Photo of Vivian Chandra standing on a stage in front of a red curtain wearing a colourful Star Wars dress

Feminist Rage!

In March 2020, just before the end times, the pop-up Globe right here in Tāmaki Makaurau, played a farewell season, and one of the plays was called Emilia. Who was Emilia? She was a published poet, a mother, a teacher and a feminist, from 1569 to 1645! Emilia was five years younger than a dude y’all might know, Willy Shakespeare. She did live longer than him tho, by about 30 years. If you *do* know Shakespeare, you might know that there was a ‘dark lady’ in his Sonnets, an unacknowledged inspiration for his plays, and Lloyd Malcolm, the playwright of Emilia, says it might just be Emilia. This is the closing monologue with some wee Viv changes.

The Tampon Tax and other things

So a wee while ago I saw a post about a guy from Norwich, UK who insisted that the 'tampon tax' proposed bill in the UK was ridiculous, because women should 'hold their bladders'. He drew the analogy that if he didn't insist on tax free diapers, because he could wait to go to the toilet. Understandably, this … Continue reading The Tampon Tax and other things

#AtenaFarghadani Released!

You know when you do research on something and you suddenly take a personal interest in it. That happened to me with Atena's case. I've worked at Amnesty for 8 years now, and been involved as an activist for a few more than that... so I've seen a lot of cases come and go. In … Continue reading #AtenaFarghadani Released!