Rethink Your Priorities.

I regularly watch Global's supper hour news, but there are times I wonder at their lineup editor.  The opening story tonight?  The firing of NBC TV personality Matt Lauer over sexual harassment and assault allegations.  Why was this the lead story on a Canadian newscast?  They didn't even have the excuse that Lauer's an expat Canadian, as are a number of US media personalities.  So why was this the opening story?  Why not the much more important story to Canadians, the appointment of Sheilah Martin to the Supreme Court of Canada, replacing retiring Justice Beverley McLachlin?  I'm sure some Canadian celeb will turn out to be a creep in due order, and give them their required sleeze quotient.

Mocking The Clickbait 6: Education Needed.

These Pictures Are For Guys Only.

Umm, yeah, you see, there are women who call themselves lesbians.  And bisexuals.  And pansexuals.  They might also want to see pictures of "the most beautiful women on the Internet."  Or maybe not, given the kind of pictures you might be showing.  I won't be looking to find out, so as not to give you traffic. 

In Memoriam.

On this date in 1989 Marc Lepine killed the following 14 women, simply for being women.  They were all students of Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal.  He killed them simply for being women.

Geneviève Bergeron (b. 1968), civil engineering student.
Hélène Colgan (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (b. 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (b. 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (b. 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
Maryse Leclair (b. 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (b. 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (b. 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie St-Arneault (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (b. 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (b. 1958), nursing student.

Remember.

Misogyny kills.  Sexism helps it persist.  On this day in 1989 14 female students at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique were murdered by Marc Lepine for the crime of being women.


Geneviève Bergeron (b. 1968), civil engineering student.
Hélène Colgan (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (b. 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (b. 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (b. 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
Maryse Leclair (b. 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (b. 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (b. 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie St-Arneault (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (b. 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (b. 1958), nursing student.

We always remember the names of the people who perpetrate this violence.  We need to remember the names of their victims.

(This post was inspired by James Nicoll's annual memoriam posts about the Montreal Massacre.)

Still Relevant.

The line "Fear of a female planet" in Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing" was a reference to Public Enemy's 1990 album Fear of a Black Planet.  But listening to the song for the first time in a long while it struck me as still very relevant.  When even the mildest of feminist criticisms of society can still generate vitriol and threats of violence it's not hard to think that a lot of people are still afraid of a planet where women have more freedom.

Narrow Target.

Over the weekend the local paper carried an ad flyer from easyhome, a rent to own home furnishing and electronics company.  The headline on the flyer says "We're Pulling The Goalie So You Can Score!"  Said "goalie" is a young woman wearing goalie pads, a goalie mask on top of her head, blue panties, and a t shirt that ends just below her breasts.

Who is the target this ad, exactly?  It would seem to be horny teenage boys given the scantily clad and vaguely, if I may use a potentially offensive term, jailbaitish model.  Or perhaps it's horny male university freshmen, since we're just a couple of weeks into the school year and a lot of university students may have come to town with little furniture.  The "so you can score" bit of the headline strengthens my suspicion that is the case, the implication being fairly obvious that if you get stuff for your place at easyhone you're more likely to get some hot girl to hook up with you.

I have no idea what the demographics of the typical easyhome customer are.  But you'd think they'd be a bit more conscious, here in the second decade of the 21st Century, that a T&A style ad like this might turn off some sorts of potential customers.  And any business wants as many customers as possible.

Vile Tongues.

Listening to CBC Saskatchewan's noon show today I heard about an interesting project.  Madam Premier is a new Tumblr site, run by Diamond Isinger, that's collecting examples of sexist Tweets, forum posts etc. about Canadian female politicans.  And boy, has Ms. Isinger found some doozies.  As is often the case you wonder what some of those people sound like in real life.  Are they that nasty and vulgar, or does the Internet offer them the opportunity to say things they'd be wary of doing in real life? 

Hopefully some of these people will come to regret saying stuff like that.  But I doubt it.

Google Disturbs.

I'm sitting here reading a discussion about how rape is presented in fanfiction.  It reminded me of a piece of Ranma 1/2 fanfiction where a drugged Ranma is raped by Kuno.  The title escapes me, so I typed "ranma kuno rape" into Google in an effort to find it.  After I hit enter it came back with "Did you mean: ranma akane rape."  It's a disturbing enough topic to be searching for as it is, and Google comes back with that, which would seem to indicate that's a far more common combination of words.  Thanks for upping the discomfort factor.

Oh Those Lovely Double Standards.

I've been seeing this Irish Spring ad a lot lately.  It strikes me as a good example of the double standards that continue to exist in society.  You would never see an ad like this where two random men are watching a woman bathe without her knowing it.  It would be considered weird and creepy.  But it's apparently okay for women to do it.  The implication is not only are women not dangerous to men, but that a man wouldn't be upset about being seen by female voyeurs.  After all a man is supposed to always want sexual attention from women, so of course it's all right for then to do something like this and no real man would be upset by it.

Gay Saskatoon.

Yesterday's Saskatoon Star Phoenix had an article about the state of Saskatoon's "queer" community. Not surprisingly the consensus was that many "straight" people are more open minded towards gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people, but that acceptance of such groups is far from universal. Those talked to generally agree that being open about being a lesbian is a bit more accepted than being open about being a gay man. Transgendered people face the most problems, with even some in the "queer" community expressing negative attitudes towards them.

This should come as no surprise. Merely being a member of a minority group does not make one automatically accepting of other minority groups. All one has to do is think of the racism that often exists amongst those who are themselves victims of racism.

As for Saskatoon's GLBT community it should be remembered that they are individuals first, that no one size fits all. There are sure to be some who scoff at the idea of a specific "queer" culture, or in fact find the use of the term "queer" unacceptable. Sexuality is a complicated concept, tied up with one's personal worldview, character, and self perception, and the correct way for one person to deal with theirs is not necessarily the correct path for others.

Clothes And The Heroine.

Once again it's time for another visit to the wacky and often puzzling world of comic books. The shot above(sorry the quality isn't better) comes from issue 33 of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, the final issue of that Marvel publication, cover date February of 1977. It represents a couple of trends found in the '70s. First of all there's the fact that Deadly Hands was a black and white comic magazine. The '70s was the heyday of the format, with a wide range of titles published by a number of publishers, including Marvel, Warren with such titles as Eerie, and Charlton's adaptations of Space: 1999 and The Six Million Dollar Man. Since they weren't covered by the Comics Code Authority they allowed for less restrictions on story content and art, such as partial nudity.

Deadly Hands is of course a representative of the early '70s martial arts boom launched by the popularity of Bruce Lee and Enter the Dragon along with the Kung Fu TV series starring David Carridine. As with other media the comics business tried to cash in on the interest in martial arts by producing martial arts themed stories and characters. Deadly Hands debuted at the beginning of 1974, although Marvel's first martial arts oriented character Shang Chi debuted several months earlier. Interestingly DC Comics beat the rest of the industry by more than half a decade when it introduced the Legion of Superheroes member Karate Kid way back in 1966.(And of course beat the film of the same name by almost 20 years.)

The characters in the shot above are Colleen Wing and Misty Knight. Partners in the private detective firm Knightwing Restorations they are also sometimes known as the Daughters of the Dragon. They originally appeared as part of the supporting cast to Marvel's martial arts superhero Iron Fist, but were given their own solo storyline in the last 2 issues of Deadly Hands. Although the kung fu fad would eventually trickle out Misty and Colleen continued to make appearances in various Marvel titles over the years, and were given their own miniseries in 2005.

Although it's not evident in the above post Misty has an artificial arm, which gets refered to as a bionic arm in '70s stories, another '70s fad. Today it gets refered to as a cybernetic arm. As for Colleen she could be considered one of the first multiracial continuing characters in comics, being Japanese on her mother's side and mixed Chinese and Caucasian on her father's.

It was their costumes in this Deadly Hands storyline that amused me and prompted this post. Misty's is a black bodysuit with some funky zipup boots not visible in the panel above. Quite practical. But Colleen's costume? A low cut leotard topped off by a tiny top with a large "boob window." Although I don't have personal experience, being a guy, I would think you'd want a wee bit more support if you run around fighting villains with karate and swinging a katana.

You'd think that superheroine costumes would be a lot more practical these days given that there are more women in the industry and attitudes towards women have changed, and that you'd be less likely to see someone wearing something like that these days. But in fact they really haven't. Some might argue they've gotten worse. It seems that for every Ravager, whose outfit may be skin tight but is armoured and covers most of her body, you get the example of someone like Supergirl, who has worn some rather ridiculously revealing costumes in recent years. And Supergirl's outfits aren't even the worst offenders. The big US comic companies often state they want more women readers, but the way female characters are costumed is seen by some as another example of the questionable attitudes that still seem to aflict the biz.