Hands up: who has ever been hunched over a hand mirror with their legs spread, panicking about something burning, itching, stinging or just feeling not quite right in their pants? Hello? Anyone? Sexually transmitted infections are stigmatised in Australia, creating a wealth of problems for both the individuals diagnosed with them and broader society. It’s…
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Readers, Lipsters, friends: the year of 2015 is well and truly upon us. As your New Year’s resolutions give way to the reality of work and play, I thought I’d impart on you some potential resolutions regarding your sex life. In a bit of a tongue-in-cheek start to another year of Back to Ba(sex), here’s…
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The number of women directors in Hollywood has not grown in 17 years. Research bySan Diego State University’s Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film shows females directing the top 250 grossing motion pictures have decreased 2 per cent since 1998. The rate of female writers, editors and producers is also down,…
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Australian women who value traditional femininity are less likely to enter politics following the sexism endured by Julia Gillard, a University of Sydney study has found. More than 150 students were asked about their civic participation and aspirations for a career in parliament. Researchers found a correlation between female belief in conventional gender roles and…
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It seems wherever we look in our increasingly media-consuming society, body shaming abounds. From songs that shame one bodily extreme to the other – ‘skinny’ or ‘fat’– and the eternal homage to anaconda-like penises (which, coincidentally, profess to not perform where a big booty is lacking), there’s an endless string of having to fit in…
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In yet another episode of Social Media Double Standards, a woman has been temporarily banned from accessing her organisation’s Facebook page after sharing a photo of a water birth. Why? The image posted to the Positive Birth Movement page featured buttocks and was removed because it ‘doesn’t follow the Facebook Community Standards regarding nudity’. Milli…
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November 20 is the 15th annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance, set up to emphasise the impact of prejudiced violence on the global trans community. Australian TDOR vigils will be particularly elegiac following the brutal murder of Indonesian-born trans woman Mayang Prasetyo by her Australian husband in October. But the day has also been used…
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There, he said it: Sting admits he doesn’t last seven hours in bed. Since 1990, The Police singer has been captivating the imagination of sexual beings throughout the West with his revelation of taking wife Trudie Styler to pleasure town for an extended period with tantric sex. It’s not quite like that, Sting says…
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Consent culture and rape culture: from the Interweb to smart phones, these two foes so often war on the battleground of information communication technologies. Every battle won within the name of consent is a small victory. So when affirmative consent app, Good2Go, was pulled from the market just nine days after its release, it begged…
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If you are sexually active, one would hope you have heard of the infections that can set upon your bits if you have a lax attitude to safe sex. Perhaps they are not as embedded in your brain as one Geordie Shore cast member, whose sweet nothings during love making consisted of ‘chlamydiaaaaa!’ Beyond chlamydia,…
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Ask a number of holidaymakers in any given airport departure lounge what they are after and you are bound to hear preferences for the following: sun, surf, sex. If media and academia are anything to go by, sex is a particular favourite. But why? There is constant research into the sexual behaviours of people going…
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As feminists, we believe women should have choices. We believe nothing should stand in the way of a woman living life as best she can. For the half a million Australian women diagnosed with the debilitating disease endometriosis, their autonomy is currently being compromised by pharmaceutical company Bayer. Bayer is considering bringing the drug…
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Sex, sex, sex. As a sex positive person, I endeavour to learn about the who, what, when, where, why and how of many sexualities. Living as this sort of person in regional Australia, I have never expected my town to be a haven for alternative lifestyles and ideas. Hoped – yes; expected – no. So…
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You might not think purple is your colour, but you should don some of the hue this Friday. Wondering why we here at Lip so concerned about what you’ll be wearing for once? Well August 29 is Wear it Purple Day, an initiative to recognise and support sexuality and gender diverse young people in their…
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