http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/11/health-care-reform-insurance-forbes-woman-well-being-maternity.html
decent maternity leave would be nice, too. Well, parental leave, not just maternity. But more than two weeks (or whatever it is these days) I feel would be highly appropriate....
Oh America. Land of the free. Free to starve to death, that is.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
defense date set
Well, a draft got done. I'm officially working on draft #3, actually. Back to the basics and reworking theory, at the moment. Must be done by the weekend, though! And then just copy-editing, because time is short! The final draft is to be handed in next Tuesday and the defense is schedule for Thursday. Wowsahs. Nearly done. It's a bit surreal. But very exciting!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
drafts
so close to having a draft done... and yet I can't seem to find it in me to finish. It's why my conclusions always suck in papers. I kick ass writing, until I come to the end and have to say what my point this whole time was. And I'm like, point? There was a point? Didn't you just READ what I just WROTE godamnit?? Can't you figure out the point for yourself?? Why the hell did I just write 50 some odd pages if I now have to conCLUDE shit for you??
stupid readers.
stupid readers.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Because I'm feeling nostalgic
Columbia Valley culture is small town culture. It’s Chili cookoffs, Fall fairs, and loser laps around town. It’s thinking nothing of making the hour and a half long trek into Banff when you turn 18 and are legally allowed to drink in Alberta, because it’s no good trying to sneak into the bars in BC because everyone in the valley knows you’re underage. It’s a one bar town, where if you want to go out on the weekend, even after you turn 19, your choices are, (at most) Bud’s, Copper City, or driving to Cranny or Banff. It’s hitting the beach in the summer, and it’s getting out of town on weekends to avoid the gorbies. It’s making jokes about Edgewater, or Wilmer, or Brisco, or Spillimacheen, or Radium, or Canal Flats… wait, it’s making jokes about everywhere! It’s fund raising for two years to buy a grand piano so that touring artists have something decent to play. It’s loggers and miners, teachers and entrepreneurs, with dirt bikes and quads who like to get out in the woods, sit around a fire, drink beer and just be with their friends and family. It’s where having “nothing to do” means making a potato gun in the back yard, or riding your bike into town, or going fishing, or watching movies with friends. It’s appreciating the simple things in life.
It’s a culture of leaving, returning, or just staying where you are. There are always people with stories of journeys to far off places, or life in big cities, but those that come back are happy where they are, and those that never left know why.
It’s a culture of cars. It’s a hard place to live without one. And a culture of the woods. Camping, dirt biking, hiking, skiing, cliff jumping, these are things Columbia Valley people enjoy. And they don’t have to drive hours fighting traffic on the sea to sky highway to get there, they just walk out their back door, or take the logging roads, where they are more likely to see a bear than another person. It’s having your garden eaten by deer, and of being more afraid of hitting a deer on the road than another car. It’s where ‘the Park’ (ie. The Kootenay National Park, full of beautiful natural and historic sites) is just a highway to get you to Alberta.
It’s a culture of tourism and summer homes. Everyone knows someone from Calgary who’s nice, but everyone rolls their eyes and sighs at the overwhelmingly number of red license plates on the streets in the summer. “Damn Albertan drivers!”
Columbia Valley Culture is small town culture. It’s being proud of what people from your community accomplish, whether it’s going out to hear them play music, admire their artwork, read their writing, or reading about their accomplishments in the paper. It’s supporting one another in hard times, raising money for hospital trips (because if you’re really sick, you definitely have to go stay in Calgary, or Cranbrook, or Kelowna and those trips get expensive), having welcome home parties, and just showing up to lend a hand. It’s saying hi when you run into each other in the city, even if you don’t normally hang out. It’s spending an hour getting groceries even if you only needed milk because you have to talk to everyone you run into in the store.
Many of the things that make up Columbia Valley culture are not unique to the Columbia Valley. But the combination of them is.
It’s a culture of leaving, returning, or just staying where you are. There are always people with stories of journeys to far off places, or life in big cities, but those that come back are happy where they are, and those that never left know why.
It’s a culture of cars. It’s a hard place to live without one. And a culture of the woods. Camping, dirt biking, hiking, skiing, cliff jumping, these are things Columbia Valley people enjoy. And they don’t have to drive hours fighting traffic on the sea to sky highway to get there, they just walk out their back door, or take the logging roads, where they are more likely to see a bear than another person. It’s having your garden eaten by deer, and of being more afraid of hitting a deer on the road than another car. It’s where ‘the Park’ (ie. The Kootenay National Park, full of beautiful natural and historic sites) is just a highway to get you to Alberta.
It’s a culture of tourism and summer homes. Everyone knows someone from Calgary who’s nice, but everyone rolls their eyes and sighs at the overwhelmingly number of red license plates on the streets in the summer. “Damn Albertan drivers!”
Columbia Valley Culture is small town culture. It’s being proud of what people from your community accomplish, whether it’s going out to hear them play music, admire their artwork, read their writing, or reading about their accomplishments in the paper. It’s supporting one another in hard times, raising money for hospital trips (because if you’re really sick, you definitely have to go stay in Calgary, or Cranbrook, or Kelowna and those trips get expensive), having welcome home parties, and just showing up to lend a hand. It’s saying hi when you run into each other in the city, even if you don’t normally hang out. It’s spending an hour getting groceries even if you only needed milk because you have to talk to everyone you run into in the store.
Many of the things that make up Columbia Valley culture are not unique to the Columbia Valley. But the combination of them is.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
preface
First draft of the preface for my thesis....
Preface
I began this project with an interest in immigration, and the integration, or lack thereof, of immigrant communities in European countries. I was particularly interested in the heated debate about Islam, about the “Europeaness” of Islamic practices, and about concerns about radical Islamic groups within Europe. Thus, from a general curiosity about treatment of immigrant groups and immigration policy, I centered on a very specific interest in what I saw at the time as Islamic practices. The French headscarf debates would have been the classic example, but I was drawn to more violent forms of cultural practice: particularly honour killings, and female genital mutilation (FGM). At the encouragement of my supervisor, I pursued FGM, as a topic that had less written about it than headscarves, but as a more relativisitic topic than honour killings. Little did I know that I would find myself at a nexus of intense debate. I became embroiled in literature, discussing multiculturalism, feminism, social movements, cultural relativism, cultural identity, diaspora identity, liberalism, human rights, and much more. Each of these terms are contentious in their own right, and each represents a library of literature that I quickly felt overwhelmed by.
I began with the idea that FGM was horrific, wrong, and as a practice should be annihilated at all costs. I remember feeling sick to my stomach the first time I read a very bold and blatant description of the ceremony of circumcision, and wondering if I was going to be able to continue pursuing this topic of research. As the months passed, reading the same passage caused me to sneer at the blatant universalism of it, the lack of attention to cultural norms, the deliberately emotional language, used to provoke the very reaction that I had initially felt. In the end, I found I was experiencing on a very personal level the pendulum between universalism and relativism described by Marie-Benedicte Dembour when discussing the legal system in France.
On a personal level, and I state it here merely to contextualize the writing that follows, not to write an academic argument in support of my position, I have concluded that laws forbidding FGM for all people, minors and adults alike, remove the option of a consenting adult woman from deciding to undergo a traditional cultural practice. I believe that if consenting western women can choose to have their vaginas tattooed, pierced, and surgically altered, then women from cultures that practice ritual female genital cutting should be able to choose to have it done as well. I also believe that the western world should reexamine its own mutilating practices, including male circumcision, and plastic surgery, before condemning out of hand the practices of other cultures. That said, the issue of protecting children from needless pain and suffering is still one I firmly believe in. Genital cutting, both of males and females, needlessly harms children, and I therefore group myself with those opposed. However, I do so hesitantly, for fear of imposing my own ideals and cultural norms on another. I suppose that makes me a reluctant anti-GM campaigner. In general the idealist in me would prefer to live in a world where all members of a particular culture engage in self-reflection, examine their traditions and practices, evaluate whether they are harmful to a particular group, and perhaps then choose to adjust the tradition to lesson the harm done.
In the context of my research, I quickly became aware that different European countries had responded in very different ways to the practice being performed in their territories, on their citizens. I suppose I was curious which of these policies were more effective at prevention, though my primary research question was not which is more effective (a question nearly impossible to answer with empirical research), but rather why did different countries respond to virtually the same phenomenon in different ways? This is still, ultimately, what drives my work, though much of my other perceptions, as stated above, have changed.
Preface
I began this project with an interest in immigration, and the integration, or lack thereof, of immigrant communities in European countries. I was particularly interested in the heated debate about Islam, about the “Europeaness” of Islamic practices, and about concerns about radical Islamic groups within Europe. Thus, from a general curiosity about treatment of immigrant groups and immigration policy, I centered on a very specific interest in what I saw at the time as Islamic practices. The French headscarf debates would have been the classic example, but I was drawn to more violent forms of cultural practice: particularly honour killings, and female genital mutilation (FGM). At the encouragement of my supervisor, I pursued FGM, as a topic that had less written about it than headscarves, but as a more relativisitic topic than honour killings. Little did I know that I would find myself at a nexus of intense debate. I became embroiled in literature, discussing multiculturalism, feminism, social movements, cultural relativism, cultural identity, diaspora identity, liberalism, human rights, and much more. Each of these terms are contentious in their own right, and each represents a library of literature that I quickly felt overwhelmed by.
I began with the idea that FGM was horrific, wrong, and as a practice should be annihilated at all costs. I remember feeling sick to my stomach the first time I read a very bold and blatant description of the ceremony of circumcision, and wondering if I was going to be able to continue pursuing this topic of research. As the months passed, reading the same passage caused me to sneer at the blatant universalism of it, the lack of attention to cultural norms, the deliberately emotional language, used to provoke the very reaction that I had initially felt. In the end, I found I was experiencing on a very personal level the pendulum between universalism and relativism described by Marie-Benedicte Dembour when discussing the legal system in France.
On a personal level, and I state it here merely to contextualize the writing that follows, not to write an academic argument in support of my position, I have concluded that laws forbidding FGM for all people, minors and adults alike, remove the option of a consenting adult woman from deciding to undergo a traditional cultural practice. I believe that if consenting western women can choose to have their vaginas tattooed, pierced, and surgically altered, then women from cultures that practice ritual female genital cutting should be able to choose to have it done as well. I also believe that the western world should reexamine its own mutilating practices, including male circumcision, and plastic surgery, before condemning out of hand the practices of other cultures. That said, the issue of protecting children from needless pain and suffering is still one I firmly believe in. Genital cutting, both of males and females, needlessly harms children, and I therefore group myself with those opposed. However, I do so hesitantly, for fear of imposing my own ideals and cultural norms on another. I suppose that makes me a reluctant anti-GM campaigner. In general the idealist in me would prefer to live in a world where all members of a particular culture engage in self-reflection, examine their traditions and practices, evaluate whether they are harmful to a particular group, and perhaps then choose to adjust the tradition to lesson the harm done.
In the context of my research, I quickly became aware that different European countries had responded in very different ways to the practice being performed in their territories, on their citizens. I suppose I was curious which of these policies were more effective at prevention, though my primary research question was not which is more effective (a question nearly impossible to answer with empirical research), but rather why did different countries respond to virtually the same phenomenon in different ways? This is still, ultimately, what drives my work, though much of my other perceptions, as stated above, have changed.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
40 lashes? for a delivery of bread?
Well, here I go again. Another Saudi story. Can anyone explain to me what purpose it serves to submit a 75 year old woman to 40 lashes? And I mean, she was 75. They were 24. How exactly could she possibly have corrupted them? I sincerely hope Saudi men and women come together to change this oppressive regime, and soon.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
women's rights in Saudi
There's something vaguely creepy about this video.
It's funny to approve of the feminist message in it, while at the same time being slightly wary and uncomfortable with the strongly capitalist message in it too....
but the creepiness comes from not seeing their faces, I think.
I'm not at all sure that being permitted to participate in "the labour market" is going to improve the average woman's life in Saudi, though I suppose it can't hurt.
I take particular issue with the unstated assumption that everyone should work. That an unemployment rate of 24% among women is necessarily a bad thing. Of course I fully support a woman's right to choose to work, but I don't see anything wrong with her choosing not to work either. The trick is in having the choice, which I don't think most women have one way or the other. Women in Saudi have the choice taken away from them by their husbands, and by an oppressive conservative culture, but many Western women have the choice taken away by their financial situations, and an oppressive consumerist culture. They are forced to work outside the home to provide a decent family income, even if they would rather work at home. Neither of these options seem ideal to me, although I have to admit I am glad I have the freedom to show my face in public, at least.
It's funny to approve of the feminist message in it, while at the same time being slightly wary and uncomfortable with the strongly capitalist message in it too....
but the creepiness comes from not seeing their faces, I think.
I'm not at all sure that being permitted to participate in "the labour market" is going to improve the average woman's life in Saudi, though I suppose it can't hurt.
I take particular issue with the unstated assumption that everyone should work. That an unemployment rate of 24% among women is necessarily a bad thing. Of course I fully support a woman's right to choose to work, but I don't see anything wrong with her choosing not to work either. The trick is in having the choice, which I don't think most women have one way or the other. Women in Saudi have the choice taken away from them by their husbands, and by an oppressive conservative culture, but many Western women have the choice taken away by their financial situations, and an oppressive consumerist culture. They are forced to work outside the home to provide a decent family income, even if they would rather work at home. Neither of these options seem ideal to me, although I have to admit I am glad I have the freedom to show my face in public, at least.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
thank you Oscar Peterson
that's all I have to say, really. And thank God, the Universe, the Powers that Be for his existence and recordings. I honestly don't know how sane I would be right now without them.
Monday, January 12, 2009
WWI
Ok, another little moment of needing to express:
I've never really considered myself much of a feminist. I suppose I always thought I supported feminist principles such as equality, but I've certainly never studied feminist history, or taken a women's studies course.
I'm reading a book titled "Agenda setting, the UN and NGOs: Gender Violence and Reproductive Rights". Fascinating book, with lots of good little tidbits of information and theory.
And there's a chapter on early feminist actions, and particularly the women's anti-war movement during the first world war. A number of brave women from across Europe, and from the USA, held a conference at the Hague, which required risking considerable personal danger, since it was wartime. And apparently Roosewelt called the meeting "silly and base" and "aboslutely futile;. . . wholly useless and slightly mischievous." Newspaper stories called them "a Folly of Petticoats."
And it makes me SO mad!
The idea that the opinion of women was so discounted, discredited and ignored....
so it turns out I am a feminist after all...
I've never really considered myself much of a feminist. I suppose I always thought I supported feminist principles such as equality, but I've certainly never studied feminist history, or taken a women's studies course.
I'm reading a book titled "Agenda setting, the UN and NGOs: Gender Violence and Reproductive Rights". Fascinating book, with lots of good little tidbits of information and theory.
And there's a chapter on early feminist actions, and particularly the women's anti-war movement during the first world war. A number of brave women from across Europe, and from the USA, held a conference at the Hague, which required risking considerable personal danger, since it was wartime. And apparently Roosewelt called the meeting "silly and base" and "aboslutely futile;. . . wholly useless and slightly mischievous." Newspaper stories called them "a Folly of Petticoats."
And it makes me SO mad!
The idea that the opinion of women was so discounted, discredited and ignored....
so it turns out I am a feminist after all...
love
major personal self-realization moment:
I may have just come to the realization that I find it a major turn off to know that someone is in love with me.
This seems a little strange to me, and I think I will have to examine it further, it may not actually be true, but I decided to be bold and post it on the blog. as ive said before, expressive thinker, and sometimes posting seems the best form of expressing.... even if it may in fact NOT be....
I may have just come to the realization that I find it a major turn off to know that someone is in love with me.
This seems a little strange to me, and I think I will have to examine it further, it may not actually be true, but I decided to be bold and post it on the blog. as ive said before, expressive thinker, and sometimes posting seems the best form of expressing.... even if it may in fact NOT be....
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
designer vaginas
i just find it so incredibly bizarre.
ive got to share this little tidbit from this article im reading:
Take Helena. A financial analyst, Helena first went to Matlock for Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation. “It was the best thing I ever did. My husband was ecstatic,” she said. With her new vagina in place, Helena was drawn to the option of getting a new hymen. “My husband and I would have loved it if he had been my first. Our anniversary is coming up; we’re renewing our wedding vows. We want to have the virgin experience.”
Helena paid for her new hymen with a credit card. When we spoke she was still waiting for the healing process to end (a process she described as “full of lots of pain and crying, but that I’d go through again if I had to”) before setting up the special one-time conjugal event with her new vestal vagina.
I've been reading all about these things today: "vaginal rejuvenation", "designer labioplasty" (bring in a playboy magazine and say: I want to look like this!!!)
It's so bizarre. Why is the identity of these women so tied to how they look "down there"?? I find it such a bizarre thing for a culture, any culture, to be fixated on. And of course, this idea of feminine "beauty" reminds me so much of the idea shared by many cultures of feminine "beauty" that involves an infibulated vagina - one that has had all of the external genitalia removed, and had the vaginal opening enclosed. both are beautiful, is either natural?
ive got to share this little tidbit from this article im reading:
Take Helena. A financial analyst, Helena first went to Matlock for Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation. “It was the best thing I ever did. My husband was ecstatic,” she said. With her new vagina in place, Helena was drawn to the option of getting a new hymen. “My husband and I would have loved it if he had been my first. Our anniversary is coming up; we’re renewing our wedding vows. We want to have the virgin experience.”
Helena paid for her new hymen with a credit card. When we spoke she was still waiting for the healing process to end (a process she described as “full of lots of pain and crying, but that I’d go through again if I had to”) before setting up the special one-time conjugal event with her new vestal vagina.
I've been reading all about these things today: "vaginal rejuvenation", "designer labioplasty" (bring in a playboy magazine and say: I want to look like this!!!)
It's so bizarre. Why is the identity of these women so tied to how they look "down there"?? I find it such a bizarre thing for a culture, any culture, to be fixated on. And of course, this idea of feminine "beauty" reminds me so much of the idea shared by many cultures of feminine "beauty" that involves an infibulated vagina - one that has had all of the external genitalia removed, and had the vaginal opening enclosed. both are beautiful, is either natural?
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