Through Love, We Unite: Intersectional Feminism and The LGBTQ2S+ Community (Volume 2)

WaterDamagedPaperAnthology

through love, we unite

a collection of art and writing created by youth from across the world topic: intersectional feminism and the LGBTQ2S+ community

TravelsAlongRainbowRoad

by Rye Orrange

maybe the day i realized it was the day i found myself surrounded by the ghosts of a past life the voices that spoke to me through the walls of my mind telling me that i wasn’t in the place i was meant to be. it was a soft but urgent push a gasp of my reality through the lenses of truth and desire. i’ve seen queerness as a concept of “other” since my first time watching TV since my first walk down a school hallway the language and tone leading me to see an identity as something other than what was normal. it was something that existed as a concept in my mind yet that idea was one that was foreign to me a place halfway across the world inaccessible by the resources i had. it was a destination that sparked interest my curiosity boiling until a zap of cool reality reminded me that this destination was one i would never arrive at. when the path to queerness presented itself a lifetime later it was a door hanging half open.

i could see the light of another reality shining through one that was so near close enough to cast glimpses of into my mind allowing me to for the first time acknowledge a different world one that was not foreign or different but one that would let me feel the warmth of a place where i was finally meant to arrive.

it is a place of beauty and love fear and vulnerability power and resistance. i didn’t know that a home could be found in the arms of a million strangers until i finally arrived safe and sound. home.

WomeninFilm

by Paisley Saggu

This photo series is very much inspired by Cindy Sherman’s series Untitled Film Stills, which I had the privilege of seeing at the recent Cindy Sherman exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I have always been a movie fanatic, and this little quarantine project was an homage to that. It showcases the value of women in cinema, as well as my desire to see more women filmmakers, writers, directors, editors, composers, cinematographers (you name it) finding success in mainstream Hollywood. The following images were shot by my talented younger sister on a disposable camera.

"PulpFiction"

inspired by Mia Wallace (played by Uma Thurman)

"Psycho"

"Ladybird" inspired by Christine McPherson (played by Saoirse Ronan)

inspired by Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh)

MoreThanAStatistic

by Anonymous

content warnings: sexual assault, groping, domestic violence

I was too young to understand my experiences when they first happened, blamed it on circumstance and never thought to share my story because others had it so much worse. It has taken me so many drafts to write this in a way that isn’t too graphic but still accurate to my experiences. Maybe someone will read this and feel less alone.

The first time it happened, I was on a bus heading home from school. We passed the usual stops by the hospital, the park with the purple monkey bars, and my favorite bakery. I remember the way my backpack felt resting against my knees, pounds heavier from the many textbooks I had taken home that day. The hourlong commute was made bearable by a few friends who kept me company but they would all get off at stops earlier than mine.

As overdramatic as it may sound, there was always a sadness in being the last person to reach her destination. One by one they would leave the bus to trek home while I remained on for another handful of stops. I could feel my eyes slowly begin to shut. It had been a long day filled with far too many tests and not enough sleep. If it wasn't for the uneven roads, I would have probably dozed off that afternoon.

After a few minutes passed, my friend announced that she would be getting off at the next stop. I nodded in acknowledgement before wishing her a good rest of the day. With a final wave out the back door of the bus, she was gone. It was then that a man in his late 30s took her place in the seat next to me. There was a heavily creased map in his hands with colorful markings across i

intersections and tourist spots. Feeling slightly uneasy about his presence, I shifted a bit in my seat before moving my backpack between us. Nonetheless, the man leaned over, reaching under my backpack to place a rough hand on my upper thigh. He smelled strongly of cigarette smoke and suddenly, that became the only thing I could focus on. In school, we are taught about our fight or flight response, but at that moment, I found myself completely paralyzed. No one around us seemed to notice what was happening, and if they did, they didn’t say anything.

What felt like several minutes later, I pushed his hand off of me and mustered the strength to stand up and walk towards the door of the bus. This was my stop. I was determined to get off. To my horror, the man followed closely behind me, the two of us making our way towards the crowded aisle. He took advantage of our close proximity and once again extended his hand but this time towards my chest. He then firmly squeezed with a subtle “not bad.” I left the bus with tears streaming down my face. To most people, I probably looked like just another hormonal teenage girl who had a rough day.

It took weeks before I could even think of mentioning the incident. People asked me why I hadn’t said anything, screamed, made any noise at all, as if unsolicited touching is ever okay. Receiving this response effectively silenced me once more.

That year was brutal. In addition to being groped on public transit more than once and hurt by people I thought were my friends, I had witnessed my father rape my mother on more than one occasion. Each time, she would leave his room crying hysterically. Sometimes it would get so bad that she'd tell me to pack an overnight bag so we could stay in a hotel. What I couldn't make sense of as a 10-year-old was why we always returned if the abuse continued. I didn't know that my father had restricted her access to their bank account to make her financially dependent.

Like anyone would, I began comparing my mother's experiences to my own. My struggles were nothing compared to what she had gone through and I felt so useless for not doing anything. If I ever brought up the topic or even suggested something had happened, she would dismiss it. That’s just the kind of household I grew up in and it’s part of the reason why it’s taken me over four years to say anything about the many times I've been subjected to nonconsensual touching by older men.

Things like that stick with you. The most obvious example for me is my tendency to avoid taking public transit whenever I can. I don't care if the walk takes an hour, I'd rather do that. Sure, people think I'm cheap as hell or stubborn but it's become second nature at this point. I also have trust issues, specifically when it comes to guys. Talking to friends and a therapist about things has helped me with coping.

To conclude, it has taken me a long time to get to where I am today. Things are still mediocre at best but I know I am not alone is a comforting thought. My heart goes out to all the people, especially womxn, girls, and LGBTQ+ youth, who have been sexually assaulted. With the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, times have not been easy for those of us who live in unsafe households.

Your trauma is no less valid than anyone else’s. There are so many statistics that fail to include the voices of those who cannot or have not come forward. However, that does not make their stories any less real. I am more than a number saying something bad has happened to me. Yes, it’s cliché, but I think we all need to believe it to live it.

So, remind yourself that in spite of everything, you are no less deserving of love. You too are more than a statistic.

LoveisLove

by Erin Longstein

TheGenderWageGap

by Veronica Miranda

A gender wage gap is an indicator of women ’ s economic inequality that exists in every country of the world. The gap itself varies by country, but even a few cents difference has visible impacts. All women experience a pay difference from their male counterparts. It can increase when you factor in things like race, being an immigrant, having a disability, or being a mother.

In 2016, Canada had the 8th highest wage gap out of 43 countries. It is important to know that Canada is ranked after the European Union, which was listed as a single country, but includes twenty-eight countries. In Canada, the average woman earns 75¢ for every dollar a man earns, yet some women earn even less than that. Annually, there is a $7,200 gap between a man ’ s salary and a woman ’ s. This means that it takes fifteen and a half months for a woman to earn how much a man makes in twelve.

The gap is even larger for Indigenous women, visible minorities, newcomers, and those living with disabilities. Indigenous women earn 65¢ for every dollar earned by a non-Indigenous male colleague. Immigrant women earn 71¢ cents to every dollar, and racialized women earn sixty-seven cents for every dollar. Women who have a disability experience a 46% pay gap, only earning 54¢ cents for every man ’ s dollar.

Motherhood also plays a big part in the gender wage gap. It is said that women face a “motherhood penalty” whereas men have a “fatherhood bonus.” Statistics from 2015 show that mothers who have at least one child under the age of 18, earn 85¢ for every dollar earned by fathers. To compare, women without children earn a reported 90¢ for every dollar earned by men. This which leads many mothers to change their jobs or get a job with more fam

family-friendly or accommodating hours. Yet, these options are mainly only available for women in the upper and middle classes. This means that women from low-income backgrounds can face additional barriers after becoming mothers because the flexibility is not available.

Women are also at a higher risk of poverty, due to the wage gap. In Canada alone, 30% of single mothers are raising their children in poverty. As well, 34% of Indigenous women and 21% of women of colour live in poverty. You may ask, why do so many more women face poverty than men? Well, women are more likely to be pressured to sacrifice their careers/career opportunities for a better work-home balance. Women also spend more time doing unpaid work like caring for family members, which limits the amount of time they have to do paid work.

Well, how do we fix this? It is said that if we continue moving forward how we have in the past; it will take more than two centuries to close the gender wage gap. We can help by breaking down the barriers working women face in certain work settings. We can also push for more workplaces to provide support such as childcare, paternal leave, and daycares to the women who work in their companies.

Another thing we can do is challenge the gender stereotypes that say which jobs are appropriate for men and which are appropriate for women. The gender wage gap is still very real and present, especially for those women who are deemed different or unworthy by society. Let’s stop that today!

BirthdayQueer

Meg Winn is a Minnesota native who currently attends Carthage College pursuing a bachelor’s degree in studio art. Their work is an exploration of their identity as a chronically ill non-binary person. In conceptualizing their work they’ve learned to work with a multitude of mediums but their first love has always been printmaking. Their work has been featured in the Print Austin art trade and H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art.

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SocialMedia&BodyImage

by Izzie Rackham

content warnings: eating disorders, depression

People are constantly sharing photos on social media that portray a life that is not true to the one they really live. Someone may seem so happy on Instagram when they are actually dealing with major depression. Photoshop can be used as a way of adjusting one ’ s looks to become what society deems beautiful. People naturally flock to compliment those who have achieved supposed perfection in being conventionally thin and that only fuels a want to be an unrealistic and unhealthy version of yourself.

As a 16-year-old girl, I can admit that I am consumed by my phone for the majority of the day. This has only worsened with COVID-19 keeping us all at home. I almost always have some type of screen in front of me. So, how does this affect the mental health and body image of the average social media user? According to Tabitha Farrar in the article “Body Image of Women,” over 50% of nine and ten-year-old girls feel better about themselves if they are on a diet in an attempt to lose weight.

Social media strongly contributed to my negative self-image, which eventually led me to develop an eating disorder. This past year, I have fought a silent battle way too many women have to fight. There’s a constant comparison battle that the media creates for women in particular. There is always an ad or an influencer who targets our vulnerability with a comparison of how we are and how we should be. I found myself struggling with this for many months and even still I do not always look in the mirror and love what I see. I began to believe that I was not good enough simply because my body was not the same as it had been freshman year, which it should not be. It is natural for a woman ' s kd=

body to change and develop in her teenage years but I began obsessing over whether or not I was fat. Because being anything other than thin attracts so much negativity in our culture, I fell into a deep depression.

During this time, I started working out excessively and starved myself for days. When I did eat, I counted to make sure everything totalled less than one hundred calories per day. In January of the following year, I was admitted into the hospital. Although most of my friends were supportive, I was not skin and bones thin, so my family dismissed my eating disorder. They told me that there was no problem and refused to listen when I talked about the pain I was in. Seeing dozens of pictures of perfect skinny women on social media only worsened my troubles.

I recently read a report that said nearly 70% percent of normal weighted women wanted to be thinner and 53% of thirteen-yearold American girls are unhappy with their bodies. This number grows to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen. These figures really show how widespread the problem of negative body image is for women. With younger and younger girls being exposed to photographs of tall, thin models who supposedly portray beauty, it is almost guaranteed that she too will aspire to look that way. I would like to quickly mention that men also struggle with eating disorders. These are not just things women deal with. However, they are more adversely impacted.

Knowing this, how can we then curb the societal pressure placed especially upon teenage girls to be skinny? Social media platforms could alter their community guidelines to filter out content that encourages individuals to rapidly lose weight or diet. Body positivity should be promoted. You can be an advocate by using your platform to share your personal experiences and help make discussions about eating disorders less taboo.

We have seen a rise in celebrities being open to their followers about their own struggles with body image. This goes to show that no matter how amazing life may look from the outside, even the people we idolize and think of as perfect have their insecurities, doubts, and anxieties too. We are all human. Here are some quotes from women in the limelight whose honesty about body image inspires me:

“I've had more days than I can count where I found myself scrolling through Instagram comparing myself, comparing my looks, feeling like I'm not good enough, feeling like I lack so many things and really struggling to be confident. I constantly feel like I'm just not good enough. Every single day is a confidence battle for me. ” – Hailey Bieber

“I know what it’s like to have an eating disorder and body dysmorphia — and also what it’s like to be a friend to someone who has that. I think it’s time to give people comfort. You have to eat. You have to stop thinking that a certain body shape is ideal, because it’s not.” – Lana Condor

“I’ve had people put pressure on me to lose weight or oversexualize my body because it doesn’t look infantile. Not just when it comes to my body, but when it comes to anything. If I have anxiety about something and I can’t source where it’s coming from, I’ll get in the mirror and be like, 'Okay, girl. We bout to figure this out. What’s going on?' And we talk through it, me and my reflection.” — Amandla Stenberg

"I’ve felt very insecure due to the expectation that people have for women on TV... This is still something I struggle with on a daily basis and it doesn’t help when I’m being compared to other women. I have gained weight due to depression the last two months and I’ve felt very insecure about it… So, I commend the women who have helped our industry take a step in the right direction.” — Lili Reinhart

"I don’t think that loving yourself is a choice. I think that it’s a decision that has to be made for survival; it was in my case. Loving myself was the result of answering two things: Do you want to live? Cause this is who you ’ re gonna be for the rest of your life. Or are you gonna just have a life of emptiness, self-hatred and self-loathing? And I chose to live, so I had to accept myself. That's th l ac I h s to w wh e m

GuiltandApologies

by Anonymous

content warnings: suicide, transphobia

I am sorry for the change in language

For the uncomfortable conversations and broken stability

I am sorry for the strangers staring For the sins and shame of everyday living

There seems to be no way for me to win

If I kill myself, I hurt you

If I do what I must to live happily, I hurt you So, what am I supposed to do?

Tension, it's always present You don’t see the way I have to validate and defend myself How it has become mandatory for me to accept ignorance As a part of life and assume the role of constant educator

I am sorry you lost a daughter But your refusal to accept me as your son is your own doing And now that I have finally made peace with who I am You cannot tell me I chose to feel this pain

I never asked to be this way To hurt you, myself, or anyone And I tried to comfort you even when I wasn't welcomed But you didn't see me as myself anymore

This is survival Days filled with guilt and apologies

Madonna

by Shanti Cordoni-Jordan

Madonna’s stardom extends beyond her career as a performer. She was outspoken about the need for awareness and research during the AIDS epidemic and has dedicated many songs to friends she lost. Madonna uses her charity Raising Malawi to support children & families affected by AIDS who live in poverty. She also helped bring voguing, a queer art form that originates from Harlem’s drag ball scene, into the mainstream. For her 1990 VMAs performance, she invited a number of drag queens to share the stage. Another act of allyship took place during the 2013 GLAAD Media Awards, where Madonna dressed as a Cub Scout to call on the Boy Scouts of America to include LGBTQ+ youth.

SpringCleaning

by Meg Winn

TaekwondoGirl

by Brianna Mei

October of 2014 was one of the worst times of my life because my mom signed me up for a sparring course with just one month before the taekwondo tournament. There were three reasons why I hated my mom for doing this without asking me beforehand. One: I hated taekwondo. The past five years of classes were absolute torture. Two: I hadn’t sparred very much up until then, nor was I good at it, so the idea of participating in a tournament basically sounded like a voluntary human-beanbag experience. Three: the one-month, high-performance sparring program also sounded like a human-beanbag experience, but with boys. I was so frustrated and overwhelmed and scared that my neurons malfunctioned and steam was almost fuming out of my ears and nostrils. Why me of all people?! The sparring class was an all boys class at the time because there were no girls who liked to spar. Neither did I, but I didn' t have a choice.

Training in that class was super intimidating. Lucky for me, I was paired up with the best guy in class every class because the coach had to improve my technique in time for the competition. Everything about him was scary his footwork, his kicks, his eyes, all of it. Every time the coach paired us up, the would roll his eyes and his friends would giggle. I had a great plan in mind. I would intentionally weaken my defence and pretend to not understand the kicking techniques I was being taught. Seeing my lack of improvement, the coach would probably give up on me and tell my mom I shouldn’t participate in the competition.

Freedom. Would. Be. Mine!! It would be a bit painful, since I would have to get kicked by my partner a lot more for the coach to believe my act, but on a long-term basis, it was definitely worth it.

But was it?

Damn. I was too stubborn to give up my dignity, especially in front of people who belittled me from the start. I figured it wasn’t worth it to quit - when I was actually starting to enjoy sparring and was improving - just for the sake of not seeing those boys again. So instead I decided to train twice as hard at classes to prove that I was worth it.

I ended up miraculously winning all three of my matches at the tournament a month later, and I decided to continue sparring training. Slowly, the wall between the boys and I started to take itself down. It took quite a few years, but I won their respect, and I gave them mine.

We lived happily ever after? Not quite yet.

Fast forward a couple years, I’m no longer competing in sparring because I switched to poomsae (which means “form” in Korean), but I still go to sparring training and I still have that competitive mind-set in gear. We’re at that weird stage where some of us have already gone through puberty, some haven’t, and some are in the middle of it. The sandy voices and acne were definitely topics that were brought up in our spare time (we wouldn’t waste any chance of sabotaging one another, it was hilarious), but as Taekwondo athletes, what we noticed the most was our change in physical strength. Technically, their change. I kinda just stayed the same. My strength improved, but just like it always did - at a regular kiok

pace, little by little. The guys, on the other hand, were suddenly so much stronger that I felt as if I time travelled back to my first month of sparring training…

I was still a decent fighter, but it was obvious my ranking in the class was falling. I was frustrated and confused. Did I return to the start just because I was a girl?

In retrospect, the younger me must have been really stupid and immature to not have noticed sooner. And I didn’t even find out on my own. It only hit me during a conversation with some of my teammates. We were chilling and playing cards after an early dinner. The next day was competition day, so our coach gave us the night off. We were talking about random stuff when someone asked, completely out of the blue "Do you guys remember our sparring trainings on Thursdays?”

“Yea,

why?”

“Nothing. It was just fun. I wish we still had them.” "Yea. It was. But Brianna was so scary then.”

I looked up from my deck. It was my first sparring partner who said that. Partially confused, partially offended, I asked, “Me? You were scared of me? Do you even know how intimidating you were?

I added a scoff and rolled my eyes as far back as my sockets would allow just to make my point extra clear.

“Yea! Do you know how hard you kicked? And you never talked.”

I stared at him for a solid five seconds. The world is flat. My mom ’ s a millionaire. Anything was more believable than what he just said.

“So, you guys never hated me or anything because I’m a girl?”

“Well, we were like what, 10? 11? Of course, we thought it was weird for a girl to join the class at first. We thought you’d be bad. But afterwards, most of us just didn't know what to say to you. ”

I realized that I had beat Trump to it and built my very own wall back in 2014. It was meant to protect me from a world of sexism and the rude boys, but really what it did was deepen our misunderstanding and encourage my immature mindset. I was so caught up with “I have to be better than the boys” that I thought all I wanted was to beat them, and I was completely wrong. Sure, I continued sparring at first just to spite the boys, but taekwondo really became my passion after a few months of competitive training. Yet, all I thought about in sparring class was how to defeat the enemy, even though I wasn’t even the aggressive type of athlete at competitions.

Of course, they did become my close teammates and friends eventually, and I even subconsciously started to look up to them, but I still couldn't get rid of the ranking system in my head. My the

theory was that as long as I was ranked number 1, no one would look down on me because I was a girl. My pride and confidence made up this virtual ranking system, which is why those things crumbled so easily when I saw how fast the boys improved.

After I dug out my mistakes, I wrote the inverse formulas to figure out what a healthy mindset was. My conclusion: I can compare myself to guys, but not exclusively, because the most important person to compete against and reflect upon is myself. I can be competitive against boys, but instead of making them my enemy, see them as a goal I want to reach, or perhaps surpass. I can prove that I’m a good athlete, but not for other people, for myself. I can get mad at boys who discriminate me because of my gender, but I shouldn’t gamble my passion just to get back at them.

The international taekwondo community has been doing a great job over the past years of modernizing this traditionally maledominated sport. More women are encouraged to become referees, grandmasters are supporting many female masters in opening their own dojangs, etc. Of course, there is still room for much improvement since it is difficult to balance modern values with the traditional culture and values of this Korean martial art. But this integration is the taekwondo community’s ultimate goal.

TheWeightof GenderExpectations

by Sanam Sangha

For there to be gender equality we must rid the world of gender expectations. I think back to one of my favourite quotations by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from her TEDx Talk We should all be feminists. Adichie states that “The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn’t have the weight of gender expectations.”

I remember hearing those words for the first time and realizing just how deeply I related to them. Growing up I have personally experienced the impacts of gender expectations. I’ve heard my grandpa tell my cousin that, as a girl, she should be helping in the kitchen with the cooking. I have been told that because I am a boy that I must become tougher and stronger. Now, anyone who knows me knows that although I am a shy, empathetic person, I am certainly no pushover. But because of gender expectations, in the past, I have sometimes felt the need to change the way I am in order to conform to what I am expected to behave like. This is why I believe we must commit to ridding the world of gender expectations.

As a member of my school’s Youth Feminist Association for the past three years I have gained many amazing experiences and have learned how to reject gender expectations. This has helped me to accept myself for who I am and I no longer ever feel the need to conform. As youth, we ’ ve inherited society’s today but we are responsible for creating our tomorrow. Gender equality will ensure a tomorrow where we are able to be our true selves, without expectations dictated by gender.

They/Them

by Cas Newton

i cannot tell you how i long i hid away in the forest begging for someone to tell me it wasn't true

i cannot remember the number of years i spent staring at the person in the mirror who was unknown to me

that's the problem: never belonging constantly walking the line between liberation and conformity just a step away from falling over time, i learned to sit in the discomfort find strength in the things that once scared me and learn that my freedom doesn't need a label or binary i am cas transforming, transient, transparent t r a n s

ByTheWater

by Layann Montgomery

BildLilliandBarbie

by Lina Bäcker

content warnings: body dysmorphia, restrictive eating, ableism, and sexual objectification

The Barbie doll was created by Ruth Handler in 1959. She began the project with the vision that "[she] would be pretty, but not so specifically pretty that girls could not imagine themselves in [her] place… because [Ruth] didn’t want girls to be intimidated… Its figure would be what a girl might want to pretend to have as a teenager. [Ruth] wanted them to dream their dreams through Barbie.” Though many are familiar with the perfect pink fantasy world of Barbie, the original design was inspired by a far less kidfriendly German doll named Bild Lilli. Based on a comic by the same name, Bild Lilli was a hypersexualized, gold-digging sex symbol, known equally for her looks and suggestive comebacks.

She was popular among German men who could buy her dolls in tobacco kiosks and bars. It would be ignorant to think dolls like Bild Lilli are fully responsible for the objectification of women in society because thousands, if not millions, of companies and products blatantly objectify women. This contribute to the diminishment of a woman ’ s worth other than her sexual value.

Back in America, Mattel was hard at work brainstorming how they could turn this promiscuous German doll into a children’s toy. They feared that retailers would criticize Barbie for her sex appeal. What few people questioned was how the doll would idealize an impossible body type. It is no secret that Barbie’s figure is both unrealistic and unhealthy. In fact, there are well-documented studies that show how kids who play with Barbie dolls are more likely to develop reduced self-esteem, a desire for thinness, and restrictive eating behaviors.

Barbie dolls have also come under fire for their dismissiveness towards minorities, disabled people, and those with skin conditions like vitiligo. When the first African-American Barbie was produced, manufacturers produced significantly less dolls than they would lpok

have for a standard white doll. This was a deliberate decision made by Mattel, who did not anticipate for it to be a commercial hit. Thirty years after this, Share-a-Smile Becky was released. She was the first Barbie doll who used a wheelchair. Where did Mattel go wrong with this? Becky’s wheelchair was incompatible with all of the company ’ s dreamhouses and other standardized Barbie accessories. As one article stated, “the frame of the doll’s chair did not fit into the house’s front door, nor on the elevator of the house. Instead of modifying the dollhouse to make it [more accessible], Mattel discontinued the Becky dolls altogether.”

Although we have seen some improvements since the creation of the first Barbie in the late 50s, companies like Mattel should not only be releasing diverse products because it is the trendy thing to do, nor should they do so simply to appease their consumers. We must learn from the flaws of companies like Mattel and work towards creating more inclusive toys and products for everyone.

FridaKahlo

by Shanti Cordoni-Jordan

Frida Kahlo was a bisexual Mexican artist who is celebrated not only for her paintings but also her openness around female sexuality. Her modern attitudes and ability to explore them within her life and work have made her a beloved queer feminist icon. She was also known for challenging the norms of gender expression and beauty. Frida's infamous unibrow is a testament toward her refusal to conform to society’s perception of what a woman should look like. Some themes her art touched upon were infertility, the turbulent relationship she had with her husband Diego Rivera, and post-colonialism.

Cosmopolitan,Issue16

by Cate Freeborn

in these pages i ask what it could mean to live beyond myself, this body the telemarketers sold; to become a fraction, affixed to your fraction, making a sum, making it whole. i could be the two-fifths and you the remainder baby, i’ll whittle myself down if it means a smile. the steel moths in our intestines, the spines caressing sedimentary rock. last summer i molted my little-girl skin, popped an advil when i scraped tibia against b-cup. i can be your snake now, i can make your eyes bleed. i can wear the nice skirts, shave my legs, buy black eyeliner if it makes you happy. when i am bare i feel hollow. who taught me to make hollow for a man? who taught me it wouldn’t matter because i’d feel it anyway?

they always said sixteen is when love first rings the doorbell, drunk off his ass and drooling amphetamines; cracks a light and a beer can, teaches you third-grade addition in the attic dark. in the morning you’ll buy new powder from walmart, this time you’ll have the right face to make that love cement.

FeministsUnite

by Ishita Khambete

t sk f w f th d w I w e w r in

BierasureandBiphobia

by Stella Jeong

Defining Bisexuality

Bisexuality is commonly explained as an attraction to both genders. I think of it as more of an umbrella term that can include pansexual, queer, and all fluid people who are attracted to more than one gender. The Bisexual Resource Centre defines bisexuality as " a diverse sexual orientation, because people within the bi+ community define it in various ways. "

Explaining Bierasure

Bierasure occurs when people ignore, remove, or invalidate bisexuality. This can be found in history, the media, and academia. To provide an example, if a bi girl dates a guy, she is thought to be straight, but when that same bisexual girl dates a girl, she is called a lesbian. You can see why the word erasure is used because bisexuality is often treated like its illegitimate.

Bierasure Within the LGBTQ+ Community

This is something not a lot of people talk about. I can speak from experience when I say that being a bisexual in queer spaces can sometimes be uncomfortable and invalidating. After listening to similar stories and doing a bunch of research, I found that this feeling was not uncommon. Specifically, when it comes to bisexuals being with people of the opposite sex, it can be assumed that they are straight or an ally. Sometimes your LGBTQ+ friends argue that you ' re not queer enough or don't understand what it's really like to be a part of the community because they think you ' re privileged in being someone who passes as a straight person. This leaves you feeling alone and unseen. Other times, you get told that being bisexual is just a stepping stone in coming out as gay. All of these are examples of bierasure within the LGBTQ+ community, which sucks because we all should really be uplifting each other instead of spreading hatred.

Biphobia and Representation in Media

To simplify this section, let me just say that there is a huge lack of bisexual representation in media. In the off-chance that there is a bi character, they usually fall into a trope called the depraved bisexual. Bisexuality is paired with villainy, greed, promiscuity, and confusion. They feed into harmful stereotypes that see bisexual people as cheaters who are down for anything. This tells those who watch or read this content that thinking of bisexuality in that light is okay when it's not. Having that mindset can quickly turn into biphobic comments towards people in real life.

50% Gay, 50% Straight

One very common stereotype about bisexuals is that they are 50% gay and 50% straight. That just isn't true. There is no pie chart that can accurately define bisexuality. Maybe you find that your past relationships consist mostly of women and only sometimes of men. Cool, that doesn't make you less bisexual than someone who has found themselves attracted to more men than women or show an almost equal preference for all genders. What I am trying to say is that percentages don't matter. If you identify as bi, you are bi. It is that simple, my friends!

Take-Home Messages

There is a reason why bisexuality is the 'B' in LGBTQ+. As a bisexual person, you are no less queer than any other queer person in the community. You could be married to someone of the opposite sex and still identify as bisexual because your relationships do not define your sexuality. If you see someone being biphobic, please say something! To learn more about bisexuality, there are a bunch of cool podcasts, YouTube videos, and books you can turn to for information.

MessagefromtheArtist

I started the creation of this piece by drawing a girl that I thought was beautiful, or at least what society taught me was beautiful. I barely coloured the crown of flowers because it represents a plain, clear cut idea of what beauty was.

I started off with a mold that encompasses my stereotypical views on what defines femininity. I realized that it was a physical representation of the molds placed within our minds that define what something is and isn’t. I drew cracks along her face because I wanted to literally break that mold.

The gray hands represent the hands of those who want to open up to change, hands that long to colour the world. Colour, here, represents inclusivity. We tend to define things like it is one or the other. Black, white, and maybe a little gray, but the world is so much more than shades colours exist for a reason. They don’t exist so we can categorize and place things in a box, but rather to express and portray beauty in all things. To show that the world is far more complex.

Whether it is a mold placed upon beauty, feminism, gender identity, or sexuality, a mold is always meant to be unmolded.

Unmolded

by Charm Batilo

Disney'sRepresentationProblem

by Ally Horan

I grew up loving Disney movies, a similar experience for countless others of my generation. Throughout my youth, I remained an avid Disney fan, though in recent years I’ve noticed that the movies of my childhood had a complete lack of diversity, with talking animals a much more common occurrence in the Disney classics of the 20th century than a single person of colour. However, I do believe that diversity is slowly finding it’s way into various Disney works, many years too late.

I have been lucky to come of age as acceptance of the LGBT community slowly rises amongst North Americans (although the current hostility fostered by the Trump presidency makes me doubt this at times.) However, I also grew up with little to zero explicit, genuine representation in any mainstream media, let alone in Disney productions. I can feel a growing frustration among members of the LGBT community, with many of us desperate for any genuine representation. Though myself and other LGBT individuals have been lucky to find genuine depictions of LGBT individuals on the internet, we are still waiting to see good representation in the mainstream media, including Disney.

I believe that since it is has become less socially acceptable to openly hate queer people, corporations have pivoted to the next most reasonable option for large companies, and that is to make money off LGBT people under the guise of acceptance and tolerance. In recent years Disney has introduced numerous “first openly gay characters”, and every time I get excited to finally have a queer main character. Yet when the film is released, there is only a seconds-long flash of a gay couple kissing as seen in the Star Wars sequels, or a single line about the character’s queerness as seen in the Pixar film Onward. This is how Disney is using the ko o

LGBT community to make a profit, with every announcement of the “first gay character” garnering heaps positive publicity as well as enticing some queer people to go see the movie. Through their weak examples of LGBT representation, Disney has proven that all they care about is the profits, with the minor queer characters edited out of the film altogether for its releases in more conservative countries such as Russia or China.

The bad LGBT representation in Disney works is representative of a larger problem throughout all mainstream media. There is a problem with media corporations refusing to genuinely depict those who consume their content, such as the many LGBT Disney fans including myself. Though we can’t expect the mainstream media to value anything other than profits, I am tired of mainstream media shying away from representing LGBT individuals in their productions in order to make a larger profit and avoid alienating anyone who might give them money. The LGBT community needs to pressure corporations to be more inclusive. This is especially relevant to corporations such as Disney who can help countless LGBT children and youth feel less alone with just one queer hero.

ReadTheseFeministBooks

by Alasie Manuel

1. On Intersectionality: Essential Writings by Kimberlé Crenshaw

A handful of essays written by the woman who coined the term intersectionality. Read about the framework to understand how racial justice and gender equity are connected. Check out her TED Talk to get a feel for what this book is like.

2. Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid

A moving novel that addresses the longstanding issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls along a highway in British Columbia. It talks about everything from climate justice to the intergenerational effects of colonialism.

3. You Don't Have to Like Me: Essays on Growing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding Feminism by Alida Nugent

Want a break from the heavy content? This is a more light-hearted read that follows Nugent's journey in becoming a feminist, while also incorporating important conversations about patriarchal complicity, sexual shame, and empowerment.

4. Ariel by Sylvia Plath

This is probably one of my favorite poetry collections ever. Plath's work continues to polarize more than 50 years after her death. She questioned the status quo by writing about unladylike topics such as her complicated relationship with motherhood and troubled marriage.

5. The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

As one reviewer put it: "What if Jesus had a wife and she was a feminist writer?" This alternate history tale had such a unique plot that features the refusal of traditional gender norms. At its core, this is a love story that intertwines concepts of religion and feminism.

6. Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That A Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

A really great read that criticizes mainstream feminism for failing to address the many issues that intersect with gender. Kendall also writes from her own lived experiences with violence, sexualization, hunger, and mental health.

7. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

This is a classic piece of feminist literature. Considered by many as a pioneer of feminism, Woolf argues that " a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." These essays are filled with thought-provoking passages.

8. Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein

The best way I can describe this is as a half-memoir, half-manifesto about Bornstein's life as a trans woman. She writes about gender and sexuality with a focus on how one ' s transition in becoming their true self is not linear.

9. Leila by Prayaag Akbar

Most of these book recommendations have been non-fiction, so I thought I'd throw in a feminist dystopian read. Leila is set in 2040's India where a totalitarian government is obsessed with purity. We follow a woman ' s journey in finding her daughter. If you enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale, I would recommend giving this a shot!

10. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

If you have ever searched for feminist literature, chances are you have come across this book before. The book discusses the contradictions you might feel in calling yourself a feminist. It does a good job of reminding us that it's okay to feel contradictory in things like wanting to be independent and also wanting to be taken care of.

I hope this list has been helpful. It is really important that we all expand our reading tastes, so I tried to include a variety of authors and subject matters. Happy reading!

AGirl'sJourney

by Katherine Fenn

All I have ever done is dodge bullets, The first being when I was born a girl. Next came school where we rose up And claimed our right to knowledge.

Through blood, sweat, and tears We discovered this world And became what millions of little girls dreamed of.

We did all of this While double-checking locks, Texting our location, and sharing cab routes.

We did this while managing Hunger pangs and period cramps, Sexist jokes and politics. We spoke up when people told us to Go back to the kitchen!

This is for all womxn and girls, For those who sacrifice their careers for motherhood, For those who told me I was too bossy, too stupid, That I was bitch, a slut, or that I was asking for it.

It was not easy. The journey never is, But you blossom into a vessel of Strength and resilience. So, don’t let them tell you it was luck.

PattiSmith

by Shanti Cordoni-Jordan

Punk legend Patti Smith is known for her androgyny, electric performances, and political activism. Her legacy has helped redefine the male-dominated genre of rock by experimenting with what was deemed conventional. She has been quoted for saying things like "I'm more concerned with the work people do than their gender." Patti’s 1998 hit People Are The Power has been adopted by protestors, most notably as a cry for political reform and environmental action.

AbouttheAnthology

The Water Damaged Paper Anthology (WDPA) is a print and web-based publication that provides a platform for young people across the world to share their justice-centred writing & artwork and engage in creativity as a powerful tool for changemaking. This project was created in direct response to the lack of magazines and literary / art journals that accepted submissions from young people, particularly those under the age of 18, free of cost.

The name Water Damaged Paper speaks to how the voices of youth are often watered down, overlooked, and dismissed. We are often told that we are not old enough to enact meaningful change, denied a seat at the table, and not taken seriously by adults and institutions alike. While they may dilute our words, passions, stories, and demands for change, we will not be silenced. The naming of the anthology was inspired by this sentiment.

Each volume of the WDPA centres a different justice-centred issue. Volume 1 surrounds climate justice and is entitled, “With the Tides, We Rise” and Volume 2, “Through Love, We Unite”, touches on the LGBTQ2S+ community and intersectional feminism.

The work of the Water Damaged Paper Anthology takes place on the stolen homelands of the xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, colonially known as Vancouver, BC.

Acknowledgements

This volume of the Water Damaged Paper Anthology would not have been possible without the talents, vulnerability, and wisdom of every young person who shared their work with us!

A big thank you to Shanti Cordoni-Jordan for once again creating our beautiful cover artwork! Your talent never ceases to amaze me and I am so grateful to call you my friend.

Thank you also to Evan Hsieh, Grace Kim, and Rye Orrange for taking part in behind the scenes work! You all are so wonderful and I appreciate your help.

To Naia Lee, Zainab Sayedain, Sanam Sangha, and the rest of my SWC YFA family. You all inspire me greatly and Thursdays are not the same without you!

Lastly, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude towards you for reading this volume of the Water Damaged Paper Anthology. Seeing this project blossom and receiving responses from readers have truly made the hours of typesetting and editing worth it!

WaterDamaged PaperAnthology

Vol . 2-Through Love,WeUnite