As women operating in a patriarchal society, it can be easy to feel angry, sometimes even a little helpless. With International Women’s Day having passed on Mar. 8, there’s lots of focus on women in this issue of The Cascade. We discuss equal birth control on page 10, a review of The Bride on pages 20-21, and the idea of bringing menstrual leave to Canada on page 8. For a very special interview, venture to page 18 where we have a spotlight on renowned female poet and writer, Sadiqa de Meijer, who just recently visited UFV’s Abbotsford campus to read some of her work and share her wisdom with students.
Our feature this issue on pages 12-14 presents you with ideas from the women who make up the behind the scenes of The Cascade and highlights personal notions on what womanhood is to us.
I’ll leave you with a segment from Brenda Shaughnessy’s poem, “Postfeminism,” as we reflect on Women’s Day:
“There are two kinds of people, soldiers and women,
as Virginia Woolf said. Both for decoration only.
Now that is too kind. It’s technical: virgins and wolves.
We have choices now. Two little girls walk into a bar,
one orders a shirley temple. Shirley Temple’s pimp
comes over and says you won’t be sorry. She’s a fine
piece of work but she don’t come cheap. Myself, I’m
in less fear of predators than of walking around
in my mother’s body. That’s sneaky, that’s more
than naked. Let’s even it up: you go on fuming in your
gray room. I am voracious alone. Blank and loose,
metallic lingerie. And rare black-tipped cigarettes
in a handmade basket case. Which of us weaves
the world together with a quicker blur of armed
seduction: your war-on-thugs, my body stockings.
Ascetic or carnivore.”
