feminism

Share The Dignity is a charity that provides homeless women, or women who have been victims of domestic violence, with essential personal hygiene products. Things like pads and tampons. It’s something I hadn’t even considered until I heard of Share The Dignity. How do you manage a period when you don’t have the money to buy those items?

Larissa Waters Breastfeeding In Parliament Shows the No Win Situation For Mothers   Larissa Waters does yet another breastfeeding first https://t.co/A5a18083VE pic.twitter.com/BXMh7vYH5M — Karen Barlow (@KJBar) June 22, 2017   First time I've had to move a Senate motion while breastfeeding! And my partner in crime moved her own motion just before mine, bless her — Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) June 22, 2017 Greens Senator, Larissa Waters, breastfed her 14 week old daughter yesterday while giving a speech in parliament. Unsurprisingly the internet had a lot of feelings about it. I want to start by saying the vast majority of the comments I’ve read on various news and social media outlets were positive. Most people think this is pretty awesome – myself included. She’s a woman who’s been supported by her workplace and her own network to be able to return to work with her baby. This is great news!  Especially…

It seems like an innocent enough question and McDonalds has been doing this for years. Asking parents whether or not the Happy Meal is for a boy or a girl and assigning them a toy based on their gender.

I’m so emotionally exhausted victim blaming, slut shaming and the relentlessness of rape culture. They’re constant, and everywhere. It’s perpetuated by men and women, mothers and father, even police.

Is your newsfeed constantly flooded with “jokes” about how fathers need to be micromanaged to care for their own children? Or how men generally incapable of parenting, housework and keeping themselves alive? That men are irresponsible and essentially additional children?

For quite some time I was under the impression I couldn’t be a feminist and wear make up. Or I couldn’t be a feminist and have casual sex. Or be a stay at home mum. Or love knitting. Or any number of things that I didn’t think that feminism would approve of.

A friend recently shared this image on Facebook. At first I thought it was somehow a joke - surely this isn’t real? Surely her 3 year old child wasn’t assessed in childcare as a pass/fail (well, “Met/Developing”) for her knowledge of gender stereotypes. Or at the very least an outdated developmental milestone check list that had been used by her childcare centre by mistake

Mark Latham recently wrote an opinion piece directed at Lisa Pryor, titled “Why Left Feminists Don’t Like Kids”. As a lefty and a feminist, I had to click on it. I’ll admit I knew going into it that I wasn’t going to like what he wrote, but I was imagining it was a rant directed at women who choose not to have children (maybe because they’re pursuing a career politics instead – something like that)