Gender & Sex

*Note: This is not an up-to-date listing, see elsewhere on this site as well.*

Articles:

The Bedford case and decriminalization of sex work: What it’s all about

A video and accompanying article, as well as resource links, explaining the positions of sex worker rights’ organizations and allies in advocating for the safety and human rights of sex workers in Canada, specifically in regards to the Bedford case being heard at the Supreme Court.

Vigils honour missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls in Canada
– includes video interviews with Bridget Tolley and Kristen Gilchrist of FSIS, and with Michele Audette, president of Native Women’s Association of Canada.

“It’s different when an Aboriginal girl is murdered or missing,” says Bridget Tolley of Families of Sisters in Spirit. “You know, nobody cares, it seems like. Media doesn’t care, we don’t get media coverage when this happens. We do our own searches. I don’t know why, it seems like people just don’t care about us.”

Shifting patterns of gender relations: Interview with ‘Masculinities’ author Raewyn Connell, from Women’s Worlds 2011 conference

She describes masculinities (plural) as “not only individual behaviours, but — I think this is very important — social practices, organized social practices by groups and interactions too” as part of what constructs the powerful meanings of masculinities.

“When you’re looking at masculinities, you’re not only looking at an individual personality or character, you’re also looking at football teams, corporations, armies, governments, and so forth, all of which are involved in constructing gender,” she said.

Asking big questions of feminisms: Edyta Just at Women’s Worlds 2011

“Seeing how the knowledge is made, how the world is functioning – and becoming free, by asking questions, by not buying everything, with this kind of a critical approach.”

She is now a professor at the University of Lodz in Poland, and prior to that conducted research and taught for 10 years at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She’s always telling her students that “there’s not a feminism, there’s feminisms, in plural,” — but she notes that’s her own perspective and she doesn’t want to dominate anyone else’s perspective.

Ottawa’s mayor declares anti-choice ‘Respect for Life Day’

Jeanette Doucet, ‘officially’ a pro-choice activist for seven years (20 years unofficially) who blogs at momforchoice.wordpress.com (and tweets at @momforchoice), said that “last time I checked, my rights to choice and to safe abortion is a human right. The other thing, that requests for proclamations can’t be politically or religiously motivated, also doesn’t ring true: we know that in 1988 they struck down laws against abortion on the basis that it was against ‘life, liberty and security of the person’, so our right to an abortion is enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Audio:

Learning More About Sex

In this interview, Dee Dussault of Follow Your Bliss discusses perspectives on sexuality, the Sex & Consciousness Experiential Symposium, and her counseling / coaching practice.
(the interview is online at SoundCloud)

Videos:

Masculinities – Raewyn Connell interview at Women’s Worlds 2011

Interview with Eternia, “Canada’s dopest female MC”
E: “To me, even the idea of feminine and masculine traits is kinda, you know, that’s fluid, it’s a little bit less static.”