'Yes, I'm a feminist. Why aren't you?' and 8 more social columns.

1. Period Photos: are these 7 images confronting? (NSFW)

Last year, a photographer named Emma Arvida Bystrom staged a fashion shoot in which all the women are menstruating through their clothes. It was called “There Will Be Blood” and it aimed to question the taboo surrounding menstruation. When Mamamia published the pictures, our readers had A LOT to say about it. Read it here.

2. Yes, I’m a feminist. Why aren’t you?

When Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer admitted publicly that she doesn’t consider herself a feminist, Jamila Rizvi did a massive facepalm, then set about setting her straight. In our 7th most popular post of 2012, Jamila asks why so many women are distancing themselves from the term ‘feminist’. Read it here.

3. And now our vaginas are being photoshopped too.

When the 2012 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition was released last year, Kate Upton appeared on the cover – without her vagina. In the tenth most read post last year, the Mamamia team took a detailed look into the bizarre and disheartening practice that is ‘vagina photoshopping’. Read it here.

4. Remembering: the house you grew up in.

When Mamamia Production Manager Natalia Hawk’s parents decided to sell their family home, she took a walk down memory lane and wrote about all the things that she’ll miss from the ‘palace’ of her chilhood. A beautifully written, bitter-sweet post that pretty much anyone can relate to. Read it here.

5. Sexy. Disabled. Clever.

Are we squemish about the idea of disabled people having sex or even having sexual desires? Jes Sachse thought so. A 25-year-old college student with a rare genetic condition known as Freeman-Sheldon syndrome, Jes decided to do something about the lack of disabled people represented in advertising by recreating 13 of American Apparel’s campagins. The photos are awesome. See them here.

6. MIA: The unexpected reason I felt crap about my body this summer.

That unexpected reason? The almost-porn music videos playing on repeat at the gym. Mia explored how constantly being bombarded with images of women for whom looking good is a full-time job can really mess with your self-esteem – no matter how fit and healthy you are. Her remedy? Watching Girls.

7. BEC: Her life looked perfect on TV. But she was passing out drunk up to five nights a week…

When newsreader Talitha Cummins admitted to having a serious problem with alcohol, Rebecca Sparrow began her post about Talitha’a confession with one word: Brave. Talitha went public because she had signed up as a Hello Sunday Morning ambassador with the hope of inspiring others to also confront their unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Read it here.

8. The handy way to tell if your skirt makes you a ‘whore’ or a ‘matron’

Since when is your sexual behaviour determined by the length of your skirt? That’s the question Jamila Rizvi asked last year when a provocative image was released by a high school student that demonstrated all the levels from ‘matron’ to ‘slut’. Having skirts of every length in her wardrobe, Jam tried to figure out where exactly she fell on the scale. Read it (and see the pics) here.

9. She doesn’t look like 99% of Hollywood actresses. But she’s not fat.

Apparently Lena Dunham is fat. At least, she seems to have become some sort of poster-girl for fatties because of her shocking decision to be on television and not look like a model at the same time. In an epic rant, Rosie Waterland looks at how we live in a society where not skinny automatically means fat. Read it here.