IN THIS ISSUE:
- POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR ABORTION RIGHTS, GAY MARRIAGE
- NOTICES
- SEXUAL ASSAULT RESPONSE TEAM IN FREDERICTON
- CASES INVOLVING HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN CANADA
- WHEN ARE VICTIMS NEWSWORTHY?
- SUBJECTS ARE SEXUAL, OBJECTS ARE SEXY
- HOW TO REDUCE PEOPLE'S ENDORSEMENT OF SEXISM
………………………………………………………………….……………
POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR ABORTION RIGHTS, GAY MARRIAGE
A survey by Ipsos Reid reveals that support for a woman's right to an abortion has increased in Canada over the years. 51% of Canadian women (47% of men) think abortion “should be permitted whenever a woman decides she wants one.” 44% of women (men, 46%) said abortion should be permitted in certain circumstances. 6% of women (men, 7%) said it should not be permitted under any circumstances. Support is highest among affluent Canadians & those with a university degree. (In 1988, 36% of Canadians supported unrestricted abortion rights; 39%, with restrictions.)
A majority of Canadians are happy with the status quo allowing gays & lesbians to get married. 72% of women (52% of men) believe same-sex marriage “should be fully recognized & equal to conventional heterosexual marriage.” 13% of women (men, 23%) said “it is wrong & it should never be lawful.” (In 2004, 39% of Canadians felt same-sex marriage should be considered equal to heterosexual marriages).
- National Post, 4 July 2012, http://natpo.st/Pa9fJ5
NOTICES
What Are You Doing October 11, 2012? – That's when the world celebrates the “International Day of the Girl Child” for the first time. Declared by the U.N. because “empowerment & investment in girls are critical for economic growth, the eradication of poverty, & to break the cycle of discrimination & violence”. Tell us what you're planning: [email protected] . Strong Girls, Strong Canada: Leaders from the Start is the theme the federal government is suggesting for 2012. More info: http://bit.ly/M3xoxH ; http://bit.ly/Mmjk1V ; http://bit.ly/N0Db5Q ; http://bit.ly/M5R6Lm ; http://bit.ly/NHfe9N ; http://bit.ly/KfYYFM
Send us your Favourite Quote About Equality / Women's Rights – We are replenishing our stock of quotes and sayings for use in this enewsletter. Send us yours: [email protected]
Funding for Registered Charities - Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation is accepting proposals for projects dealing with family violence. Grants of up to $3,000 for emergency shelters, provision of counseling & other services to victims; development of counseling & training programs for counselors, public education programs; research into causes; & training of victims. By 13 Aug 2012. http://bit.ly/OJDgfd
Caregiving: When I Say No I Feel Guilty! – Free webinar on caregiving, Wed. 25 July 2012, 4pm (NB time) Techniques to identify stressors of caregiving & strategies to help. Caregiver Support Centre. http://bit.ly/NDvGS2
What the New EI Rules Mean - a policy brief that concludes the reforms do little to address the system's structural problems & are likely to have a disproportionately negative impact on young, urban, & immigrant workers & businesses in Ontario & the West – though there are some positive features. Mowat Centre, School of Public Policy, U of Toronto. http://bit.ly/LUZIGX
Occupy Papers – Read the lectures given during that Occupy speaker series organized in early 2012 by STU & UNB faculty & students. Topics include How the City Shapes your Life (And How You Can Shape the City)”; What Students Can Learn From the Occupy Movement; NB's Deficit and Debt Problem: Root Cause and Solution; Why Poetry is Better than Money; When Being “Tough on Crime” has Nothing to do with Crime, Justice nor Public Safety. http://bit.ly/O2ewkW
Life Skills Coach Certification – YWCA Moncton. Phase 1: 10-14 Sept 2012. Phase 2: 17-21 Sept. $ 975 each. Course outlines: http://bit.ly/MDEJDg ; http://bit.ly/O7ndKP
SEXUAL ASSAULT RESPONSE TEAM IN FREDERICTON
On June 13, 2012, over 50 service providers from various community agencies met to take the initial steps in creating a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) in Fredericton.
A sexual assault response team is a model of service delivery that emphasizes a coordinated, collaborative community approach so that victims of sexual assault can access comprehensive & timely care. A SART is typically comprised of professionals & volunteers, & service providers from legal & health care agencies, public safety, counselling agencies, & victim advocates.
For the Community Learning Day, service providers were introduced to the SART concept, & heard from the Saint John SART, who established their team in 2009.
The Saint John SART operates out of the Saint John Regional Hospital Emergency Department. When a sexual assault occurs, the survivor may decide to go directly to the hospital for assistance, or may contact the closest police station where they will be transported to the hospital for the SART to be initiated. A survivor has the right to choose whether or not to report the sexual assault to police & will receive the medical care & support needed, regardless of their choice. If a survivor wishes to seek counseling (short-term or long-term) they will be referred to trained counselors on the SART team & contacted for an appointment within one week of a referral being received.
While the Fredericton SART will look different from the Saint John model, the Saint John Team shared many words of wisdom they have learned over the past 3 years.
Following the Community Learning Day, members of the Fredericton Sexual Assault Response team met for a full day to discuss how the team will function, its goals & objectives, & its mandate. The team members are very eager to continue the work started in June, & will be working hard throughout the summer to establish a sexual assault response team for the Fredericton region.
For more information, contact the Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre at 454-0460.
CASES INVOLVING HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN CANADA
The RCMP is aware of 23 cases in which the accused was convicted of either human trafficking or related offences, including 9 convictions specifically for human trafficking under the Criminal Code (6 by PEEL Regional Police, 3 in Québec). 42 people have been convicted & 56 victims saved from traffickers. Currently 98 others are accused of human trafficking offences, involving 147 victims.
Recent convictions have mostly involved victims who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents trafficked for sexual exploitation, through escort agencies & brothels. The Criminal Intelligence Service has found that organized crime in Canada recruit Canadian-born women aged 12 to 25 to traffic in their province & between provinces for forced prostitution. A 2010 RCMP study revealed a number of groups of young people to be vulnerable to trafficking, especially from First Nations communities. Organized crime networks with Eastern European links have also been involved in the entry into Canada of women from former Soviet States for employment in massage & escort services. Human trafficking has also been identified in bawdy houses operated by Asian rings. Most foreign nationals found working in bawdy houses had entered Canada legally. African nationals who were identified as victims of human trafficking were trafficked for sexual exploitation before arriving in Canada.
Domestic human trafficking victims have mostly been recruited through the Internet or by an acquaintance. The victims were groomed, manipulated, & coerced to enter the sex trade. Some victims have been underage girls exploited in dance clubs or escort services, controlled through social isolation, forcible confinement, withholding identification documents, limitation of movement, threats & violence.
RCMP Const. Sebastian Decaens, of the Atlantic Region Immigration & Passports section, said a lot of smuggling begins in the Maritimes. "When they start luring or grooming the victims, it happens in the Maritimes; later on they get either to Montreal, Toronto but the source is here."
In May 2012, Omar McFarlane of Toronto was sentenced to 9 years for human trafficking & kidnapping. He entered into romantic relationships with women while they were working as adult entertainment dancers. They would eventually be kidnapped at gun point to be trafficked into the sex trade.
A Hungarian family ran the largest human trafficking ring in Canadian history, bringing people from their home country to work for no pay, buying some for a few thousand dollars & using them on construction sites & as household servants. The kingpin, Ferenc Domotor, & his brother were facing extortion charges in Hungary when they arrived in Canada in 1998. Both settled with their families in Hamilton, & got into the stucco business. Associates in Hungary recruited unemployed men promising good jobs. Tamas Miko had spent months looking for a job in Hungary when an acquaintance put him in touch with Domotor, who bought him a plane ticket to Canada. Domotor's wife took his passport & he slept on a mattress in their basement, with 6 other men. The men were shuttled to work sites, finished work around 11 pm, were fed one meal a day & not paid. The windows & doors of the house were alarmed. He didn't speak English. He was told he had to pay off the cost of his flight, plus $2,700 in recruitment cost. They were ordered to make fraudulent welfare claims & set up bank accounts. Gang members took their debit cards. The gang's only known female victim was used as an unpaid maid. Eventually a 51-year-old victim who had arrived two weeks earlier told officials what was going on when they took him to the welfare office. Around the same time, Miko told a contractor what was happening, & the man called the RCMP. Early one morning, the contractor came to pick Mr. Miko up for work. As they sat in his car, the police arrived. The RCMP walked up to the vehicle and, reading from a piece of paper, told Miko in Hungarian: “I can take you to a safe place.” “I was surprised & I asked [the contractor] what to do. He said ‘Go, go, go!'”. He was taken to a shelter. Police moved the victims from safe house to safe house but the Domotors seemed to be always able to find them. Things got so bad for Miko's family in Hungary that police drove them to Budapest, where an NGO flew them to Canada. In April 2012, Ferenc Domotor was sentenced to 9 years in prison, after which he will be deported. His wife, son & several others were also convicted. 19 victims had come forward. Miko has applied for landed immigrant status & found work. If Canada lets him stay, he has decided what he wants to do with his life: become a police officer.
- Various: RCMP http://bit.ly/McTlNp ; Peel police http://bit.ly/McTpfP ; CBC NB, 20 April & 6 June 2012; Langley Times, 18 June 2012.
WHEN ARE VICTIMS NEWSWORTHY?
A comparison of local press coverage of cases of missing/murdered women - 3 Aboriginal women from Saskatchewan & 3 White women from Ontario - found the Aboriginal women received three & a half times less coverage & their articles were shorter & less likely to be on the front page. Depictions of the Aboriginal women were more detached in tone & scant in detail.
While the Canadian news media have devoted considerable attention to the extreme conditions in which many Aboriginal Peoples live, reports do not situate these conditions in their relevant socio-historical colonial contexts & so readers may be left with the idea that such problems stem from Aboriginal cultural inferiority or their inability to “fit into” society. Representations of Aboriginality in mainstream media are steeped in negative stereotypes stripping Aboriginal Peoples, including missing/murdered Aboriginal women, of status as human beings. The stereotype of Aboriginal women as a “squaw” who is dirty, lazy, degraded, & easily sexually exploited has profoundly shaped the experiences of Aboriginal women since colonial contact. The stereotype is a “grotesque dehumanization [that] has rendered all Native women & girls vulnerable to gross physical, psychological, & sexual violence”. As a child Aboriginal scholar Maracle internalized that “the world hates women & ‘squaws' do not even qualify as women”. The stereotypes not only increase Aboriginal women's risks of violence but also “pre-packages” them as “bad”/“unworthy” victims, & influences news media & societal responses to their victimization.
- Excerpts, Kristen Gilchrist, Feminist Media Studies, 2012, http://bit.ly/O2eLwn
SUBJECTS ARE SEXUAL, OBJECTS ARE SEXY
How do we know sexual objectification when we see it? The Sex Object Test measures the presence of sexual objectification in images. Sexual objectification is present if the answer to any of the following questions is “yes”: Does the image: show only part of a sexualized person's body?; present a sexualized person as a stand-in for an object?; show sexualized persons as interchangeable? ; affirm the idea of violating the bodily integrity of a sexualized person who can't consent?; suggest that sexual availability is the defining characteristic of the person?; treat a sexualized person's body as a canvas?
In a culture with widespread sexual objectification, women (especially) tend to view themselves as objects of desire for others. This internalized sexual objectification has been linked to problems with mental health (clinical depression, “habitual body monitoring”), eating disorders, body shame, self-worth & life satisfaction, sexual dysfunction, access to leadership & political efficacy. Beyond the internal effects, sexually objectified women are seen as less competent & less worthy of empathy by both men & women. Exposure to images of sexually objectified women causes male viewers to be more tolerant of sexual harassment & rape myths. Add to this the hours that some girls/women spend primping, & the erasure of middle-aged & elderly women who have little value in a society that places women's primary value on their sexualized bodies.
Theorists have contributed to understanding the harm of objectification culture by pointing out the difference between sexy & sexual. Subjects act & objects are acted upon. Subjects are sexual, while objects are sexy.
- Excerpts from series by Caroline Heldman, Ms Magazine, July 2012.
What it is: http://bit.ly/Nz3NA1 ; The Harm: http://bit.ly/LV5Z5x ;
Daily Rituals to Stop: http://bit.ly/MrrCGM ; Daily Rituals to Start: http://bit.ly/LV5NTR
HOW TO REDUCE PEOPLE'S ENDORSEMENT OF SEXISM
Women who kept track of sexist incidents in their personal lives later were more likely to reject sexist beliefs. The findings from 3 studies involving 2 countries suggest women endorse sexist beliefs because they don't recognize subtle forms of sexism, & don't notice the aggregate amount of sexism in their daily lives. Sexism included stereotypes about women, witnessing or experiencing treatment based on gender, hearing dismissive comments about sexism, feminists, etc, unwanted sexual attention & verbal sexism.
For men, increased attention to sexist information alone was insufficient to reduce sexist beliefs, possibly because of men's higher status in society & their interest in maintaining this status. Our results point out the crucial role of empathy & perspective taking in changing their attitudes toward gender relations: Those men who paid attention to the frequency of everyday sexism & took the target's perspective reduced their endorsement of sexist beliefs & evaluated the man described as a Modern Sexist less favorably. However, men maintained their endorsement of Benevolent Sexism – beliefs that women are ‘‘pure,'' the ‘‘better'' sex, idealized caregivers, reinforcing the idea that women should be protected & provided for - the positive tone of such incidents covers up their fundamental sexism.
Interventions to reduce women's endorsement of sexism can be effective by heightening their sensitivity to different aspects of sexism in their personal lives, whereas for men, effective interventions must also aim to increase empathy. Interventions need to directly highlight the individual & societal harm that comes from Benevolent Sexism because perspective taking alone is not sufficient to increase this awareness.
- Seeing the Unseen: Attention to Daily Encounters With Sexism as Way to Reduce Sexist Beliefs, Psychology of Women Quarterly, March 2011, http://bit.ly/MzZmPP
IN PARTING
Women's style adviser Russell Smith answering the question, “Am I too old to wear tight pants?” (Globe & Mail, 25 Feb 2012):
I get the “age-appropriate” question so often that I know how to translate its code. Here is what it says: “I long to wear sexy & fashionable item X but fear I am too old for X & will be derided for ‘trying too hard.' I think I look quite respectable wearing X and, in fact, I think X is quite flattering, but I can't trust my own opinion on how I look because of a lifetime of hearing & reading caustic comments about what women look like. Who exactly will mock me for this transgression? Not men. I know that they prefer tight clothing & have little sense of ‘appropriateness.' & not many women would, either. No, to be honest, it's Ethel Mugstone, a woman in my book club, who makes me nervous, because she doesn't hesitate to raise her eyebrows when she doesn't like something & she seems to like so little, particularly since she put on all that weight herself, poor thing.”
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is sent out twice a month by the provincial government Women's Issues Branch. It provides news related to equality issues, including events, studies, initiatives and information from women's groups, governments, universities, etc.
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