Dearest Hillary

This is the letter I wrote to Hillary Clinton after the election.

Personal EssayCarmen RiosNovember 8, 2017hillary clinton, 2016 election, women in politics

Living As A Minority In Trump's America

It’s awful that a scale of discrimination even exists.

Day One

With every mile I put between me and the fire, I felt safer and calmer.

Ally

The "Me, Too" campaign acts as a reminder that avoidance perpetuates and normalizes assault and harassment. Again, victims are expected to put a voice and a face to their pain and hope they are believed.

Personal EssayL. R. ThompsonOctober 18, 2017sexual assault, #metoo

Pretty Girls

Who is she? Just a girl you knew in elementary school who has become some sort of Instagram celebrity. And for doing what, you ask? She’s just a pretty girl, and Instagram loves pretty girls.

Personal EssayOlivia BudimanOctober 9, 2017Indonesia, women, feminism, Asia, USA, makeup, beauty, beauty standards, gender

Muñecita

No one has to tell a child specifically that what they look like isn’t adorable enough – they learn it in other ways.

Personal EssayAngely MercadoOctober 2, 2017latinidad, angely mercado, racism, bodies, beauty standards, feminism, women, body positivity, childhood

Developing Schizophrenia

After an assessing interview, the man politely told me that I was to be taken to hospital (a “good place”, I was assured).

Personal EssayNeesa SunarSeptember 29, 2017schizophrenia, education, ableism, academia, mental health, mental illness, music

When Your Emotional Abuser is Your Best Guy Friend

It’s taken me years to come to terms with my experiences. Because for years I thought I deserved to be treated the way he treated me. That my body truly made me undesirable, unlovable, and that his expressed feelings toward me were natural, that they were not his fault.

Personal EssayStephanie HarperSeptember 27, 2017emotional abuse, fatphobia, relationships

Introspection and Culture

It’s not just that I belong to multiple oppressed groups; it’s that I feel as if I don’t fit into any one of them.

Personal EssayAmal WilliamsSeptember 25, 2017racism, homophobia, misogyny, body shaming, fatphobia, classism, poverty, Islam, islamophobia, hijab, religion, bullying, education, school, queer

Alien

Our product is not only owned by the non-laboring elite, it is hardly even tangible, even to those who consume it, even to ourselves. Who would mourn our loss if those owners, those who alienated us from our work, decided once again to take our livelihoods away?

Personal EssayHannah TalebSeptember 20, 2017service work, class, capitalism, marxism

The Singing Tree

When you left, you wrote that no one would mourn your loss. That it wouldn't make an impact. That you'd pass out of the world as anonymously as you'd entered it. You were wrong.

Personal EssayAbeni JonesSeptember 11, 2017mental health, suicide, black women, queer

How My Schizoaffective Disorder Helps Me Help Others

As I help my clients, I realize how far I have come in my own journey.

Black Boys Fly

The performance went by fast. Each step, each flourish, each kick felt invigorating. Me inside my body, a home I often leave vacant in a world constantly attempting to ransack me.

Personal EssayMarcus BortonAugust 16, 2017black men, intersectionality, dance, queer, coming of age

And She Was

I lingered near the doorway of their room, too unsure of myself to ask if I should come in. The rainbow flag draped over a wall caught my eye. The sight of something so decidedly Not Straight made me feel less nervous, or at least confident enough to come inside.

Personal EssayAllison McCarthyAugust 9, 2017college, coming of age, bisexuality

Third Desk From The Left

I had learned from a very young age that my father was an angry man.