Show notes
The story in this episode is composite, drawn from real events. Identifying details are changed. Real-world events the story draws on, full citations, and further reading are below.
REAL-WORLD EVENTS REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Australia
- National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 and the Victorian Free from Violence strategy as the long-running funding architecture for prevention work.
- Family violence prevention in Victorian local government, including council family violence prevention strategies built over decades of advocacy by survivors, women’s services, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s organisations.
- The National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Forum and the broader frontline sector that produced today’s policy architecture.
- Australian working-class and Indigenous boxing histories across Sydney and Melbourne, with documented gyms in Newtown, Brunswick, and Footscray.
- Women’s Olympic boxing first contested at London 2012.
Iran
- The 2022 uprising following the death of Mahsa Amini in state custody on 16 September 2022.
- Iranian women athletes’ defiance of state hijab policy during and after the uprising, including climber Elnaz Rekabi (Seoul, 16 October 2022) and the broader documentation of athletes facing exile, arrest, and execution.
- Earlier cases including boxer Sadaf Khadem’s exile in 2019 and taekwondo medalist Kimia Alizadeh’s defection in 2020.
Mexico
- Las Hijas de Violencia, founded by Karen and other Mexico City university theatre students using confetti guns and punk performance against street harassment.
- The 2019 Glitter Revolution in Mexico City following the mishandling of the assault and murder of a minor.
- Un Día Sin Nosotras, the national women’s strike of 9 March 2020.
- The ongoing femicide crisis (around ten women killed per day according to official statistics) and the feminist organising response across Mexico.
REFERENCES
[1] Pamela D. Toler, Women Warriors: An Unexpected History (Boston: Beacon Press, 2019). https://www.beacon.org/Women-Warriors-P1502.aspx
[2] Kath Woodward, Sex Power and the Games (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137291110
Jennifer Hargreaves, Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women’s Sports (London: Routledge, 1994).
[3] International Olympic Committee, “Women’s Boxing Debut at the Olympic Games London 2012.” https://olympics.com/ioc/news/women-s-boxing-debut-at-the-olympic-games-london-2012
[4] Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975). https://www.susanbrownmiller.com/susanbrownmiller/html/against_our_will.html
[5] Center for Human Rights in Iran, “Iranian Athletes Killed, Tortured, Sentenced to Death for Supporting Protests.” https://iranhumanrights.org/2023/01/iranian-athletes-killed-tortured-sentenced-to-death-for-supporting-protests-1/
[6] Amnesty International, “Mexico: Authorities Used Illegal Force and Sexual Violence to Silence Women Protesting Against Gender-Based Violence” (9 March 2021). https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/03/mexico-autoridades-usaron-violencia-sexual-para-silenciar-mujeres/
Lucie Bauce, “In Mexico, Women Are Protesting a Wave of Brutal Murders with Performance,” VICE. https://www.vice.com/en/article/in-mexico-women-are-protesting-a-wave-of-brutal-murders-with-performance/
[7] Gary Lynch and Larry Writer, Australia’s Boxing Hall of Fame (Sydney: Murray Books, 1999).
Colin Tatz, Black Gold: The Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2000).
[8] National Family Violence Prevention and Legal Services Forum. https://nationalfvpls.org
Australian Government Department of Social Services, National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032. https://www.dss.gov.au/ending-violence
Our Watch, “Change the Story” (2nd edition, 2021). https://www.ourwatch.org.au/change-the-story/
[9] Municipal Association of Victoria, “Family Violence Prevention in Local Government.” https://www.mav.asn.au/what-we-do/policy-advocacy/social-community/family-violence
Victorian Government, Free from Violence: Victoria’s Strategy to Prevent Family Violence and All Forms of Violence Against Women. https://www.vic.gov.au/free-violence-strategy
[10] bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (Boston: South End Press, 1984).
Sara Ahmed, On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012). https://www.dukeupress.edu/on-being-included
Aileen Moreton-Robinson, The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015). https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-white-possessive
Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997). https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-invention-of-women
[11] Sara Ahmed, “The Non-Performativity of Anti-Racism,” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism 7, no. 1 (2006): 104-126.
FURTHER READING
Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will (1975). Foundational 1970s North American feminist text on rape and the politics of sexual violence.
bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984). Black feminist scholarship on whose perspectives are centred in feminist politics.
Sara Ahmed, On Being Included (2012). British-Pakistani scholar on diversity work in institutions and the gap between stated commitments and institutional practice.
Aileen Moreton-Robinson, The White Possessive (2015). Quandamooka scholar on Indigenous sovereignty and the institutional politics of whiteness.
Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, The Invention of Women (1997). Nigerian feminist philosopher arguing that Western gender categories are political constructions, not universal facts.
Pamela D. Toler, Women Warriors: An Unexpected History (2019). Global popular history of women in combat across many cultures and centuries.
Centre for Human Rights in Iran. Ongoing documentation of Iranian human rights, athletes, and the 2022 uprising. https://iranhumanrights.org
