-
Choosing the Single Life
Marriage rates for opposite-sex couples in Canada have been on the decline for decades. In 1981, 10.5 per cent of women between the ages of 30 and 34 and 6.3 per cent of women between 55 and 59 had never been married. In 2011, these percentages had increased to 43.4 per cent for women in their early 30s and 11.2 per cent for women in their late 50s. The number of Canadians aged 25 to 29 that are part a couple has also declined with a drop of almost 30 per cent between 1981 and 2021. So, why are more Canadians now avoiding marriage? Part of it may be that…
-
Bodies Aren’t Meant to be Trends
The year was 2012 and I had just discovered ‘thinspiration’ on Tumblr. Posts under this tag typically featured a photo of a skinny girl the poster aspired to look like. The trend that stuck out to me the most at this time were thigh gaps: the space between your thighs when you stand with your feet touching. I didn’t have one, and according to Tumblr users, that meant I was fat. I was 12 years old, and I already hated my body. However, the 2010s also marked a shift in the way body trends were perceived by the public. The body positivity movement was all over social media, encouraging women…
You May Also Like
Having your head on a swivel: An ugly reality of being a woman
-
Learning to Love Pink Again
As a kid, I was very aware of the gender divide. However, I never understood it. Why was there such a thing as gendered toys? Why was pink for girls and blue for boys? In kindergarten, our class had a toy kitchen set and a toy tool bench. I went over to the tool bench and one of the boys told me it was only for boys and to go to the kitchen. At a birthday party in the third grade, we had the option of choosing a toy after we won a game. I was one of the first to win, meaning I had a wide variety of toys…
-
Midlife Doesn’t Have to Lead to a Crisis
We’ve all seen the stereotypical depictions men experiencing a midlife crisis on television or in movies. Maybe they buy a new car, pursues a younger woman or even get a wild tattoo. However, women are just as likely to experience a midlife crisis as men, it just presents itself differently. For women it usually can occur when they are typically entering perimenopause, resulting in hormonal shifts that can lead to feelings of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. On top of that, they are experiencing the same emotional midlife thoughts as men, including the weight of past mistakes and feeling like they are losing their purpose in life. So, while there…
