My Rock

On this International Women's Day, I'm filled with gratitude for the great women I've known over the years, starting with my mother and continuing to present day, with the colleagues I'm just getting to know at Stantec.

Naturally my wife stands at the top of that formidable list. Here's an image of Sylvia standing beside a boulder near Radium, BC. It feels appropriate because Sylvia is filled with the gravitas, strength and heft symbolized by stone. It's too bad she isn't also standing next to a river too, so that her quickness of thought, determination and serenity could also be symbolized. 

Not Green Arrow's Finest Moment

While Superman has long been one of my favourite comic book characters - if not the favourite - I often prefer the stories featuring second-tier characters such as Green Arrow (aka Oliver Queen) and Black Canary (aka Dinah Lance), mostly because it seems like the writers and artists feel more comfortable taking chances and exploring the boundaries of the medium.

For example, during the "Dollar Comic" era of World's Finest, when each issue was super-sized and featured a half-dozen characters in four different stories, I looked forward to the Black Canary/Green Arrow stories most, because I enjoyed their tempestuous relationship.

When I first read this issue - #253, cover-dated November 1978 - I was only nine years old, and I thought Black Canary was being kind of mean to her boyfriend. I took their argument at face value, missing the nuance entirely, because I hadn't learned about the birds and the bees yet...nor the menstrual cycle:

"This Earth 2 deal, going home, finding yourself, all of it's part of the mood you get in. A few days, you'll be over it." 

"Do you seriously think my problems are biological? That I'm like a faucet you can turn on and off?" 

It seems pretty clear to me that Oliver is attributing Dinah's current feelings to her period - edgy stuff for a comic book allegedly targeted at kids! From an adult perspective, Green Arrow's dismissive behaviour is revealed as almost hilariously sexist and blockheaded; my sympathies now lie entirely with Dinah. No wonder their on-again, off-again relationship didn't work out in the end.

Super Adjective Theatre

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane ran for several decades. Always a strange comic, it got even weirder in the swinging sixties and seventies when its writers started portraying Superman as a sexist dope just so he could be an effective foil for Lois' revitalized feminism. Superman sure looks like a stuck-up member of the establishment here, a far cry from his origins as a populist radical.

I find their final exchange hilarious, but on reflection if Superman were a real person I suppose it would be only natural to pepper your language with super-this and super-that, especially ironically. If I had super-powers, I'd constantly say things like "I'm super-writing this press release!" or "Oh oh, I've got to super-unplug the toilet again!"

Meanwhile, Sylvia would probably say "I'm getting super-tired of this routine. Please find some  new material."

Joyce

Judging only by the label on the envelope containing its negative, this photo appears to have been shot sometime in the early 1970s in northern Manitoba, probably around Thompson. There's something remarkably touching about the somewhat sloppy yet heartfelt scrawl of "Joyce" on the side of this old boat.

Women's Sports News!

...or, possibly the unlikeliest title for a My Name is Earl (J. Woods) blog post ever. But yesterday I met my friends Andrea and Greg and their kids Lena and Mitchell at the Legislature; they're here from the UK to visit friends and family. (As an aside, Lena's British accent cracks me up for some reason, particularly when she's displaying her knowledge of Star Wars trivia.)

During the course of our conversation I learned Andrea has started a new blog on the subject - women in sport, that is, not her daughter's accent. The Olympics have certainly given Andrea ample grist for the beginnings of her new mill! I wonder if she'll have anything to say about the Olympic fencer who refused to leave the field of battle because of a disputed call.

In any event (pun intended), visit Women's Sports News for Andrea's coverage of...women in sports!

International Women's Day

Today marks the centenary of International Women's Day. While I think it's fair to say that women are better off today than they were 100 years ago, at least in the developed world, it's pretty clear that the inherent rights of women still aren't universally respected or even acknowledged. Most of the injustices are fairly well known; the threat of violence faced by women, unequal pay for equal work, inaccurate stereotyping of women, the unfair emphasis on personal appearance and so on. In many parts of the world, women face far worse: state-sanctioned (or at least state-condoned) stoning, genital mutilation and a long list of other horrors.

Folks wiser than me have commented on these issues at length. This International Women's Day, I'd be happy if people could make more of an effort to simply look past one of the basic stereotypes - that of the decision-making husband and the compliant, if not invisible, wife. (Or if you prefer a gender-neutral term for both parties, partner.)

You would think that Canadian society had gotten past this decades ago, but Sylvia and I bump up against this outdated assumption from time to time. On several occasions Sylvia has been ignored by service providers when we're together. Questions and replies get directed to me rather than her, often even at those times when she initiates contact. Being very outspoken and assertive, Sylvia almost always has no problem recapturing the attention of anyone who tries to do this. But she shouldn't have to do this constantly, so sometimes I'll take on the task of ensuring that both of us are equally respected. Usually all that's required is a gentle nudge in the right direction, a subtle gesture or a simple "You should talk to Sylvia about that."

(As an aside, sometimes I still have trouble figuring out when I should jump in and when I shouldn't - I don't want to be paternalistic, but on the other hand I don't want to leave Sylvia in the lurch if and when she'd like my help, either!)

Naturally the goal isn't to be rude or make the other person uncomfortable, but we both get a little tired of people assuming that just because I'm a guy, I make all the important household decisions. We're a team, and we make those decisions together. Involve both of us in the conversation, or we'll take our concerns  or our business elsewhere.

I'm certain that many other Canadian couples face this sort of casual stereotyping. At worst it's an annoyance, but a troubling one. The attitude reveals deep-seated societal prejudices about gender roles. It's going to take another century or two of hard work and education to put those prejudices to rest. But when we do manage it, we'll be that much closer to eradicating the most serious crimes against women, and to building a world of true respect and equality for both sexes.