Top Stories
Stories in Viva that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.
#ThisIsBeauty Is The New Movement With A Surprising Backstory
If there's one community you'd expect to be all about the idea of beauty being a codified, standardized trait, it'd be the beauty pageant community. With so many movies and television shows mocking how allegedly similar all the pageant contestants are, one would expect most pageanteers to really focus on looks.
By Ossiana Tepfenhart7 years ago in Viva
I Don't Know What To Eat...
Ah, the female dilemma. Now before anyone jumps down my throat about this: if you are female and know what you want to eat every time someone asks you, then I applaud you for that. You are steps ahead of many individuals and you need to hold onto that decision-making ability. You are truly gifted as a member of the gender.
By Samantha Reid7 years ago in Viva
We Need to Face Uncomfortable Truths
Dear Male Reader, I have a question for you: Why do you hate me? Sometimes I feel like everyone hates me because they keep saying it was my fault. My fault for having decided to go out alone, or my fault for the length of the skirt I decided to wear, or even my fault for that one too many drinks I had. The blame is even worse if what happened to me was done by my intimate partner (being him a boyfriend or a husband). That's due to this weird "common sense" understanding that if I agreed to be in a relationship with that man, I automatically deserve everything that comes out of it, after all, it was my choice. Please, I can't understand, why do you hate me? Why am I to blame if it I wasn't the one to perpetrate the assault? Just stop and reflect for a moment, how can it be my choice to be sexually violated? My choices regarding personal fashion, alcohol consumption habits, and social circles are not synonymous with choosing to be harassed. No one ever put that power in my hands. But you male reader, like to put the fault on my shoulders when the ugly truth is that the only choice that mattered on the occasion of the violence I suffered was that of the man who did it. He was the only one who chose when and how would he abuse me. And I'm sorry to say it male reader, but you are the one who gave him that power. Because you as a part of our current social structure constantly reinforce that I, as a woman, am the frail sex but contradictorily you lash out with so much judgment when I am weak and vulnerable. Isn't that exactly how you want me to be? The damsel in distress is the role that is forced upon me. You must understand that even though it's very entertaining to play as the male hero in a video game going on a quest to save the princess, this brings the exact opposite of safety to real women. Because malicious men take advantage of our vulnerability, being it emotional or physical, to say an extremely invasive and inconvenient comment about our bodies, to grab our butts at a party, to decoy us of a cab ride home once we're tipsy, to shove us into a dark corner, to force us into unwanted sexual acts in our own homes. And they feel like they have the authority to do all these dreadful things because our pop culture is unceasingly putting us in a role of utmost submission. We DID NOT choose for such things to happen to us! So I ask you: why has the word "molested" become synonymous to "dirty"? Why is it me that has to live in shame with the label "raped" stamped on my forehead, when no one even mentions my aggressor? Moreover, why do you never allow me to speak about it? You need to stop taking away my voice because sexual violence is a very real social problem. I guarantee it has happened to someone close to you, dear male reader, maybe to a friend, a work colleague, a sister, cousin or aunt, maybe even to your own mother or wife, but you don't know about it because this woman lives mortified in the shame that you put on her, to the point that she doesn't dare speak up about what happened to her.
By Lena Marques7 years ago in Viva
8 Over-Sexualized Characters In Comics And Video Games
You may have noticed, but Suicide Squad was released recently and with its release came a lot of discord. Ultimately Suicide Squad has been laced with controversy since it was announced as a film — between the casting choices, David Ayer's six weeks to write a script merged with a grueling filming and production schedule, Jared Leto's strange tactics and of course the sexualization of Harley Quinn.
By Matthew Bailey7 years ago in Viva
#MeToo
There’s this hashtag going around Facebook recently - you might have seen it? It goes like this: "If all the women/femme aligned folks who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote "#MeToo” as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem."
By Kate Nichols7 years ago in Viva
Crossing a Line
Recently I was shown an article about a famous singer who was at a benefit concert. He was singing to a large crowd of mostly women. Yes there were men there too, but there was a huge crowd of women that were very close to the stage. As the singer often does when he performs he got very close to the edge of the stage. Many of the people there had their hands raised up in the hope that he might touch them. He also often takes flowers from them and other gifts. On this particular night like he often does he knelt down, and just as he did one woman grabbed his private part. Now this was not a brush of her hand, it was a grab. He quickly grabbed her hand and removed it. Because he was in the middle of his song he had to continue singing.
By Lilli Adams7 years ago in Viva
Being a Woman in 2017
Women have come a long way from what we were associated with many years ago. However, some people still believe that we should still be associated with the times of the past. This may be because it is what they have learned and what they have believed in, but it might also be that they don't want to change from the past.
By Tanisha Dagger7 years ago in Viva