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The Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-04-13, Page 44 Lucknow Sentinel • Wednesday, April 13, 2016 1 www.lucknowsentinel.com The Lucknow Sentinel PUBLISHED WEEKLY P.O. Box 400, 619 Campbell Street Lucknow Ontario NOG 2H0 phone: 519-528-2822 fax: 519-528-3529 www.lucknowsentinel.com E PO STM 1EOM JOHN BAUMAN Group Manager, Media Sales john.bauman@sunmedia.ca JOYJURJENS Office Administrator lucknow.sentinel@sunmedia.ca LINDSAY THEODULE Media Sales Consultant I indsay.theodule@sunmedia.ca CURTIS ARMSTRONG Group Director of Media Sales - Grey, Bruce and Huron County Postmedia carmstrong@postmedia.com P: 519-376-2250 x514301 Publications Mail Agreement No. 40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO SENTINEL CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT P.O. Box 400 Lucknow ON NOG 2H0 For any non -deliveries or delivery concerns: 519-528-2822 • lucknow.sentinel@sunmedia.ca SUBSCRIPTIONS Regular one year $40.00 + $2.00 =$42.00 Senior one year $35.00 +$1.75 = $36.75 Two year regular $70.00 + 3.50 = $73.50 Senior two year $60.00 + $3.00 = $63.00 Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. All advertising and editorial deadlines: Friday 2 p.m. Changes of address, orders for subscriptions, and undeliverable copies (return postage guaranteed) are to be sent to The Lucknow Sentinel at the address indicated here. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the portion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid at the applicable rates. The Sentinel is available on microfilm at: GODERICH LIBRARY, (from 1875) 52 Montreal Street Goderich ON N7A 1 M3 Goderich library@huroncounty.ca KINCARDINE LIBRARY, (from 1875 to 1900 & 1935 to 1959) 727 Queen Street Kincardine ON N2Z 1Z9 The Lucknow Sentinel is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent ethical organization established to deal with editorial concerns. For more information or to file a complaint go to www.mediacouncil.ca or call toll free 1-844-877-1163. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. CanadW ocna Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association McParland: Ultimate correctness proves unattainable in plus -size wars 0 ne of the dangers in striving to avoid ever giving offence is the difficulty involved in isolat- ing just what has the poten- tial to offend people. A women's clothing store in Edmonton ran into this problem recently when it fired an employee for using the word "fat." The employee, Connie Levitsky, used the word on her Face - book page in noting she'd started a job as a new sales associate with Addition Elle. "Conquering the world, one well-dressed fat lady at a time," she wrote. Addition Elle caters to a plus -size clientele, and is very touchy about the word "fat." Levitsky said she removed the word from her Facebook page when noti- fied of this fact, but was fired anyway. She says a dis- trict manager told her "fat" was a swear word and the store could not be associ- ated with it. Levistky, a 24 -year-old university student, is plus - sized herself and says she's spent her life coming to terms with her body. In the end she decided "fat" is bet- ter than euphemisms like "curvy" or "shapely." "As part of the body -pos- itivity movement, I feel that if companies ... are still censoring the word fat, then we are never Column Kelly McParland going to get anywhere," she wrote. At this point the situation got complicated. Addition Elle noted that it may have been hasty, apologized and offered Levitsky her job back. "We stand for body positivity in all its forms," it said. But Levistky refused, arguing it would be a betrayal of her supporters in "fat -positivity community:' So, in trying to avoid upsetting plus -sized cli- ents, the store has upset a plus -sized woman, who is attracting support from others upset that treating their size with honesty could open them to criticism. You could sympathize with the store if it reaches the conclusion this is an unsolvable problem. If one of its customers had spot- ted Levistky's initial refer- ence, and complained, it would have felt compelled to respond. If Levistky had then counter -responded with her views on "fat" ver- sus "curvy', it would have been in a bind. Who to avoid offending, the cus- tomer or the employee? It's a conundrum that arises from striving for unattainable levels in the effort to be socially cor- rect. Ultimate correctness is impossible. One of the fundamental lessons of social media is that some- one, somewhere, will always be offended. It doesn't matter what you say, it doesn't matter how carefully you couch it, someone will take offence. Odds are I'll get emails from people offended at the suggestion they're easy to offend. Amy Schumer, the come- dian whose body shape is a big part of her public per- sona, demonstrated the difficulties involved when she took offence at being included in a Glamour magazine article about plus sizes. Though she does like to make fun of her size, she doesn't necessarily con- sider it plus, and ques- tioned why Glamour didn't contact her before includ- ing her. Glamour responded that, even though they included her in the feature on plus- ness, they didn't specifically identify her plus, and besides they support plusness, not that she's plus, you understand. As an excuse it was a bit thin, considering the entire issue was devoted to plus- ness, and Schumer was one of three women identified on the cover. Schumer - who could possibly have been playing the whole thing for a laugh, you never know - suggested plusness was all immaterial anyway and reserved only for women. That last assertion isn't exactly true: the Canadian men's wear chain George Richards has served "big and tall" customers for 50 years. The logo on its web page combines its initials with the symbol for extra large: GR/XL. It may be that men aren't as easily offended as women, though even hint- ing as much could cause offence, given that gender references are at least as fraught with peril as size references. ("Size" itself is yet another euphemism for weight, which is a refer- ence to ... you know.) It's best just to keep your mouth closed, and your Facebook page reference - free. Or you can be honest, and not worry about giving offence, since it's going to happen anyway. Purple Grove residents supporting upcoming fundraisers Mary Anne Kukoly Purple Grove News Congratulations to all the recipients of the Kincardine Chamber of Commerce business awards. Your contributions to our community are what make our area a great place to live, work and raise our families! Our sympathy is sent to the family of Anne Anderson. She will be missed by all the folks at RVilla as well. Sorry to hear that some of our folks are in the hospital. Get well soon. Maureen and Roy Collins, Margaret and Stewart Lane of Lucknow visited with Deanna and Morley Scott last week. Joyce and John Farrell's family gathered to celebrate Ellie Nah- wegahbow's first birthday and Tyler Becker's birthday. Great -grandma June enjoyed all of the little ones as well. Mary Anne Kukoly visited with Joyce and June on Friday afternoon. On Monday Mary Anne visited with Delbert Hedley at Pinecrest Manor. Heather and Sam Finnie were part of the gathering at Gabrielle and Gregory Smith's to celebrate Benjamin's first birthday. The Finnie and Smith families enjoyed their time in Wellesley. Betty and Fred Henderson vis- ited with Marilyn and Don Reid last week. Hope everyone remembered the Daffodil Tea this afternoon at RVilla (Wednesday April 13). Also, it will be good to help the Robotics team Team 781 Kinetic Knights next Sunday April 17. They are having a spaghetti din- ner at the Kincardine Legion as a fund raiser.