For over a year, a pink hooded jumper has sat folded between the neutrals and blacks of my wardrobe, smelling of mothballs and awaiting patiently for me to end its hibernation by ripping off the price tag and caressing it against my skin. It’s not that I dislike the hoodie; in fact, I think it…
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Masturbation is part of many women’s self-care routine to relieve stress, sexual tension and even ease menstrual pain. But many of us don’t feel comfortable talking about it. What is stopping us from casually speaking about self-pleasure? ‘It’s a very awkward topic, because of the reactions of modern society…I would just keep it to myself.’ …
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The room spun around me, blurring the faces that stared out at me from all directions. I reached for the wall to steady myself and realised too late I’d missed the mark. My body fell to the floor. Ashley laughed at me and continued her drunken dance to Arrested Development’s Mr Wendal. From my…
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Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s The Love of a Bad Man begins with tenderness: ‘Baby, wake up,’ he says, and he’s kissing my eyelids, my cheeks, trailing his fingers over the bib of my nightgown and it’s so soft it must be a dream. Woolett’s short-story collection focuses on the lives of twelve women (or in the…
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Slut. * “After Kim Kardashian posted her nude photo in early March, I read several pieces on the double standards in the uproar that it prompted. These articles addressed, in particular, the ease with which we accept women’s bare bodies in our advertising, film, television and music videos when they are affirming the male gaze…
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The irony of the West’s close relationship with Saudi Arabia would be laughable, if it weren’t so troubling. When King Abdullah, of the ruling al-Saud family, died in January 2015, tributes gushed forth from world leaders. Prince Charles, David Cameron and Barack Obama, among others, flew to Riyadh to pay their respects to a man…
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An introduction to contraceptive choices From the Ancient Egyptians’ use of crocodile dung to drinking hot mercury tea in Ancient China, people fearing an extra mouth to feed fretted over the best means to avoid bearing one. Contraception is a global, timeless issue which some big international players – most notably the United Nations –…
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Sticky: A (Self) Love Story, is a documentary by freelance writer and director, Nicholas Tana, about a topic that, as his film addresses, is engaged in by nearly ninety percent of people, but is talked about by almost none: masturbation. The film asks kindergarten teachers, rabbis, porn stars and everyone in between to talk about…
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It’s difficult to think of a recent film more exquisite and more perfect than Carol. It may seem too soon to call the film a masterpiece, but I can confidently say that it is truly up there with some of the greatest movies of recent times. More importantly, it takes its place alongside Brokeback Mountain…
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If you’re looking for BOLD in a bookstore, you’ll definitely know when you’ve found it. Its striking cover is mostly red, splashed with the title across the lower half. On the back, it has some impressive cover quotes from Benjamin Law and former Greens leader Bob Brown. Flipping through the pages, you see the many photos collected by the…
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Rosie Waterland’s The Anti-Cool Girl is the Australian antidote to Lena Dunham’s controversial memoirs but with much more bite. Waterland, a writer for the Mamamia Women’s Network, is most commonly known for her hilarious recaps of The Bachelor. In the The Anti-Cool Girl Waterland smoothly takes us through her life, from birth to the present…
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What will most likely draw audiences to The Lobster is its gimmick. The protagonist, David (Colin Farrell), is sent to a dreary hotel where he has forty-five days to select a life partner, or he will be turned into the animal of his choosing (a Lobster). The world that writers Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou…
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It’s a sad fact, but most Australians don’t want to watch Australian films. Many will claim that Aussie films are boring, dull and poorly made, and it’s easy to blame audiences for their lack of devotion to their local film industry. However, it’s more accurate to blame the industry itself for the films it makes….
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I can’t remember how young I* was when I first discovered masturbation. Too young to know what it was that I was doing, certainly, and even to what end. But old enough – or engrained enough – to know that it was something I should be doing in private, and something I shouldn’t ever…
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