Discover Top Posts Tagged with #fair go

Australia is becoming a less fair country at the base while opportunity narrows at the top — hence fewer people feel free, or able, to “have

great read

defining the aussie "fair go" in terms of maslow's hierarchy of needs and our national obsession with sport

#australia #maslow's hierarchy of needs #fair go #sports

Just saw a can in the drive thru bra

#overwhelmed by aussie aussie culture #fair go

idk if i have any aussie followers that read discworld

#pollitics #i just had too #dibbler #fair go #labour #terry pratchett #Discworld

Australia has often been described as "the land of the fair go." But it's a notion with a troubled history, which casts doubt on the sufficiency of fairness as a moral ideal. The Christmas narrative offers an alternative to the "fair go" and the culture of entitlement.

“..the Christmas story is one of radical un-fairness. In place of what Jesus deserved, there is humility, grace and service. Instead of entitlement, there's sacrificial solidarity with all humanity. What a contrast to Australia's "fair go" myth, especially as it has been invoked by those with power and privilege!”

#fair go #scott morrison #fair shake of the sauce bottle #Jesus #love #liberation #feminism #christmas

I think it says a lot about New Zealand that one of our longest-running (forty years last year!) and most iconic TV shows features reporters chasing around small-time conmen (or in some cases just slack tradies and shops) in order to do right by innocent consumers. They don’t have to chase around large organisations so much because the mere words “I’m calling from Fair Go” will put fear into the heart of any marketing department. Once they even got a bomb threat.

Anyway, there was a doco about it on TV last night and they mentioned that the smallest story they’d ever done was a seven-year-old who’d been sold a pack of felt pens where the green one was actually black, and that’s...that’s absolute *peak* Fair Go.

#new zealand #fair go

Income & Wealth: Australia 2017

1. Income for top decile (10%) of wage earners has risen 3 X FASTER than bottom decile in one generation 2. Aggregate worth of richest percentile (1%) has DOUBLED in the same time and TRIPPLED for the top 0.1% 3. Three (3) Very Wealthy Australians OWN as much as the poorest 1 MILLION

#auspol #australia #egalitarianism #fair go #revolution #income #wealth

the current climate of cinematic diversity

the number one movie at the (US) box office for the second weekend straight is Deadpool. here’s some notable, but not unusual facts about said film…

the movie stars a man, it was directed by a man, and it was written by four men. two of the three producers are men and the films most prominent female character doesn’t have a role with much depth - in other words, she doesn’t have much to say or do except talk about or have sex. PLEASE NOTE I AM NOT reviewing the film here, neither am I denouncing it. because here’s the thing… Most TV shows and films are just like Deadpool! so understandably, I’ve realised in the past few years that a lot of my all-time favourite films growing up wouldn’t even come close to passing the Bechdel (when two (named) women characters have a conversation about something other than a man) or DuVernay tests. (I'm not trying to use Deadpool as an example of a 'bad film', I never said I didn't like it! it's a relevent statistic from the past two weeks).

last year, a team of researchers (from the Media Diversity and Social Change Initiative) examined a selection of 109 movies and 305 TV/streaming series (in the US) and found that out of 11,309 characters, only 1/3 were female, and LGBT characters and PoC and minorities were far less common than they are in the general population.

and BEHIND the camera, just THREE POINT FOUR % of the directors were women!!

that said, there are still certain groups that are actually facing complete invisibility on screen, e.g. over 20% of all the stories evaluated didn’t feature ONE African American speaking character, and over 50% didn’t feature one Asian or Asian American speaking character. AND, of the entire ecology investigated of the 11,309 on screen characters, there were only 229 LGBT across the entire sample.

so as I see it… there’s not really an ~issue~ of diversity in the US… no, no… it’s a crisis! we are left with an industry that’s driven by a white cis-male club across the entertainment ecosystem. but anyway, that’s HOLLYWOOD right? what about Australia?

in the Australian film and television industry between 1970 and 2014, men have been responsible for directing 85% of feature films, (a figure that’s remained largely unchanged) and in that time, only 30% of producers in Australia have been women, 16% directors and 21% writers. AND there are equal numbers of men and women studying and graduating film school.

not to mention the paradox of Australian ‘multiculturalism’, which is apparent on screen. what the hell is going on - is the industry still playing ‘catch up’ to the demographic changes that have transformed our country from the southern hemisphere anglo outpost it once was? or have we forgotten our nations true history?stereotyping along racial lines has become so common when it comes to casting leads, writers and directors seem to only dream up ‘white’ characters.

but if you look at the successful reception of some Australian films over the past five years - made by the industries minorities - you can see that such films are being extremely well received, they’re just few and far between - because they are simply just not getting green-lit. it’s this frustratingly myopic point of view that production companies think they'll only make a profit if they cast the same demographic they have been for years... yeah, you guessed it. in regards to gender disparity within the industry, what has not shifted is the number of women leaders (the exhibitors, distributors, sales agents, investors, and broadcasters) that drive the business and decide what should be programmed upon our cinema and television screens (which seems ludicrous when women buy more than 50% of all movie tickets and women aged 35+ are one of the only demographics that continues to grow worldwide at a time when cinema audience numbers are trending downwards).

last year, Jennifer Kent won Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay for The Babadook at the AACTA Awards - the only female nominee. In 2009, Indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his DEBUT(!!) feature film Samson & Delilah (which was also the fifth highest grossing film in Australia that year), Mao’s Last Dancer is the fifteenth highest grossing Australian film ever made, Black Comedy - the TV sketch series featuring Indigenous Australian writers and performers, aired its second season at the beginning of the year… and last year The Dressmaker and Holding the Man had excellent receptions as Australian films screened locally and internationally. only to name a few... !

yet when Sue Maslin was financing The Dressmaker four years ago and speaking to a number of local distributors who had an interest in the film, Universal Pictures was the only distributor at the time who would talk to her seriously about the female demographic as a commercial market. so you can probably understand my frustration when I overheard the film student on my tram yesterday say that ‘there is not one good Australian film with a woman director…’ who then even continued to backpedal and cover his tracks to his friend, ‘I’m not being sexist, I just don’t like their feminine style. it’s all subjective anyway.’

yes, it’s subjective mate - it always will be. but lol ‘feminine style’, are you talking about genre, or plot, or wot?!?!

there shouldn’t be a racial, ethnic, religious or gender divide within the industry, but let's face it - our industry is NOT diverse! it shouldn’t have to be an ‘us against them’ philosophy, but we must not be complacent either. we must not assume that everybody has had a fair go. what has to change to stop us from having this conversation one, ten, fifty years from now?

I couldn’t think of a better time for Chris Rock to host the Oscars next monday, with every nominee up for a ‘best actor/actress’ award across the board, white - which has led to a boycott of the ceremony by some and for the second year running - see ‪#‎oscarssowhite‬

#oscarssowhite #australian film and television industry #australian cinema #diversity #fair go #divide #gender disparity #ethnic disparity