Over the year, I have tried to show that feminism is not only relevant, but vital. I’ve also told you about the Women’s Centre’s activities. It was a busy year: Fem Fest, an international conference on reproductive justice, The Vagina Monologues, and Capoeira, to name a few projects the Board of Directors has organized. We’ve also seen women’s rights being threatened on all levels. The U.S. passed historic health care reform legislation, but it does not allow the use of federal funds to pay for abortions except in the cases of rape, incest, or if the mother’s life was in danger. In Canada, abortion access is limited, especially in rural areas. On many campuses, anti-choice groups are seeking society ratification. In some cases, they are successful, which creates a hostile campus environment for women, or anyone who believes in women’s rights. The Centre addressed these issues with a production of the play Jane: Abortion and the Underground, which is about the lengths women had to go to in the 60s and 70s to obtain abortions, and also spotlighted the work of current reproductive justice activists with the Trust Women Conference that SMU hosted in January. Throughout the year, we also celebrated women. In October, during Women’s History Month, I wrote about amazing women like my favorite famous feminist, Angela Davis. The Centre celebrated female artists with Fem Fest, and we celebrated our bodies through Capoeira and The Vagina Monologues.

I want to talk a bit about vaginas. The biggest feminist slogan is “the personal is political.” What we do to our bodies has political ramifications. All over the world, women are forcibly and voluntarily altering their genitals through female genital mutilation (or FGM, the ‘polite’ term is female circumcision) and vaginal surgery. Women may undergo vaginal surgery to ‘rejuvenate’ the area, or trim labia that is ‘too long.’ In a few cases, it may be medically necessary, but in most cases it is not. Although FGM and vaginal surgery don’t appear to be related to each other, the effects are similar. Both can damage nerve supply and impair sexual function. One appears to be barbaric, the other a personal choice, but the underlying motivation for both is to control women’s sexuality. It is just as wrong to deny a woman her right to feel sexual pleasure as it is to deny her right to vote, to work, or to obtain birth control. A world where women cannot fully experience pleasure and their sexuality is a world that desperately needs feminism.

This is my final column, and I want to thank Alex, my editor, for being so accommodating, and the Women’s Centre for suggesting that I write a column. I had a lot of fun! If you want to read more of my writing, my friend Dean and I have a blog devoted to dorkiness (and feminism), called Dork-A-Saurus, we’re at http://wearedorkasaurus.blogspot.com.