Bindi Irwin

Context/ noun 1. the parts of a discourse or writing which precede or follow, and are directly connected with, a given passage or word. 2. the circumstances or facts that surround a particular situation, event, etc. (Macquarie Dictionary Third Edition).

I’m not a fan of comedians being censored or sacked for going over the top, and think The Age has probably just cut off the most interesting thing about itself. But Catherine Deveny, who likes to think she’s holding up an unforgiving mirror to Australian society, has mounted an intellectually limp defence of her Logies night idiocy.

The belligerent iconoclast has relied on the same weak “out of context” argument, which is usually the fallback of misogynist clerics, the likes of whom Deveny would rightly pillory with relish.

Continue reading "Don’t take this out of context: Deveny is full of it" »

Cake schmake. Just shut up and pass the eggs!

Dave Penberthy’s musings about Rosemary Stanton’s rant on the evil of packet cake mixture being pushed by Bindi Irwin and her family on televisions across Australia is off the mark.

The point that worries me doesn’t involve cakes, but Bindi’s “childhood”. Bindi Irwin and her brother spend much of their lives being home schooled, they mix and play with the children of employees of Australia Zoo, not children of diverse backgrounds through exposure to the usual forms of community education and socialisation. 

Continue reading "Cakes are the least of poor Bindi’s worries" »