The Power of Oral Tradition in Kenya’s Gikuyu Tribe This month’s issue had me reflect on the value of stories, lessons, and practices passed down within families and cultures, particularly through women’s conversations. These “wives’ tales” can transcend the passage of time and nurture a legacy of profound, and at times eccentric traditions, that generations […]
The Tale of a Matriarch Read More »
How the Internet is lying to you about making your life better. Oftentimes, when misinformation enters the public conversation, it’s on a systemic or platformed scale, be it from the government, fake news sources, or fudged medical or academic resources. We see it in niche communities’ claims about vaccines and Tylenol singlehandedly causing autism or
Life hack: use my referral link Read More »
My Grandmother, or Why I write My grandmother is at once a beloved and mysterious figure in my life. She’s the sort of person who can keep a secret for a lifetime or share it at the right moment, to everyone’s surprise. Given that she is a Métis woman and was born in 1950, this
Breaking the Silence Read More »
Scatter-brained thoughts on our capacity to adore the mundane As someone who has always been pretty sentimental and defensive against change, intense feelings of nostalgia are well known to me. When transitioning into new stages of life, I tend to glance back forlornly at the seemingly perfect bygone things. Nostalgia is a powerful emotion: an
What’s the deal with 2 a.m. waves of nostalgia? Read More »
Remembering, letting go, and moving forward As the leaves on campus gently start to fade into orange, we are reminded of a brand new school year ahead and the end of another summer season. Many of us may feel that time is fleeting, our degree and our youth passing us by all too quickly. The
What’s the deal with bittersweet memories? Read More »
Exploring popularity, waste, and consumer culture Meet the Labubu. These ultra-trendy monster character keychains created by Kasing Lung are both cute and disturbing. As the hottest item on social media, these blind-box items have been spotted on the bags of Dua Lipa and Rihanna. However, since consumers never know which Labubu they will unbox, this
What’s the deal with Labubus? Read More »
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 settled into my seat for
What’s the deal with the romanticization of the 80s? Read More »
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 therefore anything but an unbiased
Is consent possible? Read More »
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 pretend’ tends to glamorise the
Me more cowboy than you! Read More »
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 are yours. After all, death
Subject, Verb, Object Read More »
