UPDATE:
The former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has given an exclusive interview with Women’s Weekly, in which she bares her bald head and talks about her battle with cancer.
The 53-year-old spoke to Channel 9 about her decision to appear in the magazine, and said she thought it was important to highlight for women that if they felt a lump they should call a doctor and do something about it. She also wanted to show what her fight with cancer had really been like.
Back in June, the former Premier announced that she had been diagnosed with non-hodgkin’s lymphoma. The diagnosis had been confirmed after a tumour was removed from a lymph node in her neck only a week earlier.
1. The Australian who was killed in a Kenyan shopping mall terrorist attack has been named. Tasmanian Ross Langdon, died alongside his partner Elif Yavuz in the horrific attack. The couple were expecting their first child in two weeks.
Thirty-three-year-old Langdon was an architect, who had designed an AIDS hospital in Kenya on a pro bono basis, and had further helped to develop evo-villages in the area. Ms Yavuz was a malaria specialist working with the Gates Foundation. Kenyan security forces are still fighting the terrorists inside the shopping centre.
2. Gold Coast Suns’ captain Gary Ablett Jr has been named as the AFL’s best and fairest player, having been awarded the Brownlow Medal at a ceremony at Melbourne’s Crown Casino last night.
Also on the agenda at last night’s Brownlow Medal was FROCKS. Check out Mamamia’s gallery of red carpet arrivals here.
Top Comments
The satirical Indian video is wonderful and truly well done.
The only problem is that many people don't "get" satire. This would of course include the very people who are the focus of this satire.
The rage expressed by many men in these sexist/misogynist cultures comes from the way their behaviour towards women is now being criticised and named for what it is. Articulate people who've been raised in an atmosphere of kindness towards women and gender equality are now speaking out in defence of the women in those cultures who've been so cruelly treated.
Nasty little secrets are being exposed.
The rape video was a bit off - don't they realise that men also get raped? I have to admit I didn't watch it all the way through so maybe they got to this in the end, please correct me if they did.
Yes men do get raped but this particular video was primarily about the rape of women which you would have to admit is more common. Sometimes campaigns can be gender specific without causing offence to others.
Firstly, men get raped in far, far fewer numbers. While it is still horrific and utterly unacceptable, I think it's okay to mention rape without specifically mentioning male rape, given the statistical gender differences. In the same way, you should be able to mention breast cancer without having to specify that men also get breast cancer, and that it is also terrible.
Secondly, how often do men get blamed when they get raped? I've never heard someone say "yeah, but he was really flirting with the priest"...yet we have clothing brands and perfumes named after that little minx (aka 10 year old who was raped by her predatory and self-confessed pedophile step father) Lolita.
Please don't think for a second that I am diminishing the seriousness or difficulties of male rape - it has its own complexities too. But rape - particularly in the recent Indian cases the video was in response to - and victim blaming overwhelming have male perpetrators and female victims. It's offensive to pretend it's a non-gendered issue.
I agree with everything you say, no buts. I would add, though, that men report rape far less often than women and are often expected to have just enjoyed it - or got off on the fact a woman wanted them. I'm not just talking about priests and boys but women attacking or drugging men. I know this video was specific to the situation in India, but it was shown here on an Australian based website - at one stage she says "no women, no rape" (about 00:56). I agree that we should be able to discuss rape without mentioning either gender, this is not what the video did. This perpetuates the idea that a fully grown man can't be raped by a woman. Society in general (and not just men) should be educated on consent and respect.
Just to clarify, I am a woman :)