First Feminist Action Meeting of the Year!

Come one, come all, to the first Feminist Action general members meeting/ fiesta!

This Wednesday the 28th @ 3:00PM!

New members are especially wanted ;) This is your chance to meet and hang out with existing members, learn about the club, and about some AMAZING events and initiatives planned for this school year.

Tell us your ideas and interests, what you would like to do this year!

If you like OREOS you should definitely shimmy on over because we are going to have Oreos galore!

The meeting will be held in our club office, 206 Founders, located inside the Woman's Studies Department.

Questions? E-mail us at undergrad.ws.collective@gmail.com and we'll reply ASAP.

To see the facebook event page click here.

Hope to see you there!

PS- Keep an eye open for the following posters around campus!

Porn: What Has It Taught Us? A Feminist Action Discussion Forum

The Discussion Forum is back!

Come out this thursday September 29th, at 12:00 pm, to the second floor of Scott Library, to the Learning Commons, room 202E.

Come out and chill, discuss, listen, and observe this year's first forum!

Porn permeates our understanding of sexuality and reflects social codes...whether you love it, hate it, don't agree with it, or don't know what you think about it...come talk about it!

This will be a positive, safe space, to talk and connect.

For the facebook event page click here.

Three Mike-Checks with Feminism

I wrote a first draft for this post, and it was stiff, dry, boring, essay’ish.  

I do like writing essays, but I also like saying stuff that is on my mind without running it through some structured filter.   

Why do I plan every little thing I am going to say?   

I barely understand most of the theoretical nomenclature I use, so why do I insist on using it?   

At this moment, I feel like a cheesy morning news anchor who gets to work, takes one look at a lame joke on the teleprompter and says, “Fuck it.”   

Lol, it feels good saying that.  

 So rather than trying to sound like someone who knows what he is talking about I’ll be totally honest and say that I am just trying to figure things out.   

There's been a shift in my feminism that I want to explore.  For a long time I thought I was really cool and progressive because I was a feminist, but the title isn't enough.  

A lot of my performance (by that I mean my actions, gestures, etc) still need to be interrogated.  And the reason for this post is not to guilt trip myself; I guess the reason for writing this down is that I want to add to the conversation about male feminism.  

The ideas, thoughts and challenges of other male feminists have helped me, so I want to give something back.  These are some of my experiences, mistakes, and lessons.  

 I want to talk about some moments that exist in my mind as flash backs.  These moments all went down after I started learning about feminism, and...... they're kind of embarrassing.   

I try not to think back and feel guilty; the feeling is more in line with that wave of awkwardness that comes from thinking about a bad date, or a sloppy first kiss.  

I took my first Women’s Studies class last summer, and I have a TON of positive memories about the experience.  But, when I reflect I also distinctly remember feeling very smug about being one of the only guys.  I would sort of half listen to the class discussion, and while I was listening I would carefully formulate these really verbose responses.  

Then I would put my hand up, consciously kind of drop my voice a bit to give it an “air of western rationality”, and I would recite this nicely memorized contribution.  In reality, they were pretty simple talking points; I just dressed them up in a bunch of fancy words.   

Oh man, talk about intellectual vanity!  I also distinctly remember hanging out with a classmate on the last day of summer school, and she started telling me about how she was going to treat herself to a $30 pedicure.  I said, “Why?  You know guys don’t even notice that stuff, right?”  She (in a friendly, joking tone) responded, “Why do you think I am doing this for men?  Haven’t you learned anything in this class?”   

That reallllly dragged my self-righteousness down to earth.  It made me realize that taking a women’s studies class does not give me license to start saying, “Guys are problems, but I’m different!”  (I also now realize that saying “guys are problems” is a crazy oversimplification, but these lessons came much later)  

So those are my sloppy first date memories, but feminism called me back! 

 

After my summer class ended I was fortunate enough to meet an amazing team running a campus feminist group – Scary thought: if it wasn’t for Melanie, Alyssa and Raisa I would be a marketing major this year :/ .  

I remember seeing everyone for the first time at a campus safety meeting just before the school year kicked off.  So I am sitting in this meeting, listening to everyone speak, and I started thinking to myself, “You’re just passively sitting here, say something!  Take control and say something smart.  This is your first impression, don’t screw it up.”  So I came up with something simple and redundant, dressed it up nicely, and said it.   

After the meeting we were walking towards the bus lanes at York and someone suggested going for beers at the campus pub.  At that moment I wanted to go very badly, but this is exactly what ran through my mind; “Ok, you made a solid first impression! They think you know your stuff, you have successfully hidden your suburban lameness.  Evacuate before you screw up!”   

So what did I do?  

I walked away...  

The final club flash back I want to share involves a person with whom I had a tiny bit of a crush. I liked this person, and as I do with everything in life, I made this plan in my mind.  It wasn’t anything elaborate, more or less a faint sketch of the boundaries for my actions, all so that I would look cool, confident, in control, etc.   

Anyway, I get to this Halloween party which we are both attending, and I have this mini-meltdown. I was so concerned with how my performance and I was so scared of screwing up in front of my friends in the club and my crush that I ended up just retreating into myself.  

 I threw away a chance to talk to a person I liked all because I was afraid of appearing less than ideal.  I guess that is the night I started to think about throwing away the teleprompter.  (side note: Today, I am very fortunate to consider this person a friend).

I think these flashbacks show that I have, and continue to struggle with an element of cognitive dissonance.   

My actions aren’t always in alignment with my feminist values.   

When I speak in class, and I chose to dress things up in all of these fancy words, I am using language like a weapon.  I am calling forth the language of privilege, and by doing so who am I silencing?   

This is a single social gesture which I must pay more attention to.  And sometimes my actions produce a weird dynamic that I am only now beginning to understand -- me oppressing me.    

When I act the way I think people want me to act (whether this is as a man, as a student etc) I am burying the conditions for great experiences and relationships.  These flashbacks are not dramatic turning points, but they are markers that I can use to know that I am on the right path.  

Today, I am going for beers after the committee meeting.  Today, I am going to ditch the posturing, and I am going to talk to the girl (or guy) at the party.  

Feminism is opening up the world to me – after all, would I have ever had the courage to write this post a year ago? Absolutely not!  Feminism is telling me that I don’t have to carefully plan everything I say, sometimes I can just be.  

-Michael     

 

Oh, the Discourse!: The Royal Wedding and Yada Yada

I couldn't think of a better way to break my blog-ginity than with an essay-style rant dovetailing the coat-tails of the recent Royal Wedding. I think it'd be wise if we did our best to reflect on the discursive deployment mediated through the coverage.  

By discursive deployment I mean the fundamentally political ideas communicated through the cultural production of the wedding.  I strongly believe that the interplay between the ritualized construction and Western commoditization of the Royal Wedding conjointly operated to produce a Christian European white patriarchal heterocentric discursive deployment.  

 To begin, I will reflect on the elements which played out on the social stage of the Wedding.  Of the thousands of official guests an overwhelming majority were white.  The power of this stilted representation was precisely that it was not acknowledged, thus whiteness was discursively universalized in the context of the production.  

In addition, a clear gender divide was mediated through the social signifiers presented through fashion.  In general, the female identified guests draped themselves in extravagant clothing, and (based on the tenor of the “expert” analysts) their social value was contingent on the success of their feminine aesthetic embellishment (think big decorative hats!).  

In contrast, a notable percentage of the male identified guests wore military uniforms, and in their case the social value (once again allocated by a procession of analysts) was earned on the basis of their conduct in the public arena (think military accolades - a concrete embodiment of historically masculine value).  

To take a single example, the camera panned to David and Victoria Beckham and after a detailed evaluation of Victoria’s clothing the analyst drew attention to a single aspect of David’s clothing which indicated that he is a member of the British Order.  

The signifiers arranged and deployed, and the analysis which mediated consumption drove a divisive speak between the masculine and feminine, with the former gauged according to public conduct, and the latter judged relative to Eurocentric conceptions of feminine beauty.  

After a thorough gendered analysis of the guests the cameras spent several minutes filming the interior of the Westminster abbey, mediating the consumption of every detail of gilded splendor.  A procession of clergymen spoke at the event, and collectively they weaved connections between heterosexuality and spiritual fulfillment, Eurocentrism and global hope.  

The tenor of this oratory was that the union between a man and a woman is divinely ordained for the increase of mankind, and that in the face of contemporary global peril this naturally ordained union is a beacon of hope to all countries.   

The totality of social signifiers and discursive formations deployed on the social stage of the Royal Wedding collectively expressed a body of politics with embedded notions of white, Christian, Eurocentric, patriarchal, and heterosexual supremacy. 

The social stage of the Wedding was, at its core, a ritual.  A ritual carries no power within itself, rather the power stems from the resonance it strikes in a broader social context.  Thus, a more detailed reflection on the Western packaging of the wedding is necessary.  

The pervasive focal point of the Western coverage was the wife to be, Kate Middleton. This emphasis was made explicate before the ceremony even started – Kate’s car had modified windows which facilitated a degree of voyeurism unattainable with any other vehicle, a calculated move to accommodate media saturation.  

Prince William and all other members of the Royal family were arranged in the abbey far sooner than the bride, and when Kate made her entrance a CTV analyst was practically gushing, “Born a Kate, now a Katherine.  A four minute walk up the aisle and into a different life.”  Another analyst said “The cut of her dress makes her look tiny, and her waist is cinched.  She simply radiates confidence!”  

Later in the ceremony, when William made his vow the camera was trained solely on him, and when Kate made her vow she was given a few frames of airtime before the camera found William once again.  Through the lens of the Western media Kate operated as a fluid social unit negotiating integration into a static institution (physical the Westminster abbey, socially the British monarchy).   

The camera followed her as she was paraded down the crowded streets of London, and her procession walked down the aisle surrounded by a sea of motionless Monarch’s and dignitaries.  

The commentary of the CTV analyst struck a note within a very specific narrative; Kate is the fortunate “commoner” plucked from obscurity, and she alone has the opportunity to fall into the arms of a prince charming.  

Thus, it follows that the camerawork at the altar was guided by the feminine gaze – we saw William clearly, and, for the most part, only the back of Kate’s head was visible, which effectively made her a site of projection for every female (or male) identified person who has ever dreamed of being wisped away by a prince.  

But to delve deeper, I contend that in the context of this production the personal particularities of Prince William were insignificant, rather the Prince operated as an institutional fixture, more specifically a personified emblem of a specific power structure.  

The surface fantasy was falling into the arms of a prince, the underlying foundation was being brought into the fold of a power structure; both dimensions operated as deeply historic discursive productions.  

Therefore, the Western media coverage of Will and Kate’s wedding was a staged fantasy of sorts, whereby the (predominately) female identified viewer was both witness and participant to a feminine “commoner’s” socially recognized alignment with a power structure.  

The interplay between the social stage and the mediated Western consumption of the wedding reveals the aggregate discursive deployment of the wedding; the apex of feminine fulfillment is being plucked from obscurity and heralded into the confines of an established power structure. 

More specifically, along the lines of the Western media coverage, the lucky girl is chosen on the merit of her European feminine aesthetic (recall Kate and her “cinched” waste), and the established power structure has a very specific texture – white, Eurocentric, patriarchal and heteronormative.    

In closing, I would like to very briefly talk about a person who was the subject of one of the human interest stories shown during the CTV pre-wedding coverage.  The female identified person was around seventy, from Calgary, and a lifelong Royal enthusiast.  

When she talked about the Royal family her joy and excitement was palatable, and it made me realize that her relation to the concept of the British monarch is something I cannot relate to.  Being of a different time she has navigated a social space steeped in collective values which facilitated a totally different relationship with the Monarch.  

To generalize, the people of my generation will necessarily consume this event in a different way relative to this older person from Calgary.  I think we need accurately map the youth interpretation to the discursive deployment of this wedding,  and based on the findings perhaps we will have a snapshot of the dominant discourse on gender, race, and sexuality specific to (broadly speaking) the social epoch of the youth of the contemporary West.  

The product being offered to us is sexist, racist, and heterocentric but the site of production is our collective interpretation, and this is what must be mapped!

Over and out, 


Michael.

UPDATE ON COP AND "SLUT" COMMENT - ACTION!

 

Hey everyone,

We all know/experienced the barrage of comments and discussion after the cop inflicted his violence on the York campus, in a line of systemic violences upon us as students and community members.

Here is your update on what’s being done and how you can get involved!

A collective has been formed at York comprised of members representing student services, groups, and general members of the community. 

This collective is known as GENVep (GENder Violence Eradication Project @ York).

If you have any questions/comments or want to get involved directly, please email GENVep at: genvepatyork@gmail.com

In order to address the various key modes of thoughts around this issue, we have developed a diversity of tactics which include (but are not limited to)

1)     OPIRG and CWTP have created a “COPS OFF CAMPUS” letter which is going to be sent to media,circulated around, and will also function as a petition to get on/off campus signatures to end the violence and lack of safety created by the increased presence of cops at York.

2)     An ongoing, long-term sustainable effort to change the CULTURE OF VIOLENCE @ York. This will include media reports by various students/groups sent to both York and Toronto media sources. 

This will include initiatives to see the “SAFETY” recommendations by the third party group METRAC implemented at York to see REAL change in the mishandling of security and safety at York. Here we want to see DIALOGUE between York community members, students, police, security, and administration (in the forms of panels, meetings, etc.) 

This is our school and ACCOUNTABILITY and TRANSPARENCY need to occur.

3)     COMMUNICATION TACTICS. To address those who have accessibility concerns, those who live outside of the direct community, and to keep an ongoing discussion around this, we will be employing a number of communication methods, including

Letter Writing Campaign (a general template which people can use and send to authorities)

Educational material (a “History of Violence” postcard detailing the misdoings of York security and Toronto police, possible pamphlets and other material to be distributed throughout the entire period on and off campus and at events, in the effort to inform the public of our grounding discussion/understandings and what we want to see happen).

Guerilla Postering – both on and off campus, we support and encourage individual folks who express their feelings and politics on guerilla postering. 

4)     PROTESTS.

One protest at YORK, to address the varying opinions from “cops off campus”, to concerns over policing/safety, to the violations and the mishandling of marginalized groups. 

We would love to see other students/groups band together on this, to create a visible stance by the community that we are TIRED and EXHAUSTED of this long list of mistreatment and ignorance.

One protest DOWNTOWN TORONTO, CULMINATING AT THE TORONTO POLICE HEADQUARTERS. which will include groups from different pockets of the community (TORONTO-WIDE), as well as those who have differing opinions on this (from those who don’t see the police as a source of safety and want to undo the erasure of bodies by the police, to those who want to demand real change in the way of training and etc.). 

The goal here is to show on a wide-scale level (not only on one campus) the community members from the city who SEE the culture of violence within policing and want REAL CHANGE, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND ACTION. 

The initial promotion for this will occur online, and in the media, at the International Womens Day march at Ryerson. We will be marching in a “York” contingent at the IWD march as well. This will lead up to aligning with the protest SlutWalk Toronto (url), which will walk from Queens Park to Toronto Police Headquarters.

TIMELINE

Mar 2 – Community Safety Council (meeting to discuss how to implement METRAC’s safety recommendations)

March 5 – Banner and Postering Party!

March 12 – International Womens Day march – with York contingent! (DETAILS ABOUT IWD COMING SOON!)

Apr 3 – SlutWalk Toronto – PROTEST AT POLICE HEADQUARTERS.

Throughout March: letter writing, meetings, possible panels between community members, multiple efforts to open and continue this discussion.

we have split into subgroups:

a) outreach/allies/Toronto initiatives 

b) on campus initiatives

c) media blitz

If you are interested in making your voice heard and channelling your concerns into real action, please contact us and let us know which area you are interested in being involved with.

DO YOU WANT TO GET INVOLVED?

Next opportunity: BANNER/POSTER PARTY!

MARCH 5th

11:30-2:30, GSA council office, 433 Student Centre.

Come out and get feisty, help create the banner we will use in the International Womens Day march as a York contingent, and also create guerrilla posters and other materials! 

Channel your frusrtration, activism and concern into beautiful works of art to be used on and off campus!

TL;DR

If you wanna protest, we will be doing our toronto-wide city march, culminating at the POLICE HQ, with SLUTWALK TO. http://www.slutwalktoronto.com/

subscribe to stay alerted to meetups and updates.

+++++to get INVOLVED ++++

contact genvepatyork@gmail.com for YORK INITIATIVES 

contact alyssa or SlutWalkTO for TORONTO initiatives

-Alyssa

Toronto Police 'Slut" Slur is a SYSTEMIC Discourse That Should Not Be Forgotten

I have to say I am amazed by the powerful pulling together of the feminist community and all communities during this TRAUMATIZING time. 

While we are pulling together in action and solidarity we need to keep in mind that this 'victim-blaming,' misogynist, sexist, uninformed, patriarchal discourse that was shown by the slut slur is not merely isolated to the police force...but traverses into all other societal institutions as well.  This language can be seen within many forms of social media, rape reports, LANGUAGE, gender, sexuality, sex ed courses, some parental teachings.. to name but a few examples.

I think this presents the feminist community, queer community, humanist community and ALL for an opportunity to come together to EDUCATE and MAKE SOME NOISE about these deeply ingrained ideologies that have been formulated on a long withstanding, complex history. Further, it will allow us to to force accountability of York University, all universities, and the Toronto Police force.

We should all recall through the powerful work of Jane Doe after her stranger danger rape in 1989 the changes in major legislation she allowed surrounding police practices on rape, laws regarding women in the court room during their rape trials and most importantly EDUCATED about rape discourse. The fact of the matter is however, not disregarding her passion and hard work, these discourses are STILL in play since 1989 and no substantive changes have been made since then.

Further, we should recall that during this period Jane Doe changed the law to force the police to warn women in the community when there is a serial rapist in the area. However, as we can see at York University this summer it took the police THREE MONTHS to warn women that there was a serial rapist in The Village after multiple REPORTED rapes as it was not deemed as a threat to the community until AFTER they had a male in custody.  Who defines what this 'threat' to community is then? Quite obviously, the misogynist tactics embedded within the police force. (and there are MANY other examples that could be named but I will leave it at this)

It is during this time of action that we need to recall of these this tactics employed by Jane Doe  have not fully been brought into fruition.  It is during this time we need to recall the systemic HISTORY of language, legislation, medical practices, religious morality, capitalistic economic structure and gendered violence etc... 

Bravo for solidarity, bravo for strength and courage. Make some fucking noise!! 

-Melanie 

No More Institutionally Inflicted Violence on the York Campus

  PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! INCLUDING PEOPLE OFF YORK CAMPUS AS WELL 

http://www.excal.on.ca/news/don%E2%80%99t-dress-like-a-slut-toronto-cop/

By now I'm sure most of you have read the article or heard word.

(Essentially during a "campus safety information session" a Toronto Police officer suggested that to not get raped, you should "not dress like a slut".)

What I'm proposing is ACTION done in regards to this. 

While an apology may come about, what an apology does is BASICALLY say - "we can continue to enact any type of verbal violence we want to - and WILL do so. IF we get caught or if ENOUGH noise is made, we'll rescind on the statement."

 So yes - I'm choosing to call this an ACT OF VIOLENCE - it is not a "mistake", an "error", a "surprise", an "oversight" as the various bodies will try to frame it. 

Regardless of the' how', the end result is YET ANOTHER  hateful, misogynistic, disgusting message sent out into the York university campus, the city surrounding. another piece of violence which works to further disarm, degrade, and debase.

As a York student, I'm exhausted to say the least. Exhausted that despite ALL OF WHAT HAS OCCURRED - that there is STILL another case of where sexual violence and hate crime is NOT TREATED PROPERLY. 

Can York get some more research up in here? Can they maybe take one less annoying, accosting corporate schmoe who somehow manages to accost us daily as we try to get some education - and train them to do proper research? 

Perhaps they can share this researcher with the Toronto Police - and he can pick a better person to send to teach students about "CAMPUS SAFETY"? 

As someone with a brain and eyes, I can't even begin to discuss how outrageous, how IRONIC, and how flat-out outdated this violence was. (occuring during a "campus safety" speech. Ironically, this guy ended up causing more violence than he did safety.) 

As a Toronto citizen, I expect better of the police force that my money goes towards. I expect that the force which represents one of the most diverse communities on the planet (and here I'm not simply referring to race/colour) has the wherewithal, intelligence, and insight to better train their staff, and to better PICK the staff who will represent them.

As someone who champions intelligence and logic, I bemoan the fact that York University and the Toronto Police are becoming SUPERSTARS at grossly misinformed, misaligned actions that do nothing but further inflict systemic violence upon their own people. That they are actually not taking extra efforts to say - "hmm, why do I have such a horrible reputation among my own community members" and try to ADDRESS and FIX this the core reasons.

YES this was on the part of the Toronto Police - but I would expect York to make a better effort on this - perhaps get a copy of the speech the police officer would say, perhaps be present when they pick an officer to speak, etc.

This is not an isolated incident. Here we have York championing their "SAFETY AWARENESS' with phrases like "OWN IT! [your safety]", which let us know in bright font that YES - YORK IS LETTING YOU KNOW, ANY CRIME COMMITTED WAS THE FAULT OF THE VICTIM! 

Then we have York making the "oopsie" of sanctioning advertisement by one of the Vanier rapists. Oops! they said.

What we really have here is the end result of an entire pathway of cognitiion laden with misogyny, hate, ignorance - the type of mind that wouldn't think to research into a company before throwing up their ad for a body of over 60,000 people to see.

We've experienced ENOUGH violence done by the so called benevolent rulers we submit to.

I'd like everyone to please imagine - imagine the feeling that one of the victims of the Vanier rapes would have felt, walking through her campus and coming across the ad for the "Live Green" card. I'd like you to imagine how a person who experienced sexual assault would feel when a body of authority tells her in a place of "higher learning" - it was your fault. 

With these actions, whether intentional or not, these institutional bodies rendered a feeling of worthlessness, of vile disgust within these people.

 

With this action, the Toronto police officer ERASED the systemic reasons for rape, violence, hate crimes.

He ERASED all the violence, hateful remarks, disgusted looks experienced by ANY body of marginalization. 

With an action, I hope we can restore at least a smidgeon of the respect lost for victims of sexual assault that day. 

With action, we can make VISIBLE again the people who have experienced assault and rape on campuses, only to be told it was their fault, be left in the dirt by their administration and their police force. 

....

If we are to define a person who is a "slut" as one who "demeans themselves before a source of power", I'd like to posit that when this officer brought his disgusting, bile-filled, ignorant, hateful, woman-bashing words onto our campus, he let us know that he's a "slut" - a slut to archaic notions, to stupidity, to the institutions which have disciplined and regulated bodies since their inception.

If we are to define someone who is a slut as one who "asks to get fucked", I'd like to posit that when this officer opened his mouth , he made himself a slut - because I'm about to fuck him up so hard.

---

I'm asking for us to band together - in the name of all the REPORTED cases of violence (verbal, physical, metaphorical, spiritual, etc)  in Toronto and at York, in the name of all the UNREPORTED, IGNORED, TOSSED-ASIDE, DOWNPLAYED cases of violence.

What can we do?

- What I think would really make noise and help solifidy our message is a PROTEST: this can be through a constant barrage of letters sent each and every day to the 31 Division,or  can be a organized protest in FRONT of the 31 Division and/or at York. SIGNS, banners, etc with facts about rape (real facts, something the officer apparently does not know about); a neverending ASSAULT on the police station who trained him and the officer himself.

- This needs to be a PHYSICAL protest. Mulling about in our groups and talking on facebook will only have limited effect; we've got enough momentum that it can translate into real, powerful, message-sending people power.

 

- Please spread the word to people on/off campus, people who don't live in the city but have friends who do, etc. Please talk about this act of violence on your blog, on your twitter, to your local volunteer group, etc.

Letting this one slide only works to reinforce this officer's beliefs, letting him know he's in the 'right'. It's just unfortunate that in this day we still have to deal with this type of ignorance. Yet, we very much do have to deal with it in our day-to day lives, and thus letting the systemic sources of our fuckin oppression know that it's not going to pass this time is something we've got to take up. 

Please contact me or leave a message here if you are interested in taking part in this protest.

- Alyssa 

email: alyssa.teee@gmail.com

facebook: Alyssa T