Tag: Culture

Hope Edition

Glass Half Full

Words by: Lochie McKay 
Art by: My Tieu Ly

I think my love affair with the bright side of life started when my dad and I watched Monty Python’s Life of Brian — we’re the only two people in our family of six who loved that movie. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Brian is mistakenly believed to be the messiah, despite his protests that he is just an ordinary guy. He is then sentenced to death and while all his followers and his girlfriend have the chance to save him, they instead vow to preach his teachings and form a new religion in his name. So, as he is hanging there after being crucified, his buddy the next cross along tells him to “cheer up you old bugger, give us a grin” and launches into song. Needless to say, the joke never fails to get a good laugh out of me. 

… Glass Half Full
Hope Edition

Financial Security: From the Perspective of a Student

Words by: Tess Kent 
Art by: Carla J. Romana

I’m sitting in my first-year marketing class. The term ‘sitting in’ is a bit of a stretch, given that it’s 2020 and all of my classes have been shifted to this peculiar platform called Zoom. We’re learning about the premise of cost/sacrifice value and I’m half paying attention, thinking about whether or not I need to remember this information for this week’s Moodle quiz. Yet, fast forward to two years later and now every day I live the eternal struggle of evaluating the cost/sacrifice value of my silly little $6.50 almond latte. 

… Financial Security: From the Perspective of a Student
Hope Edition

The Happiest Day

Words by: Bryan Hoadley
Art by: Adrienne Aw

The taxi fills with sunlight. I’ve never been to this city before, but as I look out the window, I instinctively know I’m in LA. The car pulls up in front of a bright white hotel with large circular pillars and gleaming windows. 

“Ms Davis is waiting for you in the foyer,” says a suited employee while ushering me inside. My chest tightens in anticipation. Hollywood, Davis — this can only mean one thing. 

… The Happiest Day
Hope Edition

She Is the Navy Blue

Words by: Caitlin Cefai  
Art by: Madison Marshall

The sweat. The rush. The crowd. The bounce. The game. It’s full throttle: no protective gear, played in the dead of winter, and known for being a petri dish for vulgarity and violence in its crowd. Aussie Rules is the sport for Australians. It’s as tough as its namesake nation — the soul of a home with over 60,000 years of history. It’s a game for all Australians… 

Well, up until only six years ago, it was actually a game just for men.

… She Is the Navy Blue
Hope Edition

A Kid’s Dream

Words by: Gabriela Fannia 
Art by: Emilia Bajer

Innocent wishes and boundless imagination, with a touch of hopefulness — that is what childhood dreams are made of. Funny how we don’t remember most things from the past (let alone last Monday’s dinner), yet a childhood dream will always have its place in a precious storage box, tucked inside the mind. 

… A Kid’s Dream
Hope Edition

You’ve Got a Friend in Me

Words by: Felice Lok 
Art by: Lauren Gallina

I have two really good friends who I cherish very much. One will FaceTime me for five hours straight as we talk about the minor inconveniences we experienced that day in immaculate detail. The other calls me and we talk about career crises and trips to London over the summer holiday. I try to catch up with them often, but when life gets in the way and we don’t see each other for weeks, it feels like I have a gaping hole in my heart. For me, these two are my biggest soulmates. And this piece is dedicated to all the things I hope will come true for them. 

… You’ve Got a Friend in Me
Hope Edition

MUST BE LIKED!

Words by: Juliette Capomolla 
Art by: Ilanda Tran

I bought flared jeans because they were the thing. Never mind they accentuated my big hips and didn’t show off my smaller calves.

I cut bangs because everyone else was doing it. Let’s pretend I didn’t look like a moonface (as my mum would so kindly put it).

I downloaded TikTok so I could keep up with the jokes, despite knowing full well I would spend hours on that app when I could be doing something productive.

And that’s just to name a few times in my twenties when I’ve done a thing or two just to fit in. It’s a terrible thing isn’t it, trying to keep up with the Joneses? So why do we do it?

… MUST BE LIKED!
Politics Edition

Just Call Me Lucifer

Words by: Kiera Eardley 
Art by: Naiya Sornratanachai

“…as heads is tails / just call me Lucifer / ’cause I’m in need of some restraint”

‘Sympathy for the Devil’ (1968), The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones have courted controversy for their entire 60-year career. The British rock & roll band was marketed as the anti-establishment antidote to the saccharine Beatles — and they didn’t shy away from living up to that bad-boy image. 

… Just Call Me Lucifer
Politics Edition

Environment Woes and Climate-Activist Hoes

Words by: Alice Wright
Art by: Molly Burmeister

In the past year, Australia was ranked dead last for its climate policy, with no current plan in place to work towards transitioning to renewable energy on a national level. No new policies have been announced to reach zero emissions by 2050, and each and every year we watch on as houses are burnt down and flooded, leaving Australians left with little hope for the future. 

… Environment Woes and Climate-Activist Hoes
Politics Edition

Reverse-engineering My Thoughts on Plastic Surgery

Words by: Felice Lok
Art by: Natalie Tran

“You see, more often than not, the people who shame women the most are actually women themselves.”

I remember first grappling with the notion of internalised misogyny while preparing for my Year 12 oral exam. My topic was about why all men play a role in eliminating violence against women, and the way I wrote it fixated heavily on how men were always the main perpetrators. While I was rehearsing in my English teacher’s office after school one afternoon, she said something that I didn’t really understand at the time, but has stuck with me ever since. She said:  “you see, more often than not, the people who shame women the most are actually women themselves.”

… Reverse-engineering My Thoughts on Plastic Surgery
Politics Edition

Table Manners

Words by: Sarah Louise
Art by: Lauren Easter

You spot him seated at a small table in the corner. Thank God, he looks like his Hinge profile. The restaurant is dimly lit, so hopefully he won’t notice the pimple that rudely decided to pop up this morning. He stands up to greet you, pulls your chair out and fills your glass with water. Tick. 

… Table Manners
Politics Edition

How Are You Any Different? 

The intersectionality of politics & the significance thereof 

Words and photography by: Zayan Ismail 

The term ‘intersectionality’ was first coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an African American woman, in her 1989 paper, ‘Demarginalising the Intersection of Race and Sex’. Intersectionality is a concept in social studies that refers to how different factors such as age, race, ability and class all interact with each other to bring about inequalities. The term still holds true today in a world that has begun to shift under the tides of drastic social change. It is not surprising that Kimberlé came up with the word based upon her own experience, nor is it surprising that the term has been misused, misconstrued and not properly credited over the years since. Her experiences are the sad reality for a woman and person of colour in academia, and it’s the same behaviour we witness in our communities which is built upon discriminatory views formed by our own biases. It is still exactly what Kimberlé warned us about and the marginalisation that she faced when she was immediately sidelined for being too critical and playing into ‘identity politics’. But don’t we all speak from our own experiences and knowledge? This question is where it all began, and how I first came across the conceptual understanding of intersectionality in my sociology classes. 

… How Are You Any Different?