What does it mean to be a girl?
The words “…like a girl” have been used as an insult to humiliate both men and women for generations; “you run like a girl”, “you hit like a girl” or even “you speak like a girl” are used to shame and put people down.
Setting the Agenda
Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
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“I got an apology”… said no survivor of rape or gendered violence ever
Saying “not all men” does not absolve you from the actions of other men. It does not mean you get to be excluded from the conversation. It does not mean you get a free pass to not give a shit.
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Murray McCully must go: sign the petition to demand his resignation
Governmental incompetency allowed for a diplomat to slip away under the guise of diplomatic immunity, this is a classic example of our state system and how it views sexual crimes.
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The Roast Busters actions shocked the nation, so what can we do about it?
I know this might be a paradigm shifting perspective for some, but violence against women is first and foremost a men’s issue.
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#SurvivorPrivilege: because being raped earns you status
Conservative American journalist George F. Will claimed this week that being a survivor of rape on college campuses is now some kind of “coveted status that confers privilege” to the point where “victims proliferate.”
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‘Abortion Barbie’ is proof women’s bodies are still a battleground
Last Thursday, conservative street artist Sabo plastered parts of Los Angeles with posters he had designed – life-size images of a nearly naked Barbie Doll complete with a plastic foetus inside her abdomen.
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Fluency in the language of violence: The toxic masculinity of the Isla Vista Campus massacre
I have spent the last few days shedding tears and ringing my hands over the Isla Vista Campus Killings. I am horrified and angry, but I am not surprised by it. One of my earliest memories is of a man touching me without my permission because he thought he had ownership over my body; he thought I owed him something. I was only 3.
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Dads “ogle” young girl at prom… and she gets kicked out?
Making females responsible for the naughty or impure thoughts of others feeds into a culture that polices women’s behaviours. It shames them when they fail to act or dress in a way that adheres to entrenched expectations of how a women should behave.
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A case study of racism by Police at Auckland Airport
This treatment of us was appallingly disgraceful and we have lodged a formal complaint with the Police.
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The New Epidemic: the rise of female drinking
“Hang out in the brightly lit rooms of AA, or in coffee shops, talking to dozens of women who have given up drinking, and this is the conclusion you come to: for most, booze is a loan shark, someone they trusted for a while, came to count on, before it turned ugly.”