Can anybody be a feminist? The Feminist Collective at McGill University’s Faculty of Law made it clear that yes, anybody can be a feminist as long as they believe in gender equality. The Feminist Collective campaign sought to reclaim the idea that anyone can be a feminist no matter their gender, religion, sexuality, ethnicity or…
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Maybe it’s because a lack female leadership in the workplace is still a major problem in Australia, maybe it’s because our first female prime minister was removed amid some mean-arsed gender debates. Perhaps it’s because it’s disheartening that our current government employs one woman in its Cabinet, but my psyche has become plagued with the…
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Olive Bowers has a very impressive family tree – her mother is Alice Garner, actor, writer and academic, and her grandmother is Helen Garner, one of Australia’s best known and most celebrated writers. Now, thirteen year old Bowers is making her own mark as an impressive role model for girls her age by writing an…
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‘Lesbians! They’re everywhere!’ – (style.com) Style’s newest article, ‘Is lesbian chic here to stay?‘ manages to throw all logic out the window as they introduce the idea that it is not what you’re wearing that’s in style this season – it’s your sexuality. The concept of lesbian chic has been thrown around on online fashion…
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“Body image” is arguably the biggest issue affecting today’s society. Anorexia, bulimia and obesity are all eating disorders and eating disorders do not discriminate. It doesn’t care if you are female or male, thin or fat and, most importantly, what age you are , which is what a young girl in the UK found out….
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The university degree of gender studies has long been associated with the stereotype of man-hating feminists picketing wildly over unequal opportunity and sexist politicians. However, what many people fail to realise is that gender studies is built upon a structured discipline that equips students, both male and female, with an understanding of political science, history,…
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It’s possible that no toy has been subjected so consistently to feminist criticisms as Mattel’s Barbie Doll. As a kid, I heard many of them from my mother. I heard how that ‘if Barbies were real women, they would be nine feet tall.’ ‘Look at their feet, they’re not at all like real people’s.’ ‘No one’s…
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Last week, freelance writer, Eleanor Robertson live-tweeted her disgruntled responses to Mia Freedman’s 2009 memoir Mama Mia: a Memoir of Mistakes, Magazines and Motherhood and, naturally, a Twitter shit storm ensued. Freedman’s loyal readers jumped to her defense, shouting (as much as one can shout through Twitter) that Robertson’s criticisms were ‘mean’ and that she…
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Another day, another pro-life, male, politician who probably wouldn’t know a vagina from a tree hollow, let alone what actually goes on inside the walls of an abortion clinic. Bernie Finn’s comments regarding abortion as unacceptable under any circumstance and rape related abortions being akin to being raped for a ‘second time’ were neither new…
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It is now the third week of the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius in Pretoria, South Africa. There is a daily update worldwide on what has happened during the day in the courtroom as the trial progresses, with seemingly new and disturbing information brought with the update. The trial has so far seen reconstructions of…
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For a while, her name and picture were everywhere. In Nova Scotia, literally, on papers covering the province. Loretta Saunders, a 26-year-old criminology student disappeared on 13 February. She was writing her Masters thesis on the hundreds of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. Saunders, originally from Labrador and studying at Saint Mary’s University…
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Where on earth did this garish tradition begin? Valentine’s Day: a superficial and commercial enterprise that should be written off as a ridiculous affair, or so they cry down the Old Cynic Road. Some of us simply don’t care for the day at all; it’s overrated and anti-climactic at best. I am a cynic of…
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For those who missed it, obscure Bondi burger restaurant “Goodtime Burger” skyrocketed to infamy last month after publishing an ad featuring a woman’s outer labia as the meat in a hamburger bun. The caption read: ‘The freshest fun between the buns’, and sparked outrage from the public, with voices criticising the ad as “sexist,” “unappetising,”…
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Judging by the think pieces, blogs and professional reviews of the last few months leading up to award season, 2013 was a good one for women in Hollywood. According to writers Versha Sharma and Hanna Sender of Voctiv, movies featuring ‘strong female roles’ earned more than twice as much than movies that didn’t. They used…
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