The receptionist looks me up and down. I see her nose tilt up slightly. She’s taking an inventory: tattoos, asymmetrical haircut, body jewellery … she sits back, confident that her sums round off. I see the smug recession of her chins into a generous neck. She will come down from the mountain. “Can I help […]
Lifestyle
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Man enough to change?
What does it actually mean to be a man? My job in the publishing industry often bumps up against this question since a lot of what we do is about creating content for men. What I find most interesting is how so much of what we create is informed by a particular idea of masculinity […]
Posted inLifestyle
0,0km/h
I am sinking into my chair, my head is floppy and my eyes are at half-mast. I have succumbed to chronic Durban-ness. I can barely tap the keyboard. I would pay someone to tap it for me, but that would mean going indoors to make a phone call or something, and I can’t be arsed. […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle
Pregnancy — slave to patriarchy or ultimate feminist act?
To have a baby is something that only women can do. A man can never feel his belly growing with life inside of it, feel a kick from the inside, or feel the body-crippling nausea that comes with morning sickness. They can never give birth, nor can they have a Caesar. They can never breastfeed, […]
Posted inEnvironment, Lifestyle, News/Politics
One more for the denialists
A new study is out, and the denialists of human-generated climate change are going to love it. Basically the authors of the study in question were puzzled by the level of public doubt and scepticism regarding anthropogenic climate change (ACC). As they saw it there was a “striking agreement” among scientists on the causes and […]
Posted inLifestyle
Is this Jo’burg’s most expensive haircut?
I think I may have just had Johannesburg’s most expensive haircut. I’m still completely traumatised, but I’m starting to emerge from the dazed and confused state that inevitably results when one has had a dreadful shock. I’d put off getting my hair sorted because I know that all hair salons see women coming, but not […]
Posted inLifestyle
In praise of guineafowl
There are a lot of birds I love. There is the spectacularly coloured Bateleur Eagle — quite possibly my favourite favourite — with its red face and feet, chestnut back and underwing markings that conveniently distinguish male from female; the eccentric, snake-killing Secretarybird; the beautiful Lilac-breasted Roller, a rare blaze of colour in the winter […]
Posted inLifestyle
Secrets from the ladies’ locker room
There is something that each one of us has in common. Underneath all of our clothes, we are naked. Yes it’s true — even in winter, beneath the layers of clothes, scarves, gloves and thick socks, there is a live naked person waiting to get out. If you don’t believe me, visit your local gym […]
Posted inLifestyle
Writing is hard
I read another self-published novel the other day … the author told me it’s really hard getting published. I read his book. There are reasons they don’t publish everyone’s book. Writing is hard. Writing well is almost impossible. After putting his book down, hard, I wept to know that there are now suicide writers as […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Oral histories: The fire and the crowd
By Zdena Mtetwa Towards the 2009 Human Rights Day celebrations, Sharpeville was a very busy township. What an experience it is, to watch communities take ownership of their own history! The dynamics that come into play are fascinating. The old make fires at the side of the road. The young are invited to come and […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Lifestyle, Media
Are you a ‘green’ hypocrite?
Recently a lot of my writing has focused on the issue of externalities, and how they contribute to a corporation’s profitability. What I’ve neglected is the flip side: that just as corporations should pay the full costs of their activities, so should you and I. Not sure what I’m on about? Well in essence the […]
Posted inLifestyle
Dating across the (so-called) colour line
Once upon a time, dating across the so-called colour line was illegal in this country, and it was generally considered taboo everywhere else. Now, interracial dating is a growing global trend — there are plenty of interracial dating websites — and this is hardly surprising, given that many societies are liberalising and people have the […]