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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Pulse Doing Overtime

Fringe Fest in Winnipeg has been good for me.
This one is for you Trevor.
Thanks.

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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Cover Up ! / ?

A very interesting post about women, breast, cancer, surgery, gender performance, choice, non/conformity and acceptance.  One sassy blog!

Discrimination Korner: 

Cover your boobs whether you have them or not

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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Be Careful

Be careful what you take to final exams.

Things fall out of back pockets when you sit for three hours.

Then again, it sure added some joy to the supervision part of my day.

(Psssst!  In case you can't see the yellow object, it's a condom.)

My Sweet Curiosity

Amanda Hale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Once again, I found this book walking back from the bathroom to my study carrel at a University library.  Two books caught my eye, both by the same author, this one called, My Sweet Curiosity.  Blending the history of Andreas Vesalius, the author of De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body), who is considered the founder of modern human anatomy; with the story Natalya, a medical student and her tumultuous relationship with her mother beginning with a bizarre birth story; and Dai Ling, a gifted cellist studying music in university with parents who sacrificed their lives in China to bring her to Canada.  Natalya and Dai Ling find each other and fall in love, and Dai Ling has to work through this revelation of being a lesbian within a traditional Chinese family structure.  Lost in tumultuous history's, each character, Natalya, Dai and Andreas, must navigate a labyrinth of ancestral choices that influences their current conditions, and reminds the reader that we come from a place we may not have chosen, but this history filled with people is desperate to hold on to us, despite our attempts to set ourselves free.

I will be looking for more Amanda Hale books as the intense research she completes on topics that I am unfamiliar with, teaches me about subjects I don't have time to research, as I turn each page.  Sounding the Blood, her first novel, is next.

http://amandahale.com/


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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.)

Bravery

I was brave.
I did something I had never done before.
It was intriguing, fun, interesting, sensual, thought provoking and delightful.
A person can choose to leave a patriarchal organization but the deconstruction of its training, which marginalizes, controls and silences so many people, is a series of incredibly deep mental and emotional changes the individual has to choose to truly disengage from its philosophical tenets.
Suggesting the choice of partner is based on submissiveness has demonstrated a lack of critical change.
I am reminded that not all choose to reject patriarchy, and each one of us interprets the world differently  providing a richness in some aspects of life, in others, it demonstrates the larger process of societal change has just begun.
Let the influence have been a two way road of intelligent dialogue and conversation.
Things end.
People are missed.
Onward on the trail of life.
Music speaks the words of release.

Jackdaw - David Gray

Euphoria - Sarah Slean
Samson - Regina Spektor
You Run Away - Barenaked Ladies
Rumor Has It - Adele
The Fallout - O.A.R.
All That We Let In - Indigo Girls
Girls Like Me - Mary Chapin Carpenter
Leaving Edmonton - David Francey

Belfast - Romantica

After the Storm - Mumford & Sons

Hello I'm In Delaware - City and Colour

Leaving for Paris No. 2 - Rufus Wainwright

Each one of us decides our worth through the choices we make.
Worth more than a visa.
I hope he knows.

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

Voices and Society

Edward Bruner has said, 'there are always feelings and lived experiences not fully encompassed by the dominant story.  Only after the new narrative becomes dominant is there a re-examination of the past.' - Canadian Journal of Traditional Music, 1986

Thoughts have been swirling around in my head for many weeks now.  It all started when I picked up a book that had been staring at me, calling out my name, and asking me why I had not yet purchased it yet every time I entered a UK bookstore.  After months of denial of desire, I purchased a copy, read it faster than a gazelle escaping a sharp toothed beast; purchased the second book and sped through it like a short track runner; pleaded with family to purchase the third and final book in the series in the UK as it had not been released in Canada.  When the last book landed in the city, was placed in my hands, and quickly consumed the series haunted my thoughts and still do.  Its messages very vivid and mentally an interesting to wrestle with as these books are not happy-go-lucky.  The heroine is an intricate mix of edgy, intellectually brilliant and emotionally complex.  All interesting people are.  

Steig Larsson, the talented writer whose life was cut short would be devastated to see how his life partner is now being treated due to the books he wrote about the corruption of some areas of government and their treatment of the marginalized.  As a CBC: The Current podcast shared, Eva Gabrielsson, Steig's partner of 32 years, did not receive any legal access to Steig's legacy because of Swedish law.  Interesting no?  His books include themes of women's experiences, injustice, cruelty, violence, sexual exploitation, power struggles, and using your own means for self-care, and here is his partner struggling as a woman for justice and equity under the law.

The experiences of Eva, the stories from Steig, combined with the student who made an appalling comment this week in class (after having spent nine weeks discussing and studying the voices of the marginalized) is prompting me to share books, people, news, views, pages and clips that have reminded me that the dominant voice is rarely faultless or representative of the majority of voices.  Follow what ever link you wish in hopes that it will help you remain a critical thinker and participant positively in the society we are all creating.

The Case of Russell William

Gentlemen Prefer Bones

Flamenco in Spain

Before we begin, click here to feel, read and see the moment:



As you read, you are in a place of broad landscapes and soft hills.  Sometimes you can hear the wind in a song, a swoosh of birds floating by, a sudden crash of waves, or a Moorish voice drifting on the surface of the wind.  You are in Madrid.  A sticky summer's day.  Cold glass, dripping water on our thigh as you lift the delicate vessel to your lips.  The rush of searing, cold liquid flushes across your tongue, down your throat in sweet relief.

A dancer enters.  Another follows.  Poised, ready for movement.  The music of nature begins.  Her torso twists as if disconnected from her arms. She stops and stares.  She moves with him creating a swirl of arms, hands, clothes, and faces.  They pose again.  Breathing heavy.  Her hands continue their former rhythm.  He dances behind her, constantly reaching out to her with his stare.  Another whirl of shapes, points, gestures, movements.

Prop 8 Update: Marriage for All

I am proud to live in a country where we do not withhold the basic rights of legal permanent relationship status from citizens based on same-sex relationships.  In Canada the legal status of cohabitation and marriage with all its benefits have been available for all people since 2005.  When our current Prime Minister took office in 2006 and wanted to re-open the gay marriage debate the country told him to move forward with other business.  On this issue, we had made our decision and it would not change.  What a wonderful way to demonstrate unconditional acceptance, appreciation of and care for all members of society, by offering the same choices that heterosexual couples have enjoyed for decades.  I am going to hug a fellow Canadian right now...sniff!

(Photo from boxturtlebulletin.com)

When California's Prop 8 appeared in the social, political, judicial and religious circles, I was appalled at the actions of individuals and organizations that wanted to repeal the freedom of choice that had already been given to the California LGBT community.  In such a progressive, freedom claiming nation, why was this portion of it regressing where so many nations had already succeeded?  In particular, those groups who professed current practices of marriage between one man and one woman, but historically and behind religious doors practiced otherwise, caused the arrow on my moral compass to spin uncontrollably.  Hypocrisy in action.  Having had a life long connection to one such group, I was ashamed, and for me it was the final piece of exit music required to move forward with my life sans connection.

In honour of those whose marriages were declared null and void the American justice system offers this ray of hope.  Thanks to a friend of mine, I can now share it with you:

Ruling Against Prop. 8

Let the sun shine...let the sun shine in...the sun shine in!   

Your Body, Your Choice

Just in case you have not heard on the news, Canada is planning on removing its funding for abortions for people who live in third world countries.  For those who have traveled, lived or worked in third world countries, you have seen or experienced the poverty few of us in North America will ever have.  Add to this the lack of access to birth control, undesirable sexual violence towards women, laws that may restrict choices over your own body, and a lack of money to access healthy, safe abortions.  Living in countries where we have access to money, freedoms, health services and choices, I believe we are responsible to assist the less fortunate with what we have.  Sign if you choose.  Don't if you choose no.

Please sign this petition to Parliament to include funding for family planning and safe abortion in Canada’s G8 Maternal/Child Health Initiative.  

As the host country of the G8 Summit on June 25/26, 2010 in Huntsville Ontario, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his governing Conservative Party of Canada have chosen to champion an initiative to improve maternal and child health in developing countries.

However, this admirable initiative has become deeply mired in the Conservatives’ anti-choice ideology. The government announced on April 26 that they will not fund safe abortion services "under any circumstances" in developing countries. Although they were forced to back down from their earlier position that family planning and contraception would also be excluded from the initiative, there is still no firm commitment to fund family planning – only a vague promise to "consider" it, and to "not close doors against any options, including contraception."

Please sign the following petition to call upon Parliament to include funding for safe abortion and family planning/contraception in Canada’s G8 maternal/child health initiative. 

(Petition sponsored by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada)

Teaching Human Sexuality

So another uprising occurred last week in Canadian politics, but a fun one this time: Sexual Education.  I remember first learning about sex from my cousins when I was approximately 8 years old and thinking, "My parents are Mormon.  They would never do anything that disgusting.  They know a different way to have babies."  Oh the innocence of youth!  I still have a brother who believes he was born through immaculate conception (we just let him keep thinking this).  Eventually I realized that no matter the belief system, nationality or race, we were all created through sex.  Over the years for each of us, sex has become more appetizing and less shocking.

Each province and territory in Canada creates their own curriculum, available on the Internet for students, parents, teachers and the public to view (Ontario).  Despite the availability of this information the news of the proposed changes to the Ontario Sexual Education curriculum shared in January, did not make headlines until April.  The proposed changes would include children naming body specific body parts in Grade 1 and talking about gender identity and sexual differences in Grade 3.  As well more intense topics such at homosexuality and alternative lifestyles being introduced in Grade 6, rather than waiting until Junior High (Grade 7 -9).  These changes caused a mixture of an outcry and support from parents, guardians and the public about the range of topics and the ages of the children to which they would be taught (more outcry at this point).  In response to the nay-sayers, the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty's government flip-flopped their decision and announced the government would discuss with parents what they wanted to see their children learn before implementing permanent changes.

In my opinion, parents should have input into this curriculum, and as difficult as it is to think about one's own children as sexual beings, it is important for parents to understand that they can rely on educated people to provide sexual information to their children.  In Alberta, parents can opt out of classroom sexual education for their child, but once again it is a place where this information can be handed out and discussed in a safe and welcoming environment.  Other places where children receive information and messages about sex could include, but are not exclusive to, cousins, friends, playground chats, sleep-over parties, books, TV programs, Internet, advertising, conversations with relatives, etc.  Not all of the information received from these sources is accurate and this is one reason why sexual education provided in a safe, informative and interesting environment, such as a classroom, is essential for raising children who are prepared to make more educated choices regarding their sexuality. 

Cleavage Anyone?

Thousands Sign Up to 

Flaunt Their Cleavage

From Torstar News Service


Tens of thousands of women have signed up online to flaunt their cleavage Monday in the face of an Iranian cleric’s comments.

Purdue University student Jen McCreight threw out the challenge last Monday on her blog, and by Thursday more than 33,000 women joined the cause from all over on two separate Facebook sites.

What provoked her was a comment from Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, who was quoted on April 16 as saying, “Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes.”

Her challenge:

“On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own. Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town. I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts ... With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake.” 


Tonia: Don't you love a smart, critical feminist?!

Tripods

I am at the Normandy American Cemetery in Northern France peacefully reading names, observing the other visitors, and meandering between the endless white crosses and Stars of David that remind us of the tragic but necessary sacrifices of the 1940's.

I stand in front of a large relief map that takes up three walls, is raised five feet above the ground and is eight feet high, demonstrating with boats and ships, raised coasts of two countries, and blue and red arrows showing the movement of the Allies during June 6, 1944 D-Day Landings.  

Most of the other visitors look briefly at the map then move on.  I stand and stare trying to absorb the incredible plan of a dual air and water invasion, floating harbour dragged across the English Channel, and wonder at the brilliance and fortitude of Churchill and his supporters.  My thoughts are interrupted...

Male Visitor:  Excuse me please.

Me: Oh, sorry.

I turn and see a sleek, dark haired man with a camera attached to a tripod larger than most humans I know.  He plonks it down, right in the middle of the space, unconcerned about any other visitor, and begins adjusting the excessive number of knobs on the gigantor tripod.

Me:  Wow!  That is a large tripod.  Are you a professional photographer?

Male Visitor:  No. And I don't mean to insinuate anything, but I have a larger one at home.