BULL Magazine 2014 Issue 5 by BULL Magazine

Issue 05, 2014 / FREE

MALE CHEERLEADERS / polyamory / domestic violence / men's rights movement / GAY RUGBY

Super cool design. Awesome facilities. Vibrant lifestyle.

Iglu Chatswood An exciting home base for Sydney Uni students.

For a cool student living experience, come live at Iglu. Check out our properties:

iglu.com.au

Issue 05 CONTENTS

CONTENTS

Editors

Eden Caceda Katie Davern Sophie Gallagher Rob North Sean O’Grady Erin Rooney

F E ATUR E S

REPORTERS

PLAYING THE MAN I LOVE YOU BUT I THINK WE SHOULD LOVE OTHER PEOPLE OUR SILENT EMERGENCY 19 BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MEN? 27 TACKLING HOMOPHOBIA 32 10

Alisha Aitken-Radburn Hannah Edensor Flora Grant Georgia Hitch Tang Li Shannen Potter Vanessa Song Barbara Taylor Mary Ward

Contributors

Bernadette Anvia, Conor Bateman, Natasha Gillezeau, Rebecca Karpin, Alistair Kitchen, Vanessa Mukhebi Jordan Mullins, Virat Nehru Claire Paterson, Julia Robertson Emily Shen, Katie Stow, Blythe Worthy Lisa Xia, Shona Yang

Publications ManagerS Louisa Stylian Mary Lentros

R E GULARS What’s On 04 Editorial & Board 06 Letters 07 Opinion 09 Interview 16 Taste 22 Go 23 Move 24 Learn 25 The Time I Tried 31 Campus Fashion 35 Vox & Classic Countdown 36 Cow & Horns 37 Arts 39 Reviews 40 Experience 41 Club Confidential 42 Shutter Up 44 Comics 45 Ask Isabella 46

Design manager Robyn Matthews

Design

Simon Macias Peta Harris

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

The USU acknowledges the Cadigal People of the Eora Nation as the traditional owners of the land we meet on today. The USU recognises that the land belonging to these peoples was never ceded, given up, bought, or sold. We pay our respects to the Aboriginal Elders both past and present and extend this acknowledgement to any other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people here with us.

CONTACT

editors@bullmag.com.au facebook.com/bullmag @usubullmag usu.edu.au/bullmag The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily the views of the USU. The information contained within this edition of Bull was correct at the time of printing.

Write for us!

/bullmag

/USUbullmag

Whether you’re a budding student journalist or have a random idea that could be a great story, email us and you could get published here. editors@bullmag.com.au

bull usu.edu.au WHAT'S ON

WHAT'S ON For the FULL CALENDAR OF EVENTS – head to USU.EDU. AU AND CLICK THE CALENDAR. Clubs & Socs – remember to submit your events on the website!

MON

TUE

WED

FRI

wk 1 (JULY/AUGUST)

Re-O Day Eastern Avenue, 10–4pm Re-O Day PARTY Hermann’s Bar, 5pm FUNCH Eastern Avenue, 12–2pm WEDNESDAY MARKETS Eastern Avenue, 9Am

PRIDE FESTIVAL

PRIDE FESTIVAL FUNCH Eastern Avenue, 12–2pm

PRIDE FESTIVAL

wk 2 (AUGUST)

PRESENTS

Revues Season Launch Manning Bar, 6PM

WEDNESDAY MARKETS Eastern Avenue, 9Am FUNCH Eastern Avenue, 12–2pm SEMESTER 2 PARTY –DODGY SWEATER MANNING BAR

wk 3 (AUGUST)

100+ CLUBS & SOCIETIES 100+ CLUBS & SOCIETIES ENTERTAINMENT AND MORE! ENTERTAINMENT AND MORE! 18

WEDNESDAY, 30 JULY WEDNESDAY, 30 JULY 19 20 21 22 10AM – Week 4PM Humanitarian

EASTERN EASTERN AVE Week10AM – 4PM Humanitarian Humanitarian Week AVE

wk 4 (AUGUST)

REVUES SEASON SEYMOUR CENTRE FUNCH Eastern Avenue, 12–2pm

26 Principal Partner

REVUES SEASON SEYMOUR CENTRE

PRESENTS

usu.edu.au/reoday

REVUES SEASON SEYMOUR CENTRE

For more information:

For more information: info@usu.edu.au

wk 5 (AUGUST)

THU

info@usu.edu.au /USUAccess

usu.edu.au/reoday

27 Major Sponsor

/USUAccess

REVUES SEASON REVUES SEASON SEYMOUR CENTRE SEYMOUR CENTRE FUNCH Principal PartnerOfficial Energy Major Sponsor Official Mobile Official Mobile Eastern Avenue, 12–2pm Partner Partner Drink PRESENTS

/Manningbarsydney

@Manningbar

REVUES SEASON SEYMOUR CENTRE Official Energy Drink

#manningbar

Issue 05 what's on

every week monday – friday

MONDAY $4 tap cider and $4 spirit HAPPY HOUR

THURSDAY

4-6pm, Manning Bar

THEATRESPORTS®

$3.50 HAPPY HOUR

1-2pm, Manning BarBar

4-6pm, Hermann’s Bar

POOL COMPETITION

SOLO SESSIONS

4-6pm, International Student Lounge

5-6pm, Manning Bar

$7 steak night

6-8pm, Manning Bar

TUESDAY

$4 tap cider and $4 spirit HAPPY HOUR

WEDNESDAY

4-6pm, Manning Bar

FUNCH

Eastern Avenue, 12-2pm

FOOD CHALLENGE

1-2pm, Manning Bar

series screenings

AUSTRALIAN DISCUSSION GROUP

Get Up! Stand Up!

3-4pm, Level 4 Wentworth Building

TRIVIA

12-4pm, Manning Bar

$3.50 HAPPY HOUR

4-6pm, Hermann’s Bar

Beat The System – Local Bands and DJs 5pm, Hermann’s Bar

1-2pm, Hermann’s Bar

Debating Regionals

$3 dog night

6-8pm, Manning Bar

5-6pm, Manning Bar

5.15pm, Alternating Venues

$4 tap cider and $4 spirit HAPPY HOUR

$3.50 HAPPY HOUR

4-6pm, Hermann’s Bar

4-6pm, Manning Bar and Hermann’s Bar

50 C WINGS

2 for 1 schnitty

free topping friday

4-6pm, Manning Bar

4-6pm, Hermann’s Bar 6-8pm, Manning Bar

4-6pm, Manning Bar

6-8pm, Manning Bar

FRIDAY DJs

4-7pm, Hermann’s Bar

$3.50 HAPPY HOUR

Manning Bar

MUST SEE Dodgy Sweater Party Wednesday 13 August, 2014 7pm, Manning Bar // 18+ ACCESS: Free General: $5 Bust out that dusty box of ol’ sweaters your Nan gave you and celebrate the start of Semester 2 in your dodgiest sweater. Wear it with pride as you get down in your greatest cringe-worthy knit to the finest mix of tunes. There are prizes up for grabs for the best and worst sweater. Get hunting for your best knitted wonder now! /Manningbarsydney

@Manningbar

COMING UP 1 AUG

13 AUG

BAND CAMP SEMI FINAL #1

6 AUG 8 AUG 12 AUG

RAW Awards

BODYJAR REVUES 2014 season launch

DODGY SWEATER PARTY 16 AUG

Sleepmakeswaves BAND COMP SEMI FINAL #2

20 AUG 28 AUG

THEATRESPORTS SHOWCASE

#manningbar

bull usu.edu.au EDITORIAL

FROM THE EDITORS EDEN, KATIE, SOPHIE, ROB, SEAN, ERIN

The BULL team is back again (‘check it to wreck it let’s begin’) for another semester, bringing you a mix of enlightening exegeses and entertaining articles from the talented student reporters and contributors across campus. Throughout this issue the herd have probed important issues pertaining to sex,

gender and relationships in Australia. While Georgia Hitch abhors and gores violence against women Pamplona style, Barbara Taylor brings the horns to the troubling agenda of the men’s rights movement. Meanwhile Flora Grant and Alistair Kitchen look into gender issues in sport – reporting on Netball Australia’s push to stay three feet away from normative representations of both femininity and masculinity, and tackling the world’s foremost gay rugby championship (which just so happens to be in our fair city) respectively. Whether or not you agree with her progressive views on loving relationships, Natasha Gillezeau deftly manoeuvre the challenges faced by those approaching physical and romantic engagements with multiple partners. Breaking down perceptions and gender stereotypes further, our cover represents an individual that’s been fragmented and distorted, with a hint of a darker side. And with another semester over and a new one just beginning, we say farewell to some of the more familiar characters and a-hoy-hoy to the fresh faces on campus.

If you missed the news, editor Melanie Kembrey ascended to the pro-leagues as she received gainful employment as a journalist. But after a difficult selection process our fantastically talented reporter and serial comic contributor Erin Rooney has been added to the fold in her stead. She would like us to remind you how amazing her hometown Canberra is. Lastly, in an issue where we explore identity politics and oppression, it is worth noting that this is the first edition of BULL to include an acknowledgement of country. That we did not even notice its absence speaks volumes about the failure of Australians to meaningfully consider our nation’s history. We and many of our reporters write and edit from a position of privilege, at times we need to be reminded of this.

honoured to be serving the Board, membership and the Union in our respective capacities, and we’ve been working extremely productively and positively together. Over the past few weeks we created and facilitated a fantastic Board induction, alongside the rest of the Executive, and I have every confidence that we will continue to work well moving forward.

Q&A: TARA WANIGANAYAKA USU President

voted for me, the removal of their votes from the ballot would have still left me elected with a student majority, and that is a very humbling fact which I will not take for granted. There is no doubt the membership has varying views on what the role of the senate-appointed directors should be – this Board and Executive, alongside members and the senate-appointed directors, will be conducting a review evaluating their role and existence within the Union, and in the interim we will continue to work productively with them. B: In Liv Ronan's speech to be elected to the finance committee, she used words to the effect of needing to diffuse rising tensions between you and Robby Magyar. Do you think this relationship will be hard to sustain going forward?

TW: It is really unfortunate when promises of

B: Did you pursue the votes of senate appointed

directors, or did they come to you? Can you justify your actions in accepting their votes? TW: At no point during the executive election

process did I seek or accept the vote of the senate-appointed directors. Additionally, given the vote was held by secret ballot, in no way can the exact division of votes be identified. That stated, even if it is assumed that the senate-appointed directors both

TW: Though naturally during an election

for a position such as President of the Union competition tends to arise, there is no tension between Robby and myself. We are both incredibly privileged and

BULL x

BULL wants to hear from you Email editors@bullmag.com.au

B: Behind the scenes promises of support for future executive elections frequently determine who directors vote for. Why should students believe the best candidate for the role is selected?

such a kind are made in executive elections, and it is undoubtedly an issue this Board will hope to deal with moving forward. Students definitely should never have to feel that they cannot trust the best candidate is the role. However, it is important to note board directors do not take their votes lightly, and I believe that this year a true estimation of the values and abilities of candidates was made when the Board placed their vote.

Issue 05 7 LETTERS & PICK OF THE MONTH

LETTERS PLEASED TO GREET YOU

BUSINESS PROPOSAL

Dear Tom Joyner,

Greetings,

Moving to Sydney was by far the strangest experience for me socially. As a girl, you get the infamous ‘kiss on the cheek’ (from friends, people you’ve just met), and this scares me far more than a fumble-y handshake. Being from a smaller town, I’m used to having my space, and reaching for someone’s hand does a nice job of maintaining that while still providing some contact. When you get to know people well enough, you can start moving in for the hug. But here, greeting people just causes all kinds of confusion: the look of astonishment when I offer my hand provides much entertainment when they lean in for the kiss; the awkwardness of the ‘cheek brush’ when I go for the hug and they pucker up. It seems Sydney just ain’t big enough for someone who can’t read social signs. Long story short, I’d give you a small, polite wave back any day.

Permit me to inquire about your financial status. I write to offer you the opportunity to help me and receive a large sum of my fortune in return. I am Prince Fayed W. Bolkiah, the eldest son of Prince Jeffrey Bolkiah, former finance minister of Brunei, the tiny oil-rich sultanate on the Gulf Island of Borneo. Following the Asian financial crisis, the sultan has accused my father of the mismanagement of US $14.8 billion. I was then placed under house arrest, but I have a Palm Vx handheld computer from which I am sending you this email. Before my in-castration, I went ahead to dispatch the sum of US $500 million in cash under special arrangement into the custody of different private banks and trust companies for safekeeping abroad. I seek your good assistance to invest these funds into a profitable investment in your country to facilitate future survival for my family abroad. After due deliberation with my aids we've decided to offer a certain percentage to you as compensation for your co-operation and kind sincerity to carry out this assignment. Your financial compensation will be 15% of the total cash. That is 15% of US $500,000,000.00.

~ Socially Awkward, Bachelor of Engineering II Eds: We wish you all the best here in Sydney. We’ve no doubt you’ll soon learn the ways of the Big Smoke and become one of us. A little kiss never hurt anyone!

Thanks. ~ Prince Fayed.W. Bolkiah. Eds: Thank you for your kind offer Prince Fayed, and for placing so much trust in us humble editors of this student magazine. However, we must respectfully decline and wish you all the best with your ‘in-castration’.

BULL wants to hear from you Tell us about the stories you shared with your friends or those you placed on the bottom of your budgie cage. Or just write and let us know you’re lonely. Email editors@bullmag.com.au

BEARDS Winter is upon us. The days have grown shorter, the nights cooler. Never has it been a better time for our bristly friends to come back into fashion, warming the chins (and hearts) of many. Just look at the music scene, where artists such as Chet Faker, Ry X and Angus Stone wear their beards proud. Beard tribute band The Beards continue to inspire beard-growers around Australia after their release of The Beard Album in May this year, featuring hits such as ‘Damn That’s A Nice Beard’ and ‘I Have A Beard And It Looks Really Good’. But it isn’t just today’s wordsmiths that spread the good word about these fuzzy facial accessories. As William Shakespeare once proclaimed through Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, “He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.” His words still resonate today as the beard has come to symbolise all that is manly and wise. I mean it’s a well-known fact that Albus Dumbledore kept most of his wise words in his beard. Therefore we advise that all able lose the razors and maintain a proud beard this semester. The rest of us can only dream…

WEEKLY

BADG W DRA

Issue 05 OPINION

OPINION Four things you don’t ask an African woman studying in Sydney

study abroad. I personally find difficulty in resisting the urge in claiming to be a scion of a fictitious kingdom. Most likely, her parents are ordinary folk and her enrolment is based on mere merit.

By Vanessa Mukhebi

2. Can you twerk? African women are unapologetic about their rhythmic prowess but it’s problematic to associate skin colour with twerking. By making this assumption, you are writing a narrative on her body that may not in fact exist, and that perpetuates the stereotype of black women as hypersexual. Whether she twerks or not, don’t treat her like a circus act.

Lupita Nyong’o is a departure from the connotations that her deeply hued skin and nationality often pertain to, and chances are you will meet many like her at university. In the event that you do become acquainted with an African woman in a tute or at Manning Bar, here are a few questions to steer clear of: 1. Are you a ‘princess’? An enduring perception about Africans is that they are an invariably poor and deprived people. Being royalty or having a corrupt politician as a father is presumed to be the only logical explanation of her ability to

3. Do you know Kevin from Botswana? The custom amongst Africans to refer to one another as ‘ma sista’ or ‘brotha’ is misleading, but I assure you we don’t all know each other. It’s merely a term of endearment and an acknowledgement of seeing ‘one of our own’. Feel free to assume that every renowned African is related to all

#FREETHENIPPLE on Instagram

Emily Shen

If you ever bothered to take a quick look at Instagram’s terms of use (or, that not-solittle thing you clicked through and agreed to when you first made your account), bullet point number 2 states, “You may not post… nude [or] partially nude… photos or other content”. In a different scenario, this might seem like a fair call. In the world of Instagram however, especially with its close ties to the fashion industry, this appears to be an unjustified policy that is currently policed too heavily. Particularly since the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) just launched an award entitled ‘Fashion Instagrammer of the Year’ in May, fashion and Instagram have naturally solidified an intense love affair. Yet many within the industry have fallen afoul of

“You may not post… nude [or] partially nude… photos or other content” Instagram’s nudity policy. American Vogue’s iconic Grace Coddington felt the sting, as a self-portrait she posted supporting her Paddle 8 “No Clothes Auction” resulted in the deactivation of her newly formed account due to her supposed transgression of the no-nudity policy. Though if you look at the sketch, it’s nothing but a small

of us though. Yes, Obama is my uncle and Mandela, my grandfather’s cousin. Don’t question it, it just is. 4. Why is your skin colour different? The dominating idea that there is an authentic ‘African look’ is a fallacy. Some find it difficult reconciling the fact that Africans come in a variety of skin tones, facial features and body types. Individuals with Indian, Asian or European ancestry, may not be indigenous to the continent, but still identify as African. With nearly 2,000 ethnic groups, Africa has the largest number of diverse ethnic groups of any continent. Understand this before you make assumptions. The African woman’s look is just as multidimensional as her individual history. So before you approach her with one of these questions, remember she has a name. Learn it. It’s not ‘Africa’.

drawing and the violation occurring as two lines with dots. While I have little desire to post anything even reaching the realms of a casual nip-slip online, it seems bizarre that Instagram has been so heavy-handed with efforts in regulating nudity, particularly when there seems to be little issue taken with images of male shirtless selfies at the gym. Rather, it has been female topless nudity that has been targeted. Models such as Anja Rubik and blogs such as ‘Into the Gloss’ have been flagged for their nudity within an industry that prizes the human body and revolves around interacting with a stripped aesthetic. Let alone the masked sexism that Instagram is perpetuating by policing the female body. Indeed, it seems that with the growing popularity of social media as a platform not just for the general public but now also for industry use, the terms need to be re-defined. In the wise words of leaders Badgirlriri and Scout Willis, current champions for the pro-female campaign on Instagram, #FREETHENIPPLE.

10 bull usu.edu.au FEATURE

Flora Grant explores a new movement in sports marketing – one that involves neither beer nor boobs. When the third quarter siren rings at Sydney Olympic Park, the cheers from the crowds of mums and daughters gathered to watch the nation’s best and brightest netball stars are as loud as they have sounded at any point during the game. But this time they don’t accompany a goal: instead five 18-year-old boys have just taken the court to perform dance moves inspired by the sport itself, posing for the cameras as they strut their stuff and playfully shoot hoops. These are the Telstra Netboys – the recently introduced all-male breakdancing squad entertaining audiences at the ANZ

Championship, Australia and New Zealand’s premier netball league. Skinny, clean-shaven, and never without a beaming smile, these squeaky clean and mum-friendly cheerleaders are a far cry from their hypersexual female counterparts who you might see at the rugby league, or the traditional macho cheerleaders you might see throwing and catching the smaller cheerleaders at sporting events in the United States. “The aim was to create a group of talented boys and bring them in as a support for the netball ladies,” said Ame Delves, the Netboys choreographer, in a Netball Australia

Issue 05 11 FEATURE

promotional video. “I am not sure if it’s ever been done before. They’ve kind of become the cheerleaders of the netball community.” Though they received ridicule from outside the netball world – “How did this get through the marketing budget approval process?” asked one commentator – the Netboys have gained huge support from the players and fans who delight in the simple novelty of boys dancing at a girls’ sport. Surrounded by the punters, long-time netball fan and aspiring professional player Georgia May is sitting in the stands enjoying the performance. “Initially I saw them as a bit of a laugh, a novelty,” she says. “But their consistency and loyalty to the sport has been quite refreshing. It’s nice to see such attention paid to netball as a professional sport, especially from guys.” The unconventional marketing strategy is just one effort being made to bring new fans and new money into the professional sport, which has faced a number of setbacks in recent years. Though netball is the biggest women’s sport in Australia, with over 1.2 million players and high rates of participation at junior levels, a lack of corporate sponsorship has prevented players from being fully professional. Last year Network Ten decided to end its four-year association with the ANZ Championship deeming it too ‘insignificant’ for mainstream media, and ‘not a premium sport’. “There’s no doubt that netball in Australia suffers from having to compete against the ‘big boys’ and big budgets of AFL and NRL,” explains Karen Phelan, Head of Marketing & Communications at Netball Australia. She says that Netball Australia has instead sought to create an entirely separate brand identity and, as with the Netboys, does its best to avoid the traditional, tired representations of gender in sport. Reviewing the history of the marketing of Australian women in sport predictably reveals a focus on the body of the athlete, rather than the sporting abilities of the players. Swimwear calendars, commercials, men’s magazines, and even the official competitive clothing attire have used sex appeal to market women’s sport. But Netball Australia, Phelan says, is different. “The brand is 'girl next door’,” she explains, “the professional athlete who is dedicated, fit, strong and feminine.” In his research, Australian National University sports marketing lecturer Andrew Hughes seems to agree with Phelan’s methods. Despite its ongoing popularity as a marketing tool in men’s sport, sex appeal has a very limited success rate, and even then only with a very specific target market, usually young males aged between 18-34. In avoiding both marketing sport as a rough battle and sexualising the players, Netball Australia has developed a much broader audience. The sport has since found sponsors traditionally alienated from the combative attitude and bad press associated with other sports. There are women’s magazines, supermarkets, jewellers and even a pasta company as Netball Australia sponsors. The trans-Tasman championship is also now broadcast live on Fox Sports, and Dr. Russell suggests that this television coverage necessitates marketing to the broader audience Netball Australia is seeking to attract.

“Whenever we think of giving female sportspeople value, we take the representation of male players as the benchmark.” “If you’re planning to have netball running on the TV weekly, there is a legitimate requirement for it to pay for itself but also it is an avenue for Fox Sports to get a broader audience,” she says. “So they’ll be using whatever they can to promote the qualities of the game, and appeal to not just the women and girls that play it on an everyday basis, but to a wider population to try and get more viewers from people outside of netball – not just men, but women who play other sports too.” As part of this broadcast, netball has adopted many of the tropes we see in men’s sport broadcast. As players come out onto the court, a video of each one shot from a low angle, arms folded across their chest, unsmiling, appears on screen. Dr Russell says that our understanding of what makes a sportsperson is based on what we see in men’s sport. “If you look at any kind of sport, they all do that posed way of saying ‘I am a member of this team’,” she says. “Whenever we think of giving female sportspeople value, we take the representation of male players as the benchmark. Not having the netballers sexualised in any sense gives it the same value and credence as the male athletes. But then, why is that the version we have to mirror? It’s all to do with our ideas of what makes an athlete.” The answer is a difficult one. Negotiating the blurred line between breaking gender assumptions and professionalising the sport is fraught with missteps and fouls. But with the NetBoys and the promotion of the players, perhaps Netball Australia is heading in the right direction.

Image courtesy of Netball Australia on ANZ Championship/Pinterest

HONG KONG Your Choice of Exchange in Asia Student Exchange Programmes and Scholarships available Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss your chance of a lifetime! Check with your home universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exchange office today.

Also visit http://studyinhongkong.edu.hk

Issue 05 13 FEATURE

NATASHA GILLEZEAU EXPLORES AN ALTERNATIVE TO MONOGAMY.

14 bull usu.edu.au FEATURE

A solid indication of the invisibility of a sexual preference is when Microsoft Word underlines the term in red, as if to say ‘Um… that’s… not a thing.’ This happens every time I type ‘polyamory’. Polyamory is consensual non-monogamy. Not to be confused with ‘polygamy’ – legal marriage between more than two people. Polyamory is the idea that you can fall in love and be sexually involved with multiple people, emphasising openness, consent and ongoing discussion. I have been in a monogamous relationship with my boyfriend – who I love – since November 2013. But I have never felt less free. My opinion is that falling in love is a great experience and it should happen as often as possible. This sits awkwardly alongside the prevailing attitude that falling in love should be experienced two to five times, consecutively not concurrently, culminating in a marriage.

*** Brigitte, 23, has been in a polyamorous relationship with her boyfriend Chris for four and a half years. They constantly negotiate the openness of their relationship, and have both periods of hooking up with whomever, and periods resembling monogamy. “You guys live together. How does it work?” I asked. “At first, I’d say I’m going out tonight, so maybe stay at your parents’ house. And he would. Or I’d stay at a friend’s house,” says Brigitte. “How would you two deal with the other person having sex?” “We’ll talk about what happened. Then I feel less anxious. The fear of the unknown is the worst, but when I find out it’s like ‘that’s exactly what I thought, it’s better having heard it from you’.” “Do you ever worry about Chris caring about other people?” “No. I think everyone fears being forgotten, or like, oh my god, they’re going to stop loving me. Even I have that. But I just have to think about it rationally. If we did fall in love with other people, it’s just life.” She shrugs. There have been awkward moments, like when they’ve been at a party with a girl they’ve both hooked up with. But their relationship would not have lasted without the freedom of polyamory.

Philluhp, 21, laughs as he tells me he was born into a ‘biblical patriarchy’. Raised in Idaho, he was homeschooled by evangelical Christian parents who objected to evolution being taught in public schools. No longer Christian, Philluhp identifies as queer, polyamorous and asexual. He discovered polyamory after reading online articles written by people in polyamorous relationships. “When I heard the word polyamory, I one hundred per cent conflated it with polygamy”, he says. “So, when I was reading this I was like, so, these aren’t fundamentalist Mormons? And they are actually doing this just because they want to? And everybody is okay with it? And their kid is totally emotionally stable? Like? What!” “I spent the next three weeks just reading the blogs of people who identified as polyamorous, and then later realising that hey, this is a cool thing that makes sense for me too.” “Do you have a partner at the moment? Are you in any relationships?” I ask. He smiles shyly. He isn’t in a relationship currently, but he likes the idea of ‘relationship anarchy,’ where people just appreciate wherever they’re at with one another and their “varying degrees of emotional and romantic bonds.” He is still working on his communication skills so he can have the types of relationships he would like. “I’m not very good at dictating goals and defining barriers and such. I’m actively working on improving all those things,” he laughs, “so I can have the type of relationships that I want to have without causing problems.” The issues of communication that Philluhp faces don’t surprise me. Being raised by conservative Christian parents, Philluhp wasn’t encouraged to critically analyse their mode of living. Regardless of where you’re from, understanding what you want and communicating that to others seems crucial in achieving the types of relationships and sex you want to have. Social norms like monogamy and heterosexuality operate silently. They have been pre-determined for us. They don’t need to be said, because they are assumed.

*** I ask Brigitte what she thinks about cheating. She frowns. “I think that it’s really bad. If anything is nonconsensual, in any way, it’s not good, because you’re

Issue 05 15 FEATURE

“I have been in a monogamous relationship with my boyfriend – who I love – since November 2013. But I have never felt less free.” breaching the trust of your partner and you’re breaching their boundaries. There are people who aren’t poly, and they’ll never be, and they don’t want to be, and they don’t have to be.” I’m surprised. I expected her to be more sympathetic, but her answer makes sense. But people cheat, and it may come from a genuine desire to open up the relationship. I sense this is the case for Josh, 26, who broke up with his girlfriend of one and a half years around four months ago. During their relationship, he slept with different women without her knowledge or consent. His perfect scenario would be having a stable girlfriend where both parties retain their sexual freedom. “If you were going to have a polyamorous relationship, what would be some of the terms?” I ask. He talks slowly, in spurts, as though he’s saying it aloud for the first time. “So like, it would be where we” he says gesturing towards me, “obviously we have to be good. And I would know enough in myself that you’d always be my first, like, primary girl. And vice versa.” Beyond that, he thinks being open about having sex with other people without going into too much detail is important. “There’s no point having any bullshit,” he says. “Do you think that’s possible?” I ask. “I think it’s difficult. Obviously it doesn’t work with a very insecure girl. Or someone who doesn’t share those views. And that’s not so easy to find. But it can happen.”

*** It can happen. And it does. After breaking up with her last monogamous boyfriend in 2011, Clo, 20, knew she was looking for something like polyamory, but didn’t know the term. “I was using all different words for it, like ‘casual relationship’, which is kind of bullshit. Just because a relationship is non-monogamous doesn’t mean that it’s casual.” Clo began seeing a guy who told her he identified as polyamorous, and after her initial trepidation, felt a sense of relief. They dated for almost a year. Clo is thoughtful and quiet when she speaks, but clear. She tells me polyamory allows relationships to form organically, and according to their own rules.

“Have you ever met someone at a party that you thought was really cool?” she asks me. “And you’re like, we should catch up, we should hang out. And you bump into each other, and you’re like ‘let’s go get a coffee!’ And it sort of hangs together, but always retains a certain novelty. I’ve been seeing someone for like, a year like that. Except instead of having coffee, we hook-up.” I think how there’s no way I could pull that off for a year without the relationship steering towards a ‘what are we doing here?’ moment. “It’s just such an unusual thing. But it couldn’t happen within the bounds of monogamy, because there is so much expectation on what sexual relationships mean, and how they happen. All of these different growths would be completely stifled.” For Clo, polyamory is no longer something she really thinks about, it’s just something she does. I ask her why men, my boyfriend included, say they have less of a problem with a girl sleeping with another girl than another guy. She responds immediately. “It’s sexist. It’s because a woman poses less of a threat to them. Because you know, women hooking up, its not serious right? Katy Perry did it, she liked it, it’s just a silly thing. A man hooking up with your female partner is impeding on your territory. That’s a threat to you. Whereas a woman doesn’t have the strength or the agency to do that.” Clo says polyamory has major implications for enfranchising women, because it forces them to actually think about what they want, and then communicate that to other people.

*** Learning about polyamory has clarified my muddy, private thoughts. ‘Yes!’ I think, ‘I know exactly what it feels like to love more than one person simultaneously!’ I’ve felt the pain of ‘choosing’, of ‘ranking’ people. I find the tacit assumption that we limit our sexual freedom once we get into a relationship bizarre. But until now I accepted it as automatic. At times monogamy works brilliantly, and makes a lot of sense. Some people genuinely fall in love or want to sleep with one person at a time. It’s clearer how to navigate monogamous relationships because we know the rules. But perhaps it should be an active choice, not a default setting.

16 bull usu.edu.au INTERVIEW

Interview MATTHEW VANDEPUTTE

It’s easy to miss the beauty of a city landscape when it flashes past your train window or blurs into bustling crowds and blinding lights. But Belgian timelapse photographer Matthew Vandeputte has developed a trained eye, and doesn’t miss the finer details of a scene. Not for one second. “I like to capture it the way I have it in my mind. You show things to people using the techniques that I use, and you show them a different perspective of a scene that they may already know,” he says. Of course, creating powerful imagery isn’t your typical point-and-shoot situation – it takes planning. Vandeputte describes his first challenge when going out on a shoot as working out how far he’ll be walking and what gear to take as a result due to the sheer weight. He then takes a number of photos, moving the camera on a tripod or over distances in between shots to create video from high-resolution photos, which form the frames. This technique allows for a high amount of control when it comes to editing, bringing out details in the image that might otherwise be lost. “For example, a sunset, most people think it’s all pretty static and it goes slow, but if you speed it up by doing timelapse photography, you show how dynamic it is and how the clouds move and how the light changes.”

Vandeputte speaks carefully about this postproduction stage, particularly highlighting the importance of the soundtrack to his work. He holds a great respect for the artists and the dangers of copyright when it comes to sharing videos online, choosing licensable music, and connecting with artists such as Slovenian producer Gramatik to come to an agreement on how he can use their work. “The music’s such a big part of the whole edit because it gives you the rhythm and the base”, he says. Choosing a great shooting location is also significant. For him, there’s nowhere in Sydney like his favourite spot to shoot, near Milson’s Point. Over a tiny walkway and bridge, he finds some rocks to sit on that give a perfect view of the city, Opera House, and the Bridge. “Depending on the season, the sun sets in the middle of the Bridge, on the water, and that gives you some great shots for timelapse,” he says. “You’ll notice that there’s a lot of tourists there as well, and it’s always good fun to chat to like-minded people about gear and just travel stories and all that.” His voice suddenly lights up when he speaks about travelling. Vandeputte already has quite an impressive portfolio from his adventures, shooting aftermovies with Epic Cinema for festivals like Belgium’s Tomorrowland and providing sequences for

A Party 424 Metres Under the Sea, a David Guetta documentary made by Dutch company Final Kid in Israel last year. But it wasn’t just the opportunity to pursue his hobby as a career that brought Vandeputte to stay in Sydney. After taking a road trip with one of his friends here, he met his current girlfriend Amelia. “I stayed here for a month in total and I just loved it so much. I met Amelia on that trip, I went back home, we kept talking, and that evolved into me quitting my job after a couple of months and booking flights and coming over here, without really knowing if it would work out or not.” Needless to say, things seem to be working out pretty well for him. With coverage from The Daily Telegraph and BuzzFeed, as well as a growing presence on Instagram, Vandeputte is beginning to receive significant attention for his work from the public in Australia. And as much as he is talented, he puts it down to sheer persistence. “It’s not difficult to master, it just costs a lot of time and energy, the sunrise and sunsets. But the key thing is just to go out and shoot as much as you can, and look at what you’re doing, and go out and keep shooting.”

ERIN ROONEY You can follow Matthew on Instagram at @matjoez and YouTube at /MatthewVandeputte.

Issue 05 17 INTERVIEW

u o y new

e h t h t I w 2 r In SemeSte

I n u y Sydne S S a p gym

or StudentS

& perfect f e u l a v t a e r g

JoIn today! offer endS 10 auguSt. Visit the: • Sports & Aquatic Centre - 9351 4978 • The Arena - 9351 8111

susf.com.au FACebook:

TwiTTer:

‘Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness’

‘SydUniSportFit’

* All passes expire on 23 November 2014. Promotional period: 21 July – 10 August 2014. Time stop is not available on the Semester 2 Pass. Conditions apply.

Issue 05 19 FEATURE

Our Silent Emergency GEORGIA HITCH WANTS TO KEEP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN THE PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS. On the thoroughfare that is Crown Street in Sydney’s leafy Surry Hills is a small gallery. Tucked away off the main drag, it’s the kind of place you could miss on your way past, oblivious to the beauty hanging on its walls – at the moment, blue and white pieces depicting landscapes in Barcelona and Portugal. Leveler in hand, gallery manager Kay Schubach glides over to one painting. “I’m sorry but if I don’t get this straight it’ll drive me mad!” she says as she prepares the works for the upcoming exhibition opening. Kay has done a variety of work; from managing business affairs for the likes of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, to jobs in the media industry and controlling her own companies. Her elegance is overwhelming and she exudes the friendly kind of confidence of a woman who has found her place in the world. Looking at her you would never know she was raped, abused and almost killed by her former partner.

20 bull usu.edu.au FEATURE

Some consider Kay lucky that she walked away with her life, and when you look at the statistics, you can almost see their point. Although figures vary due to the entrenched culture of underreporting domestic abuse, it’s true that a Victorian study found domestic violence to be the biggest killer of women under the age of 45. It’s also known that more than one woman dies each week at the hands of their current or former intimate partner. But what does this say about our culture, that we consider being raped, psychologically eroded and physically abused the better end of the stick? The even more pressing question that faces us is how do we rid ourselves of these evils? How can we save the women who weren’t as ‘lucky’ as Kay? One idea beginning to gain traction is the importance of early intervention. The State Government of Victoria’s Education Department has been leading the charge, with the creation of the ‘Respectful Relationships Education’ (RRE) program in 2009. Directed at preventing violence against women, the course is taught in high schools and is targeted towards teenagers who are venturing into their first intimate partnerships. It focuses on teaching the importance of equality and respect in a relationship – something that can be tricky at the easiest of times – to classes of teenagers. Other organisations, such as Domestic Violence NSW (DVNSW), are praising this move and calling for it to be taken one step further, or younger as the case may be, to preschools. This idea is not without resistance. After all, how do you teach three and four-yearolds about such complex interactions? Kay has a solution: “Kids need to be taught, not about violence but about what constitutes a healthy relationship – that mum and dad should discuss issues, that mum is equally powerful in the house, that the kids have rights and that everyone is treated respectfully – that’s normal and anything other than that is abnormal.” For Kay, as with many other women, the issue lay in control.

Simon, her former partner, was a leader in his industry. He was sexy, charismatic and had grown up believing that it was his right to exert control over others, in all aspects of his life. “They think that you’re just something that can be controlled and you have a look at some of these [domestic] murders, it’s about when the man doesn’t have control anymore because the woman’s pregnant, or she’s trying to leave or has left. That’s when they really snap because they’ve

He was sexy, charismatic and had grown up believing that it was his right to exert control over others, in all aspects of his life. lost control.” The words leave Kay’s mouth and sting with rawness, a result of her experience in this exact situation more than a decade ago. The epicentre of Kay’s experience was the psychological control Simon held over her. “My self-esteem had been eroded so quickly by Simon. I was a shell of a woman within a month and I’d actually lost my job, lost a lot of my friends; I was pregnant so I was feeling awful as well. I couldn’t get my hair done, I had cold sores and scabs from him hitting me and I was embarrassed to go out.” This sense of control stems from a much more dangerous idea of men’s entitlement and

ownership of women, a concept that has its roots in our colonial history and is still seen today in our legal system as the ‘provocation defence’. As Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Lecturer in Criminology at Deakin University describes, the defence comes from the 18th Century English opinion that “woman is the property of man”. The provocation defence evolved to protect men who killed their wives from the death penalty after discovering they were unfaithful. In Australia, the provocation defence is still a valid defence because it is one of the many laws Australia’s legal system inherited from England. “It certainly doesn’t fit in with the legal system now or in community expectations of the law’s response to domestic violence.” What is even more shocking is that this law is not only redundant, but as Fitz-Gibbon points out, it still permeates and influences the decisions of our legal system. “As much as we like to think that we’ve moved past the notions of women as property, we do still see those discourses coming through the courts.” The inescapable reality of Kay’s situation is that it mirrors the circumstances of thousands of women around the country, and the number of women experiencing domestic violence is rising. Recent figures have shown a 2.5 per cent increase over the past 24 months in reported incidents of domestic violence within NSW alone. In March of 2014, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying that domestic violence is one of the “biggest issues modern society has to face”. So yes, education and a generational change in attitudes should be the aspiration for all members of the Australian community, but at the moment it is just that: an aspiration. Judging by the current level of Government support for ending domestic violence, we shouldn’t hold our breath. “It’s not a sexy thing; governments don’t want to fund it,” says Moo Baulch, a project manager at DVNSW. Baulch has dedicated herself to raising

Issue 05 21 FEATURE

awareness and fostering support for women in abusive relationships. You only need to spend ten minutes in her company to be infected with her passion. Although she feels strongly that education is a necessity, she concedes that it may be many years before we see any real change. In the interim, Baulch believes there are other solutions much closer to home. “There’s this space there that we haven’t really looked at developing in Australia, around what we can do as bystanders because it really touches our sensibilities as adults and we sort of go ‘Oh I’m not really sure how I feel about that’ and it challenges us.” Academics like Shannon Spriggs of the University of Queensland are facing this challenge head on, creating the program ‘Mentors in Violence Prevention’ to educate people on how their actions can make a crucial difference to an abusive situation. Early results from Spriggs’ 2012 Australian study are convincing, with 93 per cent of participants leaving the program comfortable and ready to step in and act during difficult situations. When asked if any of her friends ever intervened during her relationship with Simon, the one-word answer came not with anger, but with sadness. “No.” “They just didn’t know how. Actually, a lot of my friends didn’t want anything to do with me because they thought I was just with this asshole of a guy. To them, and it’s often the case with other women too, they didn’t think they could do anything about it because it was my choice.” Baulch from DVNSW acknowledges that overcoming the bystander effect takes both knowledge and persistence from those involved. With the benefit of hindsight, Kay understands how valuable even the smallest gestures of support can be. “When you’re in a frightening situation in the home it’s like you’re in a bee box and someone’s switched off the safety switch. Sometimes all you need is for the phone to ring and someone to say, ‘Are you ok?’ To hear them say, ‘Well that’s not right’. Once you start

Looking at her you would never know she was raped, abused and almost killed by her former partner. to hear that and get some reinforcement it just helps. It diffuses the situation.” It is easy to forget, sitting across from someone who is so composed and articulate, that the origin of these words is personal, private, all-consuming terror. It is simultaneously inspiring and chilling. Kay’s survival was not the result of early-childhood education, nor did an empowered bystander step in to ask if she was ok. A magazine saved Kay. Flicking through the glossy pages of a woman’s magazine, Kay stumbled upon an advertisement for White Ribbon Day – an annual event led by men of all walks of life to raise awareness and put an end to violence against women. Staring at the photos of the campaign’s high profile ambassadors on the page and reading their words of comfort was all Kay needed. “That was when the penny dropped that a) this was happening to me and b) that there was solidarity and I didn’t need to be ashamed or bewildered by what was going on anymore, because there were these wonderful women and men whom I admired who were speaking out about it.” What that ad gave Kay was the ability to recognise that her situation was not her fault or something she could fix. It was not just a clash of personalities or them getting used to one another. It was abuse. Standing on the outside it can be easy to criticise or fail to understand why it takes some women months or years to come to this realisation. While unintended, the effects of these attitudes, and the stigma they create,

can be equally as damaging as the abuse itself. It shames victims into believing that they are weak, that they will be shunned from their communities and that being a victim in an abusive relationship doesn’t happen to people like them. Overwhelmed by the threat of embarrassment and humiliation, or unaware of the nature of their circumstances, they stay silent. In addition to educating society in a broader context, the most important thing we can do is empower women; arm them with the tools and knowledge to be able to recognise abuse and feel confident and safe enough to leave. A first step is putting an end to the notion that domestic violence is only physical. Baulch from DVNSW believes in the bid to change perceptions around what constitutes abuse. It’s essential that other forms such as financial control, psychological erosion or cyber abuse be recognised as equally damaging. This is where public campaigns like White Ribbon come in. Reaching a large section of the population, the more information we can get out to victims, the more people like Kay that read ads and recognise their situation, the more women we save. There has been a groundswell recently in the fight against domestic violence, with an increased visibility of the issue in the media. Cases like the Simon Gittany trial and the brutal murders of Jill Meagher and Rachelle Yeo are but a few in a long list that have forced a dialogue about the prevalence of violence against women. “The more high profile people talk about it, the more we talk about it in the media absolutely every day, the easier it is for people to recognise what’s going on and to speak out and seek help,” says Kay imploringly. The undeniable truth is that domestic violence isn’t leaving anytime soon. Using a multi-lateral education approach, however, we can start to help women currently experiencing domestic violence. The opportunity we have right now is to draw it out of the private sphere in which it thrives, feeding off its silent victims, and keep it at the forefront of the public’s mind.

22 bull usu.edu.au TASTE

TASTE ALL YOU CAN EAT

Death by Dinner

Hannah Edensor Sydneysiders could be described as somewhat greedy when it comes to consumption. Our shops have gotten bigger, our festivals take over the city, and we’re constantly craving the latest trends. It makes sense then that all you can eat restaurants have been multiplying lately. Sydney has an insatiable appetite, and the standard à la carte menus simply don’t satisfy us like they used to. But just what is it about these gastronomic feats of endurance that have us salivating? We did the rounds of some of Sydney’s favourite eyes-bigger-than-yourbelly style restaurants to find out. Churrasco: First stop, Churrasco Brazilian style BBQ. The open-flame cooked menu sends your tastebuds into a frenzy, as each morsel delivers a bit of Rio to the table. The staff are easy-going and affable as they bring barbecued meats and an array of vegetables, salads and antipastos to your table. At $44 per person, the price seems a bit steep, until we see what’s on offer. Alcatra sirloin served with a Parmesan sauce, pork belly served with sea salt and fresh lime, lamb rump marinated in Chimmi Churri served on a skewer – you get the picture. There’s a whole lotta meat here, and nobody

is complaining. And it keeps coming until you either explode or lapse into a food coma. Expect meat sweats. Pizza Autentico: For all the seconddinner eaters, Pizza Autentico in Surry Hills is the place you want to be. With the leader board proudly proclaiming 32 slices of pizza as the record, we certainly had our work cut out for us. The restaurant consists of a large dining room, with guests seated around a single oversized table that occupies much of the room. We order a carafe of house red wine for $24, but it’s the food that makes a student’s heart swell – $20, 90 minutes, all you can eat. The polite, British waiters bring us a small platter of bread, dip and olives to start us off, before circulating the room with wooden boards of pizza and bowls of pasta. We try everything of course, but the winners in my eyes are the creamy eggplant and ricotta pasta (of which I have two helpings) and the di marcello pomodoro pizza – a delightful pizza base slathered with Napoli sauce and topped with buffalo cheese, cherry tomatoes, shaved Parmesan and basil. If heaven had a flavour, this would be it. Shinara Grill: Heading into the city, we find ourselves seated around a sunken barbeque table, with trolleys stacked with assorted meats hovering like seagulls. We’re in the much-loved Shinara Grill, where

everything’s coming up Korean. Students flock here for an all-you-can-eat-for-$26 deal. Choose your meats, snip them with the scissors provided, and cook till your heart’s content. While you wait, snack on treats like meat patties and spicy fried chicken from the hot cart making the rounds. The place is noisy and full of hungry students, but the service is fantastic, and table buzzers make tracking down forgotten drink orders a breeze. We highly recommend slathering pork belly and fermented tofu with chilli sauce, but the ribs are a favourite as well. Who knew cooking your own dinner could be so satisfying?

All You Can Eat Attire Leave the skinny jeans at home and instead dress for function over fashion: – Leggings or gym pants are definitely appropriate… – Choose a shirt in a dark colour – white will stain – Bring a large scarf to help cover up your belly post-feast – Handbags and manbags will also help disguise over-eating

Issue 05 23 GO

GO ESTONIA

VILJANDI FOLK FESTIVAL

CLAIRE PATERSON Shopping centres are the kinds of places where there is very little to indicate you’re on the other side of the world. Bolstered by the air of familiarity, my friend Steph and I approached the counter of an Estonian Ticketek-equivalent with the inflated selfconfidence only a native English speaker can have. An austere Estonian woman looked us up and down from behind the counter and merely tapped the badge pinned to her chest. An Estonian and Russian flag. No English. Steph and I looked at each other, ashamed that we were about to be reduced to a mime routine. After a prolonged silence followed by a dodgy iPhone app translation, we had our tickets to the Viljandi Folk Festival (pronounced Vil-yahn-di), an annual fourday event held across the last weekend of July. The small town of Viljandi is a reasonable two-hour bus trip south of Estonia’s capital Tallinn. The brain-child of students studying the folk music program at the Viljandi Culture School, the first festival was held in 1994. Twenty years on, the Viljandi Folk Festival is now one of the largest music events in the Baltic/Nordic region, with approximately 20,000 festivalgoers descending upon Viljandi each year. Despite the crowds, it would be a mistake to come to Viljandi for a Future Music-esque rave. Festivities don’t kick off till lunchtime and things officially quieten down by midnight. It’s an allages event, with excitable toddlers living

it up alongside dreadlocked students and enthused grandparents. If the idea of folk music sounds awfully quaint, don’t let that put you off. A lot of the local acts fused Estonian folk with pop or rock influences – overall it was all damn good to dance to. We only encountered one native English speaking act – The Water Tower Bucket Boys, a bluegrass group hailing from Oregon in the U.S. After an extremely well-received set of twangy, electric blues, they pulled out a straight but passionate cover of ‘Wonderwall’ for their final encore. To my surprise, the locals loved it! As the frontman of Estonian/Ukrainian folk-rock group Svjata Vatra leapt about the audience clutching his daughter while simultaneously choreographing group dance formations, it became clear that the locals are incredibly keen to showcase their culture. Contrary to the “fuck OFF toorists” tags you can find scribbled around backpacker hubs in Australia (seriously), it was refreshing to be part of a festival that had something to prove. It was outside the festival however, that our stay in Viljandi cemented itself in my memory. Scrambling to find accommodation, we got a place a little out of the town centre at the last minute. Ultimately this worked in our favour because our stay at the Tamme Guest House was definitely a highlight of our time at Viljandi. We slept in a tiny cabin that fit two single beds and our bags. Our little abode had no electricity, yet a decent WiFi signal (go figure). A home-made breakfast was laid out each morning for us by our host Sirje, and her husband even offered us a share in the salmon he would cook over a fire in the garden.

Sirje gave us lifts into town, recruited her daughter to drive us to the nearby lake for a swim, and then lent us bikes so we could go ourselves. We spent our mornings lounging in Sirje’s sun-drenched backyard, making use of our personal hammock, or else wallowing in the near deserted lake before heading into the festival each afternoon. Although at times a little odd and a bit off the beaten track, our time at Viljandi was well worth the step into the unknown.

Fun Facts 1. Estonia is statistically the least religious country in the world. There is however a smattering of funky looking Russian Orthodox churches, if that floats your boat. 2. Estonian is unlike almost every other European language. Part of the Finno-Ugric language family, its closest relatives are Finnish and Hungarian. Good luck with the linguistic mind-fuck if you carry on into Latvia or Lithuania. 3. You can buy bottles of vodka for approximately eight euros at the supermarket. From personal experience, this seemed to be the preferred beverage of leather-clad blokes who enjoyed swilling cherry vodka in car parks. Perhaps something for those looking for a cultural experience with more ‘grit’. 4. Ladies, prepare to feel ugly. A disproportionate number of supermodels seem to come from Eastern Europe and man, was Estonia rife with tall, leggy, blue-eyed blondes. The men on the other hand, judging by my cursory anthropological observations, were a bit lacklustre by comparison.* *No offence intended: My friend and I were told by said guys drinking cherry vodka that we were indeed “…Beautiful, but not as beautiful as Estonian women!” Burn.

24 bull usu.edu.au MOVE section heading

MOVE Creativity and Mental Illness

Fixing the Artist’s Syndrome

Lisa Xia Creativity and mental illness are often said to be two sides of the same coin. The sensitive, tortured artist has long been a central figure in our culture, anchored in our minds by the likes of Sylvia Plath and Vincent van Gogh, and more recently, scientific research has established an intriguing and perhaps darkly ironic relationship between the two phenomena. While research published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research in 2012 found that creative occupations were ‘specifically associated with [an] increased likelihood of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, unipolar depression, anxiety disorders … and suicide’, there have also been claims that creative expression is actually central to the healing process of those suffering from mental illness. Creative outlets ranging from music to visual arts, movement-based creative expression and writing have been suggested as effective means to reduce the severity of psychological pain and the management of depression. Amongst the tortured creative types self-medicating through artistic creation, the eccentric and often unpredictable director Lars von Trier stands out. Unofficially known as ‘The Depression Trilogy’, his films Antichrist (2009), Melancholia (2011) and Nymphomaniac Volumes I and II (2013) all involve female protagonists dealing with depression in a variety of ways, and function

as surrogates for von Trier himself. Watching the films in the order they were released is said to arc the depression cycle that the troubled director endured, tracing through psychotic fits, sad lethargy, and ends in a numb frankness. In an interview with The A.V. Club, von Trier credited the filmmaking process for helping with his depression. “Just the fact that you’re working is good for you,” he said. “When you’re depressed, having some success with something is positive, but I wouldn’t say making this film was a miracle cure [laughs].” Mary*, a Resource Economics student at the University of Sydney, suffered from depression on and off in her first year of high school until the end of last year. She turned to various creative outlets to overcome what she describes as an overwhelming ‘colourlessness’ in life. “I was drawn to role playing games,” she says. “They could allow me to customise myself and re-visualise and recreate my identity the way I wanted it to be.” Mary also found music to be a positive influence in her life. “There was a lot of conflict in my environment. People expected me to be this or that. No one really cared about who I really was. Music could accept me for who I was.” However Eric*, an actor and student at Screenwise who suffered from depression, disagrees. Eric says his depression stemmed from a breakup with a ‘demonic jezebel’ who treated him like he was invisible towards the end of their relationship. While the condition

Charities Combating Mental Illness 1 Beyond Blue – Aims to develop a culture where those suffering from mental health issues feel comfortable seeking help www.beyondblue.org.au 2 Black Dog Institute – Not-for-profit focusing on the diagnosis, treatment, and research into the prevention of depression and bipolar disorder www.blackdoginstitute.org.au 3 Lifeline – Provides 24 hour support for those experiencing a personal crisis www.lifeline.org.au

can often be difficult to describe to those who do not suffer from it, Eric uses a fictional analogy for his personal experience of depression – the Dementors of Harry Potter. “The Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself: soulless and evil,” he says, paraphrasing the Prisoner of Azkaban. “You’ll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.” Initially turning to acting as a means of release, he soon found it to be a poor Patronus for the dark cloud in his life. “It’s helpful, but it can also be a form of escapism,” he says. “It doesn’t deal with the problem.” Perhaps creative expression is a broken crutch – or perhaps it offers catharsis. But whatever the case, the relationship between depression and creativity is an oddly cyclical one. *Names have been changed

Issue 05 07 25 section heading LEARN

LEARN SEXUAL HEALTH

Two in one foods: UTIs, STIs and What To Do

Blythe Worthy We young adults are perhaps the most sexual demographic, anecdotally more open to experimentation and exploration than our mothers and fathers. Unfortunately misconceptions about sexually transmitted infections seem as commonplace as they were for our grandparents, sheltered and without access to the sex info treasure trove that is the Internet. Consider this sexual infection education.

UTIs occur when foreign material containing bacteria, for example lube, semen, or other material, irritate the urinary tract. The oftcited cure for UTIs, cranberry juice, can indeed reduce discomfort in less severe cases which typically disappear within a few days, and can act as a preventative. However scientific study suggests that for severe bouts you’re better off heading to the doctor – if untreated, UTIs can lead to more serious problems like kidney infections. What to do: If you’re experiencing dagger-like pain during urination, get yourself immediately to your doc and urinate in a cup for them. They’ll usually give you antibiotics, which can clear UTIs up in a few days. You should drink plenty of water to dilute your pee, which can also reduce the discomfort. It is also recommended to pee before and immediately after sex, and once again within an hour to prevent getting them.

Thrush is a yeast infection caused by an imbalance in the delicate bacteria that live

on our sex organs, and it’s most definitely contagious. It feels itchy and sore and causes you to secrete a white discharge. What to do: Though it’s relatively harmless you should grab yourself some overthe-counter medication or show your junk to a doctor. Thrush shares symptoms with other more intense STIs, so if you’re a firsttime thrusher then seeing your GP is a must.

Chlamydia is a sneaky STI that is often symptomless, especially in women, so unless you regularly get tested (which you should once a year), you won’t know you’ve got it. What to do: If you do experience bleeding from your genitals or pain during urination, unusual discharge or anything out of the ordinary, just be sensible and go get tested. Luckily, chlamydia is curable with a dose of antibiotics so there’s no need to panic if you get onto it quickly. Herpes is a treatable but unfortunately incurable STI, and, like chlamydia, is on the rise in Australia. While herpes can transfer even with protection, it’s best practice to slip slop slap on a rubber. Herpes is transferred through bodily fluids and causes discomfort, like a rash, and has strains that can be transmitted by saliva. This means if someone has herpes and performs oral sex on you, you could contract it. What to do: Antiviral medications – such as Acyclovir, Famciclovir and Valaciclovir can rid your body of the symptoms of herpes but unfortunately there’s no cure. The rash goes away after a few days and the symptoms can be eased with baths, paracetamol and ice packs but

1. THE RAMEN BURGER: Though it might seem like crispy ramen makes for an exquisite bun, it’s the best combination with a savoury beef burger.

2. Guacamole Hummus: Actually simplest idea ever. Guac + Hummus = heaven.

3. Cronuts: It’s the new thing that has

already taken off, but if you haven’t tried a croissant cross donut, you haven’t lived.

4. Mac ‘n’ Cheese Pancakes: Courtesy of

lower Manhattan, apparently this hybrid makes a normal pancake seem like nothing but eggs, milk and flour.

5. Pop Tart Ice Cream Sandwich: Probably the most delicious thing in the world, this blend of pop tart and ice cream is so straightforward yet so delectable. not much else unfortunately. Recurrences are usually infrequent and not that painful.

HPV Genital warts are one of the most common STIs, caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). The types of HPV that cause visible genital warts do not progress to cervical cancer. What to do: Condoms reduce the risk of HPV transmission and an effective vaccine is available. Treatments include creams and gels to remove visible warts, as well as removing larger warts in semi-invasive ways (liquid nitrogen), which remove the visible wart, but not the virus. Lastly, if you’re experiencing any of the symptoms above, do not have sex. There’s nothing worse than someone who indulges in their fear of embarrassment at the expense of another’s health.

26 bull usu.edu.au section heading

Issue 05 27 FEATURE

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MEN?

BARBARA TAYLOR CONSIDERS THE RISKS OF THE MENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S RIGHTS MOVEMENT. On May 23, 2014, a 22-year-old male named Elliot Rodger drove his BMW to a sorority house in Isla Vista, California and opened fire on the girls inside. After driving away, running over people on the way, he was caught in conflict with the police and crashed. Authorities discovered he was already dead by self-inflicted gunshot. Later at his apartment, police found three dead bodies and a 140-page manifesto. The total count, excluding Rodger, was six dead and 13 injured.

28 bull usu.edu.au FEATURE

Image courtesy of nbcnews.com

When tragedies like this occur, people are quick to both question and provide explanations for the perpetrators. However, in the case of Rodger, there was no room for speculation. The reason for his killing spree, as articulated over and over again in his manifesto, was simply a hatred of women. “Women are like a plague,” his manifesto reads. “They don’t deserve to have any rights. Their wickedness must be contained in order to prevent future generations from falling to degeneracy. Women are vicious, evil, barbaric animals, and they need to be treated as such.” Though it may sound like a walking tautology, the Men’s Rights Movement (MRM) exists, and recently found a new awakening. The movement often describes itself as “counterfeminist” and historically has been concerned with women’s rights. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the MRM even considered suffragettes a hate group. Wherever women’s rights are concerned, there is always a man ready to ask, “What about men?” and indeed, we ask: what about men? “The short answer is that men are human beings who deserve the same human rights as everyone else,” say Tom Voltz and Adrian Johnson, the founders of Men’s Rights Sydney. “The longer answer is the myth that men, as a group, don’t face systematic discrimination/sexism, are privileged, or go through life like playing a video game on easy mode has unfortunately become part of the mainstream cultural narrative.” Video game analogies aside, portions of what Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) preach are legitimate. One of the most poignant concerns of the MRM is the treatment and stigma of male victims of violence and sexual assault. “Male victims are disbelieved, told they should feel lucky, laughed at, had their sexuality questioned, and are denigrated whenever they come forward,” Voltz and Johnson say. Men’s Rights Sydney also state on their website’s FAQ (currently under construction) that they do not believe that men are oppressed, per say, but that neither are women. “It’s a bit of a stretch to say that women are not oppressed,

and that men are not oppressed as if both were homogenous groups,” says University of Sydney gender scholar Dr. Jennifer Germon. “The statement assumes we all exist under the same, presumably equitable conditions. Gender violence is an outcome of particular power dynamics that operate between people at one level and institutional levels as well.” Prevailing above any statistics regarding child custody or alimony payments is the sincere belief that women’s oppression is a well-constructed myth, and that the women’s rights movement (particularly over the last 40 years) has victimised men. A popular Men’s Rights website, A Voice For Men (AVFM), preaches what they call “humanist counter-theory” in the “age of misandry”. Indeed, a formative post of AVFM by founder Paul Elam, who once decided to name October “Bash a Violent Bitch Month”, is entitled “The Myth of Women’s Oppression”. AVFM supports “nonviolent antagonism” of “feminist governance”, but is filled with such anti-feminist vitriol and provocative rhetoric that the sentiment may be null and void. There is a conflict of interest between the public MRM and the ‘men’s rights’ niche, existing in subreddit forums and chatrooms. Rodger was affiliated with the latter, and was active in a subset called PUAHate (which stands for Pick Up Artist Hate). PUAs and PUAHaters share a common interest in their entitlement to women’s time and bodies. PUAs, however, are considered “alpha males”, while PUAHaters feel their wooing efforts are clinically rejected or that as “beta males” they should not even try. “Given the suicide rates, health statistics around certain disease categories and mental health issues such as depression among men, you could make the argument that the demands of masculinity are indeed dangerous to men,” Dr. Germon says. Jezebel reporter Erin Gloria Ryan spent a day on Rodger’s old chatroom to observe how PUAHaters behave and interact with one another. By 9:16am she says, “Members of the forum start giddily reflecting on Rodger’s fame and begin encouraging each other to write manifestos.” By 9:24am, they’re all saying every man feels how Rodger felt.

Issue 05 29 FEATURE

“The reason for his killing spree, as articulated over and over again in his manifesto, was simply a hatred of women.” “Ninety-nine per cent of men relate if they are honest,” one commenter said. “Men relate to hating women.” After spending upwards of seven hours observing the forum, Ryan came to the conclusion that, “Elliot Rodger and company aren’t the mentally ill outliers that the media depicts them as. They are much more common than we want them to be.” The rage and violence that these men and boys feel does not appear to develop from a consciously perceived injustice, as the MRM would have you believe. It is the product of insecurity that turns into incensed fury which, when it searches for a target, finds women. “Of course it wasn’t just women who were targeted at Isla Vista so misogyny, while obviously present, doesn’t fully explain what happened,” Dr. Germon adds. “That guy was railing against hegemonic masculinity as well.” Rodger was an ‘incel’ (which is a men’s rights term for ‘involuntary celibate’) who felt that he was owed sex by women, and the fact that no women had slept with him was not only an insult, but a crime. Quoting his manifesto: “Those girls deserved to be dumped in boiling water for the crime of not giving me the attention and adoration I so rightfully deserve!” All over the world, women and girls face this expectation. Back in April 2014, a boy in Connecticut, USA killed a girl who refused to go to prom with him. He pushed her down the stairs, choked her, and stabbed her in the neck. There is not one female-identifying individual I know who can honestly say a man has never harassed them, and even those who do not recognise this as harassment do not deny it happening. “That’s just men,” they might say, and while it might not be all men, all women have experience with male entitlement and everyday sexism. In response to the defence that “not all men” are paid more than women/control the government/are rapists/abusers/ etc., women (and men) took to their Twitter feeds. The #YesAllWomen tag on Twitter got a serious workout after the Isla Vista shootings. People of all genders shared their experiences and some men expressed sympathy and understanding. Not all men, but some.

There is a link between the MRM, male entitlement, and ultimately, violence. Fortunately this violence does not always present itself as drastically and tragically as it did during the Isla Vista shootings, but there is a pattern that cannot be ignored. By denying the existence of white male privilege and constantly asking, “But what about men?” the MRM attempts to derail a dialogue that has been dominated by them for centuries, while simultaneously grouping ‘men’ together in a vague lump, without regard for factors such as race and class. While it is not necessarily the goal of the MRM to empower people like Rodger, the fact is that it did. The MRM, and the surrounding ‘manosphere’ supported Rodger and his warped perception of women and of himself. Whether or not he identified as an MRA is irrelevant. He used terminology that is unique to the MRM, and was well versed in similar misogynistic rhetoric. A wealthy man plunging head first into a victim complex about how women treated him, or didn’t treat him; about other men and the culturally enforced concepts of masculinity Rodger tried to emulate, is what caused him to desire ‘retribution’. Author Margaret Atwood once made a concise and terrifying observation. In Writing the Male Character, back in 1982, she recalled a conversation with a male friend wherein she asked why it is men feel threatened by women. She said to him, “I mean … men are bigger, most of the time, they can run faster, strangle better, and they have on the average a lot more money and power.” Her friend replied, “They’re afraid women will laugh at them … Undercut their world view.” Arguably, such is the collective anxiety of the MRM. The MRM, historically and in essence, has less to do with human rights than it does with a greater anxiety and insecurity about other genders and shifts in male-dominated heteronormative power structures. Rodger felt threatened because for all his money, for all that he was the “supreme gentleman”, people did not throw themselves at his feet. He was afraid of being rejected; afraid of being laughed at by the girls he never slept with and the boys who slept with those girls. When Margaret Atwood asked the question, “Why are women threatened by men?” to female students, they replied with the simple truth, “They’re afraid of being killed.”

H o o di e $ 6 4.9 5 – AC C ESS $ 5 5.2 1

WA R M U P TO TH E SYDN EY STORE W I TH TH E NE W WINTE R RANGE

GROUND F LO O R , H O LM E BUI LD I N G A ND US U. E D U. AU/S H O P A LS O AVA I LA BLE AT UN I M A RT

Issue 05 31 THE TIME I TRIED...

THE TIME I TRIED... Going to Bed at 10pm

Mary Ward thought her life would change by sleeping earlier. It’s rare that a week goes by without a women’s health magazine or an A Current Affair story telling us to sleep more. Just go to bed at 10pm, they say. You’ll be awake and fully rested by 7am, they say. Your skin will glow, the bags under your eyes will disappear, and you will achieve a state of relaxation, organisation and self-actualisation that can only be facilitated by an eight-hour rest that doesn’t involve sleeping in until noon, they say. For a long time, I believed them. I thought adjusting my life so that I was in bed at 10pm would be an excellent idea. So excellent an idea that I pitched putting myself to bed at 10pm for a week as a health and wellbeing story for another publication. But, then I tried to do it… and I failed. So I tried again… and I failed. Despite this, I thought I’d give it another crack… Nope. I couldn’t do it. After three months of attempts, I have concluded that this is a feat only possible for children under the age of 12 and people called Gwyneth Paltrow. I lost the story in the other publication. But, thankfully, the good people at BULL don’t care for success stories. So, here is a brief list of reasons why I was unable to go to sleep at 10pm:

FOOD It is surprising how frequently I looked up at the clock to see the big one-o when I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, or was eating dinner. I don’t care what A Current Affair says, dinner is non-negotiable.

IN TRANSIT If 10pm arrived and I was driving a car, I sensibly resisted the temptation to nod off right then and there. You can thank me later fellow responsible motorists. It is possible to sleep on a bus. Sure. But, it is frowned upon, and unless you plan on spending the night in a depot, it’s unlikely to result in the uninterrupted, luxurious sleep required to complete this assignment.

WORKING On the subject of completing assignments, this was another late-night task that prevented my ascent into body clock nirvana. Sometimes my computer would tell me it was 10pm and I would (rationally and respectfully, of course) yell back: “I KNOW, YOU PIECE OF POORLY MANUFACTURED $^?#!. BUT YOU’VE CRASHED THRICE AS I ATTEMPT TO ADD AN EXTRA 450 WORDS TO THIS ESSAY, SO MAYBE YOU DON’T GET A SAY IN THIS.”

On a less angry note, I do shift work which often sees me being paid to be awake (among other things) past 2200.

STUFF TO DO 10pm is the perfect time to iron, or dust, or shower, or perform any of life’s little domestic duties that you had procrastinated during the time beforehand. It is also a great time to realise you’ve lost your phone charger when you just know it must be somewhere in your house, or to discover a freaking huge spider dangling above your bed that must be removed immediately. Also, it’s hard to sleep in a bed if you haven’t had time to put any sort of bedding on it. Just sayin’.

MAYBE NOT ESSENTIAL BUT AT THE TIME VERY COMPELLING STUFF TO DO When 10pm rolls around and some kind soul has put the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005 on YouTube, one does not go to sleep. When 10pm rolls around and the fight scene in Bridget Jones’ Diary is, like, only two ad breaks away, one does not go to sleep. When 10pm rolls around and one has two 1024 tiles that are totally going to make 2048 if one just gives oneself another five minutes. One does not simply go to sleep at 10pm when these situations arise.

32 bull usu.edu.au FEATURE

TACKLING HOMOPHOBIA Alistair Kitchen explores the rugby team that is challenging narratives of masculinity.

Not long after the FIFA World Cup draws to a close, an equally important but lesser-known World Cup will kick off in Sydney. On 29 August, Sydney’s gay and inclusive rugby team, the Sydney Convicts, will host the World Cup of gay rugby: the Bingham Cup. In some ways, the Bingham Cup is bigger than the FIFA World Cup. For one, Bingham hosts more teams, with over 30 travelling to Sydney from around the world and around 850 players taking the field. But more importantly, the vast majority of those players will be gay. Over in Brazil, not a single openly gay player competed. It’s for this reason that teams like the Convicts exist. Founded in 2004, the Convicts are Australia’s first, and the world’s most successful, gay rugby union club. They’ve been lauded for undoing stereotypes of masculinity and sexuality, and for championing sport as an answer to homophobia in Australia. The club will field three teams in this year’s Bingham Cup, with the first grade team hoping to win the Cup for a fourth time. They play weekly in the NSW Suburban Rugby Union competition, and most recently shattered old myths about gay sport by being the first gay rugby team to play at a professional sporting event, downing Macquarie University at Allianz Stadium in a curtain raiser for the NSW Waratahs.

“There was no grand plan to be where we are today,” says Andrew ‘Fuzz’ Purchas, Convicts founder and Bingham Cup 2014 President, about the early days of the team. “There was no long term vision – the intent was to get together a bunch of gay guys to have a red hot go at winning the Bingham Cup.” That competitive attitude is still at the heart of the Convicts’ ethos who, by playing good rugby, have demanded respect from the broader rugby community. “I think that part of the success of the Convicts has been that we have been predominately about rugby – we are a rugby club first,” says Purchas. Having founded the Convicts after playing with San Francisco’s gay and inclusive rugby team, Purchas believes that a love of rugby is the reason the Convicts were able to transition so smoothly into a subdivision of the Woolahra Colleagues Rugby Union Football Club. “As soon as the club saw that we were serious about rugby, the whole thing became a non-issue.” It’s also an attitude the club will need if they hope to succeed this year, as Head Coach Charlie Winn believes this Bingham Cup is set to see the highest standard of play yet. With the competition taking on an intense three-day format, the challenge is made even greater. “It’s probably the most physically demanding rugby competition that you will come across. Most comps, you’ll play a game and then have a minimum of four days off. At Bingham, you’re playing six games in three days if you get to the final. So it does become a war of attrition, and player management plays a big part,” Winn says. It’s off the field, however, where the Convicts have recently been most prominent. Normally happy to let the rugby do the talking, the club has recently taken active steps to end homophobia and discrimination in sport. As part of the lead-up to the Bingham Cup, Purchas and the Bingham Committee

Issue 05 33 FEATURE

announced that they had brought together the Australian Rugby Union, National Rugby League, Australian Football League, Football Federation of Australia and Cricket Australia to sign a landmark agreement. In doing so, they each committed to enacting an anti-homophobia policy in their codes in order to make sport a welcoming place for gender and sexually diverse people. In Purchas’ view, the Bingham Cup “was too good an opportunity to let go in terms of using it as a catalyst to highlight some of the issues around sport and homophobia.” Like the team itself, the policy came not from a grand vision but from a single idea. “We spoke to the ARU. Bill Pulver had just become CEO and was very keen on the idea, and I think he was amazed that there wasn’t already an anti-homophobia policy. Most of the codes have got anti-vilification legislation, and I explained to him that that’s a pretty low bar, if you only want to ensure that you don’t vilify people, rather than creating a welcoming environment. He was certainly very supportive of that.” By April, the commitment had been announced and the policy signed. Not a month later, the NRL gave a two-week ban to West Tigers player Mitchell Moses for calling an opponent a “fucking gay cunt”. But not everyone is happy with the tougher stance on homophobia. Miranda Devine, columnist for The Daily Telegraph, wrote a piece titled ‘NRL bosses are totally gay’, arguing that the NRL were “paying obeisance to homo-fascism.” Her view is unlikely to convince any of the Convicts who see statements like hers and Mitchell Moses’ as further justification for a gay rugby team. Until all LGBTIQ people can feel safe playing sport, teams like the Convicts will continue to offer a space for them to do so. Indeed Sam Elliot, one of the Convicts’ few straight members, holds a similar view. He knows better than most the

type of impact the Convicts can have. “Going into this, I would say I was a homophobe. Without a doubt. I’m not proud to say that – I’m devastated looking back on it, but in my defence I would say it was entirely from a lack of experience. I truly believe that we are afraid of things we don’t know and the things we don’t understand, as well. And I would say that becoming a part of this club has just changed me so much as a person and really, really opened my eyes to a whole other way of looking at life.” His perspective reveals a lot about the type of impact that the Convicts have every time they take the field, and emphasises the way the team challenges traditional notions of masculinity and sexuality just by playing rugby. What’s more, his views suggest that the very existence of the team helps to dispel homophobia in the community. “It’s as simple as people coming to know and understand the team, and they change their opinions immediately. I reckon you could take any player from a Subbies (Suburban Rugby Union) team and give them four weeks in the team and they would completely, completely change their mind.” For Elliot, this phenomenon is tightly connected with the game of rugby itself: “The best thing about rugby for me is that it doesn’t matter what I’m thinking before I run onto the field; during the game, everything fades. All that matters is the guys standing around you and the guys on the opposite team, and they barely even matter at all because you’re just out there to have fun and play sport and it doesn’t matter who you’re playing with, because you’re not thinking about those sorts of things. You’re not thinking of politics and sexuality – you’re thinking about sport.”

VOLUNTEER MATCHMAKING 1PM, WEDNESDAY 20TH AUGUST 2014

VOLUNTEE

VOLUNTE

VOLUNTEE

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT LOUNGE, LEVEL 4 WENTWORTH BUILDING THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

VOLUNTE

/USUAccess

If you are passionate about making a change and would like to volunteer for a not-for-profit organisation, come along and meet with representatives from some of Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most established organisations EMAIL: humanitarianweek@usu.edu.au to register your interest

@USUAccess

/USUonline

usu.edu.au

Issue 05 35 CAMPUS FASHION

CAMPUS FASHION Stuvac

Brianna Charteris // Bachelor of Pharmacy II PANTS: Sussan BOOTS: Ugg Boots Australian Made GLASSES: Specsavers SCARF: Rubi – Cotton On JUMPER: Bonds What inspired this look today? Casual, very casual (‘just woke up’ look – literally). Who’s your style icon or girl crush? I’m sure J-Law would sleep in these same clothes. Most hated fashion trend for either guys or girls? When people clash colours. I hate when people wear lots of different colours in one outfit. Neutral black is always the safest option!

Adrian Fajardo // Bachelor of Science (Master in Nursing) II

Kirsty Gan // LAW/INTERNATIONAL AND GLOBAL STUDIES II

T-Shirt: Uniqlo Pants: Uniqlo

Jacket: Target JEANS: Marcs Scarf: Nabbed from my mum (I think it’s Jigsaw) Sandals: Wanted Shoes Bag: Country Road

What inspired this look today? I just wore something comfortable and clean. Who’s your style icon or man crush? No one. Most hated fashion trend for either guys or girls? Guys wearing skinny jeans. Girls can pull that look off, but guys shouldn’t wear such tight pants! Describe your ultimate USYD look? Chinos, runners and a t-shirt is always the best look – anyone can pull that off.

Describe your ultimate USYD look. I tend to wear comfortable clothes – Ugg boots can transform an outfit from uncomfortable to snug.

What inspired this look today? Classic neutrals spiced up with my ‘happy’ scarf! Who’s your style icon or girl crush? That’s tough – probably a cross between Emma Watson, Jenna Coleman and Emma Stone. Most hated fashion trend for either guys or girls? Honestly guys, stop with the thongs and footy shorts. Please. It hurts my eyes. Describe your ultimate USYD look. I tend to wear regular clothes at uni like striped t-shirts, leggings and sandals.

Taking a page out of Bridget Jones’ Diary:

the perfect backside-bestie for any and every event.

Beyoncé’s got a pair, Kristen Stewart has flashed hers and the Kardashians barely leave their Malibu mansions without them on. They are adored by everyone and have been lovingly hugging the butts and sucking in the stomachs of millions since the start of the millennium. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about the one and only Spanx. We recommend two pairs –

But recent reports from the Huffington Post have claimed that the miracle undies could be “literally crushing your organs”. Magic pants have been medically associated with restricted breathing, heartburn and even bringing on uncontrollable poops – not an ideal side effect when you’ve pulled out all the stops for a fancy-schmancy event. Luckily, these dodgy bonuses will only happen when the

Bridget Jones-esque knickers are on, so if you are feeling woozy the instant cure is cutting yourself out of those bad boys! So there is no need to exile your Spanx to the rubbish bin quite yet, but maybe stick to the recommended dose of one evening of streamlined curves to save yourself any, erm, sticky situations on the dance floor.

Emily Shen, Rebecca Karpin and Katie Stow

36 bull usu.edu.au CLASSIC COUNTDOWN & VOX POPS

CLASSIC COUNTDOWN The Best GOOD NICOLAS CAGE FILMS

VOX pops

The man brought American history, rage faces and bees into fashion, and has a reputation for starring in perhaps more movies than he should. Conor Bateman finds some treasures in the pile.

THE WEATHER MAN (2005)

Gore Verbinski’s dark comedy follows a Chicago weatherman poorly coming to terms with the disintegration of his marriage, his daughter hitting puberty and the prospect of a job on national television. It’s very funny and fairly under-seen. Cage does some great work, particularly in voiceover – the ‘tartar sauce’ scene will stay with you.

FACE/OFF (1997)

The one where John Travolta plays Nicolas Cage and Nicolas Cage plays John Travolta. This means twice the Cage, because Travolta turns in his best work since Pulp Fiction. Also John Woo knows his way around big action sequences.

MELISSA HOWE // MASTERS OF FINE ARTS I Listening to: A lot of classical music with no words while I’m writing Reading: The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld Watching: An SFF film – The Two Faces Of January

BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS (2009)

Werner Herzog’s very loose adaptation of Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant sees Cage play a corrupt and completely deranged officer of the law. Herzog lets Cage run wild with his insanity and it is electrifying to watch.

Listening to: London Grammar Reading: Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis Watching: Suits season four

WILD AT HEART (1990)

David Lynch’s Palme d’Or winner is a delirious oddity that follows a pseudo-Elvis Presley figure who hits the road with his girlfriend after he gets out of jail, waxes lyrical about his snakeskin jacket, actually sings Elvis’ ‘Love Me’ and runs into Willem Dafoe at his most disturbing. Admittedly not for everyone but still, Nicolas Cage essentially is Elvis. That alone is worth the price of admission.

3 2

BILLY KOVANIS // COMMERCE (LIBERAL STUDIES) III

ADAPTATION (2002)

I’m a sucker for clever meta-fiction. In this Spike Jonze-directed film, Cage plays screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and twin brother Donald Kaufman (who does not exist off-screen but was still nominated for an Oscar for screenwriting). Like Face/Off, Cage plays duelling personas but it’s the sheer neuroses of Charlie and his ability to shed much of his usual acting style that renders this his most intriguing film.

HANNAH JAQUES // BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING I Listening to: The Hamish & Andy podcast Reading: Khaled Hosseini’s And the Mountains Echoed Watching: Teen Wolf

Issue 05 37 COW & HORNS

HAVE A COW TANG LI HAS UNFOLLOWED ALL #FASHION BLOGGERS ON INSTAGRAM AND RECOMMENDS YOU DO THE SAME. Ah, fashion bloggers. You won’t be able to log on to any social media platform without encountering this special, narcissistic breed. Unfortunately for all of us, they seem to be taking over the cyber world one #outfitoftheday at a time. Let’s talk about #thesituation. Not only do they post repetitive, banal outfits and travel photos with the same damned expression, they just won't stop staging their perfect lives through social media, particularly Instagram. ‘Flatlays’ are the incredibly innovative way of showcasing your latest #trianglbikini, #michaelkorswatch, #zarastrappyheels and #ladureemacarons by

arranging all the products against a pastel backdrop and taking an aerial shot. #Youjelly? Look, we might be jealous of your macarons for a fraction of a second while our stomachs rumble, but the harsh reality is that everyone is sick and tired of the narcissistic, yuppie-esque persona that you Instagrammable fashion bloggers have created for yourselves. When I log into Instagram, I don’t want to feel like I am following a herd of sheep competing to sport the most luxurious ‘ready-to-wear’ outfits (which not one person can wear in public without looking ridiculous). Bring back the individualism and creative flair! Let’s not forget about the omnipresent #foodstagram. Now, we’re all culprits of this one – making our friends wait while

we attempt to snap the textbook food shot. With fashion bloggers however, it has become a travesty. It’s gotten to the point where some fashion bloggers insist on standing on communal café or restaurant chairs in order to achieve the perfect image. There’s a certain protocol to be followed for one to be accepted by the wider Instagram community (you know, aspiring twelvie photographers and the like): one must rearrange all the table décor, salt and pepper shakers, cutlery, food and then flash some #armbling – obviously so everyone can see how chic you are. Honestly, just take the bloody photo and be done with it. No need to stand on fucking chairs mate. Leave that shit to Annie Leibovitz.

BERNADETTE ANVIA GOES MAD FOR MACARONS.

SHONA YANG DREAMS OF CHOCOLATECOATED CHURROS.

In the pantheon of delectable desserts, one amazing option stands tall above all others: the macaron, best pronounced with a faux French inflection (mac-AH-ron). Not even the churro can compete. Originating in France, macarons burst onto the Australian foodie scene in 2010, after Masterchef Australia had contestants recreate Adriano Zumbo’s macaron tower. Since then, Australia’s love affair with this decadent dessert has continued to grow. Macarons are everything you could ever want in a dessert. Their bright colours make them highly aesthetically pleasing and a great centrepiece for practically any occasion. They’re not overly sweet or rich, allowing for copious consumption at any given time of the day (forget that deep-fried churros stuff). Plus, they come in pretty much every flavour you could imagine including (but not limited to) salted caramel, mandarin, chocolate, vanilla, rosewater and even foie gras! This makes them much more versatile than a churro stick that can only be dipped in boring ol’ chocolate. Most importantly, macarons are like the Little Black Dress of the dessert world – they can easily be dressed up or dressed down. For a casual sweet, they can accompany a quick cup of coffee on the go, or they can be the pièce de résistance at that fancy dinner party you’ve been planning for weeks. Ahh macarons, the perfect dessert!

Although a little underrated and Instragrammed a lot less often than pink macarons, churros with milk chocolate dip are a match made in heaven! The perfect dessert is hard to come by, but one waft of the cinnamon coating is enough to seduce your taste buds and leave a lingering memory of its doughy goodness. Come to think of it, churros are quite modest. While pretentious desserts, such as orange blossom Ladurée macarons (and other equally obscure flavours), dominate the spotlight, churros never flaunt their lightly bronzed layers or their killer curves. When cooked perfectly, churros are crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. They’ll even last longer than the stingy bites you get for a $4 Ladurée macaron. The varieties of churros are endless and enough to make even Adriano Zumbo blush. Churros with peanut butter and hundreds and thousands sprinkled on top for your inner child, churros with froyo on the side for a bad breakup and chocolate-glazed churros for a girls night out. My personal favourite: freshly baked churros with milk chocolate drizzled on top with a side of fresh strawberries. The next time you’re in need of a feel-good dessert, jump on the crispy churro wagon – you’ll never look at another macaron again.

LOCKING HORNS CHURROS VS. MACARONS

Al Cu exan nn dra ing piry ha D 31 m De ate Ex

cem

201

JUST $

SEMESTER 2 CARDS

usu.edu.au/sayhello

/USUAccess MKT295

@USUAccess

/USUonline

/USUAccess

Issue 05 39 ARTS

ARTS Mumblecore

Naturalism in performance

Eden Caceda Very few newly released films break the mould of existing movie genres, and rarely do new film movements have momentum to warrant the creation of a new subgenre. Mumblecore is a relatively new and unknown subgenre that has critics and historians arguing if the movement is likely to continue or dwindle. A subgenre of independent film, mumblecore has been watched by audiences longer than we think and has featured actors that filmgoers have come to love. Moving towards the digital and more cost effective way of filmmaking, mumblecore appears to be a successful go-to genre for films to appeal to when screening the everyday stories of middle-class white people in their 20s. Characterised by low budget production values and commonly featuring amateur actors, this new subgenre focuses on naturalism in performance and dialogue, usually involving improvisation. These films also depart from standard narrative structures and favour character development over action. Woody Allen’s Manhattan – despite being a high budget film, which is rare for mumblecore films – is the first known example of this subgenre. However, unlike other mumblecore films, the protagonist changes their worldview at the conclusion of the film. Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise and Richard

Linklater’s popular Before Sunrise were two other films that use many of the techniques that have since influenced mumblecore filmmaking. In a film world inundated with drama and high comedy, mumblecore delivered a breath of fresh air when Andrew Bujalski’s debut hit Funny Ha Ha hit cinemas in 2002. Audiences were finally able to relate to passive aggressive conversations between friends and witness the awkwardness of everyday situations come alive on screen. Following a slew of other films, mumblecore has increasingly occupied cinema screens with 2007’s Hannah Takes The Stairs, featuring future mumblecore signature actors Greta Gerwig, Andrew Bujalski and Mark Duplass, the 2009 hit Breaking Upwards, a romantic comedy that avoided the classic Hollywood film methods, and the now popular Tiny Furniture from 2010 which was written, directed and starred Lena Dunham. Tiny Furniture in particular is a film that embodies many of the stereotypical aspects of mumblecore films. Dunham, who is now the star and creator of trendy television series Girls, cast her own mother Laurie Simmons and her sister Grace Dunham as the mother and sister of the protagonist. This focus on her life and the search for personal happiness is also echoed in Girls, a series focusing on a bunch of affluent young white people who try to balance their artistic wishes with their career and personal lives.

Mumblecore has slowly moved into the limelight of film and been accepted into more mainstream cinema. 2011’s Your Sister’s Sister, starred Emily Blunt, an actress involved in high budget comedies and dramas, which highlighted the movement’s rise in popularity in Hollywood and with audiences. Safety Not Guaranteed, released in 2012, was mumblecore foraying into the world of modestly budgeted, comedy science fiction films. 2013 also included high budget mumblecore films including Frances Ha and Drinking Buddies, which have been adored by fans internationally. These higher budget films, however, have attracted negative feedback from critics claiming that they lack demographic specificity and credibility. Mumblecore’s lo-fi American films have made small waves in the film world yet have been criticised for being simply a revolution only in the sense of something going round and round with little discernible progress. This hasn’t been helped with directors doubting if this movement existed at all, with Bujalski commenting “[Mumblecore] doesn’t mean anything to me”. However what directors and film critics are not recognising is that mumblecore can and will exist as long as amateur filmmakers exist too. Not every filmmaker has a million dollar budget, a star and an anthology of production assistants, but many do have a camera, friends and stories they will tell regardless of the subgenre existing or not.

40 bull usu.edu.au REVIEWS

REVIEWS

WATCH: GAME OF THRONES – S4 DAVID BENIOFF & D.B. WEISS

LISTEN: LIGHGHT KISHI BASHI

LISTEN: ULTRAVIOLENCE LANA DEL REY

PLAY: SHOVEL KNIGHT YACHT CLUB GAMES

There’s a reason Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in Australia. This season has lived up to expectations and been rife with betrayal, deception (looking at you, Baelish), and death, with some deaths more…crushing than others. Coming into this season cold is not recommended. As a complex patchwork narrative, every season finale gives less closure to each story arc, and is really just one more way to toy with the audience’s emotions. The last two episodes were particularly chaotic. They ensured that the remaining Stark children were flung into separate corners of the Game of Thrones universe, probably (definitely) unlikely to see each other soon. Following in the tradition of last season’s odd couple, this season Arya was paired with The Hound. Although this pairing does not deliver any of the comic relief that Brienne and Jaime could provide, it has certainly set our young heroine on an important moral path for the next season. But I for one am most looking forward to Stannis Baratheon’s plot. He demonstrated in the finale that he was capable of a much less mind-numbingly dull storyline than he’d led audiences to believe.

Japanese-American artist Kishi Bashi is back with his new 13-track LP and musical masterpiece Lighght (pronounced ‘light’), and it is so much more than a couple of fun words to say. Pushing, twisting, meshing and surpassing conventional styles, Kishi Bashi’s new record will keep you on your toes at the turn of every song. With tracks typically ranging in length between 48 seconds and seven minutes, the sound of Lighght also jumps across genres and decades. From funk-infused electro tunes like ‘The Ballad of Mr. Steak’ and ‘Hahaha Pt 1’, to the grandiose nature of ‘Carry On Phenomenon’ that carries distinct influences from the 80s new wave and progressive rock scene (think A Flock of Seagulls and Supertramp), Kishi Bashi covers the lot, imprinting them all with his distinctive string sounds. Logically this musical diversity would undermine the consistency of the album, making it more dissected and compartmentalised. Instead, Kishi Bashi seamlessly transitions each song into the next, making it sound as though you’re listening to one overarching narrative with 13 different plot twists. Lighght is one of increasingly fewer albums that can, and should be listened to from start to finish.

Lana Del Rey’s new album saw the fatalistic pop singer take a dramatic genre-change into psychedelic dream pop. Del Rey’s Ultraviolence moves the singer’s original basis of catchy melodies into a more poignant and perfectly dreamy homage to her past. Her third album shows promise through the stand-out tracks ‘West Coast’ and ‘Money, Power, Glory’, but falls short and ultimately divides fans into those who appreciate her artistic interpretations and those who were unaware of the complete drugged up mind-fuck they were in for. With syncopated percussive sets, clean guitar riffs and excessive synth use, the general atmosphere created is one of a delayed drug high. Drawing on her evolution as an artist, the tracks involve often-intense real-life influence. In particular, ‘Fucked My Way to The Top’ is set as a revenge track against an individual who criticised her early work only to eventually adopt it in full form. Ultraviolence inspires die-hard listeners to fawn over Del Rey’s work, but alienates those who otherwise enjoyed her previous style. Lana Del Rey has once again produced a misunderstood masterpiece, and such an experimental genre-jump is sure to have repercussions on how her music is received by fans.

Shovel Knight is one of those rare retro-styled video games that manages to emulate the much-loved titles of yesteryear without getting too caught up in its own sense of nostalgia. This crowd-funded indie release sees our gallant tool-wielding hero on a quest to defeat the evil Enchantress and perhaps rescue his missing erstwhile companion Shield Knight in the process. Though the simplistic plotline pales in comparison to those of recent indie storytelling masterpieces, this 2D side-scroller adds just the right amount of polish, charm, and shovel-related puns (“I can dig it”) to keep things feeling unique and fun. It brilliantly captures the look and sound of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras (think pre-Nintendo 64) matched with a comical take on the feel of the Dark Souls series. The game can be frustratingly difficult at times, but does well to welcome modern gamers with ample checkpoints placed throughout levels. Unfortunately it still runs a little on the short side - I clocked in about five hours before finishing. This is a fantastic adventure for gamers of all ages - even if you’re not familiar with the games of old, there’s plenty to love in Shovel Knight.

JORDAN MULLINS

GEORGIA HITCH

VANESSA SONG

ROB NORTH

Issue 05 41 REVIEWS

EXPERIENCE Flip the Script Backyard Gig

It’s 6pm on a Saturday night and I’m huddled around a fire in a stranger’s suburban backyard, drinking wine from a red cup and shivering (suggestion: probably don’t wear sandals to an outdoor event in the middle of winter). Caspar, one half of the hip-hop duo Flip the Script who I came here to see, strides past with purpose and a beer in his hand, and because I’m two drinks in I think it’s totally appropriate to ask a man who is about to perform if he has any socks I can borrow. He says he’ll find me some, and when he returns with a pair of thick grey socks I decide it’s better not to question where they came from. I gratefully put them on under my Windsor Smiths #fashion. The best thing about backyard gigs is that they provide an environment in which a girl can feel comfortable wearing socks and sandals. But more importantly, guerrilla gigging can be a useful avenue for up-and-coming bands to refine their skills in live performance before they have major interactions with bar and club scenes. These gigs also allow audiences to experience music in a relaxed, communityminded environment; none of the bands I’ve seen in big venues recently have provided chips and dip or socks on demand before the show starts. I mulled this over as we gathered on the patio next to the pool, and Joe and Caspar picked up their microphones. It was strange seeing them change from my friends into the singular entity that is Flip the Script, but I was soon absorbed by the music. While Caspar’s saxophone solo mid-set was a definite highlight, I was impressed with the performance overall. Flip the Script’s songs are not only catchy, but capture a kind of sarcastic pathos which Australian hip hop does surprisingly well. When I suggested this to my boyfriend, saying that Seth Sentry’s ‘Waitress’ was called to mind, he called me pretentious but probably privately agreed. After the performance was finished, the gig turned into a pretty regular party and I guiltily left my borrowed socks in the bathroom before I went home. I would highly recommend a backyard gig to anyone interested in supporting grassroots live music and new artists, especially if they like to do so in someone else’s socks.

Shannen Potter

Photo by James Nelson

2014 FIFA World Cup: @TheWorldGame did you see that ludicrous display last month? #bandwagoner

Edge of Tomorrow: This is what happens when Tom Cruise's sci-fi hard on meets Groundhog Day (1/2).

Edge of Tomorrow: it feels so good, but culminates in an altogether messy ending (2/2).

The Walking Dead: S5 looms, but this dead show has been shuffling along aimlessly since S2

The Fault In Our Stars: there's no fault in these stars, just endless enjoyment and tears

Milky Chance–Sadnecessary: folky rhythms + soothing vocals + pulsing beats = the crossover success of 2014

Game of Thrones MCA Exhibit: all men (responsible for not ticketing this event) must die #queue #rage

42 bull usu.edu.au CLUB CONFIDENTIAL

CLUB CONFIDENTIAL ow

ch o

ther

Sydney Harbour // 6 June 2014

Education and Social Work Society Cruise

nd and S

en We don ’t ev The Education and Social Work Society has a reputation. A reputation for incredible events. 2012 brought us a 1920s Gatsby-esque night, because a little party never killed nobody, and last year they topped it with a massive cruise themed ‘Cartoon and Comic Book Characters’. Word got around and they had to live up to the hype. The 2014 EDSOC Cruise ‘Talk Nerdy to Me: High School Stereotypes’ did not disappoint. With 370 Education and Social Work students boarding the three-level boat, this year’s cruise marked the biggest the society has ever held. Partygoers were greeted by tables of pre-poured beer and punch (teacher efficiency!) plus a huge buffet of food. We’re not talking some party pies and sausage rolls here! The EDSOC executive went all out with super-yummy pasta bake, delicious salads and copious bread rolls – the way to my heart. As the night progressed and the unlimited bar tab was being taken advantage of, students made plenty of new friends inside their faculty and out. Attendees mingled with everyone from cheerleaders to mathletes (and even with that guy who came dressed as a lad… not bad). Selfies were taken on the top deck with the beautiful background of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House lit up bright for Vivid Festival. Excellent timing. Drinks flowed, dancing ensued and the DJ kept the music going all night. EDSOC President Matthew Woolaston told BULL that the success of the cruise was testament to the hard work of the executive and the dedication of their members. Dedicated they were – these Education and Social Work students knew how to party. Even as the cruise began to wind down and the boat’s bar was drunk dry, newly made friends coordinated where to kick on. It was an unmissable night from one of our best faculty societies within the Union. SASS better lift their game. Did we mention it was during VIVID? Best $40 I’ve ever spent. Don’t miss the next one.

I’ve only had one I swear Is this the real life

Vivid!!

Doing some investigative journalism

Alisha Aitken-Radburn

Living up to the theme Feathers and crowns make uniforms better

Best.Exec.Ever.

Issue 05 43 CLUB CONFIDENTIAL

END OF SEMESTER BLUES

EASTERN AVENUE // 29 JUNE – 27 JULY 2014

I feel you bro!

No one at Taste?

And to think that libraries couldn’t be any more depressing…

Hell is other people

Roaming around university campus post-exam period, I feel like I’m in a low budget, unscripted slasher film. There is an eerie sense of emptiness all around. Students, having rediscovered their hatred for university courtesy of exams, are more than happy to keep a safe distance. My only validation came from the quadrangle bell chimes that unwittingly provided the escalating tension for that clichéd death scene of the character that always goes down to the basement to ‘check’ what’s happening. Little solace then, when in this case, the basement guy was me. I’d never realised it, but a university campus without people is shit scary. There’s no sign of life, but traces remain. Especially in the Carslaw 24/7 learning hub, the one stop shop to perfect your cramming fury the night before your exam on campus. You are accosted by the whiff of sweat, tears and vapid overachievement that still lingers in the air when you enter. If you’re lucky, you can also detect lost whispers of ‘I only need five marks to pass this unit in the final exam but that’s still too many’. After getting startled for the tenth time by the sound of rustling leaves – wondering if my badly written character in this slasher setting was finally being killed off, I stumbled into the Law Library. Its familiar quietness was comforting. This wasn’t like the stillness outside, normally filled with the hustle and bustle of countless students. It was like rediscovering the long-lost teddy bear that I had loved as a child, but found to be ‘childish’ as I grew up, and thoroughly came to adore again. Because no matter how much the world might change, there is always something that can help you keep it the way you like.

VIRAT NEHRU

The Deserted Avenue

44 bull usu.edu.au SHUTTER UP

SHUTTER UP SOGGY RAINBOW BEER TENT PHOTOGRAPHER: Julia Robertson CANON EOS 6D Aperture: f/4 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/5 Focal Length: 24mm

snap!

Send us your unique, arty or just plain cool (as in, not another quad shot) campus snap to editors@bullmag.com.au We’ll publish our fave each edition in full page glory. High-res, 300dpi jpegs only – portrait orientation.

Issue 05 45 FUN

COMICS SEND YOURS TO US AT EDITORS @ bullmag.com.AU

by BARBARA TAYLOR

by ERIN ROONEY

46 bull usu.edu.au ASK ISABELLA

ASK ISABELLA

Niece of Aunty Irene Lover of Daddy Mack Mother of three and to all those who need advice I am woman, hear me roar

Dear Isabella,

Dear Colin,

I’ve recently taken up weaving as a hobby. I buy cheap wool during Spotlight sales and weave before I go to bed and whenever I’m feeling a bit stressed. I recently mentioned my new hobby to one of my friends and I think they see me differently now... Should I be concerned?

Over the break the love of my life unceremoniously dumped me – and all because I said I'd rather watch Sex and the City than Game of Thrones! Do you think it's worth trying to salvage the relationship, or is it better to let it go?

~ Suzie

~ The Rabbit

Suzie, stop being so daft! Of course your friends will see you differently now that you’ve taken up a craft. You were probably just a premature hatchling, but there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Unless of course you weave bird shapes and hang them as decorative pieces on walls – that, my petal, would just be plain offensive!

Dear The Rabbit,

~ Bella xxx Dear Isabella, I’m having trouble with viruses on my computer. My boyfriend used to help me with stuff like this except now that he’s gone back to Romania with his wife, I’m a bit lost. Can you recommend an IT specialist?

Kind regards,

Normally I'd be reppin’ my boy Stannis ‘Swag Level 90’ the Mannis, but the Madame likes me to have an open mind. We have private viewing sessions of Sex and the City every day (apparently I’m more Aidan than Big) and no one should stand in the way of Carrie fever, not even the Khaleesi. Besides, winter is almost over, so let that dud keep up his fantasy while you find yourself a stud. It just so happens that I'm recently single too. Keep in touch. ~ Colin #CallMeCarrie #CallMeMaybe

~ Nat I myself am quite the Tinder expert but as for more fundamental technological issues, our young intern Colin seems to be quite apt at making our office run smoothly, when he isn’t couched up in that little corner of his writing only geese knows what! Twenty-year-old boys these days! As for the lost boyfriend, no point reheating old soup my dear Nat. Spread your wings and flutter on! ~ Bella xxx

WIN A DAY TRIP TO THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

Escape the crowds and surround yourself with nature on one of Sydney’s most popular day trips. Bushwalk through the amazing national park wilderness, get up close with koalas and kangaroos and enjoy a relaxed lunch. For your chance to win this fantastic day trip, email your name, contact details and

favourite Australian animal to marketing@colourfultrips.com by Friday 15 August 2014. This offer must be used on a weekend, and is valid until Sunday 2 November 2014. To find out more go to www.colourfultrips.com

CMY

The No Regrets Saver

Your complete banking package for under 35s

BANKING TAKING YOU Taking youPLACES places Encompass Credit Union Ltd is authorised under The Banking Act to conduct banking business

Absolutely No Account Keeping Fees No Establishment Fees for loans until youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re 35 Plus receive a $20 iTunes card for opening the account*

Join Today!

Call 13 13 61 Visit noregretssaver.com.au

Visit us at Re-O Day on the 30th of July for your chance to

WIN a

$1,000 Travel Voucher Submit your details for ONE entry into the draw or Join Encompass for FIVE entries into the draw.

Call 13 13 61

BANKING TAKING YOU PLACES

Taking you places

Encompass Credit Union Ltd is authorised under The Banking Act to conduct banking business

Visit encompasscu.com.au/wintravelvoucher

* Welcome gift will be received 90 days from when Encompass membership is open(only applies for new members, excludes existing Encompass Members) Offer subject to change at any time without notice. Please read our Terms & Conditions and Fees & Charges brochures available at any branch, www.encompasscu.com.au or by calling 13 13 61 before choosing the product that is right for you. + Submit your details for one (1) entry, or submit your details and join Encompass for five (5) entries into the draw to win one (1) Flight Centre Travel Voucher, valued at $1,000. Full competition Terms and Conditions are available at www.encompasscu.com.au/wintravelvoucher. Competition closes 29th August 2014. Authorised under NSW Permit No. LTPS/14/00459 Encompass Credit Union Limited. ABN 43 087 650 011 AFSL and Australian credit licence number 238426. Registered office: 59 Buckingham Street Surry Hills NSW 2010.