Two things..

First thing:

I've noticed some traffic coming from the Swinburne media website. If you're doing Media Project A this semester and you're thinking about doing something on feminism, I really recommend you put down Esther Milne as your preferred supervisor. Esther was a brilliant help with my project and I'm grateful for her time and conversation. Whatever project you decide to do, I hope you find it as rewarding as I found my project. Good luck!


Second thing:

I've decided to combine The Friedan Project with my (new) personal blog so that I can post more updates more easily. I won't be posting on here anymore so if you want to keep reading, you can find all my stuff at

www.kilgorescreed.tumblr.com

A new law being brought in in LA will require porn actors to wear condoms in their films.

While it might not be an obvious connection to make, this is awesome news for women (both on and off the screen)!

Female actors in porn movies will be more protected against the risk of HIV, other STI's, and pregnancy, and women in the "real world" might not feel as pressured into unsafe sex just because "that's how everyone else does it".

While it might be a bit difficult to enforce, I really hope this law takes off!

Advice from my grandmother

I've written about my grandmother before. She's brave, and strong, and a little bit crazy. But I thought I'd share with you one of her less-crazy quotes:

"You don't need another person to make you a person. You ARE a person"

Confusing? Yes. But SO true. So so true.

Girls: Stop looking for someone to "complete" you! You're not an unfinished person, you are your own creation and you do not need a boyfriend to make you worth something.

This is what I read first thing after I woke up this morning...

"Sisters attacked with acid"

"Rape victim forced to marry attacker"

It really breaks my heart when people try to convince me that feminists achieved equality decades ago by discounting what is happening in other countries.

All women are different, but none is more important than another.

Europe

So in June-July I spent four weeks in England, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Apart from my 6 hour stopover in Doha, Qatar where I felt SO out of place and unwanted, I was excited to see the feminist groups are so much more active over there! Makes me realise how much Melbourne and the rest of Aus needs to catch up. Anyway, here are some photos of the awesome things feminists are doing over there!

"PRIME Minister Julia Gillard was stopped from getting on a bus with other foreign leaders at a Pacific Islands forum in New Zealand - and told by the driver to get on the bus for spouses instead."


Oh, of course.

'Cos women aren't supposed to be leading countries... Right?

At Home with...Sexism?

Sometime this week, the ABC is premiering a new show- At Home with Julia. The show is based around Australia's first female Prime Minister and what she gets up to at home. One of the "sneak previews" I have seen features the lead actress (and her bad accent) talking about making her partner breakfast.

Wow. Riveting.

Out of all the members of Parliament, Gillard is probably one of the least interesting. If the ABC wanted to make a program about a politicians personal life, it would have been much easier (and funnier) to focus on someone more inappropriately outspoken like Tony Abbott or Bob Katter.

So why then focus on Gillard? It's not because she's the Prime Minister because no other PM in the past has been subjected to an entire TV show mocking them.

Sure, I remember Rove Live satirising then-PM Kevin Rudd a few years ago. But that wasn't about his home life. If anything, he was portrayed as a superhero (albeit a dysfunctional one).

No, AHWJ exists because Gillard is *gasp* a woman.

In seeking to portray Gillard at home, the program lessens her credibility as a Prime Minister and also (whether intentionally or not) makes the claim that, as a woman, Gillard belongs at home heating up cereal in a microwave rather in Parliament leading a country.

Whether or not you’re in the minority of voters who still prefer Gillard and Labor to be in power, does nothing to diminish the fact that Gillard deserves the same amount of respect afforded to the men who have had her job in the past.