Tag:gender

A Woman at the Top, Patriarchy Intact

So Japan has its first female prime minister — and she’s here to prove that women, too, can uphold the patriarchy with impeccable discipline....

White Coats, Bloody Hands

Outrage surges as we learn that the very people entrusted with the care of girls—the doctors, nurses and midwives of the health system—are now...

When Punchlines Become Crimes

They say laughter is the best medicine—but in today’s China, it might also come with a dose of caution. In the world of stand-up...

The Men’s Bar That Refuses to Grow Up

It was meant to be a simple name change at one of Singapore’s oldest clubs. Instead, it turned into a culture war with beer...

Pride on Paper, Prejudice in Classrooms

Taiwan may wave the rainbow flag proudly at its Pride parades, but inside many classrooms the colors still fade to grey. A new nationwide...

Post-Coup Dangers for Gender Minorities

In the darkening landscape of Military-ruled Myanmar, the country’s gender minorities and sex workers navigate a terrain that is hazardous not only because of...

Real Men Don’t Take Medical Leave, Lah!

In the neon glow of Singapore’s office towers, an undercurrent of silence stretches deeper than just the hum of air-conditioners and the tapping of...
Auntie Spices It Out
Commentary

With the Burqa in the Operating Theatre

November 21, 2025

Gather round, because Auntie is in full volcanic mode today. The Taliban—yes, those criminal overlords of patriarchy—have outdone even their own monstrous record. Just when you think they’ve reached the peak of misogyny, they shovel deeper, proudly digging a new basement under hell. Banning women from hospitals unless wrapped in a burqa? Forcing female doctors—healers, saviours, the backbone of Afghan health care—to hide under a suffocating cloth cage just to enter their own workplace? This is not governance. This is gender-based sadism dressed up as “virtue.” Let’s be clear: these...
Commentary

Love, Marriage and Empty Cradles

November 21, 2025

Every time I hear someone scolding a young Cambodian couple for “waiting too long” to have children, I want to take a deep breath, sip my iced coffee, and ask: what is this obsession with making babies as soon as the wedding drums stop echoing? As if life were a conveyor belt — marry, reproduce, repeat. Please. Auntie knows better, and so do today’s young couples. Let’s start with a simple fact that all those loud aunties and uncles conveniently forget: Cambodia is already one of the youngest countries in...
Commentary

The Rise of the Queer ‘Finstas’

November 21, 2025

Oh, my dazzling darlings, let Spicy Auntie tell you something: Indian queer teens are not just survivors—they’re strategic geniuses, digital warriors, and full-blown partisans of Pride. You think the French Resistance was clever? Try navigating school corridors full of moral policing, WhatsApp family groups bursting with unsolicited sanskari (traditional) wisdom, and an internet eager to betray your secrets. And yet these kids—OUR kids—are building entire underground kingdoms out of emojis, private stories, and secret Finstas that would make any intelligence agency sweat. I mean, do you see what they’re doing?...
Commentary

Cracking Down on Demand

November 21, 2025

Darlings, let’s dim the neon lights for a moment and talk about the men behind them—the clients of Asia’s vast, complicated sex industry. Not the cartoon villains some activists imagine, nor the suave playboys of bad K-dramas. No, the real psychology is much messier, more mundane, and painfully revealing about our region’s gender norms. Let Auntie pour you some tea (hot, spicy, no sugar). At the core of the Asian sex buyer’s mind lies a powerful cocktail: loneliness, entitlement, secrecy, and the cultural permission slip that says men are “just...
Commentary

The Girls Who Never Got a Chance

November 21, 2025

If there is one topic that makes Auntie’s blood simmer like sambal on a low flame, it’s the long, tragic, infuriating history of gender selection in Asia. The quiet, polite cruelty of deciding a child’s worth before they even take their first breath. Selective abortions, abandoned newborn girls, ultrasound hush-hush deals, families whispering prayers for sons as if daughters were defective products—Auntie has seen it, heard it, and tasted the bitterness in a dozen countries from Delhi to Da Nang. Let’s be clear: this isn’t just a “cultural preference” or...
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