It is no wonder that this blogger's blood pressure fluctuates -196 recently- and he feels lightheaded from time to time, eyes also causing trouble, because of all the exciting things and stories that come his way . One great researcher, with whom frequent sessions are held over coffee (mine latte ) , produces a never ending stream of fascinating items - books , postcards , ephemera , superb information from near and far on many subjects .
A few days ago, when I called on him at his home , he was sorting out for cataloguing a tantalising pile of feminist material covering art, a run of Lip journals , the Women's Electoral Lobby . Out from the pile emerged a folded board game for women , called The Monthly , seeming a play on Monopoly, but certainly not dealing with expensive British real estate-secret women's business ?
There was a book on Queensland women artists past and present , another on women and artists of the Heidelberg era in Victoria , a publication dealing with an exhibition of feminist cartoonists . Wow. On and on it went ,various items extracted at random to be hastily photographed for Little Darwin .
This blogger's recent acquisition of a mere two feminist publications paled into insignificance by comparison with this trove . One, produced by James Cook University , covered Queensland female literature , which has provided a lead for a major forthcoming feature in this blog .
The other was the British Feminist Review #9 of 1981 , with a powerful editorial which opened :
1981 in Britain will be remembered as the year when there were three million unemployed, when Irish prisoners died on hunger strike, when there were riots in almost all major city centres -and when the British public was entertained by two full scale spectacles : the trial of Peter Sutcliffe , the 'Yorkshire Ripper ' and the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Dianna Spencer . In both cases a legal procedure, a trial and a marriage , have provided a form in which sexual order and dynastic and political continuity may be ensured.
It went on to say this issue of the Feminist Review contained an analysis of the Sutcliffe trial in which the author , Wendy Hollway, criticised the way the event was constructed by the media and the way it was presented jurisdically.
Despite the thousands of words that had been written about the trial, there is still no account outside the "left" or alternative press that seeks to expose the presumptions about the nature of male and female sexuality which were assumed in the trial and in the commentaries upon it.
Ironically, the media did give some space to feminists who were mobilizing around the issues of male violence and the 'Ripper' case before Peter Sutcliffe was actually arrested , but women's anger was incorporated into conventional 'law and order' positions which interpreted the 'Ripper's' behaviour as both 'sick' and 'evil'-as deserving the heaviest punishment- while glossing over its continuity with ' normal ' male behaviour towards women in our society . The implications of these events as well deserve further analysis of sexual violence are, we feel, important issues for socialist feminists and we would welcome further contributions on this subject ...
A quick glance through the publication revealed penned in criticism of an article , Representation of Patriarchy: Sexuality and Epistemology in Freud's Dora , and a book review dealing with art , one statement termed " rot.".
A few days ago, when I called on him at his home , he was sorting out for cataloguing a tantalising pile of feminist material covering art, a run of Lip journals , the Women's Electoral Lobby . Out from the pile emerged a folded board game for women , called The Monthly , seeming a play on Monopoly, but certainly not dealing with expensive British real estate-secret women's business ?
There was a book on Queensland women artists past and present , another on women and artists of the Heidelberg era in Victoria , a publication dealing with an exhibition of feminist cartoonists . Wow. On and on it went ,various items extracted at random to be hastily photographed for Little Darwin .
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AGOG -Australian Girls Own Gallery , Canberra.
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The other was the British Feminist Review #9 of 1981 , with a powerful editorial which opened :
1981 in Britain will be remembered as the year when there were three million unemployed, when Irish prisoners died on hunger strike, when there were riots in almost all major city centres -and when the British public was entertained by two full scale spectacles : the trial of Peter Sutcliffe , the 'Yorkshire Ripper ' and the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Dianna Spencer . In both cases a legal procedure, a trial and a marriage , have provided a form in which sexual order and dynastic and political continuity may be ensured.
It went on to say this issue of the Feminist Review contained an analysis of the Sutcliffe trial in which the author , Wendy Hollway, criticised the way the event was constructed by the media and the way it was presented jurisdically.
Despite the thousands of words that had been written about the trial, there is still no account outside the "left" or alternative press that seeks to expose the presumptions about the nature of male and female sexuality which were assumed in the trial and in the commentaries upon it.
Ironically, the media did give some space to feminists who were mobilizing around the issues of male violence and the 'Ripper' case before Peter Sutcliffe was actually arrested , but women's anger was incorporated into conventional 'law and order' positions which interpreted the 'Ripper's' behaviour as both 'sick' and 'evil'-as deserving the heaviest punishment- while glossing over its continuity with ' normal ' male behaviour towards women in our society . The implications of these events as well deserve further analysis of sexual violence are, we feel, important issues for socialist feminists and we would welcome further contributions on this subject ...
A quick glance through the publication revealed penned in criticism of an article , Representation of Patriarchy: Sexuality and Epistemology in Freud's Dora , and a book review dealing with art , one statement termed " rot.".
