Is Casual Sex Intrinsically Demeaning?
Many well-intentioned people decry casual sex (or hooking up, or what have you) and argue that there’s something inherently demeaning about it–that you’re just letting the other person use your body...
View ArticleWhat We Talk About When We Talk About College
It’s been rather quiet around here lately. I’ve just started my senior year, and with that came a lot of reflection–what I want this last year to mean, how I can improve on the years that came before...
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Affirmative Action Rant
A few days ago, the Daily Northwestern published a column called “Affirmative Action Dangerously Shortsighted.” It was predictably awful and spawned 269 (mostly dissenting) comments as of now. Some...
View Article[storytime] How I Quit the Senior Thesis
Ever since I was little, I held a belief shared by many gifted kids–gifted kids who grow into overachieving teenagers and then sleepless college students and then budding doctors, lawyers, engineers,...
View ArticleWhy Northwestern Needs an Orientation Program on Mental Health
Note: This post is about stuff going on at my school, Northwestern University. But it’s relevant for anyone who cares about mental health and student activism. [Content note: depression and suicide] A...
View ArticleDear Northwestern Administration: Wake Up
I have a letter to the editor of the Daily Northwestern today. If I seem kind of angry, that’s because I am. Dear Editor, Today I learned that Alyssa Weaver, the Weinberg junior who passed away last...
View ArticleHoboJacket’s Casual Classism: Ethical Humor and Objectifying the Homeless
Elite college students being snobby and idiotic isn’t really newsworthy, but a group of MIT students went above and beyond the standard this past week. The students thought it’d be funny to give local...
View Article“Home”
This week I learned that depression and writer’s block together is a scary thing, as writing is my primary way of alleviating depression. Then I realized that the reason I couldn’t write was because I...
View ArticleHow It Feels To Shed Your Skin
Being a young and mobile person is a bit like having a never-ending case of whiplash. I don’t have a single identity or home or social circle; I have many, and I’m constantly leaving one for another...
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Six Months
Every New Year’s Eve, I write a post about the year that’s about to end. When I was younger, I mostly used these posts to talk about significant things that had happened to me (getting a boyfriend,...
View ArticleSmall Things You Can Do To Improve Mental Health In Your Community
[Content note: suicide, mental illness] A few weeks ago Northwestern lost yet another student to suicide. There’s been pressure building all year for improved mental health services on campus, and I...
View ArticleThe Letter I Didn’t Write
[Content note: depression, suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, sexual assault] This is a long and intensely personal post about college, which I graduated from today. I’m writing it more for myself...
View ArticleWhat We Write About When We Write About Hookups
Every few months the New York Times (or another similarly-positioned publication) prints an article about how Women These Days Are Having Casual Sex And It’s Ruining Things. The articles are often...
View ArticleOn Memories Of Former Homes
The market is swarming with people on Friday afternoon. Tables covered with piles of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, bread, and household goods beckon as their owners shout their prices into the...
View Article812 Miles
Mile 1 Of all the car doors I’ve shut in my life, this one feels the most final. Mile 31 I can finally breathe properly for the first time in days or weeks (I’m not sure). As soon as we got on the...
View ArticleThe Oberlin Hate Crimes Are Not “Just Trolling”
This past year, Oberlin College, generally known for being liberal and inclusive, had a series of bias incidents–or, more specifically, hate crimes. Notes with swastikas were left in mailboxes, flyers...
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Sexual Assault Is Not A Force Of Nature
[Content note: sexual assault, victim blaming] Remember my intent piece? This week we saw a great example of what I was talking about. Slate’s advice columnist, Emily Yoffe, wrote a piece that can...
View ArticleA Review of the White House’s Report on Campus Sexual Violence
[Content note: sexual assault] I wasn’t really paying much attention to the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault because I think that that kind of stuff makes a lot less of a...
View ArticleWhat Is “Survivor Privilege”? I Don’t Know And Neither Does George Will
[Content note: sexual assault] At the Daily Dot, I have an analysis of George Will’s useless Washington Post column and many (but not all) of the ways in which it is wrong: George Will’s...
View ArticleHow Rolling Stone Failed Rape Survivors
[Content note: sexual assault] My new Daily Dot piece discusses the Rolling Stone mess. Last month’s groundbreaking Rolling Stone piece about sexual assault at the University of Virginia recently came...
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