Western progressives and academics continue to use people and cultures they don’t understand to prop up their gender politics, treating these identities and cultural complexities as convenient tools that serve their political narrative.
Tag: colonialism
Raquel Rosario Sanchez speaks with four women who participated in a recent event looking at the experiences of women of colour in the sex trade, and the connection between racism and prostitution.
Women cannot possibly be viewed human so long our humanity is determined by men’s circumstantial “civilization.”
As a founding member of the Aboriginal Women’s Action Network (AWAN), I am fascinated by recent conversations about Joseph Boyden. I love that Indigenous peoples are asserting the importance of lived experience, growing…
The full decriminalization of prostitution has received considerable mainstream media attention of late: On May 5, the New York Times published an article by Emily Bazelon called, “Should Prostitution be a Crime?”…
Today’s Feminist Theory Friday (the last in the series) is perhaps more a matter of history than it is of theory. It is a history we need to center when exploring how…
On October 16, 2014, The Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy was presented to Cherry Smiley. Her activism and work for Indigenous women and girls and against the sex…
Aboriginal women and girls face abnormally high levels of violence and continue to suffer the ongoing effects of colonialism in Canada. Between 2005 and 2010, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC)…
I’m in Canada, not celebrating Thanksgiving because, 1) I don’t care about Thanksgiving, 2) I don’t like turkey, 3) My parents live in the U.S. and we have never much cared for…
In this episode we hear a talk by Cherry Smiley. The talk is part of a series on Indigenous Feminism, put on by the First Nations Student Association at Simon Fraser University.…
Last month CTV News aired a short documentary as part of their “First Story” series, called “Stepping from the Shadows,” which looks at indigenous women and prostitution, the Bedford decision, and how…
Why does women’s history matter? It seems like a simple answer — because we’re here, we’ve contributed and we’re human. But there’s more. Max Dashu has dedicated her life’s work to recovering…
As Indigenous women and girls who have experienced centuries of colonial male violence, the decision by The Supreme Court of Canada to strike down the existing prostitution laws comes as no surprise.…
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…
This article was written for and originally published on June 15, 2012 in Issue #106 of Megaphone Magazine: Vancouver’s Street Paper Sex trade law has occupied the forefront of feminist debate ever…