Category Archives: Comment
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The booby myth
In my early teens I often borrowed special editions of Cosmo and Dolly magazines from the local library. Once or twice a year the magazines would include features on ‘real bodies’, and greedily I would flip straight to the sealed sections to find the greatest range of … Read more
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The cost of culture: Tearing down the Berlin Wall, again
As the first spring sunshine spread across Berlin earlier this month, locals witnessed a strange reproduction of history. Down by the Spree river, Berliners were fighting to save the very wall they once fought so hard to destroy. A 20-metre stretch of the East Side Gallery, an … Read more
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Cause for celebration
I am getting married, which just goes to show that one should never say never. Shortly into my relationship with the man who is now my fiancé I said to him ‘I will never marry again’. That wasn’t just my bitter and bereft heart talking after the … Read more
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Worst. Review. Ever: On the pillorying of Jessica Andrews
Every writer writes because they want their work to be read – and in the brave new world of digital publishing, this desire takes the specific form of wanting to ‘go viral’. Virality can seem so arbitrary, so why shouldn’t a young writer pin their hopes … Read more
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Summer warzones: reflections on bushfire
It’s ten years this summer since my close-enough encounter with bushfire in Victoria’s high country. I spent two weeks with family preparing for a fire front that thankfully never made it to our doorstep, and compared to Black Saturday, Ash Wednesday, Black Friday – even this summer … Read more
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A Christian’s Christmas
Being a Christian doesn’t exactly earn you cool points in the workplace – especially around Christmas. If a colleague asks, ‘What are you doing over the break?’ responding enthusiastically with something like ‘CELEBRATING THE BIRTH OF MY LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST!’ can result in the loss … Read more
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The stories behind your neighbour’s front door
She looks much like any other elderly Chinese woman in Australian suburbia. Short. Greying hair. Perhaps a little healthier than average, a little more upright than most. But there’s nothing obvious to suggest her story threads back to another time, another country, a world of suffering most … Read more
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New to me, New York City
Like Loco, Pola and Schatze I was drawn to New York City to find a millionaire playboy. Wait, that’s not right. But in my nine days in NYC I did sometimes feel that I was acting a part in a movie. The island of Manhattan itself feels … Read more
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On reading Mom Blogs
I started reading ‘Mom blogs’ way before I got pregnant. At first, my reading was secret and covert. Alone in the house, I browsed the 1000 or so pages of blogs ranked by readers on the Top Baby Blogs register the way other people privately peruse porn. … Read more
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An open letter to Melburnians
Once while enjoying a sunny day and a mocha on Brunswick Street, I gave a homeless woman my change, but when she discovered my origins, she recoiled in disgust and spat out, ‘You’re American?? I hate Americans. You’re all taking over Australia.’ Then she wandered off with … Read more
