October 2023
Quote
“There’s a big difference between learning about trauma and learning a practice. There’s a big difference between learning a practice and actually making that practice become a practice.”
Useful Fact
Sexual extortion, also known as sextortion, is a form of online blackmail where someone tricks or coerces you into sending sexual images of yourself and then threatens to share the images unless you comply with their demands. Usually, these demands are for more images, payment or sexual favours.
Offenders may even attempt to capture sexual images of a young person while they are on live stream or video, sometimes without their knowledge. This is also known as ‘capping’.
Offenders are manipulative in making you feel there is no way out of the situation, including threatening to share your content online with family, friends and acquaintances.
Fear, coercion and manipulation keep the crime going. In addition to the threats and coercion, victims often feel like they have done something wrong and will be punished by parents or carers or prosecuted by police if their actions are discovered.
Right now, Australia is experiencing a global trend of offenders predominantly targeting teenage boys to send sexual images and threatening to share them unless they pay.
Learn more from the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
Instagram Highlight
Follow us on Instagram to access posts like this one!
𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍? 🤔We know, we know, self-care is important. We can't pour from an empty cup. But what do we do when the self-care tasks aren't working?
@chrischeerspsychology encourages us to check our cup, or maybe it's time to get a new one 🤷
Read more in The New Rulebook & Chris Cheers On The Couch on our YouTube channel.
Campaign & Events
Dr Jen Gunter is an OB/GYN and a pain medicine physician, and it would be hard to find someone who knows more about the vulva and vagina. She has been called Twitter’s resident gynecologist, the Internet’s OB/GYN, and one of the fiercest advocates for women’s health. Dr Jen is here to build a better medical Internet.
Jen became interested in dubious online medical claims when her own children were born extremely prematurely. She found separating the facts from the fiction difficult and wondered, if finding quality medical information online was hard for her as a doctor, how did everyone else manage?
Dr Jen knows that people sit up late at night and fall down rabbit holes of misinformation, because she’s been there too. And with reproductive health there is an added challenge—the vagina, vulva, and uterus are erroneously labeled as shameful, toxic, or dirty and women and people with vaginas have their valid symptoms dismissed or minimized.
Come for the science, stay for the sex. Come for the sex, stay for the science. The Vajenda is an evidence-based hub for reproductive health matters.
It’s the next evolution of my effort to fix the information gaps in medicine, because you can’t be empowered about your health with inaccurate information.
Know Your Websites
The State Library has been collecting LGBTQI+ material since the 1970s and continues to collect, now and into the future.
We are all living our stories and play a part in creating history. Your stories have value and deserve to be recorded. Share your pride story.
Call the Pride Line & leave a voice message.
02 9273 1212
By leaving a voice message on Pride Line, you are allowing the State Library to permanently collect, store and publish your recording.
Please note: the State Library may wish to contact you regarding your voice message, including for promotional purposes. If you do not wish to be contacted, please state this at the start of your voice message.
The Pride Line project will become part of the State Library’s LGBTQI+ collections.
Who are
Butterfly Foundation is the national charity for all Australians impacted by eating disorders and body image issues, and for the families, friends and communities who support them.
Butterfly changes lives by providing innovative, evidence-based support services, treatment and resources, delivering prevention and early intervention programs and advocating for the needs of our community.
Butterfly highlights the realities for those seeking treatment for recovery, and advocates for improved access to effective, affordable care. Throughout its work Butterfly also emphasises the critical importance of prevention and early intervention strategies in limiting the development of, and suffering from, negative body image and eating disorders.
On the Blog
Did you know that ‘P is for Penis’ is one of our most popular blogs from 2021?
Lets get straight into it. The penis forms a part of the reproductive system. Like the vulva, it comes in many sizes, colours, shapes, lengths and thicknesses.
There are lots of misconceptions around how a penis looks and also lots of misconceptions around the average time for an aroused penis to ejaculate during masturbation or intercourse.
Penile and testicular health is very important.
Should you notice any changes to your penis or testicles, or your partner’s for that matter (if they have them) speak with your GP and have it checked out.
Testicular cancer in particular, tends to effect younger people, those who are not regularly checking their bits, or know what to look for, feel for.
It is time we normalised these types of self-checks as much as we have normalised cervical screening and breast checks as part of preventative health.
Read the blog in its entirety here.
Resource
Janina Fisher explains why trauma memories are "triggered" and not "recalled" like other memories.
Watch this five minute clip: "How trauma memories are stored in the body". This is an excerpt from her address at the 2020 Virtual Psychotherapy Networker Symposium.
Diary Dates
Our final two free webinars for 2023 are coming up. Join us as we host Eliza Basheer, Sexual Health Promotion Program Manager from the NSW STI Programs Unit on the importance of a national sexual and reproductive health school curriculum and Josef Garrington from ACON and a panel on HIV.
Complete free modules like Doin it Right, Nitty Gritty & Because You Care in your own time.
