Winner, 2005 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate

This is not a comic–book plot. This is not a Paul Jennings tale. This is real. There are pieces of material floating around in Australian stores, in your well–known fabric establishments such as Spotlight and Lincraft, which, when worn, have the power to transform a woman from an intelligent, articulate, strong character to a passive, muted, oppressed dimwit. The PhD doctor, the university graduate, the TAFE–trained, the well–read, the poet, the mother, the eloquent, the hard–working – no woman is impervious to the evil, twisted power borne within the fibres of this material…