Category Archives: Life and style

Everyone had an opinion about how to hang the curtains: on a woman’s right to use tools | Phoebe Paterson de Heer

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I had to gain the confidence that always seemed to come naturally to my partner to release my inner handywoman

Last year my partner and I moved into a new house. The whole exercise was exhilarating – finally, a place we owned – but it also unearthed in me a desperation, a deep frustration. For a long time I’ve wanted to be someone who fixes things, builds things, someone who is capable in practical day-to-day tasks. I own tools, I have ideas and I tinker with my surroundings, but I’ve never felt completely at ease in the tasks that various men in my life seem to take on with no backward glance.

In our just-built house there were so many jobs to do with drills, hammers, caulking guns. My drive to learn by doing was offset by disorientation and self-doubt. I wanted to begin improving our house, but I didn’t know what sort of screws I needed for the curtain rod brackets, or whether I could just drill straight into the plasterboard. My partner, a man, didn’t have much more experience in these things than I did, but approached the situation with a confidence and bluster that only confused me more.

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A new documentary about Lorena Bobbitt sheds light on the weirdness of the 90s

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Nineties women who dared to speak out, from Anita Hill to Courtney Love, were derided with a glee that was downright Victorian

I was born at the end of the 1970s, which means I am somewhat in a no man’s land, generationally – at the fag end of Gen X, too old to be a millennial. “Xennial” someone suggested recently, and what that term lacks in clarity it also lacks in pronouncability. So I prefer something less snappy but more descriptive: too young to remember John Lennon’s death, but old enough to remember Tiffany.

One thing that is non-debatable about my generation is that we all came of age in the 1990s. Any sensible adult will look back on their teenage years with vague bemusement. (And any adult who doesn’t should be avoided at all costs: the best thing about the film Juno was Jason Bateman’s character, who illustrated the toxicity of a grown man who still thinks he is 18.) But these days it does feel that the 90s was an exceptionally weird time, especially for girls.

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Anna Wintour: a rare face-to-face with the most important woman in fashion

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The editor-in-chief of American Vogue talks to Jess Cartner-Morley about Michelle Obama, fake news and only spending 20 minutes at parties.

Portraits by Tyler Mitchell

• Read more from the spring/summer 2019 edition of The Fashion, our biannual fashion supplement

One morning last August, Anna Wintour was playing tennis with her coach in the 40-acre grounds of her Long Island summerhouse. She noticed he seemed a little distracted: “But his wife was about to have a baby, so I thought he was nervous about that.” Then it struck her that they had attracted an unusual number of spectators. The house was brimful with family, but it was earlier than most people get up on a weekend. (“I’m a morning person,” says Wintour, for whom anything later than 5am constitutes a lie-in.) As she prepared to serve, she heard a car pull up. “I am pretty OCD about guests and where they are sleeping. I thought, I’m not expecting anyone else, I don’t have any more rooms. Who is this? And then I thought – that looks like Roger [Federer, with whom Wintour is good friends]. And that looks like [his wife] Mirka. And that looks like their twins.” Wintour’s daughter Bee Shaffer, it transpired, had arranged for a Federer-Wintour family tennis tournament, “which was the best gift a daughter could give a tennis-mad mother. I got to play doubles with Roger for the first time in our very long friendship, against my two nephews.” Twenty-five floors above Manhattan, behind the ebonised mahogany Alan Buchsbaum desk from which she has ruled the fashion world for three decades, she leans back in her chair and smiles at the memory. “We won, of course.”

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‘We need more people to go by bike’: meet Amsterdam’s nine-year-old junior cycle mayor

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As the world’s first junior cycle mayor, Lotta Crok wants to draw attention to the obstacles kids on bikes face – and inspire other children to cycle

During Amsterdam’s chaotic rush hour, nine-year-old Lotta Crok cycles to a very busy junction. “Look,” she says. “There’s traffic coming from everywhere. Four trams from four different directions. For a child on a bike that’s really confusing!”

Lotta is the first junior cycle mayor in the world and her working area is the Dutch capital. It is her mission to inspire children to cycle every day and draw attention to the obstacles that kids on bikes are facing.

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Japanese women push back against Valentine’s tradition of ‘obligation chocolate’

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For many, pressure to avoid causing offence by spending thousands of yen on treats for coworkers is becoming intolerable

Japanese women are pushing back against a tradition that dictates they must give chocolates to male colleagues on Valentine’s Day, with growing anger at the practice of “forced giving”.

Until recently, women in the workplace were expected to buy chocolates for their male workmates as part of a tradition called giri choco – literally, obligation chocolates.

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Uganda only tolerates women’s bodies when there is money to be made

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This tourism ministry’s ‘celebratory’ Miss Curvy pageant jars with the way we are usually treated in our own country

People who move to Uganda from the west say it’s like enjoying an endless summer. The east African country, one of the biggest beer consumers in the world, always has an excuse to party and bars are open 24/7. In fact, there is a four-day dance festival that attracts people from all over the world. Overwhelmed by all the heat and partying? Take a trip to any of the 36 nature reserves, trek to see the chimpanzees, or just wander and marvel at the scenery.

Uganda will do anything to keep its admirers interested. In 2017, the country, with support from World Bank, paid $1.5m to PR firms in Europe and America to bolster its tourism trade. In 2018, it spent a further $1.2m on similar initiatives in China, Japan and the Gulf states. And now the tourism minister, Godfrey Kiwanda, has announced a new way of selling the country abroad: a beauty pageant that will have Uganda’s curvaceous women “showcase their beautiful curves and intellect”.

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Siesta no more? Why Spanish sleeping habits are under strain

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Spaniards eat later and stay up longer than their European neighbours because of the siesta. But now that’s under threat

Midweek in Madrid on a summer’s evening, it’s 25C and at 10pm the bars, cafes and squares are full of Madrileños, chatting and drinking. They’re still there at midnight, only now some are eating too. Not until 2am do the bars start to close as the crowd thins out. Most of these people will have to go to work in the morning, so the question is: when do they sleep?

The answer is, later. According to Eurostat, the average Spaniard’s day starts 90 minutes later than a German’s. When the Spaniard eats lunch the German has been back at work for two hours and when the German knocks off at 4.30pm, the Spaniard is heading back to work for another three hours. And finally, when the German is in bed at 10pm, the Spaniard is having supper before hitting the sack some time between midnight and 1am.

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Outrage over use of ‘Miss Curvy’ beauty pageant to promote Ugandan tourism

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Campaign involving ‘naturally endowed, nice-looking women’ sparks backlash from ministers and activists

A plan to promote Uganda’s tourist industry with a “Miss Curvy” beauty contest has caused a government row in the east African nation.

The proposal to add “curvy and sexy women” to official literature listing Uganda’s attractions, devised by the country’s tourism minister, has drawn an angry rebuke from the minister of ethics and integrity and condemnation from women’s right activists.

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Crazy ‘cat men’: how New York’s feline frenzy made headlines decades ago

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Peggy Gavan’s book sheds light on the lives of workers in storied institutions in the 1800s and 1900s – and their bonds with cats

New York was no place for a stray cat in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Thousands of feral cats were rounded up and gassed, ostensibly for “humanitarian reasons”. Poor children were paid one nickel per catch, which meant scores of healthy pets also met their ends.

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‘You will have an emotional reboot’: the ultimate guide to stress at every age

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Every life stage brings its own pressures, from worrying about exams to juggling the needs of family. Here are the best coping tactics for each generation

Triggers
“Children are really the canaries in the mineshaft of human society. They are the individuals within our cultures that are the most sensitive to the difficulties – and stresses – that societies experience,” Tom Boyce tells me. Professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of California, he specialises in the treatment of three- to eight-year-olds. Major stressors in this age group include marital conflict, violence in the home, violence in the community, problems with parental mental health – a mum or dad who is depressed – maltreatment and disciplinary behaviours that become punitive.

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‘Getting out of bed is the first hurdle’: how I cope with my anxiety

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Dread and despair have been a part of my life since childhood – and then I started writing about politics ...

The anxiety is ever-present. Sometimes only as a form of background noise; a voice that tells me I’ve failed at the day before it’s even begun. At other times it’s more insistent. An almost physical presence. A heart-pounding feeling of dread that makes it a struggle to get out of bed. A longed for desire to go back to sleep, to rewind the clock, in the desperate hope that I could start the day again.

I stare at the clock, calculating how long I can leave it before I have to get out of bed and engage with the day. Another 10 minutes maybe? Twenty if I choose to skip breakfast. Hoping that the anxiety will have passed by the time I do get up, while knowing that every delay merely makes it worse. I know it’s a kind of madness. But it’s one to which I invariably succumb.

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Major western brands pay Indian garment workers 11p an hour

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Study reveals ‘unchecked’ exploitation of women and girls from marginalised communities

Most consumers don’t think twice about the buttons on their shirt, or the sparkles on their dress. But these finishing touches are sewn by some of the world’s most vulnerable women and girls.

A week on from revelations that women in a Bangladesh factory were paid the equivalent of 35p an hour to make Spice Girls T-Shirts sold to raise money for Comic Relief, a new report highlights the exploitative conditions facing millions of home-based garment workers in India.

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Women in Zimbabwe demand action over alleged army rapes

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Activists don black clothes in protest after widespread reports of sexual violence by security forces


Women in Zimbabwe donned black clothes and shunned makeup to protest against sexual violence by the country’s security forces during the government crackdown on protesters and opposition activists.

Trending under hashtags including #OurBodiesNotWarZones, #SheSpeaksOut, #InjureOneInjureAll and #ShutDownAtrocities, “Black Wednesday” campaigners called on the Zimbabwean authorities to take action against military personnel accused of rape and sexual assault.

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Meet the ‘cleanfluencers’, the online gurus who like things nice and tidy

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Marie Kondo may be the biggest name in decluttering, but Instagram is awash with cleaning experts with millions of followers

It may not be spring yet, but everybody’s cleaning. Or, at the very least, they are talking about it. It has only been a month since Tidying Up With Marie Kondo launched on Netflix, but the series, starring the Japanese organisation expert, has already become something of a phenomenon. It has sparked joy among some, and arguments about how many books you should have in your home among others (Kondo, controversially, caps her collection at about 30). It has also led to charity shops reporting a Kondo-related surge in donations as converts go on decluttering sprees.

Kondo, who shot to global fame in 2014 when her book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up was published in English, is probably the biggest name on the clean scene. However, she is far from the only person to have organised their way to celebrity. The past year or so has seen cleaning take on a new cultural cachet – particularly on Instagram. The social network is rife with hashtags such as #cleaningobsessed or #cleaningtime and people are amassing enormous followings with pictures of gleaming kitchen counters and sparkling floors. Fitness influencers and fashion bloggers step aside: it’s starting to look like bleach is the new black.

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‘We are afraid’: Brazilian women alarmed at relaxation of gun laws

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Bolsonaro’s move allowing more people to own firearms is causing unease in a society where domestic violence is rife

A pledge to make it easier for “good citizens” to buy guns for self-defence helped sweep Jair Bolsonaro to power. But there is alarm that the Brazilian president’s decree loosening firearms laws will make pervasive violence against women even worse – and more deadly.

“I believe this is a very negative measure that will lead more women to be threatened by violence,” said Maria da Penha, the women’s rights activist whose case changed Brazil’s domestic violence laws. “This decree should be reviewed.”

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Cat Person author Kristen Roupenian: ‘Dating is caught up in ego, power and control’

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Her short story was read by millions online – then things got weird. The writer talks about viral fame, power games and her new collection of twisted tales

Kristen Roupenian’s short story Cat Person was published by the New Yorker in December 2017 and, to the author’s best recollection, it went up online on a Monday. The 37-year-old was living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while completing a fellowship in writing, and for three or four days after the story came out, enjoyed the world’s customary reaction to most fiction, and all short stories – complete indifference – while basking in the achievement of it having been published at all. “I was thinking, ‘Wow: that was the greatest thing to ever happen, and now it’s over.’” She smiles. “Then it was Friday.”

By the standards of true global celebrity, there is only so far a piece of fiction can go; as David Foster Wallace used to say, the most famous writer in the world is about as famous as a local TV weatherman. Still, what happened with Cat Person remains singular to the extent that, for what seemed like the first time in publishing history, it slammed together two alien worlds, social media and serious fiction, in a way that stretched the boundaries of literary fame.

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Orkney rated Britain’s best place to live in terms of quality of life

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Scotland and north of England dominate top five as measured by housing, crime and schools

Orkney is the best place to live in the UK, with cheap houses, low crime, good schools and a population who are among the happiest and healthiest in the country, according to the annual Halifax quality of life survey.

The survey found that all the top five best places to live in the UK were in Scotland or the north of England. Richmondshire in the north of the Yorkshire Dales came second, while the appropriately named Eden district in Cumbria was third.

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Heather Mills to reopen former crisp factory as vegan food plant

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Animal rights activist says she will create up to 500 jobs in County Durham

A former crisp factory in the north-east of England will be turned into Britain’s biggest vegan food producer, creating up to 500 jobs in the area, according to its owner, the former model Heather Mills.

VBites in County Durham will take over the former Walkers factory and turn protein from seaweed, peas and other plants into substitutes for beef, chicken, pork, salmon and tuna, according to Mills, who told the BBC the factory would be the biggest of its kind in the UK.

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