The Sydney Feminists

The first time I ever heard Caitlin Moran’s ‘How to Be A Woman’ mentioned was in the postscript of Holly Bourne’s ‘Am I Normal Yet?’ – the book that was my gateway into feminism. It was funny and relatable to me as a young teenager, and managed to deal with the delicate topics of mental illness and misogyny in a way that kept me turning pages. Bourne says that Moran’s work ‘really did change [her] life’ in regards to feminism, so I was super excited to read it when I found it in a bookstore. Yet, it turned out to be different from what I was expecting.  Image of Caitlin Moran. She has long dark hair with a blonde area near the top of her head. She is wearing a red and blue button up flannel shirt. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/books/review/moranifesto-caitlin-moran.html  Being a woman who grew up in the 2000s, I found it difficult to relate to Moran’s 1980s childhood, and found more similarities in Bourne’s books which I loved. Moran argues that humour is necessary for de...

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....

The ‘Rosie the Riveter’ poster is a cultural and historical feminist icon. The image first emerged during World War II as propaganda to promote women’s involvement in the workforce while men were at war. Controversies such as women’s wage, celebrity involvement and ‘Rosie’ as a white feminist symbol are covered in this article. Although the image was not initially intended as a symbol for the women’s liberation, the political dissemination of the image and powerful social reception are worth looking into. This article will use Doerr & Milman’s (2014) method of visual analysis. This involves a content and iconographic analysis of the image as well as a contextual analysis of its emergence. This article will additionally explore how the image is still used and responded to in contemporary society. Content Analysis and Iconography ‘Rosie the Riveter’ is an image of a white woman wearing working man’s uniform with rolled up sleeves staring directly into the camera under t...