debate | TJ Withers

If you’re ready for a hilarious and engaging listen this weekend, start with Pod Like A Girl’s breakdown of the charity fails by “The Better Blokes” podcast.

You can listen to Pod Like A Girl on all the podcast apps, or visit the website to listen to it there:

Pod Like a Girl: 07. Why are the Australian podcast bros crashing out? With Rach McQueen

Or you can watch this important conversation with video on YouTube:

Image from video of Mia and Rach speaking about how the Better Blokes project has been encouraging men's violence against women.

Or you can even download the mp3 file to listen to it another way.

Full disclosure, it’s not just amazing, it’s also enraging, but only because we’re talking about the unashamed misogyny and idiocy of these two man childs.

And Rach and Mia are absolutely the right women for the job, because they’re intelligent and informed.

They’ve also spent years advocating to eliminate misogyny, sexism, and violence from Australia’s culture – and advocating for victims of this misogyny, which we know also harms men themselves.

The men who are going to The Better Blokes project for advice are more likely to be harmed, not helped, by what these blokes are spouting.

It’s the Aussie brand of the Andrew Tate manosphere, where men are encouraged to be a real man, and women are NOT welcome.

Like their videos telling women to “shut the f*** up” and let men speak (direct quote). 🤢 🤮

Which is a problem, because their governing legal documents, their charity charter, says they exist to improve men’s mental health… Not to indoctrinate men with misogyny and encourage violence against women, non-binary people, and even kids.

Cover image of the Better Blokes podcast.

So are they actually helping men’s mental health?

Let’s see…

Continue reading →

The plot versus character debate is an old one. Here’s a modern take on it:

Character vs plot qwantz Dinosaur Comic 2157 - image 2

Qwantz.com, Dinosaur Comics, “March 6th, 2012 – awesome fun times!” Comic 2157

I love Dinosaur Comics (www.qwantz.com). They make their point, they make it concisely, and they have dinosaurs!

Yes, this post was unfinished for a long time. “Finished, it will be!” I said in a Yoda voice. (Use your imaginations, folks.)

The point was basically, many authors toss up between focussing on character versus focussing on plot.

To read more about this, take a look at my post Storyboarding for plotters and pantsers. That post talks about why authors can only focus on either character or plot at any one time, and why we need to also work on the one that we’re not good at.