I used to be one of them.
Even though I would never say a word against a teen mother to...
Trigger warning: rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, violence
Whenever I feel overwhelmed – by a feeling, a situation, an issue...
I want to write a letter to the women on the edges. The mothers who allowed me to drink in their garages, their daughters who held back my hair as...
This year’s Auckland Writer’s Festival brought some of the brightest and best creatives of both local and international literary scenes to our...
Yes, that’s right. Please stop. You’re making women feel uncomfortable about a body part that is no different from any other. Women with boobs...
If you think you don’t know Nat Puff, aka Left at London, you’re probably mistaken.
She’s the internet...
The Madonna-whore dichotomy is the epitome of compartmentalisation. It describes the perception of...
Conferences. I don’t know if I’ve ever attended one that I loved. If there’s a choice between sharing an air-conditioned room with 200 strangers...
No matter how comfortable we are with it, it’s undeniable that true crime is one of the most popular and lucrative sectors of pop culture ....
On There Will Be No Intermission, Amanda Palmer’s first solo album in seven years, the artist sings...
“I’m gonna get it, you’re going to get it, we’re all gonna get it.”
That was...
According to my mum, I’m a spitfire.
She didn’t use that exact word – being a native Mandarin speaker – but I remember, somewhere in my...
Women have historically been excluded from the world of finance, and a significant amount of stigma persists around women having conversations...
Happy International Women’s Day!
…Or is it? Happy, I mean...
We need to talk about our attitude towards food. The body positivity movement has made impressive changes to the way we think about our bodies –...
Founded in Te Atatu, ‘I Am Eva’ is the latest big thing on the NZ period scene. Perhaps they’re...
Jack Kerouac went to Mexico and slept with lots of women. Yawn. He road tripped across the country; he did...
As screen awards season continues, fans and those in the industry...
It’s a slow Saturday morning and I pore over the newspaper with my newly-wed sister. Behind the bench our mother darts around the kitchen. Bacon...
A new year, a new opportunity to smash the patriarchy.
Let’s be honest, while there were a few glimmering moments of feminist progress in...
First published on Sunday the 11th of March, 2018, this piece comes in at number 5 in the top 30 most read Villainesse...
First published on Thursday the 27th of September, 2018, this piece comes in at number 11 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2018....
First published on Thursday the 7th of June, 2018, this piece comes in at number 15 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2018.
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First published on Friday the 10th of August, 2018, this piece comes in at number 23 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2018....
First published on Wednesday the 25th of July, 2018, this piece comes in at number 26 in...
First published on Saturday the 23rd of June, 2018, this piece comes in at number 29 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2018....
Ah, Christmas. That time of year when the streets are full of drunken work parties, 90s holiday films are filling your screens and keto diets are...
I believe, as a culture, we’ve come a long way in terms of how we treat mental health. When Britney Spears...
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...
When I think of feminist films, I think of Thelma and Louise , The Colour Purple , and the...
Y’all must be aware of...
In case you missed it, New Zealand’s abortion laws are outdated. And finally, we might be...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
