At this time of year, our thoughts turn to our own homes, which, while perhaps not filled with straw and manure, do often contain small, vulnerable creatures with Messiah complexes — our pets.
Articles by Mel Campbell 
About Mel Campbell
Melbourne journalist and editor of The Enthusiast, an Australian online magazine of culture and entertainment.
Women pose in bikinis to ‘own’ their bodies. Something’s not right here
We don’t make men believe that “strength”, “pride”, “empowerment” and “inspiration” require them to strip in public, so why do women continue to believe it of themselves?
The Ernie Awards: fighting misogyny with limp sarcasm
A recently released report revealed sexism isn’t always expressed in a handy sound bite you can boo and hiss at; more often it’s subliminal, intangible — and deniable.
Grieving Jobs without worshipping Apple? It’s all Steve’s design
Perhaps the loss of Jobs also hammers home another loss of jobs, as the much-vaunted “creative class” that overwhelmingly uses Apple products — and defines itself at least partly by this use — is turning out to be increasingly illusory and economically unsustainable for its workers.
Actual intellectuals with passionate arguments = best Q&A ever!
I make no secret of my opinion that Q&A is the worst show on Australian television. But a politician-free panel redeemed the ABC show last night.
BRW’s Young Rich list: she has to rely on the old man’s money
Yesterday BRW magazine released its annual Young Rich list of Australia’s most successful entrepreneurs aged under 40. This list of 100 contains only eight women.
ALR closure shows a literary culture that runs on love, not money
The most striking thing about news of the closure of the Australian Literary Review has been the relative equanimity with which it has been greeted.
Hey Janet, on female sex you’ve got the rough end of the stick
Janet Albrechtsen’s opinion piece in yesterday’s Australian was shocking — you would never would have pegged her as a Sex and the City fan. Or suggesting all female sexual exploration is positive.
Hugging with knives: the viciously cosy culture of reviewing
While not every hatchet job might attract a libel suit, it’s still lazy reviewing.
Vale Video Hits, the world’s 2nd longest running music vid show
No culling of subeditorial staff, no mass redundancies of newsroom personnel, has grieved Mel Campbell quite as much as the latest casualty of Lachlan Murdoch’s Channel Ten purges: Video Hits. Crikey looks back.
The cheek of it all: does Gillard get a bum rap from cartoonists?
When you picture Julia Gillard in cartoon form, what comes to mind? Her pointy nose? Her flaming hair? Her receding chin and long neck? Or her bum?
The Brocial Network proves just why we need Slutwalk
A new Facebook group called the Brocial Network are posting photos of partially-dressed women without their consent. Just because women post scantily clad pictures of themselves on Facebook does not mean they consent to being sexually objectified or harassed.
Photoshopping the news … send in the clones
The camera may never lie, but Photoshop can tell some outrageous porkies.
Housework’s got to be done, but must it make us ‘happy’?
Sometimes, the responsibility to be Australia’s fourth estate — our public moral voice — can be a little closer to home … or even in the home itself.
Did internet ‘quip culture’ kill the Oscars?
The mechanisms built into social networking sites funnel our responses in one direction or another, much as railway switches direct fast-moving trains. The Oscars tried to capture that — so why didn’t it work?
Loss of basic female skills or loss of basic journalistic skills?
It’s the job of really good journalists to question the way PR-led stories are presented.
What does Australia Day mean for the ‘iPod generation’?
Most of my peers don’t buy into the pageantry of Australia Day. They might enjoy their day off, get drunk on Aussie beer and wine and eat lamb, pavlova and lamingtons, but they’re uncomfortable with conspicuous nationalism.
Smart summer reading: bogans not nationally lampooned
Published by Hachette Australia
Things Bogans Like is an example of a relatively new phenomenon: the blog-to-book publishing project.
What does the Assange rape case mean for feminism?
I believe that men and women should be treated with the same respect at an interpersonal and an institutional level — and this extends to their presumption of innocence in media coverage of pending criminal proceedings.
Fool Britannia: palace throws in the tea towel on Wills-Kate wedding
Buckingham Palace authorities have refused to endorse any tea towels commemorating Prince William’s forthcoming marriage to Kate Middleton.
Mel Campbell: the political power of nostalgia
Nostalgia is the pang we feel upon realising the impossibility of returning to an idealised past.
A guide to seeing-eye dog heroes
The practice of training dogs to act as blind people’s surrogate eyes has a long anecdotal history.
Were Kristy Fraser-Kirk’s PR advisers snoozing on the job?
It seems rather ironic that the former DJ publicist — and her publicist, Anthony McClellan, from AMC Media — either didn’t anticipate or failed to prevent a storm of adverse publicity surrounding her case.
Hung over dreams: Sleeping with Julia, Tony, Rob and Bob
Our parents used to tell us we’d have nightmares if we watched scary TV straight before bed. If that’s so, clearly many Australians shouldn’t have been watching last night’s Q & A.
