This morning I woke up to an email from a reader. It said:
Please write about Grace. We were all Grace on...
Trans rights have been in the news a lot lately. The Auckland Pride Parade board’s recent decision to ask police not to march in the parade in...
I believe, as a culture, we’ve come a long way in terms of how we treat mental health. When Britney Spears...
New Zealand is not great in terms of mental health or support for those with mental illness. That’s putting it lightly. OECD statistics shows how...
Donna Brookbanks is a comedian, actor, improviser and writer based in Auckland. Just recently she...
The holiday season is upon us, and with it comes the weirdest social event of the year: the work Christmas function. No matter how nice the people...
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, unless you have a bigoted uncle.
— Or aunt, grandpa, cousin, family friend, all of the above (if...
Owing to the fact I’m not a bored middle-aged gossip, I never purchase those glossy tabloid rags you see at...
I’ll be honest, I have never read Clementine Ford’s first best seller, Fight Like A Girl (2016). In fact, my...
Rugby, beer, and “she’ll be right”. It’s not hard to define masculinity in New Zealand. A total stranger to our country, after watching about ten...
When I think of feminist films, I think of Thelma and Louise , The Colour Purple , and the...
Earlier this year, I did some research for Tonic on the use of cannabis to treat symptoms of PMS, namely period pain. Since then, I’ve started...
A girls’ night is not complete without the perfect movie. There’s nothing quite like a glass of wine...
I try to keep things in perspective. I live in New Zealand – the 15 th country in the world to legalise gay marriage. I can walk down the street...
Y’all must be aware of...
The midterms were an exciting sign of change for America. Representation for women and...
Because 125 might have been a bit much.
Sex
In case you missed it, New Zealand’s abortion laws are outdated. And finally, we might be...
Dear Mike Hosking,
Hey buddy what’s up? I’m a long time sufferer listener, first time caller.
...
Note: I’ve used the word ‘lesbian’ here as a shorthand but want to include other sexual orientations such as bisexuality and pansexuality....
I had one of those should-have-said moments earlier this week, when you have the perfect opportunity to say something clever in a confronting...
Short answer: yes.
I’m not a ‘climate change denier’. I believe the science. I believe that climate change is an urgent problem that needs...
“Blonde!” I told them, “Completely blonde!”
When I went through my last big breakup several years ago, I booked myself a salon sesh almost...
Milkman is compelling. It’s the kind of book that rarely makes even the longlist for the Man Booker prize: a page turner. I didn’t expect the...
For many women, Facebook is a platform where they can air their concerns about gender inequality and sexual harassment in a relatively safe...
It’s a difficult time to be a woman. Populism and right wing (I refuse to use the term ‘alt-right’) politics are gaining traction; vulnerable...
As a society, we’re bad at coping with sexual harassment. Helping survivors and holding perpetrators to account is not our strong suit. If that...
Amanda Palmer didn’t mean for her latest release to be so relevant. Mr Weinstein Will See You Now, her latest Patreon-powered THING – as she likes...
Imagine cramps so bad that you can’t get out of bed. Every month. Followed by people dismissing the...
It feels like we are constantly losing as women right now. World events...
“We’re all born naked – the rest is drag.”
So said Ru Paul once upon a time, gifting the world a fabulous Instagram caption as well as a...
Being stuck down here at the bottom of the world means we often miss out on some of the best offerings from the likes of Amazon and Etsy,...
The Kavanaugh hearings and the #MeToo movement have revealed one depressing fact about the world: that no matter how terrible the abuse suffered,...
Ariana Grande has been called a diva , a symbol , a leader , and a killer. No link to that last one,...
The way Australia handles...
If you were too busy watching Jacinda win over the world with her maiden speech to the UN yesterday, you may have missed the most talked about...
A lot happened in 2006. Pluto was downgraded to a so-called dwarf planet, the world met Borat, and My Chemical Romance’s seminal emo-masterpiece...
Friday nights are usually a time to drink away your weekly woes with colleagues or friends at some hideously overpriced monstrosity at the Viaduct...
By 2020, New Zealand’s refugee quota will rise by 500, to a total of 1500 refugees per year. That’s progress, but it’s nowhere near enough....
We women often take on way more than we have time for, running from one commitment to the next, barely leaving time to draw breath. Whether it’s...
In 1893, we were not classified as people in New Zealand. Personhood hadn’t yet been extended to women. We were non-entities; vital to the future...
I want to get one thing out of the way right up front. I’m not saying you can’t have or share an opinion. Everyone can freely express their...
Dear Kristy, Mary-Anne, Claudia, Stacey, Dawn, Mallory, and Jessi – by way of Ann M....
First, a humble disclaimer: This story is not about consensual dick pics that people ask for, or that are exchanged during some consensual steamy...
Abigail Johnson chatted with emerging indie artist Josie Moon about music, aesthetics, and trying to put...
When people call parenting the ‘hardest job in the world’ I often pick up a faint whiff of condescension. It seems like something people think...
Abigail Johnson caught up with pop-country songstress Jamie McDell to see what she’s been up to,...
I’m a white woman who maintains a biweekly yoga practice, and to be honest, I feel pretty uncomfortable about it.
As with many things, the...
I’m old enough (read: not that old) to remember when people said ‘kiwi comedy’ was an oxymoron. The quip still pops up in the rubbish dump that is...
It is suffrage year fellow suffragists...
Sightings is an exciting play; it’s not every day that an all-female cast takes to the stage to disrupt theatre conventions with powerful,...
Trigger warning: This article contains anti-trans hate speech.
Glossary: TERF – Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. See here for...
In the olden days of 2012, ask.fm and anonymous questions on Tumblr were the main platform for online harassment. People could send hurtful...
If you’re anything like me, you probably made some kind of New Year’s resolution to read more books in 2018. Well, guess what? It’s almost...
Admit it, we’ve all had that one (or many) moment(s) in our lives when...
I love doing my makeup.
I also rarely, if ever, wear it.
That’s less the smug statement it may seem, and more a testament to my...
For me, menstrual cups are a godsend. To some people, they’re an uncomfortable, one-time experiment that will never work for them. With most...
It's a weird and wonderful time to be a woman, depending on where in the world you live. The likes of the #MeToo movement, the Free The Nipple...
When a friend asked novelist and famed feminist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, advice on how to raise her young daughter as a feminist, Adichie wrote...
A few weeks ago, New Zealand’s warrior princess Lucy Lawless fired off a tweet stating she wouldn’t be bothered if she saw someone burning the New...
Sexism is real. I hate to be the one to break it to you. It sucks and I wish it didn’t exist. But it’s here, in the world around us. There have...
