I felt I was there to fulfil his needs: girls speak out about sexual pressure
MTR column Sunday Molly, 16, (at their request, only first names are used) was asleep in the home of a friend after a party a year ago when a boy snuck into the room. The schoolgirl from regional NSW says she felt powerless. ”I felt threatened. I guess I knew he wasn’t going to take […]
Nakedness Isn’t Activism: Here’s Why
Just read this on Exiled Stardust. Had to share it with you. And also this morning, I had to explain to someone why stripping and nudity aren’t actually acts of feminist defiance, but the same old male appeasement in a shiny new package. There’s always some group of so-called feminists trying to get away with this. It doesn’t […]
‘You will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped’: Sinead O’Connor tells Miley Cyrus
Miley recently cited Irish singer Sinead O’Connor as an influence for her Wrecking Ball video. O’Connor begged to differ. Here’s what she wrote in an open letter on her website: Dear Miley, I wasn’t going to write this letter, but today i’ve been dodging phone calls from various newspapers who wished me to remark […]
MTR and Dr Emma Rush discuss sexualisation of children on ABC Nightline
Dr Emma Rush and I were guests on the ABC Nightline program hosted by Tony Delroy last night. You can listen here: abctonydelroy
Women degraded and used as commodities: the terrible impacts of the objectification of women
‘In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms, the collective message that our young women and men overwhelmingly receive is that a woman’s value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality’ By Ori Golan It’s on billboards, in newspapers and magazines; it proliferates on television and social networks. […]
‘When we have sentencing that allows men like Dinsley and Bayley to walk free, we have sentencing that is broken’: support stronger rape sentencing
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Tracy could not have been Wendy or Jill, but she could have been any other woman in prostitution
Prostituted women are the ones at the coalface of the misogyny and pornography-fuelled attitudes Caroline Norma Commentators this week have been falling over themselves to decry the ‘hypocritical’ public quiet over the murder of St Kilda prostituted woman ‘Tracy’, compared to the attention Jill Meagher’s death attracted last year. Wendy Squires wrote that, even though […]
Threatened and objectified: schoolgirls receive flood of abuse from boys for launching feminist group
‘I hadn’t anticipated the massive backlash from the boys’ … I started to notice how much the girls at my school suffer because of the pressures associated with our gender. Many of the girls have eating disorders, some have had peers heavily pressure them into sexual acts, others suffer in emotionally abusive relationships where they are […]
Surfer Cori Schumacher: Who is losing when sex is sold?
‘Roxy and the “sex sells” agenda of surf corporations a la Big Surfing are completely disconnected from what we know surfing to be about: freedom. We don’t want what you are selling’ When writing my column on the objectification of women in sport, I came across the writings of American surfer and Women’s World Longboard […]
The ugly truth is rules are different for girls in sport
My first column with Fairfax As a teenage girl growing up in country Victoria, I was an avid reader of The Age. It inspired in me a passion for journalism. I did work experience on the local paper and went on to study journalism at RMIT. I scored a cadetship and began my life as […]
Tax office admits it gave ‘unacceptable’ response to MTR complaint re sexist tweet
Apologies for the way I was treated and undertakings to improve It wasn’t easy doing this. But now the Australian Public Service Commission and the Australian Tax Office is on the record on oath saying that policy and practice will change for the better. This is how the ABC reported it: The head of the […]
Girlfriend trifecta: three positive reviews and big ticks for global perspective in May issue
My last two reviews (‘Excellent advice on helping a friend with an eating disorder and dealing with stalking’, ‘Pressures to sext and give oral sex’) have been almost entirely positive. That’s pretty unusual. The May issue makes this a trifecta. Whenever I pick up the latest issue of teen girl mags, I hope to find […]