VOICES

Body Checking Isn’t Just a Trend, It’s an Epidemic

HANNAH DANE Co-copy Editor

In the entrance of the Alexis Nihon Mall’s women’s bathroom, Ana Benitez, an 18-year-old, scrolls through TikTok as she waits for her friend to come out. “I hate these videos,” she says, pressing “not interested” on one of a girl pulling at the hem of her shirt, showing off her toned abs; “it’s like they want me to develop an eating disorder.” As TikTok has recently gained a massive rise in popularity, body-checking trends have been increasingly prominent in everyday scrolling. According to Central Coast Treatment Centre, a recovery facility for patients with eating disorders, “body checking is the compulsive checking or tracking of your body’s shape, size, weight, or other physical features.” Online, body checking disguises itself through short, eye-catching videos like a young girl lip-syncing to a song while pulling her sweater to reveal a slim figure or a young man flexing his defined biceps in the mirror. As these clips gain traction, the normalization of body checking can be alarming for TikTok’s audience. According to Thomas Holmes, a youth social worker at the Douglas Mental Health Institute, this issue stems from a basic emotional need for attachment. As TikTok attracts a mass audience of pre-teens and young adults, users find a sense of solidarity through posting within a carefully curated community of like-minded people. As users share their figures, the shame they once felt about their body can be reversed into pride over the control they have mastered. Often, this leads to compulsive behaviors offline, like obsessively monitoring food intake or exercise to maintain that sense of control, thus possibly triggering deeper issues like anorexia, bulimia, or muscle dysmorphia. “I try to avoid these as much as I can,” Ana said. “I usually try to scroll past it, but I used to struggle to ignore these videos. You see girls with perfect shapes and end up hating what you see in the mirror, picking apart body features you can’t change, wondering if you can look like that too. It’d make me spiral and feel ashamed for even thinking about it.” However, avoiding these kinds of videos appears to be easier said than done. In recent light of body positivity movements around body acceptance on TikTok and fat-positive users seeking to call out pro-eating disorder behaviors like body checking, many popular influencers have come under fire for spreading unhealthy behaviors in their videos. Users like @becamichie, a fashion model with 105 thousand followers who posts videos about their workout routines or daily outfits, have been called out for using their platform as a disguise for body checking. Many users reposting Michie’s original videos would point out certain harmful actions displayed. Some harmful activities include turning to the side while leaning slightly back or pulling loose clothing tight on their figure. Afterward, the user’s reposting pushed the model to delete a few more controversial posts.

As social media grows and becomes increasingly competitive, people develop a need to create a desirable persona in a marketplace of consumerism, thus becoming a consumable product themselves.

However, despite this push for a healthier TikTok, it seems much of the app’s content has been left unchanged, its algorithm still promoting even the most obvious body-checking videos. As the words “body checking” have been recently banned by the app to suppress the trend, numerous new hashtags like #bodychek and #bodych3cking, purposely misspelled to avoid being reported, have accumulated up to 8.3 million views according to the TikTok search page. As social media grows and becomes increasingly competitive, people develop a need to create a desirable persona in a marketplace of consumerism, thus becoming a consumable product themselves. “The pressure to perform to find a good nest, a safe place with people who care and understand, heightens the stress of competitiveness. For many, this has fueled a need to post their bodies as a way to find validation from others, especially on a platform where it’s so easily accessible,” Holmes explained.

The app has now added a link to the National Eating Disorder Information Centre when a user tries to search up the words “body check”. As society’s ruthless body standards live on, so will body checking. Nevertheless, as we move forward with rising movements around body positivity and fat acceptance, perhaps social media could also serve as a place for rehabilitation and recovery, with communities forming to encourage support instead of self-destruction. Body acceptance is and will always be an enormous feat. And though it can be so tempting to give in to our vices, comparing our own breathing and growing bodies to the carefully curated ones we see online, the human body will, above all, always be a vessel in need of care, comfort, and nourishment, and we should give it a chance to simply exist. p p

The Man Behind the Mystery: What is Going on with Dawson’s Escalators?

ASPEN CRICK & EMMY RUBIN Staff Writer & Co-Copy Editor

What is the true essence of Dawson? The Blues? Campus life? The never-ending slew of bake sales? When most students think of Dawson and what defines it, the first thing that comes to mind is the broken escalator connecting the first-floor atrium with the second floor. Although this phenomenon is so infamous, nobody knows why we are forced to live this cursed life. Many theories have popped up, ranging from logical to fantastical. Starting with the fantastical theories, Alice Boulianne, visual arts editor, responded with a shocking idea: “I’m starting to think that there might be rats just like being a cult and trying to sabotage this whole system.” Alice, you may be onto something. Jasper Shah, a second-year General Social Science student, believes “...maybe if this problem has only come recently, then maybe it’s like a student that’s a prankster and messes with the escalators on purpose”. While Liberal Arts Student, Lavinia Profir, provides a more rational theory: “I guess my theory on why escalators don’t work is that sometimes some student may have dropped a small object and it messes up the whole mechanism or engineers just feel like they’re slowing down or something and they want to check if there’s a problem with the mechanism itself.” “I also wonder why it’s always the bottom one? Very often the one at the bottom that’s broken more often. So what’s going on with that?” asked third-year Interactive Media Arts student Colin Chae. What’s the story behind that, as they ask?

The answer: mission accepted. Besides being a newspaper that employs student writers, it also metamorphoses them into fledgling investigative journalists. After hearing the cries of the Dawson student body, Emmy Rubin made it her ultimate goal to find out what happened to the escalator during the “dark times” (the month the escalator didn’t work). Not knowing where to start, Emmy started at the beginning. Who would know the escalators and the Dawson mechanical functions best? The janitors! At precisely 1:22 pm on Monday the 21st, Emmy lay in wait in the back of Conrods drinking a medium caramel ice cap. Completely anonymous, she spotted one of Dawson’s trusty custodians emptying the garbage. After a few words of encouragement from her visiting Marionopolis friend, she walked up to the custodian and demanded he tell her who was in charge of the escalator havoc. He asked if she spoke French. She tried and failed. But, swooping in, the friend managed to put Emmy’s garbled French into something that resembled a sentence. The custodian pointed them toward the 2E hallway. Walking down to the end of 2E, Emmy had no idea where she was going. Luckily, one of Dawson’s reliable security guards was sitting in the security booth! Again, she demanded more directions from the escalator people. He asked if she spoke French. The Marionopolis friend was forced to step in. Again. Once he understood what they were looking for, the security guard gladly pointed the way to the office where they could find answers. Which was right behind them. Charging into the office with purpose in her eyes, Emmy demanded some sort of - goddamnit - answers for the third and final time! It turns out the person who had all the answers was out. Natalie Trepanier, the Facilities Manager at Dawson, was kind enough to provide her with this source’s email address. A very urgent email beseeching the source for some sort of statement, some form of an answer to the frustrating predicament of the escalators, was masterfully sent out. When no reply came for three days, Emmy realized she was being ghosted. Not giving up just yet, Emmy returned to the office, hoping to find the source. He was out again, but he would be in the next day. The next day, back in the office, ready to end all of this madness, Emmy finally got to speak to the source. And this, dear readers, is the long-awaited explanation, the end to the conspiracies and the theories - this is the story.

When no reply came for three days, Emmy realized she was being ghosted.

Dawson has an elevator fixing company called Otis under its employ. Otis itself employs a person specially trained to fix escalators. While the source was out on vacation in October, “John retired from Otis, and they had to replace him.” Apparently, not only were they missing the most important repairman in Montreal, the man who can fix the Dawson escalators, but they were also missing a crucial part of the escalator that, without it, even with the best repairman on this godforsaken planet, the escalator still wouldn’t work. As the source put it, “The escalators are a specialty […] it was a coincidence of many things. John retired, I was on vacation, John retired […], and they were short-staffed. Our elevator people? They’re very short-staffed. They didn’t replace the escalator guy for a month.” Then, once they finally hired the new escalator-man, they had to wait for the part to come. Which took a very, very long time. After finding out the cold hard truth of the case, Emmy was still hungry for answers instead of feeling satisfied. So, she ventured to ask the most important question: what about all the other times? To which the all-knowing source answered: “They said it was one of the safety switches on the side of the escalator that got tripped.” p p

Twitter Faces Unstable Grounds: An Overview of Elon Musk’s Latest Acquisition

SIMONE BÉLANGER Arts & Culture Editor

The chances are that you have probably heard the name Elon Musk way too many times. According to Forbes, he is the wealthiest man in 2022. If you adhere to and believe in hustle culture, make Elon Musk your reference. Not only is he attractive based on the ten children he has fathered, but he has also found himself a new career as a comedian. Elon Musk recently saved Twitter from bankruptcy when he paid $44 billion to acquire this major social network. Not only is Twitter a politics and news platform, but also a medium for celebrities, businesses, activists, and everyone to exchange opinions. Why would the owner of SpaceX and Tesla invest in Twitter? Well, Musk declares, “having a plan.” When many Twitter users anticipated the changes, some controversy erupted. Would there be more hate speech? Would some banned individuals like Donald Trump be allowed back on the platform? Although Elon Musk did not reveal his next move, he did assure that the platform would allow all voices to be heard. First, Elon Musk attempted to find advertisers since 80% of advertisements account for Twitter’s revenue. Then, the Elon era fully began with the massive layoffs of employees. The upper management was all fired, including the chair, Bret Taylor, and other important executives. Not too long after, employees received a mail ultimatum to either prepare for out-of-this-world work hours or to be fired with a 3-month severance pay. Many chose the latter. Journalists called this the “Twitter exodus” as many employees left the platform and took it upon themselves to expose Elon Musk on Twitter. Elon Musk fired half of his team and is still tasked with getting the platform out of debt. The billionaire promised new features to Twitter. Anyone can now have a blue checkmark for $8 a month. This entails the famous blue checkmark and the assurance that your tweets will appear more to others. He also promised to ban “fakes” who mainly tried to imitate him. Then, the “free speech absolutist” proposed a content moderation feature where people would have to pay for certain content. Many activist groups expressed their worry about the new changes on Twitter. They feared that disinformation and hate speech would prevail. The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, pressured Twitter to “stand up for the rights to privacy and free expression” of individuals. As many workers have been fired, the staff is very limited in assuring the authenticity of the news and protecting users’ rights. During the US midterm elections, the verification team at Twitter had a harder time controlling information. Elon Musk lost credibility when he realized that he fired too many people and needed a workforce to make his “plans” a reality. Recent news did not come as a surprise when kickboxer star Andrew

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, pressured Twitter to “stand up for the rights to privacy and free expression” of individuals.

Tate, Former US president Donald Trump, and Kanye West were unbanned from Twitter. They probably wondered if they were missed because of their big egos. Many already skeptical users decided to leave Twitter after the news. If this new Musk-Twitter era isn’t for you, why not switch to another platform? Mastodon is a great contender, according to many previous Twitter users. If you prefer sticking to Twitter, beware of future changes. They might blow your mind, but not as much as reading false lies!

Sources:

The Guardian Up first Podcast

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Here we are at the end of the semester! As you reach the top of this mountain, take a moment to admire the view, and look down at all that you have done in order to get here. Take a deep breath. You should be proud of yourself. I hope that once you’ve submitted your last essay and put the finishing touches on your final projects, you can take the time to sit down and savour these wonderful poems.

Creative Writing by

EMMA MAJAURY Creative Writing Editor

The Capacity of your Love (part 2 of November’s poem)

TOKA SIYAM Contributor

You get overwhelmed by the capacity of your love

By the conditions and the way your heart still breaks

Even when you thought it was shattered to pieces You shut them all out because you can’t bear to be hurt again Why don’t they love me like I love them ? your shadow is keeping you hostage Away from everyone who loves you because what if they don’t ?

Because love is so hard to understand, the kid inside never learned it

And so you live to be haunted by it

Artwork by Dean Daltrius and Sophia Nathaniel

@DEANDALTRIUS @SOPHIA_NATHANIEL

Artwork by Lulu Kaufmann