Monday, March 14, 2011

Tonight: interview with Calgary Communities Against Sexual Assault... plus feminist news & views

Tonight we’re interviewing a few ladies from Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse (CCASA). We’ll be talking about the services and programs offered by CCASA, and how they help the community to understand issues around sexual violence.

After the interview we’ll share some feminist news and views on the following stories:

Eleven-year-old girl gang raped in Texas – if the story of 18 men and boys raping an 11-year old girl in an abandoned trailer home isn’t horrific enough, the New York Times added insult to injury with its appalling coverage of this story. Read the story yourself and see how the reporter victim-blames the girl and sympathizes with the rapists. The Feminist Philosophers have an excellent post discussing the problems within the New York Times article.

Generation Y women losing “female skills” This article was posted in the Sunday Mail (Queensland, Australia) on January 30, 2011. I was drawn to it because it manages to be both sexist and really interesting at the same time! The fact that Generation Y women are losing skills such as cooking and baking is super interesting from a feminist perspective... but why did the article need to be framed in such a sexist overtone? According to Aussie feminist blog The Dawn Chorus, this is a “cheap, distasteful reporting strategy aimed at enraging readers who will circulate the story and comment on it, generating advertising revenue.” They may have a point – the story has 398 comments.


Egyptian Million Woman March ends in Tension - Numerous reports (including this one) recount what was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration of Egyptian women and men demanding equal rights at Tahrir Square in the nation's capital last week as part of an International Women's Day commemoration. The demonstration was met with anti-feminist chants and eventually aggressive behavior from those opposing the demonstrators and their message, saying women are meant to remain in the home and are not to become involved in political affairs. We'll discuss some of the details of the event, it's purpose and the peoples' reactions to what took place at Tahrir last Tuesday.

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