Canadian Feminism

Posted on | April 17, 2015 | 95 Comments

Just when you think feminists cannot possibly get any crazier, they always surprise you. “A.J. Withers is a queer, trans, disabled anti-poverty organizer based in Toronto,” we are told in . . . its biography at Everyday Feminism, where it has a column with this ponderous headline:

How Disablist Western Ideas of ‘Self-Determination’
Undermine Social Justice and 5 Ways to Make It Right

This article is full of bizarre gibberish:

As a trans person who takes hormones and has had surgery, my ability to direct what happens to my body is essential.
As a survivor of sexual assault, I think it is absolutely vital that people’s bodily autonomy and consent always be respected.
As a disabled person who has had care collectives help me meet my basic needs, it has been crucial that I be able to direct my care while maintaining my own autonomy.
But I am also White and a settler living on unceded land.
My first site of concern with respect to self-determination being embraced as a political ideal is that self-determination is being co-opted from Indigenous struggles. . . .

Withers is a “settler” on the “unceded land” of Toronto, a city of 2.5 million people. Are there any “Indigenous struggles” in the vicinity? How does Withers being queer, transgender and disabled relate to the “self-determination” of the “Indigenous”?

I am using the term Indigenous in an anti-colonial context and want to be clear that I am not saying that all Indigenous people or cultures are the same.
Colonialism works . . . to construct a “pan-Indian cultural identity rooted in a timeless mythic past.”
In speaking about Indigenous people and struggles here, I do so with the understanding that there is profound diversity within and between Indigenous communities and nations.
Consistently, however, within the context of Indigenous struggle, self-determination is a national determination — a collective determination not an individualistic one.
In many Indigenous world views, the individual is not a rugged self-made individual, but emerges in and through community. . . .

You can attempt to read the whole thing, but trust me, the rest of it is no more coherent than that. One wonders what purpose is served by the publication of such stuff. Who is the intended readership? Is there any sizable number of Canadians who get excited about this? “Never mind the hockey scores, Jacques, let’s see what A.J. Withers has to say today about the self-determination of Indigenous peoples.”

My general contempt for all things Canadian is exceeded only by my contempt for feminism. Combining the two — Canadian feminism — is intellectually toxic. Feminist theory is the opposite of education: The more of it you read, the more ignorant you become.

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Category: Canada, Feminism

Comments

95 Responses to “Canadian Feminism”

Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 17th, 2015 @ 9:32 am

Does the cold up north disable people’s minds?
RS
April 17th, 2015 @ 10:03 am

Why is it that those who scream the loudest about “self-determination,” always see collectivism and a “top down” government order as the solution?

As for the “indigenous” bit, I now retell my favorite story about the marvelous indigenous cultures which Europeans destroyed upon coming this continent.

Some years ago, I attended an exhibit of “Plains Indian Art” at our local art museum. I happened to be standing next to a woman who was pontificating about how horrible it was that Europeans obliterated the marvelous “horse culture” of the plains tribes. I looked at the artwork. Moccasins and dresses embroidered with glass beads depicting said horses and warriors on the hunt for bison. I couldn’t help myself. I turned to her and said, “The artwork is due to beads traded for beaver pelts by French traders. Those horses came from the Spanish. That marvelous horse culture was facilitated and created by Europeans.”

It was then I learned the meaning of the phrase, “if looks could kill.”
Daniel Freeman
April 17th, 2015 @ 10:04 am

As bad as the SJWs are here, they really have a stranglehold on the universities and politics in Canada, with the possible exception of Quebec. It is no coincidence that Canada is also home to a disproportionate number of the most active and effective MRAs; when there is nowhere left to retreat to, regular folks stand up and fight, and some of them discover hidden talents for fighting.
physicsnut
April 17th, 2015 @ 10:12 am

in case you are interested
WBAI has been broadcasting this Bizarre Gibberish – for the past week – a reparations conference, and some aboriginal gab fest
not to mention the usual permutations and combinations of weirdness.
you might think nobody listens to this stuff – but all the radicals do
and then they go out and organize demonstrations and get with UN-NGO conferences.
Adobe_Walls
April 17th, 2015 @ 10:16 am

This is acerbated by the lack of understanding that the Mason Dixon line is actually the arctic circle.

noun
1. an imaginary line drawn parallel to the equator, S of the North Pole: [imaginary and erroneous latitude number deleted for clarity] between the North Frigid Zone and the NorthTemperate Zone.
Quartermaster
April 17th, 2015 @ 10:23 am

I like doing that sort of thing myself. If I’m not doing it, I love watching some one else do it. It brings much pleasure seeing PC brought low by the facts.
Quartermaster
April 17th, 2015 @ 10:25 am

For those bearing the SJW gene, yes.
Blazingcatfur
April 17th, 2015 @ 10:26 am

I live in Toronto, This is the Premier of Our Province, Kathleen Wynne, on the left, blue dress, with her partner what’s her name…

That may or may not be her Cabinet members surrounding her.
K-Bob
April 17th, 2015 @ 10:39 am

The noble savage. Why couldn’t we have just left the perfection of nature alone?

(Spoken in a whiny voice, naturally)

We could still be subsisting on a diet of mashed acorns and dried fish, if we only had repelled those awful Europeans.
Mike Caputo
April 17th, 2015 @ 10:49 am

HA! Makes me think of that protest where people went around and got leftbots to sign a petition against “dihydrogen monoxide”.
K-Bob
April 17th, 2015 @ 10:56 am

I like visiting Canada. I want to get out to the Vancouver/Calgary area someday. Also if you ever get the chance to take in a weekend in Stratford in Ontario, especially in mid-Spring, that’s a very cool thing to do. We used to take the kids every couple of years. Did the whole backstage tour thing with them.

Also, a lot of science fiction and comic book hero television series have been made out near Vancouver.

For geology fans, spend some time with Google Satellite/Earth view looking at the continuation of great lakes from Lake Superior all the way toward Alaska. It’s amazing how many big-ass lakes they have. (Look at it now, while you can. The coming Ice Age will have them all under a mile of glacier. Probably Tuesday, according to my Model.)
Cajun Exile
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:02 am

A story on Canadian feminism and there is not one “beaver” joke in the article or the comments…what dull world this can be at times…
infadelicious
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:11 am

I used to live in Canada, if you wanted a beaver joke, all ya had to do was axe, Cajun……………… snicker……
Finrod Felagund
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:14 am

I grew up in the Midwest and I find people from Wisconsin a bit odd; after all, they call drinking fountains “bubblers”.
Finrod Felagund
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:17 am

With some people, exposing them to the truth actually causes them physical pain.
texlovera
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:17 am

Now that is a brain-damaged f*ckwit.

Also, there are no “indigenous” people in North America. They all came from other continents millenia ago.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:31 am

If you listen closely to the heads of most leftists, they make a bubbling sound too.
Cajun Exile
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:36 am

InfaD..making the world a brighter place…one post a time…
Kathy Prendergast
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:37 am

Love the way he / she / it casually mentions having had “care collectives to help me meet my basic needs” as a disabled person…care collectives mean professional community health workers that go to people’s homes to feed, wash, cook for, clean up after, provide medication, physiotherapy, clean house, etc. paid for entirely by the Canadian taxpayer. Entitled and ungrateful care recipients like this should really spend a day living as disabled people in the Third World, or in that mythical “pre-colonial” past; perhaps then they would bitch less about the need to “direct my care” or “maintain autonomy”, whatever the hell that means.
Moon Metropolis
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:37 am

I’d say the top 5 most SJW countries, in order, are:

1. Sweden

2. United Kingdom

3. Australia

4. Canada

5. Germany

In Canada and Australia, SJWs see indigenous people as pets. In Australia, white leftists actually refer to indigenous people who disagree with them as “coconuts”: brown on the outside, white on the inside. It’s basically the SJW way of saying “know your place, nigger”.
Kathy Prendergast
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:41 am

Perhaps we should try a petition complaining that there is too much H2O in our drinking water and that government should take action on this immediately; it would be interesting to see how many people sign…
Kathy Prendergast
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:59 am

Similar issue with the beautiful Cowichan sweaters the indigenous Coast Salish people of the West Coast where I live are famous for…you do not dare mention that there is nothing truly “indigenous” about them except some of the designs; the craft of knitting was introduced by European settlers, along with sheep wool (West Coast natives didn’t use the fibre; they made cloth from woven cedar bark which was actually amazingly warm and durable, and sometimes spun wool yarn from dog hair but it was woven, not knitted), and even the technique of knitting patterns into the fabric was based on traditional Scottish “Fair Isle” knitting; most of the patterns used in these sweaters actually come from Scotland. They incorporated some traditional patterns of their own into some of these sweaters, eg. the raven or thunderbird motif, but not all of them. And knitted, zippered sweater-jackets were never seen at all before the 20th Century, when this craft started as a way for Coast Salish women to make some extra money working at home. Now some people are outraged that these sweaters are being manufactured overseas by non-indigenous persons, then exported to Canada where tourists can buy them for less than half the price of the locally-made ones. Personally I totally believe in supporting local industries and these imported sweaters are usually shoddily-made rubbish, but if tourists or others don’t really care where they’re made or who by, what can you do? It can hardly be called “cultural appropriation” when they would never have been making these at all if the Europeans hadn’t introduced the materials and the techniques.
BobSmith101
April 17th, 2015 @ 12:01 pm

When brainwashed, progressive, faux intellectuals, take too many “identity” studies classes and have too much time on their hands, what do you get?

Gender bending, PC speak, victim-hood on steroids.
Daniel Freeman
April 17th, 2015 @ 12:03 pm

Season 1, Episode 1 of “The Man Show” included a bit about petitioning to end women’s suffrage. (Skip to about 14:00.)
K-Bob
April 17th, 2015 @ 12:23 pm

If you go to Cherokee, North Carolina, a lot of the tourist shops feature indian themed crap that has nothing to do with Cherokee people. Most of it made in China, of course.

If you visit the reservation, the more authentic stuff will set you back a huge chunk of change. But even so, most of that is modern art, made with modern tools.

I remember the most amazing thing about the village tour was these massive rhododendron trees that made a huge canopy overhead. They were centuries old. I didn’t think they got beyond shrubbery size.
Ken
April 17th, 2015 @ 1:02 pm

Hey folks, you elected an SJW for president. Twice. So there’s that ok?
Quartermaster
April 17th, 2015 @ 1:20 pm

SJWs are some of the biggest racists around.
Mike Caputo
April 17th, 2015 @ 1:20 pm

That’s right, I had forgotten about that!
Quartermaster
April 17th, 2015 @ 1:21 pm

If you get into the woods around here you will encounter patches of rhododendron many acres in size. The original settlers called them “hells” for good reason.

You’re right about the tourist traps. I like the ones selling fudge and will often stop at one when I’m around about Cherokee on my duties. Peanut Butter and Maple Walnut are my favorites.
Quartermaster
April 17th, 2015 @ 1:23 pm

Or the petitions to end “Women’s Suffrage.”
Daniel Freeman
April 17th, 2015 @ 1:26 pm

I’m not so sure about the #5 slot. Spain could easily pick that up just with the rampant jailing of fathers and denial of their parental rights (supported by a special office), and India has a rapidly growing problem due to how smoothly feminism’s elitism meshes with their caste system. I haven’t heard a lot out of Germany.
M. Thompson
April 17th, 2015 @ 1:54 pm

GPA redistribution.
K-Bob
April 17th, 2015 @ 2:01 pm

Oh yeah, I know what you mean. We used to camp in the Blue Ridge and Smoky mountains a lot when I was a kid. You could see those patches from the highway easily when the leaves were off the big trees. But the ones in the Cherokee Village are as big as full-grown scotch pine. You can walk under them with no trouble.

Wisteria is like that, too. I have a wisteria patch that started out as about three smallish shrubs behind an ornamental fence. That was forty years ago. It’s gotten to be about a quarter acre now and needs drastic cutting back. I just don’t get many hours to do that kind of work, because I always have downed trees and branches to deal with.

What I need is a new tractor.
JadedByPolitics
April 17th, 2015 @ 2:02 pm

“Just when you think feminists cannot possibly get any crazier”

I never do that, I expect ever more insanity as they devolve in the depths of their depravity as the tide turns against them.
andycanuck
April 17th, 2015 @ 2:24 pm

No, because the same views are held in California and NYC by the right-thinking people. The cold part may affect Chicago though.
andycanuck
April 17th, 2015 @ 2:25 pm

Natives also don’t mind using that other white-man’s invention, the wheel.
andycanuck
April 17th, 2015 @ 2:28 pm

That’s very interesting, Kathy. (No sarc.)
andycanuck
April 17th, 2015 @ 2:36 pm

No Global Warming is going to make them all evaporate!
;^)
K-Bob
April 17th, 2015 @ 2:45 pm

Heh. Or that. The model can be hard to read sometimes.
M. Thompson
April 17th, 2015 @ 2:54 pm

They are at least her natural constituents.
RS
April 17th, 2015 @ 2:58 pm

I normally ignore stupidity. Sanctimonious stupidity is another thing entirely.
Daniel Freeman
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:00 pm

Cults double down when their worldview is threatened, to reinforce each other through social proof. Straight out of Influence by Cialdini.
OrangeEnt
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:22 pm

“Entitled and ungrateful care recipients like this should really spend a
day living as disabled people in the Third World, or in that mythical
“pre-colonial” past; perhaps then they would bitch less….”

They sure would bitch less, they’d be dead. Left out in the cold to starve or for the wild animals to tear apart.
The original Mr. X
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:25 pm

Didn’t they do a similar one recently demanding compulsory health warnings for food with DNA in it?
The original Mr. X
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:28 pm

Strictly speaking, the wheel originated in Sumeria, so it’s probably more of a pale brownish man’s invention.
Wombat_socho
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:38 pm

…
concern00
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:38 pm

We really have to worry about that oxygen component since it makes a double contribution to the world’s most vilified gas.
dance...dancetotheradio
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:41 pm

‘My general contempt for all things Canadian’
Hey, I’m Canadian and I voted for a Conservative Prime Minister.
You guys voted Obama into office, twice.
Clean up your own backyard before you start slagging mine.
DeadMessenger
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:42 pm

Yeah, but on the plus side, they make good hotdish.
dance...dancetotheradio
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:44 pm

Yeah, but we ran with it.
They are still living in dust.