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Fall 2024

What’s my age again?

A bill meant to stop youth from seeing porn raises serious privacy concerns for all Canadians

Aysha White

Bill S-210 has an arresting title compared to the majority of those passing through the various levels of government in order to become law: “Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act.” “The title of the legislation sends a fairly powerful message. There is absolutely no doubt about that,” said Kevin Lamoureux, parliamentary secretary to […] More »
Summer 2024

The birds and the UCPs

Youth see comprehensive sex education as a human right, and they're not giving up

Aubrianna Snow

Isabella Calahoo-Zeller was attending eighth grade in Alberta when she received sex education for the first time. It consisted of a YouTube video about consent, and not much else. “We didn’t really get much on what a penis looks like, or what a vulva looks like,” Calahoo-Zeller says. “We never got the birth video that […] More »
March-April 2020

Why you hate cops but love Brooklyn Nine-Nine

You have to admit, the show has an unlikely following

Niko Stratis

As a child born in the early 1980s and raised by 1990s media, TV taught me one thing: cops are not to be trusted. While we are sold the idea of a hard-working and noble institution of policing through the lens of NYPD Blue, Cops, or even Homicide: Life on the Street, the news taught […] More »
May-June 2019

Death of the Rom-Com

Has messy love on screen killed the rom-com? We sure hope so.

Lisa Whittington-Hill

I blame John Hughes for my great sleepover shutout of 1984. It was a Betamax copy of his teen romantic comedy Sixteen Candles that was my downfall. While my friends clapped their hands and cheered at the final scene that brings together Samantha Baker and Jake Ryan, I was silent. I just couldn’t buy it. […] More »
May-June 2019

Turn Me On

Polyamorous Podcasters on Living Without Fear

Jillian Morgan

An average day for married couple Jeremie Saunders and Bryde MacLean might include dates with their respective partners, an interview with a camgirl, or conversations about orgasm scavenger hunts. Nothing’s off the table for the Halifax-based co-hosts of the Turn Me On podcast, a series on sex, in all its fun and messy forms. In […] More »
May-June 2019

My Mother Gave My Boyfriend a Handwriting Test

Handwriting never lies, but sometimes boyfriends do

Julie Matlin

His hand slid underneath my sweater, then rested on my bare waist. We locked eyes and my breath caught. I was leaning up against the wall in the narrow hallway of my one-bedroom apartment. He was so close, with his other hand against the wall beside my head. Both my palms were pressed firmly against […] More »
May-June 2019

Get Naked and Spell

Strip Spelling Bees Make the Cerebral Sexy

Sherwin Tija

“Do earrings count as clothing?” asked a brunette contestant, decked out in multiple sweaters. “They’re not on the list.” It was the very first Strip Spelling Bee I’d organized and we were already running into problems. “And,” she continued coyly, “if so, do they count as two items?” She tapped the dangling emerald drops, and the […] More »
May-June 2019

Tinder is Messing With My Mental Health

This doesn't feel like romance at all

Rebecca Tucker

SUNDAY, 8:01 P.M. For five days, I revisited—with rapidly increasing frequency— the WhatsApp “last-seen” status of a man I’d met on an online-dating app. I had taken note of it at first because it was, as timestamps go, significant: Sunday, 8:01 p.m. was the exact time our most recent date had begun. At first, I […] More »
January-February 2019

We’re here. We’re queer. Now what?

For LGBTQ refugees, Canada is no land of unicorns and rainbows

Amy van den Berg@vandenba

Driving back and forth along Wellesley Street in Toronto, Iris looks for a sign that she belongs. It’s late at night and raining, and she’s been blown off by a date. The woman she met on the dating website Plenty of Fish lives in Niagara Falls, and Iris rented a car for the weekend to […] More »
September-October 2018

Online dating apps have a major problem with sexual harassment—but solutions must start offline

There’s no doubt dating apps have a role to play in promoting safe romantic interactions. But sexual harassment and assault are social problems—and a culture shift is required if things are ever going to get better

Teodora Pasca

Amy was sexually assaulted three years ago, and we matched on Tinder in June. Even though I’m a journalist and a stranger she met online, I’m one of the only people she’s ever told her story to. It started when Amy, who lives in Yellowknife, agreed to go for coffee with a man named Paul. […] More »
January-February 2017

2017 Kick-Ass Activist: Andrew Gurza

He has sparked a much-needed conversation about sex and disability, leaving no kinky question untouched

Amanda Scriver@amascriver

All too often, people with disabilities are left out of the body positivity conversation. That’s why when Andrew Gurza was asked to pose in Toronto alt-weekly Now magazine’s “Love Your Body” issue in January 2015 completely naked, he felt excited and hopeful to start a dialogue about bodies that are not typically considered beautiful. “I like […] More »