Author Archives: pflegers

Abortion Politics and Law in Canada This module is divided into two sections. While the second section will focus on the concept of reproductive justice, this first section will first provide an overview of reproductive rights and abortion debates in Canada. This part of the module covers the following two issues: A note on language:Continue reading “BIG IDEAS + LESSON FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE”

Why study fairy tales? There’s little doubt that fairy stories are fantasies; but this doesn’t mean that they are inconsequential. In this module, we will approach fairy stories as representations, as widely circulated stories that reflect shared cultural values. They are entertaining, and they are also pedagogical, which is to say that they are textsContinue reading “BIG IDEAS + LESSON FOR FAIRY TALES”

Art interprets the world We covered a lot of material in this module! We began by learning about how feminist art historians have come to understand the under-representation of women artists in galleries and museums. In a nutshell, feminist art historians have argued that women – and indeed other folks whose life experiences are shapedContinue reading “SUMMARY FOR ART AND ACTIVISM”

Belmore’s thirty-year career has always proposed contestations to official histories and dominant narratives. Ellyn Walker, “Resistance as Resilience in the Work of Rebecca Belmore” in Desire Change: Contemporary Feminist Art in Canada, 2017, pp. 136 Born in Northern Ontario in 1960, Rebecca Belmore is a member of the Lac Seul First Nation (Anishinaabe) and aContinue reading “ASSIGNED RESOURCES FOR ART AND ACTIVISM”

The lesson is organized around a 4 part lecture series on the history of the nude in Western art. The lecture begins with the question, originally posed by the art historian Linda Nochlin, “Why have there been no great women artists?” It’s a question that requires thinking about the ways that women have been excludedContinue reading “BIG IDEAS + LESSON FOR ART AND ACTIVISM”

The authors we read this module help us better understand some of the complexities of sex work. Rose emphasizes making space for a diversity of sex worker experiences and resisting the dominance of the discourse of the injured body of the sex worker. Hunt emphasizes the historical relationship between the Indian Act, colonial stereotypes, andContinue reading “SUMMARY FOR SEX WORK”

In her essay on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s lifelong participation in American dress reform, Wrisley reveals that despite her forceful critiques of the social pressure placed on women to conform to expectations around clothing, she was still very much interested in dressing well, and dressing fashionably. This contradiction – or maybe it is just an apparentContinue reading “SUMMARY FOR FASHION AND GENDER”

The readings assigned for this module address the way that sex work continues to spark intense debate, however, sex workers themselves are largely excluded from these discussions. The texts we will examine today force us to consider why it is that people with sex work experience are generally not included in discussions about sex work,Continue reading “ASSIGNED RESOURCES FOR SEX WORK”

The true and reasonable dress means perfect ease and health and beauty of body, with the freedom of motion and increase of power and skill resultant therefrom.  Charlotte Perkins Gilman quoted by Patrick Madden, “Why Women Do Not Reform Their Dress” in Quotidiana, 2008 Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was a white American journalist, author, lecturer,Continue reading “ASSIGNED RESOURCES FOR FASHION AND GENDER”

Debates around sex work are longstanding, both inside and outside of feminism. Within the context of feminist theory and activism, the issue of sex work usually revolves around questions of women’s equality and violence against women. More recently however, a recognition of sex work as work and an emphasis on sex worker agency has becomeContinue reading “BIG IDEAS + LESSON FOR SEX WORK”