File this one under: Don’t let your cranky, feminist mother watch your TV shows. So, my three year old son was watching an episode (‘Super Bear’) of the Australian children’s show, Bananas in Pyjamas the other day and I walked… Read More ›
Culture
The milieu through which we swim
Is Australia more feminist?
The Australian prime minister Julia Gillard’s labelling of the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, a “misogynist” has become the focus of intense debate both in Australia and here in the UK. What has been most striking for me is… Read More ›
Media Circus: read my memoirs edition
Memoirs, asylum seekers, hurricanes and sexual harassment. What else has piqued your media interests lately?
Racebending and Cloud Atlas
Variety described the notion of white actors playing Asians as “exciting,” suggesting that the Wachowskis “put the lie to the notion that casting — an inherently discriminatory art — cannot be adapted to a more enlightened standard of performance over mere appearance.” The irony of this declaration is overwhelming — praising a film for “enlightened” casting choices that merely replay old discriminatory practices.
Fallacy Watch: No True Klansman
I may have contributed to a new term for a rhetorical ploy we see more and more. Here’s how it happened – I’m rather proud of this coinage, but wonder whether we may be reinventing the fallacious wheel. Is there an already apt term in rhetorical jargon?
Marry, Shag or Cliff? Politics and corruption edition
Remember the rules? It’s been a while: you must choose one of each of the three candidates to match each fate. No skipping any.
Or you could just talk about your favourite television dramas, since this is just a hook to hang some pop culture on.
Lazy vicious marginalisation from Vagenda at New Statesman
My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit.
~ Flavia Dzodan, on Tiger Beatdown 2011/10/10
Are you noting a distinct lack of attribution there from Vagenda, for an ‘oft-quoted phrase’ which is easily googled as to its source?
As if that wasn’t bad enough, here’s what happened next:
Media Circus: fewer horses and bayonets edition
I just had to use that in a post somewhere! What’s piqued your media interests lately?
Privacy, anonymity, pseudonymity, outing, accountability: where are the boundaries?
There are competing ethical imperatives, and there’s a balance to be found. It is basic courtesy to respect a pseudonym or some in-confidence knowledge about a person generally, but should that expected courtesy take precedence over the protection of other people from harm which could be avoided if they knew what you know?
Now the Dust has Settled
Has anyone else been feeling insultingly patronised by the MSM this past week? The embarrassment of completely misreading the wider impact of the Prime Minister’s speech (you know, that one) was such that most high-profile newspaper columnists spent the rest of the week explaining to readers exactly why we were the ones who didn’t get it, not them. They understood better than us because they were thinking about – Context!
Hoyden About Town 