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The Notorious Legal Impact of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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  When legal dynamo Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away from pancreatic cancer in September of 2020, her death was met with international mourning. In her later years, serving as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ginsburg, or “RBG” as she is colloquially known, enjoyed status as a folk hero that reached far beyond her relevance to the legal community. The 2018 biographical documentary RBG serves to offer the viewer insight into not only Ginsburg’s personality, relationships, experiences navigating a patriarchal society, and even workout routine; but the legal cases that led to her lasting impact upon gender discrimination laws.             To fully understand the influence that Ginsburg had upon United States law, one must turn to the laws that were in place at the time that she began her career in 1960. As the documentary describes, at the time it was legal for employers to fire a woman for being pregnant, for banks to require a husband’s co-signature for women to o
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Anita Sarkeesian and the Objectification of Women in Games

  As an avid gamer, an avowed feminist, and one who has previously been employed within the game development industry, I consider myself well versed with the systemic subordination of women within games and game development. As explored in class, and extensively by Feminist Frequency’s Anita Sarkeesian, this subordination was evident in the nascence of games, with player characters predominantly presented as male, and women serving a perfunctory decorative purpose. As men are dominant members of Eurocentric society and those with primary access to resources, hegemonic masculine interests are those primarily considered under capitalism. To maximize gains, early game developers relied heavily on emphasized masculinity in the form of violence and sexual domination to attract and retain players. As technology has expanded, so have the myriad opportunities to objectify women in games. The game experience has evolved to allow for moving, talking actors within a digital environment, in some
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Dichotomous Understandings of Gender and Sexuality.

Historically speaking, concepts of gender, sex, and sexuality have been interrelated and defined in strictly binary terms. One would be characterized as either male or female, as strictly defined by one’s reproductive organs. The male or female individual would be sexually interested in either the opposite or same gender and would thus be afforded a label of heterosexual or homosexual. They would be expected to conform to social concepts of “masculinity,” “femininity,” “straightness,” or “queerness.” While cultural variations exist in how these concepts are defined, it remains that they are generally rigidly upheld as dichotomous and opposite in Western Eurocentric societies. The rigidity of such gender role concepts was explored in class through the discussion of gendered toys and tacit implication that one’s enjoyment of a toy is inherently connected to one’s gender. While boys are expected to enjoy toys that reflect traditionally masculine concepts of toughness, stoicism, and cour
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On Christine Elsey's "The Poetics of Land & Identity Among British Columbia Indigenous Peoples," Ch. 1

  Reflection #1: On Christine Elsey’s The Poetics of Land & Identity Among British Columbia Indigenous Peoples, Ch. 1 As is the case with so many progressive minded Canadians, I have always claimed a commitment to the enshrinement and upholding of Indigenous land rights, as well as Indigenous sovereignty. In reading Elsey’s text, I have come to understand, however, that I have heretofore lacked a holistic understanding of the intricacies of what those concepts realistically mean, in the context of Indigenous identity and sense of self. While I have and continue to espouse these concepts of Indigenous rights, I must admit that I have been viewing them under the narrow colonial framework that is inherent in growing up as a settler in a Eurocentric system. The colonial viewpoint, at this point inseparably interwoven with capitalist ideals, relies on the self as a monolith existing independently of community, spirituality, environment, or experience. One’s “self” might be described
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The Exploitation of the #BossBabe: Multi-level Marketing Schemes and Gender Roles

          The Exploitation of the #BossBabe: Multi-level Marketing Schemes and Gender Roles               Dayna Wilson – 300113188 SOCI 1125 – 005: Introduction to Sociology Dr. Siobhan Ashe Douglas College 13 December, 2021 Word Count: 1431       When the multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme was initially ideated in the 1930s with Avon (then California Perfume Company), it afforded women the opportunity to make money independently of the allowances designated to them by their husbands, as was the norm at the time. This allowed women to gain a modicum of freedom previously unrealized and opened doors of female empowerment. A century later, however, the model and its outcomes have undoubtedly shifted. MLMs, which are characterized by person-to-person sales and the recruitment of fellow distributors, tend to disproportionately target women and exploit gender inequality. This frequently leads to the further marginalization of an already vulnerable p
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No State Left Behind: The Necessity of Prioritizing Low-Income Countries in COVID-19 Recovery

                    No State Left Behind: The Necessity of Prioritizing Low-Income Countries in COVID-19 Recovery                 Dayna Wilson – 300113188 8 December, 2021 Introduction to World Politics POLI 1103 – 050 Douglas College Dr. Stewart Prest Word Count: 1140       When the first COVID-19 vaccines became available in December of 2020, many breathed a sigh of relief. While there was no doubt that the pandemic and resulting economic strife were far from over, the development of a vaccine was seen as a concrete first step towards recovery from the virus that had been afflicting the globe since March of that year. And indeed, another year on, much is returning to some version of normal for the wealthier countries fortunate enough to have had unfettered access to vaccines. Those living in low-income countries have not been so lucky, however, with only 5.8% of individuals having received a first dose of a vaccine compared to
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Ethical Suffrage: Canadian Offenders and the Right to Vote

              Ethical Suffrage: Canadian Offenders and the Right to Vote             Political Science 2200 – 001 Douglas College Dayna Wilson 300113188 19   November 2021 Word Count: 1425   When the Supreme Court of Canada decided in 2002 that barring prisoners from voting violated their constitutional right to democratic participation, the news was met with much opposition. Victims’ rights advocates were vocal about their outrage, including Gary Rosenfeldt who told CBC news “These are people who flagrantly disobeyed the laws of this country, who don't care about the laws of this country” (CBC 2004). The 2004 federal election saw Conservatives running on a platform that included a vow to “forbid prisoners in federal institutions from voting in elections” (Conservative Party of Canada 2004). Despite such opposition, it remains the case that not only is universal suffrage enshrined in the Charter of Canadian Rights and Freedoms , but it empirica
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