A girls’ night is not complete without the perfect movie. There’s nothing quite like a glass of wine...
Note: I’ve used the word ‘lesbian’ here as a shorthand but want to include other sexual orientations such as bisexuality and pansexuality....
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...
When a friend asked novelist and famed feminist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, advice on how to raise her young daughter as a feminist, Adichie wrote...
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...
The music video for Helen Corry’s new song La Femme drops today, and we’re stoked to premiere it here on Villainesse. It’s the kind of video you...
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...
I sometimes wish that real sex were like movie sex. A shared lustful look followed by a bit of kissing, hastily removed clothing, instant...
Do you ever feel like you’re being watched? Or that we’re all being brain-washed into dumbing down our thoughts,...
Women are creatures of wisdom. Call it intuition, experience, insight, a hunch, whatever… the world would be a better place if women were listened...
Sex, porn, relationships and consent will be put under the spotlight in the new 12-part web series The REAL Sex Talk , launching online on...
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...
Like death and taxes, Don Brash is one of life’s inevitabilities. No year is complete...
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.
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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...
1. OMGYES
Who likes orgasms? OMGYES is basically the Oprah of sexual pleasure. You get an orgasm! You get an orgasm! You get an orgasm!...
What have you done in the past year?
Finished a huge project? Sat your final exams? Got a new job, or started at a new school? Started...
How many New Zealand artists can you name?
It’s a confronting question, sure....
Sometimes, a text of encouragement is all you need. Even when you’re creating a brand new show that is due to go on stage in less than a week. No...
Societally, there’s a huge push to reach a masculine ideal of power. Hard hitting, direct and unwavering. Success is ultimately codified as...
If there’s one New Zealander who needs no introduction, it’s Kate Sheppard. But let’s be honest about something: she’s so...
This year, on September 23, New Zealand will vote on who gets to lead the country for the next three years. Over the past...
Young Māori designer Adrienne Whitewood is staging her first...
Game of Thrones .
Even if you don’t watch the HBO TV show or read the books by George R. R. Martin, chances are you already know quite a...
Everyone loves a rags-to-riches story. But you might not have heard this one:
Once upon a time there was a girl brought up in a brothel...
Dear Mike Hosking, again,
We’ve been intrigued to hear your recent views on sexism (“...
The internet has been a slippery place this week; made perilous by the constant drip of...
Villainesse: What inspired you to write Powerful ?
Tali: The song is a culmination of things. Firstly, I have had various conversations...
We all know and love Disney films. No one can ever take away the hours of watching and...
In 2015, after six years of playing Shortland Street ’s Cooper family matriarch, Wendy, actor Jacqueline Nairn was ready for a new challenge that...
