There are many aspects of London Road that are just plain weird. This musical-turned-film is based on the true events surrounding the serial murders of five female sex workers in 2006 by Steve Wright, taking interviews about the crimes verbatim and turning them into snazzy show-tunes. But perhaps what is most unique about London Road…
Read more
When I was sixteen years old, I was assaulted. I had attended the Williamstown High School formal. It was past midnight, and my friends and I were walking through a dimly lit street towards home. I was shocked and paralysed with fear as a bottle of Carlton Draught smashed against my bare back from the…
Read more
**TW: rape, violence** It’s been one year, one month and ten days. One year, one month and ten days later and I am not afraid of going to sleep anymore. Like a child, I was afraid of the dark. It’s fair to say that I haven’t really known myself in this time. I have been…
Read more
**Trigger warning: Discussion of violence and domestic violence** Dropping into a tackle in a game of social football a few weeks ago, I caught an accidental elbow to the eye. It was an unfortunate little accident that left me with a killer black eye and a fractured cheekbone. After about 10 days, the bruising faded…
Read more
Television personality Charlotte Dawson, whose death by suicide in late-February caused a wave of shock through the Australian public, is not the first person to fall victim to cyberbullying – and she probably won’t be the last. But it was her high-profile battle with online trolls and her subsequent death that brought the issue of…
Read more
I was riding through the park with my girlfriend on a recent warm summer evening. As we cycled down the path we approached a group of men. Upon passing the group, an object was thrown at my head. A water-filled balloon exploded on my face, followed by another, which hit my chest. We halted and…
Read more
I grew up in a tiny Far North Coast town called Alstonville, nestled back from the beach in the dark, lush greenness of macadamia country. When I was a teenager, I didn’t want country living. I wanted to be like the cool girls in school, and learn how to surf, and get my belly button…
Read more
As a survivor of many sorts, I appreciate the newly popular use of “trigger warnings” – warnings appearing before an article/forum/email to let the reader/listener know the context may cause strong emotions or fear. These are often used surrounding discussions of rape, violence against women, fat-phobia, and many forms of violence systematically engrained into personal…
Read more
ag·gres·sion (-grshn) n. 1. The act of initiating hostilities or invasion. 2. The practice or habit of launching attacks. 3. Hostile or destructive behaviour or actions. 4. Probably gendered, but the jury’s out. * ‘Throughout my life, aggression has never been something I have deemed acceptable. As a child I was extremely quiet and timid….
Read more
In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, an anti-Hillary Clinton group called The Hillary Project has featured on its website a game in which people are encouraged to deliver a virtual slap across the face to an animated image of Hillary Clinton. Alongside another game called Dancing Hillary, SlapHillary allows the user to…
Read more
When I first hear about the Gulabi Gang in India, my initial feeling was exultation. Being from an Indian background myself, I’m used to the inherent and pervasive issues of sexism and misogyny that seep through almost every aspect of Indian culture. I had never before seen Indian women taking action against sexism though –…
Read more
While Australians debate the country’s leadership, women overseas continue to suffer brutal attacks over things we take for granted. Less than a week ago, an 18-year-old Pakistani woman was attacked in her home. The actress, known as Bushra, suffered burns to her face and shoulder. ‘A man climbed the wall of our house in…
Read more
A World Health Organisation study has shown that thirty percent of women worldwide are victims of domestic violence. The report also found that forty percent of women killed worldwide were slain by an intimate partner. The head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, called it ‘a global health problem of epidemic proportions.’…
Read more
If no means no and yes means yes, then what about all the tricky little nuances of intimacy that aren’t vocalised? With little discussion on how to communicate consent in wider Australian society, people are attending consent workshops to learn how to say yes, no, maybe and use other methods to assert themselves in their…
Read more
