The Black Hair Tax: No Breaks for Black Women Who Want to Avoid Breakage
Sex, Style and Stigma: A Brief History of Maximalist Fashion
Maximalist fashion – including brash colours, statement accessories, colourful eyeshadow and animal print – has long been associated with sex workers. Historian Alain Corbin claims that by the late 19th century, ‘the prostitute had become woman as spectacle’: their profession demanded that they be seen, and maximalist fashion was utilised to ensure they stood out…
‘Love is Not a Finite Resource’: Celebrating My Conceited Era, and Why You Should Too
I’m in love with myself. Literally. I am the prettiest girl in the world. I watch my Instagram stories on repeat. I buy myself gifts. I’m simply obsessed with me. Call me conceited, selfish, self-absorbed or all of the above, but it won’t change a thing…
Tarot and My Early 20s: Navigating Graduating from a STEM Subject and Wanting Nothing to do with Science
Tarot is a thread that has woven my early twenties together. While it is not fortune telling, it is a useful tool for accessing our own subconscious and viewing situations in a new light. When I bought a one-way ticket to the US, my beat-up tarot deck came with me. When I took jobs and quit them, restarted my career, the tarot chimed in…
Why Aren't Curvy People with Eating Disorders Taken Seriously?
No one believes curvier people can have eating disorders or body dysmorphia. Eating disorders are something only thin or anorexic people can have. Curvier people are expected to lose mass amounts of weight, expected to starve themselves to thinness. Our society and medical system are so fatphobic that they are okay with curvier people losing an unhealthy amount of weight…
Trials and Errors: The Chaos of Being in Your Early Twenties
My whole plan – or rather, lack thereof – sounded just like the adventurous stories I had spent my life absorbing. I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t a major factor in my decision-making. I have always had a tendency to pursue things purely for the anecdote it will become…
Bullied into Silence for Not Feeling Beautiful: Experiencing Thin-Shaming, Weight Gain and Body Dysmorphia
I feel anger and resentment toward this narrative that is continuously pushed that women who fit into the traditional mould of ‘thin’ are not allowed to feel negatively about their bodies. Virtually my entire life, any time I have expressed unhappiness with my body, the responses have been overwhelmingly unsupportive…
Striving for Self-Development: A Guide to Setting and Actually Achieving Your Goals in 2023
As the new year begins, many people make resolutions to improve themselves and achieve their goals. However, it can be difficult to stick to these resolutions. Goal setting is a fundamental aspect of self-development, and by setting effective and achievable goals and developing a plan to reach them, you can increase your chances of success…
‘What is the Cost of Our Self-Expression?’: Why Buying Fast Fashion is Anti-Feminist
In harnessing the power of clothing in the face of oppression, we have forgotten about the people who make our clothes, the majority of whom are women of colour trapped in the cycle of poverty. What feels like a feminist act – whether it’s buying clothing with our earned incomes or ‘treating ourselves’ – may in fact be anti-feminist...
‘Trauma Doesn’t Always Have to be Ugly. It Can be Beautiful. Decorative’: Tattoos as a Form of Power and Healing
I found a Black tattoo artist in a Black studio and went on my own to do the single most life-changing act of my late 20s. And oddly enough, what I felt during that first session wasn’t pain (it didn’t hurt that much) or regret (the experience was so affirming; I will never forget listening to old school R&B and feeling tender, careful hands trace lines of ink into the back of my calf). What I did feel was air. For the first time in a long time, I felt myself breathe…
‘It is Time to Normalise the Idea that a Life Without Children is Still a Life’: Introducing The Let Me Live Project
My original idea for this project was to write a book by the same name. It would be an anthology of pieces from people from all walks of life on their experience with abortion and the complicated interlinking of motherhood and womanhood in society. The aim is to fight against the stigma around being child-free, and to normalise the idea that a life without children is still a life. A person with no children has as much to give to society as anyone else…
The In-Depth and Sordid History of My Not-So-Brief Jaunt at University: The Story of a Two-Time University Dropout
46,585.79. The amount of student debt I am in. 3. The number of years I attended university. 2. The number of universities I attended. 0. The number of degrees I hold…
How Body Neutrality Has Helped Me Reimagine the Way I Relate to My Physical Self
For me, body neutrality is a concept based on the idea of accepting and respecting your body by understanding that its importance is functionality rather than appearance, and it has undoubtedly changed the relationship I have with myself…
Want to Be a Baddie? Then You Better Have the Body: Why I Hate Social Media
Tiktok has many videos about the pain and torture that so many young women have gone through during and after various procedures. There are those that claim that plastic surgery was not worth it in the end; some received botched results. Thought processes are overshadowed as social media influencers and celebrities promote being an ‘It Girl’ or ‘Baddie’: most associate that personality type with having an attractive body…
‘I Booked a One-Way Ticket’: The Anxiety and Liberation of Moving Abroad Alone
The excitement of moving to a new country and knowing only a handful of people in the city is incredibly liberating and also quite scary. Intense homesickness and thoughts of ‘what have I done?’ during the first few weeks of moving abroad is something a lot of people don’t talk much about, but it definitely happens – it did to me…
Algorithms, Archetypes and Aesthetics: How Your Online Lifestyle is Denying You Desire
There is no moral trophy awarded for inhabiting a certain type of body or seamlessly aligning with all of the ‘right kinds’ of media. No matter how you frame calorie restriction, you won’t have the energy or physical desire to have sex. But you will fit into the cultural understanding of what sexually desirable is – what matters is how desirable you are, not how much desire you experience…
Gotta Be Cool to Be Queer: Expectations of Appearance in the Queer Community
I’ve always been aware of the shallowness of the queer community. However, I managed to delay the confrontation of this issue through my heterosexual relationships. Now that I’m single and that particular shield is no longer available to me, I am face-to-face with the undeniable truth: girl, you got a big bum bum and a butch aesthetic that isn’t matching…
‘These So-Called Imperfections’: Reflecting on Bodies, Scars and Stretchmarks
My body tells the story of one of the areas Mind UK seeks to help with. People have done charity runs with glitter on their faces. Why not on their scars? Could it be fun? Could I feel free? I mentioned the idea to a boyfriend at the time. He laughed awkwardly. ‘Don’t you think it’s a bit silly? Attention seeking?’
Ditch The Chemicals: Natural Alternatives for Skincare
As sustainability continues to be a central theme in 2022, many can agree that less is more when it comes to our lifestyle choices. Skincare is no exception: it’s time to ditch the chemicals and opt for natural ingredients!
The ‘Retail Therapy’ Pandemic: A Guide to Shopping More Sustainably
You’ve had a bad day. Everything is piling up, and then something else goes wrong – say you knock over your cup of tea. You think I deserve a treat, and you buy yourself an ASOS bag. Some heels. A shiny new piece of jewellery. We’ve all been there, right? I certainly have. But more and more, I’m beginning to ask myself: how is this attitude to retail therapy impacting our planet?
‘For Centuries, the Image of Femininity has been Thin’: Reclaiming My Fat Body as Feminine
Femininity and its association with petite elegant beauty is a stereotype that harms us all, not just fat women. When was the last time you went into a shop and saw pretty clothes advertised to fat women? Clothes that had a floral pattern, clothes that were pink, yellow, or green. Clothes that were figure-fitting and not just baggy and oversized. People will never view my fat body as feminine because I was never given the chance to present myself as feminine…