Books & Lit
Trouble for the Toronto Women's Bookstore
"The Toronto Women's Bookstore is in crisis and we need your help!" That's the first line of an e-mail the non-profit bookstore sent to their general list-serve on Wednesday.
"We can't pay our bills," the board chair told me yesterday. Robyn Bourgeois thanks the recession and continued competition from big box book retailers for decreasing sales.
"It's a shame to see us go. We're important for people who want to think critically about the world."
The Aboriginal scholar says the bookstore was the first place that felt like home when she moved to Toronto five years ago. "There was a sense of community I didn't find elsewhere. It was an exciting and inclusive place," says Bourgeois.
What other bookstore in the city hosts a yearly symposium for Indigenous writers and writers of colour called "Written in Colour"?; Or launched numerous Toronto authors and academics?; Or has sections entitled "Transgender/Transexual" or "Disability Studies" and a stellar First Nation's collection?
"And not many people know about our children's books. Not all of us are o.k. with our kids reading Disney," says Bourgeois.
The Toronto Women's Bookstore was also treading rough waters in the 1990s. The bookstore laid-off its staff while a volunteer kept the store afloat for six months.
If the bookstore does nothing, they'll be slated for closure by May at the latest. The board met last week to decide whether to shut its doors immediately. Bourgeois says they agreed not to sink without a fight.
If they survive, they'll have to rethink the bookstore's structure, says Bourgeois. I asked if that means turning the Women's Bookstore into a for-profit business. It's apparently the only non-profit bookstore still around in North America. "It's something we hear over and over again. I don't want to do that but we also have to find a better business model that will work within our principles."
There are only four women's bookstores left in Canada. Let's hope the new year won't decrease that number by one.
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What self-important rubbish. Talk about how important it is to you, but come on. You can't say this about your own venture.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
The Women's Bookstore's troubles, I believe, stem not from their specific mandate but from the general economic downturn which has devastated many independent bookstores.
And Jack S - of course you can say that about your own venture! That's what people who care about their work say!
Many people do not understand feminists and feminism. It is not the "F" word, it is about inclusion (rather than exclusion) and is interested in examining the harmful and insidious social trends, which promote division. The challenges people face in our society will not be solved by one gender, one race or one way of living alone.
But then again, people like Jack S. and truth would have known this had they bothered to read a book from this store or have a discussion with any of the knowledgeable people who go there.
Instead, bold-faced prejudice, snap judgements, no argument, all unprovoked.
This store can't die.
Maybe its needs to broaden its subject matter but simply asking for donations doesn't cut it for me. There must be an idea out there, providing some other service in addition to the great content it houses. There is seems to be a revival in craft and things handmade (the rise of Etsy.com), what about content or workshops or something related in addition to the books they currently carry.
What about coffee? Books and caffeine go hand in hand. Source a great fair trade blend that helps women in coffee growing countries (Check out Cafe Femino: http://www.groundsforchange.com/communities/cafe_femenino.php.
You know, I love small bookstores, but I think it's smallminded snobbery to assume that just because someone buys their books at big boxes or online, that they aren't able to think critically nor able to find, buy, and read books that *help* them to think critically.
It is tough to watch a business you love go under. But snobbish statements like this actually end up turning off those of us who MIGHT actually have considered buying from this company. If their store staff suffers from the same plight, no wonder the business is going under.
Why is it that when comments support men and are anti-misandrous they are labelled as "spam". The plan to take revenge on the TWB was hatched over a year ago and it appears to have worked. I was there during its inception. I am informing blogto's viewers of its existence. Are you so naive as to believe that the demise of TWB was merely due to economic conditions? Grow a pair of balls!
To claim you caused the collapse of some business because you're enemies is equally insulting to everyone's intelligence.
I really do feel sorry for the people who lack enough self esteem to pay for whatever b******t you shovel them.
Man up and try to be a part of society instead of standing outside pretending to be cool.
And tell Dimitri/James Sears to stop molesting women, that's how he lost his medical license wasn't it?
We wouldn't be celebrating "Toronto's White Bookstore" or "Toronto Men's Bookstore" that mirrored the goals and policies of TWB. I've been there and was treated with disrespect and encouraged to leave, just as I have been at CAY. Exclusionary leftist operations are as evil as any exclusionary operations without avowedly "progressive" politics.
If people want to dwell and take the 'critical thinker' quotation personally, they're missing the point - probably purposely.
Just a thought...
Please. Don't bring a Mid-East discussion into this. Israel is no saint, ask Jimmy Carter or better yet read his book.
However in the case that 'Anti Feminist' is actually a woman, she should post under the proper name of 'Uninformed Hypocrite' as all women and men living in Canada in 2009 have benefited and continue to benefit from feminism.
Carters book is rings true.
-josh
1. In an environment where brick and mortar bookshops have been failing for the past decade.
2. During a lengthy recession.
3. In a city that's seen Pages and dozens of other small and independant bookshops go out of business.
And before I'm labelled another sexist white male, I think it's unfortunate the store -- any bookstore -- is closing (despite never having stepped through the doors of this one).
So living in the West Bank and Gaza but not in Israel gives you the ability to deliver a balanced account of the situation in the Middle East? No problems at all with Hamas and previous leadership failures?
My problem with TWB and your narrow world view is not the criticism directed towards Israel but that the criticism is directed ONLY towards Israel. That is TWB's historical political record. Perhaps yours as well.
In any case, whatever your feelings are towards events in the Middle East, the TWB has made it's bed and now it must sleep in it. In the meantime, let's hope they can depend on healthy donations from like-minded high-minded politicos like yourself to stay afloat.
To call attention to women and to bodies that are marginalized, disenfranchised, and discriminated against is not a propaganda or "shovelling bullshit". It is speaking to very visceral experiences of violence, of hate, of loss. It is speaking critically about how our institutions are organized.
Trying to merely express these social justice "interests" are not interests at all but a matter of believing in restoring our communities.
I am horrified to live in a world where feminism is twisted into "feminazi". The act of speaking out about your embodied experience and narratives of material oppression? What? They speak to all kinds of women and men. They have been a safe haven in many ways not merely for academic "high" thinking. But for vulnerable populations.
I don't think Robyn intended to say that individuals who do not purchase from independent bookstores such as themselves are uncritical. Rather, she is concerned about the lack of belief in how our actions can really have an impact.
Of course, an alternative business model will need to be organized for them to survive.
This is why we need registered posting like RFD with post counts.
I suspect this would also shed some light on why so many people are posting in the Bakery To Go article about how it's no big deal a mouse is shitting on and eating the food we're sold..
seriously..... is this the 1980's???? where are these folks coming from???
long live the womens bookstore!
And by the way Louise,
"I don't think Robyn intended to say that individuals who do not purchase from independent bookstores such as themselves are uncritical."
That is exactly what Robyn (because of her own self-importance) meant to say.
Does TWB, as a feminist discourse suppplier, supply Camille Paglia?