Feature from Emma Davidson - Thursday, 10 May 2012 @ 3:00pm
In a very tight Budget, women in low paid work are winners with reduced tax and improved superannuation. But there were also missed opportunities to safeguard Australian households from violence, poverty, and homelessness. Women who are already struggling to get by could be left behind while the rest of the community shares in the benefits of the resources boom.
Feature from Ivy Sircus - Thursday, 10 May 2012 @ 2:29pm
When it comes to calling home, she’ll always be ‘Mum,’ but when it comes to discussions around aid and development, workforce participation, pay equity, housing or any other social issue, the word ‘mother’ just makes me cringe!
Feature from Ms Equality - Tuesday, 24 April 2012 @ 2:31pm
The topic of the article was, ‘LNP staffer quits after anti-feminist rant’. An obvious draw for a feminist, so I had a read. I drew a conclusion from the first few lines that the LNP staffer had resigned (or rather been let go) because of ignorance and cluelessness more than anything else.
Feature from Simone de Beaver - Tuesday, 24 April 2012 @ 2:14pm
Hey there ladies, just a community service announcement in case anyone else missed the memo (no doubt I was too busy thinking about shoes): April seems to be Biological Determinism Month. Who knew? Luckily for us dithering and emotional females, there were a couple of knights in shining armour to explain the whole thing to us in simple words we could understand.
Feature from EJ Cook - Thursday, 19 April 2012 @ 1:29pm
It's been far too long since my last Word of the Week.
Please excuse my tardiness. Hopefully this week's word will help bridge the
gap: freedom.
Feature from Simone de Beaver - Tuesday, 10 April 2012 @ 11:39am
Well, well, well. It started with the #mencallmethings thread on Twitter, continued with the Kyle Sandilands' incredible response to some mild criticism from a female journo, followed by the Melinda Tankard Reist is-she-a-feminist-or-isn't-she debate, and then we moved on to the nightmare that is the current US war on women, and what I saw someone refer to as 'Greer's arse debacle'. The debate seems to have lasted the whole summer - and I for one have been loving the shit out of it.
Feature from Simone de Beaver - Tuesday, 03 April 2012 @ 10:09am
Well, you've all seen the news by now. Apparently my biting criticism of some of the more embarrassing moments for the Liberal National Party in the lead up to Queensland's state election last weekend wasn't enough to stop them being elected in a landslide. 'Landslide' is a term that does get tossed around much too easily when it comes to elections, I agree, but in this case it seems appropriate, as does 'whitewash', particularly given the overwhelmingly middle-class-white-male makeup of our new parliament north of the border.
Feature from Ms Equality - Friday, 30 March 2012 @ 9:59am
I am fed up
I am fed up of;
Not being taken seriously because I am a young woman
Feature from Thursday Munster - Monday, 26 March 2012 @ 9:28am
I hate the way love and romantic attachment is portrayed in fantasy fiction.
Particularly in certain subgenres, like urban fantasy, where it often feels out of place or redundant. It's like authors tack it onto the plot just to make the story more interesting. In a lot of cases it feels as if it’s there to give the book a more ‘adult’ feel.
Feature from Ms Em - Friday, 23 March 2012 @ 4:01pm
Exciting (and not so exciting) things that made it onto my feminist radar for the week…
Germaine Greer was on Monday night's Q and A.
Germaine Greer! No one in my house was allowed to speak or move for the entire program, and it was worth it- she was amazing, articulate, hilarious and whilst she did cop some flak for criticising the size of Julia Gillard's bottom (see point 4), she also payed respect to Julia's leadership and ability to get a job done, something noticeably lacking in the commentaries of a certain Daily Telegraph columnist.
Feature from Simone de Beaver - Thursday, 22 March 2012 @ 3:30pm
Honestly, I think most of us will just be grateful when all this is over. I'm sure we've all learned more about Ashgrove than we ever needed to know, and I for one am sick of hearing the phrase 'tired 20 year old Labor Government'. I may well slap the next person who says it
Feature from Ivy Sircus - Thursday, 22 March 2012 @ 2:18pm
The other day I was in my car unusually early and caught the first part of drive-time radio. The show was doing a survey (of over 18 year old women) about whether or not they found it flattering or gross when they caught someone perving at them. Every single woman who I heard call in said something about context but the show clearly didn’t care about context (or content of what women said, really) and instead boiled all their callers’ comments down to “they find it flattering.” In fact, they closed the section with ringing bells and a call to all men to feel free to perve as “100% of callers find it flattering.”
Feature from Jessica Barlow - Thursday, 15 March 2012 @ 1:42pm
As a young woman in Australia today, I am frustrated. I am frustrated because I live in a culture that has ripped away the enjoyment of being female, destroyed self-esteem and created so much competition among women. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that I hate Aussie culture – I'm saying that I hate western culture and every constraint it forces upon the females bound by it.
Feature from EJ Cook - Tuesday, 06 March 2012 @ 1:25pm
In my previous life working in IT and hanging out with geeks, I often had to put up with sexist remarks or behaviour. At the time, I could never think of a suitable reply. I was either too intimidated, or jaw-droppingly surprised that real people actually say such stupid things to women.
So here’s what I wish I’d said to things that people really have said to me at work in the past. If ever I hear those sexist remarks again, I’ll have a reply ready!
Feature from Ivy Sircus - Friday, 02 March 2012 @ 3:44pm
Around the world, nearly 1,000 women die in childbirth or from pregnancy related causes every day. So how, in a world where so many people are vulnerable, chronically poor, and unable to access health services can we improve the outcomes for women and their children?
Feature from Bronwyn Batten - Tuesday, 28 February 2012 @ 9:56am
Publicly available literature about sex and pregnancy discrimination in NSW promotes a glossy picture. It is illegal: end of problem. The ADB fact sheet states that sex discrimination is against the law:
· in employment - when you apply for a job or for a licence or registration to perform a job, when you are at work, or when you leave a job;
· when you get or try to get most types of goods or services - for example, from shops, banks, lawyers, government departments, the police, public transport, local councils, doctors, hospitals and other
Feature from Ms Equality - Monday, 27 February 2012 @ 1:52pm
“If I/she was a man you wouldn’t be asking or saying that”.
If I had a dollar for each time I heard that statement these days I would be very rich by now. No woman should be apologising for rising to the top or for not having a nurturing motherly attitude. However just saying, “If she was a man they wouldn’t be saying that”, is not good enough either.
Feature from Simone de Beaver - Thursday, 23 February 2012 @ 9:22am
I don’t normally ‘do’ Valentines Day. It just seems to me a bit overblown, commercialised, what have you – although I do really love hearing the delight in other people’s voices when they get flowers or chocolates or a beautiful poem or just an ‘hey, I love you. Thanks for being rad’ message from a friend or a lover. But this year I’m writing this post: in honour of the awesomely amazing and feministy men I know. Happy Valentines.
Feature from Monkey Girl - Monday, 20 February 2012 @ 12:02pm
What is woman?
Is woman what I see every day plastered on billboards and television screens?
Is she the body the world demeans
Through constant propagation of idealized and objectified images of skin?
Is woman defined by her butt size, her cup size?
Every organ of her body romanticised,
Or are these lies?
Feature from EJ Cook - Monday, 13 February 2012 @ 10:55am
When I talk about feminism with other women, there are two main reasons why they say don't identify with the movement. The first is that my idea of feminism - women who want equality and respect - is not their idea of feminism - hairy-legged man-haters. This is easy to combat: I show them my silky smooth legs and talk about how hot Ryan Gosling is, and then continue talking about the importance of equal pay. The second idea is harder to combat: that feminism is not for conservative women. Being a woman who makes conservative life choices doesn't make it any easier to explain why I am a feminist.
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