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(Right: George R R Martin, author of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series, which have been made into the TV series Game of Thrones, Right: actor Patrick Stewart stands up for womens rights)

= Week One: Who Am I? =

I thought that before I get writing or reflecting weekly about women’s health issues and the topics we talk about in class, it might be nice if you got to know me a little bit better. My name is Janikka, I’m a 22 year old female currently living in Brisbane studying public health. Hopefully my brief background will help you understand why I think the way I am and how my opinions on the world and on women’s health have come to be.

I come from a family of four – Mum, Dad, and an older sister. Mum and dad are both from NZ & all my extended family still live in NZ, they have been married for over 30 years, and looking at them and as mum has said – they are more in love now than they when they met. When I was young we travelled through all the Australian states, before settling down on the Sunshine Coast in a little town called Palmwoods.

Like most people I never thought my upbringing was too odd, however after starting this unit I have come to appreciate how lucky I have been. Mum and dad never pushed me into doing anything I didn’t want to – mum was determined that we play a team sport which resulted in many weekends doing different activities (T-ball, roller skating, swimming, tennis…) until we each found our sports – for me it did swimming, tennis, and dancing for most of my childhood – plus I did netball and volleyball at school.

I went to a catholic high school; this was mainly my choice (I had more friends at that school). I think this was actually a great way for me to experience religion and spirituality – something that I had never really experienced before (neither of my parents are religious). As far as catholic schools go, this one wasn’t crazy religious – they were very open about discussion and didn’t push certain views and beliefs down my throat.

I moved to Brisbane before my 18th birthday, and took a gap year working as a receptionist in a physio pilates studio, and lived with friends from the Sunshine Coast. Travelling seems to be something that runs in my family; we just love getting out and experiencing new cultures and lifestyles. So far I’ve been to NZ, Thailand, and America, and by the end of semester I will also have been to Vietnam.

I consider myself to be a nerd, which to me is a totally positive thing, and I spend a lot of time on the internet in my various fandoms J I’m sure I will manage to bring them in to my reflections at some point. My family have really influenced me in who I am and how I see the world. Both my parents are really open and accepting people, and never discriminate against anyone – they are always willing to have a chat, something which I think can make life a much more enjoyable place to be, just be happy and listen to people. Hopefully this helps you understand where my views come from over the next 12-13 weeks. Enjoy!

= Week 2: Gender - what does it really mean? =

During today’s lecture we explored the concept of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ (sex being between your legs and gender being between the ears!). Whilst this concept isn't new to me I do think that it is a very important concept, one that everyone should be aware of. I was first made consciously aware of this concept from the brilliant VlogBrothers on YouTube, with Hank giving a great summary of the differences between sex, gender, sexual orientation, sexual behaviour with the aim to achieve greater awareness and understanding around those terms (If you want to check out the video it is title “Human Sexuality is Complicated…” & here is a link: []– hello to any other nerdfighters in Woman’s Health! DFTBA!)

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After watching this video I think my main reaction was ‘well of course, that made complete sense’ and I realised that whilst I had never given this topic conscious thought it was something that I already agreed with and understood. However from this I also realised that this was a concept that a lot of people aren't familiar with making the assumption that a person’s sex determined their gender. I think that in 2013 this should not be the case and that it should be taught in schools, a time when people can be very confused about what they think is the right way to act socially and can lead to depression, anxiety, and many other issues when adolescents feel that they don’t fit into ‘normal’ cisgender.

Interesting things found online this week:
'The Gender Show' at George Eastman House: 'George Eastman House’s exhibition The Gender Show will explore how photographs, from the mid-19th century to today, have portrayed gender — from archetypal to non-traditional to subversive representations — with a special emphasis on the performances that the act of photographing or being photographed can encourage or capture.' ([]) unfortunately the show is in Rochester, N.Y, however the pictures can be accessed online at the previous link :)

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'LEGO and Gender' from Feminist Frequency: 'LEGO announced that after 4 years of intensive research, they have finally come up with a LEGO product that fulfills the desires of “how girls naturally build and play.” This new theme is called LEGO Friends and it’s a pink and purple, gender segregated, suburban wasteland populated by Barbie/Bratz style dolls.' ([]) this is a two part video looking at the different gender roles portrayed in one of my favourite toys as a kid: LEGO! Very interesting!!

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= <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Week three: Woman, popular culture, and the media =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This week we took a look at woman and how they are presented in the popular culture and across the media. I found the whole lecture to be quite interesting, starting at representation of females (in the form of Eve) in the Bible all the way up to 2013 and the roles females play in current politics, news roles and popular TV shows. It was a great little history lecture for me, even though I attended a Catholic school (I’m not Catholic, it was just one of the better schools – plus neither of my parents are religious so Mum felt like this would be one of the only ways to give me a religious/spiritual teachings where I could decide what I wanted to about religion), I had basic understandings of what happened in the Bible – with Eve being created from Adam and how she gave into temptation and ate the forbidden fruit. However I had never really thought about how the two characters and how they presented woman to be disobedient, weak-willed, prone to temptation, and evil and that men should guard themselves against such things in woman. I think this is just ridiculous and just another point in my list of issues I have with the Bible. I shouldn't really be surprised though, I have read Leviticus 15:19-24 and the way it talk about woman isn't exactly the nicest (See below)

// Leviticus 15:19-24 // // “When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. And everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. Whether it is the bed or anything on which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening. ... //

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I guess I should start practicing my levitation so as to not make anything dirty when I’m on my period! Thinking about this from a health perspective it isn’t very helpful at all. It makes woman feel that for having a period is a disgusting thing and something she should probably be ashamed of, at the same time it allows men to think themselves superior as they don’t have this curse once a month which would make them ‘dirty’. Now I get that this was written quite a while ago and many people probably wouldn’t be able to tell you what Leviticus said around menstrual cycles, however I think it is interesting that periods and any other ‘woman’s issues’ are considered taboo public subjects that are danced around in public settings. I think it something that should be talked about, especially in everyday life without the fear that people will look at you differently. If men had periods I don’t think it would be such a taboo subject, I think it would be talked about as a fact of life instead of something that makes people uncomfortable. I found a decent article around this issue online (link: []) which starts off describing a special Dr Oz. episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show around women’s reproductive health. It continues, ‘After Dr. Oz answered a question about douching, Oprah turned to a gentleman who was sitting in the audience and (with some humor) apologized to him for being stuck listening to all the conversation about “women” stuff and being seen in on TV for participating in an episode that dealt with, among other topics, menstruation and menopause issues.’ The article then goes on to ask the question why should Oprah have to apologise to a male audience member for him having to sit through discussion around women’s health (the poor guy!). And I have to agree! Females shouldn’t have to apologise or get embarrassed about talking about their bodies and things that are natural for female! It’s quite an interesting read.

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<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Interesting things found online this week:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">TWITTER

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ellen Page tweeted the picture below with the caption: Ugh “[|@**AIsForOrg**]: Really, [|@**ChildrensPlace**]? Really?? [|pic.twitter.com/qwxhkwblth]”

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I also found these two article:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1) Julia Bluhm, Seventeen Reader, Petitions Magazine To Feature Non-Airbrushed Photos (link: [])

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2) Bullied 14-Year-Old Girl Gets Plastic Surgery to Fix Ears, Nose, Chin (link:[])

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">YOUTUBE: I found another interesting channel called 'Sexplanations' by Dr. Lindsey Doe, a Clinical Sexologist. The premise of this show is to 'talk about sexuality openly and honestly with all of you [internet people]'.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and then finally from the TUMBLR universe (Tumblr-verse?): I came across this on tumblr, it is more based around the media and how it doesn't always get their facts straight, however I think the initial issue around the message on the card is just another good example of how society talks to young girls. (link: [])

= <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Week Four - The A Word... Abortion. =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Talking about the issues around abortion reminded me of a few months ago in June when social media went into overdrive in support of a woman’s health issue in Texas. The Texas government had proposed to pass legislation that not only would have banned abortion after 20 weeks, but would have required clinics to make costly upgrades and have their doctors obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital. Collectively the laws would see 37 of the state’s 42 abortion clinics closed. If the law had of passed, it would have been the 13th state in America to take such a strong stance on abortion. However democratic state senator Wendy Davis held a 10+ hour long filibuster which delayed a final vote just long enough so that the Lieutenant Governor couldn’t sign the legislation before the midnight deadline. Now I don’t really know much about American politics or the way things work over there (it all just seems to get a little bit confusing for me) so after a bit of reading, I learnt that a Filibuster is a ‘type of parliamentary procedure where debate is extended, allowing one or more members to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal’. During the filibuster Davis was not allowed to eat, go to the bathroom, couldn’t drink water, lean on her podium, or sit down – there was even a moment where a colleague helped her put on a back brace and there was a possibility that this was against the correct procedure for a filibuster (again even after doing extensive reading, I am a little unsure around certain aspects of this parliamentary procedure – I think it would have been fine had she been wearing the brace from the start of the filibuster, but by putting it on during the filibuster it took up time… maybe… ). It was during the filibuster that social media – in particular Twitter and Tumblr – exploded in support for Wendy Davis with ‘#standwithwendy’ trending on both sites. Along with this there were rallies and sit-ins held during the filibuster. All of this helped get the issue to a national and worldwide audience, which I think is quite important.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think the marathon effort that Davis put in, talking about this issue for 10+ hours is very inspirational and I am happy that she was successful in this attempt to prevent this legislation from being passed. However it is going back through parliament and is most likely going to be passed – with the message from Tea Party member Rick Perry being clear – ‘no amount of procedural heroics or passion-filled mobs will kill this bill a second time’ .I think that this is quite devastating; preventing a lot of woman from being able to have the freedom to choose what is right for them and for their bodies and families due to not being able to afford the interstate travel expenses required to get an abortion. Not only that though, the closing of these womans health clinics will also limit access for woman to breast cancer screening services.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I don’t understand how these things are currently happening in 2013 – woman’s choices shouldn’t be at the mercy of male politicaisn (I.e. Tony Abbot or Governor Rick Perry!)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Like I said, I don’t understand all things American politics so below are some links to articls around this filibuster if you are interested:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hardball with Chris Matthews - [|http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036697/ns/msnbc-hardball_with_chris_matthews/vp/52334495#52334495]


 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Wendy's marathon filibuster bid - Nick O’Malley - []
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Stand With Wendy: Protesters Stage Sit-In At Texas Capitol Rotunda To Support Wendy Davis – Paige Lavender - []
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What does Wendy Davis mean for the larger abortion debate? Juliet Eilperin - []
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Wendy Davis and the political power of the filibuster – Chris Cillizza - []

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Interesting things found online this week:

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The 'Roe V Wade' case was brought up quite a bit during talk around the Davis filibuster, here is a link to the wiki page for it if you care to read more about it []
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] - Feminspire is an online publication featuring a global collection of female voices where they share their thoughts on social issues, feminism, politics, culture, beauty, fashion, and everything in between. This is a link to an article written on the website about the amazing Amanda Palmer and her musical open letter to tabloid misogyny []
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is an article around the importance of using the word 'abortion' - I found it quite interesting! []

= <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Week Five - Fashion Industry and body image... =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The thing that really captured my attention from the lecture this week was around the different influences around body image and self-esteem on young girls. In the media you are led to believe that the main influence affecting young girls are celebrity role models, completely taking the family and peer influences away, however it was shown in the lecture that the family influence has more impact upon a young girls habits (around eating, behaviour, dressing...etc). I found this really interesting, because you never really hear this, I guess from a media perspective, it is always really expressed how poor celebrity role models are. It makes sense I guess – I have myself had body image issues in the past which I think stemmed from being bullied in primary school, and it was my mum who kind of helped my get passed it, showing me what a healthy women looks like and that just being thin or skinny doesn’t actually mean that you are healthy. To this day I never weigh myself, instead I go on if my clothes are fitting me or not, and I don’t have a gym membership because gyms aren’t really my scene. I do go for walks, I swim and I ride my bike because over 22 years I have learnt that exercise is an important part of life and if I am going to participate in exercise then it has to be something that I enjoy. I don’t think this is something that many girls learn; I mean society generally shows us that the main reason to have good eating and exercise patterns is so that you can be more attractive. I think it is very important to let parents know just how influential they can be in the area of body image and eating habits and physical activity habits.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In class today we were asked the question: if you could change yourself easily and painlessly would you? What would you change? I found the question really interesting – something to think about!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I did a brainstorming session with my friend about female celebrities that celebrate good health and who don’t or won't talk about or dislike talking about how they lost weight for a role and below are the females we came up with:


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Anne Hathaway
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Jen Lawrence
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pink
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">T Swift
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ellen

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">if you can think of anymore please leave a comment :)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here is an interesting article about female 'celebrolemodels' found it quite interesting on who they thought young females should look up too []

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Interesting things found online this week:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">From Tumblr:

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 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">One of my favorite shows is called Miranda - it is an English sitcom, it stars English comedian Miranda Hart - if you have a bit of free time go check it out, I think it is hilarious. The gifs below are from the first (or maybe second) episode and basically highlights how silly some of those how to change what you wear to feel better about yourself style shows where they really can be quite nasty to ladies about what they wear and then show them how to dress 'more fashionably'.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2. I also found this post about how to talk to your daughter: [|http://badstorygiraffe.tumblr.com/post/64139636781/how-to-talk-to-your-daughter-about-her-body-step]

= <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Week Six - The truth about birthing =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> This week’s lecture really made me think about how I learnt about birth. I don’t really remember having the birds and the bee’s conversation with my parents, so really the next think that I have to really focus on where my learning’s about birth come from the media. From what I learn about birth from TV shows was that most times birthing happens on the way to the hospital whether it be in the car on the side of the road, in the house whilst waiting for the ambulance or in some other kind of emergency situations. The roles of the people involved, media would have me believe that ALL women turn into crazed, psycho people due to the immense pain that they are in and that the experience is completely hell, and the men are some useless in this situation, there for the women to beat or yell at or squeeze their hands during the contractions. I don’t really think that I had given birthing much thought however, I mean as I’ve aged and I watch a birthing scene in a movie I can see that characters have been dramatized to create a more interesting scene however it is something that is apparently severely mistreated which can lead people to have these misconceptions about birth and what it is really like.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> One aspect that I found really interesting was around caesareans by appointment. I had really only seen this in TV shows like Gilmore Girls or in the media during morning TV where the main point of view they put across is that one of the main reason caesareans occur now days is due to patient choice, however this is not the case, which was shown in the lecture – with most caesareans happening due to the patient previously having one, foetal distress, and others. There are shows that are more documentary around giving birth. I think they are pretty good in showing the different scenarios that do take place, whether it be a water birth, premature birth, the different backgrounds of the couples and how that affects how the birth takes place. It is important to note however that these shows still position us to see birth in certain lights, with the ‘agentless decisions’ where the women aren’t necessarily completely aware of the decisions being made.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> From a women’s health perspective I think that it would actually be helpful if there was more discussion around pregnancy and birth in the media or everyday life and not have it as some ‘special women’s club’ that you are only a part of once you are pregnant or once you have given birth – which was something that the mothers of the lecture expressed. Nor have it as a bit of a taboo topic that is apparently to sensitive a topic for general discussion, as it may make men uncomfortable. I know that I have never really given thought to birthing, whenever I think of the prospect of kids its usually after they have been born, completely glossing over the hard work that goes before it. More discussion may improve the experiences women have and create more realistic expectations of what will occur during birth.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Interesting things found online this week:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Found a new series called My Mad Fat Diary (Based on the real life diary entries from Rae Earl) it’s a great show! This doesn’t really have anything to do with birthing; however I watched this ep this week and felt that it had applied to women’s health. That is one thing that I am finding with this subject, is how much more notice I am paying in my everyday life to things that may affect women’s health and women in general.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Episode 3 - great scene when Rae is seeing her councillor 10:00 - 12:51 - unfortunately I couldn’t find the actual scene online, just the whole episode... but it’s pretty amazing so if you have the chance go back and watch the entire series (its only 6 eps long & they are currently shooting season 2)

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= <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Week Seven - Family Gender Roles =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> If you were playing the word association game with someone and said ‘family gender roles’ you would very quickly get the standard stereotypical response perpetuated form the 50’s:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Female: cleaning, laundry, household care, childcare, cooking, servicing your husband = all of these add up to carer

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Male: worker, bread winner, main source of income, home repairs, head of the house = all of these add up to provider

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> However I don’t think this is a true representation of 2013 and gender roles in families anymore! (Or at least not in my family)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The first obvious shift from ‘traditional’ roles highlighted above is the structure of a family. What is a family now days? To me it’s a community of love and support. This can be same sex couples with children, single parent families, families with stay at home dads, and couples with adopted children or fostered children. Who is to say what is ‘normal’?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The male is no longer the sole bread winner in the family anymore either – with more females completing high school education and continuing to increase their knowledge through tertiary education. This gives women a greater chance at a professional carrier in their chosen fields. Along with this is the continuing growth of mother’s participating in the workforce regardless of socioeconomic status.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Unfortunately this doesn’t translate economically, with differences in pay between the genders – with men coming out on top!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> So what does this mean for family gender roles? I think it allows people to play to their strengths – so if dad is better at the cooking and house work and mum has a higher paid job or is simply more comfortable in the office instead of the kitchen, then that is fine that are socially acceptable these days. I know in my family it was all very mixed, both parents did yard work and odd jobs round the house, dad was a better breakfast chef and mum a better dinner chef (but that didn’t stop dad from cooking dinner and vice versa!)

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Interesting things found online this week:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">During the month of September there is a fundraiser called 'Liptempber' which aims to raise funds and create awareness for women's mental health issues, specifically during September. Funds raised will go towards helping support the development of national research, programs, and prevention strategies. I currently have a friend involved in this which is pretty wicked. Check our the link if you are interested: []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I came across this image on Tumblr, and I thought the message was really strong.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">one of the hashtags it came with was that 'feminism is about making sure every person of every gender is free to choose whatever they want and feel is best for their bodies their jobs their relationships etc. here is a link the the actual post: []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">youtube:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I love the show "Jack & Finn" and I found this really video really intersting as it looks at the sexuality of one of its characters BMO. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">media type="custom" key="24325880"

= <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Week 8 - Domestic Violence =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This week was focused on Domestic Violence. One of the first slides gave a range of definitions on what domestic violence and abuse are. These are below:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The Australian Public Health Association employs a comprehensive definition of "domestic violence", outlining examples of abusive behaviour: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Physical abuse, causing pain and injury; denial of sleep, warmth or nutrition; denial of needed medical care; sexual assault; violence to property or animals; disablement; and murder; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Verbal abuse, in private or in public, designed to humiliate, degrade, demean, intimidate, subjugate, including the threat of physical violence; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Economic abuse, including deprivation of basic necessities, seizure of income or assets, unreasonable denial of the means necessary for participation in social life; and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Social abuse, through isolation, control of all social activity, deprivation of liberty, or the deliberate creation of unreasonable dependence <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think an important aspect of DV is the understanding that DV isn't just physical, and it can occur in a range of different abusive acts. I think the part that really stood out for me what the way different health fields and researchers looked at DV. I understand that quantitative researchers are more interested in figures and comparing them to other statistics and so it makes sense that when defining it they focus more on the physical abuse side of things, and qualitative are more focused on descriptions and therefore it is not surprise they take a more broad approach to their research looking at physical, verbal, economic and social abuse. I think that the qualitative research is more vital in this area in reducing DV. I think by understanding the different types of DV and how they occur, and the people involved it allows for better approaches to be taken by health departments to get the message across that DV is bad and that DV occurs in more that one sense.

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<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Interesting things found online this week:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">*Side note: I know these aren't relating to domestic violence, they are simply things that I have found online that I thought were interesting and felt like sharing :)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">youtube: This video looks at women on youtube - mainly vloggers and how they are portrayed and treated by the general youtube and by extension tumblr community. I think it is really interesting modern take on the differences in how people treat men and women.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tumblr: the following is an blog form John Green on tumblr about his thoughts on women on youtube: []

= <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Week 9 - Indigenous Health =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This week we were asked to read some articles around women's Indigenous identity in contemporary Australia. I found the articles extremely interesting. I think that acceptance can be a major contributor to a persons health. If a person doesn't feel that they are accepted in society then this may lead to social isolation, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. It may also increase the likelihood of the person not seeking medical attention for health professionals which can also impact upon their physical health. I think that Bolt's opinion that the only reason some one would want to identify as indigenous was to reap financial benefits is ridiculous and really offensive - both to Dr Heiss and to the entire Indigenous community. He ultimately said that the Indeigenous community has nothing to offer to Australian society, and i also found it interesting that that he didn't highlight any males in his article. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Currently the Indigenous population in Australia experience poorer health outcomes that those of non-indigenous Australians. The rate of hospitalisation for Indigenous Australians for mental health problems was nearly twice that for other Australians. It is my opinion that creating more acceptance in Australia towards Indigenous Australians would help improve their mental health - along with the continued efforts to reduce the gap between health outcomes of Indigenous Australians and Non-Indigenous Australians.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Below are all the links we were provided with around the Dr Anita Heiss and Andrew Bold issue:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Who is Dr Anita Heiss? (Watch vid at bottom of page)
 * []
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What did Andrew Bolt have to say about her?
 * []
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What did the Federal Court have to say?
 * []
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What did Dr Heiss have to say?
 * []

= <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Week 10 - Golden Years =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For the website assignment I chose to focus on healthy aging of women on the Sunshine Coast - here is a link to my website: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Australia is currently experiencing an aging population, which has major health impacts, and women generally live longer than their male counterparts. For my website I focused more on lifestyle aspects to addressing the health of aging women in Australia. I think that creating more of a preventative option is the best approach as it provides things that women can do in their everyday life to address health issues. These included looking and food and nutrition, physical activity, the importance of a strong social network, and then also looking at community services provided on the Coast - both health related and important services that impact upon life and make things easier for women. It can be seen that the lifestyle approach to health for older women is very important and can greatly improve their health. I think the most important aspect to the lifestyle approach is increasing older women's health education and the specific things that need to be focused on during the later stages of life.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"># So I have been overseas on placement and thus there won't be any 'interesting things found online' for the last wiki entries as my access to internet has been limited plus I have been super busy with uni! Also the entries may be a little shorter now just as I have less time due to uni and work!!

= <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Week 11 - Women in Vietnam =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> So for my placement this semester I was lucky enough to go to Vietnam. It was an amazing experience that I am extremely grateful I was given Whilst over there I made sure that I paid attention to women's health and just in general how women are treated. I was impressed that at the university it looked like there was approximately half and half split between the male and female students, especially the fact that this seemed to be a trend for different faculties, so it didn't matter if it was a science subject or not it was still quite even. I don't really know what I expected, but it was nice that it is encouraged for females to attend university, to gain the best education they can and to then help their families. I did try and ask a few of the female students about women's health but there was a little bit of a language barrier and I don't think they understand what I was asking. Another thing that we noticed was the respect they pay to women in Vietnamese history. In both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (previously Saigon) had Women's Museums. Unfortunately I was unable to actually visit either of these museums due to time constraints, however from the brochures we had it was seen that they were constructed to recognize the cultural and military contributions of Vietnamese women - which I thought was pretty neat! The Women's Museum in Hanoi has a website - here is the link: [] unfortunately the HCM museum doesn't have a website (or at least one that I can find).

Doing research on Women's health in Vietnam can be a bit difficult. The Vietnamese culture is very conservative, and having children out of wedlock is not considered acceptable, and apparently it is not uncommon for women to disappear from society if she has fallen pregnant, or to be married quickly before anyone finds out. Whilst there are family planning services available in Vietnam, these are actually for couples who are married and who have already had children and have decided that they don't want anymore children. Basically it can be seen that women's health still needs quite a bit of improvement, however there are many other health issues that Vietnam is currently working on.

= Week 12 - Lesbianism  =

Lesbians are a minority group in Australia. Currently lesbians face poorer health outcomes compared to heterosexual females in Australia. This is quite an issue for women's health. It has been reported across the literature that lesbians experience higher rates of depression and anxiety. One explanation for this is due to the lack of acceptance of lesbians in society and marriage denial. I think that discrimination due to a persons sexual orientation is really quite ludicrous! Marriage equality is currently a major social issue in the media at the moment - however something that I have noticed is that the adds that advocate for same-sex marriage usually focus more on male and male relationships (gay relationships) opposed to female and female relationships (lesbian relationships).

If you aren't really sure of the pro marriage equality ads that I am talking of, I would recommend going and watching the final episode of Gruen Planet season 3. Here is a link to their website: [] I find it really interesting that the media chooses to focus on gay relationships rather than lesbian relationships, I'm not really sure why they choose to do this, as there are just as many lesbians as there are gay men.

One statistic that really shocked me was that many lesbians have had negative experiences with health care providers, experiencing discrimination and judgement due to their sexuality. As medical professionals, our job is to provide health care and health advice to people and to the public, yes sexual orientation should alter the advice that you provide or the information that you provide, but it is not our place to judge people because of this. it has been shown that is actually deters lesbians from visiting health care professionals which can lead to negative health issues which just really infuriates me!

This weeks Q&A was also very interesting, it was the Dangerous Ideas episode, and they talk a lot about feminism (Germaine Greer was on the panel after all) and marriage equality: []