Between the lines: utilizing music to shape mood in fiction
Music is woven into our everyday lives. It starts our mornings, softens our nights and sustains us through the difficult moments between. A single song can brighten a day. A familiar melody can feel like coming home. It is no surprise, then, that music plays an equally vital role in the stories we tell. Music doesn’t merely sit in the background of our favourite movies and television shows; it shapes how we feel, what we notice, and what we understand about the characters before they even utter a word. Sometimes, music whispers secrets to the audience that even the story itself is too timid to reveal. This rings especially true in queer stories, where music expresses desire and intimacy and evokes emotion that the narrative might otherwise leave unspoken.
Between the lines: utilizing music to shape mood in fiction
Music is woven into our everyday lives. It starts our mornings, softens our nights and sustains us through the difficult moments between. A single song can brighten a day. A familiar melody can feel like coming home. It is no surprise, then, that music plays an equally vital role in the stories we tell. Music doesn’t merely sit in the background of our favourite movies and television shows; it shapes how we feel, what we notice, and what we understand about the characters before they even utter a word. Sometimes, music whispers secrets to the audience that even the story itself is too timid to reveal. This rings especially true in queer stories, where music expresses desire and intimacy and evokes emotion that the narrative might otherwise leave unspoken.
What Trump’s gender manifesto says about trans power
As you read this article, the Trump administration is attempting to rewrite history by erasing evidence of transgender Americans’ existence over time. At the start of 2025, the Trump administration released an executive order defining the parameters of sex and gender titled “DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT,” also called Executive Order 14168. This order aims to limit the government’s ability to advance the goals of what Trump terms “gender ideology” (or the belief in the fact that sex and gender are two separate identities) by requiring government agencies to acknowledge sex and not gender, defunding gender affirming healthcare and excluding transgender resources from mental health agencies, prisons, schools and more.
Oh SNAP! Benefits under attack
Lindsay Oh | OutWrite SNAP-EBT has played a vital role in the survival of millions of low- and no-income families since its establishment in 1964 as the Food Stamp Act. October 1, 2025 is the start of the new federal…
Southern California Fires and Mutual Aid
Although the fires are mostly contained today, Angelenos struggle to rebuild, whether they were directly or indirectly impacted by the crisis. It’s dehumanizing to attempt to resume business as usual because entire communities were leveled and livelihoods were lost. Supporting local mutual aid efforts and collectively pressuring administrative bodies remain crucial in serving the needs of our communities.
The “Rainbow Ceiling” in Healthcare: Characterizing Modern Inequities in Healthcare & Health Education
Katelyn Lee/OutWrite Content warning: Discussion of HIV/AIDS-related stigma (serophobia) Even in 2024, the American Medical Association’s (AMA) first openly gay president, Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, needed to talk about the fight against workplace discrimination in a healthcare system already battling “record…
Donald Trump’s Election and How to Keep Going
Katelyn Lee/OutWrite Content warning: mention of suicide, discussions of transphobia. President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2025. As of Jan. 24th, Trump has already signed numerous harmful executive orders. In addition to pardoning over 1,000 individuals charged with…
Stand Up, Fight Back! AFSCME 3299 Workers and Student Advocates Strike
On Nov. 20 and 21, Local 3299 workers picketed in front of the Ronald Reagan Medical Hospital, Luskin Conference Center, and at Bruin Plaza from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Across the UC campuses, more than 37,000 workers joined the AFSCME picket lines. Students demonstrated in solidarity, mobilized by the Student Labor Advocacy Project (SLAP) at UCLA.
Students and Faculty Sue UC Regents Over Free Speech Infringement During Pro-Palestine Encampment
Four UCLA community members are suing the UC Regents for violating the First Amendment right to free speech and allowing police and a Zionist mob to brutalize members of the non-violent encampment in Spring of 2024.
A New Face for OC: Meet Dom Jones
Amid this 2024 election season, which has all of us holding our breaths, one candidate is working to change the narrative for Orange County, California. Dom Jones (she/they) is a queer Black woman who has been fighting for the rights of queer existence in the Huntington Beach area, and is now trying to expand her fight to becoming the representative for California State Assembly District 72.