Category: Events

Lesbian: Politics, Culture, Existence | Online Book Launch Tickets | TryBooking Australia

Across almost 50 years of writing, Susan Hawthorne’s essays on lesbian culture and politics take the reader on a journey through the concerns of radical feminists engaged in the Women’s Liberation Movement. Not only does she trace the experiments of lesbians creating a vibrant woman-loving culture, but she also traces the backlash against lesbians and a history of violence perpetrated by the state, corporations and individual men.

Read more about the book: https://www.spinifexpress.com.au/shop/p/9781925950984

Kaye Moseley is an artist and has been active in lesbian communities in Melbourne since 1973 when she attended the first National Lesbian Conference in Australia. She designed the Spinifex logo and inaugurated the annual Satin and Silk Ball for Lesbians which ran for over one and a half decades in Melbourne.

Date

Wednesday 4 September 2024 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (UTC+10)

Location

Online event access details will be provided by the event organiser

Source: Lesbian: Politics, Culture, Existence | Online Book Launch Tickets | TryBooking Australia

List of Female Athletes by Sport | She Won

This website is dedicated to archiving the achievements of female athletes who were displaced by males in women’s sporting events.

Source: List of Female Athletes by Sport | She Won

AUS/NZ Feminist Question Time 27 July 2024 [COMPLETE WEBINAR] #WDI #fqt – YouTube

Country Women’s Association of WA makes history in vote to allow men as members – ABC News

In short:

The Country Women’s Association of WA has voted to change its 100-year-old constitution and allow men to become associate members.

NSW, Tasmania, Victoria and the NT don’t allow men to be CWA members.

What’s next?

Men in WA will be able to apply for associate membership, which doesn’t allow for voting or individual branch membership.

—–

Following the vote, some members at the annual general meeting raised the issue of transgender women joining the association.

Ms Langdon said that while there was no specific provision in the constitution to recognise transgender women, they were welcome in the association, with some already members.

The vote means Western Australia is now the third state along with South Australia and Queensland to allow men into their ranks as non-voting members.

Queensland CWA president Sheila Campbell said the organisation had led the way by welcoming men and transgender women into the association since 2015 under a Friends of QCWA banner.

“Our association is open to all women, including transgender women, and men as non-voting Friends of QCWA,” she said.

A spokesperson for the CWA of Victoria said its branch did not have male members.

“We accept anyone who identifies as a woman to be a member,” they said.

[Ed: so very disappointing.]

Source: Country Women’s Association of WA makes history in vote to allow men as members – ABC News

Jason Evert: US chastity preacher talks at NSW schools.

Weeks ago, the name Jason Evert would have barely been known by many in Australia. Now, there’s a legion of parents who are banding together and calling for his scheduled talks at schools to be cancelled.

Jason Evert is a “Catholic husband, proud father, chastity speaker and author”. He’s in Australia currently, going on a tour of sorts where he speaks to mostly female students about chastity.

His talks were organised by the wider Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay, whose schools span across Sydney, the NSW Central Coast and more.

Parents at one of these schools amassed over 700 petition signatures, calling for the event to be cancelled.

Following the subsequent media attention, Evert responded with some choice words… he’s referred to Sarah and other parents like her who criticised the scheduled compulsory talks as “witches”.

“Three of the chastity talks in high schools have been cancelled by parents and the ones who are taking credit for it are, no kidding, not making this up, are actually a group of witches!” he said in a video posted to X.

In a roundabout way he referred to himself or the Catholic Church (hard to tell which one) as a “Siberian tiger”, wondering why the “witches” bothered to try and compete.

Source: Jason Evert: US chastity preacher talks at NSW schools.

Joanna Cherry #LesbianVisibilityWeek speech in House of Commons – YouTube

$25m settlement proposed for ‘one size fits all’ breast augmentation surgery class action – Lawyers Weekly

After a seven-year legal battle, an Australian cosmetic surgery clinic has settled a class action against it for $25 million following allegations of patients experiencing punctured lungs, seizures, and ongoing issues as a result of botched breast augmentation surgery.

In a class action first launched against The Cosmetic Institute (TCI) in 2017, thousands of group members have received a proposed settlement notice of $25 million.

The case was originally scheduled for a hearing in the Supreme Court of NSW on Monday (15 April), but the parties reportedly reached a last-minute settlement agreement.

The surgery, which was advertised at the time as a boob job for the “cost of a cup of coffee a day” and allowed payment plans of $20 a week, cost $5,990 total and included the cost of the implants, surgery, hospital and anaesthetic fees as well as GST and follow up appointments.

However, the class action alleged that inadequate infection control procedures were used and that there was no capacity to access emergency assistance during the procedure. TCI Parramatta and TCI Bondi were also alleged to be unlicenced and unable to legally administer general anaesthesia.

The class action also alleged that TCI did not inform patients of potential risks around the “one-size-fits-all” procedure and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct.

Of the settlement, $10 million – subject to court approval and requested by law firm Turner Freeman, which represented the plaintiffs – will go towards legal fees, disbursements and settlement administration costs.

The 12 lead plaintiffs will receive $2.8 million collectively, with payments ranging from $120,000 up to $370,000. The rest of the settlement will be divided between the other group members, with approximately 1,000 registered so far.

Source: $25m settlement proposed for ‘one size fits all’ breast augmentation surgery class action – Lawyers Weekly

‘Inspire Inclusion’ and you’ll get duped again on International Women’s Day

The UN Women theme for 2024 is actually Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress.

This correct theme is getting more traction than in previous years. But if you Google ‘International Women’s Day,’ the first result will push you to a domain encouraging you to ‘Inspire Inclusion.’ Ask ChatGPT, and you’ll also be told the theme is to “Inspire Inclusion’.

If you leverage the ‘Inspire Inclusion’ theme for your marketing or event efforts, you are complying with a UK-based firm that runs the internationalwomensday.com domain but offers no transparency on who is behind it and how they chose their themes, charities and partners.

The corporate-theme hijacking of IWD first bothered me in March 2022 when UN Women’s official theme, which centred around climate change, was drowned out by calls to “break the bias” instead. Especially frustrating given Australia was experiencing significant flooding and weather events during that period. At the time, I described themes like ‘break the bias’ as weapons of mass distraction.

As I also wrote in 2022 and remains true today, when you Google ‘International Women’s Day’ you come across this official-looking, we-own-this-IWD-thing website that claims to determine each year’s theme and resources to support messaging and ideas around the day.

The website, in 2024, continues to share very little information on who is behind it, how it is funded and how and why it determines the theme. There is no ‘About Us’, only an ‘About IWD’. There are no names listed or clear contact information given, other than a form you can fill out regarding sponsorship opportunities, which are now positioned as a place to submit a ‘partnership proposal’.

While a generic email address is given, the physical address is listed as Aurora Ventures (Europe) Limited, based in London. Aurora Ventures lists its work as including delivery of the International Women’s Day (IWD) platform and working “with stakeholders to produce an annual IWD campaign theme.”

As of late 2023, those who own the IWD domain name also featured several “Prime Employers” associated with International Women’s Day that the website writers said “maintain a deep and continuous focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) all year round”. Some notable exemplars included Siemens Healthineers, Diageo, Honeywell, John Deer and Northrop Grumman in association with IWD 2023.

The website has since been updated, presumably to focus more on employers that don’t make things like intercontinental ballistic missiles because “weapons and women’s empowerment” doesn’t roll off the tongue so well in 2024.

Source: ‘Inspire Inclusion’ and you’ll get duped again on International Women’s Day

Kathleen Folbigg has convictions for killing her four children overturned, live updates – ABC News

Kathleen Folbigg, once labelled as the nation’s worst female serial killer, has had her convictions for killing her four children quashed by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.

Now 56, Ms Folbigg spent 20 years in prison after being found guilty of killing her four young children. They were just babies or toddlers when they died between the years of 1989 and 1999 in the Hunter region.

She has always maintained her innocence but was convicted at trial of three counts of murder and one of manslaughter.

Source: Kathleen Folbigg has convictions for killing her four children overturned, live updates – ABC News

‘Brilliantly controversial’: Vale Dr Dale Spender AM

World-acclaimed feminist, beloved educator and widely published author who was nothing short of brilliant, Dr Dale Spender AM has passed away aged 80.

A true pioneer for women’s equality who elevated her fellow writers and educators and cheekily encouraged women to be bold and change the world, Dr Dale Spender AM has sadly passed away, aged 80.

Recalling his favourite memory of his sister, Mr Spender recited one of her famous quotes that encapsulated her spirit.

It reads: “Feminism has fought no wars. It has killed no opponents. It has set up no concentration camps, starved no enemies, practised no cruelties. Its battles have been for education, for the vote, for better working conditions, for safety on the streets, for childcare, for social welfare, for rape crisis centres, women’s refugees, reforms in the law. If someone says, ‘oh I’m not a feminist,’ I ask, ‘why? What’s your problem?”

At heart a teacher and a writer and always a feminist, Dale Spender lived a life driven by passion for women’s equality and for education.
She published and edited over 30 books and many more articles, book chapters and blog entries on feminism, women’s history and literature, education and new technologies.
In 1980, Dale published Man Made Language – originally her PhD thesis.
The work established her as a feminist academic and remains influential in contemporary analysis of sexism in language and in the social and political reality it creates.
Reclaiming women’s intellectual heritage, she said, was a deeply feminist act: “Unless we can reconstruct our past, draw on it and transmit it to the next generation, our oppression persists.” (Women of Ideas, 1982).
On returning to Australia, Dale was criticised by those working in the same intellectual fields as not being scholarly, as too prolific, as a populist and tall poppy.
She applied for several academic positions in Australia but was not successful, perhaps on the grounds that are familiar to other intellectuals who made their name and fame outside of Australia.
Or perhaps it was because she cheekily advised women that to change the world, they should be rude to men, three times a day.

Source: ‘Brilliantly controversial’: Vale Dr Dale Spender AM