You probably noticed Ms. Pluard during our recent federal election. She was highly visible as the local Green Party candidate. What makes her stand out is her high energy and dedication to her causes. A community activist, she is often involved with women's and environmental issues. She has helped organize the December 6 memorial vigil, "Take Back the Night" marches, and City Street Celebration. She joined a group called "Actiongirls", that works to support other community organizations and services for women. She is currently a student representative on both the Women's Studies Curriculum Committee and the Women's Studies Advisory Committee at the University of Windsor. All of this on top of being a single mom, a university student and an educator at a local day care facility. Catherine Pluard has been a smart asset to the local Greens. Definately someone to watch for in the future.
March 5, 2006
Federal Elections Uncover a Local Gem in Catherine Pluard
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ARTICLE BY CATHERINE
Media Violence Against Women: The Horrors it Causes
by Windsorgreens @ 2006-03-01 - 03:23:07 pm
As is listed in my auto-biography, I am a member of Actiongirls--an activist group of women whose purpose is to educate women about women, to promote healthy messages about what it is to be a woman and to raise public awareness through consciousness-raising activities.
Early in February, one of our members found a poster depicting images of three young women under the caption "MISSING from Windsor Ontario". The poster was not in fact a poster asking for community support to find some women who had been kidnapped, but rather a tasteless and offensive advertizing campaign for a video release party for a local band. The video (available for viewing online on numerous weblogs) depicts young women being kidnapped by various band members, beaten, bound and gagged, and left at the mercy of some angry and abusive men.
Actiongirls launched an awareness-raising campaign outside the establishment that the premiere was held about the realities of missing women and the horrors of woman abuse. They were belittled by many, one member was punched and the establishment owner threatened to "turn the hose on them" in sub-zero weather. The police were called, intervened, but made it very clear that once they left they were not coming back for any reason; that the Actiongirls were on their own.
Now, I am a survivor of not one, but two attempted sexual assaults by police officers (from different cities), so the position of the police does not surprize me. The fact that the establishment owner felt it necessary to threaten to assault a group of women voicing their opinions disturbs me, but again, I am not surprized. What shocks me and what really gets under my skin is the outrage and subsequent hatred being spread by the band and the production company. What saddens me is the way some younger girls have perpetuated this kind of woman-hatred. The position of the production company, the band, and other young supporters is that Actiongirls has targetted them personally. That the "prissy little girls" that comprise Actiongirls need to "grow up". What these young girls do not seem to understand is that I am a grown up. What they don't see is that they are internalizing the messages of hatred that have been spread through art, media and their parents for millennia. What I hope and pray that they never experience is the horrorible ramifications of being the 'hated sex'. When one group claims superiority over another, they also claim the right to control the other group.
Whether these girls like it or not, they will grow up one day and become women. They will go to school, get good grades, get excellent careers, and hunt, seek and scrap with other women for that man to marry--denying themselves any possibility of growing up themselves. You see, growing up has nothing to do with blending into the status quo. Rebelling has nothing to do with what your friends think is "the shit". Growing up has to do with coming into your own. It has to do with getting to know who you are--what makes you you.
What saddened me was to read the blogsite of one of the girls that has posted 'kudos' to the production company. She had written a poem about her confusion about her feelings for a guy that obviously was beneath her. She professed to hate him for sleeping at an ex girlfriend's home on an important evening, to hate him for numerous yet valid reasons, and ended with "Love always".
I blame videos like the nameless one I write about today. I blame media and I blame art that depict women as disposable, that depict women as things to be controlled, silenced, beat, raped, bound, gagged, sold, bought, belittled, and enslaved. I blame artists who spread this kind of hatred through their medium. I blame those who bastardized music with the cheap camera tricks and shallow lyrics. But most of all, I blame those who watch these kinds of videos and attend these kinds of plays for supporting it with their money, time and attention. Are these the kinds of messages you want your children to hear and believe? Do you want your daughters and little sisters growing up believing that it is OK to watch media that sends them a message to hate themselves for being women? Do you want them to believe that getting a man is what will make them happy and the only way they will be complete people? Do you want them to believe that women are responsible for their own persecution? I don't. All I can do is keep writing, keep talking and keep strong. Hopefully one day, this message will be heard.
Remember: Patriarchal institutions (prostitution, marriage, welfare system) have separated women from women. By creating legitimate forms of sexual exploitation, women have been deluded into believing that they have no relation to, and no commonalities with the women on the street, that prostitution is a deviation from the social-sexual norm, rather than the most blatant manifestation of the norm itself. By creating a class of women for other women to despise, the patriarchy blinds the rest of us to the reality behind our own conditions. It is time to wake up to our commonalities. It is our only survival.
I find anonymous' link to Catherine Pluard's commentary refreshing. This woman is obviously not afraid to stand up for her cause and not afraid to wear it on her sleeve. Hers is a political style that we should have more of. She is bang on about those who claim superiority. They desperately need to be in control so that they can lord over the other sex. And a lot of women not only fall prey to this but they also help perpetuate it. "Hear no evil, see no evil, say no evil". "If I wear this bag over my head no one will see how mentally and physically manipulated I am". Good for Catherine Pluard! It's her kind who will flush out the last cave man. Thanks for the link anonymous!
Mr. Rand! She sound like a nice girl for you.
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