Category Archives: sex

Talking [And Continuing to Talk] About Sexual Assault in the Animation Industry

Last night Adventure Time storyboard revisionist Emily Partridge went to twitter to identify Skyler Page, creator of the Cartoon Network series Clarence, as the person who had sexually assaulted her, an incident she revealed earlier via the same method.

https://twitter.com/empartridge/status/483453390911832067

Cartoon Brew covered all of this about as thoroughly as it could be, so I’m not going to hash out for all of you exactly what went down. They compile tweets from not only Partridge, but also others in the industry such as Regular Show storyboard artist Ryan Pequin and Steven Universe writer and board artist Lamar Abrams. Again, it would be great if you could read it.

This isn’t going to be a post on mental health, which is a factor that can’t be ignored in this incident, and which reading through the article above would help explain. The reason I’m coming to the internet and adding my drop to what’s already becoming an overflowing bucket is because of how I initially heard about it, as well as follow-up commentary along the exact same lines. Continue reading

Sell Sex Pt. III: Bill C-36, Human Trafficking, and Sex Work (Was I Wrong?)

In one of my early posts on the blog I shared about a fundraiser I organized with one of my best friends. The two of us had both stumbled across the shocking reality of human trafficking and been horrified. Most of my experience was just through reading about it (primarily in Benjamin Perrin’s book Invisible Chains), whereas she had met human trafficking survivors while attending Salvation Army War College.

We felt frustrated, and helpless, but we wanted to do something, anything to prevent it from happening to more vulnerable individuals.

After discussing it a few times, we decided to create some kind of event where we could raise awareness for human trafficking here in Canada. We even created a petition that advocated for the “Nordic Model” of prostitution law. This model was advocated by Perrin in his book and basically entails attacking the demand side of prostitution rather than the supply, specifically by making the purchase of sex illegal, rather than the sale. In theory, this means that the individuals who are victimized by the sex industry would be protected, while those who are perpetuating human trafficking  or contributing to the prostitution demand would be punished.

So I should be really excited now that Canada is currently debating a bill that would change our current prostitution laws to something much more in line with the Nordic Model, right?

Well, I’m suddenly not so sure.

Bill C-36 was introduced by Justice Minister Peter McKay near the beginning of June. Continue reading

Writers’ Roundtable: Pride Week

EVAN: Dear readers, the three of us have gathered once again to discuss what is arguably one of the most important contemporary cultural events in recent years: Pride Week.

Things are going to be very different for us given where we live [it is a huge deal here in Toronto], and I suppose I’d like to start this off by asking what our respective cities are like right now-

GORDON: Well, here in Vegas over the past weekend we had half-naked people in neon paint dancing around the streets, but that was just the Electric Daisy Carnival. Seeing as we’re looking at heat in the triple digits, I don’t imagine we’re going to be having a stellar Pride Parade, but that’s just my guess…

EVAN: But you do have an actual Pride Parade over there?

GORDON: I have no idea, I’m afraid. I’ll look it up now. [awkward pause] Okay, we do- but it’s in September.

KAT: Well, I am currently in Williams Lake and when I looked up “Williams Lake” and “Pride” together, all I was able to find was site after site discussing Williams Lake’s Pride in their upcoming Stampede. So I’m going to go ahead and say there will be pretty well no public displays here for Pride Week. There is, however, a Pride Society in Victoria so I’m expecting to see some pictures hitting my Facebook page soon of the Pride Parade there. Continue reading

The Problem with Purity (When Christian Values Distract from the Message)

I wore a purity ring throughout my teens. It was pretty easy to honour the contract I associated with that ring because I only dated once during that time and pretty well never saw my boyfriend outside of a group setting.

When I started having more complex relationships in my 20’s I suddenly began to realize that “purity” was a more complex idea than I first thought. At what point was I “giving myself away”? Did I need to Kiss Dating Goodbye if I wanted to hold to this contract ( a topic Evan has touched on in previous posts)? Or did I just push the line as far as I could, as long as I could “technically” tell people I was still a virgin (a practice Elisa critiqued in a past post)?

As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to a couple different conclusions about the purity culture trend than what I first believed. I don’t want to make it seem like all sexual restraint needs to be thrown out the window. I do, however, want to take a look at some unpleasant consequences of the purity movement, and consider why they came about.

Continue reading

Let Me Tell You “What Happened To Music?”

I enjoy a pretty broad range of music. It’s not just severe differences in genre [from Joshua Radin’s “Winter” to “Squeeze Me” by Kraak and Smaak], it’s stuff that spans several generations. From Elvis Presley to The Mamas & The Papas to Marvin Gaye, all can be my go-to depending on the day and my mood. In fact, it’s that appreciation for tunes through the decades that helps me enjoy so much of what’s on the cdza [or collectivecadenza] YouTube channel.

This isn’t a Fame Day post, so I’m not going to regale you all on why it’s so great. What I am going to do, however, is direct you to the very first video I saw by them. It’s called “History of Wooing Men”:

Continue reading

If We Really Want to Celebrate Motherhood, Can We Stop Being so Afraid of Boobs and Blood?

Mother’s Day is around the corner. Soon we’ll all be out buying flowers and chocolates for our moms and trying to make up for the way we talked to her in our teens (or is that just me?).  If we aren’t already out buying something for mom, then a whole bunch of really emotional commercials are going to try to guilt us into doing so.

While we often see mothers celebrated in media, usually for their hard work and dedication in the home, these ads tend to avoid any of the messy biological stuff that tends to go hand and hand with motherhood. You want examples? Well how about breastfeeding and periods? Continue reading