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November-December 2021

High School Musical lied to me

A youthful obsession with High School Musical leads to not knowing the truth about North American schools

Zeahaa Rehman

In the summer of 2008, I became obsessed with High School Musical. My family and I were “visiting” my paternal uncle in Canada at the time. I say “visit,” because it was more of a two-month trial for my parents to gauge whether or not they wanted to immigrate here from Lahore, Pakistan. During the […] More »
November-December 2021

The new and not-so-improved Naughty Aughties

Reboots and reunions are re-envisioning early 2000s TV, but the changes they’re making are disappointingly surface-level

Joelle Kidd

Every week, when I was a teenager, I used to squirrel my hand-me-down laptop away to my bedroom and scour the internet’s sketchy streaming sites for the latest episode of Gossip Girl. (I couldn’t watch it on the family TV—after all, it was, per its marketing, “every parent’s nightmare.”) From quippy dialogue, to attempts at […] More »
November-December 2021

Oops! … we did it again

Many are caught up in her legal battles and conservatorship, but more people should be paying attention to Britney Spears’s music

Sydney Urbanek

“Sometimes people’s … personal life becomes bigger than their work,” says pop star Britney Spears at one point during Framing Britney Spears, the New York Times-produced documentary released in February 2021. Though the complaint backgrounds a montage of Spears being chased around by paparazzi in the late 2000s, it may as well have been issued […] More »
November-December 2021

Holding it together

New Brunswick poet writes about mental health from personal experience

Ashley Fish-Robertson

“Bent out of joint / in order to hold every-thing together. Won’t snap, won’t dissolve in an acid bath.” These are the opening lines of Self-Portrait as Paperclip, from Fredericton-based writer Triny Finlay’s third book, Myself A Paperclip, in which she transforms an inconspicuous office article into a clever metaphor for those attempting to hold […] More »
November-December 2021

A seat at the table

Podcast features Muslim, immigrant, and refugee women and their stories

Johna Baylon

“Where are you from?” It’s a grating question for many racialized individuals, one that podcaster Mifrah Abid wants to turn on its head. “I was not born here, so I don’t mind it so much, but I understand the implications of that question,” says the former English lecturer from India. “‘Where are you from?’ as […] More »
November-December 2021

Dear Alexis Rose

Let’s address your casual racism

Alisha Mughal

Dear Alexis, You once said you escaped a Thai drug lord’s car by bribing him with sex. You said that one of your longest relationships was a three-month affair with a Saudi Prince, but you spent two of these months trying to escape from his palace to an embassy. These are only a couple of […] More »
November-December 2021

Pop culture is political

From our November-December 2021 editor's note

Tara-Michelle Ziniuk

  Things I have been involved with in my life include anti-gentrification activism, a sex worker arts festival, protesting a youth superjail, harm reduction work, community radio, a feminist bookstore, and independent publishing. I’ve also watched 11 years of The Bachelor franchise, likely more than that of The Hills and related shows, and could draw […] More »
September-October 2021

Putting the brakes on car culture

Canadian cities need to invest in public transit

Cierra Bettens

As a lifelong, driver’s licenceless Winnipegger, I’ve become privy to the ways that car culture is deeply embedded in the fabric of our city. In the years I’ve been reading novels, making conversation with strangers, and thanking bus drivers for getting me from points A to B, I’ve encountered a slew of folks who’d rather […] More »
September-October 2021

Finding community on screen

Queer television characters have helped me feel part of something bigger

Mira Miller

I was 14 years old when I first kissed a girl—and there were more after that—but it took a global pandemic and months of self-reflection to get to a place where I felt comfortable calling myself bisexual. I’m far from alone. The pandemic presented an opportunity for many closeted queer people to look inwards and […] More »
September-October 2021

Audio killed the video call

Audio-only apps raise accessibility concerns

Billie Gagné-LeBel

Before March of 2020, I found myself on a video conference once or twice a week. Back then, it still had something special to it, helping me connect to colleagues all over the world. Then, the world turned upside down because of COVID-19, and I found myself spending several hours per day on video calls […] More »
September-October 2021

Cash after COVID

Is money as we know it becoming extinct?

Keah Hansen

Back in April, a friend and I had met up to grab smoothies at a café before going on a lockdown walk. We each ordered, and I pulled out my debit card to pay. “Sorry, cash only,” said the woman behind the counter. I stared blankly at her, then my friend. “I don’t have any […] More »