• Thanks jack... a very interesting response and, from my conversations with Sonya I think this is exactly the conversation she's hoping for. Be very interested to hear your response after viewing the doco. - Wendy Harmer
  • As someone who doesn't follow the Australian Vaccination schedule, I already feel like I am risking ridicule and worse posting here. We have been hassled and hounded by doctors, nurses (one of us is a nurse) and other parents. Blamed for the resurgence Whooping cough and related deaths, etc. Our stance is that we immunise based on our own needs and intelligence. As a for instance, we are not convinced that our children needed to be vaccinated against Hepatitis B at birth, especially given that the vaccine contained Thiomersal when it was recommended to us. I'm not sure how aware you are of the Japanese experience with the DTP vaccinations in the mid 1970's, but as a result of many adverse reactions and over 30 deaths as a direct result of the vaccine, the schedule was altered and children were vaccinated later. I am aware that the vaccine is no longer a whole cell vaccine, however it is worth considering the delicate balance of the immune system in infants below 6 months of age. So we immunise roughly to the Japanese schedule. There is no Hep B or vericella. And MMR is given as MR and Mumps separately. We will make the call on Japanese when we visit next month. I note that the tone in the promotion of the doco appears to depict the non vaccination school as driven by emotion with the pro vaccination argument being driven by Science (which is a pretty broad concept). Our decision to vaccinate alternatively has been based on a lot of careful research and is based on risk mitigation considering that vaccinations do carry a percentage of risk, however small. We have the advantage of also being Japanese citizens, (myself a spouse resident) and can access the differently combined vaccines and scheduling. When recently discussing this on a facebook post I was branded an anti Vaccinator. Abused and blamed. My response is that I think there is a better way. A much better way. And the heavy handed pressure to Immunise to schedule, which then elicits a strong anti response from those who question, but are discouraged strongly and frowned upon for questioning, has created a climate of 'for or against', emotion or science, us against them. All pretty narrow reductive way to explore a whole collection of different diseases, risks, and vaccines (including their varieties of compositions, combinations and timing). So we have attempted to immunise the best way that we can ascertain. It's a tricky time consuming task to get all the info on each different vaccine from the manufacturers, to research each and every disease to ascertain the risks of actually contracting it and then what the risks associated with the disease are, but it has been worthwhile. I think that the community could benefit from a less doctrinal approach to the current immunisation schedule and regular review of disease risks and the vaccination schedule response. - Jackdan
  • I'm an E cup. When I was younger and skinnier I was only a C cup and could handle underwires. Then I got pregnant and discovered the bliss of maternity bras. Post babies and breastfeeding I went back to the wires only to find they poked me and now I've got 'birdseyes' in my cleavage. I cannot fathom the underwire. Obviously the person who designed it has never had to wear one. Having big boobs we're all encouraged to wear them, but now I'm old and fat they're far too uncomfortable to contemplate. I'm happy with my 'wirefree' bras. I figured that if manufacturers could make a maternity bra without wires that fitted perfectly and provided excellent support to lactating breasts, they could do the same for large, non-lactating breasts too. I found the perfect fit for me at a large chain store and bought the same type for years. Not terribly sexy, but comfortable and serviceable. Now I've discovered same large chain has a moulded cotton bra in large sizes. Better still, you can order them online when the sales are on and collect them from the store. Bliss! - BeansGran
  • Well put Sonya. I am so glad that you have created this documentary. Also, you have put forward a voice of reason backed up by compelling evidence & your own credibility. I am pro-vaccination, but I understand why it is an delicate decision for many parents. I haven't come across the anti-vax theories (I'd never even heard of the AVN until Mamamia kept writing & tweeting about them). I'd always just followed the immunisation schedule. But I have come across a lot of pushy pro-vaxxers and I have to say, it is a turn off. I understand that it's a passionate issue. But is it an effective way of increasing immunisation rates? Of course not. Some pro-vaxxers make it their full time job to name, shame & harass people opposed to vaccination. Is harassment going to change their position, heck no! Is it going to galvanise their anti-vac position, quite probably! I just think we need to be smarter about this. I know it is not a "debate" in the sense that the science is in on the benefits & general safety of vaccines. But it completely normal to feel uneasy about purposely injecting your child with something most of us know very little about. And then watching their every breath that evening as they process that vaccine. Sonya, I hope that your documentary is the beginning of the change in the way we talk about immunisation. Well done. - Kasey
  • I am very impressed by what you've set out to achieve and how you've come about it. Much of my work these days is in vaccination and I work hard to break down the myths and false beliefs people have about vaccines. I find listening to concerns, empathy and responding with good evidence based information has been the most successful manner I've had so far. I also reassure parents that it is always their choice, but I also share that I am a mum too and that I choose to vaccinate my child fully. And funnily enough that's usually the clincher. Respect, good information and empathy can go a long way. I really hope that many people watch your documentary and help absolve the many concerns and myths surrounding vaccination that are out there. You must be proud of your work :) - The Huntress
  • Not everyone has access too or any interest in the internet, you cannot drive a tractor and watch the internet but you can listen to radio, you cannot drive a car and watch the internet but you can listen to radio, you cannot wash the dishes, the clothes, yourself and watch the internet but you can listen to the radio, you can also lie in bed with Phillip Adams, half my University of the Third Age students go to bed with Phillip. Australia's best journalists were trained by the ABC. What I don't understand Gee is your palpable hatred, how can you be so angry all the time, just relax and learn that we are all different and some of us prefer the quiet nature of the ABC compared with the ranting and rage of radio shock jocks and commercial TV. Your phrase 'slash and burn' is shocking to me, no one I know hates anything, no one I know wants to destroy things or institutions, not even the IPA, why such violence of language? - sue Bell
  • [...] Science says vaccinate! [...] - LET'S TALK (NOT SHOUT) VACCINATION
  • Thankyou Emma for your good work and humanistic attitude towards others. I could not do your job and be nice to others at the same time, i'v e realized. The other ABC journo's et al should be taking notes.......all the best in your career! - louise
  • Why censor the pictures, Ro? Don't call them "young men" either. They are "vicious animals" as their act so clearly evidences. They are not human at all. Are you saying it is "justifiable" for ethnic Nigerians, who have never been to either Afghanistan or Iraq but grew up on the teat of the British Welfare State, to run down and then Halal butcher a complete stranger walking along the street and minding his own business? How can you possibly draw any connection between what happened in London and the alleged mistreatment of Aborigines in Australia? What a fine example of the "straw man" argument! Do you think NATO and other allies were "unjustified" in invading Afghanistan and liberating it from the Taliban? That same Taliban that banned girls going to school; regularly indulge in female genital mutilation and the sodomising of "dancing boys"; blew up ancient Buddhist monuments; regularly carried out executions by stoning and beheading as half-time entertainment at football matches in Kabul and Kandahar; undertook ethnic cleansing against Hazara muslims; banned music and dancing on pain of death; and provided a base for the racist extremists of Al Qaeda to operate completely unfettered? Do you think it was wrong to overthrow Saddam Hussein who had used poisonous gas on the Kurds of Iraq? Whose two mongrel sons crawled the streets of Baghdad looking for women to rape; who executed his own son-in-law after promising "forgiveness' if he returned from exile; who gained power in a coup and then personally executed scores of his own "party"? The problems in Iraq today have nothing to do with Saddam's overthrow and everything to do with the seething sectarian and ethnic hatreds that have plagued Mesopotamia since the Babylonian Empire. Why didn't those two vicious animals condemn the latest round of sunni-shia bombings and murders in Iraq? If muslim women are subjected to the regular sight of dismembered bodies, those bodies were provided by other muslims. Why is it that only this week we saw Syrian women asking Bob Carr why it is that the USA and the non-Islamic world is not interfering in their current civil war? The war is yet another essentially religious/sectarian conflict between a Sunni majority and an Alawi-Shia minority. Why should any young Americans, Britons or Australians risk their lives for these benighted, backward bastards who regularly tell us how much they hate us? Have you forgotten the spontaneous eruption of glee and happiness that occurred in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the "Islamic world" when the 9/11 attack was carried out? It seems to me that you, like so many others, have forgotten the lessons of the period from 1919-1939. Appeasement never works. Trying to trivialise this disgraceful crime; saying that ...well, maybe, it was Britain's fault and maybe if Britain hadn't been and Imperial power 200 years ago and ... really, when you look at that and what happened to the Aborigines here, maybe they were justified in running over a total stranger, who'd done nothing to them or any of their family or relatives, and then hacking off his head with a meat cleaver. The white-washing, the diminution, the trivialising, the justifying has already started in media and the blogosphere. The appeasers and the white-hating racists are already talking this whole thing around so that in a few weeks they'll be wanting to give these two mongrels a medal and have them treated as Prisoners of War. I am so glad the British cops didn't shoot them dead. I want them to suffer in HM Prison System for the rest of their lives. But, knowing the way the British EHRC led by that treacherous hater, Trevor Phillips, operate, they'll probably be named and shamed and given 20 hours community service. - Jack Richards
  • Anyway. So long Latin. I know there will be people close to Hazel who will be feeling sad and confused today. Sad for who she was and confused because she is perhaps better off dead now. And then there is everyone else who were touched by Hazel's contribution to our lives. Thank you Hazel and her supporters. - ro.watson
 
6
Categories:  Must see, Wellbeing

HE SAID, SHE SAID. SIZE MATTERS

By Duncan Fine & Catharine Lumby
October 17, 2012

Catharine and Duncan have been together 15 years and have two boys aged 10 and 12. This week they’re debating why whether size really matters…

 

HE SAID

You know what I can’t understand? If you type the following into Google: “Why do men like big…”, a range of very kind and helpful suggestions suddenly appears including women, breasts, eyes, girls and butts.

In response, all I can say is that Google must be run by a bunch of chicks, because the all-time, number one conclusion to that question must be the word: TVs.

Yes, nothing beats the pleasure for a man of relaxing like a modern-day decadent Roman Senator in front of a TV the size of most back-yard swimming pools, with a cold beer in hand and really any sporting event from anywhere in the world coming through in pure digital reception and crystal clear sound.

And perhaps the cherry on that particularly delicious ice cream is for a man to place within his sturdy grasp a shiny extra-long remote control. Some academic feminists, of course, will call this a banal phallic symbol. But we men know it is all that and more.

A good remote is also a man’s best friend. Reliable. Trustworthy. Always Takin’ Care of Business.

Truly, we often ask, why can’t a girlfriend be a bit more like a remote? That might be the subject of a future column…

So after all that it will come as no surprise to you that as my beloved Sydney Swans made the AFL Grand Final, I went out and bought a state of the art 46-inch Sony Bravia TV.

I even bought the aesthetically-pleasing silver stand that makes it look rather like a post-modern Scandinavian sculpture.

And I thought that would make it a nice surprise for my wife when it arrived one recent afternoon. Admittedly it was housed in a box that only just managed to fit inside the front door, but it now sits magnificently, regally in place, with sport, Top Gear, Spongebob and The Simpsons on high rotation.

And what happened next? The Swans won the Grand Final, that’s what.

But just to show I’m not a complete Neanderthal, I’m happy to allow Catharine the odd moment to watch Downton Abbey.

Just so long as I hold the remote.

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6 Responses to this article

  1. The Huntress October 17, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Haha. This reminds me of when Mr. Huntress and I had only been married about 6 months. I was working night shifts in trauma and he had just quit his job in favour of having ‘some time off’. No issues there…

    Until I came downstairs one evening to prepare dinner and get ready for my shift. There, gracing a large part of my lounge room, was a 55 inch Sony Bravia….replacing the old 45 inch TV. Because clearly 45 inches is not big enough. All I could bring myself to ask was “How long do you plan on being unemployed for?”

    The funny thing is is that neither of us watch that much TV. I don’t at all unless I’m gaming. Same goes for Mr. Huntress, other than the odd sports game, episode of Good Game or Randling. My young lad is the one who gets the most out of it with early morning cartoons. I could happily live without a TV, but for boys size really does matter.

     
  2. jazzy100 October 17, 2012 Reply
     
     

    I have just read this article out loud to my husband of 46 years. We are both now rolling on the floor laughing, tears streaming – I can’t remember ever reading anything so true or so funny. He also wanted to buy a HUGE television when his beloved Swannies got into the AFL Grand Final but alas, I’d alrleady signed up for the kitchen renovation (ya gotta be quick – I knew it was Grand Final time!).

     
  3. Wrigbe October 17, 2012 Reply
     
     

    When we were first married my husband looked down his nose at TV watching. He read economic and politics for fun! He didn’t have time for TV! Now I have quite bad eyesight and so do both our kids so about 5 years ago I suggested that since we had some spare cash could we consider buying a much larger TV as it would make it easier for me to see from the kitchen and kids wouldn’t be always trying to sit almost on top of it to see. He very graciously agreed.
    Well now suddenly the TV and especially the remote apparently belongs to my husband. He gets very distressed if the remote is not in his hand and he gets to pick what we watch every night. Funnily enough I rarely watch anymore :)

     
  4. Wendy Harmer October 18, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Same at our place – we have had a Tv upgrade in the past years when the Sydney Olympics were on and when Manly made the Grand Final.
    I have been nagging for years for a new lounge suite, but the retort is “what’s wrong with this one”? It’s buggered is what , from too much arse time spent watching football replays.
    And let’s not talk about the oven, also in need of replacement, to which he replies ” we could get it re-conditioned”
    But when it comes to the telly? Let’s get a new one. Grrr

     
  5. Super Sexy Man October 18, 2012 Reply
     
     

    You’ll have your tv for many a long year Wendy … Manly wont make a grand final for a hundred years

     

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Comments

  • Wendy Harmer: Thanks jack... a very interesting response and, from my conversations with Sonya I think this is exactly the conversatio...

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  • Jackdan: As someone who doesn't follow the Australian Vaccination schedule, I already feel like I am risking ridicule and worse p...

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  • BeansGran: I'm an E cup. When I was younger and skinnier I was only a C cup and could handle underwires. Then I got pregnant and d...

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  • Kasey: Well put Sonya. I am so glad that you have created this documentary. Also, you have put forward a voice of reason backed...

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