Sexuality

Do women really want less sex than men?

The Vagina Dialogues

By Cordelia Fine

In every healthy young man the instinct of sex is present, controlled or allowed to run riot according to his strength of self-control and elevation of mind. Some young women possess it in as great, and in rare cases even a greater degree; but in the majority of healthy women before marriage it lies in a more or less dormant condition, and occasionally is altogether absent. Margaret Stephens,

'Outland' by Kevin Carlin

By Benjamin Law

On paper, the premise of the new ABC1 sitcom Outland seems too self-consciously quirky for its own good. Homosexuals and sci-fi nerds? While we’re at it, why not make a series about, say, Indigenous lesbians with physical disabilities? (Too slow: Outland gets to that punchline first. Christine Anu plays an Indigenous lesbian in a wheelchair.) In any case, speculative fiction has always been

AIDS 30 Years on

A Quiet Anniversary

By Gail Bell

The taming of HIV/AIDS is Australia’s good news story. Our swift, egalitarian response – the so-called ‘Australian model’ – made us unique in the world and drew plaudits from the United Nations. Central to the success was the willingness of marginalised high-risk groups (intravenous drug users, gay men and sex workers) to collaborate with politicians, doctors and strategists to spread the message that the virus could not be co

The Dehumanising Effects of Smut

The Porn Ultimatum

By Cordelia Fine

Professor Sedgwick would, I think, be surprised – possibly unpleasantly – by the contemporary world. I can think of few more satisfying things to say to him than, “Ah, Professor Sedgwick. Let me introduce you to our prime minister, Julia Gillard.” With just pride, we could invite him to marvel at the wonders of the twenty-first ce

'Sex: An Unnatural History'

What’s Sex Got To Do With It

By Anne Summers

If I were to nominate the key milestones in the history of human sexual activity – where ‘progress’ is considered to be sex becoming more enjoyable due to the removal of unpleasant, dangerous or even fatal consequences – these would be, without argumen

Wim Wenders’ 'Pina' and Alain Corneau’s 'Love Crime'

After Life

By Louis Nowra

It was a hot night in Adelaide in 1982 and I was sitting in a ramshackle town hall about to watch a dance piece, Kontakthof, created by a German choreographer I had barely heard of, Pina Bausch. The hall was so stifling that people were fanning themselves with

Knox Grammar’s Adrian Nisbett

The Old Boy

By Malcolm Knox

Knox Grammar, on Sydney’s upper North Shore, was and is a beautiful school. Established in 1924, it feels as if it has been around forever. It has expanded from its original ivy-covered brick buildings set around a grass quadrangle into a large modern campus – its s

The Destruction of Burrup Rock Art

Into the Beehive

By Robyn Davidson

We all know what justifications, arguments and perspectives are likely to be heard from the competing interests (competing visions of value). But what, ultimately, is being argued for? And is there ground for fair negotiation or is negotiation really just defe

Diaries

While Not Writing a Book

By Helen Garner

Early in the morning, after a heavy night of babysitting, I’m watering out the back when I hear a shuffling sound. Olive comes up behind me in her spotted dressing-gown and slippers, looking hunched and dramatic, and holding a sheet of paper in one hand. “Read this,

Sharia Law

The Way to the Watering Hole

By Sally Neighbour

Meanwhile, in a tiny office in Lakemba, south-western Sydney, with prayer beads hanging from the bookshelves and Islamic texts stacked to the ceiling, the Muslim minister and police chaplain Sheikh Khalil Chami quietly and methodically administers sharia law.

Meeting Neil Armfield

The Diary of a Maestro

By Jana Wendt

We are approximately an hour into Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure – first performed in 1604 – when a phone rings on stage. The appliance is lying on the bedside table of a starkly lit Novotel-like hotel room, glass-walled bathroom and toilet included.

Tim Burton: The Exhibition

Primal Scenes

By John Baxter

When I taught at an American college in the 1970s, my students asked if I’d mind finishing my afternoon lectures early: local TV was re-running Dark Shadows and they didn’t want to miss a minute of it. I had to have Dark Shadows explained to me, and even then I didn

Christopher Hitchens’ 'Hitch-22'

Swinger

By Dennis Altman

At one point in Hitch-22: A Memoir (Atlantic Books, 352pp; $35.00) Christopher Hitchens writes: “As 1968 began to ebb into 1969 … people began to intone the words: ‘The personal is political’. At the instant I heard this deadly expression I knew … that it was – cliché is arguably forgivable here – very bad news.” But what is the point of wri

Like a Virgin

By Emily Maguire

The porn sites tell us that virgins are precious, rare and worth 30 bucks a month; Christian sex-ed tells us that virgins are precious, rare and worth “a price far above rubies”. The porn sites show teasers of their “virgin girls”, starting with breast-flashing and becoming more revealing over weeks or months leading to the “event” itself; abstinence education sites sell T-shirts beari

Germaine Greer and 'The Female Eunuch'

The Better Self?

By Louis Nowra

It’s 40 years since Greer published her first book, The Female Eunuch, and became famous. I first read the book when it came out in paperback. By that stage, I had already read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. I was brought up in a world of women and

Lars Von Trier's 'Antichrist'

Tooth and Claw

By Luke Davies

The opening five minutes of Antichrist (released nationally on 26 November) are a compelling symphony of exquisite film-making. In hyper-stylised black-and-white ecstasy – in super-slow-motion – the characters played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbour

Zachary Mexico’s ‘China Underground’

Chinese Whispers

By Alice Pung

Zachary Mexico can tell a really good yarn. He will sit you in the swankiest bar in Beijing’s Houhai district or a cheap polluted noodle cafe in Linfen and regale you with stories of China’s sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll scene. The man knows what he’s talking a

"Bodies" by Susie Orbach

By Celina Riberio

Politicians predict obesity epidemics bankrupting governments and mutating generations of people, parents Photoshop pictures of their toddlers, and the cosmetic-surgery industry grows by US$1 billion each year. In her new book the English psychotherapist Susie Orbach calls for a rethink of how we relate to our bodies. Western anxiety about obesity, she argues, both masks and legitimises a more pre