Phoebe Hamra

Here’s a lil nugget I’ve been chewing on. Am I bad at sex? Some of you lucky bunnies might be confident that you’re a stud in the bedroom but a spot of self-evaluation never goes astray. After being with one person for a while do you get used to getting down a certain way? Does that limit your sexy skills when you frickle-frackle with someone else? Although, it is pretty rare to have paradigm-shifting sex with someone the first time you get together (especially after a big Thursday at Moose) so perhaps not everyone is that hung up on quality?

Ellen Makaryan

The cruelty of factory farming is well known, and the inhumane practice of live exporting has been widely publicised, with buses and roadside billboards being plastered with the crude reality of the exportation process. However, little is said about the cruelty of the dairy industry, and it is unknown to many the rape, abuse, and eventual slaughter that is behind a simple glass of milk. It’s time to shatter the utopian image of a cow being happily milked in a grass paddock, because the reality is that cows are continuously impregnated to produce milk, are separated from their young, and are eventually sent to slaughter when they are no longer deemed useful. It is time to rethink – is this chain of perpetual abuse really worth it for a mere glass of milk?

Caitlin Burke

We cannot afford to celebrate the announcement of a Royal Commission in the Territory. Not yet. The suggestion that content broadcasted on 4 Corners was previously unknown to elected authorities, is ludicrous and deceitful. They knew. Spit-hooding, cuffing, shackling, gassing and isolation…. How did we get here? To answer, Australia must confront the grim reality of it’s cultural DNA. The fabric of trauma that plagues the average Don Dale resident from birth is inherent, systematic and relentless. It’s in our genes. The exposure of institutionalised abuse that invaded our living rooms last week was merely the icing on a pre-packaged cake. I’ll only be celebrating when we start changing the recipe.

Alexandra Green

All or nothing. When I mention the idea to my friends, their response is knee-jerk “I can’t even think about eating a dog… that’s disgusting”. 39% of Australian households own a dog, and though I’m not suggesting that you go home and kill the family pet, it does seem hypocritical to repel the idea but then go home and enjoy a nice cut of pig – an animal of similar intelligence.

From the year 2013 to 2014, a quarter of a million dogs and cats were euthanized in Australia, one of the major reasons being these shelter dogs had nowhere else to go. Disposal of this meat can create serious environmental and ecological problems. Perhaps, if we ate this dog meat – which is already ripe for the taking – then the demand for beef and other environmentally threatening meat produce, would go down. Recently, a U.S company admitted to using euthanized dog-meat in the production of feed for other animals, commenting that it was “common practice in the industry”. If euthanized dogs are becoming food for our food, why don’t we just cut out the middleman? I would like to make it clear that I certainly don’t support the Yulin Dog Festival, because it involves the infliction of unnecessary harm to the animals, but next time you squeal at the idea of having a hound on your plate, just ask yourself, why is this really so bad?