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Erika Thorkelson

Erika Thorkelson is a freelance journalist and culture critic living in Vancouver. She teaches humanities and writing at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
Illustration of small cartoon people moving freely atop small green platforms––cartwheeling, dancing, and holding hands.
Health

Fat Shaming Shouldn’t Be Part of Our “New Normal”

August 25, 2020August 25, 2020 - by Erika Thorkelson

Even in a pandemic, our culture is obsessed with controlling our bodies

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Illustration of a young brown woman in a suit, telling jokes from onstage at a comedy club. The young, diverse audience laughs. Several male comics, older and white, stand outside the spotlight looking moody and resentful.
Arts & Culture / June 2020

The Comedy Culture War

May 25, 2020June 18, 2020 - by Erika Thorkelson

A new wave of comics is rejecting stand-up’s tired tropes

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Three rows of identical women standing together
The Beauty Conversation

The Perils of Professional Dress

July 29, 2019June 12, 2020 - by Erika Thorkelson

What women’s workwear standards reveal about our attitudes toward class, gender, and body type

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collage of multiple mouths wearing different shades of lipstick
Society

Why Wearing Lipstick Is a Small Act of Joyful Resistance

October 22, 2018November 14, 2019 - by Erika Thorkelson

Lipstick is unapologetically feminine. That’s what makes it so rebellious

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Theatre

Off Script

June 23, 2016November 18, 2019 - by Erika Thorkelson

A dust-up between a playwright and a critic demonstrates the insidious sexism of the Canadian theatre world

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Environment / March 2013

New Waves

February 18, 2013July 17, 2019 - by Erika Thorkelson

As Japan’s tsunami debris washes up on the BC coast, beachcombers consider the meaning of the refuse

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Cover of the May issue of The Walrus magazine. May 2021

Why children’s books need to grow up, revisiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses, and how we all became fact checkers.

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