InFlux Magazine

influx influx
influx influx
Katie Swartzer
4
5
Letter from the Editor
Staff page
Jackie Crawford
6
Written in the Stars
Skylar Wolfe
9
Y2K Trends are Back – but where did they
come from?
Eric Servatius
10
From Henry Ness to George Floyd: The
limits of government reform in Minneapolis
Alex Strangman
14
Hashing it out: Minnesota
lawmakers clash over legal marijuana
Anna Keck
Amy Halbmaier
Kathryn Richner
18
Visual Editorial: Nowhere to Go
Samantha De Leon
24
The Ups and Downs of OnlyFans
Reece Economides
26
Young Moguls: The new generation of
investors
Natalie Ryder
28
An Uphill Battle Worth Fighting
Published by The Hubbard School of
Journalism and Mass Communications
The University of Minnesota
Murphy Hall
206 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Printed by Modern Press
808 First St SW
New Brighton, Minnesota 55112
On the Cover Illustration by Madeline Hillman
influxumn.wordpress.com
For more information, contact Sara Quinn at squinn@umn.edu
© 2021 The Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Minnesota
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission
of the publisher, excepting brief quotes within bounds of fair use: copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
influx
2 3

Letter from the Editor
When we began planning the spring 2021 issue of InFlux,
we kept circling back to the same idea: duality. The idea
that no story holds a single narrative. We didn’t want to
focus on duality as being good or bad, day or night, love
or hate. It’s more multifaceted than that.
We wanted to create a magazine that didn’t entirely
focus on the pandemic, but still stayed true to the state
of our current world. The legalization of marijuana,
police brutality, sex work, these are all topics I’ve
had discussions about with my friends and peers. A
visual editorial featuring people dressed up, with
nowhere to go...an all too familiar theme from the
past year.
These things seem different on the surface, but
they’re all tied together through the idea that
stories exist beyond the frame of our own
opinions. And now they’re here for you
to read, think about, and discuss with
your friends and peers.
We operated online for the majority of the
semester, only coming on campus towards
the very end while wearing masks and
staying socially distanced. But even then, it
felt so good to work, talk, laugh (and cry)
together in person.
This has been an exceedingly difficult
semester, in an even more difficult year. This isn’t the
ending to our college experience that we thought we’d be
having, but it’s an ending nonetheless. It’s been an honor to
work with this team and to be a part of the conceptualization and
creation of the magazine you are currently holding.
Editor in Chief: Katie Swartzer
Design and Graphics Editor: Sydni Rose
Brand Manager: Sarah Heinrich
Writing Editor: Rita-Marie Chediac
Photo and Video Editor: Anna Keck
Web Editor: Hannah Olund
Social Media and PR Editor: Bethany Hiltbrand
Innovation and Podcast Team: Tina Nguyen and Skylar Wolfe
Design and
Graphics:
Madeline Hillman
Sydney Manning
Madeleine Melloy
Social Media
and PR:
Macy Gill
Hannah Ihekoronye
Jasmine Webber
Photo
and Video:
Amy Halbmaier
Kathryn Richner
Web:
Hannah McCurley
Photos by
Anna Keck
Writing:
Jacqueline Crawford
Samantha De Leon
Reece Economides
Natalie Ryder
Eric Servatius
Alex Strangman
Copy Editing:
Zach Batia
Collin Haws
Emily Nutter
Influx Staff
We hope these stories push you to examine the world around
you with a different lens. We hope that you walk away
having learned something, just as we have. Duality is
a concept that is constantly ‘in flux.’ We as people
are constantly ‘in flux.’ The world is ‘in flux.’ It’s
a push and pull that never stops. But then
again, why would we want it to?
Thanks for being here.
Editor-in-Chief
4
5

As Generation Z maneuvers through life, many
are looking toward astrology to guide them
and answer questions about who they are and
who others are around them.
By Jackie Crawford
Kianna Helmin has a ready
answer when asked if there
are people she won’t date
because of their astrological
sign: She thinks of her former
boyfriend.
“Learned from that one, a Gemini,” Helmin,
a 19-year-old Scorpio, said. “He was extremely
stubborn and two-faced with his friends.”
She said he also flirted with others right in
front of her and said he didn’t understand why
it bothered her. “Or he would just stop listening
when I would try to explain why I can’t just get
over something,” Helmin said.
She says it all started making sense when
she later used astrology to think back on the
relationship. “He was very logical, while me,
being a water sign, was all emotion,” she said.
From TikTok to Twitter, astrology is being
used everywhere, particularly by members of
Generation Z. Some are looking for simple
escapism, but others are picking it up to
understand themselves and others around them,
including in their dating lives.
While astrology is not their only tool, several
agree with Helmin that it offers insight into a
partner’s personality.
“I use it for fun a lot of the time,” Lacie
Hines, a 22-year-old Libra, said. Helmin
explained how she uses astrology as an outline
to a person since you still have to take into
account experiences growing up and the rest of
someone’s chart to gain a full understanding as
to who someone is.
“It gives you a good insight into how
somebody might act or their emotional state,”
said Paige Kringle, a 21-year-old Aquarius that
also uses astrology for fun. She said it’s a way
for people to guess or judge a person based on
their sign.
Likewise, Jake Hoffman, a 21-year-old Leo,
explained how his girlfriend has opened him up
more to astrology.
“I like having fun with it and reading how
certain stereotypes really fit me well,” Hoffman
said. “I’ve been learning more about my moon
and rising and thinking, wow, that really makes
sense.”
In most cases, people look into their big
three, which are the sun sign, moon sign
and rising sign. The sun sign relates to your
personality or identity, the moon sign relates to
your emotional state and the rising sign relates
to your social personality.
“I think it’s really interesting how the different
combinations come together” and align with
someone’s personality, Kringle said. “I really
do think it fits like at least 85% of the time.”
When dating with astrology and finding
star compatibility, people seem to approach
the process in two different ways. To find
the best matches, they are either looking for
compatibility based on like elements (fire,
water, air and earth) or compatibility based on
the opposite element.
Sawyer Kallroos, Hines’ boyfriend of almost
four years, is an Aries. “We are on opposite
sides, so we’re super compatible,” Hines said,
explaining in awe how her prior relationships
with signs near her element haven’t been as
compatible.
“My girlfriend and I are very compatible,”
Hoffman said. His girlfriend and a Taurus, Libby
Johnson, added, “When we first started talking,
we hit it off right away. So I immediately
checked our compatibility.”
Some Generation Zs even display their
sign(s) on their dating app profiles to give
others a further glimpse into who they are.
“I feel like it kind of gives people a little
taste of what I’m like, a little bit of insight into
my personality because that’s really hard
to portray across the screen, especially just
through pictures,” Helmin said.
Unfortunately, no one is going to be
compatible with everyone. When it comes to
dating, Kringle thinks “there’s always those
red flag signs that everybody has because of
a past experience with that sign.” For many
Generation Z, dating a specific sign could cause
them to become wary of that sign from then on
out.
Kringle explained how her past relationships
with Scorpios have been bad, so when she
found out her current boyfriend was a Scorpio,
she said “Oh man, he’s going to be like the
rest of them.” She took a few steps back before
trying to step outside of astrology. Fortunately,
her current boyfriend is “great” and they have
been dating for over six months, she said.
“I don’t have good experiences dating Leos,”
Caitlin Kosec, a 22-year-old Capricorn, said.
She explained how her first relationship was
with a Leo, and after meeting more Leos, she
knew they were not for her. She won’t date a
Gemini either, because “Geminis love talking,
and I talk a lot, so it’s kind of like battling
talking over each other.”
However, if Kosec liked someone enough,
she wouldn’t let their sign deter her, but “if
something bad happened, I would blame it on
their sign,” Kosec said.
Kringle also explained how she and her
friends would blame someone’s actions on their
sign. After her first relationship and on, her
friends would say, “Oh, it’s because they’re
Scorpio or they’re Taurus, like that’s why,”
Kringle said. But “as I got older,” she said, “I
found myself using it more as an excuse for
their actions.”
While many same signs may act similarly,
everyone’s combinations come together
differently.
“
When we first started
talking, we hit it off right
away. So I immediately
checked our compatibility.
”
Reading into someone’s sign too early can
create false assumptions and expectations.
By reviewing someone’s full chart, it can
reveal a lot of information many people may
miss or overlook. It can also give people a clear
idea that not every same sign is going to act or
be the exact same person.
Whether the cliche “What’s your sign?”
gets used or some secret searching happens,
Generation Z is taking this trend further.
“On a scale out of 10, I would say that
it’s probably like a six to seven importance
range,” Helmin said, describing how important
her partners’ sign compatibility is within a
relationship. “It’s not the only thing I’ll look at,
but it’s pretty high up there.”
6 7

WATER
Pisces, Cancers, and Scorpios tend to be known
as the most emotional elements. They can be a
little mysterious, but are incredibly observant
and notice everything around them at all
times – so careful what you say! Water signs
are creative to the max, and often have wild
imaginations.
AIR
Aquarians, Geminis, and Libras are the signs
that value intelligence the most among the
zodiac. Air signs tend to lead with their heads
and not their hearts, which can make them
seem a little emotionless. However, they are
also excellent communicators, and are always
up for a spontaneous adventure.
popular styles from when they were born. Of course,
TikTok has been a major player in popularizing and
reinventing trends of the past. But how did these trends
get started? Here’s a look back at the history behind
some of today’s hot items.
Baggy jeans
Google searches for baggy jeans have skyrocketed,
Fashion Network reported. Jeans have been around
since the mid-1800s, worn by miners and other workers
who needed sturdy pants. Growing through the years
from a uniform essential to a closet staple, it wasn’t
until the mid-1960s that jeans started to take the shape
of today’s trendy cuts.
Form-fitting waists and flared legs remained popular
through the 1970s, but the rise of hip-hop in the ‘80s
brought new, oversized silhouettes. High-waisted styles
also became popular in the ‘80s, kicking off the “mom
jean” trend that remains a classic. Denim cuts took
multiple forms in the 2000s, but many of the low-cut
styles, flared legs and printed designs are reminiscent
of today’s jeans.
Baby tees
Crop tops have been a “key runway trend” this
season, Fashion Network said. However, the origin of
baby tees can be traced back to stylist Linda Meltzer,
who developed an early obsession with “children’s size
French-cut T-shirts from the 1970s,” Vogue reported.
Celebrities like Winona Ryder, Drew Barrymore and
the cast of “Friends” donned the style, leading to its
widespread popularity that never seemed to fade.
“Baby tees are both classic and innocent, which I
think resonates in these unstable times,” Meltzer told
Vogue.
EARTH
Capricorns, Tauruses, and Virgos are the most
grounded and stable signs of the zodiac. Earth
signs make loyal, patient, and sensual partners.
It can take a lot to anger an earth sign, but if
you do – watch out.
FIRE
Aries, Leos, and Sagittariuses are the largerthan-life
elements of the zodiac. They are
extremely passionate, and know how to have
a good time. Expect spontaneity in your
relationship with a fire sign, as well as a partner
who is independent.
A brief history behind some of today’s most
popular clothing items that were popular in
the early 2000s.
By Skylar Wolfe
Fashion trends always seem to find a way to
creep back into style. According to the Fashion
Industry Broadcast, trends tend to revolve
around a 20-year cycle – just enough time to
forget about the trends you regretted before maybe,
just maybe, thinking they’re cool again.
It makes sense, then, that Y2K fashion is back in full
force and 20-somethings can be caught sporting the
Sweater vests
Ah, the sweater vest. Originally worn in the late
1800s by rowers and football teams, according to
Jezebel, today they are donned by nerds and VSCO
girls alike. The design became a menswear staple in
the 1930s and evolved each decade to meet the trends
of the moment. Today’s styles are anything but stuffy,
featuring bright colors and cropped silhouettes.
Matching sweatsuits and tracksuits
This one probably has something to do with the fact
that many of us have not left the house for the past
year. Nonetheless, many project that sweatsuits will
remain popular even as the pandemic subsides.
First introduced in the mid-1960s to be worn by
athletes, tracksuits made their way into mainstream
fashion in the ‘70s, Complex reported. As hip-hop
gained popularity as a musical genre, so did these
matching sets, before fading away in the 2000s.
Who knows, maybe this time sweatsuits will be here
to stay. If not, you might want to hang on to today’s
hot items anyway – they might just come back in 20
years.
8
Illustration by Olympia Villagrán 9

This photo was taken by Guillaume
Issaly at a Black Lives Matter
protest in Brest, France following
the murder of George Floyd.
From Henry Ness to George Floyd:
The limits of government reform in Minneapolis
Nearly a century apart, Minneapolis witnessed two of the most important mass movements
around social change in U.S. history. The similarities between the two are many, and perhaps,
so are the lessons that can be learned.
By Eric Servatius
George Floyd in 2020. Henry Ness in 1934.
The deaths of two men at the hands of
Minneapolis police 86 years apart served as the
catalysts of mass movements for social change.
While there are important differences between the two
events—namely, the critical role of race in the death of
Floyd compared to the Teamsters’ strikes in which Ness
died—the similarities, and the lessons drawn from them,
are numerous.
Those who have studied and participated in such
movements say real change comes from making demands
in the streets, not the ballot box—something strikers knew
well, and today’s activists need to keep in mind.
In both cases, a severe economic downturn
exacerbated disparities between a privileged upper class
and a repressed underclass. A history of tense relations
between the community and the Minneapolis Police
Department and its corporate allies provided fertile
ground for movements demanding change.
“This kind of use of police force…has almost always
happened when there has been very little means of
oppressed people recording it, seeing it, understanding
it for what it is,” said Bryan Palmer, professor emeritus
at Trent University in Ontario, Canada, and author of
“Revolutionary Teamsters: The Minneapolis Truckers’
Strikes of 1934.”
Despite their best efforts, police couldn’t spin the
deaths of Ness and Floyd. Thanks to the public nature of
each, and the video recording of the latter, people saw
the events for what they were.
“In that sense,” Palmer said, “as martyrs of these
mobilizations, both Ness and Floyd are, I think, reflective
of an important reality, which is that those fighting back
are often subjected to the unequal treatment of the law in
terms of violence.”
As was most of the country during the 1930s,
Minneapolis was devastated by the Great Depression.
During the winter of 1932-33, nearly 70,000 people
were unemployed and a further 120,000 dependent on
public assistance.
Making matters worse, Minneapolis was an
infamously anti-union city, meaning workers found it
nearly impossible to advocate for better pay or working
conditions. Those attempting to do so were quickly dealt
with by the Citizens’ Alliance, an organization funded by
the city’s wealthiest bankers and industrial magnates.
These conditions launched protests by labor and
community organizers—particularly the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 574 strikes, of
which Ness was a member.
Similarly, in May 2020, Minneapolis experienced
its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, as
pandemic-related shutdowns caused the unemployment
rate to spike to 10.1% and thousands to apply for
unemployment. Among those hardest hit were the
city’s Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)
communities—a population that is disproportionately
lower-income and all too familiar with being monitored
by the police and corporate elite intent on creating a
more friendly environment for business and gentrification.
In both 1934 and 2020, when citizens took to the
streets to advocate for their rights, they were met with an
outsized display of force by law enforcement.
For Cherenne Horazuk, President of AFSCME Local
3800 and the granddaughter of 1934 strike participants,
this was no surprise.
10
Left image above: Funeral of Henry Ness, a striker killed during the strike, in front of strike
headquarters at 215 S 8th St, Minneapolis. (Sourced from Minnesota Historical Society)
11

“The police are not a neutral force,” Horazuk said.
“They are there to enforce property interests.”
A lesson, she argues, that was demonstrated in 1934
as police opened fire on strikers, killing Henry Ness.
And again in 2020, when George Floyd was killed for
allegedly using a counterfeit bill, and police prioritized
the protection of businesses in areas such as Nicollet
Mall over those on Lake Street.
Scholars and activists say the events of 1934 offer
another lesson: Don’t trust elected officials, no matter
how progressive they appear to be.
Minnesota’s governor in 1934, Floyd B. Olson, was
a Farmer-Laborite with a long history of advocating for
workers’ rights. Despite past support, as tensions grew
he declared martial law, detained union leadership and
effectively broke the strike. But this was something union
leadership had prepared for.
“[They] always recognized that Olson was a slippery
kind of character and that his rhetorical radicalism
would very quickly slip into defense of the status quo,”
Palmer said. “I think it is very important that groups like
Black Lives Matter and people who are protesting what
happened to George Floyd have a similar perspective
with the political figures in power in Minneapolis.”
A case in point is the Minneapolis City Council. After
initially rallying around protesters’ demand to defund
the police, the council’s support has seemed to dwindle.
Mallory Ferguson, a 25-year-old student at Augsburg
University, photographed the protests this summer and
shared them on social media to show what happened in
Flag erected at spot where Henry Ness, a striker, was slain during the riot on
July 20, 1934. (Sourced from Minnesota Historical Society)
his community. Now, the soon-to-be graduate, who
has dedicated his time to helping feed the homeless
and establishing a scholarship in his name, has seen
enough. He’s frustrated with local government and
plans to leave after graduation.
“There is really no trust left for me here in
Minnesota,” Ferguson said. “I love the people — but
it’s not enough to sustain me.”
“The police are not a neutral
force. They are there to enforce
property interests.”
Cherenne Horazuk, president of AFSCME
Local 3800 and granddaughter
of 1934 strike participants
Horazuk’s union has actively supported protests
for racial justice in Minnesota for years, often in
spite of threats from the local police federation.
“I think change comes on the streets and on the
picket lines. Electoral and political changes come in
response to that, not as a driving force,” Horazuk
said.
August Nimtz, professor of political science
and African American and African studies at the
University of Minnesota, said bluntly that the
Democratic Party is the “graveyard of progressive
social movements.”
Nimtz, who grew up under Jim Crow in Louisiana
and was barred from voting when he first tried,
often tells his students that he was only able to gain
the right to vote because he and others in the Civil
Rights Movement took to the streets. The role of the
government, as he sees it, is to usher the people
“out of the streets,” where they have collective
power, and “into the suites,” where movements
become housebroken.
Again, the events of 1934 serve as an example.
Local 574 successfully brought about substantive
change for the workers of Minneapolis, gaining
collective bargaining rights, increasing their
minimum wage, and facilitating an 11-state
Teamster drive that quadrupled national
membership.
Yet not even a decade later, the union saw its
legal standing stripped and dozens of members
jailed, as the previously pro-labor government and
conservative factions of the IBT conspired to
eliminate radical voices.
“The question for today,” Palmer said, “is, will
those generalized progressive sensibilities—which
crystallized around George Floyd’s killing, police
brutality and racism—carry things forward to the
kinds of changes that this small group of organized
leftists in 1934 were able to accomplish.”
The photo above was taken by Mike Vonn at a
Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles, CA
following the murder of George Floyd.
12

Amidst rising calls for updated legislation, Minnesota Democrats pushed the
marijuana legalization bill through multiple House committees in a first for the
North Star State, but face resistance from the Republican-controlled Senate.
By Alex Strangman
Tim Davis of Minneapolis has a question for his
elected officials. “Canada is legal. Michigan
is legal. Illinois is legal,” he noted at a recent
meeting of the Legal Marijuana Now (LMN)
Party. “Why shouldn’t Minnesota, that brands itself as
a progressive, open state, be accepting of marijuana?”
Supporters of legalization, social justice advocates
and economists across the state have asked similar
questions for years, getting little response from
legislators… until now.
On Feb. 17, a bill proposing the legalization of
adult-use recreational marijuana in Minnesota passed
in a House committee by a vote of 10-7, a first for the
state, according to MPR News. House Majority Leader
Ryan Winkler and Speaker Melissa Hortman, among
others, co-authored the bill.
Since the proposal first cleared the House
Commerce Finance and Policy Committee, it has gone
on to pass in three more committees of the Democraticcontrolled
House.
The bill is slated next for a series of hearings in
front of other House committees that must approve
the legislation before it can land in the Republicancontrolled
state Senate. Only two Republican
legislators have voted for the bill so far, so it faces a
tough road in the Senate. Should the bill be approved
there, it would head to Gov. Tim Walz, who would
be expected to sign it, based on his past support for
marijuana legalization.
Unlike other states that have passed adult-use
recreational marijuana laws in recent years, such as
Colorado, Montana and South Dakota, Minnesota’s
constitution does not allow for direct initiatives
— meaning Minnesotans who support marijuana
legalization cannot bypass legislators and place a
proposed law or constitutional amendment on the
ballot. Rather, all proposed laws and amendments
must be approved solely by state legislators.
The lack of direct initiatives in Minnesota is a major
roadblock on the path to legalization, according to
LMN party member Dennis Schuller, who ran for state
representative in Minnesota’s District 63B in 2020.
In recent years, Minnesotans have shown increasing
support for marijuana legalization, with 64% of
respondents in favor of legalization according to a
recent poll from data firm Civiqs, up from 30% of
respondents in a 2014 poll from the Star Tribune.
Minnesota has a complicated history with legal
marijuana. Getting a progressive start, it was one
of the first states to decriminalize small amounts of
marijuana in the ‘70s, passing the amendment in 1976.
But then the North Star State slowed its roll,
shelving marijuana until 2014 when Minnesota
legalized limited forms of medical marijuana.
Subsequent bills to legalize recreational-use marijuana
were shot down in a Senate committee two years ago
and a House committee last year.
The new legislation would remove marijuana from
Minnesota’s list of schedule I drugs and make it
legal for persons 21 and older to possess, purchase,
transport and consume marijuana. The current bill
also establishes a Cannabis Management Board,
tasked with establishing policy and regulating both the
medical and adult-use cannabis markets.
The establishment of a Cannabis Expungement
Board (CEB) is also included in the bill. The board
would review marijuana possession-related charges
and determine whether or not the crimes would be
a lesser (nonfelony) offense, or no longer a crime,
resulting in automatic record expungement or sentence
reduction, according to the bill.
During a House committee hearing on Feb. 23,
Winkler highlighted the need for updated marijuana
laws.
“The fact of the matter is that our laws are the part
of this system that doesn’t work,” Winkler said. “We
criminalize responsible adults who use cannabis for
their own purposes. We criminalize people who use
cannabis for their health benefits. We criminalize
veterans who use cannabis as an alternative to
opioids. And we criminalize countless African
Americans because of their use of a substance that is
common.”
Minnesota ranks eighth in the nation for largest
racial disparities in marijuana possession arrests, with
Black people 5.4 times more likely to be arrested for
marijuana possession than their white counterparts,
according to a 2018 report from the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU).
The proposal comes at a time when race is at the
forefront of American politics, especially in Minnesota,
with former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin,
a white man, standing trial for his role in the death of
George Floyd, a Black man, who died in police
custody in May of 2020.
“The fact of the
matter is that our
laws are the part
of this system that
doesn’t work.”
House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler
Eva Berezovsky, a second year student at the
University of Minnesota who doesn’t use marijuana,
supports legalization as a non-partisan human
rights issue. If she could speak to legislators about the
issue, racial justice would be at the forefront
of the conversation. “I would want to address how
legalization is a step towards racial justice, and
coming from Minnesota would be really reassuring to
see that response,” she said.
But not everyone agrees. Some worry that
marijuana legalization will lead to increased mental
health issues, addiction rates and drugged driving
incidents.
Ryan Hamilton of the Minnesota Catholic
Conference argued that legalization would have
negative effects on the state during a House hearing in
February.
“It’s a bad bill for adolescents. It’s bad for our
brothers and sisters with substance abuse problems.
It’s bad for those who use our highways, and it’s bad
for the common good,” he said.
Steven, who chose to be identified only by a
pseudonym out of fear of legal repercussions, has sold
marijuana on the state’s black market for over five
years. He supports legalization, but worries that the
less personable approach legal dispensaries will take
could have lasting repercussions in the community,
citing a customer he stopped selling to once he found
out they were going home and smoking with their thenpregnant
partner.
“There’s a lot of mental politics associated with this,
politics dispensaries won’t get into,” he said, adding
that contrary to a lot of pro-legalization rhetoric, he
still sees the marijuana black market existing even after
state legalization.
For Ken Winters, a senior scientist at the Oregon
Research Institute and adjunct faculty member for the
University of Minnesota’s Department of Psychology,
the commercialization of marijuana is a step in the
wrong direction. Winters supports improvement of the
state’s medical marijuana program and review of the
existing decriminalization laws, but argues that making
marijuana readily available to the public will do more
harm than good.
“There is now substantial evidence as to the
negative effects of cannabis use on health and
wellbeing, including risk for addiction, damage to the
developing brains of adolescents, impaired driving and
elevated risk for mental illness,” Winters said during
a House committee hearing on Feb. 23. “I do not see
how it is logical or ethical to commercialize a product
outside of a medical structure to make it easier for
anyone to use it as medicine.”
However, both Winkler and Berezovsky see
legalization as a step towards progress, citing already
widespread marijuana use within the state.
“This bill is not about whether we are pro- or anticannabis
in Minnesota. It’s not a bill to make cannabis
widespread in Minnesota because it already is.
Minnesotans use cannabis for a variety of reasons,”
Winkler said during a remote House committee
hearing on Feb. 23.
Berezovsky compared the push for modernized
marijuana legislation to the battle for non-abstinenceonly
sex education that has taken place in the United
States for years.
“We know that people use marijuana and that
it’s always been that way. And it’s only increasing if
anything, so it doesn’t make sense
to keep suppressing,” she said.
“It’s like the idea that it’s much
more productive to preach
safe sex as opposed to
preaching abstinence.”
14
Photo by Teanna Morgan on Unsplash
15

NOWHERE
TO GO
NOWHERE
As COVID-19 wove itself into the fabric of the college experience,
we expected to see a reflection of our confusing lives on social media.
While the frustration and chaos of the global pandemic never went
unacknowledged on feeds, we saw younger generations use their
platforms to maintain an image imitating what their lives used to be.
We have nowhere to go. But we still dress up. We still pose.
We still post.
With “Nowhere to Go,” we want to emulate this narrative we’re seeing
college students create. One where diamond necklaces and the newest
trends are no longer reserved for nights out and nightclubs, but rather
are displayed freely in the spaces we’ve been confined to:
front porches, bedrooms, daily walks.
We’re getting all dressed up
with nowhere to go.
TO
GO
Photo (above) by Anna Keck; (on facing page) by Amy Halbmaier

NIGHT’S IN. THE KITCHEN. FRONT PORCH. BEDROOM. ZOOM MEETING. PHARMACY. DRIVE-THRU. WALKING THE DOG. GROCERY STO
Photos (at top) by Amy Halbmaier; (above and on facing page) by Anna Keck
FRONT PORCH. BEDROOM. ZOOM MEETING. PHARMACY. DRIVE-THRU. WALKING THE DOG. GROCERY STORE. PARK. DOCTORS OFFICE

E STILL DRESS UP
WE STILL POSE. WE STILL POST. WE STILL POSE. WE STILL POS
POST
ST. WE STILL POSE. WE STILL POST. WE STILL POSE. WE STILL P
Photo (on facing page and this page, top) by Amy Halbmaier; (at left) by Anna Keck

A social platform revolutionizing creators and fan
interactions, but may also be putting people’s reputations
and personal lives at risk.
By Samantha De Leon
A couple of years ago, asking someone if they knew
anything about OnlyFans would probably have drawn a
blank stare. Not anymore.
The web platform that allows creators to charge for
content – much of it explicit – has grown rapidly in a
year of pandemic, to more than 90 million users by
the end of last year, according to The New York Times.
Many providers have turned to OnlyFans in the hopes of
making some money to help them overcome
job losses; potential subscribers are sitting
home with time on their hands. Beyonce
name-dropping OnlyFans on Megan
Thee Stallion’s “Savage Remix” last
year didn’t hurt.
OnlyFans has helped thousands of
people generate income, but that is by
no means guaranteed. Instead, creators
might find themselves with few followers
and a host of problems including unauthorized use
of their photos and videos, and the possibility that an
employer or family member may see their content.
Platform managers also have had to take action to try to
prevent minors from posting.
Those who do know of the upsides and potential risks
like Molly Hale and Tate Dyer, two content creators
based in the Twin Cities metro area, say OnlyFans is not
for everyone, but it can be lucrative.
Hale joined in January 2020 and says she is in the
site’s top four percent of earners. It wasn’t much of a
reach, since she already lived an open lifestyle and had
previously made a pornographic film.
“This really felt like an extension of my brand,” Hale
said. “People tend to think if you cross that boundary of
being fully exposed on the internet, that somehow takes
you out of integrity or puts you into a
moral category that’s wrong … I just
don’t agree with that.”
She says the big question for
people is morality, whether they feel
comfortable with what they’re doing.
She didn’t struggle with it as much
because she already did so much of
that work in leaving Christianity.
British entrepreneur Tim Stokley
founded OnlyFans in 2016. Since its
establishment, its user number has
grown exponentially from its first 1,000
users in July 2016. OnlyFans keeps
20% of the fees to cover the cost of
running the site and creators take
the rest, receiving monthly payouts.
OnlyFans has paid out over $3 billion in
creator earnings to date.
The platform based on “creator and
fan connections” isn’t just a site filled
with sexual content, but a platform
where creators can post themselves
doing any number of things that
normally would be censored on other
social media sites. There are creators on the site that
don’t offer adult material – fitness instructors, actors,
artists – who use the site to monetize their content.
But, due to the unrestricted nature, OnlyFans became
a playing field for adult performers, sex workers and
models who share NSFW content.
In contrast to other social media websites, OnlyFans
says it lets creators “monetize their content while
developing real relationships with their fanbase.”
But building a large following online doesn’t happen
overnight; it takes strategy and advertising on social
media. For many, it never happens. Hale, a digital
strategist, says it depends on other platforms.
“You can’t promote yourself within OnlyFans unless
you have over 10,000 followers on either Twitter
or Instagram … It’s all up to you to find people to
subscribe to you,” she said.
Hale said she had a tweet go viral at the end
of December 2020 and strategically launched her
OnlyFans after that. “I gained like 2,200 Twitter
followers,” she said. Hale says she’s already been
cultivating a strong brand to offer OnlyFans to her
audience, so this wasn’t out of the ordinary for her.
Dyer found his way to OnlyFans via friends in San
Diego, where he used to live, who worked in the adult
entertainment industry.
“When people are willing to pay just to see you, it
makes you feel confident and you begin to realize that
people are willing to spend a lot of money just to look
at your body, face and or personality,” Dyer said. He
added that he frequently receives direct messages on
his social media from people who are curious about
starting an OnlyFans or looking to collaborate.
According to The New York Times, “digital sex
The main frame is a photograph of Molly Hale, as well as the second and sixth from the left. Hale’s photos taken by Gabrielle Vandemmeltra-
Dunn. Edits by Sydni Rose.
work can give the illusion of safety and privacy
– content creators can get paid without having to
interact with clients in person.” This doesn’t mean there
isn’t any risk. If creators are simultaneously working
elsewhere, their account might be seen by their
employer.
“You might have your reputation destroyed in the
eyes of some people … are you okay with that?” Hale
said.
Furthermore, creators could potentially be subjected
to “capping,” unauthorized screenshots or recordings
taken by users and shared elsewhere on the internet,
according to The Times. Creators like Hale understand
the risks, but not everyone does.
According to the British website Internet Matters,
the BBC documentary “Nudes4Sale” investigated
the rise of under-18s selling explicit content on not
just OnlyFans but Twitter and Snapchat Premium.
The documentary found that a third of Twitter
users advertising explicit images with hashtags
“#Nudes4Sale” or “#BuyMyNudes” were under 18. A
large number of those underage creators used social
media to sell nudes in exchange for money and gifts.
Under Minnesota law, it is a crime to make any
sexual material involving someone under the age
of 18. It’s also a crime to possess or distribute this
material. If a person is convicted or found guilty, one
may be sentenced to more than seven years of prison
or fined more than $10,000, or both.
In May 2019, OnlyFans introduced a new account
verification process where a creator must provide a
selfie along with their identification in the image to
prove their identity. Under OnlyFans terms of use for
creators, the platform “may ask you for additional
age or identity verification information at any time.”
However, research from Internet Matters and BBC
suggests age-verification is not enough.
Hale said she has had a good experience
with the site, but acknowledges that she
has the benefit of being self-employed.
She said she worries about the people
who posted on the site during the
pandemic to make money.
“I worry about the emotional
implications of that if people
haven’t done the inner work
to decide if this is a decision
they want,” Hale said.
24
25

Young Moguls:
The new generation of
investors
For better or for worse: how cryptocurrency has become
a rabbit hole for the new generation.
By Reece Economides
Young people are finally comfortable with investing in
the finance industry.
This comes off of the recent increase in popularity
of cryptocurrency; a sector of the financial world that
young people feel like they have a leg up on. Young
people often lack the knowledge, motivation or cash, but
the internet is helping remove barriers keeping long-time
stock veterans ahead of the curve, allowing the younger
generation to seize their own destiny.
A 20-year-old Clemson University student named
Logan Dunn boasted of his success with Bitcoin but
acknowledged that he had been a bit lucky, too.
“I made like 10 [thousand] off some bitcoins I bought
back when they were first catching on. I might make even
more than that if prices keep climbing,” he said.
Dunn said he is glad that more young finance
enthusiasts are finding themselves in a similar situation.
“I know I was really lucky, but if nothing else, I’m glad
that this wave of popularity is getting more young people
to take an interest in their finances and think about
investing,” he said. “Some of them might have to learn
some harsh lessons before they really get serious about
it, though.”
Dominic Valentino, a 22-year-old Floridian, is also
enthusiastic about cryptocurrencies but lost more than
$1,400 in day trading.
“I made a few mistakes with committing too much to
obscure, cheap cryptocurrencies. Dogira, for example.
They’re just so cheap that I would lose hundreds at a
time when they went down a few fractions of a cent,” he
said.
Despite the challenges, Valentino maintains his
enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency world, looking for the
next big deal.
At the start of 2021, the stock market experienced
unprecedented shocks to certain stocks, most notably
GameStop and to a lesser extent AMC and Nokia.
Furthermore, in only the way the internet does, young
people built a culture in these online communities; having
a bond by their shared experiences, interests, and of
course, memes.
The movement was fueled by a community on Reddit,
known as r/wallstreetbets, that endlessly studies the stock
market in search of smart, high-reward purchases. Due
to popularity, a bustling community and generally being
an easy movement to latch onto, their efforts became a
mainstream topic.
Their moves became a cultural phenomenon that
introduced the various aspects of the financial sector
to many young adults. This also coincided with record
booms to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which have
on average younger holders.
According to a Gallup poll, in the wake of the 2008
crash, young people’s participation in the stock market
plummeted gradually from 55% at the beginning of the
decade to 40% and has since remained in that range.
That trend saw no sign of stopping until the Redditfronted
internet influence caused massive spikes of
interest in both the stock market and cryptocurrency.
The participation of young, college-educated
people in the financial realm cannot be understated
in its importance. This industry is habitually gate-kept
from younger people due to a lack of knowledge
or motivation. The documented power dynamic of
traditional investing resources adds difficulties for
the next generation to break past the barriers of
entry.
Most importantly, a generation
often disillusioned by their lack
of agency in the world greatly
appreciates the empowering
feeling of making a genuine
impact in the financial
industry.
Young people, especially those
with political leanings, have a tenuous at best
relationship with bankers, hedge fund managers
and the upper class in general. This highlights
the importance of young people getting
involved in the financial industry because it
shifts the power dynamic.
There are, however, valid concerns
about being too ambitious.
Though it might seem right for a young
person to jump on the cryptocurrency
train, it pays for beginners to be cautious.
Many cryptocurrencies are quite volatile and
can massively backfire as large-scale investments.
Thorough research must be done to make sure investors
fully understand how it all works.
Dunn, however, gushes about the world of
cryptocurrency and the potential that it offers. He said
he plans on holding his for the foreseeable future.
“Oh yeah, I’m still just sitting on most of my bitcoins.
I really think the prices are just going to keep climbing,”
Dunn said. “Nobody ever thought they would get this
high, but here we are.”
“Most importantly,
a generation often
disillusioned by their lack
of agency in the world
greatly appreciates the
empowering feeling of
making a genuine impact
in the financial industry.”
Valentino, with less success but similar enthusiasm,
explained his convoluted methods in detail. Dogira
acts as a “middle-man” between the U.S. dollar and
Ethereum, possibly the most popular non-Bitcoin
cryptocurrency. He is counting on spikes in the value of
the two cryptocurrencies to coincide.
Since Dogira is inexpensive, the money invested in it
can grow rapidly. Unfortunately, that hasn’t panned out.
Dogira is near
its lowest
worth of the
year, but
Valentino
holds out
hope because
of the volatility
exhibited
in even a
single day of
trading. He
acknowledged
that this volatility
works both
ways. Valentino
characterized
the trading that
he does on a
large scale as
a complete
gamble and a
“rollercoaster.”
Valentino went
fully down the
rabbit hole of a
particularly complex way to participate in the
cryptocurrency market. He considers himself
knowledgeable about the financial industry, even if
some of his choices have backfired.
“After my first few losses, I was thinking about just
quitting and selling everything,” he said. “I still have
some money in crypto, though. I just try to be a bit
more cautious now.”
For Bitcoin and cryptocurrency to become
as popular as possible in the mainstream, large
conglomerates in the public eye working with the
currency is critically important. This manifests itself in
businesses accepting payment from a Bitcoin Wallet,
pioneered by companies such as Tesla.
However, another way to drive up engagement is to
hold giveaways in the form of cryptocurrency. Michael
Mayfield, the general manager of a Memphis Chipotle
location, explained Chipotle’s newest promotion,
‘Burrito or Bitcoin.’
Participants enter a six-digit hexadecimal code,
similar to how Bitcoin miners work, and they can win
one Chipotle burrito, $50 worth of bitcoin or the grand
prize of $25,000 worth of bitcoin.
“I think that more companies ought to do stuff like
this. It gets young people to do their own research on
the topic to see what their potential prize can be,”
Mayfield said.
26
27

UPHILL
LE
WORTH
FIGHTING
U of M professor and her students reflect on the political
and educational discourse surrounding climate change
It may appear that the generation just graduating from
college is fighting an uphill battle against everything.
While 2020 was a transformative year for addressing
social injustice and the race to combat climate change,
those problems didn’t go away in the new year.
Universities have facilitated sociopolitical change
for decades. However, despite significant recent
activism in younger generations, science denial and
political polarization are deepening in the United
States.
University of Minnesota professor Deena Wassenberg
teaches the course Environmental Biology: Science
and Solutions, covering climate change, toxicology,
environmental racism and more. Although the class
doesn’t force anyone to change their behavior, it does
open a door for students to engage in their communities
and be advocates for change.
The course’s primary goal is research; Wassenberg
wants to better understand how college students
understand and accept difficult concepts like climate
change, evolution and another all-important topic in
2021—vaccines.
She gathers survey data from her students at the
beginning and end of the semester that gauges their
beliefs regarding these topics. The final survey allows
Wassenberg to assess whether students shifted their
thinking when presented with proven scientific data. She is
noticing a change in the decade since she began teaching
the class.
“My perception is that most people were accepting of
climate change, but there was a chunk of students who
were not,” Wassenberg said. “My impression is that
[chunk is] diminishing.”
This change is something Reed Grumann, a University
of Minnesota senior, is grappling with in his thesis. To
better understand science acceptance or denial, he is
trying to explain why someone would accept or deny
proven scientific data.
Wassenberg’s survey data is valuable because it
proves younger people trust the science of climate change
more than in previous years.
Although skepticism of scientific data isn’t a new
concept, Grumann is trying to understand why people
might not trust data, and how to reestablish that trust.
Grumann cites a few different factors in science denial,
but political beliefs are playing a larger role in how
Americans trust and understand data.
“For things like climate change, that I think
are much more divisive politically,
one of the things
”
NONE OF US
ARE IMMUNE TO
THE EFFECTS OF
OUR OWN BIASES
”
I started talking about day one is that
none of us are immune to the effects of
our own biases,” Wassenberg said.
THE POLITICAL
DISCORD
Biases have been influencing views of climate change
for years, and the views are entrenched.
An Elsevier journalistic study that was published in
2011 examines a theory called the “White Male Effect.”
This study compiled public opinion data between 2001
and 2010 related to climate change acceptance or
denial.
Conservative white men self-report their high
understanding of global warming and are more likely to
deny climate change data, according to a peer-reviewed
article in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies in 2007.
The study says this is an example of identity-protective
cognition—which is essentially a security blanket that
protects your identity by selectively accepting or denying
information perceived as a threat.
Despite the deep divides on partisan issues such as
climate change, governments and politicians have the
ability to enact or hinder change. Wassenberg cites the
ongoing controversy about the Upper Midwest wolf
population.
“I have watched wolves go from being endangered
to having a hunting season on them, to being back on
the endangered species list to now potentially, there’s
currently a hunting season going on in Wisconsin for
them,” Wassenberg said.
Government legislation and regulations have the
power to affect the longevity or impermanence of an
entire species.
28
By Natalie Ryder
Photo by Pascal Bernardon on Unsplash
29

30
LEARN AND ADAPT
Wassenberg’s approach begins with the important
first step of understanding the facts. On average,
Americans contribute 16 tons of carbon emissions into the
atmosphere annually, compared to a global average of
around four tons, according to the Nature Conservancy.
“You don’t have to live in extremes,” Wassenberg said.
“If you can aim to be better than average, that’s a pretty
good aim.”
She said it is important for students to understand
science and adapt their own actions because they are
more likely to get people they associate with to follow
their lead, which has a strong impact.
Brooklyn Lamers, a University of Minnesota
sophomore, took Wassenberg’s course in the fall 2020
semester.
She says that if she hadn’t learned more about how
vegetarianism decreases your carbon footprint during
that course, it is likely she wouldn’t have maintained that
lifestyle.
“Originally it was peer pressure. My close friends were
vegan or vegetarian, and they encouraged me to do it,”
Lamers said.
The willingness to learn and adapt personal behavior
based on new information and data is a primary theme
that Wassenberg wants her students to take away from
the course.
Jayden Sundstrom, a University of Minnesota junior,
took this course in the fall 2020 semester.
“It reiterated everything I already thought. It also gave
me good argument points,” Sundstrom said.
He remembers an instance when he used the data he
learned from the course in a discussion with someone who
denied the science of climate change.
Sundstrom said it was interesting to debate with an
intelligent person who nevertheless believes some of
the scientifically disproven information that circulates
through far-right political groups. He said the viewpoint
the man held is that statistics on the climate that come
from university studies are biased because universities are
primarily liberal.
Sundstrom, however, knew that he could rely on data
from other institutions since the class had taught him how
to interpret statistics.
ENVIRONMENTAL
RACISM
Another issue that Wassenberg covers is how climate
change will affect communities, globally and locally,
that aren’t the primary contributors to the problem. In
a different section of the course, she explored a newer
concept: environmental racism.
“Wherever you go,
there is going to be
a low-income
neighborhood that has a ton of polluting industries in it,”
Madison Romain, a University of Minnesota sophomore,
said.
There are numerous instances of environmental
injustice in the United States that arose from polluting
industries exploiting lower-income areas, leading to the
establishment of the Superfund Program in 1980. The
Superfund Program cleans some of the country’s most
polluted communities to protect the health of its residents.
There are currently 1,327 Superfund sites in the United
States—Minnesota has 25. One of them is located in the
East Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis, which is
the lowest-income neighborhood in the city.
Romain took Wassenberg’s course last semester and
volunteers for the Urban Farm organization in East
Phillips. The community developed the idea to refurbish
a 7.6-acre site in their neighborhood by converting it into
a hydroponic farm. The farm created local jobs while
barring another company from exploiting their community
more.
The City of Minneapolis denied the farm’s proposal to
pursue relocating and expanding the water distribution
site, called the Hiawatha Campus Expansion Project.
Social injustice and environmental issues have a causeand-effect
relationship with one another. It is important to
learn and assess where different skills can fit into helping
a problem.
“We’re not going to be able to solve climate change
without addressing the social injustices that go along with
it. Because everywhere you go, like East Phillips, is one of
the countless instances of environmental racism,” Romain
said.
IS OPTIMISM
AN OPTION?
Is this all worth the fight? These three students say yes.
While Romain was enrolled in Wassenberg’s course,
she took local action to combat environmental racism in
the Minneapolis community.
“It just taught me how to be smarter,” Romain said.
“How to be smart about learning about it because there
are so many misconceptions.”
The course also informed and facilitated Lamers’
personal evolution when she decided to continue with
her vegetarianism journey. Learning an array of data on
socially “controversial” topics enables optimism for the
future.
“I feel more optimistic than pessimistic,” Lamers
said. “People are going, shifting more toward
either central or more left kind of views. I
think people will place more emphasis
on fixing the issue of climate
change.”
“WE’RE NOT
GOING TO BE ABLE
TO SOLVE CLIMATE
CHANGE WITHOUT
ADDRESSING
THE SOCIAL
INJUSTICES
THAT GO
ALONG
WITH IT.”
SKOLSTREJK
FÖR
KLIMATET
31