One of Australia’s leading female politicians has suggested that women facing sexual discrimination at work should just ignore it and it will disappear. Isobel Redmond made the comments at a women’s leadership event in Adelaide. These comments seem more suited to a grey-suited politician from the an earlier era, not a liberal Australian political leader. ...
Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved arrived in my hands via a public library, when I was a broke teenager with vague ideas about what it meant to be a feminist at the turn of the century. The central character, Sethe, is an African-American woman living in the United States in the late 19th century. An escaped ...
Happy Victoria Day! It is the day that signals the beginning of summer parties throughout the country and many Canadians forget that it is a celebration of the birth of Queen Victoria. While it may seem like a British tradition, Canada is the only country in the world to observe this day as a holiday. ...
After you get engaged, it’s easy to become bogged down with planning the wedding, if you choose to have one. But while being bombarded with emails about chair covers (seriously, never give your email address to anyone in this industry), occasionally it dawns on one that hey, one is going to be married after all ...
My attention was drawn this week to an article about the reaction at a Canadian university to proposals to start a “men’s centre” on campus, as a place for men (according to the would-be founders) to discuss “men’s issues and mental wellness and all the different things that come along with that.” The article was ...
Airport security. Bloody nuisance. Also a conspiracy designed to subjugate women. Allow me to elaborate. Despite flying quite a lot, I’ve never been the focus of airport security attention, even though I always forget to take my lighter, tweezers or (on a recent flight) 250g jar of jam out of my handbag before entering the ...
The Cannes film festival has kicked off this week with controversy over the lack of films made by women that are up for consideration. The all-male list in contention for the prestigious Palme d’Or prize has been criticized as evidence of gender bias. Whilst it is true that, of course, women make films these days, and ...
Skincare. Not so very long ago, a man would have been mocked mercilessly for using just the word, never mind the products themselves. But now we’re all mature, we’re all free, non-judgemental, confident in ourselves and our sexuality. Yes, whatever yins your yang, it’s all totally groovy. So we’re all using skincare products, nobody’s mocked ...
Yesterday, anti-abortion protestors gathered at Parliament Hill in Ottawa for the annual March for Life. Campaign Life Coalition is demanding the Conservatives take a second look at abortion laws in Canada. Stephen Harper and the Tories have repeatedly stated they will not change any legislation regarding abortion. However, Conservative MP Steven Woodsworth brought a motion ...
Laptop bags; conspiracy of the patriarchal overlords. Oh yes. I am a woman with hands. The average-sized hands of an average-sized woman. So things should basically fit into my hands, especially the things I need to do my work on an average day. Like my laptop bag. My longest finger (the middle one, I’m not ...
The latest film in the American Pie series, American Reunion, contains a shocking scene – male full-frontal nudity including...
Dear Madame X, I have just started seeing this girl. She seems great, but she recently told me she...
Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved arrived in my hands via a public library, when I was a broke teenager with...
My attention was drawn this week to an article about the reaction at a Canadian university to proposals to...
Airport security. Bloody nuisance. Also a conspiracy designed to subjugate women. Allow me to elaborate. Despite flying quite a...
The Cannes film festival has kicked off this week with controversy over the lack of films made by women...
Dear Madame X, I seem to be only attracted to men who are macho assholes. I like them at...
When A Clockwork Orange was published in 1962, the term sexualized violence wasn’t in use. The distinction between sexualized...
