Where were you when Obama was elected?

Well what can I say, I’m so thrilled for my American friends out there and I really believe this election will start to change everything, Canada included. This is a day for celebration, y’all.

And if you did not catch Obama’s speech last night, gather up some Kleenex and get thyself to YouTube immediately!

 

Internets make Jane Doe grumpy

So I don’t actually have a lot to say about the new Alberta cabinet, I find it weird how the ministries are always changing and ministers who I’ve usually never heard of seem to get assigned at random. And honestly, after the last election I just wanted to crawl into a cave and never think about politics again.

I’ve decided to partially emerge after being informed that Stelmach has appointed women to his cabinet- 7 in fact! Now, bare in mind this is out of 23, and I can’t really do that math in my head but let’s just say it’s not an astounding percentage, however it is an improvement. My hopes crept up but then crashed again after reading comments like these on news sites announcing the cabinet:

“…it is unfortunate that when successful, hard working people are willing to step up that the tired press can do no better than pigeon-hole them by race or gender to suit their preconceived view of how the story should play. This is the worst kind of prejudice.”

“Now we decide who runs major departments according to their plumbing and color. Well that makes sense. Wouldn’t want to let brains get in the way of a blatant PR move.”

And so on. Now, I get what these people are saying. It’s frustrating that we can’t look at a qualified individual and see only their qualifications, not their race or gender. That sucks. It is, in fact, the major downside to living in a patriarchal, racist culture. The fact that all of us, to some degree, do look at people through those lenses. And if you’ve convinced yourself that you are, in fact, blind to race and gender and have risen above the rest of us, I say that is the worst kind of prejudice. Sticking your head in the sand is worse than getting in the muck and trying to find solutions. Affirmative Action isn’t ideal in a lot of ways, but it is one solution to a complex problem. And for Christ’s sake, let’s just clarify that Affirmative Action does not involve grabbing the first person off the street that meets the “plumbing and color” requirements. It only takes place when a selection of equally qualified people have already been determined. Though I may not support everything they stand for, I challenge anyone to prove these 7 women ministers are not qualified for their positions.

I also have to give a resounding WTF to the government celebrating its first black cabinet minister. In the year 2008. I don’t think this is something we should be advertising.

I will now retreat back into my cave. Visitors with beer and/or cookies are welcome.

 

City Council votes against changing Alderman to Councillor, wants female coworkers to bake them some cookies

I’ve been following this issue for a while, (the Alderman name change issue- I made the other one up) because, well, it’s been going on for a while. Since before I was born, according to CBC. The conclusion to this debate yesterday was rather ridiculous- Bronconnier basically admitted he didn’t care, several female Councillors (and I plan on calling them that) put forth that they found the term sexist, as did several influential members of Calgarian politics (if such a term isn’t any oxy-moron). And yet, here we are, back to 1977. What a bizarre choice for Council to make- and interestingly enough those who voted against the title chance certainly aren’t making their names known. Clearly it’s embarrassing to be the only city in Canada that still uses such an outdated term, yet for some reason we can’t let it go.

Well perusing various discussion boards I’ve noticed the most common argument against changing the job title to Councillor is that it simply doesn’t matter. People are starving, getting murdered and really cold in this city and those are the issues that need focusing on. I find this argument confusing and completely invalid for a few reasons.

Firstly, to state the obvious, if it doesn’t matter why did you vote against it? Logically if some members of a group you belong to want to change the name of the group and you don’t care either way, you would just let them change it. Why draw it out 30 years and have proponents collect petitions and throw rallies if you have no opinion about the issue? I call bullshit.

And secondly, it does matter. Language matters in ways that are complex and important. Let’s make an imaginary scenario: For some reason I am decades behind the rest of the world and decide to call all Black people the n-word. When people from that group protest and politely ask I change the term I’m using, I claim to not care but continue using the word anyway.* Continuing to use the word would be highly racist of me, because the word has a oppressive history. I believe the term alderman specifically came from the title of the leader of a tribe, or a patriarch if you will.** It has always been an androcentric word, in that it has applied to men exclusively. In addition, the practice of professional titles ending in “–man” has long been recognized as discouraging women from entering the work force and the public world in general. There’s a reason we don’t refer to stay-at-home parents as housewives or police officers as policemen. Gender roles have changed and the language to accompany those roles has evolved with it.

Nothing feels more discouraging than living in a country where the Prime Minister tells women that they’re equal now and therefore don’t need funding for women’s groups, yet people in governmental positions actively decide that women Councillors should have a sexist term as their job title. Certain individuals have some answering to do.

*I would like to clarify that I’m using the n-word here as an illustrator of the importance of language, not comparing it to the use of “alderman” in degree or kind.

**And if anyone out there has access to the OED I would be really interested in knowing what it says about the etymology of the word.

And, because I promised to find something I was happy about- a great website to do some xmas shopping- Mushy Cat.com It’s feminist, environmentally friendly, and has products with Eddie Izzard jokes and anthropomorphized tofu. Just go look.