on. It'll
©
girl!
hether it’s fictitious tales
of magic flying carpets
and genies, or a real

historical recounting of a brave war
hero, we need to be encouraging our
youth to read — especially young
women.

On Oct. 17, 2019, StatCan
released a study called Does reading
proficiency at age 15 affect employment
earnings in young adulthood, which
concluded that the degree of liter-
acy prowess in women by the age of
15 was more closely linked to their
eventual income than men of the
same age.

While this particular study brings
me delight, I can’t help but think
if this harms
women’s image
or proves their
strength as a sex.

Gender coding
of terms like
bookworm has
been involved in
institutionalized
sexism in our
western society
for decades and
for valid reasons.

The earliest
documented book club dates back to
the 1630’s with Anna Hutchinson, a
religious reformer, and the women’s
meetings she hosted to discuss their
minister's weekly sermons.

There is one compelling question
that comes to mind; when consid-
ering the recent StatCan study and
the traces of sexism closely associat-
ing women with reading through-
out history is, do we fight it? Is this
stereotype that women are known
for their love of books a bad thing?

Modern media has frequently
incorporated this history of proven
bias for arbitrary plot points, a major
example being the media conglom-
erate, The Walt Disney Company.
The company openly indulged in
the stereotype with their depiction
of Belle from the 1991 film Beauty
and the Beast. In the movie, there
is an entire musical number that
summarizes that Belle is beautiful
but weird, mostly because she reads.

Fighting stereotypes that have
already been integrated into pop
culture will always be difficult espe-
cially for women, who arguably fight
the oppression of men every day.
However, these literacy biases can
be their strength.

If we can continue to promote

NATHAN
GAN

The days immediately after starting Daylight Saving Time are agitating and stressful. Considering all the potential health risks and overall decrease of per-
sonal wellbeing, is that equally brief moment of gaining the hour back really worth it? Joe Ayres LUSTRATION

here is evidence to
suggest that Daylight
Saving Time is harmful
in the long run, and I for
one am not sleeping on the issue.
This semi-annual ritual affects our
daily routines and causes sleep depri-
vation. This is especially apparent in
March, when clocks are scheduled to
be set forward an hour.
I dread losing that hour of sleep

every year, as it makes life chaotic to

opinions. These strong opinions are
what is motivating the B.C. govern-
ment to consider
doing away with
the bi-annual
time change.
Accord-
ing to a recent
survey done by
the provincial
government, 93

per cent of B.C.

in favour of year-round Daylight
Saving Time.

It’s both dangerous and unhealthy
to switch back on and off of daylight
saving, as it interferes with how we
should be gradually adapting to
seasonal changes.

‘The idea that this practice is essen-
tial for creating more time for shop-
ping and recreational activities is just
an illusion.

SFU professor Ralph Mistlberger

Need my Daylight refund

productivity and an increased risk of
heart attacks.

I myself would opt for permanent
Daylight Saving Time, because I
believe that the small shift of hours
negatively influences our perfor-
mance on basic day-to-day tasks.

Imagine going to sleep whi-
le the sun is still up: how can you
expect to wake up feeling fresh,
luminous and glittery when it’s still
dark outside?

young women's literacy as a surefire | the highest point. residents and PALAK specializes in sleep patterns and says Just one of many reasons to change
sign of a successful future, then that It’s a complex situation where 86.6 per cent KLAIRE changes to the number of hours _ the system and let our clocks have a
secures a substantial shift in the bias. | many different people have strong of students are you rest can result in reduced work _ rest for once!
HOW TO DROP-IN MANAGING PAGE 6 WEB EDITORS REPORTERS WE WANT TO Z 77
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