As the coordinator of DalOUT, Dalhousie鈥檚 LGBTQ student society, Laura Chan believes their organization has an important role to play during International Women鈥檚 Week. As the recent graduate of Dal鈥檚 Music Performance program explains, the symptoms of a patriarchal society that lead to the oppression of women generally also ripple through the LGBTQ community in unique and specific ways.
鈥淚 feel as if we can鈥檛 help but intersect over International Women鈥檚 Week,鈥� Laura says. 鈥淪exism and misogyny play an active role in homophobia and transphobia and the discrimination that comes with those, so in some ways we can鈥檛 really separate ourselves.
鈥淚t鈥檚 something we鈥檝e had in our minds for a long time and we wanted to be a part of it.鈥�
Laura and DalOUT put their thoughts into action tonight (March 8) for their latest DalOUTTalks event. Introduced last fall, the DalOUTTalks invites members of Dal鈥檚 LGBTQ community to participate in organized-yet-informal discussions about various topics.
For tonight鈥檚 event, hosted at the Mona Campbell Building (Room 1107, 7:00 p.m.-9 p.m.) on International Women鈥檚 Day, the focus is on how misogyny and sexism manifest in 鈥� and impact 鈥� members of the LGBTQ community.
Learn more:
A shared struggle
Rhiannon Makohoniuk is a second-year Social Work student, a Dal graduate with a degree in Gender Studies and Psychology and sits on the Dalhousie Student Union council as the LGBTQ representative, a position chosen by DalOUT. She has also occupied various executive roles at DalOUT in the past several years.
Rhiannon echoes Laura鈥檚 belief that the challenges all women face include and overlap with the obstacles LGBTQ people struggle to overcome.
鈥淎s an organization that does a lot of work around in the LGBTQ space, it often involves a lot of women and trans people who are really affected by misogyny, patriarchy, sexism on many different levels,鈥� Rhiannon says. 鈥淵ou have queer women who face a lot of misogyny. You have bisexual women who are told they鈥檙e straight and just going through a phase. You see gay men who are taught that being effeminate is wrong.
鈥淎nd misogyny affects trans people on deep levels. People gender appearances and reinforce stereotypes in a way that can cause damage.鈥�
Laura says women and the LGBTQ community are part of a shared struggle against oppressive manifestations of masculinity. 鈥淢asculinity in itself is not a bad or harmful thing, but that the ways it manifests toxically and unhealthily are the things that harm us.鈥�
Laura expects these and other issues will come to light at the DalOUTTalks event.
鈥淭here鈥檚 so much that can come from that topic, so I鈥檓 hoping it will be a productive and eye-opening conversation.鈥�