- Melinda Tankard Reist
-
Melinda Tankard Reist Born Melinda Tankard
1963
Mildura, AustraliaOccupation Commentator, Author, Blogger Nationality Australian Genres non-fiction Subjects christian activist, anti-porn, abortion, pro-life feminism Melinda Tankard Reist (born 1963) is an Australian author and blogger, notable for her activism against abortion[1][2]and her stance against the sexualisation of modern pop culture.[3]
Tankard Reist is the Founding Director of Women’s Forum Australia which used to describe itself as "pro-woman, pro-life" but now describes itself as "an independent women’s think-tank focusing on research, education and public policy to bring about positive changes for women." The source of WFA's funding is unknown.[4]
Tankard Reist is founding director of the Collective Shout: For a world free of sexploitation campaign that "names and shames corporations, advertisers and marketers who objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services."[5]
Contents
Standpoint
Melinda Tankard Reist describes herself as a "pro-life feminist." Pro-life feminism's basic tenant, Melinda told The Melbourne Age on 12 April 1989, "is that women cannot liberate themselves by aborting their babies; that society, not the woman, needs to be reconstructed [...] [L]ife feminists view abortion as part of the oppression of women.[6]
Tankard Reist has links with Australia's Right to Life Association.[6] and Endeavour Forum, which promotes the claim that induced abortion causes breast cancer. For instance, Tankard Reist was invited to speak at EF's July 1997 public meeting, an event reported in the Endeavour Forum newsletter of that month on pages 1 and 12, in which the self-styled feminist is described as "Mrs" Tankard Reist. She attends the Belconnen Baptist Church, Canberra.
Tankard Reist's first book was Giving Sorrow Words: Women's stories of grief after abortion (2000), a collection of stories solicited from women who experienced grief after abortion. Tankard Reist has no research qualifications and her sampling methods for this book preclude it being interpreted as a wider comment on the prevalence or nature of the phenomenon of post-abortion grief. Tankard Reist quotes Germaine Greer from the whole woman to support her claim that women do not freely choose abortion, and refers women for "help" to pro-life information and counseling agencies like the Australian Federation of Pregnancy Support Services, American Victims of Abortion and Open Doors.
In Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics (2006) Tankard Reist puts forward her opposition to pregnant women having choice about testing their pregnancy for genetic conditions - tests that could lead to abortions. The book lauds women who have chosen to continue their pregnancies despite negative fetal diagnoses.
Tankard Reist is also the editor of Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (2009) and co-edited Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Porn Industry with Abigail Bray (2011).[7] In Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (2009), Tankard Reist argues that pornification of everyday life results in consequences ranging from a decrease in the average age of eating disorders to increased violence against women and children despite lacking research qualifications to draw such conclusions. In addition to introducing several authors on the topic, Tankard Reist calls for a 're-personalisation of girls -and women-...' and notes the same applies to boys (p32).
Tankard Reist has contributed a chapter each to the Spinifex Press edited by Jan Fook and Renate Klein (Australia's oldest "pro-life feminist": "Jazza, Monte, Ripper and Little Dog" in Girl's best friend: the Meaning of Dogs in Women's Lives (2001); "The Mother Cats in Cat Tales" in The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives; and "Kimberley Moonbeam the Fourth" in HorseDreams: The Meaning of Horses in Women's Lives (2004).
China For Women: Travel and Culture edited by Anna Gertslacher & Margit Miosga and published by Spinfiex Press also has a chapter contributed by Tankard Reist.[8] According the to Amazon editorial review of the book: 'Chapters survey history and politics, consider contemporary life and women's issues, and depict Chinese women past and present...'[9]
Spinifex Press, a feminist press and Tankard Reist's publisher, has been criticised for publishing the work of a pro-life activist. However, this criticism misunderstands that Spinifex has long been sympathetic to both pro-life and authoritarian feminist views (One of its authors/editors is Renate Klein, is Australia's longest serving pro-life feminists and an active opponent of RU486). It is thus an entirely suitable home for Tankard Reist's work.
Activism
Unbelief.org, a site which describes its aims (in part) "to act as a counterbalance to the intolerance and bigotry of the Religious Right',[6] hosts a lengthy page on Melinda Tankard Reist attributed to Brian Baxter. It describes Tankard Reist's 12 year position as bioethics advisor[10] to Senator Brian Harradine (the longest serving Senator in Australian Federal politics and an extreme social conservative). The period of her employment as "bioethics" advisor covered the years in which Harradine successfully banned, and fought to maintain the ban, on RU486 or mifepristone, sometimes described as the 'abortion pill'.[6][11] Tankard Reist has no undergraduate or post-graduate qualifications in bioethics (medical ethics) or philosophy.
The ban, a restriction on the importation and marketing of RU486, was specified in a 1996 amendment to the Therapeutic Drugs Act which came to be known as the Harradine amendment. It included a prohibition on "the importation into Australia of any restricted goods without the written approval of the [Health] Minister'.[12]. The Harradine amendment was removed from the TGA Act in 2006, after a cross-party bill (co-sponsored by Senators Lyn Allison (Dems), Judith Troeth (Libs), Fiona Nash (Nats) and Claire Moore (Labor) was put to a conscience vote and achieved the overwhelming support of the Australian Parliament.
Later that year, Tankard Reist became active in opposing the Transparent Advertising and Notification of Pregnancy Counselling Services Bill 2005, which would have required pro-life pregnancy counselling agencies to refrain from deceptive and misleading advertising that did not make clear to women they would not refer for abortion. The legislation, co-sponsored by Natasha Stott-Despoja (Dems), Carol Brown (Labor), Kerry Nettle (Greens) and Judith Troeth (Libs) was never voted on. Tankard Reist argued against the bill in an individual submission[13] to the Senate Community Affairs Committee inquiring into the bill, and was a key figure in Women's Forum Australia, which also made a submission[14] opposed to the bill's passage.
After Harradine lost his seat, Melinda co-founded Women's Forum Australia with other highly religious women including Katrina George and Selena Ewing who have links to pro-life advocacy organisations, religious "think-tanks" like the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute and Opus Dei.
Works
- Tankard Reist, Melinda (2000). Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief After Abortion. Australia: Duffy & Snellgrove. ISBN 978-1875989676.
- Tankard Reist, Melinda (2006). Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press. ISBN 978-1876756598.
- Tankard Reist, Melinda (editor) (2009). Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press. ISBN 978-1876756758.
- Tankard Reist, Melinda (2001). "Jazza, Monte, Ripper and Little Dog". Girl's best friend: the Meaning of Dogs in Women's Lives. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press. ISBN 1876756101. Jan Fook and Renate Klein eds.
- Tankard Reist, Melinda (2004). "Kimberley Moonbeam the Fourth". HorseDreams: The Meaning of Horses in Women's Lives. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press. ISBN 1876756470. Jan Fook and Renate Klein eds.
- Tankard Reist, Melinda (2003). "The Mother Cats in Cat Tales". The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press. ISBN 1876756373. Jan Fook and Renate Klein eds.
Awards
1978 Rotary Foundation Scholarship
References
- ^ COMMUNITY AFFAIRS LEGISLATION COMMITTEE - 06/02/2006 - Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Repeal of Ministerial Responsibility for Approval of RU486) Bill 2005
- ^ http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/clac_ctte/completed_inquiries/2004-07/pregnancy_counselling/submissions/sub03.pdf
- ^ http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/eca_ctte/sexualisation_of_children/report/c03.htm#c03f32
- ^ Women's Forum Australia, Media Release, 2010, Australia
- ^ Tankard Reist, M. MTR PTY PTD, 2011, Australia.
- ^ a b c d Baxter, Brian. [1] "'Pro-Life Feminists':Melinda Tankard Reist", Unbelief.org, May 2007
- ^ http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=217/
- ^ http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=40/
- ^ http://www.amazon.com/China-Women-Travel-Culture-Feminist/dp/1558611126
- ^ http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;orderBy=customrank;page=0;query=melinda%20tankard;rec=8;resCount=Default
- ^ Tankard Reist, R. September 1994 Bioethics Research Notes 6(3), RU486 TRIALS - CONTROVERSY IN AUSTRALIA, Southern Cross Bioethics Institute
- ^ McEwan, John, A History of Therapeutic Goods Regulation in Australia 2007, Department of Health & Ageing, p159
- ^ http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/clac_ctte/completed_inquiries/2004-07/pregnancy_counselling/submissions/sub03.pdf
- ^ http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/clac_ctte/completed_inquiries/2004-07/pregnancy_counselling/submissions/sub43.pdf
External links
Categories:- Australian bloggers
- Living people
- Australian feminists
- Australian women writers
- 1963 births
- Australian non-fiction writers
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