indy
April 20May 7, 2010
Bloomington-Normal’s free independent newspaper
Cell Phones
PG 3
Decline of News
Vol. 9, No. 8
Vlogging
PG 4
Body Modification
PG 5 PG 6
In the Indy
THE THOUGHTS YOU NEED, EVERY TWO WEEKS
Man About Town:If I Could Master Plan Outlaw29 Indy Staff At the beginning of the 2010 Spring Semester Illinois State Administrators held a public forum regarding Master Plan 20002020. The intention of the public forum sought to gain student input about campus aesthetics and utilization of resources available to Master Plan administrators. The Master Plan endeavor is impressive simply because it runs contrary to the fiscal climate where budgets are shrinking as state aid for education declines. A topic of Indy meetings yore is the charismatic ability of Al Bowman to raise funds to modernize the Illinois State University infrastructure. President Bowman’s career of service to the state of Illinois has been impeccable, and when I.S.U. completes current construction projects, Bowman will be a legendary Illinois State University President. For whatever reasons, authority is not being exercised regarding the use of the Gregory Street property made available to the Master Plan. Instead, a more democratic approach has been invoked to determine how to utilize 299 acres of land that made up the former main farm. In 2005 a land use plan was determined for the Gregory Street property to guide future decision-making. Hopes and dreams were presented but nothing actualized for land development. A critical issue that is under-addressed is student housing. More and more, it appears that I.S.U. is reducing housing options for students and letting them fend for themselves in the rental market. When such a great need exists for affordable housing it baffles me that any other use could be considered for the Gregory Street property. The idea of having 300 acres of land available that prompts the proprietor to ask random people how to tend to it is novel. The Outlaw29 viewpoint is one that believes in a social contract. To admit that citizenry is an obligation versus a birthright, and that the obligation holds that we give up immature individualistic pursuits to heed to the concerns of the body politic is how I interpret the Declaration of Independence. The idea is a scalable one that allows me to see the Bloomington-Normal community filled with potential to make renewable resources a practical reality. As a man about town, I talk to the people in this community who follow through
on their passions to imprint the change they would like to see in the world. The Twin Cities are a learning environment that generate many radically practical ideas for sustainable living habits, but rarely are they implemented out of institutional cautions against change. My Indy mentor Gary Gletty, an educator of 30 years, expressed a similar analysis to me two years ago when reflecting upon his civic activism; Bloomington-Normal is not a conservative community but a cautious one. As such, those who exercise institutional power and authority (like the Master Plan committee) in this community are reserved and slow to make changes that have an immediate need to them or could dramatically alter the landscape of the town. In this vein of thought, courting student opinions regarding the land use of the Gregory Street property could be an attempt to head off student backlash against future land initiatives. A case where the administrators decide what to do with the Gregory Street property only after knowing that the student population is apathetic to the issue. Three core issues for renewable resource groups are power, land, and transportation. How
can we make efficient, clean, and renewable power? How can we care for the land to sustain its vitality while producing food and shelter from the Earth? How can we develop cleaner transportation systems to reduce human carbon imprints on the environment and dependence on foreign oil? These open-ended questions can be intimidating, for our human minds tend to hear the broad scope of the problems and fill our thoughts with a futility that productive change can be made. Yet the human story is one of being adaptable, and in this community I have come into contact with members of the student population that implement flexibility into their life and affairs. Thus, the Outlaw29 viewpoint can see where intentions and opportunities for sustainable living practices could be made viable through using the Gregory Street property. We the Redbirds have been challenged, and as the author of Redbird Nation I propose that the Master Plan leaders divide the Gregory Street property to be utilized for teaching and learning the habits of sustainability. Divide the farmland into hundred acre lots allowing for ways to let the renewable
A Year of Writing in Recap Jenna Brandon Indy Staff
The sun was singeing my laptop as I began to write my last article of the year on a summer-y spring afternoon last Saturday. Once again, I had nothing to write about. So I just started writing this, a memoir of a year gone by writing articles, meeting deadlines and staying up very late on busy Tuesday nights editing articles at Club Milner. I remember it now and smile; this was one of the best things that have ever happened to me on this campus. What makes the Indy different from the Vidette is quite stark: we are not paid, we write about what we want, our articles are put on the front page because they’re interesting and we have crappy newsstands. I laughed when I wrote this. It seems obvious that any respectable writer would want to immediately join the Vidette after hearing about our paper… then I remember why I stayed, and I continued to smile and type away. I was coming out a Stevenson (has anyone else noticed the interesting smell of asbestos See Master Plan Page 5: and urine in those halls?) and
my new copy of the Vidette was blown away by a pseudo-tornado wind conjured from Watterson. I ran into Williams Hall, trying to recover a new issue and instead picked up The Rough Draft and another newspaper –the Indy. I found stories about animal fur trade, the unfair treatment of employees at Avanti’s and a strange section of the paper entitled “He Said, She Said”. I delved into the Indy, reading article after article about the most random things. The most interesting, random things. Near the middle of the paper, I saw the one and only adWANTED: Independent Thinkers. Hmm, I said to myself, I’m an independent thinker. I read on. Volunteer to help with the Indy: we need writers, editors, photographers, artists and more. I’m a writer, and I would really love to be an editor, I also thought. I decided to go to a meeting- which so happened to be the next day. I woke up the next day with a pit in my stomach. I only get pits when something is supposed to happen that day and I’m nervous about it; for some reason I couldn’t remember what it was. As See Recap on Page 3:
2 Chatterbox
April 2010 Indy
CHATTERBOX The Stock Market is Up
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a milestone Wednesday April 12th reaching 11,000 which is the highest level its reached since September 2008. The Dow price is an average price of thirty stocks and when the number decreases, the market loses money. On Wednesday however, the Dow rose 104 points or increased by 0.9 percent and investors love it. Amanda Clayton read the good news in the paper and couldn’t be happier. “I know my family has money invested into Walt Disney and to hear that the stock values are the highest they’ve been since 2008 is a good sign for things to keep going up higher,” Clayton said. The companies that make up the Dow are the thirty largest and most influential stocks on the stock market exchange. The recession our country has been undergoing has led to significant changes in the Dow as companies were dropped from the index and others merged. As of today, the thirty companies that make up the Dow are 3M Company, Alcoa, American Express, AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing, Caterpillar, Chevron Corp, Cisco, DuPont, Exxon Mobil Corp., General Electric, Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corporation, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s, Merck & Co., Inc., Microsoft, Pfizer Inc., Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Procter & Gamble, Travelers, United Technologies Corporation, Verizon, Wal-Mart, and Walt Disney. Retail sales also jumped 1.6 percent in March and JPMorgan Chase reported their profits being up 55 percent from a year earlier.
Driving Discounts
Indynews@hotmail.com Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor, I would like to address Lisa Shelton’s statement in the previous edition that “a person’s most sacred space [is] their body.” While Shelton draws a very important distinction here between the spatialized zone of the individual and that of the Other, how “sacred” this territory is seems to be taken for granted. Much like our bodies, nations also have a sort of sacredness about their boundaries that is called sovereignty. Sovereignty is valid only when other established nations recognize that such a territory is a nation also. In recent cases like the occupation of Haiti, that sovereignty is waved for some seemingly greater cause (such as preventing an overthrow of the neoliberal puppet government). So, too, is the case with bodies. Our bodies are constantly being used and abused in a political tactic that Michel Foucault called “biopower.” While we may posit a sacredness of the body, it’s as transient as the sovereignty of a nation. Institutions of biopower, as Foucault points out, are spread through our society in places like prisoners, hospitals, and so on. Authority is not the only appropriator of biopower in our country, however. Capital, in the form of advertising, urban planning, and controlled spatialization, also asserts a certain power of the individual’s body, inside and out. Thus, I am puzzled at why Shelton preaches the sacredness of body when clearly our bodies are more realistically the property of our dominant socio-political apparatus. Should it not be the State that we should seek to illegalize instead of just “touching, fondling, and physically-handling someone without their permission?” Until we can take back the space appropriated by authority and Capital, it seems unlikely that our bodies will be sacred at all. Jake Nabasny
Illinois State University Sibling Weekend... Friday, April 23 7 p.m. - Gamma Phi Circus, Redbird Arena (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) 7 p.m. - Double Feature Friday, Capen Auditorium, Edwards Hall
Saturday, April 24 10 a.m.-12 p.m. - Family Fun Fest, Hancock Stadium 11 a.m.-12 p.m. - Chemistry Club Magic Show, 133 Felmley Hall (tentative) 12-1 p.m. - Barbecue, Hancock Stadium NORMAL- Insurance companies continue to offer “good student discounts” on car insurance rates. Research shows that a safe driver is an educated driver, and students that can keep up their grades will be receiving gratitude for that. The definition of a good student varies from company to company but is generally a full time high school or college students who maintain a 3.0 or higher grade point average. While this discount isn’t a new phenomenon, many students still don’t know about it and have not checked with their insurance companies. Kristyna Tomczyk is one of many who never thought that her grades had anything to do with her car insurance. “I had no idea there was a good student discount but that’s great because I work my butt off to keep up my grades,” Tomczyk said. Allstate, Nationwide, AAA, and State Farm are just a few major insurance companies who honor a “good student discount.” This can range from a 10 to 15 percent discount depending on the company. State Farm especially recognizes students on the honor roll or those that are ranked in the top 20 percent of their class. Jimmy Hunter knows about the good student discount and switched insurance companies to find it. “The good student discounts for car insurance is such a great benefit because students like me who pay for their own school could always use a discount on their bills,” Hunter said. Progressive has no student discounts available at this time.
1 p.m. - Spring Football Scrimmage, Hancock Stadium 1-4 p.m. - Little Sibling’s Carnival, Children’s Discovery Museum 1 p.m. - Gamma Phi Circus, Redbird Arena (doors open at 12:30 p.m.) 7 p.m. - Gamma Phi Circus, Redbird Arena (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) 8 p.m. - Experience the Magic Featuring Justin Kredible “Like a magician, but cooler!”, Prairie Room, Bone Student Center
Sunday, April 25 7 p.m. - Choral Collage, Center for the Performing Arts For more information visit www.Alumni.ilstu.edu/sibling, call 309-438-2586 or e-mail sac@ilstu.edu.
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Email: indynews@hotmail.com Executive Editors: Amanda Clayton Lisa Shelton Jenna Brandon Layout: Tesia Schiltz THE INDY IS SEEKING TO HIRE MORE WRITERS. CONTACT US VIA EMAIL
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Stressed For Finals? Take a Study Break... Take a break from studying for finals with a FREE week of classes. Check the Group Fitness schedules for times, days and descriptions of classes in the Student Rec Building and Hewett-Manchester. May 2nd - May 7th Call 438-PLAY for times and for more information.
Indy News
Apri 2010 Indy
3
Cell Phones:A Necessary Evil Suzanne Holland Indy Staff Good verbal communication used to be a skill that was desired in future employees, significant others, potential friends, and everyone that one would want to be social. Communicating verbally with another person used to be the only way to get something done. You want to pay your phone bill? Call the phone company and pay over the phone or even go “old school” and walk your payment down to the phone company’s office. You want to know where you’ve seen that actor from 40 year-old virgin before? Call your friend up and start describing the actor to them to see if they know or you could run to your friend’s house to see if they could tell you what other movie Steve Carell has been in. To complete any of these tasks you would have to communicate verbally with another human; whether it be over the phone or in person. Words would have to come out of your mouth and travel to their ears for anything to get done. Obviously, the internet has changed much of this with online bill-pay that many banks offer. Social networking sites like Facebook allow you to chat with friends. However, even a step further away from verbal communication and towards instant gratification comes the cell phone. Not the 1973 debut Nokia cell phone that weighed 21 pounds. Not Motorola’s first version that weighed 1 kilogram. Recap from page 1: I walked home from my last class of the day, I began to wonder what was supposed to happen. When I got back to my dorm, I checked my planner -nothing. I checked my white board -nada. I picked up the stack of papers on my desk and saw the Indy. Crap. My brain finally registered that the Indy meeting was starting in fifteen minutes in uptown Normal. I quickly grabbed my iPod, my writing journal and a Naked (the juice… you pervert) and sped off to the meeting. I stepped into The Coffeehouse at 5:55 PM. The sun was starting to set, and illuminated the room with an orange glow. The counter was filled with teas, menus and gluten-free treats, so I paid for a sugar cookie and went searching for members of my newly found interest. The eclectic, vintage-y leather seating was dispersed under an array of student and local artwork that hung of the pale green walls. I nervously searched above the heads of the patrons and found a single Rastafarian, clad in dreadlocks. He was seated at a long table with another girl who looked to be my age, and smiled in my direction. I went over as un-timidly as my body would allow and managed to ask if they were with the Indy. “Sure, you must be Jenna. Welcome!” she said. The girl introduced herself as Amanda, and the dreadlock man’s name was Yuri. I said hello and waited for the rest of the people to come. Only a few
Not even the 80’s Saved By The Bell cell phone that was 8 inches long and weighed just under one pound. I’m talking about the current cell phone which comes slender enough to be unseen in your pants pocket and light enough to be comparable to a pen! Yes ladies and gentlemen, we now have a technological device that can do almost anything we want it to do at a moment’s notice Among these attributes are connecting to the internet to update your Facebook status or make comments, tweet on Twitter, search for information on Google, and watch videos on Youtube. You can watch movies and trailers, activate your GPS device to find your way in an unknown area, access your bills and pay them, find local restaurants and their reviews, look at what constellations are above you in the night sky, or listen to music. This is not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination. There are millions of applications that you can put on your phone to do things like study for an exam on the constitution or a test over the capitals of the United States, color code your e-mail, play games, buy stock, and many other crazy things that no one ever thought to put on a phone before this technological revolution. I see all of these advances in technology and I think to myself that this is a great thing. However, how far are we going to want to go with this? How long is it going to be until we decide that it’s enough to have a phone with a million applications on it?
Is this going to go on until the end of the human race? Is this going to be the end of many attributes of the human race that were once deemed necessary like verbal communication? Thirty years ago the regular person didn’t think that society would rely so heavily on cell phones, or even think that a cell phone could do so many things besides call someone. So 30 years from now, in 2040, when our children are hormonal teenagers, just like we once were, what will be the latest gadget that they will be begging us to buy them? Will it be the latest iPhone, iPad? or maybe a watch that can talk, text, and access the internet? We can no longer listen to an idea of what might be in the future and think to ourselves that it’s ridiculous and could only exist in a James Bond movie because that is exactly what our parents thought when they were in college and heard about the phones that we all hold in our hands today. This is not to say that all technological advances from here-on out are going to hinder society, however I have to wonder how far we can advance technologically without hindering ourselves and our natural abilities. Right now it’s only ver-
bal communication that I can see taking a definite decline, but I’m looking toward the future to see what will decline in my lifetime. Is the movie Wall-e not only a comment on society and the direction that we are going in but also a prediction of what is to come due to advances in technology? It’s not necessarily out of this world to imagine that one day we will find it useless to walk around and complete tasks during our day, so we decide to do everything from the luxury of a chair with a holographic screen. That would be another example of an attribute that we once deemed necessary, walking, that was taken over by technology and suddenly appeared unnecessary. Albert Einstein once said It is appallingly obvious that
our technology has exceeded our humanity. Maybe every once in a while we can all make ourselves take a step back from our lives and examine it with a fresh pair of eyes. Don’t look at your life and how you go about your daily life as though you are yourself, look at it through the critical eyes of a complete stranger. Are you depending on technology more than is necessary? Could you go one whole day without even so much as touching a technological device? Maybe it would start with a strike from cell phones for a day and eventually we would be free from Facebook and all the other technology that ties us to our devices. Who knows, maybe in thirty years the 21 pound Nokia phone will come back into popularity. Expect the unexpected.
more came, and the eight of us sat around a table, bouncing ideas off each other. I sat back in amazement; I had never done this before, and everyone said anything that came to mind. Another quiet girl
“Yeah, sure.” I said. My first piece was the Alumni Center, and what really went on inside the Georgian façade. I dragged my boyfriend along with me and I interviewed
From then on, I was a devoted fan and contributor of our paper. Other people joined after me, too: an enthusiastic freshman who had interesting ideas that she so willingly shared; an intelligent,
named Lisa asked me what I was interested in writing. I had never thought to write anything outside of fashion and school papers before, and I knew they didn’t have a fashion section, so I said “Just bout anything. I like doing investigative pieces.” What!? I startled myself. Never in my life have I done an investigative piece, and who was to overhear me but Yuri. “That’s great. We need someone to do a piece of the Alumni Center and what it’s really all about. Think you can do it?”
the tour guide. I stayed up for hours that week writing a piece I desperately hoped was newsworthy and interesting. When I submitted my article that Sunday, I instilled a large lump in my throat that lasted until the new issue came out at our meeting the following Wednesday. They liked my piece; the staff liked my piece! A flood of emotions ran through me as I sailed through the rest of the meeting. I was happy, accomplished, relieved and excited for my next assignment.
humorous girl who I shared a lot of laughs with; a pair of soft-spoken freshmen who were eager to contribute, a transfer student who helped tremendously with our PR side and another girl who initially was doing a project about us and eventually began to write in our paper. As I looked around the table at our last meeting, I saw the faces that were at one point not even a blip on my radar. That has changed- these people have become my comrades, fighting the good fight against traditional jour-
naling and allocating students of the unspoken voice in and around our campus. We found solace in each other, laughed at our more hilarious ideas and revived a paper that was starting to settle into the background. We came together under the name of journalism, freedom of speech and our love for writing. I love to write- that’s obvious, is it not? Anyone who contributes to this paper week after week is a true fan of writing. Writing allows the mind to silently vent, ask questions and seek answers. Writing (as cliché as this may be) is the bleeding of creativity from my mind. I have taken time out of my day every week since sophomore year began to shed a new shade of light on Ilstu’s campus. What keeps me going is simple and unforgettable- fans who cannot wait to pick up the Indy every two weeks. Our champion basketball teams, our football players and cheerleaders, our actors, dancers (I love my Modern III class!) and tech crews cannot wait to get up on the court, field, or stage and show this campus what we’re made of. And just like them, we here at the Indy cannot wait until we fill our newsstands with the latest, greatest hits that slam Illinois State. We are the alternative voice sneaking through your speakers and the thoughts that chill at the back of your mind. Next year, be a part of the craze- we would love to hear your Redbird voice- and pick up an Indy, won’t you?
4 Campus News
Tiger Woods, the Decline of News, & the Future of the Left Anthony Dimaggio Indy Contributor Tiger Woods’ new Nike commercial marks his return to the Masters and his renewed dominance of the television spotlight following a groundswell of attention late last year. Whatever one thinks of Tiger Woods, saturation coverage of this fallen idol is exacting serious costs on the public’s civic I.Q. Woods’ sex scandals garnered a total of 10 percent of all news coverage in December 2009, with 62 percent of Americans explaining that they had heard “a lot” about the affairs and 53 percent hearing “a lot” about his televised apology. Woods placed above most Democratic and Republican political figures as one of the people the public heard most about in the news. As hard as it is to believe, coverage of Woods is nowhere near the level of past celebrity gossip stories such as the death of Michael Jackson. This is likely the case because of the timing of the scandal, which coincided with a major national debate over health care reform and a massive escalation of war in Afghanistan. On any given day of the year, however, celebrity news stories usually go head-to-head with “hard” political stories in terms of the coverage they receive and the public attention they garner. Woods’ affair was still listed in numerous surveys from late 2009 and early 2010 as the top issue in which “the public was/is talking about,” above the Olympics, health care reform, the economy, the war in Afghanistan, and the Haitian earthquake. Many reporters and executives defend the media’s extensive coverage of celebrity gossip, citing the public’s high level of interest in these stories. Such a defense, however, neglects the public’s own admission – expressed by 69 percent of Americans – that Woods’ affairs are receiving “too much coverage.” Such a seemingly contradictory pattern appears commonly in celebrity gossip stories: the public pays a tremendous amount of attention to these stories, while consistently explaining that they don’t deserve the attention they get from journalists. I’ve explained this phenomenon in previous work, comparing such behavior to consumption of junk food and fast food (see “Michael Jackson Feeding Frenzy,” July 2009). Consumers know they shouldn’t obsess over such stories, but continue to do so because the media system ensures that they are widely abundant, addictive, and inexpensive. Celebrity gossip – like fast food – has become the opiate of the masses at a time when the public is exhausted by rising debt, maxed out credit cards bills and growing cost of living expenses. Sadly, American families have worked longer and longer hours to make less and less money over the last four decades. Exhausted in their personal lives, they enjoy little time at the end of the day to consume educational media programming – let alone engage in political activism. It’s far easier to tune out than to en-
gage the social world when you live in a political-economic system that encourages ignorance and apathy. In reviewing my recent book – which covers the dangers of celebrity news and entertainment media – Paul Street summarizes my finding that “high news consumption is positively correlated both with higher education levels and with high faith in U.S. policymakers.” Street concludes that regular consumption of corporate news is detrimental for those looking to become educated – rather than indoctrinated – about the political world around them. He persuasively claims that, if consumption of corporate news indoctrinates audiences with the values of the ruling class, “your friendly local working class high school graduate who watches football and ‘The Simpsons’ but skips the news and reads only the sports section and comics in the daily paper is more equipped to respond skeptically to government propaganda than your local middle class high school government teacher who reads the paper’s political news on a daily basis and follows CNN and MSNBC” (see “When Media Goes to War: A Review, Z Net, http://www.zcommunications. org/when-media-goes-to-war-areview-by-paul-street). I agree with Street that consumption of corporate media alone will not help nourish the minds of those seeking to become better educated about the political world. I also agree that entertainment media can provide a needed relief from daily stresses. I don’t feel that people should be prohibited from escaping, from time to time, from politics and the daily grind (I enjoy complaining about the poor performance of the Bears andCubs as much as any other Chicago sports fan). My major concern with regard to entertainment media is with Americans, especially those under 30, who fixate on personal gratification and celebrity gossip at the expense of learning about important political and social issues. When celebrity gossip becomes so prevalent that it gains equal time with, and supplants hard news, something has gone seriously wrong. Comparisons between apathetic and indoctrinated citizens must be made carefully. While the average indoctrinated high school teacher may be less willing to question government and media propaganda than someone who has tuned out the propaganda system, that doesn’t mean that those who are apathetic are in a much better position to push for change – especially if they’re not willing or able to acquire the knowledge needed to challenge the status quo. In other words, the choice between an indoctrinated and an apathetic public is a false one. I’m sure Street would agree that a third path is needed when envisioning a progressive future for America. Without critical awareness, people go through their lives with little knowledge of how many Iraqis have been killed under the U.S. occupation; they don’t know what the Downing
Street Memo is, or why it’s relevant to their lives, or how it damaged U.S. credibility around the world. In short, neither political indoctrination nor political apathy (even if the latter is accompanied by skepticism of the system) is acceptable if we want to make this a better world. Disturbingly, the vast majority of the college freshmen I teach don’t know much about what the U.S. officials do at home or abroad. They know little about issues like health care reform, global warming, or electoral politics. They don’t know what the Abu Ghraib scandal was, and have no clue about the history of the Vietnam, Afghanistan, and 1991 Gulf Wars. In order to challenge political and media propaganda, the public needs to become better educated on domestic and foreign policy; they need to make time to follow both corporate and independent media. Only by knowing our enemies can we effectively challenge their distortions. Only by increasing our political engagement and shedding apathy will we succeed in building more humane, political, economic, and media systems. Corporate media are in decline today. According to the Pew Research Center, while 45 percent of Americans believed the mass media was politically biased in 1985, the number increased to 60 percent by 2009. Similarly, the belief that news stories are often inaccurate was held by nearly 35 percent of the public in 1985, but by more than 60 percent in 2009. There is no shortage of reasons for attacks on media – whether they’re based on distrust of advertisers and corporate owners, anger over “liberal bias,” or some vague notion that we are not being told the whole story on important issues. In their new book and mustread, The Death and Life of Journalism, Robert McChesney and John Nichols paint a pessimistic picture of the future of a corporate media system that is failing during a time of economic crisis and declining advertising dollars and audiences. Newspapers and broadcast television news organizations have been hurt the worst in an era where online news consumption is growing but is unable to sustain the mass advertising base in which traditional corporate media rely. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), national newspapers saw their advertising revenue decline by 26 percent in 2009 alone, and by an astounding 43 percent in the last three years. Television profits have been hit similarly, with local T.V. outlets’ ad revenues falling by 22 percent in 2009 – a loss threefold larger than that seen in 2008. Network television also lost 8 percent of its revenues, magazines 17 percent, and radio 22 percent within this period. Few would be happier than I to see the demise of the corporate press. However, without a successful progressive campaign to help independent and citizenrun public media grow, what follows the collapse of corporate newspapers and network T.V. will almost certainly be worse than what we have now. For one, cor-
porate socialists in Congress have long been happy providing bailout money to businesses on life support, as the 2008 TARP initiative demonstrated. It’s entirely possible that the decline of newspapers and T.V. news will be accompanied for a number of years by similar attempts to bailout corporate media that are no longer viable business entities. This possibility is all the more disturbing considering that tax payers would be forced to subsidize media outlets that contribute to political indoctrination and ignorance, and encourage public apathy. Short term bailout efforts would merely prolong the inevitable collapse of the most prestigious sectors of the corporate press. Furthermore, the most propagandistic and abhorrent forms of corporate media – right wing radio and cable news specifically – show no signs of dying in the near future. They take in tremendous advertising revenues, and spend little to nothing on actual reporting in light of their extensive reliance on editorializing and demagoguery. If progressives find it hard to read the whitewashing of U.S. corporate and imperial power in the New York Times, try listening to the right wing propaganda machine from Fox and Rush Limbaugh. These outlets will be more than happy to continue their “reporting” after the fall of corporate newspapers by relying on news wires such as the Associated Press and Reuters for their content. Right wing radio and cable outlets enjoy tremendous popularity during a time when working class America is understandably growing more and more suspicious of centralized political power. Furthermore, these outlets have hardly suffered from declining revenues – at least not anywhere near the level suffered by traditional networks and newspapers. As PEJ reports, cable news revenues actually increased slightly from 2008 to 2009, while revenue from all other media sectors was falling dramatically. Cable news outlets, it should be remembered, are the worst purveyors of celebrity gossip. While radio outlets did lose significant revenues from 2008 to 2009, their losses were far smaller than those suffered by corporate magazines, newspapers, and local television. Furthermore, the number of radio news/talk radio stations has grown dramatically across the country in the last twenty years (from 1990-2009) by a whopping 400 percent. Cable news audiences remained stable during 2009, suggesting that this media sector may remain healthy for the indefinite future. If we are to create a new media system that replaces corporate propaganda and celebrity fluff with serious news, we have to radically rethink our priorities on the Left. The vast majority of progressive news organizations have been more than happy to rest on their laurels, failing or refusing to undertake sustained campaigns to increase readership and recruit fresh blood in the form of new writers and contributors. As one of the most successful and visible progressive media outlets, the
April 2010 Indy Nation’s circulation is 190,000 per week, a measly 5 percent of the distribution of Time and 7.5 percent of the distribution of Newsweek. Other media are far less successful (Progressive Magazine: 66,000 monthly readers per issue; In These Times: 21,000 readers per issue). Daily online progressive outlets such as Alternet.org and Truthout.org claim between 83,000 to 100,000 visitors per day respectively, but that is just 8-10 percent of the viewers enjoyed daily by the New York Times and 4-5 percent of that enjoyed by the Wall Street Journal. One of the biggest problems all of these outlets suffer from is their systematic refusal to reach out to new writers. They are all characterized by closed participation networks, and many of them suffer from scaled back online operations (especially in the case of the print magazines). Some of these media even admit that they don’t look fondly or openly upon submissions from non-established authors. If this is the future of building a Left-progressive movement in this country, we’re in deep trouble. Progressives need to build genuinely open, participatory networks in which readers and writers are encouraged to engage with each other outside ofsimply reading articles. Z Magazine (especially its Internet arm Z Net) has taken a vital first step forward in this regard with its sustainers program, and its open submission process. The sustainer option allows members of Z Net to not only access online and print content and post responses to featured pieces, but allows for each sustainer to post content of their own and link it to the postings of others. In this respect, the sustainer program is very similar to other social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, except that it’s far more productive and far less narcissistic. Counterpunch (CP), like Z Magazine, is also open in its submission process, as it considers pieces from both established and new authors. If progressive media are to survive in the future, the dinosaurs of the old progressive media will need to adapt to the new methods adopted by Z, CP, and other alternative media currently employing similar organizational structures. We need to realize that progressive media should not be about maintaining credentials and reputations for a small number of elite authors. Progressive media need to establish themselves as a social movement if they are ever to compete with, and one day help replace, their corporate counterparts. Anthony DiMaggio is the author of the newly released “When Media Goes to War” (Monthly Review Press) and “Mass Media, Mass Propaganda” (2008, Lexington Books). He teaches U.S. and Global Politics at Illinois State University, and can be reached at: adimagg@ilstu.edu
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Indy News Master Plan from page 3 energy program develop energy alternatives and land management strategies. Ninety-nine acres of the Gregory Street property could be committed to developing building resources to refurbish homes and new construction endeavors in the community. The reason my imagination stretches in this direction is due to an article idea presented to me in Time magazine. In February of 2010 Adam Fisher wrote briefly about an invention by Philip Ross, a mycelium building material that is stronger than concrete pound for pound and retains more heat than fiber glass insulation. This struck me as interesting for at the end of last semester I met Redbird K.C. Fritz just as she gained employment with the West Bloomington Revitalization Partnership. In conversation I made mention that a priority effort would be to determine a way to buttress apartments against the winter cold in ways that allow
April 2010 Indy people to cut down on heating bills. As a learning institution to say that Mr. Ross’s techniques could not be adopted as a teaching tool here at Illinois State is myopic. All building materials generated could be used within the community by local business or the campus community and could open the avenue for construction majors to work with renewable energy majors on potential new building strategies to apply in the future workplace. Ninety-nine acres of the Gregory Street property could be committed to developing alternative fuel resources like soy based bio-diesel fuel. Developing bio-diesel, as a fuel resource, was a part of the Jason Wallace campaign for the 11th Congressional District in Illinois during the 2008 election cycle. Personally, I’ve known of residents who converted their cars to bio-fuel engines from petroleum based engines with great trepidation. The conversion is relatively simple, but such actions are considered illegal use of the roads and are pun-
Registration Woes Lisa Shelton Indy Staff Once every semester ISU students struggle through the process known as registration. As spring registration comes to a close, students scamper to finish General Education requirements in an effort to move on to more advanced and specialized courses. Juniors and seniors aim to move closer to their anticipated graduation dates and enroll in more courses related to their majors and minors. Students rush to fill their schedule with as heavy a courseload as they can handle. However, students run into much difficulty finding a schedule that suits both their educational and personal needs. The average full time undergraduate student at ISU averages 1218 credit hours per semester. A department override is needed for students hoping to enroll in more than 15 credit hours in any given semester. Students are also challenged to balance their class schedule around part-time and full-time jobs, RSOs and other community related activities. Registration can prove to be quite a chore for students hoping to obtain success both inside and out of the classroom. Timing is a major issue associated with fall, spring, and in some cases summer registration. Several students skip class to register at the precise moment registration is opened to them. ISU professors have learned to be tolerant of the demands of registration. Students struggle to find a few hours to pan out a perfect schedule for their next semester of study. Students also battle to find a course-load that doesn’t include and Friday classes. Those lucky enough to do so are met with several scheduling conflicts and toggle between several courses before finalizing a tentative schedule. Some students are plagued by spring only and fall only classes that offer students one chance a school year to take. A few students register for a class
to find the professor or scheduled meeting time of the class has been changed. Such a situation causes much stress for students. For registration, a class with a bad reputation is a nightmare for students hoping to enroll in a specific course. Students who have had a bad experience, unusually poor grade, or a lack of interest in certain courses discourage others from taking those courses with certain professors. For fear of receiving a poor grade or wasting a semester in a boring or uninformative course, students choose otherwise. This causes courses to be dropped due to lack of enrollment and availability of courses. Non – honors students and underclassmen register at the latest time each semester. In some cases where courses started with only a few open sections, students find that in most cases they have been filled. Students are then tasked to watch and wait for more sections to open, ask the professor teaching the course for an override, or simply take another course instead. This is a major issue for students with little to no room to juggle courses. The biggest registration frustrations would most likely stem from prerequisites. These are mandated courses a student must take before they enroll for other courses. For example, the prerequisites for Math 113 – Elements of Mathematical Reasoning are Math 104 or an approved score on a Mathematics Placement Exam. Prerequisites for some courses can take up to 3 classes to fulfill. For example, in order to enroll in Com 240- Introduction to Visual Communication a student must complete Com 111, 160, and 161. Not being aware of the current prerequisites for desired courses could easily prevent students from taking a course by a semester or two. Despite scheduling conflicts and prerequisites, students find a way to balance their courseloads and survive the chaotic process known simply as registration.
ishable under Illinois state law as circumventing the taxes involved with road maintenance. Central Illinois is heavily dependent upon the trucking industry. I-55 was created in part to reduce the trucking accidents that were common in the “hey day” of Route 66 around the Lexington area. All the talk out of Washington has been about creating green economies for America’s future success. To take a step in formalizing the creation, distribution, and utilization of bio-diesel would be a service to our country. The possible effects of such actions would be changed legislation to give people options to live more consciously, improved air quality in McLean County, and a means for I.S.U. to be self sufficient in fueling its vehicle pool. If citizens in this community are finding ways to implement such changes in their life at the risk of being punished by the law, then the enthusiasm exists to implement a method for making progress legal. Ninety-nine acres of the Gregory Street property could be
committed to harnessing solar power. I know that Illinois gets an average of 29 days more sun exposure than the state of Washington, but free energy is free energy and the sun always shines through the clouds at some point. Being that McLean County has invested in wind farming it only makes sense to focus on utilizing solar farming. Developing panels to harness energy, storing power, and the distribution of energy all serve as great opportunities for teaching and learning. It might not be the most radical of ideas, but could be effective and efficient in providing a sustained power to Illinois State. Every drop in the bucket counts, over time the savings to Illinois State could really count to serve future generations of Redbirds. A missing element in the cultural consciousness of the United States is a consideration of future generations. Indeed, I have heard many student complaints about the changes on the campus and the degree of inconvenience they are experiencing as Redbirds.
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Sacrifice is an element necessary in developing a mature mentality. The experience of sacrifice is not exclusive to any generation, thus to understand that individual actions count toward a collective experience can help make sense of the act of sacrifice. The last four years have asked the student body to cope with a campus in transition. To further ask this generation of Redbirds to see the future and shape the direction of the I.S.U mission is naïve. Most of these youth are having a tough enough time seeing what kind of future they can shape for themselves through their curriculum options. In the opinion of Outlaw29, head honchos on campus should take charge and understand that the Gregory Street property would be best used as a playground for the renewable energy program to develop sustainable methods to service a community. Such an endeavor would give a life skill to Redbird alumni of the future that can help build a better and brighter vision of the United States.
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April 2010 Indy
Body Modification: The Varied Perspectives of Beauty Connie Luo Indy Staff As human beings develop across the lifespan, it is not considered unusual for one to engage in activities to change or alter their appearance. In fact, many consider it “normal” to go through stages of experimentation with one’s appearance; an individual may decide to change their hair color or style, or apply different variations of makeup to properly define them. They may dress in a different style of clothing and wear atypical jewelry in order to explore themselves and portray and image to the general public. In addition, there are other methods of changing the body’s aesthetic appearance, which involve piercings, tattooing and more. There is an array of industries solely dedicated to the aesthetic alteration of the human body, for better or for worse. Typically, these are seen as less “acceptable” by the norm due to their invasiveness and level of commitment needed. These forms of
body modification are frequently seen as unusual – they may be of
a more recent and modern origin, and do not have a strong basis in
Life Lessons in Active Citizenry: A Night With Bill Ayers at Illinois Wesleyan Outlaw29 Indy Staff As the first teacher college in Illinois, Illinois State University’s first graduating class of teachers had to utilize the facilities of Illinois Wesleyan (IWU,) for our campus was under construction. This historical irony felt like it was coming to life for me April 15th, 2010 when I ventured to the IWU campus to hear one of the top educators in the State of Illinois publicly speak. IWU Peace Fellows, Global Politics Society & History Department presented Bill Ayers “Education in and for Democracy: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Obama.” Some may call Bill Ayers a principled patriot. Others will call the Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar of Illinois-Chicago a terrorist. During the 1960’s Bill Ayers was a member of the radical anti-war group the Weather Underground. Professor Ayers’ presence merited extra police protection and mild protest, for an event that had to be moved to the largest venue on the IWU campus-the Hansen Student Center-due to the public’s interest in learning his views on current education policy. While waiting in line, a stranger behind me made comment about the preposterousness of the police protection for the event. Thus began the ramblings of “Old Man Steve” as we chatted about the controversial legacy of Professor Ayers as a Weather Underground member. For those who protested the Vietnam War, pride and lament exists regarding their actions at that point of progress in their lives. As “Old Man Steve” said “If you believe in nothing, you’ll get there.” Conversely, his reflections revealed the opinion
that protestors picked the wrong people to rally against. Instead of blaming the courageous soldiers, they should have pressured politicians more intensely. His final analysis offered that the shift never occurred because many antiwar protestors were from families of wealth and thus would never challenge the interests of their parent’s fortunes. Bill Ayers speech focused on the challenges, trials, and tribulations of the modern teacher. Professor Ayers considers teaching intellectual and ethical work; teaching is filled with a daily challenge to see pupils “as three dimensional beings consisting of body, mind and spirit/soul.” Too often, our current teaching paradigm has “a toxic habit of labeling kids by their deficits.” Professor Ayers pointed to former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson as an initiator of this dialectic in the teaching profession. The Head Start program was initiated through her efforts. As she utilized her bully pulpit as First Lady to promote Head Start, the term “islands of nothingness” was applied to describe the culturally deprived regions to be remedied by the program. Professor Ayers then demonstrated how the label of being “culturally deprived” transformed to the current label of students being “at risk,” but that the social factors involved to create the labels were still the same. Instead of blaming the social inequities that under fund the education system, media and politicians blame the teachers. Professor Ayers contends that the privileged class standard for educating their youth should be the common standard for the youth in all the socio-economical classes. Currently, our culture and society are conveying a teaching para-
any sort of preexisting culture. The vast majority body modifica-
digm that children must choose the right parents if they are to get a good education. At its core our current approach in education is undemocratic policy. Professor Ayers believes that “every human being is of incalculable value, we
the answers. He calls this approach a curriculum of democracy. The root of this paradigm can be found through examining the 1964 curriculum of the Mississippi Freedom Schools. As Professor Ayers harkened back to the activism of the 1960’s, a feeling of the moods from the era gained recognition in my thinking. The core values that “Old Man Steve” used as guideposts in his life were very similar to the template of activism that Bill Ayers was articulat-
should aspire for just conditions and democracy.” The current approach to education policy injures children, for pupils are “denied the right to think for themselves about the circumstances of their lives and how they may be otherwise.” An alternative approach to teaching, according to Professor Ayers, is one where educators ask questions that can stretch thought beyond current labels, and students participate in figuring out
ing to the audience at IWU: have a creed, explore your world by talking to strangers, live passionately by taking action. “It’s not enough to sit in your dorm room with like minded people smoking a joint.” Evidence and compelling arguments are what empowers a democracy. By talking to strangers about the evidence supporting your world-view citizens learn to refine their thinking and make less faulty assumptions about so-
tions are deemed as not ‘worksafe’, or inappropriate to bring into the workplace. Due to the nature of the modern workplace, the dress code required by many companies strictly accepts the standard business suit and modest hairstyle, with little or no room for other forms of dress. In addition, it is rare for a model in the fashion industry to have altered their body in an ‘alternative’ method; if they have, it is usually removed (in terms of body piercing jewelry) or covered up (in terms of tattoos and scars). The fashion industry and those affected by it primarily view models as the standard of what the human body should look like – thus dimension and other aesthetic guidelines are heavily enforced and followed. Throughout the years, there has been a great flourishing of ideas and beliefs as to what factors define beauty. This is partially due to the diverse composition of not only the United States of America but also other developed nations. The forms of body modification that are considered acceptable or unacceptable may differ upon region, as different areas are composed of citizens with ciety. Professor Ayers offered the following template for activism: 1) Astonishment-open your eyes and learn new things everyday. 2) Act-talk to strangers about what we see. 3) Doubt-question assumptions and actions. After mentioning the last portion of his model, Professor Ayers solemnly admitted that the Weather Underground was faulty in its actions because they forgot to doubt. Bill Ayers understands that he crossed the lines of legality and common sense. “My acts were despicable. Yet, in context, so was the fact that the war was murdering citizens” at a rate of 6,000 a week for ten years. Thus was his dilemma as a citizen who believed in creating a just society. As the work in progress known as Professor Bill Ayers, his criticisms of President Obama’s “Race to the Top” education program is founded upon demanding a more just and equitable allocation of funding. “Race to the Top” creates competition where there should be none. The policy standards are linked to punishments, thus encouraging cheating by school districts. Plus, “Race to the Top” is putting forth four billion dollars to crush teacher unions, and tie teacher salaries to test scores, according to Professor Ayers. Bill Ayers feels that our direction is destructive and creating inequity. He offered the point that “every government taxes and spends. The question is how.” Ayers offered that he would rather see America not spend billions on the military economy, which has gotten no critique at this time of fiscal crisis in our republic. The debate that followed from the audience questions was just magnificent and lasted about ten minutes longer than his lecture. Professor Ayers lecture was the most vibrant public forum I have covered for the Indy to date. I really felt that Illinois State should have hosted Bill Ayers for his talk was tailor made for teachers in training.
Indy News
April 2010 Indy
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Illest Array: Rising Rockers of Tomorrow us. New, youthful bands with ergetic and relate to their listen-
Connie Bach Indy Staff With the power of a firestorm and the heat to match, Illest Array has a stage presence to rival female-fronted bands everywhere. I came to witness this intensity at Coffee Nation on April 2nd for myself. Their performance was highly charged; the foundation of their power lies in their instrumental work. The bass creates a throbbing undertone, accompanied by solid, energetic guitars and the rhythms the drummer creates are as in-your-face as a shower of hail. At the pinnacle of what makes the band powerful is the vocals. The vocals dominate the impression a band makes, the shining gem of a band’s auditory image. Front woman Katie Steel’s rich, youthful alto fits this role perfectly. I cannot think of a single band that resembles Illest Array, ISU’s own female-fronted rock band. I try to compare them to Paramore without the pop-culture stylings of the guitarist- this just doesn’t fit. With this in mind, Katie and I sat down for a brief interview after the show. “The band got their start when the four musicians broke up with another singer. I’d been singing since I was little, and they ask me to try out,” Katie told me, while the band cleared out around
a style of their own are the lifeblood of Central Illinois’s music scene. I ask her about the driving force behind their lyrics and sound, because their style and energy only somewhat compares to other bands. “We’d all been into the music scene since we were pre-teens,” Katie says. As far as her lyrics, Katie says they are life stories, things that have happened to her or her friends. One song, “Say Hi to Your Mom for Me”, is about a friend who caused a lot of problems. It is a story that, Katie says, is one of the most intense, being the second song she has ever written. Coincidentally, this is a perfect example of how their songs have a sound and meaning that youth can connect with. The band’s plans for the future: “we would love to go on tour one day,” Katie says, vehemently. The band is trying to “get a grasp” on the aspects of their sound and genre, creating original music. They play as many shows and do as many hit covers as possible, also using Myspace and Facebook to spread their name. As the conversation moved forward, we talked about how, nowadays, many bands seem to change their style, falling into the rut of mainstream rock. They feed into the radio-friendly pool of angst-oriented rock tunes. “Bands mature and change sound all the time,” Katie says. “We love the music that we play. It comes from our hearts, and if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be music that we’d write.” The greatest thing I see in Illest Array is that they aren’t angling to be what sells; rather, their intention is to be en-
FML - - Film My Life Heather Fischer Indy Staff The Internet is vast, hugely so. Every single form of entertainment a person could possibly want can be found on the Internet. A website that combines most of these forms is YouTube (www.youtube.com). Within this website, there is a community of people who create videos called video blogs. These people are also known as vloggers. Creative, right? You probably have heard of a few: Shane Dawnson, Ray William Johnson, or even the infamous Chris Crocker (thanks to him, we will never “Leave Britney Alone”). These vloggers put it all out there for the world to view. No, these videos aren’t secret confessions of crushes on boys or girls from years past. They are also not rants and raves from two teenage girls. The videos are parodies, song covers, skits, and other “journal” type entries that everyone can either enjoy or relate to. So you might be asking yourself: “How does this differ from a written journal or blog, or even a home movie?” Well, why not let some of the YouTube vloggers answer that question themselves. Yeison Gonzalez (username loserluigi on YouTube), is just starting out his run as a You-
Tube vlogger. He is a student in New York, and although he is relatively new to the scene, he is close to hitting the 4,000 subscriber mark. What is a subscriber? Simply put, each one of these four thousand people want to be informed of every video Yeison posts, every comment he leaves on other videos, and every time he finds a video to “favorite.” In all actuality, subscribing is a mild form of stalking. Nonetheless, the subscribers really don’t care about any of that- they just want to see videos that interest them. Yeison’s videos are mostly parodies and his take on Broadway musical numbers. He, along with his friends, reenact certain scenes, and are even brave enough to put their voice and acting talent on the Internet for the entire world to view. When asked how he believes YouTube vlogging is different than traditional forms, Yeison responded: “I believe that this medium allows people to interact easier with each other, by giving the video blogger the power to use body language in whatever it is that they are trying to portray. This is also a community, much like any real life community, that allows people to get to know one another through videos and video responses, whereas the newspapers and magazines really have no way to exchange thoughts in a
ers. Katie Steel’s lyrics take the drama and heartache around her, and make them seem relevant to everyone. “Music is a lifesaver,” she says. “I don’t know what I would have done without music.” The band’s biggest goal is to get people listening to them. Their next local show is at a local music festival. Our discussion continued, and the concept of sexuality on stage comes up. A lot of female artists use their sexuality to draw attention, and the fact that Katie does not feel the need to do this is impressive. “To be honest, I don’t think it’s right for female artists to use their sexuality to get fans. You know that’s not what it’s about.” I then asked her about female artists she respects, and up came the name Haley Williams, the lead singer of Paramore. “I know it sounds cliché,” Katie says, but she respects Paramore’s talent. Moving on, she explains “I want people to respect me as an artist, and if I am just playing up on my sexuality no one will take me seriously.” She also went on to say, “If it wasn’t for bands like Flyleaf, bands like Evanescence, who made the way for the rest of us, things might be more difficult than they already are.” Respect stems from talent, not from shallow appearances. Illest Array, ISU’s own female-fronted rock band, has the talent to take on the industry. Now is the time for youthful, original bands like Illest Array to make their appearance on the music scene. The potential is all there, and soon we will see just how good they are.
“comment box” style.” The sense of community is perhaps one of the most impacting aspects of this video blogging phenomenon. It really is a snowball effect. The tighter the initial community, the more word spread, and ultimately the more the community will grow. A growing community results in more subscribers, which ultimately for these vloggers is a good thing. With a slight idea of just how much the Internet is taking over, one cannot help but be reminded of the song “Video Killed the Radio Star.“ Although the actual connotation of that song is not entirely what it seems, the general idea can be applied to YouTube. Is YouTube going to be the next prime time television? With cable prices skyrocketing, especially in the BloomingtonNormal area (fifty bucks for 14 channels!?), it is not an overly outlandish assumption. YouTube is free to anyone with the Internet, and along with your favorite shows you can catch something different with these vloggers. Another YouTube vlogger who was kind enough to share his thoughts with Indy is Nick Foti (soundlyawake). Nick’s videos are similar to Yeison’s in the way of parody; however, Nick tends to touch more on “life topics” while incorporating an element of humor. For example, in a recent video Nick demonstrated the importance of boundaries by acting out a skit in which two
Italian siblings, both of which are played by Nick himself, struggle with privacy. Sister Tiffany knows too much, and brother Frankie has had just about enough. Nick also had his thoughts to add about the Internet as a whole: “I mean, there’s just so much more information out there accessible to anyone with a computer. At times it’s a lot to process, and if you’re looking for something specific, it may be harder to find among all that noise. But at the same time, it also exposes you to a world of other things you wouldn’t have normally searched for.” Was it mentioned that Nick has almost seventy thousand subscribers? It would be okay to assume that all YouTubers are proInternet, right? Well, some don’t exactly agree with that entirely. Chris Thompson (supricky06), happens to be a Crystal Lake, IL native and an ISU alumni. Although he does agree that the Internet allows information to be
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more readily available, he states that it has made “kids lazy and a bit lacking in real social skills due to lack of actual face to face communication , which I feel will hugely benefit them in the work world.” So what can we of the “techno-age” take away from the lives these people have chosen to share with us? Perhaps nothing more than a few wasted hours or a reason to procrastinate a little more from that research paper that’s due in the morning. But with any hope, the very least we can take away is the fact that a handful of people going through similar things to ourselves, have taken the time to share their experience. So next time you are searching through the video databanks of YouTube, why not try clicking that little yellow button that says “subscribe,” because you never know just what you’ll find.
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April 2010 Indy
Modification from page 6 certain beliefs. Generally, the piercings that are most accepted in mainstream society are those of the earlobe, ear cartilage and in some cases nose and navel. Many women and some men partake in the practice of receiving at least one earlobe piercing – this has become widespread to the point where employers have accepted earlobe piercings, as long as the earrings are not distracting and ostentatious. Over time this has equated to wearing small stud earrings, with a possibility for short and non-distracting dangle earrings. This makes having multiple earlobe piercings possible, as long as they do not pose a threat to the unity of the workplace. A nose piercing on the side can be considered reasonable if the wearer chooses it for a cultural reason – for example, Hindu women may have their nose pierced as it is believed to ease childbirth. However, this may spark opposition from those who choose to have their noses pierced simply for their aesthetic preference, and employers may be faced with the decision to ban all piercings (except the earlobe) from visibility in the workplace. A navel piercing is considered acceptable only if the wearer does not show their navel in the workplace – which, by dress code standards, is possible. Other piercings, such as other areas of the ear, eyebrow and the surrounding area, lip and surface piercings are deemed unacceptable. Increased safety guidelines and cleaner piercing procedures has allowed for an individual to have a piercing in virtually any area of the body they choose to have pierced – many of which have been seen on a regular basis by the public eye, and may be result to speculation or rejection by certain individuals. Stretching the earlobes with gauges may be seen as unacceptable for work due to their large visibility, and many other individuals may be opposed to having such invasive procedures occur to the body. There is a certain pain
associated with having the body pierced as well – it differs for each individual and their level of pain threshold. The levels may vary greatly – what is considered painful for one individual may seem barely a prick to another. In general, the more sensitive areas of the body such as the genitals and nipples have a higher pain associated with them than those of the face, ear and body. Certain piercings may also carry a greater chance of complications in the healing process, such as piercings in the genital area. According to WebMD, an online medical information database, men who have the head of the penis pierced have a large risk of accidentally affecting the erectile tissue, resulting in sexual impotence. The piercing of the nipples is often considered painful due to their sensitivity; however, the end benefit may result in increased stimulation rate and sexual pleasure in the nipple/ genital regions. In addition, those who choose to stretch their earlobes experience satisfaction over their body, gradually working towards their desired state. Some believe that “the body is a canvas” and choose to modify their bodies through piercings or stretching. As with the other forms of body modification, such as makeup and dress, alternative forms of body modification allow the individual to change their personal appearance to their desire. A body piercing brings attention to a certain area of the body – more than usual – giving a new perspective to the area. Body piercings have only a decorative purpose, to add interest and attention to the body part and its surrounding area. For example, an individual who chooses to wear dangle earrings from their earlobe piercing brings attention to their ears and allows them to be viewed in a new manner. Negative stereotypes surrounding individuals with unusual piercings and other forms of body modification may root from the belief that the only acceptable form of
beauty does not involve unusual body modification. In relation to body piercings, another practice that may be performed to the body involving piercings is suspension, the act of suspending oneself through various hooks that have been pierced into the body. The hooks may be inserted in an assortment of areas such as the chest, upper/lower back, legs, arms, etc. The piercings involved are usually fresh and performed exclusively for the suspension. The individual is held up by their hook piercings that are attached by a block-and-tackle machine in an act of suspension; they are gradually pulled up until they are a couple of feet above the ground and will stay there for the desired amount of time. The process may appear painful due to its extreme level of invasiveness and occasional glimpse of blood dripping from the individual’s body – however, it has gone on for centuries by various North American tribes and the Tamil of Sri Lanka for religious practices. It has been considered a selfless act of sacrifice to the gods. For those who participate in this act and are not active in those cultures, a similar spiritual experience may be felt; according to Sarah Freeland, an expert author for EzineArticles. com, the act of suspension feels like “burning and pulling”, which leads to a feeling of meditation after the brief shock felt by the body. After a few moments, the body begins to feel as though it is floating, rather than simply being tied to a pole. The pain felt
by this act gives the individual a more accurate sense of self in the present time, and may result in a feeling of aliveness. It is similar to the practice of torture, in which extreme discomfort gives the individual clarity of mind. A less popular form of body modification that is similar to the process and aftermath of tattooing is scarification, which involves carving or scratching designs into the skin. Tattoos, the act of inserting permanent ink into the skin for decorative/religious purposes, has increased its popularity over the years and has become more widely accepted into mainstream society. Scarification designs may be formed by branding, which involves burning a design into the skin. The epidermis, or outer layer of the skin, is scraped off during this process and serves as a visual reminder of an event or icon. Designs may range from intricate shapes and figures to simple blocks or shapes, depending on the instrument used (a common instrument used is a scalpel knife). The level of discomfort varies with the individual’s pain tolerance but during the procedure, the individual may feel a rush of adrenaline and a natural
high throughout the body. The healed aftermath is a scar, which may give the individual satisfaction that is personal and tangible. An example that can be related to those who have not practiced scarification is that of everyday scars on the human body that do not completely disappear as result of injuries and surgery. There is a large variety of methods to modify one’s body – ranging from implantations, branding, cosmetic surgery or hair regrowth. Any activity that involves altering the body from its original physical state for nonmedical purposes is deemed as body modification, and may have its origins from a religious obligation, cultural belief or aesthetic self-expression, among other reasons. The end result may bring a great deal of pleasure and contentment for the individual and satisfy what they believe is “beautiful”. Every individual’s definition of beauty is different, and the pursuit of this trait is shared by the vast majority of the members in society. By feeling positive of how one appears on the outside, one will feel confident and optimistic on the inside.