A couple of years ago while writing about autism and Asperger’s in film and TV, I came across a quote from a psychologist. I’m paraphrasing, but the gist was that there isn’t a woman alive who hasn’t…
- Senior Lecturer, The University of Melbourne
In this space recently, I wrote about the mad and bad masturbation portrayals so common on screen. In the days following, Hot Octopuss – a London-based sex toy retailer – posted a response, identifying…
Be it because of concerns over big femcare, landfill, cost, toxic ingredients or toxic shock syndrome, some menstruators seek solutions outside of the Kotex box. These are those choices.
As the “Weinstein effect” sweeps Hollywood, the sex/gender/pop culture clash that is my passion project has led to lots of conversations, oftentimes on air. At some point during interviews there’ll be…
2017 has been a pretty excellent year for TV adaptations of books. Without pause, I’d enthusiastically recommend a Summertime binge on Strike, I Love Dick, Big Little Lies (which I wrote about here), The…
I’m often unenthused, to put it mildly, about social media campaigns. I’ve expressed my… reservations… about #WISH and #DoItInADress previously. While invariably well-intentioned, such campaigns often…
In a recent interview with an online publication, I used the term “sexually transmitted ethics”. I wasn’t referencing published work, and yet, while the phrase mightn’t have a scholarly history, I don’t…
September 21 and it’s started already. No, not the ever-earlier encroach of Christmas. (My view on that particular “lament” is that if consumers really cared, they’d vote with their wallets and force stores…
The sex industry doesn’t need your admiration, but nor does it deserve your condemnation.
I’ve lived in the CBD long enough to be disinclined to accept the hands of strangers: such nonsense can only ever lead to a backpacker telling me about Greenpeace. My version of hell. Nonetheless, I let…
Seven years ago I wrote a book about infidelity. Not a memoir, no, but my own experiences were indeed divulged amid a broader scholarly discussion of sexuality and feminism. Of the very many radio interviews…
I’m in my seventeenth year of working at the University of Melbourne: at 37-years-old, that’s a fair chunk of my life in the one place. This isn’t a love letter to my employer, nevertheless there are lots…
As someone whose life revolves around consuming politics, consuming media, my reaction to the attack in Manchester - messy, and, for a while there, unbridled - felt disproportionate. It’d been such a long…
Tess (Catherine McClements), an editor who can’t spell - an implausible premise but just go with it - has decided to leave her marriage to Curtis (Peter Houghton), a man who incomprehensibly transitions…
With complete disregard for irony, Conservatives are sometimes triggered laughably easily. When the brown folks forget their station, for example. When we ladies get too ballsy. And God forbid if anyone…
A couple of years ago in this column I wrote about the happy mistake of downloading the audiobook of Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies. It turned out to be the best book I’d read in 2014. Initially subdued…
You’d think I’d have learnt my lesson. It was, after all, the same social media feed chiming that 13 Reasons Why was as enjoyable for angsty adults as adolescents that also claimed Kendrick Lamar was God’s…
In a mediascape where women are routinely sexualised and oftentimes overtly objectified in music videos, the most thoroughly tokenistic deviations can achieve accolades. Exhibit A: Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble…
November, 2016. I took two weeks of annual leave to go to the U.S. and see in a female president. Like so many “sure things”, alas, it wasn’t to be. The morning after, I went into a cafe to order a banana…
There’s a simple solution to the school uniform conundrum: have a range of sanctioned options and allow students to choose, no matter their gender.
From the very best to the oh-so egregiously worst, here is my ranking of the 58 new releases I saw this year. This list only includes movies I saw in Australian (or U.S.) cinemas in the 2016 calendar year…
I’m not patriotic. In fact, the whole idea makes me bristle (yes, yes, a conversation topic for another time). In the context of Christmas however, I do recognise the need for pop culture that offers…
January this year, my best friend was pottering around my apartment, readying for work. “So what’s on for today?” he asked me. I rolled my eyes. “What is it that you think I do all day?” I asked. He gestured…
Welcome to the final five of my Christmas Film Recommendations. Today we make our way through the Christmas film staples of strippers, burglars, dogs and orphans. 71. Powder Blue (2009) Powder Blue is…
From Christmastime sex and drugs to a festive Groundhog Day: welcome to the penultimate post in my holiday film recommendations list. 66. Trading Christmas (2011) I mentioned The Holiday (2006) in Part…
Contact Lauren for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Website
- X (formerly Twitter): @laurenrosewarne
- Article Feed
- ORCID
- Joined
