Hero Squad

Attention! Smell your Dildoes! Kim and Amy Sedgwick are campaigning against bisphenol A's insertion in sex toys in Canada. If you won't drink out of the ol' Nalgene bottle because of the toxins and health risks associated with Bisphenol A, do you really want to stick one up your beautiful, soft and absorptive cunt for a nice long vaginal massage? OPI and other nail polish companies have removed phthalates from their darling polishes because we hollered! If our bone nails are enough to absorb nasty chemicals, we MUST avoid getting boned by sex toy manufacturers that continue penetrating their products with toxins - because, simply enough, they can get away with it - because sex toys are a "novelty item." There are alternatives to cheap plastic toys and it's worth spending a little extra coin to have safe sex! In Calgary, you can find them at the lovely boutique, "A Little More Interesting" off the busy intersection of 17th Avenue & 14th Street SW.

What the Douche?

Compliments of a friend's email forward, here is a horrifying product from the 50s-60s, "Vagasan", a powder (what!?) douching product (via Madame Talbot) with these lovely ingredients:

Carbolic Acid 1/8 of 1% in mixed usable solution (Phenol, also known as carbolic acid, is a toxic, white crystalline solid with a sweet tarry odor, commonly referred to as a "hospital smell". During the 1880s Diphtheria was treated by Phenol Douches.)

Boric Acid A boric acid douche used to be the most commonly recommended means of addressing vaginal yeast.

Alum (think of pickeling alum)

Methyl Salicylate is a wintergreen-scented chemical found in many over-the-counter products, including muscle ache creams.

and Oil of Peppermint

Oh my godde. Acid and Pickling do not create word associations for vagina!! More on douching.

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

"Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, whose critical writings on the ambiguities of sexual identity in fiction helped create the discipline known as queer studies, died on Sunday in Manhattan. She was 58."

Dark Matter & Ceiling Shatter

New Scientiest writer Anil Ananthaswamy interviews the first woman to head a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. Fabiola Gianotti, also an artist and musician, says:

CERN is such a rich environment: there are people from all over the world, young students work with established scientists and Nobel prizewinners. So geographical origin, age and gender make no difference here. I don't feel there is anything special about a woman leading a big scientific project. On the other hand, I hope that as a woman scientist who has achieved a level of visibility in a big experiment like ATLAS, I can be an encouragement to young women who are thinking of a scientific career.

Indeed, Ms. Gianotti is an inspiration to women in science, particularly physics, and as previously noted in "Written Word for Nerd", Natalie Angier reports that 26 percent of full professors in the life sciences are women, but in physics, 6 percent. She continues:

For many female physicists, the mystery of women’s slow progress through their ranks is nearly as baffling as the research mysteries they confront in the lab. Of course, only 6 percent of physics professors are female; only 4 to 6 percent of the matter in the universe is visible. “Sound familiar?” Evalyn Gates, the assistant director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago, said wryly.

You can read the entire interview here!

ZP3 Jubilee

New Scientist reports that a new form of contraceptive (see also this story from 2007) for women may someday be available which does not interfere with hormones. For young women in their teens who chose to take a hormonal form of contraceptive, this is extremely exciting news in that menstrual cycles could maintain their natural way and females reproductive health could develop uninhibited by synthetic estrogen and progestin interfering with ovulation and the endocrine system, not to mention cases of decreased libido.

ZP3, the receptor in the zona pellucida and a protein in the coating of eggs which facilitates sperms' ability to bind and burrow, might be disrupted by a hormone-free drug which would bind to ZP3 and prevent conception.

This is HUGE so long as an abundance of research is done to confirm any and all negative side effects or issues with this that may be harmul to women's immediate and long term reproductive health.

You Know You are A Dreamer

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Dreaming of world peace? Dreaming of finding that perfect gift? Dreaming of peace in women's lives? There's still time to order your 2008 "Dreams for Women" calendar from British Columbia's Antigone Magazine before Christmas.

Visit Antigone Magazine today to order your beautiful calendars for your special someones!

Slap the GAP

The University of Calgary earned some social justice points yesterday after the anti-choice pro-life campus group set up its hideous posters [LINK and LINK]. I don't understand the University's change of heart, though, because the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) has set up its booth in the past with the U of C's permission, citing free speech (the same group which drove a foetus van around Calgary). It makes me wonder why an internal group is threatened with legal action but an external organization is given the green light. I dug back into the Calgary Feminist Meetup Group's message board from 2006 when the GAP set up at the U of C and one user wrote the University requesting an explanation for why such a hateful message would be supported by student council and I will reiterate her reported response from External Relations:

Every year pro-life approaches us on their project and every year we have to struggle with a determined group of students firmly wishing to see it happen and an equally determined group who want to keep it away. It should be noted that the “GAP” agenda is to cause controversy and confrontation in order to generate the widest possible dispersal of their message. We at the Students' Union haves struggled with this group not over their message but rather in the sensational, aggressive, and ultimately hurtful way they choose to propagate it. Understanding this we have to try and balance the needs of the student body to conduct their daily business in a safe and comfortable environment with the obligation to honor the principle (and law) of the freedom of _expression. This year our compromise with the pro-life club was that they would be able to display their material on the South Lawn if they agreed to a) have the display encircled by a snow fence, b) place warning signs in front of their display warning students of the offending images ahead, and c) have the billboards facing inwards so that students would have to walk into the display willingly rather then be passively exposed to it. We thought this was a reasonable compromise the pro-life club however refused our terms over condition c) and threatened a legal challenge. We discontinued communication and redirected them to the university.

I think the universities position on this issue can best be summed up in this excerpt from Vice-President Roman Cooney's message to another concerned and angered student on this issue:

"...I, too, find this exhibit extremely offensive and let me assure you that the University does not, in any way, sanction this event. Our dilemma is that the law is quite clear. Under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms we could not compel the group to reorient their signs so that people on campus would have a choice as to whether or not to participate. We made numerous requests to have the signs face inward, or be located in another spot, and these were rejected by the group and its legal counsel.
For the same reasons we are not in a position to tell the group what it can, and cannot, display. The alterative was a lengthy and costly court fight that has already been lost on other campuses. Under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in particular those sections regarding freedom of _expression, Campus Pro-Life has the legal right to display these images, regardless of their impact on the community. In law, error falls on the side of the greatest latitude for freedom of _expression. Therefore, the choice for the University was not whether to endorse or reject this display, but whether to reject or uphold the principle of freedom of _expression. If you believe in the Charter, you must believe in the principles it upholds, even when those principles are being abused, as I believe they are in this case.

In fact, I agree with many of your points. But the University cannot ignore the law and more importantly the principles behind it.

I would urge you to contact the organizers through Drew Brown at enable_consulting@hotmail.com and share your views. I think it is important that others on campus express their concerns about the confrontational manner in which this group makes its argument.

Your points are well taken, but they need to be raised with the organizers, who are ultimately responsible for this display.

Sincerely,

Roman Cooney
Vice-President, External Relations"

I hope this helps in your understanding of the issue and some of the work and thought that has gone into this before allowing pro-life display on campus.

Sincerely,

Bryan west
President of the 63rd Student Legislative Council

I dot support the GOP's booth set up nor the campus pro-life's sick signs. But why the double standard? Upon further investigating, it seems that American-based GAP has a powerful legal team that sues any organization standing in its way and the University of BC's relationship with them goes way back... U of C just doesn't seem to want to dig its heals in against the powerful GAP and risk a lawsuit. Perhaps the U of C could use UBC-Okanagan as a shiny example of bravery in this campus pro-life organization's behaviour:

VICTORIA (CUP) — A ruling out of the B.C. Supreme Court has supported one student union’s decision to revoke a campus pro-life group’s club status.

Legal cases instigated by a pro-life student group is expected to have cost the student union at UBC–Okanagan about $45,000 as they successfully defended their right to not support the club.

Though the student union does not have a pro-choice mandate, they have not supported Students For Life since 2006, after the group refused to grant the student union’s request that they not poster campaign material from the Genocide Awareness Project, which included graphic images of aborted foetuses.

All in all, I'm pleased the University took a stand against the pro-lifers' violent "comparable" abortion posters (a Rwandan child killed by a machete, to name one) and support the committed pro-choice students and staff's actions against the foetus fetishists' desperate attempts at argumentum ad populum that really just piss people off.

Who Thought This Day Would Come?

Alberta delivers good news for midwives, expectant mothers

Starting April 1, 2009, midwifery will be added to the maternity services covered by the public health system in Alberta, the province said on Thursday. The average cost of using a midwife is about $3,500

Of course this is wonderful news but there's a big big problem:

But midwives in Alberta are scarce because they must complete a two-year licensing period and run a private practice. According to the Alberta Association of Midwives, there were 29 registered midwives in the province in 2006.

For 4,589 babies, 29 midwives are going to very busy.

Dream for Women

Antigone Magazine's Dreams for Women postcard art project is launching it's 2009 Dreams for Women calendar featuring postcards submitted by men and women around the world! The calendar seeks to help raise money for The Antigone Foundation and for other women's organizations around the world. As part of this launch, we have created a video in which men and women share their dreams for women equality.

The Project:

Featured in Ms. Magazine, in the International Women’s Museum, and on Feministing.com, the postcard art project has attracted worldwide attention and interest, garnering media attention and submissions from as far away as Japan, Germany, Brazil, France, Portugal, Romania and Los Angeles. The Dreams for Women art project asks women and men of all ages to depict their hopes and dreams for women (examples include “I dream of a world with more female leaders” and “I dream of a world where no woman is seen and not heard”) by painting, drawing, writing, sketching or decoupaging them onto a postcard.

Inspired by the popular mail-art project PostSecret.com, a postcard art project that encourages people to send in their secrets, Dreams for Women strives to be a feminist PostSecret. Instead of asking what your secrets are, the project wants to know what your dreams for women are. The Antigone Foundation began receiving submissions in January 2008 and has received hundreds of submissions so far. Their YouTube videos, which showcase the project, have also received thousands of hits.

The project, which is coordinated by a small group of dedicated young women ranging in ages from 20-24, is committed to envisioning progress for women around the world. According to founder Amanda Reaume, dreaming is essential to change: “the postcards we have received and continue to receive keep expanding our vision of the future, and keep adding more voices to the conversation of what that future will look like for women.”

The project was started out of a desire to encourage women and men to envision a better future for women and to help fund work towards that future. Dreams for Women has thus launched a fundraising calendar. The calendar, featuring 12 postcard submissions from around the world, will be sold for $20 and is available via Antigone Magazine’s blog www.antigonemagazine.wordpress.com.
Indeed, the project hopes to raise money to officially launch the Antigone Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that will encourage young women to get involved in leadership, politics and activism. The organization will continue the work started by Antigone Magazine, a publication about women, politics, leadership and activism that started at UBC and has since expanded to a national subscription base, as well as, to the University of Toronto.

But the organization also hopes to help raise money for other women's organizations around the world. They will be selling the calendars in bulk at a discounted price so that other women's groups can use it for fundraising. Groups who buy any amount over 10 copies for fundraising purposes will pay only $10 per calendar. They will then be able to resell the calendar for $20 and raise money for their organizations. For more information please e-mail antigonemagazine@hotmail.com or check out their website here:

http://antigonemagazine.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/its-here-the-dreams-for-women-2009-calendar-is-here/

Jekyl & Heidi

I found this book review on Boing Boing this morning and am intrigued:

Screenwriter/producer Lauren McLaughlin's YA novel debut, Cycler is just out, and just in time -- this is a book that the kids in your life really need to read, a gender-bending piece of speculative fiction aimed at young people that manages to say novel, useful, and challenging things about gender and sexuality without ever descending into squicky fluid-exchange or soapy romance.
Jill McTeague has a secret: every 28 days, at the start of her menstrual cycle, she...changes. Painful, graphically, her body transforms into an adolescent male form, and her mind is remade as Jack McTeague, an angry, horny teenaged boy who stays locked in Jill's room for four days until she comes back to reclaim her body and mind. Her stepfordwife mom is mortified by this, and bent on ensuring that none of their neighbors in their affluent Massachusetts suburb discover their family's dark secret, and her absentee father (moved into the basement years ago to practice meditation and yoga) is no help either.

Jill does everything she can to pretend that her four-day absences just don't happen, while Jack seethes and rages against his captivity, in chapters that alternate between both points of view. Both characters are flawed and likable, smart but dumb about emotional stuff in exactly the way I was when I was a teenager. McLaughlin does an admirable job of nailing the voice of Jack -- I know that hormone-addled, enraged teenaged boy. I was that boy.

McLaughlin's screenwriting background carries through well, too: the plot is faultless, building from the weird premise (and the concomitant weirdness) to a series of ever-more-desperate scenarios that have you rooting for Jack and Jill even as you facepalm yourself and peer between your fingers at the wreck they're making of their lives.

This is a book about sex and love, and it's got a lot of it -- but not steamy between-the-sheets stuff (though there's some of that). Instead, McLaughlin's sex and love happens between the ears, in the realm of the mind and its contradictory and embarrassing and fickle passions. Through it all, there's always something redeeming happening, some sense that these people might, somehow, muddle through.

I've got a few years before my newborn daughter needs to start thinking about these things, but this is one I'm putting on the shelf for when she does.

Dialogue about menstruation is lacking for young people and this book sounds like it hits a lot of the emotional issues of being an adolescent on the menstrual metaphorical nail!

Accidental Ovulation

Human Ovulation has been captured on video by accident.

Morning After Laughter

The ladies can rest-easy in Canada should a morning-after pill be desired:

The Canadian National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities ruled last week that emergency contraception will be available over-the-counter in Canada. <Feminist Daily News>

More from Reuters.

At Your Cervix

Here's a documentary to watch for:
At Your Cervix: a film dedicated to making pelvic exams respectful and pain-free

The documentary At Your Cervix explores the connection between the way medical and nursing students are taught pelvic exams and the reality that most women experience them as painful and disempowering.

At Your Cervix breaks the silence around the unethical methods used by medical and nursing schools to teach students how to perform pelvic exams; the most egregious being on unconsenting, anaesthetized women. At the same time, the film highlights the Gynecological Teaching Associate (GTA) Program in New York City. Fuelled by the spirit of women’s health activism, the GTA program began over 30 years ago and it has been shown to be the most effective way to teach exams and is also the most ethical and empowering to women

Check out the website for bios and more details!

The Media Makes Pregnant Teens have Babies!

Check out this terrific review by Kathy Pollitt of the Nation, on Juno.

I couldn't get over my sense that, hard as the movie worked to be a story about particular individuals, not a sermon, it was basically saying that for a high school junior to go through pregnancy and childbirth to give a baby to an infertile couple is both noble and cool, of a piece with loving indie rock and scorning cheerleaders; it's fetal fingernails versus boysenberry condoms. To its credit, the film doesn't demonize teen sex; still, a teen who saw this movie would definitely feel like a moral failure for choosing abortion. Do we really want young girls to feel like they have to play babysanta?

You can read the rest of the review here!

Beans Beans the Sexual Fruit

The more you eat them the more you... ah, you know how it goes. Today I read that in Ethiopia condoms are being sold with the infused flavour of coffee in them. This is great news for a nation with high rates of HIV. The condoms are being sold "in packs of three for 1 birr, or about 5 pence - about half the price of a cup of coffee in Addis Ababa's cafes, and much cheaper than most other condom brands." (1 birr is the equivalent of approximately $0.12; think about the price of a cup of coffee in North America and then consider that non-fair trade coffee farmers are being paid approximately 1 birr per 1 kg of coffee beans). DKT International, the charity organization distributing the condoms, is proudly responsible for approximately 90% of all condoms distributed in Ethiopia. This new and creative campaign is very exciting; in the first week alone 300,000 of these java condoms were sold.

This isn't the first time DKT International has promoted flavoured condoms in target demographics; in Indonesia in May 2003 an additional fruit flavour was added to the already popular banana, strawberry and mint: Durian. I've tried Durian. It is one sick smelling, strange tasting fruit that is reminiscent, as my partner who grew up in Malaysia says, of dirty socks and mouldy ice cream. Some love the stuff, though, and for those with the same tastebud response as Lilith Attack, the most appealling thing about the durian flavoured condoms, is that it really got people talking about contraceptives. DKT International claims:

This was particularly useful because it was considered humorous. The ability to make people laugh when talking about condoms served to break the ice during educational events and also reduced the stigma around condoms (The Fiesta Durian condom has continued to sell well and has spurred two competitors to launch durian flavoured variants as well).

If coffee flavoured condoms, imaginably better-tasting than durian, generate similar dialogue about condoms, then contrary to conservative catholosism's claims that it's "inappropriate," DKT International and the rest of the world can be encouraged that rates of HIV in Ethiopia will continue to decline.

Have a chuckle the next time you pass up a Starbucks coffee for a fair trade cup o' joe from Ethiopia. And practice safe sex.

Nothing Rymes with Vulva!

This morning I’d like to direct you to today’s Broadsheet article by Catherine Price, “I've always preferred "hoo-ha.” So we’re talkin’ ‘bout Vaginas this morning and after reading the article I keep thinking, it’s Vulva (The external genital organs of the female, including the labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, and vestibule of the vagina) [Source]! And speaking of etymology, check out this definition of vulva from the Online Etymology Dictionary:

1548, from L. vulva, earlier volva "womb, female sexual organ," lit. "wrapper,"
from volvere "to turn, twist, roll, revolve," also "turn over in the mind," from
PIE base *wel- "to turn, revolve" (cf. Skt. valate "turns round," ulvam "womb,
vulva;" Lith. valtis "twine, net," apvalus "round;" O.C.S. valiti "roll,
welter," vluna "wave;" Gk. eluo "wind, wrap," helix "spiral object," eilein "to
turn, squeeze;" Goth. walwjan "to roll;" O.E. wealwian "roll," weoloc "whelk,
spiral-shelled mollusk;" O.H.G. walzan "to roll, waltz;" O.Ir. fulumain
"rolling;" Welsh olwyn "wheel").

I especially think “to turn, revolve . . . squeeze” adequately describes the fabulous nature of women’s sex. Vajayjay sounds as childish and as silly as Ensler’s reference to “Kootchie Snorcher” in The Vagina Monologues. It invokes fear and shame of real words used to label our anatomy. Oprah and Jimmy Kimmel and others who have jumped on the bandwagon of this little pet name are doing nothing to instill confidence in women in the way we talk about our bodies. I keep thinking, "Grow up!", we're not changing out of our bathing suits in the girls' changroom with our moms at the pool anymore. If we're mature enough to say things like, Pap Smear," bold enough to start a revolution of the word, "Cunt," then we need to form either the word Vagina in our mouths or, more correctly in most instances, Vulva, and start a new revolution of bravery in the simple naming of our body parts.

LOLFetus

This is hilarious! Blogger a k8, a cat, a mission. made this delightful LOLCats spoof, in vitro.

Thanks for the laugh!

The Boogyman "Down There"

A news release today suggests that HPV Testing is twice as effective as Pap Smears in screening for the Human Papilloma virus. I didn’t know this, but the article claims that the Pap Smear’s accurary is only 55.4%. Compare that with an accuracy of 94.6% of that of the HPV Test, and combine the two screening methods and we’re looking at 100% coverage. This is good news when considering the unknown risks and lab-rat making mass trial of the HPV Vaccine on young girls across the country. The Gardasil debate rages, and I continue to pay close attention to people like Shelley Page and Abby Lippman, critics of the vaccination rush. It is important to listen to the voices of dissent, the women who are not lobbyists, the questions being asked of motive. Check out this article from this summer’s National Review of Medicine and ask yourself the question, “Who will really benefit from the vaccine?” In the United States, the FDA has granted approval for the expanded use of the HPV Test. In Canada it costs approximately $100 for the test. Instead of spending $300 Million on Gardasil’s vaccine that prevents a cancer-causing virus that, as Lippman asserts, “only kills about 400 people a year in Canada, and most of them are dying because of lack of treatment”, that money would be better spent on a simple, 94.6% accurate test that screens for HPV. The test does not inject anything into our girls’ bodies, it is an examination under a microscope, it, “examines the genetic makeup of 13 high-risk strains of HPV to determine whether their presence is likely to lead to cancer.” Now that is something to celebrate. I wouldn’t bow down to Gardasil and rejoice in its vaccine just yet, I’m going to sit tight and watch how this plays out. Consider the alternatives and consider the motives of Gardasil and put our girls’ best interests first, not a corporation’s; making millions of dollars off girls and women with scare tactics.

Pleading for Proceding with Bleeding

I've had Katie Thorpe on my mind lately. I've been thinking about the importance of wombs and ovaries and sexuality and hormones and the ebb and flow of women's cycles. I've been thinking about menstruation and my experience with it and the experiences of other women I know and the wide variety of reactions, being negative and being positive. Some women are lucky enough to have minimal cramps, headaches and other discomforts that go with periods. Some women have horrendous discomfort. Some manage the pain with ibuprofin and acetamenaphin, some manage it with fertility drugs. Some women want a regular cycle so they go on birth control pills. Some want to avoid pregnancy so they go on birth control pills. Women experience their periods and then react to them.

Kate Ansell also has cerebral palsy. She writes an excellent article for The Independent today reflecting on her own experience with menstruation. Ms. Ansell is different from Katie Thorpe in that Ansell's disabilities aren't as profoundly debilitating as Katie Thorpe's. Nonetheless, Ansell's article explores the experience of a disabled woman with menstruation from lack of access in a public washroom to the supposedly simple task of opening a pad/tampon package to pushing the foot pedal on the waste can.

My first reaction to reading that Katie's mother is planning a hysterechtomy for her daughter before the onset of menstruation was disappointment and discomfort with such an enormous decision being made on Katie's behalf. Katie is unable to communicate her own thoughts and Ms. Thorpe believes that sparing her daughter menstruation will make Katie's life more pleasant. That said, I can understand why Katie's mom would consider this an option as the caregiver for a severely disabled person, she wants to make Katie's life as comfortable as possible. But as Ansell aserts:

[Katie's] menstrual cycle has become headline news. That such personal matters are being discussed on GMTV is ironic given that one of her mother's reasons for requesting the procedure is that she will be unable to be "discreet" or "private" about it if she does menstruate.
...
So Alison Thorpe might be right. Periods could be a trial for her daughter. But it's possible that they won't. I don't believe she is wrong to suggest a hysterectomy, but I'm perplexed as to why it's being considered before Katie's periods have started, before anyone knows how they affect her, before other, less invasive methods of management have been tried.

It's a poignant, complicated issue. It's not just Katie Thorpe's menstruation that is making headlines but underlying that is her experiences with her own sexuality. I do believe Alison Thorpe has her daughter's best interests at heart and contrary to criticism, I acknowledge that it is her decision. A tough one, and I hope that with the media frenzy, whatever decision she makes and whenever she follows through with which decision she makes, she and her daughter have no regrets.

Prolife Highway Parade

A couple of years ago driving South on Highway 2 I noticed a glaring lie of a highway billboard advertisement linking abortions to breast cancer. There is no such link. It is a lie by Prolife Canada desperately trying to appeal to gullible, stupid people. That was two years ago. This weekend driving North on highway 2 past Red Deer, there was a group of about ten people on a side road of the highway holding white signs with black letters, "Abortion Hurts Women." Giving them the bird and gettin' my rage on, these people's "campaign" was a distracting and cowardly action. First, drivers on that highway need to be focussed. There are too many idiotic drivers in rumbling fancy big trucks either drunk or carrying some death wish travelling at uncontrollable speeds tailgating, swerving, and being assholes. Second, no one has the ability to pull over, back up and challenge the notion that "abortion hurts women." The cowards. What a misleading, hypocritical notion! Pro-life groups do not and never have had a women's best interest at heart. Their manipulative claim this weekend is a spit in the face to women who have made the choice to abort for the benefit of those women's life long health and well-being.