Category Archives: sex

Don’t Watch Exodus: Gods and Kings, Sorry About No Real Post, Please Comment About the Relative Effectiveness of This Song Parody

I guess first thing’s first, apologies about having no real post for today. The second thing is way more important than the first, because I need to remind you all that you should not see Exodus: Gods and Kings. I one hundred percent realize that the title of the last post [and its very contents] refer to Christians and their responsibility to be generally good people, but isn’t that the way we should all live? Just be good people, don’t support this:

"You

And honestly, if that wasn’t a good enough reason not to watch it there’s also the fact that apparently it’s terrible. And I quote, from the very beginning of that review:

“This is one of those moments when a movie comes along that is so repugnant, and so bland, and so pretentious, that it’s almost impossible to believe. And yet, like a voice from a burning bush, Exodus is an unbelievable event that will nevertheless lead thousands of people on a terrifying quest — to movie theaters.”

To go back to my original point, however, the main reason I don’t have a new post up today is that life has gotten very busy with my leaving the country this upcoming Wednesday. All that being said, I will have a post next Friday, a special one that will share a certain theme with those of my co-writers.

I’m actually pretty excited for it. Should be good.

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Why Men Need Feminism Too: On Shia LeBeouf’s Rape

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about how quick we seem to disbelieve rape victims when they share their story. Specifically, I was referring to the Jian Ghomeshi case, when the fanbase actually increased after he was initially accused of sexual assault. People rushed to show their support on social media because they they believed that his accusers were lying.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/10/30/jian-ghomeshi-facebook-followers_n_6072544.html

Although those fans were also very quick to jump ship when more and more women stepped forward to accuse Ghomeshi.

Recently, another claim of assault has sprung up in the media, and once again, some people seem quite sure that the victim made up his story in order to get attention.

In a recent interview with Dazed magazine, Shia LeBeouf said that during his #IAMSORRY event in February “one woman whipped [his] legs for ten minutes and then stripped [his] clothing and proceeded to rape [him].”

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I’m Sorry, but Keira Knightley’s Topless Photo Does Not Count as a Win in the War Against Photoshop

I consider myself a somewhat fit person. I try to do yoga at least once a week. I bike to school. I force-feed myself smoothies (I’ve almost convinced myself that I like them). I also think I’m a fairly confident person. The mental image I hold of myself is, if anything, a little too gracious.

Damn girl, you’re looking fine today!

That being said, after unwillingly encountering photo after photo of perfectly photoshopped women day after day, sometimes I start feeling pretty freaking ugly.

This feeling of inadequacy, directly linked to viewing altered images, makes a lot of people wish there was a wider representation of body types in the media. We want to see people who look like us on TV and in magazines. And we want to see those people presented as attractive, not merely as comic relief or as a foil to the attractive characters. Continue reading

Jian Ghomeshi Part II: What Should We Do With Our Monsters?

It’s been a little over a week since the news about Ghomeshi went viral. Since the news first hit, nine women have come forward anonymously to the media and three have already reported their case to the police.

The increasing number of testimonies has pretty well solidified his guilt in the public eye, and everyone from the PR firm he hired to the musician he managed have withdrawn their support from him.

Since Ghomeshi was a familiar presence in most Canadian homes, many Canadians felt personally betrayed by his actions. When my husband, John, tried to identify his own interest in the case, he explained it like this,

“When you hear someone’s voice so often, you start to feel like you know who they are. So when you discover the truth about terrible things they have done, it’s shocking to realize that you never really knew them at all.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve have heard about the terrible things familiar faces (or in this case, voices) have done. The difference is, in the past, we have tried to forget the monsters hidden in the public men and women we admire. Continue reading

Jian Ghomeshi vs. The Women: 4 Reasons Why Liking Q Isn’t a Good Enough Reason to Defend Him

There’s been a lot of big news Canada over the last week. On Wednesday, a mentally ill man shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a soldier who was guarding the National War Memorial, before storming the Parliament building. The shooter, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, was then shot by 58-year-old Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, preventing any more casualties.

According to CBC’s sources, Vickers “dove to the floor around the pillar [where Bibeau was shooting from], turning on his back as he landed and simultaneously firing his weapon upwards at Bibeau”. Pretty impressive for an almost-60-year-old.

Yet the story of Cirillo’s death and Vicker’s heroism was quickly pushed aside when the news about Jian Ghomeshi hit.

When John and I first heard that Ghomeshi was going on leave we didn’t think much of it, and both said, “Well, we know he isn’t going to get fired. People love Q.”

Famous last words eh?

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A Visual Reminder of What Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (Still) Looks Like

We’ve discussed sexual harassment a lot on this blog. My last post was on the hacked photos of Jennifer Lawrence, a public event that easily qualifies as sexual harassment. In the past I’ve discussed other forms of internet harassment, as well as the problem of sexual harassment in the work environment of female RCMP officers. Evan also touched on this issue in his article about how it’s being combatted at conventions, while Gordon recently wrote on the“Yes Means Yes” Bill meant to address sexual harassment on college campuses.

Obviously it’s an issue we all consider very important. That’s why it was so cool when we were recently contacted by a woman whose colleague had been doing research in the area of sexual harassment, specifically harassment in the workplace. She also offered us this infographic, the result of said research, to share with our readers. I hope you all will appreciate it as much as we do.

Courtesy of Frank Nicholas. Click the image itself to link to their site and a full article accompanying the infographic.

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