who are you going to blame?

womyn, of course…

i was appalled to read about the so-called ‘witches camps’ in ghana over the weekend… these are essentially concentration camps for womyn accused of 'witchcraft'…

over 1000 womyn and 700 children are currently exiled and living in horrendous conditions in 6 camps in northern ghana - many are elderly women who have been accused of causing death, misfortune, or calamity to their families, neighbours or villages through sorcery, witchcraft, or juju…

belief in witchcraft and supernatural powers is common throughout ghana, and other african countries, and is often encouraged by pastors who preach in the nation’s many charismatic churches… according to the european research network on pentecostalism, "pentecostal, or charismatic, christian movements have been in africa for over 100 years and is one of the fastest growing and diverse forms of pentecostalism in the world"… a frightening fact indeed!!!

and a fact made more frightening because apparently some of these pastors take their 'responsibilities' seriously and take an active role in the torture of womyn – this from an article by claire mcdougall in the christian science monitor september 15, 2011 entitled ‘ghana aims to abolish witches’ camps’...

“the brutal murder of 72-year-old Ama Hemmah in the city of Tema in November of last year, allegedly by six people, among them a Pentecostal pastor and his neighbors who are accused of dousing her with kerosene and setting her alight, caused public outrage and made headlines across the world.

In Ghana, we know that when a calamity happens or something befalls a family or a community the question is not what caused it, but rather who caused it?” Anukun-Dabson said. “We are a people who do not take responsibility for our actions; rather we find scapegoats and women are the targets.”

the following is from ghana's southern sector youth & women's empowerment network (sosywen)

"Forced to flee their homes and loved ones following false witchcraft accusations, the women in this film face a life of misery, desperate poverty and deplorable living conditions. They won’t see their families again, probably not for the rest of their lives. Many have no idea how many years they’ve spent in the 'witches' camps. And it’s all because of some misfortune of a family member or neighbour, or a dream that someone’s had. The women are blamed for the misfortune, such as a death in the family, economic hardship, even the death of their own child. Once the finger has been pointed and the accusation made, the lynch mobs beat and abuse the accused woman who flees for her life to one of Ghana’s ‘witches’ camps where she believes she may find some protection. The women are stigmatised and outcasts from society.  

This SOSYWEN film shows the desperate poverty these women face, their daily struggles to fetch water and find enough food. They sleep on the bare floor, cold and uncomfortable, exposed to malarial mosquitoes. Some still suffer pains from the beatings they received many years ago. Children, mostly girls, sent to help these elderly women are stigmatised because they live in a ‘witches’ camp. They can’t go to school and they lose all hope for the future. Zenabu Sakibu, Coordinator of the Southern Sector Youth and Women’s Empowerment Network, Ghana, narrates the heart-rending story of these women and children, the abuse and beatings they suffered, why they ended up in the camps, and their daily struggles for survival."

What I used to know: the road to Ghana's 'witches' camps
from sosywen organisation on Vimeo.

outraged? then why not sign the care2 petition here...

misogyny - alive and well and still being 'masqueraded' as religious superstition by powerful men...

a long time coming...

it's a time to celebrate for the sisterhood - julia's prime minister... like her or not, it's groundbreaking (or should that be ceiling-shattering?!) herstory in the making here in australia - we finally have a female in the 'top job' - she's intelligent, articulate, and has a good sense of humour - she's from a working class background, is proud of her heritage and believes in social equity - she was the national president of the australian union of students, then became a solicitor with slater & gordon ("... a law firm focussed on servicing the needs of unions and their members, in particular in the area of workers compensation.") and after 3 years became a partner in the firm - it was here she earned respect from the unions as an advocate for people's rights (and still maintains their support) - she was appointed chief of staff of the victorian opposition in 1996 and moved into the federal sphere in 1998... she is a supporter of womyn's rights and is pro-choice... she's not religious, nor is she married - she is very much her own person - she certainly appears to have more going for her than any of australia's previous male prime ministers or any current challengers!!!!

but unfortunately she hasn't been voted in by the people yet, although with an election just around the corner she may just romp it in - labor's approval rating has already risen since she became pm!!!

why has it taken so long to vote in a womon? since obtaining the vote in 1902 (thanks to the committed suffragists) it took until 1921 for edith cowan to be elected to an australian parliament when she won a seat in the western australian legislative assembly...

it then took another 22 years for womyn to be elected to federal parliament when dorothy tangney became senator for western australia and enid lyons was elected to the house of representatives in 1943...

since then there have been numerous womyn elected to federal politics, but it's taken far too long for us to place a womon in 'the top job'... for a once politically progressive country, we've been lagging a tad behind in political gender equality here in australia, as this list of womyn who have attained the highest office in their respective countries attests:

Sirimavo Bandaranaike, prime minister of Sri Lanka - 1960, 1970, 1994

Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India - 1966, 1980

Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel - 1969

Isabel Peron, president of Argentina - 1974

Elisabeth Domitien, prime minister of Central African Republic - 1975

Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of Great Britain - 1979

Maria da Lourdes Pintasilgo, prime minister of Portugal - 1979

Lidia Gueiler Tejada, prime minister of Bolivia - 1979

Dame Eugenia Charles, prime minister of Dominica - 1980

Vigdis Finnbogadottir, president of Iceland - 1980

Gro Harlem Brundtland, prime minister of Norway - 1981, 1986, 1990

Milka Planinc, federal prime minister of Yugoslavia - 1982

Agatha Barbara, president of Malta - 1982

Maria Liberia-Peters, prime minister of Netherlands Antilles - 1984, 1988

Corazon Aquino, president of Philippines - 1986

Benazir Bhutto, prime minister of Pakistan - 1988, 1993

Kazimiera Danuta Prunskiene, prime minister of Lithuania - 1990

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, prime minister of Nicaragua - 1990

Mary Robinson, president of Ireland - 1990

Ertha Pascal Trouillot, interim president of Haiti - 1990

Sabine Bergmann-Pohl, president of German Democratic Republic - 1990

Khaleda Zia, prime minister of Bangladesh - 1991, 2001

Edith Cresson, prime minister of France - 1991

Hanna Suchocka, prime minister of Poland - 1992

Kim Campbell, prime minister of Canada - 1993

Sylvie Kinigi, prime minister of Burundi - 1993

Agathe Uwilingiyimana, prime minister of Rwanda - 1993

Susanne Camelia-Romer, prime minister of Netherlands Antilles - 1993, 1998

Tansu Ciller, prime minister of Turkey - 1993

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, president of Sri Lanka - 1994

Reneta Indzhova, interim prime minister of Bulgaria - 1994

Claudette Werleigh, prime minister of Haiti - 1995

Sheikh Hasina Wajed, prime minister of Bangladesh - 1996

Mary McAleese, president of Ireland - 1997

Pamela Gordon, premier of Bermuda - 1997

Janet Jagan, prime minister of Guyana - 1997

Jenny Shipley, prime minister of New Zealand - 1997

Ruth Dreifuss, president of Switzerland - 1999

Jennifer M. Smith, prime minister of Bermuda - 1998

Helen Clark, prime minister of New Zealand - 1999

Mireya Moscoso, president of Panama - 1999

Vaira Vike-Freiberga, president of Latvia - 1999

Tarja Halonen, president of Finland - 2000

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, president of the Philippines - 2001

Mame Madior Boye, prime minister of Senegal - 2001

Megawati Sukarnoputri, president of Indonesia - 2001

Maria das Neves, Prime Minster of Sao Tome and Principe - 2002

Beatriz Merino, prime minister of Peru - 2003

Luisa Diogo, prime minister of Mozambique - 2004

Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany - 2005

Yulia Tymoshenko, prime minister of Ukraine - 2005

Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile - 2006

Micheline Calmy-Rey, president of Switzerland - 2006

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, president of Liberia - 2006

Han Myeong-sook, prime minister of South Korea - 2006

Portia Simpson Miller, prime minister of Jamaica - 2006

Pratibha Devisingh Patil, president of India - 2007

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, president of Argentina - 2007

Borjana Kristo, president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzogovina - 2007

Zinaida Greceanii - prime minister of Moldova, 2008

Dalia Grybauskaite - president of Lithuania, 2009

Laura Chinchilla - president of Costa Rica, 2010

Kamla Persad Bissessar, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, 2010

and of course Aung San Suu Kyi should have been prime minister of Myanmar in 1990, but the military government refused to recognize the results of that election!

there's a lot of herstory there - and Julia Gillard finally adds australian representation to that list - way to go sister!!!!

unfortunately all i can see is the same labor party that sold out their rank and file decades ago - once considered the left-wing alternative, it's definitely moved much further to the right these days - could julia change that? but it is scary to think what the right faction of the party might expect of her in throwing their support behind her and getting rid of one of their own!! all i can hope is that she's strong enough to not sell out for the sake of the position, and is able to maintain her leftist politics and social conscience - and her own identity... it will no doubt be an interesting political time ahead!!!

but unless there's a dramatic change in the federal political scene it will be hard to entice me to vote - perhaps the newly established and soon to be registered animal justice party  could be part of  the change i've been waiting for - unless of course julia and the labor party choose to end animal cruelty, put a stop to animal abuse and exploitation, support the universal declaration on animal welfare - and then there's social justice....

the making of a myth...

i've umm-ed and ahhh-ed about even mentioning anzac day here... it's a day i have no respect for, and the 'digger mythology' is certainly not my idea of 'national identity'...

but, then i listened to a radio program about a new book that's been published - "What's Wrong With Anzac? The Militarisation of Australian History" co-authored by historians marilyn lake and henry reynolds... it 'struck a chord' and encouraged some research, and i came across an earlier article by marilyn lake which 'resonated' with me and which i think is well worth reproducing here - she so succinctly states much of what i believe on the subject, and she does it far more articulately than i ever could...

Fight free of Anzac, lest we forget other stories by Marilyn Lake (from the age newspaper of 23 april 2009)

"I have been pondering the Anzac myth. Clearly it continues to exert power. It taunts and troubles us. It looms larger than ever in Australian historical memory — with the generous help of the Australian War Memorial and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But this business of memory-making demands analysis from historians, not cosy collaboration. A schoolboy selected to join the Government's annual pilgrimage to Gallipoli said he wanted to see the place where Australian history really happened. Really? To see the sites of Australian history you have to go to Turkey? Popular memory and scholarly history are clearly at odds here.

The observation that Gallipoli was a military disaster is beside the point. Anzac serves as Australia's creation story: in proving their manhood, Australian men proved our nationhood — a nation was born on that day of death. So the legend ran. And it ran like wildfire among anxious colonials seeking British approval. As the British war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett reported: "These raw colonial troops … proved worthy to fight side by side with the heroes of Mons, the Aisne, Ypres and Neuve Chapelle."

The myth will remain our creation story until the nation is reborn, until we have the courage to detach ourselves from the mother country, declare our independence, inaugurate a republic, draw up a constitution that recognises the first wars of dispossession fought against indigenous peoples. Thus we can truly make history in Australia.

The Anzac myth has become more significant in recent years, having been mightily subsidised by the Howard government. War stories have figured ever more prominently in our culture, our schools, on our TV screens, in our bookshops — but they do not usually tell of the "perpetual state of warfare", as one colonist described it, entailed in the colonisation of Australia.

Rather, modern Australian history has been defined by the exploits of the expeditionary forces sent to engage in military operations overseas, which began with the Boer War in South Africa.

Before 1996, there was no historical commemorations program. Rather, there was a war graves program to "commemorate, individually, the sacrifice of those Australian men and women who gave their lives during, or as a result of, their service to Australia and the Commonwealth in war, or who were prisoners of war, and to maintain these commemorations".

Since 1996, the Department of Veterans Affairs has spent millions on inculcating history lessons to "ensure that Australia's wartime heritage is preserved and the community better appreciates the significance of wartime experiences to our development as a nation".

When participation in foreign wars becomes the basis of national identity, it requires the forgetting or marginalising of other narratives, experiences and values. The Anzac myth requires us to forget gender and racial exclusions, the long history of pacifism and anti-war movements, the democratic social experiments and visions of social justice that once defined Australia; to forget that at Gallipoli we fought for "empire" not the nation, symbolising our continuing colonial condition.

Anzac was a celebration of race and manhood. The Australians, proclaimed the Argus newspaper, "have in one moment stepped into the world-wide arena in the full stature of great manhood". Aboriginal men were legally barred from enlistment — many enlisted anyway and were denied repatriation benefits. Later attempts to include women in the Anzac legend — as nurses, servicewomen, Land Army girls, as grieving mothers and widows — should not prevent recognition that the myth seeks to locate our national identity in the masculine domain of military warfare.

The myth ignores the fact that participation in foreign wars has always generated opposition, and that many wars have been deeply unpopular. The Anzac tradition has been paralleled by an anti-war tradition, often marked as feminine, that embraces, among others, suffragists such as Rose Scott, the Women's Peace Army of World War 1 and Save Our Sons during Vietnam.

If the power of Anzac derives from its status as our creation myth, what about Federation? Clearly, if the nation was born at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, then Federation didn't do the job. The Anzac myth highlights its limits as a nation-building exercise in real and symbolic terms.

Unlike the American colonies — whose example of independence was implanted in historical memory and always before the constitution makers of the 1890s — the Australian federal fathers failed to achieve the heroic goal of manly independence. Absences can be illuminating. Australia has no equivalents of the American monuments to political liberty: the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial.

What this nation does have is war memorials. Our landscape has been transformed by war memorials, small and large, local and national, statues of diggers in the hundreds, obelisks, cairns and cenotaphs. The cult of Anzac has been naturalised in Australia, but, to a newcomer, the monumental honouring of war dead might look excessive.

What other creation stories are available to Australians? We also have a vision of democratic equality and social justice enacted by the Commonwealth and endlessly articulated by liberals, socialists, feminists, labour leaders and trade unionists in the decades before Gallipoli.

Before World War 1, Australia had an international reputation as an egalitarian democracy and progressive social laboratory, a place that legislated to secure the equal rights of women and men, state pensions for the aged and for invalids, the rights of mothers, the recognition and remuneration of citizen soldiers and citizen mothers, all paid from general revenue. Australia enshrined the idea that workers should enjoy better conditions and be paid a decent living wage. As an advanced social democracy, this country led the world."

no, i won't commemorate the day... but while it overshadows all else,

let's not forget that rape is a weapon of war...

let's grieve for the innocent victims,

the womyn and children raped, maimed, mutilated and murdered by
soldiers of all nations
in the frenzied grip of patriotic and patriarchal zeal...

lest we forget...

delving into the early 70s... gradually...

i guess you've gathered by now that i lose track, go off on tangents, procrastinate, etc. etc. - i've just had a look through my 60s posts (and i didn't get very far, did i?!) so don't think the 70s will be any different! (except hopefully i will get through to the end of this decade)!!! a post here, one there... lots of other topics thrown in... but that's what blogging's all about isn't it!!!!

the problem is always where to start, but having 'touched on' 1970 in my last post, i may as well continue with that year...

Germaine Greer had 'arrived'... "The female eunuch" had just been published... she was an anarchist, a womyn's liberationist, radical and outspoken - i was 15, had just started work and was on my 'journey of discovery', and she would become a major role model for me (and many others)...

two of australia's 'political foremothers' died this year - Jessie Street (suffragist, human rights activist and pacifist) and Doris Blackburn, politician, peace campaigner and civil rights activist...







Jean McLean, Joan Coxsedge, Irene Miller, Chris Cathie and Jo McLaine Ross - founding members of the Save our sons movement in the 60s - were to play a major role in the anti-vietnam moratoriums of 1970 and became household names, and in 1971 were to become known as the Fairlea Five)..

how could you not be political in this era - there was an amazing energy in melbourne - the vietnam moratorium in May had over 100,000 people taking to the streets in Melbourne alone... it was estimated that 200,000 participated Australia-wide... ahhh melbourne - the most political city...

it was still a 'boys own' club on the domestic political front - John Gorton was prime minister - Gough Whitlam was opposition leader - and Bob Hawke had just been elected ACTU president.





we had a major disaster in Victoria... the collapse of the west gate bridge... 35 construction workers died...

unfortunately, they're not the only deaths associated with the bridge - according to wikipedia "police data show up to one suicide happens every three weeks at the west gate bridge."

the 1970 radio ban .. "a dispute between commercial radio stations and major record labels resulting in major UK and Australian pop songs being refused play time on Australian commercial radio stations" .. was to last from May until October.


this is a sample of what australians were watching on television...

Lassie
Gunsmoke
Australian Bandstand
Black & White Minstrel show (!!!!)
Z cars
My three sons
Four corners
Dr Who
Bewitched
Till death us do part
Homicide
Hogan's heroes
Get smart
Mission impossible
Bellbird
This day tonight
Mod squad
Dad's army
It's academic
Hawaii five-0
Sesame street
Monty Python's flying circus
The Partridge family

I have to admit, I was a Mod Squad fan... and check out the clothes... those cardigans are in the shops now for this coming winter - if you just take a look around out there you'll see all the clothes i wore in the 60s and 70s - oh no, i'm living in a timeloop!!!!

I used to go out with my brother a lot in the late 60s/early 70s... we had a good relationship at this time - the parents had split up when i was 8 and Darrell was 11 and i'd gone to live with our mum, and he lived with our dad for a while, and then our grandparents (he was an angry boy when they split up) so we hadn't had a great deal of 'sibling intimacy' for a while - we liked the same music, both had similar (sick) senses of humour and enjoyed each others' company... of course it helped that me mum thought i was safe with me brother, and there was the mandatory midnight 'curfew' - why did parents think that what could be done after midnight couldn't be done before?? (ha, little did she know we often walked out the front door together, occasionally went to the venue together, and then met up afterwards somewhere on the way home!!!)

we used to go to a lot of venues, but one of the best for aussie bands was st kilda town hall (which i'm sure was called Opus at the time, but can't find any mention of it - will have to talk to the local history librarian) where people like Geoff Crozier (aka the Mad Magician) played along with a lot of the others i've mentioned in previous posts - Jeff St John, Wendy Saddington, etc - there was also the likes of Ronnie Burns, John English, Russell Morris, Allison Durbin, Leo De Castro & Black Harvest, Freshwater - there are just too many to name but check out the Milesago website - "Milesago is a work in progress. Our mission is to compile a comprehensive, web-based resource about Australasian (i.e. Australian and New Zealand) popular music, popular culture and social history in the 12 year period from 1 January 1964 to 31 December 1975"... they're doing a good job!!!

we both enjoyed other styles of music too, and went to Winston Charles night club in South Yarra quite often... according to a Stonnington local history document on the social life of Prahran 1950-1990 "by the late 1960s the place that had once been Claridges had become Winston Charles: 'alcohol was quite legal... there was a discotheque... girls used to dance in cages... strobe lighting..." - we both particularly liked one of the resident bands there - a group called the Vibrants - and this was where i got to feel 'grown up and sophisticated' and drink cocktails like brandy crustas and grasshoppers... and no, i never had a problem getting into any of these venues - Darrell was around 17/18 and 6 foot tall, and i looked older than 14/15 (even though I was only 5 foot 2'ish (but i think i'm shrinking!!!!) - and it was a 'different world' then (can't find a photo of us together during this time - we really weren't big on taking photos then - it was a different technological world too!!!)

okay, i'm going to 'call it a day' for blogging and leave you with a couple of cocktail recipes...

Brandy crusta
(this is just one of the many versions out there, but it looks most like the ones they made at winston charles - check out the 'original' version here)

Ingredients:
Sugar for rimming
2 oz brandy
1/2 oz maraschino liqueur
dash of bitters
1/2 oz curacao
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

Rim chilled cocktail glass with sugar - shake all other ingredients with ice - strain into glass and garnish with a twist of lemon peel - quite potent!!! I used to love sucking the sugar off the glass...



Grasshopper

Ingredients:
3/4 oz creme de menthe
3/4 oz white creme de cacao
3/4 oz cream (edit - reading this today, 7/2/2017 - this ingredient would be just that, an ingredient, not something stolen from someone who was enslaved, raped and brutalized - any plant-based cream, e.g. coconut, no 'dairy' horror involved...)

Pour ingredients into shaker along with ice - shake, pour into glass and enjoy!!!


(oooh, sounds a bit rich these days... but i was young and loved the thought that i was doing something i shouldn't be - oooh, so rebellious (said with tongue planted firmly in cheek!!!) - but i felt soooo cool, sophisticated and adult - decadent even!!

and here're some 'germaine quotes'... cheers...

"Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. It has no mother."

"I have always been principally interested in men for sex. I've always thought any sane woman would be a lover of women because loving men is such a mess. I have always wished I'd fall in love with a woman. Damn."

"Only one thing is certain: if pot is legalized, it won't be for our benefit but for the authorities. To have it legalized will also be to lose control of it."

"Perhaps women have always been in closer contact with reality than men: it would seem to be the just recompense for being deprived of idealism."

"Revolution is the festival of the oppressed."

the 60s... where do I start???

I was five years old, television (b&w thank you) had been introduced and embraced wholeheartedly by the aussie public... by the end of the 50s it was estimated that over two-thirds of families in Sydney and Melbourne owned a television set.

"Television transformed the way Australians received information. It soon became Australia's dominant form of mass communication, taking over from radio and cinema and posing a challenge to print media.

Television transmitted ideas into Australia faster than ever before. Australia's awareness and experience of the rest of the world changed rapidly. Television exposed people to other cultures and world views and provided information that would play a major role in shaping popular public opinion." Interested? read more here.

And this is what we were watching in 1960... according to the Logie awards anyway...

Program Of The Year: 77 Sunset Strip
TV Highlight Of 1959: Shell Presents Series
TV WEEK Special Award: GTV9/ATN7 Interstate TV Link for Test Cricket
Best Male Personality: John Royle
Best Female Personality: Ruth Nye
Best Program: The Phil Silvers Show
Best Male Personality: Don Bennetts
Best Female Personality: Brenda Marshall
Best Program: Father Knows Best
Best Male Personality: Graham Kennedy
Best Female Personality: Panda Lisner
Best Program: In Melbourne Tonight

Menzies was STILL the prime minister, but an election was coming up in 1961 - could he be ousted??? Social change was unstoppable, but political conservatism was stubborn. We were cutting the umbilical cord with England, but we were being heavily influenced by America - and manipulated - 'we' were soon to be fodder in the Vietnam war - but not this year!!!

Women were (as always?!!??) fighting for equality. They were paid only 75% of the 'average' wage. In 'women only' professions such as teaching and nursing women were only getting two thirds of the male wage!

In 1960 equal pay for work of equal value was awarded, although specifically female work was not included and the issue of equal pay for women remained a source of 'hot' debate throughout the 1960s.

Women wanted more than domesticity and motherhood!!!!

Women wanted to experience life - they were sick of living in the background of men's lives.

Women wanted to be seen as - oooh, shock, horror - people in their own right - not someone else's doormat - not a slave, not a wife, not a mother!!!

In 1960 THE PILL was 'released' in the States, and of course that meant it wouldn't be long before it arrived in Australia (January 1st, 1961)!!!

The pill was about to change women's lives - but being 'released' didn't necessarily mean giving access to women - that was dependent on the attitude of the doctor writing the prescription - so it wasn't going to be readily available to unmarried women!! There was still a way to go - and the fight for free safe abortion was still to gain momentum...

The 60s was such a rich, complex, exciting, vibrant decade - so much was happening - people were expanding their consciousness, they were questioning, they were starting to live their lives differently... it was definitely the era to be growing up in!!!

So my 60s post appears to have expanded to a saga!!!!

stay tuned for the next instalment...

No, not the 60s post yet, but.....

I feel compelled to have this rant!!!!

I have a problem with all religions but I have to say that this so-called world youth week is really pissing me off... how about calling it for what it is - catholic schoolies week!!!!

The vatican is virtually a country 'unto itself'... it has enough wealth to eradicate hunger and poverty world-wide - wouldn't it have helped more people if they put the money it cost to get the pope here into welfare programmes? I might be 'naive' but I'm pretty sure there are young people dying every day from starvation and preventable diseases!!!

And then there's the issue of sexual abuse amongst its priests - but what does the catholic church do... denies the evidence, pain and suffering of the victims and aids and abets its 'priests' in raping and psychologically abusing it's 'flock' by just moving them on to other parishes!!!! The "Black collar crime list of names" page on the Broken Rites website makes interesting reading.

When I was really radical in the 70s (out there 'pounding the footpath' as opposed to just verbally pissing people off with my politics now) one of the most crucial 'chants' of the Womyn's Liberation movement was...

well, that's still a mantra of mine - unfortunately we still don't have separation of church and state!!!

I can't believe that I fought so hard for so long and still live in a society where people believe in this patriarchal religious crap!!!!

But then, some people would say I'm fucked in the head!!!

My rant is over... here's Marianne with 'Working Class Hero" by John Lennon...

"Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see."

Did you know.....

it's the Centenary of Women's Suffrage here in Victoria this year???

It was a long time in coming and it was a hard-fought battle, but finally in November 1908 the Victorian Legislative Council passed the "Adult Suffrage Bill". This bill granted female suffrage (aka "right to vote") to women in Victoria for the first time.

According to the Victorian Women's Trust "Victoria was the last Australian state to grant women the vote, after an incredibly lengthy struggle. Despite being granted the vote federally in 1902, it would be another six years before women were able to vote in their own state. Extensive lobbying and activism took place, including:

• The “Monster Petition” of 1891, which collected an amazing 30,000 signatures, the largest ever presented to the Victorian State Parliament.

• Eighteen women’s suffrage bills, which were rejected by the Victorian Parliament over a period of almost two decades before the Adult Suffrage Act was finally passed in 1908.
  

The "Trust" initiated "DANGEROUS AND PERSUASIVE WOMEN: CELEBRATING A CENTURY OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE IN VICTORIA" - a series of three public forums.

The first event, held in March - Forum One: Rediscovering Women’s Political History commemorated one hundred years of women's activism in Victoria and coincided with International Women's Day celebrations. Historians Professor Patricia Grimshaw, Professor Marilyn Lake and literary historian Jennifer Strauss provided the keynote addresses and you can find their speeches here if you're interested.

The second forum, held in June, provided a unique oral and visual presentation - a journey across the century detailing how Australian women have done politics not only differently, but also very successfully.

But the third forum - Dangerous and Persuasive Women - is still to happen!!!! So if you're interested in the struggle that women had and would like to know more, why not contact the Victorian Women’s Trust on (03) 9642 0422 or email women@vwt.org.au and book yourself in for this event - it's on November 29th at the BMW Edge Theatre, Federation Square and it's free!!! (Maybe I'll see you there!!!)

And just to add a bit more herstory, did you know:

"The Victorian Women’s Suffrage Society, the first women’s suffrage society in Australia, was founded in 1884 largely due to the efforts of

Henrietta Dugdale & Annie Lowe

Dugdale, very much a ‘freethinker’, claimed to have been Victoria’s first activist for women’s suffrage—having publicly advocated women’s suffrage since 1868, along with married women’s property rights and the admission of women to the universities. In 1883 she published a utopian novel, A Few Hours in a Far Off Age, which she used as a vehicle for her then radical ideas about education, marriage, Christianity and rational dress for women. The Society’s platform was ‘To obtain the same political privileges for women as now possessed by male voters’. It had both male and female members."

You also might like to keep an eye out for the Australian Local Government Women's Association (ALGWA) "funded through the Department of Planning and Community Development Centenary of Women's Suffrage Grants, to recognise and celebrate this historic milestone with the Taking Up The Challenge in 2008 events program which will recognise the value of women's contribution to civic and political roles in Victoria."

If you get a chance, you may like to sign the Victorian Women Vote 1908-2008 calico banner. The banners will be distributed throughout Victoria during the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Women's right to vote - one of these banners will be at the St. Kilda Library around the 22nd July so keep an eye on the Port Phillip Library website for the actual time and date - and at the end of the year, banners will be sewn together and displayed at the finale of the celebrations at the Parliament House Open Day on the 16th November.

Will you be there????

motherhood doesn't define us...

I came across a couple of photos of me mum in the 1950s so I thought I’d share them… they seemed appropriate after my 50s post…





I was reading a friend’s blog recently, and she has an extremely poignant post on mother’s day and motherhood which prompted me to include my thoughts on the topic.

When I was growing up the prevailing attitude was that young women wouldn’t be in the workforce for long… it was expected they would get married young and have children (always plural!!) – so no need for a career – (the post-war years added more pressure on women with their POPULATE OR PERISH paranoia!!!)

"Denied economic independence, unable to control their fertility adequately, and always aware of the reprobation which awaits the rebel, none but a handful of Australian women has had the opportunity to do any more than submit to living out their lives as dutiful wives and bountiful mothers; and having no alternatives and wanting some share of human happiness, they have accepted and enjoyed this as best they could." Anne Summers, "Damned whores and gods police"

Women were encouraged to believe that motherhood defined them as women… hey, sounds like now!!!! – we still hear those questions from all quarters – for young women - “when are you having children”, for older women it’s “how many children do you have”… that assumption – you’re female, so you must have offspring - so frustrating having to explain yourself all the time… as though it’s ‘freakish’!!!!

No matter what you do, whatever your reasons for not having children – there’s still an attitude that “you can’t possibly be a whole woman without children… you’re not complete…” - guess I don’t need to tell you I disagree!!!!

Whether by choice, because of fertility problems, or due to loss, the ‘sisters’ I know without children are extremely fulfilled individuals – beautiful, amazing, whole women!!! When will the blinkered perceptions change – when will women be accepted for themselves, without the ‘extension’ of partner or child – that will always only be for some!!!

And let’s face it – there has to be a limit to human habitation and the consequent pressure put on ‘the mother’… ‘she’s’ not faring well with the population now, the damage and destruction that’s been caused already!!!!

“Mother’s day” appears to be about making money rather than celebrating women as mother’s – seems to me it’s one big advertising and profit-making free-for-all.

And really, shouldn’t women be respected all year round??? Crimes and atrocities are committed against women every day of the year – I’d love to be able to celebrate the end of violence against women!!!! But alas……

HERSTORY in the making?!!

Well, Rudd, Gillard and their party seem to be making a few right moves at the moment... the appointment of the very accomplished Quentin Bryce as Australia's first female governor-general is cause for jubilation by women no matter what their political 'bent' - an HERSTORICAL occasion!!! I don't believe in the office, but while it does exist it's about time a woman occupied it. She may also be the LAST govenor-general appointed - and that would be another momentous cause for celebration - I certainly don't believe the representative of a foreign monarch has any part to play in the Australian political landscape, do you???

30s & 40s Technology - the Typing Pool

I worked in typing pools in the early 70s - but not quite as cramped as some of these!! Although I did learn to type on this sort of equipment in the 60s!!! (and I hope you're enjoying the wolf and rose graphic - I put that up because it's a great image).

I have to say I do prefer Photobucket over Flickr for the things I've done so far - it seems to be far more user friendly.

The end of the programme is looming... I just have to 'reflect' and write a few thoughts - but that's for another post!!!!

More YouTube stuff!!!

I know, I should be looking at downloadable audiobook titles but I just got caught up in YouTube (again!!!) and came across these two videos - one's a little gem from Mary Poppins called "Sister Suffragette" (I prefer Suffragist and you'd know why if you read my "Politics of language" presentation), and the other one has old images juxtaposed to more contemporary images of women... Hope you enjoy them...



there are so many good (and extremely bad!!) videos to watch on YouTube (of course, that's dependent on the search terms you use and what things are actually 'tagged' with - as we know, that can be problematic, and then there's 'individual taste') - but you can lose track of time!!! ooh, my animals are hassling to be fed - is it that time already? I will get around to the next task soon... if I can only stop playing with other toys

#12 - Rollyo...

My Rollyo experience has been had... my searchrolls are right here

Now this tool could have potential... all your favourites rolled into one search engine... very handy... that could save a lot of time... can be embedded into your browser as well... nifty.

More graphics / image generators

SMILEBOX PHOTO SHARING

Now this could be a fun application… make your own scrapbooks, slideshows, greeting cards, photo albums, invitations, postcards… haven’t checked all of it out yet, but it definitely looks like it has potential… unfortunately you do have to download the program to the hard drive – but if you’re able to then it’s well worth checking out… one of its drawbacks is the time it takes for the pages to load when viewing… there’s always compromise!!!!

WOMEN WARRIORS THROUGH THE AGES

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

There's a rich herstory of women warriors, rulers, amazons, samurai, pirates, buccaneers, crusaders - women had to fight for their beliefs and survival in their own way in a patriarchal society (and things haven't changed!!) - here's just a small selection of graphics I put together.

Here's a few sites to check out if you're interested in the background herstory of some of these women...

Women Warriors of Japan

Pirates

Amazons

Women in world history

I'm Flickr'd!!!!

THE CHANGING SHAPE OF WOMEN HEROES IN COMICS

I was determined to get a slideshow happening – this was really quickly put together… just a few pictures that show the sexualizing of the female body over the decades.

With such an unrealistic portrayal of women’s bodies throughout the visual media, it’s no wonder women suffer such poor self-image, self-esteem and body hatred is rife.