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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“You’re either gay, straight, or lying”, right? The Lip Crew begs to differ. * “As a bisexual woman I have experienced discrimination from both the gay and straight communities. I’ve had lesbians not want to pursue a romantic relationship with me due to an irrational fear that I will cheat, while straight girl friends o’…
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Fat shaming is a thing. * “Women’s rights. LGBT rights. Racial rights. Fat rights? ‘Fat’ and ‘feminism’ are becoming buzzwords quicker than we can say, “pass the pancakes.” The fact that we are suffering from collective body dysmorphia – where size 0 models still rule supreme and we go to great extents to get the perfect,…
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Pink is for boys and/or girls and blue is for boys and/or girls and colours are just colours, you guys. * “A vivid childhood memory of mine is going shopping for Star Wars pyjamas with my Dad in our local Target. I have always been a huge Star Wars fan, so these pyjamas were a…
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Can you recall the first feminist book you ever read that opened your eyes and had you nodding your head along with every sentence, every idea, every truth? * “‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine,’ growls Godmother of Punk, the girl who just wanted to look like Keith Richards, Patti Smith. With her…
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Touch yourself. * ‘Men standing around in a room, praying for forgiveness from their deity for jacking off and not impregnating their wives with more sheep for the flock: this is the sight that confronted me during the Channel 4 documentary Sex Death and the Meaning of Life. As a sex positive person, it was…
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So…you don’t need feminism, huh? * ‘“Why would you want to make it harder than it has to be?” This was the question raised by my basketball coach during a losing game. Our team wasn’t communicating properly; we were making awful passes and executing some pretty half-arsed plays. All in all, the game was a…
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Family is often born of blood, but it doesn’t depend on blood. * ‘When I think of family, I think of volcanoes. Some lie dormant, while others erupt. All we can do is build a home next to the chaos and dodge the lava. And once we dust off the ash clouds, the soil is…
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Labels are for jars, not people. * ‘Labels are for jars, ingredient listings, well-designed clothes and salt and pepper. They’re not for gender, race, sexuality or anything else for the matter. You are labeled from the minute you emerge into the world as the doctor looks up to confirm if pink or blue blankets will…
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* ‘Comment boards are a great place to go if you want to read a hysterical misunderstanding of the word “censorship”. It’s a word that’s so prone to hyperbole that in cyberspace it has become acceptable to equate criticism or moderation with censorship. Not only is this inaccurate, it also trivialises just how oppressive censorship…
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We dedicate this piece to those special women in our lives. Happy Mother’s Day, Mum(s). * ‘For nine years I grew up in a single parent-child household, but our home never felt empty. Mum’s chicken and lamb roasts were legendary and we always had plenty of friends to fill the seats around the dining room…
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Who are you? Who, who, who, who? * ‘Identity is something that I definitely struggled with throughout my teenage years, but thankfully that struggle has now (mostly) passed. I know who I am now and the things that I want, but of course, I am still working out how exactly to obtain all of those…
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New Year; New You? * ‘New Year’s resolutions are typically a bust on some level or another. It’s partly to do with the anticipation of being able to change overnight. As a person conditioned to conveniences and immediate gratification (here’s looking at you, fellow Gen-Yers), I know that I tend to think about the…
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“Whatever you do, whatever you see, whatever you read, at Lip we only ask one thing – think about it.” – Lip Magazine * ‘I didn’t know about Lip Magazine until it started following me on Twitter. I’m not sure what it was I tweeted that got the attention of the magazine (or Twitter, since…
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