Mattel Continues History of Oppression By Burqa’ing Barbie! RAWR!

So, I’m going to confess something here: I loved Barbie.

I loved Barbie until my teenage conditioning no longer allowed it; social mores are far more destructive than we are willing to admit. I loved her in her varying peach skin tones, sometimes sun-kissed tan, sometimes victorian pale. Her silky hair – sometimes wavy, sometimes straight; sometimes blonde and sometimes an auburn brown. And let’s not forget her killer fashion sense and knock out unrealistic measurements. Oh, oh, and her various careers which included everything between an Astronaut and Zoologist. I think she, or one her subset friends, also ended up in a wheelchair once for PC reasons.

Nothing can stop me now

Feeling a little under the beauty meter, I decided to throw some mud on my face. Feeling a little like a bulimic, I decided to make two turkey cold cut sandwiches which I engulfed in a matter of minutes, upon my bed whilst reading the mandatory Stephen Walt column on Foreign Policy.

TEDx Talk – Mesmerizing Commute

Because I’m all about self-promotion and glory. Here’s the video of my TEDx talk at McGill University.

“McGill Daily columnist, Sana Saeed, transports us with her powerful writing, proving that the more avenues we create to be public as a society, the more private we become as individuals.”

It’s based on a piece of mine which was published over a year ago.

Banning Minarets: A Dangerous Precedent and Sign

In case you happen to live in under an abode commonly referred to as a “rock” then you are well aware of a major vote which took place yesterday in Switzerland. Following months of controversial campaigning, a strong 57% of Swiss voted to ban Muslims from constructing minarets on their mosques. The vote comes amidst a campaign which claimed that minarets were representative of the slow domination of European society by militant Islam.

Yes. Architectural formations are also a threat to freedom, apparently.

Multiculturalism is a Sham: The Canadian mosaic trivializes immigrant culture under a façade of respect

In classical Western political theory, the key to state stability has often, if not always, been seen as the maintenance of a homogeneous society. Foundational divisions of any sort create a threat to both the state and the fabric of society. And how was this homogeneity achieved? Primarily through education, as philosopher Ernest Gellner so wonderfully noted. Industrialized societies require strong bureaucratic states and these states must in turn create educational systems, the goal of which is not learning but rather the creation of a perfect citizenry to serve that state materially and ideologically.

French-English Relations in McGill Independent Media

The McGill Daily, the Montréal-based university’s only independent newspaper, has a reputation that supersedes it; the publication is renowned for an ultra-liberal approach to life and current events. There is a certain culture of socio-political progressiveness and elitism as well as a sort of pop Socialism[1] that is associated with the paper. Additionally, The Daily has a French sister-publication, Le Délit, which is published once a week as opposed to twice a week like its English counterpart and shares a similar esteem. The French-English relations at McGill have proven to be complex given the institution’s solely Anglophone character while in the heart of an overwhelmingly Francophone Québec. Assuming the integral nature of the media’s ability to both reflect and facilitate relations between distinct groups, I have decided to dedicate this ethnography to how the staffs of The McGill Daily and Le Délit interact with one another and the general…

Chairman Meow Is the Death of You

At what point does a woman become the dreaded spinster? At what point does she cross the age of not only marriage but relationships in general? I don’t really know the answer nor hope on finding out myself, but I think I’ve come pretty close to discovering the answer.

No One But the Crowd

Universally men judge more by the eyes than by the hands since seeing touches everyone while sensing touches few. Everyone sees what you seem, few sense what you are, and these few are not so bold as to oppose the opinions of the many…the means will always be judged honourable, and they will be praised by everyone–since the crowd is always going to be taken in by appearances and results, and in the world there is no one but the crowd..

- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Milestones

I’ve come to despise milestone celebrations. Not all of them, just the ones which affect me numerically. Turning Thirteen and Sixteen have been the only two which spawned excitement. Eighteen and Twenty, on the other hand, created nothing but grief and consistent nihilistic self doubt.

(I promise I’m actually a jovial person and only express such depressing thoughts to get things published. You don’t know Kafka for a brilliant exegesis on what gave him comfort and happiness in life, do you?)

Laughing in the Face of Pain

At some point we must accept our affairs as they are; questions become luxuries. Our life becomes the continuous disappointment of our childhood dreams and a pain that grows deeper every morning. We suffer when we are born, when we love, when we leave, when we are left behind, until there is nothing to do but to laugh in the face of our pain.

- Iman Humaydun Younes, B as in Beirut