Women's Voices in Social Media: International Women's Day

I recently spoke at a Conference on Women's Voices in Social Media, hosted by The Canadian Federation for University Women at Trent University in Peterborough. It was a lively and important discussion, and I was able to sit on a panel with brilliant speakers who touched on many aspects of the challenges and opportunities for women online and the policy reform and state role in criminalizing certain behaviors.

Below is part of my speech and more after the break. Saturday is International Women's Day - and in an era where our digital connectivity has become synonymous with our 'real world' selves, women must be empowered to be active participants and creators of information and not simply passive consumers.

The Way the Internet Looks at Women

Women's representation in the media goes beyond what we see on television or in magazines and billboards. It is in our every day use of that media, and specifically, the internet. Indeed, it is in these seemingly innocuous daily uses that we become immune to the ways these images influence our perception of a woman's value, position and role.

Check out some of these images when googling terms like 'woman' (all white and highly sexualized poses), or 'working woman' (mainly white and behind a computer, with some frustrated and anxious looks thrown in for good measure), or 'young girls' (again, mainly white, and frighteningly sexualized).

Can she have it all? Who knows!!

Getty Images, the largest online stockpile of useable photos (all those pictures you see on websites), has teamed up with LeanIn.org to change the way women are portrayed on the internet. Do you remember women laughing alone with salad? Or women sitting rather uncomfortably with computers? Or feminism according to Stock photography?

Woody Allen, Dylan Farrow and Rape Culture

When we're children, we're often asked what we want to be when we grow up.
A doctor? An astronaut? As we age, these questions evolve: How many children do you want? What kind of partner do you want to have? In what kind of society do you want to live?

That last question is often the root of our happiness. Will we live in a society that values a good work/life balance? One that values rights and freedoms, that makes room for diversity and culture and religion? We want to live in societies that fit well with who we are and want to be. We can often evaluate societies when we look to the people at the top: those we promote as our leaders, our mentors, our role models and heroes.

The questions asks itself: Who do we want to glorify as representing the very best of ourselves? What kinds of people do we want? Do we want our sports stars, our media stars, our politicians, our leaders to be of sound moral character? How do we define that? And how lenient are we: How much rope do we give until we decide they've hung themselves completely?

Woody Allen was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the recent 71st Golden Globes awards for his work in film. This reignited the debate on the allegations of sexual abuse made against the filmmaker by both his stepdaughter Dylan Farrow and her mother, Mia. Noticing there was an important voice missing, Nicolas Kristoff at the NYTimes, published the following open letter, written by Dylan Farrow, describing her rape at the hands of her stepfather when she was 7 years of age.

6 Gifts for a Feminist New Year

Every year I write a holiday gift list. Here's the one this year needs.

Fair and decent representation in the media

In 2014, I'd like to open a magazine without worrying about my thigh gap or my six pack. I'd like to see women of all shapes and sizes and colours represented on my TV screen and in my movie theatres. I'd like the Bechdel test to become obsolete, because of course women talk to each other in movies and of course  its not only about men. In the news, I'd like women to be treated as equals by their male counterparts and not have themselves or their opinions degraded, shamed or belittled simply because they are women. When women run for office, have babies, wear dresses, eat food or exist in the public realm, I'd love if we didn't shame their bodies, dress choices, food consumption or general behaviour based on their gender. When Hilary runs for President in 2016, I can only pray I don't read a million articles on her pantsuits, her haircuts, and how she can be so 'manly' or, conversely, so 'womanly'.

Women are not victims

Under my Christmas tree I'd like an absence of victim blaming. When a woman gets raped or abused in 2013, I'd love if we didn't hint that maybe alcohol/short skirts/flirting or, more generally, having a vagina made him do it. Lets not state that because the woman is fat/skinny/black/white/etc. she should enjoy it because no one would look at her otherwise. Please stop making the streets, stores, busses and clubs I enter into soft war zones: I can do well without the catcalling, the general harassment, the touching and the leering. I know its difficult: many men grow up being told that power and strength are the most valuable assets, that women are possessions to be taken and controlled and that their maleness is defined by their last dollar or last sexual encounter. But these things are simply not true. I promise to respect you as a being capable of the full range of human emotions; so please respect me as one too.

More female superheroes (or:A seat at the table)

When Hilary Clinton runs for the Presidency in 2016, women in the United States will rise in such unprecedented numbers, the government will have to retake the census. We need more women in visible positions of power, more women who have decision-making power: who are part of political, economic and legislative processes from their inception to their implementation and beyond. We need strong women from all walks of life to be seen as capable and powerful so that young girls can grow up knowing that women can access many different ranks, that there is no glass ceiling that impedes them, that they really can do anything, be anyone. When young girls stop wanting to be president by the time they are 15, when they fail drastically at maths and sciences due in large part to external factors, when their chief concerns turn to body image and getting a man's attention, we have failed future generations of female leaders by not showing or giving them opportunities or images of female success. And by doing this, we have failed future generation of boys and the relationships, friendships and partnerships they could be having with equally competent, intelligent, ambitious and successful women. Never underestimate the power of mentors, heroines and superheroes. (My current favorite is Qahera, a Muslim feminist superhero.)

Dispelling the Notion that Women and Men Can't be Friends

Women and men can't be friends. And, women and women can't be friends.  The different sexes can't intermix beyond their biological impulses, and women can't get passed the cattiness and the competition - they can't be real friends - not like men can. After all, its probably a man who will get in the way. This is rubbish, and an archaic view of female and male gender roles that inhibits the entire expression of self and possibility of friendly relations between the sexes. Indeed, patriarchal structures are alive and thriving in beliefs and statements such as these. It reduces women and men to animals, with no interest in anything more than playing out normalized and expected gender roles.

Fitness Competitions: A dissection of fitness, health and beauty ideals

It seemed farcical. An ardent women’s rights advocate, and outspoken feminist, especially on body issues, I would be entering a fitness competition where winning meant being judged solely on appearance, presence and onstage personality. 12 weeks later, I've rarely been so humbled. Stepping on stage for the first time, I took first place in the morning Open division against 30 other fantastic women, and then 1st overall in the Elite division at night, winning my pro card.  

What does Language Have to do with Sexism?

We learn quickly that language is gendered. We learn words associated with boys (dominant, blue, strong, independent, leader, fearless) and those with girls (fun, pink, shopping, dancing, smiles, pretty). This gendered division of language grows only further and affects a variety of fields that shape the interactions between the sexes. 

Religion – still a common part of our lives, is predominantly neglectful of a written female presence. Even if we try to disassociate ourselves from the physical male stronghold over religious institutions – we cannot help but read that God’s maleness is the overarching source of divinity in most, if not all, global religious texts. Can a woman see herself in the divine if she has not been written in it? Where, in the holy books, has she been aptly portrayed? Is she worth anything more than her tightly constrained roles as either virgin or whore?

Gendered language can motivate our actions and alter our perceptions of self and of others. We take for granted that our social interactions, governed partly through common language, are the only way we can interact with each other, and we blindly use terms that cement negative gender roles and engender unequal distributions of power.