Herald Scotland Article: Lesbians Form Friendships & Relationships Through Networking!
Lesbian networking club marks evolution of capital’s gay culture
- Member of the new Evolve club at its inaugural event on Friday night
Special Report: Vicky Allan
0 comments29 Aug 2010
Rhona Cameron is speaking, and it’s halfway between the comedian’s usual stand-up and a different, more improvised personal rambling, so there are laughs and there is a message: and that’s “diversify”.
The word is particularly relevant, here on Friday night, at the launch of a new lesbian networking club in Edinburgh called Evolve, which is all about reaching beyond the tired, old stereotypical lesbian scene and out to gay women of all types.
Cameron is a good person to endorse this. If there is a kind of mainstream lesbian style, neither quite butch nor feminine, it’s the one she sports with her halfway mullet haircut, tight jeans and high heels. She reflects a movement in lesbianism that isn’t about labels and stereotypes, but simply about being yourself.
At Edinburgh’s Revolution club, style ranges from crop-haired women in black to sensual, silky blouses. The women here look much like any random cross-section of the female population. Among them are teachers, vets, business women, IT experts. All that visibly seems to unite them is their womanhood.
Cameron is here, partly because it’s a professional booking, but also because she backs, she tells me, “as many things as possible that can encourage some sort of diversity not only in general within culture but also even within the community of lesbian culture”. She is guarded and matter-of-fact. Already we have had a tricky moment, because it turns out that she feels this is a private speaking event and she does not want me to quote anything she says when she performs. She is, however, willing to chat for a few minutes, and open up about how she feels about the event.
Everything’s a stepping stone. This is all a part of a wider community, and even the fact that it would be reported and considered part of acceptable mainstream culture is significant.
Rhona Cameron
Currently settled with her partner Suran Dickson (they appeared last year on Celebrity Wife Swap), Cameron has no need herself of a club like Evolve. “I’m at the age and time in my life where I don’t need to seek out a lesbian society. I live within a mixed society of many different communities of different types of people.” She understands, however, the needs of others to make contact and commune with like-minded people, and sees how Evolve is part of something bigger. “Everything’s a stepping stone. This is all a part of a wider community, and even the fact that it would be reported and considered part of acceptable mainstream culture is significant. It’s every single development like this that counts, from people doing very political stuff to gay people being represented in television.”
What was most interesting about Cameron’s performance, delivered from the middle of a busy floor, is that it partly told the story of how much Edinburgh for lesbians must have changed since she lived here in her early 20s. It described a time when the city was, for gay women, a one-pub town, when you had to join the peace movement to meet up with other lesbians. “Years ago in the 1980s,” she tells me, “when I was a young person growing up, there was only ever one bar and if you were a gay person and wanted to meet gay people, you went to one bar. It was the Laughing Duck, which we used to have to share with the gay men who have always dominated the culture more.”
The world Evolve is born into is very different. The club, whose advert promised a network for “gay professional ladies”, has attracted a wide age range: one that spans those who would have once hung out at the Laughing Duck and others just new to town and the scene. Strikingly, there is a new generation here, perhaps more influenced in style and approach by The L-Word – the US drama about lesbian life – than any local scene. Among them is Ania Diaz, a lipsticked, charismatic Polish 23-year-old, who says that what drew her to the club was that she “was always looking for the part of gay community that wouldn’t be gay from the first sight”.
For 25-year-old PT teacher Toni Purday, it was the desire simply to have more gay friends that drove her to attend. “I always have this stupid image in my head I’d love to have a little network of friends and call them up and say, hey do you fancy pizza and beer at my place tonight? Maybe it’s narrow-minded that they’ve all got to be gay, but because my life is so straight and everyone I meet is straight, I really crave some gayness.”
Purday is one of a trio that looks like it could have stepped straight out of the L-Word, young, glamorous and funny. The three look like they’ve been friends forever. Purday is here with her partner, Nicole, and has just made an instant new friend in Ania Diaz, who is, she says, laughing, already “slagging me worse than my girlfriend”. It’s not clear whether this is chemistry, like-mindedness or just the charm of the night, but before long Purday is attempting to be the go-between and suss out whether another woman might be interested in Diaz: cue lots of school disco-style whispering.
Evolve organiser Victoria Wilson wants this club to be one that embraces all, even women who have yet to come out. And certainly it is welcoming. Diaz asks how I felt about coming as a journalist. “Are you OK with the gay community or are you like, ‘Oh my God, they sent me off to interview the lesbian squad?… What if a girl hits on you, will you then be like ‘I’m married I’ve got children and a husband’?”
It seems strange that I would be any more worried about a girl hitting on me than a guy, but it does illustrate why gay women might need a space within which they feel safe and understood.
Evolve aims to do what the best of modern clubs and networking societies mostly do: allow people to be themselves and find others like themselves, rather than fit in with a model of a club member. Its tickets can be booked online and it is open to anyone who is interested. “I’ve spoken to a few women and they do seem to think that this is long overdue,” Cameron tells me. One of those, a 50-something teacher from Fife, says that this, for her, is “something completely different. This is civilised. I think everybody has been waiting for something like this”.
One India Article: African American Men Are The Most Disadvantaged Group In America According To New Book!!!
African-American men ‘most disadvantaged, least helped in U.S.’
They are also disadvantaged because changes in the economy have depleted the number of well-paying, manual labour jobs, said Waldo E. Johnson Jr., Associate Professor at SSA, who is the editor of Social Work With African American Males: Health, Mental Health and Social Policy, recently published by Oxford University Press.
“Contemporary characterizations and depictions suggest that African-American males harbour a lifelong disregard for their own personal development, and a lack of commitment to their loved ones and society in general, a societal attitude that keeps them from being helped,” he said.
Most African-American men do not fit the popular stereotype and fulfil their responsibilities to their families and society, but the stereotype persists, fuelled in some ways by media images.
But the problems they face are real, and social workers should feel challenged to put the tools and resources of their profession at work to help black men in need, he said.
The book is a collection of studies, which details the disadvantages that black men face, and suggests ways they can be helped.
Despite their problems, few programs are designed specifically to help black males, and social workers may not view them as part the families and communities that the workers serve, with the result that black males’ individual needs go un-addressed.
“It is critical to utilize both social work research and practice to articulate these and other challenges that adversely impact the physical, mental, and social health and well-being of African American males,” Johnson said.
In his book, Johnson proposes that effective programs need to be replicated, such as well-run after-school programs that promote educational achievement and provide sports and other outlets for boys.
Social service providers need to open up programs for fathers as well.
There are also some public policy steps we can take, said Johnson, who calls them the “Plan for Success.”
They include establishing an independent education and wellness plan for every African-American male born in this country, providing a school-to-work link that enhances opportunities for African-American men to work and finally, giving African-American men access to public housing.
“Many communities discourage single men from living in public housing, which signals negative value and worth as individuals and members of families who need places to live,” Johnson added.
The plan can help men move forward and become fully participating members of society. (ANI)
Toronto Star Article: University Of Guelph Feminists Hope Top Freedom Day Breaks Chains Of Sexism.
Bust out your breasts in Guelph
Lindsay Webb, left, and Andrea Crinklaw are organizing a Top Freedom Day of Pride in Guelph on Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010, to help make it more socially acceptable for women to go top-free in public. More than 200 have already signed up on Facebook to participate in the event, which will take place in St. George’s Square from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.
SUPPLIED PHOTO
Ladies’ breasts and naked man-chests: that’s what you’ll see if you swing by the Top Freedom Day of Pride in Guelph on Saturday.
It’s an event that encourages everyone — but women especially — to go top-free in public. More than 200 people have signed up for the event on Facebook.
Organizers Andrea Crinklaw and Lindsay Webb, both students at the University of Guelph, were sick of getting stared at when they took off their bikini tops to swim in the river.
So they decided to try and desensitize the masses to the female breast.
“We like to be top-free and feel the water and not worry about tan lines and getting junk in our bikinis,” Crinklaw said. “When we started being gawked at, we decided that we wanted to change this.”
Crinklaw wants women to be comfortable without tops on in the same places where men roam shirtless.
“If it could be like in Europe where women are able to be top-free on the beaches or roller blade down the street without a shirt and people aren’t appalled by it — that would be amazing.”
The Ontario Court of Appeals made it legal for women to be shirt-free in July 1996 when it overturned a charge against Gwen Jacob, a University of Guelph student who was arrested for being topless in public.
Jacob was 19 when she decided to challenge the way women’s breasts are viewed by society.
She and a female friend were walking through campus on a blistering July day in 1991 when they saw a group of male students — naked from the waste up — playing sports.
Jacob and her friend, who were fully clothed at the time, mused about the inequality of the situation. Then Jacob decided to do something about it.
She was eventually charged with committing an indecent act after strolling through downtown Guelph in 33C weather with her breasts exposed.
Mike D’Abbenigno said he used to live down the street from Jacob when she lived in Guelph.
“It was such a fight to get it and the woman got it and it’s too bad they have to have this event tomorrow to feel comfortable,” he said.
D’Abbenigno, 37, said he is definitely going to the event.
“I’m not going to take my shirt off. I’m too old and fat for that,” he said. “I just want to show my support.”
The Top Freedom Day of Pride takes place in St. George’s Square from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. and will feature live music and professional body painting.
Crinklaw wants to make one thing clear: “This isn’t a rally, it’s not a protest. There’s not going to be chants and banners.”
She said she knows some people may show up just to stare, but she hopes most people will feel comfortable enough to go shirt-free.
“At the beginning there are always going to be gawkers, and you just need to be brave and tough it out.”
Toronto Star Article: Guelph Feminists Go Topless But Still Struggle With Misogyny Of Men.
Topless in Guelph: Legal and loving it
Andrea Crinklaw, one of the organizers of the Top Freedom Day of Pride gets her body painted in downtown Guelph Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010. The event to celebrate women’s right to go topless drew about 25 participants and many more onlookers.
TONY SAXON/THE CANADIAN PRESS
GUELPH — Women were busting out their breasts in downtown Guelph Saturday for a festival that encourages women to be comfortable without their tops on in the same places where men roam shirtless.
About 50 observers — mostly male — sat in brilliant sunshine in St. George’s Square Saturday afternoon and waited for the event to begin.
Organizers Andrea Crinklaw and Lindsay Webb, both University of Guelph students, were among the first to peel off their tops in what started out as a shy event. Only a handful of women took their shirts off in the first hour.
The people with cameras and dark glasses may have had something to do with it.
“If you are here just to see boobs and be creepy, we encourage you to move on,” Webb told the crowd.
“We want to have a safe space here for women to exercise their right to be top free,” co-organizer Andrea Crinklaw said. “So here it is!”
“Women, we want you to be empowered. Men, we want you to be supportive. And everybody, be respectful,” Crinklaw said.
Cheers, applause and a few cat calls followed.
Cynthia Bragg, 64, sat at a table under the shade of an umbrella, considering whether to remove her shirt. She said she thought about participating in the event but fell shy when she saw the hordes of gawkers — many with cameras.
“What I don’t like is what the men are going to do with the photographs they’re taking,” she said.
“Notice that a lot of the guys are wearing sunglasses that cover their eyes?” she said with a raised eyebrow. “If you’re going to gawk, why don’t you show your face?”
The Ontario Court of Appeals made it legal for women to be shirt-free in 1996 when it overturned a charge against Gwen Jacob, a University of Guelph student who was arrested for being topless in public.
Crinklaw and Webb say women may have won the legal freedom to be topless in public, but they don’t have the social freedom. They want their event to help desensitize the masses to the female breast.
“If it could be like in Europe where women are able to be top-free on the beaches or roller blade down the street without a shirt and people aren’t appalled by it — that would be amazing,” Crinklaw said.
Live music and professional body painters helped to ease the crowd out of its initial awkwardness. By late afternoon a few dozen men and women were dancing, laughing and mingling — all naked from the waist up.
Phil Longstaff, 50, sat shirtless in the square, his chest painted with bright balloons.
He said he doesn’t understand why women’s breasts are still so highly sexualized by society.
“We got over ankles,” he said. “Why can’t we get over breasts?”
Boxofficemojo.com Weekend Movie Ticket Sales For The August 27th to 29th.
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