Rape jokes are among the most controversial that comedians can tell, but a Concordia professor says laughing at the absurdity of a world that silences survivors is also an act of support and solidarity.
Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine, has died age 91.
EPA/DAL ZENNARO
Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine, has died age 91. While many have pointed to Playboy’s problematic relationship with women, when it first appeared in 1953 the magazine was a challenge to Cold War men.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s record on women’s rights has been mixed.
REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri
The international media and her supporters continue to hoist Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf up as the matron of African women’s rights. But she does not deserve this title.
The women’s magazine formula runs deep in many online publications branded as ‘feminist’. While the personal was once deemed political, the emphasis now is on adapting to the status quo - not changing it.
Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde.
87Eleven, Closed on Mondays Entertainment, Denver and Delilah Productions.
From Kill Bill to The Hunger Games, women have been kicking butt in films (and in real life) forever. But we still act surprised when they do, because deep down we still see women as the passive sex.
Judge May Lahey (left) with actor Jean Harlow in 1932.
The Cornell Daily Sun (digitally coloured image)
Dame Roma Mitchell is remembered as Australia’s first female judge. But Queenslander May Lahey beat her to the punch when she became a judge in Los Angeles in 1928. Her lack of recognition is symptomatic of how Australia remembers expats, particularly women.
Matty J, the current Bachelor in the Australian version of the franchise, prepares to reward one of his suitors with a rose.
Network 10/Warner Bros. International Television Production
A pattern of male leadership and female passivity in heterosexual romance is woven into the formula on the popular TV show The Bachelor.
Criminalising an entire industry because of isolated examples takes away choice from free-will participants based exclusively on the behaviour of abusers.
Shutterstock
The sex industry doesn’t need your admiration, but nor does it deserve your condemnation.
Women singing at a South African ANC Women’s League meeting.Three senior women in ANC are contesting the presidency of the party.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
All three female contenders for the presidency of the ANC and South Africa have strong liberation struggle credentials and have also contributed to democracy. But, are they up to the job?
By speaking their truths in societies that would rather not know, queer painters, female rappers and other outsider artists are pushing the bounds of gender and sexuality in the developing world.
Madonna and fashion designer Jeremy Scott arrive at this year’s Met Gala in New York.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Why is Cher, 71, celebrated when she wears a near-nude costume while Madonna, 58, receives revulsion? 19th century women’s magazines reveal how the double standards of beauty for older women came about.
The Rover begins with 17th-century playwright Aphra Behn inviting those who don’t like the idea of a female writer to fuck off, setting the tone for a hilarious and utterly relevant romp through Naples.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne