Report due on ‘failings’ for fatal family | 7NEWS.com.au

Coronial findings into the murder of two Sydney teenagers, and the failure of government agencies to stop their abusive father, are due for release this week.

A September 2020 inquest was told that despite Edwards’ 40-year history of violence and abuse towards his six former partners and 10 estranged children, police had not charged him with any offence since 1998 and approved his gun licence in 2017.

The experience of the children and Olga in the Family Court was heavily scrutinised after a lawyer tasked with representing the children’s best interests initially advocated for Edwards to see his children weekly.

The inquest has been told the Edwards children spoke of their father’s violence to several health professionals and experts involved in the court proceedings.

But the independent children’s lawyer said the teenagers hadn’t raised those concerns with her before she pushed for weekly access visits.

She defended not telling the family court months later that Jennifer wanted an explicit order forbidding her father from contacting her, saying judges and magistrates had previously told her not to disclose a child’s actual wish in court.

Ms O’Sullivan’s findings are expected to be damning about Sydney police officers’ failures to adequately record or act on Olga’s reports of Edwards’ stalking of her and past abuse of Jack and Jennifer.

Source: Report due on ‘failings’ for fatal family | 7NEWS.com.au

Aboriginal teenager loses bid to have trial heard by female judge for cultural reasons

An Aboriginal teenage girl has lost an appeal after she requested her criminal trial be heard by a female magistrate for cultural reasons, saying she wouldn’t defend the charges if footage of her being strip-searched had to be seen by men.

The girl, then 15, was strip searched at Wagga Wagga Police Station in March 2019 after she was arrested on suspicion of stealing a car.

Police say she kicked the female officers searching her and smashed some of their body cameras. She was charged with assaulting police officers executing their duty and destroying property.

The girl’s defence team wants to argue that the strip search was illegal.

Footage of the search showed her fully exposed backside and chest.

A field officer with the Aboriginal Legal Service gave evidence that in Aboriginal cultures showing a woman’s sensitive parts was women’s business.

The Children’s Court magistrate rejected her application.

But the NSW Court of Appeal ruled last month that the Children’s Court could actually order a case like the girl’s to be heard by a woman.

Ordering a case to be heard by a woman is not the same as ordering a case to be heard by a specific judge, the court said. Some 47 per cent of magistrates in NSW are women.

The court rejected the girl’s appeal because the legal error hadn’t affected the magistrate’s decision.

The girl was initially refused bail and held in jail for more than six months after the strip search. She has since been granted bail.

Source: Aboriginal teenager loses bid to have trial heard by female judge for cultural reasons

Trans lobby ‘buries’ defence of hormone drugs

The gender clinicians lobby has quietly buried its past defence of the treatment guideline justifying trans hormones for minors.

Source: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/trans-lobby-buries-defence-of-hormone-drugs/news-story/749eaac1f0f9f8d8acce4d07db2a6abeTrans

 

Misogynistic ‘radicalisation’ of boys online has these experts calling for change – ABC News

In Australia, 65 per cent of girls and young women have reported being harassed or abused online.

But some experts are arguing that in a “manosphere” of online anti-women groups, methods of communication and organisation are becoming more sophisticated.

At the more serious end of the spectrum, these experts say, are operators that must be seen and named as “extremist” or “terrorist” groups – particularly if anything is to be done to stop them.

Dr Roose would like to see a “reclassifying” of the worst of the online behaviour that exists, in groups that target women online, and actively advocate harassment and violence towards women.

When the behaviour involves promoting, advocating or threatening violence or sexual violence to control women, “it needs to be actually considered a form of violent extremism,” Dr Roose says.

Source: Misogynistic ‘radicalisation’ of boys online has these experts calling for change – ABC News

Women Are Writing Themselves Back Into History on Wikipedia

If you were on the internet in April 2019, you may recognize computer scientist Katie Bouman, who went viral after her team captured the world’s first image of a black hole and her thrilled reaction was captured on camera.

That breakthrough prompted a Wikipedia volunteer to draft her biography for the digital encyclopedia. But the same day, it was nearly pulled by someone else who thought she wasn’t notable enough to be included.

This incident points to a bigger problem: women feature in less than one in five biographies on Wikipedia. There are several reasons for this gap.

First, some background: Wikipedia pages are written and edited by a volunteer community that now numbers over 143,000 individuals, around 90% of whom are male. Anyone can write a draft article, and anyone can nominate an article for deletion. Editors then decide by consensus whether to keep the article, merge it with another one or delete it.

These decisions come down to guidelines set by Wikipedia editors in the early days, including a test of notability: Is there significant coverage of the topic in secondary sources? Are these sources reliable? Are they independent of the subject itself? By this criteria, enough editors rushed to defend Katie Bouman’s notability and ultimately saved her article from deletion. Many others, though, never see the light of day.

According to Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, a veteran volunteer who’s written over 5,000 articles since 2007, “information about men is much more readily available in large quantities than it is about women.” If a woman hasn’t been covered sufficiently in secondary sources, a Wikipedia editor may determine that she doesn’t meet the notability standard.

Source: Women Are Writing Themselves Back Into History on Wikipedia

One Nation pushes motion through senate banning use of ‘distorted’ gender-inclusive language | 7NEWS.com.au

The Australian Senate has passed a motion disallowing the federal government from using gender-inclusive language in anything it does.

It passed 33 to 31.

“Our fundamental biology and relationships are represented through the following descriptors – mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, boy, girl, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, female, male, man, woman, lady, gentleman, Mr, Mrs, Ms, sir, madam, dad, mum, husband, wife,” the motion reads.

“Broad scale genuine inclusion cannot be achieved through distortions of biological and relational descriptors.”

The motion calls on the federal government to “reject the use of distorted language such as gestational/non-gestational parent, chest-feeding, human milk, lactating parent, menstruators, birthing/non-birthing parent”.

It also says that any material produced, including legislation, websites and employee documentation and training must ignore these terms.

It comes after Australian National University researchers suggested ditching terms such as “mother”, “father” and “breastfeeding” to be more inclusive.

Source: One Nation pushes motion through senate banning use of ‘distorted’ gender-inclusive language | 7NEWS.com.au

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, are you listening? Here are our stories

We invited you to tell him your stories through the Herald and The Age. And the deluge began. Hundreds of women from across the country wrote of the traumas suffered, of feelings of shame, humiliation and fear they had endured, many for decades. They had been abused by friends, family, colleagues, strangers; in their homes, at their workplaces, on public transport, in taxis – anywhere and everywhere. Some women told of their experiences from 50, 60 years ago, for the first time. Grandmothers, mothers, daughters wondered what their lives would have been like had they not had to carry their secrets, their traumas, their shame through the years.They are united in their desire to be listened to for altruistic reasons – they want their stories to contribute to the movement towards change that has gripped the country. They are inspired by the bravery and strength of young women like Brittany Higgins, Grace Tame, Chanel Contos and those who responded to her petition, and have told of their experiences to build on the momentum created by younger generations. They are angry because every woman has a story to tell and injustices continue. And they want to be part of what they hope will be historic change in the treatment of women in society – because enough is enough.

Source: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, are you listening? Here are our stories

History repeating: the surprising link between toxic masculinity and Australia’s convict past

In our recent research, we argued strict masculinity norms can emerge when men vastly outnumber women. This is due to competition increasing and intensifying among men because there are fewer women to partner with.

This can intensify violence, bullying, and intimidating behaviours that, once entrenched in local culture, continue to manifest themselves long after sex ratios have normalised.

We tested this hypothesis using data the convict colonisation of Australia. In just under 100 years, between 1787 and 1868, Britain transported 132,308 convict men and only 24,960 convict women to Australia. Migrants were also mostly male. So, there were far more men than women in Australia until well into the 20th century.

We used historical census data and combined them with current data on violence, sexual and domestic assault, suicide and bullying in schools. From that, we were able to see the regions with significantly more men than women back in convict times still experience problems today. This is even when we account for the influence of the total number of convicts, geographic characteristics, and present-day characteristics of these regions, including education, religion, urbanisation and income.

Our research also shows assault and sexual assault are much higher today in parts of Australia that were more male in the colonial past. We also find much higher rates of bullying among boys in schools, as reported by parents or teachers.

There is every reason to think any place where males dominate can create these issues. Be it in parliaments, offices, schools, or sports teams. Recent allegations out of parliament house, petitions denouncing thousands of sexual assaults by private schools boys, and continued claims of sexual assaults by NRL players prove exactly the point.

Source: History repeating: the surprising link between toxic masculinity and Australia’s convict past