The Other McCain

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Canadian Candidate Drops Out After Masturbation Video Surfaces

Posted on | July 22, 2014 | 82 Comments

 

Trish Kelly was a candidate for local office on the ticket of the liberal “Vision Vancouver” party. On July 14, local political blogger Raymond Tomlin published a 2006 video Ms. Kelly produced for a website called WayOutWest. In the two-minute video, Ms. Kelly talks about her masturbation habits: “Pretty much I do it every night, after brushing my teeth, but before putting on my jammies.” Ms. Kelly is entirely clothed in the video, during which she describes “the single lifestyle” and an occasion “giving myself the f–k of my life.”

Three days after Tomlin called attention to the video, Kelly dropped out of the race for Vancouver’s Park Board:

“After 25 years of serving my community, I put my name forward as a Park Board nominee to move my life as a community activist fighting for social justice issues, to claiming a seat at the decision-making table,” Kelly stated. “Unfortunately, my work in theatre and as a sex-positive activist is being sensationalized — and will clearly continue to be — distracting from my efforts in the community and in the election campaign.”
Kelly, a popular member of Vancouver’s LGBT community, made a humorous video about masturbation, which was posted on YouTube by political activist Raymond Tomlin. . . .
“I have never hidden from this work,” Kelly said in the news release. “I hold no shame nor regret for the work I have produced. I have dedicated, and will continue to dedicate, much of my life to contributing to my community, to having difficult conversations, and to making myself vulnerable in order to make space for others.”

Wait a minute: Ms. Kelly is a “sex-positive activist,” widely recognized as a “member of Vancouver’s LGBT community,” and yet her solitary habits were the problem? Do people not understand the meaning of “LGBT”? It’s not about marching in parades, y’know.

If her video confession of lonely pleasure — “pretty much . . . every night” — was potentially embarrassing for the Vision Vancouver party, the reaction to her resignation has been memorable.

Feminists are blaming the patriarchy for Ms. Kelly’s misfortune.

Yes, that’s right. The only reason Ms. Kelly’s masturbation video was a potential political liability was that she is a woman, according to feminist blogger Jarrah Hodge: “For some reason young women candidates keep finding themselves attacked for expressing their sexuality, even though it’s not at all relevant to the office they’re seeking.” Really? Did I miss all those occasions when male candidates recorded videos “expressing their sexuality” and nobody cared? Joe Biden has made a lot of gaffes over the years, but I’m pretty sure he never uploaded a YouTube video discussing how often he wanks (and I’m certain nobody wants to know).

Contrary to Ms. Hodge’s claim, it isn’t just “young women candidates” who are “attacked for expressing their sexuality” in politics. Or has she forgotten the self-destruction of Anthony Weiner?

But never mind that. Why do you think that Ms. Kelly — who is very much “out” sexually — would have suddenly dropped off the ticket of this progressive party in a Canadian city that is as liberal as Seattle or San Francisco? It’s mysterious. A profile of her last month focused on blue-eyed Ms. Kelly’s claim that she has some unquantified percentage of “aboriginal” ancestry:

“I think visibly I represent the other minority aspects of my identity, like being a woman,” Kelly said by phone from Burnaby. “But it’s more an opportunity for me to advocate and be an ally to First Nations and aboriginal people in Vancouver, which is something that I feel strongly about because every time I do that I’m honouring my mother and she passed away five years ago. It was very important to her when she got her Métis status card.”
A member of the Vancouver food policy council since 2007, Kelly noted that it’s possible that Vancouver had aboriginal municipal politicians before Ken Clement — who was first elected to the school board in 2008 — but they just didn’t publicly identify themselves as such. According to Kelly, it’s important for her to be “transparent” about her Métis background as well as the fact she identifies as bisexual, queer, and femme.
“I feel that I’m a bridge between two groups,” Kelly said. “I’m Métis and the word Métis means a ‘blend’ or a ‘mix’ in French, and I’m also queer or bisexual. I have to claim those identities, because being femme in everyday society I can be read as just a straight woman, and being Métis I can be read as just white. So I politicize myself by owning these identities, which is part of how I politicize my identity but also part of how I act as another ally to people who are more targeted because of their visible appearance or how they’re read.”

Hmmm. So she politicizes her identity. This is very interesting.

Her position on transsexual “issues” is also interesting:

Kelly maintained that, after years of being a “strong ally” to the trans community, she’d like the chance to be more than a “good listener”. If she gains a seat on the park board in the November election, Kelly said, she would see to it that the April report of the city’s trans and gender-variant inclusion working group is implemented.
“The reason that I feel that is so important is because it addresses inclusivity for not just folks that are gender-variant or trans but also just looking at making community centres inclusive for people with disabilities or people who just don’t feel like they fit into social norms of what a person is supposed to look like,” Kelly said. “The work that’s been done is really strong, and I want to support it and make sure that it gets embedded within the park board.”

What were the recommendations of the “inclusion working group”?

“What we’re talking about is — 10, 20, 30 years from now — trans kids of the future won’t confined by the gender limitations and constraints of today,” [co-chairman Drew] Dennis, who’s also a member of the city’s LGBTQ advisory committee, said by phone. “That’s particularly exciting for me.” . . .
“Gender-segregated services and facilities can exclude trans* and gender variant community members if an inclusive approach is not taken,” the report states. “In these instances, trans* and gender variant individuals commonly face gender-policing in the form of verbal harassment, public-shaming and physical violence by others who feel they do not belong there.”

So, you go to a park in Vancouver, and if a man in a dress wants to use the women’s restroom, it’s “verbal harassment” for a woman to tell him he doesn’t belong there. I’m going to take a wild guess that the recommended “inclusive approach” to “gender-variant community members” might be somewhat controversial even in liberal Vancouver. And I’m going to take another wild guess that Ms. Kelly’s masturbation video — which highlighted her bisexual queer femme “sex-positive activism” — might have caused some voters to wonder, “What kind of long-term agenda is Vision Vancouver pursuing, if they’re willing to put this kinky weirdo on the Park Board, to eradicate ‘the gender limitations and constraints of today’?”

How much do I know about Canadian politics? Almost nothing. The last time I paid attention to Canada was when a lesbian hockey coach went to jail for having sex with a 15-year-old girl.

Because I don’t know enough about politics in Vancouver to know if there is a conservative alternative on the ballot, I can’t predict the consequences of Vision Vancouver’s embarrassment. However, I do know that politicians with radical agendas don’t usually like it when people start noticing exactly how radical their agendas are. Maybe common-sense folks in Canada are paying attention now.

 

Category: Canada, Feminism, Gays, Sex

Comments

82 Responses to “Canadian Candidate Drops Out After Masturbation Video Surfaces”

  1. palintologist
    July 22nd, 2014 @ 8:33 pm

    (She did claim to Aboriginal — even with the blue eyes.)

  2. K-Bob
    July 22nd, 2014 @ 8:42 pm

    I think we need more politicians that are willing to go crank one off rather than attack the interns.

    But somehow I get the impression that a proclivity for fondling the crease of the old ham wallet wouldn’t do much to protect the minors in public service.

    (No monkeys, mules, carrots, or dogs were spanked, flogged, cuffed, nor taken for walks in the production of this comment)

  3. Steve White
    July 22nd, 2014 @ 10:35 pm

    She has no shame or regrets about her video or her work. By extension, no shame or regrets about her life and lifestyle.

    Yet she dropped her candidacy.

    Ooooooookkkkkkay…

  4. Roy Elsworth
    July 22nd, 2014 @ 10:47 pm

    love the pic you have

  5. Savy
    July 22nd, 2014 @ 11:47 pm

    I am a proud supporter of the BLT movement.

  6. Jum1801
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 12:43 am

    You should read the website: “ultra-conservative” is thrown around like a curse. It’s even italicized for that double-scary maximum terror effect.

  7. Minicapt
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 12:49 am

    They were afraid she’d be too ‘hands-on’.

    Cheers

  8. Howard Roark
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 1:03 am

    Couldn’t Vancouverers, or is it Vancouverians and Ovarians had more conversations about sexuality had Miss RubOneOff stayed in the race all the way to the climax…so to speak?

    I mean is she proud and loud and part of the crowd, or not? She can’t let bourgeoisie decorum and personal embarrassment get in the way of possible govt-funded diddling and wanking.

    Why if we don’t have public figures willing to acknowledge polishing the bishop or man in the rowboat people might forget this personal act and maybe even completely stop all together doing the solo deed. Is she that callous to take that chance??

    What if we had all just quite after the German bombed Pearl Harbor???!? Then where would we be?

  9. John Reece
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 2:57 am

    I wonder how long the “L” in “LGBT” will be enamored of transexual demands if hulking she-males start mopping up in women’s sports.

  10. John Reece
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 3:20 am

    She was probably interested solely in pushing the transsexual bathroom issue. Also, as a former resident of the People’s Republics of Berkeley, Oakland and Santa Cruz I know from firsthand experience that one should never underestimate a leftist’s ability to turn ANYTHING into a social justice or identity political issue.

  11. Micha Elyi
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 3:39 am

    America is drinking Canada Dry!

  12. Wombat_socho
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 5:04 am

    This is something up with which we shall not put!

  13. Wombat_socho
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 5:05 am

    I missed Social Justice Bingo by two squares.

  14. Wombat_socho
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 5:07 am

    This was a tip from a fellow blogger, Mike Smith of the Rio Norte Line.

  15. Wombat_socho
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 5:14 am

    God help those poor sensitive souls if Real Madrid ever plays in Vancouver. They’ll see some real ultras then.

  16. George Pepper
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 6:55 am

    What would Ron Swanson say?

  17. Tea for 330 million
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 7:25 am

    We know what Ernest Borgnine would say, “you go girl!”

  18. cloud_buster
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 9:29 am

    BIV just perpetuates the patriarchal use of fruit to enforce cis-gendered norms!

  19. ChurchSox
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 9:44 am

    This is real easy: You don’t “express your sexuality.” In public (and the Park Board is a public office), you dress modestly, speak temperately, behave courteously. Nobody’s consigning you to the closet. It’s sufficient to close your front door and draw the shades on your bedroom.

  20. zipity
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 10:37 am

    That explains that brown streak…

  21. Feminist Prostitution in Canada? : The Other McCain
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 12:41 pm

    […] July 22: Canadian Candidate Drops Out After Masturbation Video Surfaces […]

  22. zmortis
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 12:43 pm

    So what are the odds some of her other “videos” are available on “pron” sites in the future.

  23. billyoblivion
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 12:55 pm

    It’s not a waste. You can eat it afterwards.

  24. billyoblivion
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 12:57 pm

    She didn’t make a sex tape (at least according to teh article), she claimed on tape that rubbing herself off was part of her nightly bedtime ritual.

    Now, if she’d actually MADE the tape and the rest of her is as attractive as that picture, I’d bet she’d have 3/4s of the male vote…

  25. Quartermaster
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 1:14 pm

    Not me. No telling what was there before the banana.

  26. Pat_Loudoun
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 7:53 pm

    You have to love good ‘ol sex freak.

  27. VoodooEconomics
    July 23rd, 2014 @ 10:01 pm

    sexsexsexsexsexsexsexsexsexsexsex
    /inhaaaaallllleeee
    sexsexsexsexsexsexsexsexsexsexsex

    …and that is the qualifications for the Vancouver Park Board.

  28. Nan
    July 24th, 2014 @ 12:03 am

    It’s our business to know about, not to comment on.

  29. Nan
    July 24th, 2014 @ 12:06 am

    Huge conflict for exhibitionists.

  30. Phredd Rellik
    July 24th, 2014 @ 4:50 am

    Vancouver politics are pretty easy for you to understand….just think of Berkeley or San Fran and you’ll be pretty close. That means the “conservative” option is a little left of center-left.

    As far as her heritage goes, if her mother was status metis (half native, half french….but the blend was probably at grandmother or great-grandmother stage), the Canadian government would consider her half native (and she would have status as a native for taxes, grants, etc). In reality, she could be anywhere from a quarter to a thirty-second native because of the way status was implemented in the recognition process of metis as a native group a few years ago.

  31. CyberRabid
    July 26th, 2014 @ 2:21 pm

    As are yours to you. The answer is indubitably yes!

  32. CyberRabid
    July 26th, 2014 @ 2:27 pm

    The words ‘fewer and less’ are what we call synonyms (look it up).