Red Tent Sisters

This past Friday and Saturday the Women’s Health Matters Forum was held at the Toronto Convention Centre. Each year the conference has a different theme and this year’s theme was Linking Environmental Impacts and Women’s Health. The forum had over a hundred exhibitor booths, both retailers and health groups, which showcased a wide variety of health related information and products – although in my opinion the “healthiness” or health-related’ness of some of the products was questionable, especially in light of this year’s theme. Our dear Red Tent Sisters were there with a booth and they are supposedly “on target” for converting a large portion of the female population to Diva Cups and Lunapads! Ha ha J There were two small stages in the same huge room as the exhibitors and there were presentations going on all day in about six other rooms. The presentations were under three headings: health issues, environmental health issues and empowered choices. I went to two seminars on Friday, four on Saturday and spent some time wandering around the exhibit space. As you can probably tell, women’s health and specifically environmental impacts on [women’s] health is something I am uber-interested in and passionate about. Here are my reflections on my forum experience.

1. I dropped by the Janssen-Ortho [a pharmaceutical company that makes, markets and sells hormonal birth control options] table just to see what type of promotional materials they had. I will admit I went hoping I could find lots to critique!!. A gaggle of girls was swarming the table and were filling out questionnaires in order to be eligible to win a cell phone. The questionnaire was titled “what does balance mean to you”. So my cynical side kicks in and says “this is definitely a marketing tool and they are cashing in on the current buzzword balance – a very important concept which can very easily be co-opted”. They asked: ”What are the top 3 things you have to balance in your life? Do you feel like you have a balanced life? If you could have one more day in the week just for you, what would you do with it? In your mind what empowered female icon/celebrity has achieved balance in their life?”

The women at the booth were also handing out a booklet titled Birth Control Options: What You Need to Know. I’ll concede that to some extent it is a good thing that the company was there as a readily available source of information. However, a slightly deeper consideration of their presence and materials proves to be a bit disenchanting. First of all they are a company that sells pharmaceuticals and they were at the forum to sell their products not simply to be a benign educator. This is made obvious by the fact that their pamphlet focuses on birth control options not safe[r] sex – they’re there to sell products not simply to educate about sexual health. Secondly the image on the front of their pamphlet cover is a face – a white, young, stereotypically feminine, and normatively attractive girl’s face. The girl has thin sculpted eyebrows, is wearing a pink t-shirt [the background is mauve], and has long brown hair. Opening the front cover we find out from the introduction that the booklet is aimed at a heterosexual audience … but this isn’t made obvious. It says that if you are or are thinking about becoming sexually active here’s the information you need about birth control. This means that they are equating being sexually active with heterosexual intercourse. Sexually active does not mean masturbation, same sex activities or oral sex. I think a convincing argument can be made that the booklet is aimed at young women … it’s questionable whether it’s good because it provides information for an audience that needs it or whether it’s bad because it continues the assumption that adolescent girls are and should be considering intercourse, that heterosexuality is what is appropriate, normal and healthy, and that the white, middle-class aesthetic is the definition of beautiful.

2. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada had a very comprehensive handout on choosing a contraceptive that’s right for you. Their pamphlet was a bit better because it had several computer mice at the top, one in a condom, one had a rainbow painted across it, and the others were wearing an umbrella, a bra, a hat, and had piercings. My biggest problem with their handout is that oral contraception was listed first and natural family planning was listed last. The pill is said to be 99.7% effective when used perfectly and with typical use is 92% effective, whereas the symptom-thermal method is listed as 98% effective when used perfectly and the typical failure rate is 25%. I don’t like how pill is talked about only in terms of success rates and the natural method is talked about in terms of failure rate. It seems like it makes an uneven playing field that much more uneven. I guess it is a pretty good handout I didn’t like it because the pill is so normative right now that I feel like women need a lot of “evidence”, reasons and convincing to seriously consider other options – something the handout doesn’t do … but then again, that was not the intention of it.

Sidenote: I’m [overly?] critical of oral contraception right now because I don’t need contraception and therefore have the luxury of not having to make a decision about what I would use. That said, I was on the pill as an adolescent and won’t ever go on it again. I realize my current luxury and experience is not the situation of every other woman and so while I have concerns about oral contraceptives I also want to be accepting of the fact that other women have the right to make their own decisions for their bodies. I just don’t like that what is considered to be the “best” birth control option is one that I think/believe/know to be disruptive and unhealthy for women’s bodies.

3. On Friday I went to a session called Thinking Outside the Scale: Cultivating Healthy Attitudes about Weight, Eating and Body Image. I was really impressed by this presentation put on by Dr. Yoni Freedhoff [he has a blog http://www.bmimedical.blogspot.com/]. He discussed healthy weight, healthy eating, healthy body image and healthy tools and exposed myths all along the way. It wasn’t the typical “so and so exposes 10 diet myths” that you find in a lot of women’s magazines. Instead he focused on the fact that one should aim for their best weight – a weight that is dynamic, individualized, takes into consideration various things like genetics, medical problems, nurture, employment, children, fitness etc AND MOST IMPORTANTLY one’s best weight doesn’t involve forgetting that food can be celebratory and a comfort. His overarching message was that people need to be healthy BUT unless they like the way they’re eating they’re going to go back to their old ways. The key is to eat in the healthiest manner that is realistically possible and that is honestly enjoyed.

4. I also went to a session called Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic. Liz Armstrong was the speaker and is one of three authors of a book with the same name as the presentation. Basically Armstrong went over how and why cancer has been framed in the popular consciousness as something caused by individual lifestyle issues and why this perspective is problematic. She made a great argument for why we need to focus on preventing cancer by controlling and minimizing/stopping the use of toxins and carcinogens, instead of simply focusing on how to diagnosis and treat cancer. Both of the latter elements are important but they won’t actually solve the problem of cancer … yet they get the lion’s share of the available research money. Not only did Armstrong demonstrate how serious the situation is with regards to cancer, she also made it obvious that there are hundreds of ways to stop cancer before it starts. Here’s a top ten list she presented.

Top Ten Actions to Prevent Cancer

1. don’t smoke
2. eat healthy food [preferably local and organic] & take vitamin and mineral supplements [the quality of the food we eat has decreased – some nutritional components are actually missing from produce found in the grocery store]
3. regular exercise
4. change your cleaning products [don’t use anything with a scull and crossbones]
5. avoid plastics [here’s a handy reminder of the plastics that are especially bad … hold up your right hand … plastics #1 #2 are ok – put down your thumb and pointer finger – plastics #4 and #5 are ok – put down your ring finger and pinky - #3 – ha ha – and #6 and #7 are the worst. 5 is the only one you want to use on a regular basis for food and still don’t heat things up in it or put hot food into it]
6. walk cycle take the train buy a hybrid if you need a car … drive and fly less
7. avoid unnecessary radiation [raydon, xrays, MRIs, EMR from cell phones ie. use cell phones for short conversations]
8. choose healthy home furnishings
9. buy non-toxic stuff and way less of it
10. speak up and act out … be a multiplier!

Last but not least she reminded us that women have a huge opportunity to be instruments of social change because we make 80% of the world’s consumer purchases.

5. Another top 10 list came from the last session I went to on Saturday – it was called Towards a Healthier Home. Three people spoke about toxicity in the home – primarily regarding air quality. Did you know that a new vinyl shower curtain can elevate the air toxicity in a home for a month? Or that most of the time air quality inside is more polluted than what’s outside? And just think about everything we’ve been hearing recently about how polluted the air outside is!!. All three presenters spoke about the problems in homes and THEN spoke about the solutions. First Gord Cooke spoke about how homes themselves can be altered to actually improve air quality [in summary, don’t just circulate indoor air, open your windows and get “fresh” air in]. Then Andrea Kantelberg spoke about the things we put in homes to decorate them and how air quality can be improved by changing the ways we decorate walls [ie. paints and wallpapers], the furnishings we buy [ie. fabrics and fillers] and the type of flooring we have. Lastly Lisa Borden spoke about what we do in homes and things we can do differently to improve our health and the health of the earth. I liked her presentation the best because she made it clear that making change doesn’t have to be hard or time consuming or expensive. Check out her website for some great ideas and where to buy non-toxic products www.bordencom.com. Her daughter had massive health problems that doctors couldn’t solve via the “traditional” methods and so she became educated about de-toxifying her home environment … and now sharing this information is her line of work. Borden has a wealth of information and she made it clear that people are welcome to email her with questions about what they should buy and where they can get it … often I find this to be the trickiest part of making changes in my life. Here’s her top 10 list.

10 Steps to a Healthier Home

1. get rid of all dangerous cleaning chemicals

2. avoid all antibacterials, always

3. take your shoes off at your front door

4. be[a]ware of everything that smells - open your windows and don’t purchase products that offgas

5. use klean kanteens, not plastic, aluminum or disposables and drink lots of water

6. choose organic and choose local for good eats

7. light only beeswax candles with cotton wicks

8. spend time at www.cosmeticsdatabase.com and then become an avid label reader

9. buy houseplants, they grow you clean air

10. use soda for cleaning clothes and dryer balls in your dryer

Alright … that’s all for this time. Hope you enjoyed the avalanche of information!! E.

Written by Ellen Macro, Red Tent Sister Blogger

Labels: Cancer, Contraception, Education, Environment, Health, Women