Feminism (3)

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Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of Good Company Communications and HelloCoolWorld.com. Trained in renegade advertising & branding through her work with Adbusters in the '90s, Kat's early induction into the possibilities of the web-world was inspired by the term hypertext, which she immediately found comforting. She is dedicated to cause-related communication and to the development and use of tools that promote democratic processes.

This weekend, Vancouver puts on her finest leather miniskirt for the SlutWalk

On January 24th, 2011, a Toronto police officer enraged sexual rights advocates around the world when he told a group of middle school students that women should "avoid dressing like sluts" if they didn't want to be victimized. The response was a SlutWalk, where more than a thousand women and men marched through downtown Toronto in provocative outfits, holding signs that pointed out clothing does not equal consent. The phenomenon has taken off, with SlutWalks springing up all over North America. And on May 15th, we'll be celebrating our own SlutWalk here in Vancouver.

While many are praising SlutWalks for seizing on our zeitgeist of humour-as-political-weapon, I've read a lot of responses to the first SlutWalk that distressed me. Critics are have drawn comparisons that go a lot like, "I wouldn't leave my car unlocked with the windows rolled down in a bad neighbourhood if I didn't want it to get stolen, so don't wear a short skirt if you don't want a man to rape you." This is a bad analogy for a lot of reasons, the least of which is not that my body is not a car.

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Michelle is a freelance writer and anthropologist with a Master of Public Health from UBC. Her passions are promoting health and building community. She's worked in grassroots community organizations in Vancouver, Victoria and Oceania.

Vote for Sexual and Reproductive Health Today!

I'm young, female, Aboriginal, and pro-choice, and that's why I voted against Harper.

Today, May 2nd, is the general election in Canada. It's hard for me to focus on anything else because the last few weeks have been so inspiring: seeing so many people of all ages come together to challenge voter apathy with insight and innovation. I'm hopeful that today will be a landmark election in Canadian history, one that demonstrates we aren't apathetic about how our country is led. You might know that in the last election, two out of five eligible voters didn't vote; only one in five voted for the current Prime Minister. In comparison, this election saw the highest-ever numbers of advance voting.

Why am I talking about the election on That's So Sexy? Because the personal is political, and your sexual health (and choices, and freedom!) are political issues. Stephen Harper has done terrible things for reproductive and sexual health while in office, many that directly impact Canadian women everywhere.