I’ve been watching SBS after 10.30pm on Fridays again… They always seem to feature documentaries on ‘uncomfortable topics’. Brothels, prostitutes, nudity. Most recently, SBS featured one on genitalia. The documentary was made in relation to the growing trend of girls and women, of basically all ages, feeling as though they need surgery on their vagina/vulva…
Read more
The news has been rife with stories recently of women making cruel or nasty comments towards other women. It all started with Germaine Greer criticising Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s choice of jackets on the ABC’s Q and A. Later, we saw British Daily Mail columnist, Samantha Brick, claim that women are nasty to her because…
Read more
The potentiality for feminism to be a global movement sometimes can be a bit of an elephant in the room for Western feminists. It is clear that the rights of women are fundamentally and consistently in question throughout the world. In many nations, women lack the right to a public life on their own terms….
Read more
The Woman in the Mirror: How to stop confusing what you look like with who you are by Cynthia M Bulik is essential reading for any woman or young girl who isn’t satisfied with her appearance. If you feel the need to check out your reflection throughout the day, if you feel intimidated by other…
Read more
Most women I know hate buying bathers, and for good reason – most of the time it is a traumatic experience of feeling flesh pushed and prodded in the wrong direction, squeezing into bikinis that are labeled your size yet resemble a handkerchief amongst your flesh, or being lost in a sea of unflattering designs…
Read more
In ‘Female Chauvinist Pigs’ author Ariel Levy questions what it means to be sexy today. Her search takes her all over America into strip clubs, women’s living rooms and onto a Florida beach where girls are encouraged to strip off their clothes for the cameras of hit TV show ‘Girls Gone Wild’. She finds a…
Read more
The main thing I learnt by reading this book is that the sexism that existed pre-1950s is definitely sneaking back into society. While today it is mostly swept under the rug and hidden away, there remain aspects that are right out in the open just begging us, as women, to make a move to change…
Read more
The book that made me realise that I was a feminist was “The Beauty Myth” by Naomi Wolf. It is essentially about the ways in which images of beauty are used against both men and women to make us feel more vulnerable. The book has chapters focusing on different aspects of life, work, religion, culture,…
Read more
‘I’m having a fat day.’ ‘My boobs are too small.’ ‘I’m having a bad hair day.’ ‘I’m ugly.’ We all know these phrases. They start popping into our consciences at around age 12 (but with all that Toddlers and Tiaras crap it’s probably even younger now) and are then imprinted onto our experiences of “girl…
Read more
Men’s magazines aren’t generally known for fostering positive attitudes towards women, if at all. However, a recent study conducted by psychologists in the UK has revealed that most participants in the study could not readily distinguish comments made in popular men’s magazines from quotes from interviews with convicted rapists. Men between the ages of 18…
Read more
I’ve never been 100% comfortable with having my photograph taken – despite trying to make myself accustomed to it through regular outfit photos. I have a relatively realistic viewpoint on how I look in pictures, but sometimes I am still shocked out of that viewpoint by what is either a “bad” photo or a “bad”…
Read more
Frumpy – it’s not the most body-positive word around, is it? Nope, it’s just one of the numerous negative ways we describe and view women’s bodies in contemporary society. Wherever it appears, whether it be a fashion magazine or in office conversation it is always used as an insult. It equates to a woman that…
Read more
Females are amazing. We do amazing things. We say amazing things. We give birth to amazingness. So why do we beat ourselves up so much about what we look like? Why is a search for perfection so viciously tiring on ourselves? Let me tell you a story. A couple of years ago I made the…
Read more
An eating disorder can be described as a marathon. And in that image, it isn’t ever just the sufferer that is running. Their community – friends, parents, teachers, siblings – can be asked to step up without training, without warning, or proper footwear. This isn’t the fault of the one who’s fighting. But it is…
Read more
