Not all questions have clear answers. Sometimes, there is no “right” answer. Sometimes, every “right” answer carries a little bit of wrong in it too. This is especially true when we take a feminist approach informed by intersectionality; a feminism… Read More ›
ethics & philosophy
ideals, breaches, disappointments and inspirations
If you can’t defend yourself, you shouldn’t be allowed to speak
James Massola’s outing of Grog’s Gamut‘s legal name and position in The Australian is an example of silencing of the less powerful: anyone who will not or cannot expose all of their words present and past, their name, their face, their body, their clothes, their family to mass scrutiny is being denied the ability to have political influence.
The callous cruelty of mandatory detention of asylum seekers
On this day after a detained asylum seeker threw himself off a detention centre roof to his death rather than be deported back to persecution in Fiji, this terrible yet fantastic post from Pamela Curr at the Drum should be required reading for all Australians with a social conscience:
Wins and losses – the prosecution of sexual violence
A tale of two legal systems.
In each legal system, there is a woman has been sexually assaulted.
Each woman is subjected to some sort of abuse by the person who is supposed to be prosecuting the sexual assault.
The similarities end there.
Friday Hoydens: That’s a pretty big teaspoon
Some Israeli women wield the teaspoon of civil disobedience and smuggle Palestinian women out of the West Bank for a day at the beach.
It’s not censorship when it’s a personal decision over privately owned space
aka One More Time For The Clueless! “Free speech” has never meant that individuals or corporations are obliged to provide a forum for speech they find obnoxious on their own private property.
Quote for the Day: on narratives
A narrative is determined as much by what is omitted as by what is included.
Quote of the Day: institutions vs amateur critics
What the internet means for the old-fashioned print critic is the end of institutional authority. That so many of these critics mistake institutional authority for critical authority says everything you need to know.
EU bans experiments on great apes
After two years of heated debate on how to protect animal welfare without scuppering scientific research…
Tipping points, non-renewables and a postcapitalist future
Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR) published this article last year, but it’s worth looking at again in light of ever more data showing that we are running out of planet, or at least running out of the non-renewable resources needed to continue growing the classic capitalist economy:
Hoyden About Town 