Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Petra Bueskens
The absurdity of “Tickle v. Giggle”
Written by Petra Bueskens Tickle v. Giggle is an Australian court case that, in its very name, evokes the absurd. Since it has scratched a legal itch and produced much gallows humour, there is something of a cosmic joke about the nomenclature of the case, which is the latest battle in the existential war over the category of “woman.” So, what is it all about? Who are the central protagonists, and what are the implications?
The Paradigm Wars-Part 3: A Wrench in the Fabric of Reality: a new paradigm?
In the previous two essays (Part 1 | Part 2), I have analysed the paradigm dispute between the GloboCaps and the mass-formationists, examining their similarities and differences. In this essay, I outline how this dispute is superseded by a paradigm break at a much deeper ontological and epistemological level; that is, at the level of being and knowing and our theories of personhood, truth, reality and meaning.
The Paradigm Wars-Part 2: The Paradigm War and its Discontents
In the first essay in this series, we explored the contours of the conflict between the GloboCaps and the mass-formationists, exploring their key theoretical and political differences. While the GloboCaps emphasise the top-down power structure of global capitalism, including the deep-state and its use of real and threatened violence, the mass-formationists emphasise the conformity and acquiescence of citizens.
The Paradigm Wars-Part 1: GloboCap meets Mass Formation
Editorial note: This three-part essay considers the rivenness of Western dissidents on the issue of who is to blame for society-wide compliance with medical martial law. We are of the view that enough rancour has settled by mid-2024 for the dynamics of that argument in the dissident camp to be elucidated by an academic contributor.
RFK’s Bid for the Presidency
What does Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s bid for the US presidency mean for heterodox opponents of the new normal? I ask this question as an Australian citizen outside the matrix of US politics, but within the orbit of the(medical) freedom movement, and our strangely fringe concerns.
False flags: Deeming, Pesutto, and the absurdity of Woketoria
A trans flag flies out the front of the Victorian Parliament, proudly announcing that we have no meaningful political opposition in this state. Welcome to Woketoria! The Leader of the Opposition Liberal Party, John Pesutto, aligns perfectly with Labor Premier Daniel Andrews on identity politics – or gender ID – when it comes to women’s rights. This week, Pesutto led a successful ploy to suspend Liberal MP Moira Deeming for nine months.
Guilt by association
There are two issues at stake in the transwars that are again finding their way to our shores with ‘Posie Parker’s’ (aka Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s) Australian Let Women Speak tour. These are: children’s bodily integrity, and women’s rights including the need for single-sex spaces. These issues have very different histories, politics, and ontologies but they coalesce around transgenderism because this is the point at which the conflict of interest arises.
An Apology to JK Rowling
JK Rowling recently published an eminently reasonable, heartfelt treatise, outlining why it is important to preserve the category of woman. There’s only one thing wrong with it: it assumes a rational interlocutor. Rowling outlines why the biological and legal category of sex is important: in sports, in rape crisis shelters, in prisons, in toilets and changing rooms, for lesbians who want to sleep with natal women only and at the level of reality in general.
Wollstonecraft’s Dilemma: Identity Politics and Feminism
Although the ideology of identity politics remains hegemonic in the academy and in many social institutions, a growing—and arguably necessary—body of critique has been emerging. These critiques have emanated both from the arbiters of the so-called silent majority and from those on the Left who are concerned by the displacement of class by identity and by the unremitting politics of grievance. It is time to interrogate these important critiques in the context of the woman question.
Fertility Strikes: Modern Motherhood And The De-Regulated Patriarchy
DON’T MISS ANYTHING! ONE CLICK TO GET NEW MATILDA DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX, FREE! Women are free as individuals, but constrained as mothers, writes Petra Bueskens. Social life has changed significantly over the last four decades. Women across the western world have entered the workforce en masse and, together with their partners, they have delayed (and in some cases eschewed) marriage and childbearing and they are having fewer children overall.
It's OK To Be Right, But Careful What You Wish For Lauren Southern
The alt-right’s never-ending assault on feminism is more than misdirected – it’s one of the great examples of cutting your nose off to spite your face. Dr Petra Bueskens explains. Serena Joy from Handmaid’s Tale hit the streets and stages of Australia last month in the form of Lauren Southern, a right wing activist who advocates for traditional values on gender and sexuality among several other alt-right platforms.
Mothers And Basic Income: The Case For An Urgent Intervention
The gender pay gap requires urgent attention, writes Dr Petra Bueskens. But there is a strong case to be made for the reality that mothers and single mothers should be at the front of the queue.* Universal basic income – or #UBI – has been gaining traction in recent years as a utopian alternative to the punitive, stigmatising and declining welfare state in neo-liberal societies.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Petra
Contact Petra, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack