As a young woman who has battled an eating disorder, please don’t tell me to lose weight this month, this year, or ever. Please don’t tell me that I need to shred or burn off the Christmas food that I so heartily enjoyed over this festive season. Please don’t continue to allow diet culture to make me believe that my body needs to change with the New Year.
Read MoreWe are often challenged to step out of our comfort zones. We do it without considering the very possibility that it might not be a great idea. I am convinced that this challenge often does not come from within
Read MoreWe may be in and out of lockdowns and different tiers for some time. Theatre needs to adapt to these conditions, with smaller, socially-distanced shows, but also with productions that reflect on our experiences of the pandemic in a subtle and imaginative way.
Read MoreMy parents laughed when I told them I’d seen somebody in my room. My mum told me I’d been reading too much Harry Potter—and I had to admit, it did look like a Dementor. But her breezy explanation never satisfied me. Although I was, at that age, obsessed with the boy wizard, I didn’t believe my enthusiasm for Hogwarts was enough to cause waking hallucinations.
Read MoreThis rabbit-like inability to be sick is sadly not evidence of a super-human immune system, nor is it an indication that I possess what my friend Eve would describe as the hardy ‘stomach of a goat’. Instead, it’s the result of a life-long and exhausting struggle with severe emetophobia – one that, up until the recent pandemic, I believed I was finally overcoming.
Read MoreBreast implants or the, ‘Boob Job,’ has been the number one cosmetic procedure carried out for the past 13 years, in the USA alone 300,000 people opted for the procedure in 2019. But many are not aware of Breast Implant Illness and the impact it can have.
Read MoreBynner and Ficke had more than proven their point: they’d successfully demonstrated that anything (even drunken creations about pleasuring oneself) could be passed off as high culture if you tried hard enough.
Read MoreWorry ruins lives, it wastes time, energy, and resources. It gives nothing back and saps the joy out of life. So why do we do it? Worry doesn’t rob tomorrow of its sorrow, its saps today of its strength.
Read MoreI am one of these parents and I have a few things to say. Not just about the (sadly expected) mishandling of free school meals provision in a time of national crisis by the government, but also about how it feels to be on the receiving end. This latest debacle feels like the perfect example of how little our government thinks of us, and the poor choices they have made in a time when we need strong, fair leadership, more than ever.
Read MoreAt some point I made the mistake of saying ‘yes baby, I will always give you a massage whenever you need one’. This was a seriously misjudged error on so many levels. One, I didn’t realise quite how long forever is.
Read MoreNow it’s three months later (keep up people), and I am back in the specialist's office. After 5 minutes of silence and tapping at the computer, she spins around on her chair and rather flippantly states, ‘Yes you have Narcolepsy. You know it cannot be cured, right?’
Read MoreOne small sentence placed within an act dating back to 1973, would prove that new laws and possibilities do not mean that the relationships were truly seen as equal and previous beliefs about LGBTQ+ people were still going strong.
Read MoreStreet harassment controls where womxn can walk and feel safe. It controls what womxn feel comfortable wearing. It puts them on edge and makes them anxious. Subsequently, street harassment badly impacts womxn’s mental health which is should be reason enough to socially condemn it.
Read MoreWhere were the armed guards? Where were the police whose job it is to stop people getting as far as they did? Where was the second Capitol Hill officer to back a brother up? Oh, yeah, the protesters were White, so there was no need to call in the troops.
Read More2021 dawns and at the stroke of midnight, I feel I will turn back into a pumpkin. No, not the coach, I am not Cinderella. I have turned into a pumpkin.
Read MoreHonestly? We were not prepared for what it meant to be full time carers. And there’s two of us. Looking after someone who isn’t even sick sick. Just limited in her mobility. Being a carer is Tough. Tough with a capital T.
Read MoreImagine an elderly couple. Suddenly on the 16th of March, their world changed. They realise they won’t be able to see their loved ones anymore. Now, their days will just consist of reading the paper, putting the rubbish out and taking their medicine. No one will pull into the drive anymore.
Read MoreThe notion that pole dancing is easier or even specifically ‘made’ for skinny women does not hold any merit – look at the amazing Nicole Byers. The truth is that pole dance is not easy, period. If it were, we would all be paid professionals! Your body type does not determine your pole journey.
Read MorePhotographs have always helped to remind me of and feel connected to my own lived experience and anything that can achieve that sense of knowing is definitely worth being grateful for.
Read MoreThe warmth, the campness, the glitter, the critical, sarcastic humour, the unspoken sadness- there is a comfort I find in the entertainment we Brits watch through our boxes, and this year more than ever, I am particularly grateful for it.
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