No more funding for Queensland Mothers Milk Bank
Australia has only two milk banks, one in Perth and one on the Gold Coast. They do important work. The Queensland non-profit Mothers Milk Bank, based at John Flynn Private Hospital, has noted that premature and ill babies fed human milk were discharged an average of two weeks’ earlier than than those fed formula, saving [...]
Women reduced to a disembodied womb, GetUp edition
GetUp, a large Australian anti-conservative action group, has a Paid Parental Leave campaign on at the moment. Yes, bravo, etc. (They do confuse parental and maternity leave, but that’s another story.) When we’re talking equal pay, we get faces. But when we’re talking about mothers, everything disappears except the belly and the babies. Is it [...]
Practical aid for remote indigenous communities: subsidise freight charges for fresh food, for a start?
Some focus in the SMH today on the high cost of fresh food in remote communities, where in at least one community in WA, Mulan, so high are the basic living costs that many simply go hungry for a couple of days each week and this is in a town with a store managed on [...]
The Man Who Would Be Veep
Careful you don’t split your sides. [via Shakesville] Related posts: Quicklink: These jokes aren’t benign Same-Sex Marriage Rally in Sydney, November 28th What the fuck, Germaine? Obligatory Obama acclamation & McCain Veep selection thread Jill Filipovic and internet searches
Girl-Wonder announces the Con Anti-Harassment Project
Remember the Penguicon “Open Source Boob Project” that took place at Penguicon, and the resulting grassroots idea – the “Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Project“? Feminist comics fandom site Girl-Wonder has formalised things a little more, and has just announced the “Con Anti-Harassment Project”, taglined “Conventions should be fun.”: Our aims are to [...]
Friday Hoyden: Germaine Greer
I found this image on this media release page at the Southern Cross University website, which uses it to illustrate promotional information for “An Evening With Germaine Greer” that took place in early 2008. I chose it because it is a relatively neutral portrait, unlike the usual photos that emphasise either her strident aspect or [...]
Why I haven’t blogged on the Victorian abortion decriminalisation bill
Because Helen at Cast Iron Balcony covered all the issues so well that I had nothing to add – read it there. Related posts: Quickhit: QLD petition for decriminalisation of abortion Quickhit: a test case for decriminalisation of abortion in QLD Victorian upper house votes on decriminalising abortion today Guy Barnett pushing another punitive bill [...]
Double standard watch: the “gay panic” defence
Yet another lowlife who murdered a man and stole things from him has claimed that the victim made sexual advances, and that he became “enraged” and “had no other choice” than to slay the victim. He’ll probably end up being charged with manslaughter rather than murder, if similar cases are any guide. As Pam Spaulding [...]
Mt Isa men willing to get drunk and fuck – even ugly chicks
Lonely? Ugly? How about moving to copper-silver-zinc mining town, Mt Isa? (Shhh, don’t mention the heavy metals.) Remember John Molony? He’s the mayor who said that Indigenous people were the “wrong sort of people” for Mount Isa, and demanded that the Federal Government step in, bring security guards, and forcibly bus them back to the [...]
UK Criminal Compensation Authority Blaming Rape Victims
Under guidelines meant to minimise compensation payouts for people who “contribute to their own ordeal during a criminal incident”, such as people taking part in the crime, or offering provocation for an attack, certain bureaucrats decided that women being out in the world socialising in a perfectly legal fashion were liable for provoking their own rapes, and cut their compensation payouts accordingly. Public outcry has meant that the decision has been reversed, but how could they have been so wrong headed in the first place?
It could be something to do with the way that the media reports rape, of course. Melissa reports [trigger warnings], and then responds to a typical Daily Mail women-blaming op-ed (the pictorial juxtaposition has to be seen to be believed):
The piece itself is just unrelentingly infuriating, as its male author offers up gems like:
A conflict of interest in Campaign McCain, you say? Quelle surprise!
Most of the world is calling on both Russia and Georgia to show restraint in their current conflict, without attempting to cast one as more of an agressor than the other.
Not Campaign McCain
WWTTMD?
What would Tiananmen Tank Man Do?
I don’t think he’d watch the Olympics. Of course I can’t know this, because we don’t know who he was, whether he is still alive, or whether he would actually be an enormous fan of the Olympics right now.
Still, I am not watching these Olympics, simply because I can’t square my conscience with supporting the regime’s propaganda exercise.
Amandaw is kicking arse and taking names when it comes to able-bodied privilege
Amandaw has been writing an absolutely white-hot series of guest posts at Feministe about invisible disability and her illness experience. I intensely, wholeheartedly urge you to make an effort to set the time aside to read them all. Start at the bottom, read the comments, and work your way up.
If you had to pick just four, though, try
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