Bringing An Agenda To The Table

March 15, 2013 in Anecdotes, Fitness, Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition, People

Recently I wrote an article about My Body, My Choice. I wanted to highlight the differences between personal choices that have little or no effect on the wider community, and those that do. When I was thinking about personal choices that have a cost to the community I knew I had to think of some examples. Smoking was one. Binge drinking was another. But I also wanted to use food as an example as well, in terms of the the healthcare costs directly related to  bad diets and our sedentary lifestyle – diabetes, heart disease, bowel cancer – things like [...]

This Week: Lingerie Football, and Sponsored Posts

January 18, 2013 in Body Image, Celebrity, Current Affairs, Entertainment, Film & TV, Sport, Technology

Here’s JJ & T with another weekly chat about life, the universe…and well, anything… JJ: So, T – how’s your week been? T: It’s been alright. And yours? JJ: Kind of a “meh” week. Nothing much happened. I had a good rant about male-hair discrimination, but apart from that…nada T: I’ve been busy being a Stepmother. But I’m all riled up today about the Lingerie Football League! JJ: What have they done now? T: Well they’re now changing the name to Legends Football League and getting rid of the Lingerie. JJ: How can they claim to be legends? Legends of what? T: Gridiron. [...]

May You (Not) Live In Interesting Times

January 17, 2013 in Lifestyle, Mental Health, People

You’ve probably all heard of that expression “May you live in interesting times”. It is purported to be an ancient Chinese curse (though there is no proof of this at all) used ironically to mean that living a peaceful but boring life may be better for you than an interesting one. Well, tell that to someone who likes to blog…because let me tell you, having a boring life is a curse for the would-be blogger. I’ve been suffering from a lot of blog envy at the moment. Everywhere I see heaps of people with lots of things to blog about…their kids, their hobbies, their [...]

Exclusive: An Interview With Mary Mary

December 12, 2012 in Celebrity, Fiction, Gender

In a world exclusive, well known fictional feminist and Neo-Blogger, Mary Mary, agreed to sit down for a chat with KiKi & Tea’s very own John James: JJ: Mary Mary, thanks for sitting down and speaking with me today. Mary: Just Mary. I only use the plural when writing in third-person. JJ: Is that so? It’s unusual for you to speak as yourself isn’t it? Mary: Well, it depends on context. I’m speaking to you today as the person who writes Mary Mary, not the Mary Mary persona. JJ: You write under a pseudonym don’t you. Mary: Yes. JJ: You see, [...]

The Cult Of First Personality

December 3, 2012 in Fiction, Sex, Society, Technology

It had taken Kate a long time – almost a year – to finally track down Mary Mary, that mysterious blogger whose website, Quite Contrary, had become such an Internet sensation. Almost overnight, Mary Mary had changed blogging forever. Her personal observations about her life and the world around her – always written in third-person – were considered revolutionary, and her strange and aloof insights into women everywhere were proclaimed as the most significant advancement in feminism since Greer and Steinem in the 60s and 70s. But no one knew who Mary Mary was. Her anonymity was as exciting and mysterious as her writings. Almost since [...]

We Need More Ryan Gosling

November 21, 2012 in Celebrity, Entertainment, Fiction, Film & TV, Humour, Stories

Scene: The weekly KiKi & Tea editorial meeting… “OK,” said T, flicking her long red hair off her right shoulder. “Monday is settled. We have one from Maree, one from Hayley. Rose, you’re on Tuesday. I’ve got a post on Wednesday, plus something weird from JJ. A new fashion post from Bek and a few guest posts for the rest. Which just leaves Monique with her Celeb Top 5 on Friday. What have you got, Mon?” Monique slid a piece of paper across the table towards T and waited nervously. “Uh huh…good,” said T, sucking on her pen. “Brangelina again…I’ve lost [...]

I Have A New Secret To Tell You…

November 13, 2012 in Society, Stories

OK. So I have this new secret to tell you, but first I want to conduct an experiment. This is an experiment where I will need your participation, and your complete honesty. This experiment, in some ways, is like holding a mirror up to all of us – writers and readers – who participate in sites like this where people write, read and comment on opinion pieces. But more about that later. As you may have noticed, I’ve become bored with traditional opinion posts where people voice an opinion about a subject from a first person perspective. (And yes, I’m aware of the irony [...]

My Online Persona vs Real Life

November 1, 2012 in Entertainment, People, Self, Society, Technology

Last week I posted an article about pregnancy that got a lot of conversation going. The most interesting part of which, for me, was when the conversation became about my personality, rather than whether or not people should feel free to ask me if I’m pregnant. It was stated that this article was “another example of your dislike of casual interaction with office mates and strangers.” This got me thinking about your online persona vs real life persona, specifically in relation to blogs or opinion pieces. When you write an opinion piece, you’re putting your thoughts out there. But you’re [...]

The Gender Divide in the Blogosphere

September 7, 2012 in Current Affairs, Gender, Society, Technology

Earlier this year, Mashable posted an article about the gender discrepancy between men and women on social media and blogging sites based on the stats collected in a Nielsen report . From the article: Women are 8% more likely than the average online adult to build or update a personal blog, while men are 9% less likely to do so. Women are 18% more likely than the baseline American to follow a brand on Facebook or other social media sites … while men are 21% less likely. Have created at least one social networking profile? Women: 6% more likely to have done that. Men: 7% less [...]

Hate Reading: Do You Do It?

August 14, 2012 in Celebrity, Entertainment, Film & TV, Technology

I was at my friends house. We were having a glass of wine and some cheese. All of a sudden, she perked up, her eyes widened and she said: “ERMAHGAWD, I cannot believe I haven’t shown you this yet, you will die!” She opened up her laptop and typed an address into the browser. It was a blog. A blog created by a girl we knew at uni, for whom we both had a mutual disdain for. As I had deleted this girl from Facebook on the day we graduated, I really hadn’t heard boo about her since then and [...]