Dreamer Easy

Landmark report reveals a woman dies every week due to Australia's domestic violence crisis (ABC, 28 February 2018). That report is: Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia, 2018

What if we knew domestic violence was a cause of suicide? (SMH, 6 November 2017). "A new report by the NSW Domestic Violence Deaths Review team shows a connection between those who take their own lives and who have also experienced family violence as a victim, a perpetrator, even a witness. Just under 40 per cent of all the suicides in the study were known to police because of domestic violence. Nearly half – and that proportion held true for men, who are mostly the perpetrators, and for women, who are mostly the victims."

The #MeToo survivors we forgot (USA Today, 19 April 2018). "A Me Too-style movement could help debunk common myths about domestic abuse, as well as pressure the criminal and legal systems to make things easier for the victims, not the abusers, advocates say."

Change The Course: National Report on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment at Australian Universities (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2017)

Sexual Victimization by Women Is More Common Than Previously Known (Scientific American, October 2017). (Importantly, this isn't an attempt to discredit feminism, nor to shift the spotlight away from female victims of sexual assault.)

Domestic Violence: Aboriginal women ask Australians to pay attention to assaults and murders (ABC, 11 July 2017)

A third of assault patients in Australia female: study (SMH, 19 April 2017). "More than half of all women and girls who end up in hospital being treated after an assault have been attacked by their partners."

Bid for paid domestic violence leave rejected (SMH, 3 July 2017) "A full bench of the Fair Work Commission said it has taken the "preliminary view" that while it is necessary to make provisions for family and domestic violence leave, it had rejected an application for 10 days of leave to be covered under all modern awards for all employees."

'Once a girl is married, there is no going back' (ABC, 29 July 2017). "It's a type of domestic violence you probably haven't heard of: dowry abuse. Some Indian-Australian men are using their desirable status as residents to extort thousands of dollars from the women they're marrying, with threats and violence if their escalating demands aren't met."

'Submit to your husbands': Women told to endure domestic violence in the name of God (ABC, 18 July 2017) | How to navigate the research on domestic violence and Christian churches: A few frequently asked questions (ABC, 24 July 2017)

Exposing the darkness within: Domestic violence and Islam (ABC, 24 April 2017) | Muslim women unite to encourage daughters to have healthy relationships (ABC, 26 April 2017) NB: "There's no evidence that suggests domestic violence rates are higher among Muslim women than the broader Australian community."

Domestic Violence: Family Law Act plan could see end to alleged perpetrators cross-examining accusers (ABC, 17 July 2017)

Abortion laws making it harder for women to escape domestic violence, expert warns (ABC, 21 June 2017)

Domestic violence: Report finds 'clear link' between media reporting and understanding of issue (ABC, 30 June 2017). "Our Watch CEO Mary Barry said the way journalists frame individual stories can have a major impact on public understanding. 'Blaming victims for the violence inflicted upon them, for instance, still happens in one in six articles about violence against women,' she said."

BOSCAR data showing rise of domestic violence by women 'not giving the full picture' (ABC, 22 June 2017)

Domestic violence survivors should get early access to super, HESTA says (ABC, 20 June 2017)

Universities spend millions preparing for wave of sexual assault reports (SMH, 22 July 2017). "Australian universities will spend millions of dollars on counselling services as 'a wave of victims' are expected to come forward following the release of the world's largest report into sexual assault on campus." The AHRC survey of tertiary students will be released on 1 August.

Texas slashed funding for Planned Parenthood and ended up with more teen abortions (ThinkProgress, 17 July 2017)

Rural women 'bullied' into caesareans amid doctor shortage (ABC, 16 July 2017)

Introducing use-it-or-lose-it leave for fathers would make life fairer for mothers (ABC, 20 July 2017). "Under [Australia's paid parental leave system], the primary carer is eligible for up to 18 weeks' pay at minimum wage, nine times more than Dad and Partner Pay, which is two weeks at minimum wage."

CWA members hope washable sanitary pads will give isolated women freedom to learn (ABC, 13 July 2017)

Islamophobia: Women wearing head coverings most at risk of attacks, study finds (ABC, 10 July 2017)

Explainer: Why do Muslim women wear a burka, niqab or hijab? (ABC, 23 September 2014). Explains the difference between different kinds of coverings.

How can Muslim feminists reclaim their religion from men? (ABC, 1 May 2017)

Catcalling and street harassment is happening more often than you might think (ABC, 22 June 2017)

The woman transman who was charged with murdering her his wife (ABC, 5 September 2012). The historical story of Harry Crawford.

This is topical, given the Tweeter-in-Chief's latest announcement: Witch-hunts and surveillance: The hidden lives of LGBTI people in the Australian military (ABC, 24 May 2017)

Intersex and proud: model Hanne Gaby Odiele on finally celebrating her body (GA, 23 April 2017)

A Queer Gods Ritual: An Introduction to the Queer Ones. I was pleased to find this again, so I'm leaving it here.

Good grief, there's so much more. It'll have to wait for another posting.

Reproductive Freedom

I made it to the pro-choice rally yesterday, late as usual, but in time to join the march to Parliament House. (In fact, I'm briefly visible in the video from it here. :) The speakers really put into context for me the need for women, for any person with a uterus, to be able to control this most basic aspect of our lives: sexual assault, domestic violence, homelessness, poverty, homophobia and transphobia, the denial of sex education, the constant attacks on services - to Women's Legal Service Victoria. Illegal and/or inaccessible terminations, and harassment at clinics and hospitals, are just part of the continual assault on our well-being. Or to put it another way: Never mind America, access to abortion is a 'nightmare' for many Australians.

The Greens are introducing a Bill to remove abortion from the criminal law in NSW, where it's still technically illegal, which means that women's reproductive freedom is always in danger, perhaps more so now than ever. Read about the Bill and email your representative at http://www.end12.org.au/.

Abortion is also illegal in Queensland. QLD Coalition MPs oppose reform, so a proposed Bill decriminalising abortion was withdrawn earlier this year, but has been sent to the Law Reform Commission in the meantime.

The Northern Territory has just decriminalised abortion and legalised RU486, as well as providing safe access zones around clinics and hospitals. RU486 still can't be legally used by women in South Australia and the ACT (as you may imagine, this isn't stopping its use).

Medical abortion access restricted by cost, distance and knowledge (SMH, 23 January 2017). "The study recommends policy attention is put toward preventing unwanted pregnancies and advocates for increasing medicare rebates to lessen financial burden, particularly for women beyond their first trimester."

Women going without food to pay for abortions: study (SMH, 23 January 2017). About a third of the women surveyed experienced financial difficulties.


Sexual and Domestic Violence

Fact file: Domestic violence in Australia (ABC FactCheck, 15 April 2017) | Australian police handle 5,000 domestic violence matters a week, up 7 per cent (ABC, 22 April 2016) - that's over a quarter of a million every year. | National Legal Aid calls for more funding after new figures reveal domestic violence a factor in 79pc of family law cases (ABC, 18 April 2017)

More than third of sexual assaults, homicides linked to domestic violence, ABS data shows (ABC, 13 July 2016) | Half the men who kill partners have history of domestic violence (SMH 29 April 2017)

Aboriginal mothers 17 times more likely to die from homicide, WA study finds (ABC, 13 July 2016). Indigenous mothers in WA are 6.5 times more likely to die from all preventable causes, including car crashes and suicide.

Hidden victims: Women on visas feeling trapped after domestic violence abuse (ABC, 5 April 2017)

Family violence a bigger health risk for women than smoking, drinking, obesity: study (ABC, 1 November 2016). "The burden of disease is a calculation of the impact of particular diseases and risk factors on an entire population. It is a measure of both fatal and non-fatal health impacts, which take into account the severity and duration of health conditions. The study found partner violence was among the top ten risk factors contributing to disease burden among all adult women... Among women 18 to 44 years, it was the biggest single risk factor when violence in all intimate relationships was included, bigger than smoking, alcohol use or being overweight or obese. When considering only violence by live-in partners, in this age group, partner violence ranked second only to alcohol use."

Sexual assault on Australian campus is a serious problem. Compounding it: University sexual assault policies are often 'inconsistent' and 'confusing' (ABC, 2 March 2017). In fact, the group End Rape on Campus Australia accuses unis of active cover-ups of rape. An opinion piece asks: Sexual assault: What is your university doing to prevent it? (ABC, 25 February 2017)

In NSW, accused domestic violence perpetrators are allowed to cross-examine their alleged victims, a deeply traumatising experience.

'Life-saving' Victorian domestic violence pet shelter program struggling to meet high demand (ABC, 28 February 2017) Safe Steps has a list of temporary pet care for Australians fleeing domestic violence.

Explainer: What happens when someone applies for a domestic violence protection order (SMH, 1 February 2017)

Female domestic violence victims being punished for acting in self defence, say advocates (ABC, 6 July 2016)

How 'Disney dads' are making life hell for their partners (SMH, 23 October 2017): how financial abuse can worsen after separation.

Direct link between sexual objectification of girls and aggression towards them (Medical Xpress, 24 January 2017)

Men who kill female partners, as opposed to strangers, get lighter sentences, Canadian study finds (CBC News, 22 November 2015) "'This may mean that women killed by male partners are still seen as property,' researcher says".

ETA: Technology-facilitated abuse: The new breed of domestic violence (ABC, 27 March 2017)

Gender

Women using IVF to choose the sex of their children break silence on 'gender disappointment' (Lateline, 27 February 2017).

Compare and contrast: 'We don't know if your baby's a boy or a girl': growing up intersex (GA, 2 July 2017). "'My entire pregnancy, I'd worried that I wasn't going to be able to love my baby because it wasn't a he and it wasn't a she,” she recalls. But when Jack was born, he was blue and floppy. 'Although it was awful at the time, it was the best thing that could have happened: I would have done anything to have made sure he was breathing again.' Her eyes fill with tears. 'Quite quickly, he was crying. The relief was unbelievable. He was a baby and he needed feeding. Making sure that he was cared for was my priority, not poking around in his nappy.'

Report on new estimates of the size of the lesbian, gay and bisexual population of England (Medixal Xpress, 3 February 2017): somewhere between 2.5% and about 6%.

Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science (Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 25 April 2016). "The most contentious scientific issues have concerned the causes of sexual orientation—that is, why are some people heterosexual, others bisexual, and others homosexual? The actual relevance of these issues to social, political, and ethical decisions is often poorly justified, however."

Photos: Two-spirit people throughout history (NPR, 25 October 2014)

ETA: How AP tallied the cost of North Carolina's "bathroom bill" (Washington Post, 27 March 2017). The state's pointless bathroom fascism will cost it "more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years".

More stuff:

From the recent debate over "Obamacare": Male GOP lawmaker asks why men should pay for prenatal coverage. The same reason women pay for cover for prostate surgery. Follow the link for the simple explanation.

Also from Up Over: 4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump. A blogger's analysis of 4chan, gender, and Trump, "the loser who has won".

Unconscious bias is keeping women out of senior roles — can we get around it? (ABC, 8 March 2017). The vicious cycle of affinity bias and how it helps maintain the glass ceiling.

Unpaid work contributes $345 billion a year to Australia's economy. Women perform about three-quarters of that work, including child care and domestic work. Paid work in Australia is still about as gender-segregated as it was twenty years ago.

Sex differences in cognition are small (Mind Hacks, 14 February 2017). Or, to put it another way, there are no male and female brain types.

Remembering Nüshu, the 19th-Century Chinese Script Only Women Could Write (Atlas Obscura, 16 February 2017)

How you can help people held in detention by Australia (GA, 13 August 2016) "There are several refugee and asylum-seeker agencies that exist to help people in mainland detention or who have just left the island centres."

‘They don’t care’: a refugee’s story of reporting sexual assault on Nauru (GA, 13 August 2016)

One day in September: a grim 24 hours in Nauru’s detention centre (GA, 13 August 2016) "Nauru files reveal spike in reported incidents three days after Australia announced its doomed plan to settle refugees in Cambodia. The Nauru files show an average of 2.3 incident reports a day. But on one extraordinary day in September there were 19 reports in total, many of them serious."

Reports of family violence widespread amid despair of Nauru detention (GA, 12 August 2016). "The Australian Institute of Criminology has pointed to 'situational factors' that increase the risk of domestic violence. These include unemployment, poor living standards and overcrowding, stress and difficulty in accessing support."

Life in Nauru detention: a dark, wretched Truman Show without the cameras (GA, 13 August 2016) "Thousands of leaked files highlight the weight of daily frustrations in an overcrowded, overheated dystopia."

Fact check: immigration minister Peter Dutton's claims against Nauru files (GA, 12 August 2016)

Immigration stalled on requests for rape victim’s family to join her, Nauru files show (GA, 13 August 2016)

Legal advice says inquiry into child sex abuse can examine Nauru regime (GA, 12 August 2016). "The legal advice said the Royal Commissions Act gave commissions the power to conduct extraterritorial investigations so long as they pertained to government."

How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired discusses not just a flimsy review of a gender clinic which wasted an opportunity for research, but the difficult, sensitive, and complex question of whether young children have gender identities in the same way that older children, adolescents, and adults do - and if not, then what is the most appropriate way to treat young kids with gender dysphoria.

Colleen Francis and the infamous Evergreen State College incident (The Transadvocate, 13 September 2013). "News" stories about trans people behaving inappropriately in changing rooms and restrooms keep turning out to be lies. | Trans Students Have Caused Zero Incidents in Bathrooms Nationwide (The Advocate, 3 June 2015)

Melbourne transgender man AJ Kearns says he is 'blessed' to have become pregnant and given birth (10 August 2015). We're living in the future! :D

Gay people are less healthy, happy and content than straight people, says a survey (SMH, 16 July 2016) | Majority of LGBTI Australians experience bullying, harassment: Human Rights Commission report (AM, 10 June 2015) | of LGBT Australians, Transgender people face the highest level of harassment (SMH, 31 March 2015) | Beyondblue research reveals alarming levels of homophobia in teenagers (SMH, 31 March 2015) | Study in older LGBTI Australians finds fear, discrimination and pain (SMH, 1 March 2015)

Judge Says That Claiming to Cure Homosexuality Is Consumer Fraud (Mother Jones, 13 February 2015)

When the Rapist Doesn't See It as Rape (NYT 23 May 2015) | Ask 10,000 Men About "Forced Sex," And Rape Statistics Start to Make Sense (Smithsonian.com, 10 September 2013): "Accounting for the widespread prevalence of sexual violence means, essentially, admitting that perpetrators of sexual violence must be much, much more common than we’d like to think... According to the study, which surveyed more than 10,000 men from six countries (Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea), around a quarter of all men admitted that they’ve sexually assaulted a woman... The key to getting men to open up was that they were not specifically asked about rape. Instead, they were asked in a sideways way. “The word 'rape' was not used in the questions, but the men were asked if they had ever forced a woman to have sex when she wasn't willing or if they had ever forced sex on someone who was too drunk or drugged to consent.'"

How economic theory can help stop sexual assault (PBS, 19 December 2014): some pretty clever ideas here, including "information escrow" in which people can report rape without having to contact authorities, and "social norms marketing".

I Am a False Rape Allegation Statistic: "The detective looked at me... 'Tell me you made the whole thing up... You can leave, if you just tell me you made it up. Tell me you made it up and you’re sorry for lying, and I’ll let you leave.'... Honestly, at that point, all I wanted in the entire world was just to get out of that room. There are very few things I wouldn't have done, if I could only leave. So I looked at him and lied. I said, 'I made the whole thing up. I'm sorry.'"

True or false? The contested terrain of false allegations (Australian Institute of Family Studies, November 2013)

Kenya's women-only villages offer protection from domestic violence and rape (AM, 19 January 2016)

National women's anti-violence group loses funding, could close (The Age, 24 December 2015) | Domestic violence considered a bigger threat than terrorism, poll shows (SMH 6 July 2015)

Study reveals 'concerning' youth views on domestic violence (ABC, 24 September 2015)

Domestic violence: How does a magistrate decide who needs protection? (3 June 2015)

Police Have a Much Bigger Domestic-Abuse Problem Than the NFL Does (The Atlantic, 19 September 2014): "Research suggests that family violence is two to four times higher in the law-enforcement community than in the general population."

The worse you are at games, the more likely you are to be hostile to women, says one study (PC Games)

The heroic Zoe Quinn has dropped her harassment lawsuit against her ex, the guy who started GamerGate. Bless her for fighting for so hard for so long - and, in the process, changing the world.

Hardcore internet pornography 'most prominent sexual educator' for young people, experts say (7.30, 5 June 2015) | Confusion over 'normal' drives surge in demand for female genital cosmetic surgery (SMH, 15 April 2015)

UN report shows countries where it is hardest to be a woman (SMH 28 April 2015)

Harnaam Kaur: the bearded dame (Life Matters, 13 April 2015): "Diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome at age 11, Harnaam Kaur began to grow a beard as a teenager. She told Life Matters about the difficult time she had at school, her current anti-bullying efforts, and how she learned to love her beard and herself."

When society isn't judging, women's sex drive rivals men's (Mind Hacks, 1 May 2015) | Study: More Than Half The World Doesn't Kiss (askmen.com, 15 July 2015)

What Sexual Assault Does To The Brain: why trauma victims give inconsistent accounts of the attack.

Lesbian Obesity Study Misses the Point: We Don't Care If We're Fat: "As it turns out, queer girls (lesbians AND bisexuals) are ALSO more likely to NOT THINK they're fat, even when their BMI puts them in one of the 'overweight' categories. On the flip side, straight girls are more likely to think of themselves as fat even when they're not... if you don't have to concern yourself with attracting men as romantic partners, it's considerably more reasonable to not give a fuck about their photoshopped-magazine-and-mainstream-pornography-fueled beauty standards".

[US] the number of homeless LGBT teens - many cast out by their religious families - quietly keeps growing

No 'solving' of the Jack the Ripper case will satisfy our obsession: "Jack the Ripper didn't kill sex workers: he killed women, some of whom sold sex sometimes. Jack killed flower sellers. Jack killed charwomen. He killed mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives... These women are infinitely more interesting to me than the identity of their killer."

[US] How to Lose $400,000: Women, Race, and the Minimum Wage. In the US, the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and the tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour. In Australia, the minimum wage is $AU16.87.

Child sexual abuse: women make up 10 per cent of perpetrators reported to royal commission

Domestic violence strategy lacks funding and focus: women's groups: "The system itself is really stretched and the women and children are not getting the support that is required."

Unions want domestic violence leave to be universal right

The Feminist Guide To Non-Creepy Flirting

California adopts historic 'yes means yes' rule on sexual consent (which is fantastic, but it seems to apply only to college campuses?!)

Women under-represented in management positions, paid 24 per cent less than men according to Workplace Gender Equality Agency report

Family Court Chief Justice calls for rethink on how High Court handles cases involving transgender children: "As it now stands, a child wishing to change gender needs to apply to the Family Court for the second stage of treatment involving gender-changing hormones."

[US] These High School Students Are Fighting For Medically-Accurate Sex Ed: 'We Have The Right To Know'

12-Year-Old's Suicide Sparks Social-Media Outrage: Is It Enough?: Ronin Shimizu was a bullied gender non-conforming boy.

sometimes things are tough but look at this bun

Here's an entry from my proto-blog, "Kate Almanac", dated 9 July 2000.

In June this year, I visited relatives in Washington DC. I packed my passport, my swimsuit - and a list of references to look up at the Library of Congress. Despite plundering university and local libraries around the world, there were still a handful of citations I hadn't been able to track down. I got the call numbers from the LC's Web page. But what I didn't get was an idea of just how difficult it was going to be to get my paws on that short list of research goodies.

One of my targets: a copy of Lenore Walker's 1979 classic, The Battered Woman. Surprisingly, I hadn't been able to find it anywhere. And all I wanted was to check one reference, a supposedly man-hating remark much quoted on the net. Here it is, as it appeared on the Men's Issues Page:

One of Lenore Walker's examples from her classic book The Battered Woman(NY: Harper Colophon Books, 1979, p. 98) says

"There is also no doubt that she began to assault Paul physically before he assaulted her. However, it is also clear from the rest of her story that Paul had been battering her by ignoring her and working late, in order to move up the corporate ladder, for the entire five years of their marriage."

So, the message Walker gives to women is: if your husband is working late, trying to support his dependents, just SLUG HIM if you don't like this. You're the victim, not him, and we will back you up 100%.

What a shocking thing for Walker say! In fact, it's so shocking that I've always suspected that her meaning had been distorted - in order to make anti-domestic violence activists look like villains who trivialise violence against men. You won't be surprised to hear that my suspicion was right. But first, I had to get my hands on that book.

( The story continues... )

Iraqi women suffer 'silent emergency': "Despite the billions of dollars poured into rebuilding Iraq and recent security gains, a quarter of the women interviewed still do not have daily access to water, a third cannot send their children to school and since the war started, over half have been the victim of violence."

Aussies urged to stop domestic violence

All jokes aside, it's a disgrace; "But after 30 years of campaigning, little seems to have changed. Recent Bureau of Statistics figures show that in 30 years there has been a minuscule 1.5 per cent decrease in violence against women in Australia."

Physical Violence (including Sexual Violence) in Australia from the Australian Bureau of Statistics

Child abuse needs own watchdog: "Currently just five to 10 per cent of child sex abuse cases which proceed to court result in a plea or verdict, and only half of those result in a conviction".

Gender-based violence high in Papua New Guinea

Legal threat to UK councils over rape victims: "Research reveals that one in four local authorities in Britain offer no specialised services for women who have faced violence or abuse, and shows that a quarter of those rape crisis centres that are still operating believe they will either have to close or radically cut services in 2009."



All right. Now some hope.

NSW courts shift protects violence victims

Family murders under review: "All domestic violence homicides that occurred over the past five years are set to be reviewed by a new body announced by the NSW Government late yesterday."

Queensland to tackle domestic violence: "The Queensland government will launch a new domestic and family violence prevention strategy likely to see perpetrators rather than victims ousted from their homes."

International Campaign Against Honour Killings

St James Infirmary in San Francisco and AIM Healthcare in Los Angeles teach sex workers how to protect themselves and provide medical care.

Couple from the Guardian Weekly: How I lost my unfaith: "No matter how often is it repeated that religious faith is uniquely and by definition a matter of assent to propositions for which there is no evidence, this simply won't do as a description. Quite probably some or all forms of religion do involve assent to untrue propositions but so does any programme to change the world. So, for that matter, does belief in memes, or supposing that we, uniquely as a species, can overcome the tyranny of our selfish genes."

Britain's legal honour killings - the provocation defence.

And another great clipping from Lloyd: Women Run The Show In A Recovering Rwanda