My Film Debut!

Hey, so remember that documentary I was talking about - the one I'm in? Well, they have announced the Canadian premiere, which will take place at the Whistler Film Festival in BC on November 29th, 2012 (next Thursday!).

If you're in the area I highly recommend checking it out. The film is called Status Quo? - the unfinished business of Feminism in Canada and it's a really innovative and very nitty-gritty look at contemporary feminism, including topics like missing and murdered Aboriginal women and immigrant childcare workers that are often left out of mainstream and second wave-centric evaluations of "where we are now" in the movement. You guys, it made my heart burst out of my chest. There are some really amazing and inspiring people in the film that you will want to listen to all day and then maybe hug.

If you're not in Whistler, please look out for the film in your area (it will most likely be played widely as part of International Women's Day in March). I will keep you abreast of details, of course, particularly any screenings in Toronto or the Maritimes. It's not only a great film, but a perfect way to support young female filmmakers and feminist women of colour.

Share Your Abortion Story

Via Arts4Choice

ARTS4CHOICE IS PUBLISHING A BOOK!

We are excited to announce that the stories and portraits of arts4choice

will be published in book form!

This latest incarnation of arts4choice will be released Spring 2014 by Three O’Clock Press

Now is the time to have the focus of the abortion debate shifted to women and their experiences.

Help us ensure legal, safe and accessible abortion for all women in Canada! 

Please be part of our project. Share your abortion story.

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Back to Work!

I'm back! My wedding and honeymoon are over, and so is my self-imposed hiatus from blogging/activism/doing anything. It is taking me a little while to get back on track, mostly because there is a lot of stuff in my life - work and social - to catch up on and the last few weeks have been a little overwhelming.

So what did I miss? Ha ha, just kidding. Hopefully y'all took part in your local action for October 20th, and we can have a discussion in the upcoming posts about what it means to work towards reproductive justice as opposed to "pro-choice" causes. Intersectionality, friends! I'm going to talk about it!

I also want to mention that a few days before I went back to NB for the wedding, I attended a private screening here in Toronto of Karen Cho's new documentary, "Status Quo?: The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada" which I am very excited about (and not just because I'm in it!). It should be hitting the festival circuit soon and then hopefully wider release, so keep an eye out for it, and you can look forward to me talking about it a lot in the near future.

I'm excited to get back to writing! Let's do this!

Adventures in DIY Gynaecology

Hey remember that time I got an IUD? What a nightmare, right? Well, I have to say, I don't regret my choice because for the last year and a half, the IUD has been wonderful. Super reliable, unobtrusive, way better than any other birth control I've used.

Until last week. Well, two weeks ago. My period came when expected, but lasted eleven days(!!!) and never got beyond very, very light spotting. It was weird. Afterwards I felt for the strings of my IUD, as I do after each period, and found them to be longer than usual. Possibly. It's hard to tell, you know? So I called the Bay Centre to see what they thought I should do, and they suggested I come in for a check up.

The check up was quick and painless, but revealed that the strings were four centimetres longer than they were at insertion. Not great. The doctor told me to make an appointment for an ultrasound to see where the IUD was sitting, and told me they would probably have to remove it. Bummer.

This was all on Saturday. I made my appointment for an ultrasound (they couldn't get me in until next Friday, the 10th) but all through Sunday I kept feeling the strings poking at me. I thought it was all in my head, but when I felt for them they were SUPER long, although I could not feel the device itself poking through. It will just fall out on its own, I thought.

It didn't. By Monday morning it was annoying me so much, I started to ask around about taking it out myself. I know this is NOT RECOMMENDED by doctors, but I found a lot of stories on the internet of women doing it and it seemed like not such a big deal. I am lucky to know a lot of doctors. Two of them told me, on the down low, that tugging it out myself was ok.

Here's how I did it (EXTREME TMI WARNING): I sat on the edge of my bed so my cervix would be low (I've read some people do it standing, in the shower, or with one leg up on the toilet, and some do it lying down. I fiddled around with a lot of options but this was the only one where I could get a grip on it). The strings were super slippery - I actually had (sterile) tweezers ready but couldn't find a way to grab the string with them without pinching myself in the twat. Eventually I managed to get my get my fingers far enough up to get a firm grip on the string, and then I just pulled, gently but consistently, until the whole damn thing came out into my hand. It took ten seconds, tops. And it didn't hurt - I didn't even feel it, really.

I had tiny cramps afterwards, and some spotting, but the next day it was all normal again.

The little bastard. Who wants to make jewellery out of it? Etsy?

I am trying to decide what to do next. I do want a new one put in, but I might wait until after my impending wedding because I don't want to be stressed about it falling out again until I have room in my life for that worry. And I am NOT looking forward to the ordeal of the insertion. I'll tell you one thing, if this one falls out, I am DONE with IUDs.