ON Bookworld’s website, you can find My first cupcake decorating book, Children’s book of art and Children’s book of mythical beasts. But until recently, other beasts lurked among the titles hosted by the online book seller, the rebranded version of Borders. Hundreds of titles appeared under the heading, Incest, titles far too explicit, not to […]
Primed to accept brutality as normal in romantic relationships It’s not enough that classic works of literature like Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights are to be given a 50 Shades of Grey makeover (read how Catherine Earnshaw enjoys bondage sessions with Heathcliff!). Or that there are 50 Shades of Grey mother and […]
Doing good instead of bingeing is all class: MTR in Sunday Herald Sun Scarlett* (she asked me not to use her real name) from Victoria, wrote to me about her experience of Schoolies. While on schoolies I heard numerous stories of girls I go to school with having sex in club toilets with complete strangers […]
Sober reality of young lives ruined by drink EVERY weekend the group of 13 and 14-year-old girls got together and played a game. They’d stand in a circle and drink straight spirits. The girl who remained standing the longest, won. Some needed their stomachs pumped afterwards. The doctors who told me about treating girls like […]
Friday 19 October, 2012 • 9am-5pm: Sydney NSW Parliament House, 6 Macquarie Street, Sydney The erosion of childhood is becoming a social and cultural trend of great concern to child development experts as well as the broader community. Commercialisation, sexualisation, body image dissatisfaction and over exposure to violent imagery are some of the key factors. […]
‘Is it possible the DSM could become the book of appeasement, refuting questions of morality and legal culpability with regard to child abuse and exploitation?’ Last week Salon ran a comment piece by Tracy Clark-Flory which opened: We usually hear pedophilia talked about in terms of mental illness – if not evil – but Aug. 17 […]
THE ACTIVIST MELINDA TANKARD REIST When Lady Gaga toured here last year with Monster Ball, young girls were treated to a video clip of the star being vomited on and greedily eating something akin to a human heart. Her face and body were covered in blood. The same girls saw highly sexualised and porn-themed dance […]
See this t.shirt? Where do you think we found it? Some niche not well known store specializing in glamourised violence against women motifs for a specialist market into that kind of thing? For order in a surf magazine marketing women in sexually submissive poses to boys? Perhaps through a more risqué on-line t.shirt seller who […]
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. […]
PETA deserves contempt for exploiting women, writes MELINDA TANKARD REIST PETA needs to be renamed. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals would more accurately be described as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals But Not Women. While the group calling itself the world’s largest animal-rights lobby protests loudly and sometimes violently against the […]
New song by Delta’s man feeds rape myth Can someone please tell Brian McFadden that ‘taking advantage’ of a woman when she’s drunk is sexual assault and against the law? Because he seems to have missed the announcement. The Irish singer-songwriter and ‘honorary’ Australian on account of his four-year engagement to songstress Delta Goodrem, McFadden […]
Nina Funnell, who I’m happy to say is become a regular contributor here on the MTR blog, has written a thoughtful analysis of the dead-women-are-sexy Monster video clip soon to be officially released by rapper Kanye West. It has been encouraging to see the issue attracting global coverage. Here’s Nina’s piece. Sex, death and Kanye […]
