Image by Falon Opsahl Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in a special section on race in the Graphic. Why do we not classify people based on the shape of their bellybuttons? Innies, anyone? Why not be team innie or team outie? Instead, we characterize by skin color and hair type and assign our […]
Detox Where it Matters
Art by Peau Porotesano The way female bodies are perceived is completely tainted by the social bias that females must take up less space than males in society, meaning that female bodies are meant to be smaller, physically taking up less space. While males are pressured with hypermasculine ideals of being large, tall and muscular, […]
Jesus Had 12 But You Need More
Art by Brooke Muschott There is an unspoken rule on social media platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, that one should have significantly more followers than following. Since when did it become unfashionable to show interest in others? The logic of this unspoken rule is truly depressing, because it follows the assumption that if a […]
AA: Appreciate Your Education
Art by Kris Harper An “educational guilt” creeps in especially hard when I labor over assignments I am dispassionate about, and like the best of us, I find myself calculating the bare minimum I need to score on each assignment to reach my desired grade, rather than trying to learn material for its intellectual merit. […]
Legacy of One-Child Policy is Uncertain
Art by Christine Nelson I will forever remember the day that my maid, whom I affectionately called “ayi,” or “auntie” told me that she had no “hukou,” or residency. Having just finished my bath, my 6-year-old self wobbled into her Harry Potter-esque room under the stairwell and crawled under her covers. As I lamented that […]
Emojis: Create Your Speech
Art by Christopher Chen Anyone with parents will realize that the meanings of words change. For instance, just the other day, my friend’s mother complained that “they came up with a new word: binge-drinking.” She hilariously ranted about it being unnecessary. “To us back then, it was just the weekend!” Since the meanings of words […]
English Divides, but Love Conquers
Art by Peau Porotesano Upon finding out that I am a senior, many inconsiderate adults and students alike inquire about my plans post graduation. When I nervously explain that my plans are not entirely concrete, a few joke that “it’s OK” because “if things don’t work out,” I can always “go back to China to […]
Asian Food: Dishing out the Honesty
Art by Christine Nelson My father devoted his entire working career to being a food engineer. He grew up in an impoverished village in Taiwan, splitting a salted egg with seven other family members over bowls of diluted rice. After he immigrated to Massachusetts and earned his PhD in food science, he devoted his time […]
Is Butter a Carb?
As an Asian girl, I receive scrutiny for a lot of my culinary choices. People ask me if I eat eyeballs or testicles. (The answer is no.) People come over for dinner and cry when they are exposed to spices. People ask me if I eat dog. (The answer is also no.) Today, I will […]
Don’t Worry, I wasn’t Thrilled About NSO Either
Art by Peau Porotesano Three years ago, overenthusiastic volunteers in neon orange screamed, “Welcome to Pepperdine!” as my polite father smiled awkwardly in the car rental that was 80 bucks cheaper but not nearly spacious enough for a family of five. The sea of orange is a shade so striking that lawmakers in the 1970s […]
