Category: feminism


Melinda Tankard Reist and the feminism debate

Filed under: atheism, feminism, pornography — 1 Comment
January 23, 2012

You may have heard/read comments, many of them hostile, about Australian anti-porn campaigner Melinda Tankard Reist flying thick and fast in recent days. This attention was generated in the wake of her “outing” as a pro-life feminist with alleged connections to Canberra’s Belconnen Baptist Church, which to atheist bloggers and tweeters appeared to indicate MTR was a traitor to the feminist cause and a worthy target for verbal abuse (even, so I hear, threats of physical violence). I have my own views on feminism, and on MTR’s stance and tactics, which I may share later. But for now, here are the links to some of the main stories. Feel free to add your comments.

Original story by Rachel Hills in the SMH Sunday Life mag (8 Jan)

Blog post at No Place for Sheep that started the fight (10 Jan)

Follow-up blog post at No Place For Sheep (14 Jan)

Blog post at Mamamia giving some context (18 Jan)

Bianca Hall in the SMH (18 Jan)

Jill Singer in the Herald Sun (18 Jan)

Eva Cox on New Matilda (18 Jan)

Melinda Tankard Reist responds in The Canberra Times (21 Jan)

Julia Baird in the SMH (21 Jan)

Crispin Hull in The Canberra Times (21 Jan)

Anne Summers in the SMH (22 Jan)

Miranda Devine in the Herald Sun (22 Jan)

Rachel Hills follow-up post on her blog (23 Jan)

Renata Klein & Susan Hawthorne on ABC Religion & Ethics (25 Jan)

Cathy Sherry in the SMH (25 Jan)

And this interview by Jane Hutcheon (11 Nov 2011)

Your thoughts? Any significant articles/interviews I’ve missed? Let me know.
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Celebrating gender differences

Filed under: feminism, gender — Leave a comment
March 1, 2011

Elizabeth Farrelly at Sydney airport recently

We have seen enormous changes in the last 50 years in the roles and status of women in Australian society.  Some would say the pendulum has swung too far.  Elizabeth Farrelly, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday, observed that men, “if not altogether endangered, could do with a spot of affirmative action themselves.”

She says women want to share child-rearing and home-making roles with men, but she worries that women’s growing assertiveness “will leave men emasculated, underperforming and disgruntled.”

And she laments the demise of the ancient concept of chivalry, with “its inherent paradox: a gracious, heroic, woman-respecting tradition that was rejected by feminism as a patronising put-down.

Many will disagree, of course, claiming that the whole point of feminism was to abolish distinctive gender roles.  But we all know that women and men are essentially different – equal, but different.  So let’s celebrate what we each bring to human community, respecting and honouring one another amid the challenges and opportunities of life in the 21st century. 

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 27 February 2011.

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