So Long, Gender Focus! Six Relevant Posts from Seven Years of Feminist Blogging

Seven years ago I was a Women’s Studies graduate, between jobs, reading American feminist blogs like Feministing and Shakesville and wondering why we didn’t seem to have a similar platform to highlight Canadian feminist voices.

That’s when I decided to start a feminist blog with a particular focus on Canadian pop culture, politics and current events. This volunteer-run, ad-free, independent site would attempt to articulate intersectional feminist viewpoints, to be anti-racist and trans-inclusive. It would eventually be named Gender Focus.

Over seven years we published more than 1,500 posts, by more than 110 contributors, on topics including: childhood feminist role models; missing and murdered Indigenous women; sexism in politics; TV reviews of shows like Girls and Sense8; rape culture; racism in academia; abortion rights in the Maritimes; trans bathroom rights; and much more.

We even won awards, including the 2014 Canadian Weblog Award for Best Activism & Social Justice, and Best Political Blog.

But all good things must come to an end, and despite the incredible contributions by our writers and Lyndsay Kirkham, who co-edited with me for the final year, the amount of work needed to generate regular, quality content was just too great.

Luckily the content we did publish lives on a gender-focus.com. Here are six pieces that I think remain particularly relevant today:

1. “Feminism FAQs”: I created this series of video blogs as resources to help feminists answer common questions, like “Why ‘feminism’ (not ‘equalism’ or ‘humanism’)?”; “Can men be feminists?” and “Why do we still need feminism?/Aren’t we all equal now?”

2. “On Jian Ghomeshi and Presumptions of Innocence and Guilt”: After Jian Ghomeshi was arrested, Jennifer Jones wrote about what it’s like to be a sexual assault victim on the stand. Although the trial is over, the issues it raised about victim-blaming need to remain top of mind for Canadian feminists.

3. “In Defence of ‘Political Correctness’ and ‘Being Offended”: Jessica Critcher wrote a brilliant response to those people (like Ujjal Dosanjh) who argue “political correctness” has gone too far.

4. “Victim-Blaming in Coverage of RCMP Missing Women Report”: With the upcoming national inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women, we need to be conscious of the problematic language mainstream media sometimes use when talking about this issue, and be ready to counter it.

5. “At the Intersection of Trans and Blue-Collar”: Felix talks about growing up queer in Nanaimo and contemplates the relationship between gender and class oppression.

6. “For Girls Who Wear Glasses”: One of my earliest articles talked about the pressure on girls to play dumb to attract men.

And bonus: “Pro-Choice Colouring Pages!” Because all activists need some self-care time. Print off these pages by Lyndsay Kirkham and get colouring.

There could still be more space made for diversity in the Canadian feminist blogosphere – space for trans and Indigenous women and women with disabilities in particular. But I think overall we’re on the right track.

Compared to seven years ago, Canadian feminist voices seem to be thriving online. Independent media outlets are publishing incredible feminist journalism. Anne Theriault’s blog The Belle Jar is essential reading for her moving, insightful, inspiring, and often hilarious writing. At least three online magazines: GUTS, Shameless and FLURT (Shameless and FLURT also have print editions) are delivering thought-provoking feminist writing and art, by diverse contributors. Former Gender Focus contributor Emily Yakashiro has started her own feminist fashion blog, The Closet Feminist.

And I’m still out there – only I’m now focused more on analyzing Star Trek from a feminist lens – at Trekkie Feminist and on the podcast Women at Warp.