The McGill Daily Vol. 109 Issue 18

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Volume 109, Issue 18 | Monday, February 17, 2020 | mcgilldaily.com These vibes aren’t harmonious since 1911

Published by The Daily Publications Society, a student society of McGill University.

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table of Contents

February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Table of Contents 11

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editorial • The CAQ is Infringing on Education, Again

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News • • • •

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MTL and McGill Action “Reject Teck, Coastal Gas Link�

Graduate Options Cancelled AUS Holds Elections Debate

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Commentary • Stop Romanticizing People Who Perpetuate Violence • Feminist Studies: A Need, Not an Option • Silence of the Calves

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Photo Essay • Urban Life and Territory: An Innu Perspective

Culture • “Everything Is Temporary For Usâ€?

Sci+tech • TikTok, It’s Sex-Ed O’Clock

compendium! • Haunted Horoscopes: Aquarius Season • Comic • Snaps For!

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EDITORIAL

Volume 109 Issue 18

February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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editorial board

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The CAQ is Infringing On Education, Again

coordinating editor

Kate Ellis

managing editor

Willa Holt

news editor

Yasna Khademian Emily Black commentary + compendium! editor

Michaela Keil culture editor

Vacant

features editor

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Vacant

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Vacant

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Vacant

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Vacant

radio editor

Amy Lloyd

cover design

Emily Black contributors Emily Black, Gaby Dupuis, Kate Ellis, Dafne Gurcay, Willa Holt, Yasna Khademian, Nimra Maniar, Katarina Mladenovicova, Olivia-Jeri Pizzuco-Ennis, Abigail Popple, Anaïs Régina-Renel, Daisy Sprenger, Jose Noé De Ita Zavala le délit

Grégoire Collet

rec@delitfrancais.com

Published by the Daily Publications Society, a student society of McGill University.

The views and opinions expressed in the Daily are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of McGill University.

The McGill Daily is not affiliated with McGill University.

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ISSN 1192-4608.

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n February 8, 2020, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) government passed Bill 40, a major education reform law. This law abolished autonomous French and English school boards and replaced them with “service centres,” eliminated elections in French-language districts, and ended the role of school commissioners, among many other changes. The bill passed despite widespread opposition from school boards, teachers, and parents in both the French and English systems, who argued that the reform will disproportionately hurt parents and local constitutional rights. These groups also questioned the CAQ’s rush to pass the Bill.

Much of Bill 40’s framework rests on the expectation that parents will take on the primary burden of their children’s education, while teachers and other education partners at the local level will lose authority. School commissioners, who once acted as neutral mediators between schools and the province, will be replaced by a board of directors comprised of volunteer parents and community members. In the case of French-language districts, the board of directors will now be appointed by the Ministry of Education itself, instead of being elected by the community. Switching to a system that relies on appointments is a problematic method of shifting power from community members to biased government officials who don’t have direct knowledge of the community’s needs. English-language districts will continue to elect directors, as part of what Roberge called a “compromise” with English institutions.

These systemic changes risk creating a two-tiered hierarchy in education. By removing neutral offices and placing responsibility on select parents, many schools will no longer have a stable advocate for the equal distribution of resources. Additionally, this system underrepresents often already marginalized families who might not have the capacity to volunteer their time to sit on school boards. The replacement of autonomous school boards and the removal of elections for French-language districts are designed to expand the Minister of Education Jean-François Roberge’s power, which was previously checked by school board unions. This policy especially affects English-language districts, whose democratic and labour operations will no longer be protected by school board unions against any detrimental legislative actions of the provincial government.

For this bill, the CAQ invoked closure: a process that

allows governments to heavily limit debate and require a final vote by the end of a sitting. As a result, the assembly over Bill 40 was pressured to last almost twenty hours, proceeding into the early hours of the morning. This is the fourth time the CAQ has abused this policy since being elected: closure was previously used to pass Bill 9, Bill 34, and Bill 21 into law. Bill 40 passed with all 60 attending members of the CAQ voting in favour, and was opposed by the 35 remaining members, who represented all other parties. This adamant push for low-priority legislation like Bill 40 displays the CAQ’s disregard for the needs and interests of their constituents in an arrogant display of control.

Roberge tabled a last-minute amendment during the assembly that would move the extinction of French school commissioners from February 29 to as soon as the bill is passed. This means that instead of having until the end of the month to transition out of their roles, hundreds of school commissioners across Quebec woke up on Saturday, February 8, to the news that they had lost their jobs. Though Roberge claimed the province would continue to pay these commissioners until June 30, the abrupt change is further example of the CAQ’s serious lack of consideration for individuals, especially those who have the potential to speak out against them.

These actions are part of the CAQ’s overarching policy to prioritize their own goals while exacerbating institutionalized discrimination against vulnerable residents of the province. The CAQ has repeatedly used closure to obscure opposing voices, and, in the case of commissioner extinction, has been blatantly inconsiderate of the livelihoods of hundreds of dedicated community members, simply so their agenda can advance faster.

Confront the CAQ about their unnecessary and arbitrary use of closure. Contact the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, and hold him accountable for his disregard of the teachers and families he is supposed to advocate for. Most importantly, support and follow organizations like La Fédération des Commissions Scolaires du Québec (FCSQ), Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA), Fédération Autonome de L’Enseignement (FAE), and APPELEQuebec, who regularly hold community hearings and who will be working directly with teachers, parents, and communities during this transition period.

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February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

News: McGill

MTL and McGill Action

Demonstration in Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Abigail Popple News Reporter

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n February 7, students from the Indigenous Student Alliance (ISA) at McGill, along with allied students, gathered at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s constituency office in Montreal to stage a sit-in as a show of solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people. The demonstration was organized in response to the violent arrest of six protestors opposing the construction of a pipeline on unceded Wet’suwet’en land. These arrests took place as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was enforcing a B.C. Supreme Court sanctioned injunction, mandating that the site of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline that was planned to be built, remain unimpeded – violating hereditary Wet’suwet’en law and British Columbia’s implementation of UNDRIP. One of the organizers of this demonstration – who did not wish to be named – recalled feeling distraught and helpless upon receiving news of the arrests that morning, saying they “want[ed] to tie [themself ] to the train tracks like the Mohawk.” As the office is symbolic of the whole Canadian government, they ultimately concluded that a sit-in at Trudeau’s constituency office would be the most effective way to communicate their disappointment and anger with the government’s lack of willingness to listen to Indigenous peoples’ complaints. “Long story short,” they said, “we stand in

solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en peoples, and […] fuck the RCMP.” Students characterized the sit-in and the analogous pipelineopposition efforts in BC not as protests, but rather as means of protecting the Earth. “I don’t protest […] this is like, I don’t want people to die. I don’t want my family, my kin, to die. I love my land,” one student remarked, emphasizing that the goal of the demonstration was to protect the well-being of future generations of Indigenous peoples. Another student added that Indigenous people are protectors who take care to follow the respectful ways of their ancestors while preserving the interests of their posterity. These sentiments were reflected by the later demonstration on February 10, with one attendee asserting, “We are not protesting, we are protecting.”

A considerable number of SPVM officers were present at the February 10 demonstration, amounting to about nine officers to a small group of gathered of demonstrators. However, attendees were not deterred from criticizing the police, with several saying “Fuck Canada and fuck the RCMP” as a rallying cry. Demonstrators maintained their strong stance against the federal government, stating that Canada was failing to meet its claims of reconciliation: “You can’t take our land, our waters and our children. This is not reconciliation. This is not your promise,” one speaker stated.

Catie Galbraith, a member of ISA and one of the demonstration’s principal organizers, encourages

McGill students to call their member of parliament, the British Columbia RCMP office, and any government official with influence over the situation. She also suggests that students with the financial means to donate money to the efforts of the Wet’suwet’en people to oppose the pipeline construction do so on the Unist’ot’en Camp website, and recommends that students show solidarity on social media by sharing graphics and posts from the Unist’ot’en Camp. As one student put it, “Everyone should be paying attention and supporting [Indigenous peoples] however they can.”

Katarina Mladenovicova | Photography Editor, Le Délit

Abigail Popple | News Reporter

“I don’t protest [...] this is like, I don’t want people to die. I don’t want my family, my kin to die. I love my land.”

-Student demonstrator

“Fuck Canada and fuck the RCMP.” -Demonstrator

“Everyone should be paying attention and supporting [Indigenous peoples] however they can.”

Katarina Mladenovicova | Photography Editor, Le Délit

-Student demonstrator

February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

News: McGill

“Reject Teck, Coastal GasLink”

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Students Continue to Demand Divestment

Olivia-Jeri Pizzuco-Ennis News Contributor

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n February 13, Divest McGill and other allied groups congregated around the James Administration building, drawing a large crowd of students and faculty, despite harsh weather conditions. Organized as part of ongoing action against McGill University’s $6 million investment in TC Energy – the company behind Coastal GasLink (CGL) – the demonstrators called out McGill’s complicity in the construction of the CGL pipeline on the hereditary land of the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

This rally addressed the wider issue of divestment, while also staging an immediate response to illegal raids by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia, joining demonstrations across the country in solidarity with the land defenders.

Divest McGill sent a clear message, signaling to the administration that the McGill community does not accept its continued investment in the fossil fuel industry. The group demanded that McGill’s Board of Governors (BoG) “reflect the consensus of the McGill Senate, SSMU, PGSS, faculties, and McGill unions” by divesting the university’s endowment from fossil fuels, specifically from CGL and Teck Frontier – companies whose plans infringe on the land rights of Indigenous peoples in western Canada.

Divest McGill’s solidarity action aims to hold McGill University and its BoG accountable to its community once again. The BoG’s decision not to divest came up again in early 2020 when Professor Greg Mikkelson resigned in protest due to the University’s failure to divest from the fossil fuel industry.

Christian Favreau from Climate Justice Montreal spoke at the rally, stating, “McGill is funding the RCMP raids on Wet’suwet’en territory. Considering that the McGill BoG’s refusal to divest stemmed in part from their belief that this investment posed ‘no injury,’ it’s pretty sickening to watch them continue to stand by their decision.” Favreau is employed by the Department of Geography at McGill, and spoke to his position as a non-academic staff member within the divestment movement, suggesting that labour union organizing will be a key tool to achieve climate justice going forward, in the absence of the University’s moral leadership.

By the time of this February 13

Dafne Gurcay | Photo Contributor rally, RCMP tactical units had raided camps and checkpoints on the territory of the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

The RCMP is accused of violating both hereditary Wet’suwet’en law as well as the recently implemented United Nations Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples. According to Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, these raids provoke a variety of “serious human rights concerns” and “directly contravene a December 2019 ruling from the UN’s highest anti-racism body, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.” Neve cautions that these circumstances necessitate media scrutiny as an “essential safeguard” to protecting the lives of jailed protestors and those on the front line of this ongoing conflict,

including matriarchs forcibly removed from sacred grounds.

Despite this, journalists have faced restricted access to the Unist’ot’en camp grounds, resulting in a virtual media blackout.

Independent contributions on the ground, and updates from the Unist’ot’en Facebook Page have been providing sustained coverage. The RCMP’s recent ‘crackdown’ on journalists threatens the free press, according to Neve.

Speaking to the Daily, SSMU Indigenous Affairs Commissioner Tomas Jirousek commented on the rally, expressing the Indigenous Student Alliance’s appreciation of “the allyship [they’ve] seen from across different social justice movements.”

Jirousek spoke further to the conflict on

Wet’suwet’en territory, highlighting that it is “not limited to Indigenous sovereignty, but is interconnected with issues such as climate change, food sovereignty, and pedagogical structures,” which remain “landbased and land-derived” in the context of Indigenous pedagogy.

The Indigenous Student Alliance was present at the rally, among Divest McGill and other nonIndigenous allies.

Jirousek added that climate justice does not exist in isolation from issues of Indigenous rights and highlighted the importance of activism on campus that incorporates this intersection, like the work of Divest McGill.

“It becomes crucial for us, as Indigenous peoples, to protect the land.”

“Considering that the BoG’s refusal to divest stemmed from their belief that this investment posed ‘no injury,’ it’s sickening to watch them continue to stand by their decision.”

– Christian Favreau

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February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

News: McGill

Graduate Options Cancelled

Gender and Women’s Studies, Dev. Studies Cut Kate Ellis Coordinating Editor

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n February 10, the Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice Studies Student Association (GSFSSA) announced via Facebook that the office of the Dean of Arts would be suspending the Graduate Options in Gender and Women’s Studies and Development Studies, effective fall 2021. The Graduate Option in Gender and Women’s Studies is currently available in 16 Masters programs and 11 Ph.D. programs, and the Development Studies option is available in six Masters programs.

In response to the cancellation, students in both fields of study issued an open letter highlighting the importance of the programs and the impact that this will have on McGill University and its students. The letter reported that “This decision was made without faculty or student consultation,” and that the suspension will impact both current and prospective students.

At the time of print, the letter has been signed by more than 150 graduate students and nearly 200 undergraduate students.

The letter has been widely disseminated by student groups, including the GSFSSA, QPIRG McGill, and the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM).

Both students and faculty oppose the suspension, citing that the Graduate Options are vital to McGill and the wider fields of Gender Studies and International Development Studies. In an interview with the Daily, Dr. Alex Ketchum, a professor in the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, stated that “In addition to creating communities of research support, the Graduate Option provided valuable professional training [and] another framework of mentoring and research opportunities. On the academic job market, being able to speak to both disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields has been valued and important.”

She added, “It was through the Graduate Option that I was able

to gain mentors who trained me in how to organize events and write grant applications. Now through my grants, I am able to employ and train research assistants who are students at McGill in these skills.

The Graduate Option continues to amplify feminist interdisciplinary research and support scholars across the university from undegraduates, graduate students, and professors.”

Emily Douglas, a Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy with the Option in Women’s and Gender Studies, told the Daily that one of the things that drew them to McGill was the option to specialize in Gender and Women’s Studies.

“As someone who works interdisciplinarily and will apply to jobs in Gender Studies, Sexuality Studies, and associated departments, it is crucial to have an institutional marking of my competence and skills in order to be recognized as a part of the field,” they said. “The courses I have taken associated with the Graduate Option provided me with space to explore new ideas and methodologies, as well as to

find a supportive feminist and generally anti-oppressive group of peers across departments.”

They also emphasized the mentorship they received from the faculty members they worked with, noting that they still correspond with some of them today. They added, “Future students who would be eligible for the Option are at a great loss with its suspension, and I sincerely hope that McGill reconsiders its choice: for a

frustrated by the sudden decision to suspend our Graduate Option without any consultation. As passionate undergrad students of GSFS we stand in solidarity with IGSF and the Grad program against the unjust actions taken by the Faculty of Arts. We want to point out that this decision was not made in a vacuum, but within a greater institution that does not value the incredible work of Gender, Sexuality, Feminist and Social Justice Studies.”

The letter reported that “this decision was made without faculty or student consultation,” and that the suspension will impact both current and prospective students. program that takes relatively little financial resources, the Option has clear and direct benefits to the intellectual community.”

The GSFSSA told the Daily that they are “disheartened and

The Daily also reached out to representatives from the Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), but at the time of print, they have not responded to request for comment.

AUS Holds Elections Debate Candidates Talk Controversial Campus Issues

Yasna Khademian News Editor

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he Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) held its annual candidates’ debate on Thursday, February 13 at 6 p.m. in Leacock 232. With only a few students in the audience – and an unfilled slate of candidates – the debate finished promptly at 7:55 p.m.

The positions of AUS President and VP Services are uncontested, with Ananya Nair and Samad Fagbohun running, respectively.

Two candidates are campaigning for VP Social – Belanna Gans and CJ Pospisil. For the position of VP Academic, there are three candidates – Catherina Musa, Rachel Lawal, and Avni Aghi.

There are two open positions for Arts Senator, and two people running – Mary Lynne Loftus and Darshan Daryanani. As for Arts Representative to SSMU, there are three open positions and four people running – Paige Collins, Chip Smith, Jonah Fried, and Alex Karasick. (All available campaign platforms will be linked in the online version of this article.)

No candidates are running for the positions of VP Communications, VP External, VP Finance, and VP Internal.

According to an email received by the Daily, these positions will be appointed by the AUS Executive Council at a later date.

To begin the debate, each candidate had two minutes to give their opening statement. They then answered questions from the incumbent and the audience, as well as those submitted via an online form. The candidates were then given one and a half minutes to make their closing arguments Questions for Arts Representative candidates were a substantial part of the debate. Due to the nature of the position and its close relationship to SSMU and its Legislative Council – as well as a history of controversy surrounding various Arts Representatives’ decisions and policies – the candidates received a great number of questions regarding how they would handle such controversial topics on campus.

When asked about this, candidate Fried stated, “the [AUS] is a diverse constituency

recent years in issues related to the Israeli-Palistinian conflict on campus, candidate Smith stated, “If I’m elected as an Arts Rep, I’m ready to put my biases aside, to hear the arguments from both sides [...] I’m not going to let my biases and my own personal beliefs get ahead of me in this scenario.” Smith’s platform stresses “changing the culture” in SSMU, “reduc[ing] drama and discontent.”

Karasick emphasized hearing from constituents in matters like this. “The most important thing, in my opinion [...] is that we need to listen to constituents,” Karasick stated. “I want to listen to everyone’s opinion, [to get] most of the constituents I can to tell me what they believe, [to] tell me what they think should be done about an issue like this.”

His platform highlights a list of initiatives for addressing equity and governance reforms at SSMU. As for Collins, she suggested Other candidates echoed a press-conference-style hearing similar sentiments. In a question for students to voice their directly related to the role that concerns – a suggestion that Arts Representatives have had in Collins recalled came from SSMU with different ethnic, national populations, and I think there are a lot of international, geopolitical issues that come into play on campus that really have no place [...] I think the issues we focus on should be student issues.” The issues Fried is highlighting in his platform include advocacy for student housing; he currently sits on the SSMU Housing Committee.

With only a few students in the audience – and an unfilled slate of candidates – the debate finished promptly at 7:55 p.m.

VP External Gwiazda-Amsel last November. “That way, academics and experts and representatives from either side of this debate are able to speak, and students are able to go and understand some of these issues,” she stated. “I think that that kind of formal channel would work really well.”

Collins is one of a number of student leaders who, last November, accepted an allexpenses-paid trip to Israel potentially funded by the Maccabee Task Force – an organization founded by conservative billionaire Sheldon Adelson. The case was taken to SSMU Legislative Council but deemed not an apparent conflict of interest by the Board of Directors, of which Collins is a member. Collins’ platform includes advocacy for paid notetakers and accomodations, as well as “establishing a working group to pursue an implementation of a co-op program” for Arts students.

Disclaimer: Alex Karasick has contributed to the Daily as a news writer in the past.

February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Commentary

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Stop Romanticising Feminist People who Studies: A Perpetuate Violence Need, Not An The Phenomenon of the “Serial Option Killer Heartthrob”

Nimra Maniar Commentary Contributor content warning: violence, sexual violence *Spoilers for the show You ahead*

“J

oe Goldberg is so hot.”

Comments like these – usually written by overly-excited, hormone-fueled teenage girls – are not out of the ordinary to see on the internet. However, as I scrolled through my timeline, this comment in particular caught my eye. Not because it was directed towards some new floppy haired popstar with the voice of an angel, but because it was about Joe Goldberg: a serial killer from the new hit Netflix series You. This is problematic.

With Netflix being one of the largest media streaming services in the world, the premiere of You generated over 43 million viewers. That means over 43 million people viewed Hollywood’s glamourized portrayal of a serial killer, romanticized through a “twisted love story,” which in reality is not a love story at all, but instead a selfish onesided obsession leading to horrific murders. Not to mention he has a literal cage to keep humans captive.

However, there is this growing online fandom for Joe, which seems to be able to look past his heinous crimes, focusing on how “dreamy” he is, not realising the true danger of a person like him in a real-life context.

The casting of Penn Bagley – an attractive young actor with a perfectly

chiselled jawline – to play Joe is definitely a factor contributing to the phenomenon of our fascination with people who perpetuate violence. When Hollywood casts good looking people to play killers – adding a romantic backdrop to top it off – it often leads to their looks overshadowing the fact that they are dangerous. The average viewer’s main takeaway is how Joe is “misunderstood” and “dedicated” for his love, not that he is delusional, unremorseful, and self-centered. His character is only concerned about what he wants and does not care about the harm he causes along the way. Bagley himself has been puzzled by the response, often reminding fans that his character is nothing to admire, adding that “it says something about how much we are willing to be patient and forgive someone who inhabits a body that looks something like mine – the colour of my skin, my gender, these sorts of privileges, and how much less willing to forgive people who don’t fit those boxes.”

This bias we have towards traditionally attractive white men, regardless of the atrocious crimes they have committed, is nothing new and can be observed throughout history.

Ted Bundy, a notorious serial killer in the 1970’s who kidnapped, raped, and murdered numerous women, was often described as “handsome,” “funny,” and “charismatic.” He developed a twisted fan following among young girls, the very type he had targeted in his murders. They would send him love letters in prison and turn up to court

hearings just to catch a glimpse of him. He even ended up marrying one of his admirers, Carol Anne Boone, in prison. Over time he has become one of the most infamous serial killers, with various movies and documentaries being made about him to this day, the latest being Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starring A-list Hollywood actor Zac Efron. One might wonder why Bundy specifically has been given so much media attention, among the various other serial killers throughout history. Though the reason partly lies in the fact his crimes were horrific, more specifically it can be attributed to the fact that people could not wrap their head around the idea of how someone who looked like him could commit them. His looks had created a sort of “halo effect,” where the media attention he was receiving was mostly centred around his charm and how he did not fit the mold of what a serial killer should look like.

The mindset that the media is creating among young people of romanticising people who perpetuate violence instead of portraying them accurately for the destructive force they truly are, is scary. There is nothing to be gained from pretending serial killers belong in a teen romance novel, and that they can be fixed, saved, or changed. We need to start seeing them for who they really are, instead of putting them on a pedestal and undermining the trauma they cause and lives they destroy. So the next time the camera pans to Penn Badgley’s near-flawless face, just remember, serial killers are so not hot.

Daisy Sprenger | Illustrations Editor

Daisy Sprenger | Illustrations Editor

U

Anaïs Régina-Renel niversities pride themselves on diversity. We see it in the Staff Writer advertising, which screams “you have a place here” when the moment comes for prospective students to apply. But it has recently become clear that these same institutions don’t provide every student with programs that are critical to learning about themselves and navigating the world around them. The programs that are available do not well reflect the claimed diversity and inclusivity that the quotas aim to represent. We have seen this recently at Harvard University with their scandalous denial of tenure for Doctor Lorgia García Peña, professor of Latino and Caribbean studies. Now, it is McGill that is losing graduate options in Gender and Women’s studies.

The importance of a program is evaluated through elitist and gender- and race-based criteria of profitability: We have to think about who benefits from these programs, and what their intentions are with these degrees.

Hint: It is not a white, straight, American, male student who wants to invest in a fossil fuel company who is enrolled in these departments.

By removing and failing to support such programs, universities are failing students, closing doors in front of them, and restricting areas of study and research that already bear the weight of gender- and racebased discrimination.

McGill is replicating these mistakes by applying the same biased system, that is to say, limiting the number of seats and granting the tiniest spaces in classes that would support various marginalized identities, even though the demand is bigger, granting the tiniest spaces for these classes.

These are only a few examples that make us ask this purportedly “diverse and inclusive” institution: are you taking us seriously?

Suspending the graduate option in Gender and Women’s Studies is a form of control over the knowledge and success through academia, of specific (if not targeted) populations, that has to be antagonized. These institutions that enroll students of all genders, ethnicities, religions, and races don’t provide them with knowledge about themselves, and limit their possibility to invest in themselves.

Graduate studies allow students to specialize in specific fields and eventually free themselves from the limitations of undergraduate programs, that include, in the case of social studies, American centricity and white gaze. Suppressing the graduate option of Gender and Women studies prevents the students involved with the IGSF department to do so, which is already a major issue with feminist studies in general.

Feminist studies is a relatively new field and is such an advance for women and other people marginalized by their gender identity, and McGill has just made sure to dismiss it and take a step back for women.

This decision affects current and future graduate students in 15 Masters programs and 11 PhD programs. Not only was this decision abrupt, but it lets down the many who applied to programs related to feminist studies at McGill, who were seeking the advertised knowledge, opportunity, and inclusivity McGill claimed to offer.

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Commentary

February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Silence of the Calves

All Animals Are Equal, but Some Are More Hindu than Others

Anonymous

content warning: state violence

T

he list of questionable silences that the McGill Indian Students Association (ISA) has maintained is not limited to its recent reticence to speak openly of the widespread attacks on university students on campuses throughout India.

Forget about statements on the Indian occupation of Kashmir, which intensified in August 2019, and has shown no signs of diminishing in terms of its sheer inhumanity, or other recent brutalities, like the murder of several prominent educators, activists, and journalists, or the widespread physical violence against, and murders of, Dalit and Muslim people by upper-caste Hindus, because the former were “accused of possessing beef,” and cows are “sacred” to the latter.

The ISA paints itself as a “cultural organization” and has been consistently “apolitical;” a stance which, frankly speaking, is a piece of fiction. There is such a thing as history, and recognizing its twists and turns is the only way in which culture can properly be understood. In other words, to champion culture without paying heed to what this culture does, or where it comes from (i.e. its historical grounds), is what leads to questionable takes that span a spectrum that would include enjoying Ezra Pound’s poetry to appreciating works like The Birth of a Nation (1915). So the ISA’s recent failure to understand how our cultural and political practices over the last few years led to the current impasse over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment

The ISA paints itself as a “cultural organization” and has been consistently “apolitical;” a stance which, frankly speaking, is a piece of fiction.

Daisy Sprenger | Illustrations Editor Act (CAA) is strikingly political.

An apolitical subject, honestly, would’ve spoken out at this point.

Simply put, the CAA relaxes older grounds for claiming Indian citizenship, and amends the definition of “illegal immigrant” for people coming to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Migrants from these countries who have resided in India from before December 31, 2014 and who claim Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Jain, or Christian identity, are no longer considered “illegal” (undocumented) under the law. Such a law explicitly excludes Muslims from these three countries seeking similar refuge in India, including Ahmadiyya Muslims from Pakistan or Muslims from other neighbouring countries, such as the Rohingyas from Myanmar, who may be seeking asylum.

The NRC is simply a “register” which contains the details and

identities of those considered “legitimate citizens” of India. The government’s implementation of an NRC would require all Indians to prove their citizenship.

If a resident possesses such paperwork, they are put in the NRC. However, if they don’t have this paperwork, two things can happen depending on their religious identity. If you belong to a religious community mentioned in the CAA, you will simply be a resident, but if you are a Muslim person who cannot furnish paperwork for the NRC, you will also not be able to claim residence rights under the CAA, and will be placed under direct government power, as has been the objective behind the construction of detention centres for such “illegal immigrants” across the country.

The ISA has failed Indian students on campus by not depicting their interests fairly.

The rhetoric of reticence with

which they open their, till now, sole statement on the protests, and the manner in which they equate fascist violence with antifascist demonstrations that are largely peaceful, are remarkably familiar, borrowed as they are from the mannerisms and style of global far-right leaders. Watch the Indian Prime Minister’s speech from December 21, 2019, and you’ll see how he couches his remarks on the NRC; first through oblique references, then, reluctantly, until finally, in a seeming overflow of emotion, he denounces the people protesting against this law.

I will refrain from detailing what the NRC and the CAA are, because that is not my point of contention, although I do unequivocally believe in opposing them. Suffice it to say that the two laws, built on their premise of documentation, will debar several groups of people that

simply don’t have access to the bureaucratic centres from which such paperwork can be procured as proof of citizenship. Such communities include, apart from India’s Muslim community, the Dalit community (the Supreme Court of India is currently restructuring laws to tamper with affirmative action programmes built to support them), the trans community (the government also recently passed a Trans Rights Bill that ends up limiting their autonomy). The problem of procuring documents is also, of course, a class-based problem and all sections of society do not have the material means to do so. I simply believe that the Indian Students’ Association should speak out about police and government violence against young people, many of them students, who are raising their voices to protest the laws of an unjust, violent, casteist, and

Commentary make conversation, and yet do all of this only to dilly-dally and delay.

What’s crucial, I’ve always thought about this story, is the presence of an “illusion of hope.” This is what makes the bureaucrat/gatekeeper cruel in Kafka’s story – he makes the villager/supplicant believe that he can hope. Therefore, I am proud to announce that the Indian Students’ Association at McGill has finally provided me with a humane bureaucrat. Here you find folks who will never beguile you like Kafka’s gatekeeper, because of the strong impression they will willingly provide, right from the outset (no lies), that you simply must not hope for them to respond to contemporary political issues taking place in the country they purport to represent.

Borrowing from the Gandhian tradition of “fasting” as an activist method, these brave, brave individuals have taken upon themselves what in Sanskrit (that language of which they are surely custodians) is called a “Maun Vrat” or a “Vow of Silence.” True to Gandhian methods of nonviolence, they have resolved upon Daisy Sprenger | Illustrations Editor themselves to say not a single The following piece was written word against the rampant illegal, capitalist government. Suffice it to say that in my view, these laws in an effort to logically interpret immoral, and unconstitutional are nothing more than the Indian the silence of the Indian Students erosion of the rights of minorities manifestation of a global spirit Association on all of these matters, in India by the Hindu far-right whose other faces include the but especially their abandonment government of the BJP, not Bolsonaro government’s actions of the members of their own peers: to mention the occupation of against Indigenous peoples in In a famous passage by Franz Kashmir, or intimidation tactics Brazil, the ICE detention centres Kafka, called “Before the Law,” a like the now-regular use of guns in the United States of America, young man from a village tries to at peaceful protests in Delhi by and more recently, the Canadian gain entry to “the law” through a right-wing activists.

This silence, this patience government’s imperialist actions doorway, which is guarded by a on unceded Wet’suwet’en powerful-looking man. The villager with words, this ability to not territory, to name the most tries his best to coax the gatekeeper be emotionally corrupted by the immediate instances. into opening the doors – he bribes supplicant (unlike Kafka’s cruel Here is a short timeline of the him, relates his urgent need to gain gatekeeper, whom the ISA resembles most prominent instances of such entry, and ends up waiting for years. not), is nothing but laudable.

It brings to mind the words of attacks: At the end of this long, long wait, the famous British poet and patriot, the gatekeeper tells the man that - September 19: Jadavpur behind this door was another one, Rudyard Kipling: “If you can keep your head when University sees visit from BJP with a fiercer gatekeeper, and so minister (the Bharatiya Janata on, and so forth. What’s important all about you / Are losing theirs and Party, a right-wing Hindu in this parable is that there is a blaming it on you” Equanimity. That’s the word. nationalist political party, door, behind which there is a law, currently in power), on-campus ostensibly just, and Kafka shows the Of course Kipling is better violence ensues law’s inaccessibility due to modern known for his beautiful panegyric American imperialism, - December 15: Jamia Milia bureaucrats, who accept bribes, to enigmatically titled “White Man’s University, Delhi attacked by Burden,” and this brings me to the Delhi Police conclusion of my smaller, and far - December 15: Aligarh Muslim humbler, ode to the ISA. University attacked by police For if global fascism has truly - January 5: Jawaharlal Nehru decolonized the White Man’s University, Delhi attacked by Burden, the ISA will have played members of a right-wing youth no small role in this. As India outfit affiliated (ABVP) with inches towards the American the BJP model of neoliberal ethno- January 14: Srishti School of nationalism in the sheets and Architecture, Bangalore gun violence in the streets, at this - January 15: Visva Bharati exceptionally critical historical University, Santiniketan, West moment, we need gatekeepers Bengal, attacked by members of of the humane kind, who prove the ABVP to Kafka, again and again, that the trouble all along was of the ______________________ supplicant, our village hero, who thought that there was any hope of solidarity from the

...you simply must not hope for them to respond to contemporary political issues taking place in the country they purport to represent.

February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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The ISA has failed the Indian students on campus by not depicting their interests fairly. The rhetoric of reticence with which they open their, till now, sole statement on the protests, and the manner in which they equate fascist violence with anti-fascist demonstrations that are largely peaceful, are remarkably familiar, borrowed as they are from the mannerisms and style of global far-right leaders. powers-that-be at all. The ISA has willingly dispelled this myth, as I myself learnt upon receiving a strong statement of complete silence from them after repeated invocations to issue some kind of a comment. The fault, of course (thank you Kafka, thank you ISA) was all mine. Indeed, it is disappointing that they broke their “apolitical” stance at all when they caved to pressure and issued a statement on January 12 in which they reflected that “the issue is highly nuanced with losses on all sides.” This, of course, is true, for as the American President (the US really keeps cropping up here, eh?), an equally laudable gatekeeper, who said there are “some very bad people on both sides.”

What was shameful wasn’t how long it took the ISA to respond, as many claimed, but rather that people requested them to

speak at all – whence did they obtain such delusions of hope?

The blame lies not with the ISA. Indeed, I humbly suggest, to avoid future confusions of this sort, a change in name that won’t even necessitate a change in their abbreviated nomer: the Indian Silence Association.

For if global fascism has truly decolonized the White Man’s Burden, the ISA will have played no small role in this.

Corporate news is completely sold out.

These are some Instagram accounts to follow that still provide and actively uphold the ever-vanishing kernel which is truth, unlike the Indian Silence Association: @pavemented @akademimag @inquilabseries @empowered.humans.of.earth @epw.in @ind0ctrination @bhimarmychief @sanitarypanels @dalitfeminist @pari.network @fayedsouza @fuckbjp

@bakeryprasas_azaad @feministflowercrown @badassbrownactivist @sumeetsamos @junaidbhatphotographer

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February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

photo essay

Urban Life and Territory: An Innu Perspective

José Noé De Ita Zavala, Photos Editor In December 2019, I traveled to Mashteuiatsh which means “where there is a point of land” in Nehlueun. This is the oldest Innu reserve (founded in 1856), which is located in northern Quebec and is the home of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation. After meeting this community we moved three hours up north to experience total immersion in the forest. During this visit, Jimmy Simeon, a young Innu social worker who lives in Montreal, shared his knowledge and explained to me how he relates to his ancestral land.

Jimmy Simeon at Lac-Saint-Jean: “There is everybody’s duty to protect the forest, the river, nature. No matter where you are. Nature sustains life, including life in Montreal.”

Jimmy setting the tent. The photo is taken through an Innu handcrafted snowshoe.

“Beavers represent an ideal way of non-self-destructive behavior. The wood they consume is housing, nourishment and at the end, everything goes back to the environment in perfect synchrony.”

photo essay

February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Photo of a logging complex close to Mashteuiatsh.

“The companies are devouring our land”.

“Logging companies represent the current colonization.”

Jimmy lying on the frozen Lac-Saint-Jean interpreting the sound of the breaking ice.

“Nipi means water – the best medicine for the world. It means transportation, food and a constant transformation. The water changes life.”

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CULTURE

February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

“Everything is temporary for us” Interview with Comic Artist Daria Bogdanska

Willa Holt Managing Editor

This week, the Daily’s Managing Editor Willa Holt sat down with comic artist, union representative, and former punk musician Daria Bogdanska to discuss her autobiographical graphic novel Wage Slaves, which was reviewed in Vol. 109 Issue 12 of the Daily: the joint Labour, Body, and Care Issue with Le Delit.

Willa Holt, The McGill Daily (MD): What made you choose a graphic novel as your format for Wage Slaves?

Daria Bogdanska (DB): Let’s start in general. I used to read a lot; I always read a lot of comics, especially a lot of independent graphic novels and DIY. I’m not a really patient person, but I like telling stories. So I guess I started first making comics because they’re so much faster than just writing. Those kind of comics, especially the DIY ones, were written by mostly young people from big cities. Stories about regular life shitty jobs. It was something I could identify with. So I really like this kind of medium, you know?

It’s like it represented a kind of lifestyle and the kind of problems that I maybe could identify with that I didn’t find in other mediums or literature or TV. And that was the inspiration, and I like drawing.

Then I went to comic school in Sweden, and I realized also that, especially when making this book, I would never be able to write a book in Swedish, you know?

Those kind of comics, especially the DIY ones, were written by mostly young people from big cities. Stories about regular life shitty jobs. It was something I could identify with.

Daisy Sprenger | Illustrations Editor I just arrived in Sweden, and I couldn’t communicate really well.

So the first part of the book is in English, and then at some point during the time I was working on the book, which was three years, I realized that my Swedish got much better and it’s actually better than my English, so I switched to Swedish. So the 50 first pages of the book [as published] in Sweden are in English, and then it turns to Swedish, which also illustrates my journey of learning the language.

Something that strikes me is not only I like the medium, but it also enabled me to tell my story in Sweden, in Swedish, because I don’t know if I will ever master Swedish on that level that I could write litera[ry] texts. And where I lack words, I can use pictures and drawings, and that makes it easier for me.

MD: One of the things I appreciate about the book is that you talk about how all immigration experiences aren’t the same, and that some people deal with different levels of discrimination When I started drawing the based on their backgrounds and book, I couldn’t speak Swedish. their languages. Why was that so

important for you to get across?

DB: Everything is temporary for us [Millennials]. We don’t experience any security like on economic level, and there are many, many different levels. And then there’s [discrimination], I think many people can identify with, no matter if you’re [a] migrant or not. And then it comes this other level that you mentioned, which is specifically the experience of being a migrant.

And, you know, I wanted to tell the story of being a migrant.

But I realized that I cannot represent all the people, all the migrants, since, like you said, the stories, the backgrounds – the privileges are so different. I can not just, like, self-proclaim myself being some kind of voice of the migrants. So it was very important for me to say that. And I would say in interviews, “This is a story of a migrant.” I’m telling the story of some other people’s reality also. But I am not the most typical example, also, I’m pretty special. Like, you know, I arrived in Malmö and for example, I got support from a community like this punk community, with some

Swedish people, [who I could] practic[e] the language with, that I could crash at when I lost my job.

I got so many different privileges that put me in a different situation than colleagues of mine. And then again, that I’m European, that puts me on another level. So there are different levels of privilege of migration; what we can do sometimes, how can we react, what rights we have. It was also important for me to both be able to say, “This is the story for you, Swedish people, to hear a story of our migrants, us migrants,” but also say, “But it’s not the same story for everybody,” you know.

MD: How did you approach writing about your co-workers and other people in these different situations? Was that difficult for you? I know with autobiographies, it’s kind of hard to decide how much of other people’s stories you can tell. Did that come up for you while you were writing?

DB: Yes. And you know, that is the hardest part, and I’m glad you’re asking this question. This question comes up all the time, it’s

like, “Isn’t it hard to write about your personal life, you know?

You’re kind of talking about your love relationships; you’re showing sex; you’re showing yourself, your own flaws.” And I’m like, what? I mean, I’m not ashamed of showing my personal life, so it’s not hard to write about myself. I’m pretty sure that everybody knows that everybody fucks up and everybody has the same experiences, or similar experiences in a way. So, it was not a problem for me to share my personal life. What was a problem is, like you said, it’s a very, very hard thing to decide where I have a right to tell my story that includes other people and where their right to not being depicted in a story starts.

I tried to ask people. Some of my friends were like, “Absolutely, no problem with that,” and they’re just like, “Do your thing.

Don’t worry about it. You can use our names.” Some people wanted their names changed.

Some people wanted their looks changed. But the hardest one I guess is my partner. The start of our relationship is depicted in

CULTURE the book, and with him, I had to negotiate a lot of back and forth.

I mean, it’s created some few complex situations between us.

So it was hard, since he agreed to many things, but then the book came out. Maybe he regretted a little bit and was a bit upset, and it was really hard for me because I couldn’t take it back, you know?

Now, he’s fine, and it’s not a big, big thing. I tried to be respectful; in autobiography, you also want to tell your story, and I kind of think the more realistic it is, the better is the story. And I try. Like, you know, of course I have selective memory, like everybody. But I tried to really make this book exactly like everything happened.

I don’t alternate facts too much, or even the timeline. Everything’s how it happened. And yeah, it’s hard. You’re not deciding only about like, showing your private life. You are also deciding their life. It can be hard compromising on that.

MD: What do you think was the most rewarding aspect of getting the book out?

DB: There’s many levels. One thing on a personal level, you know, I come from a working class background. My mom is a cleaner and my father, before he died, he was an electrician. And we were like, kind of poor, and there were never books at home.

And I liked kind of hanging out in, you know, music and cultural circles. I was always surrounded by many creative people who do a lot of amazing stuff which I admired, and they inspired me.

But sometimes their attitude is like this kind of self confidence where they just think about doing stuff and then do stuff, and a big problem during like, all my life, was that I always had ideas about doing stuff, but I lacked self confidence to do them. I just don’t know how to get stuff done sometimes, because like, I didn’t go to university, I don’t know how to start and end a project. Oh my god. It’s just chaos, I never learned that. So a big achievement for me was to actually sit down and work hard and do a book and be like, oh my god, I’m holding it. It’s like I never thought it would be possible in my life. And it’s, you know, it’s only a comic book, but for me it means a lot that I could [make it].

I could also produce some culture which makes me very happy. And it’s been like a lifelong dream that I didn’t really think would come true. And I made it. So I’m just proud of myself in a way.

And the other aspect of why I’m happy that it happened is that, I think, together with the media attention the book got, with all these talks I’m giving and being invited to different things, different forums to talk about these issues. I wouldn’t

February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily say that it’s thanks to my book that these questions started being lifted, but I’m sure that it’s been a part of it.

And now the unions have more open discussion about how to work with migrants and so on. So in that way, I hope it helps to move this forward.

And all those articles in this journal that I was cooperating with who was helping me in the book. When my book got published, she wrote like a big, big article. Like it’s at the end of the book that I’m standing in front of, like a newspaper with my face.

And she wrote another article like a month ago. And now we started cooperating again and doing some research. And we kind of got a lot of like institutions in Malmö [and] the city [itself ] to control those restaurants. My ex-boss and his brother who owned a lot of restaurants actually got sued in a court for exploitation, you know, like enslaving people. You know, I’m not the person that laughs [...] for somebody being sued in court, or going to jail. But here, it’s like a little personal revenge. This thing’s been going on for so long and nobody could do anything.

[There] were no consequences.

And, you know, in the process of uplifting the story, putting attention to these places, this kind of situation, these people, by openly telling who they are and what these places are like, now they get to experience some consequences. For me, that’s big.

MD: Yeah, for sure. That’s really, really satisfying to hear, just because of how much of a theme it is in the book, and I’m sure in your actual life, to feel disempowered, and to feel like it’s not going to make any difference.

Seeing how much of a struggle it was to work with the unions, and everything... It’s nice just personally as a reader to hear that something successful happened.

DB: Yeah. Yeah. And it took so long.

And, another thing, I’m gonna derail a little bit, but another consequence of me writing this book is that [before,] I was never really interested in union organizing, or like it just seemed so far away from my reality, something maybe from another epoch. I didn’t know anything about that stuff until after my book; I started talking about it.

And then I started researching for when I was organizing after reading about it. And then I got involved in this union that was helping me while I was working.

So for the past three and a half years, I’ve been an active member of this union. It’s why I do what I did, because I wanted to help people who were in the same situation that I was, and a lot of migrants write to me or write to the union that I’m active in and need help. And they experience a lot of problems of a similar nature

that I did. What I’m doing now is I’m helping them to organize and helping them to find out all the laws that their companies broke, or if they didn’t get their wages paid, because in Sweden, as a union representative, you can negotiate with bosses if they break the law before you go to court. So for the last three years, I’ve been negotiating for maybe 12 different people, all migrants, and getting back a lot of their wages.

So it’s a kind of activism that I don’t think I would have ended up in if I didn’t experience it myself.

But it’s the most rewarding type of activism.

It’s like freedom’s been stolen from them [the workers], and you can do something and help them.

And then you’re negotiating with the boss and you make them pay back the money. It’s very, very rewarding to be able to change something for the better and make a big difference for these people. So this is one of the best things that came out of this whole story with me writing this book.

You know, I wanted to tell the story of being a migrant. But I realized that I cannot represent all the people, all the migrants, since [...] the stories, the backgrounds, the privileges are so different. I can not just, like, selfproclaim myself being some kind of voice of the migrants.

MD: That’s amazing. Just to shift a bit, do you have any upcoming projects you’d like to talk about?

DB: Yeah! I am working on my new book, it’s something I said, like maybe two years [ago] by now, but I actually started writing. [It’s] more of a continuation to the first book, which is also autobiographical.

And I was thinking that I want to go a little bit deeper in this whole

temporarity and precarity of the life of millennials. It’s going to be more focused on housing and about moving around. I don’t know how many times you moved, but I moved at least 30 or 40 times in my life. And like, comparing to your parents who maybe moved like twice or three times or five, I don’t know. I’m generalizing, but there is a big, big, generational difference on that. And we’re moving, partly because we want to, but partly because you have to change a job or the rent went up or we don’t have a safe contract or blah, blah, blah. So I want to go deeper into these myths of our generation being spoiled and wanting all this freedom and flexibility, and investigate how many different levels of life are temporary. And this is jobs, it’s housing, it’s a way of looking at relationships with friends and with romantic partners. Like everything, it’s temporary for us.

And we’re expected to adapt very quickly to everything. And a lot of young people are not feeling well mentally today. After the Second World War, every generation was better off economically. We are the first one that is just going down economically.

I want to go deeper into what it does to us as humans, to our wellbeing, to our way of thinking, to our mental health. How does it affect us? Here I maybe want to use personal, everyday life situations.

But I want the story to be universal in a way also. One of the more rewarding things and unexpected things is that everywhere I go in Europe or in the world and talk about the book, there’s people my age, or even older people come to me and say, “I identify so much with this story because I experienced exactly the same.” And in every city I go to to talk about the book, it’s like everybody tells the same story, “Oh, this neighborhood. We have a cultural center or a café or this bookshop here. But it’s getting gentrified. So, you know, it used to be a migrant neighborhood, but now, everybody is getting pushed out. And we are losing our money for doing cultural projects.” And, you know, it’s like everywhere I go. Everybody has a story, which is very sad. But in a sense that I didn’t expect [was] that the book would be well received outside of Sweden. It makes me happy in the way that people can find comfort in reading it not only where I live, but everywhere. And I hope to do a second project that continues that.

I don’t think that what I’m doing is something specifically new because there are a lot of people talking as a voice of the generation. The things I was reading about, people living in shitty apartments and their shitty jobs and shitty relationships.

It’s nothing new. But what I was

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missing in all those stories was always that this kind of description of this kind of life that I used to read in comics or literature was like, okay, we complain, we know it’s shitty, we realize that, but we kind of accept it, or we just know how it is. And I wanted to make something else. I wanted to show that there is solutions to change it, like with union organizing. So that’s the difference. Let’s not only make a story about, “Oh, we’re pretty fucked up,” but also that it’s possible to change things, that they don’t have to be like that. So yeah, I hope to finish that other book and I hope I get that message through, but we’ll see.

Hold your thumbs.

I wanted to show that there is solutions to change it, like with union organizing. [...] Let’s not only make a story about, “Oh, we’re pretty fucked up,” but also that it’s possible to change things, that they don’t have to be like that.

MD: I know that definitely came through to me when I was reading it. This past summer I had a close call with a really precarious restaurant experience that was extremely similar. I was reading like, whoa, first of all, this sucks, and secondly, I totally understand this feeling. And then you were like, “Here’s all the stuff that we did and we can do.” So, I mean, you’re already doing that, and I think that’s really amazing.

DB: Well, thank you, and it’s so hard, so it makes me happy that you got thinking about that. But also, I’d kind of think it’s annoying to read this kind of political liturgy that tells you exactly what you should do, like, “It’s easy.” I understand things are not easy and not black and white always. So I hope I manage not to be too much like, “Oh, I know all the answers.”

I don’t know, you know? But I wanted to show that it’s okay to try.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Sci+Tech

TikTok, It’s Sex-Ed O’Clock

Revolutionizing the Way Sexual Health is Taught Kate Ellis Coordinating Editor

T

ikTok is ‘in’ right now. Anyone you know under the age of 30 probably has an account, and trademark dances developed among users on the app, like the ‘Renegade’ have become ubiquitous on social media. What is less expected, though, is the increasing use of the app as a platform for sexual education.

Since fall 2019, the hashtag #obgyn has been gaining massive popularity, as the hashtag is being used by physicians to share information about pregnancy, birth control, and other aspects of sexual health in a non-traditional fashion. Popular contributors include @dr.staci.t and @mamadoctorjones.

These doctors are subverting traditional notions of adolescent sexuality and creating new ones.

In a climate where educational systems and medical providers hold the authority on providing information about sexual health, which often leads to abstinence-only education and

other forms of censorship, these TikToks allow young people to access methods of alternative education. In an interview with the Daily, Dr. Jennifer Lincoln (@drjenniferlincoln), another popular ‘TikTok gynecologist,’ explained that “in the United States, only 20 states have laws that require students to be taught about contraception. Only 8 states require that consent be discussed.

Abstinence-only education is what many kids get when it comes to ‘sex education’– which we know doesn’t delay the age when teens have sex, but leaves them completely uneducated and unprepared for when they do! Basically – health classes in schools are failing our kids and teens. My TikTok account aims to fill in lots of those gaps so teens can make educated, informed choices. Sex is not shameful, knowing how our bodies work is not shameful, and I aim to amplify those messages.”

While some may argue that the videos posted in #obgyn are not necessarily activism in and of themselves, they fulfill a critical role of what technology and gender justice scholar Rosemary Clark termed ‘hashtag activism,’ by “informing activists, [...] diffusing political frame-works, [...] decentralizing leadership, [...] and decreasing the costs of participation.” These videos are therefore a form of consciousnessraising.

Oftentimes, young women and non-binary people are told that they should not

HASHTAG ACTIVISM The act of fighting for or supporting a cause with the use of hashtags as the primary channel to raise awareness of an issue and encourage debate via social media.

TECHNOLOGICAL BIAS Prejudices and biases ingrained into software, hardware, and other technologies.

Read more about technological bias at https://ainowinstitute. org/AI_Now_2019_Report.pdf

Daisy Sprenger | Illustrations Editor engage in sexual intercourse or use birth control by people including parents, teachers, and healthcare providers. By providing accurate, unbiased information and being available to answer questions on new platforms and in unconventional ways, these doctors are subverting traditional notions of adolescent sexuality and creating new ones.

After seeing doctors speak about sexual health on the app, young users have also begun to produce their own sex-ed TikTok content. These discussions often centre around their personal experiences with sexual health and birth control. Popular “sound” trends like “IUD check” and “implant check” let young people share accounts of using different forms of birth control and help peers make informed choices about their reproductive health. Other TikToks are more casual, including messages that destigmatize birth control or even just remind others to take their pill. The information about birth control and intrauterine devices provided by these doctors have not only informed young people but have empowered them to engage in their own activism regarding access to sexual health services.

However, it’s important to realize that even while sex education is becoming more freely accessible through apps like TikTok, this does not necessarily translate into effective help for those who cannot access medical support and treatment.

Intrauterine devices, and many other forms of birth control, are not covered by public healthcare plans in Canada or the United States, meaning that only those with private insurance or the ability to afford the devices can use them.

Furthermore, TikTok is embedded with technological bias, which limits certain demographics’ abilities to engage with this movement to make sexed more accessible. A number of users from marginalized communities are being targeted by this account and video purge; they are unlikely to further engage with the app and therefore cannot be reached by the content on TikTok. In December 2019, The Verge reported that TikTok has been suppressing content by creators with disabilities, LGBTQ+ users, and fat creators in an aim to “protect users with a high risk of [being the target of ] bullying.” A number of TikTok users have posted videos stating that their other videos containing LGBTQ+ content have been deleted. However, even their videos describing the issue have been systematically removed by the app. This suppression has not just targeted marginalized communities, but has also censored the educational sexual content these physicians put out.

Dr. Lincoln told the Daily that her first TikTok was censored, saying that “What bothered me most is that TikTok allows explicit lyrics… but words like ‘vagina’ and

‘sex’ are a problem?! They never replied when I tried to find out why that TikTok was censored.”

This follows in the phenomenon of shadow-banning, “the act of blocking a user’s content online such that the user doesn’t know it’s happening.”

Sexual education is not the only form of activism that is being carried out on TikTok. The app is also being used as a platform to raise awareness about the colonial implications of the gender binary, police violence, and the inaccessibility of the climate justice movement, among many other issues. As Dr. Lincoln told the Daily, “If our little 15 second videos can open the door to more informed choices and empowerment, why wouldn’t we do that?”

“If our little 15 second videos can open the door to more informed choices and empowerment, why wouldn’t we do that?”

– Dr. Jennifer Lincoln

horoscopes

February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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February 17, 2020 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

compendium!

Lies, half-truths, and giving up being Jewish for Lent.

Gaby Dupuis | Staff Contributor

S

SNAPS FOR!

naps for comics! Snaps for the IGSF! Snaps for cowboy hats!

Snaps for SACOMSS! Snaps for corgis! Snaps for feeling cute! Snaps for 2-foot-long pull-apart Twizzlers!

Snaps for Bong Joon-ho! Snaps for the entire cast of Parasite! Snaps for our dear friend Noah! Snaps for Madeline Wilson! Snaps for seeing the sun from the office! Snaps for root beer! Snaps for speedy quick ed1s! Snaps for solidarity! Snaps for Amy’s cool outfits! Snaps for TikTok activism! Snaps for springtime (which will show up soon)! Snaps for reading week! Snaps for double salt black licorice! Snaps for Glee covers! Snaps for reuniting with your long-distance boyfriend! Snaps

for Kate speaking the language of love on Valentine’s Day! Snaps for spring break! Snaps for pie! Snaps for discounted Valentine’s day candy! Snaps for GSFS! Snaps for friends who mail you tea! Snaps for oversized sweatshirts! Snaps for ice skating! Snaps for Wet’suwet’en solidarity demonstrators shutting down VIA Rail! Snaps for land defenders blocking Metro Vancouver Ports, streets, and trains! Snaps for Canada losing millions of dollars!

Snaps for new music! Snaps for free pizza! Snaps for good coffee!

Snaps for hanging out with your friend’s roommate’s fat cat! Snaps for videos of sleeping dogs! Snaps for horoscope vibe checks! Snaps

for your platonic gal pal! Snaps for raspberry jam! Snaps for fig jam!

Snaps for blackcurrant jelly! Snaps for my cat Sally! Snaps for pretty vinyl records! Snaps for female film composers! Snaps for Laura Dern!

Snaps for Florence Pugh! Snaps for Florence Welch! Snaps for Sandra Oh! Snaps for Saoirse Ronan! Snaps for Aubrey Plaza! Snaps for Park So-dam! Snaps for Jo Yeo-jeong!

Snaps for AOC! Snaps for Samira Wiley! Snaps for Lupita Nyong’o!

Snaps for all of these women stepping on our necks! Snaps for the Oscars not being completely and utterly awful for once! Snaps for Taika Waititi! Snaps for golden hour! Snaps for news babies! Snaps

for harm reduction! Snaps for wellproduced podcasts and audio essays!

Snaps for an edboard that always makes you laugh despite how bad your day was! Snaps for motivated youth! Snaps for dumb jokes that you have to laugh at anyway! Snaps for cooking on Wednesday nights!

Snaps for millennial pink! Snaps for fighting gentrification! Snaps for the Word Menu! Snaps for CKUT! Snaps for the hard-working folks at QPIRG! Snaps for student activism! Snaps for playing music! Snaps for four bananas a day! Snaps for snapping!

Snaps for sleeping in! Snaps for S’Wok! Snaps for Pandora, I guess!

Snaps for sharp pencils! Snaps for the motherfucking ocean!