The Oscars, Seth and all in between The Oscars happened, and so did Family Guy creator Seth Macfarlane, as Lip has covered here and here. Macfarlane took to the stage to host the three hour show on Monday, managing to offend Jews, women and family audiences with humour that included barbed insults aimed at a…
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50 years of Friedan Betty Friedan’s seminal text The Feminine Mystique turns 50 this coming week. The text was credited with fueling much of the 60s American feminist movement (not to mention appearing as a cultural reference in every snappy teen film since – 10 Things I hate About You?) The anniversary prompted reflections on…
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Leigh Sales farewells Hillary Clinton The outgoing US Secretary of State has chatted with ABC journalist Leigh Sales about ending gender discrimination during a final interview in Washington DC. Sales was invited to moderate the ‘townterview’ event after leading a similar forum with Clinton in Melbourne. The event saw questions asked from participants around the…
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2012 was a bit of a feminist themed vocab lesson. From misogyny to discharge, Australians were schooled in words you just don’t say on telly. You may remember this Carefree campaign that Lip gave the thumbs up to last year for daring to discuss vaginal discharge and the normalcy of it in a TV commercial….
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Anti-Discrimination laws support churches The Federal Government’s draft Human Rights and Anti Discrimination Bill sees Australian religious institutions retain the right to discriminate against those they deem out of line with their values. This may include the right to refuse employment to gay and lesbians, single mothers, and those living out of wedlock. The bill…
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Fifty shades most loved book of 2012 The Fifty Shades trilogy has claimed the top three spots on the list of bestsellers in Australia for 2012. The first in the series, Fifty Shades of Grey, sold a reported 1.3 million copies on our shores in the last year, a definitive success for the series despite…
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Every morning, I get up at 4am to host a breakfast radio show. When I say I volunteer for such a thing, people recoil and repeat: ‘4am? The morningversion of four?’ on loop. But for all the early bedtimes, what I get in return is pretty swell: the chance to work with a group of…
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australia has a new favourite word Julia Gillard’s headline-grabbing speech this month has led to bickering over the definition of misogyny. Susan Butler, editor of the Australian Macquarie Dictionary, last week explained a decision to widen the official meaning of misogyny from ‘a hatred of women’ to include ‘an entrenched prejudice against women’. In the Federal…
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Families are shrinking and only children seem to be the new go-to for working women. Researchers at the Australian Workplace Innovation and Social Research Centre, out of the University of Adelaide, have reflected on the knowledge that the number of single children families have increased in the last two decades. In 1986, a reported 9%…
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Parliament sittings may be Australia’s least favourite afternoon programming, but Julia Gillard’s words in Federal Parliament today have made many search for the footage. This afternoon, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott moved a motion to have Peter Slipper removed as Speaker. The motion was brought by the Opposition Leader after developments in a sexual harassment case…
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Lip readers can relax – Tony Abbott watches Downton Abbey. Maybe you haven’t been kept awake at night worried about Opposition Leader Abbott’s commercial TV preferences or indeed his policies? Even so, it might be worth catching up on the defences that Abbott’s wife, Margie, has put up on his behalf in the last 12…
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A study in the latest issue of American Political Science Review has found that feminist movements have more influence on a nation’s responses to violence against women than any other factor. Feminist groups accounted for more change in public policy initiatives and attitudes than a country’s wealth, the number of women politicians or the influences…
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US Senator Todd Akin, who last month enlightened US citizens with his definitions of illegitimate rape, has been trying to recapture the affection of female voters in the state of Missouri. Akin has remained in the race for Missouri Senator despite the global fall out from his assertion that women raped ‘legitimately’ have a biological response…
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The latest cover of Vogue Hommes International is under fire after its lead image depicted actress and model Stephanie Seymour being choked from behind by a man. The photo, shot by controversial fashion photographer Terry Richardson, is another example of glamorous BDSM-inspired imagery to creep into the pages of ‘high fashion’ magazines. In the image,…
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