Blog

  • Posted April 11, 2014

National Volunteer Week – Thank You!

We asked our Volunteers what would happen if our organization no longer existed.  This is what they said: To all of our incredible volunteers:  None of this would be possible without YOU.  We could not exist or support women and the feminist movement the way we do without your time and energy and love and […]
  • Posted April 9, 2014

Before you Take Action, Check-In With Yourself

Written by Dalya Israel, Manager of Victim Services and Outreach Programs For National Victims of Crime awareness week this year the theme is “Taking Action”. In the Victim Service program at WAVAW we take action in many different ways daily. Our program is responsible for answering the crisis line, accompanying women to the hospital, accompanying […]
  • Posted April 4, 2014

Are You Kidding Me?

Sociological Images has compiled a round-up of needlessly gendered products, which would be pretty hilarious if it weren’t such a disturbing reminder of the coercive gender norms we’re all swimming in. How about some manly bread? Endives for the stylish lady about town? Princess sausages for little girls? (These are all actually on the market.) […]
  • Posted March 26, 2014

False Logic is Bad for Women

Written by Natalie Hill (WAVAW volunteer). Natalie wrote this piece in response to CBC’s radio program, Q,  and their segment titled “does rape culture really exist?”. Natalie submitted this piece to CBC and it was read out loud, along all the other comments by other listeners, on the Q show. “By arguing that women attend […]
  • Posted March 21, 2014

Are You Kidding Me?

For just $34.99 USD, the Walk of Shame Kit can provide everything you need to survive the “act of going home the next morning and being embarrassed in your clothes from the night before” – and as a bizarre bonus, partial proceeds go to advancing breast cancer awareness! The kit comes complete with one-size-fits-most t-shirt […]
  • Posted March 18, 2014

No, I will not relax… and neither will my hair

Guest Post by WAVAW Volunteer Doaa Magdy I grew up in a country where being dark-skinned was a sort of shame. To avoid that, I was pressured into using Fair and Lovely, a fairness cream. I’m glad they didn’t explicitly produce one called Dark and Ugly. But wait, its title suggests that anyway, right? I even […]
  • Posted March 14, 2014

Demanding Accountability from our Police

WAVAW is participating in Vancouver DTES Cop Watch’s Anti Police Brutality Rally on the International Day Against Police Brutality (March 15).  We are demanding accountability from our police. We expect better from the institution charged with working for our safety. We know the police are the coercive arm of the state on this unceded Coast […]
  • Posted March 11, 2014

We can do better: Violence against women in film and TV

WAVAW’s Victim Services Medical Support Worker and Counsellor, Arlana Green, joined the panel on Portrayals of Violence Against Women in Film and Television at Women in Film and Television‘s International Women’s Day event. Thanks to the organizers for posing great questions and thanks to Angela, Hilla, Natalie and Jarrah for a wonderful discussion!  Arlana and […]
  • Posted February 28, 2014

Vancouver to Lima, Feminism is a network

WAVAW Volunteer, Pamela Vallejos, is returning home to Peru this month.  As she leaves Vancouver and finishes her time with WAVAW, we asked her to reflect on her experience here and what she will take with her when she moves.  We’ll miss her! Guest Post by Pamela Vallejos What will I take from WAVAW to […]
  • Posted February 20, 2014

Our Decolonizing Practice

Recently during a staff workshop on Fat Oppression, the facilitator Kalamity acknowledged that we were gathering on unceded Coast Salish Territory. As an organization delivering workshops, speeches, trainings, etc. in the community WAVAW always does this as well. However Kalamity did something different afterwards, she asked us WHY it was important to acknowledge that this […]