Immigration Minister: revoke pimp rapper Snoop Dogg’s visa

Self confessed pimp Snoop Dogg to tour Australia in 2014 As published on Collective Shout A petition has been launched on Change.org calling for the Minister for Immigration Scott Morrison to revoke the visa of US rapper and self-confessed pimp Snoop Dogg aka Snoop Lion aka Calvin Broadus. Snoop Dogg’s lyrics glorify violence against women. […]

We must follow France and put an end to exploitation

If Tracy Connelly were alive today and living in France, it’s possible she might have found a way out of prostitution. She would have at least known that the society she lived in cared enough to want to help her out. But Tracy lived in Australia and was murdered on July 21, by a man […]

‘I have lost count of how many women have told me they have been raped. All of the rapists have gotten away with it while the women are burdened with years of unspeakable shame and self-hatred’ –an explosive new manifesto against rape culture

‘Misogyny Reloaded’ by Abigail Bray In 2011 Dr Abigail Bray, a researcher and writer now living in the South of France, joined with me in co-editing Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry published in 2011 by Spinifex Press. Spinifex has just released Abigail’s new book Misogyny Reloaded . This is an extract […]

We commend your government’s determination to confront the harms of pornography: Letter of support to Iceland Government

Dear Mr. Jónasson, We are writing to express our support for current efforts in Iceland to develop and implement legal limits on violent Internet pornography. As scholars, medical and public health professionals, social service providers, and community activists, we commend your government’s determination to confront the harms of pornography. As part of a comprehensive approach […]

MTR interviewed on The F Word about Big P*rn Inc

Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global porn industry (Spinifex Press, edited by Dr Abigail Bray and me) is now appearing on bookstore shelves in the UK and North America. Host and producer of The F Word radio show and the executive editor of feminisms.org, Meghan Murphy interviewed me recently. It was good […]

Confronting the Australian politics of resignation on prostitution

ACT committee misses opportunity to address harms: ‘normalises prostitution, cuts back on regulation, waters down health safeguards’ Caroline Norma The chair of a committee appointed to review the ACT’s Prostitution Act took the significant step last week of attaching a 9-page appendix to the committee’s final report outlining her ‘dissent’ to its findings. In this […]

A few good men: Matthew Holloway speaks out against trade in women’s bodies

A young man taking the lead Now and then I stumble on a brave man passionate about the issues taken up here on the MTR blog. Recently I’ve made the acquaintance of  Matthew Holloway. Only 26, Matthew’s written some compelling pieces in recent months on pornography, prostitution and rape-permission giving in men’s magazines. I thought […]

Klein and Hawthorne on feminism and MTR

By Renate Klein and  Susan Hawthorne Since the publication of Rachael Hills’s article “Who’s Afraid of Melinda Tankard Reist” (and see her reflections two weeks later) at least ten on-line and print media articles have joined in a public dissection and commentary along the lines of, “she’s a conservative religious fundamentalist” and “she’s pro-life and […]

Remembering Puangthong Simaplee: a life prostituted and ended at 27

What passing bells for those who die as cattle? By Dr Helen Pringle Ten years ago, Puangthong Simaplee died at the age of 27. She had been picked up in a police raid on a Surry Hills brothel on 23 September 2001, and was sent to Villawood Detention Centre. Three days later, she died in […]

Where is a young girl to find justice when her abusers walk free?

Former MP guilty of sex offences receives suspended sentence Today I am thinking about a 15-year-old Tasmanian girl and what she thinks of the Australian justice system. I’m wondering if she is questioning if it was worth taking her harrowing ordeal to the courts to find no justice at the end of the process. At […]