A kiss is just...

This paper proposes that a survey of representations of men not-kissing men in recent television drama series makes clear a particularly hysterical fascination. While the Australian program GP has managed to produce a banal representation of two men kissing, American equivalents have resorted to a series of strategies which make insistently clear that not only can men not kiss-but that the act of not-kissing must be repeatedly displayed. By refusing to have lovers kiss; by having lovers kiss but refusing to show the act; by having gay lovers, but having one played by a woman; by having men kiss but rendering the act ridiculous; in these ways, American television programs make clear the importance of this act by consistently pointing towards it and declaring its impossibility. This paper calls for the justice of equal access to public images of kissing

The relationship between entertainment producers and higher education providers

Cameron, Verhoeven and Court have noted that many screen producers do not see their tertiary education as being beneficial to their careers. We hypothesise that Universities have traditionally not trained students in producing skills because of the division of labour between Faculties of Art and Faculties of Business; and because their focus on art rather than entertainment has downplayed the importance of producing. This article presents a SOTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) whole-of-program evaluation of a new cross-Faculty Bachelor of Entertainment Industries at QUT, devoted to providing students with graduate attributes for producing including creative skills (understanding story, the aesthetics of entertainment, etc), business skills (business models, finance, marketing, etc) and legal skills (contracts, copyright, etc). Stakeholder evaluations suggest that entertainment producers are highly supportive of this new course

Whose Ethics?

A review of Catharine Lumby and Elspeth Probyn's (Eds) Remote Control: New Media, New Ethics (Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2003)

The Relationship Between Attitudes Towards Women, Consumption of Pornography, and other Demographic Variables in a Survey of 1,023 Consumers of Pornography

Objective: This survey provides data about the attitudes towards women of 1023 pornography consumers in Australia, and the relationships between these attitudes, their level of pornography consumption, and several other demographic variables. Method: A survey of 1023 consumers of pornography in Australia recruited through mailing lists of pornography consumers, and via the Internet. Results: There was no relationship demonstrated between consumers' attitudes towards women and the amount of pornography consumed; but there was a relationship between greater negative attitudes towards women and being older; voting for a right-wing political party; living in a rural area; having a lower level of formal education; and being a man. Conclusions: The paper suggests that consuming pornography is not a significant factor in the generation of negative attitudes towards women. Implications: The survey suggests that in seeking to understand how negative attitudes towards women are generated in society we should start by asking what issues might be most important, rather than beginning from the assumption that pornography is the major cause of such attitudes

Does Size Matter? Dominant Discourses about Penises in Western Culture

The fact that a large penis is important for giving women sexual pleasure is a dominant discourse—even though it must never be spoken—in Western cultures. And this is an interesting fact, for many reasons. It is interesting for making us think about how discourses work, and how we may know them to be dominant. It suggests that a discourse that is almost never spoken publicly may still be a dominant one. It suggests that there is at least one dominant discourse in Western culture that is in the hands of women, and that can be extremely powerful against men when used correctly. And it suggests—to me, at least—that in cultural studies we should pay more attention to the discursive resources in the cultures that surround us, and the ways in which they might be used, rather than insistently looking only to academic writing for ways to progress particular political ends

Forty-five people, two weekends: the Citizens' Assembly on Brexit

The Constitution Unit is leading a team running a Citizens' Assembly on Brexit, which will meet over two weekends, starting with the weekend of 8-10 September. The Assembly will consist of around 45 UK citizens, selected to reflect the diversity of the UK electorate. Alan Renwick (left) and Rebecca McKee explain how the Assembly will work and what it is hoped will be achieved. ..

Making race mean : the limits of interpretation in the case of Australian Aboriginality in films and television programs

Academic work on Aboriginality in popular media has, understandably, been largely written in defensive registers. Aware of horrendous histories of Aboriginal murder, dispossession and pitying understanding at the hands of settlers, writers are worried about the effects of raced representation; and are always concerned to identify those texts which might be labelled racist. In order to make such a search meaningful, though, it is necessary to take as axiomatic certain propositions about the functioning of films: that they 'mean' in particular and stable ways, for example; and that sophisticated reading strategies can fully account for the possible ways a film interacts with audiences. These sophisticated readings can then by rendered as ontological statements, prefaced by such nonnegotiable phrases as: 'Jedda is ... .' his thesis suggests that such approaches fail to take account of the work involved in audiences making sense of these texts. Although the possible uses of a film or a television program are not infinite, neither is it possible to make final statements about a text's status. Rather, it is necessary to take account of various limits which are placed on the interpretations of texts, for different audiences at different moments. Moving the focus of attention away from feature films (which have traditionally encouraged the idea of a spectator constructed by the text) to include television programs (which have proven more difficult to write into such a project) facilitates this move to an understanding of Aboriginal representation more concerned with the work involved in its interpretations. This thesis addresses three main areas. Firstly, favoured modes of spectatorship validate particular practices of consumption. These have implications for the readings which will be made of Aboriginality. Secondly, sets of validated intertexts circulated as 'genres' and 'oeuvres'enable meaning to be made in particular ways. Finally, secondary texts(including academic work) which explicitly purport to explicate films and television programs provide frameworks within which interpretation can be made. Each of these limits works to close down the radical polysemy of television and film texts, enabling meaning to be made of them, and of the Aboriginality they purport to represent

The role of concussion history and biological sex on pupillary light reflex metrics in adolescent rugby players: a cross-sectional study.

Abstract: Background: Concussion examination is based primarily on clinical evaluation and symptomatic reporting. Pupillary light reflex (PLR) metrics may provide an objective physiological marker to inform concussion diagnosis and recovery, but few studies have assessed PLR, and normative data are lacking, particularly for adolescents. Aim: To capture PLR data in adolescent rugby players and examine the effects of concussion history and biological sex. Design: Cross‐sectional. Methods: Male and female adolescent rugby union players aged 16 to 18 years were recruited at the start of the 2022–2023 playing season. PLR was recorded using a handheld pupillometer which provided seven different metrics relating to pupil diameter, constriction/dilation latency, and velocity. Data were analysed using a series of 2 × 2 ANOVAs to examine the main effects of independent variables: biological sex, concussion history, and their interactions, using adjusted p‐values (p < 0.05). Results: 149 participants (75% male) were included. A total of 42% reported at least one previous concussion. Most metrics were unaffected by the independent variables. There were however significant main effects for concussion history (F = 4.11 (1); p = 0.05) and sex (F = 5.42(1); p = 0.02) in end pupil diameters, and a main effect for sex in initial pupil diameters (F = 4.45 (1); p = 0.04). Although no significant interaction effects were found, on average, females with a concussion history presented with greater pupillary diameters and velocity metrics, with many pairwise comparisons showing large effects (SMD > 0.8). Conclusions: Pupillary diameters in adolescent athletes were significantly affected by concussion history and sex. The most extreme PLRmetrics were recorded in females with a history of concussion (higher pupillary diameters and velocities). This highlights the importance of establishing baseline PLR metrics prior to interpretation of the PLR post‐concussion. Long‐standing PLR abnormalities post‐concussion may reflect ongoing autonomic nervous system dysfunction. This warrants further investigation in longitudinal studies

Girlfriend guide to life: Love, friends, changes and all that awks stuff answered

A special issue of Girlfriend magazine addressing sexual health, targeted at 14-17 year old girl