Niko Stratis

Profile Photo

Niko is a writer of transsexual experience, based in Toronto. Her work has been featured in SPIN, Paper, Bitch, Xtra and more. She lives with her fiancee, two cats and one dog. She is a Cancer.

Stories

Cover Photo: A photograph of Liz Phair on the cover of one of her albums. She is sitting on the ground with a guitar propped up against her chest and her arms rapped around it. Her head is tilted to the side and her long blonde hair is falling across her face.
Liz Phair Showed Me the Kind of Woman I Wanted to Be

As I was learning to say with confidence that I was a woman, I struggled to understand what that meant to me.

May 23, 2022
Cover Photo: A photograph of Kurt Cobain, the frontman of the band Nirvana, wearing a pair of headphones and hunching in front of a microphone. His long blonde hair is falling over his face and into his eyes and he is wearing a plaid collared shirt over a white t-shirt.
Kurt Cobain Pushed the Boundaries of Gender and Made Room for Us All

Nirvana took every step to sand the edges of rock’s obsessive relationship with toxic masculinity.

Mar 01, 2022
Cover Photo: A screenshot of Shirley Manson, the lead singer of Garbage, from their music video "Androgynous." Manson is sitting on the ground with slicked-back hair, wearing a  shirt, tie and suit jacket with sheer tights and heeled boots.
“The Queerest of the Queer”: Listening to Garbage in the Nineties

I listened to the lead singer, Shirley Manson, play what I understood as masculine and feminine in the same hand.

Jan 24, 2022
Cover Photo: A screenshot of Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of the band Green Day, from their music video "Basket Case." Armstrong has dark hair and is staring directly at the camera against an electric blue background. Around his face are graphics of pink and orange fish and green eyeballs.
The Unsung Queerness of Green Day Lyrics

Green Day’s album ‘Dookie’ is a quintessential teen-angst record. It’s also very queer—something music critics failed to talk about.

Dec 07, 2021