In Highway’s novel the Kiss of the Fur Queen, tribal history is very impactful.  The author describes a story which centers on the relationship between Cree tribal identity and modern colonial Western institutions, exemplified through government policy and residential school.

The author’s tribal history is evident throughout the novel in the vivid descriptions of the legends of births, the Fur Queen, the trickster, and the Weetigo spirit.  The recurring imagery of the kiss of the Fur Queen with focuses on the kiss  itself, the photograph, and it’s effects throughout the unvierse, through the birth of the fetus is another example of the author’s tribal history impacting the creative work.  Dance and music which are central to the brothers’ relationship and to their survival through residential school and later life is also significantly influenced by the author’s tribal history, which the boys become increasingly detached from later in the novel.

The juxtaposition between Cree and Western culture is highlighted early on in the book.  In the scene where Abraham’s son whom they have named “Ooneemeetoo” is baptized, it is evident that the Okimasis family is somewhat at odds with the Catholic priest who renames the child Gabriel.  The narrator describes the baptism as a “curious ritual” from Champion’s perspective (p. 36).  This tension becomes more evident when Mareisis and Abraham discuss whether Champion will have to go to the South to go to residential school.

The comparison of the First Nations boys’ haircutting when they arrive at residential school to “slaughter” is chilling.  “He was being skinned alive in public; the centre of his nakedness shriveled to the size and texture of a raisin, the whole world staring, pointing, laughing.”  This scene becomes increasingly significant throughout the novel and is symbolic of Champion, now Jeremiah’s loss of his heritage culture.  The priests are described in an ominous way “Father Lafleur placed a hand on Champion’s thigh and like some large, furry animal, purred at him… The scent of sacramental wine oozed off his tongue, and incense appeared to rise like fog off the surface of his cassock.”  These dark, animal-like descriptions can be seen to foreshadow the abuse that Jeremiah and his brother will face.

Highway’s novel touches on subjects related to cultural heritage and history, abuse by settlers, loss of cultural heritage, as well as issues related to homosexuality and HIV/AIDS.  Through these themes, Highway touches on many topics which have been discussed in this unit of the course.

In Lee Maracle’s lecture about the connection between violence against the Earth and violence against women, she argues that when we lose our connection to the earth, we also lose our connection with humanity, creating violence (as well as disease).

Maracle describes driving along the coast of Vancouver Island on the Highway of Tears, a region that gets two-hundred inches of rainfall every year but that experienced draught and describes that she was “broken with grief” at the sight of the vast deforestation that has taken place.  This region is not only damaged by deforestation, but also has the highest rate of suicides and violence against women, which Maracle argues is due to the loss of connection with the earth.  Lee Maracle discusses the loss of landscape that she and her people have experienced and extends this idea, to immigrants arriving in Canada as well as other regions which have experienced a change in landscape as a result of deforestation and development.

Maracle describes herself as a converted environmentalist and passionately discusses how important it is to keep our connection to the earth and also to care for it.  She maintains that if we think of our earth as our mother, this increases our commitment to the planet and to keep it well-kept and in good condition.  Lee Maracle describes our connection to the earth, to other humans, to the animals, and waters and focuses on the importance of our connection to these elements.  She also emphasizes the idea that as members of our greater human society, we are all connected to each other as siblings.  Here, she draws a similar parallel of that between humans and the earth, arguing that if we think of all humans as being related to us, this makes violence against them that much harder.

Although her main focus is on the connection between the violence against the earth and the violence against women, Maracle also discusses the importance of the use of language, an issue discussed in this section of our course.  She describes being told as a young mother that her handsome son would be a “lady killer” and “heart breaker” and how problematic this language is.  Having raised her son to love women and respect them, she was troubled by the fact that her son was hearing and eating up these words as a young child.  This highlights the importance of discourse and how impactful this is not only in society, but particularly to youth.  She also discusses the importance of stories, and talks about the importance of stories within her culture and the importance of the lessons to be learned from these stories.

Intersectionality is a key component of this discussion, relating power, discourse, settlement, the environment, social norms, differences in social class and ethnicity to violence.

In the Kappa Child, Hiromi Gotto describes her experience as an immigrant Japanese-Canadian. The author raises many comparisons and contradictions between Japanese and Canadian culture. This can be seen in her comparisons between her journey and that of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s, for example in the part where the narrator reads to her sisters and draws the comparison between the Wilders and her family “being pioneers” (p.41) and says to Slither “See, we’re like that right now, get it?”. In this same scene the juxtaposition between the two families is also evident, as PG asks if “Laura’s pa hit the ma” (p. 41), highlighting that unlike the somewhat idyllic family portrayed in Little House on the Prairie, this family is somewhat dysfunctional, and highlights the abuse that the girls and their mother endure from their father.  The narrator uses Little House on the Prairie as a way to try to understand her family’s journey from British Columbia to the Alberta prairies.

The narrator’s experience as of being Japanese-Canadian and being influenced by both cultures is also evident in her numerous descriptions of herself, for example “my daikon legs” and “bratwurst fingers”.  This struggle with identity is also alluded to when the narrator decides to rename her sisters with names that people in Canada could pronounce. It appears that this is quite significant for the narrator, she writes “What’s in a name? some people say. A great deal, was my conclusion”.

The narrator’s experience living in Canada and neither feeling truly Canadian or Japanese is a recurring theme throughout the novel. Hiromi Goto creates a counter-narrative by illustrating an “atypical” experience as an immigrant to Canada, through the narrator’s sexuality, physical appearance, and mythical elements in the story. I think that through this counter-narrative, the author challenges the concepts of borders (geographic, gender, sexuality) and the typical experience of migration.

The slogan which Ofred must live by “from each according to her ability; to each according to his needs” (p. 135) is an example of how Gilead uses language in an oppressive manner. The slogan not only excludes individuality and freedom of “choice” but also emphasizes that the handmaid’s are to serve men’s needs but there is no reciprocation of this.  Likewise, men in this society cannot be infertile and the use of the word sterile is forbidden.  Offred is appalled by the fact that the Commander’s wife suggests that maybe Offred isn’t pregnant because the Commander is sterile – Offred thinks that “it’s heresy” and that it is “only women… can’t, who remain stubbornly closed, damaged, defective” (p. 236).

Women are not only given the burden of fertility and infertility but are also made responsible of any sexual indiscretion, which is ironic given that they have little or no say in when or where they have sex. To make matters worse, men “can’t help it” and are exempt from culpability because “God made them that way.”

Offred is given the choice to participate in her arrangement as a handmaid rather than face death. Unlike in Juno, Offred does not have the option to keep her child as society does not allow for this and surrogacy is her way to survive. She says in the first chapter that she has already had a baby taken from her.  Latimer points out that the separation of Offred’s rights from those of “her potential child… satirizes the idea that women are not only adversely related to the foetus, or the future child, but are actually much less politically important.”  This is reflective of “pro-life” stances on the right of the fetus to live, while ignoring and putting this ahead of a mother’s right to choose a decision that is right for her circumstances.

The emphasis on patriarchy throughout the novel and the fact that women who are or should be fertile’s only use their fertility to reproduce is illustrated in the fact that women who are unable to reproduce are named “unwomen.” Latimer writes that such naming takes place in pro-life discourse, which takes the stance that “women who advocate or have abortions… are not properly female.” This discourse places enormous emphasis on women’s purpose for reproduction and represents the “feminine ideal” that all women should want to be mothers, as discussed in the previous lecture.

Portrayal of “Choice”

Latimer notes that one of the main reasons that Juno decides not to go through with her planned abortion is that the clinic smelled like a dental office. Latimer also points out that pro-life language affects Juno’s decision – after being met by a single pro-life advocate at the clinic who tells her that her baby has a heart and fingernails, while sitting in the clinic, Juno observes other patients and employees and notices them “scratching, typing, and tapping their fingernails” – these combine into a “deafening roar” that comes to sound like a heartbeat.  I think this scene highlights the fact that abortion is not as easy of a decision as Juno makes it out to be with her bluntness and humor.  The fact that Juno is influenced by pro life language is worrying in that this has been understood as a pro life win, making Juno “the movie pro-aborts will hate”, as Latimer quotes Jill Stanek. However, the fact that Juno first considers abortion as the best option to “nip it in the bud” and that her stepmom asks her when she tells them that she’ll give up the baby for adoption if she’s “considered the alternative” is important in that abortion is part of the conversation and it is an option for her. Juno’s stepmom also makes the very important point of how difficult giving up a child for adoption can be, and that it’s “unimaginable” how difficult this could be.

Reproductive Health Care

Reproductive health care is represented in a really interesting way in the movie. It appears that access to an abortion is quite easy to obtain, as Juno decides to go to Women Now because she doesn’t need parental consent and calls to “procure a hasty abortion”. Latimer notes that this ignores the fact that in Minnesota, minors in fact do need parental consent. Latimer also notes that the fact that the receptionist who greets Juno at the clinic is a “glib teenager who tell(s) patients about [her] own sexual exploits” undermines the fact that abortion clinics are staffed with trained personnel who often risk their own safety in their jobs.  This could be seen as another deterrent for Juno getting an abortion. Another interesting point in regard to Juno’s dealings with reproductive health care is that the only person in the film who is unsupportive of Juno’s decision to have the baby is the ultrasound technician.

Representations of Teenage Pregnancy

Juno calls herself a “cautionary whale”, however she is treated with much respect throughout the movie, with the exception of the ultrasound technician. When Juno tells her parents, her dad says that he thought she was the “kind of girl who knew when to say when”, her response that she doesn’t know what kind of girl she is challenges the assumptions about what pregnant teens are like.  This reminds us of Ann Fessler’s work “A Girl Like Her” and the New York Times Magazine article that highlights the diverse range of experiences that women have with pregnancy and abortion, as well as how much their backgrounds can differ.  Juno does not represent that the reality of teen pregnancy (discussed in the lecture slides) is that “many unwanted pregnancies ending in abortion in both the US and Canada, and those that do go forward happening to most often to poor women, and young women of colour.” Her experience is not by any means typical (she is caucasian, middle class, well supported emotionally and financially) and it challenges assumptions about teen pregnancy, and interestingly portrays only one instance of negative judgment.

The Maternal “Ideal”

It’s interesting to note than in “Juno”, the heroine goes from a position of wanting to just “get the thing out” and hand it over to Mark and Vanessa, to understanding Vanessa’s excitement about having a baby. This is portrayed as Juno becoming more mature in her relationships with Mark, Vanessa, and Bleeker, as well as in her becoming more of a maternal figure – coming closer to the “ideal” which Vanessa represents. Initially in the film, Vanessa’s character is incredibly intense and is almost an exaggerated representation of the maternal ideal. She says that she was born to be a mother, Juno (like I felt watching the film) doesn’t seem to understand what Vanessa is talking about and seems to be much more attracted to Mark who is less excited about the baby and ends up backing out of the adoption. Over the course of the film, Vanessa and Juno’s relationship evolves and Juno appears to come to understand and even be committed to Vanessa through her decision to go through with the adoption after Mark backs out. This in a sense brings Juno closer to the “ideal mother” which Vanessa portrays.