Caitlin Stasey’s New Website Is Winning Hearts, Minds And Vaginas All Around The World
It's way better than Neighbours ever was.
To kick off the new year, Neighbours star, outspoken feminist, and super evil arch nemesis of beloved Australian icon Bindi Irwin Caitlin Stasey has created a website that you should all definitely go and check out right now. Exploring the ideas of everyday feminism and sexuality, Herself.com is slowly getting filled with long interviews and stunning nude photographs of women from all around the world.
With its frank discussion of conventionally taboo topics like pornography, masturbation, and polyamory as well as its embrace of full-frontal nudity, the project is getting a whole lot of love from feminists in Australia and abroad.
Read this excellent, honest interview with the fabulous @caitlinstasey – I related to all of it so much. http://t.co/b6OYryeZfz
— Clementine Ford (@clementine_ford) January 13, 2015
Open, honest, confronting. This is really great @caitlinstasey http://t.co/hO6HxU82jW
— Daniel Dalton (@wordsbydan) January 13, 2015
Go @caitlinstasey for launching http://t.co/WHhXRIbENi. Check this out, friends. Women, their bodies, their experiences, no shame, all love.
— Lauren Schacher (@LaurenSchacher) January 14, 2015
Unfortunately, it’s also getting some predictably judgmental flak from outlets like The Daily Mail.
how much do u sell your soul for to make it easier to write this. pic.twitter.com/uT0ev9J8o9
— brad esposito (@braddybb) January 13, 2015
The Daily Mail article, which has since been re-named, took a particular interest in the fact that Stasey identifies herself as queer and yet has the gall to date a man she names as “the love of her life”. “I know it troubles people for me to refer to myself as a lesbian considering I have a male partner,” Stasey writes. Somewhat ironically, she also writes that some of her most negative experiences have been with “women I’ve encountered who attempt to discredit feminism, to tear one another down — basically any woman working for the dailymail, newscorp or TMZ.”
Those quotes come from this interview with Stasey herself, published on her site. The actor from Tomorrow When The War Began and more recently Please Like Me was the first woman to answer the list of set questions on Herself, and openly discussed her thoughts on women in the entertainment industry, her views on abortion, her sexuality, her sex life and what she believes to be the goals and challenges of feminism at large.
“Herself is a gesture to women for women by women; a chance to witness the female form in all its honesty without the burden of the male gaze, without the burden of appealing to anyone,” Stasey says. “These women are simply and courageously existing, immortalised within these photos. Within their words, their experiences and stories are offered on Herself in the hopes of encouraging solidarity — that maybe we as women will take comfort in the triumphs of others rather than revelling in each other’s defeats. Let us reclaim our bodies. Let us take them back from those who seek to profit from our insecurity.”
It’s really refreshing stuff.
Caitlin has invited all women to take part in the project so if you’d like to get involved, just shoot them an email with your name and locations to [email protected]. That goes for you too, Bindi. The more the merrier.
New Year changes. Happy places ahead.
— Bindi Irwin (@BindiIrwin) January 9, 2015
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Photo: Jennifer Toole via Herself.