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Urm, last time I checked this was MY uterus
An open letter to my father-n-law about MY reproductive rights
Exclusive clubs
Exclusion on any basis tends to annoy me. Always has. The exclusive nature of apartheid in South Africa was probably one of the things that taught me that exclusion was a bad thing. After all everyone was saying how bad it was, and South Africa was a pariah among “western” nations… so clearly excluding people on the basis of skin colour was a bad thing. This much I figured out.
I also wasn’t a fan of unfairness which wasn’t quite exclusion, but was almost. Someone being treated unfairly because of a real or perceived difference by someone else. A beautiful, intelligent and patient Aboriginal girl at my primary school was made to repeat Grade 3 (after finishing Grade 6) because the school did not know what to do with her. Suddenly an 11 year old girl was placed with the 8 year olds. When I spoke to her about it, she said that she would transfer to Yirarra and finish her education there as soon as she could. In a typical 8 year old fashion, I never chased it up nor do I remember if she eventually did.
My parents, well more my mother, was big on fairness, non-discriminatory behaviour and treating people equally regardless of who they were and where they were from. The missionary inspired teachers that taught me in Alice Springs were also big on social justice, and the nuns and brothers of the Sacred Heart in Alice Springs were also big on social justice.
One good thing about my Catholic upbringing, was generally the ability to discuss social justice issues and talk about fairness and justice in general. Certainly more useful in my primary school in Alice Springs versus my secondary schooling in Bendigo.
My mother, in Alice Springs, taught Aboriginal students in the Aboriginal Unit of my Catholic Primary School. She thought that it was exclusionary for those students who had good attendance and who did not need the extra support that the Aboriginal Unit was developed to provide to be kept away from the mainstream educational system. She fought for those students to be included in mainstream schooling and only for those who needed extra support and attention to be in her unit. She had the support of the Parish Priest, but outraged those social conservatives who thought they knew best about what these students needed, and lets face it who were probably consciously or unconsciously racist, to be kept in the Aboriginal Unit. So outraged were they, they started a smear campaign against my mother and the Catholic Priest, suggesting that they were having an affair and were horrible to me and my sisters. Thankfully we left town for unrelated reasons just as this started to get really nasty.
So why this blog post… well I’ve had some interesting conversations with people about exclusion recently, and read some interesting articles about exclusive clubs and the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission’s thoughts on exclusion for clubs. It has been suggested by the Government I believe that exclusions granted to clubs and institutions to discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation and the like may actually not be in line with Victoria’s Human Rights Charter.
Of course religious groups have complained that the state is interfering with their religious freedom by not letting them discriminate and exclude people whose lifestyles and/or beliefs are not in line with their religions, and Men’s clubs in Melbourne are also under attack. Both of these, of course break my heart and bring tears to my eyes… not.
You see… I’ve rethought exclusion. I have a problem when a powerful group excludes a powerless, or less powerful group…. though there are caveats here. So when white Afrikaans in South Africa excluded all black people… they were a powerful minority, the same goes for Sunnis in Bahrain excluding the Shia in Bahrain. Its not about the size of the group, just the power that they possess. So a Men’s club in Melbourne being under threat by a change of law? Yippee! Force them to live in the modern day and age… and deal with some diversity – because I’d suspect that they’re not only a male only club, but they also have “standards” as to who their members can be… so I’m guessing wealthy, mostly white business men.
The same goes for religious groups… and I’m looking mostly at Christian churches here, because that is where my experience is. A group that has spent time persecuting and excluding less powerful members of society or their own less powerful members… they’ll suddenly have to employ single mothers, queer folk, divorcees, etc. This cannot be a bad thing, as much as they may sook about it. I’m quite happy that Christian school children will actually have a wider world experience with people from different situations in society. It’d be really nice if there was a way to force the Catholic Church to accept women and married men as priests… but I don’t see that happening at this point.
The legislative change also goes for Women’s Clubs… which I have a bit more of a problem with, because traditionally women actually have less power, and need safe space to network and generally exercise. I suspect that Women’s Clubs will be able to successfully fight for their right to exclude men on the basis that far too many women are harassed and killed in gyms than men (just look at that recent massacre in the US for instance), and that women’s clubs are required until women really do have full equality with men .
But what happens when a persecuted minority group, who has their own private club on private land, begins to exclude others? I can understand a lesbian’s collective excluding men… and to an extent I can understand them excluding heterosexual women. But by what token can they exclude bisexual women or even trans-women? Apparently the argument for excluding trans-women is that they were born male and therefore have accessed the privilege that men have… but surely by transitioning to female, they’ve not only forgone any privilege they may have had (and since when was the queer looking boy at school granted any privilege?) they’ve also assigned themselves far into “other” territory and are far more discriminated against and excluded than lesbians. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
I guess bisexuals, by their argument, have the best of both worlds, spend time passing as heterosexual or something. This is not an issue which I have spoken to any radical lesbians about, I just participated in a conversation with someone who is bisexual who was aware of this conundrum.
An ideal world is one where people are recognised for the intrinsic value they possess and the unique gifts they bring into the world. A world where gender, sexuality, relationship status and skin colour aren’t even noticed.
Doctor Who – The Doctor Dances [2005]
Captain Jack Harkness: I’ve gotten to know Algy quite well since I’ve been in town. Trust me, you’re not his type. I’ll distract him. Don’t wait up.
The Doctor: Relax. He’s a fifty-first century guy. He’s just a bit more flexible when it comes to ‘dancing’.
Rose Tyler: How flexible?
The Doctor: Well, by his time, you lot are spread out across half the galaxy.
Rose Tyler: Meaning?
The Doctor: So many species, so little time.
Rose Tyler: What, that’s what we do when we get out there? That’s our mission? We seek new life and…
[weakly]
Rose Tyler: and…
The Doctor: [nodding] Dance.
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The Australian National Anthem
Let’s deconstruct the Australian National Anthem. Well the first verse anyway, because very few Australians know the second or subsequent verses (and I’m amongst the group that has no idea about the other verses).
Ok, lyrics are as follows and the history of the anthem is here:
Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history’s page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.
Actually I might put the second verse in at the end of this post. Its full of things that some people might find interesting, but I’m going to provide no comment on it.
So, the first two lines:
Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
So, the first line isn’t too hard to understand. They gender included the anthem because it used to be ‘Australian sons let us rejoice’, and since there at least 50% of Australia are Australian daughters, someone thought it might be nice to share.
The second one doesn’t refer to the average age of Australia, which currently is around 34 years (here) which means that next year I’ll be an average Australian – how nice – but that as a nation we are relatively young, what with only declaring our independence in 1901 and becoming our own country and not another outpost of the United Kingdom – this also involved the Federation of a whole lot of kinda independent states/outposts of the United Kingdom into one country as well. Any history errors here are all my fault, I’m doing this from memory.
The free bit doesn’t refer to Australian prowess in bed and our propensity to be easy to pick up on holidays (all gossip I’m sure), but to how we’re a free nation, and given this was written before Federation, I’m really not sure what else the author meant. But anyway, we’re free… isn’t that nice. Though with the current climate of fear regarding terrorism, I’m not sure that we’re as free as we were 20 years ago – but don’t get me started on exchanging my freedom for safety.
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil;
This… song… was written in sometime on or before 1878. Apart from the lovely fertility of Australian soil, it probably also refers to the huge amount of gold that has now been removed from Australia and used for all those things that gold is used for.
And yes, if you work (toil) then you can get wealthy, that’s bleeding obvious really. So perhaps if you work hard in the gold fields, you can get very rich… or in the farming lands. Though although today there is still a lot of money to be made in the mining industry for things usually other than gold, there isn’t as much money to be made in farming – but I think that’s the story all over the world.
Our home is girt by sea;
Ah girt… one of those ancient and unused words of old. According to the Macquarie Dictionary, its the past tense of “Gird” which can mean “to surround; hem in”. So Australia is surrounded and hemmed in by the sea. Well given we’re the biggest island continent in the world, yes we’re surrounded and hemmed in by the sea. Though that doesn’t sound anywhere near as nice as “girt by sea”.
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
Less and less of our land is currently abounding in nature’s gifts, beautiful or rich… and more of them are becoming increasingly rare. However, Australia is still a beautiful country and there are things here that aren’t replicated anywhere else in the world – hence the rare bit. If it disappears in Australia, its gone everywhere forever.
In history’s page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
So history should be full of saying how wonderful Australia is. How lovely… lets not have an accurate history of stupidity, waste, bad decisions, just the good that is done… lets forget the rest and fail to learn from it.
I’m much more for an accurate recording of history, from learning from our mistakes and from being brave enough to report the failures as well as the successes. Changing history is much harder these days. I’d prefer the anthem to say something about truth, but that’s not to be.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.
So anyway… lets all be happy that Australia is wonderful and sing its praises highly.
Well that’s my take on the anthem… here is the second verse… make of it as you will.
Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We’ll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.
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