The Sydney Feminists

Before anyone assumes I’m a man-loathing, unromantic based on what I thought was a mildly amusing title, I would like to preface this piece by stating I do hope to be married someday. One day, I want to look at someone and think “gee, I could wake up next to you forever”. It’s not even a question. I’m a hopeless romantic at heart, and I look forward to finding the man or woman I get to make happy (and sometimes miserable) for the rest of my life. This article has nothing to do with hating marriage, and everything to do with recognising divorce as an important component of women’s liberation. Image Description: Photo of a marriage certificate being cut in half by a pair of orange scissors. There is also an orange rose laid out on the marriage certificate, which is cut in half as well. The head of the rose is on the right half and the stem is on the left. A loose leaf is also on the right, while a loose petal is on the left. The certificate is set against a plain white table....

Review:  Power Up: How Smart Women Win in the New Economy by Magdalena Yesil (Review copy provided courtesy of the publisher) Magdalena Yesil travelled from Turkey to the United States to go to college and became a pioneering entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. Most recently, she’s known for early investment in Salesforce, now a multibillion dollar company and cofounder of Broadway Angels, a group of female investors that invest in start-ups. Power Up is written for women building careers in tech, but really, it is applicable to anyone building a professional or business career. Yesil offers realistic advice about building a career in male dominated business including guidance on topics that people (but especially women) can struggle with, like sexual dynamics, getting credit for work and pay imbalances among other things. It’s an effortless book to devour, mostly because Yesil’s voice comes through clear, personal and genuine. Her story is inspiring and you are immedi...

Two Thursday’s ago, I sat on a bus after a long day at work and I openly cried.  I didn’t give one single f*ck who saw me.  It would be a safe bet to think my marshmallow eyes were in some way the result of my outrage at the floodgates recently opened by mainstream media reporting on the abuse of women by men in power.  In October 2017, the news of Harvey Weinstein ’s behaviour broke and there was a proliferation of the #metoo hashtags popping up in status updates and newsfeeds across all social media platforms. Men  did some fantastic white-knighting, coming to the defence of women through the lens of their fatherhood, as if our humanity is predicated on our position as someone’s daughter.  If I read another man say he, qua Dad, feels for all these poor, abused women because he has daughters, I might pop each eyeball out, slowly, and consume them, with a nice chianti.  But this is not why I was crying.  Despite the rock that still ...

A sexually submissive feminist activist sheds light on why being a sub doesn't conflict with being a bad ass feminista. (An abridged version of this piece was published in Cosmopolitan Magazine on Monday 4th of September, 2017.) Discliamer: The views in this piece reflect the opinion of the author. Feminism is diverse and there are many differing opinions on this subject. Q. There’s a common viewpoint that you can’t be a feminist and submissive as it goes against everything feminism is about. Can a person be a feminist and a submissive? Yes I've heard these comments on many occasions before, expressed by both men and women who when they learn of my sexual submissiveness in conversation after also knowing I'm a strong feminist activist, tell me things like "that's an oxymoron" or "you can't be a feminist and submissive. That's just being a hypocrite”, or even “how does that work?”  But you most certainly can be both an impassioned and ...

Feminism… What is feminism? How has it become one of the most trending topics of all time? Do people have a complete knowledge of it? Questions like these always raise topics to discuss. Men these days are blaming feminism for the ‘unequal’ treatment of males. According to many men, women are not using their rights in a ‘correct’ manner. They claim that women are taking all these rights for granted. They are building this notion that women are misusing their rights and trying to degrade men. Ideas like these are often created by the people who want to establish a false image of Feminism. They see each ‘ Feminist ‘ as someone who wants to lower the position of men in order to uplift women’s status in the society. However, it’s indicative of their lack of knowledge that they see Feminists as ruthless rebels who want to conquer the world! So, it’s necessary for each man as well as each woman to have a complete knowledge of what feminism actually is. Let’s read further to gain...

Mary Pickford was an actress who is synonymous with silent film and early Hollywood. In 1919, she formed the film studio United Artists alongside other screen legends of the day; Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith. Chaplin had become famous playing the Tramp in comedies and was known internationally. Fairbanks was one of the most sought after male leads of his era and known for doing his own, dangerous stunts. At the time, he was also married to Pickford. Griffith was one of the first great directors. He popularised many common camera techniques and angles that, as a modern audience, we take for granted today. One of the first close-up shots in a Hollywood film featured Pickford in Friends (1912). Pickford had been acting in plays since an early age to support her family. Her mother, sister and brother – Charlotte, Lottie and Jack – were all vaudeville actors too. Pickford’s father died when she was y...

In 1937 Walt Disney Animation Studios released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . The film was a commercial success with ground breaking visuals. It was the world’s first feature-length animation with over 1.5 million hand drawn cells being used for its production. With a number of timeless classics following in only a few short years ( Pinocchio , Fantasia , Dumbo and Bambi ), the studio quickly obtained a reputation for pioneering innovation. Like Walt Disney himself, the studio’s Nine Old Men animators (as they were affectionately known in later years) had reached a level of celebrity and praise for their work. Little was publicly known about the handful of women that had made the transition from the ink and paint departments to join the male animators. They worked for less money and, in many cases, didn’t even receive a credit on the final film to acknowledge their contributions. Though the records are scarce, there are four female animators who standout: Bianca Majolie, Sylvia ...