Issues Tag

When I think about what a person wants to read about, what is entertaining, slightly taboo and not attainable every day, what takes effort, has a distinct scent and is not an article about relationships about Bruce, I mean Caitlyn Jenner, I can only think of one thing. If we were stripped of our societal normalcies: Tinder, kombucha, and brunch, it would still play a prevalent role in our lives. Birds do it. Bees do it. Fourteen-year-old boys wonder when they’ll do it. Twenty-four year old men do it likeRead More

Game of Thrones. Orange is the New Black. Gossip Girl.   There’s a good chance that you, the reader, at some point in your life, will binge watch a TV show. It may be one of the ones above (s/o to season three of OITNB, out June 12), but you will end up in your blue jeans at two am, bleary eyed and yet not yawning, ice cream stuck to your shirt, wondering where the hell the time went. And then you’ll look down at your computer, see that you’veRead More

I close my eyes and images appear in my mind. They’re ones I haven’t conjured up. They’re immediate and ugly and ferocious — a dismembered arm, a spider crawling outwards from an eye with its silky, black legs, and a red hourglass on its belly. I can’t sleep. Sometimes I wish I was a hamster. Hamsters are nocturnal, after all, and this sleeplessness at night would then be acceptable. I take a deep breath. (The kind that cracks your spine in a few places at once, but doesn’t calm youRead More

I’ve been in low places, like on the floor — in a matching sweat suit that wasn’t mine. While crying and kicking my feet, a teensy bit, like a two year-old in the peak of his tantrum. And the matching sweat suit was gray and didn’t belong to me and was the kind you purchase at Target in the men’s section for $11.99. And it belonged to my decently androgynous roommate who dated a pretty androgynous woman who wore the same kind of underwear. And when they walked by onRead More

As a 24-year-old, standing in front of my classroom full of high school sophomores is not something I find too difficult. I haven’t been far removed enough from high school to be completely out of touch. I still keep up with the latest pop music, Internet sensations, and relevant slang. It helps that my younger siblings who are still in high school help me stay “with it.” Of course, it is only natural to compare this new generation of teens with my own, but I think it leads to someRead More

My third grade self had planned on getting married when I was twenty and having children when I was twenty-two. (Even then I knew I would need at least a year of designated binge drinking before being responsible for another human). I was going to be a writer when I grew up and I was going to live by the beach. I loved the beach. It was inconceivable to me that there might be restrictions to the planning of these life events. It might be hard to find a husband.Read More

I am not a doctor. I do not hold a PhD. I am not writing this from a research lab strewn with papers on the subject I am (sort of) going to discuss. I am a 23-year-old creative writing graduate that lives with her parents. I am currently student teaching high school English. And I am writing from this bed where my clean clothes still lie in a pile (and will probably never be put away because that’s just how I roll). I have no authority on this matter andRead More

Phoenix Skylark needs no introduction. As the world’s foremost non-author, he’s made headlines since his first foray into the literary community some 5 years ago. Now, it’s hard to imagine a world without him. Our News Feeds are so cluttered with articles from “10 Reasons Traveling is Right for Your Relationship and You Won’t Believe What I Say” to the “Puppy That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity” to the tides of BuzzFeed quizzes that the barrage sometimes threatens to overwhelm us. Luckily, pioneers like Skylark have stepped forward andRead More

If you’ve got a peen, you’ve probably sent one. If you’re a human being, you’ve probably received one. From the data I gathered, most dick pics are unsolicited. I can only assume the outcome senders are hoping for, but I’ve got a gut feeling the desired effect does not often become reality.   What the sender expects: It has been made pretty clear that the hopes of  a dick pic sender are to turn on the recipient and hopefully receive a photo in exchange. Three out of ten people who shared their experiences haveRead More

I’m not in the mood to write a big introduction, so too bad. #NoIntroZone (#TheyKnoooowBetter) 1. You rely on the sheer size of the internet to shield you from attention, kind of like how the last place anyone would notice you would be in a huge throng of people. Actually, it’s exactly like that. It’s paradoxical, but it works…except for when it doesn’t. 2. When it doesn’t work, you’re like, “Damn, how’d they find me?” But I mean, the answer is pretty fucking obvious. They found you in the sameRead More

I pulled back the drapes, my drapes, white and wilted. Fog lied ferociously across the glass. And lonely, little drops of condensation were flung about. Ignorant, because they weren’t alone, but part of a larger collection of one morning. I was intrigued that I could do that myself. It didn’t take the breath of two bodies: one slightly cigarette scented and the other certain. It didn’t take sex. It didn’t take a whole night’s sleep of spooning and swaying under shoved down sheets. Just me. In the middle of my bed. WithoutRead More

I have considered myself a feminist for an extremely long time now, and a very passionate one at that. As a Gender Studies major in university, a woman of colour, and a minority within a couple of essential aspects, I have found myself coming to the realization that it will take a hell of a lot of effort to change the world as it is today. To abolish misogyny, raise awareness, and bring women/minorities up to the level of the white capitalist supremacist heteropatriarchy are all far-fetched dreams of mine,Read More

Writing was always a favorite past time of mine. Reading comprehension was always my highest score when it came to standardized testing, even as a little girl. My thoughts managed to come together in my head and I could articulate them on paper. Needless to say, being a writer was my life-long aspiration, but my life took a few different turns as I enter my late-twenties, I took other roles to pay the bills. Lucky for me, I found a few editors who believed the string of sentences I putRead More

Thank you for honoring your oath to protect and serve, and continuing to put on the uniform that sadly has made you a target. Thank you for walking the thin line between life and death to keep our streets, towns, and cities safe. Thank you for doing right by even those who have done you wrong. Thank you for risking your lives to protect ours, and for suffering inconveniences to defend civil liberties. More importantly, thank you for risking your lives for those who misjudge you and villainize you. ThankRead More

Every holiday season brings something new, and this year brought for me some observations. This being my first holiday season an appetizer contributing adult, I noticed things I had never considered in my many years as nothing more than a young gift receiver.   1. Each day closer to Christmas and New Years everyone’s driving gets worse. Everyone is desperate to finish shopping and beginning to lose their minds from all of the contact with distant relatives.   2. After December 20th, don’t even try surviving the mall. If DecemberRead More