Being able to provoke a different point of view to the standard current ideological or political perspective as played out in conventional newspaper or radio reportage is what a public intellectual does. But it's not merely about being oppositional, because that's too negative.

Many young girls are constantly consumed by controlling and managing their body image to the extent that they are much more involved in the production of the self than in living.

From a child's point of view, there is rarely a great time for parents to separate, even if there has been a lot of commotion and fighting.

Mothers unconsciously allow more latitude to sons, and open encouragement, and with daughters they treat them as they would treat themselves.

Today, 'fat' has become not a description of size but a moral category tainted with criticism and contempt.

There are so many young women who tip over into being a facsimile: they don't really inhabit their lives or their bodies.

No one leaves a long-term relationship scot-free or without conflict.