All posts written by Thea Lim

Page 3 of 13

• • News Flash
  • Race and Racism
  • Shameless Behaviour

  happy indigenous women’s empowerment day!

  March 24, 2008 • Thea Lim

  We’re a little late on this, but we were thrilled to learn from Jessica Yee blogging over at Feministing that the Spring Equinox (which falls on the 20th or 21st of March every year) in Canada is now officially Indigenous Women’s Empowerment Day.

  Gatherings to commemorate Indigenous Women’s Empowerment Day started in 2006 in BC, and have been organised every year by the Kookum Educating Traditional Acceptance Society.

  As Jessica says:

  I often reflect on the power of our traditions and the great culture of Native peoples that have been rejected through colonization, Christianization, and extreme genocide. We have so much in our ancestral teachings that supports respect for women, caring for the community, and love for Mother Earth. Yet today Indigenous women face the highest rates of domestic violence and poverty in the world. It is essential to recognize these injustices, but be proud of who and where we come from in the present world.

• • Event Listings

  shocking act of self promotion…

  March 22, 2008 • Thea Lim

  …Just to let you all know (a little bit late, sorry, still working on this self promotion thing) I will be on the radio later on today, talking about my novel The Same Woman and how our culture perpetuates jealousy between women.

  5 - 6 pm
  22 March 2008
  Sex City
  CIUT 89.5
  Toronto

  If you gather around your radio and clap really hard, I’ll probably hear you.

• • News Flash
  • Race and Racism
  • Shameless Behaviour

  the gulabi gang

  March 18, 2008 • Thea Lim

  

  Whoa!

  Here’s an older, November ‘07 news piece that we somehow missed (from the BBC):

  The several hundred vigilante women of India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state’s Banda area proudly call themselves the “gulabi gang” (pink gang)…[they] shun political parties and NGOs because, in the words of their feisty leader, Sampat Pal Devi, “they are always looking for kickbacks when they offer to fund us”.

  Two years after they gave themselves a name and an attire, the women in pink have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of grain to the poor.

  I have to admit that there’s something whoop!-inspiring about a gang of 100s of women who dress in pink, and go after men who’ve committed violence against women. Devi says, “Nobody comes to our help in these parts,” and I can’t help but be in awe of a gang of women who just ain’t gonna take it anymore.

  But at the same time there’s something troubling about a large group of people descending on one person and beating them. Or is there? For Western feminists there’s always the temptation to idealise or simplify the stories of “3rd World” women who, confronted with a crumbling or ineffective infrastructure, take things into their own hands.

  See after the jump for a beautiful comic by Elisha Lim (yes, yes, we’re related…) of One Hundred Butches fame, and her thoughts on the issue.

  (more inside…)

• • All About Shameless

  photo evidence: shameless spring launch ‘08 is a smash!

  March 17, 2008 • Thea Lim

  We listened to music! We raffled! We silkscreened! And most importantly we read! Thanks so much for coming out to support us, sniffle.

  If you had the very very sad misfortune of missing last Saturday’s bash, we proudly present some photos of the great time we had. Thanks to Wesley our webmaster for the photos (A webmaster who can also take beautiful photos? What a score!)

  And as always, you can subscribe on this very website…
  

  

  More photos of the event after the fold!(more inside…)

• • Media Savvy
  • News Flash

  newsflash: women now also to blame for doctor shortage!

  March 14, 2008 • Thea Lim

  I don’t know if you’ve heard but there’s a rumour in the media going around that women are to blame for the current Canadian doctor crisis - perpetuated in part by Maclean’s Magazine, the jerks! That’s right, along with the destruction the home and the pandemic of pants-wearing, feminism is now out to ruin your health!

  There’s a fabulous editorial in the recent issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) that criticises this dirty rumour:
  
  The message conveyed by much of the coverage [of the 2007 National Physician Survey] and commentary implied that female physicians simply do not work as hard as their male colleagues. These reports seem to be telling Canadians “if you’re having trouble finding a physician, a large part of the blame lies with the increasing number of female doctors in the system.”…

  In Canada, 33.3% of physicians are female; 48.6% of physicians under age 40 are women. Women provide more services than men in certain areas of medicine. The decline in physicians’ working hours is attributed more to the decline in hours worked by male physicians than the increasing proportion of female physicians. Women do work differently than their male counterparts: they put in many more hours in combining professional duties, childcare and household responsibilities.

  From Romanow and Kirby to McKendry and the George expert panel, we are all attempting to understand and address this serious issue for all Canadians. To suggest that a physician workforce that more equitably represents women in the workplace is the barrier to access is frankly a sexist excuse for logic.

  Yeah! You tell ‘em, CMAJ!

• • News Flash

  round 34527 of “does hillary represent feminists?”

  March 12, 2008 • Thea Lim

  What do we think of this opinion piece from The Root, found through Racialicious?
  
  Any feminist worth the label should have “rejected and denounced” New York Governor Eliot Spitzer within an hour of his admitting his connection with an international prostitution ring. [Clinton] is a senator from New York. [Spitzer] has been one of her staunchest political allies. Now, he is engulfed in an international, illegal sex-trafficking scheme. Barack Obama had to “denounce and reject” Louis Farrakhan (with whom he has no official ties whatsoever) but Hillary can send her “best wishes and thoughts to the governor and to his family”?

  Not on my watch.

  Ms. Gloria Steinem has been trouncing around the country for months whipping white women feminists into line for HRC; demanding rigid allegiance to this privileged former Goldwater girl as the litmus test for feminist politics. Enough already. Hillary may be a woman, but she is no feminist.

  Feminists do not stand by while their husbands prey sexually on the young women who work for them. Feminists do not accept the endorsement, support and financial backing of men who betray their constituents and their families by trafficking in women’s bodies…

  And in other news, Heather Mallick comments on how a loss for Clinton will be a loss for all women…though it would seem then that her definition of women leaves out women of colour or anti-racist women or women who just like Obama over Clinton.

• • Wired Wednesdays

  introducing wired wednesdays!

  March 11, 2008 • Thea Lim

  Make room in your daytimer, because we gots a new weekly feature!

  Introducing Wired Wednesdays, our very own bi-weekly tech column to keep you up to date on all the gadgets, gizmos, whozits, whatzits and thingamabobs (No I did not just quote the Little Mermaid. That was your imagination.) you need to know about - though of course with a Shameless twist.

  We are thrilled that Catherine has decided to take on the challenge, and plan to lavish her with comments full of teh’s and pwn’s. Please join in…and don’t forget to also pencil in Picks from Planet Venus and Film Fridays.
  

• • Event Listings

  Sisters Doing It for Themselves: Celebrating Muslim Women Organizing

  March 4, 2008 • Thea Lim

  Sisters Doing It for Themselves: Celebrating Muslim Women Organizing
  
  With eroding civil liberties, the war in the Afghanistan/Iraq, apartheid in Palestine, genocide in Sudan and political upheaval the world around, how are Muslim women and girls organizing and working towards building peace and justice? Sisters Doing It for Themselves: Celebrating Muslim Women Organizing will be an evening of poetry, performances, and visual art by Muslim women to discuss how our art, politics, and faith intersect with issues of gender, sexuality, race, and class.
  
  Time: Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 6:30pm - 10:00pm
  Place: Noor Cultural Centre @ 123 Wynford Drive, Toronto
  Tickets: $5 - $15 (sliding scale)

  Performances by: LAL, Farheen Beg, Paulina O’keefe, Asifa Sheikh, Fawzia Duale, Farzana Doctor (author of Stealing Nasreen), Bayan Khatib (author of Iraq: The Untold Tales)
  
  Panel Discussions (from anti-islamophia to anti-imperialism to creative
  resistance): Nadeen El-Kassem, Gilary Massa, Nuzhat Jafri, Laury Silvers, Rosina Kazi (LAL), Selma Alwy Visual Arts Gallery
  Debkeh Workshop by Lemme Ibrahim (MOSAIC)

  This event is organized & supported by: Noor Cultural Centre, Riverdale Immigrant Women’s Centre, Toronto Women’s Bookstore, Our Collective Dreams, CCMW - Canadian Council of Muslim Women

• • Event Listings

  happy international women’s day (on march 8)!

  March 4, 2008 • Thea Lim

  Update: Whoops, I made a mistake! The Ryerson fair starts at 1:30 pm, not 3 pm.
  
  This weekend is International Women’s Day (IWD), huzzah! According to Wikipedia, International Women’s Day in some countries has been slightly depoliticised and turned into a day for men to show their love for women (free cuddles everyone!). But in Canada its primary purpose is still as “a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women.” Damn right! Though I guess we can still cuddle.

  There are a gazillion events going on later on this week and into the weekend. This page here has events for Canada, you can visit the page for IWD Toronto here, and after the jump you can view all sorts of Toronto events. If ya got any, please (please please!) post info about any IWD events you know of, happening anywhere, in the comments section!

  (Btw thanks to Nicole for compiling the Toronto events for us!)

  IWD RALLY AND MARCH, MARCH 8

  TIME: 11 a.m. (March leaves at 1 p.m.)
  PLACE: OISE, 252 Bloor Street West
  INFO: http://www.iwdtoronto.com/march.htm
  
  Theme: The Rising of the Women is the Rising of us All! This year, IWD Toronto will be marking the 100th anniversary of the 1908 demonstration by immigrant women garment workers in New York City, where over 15,000 women marched through downtown New York demanding higher pay, shorter work hours, women’s voting rights and the end to child labour. This was during a time that women had little rights and marked an ongoing protest of a lack of gender equity across the globe.

  Don’t forget to bring your banners and signs for the march! We’ll be
  marching to…
  
  IWD FAIR (END OF MARCH ROUTE), MARCH 8

  TIME: 1:30 p.m.
  PLACE: Ryerson University Student Centre, 55 Gould Street
  INFO: http://www.iwdtoronto.com/fair.htm
  COST: Free

  The IWD Rally and March concludes with the IWD 2008 Fair hosted by Ryerson University’s Student Centre, featuring 50 exhibitors. Thousands are expected to attend the free Fair and workshops in this new student space, cafe and pub. (See link for list of Fair exhibitors and workshops.)

  (more inside…)

• • Event Listings

  Raging Asian Women (RAW) Taiko Drummers - Toronto Recruitment!

  February 14, 2008 • Thea Lim

  WE ARE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO… (requirements)
  -are East & Southeast Asian identified & Woman identified
  -have social justice seeking and anti-oppressive analyses and values
  -can commit to 3-hour weekly practices on Sunday evenings (6-9pm), and
  approximately 10 shows per year
  
  **** All ages & sizes welcome ****
  
  THESE WOULD BE ASSETS… (optional)
  -Good physical stamina and fitness
  -Drumming or musical experience
  -Performance experience
  -Experience in being part of a collective
  
  WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN DURING THE AUDITION?
  -you’ll be given some background info on RAW & North-American Taiko
  tradition
  -we will do some warm-up & drumming drills together
  -we will provide some basic instruction
  -you will be part of some creative exercises and a short performance
  -we will do a short interview with you
  
  AUDITION LOCATION & TIME:
  Sunday, March 2, 6-9pm
  Cabbagetown Community Arts Centre
  454 Parliament St.
  Toronto
  
  WHAT IS THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS?
  -> one 3-hour audition (March 2)
  -> for call-backs only: two more audition sessions (March 9 and 16 - both days!)
  -> for apprentices only: a one year apprenticeship (every Sunday, 6-9pm)
  
  TO REGISTER, please send your name and contact info to:
  Karen B K Chan
  audition@ragingasianwomen.ca
  416.568.2426
  
  FOR FURTHER INFO on RAW, check out our website at www.RagingAsianWomen.ca

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