BULL Edition 6, 2014

Issue 06, 2014 / FREE
THE RISE OF HIV / TATTOOS / FEMINIST PORN / WELFARE, WHAT CARE? / STUDENT CARERS

Issue 06
CONTENTS
3
Editors
Eden Caceda
Katie Davern
Sophie Gallagher
Rob North
Sean O’Grady
Erin Rooney
REPORTERS
Hannah Edensor
Flora Grant
Peter Walsh
Contributors
Dominic Byrne
Katelyn Cameron
Riddhima Dabhowale
Whitney Duan
Zoe Hitch
Samantha Jonscher
Rebecca Karpin
Alexandra Mildenhall
Jordan Mullins
Diana Pham
Emily Shen
Katie Stow
Wanyi Xin (Cabbage)
Publications ManagerS
Louisa Stylian
Mary Lentros
Design manager
Robyn Matthews
Design
Simon Macias
Peta Harris
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
The USU acknowledges the Cadigal
People of the Eora Nation as the
traditional owners of the land we meet
on today. The USU recognises that the
land belonging to these peoples was
never ceded, given up, bought, or sold.
We pay our respects to the Aboriginal
Elders both past and present and extend
this acknowledgement to any other
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
people here with us.
CONTACT
editors@bullmag.com.au
bullmag.com.au
facebook.com/bullmag
@usubullmag
usu.edu.au/bullmag
The views expressed in this publication
are not necessarily the views of the USU.
The information contained within this
edition of Bull was correct at the time
of printing.
Write for us!
Whether you’re a budding
student journalist or have
a random idea that could be
a great story, email us and
you could get published here.
editors@bullmag.com.au
CONTENTS
FEATURES
BACK IN OUR BLOOD 10
PRETTY IN INK 13
REAL SEX APPEALS 18
WELFARE, WHAT CARE? 27
CARING FOR CARERS 32
REGULARS
What’s On 04
Editorial & Board 06
Letters 07
Opinion 09
Interview 16
Taste 22
Go 23
Move 24
Learn 25
The Time I Tried 31
Campus Fashion 35
Vox & Classic Countdown 36
Cow & Horns 37
Arts 39
Reviews 40
Experience 41
Club Confidential 42
Shutter Up 44
Comics 45
Ask Isabella 46
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bull usu.edu.au
WHAT'S ON
4
For the FULL CALENDAR OF EVENTS – head to USU.EDU.AU AND CLICK THE CALENDAR.
Clubs & Socs – remember to submit your events on the website!
WHAT'S ON
PRESENTS
MON TUE WED THU FRI
wk1(September)
01 02 03
FUNCH
Eastern Avenue, 12–2pm
BAND COMP GRAND FINAL
MANNING BAR 6.30PM
04
RADICAL SEX AND CONSENT DAY
WORLD SEXUAL HEALTH DAY
05
wk2(September)
08 09 10
WEDNESDAY MARKETS
Eastern Avenue, 9Am
FUNCH

11 12
wk3(September)
15 16 17
FUNCH
18 19
wk4(September)
22 23 24
WEDNESDAY MARKETS
Eastern Avenue, 9Am
FUNCH
25 26
wk5(September/October)
29
STUVAC
30
STUVAC
01
STUVAC
02
STUVAC
03
STUVAC
PRESENTS
Issue 06
what's on
5
COMING UP
Theatresports Showcase28
AUG
13
SEPT
12
SEPT
3
SEPT
26
SEPT
14
SEPT
6
SEPT
5
SEPT
The Wonder Years
The Kite String Tangle
Rock ‘n’ Roll
and Alternative Market
Sydney Uni Band Comp
Grand Final
RAW AwardsPop Will Eat Itself
Protest the Hero
MONDAY
$4 tap cider and
$4 spirit HAPPY HOUR
4-6pm, Manning Bar
$3.50 house beer & wine
HAPPY HOUR
4pm, Hermann’s Bar
SOLO SESSIONS
5-6pm, Manning Bar
$7 steak night
6-8pm, Manning Bar
TUESDAY
FOOD CHALLENGE
1-2pm, Manning Bar
AUSTRALIAN
DISCUSSION GROUP
3-4pm, Level 4
Wentworth Building
TRIVIA
5-6pm, Manning Bar
$4 tap cider and
4-6pm, Manning Bar
HAPPY HOUR
50C WINGS
6-8pm, Manning Bar
WEDNESDAY
FUNCH
Eastern Avenue, 12-2pm
series screenings
12-4pm, Manning Bar
Get Up! Stand Up!
1-2pm, Hermann’s Bar
Debating Regionals
5.15pm, Alternating
Venues
$4 tap cider and
4-6pm, Manning Bar
HAPPY HOUR
2 for 1 schnitty
6-8pm, Manning Bar
THURSDAY
THEATRESPORTS®
1-2pm, Manning BarBar
POOL COMPETITION
4-6pm, International
Student Lounge
$4 tap cider and
4-6pm, Manning Bar
HAPPY HOUR
Beat The System – Local
Bands and DJs
$3 dog night
6-8pm, Manning Bar
FRIDAY
DJs
4-7pm, Hermann’s Bar
$4 tap cider and
4-6pm, Manning Bar
HAPPY HOUR
free topping friday
All day, Manning Bar
every weekmonday – friday
MUST SEE
Radical Sex & Consent Day
Thursday 4 September, 9am
Eastern Ave
The inaugural Radical Sex & Consent Day encourages
radical re-thinking and re-learning sex education
through a range of events including workshops,
discussions, film screenings and performances.The
event caters to and celebrates diverse sexualities while
presenting a range of ideas that educate and promote
sexual health, body positivity, consent and mutually
satisfying sex. It will also help combat the problem of
Sexual Harassment on Campus.

LEAVE LANA ALONE
Warmest salutations to my fellow
BULL readers,
Allow me to begin this letter by taking you
for a short walk downYouTube memory
lane, and remind you of that beautiful
video that emerged in 2007, featuring a
blonde Michael Jackson look-a-like who
had tears streaming down his face, anguish
in his eyes and a violent tremor in his voice
as he pleaded with people to “LEAVE
BRITNEY ALONE.”
Memory successfully refreshed?
Good. Now please consider this letter my
opportunity, with shaking fingers and tear-
rimmed eyes, to beg you to LEAVE LANA
DEL REY ALONE. I ask you all,WHAT
DID SHE EVER DO TOYOU?
Lana Del Rey’s new album,Ultraviolence,
has received a fair amount of criticism
from various sources (including an article
published by The Guardian that Del Rey
later criticised over Twitter), and I was
sad to see that the review published in
last month’s edition of BULL proved to
be no exception.
Lana (yes, I feel that I know her well
enough to be on a first name basis) is
entitled to express whatever emotions she
has in her music in that sultry tone that
only Lana does best. And if those emotions
revolve around rather morbid themes like
drug abuse, death and sleeping around
in order to achieve some sort of success,
then so be it.
I’m much happier listening to ‘Old
Money’ than some bloke who is parading
around in some Canadian Mountie
hat telling me he’s ‘Happy’. No thanks,
that ain’t gonna cut it before a Monday
morning, 9am lecture.
Lana, if you’re reading this: I’m on
your side! Always and forever!
~ Bernadette Anvia, BIGS (Hons)
Eds:We’re glad Lana Del Rey has a fan in
you, Bernadette, and we’re so glad you guys
are on a first name basis!
RE: OUR SILENT EMERGENCY
Dear BULL,
I really enjoyed reading the feature on
domestic violence in the last issue. I think
it’s important to get information out there
and I liked the point Georgia Hitch made
about education, not only for the victim,
but for the bystander so they know it’s
okay to say or do something. Sometimes
it’s okay to have a voice. It may be difficult
to say something because as adults we all
make our own decisions and we don’t want
to come across as being nosey and risk
losing the friendship.
Domestic violence is learnt and history
often repeats itself so unless the perpetrator
is willing to accept they have a problem
and is willing to change, it might be hard
to overcome.
Domestic violence can happen to
anyone; just because you go to University
or are educated, doesn’t mean it can’t
happen to you and so it’s good to get these
ideas out there.
~ Anonymous
Eds:Thanks for the feedback on ‘Our Silent
Emergency’.You raise a really valid point –
domestic violence can happen to anyone and
education is key.
Dear BULL,
Your article on all you can eat restaurants
made my homemade Vegemite and butter
sandwich (which I was actually looking
forward to) taste like dirt.Thanks a lot.
~Forever Hangry
Ed: Bet it looked like a dirt sandwich too
#sorrynotsorry
LETTERS
BULL wants to hear from you
Tell us about the stories you shared with your friends or those you placed on
the bottom of your budgie cage. Or just write and let us know you’re lonely.
Email editors@bullmag.com.au
HERCULE POIROT
Late one night the BULL eds realised
that something BIG was missing from
the magazine this year: there was not
even a single mention of the world’s
best-dressed detective. In an attempt
to rectify this atrocity, we decided that
it was perhaps time the sole purveyor
of classy crime-solving took out the
most enviable column of them all,
Pick of the Month.
Hercule Poirot is truly in a league
of his own. And what better actor to
play the Belgian retired detective than
the charming David Suchet... be still
my beating heart!
With an egg-like head and sparkling
green eyes, Poirot is able to work his
little grey cells and solve every mystery
whether it’s in Mesopotamia or on
The Orient Express. He went from
Agatha Christie’s primary crime-solver
to everyone’s favourite pedant in
a matter of hours. How? Our bet is
on that impeccable moustache.
Poirot is a great man despite
his faults – his awkwardness with
all things l’amour, his annoyingly
irritable stomach and his endearing
fastidiousness.
He taught us that all you need is
order and method and a proclivity for
patent leather shoes.We second guessed
and wondered every time he noticed
something we didn’t.What did that
ripped letter mean? Why was the long
distant aunt of the recently murdered
speaking in hushed tones to the maid?
We trembled as he took all the suspects
to task right at the end, revealing their
secrets as he eventually landed on
the murderer.
How did he figure out such an
incredible mystery? Why are you even
asking? It’s Poirot. No one questions
Poirot, the greatest detective of all time.
For the first time ever, this issue will have
its content appear online simultaneously
with the print edition. Over the last little
while, we’ve been spending many late nights
working towards the realisation of our
We’re also excited to publish Wanyi Xin
(Cabbage) who is the first student to
illustrate a feature article in BULL this year.
Wanyi reinterprets classical mythology as an
accompaniment to Sean O’Grady’s feature
exploring the relationship between mental
illness and financial security.
Katie Davern sheds light on the issues
students who are responsible for caring for
a family member or close friend face whilst
studying at the same time. Her investigation
reveals a lack of support services specifically
dedicated to young adult carers, particularly
those studying at a tertiary institution.
As you flick through these pages you
may start to wonder why there are so many
skin close ups in this issue. Hannah Edensor
explores how ink has become integrated into
the workplace, and the meaning behind the
artwork that some are often quick to judge.
That’s all from us... now back to the
Internet!
BULL Eds.
FROM THE EDITORS
EDEN, KATIE, SOPHIE, ROB, SEAN, ERIN
bull usu.edu.au
EDITORIAL
6
Q&A: TARA WANIGANAYAKA
USU President
B:What, in your mind, is the most important
thing this board needs to accomplish in the
coming term?
TW: We should always be making tracks
towards universal ACCESS, welfare initiatives
and setting the foundation for future growth
so that we can one day see every student a
member of a club and society and engaging
in student life on this campus. But ultimately,
it is difficult to narrow down to a single
issue – this Board works across all levels of the
organisation, and works operationally across
a breadth of areas including Governance,
Communications, Innovation, Commercial
Operations, and Co-Curricular Experience.
Each of these areas demands our attention,
and we will always be working to improve the
organisation and our commitment to it.
B: Do you intend to campaign for anyone in
the upcoming SRC elections? Do you think
it is appropriate for the head of a student
organisation to support specific factions?
TW: I care about my education and
who represents me within the Students
Representative Council as a student of this
university. As such, I have a right to personally
support a candidate or group of candidates in
the SRC election. However, any decision
I make to personally support a candidate
does not represent any in-kind or in-principle
support from the Union, and I won’t use my
position as President to support any candidate.
In short, you may see me in a shirt – but as this
interview is focused on my role as President,
I’ll ask that the separation of my duties to the
Union and my personal decisions is respected.
Ultimately, I will have the duty and pleasure of
working with all democratically-elected SRC
councillors and Office Bearers, and I hope to
work productively with them in the new year.
B: Given the opposition of many on Board to
the proposed deregulation of the university sector,
do you believe the USU has a role in fighting
reforms proposed by the Abbott government?
What, in comparison to the SRC and SUPRA,
do you believe that role to be?
TW: I definitely think there is a role for the
Union to play – we, as a membership body,
have a duty to inform our members of wider
issues which may affect them.We have already
made strong headway in developing a long-
term relationship with the SRC, SUPRA and
CSG in the area of creating joint campaigns
or strategy.While the SRC and SUPRA, as
representative organisations of all students,
perhaps have a stronger ambit to reach out on
political issues, when it comes to deregulation
we believe we have a responsibility to do our
best to educate students about what it might
mean for them. As access to tertiary education
becomes more difficult, so too does the ability
for many students to get involved in campus
life, and we believe educational resources
should be available equitably. Access to
education should not be easier for some
than others.
humble website. It’s something we’ve been
passionate about and committed to achieving
all year and we think its development marks
an important step for BULL, so please go
check it out at bullmag.com.au.
Inside this issue but outside of the high
school sex-ed classroom, talking openly
about sex and sexuality is difficult for a lot
of us.The conversation gets even harder
when you’re interested in sex that is deemed
non-normative. Mainstream media and pop
culture isn’t helping either. Fifty Shades of
Grey springs to mind bringing an altogether
misrepresented Robin Thicke ‘Blurred Lines’
kind of approach to BDSM.
Flora Grant and Diana Pham delve
into the world of feminist porn, examining
its increasing popularity among people
looking for sex-positive and realistic adult
entertainment. Eden Caceda takes a look
at the current resurgence of HIV/AIDS in
Australia and why it is piquing the attention
of the health sector.
Issue 06
LETTERS & PICK OF THE MONTH
7

Student leaders may be eligible for an honorarium payment.
ENHANCE THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE
Learn valuable skills including:
Event Planning
Building valuable industry contacts
Professional business communication
Time management
Budgeting
Get a glimpse of your potential
career by:
Planning campus events that
contribute to the Uni community
Editing BULL magazine or Hermes
literary journal
Curating art collections and
supporting student start-ups
BECOME A
STUDENT LEADER
If you’re dynamic, motivated and creative, follow your
passion and apply now at usu.edu.au/studentleaders
9
The Bust in the
Business
JORDAN MULLINS
My sister, mum
and I all stand
around the
computer, mesmerised by the images
on the screen.The trifecta of brassiere
perfection lies before us: beautiful,
affordable and comfortable, all in the
Victoria’s Secret catalogue of bras.
But alas, this leisure is really torture –
we want what we cannot have, because
these bras are not made for Australian
consumption. Although the lingerie
empire has opened its first Australian store
in Sydney, it is still yet to sell bras. Despite
their universal popularity, the multi-billion
Why public
schools
exceed public
perceptions
Katelyn Cameron
Last semester I
was sitting in Eastern Avenue Auditorium,
waiting for my American History lecturer
to signal the start of his talk with the usual
“Hey y’all”, when I got chatting to a girl I’d
never met before.We arrived at the subject
of high school and I mentioned that I
had gone to a public school. “Oh,” she
said, giving me a look of sympathy usually
reserved for someone who has just been
diagnosed with a serious illness. “Was it
really bad?”
This student’s reaction to my public
school background is something that I have
experienced more times than I can count
since starting at the University of Sydney,
and I’d like to assure anyone in doubt that
attending a public school can actually be
a positive experience.
dollar company seems hesitant to put its best
asset forward. Even an offshoot of Victoria’s
Secret, La Senza, has stopped selling lingerie
in Australia.
As a result it seems Australia’s lingerie
industry is bereft of affordable but
beautiful bras.The problem isn’t that we’re
experiencing a shortage of quality bras
altogether: every woman in the country
must have a Berlei bra in her undie drawer.
However this is not because it’s a particularly
lovely bra, but rather because it’s functional
and fits well.
The short supply of luxury bra brands
means that the few bras that do tick the
boxes for comfort and beauty certainly
aren’t cheap. In a moment of weakness
you might think ‘Maybe I’ll splurge a little
and buy that new Elle McPherson range’.
It’s true, my high school didn’t have
a rowing team or state of the art computer
labs. In fact, the closest we came to having
our own swimming pool was when the
bottom oval flooded after a day of heavy
rain. My school didn’t have a multi-million
dollar performing arts centre or a Latin
motto, but that doesn’t mean I have ever felt
disadvantaged because those things are not
what make a great school.
Our teachers were incredibly committed
– during my senior years I would frantically
email a ridiculous amount of draft essays,
and they replied to every single one, even
when the clock was approaching midnight.
My English Extension 2 teacher read my
major work so many times he probably could
have recited it from memory.
Throughout my school years, everyone
was always encouraged to get involved
in activities they were passionate about.
I was able to participate in a bunch of
extracurricular activities such as debating,
public speaking, musicals and Rock
Eisteddfod. A number of my friends
frequently competed in sports at a state
level, and we had students participating
in the State Dance Festival and Schools
Spectacular each year.
So, to answer the question of whether
going to public school was a “really bad”
experience, I would like to respond with
a resounding no. I wouldn’t have gone
anywhere else.
But then, on the odd occasion that you
do find something in that range, it’s so
clearly designed by a person that cannot
possibly know what boobs look like,
that the bra cups somehow manage to
be prone to both nip slip and riding up
your collarbone.
So I guess the easy answer is just to
order over the Internet. But honestly,
the real solution will only come when the
lingerie industry realises they’re missing
how big the gap in the market is here for
luxury undies.The impending arrival of
big-brand international stores like Uniqlo
and Sephora on Australian soil gives me
hope that Victoria Secret will soon put
their breast foot forward. Until then, I’ll just
have to be content with the online catalogue.
OPINION
Issue 06
OPINION
Myschool
didn’t have a
multi-million dollar
performing arts
centre or a Latin
motto ...

Issue 06
FEATURE
11bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
10 11
In July this year, thousands of people from
across the world travelled to Melbourne to attend
the biennial International AIDS Conference.
Held by the International AIDS Society (IAS),
the conference is the largest on any health or
development issue globally.
With the height of HIV/AIDS infections 29
years ago, many people have grown complacent
and believe that the disease is no longer a threat
due to medical progress.This International AIDS
Conference proved to be the most important
in recent years with Australia experiencing
a sustained rise in new diagnoses of HIV
infections and the fight against AIDS restarting.
Originating in western Central Africa
at the beginning of the 20th Century, HIV/
AIDS spread internationally within 40 years.
Scientifically, Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV) is the virus that renders the immune
system deficient and prevents it from fighting
other infections and diseases, and Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is the
final stage of HIV infection and consists of
a wide range of complications and symptoms.
HIV is primarily transferred through blood and
semen, meaning that the disease spreads easily
through blood transfusions, hypodermic needles,
and from mother to child through pregnancy,
delivery or breastfeeding. Many HIV victims do
not die from AIDS, but from a variety of other
diseases including pneumonia and tuberculosis.
HIV/AIDS was initially recognised by the
United States Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) in 1981. At the time the
disease was primarily isolated to homosexual
men and injecting drug users. In 1981, five per
cent of gay male residents in NewYork and San
Francisco were infected with HIV. However, by
1983, it was apparent that HIV/AIDS was not
isolated to the gay community. As of 2012, AIDS
had taken the lives of 36 million people, and in
2013, 1.5 million people died of AIDS-related
diseases. Fortunately medical progress allows
us to test an individual for HIV, however a cure
for AIDS has not been discovered yet.
Observing the statistics, HIV/AIDS
appears to be a disease that mainly affects the
marginalised and vulnerable groups of society.
This year, in Australia, HIV rates are at a 20-
year high.There are now over 1,000 new HIV
infections per year and roughly 80 per cent of
these victims are gay men, with the highest rates
among those over 50 and under 30 years old.
The UNSW Kirby Institute for Infection and
Immunity in Society reported that as of 2014,
26,000 people were living with HIV in Australia.
These shocking statistics echoed in the
alarming rates of HIV/AIDS diagnoses throughout
Europe and the United States with 2.1 million
people infected with HIV every year, however
a majority of Australians are still ignoring the
growing severity of the situation. In the developed
world, HIV/AIDS is perceived as something that
affected us in the 1980s before going off the
radar. In reality, HIV/AIDS has never left our
society.While we are particularly fortunate to
have decreased AIDS-related deaths in Australia,
the growing rates of HIV infections signal it
becoming a big part of our society once more.
Changes in laws and culture have developed
our understanding of HIV/AIDS and suppressed
the epidemic of the 1980s in modern-day
developed nations. However, despite legal reform
and social change, HIV/AIDS is rising at an
unexpectedly high rate. Currently in Australia,
the two groups currently most at risk appear to
be individuals who were not in the midst of the
tragedy during the peak of HIV/AIDS and older
citizens who may believe that the worst of the
disease may not affect them.
While it may be easy to blame these groups
for neglecting their responsibility, this new rise in
HIV/AIDS can be easily attributed to a general
social lack of care and urgency today. Long gone
are the cautionary tales of people unknowingly
spreading a disease that could kill hundreds
and the promotions for using clean needles and
condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS are no longer as
effective as they once were. Prevention programs
have not been updated since they were put in
place and there is a general notion that HIV/
AIDS is no longer a public health threat.
In November 1991, Freddie Mercury, the
gay lead singer of Queen, died of pneumonia
brought on by AIDS one day after he publicly
acknowledged he had the disease, joining the
ranks of Anthony Perkins, Rock Hudson and
Liberace.These public figures shared their
experience of the effects of HIV. Because of this,
people were exposed to the reality of the disease
and the seriousness of HIV/AIDS was made
more public.
The role of sex education in teaching
young people about human sexuality, anatomy,
reproduction and health is an important part
of primary and high schooling. In current sex
education classes, HIV/AIDS is commonly thrown
into the category of simple STIs and the full
extent of the infection isn’t explored in depth.
Studies have shown that comprehensive sex
education is more effective in preventing
sexually transmitted infections than education
that focuses solely on teaching abstinence until
marriage. UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS, claims that universal
primary education is not a substitute for
prevention but a necessary component.Without
a thorough explanation of the cause, effects and
nature of HIV/AIDS, many young people do not
receive the necessary education from primary
or secondary education that could change the
future of HIV/AIDS.
When doctors learnt that AIDS could be
a sexually transmitted disease and the use of
condoms were encouraged to prevent the
transmission of HIV, their use exponentially
grew after the 1980s. However, today, many
sexually active people view condoms as
unnecessary, and the statistics confirm this.
Current condom advertisements focus more on
pleasure and not protection against STDs and
HIV.This lack of reinforcement sidelines STDs
and HIV/AIDS and fails to highlight or remind
people about the medical advantages of using
condoms. Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of HIV
at the World Health Organisation said at the
AIDS Conference, “Condoms are by no means
redundant. Our position is clearly that condoms
should be used in all circumstances. But we also
know not everybody uses condoms all the time.”
Hirnschall proposed a combination prevention
system, merging condom usage with education
so that there is zero per cent chance
of transmission between parties.
The Kirby Institute this year claimed that
unprotected sex between casual male partners
continues to be the major cause of HIV with lesser
rates attributing AIDS to intravenous drug use
and blood transfusions. “Fortunately [there] was
pioneering in the 1980s and [it] has really led the
world in large-scale implementation of needle
and syringe programs and that has led to effectively
no epidemic taking off,” Associate Professor David
Wilson said during the AIDS Conference.
Since 1996, treatments for HIV have vastly
improved and it is now easier to live with the
disease in developed nations.Victims of HIV
are now able to take one to three pills per day to
keep AIDS at bay and retain use of their immune
system. Scientists have also revealed a new
approach to get rid of the HIV virus, called the
In Australia,
HIV rates are at
a 20-year high
back in our
blood
Eden Caceda investigates the reasons behind escalating rates of HIV/AIDS in Australia.
“kick and kill” approach which used an anti-
cancer drug to kick the virus out of where it is
hiding in the body. Dr Ole Schmeltz Sogaard
from Denmark’s Aarhus University said at the
AIDS Conference that he gave patients anti-
cancer drugs which increased the production
of HIV-infected cells by more than three times,
be traced and targeted with existing treatments.
Many activist organisations within Australia
are continuing to promote awareness around
the rise of HIV/AIDS. Pozhet is an organisation
that is the heterosexual HIV service in NSW
and provides programs and services to the
heterosexual community of people living with
HIV.The organisation is particularly interested
in raising awareness around heterosexual people
living with HIV and advocates for HIV-positive
heterosexuals in Government and non-
government settings.
Another new organisation committed
to HIV/AIDS is the AIDS Council of NSW
(ACON).The organisation has a central focus
on ridding Australia of HIV through prevention
promotion, advocacy and support services for
people currently living with HIV/AIDS.Their
‘Ending HIV’ campaign is currently aiming to
test every sexually active gay man and aims to
ensure that every gay man diagnosed with HIV
has access to treatment as early after detection
as possible.The program outlines that “more
testing, more guys on treatment earlier and
maintaining good risk reduction practice […]
are what we need.”
Fortunately modern HIV testing is highly
accurate and the accessibility to it with the
‘Ending HIV’ campaign and other organisations
is effective in Australia. Professor Sharon Lewin,
co-chair of the conference, commented on the
progress of on-the-spot tests to discover if an
individual is HIV positive or not. “The licensing
arrangements have just changed in Australia
around that point, so that in the future we will
be able to have home testing, and they are
on-the-spot HIV tests – are you positive or not,”
Lewin said at the AIDS Conference.With faster
HIV testing and earlier detection comes the
possibility of eradicating the disease.
Observing the statistics of those groups
affected by HIV in Australia, it has become
apparent that young people who are not aware
of the effects of the disease and older people
who lived through the dark times of the HIV/
AIDS epidemic must bond to innovate and
empower society once more to protect their
friends and their community, bridging the gap
between different age groups is essential.
We now live in an age where we have the
ability to defeat the modern disease for good.
However science alone will not achieve that
daring goal.We must not forget the lives lost to
HIV/AIDS. As Bill Clinton declared at this year’s
AIDS Conference, “An AIDS free generation is
within our reach” – now we have to fight for it.
Many social factors contribute to the spread of
HIV/AIDS including higher likelihood to handle
contaminated blood, participate in high-risk
sex practices and sharing needles.Transmission
through contaminated needles or unsafe sex
practices often means that HIV/AIDS is not
associated with high income earners or upper
class citizens, and unfortunately stigma of the
infection is typically expressed in conjunction
with one or more other already stigmatised
labels including homosexuality, promiscuity,
prostitution and intravenous drug use.
There has been remarkable progress in
turning back the tide of HIV/AIDS since its
spread in the 1980s. Between 2001 and 2012,
26 countries reduced new infections by more than
50 per cent and accessibility to preventative
measures is higher than ever before. However as
Dr. Norman Swan of ABC’s Health Report said
during the opening of the panel discussion from
this year’s AIDS Conference, “It has not gone
away, we have not solved the problems.”

Hannah Edensor explores
the negative perceptions
surrounding tattoos.
Issue 06
FEATURE
13
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‘Why would you want to ruin your skin
like that?’
It’s a question my grandma has been
asking me ever since I got my first tattoo
two months ago. I get the same response
from my uncles, my stepmother, and
sometimes, even my employers. Despite
increasing acceptance of tattoos in modern
society, I couldn’t help but wonder why
something so personal can still be so openly
judged by others.
I recently got a butterfly inked on my
forearm, and while the majority of my family
disapprove and my grandma dismisses it
as ‘dirt’, I remain happy with my decision.
A lot of meaning lies behind this tattoo,
and the fact that I got it in memory of my
recently deceased mother makes it feel
particularly special.
Family is a value that inspires many
concepts for ink, such as the tattoos of
Tenille Furness. As Office Manager for a
search marketing company,Tenille never
thought her decision to get a tattoo would
be an issue in the workplace. She has her
family crest on her wrist, and her sister’s
birth date on her neck, and both are of
strong significance to her.Whilst her existing
tattoos didn’t impact on her ability to get
a job, they were a frequent topic of office
discussion.
“I have been asked constantly, ‘Why did
you get a tattoo?’ or ‘What’s the point?’ by
work colleagues who are against the idea
of tattoos,”Tenille explains, expressing her
bewilderment at their open criticism of her
personal presentation choices.
“I’m also constantly asked, ‘What if you
and your sister have a falling out and you’re
stuck with her birthday on your neck?’ as
a way of making me question my tattoos.”
To me, the most desirable aspect
of getting a tattoo is the immense
personalisation of the process.You select
something that resonates with you, and then
you choose to have it inked onto your body,
where it remains, for better or worse (or until
laser becomes less painful). It certainly
shouldn’t be up to others to judge or comment
on what we elect to do with our skin.
Ida Thommessen is a student at the
University of Sydney, and with three tattoos
under her belt, she doesn’t have time for
people who disapprove of her ink.
“When it comes to acceptance in public,
I honestly don’t care,” Ida admits. “I didn’t
get my tattoos to piss off or please other
people, I got them for myself, so what
everyone else thinks is their problem.”
The tattoo on her ankle holds the most
meaning for Ida. A unique coded image,
it is replicated on the shoulder of her dad,
and represents the powerful bond they share.
“It makes no sense to everyone else, but
for the two of us, each letter and number
represents something special,” she tells me.
And it’s these stories underlying the artwork
that make tattoos so interesting.
But not everyone gets tattoos for their
meaning, instead collecting various symbols
on their body as a form of expression.
Whether you get something you have a
personal connection with, or you choose an
illustration because you liked it at the time,
getting a tattoo is an individual choice, and
not one that warrants the approval of others.
Unfortunately, it’s here where I
sometimes think I’m wrong.The very
conspicuous nature of tattoos invites public
opinion and commentary, and whether we
like it or not, when people see a tattoo on
someone else, they form a personal view.
Older generations tend to be the most
critical of tattoos, a theory shared by Nicola
Evans, the Human Resources Coordinator at
Ogilvy Public Relations, who says this comes
down to a difference in generational trends.
“There has been a change in mindset
around tattoos,” Evans says. “Now it’s
almost a mode of expressing yourself.”
And in terms of workplace discrimination,
this issue is becoming more and more
relevant. Employers are beginning to come
to terms with the fact that tattoos are more
popular than ever and as a result they’re
fast moving into offices in a variety of
different industries.
A level of professionalism, however,
is something that remains essential
to boasting tattoos in the workplace.
Nicola tells me that it’s all about being
tasteful and respectful of clients’ needs
and ideals. “When you get to know your
client and grow with your client – if your
client is a consumer brand that is edgy,
that is chic, that has more panache – then
I think it’s ok to basically reflect that in
your personal branding of what you wear,”
she explains.
Sarah Jane Owen is a Senior Account
Manager for Percolate NewYork, and spoke
to B&T Magazine last month about her
various tattoos. She insisted that when it
came to her clients, personal presentation
is integral to making the right impact.
“First impressions last and when I go
in wearing a shirt, people are listening to
what I am saying, not looking at the pictures
on my arms,” Sarah said, adding that after
making her initial impression, she loves
seeing the reaction when clients catch
a glimpse of her ink.
Throughout my research, I can see a trend
emerging with regards to appropriate times
to reveal tattoos.The creative realm of the
workforce – that is, writers, advertisers,
musicians, and designers – are more flexible
when it comes to self-expression displayed
across the body. And no doubt there are a
number of anchor and rose tattoos hidden
underneath the corporate suits of other
offices, unbeknownst to other employees and
employers, as that tends to be where they stay.
Web developer at VML Josh Russell told
B&T that he’s never experienced any form
of discrimination due to his extensive ink.
“The vibe in the advertising industry is that
we’re all creative people and everyone is
different so there’s a lot of acceptance,”
he said.
But he sings the same tune as Sarah,
and covers up when he feels it’s necessary.
“We have clients like Rip Curl and with them
I wouldn’t even think about putting a long
sleeve shirt on,” Josh explains. “But if I had
to go to a meeting with a bank tomorrow,
I probably would.”
Regret often accompanies tattoo
artworks, and is something my grandma is
fond of mentioning. ‘What happens when
you’re old and wrinkly and it looks awful?’
she’ll ask me – and sometimes I think she
has a point.The practice of getting tattoos
becomes so addictive that we often end
up with more ink than we ever envisioned
getting. In fact, this weekend my little sister
is booked in for her second tattoo in two
months, and I myself am in the process
of deciding what I want next.
It’s only logical then that sometimes,
when we have more tattoos than we
initially intended, regret might creep in.
But is employment ever a contributor to
ink remorse?
“Personally, I don’t regret any of
my tattoos,”Tenille tells me. “But when
I recently got my sternum tattooed, my
workplace colleagues, after seeing it,
struck up the conversation of how I had
made a huge mistake.”
Once upon a time, tattoos were
deemed taboo, and getting one was seen
as rebellious and irresponsible.This is
something we can see remaining in the
opinions of older generations. But with
tattoos becoming more prevalent and
therefore familiar in society, perhaps it’s
time to realise that while one person’s art
might be another person’s dirt; personal
presentation is a personal preference.
In the working environment, there’s
never been a better time to sport some
ink and get away with it. As Ida suggests,
many people think tattoos are just another
trend, and once the craze passes, regret will
change the way we see them. But when I
ask Ida if she thinks she’ll ever regret her
tattoos, she just smirks.
“I say we’ll look badass till we’re 80,”
she states matter-of-factly. Because as it
turns out, when you get a tattoo, it’s no
one else’s damn business anyway.
14 bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
15
“I didn’t get
my tattoos to piss
off or please other
people, I got them
for myself, so what
everyone else thinks
is their problem.”
“First
impressions
last and when
I go in wearing
a shirt, people
are listening to
what I am saying,
not looking at
the pictures on
my arms”
Issue 06
FEATURE

Issue 06
INTERVIEW
17
When I speak to musician Pepa Knight,
he is sitting in a tipi. Assembled in his Long
Jetty backyard from poles he bought from
the Hunter Valley, and large enough to fit a
Queen sized bed, a small table and pillows,
he now calls it home. “Me and my girl are
living in there at the moment, and it’s such
a good place – like it can get cold obviously,
but it’s so nice.” It becomes clear that Knight
is anything but a conformist, which doesn’t
come across more clearly than in his music.
Forming Jinja Safari after meeting fellow
musician Marcus Azon at a beach campfire
party in 2010, Knight soon became the face
of the ‘forest rock’ band.Their worldly sounds,
and so-called ‘ugly dancing’ drew audiences
in, and made them a staple of the Australian
music scene.
Though Knight had been working as a
solo musician before the band came together,
his solo attempts this time round have been
bolstered by his increased profile. His music
has similarities to the band’s well-known
sound, yet it’s more raw and edgy, drawing on
the intensity of his eccentric global influences.
“With [Jinja Safari’s] last album, I did touch
on some of those world sounds, but I feel
like I got to go full throttle on those sorts of
influences with this project.”
When he speaks he goes on continuous
tangents, with every story leading to another.
However his tone remains calm and casual,
similarly to the construction of his music.You
never know where a song will go or which
instrument from a harp to a sitar will be used,
but the music is still subtle, relying on the
movement of sound rather than vocal intensity.
From his stories, it seems that it’s the
world around him that creates this dichotomy
between vibrancy and minimalism. He wrote
and recorded the majority of his new work in
India, drawing on the sounds and voices of
the people he met. He describes one song
he created during the Hindu festival of
Diwali: “It’s this festival where they just have
fireworks everywhere, endless fireworks in
the street, and I recorded these samples of
the fireworks, made a drum beat out of it and
turned it into a song. I think that’s one of my
favourites.” It’s clear he isn’t appropriating
sound or tradition from Indian culture, but
instead he finds music out of the ordinary
everyday sounds he hears.
Indeed, on top of a fort in Rajasthan one
morning sitting with a Sadhu (or Holy) Man,
he created his first single, ‘Raah!’ Immediately
inspired by his surroundings, with permission
he recorded samples of the Sadhu Man’s voice
and beats from the town to make the backbone
of the song. He hesitated when trying to
describe the gravity of the experience. “For
me, I just wanted to escape everything, what
was going on at home, and just live this crazy
Sadhu life, so that’s basically where the song
came from.”The rhythm and melodic focus of
Indian music was drawn out in his songwriting
over there, and in the creation of his album.
Upon returning to Australia with new
music in tow, disaster struck.This time last
year, he had a completed record that he
planned on releasing. But when updating his
iPhone, thinking he had copies of the album
elsewhere, he deleted it.The record was gone,
with only demos and sounds remaining.“Some
days it was really hard to get motivated to get up
and do it all again. But I got through it in the
end and I re-recorded it all. It wasn’t good, but
I felt like I did it better the second time anyway.”
Here, the tipi found its stride.As the studio
was too hot in the summer heat, he built
the tipi as his new studio. It seemed like a
mini holiday in there, and we discussed the
logistics of me building a similar tipi in my
house.Though with limited space, Knight
swayed me from that idea. And besides, I
didn’t have an album to record – he did.
The result of the tipi music experience
is a two-volume collection of songs titled
Hypnotised, with part one being released
in late September this year. After his first
gig at GOODGOD Small Club early this
August, he says he aims to tour a lot more.
He established a band of musicians to tour
with him who live on the streets surrounding
his home, and hopes to continue the vibrant
standard that Jinja Safari set in their live
performances. As usual, the crowd is invited
on stage to share the space, as Knight prefers
it. He hates the divide between the artist and
their audience, and even allowed the crowd to
sit on the stage with him throughout the entire
GOODGOD gig. But the ferns and vines that
frequently decorated a Jinja show are gone,
and a more futuristic vibe is in, as Knight and
his band now wear 3D glasses and “weird
outfits”, to spice up the music experience.
Funding the entire solo project himself, it’s
obvious how much love Knight has for music.
I ask if there will be a vinyl release of Hypnotised,
and though expensive, he says he probably will
just so he can have a copy. It’s the simplicity and
naturalness of doing something out of pure
happiness that is most moving for Knight,
and it’s clear that, being such a part of him,
he won’t be slowing down from creating music
anytime soon.“It’s a big investment a project like
this, but you end up just doing it for the love
of it.When you have a vision of what you want to
do physically, it’s really nice to just do it.”
Sophie Gallagher
Interview
PEPA KNIGHT of Jinja Safari
bull usu.edu.au
INTERVIEW
16

bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
18
Flora Grant and Diana Pham go deeper into the world of feminist porn.
There’s a knock at the door, and two
female friends greet each other with wry
smiles.They have a pleasant chat and soon
begin making out, stripping off their clothes
to reveal real imperfect bodies with fat and
hair. Mouths, hands and toys go to work,
and though the orgasms ensue, the camera
focuses on the faces of the performers and
their interactions – there aren’t many genital
close-ups.The two lovers, now satisfied, have
another short chat, and with that, the video
fades to black.
This is a feminist porn scene and, as
any porn connoisseur will tell you, it is vastly
different from the kind of videos showcased
on sites like RedTube and PornHub.
“The videos I watched didn’t really
match my expectations of porn,” Richard*,
a first-time viewer of feminist porn explains.
“They were shot more like a short movie,
with real sexual acts.”
Avoiding the mainstream porn tropes,
feminist porn flicks are more likely to
represent a broader range of body types
and races, include transgender stars, show
a wider variety of sexualities and sexual
practices, use lube, and practice safer sex
on-screen. Behind the scenes, the focus is
on the autonomy of the performers. Unlike
in most mainstream porn, the performers
choose who they want to work with, and
negotiate what they’re going to do with
the producers – often on-camera – and the
orgasms are real.
All of these factors contribute to a sense
of authenticity, which speaks to the broader
politics of feminist porn. Ms Naughty, the
Australian feminist porn producer of Bright
Desire, a feminist erotica website marketed
as ‘smart porn’, says “It’s often in the eyes
of the beholder... it’s about trying to depict
women in a really positive way, and move
away from the clichéd and sexist ways most
porn perpetuates about women.”
Zahra Stardust is a queer feminist porn
star and activist who ran for parliament with
the Australian Sex Party. She says the overall
focus of feminist porn is on the process itself,
and not just the end product.
“Feminist porn has developed into a
broad and inclusive movement drawing upon
feminism, performance art, experimental
filmmaking, queer theory, critical race
studies, sex worker rights discourse and
disability activism, with a focus on ethical
production and diverse representation,”
she says.
In a mainstream online porn video titled
Alanna and Rocco, Alanna is dating Rocco’s
dad and it’s getting pretty serious, so Rocco
wants them to get to know each other better.
He forcefully tries to kiss and feel up Alanna,
who says she doesn’t think that it’s a good
idea several times, before she eventually
relinquishes her restraint and is overcome
by his animal magnetism.That is to say,
they screw.
Feminist pornography tries to combat
this common kind of narrative where the
female actor in a porn scene is submissive,
and the oppressive idea that ‘no’ really just
means ‘ask again’.The sex acts we see might
be more representative of what happens in
bedrooms than what’s shown in mainstream
porn, and the women genuinely express desire.
The Crash Pad series, one of the most
popular and well known feminist and queer
porn websites, is based on the narrative
premise that there is a specific sexy group
of people in San Francisco who have the
keys to the titular lodgings. ‘The Keymaster’,
a voyeuristic presence who observes every
moment of the actors’ lives, pens the
description of each episode. As a viewer, you’re
implicated in the scene, and made aware
that the performers not only know you’re
watching, but they want you to be watching.
In one episode, performers Andre Shakti
and Tina Horn do a scene that involves
mutual spanking, fisting (four fingers and
a thumb sliding into a vagina) and a big
glass dildo.The two have pubic hair and
real breasts – indeed, Andre Shakti started
making porn because she was born with
larger inner labia that she was “constantly
insecure about”, and wanted to see her
genitals represented on screen.
One of Shakti’s main principles is
that she always uses protection in all her
scenes – condoms, dental dams and black
nitrile gloves.There are a few minutes of
unscripted discussion before they start
having sex, and during the scene awkward
moments, giggles and pauses are included
in the footage rather than edited out.The
performers check in with one another, and
Shakti asks Horn whether she wants more
fingers inside of her before she does.
In addition, there’s extra material –
interviews with the actors after the scene
where they recap how they felt and affirm
that they had a good time.The actors are
humanised and there’s no question that
they’re completely into what they’re doing.
“I would assume my general taste in porn
isn’t that out of the ordinary,” explained
Thomas*, another regular porn consumer
Issue 06
FEATURE
19
Zahra Stardust: Queer Feminist Porn Star

Issue 06
FEATURE
21bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
20
who we asked to watch the scene. “Who wants
all that dialogue? If anyone did, they’d watch
a movie,” he said. “The overly drawn out
kissing shots just distract from the sex and
take out the heat from it.”
Ms Naughty says, “to make consent and
safe sex very apparent in porn is to sort of
bring that into the fore and acknowledge that
people are watching and also know that these
things can be sexy. Putting on a condom can
be a sexy thing, putting on a condom should
be a normal thing.”
Stardust further explains: “consent is
not just sexy, it is crucial. Porn performers
negotiate our desires, boundaries and risks
before a scene commences.”
Technically, producing pornography in
Australia is illegal everywhere except in the
ACT, under laws that prohibit ‘objectionable
goods’.The criterion for what is deemed
objectionable, however, is not publicly
available. Rather, these guidelines are overseen
by the Classification Board, where Board
Members are in charge of defining ‘the
standards of morality, decency and propriety
generally accepted by reasonable adults’.
This makes it hard to know what lies out of
bounds or within the confines of acceptable
acts, and who these reasonable adults are.
Stardust is currently completing her
PhD at UNSW on the regulation of queer
and feminist porn in Australia, focusing on
how these regulations proscribe particular
types of sex acceptable to be seen on screen.
Body piercing and tattooing, the application
of substances such as candle wax, bondage,
and spanking are all not permitted, and laws
that prohibit depictions of adults who look
like they are under 18 have manifested in
the Classification Board using breast size
as a criteria for the legality of porn. Female
ejaculation has previously been incorrectly
classified as a ‘golden shower’ – a similarly
prohibited act, while male ejaculation is
A-OK. Fisting, often a legitimate part of
lesbian and queer sex, is also banned. In
this way, the classification laws reproduce
normative sex and sexuality.
“In Australia, the X18+ category actively
engineers specific, state-sanctioned bodies
that are permitted to be viewed – bodies with
sufficiently large breasts, neat labia, that do
not participate in kink or fetish, and lack
the ability to bleed or ejaculate,” Stardust
says. “I truly believe that the regulatory
system fundamentally misunderstands
and criminalises queer intimacies and
non-normative sexual practices, and that
the closeting of these practices represents
danger for marginalised sexualities,
threatening a lack of access to rights, justice,
representation and sexual citizenship.”
These laws limit the types of sex we can see
on scene, which can have real ramifications
for our real-life sex.While reliable statistics
on porn are difficult, with self-reporting
and the vested interests of researchers
often muddying the results, there have been
indications that we learn much of what is
acceptable and unacceptable in the bedroom
from porn.
In a 2012 survey conducted by the
AustralianYouth Affairs Coalition and
Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS
titled ‘Lets Talk About Sex’, respondents
were asked how they learnt about sex,
with 85 per cent relying on the Internet,
69 per cent on schools and 64 per cent on
pornography. Catharine Lumby, Professor of
Media at Macquarie University co-authored
the 2008 Porn Report, and found that 59
per cent of porn consumers said porn had
a positive effect on their attitudes towards
sexuality, for example, in becoming more
at ease with sexuality, and more tolerant of
other sexualities.
However Lumby also challenges the
common assertion that teenagers, especially
boys, watching porn will learn misogyny
from it. “The idea that porn causes this
attitude ignores research that says the
‘monkey see monkey do’ relationship is
too simplistic,” she says. “Not all women
who go and see romantic comedies believe
in the retrograde fantasy of a man on a
white horse.”
It would be easy to argue, as many
people have, that feminist porn shows more
genuine pleasure and challenges stereotypes,
whereas mainstream porn with its fake-
breasted, long blonde hair women and focus
on anal sex and cream pies, is automatically
anti-feminist. Lumby’s evidence found,
on the other hand, that porn was more likely
to show a variety of body types than those
shown in the fashion industry, for example,
and that amateur sites are more popular
than industry glamour porn. Even more than
this, the stereotype that all mainstream porn
ignores womens’ pleasure is a generalisation,
she says. “Female pleasure, women having
orgasms and touching themselves, is actually
a staple feature of mainstream pornography,”
explains Lumby. Indeed, 30 per cent of porn
consumers are women and it’s the largest
growing market of porn consumers.
The key difference, however, is that the
perceived audience for this female pleasure
is always male. Feminist porn imagines
a broader audience than simply straight
white men, and in doing so embraces and
celebrates a much broader range of sexualities,
racial backgrounds, body types and genders,
expanding the narrow definition of what can
be considered sexy.
Lumby sees feminist porn as concerned
with ‘giving women more permission to
own the role of porn in their sexuality,’
and links this back to the taboo of female
sexual pleasure. “To acknowledge sexual
desire as a woman is still seen as potentially
threatening,” she says, recounting a telling
anecdote of when she visits schools and
asks classes about masturbation.The classes
are comfortable acknowledging that boys
masturbate, but the same question directed
at the girls is met with embarrassed laughter.
“Do kids learn about the clitoris in sex
education in school?” Lumby asks.“No! Why?
Why not? Feminist or not, porn is at least
the one place where women get to see other
women’s vaginas, and they get to see female
masturbation as a normal practice.”
The small but growing market has
big potential to shake up things for both
the industry and the audience. Later in
our interview, Richard, our first-time
viewer of feminist porn, explains: “I think
the idea of porn is that you can step into
the shoes of one of the performers, or into
the shoes of the cameraman, and enjoy
what’s going on.”
“I think I read once that that’s why a lot
of the famous male porn stars aren’t very
attractive – because it means any guy can
substitute himself in,” he says. Perhaps with
the further development of feminist porn,
seeing yourself in porn will be a privilege
available to more and more people.
*Names have been changed
The sex acts we
see might be more
representative of what
happens in bedrooms
than what’s shown in
mainstream porn, and
the women genuinely
express desire.
Zahra Stardust:
Queer Feminist
Porn Star

Issue 06
GO
23
GHOST CITIES
Whitney Duan
You’d never have seen such a perfect city,
especially not in China.The vast boulevards
of flat, black tarmac are precisely lined with
rows of sleek multi-million dollar high-rises,
the capitalist concrete of China’s super-
rich investors and developers, saluting to
the commodifiable ‘fresh’ air of a relatively
unpolluted sky. It’s beautiful, I guess.
It’s also empty.The pristine high-end
apartments glint in the smothered sunlight,
untouched.There is also a school, with
generous playing space, but no children.
Shopfronts sell no goods, vast scenic parks
are devoid of admirers, and the ever-
changing traffic lights direct the city’s ghost
pedestrians. It’s an eerie scene; a deserted
post-apocalyptic dystopia lying between
some of the country’s most over-populated,
suffocating mega-cities. Here, everything is
so still.
And there are so many of these cities
scattered around China.Trillions of dollars
are spilled into a central urbanisation scheme
of massive proportions, trying to move
hundreds of millions from rural locations
into these instant-made cities built in often–
confused semi-European themes in sync
with the country’s Western worship.There’s
an abandoned replica of Paris, NewYork
and one of London. But the government’s
efforts have fallen short, leaving the sites
GO
CHINA
abandoned and half developed, economic
ruins they attempt to sweep under the carpet
– but enormous cities aren’t easily hidden.
As I’m travelling across provinces in a car
towards Wuxi, the skylines of ghost cities run
parallel to the highway, inviting my curiosity.
“What’s that city?” I ask my driver. “I don’t
know girly, there’s no one there,” he replies.
Unlike China’s over-crowded tourist
destinations, there’s nothing to really see
or do in these ghost cities, and there exactly
is where the allure lies – the sheer emptiness
is in itself a sight to see. Here lies a Chinese
mega-city, stripped of its most defining
aspects; it is absent of its millions of residents,
the air isn’t choked with the thick smog of
fuel fumes, street food and clammy humidity,
and the buildings are bare without their usual
mosaic of flashy advertising screens and
characters in colossal neon tubing. Standing
in the middle of the highway, I have the
unnerving experience of being the first
or last person on earth. It’s an experience
that is unadvertised and uncommodified, it’s
not an experience that is purposely curated,
making it a truly raw one. In a country that
is as drunk on capitalism as China, the true
experiences aren’t the ones on the Great
Wall or in the Forbidden City, but rather the
ones the government tries to distract us from.
It is behind the façade of success, in the
urban slums, and the ghost cities where real
China is, ushered away from Western eyes.
I regret that I can’t really tell you where
to find these ghost cities – they aren’t marked
on Google Maps and there are no tour groups
headed for a city with no commercial value.
You can only come across them if you’re lucky.
So look hard.Travel the countryside until
you find an enormous city that could hold
millions between two long and empty plains.
My driver speeds down the highway,
cigarette jammed between his yellowing
fingers; he hacks and spits out the window
into the rapid current of tarmac beneath us.
In the distance I can see the skyscrapers of
Wuxi loom ahead, and already, you can see
the ads that dot the skyline. I look through
the back window searching for a last glimpse
of the abandoned city I left not too long ago,
but it’s already been swallowed up by the rocky
landscape, as if it had never even been there.
Images courtesy of ibtimes.com, businessinsider.com
and yaplakal.com
bull usu.edu.au
TASTE
22
Have Your Bacon and Drink It Too
Samantha Jonscher
Sydney is bringing home the bacon – or at
least making a new home for it – as the last
couple of years have seen Sydney’s foodie
scene inundated with the cured pork belly
product. It all started off innocently enough
as a must-have on everything between two
slices of bread. In 2014 though, bacon is an
option in everything from your ice cream to
your cocktail. It comes doused with maple
syrup as a $5 side at Paramount Coffee
Project, and Adriano Zumbo has even put
the pig in biscuits as a Zumbaron flavour.
After all, what’s not to love about bacon?
It’s fatty, salty, moreish, and when you
glaze it with maple syrup it apparently does
science to your brain that makes you happy.
Despite the fact that the bacon we know
and love has origins in 12th Century English
cooking, bacon has a distinct association
with North America, and it’s difficult to
separate Sydney’s ‘bacon mania’ from our
city’s recent rise of Americana diners and
‘roadhouse’ establishments.
Like bacon, these places are everywhere,
peddling gourmet versions of American
‘Down Home Cookin’ – Mary’s,The Soda
Factory, Paramount Coffee Project, Earl’s
Juke Joint, Hartsyard, and Miss Peaches
to name only a few. On their menus you
will find any number of bacon concoctions,
usually paired with its two best friends:
maple syrup and whisky (AKA the Justin
Vernon trifecta).
It’s no longer just a food for the hung-
over, it’s a symbol to be lumped together with
the ‘authenticity’ of flannel shirts, living in
the woods, and men with beards. Bacon also
has nostalgia in its corner; the post-Civil
War American South thrived on its high fat
content and affordability. It’s a preserved
cheap off-cut born from practicality rather
than taste (though the aforementioned high
fat content happens to make it, incidentally,
very tasty).
Today bacon is everywhere: you can
get bacon lube, bacon-scented candles,
perfume, body lotion and even bacon-
printed Converse and Band-Aids to show
off your cured-pork sensibilities.The trendy
meat is a little bit normcore as well, insofar
as it is ironically average. In the words of
Food Historian Josh Ozersky, “it has the
magic quality of being just different enough,
just odd enough, to qualify its proponents
as not absolutely mainstream.”
At the same time though, bacon is
as extreme as food can get without being
widely dismissed. Its charming equation
of high salt + high fat + fried + maybe
some maple syrup = unabashedly sinful in
these #cleaneating days. Bacon is at once
a rejection of a society obsessed with body
image and simultaneously reclamation of the
‘every person’s’ meat.
Either way, as long as Epic Meal Time
exists, bacon looks set to have a sturdy future
in our cultural conscience (and our alcohol).
TASTE
BACON
BARS WHERE YOU CAN DRINK YOUR BACON:
1. Mary’s: This Newtown gem has its own
baconified twist on the Bloody Mary –
served straight up and garnished with
a strip of bacon and a slice of melted
Kraft cheese.
2. The Gilt Lounge: For the bacon
connoisseur who likes it vintage, try
their Applewood Bacon Old Fashioned
cocktail with bacon bourbon, black
peppercorn sugar, creole bitters,
chocolate-covered bacon and
flamed orange.
3. The White Hart: Head to this Neutral
Bay local for their Bacon Manhattan:
bacon bourbon, maple syrup, bitters
and vermouth topped with a bacon
rasher and black pepper.
4. Zeta Bar: The CBD cocktail bar
also offers up their take on a Bacon
and Maple Syrup Manhattan: maple
cedar bacon bourbon, cherry syrup
and vermouth.
5. Earl’s Juke Joint: Soak up the Art Deco
glow and sip on the Maple Bacon Ale
on offer from Rogue Ales.
Craziest Ghost Cities in China:
Spring Legend (APPROX 56KM from Beijing):
A mock-Alpine town with the most
colourful main street you will ever see.
Anting German Town (APPROX 32KM from
Shanghai): With half-timbered buildings,
the town has a huge empty German-
looking quarter with Chinese signs. Weird.
Tiandu Cheng (APPROX 24KM from
Hangzhou): The Eiffel Tower replica
and Parisian buildings have the perfect
European feel but the empty town is too
eerie to enjoy.

Issue 07
section heading
bull usu.edu.au
section heading
2524 bull usu.edu.au
MOVE
24
Dancing in the Dark
Zoe Hitch
We’ve all heard the expression, ‘Dance
as though no one is watching,’ and most
likely seen it plastered across various social
media feeds. But have you ever truly given
it a go?
That is exactly the opportunity a new
trend called No Lights No Lycra (NLNL)
is giving attendees.
As the name might suggest, NLNL
involves dancing in a space with no lights
where you are encouraged to let loose
and break out your moves without feeling
self-conscious. And although NLNL
is gaining momentum in Sydney, we’ve
been a bit slow to truly jump on the
bandwagon.
The idea originated five years ago
in Melbourne as the result of two dance
students, Alice Glenn and Heidi Barrett,
desiring a place to dance free of expectations,
instructions or skill. Since then, the craze has
spread around the country and the world.
NLNL first made its way to Sydney
in 2011 for a short time but regular meet-
ups weren’t available until earlier this year.
Disappointed by the local absence of the
event, NLNL Sydney ambassadors Ash
Maher and Jodie Fisher paired up and started
organising temporary pop-up versions of the
event in Sydney late last year.
“I know how confronting it can be
to walk into a dance class where there’re
mirrors and you’re like, ‘Ok, how good
are you going to be?’” says Ash, “… and
‘How crap am I going to be?’”
“So, I think what I love about [NLNL] is
that you can experience that joy you
get from dance and that pure happiness
without having to worry about if you’re
good enough, or if anybody’s going to be
watching what you’re doing.”
Jodie feels her love for NLNL has only
grown since she started organising events,
explaining emphatically, “When you stand
in that room and you see 100 people or 200
people just going crazy to some song, it is
just the most beautiful thing.”
“And that you have any part in getting
that to happen and getting that to come
together is just unbelievable. It’s awesome.”
The enthusiasm of the organisers
seems to be infectious as the atmosphere
at a NLNL event is somewhat euphoric.
There are cheers and claps during and
after every song and almost everybody in
attendance throws caution to the wind as
they learn to enjoy dance in a way they
haven’t had the chance to before.
MOVE
No Lights No Lycra
“You can really let yourself go and just enjoy
the music that you’re dancing to with no
alcohol and no cares. Everyone is there for
the same reason – to have fun and dance,”
says attendee, Aislinn Atkinson-Keen.
“It felt like great stress relief and exercise.
I sweated more in that one hour than I think
I ever have in a gym.”
Make no mistake, you will be sweaty,
as will all those around you so it’s advisable
to wear exercise gear or at least clothing
you’re comfortable in.
If you’re going to give NLNL a shot –
and you’d be crazy not to – you should
be made aware that your sense of sight is
not completely deprived. Although every
effort is made to keep the space dark, you
can see the movements of those close to
you. For those who are feeling apprehensive
after this revelation, don’t be, as NLNL is
a strict no-judgment zone.
Everybody in the crowd attends for
the exact same purpose, the experience
of dancing without insecurity or
embarrassment, which is unique if nothing
else! If you’re interested in attending, NLNL
is currently hosted every Thursday night at
7:30pm at 189 Church St in Newtown and
will cost you $5 – you can thank me later!
Image courtesy of nolightsnolycra.com
Scumbag Body Parts
Erin Rooney
The dull ache of wisdom teeth in the back
of your jaw is the only reminder you need
that the human body is far from perfect.
Over millions of years our ancestors have
evolved and adapted to their surroundings,
leaving us with remnants of features and
traits that were once integral to our survival,
but are now more or less useless and often
quite annoying.
THE APPENDIX Possibly the most famous
vestigial organ of the human body, the
appendix continues to cause more trouble
than it’s worth. But scientists at the Duke
University School of Medicine have found
that the appendix actually serves as a harbour
for beneficial bacteria, ready for release
after infection from cholera or dysentery.
Interestingly, the appendix could also carry
out another function, if the human diet were
ever to change. Australian marsupials such
as koalas have been noted to have extremely
long appendixes, suggesting that there may
also be a dietary function for processing
complex foods like eucalyptus leaves.
WISDOM TEETH Causing intense pain and
susceptible to infection, wisdom teeth are
more of a hindrance than help to modern
humans.Whilst they originally aided early
humans in consuming their coarse diet,
these pesky molars weren’t given enough
space in the mouth. The rapid growth
in complexity of the brain meant that the
brain case (the back part of our skull) had
attempts to deny their existence in males at all,
such as the recent Diet Coke print ad run
in the UK, in which the man’s nipples were
completely Photoshopped out.The reason
they occur in human males stems from early
fetal development. As sexual differentiation
does not occur until the release of testosterone
in the male fetus, nipples are part of a ‘genetic
default’ of characteristics in males and
females before this occurs.The trait has
likely persisted in males due to the lack of
disadvantage they pose to male survival.
Despite their often-detrimental effects,
these body parts won’t be leaving the human
genome any time soon. Evolution is a slow
and random process, so check back in a couple
of hundred thousand years.
to expand. Sadly, with all that backroom
expansion going on the extension of the
jaw was altogether overlooked, leaving the
wisdom teeth cramped.The good news
is that much of the population is missing
them, particularly in some ethnic groups;
as much as 45 per cent of the native Inuit
people of the Arctic lack wisdom teeth.
For the rest of us…well, at least we’re
keeping dentists in business.
GOOSEBUMPS Feeling cold or scared
sparks a reaction in the arrector pili, tiny
muscles in the skin linked to body hair,
resulting in raised spots.This may look
rather ridiculous on modern humans, but it
might have seemed more intimidating back
when our ancestors were covered with hair,
much like the threatening fur-raise of a cat.
Puffing up fur also would have regulated
body temperature, trapping insulated air
closer to the body, which unfortunately does
little for the bare skin of modern humans.
TONSILS Contrary to popular belief,
tonsils are not the dangly bit at the back
of your throat (called the uvula), but rather
the collections of tissue on either side. Like
the appendix, they are often assumed to
serve no purpose, however scientists such
as Dr. Robert Good have conducted research
that demonstrates the role of tonsils in the
development of the immune system in young
mammals, including humans.Whilst they can
help fight off infection, they often become
infected themselves and must be removed.
MALE NIPPLES The nipples are so associated
with females that there have even been some
LEARN
Useless Human Adaptations
25Issue 06
LEARN
4 Cool Underwater Animal
Adaptations
1. JELLYFISH: Despite lacking a brain, jellyfish
have light-detecting organs that allow them
to determine up from down underwater.
2. CUTTLEFISH: With about 10 million colour
cells in their skin controlled by neurons,
cuttlefish can make flashing patterns to deter
rivals or form perfect camouflage.
3. SEA CUCUMBER: As a defence mechanism,
sea cucumbers can change their body from
solid to liquid and back again.
4. CLOWN FISH: When the alpha female
dies in a clown fish community,
sexually immature males have the ability
to change into females in order to
continue reproduction.

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THE ORIGINAL AND STILL THE BEST
Issue 06
FEATURE
27
SEAN O’GRADY EXAMINES THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN FINANCIAL SECURITY AND MENTAL ILLNESS.
Welfare, What Care?
S u b m i t t o t h e o l d e s t l i t e r a r y j o u r n a l i n A u s t r a l i a
H e r m e s p u b l i s h e s a w i d e r a n g e o f c r e a t i v e g e n r e s BY U n i v e r s i t y o f S y d n e y s t u d e n t s ,
a l u m n i & s t a f f f o r m o r e d e t a i l s VI S IT: usu.edu.au/hermes
This year ’s theme is “Liminal”. Submissions close: Midnight 26 August
/USUAccess @USUAccess

lunch in a nice cafe, he muses that he may not always be able to
afford this.
At a pub, Alice laughs at me as I stumble awkwardly from
one word to the next, trying to ask her if she has thought about
looking for different work.
“You mean vanilla work?” she says bluntly. I confirm that this
is what I am asking about. Alice is a sex worker. She has become
fiercely attached to the financial independence that the job gives
her. She has lost ‘vanilla’ jobs in the past when she complained of
mental illness and was unable to fulfill her duties.
She suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. At 12 she
was suffering from severe physical pain and an inability to digest
food. Despite having a desire to eat, a doctor diagnosed her with
‘subconscious’ bulimia. In reality, her liver was wrapping around
her duodenum. At 15 her liver failed, and a transplant was
necessary. Alice describes herself as being traumatised not just
by the physical suffering she endured, but by “the trauma of not
being believed for that many years”.
She describes moving from doctor to doctor looking for the
help she needed. As she was attempting to finish her HSC at
Sydney’s Bradfield College whilst supporting herself financially,
she became increasingly depressed and anxious. Attempting
to change her medication, her withdrawal was so severe that
she was admitted to hospital, and her formal education ended.
At a certain point Alice became determined to get better;
she describes herself being in a “desperate place.” In a world
where the government and doctors failed to give her the care
she needed, Alice turned to sex work. She describes the
manipulation and an addiction to cocaine that led her to
move from massage to full service. Eventually Alice was given
to a client of the brothel in payment of a debt, and was forced
to flee to Melbourne.
After returning to Sydney and once again being admitted
to hospital, the bills began to add up and Alice returned to sex
work, this time at a much safer establishment. She seems to have
lost faith in the government, she says that welfare and healthcare
are insufficient, but instead of waiting for it to change she is
determined to be independent.
During our interview I keep wondering whether or not
Alice had an active choice in becoming a sex worker. She seems
content with her situation; the money she makes gives her the
freedom to live comfortably and pay for the healthcare she needs.
“The government failed me, the doctors failed me, I came to a
point where it was just like fuck it, I need to do this myself,” she
tells me. Sex work was a decision that made sense for her, but
I can’t help but wonder what her life would have been like if
the system had worked. “I lost my high school years, I lost my
primary school years,” she tells me with a pang of regret.
Henry is not hopeful going forward. He is from a working
class background, and has had problems accessing care.
His illness has meant that he has not been able to complete all
units of study he has enrolled in, and if he applies for one more
Discontinue Not Fail, he will lose access toYouth Allowance.
In this way, mental illness insidiously permeates much of his life.
“Ultimately for someone with anxiety and depression all these
things cumulatively add up,” he says. His concern, though,
is not just for himself. It extends to all those trying to access
care that they need: “They are just ripping everything that
makes the world stable away.They are turning things into debts
which increases the uncertainty of being able to pay for things.”
For Henry the government is failing, it has a responsibility to
Issue 06
FEATURE
29
Warning:This article discusses mental illness and sexual violence.
It may be triggering for some people.
In June of this year a small piece of a larger puzzle fell
into place.The McClure Welfare Review handed down its
preliminary findings. Among its recommendations were that
Disability Support Pensions (DSP) be withdrawn from people
under 35 with mental illnesses that are episodic in nature.Whilst
cuts to welfare are veiled in rhetoric about helping people get
back on their feet, many who suffer from mental illness feel that
it has the opposite effect. Slowly, services which can help them
get better are being chipped away in a social narrative that at
times makes mental illness feel like a choice to be sad, rather
than a diagnosable sickness.
It is already hard to gain access to the DSP. Alice*, has
been waiting on a decision for 18 months.Youth Allowance,
which Alice is on, provides her with $400 a fortnight. Alice
spends $210 on medication a month. Add to that the fact that
Australians are guaranteed only six free appointments with a
help people, to allow them to get to the point where they can
support themselves, telling me, “although you can’t pinpoint it
and say this is the reason why people kill themselves, the whole
point of the welfare system is to give people a sense that there
is a possibility for engaging with the world.”
What this possibility looks like is difficult to quantify.
In contrast to Henry, who hates the manner in which the
government attempts to control what welfare recipients spend
their money on, Alice suggests that vouchers for groceries and
other essentials would be a good mechanism of care. She has
received some from the Sex Workers Outreach Program in
Surry Hills which in periods where she had uncertain income
helped her prioritise her expenditure.
How to distribute welfare is an entirely separate argument
what seems clear however is that the manner in which
governments conceive of and implement policy needs reform.
For Henry, the recent protests surrounding the Abbott budget
provide a degree of hope, people appear to be organising and
committed to challenging the logic of a conservative government.
For Alice, this change may not have as great an effect.Yet in spite
of this, she is becoming more involved in political organisation
and action.
* * * *
Whether or not change is likely to come is unclear. Despite
an overwhelming consensus within the academic and scientific
communities, there is little ground being gained when it comes
to enacting practices which can best help the mentally ill.
This is the second time McClure has headed a major
review of the Australian Welfare model.The last time, in
1999, the review had its own website. In 2014, despite much
technological progress, there is no such website. In 1999 the
federal government called for public submissions. In 2014
no such advertisements were issued. One wonders if anybody
is listening.
If you are in need of mental healthcare please call Lifeline
on 13 11 14, or make contact with the Sydney University
Counselling and Psychological Services on 8627 8112.
In an emergency call 000.
Illustrations byWanyi Xin (Cabbage)
*Names have been changed
psychologist a year – one appointment every two months – a
number that is grossly insufficient for many to receive the
necessary support, and that prescribed medication often requires
appointments with poorly subsidised psychiatrists, it becomes
hard for young people with extremely limited means to cope.
Gaining access to even the minimal services which exist
can also be incredibly hard. Henry, a student at the University
of Sydney has co-morbid anxiety and depression. “Basically
it means I often have very low motivation and often withdraw
from people,” he tells me. He has only been able to access
Youth Allowance because of a friend who helped him negotiate
an application process which “tries to trick you into getting
rejected”. In the wake of the Abbott Budget and broader trends
within the provision of welfare, Henry* is anxious about the
increased emphasis on working for payments. He cannot save
and go overseas like many of his friends do, for fear of losing
access to his payments. Both Henry and Alice have problems
finding and maintaining regular work. Henry recently lost his job
when his work closed down with very limited notice. As we have
bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
28
“although you can’t pinpoint it and
say this is the reason why people
kill themselves, the whole point of
the welfare system is to give people
a sense that there is a possibility
for engaging with the world.”
“The government failed me, the doctors failed me, I came to a point
where it was just like fuck it, I need to do this myself.”

Issue 06
THE TIME I TRIED...
31
Following a quick trip to the
Wu Tang Clan name generator
our undercover reporter
Phantom Overlord snatches
the pen to wax lyrical.
If there is one thing that the cultural
appropriatin’ big booty reppin’ emcee
Iggy Azalea proves, it’s that even those
from the land girt by sea can make it
big in the rap game – and with a humble
Arts degree fast approaching its conclusion,
this fellow Australian decided to give
spitting fire a genuine go.
When controversial rapper, singer and
pee-pee provider R. Kelly dropped the silky
smooth ‘The World’s Greatest’ he articulated
with much pomp and posturing exactly
where I want to be as a hip-hop star. And,
although you might be sitting there hating
on me for setting the bar oh-so-high, just
think: do you dream of working for peanuts
in middle management, or making it rain
as the CEO?
In the rap world this means making it
in the United States – a rare feat for even
the most talented of Australian artists – so
I once again looked to local heroine Iggy for
some inspiration and guidance.Working on
her shit for a number of years, she “studied
tha Carters” – rap superstars Dwayne
Michael Carter, Jr., aka Lil Wayne, and Sean
Corey Carter, aka Jay-Z (no relation for the
uninitiated) – until the day she received
a record deal. And so I started honing my
craft by doing the same.
The first thing I discovered listening
to the lyrics of Lil Wayne was to throw
conventional wisdom and logic out the
window. Shoehorning needless meaning
into your metaphors is for chump rappers –
if I want to be at the top of my game I need
to keep things simple and focus on what
sounds good.When Weezy lets you know
he’s “got 10 bathrooms” so he can “shit
all day” no one ever stops and asks whether
he learnt to flush as a child (you only need
one toilet Weezy #realtalk) – everyone just
accepts the poignancy and lyrical genius
of his defecation-based braggadocio! I can
only assume this is what Iggy meant when
she told us she was working on her shit for
so long. I also learned that it’s best to leave
as much to the imagination as possible.
Jay-Z is the reigning champion of suspense
– when Hova spits “I’m an animal/half man,
half mammal” he draws listeners into
a gripping mystery not even the Scooby
Gang (and I’m talking both the pot-smoking
and vampire-slaying posses) could solve.
Unfortunately unlike Iggy, who ventured
to the United States during her teenage
years to pursue her career ambitions and
quickly lost most of the quintessential Aussie
twang while rapping (despite paradoxically
maintaining a fair amount of it while she’s
speaking), ya boy Phantom O soon realised
he lacked the requisite racks on racks on
racks for a plane ticket.
Instead I jumped out onto Eastern
Avenue with a small stereo to engage in
impromptu curbside rap battles.That’s not
to say that anyone actually stopped to throw
down with me – most of the passers-by
obviously couldn’t handle my level of swag.
Or perhaps I’d done too much research on
my US rap idols.
The Australian rapper is quintessentially
a painfully dinky-di, true-blue, working class
hero, whereas I’d focused so much of my
attention on emulating the gangstas.
Or perhaps just no one wants to hear
a white-boy from the suburbs between
Sociology and Anthropology.
THE TIME I TRIED...
RAPPING
BOOK HERE NOW
seymourcentre.com
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY UNION
SNOW WHITE AND THE
SEVEN DOLLAR COPAYMENT:
MED REVUE
Wed 27 - Sat 30 August
7:30pm, York Theatre
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE
MARDI GRAS: QUEER REVUE
7:30pm, Reginald Theatre
TRAPEZE GETS DEGREES:
SCIENCE REVUE
Thurs 04 - Sat 06 Sep
7pm, York Theatre
THE ACATTERY AWARDS:
VET REVUE
Sat 27 September
7pm, Camden Campus
AGM OF THRONES: A SONG
OF FIRE (WHISKEY) ON ICE:
ENGINEERING REVUE
Thurs 11 September
7:30pm, Manning Bar
COMEDY-MUSIC-NUDITY
If you only saw one revue last year, this year you should see more
20AUGUST-27 SEPTEMBER
THE PRICE IS
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT:
ARCHITECTURE REVUE
Thur 21 - Sat 23 August
THE UNLIMITED DREAM
FACTORY: ARTS REVUE
Thur 21 - Sat 23 August
7:30pm, Everest Theatre
MOOLAH ROUGE:
COMMERCE REVUE
Thurs 28 - Sat 30 August
8pm, Everest Theatre
THE LAND BEFORE
TIMETABLES: EDUCATION
AND SOCIAL WORK REVUE
Wed 03 - Sat 06 Sep
HOUSE OF CLERKS:
LAW REVUE
8:00pm, York Theatre
/USUAccess @USUAccess@USUAccess /USUonline usu.edu.auMSS288

Issue 06
FEATURE
33bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
32
It’s hard to imagine a university lifestyle that isn’t centred
around you and only you; your needs, your wants, your
future aspirations.We’re told that our 20s is the decade where
selfishness is good, necessary in fact, if we want to discover our
‘true self’. As much as this reasoning is slightly unconvincing,
it’s hard not to notice that the wider public constantly labels
Gen-Y as the ‘me’ generation. But what happens when you’re
trying to embark on a degree at university, but have family
or community obligations that mean you put someone else
before yourself?
Often it means your uni lifestyle isn’t like others’. Research
echoed by experiences of carers at Sydney University (as gathered
by the SRC Disabilities and Carers Department) shows that
isolation and social exclusion are major issues for carers.
Sometimes it means that you just miss out.
Amanda Perez, 21, said she was born into caring for her
brother, Diego, who has severe cerebral palsy. After finishing her
Arts degree last year and successfully gaining entry into Sydney
University’s prestigious architecture course, Amanda stopped
attending classes and deferred her studies indefinitely. Although
she enjoyed the course, she knew that she could not commit
to the recommended 20+ hours that just one subject required
because of her commitments at home.
Amanda contacted a handful of staff from the Architecture
Department with severely disappointing results; not one could
direct her to a student service that could make things more
manageable. One staff member even encouraged her to apply
for suspension.
“I felt like I couldn’t expect them to somehow magically
reduce my workload or anything,” she explained, “Like it was
still unfair to me I guess, but you just have to cop it on the chin.”
A research project by Carers Australia in 2002 confirmed
that only 4 per cent of primary young adult carers remain in
education compared to the national average of 23 per cent for
the same age group.
Sarah Chuah andYaz Camdzic, both carers themselves, are
the student officers of Sydney University’s SRC Disabilities
and Carers Department and believe that people like Amanda
shouldn’t have to “cop it on the chin”.
“[There’s] a significant portion of people in the country who
are caring for somebody, and those people should have equal
access to education and a right to the correct services to help
them achieve their potential,” Sarah argues.
There are over 2.6 million carers in Australia and over
360,000 of those are aged between 15 and 25, to be more precise.
Despite these figures, more localised data about carers on
campus is difficult to obtain due to the lack of a data collection
process at Sydney University.
Most alarmingly, there is an absence of a carer-specific
policy at Sydney University and universities around the country.
Chantelle Day is a Carers Australia Ambassador and has
been her mum’s primary carer since she was 12. As part of her
Doctorate of Philosophy at Griffith University, she is currently
conducting a unique investigation into the impacts of caregiving
on the educational aspirations and future life-prospects ofYoung
Adult Carers (YACs) in Australian universities.
She emphasises that lack of research in this area makes
policy development difficult at best. “I’m hoping there’s greater
awareness and recognition from my research ... I’m hoping to
create a pathway for future researchers,” she says.
However, some see lack of research as a poor excuse for the
lack of specific support services for carers. “There’s a lack of
research but it’s a circular argument: there’s a lack of research so
we don’t know what the demand is, so we’re not going to put the
resources into research,” Yaz explains.
As highlighted by Jordi Austin, Director of Student Services,
although no policy exists that is uniquely designed for carers, there
are provisions in the assessment policy that state considerations
should be given to carers and their situations in the form of
special consideration.
Amanda had experience with special consideration when
her mother, Diego’s primary carer, was visiting relatives in Chile
late last year. “They were really good about it, but for a three
year course, I don’t know what the options would be,” she says.
“It would work better for me to be able to work longer hours at
home as opposed to having to be on campus, in the workshop.”
Sarah andYaz have similar qualms with the extension-giving
support service. “The thing about special consideration, it’s
supposed to be for short term illnesses or misadventure and
when you’re caring for someone who has a chronic disease or
something that’s ongoing, it should be the same as disability
services, where you have the ability to access support in a very
simple and direct way rather than having to submit a new
application over and over again,” Sarah says.“It’s really impractical
and draining for a student who is going through so much already.”
The need to keep reapplying for special consideration can often
feed into a carer’s uncertainty over their degree.Yaz offers a simple,
logical solution:“Sydney University, as an institution, can address
that by creating a system where carers are registered, where
they’ve thought about it and are able to maintain a system where
adjustments can be applied rather than this sort of ad hoc system
that exists.”
Despite the inadequacy of special consideration for carers,
things are looking up according to the SRC Disabilities and
Carers Department.The officer title was formally amended to
include carers late last year, and a very informative Carers in
Higher Education: Access & Inclusion booklet was produced last
year too. “We’ve been successful in getting carers included in
the terms of reference and we’re trying to ensure as the Local
Disability Action Plans are being developed, we get some kind of
inclusion of carers at the local level,” says Sarah.
The Disabilities and Carers Officers also conducted a survey
of over 30 carers on university campuses and has been able to
coordinate a student support network for carers to share their
experiences with people in the same situation.
On a University level, Sarah andYaz tell me that discussions
have occurred and with any luck, carers at Sydney University will
see developments to support services in the next 12-18 months.
Jordi confirms this and expresses a desire to support
carers on campus, “We are keen to explore this issue further
and to engage in productive conversations with students with
carer responsibility”.
Speaking to Amanda, she said when the one staff member
did reply to her emails, it was late, unhelpful and “was like
he was washing his hands of me.” A policy specifically for
carers must be put in place to make sure staff responses like
this are eradicated and that a culture of awareness and support
is institutionalised.
Caring
for
Carers
Katie Davern asks why Sydney University doesn’t have a specific policy to support carers.
There are over 2.6 million carers in Australia
and over 360,000 of those are Aged between 15 and 25.
Amanda Renez and her brother, Diego.

MKT295
Alexandra
Cunninghame
Expiry Dat
31 December
2014
$45
SEMESTER 2 CARDS
JUST
usu.edu.au/sayhello
$45
SEMESTER 2 CARDS
JUST
usu.edu.au/sayhello
/USUAccess @USUAccess@USUAccess /USUonline /USUAccess
Issue 06
CAMPUS FASHION
35
Laura Hanlon // Arts (Media AND Comms) IV
Dress: Zara Basic
Hat: Dotti
Sunglasses: Ralph Lauren
Shoes: Betts
Why did you choose that outfit? I’m fairly pale
so knowing I had a full day of outdoor cherry
picking ahead, I wanted to choose pieces that
would prevent further freckles, as well as being
back sweat-resistant and breathable in the
summer humidity.
Where were you on exchange? Japan.This shot was
taken at theYamamoto Orchard in the Northern
island of Hokkaido.
What made you pick Japan? The ‘all-expenses-
paid-for’ tag narrowed down my choices but
I’ve always been intrigued to discover Japanese
culture beyond the sushi train and deepen my
understanding of cross-cultural communications.
What Japanese styles do you love? The street-style
is a balancing act of local and foreign labels and
the end result is something which I admire but
could never pull off.Think lace socks paired with
punk platforms.
Rachel Stow // Arts (International AND Global
Studies) III
Jumpsuit: I bought it online
Thongs: Havaianas
Where were you on exchange? Studying in Rome as
part of the Global Leadership Exchange.
What made you pick that country? Ever since I was
a little girl I’ve had a fascination with Italy. From
the history, to the architecture, to the seemingly
endless supply of gelato – picking Rome was not
a difficult decision.
What Italian styles are you inspired by or love?
The women here are exceptional. At this time
of the year the city is swimming with tourists,
yet it is so easy to spot the Italian women
amongst them.Their style is both elegant and
chic, almost a classic beauty!
Describe your exchange in three words or less:
Inspirational, motivational and challenging.
Rabia Glynn // Arts III
Shirt: Urban Outfitters
Tee: Zara TRF
Jumper: Ralph Lauren
Pants: Zara
Shoes: Nike SB Janoski
Sunnies: Ray Bans
Who’s your style icon and why? I like a lot of
people’s style but I’d say Cara Delevingne’s chic
casual style is somewhere near the top.
What’s your favourite place in the whole world?
Anywhere sunny and beachy… or my bed.
What’s the most stylish city in the world and why?
I think Sydney has some pretty awesome style
overall, but I do like Milan in winter when
everyone goes to work in suits.
Most hated style trend that you’ve spotted abroad?
Sliders and socks – it’s not okay.
CAMPUS FASHION
EXCHANGE
‘Looking like The Simpsons’:
The beauty industry has seen some strange
things, from vampire facials and crimpers, to the
classiest of vajazzles. But we’re here to introduce
one of the most bizarre collaborations of all.
One of the world’s biggest beauty brands, MAC
cosmetics, has paired up with none other than
The Simpsons.Yup, you read that right, MAC is
taking inspiration from Matt Groening’s cartoon
creations for its latest line.The collection sees
‘donut sprinkle’ blushers engraved with Marge’s
face, lip-glosses to perfectly match Lisa’s orange
dress, and an eye shadow in Bart’s eat-my-shorts
blue. Shockingly, they have yet to bring out a tinted
moisturiser in bright yellow…. D’OH!
Despite being the most unexpected faces of
beauty,The Simpsons Collection is set to be
a winner and is launching at none-other than
Comic-Con. It will be available online towards
the end of August, so there’s not long until you
can fulfil your lifelong dream to look exactly
like Mr Burns.
Katie Stow, Emily Shen and Rebecca Karpin

BULL Edition 6, 2014

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