by Jarrah Hodge

Back in 2011 Gender Focus contributor Roxanna Bennett reported on YWCA Canada’s Safety Siren app, which gave women and girls a way to use their smart phones to learn about dating violence and easily send an emergency signal if ever in danger.

Now, other Canadian non-profits are adapting our new technology to give young women new, on-the-spot tools to fight violence and harassment.

Toronto non-profit METRAC (Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children) launched their “Not Your Baby” app last fall after they heard many people saying they didn’t know how to deal with harassment on the spot. The app provides a technological solution to help people as they experience harassment. People using the app select where they are and what kind of harassment they are experiencing and the app pops up helpful suggestions. Users can also submit their own suggestions for how to deal with these kinds of difficult situations.

METRAC Communications Director Andrea Gunraj told me that over 250 people responded to their survey in the lead-up to creating the app: “We found that people had a diversity of responses depending on the context and situation of the harassment. I learned a lot reading peoples’ comments and stories and felt that ideas on dealing with harassment at school were so smart, especially when it’s not easy to make a complaint or the person harassing you is a friend.”

Gunraj is pleased by the media coverage and positive feedback they’ve had so far. Being out there alongside other campaigns like Hollaback! and Stop Street Harassment, Gunraj is optimistic that more people are becoming aware of harassment as an issue, but warns “we have a long way to go before harassment is seen as unacceptable in any space – street, home, work, malls, public transit, and so on. There is still the idea that some people are ‘fair game’ for harassment just by virtue of who they are.”

Another new initiative has come out of BC, where the Ending Violence Association has partnered with Telus on an app for women who are at a high risk of violence. The SOS Response app is being piloted in Prince George, Courtenay, Terrace, Vernon and Surrey. Local assistance programs in those communities are identifying at-risk women and providing them with a phone with the app installed. The app is very simple for a woman in crisis to use. All she has to do is press a button and the phone takes 30 photos in 30 seconds, which are sent to the security monitoring centre along with GPS information.

“The SOS mobile monitored alarm app is an easy-to-use, cost-efficient tool that will increase safety for women across Canada who are fleeing violence,” said Tracy Porteous, Executive Director of EVA BC. “The program is also a great example of community and business working together in the most positive of ways.”

Of course,these kinds of apps aren’t enough in and of themselves. As Gunraj told me about “Not My Baby”, “It’s a simple app and not an end-all solution, but it’s just one way of broadening the dialogue.”  If new technology can be leveraged in this way to give useful information and help women and girls feel safer and more empowered in their space, that’s a huge step in the right direction.

(not my real hair)

by Jarrah Hodge

I’ve been struggling with whether or not to write on this topic ever since we started the “My Reality” series here at Gender Focus. On the one hand I think it’s important to share these stories because the stigma involved with mental illness is a huge problem. On the other hand, that very same stigma made me worried that talking about my experiences would cause my friends and coworkers to look at me differently.

But I finally decided to face up to the potential consequences because of GF contributor Roxanna Bennett, who is writing about her own experiences on her blog Choose Your Own Adventure. She drew my attention to the fact that last week (May 6-12) was Mental Health Week in Canada, and the main goals are raising awareness and fighting stigma.

So here goes.

I’m a gainfully-employed communications professional, a cat-loving uber-nerd, an occasional TV commentator and a feminist activist and award-winning blogger. I also happen to have a disorder that was until recently known as trichotillomania. In recognition of the fact that the disorder has nothing to do with “mania”, the DSM-5 has now added an explainer to the name: Trichotillomania (Hair-Pulling Disorder).

Trichotillomania (I’m just going to use the short-form “trich” or the previously-recognized abbreviation TTM for the rest of this article) is classified as an Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder and it is characterized by the irresistible urge to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows or other parts of your body. I’ll start by giving a few more facts before I go in to how I experience it.

According to Psychiatric Times, up to 3.4% of adults have TTM (Olivia Munn is probably the most well-known example) and nobody knows for sure what causes it, though there are theories. It is not a nervous habit that you can just stop. It is also not causally-linked to experiencing child abuse or other trauma. It does not come out of a desire to self-harm; it doesn’t even hurt. According to the Trichotillomania Learning Center, trich actually acts as a “a self-soothing mechanism” to alleviate anxiety.

Tackling stigma is important in dealing with all mental illness but in trich has a particular direct connection to beauty ideals in our society. Most people with TTM are girls and women like me, who deal with constant messages telling them they have to look a certain way. When their disorder leaves them with bald patches on their head or gaps in their eyelashes, many withdraw. If a trichster doesn’t feel their elaborate beauty routine is enough to let them fit in, they may isolate themselves from work, school and/or medical care.

I started pulling out my eyelashes when I was around nine years old, for no obvious reason. My mom was quite alarmed and took me to the doctor, who guessed maybe my eyes were itchy and gave me a cream to put on the eyelashes. Of course, that was not the issue.

Not long after, I started pulling my eyebrows as well. It might be hard for you to understand but it felt good. In the spots where I pulled, new stubby hairs would come in and those felt even better to pull. Pulling kept me feeling calm and in control.

Around the time I was 10 years old the other kids started noticing the gaps in my eyebrows. I remember girls in Girl Guides whispering at me that I was a freak and pointing to my eyebrows. I was already being bullied for other reasons and this just made it worse. I felt exposed and ashamed.

My mom’s worry about how this was hurting my looks didn’t help. I know she meant well when she pointed out how beautiful my eyelashes had been; even with the TTM diagnosis, my mom didn’t understand why I couldn’t stop. But I knew how bare and puffy my eyes looked and I felt a deep sense of pain, guilt and failure. I didn’t know how to stop and each day I was reminded that everyone saw how ugly I thought I was making myself.

When my parents separated when I was 13 I went into counseling. In addition to issues around the divorce, my counsellor and I tried to tackle the trich. We tried a reward system with prizes if I could go pull-free and a style of aversion therapy where I snapped an elastic band on my wrist when I wanted to pull. We analyzed my patterns and tried to develop new mantras. I also tried hypnotherapy. Nothing worked for very long and I still felt like a monstrous creation.

However, part-way through university I stopped feeling the urge to pull my eyelashes and they all grew back. Even though I’m not sure why it happened I’m proud of it because it was the only part of my trich that risked my health, by leaving my eyes unprotected.

But another even more significant shift happened; people stopped noticing or caring about my eyebrows. Part of it was that I was getting better at penciling in replacements, but more than that it was that I had grown up and so had my peers. I was also finally starting to feel like I had worth as a human being and that maybe having trich didn’t change that.

I tried new things periodically: more hypnotherapy, online support groups, supplements, wearing gloves or fake nails, even SSRI medication. The longest I ever went pull-free was two weeks. Whenever I tried I was overwhelmed with anxiety and it required a ton of mental energy to monitor my urges and stop myself from pulling. The biggest challenge is that I always have access to the tools to keep up the behaviour: my hands and my hair. If you have TTM and you want to pull hard enough, it is very easy to give in and do so.

I haven’t totally given up on trying to go pull-free again but it’s not the highest priority for me at this time given how busy I am and how I now know that I’m a pretty kick-ass, loveable person regardless of how much hair I have. Feminism has definitely helped with that.

Unfortunately, although I now have full eyelashes, I started pulling hair from my head a couple of years ago to the point where I have large bald patches on the back of my neck and patchy areas around the crown of my head.

When you see me day to day you might notice my hair looks a little off. Maybe it moves a bit funny or it’s just too put-together. The women at the TV studio where I’ve been appearing as a youth pundit (clip below) have remarked that my hair always looks perfect. That’s because it’s not real; it’s a wig.

I made the decision to start wearing a wig last fall because I could no longer find a hairstyle that hid the patchy areas. My feminist ideals caused a conflict because I do want to end the stigma associated with illnesses like trich and hiding it to meet beauty ideals is problematic. On the other hand, it protects most of my hair from pulling. Even more importantly, it lets me set boundaries on when I want to talk about my disorder and who I want to talk about it with. Writing this post is another way I’m trying to talk about it on my own terms.

If you aren’t sure how to talk with someone like me, my first suggestion would be not to ask me or anyone else with trich “Why don’t you just stop?” As Sandy Rosenblatt said in her piece on her experience with Trich (which really resonated with me):

It is a question many of us who have the disorder ask ourselves on a daily basis. When asked by someone else, we usually just wait uncomfortably for the subject to change. Here is the answer: Most of us will never be able to stop. If we could, we would.

Just let us trichsters deal with it in our own way, let anyone you know who has it know they’re not alone, and keep doing what you can to learn and understand.

Recent print attack ad against Justin Trudeau by the Conservatives.

by Matt Moir. Matt is a writer based in Toronto.

Michelle Rempel rolled her eyes and paused, choosing her words carefully.

Standing in the lobby outside the House of Commons, the Conservative MP for Calgary Centre had just been informed that she had been voted Sexiest Female MP in an Ottawa newspaper’s annual poll.

“I get the opportunity to speak to a lot of women’s groups about encouraging women to run for office, and about women’s leadership issues and the number one thing I always say is women should be judged and evaluated by their merit.”

If only her boss would heed her message.

Her Conservative Party’s negative ad campaign against Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau may, as some have claimed, be successfully rallying the Tory base, and thus helping the party fill its coffers. But it’s also alienating a section of the electorate vital to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chances of winning another majority government: female voters.

Trudeau’s poll numbers are overwhelmingly positive among women. A recent Harris/Decima poll found that 61% of Canadian women view Trudeau favorably, whereas Harper is viewed favorably by only 37% of women.

Some commentators attribute this support for Trudeau to the fact that women in Canada traditionally are more supportive of left-leaning politicians than conservative ones.

Others say that women are drawn to the Liberal leader’s charisma and good looks- he was, after all, voted sexiest MP in The Hill Times’ annual survey.

What shouldn’t be discounted, though – and what probably should be explored further – is that Canadian women might be able to identify with the young MP, and the nature of the personal attack ads he’s had to endure.

Immediately after Trudeau won his party’s leadership race, the Tories unleashed a torrent of ads attacking the newly minted Liberal leader. This is nothing new, of course. The Conservatives are well versed in the art of the political takedown; just ask Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. But what makes the ‘Justin’ ads different is the unseemly gender baiting aspect to them.

In the commercials, Trudeau is depicted as a vapid intellectual lightweight who has relied upon charm and good looks to achieve political prominence. In one ad, video of the MP stripping (for charity) is played as a voiceover mocks his supposedly trivial and unworthy experience for running a country (Trudeau is ridiculed for once being teacher; traditionally a profession occupied primarily by women).

The tenor of this commercial is one that successful and ambitious women across the world can identify with. When women begin ascending the ladders of power – and, thus, threatening male dominance over that power – they are often belittled by opponents for their supposed lack of substance. The nature of the putdowns vary from subtle condescension to outright misogyny, but the reality is that whether it’s in politics, business or some other traditionally male dominated power center, women are commonly smeared as being little more than a pretty face.

Hilary Clinton knows this all too well. During her campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2008, Clinton was regularly mocked for her gender by hecklers and network pundits alike. Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister of Australia, has been forced to confront misogyny on the floor of her country’s House of Commons on multiple occasions. And right here in Canada, Premiers Christy Clark and Kathleen Wynne have both been subject to sexist musings, via social and traditional media.

It’s difficult to determine why the Conservatives would take an approach that smacks of bullying and chauvinism. From a purely political standpoint, one possible explanation is that they calculated that Canadians prefer a tough-talking, Very Serious politician to lead the country; not one who expresses interest in investigating the root causes of ideological violence, and certainly not one who has the temerity to wear shorts. Challenging Trudeau’s masculinity, however, might play well to the Conservatives’ rural base, but it surely won’t be well-received in the socially liberal, fiscally conservative suburbs surrounding Toronto- the ridings that Harper needs to sweep to even consider winning another majority government.

So when the Tories produce attack ads that, as noted by other media outlets, are rife with ‘feminine’ elements- cursive writing and glittering stars- and feature tag lines like ‘He’s in way over his head’, it’s hard not to think that they’re going leave a bad taste in women’s mouths. It’s equally hard not to think that Canadian women won’t punish the Prime Minister in the ballot box in the next election.

by Matilda Branson

I ride horses. I think I was first on a horse at the age of 8 or 9 months old. Horse riding comes as naturally to me as does breathing. Wherever I live, or travel in the world, my eye is automatically on the look-out for anything horse-related, be it a likely stable or potential horse jump (the front fences of houses are usually particularly promising), even if I don’t have a horse with me. When I see a golf course, I think how wonderful it would be to gallop across the pristine turf. Desperate for horse contact whilst living in Nepal, I rescued a small pony from a brick kiln factory. A few years ago, I rode 1000 km across Mongolia on horseback, because how could I not? A horse-mad feminist, through and through.

When I ride, I ride astride. Most people do. If you’ve ever ridden, you were probably riding astride too, one leg either side of the horse. Yet this is a pretty recent thing for women to do. If you look at mediaeval paintings, and even photos up until the early 20^th century of women riding, you’ll often see them sidesaddle, seated with two legs on one side of the horse.

Have you ever used the phrase “bohemian” to describe something a bit alternative or unconventional? The earliest form of the sidesaddle is credited towards one Princess Anne of Bohemia who travelled across Europe on a primitive form of the sidesaddle to wed King Richard II, thus setting a bit of a trend particularly for those of noble birth, that to ride astride was unladylike and improper. Although a few feisty ladies through the ages bucked (ha ha) the trend – Catherine the Great, Joan of Arc, Marie Antoinette, just to name a few – the sidesaddle became the principal mode of riding for women for a good half a century or so.

But why the sidesaddle?  Why not a normal one? Was it because of the dresses they wore, or their perceived weakness as women in comparison to men and their inability to control their mighty steeds? Maybe a little. But the main motivation I think came with the social norm: A woman to straddle a horse – oh the thought of it! How unbecoming of a lady!

So what was underpinning such ideas? For all those anthropologists out there, it all boils down to ideas around a woman’s purity and chastity, and male control and regulation of female sexuality (perhaps the thinking behind this is if it’s left uncontrolled, women might just rampage across the Earth: wild, irrational and dangerous, hormones unbridled, ha ha).  Once the mediaeval times dug in, so did feudalism and all the patriarchal norms that go with it, including the utmost need for a girl (especially an aristocratic one like our Princess Anne of Bohemia) to remain chaste and a virgin until her wedding night. And how to prove she’s a virgin? Why, the old blood-on-the-sheets and broken hymen trick! Convinces the rellies every time. Riding astride? A big no-no if daddy, mummy and hubby-to-be wanted to keep the hymen intact.

It was only really at the end of the 19^th century and beginning of the 20^th, with the suffragette movement, the first World War and the general modernisation of things that the sidesaddle began to go out of vogue. Although today it continues to be used, and is a respected part of equestrianism in itself due to the skill required in riding sidesaddle, most women today ride astride.  Which I, for one, am very glad of, as otherwise I would fall off a lot. The point of this post is: don’t forget the seemingly obscure ways in which women have gained greater freedoms as part of the greater feminist movement. There are so many of them out there, which is great, and I would neigh for joy if I could.

(h/t Women and Hollywood)

by Jarrah Hodge

Australia is well on its way to making publicly available mifepristone and misoprostol, two drugs that make up RU486, used for abortion up to 49 days after becoming pregnant. If you’ve never heard of it it might sound a little scary, and that’s the angle anti-choice activists and legislators love to promote, but the truth is RU486 has been around for more than 20 years and has been demonstrated to be very safe. It is approved for use in 38 countries and is the preferred method for medical abortion in many, including France.

According to the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, RU486 has been associated with proportionately fewer deaths than Tylenol or Viagra. It’s also less risky than going through a full-term pregnancy.

Gail Rhyno at ROAR notes that RU486 is on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines, which catalogues 312 drugs considered international benchmarks in meeting “priority care needs”.

If a woman needs to terminate a pregnancy, it doesn’t make sense to prevent her from choosing this option. It allows a woman to make the decision with her family doctor and not have to face in many cases travelling long distances to a clinic where they may be subject to anti-choice harassment. Even more importantly, it has lower complication rates and is significantly cheaper than other forms of medical abortion. In Australia, public pharmaceutical coverage is likely to make RU486 available to all women for $36, and $12 for women who receive benefits.

So why the delay in Canada? In a country where many women still face barriers to accessing surgical abortion, it would certainly fill a need. It’s important to note there is an approved method of medical abortion in some places in Canada, but it’s not as efficient or effective. Health Canada’s procedures for approving drugs are stringent (as they should be), but the issue is not that the drug has gone through the process and failed; it has never been submitted to the final step for approval. Some RU486 advocates believe that what’s missing to get it through the process is political will and a greater commitment from Health Canada.  Fern Hill at Dammit Janet points out that Health Canada’s handling of the recent Apotex birth control pill recall raised questions about the agency’s level of understanding of women’s reproductive health needs.

The best thing to do right now is for people who care about reproductive health to educate themselves on RU486 and to raise the issue with your family doctor or OB/GYN. It’s time for Canada to catch up with the rest of the world on making private abortion safer and more effective.

(photo of pills [not RU486]  via Wikimedia Commons)

by Laura Riina. Laura is a YWCA Toronto Volunteer with the Y Act Up Campaign.

While we have known for years that poverty disproportionally affects women, what remains hidden is the rapid increase in Canadian women’s homelessness- as well as the domestic violence, growing economic inequality and sexual abuse that creates many of the conditions for homelessness.

What is important to remember is that women’s homelessness seems to affect some categories for women more than others. It impacts many vulnerable groups, including single mothers, Indigenous women, women with disabilities, women with mental health & addiction issues, racialized women, members of the LGBTQ population, and women with precarious immigration status. These groups are more likely to be at risk in the future as women are now Canada’s fastest growing homeless population. Even more concerning is that the majority of women’s homelessness is “hidden”.

Because of the great safety risk women face living on the streets, women are far more likely to resort to “hidden homelessness”. This can include couch-surfing with friends, staying with exploitative and abusive relatives, spending time in a shelter, or continuing to stay with an abusive partner. That women in these situations are homeless is often not recognized, and, as a result, women are greatly under-counted.

As a result, women are greatly under-counted in the homeless population and services are underfunded.

The phenomenon of increased women’s homelessness and economic inequality is not likely to change without rapid, comprehensive action from every level of government. This is an issue that impacts Canadian women, or status: Every year, 75,000-100,000 women and children leave their homes for the temporary safety of a shelter for abused women. 42% of homeless girls in Vancouver were First Nation, Métis or Inuit- a rate 10 times their representation in the general population. 55% of homeless women in Toronto have a mental health diagnosis, at double the rate of homeless men.

Our system for dealing with the homelessness of women and girls homelessness in Canada needs to change.

To combat this issue, YWCA Canada has created Homes for Women, a national campaign to prevent, reduce, and ultimately end the homelessness of women and girls in Canada.  YWCA Canada believes individuals and governments, community groups and corporations, trade unions and local leaders can all take meaningful action that prevents and reduces women’s homelessness. Some of the important policies the Homes for Women advocates include:

• A minimum wage that generates an income beyond the poverty level- women account for 70% of part-time employees and two-thirds of Canadians working for minimum wage.
• A National Housing Strategy that takes into account the causes of women and girls’ homelessness and responds appropriately
• Addressing Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women is intimately connected to ensuring every woman and girl has a safe place to live. The Native Women’s Association of Canada has been collecting signatures on an inquiry.
•  The adoption of by-laws that stimulate the building of affordable housing- such as requiring affordable housing units within all housing projects and providing relief on development charges and property taxes for builders who guarantee long term affordable rents.

If you believe women have the right to a safe, secure home, please sign YWCA Canada’s national pledge to end women’s homelessness Sign the Pledge and consider donating to this important cause.