‘Forced Sexual Activity’

Language and its use is very powerful. Take for example Cross-Country Checkup on CBC yesterday. They were talking about the Toronto District School Board Report released last week. Rex had Julian Falconer on who headed the commission that produced the report. I must say that I was very impressed with how Mr. Falconer grasped the issues. He was discussing the rate of sexual assault of young women in schools and the abysmal rates of reporting. His conclusion that for a young woman to report brought down the whole weight of the legal system, her parents etc was not working. After consulting with women experts in this matter he came to the conclusion that the issue should be handled like abortion. A young woman can make her decision about terminating her pregnancy without the involvement of parents. This way, he reasoned, young women are more likely to report the crimes committed against them school authorities and then the schools can take action against the perpetrators. To the parents who would complain that they would want to know if their daughters had been raped he basically let them know that under the current system they don’t know and at least if young women are reporting more then perpetrators are being dealt with and the parents may find out at some point. I was very impressed with Mr. Falconer’s clear and concise thinking around these issues. But I digress.

Back to the language issue. I hate it when people use euphemisms. Rex seemed to have a hard time with the word rape so he called it ‘forced sexual activity.’ What a way to diminish what is actually happening. Last time I checked ‘forced sexual activity’ is rape. Why can’t we call it what it is? Even sexual assault puts a softer touch on rape. We need to demand that violence, like rape, be labeled appropriately. If we do not then we risk a minimization of a huge crime committed mostly against women. You can bet that if it were the young men being raped it would not be called ‘forced sexual activity.’

Another one that is really pissing me off these days is the term ‘gender-based violence.’ I am not sure why we are calling violence against women ‘gender-based violence’ now. Again, it is throwing ambiguity at an all to real and serious issue. When that term is used people have to stop and think about what it could mean. Most people only see two genders (that is a whole other post) and so they have to stop and think about this applies to men. Well it doesn’t really. The bottom line is that in ‘gender-based violence,’ for the most part, men commit violence against women. Julian Falconer did not discuss violence perpetrated by females in schools. I am sure there is some. But for the most part it is young men who commit these crimes against their peers.

What are the solutions? I am not really sure. I do know that we have to call it like we see it. We need to expose violence against women and we need to call ‘forced sexual assault’ rape. As a society we need to address male privilege and how we keep passing it on to young men. Men need to take responsibility for their actions and women need to hold them accountable.

Missing Women Trial

The verdict is in and he has been found guilty of second degree murder in the deaths of Serena Abbotsway, Mona Wilson, Georgina Papin, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wilson and Marnie Frey. It is a great disappointment that he was not found guilty of first degree murder for at least one of the women. The difference between first and second degree murder is one of intent and planning, surely after 3 or 4 murders there must be intent and planning to continue killing.

I also seriously doubt that he acted alone. All of the stories that abound on the Downtown Eastside about “parties” at “piggies palace” indicate that others likely participated in the abuse and ultimately the murder of women who died on that lonely Port Coquitlam pig farm.

We are now five years since his arrest. There has been no improvement for women on the Downtown Eastside. Many still must work in the survival sex trade where they literally take their lives into their hands. Our women deserve better. If only the level of outrage at the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport. Where are the demands for a public inquiry or a coroner’s inquest for at least one of the missing women? What is it going to take for us, as a society, to not see women as throw away members of society. We must do better.

My only hope is that the second trial continues. The families of those women deserve to know the truth. Perhaps if the truth about the murder of a further 20 women is exposed things will change.

My Battle with the CBC

I am an avid CBC listener. I have it on in the car and in my office all day. When there is programming I am not fond of I listen to other CBC programs via podcast. Generally speaking, CBC programming is excellent and non-offensive. Lately there seems to be a change.

I was listening to On The Coast, the afternoon show from 3-6 every day. On September 13, Belle Purie was interviewing Grant Lawrence who is the host of a CBC Radio 3 podcast that focuses on new music. He was talking about a band called Said the Whale who sing a song called “On the Banks of English Bay.” He then went on to say that whales don’t beach themselves on English Bay unless you count his ex-girlfriend.

Being the feminist I am, I took great offense to this and fired off an email to the CBC decrying this blatant misogyny on the CBC. I received an email back from producer Karen Burgess promising to listen to the clip. I then advised her that while she was listening to clips she might also want to listen to the “google trends” piece that aired the next day as the misogynistic crap continued. I still have not heard back from Ms. Burgess.

Yesterday, Grant Lawrence was at it again. In a clip discussing Rufus Wainwright (I am still unclear how he was able to insult women given his topic) he said that Rufus was going to give them some ‘fabulous fall fashion tips.’ He should have stopped there. He goes on to add that Jenna Chow can do it for the girls. Now, unless Jenna Chow has become a fashion consultant for pre-pubescent females I have no idea to which group he was referring.

Representations of people in media are crucial. The CBC, as Canada’s publicly funded broadcaster, has an extra responsibility to ensure that all groups it discusses are represented accurately. Then there are the blatant misogynistic comments that we cannot let slide. I am unclear why the CBC seems to think this is alright. Perhaps they think they are appealing to younger, more hip audience and that somehow it is ok to sacrifice women. We need to let them know that this is not alright with us.

They got it right this time

Disgraced, former judge David Ramsay has been denied parole. Apparently he has cancer and is not expected to live out his sentence. I guess he thought he was entitled to mercy. The parole board noted that he has resisted treatment and shown no remorse for his actions.

As a sitting judge, Ramsay, used his position of authority to abuse young First Nations women. Three of his victims had appeared before him in court. Apparently he liked to make his victims scream. Well I hope David Ramsay screams alot as he dies of cancer in prison. May he receive all the mercy he has shown his victims.

A Lesbian’s Worst Nightmare

So, my sister and brother-in-law were visiting on the weekend. My brother-in-law collects guns and swords (eewww, ick). There was a show in Burnaby he wanted to go to and it was only open for a short amount of time. My sister did not want to drive as she did not know where she was going. So I said I would take them.

Well, I walked into lesbian hell. Imagine, tables (decorated in camoflauge) and all these men with guns and swords. I was almost knocked over by the testosterone in the room. I have never been anywhere with that many guns in one place. I don’t like guns. I know guns don’t kill people, people do but I still don’t like guns. I don’t like what they represent and the havoc they wreak. Besides the guns there knives, swords, patches and ammunition. The nazi stuff was the worst. I don’t understand why anyone would want to have this around.

Even worse though was the fact that mostly male children were present. Another generation being indoctrinated in the gun culture and all that goes with it. There was a boy about 7 years old walking around with a gun. Who lets their children do handle guns at that age? Are they not aware of the potential disastrous outcomes? I am fairly positive these children are not receiving an education about ending violence against women. I think I will stay in my safe bubble.

Rest in Peace Sunny Yong Sun Park

It has been over a week now since the death of Sunny Yong Sun Park, her son and her parents. I will forgive you if you don’t know what I am talking about. I am referring to the horrific events that took place in Oak Bay last week. It took me several days to finally locate her name and then I had to seek it out. As usual the references were all to her killer and she was referred to as ‘his wife.’ Herein lies the problem with eradicating (heck I would even settle for reducing) violence against women. Women are still seen as chattel of their husbands who can do whatever they want to them.

This case is even more disturbing given the lead up of events. He was a known abuser. He had tried to kill her not too long ago by driving his vehicle into a power pole with her in the passenger seat. He was released on bail. Prior to that he had assaulted some of his employees and was being sued. A noted psychiatrist apparently said that this kind of violence (murder suicide) is rare and hard to predict. I say crap. It is all too common and easy to predict.

We need to overhaul our justice system. We need to stop having men making laws that protect men when they assault women and then letting them go.

And we need to do some work in the women’s community. An anti-violence worker stated in an interview on CBC that we don’t have enough jail cells to hold all the men who commit violence against women. We certainly have enough to hold prostitutes, drug dealers, the homeless and the mentally ill. We must get our priorities in order.

In order to cover their asses the powers that be have ordered an inquest. Let’s hope for Sunny’s sake that something is actually learned and that we, as a society, start to take violence against women seriously and treat it as the crime it is.