The Sydney Feminists

I’m writing this for Eurydice Dixon, who was raped and murdered by a man as she walked home from a comedy gig, but I’m also writing this for all of us.  Eurydice Dixon struck a chord with us, especially women I think, because she could have been any of us. We can all relate to her. Even though she is, devastatingly, the thirtieth Australian woman murdered this year according to Destroy the Joint , Eurydice’s story is absolutely universal. We’ve all had to get home alone, maybe not from a gig, but from a bar or friend’s house or even just from work, at some point. And if not all of us, then the vast majority, have felt the powerlessness of being harassed or intimidated by a man. Most of us can recall feeling scared the harassment we’ve endured might’ve escalated. I have a six-minute walk from my closest train station to my door, and I have been harassed on the way home. In the space of six minutes. Multiple times. I think we relate to Eurydice so strongly, because most, if not al...

    Irene Bedard is one of the most famous and respected Native Americans working in Hollywood today. Her career spans nearly twenty-five years and ranges from acting to producing credits. She is probably best known as the voice behind the title character of Disney’s 1995 animation Pocahontas . The movie broke new ground for the studio but was also not received well for its representation of Native Americans and its historical inaccuracies. Bedard also heads a production company dedicated to "bringing positive, inspirational stories from Indian Country to the world". Born in Anchorage, Alaska, on July 22 nd , 1967, Bedard had her film acting debut in the mid-1990s. Besides Pocahontas , she has featured in Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee (1994), Into the West (2005) and small parts in other films and television series. Bedard regularly plays Native American characters. She received a Golden Globe nomination in 1995. She reprised her Disney Princess in it...

You’ve probably heard the news about safe access zones and you’re probably as thrilled as I am with the result. This will be brief, but I’ve been waiting a long time to have good news in regards to reproductive health for women so allow me to indulge. Public Health Amendment (Safe Access to Reproductive Health Clinics) Bill 2018 passed. It passed. We did it. We took another step towards equality, towards respecting women, to improving safe medical care for women and a step away from patriarchal control. Credit: Twitter @PennySharpemlc So thank you to the ministers who listened to the women and people who needed this bill. And thank you to everyone who campaigned for this, or for the as yet unpassed End12/ decriminalisation of abortion over the past few years. What does this bill actually mean? This bill will establish 150m “safe access zones” around abortion clinics. Within the 150m it will be illegal to intimidate, harass or film people accessing the clinic. The bill a...

The distribution of women and men in executive positions in the Banking Industry is unequal, as with many high earning positions. The recent Banking Royal Commission has uncovered dirt from major banks; speculation says women are the source of the problem. As quoted in an Australian Newspaper article a previous board member for a logistics company, Chris Corrigan, stated that the AMP board executive Catherine Brenner (who resigned) was only in that position due to her gender, implying that her company’s mistake was entirely hers. Essentially, recent revelations have pointed the finger at gender quotas (ensuring that executive positions are to have a certain percentage of women) and the women who are elected into these positions are underqualified. This sort of misinformation has a detrimental effect on all industries in terms of promoting women.  Simply, gender quotas are a target distribution of all genders for a certain workplace or position. Gender quotas (also all othe...

A year ago, in May 2017, the Abortion Law Reform bill–spearheaded by Greens’ MP Dr Mehreen Faruqi–was sadly defeated in the upper house. The bill was attempt to provide safe access zones and ensure removal of abortion from the NSW crimes act, allowing women (and of course non-binary and trans men, all affected by our patriarchal laws) to access necessary medical care without judgement or harassment. Though community opinion polling revealed the people of NSW overwhelmingly behind the removal of abortion offences from the NSW crimes act, a majority male parliament voted against the bill. Credit: Twitter Dr Faruqi said at the time : “I am disappointed that the NSW Legislative Council has voted to keep abortion a Crime in NSW, a position that is completely out of step with modern medical practice, community expectation and laws in almost all other states…  But the genie is out of the bottle now, more people than ever are awakened to this injustice and I am confident that u...

There are some jobs in life that require you to stand up to attacks, some of them for a sustained period of time, and master both defensive and offensive strategies to survive.  The military comes to mind, as does the police, security forces and government.  If you are in one of these positions, you need to brace yourself for attacks either on your person or against your character. Feminists also have to be prepared, all day and every day, for attacks, both physical and emotional.  The difference is that people doing the aforementioned jobs get paid and respected, whereas feminists don’t get paid and are rarely valued or respected.  They also don’t get taken seriously.  For example, a military General’s knowledge of battle strategies is considered superior to the layperson’s knowledge of this subject, but when a feminist states a learned fact, every Tom, Dick and (sometimes) Mary has a more “valid” opinion on the topic (frequently based on a tabloid article ...

You probably heard that Luke Lazarus was found not guilty of sexual assault this week. What you might not have heard is that he was found not guilty despite a jury and two judges determining that the complainant, Saxon Mullins, had NOT consented to sex with him. Upon finding that piece of information out, most people are confused. If someone doesn’t consent, isn’t that rape? Well, the answer to that question might depend on where you live. Saxon Mullins’ identity has been protected for five years because she is a sexual assault complainant. Five years ago, Saxon Mullins was eighteen and had the first sexual encounter in her life. I don’t want to detail that encounter here. It’s Mullins’ story. If you aren’t familiar with this case, here are Mullins’ own words , but if you can’t read them, for brevity I will point out that the sex happened within four minutes of the pair meeting and it was anal. Mullins calls the encounter rape. Lazarus states it was a misunderstanding. Laza...