Flushing our stresses away: How Bathrooms Can Save Us During Covid Joan Didion’s epic book The White Album opens with the line: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” These eight words of clarion wisdom ring with urgency as biological and social unrest sweep the globe. Whether it’s baking, sewing, or writing, people are…
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I'm an Associate Professor in the School of Health Studies at Western University in London, Ontario. An anthropologist with cultural and medical expertise, I conduct ethnographic research with women and others in sex work, people with HIV/AIDS, and Indigenous populations. My special research interests include sexuality and sex work, gender, marginalization, and the politics of health. Along with contributing to different academic and community settings through her research and activism , I enjoys creative writing and recently had a poem published in Anthropology and Humanism, entitled ‘Arboreal’ I'm currently working on on a manuscript that examines how feminist culture, sexuality, and gendered power dynamics are being (re)configured through Bumble, the worlds first ‘feminist’ dating app. I live with my cat, Elliott, and enjoy yoga, engaging with the arts, travelling, spending time with family, and finding new ways to experience the world.
Plaid Blues
Leaves dappled with black spots blow into my yard with more frequency, signalling the onset of Fall, the season of sweaters, boots, and back to school. I loved getting my “Supply List” at the beginning of the year and used to gleefully skip down the clothing and stationery isles at Macleod’s, the discount department store…
Read MoreEmerald
We are drawn to the things we need, so goes the gemstone lore. If courage and protection are required, reach for tiger’s eye. Tapping into calming feminine energies that also ignite your intuition can be accomplished with the blue marble beauty of rainbow moonstone. Emerald recently spoke to me from inside a homespun store full…
Read MoreThings are wild
Yesterday was full all kinds of love that stretched across my divergent relationships. There was eros in the morning and sprinkled throughout the day, mediated by voice and letters strung across small screens. There was friendship love, too. It felt grounding and made me smile with much gratitude. Primal love of the kind that streams…
Read MoreWhy should I perform your erotic capital?
The responses to my public writings about dating have been very varied. I’ve had lovely emails, article comments, and DMs from women and men who support and relate to my experiences about sexuality, gender and digital life more broadly. The trolls, incels, and conservatives who ‘believe in equal rights, just not feminism’ have also crawled…
Read MoreToad Totem
Since Elliott’s harness arrived two weeks ago we have been enjoying daily jaunts outside. The first jaunt begins around 6-6.30 am, which I affectionately call “Morning Glory.” But prior to putting the pink flamingo straps around her neck and under her arms, there is much preparation. It’s amazing to see how intent she is to…
Read MoreHealing through Ink
A few hours ago, I made a mistake. I realized this while waiting for my tattoo artist to come downstairs with the design for my next piece. After she left, it was hard to concentrate on mundane things like looking at the people walking by on the street because I was caught in trauma’s sticky…
Read MoreDesigning Calm During Covid-19
While clipping my fingernails in the bathroom sink a couple of days ago, I heard my neighbour across the hallway blow-drying her hair. For over a decade, I have listened to this sound almost every day. Yet, it struck me as something profoundly different that morning. It ceased being the white noise of apartment living…
Read MoreMy Mother’s Jacket
Moving is fundamentally about deciding which material items stay and which go. Some of my decisions in this regard echo Marie Kondo’s joyful approach to “tidying up” in the sense that I actively engage in a dialogue about what my stuff means to me. Such discussions do not involve the items easily tossed into the…
Read MoreGraduation
‘Tis the season of scholastic celebration. Images of young women in generic capes holding flowers and little kids saying goodbye on their final class zoom call are flooding the socials. It’s much rarer to see pictures of young men in their cap and gowns, which is interesting. I graduated high school in 1990, when acid…
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