Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.

Madonna's cultural appropriation confirms what a cliche she has become. There' s only thing duller than a Twitterstorm , and that's an Instagramstorm . Particularly when said storms feature figures who like to think of themselves as controversial and as deliberately baiting us : Rihanna posing in a clingy burqa at a mosque, Mario Balotelli posting a racist image , and now Madonna doctoring pictures of African and African-American leaders to promote her new album . Really, the only dignified thing to do is to not dignify it with a response, and move on . Who cares if Madonna straps black ropes on the images of dead black rights icons? As Peter Robinson wrote in the Guardian:"It's slightly heartbreaking that Madonna, an artist who made her name through an intuitive grasp of almost every major trend and zeitgeist fluctuation, is so crap at social media." But sometimes a solely jaded response betrays our own complacency, like resigning yourself to the fact that there will always be people who think of racist slurs as banter , or those who think it is just fine to appropriate the symbols of others to give their own tepid existence some edge , or people who still wear bootcut jeans . It's not OK, no matter how persistent and ever- present it is . Even though Madonna has always been controversial , it also seems that as the world around her has got sharper, she has got duller and more derivative . The appropriation that she and others have carried out is nothing new ; we're just noticing it more . That's because those who are piggybacking on others' journeys do not only have more channels to flaunt their cluelessness and sense of entitlement (Iggy Azalea, walk away from Twitter) but they are also being called out on it more . Whether it is usurping religion - crucifixes and nun habits are passe now; it's niqabs on naked bodies  - keep up - homosexuality or now minority rights , Madonna is a manifestation of how privilege feeds off the authenticity of "struggle" . This is a double plundering that leads to further marginalisation : the dominant narrative will oppress you, then co-opt you, and then weave you into your own tiny little section of the tapestry . Some would argue that slavery and segregation ended long ago (well, segregation in the US in the 60s and apartheid in South African in the 90s, so not that long ago) . But that doesn't mean white people can now happily vandalise the cultural and historical totems of a minority's struggle as part of some universal poster for the white western narrative of overcoming and learning from our mistakes . Imagine a pop artist using the recent CIA torture as part of their campaign - perhaps showing dead Arab personalities being waterboarded . No? Too soon? Well , when it comes to certain issues , it will always too soon . Of course ,  the charitable position is that Madonna, or to a different extent, Iggy Azalea, are not doing this with any high degree of self-awareness or design - they might see all contemporary culture as equal-access human heritage that they can dip into and sample as a vehicle for their talent . They would be right to some extent , but the sad fact is that these modern iterations of minority culture that they are sampling all arose from suffering and oppression rather than from a series of tortured geniuses in drawing rooms across Europe . Yes, there are spaces where our common mix of religious, sexual and racial legacies intermingle - gloriously, sometimes . But that is usually an uncurated, spontaneous thing, not a cynical shopping list . To put it simply , edginess comes from just that : being on the edge . Ironically, all Madonna and her ilk's desperate antics to appear so only confirm that they are, in fact, utterly comfortable and mainstream . Cultural appropriation is now the standard default of the unoriginal . It is a common and predictable template , where one becomes a cliche in trying to avoid being a cliche because you have nothing new to offer - something Madonna would surely be mortified by .
Who cares if Madonna straps black ropes on the images of dead black rights icons?

Sydney Hostage Crisis: Australia has lost its innocence. Australia is known as the "lucky country." It was a phrase first coined in 1964 by social critic Donald Horne, and has come to represent the visceral feelings of both Australians, and visitors to the nation . It is seen as a reflection of a high standard of living, and a geographical insulation from the bad actors of the world theater . But ten days out from Christmas, Australia has lost its innocence . On a day of brilliant blue skies, the terrorism of the post-9/11 world finally arrived on Australian soil , taking hold of city streets . A man wielding a gun and an Islamic flag took customers and staff hostage at a cafe in central Sydney . As a native of Sydney, home for the holidays, safe and sound but shaken and furious, December 15 is a day that will forever be seared into my mind . I've been to the Lindt Cafe ; in fact ,  I once worked across the street from it . Emotions have run high here all day -- from fear to anger to a desire for vengeance . I never expected this in Sydney . The profoundly shocking standoff with all its disruptions to city life has struck fear in Sydneysiders, unaccustomed to these types of events . The mood in Sydney is one of fear and uncertainty . Until now, Australian authorities have been flawless in preventing terror attacks on Australian soil . They have been aggressive in their pursuit of intelligence and would-be terrorists , foiling plot after plot . September saw the biggest anti-terrorism operation in Australia's history , involving up to 800 police in coordinated raids , sparked by intelligence reports that Islamic State supporters were planning to seize a random member of the public and behead them live on camera . Yet , it was inevitable that one would finally slip through the cracks , and Monday Sydney joined the ranks of cities such as New York, London and Madrid as the latest victim of what appears to be Islamic terrorism . Monday's distressing events have renewed Australians' concerns about Islamist objectives, and a growing Islamic presence in the country . Some Australians recognize that this likely terrorist attack is a result of the poor immigration decisions of Australian governments, both conservative and liberal, over the last four decades . A lack of liberty, an abandonment of reason, the imposition of Sharia on Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as the treatment of women are just some of the serious moral problems within the Muslim world . Islamist views are incompatible with the liberty enjoyed by Australians and Americans . Interestingly, Monday's events have also prompted Australians to revisit their gun laws . With Islamic supremacism a mainstream interpretation of Islam, deeply rooted in Islamic scripture and endorsed by many of Islam's most influential scholars, Australians are beginning to understand the nature of the Islamic threat , and studying their own weaknesses in its wake . The United Kingdom has had two beheadings of members of the public in the last two years, with neither police nor civilians able to prevent it . It also has prohibitive gun laws . Australians are looking to America, and not the UK for guidance . With this sort of threat, the normal calculus of a civilized society with a small, armed (or unarmed) police force upon which the citizens are forced to rely, no longer adds up . It is unsurprising that home-grown terrorism is most rampant in nations with strict gun control . It is a reality that Australia's powerful anti-gun lobby seems to wish to ignore . It is times like these that Americans should be thankful for their Second Amendment, and crush any effort or force seeking to weaken or remove it . Right now, they are the envy of a growing number of Australians that wish they were armed . Australia will never be the same again . Sydney just lost a little of its shine .
A man wielding a gun and an Islamic flag took customers and staff hostage at a cafe in central Sydney On a day of brilliant blue skies, the terrorism of the post-9/11 world finally arrived on Australian soil

Will the awful power of the word 'slut' defeat feminists' efforts to reclaim it? It's been over twenty years since then - Bikini Kill frontwoman and Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna scrawled the word SLUT across her stomach . In the years since, there's been a book called Slut! , countless feminist debates over the reclamation of the word "slut" and, in 2011, thousands of women took to streets across the globe in anti-rape marches called SlutWalks - a reference to how victims of sexual assault are often blamed for the violence done to them . Like "cunt" and "bitch", many feminists have long tried to wrest away from its original users the power and harm of the word "slut" and to give it new meaning . Increasingly, though, it's seeming like we might not succeed any time soon . Take Leora Tanenbaum: in 2000, she wrote Slut!: Growing up Female with a Bad Reputation chronicling girls' and women's experiences with the word . She herself was called a "slut" as a high school student in the 1980s - long before the term "sexual harassment" was coined - and told me"I had no vocabulary to understand what happened." Now, 15 years later, Tanenbaum is about to publish another book: I Am Not a Slut because, in part, the sheen of reclaiming "slut" seems to have worn off over the years . When she spoke to women who called themselves "sluts" with a "positive and defiant" spirit, all told her the decision had turned against them later- and all regretted it . Tanenbaum told me that, when women are in closed circle or close-knit community - like a protest with like-minded people, or among friends who understand the cheeky appropriation of the word - identifying as a "slut" can be empowering . But what inevitably happens, especially in today's digital culture where revenge porn, stolen pictures and cyber harassment is the norm, is that "it always spills outwards." For them it was an amazing feminist experience , but it didn't last . Every single person I spoke to who intentionally embraced a "slut" persona ended up being treated terribly by people outside of her circle , because the culture we live in is so dominated by the sexual double standard . But beyond women who tried to reclaim "slut" for themselves, other feminists have rightfully asked why we should all try to reclaim a word with so much baggage - especially a word that impacts different women differently, and brings them a lot more pain than righteous justice . SlutWalks, for example, are no longer the cause celebre they once were because some women of color spoke out against the ways in which the protests and the reclamation of "slut" focused on the ability of white women to simultaneously embrace the word and reject its meaning . A group of black female academics, activists, and writers wrote an open letter explaining that "as Black women, we do not have the privilege or the space to call ourselves 'slut' without validating the already historically entrenched ideology and recurring messages about what and who the Black woman is." Rutgers professor and writer Brittney Cooper wrote at the time,"To organize a movement around the reclamation of a term is in and of itself an act of white privilege." In response, some SlutWalk organizers changed the name of their protests ; today , while a handful of SlutWalks remain , the excitement over the movement has waned noticeably . But women everywhere are still being actively, physically hurt by the stereotypes that lead people to call them "sluts" . Just look to the high profile deaths of young women who were slut-shamed and a mass shooting where the killer said he was targeting "blonde sluts" : we're still being targeted because of our identities and sexualities , and it has, perhaps appropriately, put a damper on the once-celebratory reclamation of the word . Maybe that the wounds inflicted by "slut"- and the culture that encourages people to define women that way - that we once hoped were superficial are just too raw and too deep . Maybe the speed of the internet is too fast for us to control a word with so much potential to damage . There' s a poster on my living room wall by artist Favianna Rodriguez that reads:"I'm a Slut. I Vote. So Does Everyone I Sleep With. And You're About to be More Fucked Than I Am." For me, it captures the brash, in-your-face spirit that the feminist movement I've loved is known for . But in this time of unprecedented feminist power, the conversation about "slut" can be more reflective than fevered . Women who want to call themselves "sluts" shouldn't stop, or be made to stop - I love that women can embrace that which is meant to hurt them and find power in it . But I also know that we can still claim our sexuality and agency without using a word meant to denigrate- a word that still hurts so many people . Besides , we don't need "slut" to tell us what we already know: women have sex , some people don't like that and we're going to continue to do it anyway .

Like "cunt" and "bitch", many feminists have long tried to wrest away from its original users the power and harm of the word "slut" and to give it new meaning