Advertise on podcast: Deboning Power - Critical analysis by Dr Angela Williams

Oh America.  In the face of what’s happening in America, I ask Australia to reflect on our similarities to America as we all reel at the armed insurrection attempted today by Trump supporters.  I read Call it what it was: a coup by Rebecca Solnit from The Guardian Australia for a more relevant overview than I could provide.  From her analysis, I identify the following changes we need to demand: Honesty in politics needs to matter again. We need to demand truth and accountability. Divisive politics need to stop, we need leaders who govern for everyone, not only the palatable people who vote for them.  We need to recognise and challenge the LNP authoritarian approach.  We have to come back to valuing democracy and demanding honesty in electoral advertising.  And finally - the law needs to apply to everyone, even Tony Abbott.  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DeboningPower)

Two days ago I posted on Facebook about a woman who contacted me to ask questions about my sex work for ‘her own personal curiosity’. This episode responds to that and expands on how we talk about sex work.  Apologies, includes a gendered slur.  My Facebook post:  Woman in the comments of the news conference today asked about how the sex industry was coping with covid.   I referred them to Scarlett Alliance for resources.  They asked to DM me for their potential public health masters or maybe a psychology degree.   I said no. Obviously. And advised they get ethics approval before trying to conduct research with sex workers.   She dirty deleted the whole thread (except my replies stay because it was a live thread). Funny thing is,  she probably thinks she's the first person ever to romanticise the sex industry. The first person ever to assume sex work is linked to psychological damage.  The first ever to want to dig into my head and find out all about the pathologies of sex work.   First person ever to assume I'm obliged to educate them about their sensationalist fantasies about sex work.   Sex work is real work.   If you're that curious about it,  then get out there and give it a go.  My sex work history doesn't oblige me to regurgitate the details to anyone who asks.  I am not your literature review,  do your own research.  And seriously,  get ethics approval before you start trying to interview anyone.  It's there to make sure you don't ask stupid and harmful questions. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DeboningPower)

For the first Monday Kink of 2021 we are looking at pain and catharsis.  We read about endorphins, the brain’s natural opiate, from On the Safe Edge by Trevor Jaques and talk about different ways of understanding the pain threshold. We celebrate how endorphins can soothe emotional pain as well and physical. The potential for pain as a therapeutic tool is unpacked by way of the idea of therapeutic kink and manufactured opportunities for catharsis. We define this term from Ian Buchanan’s Dictionary of Critical theory to understand it’s roots in the dramas of Ancient Greece.  We end by looking at how pain as meditation gives us access to the healing potential embedded in our flesh. The consensual ownership of the masochistic space is seen as a tool of empowerment and release.  Patrick Califa is quoted from The Whole Lesbian sex book to drive home the therapeutic potential from a top’s perspective.  Also read https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/when-bdsm-is-therapeutic/412249/ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DeboningPower)

And welcome to 2021.  I’m taking a break from thinking today to share the first part of my memoir Snakes and Ladders.  Published in early 2020, Snakes and Ladders didn’t get anywhere near the promotion it deserved when it came out and so I’m giving you a gift of the first part as read by the author.  Snakes and Ladders was published by Affirm Press in Melbourne. You can check out their page here https://affirmpress.com.au/publishing/snakes-and-ladders/#post/0 or buy it from most online retailers, ebook platforms and as an audio book voiced by the amazing Julia Billington. She does an excellent version of me and reads the bits I can’t.  My signing tours were all cancelled but I’m happy to sign any copy, purchased anywhere.  Have a safe weekend and I’ll see you all next week.  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DeboningPower)

On the last day of 2020 we are listening to experts for once.  This episode cuts through the power web between NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the billionaire funders of the Liberal National Coalition, and shows how the ‘expert opinions’ feeding into decisions are being shaped by this entanglement of money and corruption.  We then go back to 18 December 2020 and listen to Dr Norman Swan’s expert advice to lock down the Northern Beaches and mandate masks. He predicts that with these steps, the outbreak might be almost under control by Christmas.  Gladys did not lock down the Northern Beaches or mandate masks.  Then we read opinions over the weeks since then with experts Raina McIntyre and Mary-Louise McLaws who advise we cancel events, mandate masks and limit movement. They warned that Christmas would spread the virus, New Years Eve would spread the virus, and now they’re warning the cricket would be a super spreader event.  And the virus keeps spreading, including to all the areas classed as ‘Greater Sydney’ by Brad Hazzard - Wollongong, the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast. Areas people from Sydney could travel to because Gladys was too scared to enact a lockdown.  So here we are, starting a new year with a state leader who insists: “Our approach in NSW is cautious and we believe proportionate to the risk that’s there.” The only ‘experts’ who agree with her are the ones whose jobs depend on agreeing.  Links and sources at facebook.com/DeboningPowerPodcast Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DeboningPower)

After watching every press conference with NSW Premier Gladys Berijiklian since 17 December 2020, I have ranked her priorities as I see them.  There is much swearing in this episode. Much swearing.  Listen along to hear my evidence for the following list. Priority 1: Protect the confidentiality of patient zero.  Priority 2: Protect the Northern Beaches and keep their businesses open and profitable.   Priority 3: Keep the fireworks to protect the income of hospitality businesses.   Priority 4: Keep the cricket on to protect the income of NSW and Cricket Australia.   Priority 5: Avoid any actions taken by Vic that were criticised by Morrison and his thugs.  Priority 6: Don't scare the population by making them wear masks.  Priority 7: Spread the curve until March when people on the Northern Beaches can get the vaccine.   Priority 8: Keep the rest of us alive enough so we can keep spending money to protect the economy. This is the woman who refused to lock things down, mandate masks or close businesses and two days ago she said: "Ironically as we see time move on, the threat in greater Sydney is almost becoming as equal to parts of the northern beaches." NSW can’t afford the Liberals anymore.  All press conferences found at https://www.facebook.com/sbsnews   Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DeboningPower)

Today we are talking about going no contact with your family and how to use that as a transformative tool.  This one does get a bit brutal and includes discussion of child abuse, including sexual as I reflect back on the deaths in 2020 of my step-father, aunt and mother.  I describe the costs and benefits of cutting off an abusive family with the reminder that there are no winners in this game.  By going no contact are are taking back the power from our abusers. This can be an exceptional tool for change and recovery, but only when used carefully and with reflection. I remind us all that when we cut off parents or caregivers because they are dangerous, we then need to make sure we become our own caregivers. We need to process these decisions and consequences constantly, making our needs a priority.  If you decide to go no contact with your family, please be prepared to constantly question your choice. Just because you need it now, doesn’t mean you’ll always need it. Nothing is permanent until they are dead. If you have found this one difficult, please reach out to someone.  Your safety matters more than your abuser’s feelings.  What they did to you wasn’t okay. It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have stopped them.  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DeboningPower)

On the last Monday of the year we are looking at how to build resilience with kink.  I take you through my own journey from submissive to dominant and show you how it was an outcome of the processing of my mother’s abuse.  I then introduce you to my 5 step plan for building resilience, kink entirely optional.  Step 1: Acknowledge that bad stuff happens.  Step 2: Accept your feelings, no matter what they are.  Step 3: Process your feelings safely, without blaming or shaming yourself and in way that lets you understand them.  Step 4: Identify the strengths you’ve used here and how they helped you survive.  Step 5: Give yourself permission to own and live these strengths.  We’ll be focussing on therapy for the rest of the year to have a break from the politics.  You can find all my therapy and recovery posts by clicking the tag ‘getting better’.  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DeboningPower)

Today we are talking about Trolls to help everyone skill up for an online Xmas. The right-wing cheer squad are out in force and they’re gonna be fishing for reactions while sinking down the holiday booze, so best we have a plan.  This episode looks at how women are becoming more active as professional troll herders, aka social media community managers, and how this comes out of grass roots efforts by women to combat online bullying.  A huge shoutout to Magda Szubanski for her courage and real actual resilience in her battles with trolls earlier this year. Women need to work together to stay safe in every space, including online.  Articles read today were: Open Democracy, ‘Tackling the trolls: how women are fighting back against online bullies’;  Forbes, 10 Tips to Dealing With Trolls;  ABC, How community management and policing internet trolls became women's work’; ABC, Extremists targeted Magda Szubanski with a trolling campaign after her Sharon Strzelecki COVID-19 ad; ABC, Ignore or respond? How to deal with online trolls Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DeboningPower)

Today we look at the Avalon outbreak and wonder if NSW was set up for failure by Scott Morrison’s constant chants that we needed to be open by Christmas.  We look at the history of Covid in Australia, going back to the Ruby Princess, the cruise ship full of pentecostal Christians that was allowed to disembark 3 days after bans were put in place. The Bulletin suggests that dodgy middle of this night phone call may have related to the in-laws of a ‘powerful federal minister’.  We analyse the optics of today’s press conference where NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian let Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant handle the majority of the questions and then swooped in to undermine her recommendations with the reminder that thinking about ‘society’s needs’ was also part of Kerry’s job.  We end with a shout out to the troll Lisa from the SBS feed and a reminder that we need to save our facts and call these people out. We might not be able to change their minds, but there’s always the other people reading.  Trolls don’t change their minds, lurkers do.  Read for today:  SMH, ‘Why Sydney is facing a super-spreader disaster’, Raina MacIntyre;   SMH, ‘NSW reintroduces tougher new measures after 30 new COVID-19 cases’, Anne Patty & Pallavi Singhal; Guardian, ‘NSW hotel quarantine: who is exempt and who makes the rules’; ABC, ‘Prime Minister Scott Morrison pressures Victoria to fast-track coronavirus roadmap, Georgia Hitch;   Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DeboningPower)