Category: Toxicity
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I Hate Discrimination But Isn’t It Time To “Cancel” Blatant Stupidity
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to listen to some idiot make sexist comments in front of me when they know my views about feminism. And when I dare to argue back, they backtrack with platitudes such “I was only having a laugh” or “Can’t you take a joke?”
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It’s Okay To Man-Hug
Photo by Thiago Barletta on Unsplash We caught up with some friends at the weekend and when the husband and the old man did that awkward shuffle as they greeted each other, our male friend launched into the story of how he had tried to hug his elderly father once, who froze and brushed it…
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You Don’t Have To Fit Into Society’s One-Size-Fits-All Box
As, once again, we compile the memories of twenty-five years together into boxes ahead of our next move, it seems appropriate to have a discussion about them. Boxes. Because I’ve noticed how good society is at putting people into them, as NC reminded me the other day when we were discussing the assumptions people make…
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Make A Proper Apology, Trevor, And Learn From This Experience
Portrait of an Aboriginal woman in western dress. Part of the Walter Herbert Bradshaw collection in the exhibition Unruly Days: Territory Life 1911-1921, Museum and Art Gallery of the NT, Northern Territory. Michael J Barritt on Flickr. There is no doubt that the derogatory comment Trevor Noah made five years ago about Aboriginal women was…
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My Kids Will Be Able To Say A Lot Of Things About Me, But Never That I Didn’t Love them.
A friend asked me the other day about how I felt about Mothers Day, and I knew that the question was loaded – you see, I haven’t had a mother for a long time. And for the first time, it struck me that I don’t view the celebration from the perspective of my own mother.…
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Letting Go Of The Shit In Your Life
NC and her friends had a sisterhood meeting the other night. She and her tight band of millennial girlfriends, who have recently experienced a spate of more trials than tribulations in their journeys through young adulthood, decided they needed an intervention. After a rough few weeks of new jobs, new-people stresses, cockroach infestations, the cost…
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Millennial Sickness, Hypochondria and Snot Levels
There is something vaguely ironic about the recent discovery that Kurt is allergic to grass. After years of watching his eyes stream and his chest heave at certain times of the year – symptoms I originally put down to Karma for abusing his body, (because I’m compassionate like that), and the sad reality that none…
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Being Grateful
With a natural propensity for anxiety and a daily irrationality caused by the hormonal imbalances of middle age, I know that most of the time I am bad about feeling grateful and creating my own happiness. I might be appalled by the images coming out of Aleppo, but sadly, they don’t stop me from moaning…
LOUISA SIMMONDS 