Thursday, December 12, 2024 |
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Human beings' attitudes towards spending time alone differ widely. I have friends who desperately need to be with other people virtually all the time to stay sane, and others who implode if they don't get a decent amount of solitary time to decompress. It goes without saying that which camp you fall into will determine your attitude towards living alone. Irrespective of your stance, I recommend reading an interesting feature by senior culture and lifestyle writer Katie Rosseinsky, who delves into her own experience of living and renting alone for a year — something that has unsurprisingly been marked by vicissitudes. One downside of living alone is that it is extremely pricey and, for that reason, unattainable for most people—an issue Rosseinsky explores in her piece. For some people, however, the unadulterated joy of living alone — and not having to deal with potentially irritating housemates or awkward small talk — overrides everything else. The final line in Rosseinsky's piece, which is a riposte to the question "But don't you get really lonely?" (a question she is often asked when people find out she lives alone), encapsulates this sentiment beautifully. "And frankly, I've felt far, far lonelier when I was stuck in a terrible Spare Room houseshare, dreaming of an escape route and a living room of one's own," she writes. It is so easy to fall into the trap of treating life like a box-ticking exercise — jumping from one milestone to the next. Many of us, of course, feel unrelenting pressure to do so, whether this pressure comes from our parents, ourselves, or wider society, and it can make it difficult to work out what we truly want. In light of this, I would guess that far more people harbour secret desires to live alone than you might think. |
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| Written by Maya Oppenheim |
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Everyday tech can turn dangerous in the wrong hands. To learn more, I spoke to Jodi Leedham, who leads Refuge's tech abuse team, about how devices like smart locks, CCTV, trackers, home speakers, and even smart hot tubs can be used by abusers to monitor and intimidate victims. | |
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Mould and damp are as common in London properties as rodents and tiny sinks. Tracy Nilsson, 51, has been sleeping in her living room for four years due to a mould dispute, telling our social affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft that the disrepair has left her feeling "less than a human being." |
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Being in the public eye inevitably comes with rigorous scrutiny, which takes on a greater weight when you are a woman. Society is rife with gendered double standards, and many of us — whether covertly, overtly, consciously, or subconsciously — hold women to higher standards than men. Depressingly, this is a reality female MPs face daily. From death threats to constant judgment about their appearance, to enduring condescending and belittling comments, women MPs experience the full spectrum of misogyny. However, this seems to be shifting in the wake of Labour's recent election victory — at least according to the female MPs I spoke to for a story. While women MPs have long argued that an antiquated, misogynistic, and toxic culture persists in parliament — with the 2017 "Pestminster" scandal exposing widespread claims of sexual harassment — new female MPs say Westminster now feels less misogynistic and that the "bubble" of its toxic culture may finally be bursting. The number of women in parliament has grown significantly since 4 July, with a record-breaking 263 female MPs elected under Labour — a rise from 220 in 2019. Women now make up 40 per cent of parliament, a marked improvement on the 34 per cent seen in 2019. While reports of a changing environment in Westminster are encouraging, this does not mean that all its long-standing problems have vanished. Over the years, numerous allegations of bullying and sexual harassment have rocked Whitehall, leading to investigations, suspensions, and resignations among MPs. |
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| Following the collapse of their brutal 24-year reign in Syria, there has been considerable interest in Asma Assad, the British wife of ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad, whom Vogue recently described as the elegant "rose of the desert." Read more |
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