Category Archives: 16 days against gender violence

Feminist digital activism: The revolution is being streamed, snapped and tweeted

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence concludes with Brigitte Lewis’ examination of the roots and impact of feminist digital activism, both online and off. While the internet is undoubtedly a cesspool of sexual harassment, it is also the site … Continue reading

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Are you really gay enough to be a refugee?

Senthorun Raj discusses how pop culture stereotypes about homosexuality enable bureaucratic violence towards refugees for the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. What do Madonna, Oscar Wilde, Greco-Roman wrestling, clubbing at Stonewall, and having a lot of sex have in common? … Continue reading

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Rape in marriage: Why was it so hard to criminalise sexual violence?

Lisa Featherstone reveals the controversies that dogged the campaign to criminalise marital rape in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. From 1976 to 1994, Australian jurisdictions introduced a raft of reforms to … Continue reading

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We Aim to Please: Cinematic activism, sex and violence

For the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, Mary Tomsic explores cinematic representations of physical and sexual violence against women in We Aim to Please, a 1970s Australian feminist film. As a historian, representations of complex ideas in art and … Continue reading

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Writing their stories: Women’s survivorship and the history of domestic abuse in divided Germany

The 16 days series continues as Jane Freeland looks at the spirit of survival women demonstrated in the face of domestic violence at other women’s shelters – this time in Cold War Germany. What struck me most profoundly while researching the history of domestic … Continue reading

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Domestic violence has a history: Early modern family violence

VIDA’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence series continues with Dianne Hall discussing how gendered familial roles in early modern Europe institutionalised family violence and influenced its treatment in the courts. Trying to address the huge problem of domestic violence in our … Continue reading

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“Mum will be safe now”: Prosecuting children who kill violent men

For the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, Lisa Durnian examines patricide prosecutions where children killed their mothers’ abusers, demonstrating how it is not just the immediate victims of violence who suffer in abusive households. Domestic murders are perhaps … Continue reading

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“Wicked women” and communal violence: Witchcraft in historical perspective

Sheilagh Ilona O’Brien reflects upon contemporary witchcraft persecution by examining the communal violence historically enacted against women thought to be witches in the seventh post in our 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence series. Warning: this post includes the explicit … Continue reading

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