Yippee it’s the end of the year! To celebrate, Shameless is going to take a wee holiday. We’ll be back in the new year, and until then please enjoy our top ten viewed posts of the year. Who doesn’t love a retrospective, even if some of these only made it into the top ten because of various references to female body parts…

Have a Shameless New Year!!

10) March 16: Nipples on a billboard in Toronto

The first time I saw one of these ads, I actually got off my bike to stare at the ad to make sure that what I was seeing was truly, ahem, nipple, and not just a dirt smudge or my imagination.

9) February 5: Fight Back (part II)

This post is a follow-up on one idea: that women can’t win fights with men. As with the last post (and really, as with any post), what is written below is based on what I have experienced and read…the three-pronged reply to “women can’t win fights with men”:
* A pound of muscle is a pound of muscle, regardless of who it’s attached to;
* Women are stronger than they think; and
* Strength alone doesn’t win a fight.

8) September 14: A Nice Surprise - Cosmogirl tackles the gender spectrum

…buried in the back [of the October issue of CosmoGirl], on page 149 there’s a thoughtful, insightful and in some ways, revolutionary piece written by Jessica DuLong, called The Gender Spectrum. In the piece, DuLong takes a sensitive and informative approach to transexual, transgender and genderqueer teens…

7) August 15: Female Ejaculation - Yet to Be Studied Systematically

…female ejaculation is an especially “hot potato” topic. I could put in links below to all the studies which say female ejaculation is urinary incontinence or that the G-Spot doesn’t exist, and then I could follow it with a matching number of links demonstrating that the G-Spot absolutely does exist, that women do ejaculate, and then follow that again by a whole whack of studies by people who just can’t decide.

6) February 26: Bluenotes Pulls T-Shirts

T-shirts emblazoned with the words ‘No means have aNOther drink’ are no longer being sold in Bluenotes stores nationwide…

5) January 11: Political Tragedy is the New Black

They’re called keffiyehs, or shemagh scarves, and while they originate in the Arab world, in recent years they have come to represent identification with the Palestinian side of the long and bloody conflict between Palestine and Israel over territory…but how did keffiyehs go from meaning “Intifada!” (i.e. “I’m for Palestine!”) to “I’m extremely fashionable and I’m probably going to a really cool party on Saturday night?”

4) September 6: Shameless in the Skies

A Southwest Airlines employee recently attempted to throw 23 year-old Kyla Ebbert off a flight to Tucson because she was “dressed inappropriately.”

3) March 14: Barbie Loves Mac

MAC, a Canadian company primarily famed for it’s gender-bending and drag-queen friendly take on high glam cosmetics, has recruited none other than our favourite antifeminist icon, Barbie, to sell its wares…

2) September 7: Facebook Defines Breast Feeding as Obscene

Facebook has began taking down pictures of women breastfeeding their children and in some cases, even banning users for putting the photos up in the first place. The claim is that such imagery is “obscene content.”

1) October 4: Wes Anderson - The Ultimate Heartbreaker

But the fact that the only role that people of colour can have in his movies are as sexual fantasies, sidekicks or deeply insulting cartoons suggests that, consciously or subconsciously, Anderson doesn’t think that much of real life people of colour. And between you and me, I’m not sure mine and Wes’ friendship can withstand that.

Are you a Feminist struggling to make sense of domestic life?

I recently stumbled across a great online community called Feminist Housewives, a site dedicated to feminists who have chosen “to forgo a high-powered career or intense education (at least for a while) to raise our children instead of placing them in daycare.” On the site you can “create a profile, check out the forums, and make some new friends.”

I personally love the idea because of the many assumptions and stigmas around women who make the choice to stay home. This community solidifies the notion that being a housewife (much like various marital traditions and taking your husband’s name) can be an empowered, feminist choice. It also offers links and resources, and an area where visitors can create a network and participate:

“If you’re here, I bet you decided to stay at home, either to support your partner in a domestic fashion and/or to raise your kids. This isn’t backsliding - we’re socially conscious and making our own decisions.”

In my view, here’s a brilliant, succinct analysis of the state of America in relation to the Jamie Lynne Spears teen pregnancy media frenzy, care of Faux Real.

This really puts things in perspective:

“Meanwhile, across the country, healthcare networks and opportunistic politicians are making it more difficult for even college students to access birth control, never mind that lower-income and poor women have to pay up to four times as much for reproductive health access than ever before. The global gag rule remains in place today, maternal mortality rates are shamefully high across the globe in part thanks to conservative U.S. policy…

…Medicaid is funding penis pumps but not birth control. Millions of women around the world are trying to take responsibility for their reproductive health, pregnancy and otherwise, and are running into unrealistic obstacles and outrageous emotional and financial costs. But whatevs, right? Because Jamie Lynn is pregnant. OMG!”

Read the full post, including some informative links about the state of women’s reproductive health access in the US, here.

The Shameless Team would like to wish you and yours a shameless holiday season. Thanks to everyone who supported us this year! As a season greeting, I’ve included one of my fave holiday movie moments. What’s yours?

I love this time of year because it is time for the “year in review,” where every media outlet offers best and worst lists for your reviewing pleasure. It’s a time to look back and reflect on some of the truly awful ways the media has depicted gender over the last year.

Second Innocence has a Most Sexist Ad of the Holiday Season Competition running, which is already producing some sexist gems from throughout the year. The blog actually includes one of my recent picks, while the comments section brings up old faves like the “Technophonic Minnie Draughter.” Second Innocence also offers a great link to Copyranter, a whole site of hated ads, so I thought I’d take the time to throw together a few of the most appalling picks from there and elsewhere for your end-of-year enjoyment.(more inside…)

When I woke up on Monday last week and heard on the radio that a 16 year-old Muslim girl in Mississauga had been strangled by her father and was not expected to live, I thought Please, don’t let her die.

I thought this for the very obvious reason that Aqsa Parvez’s eventual death is a tragic thing. But I also dreaded the storm of reports demonising Islam and blaming Parvez’s death on her family’s faith. I dreaded the fact that this already awful event could easily be turned into an excuse to be racist and xenophobic.

And yup, as the web editor of the only Canadian feminist magazine for teenage girls and women, I knew we were going to have to say something - to say nothing would be wrong. And I also knew I didn’t know what to say.

How do we recognise without a single disclaimer, how terrible and saddening it is that Parvez is dead, and that women everywhere face this kind of violence from their closest family members in their daily lives - without falling into the easy racist traps that feminism has fallen into so many times before: when we demonise cultures where apparently women don’t have it as good as we do in white, middle class, educated, urban North America?

From the CBC to Salon.com, the internet has been rife with criticisms of feminists who’ve kept quiet about Parvez. Natasha Fatah writing for the CBC is particularly angry, saying women’s advocacy groups “have played mute” on Parvez’s death, asking:

Are we going to allow cultural relativism to be the scapegoat for abuse and murder in this country?

Fatah also asks of Muslim clerics:

Why are they so afraid of acknowledging that obsession with a religious ritual may have been a factor [in Parvez’s death]? It is because they fear their own culpability in this horrible tragedy.

I would argue however, that seeing violence against women as a systemic problem is a stumbling block not limited to the Muslim community.

(more inside…)

I’ve been reluctant to write about this because I really didn’t want to add any fuel to the roaring media fire that already exists. Having said that, I think the recent announcement that Jamie Lynne Spears is (sixteen and) pregnant is relevent to what we talk about around these parts: how the media views, treats, responds to and disrespects young women, their sexuality and their abiity to make decisions.

With headlines like “Jamie Lynne Spears: Not That Innocent” some real media moral judgments are solidifying. Everyone has an interest and opinion, so much so that OK Magazine’s website crashed yesterday as everyone scrambled to get the “world exclusive” breaking news.

Opinions? There are many. For example: “Unfortunately for Jamie Lynn, so much of her brand and public identity is dependent on her wholesome credibility.”

And there’s this: “Playing the role of the ‘good girl’ to her older sister’s ‘naughty’ reputation, was great for Jamie Lynn’s clean image and could have ultimately been good for her bank account.”

And Janice Min, editor of US Weekly, said this: “What’s sad about this is that Jamie Lynn was the good Spears.”

Okay, so one thing is pretty clear: good girls don’t have sex, right?

(This high profile piece of gossip is also- according to CNN - “casting new light on how states deal with the thorny issue of consensual sex among teens,” but that’s another issue all together.)

Jamie Lynne had this to say to OK magazine: “I definitely don’t think it’s something you should do; it’s better to wait… But I can’t be judgmental because it’s a position I put myself in.”

Nickelodeon released this statement: “We respect Jamie Lynn’s decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn’s well being.”

“It’s better to wait?” “Take responsibility?” How has this piece of pop culture become a moral lesson about the importance of being a good girl, abstinence and “keeping the baby?” If anything, the pregnancy of a “teen role model” should suggest that abstinence doesn’t work? (more inside…)

I’m lovin’ this little item from Come As You Are as a perfect holiday gift:

“Looking for a little glitter? To the untrained eye, a Just In Case Condom Compact appears to be a regular makeup compact… but just flip up the false bottom, and the real contents are revealed. These condom compacts are the perfect gift for anyone who wants to practice discreet safe sex in style!”

The “Just In Case” comes in two versions: a basic $20 compact, and the little more pricey “Bling” version. The perfect secret place for the safe, Shameless gal on your list!

Maybe you are still looking for a last minute stuffer for your very own stocking, or maybe you plan to make 2008 the year you take charge of your health. Either way, for many gals who deal with chronic pain and confusion due to endometriosis, ovarian cysts, fibroids, painful periods or any other pelvic trouble, the following treats will be a welcome addition to the coping ritual.

A hot water bottle cozy. When your pelvis feels like its being ripped to shreds by a meat grinder, the last sensation you want is impersonal, corrugated rubber pressing into your tender region. The luxurious cashmere one pictured here looks heavenly, but a hand-sewn flannel pouch or a knit “sweater” would be just as sweet and snugly.

(more inside…)