The vagina is possibly the most maligned body part in the world, and Louise McSharry has had enough of it.  You know what you guys?  I am really sick of being told my vagina is disgusting. A week or so ago, Guardian advice columnist Pamela Stephenson Connolly addressed a question she had...

Today we have a guest post from the lovely Kate McEvoy who today focuses on film, and where women stand in terms of representation. Two significant events took place in the cinematic landscape last week. No, not Cannes & Angelina. I am of course referring to Merida-gate and my...

  Molly Pohlig is approaching 35…and figuring it out… The other day my gynecologist said to me, “Are you still 34?” For a moment I wondered if maybe I had been 34 longer than other people are. In less than two months I am going to turn 35. I don’t know why I’m so...

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Today on Fanny.ie, Mary McGill chats to Dublin-based photographer Kate Nolan about  her upcoming photobook Neither, which examines the lives of young women who live in Kaliningrad (KGD), an isolated Russian enclave wedged between Poland, Lithuania and...

Dear Mr. Walsh, In reference to your article entitled ‘Does Wallace really represent our views on abortion?’ we’d like to highlight the following: 11 Irish women travel to the UK to procure an abortion every single day. That’s over 150,000 women since 1980.* We suspect, but can’t...

Today on Fanny.ie our Aisling has no regrets about not joining Facebook, no matter what certain research might suggest.  What did you get up to for the long weekend? Did you down fifteen pints and three Jaegermeister and then have sex with a random stranger? Did you sit in your parents’ box...

With the summer just around the corner (we’re being optimistic – go with it!) Fanny.ie’s Orlagh is talking Trampoline Dodgeball, the maddest bit of sporting craic you’re liable to hear about today or indeed, ever. Set your phasers to ‘sweaty’ and dodge...

Today Louise McSharry is talking makeup, and feminism.  Once enemies, where do they fit together today? Recently, I had a conversation with some friends about feminism and makeup.  One of the people I was with argued that the two couldn’t happily go together, and I argued back...

On Fanny.ie today, Mary McGill is bemoaning the lack of modern day femme fatales, the shadowy, glamorous women who stole every black and white scene they were in.  I don’t know about you but I love a good old yarn, stories that take their time telling themselves. It’s probably not...

Marty is back, yay!  This time she’s filling us in on her teacher training experience in the UK. So… like I said earlier, the reason I decided to emigrate to lovely London was to train to be a primary school teacher. I did a post-graduate course where they expect you to learn a...

Sylvia Plath once wrote “wear your heart on your skin in this life”. Today Fanny.ie’s Sarah Waldron takes a look  at the tattooed women of yore who did just that.  It seems like every woman and her great aunt Nellie has one or more tattoos these day – except for me.  A...

Fanny.ie’s Mary McGill on why it’s about time more advertisers woke up and realised there are better ways to appeal to women than via shame tactics and toxic friend-isms. As a woman of the Western world, I’m very accustomed to adverts telling me in a chirpy ‘sure we’re all girls...

Today Molly Pohlig is talking about plastic surgery, what it means, what is says, and what she thinks. Last week I watched a 2006 Korean film called “200 Pounds Beauty”. It is about an overweight young woman, Han-na, who stands backstage and does the singing for a beautiful pop star, who...

Today on Fanny.ie, Mary McGill is talking ‘husbands’ and ‘wives’ and words that don’t fit like they’re supposed to.  A few weeks ago I texted the following to my Fanny.ie partner-in-lady-crime Louise, ‘…I can’t say ‘husband’. If ever a word...

Love her or hate her, the way the world is talking about Kim Kardashian’s pregnancy is vile, as Louise McSharry writes. Kim Kardashian is pregnant.  You know that already of course, because the media is obsessed with her and she has made her life public in virtually every way possible,...

  Today on Fanny.ie Mary McGill is casting a cold eye over the pinkified genre known as ‘chick lit’.  The greatest disservice the ‘chick lit’ moniker ever did was to suggest that all books shoehorned into the genre were of the same dismal standard. From Marian Keyes to...

Today on Fanny.ie Mary McGill is taking a walk down the 90s nostalgia highway to sing the praises of a much-loved and long-missed television show by the name of My So-Called Life.  Tucked away in a dusty corner of my girlhood bedroom is a stack of old VHS tapes with the words ‘MY SO-CALLED...

  The furore over Spunout.ie this week has got Louise McSharry thinking about threesomes, sexual pleasure and what we’re not saying to young people. WARNING:  If you are related to me, don’t read this.  You’re better off. I lost my virginity when I was 17.  It...

On this baltic Monday, there can be only one question on your lips.  What is Craig David up to?  Louise Bruton has the update. How often do you kick back and think of Craig David? Be honest. Close your eyes, take a minute, take a moment, relax.  Your answer is probably never. Mine, sadly,...

Dreaming big as a child is usually encouraged, but today Molly Pohlig is asking whether sometimes dreaming ‘medium’ might be a good idea too. I think it is an immense failure of the modern world that so many parents tell their children, “You can be whatever you want to be when...

‘Women are taught to be passive.  Play the long game with men, wait and see.  If they hurt you, don’t tell anyone.  Don’t show your emotions.  The New Rules just enforces that kind of crap.’ Fanny.ie’s Sarah Waldron bravely took The New Rules for a test-drive and...

This season of Girls is over now, but before you retire your Girls shaped thoughts, here is Louise McSharry’s recap on the final episode of season 2. NOTE:  I wrote this as I watched, so what you’re getting is my real time reactions, I thought it was important to leave it that way...

  For the day that’s in it, here at Fanny.ie Mary McGill is saluting the Irish women who we’d like to think Grace O’Malley and Countess Markievicz would’ve been proud to call daughters of Ireland. The list is not exhaustive by any means so be sure to add your own...

Hi, twenty five year old Galway Girl here. I know you’ve written a little about open relationships before so I wanted to share this with you. It’s become a bit of a clusterfuck for me, and hopefully my story could serve as a bit of warning to non-monogamous people who believe their...

Today  on Fanny.ie, Mary McGill recalls the halcyon days of fancy paper fandom, when all a girl needed were a few sparkly notepads and a bit of strawberry-scented paper to put a smile on her young, impressionable face.  Fancy paper: two words that conjure a heady world of stationery worship...

Another week, another episode of Girls.  So what did Louise McSharry make of the penultimate episode of the season? So, the tagline for this season was “almost getting it kind of together” but as it turns out, that’s the opposite of what’s happening.  Aside from...

What with music being something one listens to with one’s ears, thinks about with one’s brain, and feels in one’s soul (none of which have a gender), you would think it would be devoid of sexism.  Or perhaps you would dream that it would be.  Either way, it’s not, as...

On International Women’s Day 2013, Fanny.ie’s Mary McGill looks at ten reasons why we still need a day to celebrate women and to remember that while a lot has been done, there’s a heck of a lot more to do. The anti IWD voice says in a sneer, ‘But sure, if women want to...

It’s Monday night, so it’s time for your Girls recap from Louise McSharry.  5-4-3-2-1-GO. Well, last week I said I wanted things to return to normal, and this week they kind of did, but also not at all.  We were back in New York, with all the characters (minus Jessa) anyway....

Here at Fanny.ie we are positively reeling at the news that American Cosmo is, according to Jezebel.com,  ‘going to focus less on telling women how to please their men.’  It’s a brave new day y’all! In honour of all the ‘helpful’ sex tips we’ve gleaned from Cosmo...

The papal election has been everywhere this week.  No really, EVERYWHERE.  Molly Pohlig thinks there’s potential for a great soap opera there. Full disclosure: I am not Catholic. I was raised Lutheran, which is like Catholicism with all the frills taken out, so, heapings of austere...

I’m having a bit of an issue with my boyfriend which has also led to a debate with a friend so I’m hoping you can help me with both problems. I’m 24 and have been with my boyfriend for nearly four months. I was with my last boyfriend for two and a half years and we had a really good sex...

We are two thirds of the way through the second season of Girls, and so far, it’s been a mixed bag.  Louise McSharry is talking episode 7, and the season so far… This season of Girls has not been what we expected.  Last season each episode was fizzy and fun, as we got to know the...

In case you didn’t know, the recipient of last night’s Best Actress award is one of the best women to come out of Hollywood of late.  Charming, funny, self deprecating and real, we love Jennifer Lawrence.  Louise McSharry is about to show you why… Jennifer Lawrence won the...

  It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Marty, our Fanny abroad, but she’s back this week, and better than ever… Do you remember all those times your mammy told you not to talk to strangers? Well it turns out she was dead right. You shouldn’t talk to strangers,...

  I’ve been reading through your columns and in the one titled ‘On Being Called a Slut and Liking It’  you made a reference to rape fantasies, in the context of fantasies beings safe and empowering as long as they’re consensual and with a respectful partner. But isn’t that a...

  After hearing about the 10 Weeks and When They Put Their Hands Out Like Scales exhibitions via Twitter, Fanny.ie’s Mary McGill contacted Leszek Wolnik, curator of the Copper House Gallery in Dublin, to ask how the projects came about.  The joint exhibitions, which take place...

Another episode of Girls means another recap from our Louise McSharry…this week the boys are just as important as the girls themselves… It was hard to know what to expect after last week’s unusual episode, but what we got was pretty much back to normal, except with more of...

It’s Monday, and sometimes that’s a good thing, like on a Bank Holiday for example, or if you’re on holidays, or if you really love your job.  But if it isn’t, and you’re not, and you don’t then it can be a toughie.  So why not brighten up your future...

Louise McSharry turned 30 a couple of months ago and it’s messing with her whole perspective… My boyfriend thinks I’m dying to get married and have babies.  He slags me about it all the time, and has even gotten his family onboard, to the point where I’m convinced...

‘Just another blonde in a bikini. Except Reeva wasn’t. No woman ever is.’ On Fanny.ie today, Mary McGill is looking at the shoddy, insensitive coverage surrounding the tragic death of Reeva Steenkamp in South Africa.  What happened between Oscar Pistorius and his girlfriend...

SEXY THURSDAY!  SEXY THURSDAY!  SEXY THURSDAY!  Let’s all chant it together!  Roe McDermott, our wonderful sex maven is on hand to answer all your questions – and today she’s tackling the STI conversation… First of all, love the column. I’m a very sexually active...

If there was ever a doubt that there are things all of us Fanny women don’t agree on, this will destroy it.  Molly Pohlig is writing about jealousy – and about the fact that she…doesn’t like Beyoncé. So I was chatting with a gentleman friend the other night, and the...

Another week, another episode of Girls, but this week it’s not quite what we’ve come to expect as Louise McSharry writes… Last night, just before the Grammys was about to start, Judd Apatow tweeted about Girls.  He recommended that people record this week’s episode if...

  Today, Fanny.ie’s Mary McGill talks to an anonymous Daily Mail lady about an average day in her life. Details have been changed to protect the identity of the lady in question, who may or may not be a figment of the author’s rather fertile imagination.  ‘…Most mornings...