TW: sexual assault and harassment, gendered violence, misogyny, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, ableism Here’s a round up of feminist news in 2015. A lot of it was awful – violence against women continuing unchallenged, male privilege going unchecked and feminist initiatives that continue to exclude women of colour, queer women, women with disabilities and trans…
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2015 was the year Australians weren’t quite sure who their Prime Minister was. As of this year, ‘Netflix and Chill’ has officially been around long enough to be embarrassingly misused by big brands and your clueless uncle alike. And 2015 has brought hashtag activism into its own, with everything and everyone having their own Twitter…
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Spike Lee has come up with a solution to America’s college rape epidemic – or so he thinks. The film director recently spoke with Stephen Colbert, and argued that ending sexual assault begins with women denying men sex, stating, ‘I think a sex strike could really work on college campuses where there’s an abundance of…
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Every day in Australia, police face 657 cases of violence against women. Every week, 2 women are murdered, often by somebody they know. While watching Hitting Home, Sarah Ferguson’s new documentary on Australian domestic violence, my friend wonders aloud, ‘Has it always been this bad?’ I answer: ‘Yes.’ It’s just that this year, we’re paying…
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The Turnbull Government has made it clear that ‘all options are on the table’ when it comes to tax reform. With a constant re-assurance that fairness is the most important element, is this really achievable? There has been recent media hype surrounding the proposal by South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill, regarding his proposal to…
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I was having dinner in a cosy, welcoming pub with my family when a loud voice, belonging to the burly man seated behind us, interrupted our conversation. He was with a young couple, aged about 30, and their two young boys who had long hair and looked around the ages of eight and six. Each…
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Tonight at the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne, ActionAid, a Sydney based international development organisation that empowers women who are living in poverty across the globe, is hosting Frocking Hilarious – an all-women comedy fundraiser. I spoke with ActionAid’s Media and Public Relations Officer Anna Fraser about the event and about the important work that ActionAid does for…
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It’s time for Marvel to stop erasing their strong, intelligent and brilliant female superheroes from the Cinematic Universe. In 2016, two Marvel movies are set to be released and yet again, neither of these movies will have a female protagonist. This is a repetition of why the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been continually criticised by…
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Last week, tech magazine Wired announced that the current issue of the magazine would be guest edited by Serena Williams. Undoubtedly one of the greatest athletes of our time, Williams mentioned the significance of the Rooney rule in the NFL, which requires the league to interview minority candidates for senior positions. She also notes that…
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Following the Sony hack and an essay written by Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper recently announced that he would be sharing his salary information with his female co-stars to help ensure pay equality. The Sony hack revealed massive pay disparities between male and female leads in Hollywood. These disparities led many actors and actresses to speak…
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Emily Lindin founded The UnSlut Project in 2013 after American teenager, Rehtaeh Parsons, committed suicide. She had been gang raped and consequently labelled a “slut” by her classmates. Emily decided to publish her own diary entries dealing with sexual shaming in high school as a blog to provide some perspective for other young girls experiencing…
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An official investigation into gender discrimination in Hollywood could be the first step in a class action lawsuit against major Hollywood studios. Fifty female directors have been asked by The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to detail any mistreatment they may have experienced in relation to their work. The investigation is in response to a formal…
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October is breast cancer awareness month, which means that everything from street posts to hair products to storefront windows are decked in pink. Women and men don ‘save the tatas’ t-shirts and wristbands, all in the name of breast cancer awareness. We are aware of breast cancer as a disease but we are unaware of…
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Beloved friend of curious fourteen year olds and misogynistic chauvinists alike, we bid a snivelling farewell to Zoo Weekly. Zoo’s decline was a slow and agonising one, suffering first from a terrible case of plummeting sales numbers. The magazine’s publisher, Bauer Media Group, attempted to treat the immediate symptoms by removing it from the ABC…
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