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Clementine Ford (writer)

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This article is about the feminist writer. For the actress, see Clementine Ford.

Clementine Ford
Ford at a book signing in Christchurch, New Zealand, September 2017
Ford at a book signing in Christchurch, New Zealand, September 2017
OccupationWriter, feminist
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Adelaide
Children1

Clementine Ford is an Australian feminist writer, columnist, broadcaster and public speaker on women's rights and other social and political issues.

Personal life

Ford spent much of her childhood growing up in the Middle East, specifically in Oman on the eastern border of the United Arab Emirates.[1] At the age of 12, her family relocated to England.[1][2] Ford spent the remainder of her teenage years growing up in Adelaide, South Australia. As a teenager, she struggled with body image, body dysmorphia and an eating disorder.[3]

Ford studied at the University of Adelaide, where she took a gender studies course; she describes this as a personal catalyst for her decision to become a women's rights activist.[4] During her time at the university she also worked as an editor and contributor for the student newspaper On Dit.[5][6]

Ford moved from Adelaide to Melbourne in 2011.[7] She announced the birth of her son in August 2016.[8][9] Ford has stated that raising her son with little assistance from her partner put pressure on the relationship, which she left.[10]

Career

Ford's writing career includes her contributions as a columnist. Ford wrote a regular column for Daily Life[11] for seven years.[12] In 2007, Ford began writing a column for Adelaide's Sunday Mail and also began writing for The Drum.[13][14] Topics Ford wrote about included destigmatising abortion; she described having an abortion herself as an easy decision that she feels no shame for.[15] In 2014, she wrote of her outrage towards comments made by Cory Bernardi which labelled pro-choice advocates "pro-death" soldiers of the "death industry".[16] Later that year, she wrote an opinion piece against a Victorian bill that would change the state's abortion laws, arguing that if politicians really cared about the lives of women and girls that they would advocate for improved access to birth control, including terminations.[17]

In September 2016, Allen & Unwin published Ford's first book, Fight Like a Girl.[18][19] Her second book, Boys Will Be Boys: Power, Patriarchy and Toxic Masculinity, was published in 2018.[20]

In 2018, Monash University lecturer Michelle Smith considered Ford to be "Australia's most prominent contemporary feminist".[21]

In January 2019, Ford resigned from her role as a columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, alleging that in September 2018 she had been disciplined over a tweet calling then prime minister Scott Morrison "a fucking disgrace" for his negative comments concerning teacher training on identifying and supporting potentially transgender students, and that she had been told it was the paper's new policy to refrain from "disrespect[ing] the office of the PM". Fairfax Media responded that their social media policy, which covered contributors, prohibited the use of "abusive language".[12]

In February 2020, Ford began a podcast called Big Sister Hotline in which she talks about current feminist issues and questions with guests such as Florence Given and Yasmin Abdel-Magied.[22]

In 2024, Ford participated in the doxing of members of a WhatsApp group of Jewish Australians, which she defended as a response to efforts some members of the group made to silence voices advocating for the Palestinian national cause, including Ford herself.[23][24]

Publications

  • Ford, Clementine (2016). Fight Like a Girl. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781760292362.
  • Ford, Clementine (2018). Boys Will Be Boys. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781760632335.
  • Ford, Clementine (2021). How We Love: Notes on a Life. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781760877187.
  • Ford, Clementine (2023). I Don't. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781761069666.

References

  1. ^ a b Ford, Clementine (2016). Fight Like a Girl. Melbourne: Allen & Unwin. p. 26.
  2. ^ "Ford - Q + A". ABC. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021.
  3. ^ Ford, Clementine (20 December 2011), "'The lifetime struggle to accept my body'", Mamamia, archived from the original on 25 December 2016, retrieved 17 January 2017
  4. ^ Handley, Erin; Ford, Clementine (11 October 2012), "Interview with Clementine Ford", Right Now, archived from the original on 16 January 2017, retrieved 16 January 2017
  5. ^ Capper, Sarah; Ford, Clementine (20 March 2014), "A Bonza Clementine", Sheilas, Victorian Women's Trust, archived from the original on 8 March 2017, retrieved 19 December 2016
  6. ^ Richardson, Tom (22 January 2015), "On Dit's Young Libs begin anti-leftist crusade", In Daily, archived from the original on 16 January 2017, retrieved 16 January 2017
  7. ^ Ross, Annabel (21 May 2012). "My Melbourne: Clementine Ford". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  8. ^ Curtis, Rachel (30 August 2016). "Clementine Ford announces surprise three-week-old baby". Mamamia. Archived from the original on 31 August 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  9. ^ Elliot, Ellen-Maree (6 October 2016). "It continues to divide, but the issue of breastfeeding in public is a no-brainer for author Clementine Ford". The Courier Mail. News Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  10. ^ Saunders, Anna (30 October 2021). ""I Became A Mother. And Then I Left My Partner"". primer. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  11. ^ "This woman is highlighting Facebook's ridiculous double standards". Independent.co.uk. 29 March 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  12. ^ a b "Clementine Ford quits Nine newspaper column, saying she was almost fired over tweet about Prime Minister", 31 January 2019, ABC. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  13. ^ "The year that made me: Clementine Ford, 2007". Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 15 January 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  14. ^ Delaney, Brigid (28 September 2016). "Clementine Ford: 'There's something really toxic with the way men bond in Australia'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 31 December 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  15. ^ Ford, Clementine (15 October 2009). "Clementine Ford reveals her two no guilt, no shame abortions". News.com.au. News Corp. Archived from the original on 29 January 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  16. ^ Ford, Clementine (7 January 2014). "'Pro-choice' doesn't equal 'pro-death'". Daily Life. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  17. ^ Ford, Clementine (9 May 2014). "Hands off our hard-fought abortion rights". The Drum. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 10 May 2014.
  18. ^ Baird, Julia; Ford, Clementine (27 September 2016). "Clem Ford: Why you should fight like a girl". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 12 December 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  19. ^ "Fight Like A Girl - Clementine Ford - 9781760292362 - Allen & Unwin - Australia". www.allenandunwin.com. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  20. ^ Smith, Michelle (26 September 2018). "Clementine Ford reveals the fragility behind 'toxic masculinity' in Boys Will Be Boys". The Conversation. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  21. ^ Michelle Smith (26 September 2018). "Clementine Ford reveals the fragility behind 'toxic masculinity' in Boys Will Be Boys". The Conversation. Wikidata Q127061091. Archived from the original on 30 June 2024.
  22. ^ "Clementine Ford's Big Sister Hotline". Great Australian Pods – Podcast Directory. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  23. ^ le Grand, Chip (8 February 2024). "Hundreds of Jewish creatives have names, details published online following Whatsapp leak". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 7 March 2024.
  24. ^ Keane, Bernard (13 February 2024). "My transparency is your doxxing: Hypocrisy and power on display from Labor and the media". Crikey.
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