Here at Villainesse, we haven’t had the easiest ride with The Bachelor . And rightfully so. This is a feminist website. A website that believes in...
Image shows Paige by Frances Carter
Aotearoa is bursting with talented women but, as was recently exposed by journalist Ali Mau , it...
At this point, I feel as though I’ve seen the words “go to therapy” a thousand times. Whether it’s Jameela Jamil telling an anonymous Twitter user...
Trigger Warning: Discussion of sexual assault.
The following article contains major spoilers for Promising Young Woman.
It’s not...
We all need money, want money – many of us spend a large portion of our waking hours working for money. 2020 thrust our economic systems under the...
I know, I know. Christmas is a capitalist scam that creates tonnes and tonnes of landfill every year. Everything about it highlights the gaping...
A bit cliche, but only because it never retires, is that saying ‘a picture says a thousand words’.
It...
Since finishing Netflix’s latest season of The Crown, I’ve slept, cooked meals...
In Ben Lerner’s coming-of-age novel The Topeka School, alternating narrators weave a complex tapestry of teenager Adam Gordan’s journey as he...
It feels like bad stuff is happening all the time at the moment. Part of that is because it is, I mean, 2020, right? The global pandemic, hellish...
Okay, nothing is going to save this year – too much tragedy has struck for 2020 to ever be redeemed. Be it wildfires...
When I first started Lovecraft Country , the latest must-see TV show plastered...
Honestly, I get kind of sick of watching TV shows that don’t look or sound anything like real...
As a rule, all coming-of-age stories include the protagonist’s realisation that the world of adults is founded on lies of many shapes and sizes....
In the days since her passing, long serving liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been described as a: champion; defender; feminist icon;...
Before her serene, defiant (illustrated) face could be found in bookstores across the nation, the girl from...
“I know that unless you are spirited and beautiful heiress, life is essentially a to-do list. Which begins with ‘escape this vagina’ and ends with...
Two years in writing, a lifetime in the making.
Ukraine-born and Auckland-raised, Veronika Bell — known onstage as VÏKÆ — has distilled...
In chapter 11 of Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s extraordinary book ‘Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons’ , the authors share...
It’s funny how things go: when a Timaru woman launched a petition in an attempt to stop a drag duo from reading to children at the public library...
In her first studio album, Mel Bester, known onstage as E^ST, has laid a piece of herself bare.
Recorded with producer Jim Eliot (who has...
British singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas has just released her third...
On one hand I’m not a sentimental person.
I object out loud to cliches and unrealistic tropes in every rom-com I watch (which makes me a...
When it comes to climate change, I’ve been feeling a bit deflated about my efforts to make a difference for a while. Every thing that I could buy...
If I hear the word ‘Avatar’ I don’t think of blue people in a jungle.
I think of my siblings and I crammed into a two square-meter study...
Know Your Place , Golriz Ghahraman’s memoir,...
In 2012, I was accepted for admission to Seoul National University’s College of Humanities. I never ended up going that spring, choosing instead...
With the Black Lives Matter movement gaining steam (and achieving results) across the globe, Black media...
Undergarments have always been about more than just fabric for your private parts. Reflecting the spirit of the times, lingerie has evolved over...
It was a moment almost sacriligious – when many booklovers quietly and guiltily mused that perhaps Margaret Atwood didn’t deserve to win the...
What if I told you that Survivor is the only thing getting me through these “unprecedented times”? Yes,...
You probably don’t want to watch Normal People with your mum.
If possible,...
Whether you’re looking for ways to fill your time while social distancing, having an acute case of wanderlust within the confines of your bubble,...
Because of the lockdown, I’ve finally had time to get around to watching Parasite (a cinematic...
Once upon a time, entering Auckland’s Academy Cinema was like entering a prohibition-era speakeasy. The first challenge was finding the door (and...
We’re all stuck in our houses, which leaves plenty of time for... not much,...
Trigger warning: this review includes mention of violence, sexual assault, and homicide.
When I’d previously imagined what the...
I certainly wouldn’t blame you if you haven’t read bell hooks’ Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center...
Janet Frame was a “rebel, a seeker of freedom and a passionate champion of the imagination”, according to the theatremakers who adapted her...
I have a feeling no-one really knows how they felt at 18 until they’re not 18 anymore.
And it’s only a...
If the world never produced another Jane Austen adaptation, we’d be fine. There are at least 15...
Sometime over the summer, an Anime House opened up at my local Westfield Mall. I wandered in one day to peruse the merchandise, and came face to...
For those of us who grew up on, in or around the internet, it’ll always be...
The following article contains details that may be considered spoilers for the Netflix docuseries...
First published on Friday the 29 th of March, 2019, this piece comes in at number 5 in the top 30 most read...
First published on Thursday the 21 st of March, 2019, this piece comes in at number 10 in the top 30 most read...
First published on Thursday the 16 th of May, 2019, this piece comes in at number 11 in the top 30 most read...
First published on Sunday the 9 th of June, 2019, this piece comes in at number 12 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2019.
A...
Trigger warning: this piece features discussion of violence and rape.
Have you ever thought about who cleans up the aftermath of...
Joy to the world, Netflix has released another set of Christmas movies. This year, they’ve branched out. There’s only one movie with Vanessa...
It’s official — Taylor Swift is the Artist of the Decade! After her recent wins at the...
I recently talked to a living, breathing human person in the year 2019, who told me “women...
Cameron Diaz, wearing a golden bikini and blue-tinted shades, steers a speedboat. She’s squinting...
Protest Tautohetohe is exciting. To be honest, I didn’t expect that from a book which was produced by museum curators and focuses on objects. I...
WARNING: Contains major Breaking...
Ellen DeGeneres has walked herself into a bit of controversy lately, after being caught on...
There’s a fantastic moment in the buoyant first hour of Hustlers, the stripper-heist...
If you’ve ever done a trash audit, you’ll know that the bathroom is an area of the home that can regularly generate a lot of waste. But that needn...
Possum Plows has had enough. As the lead singer of Openside, New Zealand’s premier pop-punk collective, they’ve gifted us countless awesome tunes...
