The stories Devine herself relates about gender, race and class speak to our contemporary, paradoxical moment: we are in an increasingly conservative Australia within a world where feminist thought – though not without compromise – is becoming increasingly mainstream. Devine, a conservative woman with a politics deeply complicated by her feminine subjectivity, is perfectly placed to articulate the profound traumas of contemporary Australian gender politics.

It seems to me the politics of dress has a lot in common with the politics of art, forever grappling with the tension between aesthetics and functionality, innovation and social expectation, presentation and representation. Celebrities, for example, are walking product endorsements: designers pay a lot of money to film stars or pop singers to simply go for a walk around New York City wearing their new season’s dress or handbag or overcoat. Exposure and brand alignment creates recognition, influence, and sales.

While women strive to improve the gender imbalance in the literary world, men can and should strive to be good allies. As readers, writers, programmers, editors, and publishers, men in the field are in prime positions to make a tangible difference for their female colleagues. Here are some challenges for the men of literature.

I know the various impulses that drive the quick concession, and I know the grim reality behind the glib metaphors that women in long-term heterosexual relationships use for pleasing their partners. By such little acts of sacrifice is domestic harmony restored. We laugh about this, but it’s always laughter with an edge; the unspoken uncertainty: is this ok?

This inconsistency is a little uncomfortable to discuss for feminists on the left, who favour a movement which places more emphasis on issues such as poverty, precarity, racism and inequality than on concerns primarily affecting middle-class women. Media-friendly feminism has often been tone-deaf or worse on issues of class or race, and this tendency can be seen in a constant emphasis on the need for affordable childcare to assist mothers to return to work – an emphasis which often entirely overlooks the pay and conditions of the mostly women who work in the childcare sector.

In Mad Max: Fury Road, normative masculinity is not just broken, it is literally diseased. Survival for women in this film in many ways relies on their ability to find a way forward beyond often contradictory tribal manifestation of the kind of bat-shit crazy masculinity that can only be deemed ‘unreal’ if you are privileged enough to see no problem with the current gender political status quo.

Mad Men reflects, or channels, this mainstream moral ambivalence. There is something immature about refusing to share your toys – or privileges. True adulthood involves accepting that we cannot confine our concerns to the self (and our closest associates). We need to look out for the Other(s). All thinking people agree that whether it is along income, racial or gender lines, the disparity should be closed if a mature society is to exist..

The world can be a very difficult place for women, and there is still abundant sexism experienced by women on a daily basis. But I think it's time that we accept that men should also be part of the solution, and that maybe, if there are times where men are the best candidates, they could represent women in an effective way.

In particular, the primary and secondary education sectors are a minefield of homophobic and transphobic law, institutional practice and everyday discrimination. In this, LGBTQI people are the collateral damage of the neoliberal push towards privatisation.

The opening beats to ‘Blurred Lines’ provoke eye-rolling and mumbles – or shouts – about its misogynistic content. Think about all the times you’ve changed the radio station the second you hear those opening bass beats and cowbell rattles. Now think about all the times you’ve danced or sung along to another song, without stopping to consider its content. Recently, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams made the news again by losing a court case against Marvin Gaye's family 'Blurred Lines'. Gaye’s family sued Thicke and Williams for copying the 1977 song 'Got To Give It Up'. This led to another rise in attacks on them for 'not getting consent'.

Like most online phenomena about gender, the Bechdel test has its critics. A panel at New York's women-focused Athena Film Festival last year was dedicated to discussing precisely why it was important to move beyond the Bechdel test, seeking to expand the debate around gender and film. They underscored that the Bechdel is hardly a best-case scenario.