Category: Australia

Don’t know much about the clitoris? The International Cliteratti will help – ABC News

The clitoris is an internal and external organ and the part of the female genital anatomy responsible for orgasms. Thousands of nerve endings make a wishbone shape – wrapping around the vagina — and its size is typically 9x9cm.

Just like the male genitals, when the female genitals are aroused, the clitoris becomes engorged.

The organ has had a complicated relationship with Western medicine. In the medieval witch hunting guide “Malleus Maleficarum” it was referred to as “the devil’s teat”.

In the 1500s renowned physician Andreas Vesalius called it a “new and useless part”.

In the 1600s scientists began studying the organ in detail – with Dutch anatomist Regnier De Graaf publishing an anatomical depiction of the clitoris.

Centuries later, in 1948, anatomical representations of the clitoris disappeared from the 25th edition of Gray’s Anatomy.

“It’s very curious, what you see is usually men of science doing the dissections and writing about the clitoris, and then you see this knowledge lost,” Dr Belton explains.

This gap in knowledge was noticed by Professor Helen O’Connell, president of the Urological Society ANZ, when she was in medical school. She saw that authors would describe in “intense detail” the anatomy of the male and add addendums on the differences in women.

This vexxed Professor O’Connell. After becoming Australia’s first female urologist, she led the first comprehensive anatomical study on the clitoris in 1998, and examined it further under MRI in 2005.

A network of scientists and healthcare professionals around the world formed – including from Australia, the US, France and Sweden – many making their own models. The group swapped notes on their research and experiences dealing with this misunderstood organ.

In April 2022, the International Cliteratti developed when the women had their first Zoom meeting.

With the support of the group, her colleagues and the RMIT Industrial Design Program, Ms Brown-Major launched her own model – Cliterate — a pull-apart sphere that accurately shows the relationship between the clitoris, vulva and pelvis.

Source: Don’t know much about the clitoris? The International Cliteratti will help – ABC News

‘I like seeing you bend down’: Shocking levels of sexual harassment in retail sector | SMH

New research has exposed the extent of sexual harassment in the retail industry, in which vulnerable, young workers are routinely subjected to gendered and sexualised comments from strangers, co-workers and bosses.

The harassment was often subtle, involving hard-to-confront behaviour such as leering, staring, hovering or inappropriate but not overly sexual comments. Usually, it was less about sexual desire than exerting power or status.

Workers were also harassed by their bosses and co-workers, the report found, yet systems to identify, report, and act upon such behaviour in an industry with high turnover varied widely in quality, frequency and effectiveness between employers.

Data shows one in two women and one in four men working in retail have experienced harassment in the past five years. The most common form was sexually suggestive comments, followed by invasive questions and staring or leering.

Source: 12ft

‘We will not tolerate it”: ABC survey identifies bullying, sexual harassment in workplace. | TV Tonight

The results of an ABC Workplace Survey has found more work needs to be done to stamp out bullying and sexual harassment.

Respondents were asked whether they had personally experienced sexual harassment while working in the News division, at work or in locations associated with work. Thirteen per cent answered Yes.

Respondents were also asked whether they had personally experienced bullying at the ABC. Twenty-five per cent answered Yes, with the most commonly identified behaviours being intimidation and belittling and humiliating comments.

Source: ‘We will not tolerate it”: ABC survey identifies bullying, sexual harassment in workplace. | TV Tonight

Class action mounting against Nine for ‘sexual harassment and unlawful discrimination’ – Mumbrella

A class action lawsuit against Nine is becoming more and more likely, as Maurice Blackburn has put out a call to women in the commercial television industry who have been affected by sexual harassment and unlawful discrimination.

The law firm put out a public statement saying it is “currently assisting a number of women in the commercial television industry to pursue claims of sexual harassment and unlawful discrimination”, but didn’t specify a particular network.

Joshua Bornstein, principal lawyer and head of employment law at Maurce Blackburn, told the AFR — a Nine-owned masthead — that the law firm was currently “acting for a number of women in commercial television across the networks with remarkably similar experiences and stories to tell”.

The paper also reports Maurice Blackburn is acting for the woman who filed a formal complaint against Nine’s disgraced former news boss, Darren Wick.

Bornstein suspects some women have signed NDAs that makes public redress difficult, calling this “ironic in an industry that prides itself on shining a light on stories in the public interest”.

While a class action, which requires seven or more complainants, wasn’t mentioned, Bornstein said: “The more women that come forward, the stronger their position will be to get some form of redress. One of the things NDAs often do is mask the reality for other women experiencing similar behaviour.”

Source: Class action mounting against Nine for ‘sexual harassment and unlawful discrimination’ – Mumbrella

‘My husband assaulted me countless times – now he’s taken my kids away’ | Kidspot

A decade after she met her now estranged husband, *Simon, *Faye struggles to comprehend just how he was able to control her from the very beginning.

Faye and Simon would go on to have three children together, with Faye having left her husband for extended periods of time on several occasions – and pressed charges against him for physical violence more than once.

In the end, however, Simon was never punished, and Faye would be lured back with threats and guilt.

After a decade of abuse and coercive control – and a horrifying incident where Simon deliberately drove heavily intoxicated with the children in the car – Faye could take no more.

While Simon was away from the house, she spent all the money she had hidden to flee with all three kids from the US to Sydney, where her only family members were now living.

“When we landed, I finally stopped shaking and the relief was overwhelming,” Faye remembers.

Tragically, Faye’s newfound freedom for her and the children was cruelly short lived.

Under the Hague Convention, an international law that allows courts to order a child’s physical return to their country of birth or residence, Simon petitioned for his children to be sent back to him in the US.

Despite Faye providing the court with no less than 150 statements of abuse – and information that Simon had refused to ever care for his offspring alone – the children were ordered back to the US.

The memory of her eldest child being forced into the car by Simon on the last day she would see them causes the loving mother heart-wrenching pain.

“He wouldn’t go to the car and started shaking and vomiting, he begged not to go with his dad,” Faye says emotionally.

It has been six months since Faye lost her children, and she has so far remained resolute in remaining in Australia – where she is not under Simon’s control and is employed full time while she prepares another legal battle for the return of her beloved kids.

“I try to call them every day but I’ve spoken with them three times in that whole time and they are crying every time wanting to come back to me,” she cries.

Source: ‘My husband assaulted me countless times – now he’s taken my kids away’ | Kidspot

Genspect Media Release: NSW Equality Bill

“The public have clearly expressed their opposition to the introduction of gender self-ID and amendments that make it easier for minors to access puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without parental consent, but the Government appears not to be listening.” Said Genspect spokesperson Jude Hunter.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/Genspect/posts/pfbid02mgbchJEdfyv8yEQQ9d94XZjRaqioTNbWn6je7HXSksA1MHBBRCsfARFhD4PD6cy1l

Transsexual Transgender Transhuman: Dispatches from The 11th Hour — Spinifex Press

In this thought-provoking collection of articles drawn from her blog, The 11th Hour, Jennifer Bilek delves into the intricate relationship between transsexualism, transgenderism, and transhumanism. She sheds light on how the push for perceived human rights for marginalized groups often obscures broader societal dynamics.

Jennifer Bilek traces the evolution of transsexualism from a personal fetish into an industry that commodifies human reproductive sex, particularly womanhood. This process divorces it from its biological roots and its connection to the environment, reducing human reproductive sex to medically and technologically manipulated components.

She highlights how young people are sold the notion of expressing themselves and alleviating feelings of dissociation through the purchase of these manufactured identities with the term ‘transgender’.

Through an exploration of the transhumanist movement, Bilek investigates how its proponents blur the boundaries between humanity and mechanization. Society is undergoing a profound transformation away from the biological realities of reproductive sex, driven by emerging technologies that shape children’s perceptions of their bodies from an early age. The narrative of gender identity transcendence exploits their vulnerability, pushing them toward an increasingly medicalized future.

Her thorough analysis exposes the technological and financial motivations behind a political agenda masquerading as a human rights movement. This agenda seeks to redefine reproductive norms and propel society toward a posthuman future, ultimately undermining womanhood and eroding women’s rights.

[Ed: Members of FLC can access a special 20% pre-publication discount with code TTT20 which expires at the end of August 2024. ]

Source: Transsexual Transgender Transhuman: Dispatches from The 11th Hour — Spinifex Press

Home | Staying You

We share our lived experience and celebrate the awesomeness of being a girl, a biological female, a warrior, a witch, a queen, a mother, a daughter and the amazing things that being a woman allows us to achieve. 


‘Staying You’ advocates for understanding and empowering those struggling with their identity to accept themselves in the body they have, we hold stakeholders to account and seeks the truth behind the sciences. ‘Staying You’ has been started by breast cancer survivor Mel Days, who knows all too well the pain and scars medical intervention brings because of the irreversible damage that has happened to her own body.  

About Me

Mel Days was a primary school teacher, and now works in the fields of sociology and counselling. In 2018 – 2020 she underwent treatment for aggressive breast cancer. This treatment is very similar to the treatment that women and girls identifying as trans experience.

When Mel underwent treatment for stage 3 invasive breast cancer, she lost both breasts, and was given a radical hysterectomy and hormone blockers. The consequence of this life saving cancer treatment left her with irreversible physical damage that she would not wish on anyone. For Mel, the side effects of the cancer surgery and hormone blockers have been breathing problems, bone density loss, osteoporosis, chest pain, head to toe skin rashes, hot flushes, sterility, stomach pains, nerve pain, chest pain, numbness, restricted arm movement and loss of interest in intimacy. Finding out that individuals seeking support for gender dysphoria often receive the same invasive medical intervention as stage 3 breast cancer coalesced in Mel creating ‘Staying You’, a forum where she could empower those struggling with their identity to make informed choices and share their struggles.

‘I am beyond shocked, am so sad and deeply upset, that so few organisations are helping girls know the consequences of medicalizing their identities and are not instead supporting them to love themselves for all that they are in the perfectly healthy body that they are born in’ – Mel Day, 2023.

Source: Home | Staying You

‘They were grown men with guns. I was in my PJs’: The crises where police aren’t wanted

Police should be relegated to back-up support for mental health workers or not respond at all to call-outs for severely mentally ill people in crisis, a major NSW inquiry has concluded.

But the recommendation fell short of demanding the reform be urgently implemented despite the deaths of more than 50 people during or as a result of police responding to mental health emergencies across NSW in the past five years, and strong support from mental health experts, patients, families and police.

The report from the upper house inquiry into community and outpatient mental healthcare on Tuesday recommended “NSW Police explore being activated as a secondary response to mental health emergencies only where required to support the safety of primary responders” with NSW Health.

In the five years to June 30, 2023, 52 mental health consumers were killed in NSW during or as a result of police responses to a mental health callout, government data shows.

Several more people have since been killed, including 47-year-old mother Krista Kach, who was Tasered and hit with bean bag rounds in Newcastle, and Jesse Deacon, 43, who was shot by police in Glebe in September last year.

The inquiry considered alternative models, including South Australia’s MH CORE model where triple zero calls are referred to a paramedic and mental health clinician who arrive by ambulance.

Sophie, who requested her surname be withheld, was 17 years old when a police officer escorting her to hospital grabbed her arm so tightly that she was left with bruising.

After overdosing on prescription medication, Sophie was taken to hospital in a police van.

“I remember having to crawl my way into the back … there were no seatbelts, nothing to hold on to. I don’t know how I stayed sitting up,” she said. “I felt like a criminal.”

Grace called a helpline, needing someone to talk to in her distress. The helpline worker instead triggered an emergency response – without ascertaining whether she was at risk of harming herself or others – and seven armed police officers arrived at her studio apartment door.

“These were grown men with guns,” Grace said. “I was wearing my pyjamas. I was alone.”

Grace described reaching for her law textbook to look up a section of the Mental Health Act. One of the police officers said something to the effect of:“That won’t help you. You have no rights in this situation.”

Defaulting to police was often a symptom of the broader crisis in NSW’s mental health system marred by chronic underfunding, staffing shortages, discrimination, overcrowding in emergency departments and a lack of co-ordination between services, the inquiry found.

[Ed: Male violence takes many forms, including institutionalised abuse].

Source: 12ft

New deepfake porn laws to ‘address a major legal gap’ in Australia – Lawyers Weekly

Possession or distribution of digitally altered deepfake pornographic materials could result in individuals facing severe criminal penalties under upcoming national legislation, set to be introduced in the Federal Parliament this week.

Under the proposed legislation, individuals distributing illicit material will be subject to a six-year prison sentence, while those involved in creating and distributing such content will face a more severe penalty of seven years imprisonment.

The federal government has been prompted to implement legislation prohibiting the sharing of sexually explicit, non-consensual material due to the notable surge in the production of AI-generated pornographic deepfake images.

As reported by the ABC, new offences will apply exclusively to sexual material involving adults, while child abuse material will continue to be addressed under distinct, dedicated offences.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus is scheduled to introduce this new legislation on Wednesday (5 June) in Parliament.

“These reforms will make clear that those who seek to abuse or degrade women through doxxing, deep fakes, or by abusing their privacy online, will be subject to serious criminal penalties,” Dreyfus said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also expressed how harmful content glorifying violence against Australian women will not be tolerated.

“There should be zero tolerance for harmful content that glorifies violence against Australian women. Young adults should not be coached in disrespect or misogyny by online influencers,” he said.

Source: New deepfake porn laws to ‘address a major legal gap’ in Australia – Lawyers Weekly