Emily Witt’s recent essay, in which she describes traveling to San Fransisco, where she watches a BDSM porn shoot for a Kink.com series called Public Disgrace, which depicts “women bound, stripped, and punished in public,” inspired a number of responses. Despite my, probably obvious, criticisms of both porn and the BDSM genre, in particular, the piece [...]
May 12, 2013
In pornography, there’s literally a market for everything: Why ‘feminist porn’ isn’t the answer
“If there’s something you don’t like about your body, put it into a search engine, put ‘+ porn,’ and you’ll find a whole host of sites that find that’s the most attractive thing about you,” porn producer, Anna Arrowsmith said in an interview with BBC, with reference to a debate she would be participating in, [...]
May 10, 2013
This thing about male victims
This article was originally published on Karen Ingala Smith’s blog and is cross-posted with permission from the author. A couple of weeks ago, The Independent ran an article on male victims of domestic violence. There were some factual inaccuracies in the report along with the use of the statistic that one in three victims of [...]
May 6, 2013
PODCAST: Jackie Lynne on internalized racism, abuse, and surviving prostitution
Jackie Lynne, a Métis woman, a social worker, and an exited prostitute, who has been researching prostitution academically since 1998, speaks about her experiences of abuse, rape, and internalized racism and how those experiences led to her entry into prostitution. She links the continuum of male violence and colonialism to the current situation of prostitution [...]
May 1, 2013
Was Danny Brown sexually assaulted on stage?
This story is pretty all around gross. Trigger warning for grossness, k? Because we’ve yet to hear from Danny Brown on the whole incident, aside from his bragging on Twitter, it’s hard to say exactly how everything went down or what the context was for Brown getting a blow job from a fan, on stage, [...]
April 30, 2013
Women’s Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution granted leave to intervene in Bedford case
The Women’s Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution, a pan-Canadian coalition of equality-seeking women’s groups, has, as of today, been granted leave to intervene in the Bedford case, scheduled for hearing on June 12, 2013 at the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court will decide whether or not to keep the current prostitution laws (which [...]
April 28, 2013
PODCAST: The MRAs vs. Rad Fem 2013
Rad Fem 2013 is a radical feminist conference set to happen in London, on June 8th and 9th of this year at the London Irish Centre. When Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) caught wind of the conference, they staged a demonstration, pressing the London Irish Centre to cancel the booking. I spoke with Nic Nesbitt, one [...]
April 26, 2013
Just because you like it, doesn’t make it feminist: On Game of Thrones’ imagined feminism
Someone messaged me yesterday asking my perspective on Game of Thrones; wondering if I had any feministy links or insights to share with him. I stopped watching GoT early in the second season, after Joffrey forces one prostitute to beat another unconscious in a horrifically sadistic and gruesome way. I’d already been having a hard [...]
April 23, 2013
Men’s Rights Activists advocate for ‘human rights’ with rape and death threats
The latest from A Voice For Men’s “activism” files is a smear campaign against a protester they are calling “Big Red.” “Big Red” (nothing sexist about that name) is a woman who dared to speak out (USING SWEAR WORDS, OH NO) against Men’s Rights Activists’ anti-feminist agenda. For those who are unfamiliar with this situation, [...]
April 18, 2013
PODCAST: Sunsara Taylor on the silencing of feminist critiques of the sex industry
When Sunsara Taylor and her activist group, Stop Patriarchy, attended the annual CLPP (Civil Liberties and Public Policy) conference this past weekend at Hampshire College, they never thought it would result in their being escorted out by police. The 27th annual conference for student and community activists was focused on reproductive freedoms, called: “From Abortion Rights [...]
April 15, 2013
Is this journalism? A response to DiManno and The Toronto Star’s falsification of the prostitution debates
A piece published in the Toronto Star over the weekend may have led you to believe it would, as the headline: “Feminists take opposite stands on prostitution” alludes, explore different feminist positions on prostitution and prostitution law. The author, Rosie DiManno (“one of the Star’s best and most prolific writers“!), immediately trips all over herself [...]
April 10, 2013
INTERVIEW: Meghan Murphy on rape culture, Steubenville, & masculinity
I was a guest on Vancouver Co-op Radio’s The Rational on Tuesday evening talking about rape culture, Steubenville, masculinity and an article I wrote recently: The Steubenville rape case: This is masculinity. Thanks to Riaz Behra, who interviewed me. You can listen to the full interview here: Podcast: Play in new window | Download
April 7, 2013
Tom Matlack: Victim of feminism
Tom Matlack, who I’d pretty much forgotten about because, well, because he’s irrelevant, is at it again. And by “at it” I mean, of course, whining about the mean, mean feminists. It’s his thing. Some history on me and Tom: Back in January, Matlack, who is the co-founder of MRA-lite site, The Good Men Project, [...]
April 3, 2013
Why doesn’t anyone talk about unionizing arms manufacturers? On the idea of sex worker unions
This article was originally posted at Manyfesto and has been republished with permission from the author, Taryn Fivek. No one proposes ending war by unionizing arms manufacturers. Proposing to end violence against women in the sex trade by unionizing them is likewise untenable. The best way to end violence against women in the sex trade [...]
April 1, 2013
PODCAST: Indigenous women & prostitution: An interview with Cherry Smiley
Prostitution is a gendered issue, but it’s also an issue that is very much tied to class and race. Canada’s history of colonialism is not something to be ignored when looking at both causes of and solutions to prostitution. In this episode, I speak with Cherry Smiley, co-founder of Indigenous Women Against the Sex Industry [...]
April 1, 2013
The truth about me (and Steve) *TW for sexy times
It’s time for me to come out of the metaphorical closet, friends. I’m afraid this secret has been weighing on me far too heavily, for far too long. The truth is, I’ve been in bed with Harper for the past year. Literally and figuratively. It all started with this (I’m the one on the far [...]
March 28, 2013
‘Prostitution Chic’ is a thing now
Cool. Earlier his week, The Gloss featured old photos of prostituted women in order to highlight the fact that being poor and having to service nasty-ass dudes in the early 1900s also involved wearing cool tights. A comment left on the post reads: “Well, I’m obviously going to be an old school sex worker for [...]
May 21, 2013
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