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...
It feels like we are constantly losing as women right now. World events...
Ariana Grande has been called a diva , a symbol , a leader , and a killer. No link to that last one,...
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...
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...
Abigail Johnson chatted with emerging indie artist Josie Moon about music, aesthetics, and trying to put...
It is suffrage year fellow suffragists...
In the olden days of 2012, ask.fm and anonymous questions on Tumblr were the main platform for online harassment. People could send hurtful...
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...
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...
I remember once having a heated argument with a friend about why any woman would voluntarily wear a hijab. As a non-religious Iranian, I come from...
The Prime Minister is on maternity leave, there’s a female majority on the Supreme Court,...
There are a number of gems in Aotearoa’s cultural calendar; The Comedy Festival, The Arts Festival, WOMAD and all the big summer music festies....
The local mags love to tell you what to do with your two days off a week. Which café to check out, which piece of experimental theatre take in....
I’ve recently rediscovered Hailee Steinfield’s Most Girls . It’s the song I’m most likely to be singing at the top of my lungs while I’m sitting...
Adulting. The older you get, the more unavoidable it becomes. Sadly, there comes a day for all of us when we are forced to realise that we have...
Dear Jacinda,
As you’re probably aware, our baby is due any day now. I say ‘our’ because let’s face it, we all feel some sort of parental...
Elon Musk’s Twitter account is getting pretty weird. He’s turned on the media , auto workers, and now is even criticising science (you know, that...
Last week, University of Otago staff dumped an estimated 2000 copies of Critic , a student-run magazine, in skips around campus. Why? The cover...
My flatmate and friend Ishmam*, 26, grew up in Bangladesh before moving to the US for university when she was 18. She began identifying as queer...
If you’re aged between 16 and 22 years of age, what would you say are the most challenging aspects of being a young woman in today’s world?...
The justice system is the skeleton of our society. Without it, everything would fall apart. When it’s broken, it causes pain, and requires...
Hollywood gets a lot wrong when it comes to women. It’s disappointing yet unsurprising that largely male production teams have no idea how women...
Let’s talk about love and sex in 2018. What is it? Where do we find it? Does love mean romance? And how has our increased ‘wokeness’ impacted upon...
Cast your mind back, girls. Do you remember when it started happening to you? Was it in primary years? Earlier? High school? Or when you entered...
Runaway is a Dunedin-based games company. In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, they started a Girls Behind the Games campaign to encourage...
As a society, we are suckers for a good power couple. Beyonce and Jay-Z, Barack and...
When I was at school, the only time I heard the word ‘consent’ was when we had to get parental permission to go on a school trip. Somewhere...
Body Double is a play about female sexual pleasure. Have I got your attention now? It certainly grabbed mine, when I went...
Women are creatures of wisdom. Call it intuition, experience,...
The death of a loved one is gruelling, even in the best...
Books are one of my reasons to get out of bed each morning. It’s a cliché, but reading opens up new worlds. However, a lot of the time , those...
Bad. Naughty. They’re judging words; shaming words; they are words we use to tell children off. They’re also the words you’ll hear women use to...
While reading Uma Thurman’s recent interview in the New York Times detailing her story of the breakdown in her working...
I’m used to being told to “stop with the feminist shit”. If I had a dollar for every time I’d heard that...
Aaaaaand we’re back!
Did you miss us? We missed you!
Happy New Year and all that stuff – if it’s still okay to say that on the 22...
First published on Thursday the 12th of October, 2017, this piece comes in at number 15 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2017....
First published on Tuesday the 11th of April, 2017, this piece comes in at number 16 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2017....
First published on Saturday the 2nd of September, 2017, this piece comes in at number 19 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2017....
First published on Wednesday the 22nd of February, 2017, this piece comes in at number 22 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2017....
First published on Thursday the 2nd of March, 2017, this piece comes in at number 29 in the...
It’s hard to know how to describe 2017. The year of female anger? The year when shitty things that have been happening to women for time...
It’s been a big year for feminism. We’ve had a series of triumphs – but we also know we...
Ah, Christmas. The season for giving. After all, what greater joy is there than making other people happy?
But making others happy isn’t...
With Weinstein, #MeToo, Al Franken, Roy Moore and more, sexual harassment has been in the news a lot lately. But how do you report sexual...
The 2017-18 Women’s World...
The new Minister for Women, Julie Anne Genter, is a full-time feminist. “Every day of the week, 24/7. And I just think we need to keep reiterating...
Dear Rangitoto College rule-setters,
Thank you for reminding us of the serious issue of girls wearing makeup.
While some might...
The dreaded F word. Feminism. The term has a visceral effect on people, especially those...
An astounding thing happened last night. Jacinda Ardern became the Prime Minister Elect...
Boobs. There are few symbols of femininity more obvious. So what is it like to have a double mastectomy, and suddenly be without them?
...
Ah, Tinder. We love you. We hate you. Our lives just wouldn’t be the same without you.
But you could be improved. Because let’s be honest...
Tomorrow, the 19 th of September...
This year, on September 23, New Zealand will vote on who gets to lead the country for the next three years. Over the past few months, Villainesse...
This year, on September 23, New Zealand will vote on who gets to lead the country for the next three years. We've watched the unbelievable...
Here’s a shocker: young people are having sex, and...
I became a feminist the day I found out I was pregnant.
Before that, the term had always seemed somewhat redundant to me. I knew the...
