Hyper-femininity can be subversive and empowering – just ask Barbie: I found Barbie again during 2020’s COVID lockdown. Indoors, confined to Juicy Couture tracksuits, I was missing excuses to express my hyper-femininity through clothing, as I had done pre-pandemic. Collecting Barbie dolls became a way to display my love of femininity in all it’s fun, …
Book review: Zakes Mda’s subversive take on Lesotho’s traditions: Portrait of a Lesotho shepherd, Ntoaesele Mashongoane. JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images In 2019 at the Abantu Book Festival in Soweto, South African writer and artist Zakes Mda was celebrating the publication of his final novel, The Zulus of New York, when he made a surprise …
Ru Paul’s Drag Race: how social media made drag’s subversive art form into a capitalist money maker: RuPaul’s Drag Race has become a behemoth with seemingly unstoppable forward motion. First aired in 2009 and created by production company World of Wonder, the reality show sees drag queens compete to become “America’s Next Drag Superstar”. Since …
The war that provided the soundtrack for subversive Afrikaans rock: Bernoldus Niemand (aka James Phillips) at the Market Theatre Warehouse in Johannesburg, 1989. John Hogg/The Times In 1967, military conscription became compulsory for all white men in South Africa over the age of 16. In the subsequent two decades the country got ever deeper involved …
REVIEW: a The Boss Babya is strange, subversive silliness: Imaginative only child Tim loves his life. He loves to play with his mom and dad , loves to have adventures, and loves to go to sleep after his three favorite stories, five hugs and one special song. : Weird News Have you tried: Visiting Port …