This article originally appeared on Hoyden About Town.
Welcome! This post is the 79th monthly Down Under Feminists Carnival. This edition of the carnival gathers together November 2014 writing of feminist interest by writers living in Australia and New Zealand. Thanks to all the writers and submitters for making this carnival outstanding, amazing, sad, outraging and uplifting.
Highlighted new(er) Down Under voices
I’ve highlighted posts that come from people who began been writing at their current home in 2014, such posts are marked with (new site) after the link. Hopefully this will be a quick guide to sites you may not be following yet.
Also, this carnival (broadly…) observes the rule that each writer may feature at most twice.
Feminist identities and practices
Kelly Briggs explained how her intersectional feminism supports Aboriginal women:
Critique of pop culture does nothing for me and my sisters. It does nothing to aid in our struggle to be seen as equal, which is why I stick to critiquing the policies of governments that use black women as whipping posts… At my last reading of the statistics surrounding this heinous human rights violation [the intervention] incarceration rates have more than doubled, self harm rates have more than doubled, suicide rates are at unprecedented epidemic proportions and forced rehab is nothing short of criminal. WHERE ARE THE FUCKING FEMINISTS?
Catherine Deveny republished her Destroy the Joint piece Feminism in Twelve Easy Lessons.
Tulia Thompson explored the limits of conceiving of bargains with hetero-patriarchal culture as an individual choice.
Race, ethnicity and racism
Kelly Briggs wrote about racism and resulting self-harm and she and Christine Donayre wrote about Aboriginal deaths in custody and how they seem invisible to Australians (new site) compared to police killings of black people in the US. Kelly was also interviewed by Saffron Howden about racist barriers to accommodation and employment for Aboriginal people.
Celeste Liddle listed terrible failures of top-down approaches to Indigenous safety and wellbeing.
Ruby Hamad asked why Australian media continually assembles panels full of white people to discuss race issues and non-white people and communities? She also recounted how she and other people of colour are commonly dismissed as having a lower bar for their work.
Bodies
Jessica Hammond took us on a pictorial tour of the truth of her body. (new site)
Kath at Fat Heffalump described the double-bind of fat women’s sexuality.
Jes Baker asked why the hourglass figure is the only version of plus size that we see?
Tracey Spicer showed us how she uses makeup, how she looks without makeup, and how various pressures changed her makeup use during her career.
Disability
Some of what were to be Stella Young’s last pieces appeared in November:
Danielle Binks discussed differing portrayals of Deafness in Young Adult fiction.
El Gibbs explored other people’s attitudes to disability, and how it’s those that make disability hard.
Carly Findlay wrote about unsolicited comments and advice in the workplace about both disability and appearance. She also debunked claims that autoimmune illnesses are caused by “self-hatred” and cured by “self-love”.
Kathy writes through the five stages of chronic illness (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance).
LGBTQ
In the wake of Apple CEO Tim Cook coming out, Rebecca Shaw argues that coming out is still important and heroic.
Harassment and abuse
Jem Yoshioka explored the alignment between activist organisations in the technical community with misogynists and abusers such as Julian Assange and weev. (new site)
Jo Qualmann asked why rape is tolerated as a subject of “masterpieces” of Western fine art?
Roger Sutton, chief of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, resigned after allegations of sexual harassment. Writings included:
- Anjum Rahman on media commentary that portrayed him as the victim and how to respond when a friend is accused of abuses
- Andrea Vance on how the State Services Commission failed his victim
- Luddite Journo with some helpful tips for Sutton about workplace behaviour
- Scuba Nurse with a debunking of defenses of “he’s just touchy-feely”
Jenna Price reported on the Australian government denying responsibility for violence against women in a report to the UN.
Deborah Russell highlighted the many chilling aspects of the Roastbusters ongoing rape scandal in Auckland, including police failures.
Ada Conroy talked about her work as a men’s behavioural change practitioner.
Jane Gilmore debunked claims that women are as likely to commit violence as men and observes that offender demographics are far harder to access than victim demographics. Jennifer Wilson followed up urging men to stop feeling unfairly attacked.
Motherhood
Lisa Pryor wrote a column about surviving medical school and mothering with the help of caffeine and antidepressants. Former federal Australian Labor Party leader Mark Latham responded in the Australian Financial Review with commentary (which I’m not going to link) called “Why left feminists don’t like kids”. Criticism of Latham’s piece included:
- Georgina Dent: Mark Latham needs to take mental illness seriously and Mark Latham gets front page billing and Lisa Pryor gets no apology
- Janice Reid: Where Mark Latham got it wrong on mothers
- Amy Gray: Mark Latham read my mind. Of course I hate my daughter – I’m a feminist
- Susie O’Brien: Mark Latham’s bizarre attack shows hatred of women
- Liz Conor: Mark’s categorical stupidity explains why left feminists don’t like Latham
Penni Russon talked with her daughter Una about time travel, women heroes, and community.
Andie Fox told her story of hiding her caring responsibilities while proving herself at a new job as part of the broader picture of women’s caring responsibilities and workplace roles.
Education
Camilla Nelson followed up some October pieces in counting how many of the various states’ English curricula texts are by men.
Clementine Ford wondered what would an anti-sexism school curriculum look like?
Media and culture
Sharon Smith attended PAX Australia and found that the Australian gaming community proved that it was not GamerGate.
Danielle Binks remembered Heartbreak High, including its exploration of gender and racial politics, and the role of public broadcasters in creating diverse programming.
Scarlett Harris explored feminist themes in the musical Wicked and anti-feminist themes in Gone Girl.
New sites
Blogs and sites started in 2014 featured in this carnival were:
Next carnival
The 80th carnival will follow at The Scarlett Woman. Submissions to scarlett.harris [at] y7mail [dot] com by 5th January.
Volunteers are needed to host carnivals from March onwards. Volunteer via the contact form.