If Australia required defense, which it doesn't seem to as long as it pairs up with the US in its ongoing wars that are war crimes, would you want your soldiers trained by the Australia Defence Force Academy? After all, it took it a month to figure out that a crime was committed against a female cadet when what she thought was consensual sex turned her into pornography via Skype. 

The message to the future soldiers and military officers sent by the academy is that if crimes are committed against women, forget it. If your Minister of Defence will not let you forget it, then you at the academy take your time to figure out the charges and you do it so you won't put the boys out too much. 

Just a short court appearance and back to classes. Would you really want those to be the standards of protection in your military? It wouldn't make you feel too safe, would it? The US military is probably worse. That is why in Unmaking War, Remaking Men, I've laid out a plan for a Global Peace-Making Military.

Kathleen Barry, feminist, sociologist and Professor Emerita of Penn State University is the author of five books, the latest – Unmaking War, Remaking Men: How Empathy Can Reshape Our Politics, Our Soldiers and Ourselves is published by Spinifex Press, Australia and Phoenix Rising Press, US.

It seems that every few years, some writers in the country of women feel the need to again examine the Jesus mythic legend from the perspective of one of the named women associated with it. Leslie Cannold’s The Book of Rachael is the latest of these.

While Ms Cannold became absorbed in answering questions raised in her mind about Jesus’ sister, the question which sparked my fourth novel, Rumours of Dreams, (Spinifex,1999) was: ‘Given what legend says happened to her, what was Jesus’ mother really like?’

Research necessary to writing a convincing novel set in a different culture 2000 years ago, as well as a culture dealing with an avowedly patriarchal religion, meant a thorough look at what theologians have accurately deduced about Jesus in his own time.

I was aware that in the Scriptures, there was little mention of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM), which suited well my own creative purposes, but completely unaware that theologians know little about the man called Jesus.  In fact, the only things they can agree on, is what the biblical texts do not say.

So, having established that fact and done the cultural research, I began my tale of the BVM by beginning with Jesus and his family, as does Ms Cannold. In Rumours of Dreams, we begin with the childhood friendship between Jesus and Mary Magdelene, who is similar in temperament to the Rachael created by Ms Cannold, and who is quite frequently mentioned in the biblical texts. Their meeting and subsequent friendship was the path that took me into Jesus’ home and allowed me to meet his mother.

In creating her personality and character, I looked at what the reality was of life for a young female in those times, especially a beautiful young female. If you do the maths, it is much more likely that the BVM was 13/14 when she was impregnated, rather than 18/19.  And as time has not yet visibly clutched her, almost every female of 13/14 is  “fair of face and form”.

In those times, with men making the rules, an “unchaste” female who was also unmarried was stoned to death. (An emphatic way to make a point, and one that could easily cause fear and panic attacks.) That was, as it still is today, an age of violence. It was, as it still is today, an age of rape. It was, as it still is today, an age of incessant war. It was, as it still is today, an age where poverty afflicted upwards of 35% of the population.

I wanted to find out who Jesus’ mother was because I believe humans cannot climb out of the violence/rape/war/poverty age until women equally share law-making power with men and both sexes realise the purpose of being human is to protect and nurture ALL the world’s children, while working with other living beings to honour our extraordinary Earth.

So thank you, Leslie Cannold, for being the latest in a long line of women writers (A Girl Named Mister, Grimes, 2010;  The Handmaid & the Carpenter, Berg, 2006; The Wild Girl, Beard, 1997; and etc) who pull at the mythic legend of Jesus, trying to find our place there. For me, there isn’t one because of the implacable patriarchy that surrounds it. But it is encouraging that we women always keep trying.

Sandi Hall is a the author of Rumours of Dreams. She is a novelist, playwright and a feminist activist.

A guest blog from Melinda Tankard Reist, first posted at ABC Unleashed.

Shaun Metcalf has been given a second chance at playing for the New Zealand Warriors after repeatedly kicking his 15-year-old girlfriend in the stomach in an attempt to cause her to abort their baby.

Metcalf, now 23, was sentenced to 18 months jail in 2004 where he spent five months before being released to home detention (despite the entreaties of the victim and her family).  He and his two rugby mates Geoffrey Ruaporo and Kyle Donovan tricked the girl into meeting them in a park where they set upon her. Three beefy blokes ganged up on a pregnant teen in an attempt to cause her to lose the baby.

Somehow the girl and her baby survived the attack – the infant was born four months later.

Metcalf has just signed a two-year contract with the New Zealand Rugby League. He says he’s sorry for what he did. I really hope that’s the case.

But there is something especially disconcerting about arguments used to restore Metcalf to the sporting life. Arguments which come close to violence apologism.

One of Metcalf’s key defenders and outspoken advocates is Celia Lashlie, described as a “social justice advocate and author”.

Lashlie put a case for Metcalf being returned to the game to the NRL in 2005, arguing, basically that we should just all move on.

We can all get caught up in the emotional image of young men booting a young woman in the stomach to cause her to abort her baby, but these were two young people… she got pregnant, he was way out of his depth, and he did a really cruel and dumb thing.

He was caught in the moment, and what he did was the equivalent of a young man putting a noose around his neck because his girlfriend tossed him out. He has to be allowed to move forward and put his life together, and I think the ability of the NRL and the Warriors to take this young man in and help him do that is role modelling and something they should get credit for.

Oh no, we wouldn’t want to get caught up in an image of young footballers playing football with the pregnant womb of a 15-year-old girl now would we?

Laskie wants us to be rational about this. Let’s not get overwhelmed by emotion because that would be distracting. The girl “got pregnant” - as girls often so magically do. He was a mere spectator - perhaps it was even her fault for letting it happen?

He was “way out of his depth?” But don’t lots of people find themselves out of our depth and manage to refrain from lashing out in obscenely violent ways?

“The equivalent of putting the noose around his neck”? No, it was the equivalent of putting a noose around her neck - and the neck of her child. Laskie paints the act as some kind of self-punishment. But he wasn’t assaulted. He wasn’t trying to protect the child he was carrying. It wasn’t he who might lose his life.

Note those he invited to the kicking session. Not school friends or family members, but his NRL mates. Because this is what footie mates do for each other, they help out a buddy in need and stomp on whoever needs to be stomped on, even a defenceless girl.

Cruel and dumb? Breaking up by text message is cruel and dumb. Attacking a pregnant girl with your thug mates isn’t dumb. This is not a footballer drunk and disorderly and urinating in public. This is a footballer engaging in a vicious, criminal, callous and pre-meditated act.

Lashlie’s comments trivialises the seriousness of this crime. They are an insult to any woman who has experienced violence. And that is already just too many.

Melinda Tankard Reist is a Canberra-based writer, speaker and commentator, with a special interest in issues affecting women and girls.

A guest blog from Melinda Tankard Reist, first posted at ABC Unleashed.

Can someone please tell Brian McFadden that ‘taking advantage’ of a woman when she’s drunk is sexual assault and against the law? Because he seems to have missed the announcement.

The Irish singer-songwriter and ‘honorary’ Australian on account of his four-year engagement to songstress Delta Goodrem, McFadden today officially releases Just The Way You Are (Drunk at the Bar).The barn-dance meets rap recording is described here as the novelty song from hell and hard to beat as the worst song of the year (and it’s only February).

But apart from its all-round awfulness it’s these lyrics which, with International Women’s Day almost upon us, show us just how far we haven’t come.

I like you just the way you are, drunk and dancing at the bar, I can't wait to take you home so I can do some damage

I like you just the way you are, drunk and dancing at the bar, I can't wait to take you home so I can take advantage

Describing the song as 'infectious', Universal Music in a statement Friday said the dance track will 'rattle around in your head for hours'. Doing some damage, taking advantage of a woman under the influence of alcohol... is this the soundtrack we want going round and round in the heads of males?

Just one more message reinforcing the rape myths circulating in our culture: that inebriated girls are asking for it, and that you’re not really to blame. One more message encouraging boys to help themselves. I love you just the way you are, drunk, because it’s easier to get what I want that way.

A recent UK study found that 48 per cent of males aged 18-25 did not consider rape to have taken place if the woman was too drunk to know what was happening. There’s a kind of party atmosphere around these criminal assaults, with many men boasting about their conquests. An online genre known as ‘Passed Out P*ssy’ encourages men to share photos online of women and girls they have taken advantage of while drunk. ‘She’s drunk? Don’t call a taxi and make sure she gets home safely! Call your friends, have some fun and share the pictures!’ men are exhorted.

Love you just the way you are (drunk at the bar) helps legitimise this behaviour.

McFadden - also a judge on Australia’s Got Talent and a father of daughters - hasn’t taken well to the criticism. He swears on his heart that he wrote the song for Delta. That’s right, ‘Can’t wait to do some damage’ is the sort of poetry McFadden writes to demonstrate the depths of his love for his bride-in-waiting. Look into my eyes Delta, he croons, I stayed up all night writing this ode to love, just for you my darling. Wow, lucky girl Delta. Perhaps he even expects her to swoon?

The song was first played on 2Day FM’s Kyle & Jackie O show last week. Jackie O - who could also benefit from reading Consent for Dummies – gushed that it was her 'new favourite song'. 'I love it, I’m a big fan of this song... this song rocks.'

And Kyle Sandilands, not exactly legendary for his sensitive treatment of young women - recall the lie detector scandal involving a 14-year-old rape survivor - said, 'It's a fun sort of song.'

Discussing this with Nina Funnell who campaigns to end sexual assault and is a member of the Premier’s Council on Preventing Violence Against Women, she says McFadden's lyrics echo a broader culture which ostensibly opposes rape while simultaneously demonstrating no real understanding of what actually constitutes sexual assault.

'Unfortunately many people still believe the myth that most sexual assaults are committed down dark alleys by strangers in balaclavas. This myth is damaging as it conceals the reality that the overwhelming majority of sexual assaults are committed by people known to the victim - usually a family member, friend, someone they go to school or work with.

'

'It is important that we recognise that the sort of behaviour that some people are referring to as "taking advantage" may legally count as sexual assault. In NSW the consent laws now state that a person cannot give consent if they are intoxicated to the point that they lose the capacity to do so, such as if they are passed out.'

'To "take advantage" of someone in such a state would unquestionably constitute sexual assault. 

Having sex with a woman who does not have the capacity to consent is not called "taking advantage". It’s called rape. Calling it ‘taking advantage’ reclassifies an action from being a serious crime to a negative but essentially trivial behaviour with no legal dimension whatsoever.'

Alison Grundy a clinical psychologist in the field of sexual violence for 20 years, describes the lyrics as 'one more open demonstration of the contempt shown to women's human rights and the fundamental legislation that is place to protect them'.

'Now we have 30 years of research to show that the sexualised and violent messages of popular music, media and video games do shape and provoke male aggressive and sexualised violence. I wonder how long it will be before songs like this are seen as inciting crimes under the criminal code?

'

'Not soon enough for those of us who work with victims on the long road to recovery after experiencing the "do some damage and take advantage" behaviour lauded in this song.'

So there you have it. A fun sort of song about sexually exploiting women – doing damage to them – to top off a night out. Let the good times roll. Just not for the one in five women over 15 who are sexually assaulted in this country.