It was Friday 4 November 1977, the day before her fifteenth birthday and three months since she’d arrived in Adelaide’s southern suburbs from a small Welsh backwater. The Flamingo Ballroom was packed, smokey, thrumming with the sound of Black Betty. “This is my brother Danny” said one of her new-found friends. A few weeks later [...]

My high school boyfriend was given a Sandman just like this one for his birthday. It certainly got the neighbours talking. My dad wouldn’t let me go out with him! 

Tits and Feathers was an annual event at the Mars Bar in Adelaide, once the city’s longest running gay bar. Madge (Mars Bar owner), BeeJay (Mars Bar DJ) and the Mars Bar itself shared a birthday. Every year for as long and I can remember this extravaganza embodied the glitz and glam of Adelaide’s queer [...]

For me Barbie is conflicting. At once she is the most beautiful friend I had and at the same time she is hyper-heteronormative reflecting everything that challenges me about traditional gender roles. As a young boy I had the largest collection of Barbie dolls and accessories among my group of dominantly female friends. More than [...]

As soon as I  see a pair of  fluffy dice I remember them hanging from the rear view mirror of  “SICK”cars . I am taken back to the late 70s and  early 80s and songs like Queens ,” Im in Love With My Car”, which contains such classic lines as : “Told my girlfriend I [...]

I loved Barbies as a kid. I had two of plastic tubs full of Barbies, Kellies, a single Ken, and all of their clothes. I had a Barbie RV that looked kind of like this, but I had too many Barbies to fit. What an issue for a 7 year old! I spent a week [...]

I felt like I wasn’t very good at being a girl growing up. I was never interested in make up and I was never interested in shoes the way pop culture made me feel like I should be. I especially was not interested in wearing heels. As a teenager I wore my Converse sneakers every [...]

This beautiful rubber swimming cap reminds me of the many Saturday afternoons I spent as a child watching glamorous Hollywood movies. My favourites were those that featured synchronised swimming, and in particular, Esther Williams. OMG just have a look at her in Dangerous When Wet! She was everything I wanted to be, at least in [...]

This Barbie camper set is everything 8 year old me would have wanted. She’s shiny, chic, international, and a world away from growing up in a small town in 1970s England. A big part of my childhood was spent making clothes for my Sindy doll (Barbie hadn’t really hit the UK at that point), and [...]