April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

feminism

December 6th. Just a date.

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rose in the snow
Don’t Mourn, Organize!

December 6th. Just a date. Maybe an early Christmas party or a school play. Perhaps a time to start putting out decorations or maybe – a time to purchase candles and roses. A purchase not made in anticipation of a celebration but one made in memorial of 14 women who were gunned down simply because they were women and they were there.

December 6th, 1989 at l’École Polytechnique de Montréal
Geneviève Bergeron
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Barbara Maria Klucznik
Maryse Leclair
Annie St.-Arneault
Michèle Richard
Maryse Laganière
Anne-Marie Lemay
Sonia Pelletier
Annie Turcotte

became victims of hatred. Victims of misogyny. Lights shining on the ugly truth that women had not yet been fully accepted as equals.

Twenty years on can we really say that much has changed?

In 1982 MP Margaret Mitchell rose to educate the house on domestic violence, she told them how one in 10 Canadian women were victims of domestic assault the response by the male MPs was laughing and shouting.

In 2009 during the height of the H1N1 Flu scare MP Carolyn Bennett rose to ask a question on behalf of a troubled constituent. The woman in question was pregnant and had received conflicting advice as to the safety of the H1N1 vaccine, she was looking to her government for help. The response? Laughter, derision, hooting and hollering. 27 years later women’s concerns are still seen as a joke.

When Margaret Mitchell was elected in 1979 [30 years ago] women accounted for approximately 10% of elected MPs. Today that number has risen to approximately 21% that is an abysmal amount of representation and a sad commentary on the last 30 years.

This year as you remember and mourn the loss of 14 of our sisters remember also the words of Joe Hill; Don’t Mourn, Organize!

Help Equal Voice to get more women elected, fight for strong gun control, support women’s reproductive choice, donate to a local shelter, help a woman or a young girl learn tech skills or use those skills to help others.

In the words of Emma Goldman;
“No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution… revolution is but thought carried into action.”

Devaluing Teenage Girls

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This is so well said and needs said more often;

“As soon as teenage girls start to profess love for something, everyone else becomes totally dismissive of it. Teenage girls are open season for the cruelest bullying that our society can dream up. Everyone’s vicious to them. They’re vicious to each other. Hell, they’re even vicious to themselves. It’s terrible.
“So if teenage girls have something that they love, isn’t that a good thing? Isn’t it better for them to find some words they believe in, words like the ‘fire-proof and fearless’ lyrics that Jacqui wrote? Isn’t it better for them to put those words on their arm in a tattoo than for them to cut gashes in that same skin? Shouldn’t we be grateful when teenage girls love our work? Shouldn’t that be a fucking honor?

“It’s used as the cheapest, easiest test of crap, isn’t it? If teenage girls love a movie, a book, a band, then it’s immediately classified as mediocre shit. Well, I’m not going to stand for that. Someone needs to treat them like they’re precious, and if nobody else is ready to step up, I guess it’s up to us to put them on the path to recognizing that about themselves.”

—
a character from The Devil’s Mixtape.

Harper Knows Best

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Ever wondered if the whole Father Knows Best sweater vest persona Harper puts on is just a show to appeal to his social conservative base? Well wonder no more! Ladies it turns out he really isn’t that into you.

The government of Prime Minister David Cameron believes the succession laws are antiquated and should be modernized, but they need the agreement of Commonwealth countries who maintain the Queen as the head of state, including Canada. New Zealand has agreed to the changes. But our prime minister, Stephen Harper, refuses. What twaddle.

Asked about all this on the campaign trail, Harper made it clear he wants to keep things as they are: leaving the monarchy to the eldest son, even if he has six older sisters. “The successor to the throne is a man,” he said. “The next successor to the throne is a man.” He says he has no intention of reopening debate on the monarchy, or any other part of our constitution.

One wonders if he simply tolerates the Queen, you know her missing that dangly bit and all.

h/t @anndouglas

International Women’s Day – The Canadian Numbers

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Some people of privilege believe that feminism has done it`s job, the battle is won, nothing to see here folks!

here is the reality by the numbers

Homicides

198 – the number of female victims of homicide in Canada in 2004. On average, 182 females were killed every year in Canada between 1994 and 2003.

62 – the number of female victims of spousal homicide in 2004. Of these, 27 women were killed by their legally married husband, 20 by a common-law partner and 15 by a separated or divorced husband. Among solved homicides involving victims aged 15 and older in 2004, one-half of all women were killed by someone with whom they had an intimate relationship at some point, either through marriage or dating. The comparative figure for men is 8%.

13 – the number of women killed by a current or former boyfriend in 2004.

Violence against women

7% – the estimated percentage of women in a current or previous spousal relationship who experienced spousal violence during the five years up to and including 2004. Rates of spousal abuse were highest among certain segments of the population: those aged 15 to 24; those in relationships of three years or less; those who had separated; and those in common-law unions.

23% – the percentage of female victims who reported that the most serious form of violence experienced was being beaten, choked, or threatened by having a gun or a knife used against them.

44% – the percentage of female victims of spousal abuse who indicated that they suffered injury because of violence, with 13% seeking medical attention.

38% – the percentage of women who reported the abuse to the police who sought a restraining order.

24% – the percentage of Aboriginal women who said they had suffered violence from a current or previous partner in the five-year period up to 2004. The overall rate of Aboriginal spousal violence (both men and women) was 21% during this period, compared with 6% for the non-Aboriginal population.

Stalking

11% – percentage of women aged 15 and older who stated that they were stalked in a way that caused them to fear for their safety or the safety of someone close to them. This was the equivalent of 1.4 million women. Among the victims of stalking, 9% of women reported that they had been stalked by either a current or previous spouse, or common-law partner.

Shelters for abused women

58,486 – the number of women who sought refuge in one of 473 shelters across Canada between April 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004. Overall, there were 543 known shelters in Canada providing residential services to abused women and their children. Of these, 473 participated in the Statistics Canada survey.

76% – the percentage of women who sought refuge in a shelter on April 14, 2004 who were escaping abuse. The vast majority of women staying in shelters to escape abuse were fleeing psychological or emotional abuse. Almost 7 out of 10 reported physical abuse, 50% threats, 46% financial abuse, 31% harassment and 27% sexual abuse. About one in three abused women in shelters on April 14, 2004 had reported their most recent abusive incident to police. Of the women who had stayed in shelters previously, 40% had been there once in the previous year, 38% had been there two to four times and about 1 in 10 had been to a facility five times or more during the previous year.

221 – the number of women, along with 112 children who could not, or would not be accommodated at one of 93 shelters on April 14, 2004. Of these 93 shelters, 62% reported the reason for referring them elsewhere was because the shelter was full, down from 75% in 2001/02. Other reasons for turning away clients relate to problems with alcohol and substance abuse as well as mental health issues.

3,519 – the number of women admitted to 31 on-reserve shelters between April 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004.

source stats can

[I refuse to link to Barbara – fucking – Kay, Wente is bad enough]

December 6th

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In memorial of the 14 bright young lives extinguished this day at Ecole Polytechnique and all the other women and girls who have lost their lives to violence simply because they were women.