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Author: Neve Mahoney

  • AUSTRALIA

    A little more jaded but still valuing my vote

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 16 May 2019
    5 Comments

    In 2016, when some of my friends told me they weren't going to vote, I was aghast. I was so keen to get voting that the night before the election, I made a Word document to practise the order of my preferences. Fast forward to last week, when I couldn't remember which Saturday the election was on and feared I had accidentally missed it.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The indispensable joy of time spent alone

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 24 April 2019
    9 Comments

    It's liberating to buy a ticket for one. To not have to coordinate times with someone, but do things by my own schedule. To go see the niche movie none of my friends wants to see, or the art exhibition I forgot was in town until its last day. But alone time isn't just something I do because I like it. I need it.

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  • MEDIA

    When quitting Twitter isn't an option

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 10 April 2019
    2 Comments

    Social media can cause poor mental health outcomes, and there is evidence that it is designed to be addictive. But given my line of work, deleting my accounts is not something I can realistically do. With many choosing to walk away, what can those of us who stay do to ensure a healthy relationship with these platforms?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    J. K. needs to stop Harry Potter queerbaiting

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 21 March 2019
    11 Comments

    Rowling still wants it both ways — the kudos for representation that she never explicitly included, with the benefit of no actual risk. Back then, having an openly gay character would have been taking a stand. But now, in 2019, a straight author winking at queerness is just not good enough.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mixed news for feminist issues on IWD

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 08 March 2019
    2 Comments

    International Women's Day is as good a day as any to take stock of where we actually are in terms of current feminist issues and how much we still need to accomplish. As much as there is to celebrate, a glance at the news is a confirmation of our own worst fears about ourselves.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Stop correcting other people’s grammar

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 20 February 2019
    28 Comments

    There is still a segment of the internet obsessed with enforcing 'correct' grammar: the self-styled Grammar Police. In communicating with others, grammar provides clarity, and Australian standard grammar is one way of accomplishing that. But knowing the standardised rules is a skill not everyone has the same access to.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    How I stopped worrying and read what I liked

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 24 January 2019
    5 Comments

    I realised my own definition of what was challenging was based on a lifetime of hate-reading books I thought I should like, while the romance books that I was reading were often dealing with heavy topics like colonisation, racism, trauma and mental illness from perspectives different to my own.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Now more than ever, the personal is political

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 28 November 2018
    7 Comments

    Witnessing the sense of relief from Australian-African activists at the outcome of the Victorian state election, I was not sure why I had a sense of déjà vu. Then I realised this collective exhale reminded me vividly of the sentiment from the LGBTQ community after the marriage equality survey results were announced.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    In defense of Halloween

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 31 October 2018
    12 Comments

    As a kind of culture-blending holiday, there's room for many types of Halloween. The fact it has endured for so long and in so many forms is testament to how much we desire connection: to our past, to the dead, to one another. I don't think that's such a bad thing to celebrate.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    I'm not hysterical. I'm angry

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 04 October 2018
    12 Comments

    Tone policing describes when someone from a minority group expresses thoughts on oppression, but a person dismisses the content of their opinion in favour of commenting on how they said it. Anger in particular is tone policed. While men are encouraged to express their anger, women are socialised to feel like they can't be angry at all.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The case for banning gay conversion therapy

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 06 September 2018
    7 Comments

    When I watch the video 'How women become gay', it hurts. Not because of the anti-gay content, but because it uses language about God's love, the type of religious language I grew up with, to sneak past my defenses. For a moment, despite years of learning to accept myself, I waver.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Walking home alone

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 08 August 2018
    5 Comments

    It's 11.30 on a weeknight. I'm on the train, coming home from catching up with my friends. I'm on the phone with one of them as I move to the doors. 'Yeah, I'm right to walk home,' I tell my worried friend. 'The train's pulling up the station now.' I said that too loudly. I glance behind me and there are two men standing there.

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