December 2010
33 posts
3 tags
Best of 2010: Welcome to the Institute for Sweet...
Back when I was doing my undergrad, I wrote an article titled ‘How Sweet Valley Ruined My Life’. It wasn’t very good - all flowery cliches compensating for poorly articulated ideas - but basically, the gist of it was that I felt like I’d been jipped on two fronts.
Firstly, by the promises of what my life as a young woman would look like - hot boyfriends, cool parties,...
3 tags
Best of 2010: Have you ever seen yourself through...
Let’s just say this night at an alternative theatre company wasn’t the most pleasant introduction to London.
Those who know me well will know that I’ve long had something of an affinity with Reese Witherspoon’s character in Legally Blonde – specifically in Legally Blonde 2.
“It’s like I said to the Senator the other day… isn’t bill writing super-fun?”
“Come to the rally – I...
3 tags
Best of 2010: Lady Gaga, 'Telephone' and 21st...
This post didn’t do so well here on Tumblr, but it did launch off my occasional guest posting relationship with Meanjin, and it won me a prize at a blog slamming night in London later in the year, so I’m including it as my selection for June. Plus, I like it. And for those in the know, it was rather precipitous of the emotional events of the months to follow.
“Do you know that...
3 tags
Best of 2010: Love means buying a whole lotta...
I haven’t lived in the UK for long, but one thing I have learned? John Lewis advertisements occupy a special place in the hearts and minds of the British middle class. Having a less-than-middle-class income at present, they don’t have a particularly strong effect on me, but back in my salaried days there was one that brought a tear to my eye. Naturally, my savvy commenters quickly...
4 tags
Best of 2010: My name's Rachel, and I'm a...
As this post would suggest, the first six months of this year were an incredibly fast-paced, whirlwind of a time for me. Not because I was producing anything particularly important, but because I was working four days a week, conference hopping around the globe for my thesis, and preparing to move overseas. Ironically, the fact that I didn’t have time to write the things I wanted to only...
3 tags
Best of 2010: Welcome to the Institute for Sweet...
Back when I was doing my undergrad, I wrote an article titled ‘How Sweet Valley Ruined My Life’. It wasn’t very good - all flowery cliches compensating for poorly articulated ideas - but basically, the gist of it was that I felt like I’d been jipped on two fronts.
Firstly, by the promises of what my life as a young woman would look like - hot boyfriends, cool parties,...
3 tags
Best of 2010: Have you ever seen yourself through...
Let’s just say this night at an alternative theatre company wasn’t the most pleasant introduction to London.
Those who know me well will know that I’ve long had something of an affinity with Reese Witherspoon’s character in Legally Blonde – specifically in Legally Blonde 2.
“It’s like I said to the Senator the other day… isn’t bill writing super-fun?”
“Come to the rally – I...
4 tags
2 tags
Best of 2010: Wanting to be with someone you...
Image: Knocked Up
This wasn’t actually my personal favourite post from March (that honour would go to this one), but it did seem to strike a chord with the people who read it - and those who read the article it responded to, if the letters page in CLEO the following month was any indication. Which is nice, since I often suspect my editors like my stories better than the people actually...
3 tags
Guest post: It's true! Shaving your pubes will...
This is a guest post by Alicia, who also has a Tumblr blog, but is uncertain about being publicly linked to her comments on vibrators. Razors and inner confidence generously supplied by Schick.
I once read an academic article discussing descriptions of pubic hair removal in the comedic works of the playwright Aristophanes. Apparently women in ancient Greece would get together with some wine and...
2 tags
“A lead is a promise. It promises that the piece of writing is going to be like...”
– John McPhee, Pulitzer Prize winner, New Yorker author, Writing a Strong Lead is Half the Battle. (via futurejournalismproject)
3 tags
Best of 2010: Lady Gaga, 'Telephone' and 21st...
This post didn’t do so well here on Tumblr, but it did launch off my occasional guest posting relationship with Meanjin, and it won me a prize at a blog slamming night in London later in the year, so I’m including it as my selection for June. Plus, I like it. And for those in the know, it was rather precipitous of the emotional events of the months to follow.
“Do you know that...
3 tags
Best of 2010: Love means buying a whole lotta...
I haven’t lived in the UK for long, but one thing I have learned? John Lewis advertisements occupy a special place in the hearts and minds of the British middle class. Having a less-than-middle-class income at present, they don’t have a particularly strong effect on me, but back in my salaried days there was one that brought a tear to my eye. Naturally, my savvy commenters quickly...
4 tags
Best of 2010: My name's Rachel, and I'm a...
As this post would suggest, the first six months of this year were an incredibly fast-paced, whirlwind of a time for me. Not because I was producing anything particularly important, but because I was working four days a week, conference hopping around the globe for my thesis, and preparing to move overseas. Ironically, the fact that I didn’t have time to write the things I wanted to only...
2 tags
Best of 2010: Wanting to be with someone you...
Image: Knocked Up
This wasn’t actually my personal favourite post from March (that honour would go to this one), but it did seem to strike a chord with the people who read it - and those who read the article it responded to, if the letters page in CLEO the following month was any indication. Which is nice, since I often suspect my editors like my stories better than the people actually...
3 tags
Guest post: It's true! Shaving your pubes will...
AKA: Sometimes I get strange press releases which have nothing to do with the interests of anyone who reads this blog.
This is a guest post by Alicia, who also has a Tumblr blog, but is uncertain about being publicly linked to her comments on vibrators.
I once read an academic article discussing descriptions of pubic hair removal in the comedic works of the playwright Aristophanes. Apparently...
6 tags
Best of 2010: "But women don't rape!": sexual...
Not just my favourite post for February, but also one of my most successful ever posts, and a post that epitomises what I want this blog - and my writing more generally - to be about. Challenging the assumptions we take for granted in the hope of building a more honest, reflective and ethical life.
It seems particularly pertinent in light of debates of recent weeks. Just as men we like and...
4 tags
“Our post-feminist western culture celebrates women doing pointlessly spiteful...”
– The feminist left versus Julian Assange: how a fanatical belief in every sex crime allegation hurts everyone (Warning: NSFW images.)
Actually, this feminist leftie for one thinks that false sexual assault allegations are one of the most disgusting things a person can do.
Not only because it is...
3 tags
Best of 2010: Hopes/predictions for the 2010s
As I focus my energies on meeting some major (if self-imposed) deadlines by Christmas Eve, and heading on holiday between Christmas and New Year, I decided to spend the last 10 days of the blogging year to looking over my favourite 10 posts of the first 10 months of 2010.
Not only is this easier than writing ten new posts (cynical, but you know it’s true!), but with luck, it will...
5 tags
Best of 2010: "But women don't rape!": sexual...
Not just my favourite post for February, but also one of my most successful ever posts, and a post that epitomises what I want this blog - and my writing more generally - to be about. Challenging the assumptions we take for granted in the hope of building a more honest, reflective and ethical life. We’ve all heard the “but he’s such a nice guy” defence trotted out to...
3 tags
Best of 2010: Hopes/predictions for the 2010s
As I focus my energies on meeting some major (if self-imposed) deadlines by Christmas Eve, and heading on holiday between Christmas and New Year, I decided to spend the last 10 days of the blogging year to looking over my favourite 10 posts of the first 10 months of 2010.
Not only is this easier than writing ten new posts (cynical, but you know it’s true!), but with luck, it will...
1 tag
The best of the rest of the internet
If you read one thing this weekend, make it Amanda Marcotte’s essay on why condom sabotage is no joke:
… birth control sabotage is one of the many ways that domestic abusers demonstrate their dominance and control over their victims. They do the condom slip, flush pills down the toilet, or otherwise use coercion to get unwilling women to submit to unprotected sex. Often, they...
1 tag
The best of the rest of the internet
If you read one thing this weekend, make it Amanda Marcotte’s essay on why condom sabotage is no joke:
… birth control sabotage is one of the many ways that domestic abusers demonstrate their dominance and control over their victims. They do the condom slip, flush pills down the toilet, or otherwise use coercion to get unwilling women to submit to unprotected sex. Often, they...
2 tags
“Women marinate in a patriarchal culture, and we’re taught from a very...”
– Jezebel commenter tall-in-heels, 3 Reasons Why “Erotic Capital” Is Bullshit
2 tags
“Women marinate in a patriarchal culture, and we’re taught from a very...”
– Jezebel commenter tall-in-heels, 3 Reasons Why “Erotic Capital” Is Bullshit
5 tags
What gay marriage opponents have in common with...
Recently I wrote an article for a ladymag on gay marriage. The article in question being Proper Journalism rather than a blog post in which I can opine at will, I was briefed to cover both sides of the argument accurately and fairly.
As a twentysomething leftie for whom same-sex marriage is a clear cut matter of equality and human rights, this at first left me feeling kind of stumped. I...
3 tags
What gay marriage opponents have in common with...
Recently I wrote an article for a ladymag on gay marriage. The article in question being Proper Journalism rather than a blog post in which I can opine at will, I was briefed to cover both sides of the argument accurately and fairly.
As a twentysomething leftie for whom same-sex marriage is a clear cut matter of equality and human rights, this at first left me feeling kind of stumped. I...
1 tag
The best of the rest of the internet
Weekend reads on gender, politics, art, academia and building a better future.
These pictures by Swiss photographers Alex Gertschen and Felix Meier are “true poetry in images”. (Lost At E Minor)
You know Sady Doyle from Tiger Beatdown and Atlantic Monthly fame, but did you know she has a Tumblr, too? If you’re on Tumblr yourself, you probably did, but if not, go add her to...
2 tags
“I am SO SICK today of people who can’t see that
1) Wikileaks is important and...”
– TBD commenter Woodscolt
(reposted because I screwed up the link the first time)
(via thecurvature)
A-fucking-men. Except I (Nick) think that Wikileaks might do bad work too.
(via nickdouglas)
4 tags
Quick thoughts on Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and...
You can tell a lot about a person by the sexual assault allegations they support and the ones they instinctively dismiss.
Think all those charges against professional footballers are just the product of overzealous fans with “post-sex regret”? Chances are you identify as a salt of the earth realist, in touch with your (and everyone else’s) animalistic urges.
Roman Polanski...
1 tag
The best of the rest of the internet
If you read one thing this weekend, make it Phoebe Maltz’s decidedly cultural take on women’s biological “window of opportunity”:
Without reverting to a system where women are stigmatized for not having settled down by 21, we could shift to one in which 23-year-old couples wouldn’t be treated like experimenting middle-schoolers. I wouldn’t suggest encouraging...
2 tags
Ask Rachel: Writing for mags in other countries
Renee asks: Is it possible to write for magazines that are published in another country? I live in Singapore but I have been obsessed with Australian magazines (and now, blogs!) ever since I bought Dolly and Girlfriend when I was a young teen. Do you think there is a even a slight chance I would even be considered even though I am not Australian or live in Australia? It’s my absolute dream...
3 tags
Does this photo make me look phat? On cameras,...
I still remember the first time I saw a photo of myself that I actually liked. I was 17, and on my way to a music industry showcase, wearing a fluffy black coat I only disposed of this year, my bottle blonde hair freshly blowdried.
It wasn’t a particularly remarkable photo except for the fact that, in all the years since I’d been old enough to evaluate photos of myself with such things in mind,...
