Feminista

Fresh off her Juno Award, Canadian musician Grimes has declared a break from touring, citing sexism in the music industry. On her blog yesterday, she expressed her anger at the relentless sexualization of female musicians, at being treated as though she doesn't understand technology (which she uses extensively to create music), and at the harassment of her dancers. She later clarified that she will be working on a new material rather than continuing to tour off of her album Visions.

Excerpts from her post:

Last month, I wrote how patriarchy and racism give birth to rape culture, not a drunk woman or her miniskirt. It generated quite a response, but for any blogger, academic researcher, activist, and feminist, who is trying to steer the dialogue on rape culture towards the correct framework of patriarchal order and racial discrimination, the real aim is not to create a buzz, sensationalize or draw attention to himself or herself. We do it because we want a change: a change in mindsets, and a change in approach, and all this starts with the change in framework. But it is baffling to see the dialogue outside of these platforms going off tangent, in random directions. This needs to stop, now:

Early 20th century fashion designers were the crème de la crème of society. They were cutting-edge and popular, representing all that was new and modern. They influenced the world around them through their style, words, clothes and actions.

Ilya Parkins, assistant professor of gender and women’s studies, says this is just one example of why fashion is an essential area of academic research—it can bring unique perspectives to history and the evolution of politics, culture and society, especially when viewed through a feminist lens.


Assist Prof. Ilya Parkins makes an argument for the importance of fashion in understanding culture. Photo by Jody Jacob

“I would say most of my career has been spent working to get people to take fashion seriously as a site of knowledge production, certainly in the early 20th century but more broadly as well,” says Parkins, adding that fashion is strongly connected to femininity, and to trivialize it is, in a sense, to trivialize women.

Yesterday in New Delhi, police violently cracked down on citizens protesting a gang-rape, as well as a perceived culture of corruption and disdain for the Indian citizenry.

The crowd, thick with the members of women’s groups and student movements, tried to hold their own in front of the authorities as police employed water cannons, tear gas, and bamboo sticks in an effort to dissolve the rally. According to the New York Times, dozens of people were arrested.

"This is how they are responding," one protestor told the Times. "Hundreds of rapists are running scot-free, and the entire Delhi police is standing here to stop people like me?"

Over the last few years in India, the sexual abuse of women has escalated to national crisis proportions. Rape is epidemically common, but exceptionally underreported, and a few recent sensational cases have shaken the country to its core.