Tag:military

How Colonial Laws Still Control Women

When the British Empire arrived in South Asia, it did not just bring railways, courts, and clerks. It brought sex laws. And many of...

Tokyo Moulin Rouge: Women, War And Censorship

On a busy Shinjuku street in the early 1930s, a red windmill spun above a theatre that promised escape, laughter, and just enough danger...

When Morality Backfires: Soldiers, Booze and Girls

Within the sun-bleached walls of Malaysia’s military camps, an online storm has erupted that few defence institutions expected but many are now talking about:...

Taiwan’s Military Service Triggers a Gender Debate

When Taiwan’s government quietly released draft changes to its military conscription rules in late 2025, the reaction was anything but quiet. What began as...

No Place for Sheilas? Systemic Abuse Rocks the ADF

The latest legal storm enveloping Australia’s defence ranks could be labelled as nothing short of a continent-wide wake-up call. This week, a landmark class...

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...
Auntie Spices It Out
Commentary

Millions of Parents Turn to Apps to Marry Off Kids

February 27, 2026

Oh darling, of course the parents downloaded the app. You really thought the generation that survived ration coupons, housing reforms, exam wars, property bubbles, and the one-child policy was going to sit quietly while their precious only son announces he’s “focusing on himself”? Please. These aunties did not endure thirty years of sacrifice for their family tree to end in a one-bedroom rental with a houseplant named Kevin. Let’s be honest: this isn’t about romance. It’s about security, face, continuity, and the deeply rooted belief that adulthood equals marriage. For...
Commentary

Lesbians vs. Trans Women: When Minorities Fight

February 27, 2026

Ah, sisters. We have this extraordinary, almost Olympic-level ability to divide ourselves and fight the wrong battles while the house is literally on fire. Look around the world. Women’s bodily autonomy is being rolled back. LGBTQ people are criminalised from Kampala to Kuala Lumpur. Authoritarian governments are policing classrooms, bedrooms, and wombs. Economic inequality is widening. Domestic violence shelters are underfunded. Online misogyny is algorithmically turbocharged. And yet here we are — sharpening our claws for each other. I’m not saying these questions about sex, gender, identity, and lesbian space...
Commentary

Family WhatsApp Groups Are Watching Us

February 26, 2026

Let me tell you something about family WhatsApp groups, darlings. They are not innocent. They are not “just for updates.” They are mini-parliaments, surveillance hubs, emotional labor factories, and occasionally — digital crime scenes. I belong to several. Of course I do. Big Asian family, remember? Aunties, uncles, cousins, nieces, the whole orchestra. Every morning: flowers, blessings, good-morning GIFs that sparkle like they were designed in 2003. And who sends them? The women. Always the women. Because apparently even in cyberspace, it’s our job to keep the peace, keep the...
Commentary

A Day in The Life of a Patpong Girl

February 26, 2026

I have walked through Patpong more times than I can count — in heels, in flats, in righteous feminist anger, and occasionally just in anthropological curiosity. And let me tell you something: if you think a “Patpong girl” is a fantasy character invented for lonely men on holiday, you have understood absolutely nothing. She is a migrant worker. She is a remittance machine. She is an informal economist with better negotiation skills than half the men in Bangkok’s financial district. When people say “bar girl,” I always want to ask:...
Commentary

Club Bosses: Asia’s Nightlife Queens

February 25, 2026

I have a soft spot for women who own the night. Over the years — from Manila’s humid backstreets to Bangkok’s neon arteries and Jakarta’s stubbornly defiant dance floors — I’ve met many of them. Some became sources. Some became drinking buddies after closing time. A few became lifetime friends. And let me tell you something: these women are among the toughest people I know. You don’t survive decades in clubs and discos by being delicate. You survive because you can read a room in three seconds flat. Because you...
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