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]
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.[4]
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.[5]
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.[citation needed] 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".[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] 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.[6]
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.[7]
Writings
Tankard Reist, Melinda, ed. (2000), Giving sorrow words : women's stories of grief after abortion, Duffy & Snellgrove, ISBN978-1-875989-67-6
Tankard Reist, Melinda, ed. (2006), Defiant birth : women who resist medical eugenics, Spinifex Press, ISBN978-1-74219-048-8[8]
Tankard Reist, Melinda, ed. (2009), Getting real : challenging the sexualisation of girls, Spinifex Press, ISBN978-1-876756-75-8
Tankard Reist, Melinda; Bray, Abigail, eds. (2011), Big Porn Inc : exposing the harms of the global pornography industry, Spinifex Press, ISBN978-1-876756-89-5
Norma, Caroline; Tankard Reist, Melinda, eds. (2016), Prostitution narratives : stories of survival in the sex trade, Spinifex Press, ISBN978-1-74219-986-3
^Bogue, Edith (2007). "Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics, by Melinda Tankard Reist". The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly. 7 (4): 848–851. doi:10.5840/ncbq20077423.
