Les Liens du Lundi

Short pieces, current affairs, hot takes:

• Over the weekend the SMH published an article about 'queer fascism' silencing Israel Folau. This was on my social media roundly decried.
  
  • This tweet and thread by joshuabadge pretty much sums it up:
    

    I am about to officially lose it over this ridiculous article about “queer fascism”. How dare you @smh pic.twitter.com/E0fFyxmCSd

    — Joshua Badge (@joshuabadge) May 4, 2019

    
    
    
  • Response from an SMH editor (not associated with this particular article), which I link to not because the response itself is super great, but because the resulting discussion really gets into some of the pitfalls I see in the #ownvoices movement:
    

    I doubt very much we would allow that form of words were they not the chosen words of a lesbian activist and marriage equality advocate. She lived through that era - doesn’t she have moral authority here?

    — Caitlin Fitzsimmons 🧜‍♀️ (@niltiac) May 4, 2019

    
    
  
  
• Speaking of #ownvoices, Mary E Roach hosts an anonymous letter from a friend (bi woman) had her novel rejected at the first pass because she was not a 'gay, like your character'.
  
• The ruling on the Caster Semenya case came down, and I have read many Takes, of which some longer ones below. This tweet is on the money:
  

  Caster Semenya is the latest victim of a patriarchal system which weaponized misogyny and anti-blackness to tell her that she had to CHANGE HER ACTUAL BODY in order to be a woman.
  
  That is not an exaggeration.

  — Heron Greenesmith, Esq. (@herong) May 3, 2019

  
  
  
• I mentioned I was reserving judgement re: the Sri Lankan government's handling of the attacks? Cynicism proven right: they've passed a niqab ban, despite face coverings not having been involved in the attacks
  
• Alleged russian spy whale is refusing to leave and demands attention from Norwegian citizens

Good News:

• UK parliament passed a largely symbolic declaration of a climate emergency.
  
• The White kakakek (native NZ flower) is returning from extinction.
  
• The Woarani won a court case against oil companies.
  
• First hotel owned and run by trans women opens in India

Art-and-narrative:

• The Nib hosts Four Queer artists on creating family.
  
• Alison Wilgus (The Nib), I came out late in life, and that's okay.

Longer pieces - essay, memoir, natural history, other

• Workplace Dynamics and Industrial Relations:
  
  • Claire Cain Miller (NYT), Women Did Everything Right, Then Work Got Greedy. TL,DR, longer hours are worse for the gender pay gap.
    
  • John Quiggin (The Conversation), Ultra-low wage growth isn't accidental, it's the intended outcome of government policies.
    
  • Barbara Pocock (The Conversation), Jobs but not enough work: how power keeps workers anxious and wages low.
    
  • Kate Cantrell and Kelly Palmer (Overland), The casualties of academia: a response to The Conversation. Including the depressing fact that, for a casual academic in Aus, the chances of obtaining a permanent job in the industry are approximately that of a casual Maccas worker obtaining a permanent contract at Maccas.
    
  • Riyah Collins (BBC news), The turban-wearing bus driver who changed the law: on Tarsem Singh Sandhu and the Wolverhampton bus drivers' dispute of the late 60s.

• AusPol special mentions:
  
  • TheAuspolChronicles on Tumblr presents breakdown of all parties that currently hold seats in Federal parliament
    
  • And (for your Senate voting needs), a summary of all the parties who don't have seats but would like them.

• Caster Semenya, the IAAC ruling, and related issues:
  
  • Madeline Pape (Guardian Australia), I was sore about losing to Caster Semenya. But the decision against her is wrong. A solid piece, and also a good answer to the question of 'what's the point of a PhD in sociology?' - it taught Pape to question her previous stance.
    
  • Katelyn Burns (The Establishment, 2016), No, female trans athletes do not have unfair advantages
    
  • Annette Greenhow (The Conversation), It's not clear where human rights fit in the legal ruling on Caster Semenya

( Below: assorted matters queer )

( Below: miscellaneous topics. Devious raisin barons! Anti-semitism and Christian hegemony! Prison abolition! Free verse! And so much more, right here under this cut! )

Comments policy: Everything I said in the caveats to this post applies. I teach critical thinking for a living, but I'm not *your* teacher, and this blog is not a classroom. That means I don't have to abide by the fallacy of 'there's no such thing as a bad contribution to discussion'.