Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Viva.
Princesses Against The Patriarchy
Women are the strongest creatures on the planet. From giving birth to the world, to risking their lives fighting for equal rights, women are the backbone of this fragile world that we live in. Women aren't just these soft and nurturing creatures. Women are also warriors, strong and battle ready, in the military, classrooms and boardrooms, and even in homes raising families. From Eartha Kit to Malala Yousafzai and all the amazing women in between there is so much to be inspired by.
By Kailyn Wilkerson 6 years ago in Viva
A Rough Go Of It
CW: rape, suicidal thoughts, PTSD My friend and I are sitting on his balcony. He is passing me a half smoked joint through the cold night air. We’re talking about a girl we both know, who was going through a breakup at the time. I make a comment about how terrible her ex was, to which he responds “yeah as far as guys go, she’s like you, you’ve both just objectively had such a rough go of it”. At the time I remember agreeing and laughing it off with a comment about how I always have had bad taste in men. But that comment kept me awake at night. How do you know? I think. Do you know about it?
By purple and blue6 years ago in Viva
The Real Calamity Jane
The biography of Calamity Jane is a mix of fantastic tales and some accurate facts. Many of these tales she created and promoted herself in her autobiography, written in 1896. However, she was a woman living in a man’s world, occasionally taking on men’s work and sporting men’s clothes. She could ride a horse, shoot, drink and chew tobacco like the toughest cowboys. She was a woman who did not confine herself and became known for her daredevil ways. She was a woman who became a legend.
By R.S. Sillanpaa6 years ago in Viva
Filmmaker Lucia Senesi captures The #MeToo Movement in ‘A Short Story’
Director and writer Lucia Senesi’s recent film ‘A Short Story’ centers on three women — one professor, Annie, who is married with children and a husband and a beautiful house; one student, Julia, who has her whole future in front of her and presumably can be anything she wants; and one housekeeper, Rosita, a woman of color with her own complex past, present, and future. The three women exert their power in different ways, and it is unclear who wins and who loses.
By Shahbaz Abbasi6 years ago in Viva
Angelic Outcast, Lewd Heroine: Inspiration from the Wild West's Greatest Loose Woman
Why have I grown so fascinated by Martha Canary, the woman we know best as Calamity Jane? Most of us know the brusque gun-touting menace behind the charismatic Doris Day bombshell. The real Martha Canary, aka Calamity Jane, was born around 1852 in Princeton, Missouri, and made an orphan by age of 12. She went on to live a wayward life filled with immoral and riotous behaviour: she was an alcoholic, a prostitute, went on drunken sprees, robberies, and spent much time in jail. She smoked cigarettes and drank whisky at a time when such things were a vice. Historians have hosted a slew of reasons why she earned her well-known nickname, and just as many doubts and discrepancies over every single fact about her life. She even wrote lies about herself, to the point where fact and fiction are inextricable.
By Natalie Lennard6 years ago in Viva
