Fellow travellers, as we all know racism and sexism often go together, particularly in the media. This is to be expected, since the whole paradigm is dominated by white male peenie wavers.

And sometimes this sinister subtext exists even in stories that appear at first to be attempting to deconstruct that depressing state of affairs. Take this article about how there are more and more Aboriginal women working in West Australian diamond mines. The whole tenor of the piece implies that this development is a good thing.

This is deeply offensive. As we all know, women are close to nature; indigenous people even more so. And mining is a violation of it. It's like the writer is saying: Isn't it great that indigenous women now get to rape Mother Earth too?

Oh yes, well, that's just wonderful ... not!

And the fact that these are diamond mines makes it even worse. Contrary to popular opinion, diamonds are not a girl's best friend. Actually, they are women's worst enemy.

The allure of diamonds is not something natural to women; rather it is taught by society. The beauty myth tells them they must adorn themselves with these expensive stones to be truly feminine, thereby conditioning them into behaviors that confirm their own capitalist commodification.

Quite simply, the article writer should be ashamed of himself for putting such a positive spin on such systematic barbarism.

Appalling. Just appalling.