sydney khoo’s story, [faan uk kei], won the 2023 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Here’s a Q&A with sydney, plus their award-winning story! * Congratulations on winning the 2023 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction, sydney. Tell us a bit about yourself. Hey, I’m sydney khoo (they/them), a nonbinary writer from Dharawal Country (South Western Sydney)…
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Women’s mental health is under serious strain. One in six Australian women experience depression and a further one in three have Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Women are also more likely than men to develop an eating disorder and are at a heightened risk of PTSD. Things are even worse for Indigenous women in Australia. 33.2%…
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Social media usage — whether it be Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok — is a huge staple of modern life, to the point that most of us may not think twice about the information that we consume online. But there is growing evidence to suggest that increased social media usage can be related to a variety…
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Women have always been made to feel like a spare part in the automotive world. Motoring TV shows like Top Gear are laced with casual misogyny and the last woman to compete in Formula One was Giovanna Amati in 1992. But women are also pressured to steer clear of “boys’ toys” as a career option….
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Around the world, the legal profession has historically been the domain of white, privileged males. Some conservative nations, such as Saudi Arabia, didn’t even allow women to practice law until recently. And in 2015, the Washington Post declared law to be the least diverse profession in the U.S., as a full 88% of the nation’s…
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As an historian of the Australian women’s movement, the past two years have been extraordinary to witness. Not only are we living through a once-in-a-century pandemic, which has had profoundly gendered effects, we have also experienced a feminist insurgency that has placed the issue of women’s safety, and men’s abuses of power, at the centre…
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The gig economy has been widely heralded as the future of work. Proponents celebrate it as a means for workers to escape the tyranny of the traditional workplace and to cultivate a career on their own terms. They cite it as the conduit to freedom and choice for today’s workers. For many, however, the reality…
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The COVID-19 pandemic coincided with several revelations about racial injustice around the world. It’s become clear: systemic racism is still thriving. With vaccinations now underway, people are finally reflecting on the hardships people of colour (POC) faced in health and finance during this tumultuous year. Staying at home wasn’t an option While much of the…
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A half-finished crochet blanket lays on the floor, its frayed ends fully submerged in last night’s pasta alfredo. My dead pointe shoes (three months overdue for replacement) are haphazardly strewn against the cheap faux-leather ottoman I bought on Amazon with a gift card from last Christmas. My friend, Alec, surveys the mess and laughs. ‘You…
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Trigger warning: rape, suicide Yesterday, I left the movies, validated and heard. I had just seen a movie that I never even imagined could be told. Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, starring the perfectly cast Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham and Alison Brie, immediately felt important. We find Cassandra (Carey Mulligan) on a quest to teach…
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This year, our streets have been unusually empty. We spent most of 2020 in some form or other of lockdown, only leaving the house when necessary. But even with pedestrian traffic dramatically reduced, street harassment hasn’t necessarily stopped or even slowed down. Rather, it has persisted, as harmful and as dehumanising as ever, and affected…
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‘It’s a surprise,’ I say to my mother, ‘just wait outside with your phone.’ She agrees and takes her phone outside with the camera ready to shoot as I walk into my studio to get ready. When I emerge a few minutes later she struggles to control her laughter while I navigate the garden path…
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Do you remember the first time you felt free? The first time that you realised that while external factors, like your parents, teachers, money, the fact that you’re a 10-year-old child and don’t have a license to do, well, anything, doesn’t mean you have no control? I do. I remember distinctly and I relish the…
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When COVID-19 hit, some commentators hailed it as an opportunity to revolutionise gender roles in heterosexual couples. But as public life froze overnight and homes became schools, daycare centres and offices, mothers have been placed under more pressure, not less. Our new study on workers in the United States shows that in the first months…
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