Helen Pringle | The University of New South Wales (original) (raw)
Papers by Helen Pringle
Social Science Research Network, 2014
Social Science Research Network, 2014
Bar News: The Journal of the NSW Bar …, 2002
Abstract: The article voices concerns about the possible situation that could arise in Australia ... more Abstract: The article voices concerns about the possible situation that could arise in Australia similar to the one in the US regarding litigation. The repercussions of tort law reform as introduced by the then Governor of Texas George W. Bush are discussed.
University of New South Wales Law Journal, The, 2005
Our understandings of the gravity of sexual violation have undergone something like a revolution ... more Our understandings of the gravity of sexual violation have undergone something like a revolution over the last 10 years; a revolution in which the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia ('ICTY') and for Rwanda ('ICTR') have played a decisive part. Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations ('UN Charter'), the Security Council empowered the ICTY in 1993, and the ICTR in 1994, to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The tribunals have held that, in certain circumstances, rape can be understood as a means of torture, a grave breach of the laws of war, a tool of genocide, and a form of enslavement. What has caught the attention of most commentators in relation to this aspect of the work of the tribunals, is their attempt to put an end to a long-standing impunity for sexual violence in armed conflict and to ensure accountability for such crimes. My focus here is rather on the lessons that we might learn from the tribunals in thinking through domestic law on rape and sexual assault
Submission to the Senate Inquiry into current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, 2023
We view the problem of sexual consent achieved by payment, and in particular, payment within the ... more We view the problem of sexual consent achieved by payment, and in particular, payment within the (global) prostitution system, as a ‘blind spot’ in popular and academic discussions of sexual consent. We argue that a system of payment for sex constructs a framework of coercion and constraint, which vitiates not only particular individual expressions of ‘consent’, but the very conditions of free consent. This form of systemic coercion is exacerbated by the highly gendered structure of the prostitution system, as a network of asymmetrical relationships between prostituted women, and buyers and pimps: on the one hand, the extreme vulnerability of women, with on the other hand a heightened form of male entitlement to access women’s bodies. A discussion of sexual consent that does not comprehensively include the prostitution system in its deliberations remains seriously incomplete. Our recommendations are twofold:
1. An explicit clarification in all legal statements on sexual assault that a person accused of sexual assault or rape cannot rely as a defence on a consent achieved by payment of a monetary sum, or in the course of a commercial transaction
2. An explicit legal formulation of a civil action for sexual assault committed in the context of the prostitution system and associated forms of exploitation, whether involving direct commission or complicity in the act. This proposal takes as its model the Illinois Predator Accountability Act of 2006.
Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society, 2006
Until quite recently there appeared to be a consensus in Western democracies as to the desirabili... more Until quite recently there appeared to be a consensus in Western democracies as to the desirability of abolishing the offence of blasphemy and blasphemous libel. Indeed, in 1949, Lord Denning argued that 'the offence of blasphemy is a dead letter'. According to Lord Denning, the basis of the law against blasphemy was the idea that 'a denial of Christianity was liable to shake the fabric of society, which was itself founded upon the Christian religion', a danger that no longer existed. 1 A long series of judicial remarks and government reports, most recently by the House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offences in 2003, 2 stressed the archaism of the offence, and endorsed some form of proposal to abolish or further confine it. However, in the 1990s, dissenting voices were raised against the consensus, particularly from Muslims who argued that in fact the law should be extended beyond Christianity. Misgivings about the effect of such an extension on the freedom of speech have dogged such proposals, particularly where they have found form in laws against religious vilification.
Ethnopornography, 2020
The subject of this chapter is the invention of the term "ethnopornography. " The term, in the fo... more The subject of this chapter is the invention of the term "ethnopornography. " The term, in the form "Ethno-pornography, " was first used by Walter Roth as the title of the final chapter and of a plate of illustrations in his work Ethnological Studies among the NorthWest Central Queensland Aborigines (1897). 1 Roth was a doctor in the Boulia area in colonial Australia when he collected the materials for the book, and was appointed as the Northern Protector of Aborigines in the state of Queensland in 1898, and as the Chief Protector in 1904. 2 Roth provided no explanation for his choice of the term in his work, and the topics covered in the final chapter of Ethnological Studies do not all fall within conventional understandings, then or now, of "pornography." The topics covered in this chapter include initiation rites of men and women, marriage, betrothal, love charms, venery, pregnancy and labor, abortion, babyhood, menstruation, micturition and defecation, and, fi nally, foul language. Roth begins the chapter with a consideration of social rank, and ends the chapter (and the book) with the sentence, "I have no evidence as to any practice of masturbation or sodomy anywhere among the NorthWest Central Queensland aboriginals.
Social Science Research Network, 2021
Harassment is endemic in Australian workplaces, alongside limited community understanding of eith... more Harassment is endemic in Australian workplaces, alongside limited community understanding of either its gravity or its pervasiveness. Sexual and sex-based harassment are frequently (mis)understood as simply inappropriate behaviour rather than as part of a wider structural discrimination against women, thereby undermining its seriousness. In this submission to Australian Senate Education and Employment Committees, we focus on the proposed amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act. We argue that they are not enough to recognise and address harassment as a form of systemic discrimination against women, nor to realise the broader promise of women’s rights and substantive equality as set out in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women [CEDAW]. We argue that the scope of SDA should not be limited by “practicability” considerations or restricted to only certain areas or public life. We also recommend that proposed amendments under the Bill should explicitly recognise that the creation of a ‘sexually hostile’ environment at work or in other areas of public life, through sexually explicit material and pornography for example, is a form of harassment, and part of wider structural discrimination against women. Systemic and structural social harms, such as harassment and other forms of discrimination against women, require systemic and structural changes. They should not be addressed via piecemeal legislative amendments limited to certain areas of public life, such as workplaces. Our submission emphasises the importance of a holistic approach in addressing harassment as a systemic problem, as part of wider structural discrimination against women.
Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021
The activism of girls and young women faces many challenges and structural barriers across the gl... more The activism of girls and young women faces many challenges and structural barriers across the globe and in Australia. Our central concern is the necessity of ensuring and safeguarding the conditions under which girls and young women can speak freely and openly, so that what they say is heard locally and globally. In this context, the prevalence and normalisation of sexualised, objectifying, and humiliating images of girls and young women, as well as technology-facilitated violence and pornographic content in the digital environment, limit the activism of girls and young women. Many aspects of these structural barriers, which we argue form systemic discrimination against women, affect both young and older women, and circumscribe the ways in which they are heard or not heard. We draw attention to three major issues in the undermining of activism by girls and young women: sexist objectification and hyper-sexualisation; technology-facilitated sexual violence [TFSV]; and objectification, harassment and TFSV as forms of structural discrimination. We conclude by recommending the formulation of a binding international human rights law for private actors to remedy the violations of freedom of expression and assembly of women in the digital space, and call on states to expand national anti-discrimination laws to address harassment and abuse within the framework of systemic discrimination.
UNSWLJ, 2006
2006 Forum: Abortion and Disability 209 Menhennitt's statement of law in the Victorian case ... more 2006 Forum: Abortion and Disability 209 Menhennitt's statement of law in the Victorian case of R v Davidson5. Davidson, and arguably Wald, was accepted as the basis of the law in Queensland in the 1986 case of R v Bayliss & Cullen.6 In none of these cases does the lawfulness of ...
Australian Journal of Political Science, 2012
Many academic and popular writers have argued that ‘compulsory voting’ is an illusion in Australi... more Many academic and popular writers have argued that ‘compulsory voting’ is an illusion in Australia because it is not compulsory to fill out the ballot-paper. This is the orthodox assumption. I argue that this view is mistaken, and that the duty to vote clearly includes the marking of the paper. Whether and how the requirement is able to be enforced is a completely different question from whether it is indeed a requirement.
The Politics of Identity in Australia
CHAPTER 6 The Making of an Australian Civic Identity: The Bodies of Men and the Memory of War Hel... more CHAPTER 6 The Making of an Australian Civic Identity: The Bodies of Men and the Memory of War Helen Pringle1 The use of and traffic in women subtend and uphold the reign of masculine hom (m) o-sexuality, even while they maintain that hom (m) o-sexuality in speculations, ...
Rab Judah also said in Samuel's name: One must rend his clothes only on hearing the Shem hameyuha... more Rab Judah also said in Samuel's name: One must rend his clothes only on hearing the Shem hameyuhad blasphemed, but not for an attribute of the Divine Name. Now both of these statements conflict with R Hiyya's views. For R Hiyya said: He who hears the Divine Name blasphemed nowadays need not rend his garments, for otherwise one's garments would be reduced to tatters. 1
Social Science Research Network, 2021
In this submission, we discuss how women in the public sphere, including women journalists, human... more In this submission, we discuss how women in the public sphere, including women journalists, human rights defenders, politicians, and activists, face many challenges in exercising their freedom of expression across the globe. Both online and offline, the prevalence and normalisation of sexualised, objectifying, and humiliating images of women and girls, as well as technology-facilitated violence against women and pornographic content in the digital environment, limit and challenge the right to freedom of expression and opinion of women in the public sphere in multiple ways. We invite the Special Rapporteur to call on digital platforms and governments to work together to develop approaches to tackle technology-facilitated violence against women. These approaches can be grounded in both criminal and human rights law; and the latter should involve a development of a binding international human rights law for private actors to remedy the violations of freedom of expression of women in the digital environment. However, importantly, these legal approaches should also build on a wider effort to de-normalize objectification and sexualisation of women and girls, including in mainstream advertising and the multi-billion pornography industry. Only then can women in the public sphere enjoy their freedom of expression, opinion, and dignity both online and offline, without discrimination.
My aim here is to suggest connections between war and masculinity in the elaboration of Australia... more My aim here is to suggest connections between war and masculinity in the elaboration of Australian civic identity. The linkage between the violence of war and masculinity is almost too obvious to belabour. Men fight (or have fought) wars. Or so it appears. From here, it seems a short step to conjecturing a love of violence in men, a lust for destruction that finds one of its most important expressions in armed combat. In this chapter, however, I want to challenge this notion that a male love of violence and destruction lies at the basis of war. I argue that war is indeed a romance, but a civic romance conducted among men, one which constitutes women as audience or chorus to its drama. I shall argue this in relation to the formation of Australian civic identity.
aspg.org.au
The major parties in Australia rarely permit their parliamentary representatives to vote accordin... more The major parties in Australia rarely permit their parliamentary representatives to vote according to conscience, that is, outside the sanction of party discipline. As Deirdre McKeown and Rob Lundie have documented in their comprehensive Research Brief, conscience votes, or ...
Hypatia, 1993
The argument of this paper is that texts in the history of political thought are rather m e loqua... more The argument of this paper is that texts in the history of political thought are rather m e loquacious on the question of women than has often been supposed. The argument is developed using examples from Pluto's Republic, notably the sections on injustice and tyranny. The paper concludes by suggesting the general implications of its approach for the concerns and style of political theory, particularly as to the importance of understanding symbolic and mythic elements in work of politicd thought.
Social Science Research Network, 2014
Social Science Research Network, 2014
Bar News: The Journal of the NSW Bar …, 2002
Abstract: The article voices concerns about the possible situation that could arise in Australia ... more Abstract: The article voices concerns about the possible situation that could arise in Australia similar to the one in the US regarding litigation. The repercussions of tort law reform as introduced by the then Governor of Texas George W. Bush are discussed.
University of New South Wales Law Journal, The, 2005
Our understandings of the gravity of sexual violation have undergone something like a revolution ... more Our understandings of the gravity of sexual violation have undergone something like a revolution over the last 10 years; a revolution in which the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia ('ICTY') and for Rwanda ('ICTR') have played a decisive part. Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations ('UN Charter'), the Security Council empowered the ICTY in 1993, and the ICTR in 1994, to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The tribunals have held that, in certain circumstances, rape can be understood as a means of torture, a grave breach of the laws of war, a tool of genocide, and a form of enslavement. What has caught the attention of most commentators in relation to this aspect of the work of the tribunals, is their attempt to put an end to a long-standing impunity for sexual violence in armed conflict and to ensure accountability for such crimes. My focus here is rather on the lessons that we might learn from the tribunals in thinking through domestic law on rape and sexual assault
Submission to the Senate Inquiry into current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, 2023
We view the problem of sexual consent achieved by payment, and in particular, payment within the ... more We view the problem of sexual consent achieved by payment, and in particular, payment within the (global) prostitution system, as a ‘blind spot’ in popular and academic discussions of sexual consent. We argue that a system of payment for sex constructs a framework of coercion and constraint, which vitiates not only particular individual expressions of ‘consent’, but the very conditions of free consent. This form of systemic coercion is exacerbated by the highly gendered structure of the prostitution system, as a network of asymmetrical relationships between prostituted women, and buyers and pimps: on the one hand, the extreme vulnerability of women, with on the other hand a heightened form of male entitlement to access women’s bodies. A discussion of sexual consent that does not comprehensively include the prostitution system in its deliberations remains seriously incomplete. Our recommendations are twofold:
1. An explicit clarification in all legal statements on sexual assault that a person accused of sexual assault or rape cannot rely as a defence on a consent achieved by payment of a monetary sum, or in the course of a commercial transaction
2. An explicit legal formulation of a civil action for sexual assault committed in the context of the prostitution system and associated forms of exploitation, whether involving direct commission or complicity in the act. This proposal takes as its model the Illinois Predator Accountability Act of 2006.
Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society, 2006
Until quite recently there appeared to be a consensus in Western democracies as to the desirabili... more Until quite recently there appeared to be a consensus in Western democracies as to the desirability of abolishing the offence of blasphemy and blasphemous libel. Indeed, in 1949, Lord Denning argued that 'the offence of blasphemy is a dead letter'. According to Lord Denning, the basis of the law against blasphemy was the idea that 'a denial of Christianity was liable to shake the fabric of society, which was itself founded upon the Christian religion', a danger that no longer existed. 1 A long series of judicial remarks and government reports, most recently by the House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offences in 2003, 2 stressed the archaism of the offence, and endorsed some form of proposal to abolish or further confine it. However, in the 1990s, dissenting voices were raised against the consensus, particularly from Muslims who argued that in fact the law should be extended beyond Christianity. Misgivings about the effect of such an extension on the freedom of speech have dogged such proposals, particularly where they have found form in laws against religious vilification.
Ethnopornography, 2020
The subject of this chapter is the invention of the term "ethnopornography. " The term, in the fo... more The subject of this chapter is the invention of the term "ethnopornography. " The term, in the form "Ethno-pornography, " was first used by Walter Roth as the title of the final chapter and of a plate of illustrations in his work Ethnological Studies among the NorthWest Central Queensland Aborigines (1897). 1 Roth was a doctor in the Boulia area in colonial Australia when he collected the materials for the book, and was appointed as the Northern Protector of Aborigines in the state of Queensland in 1898, and as the Chief Protector in 1904. 2 Roth provided no explanation for his choice of the term in his work, and the topics covered in the final chapter of Ethnological Studies do not all fall within conventional understandings, then or now, of "pornography." The topics covered in this chapter include initiation rites of men and women, marriage, betrothal, love charms, venery, pregnancy and labor, abortion, babyhood, menstruation, micturition and defecation, and, fi nally, foul language. Roth begins the chapter with a consideration of social rank, and ends the chapter (and the book) with the sentence, "I have no evidence as to any practice of masturbation or sodomy anywhere among the NorthWest Central Queensland aboriginals.
Social Science Research Network, 2021
Harassment is endemic in Australian workplaces, alongside limited community understanding of eith... more Harassment is endemic in Australian workplaces, alongside limited community understanding of either its gravity or its pervasiveness. Sexual and sex-based harassment are frequently (mis)understood as simply inappropriate behaviour rather than as part of a wider structural discrimination against women, thereby undermining its seriousness. In this submission to Australian Senate Education and Employment Committees, we focus on the proposed amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act. We argue that they are not enough to recognise and address harassment as a form of systemic discrimination against women, nor to realise the broader promise of women’s rights and substantive equality as set out in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women [CEDAW]. We argue that the scope of SDA should not be limited by “practicability” considerations or restricted to only certain areas or public life. We also recommend that proposed amendments under the Bill should explicitly recognise that the creation of a ‘sexually hostile’ environment at work or in other areas of public life, through sexually explicit material and pornography for example, is a form of harassment, and part of wider structural discrimination against women. Systemic and structural social harms, such as harassment and other forms of discrimination against women, require systemic and structural changes. They should not be addressed via piecemeal legislative amendments limited to certain areas of public life, such as workplaces. Our submission emphasises the importance of a holistic approach in addressing harassment as a systemic problem, as part of wider structural discrimination against women.
Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021
The activism of girls and young women faces many challenges and structural barriers across the gl... more The activism of girls and young women faces many challenges and structural barriers across the globe and in Australia. Our central concern is the necessity of ensuring and safeguarding the conditions under which girls and young women can speak freely and openly, so that what they say is heard locally and globally. In this context, the prevalence and normalisation of sexualised, objectifying, and humiliating images of girls and young women, as well as technology-facilitated violence and pornographic content in the digital environment, limit the activism of girls and young women. Many aspects of these structural barriers, which we argue form systemic discrimination against women, affect both young and older women, and circumscribe the ways in which they are heard or not heard. We draw attention to three major issues in the undermining of activism by girls and young women: sexist objectification and hyper-sexualisation; technology-facilitated sexual violence [TFSV]; and objectification, harassment and TFSV as forms of structural discrimination. We conclude by recommending the formulation of a binding international human rights law for private actors to remedy the violations of freedom of expression and assembly of women in the digital space, and call on states to expand national anti-discrimination laws to address harassment and abuse within the framework of systemic discrimination.
UNSWLJ, 2006
2006 Forum: Abortion and Disability 209 Menhennitt's statement of law in the Victorian case ... more 2006 Forum: Abortion and Disability 209 Menhennitt's statement of law in the Victorian case of R v Davidson5. Davidson, and arguably Wald, was accepted as the basis of the law in Queensland in the 1986 case of R v Bayliss & Cullen.6 In none of these cases does the lawfulness of ...
Australian Journal of Political Science, 2012
Many academic and popular writers have argued that ‘compulsory voting’ is an illusion in Australi... more Many academic and popular writers have argued that ‘compulsory voting’ is an illusion in Australia because it is not compulsory to fill out the ballot-paper. This is the orthodox assumption. I argue that this view is mistaken, and that the duty to vote clearly includes the marking of the paper. Whether and how the requirement is able to be enforced is a completely different question from whether it is indeed a requirement.
The Politics of Identity in Australia
CHAPTER 6 The Making of an Australian Civic Identity: The Bodies of Men and the Memory of War Hel... more CHAPTER 6 The Making of an Australian Civic Identity: The Bodies of Men and the Memory of War Helen Pringle1 The use of and traffic in women subtend and uphold the reign of masculine hom (m) o-sexuality, even while they maintain that hom (m) o-sexuality in speculations, ...
Rab Judah also said in Samuel's name: One must rend his clothes only on hearing the Shem hameyuha... more Rab Judah also said in Samuel's name: One must rend his clothes only on hearing the Shem hameyuhad blasphemed, but not for an attribute of the Divine Name. Now both of these statements conflict with R Hiyya's views. For R Hiyya said: He who hears the Divine Name blasphemed nowadays need not rend his garments, for otherwise one's garments would be reduced to tatters. 1
Social Science Research Network, 2021
In this submission, we discuss how women in the public sphere, including women journalists, human... more In this submission, we discuss how women in the public sphere, including women journalists, human rights defenders, politicians, and activists, face many challenges in exercising their freedom of expression across the globe. Both online and offline, the prevalence and normalisation of sexualised, objectifying, and humiliating images of women and girls, as well as technology-facilitated violence against women and pornographic content in the digital environment, limit and challenge the right to freedom of expression and opinion of women in the public sphere in multiple ways. We invite the Special Rapporteur to call on digital platforms and governments to work together to develop approaches to tackle technology-facilitated violence against women. These approaches can be grounded in both criminal and human rights law; and the latter should involve a development of a binding international human rights law for private actors to remedy the violations of freedom of expression of women in the digital environment. However, importantly, these legal approaches should also build on a wider effort to de-normalize objectification and sexualisation of women and girls, including in mainstream advertising and the multi-billion pornography industry. Only then can women in the public sphere enjoy their freedom of expression, opinion, and dignity both online and offline, without discrimination.
My aim here is to suggest connections between war and masculinity in the elaboration of Australia... more My aim here is to suggest connections between war and masculinity in the elaboration of Australian civic identity. The linkage between the violence of war and masculinity is almost too obvious to belabour. Men fight (or have fought) wars. Or so it appears. From here, it seems a short step to conjecturing a love of violence in men, a lust for destruction that finds one of its most important expressions in armed combat. In this chapter, however, I want to challenge this notion that a male love of violence and destruction lies at the basis of war. I argue that war is indeed a romance, but a civic romance conducted among men, one which constitutes women as audience or chorus to its drama. I shall argue this in relation to the formation of Australian civic identity.
aspg.org.au
The major parties in Australia rarely permit their parliamentary representatives to vote accordin... more The major parties in Australia rarely permit their parliamentary representatives to vote according to conscience, that is, outside the sanction of party discipline. As Deirdre McKeown and Rob Lundie have documented in their comprehensive Research Brief, conscience votes, or ...
Hypatia, 1993
The argument of this paper is that texts in the history of political thought are rather m e loqua... more The argument of this paper is that texts in the history of political thought are rather m e loquacious on the question of women than has often been supposed. The argument is developed using examples from Pluto's Republic, notably the sections on injustice and tyranny. The paper concludes by suggesting the general implications of its approach for the concerns and style of political theory, particularly as to the importance of understanding symbolic and mythic elements in work of politicd thought.