All blog posts written by Diandra - Shameless Magazine - your daily dose of fresh feminism for girls and trans youth

All posts written by Diandra Jurkic-Walls

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- Arts
- Shameless Behaviour
Canada Day

January 14, 2009 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls

Piece from Canada Day (Theresa Sapergia)

Prince George-based artist, tattoo artist, and art professor, Theresa Sapergia, just returned to the snowy hinterland from Montreal where she was promoting her new show, Canada Day. Hanging at Parisian Laundry until February 14th, Sapergia’s work reflects “on a post-apocalyptic Canada where animals have over taken (or taken back) nature” (source). It’s a treasure for me that Prince George gets to be privy to her company as an artist, small-business owner in a tirelessly patriarchal industry, an educator, and a feminist. If you happen to be in Montreal or traveling through make some time to see her show. And if ever, ever, you’re in Prince George let me know: we’ll get coffee and I’ll take you to her shop, Handsome Cabin Boy Tattoo.
- Film Reel
- Media Savvy
Sad, Little Dream

January 10, 2009 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls

If Friday is still “date night” I’m sure legions of couples spent last night in movie theatres dealing with the fact that they just lost $12 and about 2 hours of their life.

I have yet to see the film, but a quick watch of the Bride Wars trailer and the CBC review seal its fate. Katrina Onstad, the author of the article, is my new hero. She considers bride/wedding movies in general, and not without the sarcasm (love it):

“We have come to await the main character’s transition from competent, professional woman to lunatic bride (My Best Friend’s Wedding; 27 Dresses). We await the dress montage; the squealing, handholding bridesmaid jump-around; the bouquet toss to the ravenous wolf pack of single gals. (Hey, Portly, don’t bother!) We await the gay-ish friend or relative poised at the ready to break out the sass. We await — oh yes — the Motown.”
(more inside…)
- DIY
“Handmade is love.”

December 10, 2008 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls

(buyhandmade.org)

I know that we’re partially on our way into December and if you’re as good as Martha you’ve already collected those renegade pine cones and dipped them in both glue and glitter. But if not, there’s still time to make or buy handmade for the holidays.

The Buy Handmade campaign started just over a year ago and is based on one simple pledge: “I pledge to buy handmade this holiday season, and request that others do the same for me.” By participating in this pledge the “buyer” (or maker!) makes an important move towards not only protecting the earth from further degradation, but also encourages a reconnection to the physical during these harried holidays.

(more inside…)
- DIY
The epitome of craft-blogging

December 5, 2008 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls

Just when the holidays start to roll in and en masse we begin to feel like we’re rushing too much or “falling behind” the holiday bonanza (3 knitted hats down, 2 to go!!) , Embloggery has a way of saying “slow down”.

Blogger Nicole started Embloggery as a way to “to examine the implications of the fact that we now have the ability to disseminate widely something written very quickly, to a potentially very large audience”. Her blog is made of embroidered “posts” she completed throughout her day. These posts, she says, force her to think about what to include, how long they should/can be, and what the shortest words to use might be.

I love Embloggery because it implicates the role of craft, an older-school technology, with the zip-zip-zip of the interweb. The internet is the best marketing and promotional tool for independent crafters who want to share their work with the world. But the instantaneous “uploading” to blogs and crafster, as well as the seamless store-fronts of Etsy, can sometimes be a little-too all consuming and often a distraction from the physical action of crafting. I’m excited to see the evolution of Nicole’s embroidered posts as they allow us, for just one second, to remember the power of handmade.
- Race and Racism
- Sporting Goods
“It would be extremely hard for women to squarely compete against men in any sport.”

November 22, 2008 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls

But yet she can! Eri Yoshida, 16-year-old pitching wunderkind, has been drafted into an independent Japanese baseball team, the Kobe 9 Cruise. Her recruitment makes it the first of its kind in Japan’s recent history (there was a professional league over 50 years ago).

As you can see in the video, not only is she excited (“Sugoi! Bikurishimashita!” = “This is awesome! I’m so surprised!”), she’s very thankful. And while the normalcy of her being a baseball star in chugakusei (junior high school, hence the uniform) isn’t really discussed in the media attention, her positioning in a professional baseball league is a big deal not only for Japan, but for Western perceptions of Japanese women in sport and other non-traditional roles.

I’m excited to watch Eri-chan take on the world of Japanese pro baseball and am curious to see how our perceptions of women’s rights and opportunities across the Pacific pond play out in the media. Not only is she the first woman to play in this league, but this will be the first time she actually gets to play competitively with men. It’s also the first time she’ll have to deal with scrutiny she probably never expected, because it seems that some people think she was recruited for publicity, rather than her skill.
- DIY
- In My Opinion...
“because the washer and dryer don’t run on remote control!”

November 19, 2008 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls

Gender-based jokes that poke “fun” at domestic chores run rampant in the dominant culture. And somehow men are always the butt of the joke. But the “modern woman” is still stuck doing the laundry because the jokes just allow us as a society to shrug off their “inability” as part of their domestic failure as men, and not as part of the actual divisions in the home when it comes to domestic chores.

When it comes to chores I prefer the barter system. It’s what you would do with a roommate, or a sibling, and does not have to be any different when you’re in a relationship that highlights socially defined gender roles. At the end of the day I hate doing the cat litter and any living partner or roommate that is willing to take the cat litter on without complaint is my hero.

Luckily for them I’m always willing to do the laundry in exchange. It also means that I can use soap I’m not allergic to, can use/make less harmful detergents, and can use alternatives to the dryer in the summer (like the laundry line).

With that in mind, I thought I would compile a list of my favourite DIY projects for the laundry so that if you got the sweet deal of laundry over litter, you can have some DIY fun too.

(more inside…)
- DIY
Congratulations! It’s a calendar.

October 19, 2008 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls

When I moved to Prince George to go to grad school I didn’t realize that within months I’d be taken under the wings of the coolest women in town. The women work in a variety of capacities and express themselves and their lives in our community in dynamic ways, to be near them is an utter honour.

Our friend Bryndis, the owner of Meow Records (which won best record store in Canada this past summer) has been putting out a DIY calendar, made by the calendar girls themselves, and this is the second year.

This year our theme was classic horror and it was so empowering to be charged with the responsibility of working within your theme (ie. I was given zombie) and having full control of every aspect of both your photo and your calendar grid. And the ways that the women in the calendar worked with their month definitely reflected their pluralities.

Calendars, if done on the cheap in a true DIY manner (you learn photoshop and get your fellow calendar girls to do your hair and take your photo), are a cheap product to make and a great fundraiser. Especially for a small up and coming business who needs a little help from her friends to get her feet on the ground.

If you’d like to get your hands on a calendar you can check a bit out on the Meow website (www.meowrecords.ca) and order one from the store to see the real deal.
- In My Opinion...
This is one icy cat

October 10, 2008 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls

I know that it is out of my usual content to post this, but I couldn’t resist. I was out running an errand for work this morning when I ended up stuck behind this beauty of a trailer waiting to make a left turn at a light.

I don’t even know where to start with what’s wrong with this. First, I didn’t ask to see this! Where is my permission slip and admission form to be granted the gracious opportunity to be shown such blatant acts of sexism and oppression in a public space!? I understand that these images are often left to calendars that grace shop walls, but who gave them the right to blow it up onto their trailer to not only sell more Arctic Cats, but to show how much they love “hot ladies”? Oh yeah! I forgot! The patriarch!

Other areas of disappointment and contention include how they’re obviously posed (there’s no “oops, we’re naturally like this” position), they’re wearing wet suits on winter vehicles, and they’re posed from behind. So all they are determined to be is, literally, a pair of hott ass.

*end rant*
- Body Politics
- In My Opinion...
Feminist Blogging: My new fave

September 11, 2008 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls

What to Expect When You’re Aborting is definitely my new favourite feminist blog. Created by a 23 year old American woman, this blog chronicles her experiences with being pregnant, getting pregnant, deciding to have an abortion, waiting for the abortion, and dealing with her life’s new changes.

What I love most about What to Expect When You’re Aborting is the sheer strength of the writer. Most often images of women who encounter abortion as an option show them emotionally weak and weepy, or “too good” to do “something like that” to their bodies, or incapable of taking care of themselves so an abortion must be the only answer to the regrettable pregnancy and thus they live with this horrible regret for the rest of their lives. But at this time when the discussion of choice is so rampant and the media pressure not to choose is bearing down on you, the author of this blog is standing by her choice.

I am so proud of a young person standing up in that environment and continuing to exercise their right to choice. To take that one step further and to document it in a somewhat brash, down-to-earth, and self-supportive way makes me sing from the rooftops!
- DIY
the crazy cat lady

September 10, 2008 • Diandra Jurkic-Walls

Cat Toys on Craftster (bumfuzzlerumdum)

I’m a fan of the absurdity of feminist and queer stereotypes. I mean, who thinks of this stuff and why do we let it get us down? Obviously someone is crazy in this situation and it’s not me! I believe that flaunting these stereotypes in an equally absurd and questioning way can be the answer to the self-doubt, insecurity, and anger that may plague you when you find out that “the man” has finally fit you into one of his little boxes.

So while I’m on the road to filling in the identity check boxes they manufacture out of their hearts of coal, the crazy cat lady in me will be making my cats these toys designed (with a tutorial) by Craftster’s bumfuzzlerumdum.