Written by: Amy Xia Edited by: Orli Adamski “I don’t want to hate or hold a grudge, but I can never forgive what happened to me,”  reported Yong Soo Lee, a 90-year-old survivor of the notorious “comfort women” system. She told her story in 2015, retelling her lived experience in the Japanese “comfort stations,” otherwise known as military brothels for Japanese soldiers.  Violence Against Women … Continue reading Comfort Women and the Politicization of Gendered Suffering

Written by: Sam Rabie Edited by: Abigail George Love, a Well-Worn Refrain  Love you, two words with such defiant weight enough to drive you mad  defining the undefinable.   And yet, the same two words can be as casual and mundane as morning coffee, a rushed mumble, a formality to end a call. Love: a set of choices and devotions, or the outcome of no choice … Continue reading Love: to Fall, Feel, Choose, and Exchange: Conceptions of the Undefinable

Written by: Morgan Delva Edited by: Abigail George Horror media’s complex relationship with Black representation is well-documented, with tropes such as the ‘magical negro’ and the ‘Black person dies first’ being nearly synonymous with the genre. While these kinds of common tropes in the horror genre are often associated with Black men by default, the depictions of Black male expressions of fear are often less … Continue reading ‘I’m getting the hell up outta here’: Black Male Fear and Audience Surrogate Status in 90s-2000s Meta Horror 

Written by: Athena Kalaganis Edited by: Anya Pan When Jacob Anderson was announced to star as Louis de Pointe du Lac, it was evident that AMC’s television adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire would diverge from the 1976 novel. The show would not depict Louis as a plantation owner, nor Claudia as a blonde child. Instead, Anderson portrays a Black vampire from Jim … Continue reading Evil of My Evil: Interview with the Vampire and the Struggle for Agency

Written by: Leylie Meh Edited by: Noa Doupe Despite decades of research there is still long standing disagreement as to how individuals understand sexuality amongst human beings. Due to societal prejudices, homosexuality was included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders until 1973. Homosexuality had a relatively dynamic title, with its label changing approximately four times during its residence in the manual. The … Continue reading The Gay Gene is a Myth, But is Homosexuality Still Biological?

Written by: Hanna Yaghoubi Edited by: Laurence Desjardins If systematic exploitation of women and their bodies is inescapable under patriarchal rule, the commodification of the female body is the only seemingly rational response to maintain any remaining autonomy. In the curation of an exploitable self-image, there is a clear choice: Madonna or the Whore.  But if these options for women are pre-established, can this choice … Continue reading Now Hiring, The Ideal Objectifiable Woman: The Paradox of Autonomy in Digital Femininity

Written by: Grace Plumpton-Hill Edited by: Laurence Desjardins I realized at a young age that my family–my two mothers, my twin brother, and I–did not fit the mould. I did not see my family in childhood movies, television shows, schoolbooks, or advertisements. The media I consumed insisted that romance and parenthood required a man’s presence. But it wasn’t only the media that marginalized my family. … Continue reading Family Politics & The Subversive Power of Lesbian Motherhood

Written by: Célia Selzner Edited by: Anya Pan Of all mythologies from the Greek and Roman eras, the tale of Hades and Persephone is among the most widely known. The story has been a source of inspiration for writers across centuries, and has been kept alive and retold through a variety of adaptations, including video games, novels, comics, and even children’s books. Comparing the original … Continue reading On Feminist Retellings: Persephone in Hadestown

Written by: Abigail Francis Edited by: Orli Adamski Fashion has never been apolitical. In fact, as with any art form, fashion often reflects and can enforce the political and social order of a given time. Dress codes, in and of themselves, have illuminated how social roles and hierarchies play into everyday dress. Take the civil rights movements in the 1960s: many African Americans wore their … Continue reading When did Men Stop Wearing Heels? The Great Masculine Renunciation and Fashion’s Reflections on Gender