“Micro-brothels” in BC: Are we still criminalizing prostitution? The short answer: YES. Now the long answer: I’ve seen a couple articles in Vancouver’s 24hr News about how micro-brothels are a booming and we should be really scared because micro-brothels are dangerous. See here and here. First article: Sex-worker activist Sue
Continue readingAuthor: Melissa Fong aka @InternationalMF
Melissa Fong: Sinead O’Connor likes to slut-shame
Sinead O’Connor slut-shaming: “Taking me on is even more fuckin’ stupid than behaving like a prostitute and calling it feminism…I am staggered that any 20 yr old woman of the 21st century could behave in such a dangerous and irresponsible manner as to not only send the signal to young
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Reading between sexist, racist and classist lines: Sinead O’Connor gives some “motherly” advice to Miley Cyrus
Sinead O’Connor wrote an open letter to Miley Cyrus shaming her recent image and her “handlers” for letting her do videos full of nudity. It is a response to Miley’s statement in the Rolling Stones Interview: It’s the opposite of the VMAs. It’s like the Sinead O’Connor video [for “Nothing Compares
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Footwork Closing
Footwork Closing … end of an era! Footwork is one of the best venues for electronic music in Toronto. When I heard that they announced their closing I got freaked out that they were going the same way as the Guv. However it looks like Footwork is just moving to
Continue readingMelissa Fong: I like Miley Cyrus’ unapologetic style
Okay, this is going to be incredibly out of character for me. But I am going to join the celebrity trash and write about my slight admiration for Miley Cyrus. I’m of the generation that knew her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, much better. I don’t care for critiquing young Hollywood
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Why am I not allowed to have a personality?
Why am I not allowed to have a personality? He smiles at me, “Hey girl, where are you from?” I reply, “Vancouver… Canada.” I’m partly hopeful this will be the end of the interaction… but it has happened so many times that I can see his demise. Why do I
Continue readingMelissa Fong: On becoming LESS high-maintenance…
Friends… and readers, Let’s have a moment on minimalism. And getting older. I’m not sure what the deal is with people accumulating more stuff as they get older as if it is the “adult” thing to do. I mean, I’m positive it distils down to some capitalist ideology, but I want
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Where are you from? No, like, where are you REALLY from?
I have written a little bit about this before here, but now that this video is circulating I want to write a little more about it. Ien Ang (2001) also writes a really good book on it called, On Not Speaking Chinese: Living Between Asia and the West (I love
Continue readingMelissa Fong: “Fight for liberation, not privilege”: For those who fight for Equity, not equality
Sometimes you read something that is so good and encapsulates what your heart has been wrenching about that you must share it. I have followed the Gay rights movement, the Queer rights movement and the general sentiment of “Just let me be a f*cking PERSON” movement for a long time.
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Anti-Gentrification Pidgin Protesting: Bad Urban Planning but Potential for Good Social Movement Building
This is a fifth instalment to the gentrification series- discussing the Protests and pickets in Vancouver’s DTES Thus far I haven’t been too clear about where my commitments lie. I understand both sides. Team Anti-gentrification/ CCAP/ Homeless Dave/ Poor people’s movement/ DTES advocate: They are locally organizing against some larger scale problems,
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Why you should choose Sound in Motion for your EDM fix in Toronto
I’m not gonna lie. I’m pretty excited that Toronto is getting it together with more electronic music festivals. Last year was the first mainstreaming of multi-day electronic music festivals with pretty big names coming to entertain hundreds. Digital Dreams and VELD are the big ones. And I’m glad they exist.
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Vancity & Anti-gentrification CCAP Protests in DTES: When social economy work gets messy
Vancity is a co-operative [2] bank that has been a long time funder of the Carnegie Community Action Project. On April 13th Vancity released a statement on their stance on CCAP Protests in the DTES. After a lengthy non-committal statement about their stance on housing and the gentrification of the
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Boston & People of colour’s pain
Perspectives like mine and others’ that alluded to the fact that killing elsewhere gets less attention than the Boston bombing got a lot of backlash. (I should say that it got more support than criticism, but we always focus on the negative things, don’t we?). One of the main criticisms
Continue readingMelissa Fong: On bombings and who gets our compassion
“Do I advise you to love thy neighbor? I suggest rather to escape from thy neighbor and to love those who are the farthest away from you. Higher than the love for thy neighbor is the love for the man who is distant and has still to come.” -Nietzsche (This
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Eliminating clubland: Planning for the right dance & social spaces in the city
Eliminating clubland: Planning for the right dance & social spaces in the city I’m going to respond to this article from an Urban Planning point of view, but also from a Feminist and “dance-positive” point of view [2]. This month I have been dreading my move back to Vancouver –
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Nina Kraviz: Why did Feminism go down the drain of a Bubble Bath?
This is one of those rare moments where my off-time interests mix with my academic work. I have seen some good commentary on the Nina: Bubble-gate but nothing from a point of view that considers systemic sexism, Feminism and male domination. Last month Resident Advisor (RA) released a feature on
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Will new businesses help the DTES?: A much needed lesson on the definition of gentrification
Apparently it looks like this has become a series on Gentrification in the DTES: 1) Are the Anti-Gentrification Front protesters wrong to “vandalize” Save-on-Meats? 2) Anarchy, the Anti-Gentrification Front and Violence I am still quite shocked that there seems to be a general lack of understanding that DISPLACEMENT of poor people is a central
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Asian eyes
So something entertaining happened yesterday. A friend of mine sent me a link to this Cabbage Patch Doll site. [3] Go ahead and click on the link and then look at the list of “eye colour” available. Yeah… How is “ASIAN” and eye colour? [Note, I’m not going to cover
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Anarchy, the Anti-Gentrification Front and Violence
Now, I never passed Anarchy 101 and have never painted a haphazard “A” within a circle in red paint. Ever. Never even thought about it. But I’m going to take a stab at understanding the logic behing the Anti-Gentrification Front and other groups associated with Anarchy. Now, I’m trying to
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Are the Anti-Gentrification Front protesters wrong to “vandalize” Save-on-Meats?
My facebook feed went crazy last night with my Vancouver friends posting about a stolen sandwich board. Why is this important? Context: Save-on-Meats is kind of an iconic butcher in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A long time retailer that had mixed reviews has now invested some capital into their business and,
Continue reading