October 29, 2009

RAINN Poster & Surprise (or not!), the Tories
don't care about you

Between tackling some minor copy-editing on The Lighter Side of Life and Death and working obsessively on my current book I haven't been around much but there have definitely been things I've wanted to link to lately so I'm going to pass some of them on now.

First, RAINN (the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is hosting a poster contest for their college campus campaign. “The winning poster will be used to promote sexual assault awareness on college campuses all over the U.S., reaching over 1 million people nationwide. The winning artist will be mentioned on our website (rainn.org) and have their design downloaded and printed for display by schools and crisis centers!” The deadline is Friday, November 13th so if you're an artist who wants to do some major good with your work, check out the details here.

Kate Townshend, a writer and teacher, has a very informative blog entry up at The F-Word about the gender bullying going on in primary school playgrounds. Kate writes, “it seems obvious in some of the schools I go into that the boys know things are weighted in their favour, at least in the short term. By 11, they have already learnt that calling a girl fat effectively finishes the argument. It doesn’t matter whether she is actually fat or not. It has become a code word which makes it clear that since female self worth is built upon looks, it is easily destroyed by male indifference or antagonism.”

The U.K. based Pink Stinks campaign believes, “that body image obsession, is starting younger and younger, and that the seeds are sown during the pink stage, as young girls are taught the boundaries within which they will grow up, as well as narrow and damaging messages about what it is to be a girl.” Pink Stinks aims to, “redress the balance by providing girls with positive female role models chosen because of their achievements, skills, accomplishments and successes.”

Be sure to have a look at their name & shame page, where they highlight some of the worst marketing aimed at girls.

The Washington CityPaper posted an article about the sex ed gender divide revealed by a survey of about 250 District high school students’ thoughts on sex ed. “According to the study, young women expressed a greater interest—and perhaps difficulty—in speaking openly about personal sexual issues” with sex partners and health educators. Young women also said they had a tough time talking about sex with their parents. “Male participants reported an easier time talking about sex with their parents than the female participants.” Heterosexual girls in the study expressed a greater acceptance of GLBTQ youth and “were more likely to desire an increased visibility for GLBTQ issues in the sex ed curriculum.” While locked drugstore condoms produced shame and frustration in both males and females, it was the girls in the study who expressed shame in carrying condoms. “Young women are afraid that they will be judged as promiscuous by others or misunderstood by their partner if they carry condoms. To avoid misperception, some female focus groups participants reported leaving the responsibility to their boyfriends.”

Finally, I saw the below clip on Broadsides (Antonia Zerbisias's Toronto Star blog) yesterday.

Jack Layton spoke about the incident the next day commenting that, “During question period we have been witnessing undeniably sexist heckling from members of the government side. This abuse is growing hotter, it is growing more frequent and there is more bullying. I can hear some of it now, except in this case it is not targeting women as it all too often does in this chamber. It targets women representing opposition parties, all the opposition parties in the House...I call on the government's leadership to really get a grip on its members and set a higher standard.”

And so the gender bullying that begins on the school playground continues right into the House of Commons. Well, isn't this a far cry from Stephen Harper's attempt at playing a warm-blooded human, crooning With A Little Help From My Friends at the piano with Yo Yo Ma? Here we can see what Harper's party really think of female MPs and some of the citizens they're governing. Pregnant women concerned about H1N1 vaccinations...hardy har har. Isn't it hilarious, people thinking their little peasant lives matter? Where do the peons pick up these ludicrous ideas?

Peasants, please refrain from bothering Sith Lord Harper and his allies with paltry health concerns about you and your children. The Emperor's sole concern remains completion of the Death Star.

Sure Prime Minister Harper gets by with a little help from his friends, we just shouldn't go getting confused that common citizens are of any concern to his government. It's all about the Death Star with him, same as it's always been.

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