Humber Et Cetera » Opinion

Cyclists accountable to respect traffic laws

Shazia Islam — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 22:01:50 +0000

Andrew Schopp

Biz-Tech Editor

Last week, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne told the Toronto Star, “Contrary to what some people will have you believe, there is no war on cars, no war on transit, no war on cyclists.” Clearly, she’s never driven on Queen Street West where cars, streetcars, and cyclists dangerously jockey for position on the busy two-lane street. A typical fender-bender is no big deal. You pull over to the side of the road to exchange information; license, insurance, pleasantries, etc. and you’re off, with everything tied in a nice legal bow. Collisions with cyclists, however, are a whole different animal.

While stopped at a red light, an incoming cyclist zips by and clips your rear view mirror, damaging it. You ask the cyclist to exchange information, license and insurance. Otto from The Simpsons says: “Well, if you need to know my identity I have my name written on my underpants…Oh wait, these aren’t mine,” says the cartoon cyclist while checking his undergarment for identification.

It’s a classic Simpsons bit, but it’s also the reality of Toronto streets, where the motorist majority is forced to share roads with unlicensed and uninsured cyclists who are virtually unbound by the law.

The Ontario Highway Traffic Act does have laws geared toward cyclists; however, they are loose, rife with loopholes, and because cyclists don’t hold a license and are not registered, are difficult for police to enforce.

A police officer pulls over a Toronto motorist on College Street for speaking on his cell-phone. Meanwhile, a helmetless cyclist with no license and no insurance zips by, intoxicated. Although the cyclist is foolishly oblivious of his behaviour, in the eyes of the law, he is for the most part innocent.

There are no specific laws under the Ontario Highway Traffic Act which prohibit a cyclist from riding intoxicated, from using a cellular device, or as I saw on College Street last week, wielding a giant antique lamp with one hand on the handlebars.

Much to the chagrin of Mayor Rob Ford, the city plans to throw $1.2-million at a “bike station” at Nathan Phillips Square; a place for cyclists to park their bikes and even shower before heading off to work.

That’s $1.2-million. A decent chunk of change to throw at a group of road users who literally pay zero dollars to be on Toronto roadways, and yet demand to be protected from “dangerous” and “ruthless” motorists who pay thousands of dollars each year on insurance, license renewal, plate renewal, parking, and the list goes on. Not only are streets without bicycle lanes designed for motorized vehicles and nothing else, but also motorists and public transit users are the only ones actually paying for them.

Two-wheelers demand drivers share their roads fairly, but do not have to submit to the same rules and regulations.

If cyclists are to share roads with motorists, they should be licenced, insured, plated and should follow the same laws under the Highway Traffic Act as motorists.

Cyclists believe they have a right to use roads, which simply put, are not meant for them. If they wish to use roads designed for automobiles, they should be treated exactly as such, and, they should pay as such.

Racism still lives

Shazia Islam — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:56:34 +0000

Sharon Tindyebwa

News Editor

A couple of weeks ago, country singer Brad Paisley released a song called “Accidental Racist,” featuring rapper turned actor, LL Cool J. The general premise of the song is that Paisley wants to be able to wear his shirt with a Confederate flag on it, but is met with suspicion from his local black Starbucks barista who views the shirt as racist.

Paisley implores the man to understand that he’s not racist, but is just trying to show his Southern pride. The racism associated with the flag is from his ancestors, not him.

That’s where LL comes in. He explains that it’s hard for someone “livin’ in the hood” to see someone wearing a symbol of the Confederate flag and not feel that the person isn’t racist.

In the end, the two agree to “let bygones be bygones.”

The song has been widely panned, with many critics calling the actual song racist. The song is deeply flawed for many reasons, but I do believe Paisley actually thought he was starting an honest-to-good conversation on the flag. What stuck out to me was his repeated plea for people to forget the racist associations of the flag because it happened so long ago.

It is an argument that I’ve found in many discussions about racism. A sort of “why can’t you let it go?” attitude towards the very notion of racism. It’s 2013, people will say, racism is dead. Some point to the election and re-election of Barack Obama as president of the United States as further proof of the death of racism.

What these conversations show, much like Paisley’s song, is a clear lack of understanding of racism. Of its depth and magnitude.

This lack of understanding is due to a failure in the public education system to give comprehensive lessons on race and racism. From a young age, we are taught it is wrong to hate or degrade someone based on their skin colour. We are taught that we are equal and just because someone is not the same colour as us does not mean they are not as – insert adjective here – as you.

What we are not taught is the notion of race as a social construct, or how racism is institutionalized. It was not until I was in university that I learned phrases like “white privilege” and “intersectionality.” Many of my peers have never heard these words at all.

White privilege refers to societal advantages that white people benefit from that racialized people in the same space do not. Most people are not consciously aware of these benefits but they access them on a regular basis.

Peggy McIntosh, associate director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, described white privilege, “like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks.”

Just because it is no longer socially acceptable to spew out racist vitriol, at least in public, does not mean it’s dead. It’s more in the subtle forms, or the assumptions that are made, than the overt examples of bigotry.

Intersectionality is the study of the interconnectedness of various forms of oppression, for example, how racism and homophobia intersect.

Trying to introduce white privilege or intersectionality into a conversation about racism often leads to confusion or anger. Either people simply don’t get it or they feel like they are on the defensive. The idea isn’t to provoke, but to try and explain why declaring racism is over is not fair to marginalized people and communities who still experience it, whether it be through immigration policies or media misrepresentation.

People in Toronto are used to being surrounded by people of different races and ethnicities. Inter-racial couples are not uncommon, nor are mixed-raced people. In this context, it is easy to say racism is dead or that we live in a post-racialized city.

But just like race is more than just black and white, what constitutes racism is more complicated than not hating someone of a different race. Teaching the complicated theories of race and racism to kids earlier on would be a giant leap in not only bringing about understanding but to truly making racism a thing of the past.

Justin Bieber’s gaffe becomes WWII history lesson for fans

Shazia Islam — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:49:53 +0000

Doreen Dawang

Art Director

Let’s take a moment to consider the message Justin Bieber wrote in a guest book at the Anne Frank House in a positive light.

Museum officials in Amsterdam, at the home where the Jewish teenager lived in hiding from the Nazis during the Second World War, seem to do so, taking to their Facebook page to comment on the recent uproar and say they were delighted the Canadian pop star took the time to visit their museum.

“We hope that his visit will inspire his fans to learn more about (Frank’s) life and hopefully read the diary,” said a museum post.

Bieber and his erratic behaviour are at it again, this time under the scrutiny of critics who were touched by the doomed Frank, who eventually died in a German concentration camp, and her poignant diary.

During their brief stopover in Amsterdam, Bieber and his crew had visited the Anne Frank House for an after-hours tour. Before he left, Bieber left a message in the museum’s guest book, writing:

“Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a Belieber.”

Entangling the notion of a Belieber – defined as a devoted fan of the Biebs and his music –with the girl whose tragedy emblemized the Holocaust worldwide for generations of young people, created a fierce backlash on social media. Over 3,200 people have commented on the museum’s Facebook post, calling Bieber an “idiot” and “self-indulgent.”

Bieber’s camp has yet to comment on the criticism. Perhaps during his visit, Bieber had learned about Frank’s interest in popular culture of the day, which prompted him to make that connection if their lives ever coincided.

The fact that he did visit the museum is impressive; he could have spent the one-hour doing something else with his millions of dollars.

Whether crude or inconsiderate, Bieber still made an effort to visit and educate himself on Anne and her history.

From the wise words of Anne Frank: “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

The real issue is not what he wrote in the guest book, but that there are many kids and teenagers who worship JB, but have no idea who Anne Frank is.

Moments after news was released of Bieber’s visit, Twitter was flooded with tweets asking, “Who’s Anne Frank?” And a personal favourite: “Who’s Anne Frank and why is Justin visiting her house? Why can’t he come to my house:(?”

I do recall reading her diary for a class assignment in elementary school and being moved to tears by her courageous efforts during the Holocaust. She inspired millions to have faith in the moment of despair.

But this is just a glimpse of what our younger generation is lacking: knowledge of a brave, young girl who was in hiding for two years from the Nazis and kept a diary about her family and their experience during wartime.

Bieber’s efforts should be encouraging his fans and other young children to learn more about her life, and the impact she’s made in history.

Pre-teens and adolescents are quick to catch on the latest trends created by celebrities and pop stars. Bieber’s 37-million Twitter followers are an indication of his mass following, and the impression he makes on the younger generation. Every move and every word said is documented, which can leave a lasting impression of today’s youth.

With fame comes responsibility, and Bieber should take every opportunity to inspire his fans on a positive level.

What’s interesting is that it took one visit by Justin Bieber to get people talking about Anne Frank.

If a flock of Bieber fans can take an interest and pick up the Diary of Anne Frank, then he’s done his job.

Aboriginal women fed up

Shazia Islam — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:44:36 +0000

Christian Quequish

News Editor

There is no single statistic to define the growing problem of violence against Aboriginal women in Canada and abroad, but it’s safe to say that our sisters have had enough.

Operation Thunderbird, or #OpThunderbird in the twitterverse, is a movement that seeks to shed light on systemic violence against Aboriginal women in Canada, stemming from the abduction and rape of an Aboriginal woman in Thunder Bay on Dec. 27, 2012, according to the main operating site of Operation Thunderbird.

The incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime. And it came in a time when Canada was still barely coming to terms with the conviction of Robert Pickton, believed to have murdered up to 49 women, many of them indigenous.
One of those victims was my aunt.

“Operation Thunderbird began [when] a group of committed activists started speaking about their desire to help bring justice to marginalized indigenous women everywhere,” the site’s ledger reads. “We looked at our worlds and saw women missing, abused, murdered with impunity, beheaded, raped, dismembered, disrespected, unheard and forgotten by the media and legal institutions like trash.”

One of the big things that OpThunderbird has been able to produce is a map to show, visually, the sad case of “unsolved missing, murders of indigenous woman…[as well as] unidentified found human remains. There are also categories to report solved murders and hateful or racist verbal assaults,” the crowd-map site reads.

The map indicates the number of indigenous women who have been murdered or gone missing (as well as both indigenous and non-indigenous women who have been sexually assaulted), and was created to raise awareness of the lack of interest in the loss of Aboriginal women by law enforcement.

Another initiative – separate from Operation Thunderbird – intended to help aboriginal women developed in the form of a crowd-funded project called Arming Sisters, developed by Patricia Stein, a Lakota activist working from Cairo. Her goal, as indicated by her public IndieGoGo campaign page, is to arm women, “not with weapons, but with the courage and knowledge to fight back.”

Stein said 330 out of 1,000 indigenous women in any given district would be assaulted, with one in three being raped, two in five experiencing domestic violence, and three in five being physically assaulted. The project, if it meets its financial goals, will seek to bring self-defense courses to women in 20 of the largest indigenous communities in Canada and the United States.

“Should this goal be completed, we will directly reach 2,000 women, and thousands more as they share their knowledge,” the IndieGoGo campaign reads.

So why have we, in the 21st century, come to a point where women still don’t feel safe in their own communities? Women have always had a hard lot. I won’t deny that I feel fine going for a stroll in the evening without a thought of hesitance, but I think the issue goes beyond male privilege.

Stein said in her video that indigenous women are specifically being targeted, as 88 per cent of assaults are by non-indigenous men.

“Targeted to flawed laws, racism, and deep rooted corruption in the institutions set up to protect and serve the public,” said Stein. “Up until recently, 7 March 2013 recently, when the Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized including tribal provisions, tribal governments had no authority to properly address cases.”

This particular act only affects women in the United States, and Stein said a “signed bill, regardless of borders, will not bring down the rate of assault for years to come, or delete the racism and corruption from society.”

Aboriginal people are a tough bunch. Our ancestors survived cultural and actual genocide; we endure ongoing systemic racism stemming from Canada’s archaic Indian Act of 1867, and struggle every day just to survive in some cases.

It’s a dangerous world out there for Aboriginal people, but it’s even more dangerous for Aboriginal women.

I recall visiting The Forks in Winnipeg one summer with my mother and another female relative – they had just parked when a (white) man approached them and started yelling racial slurs at them for allegedly “stealing his spot.” They were outside the car dealing with him; I was inside the van wondering what the commotion was.

From where I stepped out of the van on the right, my mother and aunt were on the left side dealing with the man. As I made my way over to the confrontation, the man slowly backed away from us and, I’m sure, decided the parking spot was no longer worth fighting for. He was more willing to cuss out a couple of indigenous women than deal with a 6’0 Aboriginal man.

That’s just one of the countless, more subtle examples. And I’m very grateful to have been able to act as a guardian for my mother in public situations – it’s not the quintessential solution to the bigger issue, but it’s what I can offer to help my family.

I praise Aboriginal women for gathering resources, engaging in movements set to create positive change for future generations. It’s important for the marginalized to speak up, it’s important for women to start feeling safe in a society they’re very much a part of. Operation Thunderbird seeks to make it condemningly difficult to avoid justice—not just for victim of the December 27 hate rape, but for all women.

Sexual assault of males is repulsive

Shazia Islam — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:39:38 +0000

Lime Blake

Photo Editor

Some can argue that cases of sexual abuse against men by women are rare, and while this may or may not be true – dependent on the fact that only about eight per cent of men report such instances in general – the true horror and revulsion stem from the fact that instances of sexual assault against males, whoever the perpetrators, are too often looked upon with ridicule, or are ignored overall.

The recent report of a 19-year-old man picked up by four women outside a nightclub and physically violated is shocking. In an article by Toronto-based newsmaker Women’sPost.ca, Travis Myers, it was noted that many reactions via Twitter were that of humiliation towards the individual who was sexually assaulted. Many tweets indicated that the report was humorous in some way and, from a broad male perspective, that the 19-year-old was “lucky” to have had the “opportunity” to be with four women at once. This is also characteristic of the response when an adolescent male in the school system is sexually seduced by a female teacher, in sharp contrast to the immediate public witch hunt unleashed on a male teacher accused of the same thing.

While I agree with Myers that it is difficult to think of any one notable case of reported rape of a man by one or more women, it is naïve to believe that these cases in and of themselves are rare.

Rare, they are not – widely unreported, they are. There is a continuum here with the lack of seriousness attending all forms of the violation of males. While there is finally some social reflex of sympathy for boys known to have been violated by priests, hockey coaches and others, for example, the routine rape of males in prison settings is simply a subject of jocularity or even vengeance-themed satisfaction.

Men comprise by far the greater number of homicide victims and suicides, although little in today’s public discourse acknowledges it.

In cases where one or more men are involved in the violation of another human being – be they female or male victims, in scenarios of incarceration or outside of the justice system – it is easy to ascertain that the motive of assault stems from violence, hatred, or even pure animalistic sexual desire.

But we don’t know where the motive lies with these four women. As far as we know, as a whole, it may be true that women are less prone to committing a sexual crime, but the actuality of things is that we really don’t know how frequent something like this is, as men are less likely to report sexual abuse – along with other forms of physical abuse — than women.

We as a society treat situations like the recent assault as a joke because there is such a high emphasis on the fact that men are naturally sexual creatures, and to be taken advantage of by a woman is to be “less of a man” – as recognized by the Twitter reactions mentioned earlier.

In my research, a friend recounted a time when one of her male friends had a date lined up for the weekend. When she met up with him the following Monday, he had admitted to her the woman he went on a date with had roofied him. My friend had a difficult time swallowing his story until only recently, when news of this recent sexual assault against a man came to light.

Who knows? The women who assaulted this man could have all be very drunk at the time. They could have been under the influence of some narcotic. Or, they could have plain and simply been deviants. We don’t know, but in any case, it does not excuse their behavior.

Obviously, there is a crippling double standard within our society’s rigid view of the gender binary. There always has been, not just in the case of sexual assault.

We are taught from birth that girls are fragile and boys are tough. In Western culture, when a woman comes out as a victim of rape, most decent human beings are quick to go to her aid. However, since the beginning of time, boys have always been expected to hold back their emotions, their agony.

Scrape your knee? Buck up, Charlie, it’s only a scrape.

Myers goes on to say that “These attitudes are not only disgustingly ignorant and wrong, but they perpetuate these same dusty old antiquated ideas for future generations and prevent victims from getting help and keep them suffering in silence.”

He is absolutely right. I’ve heard plenty of cases where men who have reported sexual assault have been turned away from resource centres and even family or friends. Like in the case of the 19-year-old, they are balked at, or are waved away with assumption that their claims are unfounded or blown out of proportion.

Writing as someone who knows many people who have been victims of sexual assault by both men and women, it puts a sour taste in my mouth to hear that cases of this type of double standard fly by night to blind eyes.

If we peel back gender roles, we are all revealed to be vulnerable human beings. Cut me, I bleed. Rape me, I cry. We must unite against the social dismissal of sexual assault against males and truly assess as vulnerable human beings the lack of resources and moral support for those who need help but are denied the Good Samaritan’s hand.

Vinyl LPs make their groovy comeback

Shazia Islam — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:32:54 +0000

Sarah MacDonald

Features Editor

A singular beat up Bob Dylan 12-inch record sits in my living room. Dylan’s vinyl memento or Bobby Zimmerman as we fondly call him, appeared initially as more of a house mascot than something to be played because we couldn’t play it.

But one wintery night my roommate came home with a shiny record player. While fiddling with the wires and plugs may deter some, the pure bliss she felt at the possibility of listening to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” on a record player was well worth the trouble of dealing with a technology we hadn’t really grown up with.

Vinyl is seeing a surge in popularity. Sales increased by more than 50 per cent in 2012, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, reaching somewhere in the neighbourhood of $171 million. This is the highest in vinyl sales since 1997. The most notable album release that year was Radiohead’s Ok Computer but other albums like The Verve’s Urban Hymns, Elliott Smith’s Either/Or and Blur’s self-titled fifth album also made the rounds during what some could (and do) say was a bleak time in musical history.

One major contribution to this revival is Record Store Day, an occasion conceived by independent record store owners and employees. Having marked its seventh year on Saturday, Record Store Day is gaining momentum. Some bands and musicians seize what the day has to offer and make it juicier by releasing limited editions LPs. Making a concerted effort to market, sell and distribute vinyl only helps with the appeal of this once-thought obsolete technology.

We can also thank Jack White — this year’s Record Store Day ambassador — for vinyl’s success this past year. The slick Nashville-by-way-of-Detroit music genius’ solo album Blunderbuss, which is the only record from any of his musical assemblages from the hyper-influential The White Stripes to The Raconteurs to The Dead Weather to reach a number one spot, sold more than The Beatles’ Abbey Road last year. Blunderbuss sold 33,000 copies in its 12-inch version.

Kudos, Jack. But he doesn’t deserve all the credit. We should also thank the countless and truest of music nerds with stacks of grimy, dated LPs sitting in their milk carton crates who, after careful shopping and questing, find some of the most spectacular records ever made. Even before buying vinyl became a thing these music heroes were building a collection to be envied.

The revival is vitally important to not only the selling of music but also for the purity of music going forward. Vinyl is nostalgia and while music is listened to and parsed differently for every person, nostalgia is a big reason why we listen to and make music at all. Music captures a feeling. These 7-inch or 12-inch LPs contribute to our sensory consumption of music, as you can actually feel the changes in the grooves of the disc. Analog technology is simpler, less fussy than the perfection of digital songs and albums. No one is trying to be perfect on vinyl; the blemishes of it make it all the more worthwhile.

We’re so accustomed to the gloss of digital recordings that it’s easy to forget how distant from the music it can actually feel. Julian Casablancas from The Strokes literally phoned it in on the band’s comeback album Angles in 2011 by emailing his voice tracks to be compiled with the instrumental parts done in studio by other band members. While you can insert any brooding, slightly dick-ish lead singer from any band trying to do the same thing decades ago, the technology didn’t allow for it. MP3s and digital distribution, albeit accessible to anyone and anywhere, have made us lazy.

The obvious downside of this new appeal of vinyl is that it is and will be highly marketable and appears in places lovers of music ought not to go. Record players are now sold at corporate chains like Wal-Mart and 12-inch LPs have been sold at ostensibly pretentious retailers like Urban Outfitters for years. Admittedly, I once purchased a record as a gift at Urban Outfitters and have thumbed through their stacks of albums.

My collection today is incredibly sparse in comparison to people I know who live and breathe all things vinyl; people who DJ the hip bars of Queen West with only their finest and rarest of vinyl gems.

MP3s aren’t going anywhere anytime soon and are still incredibly important to bands starting out because digital distribution has been the key factor in any band’s success in the last decade. But this resurgence in vinyl’s popularity does ask us what we want from our music.

Obtaining a digital copy of the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs record via iTunes is easy but isn’t sitting on the floor of your bedroom, slipping the sleeve off its vinyl format and placing it on a record player ever so gently much more unpolluted and better for your music experience? It is.

The times they are a-changin`, indeed.

Stay off Facebook during classes

Shazia Islam — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:20:21 +0000

Alec Kennedy

CICE Intern

My advice about Facebook is don’t go on the social media site during class time because it is rude while the teacher is conducting a class. The teacher can ask you to leave the classroom.

And my advice about fighting is not to start a fight because you may get hurt very badly. Just walk away.

How one woman rocked bi-racial boundaries

Shazia Islam — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:41:31 +0000

Stacey Thompson

Photo Editor

That feeling of not being good enough is something that plagues many people. And some people point out the flaws of others to make their own less noticeable. This behavior has affected my life not only because of my taste in music, or clothing or hairstyle, but even because of something I didn’t choose: the colour of my skin.

My mother is Canadian, of Dutch and German descent. My late father was Jamaican with English roots. This was not strange to me, because these are the people who I grew up knowing and loving, and the people who shaped me. I always knew I wasn’t exactly like my mother and not exactly like my father, but this didn’t bother me until my peers in grade school started singling me out.

I was six years old when it first hit me that I didn’t quite fit in with everyone. There was a black girl at school who seemed a kind-hearted person in my class. One day at recess, I had no one to play with, and being six, that was saddening. So I approached this girl and asked her if I could play with her and the group of kids she was with. Her response was, “No. Only black kids can play.” I walked away feeling ashamed and for the first time I realized I was different in other people’s eyes. I didn’t have a place to fit in.

At the age of 11 I moved to Barrie, about 45 minutes north of Toronto. My father was sick and needed to be moved to a less busy place. Barrie was a town with few people representing visible minorities, and I noticed I really stood out. My first day at Maple Grove Elementary School, in my sixth grade class, I was the only kid with a visible, “natural tan.” For the first time among white children, I was aware of my racial difference and worried what other kids would think of me.

Barrie was the first place where I encountered racism and where I discovered what hate truly felt like. One boy a year older than me said he would join the KKK just to kill me.

Two short years later, I moved to Bryan, Texas, halfway between Dallas and Houston.

Texas was an experience in and of itself. First off, being Canadian in America was strange. To me, everyone had the accent while to everyone else, I did. Four seasons no longer existed; it was hot and hotter, and the winter was more like a Canadian fall. School started in August and ended in May, and the racial divides were an eye opener.

The three largest racial groups in Texas were Mexican, Caucasian, and African American, and the “in-between” kids would choose which part of themselves to connect with more — and then hang out with the kids that fit into that racial group. If a person was mixed with black and white such as myself, it was assumed the black side would prevail. This was expected.

I was brought up to look at myself and the people around me as individuals, irrespective of skin colour. I have chosen to see personalities and uniqueness in others and not to see race. This didn’t go over well with the other kids. I was called the Oreo cookie, an uppity N-word, among many other insults. This is what I experienced for a good five years while I was going through school in the States.

I remember eighth grade was the toughest, and going home to my mother and saying, “I wish I wasn’t half black, I wish I was white so I didn’t have to deal with all this crap.” Strong words that I took seriously for a long time, until I grew up.

I am who I am. Yes, I may be bi-racial but this fact doesn’t define my whole being. I am proud to embody my mother’s and father’s ethno-racial heritages, while maintaining my individuality.

I am not bitter toward the kids and adults who treated me differently because of my skin colour. All those experiences have made me stronger and more attuned to who I am. Rock who you are! Embrace it! In the end you only have yourself — and that doesn’t sound too bad to me.

Social media breeds slactivism

Shazia Islam — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:36:43 +0000

Lime Blake

Photo Editor

My first encounter with online activism was back in January 2010, when female friends and family members began to update their Facebook statuses with vague, out of context announcements of what colour bra they were wearing that day. Why were all of the women in my life doing this? What was this outrageous phenomenon? What was the big secret?

Breast cancer awareness, I eventually found out.

Ten months later, just about everybody I knew had updated their profile pictures in a flurry to characters from classic cartoon serials they had grown up with as kids. This, I quickly found out, was somehow an act of advocacy to promote the awareness of child abuse.

“But isn’t everybody already aware of how prevalent child abuse is?” I remember asking myself. I challenged a girl I was Facebook friends with at the time about the laziness of changing her profile picture to that of Angela Anaconda instead of physically leaving her house to join an active coalition against child abuse. She didn’t take my suggestion very well, and pointed out that what she had done did indeed help to spread awareness and was leagues more than the nothing that I had done.

However true this may have been, a sour taste in my mouth permeated. How effective was this lazy attempt at activism, really?

Slacktivism – coined by Fred Clark and Dwight Ozard for their 1995 series of Cornerstone Festival seminars – has become prevalent over the last couple of years, to the point where humanist groups and corporations eagerly encourage those linked to social media groups to voice awareness of particular messages through blogs, Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook. But again, how successful is this, especially when some of these advocacy groups either turn out to be fund-based scams and/or merely founded in pure ignorance, such as Kony 2012?

On Mar. 25, Facebook users were once again encouraged to change their profile pictures, this time via a post by the Human Rights Campaign subscription page, in favour of red and pink equals signs to show support for same-sex marriage as the Supreme Court of the United States began its deliberation of the Defense of Marriage Act.

In a report by Internet database site Know Your Meme, within mere hours the post not only garnered “nearly 17,000 likes and more than 60,000 shares,” but had extensive support from celebrities, as well as 13 members of the United States Congress. According to the report, this latest act of online activism produced an increase of Facebook profile picture changes by 120 per cent –a little more than 2.7 million people.

But again, the question remains: Did this actually achieve anything other than basic awareness of the issue?
I’ve always held the strong belief that social media is in fact a weapon for truth and justice – however, there must be a proven outcome. The Arab Spring and the Occupy movement are notable and obvious examples of how true activism, using social media, can either prevail or crumble.

There is absolutely nothing wrong in the advocacy of a worthy cause and standing up for what you believe in. But the effectiveness of doing so only behind the glow of a laptop monitor or cell phone screen is up for debate. History has always had its share of band-wagon fist-pumpers who stand in the background claiming, “Oh yeah. I’m in,” with cheeks stuffed with free food, and slacktivism is no different. There is little evidence that taking a couple of quick minutes to tweet, update a Facebook status, or fall in line with millions of others’ profile pictures will do anything more than satisfy the ego.

Activism through social media is only a single step in the right direction if used appropriately. Flesh, blood, and tears are the true tools we must use to change our precious world for the better.

Four-letter word Slut does more than just shame

Shazia Islam — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:31:15 +0000

Sarah MacDonald

Features Editor

Rehtaeh Parsons, a 17 year-old Nova Scotia native, was apparently a slut because after being allegedly raped by four boys at the age of 15, there was no other word for her.

But today we call her a victim.

Parsons died on April 7. After dealing with the alleged rape from almost two years ago, followed by the online torment and depression, Parsons hanged herself in her bathroom and later died in hospital.

Parsons has become one more victim in the seemingly endless line of teenagers of late that have had to deal with the unbearable agony of being shamed and bullied. What’s worse, though, as many will remember Parsons for a myriad of warm or tragic reasons, is that she was first marked as a slut.

In November 2011, Parsons went to a party (like kids do) and she had some vodka (like kids do) and only remembered bits and pieces of the night (like kids do). Parsons could discern only a few things in her hazy memory, such as throwing up out of a window or hearing a boy say, “Take a picture!” as another had sex with her. These photos were later distributed throughout her school and kids began to mercilessly taunt and tease her, sending her mental health into a downward spiral.

Parsons’ heartbreaking story bears a chilling resemblance to Amanda Todd’s, whose death last fall sent tremors worldwide. Bullying was pointed out as the reason for Todd’s death and the same is true of Parsons. But simply making bullying the umbrella term for the kind of harassment girls like Todd and Parsons faced— and even the kind of treatment girls face every day and everywhere currently—doesn’t get to the heart of the issue.

The continuity of slut-shaming and its role in the development of girls, of women, is a quandary that many are unlikely to say is the problem. But it is. Girls will cavalierly prod one another with the word “slut”, citing it as a term of endearment rather than recognizing it as something offensive. A word like slut has such a powerful connotation. Replace it with “whore” or slide in its true meaning, which is to say, filthy, it boils down to one thing if you’re a woman: you’re dirty if you enjoy sex.

But Parsons wasn’t enjoying the sex in any consensual way. Society comes up with all kinds of excuses to explain away the violence perpetrated by these young men: she was drunk or boys will be boys or kids will do the things kids do. But these are never valid reasons for why Parsons was called a slut in the hallways of her school by people she used to consider friends.

Parsons’ mother Leah wrote on Facebook that many of the people had begun to alienate Rehtaeh after this incident. Speaking to CBC, Leah Parsons said her daughter’s mood and demeanor changed at this time.

The toxicity of social media and texting and having access to anyone at any given moment can be quite disastrous. Peers—if you can call them that—begged Parsons for sex via text message. Spreading this slut-shaming behaviour via text or online gives the word further undeserved legitimacy and longevity. She and anyone else like her who faced or is facing similar treatment are forced to relive it over and over again.

I’ve woken up to a “you whore” or “what’s up, slut?” message after a night of debauchery and youthful mistakes and felt the sting of such abhorrent judgment not just from people I call friends but fellow women. What I indulged in the night before was of my own choosing; but this choice was taken away from Parsons before she even knew what to do with it.

There is an idea going around that someone must be to blame for failing Rehtaeh Parsons; that someone aside from these wretched teens should be held accountable. The school administration is to blame, perhaps, because punishment wasn’t effectively meted out to these raucous youth for spreading photos and using words with awful, hurtful meanings. Maybe the RCMP is at fault for not really putting in any effort to investigate what happened to Parsons on that night almost two years ago; they concluded that it was simply a case of “he said, she said.”

Blame can be placed anywhere and on anyone so easily but we must ask ourselves why we think it’s okay to raise girls to tolerate being called a slut. We must look to ourselves to understand why such a sordid word is given so much weight in our society.

Rehtaeh Parsons fell victim to a number of things and being called a slut was one of them. The only way to move forward is to forfeit the word slut from our vocabulary and call Parsons by what she really was: a person.