Books published by Spinifex Press

Sex dolls and robots in the female form function as an endorsement of mens sexual rights, with women and girls positioned as sexual objects. The production of these products further cements women's second class status. Lifelike, replica women and girls produced for mens sexual use, sex dolls and robots represent the literal objectification of women. They are marketed as companions, the means for men to create their 'ideal' woman, and as the perfect girlfriend that can be stored away after its use. Advocates claim the development of sex dolls and robots should be actively encouraged and will have many benefits but for who? SEX DOLLS, ROBOTS AND WOMAN HATING exposes the inherent misogyny in the trade in sex dolls and robots modelled on the bodies of women and girls for mens unlimited sexual use. From doll owners enacting violence and torture on their dolls, men choosing their dolls over their wives, dolls made in the likeness of specific women and the production of child sex abuse dolls, sex dolls and robots pose a serious threat to the status of women and girls.

In this blisteringly persuasive and piercingly intelligent book, Sheila Jeffreys argues that women live under penile imperialism, a regime in which men are assumed to have a sex right of access to the bodies of women and girls. She reasons that the sexual revolution that began in the 1960s unleashed an explicit male sexual liberation and that even now, under current laws and cultural mores, women do not have the right to self-determination in relation to their bodies. Sheila Jeffreys argues that the exercise of the male sex right has mainstreamed misogynist attitudes and so-called sexual freedom has meant the freedom of men to use women and children with impunity. The power dynamics of sex, rather than being eliminated, has been eroticised, supported by state regulations and structures that have further entrenched male domination. And while mens sexual fetishisms such as BDSM and transvestism have been normalised, women now have to fight as their spaces are being erased and their voices silenced in a faux inclusivity that has naturalised sexual harassment. Sheila Jeffreys contends that womens human rights are profoundly harmed and sexual violence is used more than ever to enforce social control of women. This is a sobering and brilliant analysis of the modern predicament of women that is impossible to ignore. There can be no liberation of women without a complete transformation of the way that male sexuality is constructed. Whilst the eroticising of womens subordination remains the basis of what is seen as sex, women cannot escape coercion in the bedroom, sexual harassment on the streets and at work, and the requirement to service mens excitements in the way they dress and behave.

"Surrogacy is not liberty. It is a crime. Women will not settle for junk liberty. We want real freedom - the substance, not just the appearance. We want real nourishment for our spirits. We want human dignity. We want it for all of us. We want it for women in Thailand and Bangladesh and Mexico as well as for the women who have not yet been born." -- Gena Corea. In this eloquent and blistering rejection of surrogacy, a range of international activists and experts in the field outline the fundamental human rights abuses that occur when surrogacy is legalised and reject neoliberal notions that the commodification of women's bodies can ever be about the 'choices' women make. Yoshie Yanagihara shows how feminist ideas have been twisted to extend men's freedom and their rights to access surrogacy. Catherine Lynch rails against surrogacy as the creation of babies for the express purpose of removal from their mothers, outlining the tragic outcomes for adopted people. Phyllis Chesler argues that commercial surrogacy is matricidal, "slicing and dicing biological motherhood" into egg donor, 'gestational' mother and adoptive mother. Melissa Farley debunks the myth of 'choice' in surrogacy, arguing that in a male-dominated and racist system, the exploitative sale of women in surrogacy, like in prostitution, is inherently harmful --rich women do not make the choice to become surrogates or prostitutes. "Harm cannot be regulated, because this would mean spreading and universalising it. - Silvia Guerini"" -- from publisher's website.

A reworking of fairy tales from the East and West.

A poem can glisten like a fresh wound. Usha Akella pays tribute to her own life and to that of other women. Writing from her Niyogi Brahmin sensibility with which she grew up, her poems are the medium for the unsilenced voice both of her own story and those of women across various cultures. She calls for a united womanhood in her poems dedicated to women violated through rape, caste, FGM, foot binding, mysticism, politics, terrorism and other patriarchal abuses to the women who have triumphed against subjugation building new ways of being. Rage has not caste, needs no algorithm,light a pyre with itof chopped thumbs and scripted dreams

I can see how I carry Yiayia's war in the ample dunes of my belly, the moment she smelt the guns, she pinched the candle's wick,gathered the startled shadows of her children,flung my baby-mother onto her backand sprinted towards the neutral moon-Migration and the memories of women's traditions are woven throughout these poems. Angela Costi brings the world of Cyprus to Australia. Her mother encounters animosity on Melbourne's trams as Angela learns to thread words in ways that echo her grandmother's embroidery. Here are poems that sing their way across the seas and map histories.

For the first time since he'd left the island he thought of the starlings massed at dusk in the winter trees behind the children's home. He remembered the rustle of their wings when they twisted in skeins over the fields, or swelled and contracted high above the cliffs, dark wave after dark wave, lifting and falling in a kind of dance. Sister Lucy had said it was a murmuration. He was still quite young, and he had thought the birds were showing him a sign, that there was something written in their fluid patterns. Lives merge and diverge; they soar and plunge, or come to rest in impenetrable silence. Erris Cleary's absence haunts the pages of this exquisite novella, a woman who complicates other lives yet confers unexpected blessings. Fly far, be free, urges Erris. Who can know why she smashes mirrors? Who can say why she does not heed her own advice? Among the sudden shifts and swings, the swerving flight paths taken, something hidden must be uncovered, something dark and rotten, even evil, which has masqueraded as normality. In the end it will be a writer's task to reclaim Erris, to bear witness, to sound in fiction the one true note that will crack the silence.

1999. Winter. Bondi. Harry's been on the streets so long he could easily forget what time is. So Harry keeps an eye on it. Every morning. Then he heads to the beach to chat with the gulls. Or he wanders through the streets in search of food, clothes, Jules. When the girl on the bus sees him, lonely and cold in the bus shelter that he calls home, she thinks about how she can help. She decides to write a symphony for him. So begins a poignant and gritty tale of homelessness and shelter, of the realities of loneliness and hunger, and of the hopes and dreams of those who often go unnoticed on our streets. This is the story of two outcasts – one a young woman struggling to find her place in an alien world, one an older man seeking refuge and solace from a life in tatters. It is also about the transformative power of care and friendship, and the promise of escape that music holds. An uplifting and heartbreaking story that demands empathy. Amid the struggles to belong and fit in, we are reminded that small acts of kindness matter. And big dreams are possible.

Thousands of people obtain babies through surrogacy arrangements. The general public is compassionate to their plight and supportive of their 'right' to a baby. But who are the nameless women who give birth to these babies? In this book, strong and courageous women from the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Russia share their stories of becoming 'surrogate' mothers only to be deceived by 'baby buyers' and lawyers. This book challenges Big Fertility and its minions: women are not ovens or suitcases, babies are not products.

The women in this book may be among the last to have babies without the medical stamp of approval. Today's society demands physical perfection from all and regards medical and scientific technologies as saviours to be embraced whatever the cost. To have a child who has been diagnosed with a disability is deemed not just unnecessary, but careless and even immoral. Defiant Birth tells the courageous stories of women who continued their pregnancies despite intense pressure from doctors, family members and social expectations. These women were told they shouldn't have their babies because of a perceived imperfection in the child, or because their own disabilities do not fit within the parameters of what a mother should be. In the face of silent disapproval and open hostility, they have confronted the stigma of disability and had their children anyway. Some of the writers tell of grave misdiagnosis, others of life-changing experiences, discovering the joy and love in children considered unworthy of life. Melinda Tankard Reist dares to expose how eugenics is practised today, and how it is condoned, even expected, by mainstream society. More than ever before, doctors are diagnosing babies in the womb as less than perfect. But what if the 'cure' they offer will end the child's life?

A scathing analysis of high-tech biomedical reproductive techniques. Women as Wombs provides groundbreaking insights into the debate over reproductive technology and its ethical, legal, and political implications. Raymond asserts that far from being liberatory issues of 'choice', these techniques, including in vitro fertilization, surrogacy, and sex selection, are a threat to women's basic human rights.