“I hate that man more than any other human being on Earth. If there is one creature on the planet that I detest, it’s that asshole. He is despicable. I loathe him. Because he’s nothing but a shit, a fucking asshole.” That description of British Prime Minister Tony Blair is how this interview with Marjane Satrapi, graphic novelist and, apparently, expert shit-talker, begins. She covers Iranian social life and politics, the relationship between cigarettes and sex, feminism, and, of course, her art. I was naturally a little burned when she makes that weakest of claims: “I’m not a feminist, BUT…”. When will people realize they can just go ahead and say whatever they were going to say after “BUT” and not have to fear they’ll be labelled a hairy-legged man-hater if they don’t qualify their statement with “I’m not a feminist”? Yeesh. Anyway, that aside, this interview is worth checking out for lovers of Satrapi’s novels Persepolis and Persepolis II, and for anyone who likes some cranky with their comix.

…it’s also about the candy.

This recipe is very compatible with vegan substitutions - a little soy milk, sweetener, and egg replacer and they turn out beautifully. They’re also particularly tasty if you’re using organic and fair trade ingredients. An organic fair trade cupcake is an empowered cupcake.

(more inside…)

I’ll refrain from turning into a collective mum here and start nagging everyone about smoking - we all know by now that it’s one of the dumbest things you can do.

But I do want to draw everyone’s attention to this new study , which shows that not only do teen girls seem to smoke at a much higher rate than teen boys, smoking does not appear to have any effect on their weight. It does appear to have an effect on the weight of boys - but that seems to be because boys experience their growth spurts much later than girls do, so smoking in their teens can have a much greater impact on their growth and height.

A widely-held belief goes that smoking keeps the appetite down, and therefore women who smoke have an easier time keeping the pounds off. So many women apparently are reluctant to kick the habit, prefering to poison their lungs rather than thicken their thighs.

But this study says there’s no basis for that belief, and our misconceptions about smoking and weight could be doing us a lot of harm.

Hope you guys all heard about this study debunking the idea that boys are inherently better at math than girls. Basically, they gave a bunch of women a math test each group was required to read a little essay before writing the test. Those who read an essay about how women are inferior at math because of their genes didnt do well on the test. Those who read an essay telling them their gender was irrelevant to the test did well. And heres the really interesting part: women who were simply reminded of their gender didnt do as well as those told gender played no part in math ability.

This isnt the first study of its kind many have shown that female performance on math tests varies with what you tell them about women and math beforehand. One classic study gave a math test to Asian women. Those reminded they were women did poorly and those reminded that they were Asian did well. (Obviously the reminder made them think of the Asians are good at math stereotype.)

The general scientific thinking is usually that men are slightly better at visual and spatial tests (which includes things involving numbers) and women are slightly better at linguistic tests. I admit, Ive always had a tiny bit of sympathy for this idea (erroneous as it might be). Although I dont suck at math, I really hate it and I love words and writing.

But then youve got to think about how women might appear to be worse at math because of cultural norms all sorts of studies have shown that girls get less time and attention in math classes from their teachers. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: people dont think girls are good at math, so teachers dont give them the attention and time they need in school, so their math skills suffer, they grow up to have little confidence or enjoyment in math, and then we all think women really do suck at math.

So it’s always great to see studies like this, that reinforce the idea that women can intellectually stand toe-to-toe with men on any subject.

Seeing as how everyone seems to be in the mood for some good old-fashioned political debate this weekend, I figure its time the veil controversy is mentioned on our blog.

Im sure youre all familiar with the latest events in Europe in particular, a young Mulsim teaching assistant dismissed from her job in the UK because she refused to remove her veil. UK House of Commons leader Jack Straw said he prefers it when women in his district remove their veils when they speak with him, and Tony Blair called the veil a mark of separation.

Generally when debates like these rage, I tend to defend rights of freedom of expression. I just dont think she should be forced to cross the boundaries of her beliefs against her will just because she doesn’t see the world the way we do.

But that line of thinking only takes me so far on an issue like female genital circumcision, cultural sensitivity doesnt mean jack to me, I dont think that kind of brutal assault on a womans body (anyones body ) should be tolerated in Canada.

And when it comes to the veil I cant deny that theres something about it that makes me so uncomfortable. But I dont think it has anything to do with the veil supposedly being a ‘symbol of foreignness’ or that it signifies a ‘rejection of western values.’ I just dont like not being able to see who Im talking to. When Id chat with girls wearing the niqab in my classes in university, it just felt so strange to not be able to see their faces.

I think my discomfort really just stems from my feelings about women in society any society being held to a different standard than men. Im talking about all sorts of demeaning and humiliating norms for women from the drunk freshman marching in wet T shirt contests, to the little old ladies dressed in black toiling with bad backs while their husbands sit around drinking coffee all day, to the young women who’s faces Ill never see because theyre hidden under a veil. And its important to remember that theres heated debate in the Muslim community about what the Quran really prescribes in terms of dress for women.

But although I dont like the idea of the veil, I respect womens right to wear it. I admit, however, I laughed heartily when one of my friends cracked: They should have the right to do what their told.

I want to know what our readers think of the veil debate, and about Swedens controversial integration and equality minister, Nyamko Sabuni (a Muslim woman) who has said that girls under 15 should be banned from wearing the veil, as they are below the legal age of consent. Im inclined towards her idea; I wonder if many young girls who dont want to don the veil, but do so under threat of punishment, might be glad of such a law. But Im neither Muslim, nor a teenager, and I fully admit that I cant understand what its like to be both at the same time.

What do you guys think?

This makes me happy (and also sad): BC postal workers walked off the job to protest what they described as anti-gay pamphlets they were expected to deliver. Since I can’t shake the hands of these folks who risked “disciplinary action” to show their displeasure with churchly homophobic rhetoric, thought I’d post it here.

Lately, due to some personal conundrums in the world of the Canadian granting system, Ive been pondering the idea of what qualifies as literary. In my great and now completed quest to get my novel published I was told that my book, my baby, six years in the making, was either too literary or not literary enough. I am apt to think that there is a great oppressive system, a whirring academic, commercial and economic machine that is constantly defining and redefining what is literary fiction and what is genre fiction.

There are of course books that walk the line and writers that push the boundaries, but it never seems that we have a clear indication of what is worth our intensive literary attentions and what is simply an entertaining, trashy escape. And really, what does either definition mean in the face of a damn good read?

The good news is that this great, consuming soup of indigo/chapters defined literary ideals on what “smart people” (cough, cough) can and can’t read can be completely avoided for an afternoon in the world of indie mag/book culture. A welcome reprieve from the oppressive cultural machine, Canzine happens across Canada and puts readers in touch with the writers and publications that walk the fringe.

Zines from across Canada on display and for sale! The heart of the event, indie publishers both in print and online come from across the country and the continent to show their wares! Be amazed at the creativity, ingenuity, and sheer weirdness!

Thanks to the beautiful indie press liberation army over at Broken Pencil, youll find Hotel Canzine in Toronto at the end of this month, and for added weekend fun, The Small Press Book Fair at the Victory Café November 11th and 12th.
And while I’m on the topic of the oppressive cultural machine defining what we can and can’t read…

As a recovering girly girl, I’m often searching for ways to be ecologically, politically, womanly (etc etc) correct, in those moments of relapse when I am gripped by the unquenchable desire to buy some anti-humectant for my hair.

After I realised that every single darn thing is political, from shoes to hairpins to moisturiser, I began only shopping for my body products at health food stores. I thought, if I have to buy into these darn cultural beauty ideals, at least I can buy stuff that is good for the environment, not tested on bunnies, and not going to give me lead poisoning. But I was shocked to find that, just because you buy your shampoo alongside the organic, shade-grown wheat free cereal, it’s not always good news. For example, I was pretty appalled when I discovered that Burt’s Bees sells make-up in the colours: light, medium, dark and ethnic. The skin colour that would match “ethnic” would likely belong to a person with darker skin, but last time I checked, we all have ethnicities, and I would look mighty funny in “ethnic” foundation. Thank goodness ol’ Burt recently renamed this colour as “deep” - however, my suspicions of him persist.

But lo and behold, the internet, has bestowed yet another wonderful directory on us: the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database. As self-described, Skin Deep is a “personal care product safety guide with in-depth information on 14,841 products - 1,052 brands of lotion, lip balm, deodorant, sunscreen and other popular products - and the 7,093 ingredients that form them.” They also mention the scary and unbelivable fact that the FDA can’t require companies to do safety testing on products before the companies’ market them (does the same thing apply to our Canadian FDA?). The database is very simple to use, just key in the name of your favourite epilatory cream, and it will bring up a whole bunch of stats on all the ingredients, neatly summed up in a rating from 0 to 5, 0 meaning as pure as organic grass, and 5 meaning evacuate immediately.

I made a few shocking discoveries on my first trip there. For example, I discovered that both Aveda and Nature’s Gate, which between them manufacture more than 3/4s of the products in my bathroom, both score quite badly on the Skin Deep system. My PABA-free sunblock scores a rating of 3, which is pretty measly when you consider that Dove, a company with no clear pretensions to eco-friendliness, scores a 0.5 on multiple products. Goshdarnit!

Also, if you are more concerned about the bunnies than the ozone layer, you can visit Compassionate Consumer, which works basically the same way as Skin Deep except it shows you which products test on aminals, and which don’t.

The only downside to both these websites is that they are chock full of images of very conventionally attractive women lounging about in sulfate-free soap. None of them seem to be that interested in deconstructing what it is that compels us ladies (and men, of course) to buy products that are ripping holes in our organs the size of Ontario, and depleting our only source of life (i.e. the earth). But hey, if we can’t eliminate fascist beauty standards overnight, we can at least start with harm reduction.

And, since I am channeling my inner hippie tonight, here is a lovely recipe for vegan chocolate orange cupcakes.

This just in:

This year’s Utne Independent Press award nominees were just announced and we are pleased at punch that Shameless was nominated in the Lifestyle coverage category! This is our fourth Utne nomination.

Congrats to our friends at Kiss Machine, Spacing and Broken Pencil, who were nominated in other categories.