Many Canadians never think about how and why our ancestors came here.
My father’s ancestors emigrated to North America from Alsace in the early 1800s. Although no one knows why they came, it may have been that they were German at a time Alsace was in French hands, but it was probably economic. They entered the US at Batavia New York and wandered around a lot before setting roots in the vicinity…
Many Canadians never think about how and why our ancestors came here.
My father’s ancestors emigrated to North America from Alsace in the early 1800s. Although no one knows why they came, it may have been that they were German at a time Alsace was in French hands, but it was probably economic. They entered the US at Batavia New York and wandered around a lot before setting roots in the vicinity of Walkerton, ON.
In the early 20th Century—as a very young woman, my paternal grandmother emigrated to Canada all on her own. She left Germany at the height of the post WWI runaway inflation, so economic chaos may have been part of the reason she came, there’s also a story about an unsuitable romance her family wanted to break up.
And my mother and her brother were the only children in her family to be born here after her family fled the Russian Revolution. So my forbears certainly include refugees.
All three of these stories fuels my interest in history, and stirs my curiosity. There are many reasons for migration.
I just discovered the Waterloo Region Immigration Partnership is hosting a Global Migration Film Festival that will run through December. I’ve already missed a few films I would very much have liked to see, but the remaining lineup of documentary films looks pretty spectacular.
Lately some extremist politicians have made some negative pronouncements on recent global migration. When we meet people from other cultures, when we see them as the real live living breathing human beings they are, it becomes much more difficult to dehumanize them. Waterloo Region owes a lot of its success to the fact it has long been a destination for Canadian Immigrants.
Come see the films and listen to the stories. Get to know something about some of the people who have come—or will come—here. And bring a friend or several!
It’s time to bring an end to the Rape Anthem Masquerading As Christmas Carol
Hi there! Former English nerd/teacher here. Also a big fan of jazz of the 30s and 40s.
So. Here’s the thing. Given a cursory glance and applying today’s worldview to the song, yes, you’re right, it absolutely *sounds* like a rape anthem.
BUT! Let’s look closer!
“Hey what’s in this drink” was a stock joke at the time, and the punchline was invariably that there’s actually pretty much nothing in the drink, not even a significant amount of alcohol.
See, this woman is staying late, unchaperoned, at a dude’s house. In the 1940’s, that’s the kind of thing Good Girls aren’t supposed to do — and she wants people to think she’s a good girl. The woman in the song says outright, multiple times, that what other people will think of her staying is what she’s really concerned about: “the neighbors might think,” “my maiden aunt’s mind is vicious,” “there’s bound to be talk tomorrow.” But she’s having a really good time, and she wants to stay, and so she is excusing her uncharacteristically bold behavior (either to the guy or to herself) by blaming it on the drink — unaware that the drink is actually really weak, maybe not even alcoholic at all. That’s the joke. That is the standard joke that’s going on when a woman in media from the early-to-mid 20th century says “hey, what’s in this drink?” It is not a joke about how she’s drunk and about to be raped. It’s a joke about how she’s perfectly sober and about to have awesome consensual sex and use the drink for plausible deniability because she’s living in a society where women aren’t supposed to have sexual agency.
Basically, the song only makes sense in the context of a society in which women are expected to reject men’s advances whether they actually want to or not, and therefore it’s normal and expected for a lady’s gentleman companion to pressure her despite her protests, because he knows she would have to say that whether or not she meant it, and if she really wants to stay she won’t be able to justify doing so unless he offers her an excuse other than “I’m staying because I want to.” (That’s the main theme of the man’s lines in the song, suggesting excuses she can use when people ask later why she spent the night at his house: it was so cold out, there were no cabs available, he simply insisted because he was concerned about my safety in such awful weather, it was perfectly innocent and definitely not about sex at all!) In this particular case, he’s pretty clearly right, because the woman has a voice, and she’s using it to give all the culturally-understood signals that she actually does want to stay but can’t say so. She states explicitly that she’s resisting because she’s supposed to, not because she wants to: “I ought to say no no no…” She states explicitly that she’s just putting up a token resistance so she’ll be able to claim later that she did what’s expected of a decent woman in this situation: “at least I’m gonna say that I tried.” And at the end of the song they’re singing together, in harmony, because they’re both on the same page and they have been all along.
So it’s not actually a song about rape – in fact it’s a song about a woman finding a way to exercise sexual agency in a patriarchal society designed to stop her from doing so. But it’s also, at the same time, one of the best illustrations of rape culture that pop culture has ever produced. It’s a song about a society where women aren’t allowed to say yes…which happens to mean it’s also a society where women don’t have a clear and unambiguous way to say no.
“Police forces need to be free from political influence, real or perceived,” said NDP MPP Kevin Yarde in a statement released Friday.
“With this appointment, Doug Ford is promoting a close friend and ally by several ranks, leapfrogging the OPP’s senior leadership team without an explanation.”
The statement noted the OPP is the police force most likely to investigate the actions of the government, political parties and elected officials. It was the force that investigated and laid charges in the deleted documents gas plants scandal that resulted in the conviction of the chief of staff to former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty.
Good morning, friends! First of all, thank you all for the kind birthday wishes and for your generous gifts and donations!! You all are the best! Second, I’m putting the finishing touches on the worst McMansions in Virginia, which has been no easy task! But first, it’s time to kick off a new tradition for this blog, a gingerbread McMansion contest!
Your task is to create the most nubtastic, gawdawful gingerbread McMansion in all of McMansion Hell!! If you succeed, you will be rewarded with cool merch and even some money (as much cash as I’m able to put up):
Prizes!
First Prize: $200, a T-shirt, and 3 pins from the McMansion Hell store.
Second Prize: $100 and a T-shirt and 3 pins from the McMansion Hell store
Third Prize: a T-shirt and 3 pins from the McMansion Hell store.
Honorable Mentions: stickers from the McMansion Hell store and an award certificate
All winners will be featured on the blog and will be mailed an award certificate.
Rules and Regulations:
• Gingerbread structures must be constructed mainly of gingerbread and icing.
• Styrofoam and other support materials are not permitted.
• Entries must be original, don’t just assemble a pre-made kit.
• All components of the display, except for the base, must be made of edible materials.
• Edible materials include candy, nuts, cereal, cookies, crackers, pasta, and other food items that do not include wrappers or sticks. Wrappers should be removed from candy and other decorations.
• Entries must be created this year
Entries will be judged on:
• overall appearance (30 points)
• originality/creativity (30 points)
• workmanship/technique (30 points)
• difficulty (10 points)
Registration starts December 2nd, 2018 and ends January 2nd, 2019. Winners will be announced January 5th, 2019.
Submissions (including photo upload) will be handled via this Google Form:
Many Canadians never think about how and why our ancestors came here.
