I remember my first encounter with an internet troll during my early Twitter days when I was called a “dumb bitch” because I had tweeted my desire to marry a member of the boy band One Direction. The troll went on to remind me that because of my race and religion, that would never be…
Just after midnight, on 1st August 1981, the Music Television channel (MTV) was born and premiered on American screens. MTV, headed by the executive, Robert W. Pittman at the time, premiered with its first-ever video, “Video Killed the Radio” Star by The Buggles and with the words “Ladies and Gentlemen, Rock n Roll”, the world…
In the dystopian past of the national lockdown I, like many others, spent an unreasonable amount of time binging Netflix series trying to pass the long days in confinement. One of the most interesting and cringe-worthy shows I found myself unable to pause was Indian Matchmaking, a docu-reality series that follows Seema Taparia, better known…
On 17 April 2020, American rapper and former Bad Boy record label artist, Black Rob, passed away due to kidney failure and before his death, a GoFundMe had been created to help him pay for his medical bills. Earlier in the same month, Bad Boy Records founder, millionaire and once upon a time Black Rob’s…
The tragic passing of George Floyd at the hands (or rather knee) of American police was a moment that brought international attention and served as a pinnacle of the Black Lives Matter movement. The trial against officer Derek Chauvin who is responsible for placing his knee on Floyd’s neck, restricting his breathing began on 29…
On Sunday, 18 April a fire erupted on the slopes of the mountain above Philip Kgosana Drive in Cape Town and set ablaze, among other buildings, the UCT Jagger library. In a statement to the public, the UCT Executive Director of the libraries, Ujala Satgoo, stated that the Reading Room had been destroyed and valuable…
Netflix’s documentary Seaspiracy looks at marine life sustainability issues and the environmental impact of industrial fishing. Released at the end of March the documentary received global success with it being amongst Netflix’s top 10 most viewed in many countries. The film was produced by Kip Andersen, who is also behind vegan documentaries Cowspiracy and What…
In a Good Morning Vogue segment, titled At Home With Kim Kardashian – The End of An Era, Vogue contributing editor Jonathan van Meter refers to Kim Kardashian as “one of the authors of social media”. This is virtually undeniable, Kim Kardashian and her sisters have a combined following of over 700 million and that’s…
TikTok star Addison Rae has recently made her way into headlines due to her appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Rae appeared in a segment in which she performed TikTok dances that were created by other TikTok creators, most of whom are people of colour, without crediting them during the show. This lack…
Trigger warning: this article contains discussions of body shaming and fatphobia Nay not once did I ever imagine myself writing about the Kardashians…Yet, here I am. I’m trying to find some kind of redeeming solace in the fact that as much as this train of thought/writing is about the Kardashians, it’s also essentially not about…
I don’t have many memories of watching Ugly Betty on MNET when I was younger, but they’re there. I had a fascination with the-then normalised plot of having an unfashionable and supposedly unattractive girl running around a huge fashion magazine’s building. Whenever I did tune in, I’d be fascinated in getting to the bottom of…
Social media was created as a supplement to real-life relationships, however, since its invention it has evolved into a pseudo-replacement for reality as we use our online personas to create a curated version of our lives. In the early days of social media, platforms such as Tumblr became a space for self-finding and self expression….
