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Black Female Artists You Should Be Listening to Besides Beyoncé and Rihanna

Whether or not you’re the biggest Beyoncé or Rihanna fan, you have to admit that these two fiercely black female artists are no “one hit wonders.” With Bey’s “Formation” fueling the Black Lives Matter movement and her recent drop of new album “Lemonade,” as well as the Barbadian singer’s album “ANTI” hitting number one on […]

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Lana del Rey’s American Tragedy

Lana del Rey isn’t real. Or so goes the rally cry of hipsters across the country, complaining that the stage persona of singer Elizabeth Grant is entirely synthetic, designed by corporate masterminds in the music industry to make money off of her beauty, sultry voice, and her ability to appeal to an American consumerist mindset. […]

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3 Latina DJs You Should Be Listening to Instead of Uproot Andy

A friend of mine was recently at a bar in New York City, when she met a nice white guy who bought her a drink and wanted to talk to her about music. After a few drinks, he humbly outed himself as Uproot Andy, DJ from Toronto, Canada, and based out of Brooklyn. She called […]

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International Women’s Day

The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, was the first international agreement to politically affirm the principle of equality between women and men. Since then, the UN has made a commitment to the advancement of the status of women worldwide. After the women’s labor movements at the turn of the twentieth century in […]

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The Beckoning Breast

Boobs. Most people would agree that they know what breasts look like, or rather should look like. However, are the breasts we see in steamy movie sex scenes or in pornography the real deal? In reality, breasts can come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. There is variance in density, nipple size and color, areola […]

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Cultural Dimensions of Personal Space

For the first few weeks of my study abroad experience in Salamanca, Spain, even amidst a whirlwind of orientation activities, I found it relatively easy to forget that I was living in a different country—an entirely different continent, even—from the one in which I’d previously spent my entire life. Of course, I don’t pass as […]

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Love as Resistance: In Defiance of Valentine’s Day

With every new year comes another Valentine’s Day, and with another Valentine’s Day comes the tirades against the corporate devaluation of love and the depiction of romance as a heteronormative, capitalist competition of “who has someone to love in the way Hollywood has deemed the most important.” And to these disgruntled ones, I say keep […]

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On Guilty Pleasures

Let’s do a thought experiment. If I say, “guilty pleasure TV,” what shows come to mind? My guess: reality shows like “America’s Next Top Model” or “The Bachelor.” What about films? Probably anything IMDb labels a “chick flick.” Books? “Chick lit.” And has anyone gone to a boy band concert lately? I’m sensing a pattern […]

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Preserving representation: artistic license in the Steven Universe fandom

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that Steven Universe, ostensibly just another cute, fantastical offering from Cartoon Network, has spent the two years of its broadcast upending the status quo of American children’s cartoons. The diversity of skin color and body type in this show, not to mention its canonical representation of queerness, […]

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9 Reasons Why “Pride” Is the Perfect Study Break

With the semester rapidly drawing to a close, we’re all looking for ways to procrastinate (er, take well-deserved study breaks) that we can justify as at least minimally productive or educational. Pride (2014), an independent British film with a kick-ass ensemble cast, gets my vote. Here’s why: 1. The film follows a London-based group, Lesbians […]

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