News

Our thoughts and opinions on the issues headlining major media sources across the country and the world.

An Open Letter to Alannah Hill

Dear Ms. Hill,

I am writing on behalf of many young women who do not relish any opportunity to shoot down members of their own gender, the young women who believe that you can be a feminist and still wear girlish clothing, those whose mothers rammed the teachings of Gloria Steinem down their throats and those whom believe your comments regarding the David Jones Sexual Harrassment case are of a completely different era. I am writing to inform you that I will never be purchasing anything bearing your Label again.

Image via SMH

Throughout this whole debacle, it has proven once more how little progress women have made in their pursuit for equality. It has also demonstrated profoundly how women are the first to drag down other women. Your comments, however flippant you intended them to be, send the message to women suffering from sexual harassment that they should be grateful for such attention from men at all. That it is a privilege to be harassed and threatened by a handsome, wealthy and powerful man. That we should take such attention, if it occurs, willingly and not draw attention to ourselves. I cannot adequately express how poisoning such thoughts can be.

Young women, my peers, are reluctant enough as it is to even admit that they care about women’s rights without the harsh and confusing comments of our elders who think otherwise thrown into the mix. Fewer and fewer girls will call themselves, openly, a feminist. Even fewer will support women who find themselves in situations such as Kristy Fraser-Kirk as this backlash has indicated. These are depressing realities of which I’d hoped someone older and wiser than myself would be concerned about. As a successful businesswoman yourself, I find it difficult to swallow that you couldn’t control your thoughts and also that you don’t comprehend the shocking conditions faced by women in the workplace.

Throughout your apology on Fox FM, I still failed to sense any true remorse on your behalf. I understand that you do not hold any unkind feelings towards Mr. McInnes and that, of course, is your prerogative. If you like the man, you are entitled to say so. No one asked you to defend the claims of Ms. Fraser-Kirk, no one has forced you to believe her. Under no circumstances, however, should you believe that your own personal feelings allow you to disrespect the claims made by others in such a public forum.  Especially other women and especially when it comes to something as serious as sexual harassment.

As someone who has, in the past, admired your products, I refuse to give you any more support. The basis of your clothing’s appeal is that is seems like that from another era, I never knew that the backwards belief systems were part of the old-fashioned package.

I am utterly disgusted.

My week (thus far) has been spent…

…attempting to look effortless as I struggle to send texts on  my shiny new Blackberry Storm2.  Instead, I’ve been provided with a painfully embarrassing reminder of just how chubby my little fingers are. Gotta love technology.

…catching up with old friends (both human and figurative)

…singing/cranking really loudly in my car/humming like mad songs from Jersey Boys which my mumma generously took me to see last Wednesday.

…answering phones with my ‘professional voice’.

…having frequent arguments with Excel spreadsheets which struggle to handle text the way I need them too.

So far, not bad.

How bout you?

Grammy Awards 2010: When I grow up I wanna be…

As amazingly quirky and self-assured as Lady Gaga…

As heart-stoppingly sexy as Bon Jovi at 47…

As innocent, sweet and pure as Prince and Paris Jackson…

As expectation exceeding as Jennifer Hudson…

And as beautiful, talented and bad ass as Beyonce…

…amongst other things, of course.

All images via Grammy.com – Michael Caulfield / WireImage.com

News: Dujour Mag is back – exclusive interview!!

For those who sit on Twitter all day, like myself, you may have heard the news amongst all the iPad kafuffle -

Dujour Magazine, which I mourned so desperately not long ago, is BACK! And, I’m sure, better than ever.

In more exciting news, Rough Review will be featuring THE exclusive interview with editor, Letitia Burrell, where she will be answering all those tricky questions plaguing the minds of confused readers – where did you go? Where’s my subscription? Are you back for good?

So, if YOU have a question to pose to Dujour, however curly it may be, now is your chance.

Post your questions for Dujour in the comment section below with your name and other info (twitter, website, etc).

Please try to keep them clean =)

News: iPad, schmiPad.

Is anyone else already sick of hearing about the iPad?

Apple announced today their brand new invention, the  iPad. The device is sort of a Kindle meets iPod meets Laptop…

For someone who has all three above, I’m decidedly unimpressed and perplexed at the amount of Twitter buzz that I’ve witnessed today. For some unknown reason, today is a day where people seem most concerned about the decline of print media.

What was that sorry? Oh print media dies TODAY! *slaps forehead*, silly me, I forgot!

Let’s all rush out and get our iPad’s quicksmart.

Don’t believe me? Here’s some evidence from the past couple of days:

8 Reasons Women Should Be Excited for Apple’s ‘iPad’ @ Jezebel.com

In less than one week, Apple is expected to unveil some thingamajig that will be like a Kindle from heaven and supposedly save print media. What this new gadget might be called is where people might have an issue.

Recent evidence suggests that this divine new product will be called the iPad. Obviously, this presents some immediately troubling connotations — as opposed to a word like “notepad,” a single letter “i” doesn’t give us enough emotional distance from the “pad” part of the package.
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News: Oh, Lynne Kosky…a bittersweet farewell.

I never thought I’d see this day come.

As most Melburnians will now know, our former state Minister for Transport and Arts, Lynne Kosky, resigned this morning.

Well, yay!

My hatred has been well documented in VCE SACS, letters to editors and plastered across many different blogging platforms. I suppose this could explain the influx of texts I received today from my family and friends upon hearing the news – they all thought of me, lol.

Though I despised her various stupid remarks, poor management of Melbourne’s public transport and how she gave women in parliament a bad name, you do have the give the gal some respect for sticking around despite all the bullshit that’s been mercilessly flung her way. Clearly, she’s got some balls. Or she’s just more stupid than everyone thought.

However, I never did actually send my angry letter to her, nor did I ever get the chance to meet her in the flesh. I’ve come oh-so-very close twice before, one memorable time in August, 2008:

After over a year of not-so-silent hate, I was finally presented with an opportunity to meet my arch-nemesis in the flesh: Lynne Kosky.

My Dad’s building every so often houses art and there was to be a celebratory ‘do’ in honour of their latest acquisition of some Japanese Art.

Excited enough about receiving an invitiation to the unveiling, I never expected to hear that apparently, my enemy just HAPPENS to be, inaddition to a complete and utter incompetent failure at her job, an expert on Japanese art who had been invited to say a few words at said unveiling.
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News: 2010 TV Wish List, The Herald Sun

Image via dhammza

You may have sensed yesterday that I have a bit of skepticism when it comes to original end-of-year articles in our newspapers and magazines.

Far too often is it about the best bodies of the year, the worst and best dressed and the most memorable personalities- after a while, it gets all too repetitive and at times, a little too negative for my liking.

In light of this, I was pleasantly surprised by the Herald Sun TV Guide’s offering in the form of their 2010 TV Wish List in which four staff writers take a critical eye to all that was wrong, and oh-so-right with Australian television programming over the past year. It’s light-hearted, funny and looks to the future for positive television change.

However, the comments online in response to the article indicate the best part of the list – the discussion and debate surrounding today’s television. Agree, or disagree, at least the format is a welcome change from yet another piece about the most memorable moments of the year…

Kyle Sandilands, Two and a Half Men, 30 Rock – what’s on your TV wish list?

Colin Vickery, Siobhan Duck, Geoff Shearer and Jasmin Orr

Herald Sun, December 31, 2009
Each week, the Guide’s Your Say page lets you share your opinion on what you love or loathe on TV. As we enter a new year, we offer our TV wish list for 2010.

1 ONE EPISODE OF TWO AND A HALF MEN A WEEK

TEN episodes of this Charlie Sheen sitcom is nine too many. We’re willing to decree this by government legislation if necessary – for humanity’s sake.

2 NO MORE COOKING SHOWS

WE KNOW MasterChef Australia was a huge hit, but does that mean every network has to ram more cooking shows down our throats in 2010? My Kitchen Rules, Poh’s Kitchen and Come Dine With Me Australia are about to be added to a second series of MasterChef and even Junior MasterChef. Stop – we have indigestion.

Read the rest of the article here.

News: This is a protest. A minimalist, image-less protest.

WE GET IT. TIGER CHEATED. LOTS. WITH PORN STARS.

*slams head against wall*

However, my protest this evening is not about the ubiquity of Tiger, but more the round-about arguments that keep getting thrown at me regarding the right to privacy of celebrities.

You want to be famous? Fine, if you’re good at what you do, you’ll be photographed. You’ll be followed. And your privacy will be invaded. Be good, wear pants at all time and you should escape unscathed.

My point (I do have one) is that I have a bone to pick with the media. Today on The View, the gals were talking about how the camera crew outside of Tiger’s house crossed a line when they filmed his mother-in-law being wheeled on a stretcher to hospital. It was a private moment, it was argued, that should not have been captured by outsiders. It is none of our business.

So what do they do? They show the footage again. Way to prove a point, ladies.
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News: ABC x 1 x 2 x 3

I was supposed to be writing my third of four essays today. On media ownership concentration and media regulation in Australia. Granted, I’ve been patting myself on the back for my lovely organisation skills – and when I’ve been productive – but today I dropped the ball a bit. Instead, I went shopping.

Upon my arrival home, I checked my inbox for important emails (there were none, of course) and then proceeded to sift through the list of daily newsletters. Today, The Australian Media section for the week comes out and the top story?

ABC to launch new kids digital channel ABc3

I suppose it’s the media gods way of telling me that I should get back to work. Hmph.

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News: Ralph Lauren. Again.

ralphbloodylaurenagain

It seems that the Ralph Lauren Photoshop scandal is continuing to wreak havoc, sparking a whole – not entirely new – debate about the ethics of photo manipulation.

Randy Cohen of The New York Times writes that -

It is commonplace that women are pressured to meet an artificial standard of beauty. These ads affect men too, giving them false expectations of how women look. Now technology makes that standard unobtainable even by professional beauties, as is evident in paired photographs, pre- and post-Photoshop, of Jessica Alba, Keira Knightley and even, anomalously, Andy Roddick.

French parliamentarians have called not for a ban but for warning labels on manipulated images. The representative Valérie Boyer, a leading proponent of such a law, sees it as an ordinary matter of truth in advertising. “Rules on food-labeling let consumers know the origins of the contents and the presence of things like additives and preservatives,” she said. What’s wrong with “informing them when photographs have also been modified from their original form?”

Should Photos Come With Warning Labels? October 20th 2009

Personally, I don’t think it’s about the truth in advertising at all. Clearly, when we look down at our average female bodies with lumps and bumps, we KNOW that alien-like proportions aren’t the norm. We KNOW that these images have been altered and we KNOW that what you see is not necessarily what you get in real life.

Read More »

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