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

All posts written by Naz Afsahi

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- Body Politics
- Recommended Reading
Ms. Fit Magazine: “Real World Feminist Fitness”

May 1, 2013 • Naz Afsahi

Over the last 15 months I have been on a journey of fitness. I was walking down the street on a cold January morning and realized that I needed to make a change. Since that morning, I have joined a gym, taken classes and began practicing yoga. I’ve devoured the fitness magazines at my local public library and looked up various stretches to release my tight hip flexors and techniques to strengthen my rotator cuffs. Most importantly, I have begun the process of internalizing the amazing things my body can do alongside the importance of what my mind can do. As well, I have been working on my emotional and mental well being, because fitness is about so much more than muscle mass.

If you are looking for a new magazine that emphasizes these various facets of fitness, check out Ms. Fit. With two issues out already, Ms. Fit is still a young publication, but there are some great articles and testimonials to check out. The site is easy to maneuver, and I imagine you will like their content if you are looking for narratives about personal fitness and health journeys alongside updates about professional athletes.

Unlike traditional health and fitness magazines you can pick up at a your location chain bookstore, the emphasis by Ms. Fit is less on the specific techniques of workouts, or the gym equipment needed in order to be “fit”. Rather, the content focuses on maintaining an overall sense of fitness in every part of your being. Ms. Fit’s content defines fitness as being about physical health, sexual health and emotional health, as well as, eating healthy and learning to consume in an earth conscious manner with delicious sounding vegan and vegetarian recipes.

Another positive facet of Ms. Fit is that the site features pictures that reflect a variety of body types, abilities, shapes and colours. And if you like (and since you are on Shameless, I hope you already do!) speaking about our bodies, our sexual reproductive rights, and our pleasure in a possible and non-heteronormative light, then you might enjoy Ms. Fit.

With future issues, I do hope to see more pieces that deal with one’s mental health and issues that touch on trans-fitness [I admit I am still making my way through both issues, so it is possible I missed some pieces that touch on these issues].

Check out the Ms. Fit Manifesto here.
- Film Reel
- Queeriosities
Check out: What I LOVE about being QUEER

November 14, 2012 • Naz Afsahi

Toronto-based Vivek Shraya is a musician, performer, filmmaker and writer. He was nominated for LGBTQ Person of the Year at the 2012 INSPIRE Awards. His newest short film, What I LOVE about being QUEER, is a minimalist endeavour revolving around the title’s big question posed to 34 individuals.
Still from the Film's Teaser

The film, which debuted in June in Toronto, is 18 minutes in length, and has screened at various Queer Film Festivals and universities across Canada, with more screenings scheduled. According to Shraya, the film is a partial response to dominant narratives of queer struggle and survival and was visualized by him as a way to “create more space for discussion about the positive aspects of being queer”.

And although the participants of the film include educators, activists, artists, introverts and extroverts and vary in their age, gender, racial background, gender presentations and politics, Shraya acknowledges that the film is in no way fully representative of the queer spectrum. Shraya notes, “[b]ut there is also something exciting about this! To consider and embrace that the answers in the film are not exhaustive. That because our communities are so vast and complex, so are the ways in which we come to love. And, since the word “queer” is never defined by Shraya the individuals who partake in answering the question “what I love about being queer”, in turn define queerness for themselves, touching on themes of family, identity, sex and love. The participants are mainly from Ontario and were filmed in Shraya’s Toronto home.

As an extension of the film, an official Tumblr blog has been set up by Shraya to continue the dialogue and where visitors are able to partake and answer the question posed in the film. Attach a photo of yourself and answer in a sentence or two What do you LOVE about being QUEER?

Shraya's introductory post to the Tumblr site

You can check out the teaser for What I LOVE About Being QUEER here. For the complete list of upcoming screenings, visit Shraya’s website. A portion of the DVD sales are donated to the SOY (Supporting Our Youth) Program [designed to improve the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgendered youth in Toronto through the active involvement of youth and adult communities].
- Activist Report
- Food Fight
A Fight for Healthy Food

June 1, 2012 • Naz Afsahi

Growing up I was lucky in being able to bring a packed lunch to school (even if I was sometimes jealous that I couldn’t always participate in pizza and chocolate milk Fridays). If you happen to go to school where the norm is to purchase your lunches on the premises and you worry about healthy choices, you might find an friendly advocate in Martha Payne, a 9-year-old from Scotland who was fed up with her skimpy and sometimes gruesome school lunches (she once found a hair under a cucumber!). “They’re a wee bit small and sometimes they’re not very nice either,” she told the BBC about her school lunches. Martha’s family pays £2 per day for the meals.

An image of a lunch taken by Martha on May 8th, 2012 (http://neverseconds.blogspot.ca/2012/05/tuesday-8th-may.html)

In a case emphasizing how even one voice can start a change, Martha has helped to highlight how her school lunches weren’t sufficient for a growing body and its ability to focus on school work. With the help of her father, David, Martha set up a blog called Never Seconds detailing her lunches at Lochgilphead Primary School. Martha rates each meal on health and taste (what she calls the Food-o-meter). She also keeps a tally of mouthfuls, courses, price and unexpected additions (such as the hair under the cucumber noted above).

Her blog has a following of nearly 1.5 million people with photos of school lunches being submitted from around the world. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, an advocate for healthy school lunches, has praised Martha. He sent her an autographed book with the praise “Great work, cleaver girl … keep it up.” And, after garnering international media attention, David met with the school council.

Council spokeswoman Carys Wynn-Mellor maintains that changes were already underway with pre-ordering systems being implemented, and noted that salads, vegetables and fruit are always available – something Martha has blogged as having never known.

If you are similarly finding your school lunches unhealthy or unpalatable, speak up! You probably aren’t the only one feeling that way.
- Anti-violence
- Sexuality
App for Safety

February 21, 2012 • Naz Afsahi

I can recall when my parents made the decision to purchase a cell phone for me. Their main concerns were the ability to call 911, and to call home for rides. As mobile devices have evolved and we have transformed into a generation of smartphone and social media users, there is now another tool young women can use to assist in their safety. YWCA Canada, the country’s largest and oldest women’s multi-service organization has released the YWCA Safety Siren app for Blackberry Smartphones. Versions of the app are also available for the Apple platform (iPhone and iPod Touch).

The free to download app is created as “part of YWCA’s award-winning, signature anti-violence initiative, Power of Being a Girl,” and is available in both English and French. As a Blackberry user, I was easily able to download the app through a quick name search in the Blackberry app world.

The main screen of the app features a safety siren, which can be pressed in an unsafe situation. When activated, the app sends an emergency SOS email and a BBM (Blackberry Messenger) message to a pre-selected friend with approximate coordinates and places an emergency outgoing call to a pre-programmed number. The app also geo-connects you to over 300 resources and crisis centres across Canada.

The app also provides information about sexual health and wellness, dating and hooking up, tips and facts on safety and essential crisis information. One of my favourite features is the app’s use of inclusive language, rather than an assumption of heteronormativity.

The ease and effectiveness of the utility siren was also proven to me when I activated it by pressing my track pad when on the app’s main page (though I must admit it took me a moment to figure out how to turn it off). On the iPod and iPhone, shaking your device can activate the safety button.

The Safety Siren app is funded by the Government of Canada’s Social Development Partnership Program and is available for use alongside other apps, zines, and online resources (all free), as well as programs at YWCA Member Associations across the country.
- Race and Racism
Un/Cover

December 19, 2011 • Naz Afsahi

I am an immigrant.

When I was 13, my family became Canadian citizens. I have vague memories of a summer afternoon spent in a medium-sized Ontario town’s city hall chambers where we swore an oath to the Queen and Canada in front of an immigration judge. There were several dozen others there also swearing their oaths. Most clearly, I recall shaking hands with several old, white men, who handed me either a pin of the Canadian flag or the city’s symbol, alongside murmured words of congratulations. I am not sure I could recall enough of the oath to repeat it today.

On Monday, December 12th, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced that, effective immediately, anyone swearing the oath must have their face uncovered. The Minster cited concern about the inability of the judges to see lips moving to verify that the oath is, in fact, being recited. The real world implication of this law translates to women being most significantly impacted: specifically women (most often Muslim) who wear full-face coverings such as the niqab or burka. Although exceptions exist, there are few other instances other than religious or cultural practice that would have someone cover their whole face.

A plethora of opinion pieces have appeared online and in print about the damage covering one’s face does to a woman’s worth as a human being with rights as opposed to something that is meant to be hidden; of the less-ness of cultures where women cover their faces, as automatically meaning the devaluation of the worth of women. I have read opinion pieces about citizenship being a privilege and not a right, and about the “freedoms” Canada stands for.

My family is from Iran: an Islamic state with theocratic, authoritarian, and democratic elements. All women, religious or not, citizen or not, must wear the hijab while in public. Full face coverings are not mandatory, though some women choose to cover so. In the two instances during which I have visited Iran, I have been forced to cover my hair while in public. I mention this because it was not my choice to veil, as the freedom to choose while in the public sphere does not exist for women in Iran.

That freedom does exist in Canada.

Do I believe that women should be forced to cover up? No. Do I believe that women should have the choice to cover up? Yes. Do I believe this legislation violates that choice? YES.

(more inside…)
- Media Savvy
- Trans-
If you’ve got “boy parts,” you can’t join…

November 9, 2011 • Naz Afsahi

As a kid, I always dreamt about becoming a Girl Guide like my friends. But, unfortunately, it was something that never happened for a variety of monetary and time-related issues. As an adult, I was finally able to realize that dream by becoming a Brownie Unit Guider. My unit, which I helped to facilitate with two other leaders (including Shameless Reviews Editor, Jessica Balmer!), was home to 14 girls aged 7-8. For one year, we came together to encourage our fellow leaders and our Brownies to develop confidence, to develop positive relationships with others and to engage with the community. Overall, my Girl Guide experience was everything I had hoped it would be, and I would hope that anyone else interested in joining the Guides might have a similar experience. However, that has not been the case for Bobby Montoya, a seven-year-old from Denver, Colorado who wished to join a local troop of Girl Scouts.

(more inside…)
- Gender
- Trans-
Bill addressing Gender Identity and Expression introduced in B.C. Legislature

May 30, 2011 • Naz Afsahi

On May 26th, Spencer Chandra Herbert, the NDP MLA (Member of the legislative assembly*) for Vancouver-West End, introduced in the legislature a member’s bill intituled Gender Identity and Expression Human Rights Recognition Act, 2011.

The Act would ensure that the B.C. Human Rights Code explicitly protects transgender people from discrimination. Under the legislation, “gender identity” and “gender expression” would be prohibited grounds for discrimination. As a prohibited ground, employers, health professionals, landlords or other business owners could not use gender identity and gender expression as the means to deny service or housing to transgender people. It would also signal to the general public that transgender people have the same rights as cis-people under the law to live and work free from fear and discrimination.

(more inside…)
- Arts
- Gender
- Trans-
But That’s Not Normal… Or How Even People In The Liberal Arts Are Enshrined In Gender Norms

May 16, 2011 • Naz Afsahi

There is something I would like to share with all of you, readers. I’d like to talk about a conversation I had this past week with a new coworker and friend, J. During our dinner hour (as J and I munched on some delicious falafels and chicken kebabs), we began to discuss how certain persons at work appear or act uncomfortable around J.

To provide some background, J and I work as ushers/concession at a theatre venue located in downtown Toronto. Most of us are just getting to know each other and J is an intelligent, fantastically outgoing and friendly person. He also loves to wear makeup and nail polish, to talk about flat-ironing his hair (and how it might be misbehaving that day) and is open and all-embracing about being gay.

J is not a caricature and there are several overlapping issues at work here, but I feel that the negative reactions are predominantly stemming from his transgressions of accepted gender and sexual norms. There is also something else happening here and I think that it has to do with the pervasiveness of gender norms and assumptions around the liberal arts.
There exists a societal assumption that the liberal arts and the work environments they provide are intrinsically more liberal, open-minded or accepting of differences in comparison to other work environments. While this assumption may be true to certain extents and with regards to particular issues (such as the importance of the arts), the securitization of J’s appearance has made me question such an assumption.

(more inside…)
Pick a Colour… Except for Pink

April 19, 2011 • Naz Afsahi

It appears that a boy’s love of pink has others seeing a different colour.

Originally, I had planned on discussing Bill C-389 in this column. That was until Julia Horel-O’Brien sent me a link to the reactions a J. Crew email mailer (aka advertisement) has garnered since being sent to customers on April 5th (the advert is now available on the J. Crew website under the feature Jenna’s picks).

The layout Saturday with Jenna showcases the company’s president and creative director Jenna Lyons and her five-year-old son Beckett spending time together and going “off duty in style”. In one image from the advert, a smiling Jenna is seen holding Beckett’s feet in her lap. Beckett, appearing to be having a laugh, is sporting painted toenails in a rather fetching neon pink colour. Under the headline “Quality Time”, Lyons is quoted: “Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.”

(more inside…)
- All About Shameless
- Race and Racism
Meet Naz!

April 13, 2011 • Naz Afsahi

Hello! My name is Naz Afsahi and I am so excited to be joining Shameless as a blogger.

My Shameless column will deal primarily with issues related to race and representation, and trans rights. The idea is to alternate between these two topics, but if a pressing issue arises on either topic, this schedule may change.

My interest in the above topics arises from my personal life experiences and the people who have helped to shape who I am today.

I self-identify as a Persian-Canadian, though it took me a long time to come to terms with what that meant to me and how I perceive my hyphenated identity (which I hope to share in a separate post). I feel that sometimes, as Canadians, we have this perception of being part of a nation that is all-embracing in terms of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, or, that we are somehow a “race-neutral” culture. Perhaps this perception exists, in part, because of official state policies like the Canadian Multiculturalism Act.

However, my personal experiences and interactions with others call attention to the lived reality that race and ethnicity continues to be a contested area in our culture. In particular, I feel that we must continue to examine and challenge representations of race and ethnicity and the ways in which gender becomes integrated with those fields. For example, I don’t feel that a particular piece of pop culture that is deemed “low-brow” or just programming-filler (MTV productions spring to mind) should escape critical analysis as all media exists within and contributes to a discourse on a given topic. I love various “low-brow” TV shows and think that they have as much to teach and reflect about our culture as other types of programming. Jersey Shore anyone?

As for my interest in trans rights, it stems partially from my own questioning of gender norms and exposure to human rights concerns from both an activist and an academic point of view. My Master’s thesis focused on the discourse of transsexuality, and examined how trans identity is spoken about in feminist, medical, and legal documents, as well as in major Canadian newspapers. In my next post, I am looking forward to talking about (the now defunct) Bill C-389, a private member bill that was introduced by Bill Siksay, the MP for Burnaby-Douglas and the GLBT critic for the NDP. This version of the bill was the third time since 2005 that Siksay has attempted to pass legislation that would add gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code of Canada. Currently, neither the Canadian Human Rights Act nor the federal hate crimes laws provide explicit protection from discrimination based on gender identity or expression. Sadly, if changes are to be achieved, another version of the bill must be introduced at first reading in the House of Commons in a new session and must go through all stages of the legislative process regardless of the progress made in a previous session with a similar or identical bill. Although Bill C-389 has perished with the spring election, I hope to bring some light to what Bill was able to achieve and to create a conversation about what we need to demand from our next government.

I’m so looking forward to getting started!