If you ask your doctor or physician about common heart attack symptoms, many would tell you to look for chest pain. But over the course of the past few decades, research has proven that heart attack symptoms may not be as clear cut as previously assumed. In fact, symptoms can vary greatly depending on your…
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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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I recently wrote this article for Lip to analyse the findings of a study into youth mental health in Australia. The results sent me reeling, though I’m not sure if it was to do with the uncomfortably high numbers or the sickening feeling that came over me when I considered a child as young as…
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An old refrain has rung loud and true this week: sexual and reproductive health and rights are integral to the empowerment of women. A number of organisations congregated in New York on Monday to discuss the role of said health care and rights in women’s lives at an International Planned Parenthood Foundation forum. Western Hemisphere…
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When I was a kid, there were these strange cereal ads where a woman would be trying to buy her groceries and the male grocer would pick up her box of cereal and say ‘Hey, nice choice!’ and list off all these random facts about this wonder cereal. ‘And it’s high in iron,’ he’d…
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You will have seen them. They’ve been viral over the weekend. In valiant acts of bravery and generosity, women everywhere have been posting (dark, out of focus and grainy) photographs of themselves WITHOUT MAKE UP. But never fear, for these drastic, selfless acts are all for a good cause: raising awareness and (apparently) money for…
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2012 was a bit of a feminist themed vocab lesson. From misogyny to discharge, Australians were schooled in words you just don’t say on telly. You may remember this Carefree campaign that Lip gave the thumbs up to last year for daring to discuss vaginal discharge and the normalcy of it in a TV commercial….
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A United Nations committee has called for a global ban on female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that has been undergone by 70 million young girls and women at a rate of about 6,000 a day. Three million girls are estimated to be at risk each year. The UN’s general assembly human rights committee called…
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At the heart of the Face Of Birth documentary is a question. That is – do women have a right to choose where and how they will give birth? It is a hot button issue, yet one where other developed nations have deemed that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work. This Australian documentary plays like…
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Ladies, you should take care of your vaginas. No I don’t mean as in a get waxed or dye your labia or whatever whacked thing people are doing nowadays. You should go get a pap smear. Every. Two. Years. I’m surprised how many women don’t. Friends and family guiltily admit, “I’m so overdue. I can’t…
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In one second a life was ruined. So goes one of the many harrowing statements made in the documentary film, Saving Face. Directors Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy have detailed a sensitive issue, exposing the plights of victims of acid attacks in Pakistan, with this Oscar award-winning short proving to be worth a feature-length runtime….
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Weight loss and wedding bells seem to be waltzing hand in hand to the theme song of the Ten Network’s Biggest Loser Singles.The program’s enthusiastic press release claims that this year the contestants will be ‘seeking the companionship that their weight has long denied them’. Whether or not you find the equation of obesity and…
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When life gets me down, I flee to Youtube and drag up Baz Luhrmann’s musical take on Mary Schmich’s 1999 piece Sunscreen. Sure, I like electro-pop beats and I support amateur photo montage makers, but really my motives for this are more selfish. Basically, it’s just soothing to hear the opening lines of advice, which…
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