Marginal Notes

Get These Motherfuckin' Pets Off This Motherfuckin' Plane

This issue has raised controversy on my Facebook page, so I thought I'd bring it to the blog.

 As reported by the Edmonton Sun, Canada's two major airlines are now allowing pets in the cabins of planes which likely will eliminate air travel as an option for people with severe allergies and other health issues:

Karen Petcoff doesn't want to think about being on the same airplane as a cat.

  The Scarborough, Ont., mom, whose 16-year-old daughter Gillian also suffers from asthma, is looking at booking a trip to Vancouver this summer but her asthma and severe allergy to felines means she is too scared to book with WestJet or Air Canada.

"Within minutes, my chest will tighten up and I find it difficult to breathe," said Petcoff, 47, describing what happens if she happens to be anywhere near a cat or even a cat owner with cat dander on their clothes.

Air Canada recently announced it would allow pets in the cabin areas of flights.

The policy took effect on Canada Day. WestJet also allows pets in cabins.

The pet-friendly airlines have allergy sufferers like Petcoff shaking their heads and health advocacy groups like the Canadian Lung Association stepping up their public relations battle against the pets-on-board policies.

Yesterday the Canadian Lung Association launched its online campaign to get the airlines to reconsider allowing pets in the cabins.

The association is calling on Canadians to pressure Parliament to take action and rule that pets should only be allowed to be transported in heated, pressurized luggage compartments of planes.

According to the association, airline passengers who suffer from severe allergies to pets, asthma or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease would be at risk of having their attacks triggered by pets in the passenger cabins.

  According to the association, it's possible the animals on planes could trigger a potentially fatal attack in asthma sufferers.

"Profit is taking a front seat and public health is taking a back seat," said spokesman Cameron Bishop.

"From our perspective you don't have to trade one off for the other."

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzgerald said many airlines around the world allow pets in cabins and Air Canada will do whatever it can to accommodate passengers with allergies.

When I was a little kid, I had to miss almost every birthday party because my friends had pets. The couple of times that my parents gave in, I ended up in the hospital for weeks. Still, I got to see Disneyland and later the countries that my parents came from.

I have had my chance to see parts of the world, but there are so many sick kids out there who will not be able to travel by air if pets are allowed in cabins. Do these kids who regularly go for allergy shots, blood infusions, and other rough treatments not deserve a nice trip?

Would you deny a sick kid a trip to Disneyland?!

Please send an email prepared by The Canadian Lung Association asking the federal government to disallow pets on planes.

Link:

Say No To Pets on Planes!

I will kill the campus pro-lifers and eat their hearts...

...then you can burn me on a stake and resume the witch hunts.

The pro-life campus club raises its ugly head each year. This year, students and staff are being treated to a lovely display of large signs with graphic images comparing abortion to genocides such as the Holocaust or Rwanda; it is titled the Genocide Awareness Project.

The U of C agreed to the display as long as the signs were faced inward in a circle. One pro-lifer whines to the news that this suppression of freedom of speech is akin to making Black people sit at the back of the bus.

Ugh.

Nigel Hannaford of the Calgary Herald joins the chorus of whining:

For, as on the other five times in the past three years, the U of C is doing everything it can to discourage it. Why?

Who knows? It's no good asking the U. of C. comm people, who, having released a carefully worded statement a week ago, announced yesterday that's all they're saying.

The closest the university came to explaining itself was that it "is taking steps to limit the risk of a confrontation on campus,"which seems a tad disingenuous. If it's a riot they're worried about, it didn't happen the first five times --unless you call some heated arguments a riot--so why would it expect one Wednesday, when the pro-life kids want to set up their display? And if someone did start throwing the exhibits around, who should be restrained --that person, or the people with the display?

Let's just forget that these photos are a manifestation of hatred against women; may revictimize some women; remind women of the active oppression that we face as well as our history of social control, oppression and GENOCIDE also known as a the witch hunts. (Hey, weren't those led by the morally righteous too?!)

But, seriously, let's forget all of that.

I promise to kill the pro-lifers and eat their hearts. Now, the U of C has a legitimate fear of a riot; the pro-lifers can crawl back to their altars; and we can all get on with the very busy end of semester.

Amen.

Links:

'U of C Pro-Life Activists Risk Penalties' by Sarah McGinnis via the Calgary Herald

'U of C Should Say What It Really Fears from Pro-Life' by Nigel Hannaford via the Calgary Herald

Fertile 4 Ever

When I go to bed tonight, will I dream of my giant unborn baby? She weighs on my mind more and more these days. I can hear her calling me: "MAMA!" She needs to be fed. She needs to be clothed. She needs to be bathed and rocked and tucked in to sleep. She needs rides to piano practice. She needs to go back-to-school shopping. She needs help with math and social studies. She is a big bloody financial drain and pain-in-the-ass who won't stop yelling: "I need to be born!"

I yell at her, "Shut the hell up. I'll have you when I can. What do you expect? I'm in grad school. I'm broke. I have yet to secure a father for the love of Jesus. I'll have you when I have you."

Or, maybe I won't.

The only sure thing is that this issue will always be in-my-face, from Addison's lone egg on Grey's Anatomy to a weeping Jennifer in Juno to Tina Fey's search for her Baby Mama.

According to 'Beating the Biological Clock', the issue became more in-your-face of American women in 2001 when the American Society for Reproductive Medicine launched PSAs on the sides of buses:

As you read this, women in Seattle, Chicago and New York are being reminded that they are not getting any younger every time a bus goes by bearing an ad declaring: "Advancing Age Decreases Your Ability to Have Children. Infertility is a disease affecting 6.1 million people in the United States." And in case the No. 6 whizzes by too fast to read the text, it's hard to miss the eerie graphic -- an upside-down baby bottle shaped like an hourglass.

Yes, Virginia, women in their 30s and 40s are likely to have a harder time conceiving and bearing children than their younger counterparts. That is the primary message of an information campaign launched this month by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). The medical group has also created ads about the risks associated with weight, smoking and sexually-transmitted disease, along with a companion website, www.protectyourfertility.org.

But the focus on these other risk factors seems like little more than padding around the very loaded issue of the biological clock. Already, the campaign has been covered by the Today show, National Public Radio, the Los Angeles Times, and, most alarmingly as a Newsweek cover story bearing the headline, "Should You Have Your Baby Now?"

The funny thing is, this is not a society where women are out of tune with their ticking. Even Rachel on Friends dumped her adorable 24-year-old boyfriend when she hit 30 last season. Time to stop fooling around, she lamented, and get down to the very serious business of finding the Father of Her Children. The storyline (unlike most elements of the wildly popular sitcom) was actually quite plausible. So, one has to ask: What makes a group of fertility doctors think women need to be reminded of something they can't seem to get off their minds?

For those who are single, or in uncommitted relationships, hitting 30 has become one of our culture's continental divides. On the twentysomething side, women are reassured that they have plenty of time to worry about settling down and starting a family. Pass 30, and the reminders are everywhere that it's one big downhill slide toward biological irrelevance.

Alarmed by the growing number of women seeking their services, the fertility doctors say they fear that science is viewed as a reproductive safety net in today's society. Features about older celebrity moms and tales of medically fostered triplets and quintuplets have grown commonplace. But the flip side of these technological triumphs is rarely newsworthy: Approximately one in three women over 35 trying to conceive will have trouble with her fertility.

Talk to women of childbearing age, and it's hard to figure out what is more frustrating -- this biological bind or the fact that a group of (mostly male) doctors feels compelled to remind them of it by way of bus-size ads.

"It irritates me that the whole conversation is about women," says Nancy Watzman, a 36-year-old Denver writer and researcher. "It's not that women are blameless, but how can we leave out men when we're talking about having children?"

Watzman, who was married this year and wants children, says she is "hyper-aware" of the need to get pregnant soon. As for waiting until her late 30s to begin a family, Watzman is like most of her educated, professional peers in that it was never an intentional plan. It is just how things worked out.

In a world where four-plus years of college is usually followed by many more of working to establish demanding careers, gain some financial security, and find the right partner, marriage and family are simply not in the picture for many twentysomething women. And even when it is, as Watzman says, "It's not like there are lots of 28-year-old guys out there chomping at the bit to reproduce."

...

Has more opportunity left women with fewer choices? "It scares the hell out of me when I think about trying to balance my job with motherhood," says Noelle DeBruhl, 38, whose job as a television editor routinely includes 60-hour weeks.

"Professional women have an untenable choice between their own drive and status gained through work, versus giving that up for the satisfaction of being with their kids," adds Haimes, who took off a year-and-a-half to be with her son.

"Everyone knows there is really no support for working mothers in this country," says DeBruhl. "I'd like to see a bus ad about that."

The fertility buzz goes on with articles ranging from advice on protecting your fertility to the blatant asking: "Hey Lady! What Will it Take to Make You Breed?".

Of course, while middle-class women in the so-called Global North are cheered on to breed, Western-backed NGOs teach women of the "Third World" so-called "family planning". 

Meanwhile, capitalists  salivate over the booming baby industrial complex. I can only imagine what "Extended Fertility" plans to make off of wannabe moms in the coming years with the implicit promise of fertility-for-life packaged neatly in its logo: an egg sporting the infinity sign.

 "Baby," I say. "I'm trying to have you, but not under the coercion of the State or at the hands of fertility profiteers...So, soon...Hang on and cross your fingers that your angry mama has a national child are program at her service by 2013."

Link:

'Beating the Biological Clock' by Christine Triano, Alternet

Related Entries:

"My Uterus is Not Another Territory for Conquer and Exploitation"

"Putting the "Care Crisis' on the Political Agenda"

Yo, Harper...Mama Said Knock You Out

Harper, you may be ready to remove equality from the government's mandate, but the women of Canada are not.

How can we take equality off of the mandate of Status of Women Canada when we have not even achieved the goals set out by the report of The Royal Commission on the Status of Women (RCSW) tabled in 1970?

You, along with your male predecessors, have benefited from a divide and conquer approach to women. While groups like REAL women blame feminists for the undervaluing of their role as caregivers, the RCSW in fact recommended the valuing of care work. Among the recommendations of the commission were:

• Women should be free to choose whether or not to take employment outside their homes
• The care of children is a responsibility to shared by the mother, the father, and society
• The relationship of unpaid work to the economy should be clarified and, perhaps, included in the Gross National Product (GNP)

We want are fucking equality! And, moreover, we want equity...meaning we want men to start taking on an equal share of caring responsibilities. In short, not only do we want to ensure that gains continue to be met in the "public sphere", we now want to turn attention to equality in the "private sphere".

You cannot take equality off the mandate without providing a rationale.

The time has come for a new commission to investigate the status of women in Canada. Just as the original RCSW had women across Canada submit briefs, we need to once again have a commission grounded in participatory democracy.

The women of Canada will decide when it is time to remove equality from the agenda.

Go visit Status Report to organize and mobilize.

Send your personal photo message to Harper via: [email protected]

Send an email to the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women and voice your concern that the Harper government is failing to meet Canada's commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action : [email protected]

Resources and Links:

O'Neill, B. (2003). The Royal Commission of the Status of Women: Looking Back, Looking Forward. Retrieved October 10, 2006 from http://www.uwc-wpg.mb.ca/royal_commission_talk.pdf

Timpson, A.M. (2001). Driven Apart: Women's Employment and Child Care in Canadian Public Policy. Vancouver: UBC Press.

Love is the Market and You are the Commodity

Calgary was featured in this week's Style section of The Globe and Mail.  One article features an interview with a woman who operates a matchmaking service in Calgary called CityMYX.

Now, I know that these executive matchmaking services are common in many cities, and not unique to Calgary.  But, I must say I am so worn out at seeing my charming hometown overrun with greed, greed, greed.

The article heralds women to come to Calgary as it is the "jackpot" when it comes to men.  How so?  Is it that the men in Calgary are particularly handsome, intelligent, creative, kind, or charming?  No.  Calgary is the jackpot when it comes to men because:

Calgary men have wealth (which they don't brag about), good careers (which they aren't married to) and a down-home quality (um, they're nice).

Wow.  Unmarried (to their work) and "nice" - that's really shooting for the stars.  Oh wait, let's not forget rich.

And, they are.  At least, the clients of CityMYX are rich with fees of$4200...rich or stupid.

Now, I can't quite figure out how a matchmaking service relates to style.  Perhaps, it is because the women seeking the service are told they need a style overhaul - that is so they look good for the parties in which people go to check out "the merchandise":

Managing people's expectations, she admits, is the hardest part of her job. "Many of my women think they are a 9 but they are a 4. I have to say to some of them, 'I think you need some image consulting.' It's not easy to say, but I have to give them feedback.

Or maybe, these days money is taken as the equivalent of style. 

Strange though how "style" can be so utterly tasteless.

Links:

Matchmaker, via the Globe and Mail

CityMYX - Your one-stop, self-proclaimed "gem digger" service

Sex Isn't Fun When You Feel Like His Mom

A recent survey found that women report feeling good from cleaning the house...with one third claiming that cleaning gives them more satisfaction than sex! 

As reported by The Independent,

Where 20 years ago housework was seen by many as a sign of female subjugation, the tide appears to have turned. Nearly six out of 10 (58 per cent) defended their role in the home and said they "felt depressed if their house was a mess", while 59 per cent said "untidiness and clutter made them feel tense".

Only a tiny minority of 4 per cent admitted to being averse to cleaning the home, saying that it was "a waste of time and effort".

The survey of 2,000 women found that cleaning chores featured higher on the average list of priorities than personal grooming - a woman spent two hours and 23 minutes cleaning and tidying, while only 52 minutes on personal appearance.

In spite of the feelgood factor around housework, 57 per cent of women admitted that cleaning exhausted them, particularly as 71 per cent also had a job.

One-third of all women claimed "cleaning gives them more satisfaction than sex".

I personally love cleaning my house - it does have the same benefits as other exercise.  I also believe maintaining a clean environment is part of self-care.  But, I hate cleaning up after other people.  One of my top ten reasons for dumping a guy is that he can't clean up after himself!

The one-third of the women who reported that cleaning gave them more satisfaction than sex?  My hunch is that they are probably partnered with slobs that they have to clean up after.  And, quite simply, sex isn't fun when you feel like his mom.

For a more considered analysis of the survey see Jess McCabe's Domestic Drudgery or Domestic Bliss? over at the F-Word.

Links:

Domestic Drudgery or Domestic Bliss?, Jess McCabe at F-Word
Women Find Chores are 'Therapeutic', The Independent Online Edition

Polly on Porn

Laura Barcella of AlterNet reports that the owner of SuicideGirls is being heavily criticized by his own models, and many have walked away from the company.

She writes,

Dia," a former Suicide Girl who is now a California businesswoman, describes Suhl as "verbally abusive" to SG models. She tells the Phoenix, "[SG is] exploitation to women, and abusive… because it lures women in with a marketing scheme that purports feminism, when in actuality the sole owner of the company is an active misogynist.

What blows my mind is that women have signed away rights to their pictures for only 300 bucks.  Are you kidding me?  This supposedly "empowering" site is run by a man???

I think there may be good things about the whole idea of SuicideGirls: challenging the traditional notions of beauty, normalizing sex, etc.  I want to think that women should do whatever they want with their bodies...But, come on - Organize your own site and control the resources!  Better yet decide to play the subject, instead of the object, and make your own porn!  Got any ideas?

Maybe then, the Liberal party's "blogging liaison" wouldn't describe cyberspace as the place "where no one can hear you scream... because they're too busy looking at naked ladies."

....We'll all be too busy looking at naked men.

Two Can Play At That Game

Sometimes, things really piss me off,

   

and I have to let the anger out...

                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                        

The Calgary Downtown Association: Smells like Corporate Spirit

The Calgary Downtown Association launched its new campaign against panhandling earlier this week.

I myself am sick and tired of people describing themselves as "professionals" and acting like they're immune from life's problems.  The downtown professionals have addictions too...They just get drunk with their pals after work and then cab it home.  Their addictions are simply less visible.

Are we supposed to believe that addictions are the reason people are on the streets?  I wonder if the constant stigma facing the poor and the mentally ill has anything to do with it!

This type of "downtown" mentality is truly stupid and contagious.