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Raluca Bejan
Raluca Bejan is a PhD student in Social Work at the University of Toronto. She focuses on immigration and social justice.
Thousands of women (13,000 in Toronto) went out last week, over "pussy" related issues, officially gathered under the Women's March on Washington label. The March had a global envergure: it took place in many cities around the world on January 21, the day after the inauguration of the new U.S. president, Donald Trump.
The Women's March on Washington was scheduled well in advance, to take place on January 21, right after the inauguration of the new American president. The idea was for all women to rally in solidarity for health and safety rights, at a time when the overall society marginalizes women and discursively regularizes interpretations of sexual violence.
Several cities followed suit and a March in Toronto was also organized. According to the event's Facebook page, about 13,000 attended. People gathered at Queen's Park, marched towards the U.S. Consulate and later to the City Hall, at Nathan Philip Square.
It takes about 15 minutes to walk from Mori-Ôgai Memorial Humboldt University in Mitte, Berlin, to the Hamburger Bahnhof -- Museum für Gegenwart. On Luisenstraße for two minutes, turning left on Charitéstraße and passing through what looks like a green, open-gated community -- the Campus Charité Mitte. The Campus hosts the Charité -Universitätsmedizin Berlin -- the largest hospital in Europe, the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, and the Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité. I walked this route at some point in July. After leaving the grounds of the Charité Campus, it takes about a minute to cross the river on Invalidenstraße and turn right towards Hamburger Bahnoff.
For a couple of weeks now, the University of Toronto (U of T) community has been debating, engaging with, and responding to the comments made publically by Jordan Peterson, professor of psychology, in criticizing Bill C-16 and the charged idea of "political correctness."
As the news of Melania Trump's plagiarized speech came in on Monday night (parts of it sounded exactly like Michelle Obama's communiqué delivered at the 2008 Democratic National Convention), I was counting the days until the Eastern Bloc connection would somehow be made. Or, should I say, until the ready-made Eastern Bloc stereotypical rhetoric would tease out through the North American gaze. I was waiting for something "official," -- a newspaper article, an editorial or magazine commentary, and not just the random Facebook memes and posts that called Melania anywhere from a "Slovenian immigrant with a thick accent," to a "dumb bitch with big boobs" and "only good for blow jobs."
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Ideological arguments over Brexit, the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, which passed with 52 per cent of the vote on June 23, have been mainly at odds on the classical right/left political divide.
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Hotel Dallas screened in Toronto at the HotDocs festival about a month ago. "Come," a good friend of mine asked the day before. "The trailer looks really good." I did not watch the trailer, but we got the tickets and decided to go.
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I was called aggressive the other day. It felt like a punch in my stomach. I did try to let it go. I really did. But couldn't stop myself from ruminating over it, again and again. I talked with a girlfriend. "That's bullshit," she said. "Its sexist. Someone also called me pushy. Just recently. It makes you feel less of a woman."