Chloe Blades on the raw, complex and unabashedly feminist new novel by the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. There’s a plethora of novels hitting shop shelves that retell the ancient epics. Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls gives voices to the pillaged slave women of Homer’s Iliad. In … Read more
For the body hair episode of On the Rag, Alex Casey decided to get waxed for the very first time. This is her story. It was a terrifying ultimatum. Relax, or have my bum cheeks stick together. Would they just cling together for a bit? Or be firmly welded shut for the rest of my … Read more
As Instagram comes under increasing scrutiny for contributing to poor mental health and body image, Alex Casey discovers a growing number of local women who are using the platform to empower and educate. The average Instagram user under the age of 25 spends 32 minutes a day on the app. That’s a cool 11392 minutes … Read more
Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden, Michèle A’Court tackle the past month in women, with thanks to our friends at The Women’s Bookshop. This month on On the Rag, we look back at the month of April and yes we are very late and we’re very sorry. Mother’s Day is around the corner, and brands are doing the … Read more
Based on the podcast of the same name, Alex Casey, Michele A’Court and Leonie Hayden set out to jelly wrestle with every issue under the sun. This month, they’re waxing lyrical about body hair. For the second episode of our feminist series On the Rag, Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Michéle A’Court sharpen their secateurs … Read more
Forget Daria, Pepper Ann was the 90s’ greatest cartoon depiction of teenage girlhood, argues Sam Rutledge. Somehow the beloved Pepper Ann, which ran for five seasons is – wait for it – 22 years old. I know, I don’t believe it either, but it turns out we’re all much closer to death than we thought. It … Read more
This weekend, lend your eyeballs to our three new shows: Two Sketches with Toby Morris, Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting Legends and On the Rag. Look, it’s the weekend and you’ve already watched all the things. You’ve watched Game of Thrones. You’ve watched Dancing With the Stars NZ. You’ve watched the video of the goat in … Read more
True crime aficionado Jean Sergent reviews The Five by Hallie Rubenhold. In the annals of Ripperology, there are classics and there are clangers. The latest slew of “Jack the Ripper finally uncovered!” headlines recycle the same faulty DNA studies, but there has never been a definitive answer to the mystery of identity of the Whitechapel … Read more
In the same week that a woman was told her bikini was “inappropriate” to wear at an Auckland pool, Alex Casey provides some much-needed reminders for women wearing clothes everywhere. Women, you probably already know this but… you’re wrong. Your clothes are wrong, your togs are wrong, whatever you are wearing on your head is … Read more
The current discourse around Muslim women is narrow-minded and short-sighted, writes Nidha Khan. There are Kiwi-Muslims still grieving. There are Kiwi-Muslims still numb, upset, scared, angry, and emotionally exhausted. And, in such a time, it is deeply upsetting and unsettling for commentators like Heather du Plessis-Allan to re-ignite narrow-minded conversations about how wearing the hijab … Read more
Based on the podcast of the same name, Alex Casey, Michele A’Court and Leonie Hayden set out to jelly wrestle with every issue under the sun. First up: periods. The Spinoff apologises for an error in the above video: Jill Brinsdon was the first female creative director in New Zealand, rather than the first female … Read more
Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Michèle A’Court tackle the past month in women, news and popular culture, with thanks to our friends at The Women’s Bookshop. A very late February episode of On the Rag appears, complete with Michele’s pitch perfect Jordan B. Peterson impersonation, outrage over gender fluid clothing, and some scary truths about a … Read more
Re-introducing On the Rag, The Spinoff’s feminist podcast that is launching as a webseries next Wednesday. Any woman that has ever been to a sleepover, a coffee group, or assembled drunkenly in a bathroom knows that a very special thing happens when we get together in a tight circle. Safe from the rest of the … Read more
Working on my Night Moves is the latest show from award-winning theatremaker Julia Croft and marks a philosophical change for her. Julia Croft is one of Auckland’s most essential theatremakers at the moment. The work she makes is consistently engaging with the zeitgeist in performative, accessible ways. The difference, according to the artist herself, with Working on … Read more
Milk and Honey is a nationwide music festival happening on International Women’s Day this Friday. Anny Ma talked to its organisers, Lani Purkis and Teresa Patterson, about why it’s so necessary. Milk and Honey is a music festival touring four cities and six venues, but all of the shows will happen simultaneously on one night: … Read more
Less than a week out from release, Sam Brooks dips back into the breast physics controversy that has enveloped Dead or Alive 6. If there’s one thing on the internet that I can strongly endorse you don’t investigate, it is the debate around breast physics in video games. It’s a fast way to stop believing that there is … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Brough Johnson, co-founder of Narrative Muse, about a NZ-made platform that puts the spotlight on women and non-binary creators. If you don’t think representation in popular culture matters, you should really familiarise yourself with The Scully Effect. The study, conducted across 2000 women in America, revealed that nearly two thirds of … Read more
Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Michèle A’Court tackle the past month in women, news and popular culture, with thanks to our friends at The Women’s Bookshop. It began with a Gillette razor and it ended with a whole week of New Zealand rape culture under a microscope. January was a rough one for sure, so join … Read more
Women have been doing groundbreaking science for centuries. So why don’t students learn more about them? Can you name a female scientist from history? Chances are you are shouting out Marie Curie. The twice Nobel Prize-winning Curie and mathematician Ada Lovelace are two of the few women within Western science to receive lasting popular recognition. … Read more
Listen to Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Michèle A’Court tackle the past YEAR in women, news and popular culture, with thanks to our friends at The Women’s Bookshop. We made it everyone! It’s last episode of On the Rag for the year, and we are more than ready to say goodbye to 2018. But first, we … Read more
In the now-annual event of the year, five of our podcasts’ hosts join forces like a mighty end-of-year podcast rat-king. Join Gone by Lunchtime, On The Rag, The Real Pod, Pod on the Couch and Dietary Requirements in regurgitating the highlights and lowlights of the year that was, and pondering the year that will be. In … Read more
This week Massey University released its annual ‘Quote of the Year’ competition, serving up a shortlist of 10 to vote to the 2018 title. And, look, some of them are fine! But in the spirits of breadth and plurality, our quote-loving team has produced its own crop of 10 for the inaugural Spinoff Alternative Quote … Read more
Ahead of Wednesday’s March for Reproductive Rights in Wellington, four people weigh in on why they’ll be supporting the march and what they hope to see from the national discussion around abortion rights. ALRANZ supports Model A by Terry Bellamak, national president of ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa By now, most New Zealanders are familiar with … Read more
In a paper published today in the New Zealand Medical Journal, a University of Canterbury study has found that vocal fry is voluntary and is becoming common in some young New Zealand women. Fried things are delicious. But apparently fried lady voices are not. The study that’s causing such a fuss today isn’t talking about … Read more
Speaking to The Spinoff’s On the Rag podcast, Clementine Ford predicted one man would turn up to protest her speaking event. What she didn’t anticipate… was four. Last night in the Auckland suburb of Freeman’s Bay, feminist commentator Clementine Ford’s speaking event was met with a small group of angry protesters. With protest plans laid … Read more
A very special episode with thanks to our friends at The Women’s Bookshop. They said it couldn’t be done. They said we couldn’t get Clementine Ford back to do another pod. But we did, and here it is. Promoting her new book Boys Will Be Boys, Clementine spends an hour in The Spinoff studio to answer … Read more
Listen to Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Madeleine Chapman tackle the past month in women, news and popular culture, with thanks to our friends at The Women’s Bookshop. This month Madeleine Chapman steps in for Michele A’Court as we dissect the October in womanhood. The fancy royal couple were here for a bit, the government is … Read more
Alex Casey spends a few hours with some rainbow volunteers shining a light on the trans community. It’s a sunny Friday on Karangahape Road, and rainbow activists Sam Orchard and Toni Duder are nervously waiting outside adult store Peaches and Cream. “Can you do the talking?” Orchard asks. “Sure,” says Duder. Wielding armfuls of colourful … Read more
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more succinct summary of the way that sexual violence lives in the air that we breathe,” writes Alex Casey of Boys Will Be Boys. I’ve never written a book review before, so I’m assuming it’s totally canon and intelligentsia to start by talking about the cover. Boys Will … Read more