Anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique Massacre

20 years ago on this day, a young man entered the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec and killed fourteen female students. Twenty-five year old Marc Lepine claimed in his suicide note to be motivated by the fact that he judged many of the women to be feminists. He also injured some men, but his target in this shooting was women, and specifically because they were women.

This is one of the reasons I would advocate for both stricter gun control laws, and education about women's rights and feminists. A killing spree such as this, where women were targeted merely for being women, is terrifying.

Please take a moment to remember these women, and if you can dedicate yourself to either of the causes, restricting gun use or educating about feminism, please do.


Read more about this incident here.

CBC Book Reviews and Sexism

I don't mean to be continually writing about sexism, but it's something that really incites me.

Okay, so we remember that I listen to CBC radio often in the morning. They have a woman guest who comes on once a week and reviews a book, that she read during the past week.
This morning she reviewed this book:

It's a collection of short stories, written in the 80s, by a woman who died of cancer in 89.
All right.
The presenter talks about this book as "ridiculous, 80s, big-shoulder-pads stuff". What does she mean?
Each story is focused on the life of a woman, or a few women. And the male characters are on the periphery, flat characters, general antagonists.
"That's almost like reverse misogyny!" says the regular radio host.

Wait. Wait. Several short stories where men are in the periphery, because the stories aren't about the men, but are about the women and suddenly we're feminazis?
After centuries of domination of men in literature, with female periphery characters.
The host and presenter talked about this book as "behind the times". What is this? NO.
Men are not always to be seen as flat people, but male characters can be on the periphery, can be flat. There are some flat characters in every book.

Stop doing this book a 'favour' by proclaiming it an outdated frenzied 80s-fueled statement of women's domination over everything. If you read the stories, you'll see that it's more about women dealing with their problems.

Celebrities Photoshopped Show Fatphobia and Sexism

I was stunned to find a link to a gallery with various celebrities "photoshopped fat" today.

Celebs: What If They Were Fat?

FATPHOBIA AND SEXISM EPITOMIZED

Things to note:

-most of the photoshopped celebs are women
-most of the photoshop is HORRIBLY DONE. It serves to portray the overweight as monstrosities, deformed, or unproportional at the least. (See: the Olsen twins, who resemble White Chicks).

-several of the photoshops, that were better done, do not look "oh my goodness morbidly obese", but rather normal woman. (See: Victoria Beckham and Kristen Bell).
-a few of the photoshops, for example the one of Katie Holmes, reinforce the stereotype of overweight women, or overweight people in general all being fatties who are spilling mustard and ketchup on their shirts.


This website gallery is disgusting and demeaning not only to the overweight and women, but to people everywhere. I've submitted the link to both Sociological Images and Jezebel for further discussion.