THREAD:
In 2004 I wrote a book called "Media Tarts: How the Australian press frames female politicians". It was about the tropes the media used to diminish & deride women MPS: steel sheilas, covergirls, housewives, sluts. Now I've updated it and it's being re-released this month. It's uncanny - & troubling - how relevant it remains. For this research, I spent years trawling press clippings files in every state, interviewing women MPs, journalists, editors & the patterns were strikingly similar - women were interlopers in a space designed for & by men. /2

Christian Porter on rape allegations: "I was aware of a whispering campaign.... .the only thing I am every going to be able to say, and it's the truth, is that nothing in the allegations ever happened." Christian Porter says he sympathises with and understands what Bill Shorten went through, laments that the media left Shorten alone, there were not calls for him to stand down as there have been for Porter. The media have "convicted me publicly with allegations." /2

Striking figures from @voxdotcom In the incoming US Senate, Democratic senators will represent at least 20,314,962 more people than their Republican counterparts — and that’s if Republicans win both runoff elections in Georgia. 1/ "If the two Georgia seats go to the Democrats, the Senate will be split 50-50, but the Democratic half will represent 41,549,808 more people than the Republican half." 2/

Am delighted a 150-year-old statue of King Leopold II of Belgium has been toppled in Antwerp. He was grotesque, responsible for some of the greatest human rights abuses of the 19th century. Half - yes half - of the Congo's population of 20 million died under his greedy rule. Leopold II was also a pedophile. He paid 800 pounds a month for a supply of English virgins sent to Belgium, with a preference for girls aged 10-15. He grew his fingernails so long that they curled, and he could only shake hands with two fingers. He taxed people to starvation.

THREAD: A friend of mine, who left an abusive relationship, wrote down her thoughts in the aftermath of Hannah Clarke's death. She asked me to post them, because it would not be safe for her to post herself. I posted on Facebook but have been asked to thread here: Every time I read an article about a woman being killed at the hands of someone she once loved, I sit & hold that heavy thought: will this be how my story ends too? When will I be able to trust there will be a legal system in this country that will adequately protect my son & I..

THREAD: Am increasingly concerned about the unwillingness of many on this platform to listen to any divergent views. Hate is poured on those whom they disagree with. Contempt on those who speak to, publish or broadcast commentators or experts with different conclusions. 1/2 My as a journalist jobs have included oped editor (SMH), Ideas Editor (Newsweek), columnist (NYT, SMH, Newsweek etc), and panel moderator/ presenter. In each job I have sought to air different views, various opinions, especially those that make my blood boil, or brain hurt...