‘Sorry’ – From Aboriginal Men To Aboriginal Women

The Age reported today on an historic apology issued by a gathering of Aboriginal men.

The statement declared: “We the Aboriginal males from Central Australia and our brothers from around Australia…acknowledge and say sorry for the hurt, pain and suffering caused by Aboriginal males…We also acknowledge that we need the love and support of our Aboriginal women to help us move forward.”

Good on you fellas.

Apparently “Blonde Piece” Is Now An Appropriate Descriptive Term For A Woman

Reader and honorary Dawn Chorine Jessica alerted us to this frankly hideous passage in The Age’s gossipy/society Diary section; the story concerns the upper crust’s horror at housing developments underway in the upmarket Victorian suburb of Toorak:

Pete, who split with wife Virginia and began dating Melissa Skirton, the blonde piece involved in the Sam Newman skirmish 10 years ago, seems to have survived the matrimonial bonfire nicely.

Yes, you read that correctly, “blonde piece”. And not just that, a “blonde piece” whose only credentials, apparently, are havng dated Sam Newman.

Reason #4680 never to move in “those” circles, if being tainted with archaic sexist terminology is what it takes to get in the society pages.

Holly Byrnes On Bullying And ANTM

The repercussions of Demelza Reveley’s Australia’s Next Top Model win are still rumbling, with the controversial result now hitting the opinion pages. Holly Byrnes in the Daily Telegraph offers the following compelling thoughts:

The orchestrated publicity campaign to canonise Demelza as the patron saint of the set-upon plus-sizes would have been convincing if it weren’t so obvious to anyone with a millimetre of experience in fashion that she was not too big for the business but rather turned down because of her inflated sense of entitlement at any cost.

And that’s the most galling part of Demelza’s win: How this obnoxious bully prospered.

These Sluts And Poofs Are Ruining Our Wholesome Reality Television Shows

I haven’t yet watched The Farmer Wants A Wife (the ridiculously patriarchal title and concept may have something to do with it…) but I have looked upon the farmers in the Women’s Weekly, and naturally read about them in all the pre-show media hype drummed up by poor old Channel Nine. And wouldn’t you know it, now there’s been a “scandal” – one of the ‘wives’ has been revealed to have posed nude prior to entering the show, once this year (for AbbyWinters.com – NSFW – apparently) and previously for People.

My instinctual reaction is “who cares, it’s her body and her life”, but the slut-shaming reaction from the Daily Telegraph and the always reliable Australian Family Association has been pretty depressing:

Monique is not the first reality television contestant to have a dubious background. Big Brother’s pint-sized belly dancer Rima appeared naked in an online shoot this year, and Gladiators challenger Sam Brodie was revealed to have posed for a gay porn website.

Australian Family Association national spokeswoman Angela Conway said casting agencies needed to take more responsibility.

“More responsibility” for what? To ensure that those bloody poofters, dwarves and whores don’t get a chance to appear on national television and expose their “dubious” backgrounds?

It’s hard to pick what the worst aspect of this “story” is. There’s the intensely judgmental headline, “Farmer wants a wife …but may get porn model”. There’s the implication that Monique is somehow “using” Farmer Nick by pursuing him via the show, when there’s no mention of the fact that the farmers themselves are using the female contestants in some sort of potential-wife prize-fight (and as we know, only one of the previous season’s farmers actually did end up with a wife). And then there’s the show itself, which takes the very real issues of rural male loneliness (you need only watch this video clip of last year’s farmer Chris to see how much having met someone means to him) and women longing for a partner, and turns it into an ultra-competitive spectacle for ‘the other half’ to gawp at.

The hypocrisy in these instances is out of control when you consider that it’s more or less an accepted career path for young women to enter Big Brother and exit the house into the warm embrace of a lads’ mag shoot, but it seems that if women (and gay men) decide to take charge of their own sexual identity and express it in a way that suits them – rather than a way that is airbrushed, objectified and geared towards heterosexual male pleasure – they better watch out.

I’m Anxiously Crafty…

Hi folks, I’m organising an 8-week series of ‘craftea chats’ for women who have experienced mental illness and are based in Melbourne.

We’ll have different materials and teachers each week and you can bring along your current project or learn a new skill such as knitting, sewing or cross stitch. All materials are provided and each session is free. Depression, anxiety and the like can be lonely and isolating and the workshops are a great chance to meet other women and engage in some crafty fun while enjoying tea and bickies.

Weekly from August 6th
6.15-8.15pm
Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

The workshops are funded through a grant by The City of Melbourne and auspicing of the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council

Interested? Check out the details below and email ms.cate@gmail.com to book your place ( spaces are limited).

The Ethics Of Clothing – How To Dress For Polygamy

So, you’re down with the No Sweat shoes, you don’t wear fur and you like buying fashions that are ‘refashioned’ or ‘upcycled’ as all the entrepreneurs are calling it. Clothing that is made by small businesses, not factories with a nod to history. Well, you now have another option.

Women from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) have released their own fashion line and online shop. You may recall the FLDS, a polygamous sect in Texas where over 400 children and teens were taken into custody The children were taken into custody after someone called a hot line claiming to be a pregnant, abused teenage wife. Officials said girls were being “groomed” to accept sex with their middle-aged “spiritual husbands” as soon as they hit puberty and boys were being indoctrinated to perpetuate the cycle of abuse, but disturbingly no arrests have been made.

So what kind of fashions might they provide?

According to The Age:

The austere dresses with long-sleeves and high collars, loose-fitting pants, long-johns and modest blouses worn by members of the sect are reminiscent of 19th century American pioneers and highlighted the sect’s isolation.

They are starting with children’s and babieswear. The website is painfully slow to load, but news media reports a significant interest in the clothing as it is ‘modest’ and well made. A lot of feminists (myself included) are horrified by some of the ‘tweens’ fashions out there. From tiny bras and g- strings to t shirts like these from Jay Jay’s:

The Way We Were: Sexy Legs Sexy Nix (1981)

Hello!

What have we got here then?

Sexist, racial and religious stereotyping in one video. It must be those easygoing 1980s advertising standards at work.

I only wish it had beach balls, World Series Cricket, someone smoking and icy cold cans of Coke in it. Then we would have the perfect video for our time capsule.

And what coincidence of folly when our beloved friend Jess at Defamer Australia has posted the same item today. It is truly worth watching twice.