Media Commentary

Loving every inch

We all know the feeling. It’s that sigh when catching a glimpse of our reflection in a passing window; it’s the hasty jerk between towel and T-shirt in the communal changing area; it’s the quiet relief that the one-piece has returned to fashion, with it’s forgiving lycra compression. Our stomachs are the centre of our…

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What is queer fiction?

By Anna Hill When I first started my search for mirrors in the form of queer books I was often recommended entirely non-queer books. I think this is because people have fundamentally misunderstood what queer fiction is and how good and valuable representation works. Here are some of the problems I have found: One [side]…

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The Orlando shooting: Alternative media

Trigger warning – Orlando shooting Here is a page dedicated to all those who lost their lives in the Orlando shooting at Pulse night club. 49 people were killed on Saturday – the biggest mass shooting in recent US history. They were queer people, predominantly Latinx queer people. As the media continues to blame Muslims and those…

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We've done our homework–now it's time for Teen Vogue to do theirs

by Maya Brown This past summer, fabulous SPARKTeam members Emma and Carina wrote a Change.org petition and staged a mock fashion show outside of Teen Vogue headquarters, asking the magazine to follow the lead of Seventeen and pledge to stop photoshopping the bodies and faces of girls in their magazine and commit to showing diversity…

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Hey girl, we don't call our sisters "bitch"–or do we?

Is the word “bitch” acceptable? Kanye West posted a flurry of tweets on September 2nd examining his use of the word. He just wanted to think out loud with us today. So Kanye, here’s what we, the girls of SPARK, think about the word “bitch.” YingYing: As with any other word, “bitch” can only have…

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Why do love triangles need to dominate in kids' TV?

by Ria Desai In my whirlwind journey through the cartoon The Legend of Korra, I found that the show, while exemplary in featuring strong women as its leads – and strong women of color, at that – fails to empower those women. Instead, the female characters, as is all too common in media, fall victim…

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Get it, girl(s)! Emma, Scarlett, & Anne talk back.

by Alice Wilder You probably already love Emma Stone, Scarlett Johansson, and Anne Hathaway. They’re smart, talented, funny ladies who are damn good at what they do: acting and promoting their work. But my admiration doubled once they started discussing sexism in interviews. I didn’t realize that girls are always being asked about the diets…

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What the Haribo ad?!

[Ed. note: this post is cross-posted from our partners at Powered By Girl.] By Katherine Connolly The setting is a Willy Wonka-esqe imaginative factory, straight out of a child’s fantasy. An adorable little boy, dressed up in his own little suit, runs his own candy factory, issuing orders and marching around like a grown-up. Two…

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