Life beyond the sexual binary
In this issue, Briarpatch embarks on a decidedly anti-essentialist exploration of gender politics, covering everything from feminist homeschooling to feminist porn to partiarchy’s harmful effects on men’s health. Grounding our analysis in a revolutionary feminist approach that seeks to involve people from across the gender spectrum in this discussion, this issue challenges all our readers to take responsibility for their gender politics.
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Strange bedfellows
What on earth is feminist porn, anyway? In an effort to answer that question, I tracked down Chanelle Gallant, the former manager of Good For Her and founder of the Feminist Porn Awards.
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Finding his better half
Men’s social conditioning takes a tremendous toll on not just their relationships, but also on their health. Those who want this to change, Calvin Sandborn argues, will have to come to terms with the concept of patriarchy-and with their own emotions.
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Criminalizing the sex trade does sex workers no favours
At some point in one’s life, every adult human being is valued for an isolated skill, talent, or personality trait—and compensated summarily. Most of the time, it’s called “gainful employment.” But if you happen to work in the sex industry, it’s often called “objectification”: a loaded term with unpleasant—and sometimes unfair—associations.
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A heroine’s herstory
One of the most remarkable progressive figures of the 19th century was a woman named Harriet Tubman.
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Warlords to the left of me, druglords to the right
Malalai Joya, 29, is a popular women’s rights activist and an outspoken critic of the government of Hamid Karzai and the Northern Alliance.
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What progress for Afghan women?
Today Afghan women are ranked by Human Rights Watch as “among the world’s worst off” by most indicators of social, economic, and political status. What happened? And has the U.S. invasion and NATO occupation improved the situation, or made it worse?
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Letter from the editor
Briarpatch always seeks to connect theory and practice in its coverage, but in my experience, there is no issue that is at once so theoretical and so practical, so simultaneously personal and political, as gender.
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Won’t get schooled agaiin
A vocal minority of home-schoolers are progressives, even radicals, who home-school as a way to offer their children the freedom to explore their intellectual interests and to express themselves in a loving, nurturing environment. -
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“Any Indian woman marrying any other than an Indian, shall cease to be Indian.”
In June 2007, following generations of non-recognition, and 16 years of intensely personal battles with bureaucrats, governments, and the justice system, Sharon McIvor, a member of the Lower Nicola First Nation, successfully challenged sex discrimination in the Indian Act in British Columbia’s Supreme Court.