Articles
How Bridgerton diversifies but sanitizes Regency-era powerNetflix’s Bridgerton dresses the Regency period in jewel tones, strings up pop songs, and imagines a multiracial aristocracy moving through London’s marriage…
The Hidden Class Politics Of The Clean Girl AestheticThe clean girl aesthetic presents itself as effortless: slicked-back hair, dewy skin, neutral clothing, gold jewellery and a carefully edited sense of calm. On…
Why the Manic Pixie Dream Mother Is the New Film ClichéCinema has spent years turning the “manic pixie dream girl” into a recognisable type: eccentric, magnetic and emotionally available, she disrupts a serious…
Delulu and the politics of millennial and Gen Z feminismThe word has slipped from group chats to news feeds with the speed of any TikTok verdict of women. Delulu, short for delusional, arrived as a knowing wink…
How the Strong Female Character Shortchanges Women's Inner LivesA particular kind of woman has come to dominate prestige television, the bookshop windows of Melbourne and Sydney, and the queues at places like ACMI's…
Why Swift's Heartbreak Lyrics Stopped Belonging to HerEvery time Taylor Swift releases an album, a peculiar ritual unfolds. Fans open lyric videos in one tab and Twitter in another, decoding which lines were aimed…
Why the golden age of television left female showrunners behindThe so-called golden age of television delivered sharper writing, morally complicated characters and ambitious long-form stories. It also helped turn…
What Girl Dinner Reveals About Food Guilt And Feminine PerformanceThe Girl Dinner trend turned an improvised plate into a cultural script. Crackers, cheese, olives, fruit, leftovers and whatever else is nearby became a funny,…
Fan Fiction, Feminist Labour, And The Politics Of ParticipationFan fiction is often described as a gift economy: readers, writers, beta editors, artists, podficcers and moderators share their work because they care about a…
The Erasure of Indigenous Women in True Crime RetellingsTrue crime podcasts often promise to recover forgotten stories. Yet when the missing or murdered person is an Indigenous woman, the retelling can reproduce the…