Nonfiction
Baggy Greens and Blue Suits
You might well need a Foxtel subscription to notice, but a spectre is haunting Australian cricket–the spectre of capitalism.
5 March 2019
Consent Matters
“The story so far: in the beginning the University of Melbourne was one of many institutions that introduced the Consent Matters program as part of their response to the 2017 Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) inquiry into university sexual harassment and assault.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
A Cup Above The Rest
Although the taboo surrounding menstruation is waning, pads and tampons still tend to triumph in popularity over the humble menstrual cup. According to a fascinating article by Natalie Shure in Pacific Standard magazine, the menstrual cup has a long history dating all the way back to the 1930s. That menstrual cups are today still largely unheard-of is, in my opinion, a travesty.
5 March 2019
My Boot-Box of Rocks
Some people store collectibles in shoe-boxes, but for me I need a boot-box to store my rocks.
5 March 2019
Beyond subtle asian traits
What do you get when you combine memes about bubble tea, hilarious reaction videos, and multilingual puns? The answer is “subtle asian traits” (SAT), a Facebook group aimed at Asians living in the West. Originally started at the end of 2018, the group now has over a million members. Most of the people in this group share one trait in common: being the children of Asian immigrants in Western countries.
5 March 2019
Grieving for an Acquaintance
I wasn’t close to Lucy*. We were regular performers in an annual low budget student theatre show. A rag tag collation of short plays, performance art and poetry readings.
5 March 2019
2019 Victorian Biodiversity Conference Liveblog
Follow our coverage of #vicbiocon19 here!
6 February 2019
The Problem With Travel
Later this year I’m travelling to South-East Asia for three months, and I feel gut-wrenchingly guilty about it. It’s not only because of the carbon emissions involved in flying, nor the chequered and problematic history of white people journeying through Asia over the centuries. Since long before Elizabeth Gilbert ate, prayed, and loved around the globe, people from one place have travelled to another place, returning with souvenirs, stories and “new” ideas. It’s tempting to view this dissemination as a holy form of multiculturalism that celebrates social, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic difference, but I think that this belies a much shadier truth: self-interest in all its forms is the bedrock of travel.
5 November 2018
Explainer: The US Midterms
This week in America, on the first Tuesday of November, a very different race will stop a very different nation. It is a race with much more at stake. It is a race to majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. It is, among other things, a race to be Governor in 36 states, to legalise recreational marijuana in Michigan and to give ex-felons the right to vote in Florida. This Tuesday, America votes in the midterm elections.
4 November 2018
Silent Bodies
It is only recently that McAllister returned to perform, for the first time since becoming artistic director, in the Australian Ballet’s production of The Merry Widow in Melbourne. On a stage saturated by diamond-studded dresses and scarlet curtains, McAllister appears as Njegus, the bumbling secretary to the ambassador. Pantomimic and slapstick, the fantasy is in full swing—and McAllister knows how to play the game. The audience drinks deeply from his perfectly timed winks and silly walks, revelling in the comedy.
24 October 2018