The Scarlet Contessa

The Scarlet Contessa: A Novel of the Italian Renaissance by Jeanne Kalogridis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really like her books.  The covers make these look like romance novels but they are history lessons, stories of power and control, and reminders that women did play roles in history, we simply have lost their stories and creatively have to fill in the holes.  Great author.  Page turning books!


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Bare: The Naked Truth About Stripping

Bare: The Naked Truth About Stripping by Elisabeth Eaves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Somewhere behind my desire to be both a reporter and a stripper lay an impulse to conceal.  Stripping - in competition with acting and espionage - is the ultimate job for someone who's instinct is to present different facades of who she might be.  There is nothing more illusory than a woman pretending to be a sexual fantasy for money." - p. 5

This book was on the wrong shelf when I entered a university library about a year ago.  It has been reminding me it is there waiting to be read for many months and I decided to pick it up over the holiday season.  It was on the apartment shelf as a classmate, during my first year of my Master's degree, announced in class one day that she was completing a PhD about women, their bodies and stripping because she stripped to pay her way through her bachelor's degree several years earlier.  I work hard to be an open person and I easily delight in meeting people whose lives are vastly different than mine and who are willing to share their stories of their life experience.  This book was perfect after I had spent several hours talking with my classmate to begin to build a healthier and more realistic perspective of stripping, the why, who, for what reasons, etc.

"I learned that no one is neutral about female bodies.  If they aren't sex objects used to sell every conceivable good, they are political objects, causing bitter debate on how to manage their fecundity.  And where not sexual or political, they are imbued with society's ideals with fears, turned into Miss Liberties, Virgin Mary's, and Wicked Witches.  Everyone had an opinion on what to do about female bodies, and sometimes it feels as if the only people who get in trouble for holding such opinions are young women themselves.  Some of us, though, have to live in them, and we each get by in our own way." - p. 6-7

Eaves explains how she first became involved in stripping and we meet several of her colleagues, who become friends, and their work as strippers, what purpose is serves in various lives, for some the cycle of dependence that is created in this industry, and the rules of safety that are continuously broken by purchasers and strippers alike.  Eaves teaches the reader that every woman had a line that she has drawn about the sexual work she is willing to perform, and sees many women move and bend this line under pressure from others and due to economic circumstances.

"And I was tempted to see sex work as more of a symptom of social illness than a cause.  The sex biz was nothing more that a sophisticated arbitrage operation, dealing in morals rather than financial instruments...At some point women had become artificially divided into two types - the good and the childbearing ones, carefully trained to disdain sex so that they wouldn't stray, and a separate, pro-sex class.  The second group were despised and disparaged so that the good women wouldn't want to join them.  One group of women ended up with respect but no freedom, and the other with freedom but no respect.  But economics abhors a vacuum, and the whore class...rushed in to fill the chasm between men's actual desires and the social structure that they, with women, had built.  I don't think the divide between the two types of women would go away until all the girls were raised to be free, responsible and unashamed of sex.  And until society had bridged the sex-ed gap - porn for boys and religion and romance for girls - there would always be Lusty Ladies [the stripper club Eaves worked at]." -. p. 138-139

A book that was telling and a strong mixture of social and political commentary shaken together with the lives of women and how their work infiltrates all aspects of their lives.  Give it a read!


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Keep Shining

While I plaster my blog with videos....here is one a cousin shared with me.  She was able to see Shad in London.  You and I get to enjoy his video and powerful music through YouTube.  Thank you to all the women who have taught me so much.  Keep shining.

I Love Jezebel!

For all those people who were disgusted at the type, amount, bizarreness, and uneducated number of rape comments made during the American election, this article is for you and me!

Team Rape Lost Big Last Night

Sing You Home

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To be honest, I have never picked up a Jodi Picoult book as I always thought she wrote romance novels which are not my literary thing.  In the past few months I have joined a new book club and this was the first book I actually had time to read before I attend the club meeting, and at first I was not excited.  Romance?  Really?  I decided to give Picoult a chance, picked it up on a Saturday and had it read by Tuesday night, staying up late one night due to sleeplessness and wondering what would happen to this book's characters during the turmoil of their lives.

(Warning: contains a few spoilers.)

The book begins with Zoe and Max, a married couple, both working full-time jobs and trying desperately to become pregnant and carry a baby to term.  A fifth failure late in her pregnancy causes Max to leave the marriage as he feels second to Zoe's need to have children, a position he no longer wants to hold.  While recovering from the break-up of their marriage and the end of another pregnancy, Zoe and Max take two very separate roads.  Zoe finds and deepens a friendship with Vanessa with whom she begins dating and eventually marries, and Max joins his brother and sister-in-law's ultra-conservative Christian religion.  Zoe and Vanessa decide to have a child, with Vanessa carrying the three zygotes that Zoe and Max made while they were married.  Max is unsure what to do and confides in his religious leader who convinces Max to take Zoe to court to obtain the zygotes himself.  A vicious battle over the zygotes ensues as we see the rights of two lesbian women legally married (in a different state from which they live), pitted against the forces of  ultra-conservative Christian right-wingers whose belief structure slowly unravels in Max's head.

This is where I shall leave my review and encourage you to read this book.  The tapestry of characters who share the narrative of the book (it moves between Zoe, Max and Vanessa) present lives that have intersected, separated and intersected once more.  Much more than the romance (the ones that Picoult does not write), she takes the reader through a host of ideas and beliefs that people hold about challenging ideas, revealing the differing views of each person and their perspectives about life, love, self-understanding, legal rights and acceptance.  A beautifully woven novel, but not always easy to read.


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Get Along

As I was living in Cleveland, Ohio attending high school I remember the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots in Los Angeles as one of my first racial, social justice and political lessons as I saw that life was far more complicated than I understood.  Many of us, from a distance, saw that there had been progress throughout the decades with regards to relationships between races, but we were reminded during this time that the institutionalized, systemic racism and violence towards black people (as well as towards many races and between races) continued.

Recently I was in a conversation during which two people told me that racism happens, sexism happens, homophobia happens, classism happens, it will always happen and there is nothing that can be done.  It is part of life.  Of course I completely disagree.  Racism is a choice.  Sexism is a choice.  Homophobia is a choice.  Classism is a choice.  Agism is a choice.  Colonial ideas are a choice.  An inappropriate comment, a joke meant to demean, and a conversation during which we blame people for their experiences the subsequent traumatic fallout.  It is important to look for, watch and name instances during which we see people making excuses for intolerant behaviour.  Some ideas, words, and comments are so often repeated within a group, society or culture, that they become institutionalized and we believe them to be truths (called doxa by sociologists and anthropologists), but when looked at critically, they have merely been repeated so often that we assume these ideas to be truths.

Most recently I had an individual direct several accusations towards me.  Thank you to some strong and intelligent individuals, we were able to limit his destructive and bizarre behaviour.  Several people told me that this was a case of sexism.  At first I balked at the idea and rejected this notion.  After a few weeks, and in hearing the word domineering directed at me from this person, I conceded.  Upon closer observation I realized that this individual has rarely seen women in positions of leadership, and most certainly is not used to and does not agree with a women reminding him of his responsibilities.  Part of his doxa has been men are leaders, women are not.  It was difficult for me to admit that this was a sexist experience because part of my doxa is women (although few) as leaders, women in authority, and women from whom I have received and accepted advice.   His inane and immature response to me, being in a position of leadership above him, has been an interesting experience.  Doxa's clashing I suppose.      

My experience is nothing close to the trauma and far-reaching aftermath of Rodney King's, but having seen, heard and talked about the LA riots twenty years ago, I am able to identify, as many are, that experiences that parallel his still occur and we each have a choice to contribute to racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, agism, etc.; make excuses for these types of behaviours; ignore these types of behaviours; or have the courage to name them as intolerant and work to remove these inequitable ideas from our societies as doxa which we will no longer believe.

"Long after I am gone, people will remember me saying, can't we all just get along."

Rodney King

Taken from Google images

I shall add his book to the words I want to take the time from which to learn.

Taken from Amazaon.com

Porcelain Moon and Pomegranates

Porcelain Moon and Pomegranates: A Woman's Trek Through Turkey by Üstün Bilgen-Reinart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Being methodical feels constricting to me so I avoid it and stick with spontaneity.  This includes my selection of reading materials.  I go to the library, head for the travel section, start pulling books off the shelf, judge it by its cover, then synopsis, and keep it in my arms or put it back on the shelf after my discerning judgment :).  Over the past year I have read some wonderful books that have taught me about places I may never visit.  This book, with an unsuspecting cover, an acceptable synopsis, and yet more importantly a travel book written by a women, was left in my arms which was an exceptional choice.

This book was an amazing teaching tool that took me into the depths of thousands of years of history, race relations, conflict, change, and the current lives of many people in Turkey.  Of all the travel books I have read in the past year, this is the most moving one from which I feel like learned enough to be a four month university course that I received for free.  Lucky me!

Perhaps I feel closer to Ustun because she was born in Turkey, moved to Winnipeg, then returned to Turkey as an adult to learn about her culture all over again.  I was born in Calgary, Alberta, but did not live in Canada for any length of time until I was an adult, and I had to learn about my home country year after year when I moved here at the age of eighteen.  As well, I am currently living in Winnipeg.  An interesting coincidence.

This book is for people who want to learn about the deep moving power of travel, history, worship, cultural change, power structures and their influence, the complicated lives of women, goddesses, and to understand how old some parts of the world truly are, all situate in the context of travel, discovery, and making connections between the past and present.  A magnificent read!

I just realized that I will be probably be buying this book.  It is so full of information that I am going to want to come back to it a couple of times just to make sure I hear all of its messages.  Delightful as it stretched my thinking so very far.


The best parts of the book:

But deep inside me there was a division and there was a loss.  There were chambers that had to remain closed.  My Anatolian self was suppressed, my memories of that land - its rhythms, its smells, its temperature, its ancient joys and pains (for what is culture if it is not collective memory that is somehow transmitted through the generations?), the pleasure if my mother tongue - all these lay buried under the psychological layers that formed an efficient, adaptive Canadian self.  p. 14

Ecological balance represents survival - the human race can't live without air, land and water,  I knew that in Canada, too.  But it is only here that I begin to discern the relationship between ecological damage and the loss of distant memory.  So many layers of civilizations have lived and died here that I feel as if spirits hover over Anatolia.  But if their traces are destroyed, if no one remembers those who once lived and died here, we are not even going to know what we have lost...I notice that I often turn to women for stories about taboo themes and about the buried past.  It is true that women are the bearers of collective memory?  That questions leads me to the issue of the suppression of female voices, female memories, and female sexuality in Anatolia, and I see another connection that should have been obvious all along: the killing of nature and the suppression of ancient memory are related to the silencing of women's voices.  Perhaps women could have defended the earth of they hadn't been robbed of power thousands of years ago...On this land at the dawn of history, a different vision taped human societies.  An ancient great goddess reigned in Anatolia for thousands of years.  The traces of her worship remain all over this mountain our land...People often feel an urge to understand their own past in order to gain insights into the present.  I feel complicated to delve into Anatolia's past.  A long and loaded human past must affect the people who now live on this land in the same way that a family history going back many generations will affect someone who knows nothing of the secrets bored with those generations.  p. 17

Ustun continues to discover the thousands of years of goddess worship, provides a historical context of terrorism and her idea as to why it exists, describes how one religion is replaced by another as one culture is conquered by another group with a different culture, provides the history of prostitution and it modern day experience, explains killing ones daughter in the name of honour and how this practice is changing (a difficult chapter to read), and how the people of Turkey are rising up against Western multi-national companies as they destroy the landscape of the country, take their money and run away.  What a read!  It won't be the last time I peruse its pages.  So much more to understand and learn in the second and third readings.

Find it and learn from the words on its pages.  



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Gonna Be An Engineer

Cattle research done!
Thesis version two, almost done.
Sharing another video, below.

Last year I took the Smithsonian Folkways: American Roots Collection CD collection out of the library.  What a treat!  So many songs I had never heard but were the backbone of folk music, one of my favourite genres.  There were some really cool songs to listen to, some really weird ones, and one that I need to share with you.  It popped up on my playlist today while working and it makes me smile.

When I hear the lyrics I pretend I am a hippie woman at a Folk Festival with my long hair braided (its never long enough to do that, but hey, let me have my dreams), a daisy chain around my neck, a flowing hippie skirt, and maybe even a tambourine gently beating against my hip.  A woman by the name of Peggy Seeger appears on stage with a simple guitar.  She says hello at the microphone and dedicates this to all the women in the audience and beyond who want more choices in their lives.  Access higher (or well) paying jobs, be acknowledged for their intelligence and gifts, for others to see and thank them for their public contributions to the community, be provided with the space to make healthy choices, and live a full life in and outside their homes.

It is a sassy little ditty.

This is for all my engineering female family and friends out there (all 8 of you), and all the rest of us living better lives due to the work, lyrics, marches, sit-ins, folk festivals and potlucks of the 1960's.

I am now in graduate school due to your work.

Thanks!

Sapphire Bound! Add It!

While I am reading methods books to pump up the research section of my thesis, and I have delved into the thick and hearty text, The Handbook of Qualitative Research by Denzin and Lincoln (Sage Publications, 1994).  This is the big mama of qualitative text books so that I can write a methods section and complete my mixed methods research with some flare and accuracy.  As I have been reading through the first section I came across a quote that caused me to pause and ponder.  Then ponder more.

Viola the quote written by Regina Austin (1989) in her book Sapphire Bound!:

"When was the last time someone told you that your way of approaching problems...was all wrong?  You are too angry, too emotional, too subjective, too pessimistic, too political, too anecdotal and too instinctive?  I never know how to respond to such accusations.  How can I legitimate my way of thinking?  I know that I am not used to flying off the handle, seeing imaginary insults and problems where there are none.  I am not a witch solely by nature, but by circumstances and choice as well.  I suspect that what my critics really want to say is that I am being too self consciously black (brown, yellow, red) and/or female to suit their tastes and should "lighten up" because I am making them feel very uncomfortable, and that is not nice.  And I want them to think that I am nice, don't I or "womanish"?" p. 76-77


I am adding this book to the list of 'To Read' in my mind and on GoodReads.

Dead Grandmother's

All my three grandmothers are now dead.

It is harsh but true.

Never met my maternal grandmother.

Lucky enough to have two paternal grandmothers.

Both paternal g's, very different from each other.

Opposite sides of the spectrum.

I am more like the one who birthed and raised my father, Grandma Billy.

None of them are around to provide me with advice anymore.

Don't worry.

In today's day and age, all you need is a good website or blog to replace a loved one.

(I can't believe I am posting that sentence.  Lightning may hit me as I strike the publish key.)

In particular you may enjoy this blog.

A rollicking good time reminding us of the progress society has made over the past few decades.

Advice as my grandmothers, I am sure, would give me if still here to provide it.

HERSTERIA

And enjoy!

Thank the creator after you have picked yourself off the ground 

when the giggles have moved onto laughter, 

the laughter onto guffaws, 

thence on to crying with sobs of hysteria.

Have a box of kleenex at the ready.

Comics and Women

There are several reasons why I have never really been a comics reader, but as I mature and age the obvious reason becomes less subtle and more overt: sexualization of female characters.  To the point at which creators of comics are pushing soft porn images on children and teens; that women become valid and contributing members of society only if their bust size is four times their waist size; the unrealistic behaviour of these women who are doing less and standing about doing nothing more often; slowly being turned into appendages to male characters who battle it out (or she is the token female in a cohort of four); the reinforcement of a very narrow and unhealthy stereotype of female "beauty" and "acceptance" etc, etc etc....

Now not all women see things the way I do and most heterosexual men would tell me to shut up and check out the size of the characters boobs (got my own thanks!).  Sorry.  Can't. Drives me nuts.  So completely neanderthal and dismissive of who women actually are amazing and who contribute an incredible amount of work daily to improve the groups, communities, and organizations of which we are a part.  In continually sexualizing women or in establishing over-the-top unrealistic images of women, we damage how women see themselves and how others see us (see the APA report below).  Drives me nuts.  Fantasy or no fantasy, what we see, read, hear, speak becomes our thoughts and our actions and I am not interested in the fake fantasy of womanhood that does little of us women any good (see APA report below).  

Don't just listen to my ramblings, listen to the words of a seven year old girl who loves female comic characters....well most of the time....

Dear DC Comics

Out of the 278 comments on the blog post above, here is the best one:

Draw Michele Lee's Daughter

If I was an artist I would draw Michele as a superhero without sexualizing a seven year old girl, any other girl, or any other woman.  What would you do?  Contribute to the website with flair and talent.

Sex between two (or more) consenting adults can be an amazing and phenomenal experience. Being sexual and being sexualized are two very different occurrences.  The former is a choice in which pleasure and enjoyment is extended to all voluntary participants.  The latter is an objectification, a commodification of a person for whom a removal of one's humanness is the goal, in addition to the making of money.  My body is not for sale.  I hope more women, teenage girls and female children find an increasing number of ally's (photographers, writers, PR firms, magazine editors, movie makers, etc.) who are willing to halt the sexualization of women within media, movies, TV, online sources, comics, literature, blogs, and video.  To support the sexualization of women after the research that has been conducted (see APA report below) is to regurgitate immature, condescending and destructive images of women, which becomes horrifying when directed at or which are available to children and teens.  We should be more disgusted by and take action against this sexualization more often (much like Michele Lee).  

American Psychological Association's (APA) study of the Sexualization of Girls finds (all direct quotes):

1) Cognitive and emotional consequences

Cognitively, self-objectification has been repeatedly shown to detract from the ability to concentrate and focus one’s attention, thus leading to impaired performance on mental activities such as mathematical computations or logical reasoning (Frederickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn & Twenge, 1998; Gapinski, Brownell & LaFrance, 2003; Hebl, King & Lin, 2004).

2) Mental and physical health

Research links sexualization with three of the most common mental health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression or depressed mood (Abramson & Valene, 1991; Durkin & Paxton, 2002; Harrison, 2000; Hofschire & Greenberg, 2001; Mills, Polivy, Herman & Tiggemann, 2002; Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw & Stein, 1994; Thomsen, Weber & Brown, 2002; Ward, 2004).

3) Sexuality

Sexual well-being is an important part of healthy development and overall well-being, yet evidence suggests that the sexualization of girls has negative consequences in terms of girls’ ability to develop healthy sexuality. Self-objectification has been linked directly with diminished sexual health among adolescent girls (e.g., as measured by decreased condom use and diminished sexual assertiveness; Impett, Schooler & Tolman, 2006).

4) Attitudes and beliefs

Frequent exposure to media images that sexualize girls and women affects how girls conceptualize femininity and sexuality. Girls and young women who more frequently consume or engage with mainstream media content offer stronger endorsement of sexual stereotypes that depict women as sexual objects (Ward, 2002; Ward & Rivadeneyra, 1999; Zurbriggen & Morgan, 2006). They also place appearance and physical attractiveness at the center of women’s value.

5) Impact on others and on society

The sexualization of girls can also have a negative impact on other groups (i.e., boys, men, and adult women) and on society more broadly. Exposure to narrow ideals of female sexual attractiveness may make it difficult for some men to find an “acceptable” partner or to fully enjoy intimacy with a female partner (e.g., Schooler & Ward, 2006).

All told, a choice like this from DC Comics is a form of backlash (conscious or unconscious); for every movement, for every change, there is a backlash.  In this case a backlash against what women have gained, what women continue to want, and what we deserve: a society in which women self-define their bodies and find acceptance in this definition, in which women have ultimate and constant control over their own bodies, and a world that consistently values each human being.  

This is me pushing back against the backlash.

Positive Advertising for Women - YouTube

Positive Ads from Love Your Body

Pro-Age Ad Banned in US

Campaign For Real Beauty - Dove
(not a perfect campaign or company, but a great beginning)

Post-Sexist Society? - YouTube

Sexualization of Women in Magazines - YouTube
(These last two are hard to watch for 7 minutes each and not want to vomit in disgust, but they do reinforce the points made above.)

My New Favourite Saying

Found this on the '1,000,000 Pissed Off Women' page I am a part of on Facebook.

Makes me want to start singing Disney's version of Snow White, with excessive vibrato as I do when my sisters are around, 'one day my Prince will come, one day...'  Ha ha!  Love it!

RIP Jack Layton

Just wanted to commemorate the listening of Jack Layton's funeral on CBC Radio.
I know that we idealize people during funerals but with teach talk, speech, piece of information about Jack, he is more amazing.

For a person to pioneer causes such as decreasing violence against women; improving the situation of the poor; to listen to the issues facing immigrant individuals and families; fighting for the rights of the gay and lesbian community; speaking on behalf of the middle and lower income groups in this country; teaching each of us that our contribution does make a difference.  To fight for these causes as a white, heterosexual, middle to upper class man and to not be afraid of sharing power, decision making processes, money, and access to the good of the world is what is most impressive about Jack Layton.  Our cities, our country and the world would improve if we lived more like Jack, not leaving anyone behind.

The more I live, the more I realize that I am not a democratic capitalist.  Far from it.  (I say this as the US is slowly imploding from over consumption and over accumulation of the ruling class and others).  Money is helpful and useful in a world that circumnavigates production, consumption, consumerism, and there are many things in my life that require money (place to sleep, food, clothing, writing, reading, education, ceramics, photography, entertaining friends) but I want money so that I can live.  I don't live for the accumulation of money.  I am not a capitalist.  Jack and his life's work makes me more motivated to be even less of capitalist and more of a democratic socialist, the policies, procedures and laws that leave no one behind.  A world of private enterprise and things is a world in which there are fewer people willing to share, and in which accumulation and having more at any cost is the priority.  Others are always more important than things and accumulation of things.

Thank you democratic socialist and activist Jack, for this reminder.

From Google Pictures

Student Governance, Here I Go!

When I arrived in the Peg and looked around the University I decided that as this may be my last time around (PhD undecided), I was going to really, I mean REALLY, get involved in the University.  At every turn there seemed to be someone already in a position that I found interesting.  Towards the end of the first school year the Graduate Student Association advertised their elections in April and I began investigating possible ways to become involved.  As it turned out, the Vice President External position was available as I am adept and reaching out to groups and connecting them to each other it appeared to be an ideal position.  I ran unchallenged but according to the by-laws no one can win by acclamation and people can vote against you in the process.  Having achieved an 89% yes vote I took up my new position in May.  Thus far I am the only person on the 7 member executive that has no student governance experience so the learning curve is steep.  Tres steep.  I shall persevere.

One of the first jobs I had was to attend the Manitoba Canadian Federation of Students meeting where we discussed provincial wide student issues, which interestingly had changed very little from the early 1990's when I first started post-secondary education.  Rising tuition fees, privatization of education, privatization of university services, copyright issues, UPass possibilities, water-bottle-free campuses, not all repeats issues but many sounded familiar.  While at the meeting we voted for Manitoba representatives for all the CFS positions.  Having spent a good portion of my life with a penchant for seeing, understanding and enjoying Women's Issues I ran with another individual to be the Co-Women's Representatives for the province.  This means more meetings of course but it also means more opportunity to see how policy is developed, learn how to chair and attend official meetings, run campaigns to ensure student life improves, learn Robert's Rules of Order, speak up on behalf of the people I represent (graduate students or students who identify as women), and try to encourage groups to work together to find mutually agreed upon solutions.  Another interesting and steep learning curve.

The second task I took on was leading a small delegation of students who attended the National Confederation of Students meeting in Ottawa at the beginning of June.  It was a week full of meetings, meeting people, talking governance, discussing issues, cheering and chanting (I felt too old for both), listening to labour movement connoisseurs, and learning when to speak and when to shut-up.  Great week but I do wish there had been more concrete actions taken and fewer hours of cheering.

At the Closing Plenary
Oh the new words I am learning!

Maracary, Tonia, Greg in Solidarity

Honest Conversation

Many years ago when I was a practicing member of the LDS faith, a friend introduced me to a site called Mormon Stories Podcasts.  I dove in and found an incredible collection of stories, ideas, thoughts and perspectives that provide a breadth of understandings to those who are Mormon and those who are not.

Several years ago, the site was taken down by John Dehlin (a practicing Mormon), stopped his regular podcasts.  To those on the fringe of Mormonism, this was a blow as he was not afraid to talk to and about the intellectuals, the excommunicated, the LGBT groups, the edgy and those whose voices of questioning and dissent provided a much needed critique required to practice any religion, participate in any political group, or aspire to understand the tenets of any ideology.

Although as a single, well-educated, liberal, feminist, woman it was hard to end my participation in the larger organization as part of my self-identification came from the church, my continued unhappiness with many of its practices and religious ideas required my cessation.  Even though I have 'gone astray', I continue to peek in once a while to see if progress with regards to women's issues, the LGBT community, and other more liberal ideas has been made.  To my surprise three weeks ago, I was delighted to see John Dehlin back with an improved website and more conversations with a wide breadth of people.

While peeking around, I found this gem.  The much maligned subject of sex, masturbation, pornography and marriage.  Gathering professionals within and without the LDS church, Dehlin and cohorts present an interesting and honest talk about subjects that are so frequently ignored or pushed beyond the fringe of most religious groups.  Talking about sex does not lead to random sexual behaviours, it just means that the subject is no longer taboo and a maturity around the subject can grow.  Give it a listen.  It will make you feel healthy, wealthy and wise.  :)

I just found another gem, a woman I will adore for the rest of my existence, Carol Lynn Pearson.  

Need a New Calendar?

Several years ago while travelling through Rome my two friends and I spotted the most hilarious of calendars.  Catholic priests, completely dressed, but whose faces and body language suggested a layer of hotness.  We each bought one and years later they are still being used as specific dates are not attached to specific weekdays.  Smart calendar making!

Roman Priest Calendar
Not the best link but you can look for more in the inter-web.  ;)

Turns out there are new Mormon ones too.  Flanked in controversy, the creator Chad Hardy thought he would try to present a different, less stuffy image of Mormonism and asked male returned missionaries to pose shirtless.  This did not go down with the some general populace or the leaders.  He has begun to make a calendar of married women with baked goods.  Do we know where this is going?  Even less popular.  Either way, they look hilarious and quite tongue-in-cheek, which is why I don't mind them.  Not degrading or offensive, just sexy and a tad racy.  Give them a peek and order one if you have free space on a wall.

Men On A Mission and Hot Mormon Muffins Calendars

!WAR

Recently on the website 'big think', Bob Duggan reviewed the movie '!Women Art Revolution'.  He tells the reader about one women's documentary journey, Lynn Hershman Leeson, filming 42 years of women fighting the battle of being under-represented in the art world.  The film is being premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this January, a festival in my list of 'must do's before six feet under'.  In hopes that the film comes by the way of a film festival or other event to Winnipeg, I hope to see it in the next year.

My love of the visual arts was instilled in my soul as a young child living in Brussels, with parents who ensured their children received a first hand education in art as we toured European art galleries.  I have fond memories of asking my mother about certain paintings, and feeling a whisper on and in my ear of the symbolism of a particular piece of art, the reasons for it being painted a certain way, and even why there were so many nude and semi-nude people in European art.  All queries of a young mind.

As an young adult I moved to Canadian cities where the art world was small and lost contact with my childhood memories and connection with the visual beauty of another person's creativity.  Visits to Ottawa and Montreal and their respective museums rekindled my love of art.  During my first brief trip to New York City, I walked through the MoMa, MET and other galleries to build on my knowledge of art which had deepened to an appreciation of not only Medieval, Renaissance, and other European art, but also a further respect towards Surrealism, Abstract art, Pop art and now Contemporary art.  While in the NYC galleries I had a sense that I was missing something, though I could not ascertain what what it was.  After three days of meandering through various forms of art I realized I was missing my mother's voice in my ear, providing me with information and answering my queries.  I was now an adult and had to provide the answers to my questions through my own research and thoughts.  The adjustment to the missing voice was not easy.

Building on my childhood knowledge and developing my own art voice, I was intrigued when I say a group of women in the NYC streets with make-shift small stands, in odd costumes, asking people to complete their art survey.  Being willing to participate in other people's work it slowly dawned on me that this was not an academic survey, but a rouse of different stations, each one enlightening the participant to the lack of women artists represented in museums and art galleries in New York.  As it turned out, these interesting, vibrant and intelligent women were part of the Guerrilla Girls movement showing us at the end of the survey, that there are large numbers of female artists but their work is presented in on a fraction of major art galleries and museums in New York City.  I had no idea.

This group along with many other individual artists are featured in Leeson's movie, which is one documentary not to be missed.

(Copied from http://www.guerrillagirls.com/posters/getnakedshanghai.shtml)

We Are Missing

"There is the side that fights.

There is a side that keeps schools, factories, and hospitals, open."

"We are missing the stories of the women who are literally keeping life going in the midst of war."

"There is the side that is led by men.  There is the side that is lead by women...We must understand war and peace from both sides."

"We have to understand that we cannot actually have negotiations of ending of wars or peace, without fully including the women at the negotiation table."

"I find it amazing that the only group of people who are not fighting, and not killing, and not pillaging, and not burning, and not raping, and the group of people who are mostly (though not exclusively) who are keeping life going in the midst of war, are not included at the negotiating table."

"There is no way that we can talk about stability until we start investing in women and girls."

Zainab Salbi is astonishing.

In Case You Haven't Participated...

...Sakineh is a woman who has received the death penalty in Iran, accused of committing adultery.  There is no witnesses accusing her, nor a person identified with whom she had the alleged affair.  Since her imprisonment she is also now being accused of killing her husband, yet there is no evidence of such behaviour.  According to sharia lay, she has been in jail for 6 months and has received 90 lashes, now she is scheduled to be killed.  Her brother, who is also her lawyer, has collected international signatures calling for her release in one of the most world's most egregious country's with respect to women's rights.

Add your name Free Sakineh

Read more in MacLeans and in The Times of London

Critical and Structural Theory

This is my brief distraction from the paper I am writing at the end of my first term at Grad School.  It has been a huge intellectual learning curve and I am loving every minute my brain takes on the challenge to advance itself.  To be honest, not nearly as physically, emotionally or psychologically taxing as teaching Division 2 in Elementary School, but my level of stress will probably escalate when I begin actually writing my thesis next term.

In the meantime I have been reading about different methodologies of research.  For my part, I am currently having an intellectual crush on Critical Theory and Structural Feminism (no surprise in the latter).  While writing the larger portion of my paper, I am to dive into the world of various methodologies and methods of research, pick the ones that most match my topic of choice, then describe how they will all fit together.

In reading a certain book I came across a quote that I do not want to forget:

Politics is pervasive,

Language is constitutive, 

Truth is provisional,

Meaning is contingent,

Human nature is a myth.

Summarized by Peter Barry (2009, p. 35) in his book Beginning Theory (which has be updated and re-printed three times), he summarizes Critical Theory into these statements to prepare the reader for the meat of the book: Literary and Cultural Theory.  Structural theory (of which I am also learning) purports that meaning is not inherent in a word or in language, but that these meanings are brought to the text from the outside structures by the reader, which are culturally, morally and politically biased.  As my paper is based on Canadian cultural representations created through text and image for international tourists, so these methodologies of research will be of great use as I return to my writing.  So far, lovin' it!

Off to read more!

Barry, P. (2009).  Beginning Theory: An introduction to literary and cultural theory.  Manchester: Manchester University Press.