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

All posts written by Anne Thériault

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Resisting Paradise - A Q&A With Barbara Hammer

April 1, 2013 • Anne Thériault

Barbara Hammer with rotary projector - Available Space, 1979, at ASpace, Toronto

This week, the Toronto International Film Festival is running a program called Brave New World: The Films of Barbara Hammer. This three-night survey offers a fascinating retrospective of Hammer’s forty-five year career as a lesbian activist and experimental filmmaker.

Hammer’s 2003 film Resisting Paradise, which deals with the concept of art as a tool of political resistance, was especially fascinating to me. Hammer, who was doing a painting residency in Cassis, France, when war broke out in Kosovo, found herself questioning the validity of art in the face of political conflict and unrest. She began exploring the history of the French Resistance in Cassis, and used that as a chance to reflect on how Cassis’ artistic community, both those who were threatened by the Nazi occupation of France and those who were able to remain relatively neutral, reacted to the atrocities of the Second World War.

I was fortunate enough to be able to get in touch with Barbara and ask her a few questions about Resisting Paradise. Her responses are just as eye-opening and fascinating as the film itself.

Q: So there this fascinating parallel happening in Resisting Paradise, namely that you were making a film exploring how and why art was created in Cassis during the second world war, while you yourself were, of course, creating art during the war in Kosovo. How did your experience of making this film influence your view on the creation of art during times of war?
(more inside…)
Proposed Russian Law Will Ban “Gay Propaganda”

January 30, 2013 • Anne Thériault

On January 25th, Russia’s parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of drafting a law that would ban “gay propaganda.” In fact, of the 389 members of the State Duma (Russia’s lower parliament chamber), 388 supported the law.

The proposed ban would have far-reaching consequences that range from removing queer characters from movies and television shows to making gay pride parades, and any other demonstrations supporting or celebrating gay rights, illegal. The law would also make it illegal to provide any “propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism” to minors. This means that something as innocent as a public kiss between two members of the same sex could lead to heavy fines.

Although homosexuality, which was punishable by up to five years of jail time in the Soviet Union, has been decriminalized in Russia since 1993, much of the Russian population remains deeply homophobic.

(Mikhail Metzel/AP)

(more inside…)
- Arts
- Body Politics
Fatphobia For Art-Lovers

January 18, 2013 • Anne Thériault

I love Frida Kahlo. Love her. Love her artwork, love her story, love her general sassy bad-assery. To say that she inspires me would be a major understatement. I’ve learned scads of life lessons from her, useful things that run the gamut from realizing what a powerful role art can play in the social justice movement to learning that it’s possible to give zero fucks about what anyone else thinks of you and your appearance. If I could sum Frida Kahlo up in two words, they would be: The. Best.

Frida Kahlo is, as the kids these days say, my homegirl.

You can imagine, then, how thrilled I was when the Art Gallery of Ontario announced a major Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibit for the fall of 2012. I tweeted at them that I was going to express my excitement by lighting something on fire; they, in turn, re-tweeted me, which I took as a silent endorsement of my arsonist tendencies. Leading up to the October 20th opening date of the show, I obnoxiously reminded my friends on a regular basis how many days were left until all my dreams would come true.

We have a family membership at the AGO, which means that my husband and I were able to see Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting at a special members-only preview, a few days before the show opened to the general public. That night was the first time I’d ever seen Kahlo’s paintings in person. To say that I was excited would be like saying that the Pope is Catholic, by which I mean, HELL YEAH I WAS.

I have to admit, though, that I did have a few concerns when entering the gallery that first time. Like fellow Shameless writer Sarah Mortimer, I worried that people would use this exhibit as an opportunity to mock Frida for her appearance - specifically, for her iconic unibrow. Would the rest of the crowd understand why she refrained from waxing or plucking the hair on her face? Would they notice and appreciate the fact that Frida actually emphasized her unibrow and mustache in her paintings, making them thicker and darker than they were in real life? Would they realize how radically subversive she was?

Would they see how beautiful she was?

I was thankful to discover that the answer to those questions was a resounding yes. All around me, I heard people muttering about how lovely she was, how graceful and strong. Not one single person made a remark critical of her appearance. For once, I was happy to be proven wrong.

Unfortunately, I did not hear the same type of comments about Frida’s husband, Diego Rivera.

I’ve been to the Frida & Diego exhibit seven or eight times now, and on every single visit I’ve heard almost exactly the same thing from many, many people:

“God, look at how fat he is. He’s so ugly. What did she ever see in him?” (more inside…)
- Arts
- Gender
- Playlist
- Queeriosities
- Trans-
Coming Out Wrong with Jesse Dangerously

December 5, 2012 • Anne Thériault

Halifax rap legend Jesse Dangerously is known for using his music to combat sexism, racism, fat-phobia, homophobia, and a whole lot of other toxic stuff that we encounter in our day to day lives. Dangerously, who is now based out of Ottawa, recently released a song called Coming Out Wrong on the Fun Razor Mix Tape (a collaborative album put together by artists participating in and raising funds for the NOFRIENDS tour).

Coming Out Wrong, which was made over the beat from Tribe One’s Different, totally blew me away; it was so unlike any other hip hop song I’d ever heard. In Coming Out Wrong, Dangerously talks about his struggles with gender identity, and the effect those struggles had on him as he made his way through school and out into the hip hop world. These were all issues that I’d never even heard mentioned in a rap song before, let alone discussed in such detail, and listening to this track gave me a lot of FEELINGS.

[YouTube video of Jesse Dangerously singing “Coming Out Wrong.” Transcription at the end of this post.]

I recently had the chance to talk to Jesse Dangerously about this song, and he had some incredibly personal, informative and fascinating things to say – check out our Q&A below!

Q: So this is a really amazing and intense song! Can you talk a bit about what it was like to release a song like this in the hip hop community, which tends to be pretty dominated by heterosexual men?(more inside…)
Rape Culture in Popular Culture

November 27, 2012 • Anne Thériault

Let’s start out with a few basic facts:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a dreamboat. Like, on a scale of one to super-ultimate-double-plus-dreamboat, he is pretty high up there. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is reaching unprecedented break-my-marriage-vows levels of attractiveness. I would pay good money to watch a movie that was nothing but Joseph Gordon-Levitt sitting on a chair reading the phone book.

Not convinced? I present you with Exhibit A:

And Exhibit B:

[YouTube video of Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing a cover of Nirvana’s “Lithium.” Transcription at the end of this post.]

Are you done swooning yet?

It’s fine, I’ll give you another minute.

Shhhh, I know. Feel free to replay that video as many times as you need to.

All right, are we good? I think we’re good.

Now, given the fact that I’ve just used science to prove that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is maybe one of the best things since sliced bread, what I’m about to say next might shock you:

Not every heterosexual woman wants to date him. Some straight women, presented with that choice, would, categorically, choose not to date him. (more inside…)