Womankind

Reinvent yourself. It has a titillating ring to it. Who could you be? The word reinvention, for most, is spelt out in capital letters. Reinvention occurs when big changes happen. The lawyer turned sailor. The bookseller turned monk. The struggling mo

Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge began a search for silence, and he started his journey in Antarctica. He stepped out alone onto the ice plateau and started to walk. He was inspired by a line from Norwegian poet Jon Fosse - “there is a love no one rem

A woman sits in a park in New York, laughing with a friend in Tokyo using video technology on her smartphone. Her body is in New York, yet her voice is in Japan. The two friends discuss life, loves, and sorrows as though they were sitting in the park

A chain smoker for well over 40 years, suddenly stops smoking. She doesn’t tell anyone what she is doing. Even her husband, who sees her every day doesn’t know what she is up to. She throws her cigarettes in the bin and tells herself she’ll never buy

Can’t change? Stuck with who you are? Theories on personality - how to measure it, group it, change it, improve it - are rife in psychology departments. Some argue you can’t change who you are. You’re born an extravert or an introvert, agreeable or n

Do you remember what your grandmothers looked like when you were a child? If you’re fifty or older, you may recall them in sensible shoes, hair permed and tinted, wearing matching jacket and skirt sets in tweed or similar. When you think about it, th

“The fact is, I’m about to turn sixty, and I’m either going to have a face lift or travel the world. One way or another, something’s got to change.” My friend Glenda made the announcement as we were drinking coffee in her kitchen. I wasn’t taken abac

Three years before I married, I put off my engagement to the man I’d later wed. I got cold feet. We’d been living together for a few years, so we knew what we were in for. But living together felt reversible in a way that marriage did not. Even when

BE THE FIRST TO RECEIVE WOMANKIND MAGAZINE, DELIVERED TO YOUR TABLET OR PHONE, BY SUBSCRIBING ONLINE NOW. Womankindmag.com is our online portal for subscribers to share ideas, writing, art, and much more. Facebook (womankindmag) Instagram (#woman

At twelve weeks pregnant, I logged onto my online medical portal to confirm a routine doctor’s appointment. It was a crisp autumn day in Connecticut, already deliciously mapped out. That night my husband and I would stay in a quaint bed and breakfast

I was born in 1965 in Damascus from a family of North Caucasus origins. We were five members of “women only” in my grandmother’s huge apartment, where the male members of the family used to pass by like ghosts, endlessly appearing and disappearing sh

Each night, eleven-year-old Edith Sitwell’s legs were enclosed in a steel brace. Her governess kept the keys… “Before she went down to dinner every night, she would lock up my feet,” recalled Sitwell. The girl couldn’t leave her bed, even if the hous

You started taking photography seriously about 12 years ago. One day, you took a photo outside your kitchen window, and that was enough to start you on your new journey. You said, “What I did know was that I woke up on a random day in February 2010 w

“It’s better to have a girl,” Ines concedes sheepishly, “if I have a daughter, she will continue my line, my clan will continue.” Her seven-year-old granddaughter, Elena, grins approvingly at me over her ice cream. I am having dinner with three gener

As a child growing up, I loved to draw, but never thought I could make a career out of what I loved doing most. After finishing school, I studied window dressing, then trained as an aesthetician, became a nail technician, and eventually owned my own

Claire Guiral lives in an old house in Bordeaux with a little garden and her cats. Master painters from the 17th and 18th century are her inspiration in life, so much so that she endeavours to recreate the mood of the old masters in her home furnishi

About a year after opening a contemporary art gallery in East Los Angeles, Alice Lodge woke up one morning and realised she had recreated her Sydney childhood. Sitting in her gallery amid a jumble of artworks and packing boxes - the space is in flux

How can a woman reinvent herself when she’s no longer in one piece? At 50 years old, the “chicana dyke-feminist, tejana patlache poet, writer, and cultural theorist” Gloria Anzaldúa found herself dismembered by the news that she would die of type-1 d

As a city, Milan isn’t particularly loved by its fellow Italians - no ‘cradle of the Renaissance’, no ‘Serenissima’. It has its fair share of both history and museums, but less blatant, less Lonely Planet. Moreover, the sun seems to have forgotten th

I picture my mother in a poky kitchen, cooking dinner for six every night; boiling, straining, and mashing with a muttered, “Damn, blast, bugger” on high rotation. A product of her historical time, gender, race, and class, my mother’s assigned role w

Womankind’s Art & Illustration Award this issue was themed ‘still life’, and artists submitted works ranging from digital illustration to pencil drawings to oils. In first place is the glorious painting Night Life, 2021 by Clare Cowley. In second pla

My first placement as a bright-eyed first year medical student was in a nursing home. One day the senior nurse asked if I could help another nurse dispense lunchtime medications to the residents and of course I agreed. “Wonderful,” she said, “That fr

Day one: Reinvention begins with research, right? Well, despite all the books, courses, and spurts of outside input over several years, I am yet to get on top of my garden. Maybe this year I can reinvent myself as a gardener, but even just reinventin

If our days have become crowded containers for what we did or did not do, perhaps we do not need to pursue more ways to be productive, but rather shake up the contents. I’ve had too many days to count that have been flattened by productivity guilt. T

Shop at - womankindmag.com/shop The Museum of Art & Philosophy (MAP) is the second physical art gallery for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the world, and showcases over a decade’s worth of digital artwork from internationally-renowned artists. Own a

After being advised by his dentist to get tooth implants, philosophical author Daniel Klein decides to stick with his dentures and instead use the money to make a trip to the Greek island Hydra and discover the secrets of ageing happily. Drawing on t

1. Online at www.womankindmag.com/subscribe 2. Email us: news@newphilosopher.com 3. Send your details along with the form on the next page to: 7 Campbell St, Hobart TAS 7000. $60 AU/US/CAN, 39 UK, €60 EU/NZ, €75 Rest of the world $115 AU/US/CAN, ›7