Women’s only spaces cop a lot of flack. Why do we need a women’s room on University campuses, people ask? Why do feminist groups hold women’s only meetings? One community with a strong tradition of women’s only spaces is student magazines. It this case, it’s not a meeting, or a special room. It’s an edition….
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As an aspiring Lady Writer (or as feminist writer, Inga Muscio, provocatively calls herself, a ‘Word C*nt’), I was intrigued by author, Maureen Johnson’s Twitter project for her followers to ‘Redesign book covers by Literary Dudes, imagining they have been reclassified as by and for women.’ Johnson’s project, ‘Coverflip,’ shows us how there is a…
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A Voice for Men (AVFM) is the most web-prominent set of men’s rights activists (MRAs) around. Browsing their website, one encounters a lot of statistics, factoids and other bits of evidence, all of which are deployed to make the case that feminism is an evil ideology, one that exerts an overwhelming influence in daily life…
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‘Nothing can be more absurd than the practice that prevails in our country, of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus the state, instead of being whole, is reduced to half.’ Well we know what Plato thought about feminist men — but that was…
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She struts onto the screen. Leather clutches her hourglass figure, squeezing her tight; her breasts billow out of her shirt. She seductively glances at the man before her. He is incapacitated by her fishnet stockings and whip, reduced to a drooling, drivelling, mess. She slinks towards him, strokes his cheek and melts him with the…
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I have recently been accepted into Monash University’s Cheerleading team; a sport that has leapt and tumbled into notoriety through the likes of Bring It On and Glee. Images of attractive women adorned by short skirts and tight midriff tops in block colours like red and black have probably entered your cheer-tastic brain as you…
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The struggle of women varies from one cultural context to the next and it’s often difficult for those outside to effectively assist their sisters in other parts of the world. It can be challenging to put together a culturally sensitive campaign that helps, rather than hinders the progress of women living in a different context…
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As we saw at the end of Mad Men season five (Spoiler alert!), the luxury car industry was especially sexist in the ‘60s. However, when it comes to gender and cars, not much has changed. Technology plays a significant role in our everyday lives today, as does our gender. In fact, the two are often…
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Over the last century, women’s rights movements in Western culture have led to a challenge of the patriarchy and in particular the religious patriarchal structures that have governed laws and cultural expectations for thousands of years. Mainstream Western religions – particularly Christianity and Judaism – have been criticised by feminists for both excluding women and…
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The topless, anti-patriarchy protests of Femen have brought up some fascinating issues for modern feminists to consider. On the one hand, there’s Femen’s point that women in Tunisia are second class citizens and that this should change. But the point that most English speaking, Western columnists have been making the last couple of weeks is…
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This week is Bluestocking Week, a week of festivities held to recognize and celebrate the participation and achievements of women in higher education. Much of the progress made by and for women in terms of access to a university education can be attributed to the birth of women’s studies in the late ‘60s-‘70s, which actively…
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On ANZAC day, it seems pertinent to point out that this is a tradition that exemplifies the masculine aspect of Australian culture and history. In high school, my sociology and psychology teacher enacted a social thought experiment, asking us to draw a picture of our conceptualisation of “A Quintessential Australian”. In a class of thirty…
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When Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard admonished opposition leader Tony Abbott in Parliament question time to ‘reflect’ upon his own misogyny and sexism, she was holding out a mirror to a society still plagued by the patriarchal customs it was predicated on. A sigh of relief and exaltation was breathed by feminists across the nation,…
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‘When I was asked to come and be a keynote speaker for the first conference held by Vocal Majority, an organisation that champions the rights of women, I thought: thank God you’re here, it’s about time.’ Thus spoke Anne Summers at the commencement of ‘Let’s Get Loud: Gender, Politics, ACTION’, the first conference held by…
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