International Women's Day poses a wonderful opportunity for women to reflect on their journeys of living in the female body and determine how they want to forge ahead into the future. There may be numerous external inequalities and injustices yet to be remedied, but the truth remains that we can…
"For a celebrity to be alone seems a grave injustice to the fans because we want their lives to be a fairytale - scripted like a hallmark romance. ..For actors and performers in general, we forget that they only play fictional roles but that most of their lives are lived off camera where they too must wrestle with demons, overcome heartache and heartbreak and deal with all the challenges of being a human being."[Culture Detox 2: Celebrating Self Not Celebrity, p. 52]
Everybody goes weak at the knees for a heart-warming romance. At the very least stories of a genuine romance can warm the coldest and most cynical of hearts. We all yearn for a 'hapy ever after' ending. We seem to think we can will into existence a real connection from…
We live in a strange world where we form strong emotional connections with people we have never met in person. These notables are tagged with the label of ‘celebrities’ and the media puts them on pedestals. They become part of the cultural ‘furniture' such that when they are gone, the…
A huge stride forward was made in the fight against the body shaming trend which has come to dominate our image-obsessed popular culture. It was because one woman, using her celebrity influence, recently dared to speak out. American singer, Demi Lovato, responded to a journalist’s online comments that she had…
The often cringeworthy reports of celebrity divorces being played out in acrimonious detail on the home pages of mainstream news media, does not do marriage any favours. On a sub-conscious level, the unsuspecting public may silently swear off embarking on such a risky venture, or see it as merely a…
The word ‘legacy’ brings to mind the monetary and material gifts which testators normally leave behind to their chosen beneficiaries in their wills. It rarely occurs to us that a more meaningful legacy consists of the intangible gifts or footprints of the soul which are often etched for a lifetime…
In her recent memoirs ‘Brutally Honest’, Melanie Brown (originally of Spice Girls fame) revealed the harrowing domestic abuse at the hands of her ex-husband. The recently released documentary ‘Leaving Neverland’ shares the disturbing accounts of two young men who detail the sexual abuse they claim they suffered as children, at…
The often-sanitised image of those in the public eye, can often lead to disillusionment when other facts come to light which call into question this image. We want those in the public eye to show us what it’s like to be a ‘hero’ exuding courage, self-sacrifice and honour and putting…
Every sector of human activity has established a hierarchy of awards to recognise exceptional achievement. Awards can be given at the end of a race or competition, or on a rolling annual basis. The beginning of January saw the start of the prestigious film awards season where the Golden Globes…
