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March, 2018

‘#DontBeACunt’: Tim Winton targets toxic masculinity

, Mar 27, 2018

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Tim Winton's latest promo tour comes with a sermon about Australian men. The novelist will definitely sell books, but will he have a role to play in cultural change, too?

‘Progressives need to have a hard look at themselves’: Sally Potter

, Mar 23, 2018

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While its timing may have been purely providential, The Party is the perfect film for the modern political landscape.

Sacred Cows: the underrated dark wit of Flannery O’Connor

, Mar 23, 2018

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Has O'Connor's debut novel been historically overlooked in favour of the Southern Gothics of McCarthy, Capote and Faulkner?

Interviewing Helen Garner made me question the journalistic process

, Mar 22, 2018

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The author of Skin in the Game explains the slightly awkward process of learning how to interview Australia's best known true crime writer.

Hawking wasn’t bound to his wheelchair, he was empowered by it

, Mar 16, 2018

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Eulogies of Stephen Hawking miss the mark in understanding the pop icon and scientist's wheelchair.

Deborah Cheetham is done with ‘cleaning up the mess of a white man’

, Mar 14, 2018

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While the furore may have died down surrounding poor and inaccurate research in a book detailing Indigenous women musicians, Deborah Cheetham says the issue is an exhausting and common one that Indigenous Australians face regularly.

Netflix get on the front foot over controversial comedian Chris Lilley

, Mar 09, 2018

3
Controversial comedian Chris Lilley is back, but he probably won't be doing blackface this time. The Queensland Government announced this week that it was supporting a new project from Lilley to be shown on Netflix. The streaming giant says he won't be doing blackface.

Debate Club: can pop culture be a force for feminist good?

and , Mar 08, 2018

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Will the gradual crawl towards representation in pop culture continue in 2018, or is the battle meaningless in the pursuit of profit? Helen Razer and Lauren Rosewarne offer points for both sides.

Inside the oft-derided, colourful world of body language experts

, Mar 08, 2018

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Yes, body language experts know exactly how they are perceived.

‘The UN has to be better, and I think it is struggling’: Helen Clark

, Mar 08, 2018

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Two years after losing the race for secretary-general, the former New Zealand prime minister says the UN needs an "injection of sheer political reality".

How a US judge decided ‘artistic expression’ was a legitimate defence of discrimination

, Mar 06, 2018

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A recent ruling out of the US has raised big questions about discrimination and the first amendment, but it also says a lot about our views on the nature of work.

The great, undervalued fight of socialist-feminist Zelda D’Aprano

, Mar 06, 2018

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The secret history of much Australian progress was that Communism and Trotskyism are at its centre. With Zelda, the two sides of the hyphen "socialist-feminist" were equally weighted.

Sacred Cows: the case against Cloudstreet

, Mar 05, 2018

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Is Tim Winton's blockbuster novel really as good as Australian culture collectively remembers?

Leyonhjelm’s pottymouth smacks of political impotence

, Mar 02, 2018

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Australia has a long tradition of parliamentary vulgarity, but Senator Leyonhjelm might be the first to regularly turn it back on the voters.

Dark outlooks on Tassie’s Dark and Dangerous Thoughts Festival?

, Mar 01, 2018

2
David Walsh's Museum of Old and New Art conglomerate is expanding in Hobart, but decidedly not to Launceston.

Clive Hamilton book cover gets its own mini-controversy

, Mar 01, 2018

The cover of last week's Saturday Age Insight section took more than a little inspiration from a book designer's work, the paper has admitted.

The political logic of Clive Palmer’s online nonsense

, Feb 28, 2018

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Palmer’s online posts aren’t just bizarre for bizarre’s sake. They serve to rebuild his image of a potential populist leader — and they're working.

The reluctant revolutionaries of Australian music’s #MeToo moment

, Feb 28, 2018

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Camp Cope has become a force to reckon with on issues of gender disparity and harassment, but in the midst of "shitstorms" and abuse, they argue it's time for men to fix their own mess.

Why do commercial TV bosses have it in for kids?

, Feb 27, 2018

1
Sure, maybe the commercial broadcasters love children as much as they love profits, but they just don’t want to do anything for the former, to do more for the latter.

In defence of disagreement: how outrage bait is undermining public discourse

, Feb 26, 2018

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This toxic climate that insists on misreading the words of others and then punishing them for the misreading, undermines any prospect of intelligent and robust debate.