this is what an annoyed feminist looks like

yes, i will take part in tonight's 'take back the night' march in ottawa because it's one way to make a statement about violence aganst women. such demonstrations of unity, outrage, and defiance are part of what we must do. STILL. because it is apparently ok, STILL, to view women as inferior, as sexual objects, as targets for violence. we will issue our collective request to be given back our night, please. but like most women i know, it makes me fucking sick that we even have to question our right to move about the planet free from worry about the violation of our space, our bodies, our freedom.

yes, it is the year 2007 and we live in exciting, progressive times. so why do the headlines keep blurring it up all dark ages style when it comes to how women are STILL seen, treated, discarded? the awareness and political campaigns of our mothers and grandmothers sound no different than the ones we churn out (by rote, almost) today. god only knows if our daughters and granddaughters will STILL be making the same outrageous demands for equality in the same outrageous manner, wishing the world to possibly lay off their bodies and their safety once and for all.

what a relief to be in canada and not some backwards backwater place on earth where neanderthals drag women around caves by their hair, as mere baby machines or cooks should be... where women are slaves who happen to bear an evil clitoris. oh no, we live where incidents of violence against women are bizarre anomalies, not like in less enlightened places on earth. we are a modern society that well recognizes the value and power of women as equals.

err, reality check: we are so STILL not there. as if robert pickton confessing to killing almost 50 women isn't gruesome or telling enough, never mind the unending list of hundreds of aboriginal women who go missing or are murdered without hardly any consequence...

in the very shadows of those iconic symbols of freedom - the parliament buildings, the peace tower - women are being snatched in daylight, violated in darkness, eliminated like ragged nothings.

just this week: two women in the Ottawa area were forced into vehicles before being sexually assaulted earlier this week, police said.

just this month: an unknown man attacked a 23-year-old female student while she worked alone in a [carleton university] computer lab.

just around the corner from my house: [kelly morrisseau, pregnant] was found naked, bleeding and near death in a Gatineau Park parking lot on Dec. 10.

from full-on gendercide to gender-tinged misdemeanors, the fact is that in 2007, women STILL have reason to doubt our safety, and therefore, our equality and autonomy. don't get me wrong -- i'm super grateful for my vote, my home ownership, my career prospects, my birth control pills. but so long as gender is STILL a target, there is no equality. and we can't ask to take back what we never had. we have to build it.

so yes, we'll gather tonight as thousands will in thousands of communities in a show of solidarity to reclaim 'the streets', just as we'll spend another december 6th lighting candles at quiet vigils in honour of the 14 women infamously murdered for being women, and we'll engage in yet another campaign to see if we can't set ourselves up with some true equality around here, despite best efforts to make sure we can't. because there's STILL a long way to go baby.