April 7 – 13, 2018
News
Comment
Comment
Clem Bastow
The edge of consent
“Through all this, the notion that consent may be withdrawn retroactively looms large as the debate’s most dangerous idea. Beyond the fringes of radical feminism and the nightmares of “men’s rights” activism, however, the concept is less about women deciding, wilfully, to repaint past experiences as rape, and more about empowering people to appreciate the moments in their lives where consent may not have been freely given. ”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Pro-coal right comes after Turnbull
“This trashing of the Liberal Party’s defining philosophy has some on the back bench shaking their heads. It is one thing for the Nationals, often dubbed agrarian socialists, to call for a renationalisation of energy supply. It’s quite another for the champions of market forces and free enterprise who are supposed to inhabit the Liberal Party room to do so.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Director Garth Davis finds religion
His first feature film, Lion, took movie-goers on an emotional journey across the world. Now director Garth Davis lends his visual poetry to the tale of one of history’s most famous women. “If you look into it, Mary Magdalene was a very significant apostle, and was present in all of the key elements, and sometimes mentioned more than other apostles. So she must have been a very significant person, and not the one that we’re learning about in Catholic school growing up. I thought it was amazing that it hadn’t been told.”
Visual Art
Mutlu Çerkez: 1988–2065
A posthumous retrospective of Mutlu Çerkez’s work, structured by an idiosyncratic dating system of the artist’s devising, challenges concepts of when an artwork begins and ends.
Portrait
Rapper L-Fresh the Lion
“Sukhdeep was a teenager, growing up in Western Sydney, when hip-hop came a-calling. He was losing his Punjabi. Increasingly speaking only English. Probably accidentally on purpose, he concedes, looking back. Australian schoolyards can do that to brown boys: taunt them to renounce the very things that make them whole. It was Tupac Shakur who came searching for Sukhdeep. Rapped himself across the radio waves, and offered up another tongue. “He was the one, you know. Without him, I wouldn’t be doing this thing.” ”
Food
“I grew up eating fantastic crepes. My mother was a dab hand at them, and I would wait at her elbow as she twisted and turned and rolled the batter around in her special crepe pans. Every so often she would flip a warm crepe onto my plate, on which I would squeeze lemon and sprinkle sugar, then roll it up and happily eat. Often she would be making a version of this recipe, something that obviously still lingers in my memory.”
Books
Life
Health
Boys and body image
Where much attention on adolescent body image problems has focused on girls, new research shows vulnerability among boys, including conditions such as muscle dysmorphia.
The Quiz
Quotes
COLONIALISM
“This is what the people paid to see, not this other apologetic, ingratiating, knee-bending rubbish.”
The broadcaster complains about the emphasis on Indigenous culture at the opening of the Commonwealth Games. Which seems a bit rich for an event whose membership criteria is based entirely on land theft.
DIPLOMACY
“In the ‘wild’ Russia, such statements would trigger criminal prosecution as the deliberate incitement of discord between different ethnic groups.”
The Russian ambassador complains of being described as “Bond villain meets Lowes catalogue” after a press conference in which he denied Russia had been poisoning anyone. He did not say how many journalists have been killed in Putin’s Russia, or which is his preferred retail chain for affordable menswear.
REMEDIES
“It was a seriously criminal thing to do, to ignore the effect of her advice.”
The judge sentences a naturopath to 14 months’ jail for her role in the starvation death of a child with eczema. The 62-year-old pleaded guilty to an accessory charge of causing death to a child, and to being a naturopath.
CARTOONS
“Google searches have soared ever since it was released, and people would know by those searches that Bendigo is nothing like what’s in the parody.”
The mayor of Bendigo responds to a spinoff episode of the cartoon show Rick and Morty, which portrays her city as a desolate wasteland. The town has a lovely park and Google is very clear on the matter.
MONARCHY
“Had a good chat to both of them. They loved it, they were very impressed.”
The prime minister describes meeting Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. After this it’s the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and then his torment should be over.
SPORT
“I am truly sorry for my actions and will now do everything I can to be a better person, teammate and role model.”
The Australian batsman apologises for his role in the ball-tampering scandal and agrees to his 12-month ban. He will spend the time sanding his sense of entitlement.
