On the latest episode of Jordan Simi's Grouse & A Few Reds podcast, released on May 20, the topic of "New Zealand girls" came up.

Simi, a Sydney social media influencer and former rugby league player, described New Zealand women as "not looking nice" compared to UK women, who he described as the "cream of the crop".

Simi, who is Samoan and originally from South Auckland, went on to say: "shout out to South Auckland, where there was an all-girls school there and you would look at them and think, is that a girl?"

His two male co-hosts roared with laughter.

South Aucklander Mariner Fagaiava-Muller posted the audio clip on TikTok, commenting that hearing it made his blood boil.

Fagaiava-Muller's video has been viewed over 47,000 times and counting. Simi later replied to Fagaiava-Muller's video, saying his comments were "just a joke".

There's only one all-girls school in South Auckland and it's McAuley High School.

I went to McAuley High School.

The "joke" that was directed at McAuley students is nothing new.

If you attended McAuley, you were labelled a bulldog.

You were barked at if you were spotted in your school uniform out in public.

Students from other schools mocked us saying we looked manly or for having legs with big taro calves.

I lost count of how many times my school bus had its window smashed by a rock from another school student. Someone even wasted a mince and cheese pie-throwing it at the bus window.

McAuley students, like many South Auckland students at decile one schools, experience marginalisation on a daily basis.

We experience the kind of adversity where a joke about our appearance is just another stress we have to deal with.

McAuley is a school with limited resources and limited subject options, where the majority of families come from low-income households. They don't have the privilege of choosing whatever they want for lunch, having the top stationery brands, or being able to afford a blazer as part of the complete school uniform.

When you are a Pasifika girl from a household juggling study, errands and cultural responsibilities; when self-confidence is already a rarity; and you hear someone from your own community, on a platform with a large following, insult young girls for not looking a certain way - that their dark-coloured eyes, brown skin and black thick hair aren't seen as beautiful - it destroys what little self-belief you had left.

This is why the "joke" is not funny.

Because of those comments made throughout my years in high school, I, like many McAuley students, used it as unspoken motivation to do better, be better.

Since the early 2000s, McAuley has worked extra hard to prove its worth, to prove people wrong about the stereotypes placed on us by others. McAuley was featured in Metro a few times for their high academic rates for a decile one school.

In 2016, the school was awarded both Excellence in Engaging and Education Supreme Awards by the prime minister.

• Elisapeta Toeava of the Northern Mystics;
• Annetta Nu'uausala from the women's Newcastle Knights NRL team;
• Niu FM afternoon radio presenter Sia Petelo;
• prominent New Zealand multi-disciplinary artist Salome Tanuvasa;
• senior urban planner Eseta Maka-Fonokalafi;
• Bernadette Robertson, a member of the South Pacific Professional Engineering Excellence group; and myself,
• Pacific communities editor at The Spinoff.

All schooled at McAuley. All the while maintaining our reputation as "one of the schools to beat" at the largest Polynesian dance competition in the world, ASB Polyfest.

Of course, every high school has students who have gone off to do incredible, headlining, awe-inspiring things. So why do I bring up McAuley alumni's achievements?

It's because a lot of these women have had to face huge obstacles to get where they're at now, have had to work three times harder than students from wealthier schools.

They've had to face the culture shock of leaving their family, their community and a predominantly Pasifika high school to attend a university where being Pacific is a minority, where being humble - a virtue ingrained in Pasifika people - isn't going to cut it if you want to stand out in a class of over 600.

Casually making a "joke" about the appearance of young girls won't affect Simi and his podcast co-hosts, but it will surely hurt the confidence of many of those McAuley students targeted.

I worry they'll lose pride in a school uniform now associated with the "manly" insult lobbed at them by those deemed more powerful because they have a following larger than their ego.

To all past, present and future McAuley students, Domine In Te Speravi - Lord in you I hoped.

It's a motto that lives on for us, alongside our memories of beating the odds in Tamaki Makaurau.

• Sela Jane Hopgood is the Pacific communities editor of Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air. New Zealand born Tongan, she writes stories about issues affecting the Pacific communities across Aotearoa.
• First published in The Spinoff, republished with permission.

Among a host of other diseases, HPV immunisation aims to protect young people from HPV infection and the risk of developing cervical cancer.

Women who practise a religion are also less likely to know about or have had the HPV vaccine available to 11 and 12 year-olds. Besides HPV, the vaccine guards against several different types of cancer.

The study found compared to women who didn't practise a religion, those who did were nearly 60 percent less likely to know about the vaccine and about half as likely to have received at least one dose.

Senior author of the survey, Deanna Kepka, says while religious girls may be less likely to receive the vaccine, or may perceive themselves as having less risk, she says she "wouldn't expect them to be less informed about the vaccine."

The women surveyed were between the ages 18 to 26.

Survey responses were returned by 148 women who practiced an organised religion and 178 women who said they weren't religious.

About 97 percent of non-religious women said they had heard of HPV, compared to about 90 percent of religious women.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The infection usually resolves on its own without causing health problems, but it can lead to cancer and genital warts if it doesn't clear up.

HPV infections can cause cervical, vulva, vagina, penis, anus, throat and other cancers.

Source

• Reuters
• Image: woman 2 woman

It wants the students to have the confidence to select the areas in which their interests lie; and with the skills required to take their learning further in these areas.

So three years ago the school employed a digital technology teacher.

Since then Rebecca Ronald has put in place an innovative programme for her students.

She has also been supporting other teachers in their use of digital technology.

"I can't possibly teach the girls everything they need to know about technology - it would be out of date the following day."

"Instead we work on developing skills such as confidence to experiment and problem-solve, enjoying the process of learning and welcoming mistakes or false starts."

In an interview published last year Ronald said despite an increase in computing at primary level, a large chunk of secondary school students have missed out.

In 2016, her year 12 computing class had 12 students. "The idea that it is a career option and what it looks like for many of these kids is just way off in the distance," Ronald says.

"Most have no idea of what a job in IT would look like."

"Computing would just open so many more doors to options in a future that right now we have no idea will look like."

At Marist College the students are introduced to role models in the tech industry, and it is made very clear becoming a programmer or designer are achievable goals.

"By showing the girls these role models are learners just like themselves, and by encouraging students to ‘be the teacher' and to share their discoveries with others in the school community (including teachers), we allow them to develop a sense of self-efficacy and confidence we hope will stay with them throughout their lives."

Source

• nz.educationhq.com
• mediadesignschool.com
• Image: stuff.co.nz

On a recent Monday morning, Clare Harper's cousin sent her a picture of herself for "Selfie Monday" via Snapchat, a texting and image-sharing service that deletes pictures soon after they are sent.

Harper, 18, responded with a selfie of her own, except instead of posing to capture her best angle as her cousin had done, she contorted her face into something between silly and scary.

With the photo she texted, "This is what I think of selfies."

Still in her pajamas and not yet out of bed, Harper was already receiving images from friends.

She was also being given the opportunity to take and share photos of herself.

Selfies, pictures taken of oneself usually with a smartphone and then shared over a social media app, are just what she and her peers do, she says.

They generally don't give it a second thought.

"If you want to have a normal Facebook page, you're going to have pictures of yourself on it," she says.

Anything otherwise would be weird.

She's nonchalant, unassuming.

It's not that there's much pressure to post pictures, she assures. It's just the norm.

On the one hand, having a profile picture helps friends to know they're connecting to the right person on social networking sites.

On the other hand, especially if you're female, that picture had better look good.

"What you look like is what's defining you. It's like you're defined by how pretty you are. This is me because this is what I look like," Harper says. Continue reading

Source

• Meghan Murphy-Gill in U.S.Catholic

Meghan Murphy-Gill is a writer living in Chicago.

Researchers in the University of Queensland's School of Medicine at Princess Alexandra Hospital have found that age and sex plays a significant role in how the immune system reacts to rhinoviruses - the viruses that usually cause the common cold, and that young women have a much stronger immune response to rhinoviruses than young men.

Female sex hormones were responsible for young women being able to fight cold viruses better than their male counterparts.

Lead researcher Professor John Upham says differences disappear after menopause, meaning immunity to the common cold is likely to be regulated by sex hormones.

Professor Upham said these findings were crucially important for finding new ways of combatting rhinoviruses.

"While these viruses are just a nuisance in healthy people, they can make people with asthma or other chronic lung diseases very unwell."

"We definitely haven't been able to find a cure for man-flu," he said.

Sources

• ABC News
• News.com.au
• Image: Gulf News