Deboning Power - Critical analysis by Dr Angela Williams

Oh America. In the face of what’s happening in America, I ask Australia to reflect on our similarities to America as we all reel at the armed insurrection attempted today by Trump supporters. I read Call it what it was: a coup by Rebecca Solnit from The Guardian Australia for a more relevant overview than I could provide. From her analysis, I identify the following changes we need to demand: Honesty in politics needs to matter again. We need to demand truth and accountability. Divisive...

Two days ago I posted on Facebook about a woman who contacted me to ask questions about my sex work for ‘her own personal curiosity’. This episode responds to that and expands on how we talk about sex work. Apologies, includes a gendered slur. My Facebook post: Woman in the comments of the news conference today asked about how the sex industry was coping with covid. I referred them to Scarlett Alliance for resources. They asked to DM me for their potential public health masters or maybe...

For the first Monday Kink of 2021 we are looking at pain and catharsis. We read about endorphins, the brain’s natural opiate, from On the Safe Edge by Trevor Jaques and talk about different ways of understanding the pain threshold. We celebrate how endorphins can soothe emotional pain as well and physical. The potential for pain as a therapeutic tool is unpacked by way of the idea of therapeutic kink and manufactured opportunities for catharsis. We define this term from Ian Buchanan’s...

And welcome to 2021. I’m taking a break from thinking today to share the first part of my memoir Snakes and Ladders. Published in early 2020, Snakes and Ladders didn’t get anywhere near the promotion it deserved when it came out and so I’m giving you a gift of the first part as read by the author. Snakes and Ladders was published by Affirm Press in Melbourne. You can check out their page here https://affirmpress.com.au/publishing/snakes-and-ladders/#post/0 or buy it from most online...

On the last day of 2020 we are listening to experts for once. This episode cuts through the power web between NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the billionaire funders of the Liberal National Coalition, and shows how the ‘expert opinions’ feeding into decisions are being shaped by this entanglement of money and corruption. We then go back to 18 December 2020 and listen to Dr Norman Swan’s expert advice to lock down the Northern Beaches and mandate...

After watching every press conference with NSW Premier Gladys Berijiklian since 17 December 2020, I have ranked her priorities as I see them. There is much swearing in this episode. Much swearing. Listen along to hear my evidence for the following list. Priority 1: Protect the confidentiality of patient zero. Priority 2: Protect the Northern Beaches and keep their businesses open and profitable. Priority 3: Keep the fireworks to protect the income of hospitality businesses. Priority 4:...

Today we are talking about going no contact with your family and how to use that as a transformative tool. This one does get a bit brutal and includes discussion of child abuse, including sexual as I reflect back on the deaths in 2020 of my step-father, aunt and mother. I describe the costs and benefits of cutting off an abusive family with the reminder that there are no winners in this game. By going no contact are are taking back the power from our abusers. This can be an exceptional...

On the last Monday of the year we are looking at how to build resilience with kink. I take you through my own journey from submissive to dominant and show you how it was an outcome of the processing of my mother’s abuse. I then introduce you to my 5 step plan for building resilience, kink entirely optional. Step 1: Acknowledge that bad stuff happens. Step 2: Accept your feelings, no matter what they are. Step 3: Process your feelings safely, without blaming or shaming yourself and in...

Today we are talking about Trolls to help everyone skill up for an online Xmas. The right-wing cheer squad are out in force and they’re gonna be fishing for reactions while sinking down the holiday booze, so best we have a plan. This episode looks at how women are becoming more active as professional troll herders, aka social media community managers, and how this comes out of grass roots efforts by women to combat online bullying. A huge shoutout to Magda Szubanski for her courage and...

Today we look at the Avalon outbreak and wonder if NSW was set up for failure by Scott Morrison’s constant chants that we needed to be open by Christmas. We look at the history of Covid in Australia, going back to the Ruby Princess, the cruise ship full of pentecostal Christians that was allowed to disembark 3 days after bans were put in place. The Bulletin suggests that dodgy middle of this night phone call may have related to the in-laws of a ‘powerful federal minister’. We analyse the...

On Mondays We Kink and today our kink is verbal humiliation. Comes with a content warning for sexual assault and a language warning for gendered slurs. This podcast brings you some theory from SM101: A realistic introduction by Jay Wiseman and lots of my personal experiences to talk about how verbal humiliation can be a tool for transformation and change, but only when used with care. You get a little listen in on this morning’s session with my beautiful trans girlfriend and an analysis...

Today we are celebrating a month of Deboning Power with a wrap up and some launches. We meet the amazing Cate Steele, my hero (but you have to listen to find out), launch the Facebook page at facebook.com/deboningpowerpodcast/, and revive the Patreon now at patreon.com/DeboningPower. I’ve decided this is going to be my job since I’m pretty much unemployable after 2 psychological injuries in 2 different workplaces. Deboning Power is here for the long term. Yaaaay! Find out more Links at...

Today we look at Australia’s latest attempts to formalise the East West divide through a PR campaign on China. In January, a team of WHO investigators is heading to China to investigate Covid-19. The person of this story told by Australia’s state sponsored media ABC is low on named sources or facts but gives unnamed sources to spout of threats to China. This podcast looks at the history of the Free Trade Agreement with China and wonders if we didn’t start the fight in the first place with...

Today we are looking at some breaking news about Healing House a Christian healing rehab centre in South West Sydney, NSW. Healing House was set up by a recovering addict and provides prayer healing and cultish indoctrination instead of drug and alcohol treatment. I describe my own experiences in pentecostal prayer circles and stab at the problems inherent in a system where women can be sent to jail for not believing enough. Also discussed - the Women’s Justice Network and the problem with...

Australia is in a non-consensual relationship with an abusive federal government and they aren’t listening to our safe word. This episode compares consent in the kink world with the current state of Australian politics. Listen along to find out how the national Covid commission, a little gang of business executives, have used the smokescreen of 2020 to lay out a plan of reforms for Morrison’s monstrous front bench to enact. We didn’t consent to this and we’ll be paying for it every second...

For our first On Mondays We Kink, we talk about consent and how it matters at every stage of the kink journey. I share the story of Simon, a man who tried to bribe his way into our party on the weekend rather than provide me with a phone number. I use this case study to look a t the need for consent to be consent, clear and visible. And this is his remarkable email: I follow rules and hope you reconsider. It's that I'm not in an open relationship and need my privacy. Find out...

Today we look at the Cronulla race riots and wonder what it means to have a Prime Minister who embraces the Cronulla culture. Fifteen years on from that day, I have a sinking feeling that Morrison’s a PM for the people who gathered on the sand more than those who came by car and train. All my research today was from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cronulla_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Morrison Find out more Links at deboningpower.buzzsprout.com/...

Warning - today we are talking about suicide. Please look after yourself and seek support if you need it. Today we are talking about how our Prime Minister Scott Morrison talks about mental health and suicide and how this is contradicted by his actions after he mocked the shadow treasurer for crying during the industrial relations reform debate in parliament. Morrison’s tweet: twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP/status/1150963956544000001?s=20 Guardian: Scott Morrison's suicide prevention adviser...

Today the Australian Senate is voting on a bill to expand the cashless welfare card (CWC) after it was pushed through the lower house yesterday. It is the final sitting day of the year. The CWC is a tool of shame that the LNP Governments have used to punish poor people for existing. This podcast looks at the experiences of some people on this card and the many inquiries that have found problems with it. I hypothesise about the generation we’re raising and the impact of the children being...

Today we talk about pleasure, balance and Cobra Kai. We’ve just set a new rule in my house where on Mondays we do kink. In this podcast I decide to pull that over here, starting out with this critical analysis of pleasure. Pulling on ideas from Derrida, Barthes and Burke, we define pleasure, jouissance and the sublime. Finding balance, I decide, means something different when you are balancing a history of abuse and trauma. The pleasures to be found in kink unlock a state of...