‘Can You Really Be a Queer Muslim?’: Intersectionality and the Complexity of Identity

It’s Difficult Not to Compare My ‘Before-self’ to My ‘After-self’: Learning to Feel Whole Following a Life-changing Disability
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

It’s Difficult Not to Compare My ‘Before-self’ to My ‘After-self’: Learning to Feel Whole Following a Life-changing Disability

I was thirty-eight years old and had just become a first-time mum. Ten days after giving birth, a blood clot blocked blood and oxygen flow to my brain. In the blink of an eye, my life was split into two parts: Before and After. I interpreted the intent of the stroke as swift justice. I questioned my life before and held up every transgression, perceived or otherwise, as the reason for my ‘punishment’. I also split myself into two parts: Her and Me…

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‘Welcome in God’s Kingdom’: Rejecting Stereotypes and Embracing Self-Acceptance as a Queer Christian
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

‘Welcome in God’s Kingdom’: Rejecting Stereotypes and Embracing Self-Acceptance as a Queer Christian

LGBTQ+ and Christianity. They’re not super popular words you hear together often, but why aren’t they more commonly said together? Like, I am an LGBTQ+ Christian, which can be a bit of a surprise to some people. The reason for the surprise is obvious: according to a lot of the world, homosexuality is a ‘sin’ and therefore you can’t be gay or an ally or whatever and follow Jesus…

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‘I Celebrate the Tapestry of Places that have Made Me Who I Am’: The Highs and Lows of Being a Third Culture Kid
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

‘I Celebrate the Tapestry of Places that have Made Me Who I Am’: The Highs and Lows of Being a Third Culture Kid

I had spent my childhood learning how to mould myself into the most acceptable, most unassuming version of myself. Underneath the people-pleasing and the desire to fit in, I had no idea who I was. So much of my Indian identity had been buried away under shame and resentment, and I looked at any American tendency I had with contempt. Meanwhile, every influence from China felt like something that I didn’t have the right to claim…

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Social Exclusion, Oppression and Depression: Growing Up Deaf in a Hearing World
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

Social Exclusion, Oppression and Depression: Growing Up Deaf in a Hearing World

I became a target for bullies who would shout into my ear and rip my hearing aids out of my ears. Trying to follow the teachers’ lips was also difficult as they would turn their back as they wrote on the board. Even amongst family members, I would follow their lip pattern the best I could, but most of the time they would talk at me, instead of to me…

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‘I Would Never Have Known You Were Foreign!’: The Misunderstandings and Microaggressions I Face as an Immigrant
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

‘I Would Never Have Known You Were Foreign!’: The Misunderstandings and Microaggressions I Face as an Immigrant

This blending in is often presented as something to feel proud of, as though we should want to be as unobtrusive as possible. The reality is that it highlights two things: the first is that for some people, being a foreigner is a bad thing, something to overcome, and the second is that no matter how hard you try, you will never fully fit in…

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‘Everyone is Straight Unless They State Otherwise’: Why We Need to Be Careful with the Term Queerbaiting
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

‘Everyone is Straight Unless They State Otherwise’: Why We Need to Be Careful with the Term Queerbaiting

As fabricated as we might think they are, the truth is that real people – no matter how famous – can’t plan out the way the discovery of their sexuality will go. They can’t exactly predict what kind of gender performance will make them feel alive and at their best. We are so used to consuming celebrities’ content like we would binge-watch a Netflix show that sometimes dehumanising these very real people with very real-life experiences is too easy…

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My Liminal Disability and Why Academia has an Accessibility Problem
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

My Liminal Disability and Why Academia has an Accessibility Problem

The past few weeks have offered a steep learning curve – a first-hand experience of accessibility barriers that are new to me. It’s profoundly altered my relationship with university spaces, their alienating architecture and ableist attitudes. While I love to study the Gothic, I don’t think anyone should have to live in a suspended sense of Gothic liminality to call themselves an expert…

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Everyone Deserves Representation: Why Mitski is a Guiding Light for Culturally Confused Diasporic Asian Women
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

Everyone Deserves Representation: Why Mitski is a Guiding Light for Culturally Confused Diasporic Asian Women

I’ll admit it: as an Asian-American woman, I do fully gatekeep Mitski’s music – but not without good reason. While I could list the names of popular white female artists forever, I can barely count on ten fingers the number of female Asian-American pop artists whose music I can hear my own experiences through…

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‘I Am Not a Criminal’: Why Are There So Many Negative Stereotypes About Those Who Grow Up in The Care System?
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

‘I Am Not a Criminal’: Why Are There So Many Negative Stereotypes About Those Who Grow Up in The Care System?

Academics Diane Dansey, Danielle Shbero and M. John say that children looked after want to be seen as ‘normal’, yet young people in care are often rejected by their society, family, school and community because of their care status. Stereotypes that contribute to this rejection include the belief that these young people are destined to become young parents, fail in school and turn to crime…

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Outed as Bisexual in High School: Ignorance, Objectification and Otherness
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

Outed as Bisexual in High School: Ignorance, Objectification and Otherness

I never got the chance to come out as bisexual. It was something that was discovered and passed around like a scandalous secret – a dirty whisper. I had no control over how people found out about my sexuality or how they perceived it. In an ideal world, discovering that someone isn’t straight wouldn’t be a piece of gossip, and it shouldn’t be shocking. But this is not an ideal world, and attending a religious private school highlights the darker sides of tradition and elitism…

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Class Struggle, Education and Social Mobility: A Silent Family Rupture
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

Class Struggle, Education and Social Mobility: A Silent Family Rupture

‘Do your homework and listen in school. Otherwise, you’ll clean up after others for a living,’ my mother would say. This was the leitmotif of my childhood, repeated so many times that I would recite it in a whisper when she started uttering the first words. Since she was twelve, my mother worked as a cleaner. When she later got pregnant, she brought her child up by herself – just like her own mother before her…

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Would I Fuck Me? The Dark Consequences of Self-Objectification
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

Would I Fuck Me? The Dark Consequences of Self-Objectification

Self-objectification makes us assess our appearance round the clock, existing outside our bodies as a pair of critical eyes floating beside us. Suck your belly in; you’ll look sexier. Cross your legs; you’ll look slimmer. I’d never fuck you with that posture. Pull your shoulders back and lift your chin up. We don’t realise we do it – it’s second nature – but much of our precious brain space is hoovered up with efforts to ensure a pleasant visual experience for onlookers…

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All About Love: Generational Trauma and its Relation to Mother-Daughter Love
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

All About Love: Generational Trauma and its Relation to Mother-Daughter Love

My mother gave me the form of love she recognised. The one where you knew you were being taken care of, but your feelings and your ability to make choices for your future were discouraged. Yet, as I entered my twenties and observed my mother soften with age, she began reflecting on her own childhood; she made a shift in the way she perceived me, interacted with me, and began to understand a kind of love my grandmother failed to give her…

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Sexism, Patriarchy and Social Performance: Why Women Should Stop People Pleasing
Identity Megan Willis Identity Megan Willis

Sexism, Patriarchy and Social Performance: Why Women Should Stop People Pleasing

Acting like this has become second nature to me. My knee-jerk reaction is to be kind to everyone, even when they’re undeserving of my kindness. It’s a performance I’m constantly putting on without even realising it, and, starting today, I’m going to put in the effort to stop unknowingly committing to an act that is detrimental to my well-being and self-respect…

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