Feminist Truths

The Truth about Girl Gamers

2012-01-24T11:13:00.001-08:00

ENTERTAINMENT - The inspiration for this blog post came to me from Amanda Kirby from La'Riot. Give her all the credit.

Ah... girl gamers.

Now there is a rare breed.

Nerdy, addicted to videos games (or cards / board / dice / roleplaying games in the case of Magic the Gathering, Warhammer, Dungeons & Dragons, etc), and are metaphorically kittens amongst lions when it comes to the gaming industry. (Kittens with claws!)

Women gamers are very rare. That doesn't mean they're any less good at what they do. Women gamers have sharp analytical minds and can kicka$$ as much as the men do (with the possible side benefit that they don't have the male ego and can sometimes surprise their ego-prone male counterparts with their sophisticated strategy and skills).

The problem however is that because they're so rare girl gamers are often prone to sexism. They're the sex symbols of the gaming industry. What every male gamer wants: A female gamer they can play with and frolic with after the game is over.

Talk about pleasure junkies.

What is interesting is why there is so few female gamers.

#1. Females are not the target audience when game designers sit down. They know most games are action packed adventures or war strategy games... and they're aimed at men. Very few games (ie. The Sims) are aimed at women.

#2. Pink controllers is really just an insult. (Real girl gamers don't buy pink controllers... because they're playing the blood and gore games just like the guys do.)

#3. Women crave more intelligence in their games. Playing a mindless game gets boring regardless of what gender you are, but men will play mindless games if there is the least hint of sexually enticing images along the way.

#4. Playing video games is considered to be nerdy / masculine hobby and many women don't want to be associated with being a tomboy or nerdy. Darn stereotypes.

#5. Women tend to spend their money differently. Gaming is an expensive hobby to get into. Gym memberships are cheaper comparatively, which explains why there is so many more women at the gym.

#6. Gaming is associated with being fat and lazy couch potatoes. (Another reason why gym memberships are more popular.)

#7. Fear of social rejection. "Oh you play video games?" *sound of disgust in the person's voice* Video games is considered low brow. Its not chic.

#8. Sexism in video graphics. This is a biggie. Because so many video game companies market towards men they often make the graphics as sexually revealing as they dare in an effort to sell more product and keep men coming back for more pixelated mammaries. Part of this is because nerds have difficulty finding girlfriends and thus have lots of money to spend since they're evidently not spending it on dates. Don't expect the women in the graphics to be realistic. (Although we could say the same about women on reality TV shows that are less than realistic shapes too. It really should be called Phony TV.)

#9. Videos games often have fantasy / sci-fi / war plots that are uninteresting to many women. Its too macho.

Check out the website girlgamer.com if you want to learn more.

For years now the video game industry has been bigger than the movie industry. Its estimated it may someday even dwarf the p*rn industry because of all the free p*rn now available via the internet. In the combat for the wallets of men, the gaming industry is winning all the way and its just a matter of time before it dwarfs other industries too.

On a separate note:

I have a theory about obesity rates in the USA. Television alone didn't cause obesity rates to skyrocket. But when videos games and the internet became popular during the 1990s obesity rates began to skyrocket. Suddenly more Americans were watching television AND spending time in front of computer games or on the internet. As the internet usage skyrocketed so did obesity in America.

So if you want to play games, go ahead. But try to get outside and exercise more often.

Or better yet, buy a Wii Fit and do both. :)

The Truth about Tati Kalveks

2012-01-24T07:04:00.000-08:00

ENTERTAINMENT - I love feminist musicians.

The problem with feminist musicians however is often they are amateurs and the quality of their recordings frankly suck...

But this doesn't mean their performances aren't good. They're great, its simply a problem of finding the opportunity to properly record their music in a studio.

Lets take Tati Kalveks as an example. A feminist singer/songwriter, just 18 years old. Still wet behind the ears. You look for videos of her work online and you find these on YouTube:

Now right away you realize the sound quality is low. You can hear laughter from the audience. Its to be expected from a live performance.

To be fair Tati Kalveks is very early in her career right now too. Given time we will likely get better quality recordings.

I like her lyrics and I hope she does well.

Crazy Stuff People Say to Feminists

2012-01-16T09:21:00.000-08:00

FEMINIST - All women are feminists. What is sad is the women who don't realize they are feminist and have confused feminism with male-hating.

Check out the video below to see some of the crazy stuff people say to "non closet" feminists. By 'non closet' I mean activist feminists. Out there actually doing something about it. There are tonnes of women out there whom I would describe as 'closet feminists', meaning they support women's rights but they don't make activism part of their regular lifestyle.

A video worth watching: Miss Representation Trailer

2012-01-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

ENTERTAINMENT/POLITICS - I highly recommend everyone watch this video. It will make you THINK.

The Truth about Fashion Models and Plus Size Models

2012-01-09T06:08:00.000-08:00

FASHION/HEALTH

In 1992 the average American woman in her 20s weighed 132 lbs.

In 1992 the average fashion model weighed 120 lbs (8% less than the average).

In 2012 the average fashion model weighs 102 lbs (23% less than the average).

In 2002 plus-size models were considered to be between size 12 and 18.

In 2012 plus-size models now average between a size 6 and size 14.

So the fashion models are getting thinner and even the plus-size fashion models are getting thinner, despite the vast majority of women who say they would prefer models who are more realistic.

In America 50% of women wear a size 14 or larger, but the majority of fashion stores only cater to size 14 or smaller. Even so-called "plus size" stores have a limit on the sizes they have available.

My message?

Support local companies which cater to your size and taste in fashion. Change will never happen if we keep supporting companies which keep making things smaller and smaller.

Let fashion designers and brands know what you think via social networking sites and email them via their websites to let them know how you feel about clothing options.

If more people stop buying at certain stores and let them know you will not be purchasing clothing from them until they market to you, this will get their attention when they see their revenue losses and have to start contemplating store closures.

Support indie designers.

We are bombarded with sexually suggestive ads every day, but there is nothing wrong with our bodies. Our bodies aren't meant to be starved. We're meant to be eating hearty, exercising constantly and have an Amazon / Cavegirl physique. Its being too skinny which is unnatural.

We need to embrace our Amazon side and not be afraid of it.

In other news here is a fun video that may give you some food for thought...

The Truth about Work Place Abuse in Adult Entertainment

2011-12-12T09:55:00.001-08:00

The video below was sent to me and contains footage (censored) depicting how female p*rn stars are treated in California's adult entertainment industry.

And if this is the kind of abuse happening in California, what kind of abuse is happening in the rest of the world?

Note: This isn't to say all p*rn is bad. ie. There is a growing movement of Feminist P*rn, including the Feminist P*rn Awards.

The Truth About Hooking Up, Dating, and Doing Relationships While Feminist

2011-12-12T07:41:00.009-08:00

By Liz - Guest Writer

The way most Western education is framed, I think, is very strange. I didn't actually think this until I studied abroad in Ecuador, where most university students live with their parents, and actually often live with their parents until marriage. The fact that I lived in apartments or dorms with friends was very strange to my Ecuadorian friends, and when I thought about it... it is pretty weird.

At 18ish, many Western young adults head off to college, where many experience "independence" for the first time. Although this involves a lot of good life-skillsy things like learning to pay bills and manage a budget, one of the more significant things people experience in college is a phenomenon called hookup culture. And if we're not calling hook up culture weird and bizarre, we have a problem. It's been normalized and become hegemonic! Nooooooooo!

For those of you who are too young/old/cool to fit into said culture, let me explain briefly:

Hookup culture tends to be defined by a casual approach to sex (and sexish things). The term "hookup" takes on a lot of meanings and there is no one definition, but I think about it as "making out +." So anything that happens in that realm may be referred to as a hookup. As this is the dominant relationship script in colleges there develops the culture: we do it, we talk about it, and then we listen to other people talk about it.

How widespread hooking up is is somewhat up to debate. Kathleen Bogle, who wrote the book Hooking Up, found in her study that 91% of female college students believed that hookups occurred fairly to very often, while only 40% reported that they had actually participated in a hookup during college. This is why hooking up is significant. If fewer than the majority are actually doing it, it might not seem so big, but this is what most people believe is fact. That is culture.

So what of it? Well, some people believe that hookup culture is the devil, while others fetishize it, and others still that it has its place because of its benefits.

Unfortunately, most of the studies so far on hookup culture are on heterosexual couples, and as a cisgender, heterosexual woman, my experience is also in line with what information is already out there. Gay hookup culture on campuses is something that I know about through friends, but is not something that I know enough about to really speak on. (--> Perhaps there is someone out there who can? Because those are voices/experiences we need to hear from as well.)

I feel somewhat conflicted about hookup culture. I've always felt a little conflicted about it, but it wasn't until I read Bogle's book this summer that I really started to question it. Here are most of the arguments for/against hooking up (that exclude like... religious ones):

Point 1: Hookup up is positive because it allows women to have a sexual experiences without distracting relationshipy things. Not all people want a long-term, monogamous relationship. For college students, hooking up can give the positive things (fun sex stuff) without the downer things (boring relationship, commitment things).

Point 2: Hooking up is negative because women trick themselves into thinking that hooking up is what they want. Bogle found that some women who sustained hookup relationships believed that these may one day turn into a traditional boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, however that is not how most hookups work. Believing hookups to be fun and/or advantageous to starting something else, women engage in hookups despite actual ambivalent results.

Point 3: Hooking up is positive for women because it is erasing some of the sexual stigma women face. As a culture that expects (heterosexual) hook ups to happen, women have more sexual freedom and are encouraged to participate in a culture that allows them to enjoy sex.

Point 4: Hooking up is negative for women because it doesn't actually get rid of sexual stigma, and in fact encourages men to take advantage of women without emotional commitment. Without that emotional connection, it is easier to delegitimize women and call them "sluts" for analogous behavior from men, which goes unpunished.

Thing is... I think all of these 4 points are true to some degree. As a college senior, I have participated in hookup culture all four years of being in my university, through hookups as basic as making out at a frat party to having a sustained hookup relationship with a friend. Personally, I'm really busy and sometimes barely have time for my girlfriends. Imagining factoring a relationship into this gives me a headache. I am glad that my friends and are at a point in history where our sexuality is somewhat encouraged, and we do encourage each other. However, I think the days of slut-shaming are far from over, and it's difficult to say this when I know that there are some people who would still judge me for my behavior, no matter how tame or wild it is.

Earlier this semester I wrote about this on my blog, and I talked about something called pluralistic ignorance, which is something that Lisa Wade, another sociologist who studied hooking up, found is an issue with hookup culture. Hookup culture has become somewhat hegemonic. I think in general, monogamous relationships are somewhat hegemonic, but that's a subject for another post. But when we (college students) accept hookup culture as fact without questioning the results (kind of ambivalent... it's good, it's bad, sometimes it's fulfilling, eh) we're creating an environment that makes hookup culture bad because no one is questioning it.

College students, whether or not hooking up is personally satisfying (and for a lot of college students, hooking up is not as satisfying as they want it to be), continue to participate in it because that's what we believe to be the norm. Since the post I wrote earlier this semester, I joined an online dating site and have been experimenting with that a little. I don't have to participate in hookup culture. I have options. Honestly, I don't have a lot of time for meeting up with guys I've met online either, but I've been on a couple dates and it hasn't been a negative experience. I'm concerned with fundamentally having equality between me and whatever man I go out with, so I have found it interesting that the simple switch from being an undergrad (*cough*: in a state of extended adolescence) to being a grad student or post-grad for dudes switches their mindset from hookup culture to traditional dating.

Where feminism comes in, is I think it is possible to have whatever kind of relationship works for you, whether it is hookups or a sustained casual relationship, or dating, or a relationship, and still be feminist. If you feel like you're not being valued enough as a person, or that your position in the relationship is somewhat marginalized or unequal, just get out of it. Don't waste your time. College students have the opportunity to experiment with their sexuality without the awkward parent-thing, so I think that's something that should be taken advantage of. If that means just going on dates... that's fine! I have lots of friends who have never hooked up in college, and it's not like it's something they're particularly pining after. Sexuality is a personal experience and can't be defined by what we see on MTV or ABC Family or whatever. Everyone experiences it differently, but maintaining a critical mindset allows us to evaluate whether or not what we're doing makes us happy and determine whether or not what we're doing is a feminist act.

Liz blogs about feminism, current events, pop culture and teens at Our Turn: Feminism for Newbies.

Feminism: The Sliding Scale

2011-12-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

FEMINIST - Seriously, feminists will protest almost anything they think causes inequality.

ie. The Muff March

Activists in London and Southampton are staging a "Muff March" on Saturday December 10th to speak out against labiaplasty and what they call a ‘pornified’ culture driving increasing numbers of women to seek vaginal cosmetic surgery, and to protest against the cosmetic surgeons profiting from it. The activists will be wearing fake ‘muffs’, will march down Harley Street, famed for its cosmetic surgeries, and stage a synchronised "muff dance".

Demand for labiaplasty is increasing rapidly due to the online porn industry. Its not just saggy breasts women are seeking surgery for. Between 2007 - 2008 there was a 70% increase in the number of labiaplasty operations carried out by the NHS, and last year the Harley Medical Group received more than 5,000 inquiries about cosmetic gynaecology. Researchers at Kings College London are studying the demand for labiaplasty and have suggested this increase stems from the increasing ‘pornification’ of culture. The protest comes two weeks before Christmas, a period during which demand for cosmetic surgery has been found to surge.

The "Muff Marches" protest includes slogans likr: “Keep your mits off our bits!”, “there’s nothing finer than my vagina!”, and “Harley Street puts my chuff in a huff”.

Over 325 people have so far signed up to the London event on Facebook.

Ahem...

Which brings me back to the real reason I am writing this post: The concept of a Sliding Scale of Feminism. A scale of 0 to 10, sort of like wine dryness to sweetness.

0 - A woman who doesn't care that she is treated poorly and basically does whatever men want her to do.

5 - The average woman in the world.

10 - A hardcore feminist.

Obviously there are some women out there who want labiaplasty and have a specific idea of what their vagina should look like on an aesthetic level. On the opposite end there are women who think body modification for the sake of male standards of beauty is wrong.

Now I admit there is always the potential for some kind of horrible accident and a woman might want to seek labiaplasty as an effort to get her self esteem back, and yes, she should totally have that option. But that isn't really a feminist issue to me except on the level that it gives the victim back some of their self-esteem.

Thus I would leave the door open to people doing these things because they might see it as part of their healing process after some horrific accident.

Also some people are just really into body modification... tattoos, piercings, implants... there is a whole sub-culture for such things. Not my cup of tea, but people are free to make their own choices.

There are some things I believe in that makes me think I might be more of a 9.5 on the Sliding Scale of Feminism. Maybe a 9.1 or a 9.9. There is no way to accurately measure unless I come up with some kind of more scientific survey which determines exactly where people are on the scale.

So... on my list of things to do in the future I need to craft a survey which does two things, 1. gauges what topics people consider to be a feminist issue, and 2. asks people to gauge themselves on a scale of 0 to 5 how much they agree to disagree with a specific feminist issue. Add up all the scores, come up with a score out of 100, and then pinpoint based on the responses people give whether they are a 5.2 or a 9.7 or whatever on the scale.

Note: The questions and answers on the survey should be made precise and avoid any vagueness. Vagueness decreases the accuracy of a survey because then people will just pick one of the numbers when uncertain which number reflects their own beliefs.

1 - Disagree Strongly (worth 0 points).
2 - Disagree (worth 1 point).
3 - Not sure (worth 2 points).
4 - Agree (worth 3 points).
5 - Agree Strongly (worth 4 points).

Times 25 questions... a grand total of 100 possible points. Divide the total by 10 to get your result. Voila! Suzy's Sliding Scale of Feminism.

The Truth about Hijabs

2011-12-07T06:20:00.000-08:00

FASHION - It is cultural bias that assumes that hijabs (headscarves worn by women in Muslim countries) is a shackle.

Some women (including devout feminists) make assumptions that hijabs are mandatory and a sign of their lesser status as women. But in reality these things have nothing to do with why women wear hijabs.

When wearing a hijab women are treated with more respect. Their hair (considered sexual in both western and Muslim cultures) is seen as distracting from the personality. Thus when wearing a hijab the focus becomes their face, their facial expressions and therefore their personality. Thus men behave more respectfully.

It is a cultural phenomenon in Muslim countries. Not so much a tradition or a fashion rule. Its a phenomenon which frees women to be treated as equals and is reinforced by cultural beliefs surrounding the hijab.

So ripping the hijabs off of women isn't actually freeing them. Its forcing them to embrace your own cultural beliefs... and that isn't freedom. Its abusive.

Wearing a hijab means this woman won’t have to worry about whether or not she’s fashionable or kewl. She isn't going to be part of the sexually exploited parts of culture which see beautiful hair as a sex symbol.

Instead she will be confident about herself as a person, feel treated like a person instead of like a sex object, she can focus on her career, her education and she can find a job where her pay is equal to that of a man... as opposed to wearing sexually revealing clothing and having to fight her way up a corporate ladder which sees her as a sex object instead of an intelligent and sophisticated woman.

Fashion can have a very real effect on how people are perceived. If two men apply for a job at an insurance company, one is dressed in a black suit and the other comes wearing baggy jeans, who gets the job offer?

They say "Clothes make the man." Its abundantly obvious which one will receive the most consideration. The baggy jeans man would have to have a very impressive resume and references to win that job offer.

In this case we should make a new phrase: "The Hijab makes the woman free."

I am rather tempted to start a whole new fashion trend: Feminists Wearing Hijabs! Now that is a fashion statement!

The Truth About College Feminism

2011-12-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

By Liz - Guest Writer.

I've been waiting to post on here for awhile, to read some of the posts and see how it works, but now here I am! And I am definitely planning on writing more about my experience as a College Feminist and what college feminism looks like to other people I know. Anyway, this is my introduction, my name is Liz and I blog at Our Turn: Feminism For Newbies.

This is me.

From a photoshoot my college's chapter of FMLA

did called, "This is what a feminist looks like,"

I entered college four years ago with high hopes for feminist discourse. So I was initially surprised when the professor of my women's studies class asked the students if they identified as feminists, and I was the only person to raise my hand.

What? I thought. What the heck are they doing in a women's studies class!?

Generally, the response of the students in class was that they weren't feminists but they supported women's rights. This made no sense to me. Hadn't everyone read Susan B. Anthony chapter books when they were learning to read? Didn't everyone watch Xena: Warrior Princess reruns during the summer? Where the heck were they getting their information about feminism? I had heard the "I'm not a feminist but--" line in high school, but I expected college to be some sort of utopian land where everybody could talk about gender stereotypes and feminist scholars in peace and harmony. I was wrong.

It turns out that a feminist identity is somewhat of a rocky road for many women (and men), but college seems to be an important catalyst toward honing ideology about gender and equality, and one's ability to identify as a feminist. A lot of men and women enter college with a base knowledge of feminism: that it means women can vote and work outside the home + sometimes feminists are scary man-haters who want to take over the world. For a lot of students, college is the first time that they can really engage each other about gender, sexuality, and inequality in a classroom setting. And (awesomely) this is something that a lot of people think is exciting. Thankfully for my faith in feminism, by the end of the semester, most of the people in that class identified as feminists. I saw a similar pattern when I was a teaching assistant in the course a year later, but it was interesting to watch the transformation of students who didn't identify as feminists to students who wanted to take more women's studies classes (and in the case of two of them, become minors).

This attitude, unfortunately, tends to be something that women embrace more than men. Personally, I think every student should be required to take at least one women's studies or gender/sexuality studies class in college. And as a women's studies minor, I've found the demographics of my classes really interesting. I have had very small women's studies classes that are all female, where we are able to talk about patriarchy and men quite openly, and students have shared really intimate and traumatic experiences. I've had other classes where the only men in class are bisexual or gay. And I've had a couple classes where there are not only gay men, but straight men. And this is what I love. Talking about feminism with diverse crowds.

There is a perception that a lot of dudes share, that feminism is important and does good stuff (yay equality) but is not particularly relevant to their lives. Well, my good sirs. Feminism relates to everyone.

As feminism is fundamentally concerned with the equality of women, you cannot have a good feminist conversation about gender roles and oppression without talking about masculinity. And even me, uber feminist that I am, when I first started reading about masculinity in my classes thought that it was going to be a bunch of revisionist, sexist-apologetic crap. But no, it's awesome. Michael Kimmel is my jam. But what I find most exciting about reading about male studies and feminism is that a lot of guys in college are open to the idea of feminism, but if I can relate feminism more to their life and situation, they start to see why it's important. All of my closest male friends identify as feminists (this is partly because all my male friends are gay or socialists or both), and we have really interesting conversations about feminism. Could we have had these conversations maybe 7 years ago when we were in high school? Probably not. And for some of them, we probably couldn't have had these conversations a couple semesters ago.

Ultimately, what I'm trying to say is that I think that in general there is tension between adult feminists of an older generation and feminists my age that comes from this feeling that younger feminists aren't serious enough, or aren't on top of it for declaring themselves feminists publicly. In my experience, I know that people's perceptions of feminism change. Freshman year most of my friends didn't identify openly as feminists, but they do now. People change, and I think being open to teens and young adults as they are forming their world views and learning about what's out there is really crucial to welcoming more feminists into the fold. We've got room for everyone.

The Truth about Postfeminism

2011-12-06T07:12:00.000-08:00

ENTERTAINMENT - Today someone asked me what my favourite feminist book was, which one I would recommend... and I immediately thought back to university and a book I found in a bookstore...

INTRODUCING POSTFEMINISM

It wasn't one of those dry, boring reads.

It was funny. It was informative. It was full of information and facts, history and a distinct look at what postfeminism is.

WHAT IS POSTFEMINISM?

Put plainly, postfeminism is about choice.

Examples:

#1. The choice between having a child or not having having one.

#2. Having a career vs being a gold-digger (or being homeless and jobless).

#3. Getting married or not getting married.

#4. Enjoying sex and exploring your sexuality vs being a prude.

Life is all about choices. Postfeminism supports the idea that women without choice are slaves to whatever society tells them to be. Thus in order to break free women need to choose for themselves what they want to do.

Nobody is forcing them to choose, but bad situations will often cause people to make difficult choices.

ie. You have 2 kids already and you're a single mother. You get pregnant and you don't think you can afford a third child. You might not believe in having abortions, but you and your 2 kids can't afford to have another mouth to feed. Does the woman stand by her beliefs and risk becoming homeless or does she opt for the practical approach for the safety of her existing children?

It may not even seem like she has much choice sometimes. It happens.

ie. A teenager with very conservative Christian parents gets pregnant. She is too afraid to tell her parents and too young to go to an abortion clinic without a guardian (some countries require parental approval if the teen is considered too young). She becomes paranoid her parents will disown her or maybe even kill her if she tells them she is with child. Does she tell her parents? Does she run away and have it anyway? Does she have an abortion using a coathanger?

So many options. Each a hard decision.

ie. A young woman gets raped by her boss. Does she tell her friends? Does she tell the police? Does she press charges? Does she quit her job or does she keep working under such stressful conditions, putting her in a position where she might get raped again? Does she sue his ass for mental and physical anguish? Is she able to move on and eventually find happiness or will she eventually become androphobic?

The importance of choice and freedom of choice thus becomes abundantly clear. Each of these choices has to be equally supported by family, loved ones and society. Not necessarily approved of because some people will doubtless disagree, but the woman's right to make her own choices is fundamental to her freedom as a human being.

Women, regardless of what decisions they make, need societal support for those decisions. If they choose one thing over another society should not be ridiculing such women. They're victims of circumstance.

We should not be blaming the victims. We need to be helping them. (Of course some people will choose to blame the victims, and that is their right, but one can hope that most people would be kind, compassionate and understanding enough that they would recognize that sometimes people get into bad situations and when in bad situations they often just follow their heart.)

Lets take myself. I am currently shopping for sperm because I want to have a child. I suppose I could just find myself a willing male participant, but I don't want any daddy with legal issues coming back to haunt me.

I've made a choice that I want to have a child. I've also made a choice that I don't want there to be a father. The closest thing to a father will be my girlfriend (who may eventually become my wife).

And to those of you out there who don't think two lesbians can raise a kid, I recommend you watch this video:

The Truth about Condoms With Teeth in South Africa

2011-12-01T20:38:00.000-08:00

RAPE - In 2010 during the World Cup in South Africa over 30,000 'Rape-Axe condoms' were handed out free. While the condoms (which in truth are more like diaphragms worn by women) won't prevent rape, the jagged-teeth inside is designed to rip penises up.

This grim invention was invented by Dr Sonnet Ehlers after she met a rape victim who commented "if only I had teeth down there". This stroke of inspiration led Dr Ehlers to research the possibility of a diaphragm which is designed to make sex painful for rapists.

Rapists sadly rarely regret their actions. Too often the law fails and the rapist is never punished. The rate of reporting rape is very low and the conviction rate is likewise low.

Ehlers was working as a blood technician with the South African Blood Transfusion Service and this caused her to come into contact with numerous women who had suffered rape. She originally wanted to call it RAPEX, but later changed it Rape-Axe.

Women afraid of being raped simply insert the Rape-Axe condom inside themselves like a diaphragm or tampon. If her worst fears later come true the Rape-Axe's hooks itself to the penis and won't come off, instead becoming tighter and tighter the more they struggle. It can basically only be removed by a doctor. The diaphragm would remain attached to the attacker's body when he withdraws, the Rape-Axe still attached and causing excruciating pain. While the man struggles to try and remove it the woman makes a quick get-away. (Note: This won't work during a gang rape evidently.)

Like all condoms and diaphragms it also prevents pregnancy and the transmission of HIV and sexually transmitted infections.

After the World Cup was over Ehlers wanted to begin selling the Rape-Axe condoms for approx. $2 each...

But the truth is this never happened. The devices never reached the mass market.

And the reasons vary... some women feared reprisals from the rapists who might murder them over their flayed penises.

Drugstores refused to sell an item designed to cause pain.

Some people say the device is medieval to which Dr Ehlers responds on her website by saying it is "a medieval device for a medieval deed."

Others even compared it to a chastity belt, an item which basically enslaved the sexuality of women.

The end result is that the Rape-Axe is a controversial item and there is comparatively few women who would buy and use such an item.

The best defense against rape is confidence and martial arts. Any woman can learn how to knee a man in the groin and then run away. Awareness and training is key, not fancy gadgets.

System favours the few, the male

2011-11-16T07:39:00.000-08:00

By Rachel Ross

When I look back on my pursuit of science, it's difficult to ignore the influence of the Playboy bunny.

Years ago, when things seemed bleak and I felt like the only teenage girl in science, all I had to do was look around me at the beautiful women. Pictures of scantily clad women were proudly displayed in the physics lab at the nuclear facility where I worked one summer. In those few cherished weeks at the nuclear plant I got a real taste of what it might be like to be a scientist, working with an all-male team of engineers and physicists.

When one of my male supervisors saw me looking at one of the models, he blushed and quickly tried to cover the picture. But the guy only had so many hands, and believe me, it wasn't enough to cover up all the cleavage.

What surprised me most was that it seemed as though he'd never questioned those
photos before, like I was the first woman ever to walk into that room, as
though it had happened quite unexpectedly: a girl in the physics lab — who
would have guessed!

The following year, I applied to journalism school.

I've thought a lot about why I abandoned a career in science, largely because I
know I'm not alone. Although there have been slow gains in the number of women
enrolled in some scientific fields, we're not even close to equal
representation. And in the case of computer science, we're no better off than
we were 10 years ago.

I don't blame the guys at the nuclear facility for my career choice — they were
actually a brilliant bunch whose brainpower was much more intimidating than any
Playboy bunny. But I believe my time there was indicative of problems
experienced by many girls.

I went home early that summer because my stomach just churned from the stress.
I didn't think I was good enough at science to make it a career; it seemed like
someone had to practically die for anyone else to move up; I thought I'd have
to work night and day to make it. And I was longing to see some boy whose name
I can't even remember now.

These same themes emerge in studies on the subject: a lack of self-esteem,
negative stereotypes of scientists, fear of loneliness and ineffective role
models.

But I think the critical thing — what is really holding back many women from
science — is the "axiomatic" learning system: a common method of teaching where
memorizing rules is of primary importance. Instead of learning the rules for
ourselves through observation, we're simply told the rule and forced to believe
in it. Axiomatic learning has a long history in education, dating back to
Pythagorean times — which is probably why it's still used. I'm sure it served
Pythagoras well, but today it handicaps the majority of girls and boys.

If we really seek an inclusive education system, then I believe it's time to
make a change. It's time to bring Pythagoras into the 21st century.

One of the most telling studies in recent years, the National Science
Foundation's 2000 report, found that "at all levels of education and in
employment, women are less likely than men to choose science and engineering
fields."

A study by the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (CCPE) shows that the
percentage of women in engineering has improved in the past 25 years, but women
are still seriously under-represented. The percentage of female students who
have completed undergraduate degrees has risen by less than 2 per cent in the
past five years.

In some fields, such as chemical and material engineering, women made gains
around 1997, but those numbers have since levelled off to where they were in
1995. Others fields, such as computer science, suffered modest losses before
rising back up to just about where they were seven years ago.

Computer science still has the lowest percentage of women of all the
engineering sciences, with just 11.8 per cent of undergraduates being female.
It is not on the decline, but during a period of peak demand for programmers,
female participation remained oddly unaffected.

These numbers don't play out well in the labour force, either.

In 1997, women made up just 23 per cent of the United States' science and
engineering labour force — the same percentage as in 1993, according to the
National Science Foundation.

Certainly, lots of women work at technology companies, but I think it would be
short-sighted to call everyone who works at a technology company a technology
worker.

At Microsoft in Seattle, where I worked in the 1990s, there were lots of women
on staff but were receptionists, managers or in the marketing department. Of
the 22 programmers on my husband's team at Microsoft, only two were female. And
when I think back about the other teams I met in my two years there, that
number seems fairly indicative of the company over-all.

This isn't the company's fault. Most large tech firms run special programs to
encourage women to pursue science as a career. I think we're basically past the
stage of blatant sexism: Human resource people would be happy to hire a female
engineer. But they can't hire people who aren't there.

Some people don't think the numbers matter. After all, if you believe men and
women are truly equal, why stress over stats? So what if the majority of
technology workers are men?

The problem is we don't have enough technology workers to meet our needs.

By 2005, Canada will have only 30 per cent of the workers it needs in the high-
tech hardware industry, according to a study by the Impact Group.

More than 46,000 new jobs will be created in microelectronics, photonics, opto-
electronics, wireless and radio engineering by 2005. But the study showed
Canadian schools will only be able to produce about 10,000 properly trained
recruits.

Those are the numbers — they have a time and place. Students, like the rest of
us, are well aware of the low female participation rates in science programs.

But I don't believe we should push young women into careers they don't really
want — be it to fill a perceived shortage or worse yet, in the pursuit of
statistical equality.

"Pushing" is not what is required. Studies show young girls are equally
enthusiastic about science as boys, but as girls grow up they shy away from
technology careers.

I recently met an exceptionally bright high school student who was captain of
her robotics team. She was actually thinking about not going into engineering
because she didn't want to be the only girl.

On the surface, she was brimming with with confidence, and certainly had the
intelligence to back it up. But no one wants to be the odd one out, the woman
in electrical engineering.

We don't have to push girls into science. We just need to make sure that those
who are interested are encouraged and included.

Science is also suffering from a serious identity crisis.

The subject has unjustifiably developed a reputation as a non-creative field —
especially computer science. I find this laughable, especially when I think
about the challenge of designing a new piece of software from scratch.

Sure, there are rules you have to work with, but we need to remind students,
especially girls, that science is all about the creative application of those
rules. Sometimes you have to know how to break the rules to your advantage.
That's what makes programming really fun.

As for electrical or chemical engineering, once you get into research, you are
the one who discovers the new rules. They could be the rules that hold a
molecule together, or the ones that bind the universe. Most of what we believe
today is still a theory and, unlike other fields, science has a good history of
being open-minded to new ideas — especially if you back it up with experimental
evidence.

Another common concern about science is that there's no room to move up. Women
fear they'll be stuck doing grunt work forever, backing up someone else's
research.

When I worked at the nuclear facility, one of the things I quickly came to
learn was that there were few opportunities for career growth. Or so it seemed.
I caught many of the full-time staff talking about how they'd been stuck in the
same job for years. Like many teenage girls from my generation, I had my
ambitious side and I knew I'd need room to grow, in whatever job I chose.

So if you work in science and technology, watch what you say around
impressionable students.

Studies of young women found that career flexibility was far more important to
girls than boys and that women are more influenced by job opportunity.

I've heard other researchers dispute that finding — specifically because it
doesn't explain the recent decline in the number of female computer science
students, during a period of demand for programmers.

I believe that the stigma of the software industry as an almost evil business
discouraged many women from entering the field during that time of peak demand.

That stigma partly stemmed from a general anxiety about computer technology
that grew in the nineties. I've seen other reporters blame the Internet for
just about every societal problem on earth, as though evils such as kidnapping,
child pornography and the simple act of lying didn't exist before we all got
wired.

Then there's the greed factor. We tend to look at successful software
developers — say Bill Gates — as greedy, more so than the average chemist.
However necessary, the ongoing Microsoft lawsuit was a black-eye to the
industry. To those who vehemently dislike Microsoft, it made software look like
a cutthroat business. To those who sided with the Seattle firm, it made the
rest of the industry look like whiners.

And no matter what your religious beliefs about operating systems, from an
outsider's perspective, the software industry seemed more tied to a profit
motive than any other. Our attention to the dot-com market hype and subsequent
crash added to perceptions of an industry driven by greed.

Why should that matter? This might sound a cliché, but studies suggest girls
are more influenced by a need to make the world a better place — an ideal
that's not often tied to money, especially among idealistic high school
students preparing to choose a career.

The software field also suffers from the general perception that programmers
are all work-obsessed, which doesn't play well into the modern concept of
balancing work and family life.

People often ask me if Microsoft programmers are worked to the bone, spending
long hours in darkened offices with sugar-based snacks and espresso.

That rumour is only partly true. Microsoft programmers do drink too much coffee
and eat too much sugar. The company's private buses are all stocked with
baskets of candy. Back on Microsoft campus, the administrative assistants keep
their own baskets of free gumballs and Hershey's kisses in the halls. If you
walk around the maze of offices, you'll spot a big tub of M&Ms every so often
too. On the anniversary of your hire, you are required to put a pound of the
chocolate treats out for every year you've been there.

But the eating habits aren't to support an exceptional work load. There might
have been round the clock hours at some point in the eighties — I don't know, I
only worked there at the end of the century — but at this point the company has
far more programmers than it needs.

In general, jobs in software aren't more time- or labour-intensive than other
careers and there are still a lot of opportunities to pursue other things. I
think this needs to be made clear to all women with an interest in science —
it's a career yes, but it doesn't have to be your whole life.

Remember the smurfs, those little blue cartoon characters that lived in a
mushroom village?

The smurfs had an interesting kind of community going. Each smurf was highly
specialized, so that their life revolved around one basic trait. There was
Jokey smurf, who was always playing practical jokes, Baker smurf who made a lot
of pies for Jokey, and brainy smurf who generally drove all the other smurfs
nuts relaying his wisdom.

Then there was Smurfette. She didn't do much, beyond brushing her hair and
looking in the mirror.

When I was growing up, especially in my teen years, I'd developed a Smurf
Theory on Life. It wasn't anything that I discussed openly at the time, but it
was a kind of background thought process that coloured my view of all people.

The fundamental tenet of the Smurf theory on life is that people have a single
trait for which they are known. They are the best at this one thing and don't
dabble in others. In real-life terms, this meant that as a girl I could be
either smart or pretty. Subconsciously I was convinced that any time I spent
learning how to put on make-up or buying a new purse was time taken away from
the learning process.

I was convinced that I had to hold steadfast to one lifestyle — either pretty
or smart — and stick with it.

Truth is I wasn't very pretty, but I did get good grades. So I went with my
natural gifts and left the makeup routine to other girls.

I believe that many girls take at least part of the Smurf theory to heart.

They believe that they must be outstanding in their field or not bother at all.
Surveys of young women show this belief is common: Women tend to underestimate
their own skills at math and science and don't pursue subjects they aren't
confident in.

The other half of the Smurf Theory — that girls can either be smart or pretty,
but not both — is reinforced by an inaccurate but well-established stereotype
of female scientists as somewhat unattractive women, almost non-sexual beings.

The cover photo for this story raised a few eyebrows in the newsroom, but
that's exactly my point. Why is it that smart women aren't taken seriously when
they get all decked out? Modern women should be free to strive for both goals —
to be sexy and smart.

I've often joked that what we really need to do to draw young women to science
is establish mandatory uniforms for all engineers. I was thinking something
like the ones on Star Trek.

They have that slender, glamorous yet strangely intelligent look. But all
joking aside, we need to make a concerted effort to show young women scientists
who also lead fulfilling lives in other ways. Be it through family, traveling
or hobbies, we need to counteract the belief that science — especially computer
science — is only for workaholics.

My husband is a computer engineer. I asked him what he and his friends thought
of the handful of girls in his program. He said that they always assumed the
girls in his program were rather exceptional. The men, he said, ranged from
just plain lazy to brilliant, but the girls were always smart and hard-working.
The girls also typically ranked very high in relation to the over-all class —
generally in the top 10.

Basic bell curve theory would suggest that, in terms of marks, we should see
some women at the top, some at the bottom and the bulk, smack in the middle.

But all we're seeing are the upper rung of achievers.

What happened to the average girls?

Well, they probably just aren't applying.

Studies show that girls tend to pursue subjects that get them the most
recognition.

So those with the average grades in science and math, the ones who are usually
overlooked as middle of the road, are abandoning science for subjects where
they believe they are more likely to shine.

I believe our own language tends to reinforce the idea that only the very best
women can make it in science and that our attempts to encourage young girls
with exceptional role models is really counter- productive.

Think about how we describe famous women in science. We tend to call them
extraordinary, heroes, championing the cause, striving onward despite
adversity. That doesn't sound very attainable, especially to a girl who
persistently underestimates her own ability.

While the stories of high achievers are inspiring, they need to be balanced
with stories from average women, in average technology jobs. A stream of
ridiculously successful role models reinforces the belief that only outstanding
women make it in science.

The role models we present to our children may be the only women in science
they ever know. I didn't know any female scientists growing up. Did you? If
your only role model is extraordinary and you think you're just average in
math, how high would you rank your chances of success? Would you even bother
applying to a science program?

Everyone always talks about what a poor student Albert Einstein was.

We need a female equivalent — lots of them. Women, alive or dead, who didn't
always get A's in school yet enjoyed a long career in science.

But we also need to ask ourselves why girls feel they are struggling in math
and sciences. Does our learning system contribute to their own lack of
confidence?

I believe that education today plays into our weaknesses — especially in the
last two years of high school.

Think back to your own classes in physics and chemistry. The classroom goes
from a series of experiments to a series of formulas. In Grade 9 you made
things pop, fizz and turn colours in test tubes. In Grade 12, you spend a whole
lot of time memorizing the rules about when electrons jump from one energy
level to another.

The classroom becomes increasingly axiomatic: more and more focused on
memorizing the rules than observation and discovery.

Mary Williams of Memorial University of Newfoundland outlines the problems with
our current education system quite effectively in a paper that is titled, A
Debate on Encouraging Women in Science and Engineering.

The basic idea behind axiomatic learning is that you start with an elementary
principle, or axiom, and through deductive reasoning you use that axiom to
prove more complex relationships.

There's a certain hierarchy to axiomatic learning, which is why people who
learn best this way are often called hierarchical learners.

Geometry is probably the most obviously axiomatic subject.

We start out with basic rules such as all right angles are equal to one
another. Then we use those rules to develop others, like the Pythagorean
theorem. And so on. It's like a string of axioms, each building on the one that
came before.

For axiomatic learners, the concept or rule is of primary importance — the
applications take a back seat. And that tends to be the way we teach older
students: by presenting the proofs first and the applications later, if at all.

Hence, pure axiomatic learners are the kinds of students who do exceptionally
well in tests or competitions. It's not that these students are necessarily
brighter; our current education system favours them.

Williams says that in schools today we tend to teach math, physics, and
chemistry according to the axiomatic tradition. She calls university the
"empire of the axiomatic" and says that the closer you get to graduating high
school, the more axiomatic the learning becomes.

I remember the axiomatic approach used at my high school. The teacher would
stand up and tell you the rule. Most of the time you had to take the rule at
face value — especially in Grades 12 and 13. Sometimes, you'd have a chance to
do an experiment. But the sole purpose of the experiment was to prove the rule
you were already told. If your results didn't add up, you were best-off using
the findings from someone else's experiment.

There was never time nor materials to try it over again, to see if there's some
kind of pattern emerging or if you can find out why it didn't work the first
time.

Unfortunately, most people aren't hierarchical learners. The majority of us
learn using the reverse strategy, by watching how things work and drawing
conclusions from our observations. It is called relational learning because it
puts the relationships first. Rules eventually come out of the experience.

How do you know if you're a relational learner in an axiomatic environment?

Williams suggests you ask yourself the following questions:

Were you a little slower in school, or would you simply skip over certain
lessons completely in an effort to catch up?

Did you question the legitimacy of the rules you were told?

Did you question why you even needed these rules in the first place?

If your answer is yes, then you're probably a relational learner.

I am a relational learner; my husband is an axiomatic learner. The difference
is so startling that every time we talk about my robots, one of us ends up
throwing their hands in the air and walking out in a huff.

But it wouldn't start out as a fight. Initially, my husband would look at the
robot, spout off a couple of rules about capacitors or resistors, and consider
the problem solved. I'd just be looking at him, rather perplexed, thinking,
"What the heck are you talking about?"

It's like we're speaking in two different languages. For a long time, I thought
this was because he was just smarter than I was and talking over my head.

Despite the fact that I'd built these robots without his help and knew them
inside and out, I assumed he had some kind of higher power that god gives to
engineers.

When we read Williams's study, we realized that it wasn't brain power that
separated us, just the way we learned things.

He understands the world based on rules that he inherently believes. I need to
come to those rules, in my own time, by checking to see how things actually
work in real life. I need to see it in action to be a believer.

Now that we realize the differences in our approach to learning, my husband
helps me by suggesting what parts of the circuits I should look at using my
multi-meter. By studying how the circuit works at various points, I can figure
out the problem. And I learn some of the rules along the way.

Are all women relational learners? No.

But studies such as one done at Fanshawe College in London, Ont., in the 1980s
suggest that most women are relational learners: as many as 93 per cent.

Most men are relational learners too. Seventy per cent of men, in fact, learn
best in a relational setting where they can draw conclusions from their
observations.

As luck would have it, only a small percentage of the population is axiomatic
learners. So our current education system for science favours the few and the
male: because about 80 per cent of axiomatic learners are men.

So how can we reassess our school system with that in mind?

In my ideal world, children would be assessed and reassessed every couple of
years to determine what kind of learner they are. There would be separate
streams for relational and axiomatic learners.

They'd have to cover the same material; they'd just do it in different ways.

I'm not convinced that relational learning has to be slower. That's a misguided
belief because relational learners tend to be slower in our axiomatic system. I
think that if rules are carefully reiterated after a student has identified
them for himself, we'll find that a single experiment actually provides far
more rules than it does in an axiomatic system, where it's basically one rule
per experiment.

It's all in the teaching: carefully pointing out the rules learned as a summary.

The problem with my ideal learning system is that it would cost more money.
We'd need more teachers, more materials and probably more field trips to
incorporate a truly relational experience.

So what can we realistically do in our classrooms today?

Perhaps the easiest change would be to simply state the rule after the
experiment is over every once in a while. This might show the relational
learners that science isn't just about rules and turn it into a more genuinely
creative process, even if the end goal is to teach them a rule.

Always explain why the rule matters and how it applies in the real world. Give
more than one example, because relational learners generally need the rule to
be reinforced by several experiences to really internalize it.

Recognize that some students who are doing poorly might benefit from some self-
guided study.

Start an after-class program for students who aren't doing well so they can use
the lab to conduct their own, albeit supervised experiments.

Encourage parents to buy a chemistry set or explore physics at home.

To do the most people the most good, we could just abandon hierarchical
learners — but I think that would be just as short-sighted as the system we
have now.

What we want is a mix of the two, so that both hierarchical and relational
learners have a chance to shine.

Not every girl is going to want to pursue science. My goal is not to push or
mislead girls into a career they won't enjoy, just to give them the opportunity
to explore.

The truth is, we might be expecting a little bit too much, too fast. It wasn't
so long ago that sexism was a perfectly normal occurrence and women in science
were basically ostracized.

And we could just wait, cross our fingers and hope that our daughters even out
the numbers a little. Maybe the next generation of computer scientists will
have a bit more estrogen.

But why wait when there are so many easy, obvious ways we can help young women
come into their own in science?

With a good dose of self-esteem, some parental interest and participation we
can show our girls just how good they can be at science.

And just get in as much relational learning as you can as a parent or teacher.
I'm thinking about making t-shirts that say, "I'm not slow, I'm relational."

Then we need to dispel the myths. Science is a career, not a death sentence and
all kinds of women get involved: women with children, women with friends, even
women who have great legs.

I still think of those Playboy bunnies as women in science somehow, and not
just the ones hanging in the physics lab. Polly Matzinger was a Playboy bunny.
She worked in the Denver Playboy Club in 1969. Now she has a doctorate and is
one of the world's leading immunologists.

Surprised? You shouldn't be. Any girl can be pretty and smart.

The Truth about Rape & Revenge

2011-11-12T07:12:00.001-08:00

FEMINISM - The following video ("Man Down" by Rihanna) has raised some interesting controversy about the topic of revenge on rapists.

Naysayers of the video state things like "Promoting violence as a solution to violence is wrong" and "Think of the children!" and so forth.

Except children has nothing to do with this.

And violence, sadly, is often the only answer to violence. Its the reason police carry guns and batons. Its the reason why we have freedom fighters and defensive forces. Often violence is the only response that makes any sense.

And when it comes to rape the courts are often unable to pronounce guilt due to lack of evidence.

But the victim of the rape knows with absolute certainty. The victim becomes judge, jury and executioner if they feel revenge is the only way to achieve some semblance of justice.

And to some extent, prevention. Rapists typically don't stop at one rape. They keep raping. Once they've crossed that line they lose all respect for their victims.

And rape victims sometimes commit suicide. Even if they don't their lives will be irrevocably changed. How many lives can a rapist ruin if they go unpunished?

Speaking for myself I am an advocate of using a more thorough way of wringing the truth from the rapist (someone really needs to invent a better lie detector) and either castrating rapists or at very least sending them to a penal colony.

But for some women such punishments may not be enough. Their minds won't rest until they've sought their own personal revenge.

And for those of us who are naysayers I say to them: How do you know for certain you wouldn't do the same thing if you were raped and brutalized? How can you judge something when you've never experienced it yourself?

The truth is you don't know. You will never know unless it someday happens to you, at which point you will have to decide for yourself. Do you hide what happened? Do you go to the police in hopes that you might get justice? Or do you seek justice with your own hands?

And where is the line between justice and revenge? Are you doing it for your peace of mind or to protect the lives of other women who could become future victims of the rapist?

An analogy I would give is that of Batman.

Batman's parents were murdered. Batman's revenge was not to just hunt down the criminal, but all criminals. It takes a special kind of person to seek that kind of vigilante justice.

It would be exceptionally rare to find a person who looks beyond their own personal revenge and seek justice on behalf of all victims. But they're out there. They're not doing it with a mask or a cape either. They're doing it by raising awareness. They're doing it by teaching self defense classes. They're doing it by teaching women to stand up for their rights.

I would argue that is the true feminist way, using knowledge and experience to uplift and protect the lives of other women. Violence can be understandable when used for personal revenge, but true justice has be found in other ways.

The Truth about Double Standards

2011-10-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

FEMINIST - There are quite a few women out there who are expecting a double standard from their relationships.

ie. They want a man who treats them with respect and equality, but at the same time expects the man to be the sole breadwinner.

ie. I think it is ridiculous some women out there still expect the man to pay for their dinner/etc on a date.

#1. It makes you look like a gold digger.

#2. Its impolite.

#3. You should be independent and not dependent on the male for anything. If the male insists on paying, fine, let him have his ego trip, but don't expect him to pay all the time.

Applying this double standard of desiring equality and yet expecting the old treatment is backfiring and just creating more inequality. It backfires because the male either grows to resent your dependency or they expect sexual favours in exchange for your dependency. Its one or the other sadly. The male who can just give, not worry about it, and not expect anything in return is one in a billion.

Lets say you got on a date with a guy and he pays for the taxi, the meal, the movie tickets and drinks afterwards. In other words he pays for everything. He is EXPECTING SEX after the date.

Same goes with a marriage where the man is the sole breadwinner. If the woman is at home all the time what he is expecting is:

Food on the table.

A clean home to come home to.

Clean clothes.

Lots of sex regularly.

Essentially the housewife is a slave because in theory she has no life outside of the home. If she isn't performing her "wifely duties" in the bedroom then the man starts looking elsewhere for sex... secretaries, co-workers, affairs on the side. (And this is equally true for women sitting at home, bored and craving romance and sex on the side.)

Now it is true that at certain ages children can be a handful and it is wiser to have one parent stay at home to take care of the kids. But this task should be split equally between both parents so they have equal time to bond with their children. Its only blatant traditionalism that dictates the woman is the only one who can stay home and take care of the children.

Stay at Home Dads is a relatively new idea, but its a growing idea and one I feel deserves applause.

For women its simply not practical to be dependent on someone else for your finances. If the man ditches you and leaves you with nothing, what do you have to fall back on if you don't have any money of your own? It is far more practical to have your own career, your own money and be able to stand on your own two feet if the need ever arises.

"If you're going to wear the pants you have to pay for them yourself."

Christian Feminist lives Biblically for a Year

2011-10-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

RELIGION - Rachel Held Evans describes herself as a Christian feminist and she has gone to great lengths over the last year to test out the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as possible.

The 30-year-old blogger and author from Dayton, Tennessee has spent a year doing the following...

She slept in a tent outside of her house while she was having her period (Leviticus 15: verses 19-33).

She praised her husband at the city gates (Proverbs 31: 23).

She made her own clothes (Proverbs 31: 22).

And she even spent some time on the roof contemplating her contentious ways. (“It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a contentious woman in a whole house.” — Proverbs 21:9.)

Evidently the last one was more for fun and to give herself some time alone to think.

“It was sort of like doing penance,” she says. “It was part of submitting to my husband, so I would spend time on the roof just seeing what it’s like to live in a house with me, a contentious woman. Now obviously that’s not in the Bible; that one was a definitely a stunt of my own making.”

Evans lives in a small community in the American Bible Belt, was raised as an evangelical, and she wanted to explore the idea of traditional Biblical womanhood and its meaning in modern society.

The conflict between conservative Christian and liberal feminist values may seem disparate beliefs that would hardly mesh, but she was drawn to the task and has been blogging about her exploits. A book is forthcoming in Autumn 2012.

“I really enjoy the contrast, conflict and the almost dissonance in scripture about women. I find that kind of encouraging because there’s not a single mould that women need to conform to. Really there’s no such thing as one biblical model for womanhood,” she says. “People are still trying to put (women) into categories and we don’t all fit. That’s true for the women in the Bible, too. They didn’t all fit easily either. On one hand, you’ve got Peter telling women to have a gentle and quiet spirit and, on the other hand, you have Jael who drove a tent peg into a guy’s skull, which is not exactly gentle and quiet.”

Evans was inspired by A.J. Jacobs’ book "The Year of Living Biblically". She loved the book, but felt that it would be very different if it was written from a female perspective. Conversations in her local evangelical culture made her want to challenge some of the assumptions about the ideal of Biblical womanhood.

She didn’t embrace polygamy however, which was a reality for many women in scripture.

The Truth About Women And Disability

2011-09-15T14:00:00.001-07:00

Almost daily I hear friends and family tell me: “don’t stress”, don’t worry”, family will help you figure it out”. One thing that my friends can’t fully grasp is the effects of the socially imposed barriers that arise as a result of being a woman living with a disability. They find it difficult to relate to the very real circumstances we differently abled women face. These include feelings of isolation, unemployment, lack of easy access to available government services and more. It’s these manufactured societal attitudes which serve as a means of lowering ones’ self-worth thus disregarding the true essence of a female with a disability. In my opinion these truths are directly linked to the feminist notions around human rights, equality, low income standards and unemployment.

Being a young, university educated woman I too had aspirations of a successful career in Media and Communications. After five years of hard work like many women my age I attended a graduation ceremony where I received my diploma. Yet nothing prepared me for what was to come; years of struggling to find that job, countless interviews followed by rejection. One thing I was never told while in university was that my disability would dramatically lessen my chances for employment. However this is not simply about disability, these and other everyday barriers are being overcome by women who are perceived as visible minorities. More often than not this results in failure to access proper health care, controlled government assistance, social exclusion with minimal to no room for growth or self-advancement; which brings me to the idea of the invisible woman and the need to bridge the gap brought on by the social perception of the “acceptable norm” or normalcy.

The common societal argument is that any deviation from the “norm” should be medically or otherwise monitored, questioned or collectively frowned upon. Women (disabled women included), who do not fit the standard image of a professional, capable and independent individual should automatically be perceived as incapable, unable, and dependant; like the feminist movement, the disability movement as it relates to women, should focus on breaking down the many societal walls that create unfounded feelings of inferiority in us. It is this fear of being “socially perceived” or rather misperceived that prevents us, women in particular, from achieving our full potential. These misled ideas of dis-ability and the female embodiment are nothing but superficially levied social constraints that stand in the way of discovering the real the possibilities behind acceptance.

About two months ago I got married; I am a wife now, but also a dependant according to societal norms. I no longer receive financial support based on disability. My husband is my “primary” caregiver and although I now run a copywriting business; I am a dependant. My unstable income is seen as not enough to grant me the financial independence I crave. Despite my go-getter nature and an eagerness to get ahead, I know that in societal eyes, I will perhaps always be seen as someone who “needs help” from others, I will keep hearing words like: “you are not quite what we’re looking for”. There is a chance that my future children will be seen as children of a parent with a disability and the stigma that comes along with it.

The fact is, in this fast-paced world filled with constant societal pressures, perception is everything; more than anything else it is about that image of the perfect woman, the perfect, wife the perfect mother. Women like myself who have felt that pressure of knowing they will never fit the mold, also know this has to change. We all need to tell ourselves that we acknowledge that these societal norms are nothing but a way for others to shield themselves from that which they cannot explain. As women we need to stand up and let our voices be heard. Working towards a common norm where our collective differences are celebrated rather than judged is the key to personal and emotional freedom.

For more information on disability and feminism visit: http://disabledfeminists.com/blogrol Also be sure to check out: http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/

Do You Take Your Dildo for Granted?

2011-09-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Rifling through your sex drawer you may not think twice about your dildos-but in several states in the U.S. as well as some countries around the world, selling a dildo is illegal.

Alabama is the only remaining state where it is still explicitly illegal to purchase sex toys, advertise or sell them. An adult store in Jackson, Mississippi was raided in 2008 for selling sex toys where three people were reportedly arrested and several boxes of toys were confiscated. Texas, another state that has controversially banned selling sex toys and "obscene materials" has had federal court appeals fighting for the rights to sell these products, and it was not until recently, in 2008, when the law was overturned and it became legal to buy toys.

Trojan recently began selling a Vibrating Touch Fingertip Massager, but is banned from selling them in Georgia, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Virginia, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama. There are loopholes that allow the massager to be sold in the aforementioned states, but not on the shelves where minors can see them.

India is an example of one of the few countries where it is illegal to sell or own a dildo.

How far have we come in women's rights if we do not posses the legal right to use a vibrator to enhance a natural bodily function? Why is it, in the United States of America that in Alabama men and women have to travel across state lines to be able to legally buy a vibrator? If you live in a state where you can purchase a sex toy, do not take it for granted. Think twice as to how far women have come and remember how far we need to go.

The Truth about Rape & Sexual Assault

2011-09-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

This post is a work in progress... the end result will be a chapter in my forthcoming book: Feminist Truths

If you've heard the old adage that rape isn't about sex, its about power, this is only partially true.

I would argue that rape is more about corrupt morality than anything else. Yes, the rapist abuses their power (whether it be physical strength or however they manage to abuse their victim), but the body of the rapist only does what the mind of the rapist tells it to do.

Therefore I think we need to look squarely at the mind of the rapist and consider what kind of morally corrupt person would rape another human being (not just women, although that is the obvious first choice of many men).

#1. We have to understand that rapists typically don't target women who are confident, because confident women fight back. Rapists typically go after small women who are physically weak.

#2. Rapists look for women who are "mouse-like" in terms of their lack of confidence. They see these women as less of a threat and more easy to control mentally. A less confident woman is less likely to go to the police afterwards. (Most rape victims never tell anyone. They are more likely to tell a best friend or a priest than go to the police.)

#3. It has nothing to do with how a woman dresses (date rape is a whole other topic I will get to later). A woman who dresses with confidence is less likely to be raped.

#4.

#5.

I'll add more later... bed time.

Lawsuits Schlawsuits! The Truth about Why You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down!

2011-09-01T16:10:00.000-07:00

A year ago yesterday I received word from a friend in Canada that Frank D'Angelo was threatening to sue me because I called him a rapist (because he IS a rapist, regardless of whatever deal he has made with the OPP to testify against mobster / fraud artist Michael Rutigliano in exchange for them staying the charges).

A year later I'm still living comfortably, not a care in the world. No lawsuit. No lawyers fees. No court numbers. Not even a letter in the mail confirming he has even submitted the paperwork.

You see it all came down to the fact that he was bluffing (and repeatedly crying wolf). Frank D'Angelo had no intention of taking me to court. He just wanted to silence me. Shut me up. Censor the feminist.

But trying to censor a hardcore feminist is a bit like trying to plug a leak in a dam with your finger. The leak just spreads. The next thing you know its flooding.

Another analogy is when a tyrant tries to kill the local hero. The hero survives, the hero finds allies, the hero comes back stronger and more determined than ever to fight for freedom, justice, truth, equality, all that good stuff.

Frank D'Angelo is the tyrant and while other non-heroes bowed down and let the criminal get his way, I did not. I fought back. I did my research and did a lot of digging into Frank D'Angelo's past dealings...

I've determined (with some degree of certainty) that he is also involved with money laundering, tax evasion and fraud. Possibly even a Ponzi scheme involving investors in two of his previous companies (which later filed for bankruptcy protection while Frank D'Angelo walked away with millions). I would argue its only a matter of time before the local authorities eventually audit his finances and charge him with a slew of crimes.

But sadly the real crime is the one Frank D'Angelo will get away with: Rape. The Ontario Attorney Generals office has yet to renew the charges against him and have a retrial for the one which Frank D'Angelo was caught bribing the prosecutors and celebrating with them and mobster Michael Rutigliano in D'Angelo's private club. (All caught on camera by the OPP no less.)

If there is any karma in this world it will be that Frank D'Angelo will be known as a rapist for the rest of his life, even though he will not serve time for that specific crime.

But with any luck he will serve time for his other crimes.

And his threat of lawsuits against me for telling the truth? Pfff. I've posted the truth about Frank D'Angelo so many times now I think he regrets even mentioning this to his lawyer.

The moral of this story?

Don't mess with a feminist. A good feminist won't take any BS lying down. She gets up, she fights back, especially when she has the almighty truth and justice on her side.

FYI: I am also protected by the fact that defamation laws clearly state that people doing a public service, such as warning other people about sexual predators, are exempt from defamation lawsuits. ITS A PUBLIC SERVICE.

Somebody has to warn people there is a sexual predator on the loose and his name is Frank D'Angelo.

Why Anti-Feminists should be Pro-Choice

2011-08-26T10:44:00.001-07:00

ABORTION - In theory anti-feminist men (who constantly complain about having to pay child support and spousal support for children they sired) should be leading the fight for the right to legal abortions. Not just in Europe or North America, but globally.

And the reasoning is simple...

Men who fear being a parent and the responsibilities that come with it (ie. marriage, child support, etc.) should be in the front line of people asking / demanding that safe and legal abortions become a global phenomenon, and that a woman's right to choose an abortion (and it is a CHOICE) should be respected in the same way we respect anti-slavery laws.

Without that choice and that right the woman becomes a slave.

It is true there are men out there who are anti-feminists and anti-choice, but they're often (perhaps even always) coming from a religious perspective. They would very quickly change their minds if they had some children out of wedlock and started paying child support. (In other words they're hypocrites. They might claim they would support the child, but many of them would likely end up being deadbeat dads.)

And that is truth of the matter.

Criminalizing Women

Every Woman's Right to Choose

Wombs for Rent

The Truth about Feminist Videos on YouTube

2011-08-23T08:31:00.001-07:00

Yeehaw! The following is some examples of feminist videos I found on YouTube, mostly ones which mention the word 'truth' somewhere. Maybe I will do another post later with feminist justice as the theme.

There is also a whole slew of anti feminist videos, but I shan't be posting none of that garbage because they don't need the advertising.

There's also "response" videos, which are basically just video bloggers arguing back and forth. Nobody wins in those arguments because the bigots have already made up their minds.

Women's Unemployment in Britain

2011-08-17T06:43:00.002-07:00

Unemployment figures out today show that women’s unemployment in Britain is now at its highest level in more than 30 years – 1.05 million women are now unemployed, the highest figure since May 1988. More than half a million women - 512,700 - are now claiming job seekers allowance - the highest figure since April 1996.

In related news...

A new report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission is warning it will take another 60 years – or 12 general elections - to achieve an equal number of women MPs.

The report, "Sex and Power", also found that the number of women in the Cabinet has fallen to its lowest level in a decade. Women are similarly absent from the top tables of media, business, the judiciary, the arts and the education sector.

The Truth about Vibrators

2011-08-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

SEX - Not so long ago, vibrators were illegal in several states in the ol' USA, including Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, or found only in seedy sex shops. But as you may have noticed today they may be purchased at your neighborhood drug store and trendy lingerie stores. Even Oprah has pitched the vibrator as a helpful tool. And who can forget the Sex and the City episode?

Another example I like is a scene from the zombie TV show "The Walking Dead" wherein the women are cleaning clothes down by the river and start talking about the things they miss the most and the one woman says "I miss my vibrator." The others laugh and another woman confides: "Me too!"

And yet, vibrators still are such a big taboo. We hide them in our closets, our sock drawers to avoid sexual partners from noticing them and getting jealous. Its all a big joke to some women who find the whole taboo about vibrators silly.

One vibrator seller, who runs a vibrator line with his wife, says: "I can sit with my 10-year-old daughter during prime-time TV and watch a commercial for Viagra, but I can’t advertise our OhMiBod fan page within Facebook."

And Facebook isn't alone when it comes to being vibrator prudes.

Nylon magazine won’t run vibrator ads and the Small Business Administration refused the couple a loan application because vibrators are a “prurient” business.

It all a huge conundrum too. The media and films (ie. American Pie) glamourizes women's sexuality, but then refuses to cooperate with people promoting tools and products that enhance women’s sexuality. How bizarre.

Women are still told “Keep your legs together” as if open legs were an open invitation. Men are praised as studs, players, pimps, while women are called sluts, whores, tramps and skanks. It begs the question as to those teenagers wearing t-shirts that say "SLUT" on it proudly... are they trying to reclaim the word and show pride in their sexuality or are they just following a trend?

Difficult to say.

TV networks, national cable stations, radio stations and Facebook all refuse to run ads for vibrators. Yet Viagra ads run on all of these platforms with no problem.

Maybe we should call them "neck massages" just to sneak past the censors?

So women are getting mixed messages here. Its no wonder so many women report a lack of satisfaction in the bedroom.

Indiana University’s comprehensive survey found that while 91% of men had an orgasm the last time they had sex, but only 64% of women did. These numbers roughly reflect the percentage of men and women who say they enjoyed sex “extremely” or “quite a bit”: 66% of women and 83% of men. Only 58% of women in their ’20s had an orgasm during their latest sexual encounter.

30-40% percent of women report difficulty climaxing. In many cases when women “lose their virginity” they are also likely to lose self esteem. 33% of women under 35 often feel sad, anxious, restless or irritable after sex, while 10% frequently feel sad after intercourse.

Many other women (67%) do enjoy sex a lot, and its because they frequently orgasm and in touch with their sexuality.

And having a vibrator is one way to get in greater touch with your sexuality, perhaps even unleashing it.

The Truth about Bigots

2011-08-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from one of the chapters from my forthcoming book "Feminist Truths". This is not the final draft of the chapter.

A bigot is a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, often exhibiting intolerance / animosity towards others whom they consider different usually on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, inter-regional prejudice, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Often they have particularly ideology.

In the case of feminism the anti-thesis therefore is a sexist bigot, a person who is intolerant and prejudiced against women... a "woman hater".

The origin of the word bigot in English dates back to at least 1598, via Middle French, and referred to at the time a "religious hypocrite". The exact origin of the word is unknown, but it may be from the German phrase "bei gott"

Etymology aside, sexist bigots are essentially why there is a feminist movement in the first place.

Bigotry is largely a learned behaviour.

We could debate the causes as being influenced by parents, family members, friends, peers, teachers, past lovers, etc... Lots of blame to go around. Although stubborness is often considered a hereditary trait, nobody is born a bigot. Parents teach their kids a variety of behavioural things by accident / design and once children are imprinted with these skills / habits they grow.

Thus a father who hates women will often make sexist comments and impressionable children pick up on these things. By the time they are teenagers these children are either following in their parental footsteps, rebelling against their parents, or both.

One might argue therefore that sexism will never be eradicated simply because bigotry will be passed from one generation to the next... however the degree to which it is passed on is lessened. Each generation is less sexist than the one before because they are also being influenced by friends, teachers, peers and society in general.

As society becomes more focused on equality for women and men, bigotry is reduced in incremental amounts.

We can see this more dramatically overseas in Africa and Asia where feminism is growing at a faster rate and will someday catch up to feminism in Western Culture.

We also know that bigots are being left behind. They are less likely to get married, if they do produce children there are more mothers who are willing to be single mothers now (thanks to government enforced child support payments), which means bigots aren't passing on their faulty beliefs unto their children as often as they used to.

So the good news is that bigots are an endangered species, but will probably always be there.

To some extent we should be secretly thankful to bigots. They keep feminists on their toes and give us something to be angry about. Anger can be an inspiring thing when used in a righteous way.

I'd argue however that you can't let that anger become hate however. That leads down the path of Zealotry / male hating. (*cough cough, hate leads to the Dark Side*)

As feminists we have to be better than the bigots. We have to stand for Truth, Justice and Equality... and to do so we need to behave with honour and virtue without personal bias, unlike the bigots who are ruled only by their hate and prejudices.

The Truth about Zealotry

2011-08-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from one of the chapters from my forthcoming book "Feminist Truths". This is not the final draft of the chapter.

Not all women are feminists.

Some women, sadly, are zealots. More specifically, they're male hating zealots, and they will use lies, trickery, subterfuge and any number of unethical things to accomplish things which have nothing to do with equality, but are all about hatred and revenge against the male half of the species.

These zealots give feminism a bad reputation and its one we have to live with.

Now you might wonder how they ended up this way.

The truth is these women have suffered and been traumatized, usually the result of bad relationships and they have become (for lack of a better phrase) "damaged goods". Any male readers out there will know what I am talking about.

We're talking about women who have been traumatized so many times in relationships that they've lost the ability to trust, to love and instead have become consumed with hatred of men.

Now I don't have any statistics of what percentage of women are zealots. Based on the percentage of women who suffer sexual abuse during their lifetime (one in three) and based on the number of women who have been in bad relationships (ie. divorced) we can estimate that the number of women who are 'male hating zealots' is actually quite high.

I should note however that zealotry doesn't mean they believe in female superiority. Based on personal experience I would say there is a very tiny percentage of women who believe women are superior. Almost nil.

I should also note that zealots still believe in equality, but from a very warped perspective and with an 'any means necessary' approach which rubs people the wrong way and thus gives them a bad reputation. The zealots might claim to be "Radical Feminists", but unless they can actually quote historical examples of radical feminists I think they're just bullshitting you.

I believe in the practical approach to feminism. Think with your brain, not your bruised ego. If you are going to marching or doing any kind of feminist activism you need to be smart about it and thinking about optics.

ie. If you behave like a belligerent idiot people will treat you as such.

But if you behave calmly, rationally and still stand up for women's rights then you are a shining example of feminism in action. You want to be Lady Liberty lighting the way to equality... not a male-hating Amazon and poster child for the anti feminist movement.

Its all about leading by example. You have to be better than the people who stoop to such levels.

I would argue that some women out there need to examine their own morality of what is right and wrong. If they foster goodness and discipline themselves by keeping equality on their mind (and not being distracted by anger) then they will be able to build upon and create a strong sense of morality which will be like a lighthouse to them in the dark storms of patriarchal society.

If you lose your way and get drawn down the road of anger (and I am sorry for paraphrasing Yoda from Star Wars), well then anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, suffering leads to the Dark Side. Oooooo!

Let feminism and equality be your guiding light. Going down the path of zealotry will only cause you more anguish than its actually worth.

Imagine 2 women with the exact same boyfriend. It turns out he is cheating on them both. Worse, he ends up stealing both of their rent money / cleaning out their bank accounts and the 2 women end up having to move in with friends.

'Woman A' forgives and forgets. She chalks it down as a lesson learned and will be more cautious about who she shares her bank account info with. Years later she doesn't even remember whatshisname's name.

'Woman B' bears a grudge, not just against the jerk who stole her money, but also against 'Woman A' whom she blames for stealing her boyfriend away. Over time and more bad relationships 'Woman B' begins to hate and despise all men, becoming what men commonly call "damaged goods".

But Woman B doesn't stop there. When she expresses herself in some therapeutic way (ie. art with castrated men) it ends up becoming pretty clear that she has become a zealot.

I believe however (because I've seen it happen) that zealotry can be cured over time.

I will cite the example of Canadian artist Victoria Van Dyke.

When not even a teenager Victoria Van Dyke was used as a body shield by her own father in a police stand off. Later when she was placed in a foster home she was raped and sexually abused for years by her foster brother and foster father. Its no surprise that she lost all trust for men. Suicidal and suffering from severe depression Victoria was in a mental asylum for many years before finally being declared fit enough to re-enter society. During that time however she produced a wide array of poetry and artwork dealing with her own trauma and also her desire to castrate sex criminals.

However with time even damaged goods like Victoria Van Dyke recovered. She doesn't write poetry or make art any more, but is in university. As to the reason why she recovered I have here an excerpt from an email she sent me:

"I realized that the stress was getting to me. The constant stress just seemed to erupt like a volcano and I found the more I dwelled on the unhappy thoughts of my abused teen years the unhappier I became. I needed a break from being unhappy all the time and one day I just decided no more."

"You might say I went cold turkey. I just stopped hating myself. I stopped making art, stopped writing. I threw out all my depressing clothing. I only buy clothing I consider happy looking now. I took up exercising and going outside."

"I have more friends now too. People I can actually talk to. I still talk about my past, but its more like a footnote now. I started making art again recently, and I might make my own website sometime to promote my art and poetry. The big difference however is that the stuff I make now is much more happy and sensual. I get more joy and release from making art which makes people laugh."

"You might say its all about thinking positively, but I think it was really that one day where I finally decided enough was enough. I was tired of the sexual abuse from years ago messing with my life. I just wanted to get on with my life and find happiness."

- Victoria Van Dyke

And there you have it, a reformed zealot who suffered years of sexual abuse. It broke her down emotionally until she simply couldn't take it any more and she had a mental epiphany.

Sadly I don't think many zealots have that mental epiphany. They end up hating and blaming men for the rest of their lives.

But maybe, if we're lucky, a few will read this chapter and realize that the path of hate isn't helping them and they will learn from Victoria's example.

A true feminist doesn't hate men. She learns to live with them and tries to teach them the truth about equality.

How to Pick a Fight with Sexist Pigs

2011-08-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

Recommendation #1. Never pick a fight with a super famous celebrity. Why? Because when and if they Google their name your website will be lost in a long list of websites both praising them and dissing them. Plus super famous celebrities are being dissed constantly so you'd really be piling on the bandwagon and its unnecessary.

Thus ideally what you want to do is pick a fight with someone who is vaguely famous or semi famous, someone who is an egomaniac and Googles their own name regularly.

Recommendation #2. Research your target. Don't just pick them because they stuck their foot in their mouth more than once. You should try and determine how whether this person is a genuine scumbag or whether they just maybe a whoops.

ie. Comedian Michael Richards losing his temper at hecklers and using the N word. That was a BIG whoops and he later apologized for it. Another example is Mel Gibson's drunken anti-Israel rant, blaming Israel for why there is war in the Middle East, something which he later apologized for. These are extreme examples of sticking your foot in your mouth.

No, what I mean is you should only go after people who are unrepentant sexist pigs. Meaning they don't apologize, they refuse to admit their guilt and they instead continue to consistently make sexist comments.

One way to determine who these people are is to visit anti feminist websites or Facebook groups and track which people are saying bad things about women or feminists.

Recommendation #3. Stay local if you can. ie. The local mayor, city councilor, MP or pseudo-celebrity makes a much better target.

ie. I would love to go after Lord Maurice Glasman (British House of Lords) for making a variety of comments about immigrants in the UK, but he hasn't said anything about women so I am picking my battles here.

Recommendation #4. Don't bother with them if you don't REALLY despise them. You will get bored quickly of arguing / picking a fight with someone who is kinda blah in the first place.

Recommendation #5. Email them directly and keep copies of all their responses. You are looking for the angry belligerent tidbit where they show their true colours, but remember to...

Recommendation #6. Always stick to the TRUTH! Your argument against them has to be credible. Don't go making up phony quotes. Honesty is the best policy.

Recommendation #7. Video is even better. Catch them on video using the C word or something like that and their a** is grass!

Recommendation #8. Avoid excessive name calling and losing your temper. Keep your argument based on reason, logic and facts. Its much harder to argue against facts.\\

Recommendation #9. Remember your goal is to make this discussion public. ie. A message board may be a good place to start.

Recommendation #10. There are pros and cons to going after someone who is stubborn. Pro, they're likely to say a variety of stupid things out of anger / sheer stubbornness. Con, this isn't an argument you will win because they will never admit defeat. Your goal therefore is to bombard them with enough facts and well reasoned arguments that they eventually give up talking to you, even though they refuse to concede they were wrong.

Notes

While it is sometimes fun to ridicule their poor grammar / spelling / lack of brain power, don't keep bringing up their lack of intelligence. Throwing insults won't win the argument. Your goal is to unveil their bigotry so that other people can see what they're doing is wrong and then make their own decision whether that person deserves to be ostracized.

If they send you hatemail first (ie. they are picking a fight with you) try and research who they are before responding to their hatemail.

Don't say anything you might later regret. If you stick to the truth you can't go wrong.

The Truth about Child Slavery in America

2011-08-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

These videos show some very interesting statistics about child slavery and prostitution in America.

Abducted Girl: An American Sex Slave is an indie film looking for producers / $$$ so the film can be made properly. I think it has potential.

What is a real shame is that the average Hollywood producer would rather be making be making an action blockbuster with no moral value than making a film with actual substance and purpose.

The closest thing is the Liam Neeson film "Taken", which points the finger at Europe when in truth America has more than its share of child slavery.

Another film on this topic I'd recommend is the 2000 film "Suspicious River", which shows the slippery slope of prostitution into slavery.

The Truth about Anti Feminist Hate Speech

2011-08-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

FEMINIST - If you've ever read someone's blog post, misogynistic essay or YouTube rant supporting anti-feminism or violence against women you know how annoying and infuriating it can be to think there is very little you can do to prevent such horrific hate speech from being spread over the internet.

And the saddest part is that such hate speech is really just a bunch of lies and misinformation, often depicting feminism as some kind of female supremacy movement. ie. http://bit.ly/oo5paM

Well I am here today to tell you there is a way to fight back against such websites. Here is some useful tips on:

HOW TO FIGHT ANTI-FEMINISM

#1. Blogspot and similar free websites have Terms of Service which prohibit the posting and promotion of hate and/or violence. In the case of Blospot all you have to do is click the "Report Abuse" link at the top of the page, follow the instructions and submit the website where you saw hate speech. (You can also report nudity, exploitation of minors, illegal activity, copyright violations, etc. Do not submit false claims however, it won't help.)

#2. YouTube (and similar video websites) also have the option to report videos for hate speech. On YouTube you need to click Share, and then click "report this video as inappropriate". ie. Today I reported a video on YouTube which compared feminists to the KKK.

#3. Independent websites (the server is owned by the user)... there isn't much we can do about them. Its their own website and their own server so we can't do much about it, can we. Or is there? If you visit Alexa.com you can visit the entry for that website and place a negative review. If the website in question is also a company (or the person who owns it works for a specific company) you can also post negative reviews via Google Maps / Google Places.

#4. NEVER, EVER link directly to the website you are trying to get rid of. Linking to the website is just free promotion for that website. Refer to the site by name only or use a bitly.com shortened version of their URL, and even then I recommend only posting it like "http://bit.ly/oo5paM" and not as a clickable URL.

#5. Post responses to that website or video. Fight back against their argument using reason, logic, facts, statistics with references (don't make up false statistics), quotes by famous personages. Refute their claims. ie. If they are saying things like "feminists hate porn", inform them that this is inaccurate. There are way more pro-sex feminists than there are anti-sex feminists.

#6. Don't bother emailing or responding to emails from anti-feminists. They won't listen to reason and will talk until they are blue in the face out of sheer stubbornness. Don't waste your time on people who have already gone down the road of hate.

#7. Don't fight fight hate with hate. You have to be better than them. Speak and write things calmly, avoid using caps or bold text (use italics instead) and explain things logically and honestly. Anyone who can read between the lines and isn't narrow minded will be won over by your calm and logical argument. Anyone who is thinking with hate on their mind is a waste of time. Its the people who are open minded you need to win over to the side of truth, justice and equality.

The truth is there are many way you can fight back against anti-feminist hate speech. It just takes calm and affirmative action.

See also Dealing with Anti-Feminism

NOTE: Normally I am against censorship, but when it comes to hate speech we have to stand up for truth, justice and equality.

Feminist Truths @ Facebook

2011-08-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

Please Like the Feminist Truths page on Facebook. Just created it today. :)

Feel free to Friend Me too.

Yours Truly,
Suzanne MacNevin

The Truth about My Fair Lady

2011-08-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

ENTERTAINMENT - The following film (My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn) brings up many issues concerning class and the role of women. My only complaint is the end of the film, otherwise the film makes it pretty clear that Professor Henry Higgins is a stubborn know-it-all patriarch.

Eliza Doolittle however is the true hero of the story. Shows what you can do when you've got "gumption".

Made in 1964 "My Fair Lady" won 8 Academy Awards... not bad for a film with strong feminist undertones (despite the ending). You will see what I mean...

Note: On YouTube the film is broken down into 21 parts. There should be a link at the end of each part to the next part of the film.

The Truth about Pussy Casting

2011-08-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

Ylva Maria Thompson is a Swedish artist who specializes in Pussy Casting.

The following interview was conducted by Midori (a traveling sexpert). Check out her book "Wild Side Sex: The Book of Kink".

Ylva: I consider myself to be a feminist artist, but more of a neo-feminist, a sex positive feminist.

Midori: What are the various emotional words that you associate with women’s bodies?

Ylva: Beauty, strength, power, the female body has a lot of power. It’s not always soft. It’s a hard word to use. But contrasts. Full of contrasts. Full of ambiguity. Because you have both hope and love and pain and fear. All these different sides to it.

I’m very much aware that when I talk about this I talk about myself but this I think is true for most women. We have a part that is fear. We want to live fully but we can’t really do it because there’s always a threat to us. I don’t know if men feel the same way. But when it comes to sexuality it’s always a bit dangerous for a woman. And I always try to fight the fear and the danger, in my life, in my art, in what I write and what I say. Without denying it, because we have to be aware but we have to fight it too. I think we’ve come a long way in Sweden. Men have a lot of respect for women in Sweden.

Midori: What are you favorite Swedish words for female genitalia?

Ylva: Fitta. It’s the most vulgar word. I like that because it feels more sexual than any other word. It’s also a political statement to use it. It’s like when queer people start calling themselves queer. It’s the same thing in taking back the word.

Mutta, it’s a little bit softer, a little bit more childish maybe. It’s a bit regional too. If you go down to the south of Sweden and say Mutta they say ‘that’s vulgar, you can’t say mutta’ and they say it’s better if I say fitta.
For me here in Stockholm Mutta is a bit softer and sweeter.

Love lips, or ‘Kärleksläppar’ is a beautiful word. A friend of mine taught me that one maybe a year ago. Normally in Swedish it’s the word ‘blygsel läppar’ which approximately means lips of shame, so she started using love lips instead.

Venusberg is beautiful too. Mount Venus.

Snippa we use when talking to children. It’s quite new. RFSU had a big campaign to use it. It’s a made up word. It’s from Snopp, which is kids word for penis, so they made a feminine word. They found out that people working with children needed a word to use with them. Some of them didn’t even use a word. They didn’t say anything. They never mentioned it. They could mention snopp several times a day but never talk about the snippa. It’s actually a political problem.

Midori: How did your pussy cast art start?

Ylva: The project is called “Anonymous Exhibitionist”. I told the women who wanted to be in the project that they had a fantastic chance to show their pussies at art galleries, museum, art shows around the world without anybody knowing it was them.

In 1999 I decided to make 100 casts. I decided to do this to give an opportunity for women to look at other women’s pussies without shame, without looking at porno magazines, to be able to study them in relaxed way.

When I was 15 years old I saw that my inner love lips were hanging outside and I thought it was ugly, that it wasn’t normal. Later I discovered that it was totally all right. Today many young girls go to a plastic surgeon for labiaplasty. They don’t need to. They can have complications. I think it’s awful. The beauty of the pussy is that every pussy is different. That’s one reason I wanted to do it, to create an opportunity for people to compare themselves and look at other people’s pussies.

The other reason is that the pussy has been hidden away. We’re taught that we shouldn’t show it to any body. That’s the same as saying this part of your body is so ugly you shouldn't show it and that’s awful. So I wanted to do the opposite and tell people that this part is so beautiful we all need to look at it.

Midori: Do women talk to you about their thoughts and feelings during the casting?

Ylva: Yes, it happens a lot. It’s like Eves Ensler says, when women start talking about their pussies they can’t stop. There is a really big need to talk about our bodies, our sexuality, our situations, experiences we’ve had.

I said to one woman, “your pussy’s so fresh, it looks like you’ve hardly used it at all.” She said “that’s true, and I regret that.” She was 60 years old and she had one man when she was young, and she had just now found a lover. She said “I wish I had more sex in my life, but I’m starting to do it now.” That was very touching. She told me all about how she discovered her sexuality so late in life.

Of course I hear stories about people having been abused and all the sorrow that they’ve been carrying around. But to talk about it, and to do something about it that is creative with the pussy like making a cast, is kind of healing. I’ve met a few women who’ve done it just to get that kind of healing. Normally when you spread your leg for someone it’s your doctor and it’s no fun. To come to me is a totally different thing.

I had this very sad meeting with this woman who had cancer. They were going to take away most of her vagina because of tumors. So wanted to make a goodbye present for her self. I meet people who want to do it for an adventure. Now that I’ve finished the project, people come to me for commission for themselves or for their lover. That’s really fun. Of course they tell me about their sexual adventures!

I met one girl, between 25 and 30 years old, who had never looked at her pussy. She’d never taken a mirror to look at her self. She just said “I’m so afraid it’s grotesque” When it was time to pick up her cast she said “I’m a bit afraid to come and collect it.” I gave it to her and she had this big relief sigh and said “it looks good” that was funny. It’s so strange that she’d never looked at it. I think it was a beginning for her. Once she saw the cast she could gather enough courage to look at it in real life.

Midori: What are you working on now?

Ylva: I have a very complicated project. I want to do something with penises but that’s very hard.

It started out when I made a wax penis for a prosthetics for a female to male transgender person. When you do the transition in Sweden you’re offered a prosthetic if you want it. You can have it permanently or you can have it while you are deciding what to do, whether you want an operation or not. The person that made this prosthetics was a heterosexual man and hadn’t really looked at many penises. They didn’t look very natural. He asked me if I can do a cast for them to make a prosthetic from. I talked to the prosthetic maker and we did that as a work.

After that I started thinking so much about penises. During the process I made a lot of photos and few casts of different penises and I would like to do something with them. To have an exhibition that comments on what it is to be male, what it is to have a penis, approximately in the same way I did with the pussies. But it’s hard. I’ve not found any museums or art gallery or exhibition spaces that want to take it on yet.

I think it’s more politically acceptable to do things with women’s bodies today. The natural thing to happen now would be for women start to discover men’s bodies and explore them more and more. I think that’s what’s going to happen next. We’ve explored our own bodies now take the next step. Explore the male body.

Midori: What are the challenges you’re encountering in this series?

Ylva: It’s not hard to find male models but I have problems with their attitudes. They say “oh you want to do something with my limp penis? Oh no, I don’t want to do that. It should be hard and erect. Because it looks small when limp. You can’t do that.” That’s one problem. Then they say “I don’t want to be part of your project if it should be limp.”

It’s hard to get men to talk about their penises in an honest way. That’s interesting and that’s what I have to explore. It’s as if they feel a woman expects something and if they can’t offer that they are not real men. Men’s attitudes towards their bodies and their penises is kind of representative as to how men’s minds work. Then sometimes I’m very surprised. I meet some men who are really relaxed about them selves. But that’s not as interesting as the ones who have all these thoughts – especially the “it looks so small” thoughts. When the cast is done they say it looks too small.

The Truth about Being Bold

2011-07-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your posting regarding rock-star cop Shari Mackay.

She has been instrumental in my healing process and was the critical driving force to ensure the police did their job to see this case through to conviction. I have read some of your other postings today, and I really admire your bold, strong, direct attitude to hitting issues head on, and not being afraid to share your opinion or speak out for what you believe in.

Ann

Thank you Ann!

Seriously, thank you. I needed that vote of confidence.

The truth is I sometimes don't feel all that bold. I know I am bold online, often because I sometimes write when I am angry or standing up for something. But the truth is most of my friends would probably describe me as being weird or eccentric, and I hope they say I am easy going (or as Americans like to say "down to earth").

My boldness seems to come out mostly online and when I am pissed off about something. Not that I am not bold in person, but sometimes I am also tired / stressed and/or just don't feel like it.

ie. Today I was feeling down so I was going to sit at home, watch cartoons and eat cereal straight out of the box. I am supposed to be working on my book today but when I woke up I didn't feel like it. And then I got your email and I suddenly found the urge to write again.

So thank you Ann. I hope you will continue to read my blog Feminist Truths, check out the Feminist eZine and continue to persevere despite hardships. I know I will continue to do the same (even if I do pause and take a break every once in awhile).

Yours Truly,
Suzanne MacNevin

The Truth about Persephone

2011-07-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

RELIGION - In Greek mythology Persephone is the goddess of fertility, death and rebirth. Its a bizarre set of ethos for a goddess to have.

Persephone is the daugher of Zeus (God of Space and Time) and Demeter (Goddess of Agriculture / Plants). Persephone is also the lover of Hades (God of the Underworld and her uncle...?) and often associated with seeds and spring.

The central story of Persephone is that she was abducted by Hades who had become smitten with her and carried her off to the Underworld via a chasm in the earth. Demeter chased after them and shouted to Persephone to warn her not to eat any food while in the Underworld.

While in the Underworld however Persephone became so hungry she ate a pomegranate seed (note: pomegranate juice looks like blood, another fertility symbol). Following this event Demeter caused a great drought to convince Zeus to bring back Persephone. Demeter and Hades then had an argument and it was eventually agreed that Persephone would spend half the year with her mother and the other half of the year with Hades.

Thus the seasons were created, wherein Persephone spends time with her mother during Spring and Summer and everything dies during the Autumn and Winter.

Amongst the Romans she was known as Proserpina. There are a number of artistic and literary references to Persephone.

As a goddess Persephone isn't much of a feminist symbol. She is more of a victim than anything else. The true heroine of the story is Demeter, who causes a big fuss and eventually convinces Zeus (King of the Gods) to go to the Underworld and release Persephone.

Now causing a big fuss may seem annoying to some people, but it is an effective tactic of persuasion when it comes to all forms of activism. How can someone be a true activist unless they cause a big fuss and are truly annoying about it?

So the lesson learned my fellow feminists is to get out there and bang those drums, become an amateur publicist, send out news releases, network with other feminists... that is how you get stuff done!

The Truth about Bald Women

2011-07-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

SHAVING YOUR HEAD - The truth is being bald can be very beautiful. It really depends on the shape of your head.

Some people have really nicely shaped heads and look absolutely amazing bald.

The Truth about Car Advertising

2011-07-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

AUTOMOTIVES - The thing about car advertising is that, yes, it often uses sex to sell a product... but really it just keeps going further downhill all the time.

Its like car companies are competing to see which one can make the raciest / most controversial ad, because the shock value ends up creating lots of buzz. But what happens when they annoy people by going TOO FAR?

Below is a series of examples of car advertisements that go too far.

Of course its not limited to car ads... sometimes its just plain ridiculous what companies will stoop to sell anything from bubble gum to beer.

Suffragette School of Birmingham

2011-07-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

FEMINIST - A new wave of feminists is off to ‘Suffragette School’ at the University of Birmingham!

What is it?

A Summer School to train a new wave of feminists on how make the world a fairer place for women.

When is it?

Saturday 13th August – Sunday 14th August 2011.

Where is it?

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham. B15 2TT

Over 400 budding feminist activists will converge at the Summer School to learn how to tackle the ongoing inequalities between women and men. Featuring a range of workshops, talks and film screenings, attendees will be trained in everything from Suffragette-style direct action to mobilising the masses through Facebook, Twitter and blogging. The Summer School is organised by UK Feminista.

The Summer School will feature talks and workshops by:

Mozn Hassan (Nasra for Feminist Studies, Egypt), Nesrine Malik (the Guardian), Hannah Pool (UK Feminista), Anna van Heeswijk (OBJECT), Emma & Abi Moore (Pink Stinks), Rosalind Miles, Shahida Choudry (Women's Networking Hub), Cath Elliot (Too Much to Say For Myself), Estelle Hart (NUS Women's Campaign), Louise Jenkins (Eaves), Tamsin Omond (Climate Rush), Kat Banyard (UK Feminista), Anna Bird (Fawcett Society), Chitra Nagarajan (GAPS & Black Feminists) Matt McCormack Evans (Anti Porn Men Project), Kate Nustedt (Women for Women International), Adam Ramsay (People and Planet) and Darinka Aleksic (Abortion Rights).

For further information contact Kat Banyard: kat@ukfeminista.org.uk, 07775 855037

The Truth about Book Writing

2011-07-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hello folks!

Yes, its true, I am writing a book about feminism. More specifically an eBook (although maybe someday I will publish it on recycled paper).

Those people interested in pre-ordering my eBook should email me [suzannemacnevin {atsymbol} gmail.com] and I will add you to a growing list of people interested in purchasing it.

Not to worry, you won't be paying for it right away when you join the list, you can still change your mind later! When my book comes out I will be adding a PayPal button link here and I will email all you wonderful people and tell you its ready.

My book will be filled with feminist facts, quotes, truths and humour. Some of it may be sad, but I hope to enlighten and education you with some of the feminist wisdom I've garnered over the years.

For now I am working with the possible title of "Feminist Truths", but I might change it if I think of a better name.

Also I've decided to opt for the Edition route... that way I can create 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition versions later. My hope is that my book will someday be mandatory reading for university students studying feminism or gender studies.

And thus inspire a whole new generation of feminists.

Yours Truthfully,
Suzanne MacNevin

What is more important, money or justice?

2011-07-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

CANADA - In the legal battle to catch OPP Sgt. Mike Rutigliano, a 28-year veteran of the OPP and currently facing a range of corruption, fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges, the OPP have decided to make an interesting decision... should they catch the crook who defrauded $15 million? Or catch the crook who committed rape?

They've made a deal with Frank D'Angelo, who has been previously charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice with Michael Rutigliano to obstruct Frank D'Angelo's sexual assault trial.

Here's the facts!

#1. On September 2nd 2010 obstruction of justice charges against Frank D'Angelo were stayed. That doesn't mean the charges have been dropped, merely that they are currently on hold and he can recharged in September 2011 (2 months from now).

#2. The charge of conspiracy also has been stayed temporarily.

#3. D’Angelo will probably be called to testify at Rutigliano’s trial.

(Source: thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/856215--obstruction-charges-stayed-against-beverage-magnate)

Long story short the jist of this is that Frank D'Angelo has made a deal with the OPP to testify against Michael Rutigliano. Note: Michael Rutigliano is believed to be involved in the Italian mafia, so I wouldn't want to annoying him too much. Testifying against him sounds like a bad idea if you're a big blabbermouth like Frank D'Angelo is.

But hey, Frank D'Angelo himself is rumoured to be in the Italian mafia. So all is fair in love and war right?

Wrong. We're forgetting the young woman Frank D'Angelo raped. Where is her justice? Does her suffering mean nothing to the OPP? Or is $15 million worth more than one woman's rape?

The longer Michael Rutigliano's trial lasts the less likely justice will be served in the case against Frank D'Angelo. So even though Frank D'Angelo is "probably guilty" (Justice John Hamilton's words) he will probably go free when the time runs out on the temporarily delay. (There is probably a statute of limitations on how long after the initial conspiracy/obstruction of justice took place.)

A publication ban remains in place for all evidence at the hearing and the trial of Michael Rutigliano. But I can tell you the OPP’s criminal investigation branch executed 21 search warrants across the GTA, Barrie and Hamilton, searching residences, Crown attorney offices and financial institutions.

Oh how I wish I could see the evidence being presented...

The end result will be that Frank D'Angelo will probably get away with rape.

But cross your fingers and maybe the OPP will charge him with money-laundering, fraud and income tax evasion. (Its how they caught Al Capone.)

If only more rapists got caught for other crimes. We'd have a lot less rapists to worry about if they were all caught for fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, income tax evasion and a plethora of other crimes.

The Truth about Conservative Feminism

2011-07-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

FEMINIST - What is the role of Conservative Feminism?

Well first that depends on how you define "Conservative Feminism"... it does seem like a bit of an oxymoron. How can someone be a Conservative and yet a Feminist?

Well, you see there is really a variety of different definitions of Conservative Feminism...

#1. Traditional Feminism... This implies feminists who are more prone to modesty and they don't want to upset the apple cart. So they're Conservative in the respect that they don't like to mess with the traditional routine, but they still believe in equality.

#2. Pro-Life Feminism... They believe in equality, but not in the right to choose an abortion. They can even be radical or anarchist in other ways, but for whatever reason (ie. religion) they don't believe in the right to choose an abortion.

#3. Phony Feminism... These are power hungry people (ie. Sarah Palin) who denounce feminism while simultaneously seeking the support of other women while promoting themselves as a Conservative Feminist (or even Anti-Feminist) icon. The example of Sarah Palin shows how this is sometimes done. Politicians lie and use whatever means at their disposal to garner votes.

#4. Insert Your Own Variation / Definition Here... :)

Now to get back to what the role of Conservative Feminism plays we have several options...

Option A) To enlighten Conservatives about feminist issues (and hopefully not muck it up).

Option B) To offset radical/anarchist feminism who are too extreme.

Option C) To annoy the **** out of Pro-Choice Feminists. Seriously, there is nothing more annoying than a Pro-Life Feminist arguing their (usually religious) reasons for why abortion should not even be a choice. (My retort to them: An Open Letter to the Anti-Abortionists.)

Option D) To serve as a vanguard against prostitution and pornography. Some semblance of decency in society has to be maintained.

Option E) To support the right of women to be homemakers if they opt not to choose a career path.

So while we may not like Conservative Feminists, they do provide a productive role in the post-feminist world we live in. People have a choice and they can make whatever choice they want, whether it be Madonna, Whore or a Duality of Both.

See Also

Conservative Feminist Views

Feminism Vs Pornography

Feminism and Anarchism

Where have all the feminists gone?

Feminism in the New Gender Order

What is Socialist Feminism?

The Truth about Vietnamese Girls

2011-07-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

By Ai Lung Nguyen - July 2011.

I am a globe trotting Vietnamese girl... I've been all over Asia, North America and Europe... so many places to go, so many things to do, so many men to leave disappointed.

And that is the truth of it.

Western men (no thanks to Hollywood movies about the Vietnam War) have got it in their minds that all Vietnamese women are "Me love you long time". And that is really all they know about Vietnam and its women.

So when they meet women like me and discover that Vietnamese women have brains and brawn, wow, they have to stop and rethink what they've been brainwashed to believe.

So here is some FACTS for you!

#1. Vietnamese women outnumber the men. Vietnamese men often die before the age of 65. There is a lot of Vietnamese women out there who are in their 70s or older and lonely. (The ratio of men to women older than 65 is less than 2 men for every 3 women.)

#2. Prostitution is actually pretty low in Vietnam. Quite a few Vietnamese women are very traditional and would never stoop to such a degrading occupation. (Las Vegas on the other hand...)

#3. Vietnamese women are not "dragon ladies". Although some of the feminists might enjoy describing themselves that way... it does not in any way mean that Vietnamese women are "cold blooded reptiles". We're like any other women. We have feelings, if you prick us do we not get pissed off?

#4. Vietnam does have a feminist movement. Feminist groups in Vietnam started appearing during the 1960s and have been growing stronger ever since.

#5. The birth rate in Vietnam is low compared to the rest of the world. 17.07 births/1,000 population. 1.91 children born / woman. For comparison purposes the USA has 2.06 children born / woman.

#6. The literacy rate for women in Vietnam is 92%. The average for the country is 94%. (Mostly its the older generation which is illiterate.) Note: Literacy in the USA is 99.1%.

#7. Historically Vietnamese girls stay in school less than boys. Boys usually quit after 11 years of schooling whereas the average for Vietnamese girls is 10 years. The numbers are due to the fact that older generation of women often weren't schooled as much, but these numbers are improving rapidly as the younger generation realizes the importance of a good education. (In the USA the averages is 15 years for boys and 17 years for girls.)

#8. Vietnamese women have surprisingly lower breast cancer rates than women in North America. Why? We live and eat healthier. Less smoking, less carcinogens in our food. Our life expectancy is going up. In the USA life expectancy is going down due to skyrocketing obesity rates.

#9. Most women in Vietnam ride motorcycles, scooters or bicycles to work. Although this is equally true of the men. Motorcycles/etc are EXTREMELY popular in Vietnam.

#10. Vietnamese women rock! Okay technically its more pop music, but Vietnamese girl bands are an ever growing phenomenon. (Spice Girls eat your heart out.)

[Sources: CIA World Factbook and other sources.]

Vietnam is a modern Asian country and it is changing rapidly. The country is currently in a stage of massive industrial expansionism and these means lots of jobs for both men and women in Vietnam. There is a problem with 'sweatshop' labour of uneducated women, often immigrants not even from Vietnam, but this problem is gradually going to disappear as the government cracks down on illegal operations.

Vietnam does have some government corruption issues, but this is the same everywhere in the world. The difference is that in Vietnam everyone knows the government is corrupt, in comparison Americans are often blinded by their own biases and don't care that they're being swindled by men in Wall Street.

So to all the Asiaphile men out there you guys need a reality check. If you guys are so easily swindled by Wall Street what makes you think your opinion of Asian women is as accurate as the stock market? Apples and Oranges, but the point is made.

Some people just can't see the lies when they're surrounded by them.

The Truth about Online Privacy

2011-07-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

TECHNOLOGY - A fellow feminist by the name of Julian (I shan't say her last name) recommended to me recently that I be careful about posting things online with respect to men out there who might try to harrass me, stalk me or whatever.

Specifically she was worried about "... Men's Rights guys and other
anti-feminist fools who occasionally like to terrorize feminists."

She recommended something called "HideMyAss", which I presume is software, to prevent people from easily tracking me down.

Well lets just discuss this for a moment...

I don't have a Facebook account (I used to, but I deleted it... thats another story). I think I might have a twitter account, but its been ages and I have probably forgotten the password.

Often I don't use my real name online, instead going by "Glowing Maid" or even "Radioactive Girl". So I don't think its a huge necessity to be hiding every little detail.

And I mean whats the point of being a feminist if I can't express my freedom? True, having my privacy is nice too, but I doubt anybody would be able to track me down. (Camden is a big area and its not like I am there constantly.)

And then there's the Sarah Connor effect... Watch the first Terminator movie and count the number of Sarah Connors who were killed before Arnold finally found the right one. I am certain there are other Suzanne or Suzy MacNevin's in the London area, possibly even a few in Camden... and besides... the address isn't under my name. Its under my lover's name.

So chances are highly unlikely that anyone would ever be able to track me down. I don't get sick very often and I haven't been to any hospitals in the area. I don't have a criminal record. I have been unemployed ever since I arrived from Canada so I am not paying taxes while here either.

Instead I just sit at home and write my book. Sometimes I go for walks and explore London. Sometimes I go to the pet store and look at the kittens. Sometimes I find a nice place to sit and read the newspaper. You get the picture.

I truly doubt I am dropping enough hints that someone could track me down. ie. How many pet stores are in Camden and how many can I look at the kittens?

The real danger I think is morons who send me hatemail. That is just asking for a retort and to be exposed online for being an idiot.

People sending me hatemails = Blog fodder. Go ahead. I welcome the chance to talk about whatever you're complaining about in front of the whole world. (Well not literally the whole world, not that many people read my blog, but you get the idea.)

My advice for women is to come up with a fun and catchy pseudonym / nickname. Don't take Glowmaid, that name is MINE!

The real reason why you should do this is because employers now frequently Google your name online to check what you've been up to. Hopefully nobody disreputable is using the same name as you...

And while you're at it remember to clear your search history. :)

Feminist eZine set for relaunch

2011-07-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

So its 6 AM in the morning here and I've been up all night.

I just can't sleep. (If I make any spelling or grammar mistakes here its because I am a bit sleepy.)

Just too dang excited, but do you want to know why?

Its because the Feminist eZine is set for a relaunch of sorts. We're updating all the old website templates, making it easier for the website to navigate, and once all the old pages (all 370+ of them) are updated to the new template we will be redoing the index page in a more "magazine esque" or "wikified" style, instead of the current routine which is just lists of links to feminist articles by category.

True, its easy to find stuff under the current system and we will still have all the links organized by category, but once the main page is in stage 2 of the relaunch each category will include a paragraph or two on the category topic.

There will also be a new section for "recent additions" to the Feminist eZine.

Its all very exciting to me. I've been writing / editing things which ultimately became part of the Feminist eZine for 11 years now. Its good to have a big relaunch.

A big part of this is we're going to be trying to bring in more volunteer writers to the Feminist eZine. We're all volunteers, but we need new blood.

Sad to say it but as we get older we feminists sometimes lose the itch to write. We get caught up with work, children, love, our obsession with healthy eating or something equally fascinating.

Take Victoria Van Dyke for example. She used to be a regular to the Feminist eZine / Lilith eZine. Now she has gone back to university, has "settled down" a bit and has lost some of her radical edge. Keeping in mind here this is the same girl who once jumped in front of a subway in an attempt to kill herself, professed for years to be a cannibal, had herself committed in a mental asylum and later chopped off her little toe, stuck in a jar and called it art. So yeah, to say that she has settled down feels a bit like an understatement.

So yeah, even the most hardcore / die hard / sometimes outright insane feminists eventually settle down. (Although the words "die hard" and "settle down" do seem to contradict themselves, don't they?)

I am sure, deep down, she is just as die hard as ever. The difference is that she doesn't write or make art much any more. Lost the itch.

And that is just the way it goes for some feminists. Like tonight I was browsing a bunch of feminist blogs... some of the blogs date back years ago and the feminist bloggers have since stopped writing. Its a crying shame from my perspective, but its something we have to learn to deal with. The feminist bloggers in question lost the itch.

But the real question is how the torch is passed on... which is why websites like the Feminist eZine are so important. They create continuity between historical feminist writing, especially a lot of the feminist writing from the 1960s to 1970s, as well as more modern feminist writing from the 1980s to 2000s... all the way up to our current era of feminist bloggers / writers.

The Torch of Feminism must be kept lit for each generation of feminists to follow.

Anyone interested in writing / submitting articles to either the Feminist eZine (or to Feminist Truths) can contact me at suzannemacnevin {at symbol} gmail.com

Maybe now I can sleep...

The Truth about Modern Women

2011-06-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

Worth another look...

Modern Women Living Alone

The Truth about Working Girls

2011-06-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

Worth another look...

See Working Girls, Broken Society?

Toronto police officer fights Texan rapist

2011-06-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

RAPE - At the centre of this story is "Ann Doe", age 33, a mother of two from the GTA... She was brutally raped while visiting Houston, Texas on a business trip in July 2008. It changed her life irreversibly.

But what really stings is how when she tried to get justice they all ignored her.

She went to the Houston police.
She went to the Durham police here in Canada.
She went to her local MP.

None of them helped her.

In steps Toronto Constable Shari MacKay.

MacKay and the Toronto police have nothing to do with the case, but MacKay believes strongly in truth and justice. (You go girl!)

MacKay wrote dozens of letters to officials in Houston, everyone from the chief of police to the mayor, and she pushed investigators to reopen the case. MacKay even made approx. 7 trips to Houston.

In October 2010, the rapist John Frangias was convicted of rape and sentenced to 8 years at the Texas State Penitentiary.

MacKay has since won the International Association of Women Police’s Mary Jo Blahowski Leadership Award for 2011.

“Shari saved me,” says Ann Doe simply, without any fanfare. “She took the case under her wings, she went way above and beyond.”

“She [Ann Doe] had no other advocate, there was no one else to look after her,” says MacKay. “What happened was horrific … I wanted to see him convicted for what he did.”

What the rapist John Frangias did is etched in Ann Doe’s memory.

Doe, who ran a consulting business with offices in Toronto and other cities, was in Houston for a conference in July 2008. The Lancaster Hotel was overbooked despite her reservations so she went to the Athens Hotel Suites.

After four days there and on the last night, a Thursday, she was walking down the hall to her room. It was approx. 11 PM when she opened the door to her room and someone shoved her in from behind.

She recognized the man who had been at the front desk, John Frangias, as her assailant. (John Frangias was the manager of the hotel.)

John Frangias grabbed her by the hair, pulled it hard and started groping her breasts.

Then he raped her. The rape lasted approx. 15 minutes, the worst 15 minutes of Ann Doe's life.

Reliving the memory is still hellish. “It takes you right back to those moments. I can feel it, hear it, taste it, smell it … when I talk about it,” says Ann Doe, her voice cracking. “When he left, I was numb,” says Doe. “Like a zombie, I got into the shower and scrubbed every inch of my body to get the stench off.”

Ann Doe's flight back to Toronto was early next morning and initially she tried to forget anything had ever happened. But when Doe landed back in Toronto she confided in a best friend what had happened and they persuaded her to go to the police.

She did, the same day.

Durham police sent her to the hospital where it was established that she had been violently raped. Confirmed evidence of it. Within days, she gave video testimony and everything was passed on to investigators in Houston.

Then the investigation stopped. Houston police were apparently doing nothing.

Meanwhile Doe stopped travelling and she rarely left the house. She was a mental wreck.

Eventually Doe bumped into Shari MacKay. Their kids went to the same daycare together. Their kids wanted a play date and sometime in February 2009, MacKay brought her kids to Doe’s home.

Their children became friends, so did the two women. But it still took another couple of months for Ann Doe to confide in MacKay. “I just wanted an insight into how investigations work,” says Doe. She was concerned why the case was going so slow and there was no response from the Houston police.

When MacKay heard her story, she instantly knew what had happened. Houston police weren't taking the rape incident seriously. A hotel manager rapist was raping tourists (possibly more than 1) and getting away with it. The local police weren't even given the case the time of day.

The next day, MacKay called up the investigators in Houston and was shocked to hear that they hadn’t even gone to the scene and had classified the complaint as “he said, she said. It blew my mind,” says MacKay.

“I was also politely told it wasn’t my jurisdiction.”

So yeah. Houston police are apparently patriarchal bastards who don't take rape seriously.

But MacKay wasn’t about to give up. She wrote dozens of letters to the chief of police, the mayor, the District Attorney’s office. The investigation started again and Doe was asked to come down to Houston. MacKay accompanied her.

“Shari was like a pit bull,” says Doe. “She wouldn’t let go.”

(Again, you go girl!!!)

“Houston cops resisted her … she didn’t let it deter her. I wish we had more police officers like Shari here,” says Alexis Bruegger, assistant DA in Houston.

“He [Frangias] was horrible,” says MacKay. “He had an elaborate story … that [Doe] was impaired and had fallen outside the hotel. The jury didn’t believe him.”

Eventually justice was served to John Frangias, 8 years at the Texas State Penitentiary.

That is simply proof that truth, justice and karma always win in the end.

We KNOW there are rapists out there who have yet to be caught, but they're living in rotting shells of a life. Karma catches up to everyone eventually.

The Truth about Father's Day

2011-06-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

The third Sunday of June is Father's Day, a day on which we children celebrate our father's, give thanks to them and remind them how much we care about them.

The first observance of Father's Day actually took place in Fairmont, West Virginia on July 5, 1908. It was organized by Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton, who wanted to celebrate the lives of the 210 fathers who had been lost in the Monongah Mining disaster several months earlier in Monongah, West Virginia.

Since then the idea has caught on globally and it is now a tribute to quality dad's around the world.

And a burning admonishment of those father's who were never there, are now sitting at home lonely and wondering what they did wrong. Or maybe they know what they did wrong and now feel guilty, but either haven't apologized or their apology wasn't considered sincere enough.

Regardless...

What I really to talk about is MY FATHER. Donald or Don MacNevin.

My father was always sort of quiet and reserved, although he did like to talk sometimes and would not stop talking when he really got going. I take after him in that way.

He was traditional in many ways, but he was always supportive of everything I did.

He didn't treat me like a girl. Or a boy either. He treated me like a person. He valued my opinion, especially when it came to clothing. He just didn't seem to have a knack for matching ties to the clothing he was wearing.

Today, even though I am in England and he is over in Canada, I will be phoning him via Skype and it will be the first time he has ever used the device. To him these new fangled technologies are nothing more than a modern miracle and the idea that he can phone his daughter over the internet, across the Atlantic Ocean and see her via a webcam is like Moses parting the Red Sea.

I love my father. I think he is one of the best dad's in the world. Oh sure, he makes mistakes but they're honest mistakes. He's a meat and potatoes, salt of the earth, honest to a fault sort of guy. And he's my dad and I will always be proud of him.

So if you get a chance say so. Lift up your wine glass, beer can, coca-cola or whatever you have handy and give thanks to a parent who was always there, always supportive, always loved you and you loved them back through thick and thin.

Yours Truthfully,
Suzanne MacNevin
Father's Day 2011

150 years until equal representation

2011-06-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

POLITICS - After the May elections for local governments in England the representation of women in local government remains stagnant and shockingly low. At the current rate of change we face another 150 years before women have an equal say in government, according to a new report.

The Centre for Women and Democracy report says political parties are key to getting more women into town halls.

‘Representative Democracy? Women in the 2011 Local Government Elections in England’ examines the elections held in May 2011 and found:

1. There was a net increase across over 3,500 seats of just 20 women councillors.

2. At the present rate, it will be more than 150 years before there are equal numbers of men and women elected to English local councils.

3. There were 318 wards where all the main three party candidates were male, 14 times as many as the 22 wards where all candidates were female.

Nan Sloane, report author and Director of the Centre for Women and Democracy, says:

“Only 31 per cent of councillors are women, and this isn’t improving. If the annual increase in women councillors stays as it is – just 20 across the sample of 3,500 seats we looked at – it will be many generations before women have an equal voice in local decision-making. This is shocking, and goes against all the rhetoric that we hear so often about the need for more women in public life."

“Since over 90 per cent of councillors belong to one of the big three parties, their candidate recruitment processes are key. But we also think that it’s astonishing that nobody has responsibility for the diversity of democracy nationally, and we shall be taking steps to ask government, the Electoral Commission and elections officers to do this, both in terms of providing support for the identification and training of candidates through a Democracy Diversity Fund, and by monitoring who is standing for election in the first place."

“In a genuinely representative democracy women would not be regarded as an added extra. They’re 51 per cent of the population, they’re more likely to be both the users and the providers - as employees - of local services, and they pay equal taxes. It’s high time they were equally represented."

Anna Bird, Acting Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society says:

“Nearly a century on from winning the vote, women remain outsiders in the corridors of power. We are underrepresented in town halls across the country and in Westminster – where men outnumber women 4 to 1."

“This report should act as a wake-up call for those who think business as usual will deliver the step change in women’s representation we so urgently need. Wishing and hoping isn’t working, it’s time we took a new approach."

The Truth about Being One of the Guys

2011-05-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

FEMINIST - I opened an email earlier today forwarded from a friend in Canada and it started off like so...

"I think they're trying to contact you guys."

What I thought was amusing was that it was an email being forwarded to two women, and yet he had chosen to refer to us as "guys".

Not gals.

Not chicks.

Not Utero-Americans.

Guys.

And I think this is a positive thing, because what it implies is that guys is now an unisex word which means a group of females or males, and there doesn't have to be 1 male in the group.

Unlike French/Francais, in which if there is 1 male in a group its automatically upgraded to the masculine form of the word. We should be so fortunate that in English we don't worry about masculine and feminine words on a constant basis.

But we do pay attention to specific instances, and being referred to as a guy is a positive sign feminism is headed in the right direction.

So now that we femmes are "one of the guys" what should we do next?

Should we also become dudes? (As opposed to dudettes, a word I find annoying.)

Or how about man? As in "Hey man, wazzup?"

I think I shall start calling all my female homies "man" from now on. If I stick with it maybe we can start a trend that spans the globe.

Which begs the question if men and man becomes an unisex term, should we use a strictly masculine word for people with penises? Perhaps 'heman' or 'He-Man'?

Repeat after me...

"Hey He-Man, wazzup?" (Masculine only.)

"Hey man, wazzup?" (Unisex, singular.)

"Hey guys, wazzup?" (Unisex, plural.)

Eff Off Hef!

2011-05-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

FEMINIST - British feminists are planning a 2nd protest against the new London Playboy Club. The first protest took place days ago on May 26th and a second protest is coming up June 4th.

Organized by OBJECT and UK Feminista, picketers will greet Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who is flying over from Los Angeles for the launch of the new Playboy Club, with calls to, “Eff Off, Hef!”

The London Playboy Club is situated on 14 Old Park Lane, Mayfair, London. W1K 1ND. If you want to join the protest please contact: Anna van Heeswijk on 07732 075835 / anna@object.org.uk or Kat Banyard on 07775 855037 / kat@ukfeminista.org.uk.

The new club comes 30 years after its previous location was shut down by a police raid for suspected gambling irregularities. Playboy Clubs are just one many products licensed by Playboy Enterprises, which includes a mix of magazines, films, websites, TV programming, clothing and even children’s stationary. (The latter of which has since been dropped by many stores due to public outrage.)

Kat Banyard, Director of UK Feminista, says:

“When it comes to today’s pornography industry, all roads lead back to Playboy. It was Hugh Hefner who laid the political and cultural groundwork for the brutal, violently misogynistic pornography that now floods society. But sadly for Hefner, you can’t trademark sexism, and Playboy’s retro brand of ‘gentleman’s porn’ can no longer compete with the extreme degradation of modern internet pornography. Hence we see this endless diversification into nightclubs, video games, clothing and even children’s stationary."

“But whatever product Playboy stamps its logo on, the basic brand concept is the same: woman reduced to sex object for man’s sexual satisfaction - and Playboy’s financial gain. Naturally Playboy Club London embodies this brand, offering champagne and sexism. So Eff off, Hef. And take your club with you.”

Anna van Heeswijk, Campaigns Manager of OBJECT, says:

"Far from a symbol of sophistication and class, the opening of a new Playboy club in London signifies a worrying step backwards in the quest for equality between the sexes. It entrenches the legitimacy of a porn empire which makes its fortune out of degrading women as fluffy animals who exist as sexual playthings for wealthy men. It opens the floodgates ever wider to the pornification of our popular culture. And it serves to embed further a porn emblem which insidiously grooms girls into accepting and embracing sex object culture by marketing its brand to children through playboy pencil cases and bed covers."

"It is time to cut through the crap of the Playboy PR machine. Sexualising and objectifying women as bunny rabbits is not sexy and it is not empowering. It is sexist, and everyone knows it. This is why hundreds of women and men across the country are signing up to the OBJECT and UK Feminista campaign to object to the opening of the new Playboy club. Our message is clear - ‘Eff off Hef and stop degrading women!’"

Fawcett Society: Rape needs to be taken more seriously

2011-05-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

The Fawcett Society has responded to policy proposals unveiled by the UK Government yesterday around sentencing for sex offenders.

Anna Bird, Acting Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society says:

“Every years thousand of women across the UK are the victim of rape. To suggest that some of those rapes are not ‘serious,’ that there are shades of sexual consent, is offensive and legally incorrect."

“The majority of sexual violence occurs between two people that know each other – partners, friends, colleagues. The stranger in the alleyway scenario is comparatively rare – but remains the most likely image people have of rape. It is not just women who are victims of rape, but also men.

“Far from challenging wrong ideas about what constitutes rape, the way in which today’s policy proposals have been presented by the Minister suggests common misconceptions about sexual violence exist at the heart of government.

“The Ministry of Justice urgently needs to tackle shockingly low reporting levels – almost 90 per cent of rapes are never even reported to the police, and the shamefully high attrition rate – few of those cases that are reported make it all the way to court.

“In the light of today’s events, we call on the government to restate its commitment to tackling sexual violence in all its forms and to clarify that rape is always a serious crime, the perpetrators of which should always face the full force of the law.”

British Women Artists during WWII

2011-04-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

FEMINIST - I found this great article in The Independent (which I am including below without permission, but including a link so hopefully they won't mind). For the original article go to http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/women-at-war-the-female-british-artists-who-were-written-out-of-history-2264670.html

Women at war: The female British artists who were written out of history

The job of portraying battle has, traditionally, been seen as a male preserve. But Arifa Akbar discovers that women war artists also played a crucial role.

April 8th 2011

Images of war, rendered on canvas, have traditionally been presented to us in the most morbid forms: John Singer Sargent's chilling trench portrait of blinded troops in Gassed, Picasso's orgy of civil-war violence in Guernica, bloodied battlefields and frontlines from which artists capture live conflict as bombs whizz past them.

What is not so well documented is the women who work on war's hinterland, both as artists and as subjects. Few would be able to name a female counterpart to Sargent – it is assumed that a creative response to such violent destruction can only be delivered from a male perspective, a Siegfried Sassoon or a Rupert Brooke crouching in a foreign field.

Yet women have, since the turn of the 20th century, been interpreting and illustrating war, casting a fascinating light on the forgotten social, industrial and personal histories born from conflict which, while not as graphic as the front line, are invaluable in fleshing out a fuller picture of the human cost of war.

From the early 1900s, when it was indecent for women to be witnessing war from the brutality of the front, female artists produced their own images, many creating unofficial portraits surreptitiously as they worked in weapons factories, in hospital wards and in the ambulance vans of the First and Second World Wars, others in Belsen and at the trials at Nuremberg, and more recently, at the mass graves in Kosovo and the bombed borders of Iraq.

In an effort to bring these extraordinary, yet forgotten, artists to public attention, the Imperial War Museum in London is to stage a comprehensive exhibition on the subject of women as eye-witnesses, participants, commentators and officially commissioned recorders of war, entitled Women War Artists. The exhibition, opening tomorrow, will bring the work of those from the early 1900s alongside a contemporary wave of artists, including the Turner Prize shortlisted artist Fiona Banner, and the Palestinian video-artist, Mona Hatoum.

Kathleen Palmer, the show's curator, hopes the museum's survey will redress the enduring myth of the war-artist as an intrepid man dodging bullets, gun in one hand and sketchpad in the other.

"It's often misunderstood what the role of the war artist is," she says. "A lot of people think it is frontline sketching. War art encompasses far more than battle scenes or life at the frontline – it is about artists' creative responses to all aspects of war as seen and experienced by ordinary people, civilians, as well as servicemen and women. We look at women who find themselves in the war zone but also at those producing images unofficially, without the permission of the government in the First and Second World Wars, and also at women entering male workplaces in order to draw them, which was a radical thing to do then."

The first official war-artists' scheme was set up by the British government in 1916, mainly for propaganda purposes and for memorialising the nation's war effort. A host of artists were commissioned for this purpose, though only four women compared to 47 men, and of these four, three had their work rejected, while one did not take up the commission, so there was effectively no "official" female representation. However, the more determined artists, working independently and without government aegis, found themselves close to the frontline through medical work in hospitals and ambulance units, and began recording what they saw.

Olive Mudie-Cooke, already a trained artist who was driving ambulances for the British Red Cross in France from 1916, was one such woman. The images she produced departed from "official" fare: they featured hospital and auxiliary staff – images of the forgotten army of wartime helpers that would later be dramatised and in the novels of Pat Barker, and Sarah Waters's The Night Watch.

"Olive Mudie-Cooke served in France and Italy as an ambulance driver," says Palmer, "and she created work that responded to the situations she found – other women, the brands of tanks, landscapes, dramatic watercolours of nurses and ambulance staff lighting a cigarette, or ambulances being loaded with equipment."

At the start of the Second World War, women artists were given more leeway after the government's War Artists Advisory Committee (Waac) was set up, though there were still grave imbalances. More than 400 artists were involved – 52 of whom were women, the latter receiving fewer and shorter commissions, lower pay and far less publicity. Two women were given overseas commissions but only one, Evelyn Dunbar, was entrusted with a salaried position, and both were allowed to travel abroad only after the fighting had ended.

It was not until 1982, when Linda Kitson was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to record the Falklands conflict, that a British female artist was sent overseas to accompany troops going into battle, although women were not permitted to stay overnight on naval vessels at the time so Kitson had to travel on the QE2.

In 1945, as victory in Europe looked likely, an artist called Mary Kessell was preparing to go to Germany. By the time she arrived, the war was over but she created memorably intense charcoal drawings of homeless women and children in Berlin, as well as the destruction of Hamburg. Kessell also produced images of the Belsen resettlement camp, home to refugees and displaced people including some ravaged survivors of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp a few miles away.

Another female artist to be given an overseas commission in the 1940s was Dame Laura Knight. At the time she was painting, women auxiliaries had become more common, although female involvement in combat was strictly prohibited. Corporal Daphne Pearson, a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (Waaf), sat for a portrait by Knight and revealed in a letter to her mother that the artist originally painted her with a rifle. The final painting features her brandishing a respirator instead of the weapon. It is not clear whether Knight was instructed to modify the image to make it less shocking, or whether she decided to tone it down herself. Corporal Pearson wrote in 1940: "I am being painted in a tin helmet and holding a rifle – Air Min [Air Ministry] will be furious but Dame Laura says my helmet is rather like a bonnet on the back of my head and the rifle makes a good line – Waafs are 'not to carry arms' – controversy is still raging and this will upset the apple cart. Dame Laura is adamant and firm."

Knight went on to become the first female artist since 1768 to become a full member of the Royal Academy. Her high standing enabled her to request an assignment to the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1945, which resulted in her painting The Nuremberg Trial. The tribunal tried 21 leading Nazis, headed by Hermann Goering. Knight was deeply disturbed by what she heard during the trial, and the realism of the courtroom in her painting is ruptured by the rubble of the city of Nuremberg shown as a ghostly backdrop.

"The trials just fired her imagination," says Palmer. "She drew many of the key Nazis in the dock. Unusually for her, it showed the back wall of the courtroom to have dissolved and the ruins of the city of Nuremberg lying there. She felt the destructive force of war needed to be in the painting."

The British Red Cross, meanwhile, commissioned Doris Zinkeisen to reflect their work in Europe in the 1940s, and she produced Human Laundry, a stark, searing image of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp's starving survivors. Of her time there, she later said: "The shock of Belsen was never to be forgotten... The stable was used to wash any living creature down before sending them into hospital to be treated. Each stall had a table on which to lay the patient – the German prisoners did the washing. The church was used as a hospital for those that were alive.'" Despite her personal horror, Human Laundry is in some ways, a seminal work in women's war-art as it proved that women could unflinchingly present the most discomforting aspects of war.

Social realities on the home front were also being presented more robustly the 1940s. Women with some artistic training were sneaking sketchpads into factories, without permission, depicting the civilian population contributing to the war effort, while others drew street scenes that captured air raids, shelters; sometimes these were comical or bittersweet images, at other times, shocking and violent. This work would have been considered dangerous and illicit had the authorities known about it, as imagery around war was tightly controlled for fear that it could used as negative propaganda.

Palmer says: "Women's images of the Blitz were hard-hitting. They were working independently, so doing more their own thing. Priscilla Thornycroft was an artist who was quite closely associated with the Communist Party, making drawings of places in Camden Town, people in the streets with air raids going on. They were dark and quirky and they really captured what was happening to individuals. Officially, the Blitz was reflected in a more abstract way but her work was specific about the working-class experience of war on the home front. It was quite a nice counterpoint to the official commissions." A previously unseen work by Thornycroft in the exhibition features a scene that took place early on in the Second World War when an air-raid warning frightened a bolting horse that became impaled on railings. She painted it in the 1950s in a lustrous style to highlight both the beauty and tragic outcome of the horse.

Margaret Abbess had completed her foundation course at the Royal College of Art but was conscripted and sent to make Spitfire parts in a factory before she could take her art training further: "She documented the factory work when she shouldn't have done. She didn't have permission but was covertly making sketches in her rest breaks and going home to work on the images. She was thinking of throwing them all away in 2005 when a family member told her to bring them to us," says Palmer.

The question of how female war-artists chose to represent ordinary working women during these decades is an interesting one. Images of women on the home front were not always "feminist" in the modern sense; some adopted the style of their older male counterparts while others painted women in stereotypically glamorised incarnations, even in factory scenes which, in reality, would have been sweaty places of industry.

The most iconic example of this glamorisation is an image of Ruby Loftus, a 21-year-old "shop girl" who mastered the difficult skill of screwing the breech ring of the anti-aircraft Bofors gun, a technique that normally took men almost a decade of dedicated experience. Her story was picked up by the Ministry of Information, which was trying to encourage women into weapons production at that point. Her portrait was painted by Knight and promptly exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Yet the image must have borne little resemblance to the reality of her work: "Ruby Loftus was painted in the middle of the mechanical process but in a way that reinforced the female stereotype. She was made to look very glamorous, wearing lipstick and with machinery that gleamed. It made her job look easy," says Palmer.

The image may have added to the conspiracy theories bubbling around that suggested Ruby Loftus was a fraudulent poster girl of the war, who could not, in fact, have been strong or clever enough to do the job.

More contemporary wars have led to different kinds of artwork: the rise of photo-journalism, and images delivered daily on our television screens from conflict regions, have progressively reduced the shock value of frontline artwork. War artists these days can be seen to be taking an "alternative" perspective, pioneered by female artists of earlier decades, that bring creative, personalised responses to war. Mona Hatoum, for example, renders hand-grenades as jewel-like coloured glass objects that encompass a terrible beauty in her piece, Nature morte aux grenades, while Rita Duffy transforms a weapon into confectionery in Dessert, which features a gun, cast from an AK-47 rifle that was decommissioned through the Northern Ireland peace process, but made out of chocolate.

The message in both these works appears to critique the fetishised status that the weaponry of war has assumed in contemporary culture.

"[Duffy's] piece embodies the attraction of violence, the temptation of the empowerment which comes from joining paramilitary organisations" and yet, "the gun is neutered: only made of chocolate, it cannot be used," comments Palmer.

The German artist Frauke Eigen, who photographed scenes from Kosovo in 2000 following its ethnic cleansing, has explained why she decided to photograph the personal effects from bodies exhumed from mass graves of genocide victims in Kosovo, rather than the bodies themselves.

"The sight of these bodies and the strong stench of formaldehyde made me leave the place, and on my way out I saw these clothes laying there in the sun for drying after they had been washed. For some reason, maybe because these clothes were much more human-like and recognisable than the bodies, I felt far more touched and disturbed and started to take pictures." Hatoum, similarly, has said she resists the demand for the literal horror of war.

"When I started making these works I was criticised for not showing the 'spectacle of horror' but expecting the viewer to imagine for themselves the impending disaster. I personally felt that this was precisely the strength of the work and a sign of maturity in the way the work conjures up certain images in the viewer's mind."

And in her sentiment, Hatoum sums up much of the spirit, imagination and force of a century of women war-artists.

Women War Artists, Imperial War Museum, London SE1 (020 7416 5320)9 April to 6 January

The art of war: women at the front

Dame Laura Knight RA (1877–1970)

Knight trained at the Nottingham School of Art and began by taking her subjects from the world of circus and ballet. These images were well received and established her as a leading artist of her generation. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Knight was the most important woman artist in Britain and the first to be elected a Royal Academician since 1768. Knight worked various commissions for the War Artists Advisory Committee and, at the end of the war, she was granted permission to paint the trial of major war criminals at Nuremberg. She spent the first months of 1946 in Germany, making her one of only three women war-artists commissioned to travel abroad to record the war.

Anna Airy (1882–1964)

Having trained at the Slade School of Fine Art, she was one of the first women to be officially commissioned. Invited by the Munitions Committee of the Imperial War Museum in 1918 to produce four pictures representing typical scenes in munitions factories – the shell forge at the National Projectile Factory in Hackney Marshes (London), a gun forge near Manchester, the aircraft assembly shop at Armstrong-Whitworth, Hendon, and the Singer factory in Glasgow. The conditions under which Airy worked were stringent and included penalties for any delay in her work. One painting, showing munitions girls leaving work, was produced at the request of the Ministry of Information's British War Memorials Committee in 1919. It was rejected by the Committee and later destroyed by the artist.

Margaret Abbess (1922–2008)

Abbess was offered a place at the Royal College of Art (RCA) but was conscripted into war work in 1942. Security was extremely tight in factories engaged in war production. Drawing sensitive subjects or places required a permit – which Abbess did not have. Nonetheless, while working in an aircraft components factory she produced several drawings of factory scenes. This work was produced in secret, often during breaks, and provides an unofficial insight into factory life. Most of Abbess's drawings began as small sketches which she later completed at home from memory. After the war, Abbess finished her studies at the RCA and worked for many years in art education. She kept her war drawings but felt they were of limited artistic value. In 2005 she considered destroying them, but was encouraged by her family to offer them to the Imperial War Museum.

Mona Hatoum (b. 1952)

Mona Hatoum was born in Lebanon to a Palestinian family. She studied in Beirut, moving to Britain in the 1970s. When civil war broke out in Lebanon in 1975 she found it impossible to return home, and settled in Britain, training at the Slade School of Art. Hatoum's early work often includes performance and video ("Measures of Distance", above). She uses domestic objects such as kitchen implements and cots, or medical objects, such as trolleys and wheelchairs, to imply a sense of threat or violence. Her artworks have incorporated blades and pulsing electric currents. She now lives and works in London and Berlin. Her work is exhibited internationally and held in museum collections around the world.

Linda Kitson (b. 1945)

Kitson studied at St Martins School of Art and the Royal College of Art, where she specialised in illustration. She then taught at Camberwell, Chelsea and the City and Guilds Art Schools. Her drawings that appeared in "The Times" won her the Falklands commission from the Artistic Records Committee of the Imperial War Museum. Kitson became the first official female war-artist to accompany troops into action during the Falklands conflict in 1982. She travelled on civilian ships requisitioned by the Navy, as women were not permitted on naval vessels at the time. The original intention was for Kitson to disembark at Ascension Island, but instead she stayed with the forces throughout the conflict. She eventually produced more than 400 drawings showing all aspects of the conflict, except the actual fighting, most of which occurred at night. Her drawings were often completed at speed in hostile conditions.

Frauke Eigen (b. 1969)

The German-born artist studied photography at the Royal College of Art in London, and it was while working as a photo-journalist that she made her first trip to Kosovo, in 2000. While there, she was told that a mass grave containing the bodies of genocide victims had just been uncovered nearby. Witnessing the recovery operation, Eigen decided to photograph the clothes and personal items of the dead, rather than the bodies themselves ("Fundstücke Kosovo", left). Eigen recently completed a photographic project in Afghanistan.

The Truth about Will and Kate

2011-04-29T05:02:00.000-07:00

POLITICS - I am in a cafe near Trafalgar Square. I don't have much time either. I have to run over to Buckingham Palace and try to see Kate Middleton and Prince William come out on the balcony.

My girlfriend and I attended the Royal Wedding today. We were locked out of Trafalgar Square because the crowds inside there have reached a point where they are worried about being able to get emergency vehicles in there in the event of trouble.

So far the wedding has gone on without a hitch. Will and Kate are now officially married, they've taken the red carriage back to Buckingham Palace, with the Queen and Prince Philip following in a covered carriage (I'll upload photos later, I promise!).

Its been an interesting day to have dual citizenship. As a Briton I am very proud to see the Royal Wedding. As a Canadian I've been bumping into fellow Canadians all day, often decorated with maple leaves.

I also met Ben Mulroney today, who is here working as a reporter for CTV. He was taller than I expected. I gave him a hug and kissed him on the cheek. Not sure if that will end up on TV.

He and I briefly chatted about the election going on back in Canada. He refused to comment on Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, but I got the impression that he doesn't care the new Conservative Party and that both he and his father (Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada from 1984-1993) miss the ol' Progressive Conservative Party.

Back to Will and Kate there is a lot of chatter about how much these two actually love each other, and whether they are just getting married for royal appearances. Bets are being traded on how long the marriage will last.

The truth is nobody knows. Not with absolute certainty.

Gotta run, going to see the balcony kiss!

EXTRA NOTES: A lot of fuss has been made about Kate's wedding dress.

The Truth about the Night Stalker

2011-03-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

RAPE - There are several references to the Night Stalker in history, cinema and so on.

The most infamous of these is Delroy Grant, the rapist of London England who reputedly raped 203 people, mostly elderly women, and including 10 men. There might have even been more victims, victims whom never came forward to point the finger at the man who had raped them.

Also known as the Minstead Rapist, Delroy Grant has been active since 1990. Last week on March 24th Grant was sentenced to four life sentences and a minimum of 27 years in prison.

The 52 yeard old Delroy Grant was a father of 8, "a family man" who cared for his disabled wife... and a cunning rapist. On November 15th 2009 he was caught and charged with burglary, rape and indecent assault for rapes dating between October 1992 and May 2009. Police know there are more incidents, but they cannot prove all the incidents tied to Delroy Grant.

Even with high profile cases its often difficult to prove rape. They were only able to positively confirm his connection to 4 rapes and approx. 30 sexual assaults.

The problem with capturing Delroy Grant was that he was dormant for long periods. After the first confirmed attack in October 1992 he took a break and there were no more attacks until 1997.

As Delroy got older the attacks increased, becoming more confident. In August 1999 he nearly killed the elderly woman and took another break.

In October 2002 he resumed the attacks. Another 7 attacks occurred in Summer 2003 alone. Then another long break until 2008.

It was the series of attacks between 2008 and 2009 that eventually led to Delroy Grant getting caught. Police began to suspect the owner of a Vauxhall Zafira and began looking for the owner. Over 70 undercover officers were placed on stakeout in the region Delroy Grant usually preyed for women. He was eventually caught and charged with the long list of assaults which they were able to confirm positively based on descriptions of him plus DNA evidence.

1. Rape - on 12/10/92 at Shirley, on an 89-year-old woman
2. Rape - on 5/9/98 at Warlingham, Surrey, on an 81-year-old woman
3. Rape - on 28/7/99 at Addiscombe, on an 82-year-old woman
4. Rape - on 5/8/99 at Orpington, on an 88-year-old woman
5. Indecent assault - on 20/6/99 at Beckenham of a 71-year-old woman
6. Indecent assault - on 12/7/99 at Addiscombe of an 82-year-old woman
7. Indecent assault - on 4/8/99 at Shirley on an 88-year-old woman
8. Indecent assault - on 13/10/02 at Shirley on a 77-year-old woman
9. Burglary (no violence) - on 25/5/09 at Shortlands, Bromley
10. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 12/10/92 at Shirley
11. Burglary with intent to rape - on 5/9/98 at Warlingham, Surrey
12. Indecent assault - on 5/9/98 at Warlingham, Surrey, of an 81-year-old woman
13. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 12/7/99 at Addiscombe
14. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 28/7/99 at Addiscombe
15. Indecent assault - on 28/7/99 at Addiscombe, of an 82-year-old woman
16. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 4/8/99 at Shirley.
17. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 5/8/99 at Orpington
18. Rape - on 5/8/99 at Orpington, on an 88-year-old woman
19. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 13/10/02 at Shirley
20. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 7/3/03 at West Dulwich
21. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 7/9/04 at Bromley
22. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 20/6/99 at Beckenham

His modus operandi was geriatric women, sneaking in through open windows or disassambling windows in order to gain entry. Once inside he would often spend hours with the victims, displaying a knowledge of how to support an elderly victim's spine, how to hold their elbows and so forth. He was even at times apologetic, leaving without committing an assault when victims chastised him with words like "What would your mother think of you?"

His shame for his actions apparently led to the long breaks between attacks.

The Night Stalker is hardly alone however.

According to UK police there are 50,000 rapes every year, but only 600 convictions. Rape is far more common than people care to admit.

And the methods used by defense lawyers are almost as bad.

In 2002, 16-year-old British teenager Lindsay Armstrong was raped. Later in court the defense lawyer asked her to hold up the thong she'd been wearing during the rape. “Little Devil” read the writing on the thong. The defense lawyer argued that she had dressed like a slut and had wanted to have sex.

Lindsay was mortified by having to show her thong in court. Three weeks later Lindsay killed herself.

In Canada awhile ago Toronto police Const. Michael Sanguinetti had told a class at Osgoode Hall Law School the following:

“Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”

Sanguinetti has since apologized for his stupidity, but he apparently believes rapists judge their victims on appearance. (Delroy Grant obviously didn't care what his victims wore.)

Since the Sanguinetti incident many Toronto feminists have organized a protest against the thinking that slutty clothes makes you a target for rapists.

The protest, SlutWalk, will start at 1:30 this coming Sunday at Queen's Park and parade past Toronto Police Headquarters at 40 College St.

Attendees are encouraged to wear whatever they want. Office clothes, clubwear, jogging clothes, cycling gear, yoga clothes, etc... you know, the clothes you normally wear.

After all rapes don't happen because of what you wear. Nothing to do with it. Often its who you know. A relative, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbour, a boss... anybody can be a rapist. And they don't care whether you wear ugly clothes.

Lets take Alice Sebold as an example, author of The Lovely Bones, who was raped while a student at Syracuse University in a tunnel. Another girl had been raped in the same tunnel, killed and dismembered.

And what was Alice Sebold wearing when she was raped? Overalls and a t-shirt. Nothing special.

My point is rapists plan these things in advance. They're pre-meditated. They go looking for a victim and they don't care if the victim is wearing long heels, a thong or whatever.

OTHER NIGHT STALKERS

Richard Ramirez, a Los Angeles serial killer who killed at least 14 people between 1984 and 1985.

Nightstalker, a 2002 film based on Ramirez.

The Night Stalker, a 1987 horror film starring Charles Napier.

An unidentified serial killer and rapist from 1976-1986 known as "Original Night Stalker" and "The East Area Rapist", connected to at least 56 rapes/murders in California.

The Truth about Naming a Baby

2011-01-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

WARNING: This isn't so much a feminist topic as it is a parenting one.

I think a fun part about getting pregnant (I am not yet, but still working on that) is that you get to pick a name for the child-to-be.

Note: This might explain why so many unplanned pregnancies result in children with either lame, traditional names or alternatively names like the ones given to the children of celebrities.

ie.
Christina Aguilera / Jordan Bratman Singer = Max Liron (son)
Erykah Badu / Andre Benjamin = Seven Sirius (son)
Erykah Badu / Tracy Curry = Puma (daughter)
David Bowie / Angela Bowie = Duncan Zowie Heywood Jones (son)
Toni Braxton / Keri Lewis = Denim Cole (son) and Diezel Ky (son)
Christie Brinkley / Peter Cook = Sailor Lee (daughter)
Nicholas Cage / Alice Kim = Kal-el (son)
Cher / Sonny Bono = Chastity (daughter)
Cher / Greg Allman = Elijah Blue (son)
Tom Cruise / Katie Holmes = Suri (daughter)
Courteney Cox Arquette / David Arquette = Coco Riley (daughter)
Bob Geldof / Paula Yates = Fifi Trixibelle (daughter), Peaches Honeyblossom (daughter) and Little Pixie (daughter)
Richard Gere / Carey Lowell = Homer James Jigme (son)
Teri Hatcher / Jon Tenney = Emerson Rose (daughter)

And so forth...

For me I want a name that is both strong and beautiful. And possibly gender neutral. I am open to unusual names, but nothing ridiculous like "Fifi Trixibelle" (which sounds like a name for a chihuahua).

I am even open to male names which could become gender neutral. ie. Andy Sam MacNevin. People would assume its Andrea Samantha. However I think that name is too plain so I want something with more spunky.

(I should note because I am thinking of having a natural pregnancy I won't know if its a boy or a girl. Thus its important that whatever I name the kid it should be suitable regardless of what sex they are born.)

For example what about Triangle (or Tri for short)? I admit its unusual, but I am attracted to the simplicity of it. Plus for fun the kid could sign their name in the shape of a triangle. :o

Suggestions?

The Truth about getting Pregnant

2010-12-14T11:08:00.001-08:00

SEX - Here is a wee tidbit for you. I am thinking about having a child. Not adoption either. Via a sperm bank. No sexual acts required.

Let me explain... I am in my 30s. My (egad) biological clock is ticking. I have no intention of marrying a man, but I would be tempted to get married to my partner. I might even propose to her when the time is right. Regardless, the choice to have a child would still be mine to make. I know my partner also wants children, although we do differ on the number (she wants 2, I prefer 1).

Future Note: She could pull a fast one and get pregnant too, thus we would each have 1. It would be entirely her choice.

But you see therein lies an important truth. I am planning to get pregnant. In contrast for many women it seems to happen by accident. Often causing the need for an abortion if the woman is financially unable to support a child by herself.

Now there is nothing wrong with wanting to have children. Its a choice like any other. There's also nothing wrong with adoption.

For me its nothing to do with blood or genetics. I don't care about that. I am really quite fascinated however with the concept of bearing a child and going through the whole pregnancy process.

I want the morning sickness. I want the mood swings. I want people telling me I look radiant. I want people asking me when the baby is due. I want to discuss all my options with a doctor. Call it part social experiment / part maternal need.

And once the child is born I want to go through the whole breastfeeding process, the weaning, the raising, the whole teenage years and eventually empty nest syndrome. I want it all. (I may eat these words later, but for now I am willing to say 'em.)

And because I can plan my pregnancy it also means I have complete control over my circumstances. I know how much savings I have. I know I can depend on my partner for emotional and financial support, especially if we get married. I can research government support and heck, even government research grants since I am a bio-chemist. As a scientist I can monitor my health throughout the pregnancy and report on my status (I may need to make a separate blog for this).

I should note that I will need to find a doctor who can cope with me being 'a difficult patient' to work with. I know a little too much about the inner workings of the human body, the various hormones and chemicals at work, and how they effect the childbearing process.

To be continued...

The Truth about Frank D'Angelo - Part Three

2010-12-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

RAPE - Frank D'Angelo, an incompetent Canadian businessman who drove his companies into bankruptcy in 2007, and was also charged with sexual assault/rape the same year when he lured a young woman up to his hotel, ripped her clothes off, pulled her hair and proceeded to have sex with her. Most people would call that rape, but unfortunately he got away with it because of conspiracy and obstruction of justice (charges against Frank D'Angelo are still before the courts for tampering with his sexual assault case, namely bribing a cop and two crown attorneys).

For more information about Frank D'Angelo see:

The Truth about Frank D'Angelo & The Truth about Frank D'Angelo - Part Two.

But this isn't all. I have done a fair chunk of research on this scumbag, and as promised, everytime he or his lawyer emails me, I am writing about the research which I have dug up about Frank D'Angelo.

In total Frank D'Angelo (and his twin companies Steelback Brewery and D'Angelo Brands, Inc.) wracked up debts of $162 million dollars (Canadian) from investors. Court documents show that Barry Sherman's Wasanda Enterprises Inc. was owed $101,619,464.20 alone, plus $20 million in accrued interest.

"Court filings indicated more than 300 unsecured creditors have submitted claims of $12.8 million." - The Toronto Star.

According to CanadianBusiness.com Frank D'Angelo's marketing budget alone exceeded his revenues. He spent ridiculous amounts of other people's money on TV commercials (including the Super Bowl), sponsorships and "went wild" on advertising spending promoting himself as "I am the brand!"

In the Summer of 2007 D'Angelo spent $5.4 million on marketing campaigns, despite having only $2.5 million in revenue.

Frank D'Angelo also chose to package the beer in plastic, a move which made the beer seem cheap and also damaged the quality of the beer. It also was more expensive to bottle it in plastic, which wracked up another expense.

"The Shermans quickly distanced themselves from their former partner, blaming him publicly for overspending on advertising and admitting to past inconsistencies in beer quality." - CanadianBusiness.com.

The Sherman family bought control of both companies in 2008 from Frank D'Angelo for $8 million. The companies filed for bankruptcy protection and later offered investors 5 cents on the dollar (a mere $640,000) to pay off the $12.8 million in other investors Frank D'Angelo owed money to.

During his time in power Frank D'Angelo paid himself millions using other people's money. Today Frank D'Angelo owns only a minority stake in D'Angelo Brands, Inc., but remains the public spokesperson.

Furthermore Frank D'Angelo didn't stop at taking money from investors. He also took work from people and then refused to pay them. D'Angelo owes a $550 debt owed to the City of Toronto's parking infractions payment office, nearly $6,000 owed to Molly Maid and almost $3,000 to a student-run painting service.

He also owed the Atlantic Beer Festival in Moncton $342, the Canadian National Exhibition $6,000, the Wexford Heights Business Improvement Association in Toronto, $12,000 and auto parts maker Magna International is owed over $11,000 for services rendered.

The biggest of these is $3.5-million for unpaid work for TV and print ads promoting Frank D'Angelo's beverages, owed to Mr. Cecere who produced most of D'Angelo's TV ads in the time period leading up to his bankruptcy.

Frank D'Angelo also gave post-dated cheques to various sports groups, allowing them to buy new equipment in exchange for advertising on their teams' paraphernalia. These cheques later bounced because D'Angelo didn't have the necessary funds to pay them. These groups include: Toronto Argonauts football club, Ottawa 67's hockey team, tax officials in several communities and a bowling alley in Listowel, Ont.

Lastly Frank D'Angelo owes $1,500 to the President's Choice Children's Charity and $40 to the Wasaga, Ont., Lions Club. Frank D'Angelo agreed to sponsor CIBC Run for the Cure (Breast Cancer) for $1,000 but never actually paid them.

NOTE: Frank D'Angelo sang "You Gotta Believe" in TV commercials promoting sales of his CDs, claiming he would donate money to breast cancer research. He spent thousands of dollars promoting himself in TV commercials, but never actually paid them. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS-H_mXBU5A

No one charged Frank D'Angelo with deliberately defrauding them of their money and/or refusing to pay for services rendered. Large questions remain about where the $162 million dollars disappeared to, how much Frank D'Angelo was paying himself, who actually owned some of the sports groups or charities he was giving money to (and whether they were legitimate or possibly fronts for money laundering), and why he was promoting himself as a philanthropist, but kept skipping out on the bill.

If Frank D'Angelo was simply pocketing a lot of the money (and doing so through bogus charities or sports groups) then he is not only guilty of money laundering, he is also guilty of fraud, conspiracy, income tax evasion and possibly guilty of running a Ponzi scheme to deliberately defraud investors. This would qualify as "organized crime".

So in addition to the conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges currently facing Frank D'Angelo, he probably should also be charged with running a mafia ring.

Oh, and to tie this back to feminism... what kind of prick pretends to donate money to breast cancer and then refuses to pay up? The kind who is a complete fake.

REFERENCES

Steelback Breweries files for Bankruptcy Protection
Steelback in 'liquidity crisis'
Steelback creditors queue up
The Ode: Steelback Brewery
D'Angelo creditors offered 5% on claims
Steelback returns as reinvented microbrew

The Truth about 50 Years of Coronation Street

2010-12-06T15:31:00.000-08:00

ENTERTAINMENT - If you love British television, you probably also love Coronation Street. It is after all, 50 years old, as of December 2010.

In addition to being popular and being able to stand the test of time, Coronation Street, as a pop culture icon, has also been the subject of feminist debate for generations.

Right from the beginning Coronation Street became known for its portrayal of strong female characters, both good and bad ones. Strong female characters like Ena Sharples, Elsie Tanner, Annie Walker, Hilda Ogden became household names in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s.

Despite criticism about stereotypes (the writers of Coronation Street maintain they set the mould years ago, so if there is any stereotypes its because "Corrie" was the first to do it, and everybody else is copying Coronation Street) the show has created a realistic portrayal of relationships, domestic abuse, affairs, child rearing issues, and so forth.

ie. A recent story line about breast cancer and breast implants, and the parents responses to their daughter wanting breast implants.

What you have to remember is that Britain is birthplace of modern feminism. From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to the Spice Girls, Britain is a constant source of girl power.

The Truth about the Montreal Massacre

2010-12-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

CANADA - 21 years ago today (December 6th 1989) 14 women were shot dead by 25-year-old gunman Marc Lépine. He was carrying a Sturm, Ruger Mini-14 rifle (he bought it legally 15 days earlier) and a hunting knife. He shot 28 people before he killed himself.

Marc Lépine arrived began shortly after 4 PM in the afternoon at the École Polytechnique, an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal. At first he went to the registrar and sat there for a time, rummaging in a plastic bag. He later left and went to the 2nd floor mechanical engineering class of about sixty students at approx. 5:10 PM. He walked up to the student presenting and asked everyone to stop everything, ordering the men and women to opposite sides of the room. When nobody moved at first he fired a shot into the ceiling.

With 9 women on one side and 50 men on the other, Marc Lépine ordered the men to leave. In French he asked the women if they knew why they were there.

"Non," the women replied.

"I am fighting feminism," Marc Lépine said.

"Look, we are just women studying engineering, not necessarily feminists ready to march on the streets to shout we are against men, just students intent on leading a normal life," said one of the students, Nathalie Provost.

"You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists," Marc Lépine said.

Marc Lépine then opened fire, shooting each woman once. He started from the left and went to right. 6 of the women died from their wounds. 3 were wounded and survived.

He then stopped and wrote sh** twice on a student's project.

Marc Lépine then went into the 2nd floor corridor where he shot and wounded 3 more students. At one point he stopped in the staircase and reloaded.

He then went back towards the room with the 3 injured women, but they had locked the door. He shot at the door 3 times but it stayed locked.

Marc Lépine then went along the corridor, shooting at more people and wounded another. He stopped at the financial services office where he shot through the window of the locked door and killed a woman within.

He next downstairs to the 1st floor cafeteria. He shot a woman near the kitchen and wounded another student. People were fleeing in all directions.

He entered a storage room where two women were hiding. He shot and killed them both.

He told two students, male and female, to come out from under a table. He let them go.

Marc Lépine went to the escalator that goes to the 3rd floor. He shot and wounded another woman and shot 2 male students as well.

Lépine then walked up an escalator to the 3rd floor where he shot and wounded one

On the 3rd floor he entered a classroom and told 3 students to "get out". He shot and wounded Maryse Leclair. He fired at students in the front row. He shot and killed two more women who tried to escape out the door.

He moved towards a group of women, wounded three and killing a 4th.

Maryse Leclair was crying for help. Marc Lépine took out his hunting knife and stabbed her three times, killing her.

He then took off his hat, wrapped his coat around his rifle, said "Oh sh**!" and then shot himself in the head with his rifle.

The attack had lasted 20 minutes.

Approx. 60 bullets remained in the boxes he was carrying with him. He had killed 14 women (13 students and 1 employee) and injured 14 other people, including 4 men.

Why? Because Marc Lépine hated feminists and he blamed feminists for ruining his life. His suicide letters contained a list of nineteen Quebec women whom Lépine wished to kill because he considered them to be feminists.

Lépine's father was an abusive woman-hater and later became a deadbeat dad. His parents later separated and his mother had to work constantly to pay for her children. Marc Lépine tried to join the Canadian Army in 1980-81, but was rejected according to his suicide letter because he was "anti-social". According to a police biography released Marc Lépine was intelligent but troubled, and hated feminists, career women and women in traditionally male occupations, such as women in the police force.

Lépine applied to the École Polytechnique in 1986 and in 1989 but lacked two courses required for admission. He completed 1 course in the winter of 1989, 9 months before the massacre. He could have taken the other course needed to get into the program and eventually succeeded in his career goals.

But instead he got frustrated and decided to take his frustration out on women.

THE AFTERMATH

The Montreal Massacre was the largest attack in Canada specifically aimed at women. The day (December 6th) is now commemorated as a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

The incident led to stronger gun control laws in Canada and introduced tactical changes in police response to shootings, something which benefited the police response to other shootings. (See Killer Goth in Montreal.)

The Truth about Frank D'Angelo - Part Two

2010-11-30T15:10:00.000-08:00

RAPE - So I checked my email today and got an email from 'acquitted rapist' Frank D'Angelo... It said the following:

"Just for the record the process server has tried repeatedly to serve you and your partner in crime. We will be serving both you cowards by court order. It is ironic that you profess to write about fact and protect the integrity of the truth in your Blog, yet you create writings of malice." - Frank Dangelo Frank@dangelobrands.ca

Seriously.

Let me summarize for you what a creep Frank D'Angelo was. Every WORD here is the truth!

#1. Frank D'Angelo used to be the owner of the Steelback Brewery and D'Angelo Brands Inc. But he was such an incompentent businessman that he spent all of his investors money on advertising, sports sponsorships, etc. He ended up wracking up $162 million in debts, and only had assets of $58.5 million. (This is well documented by various newspapers and therefore is a FACT.) He realized the company was going bankrupt (one might wonder if he was running a Ponzi scheme) and so in what some people might call "insider trading" he sold the company to his biggest investor for a sum of $8 million... despite the fact that he owed over 300 other investors $12.8 million. He essentially (and this is a matter of opinion) defrauded over 300 investors of millions of dollars and ran off with the money. (The company kept him as a spokesman.)

#2. Frank D'Angelo met a little girl years ago, and apparently he took a fancy to her. He waited until she was 21 years old and then in 2007 he lured her up to his hotel, ripped her clothes off, pulled her hair and proceeded to have sex with her. Some people (myself included) would call that rape. Thus many people would call Frank D'Angelo a rapist, including God himself if you believe in that sort of thing. When you consider Frank D'Angelo was about 50 at the time he was definitely a "cradle robber".

#3. However Frank D'Angelo was not convicted of rape / sexual assault. In a bizarre series of events the court case lasted only 1 day, the judge, Justice John Hamilton, declared that Frank D'Angelo was "probably guilty", but dismissed it because of lack of evidence... and then Frank D'Angelo was caught on camera (by the Ontario Provincial Police) having dinner with crooked cop Michael Rutigliano (who is involved with the mafia in Quebec and wanted in a case which defrauded Bombardier of millions) and the two crown prosecutors (Richard Bennett and Domenic Basile) who were later listed as "unindicted co-conspirators"... in other words Frank D'Angelo hired (bribed?) Michael Rutigliano and was "probably" in the process of bribing/paying off Richard Bennett and Domenic Basile while the OPP watched with a telephotic lens... Richard Bennett and Domenic Basile have since been suspended from their jobs.

#4. The Ontario Attorney General's Office has the option of appealing the sexual assault case against Frank D'Angelo and retrying him. The first trial would be declared a mistrial, pending the results of conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges which BOTH Michael Rutigliano and Frank D'Angelo are currently facing.

#5. I couldn't make this stuff up. Its all absolutely true and factual.

On top of that, when you are telling the truth and it can be supported by facts you're going to have one hell of a time trying to prove defamation in court. As well, I am performing a public service. Its called "Responsible Communication", ie. warning people about a criminal, crook, fraud artist and/or rapist which is on the loose. Responsible Communication is exempt from defamation laws.

And there is no "malice" in writing for the purposes of Responsible Communication. I am protecting the general public from a crook. Women out there need to be warned. If they google Frank D'Angelo, they will realize he is a sexual predator, then hopefully they will avoid ever meeting him and getting raped by him.

So yeah, if Frank D'Angelo wants to come to London England and sue me for writing about the truth he can bloody well come here and do so. To quote a previous blog post, Frank D'Angelo can SUCK MY OVARIES!

Trying to "serve" me by sending papers to a friend of mine who lives in Canada? Well good luck with that. I don't even live in Canada any more. Seriously, Frank D'Angelo's lawyer must be incompetent or something if he thinks he can sue someone via proxy in another country and hope it will stick.

Oh and I am practically penniless. I am writing a book right now and not working. I don't even have a fixed address because I am living with my partner. There's no guarantee my book will even sell. Suing me for $2 million in Canada is like suing a beggar in Sri Lanka.

It will be utterly fruitless. But go ahead Frank, assauge your ego if you want, I will just keep on writing about you. Every time he or his lawyer emails me I will write another big scathing article telling the whole world the truth about the crook known as Frank D'Angelo.

Maybe eventually Frank D'Angelo will learn to keep his mouth quiet. Attempting to silence bloggers while they anxiously await the results of his conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges isn't going to get him anywhere.

See Also
The Truth about Frank D'Angelo
The Truth about Rape Trials

UPDATE

Another email from Frank D'Angelo:

"We have copied all your emails to the proper authorities, you should be dealing direct with my lawyer. The only criminal here is you and you partner. I will spear no expense to bring both of you to justice. We are dealing with Google to have both of you barred from writing your bizarre untrue writings about people. Your blackmail will not go unpunished. It seems to me you both should be jailed or hospitalized." - Frank Dangelo Frank@dangelobrands.ca

My response:

"Blackmail? You are the person trying to sue me.

I have no interest in money. I am penniless and don't give a shit about money. I am a feminist crusader who believes in the truth.

You're the only one who is obsessed with money here."

Oh... and FYI... it is spelled "spare no expense". Sheesh. The moron can't even spell.

FYI #2. And don't worry people, I've got backup copies of all my blog posts on Excel files. I can re-upload this blog at a new location anytime, anywhere. :)

The Truth about Rozsika Parker

2010-11-22T19:54:00.000-08:00

FEMINIST ART HISTORY - British psychotherapist and feminist art historian Rozsika Parker has died... which means it is now an opportunity to bring her work to the younger generation and anyone interested in feminism, art, and women artists. Rozsika Parker was a pioneer... She was a feminist art theorist and activist from the 1970s and was active well into the 1990s, often collaborating with famed feminist / art historian Griselda Pollock.

Take the book "Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology" as an example, which Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock wrote together, one of the most important books of feminist art theory and history that you may ever read.

Parker and Pollock examined how art history as a discipline had misogyny at its core... like how most male art historians focus on male artists and give only token attention to women artists, and how art history as a discipline has a tendency to push women down and "smack down" anything that was remotely feminine.

In order words male art historians were basically b***h-slapping women artists down for being too uppity, but doing in such a way that it looked like they were just ignoring them because "women artists aren't important enough". Which they are, but when all the male art historians say you're not important it becomes a vicious cycle. Basically its a glass ceiling for female artists.

Parker and Pollock's second collaboration, "Framing Feminism: Art and the Women's Movement 1970-1985" was and still is a great source of information about the feminist art movement in Britain (which often got overwhelmed by the American Women's Liberation Movement).

Parker's "The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine" is also a very good book, informative and relevant. Its not like embroidery changes much in the last couple decades. You might take it for granted that knitting or embroidering or weaving were not previously accepted forms of high art, but read this book and you might change your mind. There is a lot of work and detail that goes into embroidery.

Parker's personal life was a bit of a mystery. She was a bit of a mysterious figure for who was largely unknown in the USA and even in Britain where she was still into feminist activism and working as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist.

Its difficult to say what she was like as a person. In her books you don't really know where Griselda Pollock left off and where Rozsika Parker began. Many of their beliefs evidently coincided.

She liked had a fierce feminism, was compassionate, very focused on her work and wanted to make the world a better place through both activism and writing. It was a very different era when she began writing in the 1970s, back when women were born instead of culturally constructed (a concept which grew in the 1980s).

"Old Mistresses" and "Framing Feminism" have long been out of print. Maybe in the future they can be re-issued.

Or maybe someone sneaky and intelligent could archive her writings online... for all the world to see and learn from.

Feminist Bloggers Wanted

2010-11-22T19:49:00.001-08:00

You:

Feminist.

Articulate.

Able to research topics about "truth, justice and the feminist way", or similar topics.

Enjoys writing / ranting for the fun of it.

You don't take s*** from nobody, but you can take editorial advice.

If so, contact suzannemacnevin{atsymbol}gmail.com

:)

Suck My Ovaries

2010-11-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

FEMINIST - Repeat after me... Suck My Ovaries.

Say it proud, say it strong.

Check out http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=%22suck+my+ovaries%22

At the top of the list you will you find the following blog: suckmyovaries.blogspot.com. Definitely worth checking out.

Especially the following posts:

Female Fronted Bands

Yeastie Girls

Libertarias/Freedomfighters Fim

:)

The Truth about Rape Trials

2010-11-11T15:01:00.000-08:00

FEMINISM - Fact: Only 49% of sexual assault trials in Canada end in convictions.

It doesn't take a genius to realize similar statistics likely exist in the USA.

But here is the kicker. Most sexual assaults don't even go to trial. Only 9 to 10% of sexual assaults in Canada are even reported to the police.

According to Statistics Canada there is approx. 26,000 sexual assaults reported to police each year. But because Canadians only report 9% to 10% of sexual assaults that means there is between 260,000 and 286,000 sexual assaults per year.

Lastly only 20% of those include physical injuries.

Thus for 80% of cases sexual assault is very difficult to prove. And for the 20% that does have physical injuries, there is still no guarantee it will go to trial.

What is also known is that you are more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone you know, a friend, co-worker or even a relative, not by a stranger. Sexual assaults by strangers is actually pretty rare. However because women are often assaulted by friends, family, co-workers, etc. this is why so few people report it to the police.

Once it does get reported however the police are (generally speaking) very thorough. They interview the woman multiple times, comparing her story to make absolutely certain she isn't making it up. If there is any doubt the charges end up being dropped.

Thus the percentage of false claims that make it to court is so small its not even a percentage point. It is 99.99% or better truth.

Which means its practically a fact, but the problem is how do you prove it?

And that is where the he-said-she-said system comes into play. Without secondary witnesses and character witnesses, how are we to know who is telling the truth?

He says it was consensual. Or claims they were both drunk. Or whatever excuse he can think of. ie. She seduced him and just wants his money. Seriously, whatever lie that sounds plausible is the one that he will use in court.

She says it was rape. There was nothing consensual about it. She said NO and she meant it. She wasn't playing around. She wasn't seducing him or flirting with him. She was tricked, cornered, fooled, abused, assaulted, and then dismissed like yesterday's garbage.

It would be wonderful if someone could invent a lie detecting machine which is 100% infallible and allowable in a court room. Perfectly accurate. It measures their vitals, their heart rate, their hormone levels and brain activity.

And then the liars would be caught and put behind bars for their crimes. The system would be so much simpler with a lie detecting machine which works perfectly.

See Also
The Vagina on Trial
Stop Rape
Abortion, Rape and the American Way
Gender Violence in Mexico
The 10 Worst Countries for Women

The Truth about Feminomics

2010-11-08T15:34:00.001-08:00

FEMINIST - A woman's work is never done.

And likewise trying to calculate the value of woman's work is infinite. Let me explain why...

When a mother teaches their children a skill and that skill is passed on to future generations, even if the skill changes over time, evolves, it ends up being of infinite value to the descendants who follow. ie. The ability to cook your own food, something which every human should know.

But how does women's work get calculated into the wealth (GDP) of a nation? In theory all that food that is grown, harvested and eaten at home has value that is being ignored when calculating the GDP of many countries, even European and Western countries.

Instead GDP is usually measured in dollars changing hands, like BP oil or the Alberta tar sands (and totally ignores the damage to the environment which will cost future generations billions to fix, let alone the damage to the health of people living near these environmental disasters).

GDP also ignores birthing, nursing, diapering, cooking, baking, nurturing and teaching that most mothers do (and if they don't then their nanny does it).

Political economist Marilyn Waring, a former New Zealand cabinet minister and now professor of public policy at the Institute of Public Policy at AUT University in Auckland believes we should be calculating the value of women's work. “The market wouldn’t survive if it wasn’t able to survive on the backbone of unpaid work," she says.

So its not just women's work we are talking about. Its also the value of being a father (teaching, nurturing and so forth) and even chores done by children. ALL UNPAID WORK.

Waring calculates that the largest source of unpaid work in any economy is performed by women.

In 1988, Waring’s book "Counting for Nothing" (known now as "If Women Counted" introduced the idea that the way we calculate wealth is flawed because it ignores the well-being of work done at home.

Lets take for example a person living in northern Canada. If they build, using their own two hands, a huge home made of stone and outfit it with a source of electricity from a local river and a waterwheel, what is the GDP value of the home?

Zero.

Because they didn't sell it.

Its like trying to keep track of barter, another source of "unpaid work". People perform barter on a regular basis without realizing it. Women's work is really just a form of barter. They cook, clean and nurture children in exchange for a roof over their head, food and spending money (we can ignore the love and intimacy factors that should be involved in such a relationship).

In 2005 StatsCan calculated that men perform an average of 2.5 hours of unpaid work per day while women do 4.3 hours. (This includes time spent doing volunteer work for the community.)

(Honestly I also wonder what does blogging count as... I am after all performing a free public service. But the value of informing other people of the worth of various truths is difficult to calculate.)

Feminomics therefore is a very tricky thing to calculate... but I'd argue trying to calculate it in dollars is a moot issue because its not paid in dollars. IT SHOULD BE MEASURED IN HOURS.

Suzy's Feminomics Value of Women's Work (or FV)

FV = Hours per Annum per Capita.

ie. In 2005 Canada the FV was 1569.5 hours / Capita.

But if we went to a country where most women don't have careers, like Afghanistan, the FV might be closer to 3000 hours / Capita.

The idea here is that if we actually want to calculate women's work that we need to be using a different yardstick.

What are YOUR feminist truths?

2010-11-08T15:18:00.000-08:00

Do you have something really profound you'd like to share with the wider feminist community? Here's your chance to say something.

Leave a comment or email me at suzannemacnevin[at]gmail.com (all comments will be kept anonymous by default).

Also, if you have a topic you'd like me to write about, let me know about it.

Cheers!
Suzanne MacNevin

Examples to get you started:

1. Poverty is the main deciding factor in abortion. If anti-abortionists really wanted to stop abortion they'd fight poverty first.

2. Weightlifting doesn't make you look like a man. Steroids do.

3. There is no excuse for laziness. Don't make being female an excuse for why you can't "Just do it!" yourself. This applies to everything.

4. If you start telling yourself you can't do something because you're a woman then you need to go out there and prove to yourself that you CAN do it.

5. Don't do something because its "the feminist thing to do", do it because its the right thing for you to do.

6. Even men ask for advice. There is no shame in it.

7. Womens sports have a long way to go. Be patient, but always strive for more.

8. Unpaid "women's work" is the backbone on which our economy survives. If it wasn't for women teaching their children, child rearing, making meals, etc. our economy would collapse over night. But that doesn't mean every woman is destined to be a mother. Some women just don't have the maternal spirit, or they choose to delay that aspect of their life until later so they can better provide for themselves and their children.

9. Feminomics is the Future, the Past and the Present.

10. When push comes to shove most women choose love first. Your feminist beliefs are not about restrictions. Its about the freedom to choose what YOU want to do.

Canadian Feminists divided over Prostitution

2010-10-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

SEX - Prostitution is legal in Canada, but there are a lot of things which restrict how a sex worker is allowed to ply their trade in Canada. Recently Justice Susan Himel of the Ontario Superior Court struck down the following sections of the Canadian Criminal Code:

Section 210, which prohibits maintaining, owning or being a member of a “common bawdy-house.” The result is that brothels are no longer illegal in Canada.

Why is this important? Because brothels are safer than walking the streets or answering outcalls. With brothels comes security and bouncers for kicking out the rowdy men who don't follow the rules.

Section 212(1)(j), which affects those living “wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution of another person.”

With this struck down, prostitutes are able to support dependents, including children and partners. It also means that if they run a brothel they can pay to have a bouncer, an accountant, desk clerks, etc.

Section 213(1)(c), best known as the “communicating law,” which prevents street prostitutes from screening clients before putting themselves at risk.

With this gone prostitutes can now screen individuals they choose to have sex with, often because they don't feel comfortable with the person. Examples: Too creepy, scary looking, is a member of the NRA, or even just plain ugly.

The constitutional challenge was made by members of the Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC) because they felt these laws were unfair and dangerous to the lives of sex workers, regardless of their intent.

Justice Susan Himel agreed and these laws were struck down because they endangered the health and safety of sex workers.

There are those feminists out there that argue that allowing brothels and screening will lead to an increase in pimping (which is still illegal in Canada) and organized crime / trafficking of women.

In major Canadian cities prostitution is not only common, its easy to find. Just open a NOW magazine in Toronto, flip to the back pages and you'll find advertisements for both male and female sex workers. You can also go to Craigslist or Kijiji. Or you can walk down one of the less reputable streets in the middle of the night.

For feminists however there is a huge ideological gap.

In the right corner we have the anti-sex-trade feminists, who believe prostitution should be completely illegal and that prostitutes should essentially be rounded up, forced to go to university and get decent jobs like the rest of us.

In the left corner we have the pro-choice feminists, who believe prostitution is going to happen regardless of what laws we implement because women sometimes just get desperate and are in a bad situation. They believe sex workers need to be protected, given more options for their personal safety and given choices so they can decide for themselves what they want to do with their lives.

Its actually very similar to the whole "women have the right to a safe abortion" argument. On the right side we have people who oppose abortion entirely. On the left side we have people who believe abortions are going to happen regardless and thus we should try and make it as safe as possible.

This isn't so much about "right and wrong", its about ensuring the safety of women who make those decisions, because they're going to make those decisions anyway regardless of what laws are out there. They're desperate enough to try anything.

Justice Susan Himel of the Ontario Superior Court struck down as unconstitutional the bawdy house provision, which by preventing sex workers from sharing premises that ensured their common safety, increased their risk of exposure to violence.

The “living off the avails” section, which criminalizes those being supported by a sex worker, was meant to target pimps, it also affects a prostitute's live-in family, including partners, parents and children, as well as security guards or bouncers who might protect her.

The communication law was declared unconstitutional because experts all agree the greatest danger to street sex workers is their inability to safely screen johns before jumping into their cars.

“For me it's not complicated to understand why there's a divide: it's two visions,” says Diane Matte of Montreal's Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation, who has a street-level view of the sex worker industry. “The SPOC women do not hide the fact that they want to open brothels,” says Matte.

That much is certainly true. SPOC wants to open brothels and make prostitution a lot safer through government regulation and private security. The brothels would be owned by the prostitutes themselves, not by pimps.

Matte wants a Nordic model, such as the laws currently in place in Iceland and Sweden, which has decriminalized sex workers while criminalizing their clients. But all that does is cause prostitution to driven further underground, where violence is more likely to happen.

“As a criminologist I can guarantee you that that doesn't work because it doesn't remove the criminal element from prostitution,” says O'Doherty, who teaches at the University of the Fraser Valley. Making demand illegal only serves to drive sex workers underground, she says.

As the world's oldest profession prostitution will never be eradicated until we've eradicated poverty entirely. And even then we will have another problem, women who don't have sex for money but instead just "slut themselves around willy-nilly for kicks". (For reference being slutty isn't a sin per se, but doing so without regard to personal safety, the safety of others, and ignoring the feelings of others is a cause for concern.)

And lets face it, there's way more sluts than there is prostitutes.

The primary difference however is that sluts have the option of screening their sexual partners and can have sex in the privacy of their own homes if they choose to. They can be safe about it.

Which is what sex workers want to. Safety.

Eventually they will hopefully find a different job, go back to school, etc. There is no pension plan when you're a sex worker. Eventually even sex workers have to start thinking about retirement.

The World's 100 Most Powerful Women?

2010-10-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

POLITICS - According to Forbes the list down below shows the world's most powerful women in 2010.

However this list is extremely Americentric. 70% of the women are Americans, quite a few of them are entertainers (ie. Does Lady Gaga really deserve the #7 spot? Or Katie Couric #22?)... And to be honest, most of them you probably have never even heard of because they're not that famous.

A lot of the non-American women are presidents, CEOs or First Ladies of their countries, with very few exceptions. One of them is just a presidential candidate in Brazil... so apparently just running for president in a country makes you one of the top 100 according to Forbes.

A few are supermodels or athletes. Seriously, how does that make them powerful? By selling lingerie or tennis raquets?

Its all utter nonsense.

So BOOOOOO to Forbes and their phoney baloney list. They are just like making lists apparently to fill space, satisfy their idiot readers and get attention. Boooo!

1
Michelle Obama
First Lady 46 United States

2
Irene Rosenfeld
Chief Executive, Kraft Foods 57 United States

3
Oprah Winfrey
Talk show host and media mogul 56 United States

4
Angela Merkel
Chancellor 56 Germany

5
Hillary Clinton
Secretary of State 62 United States

6
Indra Nooyi
Chief Executive, PepsiCo 54 United States

7
Lady Gaga
Singer and performance artist 24 United States

8
Gail Kelly
Chief Executive, Westpac 54 Australia

9
Beyonce Knowles
Singer, fashion designer 29 United States

10
Ellen DeGeneres
Talk show host 52 United States

11
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House 70 United States

12
Angela Braly
Chief Executive, Wellpoint 49 United States

13
Janet Napolitano
Secretary, Homeland Security 52 United States

14
Cynthia Carroll
Chief Executive, Anglo American 53 United States

15
Sheila Bair
Chair, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation 56 United States

16
Sarah Palin
Political maverick and commentator 46 United States

17
Mary Schapiro
Chair, Securities and Exchange Commission 55 United States

18
Ellen Kullman
Chief Executive, DuPont 54 United States

19
Sonia Sotomayor
Supreme Court Justice 56 United States

20
Ursula Burns
Chief Executive, Xerox 51 United States

21
Angelina Jolie
Actor and UN Goodwill Ambassador 35 United States

22
Katie Couric
News anchor 53 United States

23
Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary, Health & Human Services 62 United States

24
Anne Lauvergeon
Chief Executive, Areva 51 France

25
Elena Kagan
Supreme Court Justice 50 United States

26
Patricia Woertz
Chief Executive, Archer Daniels Midland Co. 57 United States

27
Melinda Gates
Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 46 United States

28
Arianna Huffington
Founder and editor-in-chief, Huffington Post 60 United States

29
Madonna
Singer, fashion designer 52 United States

30
Ho Ching
Chief Executive, Temasek Holdings 57 Singapore

31
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court Justice 77 United States

32
Maria Ramos
Chief Executive, Absa Group Banks 51 South Africa

33
Chelsea Handler
Talk show host and author 35 United States

34
Tina Brown
Cofounder and editor-in-chief, The Daily Beast 56 United States

35
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy
First Lady 42 France

36
Lynn Laverty Elsenhans
Chief Executive, Sunoco 54 United States

37
Elizabeth Warren
Assistant to the President and Special Adviser to the Secretary of Treasury 61 United States

38
Ana Patricia Botin
Chair, Banesto bank 49 Spain

39
Heidi Klum
Model and producer 37 United States

40
Meredith Vieira
Co-anchor 56 United States

41
Queen Elizabeth II
Monarch 84 United Kingdom

42
Carol Bartz
Chief Executive, Yahoo! 62 United States

43
Christine Lagarde
Finance Minister 54 France

44
Sallie Krawcheck
President, Global Wealth & Investment Management, Bank of America 45 United States

45
Sarah Jessica Parker
Actor and fashion designer 45 United States

46
Diane Sawyer
News anchor 64 United States

47
Meg Whitman
Gubernatorial candidate, California 54 United States

48
Marina Berlusconi
Chair, Mondadori and Fininvest Group 44 Italy

49
Stephenie Meyer
Author 36 United States

50
Rachel Maddow
Talk show host 37 United States

51
Carly Fiorina
Senatorial candidate, California 56 United States

52
Guler Sabanci
Chair, Sabanci Holding 54 Turkey

53
Maria Shriver
First Lady, California 54 United States

54
Carol Meyrowitz
Chief Executive, TJX companies 56 United States

55
Serena Williams
Athlete 28 United States

56
Anna Wintour
Editor-in-Chief, Vogue 60 United States

57
Andrea Jung
Chief Executive, Avon Products 52 United States

58
Julia Gillard
Prime Minister 48 Australia

59
Abigail Johnson
President, Fidelity Personal, Workplace and Institutional Services 48 United States

60
Venus Williams
Athlete 30 United States

61
Suze Orman
Author and personal finance guru 59 United States

62
Tarja Halonen
President 66 Finland

63
Marjorie Scardino
Chief Executive, Pearson PLC 63 United States

64
Mary McAleese
President 59 Ireland

65
Annika Falkengren
Chief Executive, SEB 48 Sweden

66
Sheryl Sandberg
Chief Operating Officer, Facebook 41 United States

67
Cathleen Black
Chair, Hearst Magazines 66 United States

68
Cristina Fernandez
President 57 Argentina

69
Anne Sweeney
Co-chair, Disney Media Networks 52 United States

70
Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi
Minister of Economy 51 United Arab Emirates

71
Chua Sock Koong
Group Chief Executive, Singapore Telecommunications 51 Singapore

72
Gisele Bundchen
Model and fashion designer 30 Brazil

73
Christiane Amanpour
Anchor 52 United States

74
Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned
First Lady 50 Qatar

75
Susan Ivey
Chief Executive, Reynolds American 51 United States

76
Queen Rania Al Abdullah
Monarch 40 Jordan

77
Nancy McKinstry
Chief Executive, Wolters Kluwer 51 United States

78
Rachael Ray
Talks show host and author 42 United States

79
Nikki Finke
Founder and blogger, Deadline Hollywood Daily 56 United States

80
Johanna Sigurdardottir
President 67 Iceland

81
Jing Ulrich
Managing director and chair, China Equities and Commodities, J.P. Morgan Chase 43 United States

82
Laura Sen
Chief Executive, BJ's Wholesale Club 54 United States

83
Laura Chinchilla
President 51 Costa Rica

84
Mary Callahan Erdoes
Chief Executive, Asset Management, JP Morgan Chase 43 United States

85
Janet L. Robinson
Chief Executive and President 60 United States

86
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
President 71 Liberia

87
Amy Pascal
Co-Chair, Sony Pictures Entertainment 52 United States

88
Tory Burch
Fashion designer 44 United States

89
Shikha Sharma
Chief Executive, Axis Bank 49 India

90
Sun Yafang
Chair, Huawei Technologies 54 China

91
Vera Wang
Fashion designer 61 United States

92
Chanda Kocchar
Chief Executive, ICICI Bank 48 India

93
Danica Patrick
Race car driver 28 United States

94
Maha Al-Ghunaim
Cofounder and chair, Global Investment House 50 Kuwait

95
Dilma Rousseff
Presidential candidate 62 Brazil

96
Donna Karan
Fashion designer 61 United States

97
Angela Ahrendts
Chief Executive, Burberry Group 50 United States

98
Ellen Alemany
Chief Executive, Citizens Financial Group 54 United States

99
Martha Stewart
Lifestyle Guru 69 United States

100
Dominique Senequier
Chief Executive, AXA Private Equity 57 France

Leslie J. Sacks' Ten Commandments

2010-09-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

FEMINISM - We received the following list from Leslie J. Sacks in an email. The ideas are certainly worth a read. Editor's Note: I've edited some of the wording of the commandments to make them more palatable.

"In these uncertain and consequential times, I humbly suggest that we put aside our penchant for iPods and immediate gratification and consider my 10 new commandments [below]." - Leslie J. Sacks, L.A. California.

1) Men should learn to think more with their brains and not their genitals.

2) Women should focus more on their intellects and temper their hearts.

3) Never use violence and intolerance except to defend liberty.

4) Morality exists only in behavior and actions. Preaching morality doesn't make it so.

5) Women are ALWAYS equal.

6) Freedom and democracy are both rights and irrevocable responsibilities that must be protected.

7) Each individual has the inalienable right to their political and religious beliefs.

8) No institution or belief should take precedence over any one person.

9) No path to happiness is exclusive or worthy of domination over any other.

10) People who seek to dominate, control, subvert or destroy the freedom of other people do not deserve the respect of the free world.

The Truth about Women and Gun Control

2010-09-18T21:47:00.001-07:00

POLITICS - Gun control is actually a gender issue. Why? Because when you compare the percentage of men who support gun control and the percentage of women who support gun control you see some startling differences.

Support Gun Control
U.S. Men: 51%
U.S. Women: 64%

Against Gun Control
U.S. Men: 46%
U.S. Women: 30%

Undecided
U.S. Men: 3%
U.S. Women: 6%

(Source: Pew Research Center / 2008)

Education is also another big factor in who supports gun control (people with a college or university education are over 25% more likely to support gun control), as is race. 75% of African-Americans support gun control, but only 54% of Caucasian-Americans support gun control.

In Canada and the U.K. we have stricter gun control and it shows in our much lower crime rates.

For the purpose of this blog post however we're going to look at the example of Mavis Moore who was 4-years-old when she first had a gun pointed at her. She and her mother were picking up a newspaper in their small Saskatchewan town of Crown Butte when a neighbour decided to point his .22 at them and threatened to kill them both.

Mavis Moore was so frightened she remembers dropping her blue mitten in the snow.

“You can't imagine what it's like, this adult man having a gun on you and threatening to kill you and your mother,” says Mavis who is now 72-years-old. Her mother picked up her daugher and the mitten and left immediately.

She also recalls how decades later, while out hunting (Mavis is now an avid hunter) how a fellow hunter suddenly aimed his cocked rifle at her in the northern Saskatchewan bush. He claims he had mistook her 5-foot-4 frame, draped in red, for a moose.

Guns are a constant threat in the lives of rural Canadian women. Many rural Canadian families have guns in their homes (from my perspective, my family had 2 that I knew of).

Mavis Moore, who grew up in Crown Butte, Saskatchewan, says she is incensed at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's attempts to scrap the Long Gun Registry in Canada. Mavis is an avid hunter even at the age of 72, but she strongly supports the Long Gun Registry.

“That makes me so mad,” says Mavis, who still owns three licensed and registered long guns. “It's not a matter of rural versus urban. It's a public safety issue. How many women and children in rural Canada are threatened in their own homes with a gun? More than we want to know, I think.”

According to a Harris/Decima research poll released on Sept. 8th the difference between urban and rural men who support gun controlis very little.

48% of Canadian men say its a bad idea to abolish the Long Gun Registry.
42% of Canadian men support abolishing it.
10% of Canadian men are not sure.

There is only a 2% difference between whether the people polled who live in the city or the countryside in terms of support. [It should be noted only 18% of Canadians live in rural society.] So gun control support has very little to do with where you live.

49% of Canadian men who live in cities support the Long Gun Registry.
47% of Canadian men who live in rural society support the Long Gun Registry.
41% of Canadian men who live in cities support abolishment.
43% of Canadian men who live in rural society support abolishment.

In contrast
49% of Canadian women who live in cities support the Long Gun Registry.
47% of Canadian women who live in rural society support the Long Gun Registry.
30% of Canadian women who live in cities support abolishment.
40% of Canadian women who live in rural society support abolishment.

Overall 48% of Canadians support keeping the Long Gun Registry, while 38% support its abolition.

(Harris/Decima interviewed just over 1000 Canadians. A sample of this size has a margin of error of 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.)

Meanwhile 81% of Canadian police officers support the Long Gun Registry and say they use it help protect the public. Officers consult the registry before responding to domestic violence 911 calls to see if there are guns on site, and also for murder and criminal investigations.

Over 1,500 Canadians were refused gun licenses between 2006 and 2009 because background checks determined they were a criminal risk.

6,093 gun licenses were also revoked during the same period due to continuous screening, court orders and public safety complaints.

Police and criminal psychologists all agree these revoked gun licenses and refusals to grant gun licenses have saved lives, but unfortunately it's hard to document prevention. We have no way of knowing how many lives the Long Gun Registry and similar gun control measures have saved.

What is documented is that 69% of homicides, suicides and accidental deaths in Canada involved long guns in 2004, a drop from 72% of firearm deaths in 2001. More drops are expected in the future as more statistical data becomes available.

And what is also known is that rural and farm women are more likely to encounter domestic violence involving long guns.

“Rural and farm women who experience violence in the home describe a cycle of intimidation with guns . . . which makes it really difficult for women even to report what's going on, “ says Jo-Ann Brooke, director of the Women's Sexual Assault Centre of Renfrew County in Pembroke, Ontario.

Domestic abuse victims say they support the Long Gun Registry because it takes the responsibility for reporting the presence of guns out of their hands, and alerts police to the guns if they are called to a domestic violence incident.

The $4-million annual price tag for running the Canadian Long Gun Registry is worth it.

See Also
Gun Control in Canada
Handguns in Canada
RCMP Report vindicates Long Gun Registry
Canada needs to keep Long Gun Registry
Stephen Harper's Gun Raffle
Jordan Manners and the C.W. Jefferys Massacre
Killer Goth on the Rampage in Montreal
German gunman kills 11 women, 4 men

The Truth about Eileen Nearne, aka Agent Rose

2010-09-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

POLITICS - Eileen Nearne died alone on Sept 2nd at the age of 89. Nobody in her neighbourhood knew that she had been an WWII secret agent in France, spying on the gestapo and the German military during the German occupation. It was only after documents and photographs were found in her apartment, and her story was determined to be already listed in several historical books about WWII spies, that the truth about Eileen Nearne came out.

What had seemed an old woman destined for a pauper's grave is now being hailed as a British national hero. With no known relatives authorities searched her apartment looking for evidence of family... Amongst the things she left behind they found a treasure trove of medals and documents which referred to her as "Agent Rose", a wireless operator during Germany-occupied France and a member of the secretive Special Operations Executive (SOE).

At the age of 23 the brave young Nearne had flown into France under the cover of darkness in March 1944 to work as an undercover agent helping coordinate resistance fighters and spies.

She was arrested by the Gestapo in July but thanks to her fluent French was able to hide her British identity. Her family had lived in France during her childhood. She was arrested again weeks later and imprisoned at Ravensbrueck concentration, then transferred to a forced labour camp in Silesia. She and two French girls escaped the camp in April 1945 but were caught days later.

She was later released when Nearne convinced their captors of their innocence, claiming they had only joined the French Resistance because it was exciting.

After WWII ended, Nearne was awarded with a membership in the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her services. She lived most of her life with her sister Jacqueline, who had also served in the SOE.

The Royal British Legion has taken over the funeral preparations, scheduled next week. (Personal Note: I am planning to attend the funeral myself, if the general public is allowed in.)

On Tuesday a relative of Nearne was found living abroad, a niece who says she visited her aunt regularly and “she was always cherished by the family.” She added her aunt wanted her ashes to be scattered at sea.

Eileen Nearne’s story is well remembered by historians, including M.R.D. Foot in his popular book about the SOE in France (SOE, The Special Operations Executive 1940-1946, published in 1984) who writes:

"Eileen Nearne of WIZARD, who had transmitted a good deal of economic and military intelligence besides helping in the routine work of arranging drops for SPIRITUALIST, was caught at her set in July. She brought off a dextrous bluff, and persuaded the Gestapo she was only a foolish little shopgirl who had taken up resistance work because it was exciting; they never discovered she was half English. But they took her away to Germany all the same."

Later in the book, Foot recounts Eileen Nearne’s amazing escape from a Ravensbrück working party in April 1945. There are at least five other references to Nearne in the book. Foot’s book is not obscure either. Its quite popular. Eileen Nearne also apparently appears in Marcus Binney’s popular book "The Women Who Lived for Danger".

So Eileen Nearne's, aka Agent Rose's, story will be remembered by many.

White Flowers and Wild Geese, Poetry by Mary Oliver

2010-09-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

White Flowers

By Mary Oliver

Last night
in the fields
I lay down in the darkness
to think about death,
but instead I fell asleep,
as if in a vast and sloping room
filled with those white flowers
that open all summer,
sticky and untidy,
in the warm fields.
When I woke
the morning light was just slipping
in front of the stars,
and I was covered
with blossoms.
I don’t know
how it happened ---
I don’t know
if my body went diving down
under the sugary vines
in some sleep-sharpened affinity
with the depths, or whether
that green energy
rose like a wave
and curled over me, claiming me
in its husky arms.
I pushed them away, but I didn’t rise.
Never in my life had I felt so plush,
or so slippery.
or so resplendently empty.
Never in my life
had I felt myself so near
that porous line
where my own body was done with
and the roots and the stems and the flowers
began.

Wild Geese

By Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting,
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

See Also: Answers - Poetry by Mary Oliver.

Brought to you by the Feminist eZine and Isla Mujeres Women's Retreat.

The Truth about Feminism in Britain

2010-09-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

By Suzanne MacNevin - September 2010.

FEMINISM - I've been living in Britain for awhile now (on and off thanks to the fact I have dual citizenship) but one of the things I've noticed is that so-called British feminism suffers from a duality of problems.

#1. British feminism has a lot of history and there are a fair number of feminists here who support that history and stand on the shoulders of feminists who have come before them... the problem however lies in that they seem to have lost their spirit and have become more... academic. Its feminist historians arguing back and forth, very little activism.

#2. Girl Power is strong here (Spice Girls anyone?), but its done in a very post-feminist way... ie. they're selling their sex appeal at the same time. Sexy Feminists and Girl Power kind of leaves a bitter taste in your mouth after awhile. (Pun intended.)

I met earlier this week a few feminists from Oxford and I was astonished by how cynical and... for lack of a better word... complacent they were. They didn't think they would see major change in their life times. As one girl put it "its two steps forward and two steps backwards. We're not getting anywhere."

The feeling is that their message isn't getting across to young women out there so why bother trying? I disagree. The problem is that they're promoting the wrong message.

Its a bit like you're trying to sell a car. You don't try to sell the car based on whether you can get to work in it. You sell the car with the lifestyle and freedom that comes with it.

Same thing goes with feminism. Its not about corporate climbing and breaking the glass ceiling. Its a LIFE STYLE of freedom from sexual persecution. A woman's goal should be to ignore love and only pursue her career, the idea is for her to have the freedom to do everything she sets her mind on, whether its career, politics, family, education, hobbies, sports, whatever she wants to do. Her sex and gender should not interfere in those goals.

My advice to the women of Britain, and the rest of the world: Stop thinking of feminism as a means to an ends. Think of it as a philosophy of life and don't hinder yourself based on what people say you can and can't do... because if you choose to have a career AND a family there is no one stopping you but yourself.

Let your heart think big and follow it always.

100 Posts of Feminist Truth

2010-08-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

By Suzanne MacNevin - August 2010.

FEMINISM - This is my 100th post on this blog. I first started this blog in March 2007 and I've wrote posts on everything from Confronting Misogyny to Sports Bras to Satellite Babies to Female Rites of Passage.

But wait, there's also The Truth about Frank D'Angelo, an article which reveals what a scumbag he is, how he raped a young woman and how he is currently charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy.

Well it turns out Frank D'Angelo is now threatening to sue me for $2 million, because I called him a rapist and "an idiotic fop". Except I live in London England and he apparently doesn't have the balls to come over to England and sue me in person. (Why? Because he doesn't want the negative press from such an idiotic and frivolous lawsuit... I can just see the headlines... "Rapist Sues Feminist for calling him a Rapist"...)

But the truth is Frank D'Angelo is a rapist. Even the judge in his sexual assault trial said he was "probably guilty" but let him off because there wasn't enough hard evidence to convict him. D'Angelo had to bribe TWO crown prosecutors and a cop to get off the sexual assault charges in 2009... (Methinks some of the evidence went missing and the two crown lawyers didn't do a proper job.) Bribing and abusing the legal system is well... illegal. No other way to say it.

So people calling him a rapist or "an idiotic fop" is really minor in the big picture. He has bigger worries, like spending time in jail for conspiracy/obstruction of justice. The Ontario Provincial Police have photos of Frank D'Angelo meeting with Michael Rutigliano (a known corrupt cop and mafia member wanted for fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud) and the two crown lawyers.

So is this 100th post going to be my last? Hell no. I am not going to be bullied with a frivolous lawsuit. It doesn't matter if Frank D'Angelo sues us for $2 million, $20 million, $2,000 or a mere $2. He won't get a single penny for his efforts.

But he will get a lot more bad press if he pushes my buttons. I will scream to high heaven and call him all sorts of things which are likewise true. And I've dug up a chunk of research on this guy in the event he really does grow some balls, come to England and sue me properly.

For example:

Frank D'Angelo is balding. True.

Frank D'Angelo is fat (or at least overweight). True.

Frank D'Angelo looks like a creep. Matter of opinion, but nevertheless True.

Frank D'Angelo is a rapist. According to the young woman he raped, and anybody else familiar with the case, this is completely True but as we all know rape is often a matter of she-said-he-said and rape convictions are very rare. (Its a sad truth that there are many unconvicted rapists walking around free.)

Frank D'Angelo is a fraud artist. It is True he took money from investors, 'lost' it all by giving it away on sports endorsements and then never paid back the money. From what I can tell chunks of the money just plain disappeared and were never accounted for. (I believe that is called "embezzlement".)

Frank D'Angelo is an incompetent business man. If you research his history of business deals that went sour he is no rookie at litigation and lawsuits, and since he has had two companies go bust on him he is certainly not very good at business, so True.

Frank D'Angelo is a bully. In 2007 he sued (or threatened to sue) blogger Neate Sager for calling Frank D'Angelo a "huckster" and "2-bit shyster" in an effort to silence the blogger. And now he is bullying me with an identical $2 million lawsuit. So that is True too.

The point is I can back up everything I say about Frank D'Angelo. I may not have video of him raping the young woman (or other forms of "hard evidence"), but we have her sworn testimony and the fact that Frank D'Angelo is a complete sleazebag. And if forced to go through the court system I am fully willing to go over EVERY LITTLE DETAIL of Frank D'Angelo's life and reveal to the whole world what a complete scumbag he is.

Why? Because I believe in truth, justice and karma. Guys like him have to be stood up to.

If I was a newspaper I'd have to use the word "allegedly" but frankly I've had it up to here with newspapers which say things like "the alleged rapist was caught redhanded and is charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and sexual assault". Reporters skirt around what they really should be saying when its obvious to the whole world the guy is guilty.

But I am not a reporter. I am an academic. As an academic I write ESSAYS and in them I assert my opinion and then back it up with facts and information. I could write a whole book on The Life and Times of the Scumbag Rapist Frank D'Angelo if so motivated.

The point is I believe in the Truth and I am pretty hardcore about it. I will fight to my last dying breath bringing the truth to the world.

But honestly, is Frank D'Angelo worth wasting my time on? No, not really. Presumably karma will work its thing and Frank will spend the next couple of decades regretting his illegal and unethical actions and paying the ultimate price for being a two-faced liar and a rapist. Its no sweat off my back, I have faith that karma will catch up to him in the end.

Meanwhile I got bigger fish to fry. There is a whole world of patriarchy out there, other truths to tell, justices to fight for, and its just a matter of knowing which fights to fight.

Truth, Justice and the Feminist Way!

Yours Truthfully,
Suzanne MacNevin

Ack! The Truth about Cathy

2010-08-23T12:18:00.001-07:00

ENTERTAINMENT - Love her or hate her the popular comic strip 'Cathy' is ending on October 3rd 2010. Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite is ending the comic strip after 34 years of what she calls the "four basic guilt groups" of food, love, mothers and work. Oh and shopping, don't forget shopping.

Cathy was a groundbreaking comic strip. When it first appeared the vast majority of comic strips were male-dominated... ie. Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible, etc. Married female characters like Blondie were hardly pushing the envelope... and then along came Cathy, a single woman with no children, trying to find love, unable to resist the urges of chocolate and shoe shopping, while juggling work and the generational gap between herself and her mother.

At its peak Cathy was in 1,400 newspaper funny pages. In recent years its dwindled to 700, not because she's not still popular, but because newspapers have been making cutbacks in recent years as the internet becomes the new medium of choice. Cathy Guisewite, 60-years-old, decided it was time to focus on her own family and other creative pursuits.

“Nobody is more shocked than I am, believe me," says Cathy Guisewite in her California studio. "If you read the strip, you’ll know that I don’t make decisions lightly. I go to 400 malls to buy one pair of socks. So it was a very big decision for me to give this up."

The cartoon started when Cathy Guisewite was working at a Detroit ad agency (a bit like Mad Men) and was sending cartoons home to friends and family depicting her troubles at work / etc. It was her mother who convinced her to send the strip to Universal Press Syndicate, now known as Universal UClick. Her mother even threatened to go there herself with "a cover note from Mom." (Thus it was the same pushy mother who made Cathy a reality.)

What followed was 30 books and hundreds of pop culture references in many shows thanks to Cathy's infamous catchphrase: Ack!

But not everyone likes Cathy. They don't get the humour in making fun of female stereotypes like chocolate and shoe shopping. Its a bit like the male obsession with meat, cars and power tools, except men don't get upset about that stereotype. If anything men embrace that because it reinforces their masculinity.

Some women, including a few feminists, just don't understand the humour that comes from being self-deprecating. ie. A man who jokes about his small penis is waaaaaay more funny than a man who brags about the size of his. Not only is it more humourous, but it also means he's not worried about trying to impress women and that shows more confidence.

In Cathy's case its rather autobiographical. The cartoon does reinforce stereotypes about women, but its also making fun of those stereotypes at the same time, which for the cartoonist are very personal.

Typical themes in her cartoons include women who ruin their finances by overshopping, treating nice guys like crap even though she knows they make better marriage material, the horrors of being single... all the anxieties that women have and often don't get to express them.

Sometimes Cathy is empowering and other times she is filled with self-doubt. She's human and not afraid of her faults.

To Rina Piccolo, creator of the cartoon 'Tina’s Groove' and part of the all-woman team behind 'Six Chix', Cathy Guisewite was a trailblazer. "All the female characters were like Blondie. They were either a housewife or a glamour girl. Cathy totally changed the page. Here’s a young woman talking about, basically, her fat ass and how she couldn’t fit into a swimsuit or that she had had it with her boyfriend and all the little neurotic things that a lot of women go through in day-to-day living. She was the first female character to really let loose and say what a lot of women were thinking at the time," says Piccolo.

After four decades Cathy Guisewite ran the gag into the ground. There was nothing more for her to talk about and make fun of. She had done it all. For those that don't like the comic strip the shtick had gotten old and people were starting to get sick of it.

Even the classic "Who's On First" is only funny the first couple of times you see it. It stops being funny and just becomes moronic after you've seen it 5 or more times. Its entirely possible many of Cathy's jokes just aren't funny any more because they've become a cliché.

And if they're that classic that they've become a cliché... well then its probably a good time to retire anyway.

The Truth about Sextortion

2010-08-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

SEX/TECHNOLOGY - If you are not familiar with the term "sextortion" (sex + extortion) you are about to get a lesson in it.

Imagine some teenage girls having fun with a webcam. They visit a webcam chatroom online and see a series of requests to flash their breasts. Thinking nothing of it the girls do so...

Days later one of the girls starts getting creepy email messages from a guy on the internet, demanding to see more and threatening to send photos of her flashing herself to the world to all her Facebook and MySpace friends... and that is how "sextortion" begins a cycle of photos and videos which get progressively worse until the poor girl either tells her parents and/or the police, tells the creep to F@#$ Off... or in rare instances even commits suicide.

Last Friday police were alerted to a 19-year-old man named Trevor Shea in Maryland who had been extorting photos from a 17-year-old girl in Indiana. He had been demanding more explicit photos and videos and threatening to show the photos to all her MySpace friends if she didn't comply. He is now facing charges of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Its not just webcams either. Sending nude photos over cellphones is another big problem and these "sextortion" crimes are on the rise according to federal prosecutors who are often forced to get involved since the crimes go across state borders and sometimes even across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Once the girls are blackmailed it only goes from bad to worse. There have been a number of high profile cases in the media.

In June 2010 a 31-year-old California man was arrested for hacking into 200+ computers, stealing explicit photos and extorting their owners for more sexually explicit videos. 44 of his victims were minors. He was even able to remotely activate their webcams and record them undressing or having sex without their knowledge.

In April 2010 a 24-year-old Alabama man named Jonathan Vance was sentenced to 18 years for sending threatening emails on Facebook and MySpace extorting nude photos from more than 50 young women in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Missouri.

In February 2010 a 18-year-old Wisconsin man named Anthony Stancl got 15 years for pretending to be a girl on Facebook and tricking male high school classmates into sending him nude cellphone photos (also called "sexting"), which he then used to extort them.

The trick to remember about these cases is that these perverts eventually get caught.

THINGS NOT TO DO!

Do not email people nude photos of yourself.

Do not text nude photos (sexting) of yourself.

Do not pose on your webcam nude. You don't know who else is watching.

This isn't going to be a problem that eventually goes away. The genie is out of the bottle and sexting and sextortion are here to stay. You would hope teenagers would learn some common sense.

Lets say you send the photos to your boyfriend. There is no guarantee he will always be your boyfriend. You could have a bad breakup and the next thing you know he is sending the photos all over the internet. Or worse, blackmailing you.

The good news is the authorities are there to help these young women who are caught between a rock and a hard place. The humiliation and embarrassment will be short lived. Your life isn't over. College and university is just around the corner and by then this will seem like a small misadventure on the road to growing up.

The Truth about Crisis Pregnancy Centres

2010-08-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

FEMINISM - If you don't know what a "crisis pregnancy centre" is go to your local abortion clinic... and then go to the 'friendly' place right next door to it. Its not an abortion clinic, in fact its not even affiliated with it... but they try really hard to convince women who are confused about what to do.

"Pregnant? Confused? We can help." says the pamphlet.

Once inside they usher you into a soft-lit room with a comfortable couch, a coffee table, scale models of fetuses nestled in a womb... they offer you water or tea. Not coffee however because they don't want to damage the baby.

These counselling rooms are setup via registered pro-life charities. The women who work there are often paid, not necessarily volunteers. They've made it their living to convince women to have babies instead of an abortion. The charities sometimes also gives away baby clothes, cribs and diapers.

And yes, its still your choice, but they will bombard you with a series of lies designed to make you rethink your decision.

Lie #1: Terminating a pregnancy is dangerous. You could die during the procedure.

Lie #2: You may suffer permanent damage and never be able to get pregnant again.

Lie #3: Abortion clinics sell "pieces of babies" to medical research, describing in detail how "a big truck arrives and all the fetal parts are collected in a bin and put up for sale".

Lie #4: A terrifying description of the abortion procedure, with pictures of bloody aborted fetuses handpicked to look as horrible as possible.

Lie #5: Abortion is always - ALWAYS - the wrong decision because its unnatural.

Lie #6: You will become hardened, lose part of your soul and suffer from 'Post Abortion Depression' for the rest of your life.

Lie #7: Terminating a pregnancy will increase your chances of getting breast cancer and ovarian cancer by 80%. (Any idiot can tell that statistic is a flat out lie, but the few gullible people out there might fall for it.)

Such misleading information is designed to discourage women from choosing an abortion. When asked they will claim to be pro-choice and non-judgmental support, but in reality they're feeding you as much false information as they can in an effort to scare you.

The modern abortion clinic is a clean, professional atmosphere. There is no pushing women one way or another. If they're there in the first place it usually means they've already made their decision. The 'crisis pregnancy centre' next door is there preying on the confused and promoting free pregnancy tests and free counselling to promote the other options of adoption and single-parenthood, all the while promoting the idea that abortion is something to be avoided at all possible costs.

Now don't get me wrong, I support adoption and single mothers. I think people who adopt are fabulous people and every child would be lucky to have such loving parents. And single mothers are the bravest, most courageous people I can think of.

But it ultimately comes down to the choice of the individual. Trying to scare and trick someone into choosing a different option is immoral. Let people think for themselves and they will always pick the course of action which is right for themselves.

These centres are run by compassionate people who clearly believe what they're doing is right, and they firmly believe lying to convince women towards adoption and single motherhood is an 'acceptable sin' from their religious perspective.

Throwing false statistics at women in such a case could arguably be worthy of suing a crisis pregnancy centre, but I have yet to hear of a case of someone suing such a place. They don't make any promises to help support the women. Their goal is to convince a woman towards a different decision and then move on to the next confused woman.

Crisis pregnancy centres are here to stay however. The era of protesters picketing outside abortion clinics is gone. Humiliating doctors, threatening violence, blowing up abortion clinics with explosives... some of this still happens but its become more rare. The focus these days is to trick women into walking into the wrong building and convincing them that they've made the wrong decision.

And the biggest lie they will tell you is: “We’ve seen so many women that said, ‘Oh my goodness, I wish I had been told the truth and if someone would have told me, I would have kept my baby.’”

And they can say that because there's nothing to back it up. No statistics. No quotes from actual women.

And I know it to be completely false because I know plenty of women who have had abortions over the years. Not a single one regrets it. True, there might be a few women out there who do regret it (ie. they became religious later in life and became convinced that the abortion they had years earlier was murder), but these born-again Christians are - excuse my French - often full of shit and willing to say anything to promote their new found religion.

All of this misleading information just makes it more difficult for REAL family planning centres (which offer advice about abortion, adoption and single motherhood but are not judgemental about it). They end up spending a lot of their time trying to explain the real statistics, dispel the myths being promoted by the crisis pregnancy centres and be reassuring and supportive of whatever decision the woman chooses to make.

Here's a fact for you: The chances of having complications during or from an abortion is so low you're more likely to have a fatal car accident between the time you decide to have the abortion and the three days later when you finally do. The technique is ridiculously safe (and if it wasn't it wouldn't be allowed in the first place).

There are 17 crisis pregnancy centres in Toronto alone, paid for by 14 local religious charities. Across Canada there is an estimated 197 centres spreading misinformation, including 83 in Ontario alone... in contrast there is only 151 abortion clinics in Canada (36 in Ontario)

But that is nothing compared to the 4,000+ crisis pregnancy centres operating in the United States where they often get funding from Republican party members, and local state funding depending on who is the governor at the time.

In Canada they receive zero funding from provincial and federal governments. Health Canada has no role in telling women what to do with their own bodies beyond asking people to try and live in a healthy fashion.

Obviously you shouldn't go to a crisis pregnancy centre for information about abortion because they're only going to give misinformation. TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR INSTEAD. Doctors are trained to be non-judgemental in these matters, to do otherwise would lead to malpractice suit. The doctor can refer you to people who can give you more information and that info will be accurate.

ABORTION MYTHS

There are three main risks that crisis pregnancy centres claim are associated with abortion. According to medical experts they are just myths and exaggerations.

BREAST CANCER

Depending on which centre you visit they might claim the increased risk of breast cancer is "as high as 80%".

The U.S. National Cancer Institute convened a workshop of more than a hundred leading international experts in 2003 to review the existing studies and concluded that neither abortion nor miscarriage increases the risk of developing breast cancer. The Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Cancer Society both support this conclusion. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada recommends that women be reassured that there is zero risk when they seek information about abortion from their doctors.

EMOTIONAL TRAUMA

The centre will claim abortion can cause negative psychological effects ranging from sadness and guilt to substance abuse and suicidal thoughts, claiming this is based on first-hand knowledge of talking to people but with no statistics to back it up. They will mention post-abortion support programs, which tend to be Bible-based and lead women toward asking for forgiveness for terminating a pregnancy. They describe it as “Post Abortion Stress” or “Post Abortion Syndrome”, sometimes referred to simply as PAS.

The American Psychiatric Association does not list either “Post Abortion Stress” or “Post Abortion Syndrome” in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered the authoritative index of mental illnesses. The association issued a statement in 2008 noting the lack of evidence linking abortion to psychiatric illness.

“A woman may have many emotional reactions to an unwanted pregnancy and abortion – most commonly relief, but also sadness and a sense of loss. These feelings can coexist and, like feelings about any important life decision, they can vary over time,” said the statement, adding that negative feelings are often associated with the circumstances that led the woman to choose abortion, and not the procedure itself.

FERTILITY PROBLEMS

Crisis pregnancy centres say abortion increases the risk of future miscarriages and premature births, often with counsellors telling stories of women they had met who had chosen to terminate their pregnancies in the past and were now suffering because they are infertile.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in the United Kingdom reviewed induced abortions and concluded there are no proven links between terminating a pregnancy and subsequent infertility. They did note a tiny increase in the chance of future miscarriage but noted that the evidence is inconclusive. The relative risks are extremely rare and more influenced by the age of the mother, which becomes more infertile as their biological clock keeps ticking.

Minor damage to the uterus happens less than once per 1,000 procedures, but the damage is so minor it only requires corrective surgery less than once every 10,000 procedures. This is according to 'A Clinician’s Guide to Medical and Surgical Abortion' (Churchill-Livingstone, 1999).

Thus the risks are so low it becomes self-evident these stories have been ridiculously exaggerated.

"Given time an exaggeration becomes a rumour, a rumour becomes a myth, a myth becomes a legend and then legend is misconstrued as fact." - Suzanne MacNevin.

The Truth about Frank D'Angelo

2010-08-04T14:48:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T CARE IF FRANK D'ANGELO COMES TO LONDON ENGLAND AND SUES ME. GO RIGHT AHEAD. RAPISTS LIKE FRANK D'ANGELO NEED TO BE TAUGHT A LESSON AND I WILL NOT BE BULLIED BY A CRIMINAL.

CANADA - Named after a famous mafia kingpin, Frank D'Angelo is a Canadian entrepreneur and wannabe-singer who was charged in June 2007 with sexually assaulting and raping a young woman in a hotel room who at the time was barely more than a teenager.

50-year-old Frank D'Angelo was later acquitted in 2009 when the charges were suddenly dismissed by the judge after only 1 day in court. In front of cameras Frank D'Angelo was clearly smug and confident, according to both the Toronto Sun and the Toronto Star.

Justice John Hamilton in his statement declared that Frank D'Angelo was "probably guilty" but there wasn't enough evidence to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt, despite the young woman having a bruise on the back of her head where Frank D'Angelo had hit her and pulled her hair.

Less than a week later an Ontario Provincial Police surveillance squad following a corrupt cop took photos of Michael Rutigliano and the two crown attorneys from the sexual assault trial having dinner with Frank D'Angelo at Frank D'Angelo's private mafia-themed dinner club "Forget About It".

Frank D'Angelo doesn't deny having sex with the young woman. If anything he brags about it and insists it was consensual.

Why then was he having dinner with corrupt cop Michael Rutigliano and the two crown attorneys Richard Bennett and Domenic Basile? Did Frank D'Angelo bribe the people investigating and prosecuting the case?

Frank D'Angelo and Michael Rutigliano were then charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice, namely tampering with his sexual assault case. The two crown attorneys were named as "unindicted co-conspirators" and suspended.

The Attorney General's office then had the option of appealing the sexual assault trial which had obviously been tampered with, but chose a "wait-and-see" approach because they wanted to see the results of the conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges.

Earlier during the trial, which only lasted 1 day...

The young woman's identity has been protected, but she testified that D'Angelo lured her back to his hotel claiming that he needed to get something from his room. He then ripped her clothes off and pulled her hair. "He started having sex with me...I was trying to stop him," she testified. Her words at the time was "Please, Frank, no, don't, stop."

But apparently what Frank D'Angelo claims to have heard was "Please Frank! No, don't stop!" and claims she was hitting on him. (Seriously, a girl in her early 20s hitting on a 50-year-old who is balding and overweight...?)

Frank D'Angelo must be one of the worst liars in history. His story is so bogus anyone can see through it.

After raping her Frank D'Angelo took a shower and the two left the hotel. He walked her to the parking lot and said: "What happens between us stays between us." in an effort to keep her silent.

She returned home and told two girlfriends D'Angelo had raped her. The following day she went to the police to file a complaint.

NOTE: Frank D'Angelo has known this girl since she was a child. She was the daughter of a friend. Apparently he waited until she was legally of age before robbing the cradle.

Frank D'Angelo's Steelback Brewery and D'Angelo Brands, Inc. collapsed amid $162 million in debt in 2007, and a lot of the money he received from investors disappeared. One could easily argue he is either an incompetent businessman or a fraud artist. The companies he owned were so ridiculously bankrupt he had to sell them to Barry Sherman (and family) to whom he owed $121 million in debts. For some silly reason they paid him an extra $8 million and kept him as a spokesman for D'Angelo Brands, Inc. He now promotes "Cheetah Power Surge" energy drinks.

UPDATE

Frank D'Angelo (and his lawyers) has been working to have blog websites remove all mention of his rape and sexual assault charges. One of the methods he has been using is making false Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claims that the websites in question contain copyright infringement. He also threatened to sue the Lilith News blog in 2010, but as far as I can tell he never even sent in the paperwork because he is too afraid of bad press.

This is not the first time Frank D'Angelo has bullied bloggers. In 2007 he launched a $2 million libel suit against blogger Neate Sager who called Frank D'Angelo a "huckster" and a "two-bit shyster". Sager was forced to issue an apology, but the bad press led to at least 1,610 websites about the issue. See Frank D'Angelo & Neate Sager.

I've got some more words to describe Frank D'Angelo: He's a fat, balding rapist who steals from people, commits fraud and bribes prosecutors.

Frank D'Angelo deserves to be in prison. The only reason he isn't in prison is because the Canadian legal system is broken and the Attorney General's office decided not to appeal.

And if Frank D'Angelo wants to come over to England and sue me, fine, do it. I dare you to do it.