Starting on Tuesday, February 28th from 5:30pm to 6:30pm and running bi-weekly until the end of March, the Women’s Issues Network is running Safe Space Discussion Groups focused on how individuals’ spirituality affects their lives. As the organizer of these groups, I am extremely excited to offer a space for both students and members of the larger community to talk about personal growth and spiritual exploration. By striving to offer a non-denominational and non-religiously-affiliated space, my goal is to foster an environment of self-reflection and learning from each others’ lived experiences.

From a personal vantage point, these discussions are important to me because of my own experiences with spirituality and faith. As a child of a multi-racial and multi-spiritual family, my journey of self-reflection has been both personal and community based, and I find strength in conversation and learning from others. I, along with facilitator Rev. Karen Low, hope to establish a group where people can feel comfortable talking about the role that spirituality plays in their lives, in whatever way it manifests itself.

Karen is an ordained minister inthe United Church of Canada and is the United Church Chaplain at UWO. In addition to her work at the University, she serves two congregations and is the Spiritual Director of Sabbath Place: A Centre for Spiritual Wellness & Exploration, here in London. She is expereinced in guided meditation, spiritual discussion groups and the facilitation of retreats and workshops. Both personally and academically egaged in an ongoing exploration of the human and the Divine, Karen is deeply committed to personal growth and the discovery of possibility …

While female-to-male transgender visibility has recently exploded in this country, conversations about trans issues in the lesbian community often run into resistance from the many queer women who view transitioning as a “trend” or as an anti-feminist act that taps into male privilege. Boy I Am is a feature-length documentary that begins to break down that barrier and promote dialogue about trans issues through a look at the experiences of three young transitioning FTMs in New York City–Nicco, Norie and Keegan–as they go through major junctures in their transitions, as well as through the voices of lesbians, activists and theorists who raise and address the questions that many people have but few openly discuss.

As one of the VDay Commissioners this year, I am incredibly upset and appalled to hear that at the presidential debate at Huron on February 9, two candidates promoted false and slandering information about the VDay Western campaign. It was asserted by Jon Silver that VDay does not allow men on their executive team. Logan Ross’s response to this was that this practice is unfair and discriminatory. Now, this would be an entirely reasonable discussion to have in a presidential debate, WERE IT TRUE.

In actuality, VDay Western has two male executives on our team this year, and has had men on the executive for many other years in our eleven year history on this campus. We also include men in the cast of two of our plays, provide men-only workshops (VMen, happening March 15), and donate to a community service, Changing Ways, which provides education and resources to men who are working to build healthy and safe romantic partnerships. VDay Western understands the importance of including men in the conversation surrounding violence against women and sexual violence of all kinds. We also already spend a lot of time combating stereotypes of feminists of being “anti-man” or “manhaters” and certainly don’t need the future leaders of our student council promoting such damaging stereotypes

Not only is it extremely concerning that Jon and Logan know so little about such a long-standing USC campaign, it is also worrying that Adam Fearnall and Claire McArthur did not a) recognize for themselves the mistake that was being made, or b) feel this mistake was important enough to correct. Frankly, I would be embarrassed if I was any one of them. The event of Thursday night exposes these candidates as having not done the research necessary to truly understand the Support Services and Campaigns offered for the student body they hope to lead!

Also extremely troubling is the USC’s practice of not allowing corrections to be made during public debates when the candidates get their facts wrong. I am personally confused as to how the USC can propose to run a transparent election campaign with a policy like this. Students and their allies (i.e., the current USC president and vice-presidents) need to be able to make potential voters aware that these candidates are misinformed and have not done their homework. Instead, I was told by one of the current representatives of the USC board that “We don’t make corrections during debates as we’re not supposed to publically call them out for making mistakes. In truth they do often get facts wrong”. I don’t know about the rest of the student population, but I certainly don’t feel confident in voting for any USC presidential candidate in this or future years’ elections knowing that their potential misunderstandings of student groups and services get held in such secrecy.

Adrienne Berchtold
VDay Western Commissioner

Vday Western presents MMRP and the Vagina Monolougues.

The biggest thing I found myself discussing was the misunderstanding of feminism – many people believe that it’s an overarching concept, which is completely untrue. A few kinds of feminism include liberal feminism, radical feminism, socialist feminism, conservative feminism, and womyn who don’t identify with the word ‘feminist’ but believe in social equality. Feminism, like many other movements, is affected by race, class, gender, sexuality, and power structures in society. My opinions and experiences as a white, straight, upper-class, able, cis-gender womyn are entirely different than someone else’s. I personally am very passionate about womyn’s reproductive rights, slut-shaming and victim-blaming, and the perpetuation and normalization of gender roles in our society. I’m still young, my passions and viewpoints could no doubt change as I get older, but my point is, that’s my experience of feminism. The media portrays “feminists” or “feminism” as a collective whole that is exactly the same, and this opinion is often mirrored in society. It’s completely untrue, and it’s insulting that the feminist movement is labelled as such.

All of the men that I spoke with were very eager to engage in conversation and debate about various issues, and from what I was hearing, these aren’t conversations that men are usually encouraged to participate in or seek out. One man put the question to us, “Can men be feminists?” to which we agreed wholeheartedly. He said that question had been asked in a class and 10-15% of the students said no, for various reasons. ‘Womyn’s issues aren’t men’s issues’, ‘men cannot understand women’s issues properly because they haven’t experienced them’, ‘feminism is outdated anyways’ – these are answers that I’ve heard in my experiences, so I can speculate as to the tone of some of the students in that class. Another man expressed his dislike of anti-rape campaigns, explaining that they made him feel singled out for being male, while another said that his mother hated feminists because she had grown up with some who had told her being a stay-at-home mother was shameful.

These stories are important. These conversations are important. As a feminist, I really believe in the power of discourse. I do not represent feminist opinions; I am not the face of feminism. It is not a single person, a single voice. It is the voices of a multitude of womyn and men, and it is only by listening to each other and speaking with each other that we can make positive change. I want to personally thank every person who came to the booth this week, because I myself learned something through every conversation. If you engage with WIN, we are better able to provide services that reflect the needs of students on this campus.

If you’re interested in learning more about feminism, feel free to come visit the Centre (UCC 38), and come out to this awesome event on January 26th from 4:00-6:00 pm, where Michael Kaufman discusses his new book, The Guy’s Guide to Feminism. I’m personally very excited for this, and if there are any men out there who would like to hear feminism discussed from a male perspective, this will be a great event for you to attend.

We wanted to take a stand against the status quo;  against the way men are somehow always responsible for starting  conversations and defining women – by their looks, their clothes, their  interests etc… It was for this reason that I was shocked to find that  our wonderfully captioned picture was found next to an unfunny cartoon  attempting to poke fun at women’s bras.  As you can see, the idea of the  cartoon (I’m guessing) was to say that velcro-ed bras were of the  “easiest access” and they were consequently encouraged. It is implied  that men would appreciate them. For a student newspaper that was smart  enough to raise awareness about such an important issue, this was a  pretty insensitive move. Hopefully the Gazette can improve upon their  page 2 layout and be more sensitive to their content in the future.  #wishfulthinking?

Tuesday, February 7, 2012
6:50 to 9:00 a.m. (registration begins at 6:30)
The Hilton, 300 King Street, London 

Dear friends,

Thank you for ”Saving the Date” for our 2012 EDAW Breakfast.

As many of you know, Hope’s Garden is a not-for-profit eating disorders support and resource centre located in London, Ontario, dedicated entirely to helping people with eating disorders and their family and friends.  It is the only centre of its kind between Burlington and Windsor. 

As many of you also know, Eating Disorders Awareness Week is set aside each year to increase awareness of the prevalence and seriousness of disordered eating and body dissatisfaction.  During EDAW, Hope’s Garden holds a special annual breakfast event to educate on the prevention of disordered eating, to promote healthy body image and self-esteem, and to celebrate the diversity of all body shapes and sizes.  

Part of the reason why this event is special for us is that it features the Renata Tichy Memorial Lecture, in honour of a board member and dear friend who lost her life after a long battle with anorexia nervosa.

We have two exciting keynote speakers this year.  Maureen Shirreff, the North American Director of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, will begin by sharing the story behind the development of the Dove Campaign and the important messages that are contained within it.  Dr. Sharon Roberts, a Sociologist and VP of Research & Education for the Eating Disorders Foundation of Canada, will then share her insights on the topic: “Be Thin: Contradictions Within the Social Constructions of Beauty and Happiness.”

We would be thrilled if you would please:

1. Join us for this important event.  A table of 8 tickets is $350.  Single tickets before January 20th are only $45, or $50 after the early bird deadline. We are also pleased to offer a student rate this year of only $40.

Click for Ticket Order Form 

Tickets may also be purchased by calling 519.434.7721.

2. Help us spread the news.  To do so:

Post the 2012 EDAW Poster in your workplace or elsewhere; and

Forward this Message to a Friend

By changing attitudes, we can change lives.

For more information, or to discuss other involvement opportunties such as sponsorship, donations, hosting third party events, etc., please contact the 2012 EDAW Co-Chairs, Mary Lou Brady (marylou.brady@siskinds.com) or Cait Bionda (cbionda@me.com). 

Thank you!

And a special thanks to our:

 Platinum Event Sponsors:

Eating Disorders Foundation of Canada and McCormick Canada

Gold Sponsors:
Siskinds – The Law Firm and CIBC Wood Gundy

Silver Sponsor:

UWO Housing 

For those of who were in the atrium at 2 pm today, I hope that you enjoyed the fantastic Anti-Fashion Show that was organized by Jillian Clair, my good friend and fellow WIN Core Committee member.

This year, WIN wanted to focus on the ‘intellectual model’, and give voices to our models so that we knew what they were like, who they were, and why they were empowered! The show went really great, and I can personally attest that getting up on the stage with a mic and being able to say who you were and what you liked was a really great feeling. I think that everyone involved had a ton of fun, and we have Jill to thank for that! If you missed the show, no worries, you can watch it above!

Today at 6:30 pm, we are showing MissRepresentation in the UCC Council Chambers – it’s a really great documentary on how womyn are misrepresented in the media and how this affects our society and how we value womyn.

On Tuesday, we will be having our Anti-Fashion Show in the atrium at 2 pm for approximately an hour – the focus this year is to show you the ‘person behind the model’ and show how people choose to express their gender.

Wednesday is our ‘Love Day’, where we will be discussing sexual health and the importance of young people taking control of their sexuality and their safety. That will be from 10 am – 3 pm and will include local resources from the London community, like the Regional HIV/Aids Committee of London, Middlesex London Health Unit and Library, Women’s Community House, and the London Sexual Assault Centre.

On Friday, V-Day Western’s delicious show, Purple Sex, will be shown in the Wave. The doors open at 9:30 pm, the show is at 10:00 pm, and it’s only $10! The monologues and pieces are all student-written and performed, and it will be a wet/dry event.

WIN will be in the atrium all week as well, so come check us out and say hello!