Yanking The Ribbons From My Hair
When you search the word “coquette” on Pinterest, you’ll be bombarded by a million different images. Women in hairbows; lacy dresses; skinned kneecaps; submachine guns laid on pale pillowcases. It’s a visual language that is vaguely French and Lolita-esque, an indescribable dream that simultaneously celebrates girlhood and twists it into something acrid. It rose out […]
A Veteran’s Guide to VCUarts
It’s no secret that art school is a scam. But with just a few simple pointers, you too can make the most out of your ever-increasing tuition and create art so amazing, the 600 other Art Foundation students in your year have no other choice but to lie down and cry. In the spirit of […]
What is the Male Gaze, Actually?
The woman on the screen is smooth. It is almost violating, the way the camera creeps along her skin. Its centipede legs tickle and invade, tracing along shiny curls and a single, bare leg. Her feet are arched and heeled. If we reached up, out of our velvet movie theater seats and through the projector’s pixels, she would smell like sex and prize money. The leading man gets her at the end and we do too, like a present. Like a dog. She is the trophy for all our hard-earned gravitas. After shooting down all those planes, killing all those spies or saving everyone from a burning building, a man must receive his due. It comes gift-wrapped by the director in a gratuitous sex scene. If only there were a fifty-cent word to describe such a phenomenon!
The Year of the Rabbit
Come late January, my mother furiously stuffs chocolate coins and dollar bills into red paper packets. My siblings and I receive letters stuffed with cash from various relatives, awkwardly bowing and repeating “恭喜發財,紅包拿來!”
How to Stay Positive in a Time of Endless Despair
Nothing matters and we’re all going to die. The oceans are filling up with plastic, butterflies are going extinct, enoki mushrooms have caused a listeria outbreak, and global warming is actually starting to warm things. Countries are at war, beloved pets are dying, and the entire world is still reeling from COVID-19.
Everyone and Their Mother is an Influencer
Celebrity culture; the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful; a symbiotic relationship between the viewer and viewed. It is an ever-present part of the human experience. I’m sure that somewhere thousands of years ago there was a caveman known for being particularly strong, and everyone in the cave cheered for Oorg of the Large Biceps and His Mandible-Crushing Hands.