Realistic images of women make a real difference

My mum regularly goes to England to visit her family there and she always brings me back a British magazine. Six years ago I asked her to look for a feminist magazine because I wanted to check out the lady-power publications from across the pond. What I ended up getting was a lesbian magazine called Diva.

My mum didn't realize she had bought me a lady-lovers mag until said she decided to read it on the plane ride home, which is an amusing mental picture for me. Anyhow, from that year on, she always brings me back a copy of Diva, and I've grown to really like the magazine even though I'm straight as an arrow.

The most recent issue I received was from May 2012 and I was thoroughly impressed. I'm really passionate about the representation of women in the media - in particular, the over-saturation of impossibly perfect, highly Photoshopped images of women that are jammed down our throats every day. Over exposure to these images of super skinny women with no pores, fat, wrinkles, imperfections or stray hairs creates an an unrealistic beauty standard, which results in many women feeling inadequate.

That's why I was so excited when I saw these models in Diva magazine - they made me feel great! It's not very often that I feel good about myself after looking at women in magazines, but this time I did. It was a fantastic feeling. And I know that it wasn't just me "reading too deeply" into the images, because a friend of mine flipped through the magazine and upon seeing the images said, "HEY! These girls are like... normal! It's so awesome!"

In my personal experiences chatting with women about this subject, I find that women are crying out for images like this in the media. Are you listening, magazine editors? WE WANT MORE REALISTIC IMAGES OF WOMEN!

This is perfectly illustrated by the recent online petition started by 14-year-old Julie Bluhm. She requested that Seventeen magazine print just one unaltered photo spread per month. Over 70,000 people have signed the petition, but Seventeen magazine has refused to budge.

The women in Diva magazine's spread are both slim and have great skin - basic requirements for most models - but they are softer, fuller and their "imperfections" (such as moles) have not been erased by Photoshop. They convey a healthy, natural look and their skin isn't plastic-like. Their faces aren't caked in makeup and their hair styles look like something I could actually achieve at home and feel comfortable wearing in public.

I'm sure that these images have been touched up with Photoshop to some extent (it's pretty much standard in the industry), but it's not ridiculous. They are a more realistic, down-to-earth representation of women. Kudos to Diva magazine for using models like this. I can't wait until we see more of this in all magazines.

A homeless woman's journey from the streets to security

As the host of a feminist radio program, I recently had the opportunity to interview a formerly homeless woman who now lives in a social housing complex built especially for women like her. Cindy is an aboriginal woman who has lived homeless on-and-off for a large part of her adult life.

Cindy’s long, stringy hair is black and grey with split ends. She’s a short woman with big brown eyes and a lifetime worth of wrinkles, although I’d estimate she’s only in her late 40’s. She looks like someone who’s lived a hard life.

Like so many homeless women, Cindy became homeless after fleeing abusive relationship. She stayed with her abuser for years despite the fact that she knew he was no good. She relied on him for income and was terrified to report his abuse to the police, for fear he’d be jailed for a night and then return to her angrier and more violent. “You can ask me or any other homeless woman why we stayed with those men” she said, “and we’ll all tell you that we’d rather be in a relationship with an abusive man than be out there on the streets by ourselves.”

She was stuck between two terrible options: stay and be abused, or leave and be homeless. Eventually things became so bad she had no choice but to run away and the price she paid was living on the streets of Calgary. Homeless women face a myriad of challenges above and beyond the struggles experienced by homeless men.  There are few shelters exclusively for women and mixed shelters are an uninviting place. Homeless women are at great risk for sexual and physical violence – both on the street and within a homeless shelter.

Matters are further complicated and challenging if the woman has children. She doesn’t want them in a shelter environment and she certainly doesn’t want the authorities to notice them for fear the children will be apprehended. That’s a big reason why so many women stay in abusive relationships, or live as “concealed homeless” people – those who sleep on a friend’s couch, in a family member’s basement or live out of a car.

Cindy’s life changed when she decided to join a program at the YWCA that aimed to teach homeless women life skills. “I took every program they offered” she said, “I wanted them to see that I really wanted things to change.” She dedicated herself to the program and was eventually chosen as a candidate for The Ophelia – an apartment complex with subsidized rent for homeless women trying to get their lives back together.

Cindy and 14 other women live independently at The Ophelia, although the YWCA is there to provide support when they need it. Time and time again, Cindy told me that although having a safe place to live is incredibly important, it’s the ongoing support from the YWCA staff that’s making this a successful transition for her. “They call me and make sure I’m OK, ask me if I need anything. I would have lost that apartment twice already if they weren’t there to support me.”

Her statement reinforces the fact that you can’t put homeless people in a housing complex and leave them alone expecting them to thrive. Ongoing support is needed to deal with the mental and emotional issues that need to be addressed. “Now I have the time and space to deal with all kinds of stuff I haven’t over the years” says Cindy. “I’ve been given a chance to work on myself. I’ve never had time to focus on me before. I am so grateful.”

The YWCA’s program is built on the “Housing First” model, where homeless people are first placed into safe, appropriate housing and then being to work on the issues that caused them to become homeless. In Cindy’s own words, she is now trying to “learn how to be a straight person.” Her goals include getting a job and eventually moving out of The Ophelia so that another deserving woman can take her place.

Cindy is an incredible survivor, and a great example of how lives can change with little bit of support and security. 

Listen to the interview with Cindy here.

Am I a bad feminist?

My best friend and fellow feminist hates folk music. I’ve always said to her, “If you don’t like Ani DiFranco, you’re a bad feminist!” We joke about it, but as a feminist I sometimes find myself wondering if some of the things I do, think and like make me a bad feminist.

It seems like there are rules to being a feminist; you must be pro-choice, you shouldn’t wear too much makeup and you better not read glossy magazines. But these aren’t rules, they’re stereotypes. And the first thing you should know about feminism is that it’s an extremely diverse movement full of different people and conflicting ideas. For example, some feminists are vehemently against porn, while others strongly support it. Feminists, and the issues we’re passionate about, are extremely complex and diverse. You seriously can’t expect us to all be the same.

None the less, I regularly question whether certain thoughts that pop into my head or things that I enjoy are anti-feminist. I laugh at sexist jokes, judge women who dress slutty and do the majority of household chores even though I live with a perfectly capable man. Yikes… maybe I am a bad feminist!
So I did a quick search on Twitter to see if other women are worried about being bad feminists too. Turns out, it’s pretty damn common. Here are just a few examples of what I found.

It seems that questioning the legitimacy of our feminism is a common experience. But is this just an extension of the guilt that us women are so prone to feeling about everything? We feel bad about eating fast food, not exercising, not spending enough time with our kids and pretty much everything else.

I’ve decided that we need to stop worrying about being bad feminists. We’ve got enough shit to feel guilty about – let’s not let feminism make us feel that way too. As long as you’re openly calling yourself a feminist, you believe in equality and you support the empowerment of women, you’re fightin’ the good fight and you’re part of the team. If you laugh at a sexist joke, so what? Feminists have a sense of humour, and we’re smart enough to know the difference between a joke and something malicious.

As long as you’re not spewing shit like, “It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact” as Ann Coulture famously said, then you’re probably OK. Pat yourself on the back for being part of Team Feminism and quit feeling so damn guilty!

Sheryl Underwood: Crass, raunchy, confident and hilarious

While doing research about female comedians for an interview I recently did, I discovered the bawdy and hilarious Sheryl Underwood. I wouldn't classify her comedy as feminist, but her confidence and balls-out attitude are definitely inspirational to me. She even serves up some decent relationship advice along with a healthy dose of profanities and laughs.

If you love funny, crass ladies with attitude and smarts I seriously recommend you clear your calendar for 10 minutes and watch this video.

A Tina Fey quote to brighten your day

"Every girl is expected to have caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama and doll tits.

The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes. Everyone else is struggling."

- Tina Fey

Jennie Thunder's feminist adventures in Windsor

I was invited to speak at the University of Windsor as part of their International Women's Day events this year. It was a real honour to be invited to share my knowledge about the representation of women in advertising, plus my experiences as a feminist radio program host and blogger.

Me (left) with Nicole and Meghan, hosts of Milk & Vodka

One of the coolest experiences was being a guest on another radio program. The University of Windsor has a campus radio station much like our beloved CJSW in Calgary. CJAM is smaller, but they do have a feminist radio program - Milk and Vodka. I was interviewed by the fabulous hosts Nicole and Meghan.

It was really fun to be the guest rather than the host, and it was awesome to meet other feminist radio program hosts! We share a lot of similarities regarding our goals and hopes for strengthening the feminist communities in our respective cities.

I gave three presentations while in Windsor, all of which involved ad-busting - my specialty! I taught students how to identify things like sexism and racism in ads, and showed them how advertisements work by making us feel ugly, wrinkly, fat and generally inadequate. The shittier we feel about ourselves, the more we'll spend on products that supposedly make us thinner, more beautiful, less hairy, less wrinkly, and so on. Below is a typical example of what my ad-busting looks like. I've been doing this for about 6 years now and it's so much fun. I like challenging the mainstream messages in advertisements and inserting my own message of empowerment (or maybe just something funny that makes people think twice about the images they're seeing). 

My whole experience at Windsor was thanks to a group of women's studies students who were asked to find a presenter for Women's Day. They wanted a young feminist who was active in her community, and they found me via this blog. As I mentioned, I felt very honoured to be asked to present. Spending time with the students who organized the events was a real treat. They reminded me of myself six years ago - a keener student (I mean that in the most affectionate way!) with a passion for women's issues and a desire to make a difference. 

The students who organized the event: Sapphire, Marianne, Alexis, me and Laura

On my final night in Windsor I attended a button-making event at a local cafe. Tons of students from all faculties showed up to make buttons. I made a few myself - pictured here. This was actually my first time making buttons - hard to believe since that's practically a right of passage for feminists!

Well, that's my trip to Windsor in a nut shell. The best aspects of the whole experience were spending time with other young feminists and hearing feedback from my presentations like, "I learned a lot" and "That was really interesting." I have returned to Calgary with renewed feminist spirit and I'm ready to keep on rockin'!

International Women's Day events in Calgary - March 8, 2012

March 8th is International Women's Day! Here's what's going down in Calgary.

International Women’s Day Fair

Hosted by Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association

Date: Thursday, March 8

Time: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Location: Jack Singer Concert Hall Lobby 205 – 8th Ave SE

Details: Free walk-in event. More details on their website.

Women’s Day Potluck

Hosted by the Calgary Women’s Centre

Date: Thursday, March 8

Time: 5:30 – 8 p.m.

Location: Kery Centre – 1133 7th Ave SW

Details: Free potluck community dinner. Everyone welcome. RSVP at 403-264-1155 or sarah@womenscentrecalgary.org. More details on their website.

Screening of the film Miss Representation

Date: Thursday, March 8

Time: 8 p.m.

Location: University of Calgary, building Science B, room 103

Cost: $10. Purchase tickets through the U of C campus ticket centre, or online at ucalgary.ca/tickets.