So here we are again, with an amazing collection of writing from Australian and New Zealand feminists from the month of September. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed putting it all together. First, a comic from Judy Horacek from her October post (posted on 30 September 2012).
After that beautiful comic, lets start with..
Bodies
Frances at Corpulent, writes “On Stocky Bodies, and being a fat dancer” in which she describes having two photographers follow her around doing her every day things, and how having the photographers go to her dance class was harder than all the other activities they photographed.
Kath at Fat Heffalump (still one of my favourite names for a blog), wrote “Busting Myths About Fat Bodies” and “Can We Kill the Privilege Denying Please?” In the first Kath talks about some common myths associated with fat people and neatly demolishes them, and in the second she covers thin privilege and how some thin people deny their privilege.
Bri at My Scarlett Heart writes about “Just Me“.
Charlotte Audley-Coote at Wom*news writes about “Bodies: Taking Up Space” describing how women’s occupation of space is judged by the patriarchy.
Jo at A Life Unexamined, writes “Are Periods Really That Special?“.
Family and parenting
Blue Milk writes about Keynes economics in “Does Keynes still have the secret to happiness? And even for parents?” and invites readers to read the linked to essay and post excerpts if they do not understand the economic theory.
Blue Milk also writes about “Poking fun at motherhood or mothers? And also, how white feminists get black motherhood wrong“, which is fairly self explanatory from the title.
Ariane at Ariane’s little world, writes “Torture? Really?” regarding the recent discussion and arguments around controlled crying.
QoT at Ideologically Impure writes about the lengths some health professionals go to bully parents into breastfeeding in, “I wonder who earned their Christmas bonus for coining the term “Breastapo”?“.
Jshoep at Maybe it means nothing, posts about the discrimination of the Australian paid parental leave scheme in, “Australia’s Paid Parental Leave scheme is flawed“.
Emily at Tiger Beatdown writes about her grandmother in, “Coming Undone“.
LGBTIQ
No Place for Sheep writes about whether “beliefs” should be protected and held above the rights of others in the marriage equality debate in, “Belief, the State and same sex marriage“.
Chrys at Gladly the Cross Eyed Bear writes about ending Homophobia not just in the AFL but everywhere, in “End homophobia in AFL Football? No! Let’s just end homophobia!“.
Emily Manuel calls out the transphobia in a pantomime that is/was playing at the Sydney Opera House in, “Obnoxious pantomime alert: “trAnnie”“.
LudditeJourno writes about “Queering Twitter” and the incidence of homophobic terms on Twitter.
Justine Larbalestier writes about her support for marriage equality in “On Marriage“.
Emma at The Lady Garden posted about the call for submissions for Louisa Wall’s Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill, and her own beliefs on marriage in, “Submission Pun Goes Here“.
Personal stories
AlisaK at Champagne and Socks (great blog name) writes about having one of those days which boosts your confidence in, “On of Those kind of days“.
Rachel at Musings of an Inappropriate Woman writes about how “I don’t ask people about their love lives anymore.”
Bri at My Scarlett Heart writes about “wearing my heart on my sleeve“.
Julie at The Hand Mirror, writes about making friends through community activities in, “Making friends, with fruit trees“.
Politics
Chrys at Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear, writes “Why I’m Defending Prime Minister Gillard against Alan Jones“, regarding the “sewage politics” engaged in by Jones.
the news with nipples writes about Alan Jones’s “Destroy the Joint” comment in “Let’s destroy the joint“.
At leftover words a post on the demonisation of those on welfare in, “Resources on welfare“.
Sky Croeser writes about her study of the Occupy movement’s use of social media, particularly twitter, focussing on the Occupy Oakland group in, “Upcoming: #oo activism“.
Nikki Elisabeth at Mothers For Choice Aotearoa NZ, has written a letter to the Labour Women’s Caucaus, and encourages others to do the same in, “International Day for the Decriminalisation of Abortion“.
Racism
Helen writes at the Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony, “The Recent Unpleasantness“, describing the failure of the mainstream media to comment or cover those Muslims who did condemn the action taken by a few, and the inherent racism in branding an entire group of people for something done by only a few – especially as that doesn’t happen to white people.
I wrote about how “Multiculturalism hasn’t failed“.
Deborah at a Bee of a Certain Age, writes about “Taniwha and belief“:
The fist criticism conflates two sets of attitudes about taniwha. One can believe in taniwha, or one can respect, or at least tolerate, other people’s belief in taniwha. Personally, I don’t believe in taniwha, or elves, or the Norse gods, or the Christian god, or all sorts of other things, but I can see that other people believe in these entities, and even more than that, that they order their lives by reference to their beliefs. So while I may not believe their belief, I’m prepared to tolerate it, to the extent that it doesn’t cause harm. That’s a fairly standard move in liberal thinking.
steph at 天高皇企鹅远 writes about assumptions people make about China and how she tell those assumptions from what they questions ask her in, “citation needed“.
Mindy at Hoyden About Town writes about the ubiquitous photo of the child holding the sign at the recent Sydney Protests in, “A picture paints a thousand words“.
stargazer writes about the “consequences” of Islamaphobia and how those claiming their freedom to speak bigotry would probably be less likely to do so if they experienced the treatment that is meted out to those they speak against.
stargazer also writes about her thoughts of belonging after reading a post on indigenous people, and her conclusion that she is not indigenous to anywhere, in “not indigenous“.
Stephanie at ginger honey writes “On offense” discussing how when it’s not about you, your reaction says a lot about you.
Feminism
Utopiana from Rantings of an Aboriginal Feminist writes about her decision to participate in Frocktober and the clothes she’s generally comfortable in, in “Yes, yes, I wear a dress… ”
No Place for Sheep writes about Collective Shout’s shaming of women and girls who wear certain types of clothes in, “How Collective Shout shames women and girls“.
Chrys at Gladly the Cross Eyed Bear wrote about the sexism in the criticism of Deveny’s appearance on Q&A, especially the characterisations that Deveny was militant, shouty, disrepectful etc, in “Defending Deveny“.
Jane at Putting Her Oar In, wrote an open letter to Deveny detailing her own experiences of gaslighting, and how Jensen and his supporters attempted to gaslight Deveny in “an open letter to catherine deveny“.
orlando at Hoyden about Town posts the “Friday Hoyden: Paulina in The Winter’s Tale” and now I know about a Shakespeare play I’d never heard of that I must go and investigate.
stargazer at The Hand Mirror writes about “social workers’ day” and how social workers are not recognised for their worth to society.
Jo at A Life Unexamined writes about the discrimination faced by women in academia, specifically archaeological academia in Australia in, “Bluestocking Week: Glass Ceilings and Gender Inequality in the University“.
Justine Larbalestier writes about how problematic it is to have a YA protag proclaim her hatred of all women, and breaks apart why this is a bad thing, and what some of the causes are in, “Girls Who Hates Girls“.
Can Be Bitter asks “Why should women stay ‘glamourous’ while working in traditionally male-dominated careers?”
Ana Australiana at flat 7 writes about “Solnit and ‘splaining“.
Media
Elizabeth Lhuede at Devoted Eclectic writes about the Australian Women Writers Challenge and her mistype of destroy the joint in, “How can we de-story the joint?”
Over at Can Be Bitter, a discussion on the Doctor’s companions in, “Bitterness by request: A look at the ‘Doctor Who’ companions of the revived series (Part I)”.
QoT at Ideologically Impure writes about a recent press release from the Australia and NZ Society for Palliative Medicine, and how they really need to hire a new PR firm in, “Palliative medicine needs better PR people. Also a soul.”
Can Be Bitter also writes about the super powers of Black Widow and Cat Woman, and the new Batwoman, in “Why ‘female sexuality’ is not a legitimate superpower“.
Tansy Rayner Roberts at Stitching words, one thread at a time, writes about the other queens that Doctor Who has met in, “Seven (or More) Queens That The Doctor Met Before Nefertiti…”
Kirsten at wild colonial girl interviews Wendy James and discusses genre, writing, and dealing with publishers in, “Writing Mothers: Wendy James“.
Violence (All articles in this section carry a trigger warning for violence, rape, harassment, etc)
Helen at Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony writes, “Taking back the night, tethered goats, and Perfect World chimeras“, discussing the recent case of Jill Meagher and the victim blaming that has occurred.
tigtog at Hoyden About Town writes “The thing about intimidatory silencing tactics?“.
A guest post by Dr Peter John Chen at Hoyden About Town covers, “Moral panic stifles useful dialogue on social media “trolling”“.
tigtog wrote at Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog, a 101 post on cyberbullying, “Cyberbullies 101: Part 1 – muffling their megaphones” – stay tuned for the continuation of the series.
LudditeJourno at The Hand Mirror writes on the recent response by the NZ Justice Minister on the Law Commission report regarding rape, in “Terrible news for rape survivors“.