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”

infadelicious
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:44 pm

LOL. I think I started something bad here — I blame Cajun Exile – he’s the instigator – he’s the one who wanted the DAM beaver jokes
infadelicious
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:45 pm

Btw awesome avatar
DeadMessenger
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:48 pm

Maybe you need to go to The Beer Store and pick up some Molson, then go home and take a rest, guy.
dance...dancetotheradio
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:50 pm

The English kicked the Cajuns, actually Acadians, out of Canada because they were traitors.
DeadMessenger
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:54 pm

Huh. Interesting. K-Bob, it’s so unlike you to share esoteric botanical details.
Cajun Exile
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:57 pm

Traitor was not exactly the right word. The English kicked them out be cause they would not swear allegiance to the King of England. Not exactly the same thing.
dance...dancetotheradio
April 17th, 2015 @ 3:57 pm

I went to the Vendor and picked up some Lucky, buddy.
American Moonbats cornered the market on Moonbattery.
Pelosi
Cajun Exile
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:01 pm

It’s….(wait for it)….Bush’s Fault!
DeadMessenger
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:02 pm

I’d like to see a list of countries where people are most likely to say “screw you, hippie” or “shut your pie-hole, treehugger”. So if I take a vaycay, I can be around my peeps.
DeadMessenger
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:04 pm

Might be the cast of “Mars Attacks – The Musical”.
infadelicious
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:04 pm

Ok that was bad!!! LOL
INFA PJ4
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:15 pm

Why do you always talk about him?
INFA PJ4
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:15 pm

hola amigo!
INFA PJ4
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:16 pm

dam!
K-Bob
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:20 pm

Well, this is more of a military/true detective blog or something, so I tend to keep my horticultural past to myself.
Cajun Exile
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:20 pm

Talk about who? I was employing a variation on the beaver euphemism….where you been Sherlock? Under a rock?

Infadela=blah blah blah=blah bla=blah=INFA PJ4
infadelicious
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:23 pm

Yep it’s a troll and a really stupid one at that
Petey
April 17th, 2015 @ 4:36 pm

Vancouver/Calgary AREA?!

Yeah, just an hour’s drive. Pack a couple of sandwiches.
RS
April 17th, 2015 @ 5:02 pm

I’ll give the Sumerians the wheel. We, however, invented the V-8.
RS
April 17th, 2015 @ 5:04 pm

The Canadian Rockies are fantastic. Banff and Jasper are worth at least a couple of weeks.
The original Mr. X
April 17th, 2015 @ 5:12 pm

Either way, the Sumerians weren’t North American, so it’s still cultural appropriation.
Zohydro
April 17th, 2015 @ 5:50 pm

Hear tell there’s a recurring “gardening thread” on another blog…
I denounce myself.
Susan
April 17th, 2015 @ 5:56 pm

A first nations person told me that AJ, a member of and former employee of the anarcho-marxist Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, was their liaison in Caledonia Ontario, when native radicals seized a real estate development as their own a number of years back.

AJ sent there to support the “warriors” was spouting this looney stuff and complaining about the misogyny of the men so much AJ was ordered never to come back.

This is what you get when you close most of the long term live-in psychiatric facilities thinking it is more humane “to house them in the community”. And I don’t consider the Ontario Institute for the Study of Education where many of these looney so-called academics hang out to be housing as it is the Faculty of Education for the University of Toronto.
andycanuck
April 17th, 2015 @ 5:59 pm

Okay, as long as you don’t go all Black Athena on me!
Zohydro
April 17th, 2015 @ 6:28 pm

I’d stuff it…

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWfbIe4X_4
M. Thompson
April 17th, 2015 @ 6:49 pm

Ya sure, you betcha!
RS
April 17th, 2015 @ 7:29 pm

Now you two have done it. I flashed on having to read Evangeline in 7th grade.
Mike G.
April 17th, 2015 @ 9:51 pm

Y’all ought to have to hack through one of those Mtn Laurel or Rhododendron thickets to lay out a house site with wood stakes and engineer’s tape without hurting the shrubs too much…(in case the owner doesn’t like the placement.) That includes setting up a transit to turn the corners and pulling offsets.

And don’t get me started on the Briars and Fox Grape vines.
dance...dancetotheradio
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:24 pm

We are the perfection of nature.
K-Bob
April 17th, 2015 @ 11:31 pm

Well, I hope it was at least nice and hot.
K-Bob
April 18th, 2015 @ 12:18 am

It’s not the High Times blog is it?
K-Bob
April 18th, 2015 @ 12:23 am

Oh yeah. You see pics of Lake Louise and you just want to eat it like a gigantic dessert.
K-Bob
April 18th, 2015 @ 12:50 am

If I were planning a trip that far west, I’d be gone long enough to visit Calgary (probably a lodge at Banff, really), Vancouver, and Seattle.

I’m not going to hump my butt that far and just stay in one place.

Now when I was in Australia, people asked me If I got over to New Zealand, because “they’re so close.” Now *there* I’d agree with your point. NZ is like a thousand miles or so away from Melbourne, AU.
RS
April 18th, 2015 @ 7:24 am

The problem with Lake Louise is that they stuck a multistory hotel right next to the lake. It sort of takes the wilderness feel away for me, but to each his own.
Britt McHenry Career Meltdown Rule 5 | Batshit Crazy News
April 18th, 2015 @ 9:12 am

[…] for her majesty Hillary Clinton… Hillary would probably like her on her staff… TOM: Feminism is inherently crazy. and Special snowflakes are not limited to the female […]
Daniel Matuska
April 18th, 2015 @ 10:47 am

You’re a riot, I always enjoy your posts!
dance...dancetotheradio
April 18th, 2015 @ 11:18 am

Canada.
I changed my email prompt to screw you hippie.
I hate hippies.
And hipster douche bags.
infadelicious
April 18th, 2015 @ 12:13 pm

Laughter is the crazy glue that will hold us together for the next two years 🙂
K-Bob
April 18th, 2015 @ 2:58 pm

I think wilderness areas are important, as long as the urge to create them or set them aside doesn’t go overboard. People in cities need to be able to see what open country is like.

But a lot of us live in places that look a lot like wilderness, and aren’t so impressed with a lack of man-made structures.

I’m most impressed when the structures that are there are designed to blend in.
RS
April 18th, 2015 @ 8:43 pm

You decide.
Daniel Freeman
April 18th, 2015 @ 10:23 pm

That practically screams “my brother-in-law is on the land use commission.”
The Daley Gator | Your Weekend Wrap Up, Link-a-Round, and Best of the Blogs all in one
April 19th, 2015 @ 7:54 am

[…] The Other McCain: Canadian Feminism? […]
K-Bob
April 19th, 2015 @ 2:12 pm

That’s the one I figured you meant. Actually a nice looking building.
Daniel Freeman
April 19th, 2015 @ 3:34 pm

Speaking of Canadian feminism: Calgary Expo censors The Honey Badger Brigade’s anti-censorship message
Mistral
April 20th, 2015 @ 11:45 pm

I thought it sounds more like the ocean…like with an empty shell….