All in Affairs & Opinions
How many times have you rushed to the toilet in a panic when you’ve suspected that your period has reared its ugly head unannounced? How often have you inwardly cursed yourself for forgetting tampons and resorted to a flaky makeshift toilet tissue pad? Or covertly emailed your colleagues to see if they can help a sister out?
This is the story of Noura Hussein, the 19-year-old woman from Sudan who is facing the death penalty.
Voting is important. It is empowering. Cast your vote, have your say, and take strength – may it only get better.
It is easy to justify the need for more inclusion from a political point of view: discrimination is wrong, period. Yet, I have often been asked if I thought that inclusion would actually bring anything positive to the film industry. After all, do we need an nth chick flick or another Dr Dolittle?
Take out your phone and open a social media app. I’ll bet it only takes a few swipes before you come across a post related to clean eating, the newest celebrity diet or a gorgeous fitness model, primed to infuse you with #fitspo. It’s the new, healthy way to live, and we just can’t get enough of it.
Therein lies the problem.
I spoke to Dr Louise Jennings, WEP candidate for Headingley and Hyde Park in the May 2018 local elections. We discussed broadly her personal and political reflections on the role and importance of the Women’s Equality Party and feminism more generally.
As Brits, we complain about the cold weather at every opportunity but, let’s face it, our little island comes to a standstill when faced with snow or ice. As such, we’re not much cop when it comes to the Winter Olympic and Paralympic games. But, perhaps things aren’t so bleak as they first appear…
We’ve heard a lot about period poverty over the last year. The fight to support people who are unable to afford sanitary products is being led by grass-roots organisations supplying refugees, food banks and schoolgirls with tampons, pads and menstrual cups. Now, one of the UK’s leading sanitary towel brands, Always, is running a campaign that wants to #EndPeriodPoverty. But activists in the field have accused the company of trying to cash-in on the back of a worthy cause.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, we’ve put together a list of protests which have been somewhat overlooked by the man-centric, whitewashed historical focus of our Western education. Although they didn’t ‘go viral’ or inspire a range of feminist merchandise, these protests remain crucial in their contribution to the fight for the liberation of women worldwide.
As International Women's Day approaches, we take a look at the two year career of the Women's Equality Party, who have accomplished a great deal in their short life span.
It’s difficult to actively protest anything of importance to me on Facebook or Twitter when the whole medium is plagued by false and misleading information. Each time I have posted anything of significance (a protest, if you will) I've felt my opinions instantly become cheap; a flicker; read and disregarded, `liked` and forgotten by a few with a singular experience... No, if we want a space to protest, it has to be somewhere other than just social media.
It’s that time of year again, when the chic elite stomp the pavements like a catwalk and, for the first time in months, the weather is not permitted to dictate one’s outfit: it’s London Fashion Week. Like any magazine writer worth their salt, I consider it an obligation to comment. But my fashion-conscious musings for the week don’t focus inside the hallowed halls of sequined glamour; I would rather give a shout-out to clothes that can make me feel my most fabulous...
A year to the date since the Women’s March of 21st February 2017 (the first day of Donald Trump’s presidency), the Time’s Up Rally was held to commemorate this anniversary. As a Leeds-based magazine, Harpy was unable to attend the London rally, but caught up with our friend Kirsten Peters-Roebuck (@KirstenP_R), who was there in full force.
In the first week of January, an open letter denouncing #MeToo as akin to a ‘good old witch-hunt’ was published in the French daily newspaper Le Monde.[1] The letter was signed by one hundred prominent French women, comprised of writers, academics and performers, including the reputable actress Catherine Deneuve.
In this darkly funny drama from Martin McDonagh, Mildred Hayes is a grieving mother who hires provocative billboards to pressure the local police department into solving the case of her murdered daughter. Three Billboards is about grief, but with the backstory of police brutality, it’s clear that this is also a film with a point to make about racism.
#notallmen might be one of the most vexatious, thoughtless social media campaigns since the dawn of Twitter. Assuming complete ignorance on society’s part, it is passive-aggressive, snide, and wrongfully accusatory. Much has been written, deliberated and disagreed on about this most divisive of hashtags.
We're all feeling a bit like this droopy dog right now. Our residual hangovers and food comas are lingering, friends and relatives head home and the return to work hits you like a ton of dicks. Most of us are pretty deflated- all we really want to do is curl up in bed to watch Friends (which is FINALLY on UK Netflix, FYI) but instead we’re expected to put on clothes that aren’t pyjamas and trudge through the drizzle to reality.
If you celebrate Christmas, or know that you’re going to be spending time with people who do, the festive season can seem like a daunting prospect. After weeks of awkward office parties, winter colds and the incessant buffeting of capitalism, you’re expected to leave the house in sub-arctic conditions to deal with family commitments. Whether you love the festive period or not, here are a few tips for staying sane this time of year
Of late, my entertainment and social channels have been somewhat bombarded by a bizarre media frenzy surrounding the phenomenon of the "armpit vagina": yet another indictment on a society that feels compulsively obliged to comment upon the female body.
