Sarah Khan

It isn’t until I actually sat down and thought about it that I realized that the badass feminist babe I am today is predominantly the creation of a mixed bag of women I’ve encountered in my life.

It’s the 21st century and there are still dad stereotypes that are not only anti-feminist but also downright backwards thinking that need to stop. But you can’t stop something until you know what it is, so here is a list:

Thanks to a number of different stressful factors, I was sent to the Centre For Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) emergency department recently at the "professional advice" (read: insistence) of my general physician. This all happened because I admitted to planning the care of my beloved cats in case I killed myself.

For the last six years, I have been living with depression. Despite the fact that I have extremely low moments when there is an inexplicable and unreachable pain inside me that demotes me into a sobbing, self-harming, low self-esteemed shell of the person that I actually am, there are a number of ways that living with (not suffering from) depression has improved my life and made me a better human being.

I’m proud to say my mother is a supporter of SlutWalk, is staunchly against victim-blaming, and all for empowering women. But when it comes to me, her ideals seem to change.

Welcome to the 21st century, in which women have more power than ever before, yet have less power than ever before as well.

It’s International Women’s Day, which means we get an entire day to celebrate the accomplishments of the millions of women in the world.

I live, work,and was also raised in Canada, where abortion has been legal since the late '80s. And before that — since the late '60s — it was legal with the permission of a committee of doctors who would agree whether or not an abortion was necessary for the mental or physical well-being of the mother.

If you are 18 or over, dating online and using apps, sexting might be something you do. While we hear horror stories about sexting paving the way for revenge porn, we often forget that sexting can be fun and liberating. But there are ways to do it that will make you feel not only like a sexting goddess, but also safe and in control rather than victimized.

What a lot of us don’t realize is that the patriarchy also makes us think it’s OK to objectify men.