Feminists for Better Security… Time to Organize…

Date:  Monday May 10, 2010 at 6:30pm

Location:  York University

4700 Keele Street
(Keele Campus)
toronto, ON M3H 6A7

How to find us
“More details coming soon!”

Who’s coming?

2 Feminists

Who’s hosting?
Tara

Alright, folks, time for some of that activism you’ve been asking for!

Out at York U, they’ve got a problem with unsafe areas where people have been attacked. Here’s a recent piece about it from CTV: http://toronto.ctv.ca…

At this action, a project of the Toronto Rebelles, we’re gonna be giving flashlight walks through those areas, sharing information, talking with people about what’s going on and what could be done about it. Participants will be teamed up in pairs, briefed on the info we want people to get and we’ll wait at the entry to those pathways to offer a well lit walk to the people that use those paths.

It’s really great that this action will show that it’s not just students who are concerned and affected by unsafe walkways. Let’s go make an impression! Oh, and don’t forget to bring your flashlight if you’ve got one!

Post-meetup: Makin’ Our Dreams Come True

Wait a sec... I AM Tara!!

A new year, a little fresh juice.  A gang of us got together on Sunday to take your good ideas and turn them into plans.  A mix of well-loved and new faces came out and the conversation was raucous.  If we hadn’t been the only diners in the Chinese restaurant, they might have had to ask us to shut up!

This event was really exciting – to see more people emerging as contributors to the meetup.  You want to see your ideas ‘produced’.  You’re coming out to plan ’em.  You’re stepping up to host ’em.  

Together, we planned events for the next few months:

Feb. – Agony aunts :  Meghan will get us sharing our experiences and strategies.

March – Perceptions and truths:  Elvira will get us yapping about gender expectations.

April – Writing workshop:  Katherine will help us refine our feminist expressions.

May – Intersecting oppressions:  Meghan’s back again to share some of what she’s learned at school.

Thanks everybody!

Guest hosts: you’re capable, it’s easy and I’ve got your back.  We can’t wait to see how it comes off:D

– Tara

Take Action: Loblaws Sells Playboy Brand in Cosmetics Section

Hi lovely Feminists,

 

I wrote a short email to Loblaws regarding their support of the Playboy brand in their cosmetics section.

 

Below is the “too bad for girls because it sells” response.  My comments are at the very bottom.

 

Feel free to take action by contacting Loblaws or the consumer relations person below.

 

– Daniela

— On Fri, 1/15/10, Marc Groulx <marc_groulx@cotyinc.com> wrote:

From: Marc Groulx <marc_groulx@cotyinc.com>
Subject: consumer inquiry
To: daniela
Date: Friday, January 15, 2010, 9:59 AM

 

Dear  Daniela,

 

Thank you for contacting us regarding our Play Boy fragrance collection in Loblaws.  While we sincerely regret the concern you expressed, we are always pleased to hear from our consumers and we value your comments.

 

By taking into account all the comments we receive, we are better able to serve the public.  Our merchandising always strives for unique, artistic images and many of them have been critically acclaimed around the world.  However, as with any creative endeavor involving individual interpretations, we recognize that some people may view them differently.  We respect every person’s sensitivities and perspectives, and we assure you that none of our merchandise is intended to be exploitative or demeaning.

 

We greatly appreciate you taking the time to make your very real concerns known to us.  We will most certainly share them with the appropriate departments, as they develop future creative images and formats for Coty collections.

__________________________
Marc Groulx
Consumer Relations

Customer Comments

How in the world can Loblaws, Canada’s (best) grocery chain for parents, children, and the rest of us be selling Playboy items in the cosmetics section? Why would a family grocer chain like Loblaws even consider selling Playboy products in any of their stores?

 

Does Loblaws wish to encourage young girls and women to view their objectified bodies as pieces of meat to be consumed?

 

Girls and women are objectified left right and centre, so in comes a grocery chain to add in the eating disorder tax dollars by our Canadian psychiatrists & social workers?

 

If Loblaws wishes to be hip and cool, then go sell this dehumanizing brand along with other garbage.

 

Being Canada’s best grocery chain, I do NOT want to put up with seeing people of my sex being degraded like body parts rather than valued for their very souls. 

T:
F: (514) 421-9848
E: marc_groulx@cotyinc.com

Post-meetup: You Go, Girl!

We met in a nifty lefty coffee shop to talk about ‘women and travel’ in the spirit of celebrating ourselves as accomplished and experienced women.  No big surprise, everybody’s got lots to tell about their adventures.

Now, looking back on my own travels and thinking about what other people said yesterday, it seems to me that human relations are a big part of what we value about travel.  Of course, women are characterized as placing a special value on relationships.  So, big thanks to the meetup crew for reminding me that we need to celebrate traits that are slighted as being ‘feminine’.    Here’s to our traveling companions, encounters and being by ourselves, too!

Every time I go away, who I go with is really important.  I’ve gone to Montreal with a stranger, to Ireland with my sibs, mum, her husband, my boyfriend, his dad and my brother’s girlfriend, on road trips with good friends, to Arizona with a meetup group.  In choosing to travel with somebody, you’re accepting them into your life and in the time you spend there, you make them a stronger part of it.  Spending a hunk of time with anyone is just an intimate thing to do, and it really intensifies relationships. 

You can pretty much anticipate interpersonal issues when you travel with anybody.  Really, you can anticipate flat-out blow-ups with them.  Negotiating that is part of developing relationships.  You have to express your desires and recognize others’.  You have to know when you need some time to yourself.   Maybe you learn not to travel together again, too. 

You can anticipate that there are going to be good laughs, too, though and finding commonalities and enjoying downtime where someone’s just around while you’re being your off-stage self. 

Now, the people I’ve met along the way have been really important, too.  The other Ontario girls I lived with in Wisconsin, the gang of dormmates from the French course in New Brunswick, my family in California and the crazy hippy community in the woods come to mind.  There are chance encounters, too, like the old man in the pub in Derry who came over to us with a list of places we ought to see while we were there, the girl who put makeup on me in a little dive in L.A., or the Francophone gals who led me through the Montreal subway while we mangled each others’ languages.   There’s a lot to be learned from people along the way, about how people are the same and different, and connecting with people.

Hooray for the folks who are part of our adventures, for valuing relationships and for you meetuppers who get me thinking about this stuff:)

-Tara

Criminalize the Demand – Sweden’s Successful Model of Prostitution

The following is a letter I, Daniela, recently sent to Antonia Zerbisias, Feminist Supreme of the Toronto Star newspaper.  This view of prostitution is my own personal view, and not that of  “Toronto Feminists Meetup.com.” 

Dear Antonia,

      Are you aware that the vast majority of women in the sex industry have experienced incest and/or childhood sexual abuse (85%)?  These women and girls come to believe that their purpose in life is to be sexually used by the people around them – because it’s what they know.[1]

• Using the same criteria developed by scientists who study long-term health in the military, researchers concluded that 2 out of 3 women in the sex industry suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.[2]
• Ariel Levy also says in this book how the world reinforcing prostitution with women survivors of incest & sexual abuse is comparable to getting shark attack survivors to become lifeguards.
• Porn actresses re-live their childhood experiences by getting into that industry.  They are looking for attention, pleasing men, and being abused.  And that’s all they know…a lot of these women are re-living what they know how to feel.[3]
• No prostituted women I know, myself included, wants her daughter to be a prostitute. We know firsthand that it devastates the mind, body, and spirit.[4]

 Antonia, is it ethical for any human being to be bought and sold – or just women?

A former prostituted woman Trisha Baptie stated “Allowing a minority of women in prostitution to argue “choice” on the backs of the majority who are out there, in perfect storm of oppression, neglect, abuse, and human trafficking, is absurd.

Choosing exploitation doesn’t mean you’re not being exploited, and being female does not make you a feminist.[5]

      Did you know that sacred prostitution existed in ancient history – the miracle of birth coming out of a woman had finally been connected to heterosexual intercourse – and so prostitutes in sacred would have sex with men – but it was a spiritual rite.[6]

• Just because prostitution seems to be the oldest profession, there is a marked distinction between the sacred temple prostitutes of ancient history and today’s drug-addicted and sexually prostitutes!
• Arguing that prostitution has been around since the beginning of time anyways, so we may as well try to work with it, is not only inaccurate but just settling for less.
• Pedophilia and murder have always occurred too – should we simply regulate them since we know they’re going to happen anyways?  This is how low “sex worker” advocates have set the bar.

      Nip the problem in the bud with the Swedish model – criminalize the demand, decriminalize the supply

• In Amsterdam, they have had to significantly reduce their red light district because of the marked increase in organized crime since they legalized prostitution.[7]
• In Sweden, they have criminalized the demand/buyer and decriminalized the prostituted women/men – their trafficking rates have significantly decreased.[8] 
  • Feeling horny?  Too bad.  She has human rights too.
  • The systemic misogyny of legalizing and regulating prostitution fundamentally shows women and girls, men and boys, that women’s bodies are for sale to men buyers.
  • The male buyers get a governmentally-reinforced sense of entitlement to just masturbate into a woman’s body instead of in his own hand.
  • The Swedish really works!  We can do something constructive and successful about this!

The following are just 4 non-profits that have done the research regarding the harm of legalizing prostitution:

• Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, a global non-profit with consultative status with the United Nations
• Vancouver BC Rape Relief
• Salvation Army, www.TheTruthIsntSexy.ca .  The Vancouver 2010 Olympics are going to spike up prostitution and trafficking, which are directly related.
• Resist Exploitation, Embrace Dignity

 

 Human beings are not for sale!

 

---

[1] Ariel Levy, Female Chauvinist Pigs:  Women & the Rise of Raunch Culture.  Also http://jesseharold.ipower.com/spc/spcslideshow-exe.html

[2] Levy, 181.

[3] Carol Smith former porn actress interviewed in Not For Sale via http://jesseharold.ipower.com/spc/spcslideshow-exe.html

[4] Trisha Baptie, former prostituted woman http://www.straight.com/article-232404/trisha-baptie-why-prostitution-worlds-oldest-oppression-must-be-stamped-out%20

[5] Jane Riccobono on Natalie Dylan’s auction sale of her virginity.

[6] Merlin Stone, When God Was a Woman.  (non-fiction)

[7] http://action.web.ca/home/catw/readingroom.shtml?x=74355&AA_EX_Session=6d09ade2f19f544deeaa4aac695af944

[8] http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/838

Something’s Brewing!

I participated in my first ever Skype conference call this morning and damn it was fun!  Productive, too.  I thought it was illegal for meetings of any kind to be productive:P

Remember I posted last October about a national young feminist gathering -that was INCREDIBLE?  Well, they’re organizing an Ontario-wide gathering for 2010 and it sounds really exciting and now’s a great time to find out what it’s all about.  There’s a google group called Ontario RebELLEs.  I totally want everyone to join it but more than that, I recommend taking part in the conference calls.  Reading more emails is ‘blah’, but talking with a group of women who are getting a real momentum going is AWESOME.

P.S.  If you belong to any organizations that should know about this, pass it on!

-Tara

Post-meetup: Female Chauvinist Pigs

So, yesterday, we had a rollicking discussion of the book “Female Chauvinist Pigs:  Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture”  by Ariel Levy.  Controversial?  Yup.  In the neatest way.  We had lots of differences of opinion among us but fleshed them out pretty harmoniously. 

One of the interesting topics debated was about the naturalness of sexuality.  Levy talks about a lot of women and girls who aren’t expressing and fulfilling their own sexual desires;  rather they’re playing out a stereotypical ‘male script.’  At one point (and I wish I hadn’t returned the book to the library so I could get this right), she suggests something to the effect that we don’t need to learn our desires, we just need to unlearn the scripts that make us deny them. 

So, here’s the sticky bit:  some of us think that we fundamentally require help to learn about getting ourselves off and some agree with Levy.  Consider stores like Good For Her and Come As You Are who offer workshops on a variety of sexuality-related topics.  In the best of all possible worlds, would we see more of this type of community dialogue toward defining and refining our desires?  Or is it a sad comment and a social affliction that we need these resources to access our sexuality?   I thought the latter was a really interesting perspective that I hadn’t considered.  I’m pretty sure I still favour the former.  Anyway, if you’ve got anything to add, it would be great to hear. 

Thanks again, everybody.  It was a great time!

-Tara

Post-meetup: Just the Way it Is

Friday night,  we had a discussion on the topic of ‘social constructs vs. essentialism.’   The calibre of the conversation was awesome and so was the fact that though the 7 of us have very different backgrounds and knowledge of the topic, everybody was really lit up by it.  We discussed the way that certain constructs are used to control people and the way that second-wave and ‘subsequent-wave’ feminists react differently to using those constructs;   whether a social construction framework is equally useful to ‘diverse’ feminists as it is to white, middle-class(, etc.) ones;  the different definitions of essentialism that we operate with; which gendered attributes we each attribute to nature and whether that can compromise our feminism.

I wanted to talk a bit about an interesting challenge that came from the conversation.  One of the assumptions underlying the discussion was that “It’s natural” is a common rationale for maintaining a lot of gender standards:  from cooking, cleaning and babymaking to emotionality to math intelligence to physical strength to – well you get it.  Valerie pointed out that a more omnipresent argument these days may be that women have the freedom to do what they want but they are choosing to behave in accordance with the old stereotypes nonetheless.

Do you feel that “It’s natural” is passe?  What more nuanced versions of that same old argument are you hearing these days?  And what other important anti-feminist arguments should we be steeling ourselves against now?

Again, thanks so much to everyone who came out and made it a wonderful and really enriching discussion:D

-Tara

PETA’s Response to Complaint Re: Pro-Exploitation of Women Models for Super Bowl 2009 Banned Ad

Thank you for contacting PETA about our “Veggie Love” ad, which was meant to air during the Super Bowl.

 

We agree that our ad is risqué, but we maintain that it is no more provocative than the other ads promoting unhealthy products, like beer and fast-food burgers, that are frequently shown during regular primetime television and on Super Bowl Sunday. Since our ad was rejected by NBC, you won’t be seeing it during the game broadcast, but you can see it at http://www.PETA.org/content/standalone/VeggieLove/Default.aspx.

 

We often do “sexy” or “shocking” things to get the word out about animal abuse, because sadly, the media usually do not consider the facts alone worth covering. Our purpose is to stop animal suffering, and we use all available opportunities to reach millions of people with powerful messages. The situation is critical for billions of animals who are suffering on factory farms and in slaughterhouses, and our goal is to make the public think about the issues. Sometimes this requires tactics—like naked marches and colorful ad campaigns—that some people find outrageous or even “rude,” but part of our job is to initiate discussion, debate, questioning of the status quo, and of course, action.

 

We have found—and your message confirms—that people do pay more attention to our racier actions. As a result of our ad, PETA representatives have appeared on cable television talk shows with audiences numbering into the millions. This means that people across America are hearing about how animals suffer on factory farms, and judging by the spike in visits to our Web sites after we publicized our ad, this tactic is working—and more people than ever before are learning and thinking about going vegetarian.

 

As an organization staffed largely by feminist women, we would not do something that we felt exacerbated the very serious problems that women face. Our female—and male—demonstrators and models choose to participate in our actions because they want to do something to make people stop and pay attention. We believe that people should have the choice to use their own bodies to make social statements—a tactic with a long history of success.

 

Medical evidence indicates that meat and dairy products can lead to impotence because they clog the arteries that go to all organs, not just the heart. Consuming meat and dairy products is also linked to numerous other health problems, including heart disease, cancer, and strokes. Doctors and nutritionists will tell you that the best way to prevent artery blockage and other conditions that cause impotence is to avoid meat and dairy products and to eat a diet high in fiber, including plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains—in other words, a healthy vegetarian diet. To learn more about the link between eating meat and impotence, please visit http://www.GoVeg.com/impotence.asp.

 

For more thoughts on our ad, please go to http://blog.PETA.org/archives/2009/01/veggie_love.php. To learn more about going vegetarian, to order a “Vegetarian Starter Kit,” or to browse meat-free recipes for Super Bowl Sunday and every day, visit http://www.GoVeg.com.

 

Sincerely,

Carrie Edwards  CarrieE@petaf.org
PETA Foundation

Letter to Unilever about Being a Hypocrite – Dove vs. Axe Marketing Campaigns

Unilever Head Office, Paul Polman CEO
Walton Court, Station Avenue,Suite 1500, 160 Bloor Street East, Toronto  M4W 3R2
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey  KT12 1UP   http://www.unilever.com/resource/contact-form.aspx

Unilever Canada, Christopher Luxon, President and CEO
Suite 1500, 160 Bloor Street East, Toronto  M4W 3R2
Spcl-ConsumerCentre.CA-LP-Tor@unilever.com   Christopher.luxon@unilever.com  416-963-4781   Fax 416-963-5197

Dear Mr Polman and Mr Blanchard,

 

As a young woman, I am saddened by your decision to put your profits over the mental health of girls and women – you’ve demonstrated this clearly in your blatant advertising hypocrisy. 

 

Ø       I thought that Dove was a terrific organization trying to bring a lot of attention to the harmful stereotypes shoved in everybody’s faces – TV commercials, radio commercials, or billboards, you name it!

Ø       I thought that the Dove advertisements were wonderful and a refreshing change to see plastered all over my Toronto Transit System.

Ø       I thought that Dove actually had a conscience and had a shred of respect for its female customers.

 

I thought wrong.

 

 

Ø       Unilever is throwing money to the self-esteem fund for young women and girls in order to promote a healthy and self-loving body image in today’s media – saturated with sexist stereotypes

Ø       And simultaneously creating ads of women in degrading roles in which women are sex objects – to be consumed by your male viewer just like the product you’re trying to bribe him with – in this case, Axe products.

 

So you first contribute to women feeling badly about their bodies and sexuality, and THEN you promote the Dove Self-Esteem Fund to help reverse the problems that you helped produce in us to begin with.

 

 

Have some responsibility!

Ø       Do you really want to alienate half of your market plus the many males who also resent your tired, worn-out images?  

Ø       We are sick and tired of seeing fake-breasted, under-nourished, fake hair-coloured women being shoved in our faces and sold to us as desirable. What does any of this have to do with Axe body spray, anyway?

Ø       We don’t want to see sexist and exploitative ads anymore. Where have you been?

 

Your shameful tactics to make a profit are not lost on your consumers – and I’m well aware that I’m not the only person who’s fed up.

 

 

 

Response from Christopher Luxon:

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us.  I’m sure you can appreciate that as individual brands, and as a company, Unilever takes its marketing responsibilities very seriously.

 

We have a wide portfolio of everyday consumer brands across both foods and home and personal care – offering products to consumers that address different needs.  Each of our brands talks to its target consumers in a way that is relevant and that communicates its own unique proposition.

 

What unites all the products in the Unilever portfolio is our Vitality mission, which seeks to promote products that help our consumers look good, feel good, and get more out of life.

 

Unilever is a large, global company with many brands in its portfolio.  Each brand’s efforts are tailored to reflect the unique interests and needs of its audience.  The Dove brand is dedicated to making more women feel beautiful everyday by widening today’s stereotypical view of beauty and inspiring women to take great care of themselves.  As part of this commitment, the brand created the Dove Self Esteem Fund to educate and inspire girls on a wider definition of beauty.  The brand is dedicated to reach 5 million girls by 2010 with self esteem programming (in addition to the million girls they have reached thus far).

 

The Axe campaign is a spoff, of the “mating game” and men’s desire to get noticed by women and not meant to be taken literally.  This campaign is targeting guys 18-24.  Axe regularly tests its campaign with men and women who have shared they see these ads as clever and funny.

 

Consumer comments are very important and evaluated on a regular basis.  Thanks again for sharing your views with us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Christopher Luxon