Volume XXII Issue 05

7 February, 2019

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The Scripps Voice

since 1991

President of USA Facts and Scripps Alumna Named Commencement Speaker

By Maureen Cowhey ’19 and Rena Patel ’19 Editors-in-Chief

Poppy MacDonald ’97

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n the evening of May 18, President of USA Facts, former President of Politico USA and the National Journal, and Scripps alumna, Poppy MacDonald ’97 will deliver the commencement address to this year’s graduating class.

A first-generation college student, MacDonald earned her degree in History. She studied abroad in Nepal, trekking across the Himalayas during the fall semester of her junior year and spent the spring and summer interning in Washington D.C. at the McLaughlin Group, a weekly radio roundtable analysis and opinion show.

MacDonald credits Professor Julie Liss, who had been her academic advisor and thesis advisor during her time at Scripps, as the guiding force for her interest in U.S. History and the reason she pursued a History degree. Professor Liss also encouraged MacDonald to spend her junior spring in D.C. “[Liss’s] guidance, mentorship, and genuine interest in guiding my success was instrumental

Inside This Issue:

Image Courtesy of USA Facts

to my future career path,” MacDonald said in an email correspondence with the Voice.

After graduating from Scripps, MacDonald served members of both the House and Senate, representing members from her Pacific-Northwest Hometown.

From there, she worked for The Advisory Board, Gallup Inc., and the National Journal before joining Politico USA, where she was the executive director of business development and later the president and COO. During her time at Politico, MacDonald was responsible for overseeing the launch of Politico’s first paid subscription model focused on providing sector-specific coverage. She was responsible for driving the organization’s growth, developing the business strategy, and executing the daily business operations of the company.

MacDonald is currently the president of USA Facts, a nonprofit, non-partisan civic initiative aimed at making government numbers more available, accessible, and understandable

to Americans.

MacDonald has been actively involved in Scripps postgraduation and has returned to campus several times in the past few years to attend events held by Career Planning and Resources, the Intercollegiate Feminist Center of the Claremont Colleges, and to interact with current students interested in politics and media.

During her visits to Scripps, MacDonald enjoyed seeing the campus updates and changes, like the fitness center, new dorms, and sushi on Fridays as well as finding her old room in Browning again. When she returns in May, MacDonald hopes to be able to spend more time connecting with the students and faculty of the place she still calls home.

MacDonald’s diverse professional experiences navigating the political sphere as a woman in a high-profile position is one of the reasons why the commencement committee was drawn to her as they considered who to approach to be this year’s speaker. Having

successfully merged her creative aspirations with the business side of journalism in a historically divisive time for our country, MacDonald is a timely speaker as the 2020 elections loom in the periphery.

When asked about what she wanted the Class of 2019 to gain from her address, she said, “I’m looking forward to hearing directly from the selection committee about what they hope to hear...and then asking Oprah to deliver it.”

MacDonald hopes that her experiences both at Scripps and after graduation will provide some insight and encouragement to the graduating class about what’s to come. Her understanding of how media shapes our perception of politics and her passion for encouraging our peers to strive for success in historically cis white male dominated fields will be both timely and inspiring as this year’s graduating class embarks on their post-Scripps careers.

Page 2: Scripps College Welcomes Dean Di Bartolo

Page 3: Keck Science Center Receives $1 million dollar donation

Page 6-7: Scripps Presents: Kevin Kwan & Bettina L. Love

1030 Columbia Avenue | Claremont, CA 91711 | Box 839 | scrippsvoice@gmail.com | Volume XXVIII | Issue Five

2 • News

Scripps Welcomes New Associate Dean Furniture of Students, Dr. Adriana di Bartolo Removal

By Jamie Jiang ’22 Staff Writer

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or Dr. Adriana di Bartolo, the position of Associate Dean of Students at Scripps represents a new venture in a familiar setting. As a founding director of the Claremont Colleges’ Queer Resources Center (QRC) and Acting Associate Dean of Students for Personal Success and Wellness at Pomona College, di Bartolo is well acquainted with the Claremont Consortium.

“This is like coming home,” said di Bartolo, who assumed the position of Associate Dean in early December. Dean di Bartolo developed ties with the Scripps administration and students even before taking a position at the college due to her involvement at the other 5Cs. Between 2011 and 2016, DiBartolo helped expand the QRC from a Pomona-specific resource, unlisted in 5C directories, to a seven college center. Under her direction, the center increased funding, introduced allyship training to campuses which previously did not offer such programs, and increased support for trans and nonbinary students.

From July 2016 until taking a position at Scripps last semester, di Bartolo served as Dean of Students for Vassar College.

In her role as Associate Dean of Students at Scripps, her responsibilities include focusing on “health and wellness, supporting students during crisis, and working alongside students, faculty and staff to continue the initiatives toward building vibrant and inclusive communities,” she stated in an email to the student body.

She is also teaming up with Dean Brenda Ice in Reslife and Dean Jenn Wells to ensure inclusivity and student success. di Bartolo emphasizes her commitment to social justice and equity in her approach as a dean and prides herself

in serving as a model for students who don’t see queer representation in their administration. “I strongly identify as a social justice educator, and that’s where my roots are,” di Bartolo said. di Bartolo’s approach to work in higher education is heavily influenced by her own educational background, where she experienced a lack of guidance and resources while navigating her undergraduate education. di Bartolo enrolled at a community college and later transferred to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, where she majored in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Since graduating, she has spent 13 years working in higher education to ensure the access and guidance that she did not have.

“I didn’t have somebody to kind of pick me up and say to me, ‘you’re not working to your full potential right now,’” said di Bartolo. “I probably would have thrived much more if I had attended a smaller institution… I didn’t even meet the dean of students. I didn’t even know what that was when I was an undergrad.”

In her free time, di Bartolo enjoys flower arranging, crossfit, spending time with her family, and being outside. But she’s already looking forward to new developments at Scripps. “[I’m currently] thinking about what we’re doing in terms of the student affairs division. [I hope] to continue to build capacity in how well they’re already serving students.”

She is also looking forward to working with the primary contact deans, building capacity of the case management system, and enriching the on-call dean’s work in crisis services.

“We do this work of gathering around students, to help them build resiliency to continue to move forward,” she said. “This institution is really at an exciting time and I’m excited to be part of Scripps now.”

Requests Being Accepted Again

By Annika Ragnartz ’22 Staff Writer

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ccording to the Scripps Guide to Student Life, any piece of furniture that the college has provided can be removed at no additional charge to the student. In past semesters, this policy has applied as long as students complete a Furniture Removal Request Form by the designated deadline. However, at the beginning of this semester, students who put in a request were informed that Facilities had run out of available storage space and therefore could not remove any furniture, regardless of the reason for the request.

Students who returned from studying abroad, and those whose housing assignments had changed since fall semester, were particularly impacted by this policy change.

Emma Waldspurger ’20 returned from studying abroad and read on Facebook that ResLife was no longer able to fulfill requests. In past semesters, Waldspurger had her bed removed in order to replace it with a queen size bed and was expecting to do the same this semester. She contacted ResLife and was told that they couldn’t fulfill her requests due to a lack of space and directed her to Academic Resources and Services (ARS).

“I contacted ARS and they said that there was nothing they could do, our hands are tied except if you go and get a therapist note saying that you need this for therapy reasons.” Waldspurger said. “I thought that was kind of ridiculous since everyone used to be able to do that with no problem.”

Waldspurger, with the support of other students, emailed President Lara Tiedens to ask for a change to be made and for requests to be fulfilled. Since then, Facilities has been able to find additional space and furniture is now being removed.

According to Assistant Dean and Director of Campus Life Brenda Ice, “Requests have been prioritized, beginning with students who have new housing assignments for the spring semester. Requests submitted by current students returning to their fall housing assignment will be processed after the new student requests have been completed,” Ice said.

7 February, 2019 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXVIII • Issue Five

News • 3

Scripps Loves Dick

By Eve Kaufman ’20 Staff Writer

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or the upcoming spring semester, Chris Kraus, critically acclaimed for her work “I Love Dick,” was selected to be the Mary Routt writing chair. Created in 1987, the Routt chair was initially intended to give exceptional journalists the chance to teach Scripps students the art of writing, channeling the nominees’ own creative styles. Over thirty years later, this position has transformed, and is now open to a wide range of authors, all of whom use creative expression as a voice to represent various groups and genres.

Kraus is certainly no exception.

Her work is what people “ want contemporary literature to look like” — bold, brash, and creative — while still remaining unapologetic for her feminism and radical self acceptance. What does act as the exception in this instance, however, is the committee’s choice to pick such a well-known figure. After all, Kraus does have an Amazon Prime show out now. In this case, however, it is her prior relationship to Scripps, between presenting in past events to forming friendships with the faculty, that solidified her chairship. This is in addition to her previous professorial experience at the European Graduate School in Los Angeles.

Kraus’ class is focused on the topic of investigative fiction. This translates into the blurring of boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. It is an imaginative and “highly personal” lens with which to perceive and relay information,

transforming the auto-biography into a crafted work. This sort of style is perfectly attuned to Kraus’ own strengths as a writer. “I Love Dick” was written in such a manner, exploring a series of true events through Kraus’ internal narrative. Kraus employs certain creative interpretations to the world around her, no longer allowing for such clear differentiations of reality and not. Her writing gives deep insights into her Boheme life, while simultaneously subverting roles and daring to explore her identity and womanhood.

The events orchestrated by the chosen

author in tandem to the class are also an important aspect of the Routt chair.

Every Spring, at varying points in the semester, the nominee invites two peers to speak at Scripps. This gives students, and the audience as a whole, better insight into the author’s interests, work, and achievements. Kraus will be hosting her events on the evening of March 5 and March 12.

Kraus plans to co-host the first event with Kevin Vennemann, a professor of the Scripps German department who, as it so happens, translated “I Love Dick” into German. The duo will introduce Heike Geissler as she discusses her new book, “Seasonal Associate.” The work gives insight into the life of an individual in between projects, working at an Amazon packing plant to make ends meet.

Next, Kraus will invite Reynaldo Rivera to present, as he showcases his photos documenting the Latinodrag scene of LA in the 1980s-1990s. Both can be related back to Kraus’ own work, showing personal narratives through creative mediums, while also exploring different facets of lives not commonly tread.

This thereby accomplishes what the Mary Routt Chair program set out to do; give Scripps students the ability to discover the works and minds of individuals that the exist outside of Claremont. Kraus’ lens into Los Angeles, feminism, and writing is certainly unique and will complement Scripps’ academics quite well this spring.

Photo Courtesy of Interview Magazine

An Update on Keck: $1 Million Gift Received for its Renovation

By Aya Burton ’22 Staff Writer

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n Friday, Jan. 25, Scripps announced in a community message that the Keck Science Department received a $1 million gift from Trustee Jennifer McDonnell and her husband, Jeff McDonnell. Their support will be directed toward the expansion and renovation of the Keck building and facilities, specifically on enhancing the physical space for the shared science department.

The donors are excited about the future of science education at Scripps and want to support the department’s continued academic excellence. Keck has already accomplished a lot, providing students with opportunities to get involved in research and placing an emphasis on interdisciplinary perspectives. Considering

the gender gap in STEM, Keck is especially important in that it offers programs in the sciences to students at a historically women’s college. Over the past two years, Keck’s enrollment included 40 percent Scripps students.

“Small class sizes of about 15 students, engaged professors, and open office hours make classes less daunting,” a Scripps first-year said.

Currently, Keck is undergoing a period of transition. Claremont Mckenna College’s plan to withdraw from Keck in order to start its own science department leaves Scripps and Pitzer as the remaining schools in the joint science program. This withdrawal will take time, as CMC’s separation will not happen until at least 2022. To ensure a smooth transition, Scripps continues to engage in conversations with Pitzer and CMC.

CMC’s withdrawal will, nonetheless, reduce the amount of funding for Keck.

Scripps’ and Pitzer’s endowments are significantly smaller than CMC’s. For many, CMC’s separation seemed a conniving exit strategy from what some consider to be an under-resourced department. Many Scripps students studying STEM have voiced frustration about CMC “abandoning” Keck and creating their own department, rather than helping fund and improve the joint department.

The $1 million donation comes at a vital time as many students, their families, and faculty harbor concerns about the future of Keck. With the McDonnells’ gift, the continued successes and learning opportunities provided by Keck are ensured.

7 February, 2019 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXVIII • Issue Five

4 • News

CMC Hosts Women in the Law Panel

By Theri Aronson ’20 Staff Writer

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n Jan. 29, Claremont Mckenna College hosted four “Women in the Law Panelists” in the Athenaeum.

The first woman to speak was current Chief Civil Rights Officer at CMC, Nyree Gray. Gray’s dad encouraged her to go to law school, despite her doubts she could be one of the only African American women in a white, male dominated profession.

Gray discussed how Claremont Mckenna was able to provide her the resources and counseling she needed to get into a law school that was right for her. In law school, Gray fell in love with constitutional law and dedicated herself to the work.

“When you find the work you love doing, it’s hard to find the balance between self and work because what ‘we’ do [practice law] is an all consuming type of work,” Gray said.

She wanted to yell when asked if she had met a significant other yet. “Do you know the kind of work I do?”

After graduating law school, Gray worked for eight years as a Professor of Law and the Dean of Students and Diversity Affairs at Southwestern Law School where she was able to provide students with academic advising and personal counseling. Later in her career, she started her own law firm, Abbott & Associates, where she was able to do contractual litigation and constitutional litigation, “my first love,” as well as labor and employment law.

“Pursue that law degree, even if the road to that J.D. may seem daunting,” Gray said. “If you look around at the people who are changing the world... you’ll find they’re mostly women, and probably, have a law degree.”

The next panelist to speak was Marci Lerner Miller. Marci Miller graduated in the class of ’89 cum laude from CMC. From Claremont, she then went on to New York University School of Law. After law school, Miller spent time dabbling in litigation and employment law on the side of unions. She describes her experience at a larger, corporate law

firms as a time where she learned a lot about how to be a lawyer. However, it was not until later in her career that she found the work that made her passionate about the law.

Miller said that she used to think of herself as someone who did not have time to have a child.

“Given the demands of my work, when I was starting out, I was spending 35-40 hours a week in the firm as a young lawyer working in a big firm,” Miller said. “Little could I have imagined that four children would come along.”

After starting their family, the Millers discovered that their youngest had some pretty serious learning disabilities. Given the demand of her son’s condition, Miller decided to take a few years off so she could devote herself to her children. Frustrated that her youngest was not accepted into the ‘mainstream system,’ Miller shifted gears and got back to work. She enrolled herself at UCLA where she received her Certificate in College Counseling, with a practicum in counseling students with learning disabilities.

“It was my fresh start,” Miller said. “The work is work, and it will always be challenging, [but] it felt personal this time.”

The next speaker, Ruth Calvillo CMC ’11, was the youngest panelist. In high school, Calvillo never saw herself at a prestigious undergraduate school like CMC. In fact, it was not until she received a full-ride scholarship from the POSSY foundation that she even considered college as a possibility. Calvillo was the first person her family to attend college and to pursue a masters.

Right out of college, Calvillo worked for Teach for America in Tulsa. TFA wanted Calvillo in Tulsa in order to provide a mentor for the Latin American teens in the community. Calvillo felt grateful for the opportunity to combine both her passions, working with teens and education.

After completing TFA, Calvillo decided that all the good she could do in Tulsa outweighed her doubts about staying there. Latino teens needed a Latino mentor, someone they could look up to in a community seriously lacking in diversity, so she decided to attend Tulsa Law School. She was only the only Latina woman in her graduating class, but at one point, the only Latina in the entire grad

school.

Calvillo had always known that whatever she did, she wanted to give back to her community that had provided her with so much support growing up.

“There’s always been this cycle of poverty running through my head,” she said., “It makes me ask myself questions like: Where and Who needs the most help, and what can I do to lighten the load?”

After law school, Calvillo landed her first job working with victims of assault in Tulsa before deciding to come back to Los Angeles where she took a job in immigration law. Today, Calvillo works for the Central American Resource Center, an organization dedicated to working with families who have been separated at the border.

The final speaker, Meredith Brown P ’22, has practiced in virtually all areas of immigration law.

She is active in the Immigration Project, and the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association. This past year, Meredith Brown was asked to join the Los Angeles County Bar Association Immigration Section. Her passion for immigration came from Brown’s travels after college to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico, where she worked with local civil rights non-profits.

In the 80s, countries like El Salvador and Guatemala faced brutal civil wars which have had lasting, damaging effects on smaller communities outside the capital cities. Brown describes having been an active witness to many of these human injustices, “Getting involved in the local solidarity movement aligned me with the Latino Movement,” Brown said.

She almost moved to El Salvador, when she met an El Salvadorian man who encouraged her to come back and continue her work in Los Angeles.

She is married to this same man today, and has two children with him.

Browns also dabbles in civil rights law — she was part of the group to challenge the travel ban policy in 2018. She has also defended many incarcerated Latinos in Los Angeles court.

These women are truly dynamites of the law, and their unceasing ambition in their respective practices is demonstrative of that. They are living proof that the people that are changing world actually are the women ...with a law degree.

Cultivating Change with Native Plants

By Sondra Abruzzo ’19 Sustainability Columnist

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his sustainability column would be incomplete if we did not talk about native plants on campus. Native plants are essential to creating healthy local ecosystems and raising awareness about what different landscapes can look like. The 5C Native Habitat and Community Club makes it their mission to spread the beauty and utility of native plants throughout the manicured and landscaped consortium.

Last semester they worked with landscape operations manager Joya Salas and members of the grounds department to plant a garden by the front entrance of GJW. The group dug and planted ten different kinds of plants ranging from succulents to herbs to small flowering perennials.

After Scripps and Mudd lost a lot of their native plants to the parking renovations on the Platt Islands, creating this new garden marked a step in the right direction. Its location in front of GWJ also increases the visibility of the garden, promoting the idea that native plants can be a valuable and beautiful addition to the Scripps aesthetic.

So what’s so special about native plants and why do we need to see more of them incorporated into all

landscaping projects?

“The Native Habitats and Community club might be small but our mission is mighty,” said club member Anna Mitchell ’22. “Our aim is multidimensional, with a focus on reassessing our campuses’ landscapes with an eye for protecting and reintroducing native flora and fauna, normalizing native ecosystems as the standard of beauty. This includes educating fellow students on the importance of native ecosystems and the origins of this land as Tongva land. The mission includes challenging our institutions to reconcile their commitments to sustainability with the reality of our primarily non-native, nondrought resistant landscaping. (There are of course exceptions, including the notable use of drought grass on the Scripps’ lawns.) In terms of benefits, native plants do not need mulch, require less water than non-native plants, and provide natural habitat for native insects, like bees, which form the basis of the area’s ecosystem.”

Mitchell and the rest of the club “hope to engage the student community in restoring native habitats in everything from our meetings, to Walker Wall murals, to garden plantings.

Currently, as a final touch on our most recent project, we are working to get signage for the beautiful native plants which are taking root in a small plot in front of GJW.”

B y incorporating native plants into our landscaping and personal frameworks of what a thriving ecosystem looks like, we can make moves towards restoring native habitats to a healthy state. The media’s use of vibrant green lawns, tall deciduous trees, and bright colorful flowers to depict “beautiful” landscaping conditions us to believe these types of plants signify a healthy outdoors. However, we need to start rejecting this imagery and appreciate all the benefits native plants bestow on the living things around them.

Look around at the spaces you occupy and what plants and animals exist now. Try to imagine what might be there if you, our colleges, and all this western development was never here. As we continue to live and develop on this stolen land, we need to protect and promote the native habitats that enable all its inhabitants, including us, to thrive.

Have any sustainability related questions? Email CAbruzzo0075@scrippscollege.edu and check out my next column for answers.

7 February, 2019 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXVIII • Issue Five

Graphic Courtesy of Olivia Klein Photo Courtesy of Sondra Abruzzo

Politics • 5

The Politics of Shutting Down The Government

By Ittai Sopher PZ ’19 Political Correspondent

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he longest government shutdown in United States history began with an attempt by President Donald Trump to undermine Speaker of The House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) leadership.

“I also know that Nancy’s in a situation where it’s not easy for her to talk right now,” Trump said on Dec. 11 2018, turning to a room crowded with press. “And I understand that.”

However, Trump’s remarks were met with a quick rebuke from Pelosi: “Mr. President, please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting,” Pelosi said.

This exchange followed a nearly ten-minute long public argument between Trump, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( D - N . Y. ) i n w h i c h Tr u m p threatened that if Democratic leaders refused to support his $5.8 billion proposal for a border wall then the government would be shut down.

“If we don’t get what we want,” Trump said to Schumer.

“I am proud to shut down the government for border security.”

Despite this strong early statement in support of shutting down the government until Democrats agree to support funding for an expensive border wall, Trump quickly changed his tone, blaming Democrats for the shutdown.

“If enough Dems don’t vote, it

will be a Democratic shutdown,” Trump said.

Allies of Trump like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also attempted to label the shutdown as a plot by the Democrats to undermine border security and federal workers, after the president agreed to end the shutdown.

“I am glad the Schumer shutdown is over,” Cruz tweeted on Jan 25. “I am glad federal workers will finally be paid.”

It’s no coincidence that the shutdown that Trump started coincides with an unprecedented increase in women and Democratic representatives in the House. Pelosi was appointed to her position as speaker of the house by a Democratic body that included 89 female representatives.

Fox News is fixated on the freshman female members of Congress, especially Rep. Alexandria

Image courtesy of New York Times

Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who became the youngest female member of Congress in U.S. history last month. According to The Washington Post, Fox News’ coverage of Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) most recent racist comments paled in comparison to the network’s daily recaps of Ocasio-Cortez’s policy proposals and information about her private life and statements.

Trump’s fight with Pelosi and Schumer can be seen as an extension of this right-wing angst over the freshman congressional class.

Right wing media outlets, like Fox News, have historically provided Trump with material for tweets and statements. A Politico analysis from Jan. 2018 found more than 20 examples of Trump essentially copy and pasting content from Fox News contributors to his Twitter feed or often to his own spoken statements.

Above all, the 116th Congress led by Pelosi and Democratic leadership has the ability to deny Trump the opportunity to address Congress and the nation at the highly covered annual State of The Union Address.

“The House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the president’s State of the Union address in the House chamber until the government has reopened,” Pelosi said in a Jan. 23 statement. “I look forward to welcoming you to the House on a mutually agreeable date for this address when government has been opened.”

Two days later, Trump signed a bill to reopen the government.

Career Prosecutor for President Why you Shouldn’t Discount Kamala Harris as a Candidate Because of Her Record Working for Law Enforcement

By Claire Dwyer PO ’20 Staff Writer

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owadays, the only legal code I am really interested in was written in the thirteenth century and attributed to a king named Alfonso X El Sabio (The Learned). I am a future medievalist historian who studies Late-Antique Medieval Studies (LAMS) at Pomona College, and if you know me, you know this.

Nothing could be more right for me than a career in academia—my research makes me truly happy, and I hope that every college student gets the opportunity to find something to study that interests them as much as my field does for me.

However, though I might be very confident in my desire to be an academic now, my C.V. contains some interesting elements that I doubt many of my colleagues realize are in my past. I had the great opportunity about four years ago to do an internship in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. And throughout my time there, I got to know some of the deputy district attorneys, and a few police officers, relatively well.

It was an experience which changed my life, as the few months I spent there over two summers are indelibly marked on my memory. At the time, I did not think as much about the political implications of working for law enforcement, but only that the people I knew, within the realm of my personal experience, were deeply good. The deputy I worked with especially embodied the message that prosecutors say in court, that they argue on behalf of the people. The work those prosecutors did was underappreciated, and the caseloads of both deputy district attorneys and public defenders was far more than any individual lawyer should be expected to handle. But in the face of difficulty and pressure, I witnessed the officers of the court stand up for justice, and for the people.

While the American justice system still needs reform

and to re-examine itself for the harm it has caused to countless individuals, especially people of color, over the history of our country, the people I knew personally, the brave officers of the court, were far from broken.

They heroically fought battles on behalf of the people in order to attain the elusive “justice” we all seek so earnestly. And the feeling was never better than when they did attain it. I was, and still am, proud to have worked with those people, deputy district attorneys and detectives alike. They are the kind of everyday heroes who don’t wear capes, and who will never back down from a case worth prosecuting. The deputy I worked for was so quietly strong, powerful, and ceaselessly determined to fight for justice. She went to bat for those who didn’t have a voice, and in the process inspired me to never back down from what I believe in.

Please don’t immediately disregard Kamala Harris’ candidacy because she was California’s Attorney General, and forced to make a lot of difficult decisions as a prosecutor that many of us may contest on moral or ethical grounds. I don’t disagree with anyone that the justice system is “broken.” The past few years especially have showed us definitively that there is so much that needs to be done in the way of protecting marginalized communities, especially those of color, in the eyes of the law, and that sometimes the notion of “justice” that we love so much really isn’t justice at all.

But that doesn’t mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that our officers of the court do not deserve our deepest respect. Especially Kamala Harris, who has continually fought for reform in the criminal justice system, such as the “Office of Recidivism Reduction and Reentry” which she established, and her campaign to create, “the nation’s first open data initiative to expose racial disparities in the criminal justice system,” and also, ‘Back on Track,’ a “program which connected first-time felons with job training and internships.”

Additionally, she “prosecuted transnational gangs

that exploited women and children and trafficked in guns and drugs. She led comprehensive studies and investigations into the impacts of transnational criminal organizations and human trafficking.”

Arguably, this nation needs a “career prosecutor” at its helm, one like Kamala Harris who is committed to criminal justice reform. It seems pretty clear to me that there has been some overt criminal activity at the highest levels of our government, and we need a strong democrat who intimately understands the American justice system in order to get our country back on track.

Do not underestimate the value of such procedural and experiential knowledge, and how much it matters that Kamala Harris has seen this system she concedes needs “fixing” from the inside. Like it or not, this is the system we have right now, and it is a system we must work with and adapt to. In order to attain the short term progress that we really want, we need a prosecutor who knows how to get that “progress” done. It is hard to change a system, but many of the prosecutors within that system want things to get better as well. They are good, hardworking civil servants who for the most part want to find the most effective path to justice which best serves the people.

Kamala Harris’ bravery in standing up to Trump, and her experience in the American legal system does not mean she has the power to save the world, or to instantly clean up every mess. It does not make her infallible, and it does not mean that every decision she made in her past ought to be considered a good one, or even a respectable one. She, like every other candidate for office, ought to be held accountable for what she’s done. It does, however, make her an American uniquely qualified to hold office, and an American who is, truly, as her campaign slogan says, “For the people.”

7 February, 2019 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXVIII • Issue Five

6

SPOTLIGHT CRAZY RICH REPRESENTATION REPRESENTATION

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Best-Selling Author Kevin Kwan shares stories with Singaporean Actress Tan Kheng Hua at Scripps Presents

By Jacqueline Loh ’22 Staff Writer

Kevin Kwan speaks with a group of Scripps Students, images courtesy of @ScrippsCollege on Instagram

“C

razy Rich Asians” was more than just a film; it was a movement. Grossing at $238.5 million worldwide, the film was received with critical acclaim and adoration from audiences, praising the extensive Asian representation. It was the first film in 25 years to have an all-Asian cast, despite rising numbers of Asian immigrants today.

The film, based on the novels of the same name, follows Rachel Chu’s (Constance Wu) whirlwind trip to the glistening island of Singapore with her boyfriend, the “Asian Bachelor,” Nicholas Young (Henry Golding).

In Singapore, Rachel not only faces gossip and culture clashes but also a formidable future mother-in-law.

Being Asian-American myself, I was beyond ecstatic to learn that author Kevin Kwan was coming to Scripps. Along with Kwan, Singaporean actress Tan Kheng Hua made an appearance as the interviewer for the evening.

Hua played Rachel’s mother, who immigrated to the United States from China alone, fleeing domestic abuse and working tirelessly to build a better future for her daughter. Her story embodies the immigrant struggle many Asian-Americans are familiar with.

The moment the duo walked on stage, Garrison Theater erupted in cheers. I looked behind me and saw the multitudes of AsianAmericans, some with tears in their eyes. It felt surreal, being surrounded by people who looked like me, who all saw this film and read a novel about our heritage. I’ll admit I was emotional at times as well; “Crazy Rich Asians” was the first time I, and many others, have seen Asian actors on screen without being reduced to hurtful stereotypes. Kwan, who was born in Singapore and immigrated to Texas at age eleven, drew upon his own childhood memories for inspiration. At the beginning of his presentation, various photographs of his idyllic youth were presented: images of his grandfather’s home; his grandparents’ wedding; and himself (sporting Cole Haans and a cool smize). Kwan touched on the

Anglicized aspects of his youth in Singapore, which was a British Colony for 144 years. The most poignant photo was one of Kwan’s greataunt, reading a copy of the British magazine Tatler, surrounded by French art-deco furniture with a British doll in the corner.

In addition to the European culture permeating Singapore at the time, Kwan reminisced on how many Singaporeans were fluent in both English and Mandarin. Hints of the magnificently lavish lifestyle of the series are reflected in Kwan’s childhood in Singapore. He recalled how his family had many maids to attend to him in his youth. In the middle of the night, Kwan would yell “I’m thirsty!” prompting a 70-year-old attendent to crawl out of bed in the servant’s quarters, walk to the main home, and bring Kwan an ice cold glass of water, even though the refrigerator was right outside of his bedroom door.

Though these instances of affluence seem bizarre to us, to Kwan and many of Singaporean high society, these are the mundane parts of daily life. When asked what aspect of Singapore influenced his work the most, Kwan recalled memories of Sunday brunches with his Aunt. At these brunches, Kwan was seated with larger-than-life individuals, one including a Thai Princess. Kwan would listen to them “bitch about life,” as he aptly put it, and absorb all the exquisite details about high society. Kwan’s use of intricate detail in the “Crazy Rich Asians” novels is emblematic of his childhood spent accompanying the upper echelons of Singaporean society. With these infusions of real-world details in the novels, the reader feels like a voyeur peering into the world of extravagance.

Kwan touched on other influences for his work, such as bonding with his father as he fell ill. Kwan drew upon his father’s memories and his childhood and wrote a poem about a Singaporean Bible Study group, where women would gossip. This set the foundation for the “Crazy Rich Asians” series. Filming until dawn in the sweltering Singapore humidity,

the cast and crew worked endlessly to create an authentic feel to the Young family home.

Kwan described the magic of being on set for the film, seeing his words come to life and interacting with the talented individuals embodying his characters. Kwan even hilariously recalled a moment where Henry Golding gave him a free haircut on the beach.

The opening weekend was a rollercoaster for both Kwan and the cast of the film. He recalled how everyone was merely hoping that the film would not come dead last in the box office. Kwan never anticipated the craze as thousands flooded theaters opening day and people bought out entire theaters for viewing events.

Kwan’s work is revolutionary for blending Asian culture into riveting family dramas, centering on themes of power and relationships. His upcoming works include a family drama about a dynasty set in the seedy city of Hong Kong, and a sitcom about an immigrant family moving to Malibu. Though Kwan was secretive about his upcoming work, wearing a coy smile, his few words were enough to invoke a ripple of excitement through the crowd.

Near the end of the event, Hua touched on an important topic: the difference between audience reactions to the film in diasporic Asians, meaning those who immigrated out of Asia, and those in Asia. While the film received rave reviews in America, overseas in Singapore, the audience took some time to warm up. Hua mentioned how in Asia, having a film with an all-Asian cast was nothing new, rather, it was the norm. While Asian characters are consistently kicked aside to the “nerdy sidekick” or “exotic dragon lady” stereotype in American society, the all-Asian cast of “Crazy Rich Asians” was a breath of fresh air. It was a nod to diasporic Asian communities, subtly telling all of us that we are valid, and we have a beautiful and rich (no pun intended) heritage to be proud of.

8 • Features

“Just Venmo Me!”

By Theodora Helgason ’22 Staff Writer

“J

ust Venmo me” is an unexceptional, yet loaded, demand college students and twentysomethings across America are making of each other without second thoughts.

Venmo, and the economically and socially dangerous culture that has been built around the app, have changed both the social meaning and the real world consequences of financial transactions for the worse. Venmo’s design is intended to strip users of financial privacy, without indicating the realworld fallout that can ensue from publicly posting economic transactions without understanding the full ramifications of the seemingly simple action.

Scams on Venmo happen more frequently than users think.

Alison Griswold, a journalist for Slate, reported several incidents of users getting scammed thousands of dollars on Venmo when they tried using the app to buy or sell products from strangers. She details one user’s experience when he listed NBA Finals tickets on Craigslist and the buyer asked to pay through Venmo.

Kyle agreed, and the money he expected appeared in his Venmo transactions. Yet, a couple of days later, the payment was reversed and went back into the buyer’s wallet. He lost both the tickets and thousands of dollars.

The scammer understood something about Venmo that most users don’t. Despite the fact that payments appear in users’ Venmo accounts the second the payer presses send, finances do not transfer as immediately as they seem to. The buyer reversed the transaction so that he could scam the seller out of the tickets and the thousands of dollars they were worth.

Buyers, not just sellers, on Venmo have gotten scammed by strangers too. Venmo does caution users only to use the app with family and friends, yet the potential thousands of dollars worth of danger that using the app with strangers enables is hidden in a couple lines on the Venmo’s website’s security page.

This warning is nowhere to be found on the app itself.

In reality, Venmo users have no reason to go on the website when the app is where they make and receive transactions and scroll through their Venmo feeds to see what their friends, and potentially strangers, are up to.

Venmo leaves financial security up to its users, hoping that they use the app with friends and family only. But how do users define friends and family?

Would Venmo be liable if it was indeed a friend who scammed another user? And if Venmo’s owner, PayPal, can make electronic payments safe, why can’t Venmo?

Venmo insists on emojis as part of users’ transactions because emojis are embedded in the language of millennials and Gen-Zers. Venmo uses emojis to make payments social. The app even incorporates emojis to autocomplete for words.

According to Zach Wener-Fligner at Quartz, of the top eleven most popular emojis used in Venmo transactions, five are emojis depicting alcohol.

Venmo is unique in that users post drug-related activity without considering the potential legal or social consequences that can come from posting those activities on one of the most subtly public social media platforms.

Emojis, like Venmo, are easy to use without much thought. But it is the ease of Venmo that is part of its danger. Users employ emojis to “name” certain purchases that they are less likely to type out. The simultaneous ambiguity yet cultural understanding of emojis make their users feel immune to lawful consequences for the emojis they post. Although there is no emoji for depicting marijuana, using trees, leaves, or the kale emojis on Venmo often signifies that a user is paying for the drug. Venmo’s emphasis on emojis deludes users into thinking their payments are not susceptible to the same scrutiny that their words are.

No one actually pays for kale on Venmo, but thousands of people pay for weed on Venmo. Paying for drug-related activities on Venmo and hiding behind the fake ambiguity of green emojis that users would not post on other social medias like Facebook or Instagram is all too common.

Thousands of Venmo users publically post drug, alcohol, or sex-related activity. The absurdity of this was not lost on Mike Lacher and Chris Baker, the creators of Vicemo.com, a satirical website meant to criticize how users post their vices on Venmo for anyone and everyone to view. The site collects the public Venmo transactions that involve incriminating activities. Their website allows people to “see whos buying drugs, booze, and sex on Venmo.” By clicking on any of the transactions, the user is redirected to the original payment on the Venmo app. At any given time, the site is updated with the most recent transactions that indicate vice-related activity. The site frequently has posts citing drugs cleverly disguised as “not drugs,” objectifying or sexual payments for “strippers,” and barely ambiguous drug payments hidden as emojis like the needle emoji, the pill emoji, the mushroom emoji, and green emojis like the herb emoji.

Yet, Venmo does little to warn users that posting publicly could be dangerous. Anyone whose account is set to public on Venmo is vulnerable to having transactions that could resemble drug, alcohol, or sex-related activity posted on Vicemo. And because Venmo automatically sets users’ accounts to public, that means almost every user is vulnerable to their activity, innocent as it may be, being posted on Vicemo. Posts found on Vicemo implicate users in risky behaviors that anyone can view. Almost all the Venmo-ers on Vicemo have no idea their transactions have been posted on the site.

Venmo’s design is intrinsically public. The app is automatically set to share all transactions publicly. If users want to change their privacy settings, they can choose to only share transactions with friends but it also makes their transactions available to the other participants’ Venmo friends. The other option is private which displays the transaction in only the other user’s feed. Yet, when users try to change their settings two questions from Venmo pop up: “Are you sure you want to change your default privacy settings? Did you know you can change the privacy setting for each payment individually?” Venmo asks users attempting to change their privacy settings these questions to retain the social aspect of Venmo that makes it a social media.

Venmo users do tend to enjoy the social aspect of the app, and, therefore, Venmo will probably continue to keep the app defaulted to public despite the danger that the default public setting poses t o

users.

Venmo entertains the tech-native’s insatiable need for the gratification of recognition by another. Venmoers who use the app because they love its social aspect may be buying into the need to feel included.

Almost every post on Venmo between friends implies a shared experience: reimbursing an associate for brunch or splitting the price of concert tickets.

Payments like these on Venmo leave other friends scrolling through their feeds wondering what it means that Tiffany paid Jessica using the unicorn emoji, wine emoji, and heart emoji on a Saturday night. The friend left out from these transactions feels FOMO in the ambiguity of the payments but the certainty of a shared experience having occurred. What inside joke or event were those emojis referencing? Every Venmo user wants to know what their friends are doing without them. This insatiable need to know what one’s friends are doing with one another plays into how Venmo maintains its power.

To some extent, this structure based on having to spend money to prove one hangs out with friends poisons how millennials think of friendships and creates an economic basis to friendships that is classist. Although this phenomenon of events feeling as if they only really happen if they are posted on social media pre-dates Venmo, Venmo valorizes this experience because it does not require the camera or the posing or the fear of a photo being unflattering that posting on Instagram mandates. Even paying a friend back for groceries becomes a social event that others are left out of. Venmo takes FOMO from Instagram and the normalized posting of vices from Snapchat, while monetizing social media and altogether creating an app that everyone should have caution using, yet no one does.

Venmo reveals what users are doing in dangerous detail to more than just friends who scroll through their feeds when experiencing FOMO. Khanna investigated how Venmo activity reveals potentially different information about its users. He created a Google Chrome extension that uses all data that is readily available from transactions that are public on Venmo. From the extension, Khanna was given insight into strangers’ social lives based purely on public transactions they post on Venmo. He knew not only what these strangers were spending their money on, but also with whom these strangers spent their time, and to some extent, where they spent their time. From that, Khanna could predict which users would spend time together, when they would spend time together, and how they would spend time together.

It should serve as a warning to everyone who uses Venmo that Khanna was able to create an extension without hacking Venmo for data that revealed so much about the app’s users. This information could be dangerous in the hands of companies, and because Venmo is often used on the public setting, it is likely that companies have already tried to use Venmo data to get insight into consumers’ lives. Without doing anything malicious, an individual or a company can look into the Venmo feeds of many users.

At the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Xin Yao and his team devised a Multi-Layer Location Inference which employs public transactions on Venmo to infer users’ location data. Using this method they were able to find the homes of users.

This study exemplifies, once again, how dangerous it is to post publicly on Venmo.

Publicly posting on Venmo is posting evidence of one’s economic activities, one’s routines, and one’s location, as well as the identities of friends and family “Venmo,” the verb, has snuck its way into the average college student’s vernacular yet not many users are aware of the app’s implications. “Just Venmo me” is the loaded phrase that no one should surrender to.

Illustration by Molly Antell ’19

7 February, 2019 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXVIII • Issue Five

Opinion • 9

Confessions of a Lonely College Girl

By Faith McDermott ’20 Staff Writer

I

am living within a mile radius of thousands of people between the ages of 18 and 22. I am in classes with people who share my interests, I am in clubs with people who share my passions, I eat meals with friends, and I go to parties on the weekends. I am consistently in spaces populated by people having a shared experience, and I can honestly say I have never felt so alone.

According to research I’m not alone in feeling lonely. A study published by Cigna just over six months ago found that Americans between the ages of 18 and 22 are the loneliest generation currently living. If just under 70 percent of the thousands of people in this age range surveyed expressed feeling a lack of connection to those around them, I think it’s fair to assume the loneliness epidemic has plagued Claremont as well.

So we’ve identified the problem, but how did this start? It would be easy to blame technology.

Texting, Snapchat, Skype, Facebook, and Instagram — all of these forms of communication taking place in the virtual realm are cheap knockoffs of human connection. Meaningful bonds are created through mutual understanding of each others vulnerabilities, however the screen of a laptop, tablet, or smartphone functions almost like a barrier. Not only are people’s virtual representations a funhouse-like reflection of reality, three out of the five senses can not be activated through virtual interactions. This combination of a false sense of reality as well as a bleak sensory experience makes fulfilling human relationships difficult to foster in an increasingly virtual world. However, I think it’s more than technology.

We live in a hypercompetitive world. We’re taught at a young age that our identity and worth are interwoven with our ability to produce. Gold medals, the honor roll, and job promotions are just a few of the ways we commend people for producing excellence. However, this commedation is not

Luena Maillard is a junior at Scripps who is passionate about holistic health and education. In high school, she was employed by Planned Parenthood as a Peer Health Educator to teach sex ed classes to high school health classes. She is currently working as a Peer Health Educator here on campus, and you can find her during her office hours at Tiernan Field House for one-on-one conversations!

Q A

Dear Lue, Do sex toy shops really exist for female pleasure?

-traumatized at the Toy Box

Hey Toy Traumatized!

A sex toy shop exists to sell products related to sexual and erotic entertainment. The type of sex shop varies drastically depending on factors such as their owners, the shops personal brand, and whether or not they have a certain message they would like to put out into the world. Some of them actively try to promote body positivity, sexuality and pleasure for people with vaginas, and sexual liberation. Others can feel as though you are entering a den of objects and packaging clearly designed for one type of person’s gaze only. However, the bottom line is, most, if not all, sex toy shops will sell items that will give both people with vaginas, and people with penises pleasure.

just a pat on the back, it also acts as a label, as an identifier. They allow us to shape our sense of self, as these stamps of approval provide a way for us to not only feel appreciated it allows us to feel seen. However, how do you give someone a gold star for having meaningful relationships? How do you reward them for being a supportive friend or partner? You don’t. And that’s part of the problem.

In this hypercompetitive world we are raised to believe that our time and effort are a type of currency. You work hard at something, you achieve excellence and then you are rewarded with a label.

However, this transactional nature is not applicable to interpersonal relationships. Helping your friend through a breakup is not something you can add to your Linkedin page. Being a good listener does not raise your GPA, and making time to watch your friend’s a cappella concert is not an extracurricular you can stamp on your resume. If we are taught that our identity is linked to our ability to create excellence, and one cannot be commended for a job well done in relationships, it’s understandable how human connection tends to take a back seat.

It’s the perfect storm. With a decreasing number of face-to-face connections, as well as a lack of value put on the importance of meaningful connections, we have created a society where loneliness is not only possible but extremely probable.

Some of you may be saying so what? You may be thinking college kids are coddled Netflix addicts who need to learn how to be comfortable being uncomfortable. However, the ramifications of loneliness are much greater than many can imagine. In an article published in the Harvard Business Review, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy states, “Loneliness and weak social connections are associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.”

Additionally a Dutch publication called The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry “found that participants who reported feeling lonely — regardless of how many friends and fam-

ask Lue

Q A

ily surrounded them — were more likely to develop dementia than those who lived on their own but were not lonel.” The research is there: loneliness negatively affects our health.

However, feelings of disconnection have ramifications beyond mental and physical well being.

According to research done by professors at Penn and Cal State Sacramento, loneliness in the workforce has a negative impact on employee performance. Data shows that those who don’t have meaningful relationships with their coworkers and higher-ups have a lower productivity rate and are more likely to quit. If workers are less efficient and lacking loyalty to their place of employment, you not only have a revolving door of hired staff, but also an inefficient use of resources. This latter part is especially important. Not only can we see how loneliness negatively affects society’s production possibilities and therefore overall economic growth, we can see a cycle starting to form.

People prioritize their work lives in an attempt to find a sense of self. However, the loneliness that results from this decision hinders their efficiency, meaning more time and energy must be spent in the office to achieve said excellence, leaving even less time to nurture meaningful relationships. And so things begin to snowball. We spend more time at work, we get more lonely, we become less efficient, and the cycle repeats itself.

When I first started writing this article I assumed life after college would be better. I pictured after work happy hours with my coworkers, and Sunday brunch with my newly acquired best friends à la “Sex and The City.” However, if college students are entering the workforce without a strong emotional support system and a means of communication then it’s understandable how loneliness is prevalent long after graduation.

So what’s the solution? We have a societal epidemic that is affecting human health as well as the health of our economy. Tune in next week to find out.

Hello and welcome to a new semester, my dear Scrippsies! I, personally, am excited to be answering more of your questions!

On that note, I have a fun and important update for y’all: The way to submit questions has gotten easier! You can now submit all questions on the new Ask Lue website: asklue.squarespace.com

Dear Lue, How should you go about letting your date/potential partner know that you are a virgin and want to wait to have sex?

-I’m a virgo so he should already know

Hey Virgo, In the early stages of seeing each other and going on dates, there will come a time when you two will discuss expectations moving forward. I think it is an important conversation to have as soon as you reach that point where you realize that you are interested in this person and you might like to continue this relationship. It can be a significant indicator of whether or not your needs will be met respectfully by this person not just for this scenario, but many others that come along with being in a relationship. I would suggest having the conversation before any sort of experience where you feel it might go further, such as a make-out session. This just makes it more easeful for you to have that experience while feeling confident that you have had your needs seen and know that they will be met.

I would be very straightforward and honest about it as well; you can mention that you like them, you find them interesting, but before anything more happens you would just like to share that you would want to wait a while longer before having sex. That is truly all you need to say; a decent person who will respect you and your autonomy would respect those wishes.

However, if you would like to include more details, feel free to express your personal reasons for that decision. Your partner might ask some questions, and feel free to answer them as long as it feels comfortable for you. If your partner starts saying things in a tone that feels dismissive or icky, tries to argue with you about your reasonings in a pushy way, makes you feel even slightly wrong about what you have expressed then that is a red flag, love (trust what your gut is telling you)!

However, if you feel as though the questions are coming from a genuine place, an interest in you, or trying to engage you in a pressure-free conversation about what your boundaries are so they know what you are comfortable with, I encourage you to engage in that communication.

As always the more the better. Good luck from your friendly neighborhood Leo!

7 February, 2019 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXVIII • Issue Five

10 • Arts & Entertainment

Film Reviews No such thing as too much Spider-Man Hayley Van Allen ’21 Queer Columnist

“S

pider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is one of those rare movies that you walk into with high expectations and still leave completely blown away. From the stunning visuals, to expressive voice acting, to its incredible energy, the film was a treat to watch from start to finish.

The protagonist of the movie is Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), an afro-latino middle schooler from Brooklyn. He lives in a universe parallel to the audience’s that already has a Spider-Man named Peter Parker (Chris Pine). After being bit by a special spider in classic superhero fashion, Miles gains the same powers of Spider-Man and is suddenly caught up in a the plot that might destroy not only his universe, but many others.

Miles meets spider-themed superheroes from multiple other dimensions: Peter B Parker (Jake Johnson) who seems to be from the audience’s universe; a Gwen Stacy based Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld); Spider-Man Noir who comes from a 1930’s version of the the superhero comics (Nicolas Cage, in a role he was born to play); an anime variation named Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn); and Peter Porker/Spider-Ham based on a 1980’s cartoon style (John Mulaney, also in a role he was born to play).

One of the most impressive aspects of the movie was the animation style. So much thought and detail went into the way the movie utilized traditional superhero comic styles. As Miles is thinking, we can see his thoughts pop above his head in the classic box that you’d find in the panels of a comic book. During fight scenes, onomatopoeia like “WHAM” and “BOOM” would appear as text in the air. By using a combination of hand-drawn and

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures

digital animation with still frames, the creators were able to set the movie apart from the more standard “Disney Style” of animation that’s become so popular over the past decade or so.

The animators seem to have been given so much creative freedom, and as a result created a beautiful and stylized world where anything seemed possible. Every character and background appeared both realistic and like a piece of art at the same time. You could almost see the work and care put into the creation of every character. They moved in an almost stop-motion like fashion at times, but still had so much life and energy.

Visually, the characters looked like a 3D representation of classic comics come to life, with a hint of dotted shading on their faces and clear lines around their noses.

The story itself was compelling and exciting. Fans of “The Lego Batman Movie” might notice a similar style of humor that comes from joking about its existence as a franchise. The original Peter Parker even references the poorly made Spider-Man popsicles usually found in ice cream trucks. Many jokes throughout the film rely on satirizing the original comics in a fun and refreshing way.

A really wonderful part of the movie was (minor spoilers ahead) the revisioning of Doc Ock from the

RBG Graces Uninventive Work with Her Eloquence Jamie Jiang ’22 Staff Writer

P

Image courtesy of IGN

erhaps going into “On the Basis of Sex,” you, a member of a liberal arts college with your antennas deeply sunk in the political sphere, have already watched RBG, a recent documentary of the same subject. Or perhaps you are independently knowledgeable of the small, 85-year-old Supreme Court Justice tearing it up in Washington D.C. Knowing this, the new legal biopic exulting Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a young lawyer will only be a superficial jaunt through accomplishments you already hold in high regard.

“On the Basis of Sex” nuzzles at the heels of RBG fans in search of admiration and attention —which it may only get for the extraordinary, true story that it tells, and not the inventiveness with which it tells it.

The film begins with a sublime, fresh-faced Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg parting a sea of WASP-y, well-suited men while “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard,” a Harvard fight song, winkingly plays in the background. The scene is stirring and visually beautiful in a way the film keeps up throughout. RBG then mounts a set of stairs (this will come back in a big way) to take her intellectual throne at Harvard Law School, where for the next act of the film she displays variously that she is the smartest person in the room.

She faces and conquers challenges to her gender such as professors refusing to call on her, the Dean of the law school (Sam Waterston) asking the nine women who have been admitted why they deserve

a spot reserved for men, and a refusal to allow her transfer to Columbia. RBG applies and is denied to multiple firms (on the basis of her sex) as her husband soars ever higher in the tax litigation realm. She takes a position teaching at Rutgers, until frustration at her stunted potential overtakes her.

And at this very moment, fate and her husband present her with her breakthrough case. She takes it, representing a single man denied tax benefits (on the basis of his sex) afforded female caretakers of family members. RBG then embarks on a quest to win over the ACLU, a civil rights activist once revered

by RBG, and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals for her client. She faces — in a moment the screenwriter Stiepleman described as “a gift from the screenplay gods”— her former Harvard Law dean, assisting the opposing counsel.

When screenwriter Daniel Stiepleman, RBG’s own nephew, wrote Marty Ginsburg into the script as the humble, reassuring spouse to Ruth’s legal breakthroughs, executives threatened to withdraw funding from the film. Believing that no man could exist who didn’t place himself as the head of the family, or who willingly allowed his wife to succeed before him, many opposed Stiepleman in his subversiveness. But the movie has been made, and the time has come for the blockbuster machine to enter into its books a new Archetype, readily regenerateable for other female-leading movies (think Austin Stowell in Battle of the Sexes).

Here we have the sweet dreamboat husband, with no mission but hers, equal now to that other classic

classic comics as Liv Ock. It’s so rare to see a female villain who isn’t sexualized and stands up in comparison to many better written male ones, but Liv Ock was fantastic. She perfectly fit the mad scientist desperate to learn everything she could about the world no matter the cost, exactly the way Doc Ock was originally intended.

Another amazing representation was afro-latino Miles Morales. In watching him interact with his Puerto Rican ER nurse mother and an African-American beat cop father, the audience was able to see him be a part of both his parents cultures/identities. Additionally, for young black kids to get to see a superhero that looks like them is so important. Representation matters, and it feels like “Into the Spider-Verse” really delivered.

The result of all this wonderful thought and work is the wonderful and heartwarming story that “Into the Spider-Verse” told. In an age of so many dark and gritty superhero films, this movie managed to be warm hearted and full of love. Promoting heroism and sacrifice, “Into the Spider-Verse” tells its audience that anyone can be Spider-Man. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” isn’t just one of the best animated movies of the year. It’s one of the best animated and best superhero movies of all time.

Archetype: hot, devoted wife. While we may rejoice at first at this strange equality, considering that we also may encourage the slow settlement of uncomplicated characters in the place where personality, complexity, and actual subversiveness of established character arcs ought to be. For a movie that so sweepingly portrays exceptional lives, a nervous retreat into profitable cliché has wrung out their exceptional characters.

RBG protested, speaking at a screening of the film, the accuracy of the final courtroom scene. “I didn’t stumble at the outset”, she says, referring to her character buckling under the first round of questioning.

While accuracy has never been required of biopics, one must ask why it is that the screenwriter makes the departure. Perhaps all the better to fit the formula of a good courtroom scene, if only to omit Ruth’s intellectual confidence. Yet, in other parts, RBG is written to sound awkward and thoroughly modern, somewhat undermining the fire of her spirit that shows in the documentary RBG. Could this be an inherently unfeminist move, relegating a great woman in history to so many moments of awkwardness?

Oh, but that courtroom scene! It has all the thrill, the intense activity, and the feeling of recognition (the film has decided you are intellectually capable of legal language) that a good courtroom scene should deliver. As RBG stands and delivers her final and, per RBG trademark, perfectly worded speech, you are reminded that RBG’s own eloquence upholds the film.

Her works are theater of their own. In this scene, I take my hat off to Mimi Leder (a female director!

Huzzah!) for a masterful presentation of a dramatic legal breakthrough.

Verdict: The film’s legacy probably extends only as far as it obediently creeps in the shadow of its subject.

It will likely not have an independent life. Watch “On the Basis of Sex” for lovely visuals. Watch to weep openly in a theater of other weeping people as the movie ends. But in between the beauty of the first scene and the stirring authenticity of RBG in the last scene, perhaps you, like me, will be somewhat bored and uncomfortable watching a great political epic crammed into a few watered down roles.

7 February, 2019 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXVIII • Issue Five

Arts & Entertainment • 11

The Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj is Changing the Landscape and Scope of Comedic News Commentary

By Simone Henry ’22 Staff Writer

T

he manual titled, “United States Military Training Mission to Saudi Arabia (USMTM for Saudi Arabia),” updated June 2018, described the Saudi people as “indigenous tribes” with some “mixture of Negro blood from slaves imported from Africa.” Hasan Minhaj wittedly responded in his new Netflix show, “Oh America. Even in boring technical manuals, you still somehow manage to be racist.”

Hasan Minhaj’s new show shares its name with the controversial anti-terrorism act imposed by George W. Bush in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks. The act increased surveillance on U.S. citizens in the name of National Security. The trailer for the show plays off of this idea by acting as the U.S. surveying Minhaj and intercepting his emails and texts. It ends with one man watching him saying, “So, should we frame this guy for murder?,” and his coworker responds, “I don’t know. Let’s wait

and see if the show’s any good.”

“The Patriot Act” delivers comical, often brutal, critiques of U.S. politics and culture.

Minhaj offers his unique identity as an IndianAmerican Muslim and as a son of immigrants to connect with wildly underrepresented audiences, and notes the significance as “this idea of being an insider and an outsider at the same time in this country, while holding citizenship and being born in this country… I don’t think we’ve heard enough from that type of voice in this medium.”

After an episode showing the United States Military’s outdated and derogatory language used to describe the Saudi people, the USMTM for Saudi Arabia was taken offline and the military has since offered an apology for the offensive language and sent the manual back for review. Moreover, that same episode has been banned in Saudi Arabia because it exposed the Saudi prince’s direction to kill the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot act first aired Oct.

R. Kelly and The Power of Survivors’ Stories

By Ali Bush ’19 Music Columnist

I

learned over winter break that googling “R. Kelly accusations” is not for the faint of heart. Yet, I did this on a notably lazy day after I’d read Kelly described in articles and via social media as everything from a misunderstood artist, to a serial child rapist, to a broken man. I realized that this onslaught of R. Kelly news was arising from a documentary series that was released in January, “Surviving R Kelly,” which shared the stories of Kelly’s survivors to the public from the survivors themselves. After being protected for decades by the music industry and a complicit public, Kelly is now facing punishment for an obscene amount of crimes thanks to the brave words of his survivors.

The new documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly,” documents Kelly’s sexual relations with underage girls, marriage to the then fifteen-year-old R&B singer, Aliyah, and his current “cult-like” living situation in which he keeps girls under near house arrest in Chicago and Atlanta. The R&B singer was known to associate with young girls from the beginning of his career, yet his songs became huge in the 90s and early 2000’s with hits like “I Believe I Can Fly” and “Honey Love.” Kelly has since produced and written songs for music royalty like Jay-Z and Lady Gaga over the years, but it is 2019 that will be the year that Kelly’s egregious acts will be recognized and condemned thanks to the fearlessness of his survivors.

The documentary series “Surviving Kelly” is not a shocking expose revealing new information, but a compilation of Kelly’s charges and accusations that have long been been known to a public willing to turn a blind eye. The entire series comprises of Kelly’s ex-friends, family, and most importantly, survivors, telling almost endless stories of Kelly’s relations with underage girls, many of whom were seeking career advice from the esteemed singer.

Episode after episode, viewers are given the cold hard facts about Kelly’s past crimes via video tape evidence, past rape trial settlements, and eye witness accounts. The documentary does a fantastic job of compiling the heartbreaking stories of many of his survivors, and revealing the strength and bravery needed to simply encounter this man. Ultimately, the series does an even better job of pointing back at us, the public who danced along to “Ignition,” and allowed R. Kelly to continue to prey on young girls.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of the whole docuseries is learning that Kelly himself was a victim of sexual abuse as a child. Psychologist Dr. Candice Norcott appears in the series and explains that children who are molested at a young age often search for power in their adult relationships in order to gain control over their victimhood and, “there’s no position more powerful in a sexual relationship than as an abuser of a child.” Realizing that Kelly’s monstrous abuse towards young girls stems from personal experience reveals the cycle that arises when children are taken advantage of. The series also points out the lack of support Kelly had as a child and calls for mental health support and guidance for black children.

However, the systemic abuse of Kelly’s survivors brings up another pressing issue: the public’s value of young black women. In an op-ed video for The Washington Post, global opinions editor Karen Attiah explains what is at the crux of R. Kelly crime’s: “If even a fraction of the allegations against Kelly are true, his continued success hinges on the invisibility of black women and girls in America… As long as black women are seen to be a caste not worthy of care and protection, his actions will not receive widespread outcry . . . . The saga of Robert Kelly says more about America than it does about him.”

Thankfully, Kelly has already faced a large amount of outcry from record labels to other artists. Already, Lady Gaga has apologized for and admitted to regretting recording her 2013 song “Do What U Want” with Kelly. The song has since been removed from Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Sony Music, Kelly’s record label since 2012, has recently ended their working relationship with him, and Live Nation has stopped promoting his concerts.

Now, the FBI is investigating Kelly to ascertain if he transported a minor across state lines for the purpose of sex, something the survivors in the docu-series explain happened quite often. And all of this came in the wake of “Surviving R. Kelly.” This docu-series has shed light on how valuable survivor’s stories are. Seeing the pain and fearlessness of the women who carried on after his abuse is something that the world should have seen much earlier, but has ultimately inspired action against the flawed villain of the story. Hopefully, this series is not simply a fluke in which the stories of black women are heard and valued, but a promise to a new generation that black girls matter and will continue to be heard.

28, 2018, and it is already making change. His wit and delivery provide the perfect political comedy. His stand-up in 2017, “Homecoming King”, received high praise for insightful humor that provided space for the second-gen immigrant experience in America and, as The New Yorker put it, “expose realities that his monocultural peers can’t, or won’t, perceive.”

What makes Minhaj stand out so significantly is not only his wit, but that “The Patriot Act” is the first major U.S. talk show hosted by a Muslim American, which provides a base to a major, underrepresented portion of our nation.

The Patriot Act has eight episodes and will return Feb. 10 on Netflix.

Yesterday

by Nyarai Khepra ’22 yesterday i told him i loved him and he told me sorry that he apologizes for what he’s about to put me through as if i didn’t have a choice in the matter and suddenly i realized i didn’t realized that he has me in the palm of his hand like creases got me creased up bent in unimaginable positions when i said i’d never fold but for him i’d do anything including love him when he can’t reciprocate can’t love himself properly a task that i’ll never live up to yesterday he told me how grateful he was to be on the other side of unrequited love he just love the way i look at him even when he can’t stand to look at me he said thank you for the the time of day that i carefully packaged and signed my name right next to sender everyday with the hope that one day he’d decide to return my gift yet he doesn’t cause he does not know how he says he never learned i think it’s because he never tried or doesn’t care enough to yesterday i realized he’ll never say it back and mean it and i mean i’m grateful that he can’t or won’t because i got too much love for myself too infatuated for me to even notice that his love for me was once unbearable it shook him to his core so much so that it was seemingly impenetrable seemingly forever nothing last forever apparently it’s easier for things to fall at its seams i wish i would have noticed sooner i wish i would have believed him sooner i wish i would have heard him when he said i love you earlier. and i wish i would have said it back because now he can’t yesterday i found out the true definition of unrequited love. found out what it meant to be on the other side of meaningless efforts and failed attempts at affection a thousand yesterdays ago he told me he loved me and i told him sorry i wish i would have apologized for what i was about to put him through

7 February, 2019 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXVIII • Issue Five

Image courtesy of The Atlantic

12 • Opinions

Can Valentine’s Day Be Brought into the Progressive Era?

By Sarah Nunez ’22 and Alexandra Rivasplata ’22 Staff Writers

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ith the turn of the New Year, retail has been preparing for the next big event.

Gone are the red and the green of Christmas and the glitter and glitz of New Years.

The days of holiday cheer are replaced by the red decorations of Valentine’s Day. Red hearts and cupid paraphernalia deck the halls of the local supermarkets. Instagram feeds have been advertising couples’ facials and edible underwear (now in cherry vanilla flavor).

As I shop online, I find myself being bombarded with lingerie ads promising they know the way to “show him you really care.”

The argument that Valentine’s Day is commercializing love to propagate a capitalist society is not a new one. The cynics and anti-romantics have been saying this for years, or at least ever since “Valentine’s Day” starring Ashton Kutcher and Taylor Swift came out.

Whether or not this is true, the real concern of Valentine’s Day is that through advertising, the holiday is promoting and relying on traditional gender roles and het-

However, these advertisements are doing more harm than they do good. Though one would think that jewelry, perfume, and intimates are the most purchased items for Valentine’s Day due to the massive amount of advertising for them, they are not what people want and end up buying for their significant others. Advertisers are wasting their time showing $100 bra and underwear sets and $50 bottles of perfume because these are far from the most popular purchases, it is sentimental acts of love paired with cards, chocolate, and flowers that are the most common gifts for the special day.

Advertisers are perpetuating and creating an oversexualized, heteronormative standard for Valentine’s Day that instead of focusing on love, focuses on commodities and what one partner can offer the other. If Valentine’s Day is going to be brought into the progressive era, it is integral to switch this dialogue, targeting the feelings we have for one another, rather than what we can buy and do for one another.

Cold War Blazes On Screen

Image courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter

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eronormative culture.

Advertisers create this narrative of the day, both by boosting its ‘significance’ and giving couples expectations of how the romantic day is supposed to be. Men are told that to romance their significant others, they must spend exorbitant amounts of money on jewelry, makeup, and perfume.

The same advertisers have this narrative set up for every holiday from Christmas to Mother’s Day. But where these advertisements change is when you look at those directed toward women. Women are shown websites and stores selling lingerie, lipstick, hair products, lotions, perfume, heels, negligees, and flavored condoms.

All of these things are geared towards the goal of sexual gratification for the man. It’s as though men are told to buy the Tiffany’s box, but women are told that they are the gift.

With this strategy being so embedded in advertising its hard to imagine a world in which this type of promotion is no longer used as a means of attracting sales.

By Sage Livingstone Molasky ’22 Staff Writer

ritten and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War” is a timeless and evocative masterpiece. Its effortless grace, memorable grandeur, and stark visual lyricism has staked claim as a moment in cinematic history.

Pawlikowski sets us in post-war Poland, while a threesome team scours the bleak countryside for young singers and dancers, recruited as folk propaganda — proof of the power in the working man. With Stalin, poverty and white winter as a backdrop, it is Wiktor (Thomas Kot), the musical director under the thumb of a villainous Polish government, and Zula (Joanna Kulig), the striking, feisty country girl turned performer in Wiktor’s company, who emerge from the bleak countryside, ablaze in their longing.

Their love story is brief, spanning 17 years, marked by black interludes and sultry songs. They hope to escape Poland to France, but despite Wiktor’s desire to leave, Zula longs to venture not toward an unknown country, but to remain within a hollowed home. For Zula, the prospect of new

life as a foreigner seems too great a burden to bear. This not only heightened the stakes for the two lovers, but also the film’s timely relevance. Although set apart in her historical period, Zula’s grappling with the notion of exile is intimate and immediate; her struggle akin to millions of refugees and immigrants today.

Their passion is one of heat and longing thanks to Kulig’s fiercely funny and matterof-fact portrayal of a rural woman in love— and at odds— with Wiktor, the “bourgeois wanker.” Both accept their lives situated within a brutal landscape. The movie isn’t a political commentary, but a romantic one.

Yet as an audience, we couldn’t mind a bit.

Wiktor, despite his misgivings and thanks to Kot, ambles through the world, empty without Zula, “the love of [his] life.” For these two lovers, Cold War is their world, their immediate reality, so although placed within a frenzied country, teetering upon a ledge, they are our focus, the beating pulse of the film. Like ships passing in the night, Zula and Wiktor light the way, a refuge for one an-

other under an oppressive communist machine, or the foreignness of a Francophone artist’s circle. And despite their incendiary spark— leading to an ultimate demise— the solace each finds in the other manifests on screen as more than a romance within a tumultuous world, but a romance set apart in its brilliance.

It’s a kind of quiet storytelling Pawlikowski embraces and that seems the most pertinent of Cold War’s latent powers. Zula and Wiktor love in sporadic sequences. We aren’t privy to the lives they have lived before, but that doesn’t quite matter. In the brief time we know them (a mere 1 hour 28 minutes staggered with images of Parisian monuments, abandoned Polish churches and stately homes, a black and white cinematic precision expertly crafted by Lukasz Zal) the lovers penetrate the audience and each other with a stark sensuality.

But beyond sex, these two lovers give us humanity. I left altered by the mastery of it all from the heartiness of their brevity, the homage to jazz and its passions, and the aching to belong (to a country, to a purpose, to art, to another). And I was reminded that humans — no matter when we live, who we love, or how we etch ourselves into the fabric of the world — are all searching, endeavoring to find home in whatever form that takes.

7 February, 2019 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXVIII • Issue Five