From the ridiculous state of the presidential election and the leak of the Panama Papers, to the national conversations started by Twitter movements like #ConcernedStudent1950 and #OscarsSoWhite, 2015 and 2016 have made it impossible not to recognize the disorder embedded in the law and other institutions. At best, what’s beneath the long black robe of …
By Gaela LaPasta The Modern Bechdel Test In 1985, the Bechdel Test was created to test if a movie could simply portray a woman as a human being. In 2017, we still rejoice when a movie passes said test, although few blockbusters and big budget films manage to. According to Dykes to Watch Out For, … Continue reading
By Olivia Bono In the age of YouTube and Spotify, we can listen to any song we want from any era. So why is it that when we hear our favorite middle school jams in Okenshields—be they “Stereo Hearts,” “Dynamite,” or even “Cotton Eye Joe”—we drop everything (except maybe our trays of fried rice because … Continue reading
By Jacque Groskaufmanis I watched the first episode of Atlanta in the Fine Arts library, sitting next to a literal Greek statue and a fancy, old-timey map of 1970’s Manhattan. Donald Glover’s show portrays the city of Atlanta and the vibrancy and violence that exist within it. The scenes are emphasized in an unsettling way, … Continue reading
By Nathaniel LaCelle-Peterson It is with little fanfare that the Internet has seeped into the day-to-day routine of life. It is a quiet medium that regurgitates pictures of my friends smiling and pointing at waterfalls or platefuls of chicken-waffles, the day’s news, the day’s think pieces about yesterday’s news, and the vague affirmation of strangers … Continue reading
By Gaby Leung It infuriates me seeing an entire group of friends on their phones instead of talking to one another. With bowed heads and fingers flying, they make me wonder what is so important on their devices that they can’t take the time to interact with each other for more than a few minutes. … Continue reading
By Abigail Mengesha Racial identity was never a problem when I lived in Ethiopia. I recognized and understood my ethnicity, and that was enough. However, once I moved to the United States to receive higher education, questions regarding my racial background and the meaning of the term “Habesha” resurfaced. This spark in curiosity can be … Continue reading
By Fauna Mahootian Puberty is a very vulnerable time for many. We begin feeling self-conscious as insecurities start forming and intensifying. It’s also a time when our hormones cause us to grow more hair. The media perpetuates the expectation for women to be hairless, so it’s not surprising that girls start feeling self-conscious about their … Continue reading
By Magdalene Murphy At the top of the Olympic Peninsula, that dark and rainy spit of land that sticks out from the westernmost edge of the continental United States, sits the unremarkable town of Forks, Washington. It is unremarkable, of course, except for being the backdrop to one of the biggest pop culture stories of … Continue reading
I grew up on online videogames. It began with a game called Blockland, where you played as a little Lego man who could walk around and build stuff out of blocks among other little Lego men doing the same. As a default, the game contained practically no rules. For instance, I could acquire preposterously overpowered … Continue reading
By Stephen Meisel On Wednesdays, my high school’s cafeteria also functioned as a chapel. On one particular Wednesday, when I was about 13, the administration informed us that this week our chapel period would function a bit differently: in fact, it was quite the special occasion. This week, they said, our Chapel would be used … Continue reading
