Imagine the case: a bloke is down the pub, has a drink or two too many, loses his temper with a man at the next table who is, he thinks, “looking at me funny” and beats the hell out of him. Duly hauled before a magistrate, he says: “Sorry. Really sorry. Didn’t mean any harm. Won’t do it again.” The magistrate says: “That’s all right then. Here’s a slap on the wrist.”

No, I can’t imagine it either. But that is what is proposed, at least for cases of domestic violence, in new draft guidelines.

MEN and women who attack their partners should have the chance to avoid being sent to jail if they appear genuinely sorry for their violence, according to sentencing proposals published yesterday.
Instead, wife-beaters could receive a suspended prison sentence or community order. The proposals also recommend that perpetrators of domestic violence attend courses to tackle their offending, even though it is too early to know if they are effective in curbing violence.
The head of the leading domestic violence charity attacked the draft guidelines. Sandra Horley, chief executive of Refuge, said: “It would be a travesty if the Sentencing Guidelines Council proposals on domestic violence come into effect. In short they give men a licence to batter women as long as they are able to put on a remorseful act in front of a judge.”

That fits nicely with an excellent interview with Catharine McKinnon, whose latest book, Are Women Human? has just been published.

She writes: “[T]he fact that the law of rape protects rapists and is written from their point of view to guarantee impunity for most rapes is officially regarded as a violation of the law of sex equality, national or international, by virtually nobody.”
Are you suggesting that rape law enshrines rapists’ points of view, I ask MacKinnon? “Yes, in a couple of senses. The most obvious sense is that most rapists are men and most legislators are men and most judges are men and the law of rape was created when women weren’t even allowed to vote. So that means not that all the people who wrote it were rapists, but that they are a member of the group who do [rape] and who do for reasons that they share in common even with those who don’t, namely masculinity and their identification with masculine norms and in particular being the people who initiate sex and being the people who socially experience themselves as being affirmed by aggressive initiation of sexual interaction.”

‘Midst all the stories of Botox, make-up, fashion etc in the Observer Woman, a proper story, shock horror, about a “Michael Moore-style feminist”, Periel Aschenbrand, author of The Only Bush I Trust Is My Own:

Aschenbrand, who made an unscripted appearance at the 2005 Republican Party Convention dressed in vest, knickers and a handmade ‘Fuck Bush’ necklace, says she was originally inspired by a group of young women to whom she taught philosophy one summer vacation. ‘I couldn’t believe the apathy. They were not at all politicised. They’d come into class wearing idiotic T-shirts advertising garbage. “Mrs Timberlake”, “Team Aniston”. It was absurd. I told them: I think we should put our tits to better use. This is prime advertising space wasted on vapid slogans like “Princess”. We should use them to make people think about things that no one else is making them think about.’
When the T-shirts took off, Periel, the rebellious daughter of upper-middle-class parents from Queens, suddenly had both an income and a message. As she succinctly puts it, ‘I’m on a mission to change the world – one pair of tits at a time’.

It turns into the inevitable “future of feminism” debate, but is a bit more informed than many such articles.
***
And a further retort to all of those who bemoan the “lack” of activism among young women, one of the victims of a rape gang in Sydney, aged just 18 now – 14 when she was hideously attacked – has spoken out about her ordeal, and her refusal to be destroyed by it.

Standing in the NSW Supreme Court last week after MSK and MAK were sentenced, Wagner yelled: “F— you, go to hell, mate.”
“I’d like to say, ‘Have fun in prison, boys, I won,” she told reporters, as she waived her right to anonymity.
“We’re not telling people so they know we’ve been raped,” she told Channel Nine’s A Current Affair on Thursday night.
“We’re telling people so other victims know they have support . . . to just show that you need to be confident if you’re a rape victim, especially from these boys. You need to come forward. We all need to be strong and stick together and convict these people.”
Sitting alongside Wagner was Cassie Hamim, who was 13 in 2002 when she was lured home by the brothers and raped. It was just a month after Wagner’s ordeal.
Inspired by Wagner last week, Hamim, too, waived her right to anonymity. “Tegan’s grown stronger,” she said. “I’m proud of her. I realise I need to be strong and move on.”

***
And showing what campaigners really can make a difference, Burger King is bringing in a new healthy menu prior to a stock market float in an attempt to assuage market fears. And the story reports that the campaigners are preparing a book and other materials directed at children – to try to at least partially match all that fast food advertising, which sounds like a great idea.

Mr Schlosser’s 2001 book revealed in gory detail the nutritional paucity and health risks of junk food, galvanising opposition to the industry.
Now Mr Schlosser is promising a transatlantic tour to promote a children’s version called Chew on This. And executives at McDonald’s and Burger King are nervously awaiting the premiere of a fictionalised film version of Fast Food Nation, which could be ready in time for next month’s Cannes Film Festival.

Many years ago I covered the Aboriginal issues beat for a regional daily paper in Australia, and it was the most depressing subject I’ve ever had to deal with. My inability to find a legal way to report the abuse of an Aboriginal youngster counts as one of my greatest failings as a journalist. And Australia’s shame just goes on and on.

Jenissa Ryan, 15, was the great-granddaughter of the revered Albert Namatjira, Australia’s first celebrated Aboriginal painter. Was.

Police believe Jenissa was bashed by a teenage boy and a girl – almost her own age – as she walked the Alice Springs streets on the last Friday night in January. It may have been the injuries she sustained in this attack that killed her.
Attempting to walk home to the Hidden Valley camp, she collapsed unconscious in the gutter near the college. It was there that three teenage boys found her in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Police have testified that the boys thought Jenissa was drunk or dead. Instead of calling for help, they dragged her 10 metres behind a knoll on the verge of the college grounds and raped her. Discarding their condoms, they left the scene.
…Nobody knows how long Jenissa Ryan lay unconscious in the fierce morning heat as her life slipped away. But by the time ambulance officers arrived, honey ants were beginning to gather on her dishevelled clothes.
That means a number of residents of middle-class Grevillea Drive probably noticed. …It was not until around 10.30am that a female college employee called for an ambulance.

Now it has made the national media – two months later.