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

Cooper, Danielle

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME140
upon Agamben’s (1998) discussion of 
the concentration camp, she argues 
that colonialism and slavery consti-
tute the first materializations of the 
‘camp’ where racialized, gendered, 
and class-based conceptualizations 
of citizenship determined who de-
served to live and who stood in the 
way of ‘modernity’ and ‘progress.’ 
This analysis forms the basis of the 
main assertions in the book related 
to racialized feminicide.
Through her discussion of the 
heteropatriarchal system imposed 
during the conquest and its impli-
cations for current ‘gender-sexuality 
relations’ in Guatemala, Martínez 
Salazar coins the term ‘racialized 
feminicide.’ To explore this concept, 
she implements a decolonial analysis 
of the everyday lives and experiences 
of Mayan women as interlocked with 
mechanisms of power. This complex 
analytical assemblage provides an 
innovative approach to theorizing 
on how racism has been linked to 
genocidal policies, discourses, and 
practices. She argues that hetero-pa-
triarchal nationalist depictions of 
Mayan women lead to their exclusion 
as ‘non-citizens’ and serve to justify 
the often deadly violence that has 
been wielded against women and 
girls since the arrival of the Spanish 
to the present day. 
By arguing that racialized femi-
nicide has deep racist, heterosexist, 
and misogynist roots, she poignantly 
rejects the assertion made by some 
international human rights groups 
and some academics that the genocide 
that took place in Guatemala was not 
directed toward Indigenous people 
because of racism but because they 
were considered to be subversives. In 
order to demonstrate that genocide 
is indeed part of racist state policy, 
she draws attention to over 500 
years of systematic discrimination 
and violence doled out against the 
Indigenous population and the ways 
in which they have been depicted as 
threats to the nation-building agenda. 
Martínez Salazar’s work points to 
the possibility of providing a space, 
through academic research, for the 
marginalized and excluded voices 
of Guatemala’s past and present. By 
including life histories, poetry and 
music of resilience and struggle, 
along with extensive quotes from 
Guatemalan activists and the family 
members of those who were tortured, 
disappeared, and murdered, the 
author directly contributes to the de-
colonial process of ‘rehumaniz[ing]’ 
those whom state and corporate 
forces seek to erase. 
Caren Weisbart is a Ph.D. candidate 
in Environmental Studies at York 
University and a research associate 
at the Centre for Research on Latin 
America and the Caribbean. Over 
the past fourteen years, her work in 
Guatemala has focused on issues related 
to agrarian reform, genocide, gender 
and reparations, political economy, 
Canadian mining interests and trans-
national solidarity. She currently serves 
on the coordinating committee of the 
Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the 
Silence Network.
Works Cited
Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo 
Sacer: Sovereign power and Bare 
Life. Stanford: Stanford University 
Press.
Mignolo, Walter. 2007. “Delinking: 
The Rhetoric of Modernity, the 
Logic of Coloniality and the 
Grammar of Decoloniality.” 
Cultural Studies 21(2-3): 449-514.
GAGA FEMINISM: 
SEX, GENDER, AND THE 
END OF NORMAL
J. Jack Halberstam
Boston: Beacon Press, 2012
reviewed by danielle 
cooper
Drawing inspiration from Lady Gaga, 
the American pop singer famous for 
such over-the-top costumes and per-
formances as arriving at the Grammys 
in a gigantic see-through egg, J. 
Jack Halberstam’s Gaga Feminism is 
intended to be a “fun-user-friendly, 
and quasi-academic hand-book for a 
new feminism.” Halberstam’s “new”, 
or, “gaga” approach to feminism most 
notably embraces excess, mon-strosi-
ty, and most importantly, the phony 
or unreal. Halberstam argues that the 
phony or unreal is necessary in our era 
of “Occupy” movements, economic 
collapse, and rapidly changing gender 
and sexual relations. Although new,” 
Halberstam that gaga feminism 
draws on a non-linear tradition of 
“anarchist” feminism that includes: 
Shulamith Firestone, Judith Levine, 
and Gayle Rubin. And for those 
who dislike or are disinterested in 
Lady Gaga, fear not: Halberstam 
positions Lady Gaga as a launching 
point for a much broader discussion. 
Analysis of the figure Lady Gaga 
herself is, somewhat surprisingly, 
almost entirely absent from the book. 
In doing so, Gaga Feminism mainly 
achieves its aim to be an accessible 
and widely appealing read. The book, 
however—and the book’s underlying 
feminist approach—ultimately lacks 
that provocative quality its namesake 
Lady Gaga. 
Gaga Feminism in addition to pro-
viding a manifesto for gaga feminism 
also discusses recent issues and phe-
nomena pertaining to sexuality gen-
der that are relevant to Halberstam’s 
VOLUME 30,  NUMBERS 2,3 141
emerging gaga feminist approach. As 
gaga feminism is more “speculative” 
than prescriptive, the book focuses 
more on potential forms for social 
and political transformation as op-
posed to ends, including: embracing 
childishness, resisting the traditional 
marriage models (including gay mar-
riage), and creating new approaches 
to family and kinship. In order to 
make these arguments, Halberstam 
utilizes a cultural archive that consists 
of recent romantic comedies and, 
similar to their other recent book 
The Queer Art of Failure, children’s 
movies and television. Halberstam 
also draws on personal experiences, 
both within the academy and from 
their private life including their role 
as a parent. 
As intended, Gaga Feminism is 
a quick, light read, perhaps best 
described as guilty pleasure beach 
reading for the queer theory inclined. 
The book is commendable for 
broaching “of the moment” issues 
in less clichéd ways, for example, 
finding meaning behind the Lady 
Gaga phenomena as opposed to dis-
missing her as a Madonna derivative, 
or, acknowledging the long-term and 
far-reaching implications of Occupy 
and related movements instead of 
pro-nouncing them short-lived and 
inconsequential. Although many of 
arguments are not highly original 
(indeed, many are identical to those 
made in their previous book), do 
have a talent for weaving recent 
theoretical trends into a clear and 
cohesive narrative. Halberstam also 
brings an enthusiasm and positivity 
to their writing that is often absent 
in queer and feminist theory.
The promise of gaga feminism, 
however, often feels disingenuous the 
book focus on what gaga feminism 
is or what it can be without demon-
strating what gaga feminism can do. 
If Halberstam structured their book 
this way intentionally as a reflection 
of their “quasi-academic” aims, they 
have not given their readers enough 
credit. The book is a quick read, but 
it is also not as accessible as intended 
because Halberstam often relies on 
anecdotal evidence from academia 
(including extended descriptions of 
two conferences and a veiled critique 
of an unnamed anthropologist) that 
would lack relevance for those reading 
from outside the academy. The high 
degree in content- overlap from their 
last book, however, makes the book 
less compelling for those within the 
academy who are already familiar 
with Halberstam’s work. As a result, 
Gaga Feminism is largely a fun read, 
but it is definitely not a “must read” 
unless you haven’t read anything else 
by Halberstam recently and need a 
quick refresher. 
Danielle Cooper is a Ph.D. student in 
Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies 
at York University. Her research focuses 
on lgbtq grassroots information or-
gan-izations and the queer information 
activities found therein. She also holds 
a Masters degree (M.I.) from the Fac-
ulty of Information at the University 
of Toronto in collaboration with the 
Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual 
Diversity Studies.
COLD WAR COMFORTS: 
CANADIAN WOMEN, 
CHILD SAFETY, AND 
GLOBAL INSECURITY
Tarah Brookfield
Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University 
Press, 2012
reviewed by caralee 
daigle hau
Cold War Comforts is an engaging 
study of Canadian women’s domestic 
and international activism in the early 
Cold War period. Brookfield success-
fully argues that between the end of 
the Second World War and the Viet-
nam War, Canadian women utilized 
the twin concepts of maternalism (as 
either literal or symbolic mothers) and 
internationalism to engage with the 
policy-making process surrounding 
children’s safety and welfare. In the 
early post-Second World War years, 
Cold War tensions created an urgent 
sense that women needed to prepare 
for a potential nuclear war, through 
civil defence and potentially investing 
in a home fallout shelter. Cold War 
Comforts examines how, as the nature 
of the conflict altered and the realities 
of a potential nuclear conflict became 
clearer, women’s activism shifted from 
wanting to protect their families from 
the effects of nuclear war, to demand-
ing, through disarmament and peace 
activism, that war never happen. In 
her study, Brookfield divides the sub-
ject into two parts: domestic and in-
ternational, and examines Canadian 
women’s involvement in the United 
Nations, through such organizations 
as the United Nations Association 
and unicef, foster parenting plans, 
activism during the Vietnam War, and 
international adoption. Brookfield 
convincingly maintains that their 
responsibilities and roles as mothers 
and Canadian citizens spurred these 
women on and made it possible for 
them to engage with child safety. 
Although this study is thoroughly 
researched and well-executed, there 
are two relatively minor issues with 
which Brookfield might have engaged 
in more depth. In chapter two she 
uses some American-made civil 
defence materials, such as Duck and 
Cover featuring Bert the Turtle, to 
demonstrate Canadians’ engagement 
with civil defence planning. Howev-
er, there is little discussion of how 
American-made materials were used 
in Canada, nor does she distinguish in 
a meaningful way between Canadian 
and American materials. While this 
may seem a minor issue, her main 
argument circles around how Cana-


English

Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal

Rollmann, Hans

VOLUME 30,  NUMBERS 2,3 133
UNIONS, EQUITY AND 
THE PATH TO RENEWAL
Janice R. Foley and Patricia L. Baker, 
Editors.
Vancouver, ubc Press 2009
reviewed by hans 
rollman
It is open season on unions not just 
in the political arena, but in the 
ivory tower as well. The ‘crisis’ fac-
ing organized labour—an ongoing 
experienced elsewhere in the world, 
much of which can be attributed to 
the significance of regional policy 
(and cultural differences), and covers 
a broad swath of research and activism 
taking place under the equity banner 
within organized labour. The twelve 
papers comprising the collection 
provide both broad overviews of 
equity gains and histories within the 
Canadian labour movement, as well 
as more focused critiques on particu-
lar dimensions of identity and equity 
and the shortcomings of organized 
labour in Canada on these fronts. 
The editors do not fall into the trap 
of focusing solely on women’s equity 
struggles: the section “Black Trade 
Unionists Speak Out” comprises no 
less than a quarter of the book, while 
fascinating and critically important 
conceptual models are theorized 
in Linda Briskin’s contribution on 
cross-constituency organizing and 
Janice Foley’s effort to theorize a 
conceptual model for equity, drawing 
in part on social movement theory. 
The final section even offers interna-
tional and comparative perspectives 
on the themes explored in the book, 
drawing from Australian, American, 
and British examples. Anne McBride 
and Jeremy Waddington’s contribu-
tion on the importance of addressing 
women’s and equity group represen-
tation in union merger processes is 
particularly salient given the ongoing 
merger between the CEP and the 
CAW in Canada.
The contributions in this collec-
tion ought to be required reading 
not just for researchers but for union 
organizers, leaders, and activists as 
well. Jan Kainer’s masterful overview 
of the contribution of women’s equity 
activism to union growth and renew-
al, and Anne Forrest’s assessment of 
the historical and ongoing relevance 
of economic equality (organized 
labour’s traditional forte) to broad-
er equity issues cast an important 
foundation for several of the key 
the history, and potentials of women’s 
trans-national solidarity.
As a history of Egyptian women 
and feminisms the strength of this 
analysis lies with the rich detail that 
Bier gave to the ideological supports 
of patriarchal domination. Bier, 
therefore, cogently described some 
of the processes by which patriarchy 
becomes embedded in practices of 
governing, which then normalized 
the control and regulation of women’s 
bodies and labour. By expanding 
her analysis into both the earlier 
period of colonial control as well 
as the current period of neoliberal 
capitalism, her analysis emphasized 
the social unfolding of women’s sub-
ordination to the nation-state as well 
as the implications of this history for 
current feminist struggles. In other 
words, the policies and discourses 
that were specific to the Nasser era 
were problematized in a manner that 
allows feminist research to grapple 
more generally with the protracted 
history of women’s subordination 
across historical moments and cul-
tural contexts.
Genevieve Ritchie is a community or-
ganizer who works with environmental 
and migrant justice movements. She 
writes about anti-racist feminism and 
critical praxis.
loss of membership, density, legal 
protection, and political influence—
has been experienced differently in 
different jurisdictions around the 
world, but just as it has set unions 
on an increasingly urgent course to 
respond and adapt to the challenges 
they face, it has also fomented a 
great deal of intellectual inquiry as 
academics and researchers assess and 
analyze unions’ responses, and what 
these efforts can help us to understand 
about the present and future state 
of the labour movement, and about 
workers’ experience more broadly. 
Thus the growth of a burgeoning 
body of literature under the moniker 
of ‘union renewal’ or ‘organized-la-
bour-in-crisis’. There are, of course, 
no easy answers to the question of 
how unions can most effectively 
renew themselves (nor even to the 
question of what purpose they 
should be renewing themselves 
for) but feminist researchers in the 
field—of which, thankfully, there 
are no small number —have flagged 
one important question: what is 
the role of equity in rebuilding and 
revitalizing the labour movement? 
Indeed, this reviewer would suggest 
the union crisis/renewal literature 
typically addresses equity in one of 
two ways: either as a distraction from 
(what some consider) more primary 
goals such as an intensified (albeit 
romanticized and under-theorized) 
return to street militancy and class 
analysis; or, by contrast, as funda-
mental to reversing the decline of 
organized labour and correcting the 
failures of white masculinist labour 
‘organizing’ of the past sixty years.
Foley and Baker’s collection 
Unions, Equity and the Path to 
Renewal falls firmly into the latter 
camp. Their focus is primarily 
Canadian (rightly so: while union 
activists have been keen to exchange 
strategies internationally, the fact is 
that Canada has not encountered 
the same sort of ‘crisis’ or ‘decline’ 
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


Unions, Equity and the Path to Renewal

Gewurtz, Michelle

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME142
dian women were acting from a keen 
awareness of their status as Canadian 
citizens and mothers. Did Canadian 
women view themselves differently 
from American? Were civil defence 
measures in Canada different in any 
real way from those in the United 
States? If not, how might that change 
her overall approach? She does engage 
with this concept of a unique Cana-
dian identity elsewhere in the book. 
When discussing Canadian women’s 
reactions to the war in Vietnam she 
stresses that protest came from frus-
tration that the Canadian government 
was acting against its international 
reputation as a peacekeeper. Since 
this internationalism is a key pillar 
of her argument, Brookfield needs 
to equally apply this attention to the 
word’s meaning throughout her study.
In addition, since Cold War ten-
sions and undercurrents are a key 
part of the setting of this story, a more 
thorough discussion of their effect on 
women in this period would be useful. 
When discussing women’s activism, 
for example, during the height of 
civil service purges of suspected sub-
versives, Brookfield briefly mentions 
that these women’s status as mothers, 
interested only in safeguarding their 
children, protected them from accu-
sations of communism. Indeed, the 
founders of Voice of Women delib-
erately stressed their roles as mothers 
interested only in peace, in order to be 
able to continue their work without 
suffering the same sort of censure as 
more radical groups. Therefore, the 
argument about the maternal nature of 
the work of these early activists needs 
clarification through a more thorough 
analysis of their self-presentation 
as maternal figures. What language 
did these women use in literature 
and correspondence? How did that 
self-conscious presentation change 
as second-wave feminism and wom-
en’s liberation movements became 
prominent in the 1960s? Though the 
connection between motherhood and 
protection from the state security ap-
paratus is linked in Brookfield’s study, 
a more in-depth discussion would 
strengthen the argument.
These minor issues aside, this is 
overall an impressive examination of 
women’s activism in the Cold War 
years. It is thorough, well-researched, 
and clearly written. While individual 
parts of the text, such as the material 
on civil defence, do not break new 
ground, this work shines by bringing 
together various histories of women’s 
activism in one work. The explora-
tion of the real, lived experiences of 
children both in Canada and abroad 
is nicely complemented by her 
examination of the symbolic child. 
Brookfield excellently demonstrates 
how concern over children became 
another front of the Cold War. In 
this sense, Brookfield’s is a significant 
contribution to the growing body 
of literature which is expanding our 
understanding of the far-reaching 
effects of the Cold War.
Caralee Daigle Hau completed her 
Ph.D. at Queen’s University in 2011. 
Her research looks at Canada’s experi-
ence of the Cuban Missile Crisis and 
the Cold War. She is currently teaching 
Canadian history at the Royal Military 
College of Canada.
Rethinking Professionalism: Women 
and Art in Canada, 1850 – 1970 is, 
surprisingly, the first collection of 
RETHINKING 
PROFESSIONALISM: 
WOMEN AND ART IN 
CANADA, 1850-1970
Kristina Huneault and Janice An-
derson, Eds.
Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Univer-
sity Press, 2012
reviewed by michelle 
gewurtz
scholarly essays to focus on women, 
art, and history in Canada from 
multiple vantage points. Especially 
noteworthy is the volume’s focus on 
historical work produced by women 
working in a variety of disciplines 
ranging from painting and photog-
raphy to architecture and traditional 
handicrafts. As the editors Kristina 
Huneault and Janice Anderson note 
in their preface, in Canada there is a 
gap in scholarship when it comes to 
critically engaged studies of women’s 
cultural production. This is the con-
text for this publication, organized by 
the Canadian Women Artists History 
Initiative, a collaborative endeavour 
based at Concordia University involv-
ing a wide range of scholars. 
This volume, which is the out-
come of the Initiative’s inaugural 
conference held in 2008, attests to 
the importance of a collaborative 
ethos that has yielded the rich variety 
of perspectives showcased here. The 
other framing device employed by 
both editors and authors is the issue 
of professionalism. While the editors 
acknowledge professionalism as a 
synthetic art historical framework, 
it is an atypical one used here to 
explore new understandings and 
perspectives stemming from the 
study of women as cultural producers. 
Organized into four sections that 
cover professionalization in the arts, 
careers for women, and the limits 
of professionalism for women, the 
volume opens with an introductory 
essay by Kristina Huneault that 
explores the relationship and lim-
itations between women, art, and 
professionalism. She draws attention 
to the idea of professionalism itself 
and interrogates its role as a critical 
concept. Noting the pitfalls of priv-
ileging “professional” practice that 
can further marginalize women in the 
writing of art’s histories, Huneault’s 
study addresses the historiographical 
and methodological implications of 
professionalism as an analytic device 
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


Rethinking Professionalism: Women and Art in Canada, 1850-1970

Kemp, Penn

48 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
SAEREEN QURESHI
The Sun
My heart is like the night,
so dark that every thing is a 
surprise.
I am deeply scared,
because the stars can’t hear my 
cries.
And the moon seems to glow,
as I wait for you to rise.
Happy Birthday!
You came into this world,
as delicate as a flower.
You received two clouds,
with love to shower.
As you grow,
and blossom your own way,
the garden seems more beautiful,
when you arrived that day.
Happiness
A smile on the chin,
is all but a grin.
But the true laughter,
is what comes from within.
True Love
Love is a lot, 
like the wind.
It gets carried away,
with little things.
I thought of this song for the movie 
The Lion King:
The beat of the drums,
the beat of the heart.
When your in love,
you can’t tell them apart.
Saereen Qureshi is a fourth year student 
in Political Science at York University. 
She has published poems and articles in 
journals and newspapers.
PENN KEMP
Gender Bias Even Among the Elements
The hurricane was first named for the saint’s
day on which it surfaced, stark mnemonic.
The World War 2 meteorologists plotted
Pacific storms by women’s names. Ever
since 1980, hurricanes are called equally
after men and women. And so we learn—
“Much gender bias is more automatic,
ambiguous and ambivalent than people
typically assume.” The more masculine
the name, the more respect for a hurricane.
Sound familiar? Bring on mysteries inherent
in the mélange between culture and element.
Our system of belief has no limit but it does
have confused and complicated consequence.
“Researchers find that female-named hurricanes
kill about twice as many people as similar male-
named hurricanes because some people under-
estimate them. Americans expect male hurricanes
to be violent and deadly, but they mistake female
hurricanes as dainty or wimpish and don’t take
adequate precautions.” Such silly assumptions
neglecting the power of words end in salt tears.
Beware an errant hurricane named for women:
the female ever more dangerous than the male.
Activist poet/playwright Penn Kemp is London’s inaugural Poet Laureate, 
with twenty-six books of poetry/drama and ten cds. As Western’s Writer-
in-Residence, she produced Luminous Entrance: Sound Opera for 
Climate Change Action (dvd). She hosts Gathering Voices, Radio 
Western. Quattro Books published Jack Layton: Art in Action, which 
she edited.


Gender Bias Even Among the Elements

 ,  

Canadian Woman Studies Vol 30, No 2,3 (2013)

Hubbard, Taryn

60 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
TERRY TROWBRIDGE
On the Coexistence of Polyamorous and Asexual Lifestyles
A flower isn’t neurotic
when it strokes the ankle of every bee
that peeks inside.
Whether it knows or not,
those petals will fall by the end of the month
and the dirt will kiss them brown forever.
A bee is not neurotic
for remaining celibate in its labour.
Whether it knows or not, 
at the end of the decade its hive will be empty
but honeycombs outlast their architects.
Bees are devoted to the memory of flowers.
Their ecstasies are encoded for eons in progressions
of hexagons, hive walls, housekeeping in perfect ratios.
Terry Trowbridge is a PhD student in Socio-Legal Studies at York University. His poems have recently appeared 
in subTerrain, Carousel, The Dalhousie Review, American Mathematical Monthly, Whether Magazine 
(parenthetical), The Nashwaak Review, and other venues.
TARYN HUBBARD
Excuse Me for Swearing
I’m sorry. That word should have never crossed my lips. I didn’t see you there. You’re
still a woman, even on a jobsite. I shouldn’t have said what I said in your presence.
Can I carry that ladder for you? Do you need help reaching that spot? Do you know what
to do? I thought women liked caring professions, like nursing. Isn’t that heavy? Why
would you want to be here?
Oops. I’m sorry. Excuse me. Pardon my French. You shouldn’t have heard that.
I’m all for equality. It’s dangerous here. You have to be careful. Where’d you do your
training? I support those Women in Trades initiatives if girls need extra help.
Why don’t you spend time getting to know the girls in the office? Is that the goal? To
eventually work in the office?
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.


Excuse Me for Swearing

Mitter, Adrian

VOLUME 30,  NUMBERS 2,3 131
GENDER AND 
MODERNITY IN 
CENTRAL EUROPE: THE 
AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN 
MONARCHY AND ITS 
LEGACY
Agatha Schwartz, Ed.
Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 
2010
reviewed by adrian 
mitter
Memory of the fin-de-siècle Aus-
tro-Hungarian monarchy is usually 
male-dominated and connected to 
famous thinkers such as Sigmund 
Freud, the painter Gustav Klimt or 
the writer Robert Musil. The reader of 
the volume Gender and Modernity in 
Central Europe: The Austro-Hungari-
an Monarchy and its Legacy recognizes 
very quickly that the late Habsburg 
monarchy was much more than 
Klimt and Freud. Life in the empire 
was characterized by an astonishing 
plurality and innovation of ideas and 
discourses that were produced in an 
atmosphere full of contradictions, 
as the editor of the volume Agatha 
Schwartz states in her introduction. 
Schwartz claims that the contri-
butions in this volume “address the 
cities of the empire, to take up careers 
in emerging fields of science. One of 
them was psychoanalysis. 
The part on early psychoanalysis 
unfortunately includes only one 
chapter on the female aspect of 
this modernist science by Anna 
Borgos who describes how feminin-
ity was mirrored by Freud and his 
followers. Borgos claims that most 
psychoanalysts “had an interest in 
maintaining the equations male = 
active and female = passive in an 
age that […] was facing the threat 
of a major transformation of these 
ideas.” The ambivalent position of 
female psychoanalysts in this debate, 
especially Freud’s daughter Anna, 
is very interesting and could have 
been elaborated on. The two other 
chapters in this part, however, are 
devoted to Sandor Ferenczi, Freud’s 
most prominent Hungarian follow-
er. In general, some contributions, 
although framing the thesis around 
modernity, lack a strong emphasis on 
gender issues and dynamic. 
A major disadvantage of this vol-
ume is the fact that the proclaimed 
dialogue of regions is almost ex-
clusively limited to the Western 
parts of the Habsburg Empire and 
developments in Vienna, Budapest, 
and Prague. However, discourse on 
gender relations and modernism 
significantly affected life in many 
other cities of the empire such as 
Cracow, Lemberg, and Sarajevo. Tina 
Bahovec’s contribution on the post-
1918 Austro-Yugoslav border conflict 
shows that a change of perspective 
to the imperial periphery can be 
very rewarding. Her study exposes 
how both Austrian and Yugoslav 
propaganda used “pre-modern, 
conservative concepts of masculinity 
and femininity” in order to win votes 
in a plebiscite for national belonging 
in this mixed German-Slavic region. 
The author also demonstrates how 
women organized themselves in the 
region in an attempt to influence the 
it is revealed through both what was 
typical and what was unusual in her.
Gisela Argyle, Senior Scholar of Hu-
manities at York University in Toronto, 
has published Germany as Model 
and Monster: Allusions in English 
Fiction, 1830s-1930s (Montreal: Mc-
Gill-Queen’s University Press, 2002), 
another book and articles on Victorian 
literature and comparative literature, 
as well as literary translations from 
German into English and the converse.
necessity for a creative discussion be-
tween representatives of disciplines, 
regions and countries” on gender and 
modernity. The multidisciplinarity 
of this volume is indeed one of its 
strengths. It contains contributions 
from the fields of history, art history, 
sociology, literary studies, and psy-
chology. Furthermore, this volume 
excels in merging two dissonant 
discourses into one transatlantic 
narrative. 
This collection proves that research 
on the Habsburg Empire is particu-
larly rewarding because of its high 
transnational potential. Helga Thor-
son’s article on Grete Meisel-Hess, an 
under- researched feminist Austrian 
writer, takes up the transnational 
aspect and shows how ethnic and sex-
ual tensions were intertwined in the 
early twentieth-century and played 
a significant role in the formation 
of female identity. In another essay, 
Susan Ingram highlights an inter-
esting connection between Czech 
nationalism and feminism which 
opposed traditional constructions of 
empire and gender roles within the 
Habsburgian presence at the 1893 
Chicago Columbian Exhibition. 
Moreover, research on devel-
opments on a local level makes a 
valuable addition to this volume. 
Michaela Raggam-Blesch looks at 
the biographies of three pioneering 
female Jewish students at the Uni-
versity of Vienna who were facing 
discrimination in a predominantly 
male setting. These students, despite 
their marginalization, managed to 
integrate into university, but spaces 
of female agency mostly remained 
private, as Alison Rose shows in her 
contribution on the salons of Jewish 
Women. According to the author, 
these salons played an important role 
in the development of modernity and 
enabled women to “operate as leaders 
and still maintain their bourgeois 
femininity.” Salons and universities 
enabled women, at least in the bigger 
CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME132
plebiscite, which proves that traces 
of modernity could also be found 
outside of the major centres. 
This volume gives the English 
speaking reader a glimpse into sig-
nificant developments in prominent 
places and societies, but it does not 
offer a deeper insight into less-known 
areas of the empire. Its multiethnic 
and contradictory character can 
be best understood by looking at 
both centres and peripheries. This 
approach surely would have even 
more widened the horizon of this 
remarkable project, which can be 
read as a stimulating introduction 
into the gender history of the late 
Habsburg Empire. 
Adrian Mitter is a Ph.D. student in the 
History Department at the University of 
Toronto. His research focuses on Central 
and East European history. 
“The woman question” in its various 
articulations and cultural expressions 
has historically been bound up with 
notions of national identity and 
nationalism. Through developing 
and unpacking the concept of state 
feminism Laura Bier grappled with 
the complex and contradictory 
discourses that shaped hegemonic 
notions of womanhood in the Nasser 
era. Drawing upon policy studies, 
political speeches, women’s press, 
REVOLUTIONARY 
WOMANHOOD: 
FEMINISM, 
MODERNITY AND 
THE STATE IN NASSER’S 
EGPYT
Laura Bier
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 
2011
reviewed by genevieve 
ritchie
film, and literature the study was 
grounded in a cultural history, and 
fleshed out the connections between 
the construction of national wom-
anhood and the conceptual framing 
of revolution. In short, the primary 
focus of the study was the relation 
between the construction of feminine 
identity and the modern nation-state.
State feminism is the central point 
of analysis, which was then explored 
through a descriptive problematiz-
ing of four themes: the ideological 
framing of working women, secu-
larism and law, family planning and 
reproduction, and international 
feminism. As a category for inquiry 
state feminism was located in the 
Nasser regime’s modernizing project, 
but had its historical roots in the 
earlier period of colonial control. 
As such, state feminism was framed 
by the interlocking discourses of 
modernity, inclusion, and political 
participation, which were then set 
against traditional modes of social 
organization. State feminism, then, 
must be understood as a constella-
tion of practices and ideologies that 
aimed to transform women into 
modern political subjects. Thus, for 
Bier state feminism was at its core a 
didactic project.
Noting that the Nasser regime 
did not significantly transform the 
number of women in the workforce, 
Bier put forth the argument that the 
discursively constructed figure of the 
working woman played an important 
role in the articulation of the public 
sphere as modern and secular. The 
reconfiguring of the public sphere 
also shaped images of the home 
around a bourgeois model of domes-
ticity. As such, the image of working 
women as a sign of modernity did 
little to destabilize the patriarchal 
organization of domestic labour. In 
fact, Bier gave extensive examples of 
state policies and incentives that were 
designed to create the conditions for 
women to access the tools of modern 
living, thereby creating a prescriptive 
model of femininity that drew upon 
imagery of both domesticity and 
professionalism. 
Policies that dealt specifically with 
the family drew multiple conflicting 
perspectives into the public debate, 
which then had adverse outcomes 
for women generally and working 
class women in particular. Through 
her discussion of the personal status 
laws, Bier delineated the manner in 
which contrasting perspectives (the 
Nasser regime and religious tradition) 
coalesced and ultimately undermined 
the work of feminist reformers. In this 
respect, her analysis provided a clear 
and detailed description of the pro-
cesses by which patriarchal power was 
reproduced and newly created during 
periods of national re-definition. Sim-
ilarly, her analysis of family planning 
highlighted the manner in which 
women’s reproductive capacities have 
put our bodies at the centre of the 
national and international discursive. 
Here again her analysis emphasized 
the complex and contradictory con-
sequences of state initiated family 
planning programs, which increased 
women’s access to contraception, 
while concomitantly denigrating their 
traditional knowledge. 
The final point explored by 
Bier was the relationship between 
Egyptian subjectivity and women’s 
liberation trans-nationally. She put 
forth the argument that middle 
class and elite Egyptian women 
articulated their own womanhood 
and liberation through the imag-
ery of post-colonial progress. Her 
analysis here was framed by fluid 
models of identity and subjectivity, 
which fragment social context by 
emphasizing the disciplinary power 
of de-historicized universalist dis-
courses. Conversely, framing her 
analysis in terms of consciousness 
and feminist consciousness-raising 
could have opened the conceptual 
space to engage more complexly with 


Gender and Modernity in Central Europe: The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and its Legacy

Weston, Joanna M.

80 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
ORDER YO
URS NOW! 
www.heriz
ons.ca   
“A must-read
 for all Canad
ian women w
ho are sick o
f patriarchy..
. ”-Michele L
andsberg
Get feminist
 news and vi
ews delivere
d 
right to your
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JOANNA M. WESTON
Bow Poised Over Violin
this beginning-
the moment
before touch
the pause
that grasps time
and lingers
then- the bow sweeps down
lifts a note 
into hearing
high C that had waited
under flesh 
now—
invades light
- hangs spot-lit
tremulous
before loss
Joanna M. Weston’s new collection of poetry, A 
Bedroom of Searchlights, is forthcoming from 
Inanna in spring 2016.
KAY R. EGINTON
Setting Things to Rights
Snow clings to the fragile trees
a blizzard whiting out
The scene, brought to its knees;
once domestic, now the weather.
They cower under bridges, children also.
Or in doorways,
Homeless relics of a time
when “human” was not just
A rhyme, clever
but intended in the snow?
Below the line of sight,
below expectations?
The snow blows horizontal.
We return now and then
to observations elemental.
Perhaps someone, somewhere
Can set things to rights again.
Kay R. Eginton is the author of Poems (Penfield Press, 
1981). She  lives in Iowa City, Iowa.


Bow Poised Over Violin

Martonfi, Ilona

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.


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Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal

Unions, Equity and the Path to Renewal

Rethinking Professionalism: Women and Art in Canada, 1850-1970

Gender Bias Even Among the Elements

Canadian Woman Studies Vol 30, No 2,3 (2013)

Excuse Me for Swearing

Gender and Modernity in Central Europe: The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and its Legacy

Bow Poised Over Violin

Clamdigger

Setting Things to Rights

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