Daring to live

Thought i would share an article I did about a year back during a Writeshop process. I find the issues highlighted within the article still of concern. Young women navigating their sexuality with 21 st century technology In January 2013, a video of a young Zimbabwean woman having sex with her male partner in front of her four-year old son went viral on Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and other social media. Described as “sickening” and “disgusting”, the video prompted commentators across the internet to claim this woman was “unfit as a mother”, “shameless” and a range of other derogatory insults. Unsurprisingly, the face of the man is not visible at any time in the video—he has been accorded little responsibility for the incident. While the woman had to offer a public apology after the wave of criticism from all corners of the blogosphere and after her name was released. But is this just a case of a “bad”, irresponsible mother who deserves to be blamed and censured for her ...

I have been postponing writing this blog and particularly this subject for months now, simply because I did not have the right words to put across what I was feeling and thought. Today however, I felt pushed and compelled to do it especially after a conversation where I asked myself what and how do we define beauty? Whose standards do we use to define beauty? Going down memory lane The conversation I had with my friends drew me back a few months ago to an incident where I found myself battling with the same questions around beauty and the standards that are set. It drew me back to Saturday 7th September 2013, when I went out with a group of friends to a make- up talk which was being given by Jackie, a Zimbabwean sister who is based in USA and working with celebrities such as Bill Cosby, Snoop Lion etc as a makeup artist. She has recently launched her own make up brand and I applaud and celebrate her for achieving such a great feat. Having said that, I found the talk on the does ...

So at the beginning of the year like the 'progressive' young woman that I am, I decided to come up with my new years's resolutions. I found it hard trying to come up with anything that made sense and I ended up settling for being kind to myself. I remember getting into the new year in a drunken stupor and decided that being kind to myself would entail not taking to the wise waters for a period of a month as a way of detoxing, exercising daily, writing daily, eating healthy, investing in me time and taking time to be present. (By the way you are all welcome to hold me accountable) So in this my first blog, i will share reflections i made on day three into the new year,so happy reading and expect more blogging from me, from the flowery soft issues to the hard core issues; "The third day of the year, I woke up feeling at peace with myself and decided I was going to live. I realise, I have been living my life on behalf of others. The starting point in terms of living...