After some recent hoopla around the validity of Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill (...
Growing up, the people in my communities never talked about motherhood as though it were a choice. It was always a matter of figuring out the when...
In late 2017, while looking for an angsty romance to read for a hike around Stewart Island, I stumbled upon...
There was a moment in Dirty John ’s final episode that really made the show for me. It had so far been a...
A tone-deaf Hollywood actor, an up-and-coming British director and a Northern Irish playwright with very different ideas try to put on a play… It...
Māori music is at the very heart of the Auckland Arts Festival this year, with Tōku Reo Waiata taking centre stage as the centrepiece festival...
They may not have won gold tonight, but these are the women, and women-led films, that truly deserve our applause...
I’m excited. The Oscars, only the most important event in the global film industry, are a week away tomorrow. I can’t wait to see Debra Granik...
I feel so stupid when it happens. The ‘you’re-a-phony’ siren goes off at such a high screech inside my head; it almost surprises me the neighbours...
Find me a TV show that shows teenage girls in all their raucous yet insecure high-school glory. Go on, ya...
Films and novels are great at glamorising sadness, yet in reality it’s anything but glamorous. I remember one of the lowest moments in my life was...
First published on Monday the 5th of March, 2018, this piece comes in at number 3 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2018.
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First published on Monday the 16th of April, 2018, this piece comes in at number 6 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2018.
First published on Tuesday the 14th of August, 2018, this piece comes in at number 10 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2018....
First published on Wednesday the 31st of October, 2018, this piece comes in at number 16 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2018....
First published on Thursday the 15th of March, 2018, this piece comes in at number 18 in the top 30 most read...
First published on Friday the 23rd of March, 2018, this piece comes in at number 22 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2018.
First published on Friday the 26th of January, 2018, this piece comes in at number 24 in...
The 2019 Academy Awards show, due to take place on February 25 th , is just over two months away. Still a while away in the grand scheme things,...
Christmas + Netflix = trashy, feel-good, rom coms. The online streaming service has taken to releasing a few original Christmas movies each year...
Donna Brookbanks is a comedian, actor, improviser and writer based in Auckland. Just recently she...
I’ll be honest, I have never read Clementine Ford’s first best seller, Fight Like A Girl (2016). In fact, my...
A girls’ night is not complete without the perfect movie. There’s nothing quite like a glass of wine...
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...
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...
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,...
Friday nights are usually a time to drink away your weekly woes with colleagues or friends at some hideously overpriced monstrosity at the Viaduct...
Dear Kristy, Mary-Anne, Claudia, Stacey, Dawn, Mallory, and Jessi – by way of Ann M....
Abigail Johnson caught up with pop-country songstress Jamie McDell to see what she’s been up to,...
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,...
Admit it, we’ve all had that one (or many) moment(s) in our lives when...
Giulia Romanó created ‘Leaky Week’ as her final project in a Bachelor of Communication Design at AUT to encourage positive discussion and views...
It feels like I write a piece like this once every few months. Another day, another cringe-worthy example of cultural appropriation, this time...
My girlfriend and I were grinning from ear to ear as we left our screening of Ocean’s 8 . We hadn’t devised some feminist conspiracy to love the...
I never thought I’d spent my weekend sewing rhinestones on to G-string. Nor stalking the internet for 4 hours to find a 80s leopard print thong...
The way some people talk about reality TV, you’d think it was a symptom of everything wrong with modern society. People who watch it are...
More than 20 years after Paris Is Burning , New York’s queer vogue ballroom scene continues to usher in a new generation of stars, as seen in...
I remember hearing the lyric, ‘I was 27 surviving my return to Saturn’ in Katy Perry’s By The Grace Of God some years ago. I thought it was some...
Honestly, drunk Pākehā doing the haka in London on Waitangi Day was bad enough. As a...
If you haven’t yet heard of Womanly , chances are you will soon. The newly launched magazine provides a platform (both online and in print) for...
I vividly remember the moment when I first discovered Zara. I was 19, on a trip to the UK, when I stumbled into an alternative universe of...
Language note: Possum uses they/them pronouns.
How many pop punk stars do you know who fly to Wellington specially to see the Muppets in...
Imagine this: you’ve come home from uni, you’re ready to start your kickass, girl power-fuelled career – #LeanIn #GirlBoss – and you suddenly...
I’m having a bit of a renaissance period in my life. My daughter is just entering her teens and one of the things we’ve...
LinkedIn wants me to connect with my ex.
God knows why. It wasn’t exactly a good idea the first time round.
Gone are the days of...
Life as a 17-year-old is already challenging enough. Balancing school, new-found freedom, responsibilities, trying to have a social life, holding...
Women are creatures of wisdom. Call it intuition, experience, insight, a hunch, whatever… the world would be a better place if women were listened...
Ko Rangitumau te maunga. Ko Ruamāhanga te awa...
New Zealand comedian Louise Beuvink was frustrated with gender roles and society’s expectations of women, so she created Ladylike: A Modern Guide...
Some movies give you chills for a good reason, like brilliant cinematography or acting....
The first word I ever uttered was the word ‘kaukau’, meaning to swim in Māori. My family used to take summer trips to Marokopa - a notoriously...
First published on Saturday the 5th of August, 2017, this piece comes in at number 6 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2017....
First published on Friday the 28th of July, 2017, this piece comes in at number 11 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2017.
Bold take: The Last Jedi is the most feminist blockbuster film of 2017....
Imagine this: you’re alone, somewhere along a remote stretch of coastline where the air is so cold you can see your breath, and living out of your...
Christmas songs hold a special place in my heart. I’m one of those strange people who start listening to them well before it is decent to do so,...
Podcasts.
Maybe you love them, maybe you hate them – or maybe you’ve never listened to one. But if you are a fan, you know how hard it can...
With the ongoing naming-and-shaming of alleged sexual predators in Hollywood (think Spacey/ Weinstein/ Ratner/ Louis CK et al), and productions...
HIV.
It has historically been known as a “death sentence”, helped in no small part by campaigns of old that have featured Grim Reapers and...
Film, as Rose McGowan said recently, “is the messaging system for your mind”. Whether we like it or...
