1 Anti-raunch feminism: An Australian case study Zora Simic School of History and Philosophy University of New South Wales, Australia Panel 7: Practicing Advocacy: Expertise, Resistance, Transgression One identifiable strand of active feminism within the western world in the alleged ‘post-feminist’ climate can be broadly described as ‘anti-raunch feminism’. This is a feminist politics that has emerged in response to the rise of ‘raunch culture’, a term coined by American journalist Ariel Levy in her book Female Chauvinist Pigs (2005). While the specific target of Levy’s critique was the commodification and/ or performance of female sexuality under the auspices of female empowerment, ‘raunch culture’ has since come to encompass related contemporary phenomena such as the ‘hyper’ sexualisation of children and teenage girls and the ‘pornification’ of western culture. Given the expanding criteria of raunch culture, it is not surprising that the feminisms that have emerged in response to it are diverse and widely dispersed. The focus of this paper will be the formation of feminist coalitions or organisations that have sought to engage the state in their opposition to raunch culture. One example is Women’s Forum Australia (WFA, also sometimes known as Australian Women’s Forum) who in 2008 made a submission to the Federal Senate Inquiry into the sexualisation of children in the contemporary media environment. Identifying themselves as ‘an independent think tank’ dedicated to research to empower girls and women, WFA’s founding director and most visible spokesperson is self-described ‘pro-life’ feminist Melinda Tankard Reist. Critics of WFA have dismissed the organisation as socially conservative, and questioned their claims to speak for a cross- section of Australian women, and as feminists. I will address these criticisms within a wider analysis of WFA’s feminist politics and ‘anti-raunch’ feminism. More specifically, I will focus on the feminist politics of Tankard Reist, one of the most publicly visible feminists in Australia. I will begin with necessarily broad definitions and descriptions of raunch culture, and anti-raunch feminism, both informed by