In political examinations and studies, the overturning of Roe v. Wade is often framed as a singular tear — an abrupt legal interference that removed a constitutional protection in response to shifting ideological pressures. Some present it as a decisive turning point, a moment in which the trajectory of reproductive rights was abruptly altered. Others… Continue reading After Roe — the fragmentation of American freedom
As early as the 14th Century, a woman exhibiting signs of sexual confidence, prosperity or self-expression was deemed inherently evil. An excerpt from 1486’s Malleus Maleficarum — perhaps the most notorious “witch hunter’s manual” — reads: “All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable… What else is a woman but a foe… Continue reading She’s a witch — influential women, mysticism and reversing misogynistic narratives in music
The alluring title of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique serves as a successful façade for the book’s rather morose themes. 15 years following her graduation from the all-female Smith College, Friedan constructed a questionnaire for her classmates — now all wives and mothers, but once equally academics. Despite the domestic reverie that had been portrayed… Continue reading What would Betty Friedan make of the 21st-century tradwife?
“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” — 1 Timothy 2:11–12 There is something almost admirable in the efficiency with which religion has managed, across time and geography, to persuade women to defend systems… Continue reading Blessed are the obedient — women, worship and the architecture of conformity
An email from the Gita Bhavan Hindu Temple brings far-right Hindutva organising in the UK into question On the 10th of May 2026, a prominent Manchester mandir sent an email to its mailing list advertising an event that took place twenty days later, on the 30th of May. Alarmingly, it said the event was being… Continue reading VHP-linked Hindu temple in Manchester lists event “Sponsored by Bajrangdal”
We live in the age of performative inclusion and the political destruction of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Newsrooms, late-night shows and political figures discuss the impact and relevance of diversity, equity and disability rights as casually as a morning routine. And yet some of the most ordinary forms of difference — speech patterns —… Continue reading Who gets laughed at — speech, power and the limits of “inclusion”
In a city just south of Seoul, the government is ordering cafés to erase English from their signs. In France, Le Académie Française continues to issue new warnings against the use of Franglais. Meanwhile, in the UK, the Oxford English Dictionary adds over fifty Korean and Japanese words to its pages. And Spanish Royalty decrees… Continue reading Words of power — how language borrowing reflects global shifts in cultural influence
The superficiality when you may hear, “Can I have a chai tea matcha latcha latte”, is almost as superfluous as the exaggeration sounds. Of course, this is a hyperbolic extension of the real issue; one culture idealised and “Westernised” to become nothing more than a simplified idea with a complete loss of meaning (at least… Continue reading Colonialism on Crack
“Being born a woman is my awful tragedy”, Sylvia Plath journalled in 1959, four years before her death. “From the moment I was conceived I was doomed to sprout breasts and a womb and to adore men who are the enemies of my kind”. A year later, in 1960, poet Anne Sexton underwent an illegal… Continue reading The womb is a haunted house — looking to the works of Plath and Sexton as a woman in 2026
In the 1995 cult-classic film Before Sunrise, the main character Celine says: “You know, I have this awful paranoid thought that feminism was mostly invented by men so that they could, like, fool around a little more. You know, women, free your minds, free your bodies, sleep with me”. Although I am strongly opposed to… Continue reading Sexual liberation or exploitation?
