Monday, November 23, 2009

Excited About: Guerilla Girls at Galerie de l'UQAM


This morning on ye olde CBC radio, I got to hear a sports pundit make an annoyingly false statement -- namely that sexism simply doesn't exist for the "young folks". In his mind, sure, his generation (I'm guessing middle aged) was capable of being sexist, but certainly not those post-racial, post-difference, Obama-votin' youngsters!

What-ever.

Anyway, though dude was discussing soccer, not sculpture, I gotta just yet again restate the obvious: sexism (and other kinds of discrimination based on outward identity) most certainly do exist across all generations. Though things have gotten a lot better in recent years for the ladies (a fact for which I ironically thank Goddess) I hope my sports-loving colleague simply somehow failed to read the fairly recent news of profoundly ingrained sex harrassment in Ontario high schools? Or missed the release of the WHO report that shows women of all ages around the world continue to die because of ongoing sexism?

In any case, I'm very happy the Guerilla Girls are still working hard to put the lie to the idea that sexism is all over and done with. Next week, the GGs are releasing a new poster commissioned by the Galerie de l'UQAM. The commission, and a related exhibition, are timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique shootings, which, as most of us know, specifically targeted women.

The show is only slated to be up for a short time (December 4 to 19) but hopefully the related poster--as with so many GG gems--will live on in wide distribution.

Image of the Guerilla Girls' UQAM poster from their website

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