Last week I was one of 12 panelists on the ABC2 program ‘Australians on Porn’. I’d had my hesitations about participating, the producers assured me of fair treatment and a serious discussion how porn was shaping sexual attitudes and behaviours. What transpired was a wank fest and sex industry promotion. We saw and heard from […]
Re-branding exploitation as choice “The realisation that on issues related to poverty and sexual exploitation, there is no solidarity from Australian feminists… “…I had wrongly assumed that those leading the charge against sexism would examine how ethnocentrism […]
Maybe next time there could be an exhibition for survivors like me? By Donna* Last month a new exhibition – X-Rated; the sex industry in the ACT – opened at the Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG). The exhibition is funded by the ACT Government and the Interchange General Practice. It is of particular interest […]
Feminism is a movement not a self-help book On Wednesday at Readings bookstore in Carlton, Melbourne, I’ll be emceeing the launch and Q&A for Freedom Fallacy: The Limits of Liberal Feminism (Connor Court publishing) a collected of 20 authors edited by writer and law tutor Miranda Kiraly and writer and RMIT research fellow Meagan Tyler. […]
‘Many women are reasserting that feminism is a necessary social movement for the equality and liberation of all women, not just platitudes about choices for some’ Editor, writer and law tutor Miranda Kiraly and writer and RMIT research fellow Meagan Tyler, have a new and timely book out. It’s called Freedom Fallacy: The Limits of […]
How come the sex industry never has anything to say about the johns and punters – the kind of men, for example, who share their ratings of women with other men in the way you might recommend a meal or place to stay? While they continue to roll out selected prostituted women as human shields* […]
Pathologizing disagreement is an intellectually dishonest way to cope with challenging arguments. The MTR blog is fast becoming something of a shrine to the work of prolific and award winning blogger Meghan Murphy. Here’s her latest, from Canada’s Globe and Mail. Meghan Murphy is a Vancouver writer and journalist and founder of the website Feminist Current. […]
I wrote earlier how the sex industry went into overdrive over some fair questioning on ABC Lateline last week. The industry’s meltdown over the program demonstrated how hostile it is to any light being shed on the realities of the business of sexploitation which profits from the bodies of women. This blog post exposes the facts […]
Are you a good feminist? Bad feminist? Is it really about you? Laura McNally Today the downturn of women’s rights is smacking us upside the face. Femicide is reaching such epidemic proportions that nations like Brazil are introducing special legislation against it. Australia’s rate of sexual violence has jumped 20% in a year, statistics […]
The sex industry’s reaction to even mild questioning of its position demonstrates how any discussion about prostitution is shut down in Australia. When an industry is used to having its way day after day and rarely being called to account, it’s a rare moment when a serious national current affairs program such as ABC’s Lateline […]
By Nicole In Grand Theft Auto V, an R-rated video game that allows players to attack and kill women in the sex trade, I would have been the character who gets left by the sidewalk, bleeding and unconscious. Or hit with bats, run down, set alight still screaming and graphically murdered – for game […]
How pro GTAV gamers cyber mobs try to shut us down (Trigger warning) This is just a sample of the vicious messages activists received yesterday following the announcement by Target Australia and then Kmart, that they would no longer stock GTAV. As well (I can’t show the image, it is too distressing), the face of one […]
