Students of the Women’s Studies Program at UCF have started a blog to foster discussion about girls and girls’ issues and share cultural products developed by and for girls. The postings cover a number of topics about girls: the Glam Council for America, poetry readings by girls, girls’ events (like rock camps), analysis of images found on the internet, and a healthy dose of Obama. I love the low-key DIY look because it drives home the point that in this over-processed blogging world (ie. Salon and The Daily Intel) it’s content that really matters.
All posts published in February 2009
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My New Favourite Blog
February 16, 2009 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls
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Partridge Poems
February 13, 2009 • Anna Leventhal
Montreal-based spoken word artist Taqralik Partridge has been keeping busy. This Sunday the 15th she’s going to be featured on CBC Radio 2‘s concert series Next!: Canada’s Music Future, so tune in at 8 PM to experience her husky, rhythmic poem-performance.
(drawing by Megan Griffith-Greene)
Partridge is a writer and performer of Inuit and Scottish descent. But instead of choosing between differing realities - Indigenous and white, Up North and Down South, big open spaces and cramped bustling skylines - she keeps them in constant conversation, merging hip-hop and throat-singing, poetry and storytelling, the personal and the political. In her own words,
It’s very strange to me how we can live and have two realities. I come from this place that’s vast and open and beautiful, but I live and work in this place that is constricted and full of so many things going on. I love Montreal and I love the city, and [yet] in many ways I feel like an outsider.
I profiled Partridge for the Fall 2007 issue of Shameless, so you can read more about her here. And if you just can’t wait until Sunday, check out her Myspace page. Although she claims she wrote it more for a laugh than anything, the piece Eskimo Chick is a wry and touching crowd favourite, and Battery features a haunting string arrangement. Can’t wait to hear what’s next.
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“I want pie, I want beef jerky!”
February 13, 2009 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls
When I was a little girl I used to do the weirdest creative things. I remember playing traffic cop with my younger sister on our rural driveway or making our own newspapers with pictures of ourselves dressed up like aliens. It was so fun and free! I know that these activities and acts of creativity happen even now that I’m grown up and it’s fun to see them embedded into the “techno age”. Could you imagine the fun we would’ve had if we had digital cameras to make videos? FUN! -
Cornify!
February 13, 2009 • Mir Verburg
I hate Valentine’s Day, but I *LOVE* unicorns, so any relation between this post and that ridiculous excuse for wearing pink underwear and eating chocolate-fondue from your sweetheart’s hand is entirely accidental.
Anyways, in a spirit of cheesy love, totally un-related to V-Day, check out: Cornify: Unicorns & Rainbows On Demand.
What does it do? Well my dear readers, take a look at Shameless post-cornification:
So many Unicorns… (Cornify + Miriam Verburg)
I know, kinda brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it? The only thing you can’t do is move the stickers once they are on your site, which is annoying because I really wanted to be able to put the unicorns in a nice little herd. Oh well.
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Sauci Calla Horra: Changing the World “One Rhinestone At A Time”
February 12, 2009 • Desirée O
Every Thursday I profile a new incredible woman, each from a different walk of life. Different professions, causes, backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, and anything/everything else!
For Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be appropriate to profile another of the lovely ladies of Skin Tight Outta Sight Rebel Burlesque.
Let me introduce the sassy Sauci Calla Horra…
Photo credit: Taralea Cutler
Sauci Calla Horra is not only Skin Tight Outta Sight Rebel Burlesque’s “minxy mistress of disguises”, she is also their producer and the coordinator of the Toronto Burlesque Festival. A social worker by day with an Honours degree in Theatre and Psychology, she sees burlesque “as a feminist statement, where women can reclaim their sexuality and power in an entertaining (and titillating!) way.” Sauci reminds us that it’s confidence and being yourself that makes you sexy! -
Rally and March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
February 11, 2009 • Nicole Cohen
This Saturday is the Fourth Annual Rally and March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. From the announcement:
Stop impunity around the disappearances and murders of Indigenous
women on Turtle Island! Over 500 Indigenous women have been murdered or have gone missing in Canada, most in the last 30 years. We come together in defense of our lives and to demonstrate the complicity of the state and its institutions (police, RCMP, coroners’ offices and the courts) in the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples.Saturday February 14, 2009 at noon
Toronto Police Headquarters at 40 College St. (near Bay St).The march will head to the Coroner’s office (26 Grenville St), followed by a gathering with food at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Women and Trans People (563 Spadina Ave).
A limited number of TTC tokens are available for those attending the event. The UofT Centre for Women and Trans People is wheelchair accessible and will be open from 11 a.m. for those wanting to help cook for the feast, or for event participants who need to warm up.
More details about the event organizers and how you can help below.
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WHY I LOVE J. BONE
February 10, 2009 • Tiina Johns
Canadian illustrator and comic artist J. Bone does so much adorable, amazing stuff. I love him. Here are some reasons why.
J. Bone drew this picture for Wonder Woman Day.
It’s been the desktop on my computer for a month. How can I grumble about all the work I have to do when I’m looking at that?
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Back in the Day
February 10, 2009 • Mir Verburg
Check out this illustrated comparison from traditional women’s magazine Woman’s Day charting the increase in women’s incomes over the last 50 years.
In the 1950s, the average woman earned 14k a year, had a 983 square foot house and craftsman or labourer spouse. Now, the average is 29k, with a post-high school education and a 2349 square foot house. 15k is not actually a huge improvement.
Photo-collage produced by Women's Day magazine. (Staff (WD))
All these numbers are adjusted for inflation, so in 1950 eggs did not actually cost $5, but by today’s standards that’s what we would be paying for them. It’s a bit confusing, but the idea is that while median incomes appear to have gone up, the cost of goods, services and a bunch of other stuff has gone way down. Welcome to the free market, my friends.
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CHRIS BROWN AND RIHANNA: SOS?
February 10, 2009 • Thea Lim
(Kevin Mazur)
In case you haven’t heard the reports about R&B megacouple Chris Brown and Rihanna:
“Singer Chris Brown has been booked on a felony charge of making criminal threats after turning himself in to Los Angeles police.Brown, 19, was arrested at 6:30 PM Sunday and stands accused of felony battery, in which the alleged victim suffered visible injuries…Bail has been set at $50,000.
Both Chris and Rihanna bailed on their Grammy performances after the incident leading to Brown’s arrest. It remains unconfirmed whether Rihanna was the victim…”
While the LA Times says its “sources” have confirmed that Rihanna is the alleged victim in this case, neither Brown nor Rihanna have confirmed that.
So I’m not gonna comment on the personal lives of people I’ve never met (no matter how much I like the song We Ride, I have to admit Rihanna is not actually my friend). It’s still unconfirmed what actually happened.
But this is what I do think: if it is actually true that Chris Brown hit Rihanna in the face, I am slightly in awe of the courage it must’ve taken for Rihanna to report the incident.
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It breaks my heart.
February 6, 2009 • Stacey May Fowles
