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Pornsick police: what they mean for the public
Should we be shocked that New Zealand's deputy police commissioner consumed child pornography — and what do we do about the pattern of sexual misconduct…
 • Renee Gerlich
On porn, desire and the root of suffering
Buddhists teach that the greatest obstacle to freedom and happiness is selfish desire. Porn is the quintessential selfish desire. The most powerful new…
 • Renee Gerlich
What is the Brief Complete Herstory?
The BCH is a digestible, illustrated overview of history from the birth of life to neoliberalism. It's written for women who want to understand the…
 • Renee Gerlich
Rape: humanity’s problems condensed
Rape is the quintessential violation, connected to mass shootings, militarism, environmental destruction and hunger worldwide. To imagine our problems…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #045: The emergence and capturing of ‘second-wave’ feminism
The late twentieth century saw the emergence of a new wave of feminism, as well as the co-optation of this movement.
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #044: Surveillance capitalism
One impact of 9/11 was unprecedented prioritisation of surveillance over privacy (in the name of national security). So began the age of "surveillance…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #043: “War on terror”
The Vietnam war generated antiwar sentiment in the American public and a healthy mistrust of political leaders — but the US government reversed both…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #042: Neoliberalism globalises
Worldwide, neoliberalism has hit women and children hard. That’s why one of the industries that has profited most from neoliberalisation is…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #041: Defining neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is not just an economic policy. It's how multinational corporations fought back against progress made by the political left and it's a…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #040: Independence and consciousness-raising
During the twentieth century, women in independence movements around the world found that while men wanted to gain freedom from oppressive regimes, they…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #039: Civil rights and counterintelligence
Counterintelligence was once a government strategy to break activist groups. Did the strategy become self-perpetuating?
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #038: Cold War
A short summary of the twentieth century Cold War between two world superpowers, Russia and the United States
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #037: The Chipko movement
"A turning point came in 1977, when a local village headman obtained a contract to fell the forest, and his wife, Bachni Devi, led a resistance against…
 • Renee Gerlich

A World Without Rape

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Pornsick police: what they mean for the public
Should we be shocked that New Zealand's deputy police commissioner consumed child pornography — and what do we do about the pattern of sexual misconduct…
 • Renee Gerlich
The most romantic thing I've heard
I'm not typically a Valentine's person, but this year I want to share one of the most romantic things I've heard.
 • Renee Gerlich
Three Hero's Journeys: III: The courage of Ann Burden
This is the last in a series of three hero's journeys: one matriarchal, one patriarchal, and one contemporary. Today's hero is Ann Burden, from the 1974…
 • Renee Gerlich
On porn, desire and the root of suffering
Buddhists teach that the greatest obstacle to freedom and happiness is selfish desire. Porn is the quintessential selfish desire. The most powerful new…
 • Renee Gerlich
Consider the lilies: spiritual arguments for a gift economy
One message common to all sacred texts is that hoarding, calculating and transacting is no way to live. If we want liberation from suffering, we should…
 • Renee Gerlich
Remembering Lee Lakeman
Today I heard that legendary feminist Lee Lakeman has passed. I wanted to share how I came to know her work, and how it felt to be in her presence.
 • Renee Gerlich
Homo donans: do human beings live to give?
It's Christmas! The perfect time to consider the current resurgence of interest in gift economies, and the contribution of feminist scholar Genevieve…
 • Renee Gerlich
Rape: humanity’s problems condensed
Rape is the quintessential violation, connected to mass shootings, militarism, environmental destruction and hunger worldwide. To imagine our problems…
 • Renee Gerlich

On identification

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Pornsick police: what they mean for the public
Should we be shocked that New Zealand's deputy police commissioner consumed child pornography — and what do we do about the pattern of sexual misconduct…
 • Renee Gerlich
What really defines the major political traditions?
It's a misconception that politics is an argument about values — politics is about identifications, not values.
 • Renee Gerlich
On love, truth, distortion — and how we become fools
When the language of belonging, altruism, love and kindness is used to advertise and exploit, what is taking place is called distortion. Distortion has…
 • Renee Gerlich
On the demise of natural intelligence during the rise of AI
Transgenderism and its fudging of facts about nature and human sexuality represents a dismantling of natural intelligence dangerous in tandem with the…
 • Renee Gerlich
Self-reliance amidst violence: an expert's advice
Violence is not as unpredictable as we are led to believe. In 'The Gift of Fear', Gavin De Becker shows that violence is patterned, and we are better…
 • Renee Gerlich
The Milgram experiments: Findings on dissent
What makes people choose conscience over compliance? Milgram explored the question in his 1960s shock generator tests. We previously explored his…
 • Renee Gerlich
The Milgram experiments: Findings on obedience
The 1960s Milgram experiments are well-known, but not often thoroughly explored. Milgram did 18 variations of his famous shock generator tests, and the…
 • Renee Gerlich
On rape as a tool of social control
Rape, and the threat of rape, instils a basic belief inside a woman’s mind: “for me to be okay, he has to be okay first.”
 • Renee Gerlich

Brief Complete Herstory

View all
BCH #045: The emergence and capturing of ‘second-wave’ feminism
The late twentieth century saw the emergence of a new wave of feminism, as well as the co-optation of this movement.
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #044: Surveillance capitalism
One impact of 9/11 was unprecedented prioritisation of surveillance over privacy (in the name of national security). So began the age of "surveillance…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #043: “War on terror”
The Vietnam war generated antiwar sentiment in the American public and a healthy mistrust of political leaders — but the US government reversed both…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #042: Neoliberalism globalises
Worldwide, neoliberalism has hit women and children hard. That’s why one of the industries that has profited most from neoliberalisation is…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #041: Defining neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is not just an economic policy. It's how multinational corporations fought back against progress made by the political left and it's a…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #040: Independence and consciousness-raising
During the twentieth century, women in independence movements around the world found that while men wanted to gain freedom from oppressive regimes, they…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #039: Civil rights and counterintelligence
Counterintelligence was once a government strategy to break activist groups. Did the strategy become self-perpetuating?
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #038: Cold War
A short summary of the twentieth century Cold War between two world superpowers, Russia and the United States
 • Renee Gerlich

On my bookshelf

View all
Self-reliance amidst violence: an expert's advice
Violence is not as unpredictable as we are led to believe. In 'The Gift of Fear', Gavin De Becker shows that violence is patterned, and we are better…
 • Renee Gerlich
The Milgram experiments: Findings on dissent
What makes people choose conscience over compliance? Milgram explored the question in his 1960s shock generator tests. We previously explored his…
 • Renee Gerlich
The Milgram experiments: Findings on obedience
The 1960s Milgram experiments are well-known, but not often thoroughly explored. Milgram did 18 variations of his famous shock generator tests, and the…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #012: 'Woman, Church and State'
In the nineteenth century, feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage lived with the Haudenosaunee. Their respect for women opened Gage's eyes and led her to…
 • Renee Gerlich
Three Hero's Journeys: III: The courage of Ann Burden
This is the last in a series of three hero's journeys: one matriarchal, one patriarchal, and one contemporary. Today's hero is Ann Burden, from the 1974…
 • Renee Gerlich
Three Hero's Journeys: II: The Epic of Gilgamesh
This series offers three hero's journeys to inspire transformation and action: one matriarchal, one patriarchal, and one contemporary. This is the…
 • Renee Gerlich
Three Hero's Journeys: I: Gum Lin and the the key to Wild Swan Lake
This mini-series offers three hero's journeys to inspire transformation and creative action: one matriarchal, one patriarchal, and one contemporary. We…
 • Renee Gerlich
Homo donans: do human beings live to give?
It's Christmas! The perfect time to consider the current resurgence of interest in gift economies, and the contribution of feminist scholar Genevieve…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #036: Palestine
"There is no ‘magic’ square yard, or hilltop, or valley, that if ceded by one side to the other will bring about peace in the Middle East.”
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #035: World War Two
Was it really a “people’s war"?
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #034: Etty Hillesum and European resistance to Nazism
We learn about organised and individual resistance to Nazi occupation in Europe, and the diaries of Etty Hillesum, which record the remarkable unfolding…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #033: Eugenics and the Nazi era
Eugenics combines racism, sexism and medical experimentation. It is also characterised by fundamentalism, pseudoscience, romanticism (dreams of an…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #032: Rosa Luxemburg and WWI
Luxemburg believed workers around the world shared more common interests with each other than with capitalists and imperialists of their own nations…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #031: The lead up to WWI
By the late 1800s, imperial pride became part of popular culture. “Great Power rivalries” featured in a jingoistic press, militaristic education in…
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #030: Eurasian borders and the Crimean War
Before discussing WWI, it will help to briefly look at some maps showing Europe and the Near East from the decline of the Roman Empire.
 • Renee Gerlich
BCH #029: Scramble for Africa
In 1884, European nations met at a Conference in Berlin to divide the African continent among themselves. Women resisted the Scramble for Africa.
 • Renee Gerlich
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