Column

Clavicular and the mainstreaming of 4chan speech   By MILES BARRY —mabarry@ucdavis.edu   Clavicular is the online moniker of Braden Peters — a 20-year-old from New Jersey who live-streams for eight hours a day. Clavicular had a relatively normal childhood. Then, at age 14, he discovered Looksmax.org, an online men’s group dedicated to “looksmaxxing,” or […]

Our ignorance permits government mistakes and heinous fees By NEVAEH KARRAKER — nakarraker@ucdavis.edu By now, the controversies surrounding United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are plastered on every news outlet’s front page. Every day a new story transpires and another protest assembles, but information about state affairs gets lost in the chaos.  Voting on […]

And they’re gross because they’re poorly designed By MILES BARRY —mabarry@ucdavis.edu On the whole, public restrooms are unpleasant spaces. Between thin, gray-blue walls, strangers perform the private and intimate acts of daily maintenance — relieving themselves, managing menstrual products, changing clothes, injecting insulin, adjusting medical devices, changing colostomy bags — all while hyperaware that a […]

Though we must maintain our sanity, we also need to be aware of the news By SAGE KAMOCSAY— skamocsay@ucdavis.edu The news is horrible. Everybody knows this — between bombing cities, the Epstein files, human rights violations in America and hundreds more pages of awful stories, keeping up to date with world events can be incredibly […]

Has thrifting culture resulted in a new kind of materialism? By ANJALI IYER — amiyer@ucdavis.edu Last summer, my friend and I decided to visit the Goodwill bins in Sacramento as a post-finals reward. I was no stranger to the perils of the bins, having heard stories of friends finding used diapers and sanitary pads hidden […]

The rise of surveillance TV  By ABHINAYA KASAGANI — akasagani@ucdavis.edu In 2024, when Rob Rausch dismissed Leah Kateb on national television in Love Island Season 6, my world was turned upside down. I had always prided myself, to some degree, on my faculty for consuming reality TV “ironically.” Yet, somehow, I found myself sucked into […]

Why students are protesting federal actions, and how they affect broader politics By SAGE KAMOCSAY— skamocsay@ucdavis.edu  On Tuesday, Feb. 3, the Revolutionary Student Organization (RSO) led a protest on campus in response to the United States overstepping international law in Venezuela. Demonstrations like these are taking place all around the country after the Donald Trump […]

The evolution of Valentine’s Day rhetoric By ABHINAYA KASAGANI — akasagani@ucdavis.edu One cannot move through the world this time of year without being bombarded by the influx of Valentine’s Day emblems in red, pink or white — or the equally predictable wave of unmoving opinion pieces that have something to say. This article, however, refuses […]

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, enjoy some historical love stories By SABRINA FIGUEROA — sfigueroaavila@ucdavis.edu With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, the season of love is officially here. While the constant barrage of romantic rhetoric can become draining, I’ve learned that the best way to enjoy this time is by appreciating that love exists and […]

A new wave of feminism By NEVAEH KARRAKER — nakarraker@ucdavis.edu A night full of aesthetically pleasing snacks, photoshoots and the most ridiculous conversations about men — the bad dates and the new crushes and plenty of giggles — is quintessential girlhood. Who doesn’t love girl talk?  And yet, one thing in common with most women […]

How funny is too funny? By VIOLET ZANZOT— vmzanzot@ucdavis.edu How absolutely, unbelievably, unequivocally romantic was it when Frank Sinatra said: “Your looks are laughable, unphotographable yet you’re my favorite work of art”?  Undoubtedly, there is no other man who could call someone funny-looking and have it sound so very sweet.  The thesis of Sinatra’s message […]

What makes some romance novels better than others? By GEETIKA MAHAJAN — giamahajan@ucdavis.edu Like any other teenage girl, I spent my high school years completely enamoured with the romantic comedy (rom-com) genre. This obsession coincided with the rise of “BookTok,” a subgenre of TikTok users who use the app as a forum for book reviews […]