Womankind August 2017

In a society, that seeks efficiency above all else, technology towers over the frail human form. Technology can deliver more quickly and with less effort, or wastage. And we humans have become accustomed to being on the receiving end of this fast-paced provider of just about everything from beautiful images on a screen, to instant music, instant movies, instant food, instant love, instant answers to life’s questions… We expect to be instantly gratified with sights, sounds, and tastes. Nothing need wait any longer. But at the same time, many complain about the reckless speed of life: weeks drifting by too quickly; days disappearing; it’s Friday again; another month gone; the years piling up. To be instantly gratified means to shun activities that take time, discipline, and commitment; we dine out…

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Antonia Case: Antonia Case is the Editor-in-Chief of Womankind and the Editorial Director of New Philosopher. In 2016 she was awarded the AAP Media Professionals’ Award for excellence in the presentation of philosophy in the media, and was shortlisted for Editor of the Year in the Stack Awards. Lucy Treloar: Lucy Treloar’s novel Salt Creek won Debut Indie Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the 2016 Miles Franklin, Australia’s most prestigious literary award. Lucy also won the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Pacific). Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore: Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore writes for The Guardian, The Economist, Financial Times, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Statesman, New Internationalist, The Huffington Post, and Time magazine. Tara Isabella Burton: Tara Isabella Burton is the author of the novel Social Creature, forthcoming from…

When exhausted mothers come into the clinic seeking help for chronic tiredness and anxiety, clinical psychologist Robert Maurer knows the remedy. The solution is exercise. He wants to tell his exhausted, stressed-out patients: “Get out there! Rise early, before domestic duties begin, and pound the pavement. Just do it!” But for sleep-deprived mothers with almost no time for themselves, the advice to exercise is like throwing a pie in their face. “How dare he tell me to exercise when I’m juggling four kids and have to unpack the dishwasher four times each day!” Maurer knows the advice is just not going to work. The brain of a chronically tired and stressed out patient is going to send off alarm bells of warning. “No!” it will scream. “You are exhausted already.…

Owning a smartphone seems like a logical choice in today’s connected world. The little tool that rests in the palm of your hand can do just about anything, whether that’s banking or paying bills, checking the news, or connecting with a friend on the other side of the world. Its myriad functions mean that the average user checks her phone some 85 times a day, and 91 per cent of users would never leave home without their ‘friend’ in hand. But the smartphone, as constant companion, never shuts up. And research indicates that ignoring your phone is as impossible as ignoring someone calling out your own name. When it rings, beeps, or vibrates, we snap to attention. Even when the phone is silent and not in use, it still commands…

“Travel can be a kind of monasticism on the move: On the road, we often live more simply, with no more possessions than we can carry, and surrendering ourselves to chance. This is what Camus meant when he said that ‘what gives value to travel is fear’ - disruption, in other words (or emancipation), from circumstance, and all the habits behind which we hide.”Pico Ayer, Why We Travel 1. Believed to be the oldest surviving literary work - with some of the earliest sources dating from around 1800 BCE - the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh contains the first known reference to the wolf. As the goddess Ishtar had transformed a former lover into a wolf, the human Gilgamesh spurns her marriage proposal. 2. Male wolves typically average 43-45kg (95-99 lb),…