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

Reimer, Vanessa

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME136
To bring the information full 
circle, the subjects studied from 
India present what is articulated as 
the “dual burden”: the population 
faces both severe malnutrition and 
over-abundance/obesity. For undis-
closed reasons, the general populace 
of mothers in these studies believe 
that Western food is healthier and 
will provide a better life for their 
children. In their desire to set their 
children on the healthy path, they 
desire foods that are proliferating 
obesity in the Western world, i.e. 
fast food. The urbanization of the 
country, or perhaps as suggested in 
some of the articles, the Westerni-
zation of the country, and the move 
away from more traditional cuisine, 
is causing obesity and malnutrition, 
both of which are linked through the 
articles to mothers, reproduction, and 
child-rearing.
Each of the articles places itself 
in the liminal space between social/
cultural construct and medical fact 
so as to present, as best possible, the 
overall picture. The order constructed 
by the editors of the articles allows 
the reader to see the bigger picture, 
and recognize that understanding 
the concept of “fatness” globally is 
potentially the only way to combat 
its negative qualities and praise the 
positives. The figures and charts are 
unfortunately not as easily manage-
able for the reader who is not familiar 
with the material, but sufficient 
explanations of those were provided 
throughout the articles. The articles 
are well thought out and provide 
intimate insight into each culture, 
making them accessible to multiple 
disciplines.
Lauren Shepherd is a Ph.D. student 
at the University of Toronto’s Centre 
for Drama, Theatre, and Performance 
Studies. Her thesis research centres on 
performances and diagnoses of madness 
on the early modern stage.
BIG PORN INC: 
EXPOSING THE HARMS 
OF THE GLOBAL 
PORNOGRAPHY 
INDUSTRY
Melinda Tankard Reist and Abigail 
Bray, Eds.
North Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 
2011
reviewed by vanessa 
reimer
In their introduction to this collec-
tion the editors clearly state their goal 
to document the “proliferation and 
normalization of pornography, the 
way it has become a global industry 
and ideology, and how it is shaping 
our world and the harm this causes.” 
The text largely features contribu-
tions by academics and activists from 
Australia, the U.S., and the UK, with 
notable perspectives from Japan, 
India, and South Africa.
This collection aims to debunk the 
myths that have allowed pornography 
to become increasingly mainstream 
across the globe as it simultaneously 
becomes more violent and degrading 
towards women, children, and other 
vulnerable groups. These myths 
include the “libertarian conceits 
that pornography is simply about 
pleasure, self-empowerment and 
freedom of choice” in an otherwise 
sexually repressed culture, as well as 
the argument that producers of por-
nography exercise their guaranteed 
right to “free expression.” The text 
contends that these myths have been 
largely accepted and even embraced 
by Western feminists and “the Left” 
more generally, which tend to be 
weary of pornography critics who are 
stereotyped and dismissed as being 
anti-sex, closed-minded, socially 
conservative, and religious.
Throughout the text’s five sections 
the contributors work to challenge 
and re-frame mainstream discourses 
that shape the pornography industry. 
In “Part 1: Pornography Cultures” 
pornography is contextualized as 
an ideology which constructs men’s 
sexual pleasure and masculinity as 
being contingent on the domination 
and degradation of women and other 
“feminized others” such as gay men, 
racialized groups, children, and ani-
mals. Next, in “Part 2: Pornography 
Industries,” pornography is framed 
as a multi-billion dollar industry 
that is rooted in the exploitation of 
vulnerable populations for the sole 
interest of generating enormous 
profits for those who control it. Here 
it is also argued that, while academics 
and activists from the Left justly cri-
tique the ideologies and practices of 
corporate global restructuring, they 
tend to accept the liberatory myths 
of “Big Porn Inc,” and thereby fail 
to problematize it alongside other 
exploitative industries such as “Big 
Food” and “Big Pharma.”
In “Part 3: Harming Children” 
it is argued that mainstream por-
nography normalizes the sexual 
objectification of children through 
Pseudo Child Pornography, as well 
as through generating and reproduc-
ing the exploding global demand 
for child pornography. It further 
explores how the industry grooms 
adolescent boys into consumers of 
a manufactured, inorganic, and 
non-erotic brand of sexuality that 
only pornography and other sex 
industries can provide. Next, in “Part 
4: Pornography and the State,” the 
contributors problematize the legal 
rights claimed by the pornography 
industry by denouncing “free ex-
pression” that is not in fact “fair 
expression,” in addition to exploring 
how pornography has been taken 
up and challenged through various 
international legislation. The text 
concludes with “Part 5: Resisting 
Big Porn Inc,” which explores the 
efforts of international activists and 
VOLUME 30,  NUMBERS 2,3 137
organizations who seek to challenge 
and raise awareness about the harms 
of the global pornography industry. 
Those who are familiar with 
contemporary feminist critiques of 
pornography are unlikely to find any-
thing ground-breaking in this text; 
however those who are new to the 
subject matter will find an accessible 
and engaging collection by contrib-
utors who are clearly informed and 
passionately invested in this area of 
research. Feminist proponents of por-
nography will certainly find reason to 
critique the text, as its contributors all 
but ignore the potential for women’s 
empowerment and agency in acting 
as producers and consumers of por-
nography. For their part, however, 
the contributors acknowledge this 
gap as they emphasize their intention 
to deconstruct and challenge the 
ideologies and socioeconomic con-
ditions that continue to normalize 
the selling and purchasing of women’s 
(or any feminized “others’”) bodies 
and sexualities. For these academics 
and activists, the potential for some 
women to act as empowered agents 
while producing and consuming 
pornography is not an adequate 
reason to withhold or dilute critique 
of the industry’s broader deleterious 
impacts.
Vanessa Reimer is a Ph.D. candidate 
in the Graduate Program in Gender, 
Feminist and Women’s studies at York 
University. Her research focuses on 
feminist studies in religion and girlhood 
sexuality. 
SEX, LIES & 
PHARMACEUTICALS:
HOW DRUG 
COMPANIES PLAN TO 
PROFIT FROM FEMALE 
SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION
Ray Moynihan & Barbara Mintzes 
Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2012
reviewed by cheryl van 
daalen-smith
If you build it, she will come.
At least that’s the promise. That the 
pharmaceutical industry is driven 
by profit margins, above all else, is 
not news. And that there is (always) 
something wrong with women’s 
bodies requiring intervention hasn’t 
really lost any of its medical veracity. 
For in creating disorders, diseases, 
and panic, Big Pharma can swoop 
in with just the right treatment. For 
a price. The trouble is, it’s women 
again who pay most dearly when 
medicine and big business merge. Ray 
Moynihan and Barbara Mintzes have 
joined together to provide compelling 
evidence exposing pharmaceutical 
industry’s role in creating a disease 
that they then plan to cure. And 
what’s scary is that in just fifteen 
years, the mythic “Female Sexual 
Dysfunction” has gained inordinate 
popularity. Heck even Oprah quoted 
the industry-born and marketed “46 
percent of all women ‘suffer’ from 
fsd” stat. 
The pressure’s on ladies. And not in 
a good way and probably not on the 
right spot either. No, the pressure is 
on for you to want it more, and that 
you just aren’t ensuring he’s ringing 
your bell. Yup it’s your fault. And yes, 
I said he. You see same-sex sexuality 
isn’t important here—so much so it 
has been rendered invisible. Probably 
because women usually get it right 
for other women. But I digress…
Moynihan and Mintzes’ book Sex, 
Lies and Pharmaceuticals: How Drug 
Companies Plan to Profit from Female 
Sexual Dysfunction is a comprehensive 
investigation into this newly classified 
“problem” and the enormous push 
to place it in physicians’ professional 
vernacular. And just in time, because 
Flibanserin—a drug that promises to 
fix us—has just come on the market. 
Another drug to fix our inadequacies. 
Quel surprise. Moynihan and Mintz-
es’ research included interviews with 
retired pharmaceutical professionals 
who outed their own roles in the 
creation of fsd. In so doing, these 
courageous whistle-blowers assisted 
the authors to demonstrate how fsd 
is a grossly exaggerated phenomenon, 
barely earning the validity to be called 
a disorder in the first place. 
Moynihan has a rich history in this 
area, most recently documenting in 
Selling Sickness countless examples of 
the medicalization of every-day life 
phases which then require medical 
and pharmaceutical intervention. 
Now he is out to discredit the very 
basis for what’s being coined the 
Pink Viagra (again with the pink??), 
except it hasn’t worked. Early research 
has shown that unlike men, women 
don’t need more blood flow. And so 
the research has shifted. Up. Way up. 
Current research is exploring (brace 
yourselves) the usefulness of a pill 
targeting women’s brains. There it is 
again: the tie between women’s uterus 
and their minds. And of course the 
tie that binds is one of pathology. 
So not only are women too emo-
tional, too nervous, too fat, too 
irrational, and too dry, they’re not 
sexually responsive enough. Does this 
remind anyone else of the years when 
women were called frigid? Brrrrr. Has 
me shaking, but I’m not sure if it’s 
out of terror or anger. Probably both. 
But at least one thing has stayed 
constant. The real reason for women 
being unresponsive sexually aside 
from:


English

Big Porn Inc.: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry

Medcalf, Trudy

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME126
WE ALL BECOME 
STORIES
Ann Elizabeth Carson
Cobourg, on: Blue Denim Press, 
2013
reviewed by trudy 
medcalf
Decades ago, Ann Elizabeth Carson 
made a number of visits to an island 
off the coast of Maine. “The island 
captured me and changed my life.” 
It was there that she, with islanders 
and visitors, “watched the sunset…
communal witness to the end of day,” 
and there that she, through conver-
sations with a series of island visitors 
much older than herself, began to 
listen eagerly to the stories of their 
lives. The elders’ stories, augmented 
later by the stories of a number of 
Ontario elders, provide the rich 
foundation on which Carson layers 
her exploration of aging and memory, 
the elders’ and her own.
A chapter is devoted to each of 
twelve elders. Their stories are tex-
tured, threaded in an interactive way 
that incorporates Carson’s listening 
and respectful response to the sto-
ryteller, her reflection given to the 
reader, and that inaudible, internal 
reflection that you know Carson is 
making as it continuously informs 
her writing. At the end of each elder’s 
chapter, Carson, also a noted poet, 
presents a finely-crafted poem writ-
ten in response to her experience of 
the elder and the elder’s story. It is a 
graceful touch, each poem seeming 
to me to be given in gratitude, the 
elder’s gift of story reciprocated. 
Carson clearly delineates the 
boundaries of her story project. 
Twelve older adults, many in their 
80s when their stories were recorded, 
women and men of European back-
ground who were at the time living in 
urban centres in Ontario, New York 
state, and Massachusetts. Some were 
Carson’s fellow students in sensory 
awareness and sensory memory class-
es, some were participants in similar 
classes that she gave in Toronto, some 
were family friends. With each in turn 
she explores the subject of memory 
– remembering and forgetting, how 
each has been applied in the elder’s 
life experience, the widely-varying 
insights that each elder brings to 
the conversation, and Carson’s own 
journey into sensory awareness: “…
the senses, they seemed to be saying, 
were the basis of everything we feel, 
and experience, and know.”
For me, Carson’s work links to 
this often-quoted passage from C.G. 
Jung’s book, Modern Man in Search of 
a Soul, originally published in 1933:
Wholly unprepared, they em-
bark upon the second half of life. 
Or are there perhaps colleges for 
forty-year-olds which prepare 
them for their coming life and its 
demands as the ordinary colleges 
introduce our young people to a 
knowledge of the world and of 
life? No, there are none. Thor-
oughly unprepared, we take the 
step into the afternoon of life...
but we cannot live the afternoon 
of life according to the program 
of life’s morning–for what was 
great in the morning will be 
little at evening, and what in the 
morning was true will at evening 
have become a lie.
Carson has, in a sense, created 
her own personal “college for forty-
year-olds,” with the relationships she 
began on the island, when she was 
herself that age. So many of the les-
sons learned from her elder mentors 
appear to have been carefully banked, 
lessons received long ago that she now 
applies in her own old age. Lessons 
that she shares with us, her readers. 
But the central teaching of Jung’s 
quote lies of course in the second part. 
Carson’s elder mentors show her that 
“what we need and want to remember 
and forget changes frequently,” and 
that accepting and indeed welcoming 
change “to the very end holds a kind 
of gleeful challenge.” By sharing their 
stories, twelve elders helped Carson 
first to acknowledge and appreciate 
their aging process and later, with 
cherished experiences and memories 
of her own, to negotiate the shift to 
the evening of her own life.
In its careful presentation of the 
elders’ life stories—banked, distilled, 
revisited, sparking Carson’s own 
growth and interwoven with her 
own epiphanies—this book appears 
to float free of time. In the words 
of Meyer, whose story you will find 
in Carson’s book, “It doesn’t matter 
how old you are, are you learning 
something?” 
Trudy Medcalf ’s current research inter-
ests include online learning circles for 
older adults as a way to combat social 
isolation. Through her doctoral work 
in education and social gerontology, 
she learned about the power of partic-
ipatory research and the importance of 
engaging elders in the shift toward a 
new understanding of what it means 
to grow old.
HARRIET TUBMAN: 
FREEDOM LEADER, 
FREEDOM SEEKER
Rosemary Sadlier
Toronto: Dundurn, 2012
reviewed by rowena i. 
alfonso
In Harriet Tubman: Freedom Leader, 
Freedom Seeker, Rosemary Sadlier 
paints a portrait of an escaped slave 
who became a leader of the Under-


We All Become Stories

Kemp, Penn

40 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
Law and Environmental Justice 
in Perú: Lessons Learned from the 
Choropampa Mercury Accident.” 
Web. 2008.
Líderes y Lideresas de Comunidades 
Campesinas y Rondas Campesinas 
de Cajamarca mc-452-71 República 
de! Perú, 2014.
Maria. Personal interview, 2013. 
Bambamarca.
Mies, M. Patriarchy and Capital 
Accumulation. Women in the In-
ternational Division of Labour. 
London: Zed Books Ltd., 1998. 
Print.
Nelida. Personal interview, 2013. 
Cajamarca.
Perez, J. Conflicto Minero en el 
Peru. Caso Yanacocha – Cambios 
y Permanencias. Univer-sidad 
Nacional de Cajamarca, 2012. 
Perez, J. Agua-Procesos Sociales, 
Desarrollo y “Guerra” Mediatica en 
Cajamarca. Cajamarca: Univer-
sidad de Cajamarca, 2012.
Rodriguez-Pinero Royo, L. “La 
Internacionalización de los de-
rechos indígenas en América 
Latina: ¿El fin de un ciclo?” 
Pueblos indígenas y Politica en 
América Latina. Ed. S. Marti i 
Piug Barcelona: Bellatierra-Cidob, 
2007. 181-200. Print.
Salleh, A. Ecofeminism as Politics. 
Nature, Marx and the Postmodern. 
London: Zed Books, 1997. Print.
Sanchez, M. Personal interview, 2013. 
Celendin.
Sanchez, W. Personal interview, 2013. 
Cajamarca.
Torres, F. and M. Castillo. El Projecto 
Minero Conga, Peru: Riesgo de 
Desastre en una Sociedad Agraria 
Competitiva. Cajamarca, 2012.
Vasquez, M. Personal interview, 2013. 
Cajamarca.
Wiener, R. “Detengan a Santos.” La 
Primera, 26 June 2014. Web.
World Commission on Environment 
and Development. Our Common 
Future. New York: Oxford 
University Press, 1987. Print.
PENN KEMP
Grazing the Face of Climate Change
The cedar the bohemian
wax wings twitter among
bare boughs on their way
warmward.
Envy emulates flight,
lights desire, douses
doubt in fiercer certainty.
Icarus stretches his fine
new wings, disarmed by
possibilities plus.
“Beware the wax, my son. It
cannot last in the face of
strong Sun shine.”
No fear. Bright day beckons.
“I’m on my way and who will
gainsay the path to glory, glory!”
Damn the consequence, o’er-
weening
teen. Between
between the elements.
High performance art starts
here. Raising mighty arms
he flaps. He flies.
Close, warming his face.
Oh, the glow! Pride
bursts, sun bursts,
sun grazing.
Rising solar flare—
sudden glare incipient—
may might may not—
Bright implausible wings dim
before a brighter sun, too close.
Closer. Losing
altitude, attitude.
Lost.
Farther from father into free
fall.
(Hubris, they will say
in that all-knowing future.)
The fall, falling. Spring
springing.
A flutter of feathers
catching the light
light on the surface.
Follow their fine drift
on the wind, winding
down
through sub-lunar
splendour onto
sea sparkle.
Living sphere,
Facing fear too late
on a sea of metrics.
Facing ob-
livion. (Immortal
eyes can not cut it).
Dead last. Death lasts
forever. Ever
more.
Reflect, refract, reflect
again and loss a gain.
Free to fail only
once and then no
longer
No longer boy but
myth.
Activist poet/playwright Penn Kemp is London’s inaugural Poet Laureate, 
with twenty-six books of poetry/drama and ten cds.


Grazing the Face of Climate Change

Martonfi, Ilona

VOLUME 30, NUMBERS 2,3 89
ILONA MARTONFI
What was her name?
Blue plum tree blossom
where the Moosgraben flows
and the oh so quiet wordless world of a child
buried creek
bog willow, forsythia, grow in bomb craters
odour of spring
the odour of mortuary
two-story red brick house:
Halle 7 by the Rollbahn
old airport Neutraubling,
Barvarian Forest chalk hills ridge
tell her, she was not the only one
blue plum tree blossom
all around the yard
the odour of death
the odour of spring
yellow forsythia
maroon cotton dress
white ribbed knee socks 
pigtailed Magyar refugee of nine
teacher molesting her
what was her name?
Yellow sunshine
moor nunnery
blue plum tree.
Ilona Martonfi is the author of three poetry books, Blue 
Poppy (Coracle Press, 2009), Black Grass (Broken Rules 
Press, 2012) and, most recently, The Snow Kimono 
(Inanna, 2015). Ilona has published in Vallum, Accenti, 
The Fiddlhead, and Serai. She is the founder/producer 
of The Yellow Door and Visual Arts Centre Readings, 
and the co-founder of Lovers and Others. She is also the 
recipient of the qwf 2010 Community Award.
ROS TIERNEY
The Morning Swim
As I swim each morning
swim to regain my health
swim to regain my sanity
swim for the joy of it
the clear clean water caressing my body
soothing my soul
drowning my thoughts
I am buoyed and lifted by the sparkling water
feeling my muscles strengthen with each stroke
swimming to wellness.
My thoughts drift to my sisters in India
I feel guilty swimming in fresh clean water
knowing their hardship
carrying water, waiting days for the taps to run
conserving every drop
wasting none.
Squandering such a precious commodity?
Knowing my privilege
I say thank you
and swim on.
Rosalind Tierney is a feminist, witch and traveller, currently 
living in Crystal Beach.
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What Was Her Name?

Tiré d’un travail ethnographique sur Uttarakhand, en Indes, cet article examine les luttes pour la survie des femmes vivant dans les montagnes dans une perspective politique et écologique. Leurs commentaires et leurs expériences mettent en évidence les aspects genrés de la pauvreté et des inégalités dans ces villages des Himalaya ainsi que le stress lié à l’eau qui ne fait qu’exacerber leurs misères

Drew, Georgina

Hidden Hardships: Water, Women’s Health, and Livelihood Struggles in Rural Garhwal, India

Payne, Janna

78 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
mythology of the Anishinaabeg: 
Will Mishipizhu Survive Climate 
Change, or Is He Creating It?” 
Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: 
Understanding the World Through 
Stories. Ed. J. Doerfler, N. J. 
Sinclair, and H. K. Stark. East 
Lansing: msu Press, 2013. 213-
233. Print.
Noojmowin Teg Health Center. 
Guidelines for Ethical Aboriginal 
Research. Little Current, on: 
Noojmowin Teg Health Center, 
2003. Web. 
Phare, Merrell-Ann. Restoring the 
Lifeblood: Water, First Nations and 
Opportunities for Change: Back-
ground Report. Walter and Duncan 
Gordon Foundation, 2011. pdf. 
Sinclair, Niigonwedom James. 
“K’zaugin: Storying Ourselves 
into Life.” Centering Anishinaabeg 
Studies: Understanding the World 
Through Stories. Ed. J. Doerfler, 
N. J. Sinclair, and H. K. Stark. 
East Lansing: msu Press, 2013. 
81-102. Print.
Swain, Harry, Stan Louttit, and Steve 
Hrudey, S. Report of the Expert Panel 
on Safe Drinking Water for First 
Nations. Vol. 1. Ottawa: Ministry 
of Indian Affairs and Northern 
Development, 2006. Print.
United Nations. General Assembly 
Resolution 64/292, Human 
Right to Water and Sanitation, 
a/res/64/292 (28 July 2010). 
February 1, 2015Web.
United Nations. unesco. Water and 
Indigenous Peoples. Ed. Rutgerd 
Boelens, Moe Chiba and Douglas 
Nakashima. Knowledges of Nature 
2. Paris: United Nations, 2006. 
Print.
Walken, Ardith. “The Land is Dry: 
Indigenous peoples, Water, and 
Environmental Justice.” Eau 
Canada: The Future of Canada’s 
Water. Ed. Karen Bakker. Van-
couver: University of British 
Columbia Press, 2007. 303-320. 
Print.
Walters, Karina. “Isht Ahalaya: 
Transcending Historical Trauma 
with Loving Responsibility.” Inter-
national Indigenous Development 
Research Conference 2014. Ngā 
Pae o te Māramatanga. University 
of Auckland, New Zealand. 26 
Nov. 2014. Address.
JANNA PAYNE
disregarding the pain of others
try your hand at slinging. sling yourself from coast to coast. sling yourself to big cities, small towns,
and into loving arms. sling your truth. sling your glory. sling like you mean it. sling underdogs.
sling the underdogs up, up, and closer to you level. sling, sling. almost
to eye level. sling them close but not too close. still a little
worse off. sling words like good and bad as though
they exist. sling them as though god himself
swept down and endowed you with an extra sharp
moral compass. sling your moral compass. sling it at
parties. sling it far. sling it wide. sling a downward glance at others.
sling, sling. sling you love at the lonely, the lowly, and the mangled. sling the
lowest of low. sling your body, your mind, your expertise. sling your services, your
compliments, your sympathy. sling your way on up, on up to heaven, where good and bad exist.
where the slingers of the lowly dwelleth.
then,
slung out,
consider that
encountering
the other
is about
encountering
the self.
Janna Payne is a Canadian poet. Her work has recently been featured (or is forthcoming) in: broad: A Feminist and 
Social Justice Magazine, Communities, Role/Reboot, Room, The Steel Chisel, and Women and Environments 
Magazine. To read more, visit www.facebook.com/jannaspeaks.


disregarding the pain of others

Weston, Joanna M.

88 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
1In this paper we use the term “Indigenous” to refer to 
First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, who are defined 
collectively as “Aboriginal” in the Canadian constitution. 
We choose not to use the term Aboriginal as it was recently 
rejected by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the 
Anishinaabek Nation. (see Marks, 2014).
2Curve Lake First Nation, Dokis First Nation, James Smith 
Cree Nation and the Inuit community of Rigolet, Labrador.
3Faculty leading the project include Dr. Khosrow Farah-
bakhsh (Principal Investigator), School of Engineering, 
University of Guelph; Dr. Kim Anderson, Indigenous 
Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University; Dr. Rob Innes, De-
partment of Native Studies, University of Saskatchewan; 
Dr. Benjamin Kelly, Department of Sociology, Nipissing 
University; and Dr. Carly Dokis, Department of Anthro-
pology, Nipissing University.
4Shirley, ,a teacher of Anishnaabemowin, the Ojibway 
language, also named the project.
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and Environmental Practice in Ontario.” Journal of 
Canadian Studies 43.3 (2009): 69-100. Print.
McGregor, Deborah. “Anishnaabe Kwe, Traditional 
Knowledge and Water Protection.” Canadian Woman 
Studies 26.3,4 (Spring 2008): 26-30. Print.
Muller, Kathryn V. “The Two” Mystery” Belts of Grand 
River: A Biography of the Two Row Wampum and the 
Friendship Belt.” The American Indian Quarterly 31.1 
(2007): 129-164. Print. 
White, Jerry P., Laura Murphy and Nicholas Spence. “Water 
and Indigenous Regan Peoples: Canada’s Paradox.” 
International Indigenous Policy Journal 3.3 (2012). Web. 
August 13, 2014.
JOANNA M. WESTON
The Calm
coloured pencils
strewn on the table
a manual for electricians
open at page 34
knife and serving spoon
all wait for hands
which lie still
on her lap
ready for 
resurrection
Joanna M. Weston’s second volume of poetry, A Bedroom 
of Searchlights, is forthcoming from Inanna Publications 
in the spring of 2016.


The Calm

Mwanaka, Tendai R.

14 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
about the guest editors…
Kim Anderson is an Associate Professor teaching 
Indigenous Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. 
Her latest books include Life Stages and Native 
Women: Memory, Teachings and Story Medicine and 
Indigenous Men and Masculinities: Legacies, Identities, 
Regeneration (both with University of Manitoba Press, 
2011 and 2015)
Brenda Cranney has a Ph.D. in in Sociology from 
York University and has worked extensively on a variety 
of women’s issues with numerous ngos in Canada 
and India. A scholar, activist, and photographer, she 
continues to be active in a number of women’s orga-
nization and has taught at York University, George 
Brown and Humber College. She is the author of 
Local Environment and Lived Experience: The Mountain 
Women of Himachal Pradesh. 
Angela Miles is a feminist activist, theorist, and aca-
demic. She teaches in the Adult Education and Com-
munity Development Program and  is Co-founder of 
the International Women’s Human Rights Education 
Institute at oise/ut; and is on the editorial Board of 
the Canadian Woman Studies journal. She is commit-
ted to building and studying women’s multi-centred 
local and global activism in the current period of 
neo-liberal globalization. Her publications include, 
Integrative Feminisms: Building Global Visions (1996) 
and the edited collection, Women in a Globalizing 
World: Transforming Equality, Development, Peace 
and Diversity. 
Wanda Nanibush is an Anishinaabe-kwe curator, 
community organizer, image and word warrior from 
Beausoleil First Nation. Nanibush has a Masters of 
Visual Studies from the University of Toronto where 
she finished the first year of her PhD. Currently, 
Nanibush is a guest curator at the Art Gallery of On-
tario and touring her exhibition “The Fifth World,” 
which opens January 2016 at kwag. The island life 
allows her to finish upcoming projects: a film called 
A Love Letter to My People, a documentary on Gerald 
Vizenor, a book called Violence No More (Arp Press), an 
anthology of Indigenous curatorial writing, and more.
Paula Sherman is an Algonquin writer, activist and 
educator. She is of Omàmìwinini (Algonquin) heritage 
and a professor of Indigenous Studies at Trent Uni-
versity, in Peterborough, Ontario. She is the author of 
Dishonour of the Crown: The Ontario Resource Regime 
in the Valley of the Kiji Sibi.
TENDAI R. MWANAKA
We Wait And Linger, a little
When we were little, stars
The sun, the moon and darkness
Stayed longer as they
Cradled us, as we played
As we grew older
The sun became hotter
Hot we were, in failure
Anxieties and disappointments
And the moon, frail
Faint, it was a grown up
Hiding in the dark skies
Inside houses that were our jails
Now, as we lie isolated
In darkness, immeasurable
Its soft tide pulling us in
We wait and linger, a little
Tendai R. Mwanaka was born in Zimbabwe. He is the 
author of several poetry books, including Voices from Exile 
(2010) and Playing to Love’s Gallery (2014). He is also 
the author of two novels, Keys in the River: Notes from a 
Modern Chimurenga (2012) and A Dark Energy (2014), 
and a collection of essays, Zimbabwe: The Blame Game 
(2013). His short fiction, essays, poems and visual art have 
published in over 100 magazines, journals, and anthologies 
around the world.
Pegi Eyer's artwork appears on pages 5 and 70:
As an Independent Curator, Pegi Eyers has developed 
exhibition projects with artist collectives and arts 
organizations, and has been employed as an Arts 
Publicist and Fundraiser. Her acrylic and oil painting, 
mixed-media assemblage, handbound artist's books 
and intricate “cut paper” pieces have been exhibited 
in multiple galleries, solo and group shows. She lives 
in the beautiful Ontario countryside near the eclectic 
city of Peterborough. “My creative vision is connected 
to the sacred iconography of the Divine Feminine, and 
to express Her many forms in paint and mixed media.” 
Currently, she is writing a prose poetry series as inspired 
by the themes of women's empowerment and matriarchal 
history: Celebrating HER! Images that Empower Women 
and Honour the Divine Feminine. Visit her website: 
<www.lyssanda-designs.com>.


We Wait And Linger, a little

Greenblatt, Jordana

VOLUME 30,  NUMBERS 2,3 123
loss of war with the exhilaration of 
exploring the open space of the sky. 
In “Clouds,” Clewes writes to her 
father “If you were alive, I’d beg you 
to talk, not of war/ but of the sky’s 
white desert and the birth of clouds,” 
consistently refusing stark divisions 
between war as a human construction 
and nature as a space of introspection. 
Nevertheless, in Paper Wings, 
human history and culture are dis-
tinctly Western and colonial. The 
North, and the wilderness, are sites 
of natural history, interrupted only 
by Clewes, other visitors, and, in “Let 
the River Speak,” a single “Inuk who 
knows/ the old ways but won’t tell 
where muskox graze/ and who knows 
how the earth shakes out its water.” 
Referring to her kayak, in “Grow 
Me Gills,” as a “sea gypsy” and the 
imagined experience of riding a cargo 
train as “fleeing like an African god” 
in “Letting in the Light,” Clewes’ 
poetry instrumentalizes non-Western 
and pre-colonial culture and spaces 
even as Clewes questions Western 
culture’s instrumentalization of na-
ture. Thus, in a sense, Clewes engages 
in her own processes of relegation to 
the backdrop, a process that largely 
evades her often otherwise critical 
and introspective eye. If, as the book 
jacket contends, each section of Paper 
Wings asks “‘Where is home?’ The 
conclusion: Home is found within 
ourselves and without, anywhere, 
anytime,” Clewes’ poems retain a 
colonial lack of perturbation about 
who gets to be at home anywhere—
and why.
Paper Wings deftly moves between 
seemingly divergent episodes in her 
own and her family’s histories, and 
I would recommend it to anyone 
looking for an elegant take on the 
Canadian lyric tradition and idea 
of the North, one that navigates 
less obvious connections often very 
successfully. However, readers hoping 
that Clewes’ collection will fulfill 
the promise of her observation, in 
Freddie. Best’s muted, unostenta-
tious, common-sense feminism can 
be detected in her choices to shun the 
reconstruction aggressively peddled 
by her doctors and to expose the med-
ical establishment’s collusion with the 
dominant ideal of femininity, while 
also unabashedly naming the sites 
of pleasure, erotic and maternal, on 
her body. In a culture obsessed with 
breasts, she manages to find and 
redefine beauty in her experience of 
living in the post-mastectomy body.
Eva C. Karpinski is Associate Professor 
at the School of Gender, Sexuality, and 
Women’s Studies at York University. She 
is the author of Borrowed Tongues: 
Life Writing, Migration, and Trans-
lation (2012) and co-editor of Trans/
Acting Culture, Writing, and Mem-
ory: Essays in Honour of Barbara 
Godard (2013). She also co-edited a 
special issue of CWS/cf on “Women 
and Cancer.”
The work of a consummate outdoor-
sperson, Rosemary Clewes’ writing 
focuses on wilderness travel, and 
Paper Wings is no exception. Howev-
er, Clewes’ newest collection ranges 
farther, both in familial time and in 
space, juxtaposing her wilderness 
and northern experiences with a 
poetic reconstruction of her father’s 
time as a WWI fighter pilot (based 
on his pilot log) and meditations on 
her own experiences of love and loss, 
her travels more broadly, and her par-
ticipation in an 8-day silent retreat. 
While consistent with the contem-
porary Canadian lyric tradition (it 
comes as no surprise that Clewes 
PAPER WINGS
Rosemary Clewes
Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2014
reviewed by jordana 
greenblatt
thanks Don McKay), Paper Wings is 
also informed by Clewes’ work as a 
photographer and artist, resulting in 
poetry that straddles lyric inner space 
and evocative description of the visual 
landscape. Inevitably, Paper Wings 
both draws from and participates in 
the literary tradition of the Canadian 
North, in some ways reproducing its 
virtues and failures and exceeding 
them in others. The end result is a 
collection that is beautiful—some-
times insightfully critical—but also 
largely lacking introspection into 
what entitles Clewes to, as she puts 
it in “Untitled,” her “self-imposed 
summer exile,/ a yearly pretense of 
simplicity, solitude.” 
Some of strongest moments of 
Paper Wings combine ekphrasis 
with attention to constructions of 
nature and/or gender. In “Rapha-
el’s Galatea,” Clewes contrasts her 
immersion in nature with Raphael’s 
use of “sky and sea-sward … as back-
drop/ for the dramatis personae” in 
a fresco in which “Nature, it seems,/ 
wandered off into its own dark 
wood.” Questioning “Such heady 
celebration/ of artifice and brawn,” 
Clewes mediates on Raphael’s itera-
tion of a Galatae stripped of agential 
sexual narrative: “No hint in this 
freeze-framed/ fresco that our lady 
is hastening to a rendezvous with 
a lover.” Raphael’s banishment of 
nature to the background and his 
“docile” Galatea contrast strikingly 
with Clewes’ embodied description 
of kayaking in “Grow Me Gills,” a 
few poems earlier: “It’s all in the hips 
they say./ Kayak-skin, hip and knee.” 
The movement from Clewes’ solo 
summers in the Bruce Peninsula to 
her father’s stint as a fighter pilot 
during WWI is eased by the use of 
birds to figure both kayaking and 
flight. Undermining the convention-
al opposition between “masculine” 
wartime experience and feminized 
“nature,” Clewes’ take on her father’s 
pilot logs balance the fear and human 
CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME124
“Tree,” that “Sometimes you make up 
history, lacking facts,/ eye-witness./ 
History is, after all, the version you 
walk with now” may find themselves 
disappointed.
Jordana Greenblatt teaches English at 
York University, Women’s Studies at 
McMaster University, and Writing at 
the University of Toronto. Her research 
interests include modern and contem-
porary literature, comics and graphic 
novels, and sexuality studies.
THERE ARE NO SOLID 
GOLD DANCERS 
ANYMORE
Adrienne Weiss
Gibsons, bc: Nightwood Editions, 
2014
reviewed by tiffany 
sillanpää
Adrienne Weiss does not simply write 
poetry; she builds poems. The density 
of her pieces immediately impacts the 
reader as s/he wades through Weiss’s 
skillful use of colourful language and 
copious references to popular culture. 
The overwhelming sense of abun-
dance that is crammed into Weiss’s 
fairly slim collection sets the stage for 
her exploration of capital/consumer 
culture; as such There are No Solid 
Gold Dancers Anymore presents itself 
as a microcosm for the very social 
climate that Weiss critiques, thus 
transforming the reader into a mi-
crocosm for the capitalistic consumer, 
making him/her keenly aware of the 
media and product bombardment s/
he is subjected to during daily life.
Weiss’s collection, however, does not 
simply make a manic consumer out of 
its reader. Rather, the very density of 
her pieces forces a response opposite 
to passive media baths we endure ev-
ery day. The longer lines and generally 
lengthy pieces encourage, if not force, 
a slower reading pace and greater 
alertness. Each reference to popular 
culture (e.g. songs, movies, plays, 
celebrities etc.) draws on the reader’s 
own knowledge of and/or exposure 
to the referenced material, thus cre-
ating a deeper connection between 
reader and the text than necessarily 
prevalent in everyday media encoun-
ters. Furthermore, the abundance 
of references, overwhelming as they 
may be, and the reader’s potential 
ability to make personal references to 
many, increase the collection’s ability 
to highlight the degree of media we 
consume every day.
But to what effect? Weiss’s stylistic 
approach to her subject aptly foun-
dations her varied but interconnected 
themes as they relate to consumer 
society’s values and ideals and the 
media’s role in establishing and 
promoting such ideals, as well as an 
idealistic vision of continual, social 
progression. More importantly, Weiss 
further focuses her reader’s attention 
around her major theme by address-
ing smaller issues that consumeristic 
social climate creates. “Once Upon a 
Time” and the collection of poems in 
the section entitled Production 1960, 
demonstrate how fairytales and the 
film industry impose unrealistic and 
limiting ideals of beauty and self. 
Even more focused, Weiss pays special 
attention to the effects of the media’s 
power to control gender perceptions; 
in “The Way You Look on Love”, the 
speaker struggles “to shun the books, 
/ spent terminologies and years of 
obsessive scrutiny” that consumed 
Princess Diana’s life and painted her 
as a fickle young adventurer.
Weiss’s poems reveal how we often be-
come what we consume, holding the 
same idealized standards and expec-
tations that our consumer-based cul-
ture feeds us. The more we passively 
consume the ideas that our media and 
product based culture readily offers, 
the more they consume our selfhood 
and ideals. What is left, as “Heads or 
Tails” highlights, is only a wrapper of 
ourselves. Just as “Leftover Doritos 
and Twizzlers wrappers / archive” the 
trip and act as “archival debris of our 
time together,” so does the history of 
our consumption and the “trash” we 
leave behind—whether a figurative 
economical and socio-political cli-
mate or a more literal and material, 
environmental pollution—become 
an archive of our capitalist culture 
and ourselves. Consumer culture 
encourages sameness and uniformity, 
it literally consumes us, leaving a 
trace of society and humanity rather 
than solid gold dancers of striking 
differences and individuality. As 
Weiss’s speaker sarcastically notes, 
“technology will save us all, make us 
all the goddamn same.”
Additional to Weiss’s attentive, rel-
evant, and effective critique of the 
culture we live in, There Are No Solid 
Gold Dancers Anymore showcases the 
work of a finely tuned poem. Weiss 
holds a firm grip over the language 
she deploys and her attention to detail 
ensures the strength of her grip; her 
capacity to convincingly embody not 
just one but many voices is a subtle 
but powerful skill. As a result, Weiss 
smashes any lingering ideas about a 
“female voice” or “female themes” 
in poetry. Furthermore, she brings 
life and relevance into a genre often 
left by the wayside and reminds us 
of poetry’s capacity to inspire and 
encourage fresh perspectives on the 
social norms we live with.
Tiffany Sillanpää is a recent graduate 
from York University’s English M.A. 
program and also holds a B.A. in En-
glish from York. She is editor-in-chief 
of The Creative Life: A Blog for Art, 
Literature, & Life where she also writes 
book and theatre reviews along with 
life/career advice articles.


Paper Wings

Alles, Coralie

VOLUME 30, NUMBERS 2,3 109
Mehta, Lyla. The Politics and Poetics of Water: Naturalising 
Scarcity in Western India. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 
2005. Print.
Newman, Bryan. “Farmer Suicide and the Unforseen 
Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts of 
the Green Revolution in Punjab, India.” Food First, 
Development Report 15 (2007): 1-32. Print.
Paulson, Susan. “Gendered Practices and Landscapes in 
the Andes: The Shape of Asymmetrical Exchanges.” 
Political Ecology Across Spaces, Scales, and Social Groups. 
Ed. Susan Paulson and Lisa L. Gezon. New Brunswick, 
NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. 174-195. Print.
Rangan, Haripriya. Of Myths and Movements: Rewriting 
Chipko into Himalayan History. New York: Verso, 
2000. Print. 
Watts, Michael and Richard Peet. “Liberating Political 
Ecology,” Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, 
and Social Movements. 2nd Edition. Ed. Michael Watts 
and Richard Peet. New York: Routledge, 1996. 3-43. 
Rocheleau, Dianne, Barbara Thomas-Slayter, and Esther 
Wangari. “Gender and Environment: A Feminist Political 
Ecology Perspective.” Feminist Political Ecology: Global 
Issues and Local Experiences. Ed. Dianne Rocheleau, 
Barbara Thomas-Slayter, and Esterh Wangari. New 
York: Routledge, 1996. 3-23. Print.
Robbins, Paul. 2001. Political Ecology: A Critical 
Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Print.
Swyngedouw, Eric. Social Power and the Urbanization of 
Water: Flows of Power. New York: Oxford University 
Press, 2004. Print.
TARYN HUBBARD
Type the Drill Twice
I can weld. I can weld very well. I like it.
We do our work just as well as you do yours.
How I sit has a lot to do with how I can weld.
We can give quiet thought to the work that we do.
If he goes, I must go, too. You can go, too. I am 
next. He is quick.
I can weld and I do so with nimble fingers.
Years ago I earned my Red Seal.
An expert is one who does all her work very well.
I know I can make my fingers on the stick spark 
the tank.
If you have zeal for your work, you can do much.
I must know I can do the work: then I weld with 
out fear.
If I want to learn and work to learn, I shall learn.
I shall weld. I shall weld. I shall think to weld.
Taryn Hubbard is a writer from the West Coast. She has 
published in CV2, Lemon Hound, Capilano Review, 
Event, Room Magazine, subTerrain, and others. When 
she’s not writing, she works as a communications specialist 
in the public and private sectors, including five years at a 
trade union. tarynhubbard.com.
Coralie Alles
Appeasement
J’imagine qu’après la tourmente vient enfin le recueillement.
Les dernières bourrasques jouent encore dans les cheveux.
Rien à voir, cependant, avec les éléments fous des jours précédents,
Venus secouer, cette nymphe adorable au museau taquin, au port royal.
Candide dans sa partielle nudité, le cou tendu et à l’écoute,
C’est de l’intérieur que vibre cette âme sensible et douce.
Sa fougue et sa jeunesse retenues pour un instant,
Laissent transpercer une nature noble et délicate.
Le voile de pudeur, battant au vent et retenu avec grâce,
Témoigne de la virginité des pensées et des intentions.
C’est de son regard intérieur que surgit toute sa grâce.
Pieuse et radieuse, elle émeut de par sa blancheur innocente.
Née en Belgique, Coralie Alles a émigré en Afrique à l’âge de 11 ans. De là, elle est venue au Canada avec son mari et ses 
cinq enfants. Elle a publié «Boule de Gomme et compagnie» suivi de deux autres titres que les jeunes et les moins jeunes 
peuvent retrouver sur le site de Coralie www.chevaletpoetique.com.


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