‘A new motto: What have they done to you, poor child? But now enough of my filthy stories.’   (Sigmund Freud writing to Wilhelm Fliess on 22 December 1897).       Peter Whitehead and Niki de Saint Phalle’s 1973 film Daddy is an angry retort to oppressive regimes, particularly that most destructive one of childhood sexual abuse. But its power lies equally in its ambivalence and, in the end, its profound negativity. While Whitehead and de Saint Phalle resolutely sought to free

Confession: I am not keen on spicy cocktails, but make an exception for this one. And my Greek friends like it, so that is a good reason to shake away!     4/10 Greek tsipouro or Italian grappa 4/10 pear liquor 2/10 lemon juice 1-2 drops of Bitter, depending on spicy levels (If you prefer sweeter flavours, add some sugar syrup)   Pop in cocktail shaker with ice.   Shake.   Stain into cocktail glasses.   Decorate with fresh mint leaves.   Enjoy.

Merle Thornton speaking about the protest in 1965. I am sad to hear of the death of Merle Thornton, Queensland feminist activist and academic, who died last year, aged 93. I never met her, but she appears in a book I am currently writing on wine and women. She achieved so many things in her life, but she came to my attention as one of the ‘bar suffragettes’.   In March 1965, Thornton (a philosophy postgraduate at the University of Queensland) and Rosalie ‘Ro’ Bognor (who was

This is a talk I presented at the 109 th  Rectors’ Assembly of Greek Universities on 10 th  July 2025.  (For the video-ed version of the talk, go to the 'Video and Audio section of my website: https://www.joannabourke.com/home-3 )   The high point of The University was from the postwar period (1940s) to the 1980s, a period characterized by the rapid expansion of Higher Education, coupled (albeit patchily) with a dedication to the value of knowledge and critical thinking. It w

My views on Open Play. The Case for Feminist Sport by Sheree Bekker and Stephen Mumford (Reaktion Books, 2025)     Sport is a feminist issue. We also know that it is highly gendered. But what if what we know about gender and sport is wrong?   Sheree Bekker and Stephen Mumford set out to show that physical differences between men and women are artificial ('socially constructed'), not ‘natural: they are the result of social and cultural forces including differences in opportu

A möbius strip: 'Which side of the strip are the ants walking on?'. (A 1963 poster of a woodcut by M. C. Escher) The concept ‘the human’...

Why aren’t gay, lesbian, trans, and queer people full citizens in law? This question enraged gay activists in 1990s Britain. The HIV/AIDS...

The events I have enjoyed most in connection with the SHaME project were our two Shameless! Festivals of Activism Against Sexual...

For five and a half years, I have been privileged to work with the SHaME team at Birkbeck. It has been the most intellectually rewarding...

Audre Lorde changed the way generations of feminists throughout the world think about intersectional identities, social justice, and the...

Clare Shaw, Towards a General Theory of Love (Hexham: Bloodaxe Books, 2022)     Clare Shaw’s new, prize-winning poetry collection is...

On the 7 July 1916, Arthur Hubbard painfully set pen to paper in an attempt to explain to his mother why he was no longer in France. He...

William Manchester was a scared young American, flung down on the island of Okinawa during the Second World War and expected to act with...

On the 29 June 1864, a military surgeon in the 21st Kentucky Infantry wrote to his wife. ‘It has been almost one continued stream of...

Robairt Clough was a long-term patient at Holywell Psychiatric Hospital in Antrim (Northern Ireland). In the Christmas 1972 edition of...

Tragedy struck Edith Cecil-Porch Maturin four times between 1900 and 1917. First, her twelve-year-old son died in 1900, followed five...

What do we get when we lend our ears to Eric Hobsbawm? Passion. Energy. Exhilarating sweeps of time; giddy swoops into political darkness...

Sleep is necessary to life. However, it remains shrouded in mystery, despite the fact that most people spend one third of their lives...

What does it mean to be human? We inhabit a world that is commonly, and lazily, dubbed ‘post-human’. Indeed, in recent decades, an anti...

We are never told her name. None of the soldiers encircling her would have been interested in such niceties. The only relevant...