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By jodimca • 14 years ago

Notes from a National Disappointment

There is a long history of sexism in Australian politics. One has to go no further than to look at the ‘honour’ roll of the annual Ernie awards, which are awarded every year to people who make the most offensive sexist comments. Previous ‘winners’ include:

Prime-Minister-at-the-time John Howard, who said that there was “no appropriate woman” to be Governor General (2000); Tony Abbott, now opposition leader, who said that paid maternity leave would happen “over his dead body” (2002); Still-Prime-Minister-at-the-time -why-oh-why John Howard for vetoing an ad campaign about domestic violence, arguing against paid maternity leave and wanting to change the anti-discrimination act (2004); New South Wales Senator Bill Heffernan, for saying that deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard was ‘deliberately barren’ and then following that up with “I won’t walk away from that…so rude, crude and attractive as it was…if you’re a leader, you’ve got to understand your community” (2007); and Many, many more.

To anyone who knows Australian politics, it is clear that all this offenders belong to one political party – the Liberal party, the more conservative party in Australian politics, who were in government from 1996-2007. One name that isn’t appearing on this dishonour roll is former treasurer Peter Costello, who famously said that Australian women should have one baby for themselves, one for their husband and one for their country. Understandably, a whole lot of Australian women took great offence at this.
In 2007, a new government was elected. The Australian Labor ...
By jodimca • 15 years ago

I Love The Smell of Condescension In The Morning

I went on a training course for work a while back, and ever since, I’ve been on this company’s mailing list. In what is basically corporate spam, every so often, they’ll send me letters about their training courses and seminars and whatnot. Mostly I open them, glance cursorily at them, and throw them away.
Until this Friday, when this little gem arrived on my desk.
“Be honest,” this letter asked. “Do you ever…”
* back down on an important issue instead of sticking to your guns?
* overreact and make a difficult situation even worse?
* allow unresolved anger and resentment to hurt an important relationship?
* become angry and frustrated when dealing with difficult people?
* let people take ...

I went on a training course for work a while back, and ever since, I’ve been on this company’s mailing list. In what is basically corporate spam, every so often, they’ll send me letters about their training ...
By jodimca • 15 years ago

Witchcraft! Homosexuality! Abortion! EVERYBODY PANIC!

Oh yes, Australia can do insane nutjobs with the best of them – and I have the dubious honour of being in the same city as this one tomorrow. Pastor Danny Nalliah will be in Canberra, the nation’s capital, to conduct a ‘prayer offensive’ atop Mt. Ainslie. Why? To combat such horrifically evil forces as witchcraft, homosexuality and abortion.
He picked Mt. Ainslie (a mountain overlooking the city, from whence one can see straight down Anzac Parade to Parliament House) because a group of schoolchildren allegedly found a black mass altar there. ‘The type of altar discovered on Mount Ainslie pointed to a black mass and the work of dark forces wanting to cast spells on Australia and federal Parliament,’ ...

Oh yes, Australia can do insane nutjobs with the best of them – and I have the dubious honour of being in the same city as this one tomorrow. Pastor Danny Nalliah will be in Canberra, the ...
By jodimca • 15 years ago

Sexual Assault is Manly!: Glamorised Sexual Violence in Romance Fiction

Romance fiction is unusual in that it is a genre written largely by women, for women. In their excellent book ‘Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Fiction’, Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan create Mavis, a caricature of what is imagined to be a stereotypical romance reader: she’s undereducated, oversexed, rather dim, a bit chubby and wears cardigans with appliquéd kittens. However, apparently one in five women read romance fiction in the USA, and in Australia (where I’m from), it’s much the same. And there just aren’t that many Mavises in the world.
I remember walking past the racks of Mills and Boon category romances in department stores as a child and a teenager and watching people pretend ...

Romance fiction is unusual in that it is a genre written largely by women, for women. In their excellent book ‘Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Fiction’, Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan create Mavis, ...