ‘Your gender is more important than the costume,’ and ‘Being a girl is the most important thing about you.’” 

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4. Privilege. It's a word we hear a lot these days. Gender privilege, race privilege, socio-ecomonic privilege, it's out there people and for a lot of folks, privilege is a really hard thing to truly grasp. Which when you think about it, is incredibly ironic and sad. I had an interesting experience last week talking to a middle-aged, middle-class white man about women being shamed for breastfeeding in public. Do you know what he said to me? He interrupted me, told me he can't even believe that this is an issue in our day and age and dismissed the problem outright. Here's the thing. I am a white, cis-gendered, middle-class woman. I HAVE privilege up the ying-yang! But not until that very moment when my experiences and that of so many other breastfeeding mothers was so summarily dismissed by someone who has privilege that I do not, did the whole concept of PRIVILEGE come to full fruition in my brain.

In feminism, no talk of privilege can exist without intersectionality coming into play and I know that for some this can seem like some kind of high-level academic feminist balderdash. I assure you it is not and in this incredibly honest piece from Winona Dimeo-Edigar at The Frisky, you will see why it's as fundamental to feminism as the basic premise that "Feminism is the radical idea that women are people".

"...I think a lot of white feminists are like me — our goals and values might be in the right place, but our privilege has insulated us to the need for intersectionality and the diverse concerns of the diverse group of women who make up the modern feminist movement. We want to keep feminism simple to achieve our goals, but we don’t realize that “keeping it simple” often means shutting out voices and experiences that don’t look like ours. If we want to be part of a strong, welcoming sisterhood, we must understand the effects of our privilege."

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5. And finally, it's October, or "Pinktober" according to KFC, the NFL, Chambord, Pilsbury and a whole slew of other brands and retailers cashing in on "raising awareness" for breast cancer and donating a mere pittance of the proceeds from all their pink merchandise to actual cancer research. Cancer is not pretty. It is not pink. It is not about "setting the tatas free" on a ridiculous no-bra day campaign.  It is painful and devastating and life-altering and women young and old are fighting for their lives against this beast. The public needs to see this side of breast cancer and that is what The Scar Project is doing with this striking photography series of young breast cancer survivors shot by fashion photographer David Jay.  It's not easy to look at these photos, but it puts a reality to breast cancer that the general public needs to see before heading out to buy another big pink garbage bin. Please donate directly to your local cancer societies or to any number of organizations that directly help cancer patients and survivors and avoid all the "pinkwashing" of this terrible disease.

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On that note, I wish you all a safe and wonderful weekend!

Peace,

natasha~

Feminist Fare Friday: On Saturday (again). Edition #6

I think from now on I should just take all of September off from everything else except getting everyone (especially ME) established into our school and activity routines. All this lunch making, homework doing, form after form after form-filling out and timing dinner just right on our extracurricular activity days is exhausting. Needless to say, this stay at home gig of mine is actually feeling very much like a 'job' these days! But feminism and the internet wait for now woman. And this week there a couple of DOOZIES out there!

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1. "There she is.... Miss America...." Oh, wait, what?? She is NOT WHITE! Oh, hell NO!!

That unfortunately was the response of a lot of hateful, racist, disgusting people after the very beautiful Nina Davuluri, Miss New York, was given the ultimate in beauty pageantry bling last Sunday. I have to say that I did not watch the pageant, as I kind of have a rule about these things (as in, I would rather watch a 'Lady Hoggers" marathon before I ever watch a beauty pageant again!), but I was on Twitter that night and saw some of the tweets on the #MissAmerica hashtag. After a night of everything being about beauty and glamour, what happened on Twitter after the fact was like night and day, if day was a terrible racist with no ability to spell and an irrational fear of all things NOT WHITE!

There is more to the whole Miss America pageant that is disconcerting to me and I am not the only one. Elizabeth Plank at PolicyMic had this to say:

"Why is that in 2013, the largest benefactor of scholarships for women in America judges its recipients based on how hot they look in a bikini? "

Yeah, why is that??

2. Oh and while one organization is awarding scholarships for women to go to college (albeit based on how they look in their bikinis and ball gowns), over here on the FAR, FAR, right, (and under the guise of some sect of Catholicism that they forgot to teach me at Sunday School), we have this guy telling girls that they should NOT be going to college at all! I know, I know, it really is all a bit baffling for us women-folk.

But just so our younger generation doesn't get all caught up in the confusion, Lindy West at Jezebel is having none of this ridiculousness and has something to say to all the "Good Catholic Girls" out there!

"Contrary to what people might have told you, your life is yours—not your father's, not your husband's, not the Pope's, not some radical internet creep's. [...] You get to do whatever the fuck you want, within legal boundaries. You can still hold yourself to the moral code of your choice, immerse yourself in the church of your choice, marry someone whose faith you respect, and so on, but your church's jurisdiction over your life ends where your personal liberty begins."

There is more. A lot more. It's a good read and Lindy, well, I really really dig her!

3. Since you are probably sick and tired of me going on on an about Blurred Lines, I thought I would share this little gem I found about the lyrics of a different song. Baby got (respect) Back!!   Of course, now I can't get that song out of my head!

4. And this may not have much to do with feminism, but that damn Louis CK. He is SO right about so many things...

[youtube]http://youtu.be/5HbYScltf1c[/youtube]

Have a great weekend everyone! September is almost over and I'll get back on schedule soon. Right?

Cheers,

Natasha~

On transparency: More thoughts on our municipal election.

One of my favourite movies of the past few years is 'Get him to the Greek'. I am pretty sure I did not stop laughing for the whole 109 minutes of it's raunchy, terribly inappropriate, sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll-over-the-topness. It is also the movie that made me fall in love with Russell Brand. Who, despite what his appearance and general demeanor might convey, is probably one of the most eloquent social commentators of our current time. Watch a few episodes of his talk show Brand X (on YouTube now, the show was cancelled earlier this year), read his blog posts or even better, if you are in one of the lucky cities, snag some tickets to his world tour, and you will see what I mean. He's a comedian who says what a lot of us are thinking, but does so with an extra dose of perspective that makes us really think on what he is saying about our world long after we have stopped laughing about it.

Last week, Russell wrote a very interesting post for the Guardian, after he allegedly got kicked out of a GQ Fashion Awards after-party over some comments he made in his acceptance speech. I highly suggest you read his post and also watch the video of his speech for more of the back-story, but why this post is relevant here is because of his comments about the relationship between industry, politicians and the media.

"Why are public officials, paid by us, turning up at events for fashion magazines? Well, the reason I was there was because I have a tour on and I was advised it would be good publicity. What are the politicians selling? How are they managing our perception of them with their attendance of these sequin-encrusted corporate balls?

We witness that there is a relationship between government, media and industry that is evident even at this most spurious and superficial level. These three institutions support one another. We know that however cool a media outlet may purport to be, their primary loyalty is to their corporate backers. We know also that you cannot criticize the corporate backers openly without censorship and subsequent manipulation of this information."

I read this post after having two separate and interesting conversations about these very relationships, first with one of my local city council candidates and then again on the topic of campaign donations with some involved Edmontonians on Twitter. As you can imagine, there are mixed feelings on this topic.

Some believe that knowledge of campaign contributors BEFORE an election places undue blame and 'guilt by association' on candidates and takes the conversation away from the issues that really matter for voters. Perhaps this is true to some extent. This kind of information could sway votes away from candidates who seem to be heavily funded by corporations or individuals with a special interest in having some kind of influence on politicians and their decision making.

My response to this kind of thinking is this; if politicians claim that they are NOT being unduly influenced by these contributions, then there should be no issue with disclosing who and where the money is coming from before they are in office. In light of the kinds of corruption and financial abuse that we have seen in this country from politicians at all levels of government, transparency in politics and in the economics of public service is becoming more and more one of the issues that really does matter for a lot of voters.

Yesterday, Karen Leibovici, my outgoing city councillor and one of the front runners in our mayoral race released her fundraising details and the list of all of her up-to-date campaign contributors. Our other mayoral hopeful, Don Iveson, has also committed to releasing his details next week.

I am not surprised by Ms. Leibovici's list of contributors (especially the corporate donors) and I suspect that Mr. Iveson's list will be quite similar (campaign contributions for certain kinds of companies are often seen as a general cost of doing business). The big question now is, how do I feel about Ms. Leibovici (or any candidate) now that I know who is "backing" her?

The answer to that is that I applaud her forthrightness in this regard and her willingness to show a level of transparency that has not been seen (in my voting lifetime) in municipal elections. I too look forward to others in this election following her lead. Do I also think this was a smart political move? Absolutely. This is an election people. EVERYTHING is a political move right now.

The one thing that this information hasn't done in regards to my vote or decision-making process is make me look at Ms. Leibovici with a sense of "oh, so THAT's who you are 'working' for" that many think this kind of disclosure inevitably leads to.

I am still an undecided voter in this municipal election and am looking forward to the next month of campaigning to hear more from all of the candidates. Is there going to be that one person that fits all my criteria and will be the perfect representative for ME, Citizen Natasha of Edmonton? No, of course not. That would be silly and unrealistic of me to expect that. What I do expect from my elected representative(s) is someone whose opinions and integrity are not for sale, who is a true representative for the people of Edmonton, who is willing to make decisions for our city that have sound backing and are forward thinking and who has a vision for our city that goes beyond, "fix the damn potholes" and let's all just sit back and watch us spread out like a BP oil spill (and we'll just fix it all later).

I want more from my political leaders and transparency is a BIG part of that. Is it too much to ask? Maybe. I guess in that way I am still a little bit enamoured with the spectacle of it all and not feeling quite as jaded as Russell was after that night at the GQ Awards:

We all know it, we already know all the important stuff, like: don't trust politicians, don't trust big business and don't trust the media. Trust your own heart and each other. When you take a breath and look away from the spectacle it's amazing how absurd it seems when you look back.

Optimistically yours,

natasha~

The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win

without proving that you are unworthy of winning. 

~Adlai E. Stevenson

Feminist Fare Fridays: Edition #5

This week kind of kicked my butt. I fell completely off the Summer Blog Challenge wagon and managed to only publish a couple of picture posts of my kids being super adorable. And yes, this post is now 2 days late, something I vowed not to do. {le grand sigh} Oh well. My husband keeps telling me I need to be more liquid and just to go with the flow (also, he may have been watching a bit of You, Me and Dupree earlier this week.). So while I may not have been writing a whole lot this week, I was still reading and here are my thoughts on a few compelling posts I found this week!

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1. A few weeks ago we were downtown enjoying our wonderful City Centre farmer's market. We had just picked up some watermelon iced tea (yes, it was as good as it sounds) and the kids and I were sitting on a bench enjoying our treat and taking in the sights and sounds of the market. A man in his late twenties walked up to us, went up to my 6 year old son and motioned for a fist bump (which C kind of shrugged off) and then pointed to my 4 year old daughter and said in a booming voice, "YOU, little girl are GORGEOUS!" and then he walked off. The kids both looked at me wondering how to react to this and I was a little taken aback at that moment and just shrugged it off too. But maybe I shouldn't have. Had I read this post about street harassment by Soraya Chemaly earlier I may have even used it as a teachable moment for my kids. A moment to teach them about respect for others and about respect for themselves. Because all too often I have been subjected to various forms of street harassment and...

"After the thin veneer of flattery wears off, what is left is a sometimes-daily awareness of vulnerability, sexual objectification, shame at being targeted, and shame at not fighting back." 

2. And GOOD NEWS everyone!! In case you haven't heard.... the Patriarchy is dead!!!

No really, according to writer and "The End of Men" author Hanna Rosin, we killed it. For reals!

And if you can't read my dripping sarcasm in the above lines, then you are on the wrong page of the internet. I still am wrapping my head around Ms. Rosin's essay (an updated epilogue to her book) and in doing so I have come across some great commentary about her {ahem} take on our current feminist world. One very compelling post is from Nora Caplan-Bricker at The New Republic;

"There’s a long and storied tradition of people (usually men) telling women what they think—“You may be under the impression you think this, but it’s really that.” In recent years, this has been referred to as “mansplaining,” but it used to go by another word: “patriarchy.” And women can be instruments of the patriarchy, too. Rosin isn’t the first to tell members of her own sex that there’s a simple, right way to go about things, and to scold them for doing it wrong."

3. Speaking of people telling other people how to do things and trying to LEGISLATE their tyranny too...

The Parti Quebecois and its leader, Premier Pauline Marois, have devised a plan called the "Charter of Values" that calls to secularize (is that a word?) all public sector workers and make it a law that they can not wear any garment or jewelry that symbolizes their religious beliefs. No turbans, no hijab, no Star of David, no kippah and supposedly no crucifixes either (but the big one at Quebec's Legistlature building is still OK).  Here is a quick FAQ post for you to get up to speed on this bigoted ridiculousness and then please read this beautifully written post by Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed, who has a lot to say to Premier Marois about HER Quebec.

"Despite the ludicrous nature of this proposed charter of values, I refuse to be ashamed of my Quebec. You see, somewhere along the years it became excusable to not discuss the staggering debt of our province, the moon-like roads, the ingrained corruption that has permeated most levels of government, the future of our healthcare system. Instead you have opted for us to focus on a piece of cloth and other religious symbols."

4. My last book club book was 'The Red Tent', by Anita Diamant. I had never read it before and was completely enthralled with the world of Dinah and her mothers and the traditions and rituals of their lives. As I read the book and afterwards I longed for a red tent of my own, of a celebration of womanhood and of time to retreat and not worry about everything and everyone. And it seems I am not the only one...

"What I wouldn’t give for a red tent. An excuse to withdraw and release and be weepy and mopey in peace, and in communion. To stop pretending that my monthly cycles don’t affect my emotions. To stop pretending I am stronger than the need for good sleep and consistent meals. To allow that physical pain stops me in my tracks and makes me want to curl into a ball, and to do so. To acknowledge that bleeding between my legs makes me want to slow down instead of doing a tampon commercial showing how I can still swim and teach aerobics and run a marathon. To admit that, sometimes, I get cranky when I’m on the rag, and that that’s OK. Because it isn’t a contest, and I haven’t let our side down.

That's all I've got for this week everyone. I kind of had too much sangria at our annual block party last night and I told a whole bunch of my neighbours that I am a feminist writer/blogger. I am all about making friends and influencing people.... Let's just hope I get an invitation to the party again next year.

Otherwise who is going to build one heck of a wicked fire for everyone to roast marshmallows over!!

 

'Til next week,

natasha~

Feminist Fare Fridays: Edition #4

Phew! Is anyone else exhausted after the first week of school? And I don't mean the kids! This was my first week of making lunches everyday, of walking to school and starting to figure out our new one in full-day and one in half-day routines. And so, with school in mind, I give you somewhat of an education-based round up of feminist fare this week!

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1. I have a couple of blogging heroes and one of them is the wonderful Annie Urban at Phd in Parenting. (She is one hell of a dance partner too!) And just in case you need to know why, just check out her post on all the back to school and back to gender-role stereotyping that we are inundated with at this time of year. I personally have made a strong effort to stay away from and not buy clothing that turns my kids into walking brand advertisements and reinforces the pink/blue world that we live in! And while I may have favourited a bunch of those "what to make for my kid's lunch" posts" for future reference, the assumption and reinforcement of parental gender roles by mass media is maddening! And PLEASE, make sure you also click on that last link in her post and read up on why mothers shouldn't have opinions.

2. And speaking of mothers and their opinions. There were PLENTY this week in the world of the "mommy bloggers". One particular blogger, we'll call her Mrs. Hall, had a lot to say to all the girls tempting her teenage sons with their racy pyjama'd and {ahem} bra-less Instagram pictures. And then the internet quite literally exploded with various other "open letters" to Mrs. Hall, to the teenage girls she is supposedly addressing and to anyone and everyone who read her post and had an "Uhh, what the...?" kind of reaction to it.  I don't have much to add to the conversation that has not been said in the above posts, but suffice it to say I believe that it is this kind of perpetuating of our sexual stereotypes that leads to....

3. THIS! A university's frosh week with 80 student leaders, "leading" 300-400 students into their new lives on campus with a chant about rape. Seriously people, I wish I was kidding. I wish the St. Mary's student union president had not called this chant an "oversight". I wish that just because something has been done "for years" doesn't mean that is is OK and should be continued. I wish that sending a daughter to university didn't mean having to send her with a rape-whistle and a talk about NEVER walking back to her room at residence alone at night. And I hope that this is indeed a teachable moment for these students and for all of us about the pervasiveness of sexism and rape-culture in our {children's} worlds!

4. And then I read something like this and my faith is somewhat restored and I know that the daughters we are all raising will be stronger. That one day very soon, they will be the confident, wonderful, intelligent and fierce women that this world needs!

5. This one has nothing to do with feminism. I just think that this might be the most ridiculously awesome thing I have seen on the internet in ages. And I like foxes!

[youtube]http://youtu.be/jofNR_WkoCE[/youtube]

Happy Friday everyone!

natasha~

(Update: If you have a few hours, Jenna Hatfield at Blogher did a nice round-up of most of the responses to the original post in #2.)