Melinda Tankard Reist

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

Melinda Tankard Reist (born 23 September 1963) is an Australian writer, speaker, blogger and media commentator. She describes herself as "an advocate for women and girls" and a "pro-life feminist".

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 his misogynistic lyrics.

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.

Tankard Reist was also 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. She was the founding director of Women's Forum Australia, 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". Additionally, 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. In 2009, she co-founded Collective Shout for a World Free of Sexploitation, a grass-roots campaigning movement which targets advertisers, corporations and marketers which objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services.

Tankard Reist is also a contributing editor for five books published by Duffy & Snellgrove and Spinifex Press, including works co-authored with Abigail Bray and Caroline Norma.

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
• 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

External links

• Official website
• Tankard Reist's articles on The Punch website
• Melinda Tankard Reist at the Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia