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Isaac's Most Popular Reviews
A must read memoir, Kate Beaton's time on the oil sands is gripping, tragic, informative and powerful. Being the only woman in a hypermasculine environment just before the age of phones and social media. It's portrayed in such a truthful way about how sexism and sexual assault is managed in an environment where it is unfortunately commonplace. Under this narrative is the realisation that is reached by Kate that the oil sands operate on stolen lands. This book, like many books is supported and further added to in the afterword. Afterwords are incredibly underrated. Here is a long but valuable excerpt from it:
“I have seen many people quick to become defensive against the suggestion that gendered violence exists in places like the oil sands. They may either work there and are proud of the work they do and the livelihoods they support with it or they know and love men there, and are insulted by the insinuation of being lumped in either anything to do with something as abhorrent as sexual assault.” .. ”Gendered violence does happen when men outnumber women by as much as 50 to 1, as they can in the camps or the work sites. Of course it does. Of course this happens when the men are in isolation for long stretches of time, away from their families and relationships and communities, and completely resocialized in a camp and work environment like that of the oil sands. It does not matter how many decent people are there. I knew plenty of those.”
