May 2022
Dear UTS Management. Regards, Survivors by UTS Women’s Collective
Hijab: An Oxymoron by Arshmah Jamal
Merry Crisis! In Conversation with Scott Marsh by Joseph Hathaway-Wilson
Bliss
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Your student services funded by SSAF. Take ACTION
Our services are underfunded and neglected. Our funding has been rapidly cut, and stable funding agreements denied.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
The University of Technology Sydney would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the Traditional Custodians and Knowledge Keepers of the land on which UTS now stands, and pays respect to Elders past, present, and emerging. — Maree Graham Deputy Director, Students, and Community Engagement Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research
Vertigo would like to extend a personal acknowledgement to the Traditional Custodians and Knowledge Keepers of the land on which we lived and worked as editors and designers during the creation of this magazine. We pay respect to Elders past, present, and emerging, and extend this respect to any First Nations’ people reading this volume. As students, we must acknowledge the Indigenous contributions to academia that have enriched our understanding of Australian history and culture. We exist on stolen land, and recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded.
Ashley Sullivan would like to acknowledge the Burramattagal and Dharug people of the Eora Nation.
Siena Zadro and Joseph Hathaway-Wilson would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
Sophia Ramos would like to acknowledge the Boolbainora clan of the Dharug people of the Eora Nation.
Andy Lee, Clara Atkin, and Joey Chalita would like to acknowledge the Dharug people of the Eora Nation.
Alexander Kingsford would like to acknowledge the Cammeraygal people of the Eora Nation. Jess Prowse would like to acknowledge the Gundungurra and Dharug people of the Ngurra Nation.
If it is within your means, please consider donating to an Indigenous organisation such as: Blak Business — “Bringing together information, knowledge and resources to facilitate broader learning and discussion about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander topics.” – blakbusiness.com.au IndigenousX — Indigenous media organisation – indigenousx.com.au Seed — Fighting for climate justice – seedmob.org.au Black Rainbow — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Sistergirl and Brotherboy (LGBQTI+SB) Organisation – blackrainbow.org.au ANTaR — Advocacy organisation dedicated to justice, rights and respect for Australia’s First Peoples – antar.org.au More organisations can be found here:
CLARA
JOSE
JOEY
PH
ASHLEY
EDITORS ALEXANDER
a
Sophi
DESIGNERS ANDY
SIENA
JESS
Dear Readers, p
Welcome to ‘Bliss’, available now at all good campus stands and online publication sites. Let this body of work guide you on politics, taxes, and sugar daddies. The three essential cornerstones for all struggling university students. Reaching the halfway point of the year, with those dreaded assignment due dates looming and exams mounting, feel free to grab a copy of ’Bliss’ and zone out of the chaos by leaning into something comforting. While ignorance may be bliss, it’s more important than ever to confront the threats coming to you from all sides (politicians, due dates, and COVID-19), and get to know your mind and body — embrace its likes and limits. ’Bliss’ explores love lost, love casually borrowed or exchanged, and love gained. The euphoria of the everyday, found in fits of laughter with your friends and the sharing of intimate moments. The excitement of taking risks and the thrill of exploring the unknown. The relief of feeling comfortable in your skin and finding strength in your identity. As you flick through these pages (or press next online) let ’Bliss’ seduce you like it’s the only thing that has ever understood your interests, needs, and desires.
Lots of love, Vertigo 2022 r
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
BLISS Juicy Kiss Freak magnolia Don't You Worry 'bout A Thing Stargirl Interlude Strawberry Fields Forever The Perfect Girl No Control
Doja Cat Prince Doja Cat keshi Stevie Wonder The Weeknd ft. Lana Del Rey The Beatles Mareux One Direction
EDITORS’ QUESTION EDITORS’ QUESTION EDITORS’ QUESTION
Forums
Chat Rooms
Help
WHAT’S YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE? 08:28:56
<clara>
08:32:13
<jess>
MUSICALS
08:33:18
<joey>
Putting the Q-Tip in my ears, I get more of an eargasm from that than any Frank Ocean album
08:50:01
<sophia>
Olivia Rodrigo’s entire SOUR album heehee OR BTS fancams lol
09:04:23
<ashley>
Movie edits (only the good ones, I promise)
09:10:00
<siena>
09:10:30
<andy>
09:42:49
<alexander>
10:55:03
<joe>
The Percy Jackson Musical. It should be bad. I wanted to hate it. But it's so good.
Rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer Checking if the dinner guests have left yet, then proceeding to gobble leftovers once they have. Double-coated Tim Tams - I could demolish a pack in one sitting!
I voluntarily edit a uni magazine.
Send
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A E V I Y G AA W A E V I Y G AA W A E V I Y G AA W A E V I Y G AA W A E V I G In partnership with the 2022 Sydney Film Festival, we are honored to give away a Youth Flexipass to a UTS student. The pass allows for someone to redeem 6 tickets to whichever film sessions they want*.
Go to our website utsvertigo.com.au and let us know in 50 words or less why you would like the Youth Flexipass to attend the Sydney Film Festival.
It normally costs $75 for 6 films, which breaks down to $12.50 per film which is lower than the standard concession rate ($18.50). It can be shared between individuals and is available for patrons aged between 15-24. This is designed to give younger patrons the opportunity to explore the full breadth of the program at a lower price.
*apart from opening/closing night.
x
contents STUDENT LIFE A LOOK @UTS LOVE LETTERS by Joey Chalita
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DEAR UTS MANAGEMENT. REGARDS, SURVIVORS by Eshna Gupta + Various Contributors
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MEETING WITH MANAGEMENT by Anna Thieben
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POLITICS THE ISSUE WITH WOMEN’S ISSUES by Jada Susas
THE OSCARS: THE ACADEMY’S OVER IT AND SO ARE WE by Jacqueline Adams
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BUSINESS, LAW & STEM TACKLING TAXES WITH MARK CHAPMAN by Ashley Sullivan
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SOCIETY & CULTURE 26
ARTS & LIFESTYLE LITSOC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BOOKISH BLISS Various Contributors
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FILM APPRECIATION POSSE REVIEWS by Timothy Chan
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THE YOUNG MINDS BEHIND YOUNG BODIES/SOMEBODIES by Clara Atkin
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RECLAIMING THE BODY: PHOTOGRAPHY AND FEMINISM WITH PONCH HAWKES by Ashley Sullivan
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MERRY CRISIS! IN CONVERSATION WITH SCOTT MARSH by Joseph Hathaway-Wilson
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HIJAB: AN OXYMORON by Arshmah Jamal
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RESPECT. NOW. ALWAYS: THE INS AND OUTS OF SEX TALK by Joey Chalita
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SHOWCASE BLISS IS WHAT I FEEL WITH YOU by Jayan Pascoe
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SCENES FROM THE ROAD by Aston Brown
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BLISSFUL MOMENTS by Yoki Zhou
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RELEASE by Angelique Cherian
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THE EPHEMERAL by Yvonne Hong
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SERENITY by Katie Kelly
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CONTENT WARNINGS Vertigo readers should be advised that there are content warnings before relevant pieces.
CREATIVE WRITING
Some articles and images contain themes or references to addiction, alcohol, blood, death, drugs, racial discrimination, racism, self-harm, suicidality, mental ill-health, pornography, islamophobia, eating disorders, domestic violence, family violence, ableism, illness, sexual assault, and sexual themes. Please keep this in mind as you enjoy our magazine; your health and safety are important to us.
AMENDS by Tony Phan
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LOVE LESSONS FROM OUR PAST SELVES by Shanelle George
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MANNEQUIN by Jennifer Tony
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If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please consider speaking to your local GP, a healthcare professional, or calling one of the numbers below. Lifeline — 13 11 14 Beyond Blue — 1300 22 4636
I RESPONDED TO THE SUGAR DADDIES IN MY DMS SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO by Clara Atkin
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MAD BLISS STORIES by Andy Lee
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If you or someone you know is experiencing or has experienced sexual abuse, you can call or refer to the following confidential hotlines. General — 1800 737 732 Counselling — 1800 211 028 Crisis Centre — 1800 424 017
REASSURING YOUR MASCULINE INSECURITIES by Billy Elsum
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QR ROULETTE by Clara Atkin
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REAR WINDOW by Andy Lee
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CHATTERBOX by Clara Atkin
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HOROSCOPES by Siena Zadro
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MISCELLANEOUS
STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION REPORTS by Various Contributors
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If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or child abuse, call or refer to the following 24/7 confidential free hotlines. Domestic Violence Line — 1800 656 463 NSW Child Protection Helpline — 13 21 11 If you are struggling with self-injurious behaviour, such as self-harming or an eating disorder, please reach out to the following: Butterfly Foundation — (02) 9412 4499 If you, or someone you know, is struggling with or has struggled with drug or alcohol abuse, please consider speaking to your local GP, a healthcare professional, or calling the numbers below. Alcohol and Other Drugs Information Service (ADIS) — 1800 250 015 NSW Quitline — 13 7848 (13 QUIT) Available Monday to Friday: 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Available Saturday, Sunday and public holidays: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
by Joey Chalita CW: Sexual references, misogyny CW:
STUDENT LIFE
As a first-year student, the first baby steps you take in preparing for university life are to enroll in your classes, pick a suitable timetable that doesn’t force you to wake up at 6 a.m. on a Monday, and follow your local uni meme pages. UTS has two prominent pages: UTS confessions and UTS Love Letters. In a chat with the admin of the latter, we spoke about the poetic letters shared anonymously on the page, and the “fondness for the ones where mates send love letters about each other back and forth professing their love”. If you’ve ever wondered about the backend of UTS Love Letters, at one point in early 2019, there were around 15 admins responsible for sorting out the huge submissions against a three-page rule book. Now, the helms of one of the most successful UTS social platforms are in the anonymous hands of just one student. The page must inevitably be passed on to a newer generation of students, so if you’ve got the experience (and no, running your family’s pet Instagram does not count), consider hitting them up if that interests you.
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ether anyone have posted almost daily. Wh Since 2013, UTS Love letters one’s guess, any is e pag the of nts comme has actually found love in the ts from den stu d e no) that has not stoppe (my guess: almost a definit of their rt sho just , tion st personal informa whoring out their friend’s mo a date. spelt out initials, to get them
Now, a collection of our favourite submissions...
STUDENT LIFE
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STUDENT LIFE
STUDENT LIFE
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Dear UTS Management. Regards, Survivors by Eshna Gupta, UTS Students Association Women’s Officer; Bridie Macken, UTS Women’s Collective Convenor; and the UTS Women’s Collective CW: Sexual assault, sexual harassment, racism
STUDENT LIFE
Universities have a sexual assault problem. In 2016, the Australian Human Rights Commission conducted a survey to examine the prevalence of sexual assault and sexual harassment (SASH) among university students.1 The results published in the 2017 Change the Course report were so damning that universities all over Australia adopted recommendations, policies, and institutional changes. These included creating the national Consent Matters program, which Respect. Now.Always is a part of, along with creating more reporting avenues. In 2021, Universities Australia conducted a follow-up survey, called the National Student Safety Survey (NSSS), to gauge how the measures taken by universities had affected SASH rates among students.2 The results of this survey were released this March,
18 2021 SASH survey UTS results3
and unfortunately, there is little improvement. 1 in 3 (30.6%) university students nationally have been sexually assaulted once in their lifetime, and 1 in 20 (4.5%) have experienced sexual assault since starting university. 1 in 2 (48%) students have been sexually harassed in their lifetime and 1 in 12 (8.1%) since beginning university. While the results for the 2021 survey indicate minor improvements in the situation (excluding the rate of sexual harassment on campus, which has worsened), many students are still not safe during their studies. Further, as students have been learning remotely due to COVID-19, the 2021 results may not accurately reflect whether on-campus safety has improved since the last report. Furthermore, the results show that gender-diverse, trans, disabled, and Indigenous students are the most targeted by SASH.
So, why are we seeing such little improvement? There are many reasons, but the core of the problem is universities refusing to listen to student survivors of SASH. Women’s Collectives around Australia have been campaigning since the Change the Course report was released in 2017. Some of the demands of these campaigns include: funding counselling services, increased academic support and accommodations for survivors, holistic sex and consent education, and mandatory first-responder training. However, these demands have largely stayed the same, from the National Day of Action against Sexual Violence on Campus in 2016 to the one just this month. Universities have not been seriously considering the voices of survivors, and when survivors make the same baseline requests, retraumatising themselves for several years, their voices become tired.
In 2021, the Women’s Officer and the Women’s Collective Convenor met with Respect.Now.Always to discuss these concerns and more. Our concerns were palmed off with the sentiment that the Women’s Collectives are always complaining. When we asked more specific questions about why fruits were the central motif of Respect.Now. Always., RNA Program Manager Catharine Prusciuno told us that they were inspired by the Tea and Consent video — a video made for primary school-aged students to begin learning what consent is. This highlights the larger issue with Respect.Now.Always — that image and relatability are more important than providing material support or listening to survivors. As shown by the NSSS results, UTS has one of the highest rates of awareness around where to complain, report, and seek support. However, only 2.5% of students who
UTS is also one of the only universities to have high rates of SASH in the university library. University management and the Provost have been meeting since the release of the results to discuss why UTS may be like this. People who have completed their degrees several years ago and who, in most instances, do not teach, are attempting to answer these questions in a boardroom while most students are well aware of the answers. As students, we know how our peers behave online and where they behave like this. We know that reporting harassment is usually more work than it’s worth, and we know that the library is not only a study area but also a social space. This is a pivotal moment in the campaign against sexual violence. With universities under scrutiny by the media, they are compelled to make change, and we as students and survivors must help dictate what that change is. We do this by forcing management out of their boardrooms and making our voices heard.
STUDENT LIFE
This national issue is exemplified on our own campus. In 2021, a group of student survivors created a petition demanding that “a complete overhaul of UTS’s current marketing-focused efforts to prevent sexual violence in our community.” The petition referred to the imagery and material of Respect.Now.Always. whose slogans such as “Wanna Spoon? Ask First.” and “Don’t Reach for the Peach” are common around campus. They argued that this messaging trivialises the traumatic incident of sexual violence in a survivor’s life and does nothing to materially help them. This petition was met with no response by university management.
have been sexually harrassed made a formal complaint. As someone who has had to use them, UTS’s reporting systems are confronting, incredibly confusing and can, at times, be ineffective. Furthermore, students who are not fluent in English or have a disability find them inaccessible. UTS also has unusually high rates of online sexual harrassment compared to other universities– whether that be because of online forums on Discord and Facebook pages or in virtual classes is unclear.
Photo taken from the UTS Respect.Now.Always. campaign program
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What can you do? • • • • •
Sign the Women’s Collective petition: search “ACTION NOT FRUIT - Reform Respect.Now.Always.” If you are a misogyny-affected person (not a cisgender man) join the UTS Women’s Collective (more information here: https://utsstudentsassociation.org.au/collectives/womens) Follow the UTS Women’s Collective on Facebook and Instagram (@utswoco) to get updates on our next action/speakout Demand that Shirley Alexander and university management conduct a town hall meeting, which is widely marketed throughout the university, to take student questions Talk to your friends about the results! Spread the word about the campaign!
Where to Go For Help: • • •
UTS Counselling +61 2 9514 1177, student.services@uts.edu.au National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service Contact: 1800 RESPECT (737732) NSW Rape Crisis Centre: 1800 424 017
STUDENT LIFE
How to contact us: • •
Email us at womens@utsstudentsassociation.org Message us on any of our social medias
References
1. University student sexual assault and sexual harassment survey
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2. 2021 National Student Safety Survey: UTS report
3. UTS institutional NSSS Summary
Your student services funded by SSAF. Take ACTION
Our services are underfunded and neglected. Our funding has been rapidly cut, and stable funding agreements denied.
by Anna Thieben, UTSSA President
STUDENT LIFE
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Anna meets with Management. A truly thrilling series. On March 17 2022, I met with Shirley Alexander, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Education and Students, about the goings-on of the Students’ Association. A key point on the agenda was the allocation of SSAF funding for the Students’ Association and space allocation in the university. I was focused on proving that management was underfunding the Association to an extent where services such as BlueBird Brekkie have been compromised. During the meeting, I presented our expected expenditure to Shirley, providing clear reasoning why her budget was not sufficient. She expects us to run services including the Student Advocacy, the Legal service, Vertigo, Night Owl Noodles and BlueBird Brekkie, and Collectives at a 2019 capacity with 20% less funding. It’s impossible. I ran her through where our funding would have to be cut. As many of the Association’s expenses such as Vertigo, Legal service, and Student Advocacy are fixed at the beginning of the year, the only feasible place we can cut costs is BlueBird Brekkie/Night Owl Noodles. Obviously, this is not something we want to do as this service is essential to feeding students on campus and run successfully for a decade. What was pleasing to find out is that the estimated budget management has given us is a minimum. They will consider the data I provided to decide on further funding. Shirley told me that she had to wait for: 1. Our UTSSA audit (due at the end of the month), and 2. Census date (when she would know total SSAF), and 3. Her meeting with the Vice-Chancellor on this matter. She mentioned that as an organisation, she would like us to cater our services to the 5,000 international students still stuck overseas. Mind you, the only service of ours not
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catered to off-campus students is Night Owl Noodles. UTS Legal service, Casework and Advocacy, Vertigo, peer tutoring, and most collective meetings and events can all be accessed digitally. However, I agree that we can always do better for our international students. We should be addressing this, not just because Shirley has told us to, but because these students are already heavily exploited by our university and require support from their union. I have already begun working with Vertigo to ensure they include international students in their content, and as an Association, we are working to bring back the International Student Collective. Unfortunately, another issue she has with the Association is Vertigo. She believes that the production quality of Vertigo is too high quality and wastes SSAF fees. While we have already approved the Vertigo budget for the year, we need to work with the magazine to provide more online content for overseas students. We may also need to look into whether we can justify the print quality of the magazine. Finally, in a surprising turn of events, Shirley made it clear that she would like to see the collectives more active in the coming year. Have collectives become so apolitical that she views them as nothing more than social clubs? Or has she, as she nears retirement, become a staunch supporter of activism on campus? Regardless, collectives on this campus can grow and garner broader student engagement this year and should continue to do so, with or without Shirley's blessing. The issue with SSAF funding is systemic. As a union due, SSAF should be given to student unions directly. Bargaining with management gives them unacceptable control over our finances. Further, the processes in allocating these SSAF funds are unclear and poorly regulated. From what Shirley said, the allocation is decided by her and the Vice-Chancellor after meeting with key stakeholders. No beloved committee. Nothing. It leaves us waiting half the
year for financial security and begging her to let us fund services like Blue Bird which provide essential support for students. It is unacceptable. We have continued to push our SSAF campaign on council, but the efforts have been lacking recently. I encourage you all to continue to get involved.
In the past few weeks, I have also been in negotiations with various members of management about consolidating Students Association spaces on campus and brought this up with Shirley. These priorities for space management of the Association are essential for:
Expanding Safe Spaces:
Student spaces have been removed systematically for the past few years, and the university has become less willing to allocate us space. The current Queer and Women’s areas are inaccessible and windowless. The campaign for the Ethno space has been knocked back despite long-standing demands by students. The disabilities safe space in Building Five was removed, and has not been reinstated. STUDENT LIFE
Engaging with students:
The UTSSA struggles to engage students and promote our student services, especially since we're hidden away in low traffic areas of the university.
Centralising our Services:
The services and offices of the UTSSA are spread across the university. As we return to campus, this distribution across the three levels of Building Three makes it difficult to communicate with each other and run a cohesive Students' Association. It also means students find it challenging to access all our services and link them to the Association.
Ensuring the longevity of student services:
Student Association services such as Bluebird and Night Owl will survive long-term if they have a permanent space on campus. This makes it easier to set up and pack up our services, and also means that we can give staff longer, more permanent hours.
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STUDENT LIFE
I have been digging around the university, trying to determine which spaces the Students’ Association could take on. In this mission, I identified the Food Co-op. Members of the Association had previously discussed using this space without action. I mentioned this in this meeting, and submitted a proposal to Shirley about using the space, which has been accepted! We plan on running the service through donated goods like canned goods, pasta, rice, sanitary items, condoms etc. Students could come into the pantry and collect goods as they pleased. The finer details still need to be sorted out, but we will be setting up some working groups for students and members of the university community to get involved in the coming weeks. I’m very excited about the possibility of using this empty space to provide a really practical service for students.
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I also spoke to Shirley about the possibility of using the old Bites Cafe, which is currently a storage room, as a permanent location for Night Owl. Further, I have discussed with Shirley and space management ways to consolidate our collective spaces around the Student Association reception in Building One, which might also be successful. I should be able to report on all exciting prospects in the next issue. Or, if you're keen, you will be able to find them in advance on the UTSSA FB page!
Bluebird and Night Owl funded by SSAF. Take ACTION
Our services are underfunded and neglected. Our funding has been rapidly cut, and stable funding agreements denied.
THE ISSUE WITH WOMEN’S
ISSUES by Jada Susas
CW: Sex, r*pe, sexism, sexual assault, domestic and family violence
The #MeToo Movement, Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins, and unfortunate milkshake metaphors have all been recurring themes throughout the Coalition’s term. The treatment of women within Parliament has been a contentious subject for several years now, but it really came to a head in early 2021. The case of Brittany Higgins, a federal government staffer who had allegedly been r*ped in a minister’s office by another government staffer, set off a chain of events that left all parties scrambling. Workplace culture, casual sexism, and sexual abuse within Australia have since been met with a critical eye ever since.
POLITICS
With the upcoming federal election set for May 21 2022, let’s take a look at every party’s approach. Let’s face it, there is so much more to these parties than what the media likes to focus on. So here I am, doing the work so you don’t have to.
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THE COALITION In 2021, much of the country has looked towards Scotty and friends for a plan of action and appropriate responses. Thus, the creation of ‘A Roadmap for Respect: Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces’ or for short the ‘Roadmap for Respect’.1 It’s the Coalition’s response to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s ‘Respect@Work Report’, which provided a set of recommendations for preventing and addressing sexual harassment.2 The Roadmap for Respect commits to the 55 recommendations — either fully or in part — and presents employers and employees with the tools to create a positive workplace culture. The 25-page report provides education and training resources, advice on legal assistance, and a deeper look into legislative reform. A key motion was the amendment made to the Fair Work Act, which clarified that sexual harassment was grounds enough to terminate employment for employers.
and victimisation, as far as possible” within the Sex Discrimination Act. The Australian Human Rights Commission also noted that current legislative frameworks place significant responsibility on individual complainants, leaving employers to prioritise compliance with Work Health and Safety and employment law over discrimination law. This did not translate in The Coalition’s Roadmap. The Coalition replied (in short) that the employer’s responsibility to ensure the safety of all persons in the workplace covered the risk of sexual harassment. They did not feel the need to enact a positive duty. Almost a year after its release, Grace Tame — former Australian of the Year and survivor of sexual abuse — alongside Brittany Higgins and other prominent Australian women, are calling on the Coalition to implement this recommendation of positive duty onto employers and safeguard workers from sexual harassment.
However, that’s not to say the Roadmap for Respect is perfect. Within the Respect@Work Report was a recommendation to place a positive duty on employers to “take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment,
This isn’t the only time the Coalition has missed the mark. In the weeks following the Roadmap for Respect, The Good Society was launched.3 Being part of the Department of Education’s Respect Matters’ program, the launch consisted of various teaching materials
to help teach school-age children about consent and sex. Labelled “harmful” and “condescending”, one particular video involved a woman smearing her milkshake into her partner’s face without consent. It was later pulled down. It’s just one of the many metaphors used by The Good Society — the words sex, r*pe, and assault missing completely from all videos. Much of the outcry was due to the indirectness of the video; that in not being more explicit, the video gave in to our society’s habit of burying or avoiding the topic of sexual harassment. When talking to ABC TV, Grace Tame stated that the video “minimises the experience of r*pe trauma” and “fails to address the nuances of this complex issue of consent”. The Coalition had put $3.8 million into this campaign.
As The Coalition’s rival, the Labor Party has always been quick to respond to current government decisions. After the Liberal Party announced to pledge $32 million to sex and consent education, Labor countered with a $77 million commitment.6 Delivered in partnership with states, territories, and non-government school systems, the funding is aimed at teacher training, “whole school” approaches to violence prevention, and employing external providers. According to the Labor Party, studies have shown that the best course of action in preventing domestic and family violence, sexual assault, and sexual harassment is respectful relationships education, which the $77 million will be put towards. Another step towards gender equality that Labor is adopting is closing the gender pay gap. Labor’s plan is to aid the Fair Work Commission in ordering pay increases for lowincome, female-dominated industries.7 Additionally, they plan to implement legislation that requires companies with more than 250 employees to publicly report their gender pay gap and prohibit pay secrecy clauses.8 In response to the Respect@Work Report, the Albanese government pledges to commit fully to all 55 of the recommendations, including the one concerning positive duty. In a media release by the Labor Party, they commented:
POLITICS
The Coalition has also been working towards closing the gender pay gap, claiming that creating jobs and economic growth have contributed to lowering the gap. In 2022, the pay gap now sits at 13.8% in comparison to 17.4% under the previous Labor government.4 However, experts have said that this is not enough. Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), in partnership with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), has released research that indicates the pay gap will take 25 years to close at the rate we are going.5 This is due to a lack of gender equality policy within organisations and companies, and workplace cultures that are indifferent to improving gender equality. The Respect@Work Report has multiple recommendations that state the need to educate employees and workers on the cultural factors that contribute not only to sexual harassment, but also the gender pay gap — including enacting positive duty.
LABOR PARTY
“After commissioning the work in 2018, the Morrison Government ignored the final Respect@ Work for over a year, leaving it to gather dust on the desk of former Attorney General, Christian Porter. It should not have taken this long.”9
“Employers must act now to embed gender equality in their organisations as a standard business practice. Not only will it drive better company performance, productivity and profitability but it will also deliver meaningful, systemic change that will close the gender pay gap faster and make our workplaces better, fairer and safer for both women and men.” Libby Lyons, Director of the WGEA
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THE GREENS Within the Greens Party, 60% of staffers are women, the highest of any federal party. They have pledged to end sexism through implementing all of the Respect@ Work recommendations and, like Labor, recognise the need for positive duty. They have also pledged $477 million to a national rollout of respectful relationships across Australian public schools to put an end to r*pe culture.10 To pay for this plan, the Greens have declared a “billionaires tax” in which big corporations making an excessive profit will be subject to a “corporate superprofits tax”. 11
POLITICS
A notable difference between the Greens and other parties is the introduction of a ‘National Plan to End Violence Against First Nations Women and Children’. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experience disproportionately high rates of violence. In comparison to non-Indigenous women, Indigenous
women are 3.4 times more likely to experience sexual assault and 32 times more likely to be hospitalised at the hands of family violence.12 The Greens’ goal is to end such violence by having First Nations leadership and solutions prioritised throughout the creation of the Plan alongside commencing a First Nations Women’s Summit. When it comes to addressing the gender pay gap, the Greens want to invest $40 million over a ten year period in enhancing data collection and action on gender equality in the workplace. Like Labor, they will also require big businesses to publicly report their pay gap data annually and remove secrecy clauses that prevent women from discussing their pay within the private sector. The Greens additionally seek to boost the WGEA’s power and enable them to take action against employers who remain passive to the gender pay gap.
‘”Over the last few years, women have stood up against the boys club in Parliament, leading to huge women’s marches outside Parliament. The Prime Minister refused to meet with protesters and advocates. He just doesn’t get it.’” The Greens
MAY 21st By now, you’ve probably been bombarded by Instagram infographics, the occasional #Auspol tweet, and maybe even an ominous text message from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). But there’s nothing that a quick Google search and a good conversation can’t fix about the impending panic of standing in a tiny cardboard voting booth. The topic of women’s issues is not going away any time soon, as for most of us, these issues are our reality. Addressing our country’s tendency to stay silent is the first step in a positive direction, and your vote can continue that conversation. So keep that in mind when you’re holding that flimsy plastic pen, and as always, happy voting!
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REFERENCES
2. Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report (2020)
3. The Good Society
4. Australia’s Gender Pay Gap Statistics
5. Over a quarter of a century until gender pay gap likely to close
6. Federal Labor to pledge $77m for teachers to educate students about sexual consent
7. Labor promises to prioritise equal pay for women
8. Labor’s new policy would force companies to publicly release gender pay gap data
9. Labor Commits to Keeping Australians Safe from Workplace Sexual Harassment
10. End Sexism
11. Tax the Billionaires
POLITICS
1. Roadmap for Respect: Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces
12. Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia, 2018
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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BOOKISH
Bliss by the UTS Literary Society Illustrated by Sophia Ramos
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Bliss… is a big ask. Google the definition, and the top result is “perfect happiness”. Perfect happiness. But, in our decidedly imperfect world, can bliss exist as anything more than hyperbole? Many of the bookworms in the UTS Literary Society will tell you that they find moments of bliss between the bookshelves of libraries or bookstores when they pull out a book and a new world unfurls at their fingertips. Maybe that’s what bliss has been all along… a choice to seek happiness where we can, one that is perfect simply because we have made it. And what better place to chase that high than across the pages of a good book? We’ve recommended some of our recent favourites here, but you can always discover more on our Instagram @utslitsoc or on our website inthemargin.com.au.
CW: Death of a parent, terminal illness “It felt like the world had divided into two different types of people, those who had felt pain and those who had yet to.” I find that in discussions about what constitutes bliss, harbouring grief lingers among the shadows. To feel a sense of lightness, we must first experience the tangled knots of hurt and an undeniable yearning for how things used to be. We desire permission to feel, to grieve with our entire being.
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RATED: HD
Zauner’s memoir is a testament to this visceral pain and longing which she experiences after losing the tenacious presence of her mother. Food, family, and feelings are intertwined to tell a beautifully honest story of mother and daughter, culture, and identity. More than just the highs and lows, Zauner tells us that experiencing grief is not linear; we must come to live with the complex coexistence of pain to experience bliss. Such stories like this are a gem to behold, and I hold this one particularly close to my heart. Published by Knopf Publishing Group
Crying in H Mart
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by Michelle Zauner
Reviewed by Chantelle Cortez-Maglalang (Creative Director)
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Published by Riverhead Books
No One Is Talking About This
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by PATRICIA LOCKWOOD
] CW: Illness, death of a child, grief “She had a crystal egg up her vagina. Having a crystal egg up her vagina made it difficult to walk, which made her thoughtful, which counted as meditation.” What does it mean to be eternally logged into the “online portal”? As our lives become increasingly located on the internet, Lockwood asks, how does it feel to crash-land back into reality? No One Is Talking About This explores the absurdities of modern life — from the trap of liberal perfectionism to asking Twitter, “Can dogs be twins?” — and questions: Is this what we do until we die?
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RATED: D
When tragedy strikes, the novel’s narrator is snatched from the “portal” back into bodily reality. The first half investigates her relationship with the portal, in both actively participating in and consuming an irrational recollection of post-2016 Twitter, which reads much like an endless scroll. We are then transported into the second half, where the narrator begins occupying a space that is purely her own — untweetable. The fragmented style of the novel is something you will either love or hate, but for me, it perfectly fits the exploration of a life made up of small moments, detached from a structured linear path. Exploring how humans react to intense emotional situations, Lockwood asks: ‘Were you truly alive in the bliss of the portal, or is it only when tragedy pulls you in, time slows, and people go that you really start to exist?’
Reviewed by Liam Maher (Vice President)
Published by Riverhead Books
Little Family
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by ISHMAEL BEAH
CW: Violence “What a constant creation life was! Any day, any hour, any minute, something good or bad happened and became part of you for a lifetime.” Who do you celebrate your successes with? Do you feel the need to hide your excitement in fear of judgement? The way we experience bliss will always differ from the person next to us, even if we are immersed in the same social context and circumstance.
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D RATED:
] Little Family does a fantastic job at investigating the individualism of its characters through the fan-favourite dynamic of found family. Khoudi, one of the protagonists, experiences the tug between her way of life as an orphan doing odd jobs and the allure of fitting in with the richer circles in Africa. It’s a very realistic depiction of how bliss bubbles up and makes you feel like you’re floating on cloud nine before returning you to the ground. Leaving you counting every second before you can fly again.
Reviewed by Melissa Lee (Publications Coordinator)
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Published by 4th Estate - AU
Sorrow and Bliss
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BY MEG MASON
] CW: Mental ill-health, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, substance abuse, domestic violence “Normal people say, I can’t imagine feeling so bad that I genuinely want to die. I do not try and explain that it isn’t that you want to die. It’s that you know you’re not supposed to be alive, feeling a tiredness that powders your bones, a tiredness with so much fear. The unnatural fact of living is something you must eventually fix.” Bliss is a constant illusion, difficult to grasp and something many of us find ourselves constantly chasing for a brief, albeit incredible, high. Delving into Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss, I found pockets of bliss in the life of an otherwise sardonic and deeply troubled narrator. The novel follows Martha,
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RATED: D
our protagonist, through decades of uncertain adulthood. She desperately attempts to navigate maintaining her humanity while having such little grasp on her own sense of reality. And yet, in the rare moments of bliss, which are often triggered by the mundane, it is difficult not to feel the sensation of elation alongside Martha, no matter how fleeting. Despite navigating a life of intense and severe mental ill-health, Mason has used her literary abilities to cultivate a Fleabag-esque narrator with an unhealthy balance of the macabre and comical. The number of times I found myself absurdly cackling out loud at yet another morbid yet witty piece of dialogue made me question my own sanity. Possibly one of the most beautiful, vulnerable, and tender books I have ever read.
Reviewed by Serena Chowna (Events Director)
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Published by Grand Central Publishing
Sometimes I Trip On How Happy We Could Be by Nichole Perkins
RATED:
CW: Racism, sexism, ableism, domestic abuse, sexual assault, medical trauma, homophobia, body shaming, sexual content “Like a fool, every time I write out my intentions for the new year, I list ‘Have someone to celebrate Valentine’s Day with,’ and, like a fool, I forget I am someone.” In this collection of uncensored essays, Perkins takes a magnifying glass to her experiences with sex, love, and getting through the everyday as a southern Black woman in contemporary USA. Over the course of each essay, Perkins finds power in learning about herself — her wants, needs, and desires — and allowing herself to seek and demand these things, to rejoice in letting them bring her closer to bliss. This process is illuminated in part by Perkins’ introspective and often witty tone.
HD
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] She doesn’t shy away from interrogating her own biases, thoughts, or feelings with the same critical eye that she turns to the unfair power structures inherent to the world she inhabits. Some chapters get quite dark, and many will find that her raw recounts of abuse, depression, discrimination, and sexual assault, among other experiences, hit the nail on the head (readers should enter this book with caution). But it’s not all shade under this tree, and the sun regularly breaks through. One of my favourite essays is titled ‘The Women’ and paints three portraits of the strong, caring women in Perkins’ family with whom she’s found love and solace in no short supply. So, if it’s bliss you’re looking for, Perkins will show you how to hunt for it and forge it even as the world deals you terrible cards.
Reviewed by Talia Moodley (Publications Director)
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‘X’ (2022) CW: Sexual content, blood, violence, death A gruesome, gory slasher, X pays homage to 1970’s horror exploitation films to create a female-driven horror story. The film follows a group of young filmmakers who travel to Texas to film an adult film in a rural farmhouse. Their passion comes with the rise of home cinema, allowing them to find fame through creative pornography. Unbeknownst to them, the elderly couple who owns the farm has other plans, and the night slowly turns into a bloody race for survival. Deriving stylistic and character influences from the 1970’s, director Ti West unapologetically pushes the limits of sex and gore. X plays out like a slasher, a blend of Boogie Nights (1998)
and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), while simultaneously blending commentary on youth, ageism, and beauty in sex. Mia Goth shines in a dual role as our lead, aspiring adult film actress Maxine, and as an unrecognisable elderly woman, Pearl. In turn, Jenna Ortega excels as a soft-spoken film assistant who evolves into a fearless force, cementing her spot as a breakout scream queen after Scream (2022). The film takes time to build characters, playing on stereotypes but cultivating clear personalities, making this eclectic crew of dreamers a compelling watch. X lives up to the cult favourites of the 1970’s while remaining an original, entertaining film with no shortage of blood, guts, and balls.
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CW: War To take us back to his childhood in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Kenneth Branagh creates a film following nine-year-old Buddy in his hometown. He runs around the streets imagining fantasy worlds, getting in trouble with his cousin, and crushing on the smartest girl in his mathematics class. Yet, beneath this bliss, his family live amidst ‘The Troubles’, and after local riots occur, Buddy’s family faces a difficult decision: leave for a safer future or stay. Shot in black and white, Branagh’s screenplay balances both humour and serious moments, making the film a very watchable experience, elevated by its soundtrack from Van Morrison. Belfast captures the innocence of being a child in an unstable environment, showing moments
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like a trip to the cinema, allowing the family to momentarily escape troubling times. The strong ensemble of Catriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, and Judi Dench each bring their own warmth and endearing charm in playing the adults in Buddy’s life. Dornan singing ‘Everlasting Love’ by Love Affair to Balfe is a highlight, their undeniable chemistry a reminder of why these characters fell in love and its endurance throughout time and circumstance. The ending is a bittersweet moment that will surely resonate with many of its viewers. As Branagh’s most personal film to date, Belfast is a truly heartwarming and pleasant watch.
‘CODA’ (2021) The most recently crowned Best Picture Winner at this year’s Oscars, CODA is an uplifting comingof-age crowd-pleaser that successfully manages to make you cry and smile at the same time. Ruby (Emilia Jones) is a child of deaf parents (CODA) who balances going to school while helping her brother and father with their struggling family fishing business. She is the only hearing member of the family. One day she discovers that she has a talent for singing in her school’s choir and is torn between choosing her family or her dream as a singer.
The film tugs at your heartstrings, particularly when Ruby sings ‘Both Sides Now’ by Joni Mitchell in a moment that won’t leave a dry eye in sight. CODA goes exactly where you think it’ll go, but this emotional, moving film will spark bliss in even the coldest hearts.
Sian Heder has crafted a delightful film, and it’s hard not to fall in love with its likeable characters and humorous script. The casting of deaf actors as deaf characters adds a level of authenticity
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as emotion and communication in sign and spoken language never feels forced. Troy Kotsur, in particular, is a scene-stealer, being a hilarious pillar of strength for the family despite their reliance on Ruby’s translations. There is a scene where Heder gives the audience the perspective of Ruby’s family by removing all sound during one of her performances. It’s a humbling moment that makes you appreciate the love in this family — for them to do what’s best for each other even if it means not completely understanding why.
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The Young Minds Behind:
INTERVIEW BY CLARA ATKIN
CW: Sexual references, references to sexual harassment and pornography, r*pe, depiction of eating disorders
In fact most prominent film directors and producers are men. In 2014, The Directors Guild of America shared that 82.4% of American directors were “caucasian males”. How wonderful!
Photography by Aliyah Knight
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The performing arts industry is ever-changing. It’s about time we see women in more managerial roles in the industry. In 2020, Emerald Fennell directed Promising Young Woman (2020), a thriller following a woman on a r*pe-revenge spree punishing men of disturbing character. And, Kathleen Kennedy is one of the most successful and respected producers and executives in the film industry at the moment — being President of Lucasfilm. But, when you think about it, the names that generally come to mind, when it comes to directors, producers and so on, are men.
Vertigo was able to sit down and chat with two amazing young women who are stepping into the Australian Theatre scene, playwright Miranda Michalowski and director Jo Bradley, to discuss their upcoming show, Young Bodies/Somebody’s. The show was constructed with a (mostly) female crew and anall female cast, exploring the experiences of shame in young audiences, particularly in women.
Young Bodies / Somebody’s 41
V: So firstly, can you both introduce yourself, and tell us about how Young Bodies/Somebody’s came about?
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MM: Well, I’m still a student, and I’m just getting into playwriting more at the moment. I wrote this first play, Young Bodies/Somebody’s, last year in this course with the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), where I met Jo. I’ve sort of done different things with acting and writing, but I’ve really liked combining the two. I just wanted to write something that expresses my experiences as a young woman. A lot of the people around me are going through a weird period of life, which is sort of just coming out of being a teenager, but still not feeling like you’ve got anything together enough to be an adult. I started with that, and I guess I also wanted to write about the idea of shame. Yeah, just writing about being a young woman in a way that’s authentic and entertaining. JB: I’m the director. As Miranda said, we met at the ATYP class last year, where we first began working together on the play. I read different drafts of Miranda’s script and got to see it evolving, which was really cool. In school, we just studied existing work, I’ve never worked with new work before. While Miranda was developing it last year, we were looking into different places to host the show and now it’s showing next month. MM: Yeah, up until late last year, it was just the two of us, and now it feels very strange. We’re like, “Oh my God, we actually have a team… a cast.” V: What are the major themes and plot of Young Bodies/ Somebody’s and who would enjoy the play/show?
MM: So it’s a play written and directed by young women, primarily for young women. It looks at the idea of sisterhood. The main characters are these two sisters, and it follows a week in their life where things are imploding: Their mom is moving in with her new boyfriend; one of them is struggling with an eating disorder, and the other one is going on this journey of sexuality. But we are exploring the mother-daughter relationship as well. If you’ve ever seen the film Ladybird (2017), that was such a big thing! And, people want mother-daughter relationships shown. Jo and I talked a lot about how there’s so much about relationships between fathers and sons in plays and films. JB: Yeah, we have been consuming thousands of stories about father-son relationships, and if they’re well made and if it’s a
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good story with good storytelling, I’m still gonna enjoy it. But I’m gonna enjoy our play more. It’s about that point when you’re 19 or 21 and everyone is growing up at different rates, but you’re trying to work out your place. Are you a child? Are you an adult? Why are you still at home? There’s lots of big stuff. Young women will probably relate to it the most, but every young person would identify with this. MM: I started off by writing a monologue about this girl who is super self conscious at the pool. It’s about feeling like everyone is watching her, and that became part of the opening scene of the play. I was interested early on in how shame impacts young women in lots of different ways — that makes it sound really dark, but mostly it’s quite a humorous play (laughs)! V: I think one of the amazing things is that this is a primarily female driven project! What has the experience been like and have you been in any similar projects?
JB: I was studying acting at UNSW, and I was in a bunch of shows with male directors, and often, male crew. Then, when I directed my first play, it had an almost all female cast. That play was also about eating disorders, so it was very important that we had a crew that handled that subject matter sensitively. Almost every woman I know has had experiences of disordered eating. Nearly every woman I know has had struggles with body image. It created a very supportive atmosphere, which is something we were conscious of when picking our crew — but it was also a lot of women who were applying for this position anyway, so it wasn’t like we were deliberately rejecting a bunch of guys (laughs). V: What is so special about women in performing arts?
MM: I think theatre is so undervalued here. Theatre has a potential that something like film doesn’t have. We can do something different.
“The thing about theatre is that it’s a communal experience, and it’s people sharing something.”
Photography by Aliyah Knight
JB: Exactly. And I wrote my thesis on the underrepresentation of female artistic directors at big theatre companies in Australia. The scene is definitely changing, but when we look over the last 20 years, there’s a lot of playwrights writing plays about fatherson relationships, and white guys directing them. Similar to how Miranda referenced Ladybird, I remember when I saw Single Asian Female at Belvoir Theatre in 2018, it felt so cool to see a story dedicated to Chinese-Australian mothers and daughters. Miranda and I have fixated on these mother-daughter stories because they had a big impact on us. V: I had never considered how many father-son stories are out there…
JB: I’m so sorry. Once you realise, it’s impossible to ignore (laughs).
V: Off the top of your heads can you share your favourite part of the show itself?
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That’s where that sense of catharsis can occur. People get to have a shared experience in this live space, witnessing the same thing, and I think that’s really special.
MM: I mean, we worked on the opening yesterday, where the two sisters are in different places, but they’re both talking at the same time. One is in a nightclub, and one is in a pool, and they’re talking about whether or not they want people to come looking at them. We were working on that yesterday and I found that a lot of fun. Possibly that part, or the ending, which has changed a lot. JB: I feel the same. But I especially like this character ‘Anna’ and her story. She starts in a little club, and she’s the classic chatty drunk girl you meet in a club bathroom. I feel like I’ve had a lot of fun with that character, especially with the charm and humour in her monologues. Maybe I like her because when we applied for the Flight Path Theatre in Marrickville, we had to do this tenminute pitch, and I played her!
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V: What advice do you have for young people, particularly young women looking to get into this industry?
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MM: I mean, this is something I’ve struggled with myself constantly, but you always feel like there are so many teenage girls and young women trying to get into this industry. You kind of walk into a room and go, Oh my god, there are 20 girls who look like me. You can get very caught up in the trap of comparison. And, I know I do this, you find yourself wondering why she seems to be further ahead, or she seems to be doing things that I don’t quite know how to do, but also remember: no one else has the same perspective. People might write similar stuff, and there are people in Sydney Theatre who are writing similar stuff to what I’m writing, but everyone has a different perspective and a different voice. It’s important to remember that — that’s something valuable. It’s already so competitive, and it already feels like there are not enough opportunities, so you need to back yourself.
“(...) everyone has a different perspective and a different voice.”
JB: Before meeting Miranda, I felt very stressed and directionless as a director (laughs). But then, we were able to collaborate. It’s one of the anxieties I had: I wasn’t doing anything as a director. Until I started working with Miranda on Young Bodies/Somebody’s. So, I guess my recommendation would be to find other people. I specifically did that ATYP course because I was hoping to meet more young people like me who wanted to create theatre as a career. I was very lucky, and as soon as I started working on this project, I felt I had a focus and a goal. V: And lastly, plug yourself! How can people come to watch the show?
J: Follow @Youngbodies22 on Instagram, the links to everything are on there! Where to buy tickets, dates, the cast…everything! I also personally have a website called scribblesofstageandscreen.com, and my personal instagram is @jolucyb.
Website:
M: Definitely follow the Instagram!! You can find me personally on Instagram @miranda_mic.
Young Bodies/Somebodies is showing at the Flight Path Theatre in Marrickville from 19 to 28 May. Be sure to check it out! 44
Student Activism powered by SSAF. Your Collectives fighting for environmental, feminists, anti-racist, pro-queer, Indigenous justice.
CW: Nudity, ageism, misogyny
ARTS & LIFESTYLE
RECLAIMING THE BODY:
P H O T O G R A P H Y AND FEMINISM
Ponch Hawkes WITH
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Ponch Hawkes, 500 Strong (2019-20)
Images provided by Ponch Hawkes
INTERVIEW BY ASHLEY SULLIVAN
Renowned for capturing the raw beauty of the female body, LGBTQI+ activism, and intergenerational relationships, Ponch Hawkes is an Australian photographer who set the scene for the Australian feminist art moment. Empowering the body amidst all walks of life, Ponch’s extensive career continues to grow more adventurous with her representations of the human form. Vertigo had the opportunity to chat with Ponch about the historical influences guiding her photography, the emotional resonance of her projects, and the journey taken to where she is today.
V: Hi Ponch, thank you for taking the time to chat with us. Could you begin by introducing yourself to our Vertigo readers? PH: I’m a photographer who lives and works in Melbourne on the land of the Wurundjeri. I used to be a librarian and was a journalist for an alternative paper, but I’ve basically earned my living by being a full-time photographer and artist since 1988.
PH: There’s nothing quite like the thrill of photography. I found a camera in the cupboard where I was working, had it repaired, and I just started taking photos. As I was on a publication, my photographs got published, which was very encouraging. This was also when there were hardly any women taking photos, and the other women who needed photography commissioned me to do work, for which I was not really able to do, but which meant I took a risk and learned how to do it. V: Your photography has been an influential part of the Australian feminist art movement. How do you use photography to engage with social issues? PH: I don’t know any other way to do it really. The issues which my work is about, are the issues that interest me as a person. They’re about my politics, so that’s where the photography comes from. I just follow what I’m thinking about, what I’m talking about, and what I’m trying to investigate.
PH: The nude body has had a place in art since people started drawing on cave walls.
What has been missing is anybody other than younger women, which, although very beautiful, has meant that we’ve had a very gendered view of ageing and how the human body changes throughout its lifetime.
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V: What inspired the career change to full-time photography?
V: A sustained theme throughout your work is the focus on bodies. How do you use the framing of bodies to empower individuals, and what role does the nude body have in art?
Older women are completely invisible in the nude pantheon. Really, my work with the bodies is dance and theatre and circus and a whole range of activities where people use their bodies. I just love being engaged with that, and I’m a huge sports nut, so I love the way people engage with their bodies in sports. I’d like to think I have a feminist perspective on it, and that’s how I approach photography.
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V: 500 Strong is a fantastic representation of the female body. Can you tell us about the concept behind the project and the reception it received?
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PH: It was a commission for a show called Flesh After Fifty: Changing Images of Older Women in Art, which commissioned about 15 artists to make representations of older women. Professor Martha Hickey, from the Royal Women’s Hospital, discovered that women who reach menopause early, often thought their lives were over and that there was nothing left for them. Struggling to find a medical way, Martha was trying to find a way to show women the range of activities and ways you can talk about ageing.
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I think this project was so powerful because it’s the first project that I would really say whose aim was to make social change. It was apparent from people’s responses, especially older women, that they were affected by seeing that the way their bodies looked was normal. V: What emotions do you want your photographs to evoke from viewers? PH: It depends on what it is, how I’ve approached it, what the subject is, and what the context is. As I mentioned before about 500 Strong, the response to that project has been so strong and emotional about how incredible it is that a piece of work has changed their lives by participating in it or seeing it.
Jane Scott was a curator, and she commissioned me for this large-scale project, and it was fantastic! Women were very brave to show up and take their clothes off in front of something they didn’t know, even if they were feeling shy or maybe even ashamed, and just to be so… bold, is what I want to say, that’s what was so exhilarating.
Of course, photography has emotional resonance for various people in various instances, and people can easily misinterpret what you do, but you can’t do anything about that. All you can do is make it laid out and try to make it sit in the context.
Ponch Hawkes, 500 Strong (2019-20)
Ponch Hawkes, 500 Strong (2019-20)
I love to explore new things, and one of the things that photography does is give you an incredible entrée.
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Top: Ponch Hawkes, No title (Two women embracing, ‘Glad to be gay’) (1973), Bottom: Ponch Hawkes, No title (Women’s liberation demonstration in City Square) (1975)
V: Your 1973 photograph, No title (Two women embracing, ‘Glad to be gay’), is featured in QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection. What is the backstory behind this image, and what is your relationship with queer stories and photography? PH: It’s hard to imagine now, but I had been focusing on one or two gay liberation marches that had taken place in Sydney, and Melbourne, a group of women had started a lesbian group from my peer group. It was such an exciting time in the early ‘70s in Melbourne — feminism had largely come to us from the States and the UK — and we felt like we were going to say things, and the entire world was going to listen and change. Women were setting up all types
of groups, and those women in the photographs, Jenny and Sue, were in one of the groups I moved around with. V: What has been the most enjoyable experience during your career? PH: The new is one thing. I love to explore new things, and one of the things that photography does is give you an incredible entrée. People can also be very trusting, so they give you an incredible look into their lives which is a great privilege and enables you to make really interesting work.
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Ponch Hawkes, Mimi and Dany (1976) from the series Our mums and us
It’s also true that my work is very collaborative. If I’m taking photos of somebody or a group, they’re usually involved in discussion beforehand about what the outcomes might be. That’s a part of my view of photography; I like to engage with the people I’m working with. V: What art piece or project has meant the most to you?
How do you think the photography landscape V: has changed since the beginning of your photography career?
V: What ideas are you working on now, and what does the future look like? PH: The future looks pretty busy, actually. My show is currently at Geelong Gallery, and then will be going to Shepparton Art Museum and Horsham Regional Art Gallery. I’m currently engaged in a body library, which is half-way done now. I’m also working on a personal project collecting X- rays. I don’t exactly know how to use them yet, but I’m in my experimental stage.
PH: Personally, it’s changed a lot. I used to see myself as a photojournalist, which is what I did, and then later, I probably started to think about myself as a documentary photographer. Now, I would definitely call myself a photographic artist as my work started to change to make constructive imagery and be more adventurous.
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PH: It’s like choosing a baby, not that I have any babies, so it’s more like choosing one of my dogs (laughs). Every decade there is probably one or two, like the very first project I did is the one that I’m most well-known for, which is Our moms and us. They say that as an artist, you only have three ideas, and that’s one of mine as it’s a particular work that the National Gallery of Australia collected. But you know, your latest work is your favourite as well, so it’s kind of what you’re working on now that will always be the one you’re in love with.
There’s also plenty of people with talent, so you can’t get away without working hard. You can have a bit of luck, but you don’t get too much luck in this business. You really need to put your head down and commit to projects, and you have to be prepared to be poor. You have to be prepared to invest in your career. You have to be prepared to pay that $30 for a competition because important people will judge and see your work, and even if they don’t accept you as a finalist, they might remember your work.
V: What advice do you have for young photographers trying to find their distinct style? PH: My advice would be to do what you’re interested in and be really nice to everybody because you don’t know where you’re going to meet them on the way up or down. The art world in Australia is very small; don’t fall out with people. The people you know now at university or whatever group you’re in are going to be people you know for the rest of your life, so be gentle with them.
If you’re looking for more work by Ponch Hawkes, check out her website:
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In Conversation with Scott Marsh
When Scott Marsh’s mural of Kanye West passionately kissing himself appeared on a Chippendale street in 2016, no one could have anticipated the wide-spread recognition that would follow. Within weeks, the image was circulating news media landscapes all over the world, and members of the public were cueing up to take photos. In the years since, Marsh has acquired the type of reputation most street artists could only dream of, not least of all for his caricatures of conservative Australian MPs. For this issue, Vertigo sat down with the Sydney-based artist to discuss the origin of his practice, and the place of art in political discourse. V: How did you get engaged in the Sydney art scene?
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SM: Since I was twelve years old, I’ve been writing graffiti — tagging and all that stuff — and that kind of took over my life. I became obsessed with it all the way through my teens and into my twenties. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve built up this skill set that I’ve acquired through graffiti. I’ve learnt how to use spray-paint, learnt how to paint outside, learnt how to draw, whatever. I studied Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales and started using those skills to paint little commissions for cafes and stuff. Eventually, I started painting murals and found a political voice through that. I think the hardest part for any artist is not really figuring out how to paint, but figuring out what you want to paint and what you want to say. I was fortunate to find that.
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V: Was there an “ah-hah!” moment when you figured out what you want to do?
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Wilson Hathawayby Joseph
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SM: Yeah, well, I wasn’t politically engaged at all as a teenager or as an artist in the early days. It was actually the lockout laws that got me politically engaged. I lived in Kings Cross while I went to university and a lot of my friends were bartenders or DJs. I basically watched Kings Cross die. It still hasn’t recovered from those lockout laws. I painted
a ‘Casino Mike’ mural, which was a mural about Mike Baird as he was leaving the casinos open while everything else had to close. That got a lot of attention, and I was receiving a lot of media requests about it; I was like, “Fuck. I better research this guy so that I don’t look like a fucking dickhead”. When I looked into it, I realised there were a bunch of his policies I didn’t agree with.. I started looking at other people’s policies more broadly and it just started from there. It gave me an outlet for wanting to say something that was serious, but at the same time, I’ve always been a bit of a class clown character, so it gave me an opportunity to be funny and goof around as well. V: You said earlier that you’ve been graffitiing since you were twelve. Did you grow up in a particularly nurturing art scene? SC: Well, I grew up in a graffiti scene, and that was just fighting and graffiti-writing — it definitely wasn’t nurturing (laughs).
V: There are a lot of in-studio prints for sale on your website —was it difficult moving from a graffiti background into a fine arts practice? SM: Yeah, I often get asked, “How was it learning to paint outside?”, whereas it was the opposite for me. I’ve always been painting outside since I was about twelve, so it’s perfectly normal for me to be painting massively on a wall. It was building a studio practice and trying to translate what I was doing — making it smaller and fitting it onto a little canvas — that was the hardest thing, because you have to invent yourself in a different way and reappropriate all the skills. V: Is there a practice you prefer more? SM: Nah, they’re just different. The process of painting in the studio is a lot more experimental. You paint something, then have a look and change it — you play around a lot more. When you’re painting a mural, just because of the scale, you’re making a plan and then executing it. You don’t really have time to stand back and go, “Oh, I might add a little bit of this or a little bit of that”. You have to figure all that out before you start painting.
ARTS & LIFESTYLE
There were a bunch of us who would all paint graffiti together, some very talented guys, and we’ve all kind of gradually made the transition into art as we’ve gotten a little bit older and needed to make a living. We had these skills, but all we wanted to do was paint graffiti, so we started painting murals, and we’ve all become reasonably successful. That was the kind of community I had. It wasn’t an arts community; it was a graffiti community.
EVEN NOW, IN TERMS OF THE ART SCENE, I’M AN OUTSIDER. I COME FROM A GRAFFITI WORLD; I’M NOT FROM A FINE ART WORLD. I DON’T EXHIBIT IN COMMERCIAL GALLERIES.
V: You said a little while ago that you did a Bachelor of Fine Art, but you’ve also completed a Bachelor of Education. Have those come in handy for you? SM: When I studied art, I was shit — I didn’t pay attention or absorb any of it. When I went back to study teaching, I had to revisit all that art history stuff, and it’s important to see what other artists have done before you, because that informs your practice. That part of it I found really helpful.
ARTS & LIFESTYLE
V: Were there any standout artists that inspired you? SM: When I was in high school I loved the work of Honoré Daumier. He was a French political artist from the 1800’s who drew satirical cartoons. I based my major work in the HSC around one of his paintings. I loved his work, but I never read what it was about because I didn’t care; I just liked the aesthetic. Later, when I went back to teaching, I had to write some essays so I decided I may as well write an essay on Honoré Daumier. When I looked into it, I found that he was actually painting about politics and doing exactly what I’m doing now, but way back in the day. He even got arrested a bunch of times for painting cartoons about the French king, so he was pretty gangster. But it was just interesting that I was attracted to his work but had absolutely no idea what it was about. V: How important do you think art is in political discourse? SM: In a free society, you’ve got to be able to take the piss out of your politicians and your leaders, and they’ve got to have the skin to cop it. In that sense, I think it’s important. It’s also just part of the Australian identity — that larrikin nature of taking the piss out of yourself and your mates. I love that part of it, and I think it’s a little bit of an extension of that. V: There’s a great level of variety to the street art that you do. You’ve got everything from the ‘Bill Shorten as Two Face’ piece to the Tony Abbott caricature: ‘100% C**t’, which isn’t as thoughtful as it is just empathetic about people’s hate towards Tony Abbott as a politician. When you make these artworks, do you consider the specific impact you want to have: who’s going to see it and what you want them to be thinking? SM: A lot of it is exactly like that — I’m always thinking about the audience. When you paint in a public space, you’ve got to figure out who’s going to see it, and if you’re trying to say something, you’ve got to figure out who you’re saying it to, and how to craft a message that’s going to get through to them.
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THE BEST TOOL IS HUMOUR. HUMOUR CUTS THROUGH ALL THE BULLSHIT. The hardest part for me is finding walls. Location can add so much conceptually to the piece. If I can paint that Tony Abbott mural in his electorate or near his office, it’s a lot more fun. The politicians can never get those walls. With those paste-up murals specifically, I can play around with location a lot better. V: How important is audience interaction to you? SM: The first time I noticed it was when I painted the ‘Kanye Kissing Kanye’ mural which went really viral, and there were lines of people queuing up to take selfies in front of it. Getting people to interact with art in a public space that’s not a gallery or institution is fun. I did the ‘Fraser Anning Easter Egg Hunt’ where people would chuck eggs at a mural of Fraser Anning’s head. There’s another one with Clive Palmer; he used to fall asleep in Question Time when he was in Parliament, so I did ‘Draw Dicks on Clive Palmer While He’s Sleeping’ by leaving some Sharpies on the wall underneath posters of him sleeping. I’m always trying to think of ways to get the audience to interact with the work. It’s fun for me, and it’s fun for the audience. Galleries and institutions are awesome, but it’s really hard for normal people to step inside them because they’re an intimidating space. If you can frame stuff in a public space, in a normal environment where they’re comfortable and can interact with it, it gets people engaged in art.
V: Of course, the flipside of that is when people try to censor your work, as happened with the ‘Tony Marries Tony’ mural. Does that bother you? SM: Yeah, I’d prefer it didn’t happen, but that’s just part of painting in a public space. It happens more and more these days, and disturbingly it happens more and more from the left. People get on their woke high-horse and have problems with just about everything. Rather than letting it be, they want to cancel it, which kind of sucks, but it is what it is. V: Do you ever miss being an unknown street artist? SM: Nah, I’ve never attached my face or identity to my work, outside of just “Scott Marsh”, so I feel like I’ve kept a little bit of my anonymity. If I ever want to paint something that’s not under my name. I can just go do that (laughs). V: If you were talking to a younger artist who found themselves in the same position that you were, what advice would you give them? SM: The most important thing is just to do what you want to do. Don’t do what you think is going to make you successful, and don’t do what you think people are going to like. Find your voice and do exactly what you want to do. For me, the moment I stopped thinking about what was popular and how I would sell a painting was the moment I became successful. Don’t listen to all the other bullshit. A ll
pho tos
from s cottmarsh.com
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The Oscars: T U The Academy’s Over It And So Are We
ARTS & LIFESTYLE
by Jacqueline Adams
The 94th Academy Awards were undoubtedly one to be remembered. There were so many firsts — Ariana DeBose became the first queer woman of colour to take home an Oscar. Troy Kotsur became the first deaf person to win an award. Oh yeah, and it was also the first time we saw somebody get slapped live on the stage of the Dolby Theatre. Amid all the commotion of that now-infamous slap, is anybody else wondering when the Oscars became little more than a spectacle? Of the diminishing number of people who seem to be investing any attention to the Oscars, even less seem to care about what should be the main focus: the nominated films. Indeed, it seems the ceremony itself is the movie that everybody comes to see and the one that frames social media discourse for the weeks that follow. Last year’s ceremony even had its own Rotten Tomatoes score. I was in class while the winners were announced and found that only a select few of my peers had seen any of
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Illustrated by Sophia Ramos
the Best Picture nominations. It’s not a massive surprise that young people are generally less engaged with cinema than they once were — we’ve spent two years knowing that attending the cinema could be a COVID-19 risk. But if the Oscars aren’t really about movies, then what are they about? Perhaps it’s just a dazzling spectacle or a chance for industry insiders to feel a momentary sense of camaraderie and collective achievement. If it’s at all for us consumers, it serves merely as a temporary reprieve from the often awful reality we live in.
v
For just one day, we relish in superficial popular culture headlines and push more confronting world events to the back of our minds.
A ARTS & LIFESTYLE
Still from CODA (2021) dir. Sian Heder
It’s a welcome, though selfish indulgence for all involved. Unless, of course, you’re somebody who has seen the Best Picture nominations. Then, it’s an enigma.
Best Picture nominee Power of the Dog (2021) was criticised as having been “just dull” and “too long”. On stage, Wanda Sykes joked that she had “watched that movie three times” and was “almost halfway through”.
I wondered how the Academy could see CODA (2021) as a more deserving film for the Best Picture Oscar than most of the others in the category. I might have found an answer in The Guardian’s report on the 2022 Oscar ballots, 1 which is a chance for voting members of the Academy to offer their candid takes on the nominees. These tip-offs are usually meanspirited but always anonymous.
The Academy’s short attention span might account for a film as formulaic and predictable as CODA taking out the top prize. There was no shortage of nominees that did what CODA tried to do — If you’re after characters teeming with life-affirming dynamism, watch Licorice Pizza (2021). If you’re after a story centred adequately around the struggles of a minority group, watch King Richard (2021). Most importantly, if you want to see a truly affecting usage of Sign Language in film, watch Drive my Car (2021).
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ARTS & LIFESTYLE
Of course, CODA taking home the Best Picture award is an excellent step toward visibility for people with disabilities in an industry historically populated by the ablebodied. Still, this is an awful loss of opportunity for the proper representation that the deaf community deserves. CODA follows schoolgirl Ruby as she chases her ambitions of gaining admission to Berklee and pursuing a music career. At the same time, she struggles with the perceived difficulties of having a deaf family. That’s right, of having a deaf family, not being disabled herself. Her parents and her brother face targeted attacks for their deafness. Meanwhile, we are coerced into believing that Ruby is the character we should empathise with. The film continually casts light on her personal struggles while leaving her shortcomings in the dark. In fact, the only way that Ruby’s family’s disability contributes to the film is as a tool for her own character development. American Sign Language is used chiefly throughout CODA as a mere translation of the listless script and a vessel for wave after wave of crude innuendos. Surely there could be a more graceful usage of the language than for Ruby’s dad, Frank, to Sign the visceral details of the sex he’d just had with her mum. We’re supposed to find this funny because of the motions he makes throughout. This representation doesn’t hold a candle to the poignant depictions in other recent films like Sound of Metal (2019) and The Tribe (2014). The former elicits empathy through its sound design, and the latter is conducted entirely in Sign Language with nothing by way of translation. It seems the Oscars serve more as an opportunity for escapism than it does for fair awards. According to those aforementioned ballots, a member of The Academy was put off by Nicole Kidman’s performance in Being the Ricardos (2021) because she’s too “plastic looking”. 2 In that case, I’m sure there are a myriad of other superficial reasons The Academy might have overlooked deserving films when voting. If industry professionals really antici-
References
1
What can we learn from this year’s honest Oscars ballots?
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2
Ibid.
pate a sense of togetherness at the Oscars, why are they so quick to publicly slander each other in the ballots just one day before? Have they grown to care as little about the awards as we have?
Perhaps I am just embittered, but one thing I hope we can all agree on is the tragedy of seeing great cinema go unrewarded. Cinema that is boundary-pushing, technically impressive, and deeply empathetic. That, most of all, feels like a total slap in the face.
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BUSINESS, LAW & STEM
Interview by Ashley Sullivan
As one of the three certainties of life, taxes don’t exactly inspire joy for anyone. The permanency of taxes throughout our lives means that having the down-low on how to prepare them properly is a pretty important skill. Vertigo spoke with Director of Communications for H&R Block Australia Mark Chapman to help make filing your taxes less daunting ahead of the end of financial year (EOFY). Disclaimer: This is not an advertisement. V: How should we prepare for tax season? MC: Obviously, we’re all different, but it is possible to generalise about the sorts of documents you might want to pull together before you start the tax return process. Not all of these will apply to everyone, these are just general guidelines: - Copy of last year’s tax return - Records of sales and purchases of any shares, business or property - Private Health Insurance Details - Spouse Details - Children’s details including D.O.B Income - Payment Summaries for any jobs you have had over the last year - Bank interest statements setting out amounts of bank interest received - Pensions or Government payments - Superannuation lump sum payments - Allowances (car, travel, entertainment, meals etc.) - Employee share schemes - Dividend Statements - Foreign income - Rental property income - Business income - Any other income earned
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Expenses
V: What happens if you don’t file your taxes?
V: How much income do you have to make to file taxes? MC: Your income needs to be at least equal to the tax-free threshold. As an Australian resident taxpayer, the first $18,200 of your income is taxfree (the tax-free threshold). If you earn less than $18,200 from all sources, you won’t pay tax, but you will pay on the excess over $18,200. Therefore, if your income is greater than $18,200, you are legally obliged to lodge a tax return. The $18,200 tax-free threshold equates to: - $350 a week - $700 a fortnight - $1,517 a month
BUSINESS, LAW & STEM
- Work related expenses: - Motor vehicle Incl. estimation of kilometres if no logbook kept, otherwise logbook and expense details - Travel (fares and accommodation) - Uniforms/work-wear - Self-education and professional development (seminars, conferences, etc) - Union fees, registrations, subscriptions, memberships - Home office costs - Telephone, computer, internet fees - Any other costs incurred earning income - Income Protection insurance - Details of any assets purchases (with split between work and private use) - Investment expenses, for example: bank fees, financial advisors fees, investment borrowings etc. - Rental property expenses For example: rates, body corporate fees, agent fees, interest on loans, repairs and maintenance (inside and out), travel, water rates, depreciation schedule, etc.) - Cost of managing tax affairs - Charitable donations over $2
However, it’s important to submit a non-lodgement advice to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), which explains that you don’t need to lodge and ensures they don’t list you as having an outstanding return. Without a non-lodgment advice, the ATO will assume you need to lodge and may take compliance action in order to force you to.
MC: The ATO will issue you a Failure To Lodge (FTL) penalty if your tax return isn’t lodged by the due date. This fine is calculated at the rate of one penalty unit for each period of 28 days or part thereof that the document is overdue, up to a maximum of five penalty units. The value of a penalty unit is currently $222, which makes the maximum penalty which can be applied for an individual $1,110. The penalty is automatic but is not normally applied to returns with either a nil result or which generate a refund. Where a penalty is applied, the ATO will sometimes remit it where it’s “fair and reasonable to do so,” such as in the event of natural disaster or serious illness. 61
V: Should I do my own taxes, or do I need assistance? MC: There’s a reason 70% of Australians use a tax agent to prepare their tax return; tax is complicated! Get your tax return wrong and the comeback is on you, either with a lower refund or ATO penalties. Most people find it far less stressful to simply pass on all their information to a tax agent and leave it to the agent to complete their return, safe in the knowledge that the return will be accurate and complete. An experienced agent will usually be good at sniffing out those obscure tax deductions you didn’t know you could claim so they can often pay for themselves several times over. Best of all, the tax agent’s fee is also tax deductible! V: How do you claim some COVID-19 expenses, such as RATs, as a tax deduction? MC: The government announced that it is making COVID-19 tests tax-deductible for Australian individuals when they are purchased for work-related purposes. This legislation will be backdated to apply for the 2021-22 income year (from July 1 2021). But did you know they are probably already deductible? Under the existing general deduction provisions, an individual may qualify for a tax deduction for the cost of a COVID-19 test (either PCR or RAT) where they are taken for work-related purposes, e.g. where there is a mandatory requirement under an employer’s COVID-19 mandate. A COVID-19 test may also be required by certain countries and states in order for an employee to enter that territory or return to their home state. This too is tax deductible where the test is required for a work-related trip. RAT kits purchased by individuals for private purposes (e.g. personal travel, convenience, no access to PCR testing) will not be tax deductible. Remember to keep all receipts relating to COVID-19 testing and take them with you when you get your tax return prepared, together with substantiation that shows the test was for work-related purposes. If you incur transport expenses to get to and from the site of a COVID-19 PCR test (or expenses in traveling to the chemist or supermarket to acquire an RAT), these will not be tax deductible as they are regarded as private expenses, even if the test is a condition of your employment. V: How do you claim work-related expenses? MC: You must have earned income from a job in order to claim work-related expenses. The general rule is that if you incur an expense as part of your job, aren’t reimbursed by your employer and can substantiate the expense, you can make a claim.
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V: What tax deductions can I claim as a student? MC: If you are purely a student, there isn’t much you can claim as you won’t have earned any assessable income while studying. However, if you have a job in addition to studying, you should be able to claim the relevant deductions for that job. In addition, if you are studying with your job (for example, if you are working as a nurse at the same time as doing a nursing degree), you will be entitled to deductions related to your self-education, including:
- Repayments of Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) loans - Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS) repayments - Home office occupancy expenses (such as mortgage interest or rent) - Meals where not sleeping away from home
BUSINESS, LAW & STEM
You can’t claim the following expenses in relation to your self-education:
- Course and tuition fees - Textbooks and trade, professional or academic journals - Fares, accommodation and meals (if you are away from home overnight) - Computer consumables (such as paper or ink) - Depreciation on assets such as computers or laptops (where the cost exceeds $300) - Purchase of equipment or technical instruments costing $300 or less - Equipment repairs - Home office running costs (for any home study) such as heat, light, etc - Interest on any money borrowed to fund the course - Internet usage - Parking fees - Phone calls - Stationery - Student union fees and other student services and amenities - Travel costs
V: When are my taxes due? MC: October 31 2022 is the tax return due date if you’re lodging your tax return yourself. If you use a tax agent or accountant to complete your tax return, you’ll be eligible for an extended tax return deadline. This deadline can vary depending on circumstances, but can be as late as May 15 2023. It’s important to note that if you want to use an accountant and take advantage of this extension, you need to sign up with the tax accountant prior to October 31. You’re generally not eligible for an extended tax return due date if you have outstanding tax returns that have not been lodged from previous years.
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CW: Racism, references to sex, islamophobia, pornography, violence and sexual harassment
SOCIETY & CULTURE
باجح
Hijab [ħɪˈdʒaːb]
An Oxymoron by Arshmah Jamal
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Photography by @mhrezaa
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Two months before I turned 16, I started wearing the hijab. ForThe aadded 16-year-old, it was a challenging and life-changing decision. of finding a new outfit for my birthday party l because mypressure dress was short-sleeved and had a long slit coming up to my thigh didn’t help.
The main reason I started wearing the hijab was because my dad said I couldn’t do it. “You won’t get any jobs.” “It’ll be harder to find a job.” “You might get fired because of the hijab.” Your whole life will change.
I was nervous and jittery during the car ride. I was scared of people talking about me and suddenly knowing who I am. Despite that, I remember walking through the wired gates of my school with a huge smile and a messy hijab perched with pride on my head.
SOCIETY & CULTURE
I have a history of trying to prove people wrong, so of course, 16-year-old me proved him wrong by wearing the hijab to school the next day.
Maybe it’s because I went to an all-girls school, or perhaps it’s because I was friends with everyone, but I was showered with compliments and genuine happiness the whole day. Girls came up to me and told me how beautiful I looked. Teachers offered advice on where to get hijab-friendly clothes. One of my friends cried out of pure joy. The hijab became a part of me that day, like second nature. I am eternally grateful for the experience and memories that came about that day. I am luckier than most hijabi women.
So how did an innocent piece of fabric become something so performative, bitter, and sexualised once I had become an adult? 65
SOCIETY & CULTURE
my religion is not your costume. The first time I looked in the mirror and realised my hijab was during my first year of uni.
Throughout my 18 years I had never experienced such silence before.
One of the reasons I chose UTS was because I saw people like me at the open day. I remember talking with another hijabi, and she told me how diverse and accepting this uni was compared to others.
He had a shit-eating grin plastered on his face, and his eyes lit up manically.
Nice. I won’t get jumped because of my hijab!
I was silent as another girl immediately started yelling at him and Chloe dragged me away from the table. Blood rushed to my ears, and my hands shook uncontrollably
But oh, how I was wrong.
“Are you okay?”
A group of us were sitting in Building 2, discussing our plans for the upcoming Halloween weekend. The topic of costumes came up, and one guy said he was going to dress up as an Arab, thawb and all.
No? Yes? I don’t know? I thought. This was the first time something like that had been said to my face directly, in public.
My friend (let’s call her Chloe) and I jumped at him to tell him how racist that was, even though he was Muslim. A few google searches later, he apologised after realising his mistake. The guy on his right then loudly asked us to guess what he would wear. None of us said anything. “I’m going to wear the burqa and not wear anything underneath so that I can flash people!”
Going home that day, I stared in the mirror. For the first time in two years, I felt my hijab on my head. Many other bigoted experiences have occurred since then. People have thrown food at me, people have yelled at me, customers have refused to allow me to help them. It used to hurt me a lot; however, I’ve learnt to bask in the discomfort people feel from not showing my hair.
kill them with kindness. There’s an artwork my art teacher introduced us to in high school. It is a video piece of a hijabi woman standing in front of a white-picket fence, smiling. The stagnant woman smiles for five minutes — nothing else. A lot of my classmates said how it made them uncomfortable due to the sheer length of the video. “We get it. She’s smiling. She can stop now.” I remember saying how angry I had felt after it finished.
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My teacher was smiling at me when she asked why I felt angry. “As a hijabi, I feel like I have to constantly smile to make other people around me know I’m not a threat.” I wish I could recall the artist’s name, but I can remember my teacher telling us how those were the thoughts behind the artwork.
Statistically, I’ve been wearing the hijab for 30% of my life. Emotionally, it has been with me for 80% of my waking life — the times when I am self-aware.
However, with every flip of the calendar, I realised how unrealistic I was being, and how people would say something — good or bad — no matter what I did. I’ve recently seen many hijabis being abused on MuslimTok (the Muslim side of TikTok). Women wearing the niqab are dancing to the renegade, and the comments are yelling: music is haram,1 dancing is haram, your actions are haram.
Take it off. Women in a dupatta are doing a storytime, and the comments are yelling: your hair is showing, you’re wearing too much makeup, wear it properly. Take it off. Women in a hijab are making a day in a life, and the comments are yelling: your jeans are too tight, dress modestly, you look like a whore. Take. It. Off. I admit I don’t dress “modestly”. I absolutely hate modest fashion looks because it’s always boiled down to dresses, floral wear, and clothing pieces that flatter skinny bodies. I wear flared jeans, leather jackets, and corset tops on button-down shirts. I wear clothes that will not get me featured on Hijab House. Tendrils of my hair sometimes escape my scarf. I am not “perfect”. I wear these clothes to challenge the soft, kind image I was forced to entertain society with from a young age.
SOCIETY & CULTURE
My mama had told me how, when I start wearing the hijab, I’ll represent my religion of Islam, my culture of Pakistan, and my family of Jamal. Unfortunately, that was a heavy weight for a lonely, first-generation teenager to carry. I lived my high school life impressing outsiders to ensure they would not have a negative viewpoint of my religion or hijabis. At the time, I enjoyed it. I had a fiery personality and was eager to argue with everyone (even if they did not want to be educated). Most importantly, I wanted to make a difference to the world I lived in.
Why was it that the weight of my religion was on my fragile shoulders? Why did I have the urge to always apologise on behalf of other Muslims? Why do I have to smile regardless of what I feel that day? I am aware in Islam that you get rewards if you smile, but if it means I can be “normal”’ and live as myself, I can get these rewards somewhere else.
1
Haram: forbidden according to Islamic Law
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0
SOCIETY & CULTURE
mia khalifa
Sexuality was never discussed in my culture. It’s taboo, and you only have sex when you get married to procreate. Women are to be virgins, never touched. Men can get away with it. Simple actions became connotated with being a “slut” in my community, such as red lipstick, wearing “too much makeup”, or showing your shoulders. The hijab, to me, was a deterrent to sexual advances. I was taught how the hijab curbed sexual desires, and women in the past wore it for modesty. Ironically, this has not been the case.
There was this tweet that was making rounds on Twitter. The user wrote how he needed a Muslim girl because of “how nice it is to fuck them”. Of course, the comments were in shambles. Someone replied at how demeaning that statement was and went into the weird obsession men have with virgins. The original user responded back, saying how they should have sex with a hijabi and then talk. Last week, I was at the train station looking at the timetables and a white man approached me and asked if I was Muslim. No shit. Can’t you see the hijab on my head? I ignored him and started to move towards the platforms. Instead of taking the clear hint, he followed. “I just think the hijab is so beautiful, and you look really good in it.” I know I do. I don’t need this validation from you, asshole.
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“Can I fuck you with it on?”
I stopped. There was a sour taste in my mouth, and my hands started to shake. I knew he was talking, but I couldn’t hear anything he said. I remember my fists curling up my sides, ready to punch him in the nose. By some grace of God, a worker had overheard this and pulled him aside. I have never run that fast. In February, I went on a date with a guy I had met on Hinge. I had told my friends where I was going to be and kept them updated. It was in public and broad daylight, so I knew nothing would happen. It started with mellow compliments. “You look beautiful. You’re so much prettier in real life.” I asked him what he thought about the hijab. He started mentioning how beautiful it is, and how strong the women are. “It’s unfortunate, though, how people like Mia Khalifa ruin it for you!” I stared at him in confusion, and he proceeded to explain how it was demeaning and ugly that someone could sexualise a religious cloth like that. Khalifa’s porn career was short-lived. In the span of three months, she made 11 videos, but her video of a threesome while wearing the hijab blew up and subsequently led her to
leave the industry. She got disowned by her parents, and received horrifying death threats from ISIS. When asked why she didn’t say no, she replied with intimidation. It wasn’t a place to say no. Even after eight years, Khalifa’s actions still impact the Muslim community. On TikTok, users are divided. Open up the comments, and you will see people defending and attacking her. It’s always the same comments as well — she was coerced by her company versus it was her choice to don the hijab. Her regret for her past versus still using her stage name. Her apology for wearing glasses versus not apologising for wearing the hijab.
He assured me it was beautiful and told me how cute I looked. A beat of silence went past when he looked at me and asked if he could be honest.
The hijab has made me feel violated in many situations. It’s also been a base for my emotional, physical, and sexual trauma. At this current point in my life, I don’t feel the same love I did in high school. Neither do I feel that hatred when I am racially abused or sexualised. There are days when I feel highs and lows because of my hijab, but I have realised it would take something else to get rid of it completely. Even though it has been a source of my pain, I will still wear it with pride, just as I did when I walked through that wired fence.
SOCIETY & CULTURE
Khalifa’s porn hurt many girls in my community, especially when boys would call us Mia Khalifa because we were brown and wore glasses. But I believe it was not her fault. She was young, immature, and forced into it. She has expressed guilt for her past and regrets how her videos objectify women like me. Yet no matter how remorseful she is, it will never be enough for everyone. Anyway, we walked on some more when I asked what he thought of my hijab.
0 tl;dr
“It turns me on.” For me, my hijab was an armour during this date. My mind had convinced my heart that nothing would happen. No kissing, no touching, and no sex. I had told my date my boundaries as well. After all, I’m told I’m a great communicator. Unfortunately, my armour led me to a battle I was unprepared for. The hijab used to be an innocent and happy piece of clothing when I was surrounded by people with similar thoughts and ideologies. However, once I stepped foot into the real world, my relationship with the hijab flipped.
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RESPECT. NOW. ALWAYS: CW: R*pe
, Sexual A
ssault
THE INS AND OUTS OF SEX TALK
SOCIETY & CULTURE
Interview by Joey Chalita To survivors, it may come as no surprise that a recent report from the Social Research Centre Survey found that 1 in 20 students have been sexually assaulted on and around campuses in Australia. It also astoundingly found that 1 in 2 students (48%) had experienced sexual harassment at least once in their lifetime.
Bas ed off 1,151 resp ons es from UTS stud ents :
•
•
• •
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14.3% of respondents from UTS reported they had experienced sexual harassment since starting university. 7.2% of survey respondents from UTS reported they had experienced sexual harassment in the previous 12 months. 4% of respondents from UTS reported they had experienced sexual assault since starting university. 1.6% of survey respondents from UTS reported they had experienced sexual assault in university settings in the previous 12 months.
Here at UTS, the Respect. Now. Always. is an initiative run out of Universities Australia and has constantly organised programs with student input such as the “Wanna spoon? Ask first!” program. On Wednesday 23 February, the Respect. Now. Always. campaign launched their first of three uncensored talks: exploring the edges of sex discussion. For the first lineup, the talk was led by UTS Librarian Michael Gonzalez. It featured the innovative mind of Rebecca Park, the cofounder of Jonny Condoms, and her daughter Izabella, an actress with an understandable deep love for the talented and handsome Andrew Garfield. The night was the perfect split of experienced motherly advice and youthful reflection from a generation raised by a failed sexual educational program. This and more was discussed in a laid back talk on the ins and outs of sex and where consent can often go ignored.
are condoms V: Jonny tifully u a e b , s ciou eco-cons marketed more to , and na t how ca designed arket, bu n? m le a m a fe be vega condom
RP: So, in our case, it’s vegan because we don’t use “casein”, an animal derivative in the manufacturing process that uses a binding protein found in milk. In fact, sometimes it’s the casein that women and men can be allergic to. They think it’s a latex allergy, but it’s not. We’ve had people try Jonny who had thought they had latex allergies and been fine. But I can’t claim that because you should talk to your local doctor (laughs).
V: Ha ve you appro seen any p ac ro discu hes to con blematic ssion s s arou ent or nd se x?
RP: Do you know what was problematic? That stupid government milkshake ad, where they wasted millions of dollars that could have been given to us, and we would have done a better job (laughs). That did, I think, worsen the discussion around consent.
IP: Yeah 100%, and an interesting thing I found is how people have different definitions of consent. When it comes to defining consent, I think it needs to be stripped back a bit more to keep it simple. MG: It’s interesting you say that because I was talking with some female friends, and being rubbed up against is actually quite common. And I’m like, “Really? All of you?”, and they’re like, “Oh, yeah, especially when we were in high school and in uniform”. I didn’t think it was that common. IP: At my school, police would regularly line the footsteps of our path to the train station, because we had guys coming up and flashing young girls walking to school.
SOCIETY & CULTURE
IP: You just need to keep it simple. I think it can be a lot more harmful when consent is only depicted in one way with one context. There are a million different ways we communicate with each other. We need to be able to make sure that we understand what consent is. Clearly, there has been a pattern of behaviour that proves people do not understand what that is. So, we need to take it back to the basics.
with the issue V: Maybe defining is t n g conse in s s re ave been d d a ple who h ’ve o e p t s o m lise they it first, as , don’t rea lted. assaulted s a een sau actually b
Image (left) Still frame from: “The Good Society Moving The Line (Australian Milkshake Consent Video)”
The many critics on the Consent Ad have said that it is just an overpriced rip-off of the more simple ‘would you like Tea?’ consent game, as well as the fact that in the video it is a woman who is crossing the line and assaulting the man with her ‘milkshake’. For more thoughts on the video please see Jada Susas’ piece ‘The Women’s Issue’
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There’s this idea centred around consent that, “You can say no, you can always say no”, but there wasn’t even a reason or chance for us to say no because it shouldn’t have happened. The conversation about consent typically surrounds whoever’s being assaulted, or how their boundaries have been disregarded. It’s always, “What didn’t you do?” It’s important that you know that you can put your boundaries up and choose what those limitations are.
SOCIETY & CULTURE
“It’s never your fault if someone else steps over those lines. If you’ve established it, it’s enough.”
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V: Is the re any p a that you think is la rticular areas cking aro convers und ation of consent? the
IP: When you’re only surrounding a conversation of consent towards women, they think they’re the only ones that have this problem. There have been multiple cases where guys haven’t realised that they’ve been assaulted, because they never thought that that could happen to them. How far have we fallen behind if only if this conversation surrounds just one gender? Yeah. So it goes against everything that the conversation surrounds to it’s core, which is more levelled responsibility and better education to all.
ggest be ould you su V: What w t problem this consen done to fix ult and ess on assa and awaren t? n harassme
RP: If the conversation on sex is more normalised, that is, not framed in such a shameful way, then those things won’t be allowed. That’s why I’m so excited about the generation that’s coming through because it is becoming more and more normalised because you’re exposed to conversations and points of view through different media that we didn’t have. For me, education was mainly done by parents, in school, or in magazines that you read or movies you watched. Now, you’ve just got a plethora of vehicles to receive information from, good and bad. But it’s there for the taking. And you can learn as much as you want. So it’s super exciting, because I think it will become more normal and I think people will stand up more often because they know that it’s not okay.
IP: I was gonna say it comes down to the conversation as well. How, especially in our of society,
“We value making other people feel comfortable even at the risk of making ourselves uncomfortable.” On the other side, for people who have been inadvertently or reckless with their responsibility owed to another person when intimate, there is this need of openness to learning and to be uncomfortable hearing things that will make you go, “Oh, shit, I’m a little bit of part of the problem here. I didn’t realise and I didn’t mean to be”. It’s okay to feel uncomfortable. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person or you’re wrong. It’s what you do with that information next, that’s the biggest step. SOCIETY & CULTURE
V: A friend of mine said is something amazing to me, which the than ive ens exp e mor are s that condom less is nt tme trea al mon Hor that — pill expensive than condoms.
RP: When we were doing our research to see how our market would respond, we found that the consensus was that it would be less embarrassing to go to the doctor to get an STI test than it would be to go to the shops and buy condoms — from the female participants. And we’re like, “What do you mean?” A lot of the sentiment was — I do not want to go to the shop. I don’t want to ask about putting it on, or ask to have safe sex. I’ll just go and deal with the STI. Images provided by Jonny condoms
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Illustrations provided and live scribed by Alan Chen
ing that you ost surprising th V: Was that the m research? found during your
RP: Yeah. And the second surprising thing was how quickly they flipped when they saw the Jonny brand. So the focus group didn’t know that we were going to be talking about condoms. But we asked, early on in the research, “Have you bought condoms? If you have, why? If you haven’t, why didn’t you?”. The general response was like, “No way”.
I would so buy that”, and, “oh, yeah, that’s great. I’d be happy to have that in my handbag”.
“It’s too embarrassing. Why would you do that? It’s the man’s job.”
The flip was that fast. We had little bits of encourging texts on the packaging, such as “Que nude shennigans”, “You’ve got this”, and “Gear: off, Jonny: on, sparks: fly” and they’re going, yeah that’s hilarious, that’s funny. So, changing the conversation, changing the way that we approach it, making it humorous, but not cheesy. Yeah, it’s a really super fine line.
When we brought up the Jonny branding, it was a goosebump moment for me that they all went, “Oh my God.
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Which is where the Jonny weekender comes in, which is so incredibly important in changing perceptions, starting conversation, and leading to healthier relationships.
IP: Jonny isn’t necessarily about saying, “Condoms are the be all and end all. This is the best way for you...” But when you hear a lot of stories from friends about how they went on the pill because it was easy to tell their parents it was for their period, when it’s actually for sex, you hear about the enormous amount of side effects to do with the pill. The fact that they’re now having to toss up between risking the symptoms, because they can’t afford to keep buying condoms, or to go without, is a real problem. A basic human right, is to be able to feel free and healthy in your body. It shouldn’t be as much of a task as it’s been made out to be.
SOCIETY & CULTURE
V: Wh at is t he go condo al of Jonn y ms?
If you would like to unpack more of Jonny condoms, you can order some from their online website:
So do people really want to be on the pill, and is that the right thing for you? Because If you’ve explored it for your body and found that it works, then great! But if you’re feeling that’s the only way that you can do it, because it’s the cheaper choice, because condoms aren’t being made available to you, because your doctors aren’t properly investigating your needs, then that’s a concern.
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SHOWCASE
JAYAN PASCOE
e
s is w h
If
Blis
el
you. h t i w
t a
by Jayan Pascoe
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SHOWCASE
Scenes from the road These images encapsulate the bliss of travel. Moments like these are best captured accidentally by a traveller that finds themselves with nowhere to be and no real destination in mind. The agenda for each day is best decided by the destination of whoever will give you a ride, by the goals of a fellow traveller looking for company,
by Aston Brown. or by the warm heart of a local who welcomes you to their lands with open arms. You surrender your control. You exist, observe, and try to occupy as little space as possible. You go where the wind takes you. You are a piece of pumice at the mercy of your surroundings. You find your bliss.
ASTON BROWN 79
80 ASTON BROWN
SHOWCASE
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82 ARTS SHOWCASE & LIFESTYLE
ARTS YOKI & LIFESTYLE ZHOU
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84 SHOWCASE
ANGELIQUE CHERIAN
Release That moment when you unbutton your jeans after a good meal. Ultimate bliss. I recollect the meal I had and the people I shared it with. The conversations and the sight of my close ones eating fill my stomach. I find solace in the idea that I can spend such intimate time while eating.
by Angelique Cherian of eating. Rice grains scattered from setting the table, looking for heat mats for hot curries and quiet munching. An unchanging moment when I can see my family in front of me. It’s being at peace with them and their complexities, putting everything aside just to eat together. A sigh of relief as the button is undone — I fall back down from the sky and feel air pass through me.
Food is my air, and it represents my ancestors. It represents the people who have come before me and passed down these recipes, these experiences, and these table conversations. Bliss is feeling your past enter you in these moments
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86 YVONNE HONG
The Ephemeral by Yvonne Hong
SHOWCASE
‘The Ephemeral’ is a three panel series that celebrates feminine sexuality. Inspired by the visual aesthetics of Luca Guadagnino’s film Call Me By Your Name (2017), the three paintings celebrate femininity and ephemeral bliss. With each face left out of the canvas, the body is focalised to capture romantic movement and emphasise pleasure.
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88 YVONNE HONG
SHOWCASE
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90 SHOWCASE
by Katie Kelly
KATIE KELLY
Serenity
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92 SHOWCASE
KATIE KELLY
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Amends mends Amends Amends Amends Amends
CW: Homopho bia, violence , deat h
by Tony Phan
jewels of dew on spider-silk, turtle doves on balconies, public kisses by the harbour,
CREATIVE WRITING
caresses by botanic trees, sweet magnolias
all at ease.
[there’s a cost. some folks glare in disapproval but we pay no mind. the new Law protects us. no stonings, no nooses, no hellfire here. pulpit screamers don’t scare us.] may the moonlight smile on our union. may constellations grant safe passage. may we breathe. may we be.
let love be these little blisses — simple magic, simple wishes.
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WANT MORE VERTIGO?
‘Dawn’, ‘Sonder’ & ‘Bliss’ available now!
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LOVE LESSONS R OM
F
CREATIVE WRITING
by Shanelle George
From birth, we begin a journey of figuring out what we love and what we don’t. We tell our parents we love them, and we say I love you to our best friends, and we truly mean it. A child’s conception of love is not confined to purely romantic love. When children say the words I love you, they do not say it with lust and desire but rather simple affection and friendship. The love of children isn’t influenced by modern narratives of romance or dictated by definitions of what love “should” look like. It’s a
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type of love that isn’t tainted by past heartache or the brutal nature of growing up. It’s a pure and innocent kind of intimacy. Children do not express their love as being burdened by constant thoughts of what ifs. They do not hesitate to pick flowers from gardens to give to parents, just in case they might come across as being too strong. Their affection is not weighed down by the overthinking that we believe accompanies love. As adults,
love often comes with ulterior motives or unspoken expectations of something in return. For adults, love is often conditional. For children, it is far from that. It is unapologetic and manifests itself in every circumstance possible. As we grow up, we unlearn this type of love. We begin to date around and allow our concept of love to align itself with sex and infatuation. Platforms like Tinder and Bumble expose us to a plethora of people who are searching for purely sexual partners.
The consequence is a lowered baseline of what love should look like, tainting our ability to engage in meaningful romantic interactions. We begin to view love as inextricably connected with sexual worth and desire. However, I don’t believe that we lose this young, innocent sense of love. Not completely. At some point in our lives, maybe on a random Thursday night when we meet that person, we begin the
journey back to our childhood expressions of love. Because when you truly love someone, you fall in love with them in the most innocent of situations. In a bookstore, in a cafe, or over a mere hug. Seemingly insignificant settings which produce the deepest of feelings.
desire we are told it should represent. There is no combination of letters in the English language that could form a word to describe this feeling; it is simply the willingness to love without consequences. The willingness to love the way we loved as children; unapologetically and unconditionally.
It goes without saying that the feeling of saying I love you is indescribable. Saying it with conviction and truth feels nothing like the innate sexual
E
S
CREATIVE WRITING
OUR PAST V L SE
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I’m on public display In your favourite attire Your not so guilty, earthly desire Pray me away A melody, repenting in choir
CREATIVE ARTS & LIFESTYLE WRITING
Wishing to bite flesh Teeth sinking like heavy boats in the mire Observe from afar, my secret admirer
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Yet, is this what I want, What we want our interactions to remain as Hungry eyes lingering on silhouettes
Or is this wishful thinking, Less haunting, Not hunting for projections of wants and needs
CREATIVE ARTS & LIFESTYLE WRITING
Tipping the scales at every glance Is this what love is, Eager humans waiting to prance
To be longed for Not ogled at Not a buyer to their supplier We with our humble requests require A sort of love that blooms, invades, and inspires, Our not so guilty, earthly desire
Mannequin by Jennifer Tony
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ara by Cl
“Sugar Daddy”, while sounding like a completely modern concept, has roots as far back as 1908. Yes, over 100 years ago, a woman called her man, albeit her husband, her “Sugar Daddy”. The legend goes: In 1908, Adolph Spreckles married a woman 24 years younger than him. Alma was apparently quite the catch. She called her older, oldmoney husband her “Sugar Daddy”. The term took a little bit to catch on… The first recorded use of the term was in 1926, when it had become a slang term for a man who offers money or gifts to a younger woman for companionship or intimacy.
The flapper-girl culture of the Roaring Twenties gave momentum to the term, and from there: - The Papa Sucker candy bar was changed to Sugar Daddy - The Sugar Baby candy was created - A 1927 short film called Sugar Daddies was produced - Fleetwood Mac included a song titled ‘Sugar Daddy’ on their self-titled 1975 album The usage continued to grow in popularity and then… In 2006, Brandon Wade launched the website SeekingArrangement.com, marking the era of modern Sugar-relationships – connecting people lacking intimacy with money to spare to those willing to provide.
Atkin
Now, the modern Sugar Baby is an entrepreneur. She’s looking for money to spend on student loans, credit card bills, or the latest Chanel bag. Or…she is looking to respond to the Sugar Daddies in her Instagram DMs so that she can write an article about them.
ART BY SIENA ZADRO
Disclaimer: I completely support the Sugar lifestyle if you choose to live it. But DO NOT trust “Sugar Daddies” in your social media inboxes. They are likely scammers looking to prey on the vulnerable. As such, wasting time on my messages is reducing the chances of them targeting someone who might unknowingly be scammed. So what I’m saying here is: society, you’re welcome. If you are looking to get into a Sugar relationship,this is NOT a guide. Do your research. Evaluate your options. Stay safe and know your worth. AND NOW…what we’ve all been waiting for. TO THE DMS!
1. Jeff Steaven (jeff_steaven) Jeff and I had a short conversation, but my goodness, was it rich. And creepy.
While pondering this, he triple-texted me. A bit needy if you ask me, but I respect the hustle.
MISCELLANEOUS
Firstly, I wanted to see if he thought I was worth more than just $7,000 a week.
See the mending heart emoji? This man really cares for me. This conversation came to an abrupt end as he sent:
Okay, a bit vague in the job description (an emerging trend)… is this a text relationship? Are we going to FaceTime? What do you even WANT Jeff??
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2. Steven Jemes (_wilson550) Never trust a man with two first names. Unless they pop up to you on Instagram and offer “$7,000 via paypal”.
Meet Steven, who held the longest conversation with me. I dare say we became friends. Of course, this is a joke. This man betrayed me.
MISCELLANEOUS
Then Steven tried to get me on WhatsApp and teach me, a generation-z, Instagram-loving, tech-savvy girl, how to download an app. Wow.
This man completely ignored my compliment fishing attempts despite liking my message. He gave me a vague job description and liked his own message. Being the detective that I am, I noticed that he did not even follow me. Playing hard to get, I see. Not on my watch. I needed to see if this man was real…
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3. Anonymous (because he deleted his account??) Again, a basic message. But I thought to jazz this up a bit.
I really tried to keep him on the hook. Now: The Betrayal. Sorry I’m not good enough to text “here on Instagram
MISCELLANEOUS
I gave him much to work with but what I received was this poor soul’s sob story:
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It seems Instagram User moved on from his Facebook debacle and showed no care for my possible injuries.
3.Relka (who’s Instagram has also been deleted) You never forget your first Sugar Mummy.
MISCELLANEOUS
But my God, was she stingy. You can see that the universally accepted rate for scamming Instagram users is $7,000. But Relka must be saving for something…
Maybe it’s because she’s a Sugar Mummy, but she seemed less robotic than the others. More real. More down to earth. Relka is truly not like other girls.
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Oh Relka. You’ve set me up so well. Thank you.
MISCELLANEOUS
It has now been two weeks, and for some reason I don’t think she will respond.
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mad bliss stories. by Andy Lee
Tips: - Be crude with word selection - Make it a try-not-to-laugh challenge - Swap places after the first story
Grab a friend (sorry loners) and a pen. One player will take the “reader” role and ask the other player to fill in the blanks with the labelled category. After all the spaces are filled, the reader will read out the chaotic narrative.
The Drive Home Stacy: The roasted ________ was incredible. Does my breath smell? noun
Brandon: I’ll let you know tonight when my _________ is in your body part ____________. MISCELLANEOUS
body part
Stacy: You promise you won’t _________ away if you smell anything verb __________? adjective
Brandon: Hm, maybe if you dress like _______________ I’ll stay put. famous person
Stacy: That is a rather ________ offer, but why not start right now– adjective
Brandon: ___________! I’m _________ here! Are you trying to kill us? exclamation
verb, ending in ‘ing’
Stacy: Stop being a _________, my _________ would’ve gone with it. noun
noun
Brandon: You always bring up your _______ when you get noun _________. Do you not remember who paid for __________ tonight? noun
adjective
Stacy: Wow. ________-move, Brandon. Can you just drop me off at adjective my __________’s place? noun
Brandon: You are so over-_____________. adjective
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Willy Bonka’s Candy House After weeks of waiting, Jimbo is finally ____________ in the centre of verb, ending in ‘ing’
“Willy Bonka’s Candy House”. Mum’s not a __________ of sweets, she’s noun
always had __________ problems since she was a child. body part
“Mum! Doesn’t this chocolate _______ look just like our ________?” noun
noun
Before Mum can speak, a __________ voice cuts through. adjective
exclamation
plural noun
____________ job!” adjective
MISCELLANEOUS
“_______________! Great to hear our Oompa-__________ are doing a
It’s the __________ Willy Bonka, himself! Jimbo immediately grabs adjective
Willy’s ___________ and shakes it furiously. body part
“I want to be just like you, Willy! I already have ideas for my first ____________! I think the flavours of ________ and chocolate would noun
___________ people’s ____________.” adjective
noun
body part
Willy looks down at Jimbo’s _____________ _______________. adjective
body part
He sees it. In the next ten years, this child will be the greatest ___________-manufacturer in the world. noun
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E N I L U C MAS by Billy Elsum
CW: Sex, body image
I am a relatively simple man. I graduated from high school in 2019. I tried to go on a gap year in 2020, but that got cut short (thanks COVID-19). I am now in the third year of my degree, and despite all of the lockdowns and restrictions, I have still had a lot of fun. However, my life throughout university has not been all sunshine and rainbows. While your university years may be the best years of your life, I would also go so far as to say that they can undoubtedly be some of the hardest. We learn that life is volatile during our university years because this is the period where we progress into adulthood. We undergo significant change, and from this, our general apprehensions and insecurities emerge. But, I am not here to complain about the hardship of university life. Instead, I want to comfort you by addressing some of these insecurities. Personally, I am vulnerable to some of them, although you don’t get to know which ones! I have written a few short words of affirmation. Of support. While the words may be small in quantity, they are large in empathy.
Ever been called a five-second man? Or a one-pump guy? It’s a funny joke … until the realisation hits you and you find yourself asking, “Why do I finish so quickly?” Well firstly, you are not alone; 1 in 3 men suffer from premature ejaculation. Take a look around you, it is a lot more common than you think. Secondly, there are heaps of little tricks to help you last longer. A friend of mine told me he flexes his thighs. Another told me he thinks of baseball. If you can divert your attention away from the sex, this will usually help (or so I’ve heard).
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Oh yes, one of the funnier high school insults. But that’s simply it; it’s funny … in high school. After high school, being called a virgin is like stubbing your toe. It hurts. But why does it hurt? The stigma of being a virgin has grown significantly in recent decades. The average age to lose your virginity was 19 back in the 1950’s when to be a virgin was to be clean and innocent. Fast forward to today, and the average age is barely 16, and losing your virginity is a status symbol to gloat about with extreme pride. Now, the problem arises when people are shamed for still being a virgin. Pop culture has constructed virginity as if it is some dirty tag that you need to get rid of without consideration of how individuals move at different paces. If you’re struggling with this, remind yourself that being a virgin does not make you any less worthy. Virginity is merely a construct, and you should never rush yourself to have sex. Allow it to happen naturally, whenever it feels most comfortable, with someone you trust.
Well, I’m here to tell you that being bald is something you should embrace. If the signs are there (thin hair, bald spots, hair loss), take a leap of faith and shave it off! Okay, some people may be alarmed if they suddenly see a bunch of bald people walking around campus, but again, what’s so bad about that? In fact, being bald has become quite popular, and you could almost call it in fashion! Patrick Stewart, Samuel L Jackson, Mr Worldwide, The Rock, Jeff Bezos, John Travolta, Mike Tyson, Dr Evil … Do you think these millionaire celebrities are bald because they can’t afford hair loss therapy? No! They love being bald, and so should you. I’m not even insecure about this anymore … where are the hair clippers?
MISCELLANEOUS
Hair loss is real. Fear of hair loss is a terrifying feeling. There is nothing worse than looking at some older man with what looks like a bird’s nest on his head and thinking, ‘Wow, that’s going to be me in ten years’. Everytime you see your dad and grandfather, their shiny heads remind you of the inevitability of your fate.
This is often more of a deep-rooted, private insecurity for people. While some people love themselves, only need themselves, and are happy alone, others can’t stand it. These people long to snuggle up in bed with someone they love, and they beat themselves up for their inability to find a soulmate. However, while there is nothing wrong with wanting a partner, it is still important to realise that relationships are hard, and like all good things, you need to work at them for them to become stronger. They’re complicated, and you certainly can’t rush them. That is where my reassurance comes in. To those craving a partner they can cuddle, I’d suggest you stop looking for it and take a leaf out of the self-love book. Work on yourself. Love yourself. Learn more about yourself. What do you like? What do you hate? What do you want to do? How do you plan on giving your all to someone else if you don’t even fully understand yourself? You should be your number one priority — everyone else can get in line. Work on this, and you might just find your soulmate in the process when you least expect it.
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acne This one goes a bit under the radar. Having a clear face is a rare luxury these days because acne is so common. Yes, you heard that correctly. Almost 90% of us experience acne, and no Tik Tok or Snapchat filter is going to help that. Acne can really undermine your self-esteem. The first reassurance I can give you is that most people have dealt with acne during their lifetime, so you can usually confide in most of your friends for support.
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The second reassurance is that there is a range of medications available to treat acne if you wish to do so. Disclaimer: I’m not a medical expert, so definitely turn to your GP for proper advice, but there are a variety of treatment options available to help you feel confident in your skin (if you need the extra kick).
body
shape Body shape can mean a bunch of different things. However, societal expectations have defined the ideal male body down as having a toned physique with defined abs and large biceps. To say this is unrealistic is a massive understatement. The most important argument in any body shape discussion is the notion of self-acceptance. That is my first reassurance. You need to learn to look in the mirror and be happy with the person staring back at you (excuse the cliché). I cannot preach enough the significance of self-love. Okay, so you love the person looking back at you in the mirror, but now you want to change your appearance. Change is good, but the bad news is that the best time to get this change underway was actually a year ago. The good news is that the second best time to enact your change is today!
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Student Activism powered by SSAF. Your Collectives fighting for environmental, feminists, anti-racist, pro-queer, Indigenous justice.
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Art by Mary Morrish and Siena Zadro
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by Andy Lee
I W N DOW R A E R A VERTIGO PUBLICATION
Bliss Edition
Google stock plummets after announcing “See what your friends are watching” feature The recent Annual Google Shareholders Conference shared many announcements, but one set the internet and stock market into a spiral. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced that YouTube will now be implementing a friendship system similar to Spotify. Users will now be able to “Friend” other users, which Wojcicki claims will make the digital environment more “transparent and intimate” and less “anonymous”. MISCELLANEOUS
Wojcicki remarked that, “When we need a new update, it’s mainly chosen through the office spinning wheel, but sometimes we do consider the user experience”. Two hours after this announcement, Google share prices fell by a drastic 29% which led to a following introduction of hour-long advertisements on YouTube videos.
“I don’t want to pretend I watch normal videos while I eat breakfast every morning.” - anonymous Vertigo reader.
This week’s highlights:
Man is set on fire by Taylor Swift-fan after he denies any Taylor Swift-guilty pleasure tendencies
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Study shows Gen-Zers lose 83% of their personality without memes
Mark Zuckerberg on the Metaverse —“All avatars will be Caucasian to resolve racial inequality.” Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and CEO of Meta, has announced during a recent press release that all avatars will have white skin in the metaverse. A metaverse is a virtual reality network, which is set to be Meta’s core priority for the next decade. To ensure users will have fair treatment in the metaverse, all users default to a Caucasian skin-tone.
“This feature will also provide a visual uniformity during the weekly metaverse ceremony dedicated to me.”
“If changing race for universal acceptance worked for spreading the image of Jesus, it will work for the metaverse.”
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“The cruelty that exists in the real world due to skin colour is something I need to fix in my new world,” Zuckerberg said.
– Mark Zuckerberg
This week’s highlights:
Disney announces Marvel movies will now require full-time commitment without benefits
NFT investor loses voice after explaining everyday what an NFT is
How to convince people UTS was always your first preference anyways
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Peer Tutoring powered by SSAF. We helped over 200* students with their uni subjects. Connecting students who have done well in a subject and those that need some assistance. *In 2021
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Student Advocacy powered by SSA # For decades our case workers have helped students with free academic advice. Each year over 450 students rely on this service.
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horoscopes WORDS AND ART BY SIENA ZADRO
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The clash of your sensitivity with Gemini’s intellect might throw you off earlier in the season. But not to worry! This combination will make you more rational — to make decisions with your head rather than your heart for once. This might give you some closure regarding past relationships or situations, and closure is the first step to moving on!
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Student Students’ Association Association Reports Reports President’s Report Anna Thieben
STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION
Hi again, It’s Anna, your Students’ Association president! I was elected to listen to all student concerns, and put my heart, soul and sanity into representing your interests. But I can’t do this alone. I can only help to facilitate a community within the Students’ Association in which all us students can support each other. Here is a brief summary of how we’ve been doing this over the past few months: In an incredibly exciting development, the Students’ Association has recently acquired the old Broadway Food Co-op space to set up a community Mutual Aid Hub. Why is this, you may ask? We are still trying to work it out, and if you want to be involved in envisioning this space, join the organising group:
The idea so far is this: we will be stocking the space like a community pantry, starting small with donated food items such as non-perishable food, bread, and sanitary items, and building it slowly from there. Students will be able to come and take these products for free. If you have the ability to give back, you can get involved by volunteering during opening hours, running events in the space, or helping organise the project. The UTS Students’ Association has been successfully providing meals to students through our BlueBird and NightOwl programs for a decade, feeding over 250,000 students. This pop-up food pantry would serve as an expansion to this, building a strong, connected student community on campus. The National Student Safety Survey was released recently, and I was humbled to speak at the National Day of Action in response to these results. The NSSS proved what we already know. The avenues for reporting SA and harassment on campus are unknown and unused, with only 3% of students reporting sexual harrasment at UTS. Our university does not have a proactive approach to preventing incidents within our community and keeping students safe.
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UTS needs to put more resources into support for survivors and less money into Respect. Now. Always (RNA) puns and graphic design. Our Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) is being spent on a struggling overbooked counselling program and wasted on ice cream for RNA. When you pay your SSAF, it is given directly to management and they allocate it to student services they deem fit. As the Students’ Association, we fight for a small proportion of this fund, and so do counselling. These are student fees, and as students, we should get to decide where this money goes. The services which will provide us safety on campus, such as proper counselling equipped to cater to all students, consent training, and intersectional sex education. Management has proven unable to fund services to offer crucial support for survivors on this campus. We must show that students stand with each other. We must fight to control our SSAF to properly support survivors on campus. You can read more about my bureaucratic work and discussions with UTS management earlier in this magazine. If you have any questions about anything in this President Report or the happenings of the Students’ Association, feel free to contact me at president@utsstudentsassociation.org.
The Education Action Group (EAG) Cat Doherty The Education Action Group has been busy these last couple of months. We elected a convenor — the wonderful Sara Chaturvedi! We also did a lot of organising for the NUS Education National Day of Action on 13 April. The NDA was a success, and it was great to see student activists from across campuses band together to fight for our right to free high-quality university education. And, of course, marching along Broadway was a great experience!
As a student activist collective, the EAG is working to fight to bring back in-person lectures and challenge the flawed system that allows our education to be so easily influenced by one person in power. This is just one issue of many affecting our education. If you’re disappointed by your uni experience, we highly encourage you to join our collective, as there is always action that we can take! Facebook: UTS Education Action Group Instagram: @uts.ed.action.group Cat Doherty, 2022 Education Officer
Disabilities Officer Report Cal McKinley The Disabilities Collective has been incredibly busy since Vertigo’s last issue, and I’m happy to report that the collective has become a thriving and active space. We have held several collective meetings where we have been planning campaigns for the year to address how ableism impacts us at university. In our meetings, we have identified a need to improve the support provided by both the UTS counselling service and UTS Accessibility Service, improve UTS’ fire safety plans as they concern disabled people, and a need for a broader education campaign on ableism and the importance of disability justice. We will be holding elections soon for the positions of collective convener along with other internal positions, which will enable us to have a broader range of help and insight when planning and running the disabilities collective.
STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION
Ultimately though, as the semester progresses, issues relating to the state of education at UTS has become all the more prevalent. In-person lectures in many faculties, such as FASS, have been scrapped for good. Regardless of the COVID-19 situation, with Deputy Vice-Chancellor Shirley Alexander being particularly against in-person lectures, they are looking unlikely to return under UTS’s current management. That is, if students remain silent. The EAG has been collecting testimonies from students and staff, and it is evident how much value in-person lectures hold. They are environments for interactive, engaging learning
and social connectivity – two vital aspects of the uni experience. While the EAG believes it is important to retain online lectures and classes for students who need them, the removal of in-person lectures highlights how decisions are made about our education by people in powerful positions without real consultation from students.
On Wednesday, 20 April, we held a film screening of the documentary Defiant Lives, which chronicles the history of the disability rights movement in the US, UK and Australia. It was a beautiful film that invigorated our desire to work tirelessly and relentlessly for the rights of disabled people at UTS. We are continuing to plan other events throughout the semester, including a sensory-friendly disco and discussion forums to talk about issues that affect marginalised people within the disabled community. If you want to get involved with the Disabilities Collective, please email accessibility@utsstudentsassociation.org, and we will get in touch with how to come along to meetings and events!
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The Women’s Collective (WoCo) Eshna Gupta
STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION
CW: Sexual assault, sexual harassment In the past month, the Women’s Collective (WoCo) has been doing important work surrounding the National Student Safety Survey (NSSS) which measures the rate of sexual assault and sexual harassment (SASH) on Australian campuses. I participated in a panel discussion for a student facing NSSS community meeting where I pointed out the severe lack of communication and outreach towards students. I also met with the Chancellery to discuss student concerns around SASH and push towards reforming Respect.Now. Always with consultation from student survivors.
Queer Officer Report Gracie Abadee The Queer Collective is thriving and as busy as ever! We have maintained the momentum from O’Day and are excitedly cracking on with projects such as redecorating the Queer Space, organising contingents for protests, and becoming more engaged with the Sydney queer community. We have a new Convenor elect, Elyjah Hollero, who will help run the collective, welcome new members, and facilitate meetings. We are also excited to elect people into social media, Secretary, Discord management and community engagement roles. This will allow
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The UTS Women’s Collective helped organise the National Day of Action against Sexual Violence on Campus. Our main demands included: greater academic support for survivors, more funding towards counselling and reporting services, and creating intersectional, accessible, consistent, and comprehensive consent training. UTS is yet to meet these demands in their full capacity despite campaigning since the last survey in 2017.
passionate Queer Collective members to become more involved in the behind-the-scenes of the Collective and connect with community organisations they are interested in. Over the past month, we have been involved in important protests, including Trans Day of Visibility and School Strike 4 Climate. Activism within the Collective is optional for members, but an integral part of our history of fighting for social justice. Over the coming year, we look forward to supporting more social justice causes and fighting for intersectional justice.
UTS WoCo also collaborated with USyd Women’s Collective in the Counter-protest to the Day of the Unborn Child on March 27, calling attention to the struggle for reproductive justice in Australia. We are also restarting our reading group on the April 21 with a “Bring your Favourite Feminist Poem” session. We will be using reading groups as a forum for political education and discussion for a variety of intersectional topics and intend to bring back “Radical Rants” to supplement this. We are also looking into having social events such as a drinks or movie night very soon!
If any LGBTQIA+ (including questioning!) students are interested in making new friends, learning more about their identity, or making memories at university, the Queer Collective is for you! We have a secret space on campus, private Discord server, and Facebook group safe for closeted students. Just email Elyjah and me at queer@utsstudentsassociation.org to get involved!
Ethnocultural Officer Report Suzy monzer The Ethnocultural Collective acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of the lands upon which our university now stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders past and present and emerging and acknowledge that we are reaping the benefits of colonialism at the behest of the First Nations People. This was, is, and always will be Aboriginal Land. The Ethnocultural Collective has had a busy past few weeks. We recently held elections and can confirm that the Ethno convenor for 2022 is Mariam Yassine!
Reasons Shirley rejected our campaign
Our response
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Space issues. Denial that BIPOC students feel safe on campus (relied on Student surveys as evidence). UTS is doing enough for BIPOC students and they’ve won multiple social justice awards. UTS wants to focus on preventative measures.
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It is of utmost importance that students have access to a physical and familiar space to explore their identity as a person of colour living on stolen land and discuss the implications of racism in their daily lives. I have been in contact with Ethnocultural Collectives across Australia, and many are in support of this campaign. Some have physical safe spaces, while others run their own campaigns, which only shows the dire need for these spaces.
on campus. At the moment, the Women’s and Queer collectives both have spaces, however, the Disability Collective, Indigenous Collective, and Ethnocultural collective do not. Unfortunately, Vice-Chancellor Shirley Alexander has rejected our campaign and confirmed she will no longer be considering the possibility of a safe space room despite all the justifications we expressed to her.
There is space and this should be a priority for the university. Not every student at UTS is BIPOC so the surveys are not accurate to measure how we feel. Further, not every student who experiences racism on campus reports it. UTS’s current efforts were born from the tireless work of BIPOC communities. Safe spaces are preventative measures.
STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION
For those who don’t know, we are still running our Safe Space Campaign. Last year, we requested for a Ethno safe space to be established. We believe beyond our collective that minorities deserve a space to explore the aspects of their identity that are usually othered by mainstream culture. Although university is a place to come and study, students often spend lots of time on campus, and it’s not a disputed fact that the environment in which you study has a heavy effect on your academic results. Therefore, it’s important that all minority collectives have quality spaces for students to use while
We are not dropping this campaign and more action is upcoming. Please stay updated via our social media or subscribe to our mailing list. If you’d like to be more involved, and you identify as a BIPOC student, please join our collective via the UTSSA website!
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General Secretary’s Report Sabrine Yassine
STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION
Hello everyone, welcome back to the continuing saga of being General Secretary of the UTS SRC. As usual, things are busy, and the work (a lot of emails and messages), volunteering, and hours put into the Association seem to be paying off as our union’s efforts continue to flourish. We’re fast approaching the pointy end of the semester, so I hope everyone’s looking after themselves and are at least getting some version of a break between all the deadlines.
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As you may know, a key function of the general secretary is to work with Vertigo to oversee content that goes to print. With this in mind, feedback was received from our Vice-Chancellor that Vertigo needs to cater some of its content to international students and other specific student groups on campus so that they may also reap the benefits of the SSAF they pay each semester. Developing their website to allow for easier and streamlined access to content, Vertigo has fantastically committed to publishing international-student-specific articles and running initiatives such as a pen-pal project to meet students’ diverse needs We’ll continue to progress as we endeavour to use student resources in the best way possible. On the social media side of things, we’ve officially launched our UTSSA Instagram and are moments away from creating a UTSSA LinkedIn profile. Yay, more social media to keep up with! The UTSSSA feels like a mini influencer with the amount of graphics we’re pumping out.
Another success has been the work in the lead up to hopefully launching the UTSSA Mutual Aid pantry! The work surrounding planning and the beginning stages of logistics are underway as we work towards creating our vision for the pantry. Hopefully, as we get more exposure both on campus and on social media, momentum will build. We can continue to create a great culture around the food pantry and start something that will be sustainable for years to come. I hope to see this pantry alive when I’m old and visiting UTS in 10 or 20 years. Otherwise, our free food service Night Owl and its addition of bagels are continuing to be a wonderful success, and one of my favourite parts of this role is getting to see the delight on students’ faces as they are handed free food. Spoiler: they act like you just gave them $100. If you have any questions or want any further details of the aforementioned initiatives, please don’t hesitate to contact me at: gensec@utsstudentsassociation.org Thanks, Sabrine
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Our services are underfunded and neglected. Our funding has been rapidly cut, and stable funding agreements denied.
For our next issue, we will be delving beneath the realm of “normal”. We present Volume 4 of Vertigo 2022, ‘Anomaly’. This time, we want you to help us create a magazine brimming with all things crazy, wild, and peculiar. Forget everything you’ve considered normal, everything you’ve been told, and now look for the anomalous. want you rmity. We fo n o c und e p a d undergro and esc tastes, an lternative r a re u u e c o s y th b ff e o c o ow Embra interests, es and sh our niche rent realiti e iff d to share y : e lf in e g rs k you s. Reima e even as discoverie ion. Mayb s s re xp e identity omaly ? Am I an an We look forward to reading and admiring your submissions for ‘Anomaly.’ Enter the magazine with no limits. Don’t forget to follow @utsvertigo on Instagram for more constant updates and prompts to come.
ART BY SIENA ZADRO
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Lee Andy
Billy Elsum Billy is a third-year Law and Creative Intelligence & Innovation student. He is technically 42nd in line to the throne. You can find him on Instagram @_billyelsum. Bridie Macken Bridie is a second-year Social & Political Science student. She is the Convenor for the Women’s Collective on campus and helps organise the activism and education done by the collective on campus. You can find her on Instagram @birdy11111. Chantelle Cortez-Maglalang Chantelle is a third year Visual Communication and Creative Intelligence & Innovation student. When she’s not creatively directing for UTS LitSoc, she also draws and collects stickers! You find her work on Instagram @mellechant. Clara Atkin Clara is a third-year Digital & Social Media and Creative Intelligence & Innovation student. She loves painting her nails and laughing. You can find her @claraatkin. Eshna Gupta Eshna is a third-year Law and Social & Political Sciences student. She is the Women’s Officer for the UTS Students’ Association and does work on campus regarding intersectional gender equity and sexual violence. You can find her on Instagram @eshnagg. Jacqueline Adams Jacqueline is a Visual Communications Honours student. Other than graphic design, she’s right into photography, music, and, shockingly, films. She once managed to squeeze seventy-five movie theatre trips into a year. She’s unsure whether that’s a flex or an admission. You can find her on Instagram @ jacquislostnegatives.
Jada Susas
eorge lle G tive d Crea Jada is a second-year Journalism and Social & Political Science Law an She has r a e y d t. student. Filipino-Australian, queer and with a weird Cancer sun and is a thir vation studen nd loves hanelle ga no Sagittarius rising combo, she writes/rants about almost everything. S lligence & In tion to thriftin clothing! te ic nd In d a d h a d y n h You can find her on Instagram @imnotjda and Twitter e_ eco ealt an unh pieces from s ram @shanell @cancerszn4eva. n tag to desig nd her on Ins ce. n fi tterspa You ca @theclu Jayan Pascoe d n a e georg a Chown Jayan is a third-year Business and Creative Intelligence & Innovation t. She rena e S studen student. He enjoys finding beauty in everyday life and exploring usiness ctivities on B r a e y a ddifferent modes of storytelling. You can find him on Instagram @ est club is a thir LitSoc. Serena some of the b ector for UTS jaypascoe_. s ir e D organis s the Events sa campu Jennifer Tony dro tion na Za munica Jennifer is a second-year Communication and Master of Teaching in Sie al Com ‘70s u is V r d-yea ney on Secondary Education student. She is a sucker for astrology. You can a secon her mo m Siena is he wastes all r on Instagra find her on Instagram nd he ent. S . fi d s n n tu o a s c ti a u @jennifertony___ and on Youtube @Jennifer Tony. roscre are. Yo glassw dro and @zad a z a n ie @s Joey Chalita he dley t, and s a Moo studen dmit. w a Joey is a third-year Journalism and Law student. When his head gets Tali L d s to a on an Soc’s he care unicati filled with super necessary uni content, you can find him walking Comm longer than s nt as UTS Lit a is a li r te n Ta fo o hour-long distances in an attempt to use exercise as a healthy i c n u h en at ookis has be make b excuse at procrastination. Or you can find him at @Joey_Chalita. o helps ctor. ls a e h S ire tions D Publica Joseph Hathaway-Wilson al an rnation hy Ch nd Inte inger and a Timot Joseph is a second-year Journalism, Writing & Publishing, and m s li urna rite s -year Jo Creative Intelligence & Innovation student. Last night he had a is favou is a fifth ylor Swift is h tagram y th o dream that Dave Grohl won the Australian Federal Election. You can Tim t. Ta n Ins studen d him o find him on Instagram Studies r. You can fin te ri @joehwilson. songw ial. anoffic @timch time Katie Kelly g parthan workin P t fore n e e y b d n To acy stu is piano skills ak . Pharm re h r b a g e ia Katie is a second-year student studying Writing & Publishing with in y d h e second y. He’s refres n a social m a is y o a Masters of Teaching in Secondary Education and a Diploma ustr Ton ntly usic ind is curre of Language in Italian. She is a big fan of photography and can in the m kes over. He ta s develop her own film in the darkroom. You can find her @1ightleak. arthriti gh Althou tudent. tigo has u s o n h o ti Z Liam Maher munica ission to Ver gs Yoki al Com m feelin ar Visu vert, her sub e y d are her n. n can sh a seco rself an intro ig e s h Liam is a fourth-year Business and Creative Intelligence & e s d s iz a Yoki is rted @yok ers he extrove n Instagram Innovation student. He is the Vice President of UTS Litsoc. You can she consid re o m l o er fee d her find him on Instagram @liam.maher. made h y. You can fin asil e re o m Studies Mary Morrish ng ational utube o rn H te In e tch Yo m and Yvonn s to wa urnalis Le and Mary is a second-year Visual Communication student. She likes year Jo he love tout to Mina n s d , n e o m c ti u e s o ro re h a o a [s p n is s b frogs. You can find her on Instagram @marymrsh and @mrrish. Yvonne tudent. In her nd pop culture m at @seoh ra a s g ) n n ta io s a li h (Ita n fas r on In find he ssays o Melissa Lee video e rlz]. You can u G . Modern @yvonnehng at Melissa is a third-year Visual Communication and Creative Spotify Intelligence & Innovation student. She is the Publications Coordinator for UTS LitSoc (where she hosts lively book cover debates). Shane
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