Talking Point: Jenny Valentish in conversation

This event was one of our Talking Point series. It was delivered on 2 August 2017.

Jenny's conversation with Naomi Crafti covers the challenges and personal risks of writing about lived experience, as well as navigating the ensuing press coverage and examining media tropes of women who use drugs. Jenny shares her findings in the areas of self-medication and the pathologising of women, discusses where women fit into treatment paradigms, and asks if there is a paucity of gender-specific research.

Jenny Valentish is the author Woman of Substances, published in June 2017 by Black Inc. It draws on 300 studies and 35 firsthand interviews for a gendered look at addiction, and has received coverage in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Guardian, The Monthly, Vice, Radio National’s Big Ideas and Life Matters, Mornings with Jon Faine, Richard Fidler’s Conversation Hour and more.

Jenny is the former editor of Time Out Melbourne and Triple J’s Jmag, and a regular contributor to The Age, The Monthly and the Saturday Paper, for whom she has written about AOD researchers ‘outing’ themselves as consumers; the logistics of updating AA; the problems faced by ED/AOD clients; cross-sensitisation and more. She has a graduate certificate in Alcohol and Other Drugs from Turning Point and is one of the team behind AOD Media Watch, dedicated to the critical analysis of stories that contain misinformation or perpetuate stigma.