What. The. Fuck.

The opening of this article is disgusting. Short of coming out and saying, "It was Emily's fault," this is blatant, awful victim blaming.

Emily Hilscher was not responsible for the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Even if she was his ex-girlfriend, she was not responsible - the man who shot her was. He's the one who picked up the gun, he's the one who pulled the trigger. He was the one with such a sense of entitlement to this woman that he went out and killed her. But it doesn't seem like this paper realises that she's the one who was murdered.

So now every media source is going on about gun control, gun control, gun control; security, security, security. To be honest though, let's face it - if the guy was this disturbed, all the gun control and security in the world probably wouldn't have stopped him from harming others. As more details come out, I'll be interested to hear more about his story and his possible motives. Maybe it was the ex-girlfriend. Maybe it was his mental health. Maybe it was bullying (yes, it happens in universities). Maybe it was a campus culture he didn't fit into, didn't understand. We don't know. But I really don't think gun control should be made into the main issue. The backstory, what was going on in this young man's life, should be at the forefront of the discussions, so that if it was mental illness, in the future people in the same frame of mind can get the proper help sooner; so if it was a relationship gone sour, that we can get information out on handling those kinds of situations - and so that dead women don't get blamed for what they weren't responsible for.

Update: Making the article I wrote about even more ridiculous, it turns out that Emily Hilscher didn't even know the guy. Though he did seem to have a history of stalking, to the point where his roommates told their female friends not to come by their room. Apparently he "saw promiscuity" in one girl. *shudders*

I don't even know where to start with this one.

The first thing I wanted to see this morning was definitely NOT the dead model gallery (view at your own risk, may be triggering) from the latest episode of America's Next Top Model. Alas, they came up.

I've never been a 'fashion' person. I've only ever watched this show when my housemates are watching it and I happen to be around. I don't see the appeal of watching stick-thin woman-shaped coathangers parading around a catwalk, I don't see how anonymous individuals with vacant stares are supposed to make me want to buy things, and I've never understood the need to be in 'style' or 'trendy.' I have a couple of friends who actively follow this stuff, but I've never seen the appeal. It's just not something I'm interested in, and I hate the way the industry treats women. That has nothing on this.

When I saw the pictures, immediately I felt sick. The women are splayed in painfully awkward positions, made up with blood and bruises, and in some of them the poses and arrangement of their clothing suggests sexual assault. Each seems to portray a different kind of death in a different location. The expressions on their faces are hauntingly familiar - probably because even when they're supposed to be alive in pictures, to me, models always seem to stare vacantly. I'm amazed I even finished looking at all of them. I don't even want to imagine how someone who has been a victim or a family member of a victim of murder, assault, or even accidental death, might feel after seeing these images. Couple the violence with the inherent nature of the industry to sexualise everything, you can see how this becomes even more problematic. Violence and death are being made sexy. I shouldn't have to explain why this is bad, bad, bad.

Don't get me wrong. By no means am I surprised at the show and the fashion industry in general dehumanising women, I'm just appalled and disgusted that they would stoop this low.

See also: WIMN's Voices and Feministe.us.

i'm alive, don't worry

Hey everyone. I know I've been quiet for the past week or so. That's because there's this little thing called school in my life I've been attending to. Yeah. That thing. So today, a couple of links, before I dive into writing my research paper:

Report from the CFS Task Force on the Needs of Muslim Students (PDF) - As much as I dislike the CFS, I was involved in this initiative in the summer and the fall, and organised the hearing on Scarborough Campus. I felt it was meaningful and worthwhile initiative and I remember being happy with how our hearing went. Hopefully some good comes out of this report.

SCSU in limbo and Editorial: Vote to make the racket stop - Both from the Varsity. Coverage of the decision to hold a new election on April 9 - which is Easter Monday, UTSC "Friday" (a day to make up for the school being closed on Good Friday), and the day before study break. Let's count the number of problems with this.

Agenda for the March 23 SCSU Board of Directors meeting (PDF) - Looks like some interesting motions on the table! I'll have more on this after the meeting actually happens.

What's Wrong With University (And How To Make It Work For You Anyway), by Jeff Rybak: Facebook group, Facebook event invite and publisher's page with a link to the summary. Jeff was SCSU VP Academics for two years and has been really really involved in governance and academics at UTSC. His book launch is March 29 at Bluff's Restaurant in the UTSC Student Centre, so come on by and check it out.

Also, I updated the entry about the letter from the former SCSU executives with some corrections from Jeff.

I'm stepping back from really being involved with the elections drama. As I mentioned, I have a lot of academic commitments at the moment, and there's also some personal life stuff to deal with. So, I'll have more updates about the elections after Friday's board meeting, other than that, just wait it out until April!