Feminist Futures Conference Melbourne 28th-29th May 2011

Anyone going to this?

The conference page, for more info, is here: http://www.mfc.org.au/conference.html
Feel free to drop past facebook page/event here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?ei ... 6844001769

I'm really pissed about the organising collective's choice of panelists. Some really fucked up, anti-sex work, anti-trans* and even anti-abortion, speakers in there including, but not excluded to:

* Sheila Jeffreys: Aggressively anti-sex work (sex work is rape), anti-trans* (trans reproduces oppressive gender roles, is false consciousness and reassignment surgery is mutilation), sadomashochism is male supremacist. Also has written that dildos are evil, penetrative sex is evil, and other bizarre bullshit. Sheila has a big voice and basically practices hate speech towards trans* and sex workers.

* Melinda Tankard Reist: Views abortion as part of the oppression of womyn. Supported the ban on the RU486 abortion drug. Is also vehemently anti-sex work and anti-porn.

* Kathleen Maltzan: Greens Candidate for Richmond Victoria. Those of you in Victoria might be familiar with her. She is anti-sex work and also famous as a (extremely ill-informed) anti-trafficking campaigner. Kathleen was subject to a viral campaign by many Aussies last year around election time as a result of her history of anti-sex feminism and anti-sexwork politics. The primary aim of the campaign was to "encourage" the Greens to never run anti-sex work campaigners as candidates.

The choice of panelists has created a space that is not safe or inclusive.

Hoping that i can make it down from Sodomcity, and hoping to see a strong anarchopunk, riotgrrl, fempunk, queerpunk, whore (sex worker), ISGD (Intersex, Sex & Gender Diverse) presence.

"Time is a social construction which is used to measure motion through
space in order to control it and bind it to a social context. Whether it
be the motions of the sun, moon, stars and planets across the skies, the
motions of individuals over the terrains they wander, or the motions of
events across the artifices know as days, weeks, months and years, time
is the means by which these motions are bound to social utility. The
destruction of time is essential to the liberation of individuals from the
social context, to the liberation of individuals as conscious, autonomous
creators of their own lives."

~ Feral Faun
(The Liberation Of Motion Through Space)