Author Archives

• Master of the house

  By hatbluemilk on 2010-10-19 • ( 3 )

  Sometimes I will be visiting a friend (and it could be any one of many); and we will be as thick as thieves – curled up in couches and laughing, sipping tea and juggling children, when her husband will arrive home. And he, whom I will generally like, will on this day be in a foul mood and will fume at his wife, just a little, not so much as to be a bully but enough to stop our conversation. Did you realise the children have been throwing toys off the veranda, he tripped over them on his way inside? There may be some sideways glance from him across the room, too, lingering for just a moment on the upturned sippy cup on the floor.

• For our sons but not for our daughters

  By hatbluemilk on 2010-10-08 • ( 16 )

  A recent UK internet survey (sample size: 2,500 but non-random) found mothers are more critical of their daughters than their sons. The results sound utterly depressing:

• Strange behaviour

  By hatbluemilk on 2010-09-22 • ( 13 )

  TRIGGER WARNING.

  This woman was 14 years old when her own daughter was born. She is 27 years old now.

  Her daughter is 13 years old and has been sexually assaulted by her grandfather. (It is quite possible that the grandfather is also this woman’s father – you can’t tell from the limited information available).

  It is a pretty safe bet that this woman has been through a lot recently.

• A little lesson in undermining women in power

  By hatbluemilk on 2010-09-09 • ( 27 )

  This lesson comes courtesy of the Courier Mail. Four political stories about four different federal politicians and all of them use the politician’s last name in the title of the story, except one. Which story was it?

• Did you see this?

  By hatbluemilk on 2010-09-08 • ( 8 )

  No, me neither. Until Crikey. As Bob Gosford points out, when hundreds of Aboriginal men get together we’re just not interested in reporting on them unless they’re doing something bad.

• Undecided voters and why I hate you

  By hatbluemilk on 2010-08-21 • ( 20 )

  Dear undecided voter, I am tired of reading about you in my newspapers and seeing endless vox pops with you on my television. I am tired of every politician in the country courting you and I am very tired of… Read More ›

• Baby kissing

  By hatbluemilk on 2010-07-18 • ( 6 )

  Image credit: PM Julia Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan holding some babies. You know when you pick up someone’s baby you have that pleasedon’tcrypleasedon’tcry chant running through your head? I don’t feel it quite so much now that I have… Read More ›

• Crush-worthy political pundits

  By hatbluemilk on 2010-05-12 • ( 18 )

  Reading Twitter during last night’s delivery of the Australian federal budget I couldn’t help but notice how many of us crush on political journalists. For my money you can’t go past the über delicious George Megalogenis but I saw much… Read More ›

• Reconciling abortion with my motherhood

  By hatbluemilk on 2010-05-10 • ( 4 )

  At some point during my own pregnancy I knew I would confront my pro-choice politics, not because I had had an abortion in the past but because I could have, and because I believe so strongly in my right to… Read More ›

• How much for your surname?

  By hatbluemilk on 2010-05-05 • ( 23 )

  What assumptions do you make about a woman when you hear that she has changed her surname after getting married? And what assumptions do you make about her when you hear she kept her surname after getting married? Do you… Read More ›