While the second wave feminist movement made considerable achievements for women in the second half of the 20th century, a tension arose in the late 1970s, which caused feminism to split into two: radical and liberal feminism. In the late 1970s and 1980s particularly, radical and liberal feminist groups took part in a number of…
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High expectations are dangerous. Too often it means something you’d been looking forward to, or stood in the line for hours (and paid a small fortune) for, falls hopelessly short. Thankfully the same cannot be said for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and its famous heroine Katniss Everdeen – the series has already called out…
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On 21 November, Michelle Cottle of Politico magazine wrote a story titled ‘Leaning Out – How Michelle Obama became a feminist nightmare,’ which has sparked some pertinent questions: Is the American first lady a feminist, or not? Is she a feminist icon? Well, according to Cottle, her very recent move to become an ambassador for…
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Last week the Nobel Prize winning author, Doris Lessing died aged 94. During her career that spanned over 70 years, she was awarded a “royal flush” of major literary awards for her 60+ published works, ranging from science-fiction novels, to poetry, to memoirs of her childhood in Africa. The Nobel Prize committee dubbed her ‘that…
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After months of campaigning and debates, Tasmania is set to become the third Australian state to decriminalise abortion. The Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2013 has passed the Legislative Council, in amended form, after extensive late night debates. The bill passed this afternoon with nine votes in favour and five against. The Reproductive Health…
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When Elle announced their campaign to “rebrand” feminism, it was met with mixed feelings. Many expressed gratification and pleasant surprise that such a high-profile magazine should deign to take notice of a little old campaign for gender equality like feminism, taking the view that the only thing better than publicity is free publicity on a…
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Last week, pop singer Lily Allen posted online a music video of her latest song ‘Hard Out Here.’ Within two days, video received over 2 million hits on YouTube and consequently, a whirlwind of articles, tweets and ‘WTF?’ exasperations have been voiced from fans and haters all over the globe. The premise is that Allen…
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This week, Lily Allen released her latest song, Hard Out Here, and it’s really got everyone talking. Not only is it a scathing criticism of objectification and misogyny in popular culture, but it’s also a feminist pop anthem that totally blows Britney’s Work Bitch out of the water. In keeping with Allen’s signature lyrical candour,…
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Joss Whedon, noted creator of great television classics Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and other fairly forgettable ones – 2009’s cancelled Dollhouse, has declared the word ‘feminist’ is in need of a makeover. In his speech at a benefit dinner for non-government organisation Equality Now, Whedon took the opportunity to make the argument that…
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Most recently for Lipmag, I wrote about an upcoming television drama based upon Kerry Anne Walsh’s The Stalking of Julia Gillard, which will star Australian actress extraordinaire Rachel Griffiths as the former Prime Minister. Based on this adaptation, we can assume that this drama will be a sympathetic portrait of Gillard, both in terms of…
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Marvel, the US comic book giant behind Spiderman, The Hulk and Captain America, are bringing back 1960s heroine, Ms Marvel. But rather than the tall, blonde air force officer, her new persona will be a 16-year-old Muslim girl from New Jersey. Ms Marvel’s new alter ego, Kamala Khan, is a high school student living with…
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Cinemas in Sweden are introducing a classification system similar to age of audience test to determine gender representation and equality in films. If a movie passes the Bechdel Test, it would get an A grade; similar to if the film had no violence, nudity or coarse language it would get a G rating. The Bechdel…
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A Kuwaiti woman was arrested in Saudi Arabia earlier this week for driving her diabetic father to a hospital. The latest incident comes just days after more than 60 women filmed themselves driving and posted the videos online in protest against the country’s ban against women driving without being accompanied by a male companion. Although…
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Ah, patriarchy. There’s no greater evidence that it’s a man’s world (or was a man’s world) than when we read the pages of a history book. The inherently male bias runs through most records of the centuries, because money and power lay solely at the hands of men (read this for an excellent explanation). Herstory…
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