Categories
Opinion

Focus on Hollywood fogs reality

Jen Mok

Writer

On Feb. 26, Hollywood gathered its finest specimens for the annual Academy Awards (The Oscars). Whether you were highly invested in the event or just one of the millions watching the spectacle, there is no denying that you participated in the big event in some manner. What exactly enticed you? Was it the attire? The night’s award-winners? Whatever it was, you were probably interested enough to Google or watch the event. The problem here is not whether you were interested but why, and what such interests say about today’s society.

If you haven’t noticed, Hollywood and its products dictate our lives. The immense impact Hollywood has on our lives is too prevalent to ignore. Our society is heavily invested in modeling ourselves off our most prized starlets. We closely watch their fashion and everyday lifestyles–-idolizing them in every way possible. People of all ages attempt to imitate the styles of those revered by the media. Their social influence goes beyond the superficial cultural aesthetics; even their political beliefs garner much interest and ultimately influence our own. Videos like those posted by Will.i.am in support for Obama spread like wildfire and most definitely swayed some to vote for him.

Our President is not exempt from this infatuation with Hollywood. He is known to often reference pop culture and has transformed himself into a pop icon. Just recently, when speaking at the 2011 Governor’s Dinner he said, “I want to welcome some of you back, and I want to welcome those who are here for the first time. I know some of you may be confused and think this is the Oscars … There are some similarities.”

While the acknowledgement of the present pop culture is refreshing, it makes me wonder how this reflects upon our society. In supporting this cult devotion to those of Hollywood, the President is in part responsible for validating the ever-false pretense that “everything is alright.”

I believe that we, as a whole, are desperate to mollify and somewhat romanticize reality. America has always been an idealized land of opportunities and limitless possibilities. With the financial crisis and war that struck our country, this need to comfort our concerns has been immensely emphasized and we have found escapes in our obsessions with Hollywood. By occupying ourselves with those on the big screen, we are continually lying to ourselves that greater problems do not exist. Our biggest concerns become not of those fighting overseas, but those who were caught drinking excessively or whose marriage lasted the shortest. We have decorated and created a false image of simplicity and ultimate glamour.

The population’s unhealthy addiction to our celebrities represents not only the increasingly superficial sentiments of the general public, but also the denial of the more pressing events of the world.

Categories
Arts & Life

Reading group explores Jefferson’s relationship

Courtney Bottazzi

Staff Writer

This Wednesday, the Griot Reading Group gathered in the Willard Smith Library in Vaughan Literature Building to discuss Clarence Walker’s book “Mongrel Nation.” Walker explores the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings from a contextual standpoint, discussing historical facts of the existence of their relationship and speculation about what type of relationship it was.

The reading group was joined by guests Julia Jefferson Westerinen and Shay Banks-Young. Westerinen’s great-grandfather was Eston Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’s son. Banks-Young is the sixth great-granddaughter of the couple.

“It is easy to make the story an abstraction but when you have products of the relationship here, it makes it that much more real,” said Carmen Gillespie, professor of English.

The biracial cousins weighed in on the content of the book and the discoveries from their pasts. Westerinen found out about her genealogy in 1975 and a DNA test from her brother confirmed the historical facts in 1998. Banks-Young stated that although it was not spoken about outright, she grew up hearing the stories, especially from when her great-grandmother was still alive.

At times, the relationship between Jefferson and Hemings is portrayed as romantic, possibly to humanize Jefferson.

“I have anger. I don’t see a love story, I see a strong woman doing whatever she needs for her children. History books need to reflect the truth. I want American textbooks to have American history,” Banks-Young said.

Westerinen reflected on how she is often asked how it feels to be related to Jefferson. Both Banks-Young and Westerinen reject the “wow” factor of the relationship.

“It’s an accident of birth. It doesn’t matter what he did, it matters what I do now,” Westerinen said.

She explains that by also recognizing her black heritage, she has been welcomed by the black community.

“The bottom line is that racial prejudice is not over, and that’s why we’re here,” Westerinen said.

Banks-Young and Westerinen hope that more stories like theirs are able to surface and people can feel more open to speak of their family histories.

“So many women in America have had stuff happen that they’ve had to keep hidden. They have been told to ‘be ashamed.’ Women need to speak out loud, open that stuff up. All the men and women who were enslaved have un-coverable stories,” Banks-Young said.

Banks-Young and Westerinen continue to strive to bring about such a change that would allow for these stories to be uncovered and for American history to ring true.

Categories
News

Author discusses impact of porn industry

Christina Oddo

Writer

Gail Dines, author of “Pornland,” expressed how the porn industry is leaking into mainstream media in a lecture with University students and staff on Tuesday in the Elaine Langone Center Forum. She explained how this industry is manipulating how teenagers think about their sexuality and how they interact with one another.

“The estimated revenue of the porn industry is $12 billion, while the estimated revenue for the box office for mainstream films is $9 billion,” Dines said.
Dines explained that while  her generation is “print-based,” the generation of today’s college students is “image-based.” Instead of reading things in print, college students are overwhelmed with images every day. Dines said many college students and teenagers are “image illiterate,” and perhaps absorb the wrong messages that are portrayed through images. The “gaze” that is often portrayed through images of women and men in magazines, on television and on the Internet is directly connected to the hookup culture found on college campuses and beyond. It creates gender constructions that form socially acceptable behaviors and etiquette.
Women, Dines said, constantly compare themselves to images of other women. In this way, the porn industry has manipulated women into hating their bodies. American capitalism and the success of many industries depends on women’s overall dissatisfaction with their bodies, as they go to great lengths for fashion, diet and cosmetics.
In the media, women are reduced to all of the same; women, in these images, are merely a series of body parts. Dines said when she starts seeing men wear Speedos to restaurants, then she will be okay with women wearing extremely exposing attire out to dinner. 
In fact, most images in the media that portray both men and women often show men fully clothed, while women are much more exposed. Dines said being naked in the presence of clothed people is to be in a state of vulnerability; why else are men who are admitted to prison immediately asked to strip when they first arrive?
Dines included discussion regarding women of color in the media, and how animals often accompany them in images. In this way, the media is portraying women of color as hypersexual. 
In regard to celebrities and the privileged white, Dines said people who are extremely rich and privileged, as well as white in color, have the ability to make the label of “slut” work for them. No matter how well one can carry that label, being called a “slut” is “a collective rape of all of your identity,” she said. This label is a social construct because an individual does not chose his or her label.
Dines explored the journey of young stars through adulthood, and how these young stars escape the stage of invisibility. What image do you have to portray to be noticed? The porn industry is marketing the youthful image more and more, she said. Is this due to a lack of creativity?
Pornography, Dines said, is completely debasing and violates women’s human rights. Promotion for online pornography sites alone is ridiculously degrading. Dines spoke directly to the men in the audience: “What turns you on? Are you really like this?”
“[The] world they [the porn industry] want is a world not worth living in,” Dines said. Where is the respect for others and for yourself? What does a dependency on pornography say about your sexual identity? Does sexual integrity exist today? Dines questioned the audience relentlessly. She said people need to claim sexuality on their own instead of letting the porn industry shape it.
“Words exist in a material reality,” Dines said.
In this way, Dines said, people need to reshape how they think about and act upon different words that relate to sexuality and gender.
For more information, visit Gaildines.com and stoppornculture.org.
Categories
Arts & Life

Upcoming anthropology guest lecturer to emphasize cultural awareness

Michelle Reed

Contributing Writer

Professor Eric Gable has been drawn to anthropology since he was a high school student, and he can pinpoint the very moment that piqued his interest in other cultures: a strange conversation with a man in Greece about a series of trenches in the ground.

“I had hoped the holes were signs of an ongoing archaeological dig,” Gable said. “But as he got more and more animated, I realized that he was telling me about a murder, a vendetta among the villagers that had just happened and the efforts they made to find the body among the weeds. All of a sudden, learning about strange presents seemed a lot more exciting than learning about strange pasts.”

Gable will visit the University to give a lecture in the Elaine Langone Center Forum on March 21 at 7 p.m. A part of the ongoing Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson lecture series, Gable’s talk, “What Heritage Does and Does Not Do to Identity: The Case of Hemings and Jefferson,” will draw on material from his fieldwork in Indonesia, West Africa and Monticello. This lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Griot Institute for Africana Studies. Gable will also give an additional lecture on March 20 entitled “The Anthropology of Art” in the Traditional Reading Room in the Bertrand Library at 12 p.m.

Gable, who teaches anthropology at the University of Mary Washington, emphasizes the importance of learning about other cultures by attempting to connect with them.

“To understand them requires being engaged with them,” Gable said. “Listening rather than talking, watching rather than expecting to be watched, any complex human situation needs to be understood and mapped out from the native’s point of view first. Having that understanding in hand prevents us all from making big mistakes as we plan how to make the human condition better.”

Budding anthropologists, according to Gable, should learn to put themselves in unfamiliar territory.

“As much as you can, learn to speak other languages and try to speak in them as much as you can. Read the old school anthropologists, both for fun and for learning how the world looked to them. Travel as much as you can. Get away from the places you know to places you don’t know.”

 

Categories
Arts & Life Movies Review

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” hits home

Carolyn Williams

Staff Writer

To say that Stephen Daldry’s latest film “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” packs a monumental emotional punch would be to put it lightly. Walking that razor-sharp line between tragedy and quirky coming-of-age story, dealing with the fallout of the Sept. 11 attacks and the trauma of losing his father, 9-year-old Oskar Schell embarks on “Reconnaissance Mission No. 6.”

Precocious to the extreme, Oskar (Thomas Horn) is grappling with a return to “normal” life one year after the Sept. 11 attacks that killed his father. Left alone with his grief-stricken mother (Sandra Bullock), Oskar flashes back repeatedly to memories of his father, his hero (Tom Hanks). Raised to be a thinker, the wheels in Oskar’s head immediately begin turning when he finds a mysterious key marked “Black” in a blue vase in his father’s closet. He decides that if he can ring the doorbell of every person with the last name “Black” in New York, he will be able to solve this last mission of his father’s.

What ensues are a series of heartwarming encounters with a number of Blacks throughout the city. Along the way, Oskar picks up a partner in crime, his estranged grandfather (Max von Sydow), referred to simply as The Renter, who has been living in Oskar’s German grandmother’s apartment for the past year. Von Sydow’s performance is well worth his Oscar nomination, conveying artfully the character of a man who has been so traumatized that he has mysteriously lost his ability to speak. He converses instead via notepad or with the aids of the words “yes” and “no,” which he has tattooed to the palms of his hands.

Daldry does not allow his viewer to forget the heavy subject material for long, though. Indeed, flashbacks to Sept. 11 are interspersed throughout, and the worst is the secret Oskar’s been keeping from everyone, the six messages on the answering machine left by Oskar’s father as the towers went down. Oskar keeps it from his audience until the last possible second, and with good reason: it’s just as awful as you dreaded it would be.

To a point, Daldry’s film maintains the postmodern integrity of Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005 novel of the same title. But something of the book does not translate to the screen. We lose a lot of Oskar’s narration, which is a shame, but more importantly, we lose some of the gravity of the situation. Though nowhere near as bad as the vomit-inducing “Remember Me,” the romance which killed off Robert Pattinson with a cheap Sept. 11 twist at the end, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” seems, at times, more intent on making us cry than telling a valid story. We remember Sept. 11 painfully, a fact which Daldry exploits at every turn, but Oskar’s story, while touching, does not do justice to Safran Foer’s original or the real-life tragedy which sets the plot in motion. With a hopeful, almost sickly-sweet Hollywood ending, the film diverges completely from the book, granting Oskar a sort of closure which is neither realistic nor appropriate.

Categories
Arts & Life From the Mind of Wiley Jack Humor

From the mind of Wiley Jack: Spring Break

Jack Wiles

Columnist

Spring break! I’m super pumped for it, as are many of us on campus. Ever since people made plans, I’ve noticed quite a few humorous things going on and being talked about. I want to focus on one: lookin’ good for the ladies.

I will be heading to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, probably as you are reading this. I’ve known about it since last semester and ever since then I kept telling myself I was going to lose a few pounds before the trip. You see, I’ve got this thing a few of my friends call “skinny fatness.” If you’ve read my previous article about B-League basketball, it is blatantly obvious that I never go to the gym, or even try to exercise. Considering the infrequency of my workouts, the amount of beer I drink and the foods I enjoy, there’s no way I’ll ever rock a six-pack. If we’re going to continue to describe our stomachs as ways that alcohol is packaged, mine is not a keg, for I am certainly not round. I’d say it is more like a Franzia wine bag. The only difference is that if you slap it, wine doesn’t come out. I hope.

Regardless of my physique, about a month ago, I started eating less, eating healthier, and maybe doing some form of exercise about twice a week. These are huge life changes for me. After maybe three weeks, things were going well, I felt my belt start to loosen, and the wine bag was slowly draining. After seeing some results, I slacked off a little bit, but for the next two weeks I probably maintained a slightly better appearance. I was content with the little progress I made because it was progress. Celebrate the small victories in life and you will always be happy.

As I write this, there is only one week to go. There’s no way I can reverse this now. I can probably do what I normally do and not gain back anything in a week, right? I was incorrect, my friends. Taco Bell started to taste great, I’m eating a brownie right now, and there’s gravy smothered chicken awaiting me directly to my left. The wine bag is back. But hey, I don’t care; at least I’m not tanning and waxing my chest like some of my friends. So I’ll rock my wine bag in Punta Cana, and I’ll have a great time doing it. Ladies beware, the wine bag is comin’, and it’s going to be hard to resist.

Categories
Opinion

Sex ed is pertinent despite laws

Ginny Jacobs

Contributing Writer

Utah’s House of Representatives recently passed a bill that gives public schools in that state a choice: teach sex education that is all about not having sex, or drop sex education completely. The bill not only allows schools to skip sex education, but also prohibits those that do opt to teach the course from discussing contraception. Having attended a Catholic girls’ high school that taught an abstinence-only approach, even I think it’s a bad idea.

Young people need to know the facts to protect themselves. Avoiding the topic of sex entirely leaves teens unprepared to have safe sex. The United States has the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the industrialized world, with approximately half the population experiencing an STD in their lifetime. Obviously students can pick up basic facts here and there from friends and family, but a firm groundwork is necessary. Without it, teens rely on misinformation and half-truths acquired from their friends.

Realistically, a certain percentage of teens will have sex and they need to be prepared. At my high school, we were constantly preached a message of abstinence, but never taught anything about preparation for sex. The truth of the matter was that many girls were having sex. I knew of fellow classmates who, unprepared to have sex responsibly, faced the consequences: pregnancies, which resulted in abortions, and even a few cases of STDs. It wasn’t until I arrived at college and listened to the infamous “Condom Lady” that I realized how prevalent STDs actually are.

Teaching abstinence-only merely tempts teens rather than giving them tools for handling sex maturely and responsibly. Watching an adult put a condom on a banana or realistically describing sex in class isn’t going to cause us to go crazy and have sex like maniacs. For me, it was the opposite: good information made me more careful and thoughtful about my choices.

I’m not saying that abstinence is an entirely unrealistic option for teens and therefore shouldn’t be taught. Abstinence is always a choice one can make, but it shouldn’t be forced upon teens. If not abstinence, perhaps restraint could be taught: taking steps to be safe physically—using protection, etc.—and to be safe psychologically—waiting until you at least trust someone, and maybe even love the other person. Even if it is not emphasized, it is important for sex education to include teaching about the psychological consequences of sex. People can make their own moral decisions about sex, but our schools need to provide accurate biological and practical information. Even if you wait until marriage, for example, you will likely need to know about contraception.

When sexual information is presented in a matter-of-fact way, teens will begin to think of it less as a naughty, alluring thing. Remove some of the mystery, and they’ll be less likely to experiment recklessly. If all of the facts are laid out on the table before it begins to enter their minds, young teens can think of sex as something that is normal but an individual decision–best considered carefully–as to when to begin sexual activity, and with whom.

Teaching abstinence doesn’t ensure that young people will remain abstinent. Students are going to decide their own moral politics and the law should prepare them, even when they make bad choices. Kids are going to be exposed to sex at some time or another, whether from friends or in the media. We can’t hide this topic from kids forever by taking it out of school.

Categories
Beyond the Bison Sports

Beyond the Bison: Encore?

Julian Dorey

Columnist

Debating who is “the greatest ever” can get about as heated as anything there is. Sports fans of different generations will never bridge the gap between Jordan and Chamberlain—and many don’t seem prepared to accept that Hank Aaron was a just a little better than Joe D.

Unlike baseball or basketball, in football, there are so many different positions requiring unique skill sets that it’s nearly impossible to choose a clear-cut “best player.” Instead, purists generally judge position by position.

The wide receiver slot is the one that always gets me arguing.

Most fans can accept that the greatest wide receivers from the game have played in the last 20 years or so. The NFL was a run-first game for a long time, but it has slowly morphed into a weekly, gun-slinging shoot-out. This is why receivers like Terrell Owens, Marvin Harrison and Randy Moss are all considered top five receivers of all-time, even though they all come from the same era.

For many, though, the greatest is Jerry Rice. He had it all. He could learn a playbook better than anyone else, he had a second gear that defied his physical skill set, and he had hands that were regularly checked for glue (none was ever found). But he also had Joe Montana and Steve Young, two Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Even in his twilight years in Oakland, he put up decent numbers with late-career bloomer Rich Gannon. I don’t mean to take anything from Rice—he was legitimately great—but he did have some tools other guys did not.

These are among the reasons I cannot agree with the popular sentiment. To me, Randy Moss is the greatest receiver to ever play.

Moss had it all. He could break a 4.3 40, he had the critical 6 foot 5 inch height, an IQ that was off-the-charts (despite his questionable on-field and off-field antics), a vertical leap that would make Vince Carter smile, the wingspan of a 6 foot 10 inch monster and hands that rivaled Rice’s super glue.

Oh—he also had “straight cash, homie.”

OK, I had to throw that in there. Moss was the greatest combination of size and speed you will ever see. He had to catch the ball from the likes of Daunte Culpepper (who faded away completely after Moss left Minnesota), Andrew Walter (who?) and Aaron Brooks. Finally, later in his career, after already putting up astounding numbers, he got the chance to play with the infamous Tom Brady. Simply put, though, Moss played with food fit for the garbage disposal throughout most of his career while Rice played with filet mignon.

So, call me stupid but there isn’t a receiver in the world I’d take over Moss. That’s why I was about as ecstatic as I could be when Randy recently announced he is returning to the NFL.

On his 35th birthday, the wide receiver officially announced that he is ending his one-year retirement. Despite a rocky 2010 campaign that included playing for three teams (NE, Minn., Tenn.), I felt Moss walked away with so much left in the tank. He avoided injuries for most of his career, and still showed the 4.3 40 speed in 2010.

The reason he walked away wasn’t because he was “losing it.” It was because of his all-famous, lifelong caveat: he doesn’t care.

He has never worried about what others think, and when he talks, he certainly does come off as a wild child (see: “Straight cash, homie”). When Randy does things the way Randy wants—you could describe him as “Randy being Randy.”

But none of that has anything to do with his play. Moss has been the best since he came into the league in 1998. He has made countless plays that seem to defy earth’s basic principles. He has posted stats that seem like results from a lopsided Madden game.

He’s number one in my book. And he’s coming back for his last round in the ring.

Can’t wait.

Categories
Men Sports Wrestling

Wrestling finishes 13th

Andrew Lichtenauer

Senior Writer

Orange and Blue wrestlers Austin Miller ’15, John Regan ’12 and Corey Lear ’13 became place winners in their respective weight classes on the final day of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championships at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym on March 4. Miller earned the Bison’s lone automatic NCAA berth, finishing third at 125 pounds. Regan finished seventh at 157 pounds and Lear finished fifth at 165 pounds.

Regan posted a 2-2 record on March 3 and entered the next day of competition with just one opponent ahead of him. Regan ended up beating Troy Hernandez (Penn) 5-3 to take seventh place. Regan is now 20-12 this season, which marks his second career 20-win season.

Lear entered the day seeking a win in his first challenge to move on to the consolation finals (third-place match). Unfortunately, fifth-seeded Lear lost to third-seeded Marshall Peppelman (Cornell) 3-1. Lear then bounced back to defeat Mason Bailey (Navy) 6-2 in the fifth-place bout. Lear had a 3-2 record at the EIWA Championships, which adds to his career win total of a team-best 60.

Miller was the fifth seed in his bracket, earning his third-place finish with a 2-0 record on the second and final day of the EIWA Championships. He defeated Tyler Sackett (Navy) 12-6 to move on to the third-place match, and then beat third-seeded Billy Watterson (Brown) in a close match that ended 3-2. The top three finishers at 125 pounds earn an automatic NCAA berth, which means that Miller will be making his first career trip to the national tournament.

“Qualifying for nationals is definitely a big deal for me. I am very proud of that accomplishment,” Miller said. “However, it is only a stepping stone to being an All-American and, eventually, a national champion. No one will remember who was an NCAA qualifier in 2012 and I will not be satisfied with simply being a qualifier.”

Miller posted an impressive 3-1 record against four seeded opponents over the two-day championship. He defeated two individuals seeded higher than him and his only loss was to the eventual 125-pound champion Frank Perrelli. Miller is now 22-12 on the year and will enter the NCAA Championships having won 11 of his last 15 bouts.

“I wouldn’t exactly call my last part of the season momentum or anything even remotely related,” Miller said. “I have just begun to wrestle more consistently as the year has progressed. That is a result of practice and getting more accustomed to the college wrestling style. Besides, 11 out of 15 could, and should for that matter, be 15 out of 15.”

The complete NCAA field will be finalized March 7 when 40 additional at-large selections are added to the automatic qualifiers. The NCAA Championships will take place March 15-17 in St. Louis, Mo.

As a team, the Bison sent nine wrestlers to the EIWA Championships and finished 13th in team standings behind 12th-place Franklin & Marshall. Cornell won its 6th consecutive team crown with Lehigh, American, Penn and Navy rounding out the top five. In all six years since the wrestling program was reinstated, the Bison have had at least three placewinners at the EIWA Championships.

Categories
Sports Water Polo Women

Water polo drops two at Harvard

Lindsay Regruto

Senior Writer

The women’s water polo team opened the Harvard Invitational with a 14-5 win against George Washington on March 3 but could not sustain its five-game winning streak falling to Harvard 13-8 and Iona 13-11 later on.

In their contest against Iona, the Bison started off close with the Orange and Blue in the lead, 4-3, at the end of the first period. The Gaels had pulled ahead by one goal by the end of the third period. Julianne Valdes ’14 posted three goals while teammates Becca Shopiro ’12, Tara Murao ’13, and Taylor Barnett ’15 found the net twice.

Hallie Kennan ’12 had a career-high five assists and scored six points, the most by any player this year. Despite a powerful offense, the Bison couldn’t close the gap in the end. Rena Heim ’14 concluded the weekend with a total of seven saves moving her into fifth place on the program’s career saves list with a total of 238 saves.

“It was a close game throughout,” Valdes said. “Although it ended in a tough loss, we know what we need to work on as a team as well as individually in order to win games like that.”

Harvard proved to be a tough opponent and the Bison closed the day with a 13-8 loss. The Orange and Blue got off to a slow start with the Crimson pulling ahead 8-4 by halftime. The Bison outscored Harvard 3-2 in the third period but couldn’t catch up. Amanda Skonezney ’12, Barnett, Kennan, Morgan and Valdes each posted two or more goals for the Bison.

“I don’t think we lost to Harvard because we lacked the skill, we just lacked the confidence,” Kennan said. “We lost to them earlier in the season and I think that made us a little fearful when we crossed them again. What we need to remember is that we are a much different team than we were even just a month ago. Our strategies and skills have improved a lot from our practices and we have everything we need to beat a team like them.”

The Orange and Blue offense came out strong on Saturday outscoring George Washington in every period. By halftime, the Bison had taken a 7-2 lead over the Colonials. Valdes and Barnett had three goals each and Kennan and Morgan scored twice.

The Orange and Blue will travel to Bakersfield, Calif. on March 10 for the Roadrunner Invitational. The Bison will face Azusa Pacific, Fresno Pacific, Long Beach State, CSU Bakersfield, Cal State Northridge and UC Santa Barbara.