Nonfiction
Kiss and Tell
My romantic life has always been one that is tumultuous. To my friends, it’s one heck of a reality tv show that is always on demand – ready to provide spicy content, tears and drama. A real life ‘The Bachelorette’ that they so happily tune in to weekly or have a one-sitting binge watch.
26 June 2019
A Fight for $75 is a Fight for Freedom
Last year, I had been accepted to study the Master of Social Policy at the University of Melbourne. It was something that I was encouraged to do by the Professor of my undergrad, the Bachelor of Youth Work at Victoria University, due to my academic achievement, passion for youth issues, and a commitment to social justice on a structural level. I felt ecstatic, even though I did see a bit of an irony., Three years of hard work only to be rewarded with a further laborious three years?
26 June 2019
Double Take
Since the early eons of the internet, wacky and wonderful curiosities have managed to weasel their way to the core of our online experience. For late teens and early twenty-somethings, viral phenomena like Rebecca Black’s nasal singing about days of the week, or Crazy Frog’s downright painful “ring ding ding daa baa”, seem ingrained into our collective memories. But today, with the online world more intertwined with our daily activities more than ever before, it feels like the one-hit wonder has gone missing.
26 June 2019
Mythologies
It has become more or less axiomatic that if women want to achieve equality in our time, we must first strip ourselves bare—revealing our worst shames, heartaches and sins so that we may be seen as utterly human. To be a woman in public these days is—more often than not—to be in the business of confession.
17 June 2019
The Meaning of Wilderness
The word ‘wilderness’ conjures images of towering trees, forest paths, bubbling brooks and open skies. There are no buildings, no signs of human habitation, and there is a stillness or silence punctuated only by the wind, birdsong or animals scampering over leaf litter. This form of wilderness is linked to a longing for a life that is more in touch with the natural world. At the same time, this wilderness, in its emphasis on pristine, untouched nature, excludes human beings. How can we exist in wilderness if our very presence alters it and makes it less wild?
17 June 2019
A Pocket Of Peace In The Australian Bushland
I’ve found that my anxiety lessens on bushwalks. Standing still, the cool breeze against my skin, able to hear birds, frogs, and the rustle of leaves in the wind. I am able to free myself of societal constraints, prejudice and discrimination.
11 June 2019
Am I Doing It Right?
Front-man Georgia Maq closed Camp Cope’s Falls Festival 2017 act demanding that 2018 be the year that minorities take to the forefront of the music scene. As I stood on the grass field, surrounded by hundreds of fans applauding this controversial statement—their song The Opener takes aim at the exclusionary nature of the industry with lines such as “yeah just get a female opener, that’ll fill the quota” and “it’s another straight cis man who knows more about this than me”—I found myself wondering about the experience of being a gay woman in such an environment.
11 June 2019
Diaspora Dilemmas
Imagine being one-quarter Sindhi, one-quarter Bengali, one-quarter Tamil and one-quarter Telegu and not being able to speak any of the languages from these areas. Imagine being the colour of a perfectly blended hot chocolate from Standing Room, but sounding like a cup of tea with almost a whole bottle of milk poured in.
4 June 2019
For & Against: Squat Toilets
FOR by Mark Yin You know what’s better than mind-blowing, gut-rearranging sex? Mind-blowing, gut-rearranging number twos. You heard it here first, and quite honestly, you’re welcome. Welcome to the secret, taboo world of squat toilets, arguably one of the last remaining bastions of human behaviour from the good old days, back when we used to […]
7 May 2019
Mythologies
Do you remember being five years old and making yourself sick on too much chocolate? Remember learning for the first time that there is such a thing as too much? It must have seemed like such a strange idea before that moment, that you could have too much of anything. We were born needing.
7 May 2019