Latest Stories from Annie
Why we should be redirecting our gaze towards male bodies
There’s a distinct lack of body positivity discourse for male, masc, and non-binary bodies. We need to challenge the attitude that views a specific type of body as more beautiful than another and start to praise all kinds of peaches. Scrolling on social media, I come across a before and after photo, taken a year apart, of a young woman at the gym. She’s about my age and the...
Opinion – Gen Z are becoming more about crochet than clubbing
Gen Z seem to be more about crochet than clubbing these days. When did this shift happen and what are the probable causes, though? I love going out. I love the loud music and the pulsating walls. I love dark rooms and sporadic lighting. I love the throng of people that it’s too loud to even attempt conversation with, and the ‘profound’ conversations with strangers you meet for a...
Opinion – a woman’s business is not to be beautiful
From the 1874 Ugly Girl Papers to the overt normalisation – and promotion – of harmful practices such as preventative botox, are we looking at the end of variety and youth in faces which have all been touched by the same needle? ‘The first requisite in a woman toward pleasing others is that she should be pleased with herself,’ begins chapter one of The Ugly Girl Papers;...
The power of swearing in positions of powerlessness
Is being explicit how we cope with how out of control things are – and how out of control we feel? Recently, internationally acclaimed Irish popstar CMAT (Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson) posted an Instagram story responding to someone who criticised how much she swears on social media. She explained that, sometimes, when there’s nothing else you can do to relieve yourself from the shittyness of a situation (like an underpaid job that...
Opinion – stop letting men get away with silence
The belief that another person will complete us means that many people are settling for the bare minimum in relationships, rather than taking the time to get to know themselves as an individual. For modern dating to work, we need to recognise the importance of reciprocal communication between partners and an equal distribution of all kinds of labour. Before the evolution of the internet and international travel meant that you...
Modern medicine continues to neglect women’s health
Women are disproportionately suffering from a lack of medical attention, facing difficulties seeking treatment for painful symptoms and having their needs misunderstood. In a supposedly developed world, we are consistently letting women down by failing to close the gender health gap. From Queen Elizabeth I’s white face makeup – which she used to cover smallpox scarring – to well-known modern-day lipstick brands including Mac, L’Oreal, and Maybelline,...
Exploring Gen Z’s love of horoscopes
From Aristotle to A-listers, astrology has been popular for centuries. Gen Z is particularly obsessed, with star signs playing a major role in how they interact on social media. Whether you believe in the power of the Zodiac or not, star signs have been in magazines since 1930, when the Sunday Express printed a birth horoscope for Princess Margaret Rose on August 24. Those of you who can...
Have tattoos become too expensive?
For various reasons, getting inked increasingly involves breaking the bank. What does this mean for the industry and for the future of an art form that’s been around for generations? If you cast your mind back to the days of T-shirts and shorts earlier this year – now replaced by jumpers and thermals as British winter rolls in – an afternoon of people watching may have had you believing that...
Opinion – why giving weight loss jabs to unemployed Brits is problematic
The government’s proposal endorses the stereotype that larger people without jobs are ‘just lazy’ and implies that a body that ‘works’ is measured by how much labour can be extracted from it. These days, it’s almost too easy to compare ourselves as we binge episode after episode of fatphobic media like The Biggest Loser, or My 600-lb life, or Supersize vs Superskinny, watching as people told they’re unhealthily large...
The problem with AI playlists on Spotify
Spotify algorithms are alienating us from each other and casting shadows over smaller artists by playing the same music over and over again. Is there a way we can rediscover the joy of sharing through streaming and continue to expand our tastes and experiences through sound? Whether you’re passionate about podcasts or crazy about carefully curated playlists, chances are you’re no stranger to Spotify, the world’s most...
