ELLEN MAY-MELIN

Being a woman in today’s society has always felt like a bit of a blessing and a curse. While I am proud to be a woman, many of my fellow female students at the University of Saskatchewan are faced with different issues because of gender.

Dylan Lambi-Raine, the coordinator of the U of S Students’ Union Women’s Centre, recognizes many of the issues that students face.

“I believe that women on our campus — or women on any campus — experience sexual assault, hyper-sexualization and slut-shaming, as well as body image issues and eating disorders are quite high among college-age women,” Lambi-Raine said.

Lambi-Raine, who has been running the USSU Women’s Centre for over a year now, sat down to discuss some of the issues that women on our campus face everyday, as well as how women from various parts of the world experience feminism in different ways.

“Intersectional feminism talks about how we all experience oppression in varying levels and varying intersections, and so we all have different experiences,” Lambi-Raine said. “So just because I’m a white feminist, I would also fight for black feminism. I would fight for my trans sisters, for Indigenous women, for women with disabilities, women of a different class and culture.”

The USSU Women’s Centre strives to support and be sensitive to everyone who comes through the doors. Lambi-Raine and the volunteers make it known that the feminist space at the centre is a safe place for all to receive support when they need it.

Dylan Lambi-Raine seeks to create a safe space on campus at the Women’s Centre

“We have trained volunteers who will be able to listen and provide a safe space for you to share what’s going on in your life. The centre also provides an opportunity and a space for like-minded people to develop a community and to develop relationships where you can feel safe and feel like you have a larger support system,” Lambi-Raine said.

The Women’s Centre is a great place to go if you are feeling low and need support, or even if you just want to eat your lunch or do homework. I believe that finding a positive environment to voice your thoughts is very important for young feminists of today in order to continue to flourish and feel empowered.

Unfortunately, aside from the everyday issues that women face, sometimes being a feminist can, in itself, cause backlash and be accompanied by nasty and untrue stereotypes.

“I think a way that we can deal with these negative stereotypes is to not really pay much mind to them, to continue on and believe in feminism and believe in our movement,” Lambi-Raine said. “I think one way of doing that is to find like-minded people, find other feminists, to find pro-feminist people who can help you realize that there [are] a lot of us out there.”

Lambi-Raine and I spoke a lot about the community aspect of the Women’s Centre and how feminism is not only for women, but that including men on campus into the discussion of feminism can also be very beneficial.

“We actually have some male volunteers in the Women’s Centre, but I think a really great way is to be attending the events and campaigns that the Women’s Centre puts on.

“Men are very negatively affected by the patriarchy and feminism actually benefits men because your masculinity isn’t dependent upon whether or not you’re 300 pounds of muscle and never cry and you make $300,000 a year. Feminism is really about realizing that femininity and masculinity and gender are all social constructs, and so that’s only going to benefit men and women,” Lambi-Raine said.

The USSU Women’s Centre is a positive space where you can find like-minded people, to chat about feminism and all things related and to be open and receive support when needed.

“Feminism to me is like an ideology, a worldview, something I can base my life around, that essentially is fighting and pushing for equality and equitable relationships among all people.”

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Photo: Shelley Clouthier