WCF and Santa Cthulhu wish you a Happy Holidays

Apologies for the delay in posting over the past week. I’m up on Hornby Island visiting my family right now and all the home cooking, quiet, and high-pressure family Scrabble games really make you feel like staying away from the computer screen. But there have been a lot of interesting happenings in the world of gender issues, so here’s your round-up.

But first, an update! First of all stay tuned for an update with a link to my next piece for about-face, which I’ll be turning in soon in response to the New York Times Magazine’s piece “Can Anybody Make a Movie for Women?”

Also I’m excited to announce that I’ll be attending the Feminist Majority Foundation’s National Young Feminist Leadership Conference 2010 in Washington, D.C. in March. I’m looking forward to the trip, meeting other young feminists, and hopefully picking up some new ideas and inspiration around young feminist activism. I’ll try my best to keep the blog going while I’m at the event!

And now, your holiday round-up:

Interesting BitchMedia article “Why a Sex-Crimes Show is Surprisingly Female Friendly”. Anyone who knows me well knows of my Law and Order obsession. I thought this article provoked interesting debate and I’ll take it on in more detail in my next post after I get home.
Closer to home, Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett is calling on the Conservative government to better regulate the chemicals used in sex toys. This TorontoLife article gives a concise and fun explanation of the issue.As someone involved in politics, I have to say I wish she’d back it up with a Private Member’s Bill instead of hoping the Conservatives would bring forward government legislation (which seems unlikely). But as a feminist, I will still say good for Carolyn Bennett for raising this issue and speaking about it in the media, which at least helps raise awareness of potential safety concerns.
In more Canadian news, Quebec blogger James Chartrand recently revealed that she took a man’s name when she had trouble with her freelance writing career. I have to admit I hadn’t thought about huge potential inequalities in blogging as a career. Jezebel has a great analysis of why the story was somewhat unexpected and the complicated issues surrounding how we view James Chartrand.
I also wanted to mention that I have an awesome new co-columnist for The Gender Files in the Vancouver Observer. You can check out Ben Milne’s latest column here. While I’m here I’ll let you know that you can follow the Vancouver Observer on Twitter. They’re currently planning on giving away an IPod Shuffle to the 2,000th follower, so get signed up!
Also close to home I suggest you check out my friend’s awesome new blog (Mis)Adventures of a Queer Student Teacher. It’s a personal, engaging, and thoughtful analysis of the challenges faced by a Queer Student Teacher and anyone interested in gender, sexuality and sexual identity, queer issues, education, or feminism should definitely check it out.