Meet and Greet: Who are all these people on campus?
By STEPHANIE CARMODY One of my favorite movie quotes is from the cinematic masterpiece Sing Street. Set in the 1990s, a coming-of-age Irish schoolboy runs into a mysterious, older girl who he’s immediately struck by. Their first run-in prompts him to write a song about her titled “The Riddle of the Model.” He asks his friend to read the lyrics after, and his friend does … Continue reading Meet and Greet: Who are all these people on campus?
Uncanny Valley
By SESHA KAMMULA The popular bitmoji app started as a cartoon. The pictures were cartoon representations of the individual makers and could be edited to have silly characteristics. However, the more recent updates have started to feel less like cartoons. The app is a fun way to express oneself without sending photos, but over time the pictures have gotten more realistic. It’s creeping, slowly but … Continue reading Uncanny Valley
Food for Thought: fish are food, not friends
By SESHA KAMMULA When I was younger, the only movie my family owned on DVD was Finding Nemo. I’ve probably accumulated days of time where I was glued to the screen, internalizing three key messages: 1. Just keep swimming 2. P Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney 3. Fish are friends, not food As I grew, some messages sat better than others. Just keep swimming is … Continue reading Food for Thought: fish are food, not friends
My Life with Body Horror
By NATHAN CHAZAN I’ve long been taken with body horror as a subgenre of cult filmmaking. I grew up in Toronto, the home of David Cronenberg and brutalist architecture, so a lot of movies and works that might have been obscure and obtuse elsewhere were readily accessible for me. I had the fortune of having at my disposal not only blogs and forums but video … Continue reading My Life with Body Horror
Pornographic Math and Magic If
By MOLLY KARR I do not understand why people watch porn. It is different than acting, the superior art. Porn is actual. It is concrete—it is, like, really happening. There are insides and outsides and absolute touches on skin and little flakes of saliva. There is payment and dye jobs and oopsie daddy issues and steroids under tanned skin and contractual safe words. In acting, … Continue reading Pornographic Math and Magic If
Feminist Body Hair is a Privilege Only White Women Can Afford
By MALVIKA DAHIYA My relationship with my body hair is complicated, dynamic, and often difficult. Like many other women of South Asian descent, I grew up confused by my body hair, living in a world where images of femininity, beauty, and even normality were divergent from the body I called home. Much of my adolescence was spent struggling to mirror the hairless, skinny, and white … Continue reading Feminist Body Hair is a Privilege Only White Women Can Afford
Mainstream Eating Habits As Self-Imposed Theocracies: Thoughts from an Unorthodox Sinner
By LUBY KIRIAKIDI Food. If we’re not talking about the weather, we’re talking about food. To eat is to live. Food is culture. Food is family. Food is love, faith, hope. Food is self. You are what you eat. So how do you identify? Food is a secular religion. The Ancient Greek verb διαιτάω diaitо̄ means: “to live a certain way of life.” Life in … Continue reading Mainstream Eating Habits As Self-Imposed Theocracies: Thoughts from an Unorthodox Sinner
Beef Rap: how beef between rap artists undermines their activism
By KRISTEN WALSH Tupac vs. Biggie. Meek Mill vs. Drake. Jay-Z vs. Nas. “Beef” has been a prevalent trend in rap history. The notion of “beef” has been a big commercial pull in hip hop; consumers feed on drama. The media loves to cover petty feuds in the industry, but their tendency to highlight fights between rappers obscures discussion of greater issues. In other words, … Continue reading Beef Rap: how beef between rap artists undermines their activism
12 and A Die-hard PETA Supporter: my first misguided foray into PETA’s online activism and vegetarianism
By KATHIE JIANG I’m about to describe a strange chapter of my life: when I was 12 years old with Internet access and a strong sense of righteousness, I chose to abruptly adopt a vegetarian diet. I was raised on an omnivorous diet of Chinese cooking from my first-generation immigrant parents and American restaurant food my whole life up until my introduction to the website … Continue reading 12 and A Die-hard PETA Supporter: my first misguided foray into PETA’s online activism and vegetarianism
Tonya Harding: a shining American star
By JESSICA BROFSKY “There’s no such thing as truth,” says Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding in the biopic I, Tonya. “Everyone has their own truth.” Twenty-three years after “the whack heard round the world,” when Shane Stant bashed Harding’s rival figure skater Nancy Kerrigan with a collapsible baton slightly above her knee, after Nancy’s repeated, resounding cries asking why, after the sentencing and the backlash, … Continue reading Tonya Harding: a shining American star
