Society & Culture

Sex Abuse Victim Lashes Out at Church Elders at Royal Commission

A man who was repeatedly molested by his youth pastor lashed out at church elders, accusing them of using the child sexual abuse royal commission to "justify their failings and minimise their responsibilities". In a statement read out to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, the man, now aged in his mid-20s, [...]

Australian of the Year: Rosie Batty Awarded Top Honour for Efforts to Stop Family Violence

Rosie Batty has been named Australian of the Year for her campaign against family violence in an award ceremony that saw four women take the nation's top Australia Day honours for the first time in history. Ms Batty rose above her personal tragedy and the great loss of her 11-year-old-son, Luke, who was murdered by [...]

Stay Out of My Child’s Lunch Box

As a brand new school mum, I've recently discovered that schools have assumed the role of the Lunch Box Police. Every morning tea and lunch is a test to see if kids and their parents have faithfully followed the laws of healthy eating. It's a nice idea, but it's questionable whether this has anything to [...]

Lessons from Knox

We were sitting on the grass at the side of Knox Grammar School's main oval in 1987; it must have been in my final few weeks of school. The memory of an awkward moment saying uncomplimentary things about Mr Fotis the religion teacher, while he was sitting behind me popped back into my mind when I saw [...]

By |2015-03-10T13:27:50+11:00March 9th, 2015|Categories: Society & Culture|Tags: , , , , , , |5 Comments

Men Tend to Be More Narcissistic Than Women

With three decades of data from more than 475,000 participants, a new study on narcissism from the University at Buffalo School of Management reveals that men, on average, are more narcissistic than women. Forthcoming in the journal Psychological Bulletin, the study compiled 31 years of narcissism research and found that men consistently scored higher in narcissism across multiple [...]

5 Tips for Constructive Conversations with Your Child About Weight

My mum has spent her life believing that she's fat and hating herself for it. Her dearest wish was to spare me that fate. With the very best intentions she closely monitored my developing body, talked constantly about the perils of weight gain and policed my appetite in a way that she never did with [...]

Pro-Anorexia, Bulimia Communities Thriving Online

Photos of emaciated women proudly displaying their protruding hips and ribs, as well as thinspirational quotes "fat-shaming" those who dare to eat, continue to thrive on social media, despite the best attempts by sites like Instagram to temper the reach of the pro-eating disorder community. Some girls gain thousands of followers posting pictures of "thigh gaps" [...]

Defensive Architecture: Keeping Poverty Unseen and Deflecting Our Guilt

Defensive architecture is revealing on a number of levels, because it is not the product of accident or thoughtlessness, but a thought process. It is a sort of unkindness that is considered, designed, approved, funded and made real with the explicit motive to exclude and harass. It reveals how corporate hygiene has overridden human considerations, [...]

Counter the Psychology of Pessimism

It’s the tendency to put more attention, value and weight on negative comments and experience than on the positive. It’s human. We seem to be hardwired to do it. Some theorists suggest that our survival depended on it when we were living in primitive times. People who didn’t stay alert for saber-toothed tigers probably didn’t [...]

iMatter: Rosie Batty’s App to Help Young Women Avoid and Leave Unhealthy Relationships

Source: Lucia Osborne-Crowley via Women's Agenda Australian of the Year and anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty has launched a phone app aimed at teaching young women how to recognise signs of unhealthy and abusive relationships. Batty has been campaigning tirelessly against domestic and family violence since her son Luke was murdered by his father on [...]

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