Megan

Megan Tremblay currently works as a community nutritionist specialising in paediatric and children’s nutrition. She is also the co-founder of Breakfast for Learning and runs the program at a local elementary school in Victoria. Currently working toward her Masters in Human Nutrition at the University of British Columbia, she is actively involved with a group called Mothers and Daughters which

specializes in women’s and children’s health.

Damn the Man! Spring 2012

Editorial

Equity in Education: The Miss__G Project

"If society will not admit of woman's free development, then society must be remodeled." -- Elizabeth Blackwell

Teaching

Equality

Pg. 5

Did You Know?

- Of the 960 million illiterate adults in the world, two thirds are female 

- Education is a critical ingredient in the empowerment process 

- Only 43 percent of secondary school age girls are in class in developing countries

- Educated women are more likely to resist abuses such as domestic violence...and discrimination at home, in society or in the workplace

Join the Women's Faces in Education Campaign Today!

Either draw your self-portrait in this space, take a photograph of yourself and attach it here or visit our website at www.wix.com/themissgproject/index_new and use the face of Miss G herself!

This is my self-portrait/photo and I permit our partners Oxfam, Amnesty International and IANSA to use it to promote the campaign

Miss__G

Gender Myths

Weak vs Strong

Why do we need to acknowledge these myths?

Because the worst thing you can call a man is a woman 

Because women should not be paid the same amount as men because they are not of equal worth 

We need a kind of Feminism that aims not just to assimilate into the institutions that men have created over the centuries, but to infiltrate and subvert them - Barbera Ehrenreich

Comic Relief

Human Rights in Transition

by Tasha Rennie

On December 15^th, 2011, the United Nations Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights released its first ever report on the status of human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people around the world[i]. The report followed the historic resolution passed by the Human Rights Council on violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity in June 2011.[ii] The report highlights the forms of physical and psychological abuse and violence LGBT on top of other forms of discrimination that people have been subject to all over the world.



“Homophobic and transphobic violence has been recorded in all regions.  Such violence may be physical (including murder, beatings, kidnappings, rape and sexual assault) or psychological (including threats, coercion and arbitrary deprivations of liberty). These attacks constitute a form of gender-based violence, driven by a desire to punish those seen as defying gender norms.”[iii]

The inclusion of gender identity in this report is significant. The report reveals that an estimated 680 transgender people were murdered in 50 countries between 2008 and 2011. The nature of violence against transgender people appears to be particularly brutal. In many countries there is little legal protection offered against these violations.

Yet, even in the most progressive countries, transgender people still face a level of discrimination significantly higher than many other minority groups.

In Canada, transgender issues were brought to the Parliament for the first time in 2010, with the introduction of the private members Bill C-389. Put forward by NDP MP Bill Siksay, the so-called ‘Bathroom Bill’, moved to add gender identity and gender expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code.

Until this point, transgender people had been successful in challenging discrimination using the provisions on “sex” and “sexual orientation” of the Act. However, research from Carleton University has revealed that trans* people in Canada still face extraordinarily high levels of discrimination in the workplace and health care system, and often violence throughout their lives.[iv]

In February 2011, the bill was debated and passed through three readings before a positive vote moved it on to Senate. During the readings, the bill faced opposition from Conservative MPs, who officially claimed the amendment was vague and unnecessary. However, certain MPs, with ample support from groups like the Association for Reformed Political Action, the Catholic Womens’ League and REAL Women of Canada, were effective in mongering a good dose of ill-informed fear among their constituents over the “Bathroom Bill”.

Groups launched letter writing campaigns in opposition, and it is the nature of this backlash that illuminates not only the transphobia that exists in our society, but the inherent fear of gender defiance. Opposing arguments relied heavily on irrational misconceptions of transgender and transsexual people. The well-used bathroom argument proved to be a particular favourite.[v]

“Bill C-389 is a danger to our children,” said Charles McVety, president of the Institute for Canadian Values, to The Globe and Mail on February 10^th, 2011. “If ‘gender identity’ is enshrined in the Criminal Code of Canada, any male at any time will be permitted in girls’ bathrooms, showers and change rooms as long as they have an ‘innate feeling’ of being female.”[i]

Not only irrational and based on absolutely no evidence, this argument is particularly cruel as it conflates trans* people with perverts and pedophiles, painting them in people’s minds as scheming sexual predators.

“As for the bathroom scare,” said NDP federal LGBT committee co-chair Mattew McLauchlin, “this one really hurts me. My partner is trans and I know what he goes through. In the more than one hundred jurisdictions around the world where similar protections have been put into place, there has never been a recorded case against anybody who has tried to engage in reprehensible behaviour in the washroom. Trans people already use washrooms and locker rooms, and it’s trans people who get subject to violence and discrimination.”[ii]

The bill didn’t get far in Senate, as there was no one to sponsor it as a priority. When the federal election was called shortly after, all pieces of legislation going through Parliament were thrown out. As of today, there are still no provisions for gender identity and expression in the Human Rights Act.[iii]

While trans* people will likely continue to fight discrimination with the existing provisions, the failure of this bill means a number of things. First, without specific legal protection against discrimination and hate, transphobia will continue to propagate within our society’s consciousness.

In regards to the UN’s report, Charles Radcliffe, the chief of OHCHR’s global issues section, told UN Radio that “one of the things we found is if the law essentially reflects homophobic sentiment, then it legitimizes homophobia in society at large. If the State treats people as second class or second rate or, worse, as criminals, then it’s inviting people to do the same thing.”[iv] The same can be assumed with regards to transphobic laws.

Second, it continues the institutionalization of the gender binary, and ultimately gender inequality. One of the biggest fears opponents of the bill put forward was that allowing gender identity, something that isn’t determined by biological sex, to be enshrined in legislation would lead to the destruction of the structured gender roles our society is built on.

"The implications of this bill are horrendous," said Gwen Landolt, vice president of REAL Women, "it changes the whole concept of gender."[v]

Opponents called the bill anti-family. But, by ‘family’ they undoubtedly mean a father, mother and 2.5 kids. A patriarchal society relies on a gender binary system where one gender inevitably dominates the other. When we trouble the idea of gender, suggesting that it is not inherent in our sex, and that it is, perhaps, neither male nor female, we begin to break down the dominant-submissive binary that has resulted in real, harmful inequalities for everyone.

Some Terms

**Please note that these terms and their definitions are not universally accepted or agreed upon. Variations exist both within and outside trans communities in the usage and interpretation of these terms.

Trans: An umbrella term which refers to cross-dressers, transgenderists, transsexuals and others who permanently or periodically dis-identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. 

Transgender: A range of behaviors, expressions and identifications which challenge traditional notions of sex, gender and sexuality in a given culture. Transgender refers to people who feel that their initial sex/gender designation is a false or incomplete description of who they are.

Transsexual: An individual who strongly dis-identifies with their birth sex and wishes to utilize hormones and sex reassignment surgery (or gender confirmation surgery) as a way to align their physical body with their internal gender identity.

Transvestite: An older term, synonymous with the more politically correct term cross-dresser, which refers to individuals who have an internal drive to wear clothing associated with a gender other than the one which they were assigned at birth. Transvestite has fallen out of favor due to its psychiatric, clinical and fetishistic connotations.

Cisgender: a class of gender identities where an individual's gender identity matches the behavior or role considered appropriate for one's sex.

Tasha Rennie is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist from Vancouver. She has a combined Master’s degree in Gender Studies and Russian Literature, and enjoys fencing and sudoku in her spare time. Tasha is a prominent feminist/lgbt/environmental/anti-corporation/animal rights activist and has been arrested 18 times during protests and rallies.

Film Recommendation:

Southern Comfort (2001)

A documentary that follows the final year in the life of Robert Eads, a female-to-male transgender person who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Doctors in the Southern United States refuse to treat Eads due to his gender identity. By the time he receives treatment it is too late. The film focuses on the struggle of transgender people to reconcile their own identities with the norms of their societies, and the community of resistance and support created by transgender people to combat these challenges. Southern Comfort won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentaries at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.

Arielle Cohen studied at the London School of Economics, dropping out after first year to start an organic farmer’s co-op in southern Ecuador in 2002. Since then she has written several New York Times Best Sellers on the importance of community based agriculture programs in both urban and rural settings. She currently holds a teaching post at the University of British Columbia. Arielle IS currently working on her fifth book, entitled “Race to the Bottom.” 

Disclaimer: We are not referring to male gender,but rather institutions and systems that perpetuate gender inequality

Ryan Fernandez is now a book keeper at the Library of Interesting Things Which May Not Appear So At First glance, located in Aberdeen Scotland. After spending the first 7 years of his Undergraduate degree taking distance courses and searching for the meaning of life in the valleys and mountains of South America, he moved on to finish his degree and spent those final 4 years studying The History of Interesting Things at The Stratford Career Institute; the first to graduate from that program. After moving to scotland in 2010, he witnessed the famous kidnapping of Donnie Galloway, and embarked on a journey into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean; a story which would later be adapted into a film in the winter of 2011. Deciding to settle down, he gained employment at the Library of Interesting Things, and spends his days when not at work arguing in the comment sections of online newspapers.

Alec Cumming is a graduate of Dalhousie University, and received a Masters in Global Development Studies from Queen’s University. He is currently working as a CBC news correspondent in the Middle East and North Africa, specializing in issues of development and gender equality in Muslim countries. A former co-chair of the Married to Rights organization, which focuses on issues of spousal abuse in the Greater Toronto Area, he is a passionate activist with extensive experience in organizing grass-roots campaigns.

In response to the article entitled ‘The Long Road to Reform', I would just like to express my concern with the author’s lack of focus on western-based female rights organizations and their role to play in Saudi Arabia. While it is certainly true that real change in Saudi Arabia will require a shift in cultural ideals, and that it can be difficult for a non-Saudi organization to promote change without becoming bogged down in accusations of cultural imperialism, I think it is non-the-less important to acknowledge that these are rights that are guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While Saudi Arabia refused to sign the Declaration, a number of other Muslim nations, like Pakistan, have signed and have actively criticized the Saudi position. This alone provides a basis for outside critique and justifies the pressure from western-based organizations on the Saudi Arabian government, who fails even to recognize the most basic protection of human dignity. No government should be excused from this kind of outside criticism; these rights are called universal for a reason.

-Heather, Edmonton

Thanks Damn the Man for your last issue. As always, I eagerly await its arrival every month. I found the article 'Get Your Hands Off Our Land' to be incredibly informative and interesting. I had no idea that this phenomena of land grabs was taking place, let alone the profound impact on the millions of women involved in agricultural production. I applaud your magazine for taking such a staunch opposition against the roller coaster of price fluctuations that has occurred in the price of grains in the last 4 years. Venture capitalists and investment bankers need to wake up and realize that speculating on a basic commodity affects not only the price, but also only hurts millions of people worldwide.

- Steven, Missouri

Human Rights

In

Transition 

Pg. 7

The Long 

Road to 

Reform 

Pg. 8

Get Your

Hands Off

Our Land

Pg. 9

RenderBy

Gender 

Pg. 10

Damn The Man, I wanted to thank you for your article last issue regarding the shortfalls in our system in terms of the way we think and act based on gender. I wanted to add to your point, reinforcing the fact that it is us who maintains this system of patriarchal values, and it is us who must begin to alter it for the better. Furthermore, I wanted to let you know that I believe it is those patterns of thought which we learn from as young as the age of 2, which you have mentioned, that are responsible for more than just issues surrounding gender, but a mass of cultural issues which all intertwine, leading society down a destructive path.  If we don’t re-think fast, who knows where the world will be in the future?

- Ivan, Iqualuit 

Gender Myths...........................4                                             

Equity in Education.................5                                             

Megan Tremblay                                                                                                      

Comic Relief..............................6

Human Rights in Transition...7

Tasha Rennie

The Long Road To Reform.............................8

Alec Cumming

Get Your Hands Off Our Land...............9

Arielle Cohen

Render By Gender................................10

Ryan Fernandez

Further Exploration..............................11