To begin at the very beginning, I was born in Mt Isa, Queensland, Australia, on 14 August 1940. My father was a carpenter, working in the mines building whatever wooden structures silver, lead, copper and zinc mines require to keep them operating. We left Mt Isa when I was six months old and came to Sydney where I have lived ever since.
I didn’t go to university until the age of 31 and a half, at the beginning of 1972 when I already had two small daughters aged four and eighteen months. The only job I have ever had in a university lasted for two years at the end of the 1970s, when I was employed as a part-time tutor. I have a PhD in Sociology from the University of New South Wales (1996), for a thesis called Against the Dismantling of Feminism which was later published by Sage under the title of Radical Feminism Today. (See Publications).
I’ve been what is euphemistically known as an independent scholar for many years, reading, writing and (sometimes) publishing feminist theory. At times I’ve been technically unemployed, i.e. I wasn’t paid for the work I was doing as an independent scholar; and sometimes friends have got me jobs that paid. Currently, I’m technically ‘retired’, living off the proceeds of a small super fund and a part pension while I work as hard as I can to say everything I want to say before I die.
My research interests used to include:
- feminist theory;
- social and political thought, especially Marxism and liberalism;
- theories of individualism, liberty, pluralism, justice, tolerance, determinism, essentialism, cultural relativism, and political distinctions between right and left
- economic theories of unemployment and poverty;
- globalisation, development and underdevelopment, international relations;
- government policy in relation to unemployment and poverty, especially the Howard government’s ‘Mutual Obligation’ policies in Australia and ‘welfare reform’ in the US; and
- theorising forms of social domination.
But given how little time I have left, and how important the transgender thing has become, I’ve had to confine my research interests to feminist theory and the transgender agenda for the time being. Anyway, I have already had a lot to say about the other topics, especially in my self-published book, Masculinity and the Ruling of the World (2020)