Feminism has little or nothing to say about crossdressing. I would like to explore why. Crossdressing can only be a masculine activity. But women can wear any men’s clothing. Male garb often makes them more sexy or striking. Men, when they wear women’s clothing, often look silly. Surely even to feminists. Women generally want […]
Lifestyle
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle, Media
Reclaiming ‘bitch’ a pointless exercise
I need us to get serious for a few minutes. Let’s take some time to cut the jokes for once and start to look at this issue with the seriousness it deserves. Because I’m quite sure if we did, we’d be able to agree on the sham that is “reclamation of words”. “Reclamation of words” […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle, Media
Beauty and the beast: How the beauty industry ‘others’ women
Picture credit: Cozy Wallet In the wake of the many global revolutionary rumblings over the past few years I have been pondering the prospect of a mass women’s revolt against the male-owned beauty industry that mostly diminishes women to mere objects and creates untold conflict in our psyches. This industry, along with the […]
Posted inHealth, Lifestyle
A little known history of cocaine (Part 1)
The use of drugs, such as cocaine, continue to feature regularly in the news. Drug users, moreover, continue to be condemned by the general media, being regarded as dirty, defiled, and criminal. However, very few people realise that for over 20 years cocaine was completely legal. Indeed, it was at one point described as a […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle
Bye-bye 132 000 Chinese tourists
By Michael Jones “I’m sorry, I simply do not see them” is an often-quoted response I hear when talking to high-end South African tourism brands about marketing their products in the China outbound travel market. Strange considering that official government statistics are adamant that South Africa received 132 334 Chinese tourists in 2012 making it our […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle
Vagina politics
I found my daughter fiddling with her vagina in the bathtub. The said vagina will here forth be referred to as a pony, it is far too cute to be burdened with the responsibilities that come with having a vagina. She was in the bath and suspiciously quiet, bath time is always her opportunity to […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
JK Rowling’s anonymous stunt is not unprecedented
Yesterday the news leaked that a well-received crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling by debut novelist Robert Galbraith was actually penned by JK Rowling. The story made headlines just in time for the Sunday news cycle – traditionally a quiet phase in world media. A story of that magnitude should by rights have dominated all talk […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Mandla Mandela and the demise of traditional black culture
By Melo Magolego A little while back in my home township of Ga-Rankuwa, just north of Pretoria, a very peculiar thing happened. A woman who had been living with her parents had, on the passing of her parents, become sole resident of the family house. Due to the vagaries of the economy, the other siblings […]
Posted inHealth, Lifestyle
Life support
The doctor turns to me and says you need to think about what you are going to do if he needs to go on a respirator. I do not understand. I ask. He says if he turns for the worse and needs to go on a respirator what will you do? I say why are […]
Posted inLifestyle
These are the things I miss about being 8 years old
These are some of the things I miss about being 8 years old. I miss the Rothman’s Durban July supplement with all the pictures of the horses. I miss waiting for photos to come out, and the way my mother peeled back the cellophane in the albums to stick them down. I miss Sunday lunch […]
Posted inLifestyle
Are you hopeful about your country’s future?
This is one of the questions posed in a questionnaire answered by 12 000 young people (between the ages 14 and 25). The idea of the survey is to get a better sense of the issues young people face. If I had been part of the survey I would have answered “I don’t know”. It seems […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle, Media
Against PigSpotting
Knowing of both the popularity and following of PigSpotter, in writing this article I feel it necessary to begin with an obligatory disclaimer: this is not an attempt to an indict a single person or project, nor is it a criticism of the good work that PigSpotter has done in ensuring that the Johannesburg Metro […]