Edition 4: Making Space

PARSA and the ANU Women’s Department Magazine

Edition 4 Semester 2, October 2018

Bossy

Making Space

Bossy accepts contributions from women-identifying, femme-aligned, non-binary, and genderqueer ANU students, staff members, and alumni.

E: contribute@bossymag.com W: www.bossymag.com F: www.facebook.com/bossymag I: www.instagram.com/bossy.magazine T: www.twitter.com/anubossymag

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We acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Bossy is source, edited, printed and distributed.

We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

We also acknowledge that this land – which we benefit from occupying – was stolen, and that sovereignty was never ceded.

Within this ongoing echo of colonialism, we commit – as editors and sub-editors – to amplify the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within our community.

We will honour the diversity of their stories and stand by their right to recognition.

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Emma Davies 2018 PARSA Women’s Officer

Laura Perkov 2018 ANUSA Women’s Officer

My term as PARSA Women’s Officer began shortly after the release of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s report into sexual assault and sexual harassment (SASH) on university campuses. The results raised a number of social justice issues concerning gender, race, sexuality and economic privilege. To student activists working in this space, the results were a confirmation of endemic cultural problems that we have been battling for decades to address. It has been exciting to hold the position of Women’s Officer during what is a particularly fecund political moment for making progress on this issue. I have been involved in various working groups influencing ANU SASH policy and cultural reform, as well as running independent community building and advocacy campaigns.

Finally sitting down and writing down my reflections on this year is bringing up a lot of different emotions: frustration, anger, even regret. But I can’t help but also feel a sense of happiness, pride, and gratitude for the work that we have undertaken, the close relationships we have fostered in the Collective, and the advocacy goals we continue to fight for.

Student activism has a rich history in Australia for driving social and political change – as does the feminist movement. At ANU we are lucky to have a strong history of student activism and inclusion in university policy reform.

As a PhD scholar, casual academic and student advocate, I am acutely mindful of the role the university plays in a broader society. The university is an institution of knowledge production that broader society looks to for guidance. It is also an education institution where people come to explore and solidify their beliefs, identities and values. Tackling social justice issues within our university context is therefore of particular cultural significance, with substantial flow-on effects.

I applaud the work done by feminist student activists over what has been a difficult and labourintensive year since the release of the AHRC SASH report. I look forward to seeing the ongoing changes that we have laid the ground work for realised, but I am mindful that continuous pressure and involvement from students is required to see this through. Thank you for all your help and support this year, let’s continue to Press for Progress.

I’m extremely proud of the achievements of the Women’s Department this year. We ran two major campaigns focused on multiple aspects of health, and continued our response to the rape crisis that is present on our campus and in university communities across the country. We ran a campaign addressing gender diverse inclusion in our Department: because trans women and gender diverse people who find our services useful are, and will always be, welcome in our Collective.

We ran regular events, and continued to provide safe and supportive spaces for our members to interact, learn, and help each other. The Women’s Department played an integral role in ANUSA’s advocacy of Respectful Relationships, cementing that working towards gender equality and a community free from misogyny and sexual violence is core business of our Student Association. Student unions are inherently political, and this is one of our greatest strengths.

But I’m especially proud of Bossy. Bossy has continued to cement itself as a voice for those that the world actively ignores. Bossy is for every woman on campus who has been called pushy or overbearing for giving an opinion, for every woman whose contributions are edited to sound less confrontational. It is for those who have never written or created anything before and are dying to try.

I contributed to the first Bossy magazine – “Flawless” – with a piece about feminism in science fiction. I find the writing thoroughly embarrassing now, but will always look at it fondly. Bossy has evolved to become a huge team of dedicated editors and contributors, with two major publications every year and pieces published online throughout the semester. It is continuously growing and changing, responsive to the needs and desires of the women on campus it represents.

Next year, the Department will be lead by Priyanka Tomar, a wonderful, dedicated, passionate and capable woman who I’ve had the privilege of working with this past year. I am sure that the Women’s Department and Bossy will continue to remain a formidable presence on campus, and I look forward to seeing what next year’s Collective and Bossy team create.

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Letter from the Editors When deciding on the theme for this semester’s edition of Bossy, the editorial team reflected on the incredible example of previous editions. Inspired by universal, natural phenomena explored through the phases of the moon in Edition 3, we came to believe that the harmony and hope signified through the life cycle of a star would be the most poignant way to respect and evolve from past editions.

In the life of a star, we saw the journey of many individuals in pursuit of empowerment and understanding. From the magnificent diversity of experiences and opinions we find in the world, we sought to highlight the shared principles that draw us together into a formidable force of positivity and strength.

Much like the beginnings of any star, diversifying and expanding the voices we embodied was fundamental to our team. Stagnancy in our awareness of the world bears nothing but a volatile grasp of reality. This unavoidable evolution of our awareness is reflected in the instability of any one stage of a star’s life, and we hope that from the point of publication of this edition, our understandings of one another will only mature.

The cover to cover narrative of our magazine is one of acceptance: acceptance that we are all at different stages of awareness of each other and acceptance that we all still inherently compose the same strong core. Thematically and visually, this is the journey our edition explores.

Though we don’t believe there will ever be a point of stasis in the feminist movement, we do believe that, much like dust forming ferocious stars, there is a development and collation of ideas occurring that are progressing towards a point of fruition.

We hope that, through this publication, we empower others to accept and share their own stories, and that we come to use the capacity of our voices to elevate the stories and needs of others when they cannot as we all share a bond that transcends our differences.

Nicole Jackson, Juliette Baxter, Tay Vakeeswaran Editorial Team (Managing Editor, Design Editor and Content Editor)

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Contents 1 Acknowledgement of Country 2 Forewords from your Women’s Officers Emma Davies and Laura Perkov 3 Letter from the Editors Tay Vakeeswaran, Nicole Jackson, and Juliette Baxter 7 Number One Eden 8 Payoff Amelia Oswald 10 Freedom of Speech Phoebe Lupton, Al Azmi, Tay Vakeeswaran 12 Spotlight on Joy Davidman Jemma Sbeghen 14 The Societal Body Image Cecelia Charlotte 16 What is a Female Narrative?

Felicity Brown 18 Of Labels and Indifference: Why Men Don’t Fall into Categories Verónica Fraile del Álamo and Isabel Pfleger 21 Duck Lips: Selfies from SelfPortraits Alessandra Panizza 24 Two Elastic Straps Cecelia Charlotte

26 Ask Bossy Eleanor Armstrong, Bonnie Burns, Juliette Baxter, Sayler Allen

48 Royalty and Regulation: A Feminist Appraisal of Elizabeth I Heather Collins

28 Living the Libra Lie Isabella Keith

50 Antiquity, The Ancient Past and the History of the Silenced Woman Teah Linnegar

29 A Roadmap to Creative Pursuits: GCBRV Elizabeth Harris 32 A Guide to Ableism-Free Language Issy Ingram 35 Just In: Greenpeace to Thank Self-Proclaimed Instagram Influencers for Reversing Pollution by Way of Re-Usable Straws Julia Lindblom 36 Feminism and the Fitness Industry Joanna Gaze 38 The Graia and Medusa Melissa Martinez 41 Glass Half Full: An Interview with Maddie Cardone Claire Gaspar 44 Women in Film – Lifting Hollywood’s Act Brigid Horneman-Wren 46 Teaching the Teacher: Changing the Status Quo in Academia Ebe Ganon

52 Empowerment and the Environment – How Sustainable Living is Feminist Living Achintha Liyanage 54 Silence Maintains the Status Quo Mimi Fairall 57 It Was Not Her Fault Tracy Beattie 58 From Amateur to Artist Julia Faragher and Jaime Howell 60 The Corporatisation of Feminism Bella Di Mattina 63 I think of me, I think of Her Sayler Allen 64 Collage Samantha Corbett 65 Sapphic Silencing Dana Throssell 66 Liberal Female Politicians and the Double-Edged Sword of Power and Popularity Blair Williams

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68 Love as a transaction: Calculating the Share of Emotional Labour Eleanor Armstrong 70 Ecology Lilias 71 What’s limiting our mob from accessing the NDIS Vanamali Hermans 74 MyHealth Memories Nadia Kim 76 Are You a Feminist?

Thea Henderson

90 How I learned to stop worrying and love my pubes Georgina Holt

112 Glitter Tits, the Basic Bitch, and Festival Fashion Lexie Johnstone

92 Is horseback riding girly?

Stephanie Leslie

115 The Power of Black Women Makayla-May Brinckley

94 “I just feel like I’m not functioning” – Life as a student, a woman and a carer Vanamali Hermans

116 A blessed Unrest Eleanor Neumman

97 Well, Actually…: The Women’s Revue Directors on Writing Skits, Empowerment, and Tradies Isabella Keith

118 My land is me Makayla-May Brinckley 119 Adolescence, Age and Femininity Faith Stellmaker

79 18 Months and Counting Stella McRobbie

100 How to Be a Woman in Power: Act Like a Man Lauren Skinner

122 We Need Moore: An Interview with Mimir Art Clare Myers

80 Dear John Pi Lee

102 Amazing Face Eleanor Armstrong and Scarlett Owens

82 Area Non-Binary Person Loses Their Shit Gene Pinter

104 Is Exclusivity in Feminism Harming the Cause?

Maddie Benson

124 I don’t love you anymore, so why do you?

Anonymous

83. Every Morning I wake Up Dead Kat Carrington

106 A day in the life of a cool girl Queenie Ung-Lam

84 To the Metal Beth O’Sullivan

108 Stripped at Sainsbury’s: Cashback and What We Excuse in the Name of Art Amber Spooner

86 The Many Layers of an Earth That are You Samihah Fattah 89 A fierce concoction Bindiya Bijo

110 Bringing Sexual Violence on Campus to a STOP with Camille Schloeffel Niamh Armstrong and Francesca Cuccurullo

125 Solidarity on Campus Izy Remedios 126 A reason to wake up in the morning: A memoir of motherhood Jess Keating 127 ‘Feminist’: multilingual translations of feminist Alex Gernath, Iga Morzynska, Gabriela Freeman, Dana Throssell, Tracy Beattie, AvelineYang, Peony Lim, Maya Bhandari, and Tooba Faridi 128 Number two Eden

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Number one Payoff Freedom of Speech Spotlight on Joy Davidman The Societal Body Image What is a Female Narrative?

Of Labels and Indifference: Why Men don’t Fall into Categories Duck Lips: Selfies from Self-Portraits Two Elastic Straps Ask Bossy Living the Libra Lie A Roadmap to Creative Pursuits: GCBRV A Guide to Ableism-Free Language

Illumination: Stellar Nebula

(clouds of dispersed matter that are beginning to pull together, get hotter, and fuse) – I’d never engaged with feminism until I opened the magazine that day. The tones of the dial-up internet filled the library as I realised, for the first time in my admittedly short existence, that the cardboard cut-out wasn’t a one-size fits all. It simply recommended that I make an effort to understand.

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Number One Eden Artwork by Naushaan Ahmad

I t began on a Friday night when they were young and she still wore makeup and they both had people to impress. She had been entirely honest when she said she didn’t want a relationship and he had agreed and signed his name in a perfect scroll at the bottom of their hypothetical contract. They always had so many reasons why they shouldn’t, and only a feeling as to why they should.

But things escalated. They often do when you’re young and time is short and the youthful euphoria running through your mind and body feels more and more like a finite drug.

When her cat got run over, he was there.

When she lost her job, he was there.

And when she couldn’t stand looking at his blonde hair and developed a tension headache from gritting her teeth he was, unfortunately, still there. Like the moment an addict realises they love their substance, she realised she loved him, but not as a boyfriend and certainly not as a friend… rather, something to admire; to put on a pedestal and say, ‘one day’. But she didn’t know how to break it to this perfect boy – the boy who donated blood to the Red Cross

once every 10 weeks; the boy who was studying medical science and who volunteered at the nursing home because he wanted to ‘give back’. There was never a desire to hurt him but there was that twinge of hate that left her feeling horrible at the end of the night and when his muscular arm was wrapped around her the desire to push him off the bed was always present. Everyone has things they were too weak for and hers was the infliction of heartbreak.

When he planned dinner for the next weekend there was the overwhelming sense of opportunity. God was looking down on her and whispering, ‘you owe me one.’

There was a suit, a dress, and a restaurant that smelt like new paint was covering rot or something that wasn’t quite right. And then, in a back room, he got down on one knee beside their empty post-pasta dishes and asked that one

fateful question to a girl with breadcrumbs on her lap, a headache, and a few crafted words of her own.

She said nothing, mouth gaping like a fish out of water.

‘It’s a family heirloom, left to me by my dad in the divorce. Just try it on,’ he insisted, sliding the thing onto her finger.

Silence.

‘It doesn’t fit,’ she lied.

But it fit perfectly and that was the problem.

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Payoff Amelia Oswald

CW: Mention of suicide The committee calls her in. One, two, and the fat one makes three of them; a triad of half-balding men with blue ties and the same white button-down; like small, painted replicas or collectibles.

She almost laughs at how identical they are, knowing that it’s not speculation to say they all went to one of three universities, and have wives called Grace or Lisa, and that this is their fifth closing interview. This profession isn’t one for preambles, which is a pity, as it could have done something to cushion their next words.

“You didn’t quite tick all our boxes.”

Richard leads.

She’s been cast aside for a Daniel, a Darren, or a David and she listens silently as the panel tells her how close she was before eventually deciding she was ‘too good’ where they had her.

They will be looking again in 6 months, but she can’t give six more months.

All she can think about is her fifteen minutes, the only reason she works so hard. She imagines what could give her life meaning without it, if she wasn’t measured in accolades and transient successes. Grades, internships, ‘Female Employee of the Month in Workplace Excellence’ – what else really was there to value in a person? And now, ‘there goes your shot’ her mind cries pathetically, ‘your fifteen minutes gone.’

Nicole would call her relationship with legacy

and success a hungry sensibility. In university, whilst others had been drinking, and acquiring memories and other things of ‘substance’, Nicole would sit in her two-bedroom apartment, studying material she knew she would never need, and repeating to herself that she would make it: ‘fifteen minutes, or thirty, or a lifetime.’ It would all be worth it.

Now, in the silent moments in her car, she looks back on all the many sacrifices she made for a pointless dream. The friends she had slowly separated from, weaning them off her presence through missed phone calls and emails because she was wasting their time. Stupid moments she didn’t care to taste or relish, and the one relationship she thought would work out and didn’t. ‘And now you have everything,’ she’d repeat, and to an extent she did. Her job – ‘the youngest law researcher in company history’ – and a better boyfriend who is just dumb enough that she’ll never have to resent him. Now she lives near the beach, though it’s an empty pleasure; she doesn’t get to enjoy it. Fletcher spends his nights at the beach, but she stays at the office.

As everyone around her aged, they all wanted to share stories. She saw this in her colleagues. When they stayed late working they’d complain about the children who cost them too much money, and the half-baked relationships with boyfriends and girlfriends fifteen

years their junior for which they repeated the same sentiment. But there were always good memories littered amongst ones of regret, and when they mentioned the glory days of their early-twenties Nicole would sit silently, pretending to write or do something else important. When they asked about Fletcher she’d always recite stories of their first date at the karaoke bar or the time they cooked coq au vin together in France, splashing red wine across the kitchen like in the films. “He’s a sensitive man,” she’d repeat, every intonation and syllable polished from years of repetition. She didn’t include how secretly mad she had been when he’d stained the white carpet and she’d lost her security deposit. “Oh to be young,” they’d often smile secretively.

‘Or to be immature,’ she’d retort back in her mind.

She is thinking about these times in the seconds before she makes the decision.

Go or stay, go or stay. Be unhappy or unhappier. The moment she decides to quit feels like a buffer. A pause or a shift in her life and then something goes wrong. She strays from the path she’d promised herself and suddenly she’s in a different world and its new, and its scary, and for the life of her she doesn’t know how she got there.

There’s a thirsty pause.

“I quit,” she says to the room. The words – so

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clean and full – engulf the space between them before contracting. One second of relaxation and the air is tight again. She stands before the panel, dull and silent and can’t quite think of something more to add. ‘I quit’ is just one of those statements, like ‘will you marry me?’ or ‘do you love me?’ Once it’s said, there’s really not much else to say, and so Nicole walks out of the room, gently closing the door behind her and making her way to the exit.

She realises it had been hours when she returns to herself strangely at the beach, resting upon the sand dunes and looking at the water with a coolness she’s never felt before. When the screams of dancing, wild children dull into the crash of far off waves, Nicole approaches the ocean tentatively, as if asking the tides to be her friend. The sea parts, stretching back to welcome her home, a natural greeting. As she goes in deeper she drops each layer of cloth until it is just her and nature together. She swims into the night waves, far past where she knows is safe. The churning water gliding against her bare skin, she imagines the predators below, ready to rip off a limb or paralyse her, swimming away when the taste of blood isn’t as nice as they’d thought it would be. What would they write about Nicole if she drowns tonight or dies from one keen bite? Will they include that she’d just quit a job that hundreds of Nicole-replicas would have killed something they loved for, or that her partner sold glamorised twine made from cannabis out of his van and thought Nicole’s life didn’t have purpose? The water moves and so does she, now excited by how it feels to have no control; thinking how addicted she could become to this.

But from fear – of the addiction or of the waves, she’s unsure – Nicole turns back to land, her arms burning from the rapid movement through the water.

The ocean ignores her frenzy and pushes her back to shore with a mother’s prot e c t i v e n e s s; t h e

current a hovering, guiding hand below her belly, shepherding her back to the sanctuary of the beach. When she reaches shallow waters her mind dances to shallow things. Where did she go wrong? Maybe it was the few months she’d taken off before university. She bet whoever had gotten her job hadn’t done something that stupid, but at the time it had felt like the right thing to go ‘find herself’. All of her friends were doing it, booking cheap flights to Bali and London and then returning a year later, preaching to Nicole the importance of their ‘inner spirit’ and the ‘wild woman’ that lived within them.

She’d returned home two months into her trip, no more sure of herself but $4000 out of pocket and a term behind everyone she’d been equal with only two months before. She’d caught up of course. In fact, she’d graduated with First Class Honours and now, what was waiting for her at home? A boyfriend who didn’t love her and a life she didn’t want. She’d always imagined walking back into her high school at the 20th reunion, her old classmates congratulating Nicole on her latest success, the ‘I told you so’ balancing on the sharp edge of her tongue but never slipping over – a sign of her maturity.

There’s a sudden need to yell. To express. To show something tangible for her anger and despair.

“Where’s my payoff, what have you given me?” she screams, the words so immediate and forceful that they feel as shocking as fuck! The waves merely crash slowly around her ankles, rising in a crest to caress her knee with nature’s soothing gentleness, unaware of her emotional haemorrhage. Instinct tells her that if she doesn’t move the waves will soon engulf her entirely, claiming her as their own, rechristening her with the soft rush of the undertow. The night

shore is a happy companion to her grief, swallowing her bittersweet confessions with each lull of the rising tides. The tiny spikes of pain in her soles from the crushed shells on the ocean floor exhaust her perception of the hours which have slipped by. Clarity feels needed. Maybe a fresh start or a declutter; a purge of all the meaningless objects in her life. They always told her she was too materialistic, too concerned with the surface level beauty, of success and pretty, inoffensive things.

When Nicole gets home she’ll throw everything out; the company awards, all the photos from staff trips, the polyester curtains she’d bought with her Christmas bonus, and the stack of documents she keeps on the bedside table for when she’s kept awake by Fletcher’s snoring. She’ll go to him first, his hand dropping heavily off the side of the bed, limbs sprawled across the covers. She’ll trace a soft finger around his eyes and nose, delicately stroking a single strand of his thick, greasy hair which will fall easily from her hand onto his head.

“Hemp rope,” he had once said, “is so much stronger than regular rope.” And as she flips the handle of the hatchet in her hand; slitting her thumb to slice off a thick piece and pulling back the strong fabric, she’ll congratulate him.

This will be the first time in their relationship he’s been right.

It doesn’t break, not even when he awakes, his last gurgled ‘Nicole’ inflating the room. Fifteen minutes and she was done.

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Freedom of Speech Phoebe Lupton, Al Amzi, and Tay Vakeeswaran The idea that feminist activism seeks to silence those who hold differing beliefs is currently receiving more attention. However, the term ‘freedom of speech’ has been used in so many different contexts that it seems to have lost its true meaning.

Freedom of speech can be defined as “the legal right to express one’s opinions freely,” which we in Australia and most of the Western world, undeniably have.

However, it is important to consider that there are some situations in which freedom of speech has to be restricted.

A Sociological Perspective I don’t agree with certain kinds of speech, but I will defend to the death the right to say them.

This sentiment has been expressed a lot in the recent discourse around free speech and the social justice movement, where the kinds of speech invariably involve bigotry and even outright fascist ideas.

here is not used flippantly, and neither is it an exaggeration. Free speech requires power (and oftentimes violence) to be deployed in order to protect that right. The

problem is, this power is not dispensed equally.

The police protecting some protestors and cracking down on others results in some groups being able to exercise their free speech much more freely than others.

This attitude towards free speech does seem ideologically sound and even compassionate. After all, you’re just trying to make sure both sides are heard!

Surely that’s a good thing?

Some types of speech inherently infringe upon and suppresses another party’s rights to free speech. Slurs, epithets and dog-whistle tactics are all ‘allowed’ under free speech, but they clearly target already vulnerable communities, justifying oppression and further marginalising them from broader society. These speeches, by dint of their content, lessens the ability, inclination and reception of an entire other group’s free speech.

That is all well and good, but what happens when that speech that is being defended is itself violence? ‘Violence’

Studies by White and Crandall in 2017, in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that free speech is

used to justify prejudice and racial biases, and that the more often these ideas are expressed, the more acceptable they are perceived to be. This is why Karl Popper’s concept of the Paradox of Tolerance is so important. It stresses that unconstrained

acceptance toward the openly intolerant will result in the tolerant being destroyed, and their tolerance with them. Thus, in order to create a tolerant society, the intolerant must not be tolerated.

This is usually as far as the explanations of Popper’s paradox goes. Yet, he also continues that the intolerant must be allowed to speak, and to have their ideas be dealt with by popular opinion and the mechanisms of society. This is exactly what is happening in many claims of ‘suppression of free speech’. After all, freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences. If the consequences of your free speech are a university dis-inviting

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you as a speaker, a company firing you or your mates telling you to shut up, well, that’s just them exercising their freedom of speech.

A Legal Perspective Too many times has derogatory, dangerous or fallacious dialogue been spouted freely online and in the media under the guise of ‘free speech’. This tried and true defence has been increasingly used to justify the proliferation of xenophobic perspectives in the media. Take, for instance, the marriage equality debate where the No campaign’s television advertisements made little to no reference to marriage equality itself and instead attacked the noncompulsory

Safe Schools program.

Though many private bodies fact checked and disproved much of what was said in the advertisements, legally, there were very few protections against the propagation of misleading or deceptive information about political rivals during elections.

In our liberal democracy the need for open political discourse is imperative for the fair operation and administration of our society. The right to express political opinions is crucial for upholding human rights around the globe.

There are international legal rules protecting this right such as articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on

Civil and Political Rights, which has 172 state parties. These articles allow for the unrestricted right to hold opinions and protect the expression of favourable and unpopular ideas alike, but simultaneously carry special responsibilities and restrictions on freedom of expression. These restrictions must be provided by law, and are necessary to ensure there is respect for the rights and reputations of others, as well as the protection of national security, public order, public health or morals. Some of the restrictions are the vilification of people based on race, religion or nationality, and discrimination based on racial, sexual, religious, or social origin

grounds, even during times of public emergency.

In Australia, the High Court has inferred a freedom of political communication from sections 7 and 24 of the Constitution under the assumption that access to relevant political information is fundamental to the population making informed political choices.

Our Criminal Code Act 1995 protects us against the use of telecommunications carriage services in an intentionally menacing, harassing or offensive manner. The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 further protects from actions that are reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate, or intimidate persons based on race, ethnicity, nationality or colour.

Hence, though there is a general right to freedom of speech at an international level, and an implied right to freedom of political communication domestically, there are, and should be, limits on its

exercise. Legislators around the world have agreed on the importance of balancing the right to freedom of expression with rights against discrimination.

However, currently it seems the discretionary nature of the laws have allowed deeply damaging opinions to be circulated in society. The racialisation of the ‘African gang’ problem in Melbourne has led to increased violence and discrimination against African citizens.

The characterisation of Safe Schools as an indoctrination tactic permits the continued bullying of LGBT+ youth and trivialises the unacceptable suicide rate in the queer* community, which is between 3 and 14 times that or their heterosexual counterparts.

The years of misleading information about the treatment and status of asylum seekers have led to the unimaginable suffering of men, women and children, which is paid for with our taxes. Freedom of speech is an invaluable right, but it can no longer be seen as the ultimate restriction of what can and cannot be published.

Our media, politicians, and all individuals have a responsibility to understand that words have consequences and it is about time that the law reflects this reality.

There is value in the notion that ‘free speech’ and ‘hate speech’ are mutually exclusive. Feminist activism involves combating said hate speech, given its contribution to physical and non-physical violence against women and other minorities. Therefore, if someone were to express a thought that some deem to be sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or otherwise discriminatory, perhaps we could be forgiven for suggesting that such a thought might cause harm.

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Spotlight on Joy Davidman Jemma Sbeghen Artwork by Caitlin Schwartz

“I am a serpent that will suck your blood, Sting your bare eyes, or pleasurably drain Sweet fiery thought and honey from your brain” - Joy Davidman

She was quick. She was profound. She had a vibrancy once described as “exuding an uninhibited nature, bordering on disorderly” by a fellow Christian writer. She was the feisty intellectual companion and competitor of C.S Lewis with a hunger for politics, activism and adventure. She was Jewish.

She was an atheist and then a Christian. And above all else, she possessed a talent that embodied the true artistry and ambition of a poet. To express the thoughts, emotions and cognitions we feel no other soul has ever known; to be able to capture a feeling in tangible language, place it before someone and have them say ‘that’s mine’, is a form of emotional empowerment few strangers can offer each other.

Indeed, never has the saying “behind every great man there is an even greater woman” been more certain to me than in the case of Joy Davidman – the phe-

nomenal American poet who mesmerised and delighted the mind and soul of the ever-beloved Christian writer, C.S Lewis. She was his muse, his spiritual comrade, his mistress, but at the same time “all that any friend has ever been to me.” Throughout their short yet joyous marriage, she edited and shaped many of her husband’s manuscripts and novels, including (quite ironically) his cherished work, Surprised by Joy. Lewis regarded Davidman as the only woman - indeed individual - who could simultaneously challenge and nourish him intellectually. Reflecting on her brilliance after her death, he describes her once more as a “splendid thing; a soul straight, bright and tempered like a sword”. Leave it to one literary master to express the inspiration and splendour of another with justice.

However, her attachment to Lewis and tragic death do not define Davidman.

It is in her humble beginnings where her label as a feminist literary icon can recognised and largely earned. Before many of us have any direction for our future, Davidman was already hungering after knowledge, impressing academics with her boundless intellect, artful with her words and achieving a Bachelor’s degree before 19. Her momentum only continued. By the age of 23 she received the most prestigious award a new poet can receive - the Yale Younger Poets Series Award. Her first poems are celebrated as artistically unflawed, expressive and in possession of prominent feminist undertones. In her poem ‘Amulet’ she writes: “I am a serpent that will suck your blood, Sting your bare eyes, or pleasurably drain Sweet fiery thought and honey from your brain”

13 Her early literacy success was followed by a newfound commitment to politics, specifically the Communist Party. It is at this moment that society caught the first glimpse of Davidman’s bold power and impatience with injustice. She frequently protested in favour of socialism in a time where such actions were dangerous to an individual’s reputation and wellbeing. Furthermore, she published acclaimed opinion pieces, poems and memoirs for the Communist newspaper New Masses. Yet, she progressively became disenchanted with the movement, discovering it to be too simple and “the people, frankly boring.” She recognised a deep, soulful emptiness that couldn’t be satisfied by the triviality of politics nor her success as a writer.

Davidman regarded human emotion, and the tentative parallels of identity we find with other individuals, as the only subject that could sustain her thoughts and energy to the degree needed for her to find any satisfaction in life. Perhaps this hunger and deep palate for life is what produced her grim view of politics and, thus, led to her pursuit of a new hobby – love. Marriage had never appeared to be an aspiration of Davidman’s before she met William Lindsay Gresham.

However, their initial passion for each other and the love she once held in such h i g h prize s o o n

deteriorated into infidelity and alcoholism, which inevitably destroyed their marriage. Although during their brief love story the two entered Christianity together, Joy claimed that faith as her own following the divorce and conquered her defeated emotional state and heartbreak with the books and works of none other than C.S Lewis.

Despite her expertise as a writer, Davidman’s greatest accomplishment was the independence of her faith. In a religious community often defined by the authority of men, she refused to allow her religious identity and pursuit of God be defined by the male figures in her life; be that her male companions, lovers or teachers. When she was ensnared in an abusive relationship, Davidman sought the divine support and assurance she needed on her own accord, describing herself as being “more alive than I have ever been” in the wake of her individual spiritual enlightenment. Despite her rich affinity with C.S Lewis, she maintained that their

religious identities always be separate.

On the subject of Christianity they were merely correspondents or, even more so, accomplices in discovering God’s will for their lives alone and their lives together. Faith was not an object with which she would be fickle. She respected how self-reliant and private we sometimes must be with the thoughts and obedience which grow from our spiritual cores into the trunks and forests our religious identity. That conviction, Davidman decided, would come from her commitment alone. It is through this separate spiritual journey that she once more embraces and demonstrates the boldness and independence that so defined her earlier achievements and work.

In Lewis’ final statements about his joyful and brilliant wife he concludes he “will salute her with a laugh”. Just “the impression of her mind momentarily facing” could allow him to discard his doubts and appreciate the excellence of their romance over the tragedy of her death. Although her career has since become somewhat overshadowed by the prominence of her husband, Davidman should be remembered as a vivid storyteller and a powerful writer who had nothing but an innate hunger for joy and life.

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The Societal Body Image Cecelia Charlotte

CW: eating disorders, mental illness I’m not healthy, active or happy, but I’m thin. I don’t eat until 3pm, but I’m thin.

Since not being able to move after my surgery, I stopped exercising and then I stopped being interested in health. I realised, after all those years of almost incessant activity and fear of being fat if I didn’t, that I didn’t have to exercise to be thin. I’m happy because I’m thin.

I’m thinner than I’ve ever been.

These may not be my words, or my life, but they caused me to start writing about something that’s been on my mind and under my skin for a long time – our societal fixation on thinness and rejection of fatness. Where does health come into the picture?

Why does being ‘thin’ equate to being healthy, beautiful, fashionable, wantable, and

a scout and I was good at school. In late childhood, I was informed that I would become a woman – I was pretty excited about that. At the age of 9, I wore my first underwire bra and soon after I started inheriting cast-offs from my mother. Around the same time, the damaging societal dialogue about body image commenced. These “suck your tummy in”, “don’t you need a touch of tinted moisturiser or mascara?”, “never leave the house looking less than a million dollars” types of phrases were all common ones. They were all wellmeant because that’s what women are supposed to do: support one another.

Inform your friends, peers, daughters, and granddaughters of what the world expects of them as they evolve into womankind. We don’t tear one another down, or so we think. Subconsciously, this was the formative era of my body image. From this point on, she began to slowly crumble.

In my

loveable in today’s world? Why can’t we just love ourselves in isolation of our physical body? Why do we get so caught up in our physicality when the physical isn’t the epitome of who we are?

I was a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ kid – I was musical, I sang, I acted, I swam, I was

late teens, I developed disordered eating habits. I was desperately unhappy and felt misunderstood and unaccepted in our superficial

world. Food was my only solace. I ate. I ate some more and eventually, I gained weight. I gained just enough that people felt that it was their responsibility to inform me that I was being irresponsible and not exercising self-respect. I was greedy. I was overweight. My behaviour was worth reprimanding. My physical body was worth saving from fat. During that time, I paid them no heed and I kept on keeping on; the comments sinking and embedding themselves deeper.

When I was 17, I went on student exchange. I learnt another language for the first time in my life. It was a game changer. I felt as though suddenly my intelligence had a purpose. I loved decoding phrases and figuring out the history of words and their meanings. I returned home the following summer bilingual and heavier than ever (too much European Christmas food). The moment I hit home soil I commenced my weight loss effort. For the first time in what seemed like forever, I cared. I sought to control myself. Being overweight is down to lack of self-discipline, right? I studied food and nutrition at school, I learnt about calories and nutrition on an intimate level, and I started trying to focus on wholesome foods, calorie counting and exercising.

School went well.

I finished school with an ATAR of 89.9 (below 90) and got into the number one university in Australia (with a Bachelor of Arts).

Still.

Not.

Good.

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Enough.

With no idea of what I really wanted to do, I enrolled in language subjects.

I developed an even deeper love-affair with languages and I craved the feeling of academic success. In a satisfied manner, I thought: “this should be good.” I wanted high distinctions. I wanted them like not much else I had wanted in my life. I wanted, for once in my life, to be perfect, to escape the imperfect character I saw myself to be.

I got some high distinctions, I got some distinctions and I got some credits.

Still. Not. Good. Enough.

Just like my body.

Hello, fixation on exercise, my old friend. My physical body hadn’t mattered until I became a very small fish in the academic ocean. My grandma used to say, “it’s brains or brawn, kiddo.” If I couldn’t be academically perfect then maybe, if I tried enough, I could be physically perfect. Some days I ran, biked and swam the distance of a triathlon. Sometimes this was three times a week. I was exhausted to the bone and could think of little else, but it was keeping me thin.

drenched in guilt, three fingers down my throat, tears gushing, and snot everywhere. I teach myself to vomit.

That cake doesn’t have a place inside me. It possesses calories my brain can’t count, can’t figure out. I can’t have that cake inside me. One hour later: success. I feel empty. Triumphant, almost – I had my cake, but I didn’t have to eat it. Emptiness became addictive.

I kept on keeping on.

With vomiting, I tried to keep myself accountable. I wasn’t stupid and I knew that this, like all my other little behaviours, was dangerous. I had food journals that I wrote everything I ate in. I recorded every binge and purge.

At first, the purges were my dinner I didn’t feel I d e -

When I stopped losing weight from incessant exercise, I started with the starving efforts. I never entirely forewent food; I was just very picky about what I ate. I always ensured I got the most nutrition for the least calories. I ate a plate of steamed broccoli for dinner. Society likes thin.

I eventually got so sick I went home. I didn’t do much and recovered weight to nearly 60kg. I moved out of home again, got a qualification, got a job, and felt somewhat mentally satiated. Things were better for a while.

I ran a lot – sometimes 15km three times a week. Life got busier and I gained more weight and muscle, edging towards 65kg. Size 8 jeans no longer fit. I’m 171cm tall, size 8 jeans shouldn’t fit. But I wanted them to. Oh, how I wanted them to. I wanted to be thin.

Stay tiny. Tiny is lovable, my brain told me. I taught myself to vomit.

One afternoon, after a tea party with friends, three slices of cake and a lot of happy moments later, I find myself wrapped around the toilet

ser ved, then they were a whole batch of muffins that I had baked to last a week and eventually, I began buying food just to binge and purge.

Eating felt good; an old friend. I’d had so much deprivation from good food over the last couple of years.

This was delicious.

A delicious waste of money. Money literally flushed down the toilet, along with my “health”.

I was thinner than I’d ever been and I had also never been sadder. I don’t know

why I assumed that it was normal to strip every essence of my being and myself to fit some poorly described, yet desirable mould. I wasn’t made to be a barbie doll or a fairy princess. I was born to be a woman of guts, gumption and emotional intelligence. I was born to embody these curves with prowess.

Finally, at almost 24 years of age, I’m back to health. I’m balanced. I have a great life and many great people surrounding me. I have a double chin when I place my chin to my chest, I have hips, I have boobs, I dance, I sing, I create, I study health (Naturopathy), I run, I practice yoga, I laugh and I have made it my life mis-

sion t o lift women up.

I ceased w e a r ing most makeup over a year ago and recently I’ve stopped wearing eye makeup on most occasions. I love my natural face, my squinty eyes adorned with sun-bleached lashes and my rosy cheeks. This love is my birthright and I believe that it’s every woman’s. We’re all our unique, gorgeous selves and society has no right to strip that from us.

I’m more myself than I’ve ever been and I couldn’t be happier.

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What is a Female Narrative?

Felicity Brown

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I went to see Ocean’s 8 a few weeks ago with a female friend.

We were incredibly excited to see a film with an all-female cast, and we appropriately squealed and gushed throughout the entire screening. After the film, we met up with my friend’s mother, who asked if we’d liked the film and whether it was, as she put it, “a female narrative.” I was slightly perplexed by this question, so I briefly described the plot and the characters, to which my friend’s mother announced, “Ah, so it was a male narrative but with women in it.”

Let me break down for you what, I presume, my friend’s mother supposes to be a ‘male narrative’ as opposed to a ‘female narrative’.

She is a filmmaker herself and certainly subscribes to a feminist perspective in her life, so this isn’t some weird 1950s-why-isn’t-Sandra-Bullock-in-the-kitchen ideology. What she meant by a ‘male narrative’ is one that presents a plot and its characters in such a way that a traditional conceptualisation of masculinity and power are obviously (and often forcefully) satisfied – think James Bond or anything with Tom Cruise in it. Conversely, a ‘female narrative’ would serve an opposite viewpoint, emphasising a subtler investigation of internal or emotional issues – one which probably doesn’t result in its characters walking away from an explosion whilst donning aviators. It isn’t about the genders of the characters, it’s about how the film drives its setup-conflict-resolution-payoff narrative structure.

But here’s the thing; I like explosions. More to the point, I enjoy a narrative in which the characters resolve their issues by blowing something up and walking away from it – it’s a kind of vicarious catharsis. But, I also enjoy a slow-paced storyline centred on domesticity, internal struggles, and responsible, non-combustive problem-solving. I have as much right to either one of these formats as anyone of any gender.

The issue here, then, is that my friend’s mother is stuck in a binary, essentialist mindset of what femininity and masculinity are. And I

don’t think that she’s the only one.

We, as a society, are still somehow caught up in this idea of ‘chick flicks’ versus action films, perpetuating the idea that women and men are somehow opposites; that women like soft, romantic, emotion-driven films and that men like the fast-paced, conflict-driven, explodey-bang-bang-dude-gets-thegirl kind of films. But what about the women who like Bond? What about the men who don’t enjoy watching people get shot in the face for fun? What about non-binary people who don’t fit into this weird and unnecessarily gendered market of entertainment? Do they just not watch anything, or is there some kind of secret ‘agender narrative’ film genre that they gain access to when they join the non-binary club?

Even in a world which continues to market films based on gender, why wouldn’t Ocean’s 8 be considered a female narrative? It may not be a ‘female narrative’ in the sense of its premise relying upon subtle action or internal conflict, but it certainly is one in the sense that it is about women. I would argue that, if anything, it is not the structure of the film that makes it ‘male’ or ‘female’, but rather the characters whose experiences it conveys.

Ocean’s 8 is a film about women.

It shows women seeking revenge, conning rich people out of thousands of dollars, and upholding their families’ honour. I don’t know what part of that can’t be feminine.

In fact, familial duty, betrayal, and desire for wealth are fairly common human experiences regardless of gender, so why shouldn’t a film about women include these themes too?

My point here is that narratives are not inherently gendered. There are certainly societal norms and conventions that filmmakers adhere to, but to label narrative structures as either ‘male’ or ‘female’ is to reinforce the binary system that we are fighting so hard to get rid of – the same system that once taught me that my career options ought to be restricted to ‘womanly’ pursuits like teaching, caring, or raising children. These are all very valid and fulfilling pursuits, don’t get me

wrong, but I no more want them to be my only options than I want to have my film choices confined to a particular narrative style.

I don’t want to feel like I need to jump over some kind of imaginary gender fence every time I watch an action film. I have never felt as represented and entertained whilst watching an action movie as I did when watching Ocean’s 8. For once, I didn’t have to struggle to relate to the characters on-screen; I was right there with Cate Blanchett, with Anne Hathaway, with Mindy Kaling, with Rihanna. I was represented on the big screen the whole way through that film, and in a three-dimensional, multi-faceted way. I got to watch people like me doing things I’d only ever seen men doing before, in storylines that I have always related to but never before been able to truly connect with. I watched as Sandra Bullock got payback and generally kicked ass. If there had been a burning building, you bet she would have walked away from it, sunglasses on.

Don’t try to tell me that this isn’t a female narrative. Better yet, don’t tell me that narratives conform to any gender at all.

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Of Labels and Indifference: Why Men don’t Fall into Categories Verónica Fraile del Álamo & Isabel Pfleger

CW: mentions of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and abuse.

We live in a world in which we like to divide people neatly into boxes. Good or bad; people can be one or the other. In the discourse surrounding the (mis)treatment of women, it is widely believed that men fall into one of two categories – the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’. The bad men are the ones that we as women are taught to avoid, the o n e s that

other men would acknowledge as being the perpetrators of bad actions against women. These are the men that society tells us do the raping and the abusing; they are the creeps and misogynists to whom other men compare themselves as adversaries. These adversaries are the ‘good guys’ (notice that in the discourse surround-

ing sexual assault in particular, this can often be a self-appointed title).

These men may see themselves as the defenders of women, or at a basic level, they know that women should be respected just like anyone else. As women, we are taught that these are the guys that we can trust; we grow up assured in the knowledge that they won’t hurt us.

Often, these ‘good guys’ are also who we refer to when saying that not all men harass, assault, or disrespect women.

And certainly, not all men mistreat women – it would be insulting and counterfactual to insinuate otherwise. However, as many women discover sooner or later, plenty of the so called ‘good guys’ also hold problematic views or damaging implicit attitudes towards women. The real world is a nuanced place, after all.

Real people don’t fit neatly into the confines of a good-bad binary like they so often do on TV or in books; reality is much more complex than fiction or stereotype.

The real world is full of ‘bad’ people who also do

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good, and ‘good’ people who also do bad things – and this is no different in the context of men’s interactions with others, including with women.

When we are young, our parents and teachers, the movies we see and the books that we read, all send us the message: “stay away from the wolf”. During childhood this can mean not talking to strangers on the street or accepting their gifts. As we grow up, the message becomes clear: stay away from the bad guys.

As long as you stay away from the ‘bad guys’, everything will be fine.

Accordingly, the men that I have dated have always been approved by family and friends as the right guy to have by your side – nice, respectful, responsible, and caring. I have always told myself that I won’t tolerate toxic or degrading behaviour and have been shocked to see some close friends – girls that I consider confident and empowered – put up with it. And yet, love (or the idea of it) makes you blind and I find myself reflecting on why we endure disrespect even when we know we deserve better.

Take, for example, my ex-boyfriend Zach*, whom I dated for almost a year. He was, by everyone’s admissions, a good guy – polite, nice, and respectful. He did all the things that we’re told a good guy is supposed to do, like introducing me to his friends and family, sharing the things that were important to him with me, and getting along well with my friends. But for all of the ‘right’ things that he was doing, I couldn’t shake off the fact that I felt bad. Why wasn’t I feeling confident about myself? More importantly, why was I putting up with feeling so bad?

I remember going on a trip together during which I got sick. I found myself having to go to hospital in a developing country, dealing with insurance and getting vaccinated. This entailed long hours spent waiting in the hospital and an awful number of calls to make sure everything worked as it should. While I was able to do this all on my own without issue, I would have appreciated more, even any, support from Zach.

Instead, he said, “I don’t need to be here for any of this, do I? I’d rather

take a nap”. And that’s exactly what he did. Now, I’m no damsel in distress but I wouldn’t have expected to be met with apathy in what was clearly a stressful situation – let alone from a guy that was by all accounts so ‘good’.

His behaviour did not include insults, emotional manipulation, or physical abuse, and yet I felt deeply betrayed by it. His (in)actions mirror something subtler and more pervasive – it is about trusting others with your vulnerability and having it met by indifference. Indifference can come in many forms: sharing something that is important to you and not getting a response, opening up about your insecurities and hearing back that they are justified, asking for help only to have your problems downplayed, and the list goes on.

But importantly, indifference becomes disrespect when your efforts to explain why these things make you feel unloved or unappreciated are met with disregard.

This is often played out as a battle of logic versus feelings, or logic versus subjective experience. It can seem all too common, that whether your explanations and complaints are met with a smile or frustration, even the ‘good guys’ resort to using logic (or some interpretation of it) against you – you are simply being ‘irrational’. There’s something about being told or treated as though the way you feel makes no logical sense, and that you are being overly sensitive, that is infantilising. It is as if you were that little girl again, being told that everything will be fine if you just stay away from the big bad wolf. Only that now you know this isn’t true.

Relationships are not about logic, and it is unrealistic and unhealthy that anyone should have to bottle their feelings from their partner/s.

A partner should be someone supportive and respectful, and above all, should not be indifferent to the way that you feel. But when one of the closest people in your life – someone that your friends and family love and trust – responds to you as though you are crazy, you often end up asking yourself whether they can really be wrong. Consequently, many women find themselves putting up with men’s indifference by

bottling up our feelings and our frustration.

This indifference – the failure to attribute worth to your exp e r ie n ces and take your feelings seriously – can occur i n a myriad of settings, both directly and indirectly. My friend Fred*, for example, is a great person. We’ve been friends for many years, and sometimes know each other better than we know ourselves. The reason I am telling you about him (other than to highlight a functioning, male-female platonic relationship), is that, for all of his virtues, Fred holds some attitudes towards women that I find highly troublesome. Though he doesn’t subscribe to an obvious all-women-belongin-the-kitchen sort of approach, Fred exhibits more implicit, specific attitudes – sentiments that have only slowly been revealed over the years.

Fred is by many accounts a modern man: he is looking for an equal partnership when it comes to romance, and on a broader scale believes in equality for all genders.

It is shocking then, to hear him describe the emotional wounds that his girlfriend carries from a previous, abusive relationship as an ‘imperfection’ (his exact words were “nobody is perfect”). I find myself struggling to reconcile the friend that I like and trust with this alarmingly unsympathetic view towards something that is a formational and traumatising experience in the life of many women – including the girlfriend that he deeply loves and

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otherwise respects. What I want to stress here is that, while his view is shocking and personally hurtful (I myself carry around the emotional wounds that he denigrates), this could be forgiven if only he would listen. After all, he has fortunately never had a similar experience from which to draw a shared understanding (though many men have).

When men are raised in a culture that regards their needs and experiences as the norm, it can be a strange and confronting proposition that other people’s lives are often shaped by situations that they may not even be aware of, let alone have faced. It can be difficult to believe what you can’t see, but being blind to something does not negate its existence. If Fred would just listen when I explain to him why his views are problematic, if he would just believe my testimony though he has none of his own, then all of this wouldn’t be such a big issue. But it is the somewhat bemused indifference with which he met my clarification that makes me question what actually makes this ‘good guy’ so different from all of the other men who have expressed their lack of understanding as a lack of empathy to me before.

The inability of those close to you to empathise with your situation serves only to deepen the wounds that you carry. This is all the truer when it comes from the men that we love and trust, who we know to be other wise good

and caring people. We all have that male friend, that family member, perhaps that (ex)boyfriend who is by no means objectively ‘bad’, yet seems to hold certain, if implicit, detrimental attitudes when it comes to women. These attitudes are hurtful, not so much because they are disrespectful (though this is an issue in and of itself), but because the men behind these attitudes often downplay or fail to comprehend their damaging nature even after being made aware of it.

We by no means think nor intend to say that all men are bad, just that categorising men into ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ is reductionist and unrealistic. As we have become aware through our own experiences, it is too simplistic to equate a ‘good guy’ label with a warranty of ‘good’ behaviour only. All people are nuanced, complex beings. Inevitably, all people will eventually fail to live up (or down) to the labels they are associated with. Our issue with the ‘good guy’ concept is two-fold: women who experience bad behaviour at the hands of ‘good guys’ often find themselves torn between their hurt feelings and the attributes that make a guy ‘good’; being characterised as a ‘good guy’ may bias others to downplay or justify bad behaviour. For women who are already questioning whether their feelings are warranted, given that they are not

dealing with someone demonstrably bad, hearing the ‘good guy’ rhetoric from others does not help.

While we want to stress that we do not think that all men are disappointing or bad, we conversely do not accept the behaviours and attitudes espoused by men (no matter how nuanced) that are inherently damaging or disrespectful towards women (or anyone). This can place us in a confusing position, in which we grapple (often unsatisfyingly) with balancing our right and need to be truly understood with maintaining our connections to the men that we like, even love, who – for varying reasons – can fail to empathise with us. We do not have all of the answers. Ultimately, choices will be made by each individual as to whether the indifference we receive regarding issues of fundamental importance to us is tolerable, or whether it makes a relationship untenable (or even where the line between tolerance and untenability falls). What we do know is that the ‘good guy’ rhetoric surrounding men’s interactions with and attitudes towards women is misleading. All humans are too complex to be defined by labels; the idea of the ‘good guy’ as we know it is a myth. *Names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals

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Duck Lips: Selfies from SelfPortraits Alessandra Panizza

Duck lips. While I can’t personally see its aesthetic value, the thing that disturbs me the most about the entire phenomenon, is that the second most prominent thing about it (aside from the visual itself) is the constant ridicule directed at young women from grown-ass men. In a very Baudrillardian way, it is not the original duck lips themselves that I remember, but its simulacrum, its imitations by the ‘funny dudes’ I’d watch on YouTube, like Ray William Johnson or Smosh or whoever else.

And, in a feverish attempt to rise to their extremely refined standards of social critique, I would laugh along at these silly vain girls. I never once questioned the fact that people who had entire YouTube channels consisting of videos where the camera is pointed at their performative face were demeaning young girls for their performativity.

directly to do with selfies, and I suspect it was named as much just to exploit the pop-cultural capital of the word ‘selfie’. It essentially used it to title a show that re-inforces the notion that the non-traditional route of achieving social and financial security through one’s image is inherently shameful – because that is supposedly not what strong smart people do.

What this assertion conveniently neglects to consider, is the prominence of the selfie – more traditionally known as the self-portrait – throughout art history. Have you

This is a general trend I’ve noticed: the shame around selfies and their association with vanity, self-absorption, and attention seeking. I think it’s appropriate here to quote directly from a recent Instagram selfie caption of mine: “When I was like 13-18(?) I thought selfies were soooo shameful and vain or whatever, but now I know that’s just internalised misogyny and this is way more fun”.

There you have it! Article over.

Well, not quite. There is some interesting evidence in favour of this conclusion: have you ever heard of the TV show Selfie? It’s awful, so don’t bother. Basically, it’s about a girl who is social-media obsessed. A successful ‘marketing man’ converts her into a good old classy woman and, in the process, you guessed it – he falls in love with her, or more accurately, who he is turning her into.

The programme itself has nothing

1. Above: https://visitcanberra.com. au/canberra-region/national-parks-and-nature-reserves 2. Left: https://waldina. com/2017/03/30/happy-164thbirthday-vincent-van-gogh/

trekked through the Brindabellas to get to the Yankee Hat indigenous rock art site, and while you were there, did you snicker at their vanity: all the art they could have drawn, and they drew themselves and their marital ceremonies?1 Did you call Van Gogh vain while admiring his plethora of self-portraits?2 Perhaps I am getting a little too ad-hominem here, but allow me this: if the difference is that the examples I just gave are skilful works of art, since when did the National Portrait Gallery get bulldozed?

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3. Left: https://publicdomainreview. org/collections/robert-cornelius-self-portrait-the-firstever-selfie-1839/ 4. Above: https://www.impericon-mag. com/au/6-incredibly-emothings-we-cant-do-anymore/

Selfies are not a new phenomenon born out of the self-obsessed ‘Age of Instagram’. In fact, they have been around since the art of photography was invented. Here is the first known selfie… 3 #lofi #alt #indie #tumblr #grunge #aesthetic #35mm #film Now he was most likely just an attention whore. Hopefully, however, this proves at least part of my point: selfies are not just a vapid pre-occupation. They can be, and are, works of art. Not everyone can take a good selfie. It requires knowledge of lighting and angles – which, interestingly, often coincide with film and cinematographic technique.

Remember the emo MySpace era, where selfies were taken from as far as your arms would extend upwards and outwards – the famous

‘MySpace angle’? This parallels the concept of the high-angle shot in film, where the positioning of the subject relative to the camera renders the subject small, vulnerable, and begetting of more sympathy and affection.4 Not just to be appreciated aesthetically, selfies can have a social and political impact just as any other form of art can. The term ‘art hoe’ may, to those who are deep in the Instagram and Tumblr aesthetic pages, bring to mind white girls in overalls and Van Gogh socks, Tyler the Creator’s Flower Boy, and Dodie-yellow (a reference to a popular YouTuber and musician, Dodie Smith, and her aesthetic).5

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5. Right: http://i.imgur.com/jk9ocEc. png

6. Left: @arthoecollective on Instagram 7. Right: @arthoecollective on Instagram

But this aesthetic is a usurpation of a legitimate movement, the Art Hoe Collective, created by and for queer POCs as a method of representation and empowerment.6 Founded by a 15-year-old girl, the movement involves artists of colour, in their selfies and unique methods of editing said selfies, reclaiming their bodies, which have historically been either unacknowledged or fetishized.7 The Art Hoe Collective (prior to its re-appropriation) is, in my opinion, just a small example of not only the artistic and political power of selfies, but the general artistic trend towards self-portraiture in all art forms. From confessional poetry (think of Sylvia Plath’s solipsistic Ariel poems), to the explosive popularity of vlogging and insta-blogging, to reality TV, to

niche memes, and to selfies – the artistic eye is increasingly finding itself as the muse. I personally, with much frustration, have found that every story I write features a protagonist that is just one of the different iterations of myself. I don’t think I’m alone – particularly because, as I have witnessed in my English literature classes here at ANU, so often we either apply the author’s life to the interpretation of the text, or use the text to interpret the author’s life (to the chagrin of our Professors). Roland Barthes, when he proclaimed the death of the author, did not realise how nosy we are – but that’s a hyperbolic over-simplification of his theory. Perhaps we are simply now coming to realise that the most nuanced character that we can ever hope to portray is our self.

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Two Elastic Straps Cecelia Charlotte

Two elastic straps The oppression of women Dangerous wild girl

play hide and seek with them if I don’t want to?

Freedom outside here The ultimate feminine?

Hard nipples in sight Is it safe without No protective padding on Sagging tits out on display Joyous bounce of chest To societal disgust Only freedom awaits Bras are treated by society much like shoes – a predetermined necessity. And yet, bras are a requisite applicable to only about half of the population. When girls begin to develop breast tissue in early puberty, they’re told that it should be contained. There’s this mad idea that breasts should be perky and round, but that cleavage should not be on display – breasts are supposed to be ‘perfect’ yet hidden. In the eyes of some, breasts are not to be enjoyed or celebrated by women, nor even suckled on by babies in public. A pervasive sexualisation of these biological appendages makes it inappropriate for the owner to express how they like to keep them.

Instead, they should be contained in a god-awful underwire contraption that makes them uniform and inconspicuous – a private mystery for only lovers to reveal.

Their biological purpose long for-

gotten, breasts have become a matter of public opinion and an entity of society. They are no longer a personal extension of feminine soul and freedom, nor the bosom of nourishment they were designed to be. I’m not saying that lovers shouldn’t enjoy the breasts of their partners, but simply that the owner should be able to freely enjoy them too. Society’s expectations about what we should do with something as personal as our body stomps on my toes.

I’m sick of having throbbing toes and constricted tits. My breasts belong to no-one but me, so why am I forced to

While I don’t believe that men are solely to blame for the way that women continue to feel about their bodies today, it is historically relevant to point out that once upon a time (and to this day in some communities), womankind belonged to the male creature. Indeed, that context may have determined that our looks and our breasts were for our lovers’ eyes only. Since then, however, women have fought hard t o win the rights that we now have.

And yet, the independence that w e have

gained often does not extend to our bodies. We should be free to choose what we do with our own anatomy without fear of negative social consequences.

I find myself struggling to understand why we feel the need to tame our bodies.

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Do we submit to society’s expectations and forego the space that we crave because we are eager to please? Do we, in this day and age, still feel as though we need to be kept? Why must something that is intrinsically human and that is capable of feeding our children be altered, shaped, perfected, and hidden? Women have always been at the centre of humanity – holding space, bearing children and/or raising them in society; we have been sages and shamans, the most innate of healers. We are the mothers of humankind, so why do the expectations of societies that we literally bring into life limit our rights and our freedom? We should not feel pressured into conforming to societal standards that undermine our liberty of choice and the autonomy over our bodies.

In writing this, I invite you, owner of breasts, to do what you like with them. I personally don’t enjoy bras unless they are of the wire-free, see-through lace variety, but you can and should wear whatever you want to wear (or not wear, as the case may be). You may not share my beliefs about bra wearing, and that’s okay – we should each take time to construct our own opinions on topics like this. However, I feel a need to speak out for those who also perceive bras as oppressive, but who may feel that they cannot verbalise this view.

Alongside our societal fear of free breasts, I believe it is important to address our hesitance towards ditching the norm. Ultimately, this hesitance reflects a fear of each other and of the very human judgements that we all make. While we all have our personal tastes and ideas, taking a moment to consider how many judgements we make (or try to avoid) may help us to afford ourselves and others more freedom of choice regarding our appearances and our bodies. Imagine if we all just embraced one another’s natural appearance; imagine if no woman or girl felt that she had to wear makeup, or shave all of her body hair, or wear a bra.

Imagine all of the other things that women could focus their attention and power on!

As women, we have a right to live

our truths.

We ought to embody what we feel and follow our true north when it comes to expressing our biology. Are bras part of your dream path, when you consider them outside of constructed societal values?

Personally, they’re not a part of mine. So, allow yourself to bounce through life with your nipples exposed if you like – your breasts are as much a part of you as your eyes and your teeth. Blaze your own trail. Seize the day.

Freed women run on Bouncing tits out on display Empowered goddess Her body burning Wild and enlightened magic Alchemist at heart No longer restrained The grasp of society No longer obeyed Her bosom alight Beautiful, wild and free girl At one with nature

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Ask Bossy

My sleep schedule is all over the place. Do I just resign to staying up until 2am most nights and waking up late even though I feel like I’m missing most of the day, or try to shift my body clock?

If you’re anything like most uni kids these days, you’re not alone.

As someone who needs 9 hours of sleep a night to function adequately, I can totally relate. It’s not just about nice smells and comfy PJs (though, those things obviously help). It can often be more related to where your mind/body is at.

Firstly, I’d encourage you to think about what is keeping you up. If it is swirling thoughts in your head, I’d recommend writing them down in a brain dump or creating a quick to-do list for the next day.

If you’re having trouble sleeping, get up/walk around/get a drink of water and flip your pillow to the cold side. Keeping devices away from your bed and establishing a wind-down routine can also help.

Definitely make sure to check out ‘sleep hygiene’ techniques on the web for more info and see what works for you!

Eleanor xx

How do we feel about the song Female by Keith Urban? Was the backlash it received warranted? Keith didn’t write the song and said he hadn’t even heard of the #metoo movement when he recorded the song (which has got to be bullshit as he’s married to a Hollywood A Lister). Is he just taking advantage of the feminist movement to sell more records or is he an ally to the cause?

Look, I’m going to go out on a limb here in support of Keith (and not just because of the mullet haired memory of his younger years). Keith has been a longtime supporter of feminism, and as he says, he lives “in a house that’s all girls. So this song speaks to [him] on a lot of levels”. He’s demonstrated his dedication to the cause time and time again.

I mean, he is always an advocate for a country girl in a cornfield – supporting rare images of women in agricultural industries whilst also representing the often-overlooked intersection of females and rural and regional contexts.

Was it not Keith who condemned that ‘stupid boy’ in his 2006 hit,

“Stupid Boy”? Hence, referencing the blanket of idiocy that cloaks all men. How about when he heroized female humanitarian aid workers whilst raising awareness about the global refugee crisis in Drop Top, singing ‘She’s on mission, you can see/ She’s just gotta be free/ Red lips on a refugee’.

So no, Keith doesn’t need to know about some ‘underground’ movement like #metoo, and certainly isn’t cashing in on feminist trends. When you look at the big picture, you might even say it was he who set them. *Tips my hat* Bonnie Xx

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Is it biphobic to think that I face more discrimination or homophobic-related issues (like having to come out to family because there’ll never be a husband in the mix) because I’m homosexual?

also feel like they “have” to come out. Realistically you can’t compare different experiences of oppression.

Nevertheless, I think that lesbians do face a lot of different facets of discrimination, and that some might face more discrimination or hardships than others.

I’ll start this off with a disclaimer - I don’t identify as bisexual, and tend to identify more closely with being gay/ lesbian.

It’s valid to feel like as a lesbian you experience significant discrimination or homophobia, whether that’s feeling like you have to come out to your family, or that you feel excluded when women talk about their attraction to men. I’m sure there are plenty of lesbians who wish they were bisexual and vice versa, but that doesn’t mean that one experience is easier than the other.

I think it’s important to remember that individual people have different experiences of sexuality; one lesbian might find that being a lesbian is comparatively easy for them, while another might find it really hard to come to grips with being gay because of their upbringing or their circumstances. Likewise, one bisexual person might not struggle with their sexuality, while another might feel like they face discrimination at every turn.

Being bisexual can definitely mean that you “have” to come out to your parents at some point. Coming out to your parents as bisexual can, in many ways, be more challenging, as bisexuality is commonly misunderstood. Many bisexual women find themselves in long-term relationships with women, so they may

My advice would be to try not to compare your experience with that of other queer people, whether they are bi or gay.

Also, don’t feel like you have to come out before you feel ready, or that you have to ever, either.

Hope things get easier!

Juliette xx

I follow several friends and family members on Instagram who are crap at it (to put it bluntly).

What is more ethical: continue to follow them but use the new mute function so I don’t have to see their weird portraits taken at unflattering angles; or just unfollow as their shit content doesn’t deserve the number of followers they currently have and I don’t need it in my feed/ life? Yours sincerely, someone who was on the ‘gram before it was cool.

Ethical? Question your purpose on social media, find enlightenment, and with each rejection of superficiality, rid the world of evil.

Love, Sayler

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Living the Libra Lie Isabella Keith

After 20 years of diligently reading Libra horoscopes each morning, and constantly dropping the phrase “I just really hate confrontation” into conversation, a local ANU student has been exposed as actually being a Virgo, in a recent investigation conducted by Bossy.

Bossy attained exclusive access to the woman in question’s Co-Star account, which confirmed the accusation. Her sun sign was revealed to, in fact, be strongly in Virgo, without a hint of Libra in the rest of her chart.

also learnt that the woman even attempted to falsely emulate Libra traits.

A trusted source close to the accused revealed, “She would always go on about how she was such a social butterfly, but then we’d find her reading in bed with a cup of tea before 10pm every single Thursday night. It was then that she conveniently revealed to us that she’s apparently ‘on the cusp,’ which prompted us to investigate further.”

The woman, wishing to remain anonymous, initially tried to defend herself against the accusations, revealing to Bossy in a one-on-one interview, “It’s not my fault I was born on the cusp.

Sometimes I even read both the Libra and Virgo horoscopes and decide which one I prefer. Besides, I was born premature, so I’m basically meant to be a Libra anyway!”

Following the findings, a representative from the ANU Libra Society has revealed the woman has since been forced to resign from the society’s executive, following an anonymous tipoff. They noted, “Whilst we completely understand the natural desire to be a Libra instead of a Virgo, the ANULS has a zero-tolerance policy for Libra imposters. We are also currently reviewing our application process and adding a Birth Chart Expert onto our Association’s Executive.”

Upon further investigation, Bossy has

The ANU Virgo Association is yet to

respond to a request for comment, but their automatic email response reads, “We are currently dealing with a high volume of inquiries relating to a recent influx of Virgos posing as Libras. We appreciate your patience at this time.”

Upon further prompting, the accused eventually revealed the truth in a tearful admission to Bossy. Speaking candidly, she admitted, “I already know I’m an anxious, self-critical mess. My psychologist likes to constantly remind me of that. I don’t need my star sign to tell me as well. Is it really so bad to want to be a Libra?”

When asked if she had any final comments, the accused sniffled, “All that horoscope stuff is bullshit anyway…at least I’m not a Gemini.”

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A Roadmap to Creative Pursuits: GCBRV Interview by Elizabeth Harris

I sat down with embroidery extraordinaire Astrid Barta, founder and needle threader of Good Canberra Vibes aka GCBRV, to learn more about her craft, vibing with other artists, and how a historically ‘women’s’ activity makes her feel like a boss-assbusiness-bitch.

and fostering friendships online, has created a kind of ‘scene’ in Canberra for me. Posting to Instagram drives me to keep making things. It’s part of the business in a way, having this social media presence, especially as I don’t have a shop or consistent physical presence. I enjoy doing it – I don’t know if that’s selling myself too much.

*** Do you think art school has made you a better artist?

I’m doing a Bachelor of Visual Arts with sculpture as my major. It’s definitely made me look at art making in general and how it’s seen in the world. It’s changed how I speak about art and validate making art for myself.

A lot of the imagery you use is very Canberra specific, like Clem Cummings’ bus stops and Telstra Tower. What has been the effect of living in Canberra on your art, and why do you think such icons have become so omniscient in Canberra youth culture?

Personally, being a Canberra girl, I’m aware that we’re not in a big city. Everyone goes through a stage of hating Canberra and being like ‘no, I want to leave and go to the big smoke’, but I think there’s been a reclaiming of Canberra.

People have changed and started saying ‘all of these weird little quirky things in Canberra are great, so we’re going to

make it its own thing’. I’m not trying to put Canberra on the map, but utilise the things around Canberra in a good way.

You use social media (particularly Instagram) to promote your business. How do you think social media is affecting the creative arts in Canberra, not only in terms of inspiration and cross-fertilisation between artists, but also in terms of facilitating successful creative businesses?

Seeing people’s work [on Instagram]

You are deeply embedded in the Canberra arts scene, having collaborated with Degenerate & Six, Art Not Apart, and the Lonsdale Street Markets. What is the importance of these collaborations for your creative process and the promotion of your business?

I’ve definitely done some stuff I didn’t think I’d do when I started this, like Degenerate & Six. Meeting people was a highlight. I’m pretty introverted and normally in my bedroom embroidering, so it brings me out and gets me vibing off peoples’ energies. Having a common working space allowed me to see all the good things happening in Canberra. I got to do an embroidery workshop, so having the opportunity to further what I do in my business was really cool. I was nervous to do [the workshop], because I didn’t know if people would be into it. But people were really into it. It was good for me to teach people, as I started

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embroidery by looking up YouTube videos. It was nice sitting in a big circle and doing it together.

Was your reappropriation of embroidery, traditionally considered ‘women’s work’, a purposefully feminist act?

You can’t gloss over the feminine history of it. It was definitely female heavy in the workshops which was cool – there was a family of a grandmother, mother and child. I don’t know if there’s pressure there [with regard to it being a ‘gendered’ practice]. There are definitely a lot of male and non-binary people who are killing it in embroidery! I think there is natural change happening so I don’t know that there has to be a push for change.

How did you go about commercialising your work?

I was always selling stuff – always commercial. I had a plain tote bag and I was like ‘I want to try embroidery, so I’ll put something on this to have as a personal object’. Then I started making more tote bags. I was just selling to friends on the cheap and doing exchanges. A friend at the time was doing prints and drawings and they said we should do a market together. Our first market was Art Not Apart. I started making more and selling through Instagram and Etsy. Now I just sell online or at markets.

Have commercial pressures changed the way you create?

Have you regretted any of these changes?

Yes. I’ve stopped doing commissions right now. The thing about commissions is that someone will come to me and say, ‘I really like your work, can you do this for me?’. Sometimes they push me to do something different, which can be good for me, but, I kind of got sick of pleasing people.

Every time I make something, I don’t know if people will like it or want to buy it, but I think I’ve gotten to a good place of keeping myself happy, and if people appreciate my craft then that’s great.

Where do you think your business will go after you graduate, and how do you predict your practice will evolve?

Embroidery is a skill I’ll take with me, even in my art practice in sculpture. I’m very into creative, practical stuff so I’ll always have my hands on something. I’m not really looking five years ahead. When I started there were things I didn’t think I’d do that I’ve now done, so in the years to come there may be other things.

I enjoy what I’ve made out of this business. It’s a nice thing that I juggle with a lot of other things like uni and my actual job. I think if I move cities I can’t really call it Good Canberra Vibes anymore. I’ve gone to other cities and done markets, so there is definitely a market reach in a couple of places.

Is an ‘all or nothing’ approach to an artistic career a good idea or are back-ups necessary as financial safety nets?

I think putting your creative energy into a couple of things is better. If something really takes off, you can readjust. Saying to yourself ‘OK, I’ll put myself into this fully today and do something else after because I need to make money’ is good. I didn’t have a job for about two years, so my job was doing embroidery and that would be some pocket money on the side. People would ask me if I made enough to sustain my life and I’d say no because some days I would make heaps and some days I wouldn’t. I’m really happy with how I juggle everything now.

How does your practice empower you?

Running my own business makes me feel like a boss-ass-business-bitch. I feel like I’m not being greedy or selfish, but taking my time doing one thing for myself. I get a good public response from what I do, so it makes me feel like I’m doing something positive even though it’s for myself. That’s really empowering.

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Do you have any advice for fellow creatives who are eager to build a business around their work, but aren’t sure how?

I think visibility on Instagram is pretty effective. I’d encourage you to put yourself out there – it might be scary but you can learn a lot. Just keep at your practice even if things go badly. If you fail, it doesn’t really matter, at least you tried. Keep your passion up! *** Bus stops, girl power, embroidery, and the nation’s capital: this is GCBRV. Seeing how Astrid has woven together creative quirks and an emphasis on locality (with commercial success to boot!) has me longing to pick up a needle and thread. All I can say is keep on stitchin’, because we’re loving these Great Astrid Vibes.

Support Astrid and GCBRV on Instragram, Facebook, Tictail and Etsy.

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A Guide to AbleismFree Language Issy Ingram

CW: discussion and examples of ableist language Language that is ableist devalues people who have a physical or mental disability. Though the use of such words is rarely intentionally offensive, they inadvertently perpetuate damaging ideas of what is and isn’t normal, stigmatise certain characteristics, and can marginalise those with disabilities. Such words and phrases are so common in the speaking world today that it has become difficult for people with disabilities to ask for the respect of using different ones.

My eldest sibling, Alexander, is twenty-two years old and has cerebral palsy spastic quadriplegia. He has to use a wheelchair to success-

fully navigate and interact with our ableist society. The ever-present ableism in the way we talk will always perplex him, as an aspect of his disability is his muteness. As his proud baby sister, I took on the task of substituting ableist vocabulary for respectful speech myself, and I paid the price.

High school is difficult as it is. In fighting for the rights of any minority group, including the disability community, you give bullies ammunition. My bullies knew how to hurt me and it was through their ableist language. “You’re a spastic!” and “you’re a retard!” became their favourite phrases to lure me into a verbal fight. These were especially hurtful as “spastic” and “retard” are references to the disa-

bilities my brother has. Slowly, after many fights that left me breathless and red in the cheeks, my bullies won silence from me, at least until the end of high school. Now, two years on, I’ve been an advocate for the disability community at my on-campus residential hall for 18 months and vocal promoter of disability related material on social media.

It can be incredibly difficult to remove words from our daily use when they’ve become so embedded in how we talk. Lucky for you, I’ve been researching and collating a helpful guide since my high school years.

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If something is frustrating, if something is perplexing – “this is so stupid!” – consider: • Frustrating • Pointless • Annoying • Irritating • Obnoxious

If you want to intensify something – “she’s a crazy good artist!” – consider: • Really • Very • Intensely • Wicked • Amazingly

If something is intense – “wow, this is crazy!” – consider: • Intense • Awesome • Wild • Fascinating • Hectic

If something is absurd – “you’re crazy?!” – consider: • Unreasonable • Absurd • Outrageous • Unacceptable • Ridiculous

If something is bad, if something is unpleasant – “ugh, this is so lame!”

– consider: • Bad • Awful • Uncool • Gross • The pits

If you want to describe someone as bad, dangerous – “they’re psychotic!” – consider: • Dangerous • Menacing • Threatening • Evil • Murderous

If you want to describe someone who is doing something dorky – “are they retarded or something?”

– consider: • Silly • Dorky • Cheesy • Nonsensical • Illogical If you want to describe something that is difficult to understand – “this essay question is just crazy” – consider: • Fathomless • Daunting • Overwhelming • Bizarre Changing the language we use can be difficult, however, it’s important to do so. We need to ensure an accessible and inclusive environment for those from the disability community to thrive and be respected like the rest of us.

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35. Just In: Greenpeace to Thank Self-Proclaimed Instagram Influencers for Reversing Pollution by Way of Re-Usable Straws 36. Feminism and the Fitness Industry 38. The Graia and Medusa 41. Glass Half Full: An Interview with Maddie Cardone 44. Women in Film – Lifting Hollywood’s Act 46. Teaching the Teacher: Changing the Status Quo in Academia 48. Royalty and Regulation: A Feminist Appraisal of Elizabeth 1 50. Antiquity, The Ancient Past and the History of the Silenced Woman 52. Empowerment and the Environment – How Sustainable Living is Feminist Living 54. Silence Maintains the Status Quo 57. It Was Not Her Fault 58. From Amateur to Artist 60. The Corporatisation of Feminism

2. Cluster: Massive star

(birth of the star: balanced inward and outward pull forces that are stable and fused) It took some time to come to terms with who I really was. I surely believed that I was the only one, yet they found me and they showed me there’s more than just me…

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Just In: Greenpeace to Thank SelfProclaimed Instagram Influencers for Reversing Pollution by Way of ReUsable Straws Julia Lindblom In a world first, Greenpeace has pledged to thank Instagram influencers for their rapid reversal of global pollution. This motion was prompted by a record-breaking number of Instagram posts featuring attractive, young, white people with really good teeth posing on beaches, which somehow resulted in pollution being cleared from the oceans.

Bossy had the privilege of sitting down with Georgia Shaw (@GeorgiaIsHotStuff), a Canberra-based social media influencer and ANU student, over a smoothie at ANU Coffee Grounds yesterday after the Greenpeace announcement made headlines that morning. Although Georgia didn’t have her re-usable straw for the interview, she laughed it off and reminded us that “[the straw movement] is all about visibility anyway.”

When questioned on why she felt it necessary to constantly spam her friends’ Instagram feeds with countless posts sponsored by re-usable straw manufacturers, Georgia said that “even though I never really use straws except, like, when they get put in my Moose basics, I thought it was super important for my personal brand to carry re-usable ones with me at all times.”

We then asked how she to the

about reac ted release of Greenpeace’s groundbreaking statement. Georgia said she was “so thrilled,” as she realized that this kind of endorsement would “give my profile such insane traction!” She also added that

the turtles would probably also be benefiting, but that she didn’t really know for sure yet and would have to read more Buzzfeed articles to find out.

Some backlash has been received in response to the Greenpeace/Insta-Influencers partnership, mainly coming from a small but vocal group of Instagram keep-cup promoters. One user, who requested to remain anonymous because their follower count has been dropping since the keep-cup trend lost its novelty in November 2017, bitterly remarked, “us keep-cuppers started this movement, and should be getting recognition for our hard work.”

Bossy notes that this was a brave comment to make considering that, although the keep-cup movement was the first mainstream attempt at tokenistic environmentalism, the straw-saga has now clearly outdone the original trend. At its peak, the #strawssuck hashtag garnered 12,000 more posts a day than the #keepyourcup hashtag ever did.

One of the mega-companies behind the re-usable straw business is Suck Me Off – an entrepreneurial venture

by Mike Hall and Jacob Small. When asked about why they got into the market, Hall and Small said their motivation was the need for global-scale action to occur, the type that is best prompted by white men who

know nothing of environmental conservation. “You know that one video that everyone shares that has the straw being pulled out of the turtle’s nose?

Yeah, that really grossed me out, hey,” said Mike, “I needed that off my feed.”

Upon being pressed on the fact that other forms of plastic are much bigger contributors to pollution in oceans than straws, and the fact that their company manufactures straws in a factory that is powered by coal and doesn’t safely dispose of chemical waste, Jacob became very defensive.

“Yeah, but I mean, how could you make an appealing Insta on industrial waste? No one wants to see that.”

Though our interviewer politely tried to point out that plastic straws only account for 2000 kilograms of the 8 million tons of plastic waste entering the ocean annually, this was quickly dismissed as “not being the point.”

The full benefits of the straw-saga are yet to be uncovered, but at least we know a small group of people are benefiting from it financially. Now, that is something that all of us – and the turtles – should be celebrating.

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Feminism and the Fitness Industry Joanna Gaze Artwork by Georgie Kamvissis

Being a feminist and working in the fitness industry often feels like something of an oxymoron.

I teach group fitness created by LesMills – a hugely successful international company. They recently collaborated with Nina Dobrev, and as a successful Hollywood actress, she has a remarkably similar body type to many of the most visible members of the LesMills team.

impact I can make in the fitness industry is through my dayto-day interactions with members who come to my classes. I try to infuse my feminist ideals into the classes I

I’ve made my peace with the fact that I have too much body fat – which honestly isn’t a lot – to progress far

within the company.

As a result, I know that the only

deli v e r.

They may seem small, but they’re big to me and I always hope that they make

a difference to even one person in my class.

The first ideal is very simple – I don’t police how I look. Back before I was the instructor, another instructor I looked up to (partially because she was also a queer woman, but that’s a story for another time) never shaved and wore crop tops during summer despite having a ‘muffin top’.

She not only inspired me to become a fitness instructor, but also showed me that the superficial side of fitness didn’t matter – we come to the gym to get fitter and stronger.

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Now, that doesn’t mean I wear literally anything to my class. I wear a full outfit of quality fitness clothing and I’m the only person I know who buys Lorna Jane and then actually exercises in it. The difference, is that I don’t let things like my body shape, the fact that all my muscles are well-hidden under a layer of fat, or even body hair, get in the way of what I wear on stage. Other women with my body type may never dream of wearing tiny booty shorts and a crop top with unshaved legs and armpits to the gym, let alone standing on stage and having 30 odd people look at them for an hour. It’s not everyday, but I don’t think ‘I can’t wear this outfit because it makes me look fat’ or ‘I have to shave my armpits for my class tomorrow’.

I also make a conscious decision to mix femininity with strength in the way I dress. In a barbell class, I lift weights similar to the strongest men in class and more than almost every female instructor I’ve met. Standing on stage squatting 30kg for six minutes straight is impressive enough, but doing it with pigtails, pink floral tights and sparkly painted nails sends a very different message.

Others have suggested to me that the way I dress undermines my au-

thority in my class, but I’m already on stage with a microphone telling everyone what to do. I want the men and women in my class to know that strength and femininity are not mutually exclusive. Hopefully anyone who looks at me and assumes I’d be weak learns a lesson.

The second thing I do is remove any reference to weight loss from the things I say. About 8 months ago, I was training to become an instructor in a new program, and as part of a gruelling two-day training we spent some time discussing

how to motivate participants. One of the first things my trainer (a man built like a superhero who was one of those people higher up in the LesMills food chain) suggested was telling people about the calories they’re burning and how much weight they’ll loose. I immediately said, “I don’t use coaching like that because I don’t believe it should be the sole reason for exercise.” He told me, not in so many words, that I shouldn’t bring my personal values into my class; I should talk about loosing weight and looking good because it’s what people want.

Before becoming an instructor myself, hearing perfectly sculpted instruc tors (often men) tell me e v e r y w e e k h o w

these squats are going to get me the ‘perfect summer body’ made me grow to resent those instructors.

Yes, a side effect of doing a barbell or a cycling class is that your ass and legs might look better in shorts during summer, but I never cared about that. Tell me how I’m improving my fitness and potentially extending my life! The LesMills trainer’s words only strengthened

my resolve. If someone can’t make it though a class without an aesthetic motivation, then my classes are not for them.

I refuse to compromise my feminism to cater to the worst habits of the fitness industry. In working in such a toxic industry that has spent decades telling people, particularly women, that they’re bodies aren’t good enough, I refuse to set aside what I believe in. If even one person in one of my classes comes away from it thinking about how much stronger and healthier they will be, rather than how much better they’ll look, it will be worth it.

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The Graia and Medusa Mel Martinez They call us grey and haggard; unworthy of their society. But, did we ask to be born this way? No. It seems our rejected fate was chosen for us.

They call us monsters - ostracise us and our sisters. Our mother tells us that we are like this for a reason, but I cannot find the good that Keto speaks of!

Our sister Medusa… once a loyal Priestess of Athena, punished for laying with Poseidon. Deformed so that no living thing can ever look upon her face without turning to stone. Were it not for us bringing her to our island of Cisthene, the people that once adored her beauty would have stopped at nothing to kill her!

The infamous Graiai sisters live on the

edge of the Cisthene coast, in a regal home perched on a cliff overlooking the sea. Enyo ‘the warlike’ was the most protective of the three who would stop at nothing to protect their family. Deino was named ‘the terrible’ by the local people, which was in itself a misunderstanding. Deino was named as such by her mother as ‘the clever’; she was the most cunning of the Graiai. Then, there was Pemphredo; ‘she who shows the way’. Pemphredo was the one who kept the Graiai and all children of Keto united. The sisters might be blind except for their shared eye, but no one could deny their cunning, sharp minds.

They arrived at Athena’s temple just as a heavy rain began to pour upon the roof.

The Graiai banded together and cautiously followed Pemphredo to the alter.

“We’re here sisters. If you place your

hand out in front of you, you will find the surface of the alter. Lets place our offerings. I will light the incense.” Upon these instructions Pemphredo began to open a bag of offerings.

They all wanted to believe that the wise war-goddess would pity them. But if the Graiai understood anything, it was that members of their family were never treated fairly or favourably. Beauty went far with the mortals and gods alike, and though the children of Keto and Phorkys were strong and formidable, they lacked that prized beauty. The sisters hastily stacked their items upon the alter.

Meats, gold, and other precious items were placed down until the structure was nearly overflowing. Pemphredo took her sisters’ hands. All were trembling with a distinct mix of grief and fear.

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Pemphredo began the prayer to Athena.

“Wise Athena, we plead for your assistance. Our beloved sister has been slaughtered in her sleep. Our family is broken. We’ll do anything to have our Medusa back again.”

Suddenly, they could hear light footsteps approaching. Deino scrambled for the eye and held it to her face. She saw a brilliant light, then a figure came into view – a woman, with hair flowing down her shoulders. Her stance displayed ultimate poise and her face was divinely regal.

The sisters tensed as they felt the energy around them shift and knew that Athena was with them. Athena approached the Graiai, looking them up and down, appraising and assessing them. She walked to the alter and glanced over the offerings. Finally, she spoke.

“Daughters of Keto, I will help you retrieve your fallen sister from Hades, but on one condition. To prove your sincerity in your remorse, you must sacrifice the very eye that links you to the rest of humanity. The people of the world already refer to you as grotesque hags… but without your eye what are you?

Mindless and blind. Place the eye upon my altar and step away.” The Graiai gasped in surprised, both because Athena had agreed to help and because of her substantial price. But, nonetheless, no one argued or even spoke. Pemphre-

do placed the eye onto the alter immediately. Athena nodded curtly once in silent approval, before the eye on the alter began to glow brightly, so brightly that even the blinded Graiai could feel its glow on their faces and covered themselves with the sleeve of their robes.

Suddenly it was gone, and Athena with it.

Athena’s goddess status meant she had no troubles traveling to the underworld.

She was quickly met by Hades, who fixed upon her a questioning gaze.

Athena addressed Hades when their eyes met. “I have come to retrieve the slain Medusa, I have made a bargain with her sisters, the Graiai.” Hades briefly considered Athena’s words.

“I suppose I can release Medusa to you.

She does nothing down here but stare blankly at a wall and has not spoken besides the occasional mumblings about her sisters. What good is that? We may as well have her back amongst the living to terrify them.” Hades replied smugly.

Athena held her blank expression and nodded once.

“I shall summon Medusa for you, Athena.” Hades briefly disappeared and returned with Medusa at his side. Her shoulders were slumped, but what was most shocking was that Medusa’s appearance seemed to have been returned

to its original beauty. Long ebony hair fell down her shoulders to her waist, her skin perfect and luminous again; no sign that she was ever the most feared being to mankind.

“Ah, Medusa, my once great priestess, look at you now. It looks as though death becomes you.” Athena mused out loud as Medusa neared. Upon hearing Athena’s voice, Medusa’s head immediately jerked up and she fixed her gaze intensely on the warrior goddess. Athena was expecting a look of hatred or anger from Medusa, but her gaze was almost pleading, and full of sorrow. Medusa eventually found her voice and addressed Athena.

“Great wise war goddess, I do not know what you have come to Hades for but I have suffered so much. Take pity on me, even in death.” Athena was stunned at Medusa’s words but she composed herself. She answered Medusa in a gentle tone.

“Child, I have come because your sisters. They’ve made great sacrifices for your return, and I intend to honour that.

Further, you will be permitted to stay as you are now and will be free of your hair of snakes and deadly gaze that turns men to stone.” Medusa wept at Athena’s words, unable to believe her circumstances. Finally, she would be able to

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see her sisters again.

self approving of Medusa’s bravery.

Medusa collected herself and slowly rose to meet Athena’s gaze. She continued to stare at Athena for several moments before she spoke again, and when Medusa did speak, she was not the weeping, mute girl that sat in Hades, but the strong high priestess that Athena once knew.

“Very well, Medusa, you will be returned to your sisters just as you were before. Let us make haste, take my hand.” Athena reached for Medusa.

Seconds after their hands grasped, there was a bright flash of light, so bright Medusa forced her eyes closed. When the light dissipated, Medusa found herself in a dim temple. Athena was nowhere to be seen. She could feel the familiar sway of snakes from her hair and she smiled inwardly, thanking Athena for fulfilling her wish. Suddenly, there was a series of shrieks from inside the temple. Medusa walked toward the source of the commotion to find her three grey sisters huddled together at the altar. In their blind state, they were crying out her name.

“My goddess, I thank you for answering my sisters’ prayers. I will use my time in the land of the living wisely, but I must make one simple request.” Rather than be angered that yet another request was being made of her, Athena looked amused.

“I suppose it should not come as a surprise that yet another daughter of Keto insists on a favour from me, but let me hear your request, Medusa.” Without a moment of hesitation, Medusa spoke.

“I don’t want my beauty back. I want my hair of snakes and petrifying gaze.

After years of being shunned by humans, I have no desire to return to the looks they once admired, for they are no friends of mine. It is my family, my sisters who loved me, who never fled from me and kept me safe for all those years. If the masses still choose to fear me, all the better; the safer my family and I will be.

Beauty is in power and love. This is true for myself, my sisters the Graiai, and the rest of the family of Keto. We are fierce, and we are strong.”

Athena stared at Medusa in silence.

Never had she heard of anyone turning down beauty for what was intended to be a punishment, but Athena found her-

“Who goes there? Is it Medusa? Have you returned to us, sister?” yelled Pemphredo at the sound of footsteps.

“Yes sisters! I am here! Athena granted your prayer and retrieved me from Hades. I never thought I’d see any of you again!” Medusa comforted her sisters as she embraced all three. The Graiai grasped Medusa’s open arms immediately, everyone lightly sobbing with tears of joy. Finally, Deino gently touched the side of Medusa’s face and felt a snake caress her hand affectionately. Immediately Deino pulled her hand back in alarm.

Medusa spoke, “Sisters, do not be alarmed. Athena told me I was to go back to the way I was before my punishment, but I insisted on staying this way.”

“Why

ever

would

y o u

go back to this! You could’ve been loved by the people again, and live a normal life… We can never be amongst humans, but you have that chance again!”

Enyo yelled out.

“That Medusa is gone. I have no desire to live among the people that hated me the moment I was different.” Medusa explained. “That is not love. I feel beautiful when I am strong and brave, and this is why I have chosen to be this fearsome woman. It is no longer a punishment, it’s my choice. I know, sisters, that you have made an incredible sacrifice in giving your eye so that I may live again, but you see, in making that sacrifice, you have now become the only beings that are immune to my gaze and that is a precious gift. I want to spend the rest of my existence protecting you, my sisters.

Let me give you the love that the world has not given us, for united as one, we are beautiful and powerful.” Medusa and the Graiai continued to embrace in their tearful reunion until night fell.

With Medusa leading the way, they began a new chapter of their lives.

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Glass Half Full: An Interview with Maddie Cardone Interview by Claire Gaspar In July of last year, Maddie Cardone was featured in our In Conversation interview series, but it wasn’t enough for us – we needed more Maddie Cardone.

ideas could be manifested in the material. I was getting good feedback and I was like ‘I need to know more about this material’, and just went from there!

Maddie is in her final year of a Bachelor of Art History and Curatorship and Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in glass at ANU’s School of Art and Design.

Though she is still studying, Maddie is already making her mark on the art scene. Having curated a glass exhibition in China, and exhibited across Australia with her latest exhibition ‘Impressions’ at Canberra’s Tributary Projects, she boasts an impressive portfolio of innovative, minimalist glass pieces for exhibition and contract work.

How does studying art at university improve artists? Do you think university is a key to success?

We asked Maddie about the ins and outs of her career as an emerging artist and curator, a ‘how to’, if you will, to Maddie Cardone.

Why did you choose to study glass?

It was actually by chance. I came out of school and I was so bored. I was kind of struggling because I needed some kind of a creative outlet, so I applied to art school. Originally, I applied for gold and silversmithing, because I really like jewelry, but I ended up getting my second preference, glass, because they didn’t have enough spaces in gold and silver. I guess it was fate! All my

University gives you a foundation.

It teaches you the importance of knowing your field’s history and concepts, because I feel like it’s not enough to just make something and put it out there. Sometimes, being informed gives you more opportunities to explore different things. I am glad I got to experience uni.

Artists and academics surround you; you have the facilities literally at your doorstep but the thing is, you can go through uni, get a visual art degree and still do nothing about it. So it’s half the teaching and half the will to go beyond it; the motivation to put yourself out there in the real world, because uni doesn’t teach you those things. It’s about knowing you can succeed by just pushing yourself, submitting work, and going to exhibitions.

That’s why I said to Annette Liu [recent collaborator for Impressions exhibition] “Why not!?

We’ve got amazing work, we

work well together, we need to get our names out there!” She’s doing honors in photography, and photographs all my work. It’s so important and helpful to go to university because you do meet people who have skills that you don’t and you can collaborate. And it’s giving back to your fellow artists as well!

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How do you predict you practice evolving?

How did you set up an exhibition together?

We just contacted the gallery. Basically, we put forward a proposal of what we wanted to do and they were like “yep!” And then we were like “shit, ok, we need to make something” and so we just went from there.

How do you see your career evolving?

I mean, I don’t know? Getting into industries is daunting because you don’t think you know enough or have the experience, but I think it will evolve with connections, putting myself out there and keeping busy as an artist and curator. Feeding my practice in different ways will keep the ball rolling. What I’ve found is to keep persisting. I almost quit my Art History degree but that has got me to China, so you need to keep believing that what you are doing is worth it. You can’t expect things token of different degrees, like the standard ‘you graduate, get a job’. It’s very linear and in a visual arts degree it’s not, it’s more subjective to your connections and motivation.

People say if it isn’t broke don’t go trying to fix it. Having seen some success early on now in your career is it difficult to stray from what is evidenced to work for you and has been popular?

I’ve tried to establish a style and then gain a following that’s interested in the

new things I do. As soon as you have a successful reputation you can then start to draw away from that and go all out! I would love to do installation art and do really crazy things because I have this reputation already with my style and people have gained interest in my art. It’s important to keep your practice dynamic. I have had that experience where people have said “but can you do this and make this with this?” but I don’t want to do that because I don’t want to lose the power as an artist to make the things that I want to make. So, I’m very careful with commissions. I talk to clients and ask questions like: where do you live?

Where do you work? What is your environment? But, I don’t ask them what they want. That way, I can go away and make some designs based on what they have told me. Often you can lose sight of your own artistic ideas if you are trying to make money and trying to be different. There is a massive market, and I would rather leave the world happy having fulfilled my own artistic needs and having left an imprint on the art world rather than having been a commercial artist.

I know what I would like it to be. I would love to have a studio established with my own equipment, and partner with architectural firms by doing designs for homes. I want to be able to travel with my work and teach workshops all over the world. I want opportunities to jump into my hand and grab them. I can see myself in institutions and group exhibitions talking about contemporary glass, but I can also see my career in the commercial creative design market. I did some work with Townsend + Associates Architects and now they are contacting me and following me on Instagram so I have already established a connection there.

I love the flexibility of your work; how it can be exhibited in galleries and museums or, as you say, you can work with architects to display in homes or anywhere really.

Yeah that’s what I like about them. I want them to belong in the home, which is why I am mostly interested in working with interior designers.

Yeah that would be so cool!

The nature of the design and the texture comes alive with the changing of light, so under a gallery’s controlled lighting it’s often quite static. Sometimes opaque glass can be so heavy and condensed so I really wanted to incorporate light and that changing of light. So, if it was in a home where lights are constantly changing the work also changes with it.

How does your practice empower you?

What do you think it takes to be successful in the art world?

Personally, it gives me confidence within my passions but also when I connect with people. It’s rewarding meeting people and making things that push boundaries. It empowers me in every way, every day because it’s what I am passionate about.

Being smart about your choices; about who you work with, about how much time you give to yourself and other people, about connections, about being humble, about being willing to learn and not being ‘up yourself’, because that’s when you start to shut the world out. I think to be successful is to be well rounded in knowledge and of-

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fering the artistic industry everything you have. I also think it’s trying to influence people in a positive way.

When you gain success inside, financial success will follow through your reputation and the business side of things.

Of course, I have had days where I am like ‘what am I doing? Can I actually keep hold of this?’ Sometimes it’s just easier to have a public service job, but I know that’s not me and won’t fulfill me.

You have to go through those moments to learn from them.

Is Canberra a good place to be an emerging artist?

You graduate this year, what are your plans for the future?

Definitely, especially for glass. Canberra is big on their glassworks so you have great facilities. You are always mingling with artists and creating connections. I am glad I started here, not in Sydney or Melbourne, because if you have a lot going on at the beginning it can get confusing. Since Canberra is small and direct I feel I can take what I’ve learnt out into the world.

Aside from glass, my other major is Art History and Curatorship. That was a strategic choice because I knew that when going into visual arts it would be hard to establish a career. I am also interested in collections and aim to curate exhibitions with locally-based, emerging artists. I’m really interested in what’s happening within the contemporary world.

Is an ‘all or nothing’ approach to an artistic career a good idea, or is a backup necessary as a financial safety net?

I would love to teach as well, maybe lecture overseas. I have this passion for teaching other people. As an artist you can become quite selfish in consuming your own practice because it is a reflection of you and what you are doing, so I want to foster a really nice relationship with artists and students.

There is a romantic view of ‘dropping everything and just doing art’ out in the world, but in this day and age if you want to lead a stable life it won’t happen that way. In terms of a backup plan, I would work with my art alongside another career. I would be involved in institutions as well as art making, for example, being a collections manager, installing or art conservation and restoration, but always coming back to my studio.

How do you approach doubters that seek to undermine the legitimacy of your creative pursuits?

I think the biggest disappointment is when people outside the industry doubt what you can do with such a career. It’s sad because it’s unnecessary and about their lack of knowledge – they criticize what they don’t know. I have encountered people in the industry who have been threatened by my success and I found that really hard to deal with. The approach I take is to think, “Ok, you feel that way, are you benefitting me in anyway? No. So, do I need to care about what you say? No.” It almost motivates me. My mum is an artist but my dad is a finance manager, so he was a bit unsure about my career.

I used that doubt as motivation to prove that you can have a successful life in this industry if you know how to work it properly.

If you could give any advice to others studying design and visual art, what would you say to them?

Don’t lose hope in wanting to be successful – you will be if you put the work in. Trust your abilities. Listen to your mentors. Start to build knowledge of what is happening in the now. Talk to people. Allow yourself to take a break. Take pressure off yourself – it’s good to go through bad times.

I have gone through really shit times with finding myself but now I have come out of it with a new maturity about my career that I don’t think I would’ve had if I didn’t go through that. So, just embrace the crap; the shit

people, the struggles, and just enjoy your life! Recognize what you believe in and what you like. Allow yourself to grow and to make mistakes. You should recognize those mistakes. Keep positive! Keep the faith! *** Through my interview with Maddie I realized what it takes to foster creativity in our modern world. Her unique experiences harness artistic passion to overcome the challenges of the art world and motivate us emerging artists, art lovers and art illiterates alike to strive forward towards whatever satisfies our souls. Her hard work, passion and drive are inspiring, as is the way she strives for artistic, financial and inner fulfilment.

Honestly, I doubt she needs it but, Maddie, I wish you luck. You’re a gem.

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Women in Film Lifting Hollywood’s Act Brigid Horneman-Wren

the workplace. It’s a clever and funny skit, which in seven minutes covers female objectification, sexism, ageism and racism in the arts.

As women front the audition room for the Leading Lady Part – a “thin, sexy hooker virgin with boobs and hips, but not big ones” – they are asked to smile more, act with more makeup and fewer clothes, and to read it again, “but more white”.

The timing of the skit’s release is excellent. It has been almost a year since #MeToo spread virally across social media, and the setbacks faced by women in acting are more in the open now than they have ever been.

This has been a fantastic year for quality roles and on-screen diversity. We’ve had Ruth Bader-Ginsberg’s biographical drama On the Basis of Sex, the all-female heist of Ocean’s 8, and the new comedy Crazy Rich Asians is the first major studio movie in 25 years to feature a predominantly Asian-American and Asian cast.

“It’s not rocket science darling. We’re just asking you to be thin and curvy, sexy and innocent!”

The would-be director Catherine Tate yells as she looks to cast her female

lead in LEADING LADY PARTS – the first in a series of short films that will centre on gender inequality in

As a young woman, I’ve been particularly impressed with the recent quality of teen movies. Watching Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird at the beginning of this year, I was moved by the smallest of details, like the undisguised acne dot-

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ting the skin of the titular character. It was a small way of revealing a hint of truth about the teenage experience, and it says a lot about the traditional portrayal of young women on screen that this makeup choice – or lack thereof – made headlines.

In the same genre, it’s clear that Netflix is also deliberately trying to diversify the stories and actresses it showcases. Aside from the way To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before manages to pull off just about every romantic trope in the book, it’s impressive for turning away from the blindingly white casts of most teen movies by revolving around a Korean-American heroine. It’s being followed up with Sierra Burgess is a Loser, which stars Stranger Things’ Shannon Purser as a teenage girl struggling with college applications, falling in love, and the impossibility of living up to modern beauty standards.

The actresses starring in these roles are aware of how important they are, and the impact they can have on changing the expectations society holds for women. The latest photo on Purser’s Instagram is an untouched ad for the lingerie and swimwear brand, Aerie.

She captions it, “So yeah. I don’t have an airbrushed body. I have stretch marks and cellulite and curves. And I’m beautiful.” To All The Boys’ lead, Lana Condor, has commented on the effects of a lack of on-screen diversity. “I just thought it was normal,” she said. “My whole reason for doing this is so girls who look like me feel seen.”

That said, Netflix’s fat-shaming series, Insatiable, has been panned by critics with a backlash that apparently caught its lead by surprise, so the streaming giant isn’t doing everything right. The setbacks and misrepresentation of women across the acting profession are by no means disappearing.

Last week, over 3,000 people signed an open letter calling for the end of Hollywood’s “egregious” pay gap. The petition is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Association of University Women, and Women in Hollywood.

While it is pay discrepancies between leading male and female actors that have been the attention of public outcry, the pay gap covers every aspect of the acting industry. A study commissioned by Local 871 found those in production fields commonly popu-

lated by women receive less pay than those in similar but male-heavy fields like assistant directors and location managers.

Time’s Up has brought huge attention to the difficulties faced by survivors of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace and aims to provide those survivors with support in pursuing their claims. It’s difficult, however, to foresee those difficulties fading any time soon. #MeToo in Hollywood has demonstrated time and time again how power dynamics dominate the entertainment industry. Women who simply want to pursue a career are manipulated and silenced.

“Me too” are the final words in Leading Lady Parts – it’s fitting for the Time’s Up inspired work. It can only be hoped that the next workplaces depicted in the series are depicted with just as much hard-hitting hilarity.

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Teaching the Teacher: Changing the Status Quo in Academia Ede Ganon “I’m not going to answer that question,” my lecturer scoffed after I asked when we would study some female academics in the course, “because I’m afraid I’ll say the truth.”

Perusing the reading list for PHIL2094: The Problem of Free Will was a relatively depressing experience. There was not a single non-male, non-white academic in sight – it was like being at an R.M. Williams stocktake sale. Upon seeking clarification on this issue, I was met with a fair amount of resistance and hostility. Though being laughed at in the middle of a lecture in front of all of my peers certainly hasn’t been the highlight of my university career, it did kickstart my thoughts about the promotion of academic sources written by women, particularly in the context of undergraduate education. The frankly outdated and exasperating issue of the continued absence of female academics from undergraduate teachings deserves our attention, and perhaps should inspire more active enquiry into the courses that cost us thousands of dollars a year.

A student’s first insight into a new field of study, discipline, or niche area of discourse is often through a university course led by a recognised (or at least semi-capable) academic from the field in question. As such, the convenors

and lecturers of these courses have an important responsibility: to present a balanced and comprehensive conception of the discipline, and to inspire further enquiry. In a world where the gender and racial composition of academia and occupational areas is changing, it is essential to reflect this change in the types of academics and practitioners that are referred to in tertiary education. This is especially important in disciplines that have been historically conceived as male-dominated, like engineering, philosophy, or even management.

When being introduced to a new area of scholarship, a lack of exposure to a diverse range of sources can be extremely off-putting, and most certainly leads to a stagnation in the publication and uptake of new works and research by women in these fields. This in turn perpetuates the cycle wherein whitemale academics peer-review each other’s papers, validate each other’s works (which may be substandard to those produced by their female peers), then become more frequently cited and gain a higher page rank on web browsers. These become the sources cited in most university essays and assessment pieces and further stymie the irrefutably deserved acknowledgement and proliferation of the works of female

academics.

One of the largest contributing factors to this issue, aside from the fact that there are still stale and dangerously conservative values lingering in the depths of the dark and musty ANU buildings, is that a large proportion of university lecturers and teaching staff are not trained, or even passionate, about education or pedagogy. The pressure to publish or perish seems to be somewhat alleviated by one’s participation in the practice of education, despite any lack of passion or qualification to undergo such a pursuit. Some academics are even pressured by their schools to pick up courses which are but loosely based on their areas of study. This can result in some ignorance as to how one might influence a group of students and their future studies, and how a syllabus may impact on a student’s perspective of a field of study. Perhaps, not having had as many external or financial pressures during their university study (looking at you, Whitlam era students…), a proportion of lecturers don’t value what they are teaching as much as we do?

Since I started making noise about this issue, one complete source by female academic Elizabeth Anscombe has been uploaded to our course page, and reference was made to Linda Zag-

47 zebski in one lecture. But I know for a fact – having been able to compile a list of more than eight sources in an hour from this discipline, which I then sent to my lecturer – that this is nowhere near indicative of the female influence on this field of study.

Look, I’ll say that this attitude isn’t particularly rampant in the School of Philosophy at The Australian National University, as far as my experience goes.

I’ve had almost nothing but positive and inclusive experiences in my three years enrolled there: tales of the wonderful and engaging female academics in the school, as well as lecturers who have provided a female source for every corresponding male source, are far more common than the unfortunate situation that I found myself in with this course. I also know that the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) supports the notion of inclusive syllabuses.

Nonetheless, old-fashioned, regressive values still linger like a bad smell, and I know for a fact that philosophy isn’t the only discipline at the ANU that suffers from them.

Be critical – both of your syllabuses and of your lecturers. Is the sample of sources as diverse as the field itself?

What is your lecturer’s position within the scholarship of your discipline?

Do the sources that you are examining reference and affirm each other in a toxic cycle of political peer-reviewing?

These unconscious biases won’t get called out unless we’re on top of them, and until they do, women will continue to be stuck in an ongoing cycle of repression in the world of academia.

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Royalty and Regulation: A Feminist Appraisal of Elizabeth I Heather Collins ‘I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.’

This one sentence, uttered by a queen prior to her nation’s defeat of the Spanish armada, highlights vividly the struggles she faced as a woman in a man’s world.

Upon her ascension to the throne, Elizabeth constantly had to prove that she was able to lead her country, with the above quotation exemplifying this. Elizabeth often constructed herself as a man, stating; I may look like a woman, but really, I am as staunch, hard and robust as any king before me, and that is truly what matters.

To genuinely understand Elizabeth’s predicament, the gender roles of the era must first be explored. Women’s roles in the Tudor period were strictly defined and often very restricted.

Women were expected to be subservient to their close male relatives during their youth, and once married, to their husband. Women effectively had little independent agency and many of their crucial life decisions, such as who they would marry, were dictated to them by male relatives. A woman’s main value was often considered to be her capacity to have children and ensure (especially in wealthier families) the continuation of the family’s name and prestige by providing male heirs. This is seen vividly in the experience of Elizabeth’s mother Anne Boleyn and her step-sister Mary I’s mother, Catherine of Aragon, who were relegated to the side by Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, when they

failed to provide male heirs. Elizabeth’s step-brother Edward VI’s mother, Jane Seymour, was mourned and remembered favourably by Henry, likely because she fulfilled her society’s expectation of a wife by providing her husband with a son.

Thus, Elizabeth contradicted two of the most pivotal gender roles of her era. Firstly, she never married. Historian Kate Williams writes that Elizabeth realised that if she married she’d have to share her power. If her husband had dominion over her, then he effectively had right over ‘her’ state, despite him maybe only having the title of consort.

There was also the practical issue of choosing a husband. Would she marry a foreigner or an Englishman? The former would have diluted British independence and drawn Britain into the squabbles of continental politics, and the latter would have caused un-necessary factionalism within her court which could have caused the court to self-implode. So, Elizabeth styled herself the Virgin Queen, and began using this image to further bolster her reputation. She proclaimed she was married to England and its people. She wore white and black – colours which indicated her chastity and her purity which became a political tool to affirm that her decisions and actions were pure in both mind and body. Despite the success of this, Elizabeth undoubtedly sacrificed many things to ensure that she could maintain her position. She gave up the affection, companionship and intimacy that marriage can bring, all to ensure she could maintain her independent power.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich once said, “well behaved women seldom make history”, and this can be applied to the second gender norm Elizabeth contradicted.

Women were expected to be submissive to men. Thus, a woman governing her country and dictating the rules for all contradicted the era’s gendered roles and illuminates the truth of Ulrich’s quote. Elizabeth was highly educated and multilingual; her education was on par with her male counterparts. However, many still doubted her capacity to lead her country. Many people believed that her Privy Council would lead the country as she fundamentally acted as a figurehead. There is no doubt, that the powerful men Elizabeth surrounded herself with would have tried to manipulate her. But, this happened to all monarchs, and any proposed law or official action needed Elizabeth’s signature which she would have to give willingly – hence, Elizabeth had the last say. Therefore, Elizabeth was in control of the men surrounding her. She dictated to them what to do, proving she was able to act in a non-passive manner and take control of the situation outside of a woman’s sphere of influence.

Elizabeth also had a very interesting and rather unique relationship with her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. Both these women were queens of their respectful countries. These Queens, despite being cousins and logical allies, became vicious enemies in a man’s world. Each woman became paranoid that the other posed a threat. Added to this, Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots belonged to opposing religious factions, with Eliza-

49

beth being Protestant and Mary Catholic. Eventually, Mary Queen of Scots was executed by Elizabeth, which is the tragedy of the dynamic between these two figures. It is possible to ponder the friendship these two women could have built; how they could have relied upon each other for advice and support. However, the environment they inhabited and their positions meant that they had no room for mercy or leeway regarding possible threats, and thus had to take actions they might not have otherwise taken.

Elizabeth’s life begs an interesting question: was she a feminist? I’d personally argue that no she was not; a sentiment which is also expressed by historian Kate Williams. Elizabeth never set out to be a champion for the equality of men and women. In addition, the concept of ‘femi-

nism’ as we view it today was non-existent in Tudor Britain. Women may have felt trapped in their lives and restricted in their activities, but they were not provided with the opportunity to challenge this in the manner that women in later centuries would slowly be able to do.

One of the historical inaccuracies presented in modern film and television adaptions of Elizabeth’s life (and other screen dramas from the period), is portraying these women as having feminist agendas and viewpoints; it just did not happen in reality – despite us hoping for it.

D e inist

spite, not being a femherself, Elizabeth can still be seen as role model for

women. She was highly educated and stood her ground in a world dominated by men. She can and should serve as an inspiration to any young girl who wants to enter politics, STEM subjects and any other areas that are known for statistically having a smaller percentage of women participants. She proves that if one has the determination and drive to succeed at something, they can. Elizabeth shows that gender norms can be broken and broken successfully. Thus, if you’ve read this far wondering how the life of a 16th century queen is relevant to you, here is the main takeaway from this article: Elizabeth I proves that women can, and have, done anything men can – as cliché as that saying is. After all, there is a reason that the Elizabethan Era is also referred to as The Golden Age.

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Antiquity, the Ancient Past and the History of the Silenced Woman of Elizabeth I Teah Linnegar

CW: violence, domestic abuse, sexual assault, explicit rape.

“We’re stormy, and that which is ours breaks loose from us without our fearing any debilitation. Our glances, our smiles, are spent; laughs exude from all our mouths; our blood flows and we extend ourselves without ever reaching an end; we never hold back our thoughts, our signs, our writing; and we’re not afraid of lacking.”

– The Laugh of Medusa (written by Hélène Cixous, translated by Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen) In the 21st Century, preconceived understandings of society often lie embedded within ancient and Hellenistic civilisations, such as the great Roman, Greek and Persian Empires. The female deities which emerged from such civilisations often epitomise traditional femininity. These deities are, more often than not, the very reason for a modern ‘addiction’ to femininity and its nuances. This addiction to the female form created a romanticised objectification of women, which manifests in pleasure and sexuality. Yet, these are the women who embody strength and vitality; these are warriors, mothers, and lovers, they are the moral compass within the community and

the reason for centuries of praise and provocative power in spirituality. Female deities such as Hera, the goddess of marriage, stability and fertility, or Athena and Artemis,

goddess of wisdom and justice, and wilderness and freedom respectively, epitomise the values desired by most in Antiquity and the contemporary.

The influence of such individuals transcends societies, history and particularly language; the Egyptian deity, Hathor, representative of love and nurture, became the Roman Goddess Venus. Throughout ancient literature, Venus is interchangeable with Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love, fertility and victory, indicative of the widespread appreciation for such figures.

The appreciation of these personalities stems from the guidance and morale they provided in such grotesque societies – whilst they were praised and adored, they are ironically not representative of the experiences of women in these civilisations. This paradox of female praise in misogynistic societies is particularly difficult to ignore.

Dame Winifred Mary Beard, a Cambridge English scholar and classicist, traces the origins of misogyny to the period of antiquity. The notion of female silence is explored in her book Women & Power: A Manifesto.

The text explores the uncomfortable acceptance of women being hushed at the hands of ‘lurid’ men. It exemplifies the story of Telemachus, son of famed Odysseus from Homer’s Odyssey, in which it is blatantly im-

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plied that silencing a woman was once inextricably linked with ‘growing into one’s manhood’. This is epitomised in the text when Telemachus’ brutality and violence against women are glorified. After his return to the kingdom, Odysseus requested he murder the maids who were fooling around with the suitors of Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, in order to assert power throughout the kingdom. Moreover, in Ovid’s ancient poem Metamorphosis, the story of Io, a young priestess of the Goddess Juno (Hera) reiterates this notion.

The story articulates Io’s affair with Jupiter (Zeus), Juno’s husband and King of the Mount Olympus. In order to prevent their secret getting out, Jupiter has her transformed into a cow. This very action, reducing one to an animal, reducing her to one of the lowest tiers, if not the lowest, in society at the time, typifies the silencing of ‘misbehaving women’.

Another example is the story of Echo the nymph. She is ordered by Jupiter to distract Juno, whilst he was escaping yet again another scandalous situation with another woman.

Echo’s continuous chatter, and arguably her tendency to gossip, is utilised in order to distract Juno – and ultimately is her downfall.

Once Juno becomes aware of her intentions, she removes her voice so that she only has

the ability to echo the voices of others – she is drained of free thought and expression. Again, due to the actions of Jupiter, another woman is subject to the wrath of Juno.

One of the more confronting tales of antiquity is the Athenian Princess Philomela’s tongue removal to prevent her speaking out against her “heroic” rapist. Whilst the myth itself has a multitude of variations, they generally all follow the same progression: Athenian Princess Philomela, daughter of Pandion the King, is raped by her sister’s husband, Tereus. After meeting her, Tereus finds her “so beautiful that he can’t take no for an answer”, and submits to his desire. After the attack, he has her tongue removed to prevent her from speaking out against him and tells her sister that she has been killed. Whilst Philomela’s tale is woven into a tapestry, and eventually given to her sister in order to call out Tereus, the tale still reveals the Hellenistic and barbaric hand under which women lived during the period of Antiquity.

These actions are targeted in order to prevent women from speaking up or acting against masculine power structures. This very notion is synonymous with the feminist movement; it’s about breaking these norms and breaking this systematic and internalised structure, which inhibits the ability of women identifying individuals to flourish in educational, professional, social and political spheres.

Yet the movement of feminism is hardly a movement devised during Antiquity. It is becoming ever more prominent in the discourse surrounding our politics, literature, the arts, social movements, the economy, sports and even religious entities – just to name a few. But it’s these fables that have arguably enabled the 21st century normalisation of cutting women off in conversation, or in an extreme case, paying women not to speak out in a time of scandal – i.e. Stormy Daniels and Trump. Moreover, the contemporary normalisation of this has facilitated the base on which modern day misogyny thrives. The reaction from feminist groups and women to the issues coming to light seems to be per-

ceived as a damaged and out-of-tuneviolin, rather than an acknowledgment of frustration. Time and time again, women are perceived as ‘whiney’ or ‘broken records’ for continuously speaking out. If women such as Uma Thurman, Rose McGowan, Gwyneth Paltrow or Heather Graham hadn’t spoken against Weinstein’s actions, or if Stormy Daniel’s allegations hadn’t have been in the public sphere, by nature of their perpetrators, the cases most definitely would not have gained the traction. Yet, we find ourselves in this cyclical struggle. The silencing of women, or the dismissal or ridiculing of women speaking out, has its roots in Antiquity. These barbaric and Hellenistic inclinations – removing one’s tongue and reducing one to an animal – whilst not immediately comparable to the ridicule experienced in the 21st century, are ultimately one and the same.

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Empowerment and the Environment – How Sustainable Living is Feminist Living Achintha Liyanage During my lunch hour at work, I get weird looks. Sometimes, someone leans over to me and asks, “What is that you’re eating with?”. I simply say, “It’s a wooden spork – a spoon cross fork. I carry around with me everywhere I go and it’s made of bamboo.

If I toss this over my shoulder, I know it won’t be harming the planet”. They stare as I continue to use my bamboo spork, then I pull out my metal straw and beeswax wraps.

Sustainability and feminism are rarely conceptualised as related, but I am finding that the two are becoming increasingly intertwined as climate change and sustainability are being brought to the forefront of personal and political discourse.

I think Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said it best when she stated, “a feminist is a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.”

Hence, feminism and sustainable living go hand in hand. The United Nations Bruntland Report in 1987 defined sustainable development as that which “ensures that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. If you are practicing

sustainable ideals, you are practicing feminism. The connection between climate change and feminism is more obvious in developing nations where the impacts of climate change affect women significantly more than men.

Big nations, such as the United States, Australia and China, are responsible for most of the damage caused to the global environment, but it is developing countries that suffer the negative impacts of climate change in the most detrimental manner. Agriculture and food security, as well as water resources, energy, and human health are some of the many areas of society that are suffering due to our environmental irresponsibility.

Climate change interacts with the social and political barriers faced by women in developing nations. Girls are notably less likely to get an education due to gender norms and therefore have less job opportunities as women, which leads them to engage in lower paid, agricultural-based labor to support themselves and their families. Unfortunately, these are the very careers that are threatened by extreme climate events and random changes to seasonal cycles. Further, it is most often the role of women to secure water, food and

fuel for basic necessities such as cooking and heating, for their communities.

These women, mostly from rural areas, face the greatest disadvantages of climate change. Women in developed nations also face barriers to equal opportunity and resources b a s e d on our gender – the gen-

53 der-wage gap ensures that we accumulate less personal resources than our male counterparts. Pursuing sustainable living is part of women’s fight not just for economic, social and political development and empowerment, but empowerment that isn’t then going to disappear with the deterioration of our natural environment. Society has evolved to set girls up for failure as women, socially, politically, economically and environmentally.

However, women are simultaneously situated in society as the most effective agents of change in climate change mitigation, disaster reduction, and adaption strategies. A strong working knowledge of environmental management, especially found in indigenous communities, paired with women’s role as administrator of natural and household resources, means women are able to contribute greatly to changing our environmental reality in developing nations.

This power to lead the redirection of our environmental management can be mimicked in our context. With that in mind, I chose to start to try to live a more sustainable life about a year ago. I stopped succumbing to fast fashion and took a moment to think about where my clothes came from, who they were made by, and whether they were sustainably sourced. ‘Good on You’ is an app and database where clothing companies are rated on their compliance with labour, environment and animal welfare standards. These changes are not rocket science, but things we are told to be mindful of from a young age without necessarily being told why. So if you live a pretty decent life with a house, clothes, fresh water, food, and accessible transport, consider this a luxury. Most people around the world are not able to afford such luxuries, and our lifestyles may be making these resources even more scarce. I think we all need to turn off the lights, walk instead of drive, take shorter showers, think before we buy and be more grateful.

As I am typing this, Earth Overshoot Day - the date when we have used more from nature than our planet can

renew in an entire year – has already passed on the 1ST of August, and a quarter of the year is still left. I think the scariest part about sustainability is that we live in a world that is pretending we have an infinite amount of resources. It is a constant psychological battle trying to make the right choices while being bombarded with new, unsustainable trends. It is exhausting to filter everything out and see what is happening around you realistically.

The biggest driver of change for myself is that I believe that every person deserves respect and an equal opportunity to lead a satisfying life. Knowing that people are trying their best is enough to hope for a better future for all living things, and to me, that is what it means to be a feminist.

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Silence Maintains the Status Quo Mimi Fairall

Last Wednesday I received an email from a lawyer threatening to take me to the Supreme Court with the intention of charging me with defamation and damages. This came as a shock to me and, understandably, I was freaked out. I went to work that day with a pit in my stomach. I kept thinking about how I could possibly reconcile my stupid act and make the best of whatever legal mess I’d created for myself.

Earlier that morning I posted a status in multiple Facebook groups - all of which are primarily comprised of female-identifying women. Each group has over 150 members, the largest having 17,823. My status was an informal and short message that had two purposes: 1.

To remind people (primarily female-identifying) of the realities and

locality of drink spiking, rape and sexual assault 2.

To look out for each other when consuming alcohol or entering bars and nightclubs In the month leading up to my status, I had been in multiple discussions with my mum, sister and girl friends about incidents that had occurred at a particular local bar. Some of the stories they brought up were personal accounts of sexual assault or harassment and some were second-hand re-tellings from others they knew.

I was disgusted, angry and saddened, but also felt deeply sympathetic, as I too have been a victim of sexual harassment and abuse. However, what grabbed me the most was that each of these incidents had occurred at one

particular bar in the space of a month – a bar that I go to, that my friends go to, that is always busy, and full of female-identifying patrons.

I decided to compose a simple Facebook message to alert people. To me, this seemed a sensible and considerate idea. It was a direct way to reach the wider community of female-identifying people to warn them of the predatory men that seemed to be lurking in the aforementioned bar.

In the status, I brought up the previously discussed incidents of drink spiking, rape and sexual assault. I also mentioned the name of the bar where the incidents had taken place. I warned readers to be wary of alcoholic drinks and any changes in their friends’ behaviour when in bars and nightclubs.

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I emphasised being wary of the attitudes and behaviour of male-identifying people.

It was a generalised and heartfelt message with good intent. I posted it out of respect and care for other female-identifying people that may or have already experienced alcohol related abuse.

Within seconds my post was being liked and commented on. I remember the first comment in particular as it was written by someone also claiming to have had her drink spiked at the bar I mentioned in my post. Further comments consisted of things like, ‘This is awful, I’ll keep a closer eye on my girlfriends’, and ‘I hope the people involved in these incidents are okay’.

Some commented saying ‘Definitely

tell the victims to go to the police’ with replies like ‘Sometimes it’s hard for women to come forward about abuse’ and ‘Often authorities can’t or won’t do anything about it’. There were also comments containing the names of other bars where people confessed to having had their drink spiked or been sexually assaulted.

In my opinion, it was evident that my post was received with empathy and gratitude and a mutual understanding of the importance of people ‘having each others backs.’

Two hours later, I received an aggressive and intimidating email from a male lawyer who represented the male co-owners of the bar I had mentioned in my status. Clearly someone had notified staff of my post. The email stated there was no basis for

my allegations of drink spiking, rape and sexual assault and that my claims were false. The lawyer wrote that my post was ‘designed’ to damage their clients business and they demanded I take the status down immediately and post a formal apology that they provided me with. If I didn’t comply, the lawyer informed me that there would be no other option but to submit an urgent application in the Supreme Court seeking an injunction, and an order that the post be removed and a retraction be published and I pay all legal costs.

After reading this email I got scared and very anxious. I did exactly what the lawyer asked and took my post down and published their apology.

I called the law firm and asked the lawyer whether there were any further repercussions. To my surprise, the

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lawyer had hardly anything to say to me. In response to my question, he lazily said ‘Nah, I think that’s about it.’

I asked whether I needed to discuss the situation with the co-owners of the bar and he told me that he would get in contact with them and call me back.

I never got that call.

After digesting this, I got angry. I realised the email was written to intimidate me and shut me up. I was not given the respect or decency to receive a proper explanation of what the legal threats were and why I was targeted.

The male lawyer was dismissive of me and evidently the male co-owners of the bar didn’t care either.

In no way did I, or anyone else it seemed), think my Facebook post was defamatory or ‘designed’ to damage their client’s business. I never mentioned that the bar was facilitating or supporting this kind of criminal activity. If the lawyer and co-owners of the bar had thoroughly read and understood my message, it would have surely been evident that my intent was to help protect their patrons, rather than deliberately telling people to steer clear of their business.

Secondly, if the staff had read the comments on my post, they would have seen the many other confessions of drink-spiking, abuse and harassment

naming both their bar and others. If the bar owners were going to take me to the Supreme Court for defamation and damages, couldn’t they also threaten to take everyone else who mentioned the name of a bar in their comment? I also questioned why they accused me of having false claims with no basis or evidence. It was just last year that The Australian Institute of Criminology discovered that only 13% of victims of drink-spiking report the incident to bar staff.

It seems to me that the co-owners of the bar were more concerned about losing money and their reputation than supporting an evidently well-intentioned warning to people within their customer demographic of the realities of alcohol-related crime.

I spoke up about the experiences of victims I knew, which in turn brought out the voices of many other victims confessing abuse and harassment. Perhaps some of these victims had never come forward before and maybe my Facebook post provided a safe and comfortable platform for them to express their experience and feel valid.

Receiving an aggressive and intimidating email from a male lawyer that scared me in to taking down my post not only literally deleted my voice, but those of the other victims. It silenced me.

This whole incident is ironic. The initial female-identifying victims who had been sexually assaulted by men did not come forward as they were scared of being dismissed. Instead, I came forward to warn and validate other victims but was scared by men into being quiet, and dismissed by men when I wanted to discuss the threats made against me.

This incident reinforces the silencing of crime against female-identifying women and discourages victims from coming forward. Speaking up is treated as a detriment to business. It is the ultimate male power-play and speaks of a much larger issue in our society.

As evidenced again and again, money and reputation remain at the top of the patriarchal priority list, while the voices of female-identifying victims fall far below.

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It Was Not Her Fault Tracy Beattie

An unwelcomed smile. An unwanted touch.

She stormed past a shopfront but stopped to stare into her reflection.

A perfect day for wandering around the city fell apart. Was it the clothes she wore – her favourite black t-shirt, oversized denim jacket, and previously white sneakers that have taken her around the world? Was it because she was a foreign woman who should not have been by herself?

He had already convinced her. It was her fault.

A quiet street. A group of strangers.

There are blurs and shadows in the corners of her eyes. A hundred different thoughts thundered through her mind to the skipping beats of her heart.

How could they hurt her? Where would she run to if they moved a little closer? Should she scream? Would she be heard? They were gone, but the panic remained. As she walked back, there was no one but herself to hold her tightly.

They have already convinced her. It was her fault.

A long-distance phone call. A heavy heart to be heard.

The person she cared about told her it was because of her own choices. That

it was her choice to be in a place so far, far away. That she kept going back to those faraway places when she knew it was likely to happen. She knew four languages yet none of them escaped her parted lips. All she felt was pain – too much pain to hold in the small apartment room in the crowded Asian metropolitan. Wet lashes and smudged mascara; one phone call back home and the kindest words from her father still could not stop tears from running down her freckled cheeks. Perhaps she should not have left home after all. She wished she had stayed. Doubt became her greatest enemy.

The world has not convinced her. This time, she is convincing herself. That it is not her fault.

That it should never be her fault.

With a wornout passport in hand, s h e told

The person she cared about had already convinced her. It was her fault.

Clocks ticking, bittersweet farewells, delayed departures.

She was tired of everything. All she ever wanted was for the wide, wide world to keep her safe, just enough for her to transcend boundaries and cross oceans. Enough for her to chase ambitions and achieve scholarships. She was tired.

She kept walking.

She gazed out the glass terminal hoping to see planes in the sky and spot shapes in the clouds; but all she could find was herself in the reflection. She knew she was much more than what people convinced her to be. After all, she was named after a hurricane and nothing should ever stop her.

herself it was time to board.

She walked to the gate. Somewhere new again.

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Behind the Scenes: “From Amateur to Artist�

Photography by Julia Faragher and Jaime Howell Words by Julia Faragher

From Amateur to Artist� is an upcoming documentary series about the lives and work of young female artists in the Canberra community. The series aims to feature a diverse range of artists, both in the sense of artistic styles and backgrounds.

It will consist of five 4-6 minute episodes each featuring a different artist. Each episode will contain an interview with the artist accompanied by footage of their daily life and a performance/exhibition out in the Canberra community wherever they share their art. The series is set for a March 2019 launch with a premiere screening, followed by an online release.

This photo series is a little preview from behind the scenes before the series is released in March of next year. Though currently in the middle of production, the journey has already been incredible. We have interviewed Ali Clinch about how her experiences as an artist, mother and carer interact. We have chatted to Faith Kerehona about her experience as a female street artist and being billed on the same event poster as Childish Gambino.

We have filmed Lucy Sugerman performing at Canberra Moon Festival and Floriade Nightfest, proving that age is no barrier to talent. To be able to highlight the work of these incredible women, and others like them in Canberra, is a truly remarkable opportunity for us.

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Find us online: Website: www.fromamateurtoartist.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/fromamateurtoartist Instagram: @fromamateurtoartist

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The Corporatisation of Feminism Bella Di Mattina

It’s not an extraordinary moment when I see a Covergirl #girlscan image on the Internet, or when a Dove #realbeauty advertisement bursts before my buffering Youtube video. But, I’ve always been sceptical of companies using feminism for profit.

At first, I made concessions for this kind of advertising – it’s okay if the company has gender equality measures for employees, or if they run an ethical supply chain. But even so, should we support corporations that treat human rights as a trend? I wonder if the ‘feminist’ t-shirts of mainstream fashion chains only exist because it’s currently fashionable. If the conversation around #metoo stops grabbing the headlines, will the slogans say something else next season?

Heather Arnet of the Women and Girls Foundation, at a panel on the corporatization of feminism, said these t-shirts were a win: “We’ve taught companies that it’s better to sell us stuff that empowers us, than stuff that’s demeaning”.

However, feminism should be more than just fleeting, individual empowerment, or the move away from explicit oppression. Nonetheless, a whole industry of individuals now sells ‘empowerment’ to thousands of well-meaning feminists. The individuals and movements in this industry put the onus back on the disenfranchised – to work

harder, do more, and ignore structural inequalities.

Andi Zeisler articulately echoes my more cynical thoughts: “This new corporatized feminism is now about what one buys, what one wears, and overall how an individual or corporation can appear more “feminist” without actually doing anything to engender change.”

After all, a multinational company can label themselves as feminist all they like, but they don’t have to run the gauntlet of impassioned, irreconcilable conversations with those who disagree with its use and cause.

At my all-girls high school, we didn’t talk about feminism – we talked about empowerment. In 2014, my principal latched on to ‘Lean In’ by Sheryl Sandberg. Sandberg’s biography discusses ways in which women can advance their careers and become leaders. At first, I was ecstatic. My principal would mention statistics about how many more criteria women thought they needed to meet before they’d apply to jobs. “Lean in!” she’d cry. Often, she’d offer real life examples of success from her own life, or tie the phrase in with student’s achievements.

She neglected to mention that, at the time, Australia had similar proportions of women in government as Albania, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. At that time in the US, women in the legal in-

dustry made on average 55% of what men did, and boys consistently outnumbered girls in high school maths courses. What she never said was the word ‘patriarchy’.

The hollow notion of empowerment as feminism, often implied by adverts and celebrity ‘feminist’ endorsements, ignores the structural inequalities that inhibit boundary-pushing. These ideas of feminism ultimately fail those for whom structural inequality prevents their ability to lean in. Empowerment implies that we’re all on an even playing field – completely ignoring the intersectional nature of privilege and gender inequality.

This is not to say that empowerment isn’t important; my ‘Fuck Trump’ t-shirt does more for my mood than Ben & Jerry’s ever could. But feminism requires more than just pep talks and slogans – it requires hard conversations and unanswerable questions. Empowerment, for me, can never replace the genuine discussions that need to occur.

Jenna Crispin’s thesis in her book, ‘I am not a Feminist’, is summarized by Vox’s Sean Illing as follows: “Feminism lost its political moorings; it became vapid and toothless in its quest for universality.”

However, my outlook is not quite so bleak. While the 2016 US Presidential

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election seemed to make ‘feminism’ and ‘empowerment’ key buzzwords for anyone with a millennial target audience, feminism has only increased its position in mainstream media and commercial enterprises. It was Merriam Webster’s word of the year last year.

Further, the image of the feminist woman has been turned on its head – we progressed from the reserved Hillary Clinton of 2016, to the rage of Hannah Gadsby, Melissa McCarthy’s Spicer on SNL, and democratic-socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. We are challenging assumptions about what it means to have a conversation about feminism, and on what terms these difficult discussions will occur.

I still worry that the feminism exhibited in fashion and marketing simplifies how society explores and understands feminism every day. I look back, almost resentfully, at the success of the ‘Lean In’ motto at my high school. Are we being told what kind of feminists to be? Are we being sold a particular, profitable brand of feminism? I wonder whether it stigmatises grassroots activists, feminist theorists with anti-capitalist ties, and all those who can’t ‘lean in’ due to the structural issues they face in society.

I feel lucky that in this moment, we have such robust debate about how to protect and advance gender equality in many places around the world.

However, though H&M currently sells t-shirts emblazoned with the word ‘Feminist’, a similarly large company, Peter Alexander, also sold tops for boys with the slogan ‘Boys will be boys’.

The proliferation of these clashing ideals by the fashion industry makes me concerned for the future of feminism, beyond empowerment. I suppose for now, feminist fashion is better than the alternative.

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63. I think of me, I think of Her 74. MyHealth Memories 76. Are You a Feminist?

64. Collage .

79. 18 Months and Counting 65. Sapphic Silencing 80. Dear John 66. Liberal Female Politicians and the Double-Edged Sword of 82. Area Non-Binary Person Loses Their Shit Power and Popularity 83. Every Morning I wake Up 68. Love as a transaction: Dead Calculating the Share of 84. To the Metal Emotional Labour 86. The Many Layers of an Earth 70. Ecology 71. What’s limiting our mob from That are You accessing the NDIS

Forged by Fire: Red Super Giant

(a dying star, with its core collapsing in on itself due to the weight of its elements) I wouldn’t have said I considered myself fortunate: I still voice woes and heartache. In those moments their silencing is deafening – it’s incomprehensible. Step aside to let a stranger, sibling, or friend speak; you’re not always right, you know?

I Think Of Her, I Think Of Me

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Sayler Allen Painting by Samantha Corbett CW: mentions sexual assault and gang rape in TV (no graphic description) A couple of weeks ago, I decided to start watching Netflix’s popular series, Narcos. It’s a “raw, gritty, original” crime drama that explores the lives of drug kingpins in 1980s Colombia. I’ve been taking Spanish language courses this year and figured I could learn more of the language and culture by watching a series based in South America.

There were some really great things about the show; it was riveting, had good acting, and held political intrigue.

I binged the first three episodes and found that in the series there were very few women, each of whom had very little screen time, and were either kidnapped, wives or sex workers. Within the first few episodes of the series, one of these characters was horrifically gang raped.

The rape scene was brutal, it was incredibly violent, and it took an incredibly long time. The whole point of it was to heighten the drama of the scene, as each time the heroes would find out more about her location, it would cut back to a different man using her. It would oscillate from a scene of concerned heroes to “That little girl doesn’t move… like a dead cow,” heroes deciding to find her to “What, did you kill her?

It’s my turn now,” a car chase to “Let me have a little more fun,” to heroes storming the building with guns blazing and finding her, and the scene finally ends. This terrifyingly traumatic experience, which will impact her for the rest of her life, was reduced to a tension-building device.

In the aftermath of the scene, the hero asks, “Is she going to be ok?” to which the cop replies “Physically, yeah. Mentally? I haven’t got a fucking clue.” They change the subject, the drug war continues, and she instantly fades into redundancy now that they have no use for her bruised body to further the importance of their cause. You never see her character again.

I’m curled up on my couch, tea forgotten on the coffee table, with a blanket wrapped around me in a warmth that is cloying because I can feel my cold

sweat stick to its fur. The episode has ended but my heart is still racing. I choose something else to watch; something light, something to take my mind off the trauma I just watched for entertainment. I have a shower, go to bed, and try to sleep, but my mind keeps going back to her. I don’t even remember her name.

I think of her and I think of me, and I think of myself in that situation and suddenly my heart rate climbs. I have a pressure on my chest and I’m so, so tired of being constantly reminded of the pain that men can inflict upon me. While her experience was a shocking scene in a television show, rape is an experience of so many women who have to live it afterwards. We don’t just stop existing after we’ve been brutalized. We endure and we deal with its consequences in whatever way we can. Why do we never see that in the media? I have so many images in my mind of scenes from films and TV series of women being raped, but no stories of how these women survive it. What do they do afterwards?

What do I do afterwards?

You’ve told me how horrible rape is, you’ve shown me how it could happen to me and who by, but what you’re really helping me understand is that it doesn’t matter – that the experience of women after they’ve been raped doesn’t matter.

I haven’t watched Narcos since. I don’t want to. I don’t want to think about it.

Her name was Helena and I think of her and I think of me.

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Sam Corbett

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Sapphic Silencing Dana Throssell I am tired of your (not-so) implicit requests for proof; demanding me to explain myself with your ever-questioning ever-doubtful ever-condescending eyes.

My sexuality is not a university research paper, requiring citations in Chicago Style format; 1.

Anonymous, “Fell in Love with Best Friend,” Even Though I Knew She was Straight 3, no. 12 (Summer 2015).

2.

Anonymous, “Countless String of Crushes and Flings,” That You Never Took Seriously 1, no. 8 (2016).

3.

Anonymous, Do You Want Me to Tell You About the Women in My Bed?, (Canberra: It Didn’t Seem Appropriate to Tell My Mother, 2017).

4.

Anonymous, How Many Times Do I Have to Say I’m Bi?, (Canberra: You Will Never Believe Me Unless I Marry a Woman, 2018).

You do not deserve my justification.

I should not have to spread the history between my legs like a journal publication for you to agree with me.

You are not my validation.

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Liberal Female Politicians and the DoubleEdged Sword of Power and Popularity Blair Williams Artwork by Georgie Kamvissis

The last few months in Australian politics has been a tumultuous time for the Liberal Party. The Prime Minister was ousted and conservative, evangelical politician Scott Morrison took his place. This replacement demonstrated that the far-right, often misogynistic, sect of the Liberal Party has taken power.

The latest Liberal leadership spill seemed to be a men-only game. After Peter Dutton and Morrison put their hats in the ring, Julie Bishop nominated herself to save as many seats as possible at the next election. However, while senior Liberal MP Julie Bishop was arguably the most competent, she was also largely excluded from the machinations of the spill. Though she was a loyal Deputy Leader since 2007 with over twenty years of parliamentary experience, and Australia’s first woman Foreign Minister, she faced many hurdles in trying to win this challenge.

The main, glaringly obvious hurdle is the fact that she is a woman in a highly male-dominated party that is becoming increasingly conservative. Conservative ideology isn’t exactly ‘woman friendly’ as rather than seeking to empower women,

it embraces traditional gender roles where women, according to one former Liberal prime minister, are less likely to assume positions of power due to ‘physiological differences’.

The Liberal Party is run by conservative, white men who tend to support and preselect other white men in their own image. Women, therefore, are underrepresented. It’s obvious that the Liberal party has a ‘woman problem’. As seen by the recent events, including Bishop’s and MP Julia Bank’s call-out of the party’s gendered bullying and intimidation and subsequent resignation, women members often experience misogyny from those within the party at all levels.

The Liberal party is largely a boys club, which is perpetuated through the behaviour of male MPs and party leaders, and the exclusion or belittlement of women. Though this problem is not a recent phenomenon, the party is moving more towards the right and becoming more traditional and misogynistic, seemingly as a point of backlash against progressive society. In line with this, the party maintains the male status quo, glosses over competent and experienced women, such as Julie

Bishop, and intimidates and bullies those who don’t conform.

Furthermore, it appears that Liberal MPs expect female politicians to be able to endure the negative and often gendered treatment they experience from not just within their own party, but outside of it as well.

If they fail to do so – if they refuse to stay quiet and instead bring attention to their ‘woman problem’ – they are seen to be too uptight or moody and told instead to ‘roll with the punches in this game’.

The ways in which the media portray women politicians isn’t much better. Though it appears that the media has gotten slightly better in its treatment of Bishop’s leadership challenge than it did Gillard’s, they still frequently focused on her gender. This change in the media’s representation might be because Bishop did not win the challenge whereas Gillard did and was seen as actively taking the top job from a man. However, there are some similarities in how the media covered Gillard’s ascension and Bishop’s challenge.

In line with the results I have found through my PhD, which examines women prime ministers and their

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misogy nistic media coverage, the media coverage of Bishop often included gendered tropes. Discussing her gender and appearance, relating her back to her family, and using negatively gendered imagery against her, such as being a Shakespearean murderer, are just some of these tropes. An instance of this was seen in a The Australian article, that reported the results of the voter’s choice poll between Bishop, Dutton and Morrison, was titled “To be or not to be: Julie ‘Lady Macbeth’ Bishop was the voters’ pick”.

This article extensively used all four gendered tropes I mentioned above.

They frequently mentioned her gender, while her male counterpart’s gender was never mentioned, and Bishop was even described as bringing “a touch of glamour to the often grey world of politics”. Additionally, her supposed “proclivity for designer suits” and high heels was commented on. In their “Who is Julie Bishop?” section, they mentioned that she was “divorced, but in a long-term relationship with David Panton” and had no children. In fact, her partner was frequently talked about throughout the article as they jokingly stated that he would be Australia’s newest “First Man”.

This media coverage is depressing and disheartening, but certainly not shocking. Any time a woman gets close to the top job, she runs the risk of her gender being used against her. While men are able to play the ‘Canberran Game’, women instead

are ‘ o t h e r e d ’, ignored or regarded as not being up to the job.

These recent events illustrate that the way that women are treated within the Liberal Party, the Australian parliament, and the mainstream media needs to change. In order to increase the representation of women in parliament the Liberal Party needs to follow the ALP’s suit and implement gender quotas. Hopefully this will, in part, reduce the ‘boy’s club’ mentality that is so prevalent within the party. It is also imperative that the media, especially the national broadsheet The Australian, change the way in which they portray female politicians. Rather than being depicted as women first and politicians second, the media needs to show them the same decency they show their male counterparts, that is, focus on their policy and their politics, not their gender.

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Love As a Transaction: Calculating the Share of Emotional Labour Eleanor Armstrong

The issue of emotional labour, and most notably women’s often unequal share of the load, has been hotly contested in recent times. Some describe it as one of the new frontiers of modern-day feminism, while others are sceptical and see it as overanalysing the situation or ascribing unnecessary blame.

There are undoubtedly inherently gendered elements to the issue of emotional labour. For many women, the burden of emotional labour is what prevents them from pursuing their own careers and involves putting the lives of others before their own. These efforts often go without remuneration or even thanks from the recipients of such generosity.

Generally speaking, women are conditioned to interrogate and self-analyse because we are compelled towards an unattainable standard of perfection in many spheres of our lives. Whether this be conforming to an image of beauty, the role of wife or mother, or the

very contrived notion of being ‘feminine’, it is expected that there will always be someone who can find fault with what women do and choose.

Our tendency to self-analyse manifests in that common dilemma of: “Am I overreacting, or is this something that the patriarchy doesn’t want me to speak up about?”

Of course, micro-aggressions and small disparities or inequalities are not at the forefront of all women’s minds — and being able to question whether I am overanalysing emotional labour by applying a gendered lens certainly hints at my privileged position.

But rather than diving too far into the gendered characteristics of emotional intelligence specifically — and how women are supposedly ‘better at these things’ — I thought it would be useful to consider emotional labour from the perspective of providing a service.

Relationships can be viewed as (and are for some people) an exchange of services.

This may be expressed in physical affection, doing small favours for each other or completing more abstract tasks of listening and providing advice. The idea of a what a ‘good friend’ or ‘proper partner’ does can lead to disputes if there are conflicting expectations.

I have had experiences where ‘being there for someone’ has been defined as a quantifiable role, and where failing to carry out expected duties has resulted in a temporary exclusion from the relationship. I have similarly projected onto others what I think the ‘right’ thing to do as a friend or partner

is — such as showing up to a significant event to support.

In fact, this often occurs in my relations with women-identifying friends, as we all grapple with our anxieties surrounding our share of emotional labour more generally. It is saddening that we as women* sometimes transfer patriarchal pressures onto each other, just because those in power don’t sympathise or remain fairly unaffected.

What I have learnt is that it is important to take stock of how much you are giving and receiving in your relationships. There are only so many hours in the day, and emotional labour is often not the most rewarding experience. It is unsurprising that many female-identifying partners and mothers find themselves drained and isolated by the constant demands put upon them by those they look after.

As someone who has often considered herself highly rational and calculative, my experience with what people

69 would describe as emotional labour has been quite unemotional. My interactions with friends, family and partners have been driven by logic and intuition. Often this is more as a result of internalised perfectionism than anything else — perhaps due to the compounding effects of a tight schedule and preference for how things ‘should’ be done.

There have been times, however, where I’ve found myself ques-

tionwhy I feel I am best ‘positioned’ to c o m pl e t e a task in a certain way — whether it be reminding someo n e of something they have coming up or trying to analyse and resolve a crisis they may be having. This doesn’t occur exclusively in my interactions wit h ing

male-identifying people either; it is important to remember that emotional labour imbalances are not limited to binary male-female interactions.

Is it bizarre and somewhat misguided that I take pride in being able to do these things for people? Is this really generosity I am showing, or just an enactment of my duty as a partner, friend or family member? This is often where I find the lines become somewhat blurred. My interrogation can extend to me questioning whether my own acts are selfless or self-interested. Am I being genuine in wanting to help, or am I only performing this service so that they ‘owe me one’, or so that I can increase the number of points I have won in the ‘tactical game’ of relationships?

Of course, this may just be another example of my over-extended self-critical disposition, as well as some degree of internalised misog yny

that encourages society to see women as manipulative. After all, relationships are inherently malleable and flexible things; it is not possible to keep score, or alternatively, to simply maintain them by putting in a little bit of effort every so often. This kind of attitude towards our bonds with others can often leave both parties feeling hollow and out of touch with each other.

All things considered, while I am often inclined to approach emotional labour quite unemotionally, I nonetheless feel uneasy about the whole thing. To avoid getting trapped in an unbalanced and gendered routine of service, where feelings of resentment are likely, we must ask ourselves: “Is this unnecessary emotional labour?” Striving towards a relatively equitable share of the ‘work’ of care-giving is necessary to ensuring everyone feels cared for.

Due to my competing and sometimes contradictory feminist, perfectionist and nurturing instincts, the question of what constitutes emotional labour is still something I struggle with.

Maybe it is simply providing a service, or perhaps it is an unfair burden, or perhaps, it is a bit of both.

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Ecology Lillias Your absence, a heaviness I nursed between my teeth, seducing them into decay, opened my mouth to the serpent-tail, palms drinking from an open pit, a steel pot that brought the things you hated about me to a boil.

“How does it feel to live without arms?”

I shove the granite into my mouth so I can’t hear.

Literary types would call it hubris, but I bite my tongue.

I’ve never been a woman.

Just a fluttering stem, a sunbeam, an oil painting and an idea.

His fingers sank into my back and reminded me that I came from the deep soil, from the bursting zygote, from the hollow sea.

The summer ended and my skin flash-froze.

When he recoiled I became familiar again, a garden again, that was wilting.

Sexy girls crave perforation.

Sexy girls crave seclusion, to touch incandescent light bulbs and feel the heat on the wax as they fall like you do in nightmares.

Your absence – your copper neck, your phantom throat, the dark, wet champagne of your mouth an obscure vision, a shallow marsh, a wailing beetle – your absence, a heaviness which forced my molars in.

Painting by Sam Corbett

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What’s limiting our mob from accessing the NDIS? Vanamali Hermans

Many of our mob live with disabilities – up to 45% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a disability or a restrictive long-term health condition accord-

ing to the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO). These high rates of disability are a testament to Australia’s history of colonisation and its continuation through poverty, police brutality, a lack of adequate housing and healthcare and the destruction of country. All these factors are responsible for damaging Aboriginal people’s health and increasing the likelihood of acquiring disabilities.

Rates of mental illness and psychosocial disabilities are similarly much higher amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people due to trauma that is related to unresolved social injustice, child removals, cycles of incarceration, deaths in custody, the dispossession of land, structural violence and sustained exposure to discrimination. Even as I write this, two young Aboriginal boys have just been murdered by police in Western Australia, and the courts have again denied justice to the families of three

children murdered in Bowraville in 1990. It is not surprising that these cycles of injustice and grief have taken a toll on Aboriginal people’s physical and emotional wellbeing.

For many of our mob, disability can be a death sentence. The Guardian Australia’s ‘Deaths inside’ database tracks every known Indigenous death in custody from the past ten years. It has revealed untreated medical issues, many relating to people’s disabilities, are the leading cause of death. Looking at many of the stories listed on the database, it’s important to recognise the lasting trauma left behind. For families and communities, the treatment and murder of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities represents the continuing brutality of invasion.

Despite this grief, narratives of disability in our communities are not just stories of disadvantage, framed in only negativity and deficiency like many policymakers and politicians would have us believe.

In Aboriginal and Torres Islander languages, there are no traditional words for disability. Disability is talked about through an impairment-based model that centres on what families and communities need to know about a person to ensure they can participate. It may be a case of “Uncle really doesn’t move too well” or “Aunty doesn’t hear too well,” rather

72 than Uncle has mobility restrictions or Aunty is deaf. This view of disability focuses on people’s strengths, social participation and what communities need to do to ensure inclusivity, and avoids categorising or separating people by their abilities.

Viewing disability as impairment rather than a problem that must be fixed, rehabilitated and prevented, has meant many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are reluctant to adopt Western labels of disability in order to ac-

starkly in the lack of community-controlled service providers available to mob living with disability. To seek support beyond family networks can be difficult, and this is even more challenging when services may not be culturally safe or trusted.

Within many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities there e

cess schemes like the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Mainstream Western models of categorising people can be perceived as another attempt to erode social solidarity and deny that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities are accepted as active members within our communities and families.

Likewise, for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, there is no special category for physical and intellectual disability. Disability might be seen as a loss of culture, land and trauma, assimilation, difficulty accessing services as an Aboriginal person, or any other impairment. In John Gilroy’s discussion of conflicting cultural interpretations of disability, an Indigenous healthcare worker noted “just being black is a disability: no education, no jobs, kids don’t think they can do anything.”

When our mob’s cultural understanding of disability is forced to operate within service models like the NDIS – a market-style system in which individualised funding is determined based on identified deficits and the estimated cost of rehabilitation or modification – access to support can be limited.

We see the cultural disconnect between the NDIS and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people most

seres, with histories of unwanted sur veillance and intervention, including child removals, contributing to people’s reluctance to access or engage with

a

quate support from the NDIS.

i s n n -

trenched distrust of mainstream vic-

schemes such as the NDIS. In July this year, a 13-yearold with cerebral palsy was placed into the care of child protection after losing NDIS funding.

His mother, unable to perform some aspects of his care for complex health and cultural reasons, lost custody after being left without ade-

Scenarios like this, where funding is withdrawn and the state intervenes to separate families, continues to be an ongoing fear for many. This demonstrates that in order to make the NDIS accessible to Aboriginal people, communities desperately need autonomy and resources to be able to provide disability services in a culturally appropriate way. Despite the existence of the NDIS’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement Strategy, the market-style nature of the scheme does little to invest in or support community-controlled providers.

Without such providers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people cannot be guaranteed access to trusted and safe services.

Beyond these different cultural understandings of disability and institutional distrust, the NDIS poses limit ations for Abo-

riginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a bureaucratic application process. The NDIS is a challenging system to navigate, even for relatively privileged people with tertiary-level education and a firm understanding of the terminology of the disability sector. For many of our mob who have relatively low levels of literacy and numeracy, access to the scheme is limited without extensive support from allied health professionals and social workers.

For communities where English is not a first language, the task of accessing the NDIS, interpreting the application information and then submitting a request for support is near impossible. The NDIS’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement Strategy outlines language barriers and the importance of communication. However, limited solutions and accommoda-

73 tions are committed to by the scheme.

Similarly, a strict and challenging set of criteria within the application process increases the barriers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face in accessing the NDIS. The NDIS relies on the strict quantification of disability, with criteria requiring people to “have an impairment” or “condition that is likely to be permanent,” have an impairment that “substantially reduces your ability to participate effectively in activities” and an impairment that “affects your capacity for social and economic participation.” For mob who have limited access or interaction with the health system – whether that be due to a lack of available services or paternalistic health professionals – supporting evidence needed to meet the criteria of the scheme is hard to get.

In Stephens and Bohanna’s investigation of acquired brain injury (ABI) in Cape York and the Northern Territory, it was found there was

“no reliable, culturally appropriate instruments to measure and assess the extent of one’s impairment, without which eligibility for the NDIS would be difficult to establish.”

Other impairments, including psychosocial disabilities and mental health conditions, are equally difficult to demonstrate. The criteria for psychosocial disabilities are vague and hard to interpret given the required ongoing permanency of disability. This means that people with mental illness are at risk of missing out on NDIS support due to their fluctuating support needs. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, having to prove mental illness and trauma to an untrustworthy system that may use mental illness as justification for child removals, again limits their access to the NDIS. Even if our mob are successful in applying for and meeting the eligibility

criteria for the NDIS, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote communities still face limitations in accessing the scheme because of its delayed geographical rollout. The market nature of the scheme has meant that it is not economically viable for providers to deliver services to communities with limited resources and N D I S par ticipants, causing many to go without access to any support.

The costs of delivering services to remote communities can be astronomical when compared to urban regions, and the mode s t loadings t o prices in rural and remote regions funded by the NDIS still don’t sufficiently cover pricing gaps or factor in freight and transport imposts.

Restrictive resourcing and workforce shortages likewise limit remote communities’ access to the NDIS, with some staff having to travel hundreds of kilometres to deliver services to people, foster-

ing a fly-in-fly-out culture of distrust.

The lack of safe housing and physical infrastructure in many communities, especially in remote areas, that is required to support the expansion of the NDIS further limits access to the scheme. Basic housing and utilities go unmet, leaving many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities instead focusing their energy on addressing the basics of dayto-day living. Overcrowding and a lack of hot water, refrigeration and laundry facilities need to be resolved in order for Ab-

original and Torres Strait Islander people to make the most out of the NDIS. How can Aboriginal people access support without basic housing? A lack of proper public infrastructure likewise acts as a barrier, with many dirt roads, for example, causing great difficulties for those in wheelchairs or those who are unsteady on their feet. Often these roads may be flooded during the wet season, causing remote communities to be physically cut off from NDIS services and staff.

What all these limitations demonstrate is that non-Indigenous services and schemes cannot be imposed on communities. Unless Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are actively involved in planning, shaping and running disability services, communities will continue to have limited access to support. The cultural disconnect between conceptualisations of disability, justified lack of trust between institutions and people, alienating and bureaucratic application processes and underfunded rollout all demonstrate the failings of the NDIS to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Justice for our mob with disabilities needs to centre on self-determination and community-control so disability services are safe and available in every community.

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MyHealth Memories Nadia Kim

The doctor doesn’t eye me suspiciously before printing the prescriptions like I expected he would; he just flat-out refuses while staring at the screen. He says he wants a letter from my previous GP. How do I explain that I don’t have a GP? How can I detail my thirteen-year career as a consumer of mental health service – from Canberra to Newcastle, Sydney to Cooma, and back to Canberra. It has been a string of walkin clinics, and a disorienting oscillation between the psychiatrist who effectively saved me and a series of overworked bulk-billing counsellors who, at best, stopped me quitting whatever casual job I was working at the time. The doctor takes advantage of my shock to usher me out the door. He suggests I talk to the receptionistabout

contacting my previous family doctor in Sydney.

I have three days of medication left.

** My first interaction with the Personally Controlled E-health Record (PCEHR) was during employee training to input data into the Medicare Consumer database. It was 2012, and the newly created Department of Human Serv ic e s h a d taken on business from other government departments, including administering the new online health summary. In the full-day training session, we were told that the Australian Government was leading the way with this innovative new system. People would be in complete control of their health information and outcomes. Within two years almost all GP and specialist surgeries would be signed up.

Most of the public servants in training with me were eager to leave before the scheduled finish time. We’d travelled from our base offices and would not be reimbursed for the additional commute time and costs. These training days could usually finish early if we rushed through the material, didn’t ask questions, and took a half-hour lunch instead of the full hour. When somebody asked a question about privacy concerns I heard groans and mut-

tering. Most people were looking at their phones under the table for the whole day. ** Like up-selling a meal deal, we had a script we used to encourage people to register while they were making rebate claims or updating their Medicare details. A regular customer I saw about twice a week had signed up for the PCEHR after the very first spiel. She told us, “I already fucking did this, but none of my doctors use it so it’s pointless.” ** Five years and three governments later, I’m standing at the front desk of the doctor’s office waiting for the receptionist to finish his phone call.

He tells me that he can request my files be transferred from my previous medical centre by faxing them a form. Right now, he is on hold to their receptionist, waiting to get their fax number. I’m still a bit confused by the doctor’s refusal to prescribe the medication I’ve taken for almost ten years. I tried showing him the ‘medications dispensed’ page on my phone but he waved it away, saying he needs something “from another doctor”. The newly re-named ‘My Health Record’ will not suffice. ** When privacy concerns were raised at that training session, we had been assured that the content of doctors’

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notes would not be accessible. The only thing visible would be a record of the visit to the doctor. This confused me a little; it seemed pointless if no actual medical information was going to be uploaded. I registered for my own record to find out what was going to be available. Immediately, I could see my Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) claims history going back two years, as well as my Australian Organ Donor Registry (AODR) information. It was all the same information that I’d already been checking through the Medicare online portal anyway. I saw some of the new headings I’d heard about at training: Pathology and Diagnostic Imaging reports, Event Summaries, e-Referrals. The new sections were all empty; I’d need to remember to ask doctors to upload information for me. ** The receptionist hangs up the phone. The last medical centre I went to doesn’t have a fax machine but they can email my signed ‘consent to release information’ form.

Well, yeah, it’s 2017. Who still uses fax? The receptionist can’t email him though, because that would involve scanning the consent form, and their scanner is broken. He pushes my Medicare card back across the counter at me. ** Since I first r e g istered for t h e government’s electronic health record in 2012, I’ve asked at least four different pathology and diagnostic imaging providers to upload reports. Every time I’ve been sent to a new specialist I’ve asked the referring doctor to create an e-Referral. I’ve also had quite a few health ‘events’ since registering. Despite all this, my record has remained largely unchanged for six years. Not a single report, e-Referral or ‘Event Summary’ appears in my file.

There was, and still is, nowhere in the My Health Record for me to put, concisely and in my own words, information I think would be im-

portant for healthcare providers to know in an emergency situation or otherwise. They could, at best, glean information about current medication dosages by scrolling through my PBS his t o r y.

They can see that I have claimed rebates for seeing specialists but not what they specialise in, or what they have found and treated. There is no information about any of my chronic health conditions or dietary needs and no capacity for me to provide it. It doesn’t feel like I’m in control of my information at all. ** I drive across town to the next closest walk-in medical centre I can find on Google Maps. After I’ve filled out my second new-patient information form for the day, I wait almost two hours. I see the doctor for five minutes and walk out with the three scripts I need.

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Are You a Feminist?

Thea Henderson CW: sexual assault, rape, sexist language Dark brown eyes Broody Slow drags on a cigarette Jealousy, desire Why doesn’t he want me?

Attention Sweet, sweet attention I am giddy with it.

Throwing off clothes, drunkenly running into the water Salt water kisses and slurred declarations of want Narrow bunk bed, hands everywhere, but wait, stop, there are others in the room.

Morning Joint shower On my knees, water in my eyes, struggling to breathe Some are better than others Shame right down to my stomach: He’s off me.

Oh no, wait – Walking down the street, he puts his hand under my skirt and pinches my vulva.

Hooray!

He still likes me Hand holding is old-fashioned anyway.

Swimming in the ocean His lips on mine His eyes flash with something like lust mixed with malice, challenging me to win him over Flip flops slapping against hot pavement And cold iced tea from his mouth to mine via peach flavoured kisses.

Come to Slovenia Flight canceled, bus booked You’re whipped, following me!

Humiliation.

Early morning bus journey Fingers intertwined, half-asleep His body radiates warmth, yet I’m still cold.

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Beneath the blaring lights in an empty restaurant: Are you a feminist?

Does that mean I don’t have to pay for dates?

Does that mean I shouldn’t be a gentleman?

Does that mean it’s okay for me to hit you? …

Don’t shake your head, argue back!

Fuck you I hate you.

Walking home, he wraps his arm around my waist You’re so cute when you’re angry Fuck off.

Hands up my skirt, under my shirt Fuck off, fuck off.

Aw come on, do you forgive me?

You never apologised.

I give him my silent forgiveness in a sweaty dorm bed not designed for two (and my apology to the guy next to us).

Goodbye Ljubljana bus station, standing by the kiosk I thought I’d feel less than I do, I want it to be more than it is I play with the hem of his shirt, trying to catch his eye He kisses me absent-mindedly Avoiding my gaze As though the infatuation in my eyes is contagious Bye, Thea On the bus as we pull away I cry more than I should But like rain on a sunny day I don’t understand why it’s happening.

The incomprehensible happens: He keeps speaking to me.

Facebook messages and snapchats come flooding in Articulating undetected feelings and desire: I miss you xx wish you were here and to my surprise: Let’s go on a trip together I realise I must have been wrong!

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Deep down, he cares about me!

Send me photos of you And the downward spiral begins His persuasiveness crumbles my self-assuredness And I all I think about are photos Do I look good?

Will he like this?

He showers me with compliments And I glow.

Walking down the street in Dublin Slow drags on a cigarette Broody Do you know anyone who’s been raped? …me?

Yeah, that was rape He appears more interested in his cigarette.

Mid-sex, he pins me down Snaking his arms around my neck He covers my mouth His smile burning into my throat Shh, Thea.

Don’t make a sound.

Is that what it was like when he raped you?

There’s no fuel for indignation anymore My soul pries my lips open and flies away in search of a safe haven Anywhere but here, Where sharp words attack me Gaining easy traction in my soft skin And dark, broody eyes tell me I’m inadequate.

Déjà vu Goodbye.

I try to catch his eye He kisses me absent-mindedly I thought I’d feel more than I do, I want it to be something else to what it is.

See you, Thea No. You won’t.

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18 Months and Counting Stella McRobbie Artwork by Georgie Kamvissis

One basketball game, an all too common ACL injury, and how a knee reconstruction changed me more than it should have.

During my time out of sport, I found myself writing impromptu diary entries – something I have never resorted to before. I have a plethora of notes in my phone and on napkins from work emphasizing my constant attempts to grapple with what was happening to my body and mind. These entries were written on planes, on buses, breaks from work, watching AFL with friends, watching State of Origin with family, and mostly after watching my old team play.

The thing no one tells you about rehab is that there’s nothing impressive about it. As much as those inspirational videos, the #thereturn, or the motto that you can “come back stronger than ever” make you believe it, it’s not true. Not everyone is going to be the inspiring story that makes it onto the news.

Rehab is messy and unromantic. The truth is long term injuries are like quick sand – the more you struggle and push against the challenges you face, the deeper you sink into the reality of your injury. It isn’t fixed because you will it to be, and it certainly isn’t fixed in 3 minutes like those inspirational videos make it seem. As much as people preach it, injuries aren’t just fixed by an attitude; they’re fixed by hard, and usually painful, work. At some point you have to accept the fact that you’re stuck in the quick sand, stay calm, ask for help and make slow, steady and often boring movements to get yourself out.

I wouldn’t necessarily call my rehab a success. It was a success in that I have found my way back to sport – to the outlet I have relied on since I could run.

But the damage to my mind has been

extensive. I find that I have been incre dibly changed by the whole process, which I am extremely remiss about.

Lots of other athletes have said that injuries, especially long term injuries, make you stronger in the long term. I am yet to see this apply to me. I am still extremely angry; I am furious at the circumstances that meant I ended up in surgery.

Since the injury I have read and read and read; searching for a reason this happened to me, searching for why it affected me so much, searching for a way to validate the depletion of my mental health, and self-worth.

confidence

But honestly, sometimes you just get unlucky. Sometimes, shit happens and noone gets to decide whether it happens to them or not. No, the basketball gods do not exist and no, they do not have it out for me as much as I may think.

There’s no larger point to this injury; this isn’t fate or the world ‘testing’ my strength. A random series of events led to me being on that court in that uniform, playing on that team against that team, and doing that layup. And if I had made any of those decisions with the fear of this injury in mind, then the sport I use as my escape wouldn’t be an escape anymore.

What I wish someone had told me is that it’s okay not to live the motto. It’s okay to come back and not feel stronger, not feel tougher.

It’s okay to honestly say, “No, this adversity hasn’t taught m e any-

thing.”

And just because you don’t feel stronger and smarter, doesn’t mean y o u ’ r e weaker and dumber – it means you’re different.

It means you’ve had to learn to evolve into something you weren’t ready to become yet, and perhaps more time is the only thing that can make you feel ready. No amount of physio exercises can help your mind settle into its new home, but patience might.

Instead of looking for strength, what I wish someone had told me is to find a way to be content again and to just do the thing that makes you happy.

Strength can wait.

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Dear John Pi Lee

CW: sexual assault, sexual harassment, victim-blaming Dear John, I met you when I was 15 years old.

You have been a source of great advice, timely support and unparalleled opportunity. While in some ways you have been instrumental in facilitating some key life changing experiences (in your role as my counselor and my nominator), you yourself have presented a great challenge to me. Maybe you are unaware of the extent to which you have challenged me and other women too. Maybe you choose to overlook it.

Nevertheless, I have spent the last eight years building up the courage to send you this, so I hope you will take the time to read it through with an open heart, and that you respond with respect.

In recent media events, the snowballing accusations of sexual harassment and assault against the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein have generated international discussion about issues that often get swept under the carpet.

These include the impact of misogynistic men holding positions of power, and the pervasive and damaging social attitudes around victim blaming and rape culture. These issues are neither convenient nor pleasant, and many are reluctant to bring them into the spotlight as they are steeped in personal trauma and stigma. However, as you have hopefully seen in the responses of people around you who chose to engage in the #MeToo movement, these

issues are insidious.

Harvey Weinstein is not an anomaly.

He is a norm that society chooses to turn a blind eye to. Victims are forced to bear the burden of their trauma in silence, while the perpetrators avoid accountability for their actions. Social conditioning allows misogynistic larrikin behaviour to fly under the radar, justified by flippant excuses like ‘boys will be boys’, ‘it’s just a way of showing affection’, and ‘I am sure he didn’t mean any harm’.

Harmless intention is used to shroud harmful action.

My education, my professional field and my feminist politics have provided me with the skills to critically engage in issues like this and to do something about changing the cultural landscape – one conversation at a time. However, my boldness, my intellect, my open-mindedness, my adaptability, my resilience, and my compassion haven’t spared me from saying ‘me too’.

I am not alone in saying that I have experienced many moments that have been marked by misogynistic harassment and sexual assault. My first was while on exchange in Germany, at the hand of another student. There have been other instances since then. Despite my professional boldness, and quickness to defend the honour and integrity of the people around me, I have done a poor job of defending myself. I believe that this has been partially due to social conditioning, which pressures individuals to internalise shame and guilt as they quietly accept their own

trauma, rather than challenging threatening individuals and behaviour. Emotional labour is continuously pushed onto women who, even in the 21st century, are meant to be seen and not heard, lest they rock the boat.

Today I am resisting that conditioning.

I am choosing to be brave and stand up for myself. I am rocking the boat, despite being aware of the potential consequences. I am challenging you to also be brave by reflecting on your actions and choices. While retrospection will not undo what has already been done, it may benefit the next young women you have the privilege of mentoring in the future.

John, I firmly believe that you abused your position of power and privilege.

Not only as my counselor, but also as the grandfather figure that developed from my own lack of extended family, blurring your own professional and personal integrity, and damaging my safety and personal prosperity. You were charged with helping me to shape myself into someone with the capacity to make a positive impact on my community and the world around me.

A responsibility you willing accepted more than once. A responsibility that you took advantage of.

You are my Harvey Weinstein.

How often have you complimented my looks or developing body rather than my capacity for social change or forward thinking? How often have you devalued my personhood to a ‘horny haircut’ or a ‘pretty face’?

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m me t me me too me to

me too.

How often did you comment on my unavailable sexuality – or that of my mother – in a way that passed off the conversation as routine flattery?

On several occasions, you have touched my body without reason or consent, even squeezing my thigh at a formal event and grabbing my breast during a car trip in relation to some joke.

After I came back from exchange, how often did you ask me about my sexual experiences overseas for ‘research purposes’, probing repeatedly into unnecessary details with seemingly innocent questions and cornering me into answering them?

How often did you refer to my physical relationship to my ex-partner, and ask deeply personal and inappropriate questions about our intimacy?

In response I tried to deflect the conversation, nervously laugh it away, quietly respond to it or simply freeze up.

I reacted by being paranoid, hyper-vigilant and anxious around you, making sure that I did what I could to protect myself - even avoiding meeting with you where I could. You would respond by simply tracking me down through my parents, generating familial duty to reengage.

I saw how your interactions with other women would also feature humour and comments that were just borderline inappropriate enough to avoid social condemnation. I learnt to believe that my discomfort was simply oversensitivity to standard interactions.

You are my Harvey Weinstein.

Perhaps I ought to have said something each and every time that I felt uncomfortable and threatened. However, is it really the responsibility of a 15-yearold girl to call out the behaviour of her older, wiser mentor – someone with whom she must maintain a professional ongoing relationship? Even when most other women around me were choosing to ‘let it slide’? At what point was I supposed to be assertive enough to challenge you after having already tolerated it as an expected part of your companionship? After five, six, maybe seven years? All I know is that letting it slide made me feel increasingly guilty and shameful for not standing up for myself. Even into my 20’s the effect was still there. Ironically, my profes-

sional role became teaching consent and healthy relationships to other people.

The advice I received from the people around me was that you are from a different era. A high flying media executive who had been raised in a different culture, one that wasn’t so politically correct and was laced with Mad Men-esque institutionalised misogyny.

However, present behaviour cannot be justified by historical standards.

You are a father of beautiful, successful daughters and have an amazingly strong wife – but that doesn’t excuse you from interrogating the quality of your relationships with women in your life. That does not exclude you from having transgressed the boundaries and expectations of others. That does not give you immunity from reflecting on the adverse impact you have had on young women like me. I am not the only one who feels this way.

As you can probably tell, these memories are forever ingrained in my mind.

They are compounded every time someone assumes entitlement to my body, my social space or my value.

Each time, the healing is undone a little, and I have to work that much harder to put myself back together. But each time, I also get better at standing my ground.

I am going to be a person who has a positive impact on my community and the people around me. I will not be complacent as entitlement and privilege quietly chip away at my sense of power, value and wholeness. I am going to continue being the person who stands up for those around me who are struggling to find their voice, but I am also going to do a better job at standing up for myself. I will not be a bystander when I can engage in a conversation that could be the catalyst for a positive change.

Because, John, despite the damage you have done to me and others like me, I will hold myself and the people around me to a high standard; one based on mutual respect and kindness. My 15 year old self deserves that much, and regardless of what you may think upon receiving this letter when I send it to you tomorrow, me too.

Sincerely, Pi

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Area Non-Binary Person Loses their Shit Gene Pinter In an unprecedented and entirely unpredictable move, a local individual, [REDACTED], has officially lost their goddamn mind when it comes to cis people telling them what’s what. “Look,” they said in an exclusive interview with Bossy, “the next person who tries to tell me my pronouns aren’t grammatically correct is getting a dictionary to the jaw!”

[REDACTED], a humble Gender Studies student and part-time vegan, has stated that they are becoming increasingly frustrated when, during ice-breakers and other associated torture rituals, someone comments on their pronouns. “Enough is enough,” they have announced. “’They’ is singular and it’s my pronoun. Case closed.”

Cis rights activists have contested [REDACTED]’s claims, citing that in Western society ‘they’ is considered a plural pronoun, and there’s nothing anyone can say or do to adjust this constant, untenable law. This response, which arrived at Bossy HQ via carrier pigeon after being dictated to the village cleric, has not deterred [REDACTED]’s ire. When [REDACTED] sent back a fully annotated bibliography outlining that ‘they’ has been used as a singular pronoun since at least the 16th century, the cis activists dismissed the research as it was in MLA format.

“It’s funny how cis people only care about proper grammar when trans people have something to say about it,” [REDACTED] said, taking a sip of their tea.

“How about that.”

In a recent survey, 69% of local residents reported feeling ‘uneasy’ in [REDACTED]’s presence. One concerned citizen noted that “it’s not [their] fault that some people are so sensitive”, while another pointed out that, statisti-

cally speaking, a majority of people are unfamiliar with “gender nonsense” and therefore should not have to “bow to the liberal agenda”. In his nightly podcast, law student and Ramsey Centre advocate Charles Reynolds criticised [REDACTED]’s statement, citing personal experience as evidence that their claims are unfounded. Despite only having three listeners that night, Reynolds’ rant has gone viral, inciting further tension in what feminist scholars are calling ‘The New Sex Wars’.

“While Sex Wars of the past were concerned with topics such as pornography and sexual liberation, the New Sex Wars are about gender and how preconceived notions of it are being criticised by transgender people,” Professor Veronica McDonald, University of Eastern Australia, writes in Gender Quarterly. Her research into the Battle of Caitlyn Jenner (2015) re-

vealed that while many cis people are “totally cool” with people “doing their thing”, they take significant offense to being told their behaviours and the thought processes behind them are reductive.

McDonald has since issued an apology, citing rising hostility from the new right as grounds for retraction. Reynolds, as well as other gender-critical academics, have taken this to mean that she agrees with them.

But what does this mean for [REDACTED]? When asked what their next move was, they shrugged and said they weren’t sure. They’ve received this reception regarding their pronouns ever since they came out as non-binary, and nothing they have said or done has made a difference to how cis people treat them. When Bossy suggested making a Facebook post outlining their frustrations, [REDACTED] pointed to the fifty similar posts they had already made this year, along with a plethora of shared Buzzfeed articles and the occasional VICE interview. “There’s not much I can do,” they said, thinking carefully. “Unless…”

Two days later internet connections went down across town; cis rights activists point the finger at [REDACTED] and their “crazy gender powers”. While it is true that non-binary people are immensely more powerful than their cisgender compatriots, Wi-Fi manipulation has not been recorded among their vast and impressive list of abilities. However, Bossy will keep you updated as the situation progresses.

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Every Morning I Wake Up Dead Kat Carrington CW: Violent Imagery and Allusions to Suicide

Every morning I wake up dead.

You convince me to jump after you say I love you.

You gun me down through glass doors: bullets splinter me.

The pressure of your chokehold lingers and when the dawn breaks you bury me.

Soil fills my lungs.

Do you also wake up dead?

With guts flowing and eyes engorged, your blood stains my hands.

I can stand at your grave and you can stand at mine.

Is that what you want?

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To The Metal Beth O’Sullivan “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” ― Martha Graham Jewellery has long been an art form highly synonymous with an individual’s expression of culture, status and, more recently, femininity. Although these adornments can vary in superficial elements such as value, materials, size, splendour and method of creation, the true value of jewellery – ranging from earrings and necklaces, to rings and bracelets/bands – is it’s ability to represent themes of greater significance.

A simple ring can represent one of the greatest commitments of our lives; a string of pearls becomes a symbol of class and tradition; an extravagant crystal brooch somewhat of a token for the celebration of wealth and affluence; a simple pair of earrings demonstrate the survival of generations, and; a bracelet, the survival of an entire culture through the endurance of its most beautiful artefacts.

In the 21st century one could regard jewellery as modern day armor – a source of empowerment for men and woman alike, which has the ability to confirm and enhance one’s confidence, poise and beauty. Where the metal plates of a shield once made a warrior prepared to face the battlefield, jewellery can provide us with the final detail needed to face our society, jobs and daily lives. The creation of such an art form fosters female empowerment through the expression of our unique creativity and ability to interact with our thoughts and conceptions of the world to bring about a tangible beauty and artistry. Beth O’Sullivan captures the refinement, style and finesse of this art form in her neat yet rustically elegant earrings. In their passing resemblance to entities that only nature could truly create, she manages to demonstrate how jewellery can be simultaneously luxurious and austere in how it compliments human beauty.

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The Many Layers of an Earth That are You Samihah Fattah

Five things you can see.

Four things you can touch.

Three things you can hear.

Two things you can smell.

One emotion you can feel.

This is a grounding technique used to prevent or

intervene the experience of having a panic attack, anxiety, or overwhelming emotions. It is considered a healthy coping mechanism. An overarching stigma associated with mental illness has resulted in a lack of general societal knowledge as to what exactly your brain is doing and why, when you experience these e m o tions.

This

lack of understanding can sometimes exacerbate a sense of lacking control when dealing with anxiety and its symptoms. We often wonder, “Why is my brain acting this way? How do I cope with this? Is this due to nature or nurture?”. Thinking of yourself as an earth with many layers can help you to understand these questions and serves as an analogy to reconstruct the way we think about mental health. Think of yourself as your own planet: you have an inner core, upon which you build by adding layers of your experiences and identities, until you truly form yourself.

Growing up, people adopt many layers or identities. These can be related to a home life, a school life, a professional life, and sometimes lead to the adaptation of different personas when around different people. In addition to this, gender and racial identities can add further layers. Due to the socio-political structure of our society, most people inherently equate a white, heteronormative, male perspective with the general ‘human experience’. If you are, say, female and brown, from the minute you are born, you automatically take on two other identities in addition to simply ‘human’. The intersectionality of these layers can make it even harder to grasp the complexities of who you are, as well as the fact that society does not give you the benefit of freely practicing or accepting unconventional layers.

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As you grow and adapt to the world, your brain will develop ways to accept your identities. It does this by adjusting to and providing coping mechanisms for situations which are unique to you. For example, as a practicing Muslim in the current political climate, you might jump to the defensive when questioned about your religion, especially if you are unsure of the reactions that revealing this information may entail. Your brain may blurt something out in defence, as a coping strategy for a stressful situation. If you are dealing with a challenging layer of yourself, your brain will develop defence mechanisms that seek to leave you as unscathed as possible in volatile social situations. In other words, your brain is trying to protect you. In the long term, however, these mechanisms can be unhealthy or damaging to the inherent parts (layers) of yourself.

Additionally, someone who experiences trauma is often forced to add a new layer on top of all of this.

Trauma can often occur in situations where your brain finds that you cannot fight something nor run from it, causing you to ‘freeze’. Dissociation can develop from this ‘freeze’ response, and is a coping mechanism wherein you feel extreme detachment from yourself and/or a traumatic event, sometimes to the extent that you may view yourself as if from a third person perspective.

This form of defence can be scary.

However, it is important to remember that this is just a coping mechanism, as are panic attacks, anxiety attacks or depressive episodes.

Your brain is trying to help you. The problematic part is that your brain may become accustomed to habitually using these coping mechanisms if left unchallenged.

Viewing your trauma experience as a layer of yourself can actually make it easier to acknowledge and in turn, cope with it. In this way, you may be better able to recognise certain behavioural patterns as coping mechanisms for your mental state. Dissociation is just one example of a coping mechanism that can go undetected. People often don’t pick up on these behaviours as they aren’t acknowledging their mental health as an identity layer that you can deal with. For myself and

many others struggling with mental health, viewing this experience as simply a layer can create a healthier relationship with mental illness.

Being born into a complex intersection of identities – particularly in the case of systematically undermined identities – can instil coping mechanisms from day one. It is almost as if trauma is passed down through generations. The struggles of your ancestors with invisible mental illnesses, unbeknownst to their culture or in wider society, may become or add to your own struggles. You may be burdened with unhealthy, intergenerational instincts of submission because your brain has been convinced that you cannot fight nor fly. This is not your fault, and fortunately, there is a bright side: nothing in the brain is an unmoveable rock and the terrain of these layers can most definitely be changed for the future.

The important notion here is that defence or coping mechanisms are just that; they can be adjusted or replaced when you no longer need them or when they become unhealthy. The idea is that, the more comfortable and accepting you are in regard to your trauma or triggers (that is, the more you understand that your mental health experience is just a layer of your mind), the better you will begin to manage them. Yes, these defensive mechanisms once helped you cope, when you did not know the emotions you were dealing with. However, as you become aware of tools that enable you to think about mental illness from a different perspective, you can use them to build new, more effective strategies for yourself. We are all our own planets, with layers upon layers making us who we are. Take

care of yourself, and acknowledge that these mechanisms and layers are strengths that have helped you to grow into the complex being that you are. When you know what you’re dealing with, when you understand your mental health layer, you have no need to be afraid anymore.

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89. A fierce concoction 90. How I learned to stop worrying and love my pubes 92. Is horseback riding girly?

94. Well Actually...: Women’s Revue Directors on Writing Skits, Empowerment, and Tradies 97. “I just feel like I’m not functioning” – Life as a student, a woman and a carer 100. How to Be a Woman in Power: Act Like a Man

102. Amazing Face 104. Is Exclusivity in Feminism Harming the Cause?

106. A day in the life of a cool girl 108. Stripped at Sainsbury’s: Cashback and What We Excuse in the Name of Art 110. Bringing Sexual Violence on Campus to a STOP with Camille Schloeffel 112. Glitter Tits, the Basic Bitch, and Festival Fashion

Power under Pressure: Supernova (a huge explosion of the star that is so bright that it can be brighter than its whole galaxy) It’s just so much sometimes: be this, be that, be everything, be nothing, be yourself, be them. Rage, rage, rage. Resistance of, and collaboration with systems and the system. I am fighting, and you can’t unsee me even if you wanted to.

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A Fierce Concoction Bindiya Bijo Although acne may be a common struggle, many of us continue to lack confidence in our skin throughout our lives. We seem to forget how natural this apparent imperfection is and how widely experienced it is amongst our peers. Yet, our perceptions of ourselves are repeatedly damaged by a few blemishes on our face. Companies make millions off our insecurities about the very exterior that makes us most unique and beautiful. Bindya reflects on this phenomenon in her piece which explores how confidence in your own skin is a product no money can buy. She notes that when people began to ask her how she had improved her own external outlook and the appearance of her skin, the true secret behind her new confidence – acne or no acne – was something that we all have to discover for ourselves. A rare elixir or potion which the market cannot provide.

You tell me that I am glowing.

You ask me what I have changed.

You ask me to share the secret.

“What is this magic concoction?” you ask.

Yes, I agree, I have changed, but I’m sorry, I cannot share this with you; for it is mine.

You cannot buy this on the shelves.

There is no brand, no price.

Grind the leaves, and mix in the liquids, poisons, and serums; mix it all in a cauldron.

Pour it all over yourself.

“You still won’t have my magic concoction.”

For what has changed is my grit; I am no longer ashamed.

That glow you see, it is from the inside.

It runs through my veins; holds a fire to my soul.

What you see are those flames.

The golden glow.

For this fire you see, it has engulfed me.

You can try your hardest, but you cannot tame this fire, you cannot blow it out with your words, or cover it with your magic potions.

I am Radiating, Unstoppable, Fierce.

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Pubes Georgina Holt

CW: explicit descriptions of genitalia At the age of fifteen, during my first attempt at watching Steve McQueen’s infamous, “Shame”, I was scared off by Michael Fassbender’s monstrous dick. That’s not a joke - I had to pause the film, look a little closer, slowly close my laptop, and take a deep breath to build up the courage to face it again so I could move on to another (more age appropriate) film.

But despite myself, I still wanted to finish the film. I began religiously engaging with Tumblr’s (c. 2012) “Fan Art Friday’s”, where

dicks of all shapes and sizes were abounded. This was my “Rocky” training montage moment. Eventually, maybe a month later, I felt ready and started again.

However, this piece isn’t about learning how to live with the existence of big dicks (or the ridiculous body standards for men, over-sexualisation of women, or portrayal of sex addiction in film).

This is a piece about a moment in “Shame” that I will remember in vivid detail until the day I die. It didn’t include dicks, which I was used to, and it also didn’t include simulated sex scenes, which I was very used to.

This is about my first experience

of seeing a full, unadulterated lady-bush on screen.

Sissy, played by the brilliant Carey Mulligan, is a whirlwind of wonders; and I’m going to write about her pubes. The history of female pubic hair in film is sparse (pun intended). If it’s there at all, it’s often highly sexualised – movies like von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac”, Noé’s “Love” and Kechiche’s “Blue is the Warmest Colour”, all feature lady-pubes, but only in the context of sex. Women, according to these films, do not have hair down there unless they’re fucking.

As an even more obtuse example, we have Danny Boyle’s “Trance”.

It’s likely you haven’t heard of

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“Trance”. It is subtly hidden away when one Google searches ‘Boyle’ because, in short, it’s a terrible film and its entire B-plot relies on Rosario Dawson shaving off all her pubic hair and showing her smoothness off to James McAvoy at the beginning of the third act. You heard me. McAvoy’s character is obsessed with pubes; he knows precisely which painting introduced female pubes to the canon and he longs for the pre-bush days. So, to continue manipulating him, she gives him that.

Now, the above films are all fairly recent examples of early to mid2010s films that feature female pubic hair, and they may as well be softcore porn. I can’t think of a single film I’ve seen in the 22 years of my existence where, if a character so much as glances at female pubic hair, it doesn’t incite some sort of sexual frenzy. “Shame”, despite my ravings, does fit into this category for the most part. It is literally about a sex addict and Fassbender having simulated sex with a handful of women during the 90 minutes he graces the screen. You know who isn’t sexualised, though? Sissy. Carey Mulligan. And you know who has pubes?

mass of them. I was even more shocked that the voice screaming “INCEST” in the back of my mind needn’t have bothered at all. There was no sex, there was no odd fetishisation of a lady with pubes, and there wasn’t any sign of body shaming or disgust.

In all my knowledge of cinema, this was new. This was a template I hadn’t experienced before. Sex was supposed to happen, right?

She was naked, and she had pubic hair, so that meant sex, right?

Wrong.

What did pubic hair mean? Was it okay to have it? Well, it must be.

Did it have to be short? Nope, it could be as unkempt as you wanted. Did people immediately want to ‘run their fingers through it’ when they saw it? Probably not, no. Would it have been weird in this situation? Very, but films have always been weird, especially when it comes to naked women.

For some reason, that mattered a lot to me.

Sissy. Carey Mulligan.

I don’t know if this movie is as good as I thought it was back then – I haven’t watched it in over seven years. It might not be very feminist, or very sex positive, or even very good, but it was something.

The scene in question takes place in a bathroom where Sissy is rudely interrupted by her brother, Brandon (Fassbender), while she is in the shower. When she turned around, covered in suds and frightened, little teen-me was shocked to the core. It wasn’t the fact that these were two siblings that shocked me, nor was it the fact Carey Mulligan was topless. I was dumbfounded, instead, by her pubes, and moreover, the sheer

In case it isn’t evident, I have a lot of feelings about Sissy and that scene. It has no weight during the rest of the film, and it could have easily been shot so as not to show her bottom half. But somehow this was more truthful, more powerful, and it stuck with me so much that I don’t feel an incessant need to rid myself of all hair in order to fit in with a crowd of Rosario-Dawsons-in-“Trance” to please the James-McAvoys of the world.

And I think that’s pretty cool.

Georgina Holt Filmmaker, Opinion-Shouter, Pube-Haver

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Is Horse Riding Girly?

Georgina Holt Having ridden horses since the age of 6, I’ve noticed that most people’s reaction to the sport can be categorised in one of three ways: there are those who shudder and look at me with a mixture of horror and newfound respect that I would willingly put myself in near-death situations on such a regular basis. I often have my sanity questioned by this group, especially when I recount the endless stories of injuries. There are those who get excited and beg to ride my horse out sometime, not realising they’d be safer swan diving off a cliff than flopping about on my neurotic 500kg animal and shouting ‘yeehaw’.

And the third category is comprised exclusively of a certain type of man, who dismissively call it ‘such a girly sport’, or (more insultingly) refer to it as a hobby.

Equestrian is one of the most intense, demanding sports out there, especially at the more elite levels.

But that’s an argument for another d a y .

These are the b o y s

who typically compete in soccer, some form of football, basketball, or the vigorous game of golf – good ole’ safe ‘masculine’ sports that make them feel tough and have an element of ‘real’ adrenaline and danger.

I’ve had boys give me detailed lists of the sports that men ‘aren’t allowed to do’ - ballet, figure skating, netball, even lacrosse and volleyball – sports that no self-respecting guy would participate in, lest he risk being mocked by his friends and peers. And it would seem that horse-riding has fallen into this category as well, with male riders being mocked as ‘girly’. This ever-present ‘girlyness’ in equestrian activities has dissuaded many boys from continuing to learn, or even from starting in the first place. I lost all but one of my male friends around the time they started high school and they felt the need to fit in, and the one friend who did continue was teased for being effeminate.

So, what exactly makes horse-riding a girl’s sport? I ponder this to myself while seated in front of the AFL finals with a beer in hand. To not meet the criteria of hegemonic masculinity, the equestrian sport is clearly lacking in demonstrations of strength and commitment, in gruelling physicality, in complex teamwork and strategy, and is clearly missing the thrill of victory that competitive people crave.

Perhaps it’s the lack of demand of strength and endurance that make horse-riding so ‘feminine’ an activity. There’s no boast of strength in a seventeen-year-old girl being able to haul a 25kg bag of feed over each shoulder and push full wheelbarrows up a slippery hill in pouring rain.

It’s not a testament to your strength, physically or mentally, to hold on to a horse that doesn’t want to be caught, even when he drags you over rocks and through mud. There’s nothing ‘masculine’ about replacing gym sessions with barn chores even though, honestly, you end up with the same results. There’s no discipline in riding in the scorching sun in the middle of a summer day, hoping you didn’t miss a spot with your sunscreen, or in getting up when it’s still dark in the middle of winter, not even knowing how many layers you’re wearing, all to improve at your sport because horses don’t have competition seasons – they require training every day of the year, in all weather conditions.

Or perhaps it’s because boys would

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rather play team sports, where they can build close bonds with each other and engage mentally with complicated plays and coordinated teamwork.

After all, horse-riding isn’t a real team sport. Your teammate is an animal with a mind of its own and strong flight instincts, who is 10 times your body weight, and you are putting your lives and trust in each other’s hands (hooves?).

Moreover, your partner doesn’t communicate with language, so you have to persuade him with a whole repertoire of subtle leg and hand movements to do something in particular. You have to convince your horse that you’re the one in charge and there’s no room for debate. There’s no chance for locker room talk with such a partner.

Or maybe, it’s the stereotype that you ‘just sit there’ that dissuades men. They want a sport that’s tough, where you’ll be pushed and get hurt and be expected to get back up again. There’s nothing tough about the people who get straight back on the horse after their first fall, suffering that unnerving sensation where you remember where things went wrong but you can’t remember the actual fall. There’s a common misconception it’s no worse than falling off a bike, even when sometimes you’re thrown skyhigh into the air or launched from the saddle like a projectile because, surprisingly, horses can pack a lot more launching power than an inanimate frame of metal.

Surely the fact that horses are higher off the ground increases your chance to land safely, never mind that you usually are falling with a lot more force behind you. Besides, there’s nothing too dangerous about arguing with a 750kg animal while you’re precariously perched on his back, because he really doesn’t like the look of that jump but you are going to get him over it, one way or another. He could kill or paralyse you in a second without even noticing, but it’s only effeminate boys who ig-

nore that little fact and continue riding. After all, all sports, even the most ‘girly’ ones, can be dangerous.

Take soccer, for example; a fine, admirable sport which pays its top athletes quite well. Watching the likes of Neymar and Ronaldo as they trip over an imaginary opponent’s foot, and proceed to writhe around and clutch at spontaneous and grave injuries, one cannot help but admire their dedication and resilience. They are symbols of a truly brutal, masculine sport.

Compare it then with the feminine sport of horse-riding, where you’re expected to get back up and brush it off after your horse has unceremoniously thrown you into a metal fence, all because a tree looked at him funny. A sport where you drive yourself to hospital two hours later when the pain in your side hasn’t subsided, and you find out you broke three ribs and punctured a lung. Or, take for example the manly sport of golf, which provides such an adrenaline rush and sense of

a c hi e v e ment. There is just nothing thrilling about ‘sitting pretty’ on the back of the horse, even as you decide to go for a lonely

gallop along a stretch of road or decide to tackle a jump course that’s nearly as tall as you. It’s only girls who could find a sense of fulfilment when their horse does it all without complaint, simply because he trusts his rider that much.

Evidentially, equestrian isn’t enough to satisfy the ‘blokey-blokes’ and their needs in a sport. Indeed, as it is one of the only sports where there are no separate competitions for the different genders, they might feel it’s not exclusive enough for them to feel tough and powerful, going head-to-head with women in the same arenas. Because when your ball and bat is replaced by an animal weighing up to 850kg, the playing field is levelled. That in itself seems to turn off many boys, who can’t stand to lose to a ‘little girl’.

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“I Just Feel I’m not Functioning” – Life as a Student, a Woman and a Carer Vanamali Hermans Artwork by Eliza Williams and Naushaan Ahmad

CW: discussions of suicide, addiction and mental illness.

In the ACT, a carer is defined as a person who provides personal care, support and assistance to another individual who has a disability, a medical condition, a mental illness, or is frail and aged. A person isn’t a carer if they provide care, support, and assistance as part of paid work (i.e. support worker), as a volunteer for a charitable organisation, or as part of the requirements of a course of education or training.

At the ANU, many students juggle university with their role as a carer, but the responsibilities we hold and unpaid labour we do often remains invisible.

Much of this invisibility has to do with the way in which caring is gendered – the unequal distribution and devaluing of caring responsibilities is linked to social institutions and stereotypes that reinforce gender roles and see women spending two to ten times more time on unpaid care work than men.

In these interviews I sat down with some women at the ANU and tried

to explore the difficulties they face in navigating life as a woman and as a carer. I want to acknowledge that the positions these women occupy, often on the margins, can be incredibly hard and taxing, but also incredibly diverse.

Gender, culture, language and class all influence the way in which we care.

What year are you in & what are you studying?

lot of assistance physically and practically around the home. I prepare and cook meals for her, do grocery shopping and lots of other tasks to help her function from day to day. Finally, I care for my sister, helping her manage her mental health and addiction. What I do for her depends on how much contact we’re having at any given time, but usually it involves me providing her emotional support as well as a lot of micro-managing like helping her fill out paperwork or try to find a job - those sorts of things.

I’m in my 4th year of a Bachelor of Criminology and a Bachelor of Science (Psychology).

And how do these caring responsibilities affect your well-being?

Who do you care for and what are your caring responsibilities?

It definitely takes a massive toll on my mental health. Right now, I feel it slipping. I feel a lot less capable, even though I’m doing more things for others. Because of the energy I put into caring, I’m less capable of looking after myself and struggle to do things like cooking or washing or complete my assignments. I just feel I’m not functioning.

*** Shae

I care for multiple people in my family, and they’re all very different roles!

I care for my mum, who has a lung condition and gets sick frequently, increasing her need for practical support.

More often than not though, I spend my time caring for her mental health, and providing emotional support. I also care for my grandma, who requires a

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We often talk about the gender pay gap in terms of women having children and leaving work, or women being employed in lower-paid feminised industries. We talk less about the unpaid care work women do for people with disabilities, making employment hard and causing financial disadvantage. Do you feel you’ve experienced the gender pay gap in this way because of your caring responsibilities?

Yes, definitely. I’ve had to miss a lot of work. And debt. Debt is a big part of it! When I was younger, because I wasn’t able to work as much or stay on top of my bills, I had to take out a credit card and then a personal loan.

I’m in $18,000 of debt at the moment, and I feel that is intrinsically linked to the fact that I was caring. I needed that credit card and loan for transport, or to repair my car when it broke down.

I didn’t really have any other choice.

Centrelink has been a massive part of it too. Requirements around work often meant I’d lose money from my payments because of the hours I managed to squeeze around caring. I’ve only just been able to drop one of my three jobs (on top of caring and volunteering!) so now I only have to work two. So, I feel caring has definitely had a significant financial impact on me.

How do you navigate the way in which care work is expected of women? Have you felt pressure to look after the person you’re caring for more than the men in your family network?

I get frustrated. I have two older brothers and they have the benefit of just moving away, and I didn’t get that opportunity as a woman. Often my brother chooses to not acknowledge or talk about the care our family needs, and it means that I have to carry that load.

It’s always been an expectation that I’m supposed to be the good daughter and that caring is something a good daughter does. It’s especially frustrating given the stress and struggles I’ve had to deal with. My brother has high-functioning autism and has always been given leniency with caring responsibilities as a man, whereas I was diagnosed as well in my early twenties and didn’t get that same treatment.

Do you often feel stereotyped as a woman and as a carer? Do you think people see you as someone who is just kind and nurturing, rather than someone who puts in hours of emotional & physical labour to look after someone? Does this view diminish the intensity of your work?

For sure, I don’t think anyone realises what a caring role is or what responsibilities it entails. Most people think I’m just being nice - “that’s so sweet,” “you’re such a good person” - without acknowledging the reality of the unpaid work I do. I’m sure if I were a man I’d be considered a hero, but because I’m a woman, it’s just me being nice and me being a good daughter. Likewise, if I were a man and rejected these caring responsibilities, I’m sure I’d get a lot of empathy and people would understand, but because I’m a

daughter these roles are tied to me and people would be less accommodating if I didn’t fulfil them.

Have lecturers ever responded badly to you as a woman and as a carer?

Yeah, they don’t understand. They think that my caring responsibilities are just a part of my everyday life as a daughter. I especially find this around my role as my grandma’s carer - lecturers think it’s just a normal part of ageing, and don’t acknowledge

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everything I have to do. It’s really stark, considering I often get a lot of sympathy from them for looking after my sister, probably because it seems like more of a role reversal for a young woman caring for a sibling than an older and frail grandparent.

Do you find your caring role seeps into your other relationships? Do you do more labour for your friends, your partners and other people in your life because you’ve taken on this ‘nurturing’ carer identity?

100%, especially with my friends. One of my friends is dyslexic and has anxiety, so I drive them to work every single day and pick them up. The other day I helped her assemble IKEA furniture, just little things like that. Whilst I definitely feel like these things are just part of being a good friend, I also feel like I have to do more than I should and a lot of people come to expect that of me. When I can’t fulfil those expectations, people stop talking to me and our friendships often fall apart. I feel too that the expectations people have in our friendships are gendered - it becomes expected of me to provide more support, but for men even the little things are celebrated...it’s ridiculous!

How does your identity and role as a woman and a carer overlap? Are they both equally important in constituting who you are now?

I’ve never thought about my identity as a carer and a woman as separate – they’re so inherently linked. If you had to list the values of a woman, they’d be the same as that for carers. You want women to be nurturing, loving, supportive; these are all the same things you’d expect of someone that’s caring.

So I’ve never separated them in my head, because I’m both.

What do you want people to know about being a woman and a carer?

I really wish people would recognise how hard it is. My sister recently attempted suicide and struggles with addiction, and it can be traumatising to watch and hard to support her through it. When I talk to my lecturers and tell them I need help, many just don’t get it, to the point I’ve had to drop courses because lectures have been so antagonistic.

The experiences I go through caring for people can’t be quantified through things like an EAP. For instance, my grandma had a fall and my lecturers would respond with “that’s sad but you can still hand your assignment in in a week.” They just don’t get the physical and practical support that goes into caring beyond crises and into helping people recover from things like falls.

There is just such a lack of support that half of my time is spent trying to get help, it’s half the game.

I also wish people would let me maintain the integrity of the people I care for. I don’t want to have to sell my sister’s story for sympathy to get what I need.

I shouldn’t have to sell her story to be supported at university. *** Speaking to Shae, I could empathise with the immense physical, emotional and financial toll caring has taken on her

whilst studying. As a carer myself, I continue to navigate the expectations placed upon us as women to forgo our own wellbeing and engage in endless unpaid labour. Our friends, our peers and our lecturers need to acknowledge we aren’t just sweet or kind women: we’re tough, we’re resilient and we’re the glue that holds our families and communities together. We fill in the gaps with care and labour where the state fails to provide – a failure that shouldn’t be happening.

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Well, Actually…: The Women’s Revue Directors on Writing Skits, Empowerment, and Tradies Interview by Isabella Keith

Following the incredible success of the 2018 Women’s Revue, “Well, Actually…” in August, I reached out to the directors of the production, to learn more about the process of writing skits, running a revue, and the power of intersectional representation. I sat down with this year’s Musical Director Chloe Sinclair, Producer Lily Iervasi, and Co-Director Laura Emerson. *** Bossy: Firstly, congratulations – Women’s Revue was amazing! It’s interesting to hear about your process of coming up with skits. It sounds like they all develop quite differently.

Lily: One of the major strengths with our production is that we have separate writing workshops right at the start of the year, even before the auditions happen, and then we continue workshopping

the skits throughout the year.

Having a larger writing team also helps to get those more personal, more individual stories from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Laura: That’s a big thing, because sometimes you go to shows and it can look like only one person’s put it all together. The best revues are the ones that have a variety of different experiences and types of comedy. We definitely have a variety of intersections [represented in our writing team]. It’s supposed to be a bit of a variety show, and if every skit has a similar structure or punchline, you can tell that it’s come from the same person, then inherently there’s not as much variety. I think in a revue, a new skit should come on and you should be wondering where it’s going to go.

I also liked that the band and tech crew were all

women and non-binary people, particularly as those are positions that traditionally tend to be held by men.

Lily: Yeah, especially in tech. In theatre at ANU in general, it’s really hard to train people up in tech roles. This year, we employed someone to help run our tech, because we had a massive increase in tech from last year.

They then mentored our new tech people.

It was also great having women doing the ushering. It looked like you were engaging with lots of members of the Women’s Department, and a lot of intersections seemed to be represented.

Laura: This year and last year,

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we reached out to the Queer* Department, Women of Colour Collective, and Women with Disability Collective. We had both open writing workshops and autonomous writing workshops. Both years, I think we’ve engaged with the Queer* community really well, but I think we reached out a little bit too late to the other two groups, so we haven’t heard from them a huge amount. It’s something that I’m definitely going to mention in my Director’s Handover.

Lily: Even though we did reach a lot of people, we always think that there’s more to do and better ways to engage with people.

I suppose that’s often the nature of advocacy and representation. It’s always difficult to capture absolutely everyone, especially groups that are traditionally marginalised and might not be represented in your original writing groups for a number of structural reasons. Representations of disability can be quite tricky in particular.

Laura: We definitely had people [involved in the team] with some disabilities, including mental illness. I think we mostly did this well. I think it would be almost impossible to create a space in a relatively short period of time to make people feel really comfortable to speak about their experience with disability. You don’t want to force people to tell you about their experiences.

Lily: It can be a bit of a paradox.

For example, I’m a woman of colour but I won’t always necessarily write about those kinds of issues because I have a very particular background. Sometimes I might just want to be involved in a funny skit about going to the shops that doesn’t necessarily relate to the fact that I’m a woman of colour. At the same time, the fact that I am a woman of colour and involved in the project is important.

Laura: It’s also difficult figuring out who’s going to perform in what skits. I think we did pretty well having Queer* characters in the show be represented by Queer* people, for example.

Chloe: We didn’t want anyone in the cast to ever feel uncomfor table in their role.

I think we created a really supportive environment for people to be able to speak out if they were uncomfortable. That’s something in general that I really noticed about the Women’s Revue process, how people felt they could raise their concerns about things. It’s super important. I’ve been involved with a lot of theatre stuff and have never seen that before, so it was really refreshing.

Chloe: I actually had a lot of my tradie guy friends come. I was really worried about the tradie skit, but they thought it was hilarious!

It was their favourite skit because it’s true! And they’re the kind of guys that will ask their mates to stop cat-calling women. My friend who works in construction was saying how hard it is to do in that environment.

It’s really impressive to see that you’re already able to reflect on this year. I suppose there are always things to look into for next year.

Lily: I think that’s really important.

This is our second year. We’re involved in the formation of this. It’ll be hard to let go, but that’s why we’ve included a lot of people in assistant-type roles this year. People need to feel confident that they can do these roles.

Laura: We keep talking about this line between angry and funny.

It’s difficult to find the balance of not being too angry, or being too funny and not really saying anything, or just performing in-jokes for a couple of hours.

L au ra: We had another skit about cat-calling that definitely needed to be cut, but it was very cathartic to write

99 and perform in re-

hearsals. It was a really good skit, but I think it

isn’t seen in the performances, is the process of writing and rehearsing the skits. Laura used the word cathartic before. It was a really important process, where people felt comfortable talking about these issues and working through that and performing it.

Chloe: It really bonded the cast.

These are things we have all dealt with, and deal with, on a daily basis. To have a space where I could talk about these things with people who actually understood them was personally very therapeutic.

Lily: We’ve reaped the benefit of writing that skit.

Laura: We’ve finished that, and the process of that skit ended in the rehearsal room.

Lily: It doesn’t lose any power for not being performed in front of an audience.

I

suppose that’s the power of these autonomous d e p a r t ments; there are a lot of shared experiences we’ve all gone through.

There was such a strong sense of community, even from just sitting in the audience.

Laura: Well, anyone can be part of the process!

Chloe: Just get involved! Be a part of it: go to workshops, audition, join the band!

would’ve been too much to put on stage.

You still want people to have that experience, but laugh at the same time.

Lily: An important part of the production of the show, which

Laura: It can be a smaller part, like coming to the writing workshops once a week to vent about what you’ve done this past week.

Obviously it’s a bit more structured than that though. There’s a point where you just need to show up, but you’ll always be fine because you have all these other people around you who trust you to support you, so it’s easy to just show up!

The sense of inclusiveness and

warmth exuded by Chloe, Lily, and Laura throughout our interview was incredible. I was reminded continually of the power of performance, particularly comedy and satire, in broaching important, and often difficult, areas of conversation. Talking to the directors confirmed that there is a certain strength that lies in community and shared experiences, and of a real necessity for autonomous departments. The incredible value of autonomous productions and revues can never be underestimated.

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How to be a Woman in Power: Act Like a Man Lauren Skinner

In 2016, I decided to run for President of my Residential Hall. When I shared this with my ex-boyfriend, his response was along the lines of: “Aren’t you a little spineless for a position like that?”

This was a pretty awful thing to say, yet it didn’t stop me from agreeing with him. I am a sensitive person. I care a lot about what people think because I hate hurting or upsetting others. This characteristic is at times a weakness and at times a strength, and apparently, in this case, it made me unsuited to a position of power.

Unfortunately, nineteen years of social conditioning had me agreeing that my sensitivity had no place in politics, even if only student residential hall politics. Sensitivity, empathy, and compassion – all typically categorised as feminine traits – are not major players in politics. The closest we really get to empathy is a rich, white male donning an Akubra to better identify with struggling farmers. Politicians don’t get points for compassion and kindness, they get points for who they manage to discredit and put down. There are of course exceptions to this, but they are few and far between.

Social conditioning has taught me that people in power are strong, tough and unapologetic. Funnily enough, when these adjectives spring to mind, I picture a man; a man of the heteronormal, white and privileged variety. In the political arena, there is constant reinforcement that typically feminine traits are weak, and therefore inconsistent with positions of power. If we want to be in power, well then, we better

‘toughen up princess’.

The problem is in some ways compounded once women achieve positions of power. Women who do manage to make it to the top ranks of politics are expected to act in a ‘masculine’ way while they are simultaneously criticised for not acting sufficiently ‘womanly’. Female politicians are required to display specific masculine traits – being tough, uncompromising, and confident – yet are disparagingly referred to as ‘Ice Queens’ and criticised for either their lack of children or their clothing choices. This is one of many examples where society feels it can pass judgment and decide what is best for a woman, while men are left to their own devices and are rarely held to account for their actions. This is epitomised in Donald Trump admitting to sexual assault and then being elected to one of the most powerful positions in the world. He is tough, strong, unapologetic – what a great leader.

So, where does this leave women today? If we wish to pursue a career in politics, should we restrict our sensitivity and ‘toughen up’? Should we unapologetically put down others to advance our personal and political agenda? Should we cut our hair and stock our wardrobes with pant suits so the men aren’t scared off by our femininity? Do we write off marriage and children? Of course not.

As a young person with an interest in a political career, I hate that politics is synonymous with dishonesty, corruption, selfishness, revenge, ar-

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rogance and privilege. But can we really be that surprised when we associate power with characteristics such as strength, toughness and confidence? A recent book on Australian foreign policy, Fear of Abandonment by Allan Gyngell, includes comments on each of the previous Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers of Australia. The majority of the descriptions of the men went along the lines of: egotistical, hard taskmaster, angry, arrogant, and difficult.

The only time the words compassionate and ‘pleasant to work with’ were employed were to describe the two women who have held these

positions – Julie Bishop and Julia Gillard. We praise men for being hard taskmasters who ‘get the job done’ without considering how much better that job could have been done if leaders were compassionate, understanding and worked constructively with the people under them.

It’s no surprise that the Australian public has such little faith in our politicians when these are the values and characteristics we expect of those in positions of power. Not only do we need more women in power, we need more ‘feminine’ traits in power. We need politicians

who are sensitive and compassionate and can empathise with others.

We need politicians who are confident, yet can recognise their own limitations. We need politicians who understand what it’s like to be talked over or to be told what you can and can’t do with your own body. To do this, we need to change the discourse around powerful women and challenge our conceptions of power.

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Amazing Face: How Sweet the Sound Eleanor Armstrong & Scarlett Owens Drawing by Naushaan Ahmad

It is undeniable that, as part of the ridiculously long list of high beauty standards set for women, skin plays a significant role in how we are perceived. Since our teenage years, skin is something that we often agonise about.

Acne, dry patches, rashes, firmness or wrinkles can be a source of insecurity for many – both young and old. That’s not to mention the impact of ‘pigment’ – both in terms of ethnicity and the Australian tanning culture – on how you are treated.

Often viewed as a ‘face map’, good skin can be perceived as being symptomatic of wider lifestyle choices upon which women are also fiercely judged.

It ties into notions of ‘natural beauty’; by having good skin, you supposedly look after yourself well. However, having good skin is down to a combination of factors which include class, time and knowledge. Being able to eat well and afford dermatological help is a privilege. Whether in the form of nutrient-dense organic foods, sheet masks

or topical prescription ointments, not everyone has access to expensive quick-fix treatments.

This doesn’t even take into account the variability of what is considered to be ‘good skin’ as, like fashion, skin goes through its trends. Whether dewy or matte, bright or sallow, plump or taut, different mainstream preferences come and go. Being comfortable in your own skin is made even more difficult when many are at a loss as to what they should be aiming for. Of course, as the old saying goes, beauty is not just about the exterior – it’s what is inside, but one less insecurity doesn’t hurt either!

fective skincare routine. There are four main skin types:

With this in mind, we have below compiled a list of skin care tips that will see people from different walks of life being able to have access to the skin of their dreams (fingers crossed).

Ordering your products correctly is important to maximise the absorption of products into your skin. A good order is:

Know your skin type Knowing your skin type is incredibly useful when trying to formulate an ef-

1.

Normal (eudermic): when the skin’s water and oil content are well balanced 2.

Oily (sebaceous): when the skin produces excess sebum 3.

Dry (xerosis): when the skin does not produce enough sebum and lacks the lipids it needs to retain moisture 4.

Combination: when skin is oily, dry, and/or normal in specific areas (e.g. oily t-zone, dry cheeks etc.)

Getting the product order right

1.

Water solutions: a mixture of ingredients dissolved into water 2.

Emulsions: a combination of two liquids that don’t normally mix 3.

Anhydrous solution: base of the

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solution is not water or oil 4. Oil solutions/oils 5. Heavier creams Check the ingredients list if you are not sure how and where in the above list you should layer your product.

Some products must be used only in the morning, at night-time, or without other active ingredients. This is to ensure maximum effectiveness and safety for your skin, so make sure you always read the instructions!

Do your research Your skin is the largest organ in your body so it is important to take good care of it! Research can be incredibly useful to determine what suits your skin type best. Some good tips when looking to start a new skincare routine are outlined below.

1.

Knowing your skin type and skin concerns are important, as this determines the best products to use for your skin.

2.

Look for simple products with clear ingredients; some products have so many ingredients in small doses that it is not possible for them to work effectively on your skin.

3.

Try before you buy! Samples are a fantastic way to assess whether something is going to work well on your skin before you spend your hard earned cash.

4.

Start off slow: throwing too many products, including strong and harsh chemicals, at your skin when you’re first starting is not necessarily the best course of action. You can end up doing more damage!

5. Use no more than three products on your skin, morning and night, for maximum absorption of the product 6.

Some examples of skin concerns and actives to help with these: · Sensitivity – anti-inflammatory hydrators and oils · Dehydration – non-actives, like oils and creams to rehydrate and repair fatty acids in top layers of skin · Congestion – niacinamide is a great decongestant, also chemical exfoliants such as AHA’s (e.g. lactic acid), and BHA’s (e.g. salicylic acid)

· Pigmentation – Vitamin C, AHAs, Retinol · Texture/scarring – AHAs, BHAs, Retinol · Ageing – Retinols, peptide-rich products

Indulge yourself every once in a while Everyone needs a pamper session every once in a while, which gives you the perfect opportunity (or excuse) to splurge on some skincare! Face masks are a wonderful way to feel rejuvenated, but some favourites (for any skin occasion) are: 1. L’Oréal Paris Pure Clay Mask 2.

Sephora Collection Sheet Face Mask 3.

Skin Republic Hydrogel Under Eye Mask 4 .

The

Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution Extra things to note: 1. Most products have an expiry date if you check the label – it’s a good idea to abide by these. The product will likely be less effective, but also irritation and possible bacterial infection can occur if you continue to use a product after the expiry date!

2.

Hot water and long showers, strong soaps or baths, strip oils from the surface of your skin, so try to limit these to best look after your outer protective layer. This will leave you less vulnerable to irritation.

3. Wear sun protection! This cannot be stressed enough; however well you look after your skin, all of it is pointless if you do not apply sunscreen every day. UVA and UVB rays are incredibly harmful to your skin and will do a significant amount of damage over time.

There is no true right or wrong here, with everyone having their own unique blend of skincare concerns and predisp o si t i o n s But hopefully, s o m e of the above advice w i l l help!

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Is Exclusivity in Feminism Harming the Cause?

Maddie Benson Drawing by Naushaan Ahmad

Realising your own privilege is unsettling. Recognizing your existence in and dependence on a broken system that values your life over others is confronting.

It’s uncomfortable, it’s inconvenient but it’s entirely necessary.

As a white, middle-class, heterosexual female, this is something I’ve had to and will continue to incorporate when it comes to issues of race, class, and sexuality.

I’ve learned that to acknowledge your own privilege and its implications demands a constant and conscious effort. It’s this kind of paradigm shift, this departure from deeply ingrained conditioning, that we are demanding of men.

Nonetheless, in this article, I’m actually going to vouch for men.

The very fact that I feel a hint of guilt doing so in this context is a clear indication of how divisive feminist discourse can be. The way I instinctively think about

the cause is “us vs. them.” The language I use in regard to feminism is defined by an “us-them” dichotomy. However, I have found in my recent experiences with feminism, that this is counter-productive and an over-simplification of the task at hand.

I was having dinner with my friends the other night and, as it so often does, the conversation turned to abortion and reproductive rights. One of my friends, a man, prefaced a comment with, “I don’t usually get involved with feminist issues but – ” “Um, excuse me?” I said.

“Well, I mean, it’s just not something that affects my daily life.”

This friend of mine is kind and considerate by all accounts, but his apathy shocked me – it infuriated me. How could someone who actively respects and loves

his sisters, his mother, his girlfriend and female friends, feel so estranged from the cause? Yet sadly, this is a paradox which manifests all the time. So many men perceive feminism as an exclusive club in which they have no place in. What’s worse, is that for many men, as well as women, what should be a conversation about gender, is instead seen as a never-ending tribunal in which men are demonized as a collective. Feminists mustn’t allow genuine men, stifled by guilt or by the fear of causing offense with a question or a comment, to retreat into silence.

Certainly, after millennia of repressed female agency, one can understand the impulse of modern feminists to replace male voices in political discourse.

Today, it is as important as ever that women take the lead in the pursuit of their own empowerment. However, what mustn’t be

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discounted along the way, is the value of collaboration between genders. Many women now have the capacity and institutional avenues to discuss their concerns with men in positions of power across various institutions. After so many years of being excluded from such crucial conversations, women should utilise their right to be heard by actively working with men to identify and tackle mutual goals.

We are all victims of the same, flawed system. Patriarchy functions in a way that divides and conquers. It compartmentalizes men and women, enabling the communication deficit that so desperately needs to be reconciled. The exclusion of women from the workforce and men from the home was, and still is, facilitated by stereotypes that continue to dehumanize all of us. In order to debunk gender misconceptions, we need to promote conversation between the genders. Men need to feel at home within feminist discourse.

To do this, we need to actively find ways to counter the idea that feminism and misandry are synonymous. By no means does this involve relaxing our standards, moderating our frustration or censoring ourselves. Individuals who engage in the exploitation and disempowerment of women should be held to account with due diligence, and the culture of rape and sexual harassment that prevails must be addressed. However, just as we celebrate women making positive change, so too should we look to observe men working towards gender equality. To disregard the existence and the efforts of men in the promotion of equality would be to miss an opportunity. Encouraging men to engage in the realm of feminist issues will give other men incentive to do the same. We don’t need men to speak for us; we need them to speak with us, and us with them on issues specific to their gender.

As I said, confronting your own privilege can be challenging. It demands a profound revaluation of self and rethinking how you

interact with others. In our relatively progressive context, we should appreciate that sexism often operates rather insidiously.

Whether it’s in the form of unconscious gender bias or toxic masculinity, men and women alike often inadvertently perpetuate attitudes which undermine equality. This can make things tricky.

Looking back on the conversation I had at dinner the other night, I wish I hadn’t jumped down my friend’s throat. I wish I’d reassured him and encouraged him to express his opinion.

I should have taken the opportunity to counter his disillusionment and welcome him into the conversation.

As someone guilty of shouting countless times, “No vagina, no opinion!”, across the dinner table at my four older brothers, I’m calling for a little more kindness, a little more patience and a little less hostility. Let’s get rid of this ‘boys v girls’ attitude. We’ve got shit to do and it’s getting in the way.

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Amber Spooner Stripped at Sainsbury’s: Cashback and What We Excuse in the name of Art Amber Spooner

‘I read once about a woman whose secret fantasy was to have an affair with an artist. She thought he would really see her. He would see every curve, every line, every indentation and love them because they were part of the beauty that made her unique.’

This is a quote from my once favourite movie, Cashback. It’s a movie built around many things I love – artistic expression, seeing the beauty in other people, surreal dream-like sequences that I wish I had thought of. The film follows Ben, a young art student who was just dumped by his girlfriend. In his grief, he develops insomnia and gets a job to work the nightshift at his local Sainsbury’s (aka Woolworths) to pass the time. Ben unexplainably develops the ability to stop time and freeze the people around him. After playing a few practical jokes, Ben sits down to work on what he really intended this skill to be used for: still life drawing. His subject? Women.

When I first saw the film as an insecure teenager I was obsessed. I thought it was beautiful and artistic. Above all, I thought it was very respectful of women. I believed

that the film saw women in ways that I’ve only ever associated with Romanticism. I used to watch it and wonder if anyone would ever talk about me the way Ben talked about the women in the film.

A classic example of this is when he says, ‘When I looked at her… I didn’t just see her. I felt her’.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and armed with a little more life experience and a feminist education, I sit down to watch the film again.

It’s beautifully shot, and the characters all have a certain charm to them, but something about it makes me sick to my stomach. I can’t believe it wasn’t obvious the first time around.

Where is the consent?

Ben’s whole artist practice is based

on the fact that the women he’s drawing don’t know they’re being drawn. He never tells them that, for the purposes of his art,

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he is going to remove articles of their clothing. In one shot, Ben is shown casually redressing a women, having just stripped her down without her knowledge or consent solely for the purpose of sketching an image of her to bolster his personal art portfolio and show other people as examples of his work.

That is not okay.

Though there’s no ill intention on Ben’s part, his good intentions don’t excuse his wrongful actions.

So, why didn’t I see it the first time?

Maybe, it was because it was all done in the name of art.

Ben is young, attractive, innocent-looking and completely non-threatening. He fits perfectly into the art student stereotype and that’s why we trust him. Everything in the plot points to him being a good guy; he doesn’t get involved in stupid boyish games with his co-workers, he doesn’t participate in the casual sexism of his workplace, and he spends the film describing women as beautiful and something to be worshipped.

But above all, Ben is motivated by art. This is the reason why we let Ben do it; the reason why we want him to do it. Cashback tries to make a case that all of Ben’s actions, right down to the non-consensual stripping of hapless, frozen-in-time women, are for the sake of art.

Which brings me to the question: where is the line between artistic expression and sexual exploitation? Often, the line gets blurred. Cashback is particularly good at this. The nudity in the film is not vulgar or over-saturating. My younger self always thought that the nudity was used to heighten the plot and not to serve the male gaze. After my most recent viewing though, a thought struck me; if this film is anything to go by, Sainsbury’s in the middle of the night is filled with supermodels no larger than a size six and between the ages of 18 – 25. If Ben was interested in artistically exploring the female form would he not want to draw all kinds of women and not

just Victoria Secret Models? Additionally, in the scene where Ben is redressing a lady after stripping her for a sketch, she is shot standing next to a fully clothed man who assumedly is her boyfriend.

Think about it this way; if Ben wasn’t an attractive young man, but a 40-year-old with a beer gut and a neck beard, we would all be horrified. The film talks a lot about women but it only has one female lead: Emilia Fox, who plays Sharon, Ben’s love interest. I think the reason why the film only has one female character that they bother exploring and developing, is because this film isn’t about women as I originally thought. Instead, it’s about dudes admiring the female body as an object for their pleasure. There is a lot of talk about women’s bodies and there are a lot of shots of it, but there is no female perspective on it. No women get to talk about their bodies or how they feel they’re perceived.

Looking at the issue of consent in our current society, Cashback is a toxic film. Consent is not asked for nor is consent given and the result is that all those women in Sainsbury’s were exploited. Consent is one of those things that needs to

be black and white, and Cashback lacks consent completely. I’m not saying it’s a bad movie, but you have to ask yourself; if I was one of those girls in the supermarket, would I really feel like a work of art?

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A Day in the Life of a Cool Girl Queenie Ung-Lam

She starts the day off right; freshly showered and makeup already lightly applied on her face. She sits down with a large plate of eggs and smashed avocado on toast – so wholesome. It’s the perfect amount of carbs to keep her going until lunch and enough to sustain her after a HIIT workout at the gym.

She arrives at the classroom just as the professor begins the lecture. She steps into the room, effortlessly, folding herself into her seat. The lecture begins, but she doesn’t take notes. There are two boys to her left who try to catch her eye but she doesn’t care about their gaze. The professor asks a question and she casually lifts up her hand. Her response is well thought out: it answers the question posed but in an innovative fashion. The an-

swer takes the professor by surprise and makes him take note of her. The lecture finishes up and the two boys approach her. She sees them coming and smiles; she already knows how the scene will play out. Their constant approach annoys her, but she won’t show them her irritation less she be dubbed frigid or pretentious, or worse, lumped together with being like Most Girls. Instead, she is engaging and beautiful, flirting lightly with them to make sure their egos aren’t bruised.

When she finally removes herself, she leaves the boys thinking that not all hot girls have to be stuck-up bitches.

Lunch is a sunny affair at the PopUp. Some of her girl friends are arguing about Julie Bishop and why it’s bullshit that she resigned from Parliament. They are what

her boy friends call Most Girls.

These girls are passionate and opinionated and unafraid of criticism from their male peers. They find solidarity in each other’s commonalities, so they celebrate their uniformity instead of their differences. She wants to join in because she too has an opinion and these discussions often invigorate and inspire her. Instead, she sits on the other side of the table, forcing a laugh when the boys roll their eyes at the girls’ discussion.

No matter where she is, the drill is always the same. She never calls them out on their sexist behaviour because that would make her uptight. She chooses to not argue, she just agrees.

She laughs at their jokes but never replies with one of her own.

She is intelligent, but of course,

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she isn’t as intelligent as them.

It’s a self-preservation method she tells herself; a way to ensure that she isn’t just her beauty but that she is something more. She will downplay her femininity because she needs something that sets her apart, something that ensures her survival in a man’s world. So, she is different and progressive but she does it all through pleasing the boys around her and marring the intelligence of her female friends.

The sun has set and she’s getting ready for another Thursday night at Moose. She’s wearing a carefully chosen outfit. It’s one that sets her apart from Most Girls because it isn’t trying too hard.

Rather, this outfit signals both her attractiveness and her chill attitude. On the sidewalks outside the clubs, her boy friends are obnoxious and boisterous, commenting on the girls that walk past them. The comments are jarring and intrusive and they erode her own sense of femineity. She’s about to open her mouth to call them out but then she remembers to remain cool and unaffected. She cannot disrupt her cool girl image, otherwise she will be ousted from the boys club. So, she closes her mouth and listens to the boys as they tear down these beautiful girls, stripping their layers until they lie naked and shivering, reduced to the sum of their body parts.

It’s the end of the night and she is raw and defenceless. Her day had started out so perfect and wholesome. She did what she was supposed to do in her day, yet the sadness of its ending shocks her.

Tonight she realised that she might be one of the boys, but only when it suits them. Tonight it didn’t suit them, and she too was put under the microscope.

She walks home alone with the remains of her cool girl façade wrapped around her like an icy blanket. Now she stands in her bathroom, slowly wiping off her winged eyeliner and light dusting of golden highlight. The red lips come off next.

As she goes through these ac-

tions, thoughts hurtle through her hurt and confused brain. Was she not chill enough for them?

Was she too opinionated, despite barely opening her mouth? Not attractive enough, despite dressing so carefully? Too much like Most Girls, despite all her efforts to be different? She feels trapped and small, a shrunken being with a Cool Girl costume that doesn’t fit anymore. Her thoughts drift back to her day, focusing on how she wished she joined the Most Girls’ conversation. Wasn’t it really them that she wanted to be like? Didn’t she want to feel

the embrace of their solidarity and the strength of their support? These thoughts don’t erase her confusion because she still doesn’t understand the conditions for surviving in this man’s world. But it’s okay, she thinks, because these new thoughts help her shed the heaviness of her Cool Girl persona faster.

She finishes wiping off her makeup. In the mirror, a fresh face looks back at her.

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Bringing Sexual Violence on Campus to a STOP with Camille Schloeffel Interview by Niamh Armstrong and Francesca Cuccurullo

With the release of reports such as End Rape on Campus (EROC) Australia’s The Red Zone Report or Connecting The Dots: Understanding Sexual Assault in University Communities, the alarming trends evidencing the proliferation of sexual assault issues across Australian universities have finally come to the light. EROC reports that ‘68 college students are raped per week in Australia’, a damning statistic demonstrating the continuation of historical trends previously shrouded and kept from public knowledge and discussion. ANU’s very own Camille Schloeffel is done keeping the lid on this conversation. Her initiative, The STOP Campaign, is designed to raise awareness about and tackle sexual assault and harassment on campus through events, information and initiative’s such as their latest project, a zine directed to revealing truths and breakdown stigmas.

Francesca and Niamh sat down with Camille, a third year Senior Resident at Fenner Hall, for a chat about the purpose and significance of the initiative, its challenges and successes.

Ok, so first up give us the rundown of how you started the Stop Campaign.

I started the Stop Campaign earlier this year after some heads of halls and student leaders met up to talk about promoting consent in colleges, and they didn’t come up with anything that would effect cultural change. So I decided that, as a student, I would start something that would effect cultural change in regards to stopping sexual violence at university.

Who’s the Stop Campaign specifically aimed at?

I went into the campaign thinking that it would be student-led, so it is directed at students, but all students. I’ve tried really hard to keep it non-gendered, so basically I’m just trying to target everyone, but more specifically those in residential halls because at ANU that’s where a lot of the sexual violence is happening.

Being a student led campaign; there must be a lot of challenges.

Well, initially starting the campaign just at Fenner Hall in term two, I started to experience small, quite passive backlash. I would put up posters about what’s on, information or sex positivity. I noticed that people would rip out ‘positivity’ leaving just ‘sex’, or people would deface them with drawings of penises, which was totally inappropriate to what we are talking about. It was particularly targeted, in that, I would notice a lot of other posters weren’t ripped up in this way.

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Some more direct backlash that I’ve received is through the advocacy submission forum. At Fenner Hall the Fenner Residents Committee (FRC) have a forum where you can submit advocacy issues. I actually received a few of those saying I was a ‘man basher’ blaming men for the issue. That was quite interesting because I received the first advocacy complaint within a week of the campaign starting. It was before I’d even had an event, and I had just put up information posters.

More directly, people were starting arguments with me on Facebook about the purpose of what I was sharing, claiming that it was too political and I shouldn’t be sharing those videos on the Facebook page. For example, I shared a TED talk and it was an expert talking about the prevalence of domestic violence in Australia and how men are the main perpetrators. It wasn’t an opinion piece, it was just relaying facts from a document. Someone decided to comment this was ‘man bashing’ despite the topic being about men literally bashing women.

Given these challenges you’ve faced within Fenner Hall specifically, what support have you received from other colleges?

I have received support from a few passionate individuals that I’ve approached, but when trying to explain why this is important; why we need to stand as a united front, why all the colleges are on different playing fields at the moment, why there’s no transparency about what the disclosure process is (which is really important information that should be relayed to students that live in Res halls), none of those were really taken on board. So I’ve approached some people in leadership positions relevant to the topic of sexual violence, and it’s not as though they have directly said “we’re not interested”, but they’re just not being proactive with trying to implement these things in a lot of ways. But that’s not always the case, at some colleges they’ve actually been really proactive to the best of their

ability, but I would say more so it’s gone the other way, which is very unfortunate.

What are some of the positives? There’s got to be a lot of them with starting a campaign like this.

I w o u l d say a lot of changes have happened, especially within Fenner Hall this term.

Posters aren’t being ripped down anymore and I haven’t seen a negative advocacy complaint for two weeks, which is a good development. I received a positive advocacy issue saying that the campaign has been quite effective and that they’re excited to see where it’s going. I’ve actually also received quite a few messages from students at Fenner Hall telling me that when they see a poster it makes them feel a little bit better, or how people have kind of tested the waters, disclosing to me in quite a positive sense. So those are some changes that I’ve seen, and I have noticed that people are feeling more comfortable to discuss or relay how they’re feeling after seeing all this information up. I was really worried that it would potentially trigger some people, even though that’s clearly not what I’m trying to do, but most of the feedback I’ve received is really positive. I would also say, quite a few people have reached out to me, student groups like the Red Cross and ANUSA

are taking me seriously, which feels quite good. That’s a pos-

itive for sure.

Finally, what does success in this campaign look like to you?

Success for me looks like a society where we aren’t afraid of speaking up about these issues. They are happening, so let’s talk about them. I strongly believe that starting conversations and normalising this discussion about sexual violence and respectful relationships are ways forward to prevent these acts from occurring. All in all, I would say that if one less person is sexually assaulted on campus, then the STOP Campaign has been an overall success.

For more information see The STOP Campaign at http://www. thestopcampaign.com/

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Glitter Tits, the Basic Bitch, and Festival Fashion Lexie Johnstone

Glitter, sequins, colour, creativi t y, s e l f - e x p r e s si o n, feminism, a n d s u b sequent slut-shaming – sounds fun, right? Maybe, maybe not, but its undeniably a part of our conversations about festival fashion.

What is it we’re really saying with our criticisms of outlandish and skin baring costumes? Personally, I love festival fashion. I love the glitter, I love the colour, I love the creativity, I love the confidence, and most of all, I just really love and want to support other women.

There are absolutely aspects of festival culture to be criticized, foremost being the rampant cultural appropriation within festival fashion.

Wearing a bindi is, for the record, not the same as wearing glitter. Wearing a Native American warbonnet is not akin to the paper

boy hats that abounded at Groovin’ the Moo this year. And yet, despite these very real and problematic aspects of festival fashion, that’s rarely the focus of the disparaging comments about what women wear at festivals.

Instead, women are criticized for revealing too much of their own bodies.

Earlier this year, I watched a Triple J Splendour in the Grass special on ABC; amid the broadcasts of musical performances and artist interviews, they spoke with festival goers. I sat at home and admired the colourful confi-

dence of the outfits people had created. Yet, I was flooded with a stab of disappointment as they interviewed a festival-goer who complained about all the women ‘with their asses hanging out,’ and how she hated it. Every year The Sun, Daily Mail, or some other high-profile publication will publish voyeuristically horrified articles about the latest festival fashions that scandalizes them: the skin baring outfits, the glitter tits trend.

The slut-shaming is rife and the internalized misogyny in other women’s commentary is pandemic.

If we’re not being slutshamed by others, then we’re condemned as being “basic” for embracing festival f a s h ion. What do we even mean when we call someone basic? That they enjoy something that many other people also do? An abun-

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dance of camouflage pants are fodder for ridicule, yet, we’re silent on male festival patrons in muscle shirts? This criticism is almost exclusively levelled towards women, and activities or interests that are typically coded feminine. Why is anything women enjoy so easily mocked? Why are pumpkin spice lattes basic, but not the long black of most businessmen?

Why are Ugg boots or yoga pants basic, but not the summer athleti c shorts of men no more likely to exercise today than I am likely to complete my whole to-do list?

I guarantee you that every other aspect of the girl in camouflage pants’ outfit took more effort and creativity than the ge- n e r i c muscle shirt we’re ignoring.

In comparison, the male-centric pastime of mainstream sport enjoyment, despite its ability to reinforce violent ideals, and despite the spike in domestic violence that coincides with major sporting events, is vastly more acceptable, more ‘cool’, and more free from criticism, than women quietly creating something beautiful using their face as their canvas. I hate to break it to you friends, but enjoyment of mainstream sports is not ‘special’ and ‘unique’, and unless you’re playing every week (and not just barracking from your couch) you’re straight up putting less effort into your hobby than women who spend hours watching, practicing, and perfecting make up looks from YouTube tutorials. Is the beauty industry is problematic? Of course, but the reason that few women describe their passion for makeup as a hobby has very little to do with those problematic aspects, and everything to do with negative stereotypes around women who spend time on their appearance.

Perhaps this exposes the real issue people have with festival fashion (aside from, of course, the rampant slut shaming). Women are simultaneously expected to be both immaculately presented at all times – slobby is not Attractive™ – and appear to be doing so without any effort. Why? Because putting effort into that immaculate presentation is the realm of the ‘basic bitch’. We’re only beautiful if we don’t know we’re beautiful. Despite this, women at festivals continue to embrace maximum effort, maximum creativity, and maximum confidence. The wom-

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e m bracing festival fashion rejects day-to-day conventions, she rej e c t s the ideal of being “effortlessly beautiful” (which for the record takes almost as long as supposedly high maintenance festival aesthetics), she rejects quietly blending into the background. She is less ‘like everyone else’ than everyone else there – the antithesis of the criticism levelled at her.

Most of all, she’s confidently embracing her body and presenting it as she chooses: she reveals her skin not to sell a product produced and marketed by men, and not to be another character-less prop for male development in another mediocre Hollywood movie that we’ll pretend to enjoy, but because she wants to. And as a society, we hate that.

In this environment, they aren’t adhering to the conservative dress codes of work, school, or society in general. In this environment, there is a new norm, and that norm is that whatever you want goes. Are women being sold clothing by a problematic industry? Sure.

Are we adhering to the male gaze? Possibly.

But there remains a brutal reality that, at least for now, these things are deeply embedded into our culture. So much so, that it’s virtually impossible to escape.

So next time you hear someone scoff at the glitter, the high

c u t shorts, t h e intricate makeup, or any other pursuit we ascribe a fe minine label to, ask yourself: Are they criticizing cultural appropriation? Problematic, exploitative clothing industries?

Male gaze? Or are they simply criticizing women for having bodies and using those bodies to express themselves without the necessary level of apology?

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115. The Power of Black Women 116. A blessed Unrest 118. My Land is Me 119. Adolescence, Age and Femininity 122. We Need Moore: An Interview with Mimir Art 124. I don’t love you anymore, so why do you?

125. Solidarity on Campus 126. A reason to wake up in the morning: A memoir of motherhood 127. ‘Feminist’: multilingual translations of feminist 128. Number two

5. Pulsar: Neutron star

(the incredibly dense remanent core of the dead star) Today, I passed the magazine onto my sibling. I wonder if the pages will reveal a map to them the way it did to me. We’ve endured so much; we’ve journeyed to the ends of the earth and back, but it’s not enough – not yet.

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The Power of Black Women Makayla-May Brinkley Wiradjuri woman She shimmers, Light passing through her body.

A heavenly song upon old ears, And broken bodies Revitalising our senses, and Whispering words of understanding.

She is Black, powerful, Larger than anything you’ve seen before.

She glides through the air, Effortless and graceful As though her body is made of the clouds she flies over.

But she always sails back to us; The small and the young and the weak.

She tells us to be brave and powerful And sings a song older than time.

We know she is watching over us, praying for us, guiding us – Black women never fail us.

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A Blessed Unrest Article and Artwork by Eleanor Neumann

“You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you.

Keep the channel open. No artist is ever pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

– Martha Graham To be human is to create. Regardless of its form, whether tangible or not, we are constantly seeking out different forms of self-expression as a tool to explore and understand the world around us. But with creation, also comes conflict. We often ask ourselves how we can be expected to stay motivated when we are feeling our worst. Being overcome with the fear that we will never be as good as we want to be is a crippling reality that someone, somewhere in the world is surely facing at any given time. We must acknowledge that all things come in waves; happiness, creativity, love. These things are never certain, yet they are the things that we feel we need in our lives in order to be content; that if we do not have these things we must be doing something wrong. Yet, it is true, all things come in waves. One minute you can feel as though you are falling so hard and fast you forget how to breathe; like the wind has been knocked out of you by a giant wave and you are flailing around on the ocean floor trying to figure out which way is up. You think about all those times you took breathing for granted, when that same wave that knocked you down sweeps you back up toward the sun. All is bright again.

As I have come to terms with the fact that nothing in life is constant, I have

accepted the fact that my work is something that continuously changes and evolves. Though the work changes, I continue to find inspiration in the same places: the natural world, the cycle of life, the feminine strength of a mother. I am forever influenced by the women in my life.

My mother and my grandmother are the two strongest and most powerful women I have ever known. I was raised by a single mum and was always in awe of the strength she carried in raising my brother and I on her own. My mother taught me resilience, while my grandmother taught me to appreciate the beauty in the detail, teaching me to cook and to sew. She was a dressmaker, and was always using her hands to create something out of nothing. I used to think everything she touched turned to gold. She had a beautiful garden and was always on her hands and knees planting something new or picking fruit from one of the many trees that lined her backyard. Perhaps my Summer Fruits series was subconsciously inspired by her; inspired by the power and femininity of Mother Nature and the women that shaped me. After all, we paint what we know best.

It takes strength to surrender completely to who you are. These days there is so much hiding behind a mask, behind a filter. People are afraid to reveal themselves as they truly are. We often associate empowerment with confidence and self-assurance, but for me being empowered means embodying both strength and fragility and accepting all facets of oneself; applauding your strengths as well as your flaws, and giving yourself permission to just be.

As an artist, and as a human being,

‘Dragonfruit’ gouache and pencil on paper,

you cannot grow or evolve if you do not fail at something or make art that you hate. I never know where one work is going to lead. I know my own style, it is something that is ingrained within me. I have learnt over time to trust it completely so that when I’m in the studio I can simply paint. Whatever it is that emerges that day, I accept. If I hate it, I hate it and that is okay. But in trusting the process of simply working and continuously making art no matter the outcome, that is when magic happens. Often in life and in art we get the feeling that a project or a goal is all about the end product, but there is just as much beauty to be found in the chaos of the process.

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Desert Sun pencil on paper

‘Passionfruit’ gouache and pencil on paper

‘Papaya’ gouache and pencil on paper

‘Peach Pie’ gouache and pencil on paper

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My Land is Me Makayla-May Brinkley Wiradjuri woman This poem was written to reflect the interconnectedness of mob and Country: no matter what our journeys bring, Country is there alongside us to help us on our way.

The trees bring me guidance to worlds I will never know; The winds carry songlines to a tongue I will never hear.

The cleansing of the water, Washing away the day.

The burning of the leaves purifies the sins staining my spirit.

I am clean.

For as long as the land has been here, so have we.

As long as the water runs, we will be here.

Clawing for survival, but We Will Rise.

-Makayla-May Brinckley Wiradjuri woman 2017

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Adolescence, Age & Femininity Faith Stellmaker Feminism has always been an important issue, but more recently it has come to the foreground of political and cultural debates. Interested by this issue, especially the feminist activism promoted at university, I wished to explore this matter further. This body of work centres around conceptions of girlhood and gender that form both positive and negative stereotypes for women. I chose to compose my work around ideas of feminism through imagery possessing traditionally

feminine qualities and juxtapose ideas of adolescence, age and femininity.

Colour palette and texture were two major elements driving the composition of the images. I wished for pastel colourings, such as pink and green, to be evident across the six images as well as a focus on textural patterns. This can be seen in the lace of the dressing gown, design of the shower tiles, fabric of the couch chair, ripples of the curtain and

zig-zagging angles of the balcony rail. I have chosen soft and warm lighting to create feelings of delicacy and intimacy towards the scene and the girls within it.

These women were chosen because I have a strong friendship with them and wanted to embrace the bonds present between women. This photographic series aims to highlight the female form and traditional femininity as a positive role within the social movement of feminism.

Adolescence, Age & Femininity, 2018, Inkjet Print, 420 x 594 mm

Time is of the Essence, 2018, Inkjet Print, 420 x 594 mm

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Pretty in Pink , Inkjet Print, 420 x 594 mm

The In-Between, Inkjet Print, 420 x 594 mm

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We are the Youthful, 2018, Inkjet Print, 420 x 594 mm

The Green Room, 2018, Inkjet Print, 420 x 594 mm

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We Need Moore: An Interview with Mimir Art Interview by Clare Myers If you’ve caught sight of a cool gal rocking Frida Kahlo earrings or celebrating Australian wildlife on her lobes around the capital, you’ve no doubt witnessed the wonderful, wearable art of Mimir Soboslay Moore – founder, artist and brains behind Mimir Art. Armed with a passion for art, ethics and environmentally friendly fashion, she’s truly a force to be reckoned with.

We at Bossy sought to jump onto her positive wavelength with a look into the ways and workings of this local artistic wunderkind.

What made you pursue a career in art?

There wasn’t really an exact moment – it was more a long journey. I’ve been surrounded by art since I was a kid, so I haven’t known anything else. To me, it’s my art and my expression. I haven’t had any real training outside of school.

My dad and my mum have both been in the art industry, so it was quite a normal and supportive conversation when I suggested that I wanted to pursue art as a career.

They’ve been able to talk me through any problems that have come up.

What is your philosophy towards your work?

I want to do something that’s positive and inclusive. I also want to be mindful of what I create, and make sure it’s

body inclusive and environmentally conscious. I think the more we introduce these concepts to smaller businesses, the more these ideas will catch on. Big businesses are cheaper because of mass production, but people are still willing to pay more for something that isn’t harming the environment and is overall more positive.

How do you feel navigating an artistic business alone?

It can be pretty intimidating and obviously very easy to get lost with. I’ve had to learn to respect myself, and actually value my time and artwork.

To some, art is ‘just a drawing’. It is not easy to see the hours spent completing something. I’ve had to learn how to build up my own structure and become independent.

That being said, I’ve had a lot of support through my family.

They’ve become my main source of help.

Looking at the more monetary side of things, do you ever feel like you have to sacrifice artistic integrity for business and money?

Sometimes I do. I’m really lucky that I still live at home and I have a job on the side so I don’t have to be too concerned about making enough money from my art to live on. But there are times when I look at the prices of my earrings and I think I am underpricing them. At the same time I want it to be accessible to people. So it’s about find-

ing that balance between making money and making sure people my age who are going to uni and are on a budget are still able to appreciate artistic goods. My market is definitely geared towards uni students, whereas most artisan jewelers are marketing towards middle-aged women who have stable incomes, a few kids, and money to spare. That’s why it isn’t a stretch for them to drop serious money on a single pair of earrings.

I guess when I price my earrings, I ask myself, ‘would I pay that much?’

How do you define success and how do you measure up to your own definition?

O bvio u sly, there’s the mentality of ‘you’re making money and you can live off this art as a career’. But, for me, it’s about gaining a permanent foothold in the artistic community, having a standing there and developing mutual respect with other artists.

At the moment, I’m getting there. I’m planning on moving out and I believe being on my own will push me harder to make this a sustainable career choice. Part of me is hesitant to further the business until I am sure of which

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message as what you believe in. So I want what I broadcast to be positive, and show people, especially women, for who they are without artificial glorification. I also want to show younger girls that there are women out there who are succeeding and thriving.

How does your practice empower you?

A sense of satisfaction and independence comes from creating something from scratch that is your own. I feel empowered when I create something that is wholly mine.

How do you predict your business will evolve over time?

path I want to go down. There are so many different areas in art I enjoy, and I haven’t defined what I want to do yet.

tive and show people what you’re up to, all to maintain interest and engagement with your business.

What advice would you give other people considering pursuing art as a career?

I find it difficult though. Personally, I think social media can be toxic. I struggle to use it in my personal life, so it’s difficult to maintain that presence online for my business.

I would give business-savvy advice.

Don’t throw yourself into it straight away. Start slow and don’t rush. I hate saying this, because it doesn’t sound ‘fun’, but the artistic industries are hard businesses to establish yourself in, so start small, and build up your customer base.

How do you view Canberra, as opposed to Sydney or Melbourne, in terms of starting an artistic business and building up a career in art?

I see potential in Canberra. There are people trying to build a community of artists. Canberra has very sparsely and spread out artists that you see very rarely.

In hindsight, maybe Canberra wasn’t the best place to start an artistic business. Maybe it would be a good city to come back to. All that being said, I love Canberra, and it would be incredible for it to become a massive arts hub in Australia. It has so much space, and it has people here!

How much do you rely on social media?

I hate to say it but I think it’s everything now. You have to connect with so many people nowadays. You have to stay ac-

Why do you think social media is toxic?

I think we have been raised to constantly compare ourselves to other people.

It used to be magazines and now it’s moved into a different medium. No matter how much we try to love our bodies, and tell ourselves that we don’t need to compare ourselves to others, judgment is so engrained in our society now. Even if you’re not negatively judging other people, you’re probably negatively judging yourself. No matter how much you try to separate yourself from that mentality, surrounding yourself with social media constantly reminds you of your faults.

Do you use art to escape this social media toxicity?

I’ve always used art in a positive way.

Creating something that’s body positive and inclusive is really important to me.

Is this mentality channeled through your own social media platform?

Yeah absolutely. I feel a responsibility to be welcoming and diverse. If you have a platform, no matter how small, people will receive your image and its

A combination of bush bashing and a set pathway. I do have a vision that I would like to happen. I want to create an artist collective, have collective spaces such as galleries and studios.

To create a supportive community is everything. But, at the same time, I do like taking things as they happen, and jumping onto opportunities as they arise. *** Mimir is a little more of what the world needs. Aside from her obvious knack for art and business, her talent lies in channeling positive, ethical and all round good vibes into her work. All in all, our chat gave me hope for the future of art, sustainable business and community in Canberra, and left me with no doubt of the bright future that lies ahead for Mimir, her art and her career.

124

I don’t love you anymore, so why do you?

Anonymous Drawing by Naushaan Ahmad

Love)

Self - Noname (Room 25) Only Love - Wafia (Only

You think you’re so damn special, and you were; I really loved you.

Why Didn’t You Stop Me? - Mitski (Be the Cowboy) Girl – Radio Edit - The Internet (Girl (Radio Edit)) Can You Hear Me? Amber Mark (3:33am) I don’t let myself cry anymore. I tell myself that big girls don’t cry, that I’ve cried too much before, and that I’m too okay to cry – I’m not. Hallucinations, dreams, nightmares set in; don’t stop.

My ears bleed silent screams, and confusion is a hungry girl staring into a full fridge with nothing to eat.

Breathe - Seinabo Sey (I’m A Dream) Gonna Love Me - Teyana Taylor (K.T.S.E) It’s not your fault, but you haven’t helped. I don’t know what anything means anymore: I told you I hated you, then moments later I told you I’d always love you. You broke my heart and you couldn’t even do it sober. You keep breaking my heart; I wish you hadn’t been sober. Bittersweet promises of a time not forgotten relentlessly latch onto the air in my chest, and refuse to let go. Why do you keep breaking my heart? How do you keep breaking my heart?

Afterglow Zoya (Afterglow) Fall into My Arms - Ngaiire (Blastoma)

You replaced me, yet at 1:57am, June 2018, from 1.5km away, you called me when you weren’t okay.

YOU’RE THE ONE feat. Syd Kaytranada (99.9%) Gou Talk - Peggy Gou (Gou Talk) Mistakes, mistakes, several times over, but you were the momentary happiness, the hedonistic delight that I looked forward to until recently.

Stupidity is a fucking distraction, and I wish I could only, on my fingers and toes, count the things I’ve done in the past hours. But ignorance is a blissful luxury I refuse to give up, and distractions are fucking stupid.

I Wish I Missed My Ex - Mahalia (I Wish I Missed My Ex) Can’t Call It Love - Deva Mahal (Run Deep) You speak of an undefined foreseeable future, and dictate what we can’t be: partners, friends, acquaintances. Why do you continue to care? You’re the yellow helium balloon I relished, even as I let go. Yet, even though you left my hand, you’re the same balloon, wilted, returning to me secure in knowing I’ll continue to care even if I shouldn’t. That doesn’t mean it’s love though, does it?

Swell - imbi the girl (Swell)

I hesitated the first time you told me you loved me, and I hesitate now, with clandestine relief, when you tell me that you still love me; that you think you’ll always love me.

W e ’r e known strangers, w h o smile and run into each other, who talk and avoid each other, and when (if) you say you love me, I will undoubtedly hesitate.

You still love me, but I don’t love you anymore.

125

Solidarity On Campus Izy Remedios CW: sexual assault, sexual harassment As I walk through the doors of my residential hall at ANU, I am greeted with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for my freedom to express my views in a comfortable environment, and the wonderful and unified female community. However, amidst a tumultuous time in which the ANU and all of its residential halls have been thrown into the spotlight regarding overwhelmingly high reports of sexual harassment and assault across campus, the importance of unification and education in residential halls is stronger than ever.

The 2017 UA-HRC report revealed that in 2016, out of 1,477 participants, at least 116 students were sexually assaulted, and 517 students had experienced sexual harassment on campus.

There is an undeniable correlation between perceptions of residential relationships and the perpetration of sexual violence. This fuels a university culture that normalises attitudes pertinent to sexual assault and harassment. Whilst I acknowledge that these results pertain to both binary and non-binary genders, for the purpose of this piece I will be focusing on measures needed for female-identifying survivors.

The central reason why I want to emphasise the significance of a strong women’s community is attributed to my role as one of the Women’s Officers at my student residence. In a residential hall, we are confined to a bubble that can perpetuate the normalisation of certain attitudes and behaviours. While some would refer to these behaviours as a result of a culture that endorses ‘toxic masculinity’, it is notable to re-evaluate the use of our language. There are certainly both toxic and non-toxic behaviours at college, and not every toxic behaviour is due to overreaching masculinity. In this sense, I believe that modifying our language and removing gender-specific labels to

describe behaviour is more constructive in addressing such severe matters.

My experience at my residency has shown me that one of the most effective ways to instill positive cultural change is through engaging with current policies, procedures and training programs. In addition to progressive leadership representatives, it is vital for residential halls to frequently update their policies and procedures. Currently, myself and two other leaders are assisting with updating the sexual assault and harassment policy of our residential hall. We aim to modify the language used and provide a policy that prioritises the safety and wellbeing of the survivor. These policies must take into account ANU-wide reviews, such as the incoming Nous Review results.

This review investigated the contributing factors that resulted in the high figures of sexual assault and harassment in student residences. We are eagerly waiting for the recommendations of the review, and plan to incorporate them into the residential hall sexual assault and harassment policy. A combination of updated policies, procedures and appropriate training for all residents will set the standard in regards to the disparity between acceptable and intolerable behaviour.

I have witnessed first-hand the undeniable potential of women to accelerate cultural and behavioural change in a small space like a residential hall.

The girls’ community within my hall is united, free and expressive, despite the potential of residential settings to skew perceptions and normalise derogatory attitudes towards gender roles and responsibilities. I believe that this strong female presence is lacking across many residential halls in Australia, and it is absolutely necessary for the encouragement of proper education and training programs and the creation of safe spaces. This year, under the Women’s Portfolio, three female-identifying forums were organised in which we were encouraged to discuss our sexual

health, our own experiences with sexual assault and harassment, and other issues pertaining to our wellbeing, which created a space where women could feel comfortable to express their views and raise any concerns they had about the current state of the residential hall culture.

While reformations to residential hall policies and procedures are necessary, the crucial instrument that advances these foundations is strong leadership that sets the tone for first year residents. Changing a culture is a challenging and ongoing process, but it can be achieved through setting standards that are non-negotiable. Once these standards are set, they must be actively embedded into the residence’s values for long-term cultural change.

We can never underestimate the power of women and our influence on cultural transition through engagement with widespread education and setting precedent by defining boundaries and enforcing positive values that must occur at the start of every academic year.

The ripples we have started in our residential halls will undoubtedly transcend into the broader ANU community where the true power of a united female front can actively prevail and withstand the test of time.

126

A reason to wake up in the morning: A memoir of motherhood Jess Keating

I think that in their journey towards adulthood, everyone reaches one turning point that grounds them. At some point, we all realise that life is about more than the instant gratification we seek as we get older. Some of us reach that point a little later. I didn’t get there until I was 20 and I found out I was pregnant. I was entirely certain I didn’t want to keep it until I was rushed to hospital for what they were afraid was an ectopic pregnancy, which is when a baby forms outside of the uterus. Thankfully, it wasn’t.

In that moment, I heard my daughter’s heartbeat for the first time, and even though I was afraid to admit it until later, I knew then that I was going to be someone’s mother. It was the right decision for me, even though it was difficult and even though it isn’t the right decision for everyone. So, I made it work.

I reconciled with my parents, and the father and I decided that we’d try to make it work. At 20 weeks, we found out that our baby was a girl. My brother gave me a name. My daughter’s name is Liliath, which is derivative of ‘Lalaith’ (laughter, in some Tolkien Elvish dialect), because he thought any child of mine would always be smiling. He’s right for the most part. On the days that she isn’t being a typical toddler, she will smile and charm you and, most importantly, she will love you. She has the biggest heart of any person that I have ever met.

My grounding point was the moment I held her in my arms for the first time. I have never cried like that before or since.

It was the moment of realisation that I now had a reason to get up

in the mornings, get my shit together, and keep it together, because she needed me to.

For some people, their grounding point is the perfect job or a passion for dance or music. It’s really just that one thing that motivates you to strive and achieve.

As hopeless as life can be, there is always the potential of a grounding point that can help you overcome almost anything.

I’m luc ky that Liliath came when she did.

I was on a downward spiral that seemed as if it were to inevitably end with the worst. With her to motivate me, I finally got a diagnosis for ADHD, and I figured out what I wanted from life. I’ve started taking steps towards my goals instead of just drifting aimlessly. I never want to let my daughter down, and that thought keeps me focused when it sometimes seems hopeless, exhausting, or overwhelming.

With Liliath to inspire me, I’ve started performing again, writing songs like never before and am finally in my final semester of university. I’ve been here for what feels like an eternity some days, but

through her I’ve learned how to manage my time a little better. I’ve learned how to keep going, and I’ve learned how to love more completely.

Some days, it’s still hard. I travel from Yass for university, I work 5 AM shifts, I get booked most weekends for performances, and I miss her every moment that I’m away from her. But I’ve learned along the way that love isn’t shown in the quantity of time spent with the people you love, but in the quality of time you spend with them. Liliath knows unquestioningly that I love her more than anything else in the world, and that absolute faith in me makes everything both easier and more important. Every moment I’m alive matters now in a way that it didn’t before, because she needs me and that keeps me from falling apart.

Some days I still do, but she’s there to remind me that she loves me, and that everything is okay. Not long ago, she walked into a room as I was huddled in bed, absolutely overwhelmed, and weeping. She came over and hugged me as hard as she could and told me that it was okay and that I was the best mummy. So I stopped crying, pulled myself together, and got going. I haven’t stopped since.

127

“feminist” féminisme

Intersectionnalité; égalité; hégémonie; militante(s); agentivité; justice sociale; lutte; mecsplication

French

Alex Gernath

feministka

Historia, Równouprawnienie, Odwaga , Siła , Solidarność, Wsparcie , Niezależność

Polish

Iga Morzyńska

peminista

Pantay, kalayaan, pagkakaisa, lakas ng loob, tapang, karapatan, pagkakataon, kasaysayan, suporta, tiyaga

Tagalog

Gabriela Freeman

feminismus

Stärke, Ermächtigung, Freiheit

German

Dana Throssell

เฟมินิสต์

ความเท่าเทียม, ผู้หญิง, ความยุติธรรม

Thai

Tracy Beattie

ঀ௔ԆԎ

ᇿኞ҅ঀ࿥ৼ҅ ձ௔҅ᛔኧ҅ṛ᪙ᶖ

Mandarin

Aveline Yang

フェミニスト

賃金格差、家庭と結婚、昇進、男女平等

Japanese

Aveline Yang

feminis

Wanita Besi , Perempuan bersatu, Keberagaman, Kesetaraan, Cinta

Indonesian

Peony Lim

‫ ةيوسن‬OR ‫يئاسن طشان‬

‫ةيوق‬, ‫ةاواسم‬, ‫ةيناسنإ‬, ‫ةيعامتجإلا ةلادعلا‬, ‫قوقح‬, ‫ةيواستم صرف‬, ‫ريرحت‬

Arabic

Maya Bhandari

‫ںاوسِن ِکيِرحت‬

‫يماح اک ںاوسن قوقح‬, ‫يربارب‬, ‫تیناسنا‬, ‫عقوم‬, ‫ميلعت‬, ‫تسار ہارب‬, ‫يدازآ‬

Urdu

Tooba Faridi

feminist

128

Number Two: Eden She liked the way his hands moved to peel back the skin of his orange. That was the first thing she noticed. His fingers and their agility and how they seemed so gentle even as they tore through the fruit’s flesh. Then she noticed his smile and could only describe it as a Pandora’s box; a fatal source of so many troubles and heartache. And his eyes; they were blue to everyone else but something about them spoke in yellow like sunsets, sunflowers and the pollen of daisies. But that sounded stupid, so when she tried to describe them to anyone else she would simply say they were bright.

When they first met, the perfection she had only ever witnessed in nature was presented to her in this beautiful human form that could speak and touch and caress like the trees, wind and waves never could. When she first heard his voice she wasn’t surprised that it sounded like something she had only ever felt before. His voice had this strange ability to transcend the boundaries of her senses and create reactions in her that only smells could, or ignite feelings in her spine that only touch ever had. And after everything physical she finally she noticed his thoughts; how they were wild and delirious in a brilliant, unconfined way. It was almost like he thought things people just couldn’t think and said them in ways

people shouldn’t say or perhaps just didn’t have his words for. The most fantastic thing about it all was that for a few brief months she got to accompany him as he bounded through the world.

She got to watch him as he read, wrote and sang. She got to jump into lakes and adventures with him and witness how some people can touch and guide an energy others can’t even see. And she got to care for him when his intelligence was no longer a blessing but a sickness that would capture his mind, because people aren’t perfect even if we worship them like they are.

The romance of those first moments, days and weeks was sickening, cinematic and ominous. She’d never understood the metaphor ‘burn too bright’ until much later when she realised the life expectancy of their relationship was so much shorter than she’d planned. This sense of an ending or explosion was so obvious when she looked at him, almost like their bodies didn’t have enough room for the love that was now seeking a larger vessel.

But neither of them could provide the necessary space, so slowly their love seeped out and drained from its human containers. She pictured it like an oil spill or a flowing wound that just wouldn’t stop bleeding. The slow undoing of love is never something one wants to imagine as pretty.

Is it wrong to be jealous of people who have never loved? She didn’t care about cheap love or almost love but that deep love that shifts your identity and your vision; that fully and painfully disfigures who you are.

In January they took their final trip as a couple, watching ‘Thelma and Louise’ the night before they got in the car in almost premeditated, perfect irony.

Now she wonders whether he laughs at that random choice like she does simply because the only other option would be to cry. They stayed at the ‘Grace Hotel’ and she wore his ‘Hello Newman’ t-shirt all week as if her intuition was communicating it would be her last chance to. Strangely, nothing was different except that happy people don’t cry at their bliss. Happy couples don’t cry when they embrace or take mental pictures of sweet moments like they’re going extinct. Happy couples don’t practice how to say ‘goodbye’ or look at each other like they’ve already said it.

“Some pretty things aren’t to be touched,” her mother had always said.

She never knew that could refer to memories and moments. When she was grieving and felt the need to go back to those times and feel those soft emotions and sense those memories like maybe they could be real again, she would repeat the words ‘don’t touch, don’t touch.’ She couldn’t allow those intangible, precious objects of her mind to be broken by her violent anger or soured and stained by sharp resentment.

Sad is the only word for it because she still thinks about him often and she cries about him too. Tears of grief are all she can seem to produce. And that cherished, secret fantasy of them one day being together doesn’t seem to be so secret anymore. Give me a word other than ‘sad’ to describe those most bereaved moments when all she can think about is what it would mean for him - for them - if one day she told him; “you’re the only one I cried for.”

Bossy would not exist without the generous support of the ANU Women’s Department and Postgraduate and Research Student’s Association (PARSA). We thank them for their support, and for the amazing work they do for members of our community.

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