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By bailey-reid • 11 years ago

No Excuses… For VAW

In the days following the murder of Kasandra Perkins by her partner and Kansas City Chiefs player, Jovan Belcher, I have seen a litany of excuses as to why she was murdered. It has been blamed on concussions, financial problems, youth, even the culture of the NFL.

But I have the answer.

The answer is simply woman abuse. Kasandra Perkins was murdered, by a man, due to violence against women. This man made a choice to murder a woman, his partner, and the mother of his child. He made this choice not because he has a mental health issue, not because he was young, and not because he plays football. He made this choice because he had a certain attitude toward women. Misogyny is not a diagnosis in the DSM-IV, nor in the DSM-V. It is not a medical diagnosis because it is behaviour and choice men in our culture make. It is a behaviour that he knew would be excused because he is a Male Celebrity Sports Figure.
By bailey-reid • 11 years ago

On Halloween and Karlie Kloss

I’ve been following the Karlie Kloss VS issue lately, and it’s making me think of a letter I wrote to a company called “Dreamgirl International” right before Halloween.

This is the time of year we begin to see the Halloween costumes come into stores, which is mostly limited for women to “Sexy Kitten/Witch/Teapot etc.”. How tedious. But I wrote this letter in response to a costume I had come across in Spirit Halloween. It was called “Reservation Royalty” and it was terribly offensive.

To describe the costume, it was a young woman in a “buckskin” dress and feathered headdress, which was basically a bastardized version of traditional Indigenous garb, including the war bonnet, with little left to the imagination. I don’t think ...

I’ve been following the Karlie Kloss VS issue lately, and it’s making me think of a letter I wrote to a company called “Dreamgirl International” right before Halloween.

This is the time of year we begin to see ...
By bailey-reid • 14 years ago

Real Simple Real Life?

Is anyone else as disturbed by the new TLC show “Real Simple. Real Life.” as I am? Maybe I’m just sensitive but… doesn’t it reek of 1950’s bitter nostalgia? Sort of like those mini cocktail wieners. Of course there are your standard style shows, cooking shows, and home improvement shows. But this one differentiates itself from the slew of “life improvement” shows by having all the “experts” rolled up into one show. Now, if you can’t organize your cupboards OR dress yourself, you needn’t apply for many shows. There’s one that covers it all.
This is where it begins to haunt me. The women who come on this show are usually very busy moms. Their husbands all work, and some ...

Is anyone else as disturbed by the new TLC show “Real Simple. Real Life.” as I am? Maybe I’m just sensitive but… doesn’t it reek of 1950’s bitter nostalgia? Sort of like those mini cocktail wieners. Of ...