Growing up, I understood the world in a black and white context. Things were right and wrong. Police officers were the goodest, most law-abiding...
Let me just address this from the jump: I certainly don’t want to move back into lockdown. For one thing, I’m not sure if New Zealanders could do...
Small local businesses have been hit hard by Covid-19.
Most are classed “non-essential”, some depend on physical sales and others charge...
What a hand we’ve been dealt, huh?
I often get to thinking that, had I been born around a decade earlier, I would have hit the sweet spot...
As indisputably reckless and inexcusably selfish as it is for people to travel to their holiday homes during lockdown (#stayhomeNZ), on some level...
The messaging around COVID-19 has been crystal clear: stay at home. Don’t interact with others. It’s simple and easy to follow and everyone should...
For many New Zealanders, the lockdown is starting to grind at our nerves. We’re anxious, irritable...
We’re living in scary times, have you heard?
For the last few weeks I’ve been pretty much addicted to the news. I’ve become entirely...
So here we are – in the middle of history.
It’s strange feeling history moan from under us, isn’t it? Knowing that the actions we take...
The big fangled monster coming for grocery workers was supposed to be automation.
It hasn’t taken long, relatively speaking, for us to...
Is anyone else feeling nervous? As...
At the end of this month, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle will renounce their titles in favour of...
People talk about #MeToo incidents as if they are binary. This type of behaviour makes for a #MeToo. This type of behaviour doesn’t . That’s just...
In a different world, we wouldn’t know where politicians stood on pregnancy termination.
Whenever the issue comes up in our parliament, I’...
New Zealand has been sinophobic for long enough that many of us have forgotten that we are.
The...
“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” That’s the central question in Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical, Hamilton . But for women in history, the...
In my short lifetime, the way we think of gender and the way we rely on gender roles in everyday life has changed tremendously.
When I was...
Disclaimer: I am not a personal financial or investment advisor. The advice in this article does not constitute financial, accounting, or legal...
First published on Saturday the 23 rd of March, 2019, this piece comes in at number 6 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2019....
First published on Friday the 5 th of July, 2019, this piece comes in at number 7 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2019.
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First published on Monday the 3 rd of June, 2019, this piece comes in at number 17 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2019.
First published on Wednesday the 4 th of December, 2019, this piece comes in at number 20 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2019....
First published on Tuesday the 19 th of February, 2019, this piece comes in at number 21 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2019....
First published on Wednesday the 24th of April, 2019, this piece comes in at number 27 in the top 30 most read Villainesse stories of 2019....
She’s the woman who glazes the ham. She puts decorations around the house and sets the tunes to festive. When you were little she bought you toys...
For all the stay at home dads (but specifically my own),
I’m glad you were my first...
You might have seen the memes going around – it’s almost 2020, what have you achieved this decade?
I’m sure it’s meant good-naturedly (...
Earlier this year, The New Yorker published a piece that heralded luxury paint company Farrow & Ball as the arbiters of modern taste in...
I didn’t think I would need to say this. Hell, I didn’t think I would need to be told this.
I’m...
There’s nothing more popular than hating things that are popular, and there’s nothing more mainstream than to look at the mainstream with general...
Even if you feel like you are. The term ‘impostor syndrome’ is increasingly used to describe a situation where despite someone’s achievements,...
Wouldn’t it be great if we lived in a world where conversations about women’s bodies didn’t revolve around: making unsolicited comments about our...
Several years ago, when I was still a baby feminist, I was especially concerned with the number of women running Fortune 500 companies. The...
Let Southside rise, not...
In what may be one of the better news stories we’ve heard this year, the government has...
Since about the age of 15, when I started to learn the basic principles of feminism from extensive amounts of time spent on Tumblr, I have been...
The recent surge in media coverage of the burning of the Amazon aggravated many people’s eco-anxiety. You don’t need to be a climate scientist or...
When I left university, the first time, I was lucky enough to receive an overseas internship. It was incredibly exciting – and tremendously scary...
I wasn’t taught about the history of our country in the way that I should have been.
At...
A former editor once told me ‘Clickbaity headlines are fine, so long as they’re backed up by quality content.’
I think she was right. As...
I was first cast out when I told my fellow students in primary school that my family sometimes ate...
This month, Instagram are testing out a significant change to their app in certain countries, including New Zealand. You can no longer see the...
With things like social media and online petitions helping to engage people in politics, more people than...
For my money, the best piece of cinema to come out of 2018 was the opening minute of Beychella . My partner and I watched the Beyoncé Coachella...
The one thought running through my mind every second of every day at the moment is, “I’m cold. I’m cold. I’m cold.” That’s it, on repeat, all day...
What do you do when your friend’s substance use (of alcohol or other drugs) starts affecting their relationships, work, finances, or ability to...
It just makes me nervous, you know? What with Hannah Tamaki taking up the reins of the Destiny Church Party (sorry, Coalition New Zealand) and...
I’m going to start with the obvious: the best approach to drug law reform will be one that most effectively minimises harm.
The approach...
We all remember it, the all-encompassing dread and deep-seated boredom of a school assembly with a guest speaker. Pretending to pay attention to...
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. The customer is always right.
What a...
The days following the Notre Dame cathedral fire were fraught with grief and shock as the world watched...
Tall poppy syndrome has been a part of New Zealand culture for nearly as long as we’ve been a country...
Joan Didion, speaking on her husband’s shock death in 2003, said she was afraid for the next year to begin. Once the next year began, her husband’...
It’s bizarre that until recently skincare was an area of my life in which I’ve never taken an evidence-based approach. Over the years, I’ve bought...
I’m writing this from my flat in Christchurch. Only two streets over...
On Saturday afternoon we commemorated the Christchurch terror attack with a vigil in Auckland. A sea of Aucklanders poured into the city. We...
Remember when Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, confessed to grabbing people by their...
Allow me to tell you about my quintessentially kiwi adolescence. From the ages...
Let’s be honest – pop culture hasn’t always been kind to women. Or...
I kept diaries when I was younger. I leaned them against my knees and wrote in them nightly. When I was a child I wrote about my friends at school...
