Confidence is widely considered an excellent quality. It’s associated with communication skills, social suavity, and success. Studies even show that people possessing strong self-confidence earn more money than their less confident counterparts. Is it any surprise, therefore, that capitalist Western culture in particular places such emphasis on self-esteem? Self-help culture has grown from the notion…
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Chris Lilley’s mockumentaries always tread a fine line. The comedy television shows that he writes and stars in parody stereotypical Australian identities. Some argue that in doing so, they entrench discriminatory stereotypes. Yet, Lilley’s nonchalance for taking the piss out of, well, everyone, allows him to perform a social critique more explicit and engaging than…
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As a movement, and speaking in very general terms, feminism has been guilty of marginalising the voices of other people. While it has been rejected on ignorant grounds which rely on stereotypes (feminists are hairy, scary people who hate men and burn undergarments), it has also been quite fairly rejected on the grounds that it…
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