Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)

Anishnawbe Health Toronto-Street Patrol,  

Caring for Our Homeless: Keep the Circle Strong

Hamilton, Cynthia

The Loss of Community and Women's Space

Ritchie, Elisavietta

ELISAVIETTA RITCHIE
Selections from the poem sequence,
Wild Garlic
Incident
Indeed a model women's prison.
Like a college dormitory newly built
by rich alumni in a tree-lined town,
windows you can see out, open this
mild day except: behind a grill,
and departure is discouraged by
iron bars, barbed wire, big dogs.
The country has been liberal.
Here women, even young, are ladies. I
am not so young. The others
leave me mostly alone. Until today:
a new girl, fragile-looking, blonde,
still in her blue silk dress,
was dealt the empty bunk in my cell.
What she's in for-prostitution? petty theft?-
is not germane. I don't ask questions.
She asks none. Perhaps that cloak
of numbness: we all cocoon ourselves
into compliance with our fate.
That's how I'd explain her-quietude?-
when two ladies-big ones, sure ones-
barged into our cell. One held a knife,
the other what she called a sari.
They announced their purpose: rape.
The usual initiation. Only my age
let me escape-they've other ways
to torment me, and who am I against
the denim mob? I'm no tattler-that
old-fashioned word, like me, antique,
a crackled harpsicord in some rock band.
This time, I tried to talk them out of it.
The new girl, petrified, an easy prey,
just stood, halfway between our visitors
and me. They ignored my arguments.
Then I reached up and took the knife,
pushed it through the window grill.
A distant clink. They were too stunned
to curse me out, or worse. The buzzer shrilled.
"Let's go eat," I said. "Perhaps
it will be chili dogs today."
We filed down the corridor and found
our seats, the two girls with their
curious cliques, I-by myself,
the new girl at another table. That was
this noon. What happens next-tonight,
tomorrow, by next week-I do not know,
and know. At least no matter what they do
to each of us, they no longer have that knife.
Deidre Scherer, Sarah's Circle, 1987. Fabric and thread.
38" x 31"
58 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME


English

Incident

Fleming, Pam

"Gender Bias" and the Law: Is It Enough?

Schmidt, Lisa

instruments" (bottles) and "second-class
substitutes" (formula) for infant feeding.
Palmer argues that the replacement of
breastfeeding with bottle feeding has had
little to do with freeing women from a so-
called "time-wastingbiological tyranny,"
or improving the health ofmother orbaby.
Rather, she links the global decline of
breastfeeding to industry's quest for prof-
its and the medical management of child-
birth and infant care.
Palmer demonstrates that the "baby
milk" market was created in the interests
ofmanufactuers and doctors. The process
of medicalization has limited women's
control of infant feeding and destroyed
their confidence in their bodies' ability to
function. The "insufficient milk syn-
drome" is accepted by most health care
workers as a natural and widespread con-
dition, especially among undernourished
women. However, evidence shows that
very few women are biologically unable
to produce milk. Rather than investigat-
ing the absence of physical factors in
insufficient milk production, the bottle
feeding alternative is presented as an
equally satisfactory method. This myth
becomes part of the justification for baby
milk exports into poor countries.
The baby milk industry thrives in coun-
tries such as Malaysia, the Philippines,
Brazil, India, Pakistan, and Papua New
Guinea, in addition to the countries of
North America and Europe. The links
between health care and industry, as well
as advertising and aggressive marketing,
combine to replace women's confidence
in their bodies with confidence in baby
milk products.
According to Palmer, the ill-effects of
scientising infant feeding abound, and the
tragedies of breast milk substitutes con-
tinue to this day. The baby milk industry
follows the dictates of nutritional fashion
in its attempt to create products which
simulate breastmilk. Breastmilk is re-
placed by dairy industry waste, condensed
milk, pea flour and bicarbonate of potash
concoctions. Not surprisingly, untoldnum-
bers of babies die needlessly from malnu-
trition and diarrhea, and an unknown
number suffer from debilitating health
problems.
Perhaps the most infamous baby milk
producer is Nestle. Palmer devotes much
of her argument to the ways in which
Nestle has extended and secured its reach
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4
into global markets. Even after the widely
documented Nestle boycott, the liaisons
between medicine, commerce and gov-
ernment maintain Nestle's profit-making
baby milk industry.
Palmer locates the devaluation of
breastfeeding in the scientific discourse
of manipulating nature. In this discourse,
infant feeding has been removed from the
realm of(female) nature to be managed by
the (male) "formula cult" of rigorous ex-
actitude, mathematics and chemistry. The
damage is staggering. Breastmilk is
wasted. Energy is wasted. Production of
baby milk (which sustains the dairy cow
industry) requires that cows eat grains,
the staple food for most of the world's
human population. The global population
THE POUTICS OF
BREASTFEEDING
-~\ ....
:-"" '.
~,~ :::
C"~ ..... ,l":;
I I'll , ~J: "1'1(
Sl1UIA
..:\Tl.lNCI..U
ImIm
explosion, can, in part, be attributed to the
displacement of lactational birth control.
The irony is that overpopulation and scar-
city are perceived to be Third World epi-
demics, yet it is in these countries that the
baby milk industry thrives.
Some readers may find Palmer's sug-
gestions for revaluing breastfeeding
through wages, her anthropological mate-
rial (breastfeeding through the ages), and
her indictment ofWestern imperialism, to
be less than compelling. As well, despite
her careful arguments to the contrary, her
reassertion of the 'man-science/woman-
nature' dichotomy could be selectively
appropriated by those who want to argue
that only women are naturally suited to
childrearing.
Much of the information Palmer
presents is available elsewhere, and there
are probably better resources for those
researching the practices ofparticularbaby
milk producers or the effects ofbaby milk
substitutes in specific countries. What is
useful about this book is its synthesis of
material in a comprehensive overview.
The appendices and bibliography are a
good basis for further research. More in-
teresting than Palmer's solutions are the
questions she raises, which have import in
a variety of fields, such as community
health and hospital planning, 'develop-
ment' policy and nutritional counselling.
For the general reader, this is a higWy
informative andgenerally persuasive femi-
nist argument. Palmer combines medical
and nutritional research with anecdotal
accounts, wit and scathing sarcasm to
present a sophisticated argument in an
entertaining manner. While raising suspi-
cions about industry in general, she effec-
tively demonstrates that breastfeeding is
in fact a political issue which has pro-
found social, economic, and cultural con-
sequences.
THE POLITICS OF
ABORTION
Janine Brodie, Shelley A. M. Gavigan,
and Jane Jenson. Toronto: Oxford
University Press, 1992.
By Lisa Schmidt
When it comes to abortion, the personal
is political.
Facing each other in the political arena
are two diametrically opposed parties,
each with an agenda based on deeply
rooted personal beliefs and each speaking
a language where the meanings of spe-
cific words are chosen to represent these
beliefs. For instance, where pro-choice
advocates say: woman, the fetus and
abortion, pro-life groups say: mother, the
unborn and murder.
Hence, in writing The Politics ofAbor-
tion, authors Janine Brodie, ShelleyA. M.
Gavigan and Jane Jenson have not only
surveyed dozens of legal documents,
books and newspaper clippings, they have
101
also navigated the territory of semantics.
The result is an informed and uniquely
Canadian analysis of the roles of govern-
ments, women, doctors, the justice sys-
tem and those who claim to speak for the
unborn in the abortion debated.
In the same way a prism reflects differ- '
ent colours depending on the angle of
vision, each author views the abortion
issue in a slightly different way. Thus,
while Brodie, Gavigan and Jenson col-
laborated onwriting the introductory chap-
ter which defines the premise of the book,
the subsequent three chapters are authored
by each woman separately.
The second chapter, written by Jenson,
outlines the history of abortion in Canada
from the late sixties to the 1988 Supreme
Court ruling that found the existing abor-
tion legislation unconstitutional as it vio-
lated a woman's 'security of the person.'
This legislation, adopted in 1969, was the
result of pressure by a medical profession
that wanted the power to perform abor-
tions without the fear of arrest. Through-
out the next 20 years, however, this legal
'medicalization' of abortion was unable
to ensure equal access to abortion services
for all Canadian women. Nor was it able
to quell a growing movement that was
turning abortion: the medical procedure,
into abortion: the moral dilemma.
The subsequent chapter, authored by
Brodie, describes the immediate reaction
to the legislative void. Brodie brings the
parliamentary debate alive by sprinkling
this account with the emotionally loaded
words of MPs. This time, the abortion
discourse revolves around rights-those
of women versus those of the fetus. After
much debate, in which 79 per cent ofTory
MPs lamented the destruction of innocent
babies' lives, no legislation was devised
due to lack of consensus in the House.
But events during the summer of 1989,
such as the court injunctions brought
against an Ontario woman and a Quebec
woman by their respective partners, re-
sulted in parliament's attempt to reintro-
duce legislation. Bill C-43, as itwas called,
passed in the House but in dramatic fash-
ion, died in the Senate due to a tie vote.
Not surprisingly, both pro-life and pro-
choice forces saw victory here.
In the final chapter, Gavigan takes the
stage to probe the meaning of the events
of the past two decades and she calls into
play the larger issues involved in the abor-
tion debate: women's perceived role in
society and society's perceived role in
women's reproductive lives.
Here, the full complexity of the abor-
tion issue emerges. Quoting British femi-
nist Carol Smart's warning that law is an
imperfect instrument with which to cor-
rect the injustices women face in society,
Gavigan introduces the idea that there are
limits to the ability of legislation to bring
about social change.
At the outset, the authors are quick to
point out that the language of the abortion
issue reflects the position of those who
speak it. Similarly, the language of this
book exemplifies the academic back-
ground of the authors. Some passages are
difficult to grasp without an understand-
The
Politics
Of
Abortion
Janine Brodie
Shelley A.M. Gavigan
lane Jenson
----..1
ing of legal words and precepts.
Nonetheless, this book clearly cautions
feminists against looking to the state for
the regulation of women's reproductive
lives. Instead, advocates of a woman's
right to choose may achieve greater suc-
cess by employing a wide variety of tac-
tics to bring about full reproductive free-
dom, as opposed to spending vital energy
fighting asmall butvocal anti-choice lobby
in the courts and in parliament-a lobby
that refuses to see the financial, social and
personal realities of women's lives.
1 IN 3: WOMEN WITH
CANCER CONFRONT AN
EPIDEMIC
Edited by Judith Brady. Pittsburgh:
Cleis Press, 1991.
By KimHume
This collection ofwomen's essays, sto-
ries and poetry is a revealing first-hand
look at a disease that manifests itself in
many fonns, attacking 1in 3 people. While
breast cancer is the focus of this volume,
women with other fonns of cancer have
also contributed. The personal accounts
are disturbing in their openness, graphic
in their detail. And if the descriptions of
the disease and its treatments aren't hor-
rific enough, the mistreatment of women
by doctors and husbands, and the cover-
up of information by government, are
sure to instill rage.
One woman, a fannworker, tells the
story of how she moved to a farm near the
Hanford nuclear complex in Washington
state. "I became pregnant easily and of-
ten, only to miscarry at 3 months or give
birth at 6 or 7 months. 'You are too high
strung,' I was told... Over the next few
years my marriage slowly became a night-
mare in a world made up of a resentful
husband, piling medical bills, and prema-
ture babies born dead or dying of cranial
hemorrhaging."Among a myriad ofhealth
problems, this woman had to deal with
both cervical cancer, for which she had a
partial hysterectomy, and then breast can-
cer and a mastectomy.
Later, while watching TV, she saw a
program about the Hanford Nuclear Plant
and the radioactive iodine and waste it had
purposely released into the air and ground
in the 1940s. "I listened first in paralyzed
pain as I heard the show's host tick off a
list of illnesses connected with radiation
and iodine-133, and my mind jumped
from one memory to another as I relived
the cranial hemorrhaging, the seizures,
the birth defects, the honnonal problems
which had plagued me and my children.
How often I had blamed myself! How
often I had labelled myself as a 'bad'
mother, a 'bad' wife. And all this time the
real reasons for my troubles had been
known by the plant and the government.
In fact, they had released the cloud of
102 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME


The Politics of Abortion

Gogia, Nupur

in an M.M. Kaye novel about the cruelty
of the Indians, the terror and shock of the
British. So it was a strange revelation
when my aunt told me to visit the monu-
ment to the "freedom-fighters" of 1857.
It's the same feeling ofrediscovery, of
suddenly seeing the world differently,
that I find with my grandmother. Positive
words and images begin to displace my
anger and discomfort at what I learn else-
where.
My anger does not end with Columbus
Day-but my discovery begins.
Thanks to Andrealmadafor her thought-
ful comments and support.
Sarita Srivastava has been studying and
workingfor popular education and envi-
ronmental action. For the past year and a
half, she has been an activist and spokes-
personfor Greenpeace Canada. Thisfall
she is beginning work on a doctoral de-
greeat the Ontario Institutefor Studies in
Education.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
NUPURGOGIA
How to Achieve Silence From a Woman
of Colour
tongues tied
voices cut
throats slashed
blood drips
and
drips
slow leaking
slowly dying
silence achieved
a scream enters
Nupur Gogia is a brown activist who has been working with women of
colour.
GLENDON COLLEGE
Department of Political Science
COLLEGE GLENDON
Departement de science politique
26
Applications are invited for an entry-level, tenure-track
position in the area of International Relations.
Qualifications: PhD in Political Science. Ability to
teach and conduct research in both English and French.
Duties: Teaching at the undergraduate level and possibility
of graduate teaching, research, and service to the
University. Salary: In accordance with the collective
agreement and experience. Date ofappointment: July I,
1993. Application deadline: December 31, 1992.
Send applications, including curriculum vitae and the
names of three referees directly to Professor Terry
Heinrichs, Chair, Department of Political Science,
Glendon College, 2275 Bayview Avenue, Toronto,
Ontario M4N 3M6.
York University is implementing a policy of
employment equity, including affirmative action for
women faculty. In accordance with Canadian immigration
requirements, this advertisement is directed to Canadian
citizens and permanent residents.
Mise en concours d'un poste de debut de carriere pouvant
conduire a la permanence dans le domaine des relations
internationales.
Conditions requises : Doctorat en science politique.
Capacite d'enseigner et de faire des recherches en anglais
et en frans;ais. Fonctions principales : Enseignement au
niveau du Ier cycle et eventuellement au niveau des 2e et
3e cycles, recherches, et service aI'Universite. Salaire :
Conforme ala convention collective et al'experience.
Date d' entree en fonction : I" juillet 1993. Date limite de
candidature: 31 decembre 1992.
Envoyer lettre de candidature, curriculum vitae et le
nom de trois repondants aM. Terry Heinrichs, Directeur,
Departement de science politique, College Glendon,
Universite York, 2275 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario
M4N 3M6.
L'Universite York applique une politique d'equite en
matiere d'emploi et encourage les candidatures de
professeures. Conformement aux exigences d'Immigration
Canada, cette annonce s'adresse aux citoyens canadiens et
residents permanents.
CANADIAN WOMAN STIJDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME


How to Achieve Silence from a Woman of Colour

Sands, Ellen

Poverty on the Reservation
One Woman's Experience
by Ellen Sands
L 'auteure de l'article
suivant, une autochtone
Chippewa-Potawatomi de
la Bande indienne de
Walpole Island, nous
parle de sa jeunesse dans
la reserve, de sa vie en
tant que mere celibataire
et de son retour aux
etudes. Elle rend
hommage ala force et a
la determination de sa
mere et soutient qu'it est
essentiel d'etre libre de
choisir pour se sortir de la
pauvrete.
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4
I don't understand what is wrong with
growing up on an Indian reservation. I had
the same lifestyle as other kids who grew
up in town. I went to school, played with
my friends, did chores at home, andworked
at our family's business. But according to
the outside world, I was a savage who
needed to become civilized.
The people from the outside told my
grandparents that my mother would turn
out better if she went to school at their
school. You guessed it-the dreadedresi-
dential school. My mother told me many
stories about that school. Her stories in-
clude being slapped and yelled at by her
teachers, about the many times she res-
cued her little sister from being beaten
because she peed in her bed, and about the
time she and her friends were told not to
speak Indian. Yet she remains loyal to
them. She might never have finished
school if she had not gone there.
I appreciate my mother's values and her
teachings. It has been a long and winding
road to realize that simply by adopting a
good value system, life can be run a little
smoother.
I spent much ofmy childhood under the
watchful eyes of my parents. My parents
spent long, hard-working hours running a
business, which was a combination of a
restaurant, variety store and teen room.
The major turning point in our lives was
when our mother made a decision which
to this day she does not acknowledge as
being of great consequence. My mother
had had a desire since childhood to be a
nurse. In her 40's she decided to go for it.
We watched as she left home for college
and put everything she had into her stud-
ies. She graduated near the top ofher class
and we all went to her graduation as proud
as peacocks.
She was the very first Indian to ever
work at the local hospital in town. She
worked twice as hard as anyone at that
place because she knew there would al-
ways be some form or another of preju-
dice. On her job she was called "stupid
Indian" by one of her co-workers. But she
would always come back with "you must
be stupid, too, then because I have the
same training as you!" We saw such de-
termination in her never to give up be-
cause she was finally doing something
she enjoyed and was more content and
happy with herself.
I thank my mother for that. I feel that
one act was the most influential example
that she, as a parent, could ever give us-
choices and what you do with them. Since
that time each and everyone ofmy broth-
ers and sisters have returned to school to
get a better education. I remember one
yearfive ofus graduated from programmes
ranging from Bachelor of Arts to Fashion
Design, to Marketing Administration, to
Journalism, to Aircraft Pilot, to Sales and
Interior Design. I still get shivers when I
think about it.
Education is the key. With education
you decide your future, not the govern-
ment, not the dominant society, not the
people around you.
I became a single parent when I was 20.
I stayed home with my boy for his first
two years and lived on welfare. I'm glad
I got to stay with him because there are so
many changes children go through during
that time. But when he became a little
older I started thinking about what kind of
future he was going to have. We lived
with one ofmy sisters and didn't own very
much. I had no idea what I was going to
do.
My sister told me about a college pro-
53
gramme that was going to be starting soon on the reserve. So I
applied and was accepted. Up to this point I had never finished
anything. If I didn't like the school I was in, I would quit. If I
didn't like a job I had, I would quit. For me it was always so easy
to quit and go home.
I started that six month college programme with the goal of
trying it for at least the first month. That first month came and I
liked the programme so I decided to try another month. And that
routine kept me in school. Next thing I knew I graduated. I was
so proud of myself. I realized that I could finish something that
I started. After that I enrolled in another programme. This time,
I went to a real college.
I'm now in my sixth year of school, taking courses that interest
me, not really working towards anyone particular diploma. Right
now I'm employed as staff and enrolled as a student at the
University of Nations in Kona, Hawaii. I'm studying Biblical
Counselling and Children's Leadership Training to work in the
Mission field with Native youth.
I don't claim to be anyone special. I can assure you that I faced
opposition all the way. But the difference is I made choices for
myself. I refused to let people, of any race, put me down.
There is no need to face another day of poverty if we can make
choices that will enhance our lives not tear them apart. We need
to educate ourselves, then our children, if we are to overcome.
After all, isn't that the way our Elders had to do it?
Ellen Sands is a Chippewa-PottawatomiNativefrom the Walpole
Island First Nation in southern Ontario.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
• More than 70 per cent of Native households live
below the poverty line. Estimates of unemployment
rates for Native women and men range from 50 per
cent to 90 per cent across Canada.
• Thirty-nine per cent of all Native families are
single-parent families headed by women.
• In 1980, the average annual income for women of
Native ancestry was $6,073.
Reprinted from Women Against Poverty, A Report of the
Alberta Status of Women Action Committee, 1989
Tenure-Track Position, Women's Program and Resource Centre'
Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta
The Faculty of Extension invites applications for a tenure-
track position at the level of Assistant Professor to provide
visionary leadership and competent administration to the non-
degree career and personal development continuing education
programs and services of its Women's Program and Resource
Centre. A major component of the Program is the new
Counselling Women Certificate Program.
The position is effective January 1, 1993. The salary range is
$40,035-$57,003, with placement based on qualifications and
experience.
Applicants must have a graduate degree in Women's Studies,
Adult Education, Community Development, Psychology or a
related discipline, a commitment to providing educational
opportunities for women, and a successful record of planning
and administering continuing education programs. A history of
successful grant applications to support continuing education
programs and research is highly desirable.
Applicants mustdemonstrate interest in research and reflective
writing in continuing education for women, continuing education/
university extension generally, or women's studies, and a
willingness and ability to work with faculty members, students,
and members of the community.
In accordance with Canadian Immigration requirements, this
54
application is directed to Canadian citizens and permanent
residents.
Applicants should forward the following materials: a letter of
application, a curriculum vitae, copies of publications or works
in progress, and the names of three references.
The closing date for applications is September 30, 1992.
Applications and supporting materials should be sent to:
Dr. Dennis Foth, Dean
Faculty of Extension
University of Alberta
112 Street and 83 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6G 2G4
Fax: (403) 492-1857
The University of Alberta is committed to the principle of
equity in employment. The University encourages applications
from Aboriginal persons, disabled persons, members of visible
minorities and women.
CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME


Poverty on the Reservation: One Woman's Experience

Brightwell, Laura

VOLUME 32, NUMBERS 1,2 137
MOTHERS, 
MOTHERING AND SEX 
WORK
Rebecca Bromwich and Monique 
Marie DeJong, Eds.
Bradford: Demeter Press, 2015
reviewed by laura 
brightwell
revolutionary potential and creating 
a global mothering force is where our 
voices need to go. In an era of hate, 
fear, and divisiveness, this collection 
reveals how love can create the unify-
ing bridge. We can move away from 
scarcity thinking and toward abun-
dance. As Autumn Brown writes in 
Scarcity and Abundance, “Abundance 
ignites the imagination.” But there 
are no mythical illusions, no false 
claims of utopia. In reading this 
book, we must all ask ourselves, how 
can we acknowledge injustice while 
also maintaining hope? How can we 
fight for change and use the rage of 
love without being consumed by it? 
Revolutionary Mothering provides a 
starting point, but it is now up to all of 
us to continue this fight collectively.
Melinda Vandenbeld Giles is a Ph.D. 
candidate at the University of Toronto 
and lecturer in Social Anthropology. 
Her research involves working with 
mothers who are living with their chil-
dren in Toronto motel rooms. She has 
an edited collection titled Mothering 
in the Age of Neoliberalism published 
in 2014. Her novel, Clara Awake, 
was published by Inanna Publications 
in 2017.
One romanticized, one abjected, 
motherhood and sex work are iden-
tities both constructed in limited and 
damaging ways. The new collection, 
Mothers, Mothering and Sex Work 
explores the intersections of two 
identities that are often seen to be 
mutually exclusive and challenges 
societal assumptions about both 
types of work. 
Mothers, Mothering and Sex Work 
refuses to reproduce a simplistic un-
derstanding of mothers engaged in 
sex work. Its contributors produce an 
image of sex work that is both joyous 
and harmful, safe and dangerous. 
Editors Rebecca Bromwich and 
Monique Marie DeJong’s intention 
is to curate a collection that renders 
“imaginable and speakable the 
messiness of divergent perspectives 
and experiences” about mothering 
and sex work. The anthology claims 
that it does not to adhere to either a 
criminalization or legalization posi-
tion, arguing that the polarization of 
viewpoints framed by the ‘sex work 
debate’ leaves out many aspects of 
sex workers’ experiences. Centred on 
the Canadian context, the anthology 
nevertheless references global issues 
and challenges, particularly through 
its emphasis on the effects of global-
ization and colonization.
Despite its proclaimed editorial 
intention, Mothers, Mothering and Sex 
Work leans generally towards the de-
criminalization argument, with many 
of the works illustrating the harmful 
effects of Canadian policy, and puni-
tive policing, on sex workers. Its in-
tersectional approach highlights that 
the most vulnerable sex workers are 
those who are societally marginalized 
in other ways. Those who have the 
societal mobility to choose sex work 
as a profession are more likely to have 
a positive experience of it, and work 
under safer conditions. The overall 
effect of the book is therefore to align 
it with a legalization framework, that 
emphasizes the importance of sex 
workers’ agency and control over their 
own working conditions, a control 
that is disallowed in the paternalistic 
and moralizing legal framework of 
criminalization.
However, the most striking and 
enjoyable aspect of this book is its 
employment of diverse storytelling 
mechanisms to tell the stories of sex 
workers. In addition to academic 
papers, the collection features pho-
tographic essays, poetry, and long-
form creative writing. Well-known 
writers are included, with an excerpt 
from the second of Maya Angelou’s 
autobiographies, Gather Together in 
My Name, and a short story by Alice 
Munro. The work of these celebrated 
authors sits alongside the voices of 
anonymous sex workers describing 
their experiences, a juxtaposition 
that refuses to privilege one voice 
over the other. The inclusion of 
multiple perspectives demonstrates 
the limitations of both sides of the 
criminalization/legalization debate 
and forces readers to reconsider their 
own position. 
The academic articles in the book 
cover a range of topics, such as the 
use of intergenerational support 
networks in African American moth-
ering, the effective state incarceration 
of adolescent sex workers permitted 
by the policy of “secure care,” and 
the racist construction of migrant 
sex workers as innocents in need of 
rescue and repatriation. The effect of 
its multimedia approach is to provide 
first-person perspectives and refuse 
the othering effect often generated 
by academic analysis. By holding 
these various media in tandem, the 
collection offers a comprehensive 
approach to the topic of mothers 
who are sex workers and refuses to 
pitch these fraught and complicated 
identities against each other.
Mothers, Mothering and Sex Work 
collects and holds diverse voices, 
perspectives, and experiences to-
gether in order to produce a holistic 
examination of the intersections of 
mothering and sex work. By refusing 
the polarizing debates of victim/
agent, criminalization/legalization, 
CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME138
the collection produces a more 
comprehensive understanding of the 
factors involved in sex work at the 
individual and societal levels. Moth-
ers, Mothering and Sex Work offers a 
dynamic and important contribution 
to existing scholarship on both sex 
work and motherhood studies.
Laura Brightwell is currently a doctoral 
candidate in Gender, Feminist & 
Women’s Studies at York University. She 
studies femmephobia in queer commu-
nities and works in the emerging field 
of critical femininity studies. 
GRINGO GULCH: 
SEX, TOURISM, AND 
SOCIAL MOBILITY IN 
COSTA RICA 
Megan Rivers-Moore
Chicago: University of Chicago 
Press, 2016 
reviewed by clare 
anstock
Megan Rivers-Moore writes an 
ethnographic account of the Costa 
Rican sex industry’s interaction with 
sex tourists and the state which pro-
vides upward social mobility for these 
active groups. The book focuses on 
the sex industry as it operates within 
the Gringo Gulch neighbourhood of 
San Jose, Costa Rica, an area in which 
the racialised and classed relationship 
between white sex tourists and local 
sex workers converge.
Gringo Gulch is divided into two 
parts, the first section, “Sex, Class, 
and Consumption”, focuses on 
sex tourists and sex workers, and 
demonstrates the social mobility of 
these groups. Chapter 1 begins the 
discussion on sex work by “situating 
sex tourism within the tourist in-
dustry.” Rivers-Moore demonstrates 
that while Costa Rica has been 
presented as an “exceptional” tourist 
destination, in part due to the idyllic 
landscape and its political peace-
fulness, the state has, nonetheless, 
distanced itself from the sex industry. 
Chapter 2 then challenges prominent 
discourse that assumes ‘the almighty 
gringo’ to be racist, misogynistic, 
and exploitative. By illuminating the 
complexity of hegemonic masculinity 
and demonstrating that Costa Rica 
offers tourists the “possibility of en-
hanced status and social mobility,” 
Rivers-Moore demonstrates that the 
tourists are complex agents seeking to 
achieve more than just sex. Rather, 
sex tourists, despite little change to 
class or financial status, experience 
upward social mobility when they 
are treated by sex workers as being 
financially solvent. This chapter 
makes clear the concept of social 
mobility in the context of the sex 
tourism industry, in which partici-
pants are either actively benefiting 
from financial input, or made to 
feel as though they are financially 
more solvent in comparison to their 
experience in their home country. 
Further, participants regularly direct 
their earnings to family members 
who then benefit from an income, 
rendering participants and family 
members of those in the sex industry 
recipients of upward social mobility.
Both chapters 3 and 4 then focus 
on the voices and experiences of sex 
workers. Rivers-Moore situates sex 
work in the realm of care work by 
suggesting that sex work is inherently 
a work of care, and that sex work 
incorporates a range of caring acts 
before then highlighting the inter-
sectional identities of sex workers 
as mothers and consumers while 
signifying the transferability of social 
mobility. Rivers-Moore demonstrates 
that the motivation to engage in sex 
work was more than to meet imme-
diate financial needs, but instead the 
neoliberal subject pursuing a height-
ened economic status, and boosting 
the status of those with whom they 
chose to impact.
Part two, “Regulating Sex in the 
Age of Neoliberalism,” incorporates 
chapters 5 and 6. This section first 
demonstrates the role of the state’s 
engagement with the sex industry 
in which the state simultaneously 
attempts to control sex workers under 
the guise of public health, while also 
realising the financial power of sex 
tourism. Rivers-Moore refers to this 
as ‘permissive ambivalence’, whereby 
the state turns a blind eye to sex work 
in order to reap financial benefits 
from the sex tourism industry. This 
argument is extended in chapter 6 
where Rivers-Moore argues that the 
state’s ‘permissive ambivalence’ is a 
strategy for social mobility in which 
the local economy profits from the 
economic input of sex tourists. Riv-
ers-Moore then concludes Gringo 
Gulch by arguing that the sex tourist 
industry must “be understood fun-
damentally as a class project of social 
mobility for sex tourists, sex workers, 
and the state,” by placing individual 
and macro social processes on the 
same trajectory of social mobility.
Compellingly, the author makes 
succinct connections between “mac-
ro-level political-economic transfor-
mations with lived experiences and 
practices of sexuality in people’s 
everyday lives,” demonstrating how 
the state and macro-social institu-
tions have an effect on the inter-per-
sonal heteronormativity of Gringo 
Gulch. Particularly convincing is 
the author’s connection between ne-
oliberal policies of individualization 
embodied in Gringo Gulch, and the 
claim that while sex work is an ideal 
form of neoliberal work in that “they 
work independently and in direct 
competition with one another, and 
their income is based entirely on the 
market with no outside regulation 
by the state,” sex work nonetheless 


Mothers, Mothering and Sexwork. Rebecca Bromwich and Monique Marie DeJong, Eds. Bradford: Demeter Press, 2015.

Bailey, Don

Diary Entry 1 and Diary Entry 2

Weston, Joanna M.

46 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
Michelle Macklem.
2Doe is a survivor of the serial attacks 
committed by Canada’s infamous 
“Balcony Rapist” in the mid-1980s.
3In a compelling and comprehen-
sive evaluation of the semiotics of 
the myth, Roland Barthes outlines 
a “second-order semiological system” 
that serves to naturalize a view that 
is, in fact, socially produced (Mythol-
ogies 13). Effective mythical speech 
purports an intent at the expense of 
literality, thus conditioning its capac-
ity for the “ideological abuse” (10) 
that produces the dominant symbolic 
order. When a woman is raped and it 
is said, “She was wearing a short skirt,” 
I understand what the statement is to 
signify to me—she is at fault. This 
message is in no way contained in 
the utterance, so I am therefore faced 
with the second-order signification. 
The second-order signifier is formed 
with a previous system, that is, a 
woman wearing a short skirt, which 
could signify a host of meanings: the 
weather was hot, mini-skirts were in 
fashion, or she wished to attract sexual 
attention, to name a few. A hegemonic 
cultural distortion serves to determine 
the latter as the definitive first-order 
sign that, in a chain of signification, 
then becomes the signifier in the 
myth. The desire for sexual attention 
is naturalized as sexual availability, 
which is what is ultimately presented 
as signified. Importantly, myth works 
because the second-order signifier 
“does not suppress the meaning, it 
only impoverishes it, it puts it at a 
distance, it holds it at one’s disposal” 
(117).
4In the official university hearing, 
Nungesser was found “not responsi-
ble” for the rape (Bazelon).
References
Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: 
Ref lections on Photography. 
Translated by Geoff Dyer. New 
York: Hill and Wang, 2010. Print.
Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. 
Translated by Annette Lavers. New 
York: Hill and Wang, 1972. Print.
Bazelon, Emily. “Have We Learned 
Anything from the Columbia 
Rape Case?” The New York Times 
Magazine, 2015. Print. 
Brison, Susan J. Aftermath: Violence 
and the Remaking of a Self. 
Princeton: Princeton University 
Press, 2002. Print.
Cahill, Ann J. “A Phenomenology 
of Fear: The Threat of Rape and 
Feminine Bodily Comportment.” 
The Feminist Philosophy Reader, ed. 
Alison Bailey and Chris J. Cuomo, 
Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008. 810-
26. Print.
Doe, Jane. The Story of Jane Doe: A 
Book About Rape. Toronto: Vintage 
Canada, 2004. Print.
Medea, Andra, and Kathleen 
Thompson. Against Rape. New 
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 
1974. Print.
Rentschler, Carrie. “Feminist Media 
Activism and the Magnitude of Small 
Interventions.” Keynote address. 
Small Packages: Microsignification 
in Media and Communications 
Studies, Concordia University, 
Montreal, Quebec, April 15, 2016. 
Print.
Warshaw, Robin. I Never Called It 
Rape: The Ms. Report on Recognizing, 
Fighting, and Surviving Date and 
Acquaintance Rape. New York: 
Harper & Row, 1988. Print.
Yung, Corey Rayburn. “Concealing 
Campus Sexual Assault: An Em-
pirical Examination.” Psychology, 
Public Policy, and Law, 21.1 (2015): 
1-9. Print.
Mediography 
Magritte, Rene. La Trahison des images 
(Ceci n’est pas une pipe). 1929. 
Painting, oil on canvas. 
Sulkowicz, Emma. Ceci N’est Pas 
Un Viol. 2015. Web video. www.
cecinestpasunviol.com. 
Sulkowicz ,  Emma.  Mattre s s 
Performance (Carry That Weight). 
2014-5. Performance.
JOANNA M. WESTON
The Missing Women 
their red dresses
swing from wires
along the highway
blowing wild
on chaotic winds
screaming
the names
of lost children
no one knows
where they went
or who took them
into death
Joanna M. Weston’s middle-reader, Frame and The McGuire, was pub-
lished in 2015; and her poetry collection, A Bedroom of Searchlights, 
was published by Inanna Publications in 2016. 


Not a member yet