Sunday is International Women’s Day. As women here fight for gender equality and safety from sexual violence and harassment, a global uproar begins over a documentary about the Delhi Rape and the broader issue of how women are treated in India
By Sonia Verma
#MakeItHappen
Sunday March 8 is International Women’s Day. This year’s theme is #MakeItHappen, with #it being a push for gender equality. On that note . . .
Delhi rapist documentary
It’s only been a few days since a new documentary about the 2012 Delhi gang rape was released. It’s going to be aired on CBC Sunday night. It prominently features a man convicted in the brutal, repeated rape and beating of young Jyoti Singh that night. He is unrepentant, saying she asked for it. His defence lawyers, like so many people in Indian culture, say a woman who goes out with a man, a woman who displays any independence in her thoughts or movement, deserves to be put in her place. That Singh would not have been effectively raped and beaten to death if she had just submitted to the repeated violation instead of resisting.
The film is banned in India — not because it gives a rapist and his defence a platform to blame the victim. It is banned because it offends the nation’s “honour.” CBC’s The Current airs a must-listen interview on the subject.
#WhoWillYouHelp
Closer to home, Ontario’s government releases its new action plan on sexual violence and workplace harassment. Whatever your views on the politics, the promotional video makes one clear point: If you witness an act of sexual violence or harassment and don’t speak up, you are helping and even enabling the perpetrator. If you do speak up, you could help prevent it happening again.
Cover photo from OnGov on YouTube
11-year-old Christian Grey
You’ve probably seen the meme about 50 Shades of Grey, the one that shows a trailer and says the film “. . . is only a romance because the guy is a billionaire. If he was living in a trailer it would be a Criminal Minds episode.”
An 11-year-old in the U.K. was sent home after donning a Christian Grey costume, including cable ties and an eye mask, for a literary-themed dress-up day at school.
photo by Nicole Scholes on Twitter
A balanced look at reservations about sex-ed curriculum
Rebecca Cuneo Keenan presents a smart, balanced piece on opposition to Ontario’s new sexual education curriculum, which has been making waves since it was released last week.
“Opponents of the changes are often framed as right-wing caricatures screaming about another Liberal attack on family values. But despite those catchy sound bites, I suspected that the resistance to the curriculum was more nuanced than it first appeared. I decided to talk to some of those parents to try to understand their hesitations,” she writes for the Globe and Mail.
It’s great that Ontario plans to teach our kids better and equip them to make better decisions. It’s also great that parents have questions. That’s our job. To push and push and push for what we think is best for our kids. Sometimes we’re right; sometimes we’re wrong. Sometimes it’s not black and white.
I’m in favour of the new curriculum, but I can’t fault anyone who has questions about what their child will be learning about sex and his or her own body.
