Big Boofy Blokes in Frocks: Feminism, football & Sexuality

Introduction -

    If you believe the papers, football is having a sexual revolution. In July of last year [96], Cosmopolitan magazine ran a feature on football called, with the usual wit of the Cosmo house style, "Why women love men who score". It lauded the sexiness of football's sweat, muscle and grunt, and even included a competition to win a date with Brad Fittler, captain of the Australian Rugby League team. In the Daily Telegraph Mirror, Miranda Devine has waxed wry on the attractions 'The Footy Show' holds for female television audiences. 'Women turn on to boofheads', she says. ABC Radio's Tracey Holmes has gone one step further and produced a book, the Girls' Guide To Footy. It includes a clear explanation of the rules of the four most popular codes in Australia - rugby league, rugby union, Aussie rules and soccer - but also features interviews with female fans of the game, who, more often than not, are the girlfriends or wives of current players. The fascination women seem to be experiencing ....

Football, Desire and the Social Organisation of Masculinity

Introduction -

    Football has a place of prominence in the contemporary politics of masculinity. For many men playing football is a passion, their first love, a way of life. This love of the "game" has consequences not only for those who have strong feelings of association with football, but also for those who are either ambivalent about it or even detest it. This article explores the dangerous seduction which football holds over many boys and men and some of the consequences of this seduction for existing gender relations.

Punishing Desire: Soap Opera and Sexually Aggressive Women

Introduction -

    Without sexuality and desire, soap opera would be very dull. Who would want to live at Melrose Place if there wasn't a chance of sex? Women remain the driving characters of most soap opera narratives and thus it is inevitable that, at times, they are the driving force behind sexual activity. Yet, this occurs only to a certain point. When women transgress, when they assert their sexual wants and desires, and when they take the issue forward, they set themselves up for punishment.  This punishment is sometimes directly related to the sexual act and sometimes it is not, but it is inevitable.

Sex Object-ness: The Seduction of Being Nothing

Introduction -

    The model has apparently already achieved that ultimate prize of object status. Through plastic perfection, she has become "it"

    In August 1996 Black & White magazine, through a joint promotion with a cosmetics company, invited its readership to enter "the most glamorous competition in the world". The prize: to be made up and photographed in authentic glamour style. The promise is held out in the accompanying image of a limp and deathly pale model, made-up as a mannequin, and strikingly oblivious to the subjects around her. The model is the object of the actions and desires of others: their attention is directed towards her, but she remains indifferent. The model has apparently already achieved that ultimate prize of object status. Through plastic perfection, she has become "it".

Sexed Cyborgs?

Introduction -

   The recent emergence of the field of cyborgology with its investment in organic-machinic alliances indicates a concern to comprehend the dislodgment and refiguration of human boundaries in our current high-tech environment. Technological innovation makes it harder for us to draw distinctions between human, animal and technology challenging the coherence of the human body as a discrete organic unity.

"Woman, all Woman": Star Trek, Ethics and the Danger of Female Desire.

Introduction -

    What has Star Trek got to do with it? As a student of feminism, my mind is naturally bent towards the issues of sexuality, desire, and self-consciousness. The question of female subjectivity and the problems of essentialist notions of "woman" always seem to be nagging at the back of my head.  Even when I am watching Star Trek.

"So you want to be a Princess" Barbie: The Magazine for Girls

Introduction -

    Barbie I love Barbie, I think she's cool, She's my favourite friend when I get home from school. She's got fashion, she's got flair, I love her long blonde hair.  When you want some fun and there's nothing else to do, Get out your Barbie and she will stop you feeling blue. - Lisa, W.A. Barbie, October, 1996
 

Being a Barbie lover is serious business: buying Barbie, Ken, Skipper and Kira dolls; buying them clothes, houses, cars, campervans; reading Barbie and friends books; wearing Barbie label clothes; and now reading Barbie magazine. Barbie: the Magazine for Girls, designed for girls aged six to ten, has just been released in Australia. In this paper I argue that Barbie magazine introduces young girls at a new and early age to the delights of consumerism, sexuality and mass-produced femininity.

The Gendered Discourses of Menstruation

Introduction -

    Menstruation is a significant biological phenomenon. For some women it has value in terms of reproduction and sexuality, and for others it may be a hassle or nuisance or "just part of being a woman". This paper looks at media representation, advertising 'secrets', language and the portrayal of menstruation and its gendered construction and discourses.

Transgender Politics, Medicine and Representation: Off our Backs, Off Our Bodies

Introduction -

    This paper discusses representations and practices of gender leading to the emergence of new forms of identity among transgender activists in the inner city areas of Sydney. I argue that transgenders' formation of a counter discourse to dominant medical discourse is becoming empowering for us due to its overturning of historically entrenched experimental medical procedures as the only legitimate or acceptable way of crossing gender.

"Please, DON'T call me a lady"

Introduction -

    Couple of months ago I attended a conference in Perth and sat next to a young woman who was attending the conference as a postgraduate representative. At the conclusion of the session, a white, middle-class male (of English background) thanked the panel and those in the audience who had actively participated in the process, referring specifically to the spirited contribution of the" young lady" sitting by my side. Being positioned as a young 'lady' was unfavourably received by this young woman, whose expression denoted shock/horror, as she incredulously muttered "lady?!"  

Performing Academic Authority: the 'enfant terrible' as a body of knowledge

Introduction -

    You're so vain You prob'ly think this song is about you  - Carly Simon.

    Academic authority looks like something. From packed conferences to private conversations, scholars perform what it means to know things, and these performances include inscriptions on the scholarly body. I want in this brief paper to consider some unwritten rules for performing authority as I have observed them at work in the academy. They are rules ....  

Female Sexuality: A Different Position

Introduction -

    Women are currently enjoying the freedom to focus on their own positions and interests, rather than concerning themselves with the repressive aspects of the patriarchal system (what 'they' are doing to or saying about 'us').  Instead of worrying about masculine misconceptions of female sexuality and pursuits, women are positively and unapologetically clarifying their own positions and stating: the female case.  

I am Multicultural

Introduction -

    I am a multicultural person. I am white, not olive or black but would happily be so. I am an Australian by birth and conscious of a history that cannot be defined by geographical location. In this regard I would suggest I am like most other Australians with the notable exception of indigenous Australians, whose only history involving experience with white culture is during the last 200 years - and, of course, Asians.  

Television Environments and the Fourth Scopic Epoch

Introduction -

    Television's jurisdiction is now immense - both macroscopically (globally distributed) and microscopically (in the private spaces of families and individuals). There is little in the literature to indicate how this might be influencing Green concepts and politics. This makes it essential that" environment" now be understood in the broadest sense possible: from the domestic scene, to the wider socio-cultural and global political-economic realms in which TV now exerts such major influence. In the first part of this article, I hold that TV generally promotes a pseudo-democratic consensus in which Green issues are framed in or around the existing assumptions of free-market capitalism. In the second part, I shall look beyond the imposed ideology and content of television, to examine the "techno-cognitive" characteristics of the medium itself. By its very nature, TV promulgates an alienating and commodified image space for the viewer. This process operates continuously, regardless of the particular TV programme being shown, or of the intentions of TV institutions and vested interests. This techno-cognitive aspect of TV has profound implications not only for Green institutions employing the medium, but for all TV viewers.  

Mario Petrucci

Fast Tracking Reform: Consultation and the Juvenile Justice Act (Qld) 1992

Introduction -

    Newly elected governments are eager to show that they intend to avoid the errors and miscalculations of their vanquished predecessors. The current Queensland government is no exception. However, several well publicised blunders and the debacle of the memorandum of understanding show that the government of Bob Borbidge is as vulnerable as its predecessors. The previous government under the stewardship of Wayne Goss was ....

Futures Work - Recognising the Social Determinants of Change

Introduction -

    The pace of change in the field of communications is extremely rapid. In the last ten years we have seen the introduction of many new technologies, for example, CD-ROM, the Internet and telephony, and with these technologies, different ways of communicating. Techniques of communicating have profound effects upon the meanings and values of a society. They can affect the way we understand our place in the world and the world around us.  They can, in fact, impinge upon the way society perceives itself and the future.