http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/wendy-tuohy/ Wendy Tuohy is a columnist and feature writer at the Herald Sun. Follow her on Twitter @wtuohy. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +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/motherhood-has-changed-me-down-to-the-dna/ Quite often, you hear a mother say “I can’t imagine life without my kids’‘, and I’m well and truly in that camp. I can’t imagine not having their blessed, sun-shiny presence, minute-to-minute, day by day. As Mother’s Day rolls around again and women around the country prepare for their tea and toast in bed and get ready to beam when they open that candle, purple notebook or hand cream from the school stall, I find myself thinking about how motherhood has changed me - almost down to the DNA. It has certainly made me a better person. And it has made me want to keep striving to be even ‘‘better’’ for my self, the kids and other people. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Wendy Tuohy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/motherhood-has-changed-me-down-to-the-dna/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/motherhood-has-changed-me-down-to-the-dna/#item8469 Sat, 12 May 2012 19:45:02 +0000 Wendy Tuohy | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-mummy-wars-are-over-they-never-actually-existed/ It was the line that brokered the ceasefire of the century: “Let’s declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance.” With that simple sentence came a halt in the so-called “mummy wars” between working and non-working mothers - just as a fresh bucket of kero had been dumped on the embers this month by campaigning US politicians and their media-savvy wives. This olive branch was delivered by Democratic consultant and working mother Hilary Rosen by way of apology to Ann Romney, Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s wife and a stay-at-home mother to five. Rosen had controversially accused Mrs Romney of “not having worked a day in her life”. Naturally, an online skirmish followed, with plenty of publicity smart-bombs. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Wendy Tuohy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-mummy-wars-are-over-they-never-actually-existed/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-mummy-wars-are-over-they-never-actually-existed/#item8326 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:55:00 +0000 Wendy Tuohy | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/being-a-working-mum-is-actually-good-for-your-health/ How things have changed. When Jane Maas, a real life Mad Woman among the first wave of females to crack New York adland, started out in the ‘60s, women were were fired if they got pregnant and they were mainly secretaries – and if they did work on accounts it was only for domestic goods - and a client even once asked sympathetically of Maas: “Have you forgotten your steno (stenography/note-taking) pad, dear?’’ She was running the account at the time. But that was the 1960s, and the women’s movement had yet to flex its typing-toned muscles. Today, it just seems ridiculous that they would be treated this way in the workplace. Maas was one of the first working mothers in the industry, and despite the fact that its corridors of power were skirt-free zones she toughed it out and has written the tale Mad Women: The other side of Madison Avenue in the 1960s. She made for fascinating listening on ABC radio recently when she confessed that in the wake of the outlandish hit series Mad Men, she is routinely asked “Were women really treated that badly? Were all those three-martini lunches real and was there all that sex in the office?’’ The answer to all three, she said, was ‘‘most definitely yes’‘. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Wendy Tuohy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/being-a-working-mum-is-actually-good-for-your-health/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/being-a-working-mum-is-actually-good-for-your-health/#item8064 Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:30:22 +0000 Wendy Tuohy | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/jeepers-those-sexist-car-ads-are-bugging-me/ Two women in snappy heels and skirt-suits are sitting at a boardroom table, when one leans to the other in a break in the meeting and whispers, “He’s bought a Mini”. A look of sympathy crosses the face of the listener, as obviously this means the other woman’s poor husband is in the midst of a mid-life crisis. “A Mini?”, she asks, looking concerned. “Yes, he’s bought a Mini, a bright red one. What next? Flower arranging? A new career in window dressing?” Offensive, right? And sexist. And not very witty. That kind of ad would never get to air, would it? Well, probably not. But something that feels similarly jarring has been on TV lately, and, as Kimmy from Kath & Kim would say, it’s been really getting up my goat. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Wendy Tuohy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/jeepers-those-sexist-car-ads-are-bugging-me/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/jeepers-those-sexist-car-ads-are-bugging-me/#item7972 Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:55:12 +0000 Wendy Tuohy | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-hope-for-women-when-the-feminine-ideal-has-a-penis/ Any day now I’m expecting to open the paper and see a man starring in a maternity shoot. The man, of course, would be the toast of Broadmeadows, 20 year-old Andrej Pejic, the it-boy model of the moment for whom so many international labels are clamouring. This beautiful boy, whose androgyny is so convincing he could easily pass as a beautiful girl, has this week featured in another swimwear campaign; this time for Aussie designer Nathan Paul. The well-liked model – who from all accounts is a lovely guy—pronounced the range ‘’very virgin-like’’. You may recall that last year, as well as being voted by FHM readers to be the 98th sexiest woman in the world (creepy), he rocked a lingerie shoot, thanks to a Dutch company, and a lovely fitted wedding gown on the catwalks of Paris, care of Jean Paul Gaultier. So, surely all that’s left to conquer is maternity, and no doubt the prosthetics experts are overcoming any annoying anatomical hurdles to that right now. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Wendy Tuohy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-hope-for-women-when-the-feminine-ideal-has-a-penis/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-hope-for-women-when-the-feminine-ideal-has-a-penis/#item7828 Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:55:20 +0000 Wendy Tuohy | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/working-women-need-to-escape-the-grog-bog/ Can you hear a faint sort of teeth-grindy sound? No it’s not the rats in the roof gnawing the wires again, it’s just those thousands of lady drivers with the windows down as they motor past the bottle shop. Even just four days into Febfast, the annual excruciating month of alcohol abstinence, the novelty will have well and truly worn off and we’re already down to the bare bones of resentment and “I know it’s for charity and all but what the feck was I thinking”. All around Australia there are mild-mannered ladies cursing the leap year, too, as were it not for that stupid spare day, there would only be 24 grogless ones left. For many of us talented drinkers, when it comes to one’s consumption of alcohol there is the comfort of denial and “look over there, is that a rare orange-bellied parrot? (Yes waiter top me up)” for 11 months of the year, and then there is the long, hard look in the mirror that is horrendous February. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Wendy Tuohy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/working-women-need-to-escape-the-grog-bog/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/working-women-need-to-escape-the-grog-bog/#item7667 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:50:45 +0000 Wendy Tuohy | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-keep-mum-about-being-a-working-parent/ So, at last, and hopefully once and for all, women in the workplace no longer have to regard being a mother as some kind of dirty little secret. Thanks to the frankness of Tanya Plibersek and Julie Collins, the idea that working mothers need to somehow disguise or apologise for their maternal status has been blown to smithereens. I, for one, am rapt. News of this welcome development came in simple form last week; a single-sentence intro on a plain old news story, but one that felt a whole lot like a turning point. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Wendy Tuohy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-keep-mum-about-being-a-working-parent/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-keep-mum-about-being-a-working-parent/#item7401 Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:50:32 +0000 Wendy Tuohy | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/good-luck-gays-us-straight-people-have-ruined-marriage/ Every so often you get to witness the laws in the culture you live in take a creaky step, tortoise-like, towards catching up with the hare that is our fast-evolving collective value system; in this case, the move towards recognising gay marriage. For the gay community, and for the forward-thinking among the rest of us, it’s great to think we will probably no longer discriminate in granting of the legal rights and status of marriage. Like millions of other Aussies, I’m all for equality. But the first question that springs to mind in 2011 is what, exactly, have gays won the right to? What on earth does “marriage” mean right now? And is it possible that even before homosexuals have the right to partake of it, us matrimonially-elastic and readily-divorcing straights have left the marital meringue out in the rain? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Wendy Tuohy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/good-luck-gays-us-straight-people-have-ruined-marriage/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/good-luck-gays-us-straight-people-have-ruined-marriage/#item7298 Sun, 04 Dec 2011 19:50:14 +0000 Wendy Tuohy | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/irresponsible-anti-vax-parents-dont-deserve-tax-breaks/ It’s an anxious moment for many parents; rolling up the sleeve of your precious baby and presenting that perfect skin to the doctor’s needle. And the sting is the least of your worries; we may be rational and sensible enough to know vaccinating our kids against potentially fatal diseases is right, for them and the community, but that cocktail of antigens going into their arm is a discomforting sight. What if we’re the one in a million whose baby has an adverse reaction or gets the rarest side-effects? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Wendy Tuohy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/irresponsible-anti-vax-parents-dont-deserve-tax-breaks/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/irresponsible-anti-vax-parents-dont-deserve-tax-breaks/#item7245 Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:55:06 +0000 Wendy Tuohy | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-you-cant-handle-the-tweet-get-out-of-the-TV-kitchen/ When it comes to reality TV, this much we know: Facebook death threats and Twitter hate campaigns are very good for ratings. Just check the huge numbers hauled in by all the mass-hating on Deni Hines, reluctant anti-hero of what could well have passed by as just a paler Aussie version of one more American import, Celebrity Apprentice. Whether it was for her so-called “bullying” of fellow contestant, Polly, her brittle ego (bristling at being offered advice), or her diva antics (refusing to sing for her team’s KFC campaign because she is a vegetarian), Hines is so detested by the Twittersphere she confessed this week to being “the most hated person on TV”. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Wendy Tuohy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-you-cant-handle-the-tweet-get-out-of-the-TV-kitchen/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-you-cant-handle-the-tweet-get-out-of-the-TV-kitchen/#item7230 Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:40:25 +0000 Wendy Tuohy | Author bios | The Punch