Jezebel: Kevin Rudd

In Her Prime

Anna Holmes — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:10:00 EDT

[Canberra, Australia; June 24. Image via Getty]

Mob Mentality

Anna Holmes — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:10:00 EDT

[Sydney, May 11. Image via Getty]

More Details Emerge About Dugard • Reported Results Of Semenya's Tests Released

Katy Kelleher — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:40:00 EDT

• And the disaster porn continues: More details have emerged about Jaycee Dugard's abduction and life in captivity. CBS also has a "special section" devoted to Jaycee, and a video of Dr. Phil giving his "expert" opinions. • More »

Carine Doesn't Seem To Read French Vogue As Often As We Do

TatianaTheAnonymousModel — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:30:00 EDT

Vogue As Often As We Do" alt="Click here to read Carine Doesn't Seem To Read French Vogue As Often As We Do" src="http://cache.jezebel.com/assets/images/39/2009/05/carine_roitfeld.jpg"/>

Carine Roitfeld: "You know it's easier to look great in a dress when you are skinny. But I like a bit of curves and I like to do stories with different kinds of women...

Beauty, Sexuality Are In The Eye Of The Beholder

Megan Carpentier — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Perhaps you remember when, two months ago, Australian police shut down an exhibit of artist Bill Henson's work — some of which included photographs topless adolescent girls — claiming the work "lacked artistic merit." As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd put it: "Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff - frankly I don't think there are any - just allow kids to be kids." This month, in response to the controversy, Art Monthly Australia published this picture* of then-6-year-old Olympia Nelson, taken by her mother Polixeni Papapetrou, and yesterday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd erupted, calling it "disgusting," claiming that it is sexualizing children and exploitative because you can see her nipple. Oh, Christ. More »

Is The Relationship Between Male Artist And Female Subject Always A Destructive One?

Jessica G. — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Lucien Freud's painting of Sue Tilley, called "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping," has sold for £17.2 million — reportedly the highest payday for a living artist in history. For Kira Cochrane at the Guardian, the portrait brings up a bunch of issues about the relationship of artist to subject, specifically when the artist is male and the "muse" is female. Cochrane references radical feminist artists the Guerilla Girls, who asked on a poster in 1989, "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum?" and found that 85% of the nudes at the Met were women, while only 5% of artists represented in the museum were women. It's one thing to discuss the power dynamics between an artist and a muse with whom he is sexually or romantically involved, but what about women who act merely as models, like Tilley? What are the power dynamics implicit in that relationship? More »

(Ab)orginal Sin

Jessica G. — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:30:00 EST

When a 10-year-old aboriginal girl was gang-raped by 9 men in Northeastern Australia and her assailants were given zero jail time, it was clear that the indigenous aboriginals, who had been treated so brutally by the Australian government, were in need of major help. Yesterday, new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took steps to repair what has been years of institutionalized cruelty towards the Aboriginal people: "As prime minister of Australia, I am sorry. On behalf of the government of Australia, I am sorry. On behalf of the Parliament of Australia, I am sorry. I offer you this apology without qualification." What Rudd did not mention, though, was cash reparations. Lowitja O'Donohue, an Aboriginal activist, told the IHT of Rudd's speech, "I was overjoyed and I think he delivered it in very genuine way...(but) I don't forgive them for my mother's grief and for the 30 years of not even having met her, and for the fact that they took our language and culture away." O'Donohue is one of the "lost generation" of Aborigines who were taken away from their families and placed with white Australians or in orphanages. [IHT, Times of London] More »

Prosecutor Says Gang Rape Of 10 Year-Old Girl Was "Childish Experimentation"

Jessica — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:30:00 EST

The story of the ten-year-old Aboriginal girl who was gang raped by nine assailants in the Australian province of Queensland becomes more and more appalling with each new fragment of information. As reported yesterday, Queensland judge Sarah Bradley (pictured), who said the ten-year old "probably agreed" to the rapes, did not hand out a single day of jail time to any of the nine perpetrators, all of whom pled guilty. (Some of the assailants, who were minors, came from some of Queensland's most prominent Aboriginal families, and even 26-year-old Raymond Woolla, who had a prior rap sheet of child-sex offenses, was given a six-month suspended sentence. Bradley told Woolla in her sentencing statement, "If you get into any more trouble in the next year, you could end up in jail.") More »