No, New Zealand society is not one that outwardly promotes rape. We don’t commonly engage in sexual violence together as a society. Unfortunately, despite common misconception, this does not mean that rape culture is absent from our society. Rape culture is far more implicit than that, and it isn’t about our collective engagement in, but […]
Addressed to: Rory Lenihan-Ikin (President of VUWSA) & the wider VUWSA executive Kia ora, I am writing on behalf of Victoria University Feminist Organisation (VicUFO), formerly VUWSA Women’s Group, to express our need for the name change of our representative group. We feel that as our community develops, so does the need to underline […]
The decision-making body we call parliament is rarely referred to by its more precise name, the House of Representatives. This could be because it’s a mouthful, or because it sounds admittedly colonial and stuffy. But I like to think that it has something to with our House of Representatives not really doing what the name […]
Unnecessarily gendered language you might use, and some alternatives! “Feminine hygiene products.” Tiptoeing around what these products are for adds to the taboo around periods. Also, not everyone who menstruates is female, and not everyone who’s female menstruates! Saying “period products” or “menstruation products” reduces the stigma around periods, is not exclusionary towards trans people, […]
A while back, VUW’s online presence was blessed with yet another sexually frustrated man, angry that he couldn’t get laid, who decided that having a moan on “Overheard @ Vic” would somehow make things better. He thought VUW would be full of “hot, keen girls” but was disappointed to discover VUW’s women all fall into […]
CW: sexual harassment, sexual assault I have been scared for most of my life. I am scared of the boy on the bus who sits down next to me even though there are plenty of free seats. His hand is on my leg and I try to convince myself it’s an accident. I am […]
Rape culture is so persistent in the spaces I inhabit that few incidents come as a shock to me. I’ve been spoken over, cat-called, followed, and grabbed to the point where hearing about these behaviours no longer comes as a surprise. However, occasional cases come to light that leave me lost for words, and sickened […]
It seems a bizarre concept that, even in 2017, women have to call men out on misogynistic behaviour. An even more bizarre version of this is having to argue with your male middle aged lecturers about what constitutes as feminism, and that in fact the discourse they are trying to discuss in class is a […]
Here are a few of the things said by my family when I told them I needed to write the Vic UFO column for Salient: – Let me volunteer! I want to say something! – That’s lame. – Oh man, this is going to cause arguments… – All I have to say is that feminism […]