When the mammoth pharmaceutical company Bayer announced in 2009 that it would be making NorLevo, a morning-after pill, available over the counter to women in Toronto, it failed to mention one small detail: it doesn’t work for every woman. The drug, which is identical to Plan B One-step, (the more popular emergency contraception pill), may […] More »

White artists appropriating black culture isn’t new (Elvis, anyone?)—but pop culture social commentary as of late is taking a hard look at the practice. Recently, singer Lily Allen has been criticized for using black female dancers as props in her video for “Hard Out Here.” “Much of the video features Lily Allen dancing in a […] More »

“I tried to remember any case in the course of my reading where two women are represented as friends.” -Virginia Woolf There’s a hoary old cliché about male nerds that they’re perennially afraid of women, clamming up whenever one begins to talk, scoffing through their retainer at the thought of one intellectually matching them on […] More »

Yesterday Toronto’s mayor admitted on his radio show that he has made  “mistakes.” By now, the whole world (literally) knows that Ford is embroiled in a substance abuse scandal; beyond the vague-sounding “mistakes” there is, of course, the video in which it appears Rob Ford is smoking from a crack pipe. But what about the […] More »

The founder behind a looked-to group in the men’s rights activist (MRA) community used to identify as a feminist. “We really did need a revolution,” says Paul Elam, in a Skype interview. “But it had to involve both sexes.” Elam believes the feminist wave of the ’60s created women as oppressors over men: “Meet the […] More »

Here, Lily Myers finds the words to describe what it’s like growing up as a female,  compared to growing up as a male. Keep everything in—don’t grow out. Keep quiet—don’t speak up. Remember to be passive, “I asked five questions in genetics class today, and all of them started with the word sorry.” Check it […] More »

A new advocacy group for a not-so-new cause (This has been discussed in federal government for at least ten years) has formed to push for gender neutral language in the current version of O Canada. Together, Margaret Atwood Kim Campbell, Vivienne Roy, Sally Goddard and Nancy Ruth have launched Restore Our Anthem.  The group got […] More »

By the time Friday rolled around last week there was a veritable anthology of jokes to which “David Gilmour” was the punch line. The paper-bag jowls and complacent half-smile of his face pasted on News Feeds and blogs like an advert for a public flogging. Everywhere that CanLit went, so too went the name David […] More »

It is not uncommon for a woman to proudly declare she has no female friends and insists she is just, “one of the guys.” It is considered pretty cool to say this, just ask my high school self. It is also a big slap in the face to our gender, while buying into the mindset […] More »

When I tell people I’m a journalist I get a lot of, “Ooh, you can be Carrie Bradshaw!” Not Christina McCall or Gloria Steinem . I am sometimes told I’ll be the next Rosie DiManno, not due to sharing a similar writing style—because we don’t—but because our last names are similar. Only the people who know me know […] More »

In an unprecedented move France has actually banned something that wasn’t strictly for the purposes of race-baiting. (Sorry Tom Tucker.) Earlier this week, the country’s senate announced children’s beauty contests will be banned, pending adoption by France’s National Assembly—a move that’s sure to send the glitter and baby-thong markets reeling in France. Thong market aside, […] More »