REGULARS

CHALLENGE SURVIVAL

A personal disclosure of my experiences as a survivor, post severe family violence, sexual violence and alcohol addiction.

In order to have the ability to keep going, fit in, keep my head above water, be normal and to function and survive, I have needed to either minimise and/or box and pile away experiences of abuse. There is the challenge of survival and trying to regain normalcy after traumatic experiences. Pretending everything is okay – putting on multiple masks, faking a smile, being strong for others. This leads to never putting yourself first or being truthful to yourself, thus the authentic version of you is lost in a spiral of conscious/unconscious lack of feeling and being grounded. This is particularly evident when starting the process of trusting others again, of being vulnerable again, and hoping I will not be taken advantage of again. All this whilst re-learning to love yourself.

It is a challenge.

Healing while also using the experiences, the pain, and the invisible and visible scars as fuel and passion to fight against the systemic gender, climate and racial injustices that exist, can come, at least for me, at a cost. Especially if strong boundaries are not put into place. As activists, we so often advocate for others, but fail when it comes to ourselves. Often, we are the worst advocates for ourselves, for our wellbeing and what we deserve.

Regaining trust, love, respect and hope again is the challenge of survival.

Survival can be seen as a short term, life threatening or ephemeral occurrence. Survival can also be long term, life long in fact. Particularly for those that have experienced so much trauma in their life. When it comes to switching off survival mode, it may never be an option.

As young as I can remember, I have needed to survive. To be independent. I come from a long line of survivors. Trauma in my family has been intergenerational, passed down over the past century. It is for this reason that I understand the actions of my family and how over time, I have learned to forgive them. Their wounds were never healed themselves.

Therapy in my culture and family is seen as shameful – frowned upon, as is speaking out. Nevertheless, my experiences: the privilege of having an education, being the first female in my family to finish high school and go to university, my passion for gender justice and fighting against the system, led me to rebel, to speak out and break the taboo, shame, silence and stigma of social issues in my family and in the communities I am apart of. To do this in the hopes that I can help others to do the same.

Here I share with you my journey of survival. I do not want you to feel sorry for me. I do not want to receive an “I am so sorry this happened to you” after reading this. I instead ask you to keep an open mind when you meet someone or see someone with a mask on, not to judge them or label them as fake. There is a lot going on beneath the surface for all of us. And for those that have a similar story to mine, I want you to know that you are not alone. I am thinking of you and am always here if you ever need someone. It has taken me a while to come to terms with my past, a journey I know will always be an ongoing process.

When I was 16, I lost my childhood innocence.

Taken away from me in a moment. My trust was taken advantage of, my naivety was taken advantage of and my body taken advantage of. A piece of me, ripped away by sexual assault. Trapped at a house, tricked by someone I looked up to after meeting at a leadership event held at NSW Parliament House. I still hear his laugh. I still feel the panic of seeing him in public. I am still fighting to survive him and the amount of appeasing I did to get out of there alive.

I was just starting my final year of high school, my whole life ahead of me. I knew I could not, and would not, let it end there. The biggest pain of all was not the event itself but what followed. My trust was again misplaced, in a close friend, the first person I told. They told my family, not understanding the level of cultural shame that exists when this happens and especially for people to know about it. I, myself, was not ready for them to know. No choice of my own, but the choice of another.

The response was violence – something to be further punished by, I had no choice other than freeze, appease, and to be released.

Hit with a shoe. “Your fault, your mistake. Never speak of this again.”

It took years to be released from these words. This all happened at the beginning of my HSC, in the middle of an assessment week. I felt lost, ashamed and numbed to the point where it felt like there was no light left in me. Almost like a zombie. I had no motivation, no desire within this continuous mode of survival, wanting for the pain endured to not go to waste. Seeking justice for what occurred to me. To have the choice as to what and how the justice would occur.

The day after the rape, I went into work, as the nerd in me loved the work I was extremely privileged to do. I was a young women’s policy adviser for New South Wales Council of Social Services – back in my NGO days, I didn’t know grassroots activism was an option. I was told by my boss that there would be a meeting with the sex discrimination officer wanting consultation on sexual harassment policy. At that moment I knew that I could not stay home or be afraid to leave home. I did not want what happened to me to happen to someone else. If there was a way I could prevent this from happening to someone else, I would do it.

I left my room, where I felt the safest and most protected. I travelled on public transport, hypervigilant, scanning my surroundings every minute. The consultation was around sexual harassment and later, of my own doing, turned to a discussion on the prevalence of sexual assault. It was obvious to others, though I tried to act otherwise, that I was not my normal self, bubbly, happy, goofy. Survival numbed everything, good or bad.

* A year later, just before I turned 18, my brother nearly killed me out of anger.

The scars, both physical and mental, have never gone away. My mother watched it happen and just stood there, not knowing what to do. My father to this day blames my mother for provoking him, which she did not. It was not her fault that he was furious, it was not mine. But we were made to feel that it was. That day – the room where I felt the safest and most protected was lost. It is now a room where terrible events occurred. I lost my innocence and happiness, my safety net. My journey and experiences of secondary homelessness – also known as couch surfing – began. It was ‘only’ a couple of weeks, but those weeks were when I was already trying to survive again from the events that occurred a year before; regaining trust, love, and happiness.

I could not look at myself in the mirror. I was numbed to the point where it was completely easy to trick others and myself about where I was, who I was. People – friends, lovers – thought I was fine, that I was normal, that I was no longer affected by it. Unfortunately it never works out like that. Survival challenges us to adjust what is fine/what normal looks like.

Seven months later, struggling with alcohol and drugs, I went to a house party with friends I’ve known for ten or so years. I got drunk, black out drunk, vomiting drunk. But that was no excuse, no fault of mine for the events that occurred straight after. Three guys took advantage one after the other. They can say I was asking for it. But no, no one does. No one deserves to be treated the way women have been treated. No one should be taken advantage of – yet in this culture, the mass media we see, the music we listen to, we so often, unknowingly support this by being bystanders to it. By making it completely shameful for those that speak up.

Yes it is incredibly important for survivors to seek professional help. As it is so incredibly important for us if we ever need to speak up/call out about it. We do not want anyone to help us on what to do – we are not helpless. We do not need anyone to advocate on behalf of us, we have a voice. We just want and need people to listen to us for ourselves to verbally understand what the fuck happened to us. For it to not only be in our head. But to also be acknowledged in society.

Recognise our story, don’t erase it for someone else’s comfort. People should sit with the discomfort that this exists. Because it does. And I hate to say it, but we will not be the last unless proper changes are made, accountability exists both legally and in communities.

Break the taboo. Break the cycle. End the pain.

The trauma will exist with us forever.

At the end of the day, all we really have is ourselves, so it’s up to us on what we do. The choice of survival is the one we have made. The challenge is each day living with that choice.

Carrying the blood and bones of those that came before me Pain repeating itself through each generation Oh it will end with me, It will end with me I promise it will And I shall fight anyone/thing that gets in the way of that promise.

by Harpreet Kaur Dhillon

I DON’T GET IT TERFS Have you ever written a wildly successful young adult inclusion of trans women, and forcibly includes trans men fantasy novel series that took off and got made into an in the category of woman. even more successful movie franchise? There are theme parks and spin-off films and even a theatre production. You On a sidenote, the inclusion of trans men is often used as created a universe so intriguing and magical it captured an argument against the label TERF, because they aren’t the imaginations of youth around the world. excluding trans people, but rather including them (although Then you started talking shit on Twitter about trans people trans men, I think we can agree that including someone in and now the youth are having to reconcile this with the a category they have sought to reject by way of no longer aforementioned beloved cultural phenomenon. If you didn’t self-identifying with it is not what is meant by inclusivity. do all those things, then you might wonder why someone would do that. That’s fair. While the term TERF can be construed as problematic This issue for ‘I Don’t Get It,’ we’re going to deep dive into better. Feminists who deny trans recognition much prefer an idea with many names, TERF/gender critical/biological to be called gender critical. While more palatable for those feminism, to find out why some random white ladies butter who identify with those beliefs, this label is equally, if not their bread with anti-trans activism. more misleading.

The term TERF stands for Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists, which will give you a hint as to what’s coming. The label TERF carries with it some derogatory undertones, so other labels have popped up in its place, like gender critical. Regardless of what you call it by, this idea revolves around the central argument that gender is a patriarchal institution (I’m with you so far) and therefore the only true indication of whether you are a man or woman is biological sex.

So much promise in critiquing the patriarchal institution of gender only to fall back to biological essentialism. Such a letdown ngl.

A brief caveat: I am not a gender studies expert. I took one course in first year (we stan Professor Sheehan) and there are people out there who know much more than I. One key resource (which I would highly recommend) is Natalie Wynn and her YouTube channel Contrapoints.

Over the past couple of years, there has been growing debate between groups of feminists that diverge as to the status of trans women in particular. Just for clarity, trans women often include those who identify as a woman and use she/her pronouns. Trans men should not be overlooked, but much of the discussion revolves around trans women.

On one side of the debate are feminists who advocate and support trans women by supporting their recognition as women and believe that feminism necessarily involves defending the rights of trans women. On the other side are those who question and deny the recognition of trans women and characterise trans men as lost or the product of a patriarchy-fuelled identity crisis.

To the latter group, TERF is considered a slur. Whether or not it is a slur, TERF denotes a distinctive stream of feminist thought that does two key things: it denies the only trans men). While technically, TERFs are including and potentially misleading, the alternatives are not much Feminism as a whole, encompassing all the various different strands that exist within it, is inherently gender critical. That is basically the whole point. Feminists all agree that gender ultimately should not disadvantage anyone. No feminist could be found arguing that conceptions of gender are just fine as they are.

To then imply that only those who are anti-trans activists are critical of gender is to say that other feminists, including trans feminists, are not. This is plainly incorrect. While there is no ideal label for adherents of anti-trans ideas, TERFs is the shortest and least misleading, and I’m conscious of my word count.

From what I can gather, much of the anti-trans activism revolves around the perception that debates cannot be had around ‘gender ideology.’ It’s hard to deny that it is becoming more and more challenging to have meaningful discussions around complex issues.

Discriminatory laws and policies, negative and damaging cultural depiction as well as high rates of family rejection faced by trans people are enough to put anyone on the defensive. Every interaction, particularly in public, is a battleground. No compromises can be made, the marginalised must stick together and protect themselves with protective aphorisms: “trans women are women,” or “trans rights are human rights.”

These statements are undeniably true. However, the issue arises when people who know nothing of trans issues, i.e. a very many people, can be left without the details of what it means to be trans, including those well-versed in feminist theory, but not trans feminism and queer theory. I want to make it unequivocally clear that I am not suggesting that the onus for educating the general public about trans issues rests solely on trans people. As noted above, trans people face a stunning array of intersecting challenges that far too often have devastating consequences. The

average life expectancy of a trans woman is 36. 1 in 3 trans teenagers attempt suicide. 72% of victims of anti-LGBTQ related hate crimes were trans women.

The reality for many trans people is that life is arduous. I would argue that being defensive of your right to exist and be recognised is a fairly natural reaction. Moreover, it reflects a saddening fact that at least some public support is needed to extend a marginalised group dignity and basic human rights.

The point in bringing up the fact that feminist theory has in the past failed to include trans issues I think provides insight for understanding where TERFs get their ideas from. Many of the typical arguments directed towards trans women have their origins in key tenets of feminism. These include the experience of growing up female or reinforcing damaging stereotypes of womanhood and femininity.

While this definitely does not justify their anti-trans views, it does help to deconstruct why many feminists like Germaine Greer and Janice Raymond think the way they do.

Consider the oft-used criticism that trans women, by wearing feminine clothes and putting on makeup, reinforce problematic gender stereotypes of what it means to be a woman. There are two issues this throws up. Firstly, it seems unfair and hypocritical to target an already marginalised group for adhering to standards of femininity and womanhood when many cis women do the same. I’m not saying that stereotypes are not a problem, but the solution does not lie with targeting trans women’s expressions of their gender identity.

This leads me to the second issue, the reason that many trans people conform to gender stereotypes is because it enables them to be recognised as who they are. That is to say, some trans women conform to female stereotypes so as to align more closely with what a patriarchal society considers a woman to be. By doing this, trans women are engaging with society in a language of gender expression it recognises.

Unfortunately, we still live in a world hung up on binary gender and gender essentialism, the idea that we are innately a man or a woman at our core. Without delving into gender performativity and queer theory, the reason that a trans woman wears ultra-feminine clothes and flawless makeup is because in order to be recognised as the gender you are, you have to play the game. Being misgendered is demoralising and disheartening. If it can be avoided, I would bet that anyone would do the same.

No one is going to call you sir if you dress like a woman and vice versa. Our societies rely on gender performances to signify a gender identity. You dress like a man, walk like a man and go to your car at night without fear and that makes you a man. The same is true for trans people. If they don’t conform to established gender expressions of woman and man, they risk being further marginalised. be unhelpful hyper-feminine stereotypes that trans women adopt. They have been resisting these stereotypes their whole life. What’s more, if anyone can empathise with the experience of coercive gender expression, it’s trans people. It’s almost like trans people and feminists (and those who identify as both) have been fighting the same system of oppression. Interesting.

Ultimately, the issue is with patriarchal performances of gender, not the people who must perform them in order to gain a semblance of acceptance in society. If culturally, what it meant to be a woman or a man was more fluid, everyone would win.

An additional accusation lodged at trans women is that they did not experience female oppression for much of their life, even so far as enjoying male privilege prior to their transition. They didn’t grow up being talked over, worrying whether a date would become a life-threatening situation or experiencing sexual harassment.

For some trans women, there may be truth to the fact that they enjoyed some form of male privilege at some point in their life. However, it is extremely relevant to point out that trans women are one of the most violated and brutalised populations. Simply because one possesses a Y Chromosome does not mean they continue to be immune from the misogyny all too prevalent in patriarchal societies.

If a trans woman does not pass, (that is, pass for a cis woman), she is not treated as a man and all the privilege that entails, but something else. Less than. It is therefore highly inappropriate to characterise the experience of trans women as one of male privilege.

Another important thing to note is that not all trans people have the same journey. For example, Kim Petras who transitioned quite young, spent many of her formative years living as a woman. Contrast this with Caitlyn Jenner, who lived most of her life as a wealthy, white man. Each would have experienced varying levels of female oppression during their lives.

Ultimately, there is nothing to be meaningfully gained by excluding and demonising trans people, especially trans women. It is clear that all women, regardless of whether they are cis or trans are adversely impacted by the patriarchy. Even men are damaged. It seems to me that we should be united in striving for a better society that places far less value on gender and allows greater freedom of gender expression.

There is nothing to be gained by feminists targeting a marginalised group of women struggling for recognition and facing extreme systemic oppression. A shared experience such as this should be something to unite cis and trans women, as they share a common enemy. Letting ourselves be divided like this does nothing to further our aspirations and activism, only hinder it.

POP CULTURE REWIND WOMEN IN REFRIGERATORS

Superman. Batman. Iron man. Spider-man. Aquaman. Antman.

Comic book spaces have often felt extremely male-dominated, and it’s not hard to see why.

With the most celebrated characters being predominantly men, there are already few female characters for fans to aspire to and see themselves reflected in. To make matters worse, examining the treatment of these few women brings up even further concerns.

In 1999, writer Gail Simone, alongside other comic fans noticed this issue and created the website ‘Women in Refrigerators,’ particularly in response to Green Lantern #54. In this issue, Alexandra DeWitt, the hero’s girlfriend, was murdered, with her body shoved into the fridge for Green Lantern to find. Hence, the term ‘fridged’ was adopted to describe female characters in popular culture who were injured, depowered or killed to advance a male character’s arc.

While this might seem like a harmless trope, considering we’re just talking about fiction, the implications are a lot stronger. When audiences are continuously given representations of women whose lives revolve around the men they are associated with before being violently disposed of, it perpetuates them as lacking autonomy and independence, therefore making them seem less human.

With so many popular examples, specifically across comic books, the phrase quickly took hold amongst fans who were disappointed with these continual depictions. Simone summarised the issue, saying, “If you demolish most of the characters girls like, then girls won’t read comics.”

Beyond comics, the trope has revealed itself across popular culture for plenty of years. Examples from Greek mythology and Arthurian legend continuously portray threats toward women as plot devices that incite further violence from the men around them, driving the narrative. In modern popular culture we see it everywhere from James Bond, Game of Thrones, Star Wars and many more.

Similar to fridging, is the trope of ‘The Lost Lenore,’ which refers to a deceased love interest whose death significantly impacts the protagonist and their journey, meaning they remain relevant to the story. This term originated from the Edgar Allen Poe poem, ‘The Raven,’ where a mysterious figure haunts the narrator. While the two tropes appear quite similar, an argument can be made that female love interests who fall within this trope have a deeper impact on the story, asserting their character’s importance and agency.

One of the most popular examples of fridging in the superhero world was seen with Gwen Stacy, Spider-man’s girlfriend. In the 1970s comic, Gwen’s neck was snapped as Peter Parker attempted to save her. This was similarly portrayed in the 2014 movie adaptation, starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. It wasn’t until a 2015 comic where her character was revived in an alternate universe as Spider-Gwen, where she was awarded with similar powers to Spider-man himself and was given her own arcs and adventures.

Today, things may appear to be better. There are definitely more female characters across most popular superhero comics and in their subsequent adaptations on film and television. Though, to say the trope is a thing of the past would be inaccurate.

The 2018 film, Deadpool 2, came under critique for the supposed fridging of Deadpool’s girlfriend, Vanessa. Though, the writers insisted this was not their intention since her character appears later in the movie, particularly when her death is reversed in the post-credit scene. She is further described as a ‘spiritual guide’ of sorts for Deadpool throughout the film, meaning she still, in a sense, exists within the story after her death. Regardless, many fans were still disappointed, questioning why her death had to happen in the first place if it was going to be reversed anyway.

An even more recent example is the box office hit Avengers Endgame from 2019. Similarly, there has been some debate over whether this instance counts as fridging or not. Regardless, the death of Black Widow’s character and subsequent portrayal of Hawkeye’s life having more value than hers solely because he has a family carries plenty of negative implications. In the end, her death allows the heroes (the majority of which are men) to save the day, though is ultimately overshadowed by the death of Tony Stark who receives a full funeral while Black Widow’s passing only receives a few passing lines of recognition.

This is particularly concerning considering the relatively poor way her character has been treated throughout the franchise. In Avengers Age of Ultron, her character is thrown into a romance with Bruce Banner, surprising many viewers. She then refers to herself as being a monster just like him due to her simply being infertile. Not to mention, she’s one of the only original Avengers who hasn’t had her own solo film until its initial intended release earlier this year, ten years after her character was first introduced to the screen.

Though of course, her character is central to many of the film’s storylines and has received development over the course of the franchise. And, due to her death being a sacrifice based on a personal choice she made, her character clearly shows some sign of autonomy. Still, having to see the dead, broken body of arguably the most popular Marvel female superhero was incredibly disappointing. Especially since another female character, Gamora, met the exact same fate in the previous film.

Another iteration of the trope has been the depowering of a female character and often subsequent death. This is best demonstrated through Jean Gray’s character in the X-Men comics. During the Dark Phoenix saga, originally published in the 80s, Jean Gray’s character undertakes a great amount of power after summoning a cosmic entity to help save her husband and friends. This force gives her immense power, leading to her rebirth as ‘Phoenix.’ Though, as the saga continues, the power overwhelms and corrupts her making her a key villain for the rest of the series. It’s only when she renounces the power through suicide that she is able to return to her old self and save the world. This reinforces yet another tired stereotype of women with power being an uncontrollable threat that must be put down.

There are a few who still question the existence, and therefore impact of this trope. For example, a common defence is that there is just as long of a list of male characters who have died in many of these stories, as well as women. While this may be true, their deaths typically aren’t as violent nor act as a motivating factor for the other male characters. Additionally, within comic series, male characters who have been killed typically return in some way, usually even stronger and more powerful.

As representation of women across popular culture diversifies and improves, it can definitely be harder to identify whether specific examples can even classify as fridging. It’s important for viewers to continue questioning and analysing the media they consume and be prepared to discuss or call out poor representations and their potential negative impact. Making sure female characters are treated respectfully within fiction is one step closer to ensuring the same respect and empathy is directed toward real women today.

by Gabby Edwards

ILLUSTRATED FEMALE MONSTERS THAT EPITOMISE MALE FEARS

Siren – The Temptress

Sirens are a warning from one sailor to another to beware of pretty and sweet-tempered girls with melodic voices and manipulative ulterior motives. They are meant to steer a hero off his course and to tempt him away the quest at hand. In Greek mythology the powerful enchantress Circe warns Odysseus that they “enchant all who come near them. If anyone unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song.” Translation: don’t let hoes seduce you away from yo wife and yo kids but if she does, she’s the monster, not you.

Witch – The Feminazi

Our cultural and historical views on witches have drastically changed over the centuries. In medieval times early witches were believed to be satanic cults that practiced harmful magic. Perceptions of witches changed with the foundation of universities in Western Europe during the 12th and 13th century whereby systems of magic were discovered and translated from ancient Muslim texts. The idea that rudimentary forms of medicine which involved combining herbs to make “potions” or reciting healing or protection spells, as natural healers or “wise women” did, took on a harmful connotation. From the 1400s to the 1700s witch hysteria continued to grow with around 50 000 people, predominantly women, being executed in Western Europe during this period. The 1692 Salem witch trials marked the beginning of the end of such practices. In the 1970s toxicologists noted that the symptoms of “delusions, vomiting and muscle spasms” exhibited in Salem may have been due to the fungus ergot, found in rye and wheat. Lately with shows like The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and the 2018 reboot of Charmed, witches have become a feminist icon. The ethos being that throughout history women who demonstrated extraordinary capabilities have been punished by small minds in small towns. Remove the fantasy element in these stories and they are simply about women of power.

Harpy – The Scorned Woman

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. In Greco-Roman classical mythology Harpies are fearsome “maiden-faced” bird creatures with “taloned hands.” Like many other female monsters their unholy form is made up of both beauty and animalistic horror. These creatures function as punishers and abductors of men. In the legend of Jason and the Argonauts they leave the blind king Phineus of Thrace starving to death after having stolen his food, the King’s punishment for ill-treating his children. In this story the harpies are dangerous nuisances killed by Jason in his quest for the Golden fleece.

Banshee – The Nag

Hailing from Celtic folklore, the Banshee is a restless and angry spirit with a grotesque appearance and piercing wail. Typically she will either appear as a weathered and cloaked ‘hag’ with tangled white hair or as a flawless and youthful ethereal woman. Her ‘shrill’ call is an omen of death. Her name ‘banshee,’ is derived from the Irish ‘bean sídhe’ and the Scottish ‘bean nighe,’ which translate to ‘fairy woman’ and ‘fairy washer woman’ respectively. Hag, shrill, shrew, weeping, and keening, are all negative descriptors associated with this heavily gendered monster. Despite the unpleasantness of the sounds of her sorrow, a banshee’s foresight was, according to Irish legend, welcomed.

Medusa – The Other Woman

Medusa is most famous for her head of snake-hair and steely gaze that turns anyone who looks directly at her to stone. Her origin story begins when Medusa is a young and beautiful human maiden. The god Poseidon rapes Medusa in the temple of Athena and as a result Medusa incurs Athena’s wrath in accordance with ancient standards of victim blaming. As punishment for the rape which defiled the goddess’ temple, Athena turns Medusa’s hair into snakes so that she will never again attract another man. In his own separate quest the hero Perseus decapitates Medusa, the blood from her neck giving birth to her mortal son Chrysaor and the winged horse Pegasus. “The stories of Medusa suggest that female powers include procreation, magic, and art—alluring properties that threaten to transform men and their world in ways they cannot fully control (Classical Mythology In Context, Lisa Maurizio, pg. 550).”

by Jodie Ramodien

YOU ARE HERE THE WOMEN’S COLLECTIVE

Harpreet – President

The Women’s Collective is a dedicated community space for all women and non-binary students and staff of all degrees and backgrounds at Macquarie University in addition to activists outside the university community. We fight for gender, racial, and educational justice. We break the shame and silence of social issues impacting women and non-binary people in Australia. We create spaces to hold dialogue on ‘taboo’ topics, sharing the freedom to express, learn, and grow our passions and dedication; progressing the safety, sustainability, and security of our future. Always paying our gratitude and respect to the traditional owners of this land, elders past, present and emerging and our own ancestors who’ve led and fought for us to get us where we are today. We are a space that will not accept sexual harrassment, sexual violence, ablism, racism, transphobia, discrimination, oppression or tokenism.

The Womens Collective is today an activist community built upon intersectional feminist principles and values. Established in 2016, the collective has done a lot of restructuring to be what it is today. Previously it was a collective with white feminism principles, unawareness, tokenism, and racism. I’d like to apologise on behalf of the Women’s Collective members who have come before and/or have experienced tokenism, racism, or patronising behaviour by either collective members in leadership positions or by general members. I too stand with you, having experienced tokenism in this collective when I first became an executive member with the role ‘diversity and inclusion officer.’ We are continuously working hard on our journey of learning and unlearning, to be a collective that is inclusive, that will not further discrimination of any kind. We fight for our right for political, educational, and social spaces, and dialogues on race, gender, sexuality, social justice, feminism, and against the oppression of our campus and the communities we are a part of. Hegemonic masculinity, toxic masculinity, white hegemony, white supreamacy, neoliberalism, hierarchy, patriarchy, racism, discrimination: Be. Gone.

Libby – Secretary

I got my Australian citizenship in 2017. I breezed through the process, the person reviewing my application waved me from doing the citizenship test. Some of my papers weren’t original copies but they processed my application anyway, stating that I lived here my whole life so it was obvious that I was practically a citizen anyway. As a young white woman it was an easy tick box process. Those in the application booths next to me were questioned about name changes, the countries they had lived in, and then asked to do the citizenship test. My white privilege was never more apparent than in that process.

Last semester I did the Anthropology and Indigenous Australia unit (ANTH3005) and I cannot recommend it enough. This class encouraged me to visit sites in my local community, and to reach out to people who may know information about them. During this pandemic this has been my source of reconnection, both with the land I grew up on, and with the elders in the area that provide a wealth of knowledge. We also tend to only consider Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory, pretending we did something to help them by undertaking (frankly) super colonial internships in a community for 6 weeks. I have been working through this tendency of believing that Indigenous people only live in this imagined far away community. A community that doesn’t exist in your local area. This is bullshit. We, as colonisers, need to start looking around us and appreciating the land we are on and the people it belongs to. My biggest learning experience has been in connecting to my community, to the Darkinjung land, and visiting whale carvings, and birthing sites, listening and learning.

Being an “activist,” I am cautious of how I post online and the ways in which it can be seen as performative. I think this was clearly seen in the amount of people who jumped on the #Blackouttuesday hashtag, drowning resources in a sea of black tiles. To avoid this I have often not said enough, or not known how to engage properly to avoid tokenism. I think as students we are often afraid to put our money where our mouth is, but sharing the same Instagram post is not enough, it’s time to pay the rent (put that youth allowance to good use), to show up to protests, to sit and listen. I am still only at the start of my journey, and I don’t ever expect to be finished, but that’s okay. I need to own that in order to do better, and ensure places like the Women’s Collective don’t continue to be exclusionary, but a place for all women and non-binary folk to come together, connect, and learn from one another.

Jasmine – Treasurer

White feminism refers to feminist actions which majorly or entirely focus on white women whilst excluding minority groups. The Seneca Falls convention was the first women’s rights convention in America and was held in 1848, however not one person of colour was invited to the event. Near the end of the suffrage battle leading activists utilised racism in order to appeal to legislators. It was argued that allowing white women to vote would help to maintain white supremacy. It was only in 1965 with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that it was illegalised to discriminate based on race.

Intersectional feminism on the other hand recognises feminism as a movement for all races, ages, sexualities, clases, ethnicities and religions. It transcends the idea that all women are the same and instead celebrates their individuality and focuses on progress for ALL women.

As a woman of colour who is part of the LGBTQIA+ community, LGBTQIA+ rights have always intertwined with feminism for me. Marsha P. Johnson for instance was not only an activist for the LGBTQIA+ and drag community but was one of the most prominent figures of the Stonewall uprising, with close friend Sylvia Rivera. Stonewall, even though not the first or only riot of its kind, was one of the most defining. Unlike previous movements, Stonewall was pioneered by women of colour within the LGBTQIA+ community and in this way became the start of a more inclusive branch of feminism, which still impacts feminist movements to this day.

The Women’s Collective in the past has, much like feminist movements in broader society, been focused on white feminism. As a proud woman of colour and member of the LGBTQIA+ community I would like to see WOCO committed to the eradication of stigma around female empowerment and strive towards inclusivity and equality for all women, as well advocating for creating safe spaces, open discussions around feminism and promoting diversity.

Georgia – Marketing and Communications Director

Feminism is the innate belief that all people, regardless of their sex or race, should be given equal opportunities. This concept has been ingrained in me during my upbringing and I am extremely grateful for that. Growing up with a brother, my parents always encouraged us to pursue our interests, regardless of gender. They raised us with the perspective that nothing was ‘off the table,’ that opportunities, experiences and expectations were the same regardless of our gender identities. For this, I am exceedingly appreciative and hope this is an attitude that can extend to all. This is where my journey with feminism began.

Although I have always been passionate and interested in learning about equality, at the age of 19, I still have a lot to learn. In order to do this, I plan (and encourage others) to listen to the experiences of others with a receptive and interested mindset. Some of the most useful knowledge I have gathered thus far has been provided by listening to the powerful and resonating experiences of other women and men of all ages, sexualities, and race. Unfortunately, racism is a topic I understand from experience. I was adopted at the age of 6-months-old from South Korea and grew up on the Central Coast where I have encountered numerous racist comments and attitudes. It is an unfavourable experience to have had but my hope is to take that experience, be a supportive ally to all and use this to further drive my passion for equality.

Finally, as a part of my journey, I want to acknowledge that I do not completely understand all areas of feminism, but I am committed to continuing to educate myself: through books, resources, people, and podcasts. I want to ensure that gender equality is an issue we continue to talk about, and that no voices are excluded from the dialogue.

Tash – Events Coordinator

Feminism should be for everyone. I am ashamed to admit I once believed equality in feminism was one in the same. It was not until I started to really listen that my eyes opened to the heartbreaking reality that equality in feminism is not so black and white, that tokenistic white feminism exists. Feminism is not just about disarming the patriarchy. It is about fighting for justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of differences. This year alone we have seen how powerful we are when we stand in unity, to fight for justice.

There are a multitude of complexities that female-identifying women face and that I admittedly, cannot relate too. For now, I choose to be an ally. To take further responsibility and pay closer attention to my words and actions. To educate myself, truly listen, and not talk over those who need their voices heard. I also want to learn how I can truly support others. WOCO’s principles are to create a safe space for ALL women and non-binary individuals and to celebrate who they are, together. Interwoven social engagements and interactions with women and non-binary people of all backgrounds creates less segregation and more awareness of the journeys of others. I am proud to be part of a committee who is striving to maintain and fight for equality and justice for all. True power is not hiding behind ignorance but is educating yourself, having uncomfortable conversations, and listening to those that can teach you. That is striving for true equality.

To read more writing from the Women’s Collective, flip to our ‘Challenge’ article by Harpreet, President of the Women’s Collective, and ‘Writing on the Wall,’ written by Amanda, the collective’s External Relations Director.

WRITING ON THE WALL FROM WHITE FEMINISM TO INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM

My name is Amanda, I am 31-years-old, a law and psychology student at Macquarie University and External Relations Director of the Macquarie University Women’s Collective. I want to start by taking accountability for my actions. I am embarrassed to say that I used to be a bigot, an elitist, a homophobe, and a white feminist.

When I was 7, my neighbour invited me to a baptist church. I continued attending throughout my adolescence and into my early twenties. The church provided a sense of unity, family, and an escape from the bullying and loneliness at school and domestic violence at home. For a bible college course I went on a mission trip to Fiji to “reach out” to “unsaved” tribes and villages. I cringe because I realise now what we were doing was trying to colonise the people. We were being classist and elitist in going into these peoples homes which were huts made of coca cola signs and acting as if we had something they needed and we were going to be the ones to save them. We were white saviours.

I didn’t leave the church because of the white saviorism though, which I am ashamed and embarrassed to admit. I left because I realised that the patriarchy dictates that women are subservient to men. Marriage is put on a pedestal as a status symbol so people continue to uphold the tradition. Once you are married the church teaches wives to “obey” their husbands and husbands to lead their wives because God ordained that there is a hierarchy in the family where the wife and children are led by the husband who is led by God. So basically, from birth, women are always subordinate to men, just as Eve was created after Adam to be his “helper.” Women are the property of whichever man is in charge of them (father/husband). This is illustrated in the marriage ceremony where the woman is to be walked down the aisle by her father and given to her husband. I am ashamed to admit that if people asked me what I thought about homosexuality, I was taught to say that I “love the person but do not support their lifestyle.” I was THAT Christian. A bigot. A homophobe. Ironically the church teaches that to understand the world better, you just have to look at nature (Romans 1:19, 20), but ignore the animals who choose same-sex mates.

It was one day in the women’s room that my friend and former WOCO president, Lydia Jupp taught me that being a feminist isn’t the goal, being an intersectional feminist is. I have learnt that white feminism is someone excluding themselves from racism because they have some proximity to people of colour. It is a refusal to acknowledge their white privilege in a conversation about oppression. It is assuming the race of people in a conversation and taking it upon themselves to whitesplain terminology as if they are an authority. It looks like asking people of colour to perform emotional labour in explaining concepts instead of taking personal accountability for their own education and recognising the need to come to discussions only after they have done the research. One of my biggest personal challenges in my intersectional feminist journey this year has been recognising that western society socialises us to believe that the person who is the most calm in a conversation is the most rational and the person who gets emotional is unhinged. In my law and psychology studies, I have been taught to think that aggression is to be avoided in a discussion because it is uncivilised. The more I reflect on it, the more I realise that this is just another tool of respectability politics that ignores the experiences of people of other cultures. When people of colour become justifiably angry or frustrated about their oppression, rather than listening to the person of colour, white people who feel fragile take aim at the tone of the comments and not the content of the comments. Tone policing is used to disarm the person of colour in order to bring the conversation to a more palatable “safe” place for the white person. I have learnt that performative, virtue signalling allyship in the form of hashtags and sharing social media posts like the black tile for the Black Lives Matter movement to “raise awareness” is harmful if this is where your activism starts and stops. I have learnt that it is more effective to share anti-racism resources, post about businesses owned by people of colour, sign petitions, and donate money. I learned these things from women of colour performing emotional labour on social media; the threads in the Shameless Podcast discussion group, It’s a Lot with Abbie Chatfield podcast discussion group, episodes of Here’s the Thing Tho, with Soaliha Iqbal, and the lives of instagramers @dancingwater_ and @8983aj.

Presently, I am fortunate to be undertaking a placement with Anti-Discrimination NSW where I am developing a tool kit for staff about best practice for inclusivity with an emphasis on unconscious bias, written, spoken and body language, stereotyping and workplace culture. I am using the placement as an opportunity to reflect on my vocabulary and communication and replace inappropriate language with sensitive, inclusive language. I plan to read Layla F Saad’s Me and White Supremacy, Ruby Hamad’s White Tears Brown Scars, Mikki Kendall’s Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women White Feminists Forgot, Robin Diangello’s White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Racism and Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I Am No Longer Talking To White People About Race. I also recommend listening to the Bobo and Flex Podcast.

Moving forward, I want to see an executive made up of predominantly people of colour and the LGBTQUIA+ community and women who are disabled, and I want to see the entire collective take ongoing personal responsibility and accountability for our ongoing education and activism wherever and however we can.

by Amanda Matthews

OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE WOMAN-FOCUSED RESOURCES

Feminist and Female-focused Resources

The Grapeshot team and Women’s Collective give you a list of the feminist media that shaped and inspired them!

Books

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People

About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Come as You Are: The Surprising New

Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life by

Emily Nagoski

Plucked: A History of Hair Removal by

Rebecca M. Herzig

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White

Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby

Hamad

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White

People to Talk About Racism by Robin

DiAngelo

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Women Don’t Owe You Pretty by Florence

Given

See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Abuse by Jess Hill

Beauty by Bri Lee

The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf

All About Love by Bell Hooks

Witches, Witch Hunting and Women by Silvia

Federici

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on

Sexism by Julia Serano

Anything by Jane Austen Movies

13th Period. End of sentence. Hannah Gadsby: Nanette Disclosure I Am Woman On the Basis of Sex Bridesmaids Thelma & Louise

TV Shows

The Handmaid’s Tale Schitt’s Creek Deaf U I May Destroy You Parks and Recreation The Let Down Get Kracked Fleabag Watchmen

Podcasts

Shameless

My Favourite Murder

She’s on the Money

I Weigh with Jameela Jamil

Bobo and Flex

Ladies, We Need To Talk

Big Sister Hotline

Here’s The Thing, Tho with Soaliha Youtube

Contrapoints For Harriet

Instagram

@the.atlas.of.beauty @dancingwater_ @8983aj @barkaa @carlyfindlay @soalihaofficial @lauren.lately @thenastywomanclub @thebodzilla @apryl_louise4 @sar.ra_ @raejohnston @flex.mami