01.22.20

January 22, 2020 | 34st.com

EGO

January 21, 2020 3 WORD ON THE STREET

Tamsyn Brann, Editor–in–Chief Sam Mitchell, Campus Editor Beatrice Forman, Culture Editor Eliana Doft, Assignments Editor

Dodgeball Taught Me Confidence

Karin Hananel, Special Issues Editor Chelsey Zhu, Features Editor Mehek Boparai & Hannah Yusuf, Word on the Street Editors Katie Farrell, Ego Editor Melannie Jay, Music Editor Alice Goulding, Style Editor Sam Kesler, Film & TV Editor Alice Heyeh, Arts Editor

4 EGO

EOTW: Rachel Prokupek

Ego Beats: Julia Davies, Julia Esposito, Fernanda Brizuela Music Beats: Keely Douglas, Ananya Muthukrishnan, Amy Xiang

6 MUSIC

Francis Quinlan Interview Features Staff: Denali Sagner, Jessica Bao, Sofia Heller, Jen Cullen

LOL

10 FEATURE

Global Citzenship Abroad

LOL 14 FILM & TV

Outdated Oscars Little Women & Feminism

16 ARTS

Was Ben Franklin a Player?

Arts Vibe Check

LOL 19 OVERHEARDS

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Style Beats: Diya Sethi, Tara O'Brien, Jordan Wachsman, Hannah Lonser Film & TV Beats: Anna Collins, Harshita Gupta Arts Beats: Amanpreet Singh, Rema Hort Design Editor: Ava Cruz Street Design Editor: Isabel Liang Street Audience Engagement Editor: Ryan McLaughlin Street Photo Editor: Sophia Dai Street Video Editor: Morgan Jones

Illustrators: Isabel Liang, Felicity Yick Staff Photographers: Sudeep Bhargava, Sally Chen Audience Engagment Associates: Maya Berardi, Rachel Markowitz, Kat Ulich, Stephanie Nam

Contacting 34th Street Magazine: If you have questions, comments, complaints or letters to the editor, email Tamsyn Brann, Editor–in–Chief, at brann@34st.com. You can also call us at (215) 422–4640. www.34st.com

Staff Writers: Sophie Burkholder, Avery Johnston, Layla Murphy, Peyton Toups, Samantha Sanders

©2019 34th Street Magazine, The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. No part may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express, written consent of the editors (but I bet we will give you the a–okay.)

All rights reserved. 34th Street Magazine is published by The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc., 4015 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa., 19104, every Wednesday.

Cover by Isabel Liang

"Fuck it, we ball"

Copy Associates: Nadia Goldman, Kira Horowitz, Alice Goulding

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR T

o write this letter, I did some research. I read Annabelle’s first letter, Nick’s, Orly’s, Emily’s. There’s a thread of precedent, of sincerity, honesty, and passion for Street, art, and culture.

Unfortunately, though, I’ve only been thinking about David Bowie’s “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean” for the last several days, and I hoped that writing about it would bring me solace, or at least dislodge the chorus from repeating in my head the way it did during my French lecture.

The music video for “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean” is twenty minutes and four seconds long, so I completely understand if you don’t want to watch it, although I recommend you do. Here’s the plot: David Bowie takes an unnamed woman on a date to a show. The musician performing at said show is also David Bowie. Unfortunately for David Bowie, his date is more enamored with the rock star David Bowie than her original David Bowie and she departs the venue with and without him.

Then the camera zooms out, you see the microphones and the cameras and the people on set. The jilted Bowie, distressed at this ending, breaks the fourth wall: “Look,” he says to the air, “I want a happy ending!”

I want a happy ending, too. The ending Bowie gets is some kind of meta commentary on his own bizarre career, and as much as the story breaks down in the last couple of minutes in the video, that’s staged and purposeful as well.

I’ll leave the office tonight to descend down the same staircase that I walked up before my first production shift.

34TH STREET MAGAZINE JANUARY 22, 2020

Photo by Ethan Wu I’ll go past the ghost of my sophomore self as a design editor in the empty chair nearest to the entrance to the newsroom.

I used to be a first year design associate messing up the Street layouts on Tuesday production nights, and now I’m a junior, editor–in–chief, fumbling similarly around this mostly blank page on a Tuesday years later. Some things change, and others don’t.

Learning curves at Street and the DP are steep. Leading Street wasn’t something I’d even dreamt of as a first year, and it still doesn’t feel very real now. But if 18–year–old Tamsyn wanted a happy ending to her tenure at 4015 Walnut, maybe this is the beginning of that end.

WOTS

Dodgeball Taught Me Everything I Need To Know About Confidence How a summer tournament changed the way I approached my strategy to life and leadership Derek Nhieu

T

he Florida sun was sweltering, and the atmosphere of anticipation was thick and contagious. I had just marched from the barracks—the dorms of Florida State University—alongside my team to join the hundreds of other boys outside on the battlefield. What was the battlefield in question? A grassy field. What was our weapon of choice? Dodgeballs.

Oh, dodgeball, the classic American game that turns boys to men. It was the annual double-elimination tournament for the 75th Session of the Florida American Legion Boys State Program.

Many of the boys invited to Boys State were top athletes or JROTC cadets, and some others were also academic leaders and at the top of their class. I was the latter, as well as one of the shortest and least athletic boys present.

There was a cloud of tension hanging over my performance alongside these other teenagers, amongst whom I already felt out of place.

But what I lacked in height, I planned to make up for in strategy. I had not read Sun Tzu's The Art of War, but I knew a carefully–arranged plan would beat out any wave of testosterone–filled teenagers raging against my team.

The night before the big day, I had studied the intricacies of professional dodgeball. I

Felicity Yick

attempted to detail my discoveries to my teammates, but the boys did not seem to entirely absorb what I was saying. Boys State itself is a competitive environment by nature and design, and our group had been winning each daily election. The general aura was confidence for most and cockiness for some.

This aura remained as we assumed our places for the first match the next morning.

The judge blew the whistle, and our boys bolted to the front lines. Chaos ensued.

I saw boys dropping in my peripheral vision, as those around me were pelted with red spheres of plastic and ter-

ror. My heart was pounding, my breath came out in droves, and I was dripping adrenaline.

We lost our first match.

It was no surprise that this was due to our failure to communicate with one another; each member of my team simply ran into the battle, pelting dodgeballs into nothingness. Whatever plan I had tried explaining the previous night ceased to exist. I watched my team— who I had felt so intimidated by the entire week— reduced to the losing side.

Our egos deflated, sweat pooling in the fabric of our shirts, and with no other foreseeable option, my team

had no choice but to reluctantly listen again for a sound idea of how to survive. I elaborated on the various strategies we should employ. We steeled our resolve and readied ourselves for our next, and potentially last, match. The judge blew the whistle, and the boys bolted to the front lines.

This match was different. Rather than slipping on the dewy Florida grass, the boys and I weaved back and forth, and paid much more attention to defending rather than attacking. We emerged victorious in our second round, and continued our winning streak for

the next round. And the next.

As we continued to sweep the other teams all the way to the finals, the other boys trusted me for guidance. I ended up calling the movements for our team, commanding "Ad!" from midfield when it was advantageous to advance.

When we lost in the final match, I was filled with nothing but pride for our team.

I had proven myself and rallied a group of boys I had met only days prior to victory, in the form of communication.

In the process, I discovered that my sense of confidence did not stem from how I stacked up against those more athletic than me or with more extracurricular achievements.

My pride comes from how I was able to invest all of my energy into something that mattered only for a handful of hours, alongside people who had only the slightest idea of who I was, and make it more than a losing match. As a Penn student, it is not difficult to feel inadequate among the impressive achievements and resumes of my classmates. I am fortunate enough to hold the role of class president while simultaneously balancing my first year at college, and all of the surprises that accompany it. But through the art of dodgeball, I have learned to carefully plan my strategy out one day at a time before I execute, alongside the people I love the most.

JANUARY 22, 2020 34TH STREET MAGAZINE

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EGO

Ego of the Week:

Rachel Prokupek Meet the Wharton senior with a dream of opening her own restauraunt.

Julia Esposito 34th Street: You took a gap year.

What made you choose to take one?

Rachel Prokupek: I was really fortunate that I had the support to do it, and I knew that it would be difficult to do at any other point in my life. Why not now?

Street: What did you do during your gap year?

RP: I studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. I got a degree in cuisine and pastries. Then, I finished it off by working in a kitchen in New York City.

Street: Why did you choose France?

RP: It seemed like the classic place to go.

Street: What got you into cooking?

RP: My parents really loved to cook, so I was lucky that I got to grow up around home-cooked

meals and good food. I think it was [also] a lot of watching the Food Network and reading cookbooks. However interests normally form, it naturally formed intensely in high school. It definitely came from my family and close friends.

Street: Why did you eventually choose to go to Wharton?

RP: I originally started off in the College. After my experience with food, I realized that it’s a long–term goal of mine to go back into the food industry. I’m not sure in what capacity, but I thought studying marketing and entrepreneurship, or just business generally, could blend really well with culinary arts if I wanted to go into the business side of food, whatever that means.

Hometown: Denver, Colorado Major: Marketing (Entrepreneurship & Innovation) in Wharton Activities: Member of Alpha Phi, member of Friars Senior Society, previously, the Executive Director of Penn Appetit Sophia Dai

I’m still figuring that out, but those two work hand in hand.

Street: Would you ever consider creating your own restaurant?

RP: That’s a dream goal of mine, and it’s really hard to do. It requires a lot of experience. I’m really lucky that I made some of my closest friends in the world at culinary school who are now some of the most talented chefs that I know.

We always talk about one day going into business together.

Street: You mentioned that you wrote for Penn Appetit. What was that like?

RP: I actually wrote my first ar-

ticle for Penn Appetit during my gap year, before I even came to Penn. I started off on the Editorial team, and then I was the Culinary Director. Then, I was the Executive Director for two years.

When I was Culinary Director, I worked with a group of 15 or so people and created Penn’s first ever cookbook called Whisk. That was a year-long project, and it was amazing. It’s a beautiful cookbook. The photographers and everyone was so talented. I did that for a year, and then I led it for two years. I just ended my term. It’s been my main involvement; I put a lot of time into it.

Street: What is it like being in Friars?

RP: I just joined Friars this fall. It’s a really cool group to be a part of. It’s a senior society. To get in, you have to have been a leader of something on campus, whether it’s a sports team, a publication, a performing arts group, or a Greek organization. It’s a really amazing group to be a part of because they’re so supportive of everyone. You get to go to everyone’s events. Every single week there are multiple events to go to because people are always having shows, sports games, fundraisers, or social gatherings.

LIGHTNING ROUND Street: Who’s your favorite music artist?

RP: Queen Street: Favorite place to study on campus?

RP: Metro Street: Favorite class at Penn?

RP: Digital marketing and e-commerce taught by David Bell Street: Favorite thing to cook?

RP: Baklava Street: There are two types of people at Penn…

RP: Those who keep themselves busy with a million things, and those who keep themselves busy with one.

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34TH STREET MAGAZINE JANUARY 22, 2020

EGO

Meet Sophia Schiaroli: The Transfer Student Building a Community on Campus and on YouTube

How this transfer student is fostering a sense of community on campus and on YouTube.

Julia Davies

A

fter recently finishing her first semester at Penn, Sophia Schiaroli (C ‘21) already has some thoughts about Penn students.

“What I’ve noticed about Penn is that people are so passionate about what they are doing,” she says.

Sophia is certainly one of these students. Although as a junior transfer student Sophia’s time at Penn has been relatively short, she wasted no time in following her passions on campus.

On top of pursuing a political science major and a chemistry minor, Sophia is involved with the Transfer Student Organization, the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies (PORES), and is the Education Chair of Lambda Alliance—Penn’s undergraduate LGBTQ+ advocacy coalition.

Sophia made the decision to transfer to Penn for its academic opportunities and a stronger sense of community.

“One of the reasons I transferred was that I was looking for a more established queer community: for people that were talking and advocating for the community. I think that was really missing from my school before,” Sophia explains.

As the Education Chair of the Lambda Alliance, Sophia has been able to implement programs to educate under-

Isabel Liang Original Image Courtesy of Sophia Schiaroli

graduate students about the resources and opportunities that are available at Penn for the LGBTQ community, help people get more involved, and connect students to the vast alumni network for support and networking.

She notes her favorite part of being involved in Lambda is “having the comfortability and support of other people who share a similar passion and love for my community.”

Now Sophia is bringing this sense of community to an even wider audience through her own “LGBTQ+ friendly” YouTube channel that she started in December.

“I wanted to do it to advocate and normalize my own sexuality and help other people feel comfortable with themselves and navigate their own sexualities. It can be easier when you

have people to look up to in the community,” she explains.

Although this is Sophia’s first experience creating a YouTube channel, she has already has some success.

Her first video titled “Coming Out // Q&A” has nearly two thousand views and the feedback she has received has been overwhelmingly positive.

In the days after posting the video, Sophia recounts receiving about “60 messages on my phone, from not just other people who identified as LGBT but also people who were allies and supportive of me.”

For Sophia, YouTubing is more than just views and likes, but about the viewers themselves.

“At the end of the day, I want people to feel free to be who they are. Being who they are is a beautiful thing and at

times it might not feel like that, but it’s so important to be true to yourself,” she explains. “Hearing that I am able to make a difference in a person’s life—that alone really fulfills why I made this channel.”

Despite her early successes, Sophia's not concerned about seeing the view counter rise as long as she believes her videos are having an impact.

“I feel like I’m making a difference," she says. "If it’s through one video with 200 views, [I’m] still able to impact those 200 people.”

As Sophia continues through her busy semesters at Penn she wants to keep YouTube a consistent part of her life, publishing videos every few weeks. She hopes to continue to create content focused on sharing advice with members of the LGBTQ community by

answering viewers’ questions.

Tailoring her videos to her audience, Sophia plans to “bring more people onto the channel and bring more perspectives and ideas to the table.”

In addition to sharing her perspective as a member of the LGBTQ community, Sophia also foresees creating content that provides helpful information about her experience as a transfer student.

Beyond the impact that Sophia is making on-campus and through her YouTube channel she hopes to go to law school, and is particularly interested in human rights law with a focus on LGBTQ advocacy. Before heading to law school, she wants to take at least two gap years to join the Peace Corps and to work at Disney Land, admitting that she’s a “huge Disney fan.”

Sophia has lots of big plans for her YouTube channel, and for her long–term future. For now, though, she's just focused on getting the most out of her two years at Penn.

“One of the big reasons I transferred was because I was looking for a place that I could feel like myself and feel confident in my sexuality," she says. "The environment at Penn has really fostered that for me, so I’m really grateful for that and that transferring has lived up to that expectation that I had of Penn.”

JANUARY 22, 2020 34TH STREET MAGAZINE

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MUSIC

Frances Quinlan Comes Full Circle in

Isabel Liang

The Hop Along frontwoman strikes out on her own on 'Likewise,' but not for the first time.

I

n an age when algorithms often dictate our tastes, a genuine recommendation can be hard to come by. But, so unlike everything else in Frances Quinlan's music, connections form in the most unlikely of places. A story heard on the radio, a book she read, a podcast, or an album all are fair game for Quinlan. Listeners are inspired to seek out the hidden gems within each lyric, put forth like a good friend giving suggestions over coffee.

Best known as the frontwoman of Philadelphia’s Hop Along, Quinlan’s first album under her own name, Likewise, arrives Jan. 31, 2020. But she began her music career solo as well, when she released her first album back in 2005 as Hop Along, Queen Ansleis.

Quinlan’s freak–folk beginnings and distinctive voice, along with her brother’s upbringing in thrasher metal and Reinhart’s emo–rock influences as the guitarist for Algernon Cadwallader, created Hop Along’s unique style.

However, she recently found that she wanted to explore her sound on her own again.

“I want to be in a collaborative band, but I also want to have songs that I just hear and have a little more freedom to explore as my own,” she tells me over the phone this past November.

“I wanted room to see how far I could stretch my identity, as a songwriter and as a composer.”

On the album, Quinlan finds a new setting far from the punk and indie rock ideologies of Hop Along’s repertoire. Instead of electric guitars, Likewise bursts with synths and strings, and Quinlan’s voice is less rugged—restrained to reveal the fragility and tenderness of her words. You can hear 6

Sam Kesler

her train of thought embedded in each line, such as in the opening track “Piltdown Man,” which begins, “Dawson’s Piltdown man, teeth assembled from that of an orangutan / Why would he do such a thing? Of course, what a stupid question.”

She then abandons that notion, a reference to a case of archaeological fraud, to focus on a scene of innocent childhood filled with visions of wheelbarrows and sick dogs. Many of her ideas come through as evocative scenes pulled from various sources—whether autobiographical or fictional. “There’s certainly pieces of myself in everything,” she says, “I mean, it’s got to feel true, but I don’t want the songs to feel closed, either.”

This type of mixed storytelling is a trademark of hers. Two songs from Hop Along's 2015 album Painted Shut draw from the lives of 20th century musicians Buddy Bolden and Jackson C. Frank, both burdened with mental illness throughout their careers ("Buddy in the Parade" and "Horseshoe Crabs," respectively). Similarly, their 2018 album Bark Your Head Off, Dog explored grand atrocities through the retelling of other works, such as a podcast on World War II ("One That Suits Me") and a story of an incident in Arkansas, where seven convicts were rushed to execution to preempt a lethal injection expiration date (“Somewhere A Judge”).

“It’s so easy for me to get lost in my own head,” she says, “so in a lot of songs, I do try to bring in a glimpse of something happening on the outside that’s bigger than me or from another time other than my own.”

“I’ve lived alone for a few years now,” she says of the song, “and

34TH STREET MAGAZINE JANUARY 22, 2020

I think there can be an accompanying paranoia with loneliness at times. I mean for me, any time I hear a noise in the night, there’s a little part of me that wonders...” The song was one of the first she recorded for the project, and it reminded her how much freedom working as a solo act can have.

“We recorded my guitar and then layered all this stuff on top of it: Rhodes, synthesizers, I play drums on that song. And then at the end, Joe said, ‘Check this out,’ and he just took out the first guitar we laid down, and it was a completely different song.”

Throughout this process, she realized she could worry less about her identity and focus more on being a better collaborator. Quinlan is aware of the irony—despite it being a solo album, members of Hop Along make several appearances. “I don’t know that I could have done this [album] at an earlier time,” she says, “because I don’t know if I’d be able to communicate all my ideas as openly and understandably. It’s such a difficult thing when you’re younger trying to make something, having some feeling I wanted to create, but just not having the wherewithal or the ability to do it.”

On Likewise, Quinlan places her own sound in conjunction with that of Hop Along, existing alongside the project instead of apart.

In tone, the album maneuvers from lively, upbeat tracks like “Your Reply” to more cynical ones like “Went to L.A.” On the latter, Quinlan sings, "Heaven is a second chance," a line that lands like she is grappling with it just as she is

speaking it, digging her teeth into each word.

Immediately following is the track “Lean,” which, like many songs on the album, is filled with lush string arrangements provided by Molly Germer, known for her work with (Sandy) Alex G and Quartet121. Germer’s violin seems to breathe and sigh into each beat, complementing Quinlan’s acoustic guitar, which churns along with a warm tone reminiscent of the Old West. Quinlan came up with the guitar part, she tells me, while trying to learn a Joni Mitchell song in an open tuning, but drew the meaning of "Lean" from a story a friend told her. “I know it isn’t fair,” she sings, “Stories struggle for air.”

“I think there’s kind of a beauty in misinterpretation,” she responds when asked about the line, “I guess I was thinking a lot about, you know, as a songwriter, stories that people tell me do stick with me, and they sometimes find themselves in songs.”

The more time spent with Likewise, the more it reveals. Many songs began as ideas for Hop Along’s last album, set aside for one reason or another. However, you can still hear thoughts and themes trickling from one song to another. An early performance of “A Secret” includes the line, “Go on, bark your head off, dog,” which later found its way into “Look Of Love.”

But, despite how much of the album was built on her past decade of songwriting, Quinlan

finds herself a much different artist than when she began.

“I remember that time very well, that was my first year living away from home, I met a bunch of gifted artists that year,” she says of the period during which she wrote her first album, “But the person who wrote those songs, I hope I’m a better person than who she was.

I think everybody hopes for that."

"I remember how much magic there was in those first few years. I mean there still is, you know, you just have to search a little more.”

In that sense, Likewise is Quinlan’s attempt to retrace her path and place herself in a new mindset all over again. She describes how she and her band worked together in new ways on this project, and how she taught herself some piano and drums to get outside of her comfort zone. She expresses her enthusiasm in learning how to bring that to a live audience on her upcoming leg of shows in support of the album.

Coming back around to solo work after more than a decade, it would be a lie to say that Quinlan didn’t sound apprehensive, but her resolve outweighs her doubt.

“I’ve been in Hop Along since I was 18, it’s the only serious music project I’ve ever been in. It’s such a huge part of my identity, which I’m grateful for, but I just recently realized how much of a life in music I still want to have.”

'Likewise' by Frances Quinlan is available everywhere on Saddle Creek Records starting Jan. 31, 2020.

MUSIC

Harry Styles Finds an Uneven Pace on 'Fine Line'

How the artist's sophomore album offers a string of moments rather than a seamless message.

Mehek Boparai

F

ollowing his roduction, Harry Styles has continuously shaped and reshaped his image in pop music—all while maintaining an attractive repute in his sound. His 2017 self–titled album demonstrated this coolness through fleshed–out images of women in black dresses, toying with what the term “good girl” entails, and ample electric guitar melodies embedded throughout.

Yet, this candid narrative of Styles’s musicianship has transformed into something else. This past December, he released his sophomore album Fine Line, a twelve– track project following two years of the glowing success from his rise as a solo artist.

The album departs from the leather jacket, kiss–and–tell image Styles curated. Rather, it acts rather as a reflection, where he seems to tread backwards in each song.

Deep within this contemplation exists an overall convoluted production. Rather than consistently saturating the common sentiments of excitement or sadness throughout the album, Styles hides them in pocketed moments. The energetic zest in the chorus of “Golden,” the opening track, immediately indicates to fans

Isabel Liang

this album is a grand departure from Styles’s classic, suave repertoire evident in older tracks such as “Carolina” and “Kiwi.”

His sonic experimentation already sparked intrigue with his singles released prior to the album, particularly “Watermelon Sugar.” The track’s lush yet repetitive lyricism, coupled with tangy instrumentals, translates Styles’s appeal well as a songwriter.

This appeal carries over to “Adore You,” a similarly charismatic song that disregards traditional pop tropes in favor of indie rock instrumentals with hints of Portugal. The Man. Styles has proven in the past to harbor a knack for ballads, finding intimacy in intricate details. With Fine Line, however, this isn't the case. “Falling” acts as a confession, yet it leaves the listener with a desire for a more refined understanding of what Styles is actually confessing. The swelled climax to the bridge is diffused with the line “And I get the feeling that you’ll never need me again,” which is unmemorable, forgotten as soon as the track ends. Meanwhile, “Cherry” appears somewhat diluted, as Styles obsesses over his past lover moving on well before he had gotten the

chance to do the same.

Where Styles demonstrates this branched sound and lyrical minimalism best, however, is in the titular track and album closer “Fine Line.”

Stretching past the six–minute mark, the somber promises he brings of moving past his bitter wounds to maintain contact and some

sense of connection with a person are heart–rending.

The acoustics leading into the trumpet melody and repetition of “We’ll be alright” wrap up the album well, yet leave more confusion than ever about where Styles is heading next in his career.

Fine Line may not be as genre–bending or profound

as it seemed to promise with its singles, but it still offers a handful of interesting, innovative moments to an audience still reeling from the wonders of Styles’ first album. And while this project is frustratingly ambiguous, it leaves an appreciation for mystery— which keeps Harry Styles as enigmatic as ever.

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THURSDAYS 5PM - 10PM $9.99 FAJITAS 40th & Spruce St., University city • 215-382-1330 • copauc.com JANUARY 22, 2020 34TH STREET MAGAZINE

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ST YLE

Dig Inn Rebrands —and It's Still as Trendy and Sustainable as Before Now called Dig, the healthy chain comes to Rittenhouse.

ha r ep B e d Su

A

a ga v

t 12 p.m. on a weekday, it's pretty clear that the new, rebranded, fast–casual restaurant Dig has already made a great impression on Rittenhouse’s chicest residents.

The very long line of eager lunchers snakes through the restaurant, passing an open kitchen and potted plants.

The space is very welcoming. The broad window on the face of the restaurant lets in just enough afternoon light to brighten the entire space. Abstract paintings grace the wall, accompanied by folksy music and muted chatter of satisfied diners. The clientele are undeniably cool, and all ages are represented.

While Dig is a New York– based chain, it certainly 8

Avery Johnston

doesn't look or taste like one.

The paper menu listed a wide variety of options for a build–your–own bowl style ordering system (similar to ordering at Chipotle). Customers can choose from items like “Farm Greens with Mint,” “Charred Brussels with Honey–Chili Oil,” and “Meatballs with Tomato Ragu.” Dig offers suggestions for combinations, like their “Classic Dig” bowl, which includes Charred Chicken, Charred Broccoli with Lemon, Classic Brown Rice with Parsley, Roasted Sweet Potatoes, and Garlic Aioli Dressing.

I was not expecting a spectacular meal from a fast–casual eatery, but the Classic Dig bowl was truly incredibly seasoned. I came ex-

34TH STREET MAGAZINE JANUARY 22, 2020

pecting healthy Chipotle lunch, featuring vegetables that were processed and not particularly fresh. I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted a fresh meal with a variety of crisp flavors.

The Charred Chicken was tender and tasted as if it had been charred in my backyard.

The long stalks of Charred Broccoli with Lemon had just enough crunch without being undercooked. These complementary textures mixed well with the fresh Classic Brown Rice with Parsley.

The Roasted Sweet Potatoes were tender and added the perfect starch to the meal.

The Garlic Aioli Dressing drew the dish together to create a savory, tangy lunch.

The Rosemary Vinai-

grette and the Cauliflower with Garlic and Parmesan are honorable mentions from the menu. The Dig made Ginger Mint Lemonade—a sparkling drink with a satisfactory kick of ginger—taste amazing (and I don't even like ginger!)

On top of the wonderful meal and lovely ambiance, Dig’s food sourcing is local and sustainable. Their website explains that Dig sources from 102 farms, and that they “buy from minority–run and small–scale farms, using [their] purchasing power to support sustainable growing practices and invest in the future of farming.” Dig also runs a farm in upstate New York to source some of their veggies.

In July of 2019, Dig Inn

announced that they would be renaming themselves Dig to emphasize that their mission expands beyond just serving good food. For example, since Dig won't use day–old vegetables, they donate their leftovers to reputable organizations.

Dig has the potential to become a Rittenhouse staple—its fresh food, environmentally friendly farming, and sourcing practices, combined with its calming atmosphere ensures that Dig has earned the reputation it seems to have already garnered in other cities.

Location: 1616 Chestnut St Hours: Monday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–10 p.m.

Price: $$

ST YLE

Isabel Liang | Street Design Editor

Can Cakes and Sweaters Enact Political Change?

Power to the people (and to cake).

Karin Hananel

F

or better or for worse, art, media, and protest seem more intertwined than ever these days. Social media's effect on the symbiotic relationship between activism and art is undeniable. New platforms allow artists and activists to amplify one another's voices and grow a following without wealth or fame. For evidence of this, look no further than the trend of subversive femininity that's overtaking our timelines and Instagram feeds.

Set against the backdrop of an administration that has been criticized by many as anti– feminist, these female creators are turning traditionally female hobbies into political action.

Artists are turning previously domestic tasks into feminist works through subversion— the act of taking something meant to have a certain meaning and changing it by undermining established patterns.

Feminist art is specifically about taking parts of daily life previously used to oppress women and transforming them into something empow-

ering. Notable examples include baking, embroidery, and knitting. However, instead of making baby hats, birthday cakes, and tablecloths, women embroider clothes with vaginas or bake cakes that are adorned with middle fingers with the intention of toppling the norms of the craft.

One specific example of the intersection between art, social media, and activism is the hot pink "pussyhats" that emerged while the Women’s March was gaining traction in early 2017. Started by two independent artists who flipped the traditionally domestic task of knitting into a political statement, these kitschy hats soon became the trademark of a defining movement. People took to the streets with them, posted photos with them, and bought them en masse.

Similarly, many other artists subvert decidedly feminine tasks, like baking or embroidery, generating a wave of small yet impactful political statements. Take Becca Rea— Holloway. One of the most– followed subversive bakers,

she's known for emblazoning cakes, pies, and cookies with political statements, facts, and opinions, and posting them to her increasingly--popular Instagram account, @thesweetfeminist. Each post is inspired by the biggest news stories of the moment, with one yellow cake reading, ‘Cyntoia is free!’, and another pink cake with blue lettering noting, ‘ICE stole 680 people yesterday.’ Other cakes are slightly less political, with sayings like ‘some days you just need cake.’

Rea–Holloway’s work is so popular that she’s even been plagiarized by Miley Cyrus and her collaboration with Planned Parenthood, Marc Jacobs, and The Happy Hippie Foundation. In May 2018, Rea–Holloway posted a white cake covered in a pink outline and multicolored confetti sprinkles, adorned with the phrase ‘ABORTION IS HEALTHCARE.’ It garnered lots of attention on the Internet, with reposts across many different social media platforms. Over a year later—in June 2019—Cyrus’ collabora-

tion with Planned Parenthood came out, and the marketing for it featured her licking a cake that was nearly identical to Rea–Holloway’s. Outrage ensued, eventually leading Cyrus to credit Rea–Holloway in an Instagram caption after the baker received death threats for claiming credit.

Compared to a subversive baking scene that’s been full of controversy, the world of subversive embroidery is slightly calmer. Despite its smaller profile on Instagram, huge profits are being made off of the trend by clothing company Lingua Franca. Inspired by her mother–in–law but catalyzed by the outcome of the 2016 election and President Trump’s tweets and sayings, Rachelle Hruska MacPherson made a business out of embroidering political phrases onto cashmere sweaters and other clothing items.

The sweaters, which retail at upwards of $350 feature phrases like ‘love is love,’ ‘my body is not a political playground,’ and ‘I miss Barack.’

Some even quote President Trump directly, with phrases

like ‘bad hombre’ and ‘stable genius.’ While the sweaters are extremely expensive, they still garnered attention throughout social media and gripped the fashion world, with larger companies like Banana Republic copying the unique embroidery style and political phrases at a more approachable price point.

While the statements made by these artists exist as part of a larger movement that turns stereotypically feminine and domestic activities into something teeming with dissidence and anger, the question of whether it does any good still remains. Can an Instagram post of a cake or a sweater really do anything other than spread awareness?

That’s up to the consumer to decide. However, beautiful things can serve as potent fundraisers and inspirations for causes that matter, especially when produced ethically.

After all, if a pretty cashmere sweater inspires someone to take action, or a cake raises money for a worthy cause, then it can only be a good thing.

JANUARY 22, 2020 34TH STREET MAGAZINE

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F E AT U R E

F E AT U R E

Penn students spend semesters in countries rocked by political conflicts.

A B L O L G GOING gn a S i l na

By De

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of Penn students skydiving in Australia, picnicking in front of the Eiffel Tower, or jetting across Europe on the weekends often crowd the social media feeds of those students studying abroad. Abroad is seen as a break from life at Penn and a chance to explore, let loose, and take advantage of lax alcohol policies. But as students kick back for a few months, political conflict bubbles up under many of the places where they choose to study.

Every year Penn Abroad sends more than 2,500 students to over 50 countries for semesters abroad, summer programs, and global seminars.

The stated goal of Penn Abroad is to provide “every Penn student with a meaningful global experience.” Students from all schools fly across the world to program locations ranging from Egypt to Argentina or even to Hungary.

Jesse, a junior studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, was abroad at King’s College in London last semester. He was looking forward to his classes

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on British politics, but he didn’t expect to arrive in the United Kingdom during a real-life politics lesson: Brexit.

London is a popular spot for Penn students looking to experience a different culture while studying in a place where English is the dominant language.

For many, it’s also a jumping-off point for touring Europe— relatively cheap flights and an efficient train system mean that much of the continent is within reach for weekend and day trips.

However, as Parliament battled to negotiate the terms of leaving the European Union, Jesse felt politics encroaching upon his experience abroad.

“It did come up in two of my classes. I took a class called ‘The Integration of the European Union,’ and at the beginning of the semester, that sort of looked like, ‘The Disintegration of the European Union,’” he says. “[Brexit] also—it sort of colored a lot of conversations we had in my British politics class, just because everything that we looked at, there was a link to Brexit,” Jesse says.

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Angela

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Angela Malinovitch (C ’20) arrived in Paris last month for a Penn Global Seminar about Paris under Nazi occupation and the Holocaust in France. Her experience with ongoing political upheaval in Paris was similar to what Jesse found in London.

Penn Global Seminars are courses that culminate in relatively short trips abroad, combining “intensive semester-long study with a short-term travel component that deepens [one’s] understanding of concepts discussed in the classroom.” Angela took the course to learn more about the history of Paris during World War II, but she received an education in much more than just what was on the syllabus.

Paris, another popular abroad destination for Penn students, has erupted into protests and strikes in recent months, as the ongoing yellow vests movement, which began in October 2018, continues. Public transit has been shut down for weeks as Parisians take to the streets to protest a hike in fuel taxes, a move they consider to be an embodiment of President Emannuel Macron’s bias towards the wealthy. Every Saturday, protesters donned with yellow vests march and protest, with some more radical members vandalizing storefronts and starting fires, while police fire tear gas into the crowds. Many are calling for the president’s resignation.

Angela recalls her last Saturday abroad, when she was barred from walking back to her hotel room due to a march into central Paris.

“I had gone shopping that af-

ternoon, I was trying to get back to the hotel, and the Bastille was all blocked off,” she says. “It was almost like a parade. There were floats and people were singing, and they were selling beer and it was just a very fun, solidarity environment, which was just really interesting to see as someone who lived in America her whole life, and that stuff just doesn’t really happen.”

Angela noted that the protests were unexpected but allowed her to think more critically about the issues people around the globe faced, adding a dimension to her abroad experience she wouldn’t have otherwise had.

I think it honestly was just really eye-opening to see people believe in something so much and have so much energy to do this every single week because they believe it's their right,"

- Angela Malinovitch

“I think it honestly was just really eye–opening to see people believe in something so much and have so much energy to do this every single week because they believe it’s their right,” she says.

“We actually had a presentation one night from a professor who teaches at the New School in Paris, his name is Emmanuel Cohen. And he gave us kind of the whole lowdown, like the whole history of strikes in France, and when the big ones were, and why this one today is happening,” she says. “So in terms of the theory behind it,

we learned a lot about that. And I think that helped us to understand and to empathize with the French people.”

Jesse reflects similarly on the Brexit conflict, noting its importance in widening his perspective.

“When you’re in America, you really only get one perspective on Brexit. I believed what I heard a lot of the times, and I didn’t do a lot of my own research into what the actual causes of Brexit were. And being there, especially being in the academic environment of King’s, you start to realize there was so much more at play than just one party saying we wanted to leave, or just like a dislike of the immigration crisis,” he says. “There was just so much more at play, and so I think as someone who is politically aware and tries to engage in politics, I thought it definitely colored [my trip] in a good way.”

Jesse notes that coming into his abroad experience, he had always been politically aware and had been paying attention to the Brexit conflict. But being in London and speaking with British students gave him a new outlook on global issues, an experience he believes students should seek out while studying in a foreign country.

“When Boris Johnson tried to prorogue Parliament and that was shut down, Brexit literally became the topic of conversation for everyone,” he says. “If the American students there were only hanging out with Americans, then it probably would not have come up.”

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s Jesse Fox (C ’21) stepped out into the cold October air above the Waterloo Underground station in London, he was taken aback by a sight ripped straight from the evening news. Thousands of Brits marching by, their faces painted blue, waving European Union flags above their heads. Jesse was abroad for the semester and had flown back from a short trip that morning. The unusual bustle at the Tube stop near his apartment was shocking.

“I asked someone, I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ They were like, ‘There’s a huge protest today in Trafalgar Square,’” he says.

Jesse decided to follow the protesters into Trafalgar Square, a public space in Central London where a large anti-Brexit protest was unfolding.

“I think they said that over a million people throughout the UK that day marched to remain in the EU,” he reflects. “It was just sort of crazy seeing everyone, seeing the signs.”

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Aiden Reiter (C ’20 & W ’20) got a firsthand look into Chinese politics and perspectives on American life during his semester at Peking University. That fall, the trade war between the U.S. and China escalated, and Aiden found himself in the middle of both the 2018 midterm elections and issues with China and President Donald Trump.

“All the classes I took were totally informed by the current events happening,” he says. “I think a lot of my experience was marked by the U.S.–China trade war.”

Aiden also noted rumblings of what is now the pro-democracy protest movement in Hong Kong. The protests, which began over a bill that would allow criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China, have grown to represent a broader fight for democracy for many Hongkongers.

Jesse also spent this past summer working in China, and he remembers that as the news was exploding with media coverage, the dynamic

was quite different inside the country.

“The protests had been going on at this point for a month and a half or maybe even two months,” he says. “I said to one of my Chinese co-workers, like, ‘Wow, it’s so crazy what’s going on in Hong Kong.’ And she looked at me and said, ‘What’s going on in Hong Kong?’

So, in China, it took a month and a half, even longer, for the government to even say anything on state-sponsored media, only because, again, you can’t access outside media unless you have a VPN. So that was sort of crazy to me.”

“While there were protests going on everywhere in the world, in Shanghai, like if you were Chinese, and you didn’t have an outside VPN, there wouldn’t have been a way for you to even know about it,” he says.

Penn students who find themselves in the middle of political events are stuck between the traditional easygoing abroad narrative and the dynamics of the changing political world. Learning

abroad extends beyond the classroom, and the lessons aren’t just academic.

Although protests and social unrest might make it harder to be a tourist or hit the local bars, they provide a perspective that would otherwise be unavailable to someone traveling to a new place for only a few weeks or months.

Angela recalls the intersection between the political subject matter of her trip and the real world experience. The French transit protests initially just meant that she couldn’t get back to her hotel, or that every day was full of walking past closed off metro stops.

But context explained not just what the protests were, but why they were so important.

“Otherwise you kind of get stuck in, like, ‘This sucks because it’s inconveniencing me,’” she says.

“But at the end of the day, when we heard why they’re doing this, there’s a sense of empathy that we all have as humans.

Like okay, I’ll walk a little bit farther today, so that someone else can march.”

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FILM & TV

Is 'Little Women' Really

Feminist?

Greta Gerwig's adaptation still leaves us with more questions than answers.

Sophie Burkholder

I

read Little Women for the first time in sixth grade, climbing to the top of my bunk bed every night armed with the four– inch–thick novel in one hand and a book light in the other. The story of a Civil War–era family of four daughters was one I soon grew infatuated with. So when its latest film adaptation by Greta Gerwig came out, I ran to see it.

I often return to the story, perpetually pining for the unfulfilled romance between Jo and Laurie, praying that Beth will overcome her illness, and halfheartedly wishing for some chaotic interruption to Marmee’s saintly performance as a mother.

Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but can anyone really be that kind?

I felt that each of the March sisters represented a type of girl, and I knew exactly which type I wanted to be. Beth was the sweet and sensitive one, the understanding sister who ended up losing her life after contracting Scarlet Fever from a poor family.

Amy was the beautiful spoiled brat, burning Jo’s handwritten manuscript in a truly despicable act of evil, though ultimately escaping the poverty of her family by marrying rich. Meg was the foolish romantic—the one with a shot at financial security before falling in love with a tutor and having more kids with him than she could really afford.

But then there was Jo, the character meant in some ways to emulate author Louisa May Alcott herself. A strong–willed writer who couldn’t be bothered with the thought of marrying rich or the pursuit of any life that denied her passion to tell stories, Jo’s character filled the pages of Little Women with a rebellious spunk that made the responsible or reasonable approaches of all other characters seem weak and boring. Over time, she became not only the patron saint of writing, but of defying the life implied by economic benefits of marriage, of the kind of woman who could take a comfortable thrill in rejecting the traditional feminine role of her time.

Alcott’s book has a deeply unsatisfying ending in Jo’s marriage to Professor Bhaer (who is surprisingly hot in Gerwig's film), greatly weakening the strength of her conviction that marriage serves only to hold women back from their dreams. Gerwig’s adaptation of the novel—starring dynamic duo Saorise Ronan and Timothée Chalamet—attempts to defy this ending by heavily suggesting that Alcott’s marriage of Jo to someone at the end of the novel was merely a method of paving the way for its publication, being written at a time when unmarried women were considered inferior, disappointing, or scandalous.

There’s ambiguity at the end

14 34TH STREET MAGAZINE JANUARY 22, 2020

Photo by Wilson Webb/Columbia Pictures

of Gerwig’s film, in which Jo’s romance with Professor Bhaer can be interpreted as reality or as an imagined ending to the book she pitches to a newspaper editor. The alteration gives the literary classic an added feminist twist, in which Jo seems to control her own narrative. Even if Jo ultimately chooses to conform to the marriage plot suggested by her editor, Gerwig emphasizes to viewers that in this film adaptation, Jo’s choice to do so is undoubtedly her choice.

But despite Gerwig’s grand efforts to repair the wrongs of the past and give the story a refreshed sense of empowerment, the movie and the book it’s based on both fall short of being the great feminist anthem that female writers (like myself) seem to want it to be.

There is an unavoidable element of whiteness, and consequently of privilege, that runs through the storyline of Little Women.

Though relatively poor in the book, the March family once had wealth, and still maintains ties to sour characters like Aunt March for the privileges afforded by the assumed inheritance from her.

The story takes place during the Civil War, yet there is little mention or acknowledgement of how

different the story would go from the perspective of a black female writer rather than a white one like Jo. There is a notion of social and economic mobility, even if it’s through the trap of marriage, that simply wouldn’t be available to non–white women of this era.

I’m not here to decry Little Women as racist or sheltered, but to recognize the limitations inherent in the story itself. I loved the book growing up, and all the movies that followed, because I could easily identify with any member of the March family. My own identity matched up with theirs, and it strengthened my connection to the characters and my desire to be like them in a way that simply wouldn’t function as well for someone who didn’t come from a white American family with two sisters like I did.

Even with Gerwig’s plot twist, the story will always fall short for readers or viewers that don’t share certain identities with the characters of Little Women. But what’s important to note is that it never pretends to be a narrative for all, but one that’s widely recognized as autobiographical of Alcott’s own individual experience.

There’s no reason to mandate

male crowds to attend Gerwig’s film for a lesson in feminism or to laud Jo as one of the primary inspirations for female writers.

There are ways to watch the film for the heartbreaking story it shares without feeling a need to tether ourselves to its characters.

Truthfully, my years of idolizing Jo were what ripped me to shreds as I sat tearfully watching the movie in theaters a few weeks ago. I spent my childhood blindly aligning my own determination and stubbornness to defy the same societal norms that she did only to lose myself in the deep loneliness that she admits to in the film. It’s the sort of loneliness that comes from telling ourselves the stories of our own lives before they even happen, the kind of emptiness felt from a perfectly followed formula.

But perhaps that’s the power of Little Women, especially for viewers who differ greatly from the Marches.

The new film asks more questions than it answers and exposes more cracks in its premise than it fills, giving us a beginning, rather than an end, to the conversations of those its story leaves out.

FILM & TV

The Oscars Once Again Prove Outdated and Irrelevant The Academy reminds us of their lack of diversity with this year's nominations.

Anna Collins

W

illfully or not, the Oscars are considered an important cultural event and a hallmark of success for actors, directors, and technical crews.

Gaudy outfits get articles devoted to them, coverage of the newscast fills social media, and these awards are considered to be granted to the best of Hollywood. It's hard to ignore how important these awards have become in public perception of actors and films, which both catapults unrecognized performances or directors into the limelight and makes or breaks careers.

The 92nd Oscar nominations were released on Jan. 13, with the award ceremony scheduled for Feb. 9. Although concerned with a similar crowd to last month’s Golden Globes, the Oscars, predictably, caused more drama.

One of the most discussed outcomes of this year’s nominations is the shocking lack of women on the Best Director list. The majority of the outcry surrounded Greta Gerwig’s lack of recognition for directing, despite the fact that her second directorial venture, Little Women, garnered a total of eight nominations, one of which includes Best Picture. Gerwig, as well as stars Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh (nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively) have responded to the apparent robbery.

However, while the media's response focuses solely on Gerwig’s alleged snub, it fails to realize precisely what Gerwig’s lack of nomination implies. She was previously nominated for Lady Bird in 2018, although she lost to Alfonso Cuarón for Roma.

Gerwig is also backed by critical

acclaim and mentored by Steven Spielberg. Gerwig isn't some film business underdog—she created an Academy–adored film, and still was not nominated.

What does this mean for less privileged female directors, like The Farewell’s Lulu Wang or A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’s Marielle Heller? It seems that they never had a chance.

In discussing this Best Director scuffle, however, Bong Joon–Ho’s nomination is often forgotten. As the first Korean to ever be nominated for the award, his inclusion is especially shocking, since the Academy often ignores non–English films, and his movie is the first Korean film to be nominated for both Best Foreign Picture and Best Picture.

Joon–Ho’s masterpiece, Parasite, quickly became a worldwide sensation in spite of the American audience's aversion to subtitles.

Its six nominations made history. Bong’s success, however, is clouded by a hyper–focus on Gerwig's exclusion, whereas Bong should be celebrated for his historical nomination.

Other points of contention are the Best Acting categories, which, unsurprisingly, are full of white people. The trending hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, which began in January 2015, still holds relevant. Across all four acting categories, Cynthia Erivo is the only black person nominated this year, and Antonio Banderas the only Latinx actor.

Another notable snub was Lupita Nyong’o for her performance in Us, Jordan Peele’s second film following his critically adored Get Out. While Get Out received four nominations—including Best Picture and Best

Director—Us has been ignored by the Academy, especially Nyong’o for Best Actress. The Academy has often disregarded the horror genre, and continues to do so this year. 2019 presented a collection of incredible horror films, including Us and Ari Aster’s similarly snubbed summer horror, Midsommar, and the lack of Oscar recognition for the genre only becomes more and more outdated as the quantity of incredible horror movies grows.

Perhaps what is most worrying about the nominations is not just the lack of representation, but also the disdain for people of color or women in the films nominated. For Best Picture, only Lit-

tle Women has a female–led cast, yet still features only white people. In fact, Parasite is the only film that prominently depicts nonwhite people in the entire list. Not only do many of these films not depict women or people of color—they actively build off of their silence or suffering.

The Irishman and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood both contain women barely speaking in their collective 6–hour runtimes, for supposedly poetic purposes, though fail to give these women any deeper analysis. 1917, despite its large cast, only shows a single woman. Joker premises its white male lead’s oppression on the mistreatment of people around

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him, particularly black women.

But what does this mean for the Oscars? There is a shocking lack of timeliness in these nominations and a firm devotion to dated traditions.

Tarantino and Scorsese, considered some of the greatest old–school auteurs, were clear ringers in almost every category. Horror films were, once again, shut out. Perhaps more than anything, this year’s ceremony will firmly cement the Academy as what it has been for a long time now: outdated, irrelevant, and in need of an overhaul—maybe this time representing women and people of color on its committee.

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ARTS

Sally Chen

Was Ben Franklin a Player?

Dr. Carla Mulford investigated the character of Penn's founder this week at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

By Layla Murphy

P

erhaps you’ve heard that Benjamin Franklin was a womanizer. Articles like this one— "Was Benjamin Franklin a Pig?"—reflect the extent to which this rumor has gained traction in the public consciousness. Despite his accomplishments as a father

of the nation and founder of Penn, Franklin’s memory is often tainted with the label of a reckless philanderer.

Dr. Carla Mulford is a professor in the English department at Penn State. She visited the Library Company of Philadelphia this past week to give a talk, titled “Franklin &

Women,” in which she dealt with these rumors—their origins, their validity, and her own opinion on the subject. While she mostly focuses on literature of politics and economics, she has spent close to 30 years studying Franklin and his work.

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quenters, and curious community members—average age of 60—gathered to chat over charcuterie boards and beer in one of the library’s historic foyers. Gradually, close to a hundred people shuffled into the larger room where the lecture was to take place, and the chatter of excited intellectuals died down in anticipation.

Soon after she began her talk, Mulford made her dissenting position clear: Franklin’s view of women was actually quite progressive. She attributed his unfavorable image mostly to his political unpopularity at the time, and drew upon the other ways Franklin demonstrated his views on women—namely by using female aliases as his mouthpieces for social commentary.

Franklin was detested by many for his reform ideas in the 1764 election, and pamphlets just so happened to surface at the time, calling him a “lecher” and a “womanizer.” To be sure, Mulford didn’t outright deny the allegations that Franklin was into philandering—there is consensus in the historical community that he did enjoy the company of women—but she argued that this was not an exhaustive treatment of his relationship with the sex entirely.

He considered women

equally talented to men, as well as gifted homemakers and business-minded in their own right. Not only this, but he also felt that men were prone to hot–headedness at times, and women more to stability. Additionally, we know through his writing under the pseudonyms Silence Dogood, Celia Single, and Polly Baker that Franklin felt there was a “conservative double standard” in how women were treated as opposed to men. They were unreasonably expected to err more on the side of modesty and virtue. Mulford implied that these thoughts, despite seeming backward by modern day standards were progressive given the time.

She concluded the talk with a discussion of how Franklin’s wife, daughter, and sister were all self-starters, with experience handling family finances, business, kitchen work, local politics, and clothes making.

Mulford did not unfairly subject Franklin to modern standards of social understanding. Instead, she looked at how his philosophy fit into the already flawed society in which he lived. So yes, maybe he was a “pig” by our modern standards. Or maybe he was just a good person existing in a society that favored men by default.

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