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Staying faithful to Earth
Non-fictionThe history of Western astronomy is a history of the displacement of Earth as special. From Copernicus through Bruno to Galileo and beyond, each insight nudged us further away from being at the centre of the universe. No, the sun does not revolve around us – we are just one of several worlds that orbit it, and those other stars out there, those faraway ones, are actually other suns and have worlds around them, too. The perspective-altering consequences of what it means to live in a galaxy where planets are more plentiful than stars are still percolating through to us; there are so many exoplanets that a leading astrophysicist calls them ‘commonplace’, nothing but ‘specks of dirt that collect around stars, like lint in a navel’.
Of course, the burning question that follows is: are any of those planets like Earth?
You may think that ‘Earth-sized’ or ‘Earth-like’ exoplanets – as often heralded in the media – are common, and habitable by humans if we could just figure out how to travel that far. They are not.
Believe it or not
IntroductionCultural critic Chuck Klosterman reminds us that ‘any present-tense version of the world is unstable. What we currently consider to be true – both objectively and subjectively – is habitually provisional.’ What we believe in may shift, even as belief itself endures.
Witchy women
GR OnlineThe ’90s saw a trend of witchy, occult or otherwise supernatural women on TV. Sabrina was joined by Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, gracing our screens with characters who took control using abilities unknown to man – and men. These shows formed part of the girl (magic) power movement.
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Leaps of Faith
To take a leap of faith is to bet your belief on an unknown future. But belief is central to the human experience. Whether it’s religious, political, societal, philosophical or spiritual, the act of believing can be a lodestar, a comfort, a ritual, a guiding principle, a reason for living. We place our faith in everything from gods and mortals to medicine and magic, and while the bet doesn’t always pay off, it can usually tell us something about our desires, our values and our selves.
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Women of letters
From the glass ceiling to the surface of the moon, these pieces dissect the complications and contradictions of twenty-first century gender roles.
Holding the baby
Where I live, what I earn and my level of education: these will all influence not only my decision to have a baby but the experiences that baby will then have. These four factors – education, geography, wealth and birth rate – loop around one another in infinite iterations. People in regional and remote Australia have more children younger; they also have lower levels of educational attainment.
Moonwalking
The first woman on the Moon will have to think carefully about her first words, as they will resonate for generations into the future. Neil Armstrong chose his famous ‘one giant leap’ line himself; but in this case, knowing what’s at stake, there’s bound to be a committee who gives this long and considered thought.
Erasure
It was thanks to a series of deliberate decisions made during the nineteenth century that women’s critical labours were designated ‘unproductive’ and simply wiped from view. Key to these erasures was Alfred Marshall, the revered father of neoclassical economics, who advocated strict limits on women’s choices lest they behave selfishly.
The chemical question
It’s just that time of the month. It’s only the baby blues. It’s the change, it’ll pass. It’s just your hormones. Most women have experienced a dismissal like this at some stage in their lives, whether for a genuine mental health issue or for something as minor as offering a differing opinion. But the trivialising of issues deemed ‘hormonal’, and the dismissal of associated mood disorders, can have fatal consequences.
The unwritten rules
Patriarchal power and control occurs silently, without fanfare, through institutions and their structure, including legal institutions and the family. It is in this conceptualisation that the recent public discussion in Australia of misogyny and the ‘gender card’ became distracted, focussing on a personal hatred of individual women as key rather than the daily reproduction of significant structural inequality.
Not just good girls
Women in public life in Queensland experienced criticism and ridicule that was sharper and more personal than that directed to their male counterparts. They were often said to have abandoned their rightful roles as wives and mothers, were accused of being too noisy, too silent, too dumb, too much of a smarty pants. It was suggested that wealthy women had a ‘silver spoon’, while the few working-class women who struggled into the ranks above were said to lack grace and class.
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Motherhood and Madness
Some of us mask our Madness to avoid detection, but hiding takes its toll. Becoming a parent adds layers of complexity to managing one’s mental stasis: it can be terrifying to realise that you are responsible for the health and wellbeing of a tiny, precious human.
Witchy women
The ’90s saw a trend of witchy, occult or otherwise supernatural women on TV. Sabrina was joined by Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, gracing our screens with characters who took control using abilities unknown to man – and men. These shows formed part of the girl (magic) power movement.
Blak humour
When I use ‘Blak’ to describe Aboriginal humour, not ‘black humour’, I’m embracing it as a distinct comedic style. This choice makes it clear that Aboriginal Australian ‘Blak humour’ is its own unique genre, in line with self-determination and ownership that First Nations artist Destiny Deacon speaks about.
Animals in wartime
Tyhra starts hiding in the cellar. Like many people and animals in these frontline regions, her days are defined by the sounds of war. She may not understand what’s happening or why, but she feels that life now is about trying to stay safe.
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