"Racial Tension"

Survey finds NSW has most racial tension
Knowing that Victoria, and Tasmania, have lower levels of racial tensions is not very comforting at all, especially since:

Unlike the rest of the states, the Victorian poll did not test racist attitudes towards the African community - ''an oversight'', Dr Paradies says, and a problematic one.

 Yep, just calling Australia a fair country that gives everyone a fair go doesn't actually make it that.

Gender Division in Big W catalogues

Gender/sex divisions are really rampant in society. I mean, while sex divisions may occur for biologically reasons, gender reasons have no cause, I think. 

Below is a page from a Big W catalogue:

There is an immediate division. The girl is outfitted in pink (oh, yes, the only colour that little girls can wear, apparently. All things girls are all things pink!), and the two sets of pink (and kinda purple, but still in the same colour-area) on the same 'row' obviously are targeted - or rather - made for girls. Whilst the little boy gets the dark-blue colours (in the same way that all things girls are pink, people seem to think that all boys only like blue), and again, two sets of clothing on the same row directly correspond to a boy wearing it.
Other than the clothes, something else strikes me. Their poses. The girl has her knees bent in - a sign of cuteness, shyness, and her body is bent away from the camera. The boy, on the other hand has a firm pose, staring more-confidently forward. Again, what does this say about what girls and boys need to conform to. Girl = pink = 'weaker', boy = blue = 'stronger'.

Next up, from the same catalogue;

The boys are wearing darker colours - blue again, and it's close cousin green. The two girls are wearing pink (darker, but still pink-y) and innocent, innocent white.

By boy's faces are facing directly forward. Both of the girls' faces are facing the camera on an angle. Between the two youngest, the contrast in their pose is strong. The boy stands legs appear, arms by his side and looking forward. His head is also tilt up, a sign of confidence, pride, maybe superiority. The girl on the other hand has one hand tucked away, other hand shyly in the hair. Her face is facing partly away and looking down - She looks at the camera through her lashes. In short, compared to the other boy, her pose is somewhat playful, but meek, and, with her head titled slightly downwards, subservient. Any remnant of her stronger -legs apart-ness are ruined by the 'conveniently' placed words/price (in more ways than one)

You can't entirely blame Big W for doing this. Mainstream society does seem to see in this divisionalistic way. But you can blame them for continuing to promote it, especially on things that don't need a gender/sex division.

Gaming Characters: Female vs Male

Miniclip may not contain memory-massive games, but that doesn't mean it escapes from the 'ravages' of sexism. 
Miniclip has a game category 'Games For Girls' -yet no 'Games for Boys' equivalent. Are those games really games targeted ONLY towards girls? No, but they are obviously being suggested as games that girls should play.
It's as though every other section is dedicated to boys, and assumed that only/mainly boys play games. (audience percentage is irrelevant)
It is undoubtedly true that girls play games outside the Games for Girls category, and that boys play the games inside the Games for Girls category.

Hmm, a games for girls section...everything to do with girls just gotta be pink, totally!
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In the Miniclip game, Clone Wars Adventures, there is less customisation for the female avatar as compared to the male avatar - and yet the media extols the fact that it's girls who constant worry about their appearance and need a super wide range of choice?

The gender 'male' has 3 choices of species: human, Twi'lek and clone, whereas the gender 'female' has only two choices: human and Twi'lek.

At first off, the two genders look rather similar -as humans. And then you get to the Twi'lek. Yes, they both have 'Right Lekku', but seriously, 'Slender Lekku'?? And of course, the male-only clone class.

Now going back to the front page. On the front, you can see four characters: 2 male, one female, and one hard-to-identify. Already, gender imbalance. Furthermore, both male characters are larger than the female character. And whilst both male characters are full clothed, the female character is actually showing more skin than just here face! That is, her upper arms, fingers and random cleavage (I admit it is hard to see, but it's there)

Clone Wars Adventures wasn't the perfect example - gender imbalance is a lot more rife in big-name gaming, if wundergeek at Go Make Me a Sandwich is anyone to go by (and she is someone to go by)

(From I Love Charts - click on the picture to go to the original) Sums it all up in an easy to understand chart:

Word and thought for the day

Pejorative

disparaging; derogatory; insulting

 The English language is rather discriminative and pejorative towards women, reflecting a long held world view of the dominant group (i.e. men), and accepted and believed by many of the muted group (i.e., women) Phrases such as husband and wife, brother and sister and men and women sound rather familiar and though many would deny it today, the fact that the male came first reflected the supposedly objective world view held by the patriarchs - that man was the normative and came first in the natural order (does the Bible's creation story ring a bell?), and that woman was deviant, unnatural, non-normative.

The creation story of the Bible calls that Adam was created first, and that Eve was created from the rib of Adam (reducing worth of women already -to that of a rib! Furthermore, this is a gross inversion of Eve born of Adam, female born from male, rather than female giving birth to male). The snake tempts/tricks Eve into eating The Apple (side note: the snake has been the sign of fertility of many supposedly 'pagan' religions before the advancement of Christianity - portraying the snake as the sign of evil also equated to saying that all other religions were evil). When Eve convinces Adam to eat the Apple, who cops the blame?
Well, the woman, of course! Eve obviously seduced and tricked Adam into eating it! Of course, Adam, being male, can't be stupid! It's not his fault he consented to eating it! It was entirely against his will - he was coerced, absolutely! /SARCASM
As Gail Shulman (1974) says it more succintly;

'Rather than blaming the man for his weakness in yielding to temptation, the woman is branded as dangerous, irresistible temptress'

Shulman, Gail, 1974, 'View from the back of the synagogue: women in Judaism', in Alce Hageman (ed.) Sexist Religion and Women in the Church, in Dale Spender, Man Made Language, p168

Of course, there are other Christain Creation stories, just that the one above is the most well known and favoured one.

Then there's Yin and Yang. They are suppossedly equal, but think about it; Yin represents dark, low, cold, female while yang represents light, high, hot, male. Again, man comes on top, as reflected in the society where this 'duality' originates from.

Indeed, the English language is pejorative to the muted, female group.

Discrimination (the ALP and Gay Marriage)

Waaayyy too much discrimination in a society that overall thinks that they don't discriminate, unlike other certain countries. Hey, it's really not worth reading this if you're going to ignore it.

I guess I'm still rather ignorant, and maybe I'm ignorant to think this; but I thought that Australian law/Equal Opportunities Act explicitly states to not discriminate against sexual orientation. Yet Australia still doesn't allow gay marriage? (Note date of posting)
If the argument of those [against gay marriage] is the belief that children have the right to have a mother and father of either sex, and that they will feel left out and/or discriminated against (at school) for having 'two mothers' or 'two fathers', then I wonder if they are admitting the discrimination that still exists in society.

And then I hear something about the ALP going on how marriage is strictly between a man and a woman. Riiigghhtt....I see a hidden depth of conservatism, religion and tradition, a really deep depth

Don't mind me, I just need to go fume off a bit and punch some imaginary faces in. Yep.