Lest you misplaced your magnifying glass, let me break it down for you: searching "feminism Canada" in Google yields zero websites that are actually current, up-to-date places for the discussion of feminist issues in Canada. What do you get, then, for those two juicy words?
In the hallowed number one spot is a site created by a gal named Crystal Lynn Heath for a class project (specifically, the Canadian Culture and Evangelism course offered by Master's College and Seminary in Toronto). This very sweet site reads in that encyclopedic way that everyone's first-year projects do; Crystal Lynn probably earned an "A" for the site, chockablock as it is with totally random links and information. The point of the site? Let's let Crystal Lynn explain it in her own words:
Feminism in Canada seems to be fostered in the lives of women most commonly in the Post-Secondary environment. This website hopes to serve as a window into understanding greater the women of this environment, what concerns them and the many things that Feminism has been introducing into the Canadian Culture. Also, located here are numerous resources that the church can use to better understand and serve the gospel to the ever growing feminist population in Canada and most specifically Canadian Campuses.Scanning the site brought back a flood of memories of teaching university-level courses, as it is filled with other golden nuggets like, "In the end feminism is an opinion of were one feels women fit into the world and in history; it is their place as well as their purpose." As sweet as it is, the hallowed number one spot isn't a hotbed of feminist discussion, humour or analysis. Have high hopes for number two? Oh. It's a bibliography, and an incomplete one, at that. The latest publication is from 1996. And for some reason, it's hosted by a research centre at an American university. Hmm, something makes me think this site was someone's class project, too. Alrighty, then, we've got to be getting to the juice with number three. Yes! It's a good-looking website with a woman's symbol (complete with fist inside the circle), and the site's tagline reads, "A democratic, revolutionary socialist, feminist, anti-racist organization." Whoo-hoo! Canadian feminism has arrived...at an American site. And the link? A book review of Judy Rebick's 2005 book Ten Thousand Roses, written for solidarity-us.org. Number four brings us to an outdated archive page at REAL Women, a conservative, right-wing organization that one could most accurately call anti-feminist. To wit: "The dictatorial powers of the Canadian Human Rights Commission have long haunted Canadians. The victims of its capricious agendas have been legion." It gets worse. Number five is hosted at an outfit called conservativeforum.org, and features an article from 2001 by C. Gwendolyn Landolt, National Vice President, REAL Women of Canada. Below the fold include a smattering of actual feminist thought from the New Socialist and a blog called The Female Dissenter, and some totally random listings from a Yahoo index, Linkinghub and Findarticles.com. Yeah. Um. These dismal search results speak volumes about the state of feminism in Canada right now; they may also say something about feminist bloggers in this country not staking out their territory through search engine optimization (a women and tech issue we'll be addressing later on). There is one shred of good news: there are 2,000,000 hits for "feminism Canada." It'll just take a bit more time to sift through them all to find the real goods. What Canadian sites appeal to your ladybrains? Let us know below.
Related posts:
Confabulous badges!
