Pain

Your pain is my pleasure – for which I thank you, as I twist it roughly until tears fill your eyes.

Being in Control

And here I am. A woman who likes to wear high heels and dresses. Whose nails are done – most of the time. A woman who likes to feel safe around a man. A woman who deeply cares for those around her. But who is also dominant and wants/needs to be in control. A woman who loves to tie someone up and tease them, peg them, slap them and sometimes even hurt them. – Miss Bo

a baptism of blood

I was three years old when Pauline Hanson announced in Parliament that Australia was ‘in danger of being swamped by Asians’. In her 1996 maiden speech, Hanson intoned the most famous words spoken about Asian Australians in our national memory:

‘I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. Between 1984 and 1995, 40 per cent of all migrants coming into this country were of Asian origin. They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate. Of course, I will be called racist, but if I can invite whom I want into my home, then I should have the right to have a say in who comes into my country.’

I grew up in the shadow of this slung mud. I was a part of the Asian swamp. I grew up in a lower- to working-class part of outer north-west Melbourne – a ghetto – where my parents chose to live because another Malaysian Chinese family they knew had moved there before them. I did not assimilate. We lived five minutes from the Tullamarine airport, Melbourne’s main airport, the tense border which immigrants like my family crossed to be here.

[…]

The ‘Asian flood’ that erupted in the wake of Hanson’s speech was a baptism of blood, not of water. Violent attacks on Asian Australian bodies tripled in frequency in the months following her speech. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hanson’s accusations have revived in public. My dad was walking down the street recently when a man yelled ‘Coronavirus’ at him. When he told me this story, I was interested in the compression of the racial slur. Not ‘You caused coronavirus’, or ‘You have coronavirus’, but, in some sense, you are coronavirus. The Western suburbs of Melbourne, with its historically immigrant populations, were disproportionately patrolled by police monitoring the lockdown. Patients refused to see Asian Australian doctors at hospitals. Videos emerged of white passengers heaping abuse and violence upon Asian Australian bus drivers. News articles reporting on supermarket shortages and panic-buying used images of Asian Australians shopping for groceries. These images of Asian bodies are what Hanson warned Australians about all those years ago. They are not just infected, they are the infection. They are a natural disaster that takes away everything the free world has created.

JESSICA ZHAN MEI YU – All the stain is tender: the Asian deluge and white Australia

beautiful as a blossoming orchid

As little girls, many of us were told ‘don’t touch yourself down there’, or ‘dirty girl’ or ‘disgusting’…Here is the truth: our yoni is as beautiful as a blossoming orchid, and, when our diet and lifestyle are healthy, does not smell offensive, but more like summer rain or wild-crafted honey. The clitoris has only one purpose: pleasure. Is that why our culture has made sexual pleasure for women such a taboo?

Leesa Wilson – The Gypsy Priestess

Witchcraft is a technology of change

It’s important to emphasize that witchcraft is something you do — it’s a practice, not a single, unified belief system. There are as many ways of practicing witchcraft as there are self-identified witches in the world! My witchcraft is an ever-shifting process, but it revolves around honing perceptions and making connections with people, places, and things, whether I’m doing spellwork or ritual involving the moon, a mountain, a season, a candle, a bunch of kitchen herbs, an old Motley Crüe record, my cat, hot pink lingerie, or a stack of books. Witchcraft is a technology of change, so any ritual or spell I enact is ultimately about re-calibrating or shifting myself first and foremost so I can be better aligned with what I am seeking. If that sounds vague, it’s meant to, as some of the most potent magic is that which you keep secreted away…

Kristen J Sollée – Interviewed by Matt Sutherland

An important message for you all –

Sex Outside

We wear the ghost of our sweaters
because moths ate the yarn
in the dampness of dark.

Take me inside
to the fire that paints over old love
letters with ash and regret.

            We can watch them burn.

Snub the stub of the cigarette
dripping off your lips.

            The smoke makes me cry.

            We are cold.

But you could be my blanket
as the sun settles into the dirt,
melting like wax off a candle.

Alicia Zuberbier

Witchcraft

The mid-20th century saw a positive revival of the term “witch” through the Wiccan movement in the U.S. and the UK, which spread into many feminist and “goddess consciousness” movements. Today, many people from many different spiritual traditions and cultures are reclaiming the word “witch.”

Witchcraft has always been innately linked to the marginalized, misunderstood, isolated, or strange. And as witchcraft has proliferated, it has become increasingly diverse, decentralized, and open to personal interpretation. In 2021, there are many, many types of witches — a quick scroll through WitchTok will show you everything from traditional rituals to a more wellness-based approach focused on affirmations. Witches are here to stay, ppl, and maybe you’re among their growing number already.

Kerry Ward, AKA Tarotbella – There Are Many Types of Witches

already a pervert…?

One day near to Christmas, my mum said to me: ‘You better be good or Santa will come and take your undies down. Instead of presents he’ll be giving you the spanking of your life – and on your bare backside, too. Just you wait and see’

Well, the thought of that made me feel swimmy-headed. Santa, a stranger, a man, exposing my bottom and privates, then smacking my bum as I bent over his knee…Despite my tender age, I was already a pervert…!

Natalie J – Confessions of Natalie: a truly kinky housewife

The Queen sits upon her throne –