The clip from the movie “A Red Girl’s Reasoning” shows a young Aboriginal woman in what appears to be a big city maneuvering the alley ways chasing after a police officer and a criminal in separate but alternating clips. She explains that she has been carrying out vigilante justice for women that come to her when the justice system fails them. This clip could easily be a dramatization of Vancouver and the situation in which its Aboriginal women find themselves. After researching Elle Maija Tailfeathers, I believe this to be the case.

The clip reminds me of the issues that plague the Downtown Eastside, and how many of its missing and murdered Aboriginal women have been let down by the justice system. Even the women who are living and have been abused at a much higher rate than other Canadian women are let down by the justice system. The fact that Aboriginal women are 4 times more likely to be murdered than non-Aboriginal women shows that the painful legacy of the colonialism still lingers.

Elle-Maija Tailfeathers is an Aboriginal woman of the Blackfoot tribe from the Kainai First Nation. She is from British Columbia, where many of the missing and murdered Aboriginal women were from, and where the most gruesome serial killing of many Aboriginal women at the hands of Robert Pickton took place. The Downtown Eastside is also where many of these women were from. It would make sense to say that she had that all of these in mind when creating this piece, as an Aborginal woman from BC. She also has created many other works concerning Aboriginal issues. She made a film called Bloodland about the negative impact of oil and gas exploration, which was inspired by the fact that her reserve at the time was dealing with oil and gas companies conducting fracking on their land. It’s quite interesting to see that her creative works all have a deep connection to her First Nations roots.

I enjoyed reading Thobani’s article and I agree with your response. When Thobani mentioned the gendered and racialized exclusion of Canadian immigration policies today, it made me think back to the Chinese Head Tax . The head tax was a highly discriminatory Canadian immigration policy for about 40 years and it worked to exclude women and children, so that Chinese men would be compelled to return back home, leading to the exclusion of Chinese immigration all together. Although Canadian immigration laws aren’t all that blatantly discriminatory, I agree with Thobani’s sentiment that we have to be critical of the institutions and policies that may reinforce divisiveness. Intersectionality in Canadian immigration regulation is still apparent. There are still plenty of barriers present in the current immigration policy to ensure that Canada receives what they deem to be the most desirable migrants. It was quite surprising to me the fact that Canada had many barriers against homosexuals immigrating to Canada, and against same-sex couples. The hardships and oppression experienced by queer immigrants is quie alarming, considering they may not feel like they quite identify with either the immigrant community or the queer community.

(I was not able to access Out on Main Street, so I decided to do a response to the Vancouver Dialogues project. I hope this is ok!)

The Vancouver Dialogues project is an extremely interesting piece of work, and an extremely necessary one at that. The First Nations, urban aboriginal and immigrant communities shared their stories with one another in dialogue circles, with an aim at strengthening community connections and to grow a sense of understanding between the communities. It provided an opportunity for people to connect and share in an environment where judgement is set aside. It also worked to break down any stereotypes and misconceptions the communities may have had of one another. This project reminded me of the TEDx talk by Chimamanda Adichie, and her discussion of the tendency for one story to be dangerously blanketed over any certain group of people, and the tendency for misunderstandings and misconceptions stemming from the one story. The Canadian immigrants did not know much about the Aboriginal peoples of Canada, besides the one story which was full of misconceptions and stereotypes. This project provided an avenue to break down the one story history that is told of Canadian First nations and Aboriginal groups, and to help Canadian immigrants understand hear the true stories that had been silenced. The theme of self-definition is also present, as the participants sought to define themselves and free themselves from those definitions imposed on them. People told stories of the abuse, cultural silencing and loss of language that they experienced as Aboriginal people living in Canada. Youth dialogue circles added a different voice into the conversations; voices looking to reconnect with their culture, to learn about and be proud of who they are, and to overcome the obstacles passed down from generations of government exploitation. With the large immigrant and Aboriginal population in Vancouver, this dialogue was more than necessary, and it will continue to be necessary as the importance of community building and cultural connection will never waver. As much as we like to think that our community is very welcoming, accepting and diverse, the reality is that there are still many barriers and many obstacles that Aboriginals and immigrants face in our city and our country. Vancouver is very much a diverse community, but what weight does that hold when communities in Vancouver tend to keep to themselves, and don’t do enough to interact with each other and to learn and connect.

Hiromo Moto’s The Kappa Child provides an interesting and realistic account of being an immigrant in Canada.  The protagonist fondly reads  Little House on the Prairie and upon my internet research of Hiromo Moto, she too read the book as a young child moving to Alberta. The character finds that the gap between her own experience, and her Laura Ingalls role model is discouraging, with glaring differences in experiences due to racial and ethnic differences. One of those differences highlighted in the fact that the protagonist had a First Nations neighbor and friend, while the depiction of First Nations is quite stereotypical in the Little House on the Praire novels, which making the protagonists expectations quite  different from the reality. When she goes on a racist tirade against her neighbor, she feels like the book had influenced her views, so she burns it. The experience of the protagonist is quite interesting, as 4 sisters of a Japanese Canadian family living in the prairies in Alberta, adapting to and learning about themselves and I really enjoy how the book focuses on the growth of the characters throughout time. The novel plays with fantasy as well, with the protagonist believing herself to be impregnated by the Kappa creature. I also found interesting the dynamic of the family, which was at times quite dysfunctional and dark. The family struggles with an abusive patriarch and stereotypically submissive Asian females. This novel is quite interesting with its depiction of an immigrant family trying to adapt to and make it in a new society and culture.

I like the fact that you pulled some arguments from outside of the readings! I agree with some of what each of the writers is saying. I agree that one positive from the movie Juno, over Knocked Up, was that they showed all the options that were available, which was realistic. I also agree thought that the way that the abortion clinic was portrayed casts a negative light on the option of abortion and makes the choice for Juno.  I feel like this was a way for the movie to try to please both sides of the coin, but realistically that is not easy to do.  I would really like to see a Hollywood film that depicts abortion in a realistic way, unless there already is one out there I’m not aware of!

In the Handmaid’s Tale, the totalitarian state of Gilead is one where women are see as subordinates to men, and are put in roles where if they are not useful to men in terms of bearing children or fulfilling the role of wife or sexual object, they are seen as disposable. Fertile women take the titular role of Handmaid, to be solely purposeful as surrogates that carry and birth children for the wives of the most powerful men of Gilead. In this novel, abortion is not an option, and undesirable children are simply gotten rid of after childbirth. Atwood’s novel is seen as a depiction of what the world would be like if women lose agency of their bodies and an extreme example/depiction of the real world reproductive politics, where women’s bodies are in someway controlled by the state through abortion politics. The very fact that women’s right to abortion is a debatable topic makes women’s bodies politicized. She discusses how the debate on abortion is centered on the contradiction of the woman’s rights versus the fetus’ rights. In Atwood’s novel, the fetus is considered more important legally than the women, reduced to their wombs and whether they could bear a child. It’s quite interesting because under early abortion laws , women and abortion doctors could be severely punished for abortions, which in some sense can be seen as putting the life of the fetus ahead of the rights of the woman. It’s quite scary to think that the potential life of a fetus is considered more important than a living breathing human woman. Other scholars Latimer cites bring up interesting points about the separation between the pregnant woman and fetus, leading to a ‘fetus citizenship’, with the fetus being more privileged and represented than the pregnant woman by law, and paternity.
I quite enjoyed Latimer’s works, and Atwood’s novels. The novel’s satirization of the patriarchal society we live in is eye opening and scary. The scariest part is that women still do have their agency trivialized in some countries, with abortions being seen as illegal, as well as women being forced to cover up, or women being punished for promiscuity and even for being raped. Latimer calls it an important feminist text,  and rightfully so, as Atwood’s novel has theme’s that are extremely applicable that need to be discussed, but that are uncomfortable for a society where the state can preside over women’s bodies. We consider ourselves to be a forward thinking society in the West, but really, how progressive are we when women are still being  told what to do with their bodies, being slut shamed for wearing revealing clothing, and telling them that their choice in clothing when they are raped discredits them.

When the movie Juno released, there had already been a couple of movies (Knocked Up, Waitress) surrounding the topic of unplanned pregnancies. Juno was special in that it involved a young teenage girl that is quite a realistic character. The main character falls pregnant at 16, and since she feels like she is not ready to take on the responsibilities that come with motherhood, she looks for alternatives. She considers abortion, but eventually settles on adoption. The movie has been criticized for glorifying teen pregnancy. Sarah Jayson’s article “Does ‘Juno’ show strength or glorify teen pregnancy” covers some of the criticisms of the movie. One big criticism was that the movie is unrealistic in that Juno has a very supportive family and that she ends up with the baby’s father. The movie, along with shows such as 16 and Pregnant, are seen as glorifying teen pregnancy to an easily impressionable teenage demographic, and downplaying the challenges facing teenage mothers.

Another article takes a look at the portrayal of abortion seen in Juno and similar movies and television. Writer Amanda Marcotte explains that Hollywood portrayals of abortion make it seem like the typical abortion patient is a white, middle class teen or college student. Referring to statistics, she points out that the “typical” abortion patient is actually a “single mother of color” in her twenties. Also, most women who have abortions are economically disadvantaged, which leads to limited access to contraceptives and a higher rate of abortions. Marcottes inclusion of race within the abortion conversation is quite interesting and an important point to consider.

“Does ‘Juno’ show strength or glorify teen pregnancy?” – Sarah Jyason
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-03-09-juno-pregnancy-main_N.htm

“’Juno’ isn’t the average abortion” – Amanda Marcotte
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/22/juno_isnt_the_average_abortion/