the newspaper
Since 1978
VOL XXXV Issue 21 • February 14, 2013
BRENDAN GEORGE-KO
The University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly
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THE NEWS
February 14, 2013
THE CONTENTS
BRENDAN GEORGE-KO
Cover photo by Brendan George-Ko Transitional Year Programme defends turf p 2 A brief civics lesson in U of T governance s p 3 UTSU GM Pt III p 3 Opinion: V-day demonstration dances around problems of violence against women p 4 Decolonizing our minds p 4 Love and sex dissected on campus p 5 Get a grip: sex toys and female empowerment in the city p 6 Toronto the Good gone bad p 7 The Debate: porn stars vs construction works p 8 Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives: keeping our stories alive p 9 Take me to Pompeii where the love is sweet (and phallocentric) p 10 Feminist porn opens up new horizons, says sex prof p 11 the video, the personals, and campus comment p 12
Transitional Year Programme defends its turf at town hall Participants claim success rate dependant on full staff and faculty autonomy Sebastian Greenholtz They may be small, but they sure give the administration a headache. On Wednesday, February 13 a room of 100 students, faculty, and alumni associated with University of
Toronto’s Transitional Year Programme (TYP) spoke out against the cuts to the program proposed by the Office of the Vice-Provost. The TYP community explained how the program gave them opportunities otherwise unthink-
the newspaper the newspaper is the University of Toronto’s independent weekly paper, published since 1978. VOL XXXV No. 21 Editor-in-Chief Cara Sabatini
Copy Editor Sydney Gautreau
Managing Editor Helene Goderis
Web Editor Joe Howell
News Editor Yukon Damov
Comment Editor Dylan Hornby
Associate News Editors Sebastian Greenholtz Emerson Vandenberg
Contributors
Associate Art Editor Carissa Ainslie Photo Editor Bodi Bold Illustrations Editor Nick Ragetli
Spencer Afonso, Yukon Damov, Sinead DohertyGrant, Lou Doyon, Sydney Gautreau, Brendan George-Ko, Sebastian Greenholtz, Dylan Hornby, Odessa Kelebay, Scott Leeming, Lauren Mansfield, Kaleena Stasiak, David Stokes, Isaac Thornley, Emerson Vandenberg
the newspaper is published by Planet Publications Inc., a nonprofit corporation. All U of T community members, including students, staff and faculty, are encouraged to contribute to the newspaper.
able to pursue post-secondary education at one of the best universities in Canada. TYP opens up a path to postsecondary education for people who did not finish high school or could not enter university because of financial problems, family issues, or other circumstances beyond the student’s control. The program especially targets marginalized communities, such as African-Canadians, Native Canadians, LGBTQ students, members of the working class, persons with disabilities, and single parents or children of single parents. The eight-month program provides each of its sixty students with an academic advisor, access to counselling, and financial aid. Just as importantly, the physical and social space that TYP inhabits provides a welcoming community, described by a few in the audience as a family that is free of discrimination and marginalization that students may face elsewhere on campus. The town hall was called by the TYP and UTSU to address a move by administration to amalgamate TYP into the Faculty of Arts and Science. David Newman, Director of the Office of the Vice-Provost, read a message from Vice-Provost Jill Matus that said: “The Provost’s office has committed a substantial addition to the TYP budget if they became formally unified with the faculty that they are, in practice, part of. With such an administrative
move TYP students would also have direct access to excellent registrar and support services provided by Woodsworth College.” However, TYP alumni Ahmed Ahmed replied, “The model that we have was developed because of the conflict that existed within an undergraduate college when we were part of Arts and Science, and we don’t feel that society or the university has changed enough for it to be safe for TYP to be within an undergraduate college.” The other issue addressed was a major cut to TYP funding in the guise of faculty. As Professor of Mathematics and current Director of TYP Francis Ahia explained, TYP used to have a ten member staff who worked full time and provided assistance to students all day; however, four have retired and two of the remaining positions have been downgraded to parttime. Ahmed put the cut in perspective: “This school has a billion dollar endowment, we see there are shovels in the ground every day when you walk around here. Money ain’t scarce. But the will to support us is.” Around seventy-five per cent of TYP students go on to graduate, higher than the percentage for the university as a whole. In its forty-two years of existence TYP students have become teachers, social workers, school board members, community organizers, lawyers, nurses, and even a mem-
ber of parliament. Karen Braithwaite, co-founder of TYP, affirmed the programme as a victory for equity, saying “TYP is a chapter in the history of change, access, and diversity here at the University of Toronto. We were here two years before Hart House allowed women in its doors.” The discussion after the speakers reflected the same commitment to access and equity, the same importance of the program, and the same anger at the administration. People spoke of the difficulties they faced in life, such as being a visible minority from a working-class background or going through foster care, which without TYP would have made post-secondary education impossible. They repeated the need to maintain full staff, stay independent from Arts and Science, and provide real respect for the programme and its members. Ahmed summed up the forty-two years of TYP and the feeling in the room: “What has changed? I say nothing! Not when it comes to those of us at the very margins. Not much changes for us. We always have to fight for what little scraps we get.”
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THE NEWS
A (very) brief civics lesson in U of T governance Or, oh, by the way, Governing Council elections Yukon Damov Hushed as they were by a cacophony of three young men (one in a hard hat, another in corduroys and a cashmere sweater, the third with his clerical collar undone, revealing a tuft of chest-hair) yelling at their foes stationed in the UTSU mansion perched atop the knoll on Hart House Circle, it should be noted that we’re in the midst of Governing Council (GC) elections, which end Friday, February 22. It’s a quiet kind of power at GC, given minimal media attention (our bad), but serious sway. Governing Council consists of 50 members: 18 are appointed by the Province and 30 are elected. Eight students are elected (four full-time undergrads, two part-time undergrads, two graduate students).
Governing Council is the final authority on affairs of business, student life, and academics. In the past couple years, student voter turnout has hovered around 8 per cent, even lower than the roughly 15 per cent turnout at UTSU elections. Increasing voter turnout might not necessarily improve student accountability, as students only serve one-year terms. There is an argument to be had that student governors seek the position only to pad their resumes. When a parttime student governor, who is not running for re-election, fails to attend any of the Governor Council or committee meetings they sit on, it lends credence to such a claim. But there are student governors deeply committed to
improving the university, and their engagement with the issues, as well as their attendance records, rebuts such cynicism. The next governors will need to deal with ancillary fees--things like membership at Hart House and lab materials. Seven U of T fees have recently found to be in violation of provincial guidelines and the school’s own policy. Dan DiCenzo, a full-time undergraduate candidate, has marked the examination of these fees as a major plank of his platform. “They keep going up and many students don’t know why,” he said. “Many students don’t even know they have a say on these fees. I want to inform my constituency of all ancillary fee increases to ensure that their ideas are heard and expressed to the re-
spective boards and committees.” A variety of issues are being targeted by student candidates. Aidan Fishman, seeking reelection, will continue to fight U of T’s tendency to give low grades. “I’ll … work with other Governors and with the Administration to make sure that already low average grades at U of T don’t continue to fall, and hopefully restore them to a fair level that no longer disadvantages our students when applying to post-graduate institutions nor drives away promising high school students.” Reforming the composition of Governing Council is another issue for student candidates. Ellen Chen, also running for the full-time undergradu-
ate position, is eager to see GC reform, especially by finally allowing international students to run for Governing Council. Alexandra Harris, running for one of the graduate student seats, will also advocate for international student representation, “however, I am not entirely sure how best to change this, as it’s currently an Ontario legislative requirement that GC members be citizens.” Adrian De Lion, another full-time undergrad candidate, also wants GC reform: “UTSC, UTM, and the Faculty of Arts and Science are guaranteed two spots on the full-time student governor constituency. This is completely unfair, considering the amount of academic and capital growth happening at the satellite campuses.” There’s time left, go vote!
UTSU GM Pt III: more pressure for electoral reform, emphasis still online Colleges still angry, vote will not affect spring elections At the Tuesday, February 12 Special General Meeting (SGM), a motion was passed recommending the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) make major electoral reform in time for this spring’s election. By Wednesday afternoon, it was clear that no such reform will be adopted this year. The motion was largely inspired by the Non-Partisan Declaration on UTSU Electoral Reform, a document drafted anonymously by UTSU opposition outlining several recommendations, chiefly a move to online preferential voting, as opposed to the current firstpast-the-post paper balloting system. Time constraints and logistical issues were cited as reasons for not implementing online voting. The results of Tuesday’s meeting came too late to revise the Election Procedures Code, the document that governs the elections. Saturday was the last day to revise the Code and members of the Elections and Referenda Committee maintain that to implement online voting would have required them to “pre-
judge” the results of the SGM. Then at the UTSU Board of Directors meeting held Wednesday afternoon, the Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC), the body charged with the task of revising and making changes to the Election Procedures Code, presented the Board with a legal report documenting the recent history of the UTSU’s electoral process and recommending various reforms. Any changes must be ratified by the UTSU Board of Directors. Smaller scale changes were made to the Election Procedures Code in time for the spring elections, such as reducing the number of nomination signatures required to run for an executive position (from 200 to 100). Though the report acknowledged that “a thorough and complete analysis of electoral systems is beyond the scope of [the] report,” it explicitly advises the UTSU against a move to online: “It appears that online voting has its own set of problems. In particular, there are very limited, if any, checks and balances in place to ensure that the voting is conducted fairly, and in conditions that
are not prone to bias and misuse.” Ella Henry, member of the ERC, also noted that the Board is not required to heed any of the recommendations of the report, as it “[is] for the information of the Board, the Committee, and the people making changes, but it is not decisive in any way of what changes will or will not be made.” Despite the fact that these more substantial types of electoral reform were discouraged by the legal report, UTSU Board members do intend to debate these issues in time. Many do acknowledge their responsibility to represent the opinions of the student major-
ity that voted in favour of the motion at the SGM. Trinity College Representative Calvin Mitchell addressed the board, saying, “In terms of what transpired last night at the SGM, with students voting in favour of implementing online voting for this year, are we not going in bad faith against the students by not respecting what that body has asked us to do?” Sam Greene, head of Trinity College, spoke with the newspaper prior to the Board meeting, “I expect them to pass a motion requiring the upcoming elections to be held online. If they don’t do that, they would be contravening the will of the membership that was ex-
pressed directly by the SGM.” Trinity, the Engineering Society, and St. Mike’s have announced plans to defederate from the union, citing concerns over lack of electoral reform implementation. The fact that nothing will come as a result from the vote at Tuesday’s SGM will only serve to further polarize and antagonize the opposition. Today marks the beginning of the nomination period, and thus the beginning of the 2013 UTSU elections. To run for a position, pick up a nomination package during the nomination period at the UTSU office.
MAJ MAJOR
Isaac Thornley
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THE NEWS
February 14, 2013
Opinion: V is for void
Valentine call to arms confounds problems of violence against women, offers no solutions Sarah Boivin Valentine’s day traditionally stands as a pas-de-deux; instead, Eve Ensler and the women behind V-Day are asking you to “rise up” and dance the day away with 999,999,999,999 others on February 14. While the event has gained notoriety over the past decade and a half, One Billion Rising catastrophically glosses over the nuances of international violence against women. This year marks the 15th anniversary of V-Day, a Valentine’s day call-to-arms organization founded by Ensler, renowned activist and author of the play The Vagina Monologues. V-Day is fighting to bring an absolute end to violence against women, an issue the organization considers to be a global atrocity marginalized from public concern. The ‘V’ stands for Victory, Valentine, and Vagina. The initiative has seen incredible success -- it is now active in 167 countries and it has raised over 90 million dollars to combat violence against women.
V-Day gives the ‘valentine’ category new meaning; it allows women to identify with the day on a gendered basis without being tied to a relationship status. V-Day operates on the principle that systemic change can be affected by empowered, local, and specifically creative political action. Beyond benefit galas and international awareness campaigns, guerrilla-theatre public performances of excerpts from Vagina Monologues have been the staple of V-Day activism. This year, V-Day’s valentine is a project named for the third of the global female population that suffers from violence: One Billion Rising. Proclaimed to be “a single-day global action, consisting primarily of dance strikes,” the event hopes to see one billion people dancing in protest this Thursday, raising global awareness in a rhythmic step towards ending women’s experience of violence. While a turnout of one billion is hard to imagine, the support and publicity for the event has been widespread. The international scale of the flash mobs
and dance protests being organized is staggering, from the one thousand facebook-confirmed guests hitting Nathan Phillips’ Square to the success of the Delhi Rising campaign, whose youtube channel has received over 40,000 hits in two weeks. The campaign has gained added relevance in the wake of the protests in India against the Nirbhaya gang-rape case, which has illuminated the leniency of legal and cultural attitudes towards sexual assault in the Indian nation. The protests brought the issue of violence against women to the attention of the international media, and demonstrated the urgency of systemic change. OBR has become a locus for mobilized protest in the country. Ensler believes that violence against women can -- and must -- be brought to an end, if women rise up together in numbers. It is a beautiful vision: a global community of women asserting their agency through physical, sensual, gendered dance. One must ask, however, what is kept down while the one bil-
lion rise. What are the one billion rising for? The campaign’s central video features a graphic montage of women enduring horrific suffering: an Asian woman slaving in a factory, a Western woman being beaten by her husband with a leather belt, an African woman held down and about to endure genital mutilation. At the climax, the women each in turn raise one finger and rise, escaping their situation of violence through collective movement. This equation of women’s suffering is characteristic of Ensler’s emphasis on global community and global action -- but it is brutally untenable. These horrors are shaped by very particular national, cultural, political and economic factors that cannot be addressed within the same framework, and certainly do not share the same root cause.
While awareness is one thing, the campaign seems to promote the idea that actions of violence against women, while varied, can be reconciled and stopped through one movement. Would it were true. The demand for global action to stop violence against women is timely and necessary. While the movement is shaping up practically to be a strong, positive rallying point and highly successful fundraiser for women’s organizations, its ultimate message is deceptive and arguably a product of quite privileged idealism. The One Billion must be clear that violence cannot be danced away.
Fighting against colonialism . . . with love
Annual Decolonizing Our Minds conference challenges forms of inequality Manaal Ismacil Upon entering New College’s William Doo auditorium for the annual Decolonizing Our Minds conference, attendees were made immediately aware of the concerted efforts made by the organizers towards inclusivity. The hallways were marked with signs pointing to gender neutral washrooms, a childminding space and a greeting table littered with free condoms and pins that urged people to “challenge homophobia, racism, antisemitism” among other forms of discrimination. It was made clear that the conference was not only an inclusive event, but one that sought to challenge all forms of inequality. Decolonizing Our Minds is an annual conference organized by the Equity Studies Student Union in an effort to “address how different groups practice
resistance.” The theme of DOM 2013 is ‘decolonial love’ and the mandate -- as outlined on their many posters plastered across campus -- is to “focus on the affective and emotional narratives and journeys of decolonization by looking at the ways in which individuals and communities practice love.” The conference attempted to look at ‘decolonial love’ in two distinct ways: self-love and community love. Self love is “how individuals can care for themselves in response to structural oppression and colonial domination.” Whereas community love is when those same individuals unite in solidarity against structural oppression and colonial domination in the realm of social activism. During her opening remarks, Soma Chatterjee, a current PhD candidate in Adult Education and Community Development
at OISE, contextualized and simplified the issue of ‘decolonial love.’ She used her own experiences as an Indian immigrant and an academic; she discussed her role as an academic by describing the education system as being “imperfect” but instead of giving up she instead opted to look at it “as a site for social justice work.” In an interview with the newspaper, panelist Bedour Alagraa, University of Toronto alumni and current Equity and Campaigns Organizer at Ryerson University, described her search for ‘decolonial love’ as “looking for a way to re-piece the fragments of myself and my history in a way that is full of dignity and glory and beauty. I see love as the decolonial act, since so much of the purpose of colonialism was to rip apart families, rip apart minds and keep people from loving them-
selves and their communities.” Despite the amount of concord and overlap amongst the panel on most issues, panelist Christiana Collison repeatedly and unapologetically denounced the term ‘self-love.’ In an interview with the newspaper, the author of the McGill Daily column Tyrone Speaks explained that she dislikes the term due to “it’s inaccessibility” by those she referred to as “scarred,” “fractured,” and “broken.” She elaborated that ‘selflove’ “...is incredibly individualized. It places immense amounts of emphasis on the individuals to fix themselves up, which again highlights self-love’s inaccessibility and privilege…” Overall, the panel discussions were informative; each panel member offered a unique perspective on what are often complicated and intimidating issues. During the course of the
conference everything from Indigenous spiritual beliefs, hip hop philosophy, white privilege, self-care, and masturbation were discussed. The myriad of topics effectively demonstrated the intersectionality and overlapping nature of social justice activism. The conference encouraged people to move away from their own abstractions of love and towards a more concrete understanding of how it can be practiced personally and used as a tool to combat social injustice. Although they had not encountered the idea of ‘decolonial love’ before, many audience members left the conference with an expanding and inclusive consciousness that accommodates more diverse notions of what constitutes ‘love.’
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THE NEWS
the briefs
Love and sex dissected
Diners, drive-ins and deaths?
Recent U of T research examines romance and the erotic Sebastian Greenholtz
Sexual Fields: Towards a Sociology of Collective Sexual Life Associate Professor of Sociology Adam Green studies how social relations are organized within sex-focused locations, called sexual fields. Green finds that people with similar erotic desires project these tastes onto a social space, called structures of desire. Structures of desire have different settings and relationships negotiated within. Green contrasts two Toronto gay bars, the leather bar “Black Eagle” and the more upscale bar “Lub Lounge,” in which the patrons have different norms of behavior, dress codes, ages, classes, and races. At Black Eagle older working-class men wear leather and approach one another on terms of sexual desire, while at Lub Lounge younger, whiter, upper class men wear trendy clothing, sip expensive drinks, and dance to up-beat music. These different attributes are what Green calls sexual capital, and while one may have considerable capital in one structure of desire, he may be lacking in the other. As Green says on his website, “These status differentials become particularly
consequential when characteristics such as race, class, age and ethnicity systematically stratify the dispersion of sexual capital between groups of sexual actors, affording differential degrees of power and social significance in the course of interaction. As a consequence, field position may be related to gay community attachment, the formation of friendship networks, selfesteem, perceptions of equity and justice, and sexual decisionmaking practices.”
The Case for Falling in Love: Why We Can’t Master the Madness of Love -- and Why That’s the Best Part This book on love, written by Professor Mari Ruti of the Department of English and Drama at the University of Toronto Mississauga, argues that the way formal gender roles are interpreted in popular culture, especially self-help books on love, do not reflect the complexity and nuance of romantic relationships. As Ruti told U of T News, “Book after book tells us that men are these cave men who are wired to hunt women. … The young women I teach don’t think of men in these terms and the young men I teach don’t think of women as prey to be conquered. There’s a lot more fluid-
ity and there’s a lot more mutual respect than these authors are suggesting.” Ruti suggests instead that people should experience love as it happens, and to learn from it. Roti says, “I’m saying that most times when love fails it’s not because you’ve done something wrong. It’s because love is inherently fickle and capricious. ... Often it’s the failed affairs that teach us the most, so thinking about love’s failures as life failures is not productive because a lot of time it’s the failure that teaches us something really important.” Ruti continues to de-simplify love in her newest book, The Summons of Love. The book complements the message of The Case for Falling in Love by digging deeper into the transformative mission of love and the unique emotions accessed by falling in it.
Sexual Representation Collection
To augment the research being done on sex and sexuality at U of T, University’s College’s Sexual Representation Collection presents commercially-produced materials depicting different representations of sexuality and censorship of sexual expression. The collection’s curator, Nicholas Matte, lecturer for the Sexual
Diversity Studies Program and History PhD candidate, told the newspaper, “The Sexual Representation Collection aims to provide researchers with material that will help them deepen how people understand of the many aspects of life to which sexual representations relate.” Two qualities set this collection apart. First, the transnational nature of material mostly donated by people connected to, if not from, Toronto. Matte explained, “A given film may have been produced in California, distributed in Quebec, and banned in Ontario.” Second, the collection provides a mix of queer and straight material. Their self-given mandate is to gather materials unlikely to be in other archives, which means not limiting to any sexual orientation. Matte said, “We have everything from a major run of Playboy magazines, to a great deal of kink and fetish materials. … Our collection is not divided into “straight” and “queer,” but rather documents a great deal of complexity.” Run by volunteers and open to researchers through special request, the Sexual Representation Collection is a key resource to anyone studying the many ways in which people love and defend love.
WTF TO DO FOR READING WEEK Wave Film Fest at TIFF: 20 films made for youth by youth. Feb 15- 17th $12 for students
Rocky Horror Picture Show @Bloor Cinema Fri Feb 22 11:30pm $11 Bloor Icefest @Village of Yorkville Park Sat and Sun (23/24) 12 to 5 FREE
DAVID STOKES
$5 Movie Night @ Carlton Cinema Tues Feb 19 $5
The Artist Project @Better Living Centre, Exhibition place Friday: 12PM – 8PM Saturday: 11AM – 8PM Sunday: 11AM – 6PM $13 online for students
Rumour has it that the next pope could be black
Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana has been shortlisted as a candidate to replace the aging Benedict XVI in Vatican City. Turkson is 64 -- middle-aged in pope years. He also has more liberal views than most Cardinals on the use of condoms to combat AIDS. He claims that they could be useful in married couples where one partner is infected.
Born this way?
Lady Gaga has been forced to cancel upcoming concerts because she has been diagnosed with synovitis. Following her Monday, February 11 concert in Montreal, Gaga could not walk or move due to severe inflammatory pain in her joints. Synovitis is also considered to be a symptom of Lupus, which Gaga has claimed to have a “borderline” history of in the past.
Not your average vet visit
DJ Skating at Harborfront Sat 16th and 23rd 8 pm-11pm Free
AGO: Permanent Collection Wed. Feb 20th 6pm -8:30 pm Free
The unofficial spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas died on Monday, February 11 from a heart attack. John Alleman, 52, visited the diner daily and suffered the attack while waiting for the bus outside. This is not the first time a death has been associated with the diner, which is known for its calorie-clogging burgers, fattening shakes, and fries cooked in lard.
A Chinese dog breeder is suing an animal hospital for nearly $200 000 after his Tibetan Mastiff died while receiving a facelift. The intelligent and aggressive Tibetan Mastiff breed has become a sought-after status symbol in China, with some owners paying thousands of dollars to give their dogs plastic surgery in order to look more appealing to other breeders. - DYLAN HORNBY
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THE INSIDE
February 14, 2013
Get a grip; enjoy yourself
Toronto sex shops promote female sexual empowerment, satisfy women on the grid
Sex toys have opened the door for many women to achieve orgasm who previously might have been unable to do so. Their prevalence has also indicated a clear change in attitude towards female pleasure and sexuality. The Toronto landscape indicates this change: walk a kilometre in any direction from the intersection of College and University and you will stumble in to at least one sex shop that will satisfy your needs. Carlyle Jansen, founder of Annex specialty store Good For Her, told the newspaper that men used to be the ones purchasing sex toys years ago as women were too embarrassed to buy them. According to Pamela Madsen in the September 2012 issue of Psychology Today, “Women are catching on to the power of their vagina, and they don’t want to miss out.” This shift in perspective is a symptom of the changing dialogue surrounding women and their sexual relationships with their bodies. Sexual therapist and avid feminist Betty Dodson is working to spread the message of body acceptance and loving one’s vagina. Her message addresses what may be seen as a societal pressure to have a conventionally groomed vagina; the ideal being mostly hairless, odorless and complete with a perfectly shaped, pink vulva.
Jansen is equally disturbed by the trends in genital primping. In an interview with the newspaper, she discussed the pressure women feel to shave and to attempt to cover odors. She believes this ideology stems from women’s belief that their vaginas are unclean. Creams, powders, waxing, sprays and even surgery often come at a great cost for both self-esteem and the wallet. Self-Love Dodson’s website is filled with drawings and pictures of women’s vulvas. She has been drawing and collecting these images for years in the hope that women will view the images and realize that their vulva’s are neither strange nor unkempt. Just like the rest of the human body each vagina comes in a different shape and size -- so why should the vulva be any different? Dodson also posits that it is beneficial for heterosexual men to observe these images instead of relying on what they see in porn as it creates unrealistic expectations with future partners. Dodson further believes that masturbation is a way that we can all learn to like our genitals and discover what gives us pleasure before interacting with a partner. “Once self-sexuality enters the lexicon of human sexuality, we will move
into a new phase of social harmony within ourselves, our relationships, our families and the global community” said Dodson. She hopes that one day the shame of masturbation will be lifted for both men and women. Sex Toys The sex toy industry is booming. According to an article published by CNBC in July of 2011, it is a whopping 15 million dollar business. Jansen spoke from experience when she claimed that the whole industry has changed in recent years. Previously, sex toys were marketed primarily towards men, with packaging that often featured images of naked women. Even the toys themselves were designed by men, for women; a typical toy being a large, veiny, beige penis -- an incarnation of what men believed women wanted. Now, according to Jansen, sex toys are designed to “look nice on your bedside table.” They come in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes. Jansen said her bestseller is the Lelo Gigi, a G-spot curved vibrator, and that it has the exact qualities a first time buyer should look for in a toy. Versatility is the key. The ideal first toy accommodates both internal and external stimulation and allows for ex-
ploration to other parts of the body besides the vagina, Jansen suggested some options: “Along the outside, along your vulva; you can put a condom on it and put along the outside of your anus; you can put it on your mouth when you giving oral sex to a partner; with a female partner you can put it between you; with a male partner it feels good against the testicles”. While the stigma around sex toys is slowly dissipating, there is still ample progress to be made before Dodson’s view that “masturbation is the foundation for all human
sexual activity” will gain societal acceptance. Nevertheless, the continuing process of open dialogue around sex toys and body acceptance will perhaps make the world resemble stores like Good For Her: a safe, welcoming place for people to discuss masturbation and their own sexuality. Good For Her is open Mon-Thurs 11am-7pm, Fri 11am-8pm, Sat 11am-6pm, Sun (Women and Trans only) 12pm-2pm, 2pm5pm. It is located at 175 Harbord Street in downtown Toronto.
BODI BOLD
Carissa Ainslie
Founder and store owner Carlyle Jansen shows off her goods at Harbord St specialty store Good For Her.
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THE INSIDE
‘Toronto the Good’ gone bad (in a good way) How the former Puritan haven became one of Canada’s most sexually liberated cities As we journey forth into the twenty-first century, it has become increasingly difficult to draw similarities between the people of Toronto today and those of the past century. Over the last few decades, our city has undergone massive societal transformations; as little as thirty-five years ago, Torontonians evolved from having an infamously uptight and moral reputation to renown for being some of the world’s most expressive and diverse people. How was a city so set in its ways able to change its image so quickly? Toronto used to be one of the most puritan and conservative cities in North America. Markedly unlike today, most residents were either born in Toronto or immigrants from the British Isles. Conservative politics dominated the city and weekly church attendance was the norm -- if not an unwritten law. In an interview with the newspaper, former Toronto Mayor John Sewell explained how attitudes slowly began to change: “The influx of Europeans into Toronto after WWII did a lot to loosen up the way Toronto functioned. Baseball games on Sunday were not permitted until 1950. That change broke the log-jam and began to change ‘Toronto the Good’ with its hypocrisy and churchiness into something more reasonable.” At first, Toronto’s progress was infamously slow. The ban on Sunday shopping was only lifted well into the eighties. The first instalment of the Toronto International Film Festival in 1976 had Hollywood filmmakers worried the festival would fail because of Torontonians’ strict moral code. Certain neighbourhoods such as The Junction (Keele and Dundas) didn’t even allow alcohol to be sold in restaurants until 1998. Yet, two general trends would help propel a puritan Toronto into an era of dynamic social change. With the emigration of affluent Anglo-Canadians from Quebec, Toronto
SCOTT LEEMING
Dylan Hornby
underwent a huge economic boom while nearly every other North American city was in decline. The city’s reputation as a ‘New York City run by the Swiss’ attracted immigrants from around the world. The new shift in demographics soon called for change in Toronto’s municipal government. As a city councillor and Toronto’s mayor in the late 1970s, Sewell represented a sweeping transition to progressive politics at City Hall. Hailed as “Mayor Blue Jeans” by The Toronto Sun, Sewell embodied what many Torontonians considered a new counterculture movement. He was known for riding his bike into work at City Hall, being an outspoken critic of the Toronto Police, and for pioneering many civil rights issues in city council. Ceta Rhamkalawansingh, an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago, started working at City Hall’s equity office in 1981. She described City Council’s role in mediating Toronto’s societal changes: “In 1973 Council adopted a civil rights policy to provide protection on the basis of sexual orienta-
tion. Sewell and [David] Crombie were leaders. In 1979 an equity policy for women was passed as well.” With Sewell as mayor, social change had a political ally who was emboldened to speak out: “Whether City Hall takes the lead on social values or follows is a political choice. When I was mayor I spoke out against discriminating against homosexuals -- the first major politician in Canada to do so, and my sentiments were generally well received.” Following the Toronto Police raids on gay bathhouses in the early eighties, Toronto’s underground gay community soon galvanized. LGBT discrimination quickly became a pervasive issue in the city and although Sewell was no longer mayor, the movement to empower Toronto’s gay community was in full swing. Rhamkalawansigh explained that “Under (Mayor) Eggleton, the city presented briefs to the province in 1981 to amend the Code to include political rights and sexual orientation. That began the City’s campaign to provide health benefits, pension benefits, and
so on. In 1983 and 1984 a contract compliance policy was introduced. This incorporated sexual orientation in the City’s non discrimination policy.” The result was a completely inclusive policy against discrimination, one of the first of its kind. The liberalization of the LGBT movement in Toronto would prove to be the linchpin of a greater sexual revolution. Pride Parades became more celebratory than political, welcoming many more into the community and debunking old stereotypes. The parade garnered economic value as well; today it pumps well over 100 million dollars annually into businesses downtown. Sex boutiques quickly popped up around trendy areas, gay and straight porn industries soon developed and the club scene exploded in Toronto during the late 80s. In effect, there was no chance of going back to ‘Toronto the Good.’ Rhamkalawansigh credited “political leadership and public servants who supported their efforts” as the reason homosexuality was ultimately embraced in Toronto. Sewell,
however, wasn’t so quick to judge: “I don’t think Toronto has `embraced’ gay lifestyle: I think Torontonians tolerate it, as they tolerate other differences.” Sewell continued,“Toronto is more tolerant of diversity now than it was thirty years ago. But there has also been significant suburbanization of the urban area in the past thirty years, and that has brought a weakening of the notion of community, civility, and the positive values of collective action. The best example of this is Mayor Rob Ford who represents the triumph of suburban values.” In this sense, the greatest obstacle facing Torontonians in the future may no longer be racial or sexual intolerance, but rather divisions based on income and inequality. Sewell and Rhamkalawansingh both noted inequality as Toronto’s current biggest societal issue, one that threatens to divide the sense of inclusivity the city has accomplished in such a short span of time.
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THE INSIDE
February 14, 2013
Porn stars vs construction workers Motion: Pornography is inherently more exploitative than othe jobs The porn industry has faced criticism from across the political spectrum. Conservatives claim that it pushes immoral sexual values while progressives claim that it represents women from a misogynist viewpoint. Does porn severely exploit the actors on screen? Or are other jobs just as exploitative?
PRO
Emerson Vanderberg
commoditization, objectification, and ultimate humiliation of the female body through the misogynistic lens of typical, mainstream pornography upholds a patriarchal society that views women as tools for sexual pleasure. This vision of sexual dominance is summarized rather graphically by political theorist and feminist activist Robin Morgan’s famed assertion “pornography is the theory, rape is the practice.” This attests to the overall conclusion drawn by these feminist theorists that pornography underpins a culture that subtly incites violence
against women. The debate as to whether these claims are justified nonetheless fails to completely answer the question -- is porn-making an exploitative profession? These women are paid, many rather well in fact. Furthermore, many porn actors enter the industry of their own volition and maintain healthy (STIs aside) careers. Despite the existence of many famous porn stars, who undoubtedly earn a very decent living by having sex on camera, a host of connected issues render the profession horribly exploitative on a larger scale. Firstly, many women ‘suc-
cumb’ to the temptation of porn in a way similar to prostitution. Desperate and without options, they opt to sell their bodies as means of base employment. Secondly, a well-established connection between the pornography industry and sex trafficking has been studied in depth, showing the culture of illegality that engulfs the profession as a whole. The glorification of mainstream porn stars, be it Charlie Sheen’s stay-at-home “goddesses” or household names the likes of Tori Black and Tera Patrick, hides the plethora of exploitation that lurks beneath.
but because of economic need workers are trapped in those occupations. For example, take working in a meat packaging factory. A Mother Jones investigative report from July/August 2001 examined the meatpacking industry -- declared the most dangerous job in the United States by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rate of serious injury is five times the national average, and workers are exposed to such hazards as boxes of meat falling on a worker, inhaling cleaning chemicals like chlorine, and holes in the slaughterhouse
floor. Many of these workers are non-native English speakers, illegal immigrants, and extremely poor; a wage of $9.50 an hour and relative job security keeps workers at the plants even after crippling injuries. In Canada, construction work ranks high on the danger list. Physical infrastructure is crumbling throughout Canada’s major cities; pair this with multiple hazards -- from falling off structures to being hit by equipment or tools -- the death toll comes to 23.3 per cent of all workplace fatalities between 2008 and 2010, according to the CBC.
Work in oil extraction is also quite dangerous, with a high concentration of carcinogens in the oil and chemicals used for extraction, as well as the creation of toxic waste pools that leak into groundwater and into the air. The cancer rates around these areas are much higher than the general average, and such deformities in food like fish with two jaws are on dinner plates. Of course those in the most precarious economic conditions are those who cannot afford to move away. So is pornography exploitative? Yes. Does it put people
in danger of physical harm because of financial need? Absolutely. But not exclusively. The fact of the matter is that those in the most dire economic situations are forced to take the most dangerous, health-risk-filled jobs with the least benefits, because when options are limited you take what you can get. It is work itself that is exploitative under capitalism, from bedroom to shop floor.
ODESSA KELEBAY
The question of whether pornography is an exploitative profession is not new. While many liberals have upheld its place as free expression since the days of Linda Lovelace and the infamous film Deep Throat (1972), an entrenched feminist dialogue has pushed back against it as exploitative. This rather radical segment is within an otherwise liberal paradigm; as a group it has long ago voiced its dissatisfaction with the adult cinema market. What feminists like Andrea Dworkin and Catharine McKinnon have
sought to do in pioneering the ‘anti-pornography movement’ is refocus the debate on the implicit messages contained within porn. The movement is opposed to any question regarding the morality of sex in open media. The latter was what the initial liberal vs. conservative struggle sought to resolve, whereas McKinnon and others have assured us that moral purity is not what’s at stake. According to McKinnon, contained within pornographic materials is the implicit acceptance and glorification of degrading sexual conduct -- not only to females, but to males as well. The
CON
Sebastian Greenholtz
Pornography is a kind of sex work -- the tools of the trade are the body, the mouth, the hands, as well as an element of acting. It is sex in front of a camera, as opposed to sex on the street or in a club. Sex work exposes one to numerous vulnerabilities; this occurs when the sexual limits are violated. This does not mean, however, that pornography is more exploitative than other kinds of work. There are many jobs which expose workers to physical and psychological harm,
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THE INSIDE
Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives: keeping our stories alive
World’s largest volunteer-run LGBTQ archives NOW HIRING Isaac Thornley Since 1973 the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), an independent community based organization, has been instrumental in providing the public, including students, journalists, and researchers, with information and material concerning the histories of LGBTQ people in Canada. The CLGA is a volunteer organization relying completely on contributions, both monetary and material, in order to live up to their ongoing motto of “keeping our stories alive.” Located at 34 Isabella Street within Toronto’s Church and Wellesley Village, the CLGA strives for a symbiotic relationship with the city’s LGBTQ community. Retired U of T sociology professor, and current board member at the CLGA, Helen Lenskyj emphasized that the role of the archives is not simply one-way, “We have a gallery and we have art exhibits about five or six times a year. So we are serving the LGBT artistic and cultural communities and conversely they are serving us by coming up with ideas for exhibits.” As one would expect from a volunteer organization and registered charity, contributions and participation from the public is always encouraged. “There is pretty much a job for anybody interested, regardless of skill level,” commented Lenskyj, referring to the plethora of odd jobs from shovelling snow outside of the building, to organizing archival material, to planning exhibits and fundraising events, that are required of the eighty or so volunteers that keep the archives growing. The CLGA also offers summer volunteer internship opportunities for graduate level students studying in the fields of Archival Studies, Information Management, and Sexual Diversity Studies. The archives was founded by several of the contributors of the Toronto-based gay liberation newspaper Body Politic. Originally called the Canadian Gay Liberation Movement Archives, the story goes that the
archives grew from a few files in the cabinet of Body Politic’s office to the current archives which today encompasses a large Victorian heritage house on Isabella street, as well as a storage centre at Church and Wellesley, and proudly calls itself the second largest LGBTQ archives in the world, and the world’s largest independent LGBTQ archives. The CLGA is open to any form of material contribution, from political buttons, to Tshirts, to the more traditional items like letters, diaries, and photographs. The archives’ website also showcases digitized forms of material, moving pictures, video, and other multimedia in order to keep the archives growing and to keep up with the times. With regards to the archives’ openness to any form of material, Helen Lenskyj noted that it can be a blessing and a curse, “With our acceptance of materials...we’re very aware, as a volunteer organization...that every donation we get, particularly big ones, incur costs.” Archives need material in order to be archives; but that material then requires time, money, and volunteer labour in order to be properly processed and presented to the public. Although much has changed in Canada for the lives of LGBTQ people since the 1970s, the CLGA’s mission statement “to be a significant resource and catalyst for those who strive for a future world where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people are accepted, valued, and celebrated,” rings as true today as it might have to the gay liberationists who founded the archives. Pointing to the ever present heterosexist assumptions that underlie our society, the idea that everyone is straight, has an opposite sex partner, and a desire to reproduce, Lenskyj affirmed the importance of organizations like the CLGA, “Preserving LGBT history is crucial. One victory [the legalization of same-sex marriage] shouldn’t blind us to the fact that even if overt homophobic prejudice and discrimination is outlawed, covert prejudice
Contributors of monthly magazine Body Politic (above), which played a role in the development of the LGBT community across Canada from 1971-87, founded the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (below) in 1973.
and discrimination can still flourish behind the scenes.” The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives is located at 34 Isabella St, Toronto. Open to to independent researchers, students, and professors on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 7:30-10 pm, and Fridays, 11-2 pm.
CALLING ALL THE USUAL SUSPECTS Hardened newswriters, softened newswriters, illustrators, photographers, copy editors, web folk, ad mwen, mad men, jugglers and jokers. OPEN MEETINGS THURSDAYS 7PM @ 256 McCaul St, room 106. See you there.
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THE ARTS
February 14, 2013
Take me to Pompeii, where the love is sweet (and phallocentric) Why were ancient Pompeians obsessed with the penis?
Yukon Damov Mount Vesuvius erupted—not for the first or last time, but with the most deadly consequences—August 24, 79 CE, killing most of Pompeii’s unprepared inhabitants. A plume of dense, dark ash covered the city, “that the whole atmosphere was obscured and the sun was entirely hidden, as if eclipsed,” wrote the third century historian Dio Cassius. “Thus day was turned into night and light into darkness.” The eruption lasted 24 hours. Around midnight the mountain began to release itself onto the city at its feet, as an avalanche of hot ash, lava, rock fragments and volcanic gas surged into Pompeii. Many of Pompeii’s 20,000 inhabitants died of asphyxiation or because of the intense heat. Upon discovery about 1700 years later, archaeologists were scandalized by what they uncovered. Pompeii’s treasures were promptly closeted, kept hidden from innocent eyes and placed in the Secret Museum in the Naples National Archeological Museum. The phalli. Maybe it was the phalli. Phalli were everywhere. Some were mere graffiti, like the one scrawled into the sidewalk on St. George St near Sid Smith. Frescoes, graffiti on exterior walls, paintings, and sculpture abounded with nudity and scenes of eroticism, but the phallus was a particularly potent symbol. “The ancient phallus is certainly, on the most basic (and, for antiquity, somewhat obvious) level a sign of male domination,” said Bjoern Ewald, U of T art historian, “but it has a number of other connotations.” “It was a symbol of luck, fertility, wealth, well-being, and prosperity. The Priapus in the entrance of the House of the Vettii in Pompeii, for example, famously weighs his member on a scale against a sack of money. The phallus also had an apotropaic function, i.e. it was supposed to ward off evil,
or the evil eye. Though the phallus as a symbol was mostly divorced from its sexual connotations, its ubiquity reflects a society whose relation to sex was frank, open, and uninhibited. It’s been suggested that their outlook was due to an easygoing form of Epicureanism, as in it was not just seeking pleasure in order to avoid pain, but simply to seek pleasure during your short life, while you can. Which is why, as Ewald explained, “the explicitly erotic representations i n Pompeian a r t h a v e more to do with desire and pleasure (understood in eminently corporeal terms) than with love.” But, he clarified, terms such as “obscene” and “pornographic” reflect modern sensibilities, and inaccurately describe ancient art. “Take me to Pompeii, where love is sweet,” was graffiti found by excavators in Pompeii.
Amorous graffiti covers the walls of Pompeii. Scrawled with the spontaneity of Facebook status updates and by turns elegiac and obscene, these remnants are a window into the unchanging ocean of human erotic feeling. Here are a few examples: “Let all who love go to blazes! As for Venus, I want to break her ribs!” “All who love are at war.” “Who is it that spends the night with you in happy sleep? Would that it were me! I would be many times happier.” “Vote for Isidorus for mayor. He licks cunt fantastically.” “If you know what love can do, have pity on me, give me pardon and let me come back to you.” “Lovers, like bees, lead a honeyed life.” One Pompeian could not resist writing a mournful comment under this last graffito: “Would that it were so.”] “Fortunatus, you sweet soul, you mega-fucker. Written by one who knows.”
Taken from Erotica Pompeiana: Love Inscriptions on the Walls of Pompeii by Antonio Varone, 2002. Selected by David Stokes.
CLASSIC DATE NIGHT: A modern approach to ancient aphrodisiacs People all over the world have been cooking up aphrodisiacs since the beginning of time, hoping to set the mood with their would-be Valentines. In ancient Greek mythology, Dionysus, the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, was known for exciting his female cult followers to madness causing chaos and disorder. The Aztecs believed in the sexual power of chocolate and their Emperor Montezuma supposedly drank a cup of it in liquid form over fifty times a day. And according to the Cambridge World History of Food, the word honeymoon itself comes from Medieval times where lovers on their “honeymoon” drank it because it was thought to sweeten the marriage. First used because they were believed to increase fertility and to cure sexual performance, certain foods have been associated with sex since time immemorial. - Lauren Mansfield Visit thenewspaper.ca for the story and recipe this Valentine’s Day.
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THE ARTS
Feminist porn opens up
Genre doesn’t ‘dominate’ market, but may be key to unleashing latent fantasies: sex prof Sinead Doherty-Grant & David Stokes
“In porn, the woman is not an actor.â€? Or, so it once was. This is the opinion of Dr. Pineau, a prof who taught a philosophy of human sexuality course at Ryerson. When she started creating her curriculum, 9 years ago, she noticed that women in pornography were near universally portrayed as “waiting to be discovered, they would lie there looking attractive.â€? However, this paradigm has changed — at least a little. “In new movies you see women being much more aggressive ‌ They will initiate contact. They will go up and kiss a man.â€? Still, despite the recent changes, Pineau comments that the role of women in
adult films remains largely passive. “Women are usually portrayed as controllable.� Porn, consumed most often by men, is structured for them, and a passive role for women is something Pineau speculates has something to do with male angst and anxieties. “Sexual failure is a big problem for men because they can’t fit into their superman fantasy of being powerful.� Porn mitigates these fears “by making women very unaggressive, the sleeping beauty, basically dead.� Asked to comment on how women utilize pornography, Pineau stated that “from teaching women, I’ve found that women do watch porn — they just don’t buy it. Their boyfriend’s buy it — and they watch porn together as part of their sex life.�
“You can create women’s pornography but are men going buy it?� Estimates indicate that at least 90 per cent of the porn bought and sold is purchased by men. However, this statistic possibly relies on a definition of pornography that is too narrow to be useful. For perhaps there is already a long established and thriving female porn market: “Many people would say the harlequin romances are porn for women.� And 2012 seemed to be a raunchy and norm-bursting year: The 50 Shades of Grey series sold over 65 million copies, in 37 countries. Returning to video porn, Dr. Pineau argues that changing paradigms in the genre is change for the better. “It can’t hurt to try a different approach. And the lesbian crowd
Scene from Spanish filmmaker Erika Lust’s Cabaret Desire, Movie of the Year at the 2012 Feminist Porn Awards, Toronto has done a lot of S& M where two women play the roles. ... You have to get other models so you feel okay other people can enter into fantasy life. You don’t have to make your fantasies conform to commercial pornographic life.� And “feminist porn,� though not anywhere near the popularity of your average mainstream porn, is indeed growing in popularity. The Feminist Porn Awards, held annually in Toronto in April and now on its eighth year, are feminist porn’s largest platform for exposure. The awards are organized and sponsored by Good For Her, a sex positive, female-oriented Toronto sex store.
Buoyed by the perception that audiences of all stripes are starting to tire of the predictable — say, the “cum shot� where so and so porn star rounds off the final scene licking her face, most likely after being penetrated by a disembodied penis — feminist porn, by contrast, focuses on the sexual and sensual gratification of both partners, regardless of sex or gender. It markets not only to a mainstream, heterosexual audience of women, but also to an often neglected intended audience groups in the porn industry (lesbian and transgender, and others from the LGBTQ community).
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THE END
February 14, 2013
the video Chatting with Toronto sex entrepreneur
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the newspaper meets exotic dancer-turnedlube salesman Jay Ould to discuss the danger of porn, the wonder of sex toys, and why today’s generation is ‘out of touch.’ Personal lubricant salesman Jay Ould at The Toy Factory in Leslieville
Visit thenewspaper.ca to check out the video.
the newspaper personals: single staff members seek matches Secular humanist associate news editor seeks passover sedermate. Must serve gefilte before maggid and draw parallels between our suffering in Egypt and Israel-Palestine conflict. I like to slog my way through all verses of dayenu and the afikomen better be chocolate-covered egg matza!
Self-described “mean muthafucka” is actually a quiet, gentle-hearted news editor who seeks a soulful deadline disciplinarian. Will paddleboat naked in the morning mist. A Mediterranean diet aficionado.
Vegan copy editor seeks soulful Mr Peanut or equally scrumptious legume to satisfy her protein-deficient diet. Must enjoy debating the finer points of European history fireside, followed by knitting. Understanding minor 30 Rock jokes is a requisite. 100% gluten-free!
Hamptons island home (i.e. sex palace). Preferably divorcees. No kids. Must enjoy fine dining, skiing in the Alps and yachting (chalet and yacht not included).
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Scatterbrained, sea-sponge adoring future features editor seeks a romantic reunion with an objectivist counterpart. Must enjoy bad puns, aperçus, colourful imagery and risqué comments. Loves food. New thresholds, new anatomies!
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events coordinator seeks silver fox with
Please direct responses, head shots and writing samples to thenewspaper@gmail.com with subject: URGENT
the campus comment the newspaper asked: Will you be my valentine?
PATRICK 3rd year, Neuroscience “Depends on what you can give me.”
SILVANA 1st year, Dentistry “Yes, I’ll be waiting for you tonight.”
BRENDAN 1st year master’s, Fine Arts “Are you OK with goats’ blood?”
PARMVEER 3rd year, Human Bio “Hell no.”
AL PURDY Deceased 20th century Canadian poet “Back off.”
DAVID STOKES
RAHA 4th year, Philosophy and Economics “I’ve got a Valentine already but the concept of a poly valentines is worth looking into.”