Can we reclaim the word ‘slut’?
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. […]
Pussy Energy Drink: Sexism in a can
“Pussy is great by itself, but you know sharing with friends, it’s nice to experiment and I would recommend sharing pussy with friends…” Where did I find these quotes? Comments posted on a porn site? Men discussing their sexual preferences perhaps? No, they’re found in this promotion for an energy drink called Pussy. These words […]
Violence against women is endemic to our sick culture
As White Ribbon Day comes around again (Nov 25), I’m wondering what it actually does to address a culture that celebrates – indeed eroticises – violence against women. Sure, men buy white ribbons. They attend events where they eat sausages and swear not to hurt women. They raise money (none of which goes into services supporting […]
Should women walk away from the word ‘slut’?
Using slut as the flagship word for this new movement puts women in danger through giving men even more license to think about women in a way that suits them, and not as targets of violence and terrible social discrimination. The global phenomenon that is SlutWalk makes its Australian debut on Saturday in Melbourne, with […]
Hotel worker’s allegation of sexual assault is not Oh la la
A hotel worker’s allegations of sexual assault by IMF chief and possible French presidential candidate Dominique Strauss-Kahn are disturbing. But also disturbing is the way the case is being reported in some sections of the media. Strauss-Kahn has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a woman at his expensive hotel suite in New York. […]
I’ve got this other woman and the other woman is porn
Porn: the wrecking ball of authentic intimate relationships Came across this piece in the New York Magazine on the impact of pornography on male sexuality. It’s rare to see a man talk so honestly about how frequent on-line porn use impacts real world relationships. While of course the author appears to be writing from a purely […]
MTR in The Punch: women aren’t playthings, slaves and bitches
How convenient to caricature someone whose work you oppose by reducing them to a cartoon parody. Like I haven’t had enough Helen Lovejoy clichés to last a lifetime? Oh, and look, another media studies academic watching The Simpsons. Are we impressed yet? Where Stephen Harrington sees “a graphic critique of post-feminist female sexuality”, I see […]
How pornography hijacks our sexuality
Gail Dines and MTR on Phillip Adams Late Night Live Gail Dines, author of Pornland: How porn has hijacked out sexuality – just published in Australia by Spinifex Press- and I were guests on ABC RN Late Night Live last night (repeated this afternoon). We discussed the harms of the global porn industry with well […]