Papers by Eurydice Aroney
Sexualities
The 1975 French sex workers’ strike is widely acknowledged by sex workers’ movement activists as ... more The 1975 French sex workers’ strike is widely acknowledged by sex workers’ movement activists as the spark that ignited the contemporary European sex workers’ rights movement. Yet, significant scholarly research has judged the strike a failure because it neither achieved law reform, nor was it able to sustain a lasting presence. How then should we understand the disparity between how sex worker activists see the occupation and the judgment of academic researchers? This research extends the analytical frame of the 1975 movement’s influence beyond the disappointment of specific policy outcomes and instead addresses the role that the movement played in challenging attitudes towards sex workers, and building a new collective identity that fed into the emerging global sex workers’ rights movement. It argues that by defining and amplifying a set of shared grievances recognisable across borders the strike was a significant cultural achievement for the sex workers’ movement and this in turn established a narrative of influence.
In 2015, Amnesty International joined over 200 sex worker organisations in the call for nations t... more In 2015, Amnesty International joined over 200 sex worker organisations in the call for nations to decriminalise sex work. Despite this, only two jurisdictions in the world, New Zealand and New South Wales (NSW; Australia), have adopted this approach. This article examines the role that sex worker activists played in sex work law reform in NSW through their representative organisation, the Australian Prostitutes Collective (APC). The APC produced and submitted groundbreaking research to the Select Committee of the NSW Legislative Assembly on Prostitution (1983-1986) whose recommendations laid the foundation for the decriminalisation of sex work in NSW. This article contributes to a developing history of the contribution of sex worker activism to law reform. It explores why it is so important that sex worker voices are included in the process of reform, and how meaningful consultation with sex workers helped shape and invoke a radical policy and legal transformation.
Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 2014
The public interest is commonly presumed to be fundamental to the practice of journalism. Journal... more The public interest is commonly presumed to be fundamental to the practice of journalism. Journalists and the media organizations for which they work routinely assume that they are able to identify what is in the public interest, and act accordingly. This article explores notions of the public interest in the context of a particular case study, that of Sharleen Spiteri, an HIV-positive sex worker who appeared on the Australian national current affairs television programme 60 Minutes in 1989 and admitted that she sometimes had unprotected sex with clients. As a consequence of the ensuing wave of moral panic, she was forcibly detained in a locked AIDS ward and a mental asylum. After she was released she was kept under 24-hour surveillance for the remaining 15 years of her life. In 2010, the authors of this article produced a radio documentary for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about Sharleen Spiteri’s case. The authors argue that her story raises some important and difficult questions for the ethical practice of journalism. They analyse the role of journalists and politicians involved in Sharleen’s case, and show that their belief that they were acting in the public interest played into well-established historical narratives linking sex workers with disease and dissolution, with disastrous consequences for Sharleen herself. The authors argue that a more reflexive and responsible conception of the public interest for journalists requires them to pay more careful attention to the voices and perspectives of people who are excluded from participation in the public sphere.
Shutting Down Sharleen can be found here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/hindsight/shutting-down-sharleen/3115028
This paper explores issues that emerged whilst co-producing a radio documentary about my grandmot... more This paper explores issues that emerged whilst co-producing a radio documentary about my grandmother's death from a backyard abortion in 1942 and reveals the possible consequences of using oral histories in a contemporary context, dragging them into the arena of journalism and current affairs. It questions the use of interviews in cases where both interviewer and interviewee have some degree of story ownership and the role of confidentiality where stories are already on the public record. I argue that with this particular story the public's right to know needs to be balanced against my family's claims to privacy, and furthermore that testimonal narratives such as this have an important role to play in the human rights agenda for women.
This paper aims to contribute towards the development of a radio feature language a crucial link ... more This paper aims to contribute towards the development of a radio feature language a crucial link in the development of a radio feature critical culture. Using the work of radio producer Tony Barrell as a focus the author suggests that an almost complete lack of critical literature addressing the radio feature form has allowed radio makers a “freedom” of sorts from the arguments surrounding the area of film documentary, where demands for authenticity have
dominated. But does the “ephemeral” rather than “visual” nature of radio allow for wider interpretation of “documentary”? It is proposed that Barrell’s radio feature “hybrid” form be examined in the light of a new “postdocumentary” culture.
Focuses on the radio work of Australian broadcaster Tony Barrell. Drawing on the history of cut-u... more Focuses on the radio work of Australian broadcaster Tony Barrell. Drawing on the history of cut-up artists and audio montage Aroney discusses how Barrell has produced a hybrid oeuvre, something of an anomaly within the public service broadcasting culture of Australia and the United Kingdom. Aroney examines Barrell’s innovative form of audio documentary, positing the difficulties and pleasures of presenting work that is distinguished by a strong authorial voice.
Radio Documentaries by Eurydice Aroney
A one hour long radio documentary produced by Eurydice Aroney for Radio France Culture and Radio ... more A one hour long radio documentary produced by Eurydice Aroney for Radio France Culture and Radio Belgium.
This program was a finalist in the In The Dark International Radio Documentary Awards 2015 and "screened" at the Sheffield International Film Festival, 2015.
Teaching Documents by Eurydice Aroney
Uploads
Papers by Eurydice Aroney
Shutting Down Sharleen can be found here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/hindsight/shutting-down-sharleen/3115028
dominated. But does the “ephemeral” rather than “visual” nature of radio allow for wider interpretation of “documentary”? It is proposed that Barrell’s radio feature “hybrid” form be examined in the light of a new “postdocumentary” culture.
Radio Documentaries by Eurydice Aroney
This program was a finalist in the In The Dark International Radio Documentary Awards 2015 and "screened" at the Sheffield International Film Festival, 2015.
Teaching Documents by Eurydice Aroney
Shutting Down Sharleen can be found here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/hindsight/shutting-down-sharleen/3115028
dominated. But does the “ephemeral” rather than “visual” nature of radio allow for wider interpretation of “documentary”? It is proposed that Barrell’s radio feature “hybrid” form be examined in the light of a new “postdocumentary” culture.
This program was a finalist in the In The Dark International Radio Documentary Awards 2015 and "screened" at the Sheffield International Film Festival, 2015.