Latest Stories

Most recently published stories in Viva.

Why Female Breadwinners Struggle With Relationships
Being born a female means that you're going to live your entire life dealing with double standards and mixed messages. This is a major reason why we need feminism right now. It's not fair to us, nor is it healthy for society to have these double-standards, either.
By Ossiana Tepfenhart9 years ago in Viva
Transforming Disappointment Into Empowerment
Being kind, charming and generous is easy for most of us when life is good. If time is abundant and there is plenty of money – if we’re loved, connected and have a purpose, most of us can bring our A-game. It’s not so easy when times are tough.
By Swaay9 years ago in Viva
Why Plastic Surgery Can Be Feminist
I am non-binary and consider myself to be genderless. I refuse to wear skirts but love wearing my nails long, sharp, and polished. Most of the time, I like to bind my chest and/or hide my figure under baggy shirts. I'm also what one might consider a pretty staunch feminist, as well as a leftist extremist.
By Skunk Uzeki9 years ago in Viva
6 Brands Championing Diversity And Inclusion Through Company Culture
Whether you’re a man, woman, black, white, asian, gay, straight, transgender, disabled, unusual – you have probably experienced varying levels of discrimination throughout your life, and more specifically, in the workplace.
By Swaay9 years ago in Viva
Famous Feminist Writers of the 20th Century
Feminism has always been a movement that inspired via the arts. In its most early stages, feminists were women who used the art of speaking, fine literature, and yes, even dance, to promote the idea of equality and a more open-to-sexuality world.
By Mackenzie Z. Kennedy9 years ago in Viva
Fact or Fiction: The Art of Feminist Marketing
In today’s world there is no shortage of feminist-slanted marketing initiatives. Huge companies promise to “help women break the glass ceiling” with emotional campaigns that tug at the heart strings.
By Swaay9 years ago in Viva
This Chilean-Born Entrepreneur Is Creating A Network For Change
Though many people feel outraged by current events taking place on American soil and abroad, the hurdle between anger and action often seems too broad to jump. Though many are armed with information (and more than enough articles to fuel their fire), figuring out how to actually make a difference isn’t only a tricky situation for individuals to figure out, but companies as well. And knowing which cause to focus on, when there are so many worthy reasons to give back? That’s a whole other ballpark.
By Swaay9 years ago in Viva
7 Genius Female Inventions You Use Every Day Without Realizing
Where would we be without the inventions of the great men of the world? Apple – Steve Jobs, the telephone – Alexander Graham Bell, the atomic bomb – Albert Einstein, the gun – Richard Gatling. Nowhere – right? But what about those more practical inventions, the ones that are necessity – those that you use unthinkingly every day? Below are inventions by women that you could not live without – whether for sanity or vanity, everything below – from the dishwasher to the hairbrush, was invented by women for practicality and advantageous purposes. They go largely unrecognized now, because they are mostly objects or entities we take for granted, but SWAAY has decided to pause amidst the roaring tide of products and inventions that we could live without in 2017, to languish in the glory of those that we really couldn’t survive without.
By Swaay9 years ago in Viva
5 Unsung Female War Heroes
It’s not often you hear tales of female war heroes. And why? Because women were only allowed into combat in very recent history. The first female U.S participants in war (officially) was in the last years of World War I when 33,000 women were commissioned as nurses and support staff for the male soldiers. In 1948 there came into effect the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948, that excluded women from any and all combat positions in wars henceforth. The act has been lifted to varying degrees in 1993 and 2001, to let women engage in combat through some areas of the military. In 2013 it was completely lifted to allow female participation in all aspects of the U.S military including the Navy and the Marines.
By Swaay9 years ago in Viva
The Key to Gender Equality:Women Empowering Women
As a Vietnamese immigrant growing up in the 80s and 90s in America, I didn’t see many women running companies and definitely didn’t see any female Vietnamese immigrants leading businesses in America. But I was very fortunate enough to see a strong female, my mom, work hard to make a living and learn English, so her children could live the American dream.
By Swaay9 years ago in Viva
The SWAAY Story: “I Am An Immigrant”
I am an Irish immigrant. SWAAY’s Founder is a Muslim who emigrated here from Morocco, and our Managing Editor is a first generation Cuban whose grandparents arrived on JFK’s Freedom flights. Our stories are as diverse as they come, our backgrounds worlds apart and yet we have all ended up here in New York at the same time. There is no cosmic cause that explains why we have all met each other – there is simply the fact that this country has welcomed immigrants since its birth, and here we are, three immigrants of some variation, legally living in this country. And yet for the past week we have been questioning our very status because of a ban that persecutes those executing their right to travel here under years of agreements and contractual legislation between their countries and this one. Yes, it’s been temporarily stopped by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but with our new President responding with a law suit threat, it seems the ban is far from disappearing.
By Swaay9 years ago in Viva
The Bourjois Rouge Laques Are So Much More than Just Another Liquid Lipstick
I’m happy to speak for us all when I say, I think we’re at liquid lipstick capacity. From their first appearance one the “scene” a couple of years ago it seems every brand has been pushing out a new “air-light,” “waterproof,” “fully pigmented,” goo in a tube. And while there have been hits, there have been a whole bunch of misses, too. It’s a hard line to walk between too emollient (resulting in a smudge-fest disaster) and too dry (which results in a possibly even less attractive peeling effect). I’m all too happy to start letting this one go: admitting that totally fool-proof lipstick is actually just too big of an ask.
By Annie Walton9 years ago in Viva