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Author: Ellena Savage

  • MEDIA

    Monarchy's undemocratic war on The Chaser

    • Ellena Savage
    • 29 April 2011
    47 Comments

    Previously, monarchists and the ambivalent masses alike could argue that the British royal family was effectively benevolent and benign. The banning of The Chaser's royal wedding commentary is a jolt back to reality.

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  • MEDIA

    Andrew Bolt and free speech

    • Ellena Savage
    • 01 April 2011
    36 Comments

    Some perceive the racial vilification case against Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt as a challenge to free speech. But this case is about more than silencing critiques of the construction of race, and indeed Bolt himself. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Hating hipsters and bogans

    • Ellena Savage
    • 04 March 2011
    14 Comments

    We wear op-shop outfits, read classics, watch Q&A and sip lattes. There are puerile vanities here, but who doesn't entertain such vanities? Bogans, of course. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The westernisation of Asian beauty

    • Ellena Savage
    • 04 February 2011
    8 Comments

    In many Asian cultures paleness is an indication of class and beauty. But why would Asian women want to look like Pamela Anderson? For the same reason white women do: there's a globalised beauty standard that is gendered, racialised, and hierarchical.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Best of 2010: Arresting Mexico's borderland femicide

    • Ellena Savage
    • 13 January 2011
    2 Comments

    Some 5000 women have been killed in Juarez since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed in 1994. Most are workers who have been tortured and sexually abused. Because of the boost to the economy associated with NAFTA, Mexican media outlets and academics often turn a blind eye. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Politicians stoke the violence myth

    • Ellena Savage
    • 26 November 2010

    I used to carry a knife in my handbag. Like nearly a quarter of Australians, I believe that 80 per cent of all crime is violent crime; I was concerned for my safety. And then I discovered that if my self-defence weapon were used, it would likely be used against me.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Hating Canberra

    • Ellena Savage
    • 29 October 2010
    18 Comments

    Canberra's bad weather has its benefits: Brisbane was Australia's capital, we might be living in a banana republic whose despotic ruling family would never want to relinquish their grip on leisure governance. The best thing about hating Canberra is that it discourages nationalism.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Inside the student politics bughouse

    • Ellena Savage
    • 10 September 2010
    1 Comment

    University student unions are cesspools of toxicity, sociopathy and tedium. I should know — I'm a student politician. In his latest novel, Chaser alumnus Dominic Knight strikes a balance between sardonic parody and genuine reverence for those whose political conviction outweighs their pessimism.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Arresting Mexico's borderland femicide

    • Ellena Savage
    • 26 May 2010
    6 Comments

    Some 5000 women have been killed in Juarez since the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1994. These women are not 'essential victims'; we do them a favour if we realise their victimhood lies in their abuse, not as a quality they possess for being female and working-class.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Aussie pin-up girls' war on inequality

    • Ellena Savage
    • 22 January 2010
    7 Comments

    When we think of pin-up girls from the '40s and '50s, we might assume they were desperate women who unwittingly participated in an industry that exploited them. In her new book, Madeleine Hamilton argues they were in fact 'trailblazers of the sexual revolution'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2009: Boobs, booze and Muslim feminists

    • Ellena Savage
    • 04 January 2010
    18 Comments

    She'd rather be wearing jeans, but is compelled to dress like a Christmas tree for the Spring Racing Carnival. Her desire to be desired for the depth of her cleavage is nominated by the designs of men in her society. No wonder some Muslim women feel the hijab subverts patriarchy. November 2009

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Boobs, booze and Muslim feminists

    • Ellena Savage
    • 03 November 2009
    21 Comments

    She'd rather be wearing jeans, but is compelled to dress like a Christmas tree for the Spring Racing Carnival. Her desire to be desired for the depth of her cleavage is nominated by the designs of men in her society. No wonder some Muslim women feel the hijab subverts patriarchy.

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