I have grown up with stories of another life. Fragments that testify to the fact that the world is more complex than what is visible. They have stuck with me, shaped me into who I am. They have affected both my self-image and my view of the world. Individual stories, private to some extent, but at the same time part of a larger tapestry. Yet they are rarely seen, those whose stories testify that there are millions of ways to be human. Symbolically erased, if you don’t see them, they don’t exist. Instead, the most common person in our mediated world is the white, straight, secular man who does not break expected gender roles. This is what the protagonist in our collective story looks like.

Symbolic erasure is a form of subtle violence that deprives a person of their identity and denies their existence, someone has said. To be a co-creator of media is undeniably to have power. Through media, reality is framed. Media gives us the tools to understand who the hero and the perpetrator are, gives us the tools to assess the importance of the story told. Media tells us not what to think, but what to think about. For the sake of drama, contrasts are amplified, intensified, distorted. Hard frames cut through human lives, creating repetitive, patterned stereotypes. They construct what it means to be human. What we see as reality becomes a distorted reflection, enhancing some aspects and leaving others out.

We spend over six hours a day on various forms of media. That equals twenty years of a human life. We live in media. Which worlds are visible and who is included affects the way we see, both our surroundings and ourselves. The universe is made of stories, not of atoms. It is through the story of the world that we shape the world. Through media, norms are created and upheld. They are repeated and spun around, thus becoming a part of us. What happens if we tell the story in a different way? What happens if the protagonist becomes someone else? Which aspects of the world, and who, has to step back in favor of the universal story?

In this magazine, experiences, perspectives, and ways of being are collected that are rarely included in our collective history. Like every attempt to mirror the world, this one also fails. But perhaps it contributes to making the story of the world a little larger.