Reading the story posted below, I was struck by a couple of things. One is that although we hear a lot of reasons as to why women should have the freedom to choose what to do with our bodies, we don’t hear a lot of stories of actual women making that choice. At least not lately; I remember the good old days of Degrassi Junior High (1987), when Erica got pregnant and her decision to have an abortion sparked controversy and discussion - but at least it was out there. Why is it that we seem to have devolved since the 70s and 80s? Many women are afraid to talk about abortion, for fear of reprisal from anti-choice factions, or even just friends and family.

I’ve been living in a shed for the past two weeks at the Anchor Zine Archive and reading a lot of Doris zine by Cindy Crabb, and remembering just what an amazing writer she is. Her stories of her three abortions are frank and frankly empowering:

When I was pregnant I forced myself to look at the diagrams. Memorize the text instead of blocking it out. The eggs are formed in the ovaries, they go down the fallopian tubes… I only read it when no one was around. I locked the door and was jumpy and nervous, scared someone would catch me. I hid it like pornography.

It seemed almost cliche, but learning about my body and the changes going on in it, and knowing that it wasn’t out of control, it made me feel like my body was strong and mine. It was a way I’d never felt before.

The abortion itself wasn’t too bad. I had it done at a feminist health clinic and the women there took care of me the way it should be done. They held up a mirror, and that was the first time I’d seen those parts of me. They explained every touch and every second of the procedure. Now you’ll feel the speculum, this is the local anesthetic, you’ll feel some cramping now as she dilates the os, breathe deep.

(more inside…)

In the weeks leading up to the launch of She’s Shameless: Women write about growing up, rocking out, and fighting back, we’ll be posting sneak peak excerpts from the book.

Amy Saxon Bosworth lives and writes from her home in the mountains outside of Nederland, Colorado. Her essays have been featured in Hearing Loss Magazine, Mamaphonic, and Hands and Voices. Her novella The Mean Time was a 2006 semi-finalist for Tin House’s Summer Literary Seminar, Kenya. Her writing was also included in the anthology My Baby Rides the Short Bus (PM Press, 2009). She is currently at work on her second novel.

I Don’t Wear Cloaks
by Amy Saxon Bosworth

When I was small, an older cousin coaxed me into sprinkling salt onto a slug in our grandfather’s English ivy garden. I watched with shame as the creature suffered and died. I remembered this as I sat against the gray cinder block wall on the cold gym floor of my high school one day after winter break. I could think of only the slug curled in my belly. I was sixteen years old.

I had made an appointment to have the little slug salted but changed my mind after a I saw a tiny tot at the rodeo, dressed in Wranglers and boots, wearing a starched white shirt. The tiny cowboy looked so precarious perched so high on his father’s shoulders, so fragile, so human. I tried to reconcile that with what moved within me. I made up my mind: the little slug would grow.
(more inside…)

Claire Huxtable in The Cosby Show

Jezebel, a popular Gawker blog that features “celebrity, sex, fashion for women,” recently published a blog post on “20 Feminist TV Characters.”

Tracie, the author of the post, was quick to point out that “unfortunately, all of [the characters] — including the animated ones — are Caucasian.” Her list included characters such as Maude Findlay of Maude (which I’m actually quite curious about and would love to get my hands on…), Lisa Simpson of The Simpsons, Roseanne Connor of Roseanne and Miranda Hobbes of Sex and The City.

As a woman of colour, I found Tracie’s disclaimer to be insincere. She profiled characters who “more openly flew their feminist flags…[speaking] openly about being feminists or feminism.” Isn’t the answer to Tracie’s so-called difficulty with coming up with female characters of colour obvious? She was explicitly looking for feminist characters, disregarding the fact that some women of colour, while embodying all sorts of politics and values that can be found in what some of us know as “feminism,” may not identify with this Western notion. What many of us know as feminism in North America has had a long and painful history of exclusion and oppression, specifically by heralding gender inequality as the prime form of oppression that all women should gearing their energy towards.

(more inside…)

Every other Thursday I profile a new incredible woman, each from a different walk of life. Different professions, causes, backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, and anything/everything else!

So without further delay, let me introduce the wonderful Darrelle London…

Classically trained in voice and piano, singer-songwriter Darrelle London was accepted to law school, but instead chose to “take a chance on her music.” Having played solo shows in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Fredericton, Guelph and Kingston, she has also showcased at many festivals, including WinterFolk, Indie Week Canada, and the International Pop Overthrow, and her music has been aired on CBC Radio 2. Darrelle tells us why you can’t go through life trying to achieve someone else’s idea of success.

(more inside…)

Net neutrality – the idea that the internet should be universally accessible to everyone without internet service providers deciding on levels and speeds of access – is shaping up to be an important media activist battle, especially for those of us who rely on the internet to produce alternative, independent media such as this very blog you’re reading.

SaveOurNet.ca, the grassroots group working to keep the internet free from corporate interference, is holding a series of town hall meetings in Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver to bring folks together to discuss the issue of net neutrality and the future of the internet. The meetings will be streamed live at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, June 8, at theREALnews.com, rabble.ca, TheTyee, Beyond Robson, and SaveOurNet.ca.

If you’d like to attend in person, see the details for each meeting, below (plus, there’s a dance party in Vancouver!)

(more inside…)

Since the discussion has been so lively on my previous post about sexism in the new Star Trek movie, I thought I would open up the discussion of race in the new movie and in the series.

While I thought Sulu’s dramatic sword fight was awesome (and pretty sexy, too), I was disappointed by Uhura’s reduced role in the new movie. Already saddled with a legacy of being a glorified receptionist, this new Uhura lost even more power by becoming not much more than Spock’s girlfriend. A franchise that had once been praised for its diversity (which was impressive for the ‘60s) has once again become the playground of white heterosexual men.

Diversity in space?

Danielle C. Benton has written an interesting article (note: contains spoilers) for The American Prospect about the history of minorities in science fiction shows, connecting Uhura to Petty Officer Dualla of Battlestar Galactica by their occupation — answering the phone.

She also points out why a future society envisioned by white writers as being “post-racial” is so dangerous:

Most Hollywood sci-fi presents a “post-racial” world in which we’ve moved from fighting each other over cultural differences to fighting some bigger intergalactic evil. On its face, this type of film should allow for more colour-blind casting and minority roles. Yet even in the Star Wars and Star Trek universes, where the humanoids are “beyond race,” black and other minority actors are rare. Morton calls such tokenized roles the “new Mammy”

Another blogger, Center of Gravitas (note: also contains spoilers!), has also tackled the less than impressive diversity of the new film:

Unlike 1967, it is no longer revolutionary to just acknowledge the presence of people-of-colour or women. They can’t be the tokens who promise future inclusion, but then step aside when the “real” decisions need to be made. This new Star Trek only sneaked around questions of gender and racial equality. In the end, it is still a boys’ franchise that no longer wants to think about contemporary problems of racism and sexism.

I do hope that if there is a sequel, and I’m sure there will be, that some of these problems will be addressed. What was considered groundbreaking in the ‘60s just looks dated today.

What are some of your favorite sci-fi characters of colour? What about queers in space?

In the weeks leading up to the launch of She’s Shameless: Women write about growing up, rocking out, and fighting back, we’ll be posting sneak peak excerpts from the book. Our first post is Red Bars, by Catherine Graham.

Catherine Graham is the author of The Watch, Pupa, and The Red Element. She teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto, the Haliburton School of the Arts, and through the City of Burlington. Her work has been anthologized internationally and published in The New Quarterly, Literary Review of Canada, Taddle Creek and The Fiddlehead. You can find out more about her at www.catherinegraham.com

Red Bars
by Catherine Graham

I was sitting in the backseat, fingering the silver seatbelt, half-listening to Mom and her friend Eleanor. We were taking the back route, the safe route, to the mall, instead of the highway, so Mom wouldn’t make those sharp intakes of breath (no transport trucks to pass us). Still, she seemed high-strung, her mouth tight as she nodded in response to Eleanor’s yammering.

Start of another season of swim classes. I was trying for my Bronze Medallion this time round and my green Speedo left indents on my shoulders. Red bars.

With both hands on the wheel, Mom was oblivious to me watching her. I stared at the squiggles congregating on her nose, red like her hair.

Her hair had grown back soft and thin, in opposition to Eleanor’s coarse, black spikes.
(more inside…)

I have mixed feelings about the new Star Trek movie. While I quite enjoyed it as an adventurous space romp, my nagging issues with the original series re-emerged in spades.

I grew up on the later series, so I’ve always found it difficult to enjoy the terrible special effects and campiness of Kirk’s bridge. I also hated the lack of women, except as girlfriends for Kirk, and the fact that female officers would wear miniskirts and go-go boots on the bridge. In what universe would that be practical?

I was much more invested in Captain Janeway, Major Kira, and my favourite female characters in the Star Trek Universe: the sexy warrior Klingon co-captains, the Duras Sisters.

Don’t mess with the best.

So let’s just say I was a bit peeved that J.J. Abrams’ new movie cut the female cast from two to one and that Uhura was once again wearing a miniskirt. I expect a bit more from the man who gave the world Felicity, Sydney Bristow, and Olivia Dunham. I was genuinely surprised that he could not do better than this new Uhura, a woman who spends the whole movie bickering or staring meaningfully at a not-very-logical Spock.

Ellen Lawrence, in her article for Playtime Magazine, perfectly summarizes - in the light of Roddenberry’s original vision - exactly why it was so illogical to make the future sexist. Although I may take slight issue with her positive reading of the “equality” in the later series (no one will ever be able to convince me that Troi, with her low-cut leotards and her “emotional” job description, was cool), I think her criticism of this new movie, which had a chance to create an entirely new Star Trek universe, is spot on.

What did you think of the new Star Trek? What would be your hopes for a sequel?

I love to cook, but honestly baking has never really been my thing. I’m well known in my circle for producing oddly shaped birthday cakes and cookies that taste….um…“unique”.

That being said, if anything were ever going to make me attempt to bake again, it might just be these amazingly fun vegan Gingerbread Punks submitted by Isa on the Post Punk Kitchen.

I love the punks, but I’m thinking of decorating mine as Joan Jett, Patti Smith, Pat Benatar, and maybe Karen O. Oh, and M.I.A., because a gingerbread gal would look amazing in her beautiful baby-belly bearing Grammy outfit!

Who would yours be?

If you make them, be sure to let us know where we can find pics of your rebel baking masterpieces!