Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
Photo: AFP
The Truth About Kobe: 24 stories you might have forgotten – by Andrew Sharp, Sports Illustrated
“It already feels like we've been living in a six–month Nike commercial. But there was something great about Kobe, and it's easy to miss as everyone pays their respects and tries to keep this respectful. For most of his career, Kobe was a crazy person. A weirdo. A flat-out maniac. And I'll miss him, because maniacs make the world more entertaining.”
How ‘Empowerment’ Became Something for Women to Buy – by Jia Tolentino, The New York Times Magazine
“The new empowerment doesn’t increase potential so much as it assures you that your potential is just fine. Even when the thing being described as “empowering” is personal and mildly defiant (not shaving, not breast-feeding, not listening to men, et cetera), what’s being marketed is a certain identity. And no matter what, the intent of this new empowerment is always to sell.”
The dark side of Guardian comments - by Becky Gardiner, Mahana Mansfield, Ian Anderson, Josh Holder, Daan Louter and Monica Ulmanu, The Guardian
“Imagine going to work every day and walking through a gauntlet of 100 people saying “You're stupid”, “You're terrible”, “You suck”, “I can't believe you get paid for this”. It's a terrible way to go to work.”
I am on the Kill List. This is what it feels like to be hunted by drones – by Malik Jalal, The Independent
“I am in the strange position of knowing that I am on the ‘Kill List’. I know this because I have been told, and I know because I have been targeted for death over and over again. Four times missiles have been fired at me. I am extraordinarily fortunate to be alive.”
Why we need to stop telling schoolgirls that their uniforms are “distracting” – by Moya Crockett, Stylist
“That this still needs to be stated is, frankly, mind-blowing, but here goes: if you, as a secondary school teacher, are concerned that your male colleagues are being sexually distracted by the teenage girls in their care, you've got yourself a pretty serious problem. And it's not one that those girls are responsible for solving.”
The last supper: An era ends at Pizza Hut – by Peter Malcouronne, Metro
“The news broke a few weeks after David Bowie died. New Lynn Pizza Hut — the first Hut, the last Hut, the immortal Hut — was marked for death. Reportedly, it would be bowled within a fortnight. In its place would be another 80 carparks for LynnMall, the tumescent fluoro flea market that’s already swallowed half the suburb. Eighty bloody carparks. Really? That’s the going rate now for razing a cherished West Auckland cultural institution?”