I went out to a bar on Australia Day. I was in the middle of a conversation with a friend when a pair of men thought they’d try to engage with us. If strangers begin talking to me at a bar or club, I assume that they’re trying to, quite frankly, get into my pants….
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On 1 January each year, many people wake up fully motivated to achieve the usual round-up of New Year’s Resolutions: meet someone special, quit smoking, change careers. By 1 February, most of these have been abandoned as we return to the comfort of ex sex, unshakeable nicotine addictions and our steady, if unexciting, jobs. Among…
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Katherine Boo’s book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, is a devastating and important investigation of slum life in India. Stylistically, it’s near perfect: the writing is erudite, informative, intimate, and accessible. It is narrative non-fiction in the best possible sense: it reads like a novel, but avoids the trap of over-interpretation. Boo expertly balances an objective…
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The nuclear family is a pretty familiar trope to anyone who watches TV. Whether you’re a sitcom fan or streaming HBO, any series with a family at its core is prone to its man-wife-2.5 children dynamic. The husband or the kids generally carry the narrative. They’re brooding heroes or outrageous players, sullen teens or misfits….
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I don’t know if this is normal, but sometimes I wonder what David Attenborough would say about me if I were as alien and beautiful as the blue whale or the puma. Can’t you just hear his rich, erudite tones narrating my weeknights? ‘Here we see the young female lit student in her natural habitat:…
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There is a problem with modern feminism. This will come as no surprise to anyone, considering all I ever hear about feminism are the various problems associated with it. Whether people are debating the true meaning of the word “misogyny”, or whether or not feminists are humourless bitches, or whether or not we should shave…
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Leigh Sales farewells Hillary Clinton The outgoing US Secretary of State has chatted with ABC journalist Leigh Sales about ending gender discrimination during a final interview in Washington DC. Sales was invited to moderate the ‘townterview’ event after leading a similar forum with Clinton in Melbourne. The event saw questions asked from participants around the…
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As you may have noticed on our website, Lip has recently become a Pozible partner and thus holds a page of our favourite Pozible projects – the ones we think Lipsters would love and consider supporting. This week, I spoke to Amy Vee, emerging musician and creator of the current project “Fits and Starts”. …
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Picking up a memoir about the porn industry, Not Your Ordinary Housewife, I didn’t expect the story Nikki Stern offered. I expected Stern to be a disadvantaged woman, struggling to make ends meet for the sake of her children. Instead, I found that Stern was involved in the adult industry in many different and varied…
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Amongst the chunky grey soil and sun-bleached rocks, a burst of colour appears under the scorching Mexican sun; a sea of pink shocks the eye into focus. At least a dozen names are written in cursive; Brenda, Esmeralda, Veronica… also written is the word Desconocida – Spanish for Unknown. The names (and tragic substitutions) adorn…
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Ben Green and Aaron Cupples, two Australian expatriates who met for the first time in Barcelona in 2009 – though that’s not what Aaron thinks – formed a musical marriage they call Civil Civic. With the upcoming release of their debut album, it’s only now they’ve set their heart on a debut tour of Australia….
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