Do you need to have an issue with your gender to use the Gender Issues Centre?
No. The concept for the name of the Centre stemmed from the Feminist epistemological perspective that our gender roles impact our lived experiences. In other words, what Feminists have been saying, like, forever now is that the ways individuals understand their socially given roles (i.e. masculine or feminine) affect the way that they perceive the world around them. Basically, we’re all participating in a Grand Narrative that has each one of us playing a part in the masquerade.
The Gender Issues Centre is on campus to offer students, staff and faculty an alternative to the “Truth” about our existence. The GiC is here to offer the Lakehead University community a space that accepts cultural diversity and is founded on equality – gender, race and otherwise. We are a community of Woman-centred folks that respect people and work to 1) raise awareness with regards to prejudice and discrimination based on gender, age, race, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status, family life, or culture, and 2) find ways to end these social oppressions.
From the blog of Edward Ndopu, Musings from Queercrip Femme Man of Color: “An intersectional identity is one lived experience layered with the complexity of sociopolitical and cultural context. To borrow the words of Eli Clare, ‘gender reaches into disability; disability wraps around class; class strains against abuse; abuse snarls into sexuality; sexuality folds on top of race…everything finally piling onto a single human body.’”
THE GENDER ISSUES CENTRE IS:
* A study space with internet access
* A lounge area & lunch room
* A place to watch movies
*A place to donate gently used clothes
*A resource centre – borrow books and DVDs
*A child-friendly space
*A place to get DIVA cups, pads, tampons & condoms
A poem for December 6
