Van Badham
Van Badham is a theatre-maker and novelist, occasional broadcaster, critic and feminist. She lives in Melbourne
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Dog groomers make more per hour than women who educate childrenThe gender pay gap hasn’t moved in a decade. Women are retiring with half the super of men and they still do more housework. Sisters, it’s time to kick ass
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Picnic at Hanging Rock review – vanishing schoolgirls haunt a new generationThis retelling of the Joan Lindsay cult classic proves the book’s postcolonial theme remains relevant – and will terrify the pants off you
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How Malthouse Theatre plans to bring Picnic at Hanging Rock to the stageArtistic director Matthew Lutton won the coveted rights by promising to be faithful to Joan Lindsay’s cult novel and its themes of white Australia in a mysterious landscape
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Education that teaches girls sex should be 'pleasurable'. What took them so long?An education resource that teaches girls and boys that sexual intimacy should be pleasurable shouldn’t be revolutionary in 2016 – but it is
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The logistics of moving in with a partner make a wedding seem almost frivolousIs it reasonable to decorate a sideboard with 60 canisters of tea? And if not, then what piece of me will disappear with them and what am I who remains?
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Insecure work, loss of entitlements, underpayment – it's all in a day's workAn inquiry to start in Victoria into insecure work must form part of a national discussion around the precarious reality faced by Australia’s workforce
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Jeff Allen and other 'pickup artists' advocate rape. It's right he had his visa cancelledJeff Allen, a ‘pickup artist’ famous for bragging about his ‘rape van’ was in Australia this week. It was a victory to see the immigration department use its force for good to kick him out
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Extraordinary, alien, godlike. Try as he might, Lemmy could not defy mortalityWhether Lemmy Kilmister was actually God or not, his wild life as the frontman of iconic rock band Motörhead has earned him at least a niche deification
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Ask Kim Duthie if she’s surprised that women are still blamed for their abuseIn the same week new research shows victim-blaming of women is entrenched in our culture, Ricky Nixon wins the right to label a 17-year-old a ‘temptress’
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Melbourne's fringe festival of flour: a sweet mix of home bakers and hipster cultureThe Flour Market is a chance for stallholders to dream of new careers and happiness found – but for everyone else it’s a guilt-free sugary warehouse party
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Hugh Jackman's Broadway to Oz review – the screamingly camp end of largeThings can’t get much camper than a gyrating, can-can kicking Jackman taking us through his life and times, complete with glitter maracas and disco balls
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Tropfest in doubt: proof that without arts funding, the industry is in perilWith Tropfest’s future in doubt after alleged ‘irresponsible mismanagement’, it’s clear that Australian artists can’t rely on the whims of the private sector
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Give Ai Weiwei your Lego bricks so he can show what corporate politics looks likeLego declines to bulk-sell bricks for political purposes, but what’s their definition of ‘political’? Ai Weiwei may be able to help
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Russell Brand in Australia: don't underestimate the visiting prophetRussell Brand’s comedy has become a satire of his political reputation. In Australia, yet to produce its Corbyn or Sanders, he was a warm-up act for change
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Something wicked this way comes but it's not the art in Parliament HouseCraig Kelly’s distaste for a witch’s bare bottom is only the latest outburst of conservative cultural horror at the magical, confusing power of the arts
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Giddy up, Darryn Lyons. Geelong needs more than a mayor on a benderAfter yet another boozy scandal involving the former paparazzo we have to ask: doesn’t Geelong deserve more than a floating Christmas tree for its troubles?
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Sexism in Northern Territory politics is a stain on Australia's DNAEight female MLAs walked out of the Northern Territory parliament this week to protest the ‘bullying and intimidation’ of their male counterparts. The protest cannot be in vain
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Progressives, don't be fooled. Turnbull will rule from and for the big end of townA few progressive social policies shouldn’t make Malcolm Turnbull the darling of the left. He’s a devout neoliberal who has supported economic policies that entrench inequality
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Abortion clinic or health clinic, there is no real argument against safe access for womenAllowing women and staff to access a fertility clinic free of harassment shouldn’t come down to a battle over ‘free speech’
Everything you don't understand about Senate voting reform (and are afraid to admit)