‘Can You Really Be a Queer Muslim?’: Intersectionality and the Complexity of Identity
Would I Fuck Me? The Dark Consequences of Self-Objectification
Self-objectification makes us assess our appearance round the clock, existing outside our bodies as a pair of critical eyes floating beside us. Suck your belly in; you’ll look sexier. Cross your legs; you’ll look slimmer. I’d never fuck you with that posture. Pull your shoulders back and lift your chin up. We don’t realise we do it – it’s second nature – but much of our precious brain space is hoovered up with efforts to ensure a pleasant visual experience for onlookers…
Sexism, Patriarchy and Social Performance: Why Women Should Stop People Pleasing
Acting like this has become second nature to me. My knee-jerk reaction is to be kind to everyone, even when they’re undeserving of my kindness. It’s a performance I’m constantly putting on without even realising it, and, starting today, I’m going to put in the effort to stop unknowingly committing to an act that is detrimental to my well-being and self-respect…
Not All Skin Folk Are Kin Folk: You Don't Like Black Women and We Don't Care
Black women are still being force-fed the lesson that not all skin folk are kin folk through podcasts, YouTube videos and TikToks. For some reason, a slew of people – Black men in particular – decided it was time to crap on Black women’s existence. Where this trend came from and why it keeps randomly happening is extremely odd, but I can tell you one thing: Black women do not care…
‘Young Lady, You’re Distracting the Boys’: How Women Are Losing Their Bodily Autonomy
For me, the selecting of clothes for school always happened subconsciously. I never batted an eye at the fact that I had to measure how short my skirt was just so that the guy next to me (who was more invested in his Nintendo anyway) would not get ‘distracted’ by me. Rules like this are what we’re used to. No one had ever shone a light on how much these rules take away our autonomy. Why is that?
Shaving, Sex, and Stereotypes: My Battle with Internalised Misogyny
As a feminist, it’s easy for me to condemn misogyny and take an active stance against any person, institution, or legislation that allows misogyny to thrive. It is by far less easy to take an active stance against the personal actions that I take, unintentionally, to enforce harmful misogynistic attitudes…