Attack of the 5-foot woman

Polanski's date with justice a long time coming

Roman Polanski is a creep. It’s great that he’s finally been arrested and could have to face justice for drugging a 13 year-old child and raping her while she continually said no.

I don’t care how great The Pianist was, the people rallying to his defense make me nauseous.

But this poem published last week in The Nation makes me feel a little better.

Here's a little taste:
"He's suffered slurs and other stuff.
Has he not suffered quite enough?
How can these people get so riled?
He only raped a single child."

Obviously misogyny is profitable

Once upon a time, I accidentally went one of the most misogynistic movies ever committed to celluloid. That repulsive, sexist, racist film was called Crank.

Imagine my joy at finding myself expected to laugh at the public rape scene (the victim... oh sorry girlfriend, decides she’s up for it part way through).

Or finding the “bad guy’s” (were there any good guys?) balcony decorated with swimsuit models in plastic bubbles. Then when the fight breaks out the swimsuit models can’t get out and several get killed in the crossfire.

Or finding that Chelios’ mission seems to center around killing every minority group in LA.

Raw awesomeness.

The only thing in that movie that was remotely enjoyable, from my feminist perspective, was watching the main character fall to his death from a helicopter at the end.

Well, didn’t the bastard live.     

Of course, the only thing that can bring me more joy than my initial viewing of Crank is learning that they’ve made a sequel.

It’s being released this spring, and if the trailer is any indication it promises to deliver the same level or cartoon-like violence partnered with caveman sexism.

I’d love to believe that it’ll be a total box office flop, but I don’t think we’ll be that lucky.

Can’t hardly wait.

The celebrity face of domestic violence?

Despite the recent coverage of financial hardship leading to more cases of domestic violence, this recent case illustrates how women of all income levels are vulnerable to abuse at the hands of their partner.

Most victims of domestic violence don’t have their names published in newspapers and magazines but, because she’s a pop-star, Rihanna has become the very public poster woman for domestic violence.

If found guilty, maybe Chris Brown (the alleged attacker) should be the celebrity face of domestic violence rather than Rihanna.

If any good can come from this, hopefully she can be an inspiration to other women to call the police rather than suffer in silence.

It's Super Hymen to the rescue!

I saw ‘Taken’ over the weekend, the action packed movie where Liam Neeson’s daughter is kidnapped. While the retired spy was tearing down Paris looking for her, there were some very interesting undertones catching my attention.

Spoiler Alert - If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you may not want to read this until after you’ve gone to the theatre.

Let me start by saying all of this was incredibly subtle. For a film that handles such a heavy topic as human sex trafficking, it manages to be exciting without being gratuitous.

But I was uncomfortable with how the 17-year-old daughter’s virginity is such a prominent factor in her surviving being kidnapped by the sex trafficking ring.

The hussy friend who was not a virgin end up sold to a brothel, jacked up on drugs, violated and dead from choking on her own vomit within two days of disappearing.

Neeson’s daughter’s “purity” is “certified” by the sex traffickers - despite the girl being a horseback rider and horseback riding being a very hymen unfriendly pastime.

Thanks to her purity, the girl is spared the brothel and instead sent to be sold at auction to the highest bidder.

This gives Neeson time to run around torturing and killing people to save her and her virginity.

To be fair to the story, it makes sense that Neeson’s character has to find the friend dead to excuse the body count that follows. There has to be something that saves his daughter from the same fate, I guess her virginity is the only thing that would make sense.

But it’s all just a little too purity ball-ish. It reminded me of those creepy religious celebrations in the States where young daughters pledge their virginity to their fathers until they are married, and fathers pledge to protect their daughter’s purity.

An entire ball around Dad’s ownership of young girls’ sexuality is really creepy. It’s also feeding these young girls the myth that their entire worth is based on them not having sex.

That ideology should be long dead by now.

Years ago when I was visiting a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time, her mother asked me if I was “still a good girl”. I said “Ya, I guess” and started telling her about my grades, after-school activities and volunteering. “No, no,” she clarified. “Are you still a virgin?”

I hadn’t realized that being a “good girl” was as easy as keeping your legs closed.

A Handmaid's Tale

One parent’s concern over a book his teenage son read for class could get ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ banned from the Toronto school board curriculum.

I’d certainly heard of the Margaret Atwood 1985 classic but hadn’t got around to reading the book. Once the complaint surfaced the curiosity was too much to ignore.

It’s an incredible book. A well-written, terrifyingly bleak portrayal of a fundamentalist society that reduces women to either breeders, housemaids or wives for wealthy men.

I’m not sure what the father’s problem with the book is, but it’s suspected that it’s over “sexuality and criticism of religious fundamentalism”.

The sex scenes are few, undetailed and not remotely erotic.

The depiction of a fundamentalist religious state is not flattering. The fictional religion is Bible-based but it doesn’t reflect any Christian sect I know of (the multiple women for wealthy men could be compared to fundamentalist polygamist Mormons but it’s a stretch).

Banning any book that looks at society and religion critically could take everything from Robert Munsch’s Giant to Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities out of the classroom.

Let’s hope one closed-minded parent doesn’t have the power to take this Canadian classic out of the classroom.

Resolution Issues

Happy New Year!

Now that 2009 is officially underway it’s time to look at those New Year’s resolutions in the cold, hard light of day.

The first ones to ditch are those resolutions born from pressure to look like an anemic super model.

Eating well and exercising is never a bad idea. Trying to drop 50 lbs. in 6 months is either not going to work, or the rebound will be painful.

Now’s also a good time to abandon the resolutions that involve a complete personality makeover.

One year, I resolved to stop telling people off and just let things slide off my back. I’m sure for some this would have empowered them with a Zen like calm. For the two weeks I tried it, this was pure torture. It turned out I was telling people off because they were being rude. Instead I decided to like that I stand up for myself, and back people up when they’re out of bounds.

This year I suggest sticking with fun resolutions: learning to belly dance, spending more time with friends and family and maybe taking a trip.

Here’s to a wonderful 2009.

You can never be too rich or too curvy

There is a great article in today’s Toronto Star about women's concern about being over 200 lbs.

It was inspired by the recent talk about Oprah’s weight.

Oprah has gradual gone up to 200 lbs, due to a thyroid problem and busy schedule. The cover story on her latest O magazine is dedicated to her admitting how she gained it and what she’s doing to try and lose it.

“So here I stand, 40 pounds heavier than I was in 2006. (Yes, you’re adding correctly; that means the dreaded 2-0-0.) I’m mad at myself. I’m embarrassed. I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight.”

I can’t believe she’s still talking about it either.

If the most powerful woman in American media can’t be unapologetically curvy, who can?

I’m not the first, and I won’t be the last, blogger to say I think Oprah looks good at 200 lbs. It would be great to see a high profile woman, like her, accept and love her new curves rather than read the same old stories about eating right and exercising more.

Feminist yule wish list

Ah the holidays, a time for rampant consumerism in the name of giving. But, if we’re going to hemorrhage money anyway we may as well direct it towards supporting some kick-ass women. 

Books
Benazir Bhutto’s Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West 
Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape, an anthology
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

Music
The Cliks album Snakehouse
Pink’s Funhouse
Anything by MIA

Feminist Films
Margaret Cho comedy skits for funny feminists
The Itty Bitty Titty Committee for the revolutionary on your list (it can be a little hard to find)

Girly Mags
Shameless
Bust
Bitch
Ms.

Philanthropic giving
Canadian feminist Stephen Lewis’ AIDS-Free World is an advocacy group working to bring to justice perpetrators of politically motivated sexual violence in Zimbabwe by collecting the testimony of women who survived gang rapes by leaders in Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, after the Zimbabwean President lost the first round of presidential elections in March.

I, Robot = perfect woman?

A Brampton man is getting his 15 minutes for his fembot.

Depending on which sources you believe this robot is an incredibly sophisticated companion for the elderly and disabled, that can speak in Japanese and English, or a strangely animated life-sized sex toy with silicone breasts and a synthetic vagina.

He’s designed delicate touch sensors and programmed it to respond negatively to being groped, which is good... in theory.

In reality, I can’t help wondering why a robot companion needs breasts, or a gender for that matter.

It would be nice if this incredibly advanced robot designed as a tool that “doesn’t need holidays, food or rest” wasn’t described as the “perfect woman” but rather the perfect assistant.

Sloppy joes

Sean Avery is learning that being a major league hockey player doesn’t mean you get to treat women like garbage.

The NHL suspended the Dallas Stars forward indefinitely this week for making a crude reference about a former girlfriend while talking with reporters.

After a morning skate in Calgary, where the Stars were playing the Flames Tuesday night, Avery approached a group of reporters, asked if a camera was present, then said he wanted to say one thing:

“I’m really happy to be back in Calgary; I love Canada,” he said. “I just want to comment on how it’s become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds.”

The Urban Dictionary has some pretty graphic definitions for “sloppy seconds”, the cleanest of which is “when one man has unprotected sexual intercourse with a woman who’s vagina still contains semen from a previous partner.”

The WOMAN in question - despite his efforts to reduce her to a vagina we are talking about a woman - is Canadian actress Elisha Cuthbert who is now dating Calgary defenseman Dion Phaneuf. 

It’s great the NHL cracked down on this misogynistic language fast and hard. Within hours of making the comment Avery was suspended.

Even better the team is supporting the move.

“I completely support the league’s decision to suspend Sean Avery,” Stars owner Tom Hicks said in a statement. “Had the league not have suspended him, the Dallas Stars would have. This organization will not tolerate such behavior, especially from a member of our hockey team. We hold our team to a higher standard and will continue to do so.”

Turns out playing a game well doesn’t give you a license to treat women like dirt. Now if only other pro sports leagues would take a similar stance.