feminist blogs in english

As we continue to mourn and heal from the masacare at Virginia Tech, here is some thoughtful reflection from sister Terry Howcott.

Hundreds people walked through the streets of downtown Toronto on Tuesday evening in a candlelight procession to honour the memory of journalist and social activist June Callwood.

Callwood, a well known social activist and journalist, passed away early Saturday at the age of 82 after a long battle with cancer.

Known as a tireless campaigner for social justice issues, Callwood will be remembered as a procession moves through the city between Jessie's Centre for Teenagers and Casey House, facilities she helped to establish.

Jessie's Centre provides support to pregnant teens and Casey House is a hospice for people with AIDS and HIV.
CTV

TVO will be repeating an interview with Callwood:

June Callwood on Paula Todd Person 2 Person
Friday April 20, 2007 at 10 pm
Repeated Saturday April 21 at 6 pm and Sunday April 22 at 3 am

And in remembrance of another great woman:

A Memorial Service for Doris Anderson will be held on
May 12 at 2:00pm, Convocation Hall, University of Toronto
FAFIA

Now that Imus -- who I barely knew anything about until recently -- has (rightly or unrightly -- it really doesn't matter to me) lost his job and our resident black male leaders have demonstrated their power to police, I hope we can turn our attention to the real conversation -- the root causes of Imus' racism. Because we know its more than just what one white man says, but:the structural and

God, am I ever sick of campus media leading the charge to embrace homophobia and incredible sexism. This time it comes from London, Ont.'s University of Western Ontario. Its student paper, The Gazette raised a stir (thankfully) over its spoof paper in late March.

Here's what Craig Ashbourne writes on rabble.ca about it:

The Gazette, the University of Western Ontario student newspaper, published an issue on Friday March 30, 2007 which claimed to be a satirical issue, intending no harm to anyone involved in the stories. However, it then proceeded to violate both the Ontario Human Rights Code regarding harassment on the grounds of both gender and sexual orientation.

Following a series of misogynistic and homophobic articles, the editors then proceeded to include an article entitled “Western Girl Likes the Taste of Rohypnol: She's a real knockout!” [Rohypnol is the name of a date rape drug.] This, despite recent studies from the University of Victoria placing the rate of sexual assault among female university students at between one in six and one in four.

Soap Box Spinster blogs about this issue here.

This is part of a letter written in to the Gazette:

As a member of Western’s student body, I’m writing to let you know I’m disgusted by The Gazette’s Friday, March 30 “satirical” issue. The issue presents a series of articles making light of date rape, violence against women and homosexuality. These jokes are used every day to justify violence against women and queer people.

From The Gazette's webpage

I've tried, but I can't find the "spoof" issue on the internet. Perhaps they had the good sense to take it down.

Recently, I was selected as a 2007 fellow in the Environmental Leadership Program, a year long fellowship which promotes and builds new leaders for the environmental movement. I am delighted! I am part of the Greater Boston area network, as the national program recruits fellows from different regions across the country.This represents a transformative opportunity for me. It is a culmination of a

"A message is being sent to us [that] violent attacks against women are a backlash to our gains," said Raveen Mandair, a member of the group South Asian Women Against Male Violence, which organized the rally.

The rally was about bringing to light the violence that happens in South Asian families that is rarely made public.

One of the most shocking cases, that this event was in memorial of was the case of Rajwar Gakhal.

On April 5, 1996, Gakhal's family was massacred by her husband.

This is from a paper published from Simon Fraser University by Yasmin Jiwani, Ph.D. in 1997.

Rajwar Gakhal challenged that authority when she left her husband and filed for divorce. Yet, rather than focusing on the bravery of this woman, existing accounts simply blame the victim by suggesting that she was remiss in not laying charges. The fear of taking such an action is dismissed. However, when compared to existing research, it is apparent that many women are afraid to press charges for fear of retaliation from their ex-spouses. Because of this fear, many cases either do not proceed to court or result in a stay of proceedings. And it is precisely because of this fear that the British Columbia Attorney General's office issued a mandatory charging policy in 1993. According to this policy, police have to investigate a case where there is suspicion of violence in an intimate relationship. Further, they have to report the case to Crown Counsel which then pursues it in court.

Most media reports have focused on gun control laws and how effective they have been in suppressing the number of women's deaths.

From The Province on Apr. 2, 2006:

Statistics show 85 women killed by firearms in 1991, dropping to 32 in 2004, a decline of 62 per cent. In that same time, the number of women murdered without a firearm dropped by just 10 per cent.

But can this drop be seen as success? We aren't given the number of women killed without a firearm to know what this 10 per cent drop means. And 32 women killed a year with firearms is still too many. And, how do we know it was changes in firearm legislation that did this?

I attended the Women, Media and Action conference this past weekend at the MIT campis, held in the coveted Frank Gehry-designed building, across the Charles River border which separates Boston grassroots from the Cambridge liberal intelligentsia. The conference had a long list of high-profile speakers and presenters on a wide range of issues related to women's participation and activism in media,