Tuesday, April 11, 2017

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 46

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Researchers, staff, students attempt to define rape culture Research varies on who perpetrates rape on college campuses, effect of context in sexual assault cases

By SHIRA BUCHSBAUM SENIOR REPORTER

Twenty-five percent of undergraduate women at Brown have been sexually assaulted since they enrolled, according to a 2015 survey conducted by the Association of American Universities. This number is 2 percent higher than the national average of 23 percent.

In 2015, the University began implementing recommendations from the University’s Task Force on Sexual Assault, which led to a unified policy on sexual and gender-based violence and a formalized Title IX investigation process. As the University works toward improving its policy and process around sexual assault, it must grapple with a larger issue that remains on college campuses today — rape culture.

The recent spotlight on sexual assault has lead to the creation of the term “rape culture” to describe a predatory climate that exists on college campuses. Rape culture can be

THE UNDERCURRENT

MATTHEW BROWNSWORD / HERALD

defined as “a concrete manifestation of how sexism works in our society today, specifically related to violence,” said Elliot Ruggles, a sexual harassment and assault resource and education advocate at the University. Rape culture influences how individuals think about sexual assault, who perpetrates it, who experiences it and what environments encourage it. In recent

years, the University has introduced programs and resources, such as the SHARE advocates, which have been designed to address and mitigate rape culture on campus.

Who perpetrates sexual assault?

A 2002 study by David Lisak and Paul Miller, then a postdoctoral fellow at the Alpert School of Medicine,

found that sexual assaults are perpetrated by a few repeat offenders.

Though this study has come under contention, some universities still consider it when developing institutional sexual assault policies.

But a 2015 study by Kevin Swartout, assistant professor of psychology at Georgia State University, found the focus on serial predators as the

predominant perpetrators of assault “misguided.”

“We’ve been maybe overcounting the number of serial rapists, not that serial rapists don’t exist,” Swartout said.

Repeat perpetrators of assault on college campuses, Swartout argues, generally fall into one of two categories: those who are likely to commit » See ASSAULT, page 2

Former President of Brazil discusses challenges of democracy, impeachment Dilma Rousseff touches on success of social reform, calls fall from power political coup

By JONATHAN DOUGLAS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Former President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff spoke on the successes and challenges of her presidency as well as Brazil’s current political climate as part of a tour of seven American universities on the challenges of democracy at the University Tuesday. She came as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series organized by the Watson Institute for International Affairs and the Brazil Initiative. Rousseff ’s 2016 impeachment was a theme throughout her speech.

Though she was impeached as a result of various charges of budgetary violations and her ousting was not done militarily, Rousseff insisted that her fall from power was a political coup d’etat rather than an impeachment. Rousseff has maintained this position since the beginning of her trial and has added that political coups d’etat have become increasingly common in Latin America.

Rousseff also highlighted various

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

Dilma Rousseff spoke at Sayles Hall as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, organized by the Watson Institute and the Brazil Initiative. Improving the electoral process will be keys to improving Brazilian democracy, she said. successes of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s tenure as well as her own. Rousseff — who served as the chief of staff for Lula before ascending to the presidency — touted a decrease in poverty and hunger as well as social reform aimed at those in extreme poverty as some of the greatest triumphs

of her tenure.

Improving the living standards of the poor is a necessary precursor to any universal social program, Rousseff said. Without programs such as Bolsa Familia —a social welfare agenda aimed at culling extreme poverty started under Lula and expanded under Rousseff

— Brazil will be unable to provide universal services for all of its citizens in the future, she said.

Rousseff stressed the importance of promoting education, which she cited as a focus of her presidency. Education creates wealth and will be one of the key elements in promoting growth within

INSIDE

Brazil in the coming years, Rousseff said.

In the future, Rousseff added, improving the electoral process and expanding democracy are key to both Brazil’s and the world’s political success.

Rousseff fielded a variety of preselected questions from members of the Brown community, discussing topics ranging from HIV/AIDS treatment in Brazil to Rousseff ’s early political motivations. When asked by Julia Wu ’17 about the message she would send to Brazil’s youth, Rousseff highlighted the economic potential of Brazil’s consumer market, the improved transportation in and out of the country and the past success of youth-oriented programs, such as Science without Borders, a scholarship program for Brazilian students seeking to study topics within STEM fields.

James Green, professor of Portuguese and Brazilian studies and the director of the Brazil Initiative, helped organize the event. He hoped her speech “would let people know about her vision for Brazil and encourage debate about the country.”

Franco Fróes ’20, a Brazilian student, said that though Rousseff did a » See ROUSSEFF, page 3

WEATHER

NEWS UTRA funding offers opportunities for summer research with faculty, peers

NEWS Swearer Center emphasizes integrating service, academics, community relationships

COMMENTARY Miller ’19: By politicizing content, Teen Vogue gives readers needed tools to understand current events

COMMENTARY Johnson ’19: BCA’s spring weekend lineup reflects importance of diversity in music

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PAGE 2 • TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Admin. contests SUGSE’s influence on grad student benefits Graduate students voice concerns over administration’s unofficial stance on unionization

By ROSE SHEEHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Since August 2016, when the National Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate students can be considered statutory employees, the University has remained neutral on the question of graduate student unionization, said Provost Richard Locke. As Stand Up for Graduate Student Employees continues its push for unionization following the graduate student body’s selection of the American Federation of Teachers as a union affiliate, the administration aims to create a “climate that is well-informed and fair and free of all intimidation,� so graduate students can independently decide whether or not to unionize, he added.

Yet, some graduate students feel

that despite the University’s official stance, a current of discouragement toward unionization underlies its communication with them, said Lubabah Chowdhury GS, a member of SUGSE. As the University tries to determine its role in the unionization process, a disconnect has emerged between administrators and SUGSE over the organization’s role and identity. “Prior to the unionization movement, SUGSE was very active in grad student rights,� said Ian Harding GS, a member of SUGSE. In February 2015, under the name Stand Up for Graduate Students, SUGSE rallied for dental insurance, post-fifth-year funding and other healthcare concerns.

As unionization became an option, a group of SUGSE members started to conduct research and hold discussions to select its options for union affiliation — United Automobile Workers and the AFT, Chowdhury said. SUGSE independently organized the affiliation vote, she added.

SUGSE also launched a canvassing

campaign asking graduate students what they sought from a union and explaining the benefits of unionization, Harding said. SUGSE members also attended departmental graduate student meetings and hosted events such as an affiliation information session, Chowdhury said.

During his time as provost, Locke has exchanged emails with SUGSE, he said. However, while he has met with the Coalition of Concerned Graduate Students of Color and Allies and hosts monthly meetings with the leadership of the Graduate Student Council, Locke has never met in-person with a group formally identifying itself as SUGSE, he added. Though he has told members of SUGSE in emails that he would be interested in meeting to discuss graduate student concerns, including unionization, the organization has never scheduled a meeting with him, Locke said.

The administration doesn’t “even really know what SUGSE is. ‌ We thought it was an amorphous, anonymous group of students,â€? said Kevin

McLaughlin, dean of the faculty. “The group of students involved there don’t seem to coordinate; they don’t seem to agree on things collectively and then make their positions known,� he added.

SUGSE is horizontally organized, and individual members determine their own level of involvement in the group, Chowdhury said. Speaking as an individual rather than as a representative of SUGSE, Chowdhury added that this horizontal structure means that SUGSE members are often also involved in other student organizations.

This might account for the perceived lack of contact between SUGSE and the administration. “I could show up to a meeting on the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan and identify myself as a member of Concerned Graduate Students of Color and not necessarily identify myself as a member of SUGSE,� Chowdhury said.

In a March 21 response to SUGSE’s Report on Graduate Student Union Affiliation Options at Brown, Locke contested claims that “many of the recent

enhancements to graduate student stipends, benefits and quality-of-life support were the result of SUGSE pressure and advocacy� and that SUGSE has “taken a leading role in the development of the University’s Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan.�

Though members of SUGSE may have been involved in formulating the DIAP, the organization never identified itself in “any of the scores of meetings I had with students� about the plan, Locke said. SUGSE also did not lobby Locke directly for graduate student benefits like dental insurance and sixthyear funding, he added.

The Office of the Provost’s response was not intended to minimize or discount the work that various student groups, including SUGSE, have done to help with the development of the DIAP and to advocate for graduate student benefits, Locke said. Rather, the letter aimed to show that efforts have also been made by others, including members of the administration, to work toward these same goals, he added.

Âť ROUSSEFF, from page 1

originally imagined. He had previously been exposed to the narrative of Rousseff ’s corruption from media sources, Avalos said. But Rousseff ’s justifications and explanations regarding both her own actions and the actions of other presidents gave an alternative side to that narrative. “She started to win me over as she talked,� he said.

good job of discussing the successes of her tenure, she largely ignored her failures, such as the rising budget deficit and her failure to alleviate systemic conditions that enable poverty in Brazil.

To Manuel Avalos ’19, Rousseff was a much more likeable figure than he had

Âť ASSAULT, from page 1

The Role of Contagion in the Building and Sustainability of Communities Carlos Castillo-Chavez Regents Professor, a Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professor of Mathematical Biology and a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist at Arizona State University

Contagion is sneaky! All seems well until the Tipping Point, after which terrible WKLQJV PD\ KDSSHQ Ì IDVW 7KH VSUHDG RI IDGV VFLHQWLĆF LGHDV DQG WKH JURZWK DQG stability of communities can also be understood as contagions. Come hear Carlos explain contagion in all its glory, including the role of initial conditions in meritocracy.

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017, 5:30 p.m.

85 WATERMAN STREET, ROOM 130 Online registration is now open at: brown.edu/thinking-out-loud

rape before college, but not during, and those that commit assault “for the first time at college,� he said.

Whenever the University conducts a Title IX investigation, it considers the possibility that an accused student could be a repeat offender, said Russell Carey, vice president of policy and planning. The investigator reviews files for previous complaints about an individual and will pursue new information if further accusations arise, Carey said.

The University rarely deems individuals a threat to campus and takes “emergency� action — as they might do if multiple people had filed formal complaints against one person, Carey said.

The centralized Title IX Office “ensures better coordination of (such) information� and can help identify a culture of harassment or assault, Carey said. “Maintaining a centralized database and records is not necessarily about individuals� but to recognize that “patterns can be in departments and organizations,� he added.

Context and culture Rather than focusing on the few repeat offenders who repeatedly commit sexual assault, Swartout is interested

in how rape culture “gets magnified in certain contexts� and cultivates environments where aggression, especially toward women and gendernonconforming people, is accepted and even encouraged.

A changing peer group or alcohol use may influence the existence of rape culture that leads to sexually violent behaviors, he said. When students enter college, their peer networks change, and they may leave a group that encouraged sexual violence and enter one that does not, or vice versa.

Likewise, alcohol use may have decreased after high school for those who stopped their sexual violence in college. For those who have committed sexual assault for the first time in college, alcohol use may have begun in college, Swartout said.

Some may not recognize or deny that they are a part of rape culture. People may use stereotypes about sexual assaults, called “rape myths,â€? to “justify or rationalize sexually aggressive behavior,â€? wrote Lindsay Orchowski, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior, in an email to The Herald. Rape myths include the belief that someone must fight back for an incident to be considered rape, that individuals from “nice homesâ€? never rape or that people use accusations of rape as a method of vengeance, she wrote. Âť See ASSAULT, page 8

NEWS

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Students receive funding to gain experience through summer research UTRA program seeks to expand funding to underclassmen without past research experience

By MIA PATTILLO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Each year, Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards provide students with funding to conduct research with a University faculty member. The recently announced cohort of recipients for this summer include students across various fields of study who received funding for both standard and Interdisciplinary-Team UTRAs, said Oludurotimi Adetunji, associate dean for undergraduate research and inclusive science and director of the UTRA program.

This summer will be the third year of the University’s recently developed ITeam UTRAs, which fund teams of two to six students to collaborate on projects.

The aim of this award is to provide opportunities for a wide range of first- and second-year underrepresented students and those “who haven’t done much research before or are underrepresented,” Adetunji said.

Of the funded UTRAs for this summer, 15.5 percent were awarded to historically underrepresented groups, he said. Applications from HUGs made up 17.8 percent of total UTRA applications.

“Younger students sometimes don’t think they have a chance at research,” Adetunji said. I-Team UTRAs have increased the number of underclassmen pursuing UTRAs, he added.

One student who took advantage of this opportunity last year was Maryam Ahmad ’19, who worked on tissues in a biomedical engineering lab with her I-Team.

While the standard UTRA application process includes finding a professor and coming up with a proposal, the

I-Team UTRA process is much simpler, Ahmad said. After receiving an email announcing the available projects, Ahmed applied directly to a professor who had announced a proposal.

“As a freshman who didn’t really know how to pursue research opportunities, it was really helpful that everything was mostly set up for me,” Ahmad said. Her team received extended funding to continue doing work into the fall semester, she added.

Timothy Sudijono ’19 applied for an I-Team UTRA on topological data analysis, a branch of math that studies shapes and geometry. As a math concentrator, he was excited to apply his knowledge to real life settings, he said.

“I was initially interested because of the math aspect, but I’m really excited for the interdisciplinary (aspect) of it,” Sudijono said. His team project is part of a joint program with the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mechanics and will run from mid-June through August, he added.

Students can also propose research ideas through the standard UTRA process.

Rebecca Cheng ’18, a physics concentrator who wanted to make headway on her senior thesis, reached out to professors whose work interested her to find an opportunity, she said. “(The application process) was really easy because one professor I wanted to work with had already come up with a project that sounded exciting,” Cheng said. Her research will focus on collecting data for superconductors and the activation energy required to overcome resistance in metals, she added.

While UTRAs are often heavily STEM-focused, humanities concentrators can also pursue research opportunities.

Anya Hong ’19, a classics concentrator, was talking to her Roman

MATTHEW BROWNSWORD / HERALD

history professor about his work with the U.S. Epigraphy Project — a national searchable database of different inscriptions and their translations — when he suggested that she work with him over the summer through an UTRA. Though she didn’t necessarily

expect to receive an UTRA, Hong is excited to be working on the site, she said. She and her professor have planned for her to work rotationally on different aspects, including encoding various parts of speech, photoshopping images and organizing information in the database.

The UTRA application “basically writes itself once you meet with your professor,” who assists with the content, Hong said. “It’s so easy to apply and honestly such a great opportunity to get to work with a professor,” she added. “I would encourage everyone to apply for it.”

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PAGE 4 • TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Swearer Center grapples with history, identity under new strategic plan Philosophy in strategic plan shifts from direct service to emphasis on community partnerships

By ANNA KRAMER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

This story is the first in a three-part series about the ongoing evolution of the Swearer Center for Public Service and its philosophy in relation to the Providence community.

“I started college in 2008 … (when) there was a tent city in Providence,” said Beth Caldwell ’12.

The housing crisis drew Caldwell to join Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere ­— a group that serves the immediate needs of the city’s homeless population — during her freshman year. As she became more involved, Caldwell realized that Brown’s resources and research could be invaluable to the community if properly leveraged.

Her interest in combining service and academic learning — called engaged scholarship — represents the Swearer Center’s broader evolution over the last 10 years. In 2016, the Swearer Center drafted a 10-year strategic plan in an effort to formalize the University’s commitment to engaged scholarship. The plan also aimed to mitigate long-standing concerns that Brown had been impressing its values on the greater Providence community.

Since then, the Swearer Center has undergone a period of tense and controversial transition. Though many students credit much of these changes to Swearer Center Director Mathew Johnson, who was charged with creating the plan, the development of the center’s philosophy began years before his arrival.

Former University President Howard Swearer founded the center in 1986 as one of the first hubs for public service on a college campus, Mandel said.

He placed the center in the office of the dean of the College to “structurally underscore that service and education were linked,” she added.

The Swearer Center began its transition to combine service and academics under Roger Nozaki MAT’89, director of the Swearer Center from 2005 to 2014, Mandel said. “The beginnings of the strategic plan … predated me and (Johnson).”

Prior to Johnson’s arrival, not all students and programs engaged with the expertise of community partners, Mandel said. Hundreds of students spent free time volunteering, but few linked their service to their learning, she added.

Returning to the center’s original goal, the University’s 2013 Building on Distinction strategic plan aimed to strengthen the links between academics and public service.

Nozaki recalls students discussing “their two separate lives” — one

connected to service and the other to academics, he said. The arrival of President Christina Paxson’s P’19 spurred the creation of programming that links scholarship and service, Nozaki said.

As part of Paxson’s Building on Distinction plan, the Swearer Center initiated a series of programs that became the backbone of its strategic plan in 2016. Johnson continued to build off of Paxson’s plan as he moved forward with previously existing initiatives and created new programs, Mandel said.

Established about 20 years ago, the Royce Fellowship was one of the first programs that funded projects to link service with learning and currently provides summer grants for student research, Mandel said. In 2013, the University created the now-defunct Tri-Lab, a research seminar for students that linked the community in collaborative work with the classroom, Johnson said. Each semester, the seminar identified a problem in the community and attempted to create concrete solutions, The Herald previously reported. For instance, one seminar addressed prisoner health and education. Though it was a popular program, the resource-intensive seminar was financially unsustainable given the small number of students it served, Johnson said.

The Engaged Scholars Program, which launched in spring 2015 and incorporates public service into academic concentrations, drew upon the

HBO Documentary Premiere Wednesday, April 12th 5:00 - 7:00 pm Sayles Hall

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Former Swearer Center director Roger Nozaki MAT’89 stands with President Christina Paxson P’19. Their vision continues to guide the Swearer Center. success of Tri-Lab to create a scaledup and more financially stable version of the program. The ESP was developed under Nozaki’s leadership and launched under former interim Director of the Swearer Center Kate Trimble. The Building on Distinction plan highlighted the developing ESP as an area for potential growth.

As the Swearer Center developed its plan, it sought to address its history of sometimes inconsiderate and unethical impositions on the Providence community, according to multiple Swearer Center students, staff members and alums.

The fear of ignorant and harmful ideas is embedded in the culture of the Swearer Center, which serves more than 100 community organizations and involves more than 1,500 students, said Eli Beck ’17, a community fellow for the Outdoor Leadership Environmental Education Program.

Every student interviewed for this series mentioned the fear of imposing on the community when participating in service for the Swearer Center, but none identified specific examples of past incidents.

Before officially becoming director in January 2016, Johnson worked as a University consultant and spoke with community partners ­— nonprofit organizations that serve the needs of greater Providence in areas such as healthcare and education — to develop an understanding of their relationships with Swearer. He discovered common threads of discontent, primarily centered around some students’ lack of understanding and respect for community organizations.

Several partners spoke of students’ lack of humility, Johnson said. Many even preferred students from other universities who were “on time and

followed direction.”

Brown students were often “late, unprofessionally dressed and tried to tell employees how to do their job,” he said. “Many (community) partners felt like they were spending too much time training (Brown) students” in professionalism, their position within society and relationships.

“Community members also reported frustration about what they call Brown pop-ups,” he said. Students often created new programs to address an issue they witnessed in the community rather than working with an existing program. After the students who created the programs left the University, many of those organizations fell apart, leaving the community bereft of needed services, he said.

Community partners on the 2015 search committee for the center’s new director echoed the sentiment, expressing frustration with Brown students who volunteered in the city for a summer, only to leave after 13 weeks without finishing projects, Mandel said.

This criticism extends as far back as 2011. “Undergraduate tutors are too transient” in Providence public schools, said Zack Mezera ’13, The Herald previously reported.

Mezera, who still lives in Providence, now works as the executive director of the Providence student union, an organization he developed with the center’s support. “Brown students still … share their opinions without … considering the context or putting in the time to understand what the community actually needs,” he said. He added that Swearer Center is “very self conscious” of that studentcommunity dynamic and does “a great job of encouraging conversations” on the subject.

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TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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spring on the green

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sudoku

HUAYU OUYANG / HERALD

The green comes alive with the change in the weather aas it begins to feel like spring. With temperatures rising, students desert the library and bring books outside to enjoy a sunny start to the week.

Q U O T E O F T H E D AY

“­People have an illusion of safety at Brown because we crossword

tend to ignore the fact that we have all been socialized in very similar ways.”

— Marc Peters, health promotion specialist

See Assault on page 1.

CORRECTION Correction: A previous version of an article published April 5 titled “Middle East Studies hosts film series on displacement” listed the “The Cosmopolitical Forest” as “The Cosmopolitan Forest.” The Herald regrets the error.

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Duck Hunt 9:00 A.M. Stephen Roberts ’62 Campus Center

Fluids At Brown 3:00 P.M. Barus and Holley, 190

Chuck Davis ’82: Following Your Passion 5:00 P.M. Petteruti Lounge

House Party App Executive Comes to Brown!

5:30 P.M. Wilson Hall, 309

TOMORROW 2017 Annual Research Symposium 9:30 A.M. Alumnae Hall

What is Race?

12:00 P.M. The Sharpe Refectory, Chancellors Dining Room

Rian Thum: Chinese Pilgrims, Indian Pirs 12:00 P.M. Watson Institute

Dan Maffei ’90: In The Political Trenches 12:00 P.M. Watson Institute

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Response to ‘Free speech is not a problem on campuses’ To the Editor: I am writing to comment on Clare Steinman’s Mar. 17 piece, “Free speech is not the problem on campuses” and to correct some misinformation therein. I am a graduate of Middlebury College and Brown and have recently retired after a 42-year career in higher education. My political leanings are left/liberal. I am not sure I would characterize college students today as “coddled,” but they are certainly more insulated from certain aspects of the real world than were students in my day.

I deplore what took place at Middlebury several weeks ago. Charles Murray is a racist creep, in my opinion, and probably should not have been invited to speak at the college. But once he had been invited, and once there, he should have been granted the courtesy of being heard. In the mid1960s several of my friends and I traveled to Hanover, New Hampshire to hear George Wallace speak at Dartmouth. We booed his more egregious statements (we were horrified that the majority of Dartmouth students in the audience cheered these same statements), but we did not heckle him off the stage nor try to prevent him from speaking, even though we found his message hateful. Those who prevented Murray from speaking at Middlebury should face consequences, especially those who took violent actions which injured a faculty member badly enough to require hospitalization. Student participants should face suspension or expulsion, and those involved in violence should be prosecuted in the courts.

Steinman asserts that “free speech and expression in the 1960s were truly threatened thanks to a limited number of outlets and a repressive political climate.” This is simply not true. Yes, there was no internet and only three major television networks, but we had access, through television, radio and the print media, to the full spectrum of political opinion from George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, Curtis LeMay and the like on the far right to H. Rap Brown, Abby Hoffman, Bobby Seales, Malcolm X and others on the left and everything in between. The unfortunate confrontation at the 1968 Democratic political convention was fully covered on television and extensively in the print media.

I believe that “free speech and expression” are far more threatened today than in the 1960s. After all, we managed to impeach former President Richard Nixon and force his resignation in 1974. President Trump, Steve Bannon and others in the current administration would like to roll back some of the press freedoms that we enjoy, but I have confidence that the Supreme Court (even with the addition of Neil Gorsuch) will not lead us down that path. Yes, the court has chipped away at some of the fundamentals of our democratic society with rulings like Citizens United, but in the end I do not see them supporting a fascist or totalitarian state. Free speech is threatened if Ray Kelly is not allowed to speak at Brown and Charles Murray is prevented from speaking at Middlebury.

P IA M I L E A F- PAT E L

Peter Allen MA’68 PhD’72

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COMMENTARY TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

When politics are in (Teen) Vogue EMILY MILLER staff columnist The bright magentas, canary yellows and cerulean blues that line the pages of Teen Vogue present a glossy tableau of the latest in fashion, color and style. Yet, Vogue’s younger sibling has begun to emerge from its cocoon of teen bliss. Since 2016, two new monochrome colors have spread over its pages. Today, sophisticated columns in black and white challenge teens to confront and expand their views. Despite criticism, Teen Vogue’s political coverage plays an important part in the broader political and feminist discussion of our time.

Upon its creation in 2003, Teen Vogue’s founding editor-in-chief Amy Astley described its mission to the New York Times: “We are going to do what we do well, which is fashion, beauty and style.” For many years, the magazine stuck to that formula, focusing primarily on clothing, makeup tips and interviews with celebrity heartthrobs. But, after a 2016 editorial shake-up led to the promotion of Elaine Welteroth, the youngest and second African-American Condé Nast editor, Teen Vogue amended its mission to include providing sophisticated yet readable commentary on a broad range of social and political topics.

Most famously, Lauren Duca’s ar-

ticle in the Dec. 10 issue, “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America,” likened President Trump to a psychological abuser targeting the American people. The article garnered 30,000 retweets, including some from journalists on National Public Radio and CBS News. Duca was then invited on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show, where he berated her for covering both politics and fash-

political views before reaching voting age. Others criticize the juxtaposition of articles entitled “The Syrian Town That Was Chemically Attacked Was Just Bombed Again” and “Selena Gomez and The Weeknd Just Became Instagram Official,” arguing that the contrast may seem inappropriate in a fashion journal for teens and inadvertently trivialize serious issues. Many fear that the teens read-

tion cycles — 50 percent of eligible young voters between the ages of 18 and 24, or about 24 million youths, voted in the 2016 election. By 2020, many of Teen Vogue’s readers will be of voting age, and they must be ready to make informed political decisions.

Teen Vogue’s decision is especially admirable when placed in the broader context of women and teen-

Teens nowadays have to navigate through an extremely politicized landscape. It is nearly impossible to escape politics and current events, and Teen Vogue is only providing its readers with the tools to better understand systemic issues.

ion: “You should stick to the thighhigh boots … You’re better at that.”

These comments, deeply sexist and uninformed, echo the sentiments of many others who believe women and their magazines should stick to traditional “women’s” topics, such as beauty and fashion.

There are many critiques levelled at Teen Vogue’s change in focus. Some are already clamoring that Teen Vogue’s activist bent is “brainwashing” malleable adolescents in the midst of formulating their own

ing these commentary pieces cannot discern the difference between an op-ed and an news story aimed at objectivity.

Yet, all of these criticisms miss a fundamental fact: Teens nowadays have to navigate through an extremely politicized landscape. It is nearly impossible to escape politics and current events, and Teen Vogue is only providing its readers with the tools to better understand systemic issues. Teenagers will undoubtably play a vital role in future elec-

agers in politics. It should not be surprising that a magazine known for promoting celebrity fashion to young readers is seen by many as incompatible with a serious journal. In part, this reflects the antiquated view that teens and women are not, and should not be, interested in politics.

But these notions were the very same ones used to undermine women’s empowerment in the twentieth century. Just as we have largely acknowledged that women have a major role to play in this country, we should re-

alize that the same applies to teens.

In that respect, Teen Vogue’s stand is indicative of a wider trend encouraging teens to be informed and contributing citizens. Teen Vogue’s digital editor Phillip Picardi affirms this view: “I think young people, and perhaps particularly young women are so wildly underestimated by the world at large, and I want us to be a platform that challenges that idea.” Teen Vogue sees itself as providing a platform for its readers to gain a stronger voice.

Just as we must view Teen Vogue as more than just a fashion magazine, we should see its readers as informed political citizens hoping to educate themselves further on contemporary political issues and actively contribute to today’s complex narratives. But Teen Vogue’s editorial board must maintain vigilant oversight. As a start, the magazine should more clearly delineate its political opinion sections from glamour ideas, so that they do not underplay major issues. As long as Teen Vogue continues to use credible sources and produce relevant and thoughtful political content, it will serve as a powerful new tool to engage a nascent group of readers.

Let’s take Teen Vogue’s new breadth as a serious opportunity to educate our next generation of teens.

Emily Miller ’19 can be reached at emily_miller@brown.edu.

A more diverse Spring Weekend GRACE JOHNSON staff columnist Last Spring Weekend, the entire Main Green grumbled of lip syncing and poor vocals. Fetty Wap disappointed students who needed a solid chorus to stabilize their swaying mass.

This year, we can hope for stronger performances. But our student body, even in its spring stupor, craves more than just musical capability. We care about the artist behind the voice and what she represents. We care about who we see elevated on stage. Spring Weekend is not only a chance to relax to the soundtrack of great artists but also an opportunity to celebrate diversity, one of music’s many gifts.

In the music industry, diversity is still a major concern. The corporate distributing world faces the same social barriers that run through almost every other industry. A 2016 U.K. study found that women make up only 30 percent of top music industry executives. Likewise, black, Asian and ethnic minority groups make up around 20 percent of entry-level jobs in the industry. That number drops by half when looking up the executive ladder. The music world is also not an exception to gender and racial pay gaps. At the performance level, the 2015 Billboard Hot 100 list hit a record low in diversity the same year artists boycotted the Grammys for the overwhelmingly white list of nominees. And in 2013, not a single black artist earned a No. 1 Hot 100 single.

In our microcosm here on campus, we can hold the industry to a higher standard. The Brown Concert Agency has the ability to con-

scientiously feature diverse voices. Of course, there is no lack of talent in any demographic, so the BCA can prioritize diversity and inclusion in their choices without compromising musical integrity. Each spring carries the potential for challenging our whitewashed pop culture. Spring Weekend lineups have progressively become more diverse, leading to the fantastic lineup this year. This year’s pro-

culinity often perpetuated by male rappers — in his 2016 Calvin Klein campaign, he said “there’s no such thing as gender.”

This year’s lineup demonstrates an increased attention to diversity in music. Ten years ago, the Saturday concert featured four bands, none of which reflected the diversity of our student body and nation. The Saturday set list five years ago was more diverse, but

In a period when the University is investing millions to support diversity and inclusion, the lineup for this year’s Spring Weekend offers a timely signal of the campus commitment to these ideals.

gram features three solo-act women of color — Princess Nokia, Empress Of and Erykah Badu. Princess Nokia is a vocal advocate for the queer community, and her song “Young Girls” was called a “feminist paradise” with its female Utopian music video. Cherry Glazerr are self-proclaimed feminists who do not follow gender norms, and with their description of female friendships as “beautiful and intense,” they complement Princess Nokia’s music. And Young Thug defies the hypermas-

still fell short of showcasing a range of different voices and perspectives. This improvement is not just true of Brown: Across the Ivy League, spring concerts have grown more inclusive. While this year’s Slope Day at Cornell is overwhelmingly white, Princeton Lawnparties exclusively features black hip hop artists and rappers and Columbia’s Bacchanal features Mykki Blanco, an artist who identifies as transfeminine. Our student bodies are pushing for inclusion, and spring concerts are

making progress.

In a period when the University is investing millions to support diversity and inclusion, the lineup for this year’s Spring Weekend offers a timely signal of the campus commitment to these ideals. The BCA’s choices shows that student action can catalyze progress in all spheres of campus life. The lineup exposes more students to diverse artists, providing a space for students to make memories with musical styles they might not listen to themselves. Moreover, the BCA is bringing more attention to these deserving performers.

Not only does this year’s lineup feature more artists of color and gender non-conforming artists, it features more genre-bending artists. Erykah Badu is a rapper, singer and dancer, crossing borders between performance types. Aluna Francis and George Reid quite literally fused names and styles to become AlunaGeorge. Princess Nokia fuses hip hop and rap while incorporating her Puerto Rican and Taino heritage. The lineup all together is an innovative melange of artists who defy simple categorization in identity and genre. We are guaranteed two entire days free of labels and boxes.

And on Spring Weekend later this month, we will be immersed in that liberating environment. Even without understanding hip hop history or particularly liking rap as a genre, a diverse and inclusive space lets us learn. Exposure to different musical styles is one more way to expand our understanding of different perspectives. Thank you in advance, BCA, for this celebration.

Grace Johnson ’19 can be reached at grace_johnson@brown.edu.

NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» ASSAULT, from page 2 Intoxication can be “used as an excuse to act out aggression or hypermasculine traits,” said Marc Peters, health promotion specialist and interim deputy Title IX coordinator for undergraduate students.

“So many (perpetrators) only perpetrate during a limited period of time,” Swartout said. “It’s not necessarily about them, it’s about the situations that” they put themselves in.

Alcohol and sex can create a noxious, potentially harmful, combination.

The 2015 AAU survey found that 5.4 percent of undergraduate females had been raped while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

And Brown students often use alcohol to excuse their sexual behavior, especially in the context of hookup culture, said Lauren Shin ’19, who researched hook-up culture in Brown Greek life.

But Swartout warned that perpetrators should not use his research as context to justify violence and noted that his study cannot quantify whether an assault is context-dependent.

Toxic masculinity

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

Rape culture can manifest in environments that reinforce toxic masculinity — or the construction of masculinity as violent, unempathetic and sexually aggressive, Peters said.

In those contexts, people may adopt practices like disregarding survivors, blaming victims and defending the notion of men protecting other men, he said. Concurrently, hypermasculinity encourages heavy alcohol use and competitive drinking at parties, he said.

Toxic masculinity contributes to the “societal expectation that men will be the initiator of sex, while women are supposed to be passive,” Peters added.

“People have an illusion of safety at Brown because we have a tendency to ignore the fact that we’ve all been socialized in very similar ways” to people outside of Brown, Peters wrote in a follow-up email.

In fall 2015, Peters began coordinating Masculinity 101, a weekly group for masculine-identifying people. Peters encourages students to recognize problems with hypermasculinity and societal expectations of “what it means to be a man.”

“Gendered power dynamics are inherent in all relationships we have with people,” Ruggles said. “We all get

to decide as individuals how much of a product of socialization we want to be.”

Rape culture and intersectional identities Toxic masculinity contributes to the misconception that people who perpetrate sexual assault are aggressive predators while victims of sexual assault are passive and submissive. Much of national discourse perpetuates these profiles by centering on the narratives of survivors who fit a certain image, usually a cisgender white woman.

Je-Shawna Wholley, program coordinator at the LGBTQ Center, said that failing to recognize the identities that go beyond the gender of those who “experience harm contributes to rape culture by defining who is capable of being raped and who is not.”

Individuals who share marginalized identities are not the typical subjects of studies, Wholley added.

Homophobia and transphobia dehumanize queer people, which allows others to justify committing violence against them, said Molly Sandstrom ’17, a Masculinity Peer Educator.

Wholley noted that violence comes in different forms, particularly for individuals who may present as gendernonconforming. One masculine-presenting woman Wholley interviewed for her research said she had been viciously cat-called. The men yelled they were going to “‘fuck her straight,’” Wholley said, adding that they “used the threat of sexual violence as a way to attack her and her identity.”

ELI WHITE / HERALD

Molly Sandstrom ’17 is a masculinity peer educator on the masculinity peer educator program as part of BWell health promotion.

Likewise, the hypersexualization of gay men and bisexual women in popular media and discourse may make others feel more entitled to their bodies, Sandstrom said.

“We know queer and trans folks experience sexual harassment and assault at higher rates,” Sandstrom added.

Numerous studies have illustrated the disparate trends in sexual assault, and last year’s AAU confirmed the same tendency at Brown.

In 2015, conversations between students and the Sexual Assault Task Force surfaced concerns that members of marginalized communities felt they were targeted specifically because

of their identities and did not have channels of support to manage the aftermath of violence, said Maahika Srinivasan ’15, former undergraduate council student president.

Srinivasan said that when hiring the Title IX coordinator and SHARE advocates, the hiring committees ensured that the candidates understood diversity in the broadest sense.

Wholley added, “Students are coming with full identities. They may be experiencing the effects of racism and sexism and homophobia and capitalism and rape culture. They are a survivor of all of those things at the same time.”

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