Women Now Empowered By Everything A Woman Does

In Anticipation of Post/Feminism

Before we get down to the serious study of post/feminism and the work of Kathy Acker, here's an opportunity to take sides on a burning issue of the day.

No, we're not asking you to sign the petition to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to Free Paris Hilton.

Later this week the avant garde of Australian television, Channel 10, is screening the final episode of Pussy Cat Dolls Present: The Search for a New Doll. The latest in a series of American reality television programs to search for the stars, the show has generated no small measure of controversy.



The question is: do you agree with the founder of this "new Burlesque" pop sensation, that the reality TV show is or at least can be "inspiring to women"? Or are the opinions aired in Saturday's Age closer to your own?

Postcolonialism, Shame and Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie: Multi-award winning writer of postcolonial historiographic metafiction, celebrated humanist, voice of a subcontinental diaspora, Islamaphobe?


Have your say on the writer, the novel, or the myriad of ideas raised by this week's guest lecturer Dougal McNeill.

Post-Politics

Are you political? What does it mean to be political any more?

And can we even separate the political sphere from other areas of life?

Has image politics replaced other forms of political engagement?

"Oz in 30 Seconds" is an initiative by the action group GetUp!, calling for people to "create, rate and air television ads that promote a better, fairer, more progressive Australia." The 30-second political adverts you create will be aired on prime time television.

But what will they look like?

Will they be earnest attempts to express political views? Or ironic, parodic works of humour like The Chaser?

So many questions.

Second Essay Questions now Available from LMS

Don't forget you can tailor essay questions to meet your beautiful-and-unique-snowflake needs, proclivities, tastes, curiosities and interests...just make sure you get new questions approved by your tutor before you begin writing.

Happy researching!

Irony, Excess and Natural Born Killers

In considering televisual culture, and the question of whether television is an inherently postmodern medium, it is worth returning to Marshall McLuhan's pioneering media ecology work in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964) and The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967).




If you want the postmodern version, have a listen to the 1967 LP of The Medium is the Massage made by Columbia records:

http://www.ubu.com/sound/mcluhan.html

Postmodernism, Consumerism, White Noise

3 soundbytes to get you going on this week's mammoth intellectual undertaking (sorry, joyous, life-affirming romp through a dazzling but easily digestible and fat-free array of ideas that will enhance your overall university experience, boost your self-esteem, and effortlessly equip you with the analytic and transferable skills to tackle any number of future employment situations).

1. Should we read White Noise as prophesy or period-piece?

2.What does this say about individual identity in postmodern consumer culture?

3. Do you dreamlarge?