Category: call for submissions

  • call for subs: bodymod

    call for subs: bodymod

    issue 7 is BODYMOD. let us discuss the body as a site of obsession, discipline, performance, pain, and pleasure. 

    what does it mean to make a body “better”? why do you (or why won’t you) make changes to yours? write about tattoos, piercings, hormones, cyborg fantasies, experiences in bodybuilding, or the upgrades you’d adapt if technology permitted so  [┐∵]┘

    send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by january 5th at 5 p.m. with “issue 5 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. include a sample paragraph (~200 words) with your proposal. final drafts are due january 7th (tighter turnaround! be prepared ) at 11:59 p.m. pieces can be anywhere from 1–1000 words. production night will be happening at 5 p.m. on january 15th, pull up inked, pierced, or spiritially altered (accessories encouraged).

    prompts from our section editors (aftercare instructions): 
    uc: are you chopped and also unc? did you ask for plastic surgery as a graduation gift? do your piercings/tattoos make professors scowl at the sight of you? does the middle aged couple on yorkville ask you to be their third because they thought the blue hair and baby bangs screamed “liberal who loves freaky sex”? ever shave your head bald? was it shiny? what was the caretaking routine on that like? did you have to massage the scalp so the stubble didn’t itch? we’re curious (genuinely) (if you don’t want to write for us can you please dm us) (reddit isn’t cutting it).

    arts & culture: talk about bodies as art, as performance, as battleground, as the self (or not). what does it mean to upgrade yourself? is pilates just contemporary penance? tell us about the cyborg fantasy or biohacker pseudoscience or hormones as mythic revisionism. when does a fitness routine become a ritual? when does self-improvement become self-surveillance? write about extremes. what does the ideal body look like in your corner of the internet? what does it cost to maintain? what happens when it breaks?

    politics: discuss cyborg selfhoods: how do wearable tech, implants, or biometric trackers blur the line between body and machine. how does the orientalist’s gaze manifest in the popularity of culture-based body-modifications? explore the politics of pain: what does it mean to choose pain (e.g., piercings, tattoos, decorative scarification) when some bodies face pain without choice? write a manifesto imagining post-human modifications that challenge current aesthetics and ethics.

    opinions: what does it mean to you, to modify your body? how has your body changed over time? is discipline hot, or are we just scared of being seen as lazy? rank your tattoos in order of preference. did that post-relationship piercing hurt as much as the break-up? tell us about your 75-hard experience. are everything showers necessary? bush or no bush? what even IS the point of a body? what’s the point of yours?

    avant garg: give us a tattoo & piercing tour. what’s the most pain you subjected yourself to in the name of bodymod? do you regret any perma-mods you’ve made? let’s talk about non-human bodies we find solace in… furries, mecha, celestial……

    comics: given complete free rein, how would you customize your persona? how do you imagine yourself beyond the confines of your #basic human body? draw us some tattoo flashes! get weird with it. 

    stay greasy,
    amareena saleh
    communications editor

  • call for subs: garchives

    call for subs: garchives

    mail from the depths of your spam, from your junk drawer, from the word wide web and now in your hands. introducing our last issue of the year: garchives! what should be added to the archives? what would you put in a time capsule and bury for 100 years? what did 2025 mean to you? what idea did you mean to send into us that just didn’t happen? (╭ರ_•́)

    send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by november 14 at 5 p.m. with “issue 5 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. include a sample paragraph (~200 words) with your proposal. final drafts are due november 19 at 11:59 p.m. pieces can be anywhere from 1–1000 words. production night with scraps and scanning and old gargs will be happening at 5 p.m. on thursday, november 27th in the jcr.

    some thoughts, musings, and wishes from our section editors: 

    uc: tell us about your least favourite themes from student publications on campus. steal from each other, leave ransom notes, demand obscene payment. we’re all connected, no one is safe…

    arts & culture: we’re taking a trip down memory lane this issue. tell us about the oldest art you can think of. get historical with it! renaissance paintings, early 2000s pop culture, medieval romances, 80s campy cult classics – it’s all fair game. tell us about firsts: the first video game, the first blockbuster, your first brush with art that left you begging for more. narrate your life in art. give us a genealogy of arts. a&c’s fave themes: renaissance, y2k, antiques roadshow

    politics: everything but the kitchen sink politics prompts. are poli sci students like that on purpose? online politics deep dive: jubilee media, breadtube streamers, and substack thinkpieces. top 10 moments in toronto politics (rob ford biopic needed). politicians who would have been better off abandoning doing drag. 

    opinions: this issue, anything goes. 

    nandini wants to know: your hot takes, your guilty pleasures, your niche obsessions, the hill you’d die on, the truth you’d whisper at 3am, and what you really think. ola wants to see: cities and hometowns and space, parents and siblings and cousins, culture and memory and inheritance. ROOMMATES. or, anything you’ve wanted to yap about that you haven’t had the chance to do so for before.

    avant garg: sunday, november 9th, 2025. first snow. the gargoyle vol 67 iss 5’s theme was seasonal affective disorder, the son of a bitch that just won’t let go. how are you planning on making it through the winter semester? tell me about your small saving graces.

    comics: half-assed sketches that you never got around to finishing, ideas on napkins, classroom doodles, pencil marks and ink stains, whatever you have. Mix up characters from different stories and let them meet.  Dump everything you love into a box, give it a shake, and pour it out.  Let our humble section be your dumping ground.

    issue 6 extra: we’ve dug into the back of our brains and the basement of uc to find some old gargs, and masthead has complied a list of their favourite old themes. feel free to draw from any of these: 

    deep sea issue (vol 58, issue 3), the space issue (vol 59, issue 3), star wars issue (vol 65, issue 6), illusions issue (vol 56, issue 8), the clowns issue (vol 62, issue 1), the bread issue (vol 63, issue 7), the magical girls issue (vol 62, issue 3), cult (vol 66, issue 4; vol 69, issue 5), special renaissance issue (vol 21, october special), modern art (vol 68, issue 3), the sitcom issue (vol 61, issue 8),  the eddie murphy issue (vol 60, issue 11; vol 61, issue 6), the yuppies issue (vol 61, issue 2)

    stay greasy,

    amareena saleh

    communications editor 

  • call for subs: language

    can you hear us? issue 5: language is speaking to you |˶˙ᵕ˙ )ﾉﾞ

    what words live rent-free in your head? how does language shape what you can’t say, or what you wish existed? what happens when words fail and translation breaks, when meaning gets lost between tongues?

    send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by october 24th at 5 p.m. with “issue 5 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. include a sample paragraph (~200 words) with your proposal. final drafts are due november 3rd at 11:59 p.m. pieces can be anywhere from 1–1000 words. 

    if you’d like to include another language in your submission, we’d love to hear about that. please include in your pitch what language(s) you want to include, to what degree you are familiar with it, and what exactly you want to write in another language (words, lyrics/sentences, original prose). if you have a bit of your piece in draft form, please send that along in your pitch, too. some of our masthead and alumni have volunteered to edit in other languages, but as some topics require a more comprehensive knowledge of vocabulary, articles will be accepted on a case by case basis.

    masthead will reconvene to chat (and eat pizza) at 5 p.m. on thursday, november 13th in the jcr.  come babble with us. the garg is listening 

    some prompts from your section editors: 

    uc: in this issue, the uc section embarks on finding the best limericks in all the land. and the best dad jokes. and the best haikus. and also, if possible, the best epic poems. we want the next odyssey. we need our new milton. there is a seminar full of students waiting for you. write, starchild. you can hear them calling your name. a whisper in the wind. your time awaits…to shine…

    arts & culture: explore what is lost in translation. who is entitled to understanding the meanings of a language? do non-native speakers deserve access to those meanings? share some fun idioms from your heritage language. how does language shift online? what new dialects are being born? make something out of a mistranslation, make something out of an extended amount of silence. reimagine your favorite piece in a new language – what doesn’t translate?

    politics: do institutions invoke inclusive language without actually being inclusive? publish The Epistemic Yap (AKA the social function of talking shit). how do you remain media literate in a sea of capital D discourse (asking for a friend btw)? please for god’s sake someone write about prose, poetry, and politics. 

    opinions: are you bilingual? trilingual? what even is ‘fluency’? what does it mean to be ‘lost in translation’? what’s it like using google translate to communicate? subtitles: whats your preference? curse in your mother tongue. what does it mean to speak the language of your colonizer? tell us about your relationship with duolingo. dissect the dialect of the internet. does siri understand your accent? when does language fail? let’s switch it up: body language, love languages—how do you communicate without words?

    avant garg: tell the story of moribund languages and document their wisdom. transcribe an interaction and argue on the side of stereotypically feminine phenomena so often disparaged online. write a letter deborah cameron style. grace us with your heritage language; dialect; creole; pidgin. codify a whole new way of writing (conlangs welcome here!). 

    comics: how can language and visual arts complement each other? does a picture really say a thousand words? create a comic in your native tongue. give us a visual dictionary for those words and phrases that can’t fully translate across languages.

    see you soon,

    amareena saleh, communications editor

  • call for subs: resurrection (halloween issue)

    call for subs: resurrection (halloween issue)

    hello hello :> happy spooky season to all ↻(𓄼 .̀  ̮.́)Ψ for our halloween issue this year, we’re digging up issue 4: resurrection .˚⊹.₊˚𖦹⋆ what’s a little dirt under the nails? if the grave was shallow enough to claw your way back up from, the burial was never permanent. write about the things that just will NOT stay dead. habits, fandoms (looking at you, danganronpa), old tech, old selves. necromance the past if you will. 
    drag up your forgotten phases and visit them one last time. tell us what you wish would make a comeback, or why it needs to stay dead, buried, and dematerialized. how do you feel about the inescapable regurgitation of references and remakes? 

    send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by friday, october 10th, 5 p.m. with “issue 4 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. include a sample paragraph (~200 words) with your proposal. final drafts will be due wednesday, october 15th by 11:59 p.m. pieces can be anywhere from 1–1000 words.

    we’re also looking for front and back cover art for this issue! please pitch us your most spooky concept art via email. also! for our centrefold, we’ll be accepting spooky undead doodles  (can be drawn irl at prod, or emailed as pdfs!) great opportunity to get a doodle in your journal printed and floating around campus. 

    masthead will rise from the dead for production at 5 p.m. on thursday, october 23rd in the junior common room and will remain until the witching hour (more like 9-ish…). pizza will be summoned. possibly ghosts? if you’re interested in a less spooky time, come back by the issue 3: dreamgirl prod night this thursday (oct. 9).

    some spooky prompts for the eager gargling: 

    uc: how long have you been in the city? did you grow up in toronto or the gta, are there any places that remind you of better times…of worse times? we all have our favourite spots, did you ever abandon them and then find them again? talk about places you recently rediscovered in the city. tell us about all the places you have haunted in the late hours of the night or the early, slithering hours of the morning. carlton imagine cinemas at 1AM? lakeview diner at 1:15AM? the green room at 1:30AM? sneaky dee’s nachos at 1:45AM? sneaky link at wild wing at 1:55AM? someone watching you while you take the 2AM GO-train to Maple?

    PS: if you’ve been on the uoft ghost tour please please please write about it i’ve always wanted to go.

    arts & culture: talk about a piece of media that brought you to life. what cultural phenomena/trends need to make a comeback? how are you giving new lives to old hyperfixations? is fanfiction a type of rebirth? discuss revival genres. complain about remakes of remakes. what should stay dead? are we obsessed with revival because it’s comforting, or because we’ve run out of original thoughts? can anything ever truly die, or will it all be revived eventually?

    politics: explore how empires “resurrect” myths of past glory to “give life” to nationalist rhetoric. what motivates gen z’s obsession with nostalgia and analog media’s “resurrection”? how do the ghosts of forgotten political history still haunt us? debunk right-wing nostalgia and the myth of restoration (“this is what they took from us”). what do political assassinations reveal about our cultural climate? the meaning behind the monster: political subtext in horror.

    opinions: the horror of return. what’s something you buried that won’t stay buried? what do we owe the dead? talk about the most recent resurrection in your life, a relationship, a hobby, a trend…? who would you resurrect? what would you NEVER resurrect? god forbid, do YOU want to be resurrected? buried or cremated? tell us about loved cultural revivals in your cities or circles. also zombies. tell us about zombies.

    avant garg: is to be resurrected to be reborn? can death absolve you of sin? narrate from a gravedigger’s perspective. storytell from six feet under. is that the tip of a shovel or are you just happy to see me? resurrect an old flame and journal how it burns this time around. tell us about people who came back wrong–or worse, right. dig your own grave. lie in it. 

    comics:  resurrect your favourite dead shows and characters.  tell us about that one thing that just won’t die for good, no matter how many times you kill it. bring back your old art styles, OCs, favourite art trends, and comics! halloween is approaching…draw us some sick-ass zombies, ghouls, and goblins >:)

    see you soon,

    amareena saleh, communications editor

  • call for subs: dreamgirl

    call for subs: dreamgirl

    <!– ISSUE 3: DREAMGIRL –>

    this week we’re queuing up issue 3: dreamgirl ♡˳·˖✶ write about the girl in the mirror, the girl on screen, the girl in your twitter groupchat, the girl you invented at 2 a.m.  representation for a girl of nightmares? tell us how the idea of a “dream” girl shifted over time. how is it different from a dream boy.

    send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by friday septmeber 26th, 5 p.m. with “issue 3 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, october 1st by 11:59 p.m. your article word count can be as few as 1 and as many as 1000. 

    our production night will take place at 5 p.m. on, october 10th in the junior common room until 9 ish pm. who knows, you just might just meet your dreamgirl™… (or at least a masthead member with pizza). if you want to meet with anyone from masthead irl prior to pitching, issue 2 production is happening this upcoming thursday (sept. 25). 

    also! for or our nom nom nom food issue, we’re also collaborating with @uoftletseat on a campus food drive. please bring non-perishable items like canned vegetables (tomatoes, chickpeas, etc.), oatmeal, canned fruit or fish, and nut butter.

    donation spots:

    sept 22–25 → uc lit office (jcr, 9–5)

    sept 23 → sid smith lobby, 1:30–4:30 (possibly sept 24 too, tbc)

    sept 25 → during nom nom nom prod night (5 p.m. – midnight)

    all donations go to the daily bread food bank, who have been working since 1983 to meet emergency food needs and address long-term food insecurity across the gta. they distribute fresh + shelf-stable food to over 200 programs and advocate on issues like affordable housing, newcomer support, social assistance, and livable wages.

    here are some dreamgirl dlc prompts from our section editors: 

    uc: have you ever pictured your professor in a maid outfit? every wondered if there muscles under that button up? we want campus crush fanfiction. get raunchy, get feral, get nasty. 

    arts & culture: dissect these so-called ‘girls’ in media. tell us about mary-sues, girlbosses, big sisters, and girl-next-doors. what does it take to be a final girl? who gets to be a main character and who is relegated to npc status? what art is made for girls and where is that line drawn? what does ‘girlhood’ look like on screen? what does girlmusic sound like? how is femininity glorified, satirized, and/or sensationalized?

    politics: discuss feminist intimacy: how does decolonized intimacy look and feel? do trends like “princess treatment” and “I’m just a girl” do more to infantilize women than center our genuine needs and desires within a relationship? tell us about navigating womanhood and singledom. how does capitalism define “the girl”? is it regressive to use gendered language when describing anything done by a woman (i.e. woman writer)? does queer femininity align with popular interpretations of the “feminine experience”?

    opinions: how do femininity and labels play into your relationships, or how do they not? what about in your relationship with yourself? how did the quintessential ‘manic pixie dream girl’ shape or affect you? tell us about the top 5 girls in your life. how does it feel to be somebody’s/nobody’s dream girl? WHO IS YOUR DREAM GIRL? what even IS ‘girlfriend material’? ‘wifey material’? what the hell is a ‘girl’, anyway? 

    avant garg: i’m stealing opinions’ question. what the hell is a girl? what the hell is a dream? answer those questions for me in a mind map. please help me. fix me. did that turn you on? yes? let’s dissect that. serenade the shoulders of women who carry the plot for boring, depressed men. belt “clementine” by grentperez. verbalize the desperation of desiring to be your own dreamgirl, the ideal girl, the special girl. rewrite the Gone Girl monologue. 

    comics: why does everyone look the same? subvert the convention of cookie cutter femme characters in visual media. pixar moms, impossible anatomy in femme superheroes, eyelashes and curves to indicate female animals in cartoons. what gives??!! make a comic exploring the ways that femininity is stylised, constructed, exaggerated, and contorted in the arts.  

    see you soon,

    amareena saleh, communications editor

  • call for subs: nom nom nom

    call for subs: nom nom nom

    welcome to the Greasy Garg! your favourite restaurant for all things (legally) edible, questionably drinkable, and generally consumable. this week we’re cooking up issue 2: nom nom nom, which is dedicated to the culture of food in all its scrumptious and delectable forms. 

    give us your takes on food as a love language, diet culture, the rise and fall of trendy cafes, to your favourite hole-in-the-wall places. your ideas are a bottomless buffet, and we’re starving (っ˘ڡ˘ς). pls bring us a bowl of your perpetual stew, dearest contributors. 

    send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by friday september 12th, 5 p.m. with “issue 2 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, september 17th by 11:59 p.m. your article word count can be as few as 1 and as many as 1000. 

    our production night will take place at 5 p.m. on thursday, september 25th in the junior common room until 9 ish pm. all this chat about food may make you hungry, but do not fret: pizza will be provided to satisfy all your cravings. if you want to meet with anyone from masthead irl prior to pitching, issue 1 production is happening this upcoming thursday (sept. 11) in the JCR. come say hi.. or heyyy

    here are some prompts to the taste of our section editors:

    uc: tell us about your favourite spots around the city to eat. tell us about your favourite caribbean food spot, your favourite place to get ramen, burgers, etc. what memories have you formed around these foods and these places. is there anywhere to stay clear of in the city? why? stories lie in food and food places, tell it to us…even if they’re secrets.

    arts & culture: discuss relationships around food and consumption in the arts. talk about the gentrification of food spaces and the aesthetic of eating. explore how food ingredients are used in art. dig into the cultural experience of eating and how it is performed, and perform it yourself! can you eat a meal without also watching a show? how much consumption is too much consumption? 

    politics: feeding fascism: how does the alt-right use thinness to radicalize young women? what’s up with the protein-ification of everything (fitness culture to conservative pipeline)? what are examples of cultural and spiritual wisdom stored in dishes/cuisines/cooking methods? unpack the history of national food guides and nutrition programs. how do trendy cafes, bars, and restaurants crowd ethnic neighbourhoods? why do certain food items go from taboo to trendy to obsolete?

    opinions: describe to us your relationship with food. what does “appetite” mean to you: hunger, desire, or something else? detail out an old family recipe. tell us what would be on your death row meal. what are you gluttonous for, food not necessarily included? what does “indulgence” mean for you? tell us about your intersection between culture and food. what effect has diet culture had on your life?

    avant garg: are lust and gluttony the same sin? do they both just mean excess? let us taste your mother’s cooking. invent a new food. did you ever eat paper as a kid? i did. explore food as a vessel for community and congregation. write us a recipe (for disaster). give us your handwritten grocery lists. annotate a restaurant receipt with your ratings. eat your heart out!

    comics: mm…food. what does your ideal meal look like? what forbidden objects look just soooooo tasty to you? draw us some of your favourite recipes, dishes, and ingredients. design some dishware that tickles your culinary fancy, or, dishware for one very specific purpose only.

    see you soon,

    amareena saleh, communications editor

  • 11:59 — call for subs

    hello esteemed customers- students!

    i meant to send this email at 11:59, but i actually had a real thing due at 11:59, so that took precedence. our last issue of the year is 11:59! this is our education issue. cold emailing, linkedin profiles, running to classes during uoft time, looming deadlines, loans — all delightful parts of the student experience, amirite? come write about disparities in education, book banning, disinformation & miseducation, critique the structures of the education system, and so on and so henceforth pertaining to grandiloquent pedagogy.

    this issue is also about late nights, like the one we find ourselves in now. if you just got this email notification, turn off your email notifs at night. no one needs to reach you that urgently at 12:21, be so fr. 

    for your submission to be considered for this issue, send your proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by monday, march 24th, 11:59pm with “issue 12 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 friday, march 28th. your section editor will go over edits with you until tuesday, april 1st. your article word count can be as few as 1 and as many as 1000.

    1742875140

      days

      hours  minutes  seconds

    until

    pitches due

    our production night will take place at 5 p.m. on friday, april 4th in the junior common room and will be an ALL-NIGHTER! you can come in and collage your flat at a normal time and leave early if you so choose, but you’ll be missing out. we kick around the JCR til the sun rises. there will be events and food throughout the night, so watch out for those details (as we actually plan them). 

    here are some rushed and late prompts from our section editors: 

    uc: when was the last time u pulled an all nighter? did soe weird shit go down at robarts ore wer eu so sleep de[prived u made it up? article in format of academic paper, abstract, keywords, etccc. write about 11:59 in the city,, what do you see on the night buseses and streetcar ? ever worked the night shift in toronto? elucidate on your dreams, that one from last night or that long term one. talk about rushed and lae assignmentss. 

    arts & culture: tell us about how it feels to write under pressure– does it work for you? can you write any other way?  share your favourite literary ending and tell us why it was so/not quite satisfying. talk about the arts and education: how has the arts educated you? how has it changed your view on (un)learning? adopt the personality of that one guy (we all know who he is) who studies the arts in your tutorial. 

    politics: scarce tenure track positions and 10,000 applications for underpaid internships: why does higher education thrive on scarcity? explore student protest and police presence in schools. reflect on how social media reduces nuanced ideas to a 6-second-video, fostering a loop of shallow public intellectualism. do masterclass and coursera democratize learning, or just sell celebrity wisdom? are you a linkedin warrior (i am…)? explore how linkedin turns careers into highlight reels, masking the messiness of professional struggles.

    opinions: how do you prioritize meeting your basic needs as a student? share your experiences accessing mental health support. do you feel that attending U of T was worth the money, time and tears? rank school bags! wildest thing that’s happened to you as a student? talk about your procrastination habits. how to NOT procrastinate? are guidance counselors a helpful resource for students?

    avant garg: has uoft time cursed us with a sense of perpetual lateness or is that just me? why do i have 300+ connections on linkedin but no one to hold hands with? why won’t nslsc leave me alone? why am i adding a $500 eng 2t5 jacket to my cart as an art sci student after watching skule nite once? why did my ta just give me 20 extra points just because i attended office hours? what if i hadn’t gone? what the fuck?
    comics: in comic form, vent about the horrors™ that university has put you through. what delusions and crazed premonitions have you had in your sleep-deprived, caffeine-addled state?  reveal the things you’ve been doodling in your notebook while your professors drones on in lecture.

    pretty please don’t dock any late marks for this email i really need to pass this class,

    ella mac & gabriel yuan, editors-in-chief

  • reproductive justice — call for subs

    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.

    1741665540

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    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