OPINIONS
What’s the deal with the romanticization of the 80s?
Who gets a spot in the collective unconscious? /Content Warning: Discussions of racism and homophobia./ Thanks to a series of events involving a broken button maker and my coworker being late, I managed to score myself a free ticket to Vancouver’s outdoor Shakespeare festival, Bard on the Beach. As I ...
Is consent possible?
Lessons in Guilt from MacKinnon and Foucault Content Warnings: Mentions of Sexual Assault. Before I begin, I must confess to a handful of biases because to do otherwise would be irresponsible. I am a survivor of a sexual assault perpetrated by a young hockey-playing man from southwestern Ontario and am ...
Me more cowboy than you!
Reclaiming the culture of cowboyism and revolutionising buckaroos, cowpokes, and Canucks Everybody wants to be a cowboy. The culture of cowboys has become an overwhelmingly prominent trend in popular media over the past decade, with stereotypical western faux prints and cowboy boots dominating the masses. This upper-class phenomenon of ‘playing ...
Subject, Verb, Object
What are the consequences of what we know? “Can rocks die?” This is the question proposed in the title of an essay by anthropologist Dr. Elizabeth Povinelli of Columbia University. More than one person will have snickered in reading that sentence. If you can conclusively prove otherwise, five Canadian dollars ...
The awakening of a nation
How the threat of annexation can reforge Canada’s unity and purpose One hundred and fifty-seven years into our national story, we find ourselves faced with an existential crisis unlike any we have faced in our sovereign history. The reality of today is that Canadians have been unforgivably betrayed by our ...
Joie de vivre
Unravelling the simplicity of finding moments of life in the everyday Whether we take the measures to acknowledge this or not, life is forever and always passing through us. We can view this as an overwhelming experience, a reminder of everything we have to accomplish within our day to day ...
The myth or actuality of the invisible string
We’ve all heard the love story that restored our faith in soulmates. The one that encourages hope about that one special, singular person waiting for you while the universe does everything in its power to bring the two of you together. In my experiences in love, friendship, and fate, the ...
Give, give, give
Women lose too much in pursuit of love and sex Modernity defines ‘love’ as an open concept to be felt and desired by all without discrimination. According to history, love is one-sided and patriarchal—men can take whatever they need and women give up everything they have to offer. For many ...
The myth of college soulmates: navigating expectations of love in your 20s
Why the pressure to find ‘the one’ in university may be misguided For years, everyone has told me that my post-secondary years will define my future, including my romantic future—no pressure! The idea that university is where everyone meets their ‘soulmate,’ or the person they’ll spend the rest of their ...
Twink culture
Desire, gender, and the hetero masculine gaze Content Warning: this article discusses eating disorders and racism, which may be triggering for some readers. It is with a reddened face that I confess that my first (fictional) gay crush was Anatole Kuragin from a manga adaptation of Tolstoi’s War and Peace. ...