The F-Game: A girl’s The F-Game:Agirl’s waiting for him to waiting forhimto guide to phallic guide tophallic If chivalry is If chivalryis dead, why am I dead, whyamI semester one call me first? call mefirst? Save the Red Save theRed hunting and hunting and week nine fishing fishing Rattler Rattler pg. 11 pg. 26 pg. 4 pg. 4 2013

WOMEN’S EDITION honi soit CONTENTS 4-5. HONI NEWS Women s edition! Why I am (not) a feminist... 6. Science ' 7. Media We were originally going to write Whether it’s because outrage and women in the women’s movement. 8. Activism an editors’ welcome in which we confrontation sells newspapers, or We thank all the amazing women 9. Politics slammed the barrage of criticism we because sexist attitudes still pervade our who sent us submissions for this 10-11. Chivalry have already received as a result of the collective imagination, we are too busy edition; who continue to persevere production of Women’s Honi. After hearing about the outraged backlash to 15. Counter Bitch in a world that doesn’t give them the reading the stories, articles and poems give time to the real injustices. space they deserve; and who inspire us 16-17. Body image of the women of Sydney University This year, Women’s Honi is about every day by their very existence. 18-19. Sex this week, we decided this would be transcending the vitriolic discourse In the words of Margaret Cho: an unequivocal waste of space. 20-21. Love and relationships that inevitably arises whenever ideas of ‘If you are a woman, if you’re a 22.Violence against women We in women’s activism give our ‘feminism’ or ‘equality’ are broached. person of colour, if you are gay, 23. SRC legal critics far too much time and thought. This year it is about celebrating the lesbian, bisexual, transgender, if Just last week, space was made in women thinkers, writers, poets, artists 24-25. SRC reports you are a person of size, if you the Herald Sun for a story about the who inspire us. It’s about sharing our are a person of intelligence, if you 26. The F-Game: A girl’s guide to outrage caused by a bake sale in which stories, and about starting conversations. are a person of integrity, then you phallic hunting and fishing men were charged a different price to It’s about addressing the real issues are considered a minority in this 27. Feminist vs. average human women to highlight the continuing with feminism: not ‘reverse sexism’ world ... For us to have self-esteem 27. How to tell if your man’s pay gap in Australia. No space was or ‘excluding men’ but the lack of is an act of revolution, and our spared for reflection on the fact that a representation of women of colour, of an MRA revolution is long overdue’. pay disparity still exists. queer women and other intersectional Hannah & Emily

Editors: Verity Cooke, Brigitte Garozzo, Eda Gunaydin, Shareeka Honolulu, Samantha Jonscher, Elsa Kohane, Stella Ktenas, Darcy Mason, Why Feminism is Phoebe Moloney, Ellen O’Brien, Mariah Okeroa, Mariana Podesta-Diviero, Eve Radunz, Emily Rayers, Julia Readett, Hannah Ryan, Hannah Smith, Shelley Smith, Rose Wallace McEwen still relevant Katie Davern Contributors: Katie Davern, Anna Robinson, Mariah Okeroa, Nicky Ringland, Chloe Smith, Ellen O’Brien, Leigh Nicholson, Laura Good, Gila If you haven’t been living under a rock *Out of the 2255 barristers practicing Segall, India O’Neill, Brigid Meney, Isobel Smith, Rose Wallace-McEwen, for the past year or so, you may have law in NSW, only 18% are female. Clare Angel-Auld, Amy Knox, Angela Collins, Lucy Robeau, Priscilla Petit, noticed the surge in popularity that the once-defamed and oftentimes avoided Brigitte McFadden, Melanie Jayne, Shelley Smith, Ruby Chandler, Sophie *American researchers found that since culture of feminism has been riding on Benedict, Elena Zagoudis, Eda Gunaydin, Stella Ktenas, Madeleine Gray, Kate the 1970s, the percentage of women on lately. Public figures like Lena Dunham, scientific advisory boards has only ever O’Brien, Julia Readett, Phoebe Moloney, Subeta Vimalrajah and Eve Radunz Tina Fey, Sheryl Sandberg and many others topped at 10.2%. are rekindling the feminist in us all. Cover Image: Clare Angel-Auld But WHY are we even discussing gender Back cover image: Rose Wallace McEwen inequality? (Surely that’s a thing of the *No woman has ever won the Fields past associated with late-19th Century Medal (the “Nobel Prize of Mathematics”) since its inception in 1936. Special thanks to Beyonce, Solange, Taylor, Cat Power, Robyn and all the suffragettes?) other talented women whose music made this week bearable Here’s why: * Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA) published a study in 2009 *In 2012, the ‘pay gap’ between male The editors of Honi Soit and the SRC acknowledge the which found that the lower gender equality and females graduates in their respective traditional owners of this land, the Gadigal people of the in a nation, the larger the math aptitude fields widened from 5.2% in 2011 to Eora nation. Honi Soit is written, printed, and distributed on gap between boys and girls—meaning that 9.1%. Female graduates can expect $3000 the lack of female prominence in maths/ Aboriginal land. If you are reading this, you are standing less per annum compared to their male science fields is NOT due to a lack of on Aboriginal land. Please recognise and respect this. counterparts. female intelligence or capacity. Want to place an advertisement in Honi Soit ? Contact Amanda *Roughly 70% of Australian newspaper LeMay & Jess Henderson [email protected] *The Victorian “Women’s” Minister bylines are male. stated recently that striving for gender Honi Soit is published by the Students’ Representative Council, University equality in Parliament is naïve and virtually of Sydney, Level 1 Wentworth Building, City Road, University of Sydney, *Only two women in Australia host solo impossible because women are naturally NSW, 2006. The SRC’s operation costs, space and administrative support are financed by the University of Sydney. Honi Soit is printed under the auspices commercial talk back radio shows. “nurturers”. of the SRC’s Directors of Student Publications: Clare Angel-Auld, Adam Chalmers, Bebe D’Souza, Brigitte Garozzo, James O’Doherty, Lane Sainty. All expressions are published on the basis that they are not to be regarded as the *A report commissioned by the Women’s When an Australian state’s Women’s opinions of the SRC unless specifically stated. The Council accepts no respon- Sport and Fitness Foundation found that Minister is prepared to accept premature sibility for the accuracy of any of the opinions or information contained within out of the 61.5% of commercial sports defeat in the fight for gender equality, this newspaper, nor does it endorse any of the advertisements and insertions. sponsorship given to gender-exclusive I think it’s safe to say that the current Printed by MPD, Unit E1 46-62 Maddox St. Alexandria NSW 2015. sports, 61% of that sponsorship went to feminist surge is justified and the feminist- men’s sports and only 0.5% to women’s based discussion which follows is not only sport. relevant, but necessary. @honi_soit

http://www.facebook.com/honisoitsydney www.honisoit.com feature Why I am (not) a feminist...

The following is a joint article, compiled by two current members have shaped each of the respective perspectives of these of the Women’s Collective on Campus. It came about as a articles. While we stand together in a number of issues, we series of discussions which were had, both over the course are unable to reach a consensus of opinion in many others. of these meetings and later as a consequence of a couple of This only serves to reproduce the current dynamisms, sneaky ciders at our local - Manning. which are inherent to the conversations regarding women and furthermore, why there is the need to be able to create I must say that it been an absolute pleasure to get to know, a space where such issues are both able to be articulated to a greater degree, the thoughts and experiences which and heard.

ANNA ROBINSON IS A FIRST YEAR SOCIOLOGY MARIAH OKEROA IS A THIRD YEAR INTERNATIONAL AND STUDENT WHO ENJOYS PICNICS, PARKS & GLOBAL STUDIES STUDENT WHO ENJOYS SAILING, REC, CHEESE AND WINE. SHE IS A FEMINIST. JOHN STEINBECK AND TRAVELLING. SHE IS NOT A FEMINIST. I think women are amazing. I am access to reproductive services also a feminist. To me, these two and contraception, stoning, no We may as well get this preface out by recognising the value and the weight concepts are mutually inclusive, legal right to own property…this of the way, before I begin presenting to the arguments and experiences by and intrinsically connected. I truly barely scratches the surface. my humble opinion. I am a twenty women in such communities. do like being a woman… year old, indigenous, heterosexual, This is why I am a feminist. beer drinking and sport loving, young Unfortunately, such discourse is once …What I don’t like is that society woman. I believe in God, I shave, I more being subserviently guided to be and the media make me feel like I I’m not only fighting for my own eat meat, I don’t have any piercings being classified as the fourth wave- should be ashamed of my sex life. rights, my own safety, but for besides my ear lobes; I am clean ‘intersectional approach’, promising I don’t like that I get worried about women and other marginalised skinned, am a hopeless baker, a solid to be greatly more normative in wearing certain clothes, or that I minorities around the country and cook and I really enjoy getting dressed its approach and a good deal more have to be overly cautious when around the world. up and going clubbing. culturally sensitive too. To be sure, I’m walking home from the station it certainly is a strange experience at night. I don’t like that, despite People ask me, why not just be Effectively, that gets the introductions to be articulating similar thoughts my best intentions, I still hold so a humanist? An equalist? (NB: and the stereotypes traditionally and ideas as those shared by women much value in my appearance, Microsoft Word doesn’t recognise associated with Women’s Groups and participants of the Arab Spring - who rather than my capabilities. By the equalist as a real word, which publications, pretty thoroughly out of refuse to be categorised by American age of 24, I have already had way I think speaks volumes) I say the way. Liberal Feminists as being Feminist too many debates with myself feminist because humanist implies Activists. I can see how it could quite about whether I will have children that all people are currently being It is precisely because of these easily be construed to say that due or have a successful career, or treated equally, that all people stereotypes, that I treat with disdain to this shared hope across borders what I will have to sacrifice if I either suffer discrimination or do any attempts to categorise me as a of equality and call for greater want both. not suffer discrimination, which is feminist. Within recent times, the recognition of women’s voices would inherently false. There are certain debate is raging amongst the first, prove sufficient to propagate a fourth But this is just what concerns sections of society who do not second and third wave feminists- as to wave of Feminism. me personally: a white, middle face any sort of discrimination how best categorise this new class of class, tertiary educated, highly based simply on the way they were women, who are refusing to be pigeon Politely, I would decline such a employable woman. What I born and they do not require my holed into what has been seen as the classification, if only because of the do not experience is further support, my activism. inevitably encroaching fourth wave abject revulsion with which it has been discrimination because I am poor, of feminism. For some scholars, the met in recent years, amongst young because I am a single mother, I am proud to be a feminist, idea that a woman wishes to be seen as women campaigning for equality, because I am a woman of colour. and represent all that I believe it just a human being should place them within such geopolitical climes. I do not suffer the injustices stands for. I don’t want women within the new wave. that Indigenous women suffer. to artificially excel beyond men; With respect to the wake of those I am not part of the continually I don’t hate men (in fact, I love Substantively, what has transpired both feminist movements before me, that marginalised Queer or trans* men)... I hate the patriarchy that in the developing and postcolonial gave me the suffrage right to vote, community. If I required an inherently disadvantages not only world is a call for the diversity of which allowed me to gain a tertiary abortion, I would not have the women, but large swathes of women’s voices and experiences to be education, greater sexual liberation - financial hurdles many women society – even men are negatively articulated so that they may be able I say thank you. My sincerest thanks face, which equates to a lack of affected by the patriarchal society to contribute to the conversations, for your efforts and campaigns for access to public health facilities, we live in. shaping international conventions the work, which you have thus far which provide this service. and dialogues. Necessarily, this means completed. However: now is the The issues that I believe feminism the sidelining of Western rhetoric time to cease this worship of bra What’s more is that these are just stands to work through and and instead replacing such notions burning, Greer-like antagonism and issues within Australia, which is combat are complex and multi- and communications with those of kicking up a stink over the fact of our arguably a first world country. This faceted, but this doesn’t weaken indigenous women, as representatives endogenous genitalia. doesn’t even begin to touch on my stand. Rather, it strengthens of their respective communities. the broad institutional injustices it. I think women are amazing Ultimately, this asks to solidify what I believe in the basic quality of faced by women in developing and I don’t ever want to have to is currently a vague call for equality equality. I am not a feminist, but a countries: genital mutilation, poor apologise for that. throughout the international system, human being.

The SEXLIST: sexist things people actually say to us 3 HONIFREE Women’s Edition NEWS LOCAL WOMEN’S NEWS

Quotes from students: Technology is the way of the What did you enjoy most or find most interesting in the workshop today? “Being able to create apps that we future, but where are the women? could use.” Nicky Ringland “Mainly the people, but also creating something that I was able to put on to Whether we’re fighting climate machine learning algorithms or making my own phone and annoy my friends change, making the next blockbuster smart-phone apps. back at home.” movie or unlocking the secrets of the Our last workshop had about 40 high “The puzzle-like programming, it was universe, everything is moving forward school girls making their own mobile like playing with a huge jigsaw puzzle.” by computers. A deeper understanding apps for Android. Most had never I thought the topic was: of computing is becoming increasingly programmed before, and many attend essential in today’s world, as is the schools where computing isn’t offered. “Really fun! It’s not something I ability to go beyond simply consuming would have done in my own time, most teaches programming. And the story We challenged the girls to think of a technology, but to create it is more definitely not.” isn’t much better at university or in the problem that a simple, specific app than just an important skill - it’s also a “Cool! Because I’ve always wanted workforce. Most of the tech companies could solve. particularly lucrative one. to make my own app.” my friends and I have worked for in After a busy pizza and chocolate Computer Science is the best-paying Sydney have had more employees named fuelled few hours, we had some great “Really interesting. Going to use app college degree in the United States, and ‘Dave’ than female software engineers. apps: drawing apps, magic 8 balls, a inventor in the future just to mess about” Australia has a median starting salary of The lack of women in IT has been quiz to test a foreign-language learner’s “Amazing! I’m getting people $52,500 for 2012, which is above law, described as the result of a leaky vocab list, an app to help one of our (students & teachers) asking me how psychology, architecture and economics, pipeline. At numerous stages between students cheat at scrabble in Swedish to make them.” just to name a few. It’s one of the most school and workforce, women drop out (to be used only against said student’s “I want to learn more about flexible disciplines for employees to of IT. There are awesome programs Mum), an app that used text-to-speech everything!” work flexible hours or work from home, like Girl Geek Sydney, Systers, and Girl to read messages aloud when driving, often cited as factors in workplace Geek Coffees that all keep women in and of course, pictures of Cats. decisions, especially for women. the pipeline, and a few that try to grow By giving girls authentic experiences But where are they? the initial pool; The Girls’ Programming with computer science, we can encourage High school girls in Australia have Network is one of them. women to not just be consumers of virtually no experience with computer Each term, we run free workshops for technology, but to design and create it. science and engineering in school. In high-school girls on tech topics. We’re If you’re interested in finding out 2011, 36,938 girls sat the HSC. Only 116 all volunteers who encourage the girls more, contact us at [email protected] of them studied Software Design and to get their hands dirty, whether dis- or visit our website: http://sydney.edu. Development, the only subject which and re-assembling computers, writing au/it/gpn

The Rat at Risk Elizabeth Mora alternative Sydney arts, performance Currently the Rat is running a cam- one third being free to hire for various and grassroots activism. The aim was for paign to secure its survival within the not-for-profit organisations and 20% the space to practice a feminist queer Sydney arts scene. In order to secure the reduced rate hire for various social col- ethic and attempt to nurture, re-ener- ongoing sustainability of the space, Rat lectives, both running their own inter- gise and build a non-traditional family directors, supporters and volunteers are community projects and initiatives of friends, artists and activists. The Rat aiming to raise $40,000 by May 2013 so within the Rat’s space. Events at the Rat was founded in April 2008 and opera- that the Rat can buy a 40% share of the are eclectic and comprise of music, per- tion commenced in early 2009 after building it lives in. the Rat’s directors are formance, theatre, cabaret, burlesque, the outstanding efforts of volunteers to exploring options to ensure its longev- film, dance, arts practice and much establish the infrastructure and compli- ity as a self-sustainable incorporation is much more. For the love of what I would like to ance to the Marrickville Council Devel- not at the mercy of developers or land- My hope is that the Rat continues to call Queer Feminism, I would like to use opment Consent and Change of Use lords they have avoided to date. be a creative playground for performers, this space to talk a little about the work and associated licensing. The founders The main reason why I make this musicians, artists, designers, new media of five great local women who took and original directors are Teresa Avila, pitch, why I write these words about this makers, experimentalists, film-makers, it upon themselves, their money and Penelope Benton, Patzy Black, Annette great space is because as a supporter of theorists, activists, writers, collective energy to create a creative utopia where Moore and Meredith Williams who have alternate creative expression, the Rat is organisers, and local punters. to date provided a personally funded regardless of who you were you could at the cornerstone of what I call inclu- If you love the Rat and would love to (hocked into individual debt and mort- lend your ideas and artistic pursuits to sivity in the face of creative experiments help keep its doors open for many gen- gage) rent free space to The Red Rattler the eyes and appreciation of many. and artistic doubt. Often ideas of colour erations to come, please spread the word Theatre business. The founding model This Creative Utopia is none other and sound are stored away because they and or head to the online campaign: is now shifting and as some of the than The Red Rattler Theatre in Faver- don’t fit behind the many guises of http://pozible.com/savetherat sham St, Marrickville. founding visionaries begin to move on today’s society. But the Rat has always to other creative and personal endeav- The Red Rattler is a not-for-profit arts been different and the women of its ours and hand over the Rat keys to the inception ensured this. For that, many and community incorporation which next Board and community visionaries, began as the collective dream of five artists and the community alike are more I would like to encourage you to join me than thankful. local women artists, who wanted to cre- in the support for the longevity and sus- The Red Rattler has held over 500 ate a legal warehouse venue to showcase tainability of this space! events since officially opening in 2009,

4 I don’t care if your feet bleed, you aren’t allowed to wear anything but heels. www.honisoit.com global

Strength in struggle: Syrian women soldier on HONI NEWS Chloe Smith The horror and bloodshed of the Syrian civil war they wish to go the toilets, which are located far away from Whilst the refugee influx continues, and the camps has been a consistent feature of our newspapers and the tents they are housed in. There are no lights around overload, these problems are likely to get worse. As TV screens since it began in March 2011. As of Feb- the toilets, and no locks on the doors. Women are not able they have throughout history, women and girls are ruary 2013, the United Nations estimates that more to venture there at all during the nighttime, and in daytime bearing the full force of the ugliness of war, fighting than 70,000 people have been killed because of the they must always travel in groups for safety. They claim daily battles for basic needs that often go unrecog- conflict, with approximately half that number civil- security is non-existent. The striking thing about this situ- nised and overlooked in the face of more prominent, ians. About 1.4 million Syrian refugees have fled the ation is that it is a problem faced by many women around publicised issues. conflict to seek shelter in neighbouring countries the world, even in our own societies that are not affected by And yet, there are always signs of hope and endur- like Jordan and Turkey. By December 2013, the UN war – wanting situational crime prevention, like adequate ance in these battles. Samar, a Syrian refugee in Jor- expects the number of refugees in Jordan to swell to lighting, to make us feel safer when we go out at night. To dan, has turned her house into a beauty salon and 1.2 million – about one-fifth of Jordan’s total popu- not have this in a strange and dangerous refugee camp must hairdresser to support her family. She is now the sole lation. be a thousand times worse, and yet is an entirely prevent- breadwinner. Many women help to distribute basic Amongst all these facts and figures, it can be easy able issue. needs and services to their fellow refugees within to forget about the actual people caught up in the Women often have to walk over an hour to access health the camps. And girls who were never allowed to at conflict, and the humanitarian crisis that is threaten- clinics, feeding centres, schools, and other essential ser- home, play soccer together to fill the days and have ing to tear their lives apart. There have been recent vices for their families. Access to proper menstrual health fun. Despite the hardships that we continue to face riots about food distribution and conditions in the and sanitation is limited at best. 13-15 babies are born in around the world, women and girls always can and camps, as well as access to clean water and electric- Za’atari camp every day. And now a more sinister prob- do find opportunity and strength in a crisis, often ity. But a less reported casualty of this conflict is lem facing women and girl refugees is the threat of kid- when it is most needed. No doubt, once the con- the toll it takes on the lives of girls and women, and nap, rape, and sham marriages in the camp designed for flict in Syria subsides and the task of rebuilding lives the exacerbated dangers they are facing within these their protection. Reports of “pleasure marriages” where becomes a priority, women will continue to play a camps. men can buy a woman or girl, marry her for sex, and then vital role in doing so. And hopefully the girls may According to the Women News Network, women divorce her, abound within the camps. Syrian girls from the even be allowed to play soccer while they’re at it. in the Za’atari camp in Jordan face danger every time age of six are harassed and kidnapped, sometimes raped. “She doesn’t even go here”: FEMEN’s white saviour complex Ellen O’Brien

The controversial feminist group, understanding of all of the pressures Femen, have returned to the headlines and influences on women in their soci- once again. This time, the focus of their ety. “topless jihad” on April 4 were Muslim A lot of Western feminists avoid women, who according to Femen need stepping on this cultural minefield by to be ‘liberated’ from the oppression of simply ignoring any potential instances wearing a hijab or burqa. of inequality in cultures and countries Femen are but one example of a other than our own. But this is a cop group suffering from the white savior out. In a recent interview, Ayaan Hirsi complex. While existing in all forms of Ali (a Somalian feminist activist known aid administered by Western groups, this for her critical views of Islam) claims complex seems to be especially preva- “that Western feminists are really look- lent in the Western feminist movement. ing for the easy way out” by choosing Groups like Femen react decisively to not to develop a deeper understanding intercultural issues, but their response about the issues faced by women of hedges on a simplistic understanding of other cultures. the real issues at play, as shown by their Instead, these women should support stereotyping of Muslim women as help- feminism across cultures by working in less victims who “write on their posters collaboration, establishing networks that isations need to be in the forefront of How to Be a Feminist. We must find that they don’t need liberation but in foster conversation and education from the media. Instead of mulling over the what works for us, without dismissing their eyes it’s written ‘help me’.” and for all parties. Inna Hudaya, the effectiveness of Femen’s strategies, what works for others, or telling them One of the main problems with West- founder of Samsara, a grassroots wom- news outlets should focus on what how to behave. ern feminism is the tendency to speak on en’s NGO based in Indonesia, says that women are doing to ‘liberate’ and ‘free’ Groups like Femen attempt to save behalf of women from other countries working with a network makes feminist themselves. But attention must also be non-Western women, just as men have and other cultural backgrounds, includ- solidarity across cultures possible. Sam- paid to issues of gender inequality in felt the need to save women in general. ing women within our own society. The sara is a member of Asia Safe Abortion Australia. Domestic violence remains This approach only serves to make irony of this is that stripping people of Partnership, along with 26 other organ- the number one cause of homelessness people angry, as autonomy is ripped their voice is the exact opposite of the isations from the Asia-Pacific region. As for women in Australia, with numbers out of their hands and their voices are liberation and freedom that feminism Inna says, such networks are invaluable of victims reaching endemic propor- deafened. The white saviour complex strives to obtain for all people. Not to all feminists, no matter their back- tions, especially amongst the Indigenous isn’t helping anyone, or feminism in only that, but shutting out the voices ground. According to Inna, “seeing all community. Mulling over questions of general. Because, as Ernesto Sirolli, an of non-Western feminists discredits the groups from different countries, the oppressive nature of the hijab seems expert on sustainable economic devel- the hard work that grassroots organisa- doing the same things, it makes me quite arbitrary compared to issues that opment, demonstrated in his TEDx tions are doing within these cultures and humble.” we face on our own doorsteps, yet will- talk, if you really want to help some- countries. Organisations which, unlike Discussions of networks such as ingly ignore. one, the first thing you do is shut up groups such as Femen, have a deeper Women on Waves and grass root organ- There is no blueprint that tells one and listen.

The most beautiful thing in the world is a woman’s smile! You have a duty to be happy! 5 science @honi_soit The Media and Women in STEM in Women and Media The

Leigh Nicholson

In march this year, as a response to wit and intellect, including ‘Are there is transgendered. When Dr Barres was the number of (potentially problematic) kitchens in space?’ and ‘MUST BE still studying, he was once accused of articles published on female scientists, LESBIAN. Just kidding’. plagiarising work in a math assignment, journalist Ann Finkbeiner devised what Failing to draw attention to the gender being told by his lecturer ‘your boyfriend is now referred to as the ‘Finkbeiner of female scientists and how they are must have done this for you’. This Test’. In order to pass this test, an article ‘the first women to...’ or ‘are role models example demonstrates that, on the other must not mention, among other things, for other women’, is in itself potentially hand, creating a community of female the fact that the scientist is a woman, problematic. There is a severe lacking scientists is vital in encouraging younger her husband’s job, or say that she is ‘the of female mentors in STEM fields, and women to pursue a career in STEM. But first woman to...’. This test came in apt sexism is still very much a problem for where to draw the line? timing to a number of articles which many scientists. A catch-22 is involved, In the recent Nature journal which drew attention to the relevance of such however. ‘Stereotype threat’ is the term devoted its publication to the celebration an examination; a notable one being the given to the fear that your behaviour will of ‘Women in Science’, a controversial New York Times’ obituary of Yvonne confirm a stereotype of a group to which image was used as the opening image. Brill, a Canadian Scientist who invented you identify with, and this fear can go It featured a conventionally attractive the hydrazine resistojet propulsion on to impair performance and, in some female scientist, in a wind blown lab- system. In the obituary they gave equal, cases, result in indirectly confirming said coat and gloves, above the opening if not more space to her ‘excellent stereotype. A study observing this effect lines ‘Science still remains institutionally cooking skills’ and husband’s career, showed that women’s performance sexist’. It was later revealed that the than to her own scientific achievements. in math tests were significantly lower woman was mixture of stock and Finkbeiner’s rationale behind this when the women had been told before original photography, and was in fact analysis is that ‘when you emphasise hand that men were inherently better at a model. The problem with all this is a woman’s sex, you inevitably end up math. Now picture the frame in which not the representation of the female dismissing her science’. This suggests most young children are exposed to scientist, but rather the fact that there such a move could potentially be science: a history of almost only male were no notable female scientists to inherently sexist as it is predicated upon scientists, discussing the results of photograph for the cover instead. the notion that women cannot perform almost only men’s work; coupled with Baroness Susan Greenfield, researcher as well as their male counterparts in the the disappointing prevalence of direct of pharmacology and former Director field, and so that when they do match sexism towards women in STEM which of the Royal Institution, stated that she their male colleagues it must draw special unfortunately is still alive. It is not was deeply disappointed with the choice attention. Around the same time of difficult to imagine why so many young of photo, especially as the journal was Finkbiener’s own response, came a very women are deterred from pursuing such supposed to be drawing attention to the relevant and startling example, however, careers. An interesting insight was given lack of female mentors and recognisable of what happens when a female on this topic in a lecture by Dr Ben role models in science. scientist is ‘found out’. Elise Andrews, Barres in 2008; Barres is a practicing However, to completely disregard the creator and active writer for the researcher, and a transgendered man the gender of female scientists in Facebook page ‘I Fucking Love Science’, who passionately discusses the sexism conjunction with their achievements recently posted a link to her personal which women face whilst trying to could perhaps be seen as historically Twitter account which inadvertently had pursue such a career. He graduated insensitive to ignore the challenges a photo of herself on it. What followed MIT as Barbara Barres, and points out that women have faced. What perhaps was an aggressive influx of comments the differences in behaviour towards needs to instead be challenged is the “women’s performance almost entirely regarding her gender. him since his transition. One student norm which causes people to assume in math tests were sig- The general consensus from reading pointed out that his work was ‘much that a scientist of no specified gender is nificantly lower when the the page, was that almost all members better than his sister’s’ (he was in fact a man. The question is whether or not women had been told presumed that the creator of the page talking about his previous publications deliberately publishing the gender of before hand that men were was a male. At first shocked, and then when he was Barbara Barres) and that female scientists is helping to alter this inherently better at math.” resorting to sexist stereotypes, the he has noticed people treat him with norm, or simply reinforcing it. comments showed a diverse range of more respect if they are unaware that he

6 I don’t know why you don’t just date a man. Is it because you’re not a woman? www.honisoit.com media

MASTerchef: a REVIEW

Gila Segall

Broad shouldered blokes

don blue and exhausted stereotypes

waving breadstick and tongs

to reinforce gender inequality

last seen in nineteen-fifty-five

preparing for battle

these baby pink gals

yield fairy dust and rolling pin

and face the trials and tribulations Where are all the female slackers? of poor advertising executives Laura Good and equally apathetic audience.

I love how the word slacker contours film before seeking the stories of more initially their sole focus in life is having up a distinctly 90’s aesthetic- tied dyed ordinary women. sex. Even if, like slackers, their behaviour t-shirts, dirty long hair, listening to the Certainly, there are several depictions deviates from what is considered socially Grateful Dead and skateboard riding. of individual women in power, acceptable, that’s where the comparisons But to me, it’s an inescapably male image. like Elizabeth I or The Iron Lady. end as the men are celebrated for brandishing burnt snags and beards I’m thinking particularly of Travis, the Thankfully, these contemporary media their behaviour, whilst the women are loveable, if idiotic, stoner constantly on portrayals are generally giving a more required to change. At the end of each ‘the dudes’ commence their lesson the grassy knoll in 1995 movie Clueless. complex picture of women than the movie these women somehow grow Or of Wayne’s World in 1992, where the saint/sinner dichotomy. These complex up and become responsible by getting in sexism 101 main character had a slew of failed jobs characters are breaking down gender a boyfriend and a stable job, because and ran a community TV show from his stereotypes of women as either saints, they’ve realised that’s what they want as while pouting ‘little princesses’ parents’ basement. who through their womanly virtue are well, unlike the male slackers who are I don’t want to talk here about the better than men, or sinners, who drag adored precisely because they’ve done fashion flowers, femininity and merits of this archetype and whether men down because they are crazy and the opposite and resisted the pressure teacakes. these characters present us with positive hyper sexualized. But they are still far to conform. In this way, these stories do images of rejecting mainstream, hyper removed from the experiences of most not provide female anti-heros and are competitive capitalist materialism or do women and they certainly don’t speak to also really unrealistic portrayals of the us all a disservice by championing apathy the lives of young women. experiences of young women. and disconnection from the political Social expectations are still so strong in However, I don’t deny that there are At the apogee of horror sphere that is shaping our lives, whether restricting accurate depictions of female more complex, flawed, ordinary women we choose to engage with it or not. I behaviour and desires. Undeniably, being presented than we’ve seen before. the three Judges emerge don’t want to talk about the undeniable there is a whole genre of female-centric Juno was a really refreshing movie with an material and white privilege of these stories, the romantic comedy, but they offbeat young female character dealing in bulging suit and tie characters in their sense of entitlement are so limited and unrealistic as to be with her pregnancy and expectations of to choose where and how hard to work. formulaic. As Natalie Portman has said, those around her. American Beauty also to confirm out nagging suspicion Instead, I want to focus on why there in most romantic comedies with female had lots of developed, interesting female aren’t more female characters presented lead characters, the drama comes as characters with different motivations, that what we watch ahead in this way. Why aren’t there more young, the woman has to change in some way, albeit revolving around the male lead. flawed and female anti-heros? usually her physical appearance or job The female protagonists of Girls are is not a clever parody Maybe it’s the case that having women or beliefs, to gain happiness by getting also amazing for their honesty, rawness and the more complete picture of their at the centre of the story is still in the a boyfriend/ husband. Usually these are nor an innocent prank process of being normalised. As so superficial changes in her appearance lives that is presented, beyond their relationships with men. Depictions of many have spoken about, stories with (think any movie with Katherine Heigel), but just another instalment female protagonists continue to be but sometimes these are about rejecting more complicated young women like these provide us with a step in the right underrepresented on TV and in movies. female behaviour that is considered of channel ten’s Germaine Greer noted on Q & A the socially deviant, like having one night direction, but interesting stories like other day that we have to achieve gender stands. these should stop being so extraordinary and become commonplace; so I can prime-time best. equality in the world we live in before In this way, the female main characters watch more movies and TV shows while attempting to change the system, so in Bad Teacher, Young Adult and L!fe I slack off from my uni work. maybe in pop culture terms that means Happens are just as unrealistic as accepting any woman as the focus of idealised presentations of women, as

Wearing eye make-up implies that you’re a slut - do you like having a lot of sex? 7 activism @honi_soit

Indiacalls O’Neill... for intersectional activism

This is why my feminism will be women who are physically and mentally women in developing nations, or can “My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit. like her. By the same token, feminism “save” them from their plight. There is Intersectional feminism seeks to engage that fails to actively fight against issues certainly danger in Western democracies intersectional or it will with the challenges faced by women of such as racism, heterosexism and decrying women’s oppression in be bullshit” – the title of colour, women who are disabled, women classism is worthless. True feminist developing nations while lionizing their from low socioeconomic background activism is about engaging with those own gender equality. There is danger feminist Flavia Dzodan’s and LGBT women. While playing women who are placed in the most in adopting a single lens perspective seminal essay has oppression Olympics and ranking vulnerable position from a society without regard to others’ culture, become the mantra of sources of oppression is belittling to where feminism has colluded with white religion and identity. A telling example all involved, intersectionality is about supremacy, heterosexism and classism of this was the Femen International today’s intersectional recognizing that the experience for for decades. Topless Jihad Day, which ignored feminists. It’s time now to women of colour is more powerful than This version of intersectional activism Muslim feminists and was inspired by follow through. the sum of their race and gender. needs to be translated internationally thinly veiled Islamophobia. This is where modern feminism is through engaging with women who are lacking. While third wave feminism has most vulnerable in a global setting. In a I believe the solution to this is to follow sought to engage with these issues, the world where socioeconomic inequality the strong women leaders already in I need feminism. As a female law feminist debate sparked by Facebook is extreme and where women make up developing nations. We need to respect student, I engage with strong women in COO Sheryl Sandberg has moved 70% of the world’s poor (Guardian the decision making capabilities of these the legal profession who fire warnings mainstream feminist discourse away Professional 2013), feminist activism women leaders and offer support as at me - warnings of the “boys’ club” from intersectionalism, social justice should prioritise resources to women they require. We should support women mentality of top tier law firms, and the and equity to questions of behaviour most in need. like Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni Novel Peace Laureate who has fought to ensure incompatibility of a profession at the modification. This so-called “modern In a 2009 talk at a conference in women’s full participation in the peace bar with a work-life balance. As a college feminism” has placed the onus of Oxford, Gordon Brown championed the building work in Yemen. We should student, I’m surrounded by a culture rectifying disequilibrium upon women idea of a global ethic. In an increasingly support women like Kavita Ramdas, of slut shaming and objectification of while failing to acknowledge institutional connected world, the former British former CEO of the Global Fund for women. And even among my close bias against women at the intersections. prime minister stated, we as global Women, who encourages women to use friends, experiences of being sexually The reason for this lack of engagement citizens must face our responsibilities. their culture as a tool of empowerment. harassed on public transport are with the intersections among white, When we see wrong that need righting We should support micro-finance and nauseatingly common. cis-gender feminists is that it is easy in the world or problems that need to be micro-insurance to empower women to But I will be the first to admit that to ignore vectors of oppression when rectified, it is our responsibility to act. be self sufficient. I am privileged, as the challenges of they work in our favour. However, true This is the mentality that feminism must women at the intersections of gender, activism should not be self interested, embrace – the global ethic. Only through engaging with these sexual orientation, race, socioeconomic and feminism without intersectionality There is, admittedly, danger in issues can we achieve gender equality, background, age and disability will is worthless. A racist or ableist woman assuming that women in Western and intra-gender equality. The only true always be greater than my own. is not a feminist, as she only cares for democracies know what is best for feminism is intersectional activism. Is Feminism dead?

Isobel Smith investigates.

Feminism is dead, it’s true. The lack of ambition, or wish for a up line “I can earn more than you can time equality is not fought for through been so effective in bringing awareness career at all is often lamented over spend” also evidences this (when used rallies in the street or burning of our to women’s issues that they are now coffee by young women (myself, at on me, it received a raised eyebrow bras, we would be appalled if we were exporting the technique to South times, included), replaced by a wish for and “challenge accepted” which had excluded on the grounds of gender. America and North Africa. children or, more often, a permanent the desired effect of scaring the guy One of the only places in which Perhaps our form of feminism is a position as a member of the leisure off). Vocal feminists are, like, obviously feminism is seen in its earlier more reflection of our society: our relative class, filling one’s time with tennis, lesbians – their lack of interest in the combative form is in less developed, or level of empowerment means there is philanthropy and social alcoholism. obnoxious, rude men who characterize less free nations. Here the traditional, little motivation to make radical change them as such is proof, right? When considering university courses, patriarchal familial and political structure and we, for the most part, continue I was cautioned against applying to the What is striking, however, is that is (often) more prevalent, and the rights living our lives in relative happiness. ubiquitous arts degree, as I was attending these lamentations are made by women of women are actively fought for. In Either way, feminism is not dead. A college and this combination was often receiving the same education as men, Egypt, where the constitution offers no feminist of the University of Sydney is called husband hunting. However, given who will predominantly go into the protection from discrimination, women not a loud argumentative woman who that 30% of girls from the Women’s same fields as men. Are we not, by march to protest their right to equality. calls men pigs and misogynists, but College ultimately marry the men of taking advantage of the opportunities In the Ukraine, the feminist group rather she is any woman who claims her St Paul’s, this title appears not to have presented to us, unthinkingly continuing Femen has gained fame (and infamy) right to the same education as her male deterred many. The rise of the pick the feminist agenda? Although in our for their topless protests, which have counterparts: you.

8 It’s only the ugly girls who are feminists. www.honisoit.com opinion

Photograph of Eloise Taylor. Credit: Clo Schofield ‘The Light on the Hill’: it’s not that bright

here is a gross assumption among such a marketing move in that most institutions and Brigid Meney Tthose who often should know organisations are better when the majority (yes, women better that the left have championed are a majority these days) are represented, and maybe women’s rights across the ages. find it woeful that such an obvious statement has to be draped across a t-shirt. However the irony of the anti- From Trade Unions to the socialists of old, left wing woman history of the Australian Trade Unions is not activists have sought to misrepresent history in a way lost on me. that suggests they were the lone soldiers holding high The Harvester case, a defining moment in our history the banner of women’s rights like a shining pillar of that saw the initiation of lawful grounds for the minimum light, while the rest of the nation lay quiet and ignorant wage in the Commonwealth of Australia, was a decision to their plight. Australia seems to have a very short that saw the Unions of Australia place the minimum memory. wage for a man over the basic rights of a woman in When one analyses the history and statistics, it seems Australia to be recognised as an independent citizen. nonsensical to think that the left on both a political Harvester, after much campaigning by the Unions, saw “it is rarely brought to and organizational front, were really any better than the a frugal wage provided for the support of a man and his family and consequently women were recognised our attention that not quiet and ignorant masses. Some would argue further even one of the first that they were incredibly detrimental to the plight of exclusively as “dependants” of the man, unable to women over the course of Australia’s history. Were claim any dependents themselves. This resulted in women to be elected to they really out to stop the progress of women, or were them receiving only 54% of what the male minimum the lower house in each they just terribly bad at finding any solutions to help wage was at the time. Women indeed campaigned for them despite the possible existence of good intentions? an alternative but received no support from the Trade respective Australian It’s really a question of whether you would rather Unions as they feared it would cause a reduction in the state can be claimed by male wage. consider their behaviour in times gone by aggressively the left of politics. They patriarchal, or just pitifully incompetent. Now the left could claim that in the context of 1907, hailed from the Australia To highlight just one example of the outcomes the all Australians were just working out that women were left (and I use this label in the context of the time) indeed human beings and not kitchen appliances, Party, the Nationalist therefore they should not take the fall for their actions in never achieved, we only need to examine politics party, and the Country state by state. It is commonly known that the left of the context of the time. Jumping forward half a century politics cannot claim the first woman in the Federal then, we can quote the President of the Queensland Liberal party.” House of Representatives (Edith Lyons was a stalwart branch of the Australian Workers Union when he of conservatism). However it is rarely brought to our declared in 1952 on record that “today it should be the attention that not even one of the first women to be union’s policy not to tolerate employment of females elected to the lower house in each respective Australian in industry while a breadwinner was unemployed.” A state can be claimed by the left of politics. They hailed member added, “If times get bad it is every man for from the Australia Party, the Nationalist party, and the a job and every woman in her place.” The conference Country Liberal party. In fact, in NSW, no left of centre unanimously agreed. party saw a woman elected to the lower house until Is this the great Labor tradition? Is this the ‘Light 1939. To give some context to this, this date is around on the Hill?’ I do not in any way seek to hail political 37 years after women obtained the vote in NSW and conservatism as a champion for women’s rights either, 21 years after they became eligible to stand for office. as it too has a dark past. Nevertheless facts like this do Now the latest fad to hit the left which can be challenge the common misconception that feminism witnessed at any student political hack hangout venue on belongs to any ideology exclusively, and at least campus is Labor-leaning women wearing t-shirts with conservatives have not attempted to re-write history, the slogan “Strong Unions need Women”. I commend whether it be out of shame, or innocent delusion.

What, are we supposed to give [sluts] medals now? 9 feature @honi_soit

Sisters doing it for themselves Rose Wallace McEwen

To the men of the world: There’s this frighteningly common a women breaks through the ‘glass the generalisation that people of Asian Don’t open the door for me because belief that because Australian women ceiling’ making it into the measly 4% descent are good at math doesn’t make I have a vagina. Don’t resort to violence now have the vote and are allowed out of CEOs of major companies that are it any less racist. There’s a distinct for me when I get into a fight because of the kitchen, fighting for women’s women. Not to mention social sexism, difference between being chivalrous I have a vagina. Don’t pull a chair out rights is no longer necessary and sexism like when I choose to sleep with more and being polite - and when you make for me because I have a vagina, and for died in the 1970’s and 80’s. I feel that than *GASP* one person, people laugh a big deal out of opening a door for me the love of god, don’t say to me “ladies it’s necessary to remind people that one and say to my face that I’m going to ‘get (because I have a vagina) to show me first” because I have a vagina. in five women are sexually assaulted, a reputation’, the bullshit criticism I get how chivalrous you are, it makes me feel 97% of rape victims are women, and from men when I express that I think uncomfortable. There’s this unspoken The age of chivalry is dead. It’s not even though we take up over 50% of the right to have an abortion is a basic entitlement that chivalry demands, like ‘courtesy’, it’s sexism. the population, it’s still amazing when human right - it’s actually none of your you’re trying to get something out of business because it’s MY body. Don’t it, which is completely different from ask me on a date because you think it’s just politeness, which doesn’t demand a “man’s job” - if I haven’t asked you, anything in return. Feminism is about it’s because I don’t like you enough. being treated EQUALLY. Being When we do go out, don’t assume I’m treated in a special manner because not going to pay for my meal - I’ll have I’m a woman is an oxymoron to the my cake, eat my cake and pay for it too. cause of feminism. I don’t speak for The idea that women need special all women here. Some women like assistance is what chivalry is innately chivalry and that’s all well and good, but built upon, that we are physically those women don’t generally identify weaker than men and that we lack themselves as feminists, which I do. agency. It’s not because I don’t like It’s not that I don’t like niceties, or being treated and being made a fuss manners. People should be aiming to be of, it’s that it’s done on the basis of my polite to other humans - so if you pull gender. It’s a stereotype which is based a chair back for me, you should also be on a gendered premise - so even though doing it for other people, regardless of it’s nice and all, it doesn’t make it any their gender. less sexist, in the same way that making

A snapshot Clare Angel-Auld

I reach my tutorial room early to Something twinges in my mind. I get my readings done before the consider the series of reactions to class. The door is locked. I move my rebellion. to sit down against the wall in the Why did the man feel the need to hallway, but pause mid-crouch. “DO reprimand me, when none of the NOT sit in the hallway” is printed women had? Why did I suspect that on a large sign across the door. I sit the man would reprimand me? down anyway. They say intuition is a powerful I start reading, mindful that I indicator of reality. might be asked to move. Four staff members walk past in the space of The fact that I knew something about ten minutes. I smile nervously was coming confirmed internalised at them. Two smile back, the other notions of the patriarchy I didn’t two appear unbothered. They are know existed in me. It is no surprise all women. I continue to skim the at all then, that the enforcing of reading. A few minutes later a man rules and ordering of society falls turns the corner at the far end of predominantly to men. That is to the hall. Without thinking, I have say, that men hold 84% of the bench imagined him saying “Can’t you in the Federal Court of Australia. read?” Of course it is entirely plausible I continue highlighting, head given the sample size and subjectivity down. He reaches me, stops, and of my experience that gender had says unpleasantly “Can’t you read?” nothing to do with who was or I apologise and scuttle back up into wasn’t willing to tell me to obey the a standing position. Hats off to my sign stuck on my Sociology2604 psychic brain. He grunts, giving me classroom door. ‘When thinking of you’ a lingering look of dissatisfaction But intuition tells me something Stella Ktenas Karver and walks away. else.

10 I would probably believe one of my friends if she said she was raped. Probably. www.honisoit.com feature If chivalry is dead, why am I waiting for him to text me first? Amy Knox advises you to not wait for him to phone home.

We often hear that chivalry is become. By sitting at home and ‘pining’ finally dead and men no longer have for men to call us first, we have created the engendered responsibility of a social script which determines that it ‘protecting’ women from the danger of should be man’s place to make the first a closed door or an unpaid dinner bill. move and not a lady’s. Despite the fact that generally guys still So how has chivalry managed to do this, it is commonly believed that get this far? Chivalry is medieval in men can now do this out of politeness ideology, quite literally, as it has derived and not because they believe women from the medieval Knights’ Code of are incapable of doing these things Conduct, stating that Knights should themselves. However, while I generally protect those who cannot protect agree with that view, I think that rather themselves: women, children and than chivalry being dead, the concept the elderly. Whilst probably one of and the negative patriarchal values the most noble ideas to come out of which accompany it have grown and the middle ages, the idea of chivalry mutated to suit the growing use of developed into something far more social media technologies available damaging than just protecting those in to us today. Like the way infections need. It became a way of putting men are becoming increasingly immune to in control and of viewing women as various antibiotics, chivalrous gestures constantly being unable to look after which denigrate women have adapted themselves, as needing the help of to an era of Facebook chat and text men wherever possible. Today women message and have become engrained constantly lament the death of chivalry, in every little way we choose to interact wishing for a ‘simpler’ time when men move, when really, it would be just as through these technologies. [S]ocial norms...demand were required to be polite and to be easy to hit the name and say something ‘gentlemen’ if they wanted to stand a women to rely on the equally quirky, intelligent or flirty as you [R]ather than chivalry being chance with the ladies. Well girls, not initiative of men when it would expect a guy to, and hey presto! dead, the concept and to fret, chivalry is alive and kicking as comes to calling, texting You have started the conversation that men are still expected to be ‘gentlemen’ you so desperately wanted to have with the negative patriarchal who are responsible for taking control or starting an online him! of our relationships and steering it values which accompany conversation first. In a world which is supposedly in, what they believe to be, the right meant to be moving further towards it have grown and mutated direction. Chivalry lives! Hurrah! The expectations surrounding the equality, it is quite a phenomenon that to suit the growing use of The reason why chivalry has continued roles of men and women under social something as modern as social media social media technologies to survive is the social networking media etiquette are evident in iconic has managed adopt such backward available to us today. etiquette that has developed alongside female targeted television such as ‘Sex ideas which celebrate female passivity. It social media. We all must abide by and The City’ and self-help books for is incredibly unfair on both sexes to put this etiquette unless we want to be women “desperate” to find a man such all of the responsibility on men, whilst Initially I was going to write an article publically humiliated, become the new as, ‘He’s Just Not That into You’. Both simultaneously excluding women from about how all men are being assholes ‘clingy girlfriend meme’ and eventually of these examples have reflected social having any of the control. Feminist and are perpetuating the idea of chivalry be exiled from the internet altogether. norms that demand women to rely on pioneers fought long and hard against for their own hidden agendas and plans Hey, it happens! With such etiquette the initiative of men when it comes the sexist connotations associated with of world domination. But of course, has come a number of concerning to calling, texting or starting an online chivalry, and what social media etiquette not only would I receive a truckload of norms regarding the passivity of conversation first. Under these ideas has proved to us, however trivial it backlash from these ‘gentlemen’ but I women online: “women should never women have been expected to see their may seem, is that the fight for gender would be wrong to solely blame men start an online conversation with a love interest’s name next to a little green equality still has a long way to go. for the continuation and transformation boy,” “Let him text you first,” “Oh you circle and sit and stare furiously at the of chivalry. Yes ladies, we are equally called him first? Seems a bit desperate, screen, ‘willing’ them to make the first to blame for what chivalry has now don’t ya think?”

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buy them at SRC books. Search for text books online www.src.usyd.edu.au/default.php Call 02 9660 4756 to check availability and reserve a book. Are girls who claim some guys tried to pick them up in a car at night implying they’re so attractive that people always try to kidnap them? 11 feature @honi_soit

beautiful - so stylish, never seen without I found these photos - I love them for a beautiful sundress on or her hair their age, for the beautiful clothes on my Discovering Nan in rolls. She was in love, and it shines then-chubby aunts and uncles, and, of Angela Collins finds some hidden treasures through in the pictures, particularly in course, for the profound insight into my her wedding photo, taken before my Nan’s life. As I packed up the memories My Nan died a couple of years ago, trove of memories, I knew I had to store pop went to war. She was an amazing and stowed them back in the storeroom, but only recently did I find a whole them digitally, all for myself. mother, wholly devoted to her children I was bursting with remembered love box of old photos and miscellany So, somewhat tautologically, I took - I could now see her feminine strength and a new pride. I was proud, not only from her life. I was alone one day photos of the photos, and did wee little so obviously apparent in my aunties and to be her granddaughter, but also to in my family house and decided to arrangements of the old knick-knacks in my mum. In short, I could now see her have known and loved such an amazing have a good oldfashioned storeroom the box. It was such an emotional and as a woman, not just Nan. I am so glad example of a woman. rummage (as anyone who was meant solitary experience for me, in the quiet to be studying would have done). As of our living room. soon as I laid eyes on this treasure My Nan was, and still is, one of my heroes. She was such a strong woman on the inside, even though, when I knew her, she was frail and shrunken from the polio she had as a kid. Even though, after her 94 years of caring and doing and living, her body was failing her, she remained sharp as a tack till the end. She’d been through a lot: being born in the First World War, living through the Second, learning how to be a single mum of five shortly after the war. My respect for her was/ is immense. I learnt a lot through the photos - my Nan, as I had known her, was always full of stoic wisdom and stories, but was, to me, just a grandma. Looking through these photos completely opened my eyes. I could now see her for what she had been, what she still was, inside. She was MOAN Priscilla Petit My sisters have become slaves! To the girdle, to the perfume, to the To Sappho I, II, III face-paint, Niggers of the days of equality, I Elena Zagoudis To the rags, to the apron, to the habits, They are erased. Cunts in chains, the And though I saw the stars To the priest and the chapel and the universal hate of history. Burning in your eyes crucifix, My my, our mothers ran bleeding but I reached for the reflection To the nunnery and the nursery and the free- Here now I stand, Of the winterlight nursing home, to the fairy tales, Men buying parts of me. Husbands To our cruel, cold realities, humping like dogs the legs Where those trapped amidst your We moan. For ourselves, for the others, Of patriarchy. We persist, from our Miniature snow-covered globes we moan knees, Repeat against the glass, this For the mothers, for the fatherless, The fury of the behaved, the docile, Frantic refrain For the babies aborted, for the the passive or tame, III daughters unborn, The sexless rage, the pain. We moan That which grows within us is It’s such a harsh road, this For the lovers torn, and the unloved, to our oppressors. The essence of some strength One of reckoning and reason and the unrequited, To the Gods who have their cruelty And though we may become but For the wedded woman, and the to explain, to the saints, Shadows of ourselves, in this coming Give me the grain by which to spinster, To the instruments used on us, to the Winter, let our song carry Live my life and let it For the housewife and the working instruments we used ourselves, These Delphic winds homeward Again be forgiven and the surgeons and the nurses who woman, for the slave, for the Goddess, For the hated and the worshipped, helped; II Let us not forget what we are For those whose bodies were rejected, To the fathers and yes, the mothers, And while there is an uprising of Made from, and yet not be for those whose bodies were taken, who raised us as ladies, not as people; Voices, Sculpted from it erroneously For those whose nights were To the smiles asked for and the smiles Perhaps yours in the only one I can nightmares, whose darkness was given, Hear But everything is its own creation danger, To the gentlemen who paid our And we are defined secondarily Whose lovers were strangers or checks or held our arms or opened In its beauty of few words and enemies, the door, Multitudes of silence, And everybody praises you For the child-wife and the abandoned To the doors we left closed, to the Perhaps it is yours I am seeking momentarily elderly, stairways we could not conquer, to In these times of quiet dissolution But I stand in praise of eternity For those whose scars are new, for the ceilings we did not meet, those who have suffered for centuries, To history who buried us, to Let us consume ceaselessly And none of us know the rightful We moan. husbands who buried us, Until the night becomes endearing Piety of this life My body is not a disease. You may kill, To beauty and our energies, And carries us to some fleeting But in gaining wisdom we live but I conceive. Home Vicariously without fail

12 [In corporate environments] just dress like a virgin prude and talk like you’d suck cock at you grandfather’s funeral. www.honisoit.com feature Untitled Lucy Robeau

She passed a row of precariously leaning motorbikes. Metallic beasts in wait- They approach a building whose foundations struggle to support the ing. She caught herself before an almost trip and wondered what would have despair within. A child sits on the stairs, bouncing a ball on the con- happened if she hadn’t. Would the row collapse in a deafening roar? Would their crete. The rhythm underscores a monotonous chorus of crying and yell- owners descend from surrounding crevices and encircle her? ing and pounding and thrashing. The ball slips from her grip and she listlessly watches it as rolls away. She shakes her hair off her face and She would stand, her spine bent, the defeat in her stance a kind of victory. The vaguely glances at Karen and Jacob as they climb the stairs, as if they bikies would notice the hopelessness of her hanging arms, the heavy apathy of were memories. The woman at the desk gives an inch of a smile and her eyes and slowly retreat, lest they be trapped in the curling claws of her unhap- hands over a form which Karen takes before retreating into a corner to piness, which latch onto collars, crawl into ears and poison minds. She would fill it in. Jacob stands before the woman, whose nametag reads ‘Susan’. lay in the twisted wreck of the motorbikes, her limbs becoming entwined with “Where you from sweet?” she leans over the counter. “Not too far,” he shattered glass, twisted metal. She would settle down for an eternal sleep with her replies. “Not so far that he won’t find us here,” he inwardly adds. She broken mechanical echoes. Their destruction prompting a kind of union. Where holds a purple lollypop over the counter, which he grasps gratefully and do robots go to die? walks to join his mother on the bench, his feet swinging over the edge.

Karen realises she was caught in a stare, a young boy sits quivering under the The bed is small, but Karen insists that Jacob stay with her, the cough- weight of her eyes. “Sorry darling, I was just thinking.” She pats his feathery hair ing and grunting of the men’s dorm too reminiscent of other frighten- and hoists him up by his backpack, landing him on his feet. His legs buckle a ing nights. They curl under the blanket, Jacob nestling into her belly, as little and he clutches her waist. “Where are we going, mum?” he asks, his voice if it were still enough to protect him. His dreams are mercifully blank, weary with unanswered questions. “Home,” she replies, “our new home.” The while Karen shudders in her sleep, feeling men’s fingers on her throat, uncertainty of this statement weighs on them both, but Karen takes a defiant the stench of beer hanging in her face and the drawl of contempt echo- step onwards and clasps her son’s hand. ing in her ears.

Talk about it Anonymous go to bed and we never really talked avoid possible relationships worrying There are always events that change about it again. From that moment on, about how my family may react. That your life, even when it doesn’t happen the way I responded to my peers and may not be a logical response, but not to you. the rest of the world changed. To this having a place to express how I felt did I had always known that my family day, it still influences how I interact with lead to slight extremes. There is still a was a little different to many of my everyone I meet. I never had a ‘rebel- part of me that never wants to make friends; I lived with my grandmother lious’ stage - how could I knowingly my family worry more than I know they who is still traumatised from WWII. put my family through more stress, and already do. I guess that’s what happens when you for what purpose? I guess that one of I’ve grown up as an only child with have a 6 year old growing up with the reasons we are still really close, that no one else who understands what it bombs dropping outside and breaking understanding of why my family can is like. To live in a family where the every window in your house. Follow be so coddling, makes it much easier to ones you love most and love you are that up with when having escaped a accommodate. still haunted by their past, a past that war zone, being threatened with being My experience of the world has been has, for the most part, been left unac- sent back to it; not something any shaped by my family history more than knowledged. It has shown me what life person, let alone a child, should ever any other factor. I don’t own what has after such an event can be like, and one have to face. It’s not hard to imagine affected me most, and have felt unable I feel - regardless of our experiences that growing up with that experience to express this part of my identity for - we should all try to emulate. It is a might affect how you interact in soci- years, leaving me confused and very life based on hope, strength, passion ety. Even once you have escaped as far much alone. Feeling unable to explain and love. One that teaches us to stand as possible from Europe and arrived why some situations distress me more up for others who can’t, to never let in Australia. But trauma is not easy to than they might to others, because it’s our independence be taken away, or escape. It is just these sort of experi- not my story to tell. Even when I do our voices silenced, and most of all to ences that contributed to ending up in tell people, it still seems that many don’t care for one another. To try and build a an abusive marriage and constant fear understand how this has shaped who I world where what has happened to my for her children, until finally she left. am today, or how it will always be a part family and to many, many more never The silver lining if there is one is the of my life. happens again. Apathy will get you no- support she had from her family. After Even now I’m still hesitant at push- where fast. Fighting may be the harder one generation had been through so ing boundaries, after all, when you road but you know you are at least try- much you would think the next might really understand what the “worst case ing, and what else can we do but try. be given some respite. scenario” really means you never want Before I wrote this I spoke to my I was 13 when my mother told me to put anyone through that kind of fear. mum to make sure it was OK. She she had been raped at 15. Not know- It changed the way I interacted people, never realised how unable I felt to talk ing what to do I just asked if I could especially with boys, and even now I still about it, and I never realised I could.

12 Of the people who read on trains, only women hold their books up so the title faces outward. They want men to think they’re intelligent. 13 Above: Emilyrose Siers Sh-head Below: Brigitte Garozzo is going to be difficult or abusive, you the fake, cheesy grin required to I understand what customer Melanie Jayne I’ve been instructed by my male meet your needs of the transaction. service is. I strive to do my job as well managers to immediately call one And then there was the guy who as I possibly can, to be personable Make no mistake, working of them down to the front. And I do. decided to be the Champion of the and helpful, but I strongly resent in customer service and confronting I’ve just had to accept that there are People and told me that I was “cold” the fact that I’m being evaluated the imaginative ways the general a number of people who won’t listen to my customers, and that I needed not on the basis of how efficiently I public consistently reach new levels to me, but if my male colleague to “smile more.” Topped off with complete the tasks I’m assigned, but of stupidity on a daily basis is a gives them the same information the astute observation that I have rather how much I’m smiling while mind-numbing task, regardless of the customer’s attitude changes an “angry face.” Oh, thanks for I’m doing it. My physical appearance your gender. completely. that. I’m happy now. Although that becomes of greater importance than While a good majority of the people It is impressive how quickly I get encounter made the quick transition how well I’m actually doing my job. I interact with at my jobs cause no called a “bitch” on the occasions I from aggravating to just being weird However, my experience with this trouble, there exists a certain sub- take it upon myself to assertively after he said that my angry-face-ways incredibly irritating behaviour isn’t section of the population who have address someone that’s being rude. “broke [his] little heart.” What? Is exclusive to the workplace, although bestowed upon themselves the It’s fine for my male colleagues to my face making you uncomfortable? it’s certainly heavily concentrated entitlement to make orders of the actually yell at people, but if I speak The Smile Brigade is definitely here. I, along with many of my other ‘bitch’ (or ‘cunt’, as one pleasant to someone clearly and directly it’s very gender-specific. The men I female friends, get it while we’re individual affectionately yelled at interpreted as being aggressive. work with are Serial Non-Smilers, just going about our daily lives. The me once) behind the counter. The Perhaps the most common but that doesn’t seem to be an gentlemen at a bar who complained bitch in question is me, by the way. offence is the perpetually annoying issue. Also, don’t assume that men to me that he, “wasn’t used to women Hi! Being a young female that’s - disguised as a cute, playful jab – alone exhibit this type of behaviour, speaking to [him] confidently”, has relegated to being an easy target for demand that I “SMILE!” I don’t because that’s far from the case. I’d a special place in my memory. Oh, pestering in an environment where think I’ve ever in my life heard say there’s only a slightly uneven dear… all I’m there to do is complete a job. someone request one of my male balance between men and women It’s truly amazing how many Harassment in customer service colleagues to smile, yet it happens who try to dictate my behaviour. It’s people think it’s their responsibility roles isn’t an experience unique to to myself and my fellow female staff too easy to forget that other women to police a woman’s behaviour women. However, there are severely constantly. It’s not even purely when can be just as guilty of exhibiting and appearance, right down to different expectations to how I I’m at work, it happens when I’m sexist behaviour. insignificant details such as tone of should behave in my workplaces out. Seriously, do you know anyone Having to answer the phones at voice (again, really??!!!!). Women compared to how my male colleagues that walks around grinning all the work has also allowed me to discover ought to be hyperactive, bubbly, should behave. time? I highly doubt it. That’d be another part of my demeanour that smiley and cute to everyone all the Of course, because my job astonishingly creepy. needs improving: my voice. It’s not time. And once it’s revealed that requires me to be on display to the What’s extraordinary is the below- a baritone, but it’s not exactly what we – scandalously – are human public that immediately entitles average person’s incapability to I’d describe as high-pitched. I’ve beings that are simply not like that, one to make judgements on my recognise my face does not naturally been educated to the fact that my it surprises and unsettles people. appearance. Please, continue to take shape of a toothy, forced smile. voice isn’t “warm,” or “bubbly” Behaviour from a female that is enlighten me on all the ways I’m My face sits in its default resting enough. These are two extremely marked as being grouchy, bitchy and doing my job incorrectly. And don’t position and it’s misconstrued as gender-specific adjectives. I’ve never miserable is seen as self-assured, forget to instruct me on how to alter being hostile. heard one of my male colleagues assertive and simply normal coming from a male. my behaviour to satisfy your inspired Only the other week, I had the be described as either of the two. pre-requisites of femininity. pleasure of having yet another My voice is the way it is. It’s rather The root of these attitudes goes There’s a startling high frequency encounter with The Smile Brigade. difficult, pretty much impossible, to back to the classic notion that women rate of complete strangers telling I completed a transaction with an alter the intonation of my natural are decorative ornaments: decorate me that I don’t look good enough for individual as per norm, there being speaking voice without sounding us, mould us, and control us how you them. I’m NOT YOUR PROPERTY. no hints anything being wrong, only like an automated robot. like. The idea that women need to Please keep the following gems of to have her say to me, “a smile would However, my favourite comment be sweet to sickeningly high glucose unwarranted advice to yourself: go down well,” hastily running out I’ve received from one of my levels is perpetually frustrating. If I’m not smiling, that doesn’t mean “I don’t like your hair like that.” of the shop before I even had the colleagues at work: “Mel, your voice chance to process what she said. has no tone to it.” Tone…? Certainly that I’m out to get you. It just means “Some more make-up wouldn’t one of the most bizarrely specific I’m not smiling. hurt. It’d really brighten your face.” Shockingly, you purchasing this Kit Kat at 7:30am is not the happiest criticisms I’ve ever received. Fat Please, let’s retire this prehistoric, “You’re very pale. You should get moment of my life. I apologise for thighs, no boobs - these are pretty trivial criterion of how a woman some sun.” the mass inconvenience I must have standard misogynistic critiques - but should behave. Whenever I can sense a customer caused to your life by failing to give tone? That’s new. body @honi_soit

Apples, Pears and Lives in Miniature Sophia Benedict such an easy outlet for the conflation am now, the same way I look at fuzzy younger people to enjoy their youth, of beauty with extreme thinness, photographs of my Grandma in fifties and we should probably listen. Never crawling mindlessly down my around which individuals may be dresses and think how glorious she again will we be so smooth-skinned facebook newsfeed recently, bound in community by using relevant was. I will look at myself and wish or perky-boobed. But it’s hard to I came across something that S hashtags. I had felt it then, because happiness remember this when elusive goals made me stop. It was a photo of a is experienced in being and not in promising future satisfaction, are, on girl wearing a pale bra and underpants, As the name suggests #Thinspiration reminiscing. We talk about growing achievement, simply replaced with new staring vacantly at the camera. She images are there to inspire and older like it’s a fight. Armed with ones. Contentment can only come was skinny. Her hip bones protruded motivate weight loss by providing bottled anti-ageing formulas, we will from the present, however wobbly and her inner thighs curved away goals and possible outcomes. It reflects fight the seven signs with dapping and and non-conformist to particular fruit from each other. The accompanying the way so many of us align ourselves spraying, until the day comes when we figures that present may feel. Because #Thinspiration tag informed me in accordance with categories and can let ourselves go. At sixty maybe. looking back when we’re older will be that this was apparently the point. I ideals. We set goals for ourselves to Definitely not before fifty five. Until too late. Nostalgia is something very continued to look at the image, not better inhabit these categories, which, that time when old age dissolves us different from happiness. We will wish meeting her gaze, but focussing on without too much exception, usually of responsibility, loosens our skin, then that we knew it now. the gap between her legs. Seeing the involve shrinking ourselves. Shrinking, redefines the horizons of our faces all pattern of the wallpaper behind her flattening, and smoothing out the by itself. through this gap, I felt both disgusted edges. and mesmerised. I remember once reading in the #Thinspiration, #Bumspiration, and whatever other form of bodily The picture appeared on my feed shimmery pages of a women’s inspiration I’m bound to stumble because five friends had liked it. We are magazine about the magical similarity across in the near future all have used to seeing these women each day, one can draw between female body something in common beyond the sprawled on the sides of buses, on the shapes and types of fruit. For my endorsement of a certain shape front of magazines, but I am not used convenience, a range of different and size. They are reflective of the to seeing their skinniness endorsed clothing styles that might best way so many people condition by people I know, and like. That this complement my pear/hour-glass figure self-acceptance to the achievement girl, evidently ill, was being used in the combination had been suggested. of goals. By constantly working promotion of thinness as a lifestyle The question of which fruit you are, towards each goal of self distressed me. That these five friends encapsulates the way the shapes of improvement, we defer our own had reacted to the image positively, female bodies are categorised. If she happiness to the future. We even with admiration, filled me with doesn’t fulfil the prescriptions of the deny ourselves the feeling of worry. After further clicking and options on offer to her, she is not contentment in the present. scrolling through pages of instagramed individual, but disproportionate. We And if we reach these images filled with concaved stomachs create a hierarchy of desirability, that is goals, we’ll probably and train-track ribs, I was not only itself inseparable from a hierarchy of just set new ones far more aware of the softness that smallness. anyway. Older padded my own stomach and hips than When I’m old, I will look back and people so I had been five minutes before, but think that I was beautiful. I will look often tell angered that social networks provide at a photo of myself from the age I Forgive me, First love.

Time goes beneath my feet, it pulls the mind On and gone, until the world has caught Behind me and my love is all that I shan’t find. I crave my young love that I have not fought.

But all extinguished fire, all my blanketed chill Haunt the handless clock of my autumn peace. And your deny, stupid cupid, is unfulfil Must you remind that love is only lease?

The Memory, faded, of that young arrows plea Consume me and my tired eyes as I Cast guilty imagines into the sea. Though hot virgin winds now grow cold, I shy.

I know this why- not for passion to end But for losing the best had to me ever, friend.

Anonymous Top and facing page: Madeleine Pfull Above: Victoria King

16 You have a lovely body, but it’s your beautiful mind that I prefer - a Law tutor www.honisoit.com body Waxing Lyrical Shelley Smith

Recently, I had a discussion with a being so dark and visible. I kept seeing better access, and I look way better in women’s legs, and compare them to my female friend about the best and most the positive side of things though, in the a bikini,” they would cheerfully reply. own, hair-wise. In some ways, compe- convenient way to remove body hair. sense that I would not stand out for hav- Thus, my sense of being a normal tition with other women is worse than Shaving was all the hard work for only ing hairy legs; that I was just doing what female went out the window. I didn’t trying to please a man. We are our own two days worth of smoothness, while was normal for women to do. However, dare wax down there, ever. While my worst enemies in a lot of ways. I remem- waxing - though I’ve done it – has always I soon found out that maybe I wasn’t waxing friends were cool with me say- ber my first trip to the beautician to get terrified me to the end of the Earth. She so normal. It started when girls around ing this, I still felt like the odd one out, my legs waxed several years back, and suggested an epilator, which I’d never me began to manicure their eyebrows. the one who hadn’t grown up. Or maybe the female beautician made a big deal heard of, and at my blank expression My eyebrows have always been dark like I was being superior about it, partic- out of my arm and stomach hair, trying proceeded to describe in great detail and scary, and just looked like a horror ularly as I would often wax lyrical (sorry) to wax it off. I was horrified at the time, how it is used. After that conversation movie compared to these other girls I about the stupid things women do for but looking back on it I’m horrified for I Googled epilators, and that got me knew. I tried plucking, but it was too beauty. other reasons; namely, that women scru- thinking about all the different devices painful. I didn’t dare wax them, so out tinise the choices of other women as aimed at women for body hair removal; came the trusty razor. I’m not going to But then I realised these feelings I was though it’s their business. the tweezers and the foul-smelling go into detail on that one, but let’s just having were not normal. The whole per- creams, the DIY wax kits and the elec- say shaving and eyebrows are not meant ception of body hair is not normal. It I guess the point of this insight into tronic razors, which got me thinking to go together. isn’t right to judge a woman for wanting my rollercoaster beauty regime has been about body hair in general. to shave or wax, but at the same time it to try to encourage women – particularly “It isn’t right to judge a is just as wrong to judge a woman for young women – not to compare them- After I started high school, I became choosing to keep her hair in all its glory. selves to other women. It’s a well-worn conscious that all the girls had started woman for wanting to shave While I do believe body hair removal cliché to be sure, but each of us really is shaving their legs, whilst mine remained or wax, but at the same time has a lot to do with distorted views of unique, and the people you want most in a soft, smooth forest. Not wanting it is just as wrong to judge a what makes a woman beautiful, and your life are those who appreciate your to seem abnormal, I quickly bought shallow male ideas of femininity, I can uniqueness. To use a shallow example, I myself some disposable razors (THESE woman for choosing to keep say with certainty that my hair removal have a few friends who refuse to shave THINGS ARE THE ANTI-CHRIST), her hair in all its glory.” has been more for women than other their legs, and I appreciate and almost and set to work. The soft smooth for- men; for my peers, for everyday women envy them for their ability not to worry est was gone forever, to be replaced on the street. Just as we dress to impress about it. It probably makes for a less by an oscillating mixture of desert and I realised I wasn’t normal when friends our female peers, we also pluck, shave, expensive and less stressful existence. spiky grass. Since then, it has been a began telling me about their foray into and wax to impress them, to be accepted It makes you a much stronger person never-ending battle between me and my Brazilian waxing. “But we always used by them, to prove we are as much of a to refuse to alter a part of yourself to leg hair; I’ve tried all manner of things to cringe at the very thought!” I would woman as they are. I say this because I please other people, and I wish more of to get rid of it, including cursing it for protest. “Yes, well, it gives my boyfriend am ashamed to admit I always scrutinise us (me included) could learn that lesson. My Health is none of your goddamn business Ruby Chandler to assume that others, “Guys, look at how fat that woman is! I bet she’s can’t take any more and ‘fail’ the diet, which then of who have a different going to order like three of everything, and then eat course takes us back to square one and starting the body shape, can’t pos- her husband’s meal too! Doesn’t she have any self- diet all over again! (That’s twice the profit for the sibly also value diet control? I mean… I just worry about her health!” diet industry compared to if we had just felt ok and exercise. It also about ourselves). definitely doesn’t I’m really moved by how so many people these days mean that if others are concerned with the health of others. No, not con- I’m not disputing all claims that there are health don’t value the same cern for previous illnesses they may have had or even concerns to weight gain, and I’m also not saying that things, they are then their mental health. It turns out people are really con- there aren’t people who would genuinely feel hap- ‘failures’ or ‘bad’ people. cerned for just ‘health’ in general, which it turns can be pier or better after losing weight. I am however determined by simply looking at you! Because if some- saying that EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT. Just The point of this also one is over what is supposedly an acceptable weight, because a person may be slim does not therefore isn’t “people shouldn’t bam – they must be unhealthy. It shows that they clearly prove that they are healthier, happier or more care about others and just are lazy, don’t exercise, have no self control and eat successful – or that other people should find it mind their own business.” too much. I had no idea people had developed such I’m sure there are peo- amazing talents at knowing a persons entire life just by “How much longer until we can finally ple who wish they could one glance! It’s amazing. Because, of course, trying to make changes in their life- determine someone else’s ‘health levels’ or lifestyle is address that maybe the real reason style but aren’t sure how really important, seeing as how they’re a detriment to we associate being fat with being lazy, (and that applies to people of all the health system and all... unhealthy and undesirable is due sizes). What I am arguing against is that this help Okay, so how much longer is it going to take until we shouldn’t come from a place of judgment, superi- can all just accept that human beings come in a variety to the constant stream of media that ority or following assumptions that everyone wants of shapes and sizes? How much longer until we can portrays an unrealistic and narrow the same thing and has the same values. I believe that if we, as a society, can first work to accept the finally address that maybe the real reason we associate perception of beauty?” being fat with being lazy, unhealthy and undesirable is amazing variance of humanity, as well as learn to due to the constant stream of media that portrays an love our own bodies (yes, I know it sounds corny!) unrealistic and narrow perception off beauty, all in the we can make great improvements as a society in hopes we believe that if we buy their products we too just as easy to be slim. Why is it perfectly acceptable to truly caring for others, as well as reveling in how can be as beautiful? Then maybe we could acknowledge be ‘naturally thin’, but ‘naturally fat’ is just an ‘excuse’. awesome it is that humans come in such a huge vari- that the diet industry is a multimillion industry that ben- Just because a person may place a lot of value on their ety – and how ridiculously boring it would be if we efits if we feel shitty about how our own bodies look, own diet and exercise (which I think is great, if that were all the same. causing us to criticize and deprive ourselves until we makes them happy) still does not give them the right

I feel like women in high-powered jobs are just trying to prove something to their dads. 17 sex @honi_soit

Sex Life of a Modern Everything is Not Penis Woman Anonymous

I like sex. A lot. And I don’t have to speak with lots of people to know I am not alone in enjoying sex. What I do believe I am alone in is the amount of peo- ple I have slept with. As I reach my mid-twenties, I guess that I have slept with roughly 80 people, though I fuck and Nothing Hurts this number is indeterminate as I stopped counting at 50, around 3 years ago. Eda Gunaydin considers pleasure and patriarchy As a woman, the above fact comes with its fair amount of stigma—probably why I am submitting and he sexual diseducation which this article anonymously. I do not discuss this topic Tpermeates polite society is with my friends often and when guys ask me, I politely not acceptable. This we know. In decline to answer, saying it’s not relevant. fuck off WA, a state which is not required to implement sex education, the YACWA My journey to where I am in my life has been inter- reports that 1 in 5 young people have esting to say the least, and hasn’t always been happy chlamydia. or fulfilling. I lost my virginity in a blissfully roman- tic first relationship at the age of 15, where I formed In Australia, sex education has been a healthy relationship with sex. I felt safe to explore historically excluded from the national what I enjoyed about sex, and how to make it enjoy- curriculum; a lack of resources which able for my partner. When this relationship ended, I forces teachers to cut ‘non-core’ found that even though I was single, I still—surpris- content, coupled with a majority of ingly enough—wanted sex. So I did what any logical “I like sex. A lot. And I don’t have to teachers reporting discomfort over person would do: I went out and found it. Being an speak with lots of people to know discussing topics as fundamentally common as menstruation, saw sex ed attractive girl, this wasn’t too hard. I am not alone in enjoying sex. At first, I thought I could form connections with regularly shelved among encyclopedias guys through sex. Understandably, this led to many What I do believe I am alone in is and wads of gum, while sexual activity disappointments. The guys I was sleeping with, in the amount of people I have slept will never be circumscribed with similar unsexy efficiency. general, I thought I truly liked, so I was repeatedly with. As I reach my mid-twenties, I let down when nothing evolved from our night of The Secondary Students and Sexual passion. There were other nights when I slept with guess that I have slept with roughly Health survey reveals that 78% of guys where the sex was just downright terrible. These 80 people, though this number Australian Year 10 and 12 students have nights, combined with my perceived rejection, led to had sexual experience. Less than 50% the inevitable guilt that girls and young women are is indeterminate as I stopped of sexuality education teachers teach taught to have after casual sex. counting at 50, around 3 years the pleasure of sexual activity, and I felt like crap, like I was being used, so I did what ago.” young women report having positive any budding teenage feminist would do: I sought to feelings after sex at significantly lower turn this ‘oppression’ around. I went from the girl who rates – 56% of women in the same wanted sex to lead to something to the young woman study reported feeling ‘fantastic’ after who fucked and fucked off, all at her own discretion. I did have Ben* as a wonderful asset for a number sex as compared to 74% of men. More I fucked like men did. Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, of years, who filled a position as my friend with ben- women felt ‘used’ (9%), ‘regretful’ this led to my first adult, long-term relationship; an efits (though we weren’t really friends). This created (7%), ‘worried’, ‘upset’ or ‘guilty’ than adult relationship which, as it turns out, wasn’t so adult. space for me to put the search for good sex to the men. 38% of women versus 19% of side, and get on with my life, and most importantly men had experienced sex they did not During the three years of this relationship, I was to enjoy being single, properly. completely faithful, despite the constant accusations want. from my partner. I was on the receiving end of regular In the last year, I’ve reached a place of true con- It is not acceptable that young verbal abuse, was manipulated and made to feel guilty fidence when it comes to my sex life, and my life in adults do not receive a comprehensive for not wanting enough sex, or wanting too much sex. general. I’m still single, and while a boyfriend would detailing of their sexual rights and It was also during this relationship that I explored be nice, my life is perfectly full without one. I still responsibilities, at the age they’re what few sexual avenues I hadn’t already explored have sex with lots of different guys, but I’m safe, wanting to have it but have little grasp previously—sex on drugs, threesomes, etc. However, and put all my cards on the table—I never sleep with of how, these two forces competing so this time it was all happening in the midst of a very someone under false pretences. hard their bodies turn blue. Yes, most unhealthy, unhappy relationship. Sex isn’t something I do to make guys fall for me, of us concede that there are ways to Even though I finally worked up the guts to end the nor is it something I do for self-confidence. I do it learn on the fly and make do and to live relationship, things did not get better immediately. Still because it feels good (orgasms do release endor- on the seat of one’s pants, if one elects recovering from the emotional battering I’d received phins) and I won’t apologise for that. Ever. But if to wear pants. There are other sources for the previous three years, I looked to sex as a com- you ask me how many people I’ve slept with, I won’t of information: the internet and porn, fort. While there were potential boyfriends here and tell you, not because I don’t know, but because it isn’t friends, family, the nebulous haze there, I was never really interested in anything beyond relevant. of ambient noise which surrounds a couple nights of fun in the sack, and continue to have us, imbuing us with information as many anonymous, often drunken, one night stands. *Not his real name conveniently available as air. Indeed,

18 I exclusively read books written by men - I can’t read women’s writing - a woman www.honisoit.com sex Everything is Not Penis and Nothing Hurts

Eda Gunaydin considers pleasure and patriarchy we seem to turn fervently to these with a woman, sex with a plant, sex with characters doesn’t necessarily discomfit on female pleasure and shame vs male sources to allow us to bridge the chasm something penis shaped that wasn’t a me, but that it emerges from other pleasure and shame and disrespect for of disinformation. This is in fact the penis. If it wasn’t sexual contact which mouths and pens does. female autonomy. most damaging facet of that chasm— nullifies virginity, was it penetration? Or The hymen is not a seal—it’s passed Perhaps I say this too late and to people try to fill it. And so it clogs with did it have to be both? Why? I, and these menstrual fluid through vaginas for the wrong audience, but I want to tell the same old bullshit. women I grew up with or now know, years, and millennia before that. Even everyone worried about pain during *** learnt these things: You are a virgin. You Joan of Arc, famous virgin, confirmed intercourse to focus, laser their pre- don’t stop being a virgin unless you have The air we breathe when it comes to by scholars as having a particularly occupations onto sweating the other penetrative intercourse with a human sex is laced with patriarchy—you can sturdy hymen, passed something out stuff, every other detail, but not this penis. You probably should stay a virgin. disagree here, but miseducation will still one. I want to say: ‘The prospect of Oh, and losing your virginity is going to be prevalent and it will still be damaging. intercourse shouldn’t make you feel like hurt. You will probably bleed. Have a We live in a world which not only fails “It’s a cultural fixity where you’re about to have your wisdom teeth nice day. to teach men to respect women’s bodies, removed. You’re not having anything I was told one thing about my body Tamagotchis and top-buns but rather that it is acceptable not to. By removed at all. You were whole then which I never heard about any other: it’s the age of 11 I watched my male peers come and go that the hymen and whole now. There are alternatives supposed to hurt. make ‘well, officer, she fell on my dick’ has to be broken, removed, to trying not to tense and a bottle of Your hymen isn’t getting in the lube. Your fingers can be put to use; jokes, while we still had not participated popped, like opening the lid in any formal sexual education program. way, society is you can use someone else’s. You can still We live in a world in which women There are painless dentists in our of a jar.” have and give orgasms in the interim disproportionately experience the society. Painless endoscopies. Painless period. You can play Mario Kart instead consequences of sexual activity until sex piercings. But there is no nominal and forget the whole thing. Men aren’t itself is reconfigured as a consequence— sex culture or education teaching of somewhere. It’s flexible, so can be Impatient or Uncontrollable – we live of poor upbringing, low moral fibre, low people with a vagina that penetrative stretched rather than torn. If you can’t in a culture which allows concessions intelligence, a certain manner of dress, intercourse with anyone with a penis get your fingers past your calves, but of decency to be granted to them. speech or speed of liquor consumption. should never literally tear your hymen. find that if you stretch every day for Their readiness has no parallel to yours. two weeks you can bend down to your A penis is not a board-certified hole Is it surprising, then, that women, This controversial debunk of thousands toes, then that’s what I mean. Not even punch. The patriarchy tells them they on average, experience less pleasure of years of—male-written—history has the anus is supposed to bleed during possess something more sacred than from sex, and that men develop such a emerged only recently, and calls itself intercourse, that being the orifice more a silicone wand, more sacrosanct than fundamentally phallocentric view of sex The Hymen Myth. likely to—it is, like with most bleeding, your girlfriend’s hands. All sex is as sexy that not only does female pleasure not a signal that you are doing something as you think it is. If you go without sex count, but pain doesn’t matter? “I was told one thing about wrong. or penetrative masturbation for four I can’t think of a single woman I’ve *** months or a year and it hurts again, it heard the story of their ‘virginity loss’ my body which I never It does merit reflection, then, as to must seem obvious that physiology isn’t from who hasn’t experienced undesired heard about any other: it’s why something so flawed is repeated so bound to the inane discriminations of pain, nor one who hasn’t felt trepidation supposed to hurt.” often; and not just from big or bad men, humankind. Relax – listen to the knee- over the prospect. They expected to but from the women who truly mean to jerk ‘ow’ you’ve fine-tuned since the age bleed, and had those expectations It’s a cultural fixity where Tamagotchis nurture us. Unfortunately, we teach our of three, and use that as your guide.’ fulfilled or, when they let themselves and top-buns come and go that the beliefs and experiences as truths. All breathe, found they didn’t bleed after * There are cases of women who hymen has to be broken, removed, that is air—precedent, expectation— all, but the anxiety had choked them report extreme pain with any penetration popped, like opening the lid of a jar. freezes solid. And so, in a way that defies up like an ungreased chain. Others who suffer from a condition called Even shows with modern aspirations— self-preservation, it becomes okay for who gritted their teeth—like you would vaginismus. if not outcomes—such as HBO’s Girls sex to be unpleasant for women. And before a dental appointment—found inadvertently reinforce the myth: ‘Do suddenly, women are treated as being ** Yes, there are men whom it hurts that it hurt less than they’d expected, but you miss your hymen?’ asks Elijah with essential to sex only insofar as they equally to hurt their partner. There are nonetheless more than they wanted. I’ve patronising sincerity to Shoshanna, a facilitate the pleasure of men. If a man’s all types of men. known women who masturbated with 20-something year old who’s just shed formative experience with heterosexual make-up brushes and fingers in rubber *** There is a use of male/man her virginity (finally!). Months before, intercourse is that he should do it, it’s gloves and knife handles. Women who and female/woman to describe those an almost-sex-partner had capitulated okay to hurt her, and a woman’s is that had been assiduously using tampons in possession of a penis and vagina after hearing of her predicament, by she should grit her teeth and power and other insertibles for years, alone respectively. I’ve appropriated the typical reason of finding virgins to be attached through, then I certainly view that as or with a hand mirror or a friend. Who partners these conversations assume. bleeders. That the former statement contributing to the skewed statistics felt they were virgins after oral sex, sex emerges from the mouths of bit

I’m disappointed you’re transferring into law because it’ll diminish your feminine virtue and make you cruel and unpleasant - a tutor 19 sex @honi_soit Women? Masturbating? Polyamory

Brigitte Garozzo “What is polyamory? What is the difference between polyamory and polygamy?”

Polyamory means consensual relationships with multiple partners. People often wrongly conflate polyamory with polygamy (polygamy refers to a rela- tionship structure where a man holds multiple wives in an oppressive patriarchal relationship). Such con- servative polygamous relationships exist, but bear no relationship to modern polyamorous practice. In fact polyamory is the ultimate reversal of the idea of ‘woman as a possession’; instead of being an object owned by a man, she is free to have consensual sex, or romantic relations, with whoever she pleases. The idea that polyamory is inherently anti-feminist is erroneous and misleading. Stella Ktenas “When these symptoms [womb disease/hysteria] “What do polyamorists want in their indicate, we think it necessary to ask a midwife to What you need: struggle for recognition?” assist, so that she can massage the genitalia with one • Water-based lubricant. Refrain from using oils, as they cause infections when including the vagina finger inside, using oil of lilies, musk root, crocus, It is impossible to speak for all – certainly some in the masturbation session. Lubrication is vital or [something] similar. And in this way the afflicted may want marriage extended to multiple partners, and relying on your own vaginal lubrication is woman can be aroused to the paroxysm. This kind while others, including myself, want marriage as a stupidly inefficient when water-based lube feels of stimulation with the finger is recommended by legal institution to be dismantled. It is not for the Galen and Avicenna, among others, most especially so wonderful and is harmless to porous toys. I use Sliquid which is vegan and doesn’t test on state to endorse a single type of relationship and for widows, those who live chaste lives, and offer it legal legitimacy at the expense of all other female religious, as Ferrari da Gradi proposes” – animals. There are even lubricants which emit warmth during use; types. Who I sleep with is none of anybody’s con- Pieter van Foreest, Observationem et Curationem cern, and if the courts and the tax office want guid- Medicinalium ac Chirurgicarum Opera Omina. • Privacy, unless you wish to be charitable to the ance they should offer a regime that reflects any voyeurs within the wall cavity; Descriptions of this method of treating hysteria possible type of relationship, no matter how novel. in females have been found throughout history, • Music, which helps with mood and mental as early as the Hippocratic corpus, and Works of zoning. I enjoy orgasming to Ravel’s Bolero, and Mascagni’ Cavalleria Rusticana; “But it’s too hard to change the law Celsus (1 A.D.). Yet, antiquity is not rendered as to allow Polyamorous recognition!” authoritative, especially regarding medicine and • Bullet/Egg Vibrator if you feel uncomfortable science; in fact, our superior medical knowledge or simply find it difficult to climax with manual regards hysteria as simply normal sexual urges, stimulation. In this case always have spare There is a common argument that it is too hard to and the above described treatment for women’s batteries. The worst feeling is when you’re close recognise poly relationships in our legal system. This complaints as simply MASTURBATION, which and your vibrator decides to suicide. Also, some is nonsensical. Governments handle countless pieces is immensely healthy, and a part of the normal people get drawn into thinking they NEED a of complex regulation every single day. The idea of functioning of female sexuality and was declared vibrator like a rabbit pearl, but a bullet vibe used altering our rigid conservative marriage structure to so by the American Medical Association as late as on, around and near the clit is enough, however recognise a variety of relationship types is a simple 1972. Now, I don’t advocate that masturbation is some enjoy the fullness a phallic-like vibrator or task in comparison. Imagine if America had never especially necessary for widows, virgins, and nuns; dildo provides. Whatever you need to get you to overturned segregation laws because it was too dif- rather, I advocate that masturbation is necessary the summit, I say do it with lube. ficult? I don’t give a shit if it’s difficult; if it’s the right for ALL. We all should masturbate. We probably all thing to do it bloody well should be done! do. But to those who don’t, I ask, WHY? The clitoris contains 8,000 nerve fibres, twice as many as the penis, and 95% of females orgasm from clitoral When I masturbate I go with gusto, 2 hour stimulation, so I may appear clitoral-centric, but I should “Surely polyamory leads to unman- sessions or even till dawn; other’s it’s 2 minutes be forgiven as I’m loaded with statistics. ageable jealousy?” through the underwear with a bullet vibe. Essentially it’s whatever works best for you! But my orgasms, Clitoral-Tip Specific Techniques (requires finger dexterity like sclerosis, are multiple, or at least that’s the goal or a small vibrator): First of all, jealousy is only an acceptable part of the exercise. Up-Down Motion: with all motions one should play of our relationships because we allow it to be. You with speed and rhythm over the clitoris and clitoral hood. don’t restrict your partner from having other friends Reasons to masturbate: It’s fun, safe, I love me, besides you and you don’t restrict them from talk- I want to get to know me and my anatomy, I love This may be modified with the variant side-to-side motion, or combining up-down with side-to-side; Figure Eight; ing to people that aren’t you. What is magical about satisfying me, and it’s FREE! The list of reasons to sex? What is magical about love? You do not run masturbate is exhaustive. Masturbation is the most Tapping; Rolling/Pinching the clitoris; Circular Rubbing; Three fingers: stimulating the clitoris with the middle finger out of love, just as you don’t run out of ability to direct route to an orgasm. Learning your responses form friendships. Jealousy is something we are told to certain stimuli of the erogenous zones and as you hold open the labia; Full Rub: using the entire flat of your hand and fingers to massage. is inevitable but it is not so. When we examine jeal- getting to know your body are key in becoming ousy, it is really a bundle of emotions like envy, fear For once we must embrace our hysteria and masturbate orgasmic. of loss, frustration or confusion. When discussed for our health. Doctor’s orders! with a partner honestly and openly in an atmosphere

20 I know you’re trying to be a feminist, but you don’t have to not shave your legs. www.honisoit.com THE love Polyamory

“What is polyamory? What is the of trust, many of these disappear or can be man- difference between polyamory and aged. Sometimes it will require renegotiation of the polygamy?” relationship. These practices, far from being threat- ening, are strengthening - the communication helps the relationship flourish and grow, and frees it from Polyamory means consensual relationships with the spectre of misunderstanding. multiple partners. People often wrongly conflate polyamory with polygamy (polygamy refers to a rela- tionship structure where a man holds multiple wives “So you’re saying that monogamy is in an oppressive patriarchal relationship). Such con- wrong then?” servative polygamous relationships exist, but bear no relationship to modern polyamorous practice. In Monogamy is a legitimate relationship struc- fact polyamory is the ultimate reversal of the idea of ture individuals may choose to pursue. Most poly Madeleine Gray ‘woman as a possession’; instead of being an object Same Love people have been or will be monogamous at some owned by a man, she is free to have consensual sex, point. However, it is unjust to enforce it on every- or romantic relations, with whoever she pleases. The body through legal discrimination (eg. marriage) or idea that polyamory is inherently anti-feminist is through social stigma. People yearn for freedom, and erroneous and misleading. Feminine feminism. It’s the idea that you can like from and I don’t solve the problem by breaking up they will get it one way or another, usually through cupcakes and still be a feminist. Second wave femi- with her. We are in it together. Is this because she is cheating or constantly breaking off relationships. nism. It’s Germaine Greer throwing a burning bra a woman, or is it simply because I’d never found the “What do polyamorists want in their The desire to enforce monogamy against common at you and yelling that if you let a man protect you, right person before? struggle for recognition?” emotional and physical desires to break it can lead you are disavowing your womanhood and advocat- to destructive cycles of jealousy, mistrust and frus- ing a revocation of suffrage. I don’t think gender The reason I am happy to let a man pay for my tration. A polyamorous relationship deals with these politics are as diametrically opposed as this. I think It is impossible to speak for all – certainly some realities constructively by recognising that not all of meal is the same reason I love it when my current may want marriage extended to multiple partners, all gender relations lie on a complex spectrum that girlfriend buys me a drink. It’s because I love her one’s needs can be met by one other person neces- involves interplay between societal norms, our per- while others, including myself, want marriage as a sarily. In other words, monogamy isn’t wrong, but and when you are in a relationship with someone, legal institution to be dismantled. It is not for the sonal insecurities, and the feminist debate that runs it’s nice to have him or her show they care for you it is forced down our throats from the moment we daily on Radio National. state to endorse a single type of relationship and breathe our first breath and we’re told that it’s the and want to look out for you. This isn’t patriarchy, offer it legal legitimacy at the expense of all other it’s affection. I’ll buy her a drink later. Or maybe a only legitimate form of relationship. That’s what is For years I thought my power in relationships was types. Who I sleep with is none of anybody’s con- kebab at the end of the night. wrong. my female-ness. Before my current relationship, I cern, and if the courts and the tax office want guid- always dated men. I thought of the whole thing as ance they should offer a regime that reflects any a control game. The curve of my back, the pout of I don’t feel the need to be overtly feminine. I’m possible type of relationship, no matter how novel. “Brigitte, why are you a polyamor- just me. I make ridiculously unfunny jokes and when ist?” my lips, the (hopefully) sultry way in which I argue: all weapons I could use to ensnare the opposite sex. I’m in an awkward situation I reference it in a sing- “But it’s too hard to change the law I saw gender as something that so differentiates us it song voice. I allow myself to let my guard down. to allow Polyamorous recognition!” As I’ve said, monogamy is a legitimate relationship makes all our interactions stilted and unreal. When And perhaps this is a result of society conditioning structure individuals may choose to pursue. How- I was with a man, I think I gender-stereotyped so me to act a certain way with men. But I also think ever, I find this structure conflicts with my personal much in my head that I subconsciously forced a it is just a reflection of my own insecurities and the There is a common argument that it is too hard to morality. For me, monogamy is problematic. This is divide between us. I couldn’t understand the man way I over-intellectualize and scrutinize gender in recognise poly relationships in our legal system. This because I do not believe in the ownership of people. I was sleeping with as a person with faults, just my life. Will the next relationship I am in with a man is nonsensical. Governments handle countless pieces The idea of monogamy, and particularly monoga- like me. If he annoyed me, he would be dumped. (on the off-chance that I ever break up with the cur- of complex regulation every single day. The idea of mous marriage, is that one person must exclude Because I was a woman and I had power and society rent gf - luv u babe!) result in the same lack of com- altering our rigid conservative marriage structure to all others from sex and romantic love except their had taught me not to undervalue myself for the sake munication as it has in the past? Or will I have learnt recognise a variety of relationship types is a simple own partner, and ideally, that this partner does the of an inadequate male. from this foray into being myself with the person I task in comparison. Imagine if America had never same. In my mind this represents the very concept sleep with? All of this could just be me. But I think overturned segregation laws because it was too dif- of ownership. Ownership is claiming power over the constant feminist discourse in our post-modern ficult? I don’t give a shit if it’s difficult; if it’s the right something to exclude others, whether you actually “I think all gender relations lie on society has fucked us all up a bit. thing to do it bloody well should be done! need to or not. To be monogamous is to refuse a a complex spectrum that involves part of another person’s life that could bring them I have always seen men as a different species. “Surely polyamory leads to unman- joy at no actual expense to you - love is not a finite interplay between societal norms, our For this reason, whenever I have been romantically ageable jealousy?” resource, and sex with another does not ‘spoil’ your personal insecurities, and the feminist involved with them, I have objectified them. In my partner for you. It represents ownership over part of head I have made them something I cannot ever another human being, an empire over their love life. debate that runs daily on Radio really know. This is bullshit. Men are people too. First of all, jealousy is only an acceptable part National.” Perhaps what we need to work on is not just female of our relationships because we allow it to be. You People think this helps them keep their partners. I say, it merely delays action on discontentment. If power, but a mutual acknowledgement of person- don’t restrict your partner from having other friends hood, without gender stereotypes from either direc- besides you and you don’t restrict them from talk- your partner loves you, trusts you, wants to be with Now I am dating a woman. She’s wonderful. And tion. I think I need to give men the credit they ing to people that aren’t you. What is magical about you, the presence of others will not deny this. If they our relationship? It just happened. No complica- deserve. I need to stop thinking of them as inher- sex? What is magical about love? You do not run do not, your relationship should be renegotiated, tions, no games, no dating rules. Just two people ently less interesting and less able to have complex out of love, just as you don’t run out of ability to or it should end, as no relationship can or should who got together because they were attracted to emotions than women. Strangely enough, it has form friendships. Jealousy is something we are told exist without it benefiting both parties. Love is not each other and enjoyed each other’s company. I taken me being in a lesbian relationship to work this is inevitable but it is not so. When we examine jeal- charity. Monogamy simply helps to keep unhappy don’t second-guess her motives. When she annoys out. Not Germaine Greer, not Kathy Lette. In the ousy, it is really a bundle of emotions like envy, fear relationships alive and denies fantastic ones from me, I empathize. I understand where she is coming wise words of Macklemore - “same love”. of loss, frustration or confusion. When discussed flourishing. with a partner honestly and openly in an atmosphere This is why I say: monogamy is problematic.

I could never work under a female boss. 21 resource @honi_soit Violence against women: What every young person should know Kate O’Brien refuge.” Women’s Refuges do not just In explaining the role of RPA’s Sexual offer crisis accommodation, they also Assault Service, Simpson says “you RPAH SEXUAL ASSAULT According to the UN, 1 in 3 women provide a heap of support including can access our service if you have or SERVICE: will experience assault in their lifetime, counselling and assistance to finding believe that you have experienced any while NSW Rape Crisis Centre reports long-term accommodation as well as kind of unwanted sexual activity. You that 1 in 5 women will experience medical assistance and court support. may have been harassed, coerced, Phone: 9515 9040 sexual assault in their lifetime. Take It’s important to note that these pressured and/or forced to have a moment to think about how many services can be accessed by women sex against your will or to engage in (8.30am-5pm weekdays) women we are talking about here. regardless of whether they are living sexual behaviour to which you did not Apply these statistics to all the women After Hours Phone: 9515 6111 in Refuge accommodation or not. or were unable to give your consent.” (outside Business Hours/ in your life – the ones you like and She emphasises that the experience the ones you don’t, family, friends and Women’s Refuge staff are trained Public Holidays on-call staff to provide support to children of sexual assault can be confusing, acquaintances. These statistics are, if especially if drugs or alcohol were are available for anyone who anything, a conservative set of figures. and women from all walks of life, including Indigenous women, LBTQ involved, and strongly encourages any has experienced sexual assault Many more women experience abuse woman who has any concern about without ever reporting. women and CALD women. Howe and within the past 7 days and Souter explain that, “no matter your sexual assault to contact the service. Based on these statistics, it is a given require urgent counselling and income, ethnicity, sexual orientation The media tends to report mostly medical response) that you have already encountered or background or disability, there is on cases of sexual assault that occur and will encounter women who have support and options that a Women’s when a woman is in public – you know experienced some form of violence. Refuge can support you with.” All the typical stranger-danger script. Location: Ground Floor KGV So, how can you help support a friend services offered are free of charge. While this form of assault does in Building, Royal Prince Alfred who may have experienced violence? The staff work in prevention and fact occur, it is important to note that Tracy Howe, CEO of NSW Women’s Hospital (On Missenden Rd, education as well as crisis and post- it makes up a small percentage of all opposite Emergency Dept). Refuge Movement, and Bonnie crisis support. Women’s Refuges reported sexual assault and violence Souter, Projects Officer of NSW are basically hubs of resources and experienced by women. Most women On-call staff will be notified Women’s Refuge Movement say the information specifically designed to are at more risk of violence when if you go to Emergency most important thing to remember help women and respect their choices. they get home at night than walking is to listen, be supportive and believe about sexual assault and, Howe and Souter encourage women on the street in the dark getting there. if undergoing medical what they tell you. They also highlight to explore their options within In other words, domestic violence the importance of your reaction to refuges, saying, “refuges do their best can happen to anyone – you do not proceedings, you can request a disclosure of assault as this often to make a welcoming environment have to be a middle-aged person in a staff member to be present. impacts whether the disclosing person where all women and children feel a married, living- together situation ever comes forward again and how safe.” to experience abuse or violence. they feel about their experience. You Lisa Simpson, the Program Controlling and obsessive behaviours, NSW WOMEN’S REFUGE should “ask them what they want to stalking and emotional manipulation, do, do not gossip about it and also Manager at Eastern and Central MOVEMENT: Sexual Assault Service, Royal Prince as well as physical and sexual violence don’t promise to keep it a secret.” It can be experienced by people of all is important not to make this promise Alfred Hospital, says “sexual violence and other forms of violence against ages while dating or in a de facto Phone: 1800 65 64 63 (24/7 because you don’t want to betray the relationship, too. trust of your friend if at a later date women such as domestic violence Domestic Violence Hotline, free they don’t seem to be coping or need are considered to be gendered People often wonder why women call) for referrals to refuges and help and you have to tell someone else. crimes because the overwhelming don’t leave a violent relationship. This majority of perpetrators are men.” mentality ignores binding elements other DV services Another way to be supportive She continued to say that, “although such as the emotional manipulation, You may also be connected to of women who have experienced women can commit sexual assault, financial constraints and feelings violence is to speak out against rape refuges via the police, a doctor research findings consistently report of shame and hope the women in or the hospital. jokes and comments that make light that 95-98% of perpetrators of sexual domestic violence experience. Howe of violence against women. Even assault are male.” So, regardless of and Souter from the NSW Women’s http://www.wrrc.org.au/ challenging myths you hear about the victim’s gender, the vast majority Refuge Movement explain that “many abuse or sexual assault, including of abusers are male which in itself women arrive at a refuge with no victim-blaming sentiments such as makes this a gendered issue. bank account, no licence, no mobile medical service and provide support to people “she was asking for it” or “well, Royal Prince Alfred’s Sexual phone, no job or money for food,” who have been sexually assaulted in navigating she was walking alone” or “she was as perpetrators of violence often legal processes, including court proceedings wearing a short skirt” contributes Assault Service operates from a position which recognises the abuse try to isolate their victims in every and dealing with the police, if they choose to to a cultural change in attitudes and possible way to entrap them in the do so. Note that there is no requirement upon understandings of the complexities of power inherent in sexual assault, the responsibility of which lies solely relationship. Instead of asking why an adult who has been sexually assaulted to and variety of experiences of abuse. women don’t just leave violence, they report the crime to Police. Anyone over the By taking a stand in these everyday with the perpetrator of violence. Simpson says the RPA Sexual suggest we start asking why someone age of 14 can access their free, 24/7 services. situations, you contribute to making would be violent to someone they Simpson sums by saying, “Our advice to you is the world a better place for everyone. Assault Service takes the view that “sexual assault is an act of violence love, or how bad is the abuse that that if you have any question or concern that But let’s back up. What even is which is motivated by the desire of the perpetrator actually drives their you may have experienced sexual assault, please violence against women? Howe and the perpetrator to exert power and family out of their home. This is an contact us.” Souter of the NSW Women’s Refuge humiliate a victim.” All staff at RPA important shift away from victim- If you, or a friend, feels unsure about any Movement, the managing body behind Sexual Assault are women, however, blaming and towards understanding experiences you may have had or can recognise all 55 women’s refuges in NSW, say anyone can access the service. violence as being a crime committed your own experiences in any of the above text, that domestic violence is not only Approximately 10% of people who by an abuser. please know you are not alone. These services about physical violence, it can include access their service are men, with As an independent advocacy exist to assist women. I encourage you to explore emotional, psychological, social, people of all genders accessing the service, RPA Sexual Assault offers your options in the reliable, safe and supportive sexual, financial and verbal abuse, service due to experiences of sexual crisis and ongoing counselling and environments provided by RPA Sexual Assault explaining that “you do not have to assault as an adult and/or as a child. therapy. Many people don’t realise Service and NSW Women’s Refuges. For more wait until it gets physical to access a So what ‘counts’ as sexual assault? that they also operate as a specialist information, feel free to contact these services.

22 I hate it when women act like they know more than me. www.honisoit.com SRC Seven Steps to Living Ask Lily Violence against women: on Little Money 1. Loans, Bursaries and 5. Utilities Dear Lily, Scholarships The most obvious way to have smaller The University has a few ways to get bills for electricity, water and telephone I am in my second year in the *** faculty and trying very hard to do some extra money, sometimes as a loan. is to use them less. Carefully look at well. I’ve been asking lots of questions during and after class in order to Talk to the Financial Assistance Office the plan you are on and pick the best get a good idea on what to write in assignments. My tutor encourages and explain you situation. Of course one for your use. Consider pre-paying me in class and as far as everyone else can see I am doing quite well. there are conditions that apply which a little each fortnight so as to reduce However, my tutor has taken things too far. He invited me to his office may include being on a Centrelink pay- the bill at the end of the cycle. and touched my leg while he talked to me. I am very shy and am scared ment, how you are planning to use the about what people will say about me if I tell them. I certainly did not money, or what you grades are. Schol- 6. Food mean to confuse him about what I wanted. Now I feel that I cannot go arships are also available under certain There is a surprising amount of free circumstances. You might be surprised or very cheap food in Sydney. For back to his class. I have to do that subject at some point because it is to find how many there are available. those in the city or inner west go to compulsory. I really don’t know what to do. the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre 2. Killing Debts website, then go to their Information HG There are a few companies that can Sheets, then go to Essential Services, help to consolidate your debt. Be then Food. If you’re in other areas of very cautious about signing up with Sydney ask at churchs and community Dear HG, University’s Counselling and Psychologi- anyone without reading all of the fine centres. It is likely they will have similar cal Services offers free help to students, print. Some of them are the equivalent services. or you can ask your SRC caseworker to of you becoming bankrupt, which is I’m really sorry to hear that you are help you find someone near your home. something you might want to avoid. In 7. Health feeling confused and scared. I think the first instance talk to the SRC Solici- Having a Medicare Card can give you These services can be expensive but the that this is a common goal for people tor to see if there is a softer approach access to Bulk Billing. Students at the University offers their services to students you can use. Darlington or Camperdown campus who are trying to harass someone – use for free, and the SRC can help you find can try the University Health Service their power to make the other person someone who will only charge you the 3. Gambling (Wentworth Building). Outside of feel threatened and unsure and feeling Medicare or OSHC price. That is, will not Confidential help can be accessed at the that if you do find a doctor you like, like their concerns are not legitimate. cost you anything. Gambling Treatment Clinic on campus. who does not bulk bill, ask them if However, that’s just not right. You Remember, though, that it is ultimately The service is free. Call 9351 6346 for they will make an exception for you. have every right to feel uncomfort- details. The University also has a Counselling your decision to take whatever action you able in the situation that your tutor has Service (Jane Foss Russell Building, choose. So don’t just wait for things to created and he has a responsibility to 4. Housing Darlington campus) that is free to get worse, talk to someone about it now. make sure that you are not intimidated The UN believes that the cost of all students. If you’d like to see a The SRC are always happy to help. housing should not exceed 30% of psychologist elsewhere ask SRC Help by him. What he has done is wrong. your income. Clearly they don’t live for a list of people in your area who The University has very strict poli- in Sydney on Youth Allowance. If bulk bill (Medicare only). If you’re an cies on sexual harassment, which Lily. you fall behind in your rent you might international student some of these be eligible for a “boost” of funds by services will be covered by your private includes a safety net to ensure that Housing NSW. That’s not a loan, it’s a health insurance. Local students may your marks will not be affected if you This column offers students the opportunity to ask questions on anything that may affect their “welfare”. grant. Of course conditions apply. If be eligible for a low income health care make a complaint. This can be as personal as a question on a you are facing homelessness you might card if your average weekly earnings are Centrelink payment or as general as a question on Talk to someone regardless of be able to get emergency housing. less than $465 per week. the state of the world. This week’s women’s edition whether you want to make a com- column is presented by guest dog Lily. She is a SRC Help can give more information border collie with lots of spunk and is not too proud on both of these situations. plaint or not. You do not deserve to to get good advice. Abe returns next week so if you would like to ask him a question, send an email to feel bad about what this person has [email protected]. Abe gathers his answers done to you. The SRC has casework- from experts in a number of areas. Coupled with his own expertise on dealing with people, living on For undergraduate ers you can talk to about the processes a low income and being a dog, Abe’s answers can Free provide you excellent insight. Sydney Uni Students of making a sexual harassment com- plaint. They will explain how the uni- FREE legal advice, representation in court and a referral versity will go about investigating your service to undergraduate students at The University of Sydney. allegation and what the possible out- • Immigration Advice NEED a Justice of the Peace? comes are. There are also university • Tenancy law Our solicitor will certify documents staff members who can explain these • Credit & debt & witness statutory declarations • Discrimination & harassment processes. The SRC caseworkers can • Traffic offences Appointments also suggest other courses of action • Criminal law Phone 02 9660 5222 that can consider. This might include Drop-in sessions • Employment law things like changing tutorial classes, (no appointment needed) • Administration (gov) law changing your phone number and • Victims compensation Tuesdays & Thursdays 1pm-3pm Location using informal resolution processes. • Consumer complaints Level 1 (basement) Wentworth Have you liked • Domestric violence Building, City Road, Darlington It may also be a good idea to talk to • Insurance law someone about the way you feel. This us on Facebook? • University complaints may be a counsellor or your GP. The • And more ... please ask us www.facebook.com/SrcHelp

That’s a really good point, but maybe you should get your male colleague to say it so people will listen more. 23 SRC @honi_soit Vice President’s Report [email protected] Amelie Vanderstock responds to a letter in last weeks Honi Unfortunately, Harry Stratton needs to vote is evidence of corruption? at Walmadan to stop the destruction of and their heritage in order to gain master the humble Google search engine Yet with such threats to land and their lands and of their songlines. The the economic and social support that before announcing ‘I tend to research livelihood, only 60% of the indigenous Lurujarri Heritage Trail follows part every other Australian living in my claims.’ Indeed, the Kimberley representatives voted yes. That’s not of a traditional Aboriginal Song Cycle cities across the country receive? Land Corporation initially voted 60% exactly an ‘overwhelming vote in favour.’ which goes directly through Walmadan. in favour of the LNG processing plant I’d agree that those traditional owners In September 2011, after Walmadan It’s really really easy for ‘inner city going ahead in the Kimberley region. ‘know a damn sight more about where (James Price Point) had been confirmed trendies’ such as ourselves to argue That must have appeared in the first their songlines are’ ‘’than the both of us. as the exact location of the gas hub, within the lines of a student newspaper. search option. However, Harry, I’m traditional owners from across the Evidently, indigenous communities of It’s harder to sustain solidarity when sorry to inform you that quite a great Kimberley denounced the Kimberley the Kimberley are not a homogenised complex questions of environmental deal of supreme court level corruption Land Council as their legal entity and mass and there were those in favour of and social justice are playing out in the has occurred on the part of the WA announced their staunch opposition to the project due to its economic benefits real world. Community campaigning in government on this issue. the project. The Goolarabooloo people or otherwise. But making an ‘indigenous the Kimberley demonstrates the coming Prior to the vote, the Goolarabooloo/ even went so far in their opposition benefits package’ contingent on the together of not just ‘professional Jabbir Jabbir people had been threatened of the project to invite Sea Shepherd project is evidence that State and Federal protestors’, but everyday people for by the WA Government that if the Conservation Organisation, amongst governments are still withholding from intersecting reasons. Whether they feel Kimberley Land Council voted against other ‘professional protestor friends’ remote indigenous communities, and personally afflicted or no, they choose the LNG proposal their land would be to join them on their land, in their using autonomy as a bargaining tool. to fight corporations to save the land compulsorily acquired, the project would fight. Does that sound like the actions I feel quite comfortable labelling that of a peoples for generations to come. go ahead anyway, and they would not of people who wanted the project to as corruption. Is it not a repetition of Hopefully the rest of the country receive the compensation package which ensue? Community campaigning then ‘paternalistic policies of the past’ when agrees that autonomy and justice to would arrive if they voted ‘yes’. Surely, took form as Indigenous elders and indigenous Australians are forced to indigenous Australians is long overdue. such threats entwined in a ‘democratic’ community members set up a blockade compromise their lands, their beliefs Sexual Harassment [email protected] Officers’ Report Tabitha Prado-Richardson has advice for anyone targeted by creepy stalker-space websites Hi! I’m Tabitha, and with Eve and On that topic (of comfort), any that she was unable to state Rose we are the SRC Sexual Harassment person who has had experiences with her true wishes (of wanting Officers. This year we’ve been working being harassed or stalked is likely to to be left alone) in fear of on campaigns in conjunction with be alarmed at some of the posts being upsetting the man. Even the Women’s Officers, and we started made on the confessional Facebook though he was a complete a campaign called SWAG (Sydney sites, ‘USYD: Confessions’ and ‘USYD: stranger, his wants were Women’s Action Group) Against Spotted’. Not at all like Gossip Girl, I’m prioritised over her own. Sexism and Sexual Harassment. afraid. I myself feel a little more exposed Here are all the things We want to focus on prevention of and worried on campus knowing the I want to say to this girl, sexual harassment, providing services thoughts of particular students who wherever you are: to people who experience sexual racialise and sexualise other people to to talk to them because they liked harassment, and also take a positive excess, especially after being validated 1. I know how you feel, sometimes them just on the basis of their looks angle to sex and consent. Hopefully by (non-anonymous???) commenters. being nice seems like the only thing you are really creepy. It happens far more soon we will be providing lots of free Somehow these commenters are facing can do without being seen as a ‘bitch’, to women, presumably because they’re condoms, pregnancy tests and sexual no repercussions for either encouraging and anyone who shames you for not not supposed to have personalities health resources for y’all. bad behaviour, or shaming other people ‘saying no’ has got it wrong. (oops). Each to their own, but it’s also Our belief is that sex should be fun, without due reason (slut-shaming and 2. For future reference though, being good to be reflexive about your own free and informed, rather than a source fat-shaming are common). a bitch to people you don’t know is pick-up techniques, so. of anxiety. However, we also want to One particular post that stood out 100% okay. His feelings were never 4. I hope next time you feel okay to say support students whose experiences was one written by a woman who your responsibility. It’s ok to tell people ‘Leave me alone S’IL VOUS PLAIT’ have led them to be fearful or recounted her experiences with a man to shove it, because it’s your life and it’s with a sense of empowerment, because apprehensive of sex. Sexual expression who followed her off a bus, insisting your boundaries and it’s not a crime to each time you define boundaries it’s like should not be held to a standard and on conversation. She managed to lose be a bitch. This society necessitates it. eating a really delicious empowerment should be entirely down to what anyone him after her lecture, but the main issue 3. This is my personal opinion, but is comfortable with. that came out of this experience was cookie. people who follow other people round Much love, The SRC Sexual Harassment Officers xoxox Environment Department contact your SRC Students working together for environmentalIndigenous and social justice,Department and sustainability. Queer Collective disabilities.officer A voice for indigenous Australian Students working together for justice [email protected] students on and off campus. for gay, lesbian and transgender people. (all emails @src.usyd.edu.au) admin.assistant queer.officers Women’s Collective Organises events and campaigns around issues affecting women on Environment Department International Students Department Disabilities Department campus - from harrassment and Students working together for Lobbies to ensure the rights of Assists students with any form environmental and social justice, and discrimination to better representation international students. of disability, and carers, with amy in our chosen fields! sustainability. dofficulties they may face during their international.officers [email protected] environment.officers time at university.

24 You shouldn’t go into medicine because you won’t have time to do womanly things. - a female doctor www.honisoit.com SRC

Disability Officers’ Report [email protected] Sarah Chuah talks about the struggles facing carers Since the 1970’s there has been a the recognition and rights of one group This year we are working hard to noticeable shift in the appreciation of remains largely ignored. raise awareness about student carers disability matters in Australia. From a The systemic move away from at university, with an emphasis on concern over welfare for the disabled, institutionalised care means that recognition and establishing support today we recognise the rights for those more and more family members and mechanisms which help eliminate with disabilities to participate in and friends of people with disability, who the gap in education participation engage fully with society. We are also are frail, elderly, have mental health, and success and allow student witnessing a change in attitudes toward chronic health or substance abuse carers to realise their full potential mental illness. Statistics telling us that problems, must provide care for their in tertiary education. Similar to one in four Australians will suffer some loved ones with little to no support. the shift from welfare to rights of form of mental illness in their lifetime, Although caring can be a rewarding those with disabilities, there is a forces the issue into the public and, and fulfilling experience with the need to acknowledge the substantial with the issue of over diagnosis aside, potential to strengthen relationships, contribution that carers make to arguably helps dissolve stigmas that it places additional strain on the carer society and support them adequately support for another person to complete have long been attached to mental illness who must continue to meet their own in their endeavours. a quick 10 question survey which can be diagnosis. While those with disabilities educational, financial, psychological, We are currently collecting data and accessed through our Facebook page www. and mental health issues have benefitted social, emotional, and health needs stories of student carers at university facebook.com/USYDdisabilities.carers, from these advances in recent decades, while looking after those of another. and encourage anyone who provides or contact us for more information.. Education Officers’ Report [email protected] Tenaya Alattas wants to take Class Action in a safe environment

Class Action is a network formed privatized outside of our pay-range and Action’ to be a network, which is truly to address the current crises in our no communal space to access to fridges, inclusive, participatory and capable of education system. Its political impulse sinks and stoves) and organising an open effecting radical change, it is important is caught in its title: class action. It spaces-open-mic night, documentary for the members to recognize that begs the question though, is ‘class’ the viewings, party-planning, drafting safer- oppressive behavior will occur in our primary axis on which to measure our spaces policies, grievance collectives/ networks and is not always “out-there”. oppression, understand our experiences conflict resolution models, creating On the corollary it is important to stress and hope to be liberated from through the program (40 workshops, plenaries, that the goal of a safer environment grassroots organising? Or does the strategic all-in’s) etc. etc. and ending under-writing ‘class action’ is to not designated the conference a safer space, title belie something more insidious, it all with the creation of a national police people’s language and behavior, to make explicit the political decision to an assertion perhaps of the primacy of education-activist network. It follows or to be the best at safer space, but prioritise the voices of people who are class, with oppressions (of gender, race, that wrangling with the complexities to support each other in challenging usually silenced. In fact, we only have to abilities etc.) relegated to a secondary of recognition/identity politics vs. class some deeply engrained cultural and look around us in our classrooms and role, seen as an effect of class struggle and distribution took the back-burner economic systems. in our activist circles to see that they (rather than an experience within it’s during those four days. In fact, given the prevailing cultures are dominated by white, cis-gendered, own right)? It is important that I clarify that of racism, sexism, transphobia and middle-class university students. For the organisers of the conference, the question I raised earlier is not ableism in an oppressive economic To this end, I will finish this report facilitating a convergence for the leveled at the semantics of the title system it would be a miracle if we with a shout-out to some of amazing radical left was a momentous task ‘class action’, but rather to stress that had not taken on (or internalized) organisers I had the pleasure to help on its own accord. Coordinating the for us to fight for a (better, different, ways of behaving that oppress others realize the Edufactory vision with, a accommodation for those travelling alternative) education, it is important and ourselves. So rather than arguing group of the strongest, most intelligent- inter-state (thank-you STUCCO), for us to prefigure the world we want whether these ‘isms’ do exist; or awe inspiring, super supportive/talented making healthy-vegan food for attendees to create through our own actions and viewing ‘gender, race etc’ as ‘divisive’ amazing wom*n : Amelie, Elly, Casey, Clo, (on a campus whose outlets are organisations. Therefore, for ‘Class issues, the organising collective Mariana, Brigitte, Nina and Helen <3

Of course, you’re a woman, so why did I think you’d be able to understand logic? 25 satire @honi_soit

*in the case you’re a lady The F-Game: picking up a lady, see Section 5 A girls' guide to phallic hunting and Phoebe ‘Lusty’ Moloney & Julia ‘Rabbit’ Readett fArtwork: Madeleine ‘The Paint Brush’ Pfull ishing Prepping: Wall flowering Props - necessary tools and tricks you will When creating a killer need on your person ensemble keep in mind that + The gender card Endowed with two eyes, it follows that men are very men can be easily intimidated by forward or out-there + Flash cards to appeal to his visual needs visual/aesthetic creatures. If your use of aural signification is proving tiresome for your target, don’t be afraid to shake clothing, such as dresses and + Football things up with a few visual cues (See ‘Props’: flashcards) skirts. Make the target feel at Ensure that you do not talk AND dance/ eat/ laugh/ ease by donning the print of his favourite pub, sports club ‘snog’ at the same time. Forcing your target to multitask or ‘man cave’. Approaching Destmanation may cause overheating, and in rare cases, a spot fire. DO NOT overestimate your man’s intelligence. Us Sistas have always believed in using science Unfortunately this has proven to be the Achilles Heel of to the game’s best advantage. Thankfully, many a great woman, from blessed Ophelia to poor Katie much scientific research is angled at Holmes. No matter the profundity of his facial hair, seeing- Sex talk: Unfortunately, it’s in the gentlebeans demystifying the deceptively simple aids or ‘ironic’ t-shirts (t-shirts that have not been ironed), nature to assume we are actually interested in their nature of man. Recently, ground-breaking only a rookie mistakes a dishevelled aesthetic for actual small, insubstantial lives. Obviously, if we were experiments conducted at the prestigious mental agility. Speak in monosyllables, and if you really craving some stimulating chit chat, we wouldn’t be Sealed Section of the C.O.S.M.O institute, want to drive a point home, rap it. talking to them. What’s a girl gotta do if she’s got sex revealed 99.7% of real men are “heaps on the brain? Say it loud and clear...without actually turned on” by the female orgasm face. Let saying it, of course! Try some of these alluring lines the truth be yelled from the mountain Sealing the deal and rhymes out on friends and family at home! You top: all you ladies who approach with a could even try and come up with some yourself, but, pout are just wasting time! In the case your destmanation is unresponsive being asexual, you’ll find it pretty hard. Loosen up girls because, as every Sista to the above tactics, it’s time to bring knows, the best first-impression always out the BIG GUNS. (Note: SEX TALK TIPS: starts with a capital ‘o’. Here’s how it’s played: unresponsiveness may simply be an expression of target’s usual state. Test this before Weather Brrr. It’s a bit nipply out, isn’t it? The ‘O’pproach proceeding. See ‘Props’: Football) Music Yeah, I hear he’s a huge pianist on the funk When fixing your make-up be scene. sure to also fix a façade of utter ravishment upon your frontage The Cocktail: (review Chapter 9, “Until you make Uncertainty Come again? it”) “Wow, I bet you’re not MAN Enter the fold and identify your enough to drink this FIFTEEN Politics I just don’t agree with their stance destmanation. Drop your jaw 2cm standard drink concocktion. on the penile code. If they lower than where it already was. Whoah! You are!” Now you’ve increased the stimulus package, I’d be Strut. got him right where you want down with that. Make contact (an assertive nudge him… the state Rabbit and I will suffice) and hold ‘O’ for at least coyly describe as, “Drunk as Copulation.” Sisterly chortles all Food Golly! Choosing from the menu just 5 secs before sensually shrieking your gets harder every time I come here!. own name. For added affect, maintain round! …you know, darling, you should really complete eye contact (this means masticate before you swallow. no blinking girls!) or if you’re a real The put down Pick-up: shark, like Rabbit and I, practice eye- roll-back technique. This technique is played on girls Now that you’ve got Watch him squirm with delight! too, but, as it is downright abhorrent him all hot and bothered, The ‘O’pproach: unrefined, spontaneous and for the male sex to harbour any we’ll leave ‘the rest’ up primal. Let him know you speak his language. insecurities, indeed, any ambivalence at to you. But don’t worry all, the put-down pick up works best sista, since the dawn of on men. Time to remind him of his time women just like you Station Flirtation shamefully simple complexes! “How and I have been practising quaint! - A man without a six pack in the art of the pick up. When embarking on what we at F-game like to sight!” “Golly! Is that the third-eye Some call it ‘women’s call, ‘linguistic foreplay’ it’s always best to keep the of enlightenment I see here?… my intuition’, but we call it: capabilities of your target in mind. Here’s a few mistake, it’s just a third nipple”, “Are pointers to keep your game as smooth as a melting you peacocking or is that your natural the F-Game. Sundae. nose?” Section 5: Kjdkjasnddlzkjfhxinnsme,...... (Eds note: Unfortunately, our knowledgable guides could not offer more on this point - after spontaneously combusting.)

26 I usually hire girls as law clerks. I can tell them what to do more easily than guys. www.honisoit.com satire Feminist vs. Eve Radunz investigates: average human How to tell if Subeta Vimalarajah your man is a Men’s Rights Every feminist faces a constant battle Scenario Two: Asked to make cupcakes Scenario Five: Family friend asks you between feminist theory and everyday for 10 year old sister’s primary school to babysit 3 year-old. Activist in 10 life. It leaves many of us confused as bake sale. Average human: Decent money, love easy steps: to whether we’re sexually empowered Average human: Should I use a White children. or objectified; whether we’re exercising Wings or Donna Hay packet mix? choice or being oppressed by the Feminist: The purpose of this Feminist: This bake sale is clearly patriarchy. Although seemingly serious, request is unashamedly clear—to being coordinated by a male teacher 1. He hates women, it was only when sitting down with a condition you into the traditional who is trying to oppress my poor sister. group of “feminist sisters” did I realise maternal role. This male has heard including a deep I must use this as an opportunity to that whilst well intentioned, this meant about your aspirations to be a high show her that idealised gender roles and resentment for his that sometimes we were all, a little bit, flying corporate lawyer and attempts femininity exist only to be subverted. completely crazy. This in mind, I present to quash such dreams in their mother Dad will have to cook the cupcakes and you with five ordinary scenarios of the formative stages. This has one end— they will be marked with licorice vulvas responses of your average feminist to prevent you from challenging the as a stamp of empowerment, making a versus that of your average human male legal discourse and to free up 2. He claims that girls clear reference to Judy Chicago’s seminal being. a position on the High Court for his feminist installation Dinner Party. son. The only circumstance in which just don’t like “nice First though, a few disclaimers: this job is to be taken is if the money 1. This article uses hyperbole. guys”, which is why Scenario Three: Miss gender studies is redirected straight into an Afghani Remember hyperbole? The one you lecture because you were with your women’s education trust or if during he’s such a sexy badass learnt in year ten English. Or maybe boyfriend. the course of babysitting you choose earlier, if you’re a technique legend. De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex or Average human: The lecture is 2. To all men: try not to form a Naomi Woolf’s The Vagina as the recorded, no biggie. 3. He loves his penis… 100m exclusion zone around me, I do bedtime story. not want to singlehandedly castrate Feminist: He did this on purpose! He like a lot all of you. Some of you, maybe. wants to limit my knowledge so I can’t #reasonablefeminist join with my feminist sisters in rebellion against the patriarchy. He also clearly Necessary Justification: So in 4. He frequently finds wants me to fail my degree so I’ll be reflecting on the crazy, don’t forget Here goes: financially dependent on him, restricting to remember the disclaimers. But solace in the website us to the archetype of oppressor and equally, don’t dismiss the underlying avoiceformen.com Scenario One: Guy pays for romantic oppressed. Such blatant repression must content. All of these scenarios come meal at nice restaurant on first date. not go unnoticed. I will kindly ask him to from genuine thoughts, even if and the subreddit /r/ come to my next gender studies tutorial. their responses are misrepresented. Average human: What a nice and mensrights Then, in a planned act of patriarchal The point of illustrating them, thoughtful gesture. destruction, his crime will be named however, is not to say that any of Feminist: You must not accept this and shamed, giving him the label he so them are overwhelmingly correct or meal, nor should you ever see this clearly deserves: misogynist. overwhelmingly irrational, but rather 5. He makes rape jokes man again. His motives are clear, the to question exactly how they fit into food he has paid for is a patriarchal feminism (get ready for some brief device to oppress you. He is clearly just Scenario Four: Male sex partner suggests preaching). 6. He has a video feeding into the cultural narrative of doggie style. commodifying sexuality, thinking that Average human: It is one of many blog about his life paying for this meal entitles him to your positions; no harm in trying it. Feminism is not a codified set of as an MRA and the holy temple. Clearly no man with such rules that define your existence. There Feminist: The name says it all. He now is no one conception of feminism, oppression he faces reductionist and misogynistic views sees you as both subservient to the male could be a potential civil union partner. or one ideal feminist. Feminism only gender and whole human race, akin to exists as an ideological standpoint that Perhaps you should consider political the friendly and lovable canine—eaten lesbianism instead. in all its diversity seeks a common end: 7. He insists that in some societies and left caged and equality. But that doesn’t mean that we beaten in others. This is a slippery slope. have to be social battering rams along all feminists are Next he will be fashioning new sex the way. If we want to make cupcakes misandrists positions with the intention to further with pink frosting because they demean you—ratty style, insect style, taste better, or if you enjoy doggie foliage style and no doubt one day: style – go for it. Because feminism 8. He would never inanimate object style. There is only is not just about equality, it’s about one feminist sex position: you on top, empowerment. And after all, if we let let your son be engulfing him as he whimpers for mercy it be the oppressive force in our lives - beneath you; the most true and visceral what would be the point of men? circumcised act to symbolise equality. 9. He doesn’t check his privilege

10. He wears a fedora

...... And these were just a selection. Total submissions: 108 27 Women’s Honi

All welcome to join

Hermann’s Lawns 5pm - 7pm Thursday 9th May