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…
Read more
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…
Read more
Since Beyonce’s appearance in a barely there photo shoot in GQ some days ago, the age old question has again emerged: is being “sexy” empowering or demeaning to women? Further complicating matters is the fact that Beyonce dared to express her thoughts on gender inequality alongside these pictures, stating to the interviewer: ‘Equality is a…
Read more
I have never before given a shit about a fish. I grew up with goldfish after goldfish and even named some of them, but barely cared or even noticed when they died. I had somewhat more sentiment for my rabbits, but my reaction to their deaths was also pretty cavalier. The prospect of my dog…
Read more
I really must give a shout out to one of my dearest social networking sites, Facebook. What a challenge it can be, every day to connect into the hearts, minds and walls of so many friends, colleagues, and often strangers whom you’ve befriended and now know many of their private details. But despite the potential…
Read more
Joumana Haddad is a truly a remarkable woman. Born in Beirut in 1970, she speaks and writes in several different languages, is an advocate for women’s rights, is studying for her doctorate on the Marquis de Sade and also teaches Italian at the Lebanese-American University in Beirut. I was so inspired after I read and…
Read more
In celebration of women’s voices, Lip is launching the Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. This is a themed fiction competition, open to all ages and genders. Rachel Funari, the namesake of the competition, was the founding editor of Lip. Tragically, Rachel went missing in 2011, while on holiday in Tasmania. We are launching the prize in…
Read more
I have been writing for Lip since 2009. When I first started writing, fat acceptance was only a fledging concept in my mind – I had a rough idea of what it was, mostly through livejournal communities such as fatshionista and I had a rough concept of what exactly “fatshion” was as well. It’s no…
Read more
As the year draws to a close the World Wide Web has been crammed with annual lists. We’ve seen the Daily Life’s 20 Most Influential Female Voices of 2012, Forbes’ The World’s Most Powerful People and the list capable of causing an internet meltdown, Buzzfeed’s The 30 Most Important Cats Of 2012. Channelling my inner X Factor contestant…
Read more
My Favourite Things When I was little I was the girl in a white dress with a blue satin sash- at ballet school anyway. I learnt the words to the song and I made it my goal to find out what my favourite things were, so that when I felt bad I could cling…
Read more
Surge of Aboriginal Women in Jail An ABS report shows the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander female prisoners has risen by 20 per cent since June 2011, compared with a 3 per cent rise in non-Aboriginal female prisoners. The problem is not that Aboriginal women are simply innately more criminal, but rather they…
Read more
I’d never really thought about it before, until I started reading Joumana Haddad’s Superman is an Arab, but Superman really is a disastrous invention. I’ve never been drawn to the character or the stories surrounding him and have never seen the movies, but still, why doesn’t it raise more eyebrows that Clark Kent is only…
Read more
Gillard calls out Abbott (again) The AWU scandal, involving allegations that Prime Minister Julia Gillard was responsible for unethical conduct back in her days as a lawyer at Slater and Gordon, just keeps going. On the last sitting day of Parliament this year, Abbott has called for a judicial inquiry into the matter and demanded…
Read more
I don’t listen to the radio or watch much TV, and half the time I’m far too lazy to download new music. Which means that my music taste is mostly stuck in the ’90s, with some current stuff thrown in if I stumble across it. My younger sister I care for is one of the…
Read more
