Just a Girl by Tammie Adele

  There's nothing that I wouldn't do It's not the way I planned it Show me how you want it to be Tell me, baby, 'cause I need to know now   Okay, so this post is a follow-on from the previous one because I’m getting very pissed off with having to hear about my friends being subjected to various forms of abuse. To quote the great Aussie comedian Hannah Gadsby when she was interviewed about her Nanette show on The Project in July 2018, she stated that she was sick of hearing:   ‘ . . . boys will be boys, so women must be careful. Well, can we get men to be men? ’   I really can’t see how it becomes the woman’s responsibility to not get raped! I just wish I could articulate it as well as Hannah Gadsby. Are men really that incompetent as human beings that women have to adapt their behaviour as if they were encountering a crocodile in the mangroves? Now I want to bring my observations on this front a bit closer to home. Unfortunately, at age seventee...

  Break my body, with the back of your hand Doesn't make sense from where I stand Baby, baby why you want to mess it up Sooner or later I'll find my place Find my body better fix my face     I’m a bit of an introvert. I’m a mad-keen horse rider. I’m also lucky enough to live in a rural residential area, which means I have both space around me and an endless list of jobs that need doing around the property. However, the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic that Australia, and the rest of the world, is still navigating makes me appreciate my situation so, so much.             About three months into Australia’s COVID induced lockdown I had a former workmate get in touch. This, predictably, resulted in me suggesting that we catch up over lunch. After many attempts to arrange a time and place for us to have said catch up, my friend let on that she was too scared to go out in public in case her husband saw her. Yes, y...