This is a report from International Women’s Day in Brisbane (Meanjin). Seven women and one man speak about issues confronting women in the 2020s. It was broadcast on community radio 4ZZZ on 12 March 21 and podcast on the following day on soundclound but not on 4ZZZ on demand service.
During the course of the broadcast there was an intervention during the show and the podcast was subsequently pulled by station management. I have been suspended till further notice. So the Paradigm Shift show Native Title attack on Quandamooka owners? about the new whale structure to be built by the state government on Minjerribah was not put to air. I’m pretty sure the Queensland government would applaud that move by 4ZZZ management. If they knew.
My personal feelings about this are mixed. Identity is important but it should not contradict the importance of being human. It seems hard to contribute without upsetting someone these days. I attempted to report on IWD21. I believe the show met the relevant Community Broadcasting guidelines but, in hindsight, I would not play the show because it has not advanced the cause of women at a very difficult time.
However I do not wish to self-censor Paradigm Shift so I made the speeches available online. Station management gave me an ultimatum yesterday afternoon to take all the speeches down because they are ‘under investigation’. I added a song that relates to one of those speeches.
Also I am doing this to save having lots of personal conversations with people.
I think there is some agreement on both sides over the issues covered but there is a sticking point on who is a woman. As far as I can tell there has been an attempt to conflate sex and gender when they are distinct. This has created confusion, with too much heat and dust.
Ian Curr
20 Mar 21
Notes on issues covered.
Cashless welfare card.
Job Seeker allowance.
Needless medical intervention in women’s bodies.
Anti-poverty
Save Women’s sport
Equality at work and in society.
Opposition to men’s violence.
Freedom to dress and behave as we wish.
Reproductive Rights – right to choose.
Anti sex work, anti porn – controversial “hypersexualisation of girls”.
Conflates female genital mutilation with trans people’s own decisions about their bodies.
Doesn’t want to de-gender spaces.
“Safety, dignity, fairness and privacy are being eroded by gender identity ideology” – the Left needs to show more solidarity. Not sure what this is about?
Genderism – what does this mean – “women could be anything”?
Women’s sex-based rights – who is saying we should not defend women’s rights?
Define women as “adult human females”.
Men’s violence is related to the power dynamics of gender, and a world view that puts one particular form of masculinity at the pinnacle.
We must keep including radical feminists that came before the current generation as well as having a space for new feminists and new ideas. Given what’s happened so far over the trans issue, it is a difficult undertaking to resolve this huge rift, but I do believe that it would be worthwhile.
Notes by Ian Curr