Sometimes I wonder if my grandmother really existed or if I made her up in my head. All I have are constructed and reconstructed memories of a mythical woman and her illness and the inter-generational impact of her life. My grandmother’s photographs hang in my mother’s bedroom. Ten photographs of different sizes; some in colour,…
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In stark contrast to the stern Che Guevara, the symbol of Palestinian resistance is of a young woman knowingly smiling as she confidently grasps her semi-automatic. Leila Khaled was the world’s first female hijacker, and whether or not you believe that all is fair in love and war, her presence is artistically graffitied on the…
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It’s become something of a cliché to say that television has never been better. Whether that’s just the natural progression of production and arts or a sudden spell of great stories and storytelling (or both) is subjective. I’d argue that what everyone is reacting to are the incremental steps toward diversity, to the voices of…
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If you’re in Melbourne and looking for something to get you over hump day this week, you’re in luck. At Donkey Wheel House at 6:30pm this Wednesday, you can enjoy nibbles, drinks and live Triple j unearthed acts, all while supporting the launch of a local and inspiring project. Cassidy Dewar is the founder of…
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Girlfriend magazine won the government’s Positive Body Image award for Media and Entertainment in 2012 for their efforts in portraying images of young women that are inspirational and truthful. In a world where young women are still constantly receiving an influx of negative images of bodies such as super skinny fashion models and skin perfected…
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[WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the film Gone Girl. Read on at your own risk. -Editor] Female villains in film, if well executed, make for interesting, complex and credible characters. As audiences, we do not see enough of them. Recently, a film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel Gone Girl was released in theatres…
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Last week, monolith companies Facebook and Apple both announced that they would pay female staffers a whopping $20,000 to freeze their eggs. Egg freezing is fast becoming a popular way to delay child bearing, as it allows women to have a baby later on in life with eggs that are “younger”, therefore lowering the risk…
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Scott & Bailey is like any other good British crime show. It has gripping and often disturbing storylines, workplace banter and plenty of trips to the pub after work. But in one particular way, the show stands out: its two title characters are women, working under the leadership of a female boss in the Manchester…
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Scarlett Johansson recently appeared as a sexy space thang in the Jonathan Glazer-helmed Under The Skin (2013), a film that my housemate denounced as a ‘goddamn rip-off of Species (1995).’ Feminist critics have been similarly quick to deride it as male fantasy fulfilment posing as art, where one can imagine being boinked to death by a…
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Usually when we hear about sex scandals, our minds may think of sports players, music stars and private schools; not self-made celebrities on YouTube. Yet as more allegations of abuse come to light, and the amount of content being made demoralising women increases, it is important that we have an open conversation. This story has…
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This week (5 – 10 October) is Mental Health Week in Australia. You can find various events happening around Oz by checking out websites such as this one for Victoria, and this one for Western Australia. This is in support of world Mental Health Day, which takes place on 10 October every year. For…
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When my friends warned me about the overt sexist comments many young women experience while walking on the streets in some European countries, I wasn’t sure what to think of it. Naively, I laughed, dismissing the issue by claiming I would have some devious feminist comeback if any man was to pester me. This attitude,…
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Last week shocking and shameful statistics emerged from a survey conducted by VicHealth. The results showed that one in five Australians believe that if a woman is raped while drunk or under the influence of drugs, she is partly to blame. One in Five. Duck, duck, duck, duck… Goose. Although the majority of those 17,500…
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At Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas last weekend, the question was asked: is surrogacy child trafficking? Swedish journalist Kajsa Ekis Ekman thinks so. She argues that surrogacy is a form of female oppression based on sex and reproduction, regardless of whether it’s for commercial or altruistic reasons, as it requires women to renounce their interests…
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