Soapbox

For thousands of years, we had worshipped women. Our ability to create and sustain life were something to be lauded. We were powerful and some religions held women in great regard. The lines of inheritance passed through women, because let’s face it, you can never doubt who mothered a child.

And then life changed. Other religions came into play, as powerful countries came into power and forced the pagans out. Women became chattels, owned possessions. No voice, no power. Our place in life changed and our belief in ourselves also.

In the early 1900’s the suffragette movement stole back our voice, but women had taken a back seat for so many hundreds of years that our power had been diluted. Our ability to give life became something slightly shameful, even if the end result was something we could be proud of.

Our bodies were no longer solely our own. Men held claim to it and we were objects to be owned. It feels that, as a culture, we have not gotten over this mentality yet, despite the feminist movement. Our bodies are still seen by some as shameful and no conversation is held with our daughters about the beauty of curves. Women have their genitalia cut off, the unclean parts removed, leaving behind a hole for a man’s use only. We rail against the unjustness of this and yet, plastic surgeons in our own countries practise removal of labia minora for cosmetic reasons. Does the addition of anaesthetic and a medical degree change what is being done?

Our power, that had once been held in such high regard was tattered and torn. Some we scraped back together, but most disappeared in the face of change. Accompanying that came the sexualisation of women. Breasts that were designed to nurture our babies became the symbols of lust and were flashed across billboards throughout the world. Yet women are still victimised for breastfeeding a baby in a public area. ‘I don’t want to see that’ is spat, in disgust, while a bikini clad model flashes across the screen above their heads.

The dirtiness associated with vaginas hasn’t faded. Tucked away under panties most of the time, when seen in media it is nothing more than a tiny pink slit, hairless like a child – the power of a woman airbrushed out of it.

And so I celebrate pieces of artwork that desexualise vulvas. Artwork that show beauty and individuality, even as others claim that vulvas are not meant to be seen or looked at.

I’ve spoken to people who left MONA a little shell shocked, certain that some works in there can’t possibly be considered art. The canvas depicting a man being fucked by a dog caused a bit of consternation, surely that wasn’t art? Yet, in the same gallery sits Leda and the Swan, a globally acclaimed bronze that depicts Leda being fucked by a swan. The conversation turned to the fact that women are the ones who are meant to be fucked, not men. That is the reason the canvas is considered distasteful, and the bronze is not.

By the nature of a womans vulva, intercourse became something that was done to us, not something we did. Men are the fuckers and women are the fuckees. In reality, it doesn’t always work like that and personal circumstances and sexuality will change with every relationship, but the cultural shift was there and unchangeable.

This of course proves my point about sexualisation.

Art doesn’t have to be beautiful. Art can be a statement about the world around us, or culture. It can be ugly. It can be a machine that turns food into fecal matter, a dig at the art world itself, a claim that all artwork, is, in the very end, crap.

Art is meant to make us think and in this day and age of overexposure to media and pornography, sometimes that art needs to be shocking to make its point. I don’t think this is a bad thing, merely the equivalent to shaking someone by the shoulders to get them to listen properly.

MONA doesn’t shrink away from the artwork that other galleries refuse to hang and in the end, if all it does is make us question our perception of our culture, then that can only be a good thing.

I for one, like questioning why we think the way we do and why we, the collective we, are so ready to accept some things as beautiful and declare others to be shameful.

Look at what vaginas can do afterall.

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Slightly NSFW, no actual photos of vaginas here, but there are photos of ceramic vaginas, all white. Just so you know.

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A few months ago I was watching an SBS documentary about teenage girls and their body issues relating to their vagina*. Most of the girls spoken to were ones about to undergo labiaplasty – most notably a reduction in the size of their labia minora.

I was a bit astounded at girls wanting to cut their vagina to pieces, just to make it ‘neater’ or ‘prettier’.

We followed their journey and by all accounts, none of the girls regretted the surgery. We won’t talk about lost nerve endings, or loss of sensation or any of the other things that they might have and not know about. How do you tell when something is missing?

Part of the problem, I think, is that women don’t get to see vaginas very often. Of course, we’ve all probably had some access to porn, but porn stars aren’t exactly portrayals of real female beauty anyway, are they? Not to mention I’m hearing rumours that a good portion of porn stars have had labiaplasty anyway, and that girls in magazines have their vaginas airbrushed, so that only the labia majora can been seen.

The documentary stayed with me, rattling around in the back of my brain where I keep my ‘issues to get upset about when I’ve got time’ folder.

When I went to MONA, I was thrilled to pieces to see a wall of vaginas. All shapes and sizes, wobbly labia and all.

Called ‘Cunts… And Other Conversations’ by artist Greg Taylor and friends, it contains 150 sculpted vaginas, all different and all brilliantly done.

Models ranged in age from 18 to 78 and came from all kinds of religious backgrounds.

Xanya Mamunya is a harpist who features among the works. She says of the modelling process, “It was empowering because I am from a generation that never even looked down there. I wasn’t even told about the menstrual cycle until I thought I was bleeding to death. Modelling for the exhibition made me feel that I was part of something that I think is very important – for everyone.”

It’s a bit disconcerting to walk along a hallway whose main feature is something we’re taught not to look at too closely, but it was also really interesting. Like penises, no two vaginas are the same and honestly, I’m not sure why we’d expect them to be.

Sadly it would seem that glossy magazines have been our go-to guide for women to try and discover what is normal, and glossy magazines are about as far removed from reality as you can get.

I think that every teenage girl should get to look at the huge range of normal, because looking at Cunts… And Other Conversations, all I am struck by is that there is no such thing as normal. We’re all unique and that can only be a good thing.

My only complaint is that we need a sister exhibition of 150 penises, to showcase ‘normal’ for men.

*Yes, I know the technical term is vulva, but I found it easier to use ‘common language’ for this post.

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Poor retail millionaires. It’s our fault they aren’t making as much money anymore. Instead of a 45ft yacht, they had to buy the 30ft one. Such a sacrifice they’ve been making and now, they’re banding together to let us know how angry they are about their profit margins.

The loudest of these millionaires is one Gerry Harvey, founder of Harvey Norman, who by all accounts, is having to cut down on his caviar fund, all because I bought my kids toys online this Christmas.

“You’ve got every second person in the country importing things from overseas, evading duty, not paying sales tax,” he said. ”You’ve got an awful lot of retailers that are going to be going broke after Christmas.’‘ [source]

He’s been all over my TV and the newspapers, complaining about online shopping. The way he speaks, you’d think that online shopping was the devil incarnate.

Can we all hear the sad music playing?

I shop online, for a variety of reasons.

I have two small children, with sensory issues, among other things. I also have incredibly bendy joints, that dislocate regularly. Getting into a shopping centre isn’t easy for me.

I tried to shop in store before Christmas and it didn’t end all that well. I tried to browse the books, as quickly as I could, knowing that I had my partner and the kids (4 and almost 2) in tow. 30 seconds into browsing, my son bolted. I chased him and brought him back to the books, wherein he promptly melted down. Screaming at my feet, I couldn’t look at books anymore. Amy was getting overwhelmed with her brother screaming and started to whine.

I picked Isaac up and slung him under my arm, dislocating a few ribs in the process. My partner grabbed Amy. We looked at each other and left, fast. We’d been in the shop for 5 minutes and bought nothing.

I ended up buying all the kids presents online, slowly. My son has a birthday in a fortnight, his presents should be arriving in the mail this week.

We live an hour from the major city, so shopping isn’t something that we can do on a whim. It takes time and preparation. It’s much easier for me to just sit down with a cup of tea after the kids are in bed and order online what we need, as the actual logistics of remembering to buy new fitted sheets for the beds (because Amy cut holes in our other ones with scissors) or getting to the DVD section, it’s a bit beyond what I find easy.

At the end of the day though, it’s all about price. We survive on a shoestring budget and shopping online saves money. With cheaper products, even with shipping included, it works out better for us. We don’t have to waste petrol on a trip to town, I don’t get exhausted and dislocate things and the kids don’t spend the next few hours screaming. Instead, I wait for the postman each morning, when my parcels are delivered direct to my door. Win win.

Gerry Harvey expected the Internet and online shopping to be a passing fad, that he refused to participate in. This is what he had to say just two years ago:

“I’ve got an online part of my business, but I definitely would not put more into it. That’d be a recipe for a disaster.”

“Online people do not make any money,” Harvey also told SmartCompany. “The whole world was conned with online retailing. People say I’m a dinosaur, and I’ve had people coming to me with sites and saying, ‘Oh, look at this, they have 10,000 or 20,000 hits!’ – but it’s a con, a complete con.” [source]

Poor Gerry Harvey. If we’re not careful, next time we see him he’ll be sitting on a street corner, begging for money so he can buy some smoked salmon, and it will be all our fault.

Because of online shopping, dollars have been taken away from a very rich man.

Shame on us for wanting better deals and spending our dollars carefully.

Shame on us.

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Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last couple of weeks, then you would have seen the AFL St Kilda scandal playing out on mainstream media and social media across the board. A football player was photographed naked, posed with a team mate holding a condom to his penis and eventually, it showed up on facebook, helped along by a 17 year old girl.

The “St Kilda Schoolgirl” as she’s been dubbed on media outlets, has been crucified by the mainstream media and hung out to dry by the AFL. According to information coming out, she met the St Kilda players when they held a football clinic at her school. She was 16. A few weeks later, she waited outside of their changing rooms, to meet them again.

By all accounts, she was a star struck girl.

Of course, we all know how the story goes. She ended up pregnant and was treated badly by the AFL when she went to them about it. That was nothing compared to how they treated her when she released the photos.

She’s been called a slut, a gold digger, a whore. Her reputation has been dragged through the mud, with the Saints trying to crucify her. What, for the crime of posting a naked photo of a player?

I’m sorry, did the NRL chase down and try to crucify the person who released the photo of player Joel Monaghan engaged in a lewd act with a dog? No. No they did not.

AFL chief Andrew Demetriou has apparently had over 20 meetings with this girl. Now, personally, I can’t see any reason for him to meet with her that many times – unless of course he was looking to get into her pants as well. Now that’s just my opinion of course, but does the AFL normally provide personal ‘counselling’ for every woman treated badly by the players? Methinks if they did that, there wouldn’t be time to actually organise any football games.

I am disgusted that the St Kilda football club has taken after this girl like a pack of wolves. Threatening to sue her for everything under the sun, for damages lasting possibly 15 years? Bullying is never okay, especially when you’re a multi-million dollar football club.

At the end of the day, this girl is 17. She’s a young girl, out of her depth and by all accounts, deeply stressed by the portrayal of herself in the media.

And so I’m asking, why aren’t we outraged by her treatment? As women, as mothers, why aren’t we sticking up for this girl? She might have done some stupid things, but she is seventeen. We all did stupid things as teenagers.

Imagine if it were your daughter, or your niece, or your sister. Imagine if they’d been put in this situation by heavy weights at the AFL and in the media. How would you feel, to see comments like this directed at her?

I hope they take you for everything you have you little gold digger. Its great that now the tables have turned and youve lost your “power” that your signing a different song. If I had a kid like you i’d kick your arse and kick you out and be ashamed that I could produce something as nasty and tacky as you are. Youre not sorry, youre just sorry things havent gone your way. Enjoy being broke and having a bad rep for the rest of your life, youve earned it. If i see you in the street I’ll be sure to spit in your face.

How is a reaction like that warranted?

I am disgusted at the way she is being treated.

She deserves our support, not to be abused even further.

I thought Australia was better than this. Apparently we are, but only when it doesn’t involve our football “stars”.

Discuss.

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