Articles
The gendered toll of digital pile-ons on women in public lifeWhen a public figure stumbles, the machinery of online reaction springs into action with astonishing speed. An old interview resurfaces, an ill-considered…
The Bimbo Revival and the Cynicism of Post-Feminist IronyThe bimbo is back, and she is winking. Across TikTok feeds and glossy magazine editorials, a new wave of women are styling themselves in pink latex, frosted…
A Decade On, the Racial Diversity Critique of Girls Still ResonatesWhen HBO premiered Girls in 2012, the series landed with the force of a cultural announcement. Lena Dunham, still in her mid-twenties, presented a vision of…
When Empowerment Becomes a Marketing Slogan for Lingerie BrandsWalk into any shopping centre in Sydney or Melbourne and the lingerie shop windows promise empowerment, confidence, feeling fierce. Brands have decided that…
Why the Not Like Other Girls Trope Keeps Haunting YA FictionThe heroine wrinkles her nose at the mean girls, refuses pink, and announces she prefers her dad's old band to whatever the popular kids listen to. The reader…
Canadian Film's Blind Eye on Indigenous Women Behind the CameraCanadian cinema routinely sweeps the international circuit with dramatic features, prairie vistas, and quiet character studies. Yet a stubborn pattern…
The double bind women directors navigate between art and commerceFor decades, women working behind the camera have been steered toward one of two narrow lanes: make something quiet, personal, and unmistakably…
What Hannah Montana Nostalgia Reveals About Millennial FemininityThe early 2000s have become a fertile ground for millennial women revisiting the cultural touchstones of their girlhoods, and few artefacts loom larger than…
How Sturgeon's law silences women in internet comment sectionsTheodore Sturgeon's claim that "ninety percent of everything is crud" has aged into something sharper in the era of user-generated content. Applied to internet…
The Politics of Women's Sportswear: From Corsets to Compression ShortsFor most of recorded fashion history, what women have worn while moving has been decided by someone else. Whether cinched into whalebone, bound in elastic, or…