Over The Edge

a

ovember 13, 1996

The PGPIRG resource
library

There are four catagories of
resources that the PGPIRG
library currently provides:
books, magazines and
periodicals, clippings files,
and audio/video cassettes.
The listings are available at
the PGPIRG office in hard
copy or on a disk. The
regions can access the list of
materials and request the
material by email or by

phoning the office. The loan
period is two weeks for
students at the Prince George
campus and four weeks for
students at the regional
campuses.

Included in the topics
available in the PGPIRG
library are transgendered/
lesbian/ gay/ bisexual/
materials - varying from an

account of the Little Sister’s
Bookstore court challenge
against censorship, to
collections of lesbian and
gay short fiction the
materials enhance liturature
available on campus.

Some examples are:

AIDS/ HIV and Your Legal
Rights in B.C.

Bisexual Politics: Theories,
Queries, and Visions

Sisters, Sexperts, Queers

Neither Man nor Woman:
The Hijras of India

Queer View Mirror
Rights of Passage: Struggles

for Lesbian and Gay Legal
Equality

MEMO FROM THE ISOLATION WARD: Sex, anyone?

John W. McFetrick

I’m sitting in my room,
working diligently on
something that has nothing
to do with real life and as I
type away I hear the happy
squeals of Res. Kids playing
in the freshly fallen snow.
Some throw snowballs.
Others make snow angles
while still others pile huge
snow balls onto other huge
snow balls.

I believe they call these
things ‘snowmen’ but as I am
unable to discern any
obvious signs of its sex, [am
at present unable to properly
assign it an identity.
Snowman. Snow-woman.
(Snow-womyn?) Snow-
person. Frozen-
precipitation-rolled-into-
balls (oops) and-stacked-
upon-each-other-entity.

I am confused by all this
because I recently came
under attack by a person(s)
(sex unimportant) for a
column I wrote about a
couple of jerks who trashed
a house. Actually, it wasn’t

a column per se. It was a
story, completely fictitious
and entirely the result (or
consequence) of a tired and
bored —_—siimagination.
Personally, I think the story
sucks. But I wrote and
submitted it because I
couldn’t think of any
pressing issue that was worth
consideration. Why The
Boss ran it is his decision. I
am not the editor. I do,
however, thank him for the
service. I appreciate his
efforts to provide a
readership for my
workagood or bad.

And let’s face it. It IS a bad
story. Maybe it was funny.
Maybe it was malicious.
Maybe it isn’t anything but
“sexist garbage,” according
to. one e-mail I received.
Ah-ha! Now I’m sexist.
“Tits,” according to this
person (sex still

unimportant) is derogatory
and portrays women as
objects in a male dominated
world blah blah blah.

Yeahal know. It sucks. It
stinks that women can’t walk
out to the parking lot at night
without looking over their
shoulders in fear. It sucks
that women can’t go out in
public (at least in some
places) ‘without being
completely covered from
head to foot. But alasal must
tread carefully here, lest I
offend people of a particular
cultural background.

As long as we are walking on

oe
go

egg shells here, I might as
well venture into another
delicate area. Let’s assume
for the moment that our
character was dreaming aas
he apparently wasaof (gasp)
a man.

_ Yes girls (grrrls), we have

them too. Some of us have
three.

So then, our character was
(perhaps) dreaming about tits
belonging to a man. Am I
now homophobic? Or maybe
he was dreaming of teats.
Now I’m a degenerate into
bestiality.

I glance out the window and,
to my surprise, the snow-
being-entity-in-mock-
human-form is now larger
than life. He/she/it stands a
full twelve feet tall. Its nose,
along, thick, bright orange
carrot, juts out from its face.
Two black eyes peer into the
cold night. It seems to be

A DaRaRONS An A RDODSN

staring out at the snow, at all
the future as yet unmade
snow people.

I am still uncertain of its sex.

There are no obvious signs
to tip me off.

The creators of this thing
pack snow around its base,
insuring it a _ strong
foundation. It stands erect,
solid and reaches up to the
sky. A crown is placed-upon
its head. This now regal
being, king or queen, is a
noble effort. —

But it is not asnowman. The
Gods of snow have wrapped
a bra around its chest. I
suppose, then, that it is in fact
a snow woman. But I can’t
jump to conclusions yet. It
may be a trans-gendered
snow-person.

And in the end, I suppose it
doesn’t really matter. This
proud being will not last. It
will either suffer at the hands
of .the elements or
rambunctious students or
men bent on domination.

I fear the day when_I’Il look
out my window and find that
it is no longer there.