Teetering on a blade of grass: life as a seasonal worker in the pandemic

For insecure workers, ‘going back to normal’ is not possible or desired. What the pandemic has shown us is that in order to sustain the rural workforce, we need to improve the material and structural conditions that put precarious workers at risk.

Type: Article
Category: Disability; Race

Race, disability and the search for genetic supermen

Stephen Hsu’s removal from the position of research VP at Michigan State University is not only a step forward in the context of Black Lives Matter. It can also be seen as a step toward a deeper understanding and valuing of people with Down syndrome and intellectual disability.

Type: Article
Category: Culture; LGBTIQ

Magical girls, queerness and the power of femininity

There is currently a trend within western animation studios whereby queerness in both characters and plot is inching evermore to the centre of children’s narratives. But as creators continue to experiment and expand the cultural canon, appropriate homage must be paid to the often-belittled Magical Girl genre – a medium that effortlessly makes space for queerness both within its themes and aesthetic in a naturally humble way that perhaps only ‘feminine’ stories could accomplish.

Type: Article
Category: Politics

The death cult of Tony Abbott

By Ben Brooker
14.Sep.20
4 Comments

Abbott’s revealed more than what we already know about modern conservatism – namely that, in its relentless attacks on health, education, and welfare, as well as its racialised approaches to immigration and foreign policy, it does not hold that all lives are equally worthy. It showed his capitulation to a kind of brutal economism more often associated with Randian capitalist radicalism than the religious right.