A year ago, when I began to live my life in a manner that more closely followed Jewish religious observance, I tweaked my dress to appear more modest. I began to scan store aisles for knee-length black skirts and long shirts with a high neckline instead of short shorts and miniskirts. I had mixed feelings about my new, self-imposed dress code. I personally loved the way my body felt in the modest clothing, the way in which the clothes that I chose covered me while simultaneously flattering my figure. I also appreciated the manner in which the dress code acted as a social signifier, sending a message about my religious affiliation to other religious Jews and to society at large.

However, one challenge nagged at me whenever I stepped out in my new manner of dress. I wish I could say that this issue was based on some lofty feminist ideal that sought to challenge the patriarchal system inherent in Jewish standards of modesty. I wish it bothered me more that women are perceived to have a responsibility to cover themselves up for the sake of preventing men from exciting their yetzer hara, sexual inclination. I wish I felt more guilty that, by implying that I was somehow more ‘holy’ or ‘worthy’ than girls who choose to wear less, I was implicit in the victim-blaming that is rampant in religious circles.

Instead of valuing myself for my wit, my intelligence, and my charm, I had let the winks and stares of random men boost my spirits.

No. I am embarrassed to say it, but my biggest issue was that I missed the gaze of men. I don’t claim to speak for anyone else, but personally, I have found that however much you might feel good about yourself in a knee-length skirt, no matter how much it may enrich your neshama, soul, you attract significantly fewer car horns and up-and-down stares on the street. In my first few months of dressing modestly, I felt my self-esteem plummet. In the absence of the external validation and day-to-day objectification that I had enjoyed since I began to show myself off, I was at a loss as to how to love myself. I was convinced that my days of being desirable were over, and I began to make half-sincere jokes about being “past my prime.”

My confusion climaxed one day when I burst into tears and confided in a colleague with training in mental health. He suggested that I write a letter to myself detailing the issues I was facing. I sat down, dried my tears, and titled the letter, “Dear 13 Year-Old Me….” I wrote about how I hadn’t felt so uncomfortable in my own body since I was that age, and how I wished to regain the sense of self that I seemed to have lost.

It was at that moment that I realized that for the last seven years, I had let the patriarchy define my self-worth. Instead of valuing myself for my wit, my intelligence, and my charm, I had let the winks and stares of random men boost my spirits. I realized that far from being an obstacle to self-love and finding validation, modest dress was an invaluable gift. Instead of relying on the lust of strangers to define myself as a desirable person worthy of love and attention, I had the power to attract people through whatever means I chose to do so. Far from robbing me of my sexual power, my choice to dress modestly gave me more autonomy than ever before.

Although Jewish norms of modest dress are indeed based on a patriarchal system, many modern fashion standards are as well, because they are designed to excite the attention of men and thus deem their wearers worthy of sexual attention. This is why I have decided to continue following the norms associated with modest dress – because I now know that I am worthy of attention without the ‘help’ of eye-catching clothing, and that I shall receive it, with the help of God, from the right person whenever he may come into my life. I will receive love and attention – which I know I deserve – because I believe that I am intelligent, funny, insightful, patient, caring, compassionate, and loving.

Oh yes, and I mustn’t forget… beautiful.

Another version of this article was published in the Torch. Lily Chapnik is a U2 student in Jewish Studies and Music, to reach her, please email lily.chapnik@mail.mcgill.ca.

The post Can modesty be a feminist choice? appeared first on The McGill Daily.

This May, head to the Queer Tango Festival to perform the only dance that’s hotter than Montreal in the summer. According to the festival organizers, tango traditionally represents “patriarchal views on sexuality and gender relations, where the man is the decision-maker while the woman responds.” Queer Tango challenges this standard by “encouraging a fluid exchange of the leader and follower roles.” In practice, this means you will be free to switch between the roles of leader and follower as you and your partner desire.

This beautiful Argentine dance may take some practice, but don’t worry, workshops and classes are open to all levels. As for the pros out there, day one is improvisation, so get to the evening session and show us how it’s done. Featuring international and local teachers, dancers, and performers, the Festival claims to be a unique combination of Montreal’s “effervescent queer community” and its renowned tango scene. Prices for events start at $10. Locations vary. Check out the Montreal Queer Tango site at queertangomontreal.com for more details.

—Rachel Eban

Summer markets

While many of us have already heard of (if not actually been to) Marché Jean Talon and Atwater market, there are a variety of smaller markets where you can show your support for local growers. Montreal boasts over ten of these smaller markets, scattered across the city, often popping up next to a metro station. You can start by checking out the two local markets closest to McGill.

Santropol Roulant’s market, at the corner of Roy and Coloniale, sells vegetables from its farm and two urban gardens, along with produce from local and organic growers. Low-income market goers can buy a $10 punch card that will get them $20 worth of fruits and vegetables. The Santropol Roulant market runs every Tuesday and Thursday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., beginning July 1.

Marché Solidaire Frontenac, a Carrefour alimentaire Centre-Sud (CACS) project situated at 2349 Rouen, brings together members of the community and builds awareness about food justice, environmental politics, and social justice issues. Shop for local fruits and vegetables at this market from July to September.

—Nathalie O’Neill, with files from Reba Wilson

The Plant Summer Workshop series

As young millennials increasingly devote their time and energy to environmental initiatives, projects such as the Plant Summer Workshop series emerge in order to meet the new demand. This year’s workshop series, which seeks to support self-expression in the area of urban agriculture, is bound to draw seasoned urban agriculturalists and newbies alike.

Defined by its quirky, accepting atmosphere, the workshop series’ self-professed goal is “to provide non-judgemental space where people can share skills and learn together.” While specific information on this year’s festival has yet to be released, last year’s festival boasted activities such as a kimchi fermentation workshop and classes on how to make bread and beer. Many non-culinary activities were also offered, such as workshops on zine-making, and perfecting one’s CV in French. Another sub-group of the workshop on the “guerilla gardens” of the Plateau is dedicated to greening the urban spaces of the hip Montreal neighborhood. For unconventional, environmentally-conscious individuals in the city, this workshop series could become your go-to community this summer.

—Lily Chapnik

Shakespeare in the Park

The organizers of the Shakespeare in the Park festival decided to get their creative juices flowing this year, with their new production Harry the King: The Famous Victories of Henry V. Whereas productions in the past have mostly consisted of a Shakespeare play performed in its entirety, this year’s is a hybrid of the Bard’s historical plays Henry IV, parts one and two, and Henry V. A tale of “fighting for what you believe in, despite impossible odds,” according to the festival’s website, the production is the mastermind of Repercussion Theatre, a non-profit organization that has been hosting the festival in parks around the greater Montreal area for 25 years. Like many summer theatre festivals of its kind, the tickets for shows are completely free, but must be obtained in advance. Harry the King runs in parks all over the city from July 4 to August 2.

—Lily Chapnik

KlezKanada

This isn’t your Bubbie’s summer festival! From August 18 to 24, lovers of Eastern European Jewish music, or Klezmer music, will gather at Camp B’nai Brith in the Laurentians for the 18th edition of the annual KlezKanada Laurentian Retreat, a week of music, dancing, and learning. With a huge number of classes in all aspects of Klezmer and Yiddish music offered, as well as theatre, dance, song, and poetry, the seven days of the festival are an invaluable opportunity to learn from the world-renowned experts in the field. The evenings are comprised of performances from some of the world’s preeminent Klezmer musicians, and dance sessions and cabarets which last late into the night.

The festival’s extensive scholarship program ensures that at least half of the participants at the festival are young adults. McGill students can receive credit through the Jewish Studies department by participating in the festival (by registering for JWST 354, the McGill/KlezKanada Course). The fun continues after the week is over with the Montreal Jewish Music Festival, which is sponsored by KlezKanada.

—Lily Chapnik

Suoni Per Il Popolo

If your music taste tends toward the eclectic and experimental, be sure to check out the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival. The Montreal-based non-profit Société des Arts Libres et Actuels (SALA) has organized this three-week concert series to promote experimental and avant-garde music from Canadian and international artists. SALA’s mandate as a non-profit features goals such as introducing “new music to new audiences,” building “links between Montreal artists and the public,” and showcasing “the relationship between music […] and political movements,” all of which is nicely summarized by the English translation of the festival’s name: “sounds for the people.”

Accordingly, Suoni Per Il Popolo will feature musicians from around the world, both newcomers and veterans, in a wide variety of genres and styles. The festival runs from June 4 to 22, beginning at Casa del Popolo with a concert by Americana musicians Richard Bruckner and James Irwin. Other featured concerts include the free jazz group Die Like a Dog Trio (Peter Brötzmann, William Parker, and Hamid Drake); psychedelic, droning electronic duo Fuck Buttons; indietronica band Notwist; ambient pop musician d’Eon; and Syrian dance-pop star Omar Souleyman. Many more acts will be announced as the festival approaches. Tickets, which range from $10 to $28, can be purchased on the festival’s website, or at Atom Heart, Aux 33 tours, Cheap Thrills, L’Oblique, and Phonopolis. For more information, go to suoniperilpopolo.org.

—Timothy Bill

Festival of Anarchy

Montreal’s Festival of Anarchy, a month-long coming-together of politics, art, music, protest, and entertainment, is the largest anarchist event in North America. Organized around the Anarchist Bookfair, which runs from May 25 to 26, the Festival features a huge range of activities, from dance party demonstrations to Montreal bike tours. The events are as cultural as they are political, situating anarchism within Montreal’s art, literature, and music scenes through anarchist art exhibitions, theatre festivals, and cabarets. The politics also tackle a wide range of issues, including decolonization, gentrification, and the Quebec student strike.

For those less familiar with anarchism, the workshop Anarchy 101 will provide basic history and modern movements. The diversity of artistic and political topics also provides many accessible entry-points into the world of anarchism. But if all you want to do is dance, events like Glamarchist Lookfest Queer Dance Party have got you covered. With over 25 events located around Montreal throughout the month of May, the Festival of Anarchy is the perfect way to shake off the school year and the status quo.

—Rosie Long Decter

The post In the summertime appeared first on The McGill Daily.

While this is a creative technique for spreading the word about a service pertinent to many members of the student population, the fact remains that the message propagated is one that imposes an inappropriately normative view of sexuality upon the student population.

Scrawled around the mirrors in bathrooms, in neon pink marker, are hashtags endorsing the popular networking app Tinder, urging the viewer to #takeaselfie.

The numbers show that as a service and a company, Tinder must be doing something right. It boasts over one billion matches, mostly among young millennials hoping to ‘swipe right’ on their smartphone screens to find social and romantic connections. In an email to The Daily, Justin Mateen, Tinder’s co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, enthusiastically claimed, “Our goal is to make the process of meeting people more efficient, whether it be in the context of friendship, dating, or even business.” He followed this with the slightly enigmatic claim that, “As the product evolves it will move in the direction of social discovery in general,” thus expressing his desire for the type of communication Tinder champions – quick, instinctive, and perfunctory – to become normative.

An individual who is a survivor of sexual violence may not want their image implicitly sexualized when they glance into a mirror at school.

The product that Tinder offers is not under fire here. While its modus operandi may be based on a superficial judgment of attraction, its high number of users and ratings show that the company is meeting a demand for such a service. It is their methods of advertising on campuses that are contentious, and they should be reconsidered if they are to appeal to students in a respectful manner.

The most troubling issue with Tinder’s campaign on McGill’s campus is that when a person looks into a mirror that features the campaign, their face is framed by the words endorsing the product, and they become an unwitting mascot for Tinder. Regardless of whether this person uses the app, or even knows what it entails, the image of their face within the frame is unofficially ‘claimed’ by Tinder as a potential user, solely by virtue of looking in the bathroom mirror. In the bathroom, which can be a vulnerable space for many people, a person should be free of the danger of being fetishized as a consumer.

A person who is anxious about their own physical appearance might feel excluded from the superficiality which characterizes the app.

The campaign also lacks respect for those for whom the advertisements might act as a trigger. An individual who is a survivor of sexual violence may not want their image implicitly sexualized when they glance into a mirror at school. Somebody who is avoiding certain expressions of sexuality for religious or other lifestyle reasons may resent being automatically placed in a stereotypical category of “experimental college kids” who are gung-ho about casual dating and sex. A person who is anxious about their own physical appearance might feel excluded from the superficiality which characterizes the app. Nobody should be made to feel that their choices, or their lifestyle, are sidelined, just by entering a school bathroom.

In light of these considerations, the public relations representatives at Tinder who are responsible for these advertisements should receive the following message.

For some people, it is clear that your product enriches lives, however, it does not seem appropriate that individuals on college campuses should be associated with it simply by virtue of looking into a mirror. The social and sexual lives of students do not need your endorsement.

Now stay out of our bathroom.

Lily Chapnik is a U2 student in Jewish Studies and Music. Lily can be reached at lily.chapnik@mail.mcgill.ca.

The post When Tinder fails to spark appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The event, which is the only student film festival associated with McGill’s student population, offers an invaluable artistic opportunity for filmmakers and film lovers alike to participate in the sort of creative process not usually found within McGill’s academic framework. The event’s organizer for this year, and film festival veteran, Chantal Africa, explained that since “McGill seems to lack courses that explore media production,” the festival will provide students with “an artistic and creative outlet where they can express and share their work” that they might not find otherwise.

The festival features several events dedicated to the creation and screening of student film. 4 fiction, 5 experimental, and 3 documentary films were chosen out of 40 submissions to be presented at a screening Friday at 6 p.m. at Cinéma du Parc (3575 Parc). After the films are screened, prizes will be awarded for the best pieces in each genre category, as well as the People’s Choice Award and the Best of the Fest. Judges include film editors Arthur Tarnowski and Richard Comeau, Jesse Hunter, who teaches Cinema and Communications at Dawson College, and radio and film producer Mira Burt-Wintonick. Many students took the festival as an opportunity to create something new by entering the 72-hour filmmaking competition, seven entries of which will also be screened. Participants were given three days to conceive, film, and edit a completely original short film, which had to include a ‘secret element’ revealed to participants at the beginning of the allotted time.

Given the lack of opportunities for media production in the classroom at McGill, TVM offers a rare chance for students to learn hands-on the ins and outs of filmmaking. The Fokus Film Festival itself is a great illustration of TVM’s work, providing student filmmakers with a broader audience for their projects while entertaining moviegoers with a refreshing array of truly independent film.

Tickets to the Fokus Film Festival are available for $6 in advance or $7 at the door, and include admission to both the screenings and the after party for both the filmmakers and the patrons, which is hosted by TRH-Bar (3699 St. Laurent) after the screenings. The celebrations will start at 9 p.m., with four live bands gracing the stage: Archery Guild, Look Vibrant, Trade Secrets, and Oh No! Yoko. Advance tickets can be obtained at the TVM office in Shatner B-28, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The post Student reels appeared first on The McGill Daily.

This is not to say that the production did not have its stunning merits. There was no weak link in the cast, as the quality of singing and acting of every member was remarkable. Some vocal highlights included Collin Shay’s bright countertenor as the Fairy King Oberon, which was an excellent accompaniment to Chelsea Mahan’s proficiency of range in her role as the Fairy Queen, as well as Kevin Myers’ sheer volume and beautiful tone in the role of Lysander. Brent Callis performed the speaking role of Puck with panache, and the character’s monkey costume à-la-Broadway’s Lion King was a wonder to behold. The accompanying McGill Symphony Orchestra played at their best, with perfect tuning, balance, and sensitivity, under the masterful baton of guest conductor Andrew Bisantz. While it is true that the costumes and makeup were visually beautiful, the characterizations and artistic portrayals smacked of orientalist ideals.

It was apparent right from the beginning that cultural appropriation would be a tool of this production, as the Fairy King and Queen emerged in the first scene wearing what appeared to be traditional Indian cultural regalia. The costume choices are explained within the programme, in which director Patrick Hansen asserts that “it was an easy move from Fairies to Hindu-inspired gods and goddesses,” proving that little thought was given to the appropriation of this ethnic clothing style for the sake of art. Although assistant director Samantha Pickett insists that “there was extensive research done on the look of the fairies” to ensure authenticity, it seems as though certain aspects were heightened for aesthetic effect with ornate, shimmering makeup, and revealing midriffs. This offense, however, pales in comparison to the portrayal of the silent Changeling Child, who was abducted from India in Shakespeare’s original text, and emerges on set wearing dark blue body paint that is clearly suggestive of the blackface tradition (an aesthetic that the artistic team denies was intentional, but that is clearly present). Is it a coincidence that the only character who cannot speak for himself, and who is treated as a ‘creature’ to be owned by the Fairy King and Queen, appears the darkest?

Conversely, the famed ‘lovers’ of the story (Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander) are portrayed as British colonialists, and they are the only white characters in the production. Since they are the only characters whose storylines revolve around the search for ‘true love,’ this reiterates the notion that only white people are objects of desire, in comparison to the people of colour portrayed within the production, who are either non-humans or comic, fetishized characters. Although the production was artistically a triumph for McGill Opera, the case remains that it sadly comes across as a love letter to the colonialist ideals that have caused such pain and suffering within Indian society.

The post Fetishizing Bombay through the Bard appeared first on The McGill Daily.