http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/catharine-lumby/ Professor Catharine Lumby is the Director of the Journalism and Media Research Centre at UNSW. A former journalist, she is the author of seven books and a researcher in the fields of media and gender studies. Catharine enjoys robust debate, cooking lunch for friends and reading polite emails. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-about-the-freedom-of-the-non-religious/ Judging by the mardi gras of colourful wraparounds on Mary MacKillop that festooned our newsstands recently, Catholicism is alive and kicking off all that bad publicity about child sex abuse. The Enlightenment came and went a few hundred years ago, but lots of Australians still believe in virgin births, the resurrection, and miracles. Ex-Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is among them. The right to practice religion is quite rightly a cherished freedom in liberal Western democracies. So it’s a little puzzling that some in the Catholic and Anglican church hierarchies are unwilling to extend exactly the same kind of freedom to NSW children who want to learn about secular approaches to ethics. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Catharine Lumby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-about-the-freedom-of-the-non-religious/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-about-the-freedom-of-the-non-religious/#item4293 Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:00:24 +0000 Catharine Lumby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/politicians-have-been-acting-like-a-pack-of-bankers/ I asked a bloke who has senior runs on the advertising board in “branding” of politicians to explain the election campaign. He said the best analogy lies in bank ads. Writing campaigns for banks, he explained to me, is all about creating a distraction. “After financial deregulation, a gulf emerged between what retail customers wanted from banks and how bankers regarded their retail customers. The customers wanted a relationship with their bank. The bankers couldn’t care less.” In the 90s, focus groups among average Australians who put their money with a given bank always ended in tears. “People would stand up and shout and cry. They felt incredibly let down”. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Catharine Lumby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/politicians-have-been-acting-like-a-pack-of-bankers/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/politicians-have-been-acting-like-a-pack-of-bankers/#item3885 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 02:30:31 +0000 Catharine Lumby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ok-class-who-wants-teens-to-go-on-learning-sex-in-sheds/ Good morning readers. Look at me please. Eyes to the front.  Andrew Bolt please bring whatever you’re playing with under that desk and put it on my table. Thank you Andrew.  Everyone settled? Excellent. Today we’re going to learn about why it’s impossible to introduce a rational sex education curriculum into our 21st century schooling system. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Catharine Lumby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ok-class-who-wants-teens-to-go-on-learning-sex-in-sheds/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ok-class-who-wants-teens-to-go-on-learning-sex-in-sheds/#item3689 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:57:11 +0000 Catharine Lumby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-influence-of-environment-on-our-behaviour-fantastico/ I was sitting in a French brasserie the other evening and I noticed something very odd. My sons were behaving impeccably. To put this in perspective, they are eight and ten year old Australian boys. Their normal behaviour in cafes, let alone restaurants, throws down a large gauntlet to animals summoned to feeding time at the zoo. (My apologies to the higher apes). We’re on our first extended family vacation. We chose Paris because my husband speaks excellent French, I love the city and we wanted to stay in one place for a month. Part of me dreaded bringing the boys here. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Catharine Lumby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-influence-of-environment-on-our-behaviour-fantastico/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-influence-of-environment-on-our-behaviour-fantastico/#item3356 Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:55:00 +0000 Catharine Lumby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/festivals-of-mediocrity/ Imagine my excitement when I discovered that a food and film festival was coming to the very suburb I live in. Not merely a food festival. Or a film festival. But a food and film festival. What’s more it wasn’t simply coming to my suburb. It was coming to a specific area in my suburb. According to the large glossy ad on the bus shelter it was coming to a place known to us locals as The Spot. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Catharine Lumby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/festivals-of-mediocrity/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/festivals-of-mediocrity/#item2527 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:45:07 +0000 Catharine Lumby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hey-tony-the-virginity-ship-has-sailed/ So Tony Abbott thinks Australian women should quit having pre-marital sex. We all know he likes a challenge. But good luck, mate, getting that particular toothpaste back in the tube. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Catharine Lumby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hey-tony-the-virginity-ship-has-sailed/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hey-tony-the-virginity-ship-has-sailed/#item2244 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:10:29 +0000 Catharine Lumby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Sex-drugs-and-other-things-you-cant-read-about/ Australia has an international reputation as visionary for the way we managed the HIV epidemic in the 1980s. While countries like the US were being sidetracked by extremists claiming the virus was a sign God was venting his wrath on homosexuals, Australians acted rationally. Our governments, our health experts and our media got the message out: HIV was primarily spread through blood and semen. Safer sex and injecting practices could stem the tide. If you go online today you’ll find countless websites devoted to that message. Many of them are hosted overseas. Many of them give detailed instructions on drug injection and describe, in necessarily explicit language, sexual activity that would be deemed illegal to show in a film made for entertainment purposes under Australian law. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Catharine Lumby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Sex-drugs-and-other-things-you-cant-read-about/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Sex-drugs-and-other-things-you-cant-read-about/#item2002 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:00:32 +0000 Catharine Lumby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/does-it-matter-if-you-cheat-on-your-partner/ Is it possible to write a column questioning the value of monogamy without having your head shaved and being dragged to a public stoning hosted by right wing columnists? Guess I’m about to find out. In the wake of the Della Bosca fiasco I’ve been thinking a lot about why we’re so obsessed with sexual fidelity. . From a rational point of view it’s clearly ridiculous to stake our life partnerships on something as unpredictable and unbiddable feedback@thepunch.com.au (Catharine Lumby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/does-it-matter-if-you-cheat-on-your-partner/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/does-it-matter-if-you-cheat-on-your-partner/#item1447 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:55:01 +0000 Catharine Lumby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/jacksons-death-a-study-in-the-tabloid-nature-of-our-times/ I was bunkered down in 1997 finishing a book called Gotcha: Life in a Tabloid World when I was disturbed by a phone call. Something about a woman called Diana who’d died in a car crash the day before. I had no clue. The journo on the other end of the phone thought she’d accidentally called Mars. Having lived through both the OJ trial and the Lewinsky/Clinton affair in New York I thought I knew what the eye of a celebrity death, sex or scandal storm looked like. I spent the next week fielding questions from the media about why the media couldn’t stop asking people questions about Diana. The highbrow journos were all in deep shock about the public interest in a woman they saw as a dim blonde who liked disco dancing, enemas and psychics. But they were equally transfixed by the level of public grief at her passing The only journalists who really understood what was going on were tabloid reporters – hacks in the minds of the ABC-types who’d previously seen themselves as gatekeepers of the news agenda. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Catharine Lumby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/jacksons-death-a-study-in-the-tabloid-nature-of-our-times/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/jacksons-death-a-study-in-the-tabloid-nature-of-our-times/#item485 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:50:11 +0000 Catharine Lumby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kids-healthy-curiosity-is-smarter-than-censorship/ My nine-year-old has been waging a campaign to see the South Park movie for six months now. I’ve said ‘No’. It’s a funny movie but there’s a scene in it, featured below, where Saddam Hussein has sex with Satan. I figure you have to be at least ten years old to process that joke. Naturally, my son did what all well-raised and obedient children do when their parents ban something. He waited until I was cooking dinner and he YouTubed it. It was a smart move – he got to watch all the rude bits without any of the annoying political satire. As I write this column, I’m in London attending a conference on children and cybersafety. I have no doubt that my son is reveling in my absence. My exhausted partner will surely fall asleep early at some point and my son will sneak upstairs to type naughty words into Google. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Catharine Lumby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kids-healthy-curiosity-is-smarter-than-censorship/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kids-healthy-curiosity-is-smarter-than-censorship/#item323 Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:50:15 +0000 Catharine Lumby | Author bios | The Punch