Author Archives: Megan Bayliss

Reclaim the Night: An Electronic March for Women

This is an electronic march for ALL women (you do not have to be a survivor of sexual assault to participate) to safely Reclaim our Right to Take Back the Night. Rape and sexual assault is not our fault. Why should we have to curb our natural behaviors due to fear of being hurt. It is time for predators to take responsibility: for them to have to walk with others for protection, for them to have to stay indoors at nighttime, for them to stop raping our women and children. The twenty seventh of October 2006 marks the 30th anniversary … Continue reading →

Calling Non-Violent Men to Reclaim the Knight

Calling all Knights: We need your help to reach all men. It’s time to come out of your caves and draw a line in the sand with your sword. The silent majority are often taken as agreeing with an issue. Sexual violence against women and children is an issue surrounded in secrecy, dominance and re-perpetrations. Sexual violence is a gendered crime which means that far more men than women perpetrate atrocities against women and children. Does your silence mean you agree that sexual violence is an acceptable thing to have occur? If not, speak up. Men are part of the … Continue reading →

The Healing Comfort of Family Words

Some years ago I studied post graduate Solution Focused Therapy under Dr Robert McNeilly. He had just coauthored “Healing with Words” and since then I have been interested in the traditional family words that have far greater positive meaning than anyone else could possibly realize. Ours are “Stars and Moon” and “I love you 50”, – they each mean the same thing. Both are short for: “I love you 50 thousand million trillion AND all the way to the sun, the moon, around the stars and back again.” The history of these statements are modern, founded in the wonderful child’s … Continue reading →

The Negative Effect of Globalization on Rape

Some years ago, I answered the phone to a hysterical woman with a strong American accent. Between her accent and her tears, I was unable to understand what she was saying apart from “I was raped.” A young backpacker, she had taken 12 months off her job as an airline attendant and had bought herself a Round the World ticket. After three months of travel, she had been enjoying a slow week in a South American country. After all the other bus passengers had alighted from their daily tour, the tour guide raped the young woman in the aisle of … Continue reading →

Family Violence. An Australian Aboriginal Perspective.

Violence has become entrenched into our societies. Many individuals hold non-violence as a personal value and strive to end it. Despite laws that protect against assault, domestic and family violence (including incest, rape and sexual assault) continues to be a shameful mark on our progressive and contemporary ways of life. Reasons to explain domestic violence have long been pondered over and everyday community members question why women would stay in such dreadful situations. History and culture may go a long way to explain entrenched violence but too often, we each react from our own view of the world, rather than … Continue reading →

Topical Whensday: When Will Your Yes Mean Yes and Your No Mean No.

“Yes means yes, no means no,” has been a long trialed slogan, trotted out to raise awareness around rape and sexual assault. Yes, great. Is it working? No. Research supports that it can be difficult for many children and women to say no in risky situations because they are often scared and because they have seldom had the opportunity to have their “no” listened to and respected. Being assertive takes practice. Saying “no” when everyone else is saying “yes” can leave many people isolated and bullied. Desperate to fit in, to be liked, to be part of the crowd, many … Continue reading →

School Project Information on Sexual Assault.

Parents requesting information on sexual assault for school projects often contact me to find out where to start. When I can, I meet with the students and try to match the information supplied to their topic criteria. However, sometimes just knowing where to start finding out information about sexual assault is the best way to attack projects. It is such a scary and personal topic that many parents state that they are a little embarrassed about seeking information publicly because someone may wrongly think that either themselves, or their child, has been abused. With this in mind, I have gathered … Continue reading →

How You Can Interfere in Opportunistic Prostitution

Opportunistic Prostitution is the exchange of a required good, instead of money, for sexual favors. In its simplest form, in consensual situations, it’s where one party has sex with another because the other paid for dinner, bought an expensive gift, or said nice things. Ummm…sounds like some marriages I know of. A strange view of consensual sex, opportunistic prostitution is not uncommon amongst our young people. Much blame is placed upon young street kids for being promiscuous. Often what the kids are doing is just surviving. Entering into opportunistic prostitution keeps them alive and safe. They exchange sex with someone … Continue reading →

A Slanguage Activity From Down Under.

As a fun activity, see if you can work out what these ridiculously Australian sentences mean. I’ve left a space under each sentence so that you can rewrite the sentence in your way of speaking. Have you printed out the list of words from Aussie Slanguage? I think you’ll need it to understand what’s being said. Fair dinkum, this is fun. When you visit us in Australia, if you can understand this, she’ll be apples, mate! 1) Hey, mate! Come along to our barbie this arvo. We’ve got some chook, and some bloke’s sheila is going to cook up the … Continue reading →

Aussie Slanguage. An English Language Lesson from Down Under.

English is a hard language to learn. There are many words that sound the same, but are spelt differently and have different meanings, like “here” and “hear” or “bye” and “buy”. Depending on where you live in the world, the English words you use to describe something can be different too; like sweet and lollie. Thank goodness I grew up speaking English and have not had to learn it as a second language. I think I would have failed because it is too hard for me to work it all out sometimes! Australian English is a great example of speakers … Continue reading →