Visions of hell from Africa Two recent and deeply disturbing ABC Four Corners documentaries have me thinking about how much women suffer. About how common, even normalised, their suffering is, and how little is done to address it. Late last month, Four Corners broadcast the documentary ‘Heart of Darkness’ about the systematic rape of women […]
This blog is reprinted with permission from Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. Tell Nick: “Naughty” Games are Not for Young Children Nickelodeon, the children’s media empire, is promoting sexualized and violent video games to children as young as preschoolers. Its popular gaming website, AddictingGames.com, features games such as Candy the Naughty Cheerleader, Bloody Day […]
More Reasons to Hate Lad’s Mags: Zoo advises spurned lover to slash ex girlfriend’s face I’ve written before about lad’s magazines which thrive on the objectification of women and act as porn training wheels for boys. Now Zoo has run an advice column by British hardman actor Danny Dyer urging a heartbroken reader to “cut his […]
There are some books which chill you to the core. The Natashas: Inside the new global sex trade (Arcade, NY, 2003) by award-winning Canadian journalist Victor Malarek is one such book. A brutal expose of the lucrative trade in the flesh of women and girls from Eastern Europe, The Natashas is a testament to human […]
Lindsay Lohan goes with the (blood) flow [Trigger warning. Images of violence, self-harm] It seems nothing is off limits to be sexified for the purposes of grabbing attention and flogging stuff, whether it be a company’s products, a music video, or reviving a celebrity’s flagging career. Glamourising violence against women as sexy is the latest […]
Last month I briefly mentioned a Tasmanian case in which a father, a registered sex offender convicted of possessing child pornography, was given visitation right to his two daughters. I thought the story warranted a more in-depth examination, so I asked Caroline Norma to take a closer look. Caroline is a PhD candidate with the […]
[Warning. May be triggering for survivors of sexual assault] Last week I commented on the case of a 12-year-old girl pimped then raped by 120 men over a six week period. The media reporting said the men had “had sex with” the girl. I questioned this language, believing it minimised what had actually been done […]
This article in the Sydney Morning Herald on the weekend about Kick-Ass, a school holidays film starring an 11-year-old girl who shoots a man in the face, impales another and says things like: “OK, you c—s, let’s see what you can do now.” The film is described as containing “scenes of carnage and massacre played for laughs.” […]
Plus: Grand Theft auto gamer’s instruction video for best way to murder prostituted women And Calvin Klein’s new men’s underwear ad: No, we don’t want to see your d—k. Elizabeth at My Milk Spilt, whose piece on Facebook and violence against women I published here the other day, has now written about an experience she had […]
Caroline Overington writes in The Australian today that the Family Court has ordered two girls aged 8 and 10 to have sleepovers with their child sex offender father. As long as there’s a lock on the bedroom door. This man has filmed child pornography and created links to child porn sites. He also previously invited […]
Since my last piece on the cyberbullying taking place through Facebook, other sites targeting girls for their alleged flaws have been found. One identifying young women not considered “marriage material”. Another naming and shaming ‘12-year-old sluts’. Another for girls labelled “bitches”. British girl Poppy Bracey recently took her life as a result of a cyber bullying campaign […]
On the weekend – on the eve of International Women’s Day – I wrote about a Facebook slut page, arguing it enabled cyber bullying, stalking and harassment. On the page, photos were posted of girls and women who were labelled ‘sluts’. One was 10-years-old. Another had been bashed (she deserved it, she was a slut). A […]
