tag:theconversation.com,2011:/columns/thinking-pop-culture-22Thinking pop culture – The Conversation2017-11-27T04:43:37Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/881432017-11-27T04:43:37Z2017-11-27T04:43:37ZSexual Harassment, Sexual Politics and the Gatekeeper Millstone<p>A couple of years ago while writing about <a href="http://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A4629C">autism and Asperger’s in film and TV</a>, I came across a quote from a psychologist. I’m paraphrasing, but the gist was that there isn’t a woman alive who hasn’t - at one time or another - suspected her male partner of being on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_spectrum">The Spectrum</a>.</p>
<p>The point - hyperbolic of course - was that most women have tales of men not listening, not picking up on cues and devoting excess energies to solitary pursuits like computer games. </p>
<p>Men and selective spectruminess is plaguing me at the moment. </p>
<p>I’ve been doing a bit of media about sexual harassment recently (i.e., <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/nightlife/harassment/9182166">here</a>) and, depending on the program, there’ll be calls or text messages fielded - or emails sent privately afterwards - from men expressing scarcely smothered frustration about just how “complicated” all this stuff is: that sexual harassment is notoriously subjective; that women are too sensitive/looking for opportunities to get outraged; that we need to spend more time thinking about men’s “innocent” intentions.</p>
<p>The more I hear such claims the less sympathetic I am. If I’m to put effort into fretting about the blokes accused, my worries lie in the realm of trial by Twitter (which I’ve <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-public-confessions-to-public-trials-the-complexities-of-the-weinstein-effect-87265">written about previously</a>). But the idea of the actual concept of sexual harassment being “confusing” - the notion that <em>motive</em> could have any relevance to this discussion whatsoever - is merely cunning circumvention of necessary conversations about gender and power. Clever, but cunning.</p>
<p>There has been sexual harassment legislation in several states in Australia since the late 1970s and federal legislation since the early 1980s. Sexual harassment as bad is not breaking news. </p>
<p>Legislation encompasses not only the obvious no-nos such as unwanted touch, but also references concepts like “hostile environment”. (The latter being particularly fascinating in light of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-27/don-burke-accused-of-sexual-harassment-indecent-assault/9188070">recent comments</a> from former Channel Nine CEO, Sam Chisholm, who described the recently accused Don Burke as a “grub” and a “disgrace”. Those in power have a <em>legal obligation</em> to create safe environments for all employees; admitting awareness of problematic staffers but not doing anything is a) complicity and b) another brick in the wall of rape culture).</p>
<p>Having legislation of course, doesn’t mean people understand it. That said, wasting words - and time - debating what kind of touch/“compliment”/advance is permissible in a workplace doesn’t get us to a point of better understanding, but rather is just yet another distraction and attempt to downplay seriousness. </p>
<p>Why are there people in power - men, most commonly - devoting even a moment to strategising what they can “get away with” in the workplace? Why is <em>any</em> kind of touching of employees - or, for that matter, any kind of chatter about the physical appearance or sex life of colleagues - on anybody’s agenda? Why is anyone under the impression that the workplace is an appropriate environment for this kind of behaviour or banter?</p>
<p>We’re all going to to work because we need to buy food and pay for our shelter. It’s not the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-22/blue-light-still-grooving-40-years-on/7992078">Blue Light Disco</a> where - if you play your cards right you might just cop a feel - nor is it an over-28s night at the local where it’s all pick up lines and games of <a href="http://vicejunkies.com/continents/oceana/australia/toss_the_boss.html">Toss the Boss</a>. It’s a bloody <em>workplace</em>.</p>
<p>The answers to these questions of course, are not uncomplicated.</p>
<p>There is a reality that many people will actually meet their partner at work. This is a fact. But initially crossing that line - by escalating a professional relationship to something intimate - is treacherous. Liking someone you work with is insufficient grounds to touch them or sexualise them without knowing - without a shadow of a doubt - that your advance is welcome. Email them and suggest lunch; don’t turn “interest” into something that’ll necessitate a trip to HR and a hashtag. Equally, blurring the discussion - talking about the “naturalness” of human sexual attraction - is yet again steering the conversation away from power and gender.</p>
<p>Which brings me back to The Spectrum. I wrote not too long ago about <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/more-than-a-yes-or-no-question">consent</a> and, notably, the downside of our culture’s preoccupation with “no means no”. In the repetition of this phrase - in our misguided belief that a woman will always verbalise a “no” when things go too far - a two-fold burden has been created. First, there is an expectation that unless that “no” gets articulated, that consent has been given: that unless she verbally stops you, all is okay to continue. Second, a dynamic is created whereby women are positioned as sexual gatekeepers: that men may as well proceed, proceed, proceed until she holds out a hand to stop things because that that’s the way the courtship ritual plays out.</p>
<p>The exaggerated notion of all men being on the spectrum becomes most relevant here: there is a necessity for men - but it’s also something we can all get better at - to pay attention to body language, to note all that <em>isn’t</em> being vocalised. Just because she isn’t saying no/stop/get away from me, Mr. President, doesn’t mean that there are not other ways such sentiments get demonstrated. The excuse that “she didn’t tell to me to stop” is just illustrative of a willful ignorance on the part of perpetrators who think they need to be spoon-fed a woman’s dissent. It’s just indicative of the burden on women to have to manage men’s attention.</p>
<p>Rather than assuming women in the workplace are fair game until they say stop - alternatively, to assume that some kindly feminist will produce you a diagram of good touch and bad - is retrograde thinking. It’s positioning women as available-by-default until they make it clear that they’re not; it positions women as needing to police men’s behaviour.</p>
<p>Don Burke has been accused of sexually harassment dating back to the 80s and 90s; i.e., a time before the internet when people were bored enough to be curious about whatever was going on in his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFluMmnX-54">backyard</a>. And predictably there are some attempts to point to these decades as though they were, somehow, <em>a whole other era</em>. </p>
<p>Sexual harassment was every bit as inappropriate then as now. The differences however, were that in the 1980s and 1990s were there were less women in positions of power, less women coming forward with disclosures, a heightened perception of cost of complaining, and, notably no social media. This stuff wasn’t somehow “okay” back then - it was against the law then too. Women didn’t suddenly decide in 2017 that they resented being preyed upon by lecherous colleagues, we’re just in a not-going-to-take-it-anymore Zeitgest. One that was always going to arrive on our shores; Don Burke is just the first scalp in Australia’s entertainment industry. </p>
<p>While the victims of sexual harassment are disproportionately women and the perpetrators are disproportionately wielding penises, overcoming this scourge is a problem that can’t be overcome until we all acknolwedge and address the sexual politics at play; the same sexual politics at play in terrorism and domestic violence and mass shootings - the same sexual politics, incidentally, that we apparently delight in dodging.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Lady Gaga, “‘Til It Happens To You”, 2015.</span></figcaption>
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A couple of years ago while writing about autism and Asperger’s in film and TV, I came across a quote from a psychologist. I’m paraphrasing, but the gist was that there isn’t a woman alive who hasn’t…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/873172017-11-16T11:12:11Z2017-11-16T11:12:11ZWhen masturbation on screen isn’t maligned<figure class="align-left ">
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/mr-mercedes-masturbation-and-madness-84525">In this space</a> recently, I wrote about the mad and bad masturbation portrayals so common on screen.</p>
<p>In the days following, <a href="https://www.hotoctopuss.com">Hot Octopuss</a> – a London-based sex toy retailer – <a href="https://www.hotoctopuss.com/masturbation-scenes-wed-like-to-see/">posted a response</a>, identifying the masturbation scenes they’d actually like to see.</p>
<p>Their suggestions, in fact, weren’t all that outlandish. While, in <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=qBwvBQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=lauren+Rosewarne+books&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4haPw-LfXAhXEjJQKHakdAnEQ6AEIPjAE#v=onepage&q=lauren%20Rosewarne%20books&f=false">my book</a>, I spent many words analysing the negative presentations, it’d be false to imply that all screen masturbation is bad.</p>
<p>Hot Octopuss clustered their wish-list into five kinds of wanted portrayals: in this article, I identify some examples under each heading. I should note that in a post of this length, it’s impossible to do justice to the complexity of any one scene and thus interpreting any as <em>purely</em> positive is difficult: even if masturbation doesn’t get overtly demonised, the broader narrative might still, for example, frame it as a poor substitute for intercourse. I’d consider such a framing as negative, even if not of the same calibre as self-sex marking a man as malicious and mentally ill as occurred recently in <a href="https://theconversation.com/mr-mercedes-masturbation-and-madness-84525">Mr. Mercedes and Mindhunter</a>.</p>
<h2>Masturbation in montages</h2>
<p>A cliché in filmmaking is the montage: think of all those <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIzCXc2ykFo">trying-on-dresses-and-wacky-hats</a> scenes or – and something I’ve written about <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Intimacy_on_the_Internet.html?id=RYb7CwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">elsewhere</a> – the back-to-back bad date montage: think <a href="http://www.executivestyle.com.au/love-is-in-the-air-the-new-rules-of-a-successful-first-date-gxt4kn">punk after geek after someone with a parrot on their shoulder</a>. The montage is also used to connote time passing: in my <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498541824/Analyzing-Christmas-in-Film-Santa-to-the-Supernatural">forthcoming book on Christmas films</a> for example, I discuss montages of consecutive holidays used to showcase tradition, repetition, and also, occasionally, changing relationship dynamics. </p>
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<p>The reality of masturbation as a pastime – as something done when bored or biding time – is infrequently presented, but it’s detectable, most commonly involving time/hormone rich adolescents.</p>
<p>In an episode of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220617/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Inbetweeners</a>, Jay (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0118617/?ref_=tt_cl_t2">James Buckley</a>) is volunteering at a nursing home. He gets bored and sneaks into a tenant’s room to masturbate. </p>
<p>In other examples – from <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090305/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Weird Science (1985)</a> to <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119349/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Ice Storm (1997)</a> to episodes of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094540/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Roseanne</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1416765/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Parenthood</a> – teen boys spend copious amount of time locked away in the family bathroom: masturbation serves as a source of comedy and, more seriously, as a signifier of sexual maturity. </p>
<p>While there’s a widespread cultural assumption that men do most of the masturbating, there are some adolescent female pastime self-gratifiers too: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277371/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Not Another Teen Movie (2001)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1650407/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Få meg på, for faen (Turn Me On, Dammit!) (2001)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443584/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Melissa P. (2005)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0806147/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Extreme Movie (2008)</a> and episodes <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397442/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Gossip Girl</a> offer such scenes.</p>
<p>An extension of adolescent idle-hands masturbation is self-stimulation presented as the hobby of the slacker: that it’s the stoner lollygag who’s killing time by playing with his genitals. Adolescent drug addict Jim (Leonardo DiCaprio) reflects on this in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112461/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Basketball Diaries (1995)</a>: “Time sure flies when you’re young and jerking off.” Walter (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0186505/">Bryan Cranston</a>) in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Breaking Bad</a> makes a similar allusion to Jesse (Aaron Paul): “Sitting around, smoking marijuana, eating Cheetos and masturbating do not constitute ‘plans.’” Layabout masturbators are also referenced in shows like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0184135/?ref_=nv_sr_2">The League of Gentlemen</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387764/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Peep Show</a> and in films including <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116488/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Hard Core Logo (1996)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120655/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Dogma (1999)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463034/?ref_=nv_sr_1">You, Me And Dupree (2006)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1488555/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Change-Up (2011)</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125439/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Notting Hill (1999)</a>. </p>
<p>While the slacker on screen is usually male, Reanna (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0696059/?ref_=tt_cl_t6">Laura Prepon</a>) in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240900/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Slackers (2002)</a> offers a rare female version in a scene where her use of a vibrator continues despite interruption.</p>
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<h2>Masturbation as anything but a necessity</h2>
<p>Hot Octopuss mentioned the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129387/?ref_=nv_sr_1">There’s Something About Mary (1998)</a> scene where Ted (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001774/?ref_=tt_cl_t3">Ben Stiller</a>) masturbates before a date, ultimately identifying that they’d like to see some “non-necessity” autoerotic scenes where it’s done purely because it’s fun. While I’d argue that most of the examples in the above section illustrate this, there are others where a specific effort is made to frame it as simply pleasurable. </p>
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<p>In a episode of the sitcom <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460692/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The War at Home</a>, adolescent Mike (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1707083/?ref_=tt_cl_t5">Dean Collins</a>) has been masturbating without lube to ill-effect. His dad, Dave (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001650/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Michael Rapaport</a>), has to caution him to lay off the self-touch for a week until he’s healed: “Don’t worry,” says Dave, “You won’t forget how to do it. It’s like riding a bike. The best bike in the world.” A similar scene plays out in an episode of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439100/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Weeds</a> when Uncle Andy (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005095/?ref_=tt_cl_t5">Justin Kirk</a>) gives his nephew, Shane (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1071252/?ref_=tt_cl_t3">Alexander Gould</a>), a sex talk and cautions that while he needs to properly clean up after himself, ultimately masturbation “reduces stress” and “enhances immune function.”</p>
<p>Masturbation is explicitly spoken about as pleasurable in these scenes; in others it’s framed this way in the broader context of the narrative. In films with a wartime or incarceration setting – think <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071910/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter) (1974)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118698/?ref_=nv_sr_2">Bent (1997)</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1417075/?ref_=nv_sr_3">In Darkness (2011)</a> – characters masturbate to give themselves a little joy amid their awful circumstances. </p>
<p>While the positives of masturbation tend to be aligned with men on screen, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159206/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Sex and the City</a> offers an explicitly female spin:</p>
<p><em>Charlotte (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004862/?ref_=tt_cl_t3">Kristin Davis</a>): Samantha, your face is glowing! Did you get a facial or something?</em></p>
<p><em>Samantha (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000326/?ref_=tt_cl_t2">Kim Cattrall</a>): I masturbated all afternoon.</em></p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2578560/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Broad City</a>, Ilana’s (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4477261/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Ilana Glazer</a>) <a href="http://coub.com/view/5a1hd">pre-masturbation prep</a> is another such example where the activity is framed as self-care.</p>
<h2>Masturbation as a relationship positive</h2>
<p>In most scenes, if a coupled character masturbates it’s a sign of a relationship being troubled. There are however, a few examples where stimulation of one’s <em>own</em> genitals gets incorporated into coupled activity. </p>
<p>Masturbation as intercourse prep transpires in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1937390/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Nyphomaniac (2013)</a>. In <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1977002/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Autoerotic (2011)</a> a man masturbates while ogling his girlfriend. In the excellent, albeit short-lived series <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0809497/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Tell Me You Love Me</a>, Katie (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001824/?ref_=tt_cl_t6">Ally Walker</a>) and her husband, David (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0215229/?ref_=tt_cl_t2">Tim DeKay</a>), masturbate together. In <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363579/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Down to the Bone (2004)</a>, Irene (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0267812/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Vera Farmiga</a>) and Steve (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0429888/?ref_=tt_cl_t3">Clinton Jordan</a>) watch each other masturbate; the same thing occurs in episodes of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1548850/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Misfits</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0330251/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The L Word</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194921/original/file-20171116-19841-1jo7n5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194921/original/file-20171116-19841-1jo7n5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194921/original/file-20171116-19841-1jo7n5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194921/original/file-20171116-19841-1jo7n5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194921/original/file-20171116-19841-1jo7n5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1436&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194921/original/file-20171116-19841-1jo7n5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194921/original/file-20171116-19841-1jo7n5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1436&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107779/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Paris, France (1993)</a>, Lucy (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0394012/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Leslie Hope</a>) speaks aloud a fantasy while she and Sloan (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0653660/?ref_=tt_cl_t2">Peter Outerbridge</a>) masturbate. In <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118743/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3">The Blood Oranges (1997)</a>, Fiona (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0498247/?ref_=tt_cl_t3">Sheryl Lea</a>) masturbates while her husband, Cyril (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001097/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Charles Dance</a>), plays with her breast. There are also examples where characters – mostly women – masturbate to turn-on a partner: see <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159206/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Sex and the City</a> as well as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250797/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Unfaithful (2002)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106453/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Body of Evidence (1993)</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498399/?ref_=nv_sr_1">We Own the Night (2007)</a>.</p>
<p>Geographic separation is another motivation for coupled masturbation. In the teen-comedy <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252866/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">American Pie 2 (2001)</a>, Heather (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002546/?ref_=tt_cl_t9">Mena Suvari</a>) and Oz (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005098/?ref_=tt_cl_t4">Chris Klein</a>) are separated while Heather studies in Europe. During a phone conversation Heather initiates phone sex: “If we can’t physically be with each other then we have to learn to be more vocal.” Physically parted couples masturbate together in narratives including <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Her (2013)</a> (which I’ve written about <a href="https://theconversation.com/her-hungry-ghosts-and-rethinking-intimacy-22757">here</a>), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067128/?ref_=nv_sr_3">Get Carter (1971)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140681/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Viol@ (1998)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034293/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Somewhere Tonight (2011)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342316/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Love, Sex and Eating the Bones (2003)</a> and in episode of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327273/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Burn It</a>.</p>
<h2>Masturbation diversity</h2>
<p>Hot Octopuss - and I - heartily advocate for more positive representations of trans, non-binary and intersex people masturbating, as well as characters with disabilities or larger bodies. Generally however, diverse bodies are uncommon on screen so finding scenes where they masturbate is rare. Equally, when such bodies are present - and if masturbation is involved - the scenes are often used to showcase loathsomeness (think Allen (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000450/?ref_=tt_cl_t3">Philip Seymour Hoffman</a>) in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147612/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Happiness (1998)</a> or Lewis (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0479527/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Tyler Labine</a>) in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1031224/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Control Alt Delete (2008)</a>). In <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=qBwvBQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=lauren+Rosewarne+books&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4haPw-LfXAhXEjJQKHakdAnEQ6AEIPjAE#v=onepage&q=lauren%20Rosewarne%20books&f=false">my book</a> I have a section titled “Masturbation and the Unfuckable” where I discuss the frequency of masturbation being connected to “undesirable”, freakshow characters: think Mimi (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0455745/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Kathy Kinney</a>) with her vibrating panties in the sitcom <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111945/?ref_=nm_knf_i1">The Drew Carey Show</a>.</p>
<p>The said, there are some examples which – while again, open to interpretation – do dabble in diversity. In the context of larger bodies, Queenie (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2829737/?ref_=tt_cl_t11">Gabourey Sidibe</a>) masturbates in an episode of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1844624/episodes?season=3&ref_=tt_eps_sn_3">American Horror Story</a>, as does Ethan in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1231583/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Due Date (2010)</a> and Neil in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1932718/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Thanks for Sharing (2012)</a> (which I wrote about <a href="https://theconversation.com/thanks-for-sharing-thanks-for-not-psychoanalysing-18718">here</a>). Perhaps the best such example is Big Boo (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0216466/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Lea DeLaria</a>) doing so with her screwdriver in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2372162/?ref_=nm_knf_i1">Orange is the New Black</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bz1C8mf34s0?wmode=transparent&start=353" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Orange is the New Black (2013-)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While nowhere near as rare as trans, non-binary and intersex representations, homosexual characters - like Big Boo - are shown masturbating on screen. While it’s commonly a way to <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-margaret-cho-outing-13795">out</a> or demonise them, there are also some less problematic presentations. In an episode of the sitcom <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369179/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Two and a Half Men</a> for example, Jenny (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0848554/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Amber Tamblyn</a>) identified that her lesbian epiphany came when she began casting the school nurse in her masturbation fantasies.</p>
<h2>Masturbation with sex toys</h2>
<p>I have a chapter titled “The How” which explores all the many methods of masturbation deployed on screen: from hands to <a href="https://theconversation.com/thats-the-time-i-feel-like-makin-love-to-food-30851">food</a> to household objects. There are however, quite a few instances of sex toy use.</p>
<p>In an episode of the sitcom <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165581/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The King of Queens</a>, Carrie (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0718957/?ref_=tt_cl_t2">Leah Remini</a>) asks her husband Doug (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0416673/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Kevin James</a>) whether he’d received her phone message. Doug replied, “No, my phone’s on vibrate. I left it in my pocket, and—do you have a cigarette?” While this episode provides a hint to the pleasure <em>men</em> might reap from vibrators – in an episode of the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141842/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Sopranos</a> Janice (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0878152/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t10">Aida Turturro</a>) actually uses one on Ralph (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001592/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t30">Joe Pantoliano</a>) – in the majority of masturbation scenes, vibrator users are women (even if in reality there are <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8qg3n3/male-sex-toys-are-better-than-ever">plenty designed specifically for men</a>). </p>
<p>While there are many scenes where vibrators are discovered but not actually used (think <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098067/?ref_=nv_sr_2">Parenthood (1989)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490579/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Dedication (2007)</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0174336/?ref_=nv_sr_2">Whipped (2000)</a> and in episodes of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0288937/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Degrassi: The Next Generation </a>and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486217/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Archer</a>), in others, women nonchalantly divulge vibrator ownership.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194927/original/file-20171116-19789-iiet3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194927/original/file-20171116-19789-iiet3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194927/original/file-20171116-19789-iiet3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194927/original/file-20171116-19789-iiet3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194927/original/file-20171116-19789-iiet3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194927/original/file-20171116-19789-iiet3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194927/original/file-20171116-19789-iiet3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
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</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the romcom <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117628/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">She’s the One (1996)</a>, Renee (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000098/?ref_=tt_cl_t5">Jennifer Aniston</a>) threatens her husband, Francis (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0569458/?ref_=tt_cl_t3">Mike McGlone</a>), that unless he has sex with her, she’ll go into the bathroom and masturbate with hers. In the sci-fi comedy <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327162/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Stepford Wives (2004)</a>, Bobbie (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000541/?ref_=tt_cl_t3">Bette Midler</a>) interrupts a boring conversation about Christmas decorations by saying, “I’m going to attach a pine-cone to my vibrator and have a <em>really</em> merry Christmas.” In an episode of the sitcom <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1845307/?ref_=nv_sr_1">2 Broke Girls</a>, Max (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0993507/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Kat Dennings</a>) similarly quips: “Tell that to my candy cane-shaped vibrator. I call it Santa’s Big Helper.” In <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129387/?ref_=nv_sr_1">There’s Something about Mary</a>, the title character (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000139/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Cameron Diaz</a>) identifies that her sex toy even renders men as unnecessary: “Who needs him? I’ve got a vibrator!” A gay version is verbalised in an episode of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361217/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Nip/ Tuck</a> when Dr. Cruz (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005173/?ref_=tt_cl_t5">Roma Maffia</a>) chimes, “I have my rabbit vibrator, who needs a real girl?”</p>
<p>For portrayals of girls actually using their toys, the aforementioned <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277371/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Weeds</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240900/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Slackers</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2578560/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Broad City</a> offer examples, as do episodes of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496275/?ref_=nv_sr_3">Dirt</a>, and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1844624/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">American Horror Story</a>. Films like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120831/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385006/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer (2005)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277371/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Not Another Teen Movie (2001)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1372306/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Year of the Carnivore (2009)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0494277/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Strictly Sexual (2008)</a>,<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1291549/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Meet Monica Velour (2010)</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367027/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Shortbus (2006)</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411705/?ref_=nv_sr_1">9 Songs (2004)</a> also show women deploying their buzzing toys.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8_LDM6kTpT0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Not Another Teen Movie (2001)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most masturbation on screen is negative: the badness and madness I discuss <a href="https://theconversation.com/mr-mercedes-masturbation-and-madness-84525">elsewhere</a> is a common framing, as is its association with sin and sacrilege, marital dysfunction, illness and addiction. On rare occasions however, it’s less complicated and shown in the altogether ordinary manner reflecting most of our autoerotic pursuits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87317/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In this space recently, I wrote about the mad and bad masturbation portrayals so common on screen. In the days following, Hot Octopuss – a London-based sex toy retailer – posted a response, identifying…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/872652017-11-10T20:57:36Z2017-11-10T20:57:36ZFrom Public Confessions to Public Trials: The Complexities of the “Weinstein Effect”<p>As the “Weinstein effect” sweeps Hollywood, the sex/gender/pop culture clash that is my passion project has led to lots of conversations, oftentimes on air. At some point during interviews there’ll be a question about change: about whether there’ll be any “lasting impact” from the deluge of recent revelations. </p>
<p>A good question and a nebulous one.</p>
<p>The immediate impact is one of <a href="https://theconversation.com/metoo-and-modern-consciousness-raising-85980">data collection</a>: of women - and, in smaller numbers, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/06/kevin-spacey-accused-of-sexual-assault-by-actor-richard-son-kevin-dreyfuss">men</a> - disclosing stories of gross misconduct committed by men in positions of power, of influence.</p>
<p>For every woman who tells her tale on CNN though, for every woman who divulges her hurt in social media, and for every woman watching on with a secret stash of her own unspilled stories, a picture emerges of prevalence. That this bullshit has - in varying degrees - haunted the lives of all women and that something must change.</p>
<p>But what happens beyond the sharing?</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194151/original/file-20171110-29328-s74dqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194151/original/file-20171110-29328-s74dqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194151/original/file-20171110-29328-s74dqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194151/original/file-20171110-29328-s74dqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194151/original/file-20171110-29328-s74dqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1436&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194151/original/file-20171110-29328-s74dqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194151/original/file-20171110-29328-s74dqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1436&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>A couple of weeks ago I was waiting for a session of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1758810/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Snowman</a>. (N.B. Save your money). I was using the time to read a <a href="https://medium.com/@beth_winegarner/weinstein-isnt-the-only-one-screen-celebs-who-abuse-women-or-children-c5732e15cf92">Medium article</a> that presented a list of Hollywood men who’ve been accused of crimes against women. (Most on the list haven’t admitted anything).</p>
<p><em>Snowman</em> star, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1055413/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Michael Fassbender</a> coincidentally was named and shamed. </p>
<p>The Medium article didn’t impact my viewing experience - I’ve written previously about the necessity to separate art from artist; see <a href="https://theconversation.com/separating-art-from-artist-14576">here</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-01/rosewarne-rolf-harris:-guilty-man,-guilty-art/5561640">here</a> - but the list nonetheless niggled. It niggled throughout every gaping <em>Snowman</em> <a href="http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/the-snowman/52724/the-snowman-what-on-earth-went-wrong">plot hole</a> and it niggles two weeks on. </p>
<p>The “Weinstein effect” taps into my interest in sex, gender and pop culture. But equally so, it creates an unhappy frottage between two other interests: my belief in victims rights <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyonces-lemonade-tell-all-or-fizzy-soap-operatic-art-object-58513">to tell their own stories</a> vs. my apprehensions about <a href="http://www.vivala.com/womens-issues/social-media-peoples-court/2529">trial by Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Earlier this year a <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/change-course-national-report-sexual-assault-and-sexual">report</a> documented sexual harassment in Australian universities. In interviews I did in the aftermath, and in conversations had with colleagues - men most commonly - concerns about methodology were raised.</p>
<p><em>How was the data collected?</em></p>
<p><em>What agreed upon definitions were used?</em> </p>
<p><em>How big was the sample size?</em></p>
<p>As a social scientist I’ll always agree that for a survey to be useful - for it to be considered “gold standard” - the data needs to be collected rigorously. As a feminist though, and as a woman, I also agree that our voices have - for time immemorial - being silenced because we’re seemingly not speaking, not airing our grievances, on <em>men’s terms</em>. </p>
<p>There might have been better ways of gathering the data, sure, but there exists no perfect collection method - it’s why good methodologies always address limitations. Equally, those who don’t want to believe women will always find an excuse to minimise their harm: <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201710/rape-myths-and-the-search-true-justice">rape myths</a> exist because there are people religiously dedicated to distrusting us.</p>
<p>When victims come forward with their stories we have to believe them. We have a duty to take them at their word primarily because speaking out against patriarchy in a culture where patriarchy has a vested - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/harvey-weinsteins-army-of-spies">and <em>virulent</em></a> - interest in ensuring silence is brave, is risky. </p>
<p>But what of the alleged but untried assailants? What do we make of careers being ruined purely on the basis of “mere” allegations? </p>
<p>Here’s where things get complicated.</p>
<p>The naming and shaming of men who haven’t been charged - let alone seen the inside of a courtroom - is, to put it mildly, disconcerting. That said, we happen to live in a world where victims frequently don’t report their abuse and on those rare times when they do, the likelihood of the perp appearing before a judge - let alone being locked in a prison cell - is minuscule. </p>
<p>In light of these unpleasant culture and law enforcement realities, can I - in good faith - suggest that women are best off waiting for the proverbial “slow wheels of justice” to, ultimately, fail them rather than see them tell their story - to name their perp - in social media? </p>
<p>I don’t have an answer and I’ll remain conflicted about this mash-up of necessary story-telling, important <a href="https://theconversation.com/metoo-and-modern-consciousness-raising-85980">consciousness-raising</a> and my severe discomfort with vigilante justice.</p>
<p>I started this article mentioning impact and there I shall return. </p>
<p>The impact of any social change campaign is difficult to measure. Not only do we need to measure change over time, but even very good data doesn’t offer the clearest of pictures. A spike in police reports can indicate greater instances of a crime. The same data however, can just as easily highlight the success of campaigns to actively encourage reporting. Countries with very low numbers of reported rapes aren’t always countries with genuinely low numbers of rape.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194152/original/file-20171110-29345-uagp7o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194152/original/file-20171110-29345-uagp7o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194152/original/file-20171110-29345-uagp7o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194152/original/file-20171110-29345-uagp7o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194152/original/file-20171110-29345-uagp7o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1117&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194152/original/file-20171110-29345-uagp7o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1117&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194152/original/file-20171110-29345-uagp7o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1117&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Nonetheless, in recent days we’ve seen some actions that at least look a little like impact. </p>
<p>We’ve seen Netflix <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/nov/04/netflix-fires-kevin-spacey-from-house-of-cards">fire Kevin Spacey</a>. We’ve had Sony go so far as to edit him out of a completed film and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2017/11/09/thanks-kevin-spacey-all-the-money-in-the-world-is-now-an-event-movie/#3df6501b5bba">replace him with Captain von Trapp</a>. HBO are scampering to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-10/hbo-removes-louis-c-k-concerts-says-he-won-t-appear-on-show">distance themselves</a> from Louis C.K. </p>
<p>On one hand these are measurable impacts: men who’ve allegedly done heinous things are being punished where it hurts them - their pride, their reputation, their hip-pocket. </p>
<p>On the other hand, it’s worth questioning whether Netflix, Sony and HBO are doing this because they believe and support the victims, or because they are businesses and businesses care, most of all about money. </p>
<p>Was the stink-brand of Kevin Spacey, for example, going to ruin any chances of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5294550/">All the Money in the World</a> making a motza at the box office? Was keeping Louis C.K. on air going to make HBO look like abetters? </p>
<p>I recognise that a lot of good feminist policies - think sexual harassment legislation and paid parental leave - couple good works with good economics. So while it’s easy to be cynical about economic motivations we should also be open to the possibility of true industry change resulting.</p>
<p>I’d be remiss however, if I didn’t note my hesitation. Men don’t sexually harass in a vacuum. Invariably those around them - notably those lining their pockets as a star rises - facilitate misdeeds: think silence, ignorance, assistance, intimidation. </p>
<p>Powerful and influential perps often get away with their crimes because there are many folks around them protecting them and ensuring their untouchability.</p>
<p>Whilst the Weinstein Company was raking in the dosh and winning all the Oscars, is it any surprise that Horrible Harvey wasn’t outed earlier? It is for this reason we need to be reserved in our lauding of “corporate responsibility”. Some of this stuff happened on <em>their watch</em> and was allowed to go on, unchecked, for years before it became public. </p>
<p>Punishing perps is one thing, making sure no man has enough power to take a meeting in a bloody bathrobe is another. </p>
<p>Impact is a difficult beast to test and scalps are only one measure. In industries that frequently treat women like meat - when women are routinely sexualised and objectified in crap roles constituting little more than eye candy - there’s a deluge of work to be done before true cultural change revolutionises the industry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87265/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
As the “Weinstein effect” sweeps Hollywood, the sex/gender/pop culture clash that is my passion project has led to lots of conversations, oftentimes on air. At some point during interviews there’ll be…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/845252017-11-05T05:31:45Z2017-11-05T05:31:45ZMr. Mercedes, Masturbation and Madness<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187162/original/file-20170922-17284-197mnd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187162/original/file-20170922-17284-197mnd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187162/original/file-20170922-17284-197mnd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187162/original/file-20170922-17284-197mnd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187162/original/file-20170922-17284-197mnd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187162/original/file-20170922-17284-197mnd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187162/original/file-20170922-17284-197mnd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>2017 has been a pretty excellent year for TV adaptations of books. Without pause, I’d enthusiastically recommend a Summertime binge on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVrOvY-APH8">Strike</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7m8Xu2iwOk">I Love Dick</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFZcNKzDhYI">Big Little Lies</a> (which I wrote about <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-little-lies-and-the-fly-in-the-feminist-ointment-76305">here</a>), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJTonrzXTJs">The Handmaid’s Tale</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyoXURn9oK0">American Gods</a>. </p>
<p>Alas, the ten-episode take on Stephen King’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Mercedes">Mr. Mercedes</a>, doesn’t make this list.</p>
<p>King writes books that regularly meander. In his author notes to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisey%27s_Story">Lisey’s Story</a> for example, he acknowledges frequently completely ignoring his editor’s recommendations on slashing. And while <em>Lisey’s Story</em> did feel repetitive in places, I like King enough to indulge him. The audiobook for my favourite King work, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11/22/63">11/22/63</a> – about the Kennedy assassination - was over 24-hours long but so captivating was it that I only narrowly avoided being hit by a motorcyclist while walking and listening.</p>
<p>The TV adaptation of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXUx__qQGew">11/22/63</a> was solid. While I had initial hesitations about the casting of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0290556/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1">James Franco</a> - in anything, truth be told, but most definitely this – it was good. It was well-paced and largely well-acted and I was invested enough to cry in the same scenes that I cried when listening to the book.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187163/original/file-20170922-17241-8bstl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187163/original/file-20170922-17241-8bstl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187163/original/file-20170922-17241-8bstl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187163/original/file-20170922-17241-8bstl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187163/original/file-20170922-17241-8bstl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187163/original/file-20170922-17241-8bstl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187163/original/file-20170922-17241-8bstl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>The TV adaptation of <em>Mr. Mercedes</em> is a different beast all together. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0322407/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1">Brendan Gleeson</a> plays protagonist Bill Hodges, a retired detective with a very familiar malady: he’s unable to let go of that one last case, in this case, a perp, dressed as a clown, who mowed down a crowd of job-seekers. </p>
<p>Gleeson is frequently great: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEJ0Ur1jo00">In Bruges</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygVa2W2Qrac">The Guard</a> are two favourite films. This year however, I’ve also seen - and forgotten - him in the barely passable <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcSWi_Oaf6M">Hampstead</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnq8jZejw-s">Trespass Against Us</a>: two reminders that, like all of us, he can be inconsistent.</p>
<p>Gleeson however, isn’t the problem. The charm of King’s <em>Mr. Mercedes</em> – a charm I wrote about previously <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-celebration-of-ragtag-posses-48585">here</a> – is the banding together of three completely unlikely characters whose paths serendipitously cross and who set out on a crime-solving adventure together. A ragtag posse that, alas, is largely gutted in the television show. Instead, excess emphasis is given to Bill’s relationship with the under-cooked Janey (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000571/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1">Mary-Louise Parker</a>). Most egregious, Bill’s rapport with his jike-talkin’, lawn’-mowin’ neighbour Jerome (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm7851611/?ref_=tt_cl_t3">Jharrel Jerome</a>) is watered down to a vanilla shell of what it is in the book: my hunch is a misguided fear of a social media backlash.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187164/original/file-20170922-17267-1cmjvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187164/original/file-20170922-17267-1cmjvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187164/original/file-20170922-17267-1cmjvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187164/original/file-20170922-17267-1cmjvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187164/original/file-20170922-17267-1cmjvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187164/original/file-20170922-17267-1cmjvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187164/original/file-20170922-17267-1cmjvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>While there are dozens of detective stories better than this one - <em>Strike</em>, mentioned earlier, is a a great one - something that makes <em>Mr. Mercedes</em> worth talking about is the masturbation. </p>
<p><em>Mr. Mercedes</em> isn’t really a whodunit, attributable to its early masturbation scene. After turning down the sexual advances of his mother, Brady (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2016685/?ref_=tt_cl_t2">Harry Treadaway</a>) sneaks upstairs to masturbate furiously. While we don’t quite know at this point that he’s the Mercedes Killer, we actually kinda do. Because masturbation on screen is often a clue to both madness and depravity.</p>
<p>In my book <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739183670/Masturbation-in-Pop-Culture-Screen-Society-Self">Masturbation in Pop Culture</a>, I analysed hundreds of masturbation scenes. Rarely is masturbation - particularly so <em>male masturbation</em> - portrayed as the common stress-relieving, sleep-inducing, pleasurable pastime it is for most of us. Instead, it’s used to give insight into a character: a clue that they’re mad or bad. I recently suffered my way through the mind-numbingly boring <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5290382/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Mindhunter</a>: the exact same trope is used there too - one of the serial killers masturbates because he’s mad <em>and</em> bad. While females in film and TV get a little extra time to put on a sexy autoerotic performance for the audience - oftentimes in the bathtub - male masturbation is presumed not to offer such voyeuristic delights and thus functions frequently as a clue to deviance.</p>
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<p>Like lots of taboo presentations - <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739170007/Periods-in-Pop-Culture-Menstruation-in-Film-and-Television">menstruation</a> is a good example, and one I’ve written a lot about - rarely show the thorough ordinariness of monthly bleeding: generally for one very good reason - such scenes don’t normally move a plot along. To justify including menstruation or masturbation therefore, the scenes need to be dramatic or do something to, or say something about a character: social suicide, sexual maturity, sexual perversion. Brady masturbates in <em>Mr. Mercedes</em> because his sexual appetites are off kilter and he’s a murderer. Ditto Jerry Brudos (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2322283/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t13">Happy Anderson</a>) in <em>Mindhunter</em>.</p>
<p>It’s fiction and I don’t consider any single media message as disproportionately potent in shaping our values. That said, the consequences of ignoring the normalness of masturbation in favour of the mad/bad trope subtly works as yet another way to establish norms regarding sex, in this case, that good and normal characters have intercourse while the bad ones resort to masturbation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
2017 has been a pretty excellent year for TV adaptations of books. Without pause, I’d enthusiastically recommend a Summertime binge on Strike, I Love Dick, Big Little Lies (which I wrote about here), The…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/859802017-10-19T04:40:44Z2017-10-19T04:40:44Z#MeToo and Modern Consciousness-Raising<p>I’m often unenthused, to put it mildly, about social media campaigns. I’ve expressed my… reservations… about <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-03/rosewarne-social-change-from-a-selfie-you-wish/5789074">#WISH</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/schoolgirl-innocence-in-sierra-leone-why-selling-fetish-as-fundraiser-doesnt-fly-8970">#DoItInADress</a> previously. While invariably well-intentioned, such campaigns often become little more than opportunities for shared selfies and trending hashtags, regularly lacking (albeit <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-21/bernardi-backlash-prompts-fundraiser-blow-out/8967698">certainly not always</a>) in measurable outcomes.</p>
<p>Across the course of the week I’ve had almost every conceivable reaction to the #MeToo campaign. Initially it was all outrage. In an era where we have data up the wazoo on the prevalence of women’s harassment and assault by men, why do you need to see me bleed so that you can believe that this is endemic? </p>
<p>Whenever a woman tells her story, whenever a report is published documenting our abuses <em>en masse</em>, there’ll always be people - men, commonly, but that’s another can o’ worms - ready to furrow a brow, wrinkle a nose and look for ways to doubt us. And if not doubt us then, at the very least, question our complicity. About the role our <a href="https://theconversation.com/tramps-like-us-target-and-modern-day-misogyny-8932">attire</a>, our <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-20/rosewarne-the-park-as-a-bogeyman/6334176">route home</a>, our <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-30/rosewarne-one-womans-worth/4852056">employment</a> played in our abuse. To downplay and minimise us.</p>
<p>So what’s the point? In a world where evidence apparently is insufficient to satisfy, why should any of us believe that our harrowing confessions will make a difference? All too quickly #MeToo came to feel like gussied up voyeurism.</p>
<p>Yet, as more and more stories appeared in my feed, as more celebrities <a href="https://jezebel.com/a-running-list-of-the-women-who-have-accused-harvey-wei-1819320068">exposed their wounds</a> in the press, I’d make my way through feelings of sympathy, empathy, upset and shared recognition. I’d experience renewed passion about women’s rights to tell - <a href="https://griffithlawjournal.org/index.php/gjlhd/article/view/891">or not to tell</a> - our own stories on our own terms. And then I’d reflect on the reality that every single woman has a <em>cache</em> of such stories even if the majority of us aren’t offering them up on Facebook. In my case I can tell tales of workplace sexual harassment, <a href="http://laurenrosewarne.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/pinups.pdf">street harassment</a> and a few months of being stalked; the latter, culminating in “advice” from a police officer to get closer to the perp and shout out some expletives. The extent to which these stories impact us vary, as do our inclinations to report them, to (re)tell them and our successes in coping. What doesn’t vary though, is women’s intimate knowledge of our vulnerability based on sex. </p>
<p>I’ll end the week though, at a different point in my thinking. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, an <em>academic</em> one.</p>
<p>I recently completed an 8000 word chapter on radical feminism for an anthology. (It’s not due out until next year though, so alas, no link). Part of my research led me to reading up on the consciousness-raising activities of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Women coming together to share stories - to, borrowing from Maoists, <em>speak their bitterness</em> - about the downsides of their sex. Such sharing lead to the realisation that action was necessary; action that became the activism of second-wave feminism.</p>
<p>In writing that chapter I wanted a section on how, half a century on, we can assess the contribution of radical feminism. It’s consciousness-raising that’s the big success. Women talking to one another and uncovering the prevalence of workplace sexual harassment, of rape in marriage, of domestic violence. Consciousness-raising is credited for enlightening and educating women and, notably, giving us a new - and uniquely <em>political</em> way - of thinking about our subordination. For all the ways that radical feminism <a href="https://theconversation.com/radical-feminists-objection-to-sex-work-is-profoundly-un-feminist-81333">doesn’t speak to me in 2017</a>, the framing of sexism as <em>institutionalised</em> continues to be profound.</p>
<p>So here we are, fifty years on, and we’re doing it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxbIU0X-lCI">all again</a>. Stories are being shared with our sisters and a global audience has become privy to our awfullest secrets. Half a century on and apparently it’s still women’s job to broadcast and police our own abuse. </p>
<p>If I’m honest, it <em>mortifies</em> me that we have to keep doing this. That we have to keep repeating out stories in the vain hope that one day we’re believed. That we have to keep reading each other’s hurt to remind ourselves that we’re not alone, that it’s not <em>just us</em>. And yet, women doing this very thing yielded some fruit in the 1960s and 1970s. Maybe it will again.</p>
<p>I’m going to end the week trying to be less cynical and instead hope that in another five decades, we can point to a handful of good things that emerged from 2017. I’m going to try not to dwell that, for all the successes of feminism, fifty years on and we’re still trying to raise our own consciousness while simultaneously prodding the conscience of men.</p>
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</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85980/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
I’m often unenthused, to put it mildly, about social media campaigns. I’ve expressed my… reservations… about #WISH and #DoItInADress previously. While invariably well-intentioned, such campaigns often…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/848352017-09-28T02:12:03Z2017-09-28T02:12:03ZUnpacking sexually transmitted ethics<p>In a recent interview with an online publication, I used the term <a href="http://www.mamamia.com.au/roxy-jacenko-public-image/">“sexually transmitted ethics”</a>. I wasn’t referencing published work, and yet, while the phrase mightn’t have a scholarly history, I don’t believe the concept to be totally new.</p>
<p>The article I was quoted in, in part, questioned why audiences are polarised by figures like PR queen <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxy_Jacenko">Roxy Jacenko</a>. </p>
<p>Among the many explanations I proposed for the divisiveness – and there are, indeed, <em>a deluge</em> - I named sexually transmitted ethics: that the company one keeps – in Jacenko’s case: the man she chooses to sleep with – can negatively impact her reputation, her brand. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.mamamia.com.au/huma-abedin-anthony-weiner/">My quote was then reprinted</a> today in an article on Huma Abedin (who I have written about <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-weiner-is-wonderful-61272">here</a>). In light of this, I thought I’d take a few words to expand on the thinking behind my use of the term.</p>
<p>Jacenko’s husband, Oliver Curtis, was jailed in 2016 for insider trading. His dodgy dealings – his making of money through trading with access to non-public information; think Martha Stewart – forced onlookers to question a) how much Jacenko knew about his transacitons and b) whether her lifestyle was propped up by his ill-gotten gains.</p>
<p>Jacenko came from money and has made a motza on her own: my view is that it’s highly problematic to think that her lifestyle exists purely because of her criminal husband. Truth however, has little currency in 2017 and in the wash-up Jacenko comes to be connected to the dodgy, to the deceitful. Think Carmela Soprano.</p>
<p>Sexually transmitted ethics of course, has a much richer history than Jacenko. </p>
<p>Women have always been thought of – have been <em>valued</em> – in the context of the men in their lives. That women have their father’s surname until they get their husband’s highlights the transfer not only of mere ownership from one man to another – an archaic idea, sure, but one with tangential relics nonetheless – but more so, one of affiliation: she is now associated with a new surname and a whole new patriarch. </p>
<p>And when that man does something wrong, the woman often becomes collateral damage: she gets implicated in a scandal because it is often impossible to conceive that she didn’t know <em>something</em>: that she didn’t know, for example, that he was cheating; didn’t know he was molesting their daughter; that he was keeping a second family in the basement; that he was murdering sex workers; that the back shed full of brand new runners <em>wasn’t</em> some savvy eBay deal. </p>
<p>It often seems completely preposterous that the woman doesn’t know how the man she shares a mattress with actually spends his time. </p>
<p>And we seem to focus on this idea – what she knew, when she knew it – rather than questioning all the reasons why a woman might have known something but didn’t do anything. Or might have speculated by didn’t probe. </p>
<p>Because we don’t have sympathy for women who are in situations with men who are - in varying degrees - awful.</p>
<p>Because even if a woman’s Manolo Blahnik’s aren’t being paid for by dirty money, even if she didn’t push in that knife, bury the body or play any part whatsoever in his shenanigans, we assume that there’s <em>something</em> to be revealed about her own ethics. That to sleep with a man who could do this - to share a life with such a person - must reveal <em>something</em> about her. That she’s another of his hapless victims at best, or a mercenary at worst.</p>
<p>Jacenko and Abedin have already been mentioned in this article, Hillary Clinton is another excellent illustration of a woman whose reputation has suffered enormously for the sins of her husband. This isn’t the only reason she lost the 2016 election, no, but one might argue – I certainly would – that the court of public opinion was so much harder on her for choosing to stay with Bill than we ever were about where he stuck his pecker (#).</p>
<p>Of course, this is all an extrapolation of the idiom “if you lie down with dogs you get fleas”. But it’s also an extraordinarily gendered concept. Women, by virtue of them still being construed as inescapably linked to the men who fathered them or, more commonly, the men who’ve penised them, suffer this disproportionately. Men might get screwed over by women, sure, but because we think of men as a contained unit – as independent agents, rather than figures propped up by their ladyfolk – the public is nowhere near as harsh on them if ever such a story becomes public. </p>
<p>This isn’t an argumentative essay. While I think women are often victims of the men in our lives, equally, there exists a complicity spectrum relevant here, charting completely unknowing as one end through to complete complicit at the other. In fact, truth be told, if I had more time and words at my disposal, perhaps instead of a spectrum I’d propose a multi-axis model where one axis charts knowledge, the other factors in freedom to act. But that’s a task for another day. Here, I’ve chosen just to elaborate on a few words I used in an interview which I think points to a much broader gendered phenomenon. </p>
<p>–</p>
<p>(#) For clarity, I am referencing Libby’s (Kathy Bates) quote, “He’s poked his pecker in some sorry trash bins”, from the excellent film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llEsfNtE4iQ">Primary Colors (1998)</a> which is about the Clintons.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84835/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In a recent interview with an online publication, I used the term “sexually transmitted ethics”. I wasn’t referencing published work, and yet, while the phrase mightn’t have a scholarly history, I don’t…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/844312017-09-21T03:23:48Z2017-09-21T03:23:48ZThe Delusions of Christmas Past<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186929/original/file-20170921-19169-zc3rha.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186929/original/file-20170921-19169-zc3rha.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186929/original/file-20170921-19169-zc3rha.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186929/original/file-20170921-19169-zc3rha.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186929/original/file-20170921-19169-zc3rha.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1205&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186929/original/file-20170921-19169-zc3rha.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1205&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186929/original/file-20170921-19169-zc3rha.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1205&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Because Baby Jesus would have wanted it this way…</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>September 21 and it’s started already.</p>
<p>No, not the ever-earlier encroach of Christmas. (My view on that particular “lament” is that if consumers <em>really</em> cared, they’d vote with their wallets and force stores not to brandish their baubles until December. But we don’t so they don’t).</p>
<p>Rather, it’s September 21 and I’ve spotted my first “won’t someone think of the children/Baby Jesus” story. </p>
<p>News.com.au this morning <a href="http://www.9news.com.au/national/2017/09/21/06/51/big-w-christmas-tree-renamed-shoppers-fuming">published a true tale of contemporary woe</a>: Big W are selling gloriously fake trees - no problem there, Jesus was, big time, all about the plastic - in boxes that <em>don’t</em> include the word Christmas. Without the C-word, apparently, we’re completely lost at sourcing the perfect festive erection for our loungerooms.</p>
<p>Pushing aside my curiosity about a world where the midnight social media musings of a handful of pearl-clutchers make the news, nonetheless, here we are in our <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-12/rosewarne-easy-virtue-or-easy-outrage/4309088">outrage culture</a> where this kind of malarkey has a well-established audience.</p>
<p>Such a story slips nicely into the dross news file with copy about council carol ceremoniess singing less <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4iXatDeY7A">First Noel</a> and more <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMtuVP8Mj4o">Feliz Navidad</a>. Such a story sits comfortably alongside the “political correctness gone awry”, “Christianity trampled by heathens/Muslims”, “Christmas losing its meaning” faux-rage pieces that’ll be foisted upon us a'plenty in the coming months.</p>
<p>Stories <em>tailor-made</em> for right-wing radio hosts and nutjobs with net access.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186926/original/file-20170921-13826-1udxsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186926/original/file-20170921-13826-1udxsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186926/original/file-20170921-13826-1udxsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186926/original/file-20170921-13826-1udxsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186926/original/file-20170921-13826-1udxsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186926/original/file-20170921-13826-1udxsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186926/original/file-20170921-13826-1udxsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">And this way…</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’ve spent the past eighteen months in a Yuletide bubble writing a book about Christmas films. (A book, I hasten to note, will be perfect to slip under your unlabelled festive bush come the 25th).</p>
<p>Aside from torturing myself with near on <a href="https://theconversation.com/75-christmas-films-worth-watching-69877">1,000 screen portrayals</a>, I’ve read an awful lot of what’s been written about the season. (Including, God forbid, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/nov/13/sarah-palin-guide-celebrating-christmas">Sarah Palin’s war on Christmas tome</a>). With so much out there, this article really shouldn’t be the first time someone assures you that worrying about Big W’s boxes is equal parts ritual and rubbish.</p>
<p>I’d like to blame <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-7fzHy3aG0">Kellyanne Conyway</a> for our <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts">alternative facts</a> predicament, alas, the mass broadcast of nonsense myths and misunderstandings has a much longer history.</p>
<p>The tale of America’s “Christian” origins for example, is one that’s been told and retold and had hoods donned and <a href="http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/08/watch-beauty-school-dropout-parody-tiki-torch-nazis.html">tiki-torches</a> lit all in defence of it. Complete and utter nonsense to anyone who’s ever cracked the spine of a history book, but nations are nothing without their myths.</p>
<p>Equally, the “Christian” origins of the turkey-and-racist-uncle-celebration we call Christmas is every bit as dubious.</p>
<p>Let’s for a moment side-step the notion that if a birth did happen in a manger most historians and a good few theologians agree it probably didn’t do so in December. Let’s stick to the actual celebration. You know, the trees and the pudding and the Elf on the bleepin’ Shelf palaver.</p>
<p>Christian churches weren’t celebrating the birth of Christ. “Christmas” wasn’t a holiday on the Christian calendar in fact, until several hundred years later.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186925/original/file-20170921-16445-nutwla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186925/original/file-20170921-16445-nutwla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186925/original/file-20170921-16445-nutwla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186925/original/file-20170921-16445-nutwla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186925/original/file-20170921-16445-nutwla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186925/original/file-20170921-16445-nutwla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186925/original/file-20170921-16445-nutwla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">… And this way.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When we take the time to trace the origins of the way we celebrate, rather than locating any “original” holiday, instead, we find a hodgepodge. We find festooned trees taken from Germany, stockings from the Netherlands, and pretty much everything else from the celebration’s Big Cs: <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43171/a-visit-from-st-nicholas">Clement Clarke Moore</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zgvbgk7/revision">Charles Dickens</a> and <a href="http://blog.brandisty.com/brand-management-blog/how-coca-cola-became-a-holiday-brand/">Coca Cola</a>. Not to mention more than a little from <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/12/norman-rockwell-christmas-holiday-photographs/">Mr Rockwell</a>. Add in the notion of a pagan Winter festival to keep spirits up in a cold, dark Northern Europe and rather than sourcing any kind of authentic celebration, instead, we uncover the disparate origins of an holiday that’s morphed and expanded overtime. That <em>continues</em> to morph and expand.</p>
<p>Pretending that there’s something original to zealously protect, or lamenting that the “true” reason for the season has been lost might be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5-yA66kaVc">holiday busywork for some</a>, sure, but it’s not historically accurate.</p>
<p>Not that I don’t understand people clutching to their “time-honoured” traditions, of course. Surely nothing is more traditional - nothing more <em>divine</em> - than religiously purchasing only suitably labelled trees from discount stores and only ever imbibing hot-cross buns on those biblically sanctioned bun-eating days. Not to mention the traditions of complaining about the ever-earlier arrival of carols in the stores and fearing that Christ gets <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ipCKIxdHTs">re-crucified</a> every time someone says “Happy Holidays”.</p>
<p>We’re nothing without clutching to the myth of a perfect past.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186931/original/file-20170921-372-vovul3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186931/original/file-20170921-372-vovul3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186931/original/file-20170921-372-vovul3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186931/original/file-20170921-372-vovul3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186931/original/file-20170921-372-vovul3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186931/original/file-20170921-372-vovul3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186931/original/file-20170921-372-vovul3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">… But most of all this way.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nostalgia is not merely the vague longing for the past. At least not the past as fact, as lived. Nostalgia is about longing for a past that’s idealised, that’s <em>imagined</em>. It’s all the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/__kQ1PCP6B0">chestnuts-roasting-on-an-open-fire</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S-IidmcSN8">treetops-glistening-and-children-listening</a> sepia-hued Christmases of yore that were less lived and more televised. </p>
<p>We want to believe that there was once a beautiful, perfect Christmas where stores knew their place and where kids wrote heartfelt thank you notes to their elders (and where no one was a vegetarian insisting she most certainly wouldn’t be eating potatoes cooked in lard, thank you very much). We can’t go back to that nebulous time or place, so instead we just pine mercilessly for it. That doing this is as much a holiday ritual as anything our family has decided to label “traditional”.</p>
<p>So go on, boycott Big W and, while you’re at it, take a moment to write to your local school and insist that the kiddiewinks be forced to channel their inner Boney M. and sing about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDFX8KVKRoI">Mary’s Boy Child</a> until their throats bleed. Like they used to. </p>
<p>Christmas is nothing, afterall, without our delusions.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.equalitycampaign.org.au/planyourvote?splash=1"><strong>Meanwhile, vote yes.</strong></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84431/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
September 21 and it’s started already. No, not the ever-earlier encroach of Christmas. (My view on that particular “lament” is that if consumers really cared, they’d vote with their wallets and force stores…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/820282017-08-03T14:20:36Z2017-08-03T14:20:36ZThe Wonderful Weirdness of ‘You’re Not Alone’<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180875/original/file-20170803-27677-to4v2y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180875/original/file-20170803-27677-to4v2y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180875/original/file-20170803-27677-to4v2y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180875/original/file-20170803-27677-to4v2y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180875/original/file-20170803-27677-to4v2y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180875/original/file-20170803-27677-to4v2y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180875/original/file-20170803-27677-to4v2y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p>I’ve lived in the CBD long enough to be disinclined to accept the hands of strangers: such nonsense can only ever lead to a backpacker telling me about Greenpeace. My version of hell.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, I let the ginger-haired guy take my hand briefly: apparently he (<a href="http://mrkimnoble.com/">Kim Noble</a>) was going to personally greet everyone who entered the theatre.</p>
<p>I texted the friend who’d bailed as soon as I sat down: “The guy on the poster is hand-shaking every audience member. This bodes very, very poorly.” I’d only just clicked ‘send’ when an elderly woman, two seats down, leaned across my friend’s forsaken seat and asked me whether I was a singer. “You look like a concerto singer.” </p>
<p>And the night was only going to get weirder. </p>
<p>Weird mostly because <a href="http://malthousetheatre.com.au/whats-on/youre-not-alone">You’re Not Alone</a> is a) a one man show, b) includes audience participation and c) makes use of a smoke machine: three things that normally are guaranteed to smother my enjoyment. (I’m looking at you <a href="https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/event-archive/2017/theatre-drama/white-rabbit-red-rabbit-2">White Rabbit Red Rabbit</a>. In that case, a little smoke might have helped).</p>
<p>And yet <em>You’re Not Alone</em> was wholly terrific.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180893/original/file-20170803-5618-5hz6od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180893/original/file-20170803-5618-5hz6od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180893/original/file-20170803-5618-5hz6od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180893/original/file-20170803-5618-5hz6od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180893/original/file-20170803-5618-5hz6od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180893/original/file-20170803-5618-5hz6od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180893/original/file-20170803-5618-5hz6od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>I recently watched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7m8Xu2iwOk">I Love Dick</a>. Without doubt, the best television series I’ve seen. Ever. A big call, sure, but there’s no hesitation. And, while, I’ve no difficulties in chirping about its greatness, explaining precisely <em>why</em> I loved it like I did remains elusive. Hence why my article about it remains unfinished.</p>
<p>My brain making likes seeing patterns, making connections, and I often see threads in things I’ve seen consecutively. Themes of sex and sexuality, gender and art link <em>I Love Dick</em> and <em>You’re Not Alone</em>, true. But their link, mostly, is just my whole-hearted enjoyment. </p>
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<p>Most books or television series or plays leave me wanting to tinker. I left <em>Baby Driver</em> for example, thinking it might almost have been passable had they cast someone - <em>anyone</em> - other than that fop from <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fault-in-our-outrage-28041">The Fault In Our Stars</a>. Equally, I’m currently watching - and mostly enjoying - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5834204/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Handmaid’s Tale</a> but the degree to which I have to suspend my disbelief is becoming tiresome. (There are non-white people in positions of authority in this conservative Christian dystopia? Really?).</p>
<p><em>I Love Dick</em> and <em>You’re Not Alone</em> were both perfect as is. I left both feeling a sense of satisfaction that’s both largely unfamiliar and enjoyably intriguing. </p>
<p>Post-play I’d send my friend a live-from-the-Uber review of all that she’d missed:</p>
<p><em>So we got a little bestiality, some heartbreak, a penis tucked under and secured with sticky tape and an existential crisis. All performed by a maudlin man who, at various junctures, fucks a loaf of bread and whacks random objects up his arse: without doubt my perfect guy. Audience participation, alas, but I dodged that bullet. Probably the best 60 minutes of theatre I’ve seen. “Experimental theatre” normally makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon, but on this occasion it both suits and compliments it.</em></p>
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<p>And that’s it in a nutshell. A mash-up of sex and art and yearning and anomie with a little Springsteen and Sinéad on the soundtrack. </p>
<p>In the space of sixty minutes it’s laugh out loud funny, and, abruptly, it’s becomes hollowed-out-belly melancholy. And then it all gets wrapped up with Chris de Burgh’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Jcs45GhxU">Lady In Red</a>. Of course. Years ago, at the South Yarra train station, a man I was sleeping with was… <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJW5ZjJbgM0">maudlin</a>. I have a type. Misguided in thinking I could cheer him up, I started singing “Lady in Red”. He was wearing red and the song seemed suitably stupid for that moment. And he laughed so hard he vomited. Right there on the platform. I like to think it was my breathy “cheek to cheek” that got him in the end. </p>
<p>If I was putting on a one-woman show, I’d be pleased if it was even a quarter as good - and a quarter as mad - as <em>You’re Not Alone</em>.</p>
<p><strong><em>You’re Not Alone</em> is showing at the Malthouse in Melbourne until August 13.</strong></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Truth be told, if I saw this before I saw the play I’d never have bought a ticket.</span></figcaption>
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I’ve lived in the CBD long enough to be disinclined to accept the hands of strangers: such nonsense can only ever lead to a backpacker telling me about Greenpeace. My version of hell. Nonetheless, I let…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/793682017-06-13T11:58:42Z2017-06-13T11:58:42ZMamamia! When it’s high time for some bitch-shamin’<figure class="align-left ">
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<p>Seven years ago I wrote <a href="http://laurenrosewarne.com/books/cheating-sisterhood/">a book about infidelity</a>. Not a memoir, no, but my own experiences were indeed divulged amid a broader scholarly discussion of sexuality and feminism.</p>
<p>Of the very many <a href="http://laurenrosewarne.com/in-the-media/radio-appearances/">radio interviews</a> I’ve done, an early one - about that book - sticks out as my most… memorable. </p>
<p>The interview itself was fine enough. A mini panel discussion. While there was an awkward Madonna/whore juxtaposing of me and the other butter-wouldn’t-melt lady guest, it was okay, passable. Untraumatic for the most part. </p>
<p>It was immediately after, though, when things got… interesting.</p>
<p>Our discussion had concluded the show and the midday host was on his way in. The other panellist had departed and I was on her heels. Before I could leave though, my host - a man - halted my exit; wanted to introduce me to the incoming midday host:</p>
<p>“Lauren, you should meet Bob (not his name), he’s married: I imagine you’d be interested in him.” </p>
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<p>I was not-so-fondly recalling that interview today in the wake of the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/cruel-and-humiliating-bad-feminist-author-roxane-gay-calls-out-treatment-by-mamamia-20170613-gwq7i5.html">Mamamia/Roxanne Gay brouhaha</a>. </p>
<p>In case you were lucky enough to have missed it, in brief, Mamamia matriarch <a href="http://www.mamamia.com.au/mia-freedman-sex-worker-comments-q-and-a/">Mia Freedman</a> recently interviewed the best-selling feminist writer and academic for her podcast. </p>
<p>And it was only after when things got i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ gross.</p>
<p>In the aftermath, Freedman apparently felt completely comfortable to tell a backstory. There’s a whole lotta bile in Freedman’s now-deleted telling, but the most despicable line - and the one that gets the whole ball ‘o bullshit rolling - was “Now, I would normally never breach the confidence of what goes on behind the scenes of organising an interview, but in this case…”</p>
<p>What followed was a heinous privacy stomping whereby the logistics of Gay’s visit - logistics, I should note, are considered to be of <a href="https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/arts-and-culture/mia-freedman-served-by-feminist-author-for-100-ran/4857e8b4-dbca-4229-a04a-e3d07400502c.htm">dubious veracity</a> - are “revealed”. Seemingly, Freedman found it perfectly acceptable, perfectly relevant, and – most disgustingly – <em>perfectly professional</em> to go so far as to alert us that Gay is “…I’m searching for the right word to use here. I don’t want to say fat so I’m going to use the official medical term: super morbidly obese.”</p>
<p>There’s a deluge of entry points for me in this story. The fat-shaming, the skinny-bitchiness and the <a href="https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/arts-and-culture/mamamia-issues-600-word-apology-over-roxane-gay-sa/092a92e1-ce62-4141-8690-7394d09ee952.htm">bullshit malarkey apology</a> that completely misses the entire point. <em>Just for starters</em>. The bit that interests me most however, is the dehumanisation of Gay. <em>Because she dared get personal</em>. </p>
<p>Roxanne Gay chose to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Memoir-Body-Roxane-Gay/dp/0062362593">write a memoir</a> about her weight. In <em>Hunger</em> Gay details some of the awful self-loathing stuff that nearly all women relate to but few will ever be brave enough to actually spill with their name attached. </p>
<p>When you publish something personal - be it about your body image or, say, <a href="http://laurenrosewarne.com/books/part-time-perverts/">some kinky sex you might have had</a> - a multitude of calamities follow. The first is that because you’ve chosen to air some of your skeletons/dirty laundry/deepest darkest insecurities you now become related to - you now become <em>judged</em> - using a new and narrow set of criteria. </p>
<p>Lost is the entirety of you as a person; instead, your identity gets diluted to what you wrote about. Suddenly that becomes <em>all</em> that you are. And, with a smile on your face, you’re expected to answer any number of probing questions - often about things you deliberately chose <em>not</em> to write about - and you’re meant to laugh it all off. Laugh off all the breaches of privacy. Laugh off every barb of undignified disrespect. Because surely your hide is thick enough. Because surely you’ve <em>asked for it</em>.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine had I not written about my own experiences with infidelity, that any radio host - least of all the supposedly respected one I was dealing with that day - would have ever dared make that jibe. His dig however, became permissible because I had written about some of my life – I had divulged some of my “transgressions”; about some of the things that, apparently, makes women loathsome – and I had, in turn, become less worthy to him. Less worthy of being respected as a guest, as a writer, as an academic and as a feminist. I was the Scarlet Woman and could only be treated as such.</p>
<p>Similar discourtesies were extended to Gay.</p>
<p>The fact that Gay made her weight the focus of her book prompted Mia Freedman to take some liberties and to treat her not primarily as a guest, as a writer, as an academic, as a feminist, but as only The Fat Woman. Totally lost was the respect that would have been afforded to any other <em>New York Times</em> best-selling author who’d visited the Mamamia locker-room, instead, Gay was just a “super morbidly obese” caricature and could only be treated as such.</p>
<p>Cue bitchy gags about fat women and and broken chairs.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/arts-and-culture/mamamia-issues-600-word-apology-over-roxane-gay-sa/092a92e1-ce62-4141-8690-7394d09ee952.htm">nonsense apology</a> has been issued - of course. Because a female-centred media site needs to make damn sure that the ladies don’t turn on 'em. Only I have. Because Freedman doesn’t get to play babe-in-the-woods here. Media is her game. Perhaps it’s been so for a little too long.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79368/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Seven years ago I wrote a book about infidelity. Not a memoir, no, but my own experiences were indeed divulged amid a broader scholarly discussion of sexuality and feminism. Of the very many radio interviews…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/788432017-06-05T11:33:14Z2017-06-05T11:33:14ZIslam and the fine line of academic freedom<p>I’m in my seventeenth year of working at the University of Melbourne: at 37-years-old, that’s a fair chunk of my life in the one place.</p>
<p>This isn’t a love letter to my employer, nevertheless there are lots of reasons I’ve stayed (beyond reluctance to change my email address): the institution’s support of my academic freedom plays no small part. </p>
<p>Such freedom impacts each of us differently. In my case, I do a lot of <a href="http://laurenrosewarne.com/in-the-media/">media work</a> and <a href="http://laurenrosewarne.com/writings/">write regularly</a> in public forums like this one. And each time I open my mouth or put pen to paper I’m expressing an opinion. It’ll invariably be one based on my teaching or research, but it’ll always be an articulation of <em>my</em> views.</p>
<p>Views which might conflict with the University.</p>
<p>Views which might castigate a government.</p>
<p>Views which might upset members of the tax-paying public.</p>
<p>As someone who has benefited enormously from academic freedom and who, in general, thinks it should be at the heart of all intellectual debate, is there ever a time when it needs to be sanctioned?</p>
<p><a href="http://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/mcnair/">Professor Brian McNair</a>.</p>
<p>Brian - a clever and generous Queensland University of Technology colleague whose academic output I admire – is <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/london-terror-attacks-qut-lecturer-says-islam-a-cancer/news-story/b8b98a9aaa4bf08d7640d62c0500a431">in the press</a> this week for some inflammatory social media comments about Islam.</p>
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<p>Brian and I are Facebook friends, but I didn’t see his original post - one which also appeared in his public Twitter feed (above): truth be told, I unfollowed him several terrorists attacks ago when I felt our views on this subject were… incompatible.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/london-terror-attacks-qut-lecturer-says-islam-a-cancer/news-story/b8b98a9aaa4bf08d7640d62c0500a431">The press surrounding Brian’s post</a> is niggling at me. It’s a clash of my passion for academic freedom - and freedom of speech more broadly - and my ever-growing concern that such liberties are becoming a justification for hate; potentially even an <em>encouragement</em> for it.</p>
<p>Numerous questions are plaguing me about this issue; questions QUT are no doubt similarly wrestling with.</p>
<p>Should a scholar’s personal condemnation of Islam be protected under academic freedom?</p>
<p>Do views articulated on Facebook or Twitter fall under the banner of work product? What part does possibly-fleeting red mist and posted-on-the-weekend play in all of this? </p>
<p>Do our audiences have any duty to distinguish between our weekday political musings and our weekend emotional outbursts if they’re delivered via the same media?</p>
<p>Generally I think censoring should be the absolute last resort. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-03/class2c_prejudice_and_politics_28or_hansonism_of_the_non-econ/40708">Just because I don’t agree with someone shouldn’t be grounds to gag them</a>. It’s a courtesy I’d like extended to me.</p>
<p>But condemning Islam as a whole – as sharply contrasted with denouncing acts of political extremism – gets very close to what I would call hate speech. And when it comes to hate, and protecting victims of it and from it, I’m unconvinced that this is something universities should be in the business of defending. </p>
<p>In recent years, those of us on the Left have had to take positions on all kinds of speech issues. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-31/are-social-justice-warriors-killing-conversations/8400078">Call-out culture</a> is one example, equally so is deciding who should have a voice on campus: should the likes of <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/02/us/milo-yiannopoulos-ivory-tower/index.html">Milo Yiannopoulos</a>, say, get his mitts on our young'ns?</p>
<p>Yiannopoulos - a man who I’m at least 50% convinced is a cunningly-crafted caricature designed to expose the gullibility of the Right - has spent much of his time begging, borrowing and stealing pulpits for his special brand of severely misguided malarkey. </p>
<p>Mostly I have a “let the market decide” approach to such matters. If students want to hear such crap, let them. This remains my position right up to the point where a speaker starts espousing hate. And then I think universities have to think very carefully about what they are defending.</p>
<p>Milo is <em>chockful</em> of hate. It’s seeping from his every pore. And while he frames it as cultural criticism, every victim of his diatribes know that his speech is nothing more than the promotion of loathing towards <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/06/12/left-chose-islam-gays-now-100-people-killed-maimed-orlando/">Muslims</a> and <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/10/07/full-text-milo-feminism-auburn/">feminists</a> and <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/09/22/milo-explains-fat-shaming-good/">fat people</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/technology/twitter-bars-milo-yiannopoulos-in-crackdown-on-abusive-comments.html?_r=0">black women</a> and whomever else he’s chosen to spit upon on a given day.</p>
<p>Once someone unfairly targets an already-oppressed group, then they shouldn’t be excused under the banner of free speech. Universities certainly shouldn’t be in the business of defending bullies.</p>
<p>The University of Melbourne has around about <a href="http://about.unimelb.edu.au/tradition-of-excellence/key-facts">47,000 students and 6,500 staff</a>. That’s an awful lot of people to care for. Should the speech of someone like Yiannopoulos therefore, be protected at the expense of thousands of people - many who fall into these marginalised groups - who expect the institution to provide a safe space? Is Milo’s supposed right to voice an opinion <em>more</em> important than those who lives get made that little bit worse after such a visit?</p>
<p>Professor Brian McNair.</p>
<p>Had he written “Enough! <em>Religion</em> is a cancer on the planet…”, while I’d have questioned his <a href="https://theconversation.com/that-was-a-joke-joyce-24230">timing</a>, as a feminist atheist I’ll always make a little space to debate the negative impact of faith on women. Had he written “Enough! <em>Toxic masculinity</em> is a cancer on the planet…” and I might even have been inclined to follow him again. </p>
<p>Brian’s words however, pointed the finger at people <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/31/worlds-muslim-population-more-widespread-than-you-might-think/">1.6 billion people</a>. I have Muslim friends. And Muslim students. And Muslim colleagues. I suspect Brian does too. So how can they all get tarred with the same brush as the London perps? Why are we expecting them to somehow police their brothers? Am <em>I</em> responsible for the crimes committed by every woman? Every white person? Every atheist? Every academic? What personal convictions do I need to renounce out of fear that a ragtag bunch of disenfranchised thugs might watch a Youtube video, misinterpret my beliefs, and decide to fetish our deaths?</p>
<p>It’s been a brutal few weeks in the world of geo-politics. For me, <a href="https://theconversation.com/manchesters-blue-monday-and-the-folly-of-cowardice-78264">Manchester involved a lot of tears and a little vomit</a>; undoubtedly London was devastating for Brian. But his comments put in jeopardy the safety of every Muslim who is just as distressed and angry as we are. That’s not the kind of academic freedom I support.</p>
<p>I don’t want Brian thrown over the coals. Equally, strongly-cajoled apologies make me roil. But I do think QUT - and universities more broadly - need to think carefully about how to balance academic freedom with the safe space we must provide to our students, to our staff, to our stakeholders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78843/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
I’m in my seventeenth year of working at the University of Melbourne: at 37-years-old, that’s a fair chunk of my life in the one place. This isn’t a love letter to my employer, nevertheless there are lots…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.