Feminism and women’s rights

I am getting very used to censorship by so-called leftist outlets. Scoop Media published this article on May 28 this year, and on July 3, I happened to notice that it had disappeared from the website. Scoop editor Joe Cederwall and director Alastair Thompson had removed it without consulting with me or letting me know. …

Censored from Scoop: Green Party sex self-identification proposals are “transphobic” Read More »

Last week, I was offered a chance by TV One’s Q&A to present a feminist take on the question of gender identity. Q&A ran a six-minute segment focussing on the plight of Penelopy Mansell, a trans-identified male who has put a Wellington women-only gym under the spotlight because it is a space that he believes …

Censorship, big money, blackmail and backlash: Why more New Zealand women aren't speaking out on gender identity Read More »

Between June 12 and 17, two women were violently raped by strangers, while out in public in Carlton, a district of Melbourne, Australia. Eurydice Dixon – a woman I would have very much liked to befriend – was raped and murdered on her way from a stand-up gig. Five days later, two men abducted and …

New Zealand women, speak out: Misogynists are getting bolder Read More »

Earlier this week, a late submission was made on the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration (BDMRR) Bill currently under consideration by a select committee. Public submissions on the Bill overwhelmingly emphasise the issue of gender identity, asking that the current BDMRR Act be amended to allow greater ease in changing the sex marker on …

“Transwomen are doubleplus good women”: Government receives late submission on Births Bill from Handmaids Association Read More »

A Wellington women’s gym has received a sign-up request from an unexpected source. Dick Surprise, who identifies as a non-binary pansexual Wellingtonian, sports male genitalia but claims to be a “woman inside”. “I walk past this gym all the time,” Surprise told reporters. “And it really bugs me. Sure, men may control and dominate almost …

Women's gym receives unwelcome visit from “Dick Surprise” Read More »

This is the text of my oral submission on the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Bill. It was delivered to the select committee at parliament on April 11. In several sections, this Bill challenges understandings of sex that are a) based on biology, b) commonplace and c) form the basis of international mechanisms that …

"Sex-based protections are undermined wherever sex is ill-defined": Oral submission to parliament Read More »

On May 3, I was called by a Radio New Zealand journalist to give an interview for Morning Report. The interview concerned my petition challenging a Givealittle campaign that asks supporters for funds to promote breast binding in colonised regions. After completing the interview and preparation, I was informed that this interview “appears to have …

The interview on breast binding that "simply dropped out of the system" at Radio New Zealand Read More »

Like many other Gen X New Zealanders, I grew up with a social conscience, but in a climate of political lethargy. So it was not until my mid twenties that I became an activist. Before then, I would volunteer or collect for charities on and off, whilst struggling to make sense of the world and …

Why I left the left: New Zealand's activist scene is sexism saturated Read More »