The literary journal The Lifted Brow was recently accused of gender discrimination because their sixteenth edition published eighteen men compared with fourteen women. On their Facebook page, The Brow wrote: ‘Are we doing publishing wrong?’ The status received over thirty comments in a matter of hours. Responses ranged from ‘what a joke’ to longer, more…
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It is rare for a discussion on feminism these days to consist of only female voices. More and more men are taking up the cause of gender equality and discussing women’s issues. However there still seems to be a bit of controversy whenever a man claims to be a feminist. When I tell people I…
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By now you’ve probably heard of Julie Burchill’s column and the subsequent outrage it provoked. The piece, which was published in print and online, attracted more than 2000 comments before it was removed from The Guardian’s website. In essence, Burchill—a freelance writer and feminist—outright attacked transgender people in her article ‘Transsexuals should just cut it…
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Christopher Bantick’s opinion piece ‘Sex with a child is not the stuff of the school curriculum’ has caused quite a bit of controversy. The article was penned last week and suggests that Gabriel Marquez’s novel Love in the Time of Cholera is ‘offensive because it says repeatedly that screwing … a child for art’s sake’…
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A few weeks ago a lovely character by the name of Andybob left a series of comments on my article about Tracey Spicer and misogynists. He accused me of insinuating that misogynists are gay because I offered them ‘lavender-scented tissues’. It goes without saying, but we’re no longer living in the 1960s. Saying ‘lavender’ instead…
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RMIT lecturer Steve Kates wrote an opinion piece for the Quadrant blog last week called ‘The 47% majority’. Kates blamed Obama’s re-election on the ‘cohort of damaged women’ and ‘social sciences know-nothings’. ‘Re-electing Obama has endangered our way of life and may even make it unsustainable,’ he wrote. ‘We are in dangerous times.’ What is…
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I almost feel sorry for today’s misogynists. They’ve taken quite the beating lately (from our Prime Minister and from the public). If this goes on I might find it within my heart to lend them a box of tissues. Lavender scented, of course. Recently, journalist Tracey Spicer wrote an open letter to misogynists. In the…
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Earlier this week I attended the launch of The Peach, an online magazine that is all about acceptance, inclusiveness and telling it like it is. The magazine is written by women for women and its content ranges from articles on contemporary issues to more traditional areas such as beauty and fashion. Considering the recent issues…
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I was leaving a lecture last semester when someone in my class struck up a conversation with me. ‘So where’s all the girls you normally hang around?’ he asked. I was taken aback by the casualness of the comment and how the speaker seemed to insinuate something else. ‘You mean my friends?’ I said, emphasising…
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Recently a group of friends and I went to Melbourne Central’s Asian Beer Cafe. After a few drinks I made my way to the bathroom as one tends to do after consuming a few ciders. What I found made me pause. On the urinal there were three manga girls. And they weren’t wearing much in…
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