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Murdoch Empire Telegraph & Indian Ocean Review

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Edition #6 July 2012

Murdoch Empire Telegraph & Indian Ocean Review – Since 1975 Edition 6, August 2012 Metior acknowledges that this is and always will be Aboriginal land. Metior is a Murdoch University student publication. For latest Guild news, events and info go to www.the-guild.com.au Find us on Facebook www.facebook.com/metiormagazine Want to catch up on previous issues? Go to www.the-guild.com.au/metior Editor Phoebe Phillips Graphic Design Karmen Lee Section Editors Photography Editor - Daniel Kwabena Craig Commentary Editor - Hannah Muir Review Editor - Oscar Brittain Sustainability Editor - Agnes Gajic Music Editor - Declan Luketina Copy Editor - Nikita Wyllie

Our undying everlasting gratitude to... Amy Hoogenboom Avelie Stuart Maria Bergwitz Cara Tregonning Sylvester Thelma Luan Morley Olivia Gardner Nikita Wyllie Cover Photo Maria Bergwitz Photographers Amber Bateup Cissi Tsang Cydne Williams Daniel Kwabena Craig Olivia Gardner

Maria Bergwitz Joel Crane Jordan Keightley Tanya Voltchanskaya

Metior’s deadlines for the next two editions of 2012 are 14th September & 12th October In future, if you’d like to contribute writing, photography, poetry, illustrations or ideas please email us at metior@the-guild.com.au Editor Phoebe Phillips

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Email metior@the-guild.com.au

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Address Murdoch University Guild of Students 90 South Street, Murdoch WA 6150

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This magazine is printed using vegetable based inks onto paper stock which is manufactured from pulp sourced from plantation grown timber. Both paper manufacturer and printer are certified to ISO 14001, the internationally recognised standard for Environmental Management. Disclaimer Metior is published by the students of Murdoch University, under the governance of Murdoch University Guild of Students. Content should not be regarded as the opinions of the Guild unless specifically stated. The Guild accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any of the opinions or information contained within the magazine.

CONTENTS From the President �� 2 Editorial �� 2 Lifestyle Women Have Choices, Right? �� 7 Riot Grrrl 101: Punk Rock Girl-Style �� 8 How Much Does a Polar Bear Weigh? 10 Best Pick Up Lines �� 9 Vagina Talk �� 10 Leure.................................................................................. 11 Feminist Pharaohs �� 15 Feminism: Not just for Lesbians �� 16 The Vagina Monologues: A Play With Power �� 18 Ya Mum �� 19 Abbe May �� 20 Metior Mumma �� 26 A Woman’s Guide to the Twenty-first Century �� 28 Owl Eyes �� 32 Photography Maria Bergwitz �� 4 Daniel Kwabena Craig �� 6 & 12 Amber Bateup �� 8 Olivia Gardner.................................................................... 11 Tanya Voltchanskaya �� 14 & 22 Cissi Tsang �� 20 Joel Crane �� 3, 27 & 30 Cydne Williams �� 32 Jordan Keightley �� 33

FROM THE PRESIDENT Words by Bec Thompson Every year, the Metior editor, writing team and Murdoch Women’s Collective compile the Women’s edition – to celebrate, reflect and comment on challenges faced as women, and by women in our society. The views expressed are by no means exhaustive, but a starting to point to provoke discussion, provide insight and hopefully get you asking a few questions. You don’t have to agree with everything here – I don’t. I’m off nursing my Mooncup and lesbian hair, picking out gender binaries, Spice Girls references (three) and wondering why we all care so damn much about high heels. For me, feminism is important because women are still underrepresented in corporate leadership, in media production (who do you think constructs the messages we are fed?), in government. Feminism is important because as a woman student president, I can’t go to a university function without receiving, before all else, comment on my dress sense. Feminism is important because I don’t want to be told what I can’t do. I’m going to tell you what I can do. I’m grateful to have a part in continuing this discussion over another year. I’m grateful for the women who paved the way for us to be here today, getting on with an education. I’m grateful for all of the contributions - and for you, taking the time to read this.

EDITORIAL Words by Phoebe Phillips “Sisterhood unite!” were the screams I was expecting as I walked into our Metior Magazine women’s edition meeting. I envisioned large curvaceous ladies, with short hair and big agendas sitting packed like sardines into the room. The air would have been tense as each female jostled and elbowed their story idea to the foreground, clutching rotten tomatoes to aim at any man dare he speak up. I was expecting yells of “inequality still exists,” followed by a ritual burning of a vacuum cleaner whilst ladies whipped off their bras and threw them at a picture of Tony Abbott pinned to the wall. The reality when I walked into the room was something else. Girls and guys sat around chatting, cracking jokes and swapping notes. The tension I had envisioned debating gender inequalities was replaced with the kind of relaxed feeling you get when you are half way through a pint on a Sunday afternoon. Don’t get me wrong – when the meeting kicked off, people did have a lot to say, and they said it, guys and girls, loud and proud. The floor was not owned by domineering females with a bee in their bonnet, but equally by guys and girls who were both interested in the concept of feminism. All my clichéd stereotypes of who would contribute to a women’s edition, and what, dropped away. As I looked around the room at this rad bunch of guys and girls – fired up, passionate, but unaggressive – I realised it was the perfect testament of how far we have come. I thought to myself, I wonder what Germaine Greer would have said if she would have seen this image fifty years ago ... probably still “Sisterhood unite!”.

WANT TO TAKE THIS RELATIONSHIP FURTHER? You are invited to workshop the next edition of Metior Magazine, Murdoch University’s student publication. If you’re a budding journalist, photographer, poet, writer, artist, graphic designer, wordsmith or cartoonist and want to be involved come along. 19th of September, 5-6pm Guild Council Room - The Guild Building in Amenities. www.facebook.com/events/349851558430291

PHOTOGRAPHER Joel Crane

PHOTOGRAPHER Maria Bergwitz Women are present in every society; some praise her, some condemn her. Chauvinism is part of daily routine for many women. Many never know life outside of serving their men. Some believe this is what they are created for and no questions are raised. In other places she is almost worshipped. Entire walls, magazines and books are dedicated to the female. A womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wish is a manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s law and all earnings are spent on her. She dominates her surroundings. But regardless of what world her reality is and what role she holds, she deserves to have rights. Still today there are women either unaware of their rights or who have none as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its entirety is not yet accepted internationally.

WOMEN HAVE CHOICES, RIGHT?

Words by Avelie Stuart & Photography by Daniel Kwabena Craig I have conducted research with young women, asking them about their freedoms in this post-feminist world, and whether feminism holds any relevance to them today. Most of the women I have talked to say we don’t need feminism anymore. They say gender equality has largely been achieved and no one can prevent women from doing what they want to do, or from becoming the person they want to be.

at fault. In the end, some women say, it is our own fault. We are the ones buying into advertising. Of course, we shouldn’t blame men for this, but whenever anyone points out it is not their fault, the only logical place to point the finger is at women. Women become the only problem. It is our fault that we are susceptible to advertising. It is our fault that we are insecure, petty and so very lacking in selfesteem.

While this reflects an ideal that I wholeheartedly agree with, there is also a dangerous and sinister undertone to it.

...we collectively play a role

I believe that our society is still, as a whole, largely entrapped by pervasive gendered messages that damage all of us. I am particularly interested in researching the impacts of mass media, cosmetics, entertainment, pornography and advertising industries, and how they use messages of empowerment and freedom to attempt to sell women their own freedom. The message is “if you fashion yourself according to this highly prescribed ideal image, then you will be free”. These messages result in a lack of real choices for women (and yes, men are also being subjected to these messages also, which surely makes it worse).

in feeding a culture of unhealthy gender prescriptions... I would like to suggest that we can deal with this issue without blaming either men or women individually, but by looking at how we collectively play a role in feeding a culture of unhealthy gender prescriptions and how these narrow images of what is attractive restrict our freedom. All of us – me, you, men, women – can examine what role we play in this. Is my consumption of this particular mass media product feeding into the demand for unhealthy messages? Which companies (and company directors) are responsible for deciding how women should be portrayed in film and television, and how we can we speak out to them? How can the stories I write and tell avoid falling into these patterns of reproducing the same tired gender-role expectations? This doesn’t mean we should stop consuming the things we enjoy or that make us feel good. We should enquire about the faces and agendas behind these products and programs and choose the ones that are supportive of healthy and equal gender messages. If these don’t exist, we should create a demand for them. It also means that we recognise that our own choices or preferences are not always entirely our own – they are often in part produced by the society we live in.

If everything is defended as free choice, then we have eliminated the language from our culture that allows us to point out the times when we are not able to make genuine choices. For example, while each individual woman may choose whether or not to remove her body hair, one choice is clearly socially preferred over another. While women may choose whether or not to pay attention to current trends and fashions, if she chooses to opt out from fashion it is not as socially supported as choosing to partake in fashion. The consequence, I argue in my research, is that women “choose” to conform to socially desirable and highly restrictive gender expectations, particularly in relation to their bodies, because it makes them feel good about themselves, helps them fit in with their friends and be attractive - at least initially. The long-term effects of constantly trying to meet an ideal are not so good.

So yes, I think women still need to talk about freedom (and yes, I still think men have a role to play in this), but this is not a blame-game. It affects all of us.

A lot of women I talked to are quick to say “feminists always blame men, but it’s not men’s fault”. They are not wrong, but I have a problem with this argument as well. The problem is, when you excuse men from the situation, women end up being solely

RIOT GRRRL 101: PUNK ROCK GIRL-STYLE Words by by Declan A. Luketina & Photography by Amber Bateup It was at the Laneway Festival this year; I was in a small tight room watching Erika M. Anderson in a torn shirt, showing off a bloody lip, while holding a bottle of whiskey and emitting echoes from her head hitting the microphone. She caused me to feel a spectrum of emotions. Then, as she performed a stripped back version of her single Marked (all about being addicted to heroin in an abusive relationship), she whispered “I wish that every time he touched me left a mark”. I was soon on the verge of tears. The strong sense of emotion paralleled those I felt when my girlfriend broke up with me and the end of Toy Story 3.

and screeching vocals that smash you over the head. Or the opening of Bikini Kill’s self-titled debut We Want Revolution Girl-Style, Now. While bands such as Huggy Bear and Bikini Kill continued to focus on the punk aspect, they soon rejected the riot grrrl image, believing it to be a label perpetuated by the music press as an attempt to segregate the all-girl bands from everyone else. Ultimately, bands such as Sleater-Kinney took punk rock in a different direction to get a clearer sound across, and to stop throwing used tampons into the audience. Although their first album is a prime example of lo-fi punk, Sleater-Kinney’s subsequent albums grew into the genre of indie rock – not the NME idea of indie rock – evolving into a finely tuned sound. They still kept fragments of the punk rock aesthetic (harsh vocals, simplicity), but it was a richer sound surpassing the lo-fi. Sleater-Kinney became recognised as one of the greatest indie rock bands, but then after a decade they got the Murtaugh syndrome (“I’m too old for this shit”).

EMA’s punk sensibility was a cinder reignited from the flame of the all-girl lo-fi punk rock bands circa 1993, the riot grrrl movement. Borrowing elements from the punk scene of the late seventies it was all DIY with zines – Xerox made and university distributed, just like this magazine – and art. They didn’t even bother to learn their instruments until the second gig, and challenged the female musician stereotype. It began to usher in a new wave of feminism in the music scene with lyrics focussing on feminism, counterculture, abuse, and it was heard well outside of the underground.

Thanks to indie record companies Kill Rock Stars, Matador and Subpop, the riot grrrl movement still has artists who gather the cinders and hark back to the nineties. Great bands such as the Dum Dum Girls and Vivian Girls have introduced a more elegant

Take Bratmobile’s song Brat Girl, which has the winding guitar going back and forth, Clash-like drumming

RIOT GRRRL 101: PUNK ROCK GIRL-STYLE look but have retained the fuzzy lo-fi and the simple yet grabbing song-writing.

dom of speech, democracy and equality when it has come to this; Pussy Riot was only doing what the riot grrrl movement brought to life, but thanks to the chauvinistic justice system and male dominated Orthodox religion, they’re stuck behind bars while the rest of us are at the “Free Pussy Riot” protests.

If you haven’t been living under a rock, you may have heard about the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot who have fallen foul of the Moscow judicial system. They have been charged with “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” after speaking up about the corrupt Orthodox Church and controversial Vladimir Putin while performing a guerrilla performance of Our Lady, Chase Putin Out in a Church. If they are found guilty they are to spend three years in prison. Artists like Bjork, Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hana and Jarvis Crocker have spoken up about this “religious crime” (fuck, even Paul McCartney and Madonna are demanding Russia allow free artistic speech). There has been a lack of free-

This year I saw the supergroup Wild Flag perform for the first time in Australia, consisting of members of former prominent riot grrrl bands. There is an image that will stay planted in my mind of Carrie Brownstein holding her guitar high into the air with one hand for a minute with a look of determination before throwing it and going into a solo. Now, if that isn’t a metaphor for female empowerment then all is lost and we may as well look up to The Spice Girls as feminists.

HOW MUCH DOES A POLAR BEAR WEIGH? 10 BEST PICK UP LINES Compiled by Nikita Wyllie A hundred years ago there was a very clear social idea of how to get a man to court you – women would don a nice frock, bat their eyelashes and wait with baited breath to be approached by the man of their affections. Heck, fifty years ago it was basically the same. For hundreds of years the women of western society have expected men to take the first step and ask them out. Things now are not so simple. Here are ten lines to help a sister out. 1. Nice shirt. It’d look better on my floor. 2. Sorry, but you owe me a drink. [Why?] Because when I looked at you, I dropped mine. 3. So, if you were a pirate, would you have your pirate on this shoulder [tap the shoulder closest to you] or this shoulder [going around their back, put your hand on the other shoulder, hence putting your arm around your poor unfortunate victim’s shoulders]? 4. Are you a broom, because you sweep me off my feet? 5. Do you have a BandAid? I just scraped my knee falling for you. 6. You’re so beautiful that you made me forget my pickup line. 7. Rejection can lead to emotional stress for both parties involved and emotional stress can lead to physical complications such as headaches, ulcers, cancerous tumors, and even death! So for my health and yours, JUST SAY YES! 8. Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again? 9. I’m new in town. Could you give me directions to your house? 10. If I were to ask you out on a date, would your answer be the same as the answer to this question?

If your vagina could speak, what would it say?

VAGINA TALK

“Fucking FINALLY!” “Fragile: This side up” “It would whistle, not speak” “Come on then” “I’m still here you know” “Nourish me” “Pay me more attention” “You need to get laid” “Make me happy” “Meeow” “Let’s play” “How long can you go....”

Compiled by the Women’s Collective

What do you call your vagina? Stella Englebert Fantastica! Claude Patricia Lady Luck Adison V-Jay-Jay Down there Miss Kitty OOlongtwa Fire Crutch Fanta Pants

If your vagina could get dressed, what would it wear? A corset and lace suspender leggings Bowtie A black leather dress and studded heels Bad 80s warm-up gear A beret A cigar and a sexy European man Jimmy Choos A scarf Slippers Piercings Nothing

Murdoch University Vagina Monologues 21st and 22nd September at the Nexus Theatre, Murdoch University. Tickets bought at the door or for bookings email: womens@the-guild.com.au 10

LEURE

Words & Photography by Olivia Gardner Imagine being suspended in a landscape of dreamy electronics, where an ethereal female voice drifts in and out, and you’re supported by a low tempo hip hop inspired beat. What we’re dealing with here could be likened to a female version of James Blake. Holland Skies is the first solo album by Perth songstress Ash Hendriks, more popularly known for her work as the female vocalist of Wolves at the Door. “It just happened - it literally spontaneously happened. I started experimenting with electronics and within a couple of weeks I sort of had the skeleton of an album. Songs kept coming out and I had no idea what it was” said Hendriks of the new album. She might not know exactly what it is or where it’s going but one thing’s for certain – it sounds amazing. The entire project came about quickly for Hendriks, who started experimenting in March this year. By August she was launching the album, but even before its release, Triple J picked up on a single and gave it some air time. “They’ve been so kind, I put up a track, just to test it out. Within the first week they were digging it,” laughed Hendriks. “I got offered gigs and I was like… ‘Shit, can I do this live?’”

“I think this year we’ve realised that we can branch off if we want to and you can still play in a couple of bands, it’s no big deal.”

The songs had been built through a number of computer programs and so, in order to perform it live, Hendriks found a way to incorporate her live vocals and electric guitar with a drum machine and loop pedals, the result is a striking onstage performance that is entirely evocative of the songs on Holland Skies.

Hendriks has been learning music from a young age, starting with piano, then viola and eventually settling on guitar, which she said she fell in love with straight away. A lot of the inspiration for Holland Skies comes from a more recent love.

“I chose that name because I’m a quarter Dutch and I went to Amsterdam last year. I fell in love with that place, but I don’t know much about the area and I feel the same way with what I’ve created,” said Hendriks.

“I’ve been listening to heaps of hip hop I’ve realised. I love Wu Tang Clan, and Shabazz, the whole of last year and this year I’ve been playing Shabazz Palace’s Black Up – that album, it’s so good,” she said. Hendriks added she had been drawing a lot of influence from electronic music and that had really opened her mind up to new possibilities.

“I’d like to learn more about electronics and I guess more about my heritage.” As for her work in Wolves at the Door, Hendriks is confident that her solo venture won’t be an issue. “In Perth everyone sort of plays in everyone’s bands, it’s ridiculous,” she said. This is just something herself and James Gates – the other half of Wolves – had never done.

Aside from struggling to carry equipment on her own, Hendriks is enjoying working as a solo female artist. “It’s good to challenge yourself I think. I’m quite proud in terms that I just said yes,” she said.

PHOTOGRAPHER Photos by Daniel Kwabena Craig

Fan - Shun Yi

Clockwise top left: Monika Herold - 6 Chairs Barber Shop, Lucie – Jewellery maker, Elise O’Sullivan - Hush Café & Melanie Cole – Culleys.

The Feminist Pharaohs Words by Oscar Brittain & Photography by Tanya Voltchanskaya Most people know the name Cleopatra and the story behind Ancient Egypt’s most famous female pharaoh. However, many might not know that the Cleopatra we all refer to was actually the seventh woman to rule Egypt under that name.

tions and legal contracts affirms women’s relative autonomy during the period. Admittedly, much of our evidence of women’s freedoms during the Old Kingdom pertains to the elite, not the common-folk. Studying information from the New Kingdom, formed in 1557 B.C, this changes.

Technically speaking, there were only about half a dozen instances where a woman held the top job in Ancient Egypt, with six of the seven Cleopatra’s believed to have either been Queens or have shared power, but never the less it poses an interesting question: were Ancient Egyptians the first feminists?

By the Ptolemaic Period, such evidence pertains more and more to women of the middle and lower classes, and most of our evidence for the economic freedom of Egyptian women is derived from this time.

In Ancient Egypt, marriage was a completely private affair, separate from religion. It amounted to a civil agreement between two equal persons to live together, establish a household and raise a family. As is the case with many cultures, there were inevitably marriages arranged by families for mutual social and economic benefit, but there are numerous recorded accounts of girls persuading her father to let her marry a man of her own choosing, as opposed to her father’s preference.

Egyptians have reversed the ordinary practices of mankind. Visiting Egypt, Greek philosopher Horoditus saw women trading in the marketplace and remarked that “Egyptians have reversed the ordinary practices of mankind”. While his observations painted Egypt as an almost patriarchal society, they were unfortunately derived from a small glimpse of a larger picture. However, his writings would spur the Greeks curiosity in the region.

Perhaps the most interesting offshoot of this is that, since religion had no part in marriage, there was no reason or capacity to admonish pre-marital sex, thus Egyptian women enjoyed relative sexual liberation. As a result divorce was relatively common and the legal rights of both parties seemed to favour women, with many men actually advised not to take their wives to court. Either party could divorce the other at anytime, though men had to return their wives dowry and pay a fine if it was them who divorced their wife.

Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt in 332 B.C. brought about the end of Cleopatra, and with her, the Old Kingdom. However, it did not sweep away Egypt’s social and political institutions. Instead, both Egyptian and Greek practices of law and social traditions coexisted in Egypt.

Ancient Egyptians also developed the concept of joint property acquired by a couple during their marriage. While laws stated that the husband could dispose of joint property without his wife’s permission, if he did so, he was required to compensate his wife with something of equal or greater value. It is also important to note, that the husband’s authority over the property is thought to be more an extension of the fact that men more regularly participated in the public sphere, whereas women did not.

Stranger still, Egyptian women, operating under the Egyptian system, even had greater privileges and civil rights than their Greek peers under the more restrictive Greek system, although they lived in the same society. When asked whether Ancient Egyptians were the first feminists, it is a joy to get lost exploring the different facets of women’s rights in the ancient world. However, it is also possible to get carried away, and start to overlook the unfortunate facts. This brief overview of the subject only scratches the surface of this incredible culture, and one must remember that, even in the light of all that women were able to achieve, it was still very much a culture governed predominantly my men and men’s concerns.

Women’s legal independence in Ancient Egypt is testified by evidence that they dealt with property under the same laws that men did and were able to enter into legal contracts solely under their own names. In turn, the notion that they alone could be held accountable for their own economic transac-

Feminism: Not Just for Lesbians Words by Cara Tregonning If I’m honest, the first image that comes to mind when I think of feminism is fierce Germaine Greerlike women, sporting short haircuts and T-shirts emblazoned “DOWN WITH MEN”. What a narrow stereotypical perception, given that the feminist movements of the 20th Century got women in the western world the vote, education, property and equal working rights (not to mention girl power and the Spice Girls). The fact that I’m here at university and able to contemplate a career is thanks to a few brave women who pushed the boundaries of society and made a political stand. But how relevant is feminism today? I asked women of different ages how the feminist movement affected their lives, whether feminism is relevant today and where they think it’s headed.

to work in an old person’s home. Equally restrictive was Suzanne’s marriage, which she left. “The only expectation of me was to be a ‘good’ wife and mother, cook, clean and run the house, whilst married to a man who did all in his power to stop me from returning to school and gaining a university education,” she said. “Life made me a feminist.” For Suzanne, being a feminist means fighting the restrictions of a patriarchal society, standing up for what she believes in and being outspoken in the face of what she sees as oppressive and unjust. She said that feminism will always be relevant. Murdoch student Abby Harris Hall is in her early twenties and has grown up in a time when women have had greater opportunities than ever before. Unlike when Judith and Suzanne were students, women at university are now the norm. Despite this, Abby agreed that women continue to face huge social pressure.

Primary school teacher Judith Hill was a young woman in the 1960s. It was when Western Australia, like much of the Western world, was experiencing the hallucinogenic, “groovy baby”, free love social revolution that saw women rebel against strict social norms and campaign for equal rights. However, it wasn’t always easy convincing the older generation and progress didn’t happen overnight.

“I think women are expected to behave a certain way and be passive,” she said. She said we need to evolve past the images of women as sex symbols that dominate our media. Suzanne said her heart breaks when she sees her granddaughter and other teenagers conforming to fashion in uncomfortable, dangerously high stilettos.

“It wasn’t uncommon to hear people say ‘why waste a higher education on a woman when she is to become a mother’,” Judith remembered. As a female teacher Judith received less pay than her male co-workers (the justification being that men had families to support) and when she got married at 22 she had to reapply to keep her job.

“Watching them wobble their way up and down the stairs to get their certificates at Year 12 Graduation ceremonies, while the boys stride in flat-shoed comfort, says it all,” she said.

Judith remembers when she was on a trip to Perth the first time she saw women wearing pant-suits. Impressed, she promptly brought herself a fabulous bright blue corduroy pant-suit complete with flares and a frilled blouse. She wore the outfit to a function in Corrigin only to have the president of the farming board scathingly tell her “I’ve never seen a woman look so cheap: wearing a man’s suit.” Judith admitted she was devastated, but assured me she probably said something witty back.

Something that all three women spoke about was the ominous glass ceiling, the barrier keeping women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder. Suzanne’s experience shows women in higher level jobs are treated differently to men; constantly checked and monitored.

Judith said feminism is about being an individual, despite the pressure to conform.

Judith agreed with this, pointing out Julia Gillard is variously called bitch, cow and barren, and said she wouldn’t receive the same torrent of criticism if she were a man.

Suzanne Covich, high school teacher, child rights activist and author, wrote her childhood memoir When We Remember They Call Us Liars (2012) about her experiences being boxed-in by others. Suzanne’s father was abusive and, despite being the school dux, she was forced to leave school at the age of thirteen

Whilst women’s rights have come a long way, there is still discrimination and prejudices that need to be overcome. It turns out that feminism is less about the spiky haircuts and more about disallowing yourself to be governed by social expectations, a philosophy that will always be relevant.

The Vagina Monologues: A Play with Power Words by by Amy Hoogenboom “I bet you’re worried. I was worried. I was worried about vaginas. I was worried about what we think about vaginas, and even more worried that we don’t think about them” – Eve Ensler, Introduction, The Vagina Monologues

legislature floor after saying the word ‘vagina’ during an abortion legislation debate (the exact quote is “I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina, but no means no”). Her statement was characterized as vulgar and “unnecessarily provocative” by Floor Leader Jim Stamas. To protest this political silencing, Eve Ensler and other Michigan women performed The Vagina Monologues in the state capital Lansing, proving The Vagina Monologues to be a powerful political tool as well as one of female empowerment.

I’d never worried about my vagina – I’d never really thought I’d had any reason to be worried about it. However, Ensler raises an excellent point. Previous to participating in The Vagina Monologues, I rarely talked about vaginas, only to close friends and my doctor. A couple of years ago, I saw Eve Ensler’s HBO film version of The Vagina Monologues. It blew me away. There were stories of incredible sadness and amazing humour. A couple of years later, I bought the book. When I finished reading it, I thought “my vagina is amazing.” Now I’m asking perfect strangers to perform on stage, shouting the word cunt (to reclaim it, not to insult the audience). It’s a huge turnaround and one of the reasons why The Vagina Monologues is still as relevant and important as when it first came out. It is probable that I’ve become one of Ensler’s “accidental activists”: a vagina warrior.

Last year, I performed one of the monologues with a group of amazing women from Murdoch University. We had a massive papier-mâché vagina in the foyer and a gold-ticket section with show bags. Kim Beazley Lecture Theatre sold out and we had people cramming in the aisles to watch the show. We raised money for V-Day and for the Incest Survivors Association. I’d invited my grandparents to the show, and my younger brothers were quite surprised when my Grandpa laughed at all the dirty bits. After, he emailed me a poem he’d written, talking about the change from his mother’s generation to mine. This year, I’ve been involved with the auditions. When someone comes up to me and says “I saw the play last year, and I want to be in it this year,” it feels like all the hard work from last year has paid off all over again.

The Vagina Monologues are a smash-hit success story. Ensler has interviewed over 200 incredibly diverse women about their vaginas and stories they have about their vaginas. From these interviews came The Vagina Monologues, which premiered off-Broadway in 1994. The New York Times called it “probably the most important piece of political theatre of the last decade”. When Ensler began travelling with the play, she found women waiting to share their vagina stories with her, some happy, some not so happy. From the overwhelming amount of stories about violence, abuse and rape, Ensler and a group of dedicated women worked to start V-Day.

There’s a good reason why we’ve previously promoted The Vagina Monologues with the lines “Do you have a vagina? Like vaginas? Know someone with a vagina?” It’s because we all know amazing women out there. Despite all the advances that feminism and activism have made, there are still huge advances to be made, like in the area of violence towards women. The Vagina Monologues is more than a groundbreaking play. It is a tool of empowerment for women and girls worldwide, a vehicle for change, transformation, a place to share stories, beauty and vaginas.

V-day debuted in 1998 on Valentine’s Day. V-Day’s mission is to end violence against women and girls globally. The ‘V’ in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina. V-Day is active in 140 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean and North America, raising over $85 million dollars and appearing on several charity short-lists.

Murdoch University Vagina Monologues 21st and 22nd September at the Nexus Theatre, Murdoch University.

The Vagina Monologues are still politically powerfull today. Earlier this year, Michigan State Representative Lisa Brown was banned from speaking on the

Tickets can be bought at the door or for bookings email: womens@the-guild.com.au

YA MUM Words by Oscar Brittain Best Adoptive Mothers in Film. Millions of women around the globe mother children, sometimes overcoming tremendous hardship to provide a better life for them. A much smaller, yet just as noteworthy, number raise adopted children. We here at Metior are all lucky enough to say our mothers didn’t have to save us from murderous aliens, nor duel to the death with evil witches, but we still appreciate the hard fictional work some women have committed to the silver screen over the years. They didn’t have to do it, but these women all took in another’s child(ren) and mothered them like only a mother can. Hats off to these remarkable gals: Ellen Ripley Aliens When Ellen Ripley awakens from stasis 57 years after the horrific events of Alien, she is greeted with the news that her daughter (played by Sigourney Weaver’s real-life mother) has died. Manipulated into returning to LV-426, the planet where she first encountered the murderous alien, she forms a strong relationship the small colony’s only survivor, a traumatized girl called Newt. When Newt is separated from the party, Ripley’s maternal instincts kick into overdrive, going as far as having a grudge-match with the queen alien to save her adopted child. “Get away from her, you bitch!” Mary Poppins Mary Poppins “Practically perfect in every way” goes her moniker. I’m not even allowed to have a whole teaspoon of sugar in my tea, let alone with my medicine. Mary Poppins is not only firm in her use of authority, but has a kind heart that only wants what’s best. Disney really felt the need to rub it in when Mary Poppins flies off into the distance, solidifying that horrible feeling in your gut that she is gone forever. The Banks children at number 17 Cherry Tree Lane were not the only ones changed by her visit, as the most enduring part of her character is that she managed to get Mr Banks to have a hand in raising his children too. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” Mrs. Weasley Harry Potter Series In no way could Harry’s real mother have been as amazing as this woman. “Oh, what’s that? You and my useless son stole my flying car twice and then wrecked it? Don’t worry about it! Just marry my daughter!” Seriously, this woman had seven of her own kids and then basically adopted Harry. There’s even a scene in the books where Harry’s death ranks higher on her list of fears than her own daughter’s. “Your sons flew that enchanted car of yours to Surrey and back last night!” Perdita 101 Dalmations After giving birth to 15 of her own children and traipsing halfway across England to rescue them after they’re dog-napped by Cruella De Vil, Perdita then adopts 84 more lost puppies. That’s spelled eighty four, people. Sure, she has a dedicated partner in Pongo, but even if things were split 50/50, she’d still have to breastfeed 99 little Dalmatians! Hats off, please. “That witch. That devil woman. She wants our puppies. That’s all she’s after!”

ABBE MAY

Interview by Phoebe Phillips & Photography by Cissi Tsang With five WAMis under her belt and a new record on the boil, Abbe May is winning at life. She has carved her position as a strong female rock musician in the Australian music industry, only to begin recording a “weird” R&B album. This girl will stop at nothing. Phoebe Phillips caught up with Abbe for a good old fashioned yarn.

expressive comes up onstage. It is not a constructed thing, but just an appropriate time for that part of me to come out. So, when I am not onstage I am not standing on table tops and doing hilarious rock `n’ roll moves. Is entering into rock `n’ roll as a woman hard? I have never had any problems with people taking me seriously or felt disrespected because I am a woman playing rock `n’ roll. If you are at all capable of doing what is predominantly a male activity, and pulling it off without people saying “she’s good for a girl,” it can actually be an asset being a woman. You’ve got to use what you’ve got in the same way men use what they’ve got as long as it is not disrespectful to yourself.

What are you up to right now? I am recording an album called Kiss My Apocalypse. The last record we made was a bit of rock `n’ roll and quite heavy. This record is like weird R&B. It’s been a real challenge entering a genre I have never written in before. We always seem to go for the thing that is most challenging, so we are doing a weird R&B album. Where did this idea come from? I listen to a lot of R&B anyway, as well as a lot of rock `n’ roll and pop. I am big fan of people like LCD Soundsystem, Kanye West, Beyonce and Rihanna. I have been missing that stuff for a couple of years, so it has just culminated in a natural progression.

Women can often be described as emotional creatures. Do you think this has helped in the creation of your music? I think men and women both have feminine and masculine sides. You either have a strong masculine side or a balanced one. I find the combination of these things really help me with my writing. My emotional side gets me into all kinds of situations which end up being muses for my song writing. My masculine competitiveness gives me the drive to get better at my writing.

On stage you seem to have a strong female rock persona. Is that you or is that a character you channel onstage? It is me. I think the part of me that wants to be

ABBE MAY In Design Desire there is a track called “Feeling like a Man (Looking Like A Woman)”. What’s that all about?

this wisdom and they unlearn it as they grow and then attempt to learn it again as they become more spiritually aware. I am also massively inspired by Toni Morrison, the novelist who won the Nobel Prize in literature for the book Song of Solomon. It is my favourite novel and has inspired lots of lyrics.

When I was a kid, I was very androgynous it was very difficult to tell what gender I was. I got bullied by a teacher because of it. It made me understand what it means to be quite abject. Being eight or nine it was hard and it came into play when I was writing a song about a killer drag queen. The song doesn’t directly correspond with my experience, but it has informed it. It is about looking one way and feeling the other.

If you didn’t go down the path of music, what path do you think you would you have gone down? Stand up comedian... I don’t know – since I used to ride a unicycle, maybe I would have a bit of luck in a travelling circus.

How does the idea of wanting to settle down or even one day start a family affect you as a woman on tour? I don’t have a strong need to have children just yet. I am quite lucky in that my need for creation is channelled into music. So I don’t have that need to settle down.

What advice would you give budding female musos? Pay a lot of attention for what is going on around you and endeavour to get better at what you do. Don’t endeavour to get thinner or prettier. That stuff isn’t import in regards to being a respectable, credible musician. Pay attention, learn and don’t get bogged down in silly notions of confining ideas of what you should be as a woman. You can be anything you want.

Who are your female role models? My mother. She is a strong charismatic woman. The second one is my niece. She is ten months old and has this innate wisdom about her. I really admire that innocence. I think that children are born with

PHOTOGRAPHER Tanya Voltchanskaya

Maria Bergwitz

METIOR MUMMA

Words by Luan Morley & Photography by Joel Crane Mother. Mum. Mom. Ma. Mummy.

The last tattoo shop I visited was in a grungy little seaside town in the UK. The tattoo artist, named Steve was a nice guy and really chatty. Things only became awkward if you fixated too long on his vampire veneers or the inverted cross tattooed on his forehead. He told me that his business partner would be coming by in the middle of our session to pick up some sketches. I discovered a few minutes later that his business partner was a pixy-sized blond lady, with two full tattoo sleeves, “fuck the establishment” written across her neck and a nose ring.

Of the seven something billion people that live in this world, there are probably just as many variations of name dedicated to the women who started it all. Some of them might not be terms of endearment, but then you probably don’t want to know what names dads get called by. Australia must have a huge population of mums, because every advertisement seems to feature products “specifically designed for busy Australian mums”. Not having any offspring myself, I began to think about these lucky women who have entire ad breaks dedicated to their every shopping need.

Her five year old daughter bounced in after her wearing a pink tutu, and proceeded to use her magic wand to cast spells on the awaiting patrons. You might guess it was particularly amusing when she tried to cast a sleeping spell on the 6ft tall Czech guy with prison tattoos. When I jokingly asked the woman if she would be the one to give her daughter her first tattoo, she looked at me as if I had sprouted extra arms. Apparently, if it was up to her, her daughter would never be getting inked. It seems hypocritical mother logic is a condition affecting mums worldwide.

When I jokingly asked the woman if she would be the one to give her daughter her first tattoo, she looked at me as if I had sprouted extra arms.

On that note, when I went into Centrelink the other day, I noticed a whole collection of mums, ranging in ages from 15 to 20, in various states of panic because there had been some delay with their Single Parent benefits. One of the older girls very loudly stated to a staff member that she wasn’t going to have enough money to buy nappies if the payments didn’t come through today. When the staff member offhandedly enquired where her baby was, she replied that she had left him at her mum’s house. She had a “rager” of a hangover and the baby’s cries were making it worse.

I was driving to work the other day, joining the morning traffic past my old primary school, when I noticed a woman about 30 years old walking in the direction of the big, red bricked kindy building. That in itself is nothing to write home (or indeed, to a student magazine) about. However, the woman in question was sporting a 2 foot tall, bright pink Mohawk that defied every law of nature that I knew about (including Murphy’s Law and Sod’s Law). In the slow, school-zone crawl I noticed her face looked like some kind of pin cushion and her floor length, black vinyl coat billowed as she walked, exposing her short black dress and fishnet stockings. What took me most by surprise, were the two little red-faced toddlers that clutched to both of her hands, thumbs cemented into their mouths. They seemed to bombard her with questions and every time she spoke to them, her ‘what are you looking at?’ stare seemed to slide off her face and she dutifully answered them with a smile. After almost swerving into a stop sign, I started to think that, while there are millions of mothers in this world, our ideas of what they should look like and how they should act don’t seem to vary too much.

I’m beginning to think it’s insensitive of advertisers to assume all Aussie mums are perky, 30-somethings, who wear white button-downs and love to be in the kitchen. This is the kind of demographic I want these Australian advertisers to target. Extra points if they have a pre-teen with smudged makeup and a baby on her hip selling ‘ready meals’ as the perfect answer to that age old conundrums; “How do I get dinner on the table, and still be able to get to the skate park and back before my 10pm curfew?”.

A Woman’s Guide to the Twenty-first Century Words by by Sylvester Thelma Okay, so it’s the twenty-first century. Women have rights (arguably not enough still, but that’s a whole other topic), high paying jobs, careers, four wheel drives, motor bikes, skateboards and tattoos.

sequences, but a woman must retain a sense of decorum and secrecy in order to avoid being labeled a slut. Men can sleep with a girl whenever they want and consequently are regarded as legends.

In 1964, Bob Dylan told us that “the times they are a-changin” and while poetically profound and obvious, he was right. Those times ain’t ever going to be repeated.

...don’t

even think about

putting the remnants of your

The twenty-first century looks like some sick and twisted paradox of lives; products to make work easier, slave labour, the church, drought, ecosystem degradation, poverty and the rich kids of Instagram. How do our individual life choices fall into this matrix? How can a woman live ethically in the twentyfirst century? Are we liberated? Or are we, as Satre so eloquently put it, “condemned to be free”?

horizontal no-pants-dance in the recycling bin, as the recycling depot won’t even recycle unused condoms.

What ethical dilemmas plague the modern woman? What are the social costs of my $5 Cotton On singlet? Is honesty really the best policy? Is it okay to eat an entire block of chocolate, even if it is 70% cocoa and fair trade? Am I allowed to get jealous if my man checks out another girl? Must I stop eating my favourite fish if it is heinously overfished? Essentially, to live a moral life means we must confront a litany of ethical dilemmas everyday. No wonder why people say ignorance is bliss.

Alright, so we have committed to sleeping with one person we love and respect, but we don’t want a little bun baking in our young tummies. Also, condoms and their wrappers are unlikely to biodegrade … ever (and don’t even think about putting the remnants of your horizontal no-pants-dance in the recycling bin, as the recycling depot won’t even recycle unused condoms). Oh wait, now we have another ethical dilemma. A woman will dispose of 11,000 tampons or pads in her lifetime, all of which end their exciting little journeys in landfill or the ocean. Do we have a moral responsibility to prevent this if we can? Is our only ethical option to use a Mooncup? I am confronted by images of me emptying my Mooncup in a public toilet while other women apply their lipstick.

Children. There, I said it. The idea of procreating seems to be becoming more and more controversial as the world’s population is teetering on seven billion and it is becoming apparent that the natural environment is unable to cater for a population of this magnitude. It seems so antithetical that a woman must wrestle with her primordial instincts in order to have her environment’s best interest at heart.

On top of all of this ‘ethical living’ stuff, we still have to remember to be good, honest, courageous, generous people who spit in the face of our ever-sotemping vices. All of a sudden the simple act of living just seems to get too complicated and one questions whether their existence is just an inconvenience to the amoral world we live in. I am perplexed and I am tired, but I am happy and grateful, and I will continue trying to better myself so I can make the world around me a better place. As pretentious as it may sound, I guess it’s all any of us can do.

So let’s just say a woman decides to take the stance that having children is in fact socially irresponsible. How can we ethically protect ourselves from bearing offspring? The Catholic Church scorns the use of artificial contraception, as it allows for the easy disregard of ethics and dehumanizes sexuality. Okay, so women are only supposed to have sex in the time that our natural cycle allows us. Contraception essentially allows us to sleep with whoever we like with minimal con-

PHOTOGRAPHER Pekka Rousi

Joel Crane

Owl Eyes – Gig Review

Words by Phoebe Phillips & Photography by Cydne Williams

Pop. We love it or we love to hate it. Either way it gets you humming along in supermarket queues and bopping your head in traffic. Deep down, each one of has a little closet pop diva wanting to be unleashed onto a light drenched dance floor. Diva is exactly what Brooke Addamo from the band Owl Eyes is. In her live performance at ARTBAR in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, she shimmied her hips and swayed like a professional on a pair of lethal high heels. Alongside her band, she grooved along to all their catchy tunes with choreographed dance moves which would have made even the Spice Girls proud. Her smooth smoky vocals paired with the bands indiepop beats were seamless as Owl Eyes cranked out hits such as Raiders and a cover of Foster the People’s Pumped Up Kicks. By the end of the show, even the grey heads in the audience were bopping like a bunch of teenagers after their first bottle of passion pop. A shout-out goes to the Art Gallery of Western Australia, for creating the incredible ARTBAR. It is a bar and stage positioned literally in the middle of the gallery. You can look up from the dance floor and see Andy Warhol’s famous Cambell’s Soup Cans (1962) staring right back at you. Or, you can grab a wine and have a gander through the latest exhibition of European modernists Picasso to Warhol. It made seeing Owl Eyes even more unique when you could wander around the incredible building with a shimmy or a bop in your step. All in all it was a great performance and an awesome night at ARTBAR. As I looked around the venue, I am pretty sure every girl secretly wanted to be Brooke and every guy wanted to date her. Either way I’d say a good percentage of us went home to rock out some karaoke in front of our bathroom mirrors wielding imaginary microphones. I did anyway.

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