Freedom of Expression Through Narrative

What makes Thin Air, Winnipeg’s international writing festival so fantastic is the diverse list of authors who share their work during the week long September event. When Karen Press, my  Creative Writing instructor, told us CreCommers that we would hearing from Shawna Dempsey and Lori Millan, two lesbian women known for challenging conceptions of sexuality through explicit performance art, I was intrigued. And for some reason their names sounded vaguely familiar. 

I racked my brain and the pages of my old Women’s and Gender’s studies text books for the answer. After a little bit of search, I came across Creative Subversions, a text that pulls apart Canadian identity through examinations of minority experience.

Dempsey, Millan, and their project, Lesbian National Park’s and Services, was the focus of one of the chapters! 

I knew I had come across the two Winnipeg women’s names somewhere. And after rereading their chapter in Creative Subversions and remembering that Lesbian National Park’s and Services was not actually a government organization but a performance art piece designed to put in perspective common sense assumptions of what and who belong in wilderness spaces, I was very excited to listen to the women as part of Thin Air.

The work they red from for the festival was called Bedtime Stories for the End of the World. Like Lesbian National Park’s and Services, the content of this project does not conform to what its title suggests. Unless of course you feel comfortable reading to your kids from a collection of sexually explicit short stories. 

In their first reading, Dempsey and Millan told a tale of female pirates from the 1700’s brought together by a love for adventure, freedom and each other. The story was fiction but the characters had been real pirates.

Females are not typically associated with the rough and tough life of a pirate. Neither are lesbians. But of course, as Dempsey and Millan illustrate, females, lesbians and many other marginalized groups were present during all aspects of history. 

The work that these women do embodies the notion of sub-culture by forcing us to acknowledge the untold story. When we examine history, one or two narratives often dominant certain individuals and events. Stigmatized groups are virtually unheard from. 

I felt so lucky to be able to experience literature that challenges my stereotypes. Narrative is so powerful in it’s ability to create vividness and for this reason I think it is an amazing way to establish dialogue around certain sub-cultural elements of our society. 

Everyone has a story, not everyone has the freedom to share. The work of Dempsey and Millan gives voice to the untold story. 

Who You Gonna Call!?

For those of you who are familiar with The Forks Market, you may be well aware that it is a very peculiar place.

I've always found obscurity in its historical transformation from an early Aboriginal settling grounds through to its modern day use as a multi-cultural food court and shopping centre.

But on a day-to-day basis, the forks is a quirky environment because it signifies a coming together of so many different types of people and ideologies.

Having worked there for the past five years, I have developed relationships with business owners, employees and costumers, who are completely different from my usual group of friends. I have conversations with them that I would never have outside of The Forks Market setting.

I could tell you a thing or two about Moe and his passion for gourmet cheese and wine.

I know all about Betty from Tall Grass Prairie and the scores in her son's elite level soccer games

And as of this week, I have learned that Victor Martin, an employee of Fergie's Fish and Chips, has a paranormal investigation business on the side.

I don't believe in ghosts, I don't know many people that do.

Victor not only believes in Ghosts, but he also interacts with them!

"I've been seeing and hearing ghosts all my life, in every city that I have ever lived in and Winnipeg is undoubtedly the most haunted place in Canada," Victor explains to me while I stop and chat with him on an extra-long washroom break from the place I work a couple of shops over.

"There's more paranormal activity here because of the water. "

A minute into our conversation about ghosts and I realize that this could go on all day!

I like to consider myself a fairly reasonable individual but somehow this self-proclaimed "ghost buster" is beginning to make me feel like paranormal activity may actually be a thing....

A big thing in fact!

"Manitoba has many different paranormal activity teams, we're just one of them and we offer our services for free!"

So how does this whole ghost hunting business even work? My only frame of reference is an image of Bill Murray running around in a snot-green one piece with a vacuum cleaner attached to his back.

"I'm working on a house in St-Vital where a spirit just won't leave the owner alone. It used to live in the  house and it hasn't figured out that it's dead yet. My crew has been making regular visits to the house to try and catch some audio and video of it."

I ask to see some of the footage that Victor has captured during previous paranormal excursions but he tells me that his team is saving everything they have recorded for a video compilation.

I thank Victor for the cool new perspective he has given me on ghosts and their presence in my city.

"Oh by the way, I've seen ghosts a bunch of times here in The Forks Market."

Great. Closing later this evening is going to rock.

If you or anyone you know is experiencing what may be characterized as paranormal activity, visit Victor's website! He's a really friendly guy and his team would be happy to investigate any suspicions.

Victor Martin, Fish Fryer/Ghost Buster

A Question of Perspective

Everything we now except as normal was derived from obscurity, a sub-culture of sorts. 

Jesus Christ, for example, wasn’t preaching to the masses, his words resonated to a few loyal friends who were crazy enough to stand up to blind conformity. 

I often notice how this same trend applies to the people I see on the streets of Winnipeg. This is not to say that I regularly observe short, long-bearded men jumping up on boulevards, shouting out anti-establishment rhetoric. But what one day may be considered silly or bizarre, can be normalized the next, it’s simply a question of perception. 

My friend decided to shave the side of her head last month. She has gorgeous long black hair. I wept. My gleaned understanding of what qualifies beauty completely shattered. 

A couple of weeks later, I got used to it and I even began to like her new look. When I went out in the evenings I noticed that more and more people were adopting the same style. I looked on the Internet and saw Miley twerking with a shaved ring around the bottom a blonde bob.  

It’s something to consider when it comes to immediately defining behavior as weird. 

This is not to say that I will partially shave my head or dance naked on a wrecking ball but hey, I’m not judging. 

Happy Friday everyone!

And even though Miley's hair cut is becoming popularized, lets hope her behaviour in this new video isn’t.  

Sociology

In my first year of university I took an introduction to sociology course. The world around me became a little clearer as I realized that my youthful decision to chop off my beautiful barbie's beautiful locks was less about an innate desire to attend hair design school and more to do with my gleaned perceptions of what it meant to be attractive. I wanted Barbie to look like me so that I could see more of myself in her beauty.

Unfortunately Barbie’s looks are unattainable. Her chest is way too big for that little frame. 

In fact, a lot of components in life tend to be dictated by the impossibly large breast phenomena. An extension of which is that we, as humans, are constantly striving to conform to the norm.  And conforming isn’t easy when society tells you that you need double d’s and all you’ve got to work with are triple A’s. So you stuff your bra with Kleenex and pretend that you’ve got it all figured out. You don’t, but you pretend. Because in the end, everyone’s stuffing. 

This past week I was really lucky to have the opportunity to sit down  with a couple of women that are going against the norm, throwing away the bra altogether! They are professional pole fitness instructors and champions. Despite the negative attention they receive for their sport's association with the stripping industry, these women have made a successful pole fitness business for themselves. Through this business they aim to empower women and challenge stereotypes. 

I attempted to learn how to pole dance too. The photo below documents the most challenging movement I was able to execute. I'm sure Barbie would have been much better. 

Check out the full article I wrote in this week’s issue of The Uniter and please follow my blog as I investigate other Winnipegers who have given up stuffing!