Ryerson Folio- Issue 8 by Folio Magazine

RY E R SO N

ISSUE EIGHT

Letter from the Editor As Folio’s eighth year comes to an end and its ninth is on the horizon, I am proud to offer you, the reader, the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work in the form of this magazine. Gathered around a whiteboard, the conversations about this year’s theme usually went like this: the number eight, figure eight… infinity symbol. Infinity! No, too cliche. Time? No, too vague. Life and death? Meh. We discarded dozens of options and eventually, after days of brainstorming and debates, our masthead decided the theme for Issue Eight would be cycles. Cycles can manifest themselves in many ways. They can appear everywhere from the trash we create, as “One Man’s Treasure” illustrates on page 3, to the artifacts our families treasure most, as “A Looming Heirloom” reflects on on page 15. Cycles are evident throughout history, too, as “Mum’s the Word” shows us Canada’s checkered past with adoption on page 39. Cycles can even manifest themselves in our romantic lives, dictating who we love and why as “Groundhog Date” explores on page 55. Soon, we the editors will graduate from Ryerson and complete our own cycles through university, and in doing so, we will leave Folio with our team’s progress as a stepping stone for the generations of student journalists who will come after us. Folio, like every other source of student journalism, is dependent on both the passion and the determination of aspiring young reporters – the ones who lay the groundwork, go the extra mile, and prop up the institution of quality journalism along the way. I’ve been working with Folio since day one. Walking into my J-school orientation seminar as a bright-eyed, unpublished American high schooler, I was courted by Augustine Ng, Folio’s former editor-in-chief, to write a series of articles about North Korea – a topic that would soon become inseparable from my name. With my first writing gig secured, I slapped a Folio sticker on my notebook and never looked back, first writing stories as a contributor, then editing them as a section editor, and now doing who knows what as the editor-in-chief. I would like to extend a sincere thanks to Folio’s production manager Julianna Perkins and managing editor Charlie Buckley, as well as to our section editors, department heads, writers, artists and photographers who contributed to Issue Eight. Without the dozens of talented individuals who generously dedicated their time and effort to our publication, both in print and online, Folio could never have become what it is today. Thank you for reading. Ethan Jakob Craft Editor-in-chief ryerson folio // 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Masthead

Playlist

One Man’s Treasure

An Apology to My Grave

The Legacy of Eggy

A Looming Heirloom

Breaking the Cycle

Next Up: Our Generation

A Moment of Silence

Vintage vs. Fast Fashion

Woke-Washing

Mum’s the Word

Gone Full Circle

Lifetimes of Trauma

Want to be a Real Man?

Cycles of My Life

Groundhog Date

masthead

contributors

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ethan Jakob Craft, Journalism ’20

WRITERS Catherine Abes, Journalism ’20 Jordan Currie, Journalism ’19 Bree Duwyn, Journalism ’22 Celina Gallardo, Journalism ’19 Jacklyn Gilmor, Journalism ’20 Julia Mastroianni, Journalism ’21 Jackie Zhang, Creative Industries ’21 Nabeeha Baig, Journalism ’21

MANAGING EDITOR Charlie Buckley, Journalism ’20 PRODUCTION MANAGER Julianna Perkins, Journalism ’20 ART DIRECTOR Seager Wakil, Creative Industries ’20 ARTS EDITORS Andrea Josic, Journalism ’20 Nuha Khan, Journalism ’21 BUSINESS + TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Denise Paglinawan, Journalism ’20 FASHION + LIFESTYLE EDITOR Kelsey Adlem, Creative Industries ’20

ARTISTS Catherine Cha, Graphic Communications Management ’22 Charissa Leung, Interior Design ’22 Kate Nugent, Creative Industries ’21 Miriam Tingle, Graphic Communications Management ’19 Tavia U, Graphic Communications Management ’20 RESEARCH + COPY Nathan Gregory, English and History ’20

FICTION EDITOR Michael Maksimenko, English ’20 IDEAS EDITORS Mariyam Khaja, Journalism ’21 Emma Johnston-Wheeler, Journalism ’20 PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Larry Heng, Journalism ’20

connect with us Website: http://ryersonfolio.com Facebook: @ryersonfolio Twitter: @ryersonfolio Instagram: @ryersonfolio

PODCAST PRODUCERS Kathleen Burgess, Media Production ’22 Naomi Chen, Media Production ’22 Moosa Imran, Journalism ’20 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Raizel Harjosubroto, Journalism ’20 HEAD OF FINANCE Elton He, Business Management ’20 HEAD OF MARKETING + EVENTS Aurora Zboch, Journalism ’19

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Ryerson Folio has been brought to you with funding from the Ryerson Communication and Design Society

playlist a song collage curated by the folio masthead

“The Good Years” The Sadies

“Time Moves Slow” BADBADNOTGOOD

“Perfect Places” Lorde

“Sundress” A$AP Rocky

“Golden Lady” Stevie Wonder

“Linger” The Cranberries

“thank u, next” Ariana Grande

“still feel.” half•alive

“New Light” John Mayer

“Home”

Edward Shape & the Magnetic Zeros

“Say It” Maggie Rogers

“Backstroke” Dizzy

“My Shot” Lin-Manuel Miranda

“Sorry” 6LACK

“Blue Lights” Jorja Smith

“Highs & Lows” Hillsong Young & Free

“Cyclic” Current Value

“Pyramids” Frank Ocean

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Another man’s treasure: dumpster diving in Toronto In a city with a growing waste problem, dumpster divers seem to be coming out on top. By Julianna Perkins

packaged, yet destined for the landfill.

Behind a popular chain drug store near Toronto’s Ossington subway station, Tracey Tief and I are peering over the lip of a dumpster nearly as deep as I am tall. It doesn’t look like much to me — just discarded plastic bags and cardboard boxes — but I must have a newbie’s eye.

Welcome to the world of dumpster diving. It’s much more exciting and not nearly as messy as you might imagine.

“When it comes to food, I feel righteous getting it out of the dumpster,” says Tief, owner of Anarres Natural Health Apothecary in Toronto. “I’ve always Tief grabs a branch off the ground and thought it was a terrible idea to waste starts shifting things around like we’re anything.” panning for gold. Out of the garbage, food begins to appear. Pre-cut packaged fruit, Tief spends her spare time checking in two baguettes, Activia yogurt, prepared on her favourite local dumpster – the one salads and even a red velvet cake mate- we’ve just pillaged – and usually comes rialize out of the dumpster and into Tief’s out with something worthwhile. “Right box, all perfectly edible and pristinely now, it’s about half my food,” she says,

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adding that she dives about 25 times a dumpsters themselves. “We did an expermonth. iment with our own lives,” Rustemeyer says. “I think the best dumpster dive day was when I got five cases of spaghetti sauce The process shed light on many of their ingredients and just rocked out at home,” friend’s misconceptions about food says Tief. “I probably made spaghetti waste. “A lot of times people think you’re sauce until three in the morning.” eating stuff that’s way past the date and almost going moldy,” says Rustemeyer, But as our cardboard box of dumpstered “but that was truly not the case.” food grows full, I can’t help but feel a twinge of despair. This is one bin behind In fact, Baldwin and Rustemeyer were one store in a city of almost three million shocked by the quality of the discarded residents. There are countless other gro- food they were finding — which were cery stores, both chain and independent, often things they would never consider throwing out tonnes of food every night, purchasing for themselves, like crates not to mention the restaurant scraps and containing hundreds of organic, five-dolresidential waste. lar chocolate bars. Last year, the City of Toronto managed the disposal of over 900,000 tonnes of waste: an unsustainable quantity, according to Charlotte Ueta, acting manager of waste management planning at the City of Toronto.

“We assigned a dollar value to the amount of food that we brought into our house and it was about $20,000 over six months. That’s obviously way more food than we would normally buy and that was partly due to the fact that we found a lot of really expensive items,” Rustemeyer “If you were to fill up [the] Rogers Centre, says. that would be just under a million tonnes of waste and that’s what’s being gener- Tief, too, has noticed that the things she ated on an annual basis,” Ueta says. usually finds tend to be of high quality and large quantity. The city’s green bin organics program is helping to divert a portion of that waste, “This store throws things out a few days but it only applies to the residential sec- ahead of the expiry date, the foods are tor — most of the stuff your local grocer completely sealed in their original packand other retailers are tossing is destined aging and their best before dates have for the landfill. often not expired at all,” Tief says. “They’ll be throwing cases of mango out, cases About one-third of all food produced and cases of bananas.” for human consumption gets wasted, according to Jen Rustemeyer, producer Some of her other significant finds and subject of the documentary Just Eat include 80 dozen cartons of eggs, It: A Food Waste Story. unopened boxes of cookies, cakes and bread, and even hundreds of bottles of The basis for the film was simple: alcoholic apple cider mistakenly labelled Rustemeyer and director Grant Baldwin for Quebec instead of Ontario. ate exclusively “rescued” food for six months, which they pulled out of But seeing heaps of edible food in the

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trash can be frustrating. “Did they order too much?” Tief wonders aloud. “What was their frickin’ problem?” Joe Scrozzo works in the operations and technical innovation department at Ryerson University’s faculty of communication and design. During his days as a student, however, he worked in the produce department of a chain grocery store in Vaughan, Ont., north of Toronto.

“

take edible, unexpired produce and simply throw it away instead of taking the labour-intensive steps to extend its shelflife, like packing items in ice for the night. “Instead of taking that vegetable and preparing it and making room for it on the display floor, it went straight from the fridge, in its box, straight down the garbage chute, just because someone didn’t want to deal with it,” says Scrozzo. “It’s literally perfectly good food going straight into the garbage.”

It’s literally perfectly good food going straight into the garbage.

Scrozzo witnessed the store’s wastefulness firsthand — he said there were often a few dozen big blue bins full of discarded food by the end of every day. He chalks the creation of most of that waste up to two factors: store policy and employee laziness.

”

Unlike in France, it’s not mandatory for Canadian supermarkets to donate their unsold goods – but that doesn’t mean they can’t. In fact, every province has some sort of legal framework, like the Ontario Donation of Food Act, that protects those who donate food as long as it’s done “in good faith.”

According to Scrozzo, the store created fresh fruit platters daily, limiting how many were made so as to also limit waste. Inevitably, though, there would be plat- So why haven’t more stores taken to systers that went unsold. tematically donating their unsold goods, like Starbucks recently announced it “Logic would say ‘give them to a charity,’ would begin doing in Canada by 2021? or if you really want, just let the employ- According to Rustemeyer, there’s two key ees eat it,” says Scrozzo. “But the man- factors: bad press and lack of knowledge. agement thought that if they allowed employees to eat the discarded food or if “They literally don’t know about the legisthey allowed it to be donated, someone lation,” she says. “They still think they can would purposely overmake things and get sued and they can’t. And legislation waste company money.” can’t protect you from bad press should someone get sick.” “Instead of finding a happy medium, they just said that anything extra, even if it was So everything still goes straight to the edible, had to go into the garbage.” dumpster, which is fair game. Or is it? While dumpster diving itself isn’t a Other times, he would watch employees crime as garbage is legally considered

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to be “abandoned” property, trespassing is. Entering private property, climbing fences or breaking locks could land a diver in serious trouble. Sometimes stores try to discourage the practice altogether by dumping bleach or other chemicals on their discarded goods, slashing or breaking items destined for the dumpster, and even locking dumpsters or placing them indoors, although the latter is less to prevent people from diving and more to prevent people from dumping. As long as there are things to be found in dumpsters, Tief will continue to dive. If there’s too much food for her alone to take, she’ll post about it in a local Facebook group called Dumpster Share Toronto, leave it on her front porch for passersby to take, or even use the seeds of discarded vegetables to grow her own little dumpster garden.

But the waste will always outpace the divers. “There’s just too much food out there, you can’t possibly save it all,” says Rustemeyer. “[Dumpster diving] is not sustainable in that it’s not a solution.” In the meantime, intrepid divers like Tief will keep coming back for boxes of free food and whatever else they can carry because, in her experience, the dumpster will always be full again tomorrow.

Scan the QR code below to hear about Julianna Perkins’ own adventures dumpster diving in an accompanying podcast.

Tracy Tief sorts through her usual spot, looking for anything discarded that might still be useful.

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Apologyto my Grave

I took a visit to my grave The one that I dug I used to trace the perimeter Watching the sun cast my shadow into the dirt And disappear again Envious of what I could not do Until I realized the sun will rise With or without me I have felt like a spectacle With an audience of just one Inside doctors’ offices that promised me the solution Inside valleys that promised me the peak Almost inside the grave That promised me peace Maybe it was the sun’s goodbye And the twilight that lingered Reminding me it will not be gone for long Or the sun’s hello And the dawn that surprised me Reminding me of the warmth that can return Maybe it was my mother’s embrace That understood me from the beginning Because we once coexisted Or maybe my sister’s words That carried me from the hospital bed To our front doorstep Or maybe my best friend’s eyes That have reminded me joy exists Even on the days I forgot most I have carved my initials Into the hearts of these people Because they showed me forever I’m sorry to my grave Which has wanted to be my home Sometimes it still asks But I will scream my own whispers Long before I give the dirt a voice I have come too far To ever go back

By Andrea Josic

My grave is still dug But that is not my home I will never let it be my home

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The legacy of Ryerson’s famous rams

By Charlie Buckley

For 30 years, Ryerson University’s mascot was a beast of a different kind. Now, we have their heads to remember them by. The ram’s head sits on a polished dining table in the Ryerson University Archives — its horns chipped and worn; its wool dry and threadbare; its eyes cold and empty. Surrounded by museum pieces and shelves of treasured books, the taxidermied head sticks out. It is an artifact long forgotten by many Ryerson scholars; one of five that are carefully held onto, deep within the library’s walls.

staff. The rest of them aren’t available for public viewing at all. It has taken two visits and a series of emails to get access to just this one. These heads aren’t the kind of artifacts that the university treats lightly.

“We keep them in a sealed collection, for conservation purposes,” says Rosalynn MacKenzie, a member of the Ryerson Archives’ staff. “All five of the heads are It is all that remains in this world of Eggy accounted for.” the Ram — Eggy IV, that is. Along with four other heads, that of Eggy IV is part of the It may come as a surprise that they exist Ryerson University Special Collections, a at all. To most Ryerson students, the hoard of invaluable artifacts and docu- name “Eggy the Ram” brings to mind fabments closely guarded by the Archives’ ric-and-foam mascot costumes and pep

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rally dance routines — not livestock. But for three decades, Ryerson had a different kind of mascot gracing its campus: live male sheep, lovingly dubbed Eggy I, II, III, IV and V. Between 1961 and 1991, Eggy was a celebrated part of the school’s identity, though one largely forgotten by today’s student body. Eggy – A Primer In 1957, journalism student John Downing presented Howard Kerr, Ryerson Grief was offset by dark humour following Eggy I’s untimely demise. (Ryersonian, Dec. 8, 1961) University’s first president, with a gift: a set of white Dall sheep horns. Eggy I – “The Original” “[I] presumed that he would have them mounted, with my name on the plaque as the donor,” said Downing. “But since he didn’t like me very much, he had the plaque read ‘from the class of 1958’.” Four years later, a sizable group of students came together and did better than just a set of horns. They went to the Toronto Stockyards near the intersection of Keele Street and St. Clair Avenue and purchased Eggy I, the first of what would be five rams, for $12.50. The reason was simple: Egerton Ryerson, the university’s namesake, was born in late March 1803 under the Aries star sign — the Ram. Bearing the other half of the Ryerson name, Eggy first set hoof of campus in 1961. Over the following 30 years, five generations of Eggys would become symbols of Ryerson school pride. In 1991, the practice was retired following pressure from the Toronto Humane Society, which raised a valid point — the stress of frequently attending public events had taken its toll on the rams and none of them had ever lived to see old age. Despite their brief lives, though, each Eggy had plenty of stories to tell.

The first Eggy lived a characteristically hectic life. Two weeks after his original purchase in 1961, he was kidnapped by unknown assailants, later believed to be engineering students from the University of Toronto. Soon after, the school was notified that Eggy could be found at Howard Kerr’s personal residence near Toronto’s Rosedale neighbourhood. Kerr returned home to find his garage door closed, but with two notes on the windows reading: “I’m home, daddy, sorry I’m late,” and “I was looking forward to going to the formal with you.” Inside, Eggy was alive and well-fed, happy to see a familiar face. In the subsequent trip back to campus, Eggy purportedly relieved himself all over the back seat of Kerr’s car. Nevertheless, Eggy was home in time for a hockey game against McMaster University which ended in a 3-3 tie. Sadly, Eggy I was not long for this world. Less than a year after his kidnapping, a veterinarian diagnosed him with a rare form of cancer, possibly caused by his lack of activity. He died shortly after. Beginning a decades-long tradition, Eggy’s head was mounted by Crane Haven Taxidermists and hung in the basement of what is now known to Ryerson

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From left to right: Eggy I, II, III, IV and V. (Clippings from archival copies of the Ryersonian and Eyeopener, Ryerson University Library and Archives)

students as Oakham House. Curiously, a Ryersonian clipping from the week of his death mentions “Eggy burgers” for sale on campus, stating that he “will give us his support to the very end.” It is unclear if this was a joke.

demeanour and violent tendencies. With a change in Toronto’s bylaws, Ryerson University was no longer permitted to house livestock on the grounds of its urban campus. Officials struck a deal with Graydon Card, a Brampton, Ont., farmer, to house Eggy on days when he Eggy II – “The Looker” wasn’t needed for events. Eggy III failed to cultivate the same level of popularEggy I, despite his charms, was never ity as his predecessors, though, and by considered a prize animal by husbandry 1975, Ryerson was one of just two Ontario standards, though his popularity allowed post-secondary institutions the was still for a larger budget to purchase his succes- maintaining a live animal mascot. sor. Eggy II was a beast of great pedigree, called “blue-blooded” by the Ryersonian, He reportedly required substantial sedawho was purchased for $35 from J.B. tion to make the trips to and from camGartshone, a farmer and breeder from pus bearable for maintenance staff. In at Ancaster, Ont. For the next few years, least one instance, during a parade held Eggy II would live in an alley behind on the the Toronto Islands, Eggy III passed Oakham House in a cage emblazoned out from a high dosage of sedative drugs. with his name. He was eventually moved to the farm of Andrew McClure, near Toronto, due in Eggy II had a bit more luck with his part to disciplinary issues. Archival dochealth, living until 1969 when he tragi- uments list Eggy III as “not to be trusted.” cally perished on a farm in Bolton, Ont., In 1981, four years after his official retirefrom drowning in a flood. Like Eggy I ment, Eggy III died defending his flock before him, Eggy II’s head was promptly of ewes from a pack of brush wolves. His mounted and hung in Oakham House. death was mourned across campus as plans to replace him began to formulate. Eggy III – “The Bruiser” Eggy IV – “The Celebrity” The next ram to enrich the lives of Ryerson students was sequentially named Eggy Despite the waning popularity that Eggy III, who was purchased for $75 and III experienced in his later years, his death quickly earned a reputation for his ornery appeared to reinvigorate the Ryerson

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Bizarrely, he was the subject of a 1982 hoax, when the Ryersonian and Eyeopener alike reported that he died of a heart attack — a correction, running under the headline “Eggy’s such a kidder,” broke shortly after. It wouldn’t be until 1987 when natural causes, likely related to ongoing heart problems, took Eggy IV away from us. He died just days before an Orientation A Royal Winter Fair award-winner, Eggy Week parade on the Toronto Islands, putIV was born in New Zealand and later ting, as the Ryersonian reported, “a black came to Canada as the pet of Karen cloud over the first week of school.” Dow, a Ryerson social work graduate and daughter of Canadian Sheep Breeders’ Eggy V – “The Last Ram” Association president Russell Dow. With such big hooves to fill, Eggy V had Affectionately referred to as Buckingram his work cut out for him. He lived as the Palace, Eggy IV’s living space left little to university’s mascot until 1991, when he, be desired. He never shied away from the too, died peacefully of natural causes. spotlight, even starring in a print adver- Initially, it appeared that he would be tisement for Labatt’s beer that, accord- quickly replaced just as his predecessors ing to the Eyeopener, “vaulted him into had, but continuing pressure from anithe national spotlight.” Eggy IV was also mal rights and advocacy groups like the reported to have had a flock of no less Humane Society changed the course of than 30 ewes, and weight loss that was history. In 1988, school policy changes originally attributed to malnutrition was limited the presence of animals on camlater found to have been the result of fre- pus with two just two exemptions: service quent and sustained “exercise.” Naturally, animals for students and faculty with disabilities, and Eggy. Eggy IV fathered many offspring. student body. Eggy III’s replacement, predictably named Eggy IV, was met with considerable fanfare and recognition upon his inaugural arrival on campus. Headlines reading “Eggy’s here!” and journalism students with TV cameras greeted the limousine carrying Eggy IV when he first visited Ryerson.

The front page of the Ryersonian, January 1962. The student body learns that their beloved mascot is doomed. (Ryersonian, Jan. 18, 1962)

Dawn Wong, a representative for the Humane Society, spoke out to campus news outlet Ryerson Forum about using animals for entertainment, calling a replacement Eggy “unnecessary.” Calls to cancel the search for a sixth Eggy were made, citing the tradition as “cruel.” A spring 1992 issue of Animal Talk, the Humane Society’s magazine, featured Ryerson University in the column “Purrs and Hisses.” Unsurprisingly, the magazine listed Ryerson as a negative “hiss,” alongside farmers raising ostriches for meat. Shortly after, Ryerson Forum reported that the school’s mascot policy was “under review.” Then-president Terry Grier responded to student criticism focused on the animals’ presence at sports games — a particularly stressful environment — by pointing out that no Eggy had been present at a game since the 1970s. At the time, the fabled “Eggy VI” was scheduled for a debut at Convocation in June. According to the collected notes of David Butler of the Ryerson Office of Development and Alumni Affairs, the school decided to end the practice shortly The mystery of the missing Eggy gripped campus. (Ryersonian, Feb. 13, 1962) before the end of the 1991-92 school year. A costumed, human Eggy took the live pub’s manager to bring the head of Eggy ram’s place at the ceremony. IV out of storage, as it was not normally on display. While nobody was looking, The Heads two of them made off with the heads of both Eggy IV and Eggy V, who was already As Eggys died, taxidermy companies like hung on the wall. A security guard spotCrane Haven pickled and mounted their ted a Pitman Hall residence key in one of heads for memorial displays. Ken James, the thieves’ pockets, prompting a floorthe master of Oakham House, publicly by-floor search that ended with four conlamented hanging them in areas used fessions and both heads returned to their for formal receptions, calling them “not rightful owners. While their names were exactly conducive to good digestion.” withheld, the Ryersonian named them as “business, engineering and landscape In 1994, two years after the last Eggy died, architecture” students, one of whom was four drunken first-year students were on the Dean’s List. caught stealing the heads from The Edge, a now-shuttered campus pub. According In the aftermath of the incident, the to Eyeopener reports, they convinced the heads were moved once again: two to the

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Archives and three to the Oakham House game room. Peter Zin, a former Ryerson student, launched a campaign to have all five heads reunited, claiming that their togetherness would bring “pride, spirit and luck” to the school’s sports scene. Zin wrote a column in the Eyeopener encouraging students to email the administration to release the ram heads for public display, describing the Archives as having “the wrong aura” and existing “within the machine.” Claude Doucet, the school’s lead archivist at the time, responded in a letter to the editor, shooting back at Zin for belittling the institution’s preservative work.

Leigh Baetz, who graduated from Ryerson during Eggy IV’s tenure, remembers the experience of seeing him at convocation. She pat him on the head, just as her time at Ryerson came to an end. In doing so, she sealed off a years-long academic career side-by-side with the very symbol of the school’s identity. “It was part of the whole thing, right when you were taking your pictures. You have to go up to Eggy,” she said. “It’s cool that this has been a symbol.”

Standing in the Archives, leafing through hundreds of Eggy-related newspaper clippings, I could feel the impact each of the five had. They were a part of camEver since, the five heads have remained pus life, even after they stopped living so under the Archives’ protection. Eggy IV, close to it. From appearances at events the local celebrity-turned-kidnapping to depictions in political cartoons of the victim-turned-historical artifact, is now day, Eggy has been intertwined with available for scholarly viewing after a lit- what it means to be a Ryerson student for tle convincing. The others, however, are decades. Even if the mascot has stepped kept closer to the chest. out of the spotlight in recent years, the original five — the Eggys that lightened Eggy’s Legacy the academic careers of thousands of students — still have a place at Ryerson. While it appears the school has largely forgotten about the rams themselves, Perhaps no longer in plain view of the Eggy’s memory lives on through the mas- school, but certainly in its history. cot we know and love today. He can be seen at sporting events and school cele- Scan the QR code below to hear about brations, on social media and in official Charlie Buckley’s hunt for Ryerson’s rams university videos. An unmistakable sym- in an accompanying podcast. bol of campus life, Eggy’s memory lives on through a rotating cast of human performers, carrying the tradition into an era more sensitive to the living conditions of its animal population. Suzanne Fenerty, the Ryerson Athletics coordinator in charge of today’s Eggy operations, says that “although Eggy is housed in Athletics, he belongs to everyone at the university. Eggy has the ability to create a sense of belonging and make everyone feel like they are all Rams.”

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Looming Heirloom By Celina Gallardo

When my great-grandmother died in 2017, it was my first major loss. I remember seeing all the missed calls from my mom and my brother after helping slice and jar tomatoes for my boyfriend’s family that September afternoon. What they were trying to tell me was that at age 98, Abuela was gone. Covered in tomato seeds and juice, I went to an arbitrary afternoon service at a nearby church in Mississauga, Ont., to pray for the repose of her soul. It was the first time I’d been to church in months and as I wiped tears and snot onto an old tissue I found in my jacket, the priest managed to fit avowedly anti-gay and anti-abortion remarks in one entire sermon. I didn’t get to attend her funeral back in the Philippines, unless my sobbing brother waking me up in the middle of the night to show me her

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casket over Skype counts. It was tough knowing that I wouldn’t be able to see Abuela again. But once she left the world, she left me one step closer to inheriting a centuries-old glass-encased sculpture of the Holy Family. When we went back home to Manila for the holidays at the end of 2018, I went to my grandparents’ living room, where they were keeping the Holy Family (its high ceilings, hand-painted tile floors and antique furniture housed enough statues of Catholic icons as is). I looked at the tiny Jesus, Mary and Joseph closely, being careful not to smudge its pristine glass with my nose. Everything inside has aged to an offsetting brown colour, save for the figures’ ivory-sculpted heads and hands. Mary and Joseph, clad in large

robes made of what looks like hay or hemp, look down at a toddler-aged Jesus Christ, who gazes peacefully into the distance. Above him hangs a metal bird, and an arch of flat, nearly-black clouds frames the entire scene. We don’t really know how old it is, but my family estimates it has been around for at least a few centuries. A proprietor once told my family that it could be worth millions of Filipino pesos — a figure in excess of $30,000. Like Abuela, my grandmother, and my mom, I too am the eldest daughter — which means that I, a person who is fairly detached from my ancestral Catholicism, am slated to one day take possession of this unabashedly Catholic artifact. While it’s far too early for me to plan out where I’ll be putting this half-metre-tall relic in my fictional future home (it could possibly make an excellent dining table centrepiece), my mom and I still have to decide if we want to bring it to Canada and risk damaging it, or keep it in the Philippines. But what makes this a truly grim responsibility for me to anticipate is the fact that my loved ones have to die first before it’s passed down to me. Earlier this year, my grandmother, whom we call Lola, had a heart attack. It happened a few hours after my mom, boyfriend and I hopped on a plane back to Canada after our holiday visit. She had been having heart problems well before our three-week stay and was weaker than usual, so my mom and her siblings kept insisting she relax and stay put. But Lola, stubborn as ever, didn’t listen: she’d zoom all around the kitchen to cut mangoes, steam dim sum and press us to eat more than our stomachs could digest. Normally, this is a sight that comforts me, but as I continue to grow older and see her become less energetic, I realize that, before I know it, I’ll have one less matriarch and one less hand to hold — and I

will be one more step closer to getting that heavily antiquated heirloom. In an effort to find more context about my incoming liability, I spoke with Mignette Garvida, a Spanish professor at Ryerson University, about her research on FilipinoHispanic literature, including the roles of women in these texts. My situation was the first Garvida had heard of a treasured heirloom being passed down to firstborn daughters and couldn’t pinpoint the tradition’s origin, but she noted that even the heirloom itself was an amalgamation of cultural influences: the ivory is Chinese, the clothing is Filipino, and the human hair is most likely Spanish. What she could tell me was that Filipinas often have complex familial roles, stemming from old-school Catholic expectations of humility and strong, matriarchal Indigenous societies. She also gave me a piece of advice — one that many cultures, families and individuals have followed: “Preserving customs and traditions is not something that you have to do always,” Garvida says. “You have to choose some of it.” Even though my Catholic faith is flimsy at best and Spanish Baroque decor isn’t really my style, I’ll know that I’ll be taking care of something more precious than a piece of history. It encapsulates generations of women like Lola, who is demure but unafraid to shake her fist at people who test her patience, who brushes off her mistakes with a hearty laugh, and who fiercely loves her family with all her heart — and those are thing that I someday hope to inherit.

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Breaking the cycle By Jacklyn Gilmor

High suicide rates in some Indigenous communities is a tragic reality, but a new wave of hip-hop artists are using music as a tool for healing and hope. “Art did save me.”

there before. If you’re feeling lost in the cycle, do you feel anything anymore?”

Doug Bedard has an easy smile and a glimmer in his eyes. He’s an optimist, Having experienced exactly what he sings about, Plex says that art is his way though he’s seen his share of tragedy. of staying sane. Half-Ukrainian and half-Ojibwe, Bedard, better known by his stage name Plex, is Hip-hop culture has evolved since he first a member of the Peguis First Nation and began to pen verses — once a genre domhas been in the hip-hop game for years. inated by songs about sex, money and After he and some friends had the chance drugs, a new wave of hip-hop artists are to open for Run-DMC, they formed a raising awareness about mental health group called Won 18. Originally known as and social issues. He’s one of them. “Doug from the Duplex,” he soon began calling himself Plex while on stage and Plex says he feels that hip-hop is more inclusive than ever before as such topreleased his first solo album in 2009. ics are now becoming mainstream Sitting in a small Barrie, Ont., cafe on a and reaching millions of people. Many frigid January afternoon, he warms his Indigenous artists are using music to hands around his coffee as he discusses address the issue of suicide and to touch Lost in the Cycle, his recent song about listeners who don’t have another way to suicide. He’s experienced depression and express their emotions. suicidal thoughts in the past. He’s also seen loved ones take their own lives. The Suicide can affect every community, but topic might be heavy, but his lyrics are suicide rates among Indigenous people in Canada are much higher than the rich with hope. nationwide average. According to a 2017 Plex released Lost in the Cycle at the end report by the Standing Committee on of 2017, just as the new year was on the Indigenous and Northern Affairs, young horizon. His cousin had recently died by Inuit males have a suicide rate that’s suicide, and another relative followed 40 times higher than the national rate. soon after. These tragic losses weighed on Nearly 25 per cent of First Nations indiPlex’s heart and prompted him to write viduals who live off-reserve between the the song. In its chorus, he sings “If you’re ages of 26 and 59 reported that they’ve feeling suicidal, I know how it is, I’ve been experienced suicidal thoughts. Among

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Métis people, that rate is 19.6 per cent of not even have a word for “suicide.” those in the same demographic. “If we go back to the effects of colonialThe Canadian government has some ism and the long-term historical trauma: strategies in place to address the problem the reserve system, the ‘60s Scoop... the of suicide and try to prevent it — Jordan’s continued separation of Indigenous kids Principle, for instance, means that the from their culture and history, the disproprovincial and federal governments portionate number of Indigenous kids legally must provide funds and care for being adopted by mainstream families; First Nations children — but true healing it’s argued that the effects of this sepais a complex process. The federal gov- ration carry over in a collective way on ernment pledged the reserves,” says to spend $5 billion Olson. over a period of 10 years in its 2017 budHe also notes the get to improve First problem of suicidal Nations and Inuit contagion, which health services. means that when people take their Indigenous Services lives in a tight-knit also funds a variety community, it may of mental health set off a chain reacprograms, includtion and result in ing the National more people subAboriginal Youth sequently dying by Suicide Prevention suicide. Strategy. One community — Importantly, the Maskwacis, Alta., a INAN report states small town south of that many First Edmonton that lies Nations, such as on the border of the those in British Ermineskin Cree Columbia, often and Samson Cree experience little to First Nations — has no suicides in their grieved for at least communities, and only a small num- 14 people who have taken their own lives ber of First Nations have exceptionally since 2017, according to the CBC. high suicide rates. The report also notes that many suicides may be reported as The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network accidents due to the shame and stigma released an investigation in January 2018 around the issue in some communities. about the town of Maskwacis, revealing that some of its community members Robert Olson, a librarian at the Calgary- were calling for a state of emergency in based Centre for Suicide Prevention, says the wake of the string of local suicides. that in some Indigenous communities, there is a deep stigma surrounding the Plex once worked in Maskwacis with forissue — some First Nations languages do mer Cree hip-hop group War Party. “Just in

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the short time I worked with them, there were a couple of suicides [in Maskwacis],” he says. “The way they speak about it, it’s like ‘Oh, dammit, another cousin commited suicide, my niece committed suicide, this person committed suicide,’ and it’s just become so normalized.”

“For myself, hip-hop filled in a lot of the gaps I was missing because of what happened to First Nations people with residential schools and culture and identity loss,” Smallboy says. He is a member of the Ermineskin Tribe in Manitoba, and now lives in Vancouver. Though he refers to “my reservation,” his song Just Ain’t In response to the crisis, many artists are Right is about all reserves: “There’s peousing hip-hop as a tool to foster hope and ple dying on my reservation (and it just cultural pride. ain’t right) / There’s mamas crying on my reservation (and it just ain’t right).” Having once dropped everything to cross the country and pursue her artistic Smallboy says the song for him is like a aspirations, Niska Napoleon now owns dance of gratitude. Once, he was perRockstar Kids, a camp that hosts music forming the song in Maskwacis and realworkshops for Indigenous youth. During ized that the whole audience was silent the workshops, she brings in a variety of because his lyrics were so powerful to artists — dancers, singers and writers — them. who work with the young attendees and help them to write, record and perform “People are so afraid to talk about deprestheir own songs. sion and mental health,” he says, explaining why he feels songs about these issues “An artist’s role is so much bigger than are necessary. Not only can they spark being an artist,” says Napoleon. She brings conversation, he says, but they can also Rockstar Kids to many rural Canadian provide a way of exploring identity. communities to reach youth who otherwise may not have many opportunities Smallboy says that being a part of hip-hop to get involved in the arts. “You can feel culture gave him a desire to learn more the sense of little hope… feel their loneli- about his identity and heritage, and he ness, emptiness, and boredom,” she says. hopes to instill this same musical passion “We’re igniting a spark within them that in his children. On weekends, he likes to they can carry on after we leave.” play songs like Bill Withers’ Lovely Day and The Rascals’ 1968 hit It’s a Beautiful Rockstar Kids is open to children from Morning to start the day with his daughkindergarten through high school and ters Babi and Lexi, who are seven and five celebrates a variety of genres — hip- years old, respectively. Smallboy invests a hop included. Napoleon also brings on considerable amount of money in guitars many different artists to her team, one of because he wants to nurture his son’s whom is Rex Smallboy, a former member musical expression. of War Party, who collaborated with Plex on Lost in the Cycle. With the workshops, “Music is something that almost feels like Smallboy says he feels like he simply it can understand you when the rest of assists the youth attending Rockstar Kids’ the world doesn’t. There’s always a song camps while they take charge of creation that you can find that you can relate to and production. He says he can see the and it totally gets you,” he says. youth glow during these workshops and that being a part of them helps him, too. Snotty Nose Res Kids — a duo from the

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Haisla First Nation in British Columbia — were shortlisted for the 2018 Polaris Prize. Jeremy Dutcher, a Wolastoqiyik member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick who eventually took the prize home, said at the award ceremony that “we are in an Indigenous Renaissance.”

then your job is done,” he says.

“When I first started hip-hop back in the early ‘90s, there were only like five Native rappers that I knew in the country and I rapped with like three of them,” says Hellnback, who is a member of the Samson Cree Nation. Like Smallboy, Hellnback was a member of War Party and continues to make music on his own while also leading hip-hop workshops for young people.

In the cafe, Plex leans back against the squeaky booth. He says he feels like it’s one of the best times in history to be an Indigenous person. “You’re seeing a lot more stuff coming out that’s not only changing Canada or the world’s views of Indigenous people, but Indigenous peoples’ perspective of themselves,” he says.

With the shadows of depression and suicide lingering in many Indigenous communities, hip-hop music might be a catalyst for change. Certainly with a long and traumatic history of colonialism, there is much work to be done on the part It seems that now more than ever, of all Canadians. Reconciliation means Indigenous artists are making a break- more than apologizing; it involves workthrough. Producer and DJ duo A Tribe ing together to make peace. But perhaps Called Red won the Juno Award for part of the process is the “Renaissance” 2018 Group of the Year. “I fucking cried — the mosaic that is hip-hop culture when they won,” says musician Karmen today, and the beautiful art and empowOmeasoo, who is known as Hellnback to ering workshops that are coming from his peers and fans. Indigenous artists.

Soft afternoon sunlight cuts through the side window, illuminating his face against Hellnback dislikes the term “Native hip- the shadow of falling snow. “I believe hiphop,” since he says it can pigeonhole hop is one small part of the process of artists, and for Indigenous musicians, healing the world.” breaking ground in the the hip-hop world is important. He performs and speaks at the annual Northern Touch Music Festival and Conference in Manitoba to celebrate hip-hop, R&B and soul. The festival is open to diverse artists and musical genres, and has an educational aspect, too, with workshops and speakers. The festival has quadrupled in size since its conception in 2017, according to founder Shea Malcolmson. Malcolmson says that he has recently discovered his Métis heritage, and feels that music is a way to explore his newfound identity as well as touch people who are hurting. “If you can spark that change in somebody,

Doug Bedard, also known as Plex, poses in Barrie, Ont. (Larry Heng).

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Next Up: Our Generation By Jackie Zhang

Cellphones, hair dryers, HD TV, escalators, microwaves and Snapchat — you might think we couldn’t be any more different from the generations that came before us. But you’d be wrong. It seems that despite the technology that surrounds us, despite the social changes and the global advancements, one thing remains eternally ingrained in the psyche of the day’s youth: confusion. And while “Gen Z” might not sound as cool as the “Lost Generation,” we are alike in more ways than it may appear. Characterized as officially “coming of age” during and just after the First World War, the Lost Generation generally refers to the young men and women, who survived and who felt lost. The postwar world felt, to them, materialistic and emotionally bleak. They were being suffocated by society and lacked a method of voicing their struggle. One hundred years later and a similar suffocation is settling over us, Gen Z. And although we’ve been incredibly fortunate to have never felt the destruction of a world war, we are still lost. Growing up in a highly globalised society, most of us have been taught to respect each other and our differences, be kind, and in general be “good people.” Yet recently, the world doesn’t seem to be following its own advice; our neighbours down south elected a man with a blatant history of actions reflecting the direct opposite of these values, and he’s only one of an increasing number of radically rude global figures. That dichotomy between words and actions is just the first direction we seem to be lost in. Gen Z is also the first generation to grow up seamlessly with the internet and the relentless cacophony of screen alerts its

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come with. We’re constantly notified and tuned in to viral hate speeches, mass shootings and other general displays of depraved, dehumanizing violence. Everywhere we turn, it seems someone is the enemy. So while the Lost Generation felt they had no one to trust, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Gen Z feels awfully confused about who to trust. The difference between us, though, is that we have so much more power to voice our displeasure, not just through social media, but through the freedom and liberty we have to act, dress, and carry ourselves. As members of Gen Z, we’ve separated ourselves from the past through both our diversity and our inclusivity, using fashion as a means of boldly showcasing our individuality against past notions of the status quo. We see it at Ryerson all the time. As you walk by the skaters on Gould Street and swerve through the crowds near Balzac’s, a vivid palette of unique styles emerges. It’s an erratic display of Thrasher shirts, Supreme bags, fur coats, cropped jeans, retro Polo, and Converse against the latest Nikes. All of these styles and aesthetics clash in a frenzy of youth; each one of us proudly flaunting our individuality. This youth, unlike any other, breaks the cycle. There’s also a unique inclusivity to the diversity of our generation — fashion is just the beginning. Heightened by the multicultural landscape of Toronto, our youth celebrates a luxury not many other cities can afford. We gravitate towards difference and try not to put down others for it and, at Ryerson, these ideas fuel our social activism. Our passions are reflective of unprejudiced thought, which allows us to be vulnerable while respecting each other for it. We’re a living embodiment of modern values that go beyond fashion

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grow up with it at our bedside table. In our case, the interconnectedness of it all is a double-edged sword, as numerous But while it’s easy to say that our gener- studies have correlated a link between ation is beginning to break certain cycles depression, social media, and the interof thinking, how exactly, did it happen? net. But it’s also given us tools beyond the According to Melanie Mitchell, a sec- grasp of any previous generation; we are ond-year fashion student, the progressive no longer isolated and quiet. evolution we’ve seen in culture over the past decade can be attributed to the visi- “People who don’t fit the mold of being a tall, thin, cisgendered, able-bodied bility of the internet and social media. white person” are finally being seen, says “I personally think our generation has Mitchell. “People are able to share with developed a greater sense of empathy for and learn to understand others from people at different intersections of iden- vastly different backgrounds than their tity than our own, and a deeper skepti- own.” cism and questioning of government, authority and the erasure of history of So while we might feel as lost as the Lost Generation, we can at least take comfort marginalized peoples,” she says. in the knowledge that we are not nearly Somewhere between the late 90s and the as alone. Even if our confusion about who early 2000s, the rise of the internet irrepa- to trust only reaffirms our uncertainty rably separated us from past generations. about what to believe in and stand for, We might not have been the first ones to we will figure it out. We’ve made it this use it, but we’re the first generation to far, haven’t we? in order to keep pressing for change on many different scales.

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A Moment of Silence

By Michael Maksimenko

Hannah groaned as she heard the knocking on her door. Her eyelids scrunched up, sending sharp pins dancing across her forehead. She was still in her jeans, comforter with no sheet scrunched beneath her arms. The soft knocking continued. “I’m up,” she croaked. Her mother’s footsteps continued down the stairs and into the kitchen. Pieces of last night began to insert themselves into her memory. Blisters on her fingers; Smoke on the Water 30 to 50 times; watching YouTube videos on the bathroom floor; lugging herself into bed in the dark. The memories that were seeping into her brain exploded. Social studies assignment, not done: the textbook lay open on her desk by her laptop, sleeping. Her swimsuit lay damp in the clean laundry hamper. What had begun as a hissing in the back of her mind turned into the low whine of a kettle coming to a boil. She got dressed. Walking downstairs was like being pelted with hail. Her twin brothers fought over the single tie draped over the couch. She could see the other tie laying underneath the coffee table by some Dorito crumbs, but didn’t have the energy to intervene.

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“Egg?” her mother asked. Hannah shook snail in reverse, all the way out the doors her head. The thought of food brought and across the parking lot. back the pressure of nausea on the back of her throat. She got to the pool just as it opened at 11 a.m. There, the receptionist wouldn’t “You know snacking breaks your appe- notice her. In fact, he’d be very pointed in tite, don’t you? How will you swim?” her saying nothing at all. mother asked. Hannah shrugged. “Hey,” he’d tell her, “I don’t notice you at “Plus,” said her mother, “you’ve got to all.” show Mr. Rauf your assignment today.” “Thank you!” she’d tell him. “I’m always impressed by how efficiently I seem to escape your glances.” She walked through the school doors just Here he’d puff up his chest and correct as the announcements were playing. his glasses. “Wipe your feet!” yelled the secretary, but Hannah was already gone, tracking slush “I take a great deal of pride in not paying through the halls. Mr. Rauf wasn’t going any attention. In fact, were someone to ask me if a girl with blonde highlights and to like that either. an oversized hoodie had come here and told me my life depended on it, I would She stopped outside his door. completely turn a blank!” Not for any reason she could find. Walking in later wasn’t going to make her feel any “Really?” she’d ask, “you wouldn’t even better. In fact, by letting her snow-crusted notice my elastic band for a hair-tie even boots melt by the door, she was making though I’m wearing three on my wrist?” her entrance even more obvious. She imagined the slap-squeak slap-squeak of “It wouldn’t ring a bell.” boots on tile as Mr. Rauf noticed her. With that, she’d prance into the locker “Having a relaxed day today, are we?” he’d room, get changed, and dive into the ask. The class would snicker. They liked water. That was what she daydreamed of Mr. Rauf when he wasn’t grilling them as her arms glided out and away from her, about their assignments. as she felt her legs kicking her forward through the air. Underneath the water is Instead she stood. Waves of pressure built a lot like flying, she thought. Except flybehind her ears and in her temples; the ing would be very noisy. There’s all sorts low whine of before had become pierc- of things in the sky: storms, cawing birds, ing, shrill. She had to walk in. Just move airplanes with crying children hurtling her feet and face her teacher. But she along the earth’s edge at 1,000 kilometres didn’t. Instead, she found her feet car- per hour. But underwater was like flying rying her back towards the front doors, in a pillow: everything was heard from far retracing her path through the river of away. No thrown fists over missing ties or grey-brown mud she left in the hall like a clever quips about missing homework. “I had a snack in my room,” she lied.

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The kettle was angrily whistling above practised, she thought. The feeling in her the water, but it couldn’t get her here. stomach was rising again. Chord. Chord. Chord. Wrong again. By the time her mother called for dinner, she was already locked in the bathroom, heaving. She picked up a coffee as she felt her hair crystalize and freeze. She might catch a cold, but the biting feeling around her ears and the hotness of her cheeks were It was two o’clock in the morning. The worth it. That, and the burnt chocolate nausea was writhing like an angry snake taste of coffee had her contented on the above her throat and in her chest. Her bus ride home. phone was almost out of battery but the bathroom floor was beginning to feel She was awoken by her mom coming warm from her heat. Every 15 minutes home some hours later. The kettle was she’d lean up and retch into the basin growing in shrillness, just above her head. again, but nothing would come up. Just She’d skipped school. She’d missed her burnt chocolate mixed with bile. assignment. Her mom would check the phone and get the absent message and The kettle was screaming; jabbing at her check the emails and schedule a meet- bruised mind. Her eyes felt like steel wool ing and ask her why she wasn’t at school and her naked feet shrivelled against the and why she didn’t do the assignment? cold linoleum floor. She could feel her She had asked her to do it, and she had blood pounding in her ears, her mouth the time, and she sat down at the desk, watering. She had to get up for school and she didn’t do it and she didn’t even tomorrow. have the decency to show up and tell the teacher herself. She set her phone down beside her, making sure to line it up with the tile, lifted She felt nauseous. The light, dizzy feel- the toilet lid, and reached into her mouth. ing returned to her stomach and pulsed She’d throw up. Mostly bile and chlorine, above her throat. She opened her phone but something. She’d curl back up on the and closed it again to focus on not throw- floor in her hoodie and bare feet and feel ing up. After a few minutes, the feeling the peace wash through her. This feeling receded. She got up and picked up her was not unlike being underwater for her, guitar. Just a few chords and she would where the noises are muffled and pains are dull. Here, it’s safe to close her eyes have had her practice for the day. and forget about the kettle, raging someBut the chord was wrong, ringing with a where high above the water, unable to major instead of a minor. She tried again, penetrate into the serene pool. but this time the next chord rung sour. She sat practising from her guitar book, At four o’clock in the morning, she’d her swimsuit thrown on top of the clean drag herself into bed, forgetting to put laundry pile again. Smoke on the Water, the sheet over her comforter and falling House of the Rising Sun, Thunderstruck. asleep in her jeans. Her fingers burned where calluses hadn’t developed yet.

You’d have calluses already if you ever

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VINTAGE VS. FAST FASHION By Nabeeha Baig Used clothing is projected to make up one-third of the items in the average closet by 2027, but some consumers are questioning the ethics of the resale industry altogether. Second-hand shopping habits among younger generations have caused a major comeback of many retro trends in modern society. With just a quick walk around Forever 21 or Urban Outfitters, you’re likely to see chokers, micro sunglasses, cargo pants, bell-bottom jeans or some other obscure trends that are reminiscent of a past era — but this resurgence of vintage themes goes beyond the fashion world. Polaroid and film cameras are making a comeback within the hobbyist photography scene, and many young people now long for the nostalgia-inducing sounds of music played on vinyl records and cassettes.

opposition to the most conspicuous forms of capitalism is especially important for young intellectuals and members of the creative and politically progressive sectors of society.” The reason for this retro comeback can be accredited to multiple societal influences, but a large part of it stems from the so-called “thrift boom.”

Thrift shopping has become a widespread and popular phenomenon in many parts of the world and the thrift boom refers to the major uptick in recent years of all things vintage. According to a report released by Thredup, a resale website for According to Ryerson University fashion used clothing, one in three women in the professor Henry Navarro, this retro come- United States thrifted in 2017, as well as back has also trickled into other forms 40 per cent of individuals between the of art, including architecture, graphic ages of 18 and 24. design and interior decorating. Thrifting — a practice that was once stig“There is definitely a cultural benefit of matized and seen as only acceptable for participating in an alternative lifestyle lower-income individuals – has now gone that opposes fast fashion and conspic- mainstream, particularly with younger uous consumerism,” Navarro says. “This generations. Thredup’s report also stated

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that this connection may be linked to gen-Zers’ shopping habits, as those between the ages of 18 and 24 are most likely to get rid of an item after wearing it from one to five times, and 49 per cent of their total purchases on average could be classified as impulse buys. Tennesha Joseph, a second-year urban planning student at Ryerson, prefers shopping second-hand not only because of the unique clothing items she can find, but also because of the practice’s environmental sustainability. “It feels more rewarding to actually search through endless racks to get what I want. Also, in terms of its environmental impact, it helps decrease textile waste, which is a very important issue to me,” Joseph says. “Thrifting has made developing one’s own personal style more accessible for everyone despite their financial circumstances.”

“

people to earn an income based almost entirely from selling used clothing. In a 2016 article published by online fashion magazine Galore, successful users of popular thrifting app Depop were asked about their selling strategies and earnings. University of California Irvine student Carolann Bartley, who had been using Depop since she was 17 years old and has racked up over 20,000 followers on the platform since then, fashioned her own “homemade stockroom,” using it to piece together outfits and brainstorm new products. According to Galore, she typically earns between $100 and $200 per day, and the items she sells in her online shop tend to cater towards late 1990s and early 2000s fashion trends.

Some of Depop’s most used hashtags include #vintageclothing, #vintage and #retro.

Resale apps and websites like Thredup and Depop have paved the way for the reselling of clothing to enter the mainstream in recent years. Sellers on these platforms have disrupted the Second-year environment and urban sus- retail market, growing almost 24 times tainability student Priyana Jeyanathan faster than retail in the past year. There exclusively buys from thrift stores are constantly new items for sale — often because of the environmental impact. high-end brands for a fraction of the price — and they offer a treasure hunt“Producing material to make clothes like shopping experience to consumers, requires a bunch of energy, oil, gas, not unlike that of a physical thrift store. chemicals — not to mention all the pollution factories produce. Buying from retail Reselling has greatly increased the expostores just gives me an unsettling feeling, sure of retro trends because oftentimes so I try to avoid it at all costs,” she says. the most coveted pieces in the modern thrift community are vintage clothing The thrift boom has not only helped the items. A quick look at Depop’s central second-hand clothing industry flourish, “explore page” will show hundreds of but it has also helped to completely rede- users captioning their items with words sign the resale market, allowing everyday like “y2k,” “grunge,” “‘90s,” or other fashion

”

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While the recent interest in retro fashions may prompt younger demographics to accept and encourage reselling, there has also been some critical discourse on social media in the past year regarding the ethics of reselling. Several Twitter users have voiced their concerns regarding an increase of people with higher incomes shopping The Dead Stock Depot, a at thrift stores. Toronto-based travelling marketplace that caters Some consumers are contowards vintage clothing cerned that this will cause and street style, features thrift stores to continue to “North America’s largest raise their prices and cause collection of rare vintage accessibility issues because and modern streetwear of resellers offering thrift garments.” According to store goods online with their website, part of their extravagant markups. goal is to open up “faceto-face interaction and Avid Depop reseller and connections between cus- former YouTuber Rachel tomers, and those involved Cobb says that the controin the local streetwear versy is completely valid. Having worked at a thrift community.” store for almost four years, Dead Stock Depot reg- she saw that both the cusular Abigail Payumo, 19, tomer demographic and says many of the people the prices changed over who attend the market’s time. “The business of resellToronto events are young ing vintage clothes has and visibly interested in surely contributed to the streetwear fashions. “The gentrifying of thrift stores. vendors probably know Knowing this has made who their target audience me question the ethics of is and what their style is reselling clothing almost like, so they specifically every time I stepped into curate brands like Nautica, a thrift store with the aim Tommy [Hilfiger], Nike, of buying clothes to sell on Kappa, and other vintage Depop,” she says. brands that the typical streetwear lover would Cobb took a seven-month break from Depop in 2018, want to buy,” she says. during which time she only trends that evoke past eras; some of the app’s most used hashtags include #vintageclothing, #vintage and #retro. Users tend to promote name brands and other well-known companies on their pages since they are prioritized in the reselling market due to both their monetary and aesthetic values.

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“

Thrifting — a practice that was once stigmatized and seen as only acceptable for lowerincome individuals — has now gone mainstream.

”

sold items that were already in her closet because she “couldn’t quite reconcile the moral dilemma that arose in the reselling process.” She has witnessed thrift stores’ unsold clothing being shipped to developing countries, where it may ultimately end up in a landfill. “Knowing this, I believe that buying second-hand and giving something a new life as opposed to buying new, if it is viable, is almost always the better option,” Cobb says. “Nevertheless, I think the ethics surrounding reselling thrifted pieces is still something worth questioning.” Regardless of the current ethical climate in the resale market, the act of reselling has contributed to many long-lasting retro trends for the fashion world. As the industry continues to grow, perhaps those in the thrift community will find a way to tackle these accessibility issues for the groups affected while also maintaining its diverse styles at the same time.

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The complex history of

woke-washing

in modern TV and film reboots By Jordan Currie

If it ain’t woke, don’t fix it — because it’s more than likely a bad idea. From television channels to multiplex cinemas, it appears prequels, sequels, remakes and reboots are abundant across screens of all sizes in recent years — but reboots and remakes, in particular, are tricky. On one hand, a shot-for-shot remake is boring and to revive a story means there should be something new and time-reflective added to it. On the other, die-hard fans may loathe the new project for making too many creative changes and straying far from the original content. It’s a tall order to fulfill the duties of a good reboot, but when all these factors intersect in murky waters, it can produce an end result known as “woke-washing.”

cast members who were not present in the original. According to a 2017 report published by the Creative Artists Agency that examined 413 film releases between 2014 to 2016, films with at least a 30 per cent non-white cast outperformed those with predominantly white casts at the box office in the United States, as 49 per cent of all movie tickets sold in 2016 were purchased by people of colour. The logic is simple: diverse casts bring in diverse audiences, equalling revenue for production studios. But the push for representation shouldn’t only stop at casting. The Directors Guild of America reported in 2017 that of the 651 theatrical releases in the U.S. that year, only 16 per cent of films had female directors, and features with a box office revenue of at least $250,000 had nonwhite directors just 10 per cent of the time. Representation is needed just as much behind the cameras and in the writing rooms as on screen.

By definition, woke-washing is to use social justice as a marketing tactic to appeal to a progressive, liberal demographic. It is, of course, derived from the term “woke,” meaning to be aware of injustices pertaining to marginalized communities and active in eradicating them. In reboots, it consists of reinterpreting a character as a different ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, rewriting or omitting potentially “problematic” While it sounds fantastic in theory elements that are considered outdated to deliberately write more inclusion by today’s standards, and adding diverse into the stories we consume, I believe

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woke-washing, most notably in reboots, has become a competition amongst television and film executives to win the “Most Diversity Without Actually Writing Thoughtful Characters” award. When someone’s identity is used as a throw away plot device or is treated as a trend, it is not true representation — it’s pandering. Ocean’s 8, Ghostbusters, Riverdale, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina — all examples of reboots that incorporated more diversity into their stories through casting or discussing current affairs. But having the inclusive substance that modern audiences crave doesn’t automatically ensure that their message is going to come out smoothly. For instance, J.K. Rowling shouldn’t receive diversity brownie points for declaring that Dumbledore is gay long after the original seven-book Harry Potter series ended... a bold claim, I know. But there was no evidence of this representation in the text and she only revealed this information after the story concluded — when her sales wouldn’t suffer as a result of public backlash. In Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the filmmakers — and Rowling, who wrote the screenplay — had an opportunity to show this new element of Dumbledore’s character, though they chose not to. Rowling has a habit of tweeting newfound “facts” about her beloved characters to let her audience know she cares about diversity, like how Professor Lupin being a werewolf was an allegory for the stigma of AIDS and how there were Jewish students at Hogwarts. However, these claims arose without evidence and in some cases, perpetuate harmful beliefs, such as how a character in a book infected with a fictional werewolf disease that inclines them to prey on children is equated to a real disease associated with

gay men, who are also falsely stereotyped to prey on children. As a lifelong Harry Potter fan, it pains me to watch a prolific writer like Rowling degrade her own creation. Now, I choose to limit my enjoyment of the Harry Potter universe to the original seven books and eight corresponding films, ignoring the new material. Despite the influx of reinvented and often contrived reboots, this isn’t to say they can’t refresh their source material successfully. Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of the 1977 horror film Susperia received polarizing reviews, but those who enjoyed it praised its bleak style — a stark visual contrast from the colourful original film. A Star Is Born, a film first released in 1937, has been remade four times, but the 2018 version’s modern setting and music have made way for mainstream audience appeal. Some stories can even lend themselves nicely to remakes if they have a timeless appeal with universal, ongoing themes. I’ve been saying for years that a remake or stage version of John Hughes’ 1985 film The Breakfast Club has potential if people were willing to take off their ‘80s rose-coloured glasses. In fact, it would make perfect sense to have a cast more diverse than the original film seeing as it’s about teens from different high school social cliques bonding in a detention session, providing a better opportunity to go beyond writing straight white characters. I believe some stories, however, should be left to exist in the time period in which they were created in. Last year, when MTV announced a reboot of everyone’s favourite ‘90s misanthropic heroine Daria, some fans were confused as to why the remake, called Daria and Jodie, would centre on the friendship of Daria and secondary character Jodie, who is black. In the original, the girls were merely acquaintances,

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not the misogyny-battling BFFs that the reboot is portraying them as. It’s easy to guess that the creators wanted to make Daria look more inclusive with this update, but as the cartoon has come to be a prominent symbol of uniquely ‘90s culture, it doesn’t make much sense to bring this updated version of Daria into the present. My favourite movie of all time is 1988’s Heathers written by filmmaker Daniel Waters. It’s a biting satire about the exploitation of suicide and high school in middle America that follows a trio of popular girls, all named Heather, whose reign over their Ohio high school’s student body is disrupted by Veronica and J.D., a Bonnie and Clyde-esque couple who begin killing off the popular kids and making them look like suicides. Since its release, it has garnered a cult following — including myself — for good reasons. I feel it’s one of the few films about high school that really got it right and tackled issues like suicide, sexual assault and power structures without feeling preachy. When a TV reboot set in the present day with emphasis on diverse casting was announced in 2016 by the Paramount Network, I was stoked to see how Heathers would be adapted for a modern audience. Disappointment crashed over me like a tidal wave once I saw it, though, and it wasn’t just because of the bad costumes and Riverdale-like dialogue.

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I use Heathers as a case in point — mostly because my love for it is infinite — but also because it’s a quintessential example of an old story that has been subjected to Hollywood’s modern woke-washing treatment. In the Heathers TV series, which was released last year, the way diversity was highlighted didn’t complement the original story. The three Heathers, who were originally thin, white, privileged mean girls, served as commentary about power structures in conservative, small town high schools. In the reboot, the three Heathers are black, genderqueer and plus-size, respectively — a lineup that sounds great if it were for another story. But while every character in Heathers is morally grey, to say that the traditional outcasts would be the “rulers of the school” in a Midwestern town just because it’s 2018 is laughable, as these real-life demographics continue to face discrimination today. As a story about bullying and popularity in high school, commentary about cyberbullying and the fixation on social media could work well in a modern reboot, and the same thing goes for diversity, as there is nothing inherently wrong with diversifying a reboot. It’s about time we stopped pretending that people of colour and LGBTQ folks didn’t exist before the ‘90s. But instead of the laugh-about-you-behind-your-back type of female bullies that are standard in teen media, these new Heathers were written as vicious social justice warriors, better known in online jargon as “SJWs.” They’re depicted as whiny, self-righteous and nitpicky over minor issues, which we are to believe is the same thing as the rich and spoiled mean girl archetype. This type of SJW character isn’t exempt from criticism and I do believe something can be said about the toxicity within call-out culture and the negative side effects of doing it incorrectly, but by that point, the story is so far

removed from the original Heathers that it might as well be its own show entirely. Besides, the only black character in the new TV series gets killed off early in the season and the only Asian character is a recurring role.

Hollywood also has a history of painting non-white people as villainous, which we still see today. Just look at the way Muslim people are portrayed as terrorists on shows like 24 or Homeland, especially in our post-9/11 world. Children’s media and cartoons are not absolved from this either. Take a few Disney films as examples: Aladdin’s primary villain Jafar has more ethnically Arabic features than the protagonists, and the pack of hyenas in The Lion King speak in an exaggerated “street” sounding dialect — one of them even has a Hispanic accent.

I don’t blame audiences for suspecting that these characters were used to lure diverse viewership. If anything, the characters that would make more sense being written as diverse are Veronica and J.D., but this didn’t happen in the Heathers of 2018; of course, they needed an attractive, heterosexual white couple to lead the show. When we reinterpret antagonists with marginalized identities in reboots, we I’m not implying that marginalized need to be aware of the implications, actors can’t portray villains and only get especially if the character is nothing to be morally upstanding angels, and I more than a cartoony villain lacking maintain that they should have just as merit rather than a multifaceted, relatmuch opportunity to play sinister and able character. The Hays Code is long complex characters as anyone else. But gone, but its lingering effects remain in as writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie our minds, framing and shaping the way once said: “The problem with stereotypes we view certain communities. Throwing is not that they are untrue, but that they marginalized people haphazardly into are incomplete. They make one story these reinvented roles just so they’re become the only story.” Villainous ste- present does not automatically make it a reotypes pertaining to people of colour win for diversity. and the LGBTQ community have a long history, the effects of which still remain In a media panorama with a plethora of embedded into our pop culture psyche. recycled material, where many projects The Motion Picture Production Code, or are derived from other bodies of art and the Hays Code, were a set of rules imple- studios want to cash in on serving audimented in the 1930s that dictated what ences nostalgia with its problematic was (and wasn’t) acceptable content in fat trimmed off, I still believe it’s OK to American motion pictures. Written in let some things exist as they are, even part by a prominent Catholic priest, it when they’re flawed. We can simultacensored or banned things like nudity, neously enjoy and critique things withprofanity and homosexuality, and gov- out always having to one-up them and erned films’ content until the late 1960s. attempt to make them better. Instead of Because of this, queerness only existed remaking the past, perhaps we should in subtext and was often ascribed to vil- be looking to the future to create more lains or antagonists — a writing trope now original content not riddled with lacklusknown as “queer coding” — to represent ter diversity lip-service that desperately society’s fear of predatory homosexuality wishes to cement itself in the pop culture at the time. landscape.

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The dark history of adoption in Canada

By Mariyam Khaja We’ve cultivated an idealistic image of adoption as an institution — but is it without flaw?

In the living room of her low-rise condo, Wendy sits nestled in a corner of her orange couch, clutching a cup of Earl Grey tea. She’s a petite woman in her early 50s, with a wispy bob of black hair that rests just above her shoulders and small, almond-shaped green eyes that droop downwards at the ends. The fading winter sun peeks through the curtains behind her, giving the array of succulents lined up on her windowsill life.

Rowney, it’s more instinct than feeling. “It’s a natural part of life to want to know the people that created you,” she says. “We can’t just expect to pick up human beings, place them into new parts, and not expect them to wonder about where they came from.” But the Canadian adoption system has long been built on moving infants like chess pieces, placing them with families deemed suitable to raise them and dismissing others simply as incubators of life, unfit to parent. Rowney’s story is just one of many rooted in the secrecy that shrouds the Canadian adoption system.

My eyes drift across her cozy living room, lingering on one of the many black and white photographs that adorn her walls — a set of small, carefree faces gleam back up at me. I wonder which of these faces she’s grown up with, and which she actively sought to find, years after her Her mother was one of the thousands of separation from them. women pregnant out of wedlock in postwar Canada between 1945 and the early Wendy Rowney was born to a 17-year-old 1970s. At the time, social values idealized unwed mother in Toronto in 1969. Days the traditional nuclear family, thereby after her birth, she was forcefully surren- heightening the social stigma around dered for adoption to a family in Ontario. pregnant, unwed women and their “illeIt was in the mid-90s that she embarked gitimate” children. on a journey of her own reunion, finding her biological family with whom she’s To save face from public scorn, unwed been in contact with for over 20 years. mothers were sent to live out their pregnancies in secrecy, in designated Her reunion efforts were sparked by the maternity homes that were operated grief and longing she felt growing up — a by local Christian churches — the main feeling she says many adoptees confront denominations involved being Roman at one point or another. It’s a longing Catholic, Anglican, the United Church to find one’s identity, tribe and roots: to and the Salvation Army — and funded by

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social assistance grants from the federal “I was promised that my child would be government. adopted by a happily married couple who would be able to provide for all her Yet more often that not, the stories that needs; she would never know anything came out of these 70 or so homes that different and she would never remember once operated across Canada spoke more me.” of imprisonment and isolation than the place of refuge women were promised. Following a 25-hour labour in which she Reflecting on her own experience, mater- was physically restrained to her delivery nity home survivor Karen Buterbaugh table, Dumas-Rymer gave birth to a baby wrote in 2001 that residents were “kept away from everything familiar” — fake names hid their identities, conversations were censored and women were kept indoors apart from hospital visits. A 2018 federal report found these women routinely faced “humiliation, verbal abuse, [and] de-humanizing and degrading treatment” at the hands of nuns and social workers. External social work agencies worked in close liaison with the homes, explaining why social workers were often seen with mothers alongside the homes’ religious personnel. The torment residents faced didn’t end after they gave birth. For women like Bernadette Dumas-Rymer, the experience of delivery and the lifetime that followed her daughter’s adoption were the most traumatic. Dumas-Rymer was forced by her family to live out her pregnancy in a Vancouver maternity home. Over the course of nine months, social workers and clergymen preached the same message: she wasn’t fit to be a mother, and the only way to atone for her sin was to move forward — without her daughter. In March 2018, Dumas-Rymer testified at a Senate hearing tasked with investigating the history of Canada’s forced adoption policies. “My parents did not want my baby, and the church social workers and childless couples were waiting in the wings to take her from me,” she said.

girl. Nurses allowed her to briefly hold the child to her chest before forcibly separating the two. Her daughter was soon after put up for adoption. It’s unknown exactly how many pregnant Canadian women faced the same fate, but according to a recent study titled White Unwed Mother: The Adoption Mandate in Postwar Canada, it’s estimated that around 95 per cent of the 300,000 Canadian women who went through the maternity home system were forced to give up their children for adoption. Some 600,000 births between 1945 and 1970 were recorded as “illegitimate”. Mothers were kept purposefully unaware of childcare options beyond adoption and were labelled as selfish for wanting to keep their children. This ideology wasn’t restricted to maternity homes either — as many as 74 per cent of unwed mothers at the time outside of these homes also put their children up for adoption. As long as a signature was inked on adoption forms, the law didn’t concern itself with much else.

child welfare in 1951, social workers considered the poverty, high death rates and other social issues present on First Nations reserves to be indicative of environments unsuitable for children. Instead of providing support to these communities, government welfare agencies opted to “scoop” these children from their communities and families into state custody, often without the consent of their parents or community members. In the 1950s, before these policies were implemented, Indigenous children accounted for just one per cent of the national total of all children in protective services; by the late 1960s, they comprised just over thirty-three per cent. Indigenous children in state custody were then adopted out to primarily non-Indigenous families, mimicking past projects of forceful assimilation behind the residential schooling system. The trauma experienced by adoptees went unnoticed. Reconciling the depth of emotion and grief behind adoption continues to be overlooked today, in part because of the idyllic image society has built of the institution, ignorant of the larger blemishes produced under its authority. Much of this grief has been silenced through legal policies governing adoption, as well as through societal norms that push for adoptees’ assimilation into their adoptive families.

Theresa Alyward, a mother from Prince Edward Island who went through the St. Gerard’s maternity home in the early 1980s, put it this way: “Yes, I signed, and openly admit to that, but it was my only choice. If love would have been enough to keep my child, we would be together today. If I had had the support I could have had, we would be together today.” While adoption laws differ between provinces, closed adoptions were the national Less than a decade after the implementa- standard in the adoption processes faced tion of these state-mandated maternity by unwed mothers. Upon adoption, court homes, forced adoption policies returned records were sealed to prevent both the to the forefront in Canada, this time man- adoptee from tracing their roots and ifested in the ‘60s Scoop, which began birth mothers from learning where their in the late 1950s and continued into the children ended up — the system was 1980s. When provincial governments designed to keep both parties apart. were given jurisdiction over Indigenous

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But as children grew to maturity, they “We call women who surrender children naturally started wondering about their to adoption an adjective mother — so a absent family members. ‘birth mother’,” she says. “It’s a distancing technique that otherizes birth mothers “There’s this disconnect between the and encourages the adoptee not to conway that adoptees feel and how they’re sider the woman who gave birth to them taught to feel while grieving the loss of as their mother.” their mother and identity, and at the same time feeling loved and cherished As such, birth mothers received little supin their adoptive families,” says Wendy port post-adoption. They were told never Rowney, an adoptee herself. to speak about their experience, and instead told to re-assimilate into sociPublic pressure led the Ontario govern- ety by marrying and having “legitimate” ment to finally open adoption records in children, so they could someday become 2009, giving both mothers and adoptees “real” mothers. Some were even told to access to information for the 250,000 get puppies to cope with the loss. adoptions registered in the province since 1921. To the dismay of open record advo- It was in silence that many of them lived cates, the legislation was later amended their lives suffering from post-traumatic to allow for either party to keep their stress disorder, depression, grief and identities secret under disclosure vetoes, longing for a child who existed only to denying some the chance to learn about them. their medical and family histories. Decades later, there is headway being To help navigate the reunion process made — a Senate report released last year, both legally and emotionally, Rowney titled The Shame is Ours, was the first of founded Adoption, Support, Kinship, a its kind to look into the history of forced monthly local support group for adopadoption during the post-war period. tees and birth mothers. It provides a safe The report offered recommendations to space for those impacted by adoption to the Canadian government that vary from be among others who understand their issuing a national apology to survivors, to raising public awareness about what grief and need for closure. mothers experienced. Yet despite the exposure that ASK has received in the 20 years Rowney has led A key element of these recommendait, she says more needs to be done to tions is that they look to both the future unpack the nuance behind adoption and and the past in an attempt to rectify what dismantle idyllic images that, while ring happened — we cannot acknowledge true for some, largely misrepresent the the nuances behind adoption without history and lived experiences of adoptees. first coming to terms with the traumatic Coming to terms with the realities of history of the institution. Countless adopadoption requires addressing how birth tees, among them Rowney, are living mothers are viewed in the adoption pro- testaments, bearing witness that the cess. After growing up with two mothers mistakes of the past have and will confor the later part of her life, Rowney real- tinue to impact generations to come. ized the differences in the way both were labelled.

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[gone full circle] Three years ago, we were presented with the opportunity to create our own podcast and have it published, so we sat down with at a whiteboard with two markers and eventually came up with a name: Gone Full Circle, starring ourselves, Charlie Buckley and Moosa Imran. In the past three years, we’ve recorded dozens of episodes, invited plenty of guests, made countless bumps and garnered, like, a lot of listeners. Totally a large number — trust us. We hope you’ve enjoyed what we’ve had to say over the year and hope that you keep listening. We’d like to thank Ethan Jakob Craft, Julianna Perkins and everyone at Folio, Ryerson University, the Ryerson School of Journalism and the EDC, Sal, Angela, Gary, Brent, Luke, Santi, Andrea, Ben Snider-McGrath, Ben Cohen, Vartan, Roadman Saf, Nate-Dawg, Adriel, Hakim, our mums and dads, the Academy, the Vancouver Grizzlies, Mike Tyson, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, Rachel McAdams and you, the viewer. Every Friday. Catch the Fever. - Charlie and Moosa

For me, making GFC has been an introspective experience. So far, Moosa and I have recorded close to 50 hours of our voices, riffing on current events, hot takes and our innermost personal struggles. I’ve shared a surprising amount about myself and candidly discussed a lot of what matters most to me.

When people ask me why I got into journalism, I say the thing every time: it’s a career for people like me, people who talk too much. Originally, we started the podcast for no particular reason other than that we could, and from there it became something of an art project that never ended.

Beyond personal fulfillment, GFC has been a vehicle to add to the greater conversation — following the news of the week through the lens of the off-beat, unusual and absurd. Even so, we find the time to weigh in on bigger stories as well; the ones that can’t be ignored. As two developing journalists with a penchant for avoiding political allegiance, I like to think we walk the line of discussing the issues without falling too quickly into the realm of bias — or at least doing so with ample disclaimers of what those biases are. I think our asides from the gallery help people ground themselves in the mayhem of modern politics.

Gone Full Circle is a name based on the convergence of the 24-hour news cycle, the idea that life constantly moves forward, and whatever goes around comes around.

GFC is a place where we can experiment with new skills and push the limits of our abilities. Our recent transition to video at the start of this year, the rotating series of recording environments and the learning curve of effectively incorporating guest hosts have been trying at times, but I don’t regret the effort, hours or heartache we’ve put in.

GFC gave me and my illustrious co-host Charlie a chance to cross-examine the world around us, through both serious news topics and philosophical arguments. I have formed few friendships like the one I have with Charlie, and despite having very little in common, we get along just fine. Every week, we were able to sit down with each other or with colleagues and decipher the world through their eyes as well as our own. Through GFC, I learned how to express myself, how to disagree respectfully, and most importantly, how to listen.

For Halloween 2017, I played a prank on our listeners. A discussion on what scared us the most was abruptly cut off by a mock emergency broadcast I’d cut together, complete with air raid sirens and warnings of a threat from an alien world. The creation of that segment added significantly to the turnaround time for the episode, but it let me learn a lot about the craft and make something that still brings a smile to my face.

An off-mic conversation between Charlie and I led him to tell me that he doesn’t necessarily believe in a god, but he does believe in “a writer.” These words really came to life for me one day while we were recording and talking about a quirky news story about a daycare fight club, and just as we were discussing, a large group of children, who all seemed to be daycare-aged, happened to walk by the window of the studio and left Charlie and I in a state of confusion. It only took us a few seconds before we started bickering about which kid out of the bunch was probably the best fighter.

- Charlie

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Lifetimes of Trauma By Bree Duwyn How Canada’s past treatment of Indigenous peoples has reverberated through generations of families In the 1910s, Grace was forced to decide whether to keep her identity and culture, or marry a man from Britain. She chose the latter, which would set off a chain of events that would impact both her and her family. Up until 1982, Indigenous people in Canada were forced to revoke their status should they marry a non-Indigenous person. For Grace, that meant leaving a Six Nations reserve in southwestern Ontario, cutting off contact with her community and, to an extent, abandoning her culture and traditional way of life. The abolishment of her status meant losing her identity, a thread that has woven its way through her family. Her son, Stan, would be bullied as a child for not being “Native enough,” as without a physical status card, and in the eyes of the government, he was not considered Indigenous. After escaping the wrath of his abusive and alcoholic father along with his mother and siblings, Stan would stumble through a “white man’s world,” facing racism and discrimination at every turn. Eventually, Stan would find a job in Norfolk County. He would also regain his status; something his mother hadn’t lived long enough to do. Even after marrying and having kids of his own, he would

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struggle with his identity and mourn the loss of his Indigenous roots. Without the proper care and support from his parents and community, Stan turned to alcohol to escape the ridicule he received. His daughter, Linda, a woman of Mohawk descent and now 70, hopes that this is where the problem ends. This is intergenerational trauma, a cycle that begins with the loss of identity spurred by events of systematic abuse and that winds its way through the decades. In Canada, the seeds were sown through violent colonial action, the subjugation of Indigenous peoples and an attempted genocide of Indigenous culture. According to Dr. Evan Adams, chief medical officer for the First Nations Health Authority in B.C., “the historic oppression faced by Indigenous people can linger as trauma in subsequent generations,” he said in CBC’s The Early Edition. In the 1870s, the Canadian government set up the residential school system which operated as a network of institutions administered primarily by churches with the main objective of assimilating Indigenous children into Canadian society. These schools, whose framework was built on the recommendations of Ontario educator Egerton Ryerson, facilitated

cruel acts of cultural genocide, stripping Indigenous children of their languages, traditions, beliefs and cultural identities. The schools operated without reprimandations and the severity of the issues within were not fully brought to light until recently. Eventually, the Canadian public came to realize the truth about these schools, but the last institution only closed in 1996.

know and love, you destroy any opportunity for a normal, healthy childhood.

This is where the cycle begins: the Indigenous child is repeatedly physically, sexually, emotionally and spiritually abused while their identity is stripped from existence. This amount of trauma so deeply affects the survivor that without early and radical healing, a luxury so often denied to Indigenous survivors, it In the 1950s, amendments to the Indian can remain rooted within. It can affect Act gave provincial governments jurisdic- their children, their grandchildren and so tion over the welfare of Indigenous chil- on down the familial line, fractured and dren. The Sixties Scoop came into effect deeply altered by these traumatic events and stretched on into the 1980s, marking of cultural genocide and colonization. a period of mass removal of Indigenous children from their homes and into foster According to a study by researchers placement with non-Indigenous families Roberta Stout and Sheryl Peters, the to catalyze assimilation. effects of intergenerational trauma include increased health problems, These events of discrimination, abuse depression, mental distress, suicidal and attempted cultural genocide con- behaviours and tendencies, as well as tinue to impact Indigenous communities addictive behaviours and substance and families throughout Canada despite misuse. It is uncoincidental that these the generations that have passed. effects are often tied to the stereotypes Intergenerational trauma in Indigenous that depict an inaccurate prejudice of communities, which has formed largely Indigenous people. as a result of the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop, continues to Intergenerational trauma is layered take a heavy toll on Indigenous health upon the experiences of survivors and and well-being, according to Dr. Peter their families. Without a strong support Menzies, clinical head of Aboriginal system, the trauma is repressed but the Services at the Centre for Addiction and stain of the residential school system and Mental Health in Toronto. the Sixties Scoop cannot be forgotten, nor can Indigenous people “get over” the To fully understand the trauma Indigenous past because the past is the truth. children endured, it is important to acknowledge all surrounding factors Reconciliation with the past is a key that contributed to a colonized attempt element to working towards creating at the mass destruction of Indigenous a strengthened relationship between cultures. It is crucial to understand how Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, the process of forced assimilation caused creating a bond of mutual respect. heartache and irreversible damage. “The healing begins with the vision of recWhen you wrench a child from their onciliation,” says Linda. She only hopes it mother’s arms and teach them to survive does not take as many decades to reach in fear, separated from everything they it.

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Want to be a real man? You need to hate women first By Julia Mastroianni

Misogyny and masculinity are the forces behind what boys learn about gender, and the breeding ground for sexual violence.

Grayden Kitsemetry was five years old when he got hurt during a fight in the school yard. When Kitsemetry’s dad arrived to pick him up, he remembers his dad telling him, “I’m proud of you for not crying.” “I found that weird at the time because I was hurting and it’s like, ‘Why can’t I cry?’” says Kitsemetry, now 19. Kitsemetry says that was just part of the narrative that became clearer to him by the time he was seven or eight. He rattles off a series of instructions, like a to-do list for becoming a real man. “You’re taught to be tough, not smart, taught to be strong; brave. You can’t wear certain colours; you couldn’t go near pink or purple unless you had a death wish,” he says. The same list seems to exist for the 12-year-old boys in the workshops that Jonathon Reed leads with Next Gen Men, a Canadian organization that teaches boys and men about gender equality. Reed is Next Gen Men’s program coordinator, and has made deconstructing masculinity and gender his “life’s mission.”

This is nothing new. The socialization of gender is, more often than not, communicated through unspoken and unconscious messages that kids unknowingly pick up on, from colour-coded toys to gender-stereotyped characters in movies and TV. The consequences of these messages alone are already dire; not only can stereotyped gender roles affect children who are questioning their own gender identity, but they are largely responsible for the inequality that has pervaded societies globally for centuries. In 2017, a reckoning of sorts took place within Hollywood. Using civil rights activist Tarana Burke’s #MeToo campaign, women began to come forward to share their stories of sexual abuse and harassment at the hands of some of Hollywood’s most famous and elite men. There were so many stories that it became painful to keep track, and yet the statistics around sexual violence are, if possible, even more grim. A 2006 Statistics Canada report on violence against women showed that an average of one in three women in Canada will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. According to a more recent report from 2013, in 99 per cent of instances of sexual violence against women, the perpetrator was male. These statistics were compiled based on both police-reported accounts and self-reported data collected from a general social survey.

Reed says he often talks about the “man box” — a phrase used in gender theory to describe the limitations and expectations put upon men and boys — with the boys in the workshops. “They come up with the answers themselves,” says Reed. “They say, ‘If I want to be a real man or a real boy I have to be the best, I have to be It has been said ad nauseam that the only brave, I can’t cry, I can’t wear a dress’.” person to blame for sexual violence is the perpetrator of that violence. Knowing He’ll then ask them to raise their hands if that these perpetrators are reported to anyone was surprised by what they heard. be men almost 100 per cent of the time, None of them ever raise their hands. “And and knowing how prevalent sexual vioI’m like, that’s weird! Did you all take a lence is in nearly every culture and counclass? Is there some sort of rule book that try, I think it’s time to ask: why are men somebody gave you that said these are assaulting women? And, more curiously: the rules if you want to be a man?” who is teaching them that that’s OK?

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Mark Greene has been an editor at organization that runs experiential online magazine The Good Men Project education training and facilitates peer since 2008. The project aims to analyze support groups for men to learn about manhood and masgender, accountculinity and reflect ability and integrity. on the messages that From Hodgson’s men receive from all experience with the An average of men who come to forms of media, as well as other men, their workshops and one in three about these topics. support groups, the women in Greene also says that, kinds of ideas that Canada will as the father of a son, result in this culture of he started thinking male-perpetrated vioexperience about what his son is lence against women sexual violence learning about what it starts very early. means to be a man. in their lifetime. “Men have been “The first rule of the taught that they man box is that men have to shut down do not show their all of their emotions,” emotions. And the way that we tell boys Hodgson says. “So they can’t be self[that] is we say that when you do that, aware about what they’re actually expethat’s ‘girly’ or ‘gay’ or ‘you’re being a lit- riencing emotionally or learn ways to tle kid’,” Greene says. “So we denigrate express that.” a whole set of relational capacities as feminine, which they’re not: they’re uni- Hodgson says he believes this creates a versally human. And then we suppress developmental line right into damaging them in boys and men by shaming them behaviour. “You end up way down the road with a man who gets stuck in rage, as feminine.” stuck in paralysing fear, stuck in an inabilGreene says this teaches boys that to be ity to make connections with himself or female is to be inferior, and that the man with other people, and you end up with box is enforced through a “pecking order dangerous and violent perpetration.” of shaming and bullying.” But this can be difficult for boys and men “We teach boys two things in this process. to understand if they’ve never had meanOne is that the denigration of women is ingful conversations about gender socialpart of becoming a man. And two is that ization before — and often, they haven’t. bullying and abuse is part of becoming a man,” Greene says. “So how can you Jamie Bursey is a 20-year-old industrial denigrate women and then teach boys design student at OCAD University. When bullying and abuse is the way to express I ask him about what he learned about masculinity and not end up with a cul- gender as a child, he struggles to articulate his thoughts. “It’s funny because men ture of abuse toward women?” don’t ever have to unpack this. The thing Boysen Hodgson is the communica- about internalized stuff is that you never tions and marketing director at The really have to think about it,” he says. Mankind Project, an American non-profit

“

”

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But Bursey says he does have some memories from his childhood that he thinks have stayed with him throughout the years. “I remember one of the most embarrassing things you could be was worse than a girl at something. And there was this idea that you need to be dominant and take up space.”

to reproduce are limited. Echoes of this argument were seen after it was revealed that Alek Minassian, who killed 10 people in an April 2018 van attack in Toronto, was a self-proclaimed part of the incel community. Incels, shorthand for “involuntary celibate,” are a hate group comprised of men who believe they are owed sex and companionship from women — a misJonathon Reed says he has been strug- guided belief that has manifested into gling with communicating how these very real threats to the lives and safety of ideas play a role in the misogyny that the women. boys who attend his workshops participate in. “What I believe is that [misogyny] There was something crucially wrong has to do with expectations that they about Palmer and Thornhill’s study — have, and the image they have to prove the facts. In a 2009 book called Sexual and the heterosexual, bragging, confi- Coercion in Primate and Humans, sciendent kind of step up that they have to tists explored male aggression toward make,” Reed says. Through his workshops, females in both animals and humans. he aims to connect those expectations to Researcher Melissa Emery Thompson the choices the boys make that turn out determined within the book that rape is to be based in misogyny. more often committed by men who are sexually experienced, rather than lonely Yet even when boys and men are aware of or socially inept, and the rapist is more that connection, and stop participating often known to the victim than not. in the culture of misogyny themselves, In other words, men who rape are not there is another hurdle. resorting to animalistic or biological tendencies. There is nothing psychological, There is a feeling among some men that physical or emotional that separates a the men who comman who rapes from mit acts of violence a man who doesn’t. against women are somehow other. They Oskar McCarson, a In 99 per cent are animals, monsters; 19-year-old Ryerson of instances separate from the University photogof sexual legions of men who raphy student, says are good and kind he sees this othering violence against and would never do language of “us,” the women, the such a thing. In 2000, regular men, versus anthropologist Craig “them,” the monsters, perpetrator Palmer and biologist used as an excuse for was male. Randy Thornhill pubmen to continue to lished a book titled use their own derogaA Natural History of tory language against Rape: Biological Bases women. “Obviously of Sexual Coercion. In it, they argued that some people do just think it’s an innocent human males rape as part of an evolu- joke. But at the end of the day, there is tionary instinct when their opportunities the risk that they will start believing what

“

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they’re saying and then it sort of spirals into maliciousness,” says McCarson. Tellingly, in a 2017 New York Times article that examined what experts know about men who rape, there was a common theme amongst both men who were convicted rapists and men who acknowledged they had what they chose to call “non-consensual sex”: they all insisted they were not the problem. “It’s not that they deny sexual assault happens,” journalist Heather Murphy wrote, “it’s just that the crime is committed by the monster over there.” Misogynistic language or behaviour may seem insignificant in comparison to actual sexual assault, but there appears to be a direct link from that language to wider ideas that present women as inferior. In November 2018, six boys at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto were charged in connection with a video showing a group of boys allegedly sexually assaulting another boy with a broomstick. It is man box culture that led to these boys believing that being a man means asserting your power and dominance over others with aggression and abuse. It is also man box culture that has left the boy they assaulted with extensive trauma. Sexual assault

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survivors are often left with a myriad of issues which they must grapple with for years following the incident, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, various eating disorders, dissociation and self-harming tendencies. Bursey, like many of the men I spoke to, sounds caught off guard and apologetic when I ask about his role in preventing violence against women. He says it’s not something he has to think about, because it doesn’t affect him outright. “It’s such an uncomfortable topic that if I don’t have to think about it, I wouldn’t seek it out, right?” Kitsemetry says he feels guilty for not doing more to stand up to his friends who say negative things about women. But when he does, he says, “I basically just remind them that, you know, we are in the biggest position of privilege and that we should be acknowledging that and doing what we can to bring everyone up with us.” Hodgson says he is hopeful for a world where masculinity becomes a less rigid standard. “I want power and I want aggression and I want for my daughters to have power and aggression and I want it to be used in a healthy way. I want for my sons to have softness and empathy and compassion

“

I want for my sons to have softness and empathy and compassion and gentleness...

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and gentleness and I want it to be used in a healthy way,” he says.

of hearing that feelings and vulnerability make them less manly has backfired, resulting in too many men who, at best, There is, perhaps, a future where boys don’t know how to communicate and, at can learn about the privileges associated worst, let their mental illnesses go undiwith their gender early on. Ann Labbe, agnosed and untreated out of fear. a mother of four boys from Mississauga, Ont., says she frequently talks to her kids So, yes, men learning about gender matabout consent –even her six-year-old son. ters to men, but it especially matters to “We talk about how women or girls can women. Women who are the explicit sometimes feel in certain situations, and targets of toxic messages about manliabout how to read body language and ness that also objectify and demonize non-verbal cues to understand that.” them. Women who deal with the most sinister consequences of these messages Armon Shahnavazy, an 18-year-old polit- — repeated, pandemic violence. Women ical science student at the University of who will continue to suffer because of Toronto, remembers learning about con- this structure of masculinity that has sent in Grade 3. “My teacher went over misogyny embedded in its teachings. when it’s OK to touch someone and when it isn’t, and I found that pretty important Gender equality directly benefits men being a guy who was friends with a lot of in the same way that it benefits all other girls. Having it put in simple terms was genders. But I think it’s fair to say now really helpful.” that women need to look out for men for purely selfish reasons. If we do not, In October 2018, many media outlets they will continue to assault, abuse and were writing about a California teacher kill, left unprompted to grapple with the using simple charts and diagrams to limits of their understanding of what it teach her Grade 3 class about consent, means to be a real man. working through what consent is and what consent sounds like with her class. In another viral video that spread across Twitter last year, an elementary school teacher greeted each child in the morning with either a hug, a high five or a dance depending on what the student chose, effectively teaching her students about consent. Teaching young boys in particular about consent is, however, just one part of the equation. What boys learn about their own gender and what it means to be a man matters. It matters to men who, according to a 2017 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, are more likely to engage in health-harming behaviours like substance abuse and are at a higher risk of death by suicide. Years

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Cycles of my life

Reconciling who I was with who I am now, one year later

By Seager Wakil As the calendar begins anew and I start my 21st year of life, I can’t help but reflect on the cycles of my own. The cycles that make up my mind, shape my behaviours and determine how I live my life; the cycles I use to define myself, the cycles that have held on too tight, the cycles that I am learning to let go of and the cycles which I am making room for.

If only they knew how wrong they were for me.

These poor, misguided cycles, bright-eyed with delusion, couldn’t even realize that each step along the way was just keeping me on the same old path. These cycles, with their addiction to sadness, with their crave for pain, with their dependency on others to save the day. These cycles consuming me in a poorly-written role that I should have wrapped up years ago.

I think about my rusty toolbox of reactions that I brought out every time a dark thought came to mind. I think about the way I turned a breeze into a cyclone or a spark into a flame. I think about how I exhausted every emotion I had.

But somewhere in these past 365 days, I finally learned how wrong they were for me.

This past year, I learned that while cycles may change, that change doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing; in all honI think about the cycles of self-destruc- esty, it feels like a good thing. tion that have stood their ground with each passing year, and how even when I Just because I moulded myself one way knew they were holding me back, I strug- doesn’t mean I can’t grow into another. gled to let them go. Even when I knew Just because I invested years of my life those cycles were there to hurt me, they down one road doesn’t mean I can’t brought a sense of comfort and familiar- change directions now. ity in the way they told me to press repeat on the anthems that would only make I think about the destructive cycles that me feel worse; in the way they tricked me decorated my teenagehood, which I kept into thinking that pain provides pleasure. trying to hold on to in this new decade.

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But I think about how I finally looked at the cycles directly. I realized I kept

adding fuel to a fire that just made me burn. I realized, with brutal honesty and open communication and actual help, that I tied myself down years ago but never gave myself the chance to come back up. I realized that I don’t always need to be the victim; that sometimes things are just the way they are. And even more so, that some things are just my own damn fault. I realized that the people in my life are there for a reason, and they wouldn’t still be here if they didn’t want to be, and I love them for that. I realized that I can be alone, and I should be alone. I realized that I had to sit with every uncomfortable, lonely feeling I possess in every single crevice of my body and mind. But I realized that I actually like my own company, and that maybe I’m my own best friend. There are still more things to realize, and those old cycles aren’t gone just yet. Sometimes I still find myself falling for their deceptive ways. But at least now, when I see those cycles again, I have something I didn’t have before. I know which ones force me to be the person I want to be, and I can recognize which ones force to be the person I once was. While the old cycles may still sit on my shelf, I know that, slowly but surely, they are collecting dust. And I am making space for the new cycles that deserve to be there – the cycles that I am just getting to know; the cycles that are at my front door. And now, I will finally let them come in.

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Groundhog Groundhog Date. By Catherine Abes

Why do we find ourselves dating the same kind of person over and over (and over again)? Charlotte Ayaz has never dated the kind she’s encountered in dating the same kind of person, Ayaz says she doesn’t feel of person that would bring her flowers. the need to try something new. For her, It isn’t for lack of interest — the 19-year-old having a type means being attracted to York University student describes herself a person whose interests align with hers, as a romantic. Nonetheless, she accepts thereby making for a compatible couple. that a lack of romantic gestures is a con- As for her preferences regarding looks — sequence of dating her “type” — the kind the physical aspect of attraction — she’s of person she finds herself most com- not quite sure where they came from. patible with. Of the four partners she’s Her best guess is the influx of skinny, dated, three of them have matched the awkward pop stars like Harry Styles and same criteria: lanky, bespectacled, unas- Justin Bieber who rose to fame in her forsuming, nerdy and, to her dismay, quite mative years, or maybe the appeal of the boy next door stuck. Who knows? practical about romance. “With the kind of person that I’m attracted to, none of the people I’ve dated have been super romantic,” she says. “There’s always an issue where I don’t feel like I’m getting the attention that I deserve.” Ayaz’s current partner is no exception: he recently told her that flowers aren’t a useful gift. Despite the recurring obstacles that

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Well, the answer is uncertain. In a sort of chicken-and-egg situation, people can often pinpoint recurring similarities in their exes but can’t recall where these preferences came from. And yet, these types are pervasive enough that dating can start to feel like a Groundhog Daystyle time loop, but instead of reliving the same 24 hours, you’re dating the same kind of person over and over again. Plus,

you’re not Bill Murray.

for something more serious, though she still finds herself lingering around cofFor Ayaz, the pattern means she’s only fee shops when being single becomes dating people she’s likely to work with. restless. For others, though, it can mean that every match is destined to fail. Why do we do Another theory of attraction is the evothis to ourselves? lutionary approach, which suggests that we’re hardwired to choose ideal reproOne theory is repetition compulsion, a ductive partners. While you might conterm coined by Sigmund Freud in 1914 sciously be looking for someone who’ll that describes an unconscious tendency share your love of bad rom-coms or will that compels us to try to repeat past definitely disappoint your parents, your behaviours or circumstances — particu- inner Darwin may be scanning the crowd larly ones that were harmful or traumatic. for people with symmetrical faces (an In the context of relationships, this would indicator of good genes). Research also mean choosing a partner with similar suggests that we’re attracted to avertraits to a significant person — usually a age-looking faces — those that resemble parent — in an effort to re-enact their rela- most people — because it indicates that tionship and achieve a better outcome. It they’re in good health and are more likely should be noted, however, that this the- to be free of parasites and disease... how ory typically applies to a pattern of nega- dreamy. tive or dysfunctional relationships. A 2017 study by five U.S.-based univerFor first-year Ryerson journalism student sity researchers found that consistency Kashish Hura, the pattern isn’t an elu- among past romantic partners was sive, subconscious manifestation of past largely linked to people meeting in select issues — she’s fairly certain she knows social environments like schools, which who her type is supposed to emulate. already narrow down the dating pool to She describes her ideal partner as a curly- a specific demographic. In this sense, the haired person with strong leadership proverbial sea of available fish is more skills and an affinity for literature. This like a tank, so it makes sense that there’ll also happens to be an accurate descrip- be more similarities among the people tion of her ex: a boy she met in a coffee you date. shop that has yet to be outshined by any potential partners. This rings true for second-year Ryerson business management student Chantel “Whenever I’m meeting somebody Neubert. When she went to an all-girls new, I find myself making comparisons high school in Vancouver, she assumed between them and my ex,” she says. that her type was the basic, sporty white “Sometimes I find myself expecting the guy that seemed to be the typical choice new person to replicate or mirror the per- of partner for her peers. When she came son that I dated before, and I get super to Ryerson to study business, however, disappointed when they don’t. That’s a she found her preferences shifting and bad thing, I think, but I don’t really know becoming more malleable. what to do about it.” “Before, I held this sort of ideal in my mind For now, Hura has resolved to try dating but I never exercised it,” she says. “Now again when she’s a little older and looking there’s more options.”

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Having gone from living room fish tank to Ripley’s Aquarium, Neubert now feels she has more leeway to explore what she wants and doesn’t want in a partner. She’s even started differentiating between what works for a short-term partner and what works for the long term, with the latter being someone with the same cultural background and a good sense of adventure. When the right time comes, she says that she hopes to meet this ideal person organically.

the data analysis couldn’t accurately match couples at all.

In a 2017 study, Joel tried to find out if it was possible to predict whether or not two people would be attracted to each other based on their definition of their ideal partner. Three hundred and fifty students filled out a 30-minute questionnaire about the traits and preferences they’d like to have in an ideal envisioned partner. The researchers then used machine learning, similar to the algorithmic methods used by dating websites, to predict which couples would be particularly well-matched. The subjects then went on a series of four-minute speed dates, and subsequently reported how they went.

The 2017 study could also mean, though, that attraction is a dynamic, elusive process that science can’t predict, Joel says. When you take away the scientific hypotheses, logical proposals and Freudian theories, the explanation we’re left with is the romantic one. Maybe we fall for people accidentally-on-purpose, or when we’re least expecting it, or because the stars aligned that day and it was meant to be. Or maybe the only explanation is that there is no explanation.

“What we’ve found when we actually get people making real relationship decisions is that these preferences tend to sort of go out the window,” says Joel. “People really just make their decision based on whether they feel attracted to a person. And we can’t seem to figure out what causes that.”

Essentially, the study shows that the types Often, theories of attraction are prefaced and criteria we say we’re attracted to on the idea that external factors or sub- have nothing to do with who we actually conscious factors are the ones making find attractive. Joel says that humans are decisions about our dating lives. But expert pattern-recognizers, so it’s more what about the types that we speak into likely that we’re deriving a type from the existence: the descriptions we give to similarities we find in our past partners. dating sites, matchmaker quizzes and nosey aunts alike when they ask “what’s Joel notes, however, that further research could find the predictors of attraction. your type?” Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble For these answers to hold true, we present a new challenge, where potenhave to know what we want in a part- tial partners are primarily presented on ner. According to Dr. Samantha Joel, a the basis of physical appearance and psychology professor at the University proximity, rather than a detailed analysis of Western Ontario and director of its of character traits like hobbies and life aspirations. Relationship Decisions Lab, we don’t.

The results were anything but affirming:

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Regardless of reason, the best “type” you can hope for is someone that will make you happy.