STYLE

keeps her humble. That’s because students ask questions that often bring matters down to the basics.

“When you don’t know a subject really, really well, it’s easy, actually, to stay higher level and much harder to make it very simple, right?” she declares. “So their energy and enthusiasm for the future would give me an equal amount of energy.

“These days, you have MBAs with a focus on sustainability,” the CEO continues. “You’ve got courses on all these subjects. That was not the case 20, 25 years ago.”

Sometimes, CEOs of financial institutions can come across as reserved, buttoned-down, and very conservative. Although Bergeron can keep up with them on financial issues (just ask her what she’s doing as the North American board member on the United Nations Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative), she’s also refreshingly down to earth.

This was clear when she discussed with her husband and sons last year whether she should take the Vancity CEO job on an interim basis.

“It was a big commitment, obviously, for all of us,” Bergeron recalls. “And so I told my kids that we’d check in if they saw me enough and if they thought I was around for dinner enough.

“I think my oldest is quite proud,” she adds. “Meanwhile, I think they also like to go play tag at night and ensure I’m perpetually ‘it’.” g

STYLE Hysterical Woman shirt tackles sexist term

by Craig Takeuchi

Aprominent Vancouverite and mother active in advocacy efforts has joined forces with a politically active Canadian clothing company to tackle sexist language used during debates about COVID-19 in British Columbia.

Former news anchor Tamara Taggart joined forces with Calgary-based clothing company Madame Premier, which makes limited-edition fundraising shirts, to launch a capsule collection that addresses this issue. The collection includes shirts in black or white and a tote bag, available at the Madame Premier website.

In an interview with News 1130, Taggart said that she heard the word hysterical being used during B.C. COVID-19 briefings to describe concerns about health measures and safety in schools.

Accordingly, the shirt proudly states “Hysterical Woman” in a gothic heavymetal font.

Madame Premier founder Sarah ElderChamanara explained that the effort aims to reclaim the term. It’s a strategy some minority groups use to neutralize slurs used against them, such as how LGBT communities reclaimed the words dyke and queer for themselves by using them for organizations.

The term has a centuries-long discriminatory history of being used to undermine and dismiss opinions and points made by women (as well as by LGBT people in recent decades) and as a means to control, suppress, and disempower women. In fact, “female hysteria” was once a medical diagnosis used for women exhibiting mental-health symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, irritability, expression of or loss of sexual desire, and more. The good news is that 30 percent of net proceeds from these shirts will be donated to Vancouver’s Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS). This cause is particularly timely because during the pandemic, many women and children have suffered from having to remain at home with abusive partners, parents, or other family members.

BWSS, founded in 1979, offers education, advocacy, and support services for all women, with the goal of eliminating violence and to promote equality for all women.

Last week, Taggart posted a photo on Instagram of herself wearing a shirt that says “Hysterical Mother”, and she delved into some of the etymology of the term. g

Former Vancouver news anchor Tamara Taggart and Calgary’s Madame Premier launched the Hysterical Woman collection to counter how the term is used to invalidate women’s concerns.