| Melinda Tankard Reist | |
|---|---|
| Born | Melinda Tankard Reist 1963 Mildura, Australia |
| Occupation | Commentator, Author, Blogger |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Genres | non-fiction |
| Subjects | anti-porn, abortion, pro-life feminism, feminism, violence against women |
Melinda Tankard Reist is a writer, speaker, blogger, media commentator and advocate for women and girls most widely known for her work addressing the objectification of women, sexualisation of girls and violence against women.
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Melinda Tankard Reist was born on 23 September 1963 in Mildura, Victoria. She completed secondary schooling at Mildura High School and studied journalism at RMIT University in before taking up a cadetship at Sunraysia Daily where she worked from 1983-1987. As a recipient of a Rotary Foundation Scholarship, she studied journalism at California State University Long Beach in 1987-1988.
On her return to Australia, Tankard Reist was a freelance contributor to a number of newspapers and to ABC radio. From 1991-1993 she lived in South East Asia and was engaged in voluntary aid work including caring for infants with disabilities relinquished for adoption. On her return to Australia she took up a position as advisor to Independent Senator Brian Harradine from 1993-2005.[1] Melinda was on the founding committee of Karinya House for Mothers and Babies [2], a supported accommodation and outreach service to women pregnant without support, and Erin House, transitional housing for women post-birth. She was involved with independent women’s think tank Women’s Forum Australia from 2005-2009.[3] Melinda has also worked as a consultant to NGOs whose focus is on addressing global poverty, including World Vision Australia [4] from 2005-2008, engaged in the development of WVA’s Don’t Trade Lives campaign. [5] In 2009 she co-founded Collective Shout for a World Free of Sexploitation [6], a grassroots campaigning movement that targets advertisers, corporations and marketers that objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services. She is also a member of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia.[7]
She is contributing editor of four books: Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief After Abortion (Duffy & Snellgrove, 2000), Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics (Spinifex Press, 2006), Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (Spinifex Press, 2009), and with Abigail Bray, Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry (Spinifex Press, 2011).
Tankard Reist is the founding director of Women’s Forum Australia "an independent women’s think-tank focusing on research, education and public policy to bring about positive changes for women."