Melinda Tankard Reist

Melinda Tankard Reist (born 23 September 1963^[1]) is an Australian writer, speaker, blogger and media commentator. She describes herself as "an advocate for women and girls" and a "pro-life feminist".^{[2][3][4]: 84} Her campaigns to ban X-rated films have gained national attention in Australia.^[4]

Melinda Tankard Reist
Born	Melinda Tankard (1963-09-23) 23 September 1963 (age 61) Mildura, Australia
Occupation	Commentator, author, blogger
Genre	Non-fiction
Subject	Anti-pornography, anti-prostitution, anti-abortion, feminism, violence against women, conservatism, Christianity

Tankard Reist is the founder of Collective Shout, a non-profit organisation best known for leading a successful campaign to block artist Tyler, the Creator from touring in Australia due to lyrics considered misogynistic,^[5] as well as the removal of multiple Steam games allegedly depicting rape, incest, and child abuse.

Early life

Tankard Reist was born in Mildura, Victoria. She completed her secondary education at Mildura High School and then studied journalism at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. She took up a cadetship at the Sunraysia Daily, where she worked from 1983 to 1987. As a recipient of a Rotary Foundation scholarship, she furthered her studies in journalism at the California State University, Long Beach, during 1987 and 1988.

Career

On her return to Australia, Tankard Reist worked as a freelance contributor to newspapers and ABC radio. From 1991 to 1993, she lived in Southeast Asia, where she was involved in voluntary aid work, including caring for infants with disabilities who had been relinquished for adoption. On her return to Australia, she took up a position as an advisor to independent Senator Brian Harradine from 1993 to 2005.^[6]

In 2009, Tankard Reist spoke at a forum called, "Event: Inspiring Christians Series" in the Belconnen Baptist Church on behalf of Sheridan Voysey.^[7]

Tankard Reist was on the founding committee of Karinya House for Mothers and Babies, a supported accommodation and outreach service for women facing pregnant without support, and Erin House transitional housing for women post-birth.^{[citation needed]} She worked as a consultant for NGOs with a focus on global poverty, including World Vision Australia from 2005 to 2008, where she was involved in the development of the organisation's Don't Trade Lives campaign.^{[citation needed]}

Tankard Reist is a contributing editor for five books published by Duffy & Snellgrove and Spinifex Press, including works co-authored with Abigail Bray and Caroline Norma.^[8] In response to criticism that Reist's views were "conservative religious fundamentalist" and thus she "can't be a feminist", her self-described radical feminist publishers at Spinifex Press defended Reist's feminism as authentic in a 2012 Religion & Ethics column (via ABC).^[9]

Women's Forum Australia

Main article: Women's Forum Australia

She was the founding director of Women's Forum Australia, a think tank which described itself as being "an independent women's think tank focused on research, education, and public policy development concerning social, economic, health, and cultural issues affecting women".^{[citation needed]} The group was described in the academic journal Women's Studies International Forum as an "anti-abortion lobby".^[4]: 84

Collective Shout

In 2008,^[4]: 84 she co-founded Collective Shout for a World Free of Sexploitation (or simply Collective Shout), which self-describes as "a grassroots movement challenging the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls in media, advertising and popular culture."^[10] Reist is also the "movement director" of the organisation.^[11] The campaigns manager for the group is Caitlin Roper, author of Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating: The Case for Resistance.^[12]

In 2013, Collective Shout protested Seven Network's broadcasting of the Lingerie Football League, writing it was "sexist and demeaning to all women. It is not a sport, its purpose is to objectify women".^[13]

In 2017, Reist wrote in ABC's Religion & Ethics column to criticize the adult erotica series Fifty Shades.^[14] Collective Shout stated: "This is not entertainment. This is not sexy. This results in serious harm to women and in the worst case scenario, murder."^[14] The same year, the group protested an application for a Geraldton hotel to employ "skimpy barmaids". According to the Geraldton Guardian, "Roper said the treatment of women as sexual entertainment was linked to violence against women."^[15]

Collective Shout have campaigned against certain advertisements placed in Australia, such as Honey Birdette lingerie ads in 2017.^[16] Reist wrote in her Religion & Ethics column that year that Australia should implement advertising standards similar to those in France.^[17] In 2020, fast food restaurant KFC apologised after Collective Shout criticised their television advertisement as containing "sexist grooming" and a "regression to tired and archaic stereotypes where young women are sexually objectified for male pleasure."^[18][19] However, that ad was not ruled in violation by Australia's Ad Standards bureau.^[19]

Reist reviewed the controversial Netflix film Cuties (2020) for both her ABC Religion & Ethics column^[20] and for the Christian newspaper Eternity.^[21] She described the film as "a social critique on what happens when we allow misogynistic, violent, exhibitionist internet culture to ravage girls – training them to wield their immature bodies as currency."^[21] Reist related the film to the activism of Collective Shout: "In the past 10 years at Collective Shout, we have met many girls this age, who have felt the same pressures. Some have taken inappropriate pics and shared them, sexualising themselves either out of a sense of obligation, or because they have believed the lie that self-objectification is empowering or liberating."^[21] However, regarding certain scenes in the film, she wrote that "the complexity here is that in trying to make a serious ethical point about girls and sexuality, the girls may have been used unwittingly — but still inappropriately — to a noble end. The scene could have been filmed differently[.]"^[20]

Rap music

In 2013, the group attempted to have Tyler, the Creator's Australian visa revoked and his shows canceled, in which they were supported by MP Alex Hawke. One member of Collective Shout reported Tyler, the Creator to the police "on grounds of verbal abuse".^[22] He said he believed he had been barred from entering Australia, even as his touring company stated that, while the government had "raised issues" with his visa application, they hadn't refused it.^[23] His tours to Australia were, however, reportedly cancelled in 2015 due to conflicts with Collective Shout.^[24]

The group also unsuccessfully lobbied for American rapper Snoop Dogg's visa to be revoked.^[25] They stated, "Snoop Dogg's lyrics glorify violence against women which puts all women in danger. His behaviour also contradicts our National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women."^[26] They later campaigned for Eminem to be banned from Australia.^[25]

Video games

In 2014,^[27] Collective Shout protested the video game Grand Theft Auto V ("GTA V").^{[28]: 141–142} The game was banned from Target and Kmart retail chains in Australia that year.^[29] In response to this campaign, an anonymous Internet troll posting on 4chan^[a] claimed responsibility for impersonating one of the group's leaders online.^{[28]: 141–142}

In 2025, Collective Shout was involved in an open letter campaign "demanding credit card companies and PayPal block payments" for 500 video games found on Steam, a game distribution service.^[31] The group said the games had appeared in searches for the term "rape", or otherwise contained themes of incest, sexual violence, and/or child abuse.^[31] The campaign was co-signed by other groups and individuals, including those from the US-based National Centre on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE, formerly "Morality in Media"), Exodus Cry (US), FiLiA (UK), and Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia (CATW).^[31][32][33] After this, hundreds of games were reportedly removed from Steam.^[34][35] Collective Shout had also previously campaigned against other video games, including Detroit: Become Human and No Mercy.^[36]

Following the Steam game removals, Vice.com reporter Ana Valens wrote about the group's claim for responsibility, saying the group had retweeted a trans-exclusionary radical feminist who claimed that "pervert nerds are responsible for most of society’s ills," and expressed doubts that the games targeted actually depicted child abuse.^[36][37] In a follow-up article, Valens noted its association with the NCOSE and Exodus Cry, who she described as "censorship-prone", and accused the group of "targeting popular video games that depict children in scenarios where they face distress or harm — even if these depictions are intended to encourage concern and care in the player." She cited Collective Shout's campaign against the 2018 game Detroit: Become Human; while the group targeted the game due to its depiction of "child abuse and violence against women", Valens argued that its depiction in the game was "intended to encourage empathy for the abused woman and child."^[33] Both articles were subsequently pulled by Vice.com's operator Savage Ventures due to "concerns about the controversial subject matter",^[38][36][39] followed by the stepping down of Valens and multiple coworkers from the website.^[36][40][41]

Writings

• Tankard Reist, Melinda, ed. (2000), Giving sorrow words : women's stories of grief after abortion, Duffy & Snellgrove, ISBN 978-1-875989-67-6
• Tankard Reist, Melinda, ed. (2006), Defiant birth : women who resist medical eugenics, Spinifex Press, ISBN 978-1-74219-048-8^[42]
• Tankard Reist, Melinda, ed. (2009), Getting real : challenging the sexualisation of girls, Spinifex Press, ISBN 978-1-876756-75-8
• Tankard Reist, Melinda; Bray, Abigail, eds. (2011), Big Porn Inc : exposing the harms of the global pornography industry, Spinifex Press, ISBN 978-1-876756-89-5
• Norma, Caroline; Tankard Reist, Melinda, eds. (2016), Prostitution narratives : stories of survival in the sex trade, Spinifex Press, ISBN 978-1-74219-986-3

See also

• Feminist sex wars
• Hot Coffee (minigame)
• Jack Thompson (activist)

Notes

1. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the individual who impersonated Roper was Joshua Ryne Goldberg.^[30]