Third annual Women’s Worth Week concludes

Event will rebrand to WORTH to address intersectional issues

Collective Reflections was present at the open house.
Image by: Arwin Chan
Collective Reflections was present at the open house.

This week, Women’s Worth Week (WWW) aimed to highlight issues of gender-based violence and discrimination.

WWW was founded by Kate McCord in 2012 during her third year at Queen’s, to emphasize the importance of discussions on feminism, gender identity and expression.

The week featured a different event each night, including a coffeehouse at Musiikki Cafe on Monday evening, a panel on masculinity Tuesday night and a “Gender Across the Disciplines” event on Wednesday.

WWW also conducted a “Distinctly Beautiful Photo Campaign”, where they asked students what makes them “distinctly beautiful” in order to promote self-esteem and positive body image.

The coffee house kicked off the week, and included covers of songs, original songs, and poetry — all performed by students.

On Tuesday night, panelists were asked, “How does the social construct of masculinity play into social and political issues?”

Brittany Moore, chair of WWW, said this was in order to include a discussion about the different facets of gender.

“Gender is a spectrum, it’s not two distinct things,” said Moore, ArtSci ’16.

“There are a lot of different variabilities of gender; it’s a very fluid thing.”

On Wednesday night, WWW hosted a “Gender Across the Disciplines” event. The speakers at this event were Adèle Mercier, a professor in the Department of Philosophy; Deena Salem, who discussed gender in the field of engineering; and Sean Field, who discussed gender in geography.

The event on Thursday night was an open house in the JDUC that showcased resources on campus and in Kingston that promote mental and sexual health and gender and sexual diversity.

The final event will take place on Friday in McLaughlin Hall, where WWW will officially rebrand as WORTH in order to be more inclusive. This event will also feature music, a showcase of the “distinctly beautiful photo campaign” video and a speech from Kate McCord on the history of WWW.

In following years, WORTH will address issues of gender and their intersection with other facets of identity, such as race, class and sexual orientation. “A lot of these issues are quite intersectional, especially with things like mental health, with race, with people’s past experiences,” Moore said.

Moore said the purpose of the week is to raise awareness around the fact that issues like sexism and racism still exist.

“It opens up a dialogue and it promotes a safe-space environment, a lot of times on issues that are maybe sometimes taboo, or that people don’t want to talk about, or people are ashamed to talk about,” she said.

Tags

feminism, Women's Worth Week

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