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

de Nikolits, Lisa

100 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
La situation est critique: La ville frise la banqueroute, les 
taxes ne rentrent plus pour payer les infrastructures qui ont 
besoin d’entretien et de surveillance, y compris la distri-
bution de l’eau. Les autorités pour pallier au plus urgent 
ont tout bonnement congédié le personnel, jugé superflu 
et par la même occasion, augmenté les comptes d’eau.
Les femmes voient leurs maisons perdre de la valeur, 
elles croulent sous la négligence en l’absence de locataires/
propriétaires, les fenêtres sont placardées, défigurées par 
les graffitis, il règne un climat d’insécurité et de désespoir 
chez les citoyens impuissants. Un quartier qui sera bientôt 
déclassé au rang de taudis, selon les dires d’un promoteur. 
Un mouvement s’amorce, des femmes pressent le maire 
d’agir. Une agence spécialisée dans ce genre de redressement 
s’installe surplace et ne trouve rien de mieux pour limiter 
les dépenses que de congédier les trois employés à l’usine 
de distribution de l’eau, ne laissant qu’une seule dame, sur 
place, ce qui est insensé. Ils sont même allés jusqu’à couper 
l’eau aux citoyens qui ne paient pas leur tax! 
La colère gronde, cette fois, les femmes vont de porte 
en porte pour rallier les citoyens dans une vaste campagne 
de sensibilisation et bientôt les femmes et les hommes de 
Highland Park descendent dans la rue pour protester haut 
et fort avec des pancartes. Ils iront jusqu’au gouverneur.
Ils avancent un argument de taille! Ils ont appris que 
les contrats donnés aux agents de redressement ont coûté 
plus d’un million de dollars au gouvernement, sans offrir 
aucune solution après quatre ans de travaux sur place. Les 
femmes dénoncent et veulent une action positive. ¨Vous 
avez trouvé l’argent pour payer des gens qui n’ont rien 
fait, vous auriez pu le placer là où il aurait servi. Pourquoi 
congédier des employés qui assuraient le bon fonctionne-
ment et l’entretien des conduites d’eau et auraient évité 
l’inconfort dans lequel nous sommes obligés de vivre?¨ Des 
pourparlers ont été engagés qui ont conduit le gouverneur 
à congédier l’équipe inutile, à mettre l’argent où il devait 
être et à statuer en vue de redresser les tarifs qui seraient 
équitables pour tous.
Cette histoire à la gloire et à la solidarité des Américaines 
a été filmée et rapportée par une cinéaste montréalaise, 
Elizabeth Miller en 2012. Elle a démontré la détermination 
et le courage des femmes devant une situation qui menaçait 
leur santé et le bien-être de leur communauté. Elles ont 
gagné la valorisation de leur milieu de vie!
Jeanne Maranda lives in Montreal. She has been CWS/cf ’s 
French language editor since the journal was founded in 1978.
References
The Water Front. Dir. Elizabeth Miller. Bullfrog Films, 
2007. Film.
LISA DE NIKOLITS
she comforts me
ice glitter —
the ring bearer 
of 
infinite possibilities
how do you know 
things will be fine?
that there is protection?
hands comforted
while outside
a disco hurricane
swirls
against the glass
of this safe prison
every goddess particle
brings blessing 
and hope
that goddess comforts 
me
guides
me
protects
me
she is the glitter ice bomb
angry against that window pane
then, tiny rivers 
echo my tears
i retreat
in my concrete box
i hide
between cardboard walls
hold my hands under that blanket
of her hot love
her love that speaks to me
of tasmanian seas
and far flung oceans
breathe, breathe
the water connects us
the goddess protects us
Lisa de Nikolits is an award-winning author of five 
novels: The Hungry Mirror, West of Wawa, A 
Glittering Chaos, The Witchdoctor’s Bones, and most 
recently,Between The Cracks She Fell.


French

she comforts me

Gaucher, Megan

VOLUME 30,  NUMBERS 2,3 143
and also poses the question of the 
possibility of a distinctly feminine 
professionalism. 
While the authors in Rethinking 
Professionalism engage with the 
central issue of professionalism to 
varying degrees, what does emerge is 
a collection of scholarly essays focused 
largely on lesser-known practitioners 
working primarily in the early 20th 
century. Canada’s great “woman 
painter” Emily Carr does not feature 
as subject for discussion in any of the 
chapters, and when more recognized 
artists are discussed it is their more 
obscure accomplishments that are 
highlighted. That is the case with 
Anne Savage (1896-1971) who was 
a painter and founding member of 
Montréal’s Beaver Hall Group—erro-
neously often viewed as a collective of 
women artists—and contemporary 
of the Group of Seven. Alena Buis’ 
chapter focuses on Savage’s work as 
a teacher and broadcaster, critically 
analyzing Savage’s cbc programme 
The Development of Art in Canada 
(1939). Buis explores how Savage’s 
lectures on art in Canada were writ-
ten to address a broad public while 
furthering a nationalistic narrative 
that had previously been constructed 
by Canadian cultural elites. Buis 
does show that Savage’s professional 
position was a subordinate one, as 
her broadcasts were written with help 
from A.Y. Jackson who had a vested 
interest in the shaping of Canadian 
art history. Yet Savage’s accomplish-
ment of making art accessible to 
all regardless of class or location is 
markedly contrary to established and 
elitist understandings of Canadian art 
and is worthy of attention. 
What the framework of profes-
sionalism allows for is an explora-
tion of women’s contributions in 
the cultural sphere that is more 
far-reaching in scope. Women’s 
roles in the formation and running 
of cultural institutions is consid-
ered in two essays, one by Lianne 
McTavish that examines Alice Lusk 
Webster’s efforts to professionalize 
the New Brunswick Museum, and 
Anne Whitelaw’s study of women 
working at the Edmonton Art Gal-
lery between 1923 and 1970. The 
latter chapter is included in the final 
section of the book that considers 
the limitations of professionalism. 
Whitelaw’s consideration of Maud 
Bowman’s (1875-1944) work as 
director of the Edmonton Museum 
of Art (as it was then known) illu-
minates the difficulties in studying 
voluntarism in museums for, in spite 
of her role as director, Bowman was 
seen as a volunteer more often than 
as a professional. The closing sec-
tion of the volume is a particularly 
strong one, allowing for discussions 
of Aboriginal art and craft including 
a comprehensive account by Shelley 
Farrell Racette of the challenges 
facing scholars writing Aboriginal 
women into Canadian art history. 
The real strength of this collec-
tion of essays is that it showcases 
a number of women who remain 
un(der)recognized in the history of 
Canadian culture. Jennifer Salahub 
looks at the photography of Hannah 
Maynard (1834-1918), linking her 
images to needlework and domestic 
textile production. Salahub notes that 
there is limited critical engagement 
with Maynard’s photographs even 
though her experimental work of the 
late 19th century is remarkable and 
could conceivably be said to antici-
pate the avant-garde movements of 
Dada and Surrealism had her work 
been known more broadly. This 
point of limited critical engagement 
with women’s work is a recurrent 
one and can be extended to most 
case studies included in Rethinking 
Professionalism. One can only hope 
that by shedding light on a wide range 
of women’s accomplishments in the 
arts new critical explorations of the 
history of women and art in Canada 
will begin to emerge. 
Michelle Gewurtz completed her Ph.D. 
in the History of Art at the University 
of Leeds. She currently teaches in 
Humanities and the Critical and Cu-
ratorial Practice Program at ocad 
University as well as in the Women’s 
Studies Program at the University of 
Waterloo. Her current research focuses 
on modern art produced by women 
during the inter-war period in Europe 
and Canada while also considering 
feminist interventions in museum 
practice.
Aiming to “rethink constitutionalism 
in a manner that addresses and reflects 
feminist thought and experience,” 
Feminist Constitutionalism: Global 
Perspectives provides a comprehen-
sive comparative examination of the 
complexity of constitutionalism as a 
viable option for feminist mobiliza-
tion. Baines, Barak-Erez, and Kahana 
argue that the contributions—both 
actual and potential—feminism pres-
ents for traditional understandings 
of constitutionalism have largely 
been ignored; the impact feminist 
analysis has and continues to have 
on constitutional law, and vice versa, 
warrants attention. 
Chapters by Nedelsky, Case, 
and Dixon and Nussbaum address 
potential contributions feminist 
constitutionalism could make to 
mainstream feminist debates con-
cerning the division of household 
labour, the institution of marriage, 
and reproductive freedom respec-
FEMINIST 
CONSTITUTIONALISM: 
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
Beverley Baines, Daphne Barak-Erez, 
and Tsvi Kahana, Eds.
Cambridge: Cambridge University 
Press, 2012
reviewed by megan 
gaucher
CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME144
tively. The authors outline the work 
of feminism in challenging the 
patriarchal foundations of consti-
tution development and execution. 
Furthermore, they provide insight 
into how these debates can result in a 
reconceptualization of certain values 
initially intended by constitutional 
framers to further subordinate this 
particular population. 
Subsequent chapters challenge the 
idea that feminist contribution to 
constitutionalism is uni-dimension-
al. While the authors recognize that 
constitutions have historically been 
and continue to be developed without 
female input, there remain opportu-
nities for mobilization. Barak-Erez’s 
chapter on feminist interpretation, 
and Roberts’ chapter on female judges 
in Australia explore the utility of a 
feminist interpretation of the law 
while accounting for the challenges 
female judges face as they attempt to 
implement this interpretation within 
a male dominated forum. These expe-
riences are often compounded by the 
limited capacity of legal mechanisms 
to assess gender-based equality, as 
demonstrated in Froc’s chapter on 
the Charter and Loper’s chapter 
on constitutional developments in 
Hong Kong.
Similarly, the success of feminist 
constitutionalism relies on the pres-
ence of feminist legislators as well. 
McDonagh and Monopoli argue in 
their chapter on the political repre-
sentation of women in the United 
States that the inherently masculine 
nature of political institutions makes 
it difficult for women to gain access; 
moreover, those who are able to gain 
access often experience isolation from 
their male colleagues or are relegated 
to those policy domains traditionally 
conceived of as “female oriented.” 
On the other hand, Rodriguez-Ruiz 
and Rubio-Marin contend that con-
stitutionally imposed gender parity 
in state legislatures provides an ideal 
environment for feminist contribu-
tion. Finally, Katz examines how the 
success of female involvement in con-
stitution drafting is context-specific 
and varies by country. This should not 
however deter us from recognizing 
the unique insight women bring to 
this process. 
In addition to the need for 
feminist decision-makers, feminist 
constitutionalism depends on the 
mobilization of women’s rights orga-
nizations. Constitutional challenges 
made by these groups have effectively 
challenged the so-called gender 
neutrality of constitutions and have 
forced courts to reinterpret rights in 
order to accommodate gender-based 
differences. The success of feminist 
constitutionalism is therefore multi-
farious and involves multiple levels 
of engagement.
This book’s broad scope is both its 
greatest strength and weakness. While 
Feminist Constitutionalism effectively 
captures the complexity of feminist 
interaction with constitutional law, 
this book is premised on several 
problematic assumptions. First, the 
chapters fail to make any type of 
distinction between women and fem-
inists, often conflating the two. The 
authors equate acts of non-feminist 
action with feminists being stifled 
by their patriarchal environment, 
ultimately ignoring the ways in 
which non-feminist women (judg-
es, legislators, activists) have used 
constitutions in an attempt to block 
feminist gains. Second, the book 
addresses intersectionality in the 
last few chapters; however, the issue 
of access remains under-addressed. 
While constitutionalism does provide 
opportunities for feminist gain, it 
is imperative that we account for 
the costs (e.g. financial, political, 
emotional) that are associated with 
such action. This leads to a third 
and related assumption—that all 
feminists are supportive of constitu-
tional law as an appropriate forum for 
mobilization. During the same-sex 
marriage debates in Canada, feminist 
scholars warned of the implications 
the extension of marital benefits to 
same-sex couples would have for 
lesbian relationships, as the patriar-
chal family fosters and maintains the 
subordination of women (Herman).
This book focuses primarily on lib-
eral feminist objectives, that being 
political inclusion, ignoring other 
feminist groups that might oppose 
such action. Finally, the book assumes 
that feminist constitutionalism leads 
to societal change; however, as Epp 
contends, the success of constitution-
al change—particularly with respect 
to human rights—depends on the 
presence of rights consciousness in 
popular culture (Epp).Feminist con-
stitutionalism is therefore a necessary 
but not sufficient condition for soci-
etal change. That being said, Feminist 
Constitutionalism is a rewarding read 
that deserves thoughtful attention.
Megan Gaucher is a doctoral candidate 
from the Department of Political Stud-
ies at Queen’s University. Her research 
focuses on the importance of relationship 
recognition in the execution of state 
power, particularly the privileging of 
conjugal and conjugal-like relation-
ships in Canadian law and policy.
Works Cited
Epp, Charles. The Rights Revolution: 
Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme 
Courts in Comparative Perspective. 
Chicago: University of Chicago 
Press, 1998. 
Herman, Didi. “Are We Family? 
Lesbian Rights and Women’s 
Liberation.” Osgoode Hall Law 
Journal 28 (4) (1989): 789-816.


English

Feminist Constitutionalism: Global Perspectives

Hamilton, Jane Eaton

24 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
JANE EATON HAMILTON
E. Coli, Walkerton
Water scours the pots. Water relieves heat waves
We drank from a sweating pitcher
The body is 90% water
On that hot afternoon her ankles swelled, and then—
When he said, “I love you, Mom”
he was telling her that he once floated happily in her 
water
Water falls from the skies
Through hell
Water rises cataclysmically
Don’t throw out the baby
Water freezes at 0 degrees C
Water plunges over rocks and down hillsides
You’re in hot water now
Water is the biggest international resource
Water is a solvent
Oil is immiscible in water
Water is tasteless and odourless
In Tanzania, children run to Jeeps begging for water
People are dying of thirst
in Haiti, the water is malarial
Women carry water jugs on their heads
You take to mah jongg like a duck to water
Many creatures swim in water
Water is a simple pleasure in a shower
You are wet behind the ears
Noodles boil in water
A child can live three days without water
Salt water is 71% of the globe
Water boils at 68 degrees C
Still water runs deep
Water is a chemical compound with the formula H20
Water can be solid or vaporous
Hydrology is its study
He would have told her
blood is thicker than water
if she hadn’t been so sick
He would have said I’m sorry
But water was what he cried
when they wheeled her away
Jane Eaton Hamilton is the author, most recently, of 
“Love Will Burst into a Thousand Shapes.” She has 
twice won first prize in the CBC Literary Awards 
(2003/2014). 
ILONA MARTONFI
Clamdigger
Knowing the times of low tide
go to the flats when the tide is down
all you need is a rake
once the tides are low
go to the Hyannis Mall bookstore
across from the Holiday Inn
the air-conditioning
in the parking lot, seagulls
etched into sand
buy a book
on abusive relationships,
Getting Free
your youngest, only six
a young boy
three teenage daughters.
All you need is a rake
once the tides are low
build a sandcastle
collect mollusk shells
take coloured photographs
beach, sand dunes, seaweed algae
hide the book in your bag
under blue cotton jeans
read it in the hotel room
when he is at the indoor pool
in the evening go out for dinner
at Villa Vecchione on Main Street
beside the Pauper’s Cemetery
pink wild roses
grey-shingled cottages.
Ilona Martonfi is the author of three poetry books, 
Blue Poppy (2009), Black Grass (2012) and The 
Snow Kimono (2015). 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.


E. Coli, Walkerton

Pellegrino, Olivia

VOLUME 30,  NUMBERS 2,3 125
THE DISARMED HEART
Susan McCaslin
Toronto: The Saint Thomas Poetry 
Series, 2014
reviewed by olivia 
pellegrino
Susan McCaslin’s The Disarmed 
Heart is a poetry collection in three 
parts, each distinct, yet importantly 
connected through resurfacing con-
cerns expounded by her speakers. 
Each section offers intimate glimpses 
into the past and present lives of the 
speakers as well as their troubling 
dreams of eventualities. The “I” voice 
of the collection and its intimacy 
of experience remain consistently 
effective across all three sections, 
delivering a biting, often playfully 
insolent, and always eco-critical dis-
cussion of consumerism, capitalism, 
and the treatment of feminism in the 
contemporary West. Despite minor 
shortcomings and contrivances, 
McCaslin’s poetry seamlessly weaves 
together numerous concerns to make 
a convincing argument for peace 
and environmental justice without 
resonating as didactic. 
The first section, Open Odes, is a 
series of appreciations addressed to 
a curious variety of natural subjects. 
With the sparse inclusion of human 
subjects, the eloquent language and 
tone with which McCaslin addresses 
her animal subjects is defined as cel-
ebratory because her subjects exist, 
for the most part, outside humanity. 
Deeper levels of compassion, and in 
some ways humaneness, mark Mc-
Caslin’s animals. This differentiates 
them from the poet-speaker and the 
reader, which proves effective in that 
it allows the reader to consider her 
own position in relation to these 
celebrated subjects that range from 
the lithe black panther to the oozing 
banana slug. At first, it is easy consider 
an ode to a banana slug (to use one 
of many offbeat examples) as quirky 
or somewhat of a disincentive, yet 
McCaslin subtly demands why this is 
the case and, further, why the banana 
slug indeed deserves praise. 
Within these unorthodox subjects, 
McCaslin’s speakers find a way to 
transcend the boundaries and lim-
itations that have been self-imposed 
by humanity: routine, the black pan-
ther existing outside his ecosystem; 
gender, in the case of the hermaph-
roditic banana slug; and religion, as 
in the “scape-goat-ed” Sam the Goat 
(McCaslin’s wordplay is consistently 
enjoyable). Also worth noting is 
McCaslin’s mixing of the ode form 
with hints of contemporaneity, both 
based in personal experience and pop 
culture iconography. Though clever, 
these references seem contrived and 
rather unnecessary at times.
The eponymous second section 
is rather shorter than the others yet 
incredibly compelling. A number of 
pieces, including “Dank Tureen,” a 
dream of the effects of global warm-
ing, and “Xanadu Two,” a reworking 
of Coleridge’s opium induced “Kubla 
Khan,” lend this section a distinct 
level of irreality and an attitude of 
disenchantment in imagining the 
impending consequences of climate 
change and international conflicts. 
Moving from the praise of the odes, 
McCaslin describes the dangers of 
greed, global warming, and the indif-
ferent acceptance and internalization 
of violence. She conceptualizes a 
world of mechanization and de-
struction and subsequently proceeds 
to volunteer a remedy. The hope 
proffered by her poet-speaker comes 
through the deployment of words 
(rather than troops) and education. 
The strength of this section, and the 
collection as a whole, is that it does 
not rely on didacticism to accentu-
ate its resolution. Rather, McCaslin 
structures the scene she uses to show-
case the negative and in a few, short 
pieces, offers a different, preferable 
vision of the world. These pieces read 
more personally than the earlier odes 
and showcase the vulnerability of the 
speaker when she stands alone. There 
is, however, power and defiance in 
her isolated stance which draws the 
reader in and achieves its purpose. 
The third section, Emparadised, 
continues to build on the criticisms 
of the previous two sections while 
also offering a more substantiated 
solution, as illustrated in poems 
such as “The Possibilities of an 
Empty Page” and the final poem 
of the collection, “Re-firings.” As 
the collection closes, the solution 
presented by the poet-persona is a 
cycle of imagining and re-imagining, 
a technique that McCaslin herself 
excels at. It is regrettable that this 
aptitude, the ability to reinterpret 
and rewrite, only surfaces for a few 
brief, shining moments. Noteworthy 
examples of this intertextuality are the 
aforementioned revisiting of “Kubla 
Khan” as well as a reworking of P.K. 
Page’s “The Understatement” in 
McCaslin’s “When the Stones Rise.” 
What remains so effective in these 
pieces, and in the collection as a 
whole, is the ability of the poet and 
her poetry to reignite or ‘re-fire’ the 
flares of imagination. Indeed, the 
collection closes with a succinct sum-
mary of one of its central messages—
that imagination and creativity must 
exist for the world of peace and justice 
that McCaslin envisions and only 
constant reimagining of established 
beliefs and understanding can allow 
that world to materialize. Overall, 
The Disarmed Heart is an intriguing 
and well-composed collection. 
Olivia Pellegrino is a graduate stu-
dent studying Canadian literature. 
Olivia’s main research interests include 
representations of violence and apoca-
lyptic motifs in Canadian poetry and 
contemporary fiction.


The Disarmed Heart

Novoselova, Veronika

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME134
debates occurring in union circles 
today. Indeed, this is the crux of the 
argument: that equity is not just one 
dimension of the legacy of organized 
labour, but that it is the core, and 
that equity must be the central focus 
of union renewal efforts. In today’s 
grim reality of austerity-driven gov-
ernments and increasingly hostile 
and combative employers, it is dif-
ficult for labour activists—as well as 
researchers—to maintain a focus on 
the broader agenda; the immediate 
need to respond to the exigencies 
of front-line struggles often mean 
labour is reacting to a crisis, not en-
acting an agenda. Foley and Baker’s 
work helps put this in context, and 
offers a vital aid to understanding 
the historical and ongoing centrality 
of the equity project to the renewal 
not just of organized labour, but of 
working life in general.
Hans Rollmann completed a Masters 
degree in Cultural Anthropology at 
Memorial University of Newfoundland 
and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in 
Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies 
at York University. His research focuses 
on gender representation and the labour 
movement. 
Building upon a well-established 
tradition of considering science 
and technology as constituted by 
culture, Shoshana Amielle Magnet 
problematizes the discourses behind 
the expansion of biometrics—tech-
nologies that aim at verification and 
identification by means of using data 
obtained from measuring bodies 
through iris and retina scans, digital 
fingerprinting, and facial recognition. 
Marketed as perfect tools to reduce 
human error and eliminate subjective 
judgement, digital biometrics are 
being increasingly implemented in 
the areas of law enforcement, infor-
mation access, and border security. 
Magnet, however, calls into question 
the industry’s claims of impartiality 
of identification technologies by 
arguing that biometrics are based 
on outdated, essentialized notions 
of identity and disproportionately 
target minority populations. 
The notion of biometric failure 
features centrally in the book, and 
Magnet unpacks its multiple mean-
ings in the introductory chapters. 
In a literal sense, identification and 
verification technologies fail more 
often than the biometrics industry 
representatives would like to admit: 
there are mismatches and false re-
jections of known subjects as well as 
possibilities that high-tech devices 
can be hacked or fooled. On a larger 
level, biometrics fail to realize their 
core promises of objectivity, conve-
nience, and reliability. Magnet adopts 
Donna Haraway’s concept of corpore-
al fetishism to explain how a relentless 
pursuit to uncover the “inner truth” 
of identity aims at transforming a 
body into a knowable, fixed object. 
The framework of corporeal fetishism 
allows Magnet to trace how bodies 
that do not conform to a projected 
image of a white, able-bodied, and 
gender-conforming male user are 
constructed as “inscrutable” and 
therefore, as having a low economic 
value in a big business of biometrics. 
To support her argument, Magnets 
cites numerous accounts of biomet-
ric failures on othered bodies. For 
example, face scanners sometimes 
fail to accurately identify people of 
color; iris scanners are not designed 
to accommodate individuals with 
visual impairments; devices that 
speed up the flow of passengers in 
the airport will not work on people 
in wheelchairs or with certain medical 
conditions. Biometric systems not 
only privilege white able bodies, 
but also assume a strict male/female 
binary which erases the existence of 
gender-variant individuals.
After providing an overview of the 
development of biometric technol-
ogies, Magnet critically assesses the 
three major areas of their use: the 
prison industrial complex and the 
welfare system in the U.S., and the 
security system at the U.S.-Canada 
border. Operating in a neo-liberal 
context of moving from rehabilita-
tion to punishment, prisons function 
as locations of surveillance, allowing 
biometrics companies to capitalize on 
the growing rates of incarceration; 
with no opportunity to opt out, 
prisoners become convenient test 
subjects for identification and ver-
ification technologies. After having 
been adopted by prisons, biometrics 
are making huge profits by expanding 
into the US welfare system. Magnet 
reveals how neoliberal political 
climate enables the biometrics in-
dustry to profit from policing poor 
people during times of continuous 
cutbacks of social services. Turning 
to the issue of transformation of the 
US-Canada border by biometric 
technologies, Magnet shows how 
Western anxieties around racialized 
bodies connect to the interests of 
biometric companies and the global 
capital. An overarching argument 
running through these discussions 
is that biometrics—underpinned 
by biases around categories of other-
ness—criminalize welfare recipients, 
immigrant and refugees populations, 
queer people, and people of color. 
Of particular interest for Magnet 
are representations of biometrics in 
popular culture. Coining the term 
WHEN BIOMETRICS 
FAIL: GENDER, RACE
AND THE 
TECHNOLOGY OF 
IDENTITY
Shoshana Amielle Magnet
Durham: Duke University Press, 
2011 
reviewed by veronika 
novoselova
VOLUME 30,  NUMBERS 2,3 135
example, the articles depict mothers 
who are clinically overweight or 
obese who prefer terminology such 
as “big boned”, and relate their size 
to genetics. The associated social 
stigma discussed is that they do 
not recognize healthy nutrition, are 
from lower income housing, and 
will have unhealthy “fat” babies be-
cause of their poor dietary routines. 
The risks of diabetes and low birth 
weight babies are outlined in these 
articles also. The overarching medical 
assessment is that something must be 
initiated to stop the perpetuation of 
the obesity cycle. The problem raised 
is that there is no generic answer as 
to when an interruption of said cycle 
serves the patient/public best. As one 
of the study subjects from Chapter 2 
asserts, overweight bodies, through 
pregnancy, are replaced by a “thriving, 
glowing and healthy body [which] 
was meant to eat, allowed to eat.” 
The reader views this subject who 
recognizes that she shouldn’t perhaps 
eat as much as she does, or as poorly, 
but is relishing pregnancy because 
food is no longer negative.
This perspective contrasts that 
of the African tribes studied for the 
workshop/seminar series. The sub-
jects in these studies were generally 
of force-fed generations, albeit some 
subjects were the last of this lineage. 
In this cultural environment the size 
of the woman is not only seen as 
beautiful and desirable, but is also 
a measure of a family’s wealth and 
status in the community. The ability 
to “fatten” one’s daughter necessitates, 
in the cases presented, the acquisition 
of livestock as well as slaves/workers; 
a sizable woman necessarily cannot 
participate in much physical activity 
in the running of their homes. De-
spite this lack of physical activity, the 
woman is still a very prominent figure 
in the social nature of the community, 
as is her “fattening” at a young age, 
which facilitates her transition into 
womanhood.
FATNESS AND 
THE MATERNAL 
BODY: WOMEN’S 
EXPERIENCES OF 
CORPOREALITY AND 
THE SHAPING OF 
SOCIAL POLICY
Maya Unnithan-Kumar and Soraya 
Tremayne, Eds.
New York & Oxford: Berghahn 
Books, 2011
reviewed by lauren 
shepherd
Fatness and the Maternal Body: 
Women’s Experiences of Corporeality 
and the Shaping of Social Policy is a 
collection of articles which demon-
strate the significance of “fatness” 
through different cultures. It is the 
result of a series of workshops and 
seminars facilitated by the Fertility 
and Reproduction Studies Group 
(FRSG) at the Institute of Social and 
Cultural Anthropology hosted by the 
University of Oxford in 2006. This 
collection focuses on cultural social-
ization and perspectives of “fatness,” 
and their links to reproduction, 
health risk, obesity, and status. The 
articles explore data from the United 
Kingdom, Africa, and India, present-
ing the differing cultural standards 
placed on “fatness” of the female body 
(pre and post-natal), and the direct 
relationship to obesity, health, social 
and political status, and wealth. This 
compilation explores what it means to 
be “overweight” (socially, culturally, 
and medically). The editors take care 
to note that there is unfortunately 
no discussion of male “fatness”, and 
its effects on reproductive health 
in this collection, it being a highly 
under-researched area.
The perspectives of “fatness” that 
are presented are culturally and 
socially linked to their country of 
origin. In the United Kingdom, for 
surveillant scopophilia to illuminate 
practices of looking enabled by 
biometric technologies, she critically 
analyzes narrative elements of science 
fiction films where technology func-
tions as a tool to control suspect and 
threatening bodies. Magnet asserts 
that such films naturalize surveil-
lance technology, thus serving as a 
convincing argument for real-life 
uncritical adoption of biometrics by 
both consumers and policy makers.
Contrary to the advertisements 
that offer prospects of colour-blind 
and gender-neutral identification sys-
tems that circumvent human biases, 
biometrics are becoming a part of the 
problem when they intrude into the 
lives of vulnerable populations whose 
bodies are being measured, mapped, 
digitized, policed, classified, pushed 
into inadequately narrow categories 
of identity or erased altogether from 
the public discourse. Magnet’s infor-
mative work clearly shows dangers 
inherent in deterministic visions of 
simple technological fixes to multi-
faceted social problems such as racial 
profiling, discrimination, crime, and 
poverty. In addition, her argument 
makes evident a disconcerting gap 
between advancements in feminist 
theory that posit gender and race as 
relational, situated and complex pro-
cesses, and contemporary scientific 
practices that still rely on biological 
categories of identity.
Thoroughly researched and con-
ceptually interesting, When Biomet-
rics Fail will be a valuable addition to 
a wide range of undergraduate and 
graduate courses on public policy, 
human rights, social justice, and 
feminist studies of technology. 
Veronika Novoselova is a Ph.D. Candi-
date in Gender, Feminist and Women’s 
Studies at York University. Her current 
work focuses on digital media, online 
sociality and feminist blogging.


When Biometrics Fail: Gender, Race and the Technology of Identity

Shepherd, Lauren

VOLUME 30,  NUMBERS 2,3 135
example, the articles depict mothers 
who are clinically overweight or 
obese who prefer terminology such 
as “big boned”, and relate their size 
to genetics. The associated social 
stigma discussed is that they do 
not recognize healthy nutrition, are 
from lower income housing, and 
will have unhealthy “fat” babies be-
cause of their poor dietary routines. 
The risks of diabetes and low birth 
weight babies are outlined in these 
articles also. The overarching medical 
assessment is that something must be 
initiated to stop the perpetuation of 
the obesity cycle. The problem raised 
is that there is no generic answer as 
to when an interruption of said cycle 
serves the patient/public best. As one 
of the study subjects from Chapter 2 
asserts, overweight bodies, through 
pregnancy, are replaced by a “thriving, 
glowing and healthy body [which] 
was meant to eat, allowed to eat.” 
The reader views this subject who 
recognizes that she shouldn’t perhaps 
eat as much as she does, or as poorly, 
but is relishing pregnancy because 
food is no longer negative.
This perspective contrasts that 
of the African tribes studied for the 
workshop/seminar series. The sub-
jects in these studies were generally 
of force-fed generations, albeit some 
subjects were the last of this lineage. 
In this cultural environment the size 
of the woman is not only seen as 
beautiful and desirable, but is also 
a measure of a family’s wealth and 
status in the community. The ability 
to “fatten” one’s daughter necessitates, 
in the cases presented, the acquisition 
of livestock as well as slaves/workers; 
a sizable woman necessarily cannot 
participate in much physical activity 
in the running of their homes. De-
spite this lack of physical activity, the 
woman is still a very prominent figure 
in the social nature of the community, 
as is her “fattening” at a young age, 
which facilitates her transition into 
womanhood.
FATNESS AND 
THE MATERNAL 
BODY: WOMEN’S 
EXPERIENCES OF 
CORPOREALITY AND 
THE SHAPING OF 
SOCIAL POLICY
Maya Unnithan-Kumar and Soraya 
Tremayne, Eds.
New York & Oxford: Berghahn 
Books, 2011
reviewed by lauren 
shepherd
Fatness and the Maternal Body: 
Women’s Experiences of Corporeality 
and the Shaping of Social Policy is a 
collection of articles which demon-
strate the significance of “fatness” 
through different cultures. It is the 
result of a series of workshops and 
seminars facilitated by the Fertility 
and Reproduction Studies Group 
(FRSG) at the Institute of Social and 
Cultural Anthropology hosted by the 
University of Oxford in 2006. This 
collection focuses on cultural social-
ization and perspectives of “fatness,” 
and their links to reproduction, 
health risk, obesity, and status. The 
articles explore data from the United 
Kingdom, Africa, and India, present-
ing the differing cultural standards 
placed on “fatness” of the female body 
(pre and post-natal), and the direct 
relationship to obesity, health, social 
and political status, and wealth. This 
compilation explores what it means to 
be “overweight” (socially, culturally, 
and medically). The editors take care 
to note that there is unfortunately 
no discussion of male “fatness”, and 
its effects on reproductive health 
in this collection, it being a highly 
under-researched area.
The perspectives of “fatness” that 
are presented are culturally and 
socially linked to their country of 
origin. In the United Kingdom, for 
surveillant scopophilia to illuminate 
practices of looking enabled by 
biometric technologies, she critically 
analyzes narrative elements of science 
fiction films where technology func-
tions as a tool to control suspect and 
threatening bodies. Magnet asserts 
that such films naturalize surveil-
lance technology, thus serving as a 
convincing argument for real-life 
uncritical adoption of biometrics by 
both consumers and policy makers.
Contrary to the advertisements 
that offer prospects of colour-blind 
and gender-neutral identification sys-
tems that circumvent human biases, 
biometrics are becoming a part of the 
problem when they intrude into the 
lives of vulnerable populations whose 
bodies are being measured, mapped, 
digitized, policed, classified, pushed 
into inadequately narrow categories 
of identity or erased altogether from 
the public discourse. Magnet’s infor-
mative work clearly shows dangers 
inherent in deterministic visions of 
simple technological fixes to multi-
faceted social problems such as racial 
profiling, discrimination, crime, and 
poverty. In addition, her argument 
makes evident a disconcerting gap 
between advancements in feminist 
theory that posit gender and race as 
relational, situated and complex pro-
cesses, and contemporary scientific 
practices that still rely on biological 
categories of identity.
Thoroughly researched and con-
ceptually interesting, When Biomet-
rics Fail will be a valuable addition to 
a wide range of undergraduate and 
graduate courses on public policy, 
human rights, social justice, and 
feminist studies of technology. 
Veronika Novoselova is a Ph.D. Candi-
date in Gender, Feminist and Women’s 
Studies at York University. Her current 
work focuses on digital media, online 
sociality and feminist blogging.
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 


Fatness and the Maternal Body: Women's Experiences of Corporeality and the Shaping of Social Policy

Anderson, Kim

Cranney, Brenda

Miles, Angela

Nanibush, Wanda

Sherman, Paula

VOLUME 30, NUMBERS 2,3 3
Editorial
kim anderson, brenda cranney, angela miles, 
wanda nanibush and paula sherman
This special issue is grounded in the widespread recognition 
that water is the source of life.
In an Anishinaaabeg context, Nibi (water) is sacred, and 
women have particular responsibilities and knowledge in 
relationship to it. As guest editors, we recognize that main-
stream academic scholarship and settler society in Canada 
typically do not recognize the sacred connection between 
women and water and life, nor is there an awareness of 
the traditional knowledge that Indigenous communities 
and social movements are seeking to recover and restore 
as a necessary element in their survival and the survival of 
Mother Earth. Brutal practices toward the environment 
are continuing processes of patriarchal colonization that 
began millennia ago with the earliest attacks on Indigenous 
earth-based cultures. Indigenous women and communities 
around the world today continue to bear the brunt of the 
destruction and are at the heart of the resistance. We have 
thus centered both the traditional Indigenous knowledge 
and resistance to the destruction within this collection.
We further highlight women’s visionary recovery and 
resistance in many communities globally, as we wanted to 
produce a journal issue which would deepen our under-
standing of the destructive forces and values we face and 
celebrate the rich variety of powerful resistance and deep 
alternatives everywhere. Overall, in this work, we honour 
women’s special relationship to water, traditionally and in 
daily life today. The articles represent diverse voices and 
approaches, but collectively address the growing concern 
for the depletion and commodification of freshwater, pol-
lution of oceans, lakes, and rivers, decreased water-based 
biodiversity, and increased use and abuse of water by 
companies involved in the extractive economy taking 
place across the world. The opening of Canada and the 
rest of the world to the life and spirit denying extraction 
business has had disastrous effects on health, economies, 
and cultures, especially in poor, Indigenous, and peasant 
communities which are organizing in resistance. Profiling 
the innovative and powerful frameworks and responses on 
the part of women worldwide is an expression of hope.
Ce numéro spécial des Cahiers est déterminé à soutenir 
la reconnaissance universelle de l’eau qui est source de vie 
Dans le contexte Anishinaabeg, Nibi (l’eau) est sacrée 
et les femmes ont une connaissance et une responsabilité 
spéciales envers elle. Les éditrices invitées ont reconnu que 
les chercheurs ordinaires ainsi que les premiers habitants 
du Canada ignorent ce lien du sacré entre les femmes 
et l’eau, et ne reconnaissent pas le savoir traditionnel 
des autochtones et des mouvements sociaux qui veulent 
retrouver et restaurer l’eau, cet élément vital pour leur 
survivance et celle de la Terre-Mère. Les pratiques brutales 
envers l’environnement se situent dans le continuum de la 
colonisation patriarcale qui a débuté il y a des millénaires 
avec les premiers assauts à la culture autochtones. Les 
femme autochtones et leurs communautés dans le monde 
font toujours face à leur disparition et sont au coeur de la 
résistance. Le savoir traditionnel des autochtones et leur 
résistance face à la destruction de leurs peuples sont donc 
au premier plan de ce Cahier. 
Nous ferons la lumière sur les femmes et leurs projets 
visionnaires qui ont résisté et ravivé plusieurs des com-
munautés autochtones, nous voulons dans ce numéro 
approfondir notre connaissance de leurs valeurs et les forces 
destructrices qui nous font face et célébrer la variété des 
mouvements de résistance et les alternatives qui surgissent 
dans le monde. En fait, nous voulons honorer la relation 
très spéciale des femmes avec l’eau, traditionnellement et 
quotidiennement. Les articles représentent des approches 
et des voix diverses mais collectivement ils orientent leurs 
angoisses face à la déplétion et à l’accessibilité de l’eau 
pure, de la pollution des océans, des rivières et des lacs et 
de la biodiversité en péril sans oublier l’usage immodéré 
des compagnies qui utilisent l’eau pour l’exploitation du 
gaz dans le monde. Malgré que le Canada et d’autres pays 
aient été plus ouverts à la vie et à l’esprit, on nie que cette 
fracturation ait eu des effets désastreux sur la santé, l’écon-
omie et les cultures, spécialement chez les communautés 
plus pauvres, les autochtones, les paysans qui organisent 
leur résistance. Exposer les structures solides et innovatrices 
et les réactions des femmes dans le monde, est l’expression 
d’un message d’espoir. 
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5VOLUME 30, NUMBERS 2,3
Pegi Eyers, “Spirit of the Flood,” 2012, mixed media, 18 x 24 inches. (See page 14 for more about Pegi Eyers.)


Editorial

Le problème persistant pour plusieurs Premières Nations au Canada se traduit par le manque de sécurité autour de l’eau du à une implication limitée de la gestion de l’eau. Le savoir traditionnel des Anishinaabekwe peut prendre en charge une approche équilibrée et sa protection en suggérant des principes qui reconnaissent, maintiennent et établissent des relations socio-écologiques essentielles

Olufemi, Olusola

Ojo, Olajide

Water Scarcity: A Threat to Women's Food Work and Livelihood

Thompson, Andrea

VOLUME 30, NUMBERS 2,3 79
She says
This may be crossing the line…
but because I like her, I say
Fine, cross away.
So she does
digs right in and says
Sometimes when you talk, you offer a disclaimer first
Begin an apparently declarative statement with
“I could be wrong here” or “I’m not really sure … “
And when you do that, Sister
you give away your power.
She says she knows cause she’s a tranny
a term I wasn’t sure that I understand fully
only knew, even though she looked like a boy
she understood when I call her she.
I know what it’s like, s/he tells me
to cut yourself down before you’ve sprung up from 
a seed.
That’s why they’d call us in - people like me.
In an ancient Native tradition
whenever there was a dispute in the village
between the men and women
they’d call one of us Two-Spirit people in
to negotiate a resolution.
So we’d go over to this side of the river where the men 
were, and listen
mmm hmmm, ah ha, ah ha…
then go over to the other side of the river where the 
women were, and
mmm hmmm, ah ha…
Then we’d tell them what we thought.
Because they asked us, and because we know
how to be both.
So I can tell you
men don’t do that
don’t put themselves down
before they open up their mouth.
Most men speak without apology
respect their own opinion enough
to present it with authority.
But women, a lot of women 
say, “Sorry….”
say, “ I don’t really know, but…”
then offer priceless wisdom up.
Drop a gem with the power to heal the world
with a preface that establishes
their words don’t really matter.
Or worse
hold that gem
under their tongue
cold as stone
never to be heard.
Don’t do it, she says
don’t apologize and cower.
If you have something to say
stand up straight
and speak your mind
from your heart
from your soul.
Let your words hold your power.
ANDREA THOMPSON
Two-Spirit People
Writer and spoken word artist Andrea Thompson has performed her work at venues across North America and overseas 
for the past twenty years. Andrea is the author of the novel, Over Our Heads, co-editor of the anthology Other Tongues: 
Mixed Race Women Speak Out, author of the poetry collection Eating the Seed, and creator of the Urban Muisc Award 
nominated cd, One. Andrea is a graduate of the University of Guelph’s MFA Creative Writing program, and currently 
teaches Spoken Word through the Ontario College of Art and Design’s Continuing Studies department. 


Two-Spirit People

Miriam Love enseigne dans le département d’anglais au King’s College de l’Université Western. Elle est la cofondatrice du Rallye de la rivière Thames (TRR) à London, Ontario. La rivière Thames dont les embranchements dessinent la géographie de London, coule dans le coeur de la ville et traverse 40 kilomètres de sentiers pédestres et de parcs. TRR avec ses bénévoles procède au nettoyage mensuel saisonnier, chaque groupe nettoie une section en particulier, les berges, sous les ponts et même dans l’eau! Les membres du TRR agissent avec la conviction qu’une rivière en santé assure la vie d’une communauté forte

Not a member yet