Issue 90.6 - Elle Dit

ARE YOU A

FEMINIST? WHERE DID

THE WOCO GO?

SHIT MEN DO LIFE AS A

MODERN HYSTERIC

EARN & TRAVEL IT’S ON US!

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We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Kaurna people and their elders past, present and future as the traditional custodians of the land on which the University of Adelaide stands. We acknowledge that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.

n o c

t en ts

Editorial 6 State of the Union 8 SRC President’s Report 10 Vox? Pop! 12 Left Right Centre 14 Club Spotlight 17 Artist Spotlight 18 Econ Dit 20 Sustainabili-Dit 22 Reading Feminism: All About Love 24 Where Did the WoCo Go? 26 Why I Fear Tall Men 28 Female Genital Mutilation 30 Patriarchy In BDSM 33 I Have A Problem With Tiktok Feminism 36 Devil In Disguise 39 Are You A Feminist? 40 Women In Education, A Rant 42 Medical Discrimination Is A Patriarchal Weapon 44 Staying Home And Being Free 46 Left-Wing Men Need To Do Better 48 Book Review: Emotional Female 52 Balancing The Gendered Drink 55 Womanchild 57 Shit Men Do: A Shared Space 58 A Self-Help Guide To Contraception 62 Life As A Modern Hysteric 66 Talkin’ Up To The White Woman: Feminist Reflections 68 Is This Me? A Nothing Thing 70 Sea, Swallow Me 72 45 Important Questions For Men 73 Why Period Jokes Aren’t Fun or Funny 74 For My Sister | Manmade | Girl, Woman, Sun 76 Love Isn’t 78 Fuck You, Joanne 81 My Friend Apathy 84 Chained Woman of Xuzhou 86

G U E ST E D IT O R S

Ngoc Lan Tran Sienna Sulicich

E D IT O R S

Grace Atta Habibah Jaghoori Chanel Trezise Jenny Surim Jung

DESIGN

Jenny Surim Jung Sienna Sulicich

C OV E R ART

C O N T R I B UT O R S (IN ORDER OF A P P E AR A N C E )

Jenny Surim Jung

Leah Esteé Maia Hodge Olivia Veronese Reading Feminism UofA Women’s Collective Lottie Minney Riley Peppers Jamie Murray-Todd Caitlin Battye Madeline Jaye Osbourne Ellen McManus Shona Edwards Emily Wilson Marina Emogene Martin Smith Justyna Dutka Louise Jackson Falie Klieve Skye Xie

i t r e d s c

EDI T

ORIAL

Dear ceiling smashers, norm breakers, stereotype subverters, and sister warriors, Over three decades ago in October of 1990, the first-ever edition of Elle Dit, the women’s edition of On Dit, was born out of the need for a dedicated platform for hearing what she says and only what she says. These were women who got a lot to say and decided for themselves they would say it. What started as a space claimed by loud, opinionated, and determined women, soon became a tradition of exchanging writings and encountering convictions, thus collective constructing the innate feminism that materialises in Elle Dit. Continuing that line of herstory, this edition of Elle Dit has proven to be a welcoming space for female writers to explore what it means to be women and to be feminists. From the mundane everyday-ness of womanhood to the joyful collective of sisterhood to the urgent push of activism, feminism exists and flourishes everywhere and remains a generous sight for critical thoughts and subversive explorations.

Women’s writings have come a long way. From word of mouth to private letters, it has taken many generations of mothers before our thoughts are printed in books and our voices announced in speeches. The evolution of women’s writings reflects the embodiment of a renowned feminist slogan: the personal is the political.

Yet although the feminist movement has gone a long way, it still has much more ambitions to achieve, more places to reach, and more minds to motivate. Today, feminism still gets a bad rap; some women are afraid to say the F word let alone admit to themselves and others that they are feminists.

And it is not entirely their fault; every woman’s journey and encountering feminism are not the same, and not all are smooth sailing. For some, it requires showing up to marches, speaking out at rallies, or signing petitions.

For some, it requires intense but quiet reading and reflecting on the words and works of other women. For some, it requires incredible courage to transform from their assigned sex to become the women they have always meant to be. And for some, it requires acknowledging and forgiving the internal misogyny indoctrinated by growing up and living under the chokehold of the patriarchy. The feminist exists in all of us, but before she can be realised, a lot of work must be done. The personal is the political, but before this motto actualises and materialises in reality, the personal has to become the political.

Let us not forget that for all of us, becoming political ultimately requires coming together and sharing what it means to be women. This is more important than ever before, especially during a time where trans sisters’ existence and identities are being increasingly and openly trampled on; cis women are not the only sisters whose identities have been oppressed on the basis of our sex. Ultimately, realising what it means to be women takes the

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work of resisting the patriarchy’s pathetic excuses to pit us against each other and instead identify our shared oppressor interlocking in the systems of capitalism, patriarchy, imperialism, etc. Realising what it means to be women means trusting the womanly intuitive knowledge that our feminism is not divided because of difference, but enrichens and thrives because of it; it helps us challenge one another in order to strengthen our collective will, channelling our purpose to band together and fight, smash the glass ceiling, break the norms, subvert the stereotypes… as the sister warriors we all are.

By the nature of us having different journeys and encounters with each other and bearing different backgrounds and sensibilities, each woman will ultimately have a uniquely complex relationship with feminism. This edition of Elle Dit presents to you a collection of fierce and uncompromising feminist voices who are not afraid to admit to our differences as well as cherish our similarities. We fight for the immense joy of collective feminism, laugh at the sheer fatigue of double burdens and double standards, and vent at the hatred of the mutual oppressor i.e. the patriarchy… At the same time, we also negotiate feminism with other aspects of our lives including race, class, status, gender, sexuality, and disability, in the interconnecting dimensions of social, cultural, medical, spiritual, and political lives.

With the help and support of the wonderful team of female editors for On Dit this year, Grace, Habibah, Chanel, and Jenny, we guest editors, Ngoc Lan and Sienna, are honoured to pass along the torch of feminism on campus and present to you Elle Dit in all her glamour and glory. We hope you enjoy this edition.

With much love and solidarity, Ngoc Lan and Sienna

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state of the union.

state of the union.

NG

E EMILY D We l c o m e to the second half of the first semester! We hope everyone managed to have some rest during the midterm break and are ready to conquer new knowledge.

I’m Esther, a board director in AUU and a third year student in Bachelor of Nursing.

I’m Emily, a third-year Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery student.

This state of the union is written by both of us and we want to focus on health topics and placement specific experiences as we are both from the Health and Medical Sciences Faculty.

Firstly, we would like to mention that while other students are having their mid term break, some students are having placements, those of you can pat yourself on the back and know 8

that you’ve done a great job. This might have not been acknowledged enough but students during placement are an important part of the health system, especially during Covid-19 where there is a staff shortage in every unit. We hope you can feel proud of yourselves for being able to help and support those in need.

(Esther) While being at placements, you can learn alot, however, the complex environment and experiences can also cause a lot of stress and be emotionally overwhelming. The clinical facilitators are the first go to person, and also keep in mind that free counselling services are available in uni. Bookings can be done online, and they will get in touch very soon!

Fixed shift times can mean that students are leaving the hospital and travelling home late at night. While other careers and areas might be talking about increasing female ratio, it is the exact opposite in Nursing. As in 2018, 89% of the nurses and midwives are female. Unfortunately, late night travel can mean higher risks of being exposed to certain danger, especially for females. All AUU director and elected Representatives were given the opportunity to attend had to undertake the SASH First Responder Training. Which I found very useful and used the knowledge when helping a female nursing student who experienced sexual street harassment while returning home from placement at midnight. I had then advocated for clinical facilitators and other teachingstaff to take this training as well. It is very important to know that

support is available, certain hospital provide services where the guard can escort you to the car park or bus stops. And in University campus, there are late-night escort services too. Also keep in mind that the emergency police number is 000.

Hi, this is Emily. As a third-year medical student, I would like to talk about my recent placement experience, which has shone a light on the stigma of sexual health and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). When I was working at the clinic, there were many young people who were hesitant to seek help until their symptoms became severe. During the consultation, someone told me that ‘I feel like no one will want me anymore.’, which left me very heartbroken.

As we grow up, the word STIs is often associated with disapproval and rejection and STI transmission somehow criminalises sexual behaviours. Over time, this internalised stigma taught us to be ashamed of STIs, rather than being educated. As the culture of silence and shame about sexual health and STIs is amplified, many of us are embarrassed or afraid to get support and resources from the university.

ESTHER

YI RUEI

HUNG

According to WHO, more than 1 million STIs are acquired everyday worldwide.

However, our understanding is extremely limited. STIs are very treatable with medications and very preventable with condoms. In fact, Student Health and Wellbeing team is running the campaign of ‘Safe Sex, No regrets’, along with some help from AUU. FREE condom packs or dental dams are ready for collection. Simply email the wellbeing hub at studentwellbeing@ adelaide.edu.au and they will be ready for collection within 48 hours.

Also, the university provides FREE HIV self-testing kits in all-gender bathrooms on L2 Hub Central. If you want to talk to someone or want some professional advice, book an appointment at the university GP clinic. Don’t hesitate and seek help!

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src president’s report src president’s report Ana Obradovic ~ SRC President

At the time of writing, it is 50 years since Adelaide Uni Law Professor George Duncan’s death at the hands of police. The officers, members of SA’s “vice” squad – a notoriously anti-gay section of the police force – were never convicted.

At the time, an astonishing level of homophobia was enshrined in law. Police powers were so expansive that they could search a house without a warrant on suspicion of two men sharing a bed. They brutalised gay men with impunity as attempts to seek justice would see the victim incriminated instead. A leaflet, published by Melbourne Uni’s Gay Liberation group in 1973, asked: “Are homosexuals protected by the police? - you must be joking.

We need to be protected from the police.”

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George Duncan’s murder sparked a campaign for gay rights that resulted in the decimalisation of homosexuality in South Australia, the first state in the country to do so.

Activists agitated on the university campuses, set up a new organisation – the Gay Activists Alliance – and, in defiance of antigay laws, published a gay rights newspaper, “Boiled Sweets”.

On the 15th of September 1973, activists held their very first Gay Rights march in Adelaide.

Public outcry, led by Adelaide students activists and reverberating onto campuses across Australia, was crucial in both pushing and justifying Don Dunstan’s gay law reform. The fightback caused such a

disruption that it was reported internationally. So this an important time to reflect on the role that students have played in decades of struggle for LGBTI rights.

More recently, through the National Union of Students, students were fundamental in the campaign for marriage equality. NUS threw itself into a “NUS says YES” campaign – calling huge rallies, daily stalls and stunts to tirelessly make the argument for a “yes” vote in the marriage referendum.

Still – just this year, despite passionate campaigning led by student activists, the religious descrimination bill almost passed into legislation.

The bigots in the Labor and Liberal party still use civil rights as political football. So we’ve got a long way to go, and none of our gains are forever.

The anticipated Roe v Wade overturning in America shows how easily our rights can be overturned in liberal democracies. And history proves that we can’t trust the legal system or politicians to defend our rights. Our rights have always been won on the streets. *Since this was written, Roe v Wade was overturned. Rallies supported by the SRC saw 5000 people hit the street in solidarity. Keep an eye out for an article expanding on the question of how to respond to Roe v Wade* Whenever the right attacks women, gay or trans people, we need to mobilise, organise and fight back.

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1. WHO IS YOUR MOTHER FIGURE? 2. FUCK/MARRY/KILL: ELSA (FROZEN), TIGRESS (KUNGFU PANDA), SALLY (CARS)?

?

X ?

X O O V V

Sophie

1st Year | Medical Studies 1. My mother figures are my mum and my nanna. When my dad left my mum, she had to work full time to support me and my two siblings, so my nanna took care of me a lot.

Some of my earliest memories are getting picked up by my nanna and having breakfast at her house so mum could go to work, but even now mum is an amazing mother and I love them both so much.

2. Fuck Sally from Cars because, well, who wouldn’t? Marry Elsa because I love the snow, and kill Master Tigress because I didn’t like the Kung fu Panda movies.

3. Personally, I don’t listen to a lot of female artists (lol), BUT I do love Ruby Fields. I know she might not be underrated but she’s just incredible and sings from her soul about what she wants, not what the population wants.

6. The future kinda looks scary. My biggest concern is Global Warming, but I am looking forward to what life throws at me anyway (successful, independent woman who don’t need a man but WANTS a man type vibe).

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Nina

Final year | Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering 1. My momma 2. Fuck gender expectations, marry all three, kill that selfdoubt 3. Zheani 4. Lowkey bleak but please prove me wrong

PO OP P P!!

3. FAVOURITE UNDERRATED FEMALE ARTIST? 4. WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE TO YOU AS A WOMAN?

Gabby

Third Year | Arts Advanced 1. My own mother and my partner’s mother.

They are maternal in very different ways, and both of them mother me in a different, lovely, complex way. My sister a little bit too.

2. Fuck Master Tigress. Marry Elsa because I’m anti-monarchy and I think it would be a fun way to bring down a corrupt system from the inside. Kill Sally from Cars, so I could make big on that car/life insurance.

3. I’m crazy about Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers right now! They’ve just released Girl Sports, which is this in-your-face anthem that’s biting and ferocious and I play it very loud in my headphones when I’m alone in the city at night.

6. Joyful! Over the last year I’ve finally begun to meet women at uni and other spaces that I see myself reflected in – hairy lesbian manhating feminists, of course.

Every time I speak deeply with a woman about feminism and her experience with womanhood I fall a little bit more in love with being a woman.

Jannath

Third Year | Biomedical Science 1. This would be quite the traditional answer and may as well be compensated for a lack of a mother’s day gift but, being an embodiment of sunshine and kindness, my mom makes the top of the list.

2. Marry Master Tigress, f*** Sally, kill Elsa (I’ve heard Let it Go too many times).

3. She is an indie artist called “Joni”, her song “Orange” and “Lost in Space” are my personal favourites.

4. The future seems promising! (But thinking about it usually adds to my fear most days hahaha.)

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LRC 90.5

1. What do you think about Auspol federal elections 2022’s latest politicisation on the participation of trans women in sports?

2. Has female empowerment or liberation been achieved or propelled forward by any female South Aussie politician? If not, can you provide another example?

3. Does the university’s campaign of management cuts to the arts faculty mean an incentivisation of women in stem? What does that mean for women’s academic contribution for both science and arts?

Socialist Alternative | ANNA NGUYEN, KALESH GOVENDER 1. Katherine Deves’ transphobia is appalling. In February, Deves helped develop a bill to exclude trans athletes from women’s sports. She has claimed that young girls would face sexual predation if sports admitted trans players.

Deves’ comments are outrageous and aim to normalise the discrimination experienced by transgender people. Trans women have every right to participate in women’s sport. The Liberals’ latest bigoted campaign is unsurprising. Capitalism relies on these oppressions to keep us divided and underconfident. Like the Religious Discrimination Bill, this is part and parcel of a broader attempt to wind back progressive sentiment that exists around LGBTI+ reforms and marriage equality. It’s important that the left cede no ground to 2. Women’s liberation has always been propelled forward outside of parliament. Mary Lee (1821-1909) was a suffragist and trade unionist who helped establish the influential Women’s Suffrage League. The suffrage movement fought relentlessly and made South Australian women some of the first in the world to gain the vote.

Lee also advocated for the formation of female trades unions as many women worked in unregulated sweatshop conditions. She established SA’s first Working Women’s Trades Union to fight for better conditions for working women. Lee linked the political demands for women’s suffrage with the economic fight of working women in factories.

Lee was asked to stand for parliament but declined. She saw the importance of workplaces as institutions of collective political struggle one that extended far beyond parliament.

3. Cuts to the Arts will not ‘incentivise’ women to enter STEM. They merely limit options for choosing to study something we enjoy.

We are against management’s cuts because they are unnecessary austerity measures carried out by corporate-minded executives on exorbitant salaries. Their restructures and cuts will exacerbate the already-rampant casualisation and precarious employment for a predominantly female workforce. The livelihoods of staff across faculties are at constant risk because the university wants to increase its profits. There has been no transfer of resources from Arts to ECMS. In reality, there have been cutbacks across the board, including at least 28 job losses in ECMS and Sciences.

Greens Club | BUSBY CAVANAGH,

CAITLIN BATTYE, ANNIKA STEWART (in order of response)

1. The decision of both major parties to use transgender people as a political football to score cheap second preferences off One Nation voters was as regrettable as it was abominable. We should be completely frank on this topic: the argument was never about transgender participation in sports, but about transgender identities and their place in the fabric of Australian society.

It’s gladdening to know that the Coalition’s attempts to use transgender identities as a wedge to retain government failed as spectacularly as it did. However, we cannot give our incoming prime minister a free pass for his transphobic comments in the ‘No Woking Class Hero’ News Corp article published before the election.

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In his victory speech, Albanese promised his government would promote unity rather than fear and division. With our deluge of new Greens representatives, you can be assured we will keep him honest on that promise.

2. I don’t particularly prescribe to the Great Man Theory (or…well…Great Woman Theory). Great strides in feminism cannot be attributed to or achieved by any one woman, and are rather the result of a strong grassroots movement of women.

That being said, the Greens are proud to boast many women representatives, both in South Australia and across the country, who uphold feminist and progressive values and have been a part of larger movements to fight for these values. One example of such a politician in SA is Tammy Franks MLC, who has used her position in Parliament to help fight for important steps for women such as the decriminalisation of abortion and the registration of social workers, and is currently fighting for the decriminalisation of sex work. The politicians who, like Tammy, are part of the fight for liberation, cannot be singled out as the person who achieved female empowerment; they are part of a complex machine of great women supporting one another in the struggle against the patriarchy, and their efforts should be applauded as part of that collective.

3. The reality is that women aren’t pushed out of STEM because arts degrees are much better, they’re pushed out of STEM because they’ve heard, or worse yet lived, the horror stories; being talked down to, belittled, and mansplained to by peers and mentors. If educational institutions really cared about advocating for more women in STEM, they would be tackling these issues instead. Don’t be fooled: the choice to defund arts faculties has nothing to do with women’s rights and everything to do with corporate greed. The university makes more return on investment when it pumps out engineers because weapons and mining companies cash up our university by bribing the major political parties to increase defence research contracts for them to fight over. At the end of the day, cuts to arts faculties expose how universities value winning defence contracts over a fair education system.

Labor Club| STEPH MADIGAN 1. Liberal senator Claire Chandler’s bill seeking to ban trans women from women’s sport is a shameless example of astroturfing and the import of toxic American identity politics.

The idea of federal Parliament making mandates in this domain is ludicrous. Also, sport researchers found that the overwhelming majority of female athletes support the inclusion of trans people! Yet we still have marginalised bodies being used as the thin edge of a wedge against the LGBT+ movement.

The Liberals are polling badly and hoping that ‘trans-baiting’ will bring conservative voters 2. SA’s distinct feminist narrative lies in a succession of Australian ‘firsts’: first to grant suffrage, first to offer Women’s Studies at university, first to criminalise marital rape et cetera. I’m so grateful for the progress made by early feminists like Molly Byrne (first SA female parliamentarian) but I’m skeptical that liberation has been achieved. ‘Empowerment’ virtually always turns out to be white, middle-class women gaining parity with white men, and hoping that equality will ‘trickle down’ to the rest. Mainstream politics calls upon women to engage in constant double think. It makes proud lesbian women stand in the way of equal marriage, for example.

It enforces a dichotomy between the hated, independent, ‘unassimilated’ woman, and the upwardly-mobile Token Woman.

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3. It is impossible to calculate the mass psychological damage done to women by centuries of tiptoeing around male egos; of being constantly aware of your potential yet unable to explore it. That’s why, as a modern woman, you can never be overeducated. Any cuts made to university courses disproportionately affect women graduates and endangers all progress made to the culture within professions.

Empowering women to contribute to any field they choose, science or art, is a necessary step in ending the Great Silence of women throughout history.

2. I am a resident of Boothby and a few things come to mind. In 2015, Nicole Flint, MP published Gender and Politics, alongside Nick Carter: an investigation of Parliament archives, documenting the history of female representation in Australian government, as well as identifying the needs for targeted intervention in achieving equity in the House of Representatives and Senate.

Taylor

Westmacott | Liberal party Member (Liberal Club failed to respond) 1. Let it be said that Katherine Deves (Liberal for Warringah, NSW) has made unacceptable remarks which deny the legitimacy of trans and intersex identities. Similarly, Claire Chandler (Liberal Senator for Tasmania)— who evoked this ‘politicisation’ via the proposed Save Women’s Sport Bill—seems fundamentally guided by the assumption that trans women are not women at all.

My humanistic ethic forces me to part from my constituents in this area. Trans rights are human rights.

Trans women are women.

This said, I want to address your question a little closer. The relationship between the binary categories of sport (men’s games, women’s games) and the development of intersex policy is innately political and, in my opinion, completely avoiding the richest potential of this debate. It seems unusual to me that trans rights have become fundamentally invested in reaffirming the hegemonic male-female binaries in so many cultural domains, not least of all athletics.

Perhaps it is worth reviewing our investment into these historically acclimated sport’s categories themselves.

Dr Rachel Swift, who is contesting the Liberal Boothby seat in place of Miss Flint, is an inspiring woman who champions female empowerment. A Rhodes Scholar with a Doctorate in Clinical Medicine, she has worked across East Africa (as a part of the Clinton Health Access Initiative) Ultimately, sport may be the truest global supporting and researching maternal and theatre. This is not a domestic issue. Let us childhood nutrition. turn to the global discourse for this global issue – and keep Australian politics focused on the real issues at hand.

3. I would not be inclined to put it that way: rather, it seems to incentivise keeping women out of the Arts. As someone who hopes to make a career in the Arts, it is difficult to frame these cuts as anything but negative.

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CLUBCLUB SPOTLIGHT SPOTLIGHT

How did your club start? year, B. Environmental The Pro Choice Club started in 2020 Policy & Management for two main reasons. First, at the time there was a considerable amount of commentary regarding the right to abortion in the international media (something that we’re shamefully seeing once again in the US). Second, the Pro Life club (known as LifeChoice) was gaining more traction on campus. Both these factors demonstrated the need for Pro Choice views to have a voice in What the university community, even if the AUU Clubs Committee kind of continues to disagree with this. While I can’t speak on activities do you run behalf of the club, I know that our community is to support women? constantly inspired by women who aren’t afraid Our club has not been overly active in to speak against injustice, whether that’s the past 12 months, as the combination in a courtroom or family lounge of COVID and not being an affiliated club room. has made things difficult. However, we’ve tried to use our social media platform to Do further amplify the voices of women, you experience and members of our community have resistance when navigating constantly been engaged in gender power structures? equality protests, fundraisers, I think every woman experiences resistance when and other university club navigating power structures. Whether this resistance events. is understated – like inappropriate comments – or overt – like outright refusal to enter positions of power due to their How gender – women are constantly forced to fight for themselves will your in ways that men never have to, and never will. While men club create a have the luxury of being taken seriously by default, women more significant do not. While men have the luxury of being afforded bodily impact for your autonomy, women do not. While men have the luxury cause considering the of representing 75% of all national parliamentarians, unpredictability of social women only make up 25%. This isn’t a coincidence transformation and political – this is the result of historically entrenched maneuvering? inequality that persists in all corners of I think our club needs to be rejuvenated society, all across the world.

– we need new members who have the drive to take our club application to How the AUU and demand that we receive do you affiliation, considering the Life Choice encourage the women Club has been affiliated for more around you not to give up? than 3 years. This is especially Personally, I believe the best way to important considering the attack support women when they feel like giving up on women’s right to bodily is to listen and empathise, and then proceed autonomy around the to remind them about how powerful they truly world.

What do are. I find that women are quicker to doubt you hope for the themselves than men, and therefore require future of your club? more frequent (and sincere) confidence I’m hoping that the boosters. Remember: empowered club can finally get women empower women. affiliated!!!!

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Answers by Leah | 5th

artist spotlight artist spotlight artist spotlight I first knew about Esteé as the winner of the 2021 competition Students Got Talent, hosted by StudyAdelaide at the iconic Her Majesty’s Theatre. Her rendition of Don McLean’s Vincent not only was worthy of winning first place, but stole so many hearts and souls that night. I later learn that Esteé has accomplished so much more than that; she is a rising star and slowly making her claim in the music industry. In 2021, her singles on Spotify were streamed over 1.4 million times across 160 countries, with the most notable tracks being be my somebody new and Babylon.

Her newest single is twenty eight, and I promise you Esteé is your next new favourite comfort sound. Some have described her voice as sweet as cotton candy and as haunting as a distant dream, and I have to wholeheartedly agree. What an honour for a fan like me to be able to chat with her on all things music…

Esteé

Interview by Ngoc Lan Tran

Hi Esteé!! Can you tell me a bit about how you first got into music? Which artist inspired you the most growing up?

I credit a lot of my love for music and ability to my mum! Her side of the family is super musically inclined, so music has been an integral part of my life from a very early age. I started performing every year at school when I was 6 or 7, and I’ve been doing it ever since. My mum loves jazz and used to sing at a lot of shows back when I was still living in Malaysia, which definitely has inspired me and my music heaps!

How do you describe your music and style? What is your creative process like?

Right now my music is blurring the lines between soft pop, RnB, and lo-fi. I’m trying to incorporate more RnB elements in my music though because I do look up to a lot of RnB artists.

My creative process changes according to each song I write, so it depends on the voice my song wants to have. Sometimes I start with the melody, other times I start with the lyrics, or

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sometimes I start producing something on my computer and other times I write on the guitar or piano. I like using different methods for different kinds of songs, it’s way more fun :) For those who have no idea what it’s like to study music at uni, what’s the best and the worst thing about studying music so far?

Personally, the best thing so far is just making friends with people who also love music. I’ve met so many people not just in my course but kind of across all the courses, which has been super cool! I feel like everyone has their own goals, so it’s been really interesting to see the direction people have been taking for themselves. On the other hand, I feel like having something so subjective like music and songwriting being graded can be a bit jarring at times.

What qualities are you working on to become a great musician?

I’m working on not being too hard on myself in general and being more honest in my music.

I’m a huge overachiever and tend to put a lot of pressure on myself, way more than what’s needed to the point where it’s unhealthy. This is something I’m intentionally working on every day, along with stopping the need to compare myself to other artists. I’m reminding myself that everyone’s got their own stories to tell and I have something different to offer!

What direction are you following for your career right now? What’s something you learned early on in your career that made you a better artist?

I’m just going with the flow, which is my answer to everyone who asks where I’m headed haha!

I think I’m generally just trying to navigate the industry as a whole and seeing where I fit in all of it, which can be a bit overwhelming sometimes if I think about it too hard. I want to share the most honest and authentic parts of myself through my music –

this can be challenging. But it just takes time and patience. I have also learned quite a lot of things throughout the past couple of years of releasing my own music. Thinking back to where I used to be in terms of my knowledge about how the industry works is crazy because now it’s way more obvious to me how much I’ve grown as an artist. One piece of advice I’d put out there is to make sure you remember why you love doing it in the first place, otherwise, you start to lose yourself a bit in it all.

Do you think there’s a double standard in the industry for female artists, or in entertainment in general? If so, did you get an opportunity to create a unique style to subvert that double standard?

Totally! There have been several times when I’ve felt like I’d been pushed to the side or looked down on, for no reason other than the fact that I’m a female artist in a maledominated industry, and therefore, my music and I don’t possess as much value. I also hear a lot of stories of other female artist friends who go through weird situations as well. I’m glad that for sure it’s not as bad as it used to be in the industry, but there are still issues that pop up now and then. I think the only thing I can personally do in situations like these is to just stand my ground and be firm because at the end of the day this is the art that I am here to represent, which I consider to include the most vulnerable parts of myself.

If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?hat would it be?

A few things come to mind honestly! But for now, I’d say I would change the low rate of royalties that independent artists receive, especially from Spotify. It’s annoying how being a musician isn’t really considered to be a real job unless you’re super famous and rolling in it. That’s definitely one that’s on the top of my list.

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econ-dit When we split the bill, who’s really paying?

Words by Maia Hodge Our progressive society has made brave strides for equality between all genders as of late. However, should we also be placing a greater emphasis on the unique responsibilities of women in a pursuit for equity over equality? However, should we place an emphasis on responsibilities unique to women in order to pursue equity more than equality?

Gone are the days where a woman’s sole purpose was to keep the house and mind the children. Workplaces are now generally more inclusive of female employees. Women are able to pursue careers that may have previously been considered too demanding, and aspire to leadership positions historically only offered to men. In fact, research has shown that on average, women outperform men in all aspects of leadership and are more productive than their male counterparts, completing around 10% more work.

Considering this, why are women still stuck behind other Australians? Part of this can be attributed to more obvious components: the gender pay gap.

We place a higher value on maledominated industries. This is reflected in lower award rates for womendominated industries that involve caring for others. Whether that be aged care or childcare, awards in these industries are significantly lower than in male-driven areas such as trades, even if both roles require the same level of certification.

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Our economy places a greater emphasis on physical capital such as buildings and infrastructure rather than human capital, especially at an early level (think childcare and pre-schooling). Caring also forms a major unpaid job for many women. Consider common household work such as laundry, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping. It is estimated that women spend around 60% more time on average performing these duties than men in the household, a figure that has changed very little since the 80s. If a child needs to go home sick, women are around 8 times more likely than men to take time off to care for them. The expense of hiring someone to do these tasks, such as a chef, cleaner, maid, or nanny is inaccessible to most Australian households, necessitating this sacrifice of time which too often falls disproportionately upon women. This time lost can manifest in setbacks like less take home pay or worsened productivity as women take leave to account for these duties and face the stress that arises with it.

It is also important to recognise the inherently feminine task of bearing children, which is accompanied by menstruation. Whilst not all women want kids, those who do often have to choose between starting a family and pursuing a successful career. Giving birth can set back career progression as women miss out on workplace experiences and become subject to discrimination.

Many women report fearing that they are perceived as weak or not committed to their job if they take extended leave.

If paid parental leave is not available or provides less income than would have been received otherwise, then the gender pay gap perpetuates. Further, women have experienced being paid less for performing the same role after maternity leave, as they return to a more flexible workplace but still complete the same workload. This, amongst other factors, is delaying women from giving birth until later in their life, with the average age of first-time mums in Australia sitting around 29 years old.

Furthermore, menstruation can come with further challenges for some women, as symptoms can range from mild to severe enough to affect daily function and productivity, making it relevant to the workplace. However, the taboo surrounding menstruation can make it hard for women to speak up when they are suffering, even though the effect of periods often mimic those of other illnesses which warrant sick leave.

Menstruation leave is already in place in countries like Indonesia, where 12 days of paid period leave are offered a year.

This kind of policy promotes better trust and sentiment between manager and employee, and more productive women.

to rise, we may very well see many more women struggling to find secure housing in the future.

With this in mind, what needs to change?

Gender discrimination needs to be addressed, not only by the public attitude but also in policy to ensure women can step off on the right foot and be able to save enough to be self-sufficient in their future. We need more representation of women in positions that can influence this change to create an efficient and supportive workplace that promotes a better quality of life for all. In turn, all of Australia benefits as we recognise the true worth of currently undervalued females. Equal opportunity for all genders is a good goal, but an equitable society that supports women through their unique struggles is a great goal.

These factors are leaving women with less superannuation than men because the superannuation system is based on paid work and so many women sacrifice this to care for others. In the years approaching retirement, the gender superannuation gap falls anywhere between 22 percent and 35 percent, leaving women to struggle in their final years. This is now being realised as older women over 55 form the fastest growing group to experience homelessness in Australia. Older women are at a much higher risk of experiencing homelessness if they are a single parent. As the number of single person households continues

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sustain abili-dit Words by Olivia Veronese

‘Girls, come on. Leave the saving of the world to the men? I don’t think so.’

This iconic line, spoken by Elastigirl in The Incredibles (2004), frames the idea of the eco gender gap better than any market psychology study ever could. Similarly to The Incredibles, women have jumped ahead of their male counterparts when it comes to making eco-friendly consumer decisions.

The ‘eco gender gap’ describes the disparity of environmental awareness and eco-friendly actions that occurs between women and men (sorry gender-diverse peeps, market research is behind the times in their demographic groups).

In 2018, a British market research group found that 71% of women in the UK were committing to a more sustainable lifestyle, compared to 59% of men (Mintel, 2018).

This on its own is only a 12% difference – surely nothing too major?

But, when combined with the fact that a majority of domestic sustainable items are targeted to be used in cleaning, food, and laundry – areas where women are overrepresented – this has a much larger impact. In the US, a 2019 study found that women make between 70% and 80% of decisions relating to food, household goods and other consumables (Finder, 2021).

This has a significant influence on the branding and marketing decisions made by companies selling eco-friendly items.

In 2018, Jack Duckett, a senior consumer 22

lifestyles analyst, said that ‘eco-friendly campaigns and product claims are largely aimed at female audiences’ as a result of women still typically running the household (Hunt, 2020).

Zara Bending, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Law at Macquarie University and a board director for the Jane Goodall Institute Australia, is also well positioned to comment on the topic.

She says that ‘green-branding may as well be pink-branding’, where sustainability is increasingly being marketed as invisible women’s work (Wallis, 2021).

She says that eco-friendly choices and awareness are a socially presumed responsibility of women, thanks to the gendered mental load. This describes the cognitive labour of the non-tangible tasks involved in running a household and family, another area where women are overrepresented.

Like many of the fiddlesome issues in our society, the eco gender gap is complex. It’s influenced by a range of interconnected factors, including marketing, patriarchal gender roles, but also social responsibility.

Rachel Howell, a lecturer in sustainable development at the University of Edinburgh, explains that ‘women have higher levels of socialisation to care about others and be socially responsible, which then leads them to care about environmental problems and be willing to adopt environmental behaviours’ (Hunt, 2020).

The eco gender gap: like the gender pay gap, but greener Women’s higher sense of social responsibility is harnessed by this ecofriendly messaging. This creates a cycle of consumerism where eco-friendly products are more frequently bought by women, this behaviour is noticed, companies market their eco-friendly products towards women, and the cycle continues.

But don’t fear, younger generations are increasingly concerned about their environmental impacts, and are increasingly willing to pay more for clean electricity. This may be due to Millennials and Gen Z being born at a time where climate change was seen as a scientifically proven and hotly-discussed topic.

This is also reflected by women’s views on corporate social and environmental responsibility, where 91% of Australian women reported being concerned by the actions of corporations, as opposed to 84% of men (Finder, 2021).

Interestingly, older Australians are more likely to have solar panels and energyefficient lighting and appliances, whereas younger Australians are more likely to catch public transport rather than driving.

This may be due less to age, but more to the increased up-front cost of environmentally friendly options. I digress, but it’s a reminder of how complex the issue of sustainability can be.

At this point, you might be asking yourself where men fit in the eco-gender gap. Most men aren’t climate change-deniers, busily burning coal to keep their cold hearts from freezing over. In fact, I’d be inclined to argue that the younger generation of men are much more equal in terms of their consumption of eco-friendly products.

Despite this, in 2016, researchers from the Journal of Consumer Research suggested that ‘men may be motivated to avoid or even oppose green behaviours in order to safeguard their gender identity’ (Hunt, 2020).

A 2014 paper from the International Journal for Masculinity Studies even went as far as to say ‘for climate sceptics, it was not the environment that was threatened; it was a certain kind of modern industrial society built and dominated by their formof masculinity’ (Hunt, 2020). Translation: climate change action threatens masculinity. Spoooooky.

Maybe these older cis men felt threatened by carrying reusable bags (like a woman’s handbag, unthinkable), eating less meat (what personality would they have left without a steak?), or, worst of all, seeing advertisements for reusable period products (it’s just not right!).

It can be easy to view eco-friendly choices as an overwhelming market with misleading branding, which it can be. At the end of the day, it’s consumers that drive consumerism. Your dollars, however dwindled by university life, do make an impact, and so does your voice.

So, encourage your friends (male or otherwise) to be aware of the marketing that is aimed towards them, hype up their reusable bags, and share the occasional plant-based recipe with them. Women don’t have to leave the saving of the world to men, but it’s a whole lot easier to do together.

References:

Hunt, E (2020), ‘The eco gender gap: why is saving the planet seen as women’s work?’, The Guardian Wallis, J (2021), ‘Why Do Women Experience More EcoAnxiety Than Men?’, Refinery 29 Mintel Press Team (2018), ‘The Eco Gender Gap: 71% Of Women Try To Live More Ethically, Compared To 59% Of Men’, Mintel Finder (2021) ‘Going Green: A report on Australian consumer attitudes to climate action’

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book review:

all about love by bell hooks Words by Reading Feminism Reading Feminism’s March book was bell hooks’ All About Love. This work, published in 1999, is an exploration of ‘love’ and an attempt to write a history and a theory of love that can radically intervene in what hooks describes as a world structured by a lack of love.

For hooks, once ‘we’, as a culture and community, recognise that love and abuse cannot coexist and that self-love is a non-narcissistic and centrally important practice, we can then learn to structure our lives and relationships according to the ethics of love and forgiveness.

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Throughout this work, hooks makes strong and definitive claims on love and its interconnectedness with the personal and the political. hooks powerfully writes that “to open our hearts more fully to love’s power and grace we must dare to acknowledge how little we know of love in both theory and practice”. This idea is a transformative one, after all, “schools for love do not exist”. Many of us read All About Love in isolation, something that made us yearn for some collective and spiritual healing, and in this specific context hooks’s meditative theorisation on love is meditative and empowering.

However, when it came time to collectively flesh out our thoughts, we began to notice some of the reactionary dimensions of this work. hooks does not write about gender, race, class, and the ways that our particular locations shape our relationships to love; she suggests that love necessitates forgiveness, she tells grand and sweeping stories about the ‘nature’ of love that disallow nuance and complexity.

Thus this work did not wholly resonate with many of us; it is grounded in Christian spirituality, as well as a specifically North American national context. Many of us felt alienated by its focus on specifically heteronormative and familial loverelations, something that we felt did not capture the full and expansive possibilities that hooks’ central and grounding suggestion — that love is not a noun but a verb, an active, moving, and ongoing mode of relating that is transformative and

world-changing — directs us towards.

We did not feel that this book was unhelpful necessarily, but rather that hooks’ radical provocations were not given the space to materialise into radical alternatives.

We spoke about bell hooks’ other work, her significant contributions to a huge range of feminist fields and practices, and discussed the different times and spaces that we first encountered hooks and her work.

Some of us ‘met’ her in the classroom, others online, others first heard her name in our feminist conversations.

We shared other things we had read by hooks, works that resonated more deeply than All About Love but also served to enrich our engagements with its complicated politics. Teaching to Transgress, Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, and Ain’t I a Woman were named as some of the most important works in our feminist toolboxes.

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WHERE DID THE WOCO GO ?

Words by the UofA Women’s Collective To answer the question, the WoCo didn’t really go anywhere. We are still here, and we are still trying our best to advocate for women and non-binary folks’ rights on campus and beyond.

This is a call to action.

So, what did the UofA WoCo get up to in 2021? Let’s do a quick recap!

To begin, we collaborated with a lot of student clubs. Our biggest event of the year was our collaboration with Adelaide Sustainability Association and the Adelaide Fashion Collective for Sustainability Week - we had some of our members donate some of their pre-loved clothes to a clothes swap, which was a HUGE success! We also had the opportunity to co-host a Birthing Kit Assembly shop with the UofA Geography and Development Society, which had been a goal of ours since the beginning. We once again thank these clubs for their support, and cannot wait to work together again!

We hosted our annual bake sale, which allowed us to connect with the campus community and spread awareness about who we were and what we aimed to do.We hosted a Social High Tea for NOWSA, the Network of Women Students Australia’s conference. We co-hosted a stall for mid-year O’Week with On Dit, offering a badge making workshop and a friendly face to have a conversation about safer campus culture with.

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Even though we were dealing with a global pandemic, this did not stop us from advocating for women’s rights beyond our campus.

We attended March4Justice, to march for everyone who wants equality, justice, respect and an end to gendered violence. We have and continue to advocate for better communication and effort from the University in regard to their sexual harassment and assault policies and support women navigating harassment/assault incidences both within universityand outside of it. The reporting process can be seen as confusing, frustrating and even traumatising to many. So much more work needs to be done.

Part of our responsibility as a committee is to maintain the Anna Menz Women’s Room, which has been created as a safe space for women and non-binary folk on campus. We’ve provided tea and coffee supplies from our own pocket as well as kind donations from those who’ve benefited from the room. A little goes a long way is what we have found!

All of this has resulted in a busy, yet incredibly rewarding 2021 for the WoCo committee who are all in various stages of our university life. We have such an incredible range of committee members, and we are so appreciative of members past and present for their contributions!

Unfortunately, this year, the longlasting effects of COVID-19 and a very interesting year for the AUU Board and Student Representative Council have created challenges for the WoCo. Interest in the collective has dwindled, with several positions in the committee currently left unfilled. The few of us left are having difficulties keeping up with the women’s room, let alone maintaining a solid presence on campus through meaningful events to support and celebrate women and non-binary folk. As the year pushes on, we feel we have lost that momentum, and we simply do not have the numbers to implement the ideas and plans we’re passionate about. This is where you come in, dear reader.

The UofA WoCo stands with all who identify as a woman or a non-binary person, regardless of nationality, sexuality, age or religon. We also encourage people who do not identify as either to also stand in solidarity with us, as we are a student-lead initiative for anyone who is passionate about gender equity!

Therefore, the WoCo are keen to welcome new members to share in our goals in a range of capacities.

Are you someone who leads the chants at every protest/rally or do you prefer using Canva to create fun social media content?

Do you like baking up a storm for bake sales (We’re talking to you, Stella’s 2021 Ottolenghi Persian Love Cake!) or is organising a table for a Quiz Night more your thing?

Do you enjoy planning/hosting events or do you prefer to simply tag along and socialise with others?

Since 2019, our committee has held space for a diverse range of women and non-binary folk. To all the political activists, to the first years who just want a safe space to learn and make new friends - no matter where you fall on the spectrum, you’ll definitely find a sense of sisterhood with the University of Adelaide Women’s Collective.

So, this is an official call to action.

Please engage with local clubs, social groups, organisations or services that support women and non-binary folk.

Attend their events and get to know the people who work so tirelessly to get their message across. Who knows, maybe one day, you could find yourself lighting a path for so many after you and in turn, creating a safer space for women and non-binary folk to thrive in. . . . . . . . .

Here are our socials: Instagram: uofawoco Facebook: University of Adelaide Women’s Collective

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Trigger Warning: Mentions of sex and sexual dynamics, predatory behaviour I don’t believe tall people should exist. I will stand by this extreme generalisation until the day I die and the reasons for it are based on insider knowledge straight from this short bitch herself. I had to work really hard to stop myself from growing any bigger so I hope you all can appreciate my dedication to the cause. My detective work has led me to believe that an alarming amount of tall men are pedophiles, or at least, kind-ofpedophiles. But, let me divulge into a completely self-serving, and somewhat narcissistic, inner monologue before I get back to the whole ‘tall pedo’ thing.

I’m not big, but I didn’t think I was that small until I started getting thrown around in a sporadic attempt at amateur acrobatics by those cheeky telephonepole looking bastards (of which I was not informed of before the throwing ensued). I stand at around 5’2”. I didn’t

think this was sexy either, because who would see someone with the stature of a 12-year-old boy and think ‘hmmm yes, now that has sex appeal’? The answer is: apparently more people than you would think. An alarming amount of people, men generally, ask me how tall I am and this is outside of the otherworldly context of freaky dating apps where it’s weirdly kosher. I usually just say that I’m terrific at hide and seek, (because I totally am) and ask why it really matters to them?

If anything, tall people are selfish.

You’re going to take up that much space, and just simply assume that you deserve to? I’m rather space-conscious myself, but that could also be a woman-thing.

In general, men are bigger and take up more space, and they seem to like it that way. Women, however, have this talent where they make themselves as small as possible in hopes of not disturbing anyone with a knee or an elbow, and can sit in this uncomfortable position for a ruthless amount of time (my train takes 24 minutes, I’ve perfected it to an art).

I’m not just talking about some manspreading either, outside of that most women still do this everywhere they go.

WHY I FEAR

MEN

and the fetishisation of littleness Words by Sienna Sulicich 28

Now I’m questioning everything… am I performing smallness for the male gaze or is that a symptom of severe anxiety?

Hard to say.

what happened, but it involved a lot of infantilisation towards me that made me feel violently ill and I quickly hit the block button.

My first experience with this ‘tiny-sexy phenomenon’ was when a man online asked me how tall I was, to which I innocently responded, and he replied ‘fuck, that’s hot.’ For research purposes, and not purely because I was egging him on (even though I totally was), I asked why. He said he wanted to carry me around. Carry. Me. Around. Amongst other lewd sexual things that involved my smallness and his supposed bigness (you can only imagine the horrors), his main fetish appeared to be him throwing me around like a dead fish.

This was not the only thing that rang alarm bells, the biggest red flag of them all was when he wanted me to call him ‘daddy’. Some would argue that this is some innocent sexual fun between two consenting adults, however, this was not all; he wanted the whole fantasy, with knee socks, a pleated skirt and puppy eyes to match. It felt a bit too pedo-y and so I left it there, ignorantly thinking this was a one-off encounter.

I’m quickly realising that these phenomena are not just tall guys (although this is usually the case), it’s a whole sub-genre of men who think it’s hot when I fuck up my ABC’s. I suddenly can’t trust anyone, anyone with an interest in me who is over 6’0” is immediately suspicious. Is this a win for short kings? Maybe, but it’s purely circumstantial, for my own safety and peace of mind. I cannot wrap my tiny, smooth brain around any of it. I’m of age (get out of jail free card, it seems) and here I am being asked to act like a child for the fucked up sexual release of unnecessarily and frightfully tall men.

Multiple. Plural. I’ve only described two instances of this, I could go on forever though it’s more of the same thing.

This was evidently not a one-off encounter. I’m not running around saying I’m anything special either, I’m quite normal looking and still I’m being pestered by giants who want me to call them daddy and sit on their unusually large laps. My most recent experience was with a guy I was talking to who, unprovoked, started calling me ‘little girl’ via text. Now I would like to point out that there is a huge difference between a cheeky ‘baby girl’ and the concerning ‘little girl’. This man is 6’4” tall, so I suppose I am little to him, but he was trying hard to be sexy and then hit me with the ‘come here, little girl.’ That is some white van shit. Alas, in the spirit of my plight for the truth, I decided I had to play along with the text. I don’t really want to say all of

I would like to add that having kinks is all well and good; if you ain’t hurting anyone then go right ahead and play with those little piggies or whatever weird shit you’re into. Don’t bring kids into it. Simple task. And don’t hit me with the ‘no I don’t like kids, I just like you being all small and tiny and breakable and dependent on me and incompetent and in nappies and unable to tie your own shoelaces’ (I can read your mind, you sicko). I think the big fuckers just love that I would fit into a small suitcase if need be. It’s a spiral.

Maybe I’m over-paranoid, but I can’t look at tall guys the same (and now, neither can you, you’re welcome).

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FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION Words by Chanel Trezise and Sienna Sulicich Trigger Warning: Mentions of non-consensual surgery.

In 1992, Elle Dit featured an article by Elisa Reed titled ‘Female Circumcision.’ The foreign phrasing immediately drew our attention.

The original article focuses on educating people about the human rights issues surrounding the practice of female circumcision.

This practice is now described as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and it is a cultural practice that is still prevalent throughout parts of Africa and the Middle East. It is slowly decreasing worldwide due to greater education and Western intervention, but not as quickly as activists had hoped (Pashaei et all, 2016, 2).

The discourse surrounding ‘female circumcision’ has shifted in the last thirty years and now has been brought into the light with demanded intervention.

The evolving discourse of intervening with the cultural practice of removing women’s genitalia – either partially or fully — exhibits the growth of interest and politics surrounding this cultural practice.

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This is a narrative we are keen to deconstruct, because with it requires a necessity to negotiate the blurred lines between defending the human rights of women of color and their children, and the social and cultural repercussions of well-intentioned ‘white-saviour’/’missionaryactivist’ which can and will be felt in the everyday lives of these people.

The subject itself is complex and difficult to approach. Intervening in the cultural practices of other countries, particularly countries of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, has many implications relating to colonialism and the persistence of the self-constructed ‘white authority’. It raises many serious questions as well as hypocrisies of the ‘white’ intervener.

Are we to repeat history if the white patriarchal former colonisers are allowed to police bodies of women of color and their children yet again?

By way of intervening, are we to perpetuate the endemic and ongoing racist narratives thatconstruct the cultures of people of color as

primitive or barbaric?

There are also other serious ethical problems to interrogate. Shouldn’t these women have a right to their bodies and choose what to do with them regardless of what their culture dictates, and aren’t these women’s children generally too young to consent to have this procedure? How will these women and children live on with these permanent medical and psychological consequences?

The reality is that most acts of FGM are performed on children, and the rights and cultural practices that influence adults should not encroach on the rights of a child.

How can we stand by not doing anything when children’s lives and livelihoods are at risk?

So when is it right to intervene? Is it ethical to intervene at all?

Female Genital Mutilation is often rationalised under the guise of various cultural, religious, hygienic, aesthetic, psychosexual and socioeconomic reasons - the reasons which encroach on human rights.

In 2016, a study conducted by Pashaei and colleagues in Iran found that mothers’ intentions and decisions to circumcise their daughters, as they usually hold this authority, are based on a combination of social norms, aesthetic preferences, repression of female sexuality, and religion. The article, although informative, fails to elaborate on the significance of the role of religion or cultural custom in enforcing FGM. Most of the reasoning claims to be about ‘social norms’ and expectations in

the community and does not add or hint at the importance of the religious underpinning of this practice.

Axelsson and Strid challenged the position that FGM is a deeply rooted cultural and religious practice by asking the important question of why FGM has been abandoned by many countries with diverse cultural and religious traditions?

(2020, 709).

Another study into the practice of FGM attitudes in Egypt by Van Vossem, Meekers & Gage found that 77.5% of participants, all women, agree that FGM should be continued. However, the researchers also argued that this claim was made due to these women having a lack of opportunities for quality education, which is a direct consequence of their lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

What’s worse, whatever form of general education was given to these women had the effect to inform and reinforce their attitudes within their own cultural worlds (2015, 13).

However, the current discourse surrounding FGM is missing a critical lens that understands the common sexist tropes that mould traditional practices to be at the expense of women and girls. FGM demonstrates a different beauty standard than what is deemed beautiful or desirable in western countries, which explains how the communities which practise FGM see this as a viable aesthetic practice for women and children.

This ‘custom’ constructs and enforces an idea of beauty that

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disregards any possible moral and ethical implications which inflict pain and psychological harm.

Thus, despite any social or cultural imperatives FGM has, it is not a safe or moral practice.

In saying this, however, we reject the white savourism and imperialist thought which penetrates the spaces of discourse that condemn FGM. Condemning FGM does not simultaneously nor necessarily besmirch a particular culture or imply it is uncivilised. The communities and cultures which practise FGM do not need ‘saving’ by white savour-like Instagram posts, or any attempts of charity that look down on them. Further, in criticising morally grey traditions such as FGM, it is important to acknowledge the predominantly white, colonist lens and history which permeates critical thought, as well as the white privilege which commonly allows us to ignore issues of injustice. Instead, this criticaldiscussion should act as a guide and a lesson for us on how to dance on the intricate and perhaps precarious boundary between defending human rights while respecting cultural diversities.

Ultimately, the mutual aid, education and awareness which attempt to stop FGM should not reinforce xenophobic, racist connotations and thoughts– instead, it should push for appropriate, productive, and respectful dialogue, communication, supplies and resources.

FGM is not morally just, but it does not devalue or invalidate the cultural values of communities that practise it. It is just that FGM and its sexist implications should not continue. A lot of the women who still support FGM and expect their daughters to undergo this practice, particularly those from rural and lower socioeconomic areas are slowly changing their attitudes towards FGM due to greater opportunities and education. Thus, there is no need for these cultural traditions to be forgotten or lost, nor condemned by ‘white-saviours’ or exoticised by the media. Providing mutual aid to these communities through access to education and critical discourse, not just relating to FGM, appears to be the most ethical route to supporting the welfare of these women and children without encroaching on their freedom and empowerment.

References: Pashaei, T, Ponnet, K, Moeeni, M, Khazaee-pool, M & Majlessi, F 2016, ‘Daughters at Risk of Female Genital Mutilation: Examining the Determinants of Mothers’ Intentions to Allow Their Daughters to Undergo Female Genital Mutilation’, PloS One, vol. 11, no.

3, pp. 1-12 Axelsson, TK & Strid, S 2020, ‘Minority migrant men’s attitudes toward female genital mutilation: Developing strategies to engage men’, Health Care for Women International, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 709–726.

Van Rossem, R, Meekers, D & Gage, AJ 2015, ‘Women’s position and attitudes towards female genital mutilation in Egypt: A secondary analysis of the Egypt demographic and health surveys, 1995-2014’, BMC Public Health, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1-13.

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Trigger Warning: Mentions of BDSM, sex, sexual power dynamics, pedophilia, rape and sexual assault

encounters. Although BDSM generally encapsulates all things kinky, it does it in a way that puts safety and happiness as the priority, before any sexual desires even start being discussed (ideally, that is).

I’ve been thinking about the domain of the BDSM community for a while now, and I do understand the appeal.

The community of BDSM (traditionally standing for bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) comes with the promise of openness and understanding that is comforting to a lot of women, especially those who have experienced sexual assault. The reassurances of safety and open communication are upheld widely in the community, as well as the importance of aftercare for survivors, something that is foreign outside of most BDSM

I recently started questioning the power dynamics within the BDSM sphere and so I took to the wonderfully frightening world of NSFW (not safe for work) Twitter to see where it would lead me (reminder: stop throwing myself into researching things that I know are going to emotionally destroy me).

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The BDSM community is rife on Twitter.

I don’t know when Twitter became so sexy, but apparently, Twitter is the new Tumblr. Underneath all the soft-core porn and sloppy make-out gifs are an abundance of submissives often looking for dominants to be their counterparts.

And there are a lot of them, hundreds

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and hundreds of women, wanting to get on their knees and bow their heads all in one convenient place. It may sound awfully concerning (which it is) that the patriarchal structures of the real world have resulted in the fetishisation of ultimate domestication and subservience; it’s no wonder these women turn to BDSM. You may be quick to judge, ‘why is this so-called feminist caught underneath a gummy gaming desk clad in a maid outfit if she’s such a girlboss?’

I am not bagging submissive women here, nor will I ever be (go off pillow princess, I ain’t here to judge). You’re allowed to be a feminist and not be a latex-clad dominatrix who thrives on cock and ball torture (but go off if you do, good for you). I am not blaming or shaming the women or submissives that have these fantasies, whether it be a daddy kink or consensual non-consent kink. It is completely understandable and okay for you to play out these desires in a safe space that meets your needs and with a person you trust is not taking advantage of you or your desires.

It is common for many survivors of assault (and just your everyday person) to have these particular fetishes and fantasies, and that’s completely okay. A lot of women in BDSM, whether they’re submissive or dominant, come from experiences of sexual assault and find comfort in the kinky. It makes sense.

The trauma of an event can lead you to have particular sexual needs or some Freudian shit (idk ask the old guy) like ultimate subservience or role-play or whatever.

I’m more concerned about a few of the dominant men in the BDSM community who have a lot of opinions about consent, assault, and aftercare, with not much experience or knowledge to back it up.

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The plethora of un-traumatised and overenthusiastic guys on Twitter who are more than happy to fulfil these fantasies is fucking crazy. I couldn’t count how many ‘daddy dom’ accounts I found, all of which were extremely popular. Each of these accounts has thousands of followers that they would call obscenities on the timeline (not even in direct messages, literally just on the fucking timeline).

These men are so popular and yet so underwhelming; these dudes have a graphic anime header with some kinky chains layered over it (but maybe that gets your rocks off). Yet, these ‘daddy doms’ are apparently a rare commodity because of the disproportional amount of submissives to dominants; some submissive women were posting about it and calling it a ‘dom drought’ (which is so fucking iconic). And maybe that’s why many female submissives just go along with these men’s pretty out-there kinks. I don’t really know how much of these originated from the submissive’s desires, but it seems that most of the action is directed by the dominant, including the nature of the scene and kinks involved (which is made even more apparent in an online space like Twitter).

It appears that the dom drought is being severely taken advantage of.

Once, one of the most popular fantasies posted by these doms involves a kink called ‘consensual non-consent.’ It sounds like an oxymoron, and that’s because it is. Essentially, the scene is discussed beforehand and consented to, and then played out as if it wasn’t.

People are using the term ‘consensual non-consent’ (CNC) purely because it sounds a lot better than a rape fantasy.

But that’s what it is. It’s the side of the dom that I’m more concerned about; the men fantasising about raping women and getting off on the thought of her saying no, all under the guise of ‘but it was consensual.’ Does it matter if it

was consensual at that point? It’s still a rape fantasy. A pedophile pretending an adult is a child to get off is fucked up, just like pretending to rape someone is fucked up even if you aren’t actually doing it.

On that note, let’s get into the ol’ daddy debate, shall we? The daddy kink is widely known and joked about (which is so fine, the daddy Elon joke is still funny). The protective connotations coming with these ‘father figures’ are comforting to submissives. However, the number of guys who like being called daddy is a little concerning. It’s not just the daddy thing, it’s how far it goes, because some of these Twitter doms want to fuck you, tie your shoelaces, and put you in a nappy (idk about the order, I didn’t ask).

I’m still figuring out where the line is.

Sadists get off on hurting people and seeing them in pain, which sounds really fucked up, yet that’s still widely accepted in the BDSM community. Maybe, that’s due to the number of masochistic counterparts, or some psychological relationship between pleasure and pain. But ultimately, regardless of our kinks and sexual appetites, we all need to be aware of what we want and why we want it. Questioning where your desire comes from can be a good indicator of whether it’s moral to act out this fantasy. So, with open communication and a lot of lubricant, go wild! Be safe! Treat people with kindness! Check up on that one friend who likes studded collars a bit too much! And, for your own wellbeing, stay away from Twitter.

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I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH TIKTOK FEMINISM. Words by Jenny Jung

Everyone’s journey

with feminism is unique and deeply personal. However, it is safe to say that the media we consume act as sources which guide our norms and understanding of feminism.

This is why I have a problem with feminist content on social media, most prominently Tiktok. Now, I’d be a liar if I said I’m not constantly on Tiktok every moment of boredom throughout my day – most kids these days are. But this is why Tiktok feminism is so dangerous; it feeds regressive and toxic content into the minds of malleable young people who have yet to form their views on feminism. I remember as a young girl myself seeing #feminism posts on Instagram (you know, the pussy-powerperiod-blood-girlboss activism that was going on in 2012) and taking it as gospel, not realizing how toxic that brand of feminism really is. This is the effect of social media trends on young people, and it is still a problem to this day, if not worse.

To preface, capitalism and feminism are a match made in hell. The reason why emancipation has been taking so long (with so many generations to come if ever) is because capitalism exists.

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The patriarchy is littered with traps, with clever mechanisms to make women feel liberated and empowered and simultaneously feed right from its hands – capitalism and consumerism culture being one. Capitalism is a system born out of the patriarchy, and it serves to reinforce it. Capitalism is inherently gendered, because the means of production are always the masculine, and the commodities are always the feminine. In this society where women are groomed into being satisfied as products, there can never be emancipation. This leads to the first Tiktok trend I want to talk about.

the ‘divine feminine’, Have you ever and other futile encountered attempts of those Tiktoks with women escape from the dressed like male gaze. forest witches and/or goddesses, posing for the camera with that annoying “I am woman, I am fearless…” sound in the background?

The divine feminine is a trend on Tiktok, meant to channel our powerful feminine energy, and feel empowered in this society where men tell us what women should be – yes, women sure look beautiful and radiant, but is the

divine feminine really liberation from the male gaze? Simone de Beauvoir in her masterpiece, The Second Sex writes on associating women with mysticism.

Mysticism, women as goddesses, as holders of secrets to fertility, as laceclad, grape-eating, barefoot fairies, is a role that men have posited onto us.

Beauvoir writes that even when men see themselves as passive to these mystical laws of nature and fertility, “he still realizes himself as transcendence”.

Let’s put this simply: picture man as… well, man, and woman as mother nature – men, while overpowered and entranced by the mysticism of mother nature, still conquers, cultivates the land. So, the ‘divine feminine’ isn’t really empowering at all – we are cosplaying exactly what men want us to think we are. Beauvoir writes: “as powerful as she may appear, she is defined through notions created by the male consciousness… she incarnates only the static aspects of society… man continues to monopolise the functions that open this society to nature”. We should strive to be more than just this belittling role that men have created for us to embody just so they can cultivate us – we should strive to be empowered, strong feminists just and purely being ourselves.

Another trend I’ve seen appear quite recently is the whole male gaze

vs female gaze discourse. I

saw several Tiktoks just today where women show a series of pictures from when they were supposedly dressing for the male gaze – what some would call ‘basic’ outfits – then when the beat drops, they show themselves dressing for the female gaze – some cooler, more eccentric outfits. Now, I’m aware of the key criticism of this trend because – and what a surprise – I’ve seen Tiktoks about this. It’s the Margaret Atwood

criticism; that we are our own voyeurs, “a woman with a man inside watching a woman”. When we make these Tiktoks of us ‘rebelling’ against the male gaze, we are still catering to the male gaze, because everything is run by male fantasies. If the pretty, preppy Barbie imagery you think of when someone says ‘male gaze’ is a male fantasy, then so is the rebellious, eccentric, dark/ light academia, or cottagecore (pick your fighter) ‘written by a woman’ imagery. One way or another, we are just commodities made to serve male fantasies. In this capitalist society controlled by the patriarch, we are all, always, written by a man – written to be consumed. “Up on a pedestal or down on your knees, it’s all a male fantasy”.

Disheartening, right? The female gaze trend is not a progressive feminist movement that we thought it was, and we shouldn’t be teaching young girls to be their own voyeur. This is as best an opening I’m going to get for my next problematic #feminist trend.

‘Dissociative Feminism’

– ever heard of it? It’s the jaded woman trope; she is sick of being nice to men and smiling all the time. Instead of bows, she wears ripped tights. Switch out your sparkly lip gloss for Clinique’s ‘Black Cherry’ (someone please tell me where I can buy one). She chainsmokes and has smudged mascara, even at 10 in the morning – depression can hit any time of the day when you’re a woman. This is your regular Fiona Apple, Fleabag woman. Now, I have a few problems with this trend. First, it sexualizes and glorifies self-destructive and toxic tendencies in women.

Dissociative feminism claims to counter the hyper-optimistic, girlboss feminist movement, but does little more than to create just another hub of equally toxic women and (most importantly) the men who are looking for a new, more

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exciting (!) brand of women. I remember just a couple years ago we were criticizing filmbros for romanticizing depressed women, smoking cigarettes on her windowsill, skinny as a stick probably because she doesn’t ever eat.

So why is dissociative feminism such a revolution on Tiktok? Probably because – and yet another effortless segue to my next point(!) – the women that post under this hashtag are all pale, skinny, attractive white women with money to spend on Vivienne Westwood! Do I even have to come up with another linking sentence connecting my argument back to the problem of ‘social media feminism in the age of capitalism’ anymore?

I could go on and on, but I really must wrap up for the main event:

Telling women to go into sex-work isn’t a #feminist boss move This is a sensitive topic. So I will preface first with a content warning – I may discuss troubling topics like trafficking, sexual violence, etc – and make myself clear in saying I am 100% for decriminalising sex work and supporting sex workers. Sex work isn’t an inherently exploitative trade, and you will see this if you go back civilisations ago, where profit wasn’t a thing that people lived for. I am not trying to stigmatise sex work as a trade. It only becomes a problem because we have started commodifying women’s sexuality and pleasure and creating a capitalist industry where men exploit these commodities to make profit. That’s when women start being trafficked, killed, and put at risk of STI transmission, rape, and abuse – especially trans women.

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However, social media often shows a distorted version, and a tiny fraction of reality. Have you ever come across ‘StripTok’? These strippers are posting short videos talking about their day in the life in the industry, showing their nice apartment, relaxing and enjoyable day, and their glamorous career at night as a stripper. Then, they always end with the creator showing off how much cash they made that day. All in the name of female empowerment. I have a huge problem with this; not only are these Tiktoks at all representative of the reality of sex work, it is risking the safety of young, impressionable girls who might not know better. Sex work and consumption of sex work under capitalism is just as unethical and exploitative as any other industry.

Encouraging women’s participation in sex work is not feminist, nor is it ethical. Until sex work is decriminalised and the industry is back in the hands of women, it will continue to be a hostile, psychologically consuming profession for all involved.

This is the reality of social media feminism. Impressionable minds form a regressive, untrue idea of feminism – a feminist movement that is palatable to capitalism and to men who are taking advantage of women’s sexual liberation.

Let’s not give them what they want – let’s rebel against capitalist structures and emancipate ourselves.

Devil in Disguise Words by Sienna Sulicich Like an angel with sugarcoated wings, you had me intoxicated on rosewater from shiny trays the Devil brings.

An infinite second shared; Just one, for so long.

Holding on, Feverish for more of your Lifeless Liquor.

An endless symphony Orchestrated on a lie, moaned elegantly, the pitch: a perfectly audible cry.

My elbow, A shelter for sore sounds.

Gentle caresses now forgotten Replaced by Trained pounds.

I dream of clouds, Of wet soil, Of endless days in which I am finite.

I dream of wildflowers.

No pruned perfection to see, Untamed in their isolation, Watered by the will of the world.

I dream of the loneliness I once fought off With rampant punches.

A still silence collapses us.

Mercy given in the form of your finishing Baptised by your sweat, Cursed by my own trust.

Intertwined, Hypnotised, Hanging on for the sweet stench of my breath.

Roses.

A patient minute Held between your Fingertips I am all in your hands.

Fingers scaling down my back, Sickly tongue curled in the shell of my ear with a confidence I lack.

Rendered blind, your evil stings so red.

Enveloped by burning touches, Scorned by the warmth Of unwanted osculations.

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Words by Lottie Minney

ARE YOU A TW/ Mentions of rape/assault

Feminism is for everyone!

No, really, are you a feminist? For all the AFAB/femme people reading this, I swear this is not a rhetorical question.

I want you to seriously consider your answer. Pretend, for a moment, that feminism is more than believing in equality between men and women, or that women should be treated as human beings with dignity and respect.

Pretend, if you can, that feminism is the man-hating body-hair-toting lesbians of the second wave, the bra-burners, the protesters, the women that went “too far”. Pretend that Marxist, socialist, and radical feminisms are the rule, not the extreme. Pretend that feminism isn’t a sticker on your laptop, but an entire movement built on the backs of activism, the majority of women of which were not at all involved.

Honestly, I really wish it wasn’t. This unveralisation is made worse by the fact that feminists themselves perpetrate this idea. I can, of course, understand why we want more of us, but it cannot be at the expense of the movement itself.

Feminism was not made to be universal, it was made to be uncomfortable and earth-shattering. If everyone truly is a feminist, then by God we are doing a shit job of dismantling patriarchal capitalism. That is the goal, right? Oh, my apologies! What I meant to say is by God we are doing a wonderful job of, among other things: improving body positivity in the - inherently sexist beauty industry, letting women become CEO’s to their own slave-owning companies, and educating POC about how good girls shouldn’t wear hijabs.

Above all, we have done a great job in making sure we can do whatever we want without feeling like a bad feminist, because that really sucks :(

Now, I ask again: are you a feminist?

If you are, then good: we need more. If you aren’t, which I wager places you in the majority, I want to discuss why you think you are: or, most perniciously, think that you must be.

It is no secret that feminism has been commercialised, watered-down and crushed into a barely-recognisable oblivion through capitalism. Worst of all, it has been universalised. Everyone is a feminist. It’s akin to claiming you’re not racist, or not transphobic: a passive rejection of the “bad side”. If you’re not a feminist, especially as a celebrity or public figure, you’re just not on the right side of history.

God forbid you are a non-feminist woman. Those poor, poor things, they don’t even know that being a woman makes you a feminist automatically.

Those silly, silly, conservatives, you arevoting against your own interests!

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I won’t deny there have been leaps and strides in many of the first and secondwave feminist causes – as a white, middle-to-upper-class lesbian who has never been sexually assaulted or raped, many institutional freedoms have been awarded to my demographic.

However, the issues that remain, especially those that concern POC and those in low-socio-economic groups, are actually fucking embarrassing in the face of feminist empowerment and girl power. A universal feminism will always benefit the ‘norm’ rather thanthe ‘Other’. If you are comfortable, you are doing feminism wrong. Worse, if you think there is a true monolith of feminist belief, a ‘correct’ perspective – if you ignore the writings of our

feminist predecessors like Dworkin, MacKinnon, and Firestone and only give heed to Wolf and Friedan - feminism is not a movement for you, it’s a lifestyle.

One of my central issues with universal feminism, other than the ways it can devalue the movement, is in itself a feminist issue- it places another

Jessa Crispin concludes in her antifeminist feminist manifesto, “the choices you make on a daily basis… are not destroying the world” though they “are not saving the world” either (2017, p.

147). It’s not our job, either, to look after men; to always be ready to provide them with feminist comebacks off-the-bat, to inform them when they misinterpret, to

FEMINIST ? unreasonable expectation on women to be everything to everyone at once. I hope it is clear that I do think women should be feminists, but much like a political party or other social/intellectual movements, I don’t expect everyone to be. Yet, if you are female-presenting (and therefore must be a feminist) you automatically take on the burden of representing feminism as a whole.

There is a popular Cut series on YouTube called Middle Ground. I’m sure you’ve seen it before, “Flat Earthers vs Scientists”, “Rich vs Poor”, “Polyamory vs Monogamy”, etc. Two years ago, they released “Men’s Rights vs Feminism”, intended to provide a discourse between representatives of each group. There’s just one problem: the feminist side was simply… women. These women were self-identified feminists, but decidedly not scholars with the knowledge and expertise to rival the experts in men’s rights rhetoric. If you hadn’t already made your mind up about which side you’re on (which, let’s face it, you have), you could almost argue the men had won.

Their statistics and arguments may have been false and contrived, but at least they were there. Cut has done this before, mind you, with “Traditional vs Trans,” pitting transphobes who had heavily researched issues of gender identity against people who just happen to be transgender. It’s not the job of a minority to be a spokesperson. It’s not your job, as a woman/femme person, to be a feminist either. You are not wrong for this – as

mother them with our knowledge.

It is not even feminism’s job to look after men. We don’t need your metrics of approval – we don’t need the success of feminism measured on how many women in parliament there are, or how good we are at entering male-dominated fields – we don’t want your system. I know our favourite way of convincing men of our good-girl intentions is to reassure them that feminism is “good for men too”; that it won’t disrupt anything too much, that they sare safe. Fuck that. Feminism will disrupt. It will make life better for men simply because it will make life better for everyone, but I don’t need to endear myself to you, to bring you kicking-andscreaming along for the ride just so you don’t get too shocked when the revolution hits. I don’t need to get on my knees for the patriarchy so as not to offend.

If what I’ve said here resonates with you, I want you to consider more carefully what it represents when you call yourself a ‘feminist’. If you can, I want you to make yourself into one too. It is an act, not a word, and you must embody it. Only when feminism becomes extreme, upsetting, and disruptive again will we be able to manifest change. Forgive yourself for not being a femininist -- both the kind that I would support and the girlboss CEO. As women/femmes, we suffer horribly from the guilt of not doing enough, but we are not everything. We are not everywoman.

So step forward or step back, but know what it is that you are doing.

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A RANT

Words by Riley Pepper

1

3

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I WOMEN D U C A T I O N 5

One of the main things that has been playing on my mind is how many men are principals within schools when teaching is a femaledominated field. When I asked someone why a certain man was being groomed to become principal at the school I was placed at, they replied “oh well, it’s for representation as they don’t have many men at the school” - which is funny when comparing education to other fields. ICT women are very rarely in a position of such authority and power and are more often than not the “covergirl” of the company. This seems to happen in a lot of fields, as women, and more often POC are tokenised within the institution, but not put in the higher positions of power.

Similarly, there is this super toxic standard within teaching that parents definitely take the advice of white cis men over other staff members. I even remember hearing it and seeing it when I was younger… It is almost ingrained within our society to listen to a man over a woman, and that comes within teaching too. I wonder if that is also another reason why teachers aren’t taken as seriously as other professions (idk if that’s just me being a paranoid ass tho lol).

I should say that within the teaching field, at least in my limited experience, this discrimination doesn’t often happen among your peers. Many academic researchers in education are women and are very popular among educators, just like that of men.

I think the issue of appointing mainly male principal’s comes from the common conception that being a leader is associated with men - see how Julia Gillard got absolutely shat on. Also, oddly enough, a fair amount of vice principals or heads of areas (such as head of English, ICT or even Math) tend to be women, but not top-dog. It easily ties into the argument of how women “pick lower paying jobs” (this of course is a generalisation).

Behind the scenes there are a lot of issues with female teachers and having children as a lot of who decides which teachers to contract are men. I can’t name the teacher, but I know someone who didn’t get their contract renewed because “oh, but what if you have another baby”.

Nevermind the women that partake in that toxic culture too, saying things like “oh, why are they hiring such a young woman, she could have children and be off for two years”.

This is a big thing for me. The teaching industry conflates the personal life of a female teacher with her profession. A female teacher who doesn’t have kids will be damned, whereas a male teacher with children isn’t really a topic of discussion, let alone a negative one. I can’t help but think women are judged in teaching when they don’t have children. Teaching is rather different to raising children. There is a saying in teaching, “parents can tell teachers how to teach, but as soon as a teacher tells parents how to parent... it’s different.” At the end of the day teaching is a profession, some even see it as a lifestyle like that of being a nun as you essentially dedicate your whole life to it. Imagine being a woman who has dedicated 5 or more years to getting a degree only to spend your entire career being told that you don’t understand children because you haven’t pushed one from your vagina?

Even if parents don’t say it, there are looks and behind the scenes comments like this everywhere.

Teachers and parents should have the same goal: to help and have the child grow.

I’m sad it isn’t the case. I can’t wait to retaliate, and use my sarcastic, lesbian authority to say to parents they dont understand their gay child because they aren’t 43 gay (let’s see how that one goes).

medical discrimination is a

patriarchal weapon Words by Jamie Murray-Todd What kind of symptoms would you look for if you thought you were having a heart attack? If you answered chest discomfort or pain, shortness of breath, and nausea or lightheadedness, you’re correct! Only if you’re a man, though.

For women, the signs can be different; unexplained fatigue, dizziness, sweating, and neck, back, and jaw pain can be just as telling of a heart attack as the symptoms also experienced by men. If this is new information to you, I’m not trying to scare you – it’s just important to know, for your wellbeing and for that of those around you. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women across the world, so it’s important that we look out for ourselves and each other.

The thing is, symptoms of heart disease and attacks in women aren’t common knowledge. And there’s a reason for that.

What we know about heart disease comes primarily from information gleaned through cardiovascular clinical 44

trials. From 2010 to 2017, only 38% of participants across 740 cardiovascular trials were women. It wasn’t until 1993 that the National Institutes of Health mandated that women and “members of minority groups” be included in clinical trials in the United States.

Years later, these same demographics are still underrepresented. In Australia, we do not have any equivalent policy mandating equal representation in clinical trials. Most medical research is conducted with white, cisgender men as the default subject, and so they’re often overrepresented in information accessible by the general public. This puts everyone else at risk, because we’re so often looking for the wrong symptoms, or don’t even know that we should be looking for alternative symptoms at all. Alzheimer’s and lung cancer are further examples of health issues posing significant risks to women, whose gender-specific symptoms and treatments are often excluded from the conversation.

Let’s be clear: systematically excluding particular demographics from clinical trials is medical discrimination. Samesex couples have historically been exluded from the medical trials of couples in regards to their sexual health.

Transgender individuals are consistently excluded from HIV research and countless other clinical trials. This is linked directly to the widespread lack of knowledge of transgender healthcare among medical professionals, which puts transgender and nonbinary individuals at risk every day. Even when LGBTQIA+ individuals are included in clinical trials, data about sexual orientation and gender identity is often not collected. Information related to disability is also excluded from many clinical trials reports.

People of colour and Indigenous people are greatly underrepresented in clinical trials, too. In the United States, only 5% of breast cancer trial participants were Black women, who have a 41% higher mortality rate from breast cancer than white women. From 2008 to 2018, only 1.5% of clinical trials in Australia focused on the health of Aboriginal people. Whiteness as the default in medical research stems back to the birth of race theory in Europe, and is a result of eugenicist ideas that have been used to justify colonisation and genocide. To this day, healthcare for people of colour is often based on ‘race corrected’ measurements that are blatantly false. The overrepresentation of whiteness in clinical trials means that this misinformation is continuing tocause needless harm instead of being swiftly corrected.

Science strongly impacts how we interpret the world around us, which means that it is constantly evolving. Let’s not hinder its evolution by passively treating bigoted and eugenicist rhetoric established to uphold patriarchal, colonial standards as indisputable truth.

The sooner we recognise the lingering effects of the long and pervasive history of medical discrimination, the sooner we can work to reverse them. I’d encourage you to do your own research on this topic, because I’ve only really scratched the surface here, and there are so many people out there working to bring about change. Nobody deserves to suffer because they’re uninformed against their will – accurate medical information and adequate healthcare should be accessible for everybody.

The lack of diverse representation in clinical trials harms women and everybody else whose genetics and experiences don’t align with those of the medically standard white man – which, for the record, includes a number of white men too. Medical discrimination is just another in the long list of examples of how the patriarchy harms us all.

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STAYING STAYING HOME HOME AND AND BEING BEING FREE FREE Words by Habibah Jaghoori

Audre Lorde said, ‘I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of colour remains chained.’

The discourse on freedom has been one to exist since the beginning of civilisation. Humanity has experienced and tried many different ideologies, cultures, economies that have all used ‘freedom’ as their forefront and yet, the world we live in today, has humanity in the greatest captivity to date. Life itself has been commodified. Sentiments such as ‘earning a LIVING’ have been ingrained and normalised. The mere act of being alive comes with a cost and that is a culture that strips people of their humanity.

The culture that Capitalism breeds stunts women from attaining their dignity, honour, growth and it prevents them from reaching their independent identity. In an environment free from a profitdriven economy and Western values, women can achieve 46

scholarly, personal and ethical growth. Women can achieve political growth.

Women can become pioneers for essential social issues that will no doubt expand humans in their intellectual and spiritual developments, and women can achieve it all without having to change, compromise or neglect their characteristics and needs.

But there needs to be a certain notion that has to be left behind in this struggle for liberation. That is, women who stay at home are being left behind.

Isolating women from practices such as housekeeping and raising children with the false ideas of freedom and growth is not honouring women. It’s an intentional motive to drive women to the labour markets for the purpose of accumulating profit at their exploitation. Capitalism has bankrupted the values that are supposed to be the sweeter aspects of life for all people.

With genuine consistency, social progression will build. It’s regressive to shame women for choosing the traditional path in life. Having this choice and making it should be celebrated and supported rather than undermined through false narratives of it being ‘backwards.’ You will see a revolutionary, a martyr, a scholar or anyone that has shaped the discourse of humanity in a positive way and you will see a mother with strong willpower, firm determination and inspiring patience that is standing over them.

Under Capitalism, women in the workforce face certain pressures, humiliation and are held to different and objective expectations that inevitably transcend the boundaries of respect, pride and self-esteem.

It’s a toxic reality that is normalised and even praised under pretences of ‘hustling’ and ‘girl-bossing.’ It is the system we have to change, and it is the rotten cultural foundations we have to uproot in order to break new grounds which welcome and allow women at home or not, to have the complete freedom to study, write, learn and pursue their passion.

The result of the beauty industry complex is women left without the power to live without judgement, with the need to continuously perform for the male gaze, and as secondary importance in fields of academia and politics.

In a truly feminist society, women will be free. Women should be admirable housewives if they want to be, or they will be respected even without partners or kids if they choose so. Women will decide for themselves what they want, and they will have the right to choose it. This reality is the blossom of an overthrown and abolished economy that’s only function is to make profit.

It’s a deep relief by a revolutionised culture that places human welfare and advancement at its centre.

When women are liberated from the disturbing and inhumane restraints of capitalist values, then all people are liberated. To achieve this, we must toss aside the fight for complete equality because equality does not mean justice. We must fight for equity.

A healthy, reasonable and precise pathway to liberate women from all forms of sexism is to not emphasise the need for equality, as equality is hardly paramount to justice. Western culture has made out women to be the objects of sexual exploitation, through advertising or in entertainment under the guise of sexual equality and liberation. But all it has done is realised the mass profit-hungry and destructive beauty industry constantly capitalising on the insecurity that it perpetuates. All it has done is normalise competition, carnal standards and harmful diet cultures.

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“

Men will often pay lip service to women’s rights and do the bare minimum of saying women deserve equal rights and fair treatment. But when push comes to shove, protests surrounding women’s issues have a much lower rate of male attendance.

I’ve been involved in left-wing spaces for quite some time now, and over this time, one thing has become increasingly clear: there seems to be little hope of escape from sexism even within leftist circles.

Even though we are all united in the fight against capitalism, climate change, and the oppressive structures that are driven by them, there still remains a divide. Leftwing men continue to uphold and benefit from patriarchal structures, and in many instances, that patriarchy is something they refuse to confront.

In some ways, sexism from leftist men is worse and more insidious than that of conservatives. With conservatives, their sexism is more overt, and the rest of their views equally reprehensible. It’s easy for everyone to recognise. Meanwhile, sexism from left-wing men is more subtle. These men will talk about class and climate, and they’ll criticise that same overt sexism spouted by conservatives. They’ll go to the women’s marches (not in the same numbers as they will for other causes, of course). They’ll share posts about Roe v Wade on their socials. They’ll call themselves feminists. They’ll do all of this while speaking over and on behalf of women and treating sexism as if it is something they are above - something the backwards right-wingers do, but that they have transcended due to their progressivism.

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”

In speaking with my friend Chanel about our shared experience in leftist circles, she said this of left-wing men: “They can be incredibly tokenistic. They can talk the talk, you know, but never walk the walk. I’ve heard communist men and leftist men describe themselves as feminists yet still talk about women and treat women like they’re prizes to be won. They never challenge the way they view women or the way they treat them subconsciously. It feels like when they say they’re feminists it’s just a political act. They don’t go out of their way to be better, they just pretend.”

This is an experience echoed by many women in politically left spaces.

There have been many occasions in my roles in positions of leadership in political circles where I have had men explain to me my own role or projects that I spearheaded. I have had men speak over me at every opportunity, and I’ve been made to feel intellectually inferior if I don’t want to spend an hour circlejerking over obscure pieces of theory. I have had men circumvent me entirely in my leadership position and instead solely go to my male counterpart, even in areas where I was very clearly the one to go to.

I’ve had credit for my work stolen from me and entirely attributed to men who

LEFT-WING TO DO BETT

sometimes had very little to do with the work. I have called out these men, and been called unreasonable or told that I’m emotional, or that I’m overreacting - essentially gaslighting me into thinking I’m imagining the sexism at play, and that I’m the one who ought to be apologetic in a kind of cursed misogynistic Uno reverse card. And I’m not alone in these experiences.

I’ve also seen a lot of the emotional labour in political organising fall to women. It’s largely women who call out inappropriate or insensitive remarks, who check in on one another, who draw attention to the welfare of their comrades. The women I’ve come to know through politics are some of the most intelligent, compassionate, resourceful, and driven individuals I’ve known, yet so many of them have felt silenced or felt as if their intelligence and knowledge of politics are less than that of the men who just so happen to be louder. Subsequently, they are less likely to want to put their hands up for positions of leadership, despite all the labour they put into organising. Many will feel discouraged from joining a political movement at all. This feeds into a consistent problem in which the number of men in most leftist circles will far outweigh the number of women, which is an absolute tragedy.

Of course, I don’t think many of these men are doing this intentionally. It’s a subconscious, insidious kind of sexism that men have internalised and never had to truly challenge; one that they either largely think they’ve overcome,

or have never truly pondered because it’s an uncomfortable topic. It is the patriarchy in action, enforcing sexism and denying women the recognition of their voices and labour. It takes a concerted effort to unlearn subconscious misogynistic behaviour. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of men are unwilling to make that effort. This can be seen in the notable lack of male presence in feminist spaces. Men will often pay lip service to women’s rights and do the bare minimum of saying women deserve equal rights and fair treatment. But when push comes to shove, protests surrounding women’s issues have a much lower rate of male attendance.

I’ve known men who will attend every protest they can - until it’s a women’s march, then they’re remarkably absent.

When pressed on this, they’ll often come up with excuses about “not wanting to invade women’s spaces,” appropriating feminism to excuse their lack of allyship.

This goes for any feminist space or event. A friend of mine, Laura, stated that: “I have noticed that many left-wing men often preach (mansplain) the ideology of feminism to me, but when I invite them to join a feminist book club or discussion group, they never show up.”

There’s this stigma around discussing women’s issues, as if we’re making a big deal out of nothing and just playing into identity politics and hysterical femininity. I vividly remember being at an event with mostly men, and our (female) tour guide proudly pointing

MEN NEED ER Words by Caitlin Battye | she/her

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out a groundbreaking moment in female representation in SA politics. The men surrounding us largely rolled their eyes and snickered. Bringing up women and the strides they’ve made is seen as irrelevant and tokenistic when we do it.

There is also little to no effort to make male-dominated spaces accommodating for women. This can be seen in just how much men love to debate each other, with zero awareness of how uncomfortable the women in the room may be or how much they are being spoken over or not given the chance to speak. It would be so easy to remedy this by making the effort to turn to the women in the room and ask them what their opinions are and try to actively engage people, but that effort is rarely made.

Laura said of male-dominated spaces: “I don’t think they [men] have called out sexism or misogyny when they see it. They wouldn’t be able to notice or accommodate if and when and how afraid a woman can feel sitting in a group full of men. That was my personal experience in this club at uni. No matter how ‘progressive’ these men are, if I was the only woman in a group of men there will always be a part of me that is afraid.

Progressiveness and leftism don’t erase the inherent power in gender structures.

And left-wing men can be just as punch drunk on power as any man on the left, right, or centre.”

Another thing that myself and many other women have noticed is the prevalence in which leftist men will use sexism to belittle and insult women whose ideology does not align with theirs. Don’t get me wrong, making fun of right-wingers is extremely fun and always a good time.

But when any woman left of Gramsci is open to sexist attacks, you have to ask: are these men just looking for an excuse

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to spout misogyny, and do they realise how much it hurts the women around them? Leftist men are often already so open about their hatred of rightwing women, and barely conceal their objectification of women. I The situation sure seems dire. However, I have faith in my male comrades to take on that effort.

I’m lucky enough to know some truly fantastic men who have started to listen and recognise what we women are saying has been a problem for a long time. A lot of men I know have made some great strides in being able to recognise and believe women’s experiences of being talked over, belittled, and ignored in left-wing spaces. A lot of them are also willing, when asked, to confront a fellow man about his sexism so that the burden isn’t always on us (and let’s be real, a lot of men are more likely to listen to things coming from a man). This is a step in the right direction, it’s much appreciated, and I’m very grateful to have these men in my life and to call them some of my closest friends. It’s also a depressingly low bar.

We know that women are disproportionately impacted by capitalism, and that capitalism both reinforces and is reinforced by the patriarchy.

Leftist spaces should be actively platforming women and working to dismantle the structures that are working against them, rather than upholding those same oppressive structures in a way that is “totally okay” because they do it while preaching the works of Marx. No anti-capitalist movement can be truly effective if it is not simultaneously combatting the other forms of oppression that are intertwined with capitalism. If you’re not an active ally to women, queer people, disabled people, and people of colour, your anticapitalist rhetoric is ultimately hollow and self-serving.

It is essential that left-wing men do better and try harder. They need to actively

“

Leftist spaces should be actively platforming women and working to dismantle the structures that are working against them, rather than upholding those same oppressive structures in a way that is “totally okay” because they do it while preaching the works of Marx.

make sure the spaces they are cultivating are inclusive and accommodating for women, they need to include women in conversations without speaking over or for them, and they need to respect the women in their movement. They need to actively learn about women’s issues rather than deem them irrelevant to their lives. They also need to openly converse about and fight for women’s issues and call out other men on their sexist remarks and behaviour without needing to be asked to by a woman. I know men are capable of this, and of forging truly comfortable and respectful spaces for the women inhabiting them. I eagerly await the day more left-wing men embrace the label of ‘feminist’ as more than a keyword in their Tinder bio to help them get laid, and actually advocate for women and women’s issues in their everyday lives.

”

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book review:

emotional female

by Yumiko Kadota Words by Ngoc Lan Tran Emotional Female is Yumiko Kadota’s memoir of the rise and fall of her life’s journey dedicated to an ambition of becoming a young plastic surgeon.

Throughout all of the years and milestones in her life, Kadota’s work ethic is nothing short of impeccable.

In-between university studies, she organised Med Camp and volunteered at the aged-care ward of a local hospital. As a trainee surgeon she worked diligently on her knowledge and skills, honing

them to the point that her superiors had to acknowledge how advanced she was compared to her peers. Kadota’s lifestyle is also an aspiration for many; she trains and completes marathons and triathlons; she wakes up at 4.30am to exercise, cooks breakfast, and prepares lunch before work. Kadota plans out her life with such vigilance and precision that it was no surprise her fastidiousness made her an excellent surgeon.

Yet she gave it all up. Now a former medical practitioner, Kadota authored Emotional Female not to boast about her achievements, but rather to admit and come to terms with her demise.

Kadota’s dream disintegrated when the dark reality started to creep in. During her years as a registrar, she had done over 100 hours of overtime work. The reason? She kept getting rostered on for 10 days of back-to-back 24-hour shifts every fortnight, meaning that she barely had any time to sleep, cook, exercise, or take care of herself in any way that she has expected. Her physical and mental health slowly but steadily deteriorated; she slept on hospital beds more often than she slept at home which increasingly concerned her colleagues. Worse than that, being a woman of colour in the medical field also meant that Kadota had to ignore the casual sexist remarks and racist microaggressions if she wanted to excel through the male-dominated ranks of medicine. More often than not, the offenders are male doctors who abuse

52

their prestige - which they have gained from being male in addition to being physicians - using this power to justify, validate, and normalise their verbal abuse, sexual harassment, and racist and misogynistic attitudes.

being that she is a medical professional whereas I can’t even tell if I’m having a cold or a mood swing. Yet, what I found most unexpected was that I connected with Kadota mostly on the realisation that I, too, am an emotional female.

“Stop being an emotional female,” one of Kadota’s male colleagues complained. At this stage, Kadota had been constantly fighting back unfair mistreatment for years. The book’s title thus was born, and it sums up both the height and essence of Kadota’s incessant encounters with a system that exploited and mistreated her to the point of physical, mental, and spiritual burnout.

I was taught to turn to blind eye to emotions, especially the “negative ones”.

A perfect Asian daughter never cries; she works hard until she drops for perfect results in school and work while also helping with the housework. Later in life, I started to realise the social and emotional toll that this kind of staggering social expectation had - and continues to have - on me as a person. I’m not stone cold nor am I a piece of porcelain, but I find the world to be stifling. I choke and walk on eggshells when it comes to dealing with other people, caring too much about what they think and how they feel. I don’t know how to act around people. I only know that I need to make my parents proud.

For Asian women, there is a perfect façade expected to be put up: perfect grades in school; perfect jobs with immense success in either science or medicine; perfect families with perfect husbands and kids; perfectly dutiful to their parents. Yet, the demanding expectations of society do not stop there for these women.

Smart, beautiful, talented; none of these qualities are praised in Asian women if we are not also meek, docile, impassive, and silent. There is so much social and cultural pressure for Asian females to be perfect, as if we are porcelain pieces that bend to the wills and wants of others.

And when the porcelain cracks under pressure, the women are punished and labelled as inferior.

I picked up Kadota’s book while browsing through the shelves of Dymocks because the apparent similarities between her and I immediately resonated with me. Both of us are Asians, both are female, both are crazy overachievers wanting nothing more than to prove ourselves and stake our positions in a world made for men. It’s also a big plus that Kadota went through university as an international student, which makes her even more relatable in my eyes. I do realise that we are also very different people; the most obvious reason

Kadota’s book helps me unlearn my suppression through her emotional journey. The book reads like entries of a blogpost, which is appropriate considering it is the medium that propelled her story into fame. Kadota’s experience growing up was not that far off from mine. She has been there and done that, trying to become the perfect daughter, the perfect student, the perfect girlfriend, the perfect doctor.

Pressure built up as the repercussions and symptoms of a toxic system caught up with Kadota’s wellbeing. It took a long time for the book to reach the climax, the moment where all hell breaks loose and shit hits the fan. As a result, it took me a while to see the entire picture of the story as well as who Kadota is as a person. In return for this minor drawback, however, the book remains very honest to the nature of burning out as you can never see it coming until you break… When that moment comes, the book engulfs you and sweeps you under. “I never thought 53

I would say this, but I broke. I give up. I am done. I surrender.” As I read Kadota’s words, I burst into tears. Kadota has spoken the words that we unfortunately know too well in this day and age.

The book is imperfect, but I would be more surprised if it was flawlessly written.

Doctors are not writers; they do not spend hours and days on structured prose and crafty storylines. Yet, wouldn’t it be hypocritical to enforce Kadota and Emotional Female to a standard of sheer literary perfection? I didn’t seek the book for being a literary achievement. In fact, I love the book even more because the only reason behind its imperfection is its honesty, passion, and faithfulness to its message: it is okay to be imperfect; it is okay to be broken; it is okay to be emotional.

After all, if we cannot admit to our emotions, how can we begin to heal and take care of ourselves?

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When working in hospitality as a

young woman, there are a few things you learn very fast. When you smile and take the order of an overly expensive IPA that essentially tastes of bitter Vegemite from a man in his mid-thirties, do not give him your name when he asks. If you do this, he will make sure that every time you serve him or his friends a drink or clear away glasses from his table or bring his food out to him, he will stare at you (a better word for it would be ‘leering’) saying “thanks (insert name here)” acting as though you two have formed a very special connection.

balancing the gendered drink.

Words by Madeline Jaye Osbourne He will presume his gratefulness permits either a discount on his next drink, or (obviously) your Snapchat. Then he will bumble out the door, making his way down to Hindley street to get plastered, home in bed with his face in a bucket by 11.30 p.m. (his metabolism is not what it used to be). When this unfortunate moment occurs and you scatter around trying to find an excuse not to give him your socials, he will always be in absolute disbelief that you don’t want to go out with him. I even had a guy assume I was married the other day, when I politely refused not to take up his offer on a drink after work. His face, absolutely gobsmacked by this rejection, turned into a calm recognition, causing him to say ‘ahh, you’re married then?’.

The second thing you must not do is to NEVER put a straw in a man’s drink. Not only does this somehow destroy a man’s dignity, it emasculates him so much he goes down 10 pegs in the manly man’s hierarchy of proper manly etiquette. The other day for example, I had the audacity to pop a short straw into an elderly Irish man’s CC and dry. In utter disbelief, with his jaw wide open, he popped the straw out of his drink, and basically threw it at me, walking away and shaking his head.

I learned the hard way, apparently, and smacked my own fingers as punishment.

Now the two main points are done with, let us get on with the rest of this shit show. Here are a collection of things, that I have absolutely no control of, that I have been judged for: We will begin with a real winner, which is the classic ‘crack a smile love’, something all women have had the unfortunate experience of. I’m currently close to going full Joker mode with a smile from ear to ear if I hear it one more time. Honestly, though, if you were to try to smile through a six-hour shift (without a break), you would not only be getting the police called on you quick-smart, I’m sure it would also cause some sort of brain aneurysm.

The next one is probably the most hurtful one, and 55

it’s a full-on story so settle in folks. Two men walked into the bar, sat at the bar, and asked for my recommendation on what to get to eat. I pointed to the first thing I saw and said that it’s my favourite (ironically, it was the prawn pasta, and not only do I hate prawns, I’m also highly allergic to them). The two men were unfortunately sitting directly in front of the glasses I needed to polish, and so I was forced into conversation. It’s going well, I thought.

We had some light banter back and forth as they told me about their ever-exciting management positions in some mining company I’d never heard of. They suddenly asked what I was studying. I responded with (insert arts degree here), to which they said ‘nah you’re too smart for that’.

After that comment, I stopped what I was doing, left work, dropped out of my degree, and enrolled in finance. Thank god they told me how silly my little degree was! Out of the blue, they then asked if I was vegan.

Was it the cropped hair and Dr Martens, I wonder? We’ll never know. Thankfully, Tweedle Dum answered with ‘nah, she’s not skinny enough to be vegan’. When I had the audacity to be slightly hurt by that statement, I became the arsehole. With this can of worms now opened, polite chit chat quickly became a serious interrogation of whether or not they thought my life was up to their standards. “You have never left Adelaide, have you?” one of them said. I responded with the list of countries I had previously visited, whilst simultaneously becoming annoyed that I seemed to be seeking their validation. I retorted with this great comeback, ‘you two aren’t from Adelaide, are you?’ and Tweedle Dee goes ‘why? ‘Coz we’re educated?’. Tweedle Dum laughed, highly impressed with his best friends’ wit. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that growing up in the suburbs of Sydney and getting barely passable grades in finance was not the distinct standard of ‘well-educated’ and that they now both live in Adelaide, the ‘city of the uneducated’ (their words not mine). To summarise the interaction, they left, and I felt both angry and confused at the fact that every part of my life was questioned by two strange men 56

who kicked up a fuss about a 9-dollar pint. Why did I care what they thought?

Patriarchal ideologies are instilled in all of us, I guess.

Here are some other fun things I’ve heard in my time: ‘I have a question about the beer’, said the man I’m serving, he then looked behind me (or through me, is what it really felt like) to ask the male bartender behind me instead.

A man ordered quite a large meal and when the waitress brought it out to him, she copped an image (unfortunately burnt into her mind forever) of his stomach, to which he stated ‘look! I haven’t eaten all day, I deserve it’.

On an extremely loud night, I poured the wrong beer for a male in a dashing suit.

He proceeded to laugh and mutter to his friends ‘hard job, aint it?’ (the correct wording is ‘is it not?’).

To summarise all these lovely experiences, I wish I could say that I’d managed to respond with some quick-witted remarks in defense, but honestly the shock of it all managed to overpower my brain at that moment. And to be fully transparent, most of the customers I serve, men and women, are kind and respectful people (although I have had a shocking experience with an old lady once that cracked it when I poured her a pinot gris instead of a pinot noir, and kids can be so mean sometimes).

Unfortunately, the kind encounters are often forgotten, and it’s the cruel or weird ones that stick with you. After you’ve spent eight hours studying and six hours working just to slug home, and think about these arseholes while cooking your twominute noodles, it’s rather depressing. If there is any message to end this quick rant written on the Note’s app on my phone late at night, it is that if you encounter someone, female or not, please, please do your best to not be a dick (or assume that a smile means anything more than what it is).

womanchild Words by Jenny Jung

A tornado uproots a house, and it falls Onto a town where I can’t read the signs.

I don’t even remember falling asleep but I Woke to find I no longer recognise my hands.

Sometimes in those eyes in my mirror, staring, I can vaguely see the child that lives within me.

And this body of mine feels far too big for her Too awkward, I think, as I step out of the shower.

The bruises on my knees tell that I have fallen.

Many times, in fact, but I can’t recall where.

Their redness tells me there is blood inside me But I don’t feel human. I am a wave-beaten cliff.

I stand just five-foot-four and my hair is jet black.

But it’s red-brown in the sunlight, just like how Often, my five-foot-four body feels overgrown For the scared child I’ve yet to grow out of.

I used to look to the sun, and I thought I’d be The sturdy vessel that holds the water still But the sun has long set, and now I realise I’m just a small fish gasping for air in a puddle.

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me , an adult man ca ‘One time at work d shy round toy an ui sq a th wi e m up to I said “It’s a s. wa it at wh ed ask and he paused, y” to y or ns se y sh squi it my face, squeezed to e os cl it ld he red a booby”. I igno e lik s t’ I “ id sa and in another item back t pu I as d an m hi oby”. it again, “like bo d di he e, ac pl s it ld get extra for ou sh I y, pa l ua Screw eq shit.’ - Grace dealing with that

‘For being a le sbian sure do work up surrounded by men, they some gall as to think they can what they say about othe r women aroun me. Don’t get d me wrong, talk ing with my clo friends about se how pretty ano ther woman is completely fine . I’m talking about the othe With these me r. n, I hardly kn o w you and we’v only spoken tw e ice. I don’t w ant to hear ab how you would out like to bang th e shit out of Selena Gomez , and I would greatly apprec if you stopped iate sending me im ages of other women I perso nally know and saying how “se xy they are.”’ Anon

to Adelaide the ed ov m t rs fi I n ‘Whe h. s go to the beac wa d di I g in th t firs I to be somewhere I was so excited so had never lived could do that, I at l body of water th close to a natura I loved it, until . re fo be in im sw I could ped my ass in my ro g s 0 5 s hi in a man ’ been back since. t n’ ve ha I . it swimsu - Anon 58

‘The firs t tim I told him e I got asked ou t, I He told m was 16 - so no... eh was barely e didn’t mind, he 20 and teenager s a lot. I related to took t way to my bus stop. he long ’ - LAJ

‘Not affiliating the University of Adelaide Women’s Collective under the precedent that “celebrating women is not unique or necessary with no need for this club.”’ - Anon

‘At the state election, an elderly American man campaigning for the Liberals cornered me in a staircase and told me to smile.

When I explained that I was wearing a mask for a reason, he told me it was alright because I had ‘such pretty eyes.’ - Anon

‘I’m a member of several committees where I am the only woman, and I am not exaggerating when I say it is a nightmare every single time. The best I can expect in these cases is only to be ignored or spoken down to. God forbid I’m in a position where I’m supposed to ‘Gave me crippling LEAD the committee, where the trend of being ignored abandonment issues.’

- Anon and infantilized by a committee who elected me to be in a position of authority. In these circles that pride themselves on having a young female member to prove their diversity, I am routinely given the easiest tasks (if any at all), my authority overlooked, and my thoughts discounted. In some of the more unruly committees, I have been left in tears after being continuously told I don’t understand their protocols, that my experiences and opinions weren’t relevant to the discussion. I had my thoughts repeated back to me by other members and ‘‘I was in town with a taken as genius when they came out of a man's mouth, bunch of my female friends and a gr I honestly never thought that happened in real life oup of men walking past cat-calle d the group. until it happened to me. Repeatedly, I was belittled, He then looked directly ignored, spoken over, and overlooked for disagreeing at me, and said “you’re actually ki with them. This culminated in the most senior member of nd of pretty for a fat girl.”’’- RE the committee saying quietly under their breath “please stop talking” while I was speaking. I still gaslight myself about if this was necessary, for all I know maybe I was talking too much. Or, it could have something to do with the fact that I simply and politely voiced my disagreements with many of their decision.’ - Anon ‘You lo o should k so sad. Y o smile m ore.” H u about y ow ou shut uy NING! When a g R A W up.’ - the fuck R E G G I R ‘T ert Anon agine raping (ins im “ id sa ly it ic pl ex ten wonder why I my name)”. I of m. ene and report hi didn’t make a sc the r I was 14 and at Then I remembe had nvinced myself I time and had co regret letting ly al re I . it ed provok the comment.’ th wi ay aw et g him Anon 59

-looking elderly ly ne lo A a. bi ho *Pays On Dit ing ‘TW Homop ’s all female e riverbank, want th by e m ed editorial ch team - which l ti un man approa ne fi nt is we th on e ti fi sa rs er t to exist in nv long while - $ a to chat. The co ploded into ex 5 e– 0 0 er wh le s no s of e t a ou c h ly , te g th in a an all ms previously, ins, he–seem to do exactly He had gay cous . de ra ti c bi th ho w o op e rk. (Oh, plu same a hom over s the extra w he’d “beat them id sa d an o e rk e, m m o , ti ld and onal load of o he to near ccasionally d ne if they came ca s hi th wi e fe ad th he n e ding fact that fou the catch r women could “didn’t want to he e us le ca a be d b ” e e m rs s hi ). But don’t w rs. Hi orry, it’s noth ns fell on deaf ea io ct je to ob y d M o a ing w .” it ’s it it h ; g on e n as d er. It just a me re so r fo e m th wi c c identally reinforces th vitriol stayed e gender pay ought.’ - Anon th e iv us tr in g a g p in .* recurr Anon

‘People ask me why I ended up quitting my job in fast food, besides the obvious reason of me hating my job; it was mainly the people. Nothing more off putting in a job than a middle aged man asking for your ‘p*ssy’ as what they would like to order/eat. Still had to serve him too, and all I could do was laugh about it. I was 17.’ - Anon

a involved pushing b jo us io ev pr y ‘M of a hill at the end up y le ol tr y av he and ng I was willing hi et m so y; da e th h of e owner/patriarc th ut B . do to le ab it. ss wasn’t having the family busine the ging the roster, Instead of chan ers one of my cowork owner would call down to the job o g to em th g and be o ose up. Having tw cl e m lp he d an site s dundant and I wa re lly ta to s wa le peop n mortified.’ - Ano 60

working in retail.

‘When I was 15 I was r man (50s) came One afternoon an olde lp him shop for in and asked me to he I directed him over underwear for his wife. r aisle, as I was to the women’s underwea to engage me by about to leave he tried e best sellers, not asking what ones are th ed him. He then paying much mind I show what ones I would went on and asked me what size I was, he wear, he also asked me up 5 pairs of lacey then proceeded to pick on layby, I left him underwear and put them and continue my up at the counter to go ifically asked to be work, but he then spec d me profusely and served by me. He thanke hours later with a then came in a couple me. I was only 15, box of chocolates for ad at the time, but this all went over my he he never picked looking back at it now, I never saw him up the layby order and again.’ - Anon

he University of ‘Overheard at T a gross place.

Adelaide can be any group posts When there were ’s Collective, about the Women ment section almost every com saying “What featured one man collective?!”... about the MEN’S why?’ - Anon

‘I told my first casual situationship (after having freshly left an emotionally draining, long-term relationship) that I was not sure exactly what I wanted or how I felt about him. He replied, saying “well I don’t care that much about what you want” - Talk about feeling used. He said he’d rather date someone who liked him, and I agreed, saying he should do exactly that. A few weeks later he changed his Steam DP to an anime cat girl.’ - Anon

‘Working in a bar left me w ith a whole to of unsavoury n experiences, even though working in a I was ‘fanc in his 40s pull y’ place. I would have a m an me down and ask when my ends, telling shift me he had ju st taken his Another midd viagra. le-aged man would watch m throughout m e y entire shift then leave h room on the ta is hotel ble. Y come in and ta et another man would ofte n ke photos of me throughou my shift. I w t as 19, and bo und to ideas ‘professionali o f sm’ in a work place.’ - Cait lin

scan to read more!

You may ask what the purpose of this collaborative piece was. Well first of all, it served as a safe space for non-cis-men to vent about our experiences and raise awareness of what we face on a daily basis – in our workplaces, our local streets and public parks, our educational institutions and even our own homes. It also aims to offer you the reader the human stories behind the phrases some people seem to think is simply political or the words of an ‘angry feminist’; those are ‘not all men, but enough’ and ‘not all men, but all women’. I have yet to meet a woman or non-binary person who does not have a story. Sometimes it may be prefaced with a ‘oh nothing really…except this one time, where…but its not as bad as some people’s stories.’ I think we often invalidate our own harassment, abuse or assault because we know everyone (or most people) experience it at some level, and in understanding that we internalise misogyny in accepting it as ‘normal’ or ‘just how it is’. Let this be a reminder, a source of validation, that this simply appalling state of existence for non-cis men is not how it should be, now or in the future. Men, the onus is on you. Listen. Reflect. And don’t be the reason we have another ‘Shit Men Do’ story to tell.

Statement by Grace Atta 61

A SELF-HELP GUIDE TO CONTRA -CEPTION THIS CUFFING SEASON. Words by Ellen McManus

S

o, you’ve slid into their dms and now you want to slide into their bed. But are you equipped?

I sat down and spoke with a General Practitioner and a Registered Nurse, who are both specialised in sexual health for young adults, to compile some useful information on the most common contraception options. Remember it is different for everyone, and if you are wanting to begin contraception or have questions about your current prescription, booking an appointment with a healthcare provider who specialises in this area is the best start! It is important to be transparent with them regarding previous health history and any medications you are taking.

I am not listing all of the possible options, just the most commonly used.

RECOMMENDED SERVICES SHINE SA shinesa.org.au - Adelaide (08) 7099 5320 - Woodville (08) 8300 5300 62

Adelaide Sexual Health Centre 137 East Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000 (08) 7117 2800

Metropolitan Youth Health Service North (08) 8255 3477 South (08) 8326 6053 West (08) 8243 5637

ORAL CONTRACEPTIVE PILL (OCP)

Known as the Pill; there are two different types of OCP:

1. Combined oestrogen-progesterone (also known as combination pill) 2. Progesterone-only (also known as mini pill) If this is your contraception of choices, here’s what you need to know: 1. It is stopping sperm in its tracks… as OCP is approximately 91% effective on average, however when taken correctly (i.e. on time every day) it can be about 99% effective.

2. ALARMS! They will be essential to ensuring you take the pill at the same time every day. However, if you do forget, you have a window of about 24 hours with the combination pill and 3 hours with the mini pill. After then it is recommended you use a condom to prevent pregnancy.

3. If you’re sick…the pill may not be doing the trick! If you have been sick with gastro symptoms (vomiting or diarrhoea), this could mean the pill is no longer in your system and will therefore impact its effectiveness. So same deal as above…rubber it up!

4. Addressing the misconception. Although these pills do contain oestrogen, OCP should never be used as gender-affirming hormone therapy for trans women. The pill contains a form and dose of oestrogen that is different to the one prescribed to trans women. If you are thinking about gender-affirming hormone therapy, for the safest results, book an appointment with a healthcare provider and they can prescribe the necessary type and dose of oestrogen and anti-androgen. It should also be noted that gender-affirming hormone therapy is not a form of contraception and therefore if there is any chance of pregnancy, contraception is suggested.

5. It’s not personal, it’s just not for everyone. If you have experienced, or there is a family history of blood clots, stroke, heart attacks, migraines with aura, uncontrolled diabetes, or high blood pressure, talk to your healthcare provider as there may be a more suitable contraception option for you!

EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVE PILL 1. Levonorgestrel emergency contraceptive pill (LNG- (ECP) Also known as the ECP) 2. Ulipristal acetate emergency contraceptive pill (Ella 1)

morning-after pill, there are two options that can be used if you’ve had unprotected sex.

The most recommended pill is Ella 1. It is considered one of the more effective ECPs because it has a larger window for it to be taken in (up to five days). Whereas the LNG-ECP can only be used 72 hours after sex. Both are more effective the sooner they are taken. In either case, ECPs are not recommended as an ongoing method of contraception.

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IMPLANON How is it implanted? This method involves a small rod being inserted on the inside of your upper non-dominant arm, directly under the skin. And don’t worry, local anaesthetic is administered!

Effectiveness? This method is 99.9% effective, and involves a steady release of a hormone, preventing pregnancy for three years.

Who can use it? As always, it is best to talk to your healthcare provider about its suitability for you, but just note this method is a progesteroneonly option.

INTRAUTERINE DEVICE (IUDS) 1. Mirena 2. Kyleena 3. Copper 7

The ‘-ena’ sisters and Copper. The Mirena and Kyleena, a slighter smaller model, are IUDs coated with progesterone which prevents the sperm being able to fertilise the egg. The Copper 7 is a copper-coated IUD and works very similarly, however does not contain hormones.

Effectiveness? 99.9% protection. Like the Implanon, IUDs are regarded as LARC (Long Acting Reversible Contraception). They are the most effective method as they are not relying on someone to take them or put them in. Unlike the Implanon, these methods are effective for five years. Reversible means once the device is removed, your fertility will return to its previous state almost immediately.

The pregnancy free sex can begin…7 days after the IUD or the Implanon is inserted. In the meantime, use a condom (or continue with the pill or Implanon for 8 days - if that was your previous method)!

It’s not the way to go if… you have abnormal vaginal bleeding, cancer of the cervix or uterus, or AIDS. This is not an extensive list, so as always, refer to your GP or specialist. IUD insertion can also be very painful for some. It is recommended you do some research before to understand what to expect, and try to book with a GP who does this procedure often (suggested services above).

Often an anaesthetic spray will be used and a green whistle can be requested. If necessary the procedure can be done under sedation; however will be costly and with a long waiting time. Ongoing pain may be experienced too, however everyone is different and some report they don’t feel any pain during or after.

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DEPO PROVERA How many pricks? It’s an injection given every three months. As this method remains in your system for three months following injection, it is not instantaneously reversible.

Effectiveness…comes in at approximately 96%.

(contraceptive injection, brand name for Medroxyprogesterone acetate)

The cons. It can increase your risk of osteoporosis and broken bones. Therefore, it is not recommended for athletes as it causes a slight decrease in bone density (although this eventually stabilises).

DIAPHRAGM NUVA RING (vaginal ring)

How do I ‘wear’ it?

It is placed inside the vagina for 21 days and then removed for 7 days, essentially mimicking the menstrual cycle.

98% protection… that has a nice ring to it.

How does it work?

The vaginal ring contains the oestrogen and progesterone hormone, that ensures the prevention of pregnancy.

How and where?!

A diaphragm is a barrier method that is a nonhormonal contraception option. It is fitted by a healthcare provider, and then can be placed over the cervix with spermicide (like a pesticide, but for sperm) before sex.

The ultimate “cockblock”!

No sperm will pass…in 94% of the cases.

Monogamous relationships: It is recommended to do an STI check before having sex without a condom (when there is other contraception in place).

Polyamorous relationships or casually seeing people: It is advised to always wear a condom, and to get tested if you notice any changes or discomfort.

If this piece has raised any issues for you, please contact: Yarrow Place Rape & Sexual Assault Services: 1800 817 421; Sexual Assault Hotline: 1800 737 732; Lifeline: 13 11 14.

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ric e t s

Words by Shona Edwards

I am chronically ill, and I live with chronic pain. For many years I struggled with no diagnosis, and I wasn’t taken seriously by my doctor.

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I came to my GP with back pain and fatigue. She told me I should do more exercise, and that it’s common for young women to have abdominal weakness. She gave me a script for panadeine and warned me only to use it when I desperately needed to. She then sent me on my way.

But I wasn’t sleeping. I was coming home from work nauseous with pain. I couldn’t focus my eyes on my books to study. I went through that panadeine script so fast. This didn’t feel normal.

I tried physiotherapy, I tried all kinds of alternative treatments, but I was exhausted. I broke down to my GP, begging for an MRI. That was when I was diagnosed with cancer.

a e s f m i l a

o d er

n

I went back to my GP, and over the next three years she grudgingly but progressively increased my pain relief medication. But my pain continued to get worse and my ability to cope with it kept deteriorating.

My GP grew exasperated with me; I grew resistant to the medication. I felt like I was walking further into the ocean and the water was getting deeper – then the sandbed collapsed into the depths and my feet couldn’t touchthe bottom anymore.

And I felt like I was being told there was no water. I felt like I should be able to swim through it, trying to stay afloat, but invisible weights were dragging me down.

Suddenly, with my diagnosis, it was like I had been given the secret golden ticket to adequate pain treatment. I had no idea that there exist pain psychologists, pain specialists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists all trained in chronic pain management; all of whom could have helped me manage my pain sooner.

Why hadn’t I been given access to these services before I was diagnosed?

The truth is that chronic pain falls under what we can call modern hysteria. In Pain and Prejudice (2019), Gabrielle Jackson provides a history of hysteria. Throughout history, women with a range of mental and physical conditions have been deemed dysfunctional, aberrant, disruptive, and even dangerous by the label ‘hysterical’. As a medical diagnosis it became a barrier to investigating women’s

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health issues - ‘no need to look further, she’s a hysteric.’

where it does not exist. The modern hysteric has become a paranoiac.

These women were shut away in sanitoriums because their presence in society was inconvenient to those in power, to their husbands, brothers, and fathers. Many of those women had diseases and disorders that never received appropriate care. Instead, they were traumatised by invasive and violent ‘treatments’ for hysteria.

We are expected to accept whatever diagnosis we get, say thank you, shut up, and go away. We’re expected to accept our treatment and go back to being invisible, just like all evidence of our disability. Why does it take a diagnosis for our pain to finally matter? When will our pain be treated with equal respect regardless of our diagnosis label/status? Why should my friend’s fibromyalgia-pain be treated any differently than my cancer-pain?

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odern

We also know that class, race, sex, and gender differences still define the inequality of our experience in the medical world. No professional wants to admit openly and publicly that their actions perpetuate sociomedical norms that are classist, racist, sexist, and queerphobic. In many ways, this means that the prejudices and discrimination in the medical system have become even more normalised and much harder to prove. We’re then gaslit and accused of seeing oppression

teric. l s y i h

f

Yet we are not so lucky after all.

We don’t all have the same access to diagnosis and treatment. Even if we’re lucky enough to get one of those diagnoses, we will still be made to feel that we’re overreacting about symptoms and fears, about damage and decline. Long gone were the days when we were locked up in a sanitorium or lunatic asylum. Instead, in modern times we’re trapped inside our own bodies, socially isolated, and made to question ourselves and our reality. The hysteric has become the modern hysteric.

It shouldn’t take a certain diagnosis to be taken seriously. And certain diagnoses shouldn’t be used as a tool to keep us isolated, alienated, and struggling. We deserve better.

life as a

We might sigh with relief that we’ve done away with those practices – ‘we’re so lucky to be in the modern world, where today we CAN be diagnosed with a range of chronic illnesses, mental health conditions, and disabilities!’

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‘TALKIN’ UP TO THE WHITE WOMAN’

Feminist reflections from listening to Aileen Moreton-Robinson at the Adelaide Context Writers Festival 2021 Words by Ngoc Lan Tran

It’s surreal. Aileen Moreton-Robinson does not make a lot of public appearances; yet, she went to Adelaide for the Context Writers Festival. On the opening night, the festival curator, Dominic Guerrera, shared a touching excerpt from their email exchange with Moreton-Robinson, personally noting the influence of her work on the public and her power that can unapologetically shake up the “sleepy, complacent” Adelaide, a place where white privilege still thrives and remains largely unseen, unchallenged. All on Kaurna land.

Guerrera is talking about Moreton-Robinson’s ground-breaking work, first published in 2000 called Talkin’ Up to the White Woman. This work has given voice to Indigenous feminism, stirring up the historically uninterrogated hegemony of whiteness, its privilege in Australian feminism and its effect on indigenous and non-indigenous women. Moreton-Robinson challenges the position of the academic university as the site of knowledge production that has reduced indigenous women to the Native ‘other’ under the lens of anthropology, while the racial identity of white people and white women is left unexamined.

She resists the homogenising nature of “feminism” that has conflated the patriarchal oppression into a “common denominator” shared amongst all women, from which she enquires into the aftermath of “feminism” disregarding indigenous women’s years of trauma from colonial slavery and systemic racism.

This is a sentiment shared by not only MoretonRobison, but also many many other women of colour. The anthology This Bridge Called My Back,

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published in 1983, features many thoughts and writings on intersectional feminism as a response to the racism of white feminists.

For women of colour, sexism never exists on its own; sexism is always converging with other forms of systemic oppression based on race, class, sexuality, and so on. Solidarity on sisterhood alone would not and could not solve racism and class oppression and homophobia.

Having read both texts, I see Talkin’ Up to the White Woman as the necessary sequel to the collectivised anthology of radical feminist voices as seen through This Bridge Called My Back. Moreton-Robinson’s work is disruptive and subversive, a razor-sharp critique of whiteness and white feminism that has been lacking severely in the academe. She makes visible the invisible white privilege normalised in feminist and other discourses while questioning the sincerity of inviting indigenous women into feminist movements while white privilege remains unchallenged.

Beyond that, Moreton-Robinson discusses the Indigenous women’s standpoint, influenced by the collective of specific herstories, subjectivities, epistemologies, and cultures. Her connection to nature, her land, her spirituality, and her knowledge all reveal her collective resistance that is “grounded in a different history from those who deploy the subject position middle-class white women.” For her, the indigenous women’s perspective is becoming ever more significant in today’s day and age, where capitalism and neoliberalism rage rampant, destroying the planet and poisoning our spiritual connections with Mother Earth. Not only through the book, but at a festival tucked in a nook of the Adelaide City Library, Moreton-Robinson discussed the connection between racism, the climate crisis, the problems of capitalism, and the global pandemic we have at hand. She pays respect to the indigenous knowledge of nature and is a call to mobilise their stories from our non-human relatives on earth into our public domains of systemic issues.

Talkin’ Up to the White Woman may be a

challenge to white feminism on black land, but her work is bigger than all of us. At heart, it is clear that Aileen MoretonRobison is an eco-feminist; and she possesses the unquestionable power to awaken an intellectual community on a massive global scale that, but also resonates personally, to stirring the intersectional eco-feminist in me.

Talkin’ Up to the White Woman is startlingly mesmerising. Moreton-Robinson’s book still has me thinking about the underlying hypocrisy of the feminist movement and my initial reluctance to its ideals and practices as a woman of colour. I critically reflect upon my own engagement with my racial identity, considering the subjectivity of the Asian feminist, and question the lack of conflict between Asian women and feminism. What is it about “feminism” that has made me feel like I do not belong; that maybe I was invited to this crusade of women’s rights but never that I was born into it? This is a testament to how inclusive Moreton-Robinson’s work is. Although the book refers mostly to the subjectivity of indigenous women, there is still enough space for contemplating the nuances and complexity of being a feminist woman of colour.

Moreton-Robinson’s book and her talk have been the guides to my feminist revelation. Her work inspires me to look into my spiritual genealogical herstory and my connection to my land. MoretonRobinson helps me unveil my cultural subjectivity which had been made invisible by myself through a combination of naïvete, complacency, and generations of colonial erasure. But now that I can see it, I see it everywhere: in my mother’s labour and my grandmother’s worship, in the Vietnamese women who still have to live with the aftermath of the war, the very same women who pray for their ancestors and their children. Our quiet resistance is deep-seated. Our struggle is a herstorical continuum. Our efforts are a co-evolution with nature. As long as our spirits are bound to earth, our feminisms will exist and persist, a testament to be witnessed.

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is this me? a nothing thing.

Words by Chanel Trezise

There’s a storm coming, can’t you feel the warmth fade there’s light dimming, skimming over my handswondering distantly, light searching the horizon, begging for fruit sweeter, richer disillusioned and beyond pain.

I’m scared of night, of wolves and stars, Of an endless ambiguityA nothingness kissing me passionately.

I march tired, heaving, feet curling beneath me. voices whistle, taunting pleasure, wrapping ropes around dreams.

I was in love with the ups and downs of nothing.

The intensity of promised turmoil, The fleeting adrenaline of a knife against me. hold me down and whisper ills of my body, love me as you destroy me.

I am lifeless, begging, Nothing but somebody’s thing, A shell salvaging stability From the wounded narratives that worked against me. maybe they’ll fuck me into the person I want to be. ride me till the morning, murmuring broken mutterings, staring into the void of meeyes scalding skin.

I am not supposed to be what a man wants me to be. hollowing my bones, lapping up blood, kneeling.

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Is this me? A nothing thing.

Does it thrill them, When I’m cryingReliving the nightmares that soothe me. why was my comfort the monster of my past, the roles which held me hostagethe men who bind my hands, moaning in my ear and scratching names on my legs.

I miss the simplicity of someone inside my head.

I can see a child inside me, Throwing rocks, scraping salvation Begging shadows of worlds lost.

Old blood pooled by her feetHer eyes are big and glassyNaive.

I am more than a body, when I heard her beside me I screamed.

I am sorryMy body betrayed me, My mind moaned white noise.

She abandoned me.

Men moulded an image of what I could be, I kissed their feet.

Death never came, Despite days neverending, Tears climbing into my chest, Filling lungs breathless.

I found solace without light, Warmth in the places pain could never be.

Content in the complexity of apathetic stability.

Nights of tendernessKisses and people, Filled with love and nothing but the best.

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Words by Emily Wilson She always had to peel herself off of the floor after dreams like this one, soggy and limp. Like a bruised summer plum. She knew she had to treat herself tenderly, as she would treat any other friend. Use the softest of words. Taste raspberries fresh from the market. Light candles that smelled of sun-filled orange groves. Soak in hot water no matter the cost. Though she normally drank it black and unsweetened, she would need sugar in her tea that morning. Because even in sleep, there was never any respite.

The beach was feral, bleached of any colour - a rocky, windswept setting that echoed German Romanticism. She walked along it barefoot, her toes probing the sand. A lonely figure. The shapeless floral dress she wore that carefully concealed her curves was the only splash of colour in the scene - even her skin was grey. Even her loose curls, normally a soft, sunny brown, were colourless. There were no rings on her fingers. No gold, no silver encircled her wrists or neck. No stones dangled from her ears, precious or otherwise. She was without armour.

She glanced to her side. Walls of rock lined her path, forming loose, makeshift cliffs. They towered over her, blocking off anything that wasn’t sea, sand, or sky. When she gazed ahead again, there was a man watching her. He had skin like old leather. He was dressed in a hat and raincoat, and looked to be damp around the edges, bleeding into his surroundings like slashes of watercolour paint blending together. Though he didn’t say anything, his intent was clear. Her insides turned cold.

‘Please don’t,’ she pleaded. ‘I’ve already had my turn.’

His toothless smile was almost kind. ‘But pussy tastes better when it’s been chased.’ He shrugged, his hands hidden in his coat pockets. He didn’t make the rules.

He didn’t advance on her, but he didn’t have to - she knew what would become of her if she just stayed still. So she did her best to scramble up the rocks, though she didn’t know what lay beyond them. But with every step the rocks slipped out from under her, sharp and unforgiving. The skin of her bare feet wept red. His laugh as she stumbled was like gravel, and with every misstep he laughed louder. When he removed his hands from his pockets, she saw that his fingers were taloned. He was even closer now, though she hadn’t seen him move.

She took a final breath. Rather than be taken again, she hurled herself into the sea.

Foam fizzed through her veins. The waves welcomed her, and her limbs became water.

When she awoke, the salt of the sea was still woven through her hair. Time was patient with her as she stood beneath needles of hot water, washing it all out.

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sea, sea, s

allo w s w . a l l me o w s w . a l l me o w s w

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IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK MEN

If you’re unsure about a man in your life, here are some questions that will give you a clear look into the mental world of your man (warning: answers may be potentially situation-ship ruining, but consider it a dodged bullet).

1. How many pillows do you have on your bed? And what is the state of these pillows? (full, moderate, a piece of fucking drywall?)

2. When was the last time you changed your bed sheets?

3. Do you have a bed frame? If so, is it intact?

4. Vaccination status?

5. What do you think about The Wolf of Wall Street?

6. How many hours do you spend on Reddit a week?

7. Would you be open to seeing a therapist?

8. What kind of ‘bro’ are you? (gym bro, crypto bro, lifehack bro) 9. Follow up: Fuck, marry, kill: gym bro, crypto bro, lifehack bro 10. Are you a feminist?

11. Are you an ally?

12. What is your relationship with your mother?

13. Do you have female role models and why not?

14. Thoughts on men and women being ‘just friends’?

15. How do you tie your shoes? (Important) 16. How important are KFC zinger boxes to your diet?

17. How important are energy drinks to your diet?

18. Do you ‘rise and grind’?

19. How important are ‘gains’ to you?

20. League of Legends, yes or no?

21. The Witcher, yes or no?

22. Thoughts on Elon Musk?

23. Does Joe Rogan give you sexual feelings?

24. Follow up: Were you disgusted or aroused by question 23?

25. Have you ever, or would you ever, read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov?

26. Have you ever, or would you ever, read 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson?

27. Thoughts on calling your boyfriend ‘daddy’? (Important) 28. Would you be opposed to binge watching the entirety of the Barbie movie franchise?

29. Would you be opposed to binge watching the Twilight Saga franchise?

30. Who is your favourite Disney princess?

31. Do you use a purse or a man’s purse?

32. How frequently do you bathe or shower?

33. Do you use a loofah or a man’s loofah?

34. Do you use 3-in-1 bodywash/ conditioner/shampoo and who gave you that idea?

35. Do you have multiple computer monitors and/or a light-up keyboard?

36. Do you have a gamer chair?

37. Do you own and carry tools and equipment?

38. Do you have an ongoing woodworking project and why?

39. Have you ever fantasised about riding a motorcycle?

40. Would you be open to wearing a skirt and high heels?

41. What is your skin care routine?

42. Do you wear make up? If you don’t, would you be open to wearing make up?

43. Have you ever, or would you ever, get one sleeve of tattoos in one go?

44. How many tiktoks have you made and are you shirtless (thirst-trapping) in any of them?

45. Have you ever ordered a scotch on the rocks but secretly wanted a sex on the beach or a cosmopolitan?

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WHY PERIOD JOKES AREN’T FUN OR FUNNY; a thorough guide for those of us that are new to that concept.

(Hint, it’s the men) Words by Marina Emogene Martin Smith

Now this is a very simple concept. Who has periods?

Women, and an entire community of people who aren’t women, but who do experience this shitty biological phenomenon. Who enjoys periods? Literally no one, with the one exception of a momentary spark of joy when you realise that you’re not captive to an unwanted pregnancy at the behest of your own body - but that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

Why do people make period jokes? I honestly don’t know. I have theories, but those mostly just serve the purpose of providing me with the creative space to insult people who make those jokes on the basest levels possible. One of my theories is that these jokes are solely perpetrated by extremely immature people, but I too am extremely immature in a range of ways, and yet am quite capable of not shouting to every employee in earshot, about how blah has their period, har-de-har. But, thank you immensely for that bland and yet angering addition to my work week, Mitch, you asshole dipped in misogyny and then stir fried with a good sized serving of bullshit.

Anywho, lets zoom in on the basis of the many shades of period jokes – the insinuation that the person who is the subject of the joke, is a woman, or possessing

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‘womanly’ qualities. When you put it like that, where’s the joke, folks?

Is being a woman a joke? Is being a woman inferior to being a man? I don’t find that funny. I find that insulting, and I would define it as a deeply sexist statement, not as a joke, and not to spoil the rest of my essay, but I’m not the only human to feel this way.

And yes, anyone who has ever heard you make a period joke has already pegged you as a raging asshole, and if they haven’t, then they probably are a raging asshole as well!

There is in fact one other variation on the punch line of period jokes.

When the joke is used against a person generally understood to be female, with the suggestion that their behaviour is related to a phenomenon referred to as premenstrual syndrome, or PMS. Now here’s something I would really love for people to learn about PMS, or any other emotional turmoil experienced as part of a period; yes, it does put people on edge, and yes it may encourage people to say things they wouldn’t normally say. BUT THE THING IS, we sure as hell do think it normally - we just have enough of the shitty cocktail of societal expectations of acceptable femininity, shaken up with the proverbial olives of exhaustion (from having to be the moral beacon that files a gazillion HR complaints and has a gazillion uncomfortable educating conversations with male counterparts, and deals with a gazillion instances of shitty retaliatory behaviour as a result of our attempt to detox the workplace of its reeking toxic masculinity), that we don’t generally opt to voice our concerns and/or outrage. Swinging back around to my point, the things we may say to you, often in raised tones of anger and/or frustration,

are not unintelligible bombs of crazy, induced by period hormones.

Actually, they are quite simply the things we usually refrain from saying out loud, or to your face. It is not our periods that make us act mad with you, or call you out, it is the fact that you fucked up, or have been fucking up, repeatedly, for goodness knows how long, and we simply can’t be bothered from refraining anymore. We don’t ‘overreact’ as a result of some mindboggling-hormone magic, we simply lose the will to protect you from the very real consequences of your very shitty actions.

So when you make a period joke, about a woman who has behaved in a way that threatens your fragile sense of self-esteem with her commentary on your actions, perhaps consider the fact that instead of actually accepting responsibility for your poor behaviour, or even acknowledging it, you are in fact handballing that can of worms off into the sunset, and instead opting to perpetuate systems that prevent women and their careers from being respected in the same manner as men would be, for bravely rebuking a colleague displaying inappropriate behaviour.

To conclude, if you make a period joke, you are no doubt a misogynist, and probably also a shit bloke (a term that I use to describe people of all genders, fyi). You have shouted to the world that you think women are clearly and unarguably inherently inferior to men, and have also have likely shown your cards in the good ol’ inability to participate in self-reflection or in the self improvement department. I hope you have fun with your unfulfilling life, and please give my condolences to all the women in your life.

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For my Sister I do not know Sarah Everard.

I have never seen her face, nor am I acquainted with her smile. I will never hear her laugh, nor ask her favorite colour.

I have not yet been to London, nor strolled its streets at night.

I do not know Sarah Everard, yet she is my Sister.

I have seen the bruises on her face, and imagined paling lips scrape pavement.

Crimson stains the well-lit path.

I have heard her muffled screams, that sunk into cracks in the footpath and nestled there against the grey. I know she was wearing bright colours that night.

I hope they weren’t her favourite. All the right things, still meager protection against protector turned predator.

The candlelight had hardly begun to illuminate London’s sorrow, when they stamped out it’s glow under heavy boots.

Sisters in mourning, manhandled.

Bruised and shoved against the pavement, mouth first.

Policed. Stifled.

Extinguished.

We did not know Sarah Everard, yet she is our Sister.

We have seen our face reflected in hers.

The shadow of candlelight remains in the softest gleam of tearstains and blood.

For my Sister, Sarah Everard.

For my Sister, catcalled.

For my Sister, bruised.

For my Sister, raped.

For my Sister, murdered.

For my Sister, silenced.

For my Sister. For my Sister. For my Sister.

Words by Justyna Dutka

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Girl, Woman, Sun Manmade The men sleep soundly upstairs too far above the clatter of pots and pans to be stirred from their slumber.

Then the men descend to gorge on their meal, as though they had made it themselves.

As though they had torn their own flesh, extracting, with some divine depravity, a single rib – now it is served up on a silver platter by invisible hands, to be sucked bone dry of meat and marrow.

Then the men melt into well-worn seats on the couch, gulping gluttonous swigs of beer. We stand at the counter sipping silently on apple cider turned jaundice vinegar.

They smack their thankless lips and leave us with the washing up. Dishwater tears streak past dark stains which, for all our scrubbing, never lift from beneath our eyes.

Womanhood, with gentle waves lapping at the white shore of adolescence, pools at her feet, before receding languidly, tugging sand from between toes.

Scooping neckline painted peach fades to starkness of untouched breast.

Where soft rose bloomed across her belly, now butterscotch brown melts against bright cream below.

Backs of knees and tops of feet stained raspberry, sticky with aloe to soothe the sting.

Let the sun kiss every part of skin revealed, with nervous touch of young lovers, just shy of the innocence elsewhere concealed.

Let sharp tan lines soften and girl, woman blend as ripe fruit, cream in summer’s heat.

The tide comes in, slowly, surely.

Words by Justyna Dutka

Words by Justyna Dutka

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A PREFACE TO ‘LOVE ISN’T’ Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence discussed in preface & poem Let me be blunt about a few devastating facts.

On average, one woman a week in Australia dies at the hands of a current or former partner.

At the time of writing, we are at the beginning of our 19th week of 2022, and 18 women have been murdered.

We know that according to a government literature review in 2019, men account for 75-94% of all perpetrators of domestic violence.

Although it seems obvious in reading those statistics, it is important to recognise that domestic violence (DV) is a national crisis.

DV comes in many forms and does not always present itself in such a physically violent manner. There are often no bruises or cuts or handprints to point to. And it can be that very narrow media representation of DV that leads so many victims / survivors to invalidate their own experience. Or indeed, even once this barrier is overcome, victims / survivors are further invalidated by police who are not adequately trained, and the legal system who have yet to reform to a degree that serves all.

In preparing for Elle Dit this year, I struggled to know how to write about my experience with DV, because in all honesty I am still trying to comprehend it myself. But I knew that this was something I had to do. I knew I wanted to write about it, because I understood the importance and impact of feeling seen. Of knowing – as someone who experienced and witnessed domestic violence in its emotional form – that my story, my trauma, was just as valid. I came to conclude that the best way for me to tell my story, in the place that I am now, is the same way I have always relied on expressing and indeed healing from my past. Through poetry. And so this is part of my story, in Love isn’t.

If this piece raises anything for you, please know that you can reach out to the following resources: 1800RESPECT – 1800 737 732 Lifeline – 13 11 14 UofA Counselling (non-emergency) North Terrace / Waite - +61 8313 5633 Roseworthy - +61 8313 7932 UofA’s Mental Health Triage (emergency) - 131 465

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LOVE ISN’T

Words by Grace Atta

Love can be many things, but I tell you what it isn’t: it isn’t the sound of tears swallowed folded away with the tissues in your sleeve tucked under pillows secretly after hearing words sharper than the knife in the kitchen drawer Incompetent Hopeless Who do you think you are?

You can’t be trusted.

Say sorry!

Say SORRY! SAY SORRY! you always said sorry But he never did Want it Hear it Say it Love isn’t silence for hours days weeks months a year

into two

playing the game is all you can do – drop an egg and wipe it up buy another hold it tighter gently god don’t let it break you know it’ll never be enough a hen hiding from the fox we walk on the ghosts of eggshells sitting side by side remnants of his military graded shells tell me about shock

is that why I quake

when an egg breaks?

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VE O L ISN’T VE O L ISN’T VE O L ISN’T

Love isn’t ‘forgiveness’ recorded in a book dates and times he’ll circle back to the crime it is true in circles we live circling the truth at school a speaker told us it is the cycle of abuse Love isn’t a glint in his eyes at the possibility of power his chest puffing to prove any point that pushes you to cower if he controls the peace of this place the mutters, frowns, and sighs the signs and symptoms of terror is there ever really peace in this place?

Love isn’t checking you turned all the lights off three times locking the door and walking back to be sure because you know there have been lesser evils with great hells Love isn’t being told deep wounds were self-inflicted in fact…now that he thinks of it what wounds? that blood on the floor that’s not yours, it’s mine he so desperately decrees and don’t forget those wounds of his you caused Love isn’t love shouldn’t love won’t be any of these atrocities.

And I tell you this because I love you.

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FUCK FUCK YOU, YOU,

JOANNE. JOANNE. JK ROWLING AND THE DOWNFALL OF THE FEMALE ROLE MODEL.

Words by Louise Jackson Trigger warnings: transphobia, domestic violence

THE ORIGINAL ORIGINAL SINS SINS THE

At the tender age of eight, I took my first step into the wizarding world. I was hooked. Like so many before me, I was swept away by friendship and found family and flubberworms. The magic was never really the literal magic. JK Rowling was my hero, a woman who defied the odds to tell a story of good triumphing over evil. However, over the last twelve years, I’ve come to hate her.

I admit that for many years, the original sins went right over my cis-white head. Cho Chang, one of the few characters of colour, has a thoughtless and ambiguous Asian name. The goblins are an antisemitic stereotype. Werewolves were allegedly an allegory for the AIDS epidemic. Houselves are willing slaves and Hermione’s crusade for their rights is made the butt of the joke. Female characters experience, and don’t question, a deeply patriarchal world.

Even before the transphobia, Rowling’s Twitter 81

was a hotbed of post-textual revelations. Were non-Christian students allowed at Hogwarts? Of course! Were queer students in attendance? Obviously! But if you look for textual evidence, there’s very little to find.

Her most infamous post-textual take was announcing in an interview after the series’ conclusion that problematic fave and Hogwart’s Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, was gay. He was in love with Grindelwald, aka wizard Hitler…

Harry Potter taught many of us that difference was a gift, but only at a surface-level.

A A RAPID RAPID DECLINE DECLINE The first hints of Rowling’s transphobia came in 2018 when she liked a tweet describing trans women as ‘men in dresses’. Her publicity team dismissed this as an accident. She later expressed support for Maya Forstater, whose employment was terminated on grounds she was creating a hostile environment for a trans co-worker. The basis of Rowling’s defence was a misplaced belief that trans activists are denying the existence of sex, or claiming that biological sex can be changed. Trans theory does not deny sex, but creates a distinction between sex and gender.

Inclusive language was the next Rowling target. She took issue with the term ‘people who menstruate’ – ‘I’m sure there used to be a word for those people…

Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’. To put aside how trivialising this take is of a complex issue, Rowling implies inclusive language is undermining the experience of womanhood. This is not the case.

The separation of menstruation from fundamental womanhood is a positive not only for trans inclusion; it helps validate the experiences of all those who don’t fit that traditional mould. But don’t worry, Rowling has trans friends.

Then came The Essay. In June 2020, J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues was published on Rowling’s blog. The ideology presented in The Essay aligned with the Trans Exclusionary Radical 82

Feminist (TERF) movement. It was the final nail in the JK coffin for a lot of us.

The TERF movement frames transgender people as the biggest threat to modern womanhood.

Rowling suggests the rapid increase in trans men is caused by women wanting to transition away from discrimination. She believes them to be women escaping misogyny or lesbians escaping homophobia. This claim ignores that trans people experience more risk and discrimination than those groups.

Rowling suggests she too may have fallen to transitioning when she felt disconnected from womanhood as a young person.

Fundamentally, her view trivialises the trans experience of gender and ignores the thorough process that occurs before anyone transitions.

Rowling claims trans women are a threat to women’s spaces, as anyone could be a man in disguise. She says her experience of domestic violence and sexual harassment informs this idea. The problem, however, lies with abusers, not trans women. Trans women are women and do not deserve to have rights withheld ‘just in case’.

JK has mastered the art of painting all her critics with the same brush. She has received death threats for her rhetoric (which is never justified), but she uses that extreme to dismiss all valid criticism of her views as well; the critics are just misogynistic harassers. It’s us-vs-them, Rowling’s TERFs against the radical lefties destroying the concept of sex.

Rowling was something far bigger than herself. She was a woman who faced great challenges and beat the odds. She was the strong female role model.

The first Harry Potter book was written over a fraught period of Rowling’s life. Her mother’s death in 1990 greatly affected Rowling. In her first marriage, she was a victim of domestic violence. She fled with the manuscript in her suitcase. As a single mother, Rowling lived on government assistance in a tiny flat. When she completed Philosopher’s Stone in 1995, twelve publishers rejected it.

WHY WE WE LOVED LOVED JK JK WHY

The success of Rowling and the Harry Potter series felt bigger than her; the challenges she beat are ones that disproportionately affect women.

Rowling emerged from hardship to achieve greatness. Her extensive philanthropy felt like she recognised her newfound privilege and was using it for good.

As Rowling continues her very public spiral into right-wing ideology, one message rings out across the internet – if JK Rowling had just kept her mouth shut, she would have been one of the most beloved children’s authors of all time. How the mighty fall.

WHERE WHERE DO DO WE WE GO GO FROM FROM HERE? HERE? What is the ethical approach to Harry Potter? Do we have to let it all go? Why are we even still talking about this?

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third film in the series, hit cinemas this April. It now sits as the lowest grossing film in the Wizarding World. But for those who remain undying fans of the franchise, and staunch supporters of Rowling, the film doesn’t have to be good. It prompts a question many of us face – how do you let go of something that shaped who you are? Should you?

JK Rowling is one of the richest women in the world and has robust licensing deals that continue to put millions in her pockets. My choice has been to stop financially supporting the Wizarding World in any way. I refuse to let my money go toward making the lives of trans people harder. If owning Harry Potter stuff is overwhelmingly important, buy it second-hand or support fan-artists. And for the love of God, stop paying to see Fantastic Beasts.

I’ve severed my connection with the whole Wizarding World because the betrayal I felt tainted any joy my Dumbledore Funko Pop could bring me.

But if that stuff still brings you joy? Who am I to tell you to throw it away?

Removing the work itself is harder. As soon as art is put into the world, that art no longer belongs exclusively to the artist. We can take the positive lessons from the Wizarding World and equally recognise the problematic elements. Our interpretations of the characters and stories we love don’t belong to her. No matter what Rowling does, Hogwarts exists in your heart. And that Hogwarts is a place where everyone belongs.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

- Responding to JK Rowling’s Essay | Is It Anti-Trans? – Jammidodger - YouTube - An Over-Emotional Look at Why JK Rowling is Bad – James Somerton – YouTube - Why JK Rowling’s Trans Views Are So Insidious – Jessie Gender - YouTube - Harry Potter and the Author Who Failed Us – Aja Romano – Vox - “Separating Art vs. the Artist” doesn’t work for Harry Potter – Kuncan Dastner – YouTube

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My Friend, y. p t a a h Detached from themselves, the roots wrapped around their body, Sprouts grew, as the leaves formed, they d i s i n t e g r a t e d, welcomed by dampened earth.

Crumpling and buckling, speckles of dirt embrace them, Cautiously consuming, the precarious affair, which bloomed, through rotted groves,

Shadow. anticipate their muse,

devouring time Foolishly they linger, suspended enthralled by dysfunction, temporary euphoria misleads them, gradual beams, cut through twisted oak, eating the shadow covered body, Speckles of dust,

yet, uncertain words, escape their wavering lips, their lethargic companion, apathy, smothers abundant desires, the slender bark scrapes, rasping along their once spry bones, leisurely it gnaws, at times, the familiar fragmented ache torments them, tender pain scatters, harboring a polluted shell, they await the splinters, not unlike shrapnel, it then cracks, fragmenting - it is so

s w i r L Gliding along their path, You peak through the knotted branches Following scattered rays of light.

Your eyes meet another, The strangers are glazed, Captivated, you As the sunlight dims, their skin, invites shadows, ensnared, a ceaseless, pattern, Delight in the facade prospects, fueled by delusion,

akin to vultures, awaiting their carrion.

Intent for their voyage, endlessly hunting wan der lu st

sharp, S H A R P

sharp sharp,

s h sharp,

a

p, sharp

barren, desolate, 84

r

sharp

Words by Falie Klieve

fractured branches Contorted limbs, fuse to the abandoned flare, their raspy breath, catches your focus, as your blurred vision clears, timber captures you. frantically you search for the stranger, but, as you are released from the bark, you find their eyes, reflected they are you, Ambitions flame re-ignites although, time is fickle, the familiar comfort delirious endeavours bring, enticing your fickle self, as arduous dreams, tend to become jaded, giving in to effortless whims, is tempting, careful, careful, CAREFUL. you’re wasting away, allowing fear of the unfamiliar, of failure, of pain. win. are you content with that?

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CHAINED WOMAN OF XUZHOU

WHY CHINA NEEDS FEMINISM, URGENTLY Words by Skye Xie Trigger warning: The article discusses topics related to human trafficking, forced marriage, and abuse, which might be upsetting to some readers.

In February 2022, a video from a rural village in Xuzhou broke the Chinese internet and gained global media attention. In the video, a woman can be seen chained in a doorless shack and shivering in coldness.

Shocked social media users urged local authorities to investigate the situation and were infuriated when the government issued a half-hearted response, claiming that no criminal activity was involved.

However, when the public refused to buy the story and independent investigators set out to do their own research, it was soon discovered that the Xuzhou Chained Woman was actually a victim of human trafficking.

Despite being officially identified as Xiao Huamei from Yunnan province, over 1800 kilometres away from where she was found, Chinese social media users still have doubts about her true identity as many pieces of information provided did not align. Under public pressure, local authorities moved in to rescue the woman and detain her abuser, with whom she had eight children.

But the public outrage continued. The story of the Chained Woman has shed light on a multitude of issues Chinese women have within society. On social media, many said that they could see themselves as the Chained Woman – a victim of human trafficking, forced marriage, and domestic abuse. The inaction of the local authorities has led the public to believe that the government is reluctant to crack down on the buying and selling of women, and some attributed this reluctance to the sheer number of purchased brides in rural China. ‘They would have to arrest whole villages of people’ Weibo users claimed. Statistics reveal that Xuzhou, despite being in the southeast of China, hosts an abnormally large population of women from minority ethnic groups from the southwest. A lot of these women came from extreme poverty and were sold as brides to other provinces by their

86

relatives. Similar patterns can be observed in other provinces, too. One example is a Buyi (a minority ethnic group in China) woman who was sold from Guizhou to Henan. For 35 years, her children did not know her real name as she could not understand nor speak much Chinese. The women are usually subjugated to extreme violence if they attempt to escape. As the purchase of brides is a common practice in many rural areas, villagers and local police often refuse to offer any help to these women. Some would even ‘return’ them to the families they escaped from, where they would suffer long-term abuse.

In recent years, feminism has become a sensitive topic in China as gender equality declines. Facing an aging society, the central government seeks to push women ‘back home’ to produce more babies and regards feminism as a harmful ideology to the country’s social stability. But more young women are embracing feminism and refuse to enter a structure that inherently disadvantages their gender. Many express a fear of being forced into marriage and reproduction like the Chained Woman.

The challenge is that feminist activists in China can face great danger. In February, two feminist activists travelled to Xuzhou to support the Chained Woman, only to be detained by local police. Though temporarily released, one activist named Wuyi was again detained in March and her whereabouts remains unknown. On Weibo, users are still calling for the authority to release Wuyi and make more effort in investigating the Chained Woman’s case.

China needs feminism urgently, especially when it comes to its more vulnerable communities. Despite the challenges, Chinese feminists have no choice but to keep fighting back – for the sake of their own freedom, if no one else’s.

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