Never thought I’d be writing a post here based on a conversation with my hairdresser (but then I never thought I’d live to see the Immigration minister openly avowing that African refugees are less welcome here than other kinds or that we’d be making prospective citizens sit an embarrassingly banal and pompous citizenship test, either.)
Anyway, the day before yesterday I went to have my hair cut and coloured at the campus hairdressers, and was very surprised to find out that the woman who had owned and run the salon for fifteen years had sold it last week, and the new owner was doing my hair. While I was in there four different people came in wanting to use the solarium, and to my initial surprise, all were turned away. Because they’d paid in advance for lots of sessions, one or two went off a bit disgruntled, even though the new owner took their details to send them refund cheques. She told me that she’s getting rid of the tanning bed as soon as she can, and she won’t be replacing it with a spray-tan booth either. “I don’t think it sends a good message to the students,” she explained. She went on to say that since the death of Clare Oliver last month a huge grass roots change has begun to take place in the salon industry in Victoria in terms of its attitude to solarium tanning. The small to medium operators are getting out of the business. She thought it would be next to impossible for her to dispose of the salon’s tanning bed by selling it, and she added that even if she’d wanted to continue offering tanning sessions, she wouldn’t have been able to justify paying the massive increase in the salon’s insurance premium which sunbeds are now attracting.
In Victoria, South Australia, and I understand federally, there are indications that bills will soon be put forward to regulate the solarium industry, but, happily, it almost looks as if sunbed numbers and usage might be declining under the more enduring influence of market forces and public opinion anyway.
Via Another Outspoken Female (who posted the link to this in a comment this morning, but it’s too good to languish there for long) the remixed Workplace Relations ad beneath the fold is a brilliant, pointed piece of satire - or does it still qualify as satire when it’s this close to the truth? Anyway, fantastic stuff. Whoever assembled this has skills. Continue reading ‘Know Where You Stand - the remix’
I haven’t posted a lot here (or anywhere, really) for a couple of months mainly because I’ve been working on organising a very beautiful conference which is happening in Melbourne in late November. Getting an event like this together is a phenomenal timesink (I’m so glad we decided not to go for the extra day), and I’ve also had more than a few bad nights’ sleep worrying over near catastrophes, sudden budget blowouts, and frightening emails from stern scholarly gods and goddesses on the other side of the world, but as it inches together I can see it’s really going to be a thing of absolute beauty. It’s almost all done now - I think - and I hope you won’t regard it as an abuse of your attention if I tell you about it, and perhaps even ask for a bit of your help getting the word out, if you feel so inclined.
The conference theme is Jane Austen - specifically, Austen as a comic writer - and even more specifically, what happens to Austen’s comedy when her work is translated into other languages and read in cultures quite distant from the one she wrote her novels in. We’ve put the bulk of our limited funds into bringing out to Australia speakers from developing countries, people who would never normally be able to participate in an event like this simply because of the economic disparities, and they’re going to talk about topics that really will throw fresh light on Austen. For example we have a very distinguished Indian scholar who’s going to talk about how Pride and Prejudice, without doubt the ultimate and original romance novel, goes over in a culture where it’s traditionally asumed that romantic love develops after marriage, not before.
There will be a nice mixture of Australians and international people, of senior types and those of us who are just starting out. And ah yes, there will be bloggers: Sophie C. and Dr. Cat will be on the plenary panel about the overlays and intertwinings of fiction and biography. And further, there are other kinds of reasons to be excited about the people who’ll be speaking: Julia Zemiro is going to be doing a comedy show to kick off the cocktail hour on the first day, and on the opening night, Professor Germaine Greer is giving a public lecture on Jane Austen. I’m biased but I think Professor Greer’s lecture (28 Nov, Capitol Theatre, tickets on sale now) is going to be the event of the year. Fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly….
Continue reading ‘Jane Austen and Comedy conference - a jolly big plug!’
I few weeks ago I exercised my right to free speech and lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Bureau (the ad industry’s voluntary self-regulation outfit) about a Nando’s ad which revolves (sorry) around poledancing. Today I found out that the numerous complaints received about this ad have all been dismissed by the ASB, which is not altogether surprising given their track record of seldom upholding complaints which have something to do with objectionable depictions of gender and sexuality. Of course there will be some complaints in this area which arise only from the ‘ick’ factor (the Mentos ad where a man grew long squirmy nipples is a good example) but all the same it’s interesting how few reasonable complaints are upheld. What’s explicitly at stake in ASB evaluations is not whether an ad measures up to some arbitrary moral standard, but whether it infringes against actual community norms, viz:
The Board cannot hope to please all members of the community in its decision making. The importance of the Board’s work, however, is that an impartial panel of community members can apply what it considers is the community standard on a particular issue. Such attitudes will change over time and will be reflected in Board decisions.
That’s just as it should be. But from looking carefully through their past rulings I am a bit doubtful about the integrity of the complaints process as the ASB actually runs it. There are two factors which seem to make it difficult for sexuality & gender-related complaints against ads to get through: first, the Bureau concentrate on what is literally said or depicted in ads while most complaints have to do with things that are suggested or implied, for example through double entendres, visual puns and camera angles. Second, the Bureau appears to find mitigation in jokes, humour and what advertisers tend to call ‘lightheartedness’ - tendentious material seems more palatable if it’s clothed in some sort of attempt at humour. Putting these two things together I suspect the Bureau runs by a system which the advertising industry finds it extremely easy to game. And the incentives are high: sex sells. Continue reading ‘Laughing at with the Advertising Standards Bureau’
Down with designer babies, Emersonian moral philosophy, Triumph of the Will, the Golden Mean, and labiaplasty! At least, that’s what the fine people at Lexus HQ believe. Good for them, and good on them for taking out a full-page ad on the back of The Weekend Australian Magazine (June 2-3, 2007) to tell the world about how they feel.
Seen any good grammatical foolishnesses lately?
You would think McDonald’s would know a thing or two about image and marketing and how to come out more or less on top in the spin cycle. You would think that in the wake of the McLibel saga and sundry similar and related PR disasters (Super Size Me, Fast Food Nation, publicity about transfats etc), somebody high up in the company would have grasped the essential fact about bad press: jumping up and down and waving your arms around just fans the flames. Transnational corporate sooking is not only ineffectual, ridiculous and pathetic, it also makes the sooker look incredibly stupid and naive. I’m used to thinking of McDonald’s and its ilk as evil, but I always saw it as operating with a super-Machiavellian kind of smooth, skilled malevolence. Lately, though, McDonald’s media wing is acting like a n00b out of control.
Continue reading ‘McJob, n.‘
I thought LP readers who aren’t lucky enough to be well acquainted with La Trobe University’s main campus might enjoy a peek at this highlight of the uni’s art collection. It’s been hanging in this stairwell - an appropriately bolshie stairwell, I guess, connecting as it does two floors occupied by different student equity and access offices - for at least fifteen years.
Can’t quite make it out? Closeups after the jump…
Continue reading ‘Short Memories’
The Australian Blog Awards (ABA) is on again. This is organised every year at this time by Vlado and the actual process of nomination and voting is hosted by Collective Apathy. You can go to Collective Apathy now, register, and nominate blogs in the many different categories; a bit later on there will be an opportunity to vote (using the optional preferential system, and by casting one vote per person in each category) and the category winners are announced on Australia Day.
Based on experiences from the last two years I have very mixed feelings about the idea of the ABA. It is terrific to do something that recognises the diversity and quality of the best productions of the blogosphere, and I really like that these are democratically based and that they are run by a volunteer. On the other hand, most people seem to vote for their friends and allies, which is only natural (although it’s not much fun to have to choose between two friends who are nominated in the same category), but it does raise the question of whether the awards are really for popularity, which doesn’t seem to me a specially meritorious achievement. On the other other hand, our culture places a little too much emphasis on the bestowing of awards at the expense of other ways of recognising excellence. Continue reading ‘the Australian Blog Awards (and the usual suspects)’
I don’t know whether to be cross with the University bookshop for actually stocking this item I purchased on Friday, or to cheer them for marking it down to 50c and throwing it unceremoniously into the Sale Bin of Shame. Probably the latter, on balance, since I now have a piece of sterling and seasonally appropriate blog fodder which will require very little glossing on my part in order to bring out its heady and pungent delights.
The “book of coupons” gift is somewhat on the nose to begin with, unless it’s a custom made Mothers Day present from your ten year old or something. No excuses for giving someone a preprinted set, and absolutely no excuses for actually presenting your significant other with something labelled “For My Lady.” Continue reading ‘Gift Ideas for the Cheap and Grossly Insensitive Husband’
(LP’s Comments Policy is regularly posted on the main page: please read it, if you haven’t done so already.)
Readers are most welcome to comment and debate. Rational disagreement and civil interchange is thoroughly encouraged. However, please keep discussion civilised.
Please try to stay reasonably germane to the topic [although we recognise the anarchic nature of many comments threads]. General political remarks [ie denunciations of political parties, ideologies or politicians] unrelated to the topic will most probably be deleted.
Vexatious and purely abusive comments may be deleted at the discretion of moderators, and repeat offenders may have their IP address placed in moderation, or be IP banned from the site.
Continue reading ‘LP Comments Policy’
Some time back my TV broke and I so can no longer watch Funniest Home Videos - disaster! but increasingly I find the lead stories in the Australian’s Higher Ed supplement meet the same need for a bit of cheap, crude, slapstick comedy.
The paper reports, for instance, that staff at the University of Melbourne are being invited to donate part of their salaries back to their employer:
The University of Melbourne, which last year had $1.21 billion in revenue and an operating surplus of $77.6 million, has launched a staff appeal that urges employees to give “as little as $2 a fortnight”.
The university calls on staff to join what it describes as a national trend of philanthropy: “the growing number of Australians answering the call to give back”.
Sort of tugs at the heartstrings, doesn’t it?
I would like to issue a special, warm invitation to UniMelb employees reading this to take the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings with the readers of Larvatus Prodeo. Feel free to use a pen name in comments on this post.
This evening’s Four Corners report on the Christian sect known as the Exclusive Brethren reminded me about a striking scene I witnessed at Melbourne Airport one morning about a month ago. Gate Lounge 23 was full to overflowing with EB adherents – I rough-counted about three hundred, which is a lot of believers, no matter which way you look at it – queueing to board a flight to Perth. (Wonder what that was all about?) I soon found myself in a very particular (emphatically secular) sector of People-watching Heaven. To be precise, it was the ‘repelled-yet-fascinated gawping at religious fashions’ sector to which I was transported. Continue reading ‘Brethren On A Plane!’
I can hardly believe my ears….Mark Colvin on PM is reporting that Keith Windschuttle has been appointed to the Board of the ABC.
W.
T.
F.
Sigh…I’m almost afraid to reopen our discussion about which literary texts ought to be taught in schools and universities in this country and how the ones selected should be presented to students. But literary studies has at long last arrived as a political football to be idly kicked about for the amusement of the highest in the land, it seems, and not before time - it was getting a bit boring having to be jealous of the historians and the sociologists and the cultural studies people, who seemed to be hogging all of the best governmental tellings-off. Well, today the Prime Minister helpfully shared his opinions on the subject of literature education.
Continue reading ‘More Literary Studies Argy-Bargy’
Maybe you’ve seen it already, the report in the Guardian about the latest instalment in a current English research project into fiction-reading patterns and gender. (Thanks, Anna, for the email.) Susoz has a very good post up about the article, and various other bloggers including Echidne have commented as well.
The project, directed by the magnificent Lisa Jardine, asks readers to nominate fiction that changed their lives. Two years ago, the Women’s Watershed Fiction study asked four hundred women to identify the significant books in their lives:
Continue reading ‘Life-changing books: men and women choose differently’
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