The high school world built in the film was unreal to me: no uniforms or dress-codes, teachers lacking authority, school dances and house parties, glamour. The film distinctly highlighted American and non-American disparities, the non-American always lacking in front of the American. Consequently, I felt as if I was lacking; as if I was missing something in my student life. Like Cady, I did eventually come of age. But when this happened, I questioned where my desire to be an ideal American teenage girl came from. As an audience, we see Mean Girls from Cady’s perspective – the outsider who grew up in Kenya and has come to a U.S high school for the first time. Cady must adjust to this new world and become more like the students at the school; specifically, more like the girls at this school. 

Often in the film, Cady compares certain high school scenarios to the so-called “animal world,” enabling a highly reductive image of Africa as the monolithic land of animals. In his famous essay titled “How to Write about Africa,” Binyavanga Wainaina writes that Africa is usually portrayed through cliches in literature, and arguably, in other forms of media as well. With strong overtones of sarcasm and irony, Wainaina writes, “In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country,” and while African characters should be “colourful, exotic, larger than life – but empty inside,” “animals…must be treated as well-rounded, complex characters.” Indeed, there are no mentions of many human characters from Africa (except Cady’s childhood crush who rejected her). All of Cady’s childhood pictures portray her standing in a grassland with animals – an elephant, a snake, giraffes in the background – as if Africa constituted only of grassland and animals. 

What’s more harmful though, is that this reductive image of Africa is frequently compared with the “girl world.” This is especially prominent in one scene where there is a passive-aggressive encounter between Regina and Cady in the cafeteria. Regina attempts to provoke Cady by flaunting Aaron – Cady’s love interest and Regina’s former boyfriend – and get a reaction from her. Cady immediately thinks of how this situation might be resolved in the “animal world,” and the scene cuts to Cady’s imagination, in which she attacks Regina, and everyone in the cafeteria becomes  an animal. However, Cady holds herself back on the grounds that this is the “girl world,” where things can’t be resolved using physical force. She resigns to a passive stance, giving in to Regina’s whims. 

American high school culture is thus the “girl world” where conflicts and arguments are handled in a civil manner, while Africa is deemed an “animal world” where savagery is the first and last resort. The “girl world” is where Cady aspires to be, in order to be accepted by her peers. The “animal world –” or any world other than the ideal American society – is what she desperately tries to escape because she will simply not be accepted. Even though towards the end Cady realizes that there is more to life than popularity and fitting in, the film inherently perpetuates a distinction between American and non-American – one is, while the other is simply not. 
It was perhaps this false sense of security and acceptance provided by American imperialism that invoked in me the desire to be like the mean girls. I look back at Mean Girls with a lot of endearment, because after all, the film did give me the perfect escape. I could relate to these teenagers on screen as I felt out of place in school, a misfit who desired to be part of the popular clique. But I also look at it with caution, reminding myself of what some of its aspects stand for. Not only was it not my reality, but it was probably not most American students’ reality either.

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Recently, a shocking law was passed in Texas banning abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy. This means that abortions are practically entirely banned, because most people with ovaries do not even find out about their pregnancy until week six. The law not only gives citizens the right to sue those involved in an illegal abortion, but also incentivizes citizens to do so. Any plaintiff who reports a case of abortion after the sixth week, and is successful in their report, is entitled to $10,000 in cash with the addition of the defendant covering their legal fees. On the other hand, if the plaintiff’s accusation turns out to be false, they aren’t expected to pay the defendants’ legal costs. Although those in Canada are provided with a much stronger sexual health system – including access to abortions – Texas’ move compels us to question the current and future sexual health policies of Canada.

Canada has a long history of unfair sexual practices which have enabled states to gain complete control over individuals’ bodies. Some of these policies – such as eugenics and abortion policies – existed until the early part of the 20th century, and some continue even today. The Sexual Sterilization Acts, passed in both Alberta and British Columbia in 1928 and 1933 respectively, garnered immense support from “progressive” Canadians. According to these acts and their subsequent amendments, sexual sterilization of individuals was permissible in order to reduce traits deemed “undesirable” by a “Eugenics Board.” The acts directly targeted mentally ill individuals in designated state institutions, allowing for non-consensual sterilization of these individuals, with most of them unaware of the changes being made to their bodies. Indigenous peoples were also targeted, and over 25 per cent of the sterilized population were First Nations and Métis people. In Alberta alone, over 2,800 individuals were sterilized as a result of the Act, with a staggering 4,800 being authorized for sterilization. Even after the repeal of sexual sterilization laws in the 1970s, Indigenous women were coerced, and are still coerced, into sterilization against their will. In fact, a Senate committee on human rights in Canada reported a case of forced sterilization of an Indigenous woman as recently as 2019.

Abortion, too, was not always legal in Canada. Before 1969, abortion was a criminal offence, and people involved were subject to imprisonment ranging from two years to life. In 1969, the Criminal Code was amended to make abortions legal in accredited hospitals, on the condition that the pregnancy was a threat to the individual’s life or health. However, even then, abortions by choice were still considered illegal. It was only in 1988 that abortion was made legal by the R v Morgentaler decision, which stated that the previous abortion provision was unconstitutional and went against women’s rights. Since then, abortion has been medically funded by the state under the Canada Health Act. 

However, abortion in Canada is still not as accessible as most people think, especially when taking into consideration the discrepancies among provisions of different provinces. Frédérique Chabot, health promotion director at Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights claims that “[there’s] been very little progress done to make sure that abortion is actually, in fact, accessible to everyone in Canada equally.” Funding, distances to abortion clincs, and lack of access to comprehensive knowledge form some of the many hurdles faced by women. While abortion is technically funded by the federal government, there are provinces that place limits on these funds. New Brunswick is one such province – abortion is only covered by insurance when performed at a hospital and abortions at private clinics are not insured. In an open letter to Letters4NB, an organization advocating for reproductive and trans healthcare, one woman expressed her anger and wrote “I gave myself an abortion at home because I live in New Brunswick,” highlighting the extent to which safe abortion still remains completely inaccessible in certain regions. This problem increases manifold for people living in rural areas and reservations, most of whom, as a result of cycles of poverty, are BIPOC. Canada’s history of eugenics and abortions hence trickles down to today – BIPOC individuals’ bodies are still controlled, and are disproportionately affected by government policies.   

In areas other than the urban hotspots, distance to clinics is also an issue. A chart by Action Canada highlights the number of abortion facilities in each province. Prince Edward Island, for example, has one abortion clinic, and even this is a recent development, the clinic having opened its doors in 2016. Until then, people were forced to pay significant travel costs to go to neighbouring provinces to get abortions. Provinces also have differing gestational periods after which people are not allowed to get an abortion. Some provinces, such as Prince Edward Island and Yukon, have gestational periods as low as 12 weeks. This becomes a problem as there are usually long waiting lists to schedule an appointment with a medical professional, rendering individuals ineligible for abortions by the time they are able to consult a professional. Recently, Mifegymiso, an abortion pill that can be taken orally, has become more widely available for use. However, discrepancies arise when provinces like Saskatchewan and Manitoba do not provide universal coverage of the pill. Furthermore, some doctors are hesitant to even prescribe the pill, citing reasons such as having a “professional reluctance to be seen as an abortion provider and a perception that the pill is too complex to administer.”

The pandemic has only increased these barriers to sexual and reproductive health care. Clinics are facing a back log of appointments due to limited capacities and hindered ability to provide in-person appointments. With health resources also being directed towards the pandemic, sexual healthcare has suffered a setback in resources, including the workforce which has been redirected to help with administering COVID-19 vaccines. Even greater challenges to sexual health arise with most people going into isolation and the number of sexual abuse cases increasing drastically. Access to sexual health services is especially difficult for those in abusive relationships due to reasons such as partners not “allowing” people access to birth control and such.

Another significant threat to accessible abortions is the presence of crisis pregnancy centres. These are anti-abortion organizations, often operating under a charitable status, that attempt to dissuade people from getting abortions by providing them with false information. These practices go beyond misinformation – they also lead to unwanted child-birth through delaying the process, putting at risk both the parent and the child. Sadly, the number of crisis pregnancy centres currently outnumbers the number of abortion providers in Canada. Action Canada operates a campaign to put a stop to these “fake clinics” by providing a toll-free Access Line to people with questions about sexual health, planning to launch a texting service, and harnessing social media platforms to counter the spread of misinformation. Should you choose, you can donate to their cause. 

With the Liberals winning the recent Federal Election but failing to secure a majority, future directions for sexual health policies in Canada remain uncertain. In their campaign, the Liberals called for establishing “regulations under the Canada Health Act governing accessibility for sexual and reproductive health services so there is no question, that no matter where someone lives, that they have access to publicly available sexual and reproductive health services. Failure on the part of a province to meet this standard would result in an automatic penalty applied against federal health transfers.” However, their actual plans remain vague, and there are no set goals yet. Moreover, as the Conservatives remain the main opposition, and considering the recent Texas law, there are possibilities of pro-life Conservatives influencing government policies to increase barriers to sexual health and abortions. Although Conservative leader Erin O’Toole is pro-choice, he has also stated that he would “defend conscience rights for our incredible men and women on the frontlines of our health care system,” a statement that contradicts his pro-choice position. Furthermore, almost 68 per cent of the members of his caucus are pro-life. This year, 81 of the members voted to increase restrictions to abortions and limit their legality to certain special circumstances only. 

It is in our hands to secure a future with fair access to sexual health services. To stop the spread of disinformation about abortion pills, email Health Minister Patty Hajdu. Donate to the Norma Scarborough Fund through Action Canada. You can also become a member of Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. Here is a brief list of other ways through which you can support the pro-choice movement in Canada, and a list of pro-choice groups and abortion clinics in Canada which can be supported.

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This year, 40 per cent of all eligible voters in Canada are Gen-Z and Millennials; and yet, no efforts have been made to ensure that voting is accessible to one of the largest voting groups. Elections Canada recently announced that it will not be making available the Vote on Campus Program, which in the past has dramatically propelled voter turnout among students and the youth. They cited “student presence on campus [being] uncertain because of the pandemic” and having “no clear fixed election date” as justification to cancel the program.

Students and student organizations are voicing their concerns about the impacts of this decision on their ability to vote – and consequently, voter turnout. Camellia Wong, the communications director of Future Majority, a non-profit organization educating and empowering young Canadians to vote, spoke on behalf of Millenials and Gen-Zs who feel that their vote is being devalued: “We see this cancellation as damaging to our democracy.” In a reader’s letter to the Toronto Star, Diane Letsche stated that in not implementing the Vote on Campus Program, Elections Canada has “dismissed [students’] right to vote.” An online campaign created by student Esmé Decker, circulating on You Lead Now and advocating to resuscitate the Vote on Campus Program, has garnered over 21,000 signatures by supporters. It claims that as they are already away from home, students find it increasingly difficult to take time out of their busy schedules to go far from campus and vote. There is also the added problem of finding adequate and reliable transportation. Calling the reasons for cancelling the Program “unjustified,” the campaign accuses Elections Canada of “voter suppression.” Even New Democratic Party’s (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh urged Elections Canada to “reconsider its decision to not have on-campus voting stations in an effort to make voting more accessible for young people.” 

Not only is the suspension of the Vote on the Campus Program detrimental to students’ democratic rights, it also affects their ability to vote for their home riding. Often, students in colleges and universities are away from home, in different cities and provinces. Vote on Campus made accessible to these students External Service Points (ESPs) – polls which gave students the opportunity to vote for their home riding through special ballots, regardless of which riding they were at. With the Program scrapped for this year, the only methods through which students can vote for their ridings are by going in-person to an Elections Canada office, by mail, or by travelling to their home riding in advance and casting their vote there. The Undergraduates of Canadian Research-Intensive Universities (UCRU), a coalition of student associations of which SSMU is a part, have written an open letter to Elections Canada, demanding that ESPs be secured on university and college campuses across Canada. 

In an opinion article published by the Globe and Mail, Wong notes how the 2021 elections are different from those of past years, due to rising concerns about climate change and employment instability in light of the pandemic. Justin Fletcher, a postgraduate student at the University of Toronto, also quotes these two issues as the main focus of this year’s elections. These are all issues that directly and significantly impact the youth, with no way to effectuate concrete change

When the Vote on Campus Program was first rolled out on 39 campuses across Canada during the 2015 federal election, the 18-24 age group saw a significant voter turnout in comparison to previous years. In the 2011 election, voter turnout was 38.8 per cent, which in 2015 increased to 57.1 per cent, a significant turnout difference of 18.3 per cent thanks to Vote on Campus. Despite the successful initiation of the Program, the National Youth Survey conducted in the same year highlighted that one of the main reasons why youth turnout was still lower compared to other age groups was their perceived lack of accessibility to voting. Youth were less aware of the process to vote, less likely to be given a Voter Information Card (VIC), and thus considered the voting process to be difficult. If youth find elections inaccessible even with the Program in place, this knowledge only calls for more accessibility; if anything, this survey highlights the pressing need for the continual implementation and expansion of Vote on Campus.

Youth voter turnout decreased by 3.2 per cent in the 2019 federal elections despite the expansion of Vote on Campus, raising concerns that the turnout rate might drop even more in 2021, especially with Vote on Campus suspended. However, a survey by Apathy is Boring, an organization fostering a community of youth to engage them in political discussions and voting, in partnership with Abacus Data, found that there was a ten-point increase in the youth’s – people aged 18-30 in this case – interest in Canadian politics from 2019 to 2021. This information makes it all the more important for the Vote on Campus Program to be implemented and for the youth’s voices to be heard. After all, studies have time and again shown that habitual youth voters make for lifetime voters, and why not create a generation of lifetime voters when we have the opportunity to?
I encourage all students at McGill who are eligible to vote to use the resources available to them and cast their votes in the upcoming elections. Here is a quick guide released by CTV News on the 2021 federal election. It includes some general information about the parties running and their leaders, as well as potential ways to vote. Elections Canada outlines the different methods through which you can vote, including voting on election day, voting through mail, and voting at an Elections Canada office. You can use this easy-to-use Voter Information Service by Elections Canada which allows you to enter your postal address and locate polling booths near you, candidates from your riding, and other important information. Here are some FAQs and a template to make your election plan published by Apathy is Boring. Be sure to send in your vote before Election day on September 20.

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The concept of dark academia emerged in 2015 on Tumblr, originating as a book club where people recommended classic books and gothic novels to each other. The club paid homage to Donna Tartt’s 1992 novel The Secret History, a book which revolves around a group of six classics students who get caught up in “dark” murders and mysteries. The novel glorifies “classics” of the literary canon as superiorly intellectual, mirroring the privileged views of the rich students who discuss and refer back to them throughout the novel. Eventually, this book-club style of dark academia evolved into an aesthetic that spread quickly through current popular social media platforms. 

Followers of the trend, however, have since raised concerns over its origins and the ideology it promotes. The aesthetic, largely inspired by Ancient Greek, Roman and Western classical texts, idealizes writing, reading, and intellectualism. The fault lies not with the aesthetic itself, but rather with the message it inherently perpetuates –­ that Western study and classical literature is the epitome of academia. 

Most media from which dark academia draws inspiration – films such as Kill Your Darlings and Dead Poets Society, novels such as Ninth House – showcase exclusively rich, white, cis men as the intellectual protagonists. For instance, Dead Poets Society features an all-male cast and is set in all-male, elite prep school. The boys are taught to appreciate canonized poetry by their English teacher’s unorthodox methods. In an article published in The Atlantic, Dr. Dettmar, Professor of English at Pomona College, claims that the film is the “literary equivalent of fandom.” By merely glorifying (white) British and American literary texts, the film is a shallow account of what academia in a university setting looks like. Dettmar notes the several instances where Keating conveniently leaves out important verses from poems like Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and Walt Whitman’s “O Me! O Life!,” misinterprets their meanings, and places them on a pedestal. Dettmar argues that Keating does not ask his students to question the poems, but instead simply (mis)quotes “the Greats” to serve his over-the-top and slightly unrealistic philosophy of free thinking and “carpe diem.” While the film loosely translates “carpe diem” as “seize the day,” the idea can be traced back to a handful of 18th century English poets – in John Donne’s “The Flea,” for example, the speaker uses overdrawn logic to convince his lover to “seize the day” and sleep with him, despite the lover’s constant refusal. These texts are not analyzed or criticized, but instead romanticized in the film— an issue reflected in dark academia.

I emphasize that dark academia’s aesthetic is not the problem, but its ideology is – the English literary canon is glorified as the master narrative. A set of certain texts, most of which are written by white, male authors, are considered the “authentic” texts that represent English literature, excluding writers of colour, writers from non-Western parts of the world, writers identifying as non-binary, and anyone else who does not fit the Eurocentric ideal of authenticity. Dark academia inspires the reading of these canonized texts. It specifically leaves out works that have not “made it” into the literary canon, not because they are not important, but because they are not considered important.

Dark academia therefore falls in line with the oppressive history of Western institutions, like universitives, which have historically discouraged any dissent against the dominant male, white narratives. Subtly but surely, this aesthetic feeds into the formation of the canon and master narratives. Should one choose to study English Literature, most American universities will offer mandatory, introductory courses which cover mostly British and American literature (like the English Literature department at McGill, which offers few optional choices for non-British literature even after the introductory level). In an analysis of three books from the Norton Anthology of American Literature series published in 2017 – an anthology widely used for students at the introductory level and which forms the basis of students’ understanding of literature – it was found that almost 66.8 per cent of the texts were by men, with zero texts by transgender authors. Further, 66.5 per cent of the texts were by white writers, while the other 33.5 per cent of texts were authored by writers identifying as Black, Indigenous, Asian American, and Hispanic. Postcolonial literature from African countries and India, where the imposition of the English language has resulted in a generation of people growing up speaking and writing in English, is not a required subject of study across high schools and universities – a literature student will be considered “knowledgeable” even without studying these “other” voices. As Ingrid Johnston notes in a study titled “Postcolonial Literature and the Politics of Representation in School Programs,” throughout the 20th century, Western-centric texts have dominated high-school English classes in Canadian schools. It is only now that there is more representation of voices, though even the new system contains gaps. 

The aesthetic extends itself to areas other than academia. Fashion, for instance, forms a huge part of it. Pictures of people dressing up the “intellectual way” flood the Instagram hashtag #darkacademia. The “intellectual way,” like the rest of the aesthetic, mirrors a style associated with the English elite; they give the wearer the impression of studying at an Oxbridge university in the early 20th century – plaids, turtleneck sweaters, brown and mossy green clothes. E-commerce stores especially dedicated to selling dark academia clothes highlight the extent to which the “Western” ideal of intellectualism pervades fashion choices, let alone just academia in universities.

But what if we emphasized aesthetics which revolve around other voices – voices other than just those of rich, white, male characters? As Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once said, “Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story.” What we need is a multitude of aesthetics reflecting a multitude of ideologies, rather than one dominant aesthetic which overshadows “others.” We need people expressing their admiration for the myriad of knowledge forms that are out there, rather than the glorification of just the one.

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