http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/sarah-ayoub/ Sarah Ayoub is a freelance writer and University of Sydney research student who is writing her PhD thesis on the Australian media and their glamorisation of gang culture amongst Sydney’s Middle-Eastern Community. A self-confessed nerd and goody-two-shoes, Sarah decided that she’d like to pursue a career in journalism at the age of ten after realising that, like Lois Lane and Vicky Vale, it was always the reporter that got the superhero. Sarah has contributed to a number of magazines and websites including Yen, Cleo, Shop Til You Drop, Girlfriend, Cosmopolitan, Missy Confidential and more, and has appeared on television, radio and forum panels in a speaking capacity. She is the co-publisher behind http://www.trespassmag.com, and blogs about the triumphs and tribulations of her freelance writing career, while dishing out tips to aspiring writers, at http://www.wordsmithlane.com en Copyright 2013 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it-well-everything-actually/ You’d have to be living under a rock not to notice the hype surrounding the release of Sex and the City 2. Yep, it’s that obvious, Carrie fever is sweeping the world, and some people are getting antsy. Antsy because they’re over the hype (and given it’s at saturation point it’s totally understandable) or because they simply can’t wait to indulge themselves in the latest instalment to one of television’s most popular foursome. I don’t know if it’s sheer coincidence or clever timing, but the movie happens to coincide with the release of an entirely different chapter (if you pardon the pun) in Carrie Bradshaw’s life, depicted in Candace Bushnell’s latest novel, The Carrie Diaries (Harper Collins, $30.95). It’s probably the perfect complement to the movie’s release given the fact that it takes readers back to the mind and soul of their on-screen heroine’s high school days. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Sarah Ayoub) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it-well-everything-actually/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it-well-everything-actually/#item3123 Sun, 23 May 2010 19:45:18 +0000 Sarah Ayoub | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/uncovered-meat-facebook-and-a-simmering-melting-pot/ Like most females, I am prone to that odd bit of judgment. With the exception of close friends’ birthdays, I forego trashy clubs in favour of nights out at great restaurants. My fashion icons are from days gone by, so I’m more inclined to emulate the feminine styles of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly than look for dresses that barely skim my thighs. And although I love the odd cocktail, I am particularly cautious about how far I go for a drink, lest I wind up trashed anywhere – particularly on the internet. Some would say I’m a little tightly wound, but after my latest social networking discovery, I couldn’t care less about their opinions. And that’s because my recent discovery had me questioning things I’d accepted as fairly concrete aspects of life in the modern day and age, and in the Australian society. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Sarah Ayoub) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/uncovered-meat-facebook-and-a-simmering-melting-pot/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/uncovered-meat-facebook-and-a-simmering-melting-pot/#item2595 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:00:20 +0000 Sarah Ayoub | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/thumbs-down-for-bella-ed-and-jacob/ I watched Twilight New Moon at an inconspicuous cinema, at a very un-trendy hour. I figured that by strategically selecting the time and location, I would not have to be overwhelmed with screeching teeny boppers drooling over Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) or Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) as they vied for the attention of leading lady (and I use the term loosely) Bella Swan (Kirsten Stewart). I figured wrong. When Edward made his first appearance, there was a scream, and it was not dissimilar to the cheer that enveloped practically all cinema patrons when Jacob took his shirt off (though admittedly, that was not an all too terrible sight). It seems that where society was once divided along the axis of east or west, Angelina or Jennifer, Vegemite or Marmite, it is now divided along an axis of Edward or Jacob. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Sarah Ayoub) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/thumbs-down-for-bella-ed-and-jacob/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/thumbs-down-for-bella-ed-and-jacob/#item1816 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:30:42 +0000 Sarah Ayoub | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-fidelity-matters-to-women-and-should-for-men/ Do you remember the choose your own ending tales of your childhood? Well, I hope so, because this is a choose-your-own beginning kind of opinion piece, and trust me, no one’s going to choose the beginning that it is meant to go with it. Beginning one would start with “My good friend’s boyfriend has not gotten laid in four weeks” and everyone would feel sorry for him. But they’d tell him to hang in there and go with it, because four weeks is not so long and maybe there’s a dry spell hovering over the relationship that a little holiday in the Hunter couldn’t fix. Suppose this article opened with beginning two, where I’d say “My good friend’s boyfriend has not gotten laid in four months”, and everyone would be horrified and encourage him to leave, or go elsewhere for that physical part of life that everyone is entitled to but he is clearly lacking. But beginning number three goes against all modern social norms and it’s the one I’m going with: feedback@thepunch.com.au (Sarah Ayoub) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-fidelity-matters-to-women-and-should-for-men/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-fidelity-matters-to-women-and-should-for-men/#item1449 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:44:12 +0000 Sarah Ayoub | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Lambs-dressed-up-as-mutton-suri-cruise/ When my little cousin waltzes into my room and asks me for nail polish, it doesn’t really bother me. Perhaps her decision to forego my sexy reds and vixen blacks for the playschool razzle dazzle of my fluro pinks and purples fills me with a little confidence that her safe and happy childhood is very much intact. Then there are the other times, when she waltzes in my room wearing blue eye shadow and shiny pink lip gloss, and asks me for help in adding more artificial crap to her face. Those are the times I know we have a colouring-outside-the-lines situation – and not just because she misses the outline of her lips. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Sarah Ayoub) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Lambs-dressed-up-as-mutton-suri-cruise/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Lambs-dressed-up-as-mutton-suri-cruise/#item1342 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:50:12 +0000 Sarah Ayoub | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/confessions-of-a-young-monarchist/ I realise it is incredibly un-trendy to like the monarchy. Heck, sometimes I even wish that the French revolution had never taken place, if only for my personal amusement of watching England and France compete via the insecurities of their ruling leaders, as they did once upon a time. Think of all the gowns; the pomp, drama and arrogance; and the lavish court parties that could have taken place, and, lest I forget, the option of eating cake when bread was not available. But, personal amusement aside, watching The Young Victoria just reinstated how much I like having a queen on a throne, even if she’s technically not part of my country and much of a half world away. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Sarah Ayoub) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/confessions-of-a-young-monarchist/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/confessions-of-a-young-monarchist/#item1127 Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:55:04 +0000 Sarah Ayoub | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/gen-y-is-picky-you-call-it-snobbery-we-call-it-tactic/ When I was 19, I started mapping out my career plans. I was in my second year of university when I decided to volunteer as an unpaid intern for two full days per week at a magazine publishing house. My baby-boomer father never understood how I could do it for two years without pay (while working weekends in retail, where yes, I dealt with the worst customers imaginable and cleaned up kid vomit from the floor of my store), but I had faith in the fact that it would one day pay off. One day was not this week, because this week, Employment Minister Mark Arbib is urging Gen Y to readjust their ideas about work and employment, stop the “snobbery” associated with certain means of work, and take whatever jobs they could get. For someone whose attitude to work has more to do with paying university fees and funding my internet bill than snobbery and a class act on the career ladder, Senator Arbib’s comments did not go down too well. And I was not the only one to notice. Generation Y has long bore the brunt of the attention-seeking, lazy, power-hungry generation that refused to put in the hard yards for their future, something which the Senator might have capitalised on in his address to a young labor conference last week. What he failed to recognise is the fact that Generation Y has suffered long enough as a result of this stereotype, and as such, was ditching conventional forms and methods of work in favour of something that works for them. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Sarah Ayoub) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/gen-y-is-picky-you-call-it-snobbery-we-call-it-tactic/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/gen-y-is-picky-you-call-it-snobbery-we-call-it-tactic/#item742 Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:50:12 +0000 Sarah Ayoub | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/with-police-you-get-what-you-pay-for/ In 2006, I was driving out of Beirut airport in the backseat of a taxi when I had a horrible thought. Around me, cars were driving in and out of lanes, zipping past one another in dangerous manoeuvres and in disturbing excess of the speed limit, over packed with passengers sticking their arms, legs and even their heads out of windows. Some were even joy riding on the roof of the vehicles in question, though this had more to do with a bizarre system of car pooling than anything else. But my horrible thought did not in fact revolve around this chaos, but in the fact that in the midst of this was a lone police officer, driving along in relative calm as if blissfully unaware of the throngs of madness around him, but doing so because the scene I just painted was simply a part of the everyday and he no longer had a role in it. Would life in Australia ever be the same? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Sarah Ayoub) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/with-police-you-get-what-you-pay-for/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/with-police-you-get-what-you-pay-for/#item584 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:50:17 +0000 Sarah Ayoub | Author bios | The Punch