Idle No More

When I started this column on race in dystopian YA literature, a reader recommended I check out Shadows Cast by Stars, Métis author Catherine Knutsson's dystopic tale set on Canada's western coast 200 years from now.

In the book, a plague has ravaged the world. The only cure is antibodies found in the blood of aboriginal people (or "Others" as they are known by non-aboriginals).

TGI Tuesday! Here's our list of news links for today.

• Roxane Gay reviews Identity Thief: "McCarthy's character, Diana, is increasingly painted as lonely and miserable.... This is, it appears, the only narrative the filmmakers can imagine for an overweight woman." [Buzzfeed]
• Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique turns 50...and Bitch Media creative director and cofounder Andi Zeisler reflects on its legacy. [LA Review of Books]
• Erica Sánchez asks several women—including Muslimah Media Watch founder and Bitch contributor Fatemeh Fakhraie—to weigh in on Islam and feminism. [Huffington Post]
• Ava DuVernay, director of Middle of Nowhere, has directed a short film starring Gabrielle Union and Adepero Oduye for fashion brand Miu Miu. (Don't worry, it's no "Fashion Film"). [Shadow and Act]
• Leaders of the Idle No More movement share what they see as the next step in their protest against the Canadian government. [Indian Country]
• Remember the amazing spark-shooting guitar from Beyonce's Superbowl performance? Meet Bibi McGill, the guitarist and kale-chip entrepreneur. [Ebony]
• Need some good nonfiction reads? Check out "17 Essays by Female Writers That Everyone Should Read," from the classic (Virginia Woolf's "Street Haunting") to the contemporary (Zadie Smith's "Joy"). [Flavorwire]
 

Post your reads in the comments!

Whether we like it or not, the legacy of colonization has shaped Canadian society and continues to permeate its political practices. Since 2008, the Harper government has made major cuts to aboriginal health and school funding, turned a blind eye to the over 600 missing and murdered Indigenous women across Canada, refused to share residential school documents with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, dropped land claim negotiations, stood by as Aboriginal youth suicide rates hit crisis levels, and attempted to erode environmental protection laws enshrined in First Nations treaties.