hello garglings,
no, this is a totally normal hour to send an email — why would you even say that? this eleventh hour call for subs is for our eleventh issue: REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE. while writing your pitches, keep in mind that reproductive justice is more than reproductive rights. just because something is legal doesn’t mean it is accessible to all.
for your submission to be considered for this issue, send your proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by monday, march 10th, 11:59pm with “issue 11 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. please include a sample paragraph of 200 words with your proposals. your final drafts will be due wednesday, march 12th. your section editor will go over edits with you until sunday, march 16th. your article word count can be as few as 1 and as many as 1000.
days
hours minutes seconds
until
pitches due
our production night will take place at 5 p.m. on wednesday, march 19th in the junior common room. this time, we will fr have the room booked, although it was fun briefly sharing with the uoft Vietnamese Students’ Association. we’ll always have that 1/4th of a pastry in our memories.
before we get into the prompts, we wanted to mention, no big deal, but we have a REFERENDUM NEXT WEEK!
the mike’s levy is $3.18. the strand’s levy is $3.00. the gargoyle’s levy is $1.50. the last time we had a levy fee increase was in 1990. with inflation, our levy would be about $3.01 today.
in the uclit spring election, we are asking to increase our levy to $2.69. the referendum would also allow us to index our levy to the ontario consumer price index, subject to an annual motion of the uclit. this means we could match our levy with inflation if we think it is necessary to sustain our operations — as long as the uclit thinks it is justified. why, you ask? keep up with inflation and rising printing costs, keep up with our growth… and allow us to expand, and remove our dependency on the uclit for cash.
so, uc students, if you support the garg, vote YES from march 14th-16th!
back to your regularly scheduled call for subs. here are some prompts from our section editors:
uc: write about how practically accessible birth control and abortions are in toronto. is it more accessible than your hometown? investigate what sexual, reproductive, and gender affirming care is covered by our student insurance — and all the hoops you must jump through first. in your time at uoft, how has your sexuality been perceived through overlapping layers like race, class, gender, ability?
arts & culture: how is the arts utilized as a form of resistance for bodily autonomy? talk about various metaphors for reproduction and bodies involved. criticize the pervasive genre of sexual violence and its audience in media. examine body horror as a metaphor for the loss of bodily autonomy. how does it make you feel to inhabit (or control) someone else’s body through the narrative perspective of a book or video game?
politics: explore the different ways in which marginalized communities, throughout history have provided access to abortion, and reproductive healthcare in general, when the state won’t. talk about the current moment and threats to bodily autonomy; think about how we can organize to build communities resilient to these threats. discuss sexual violence as a patriarchal tool for control, and power as a motivation for sexual violence.
opinions: do you think education on consent and safe sex practices in schools is adequate? what do you think about the ongoing controversy over reproductive rights, and the push to strip away access to contraception, abortion, and general sexual education resources? talk about your experiences with birth control. rank menstrual products. what would you change about gynecologist visits?
avant garg: what does it mean for your body to be considered a battlefield? mould a more humane metaphor for your own body. write a sprawling piece of meta-fiction that captures the range of internal emotions insinuated by access to healthcare, and how this pendulum crashes against the white walls of a politically hostile medical industry. scribble everything you want to say to those that refuse to affirm your understanding of your own body and slap it on the page. cut raggedly through bureaucratic claims and craft their worst nightmare. sculpt, puncture, and seize.
comics: are you a local zine creator? comics is interested in “plugging your shit” – we’d like to feature promotional art and writing for your publication and its latest issue. if you aren’t a zine publisher, that’s okay too – we want to hear your thoughts on how book bans on queer/sex ed books/comics and bans on sexual education affect young women, men, and queer youth. who have been your favourite women, trans, or queer comic artists? how has their work pushed you towards self discovery and contributed to sexual and reproductive liberation?
love,
ella mac & gabriel yuan, editors-in-chief
