Category Archives: Feminism

On douches, douchebag advertisers, and selling uncleanliness to women

Just last night I was watching Killing Us Softly 3, a documentary (really, a videotaped speech before a college audience) by media/advertising activist Jean Kilbourne in which she breaks down the messages, trends and symbolism in beauty, clothing, alcohol and cigarette advertisements geared towards women — specifically, under-30 women. It was made in the early [...]
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Things I believed in when I was 12 — but no longer do

Writing a feminist column, I got the occasional irate reader. Most of them are nitpicky and miss the point, while others are straight up incomprehensible. Up until this point, my favourite one was a rambling, angsty Facebook message from a first-year male, white, university student from Calgary, who said there should be men’s studies if [...]
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Lady Gaga’s feminist call to arms

You should watch this uncut, two-hour Q&A on showstudio.com with Lady Gaga. At the 21:30 mark, Mario Testino asks: “Your looks are so extreme. Is this a reaction to something? Are you questioning or altering the status quo of women’s style?” Yes, yes I am. I am a feminist. I reject wholeheartedly the way we are taught to [...]
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More on hockey: Whither our golden girls when Games are over?

‘Cause I’m beating this horse good and dead before I move onto another topic to rage about, I wrote about hockey again, this time for my Metro column: Both our hockey teams struck Olympic gold in Vancouver. The next day, hockey fever raged on for the NHL. But whither the women after the podium is packed [...]
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Quick thought about the new Love covers

Quick blog post this afternoon, as my CMS at work is down and thus have been handed a free extended lunch break. So, have you seen this? Well, this, 8x. Love Magazine (y’know, the one that put the outsized, in girth and personality, Beth Ditto on its cover for its first-ever issue) is putting eight naked supermodels on [...]
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