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Van Badham

Van Badham

The Guardian

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A social media ban for everyone is in the national interest – not just kids under 16

The Australian government has proposed a ban on social media for all citizens under 16. Citing the success of recently introduced restrictions on...

21.11.2024 60

The Guardian

Van Badham

Women need to be kept safe from the ‘your body, my choice’ peddlers. Here’s how

“Your body, my choice” wrote the troll on a post about my mother dying. It was meant to intimidate me. Instead, it’s launched me into strategy...

16.11.2024 9

The Guardian

Van Badham

King Charles, know this: Australians don’t hate the royals – we just wish you’d lose interest in us

It’s 25 years since Australia voted “no” in a referendum to become a republic – but to suggest the negative 1999 result symbolised an enduring...

16.10.2024 9

The Guardian

Van Badham

A South Australian MP’s mad anti-abortion bill shows the culture wars are far from over

I spend an uncommon amount of time in South Australia for a person who doesn’t actually live there; I’d never heard of South Australian Liberal MP...

26.09.2024 30

The Guardian

Van Badham

Yes, more Australians should have access to IVF – but talk of a fertility ‘problem’ has the the scent of old patriarchy

The problem with talking about IVF is that anyone who knows anything about it has lived their experience with some degree of trauma. So reports...

21.09.2024 10

The Guardian

Van Badham

Fearing AI, I was reluctant to use ChatGPT. But friends, it changed my life

It’s easy to be convinced that the myriad applications of AI pave a fun but nonetheless alarming digital path towards doom, doom, doom. Let’s...

11.09.2024 10

The Guardian

Van Badham

Why are men who murder women seen as less of a threat than terrorists?

Australia’s domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner, Micaela Cronin, said this week that the scourge of violence against women and...

22.08.2024 60

The Guardian

Van Badham

Girls, ignore the sexist rhetoric. Revel in everything that upsets the haters

The saga of the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif at the Olympics. The explosive Times feature about the “tradwife” Hannah Neeleman. Whatever has...

10.08.2024 6

The Guardian

Van Badham

Is flirting dying? The apps appear to have swallowed the most delicate and delicious of human interactions

Is flirting dying? Yes, claims a preternaturally cynical 24-year-old Los Angelean interviewed by NBC News in the US earlier this month. “If someone...

20.07.2024 5

The Guardian

Van Badham

Gossip, my friends, is both a moral mission and a pleasure. It’s also something those in power can’t control

Word about town is that gossips are more trusted to help organise social events but less likely to be consulted for their ethics. By “word”, I...

19.07.2024 10

The Guardian

Van Badham

Brits, you have no idea how to be sun safe. But as an Australian, I can tell you exactly what to do

Britain has been experiencing something of a heatwave this week, obliging me, as an Australian, to harangue its people on the subject of sun...

28.06.2024 7

The Guardian

Van Badham

Vomit-inducing deepfake nudes show yet again that when misogyny intersects with AI and elitism, girls get hurt

A teenage private schoolboy has been arrested for allegedly distributing “incredibly graphic” deepfake images of 50 girls from Bacchus Marsh...

13.06.2024 30

The Guardian

Van Badham

Cate Blanchett was pilloried for saying she’s ‘middle class’. Here’s why she’s right on the money – in Australia at least

25.05.2024 10

The Guardian

Van Badham

Fellas, if you want there to be more babies, be a dad. A dad in the home

Australia’s treasurer, Jim Chalmers, may be handing out the treats in this week’s budget, but the man is not Santa: he’s asked for something in...

16.05.2024 60

The Guardian

Van Badham

As Australia screams for action against lethal male violence, this is a culture war for survival

In the wake of more, more, more reports of lethal male violence against women in Australia – and the protests demanding actions that have followed...

04.05.2024 20

The Guardian

Van Badham

The disinformation hurricane surrounding the Bondi stabbing marks the end of Twitter as a breaking news destination

The harrowing local news stories of the last week have confronted Australians with the limitations and opportunities of our contemporary media...

18.04.2024 20

The Guardian

Van Badham

We hear about a ‘class ceiling’ in Australian arts. Cultural employers should measure diversity like corporates do

News fresh from the Department of the Obvious this week: the Australian Financial Review reports that “class can have a bigger effect on your chance...

13.04.2024 9

The Guardian

Van Badham

Social media is making kids sad – and it’s bad news for democracy

No, the kids are NOT alright. And as our future depends on them, we have to do something about it. This week the US surgeon general, Dr Vivek Murthy,...

23.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Van Badham

The ABC’s Cranbrook investigation shows why Australia needs to turn its back on single-sex cultures built on exclusion

What to say about Louise Milligan’s Four Corners investigation into yet more allegations of a boys’-club-toxic-culture scandal at yet another...

05.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Van Badham

Some people are desperately averse to hard data – the gender pay gap is no exception

The gender pay gap is the demonstrable, statistical gap that exists between the amount of money men take home from work as opposed to what women take...

28.02.2024 20

The Guardian

Van Badham

‘Sephora tweens’ are raiding Drunk Elephant – and we only have ourselves to blame

An intergenerational war is brewing. Yes, another one. It seems a plague of “Sephora Tweens” have been raiding available stocks of Drunk Elephant...

25.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Van Badham

Facebook’s endless back-to-school photos spark complex feelings for childfree people like me – but sadness isn’t one of them

As a childless person, many feelings are aroused by Facebook’s annual floods of back-to-school photos but sadness is not one of them. I am not...

10.02.2024 7

The Guardian

Van Badham

The stage-three tax cuts are finally being reversed. The rich complaining Labor broke its promise just sound vulgar

It’s Christmas Day for a columnist when a governing party reverses a decision for which you have previously given them a righteous bollocking. So HO...

25.01.2024 10

The Guardian

Van Badham

Australian students aren’t trying in the Pisa exams. They should be congratulated on their disdain

News this week revealed that a full three-quarters of Australian high school students admit they aren’t “fully trying” in their Pisa tests. File...

12.01.2024 30

The Guardian

Van Badham

The promotion of Australian-born Mary from princess to queen proves what a pure lottery the aristocracy has always been

The new year 2024 has begun with Queen Margrethe II of Denmark handing in a shock abdication. After 52 years of monarching, the sovereign of the...

01.01.2024 40

The Guardian

Van Badham

Christmas in Australia has become an expression of diverse, personalised and secular joy

How is it that Australia has become a country without a Christian majority and yet we voluntarily outstrip ourselves year on year with the scale of...

24.12.2023 8

The Guardian

Van Badham

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