Generation F: Why we still struggle with sex and power

by Virginia Trioli

‘For me these Ormond College women were, and are, the first voices of the revolution that is #MeToo in Australia.’
 
 
Twenty-five years ago, Australia was in the grip of another debate about sex and power.
 
The Master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne had been acquitted of indecent assault after complaints by two female students. Helen Garner’s bestselling book about the case, The First Stone , polarised readers over whether the students had been right to take their allegations to the law. Was the feminist movement poisoning gender relations?
 
In Generation F , the young award-winning journalist Virginia Trioli offered a vigorous, incisive and compelling argument for the ongoing need for feminism, while exploring her own bewilderment and anger. She described the real state of sexual harassment, violence, the workplace and the law in how most women just copped it, but those who felt able to confront it needed all the support they could get.
 
Now – as women around the world speak up about how sexual harassment has destroyed their work, families and lives – Trioli revisits that cultural moment in a new foreword, and in a new afterword considers the situation women face today.
 
Dismayingly, her original text is just as relevant, and her call to action just as powerful.
 

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Womens

220 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 15, 2019

Reviews

[Sonja Schaalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dearest Virginia Trioli, what a fantastic essay and reflection on our times as we move through the evolution of feminism. I remember reading The First Stone by Helen Garner and for some reason it didn’t leave its mark on me the way did for others. Not sure why... Nonetheless I do remember it and feeling a great sympathy for the women. (Maybe I was more swept away by Helen Garner‘s ability to tell a story.)

Your counter argument to Helen Garner’s conclusion is stunning. How interesting it is to have been a very young woman at the time of the incident in 1992 to then become a mother and to see the continuation of the movement forward. I was nowhere nearly as career minded or ambitious. Why not, I asked myself now? What a shame, I had so much to offer.I was busily trying to fulfill my role as a dutiful wife who kept fantastic house and looked after the children. It was only after my divorce that I was able to live out my heart’s desire of independence both financially and in my career. I never did end up with a fantastic career due to decisions that I had made back then as a young woman. But none of those decisions were made due to being sexually harassed at work. The sexism I lived with was more subtle And I had internalised these values deep within myself. I wasn’t even really aware of it.

When I had my daughter yes I had maternity leave offered to me but it was only offered as a full-time position. What kind of offer was that? So I left my profession and I have never truly recovered since. We pay a high price it seems for the sheer fact that we want to be mothers and have a career. How dare we! And then we have the audacity to complain when things aren’t going our way or if the boss is flirting with us. Outrageous.

I feel that the #metoo movement was almost like a second wave of feminism. We had kind of a break in the 90s and naughties. My young daughter is now almost 22 and it is fascinating to see the next move forward in other areas we need to break free, for example body positivity and to be more willing to exposure men‘s bad behaviour rather than keeping their secrets.

Virginia I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time and you’ve done a fantastic job. I will be recommending this book to my young daughter. Your voice is important and you articulate it very well in this book Generation F. Congratulations,Virginia!

[Andrea Hurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an updated version of the text Virginia wrote in the 90s. The original work was a response to Helen Garner's book discussing feminism in light of the Ormond College case, where two young female students accused the Master of indecent assault. With a contemporary forward and conclusion, the 2019 edition brings the book into focus through the lens of #MeToo.
I was in my 20s in the 1990s and it reminded me of the changes in attitude to sexual harassment and sexual assault since that time. It also, unfortunately highlights the further changes in public attitude, legislation and criminal process which still needs to happen.
The original 90s text shows the difference between the generations of women and feminists, from those trailblazers in the 70s to the young women seeking support in the 90s. Yet, somehow there is a gap in intersectionality and truly understanding power dynamics. Virginia dissects Garner's arguments while discussing sexual harrassment with female experts working in law and equal oppounity. The contemporary bookends show the nuanced understanding of the complexities many women now have of harrassment. The mental impact inappropriate behaviour can have, and the simple notion that most women would simply want acknowledgement, apology and for the behaviour to stop. It's not a vendetta to ruin reputations. It's a cry to be left in peace and treated with basic respect. The conclusion discusses the gap in process within workplaces to deal sufficiently in a more mediated way, which could allow for education, behavioural change and and understanding of impact and consequences for the perpetrator, while supporting and empowering the victim.
Reflecting on my own deeper understanding and atitude towards this issue, I can see another generation of feminists in the young women in their 20s that I work with. They are moving forward and I am coming with them. Educating myself, listening, learning and sharing. This book highlights how different generations of women can call themselves feminists, but have a wildly different opinion. Although the updates were written in 2019, I feel a future update could include voices from BIPOC and trans women to take a further step towards intersectionality which is a little lacking in the current publication. Any book which makes you think and reflect is a good book. This book is another step forward on a journey of many steps.

[Dhruv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trioli's essay, originally written in the 1990s, is self-explanatory - the interaction between sex and power, and the status of the feminist movement in Australia.

The essay is centred on an harassment incident at Ormond College, and commentary from Helen Garner in 'The First Stone', attacking the women who spoke up. Trioli's critique of Garner is thorough and reflective, paving a way forward for the growth, and purpose, of the feminist movement. The commentary about part time workers, for example, and how the added flexibility may be a double edged sword for women was particularly interesting given the environment we are in today. Trioli also raises interesting points about the counter intuitiveness of harsh punishments for males, and how that creates a culture where no one can admit any fault.

I thought Trioli's essay was excellent, and surprisingly relevant more than 20 years later.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the mid-90s, in Australia, there was a sexual harassment case that sparked quite a bit of debate that still lingers. The case centred around two women making allegations to the police about the conduct of an official at Ormond College. The case was contentious and one of Australia’s well known authors Helen Garner wrote a book on the event called ‘The First Stone’. The book and the ongoing debate about the actions of the women collided and became discourse on feminism. In Generation F, ABC media commentator Virginia Trioli explored the claims made by Garner, the event and what impact this has had on feminism. The version of Generation F, was updated in 2019 and looks at what has occurred since those days.
This is a book that will make you think about what feminism is and what it is means to different people. For the term to me is fluid as it adapts as social, culture and business norms change over time. What feminists fought for previously has morphed into at times other issues of importance. For example the focus on women just having the simple right to walk home at night without being sexually assaulted has been to the fore of late. Having said that, there are some things that have not changed at all. The levels of domestic violence remain high and the number of women who die as result is an utter disgrace. Women still remain on the battlefield as they fight to have the right to make decisions and choices about their careers, family life and their own body.
Trioli sets out her argument in a logical straight forward way as tries to understand why Garner’s book took a swipe at the young women who stood up for themselves. For not only where the two women chided for reporting the matter to the police, there was also a concerted effort to limit their career opportunities as a result of that decision.
It is a read that is still relevant today as there are still too many cases of women calling out sexist behaviour and being let down by processes and procedures put in place to protect.

[Kylie Purdie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard when someone you admire lets you down. Not that I think Helen Garner really cares about letting me down, but that was how I felt when I read The First Stone. Like many others I felt she'd missed the point of what the women from Ormond college had done. She'd not acknowledged the difficulty in addressing the power imbalance in many of these situations or the fact it's not that easy to just tell someone to stop. She missed the fact that they had tried to get the college to deal with it and it hadn't. She missed the fact that without women like those from Ormend College, nothing ever changes.
Virginia Trioli voices all of this so much better than I do. The confusion that feminists of Garner's generation fought so hard for there to be a legal path and then condemned younger feminists for using them. Feminism like most movements continues to evolve and change. We discover new battles that need to be fought and things that were not part of the picture originally start to assert themselves. Younger people arrive and with them new ideas. Older activists can feel disregarded and disrespected.
The saddest thing about the re-release of this book in the post #metoo world is how little has actually changed. The fight continues and we need everyone - young and old to help move it forward.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as relevant now as it was when it was first published.

A longer review will appear on my blog, Kathryn's Inbox in late November 2019.

[Rosalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Generation F, Virginia Trioli analyses the varying views about sexual harassment over several decades and the ramifications for the victims and accusers in the work place today. She commences her scrutiny with an historical conflict between the feminists of the 1960’s and 70’s and those of the 1990s after the Master of Ormond College was accused of indecent assault by two students and Helen Garner published her book– The First Stone - about the issues surrounding case. Trioli postulates in her Foreward that the two women in the Ormand Case were the first voices of the #MeToo movement in Australia.
In the subsequent chapters she supports her reasoning behind the idea that there is an ongoing need for feminism as a movement while she explores her own bewilderment and anger with the contemporary situation for many women (and a few men) who continue to experience sexual harassment by others in their work place.
We live in confusing times Trioli explains in her second chapter. There is a paradox of mixed messages for young women. Very few will identify as being feminists - they were brought up with the knowledge that they are equal with males – they have the equal right to an education, to any employment and opportunities so that the tag ‘feminist’ is not relevant and possibly abhorrent (the media images of “man-haters” prevails to this day). If pushed they may call themselves humanists or egalitarians, but once in the workforce many have realised that they do not get a far go, there is often a gap in their pay or promotion opportunities and as an individual they do not feel safe out at night nor feel that they can participate equally in decision making in forums especially social media. So where can these young women, ‘who have it all’ go if they feel disadvantaged? Should they too accept the status quo when it is obvious that women do not have equal numbers as CEO’s or positions on company boards or preselection for members of parliament etc. especially when told these are all based on merit? This reinforces the idea that women have to go it alone and cannot expect any help from other successful older women or become radicalised. Nonetheless this state of affairs is popular with the mainstream media which still flogs the ‘gone too far’ myth of the ‘radical feminist’ agenda when women protest their continuing disadvantages and discrimination for example within the law in Australia.
The generational divide between older feminists who experienced the sexual revolution – the success of equal pay legislation, sexual discrimination laws – and the younger generation who find the label as Feminist hard to wear is perplexing especially when violence against women is so widespread. The fact that this misogyny, disrespect of and ultimate violence against women still persists decades after the sexual revolution is a good reason for the bitterness and resentment by some older feminists who expected that the old order would change quickly. Nevertheless, many of the older feminists cannot sympathise with the younger women taking what they “believe” is mild sexual harassment (unwarranted fondling and persistent sexual suggestions/comments) to the courts as in their day they had to tolerate it or resign as this behaviour was “normalised”. Trioli, reasons however that this toleration by women only continues to condone the inappropriate behaviour of many of these predators.
Trioli also explains that the changes in the work place due to deregulation have also had detrimental effects on women. The opportunity for part-time work was supposed to be the panacea for women to be able to have a career and a family. However, the reality for many women who return to part-time work after taking maternity leave, is that they are overlooked for promotion and even professional development so that opportunities are no longer available to them. With fewer unions representing women and certainly not part-time employess, with inflexible wage awards and fewer wage penalties Trioli says the “pink ghetto” is created and is expanding where women are segregated into the part-time, low-end paid jobs with little to no job security. Needless to say, despite the opportunity for men to take parental leave or even work part-time so that their female partners can further their careers, very few men will opt to stay at home and look after the children.
Another topic briefly mentioned is the appearance of the “femnocrat” or women who did rise to higher positions in the 1980’s and 90’s. These women were often lampooned by the media, so are hardly seen as fine role models for younger women. Some were even hostile to younger women who worked for them and others were so over-worked they were not often in a position to mentor the younger women. Trioli explains that many of these women were isolated from other women and/or competing for their positions amongst each other and/or seen to be pandering to the males with whom they were working. It appeared that for these women to be taken seriously within their workplaces they had to act and behave just like their male colleagues.
In Trioli’s conclusion, she states that feminism has not out-lived its usefulness as the principles of equity and reform have yet to be realised. Hence the continuing need for women’s officers at Australian universities and Industrial officers within the different states police forces to ensure the safety of women and their rights within their work places. However, in her Afterword to the 2019 edition she writes her most telling comments. She admits to being much more self-aware and reflective after the #MeToo and realises that by not holding men to account for their sexual harassment and intimidation of women we women have ‘kept their secrets’ and thus enabled their behaviour to be normalised. If there is not a move towards zero tolerance, as advocated by feminists such as Clementine Ford, we will be fighting forever this prevailing culture of sexism, media misogyny, social media shaming and general aggression towards women. The #MeToo phenomenon had decisively revealed the cost and continuing harm that sexual harassment and abuse has had on women world-wide but these women had gained the courage and support from sharing their stories with each other.

[Betty Macdonald Saudemont · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1992, two female students in Australia went to the police to lay indecent assault charges against Dr Alan Gregory, the College’s dean. Their move was a brave and divisive one for their time.⁣⁣
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A debate then started that separated the nation in two categories; those who thought the girls went too far by going to the cops and those who understood the pain the girls went through and agreed on their action to use the law.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘍 defended the action of the complainants but more than that, it addressed something that I never really thought of before; the battle between the older feminists who mothered the movement and the new generation. At the time, the book became a classic for feminists.⁣⁣
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In this new version, Trioli writes a foreword and an afterword. She sets her text in both historic and contemporary frameworks, and draws the timeline from Ormond College to the #metoo movement. Trioli did rigorous and detailed work here. It is a well written, very intellectual, passionate and angry book.⁣⁣
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[Nathalie Bilinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read The First Stone when it was published in the '90s and feeling very conflicted about it due to Helen Garner's criticism of the women involved while at the same time thinking it was an incredible book, I'm surprised it took me so long to come across this response to it in Virginia Trioli's book. It still stands up today, 30 years later. It was also interesting to read as a time capsule and see how little has actually changed since then.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be a high school text. Sublime writing. Distressing content. Legislative history that everyone should know.
In my experience women are quite often the buffers around these men.
It would be interesting if the subject were revisited with an eye to how the author feels about the new guard today and the other side of the gap.

[Rueben · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Ellen Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Beckyjmcc · Rating 5 out of 5]

F for Fire. This essay is fire 🔥.
I'll be reading it again.

[Nao Dupre · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25- felt more like many journal articles put together but still really interesting, especially the insight into feminist feuds in Australia

[Roshni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this a lot better than The First Stone

[Catherine Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feminism or the idea of feminism is always challenging for society to define
Each generation changes the meaning or focus to what they need it to be
This is as it should be
it’s not static and it will keep changing
the fundamentals of women’s equality equal
access and equal pay are still the basis of all feminist ideals

This particular book focuses on an Australian university and very specifically about an incident that happened to two female students
It’s a well researched written and argued piece that is very much an important part of feminist social history in Australia

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generation F is dated in some ways, and yet it’s amazing how little has changed. An interesting insight into feminism in 90s Australia.

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5**!!

[Sarah Steed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revisiting this made me angry in a different way than rereading The First Stone. This time it’s rage that 25 years on, it feels as relevant as ever. How has so little changed?

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read but thought could have added another chapter or 2 on initiatives of change and upcoming leaders / inspiration in this space. A little too past focused is reason why not 5 stars