Intersectional Apocalypse

Introduction

2018-11-27T16:14:04-08:00

The introduction for the inaugural issue of Intersectional Apocalypse: "Digital Dialogues: Navigating Online Spaces."

The Good Indian Daughter and Abortion

2018-11-27T16:14:06-08:00

CONTENT WARNING: This piece is about abortion

It was February in 2015 and I remember I was in a panic searching on Google pregnancy symptoms. My last period was super light; later, I realized that it was actually pregnancy spotting and I had missed my period. I was freaking out because I knew the morning-after pill didn’t work and I knew I was pregnant. Reading symptoms online and aligning them with how I felt made me realize that my body was really different than normal; tender, swollen breast, nausea, headaches, mood swings, fatigue, and much more - Yup, I had all of it.

I think I took four pregnancy tests and I searched up once again to see how accurate they could be. Yes, all of them came back positive.

I didn’t feel comfortable going to my family doctor because he was Indian and was worried I would be judged. I didn’t want someone in the Punjabi community to find out because of the strong stigma attached to abortion and pre-marital sex/pregnancy. Yes, I am Punjabi. Punjabi and pregnant before marriage. This is every Punjabi parent's worst nightmare for their daughter. I was raised up really conservative and I knew if my parents ever found out...I can't even process what that would look like. But not good.

What I actually ended up doing was searching abortion Vancouver in Google, and the first link that popped up was the Elizabeth Bagshaw Women’s Clinic. I felt some relief that there was actually information out there. I felt so much more relief when I was able to book my ultrasound and abortion procedure all online through email. It was discrete and all digital; I didn’t need to go to my family doctor.

When I was pregnant, I searched the shit out of everything on Google.

What does a fetus look like at 9 weeks? Can it feel pain? What will happen during the abortion? Why didn’t PLAN-B work? How effective are condoms? Are abortions painful? How depressed will I feel afterwards? Reproductive justice? Will I regret this? Can I get pregnant again? Do I have to see a counsellor before the procedure? WHY DID PEOPLE USE COAT HANGERS!!! Use black cohosh to help induce a miscarriage. Is this covered under MSP? What the fuck... no contraceptive is 100% effective? There are people out there who say I'm going to hell? Who’s Elizabeth Bagshaw?

Yeah… I came across a lot of negative, positive and absolute bullshit on the internet when it came to abortion information. This piece showcases my journey starting from my room, to pro-life discussions online, pro-choice, reproductive justice information. It then leads into actually finding out about the Elizabeth Bagshaw clinic, having the abortion, and ending back into my room.

Young Girl

2018-11-27T16:14:13-08:00

A poetic narractive about a young female's journey and transformation of mindset regarding body shame and body positivity as a result of navigating online spaces.

the first man for me

2018-11-27T16:14:15-08:00

Content Warning: Sexual Violence

These erasure/found poems explore the theme of #MeToo, which is a platform for survivors of sexual harassment and sexual violence to give voice to their experience(s). When I practice erasure poetry (the strategic emphasis and removal of words from an existing text), the creative act centres the control that was taken from me. The phrase “Me Too” was started over a decade ago by Tarana Burke, a black grassroots activist and change maker, and presently, in the digital era, survivors have used the hashtag #MeToo to find one another. What has come uncovered is that our stories of survivorship do not fit the “perfect survivor” narrative, because there is no such thing. In #MeToo, trans, non-binary, and queer survivors, have space to share their voice, on their terms, in their online communities.

Mitigating the Legal Grey Area of Amateur Naked Picture Distribution in Canada

2018-11-27T16:14:17-08:00

Executive Summary:

The act of selling pornographic images is nothing new. Men and women all over the world have profited from reproductions of their naughty bits since the dawn of man, and with its boundless demand, this industry appears to be indestructible. However, with the abundance of professionally produced pornography, the industry of ‘amateur’ porn has emerged, where people with no professional experience in pornography sell their images and videos to others, mainly online. With an estimated 30.1 million people in Canada owning a mobile phone with a camera (Statista, 2015), it has become laughably simple to take and upload intimate pictures and videos of oneself online, whether that be over actual pornographic sites, forums like Reddit’s notorious r/gonewild, or even through social media platforms like SnapChat and Instagram. Unfortunately, with this facility of creation and distribution comes the ease of unauthorized redistribution and ‘revenge porn’, where someone maliciously submits previously consensual intimate images of their ex-partners online without their knowledge. Whether commercial or not, the ownership of these images is a gaping grey area in Canadian law, where it can be exceedingly difficult to reclaim images and get them removed from unauthorized websites. Ownership and property rights in this regard need better structure and reinforcement.

The policy actions that this brief will propose to remedy this issue are to;

Alter current Canadian copyright law to give any identifiable subject some rights to any intimate picture of themselves, unless stated otherwise in an agreement and/or contract.
Add and/or edit a section in Canadian criminal law to better encompass crimes of redistribution of this nature.

Teachers Integrating Technology: Sometimes, They Don't

2018-11-27T16:14:21-08:00

A highly sarcastic exploration of how teachers are hesitant to utilize technology to connect their marginalized students to representative advocates and communities, and theories as to why (ignorance, radicalization, resistance to assimilation).

The Concussion Collective

2018-11-27T16:14:23-08:00

The Concussion Collective is a reflection by Naiya Tsang on the praxis behind the creation of a website dedicated to concussion experiences and disability justice. Tsang details her own concussion experiences, and looks at the ways in which concussions can interact with various notions of ability, power, and subjective experience.

Diasporic Blaming, or the (Im) Possibility of Speaking

2018-11-27T16:14:26-08:00

Focusing on online posts and hashtags circulated after the news that two lesbians were caned in Malaysia, this reflective essay investigates the rationale behind the diaspora’s ability and desire to criticize and the ways in which these practices may foreclose more radical transformations and serve the need of the settler homonationalist state. Speaking as a migrant with numerous experiences from the 'non-West'; I caution the unintended consequences of the act of 'diasporic blaming' and how such practices may reinforce the colonial and imperial expropriations of race, gender and sexuality.

Un Sueño Hecho Realidad

2018-11-27T16:14:30-08:00

This piece illustrates the complexities of growing up as an individual who was assigned male at birth and feeling a disconnect from their family and culture because they are unable to experience specific cultural traditions because of their assigned gender at birth. In spite of this, this piece focuses on the normalization of trans Honduran womanhood as something to be loved, protected, cherished and celebrated.

Bonus Feature

2018-12-03T11:08:34-08:00

This bonus feature is a collaboration between SFU's GSWS "Intersectional Feminist Journal Praxis" class and zine facilitator Heather Prost. All works in this zine were created by tender hands.