feminism

Erin Wunker's debut book a powerful account of feminism in 2016

Michael Stewart — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 20:17:32 +0000

December 6, 2016

Today is December 6, the 27th anniversary of the Polytechnique Massacre.

In Notes from a Feminist Killjoy, her new book of essays on moving through the world in a gendered body, Erin Wunker expands on Nicole Brossard's idea that the Massacre was not committed by a "lone wolf." The Massacre -- and its remembrance -- is not just about "M.L. alone, with his anger and his gun," Wunker writes. "This is about the history of misogyny." December 6 is about the particularities of that day -- the murder of 14 women whose names we recite every year -- but it also fits into a much wider, and deeply ingrained, spectrum of violence.

"Notes from a Feminist Killjoy" is an answer to what is needed now -- a self-consciously contingent rejoinder to the question of "who needs feminism?"

Feminism has been taken over by capitalism, and it ain't pretty

rabble staff — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 04:41:20 +0000

July 28, 2016

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The world of feminism nowadays is... saturated.

Women are leaning in, #girlbosses are getting that money, period-friendly underwear is readily available, #GirlsCan empower themselves with bombshell lipstick and oh so much more.

But, is this feminism?

When did feminism start meaning that consumption was the most revolutionary act? Marketplace feminism has been creeping in for quite a while and it's time to put it in its place.

Overthrow the system! The fight for women's rights needs a socialist revolution

rabble staff — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 03:17:55 +0000

November 19, 2015

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The historic battles for women's rights are well documented, so why are we still fighting the same fights? If we truly want progressive change, we need a new revolution.

A bold vision for Canada's future

rabble staff — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 15:01:54 +0000

January 22, 2015

A bold vision for Canada's future: what would that look like to you?

Would it encompass a new outlook on justice and politics, or would it emphasize equality and equity or would it require a look back on Canada's past in order to better see the future? Would it be all of these things?

When the members of A Bold Vision Steering Committee posed this question to numerous women leaders in Canada, A Bold Vision: Women Leaders Imagining Canada's Future was born.

The anthology's list of contributors reads like one conjured from the question "If you could have dinner with any Canadian feminist hero, who would it be?"

Imagine Canada's future. What does it look like? In this excerpt, we read what Jessie Housty, an Indigenous community leader from the Heiltsuk First Nation, envisions for Canada.

Canada's complicated relationship with pro-choice politics

rabble staff — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 21:30:23 +0000

November 20, 2014

One Kind Word: Women Share Their Abortion Stories is exactly what the subtitle suggests: a selection of portraits and accounts of women who have had abortions in Canada, collected by photographer Kathryn Palmateer and editor Martha Solomon.

The title comes from Lori, the last woman of the collection, who says of her abortion, "The support I would have appreciated: one kind word from anyone."

Lori's wish is echoed through many of the experiences shared by many of the women in this collection who perceive a lack of kindness and respect extended to women who seek an abortion in Canada.

Access to abortion is a right in Canada. While we do have an active anti-abortion minority in Canada, pro-choice people are also guilty of silencing women's choices at times. Why?

Questioning assumptions about female desire

rabble staff — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 13:37:53 +0000

October 24, 2013

Female sexuality has long been viewed as something of a mystery. Women’s distinct lack of penises and threatening ability to create life resulted in centuries of undisputed ignorance. In a patriarchal society, women are placed firmly in the category of "other," as compared to the central character against which all other beings are measured: man.

Only recently have researchers begun to fight the trend, ever-popular within evolutionary psychology, of ignoring all social and cultural factors as well as the individual biases of researchers, to look beyond "caveman" as foundation for scientific study.

Female sexuality and the libido have long been viewed as something of a mystery. Are slowing female libidos a disorder, a result of monogamy or just plain normal?

Women and War: Documenting a century of struggle for peace and justice

rabble staff — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 19:08:40 +0000

March 8, 2013

Lindsey German has an excellent knowledge of women’s history, and has written two perceptive books about women in the second half of the twentieth century, Sex, Class and Socialism (Bookmarks 1998) and Material Girls (Bookmarks 2007). As is well-known, she is also the National Convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, the biggest ever mass movement in Britain, and the one which organised the largest demonstration in British history on February 15, 2003, against war in Iraq. She is therefore the perfect person to write a book about women and war over the last one hundred years, and no one who reads How a Century of War Changed the Lives of Women will be disappointed.

An informative, comprehensive, concise yet clear and accessible historical account of the major wars of the 20th and 21st centuries and the roles women played.

It's not about you: Naomi Wolf and Caitlin Moran's self-centred feminism

rabble staff — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:18:38 +0000

January 3, 2013

Naomi Wolf's fall from grace within the feminist community has been well documented. First there was her baffling, victim-blamey defence of Julian Assange, and now she's been taken to task by writer after writer for her generalizing, the-goddess-is-in-your-vagina take on female sexuality. After having read criticisms of her most recent publication Vagina, such as this from Suzanne Moore in the Guardian:

Unfortunately, I get the distinct feeling that both Wolf and Moran's recent publications are representative of the current climate of feminism today.

How to say 'yes' to shame-free sex

alex — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:57:39 +0000

November 3, 2011

After reading What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl's Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety, I had some of the best sex of my life, and felt happier and healthier in my relationship.

No, this isn't a phony endorsement for your run of the mill dating advice or sex tips handbook. It is definitely not in reference to an article I read in Cosmopolitan magazine. In fact, What You Really Really Want is a desperately needed antidote to the slew of toxic sewage in the form of "sex and relationship advice" targeted at girls and women.

What You Really Really Want is a desperately needed antidote to the slew of toxic sewage in the form of "sex and relationship advice" targeted at girls and women.

Stopping sex violence in schools

alex — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 21:34:44 +0000

August 25, 2011

"She deserved it." "She was fast." "She shouldn't have been alone." In 2001, Joanne N. Smith listened as young female students regurgitated the opinions of their parents, teachers, and peers, blaming an eight-year-old victim who had recently been followed, dragged, raped and left bloodied on her way to school.

Hey, Shorty! is a must read book for parents, educators and young boys and girls who live the reality of an often unsafe and oppressive public school culture.

Breaking the feminist mould

alex — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:08:56 +0000

March 11, 2011

What is a feminist?

Is a feminist an academic who can quote bell hooks and Betty Friedan with ease? Is a feminist a great orator who steps up to podiums, demanding freedom for all women, using buzzwords such as marginalization, empowerment and exploitation? Is a feminist white, benefitting from class privilege and well-versed in feminist theory, as the representation in last week's highly criticized CBC documentary The F Word might suggest? Or is being a feminist simply antiquated, as columnist Margaret Wente declares "The war for women's rights is over. And we won."

Each of the contributors in Feminism FOR REAL share their own -- often unsettling -- truths, revealing the ways in which they have felt alienated and oppressed within mainstream feminism and academia.

Mapping feminism

alex — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:04:35 +0000

March 4, 2010

Two years ago, best friends and daughters of second-wave feminism, Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein climbed into the front seat of a Chevy Cavalier and criss-crossed the United States, talking to more than a hundred young women along the way. The end result of their inspirational journey is Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism, a non-fiction book that looks and reads like a magazine, coupling Aronowitz's critical prose with Bernstein's vibrant photography.

Girldrive inspires readers to define feminism and womanhood for themselves, and get behind the wheel, ready to change the world.

Out of body

alex — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:41:14 +0000

October 1, 2009

The works of seasoned feminist psychotherapist Susie Orbach were never part of the subversive women's studies syllabus that I was taught. A quick scan of her credentials quickly underscores why. Not only did she treat the late Princess of Wales, she is also the consultant and co-originator for the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Plainly put, Orbach's writings were never featured on my course readings because she's aligned with a brand of liberal feminism discordant with most of the more radical theoretical tendencies of women's studies academics. They believe -- as I do -- that equality can only be achieved through a transformation of existing, oppressive structures.

In her recent book, Bodies, Susie Orbach examines body despair in the Western world, and how our bodies are "made" through the brain's interaction with personal experiences and our environments.

Puritanism preoccupied

alex — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:11:21 +0000

May 29, 2009

You don't have to look any further than the mainstream media to understand why author Jessica Valenti believes there is a moral panic in America over young women's sexuality. It's hard to know what to believe when Tyra Banks and Oprah Winfrey are sounding alarm bells over an epidemic of teen sexuality, while at the same time Esquire magazine is asking "Where have all the loose women gone?"

Jessica Valenti's latest takes on purity-pushers encouraging readers to value women for the positive roles they play in society and not for their chastity.

Acting out

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:58:15 +0000

September 11, 2008

Members of the Miss G__ Project for Equity in Education have sometimes been called — or have been accused of being — "media darlings." Equipped with bubbly personalities, quick-wit and analytical minds, the steering committee of this grassroots feminist organization understands the mutually dependent relationship between activism and the media and they know that image is important if they want to garner headlines.

A fresh third wave feminist force, the Miss G__ Project, Canada's version of Code Pink, have been lobbying for the introduction of a Women's and Gender Studies course in high schools across Canada. I