My Daughters Uni Assignment - A sad sign that we are miles behind the eight ball when Universities set assignments that perpetuate the inequality of gender and sexual expression.

My daughters recent University Assignment scenario question left me absolutely enraged. The scenario was one of domestic violence between a same sex couple. If my daughter were studying sociology, psychology or some humanities course, fair enough, but she is not. She is enrolled in a legal/justice course. Before the law we are all equal!!!

While our education and justice systems continue to differentiate the heterosexual and the homosexual within those systems they continue to reinforce the very inequality within the system they often purport to be addressing.

ALL offences in a domestic relationship MUST be treated the same - regardless of the gender of those involved.

This situation is exactly the same as those given the 'domestic/family violence' tags 'flagging' them to be treated differently to any other assault between citizens of our country.

This 'nomenclature' of offences stems back to the days when 'men' owned the women and children, they weren't individuals deserving of their own decision making. This nomenclature is still rife in the courts and justice system, it needs to change so that everyone regardless of gender and sexual expression is equal before the laws of this country.

I took exception to the actual question itself because it singled out a homosexual couple as if that situation should be treated differently to heterosexual citizens involved in the same scenario.

Again they do the same with Child Abuse - if you abuse a child related to you it's called incest - if you abuse a child not related to you it's referred to as child sexual assault. The courts handle these cases very differently and all based on the aforementioned antiquated and outdated belief that women and children are the property of men. 

You see this even more so in the communities reaction to these types of crime; abuse your 'own children, or children related to you' no one wants to talk about it, abuse an unrelated child and the community wants you hung, drawn and quartered! 

If the powers that be can't see the flaw in their so called attempts at 'equality' in our systems then at least they could acknowledge the expense of creating so many provisions within statutes to cover the genders, relationships, and sexual expression of our citizens. They should all simply be assaults - no 'tags', no 'flagging' so the system can automatically discriminate in how they choose to respond. 

We are all citizens we are not defined by our gender or our sexual expression or our relationships, we all have equal rights before our Justice System. It's about time our legislation and our educational institutions recognised this.

Finding a R E A L solution to Paedophilia

This will probably seem a tad odd at first glance; but hear (read) me out.

I might seem a little weird that I am dismayed by our communities (nationally and internationally) response to the issue of paedophilia, but sadly it's through first hand experience of surviving the horror of a partner with the mental illness of paedophilia.

I can't write them all off. I do believe that punishment is an essential element of a 'community response' to paedophiles who act on their mental illness of paedophilia, however I also believe that our health/mental health systems fail these sufferers of the mental illness that is paedophilia.

Paedophilia is a mental illness, one that requires treatment, and even more sadly without treatment no amount of locking them away will end the epidemic that is paedophilia in our communities.

It isn't a crime to suffer from the Mental Illness of Paedophilia, it only becomes a crime when the sufferer acts on the urges/behaviours which result from their illness.

We need to learn more about this disease and find a cure - probably more urgently than we need to find a cure for cancer. I'm serious.

Currently our justice systems response to the actions of paedophiles is merely one of triage, not treatment and a search for a cure or at the very least a safe treatment program - safe for the sufferers and safe for the community.

Our revenge/vengeful approach to 'justice' in relation to those who act on their illness of paedophilia sickens me. The crimes are sickening, but so to is our collective response to dealing with the problem.

A great majority of of the sufferers of the Mental Illness of Paedophilia were themselves victims of others who suffer the same Mental Illness. There are those who simply appear to have no reason to have contracted the disease, but that too requires research and understanding and a solution.

I hate that we simply write off people completely for their crimes, I hate it even more when those we label as criminals are sufferers of an horrific mental illness that we as a community fail to treat, or even demand be treated.

I have been working on a new model for the passage of paedophilia related crime through our Justice Systems. Currently my thinking is that we need a hybrid system much like the Qld. Drug Courts. A justice system that incorporates both Criminal Justice and Mental Health agencies, that shields victims from the trauma of the Criminal Justice system and provides a platform for the sufferers of the mental illness of Paedophilia to safely take responsibility for their actions, acknowledge their illness and seek treatment for that illness.

Our current system offers no incentive whatsoever for these mentally ill people to firstly admit their illness and secondly to enter into treatment.

While we merely place band-aids on the 'victims' we fail to treat the cause. The epidemic continues unabated because of our vengeful, shallow and flawed response to this illness.

Remember - ANGER - is ALWAYS a secondary emotion, NEVER a primary one. We need to move past the ANGER and deal with the real emotions underneath the anger; fear, betrayal, pain, grief - and then act to find a solution that actually works towards minimising the occurrence of these crimes in our world.

REMEMBER it is not a crime to suffer from the Mental Illness of Paedophilia, it only becomes a crime when the sufferer acts on the urges the illness creates.

What's 'Natural Medical Intervention' ?

This question really needs to be answered!

When I was pregnant with my baby girl a family member suggested that my decision to have a cesarean section rather than a natural childbirth was wrong. The individual went on to explain how unnatural it was and how it wasn't my right to make a choice between natural and a medical delivery. This person was male, however I've heard women make similar comments about their belief that if there's no medical reason for a cesarean delivery then the woman shouldn't have the 'right' to choose to have a 'cesarean'. This really irked me. 

My decision was actually based on damage that was done to my pelvis after an extremely serious motor vehicle accident, however I was highly offended that someone else truly believed that I had the right to not only comment on my personal decisions around my medical options generally, let alone my right to deliver my children in a manner that suited me best. 

Ironically less than a year after I delivered my daughter via cesarean section I had Rhinoplasty. Not even a passing comment from that particular family member about this operation. 

What is modern medicine? Is it natural? Is it natural to have a kidney transplant, receive chemotherapy, undergo various forms of plastic surgery? have a hip replacement? receive anesthesia during surgery? be administered pain relief post surgery? bandage a wound? put a plaster on a broken limb? screw bones together? implant pacemakers? 

I am of the belief that a woman should have equal access to the 'unnatural forms of medicine' available to her for all of her bodily functions. 

Where does the belief that society has a right to not only comment on a womens' right to decide how she wishes to deliver her babies, but also their belief that a cesarean section is 'not natural' and should only be an option when medically required? Perhaps this stems from the patriarchal systems of government under which most of our world has existed for centuries? Perhaps it stems from the fact that these patriarchal systems have been the basis upon which our collective health systems have been developed? Could it also be that women are still subconsciously perceived to be the 'property' of men and therefore still unable to determine their own health and medical choices in an autonomous manner? 

Whatever the reason is for this attitude it simply MUST stop. If those that continue to argue that cesarean sections are not natural and should only be accessed conducted for  'medical reasons' truly believe their stance then they should also be denied access to medical treatment across the board. None of what is carried out in the name of modern medicine within our modern systems of 'health' are natural.

How dare our systems of government and our systems of health even suggest that women do not have a right to take a decision on how they wish to deliver their babies while they practice on a daily basis millions of unnatural medical interventions across a plethora of disease and injury!!!

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/03/why-are-american-women-dying-childbirth-201438161633539780.html

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse has a GAPING HOLE...

Sadly they're not putting enough resources into creating a solution only remedying the damage that's already been done. They need targetted investigations into the Justice Systems involvement in creating further trauma i.e. the horrific way in which these 'victims' are treated by our so called system of Justice. This includes Police, Prosecutors, Defence Teams and the Courts.

They also need a specific reference looking into peadophilia as a mental illness - more focus on the cause of the abuse and dedicated funding for this reference. No point healing victims while the system fails to act on the mentally ill who continue to create hundreds and thousands of new victims to be brutalised by a system that simply can't deal effectively with this issue in its' current form.

Tragedy upon tragedy being played out under their noses and they're resources are targetted a what is only a triage base on the battlefield 

OUR BEAUTIFUL TEENAGERS

It's funny how we've changed the perception of the 'right' age to be engaged in seemingly adult activities, including marrying and having children over the generations.

My Dad's Mum was 16 when she married. My Pop, Dad's dad, was 14 when he joined the Navy and went to WWI. 

When I started work in 1980 with the ANZ bank only the men received Superannuation when they started, women weren't paid any Superannuation until they turned 25 as you were deemed unmarriable and unlikely to have children if you weren't married by that age.

Yes early teenage yeaars are TOO YOUNG to be worrying about relationship and sexual expression. However the change over generations in terms of marrying and having kids is massive. Nowadays people believe the best time to start a family is in your 30's. 

And sadly we've put our young teenagers in cotton wool and tried to spare them any experience of adult activities, this leaves them totally unprepared when the shackles of protection are removed. 

I truly believe that there's much teenagers could experience safely (not sex or marriage mind you) but lots of the experience we protect them from we should instead be saying 'okay I'll stand beside you and let you experience these things safely and learn the skills you'll need to manage them on your own in later life'. 

It is almost as if society has gotten lazy and decided that the best way to protect teenagers is to prevent them from any experiences at all. This works out very badly because when they're finally let loose on the world they've no 'like skills' and they are literally like a Bull in a China shop and sadly the greatest damage they do is often to themselves. 

Schools are not responsible for parenting kids, parents and families are. It just seems to me that we've decided that the one part of our kids lives that truly is the most energy consuming and challenging time; their teenage years, we are simply walking away from our responsibilities in this time and coming up with excuses like 'we're protecting them' ... that's b*llshit, we are just being lazy by not taking the time to be with them and help them learn through an 'apprenticeship of life' ... 

dismounting soap box returning to mundane domesticity and I must say a degree of bliss.