CONCEALED COSTS
SEX RECESSION
DOWNLOAD FOR SEX
STILL NOT SAFE
Transparency in health services moves a step forward but consumers are still in the dark.
Stop blaming us for a “sex recession.” We have bigger things to worry about.
Use these apps for your next relationship or one-night stand.
Where are the LGBT pro athletes? Homophobia is keeping them closeted.
NEWS
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OPINIONS
PAGE 7
A&L
PAGE13
SPORTS PAGE 15
VOL. 86 | NO. 19
FEB. 12 -FEB. 19, 2019
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EXPLICIT LANGUAGE AND GRAPHIC IMAGERY
The
Sex Issue ARTS & LIVING | PAGE 10 Policy changes on social media raise concerns about censorship and the social acceptance of female nudity.
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GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM
BLOTTER FEB. 5
Terrorist on the loose
An active case involving a person not from Georgia State began on Feb. 5 at 3:49 p.m. The suspect is being investigated for threatening violence with the purpose of terrorizing.
Drugs
A non-Georgia State offender was arrested in Woodruff Park for possession of a controlled substance and use of drug related products at 11:03 a.m.
FEB. 6
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Daniel Varitek
So that’s where the drugs were coming from
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A non-Georgia State offender was arrested for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute at 10:01 a.m. on M.L.K. Jr. Dr. SE.
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And for my first act...
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A Georgia State student was the victim of theft at 4:45 p.m. in the Rialto Theatre. The case is still active.
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More drugs
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Two arrests were made in a case involving possession of marijuana, less than an ounce, of non-Georgia State offenders at 1:03 p.m. in Woodruff Park.
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Alpha Tau Omega take to Library Plaza at Georgia State to bring awareness to human trafficking.
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NEWS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
www.georgiastatesignal.com/news
From pissing patrons to teasing T-Pain
Students share their experiences after their evening classes ZACH SALLING Staff Reporter
“Y
ou have to sell the idea that his fantasy is being fulfilled and payment isn’t the reason why it’s happening,” Poseidon said, “Do I play the ‘I need help’ role? Or do I play the ‘choke him in the throat while holding his hand behind his back’ role?” These work-related questions circle in some Georgia State student’s heads. Their occupation: stripping.
POSEIDON
Poseidon, who wished to be referred to by his stage name for privacy, hails from the oily traps of the service industry. After highschool, he served and worked as a bartenderbartended. One night, he got fired for standing next to someone smoking a joint on a smoke break. His friends joked that he should strip. “Where do I go for that? Do I submit a CV? Do I shave my butt?” Poseidon said. Poseidon’s years in the service industry paved way to the clubs. A coworker from a restaurant referred him to a guy who worked at Bliss Atlanta, a former gay strip club in Atlanta. “I wanted to do this because of the money,” he said. He danced at Bliss Atlanta and Swinging Richards while attending Georgia State’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business and quickly learned how to rake in cash at Atlanta’s premier gay strip clubs, and thus Poseidon was born “Specifically, being a straight guy, I didn’t want to have to dance the whole f------ two hours,” Poseidon said. To maintain enthusiasm , Poseidon would sometimes request female customers to flash her breasts while dancing for male customers. Swinging Richards doesn’t permit erections, but the dancers work around it. “It’s a weird grey area. If [erections] happen you try to contain it. It’s like a Perpendicular-To-Your-Body rule.” However, Poseidon pooled most of his money from conversation. “It wasn’t just me being naked,” Poseidon said. “I would hang out with one guy and make two thousand dollars and all I did was do cocaine and talk with him.” He even ran into former schoolmates. One, a former Mill Creek high school football player, who said he had always fantasized about Poseidon. “In highschool, I was never really a popular kid. I was one of the weird weightlifting guys.” However, some clients don’t keep it so casual. “I walked up to some guy swaying at the bar and he’s taking a pain pill and drinking straight bourbon. So, I’m thinking, dude, this guy is about to f------ pass out. Does he do this a lot?” The customer bought a three hundred dollar VIP with him for thirty minutes and said, “I really, really like to be peed on.” Poseidon almost declined when the customer requested a redheaded bodybuilder dancer named Holden, who carried a gallon of water, to join them. Holden agreed. “Are you okay with, like, peeing on him?” “F--- yeah, dude! I pee all the time for free.” Poseidon described the amount of pee as “ungodly.” The urine went down the customer’s face, down his shirt, down his pants.
The customer wiped his mouth, turned to Poseidon and said, “Your turn.” And then, knock-knock. “Want to do another three hundred?” Poseidon said. “No, that was a lot.” the customer said. The dancers would tag teamed each other, but industry problems often arose — coworkers tying their penis to constrict blood flow, increasing size. “Stop tying your dick off,” Management said. Coworkers ignoring regulations often hurt Poseidon’s money.
“Not trying to be funny. Most girls in the club have daddy issues. Like me and my mom are cool, but my dad is my favorite. If I had issues, it would be mommy issues.” Eve was a band geek, playing clarinet from 4th until 12th grade. She liked science — enough to major in Biology. She dreamed of going to Berklee for music, but her Mom persuaded her to attend Georgia State. “I’m not happy with this major, I’m not happy that I am dancing to live here.” Eve said. “But, I’m trying to finish it and pursue what I really want to do after that.” Ironically, her reserved nature brought her attention in some of Atlanta’s more popular clubs: Onyx, Club Platinum and Pin-Ups. “That’s the downside. The less open you are, the more people want to know about you,” Eve said. On a Tuesday night, a notoriously dead night, the club owner texted Eve, “Just come in.” 50 Cent made it rain on Eve while she danced alone on the stage. “It’s not about if people are naked anymore, it’s about how you carry yourself. Guys don’t care if you’re naked,” Eve said. “Even though I dance, that’s for money. I’m not thirsty for attention.” Yet, a genuine demeanor often blurs the lines between transaction and connection for customers. “I feel like I do tend to emotionally finesse people sometimes. I don’t do it on purpose, but I realize, compared to most girls, I’m sweeter and nicer,” Eve said. “I hate seeing that I made someone upset.” “Your job is to sell a fantasy. If you have to, make them think you’re going home with them right now after the club,” Eve said the managers say. And it works. One night, a guy alone dropped two thousand dollars on her, but it didn’t come without ‘locker-room talk.’ “Oh, I had sex with him and he likes a finger in his ass,” one of the other dancers said. Eve said she had no intention of sleeping with him. “They’ll get upset because they’re sleeping with that guy, but he came in and spent two thousand on me.” Sometimes fantasies in the club get cut short to make an extra buck. “Some girls will wear tampons and cut the string and stick it up there really far, but I don’t work on my period,” Eve said. “It happens a lot at Onyx. I would say, ‘Hey, I can see your tampon. You need to ILLUSTRATION BY EVAN STAMPS | THE SIGNAL chill out with the bending over.’” Instances of looking out for your coworker in clubs is limited — things “I go up there with a little f------ noodle and I’m up against turn physical real fast between supposed friends when money’s Gigantoid, but I see his cockring and I’m like, ‘Dude, we just had a involved. meeting, we literally just walked out of that meeting.” “If you touch me, I will sue you. I’m not going to hit you, I’m Transitioning from the club to college life took some adjusting. going to hit your pockets.” “I actually felt less than everybody. I knew these kids were getting Customer relations with women offset Eve as well. school paid for and a lot of people had their real jobs lined up “They’ll feel insecure and sometimes overcompensate by already and all I was, was a male stripper.” smacking your ass. Even men won’t do this. I feel like they do it to From clubs to Business graduate, Poseidon has reinterpreted his show dominance. It’s like, ‘Bitch, I’m making you dance,’” Eve said. experiences. Eve is friends with Instagram models at Georgia State but has a “If you can sell your personality and body and take people’s difficult time identifying with them. money out of their pockets then you can sell any product on the “People are naked for free — for likes. You’re on Instagram in whole market,” he said. a thong and are still taking out loans to pay your tuition, and I’m paying for everything out of pocket. Which would you choose?” Despite Eve’s ability to make others open up, she often feels EVE disconnected from them. Eve, who requested to go by her stage name for privacy purposes, a reserved only child, started dancing to pay her own tuition at “There isn’t one particular person I feel connected to. The only Georgia State, though she didn’t want to attend Georgia State. person I feel truly, truly connected to is myself,” Eve said.
NEWS
4
GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM
Hospitals can no longer hide prices from patients But how does it apply to the Student Health Clinic? ADA WOOD
Associate News Editor
A
s of Jan. 1, 2019, all hospitals in the U.S. are now legally required to publish the cost of their procedures and items online for public access. This new law is both a more specific and more enforced version of a policy originally included in the Affordable Care Act. This list, often released in what is referred to as a chargemaster, will list everything offered at the hospital – from heart surgery to a tablet of ibuprofen. “How many of us have received a healthcare service only to find out later we could have received it someplace else for less?” Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services AdministratorServices (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma said. “The lack of price transparency has resulted in a system that denies a patient the ability to make value-based health decisions centered on out-of-pocket costs.”
THE LIST
Although this new requirement has been hailed as a great step forward in healthcare cost transparency, it hasn’t come without its flaws. The first problem consumers have is when they first open a chargemaster and try to find the procedure they need, they are greeted with a string of letters and numbers that wouldn’t otherwise help them calculate the cost of an emergency room visit for a broken arm. However, this format is something the CMS hopes to be of benefit in the future. “By requiring the information to be posted in a machinereadable format, we set the stage for private third parties to develop tools and resources that are more meaningful and actionable than a list of codes and prices,” Verma said. When looking at the Grady list online, for someone expecting and baby and looking for the cost, a page search for the words baby, labor or birth won’t yield any results. However, when searching the word labor, you will find what you are looking for under “VAGINAL DELIVERY” – at a cost of $5,316. The key here is the consumer needs to know exactly what terms to search to find what they are looking for. As another example is the item “HB MED-SUR-GY/PVT.” Without prior medical knowledge or having worked in the field, there’s no way to identify what this service actually is. And after spending three hours trying to find the appropriate source at Grady to decipher this lineitem, it became apparent that working in the field isn’t a guarantee to understanding the list either. Ultimately, after approximately 20 transfers and nearly an entire Friday afternoon, there was no one who could answer this question before the close of business at 5:00 p.m. Although now accessible to the public through the internet, the information a consumer might be looking for isn’t so accessible. The CMS is aware of these concerns but hopes hospitals take patient concerns seriously when it comes to price transparency.
“So let me be clear, hospitals don’t have to wait for us to go further in helping their patients understand what care will cost,” Verma said. “We’ve seen great examples of the tools that go beyond what is required.” Referring to the list for a few local Atlanta hospitals can help clarify the trouble interpreting it and identifying the cost of what someone needs. Grady also has a published chargemaster online, as seen below.
TRANSPARENCY IN THE STUDENT HEALTH CLINIC
With all of this information in mind, the next question arose: How does this rule apply to the Student Health Center at Georgia State, or any other type of care provider for that matter? To get the answer, the question needed to be posed to the CMS directly. The answer was simple: This rule strictly applies to only hospitals, as defined by the CMS. “The hospital chargemaster requirements do not apply to health clinics. This requirement only applies to hospitals and not to stand-alone health clinics that are not part of a hospital,” Raymond Thorne, from the office of communications at CMS said. The Student Health Clinic isn’t required to publish this information online and it isn’t available to students. When reaching out to the clinic to request this list of service costs, The Signal was told that this information couldn’t be provided. “There’s too many. We do a lot here,” an unknown source in the clinic manager’s office said over the phone. When first asked at the beginning of the call, the source would not give her name. When asked again, she hung up. She said that if a student wants a procedure or service done, they do have the right to know that cost upfront and can ask when they come in. Although The Signal couldn’t get ahold of a list with the cost of all services provided as students, we were able to get it as members of the press through an open records request. Otherwise unavailable, the Student Health Clinic service cost list is now available online at georgiastatesignal.com. Follow the QR code below with any iPhone camera to see the full document.
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS FROM AN EXPERT
Bill Custer from the Center for Health Services Research at Georgia State helped to identify some of the bigger problems with the medical system as a whole — and how this list only highlights his concerns. “This is the list that hospitals begin their negotiations with insurance providers from, this is not the price that anybody pays,” Custer said. He likened it to the manufacturers suggested price for an car; but much more distant from the actual cost people will pay. He even said it’s not possible to use it to
Scan the QR code to see the full list of services and costs from the Student Health Clinic, available on The Signal website.
compare two hospitals. “[This is] because different hospitals for different insurers will take different percentages off of this price,” he said. “For a consumer this becomes very difficult to use to try to say hospital A is more expensive than hospital B.” The next issue is that when someone goes to the hospital for any procedure, they consume a set of these services based on the medical case and severity which will differ from person to person. “There’s no list item specifically for an appendectomy but there is a list price for a set of services that may or may not be used for an appendectomy,” Custer said. “Basically these lists are not useful for patients or for consumers.” He added that it may be useful for employers, insurers and other sophisticated buyers with a lot of data. In order to make it applicable to the consumer, he suggests a move toward the system that Medicare uses. The U.S. medical system, including in Atlanta, is moving toward a system of paying for an “encounter” which would be a set price for a stay at the hospital based on the diagnosis and severity, according to Custer. When applied to health clinics, like the one on campus, Custer says this list can actually be more useful than in hospitals. For example, if you go for a stomach ache that’s a pretty standard set of services used. “It gets easier for clinics because each office visit is still a set of services, but a smaller set,” he said.
THE POLICY
In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, amended the Public Health Service Act, which consolidated all health services in 1944. Section 2718(e) of the ACA states, ‘‘Each hospital operating within the United States shall for each year establish (and update) and make public ... a list of the hospital’s standard charges for items and services provided by the hospital, including for diagnosis-related groups...” Known as the CMS final rule, this 2018 addition takes the previous legislation and adds specification for how these price lists should be presented to the public. Section X, beginning on page 41,686 states, “... effective January 1, 2019, we announced the update to our guidelines to require hospitals to make available a list of their current standard charges via the internet …”
NEWS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
5
NEWS BRIEFS LOCAL 224 pounds of marijuana results in arrest at airport
The Student Government Association gathered in Unity Plaza for a Human Walk to raise awareness for human trafficking and remember those who are still missing.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KAELEN THOMAS
Atlanta’s worst traffick problem
SGA and GSUPD’s efforts to suppress human trafficking ASHARI HANKERSON & ADA WOOD Staff Reporter & Associate News Editor
I
n Georgia, between 200 to 400 adolescent girls are sold online per month. There are 8,700 sex acts with a minor purchased every month in Georgia. In Atlanta, traffickers make an average of $33,000 per week. These are only a few facts from Tabitha’s House, a Georgia-based organization to provide assistance to those impacted by human trafficking.
SGA SPREADS AWARENESS
The Georgia State Student Government Association dedicated a full week to Human Trafficking Awareness from Jan. 22 to Jan. 26, utilizing different means to advocate to Georgia State students. “Human trafficking goes all around with many instances that are happening down the street that students aren’t aware of,” SGA President Franklin Patterson said. One of the first ways students could participate in the week was a series of panels which discussed human trafficking and provided necessary information and answer potential questions concerning the issue. On that Friday, students participated in the “Human Walk” toward the Civil Rights Museum to see the human trafficking exhibit there. The day after, an event hosted by several human trafficking organizations explored the city to find potential victims of human trafficking. Transportation was also provided for the Let’s End Human Trafficking Walk to make it more accessible to more students. Franklin’s suggestions to resolving the issue of human trafficking “[is to] make it more of a prominent issue. To make sure that schools of young children know to protect themselves and not being sheltered from the fact that [human trafficking] is a possibility,” he said.
SAFETY ON AND OFF CAMPUS
On Feb. 5 the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that 169 arrests were made in Atlanta after an 11-day human trafficking investigation by the FBI. This, ahead of the Ssuper Bbowl, is
one way city, state and federal officials have come together to fight the city’s epidemic. Eric Aguiar, a GSUPD officer from the Crime Prevention unit, assured there are efforts made from GSUPD in concern over human trafficking. “The Georgia State University Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division is well versed in Human Trafficking issues and all cases are referred to them. They work hand in hand with the Georgia Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force Coordinator,” Aguiar said. If a student suspects that someone is being trafficked, Aguiar said to retain as much information as you can as the witness and alert public safety as soon as you possibly and safely can. “Don’t try to talk yourself out of your suspicion. Time is of the essence. As soon as you suspect call public safety,” Aguiar said. “The best way to minimize your risk is to minimize your interaction with strangers.” Aguiar emphasized that in order to suppress human trafficking, there must be a solid partnership between the public and the public safety team, including with local communities and organizations like SGA. Officer Jarius Daugherty from Atlanta Police Department’s public affairs said that APD’s Special Victims Unit will be working both on proactive and reactive operations targeting human trafficking activities in conjunction with the FBI’s Metro Atlanta Child Exploitation Task Force. “There is also a dedicated operations center to monitor potential activity. The task force includes agencies from around the metro region, as we know this is an issue that does not recognize borders,” Daugherty said. “Additionally, all APD officers department-wide have received a twohour instruction block on human trafficking awareness to assist in recognizing any potential victims.”
MORE THAN SEX TRAFFICKING
Jonathan Todres is a human trafficking specialist and law professor. For students interested in understanding human trafficking, he said the first step is to thoughtfully educate yourself. “There is a lot of misinformation about human trafficking, and popular portrayals of the issue
often focus on a very limited set of sex trafficking cases, rather than seeing the full range of labor and sex trafficking that occurs,” Todres said. He said that understanding the complexity of human trafficking and its root causes is the most important part of an effective solution. One of these he offers is rooted in the importance of public health on human trafficking. “Much of the current response to human trafficking deals with the issue after harm has already occurred. Public health has a wealth of experience working to prevent or reduce harm and it has insights into how best to address root causes of harm,” Todres said. Todres emphasized the importance of discerning myths from fact concerning human trafficking, as it provides more useful information that can further protect students and individuals from becoming victims. The Polaris Project is an organization that works to divide the myth from fact around human trafficking. One of these is as Todres mentioned, not all trafficking involves commercial sex. In fact, there are 20.1 million people across the globe trapped in forced labor environments in a wide range of industries such as agriculture, construction and manufacturing. Check out The Signal’s story with Atlanta Redemption Ink, a survivor-led non profit covering marks from past trafficking and abuse with tattoos.
IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW ARE AFFLICTED BY HUMAN TRAFFICKING You can visit: humantraffickinghotline.org You can call the hotline: 1-888-373-7888
On Feb. 6, four men arrived at the HartsfieldJackson airport in Atlanta, flying from Las Vegas. They had eight large suitcases with them. As they stepped off the plane, the Atlanta Police Department had a drug interdiction team awaiting them, with a drug dog that also noticed something off with the luggage. As reported by Fox 10 Phoenix, when police searched the luggage, they didn’t find them stuffed with clothes and toiletries. Instead they found 224 pounds of marijuana. All four men were arrested on drug trafficking charges.
NATIONAL President Trump gives the 2019 State of the Union address
On Feb. 5, President Trump gave his second official State of the Union speech, with Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi seated behind him. Traditionally, the SOTU has two themes: a unifying statement between parties and for the nation and an outline of the President’s priorities moving forward. One major theme of this years SOTU was immigration; Trump requested funding for the border wall but didn’t threaten to shutdown the government or use an executive order as he had in the previous weeks
GLOBAL Iran celebrates revolution anniversary with mass pardon
Feb. 7 was the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. AP news reported that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pardoned a large number of prisoners to honor the event. Iran currently has 240,000 prisoners, and some reports said this new pardon would apply to 50,000 prisoners, either releasing them or reducing their sentence.
NEWS
6
GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM
Making safe sex and sex ed a priority
The various services offered by Georgia State’s health departments WILL SOLOMONS News Editor
W
hether it’s a one night stand or a one year relationship, one thing is paramount: practicing safe sex. A responsibility of this is getting tested regularly, and especially when a suspicion of sexually transmitted infections arise. Georgia State offers services to ensure that every sexually active person has access to both free condoms and low cost checkups. Student Health Promotions offers free, confidential HIV, chlamydia and gonorrhea testing for students. They also host regular events where they go around to the different Georgia State campuses and do testing enmasse, making it a convenient option for students on the move who can’t schedule an appointment. They’re also hosting The Vagina Monologues on Wednesday, Feb. 13, a production that raises awareness to end gender violence. Some of the programs offered by Student Health Promotion include Sex? What’s Your Position, which is an “interactive game that pits two teams against each other to see who knows the most about sexual and reproductive health.” Another program is Sex in the Dorm Room, a program that goes over the various types of condoms and “the differences in high and low risk behaviors in sexual encounters.” Seperate from Student Health Promotions is the Georgia State Student Health Clinic. Although it’s not free, the clinic provides more comprehensive testing. The clinic states on their website that most results are available within a few days. They also warn that men are at risk for sexually transmitted infections transmitted orally. “Many men believe that oral sex is risk-free. However, numerous STIs can be transmitted during oral sex including syphilis, herpes and gonorrhea. Men of all sexual orientations should take good care of their sexual health. This doesn’t just mean always having safer sex. Men should also be regularly tested for STIs,” the health clinic stated. The health clinic also provides pap smears and pregnancy tests, as well as providing free condoms, dental dams and lubricant for students. They also supply women with various contraceptives, such as birth control pills, the nuva ring, depo-provera shots and Plan B. Students can get refills for their birth control pills at the health clinic or receive a prescription to take to take to an offsite pharmacy of their choice. On their website, the clinic stated they provide these services because, “According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, in 2011, Georgia was ranked seventh in the country for chlamydia, sixth in the country for gonorrhea and third in the country for primary and secondary syphilis. Student Health Promotion believes it has a responsibility to educate and promote safe sexual practices among the Georgia State University student
ILLUSTRATION BY SHANCHEZE JOHNSON | THE SIGNAL
body.” Seperate from the physical care they provide, the health clinic also serves to protect students against sexual misconduct. They work with the Dean of Students office, Student Victim Assistance, Student Health Promotion and Counseling and Testing Center through various programs to help prevent misconduct and help victims of it. Some of the services provided by Student Victim Assistance include support groups, counseling and therapy and a report system for victims. They also have resources that help define consent and educate students on the proper way to navigate sexual relationships. The Signal emailed Student Health Promotions, but as of now, the publication has not received a response regarding specific services offered. According to the Center for Disease Control, more than 19 million people in the United States test positive for STIs.
The Student Health Clinic tests for the following: • • • • • • •
Chlamydia Gonorrhea Herpes serum HIV HPV Syphilis Trichomoniasis
How college affects young relationships
What Georgia State students say ended their pre-college relationships BEN COLETTA Staff Reporter
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or many couples, it isn’t worth the stress or struggle to keep up a relationship that started before college. College brings with it a new burden of additional stress such as labor intensive classes and student loans. The list of students that “tried to make it work” and failed is a long one and the list of couples who survived is notably shorter. According to the Huffington Post, “Only two percent of new marriages in North America are comprised of ‘high school sweethearts.’” So, what makes these relationships so hard and what makes the ones that work so remarkable? Avery Freiman is a freshman film major. Freiman met her girlfriend online, and they started dating the summer before college started. According to Freiman, college has had a huge impact on her ability to communicate with her girlfriend. “It’s definitely a challenge trying to figure out timing and
everything especially living with two other people. Also, it’s a little bit awkward at first, being gay, and finding out if [your roomates] are gonna be cool with that — luckily, they were,” Freiman said. Freiman recounted on the awkwardness of trying to talk on the phone with her girlfriend while other people are in the room – in the triple-occupancy rooms in the Piedmont North dorms. “So, yeah, it was a little bit strange getting used to this new way of communicating with each other and it definitely took a couple days to get used to it. The first week was rough but we got through it,” Freiman said. Another common contributing factor to the failure of relationships started before college is course work. “You have to work on priorities. But, It’s all about time management making sure that you stay on top of your s--- and making sure that you’re still making time for the other person,” Freiman said. Freiman thinks the idea that the work could ever be so intense and taxing that someone can’t maintain communication
with someone they care about. “At least check in and say ‘Hey what’s up? Sorry I’m busy.’ I find it unbelievable if people don’t just communicate that with their significant other,” Frieman said. Ethan Brantley, a freshman business major, ended his relationship during his first semester. The main factor he cited as the cause was distance. “It’s hard to keep a relationship over long distance no matter how much you say it could work it never really works except for a few cases. The in real life connection was lacking because of that. After that, being in class and not being able to call or actively talk to that person a lot,” Brantley said. Both students highlighted the fact that communication is the most important aspect of any relationship. For most college students, any relationship started before college is much harder to maintain due to the distance and separation caused by attending different colleges. Regardless of the cause, in the United Statesunited state only two percent of relationships started in high school will make it to marriage.
OPINIONS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
www.georgiastatesignal.com/opinions
Exploring the sexual spectrum
Why is it acceptable for women but not men? MYA GRANT Staff Columnist
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he world is filled with double standards and perceptions of what makes a woman feminine and a man masculine. An individual’s sexuality seems to be the key indication in the difference between the two. A woman can experiment with her sexuality and not lose any sense of her femininity, but a man who does the same thing is questioned on his masculinity. As defined by the LGBTQ acronym, there are many sexualities you can identify as — and notice I said sexuality and not gender, though that’s a different argument for a different day — and within that selection comes attraction to whomever you choose to be attracted to. As a society, we’ve become less judgemental toward the LGBTQ community and more accepting to openly gay couples, but it seems as though there are still some issues with understanding how one reaches their sexual interests. No one is just born gay, lesbian, bisexual or queer; there are levels to this, and you can’t accept the end result without respecting the journey. But despite the fact that our society has come pretty far, the question still remains: What is the issue with men experimenting with their sexuality? Daniel Green, a student at Georgia State who identifies as bisexual, said he doesn’t understand why things are the way they are and believes that if women can do it, men should also have that ability.
“It’s for the male gaze,” Demetrius Williams, a senior at Georgia State who openly identifies as queer, said. “We don’t see women as humans but as objects.” Green, Williams and other students who identify themselves within the LGBTQ community describe dating as weird and difficult. A stigma associated with LGBTQ men is that the attraction to both sexes makes the likelihood of cheating on their significant other greater than if they’re heterosexual. “It’s not a sexuality issue,” Williams said. “It’s a monogamy issue, if you want to be loyal you’ll be loyal regardless of sexuality.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. A relationship is based on loyalty and a bond that two people share. “If the bond is there, it’s there,” Janell Banks, who identifies as lesbian, said. “It [attraction] might be more towards one sex more than the other but it’s there.” With the constant fight for women’s rights and equality, we fail to realize that things aren’t completely fair for men either. And with the Jussie Smollett incident — the black, gay actor and singer who was allegedly attacked by two individuals because of his sexuality — it really makes you look at things in a different light. Had Smollett been an openly gay woman, the likelihood of him being assaulted wouldn’t be as high. The same goes for men who are in the process of, or are already, transitioning to women. College is the place to be open to new ideas and new people; it’s a place where you can understand who you are. With that being said, you may not believe in everything that everyone does but it’s not fair for you to support women exploring their sexuality and in the same breath sling slurs at a man for doing the same thing.
ILLUSTRATION BY AMBER KIRLEW | THE SIGNAL
Who has time for sex anymore?
The “Sex Recession” is concerning, and not for the reason you think SHARI CELESTINE Staff Columnist
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illennials are the end of everything wholesome and good. The movie industry is dying because Millennials are sitting at home binge-watching shows on Netflix. Dinner dates are a thing of the past because Millennials would rather sit at home and swipe right on their phones. Diamonds aren’t flying off the shelves because the diamond industry just can’t seem to woo Millennials to buy the luxury gems. And the latest fault of the generation born between the years 1977 and 1994? We don’t have enough sex! Who’s coming up with this stuff, really? My money’s on a very bored baby boomer. The Centers for Disease Control, from 1991 to 2015, has conducted a study and found the
percentage of high school students who’d had intercourse dropped from 54 to 40 percent — a whopping 14 percent. It’s almost criminal. People are actually worried sex is becoming something high school students aren’t familiar with. I’m sorry, I thought teens were too young to be having sex; that they should focus on their studies? My, how the tides have turned. It’s baffling to read article after article with concerns for Millennials not having sex. And it’s ways coming from a member of the generation before us who was able to buy a house on a wage from unskilled work; a generation that didn’t have to go to an expensive, debt-crippling university to earn a degree, only to end up working at a grocery store. Why is it anyone’s business how much sex we’re having? Let’s turn that focus into why Millennials aren’t tripping over themselves to have sex because
the answer is more of a concern than the question. TIME We don’t have time to have sex. Your average college Millennial takes anywhere from 12 to 18 credits of coursework a week. They also have at least two jobs and a side hustle just to keep up with the bills for their apartment or pay back student loans while they live in their parent’s second bedroom or basement. Many of us can’t afford an apartment, a car or health insurance. By the end of the day, we’re so exhausted and stressed that the only thing we have time for is sleep before we have to wake up and do it all over again. STRESS It’s so easy to wrap Millennials in labels of “lazy,” “entitled” or “whiners,” but we have a lot going on beneath the surface. We have the weight on the world put upon us from the generation before. We are constantly worried about finding a stable job, battling that mounting college loan debt. It might not look like it because our Instagram filters make us look extra, but we’re all stressing out. SEXUAL HARASSMENT Amongst growing concern for unwanted sexual advances and sexual assault, the desire to reach out to the opposite sex has dwindled some. A highlight on sexual assault on college campuses has taken its toll on dating habits for teens and young adults. Maybe if you define sex by a number, its decline in recent years is troubling. But instead of pulling out that PowerPoint with fancy charts and percentages, you should instead dig deeper to the underlying root of the problem. Less sex isn’t bad when you’re trying to save your sanity, squeeze every last dollar out of your job or stay safe in love.
ILLUSTRATION BY AMBER KIRLEW | THE SIGNAL
OPINIONS
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Treating STDs like what they are
Why do we treat sexually transmitted diseases as more than just infections? KHADIJAH GREEN Staff Columnist
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exually transmitted diseases are widely stigmatized. People are constantly branded as a “dirty whore,” “sleaze” or “easy” because they’ve contracted an STD. Because of this stigma, many people don’t get tested for fear they may have an STD. The stigmatization of STDs is unhealthy for our society. We must create awareness about STDs to educate others and encourage them to get tested. STDs are widely stigmatized because sex is still considered taboo. Talking about sex, I mean really talking about sex, the good and the bad, makes people uncomfortable. It is easier to shun and isolate others than to educate them about the goods and bads of sex. The reality is that although sex is pleasurable there are some downsides; although we are cautious we can still be affected by STDs. Although the stakes for contracting an STD are high, there is no reason to create moral outrage over STDs. STDs are infections, period. They are genital infections that are commonly treated with antibiotics, just as any other infection would be. Consider the fact that there is never outrage for mouth and ear infections, yet our society is quick to isolate and chastise those who have contracted STDs. STDs are also not biased. They don’t pick who they’re going to affect, and they don’t make a woman or man “loose” or “sleazy.” Regardless of your sexual activity, if you are unsafe, you will contract an STD. It’s the same if you are not careful and share multiple drinks; you can contract the mono virus or hand, foot and mouth disease. If you don’t practice proper hygiene, you’re bound to contract several types of infections. The stigmatization of STDs impacts the depression those who have contracted STDs feel. They are often judged by doctors with poor bedside manner, judged by friends they thought they could confide in and oftentimes abused by their
partners. These judgments can lead to depression and often suicide. Educating our society about STDs will decrease the stigmatization of them. Most sexually active young adults are uneducated about what an STD actually is. In sex education classes, students are simply taught that STDs are “bad” and if you contract one no one is going to want to you. This teaching happens at a young age and continues in through life. Scaring young children is not the proper way to teach them about STDs. An effective way to teach about STDs is teach about the
curable and incurable diseases, teach about practicing safe sex and let students know that STDs are common when you are sexually active. I urge each student at Georgia State to go and get tested; to begin the dialogue and work toward safe sex. I urge each student to be a listening ear and not judge when your friend or family member or partner confides in you that they have had an STD or have an STD. With more compassion and less judgement, we can slowly destigmatize STDs.
ILLUSTRATION BY DEVIN PHILLIPS | THE SIGNAL
ARTS & LIVING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
www.georgiastatesignal.com/artsandliving
A glimpse into the life of a fetish model Does your 9-to-5 include kicking testicles?
JOHN PRESTON CORBIN Staff Reporter
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etish modeling is a way for some people to pay the bills or make a little money on the side. In the past, a college student might turn to stripping or dancing in a nightclub to pay their way through school. Now, many have struck gold by helping people realize their kinky sexual fantasies through videos and photo shoots. Angel Lee is one such model. A producer and student attending Georgia State, Lee has made a name for herself in the fetish community, having started her modeling career before the internet exposed us all to the vast world of sexual kinks. “I was stripping at a club and they were taking pictures for the walls,” Lee said. “This one photographer took to me and was like, ‘You can make money doing fetish modeling!’ and I was like, ‘What’s that?’ and he was like, ‘You know. You get tied up and stuff.’” After finishing her first bondage shoot, Lee attended Fetish Con where she was introduced to the community. “Back then all these [different] fetishes weren’t out,” she said. “It was mainly bondage. That’s what you would see.” With the advent of the internet, the fetish community has grown considerably, becoming both larger and more diverse. Once dominated by BDSM and bondage, now there’s room for a wide variety of kinks, ranging from foot worship to ball kicking to balloon popping. “The acts that I do are not even really sexual,” Lee said. “It’s stuff that’s so common that it’s odd. It’s not even a lot of nude stuff. What they’re looking for is very specific themes.” One kink that models like Lee often encounter is known as “trampling.” People
with trampling kinks gain sexual gratification from being stomped or from watching other people get stomped. “[Trampling guys] are big on feet,” Lee said. “They’re big on seeing the stomach suck in because you’re standing on it. They like to see the feet, but they also enjoy the fact that there’s a dude under you. It’s very dominant, on my part.” Kinks like trampling come in different varieties, with many of Lee’s trampling videos involving MILF or incest themes. To make a living doing what Lee does, models usually have to sell videos through websites like Clips4Sale.com. Many videos are custom-made, requested and paid for by customers who write scripts that they want to see acted out on screen. Some scripts are fairly simple, whereas others will be so detailed that they specify the type of shoes or pantyhose they want to see the model wearing. Fetish modeling often requires collaborating with other models and producers, many of whom are spread out across the country. Finding the right guy to shoot a ball kicking video isn’t easy, and he might live in a completely different state from the rest of the cast. A lot of traveling may be involved in the making of one video, on top of attending conventions and other events. “If you really want to get paid good, you have to travel,” Lee said. “It’s absolutely exhausting. Traveling is great, but it’s still work nonetheless. People don’t realize how much acting goes into it. You have to play different roles all the time. Like sometimes I have to be really scared. Sometimes I have to be dead. Sometimes I have to be really dominant.” According to Lee, it can take up to three years or longer before a model is recognized and starts to receive requests for custom videos. Once the requests start coming in, it does pay well. There’s also no telling what sort of kink a person might pay to see made into a video. “Balloon popping is more common than you would think,”
Lee said. “Some guys want you to blow up the balloon until it pops. That’s terrifying. I hate doing that.” Variations of balloon popping videos may involve simply sitting on a balloon or squishing it until it looks like it’s about to pop. The videos may involve trying to pop a balloon that’s only partially-inflated, which can be next to impossible. When asked what viewers get out of this kink, Lee speculated that it might have something to do with a happy childhood memory or simply seeing the look of fear on her face when a balloon finally pops. Other kinks that Lee has worked with have involved playing a giantess who eats little men or pretending to have a slug crawl into her body. “We were talking about the slug and what we were going to do with the slug,” she said. “And [the customer] said, ‘Do you want a real slug? I would like a real slug.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know where I’m going to find a real slug. Here are these fake slugs.’ And I had to stand there in the bed and be like ‘Oh, slugs are so scary!’ [The slug] had to climb up my stomach and I had to pretend like it went into my belly button.” Sometimes custom videos require performances to go beyond pretend. In ball kicking videos the male performers have to be sincerely kicked in the testacles in order for their reaction to appear authentic and thus stimulating for a customer with that specific fetish. “You just, like, take your foot and swing it back as hard as you can,” Lee said. “You kick them as hard as you can. [The audience] knows if it’s a cup or not. And they’ll be like ‘Nah, that’s fake.’” While often tiring and always surprising, Lee still loves her job and the community she is a part of. “It’s fun,” she said. “I love the people that I always work with. Everybody is very laid back. It’s a very nice community. I would say much more trustworthy than other types of modeling. It’s a tight-knit group but very big, so you have to be trustworthy or nobody is going to shoot with you again.”
“Balloon popping is more common than you would think. Some guys want you to blow up the balloon until it pops. That’s terrifying. I hate doing that.” - Angel Lee Georgia State student and online fetish model ILLUSTRATION BY DEMETRI BURKE | THE SIGNAL
MORE HARM THAN GOOD Policy changes bring up greater social issues Written by Sydney Bloeme | Arts & Living Editor
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ocial media and the internet were once a no man’s land of adult content, just out of reach of the Federal Communications Commission. Facebook originated as a Harvard “hot or not” page, arranging students by attractiveness. Snapchat was started by two Stanford students wanting to create “disappearing photos” without the threat of nude photos leaking to the internet. But as more people moved onto the internet, hungry advertisers, and the censorship they brought with them, followed. What once was a playground of adult content is now a battleground of content and creators, with educators, parents and artists at the forefront.
Losing the fight for sex on Tumblr Mindy Stombler teaches undergraduate social problems and sexuality and society courses at Georgia State. She relied on Tumblr to host her explicit, educational content, but beginning this past December after a Tumblr policy change, she was left in need of somewhere new. “Their recent policy change resulted in some of my materials being censored,” Stombler said. “Carvings depicting sexual activity from Hindu temple walls, were censored. I use those carvings to show students how Judeo-Christian understandings of sexuality that undergird our society are constructed differently across other cultures and religions.” Tumblr had long been the king of adult content, with it making up over one-tenth of the 200,000 most-visited blogs and having the leading category of referrals to Tumblr being from adult websites. Tumblr managed to hide from mainstream media, being just anonymous and vast enough for sub communities to thrive. And while mainstream porn websites thrived, Tumblr blended art, porn and education together, leading many women to turn to the site for female-friendly porn and sex advice. Tumblr had found its niche and once welcomed this,
How advertisements control content Social platforms such as YouTube are funded by advertising revenue. In this way, advertisers and content creators operate in a cyclical process: Creators produce content that advertisers then monetize, and this monetization allows the creator to produce more content. The important caveat to this is that advertisers don’t want their brand slapped onto anything that might portray their brand negatively. Thus, because platforms also rely on advertisers for revenue, there is some degree of advertiser influence over what content the platform
but that all changed in 2013 when Yahoo purchased the site for $1.1 billion dollars, likely bringing more mainstream advertisers with it. By July of 2013, Yahoo installed a filtering system that made not-safe-for-work content invisible to search engines, thus beginning the inevitable downfall of the explicit community. In November of 2018, the iOS App Store ejected Tumblr from its platform over child pornography, taking with it all their future downloads and thus future ad space. Then one month later, after its resurrection on the App Store, Tumblr finally banned all adult content once and for all –betraying and abandoning the NSFW fandoms, sex workers, educators, photographers, writers and communities that helped build it. Tumblr’s policy change isn’t unique. As a growing amount of consumers ditch traditional cable and no longer look to printed publications, many social media sites are pushed to become more strict on what they consider obscene. Instagram, for instance, has become more vigilant against content that breaches their policy and has introduced a “sensitive content” filter and instilled a new policy with vague definitions of what is and isn’t allowed on the basis of “appropriateness.”
does and doesn’t allow. This influence has drawn recent controversy to YouTube and its frequent pattern of demonetizing videos. Alex Sinke for Diggit Magazine said, “To be able to sustain a platform as massive as YouTube, lots of money for maintenance has to be in place somewhere within the organisational [structure] of said platform. This money is almost always earned through the use of advertisements.” YouTube has stated they are “where thousands of brands come to connect with their audiences.” To allow content creators the opportunity to work with advertising, their videos must be “ad friendly.” Dictating what is and isn’t appropriate is tricky. And while YouTube does have guidelines, who decides what is in those guidelines is even trickier.
When algorithms are wrong The hashtag on Instagram, #fatkini, has been a topic of discussion after many photos of plus sized women in bikinis were deemed “inappropriate,” violating policy, and were taken down. In response, many women posted side by side photos of their “inappropriate” beach pictures next to existing photos on Instagram of models in teenytiny bikinis, or completely topless. Even though Instagram explicitly states that “Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK,” art often blurs the line and artists struggle with posting and promoting their content. Sally Hewett is a stitch and embroidery artist who creates realistic looking embroidery of anatomically correct body parts such as lips, breasts, stomachs, butts, vulvas and penises including veins, freckles, scars, stretch marks, pubic hair and other details that can accompany these body parts. Because she uses Instagram for displaying her content, she has run into issues with censorship in questioning if it is art. “I have had several posts taken down by Instagram mainly, I think as a result of the post being reported by someone or many people who objected to nudity or bottoms or nipples or all three,” Hewett said. “It depends whether you describe my work as art or not. If it’s not art then I’m posting pictures of bottoms and nipples which Instagram’s code says should not be posted. If on the other hand you think my work is art then Instagram should not remove them because nakedness in art is allowed.” Nipples are often controversial. Cable and magazines are able to get away with displaying topless women as long as there is no nipple free to the sunlight. Women’s nipples are banned from Instagram, but men’s are not against policy. The page Genderless Nipples portrays through close-up shots of areolas how nipples are often indistinguishable to whom wears them.
PHOTOS BY UNIQUE RODRIGUEZ & PAGE DESIGN BY DEVIN PHILLIPS AND UNIQUE RODRIGUEZ | THE SIGNAL
The origins of censorship ideals Throughout history, women’s bodies have been subjected to debate and censorship. Religions dictate how much of a woman’s body can be seen with everything from shoulders to feet being sexualized and American society isn’t the exception. “We continue to allow classic religious understandings of sexuality (primarily connected to Christianity) to guide what we deem as appropriate in our society.” Stombler said. And while many may argue that this reaction to nudity is not just religious but natural and universal, Stombler disagrees. “Many other cultures do not eroticize breasts, seeing them primarily as a place for babies to get nutrients via breast feeding. Different cultures also have different expectations about the appropriateness of nudity and whether or not children can be exposed to depictions of sexual activity,” she said. “In the U.S. we’re pretty open about exposing the public (including children) to violent imagery, but are more reticent about supporting depictions of sex and sexuality.”
Vague policy creates unclear guidelines Lauren Stites, a psychology lecturer at Georgia State, argues who considers it inappropriate. “Most of the people that run these types of companies and do this censorship are men. So, they’re going off of what they consider unacceptable,” Stites said. In the case of banning pictures of women’s exposed breasts during breastfeeding, “Men — and I don’t want to be blanketly stating that it’s [all] men — don’t want to be reminded that any part of a woman is not for their sexual pleasure, that it has a use, that it’s utilitarian,” Stites said. And men have long since controlled media and advertising. A 2007 empirical analysis found that women owned “just 6 percent of all full-power commercial broadcast radio stations, even though they comprise 51 percent of the U.S. population.” Woman make up 85 percent of all consumer spending and yet the Three Percent Movement found that only 3 percent of creative directors were women. Using vague descriptions of what is and what isn’t considered obscene is no secret in media. In 1964, Justice Potter Stewart tried to explain what is obscene as “I know it when I see it.” The Miller Test was introduced in the 70s as a way to define what is and isn’t too obscene for television. One of the criteria includes “whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ appeals to ‘prurient interest.’” Content against policy guidelines on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram is caught in two ways: audience reporting and algorithms. The algorithms responsible for connecting you to your favorite sloth memes are the same ones pulling down photos for being “inappropriate.” but a lot of this content isn’t always actually inappropriate.
How censorship hinders sexual development And while it might seem that this censorship has everyone’s best interests, especially children, it is doing more harm than good. “It definitely hurts healthy sexual development,” Strites said. “It gives women and girls a lot of shame.” Along with creating a sex-negative environment, Strites argues that it places sexuality on women as a burden and creates women in objects meant for men’s consumption which ultimately takes power of women’s bodies away from themselves and makes it difficult to say no in sexual situation. She said that this is especially important to address in children as they are just starting to form their cognitive schema (perspective) of the world around them. “Girls grow up thinking that their sexuality is for men. So, first sexual contact is to please your partner,” Strites said. “It hinders your ability to say no. If you grow up thinking your body is for men’s pleasure, you can’t say no in a sexual situation.” Clearer evidence of this power dynamic is shown in dress code policies. “Instead of telling the boys at that age, when they should be told, that women’s bodies are not there for their consumption. Because that’s when they should be learning this. Instead, they’re turning around and telling girls, “Don’t show your whatever.” My daughters are in elementary school and they can’t wear sleeveless shirts or dresses. The oldest kids there are 10. Even my 5 year old,” she said. “[It] put[s] the burden on women to police their sexuality and sexual appetites [from a young age]. ” Making the internet “safer” for children might just be negatively affecting them. Being in the internet age, teens are left without traditional sex education and must instead go online to learn about themselves, the world around them and what is and isn’t acceptable. Today, the FDA even uses social media for sex education. With censorship, they wouldn’t be able to do so.
“We continue to allow classic religious understandings of sexuality (primarily connected to Christianity) to guide what we deem as appropriate in our society,” Stombler said.
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This year’s most promising dating apps Whether you’re looking for farmers or salads, there’s an app for that MARY PITTS Staff Reporter
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ollege is the perfect time to meet people and see what’s out there. In today’s world where many interactions occur online, dating apps are a great way to find relationships, hookups and new friends.
TINDER
As one of the most wellknown dating apps, Tinder is a great place to look for potential relationships, hookups and friends. Despite its reputation as a place to find casual sex, it has sparked many lasting relationships. Second-year student Danielle Akinwande is well acquainted with Tinder’s versatility. “When I started using Tinder I would just use it to talk to people and just look at who’s on the app,” she said. “I didn’t think it would lead to a relationship. But I met my boyfriend on Tinder and we’ve been together for a year.” A Tinder profile can be easily set up in less than five minutes. The profile pictures are big enough to see what you’re getting into, and students can also engage in cool features like “Tinder University” which connects users to other students nearby. The app is a great tool for linking up; users just need to be willing to look past the corny pickup lines and sometimes aggressive vibes.
BUMBLE
Many people love Tinder for its fun, easy-to-use swiping format. Those who are looking for something a little different than Tinder’s pool should look to Bumble for swiping with a twist. The most obvious difference between the two is that when a guy and a girl match on Bumble, the girl has to send the first message. Described by its founder Whitney Wolfe Herd as a “feminist dating app,” Bumble even has a code of conduct designed to maintain a safe, fun environment. Alex Escribano, sophomore, said while Tinder and Bumble are similar, she liked the BFF feature of Bumble, which allows users to swipe platonically for potential new friends. “I want to see what kind of people are around me and make friends,” said Escribano. “You can connect with even more people around you on Bumble.”
OKCUPID
For students who know they are looking for something specific, OkCupid is the way to go. OkCupid sets itself apart from other dating apps by allowing users to fill out a very long and comprehensive profile.
Users answer questions about themselves and can even indicate the way they would prefer their matches to respond to the same prompts. However, the app is lacking in userfriendliness with the awkward-to-use platform and small profile photos compared to Tinder and Bumble. Another issue with OkCupid is that anyone can message anyone, which can lead to annoying spam or unwanted nude photos.
COFFEE MEETS BAGEL
An alternative for students looking for particular characteristics in a prospective companion is Coffee Meets Bagel. The app sends male users 21 “bagels” or profiles to look at each day. Female users are shown a pool of “bagels” who have already liked their profile. According to Georgia State student Mitchell Blakely, Coffee Meets Bagel is a good choice for people who know what they are looking for. “You can even choose the occupation you want your significant other to have,” he said. Unfortunately, you can’t have exactly what you want all the time on Coffee Meets Bagel. Not every “bagel” sent to users will have the preferences they specified, and if they do there’s a good chance they’re far away. The app is similar to Bumble and Tinder as far as ease of use goes, save for some occasional crashes.
HINGE
College students who love to use Facebook will enjoy browsing dates on Hinge. The app connects to Facebook profiles to connect users through mutual friends. Hinge’s most notable feature is not only that it shows users the friends they have in common with their matches, but the interests they share with their matches as well. A great perk of Hinge is that users can reach out to their mutual friends if they want to know more about their matches’ personalities. A downside, is that because of the mutual friend concept, the app generates far fewer matches than the apps that don’t rely on such specific pools of people. Additionally, users are only able to add photos from Facebook and Instagram profiles, which is limiting compared to apps which allow users to curate their own collection of photos they deem suitable for a dating app.
HAPPN
Happn is like
the sister of Hinge; instead of choosing matches based on shared friends, it generates matches based on shared locations. Thankfully, the app doesn’t disclose users’ current locations in real time but shows the most recent time and location that prospective matches have crossed paths. This is a great feature for students who struggle to find common interests – everyone users match with on the app have already been within 800 feet of each other, so there’s automatically something in common.
SOCIAL MEDIA
And if dating apps aren’t your thing, there’s always the timeless approach of sliding into the DM’s. Plenty of college students connect online via social media apps every day, including Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, the latter of which is currently testing out a new feature that will bring online dating directly to the site. Called Facebook Dating, the feature is now being tested in Colombia, Canada and Thailand. On Snapchat, users can now keep track of their friendships thanks to new “Friendship Profiles.” Friendship Profiles organize the content that users save within a chat with their friends. Snapchat users can also see their astrological compatibility with friends and dates.
MOST NICHE DATING SERVICES
FARMERSONLY.COM for farmers and ranchers MEET-AN-INMATE.COM to meet lonely inmates SALADMATCH.COM find your salad soulmate SEACAPTAINDATE.COM find your first mate THEATLASPHERE.COM for people who LOVE Ayn Rand POUNCED.ORG for furries 420DATING.COM why toke alone? Source: Today.com
ILLUSTRATIONS BY DIANA TAVERA | THE SIGNAL
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
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The dorms: Georgia State’s cock block Don’t let these stories about dorm life dry you up ALEX QUARTERMAN & SYDNEY BLOEME Staff Reporter and Arts & Living Editor
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uring your time living in the dorms, you finally have the freedom to drink for the first time, play your music as loud as you want and stay up all night. You can even have sex with whomever you want, whenever you want, as loud as you want. Or so you thought. Maintaining “the mood” and balancing on a twin XL can often be an extreme sport. You barely have enough room to roll over, let alone cuddle with another person. If one of you ends up falling off the side, don’t be surprised. “I think Georgia State is purposely making it impossible to have sex,” student and dorm resident John said. “The beds are so tiny and so uncomfortable; it’s so annoying. You’d probably have a better time f------ on the ground.” And for those who have a lofted bed, while it has its advantages, you can forget about cowgirl. “What’s most useful about a lofted bed is because you’re on a different plane. So if you’re doing something, no one can really see it,” Sean said. “[Climbing up] is terrible. Like who goes first? It really choses what position you do. And you can’t do much because your head would hit the ceiling.” Lofted beds often squeak and bang up against the wall behind it. One student became so tired of angry neighbors banging back on the wall, they resorted to building a cot on the ground. “Since the beds were lifted, they would wobble back and forth and make a lot of noise. Maintenance came to check it out and they were like ‘yeah, whatever’. I got so sick of [people next door] banging on the wall, I wanted to bang back because floor sex is not comfortable in the slightest. Plus, the Piedmont floors are like low-pile Motel 6 carpets so they were really rough on the knees,” Jeremy said. Outside of uncomfortable furniture, sometimes the system will assign you a roommate who isn’t sexually open-minded. A roommate who chooses to abstain can put a wrench in your evening plans. “My roommate last year was really religious and thought sex was ‘bad’ so she’d always give me dirty looks whenever I brought a dude home, so eventually I just stopped because I didn’t wanna deal with her,” Amanda said. One student was exploring his sexuality, and because he was living with a roommate without the most sex-positive mindset, he had to migrate to the Georgia State parking lots across the street. “Freshman year, I went through like 9 different roommates but one was consistent, and he was a real homophobe. I was terrified of Grindr so I started meeting guys off Reddit and those weren’t the type I wanted to check in, so I ended up just hopping in cars,” Donovan said.
Having sex in college can be hard, but having sex in a dorm with a roommate who won’t leave can be even harder.
Even if you’re on good terms with your roommate, sharing common areas can lead to tricky conversations. “There was one time that [my roommate] heard me having sex on the couch and he approached me the next day and said ‘I don’t care what you do, but don’t do it in the common space,’” Duncan said. For those who live in a large common room such as Piedmont North, when juggling three people’s schedules, forget about alone time. “Trying to schedule that and getting people out of the room was hard,” Max said. “Me and my girlfriend would actually skip class to have sex.” As for those students in Piedmont North who couldn’t skip class, a private bathroom came to the rescue. “We would just do hand stuff in the bathroom and try to have sex on the toilet, it was awful. But it was totally worth it,” Lauren said.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY UNIQUE RODRIGUEZ | THE SIGNAL
Sometimes you might not even make it to the bathroom in time. “My roommate actually moved her boyfriend into our room. She hung a bed sheet in the middle, dividing the room and would blast the Weeknd. I knew what was happening,” Courtney said. For those with their own rooms such as in the University Commons, creative liberty might just make your partner’s life – and climax – harder. “Her entire room was covered in bad, new metal artists and [I] couldn’t look anywhere without seeing the band members of Korn, that’s not really something you want to see when you bust off,” Mike said. Of course while these are all annoying obstacles, when it comes down to business, you’re not going to let anything keep you from having a good time. Editor’s Note: All names have been changed to protect anonymity.
Sex mixtapes to get down and get it on This playlist could make or break your night EUGENE RUBINCHIK Staff Reporter
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f you’re an advocate for music and sex, why not combine the two? “The same brain-chemical system that mediates feelings of pleasure from sex, recreational drugs, and food is also critical to experiencing musical pleasure” McGill University wrote. Both a hotbed for students with progressive music taste and sexual activity, Georgia State University hosts a student body that grabs for not only bed sheets but also interesting sex playlists. “Any sex with passion is good sex, and music helps that. I always put on the Spotify Bedroom Pop playlist because it’s great for foreplay, ” Georgia State student Dexter Levy said. Songs like BØRNS’ “Electric Love” on Spotify’s Bedroom Pop playlist personify sex’s robust feeling quoting the sensation of being electronically lovestruck. The popular
playlist’s 302,993 followers aren’t all searching for the perfect love tune, but Levy and other sexual audiophiles are definitely in the right place to enhance their experiences. Other Georgia State students, like Chris Allen, consider music devastating when it comes to sex’s fluid progression. “I just never really have time to pull my phone out and play anything, it just ruins the moment,” Allen said. Student Kai Thibodeaux agrees. “You can go from talking to sex just like that, so I never really have time to pull my phone out,” Thibodeaux said. Despite Allen and Thibodeaux, Georgia State students were eager to discuss their ideal musical-sexual accompaniments “How you feel by Trippie Redd, it just has a good flow for my stroke,” Ramsey Abdallah said. “It honestly depends on my energy level. Swae Lee has a cool, mellow feeling, I could go on all night,” David Park said. “Daniel Caesar is pretty sensual,” Morgan D’Amico said. “Currents by Tame Impala is a pretty good album for sex,” Marquise Wright said.
“Alina Baraz, listen to her and you’ll understand,” Kai Thibodeaux said. “Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground, the live version. It’s like 47 minutes long, but it’s worth it,” Zane Durfee said. “Depends on my mood. If i’m feeling R&B, i’ll listen to HER. If i’m feeling trap, maybe Heroes Don’t Wear Capes by Metro Boomin,” Naimiah Bryant said. “It depends on the person honestly, Chillwave is usually pretty good, like Gus Dapperton. It’s just more intimate. I could probably have sex to Rock n’ Roll though,” Sarah Jane Rockett said. “Gotta be coming home, Leon Bridges all the way, great album,” Marcus Scales said. “The Weeknd. I mean he talks about having sex with women in his songs and I have sex with women so yeah,” Racquel Yacoob said. “I’m old school with it. Teddy Pendergrass and R&B in general is baby making music. Sexual Healing is good too,” Hunter Durand said. Editor’s Note: Flip to the next page for a QR code to Eugene’s Sex Mixtape.
ARTS & LIVING
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Smith’s Olde Bar hosts Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow Revenue, the “world’s last authentic circus sideshows,” displaying performers some of which were featured in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Tickets start at $15.
Like a modern Bob Ross, enjoy painting beautiful works of art while listening to trap music. The event will be hosted at Tony’s Sports Bar & Grill. Tickets are $40 and all materials are provided.
Visit Piedmont Park from the 14th to the 17th to enjoy hot air balloon rides and food trucks. Admission is free but rides must be reserved.
Cupid’s Charity is hosting their annual “Undie Run,” a short run supporting neurofibromatosis. The run takes place at Big Sky in Buckhead from 12-4 p.m. Tickets are $40.
Learn the basics of glass blowing to make and your own glass heart paperweight at Decatur Glassblowing. Tickets are $50 and all materials are provided.
The Georgia State College of Law is hosting a fall 2019 externship information session for students looking to earn credits while gaining experience working in law.
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Black History Month: Famous Black Couples
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Since Valentine’s Day is this week and February is Black History Month, we’ve made a crossword featuring iconic black couples. We hope you enjoy!
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1. Beth and ___ Pearson from the Emmy Award-winning television show “This Is Us.” 8. Barack and ___ Obama were the first family from 20092017. 10. Uncle Phil and ___ ___ looked after a young Will Smith in the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” 13. Steph and ___ Curry 16. Gabrielle Union and ___ ___ welcomed a daughter, Kaavia James, last December. 17. ___, played by Tracee Ellis Ross, and Dre Johnson, played by Anthony Anderson, are the parents in “Blackish.”
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Times.” 6. Miranda ___ and Ben Warren were married in season 9 of “Grey’s Anatomy.” 7. ___ and Martin from the ‘90s sitcom, “Martin.” 9. Carmelo and ___ Anthony 11. Remy Ma married ___ in a courtroom before being sentenced. 12. Cardi B and ___ recently got back together after their big breakup last December. 14. ___ and Coretta Scott King 15. Monica and ___ learn to juggle basketball and their relationship in the movie “Love and Basketball.”
SPORTS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
www.georgiastatesignal.com/sports
OPINION
Still no openly gay professional athletes The enigma of sexuality in major league sports JOSHUA FIFE
Associate Sports Editor
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SPN featured a lesbian couple on the cover of their latest body issue, making a statement about the company’s stance on LGBT athletes. The cover had WNBA All-Star Sue Bird and her partner Megan Rapinoe, who has represented the U.S. in both the World Cup and the Olympics for women’s soccer. While the couple has been embraced by mainstream media and the sports world, there is a bigger reason ESPN chose the female couple to feature for their first same-sex couple cover photo. ESPN has already received criticism for its body issue and sexism within the company, and it’s very likely that they chose this specific couple to serve their male audience. Women’s sports fans and athletes tend to be more open in their discussion of sexuality. Female athletes also don’t publically express homophobic attitudes with the same frequency and casualty as their male counterparts. The WNBA even launched an initiative, WNBA Pride, which includes 10 “Pride Night” games per season. “I almost said, ‘Yeah, it’s no big deal. I’m gay, who cares?” Bird said in an interview with ESPNW. “Where the league is now is appropriate, I think, in terms of support.” For men however, the stigma of gay and bisexual male athletes is an unspoken understanding in locker rooms across the country. Sports like basketball and football breed hypermasculine personas which make the topic of sexuality a minefield for some athletes.
NFL
At media day for the 2013 Super Bowl, 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver expressed strong feelings when asked about having a gay teammate. “I don’t do the gay guys man,” Culliver said. “I don’t do that. Nah, we ain’t got no gay people on the team. They gotta get up outta here if they do. Can’t be with that sweet stuff. Nah, can’t be in the locker room.” He went on to add that gay players should wait at least 10 years after retiring to come out. This backfired for Culliver, seeing that the city he played for, San Francisco, at the time had the highest percentage of LGBT residents in the country. Comments and attitudes like these create an environment that makes it hard on anyone who isn’t heterosexual to be open
about their sexuality. There are only 11 known gay NFL players, and they all came out after retiring. One of the most wellknown is Jerry Smith. Smith has an entire episode of “A Football Life,” a documentary series from the NFL that chronicles the lives of the league’s greats, dedicated to his story. Smith played for the Washington Redskins under legendary head coach Vince Lombardi. Both Lombardi and Smith’s teammates knew about his orientation, but chose to keep his secret to protect his career and his name. “He was living in real fear,” close friend David Mixner said when describing Smith. “And [he was] real scared, and really alone. And terrified that he was going to lose everything.” Smith remained publically closeted until his death in 1986. Former teammate David Kopay revealed his relationship with Smith years later.
“When we get to the point where a gay pro athlete is no longer forced to live in fear that he’ll be shunned by teammates or outed by tabloids, when we get to the point where he plays while his significant other waits in the family room, when we get to the point where he’s not compelled to hide his true self and is able to live an authentic life, then coming out won’t be such a big deal. But we’re not there yet.” — JASON COLLINS The first openly gay NBA player NBA
NBA players have also publicly expressed homophobic sentiments. In 2007, the Miami Heat’s Tim Hardaway said that he “hates gay people” and that “it shouldn’t be in the world or
in the United States.” Fast forward six years and Jason Collins, forward for the Boston Celtics, comes out as the first openly gay NBA player. Immediately following his announcement in 2013, several NBA players like Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd, took to social media to publicly display their support. Even former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton applauded his courage. During the same year WNBA star Brittney Griner announced that she was a lesbian and the MLS signed Robbie Rogers, an openly gay professional soccer player. The following year the St. Louis Rams were the first NFL team to draft an openly gay player, Michael Sam, though Sam was released before the start of the season and never officially made an NFL roster. It seemed, at the time, as though the future of professional sports was heading in the direction of openness and acceptance. However in the years following these events, the momentum quickly fizzed out. Now, four years after Collins’ retirement, heteronormative rhetoric remains dominant in men’s sports. Dwight Howard recently received the wrath of basketball fans with zero tolerance of any non-heterosexual preference. Howard became a trending topic for weeks following allegations that he had relationships with transgender men and women. A storm of homophobic slurs, insults and memes followed. None of the allegations were proven to be true and Howard never publicly spoke on the topic. To this day, there are no openly gay men in any of America’s major sports leagues. These numbers don’t just speak for professionals, but represent the hostile environment in men’s sports at every level. Whether publicizing their sexuality will hurt their career is impossible to know, but it’s a gamble very few are willing to take. Either way, these athletes should have a right to their privacy and a right to come out. The decision should not make or break their reputations, and hopefully ignorant comments will not deter them from being true to themselves. A person’s sexual preferences have nothing to do with their athletic ability. Just as various races and religions in sports have become a norm, having gay teammates may also one day become accepted. “When we get to the point where a gay pro athlete is no longer forced to live in fear that he’ll be shunned by teammates or outed by tabloids, when we get to the point where he plays while his significant other waits in the family room, when we get to the point where he’s not compelled to hide his true self and is able to live an authentic life, then coming out won’t be such a big deal. But we’re not there yet,” Jason Collins said.
OPENLY GAY PLAYERS MLB - 0 NBA - 0 NFL - 0 NHL - 0 MLS - 0 English Premier League - 0 Pro Golf - 0 Pro Tennis - 0
SPORTS
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PHOTO SUBMITTED BY GEORGIA STATE ATHLETICS
Youth movement takes over Panther baseball
Preseason Pitcher of the Year Hunter Gaddis takes leadership DANIEL RICHARDSON Staff Reporter
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he Georgia State baseball season will kick off on Feb. 15 against Richmond, and for the first home game of the season the Panthers can begin to address the question marks surrounding the team. A team with 18 new players, including 10 incoming freshmen, will need to learn how to play with each other. Head coach Greg Frady’s team was able to get some real game practice this year during fall practice in October against the Tennessee Volunteers and Georgia Highlands. In those games, coach Frady was able to get a good look at what his team can do in a game situation. “I found out that we can really do some things in crucial moments, then I also found out that some guys get nervous in some crucial moments and kind of break from training and strategy,” Frady said in October. “I found out who knows the signs and who doesn’t know the signs and just the little internal things that work on as a team to be the best version of yourself.” The best version of this year’s team is yet to be determined as Frady and the team search for leadership from the returning talent. Frady has managed 12 Panther squads before this year’s, but he is set solely on this season. He doesn’t want any past performances or storylines to have any effect on this season and wants this year’s results to define itself. “All my experiences as a coach, whether they were here or someplace else, should lead me to be the best version of myself as a coach to get up with the most energy and the most enthusiasm – with the most knowledge and experience to help this team win,” Frady said. Frady has already seen some signs that the team is building positive chemistry on and off the field, but he said the true test will come when the games matter. “Nothing really defines a team or really exposes the nature of a personality like real gameplay,” Frady said. “Sometimes in gameplay, it’s not always successful, sometimes there [are] some hardships that go on that goes with being on a team. The
thing that’s really good is that I have a really talented group of freshmen who really want to be here and really want to make a strong contribution to the team.” But, the older and experienced talent returning this season have accepted the leadership role of teaching the young guys on the team. Among the veteran players returning are junior Hunter Gaddis and seniors Brandon Bell, Enrique Ferrer, Liam Henry and Luke Leonard. Also returning to the team is redshirt sophomore outfielder Terrell Frazier after battling a shoulder injury that held him to four games in 2018. The left-handed hitter from Westlake High School in Atlanta spent his time off watching “a lot” of baseball and is itching to get back on the field to play again. Frazier showed flashes of his talent and comfort level during his team’s live practice against Georgia Highlands, and physically he says he is fine. During his time off, Frazier’s focus remained on the mental part of his game. “I’m now realizing in baseball no matter how good you [are], you’re going to have ups and downs,” Frazier said. “You have to just move on and keep playing and don’t get down on yourself and stay positive.” Frazier is learning to “play with ease” and without pressure as he gets back to the game. Focusing on aspects of the game that aren’t in his control, he said, is something he wants to avoid while trying to get better as a player.
EYES ON PANTHER PITCHING
Gaddis, coming into the year off a 12-strikeout, 7-inning no-hitter against Little Rock in the Sun Belt Tournament, was named the 2019 Preseason Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year. Bell and Ryan Glass were named to the All-Sun Belt Conference team as well. The seven freshmen pitchers will have an impressive starter to study and build their games in Gaddis. How the Panther’s pitching corps performs this season will be a point of interest for fans and the team. The younger pitchers have shown Frady the peaks and valleys they will most likely endure during the season, but he isn’t worried or surprised.
“When you’re young, you want to be in the game, but you don’t want to hurt the team,” Frady said. “I think our young players are much better than hurting the team, I think they’re very capable of helping the team. It’s my job as a coach and our job as a team to help these young guys remember to breathe, keep their heart rate down and play baseball like they’ve played all their lives.” Led by Gaddis and Henry, the pitching staff will have a long season to work through some of the kinks of playing the position at a high level. “I feel confident about this year coming in pitching, I’m feeling healthy,” Gaddis said. “The freshmen pitchers, they’re a strong group of guys and I’m trying to lead by example and try to help out in any way I can.” The Panthers will look for more production out of veterans Tyler Koch -- second on the team in appearances -- and Henry. Returning senior Jake Rogers, in his first season with the Panthers, performed well enough to earn a starting rotation spot with an ERA of 4.92. The fresh crop of pitching talent will give Frady a number of options to round out his rotation as the season progresses. Gaddis, like Frady, wants the younger players to play the game the right way and focus on the bigger plan for the team as they experience the rigors of the season. “Just doing the right thing, day in and day out knowing you go to get better every day no matter what,” Gaddis said. “If someone is slipping up, let him know ‘hey, it’s a bigger picture than it is today.’ I feel like the seniors have really led us to a good spot to start off.” On Feb. 2 at the men’s basketball game against Georgia Southern, the baseball team took centercourt as they introduced themselves publicly to a sold-out home arena. The team has been preparing for this season all year and the excitement of a new season is well alive inside the baseball program. “Every team in the Sun Belt is good, and it’s the team that plays the best that wins the games, not the team who records say has the best team,” Frady said. “Our goal is to be fundamentally sound, bring a consistency to the park with energy, enthusiasm, communication and life and then get positive results.”
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
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Men fall, women rise to meet at 7-4 Sun Belt record Men’s basketball loses two straight; women now on a three-game win streak CHRISTIAN CRITTENDEN Staff Reporter
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efore the season started, the women’s basketball team was predicted to finish 10th by Sun Belt Conference coaches, but today, the Panthers have exceeded those expectations and are currently in fourth. In contrast, the men’s team was the unanimous first place team, but they are currently sitting at third.
ON THE COME UP
After a 74-71 nail-biting victory over the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns, the Panthers have won three straight games and six out of their last eight. Georgia State (16-8, 7-4) is currently fourth in the standings, and there is plenty of basketball left to be played, but it just shows the growth they’ve had this season under Hill. Led by 18 points from Jada Lewis, the Panthers were able to come back from a nine-point, second half deficit to win the game. The redshirt sophomore is leading the charge, but the team is getting contributions from a big supporting cast, including seniors Allison Johnson and K.K Williams. The two of them scored 13 and 15 points respectively. Against Louisiana, Johnson added five rebounds and two assists, but her play down the stretch was huge, coming up with crucial layups. Williams made three shots from behind the arc. She scored seven points in the first quarter and made a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter. This being her fourth year with the program, and she is enjoying the success that her team has had this season. “I’ve been having a lot of fun with our new head coach,” Williams said. “His system is very different, so it’s a lot more fun with him.” Earlier in the week, Georgia State defeated LouisianaMonroe 68-46 behind 11 points apiece from Madison Ervin and Rakeah Williams. “We continue to talk about trust, trust in the process, trust in the system, and we’re starting to see evidence in that in how you play, and those are ending up in good results,” Hill said. The Panthers will return to action on Thursday, Feb. 14 against Troy.
SLIGHT SLUMP
The Georgia State men’s basketball team has dropped two straight games after a 76-72 loss to the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns on Friday. The Panthers (16-8, 7-4) trailed by 15 points in the first half and even held the lead in the second half before losing the game. Devin Mitchell led the team in scoring with 21 points,
Jada Lewis, guard for the women’s basketball team, played against the University of Louisiana-Lafayette on Feb. 9.
and D’Marcus Simonds added 19 more. Freshman Nelson Phillips started in this game and scored 14 points. Head coach Ron Hunter changed up the starting lineup once again, so it’s unclear what five players he will go with in the future. Georgia State typically wins when senior Malik Benlevi plays well, but he had an off night, only tallying four points and four rebounds. Additionally, senior Jeff Thomas only scored three points and did not attempt a 3-pointer. If the Panthers want to have any postseason success, they will
PHOTO BY UNIQUE RODRIGUEZ | THE SIGNAL
need to get both of them going. “Although we are extremely disappointed with this loss, I’m extremely proud of how this team responded in the second half,” head coach Ron Hunter said after the game. “We dug ourselves a pretty big hole in the first half, but to come out the way we did in the second half shows me what this team is capable of. At the end of the day, we need to play that way for 40 minutes if we are going to win.” The Panthers are off until Wednesday, Feb. 13 when they return home to face the Troy Trojans.
African-Americans dwindling in baseball MLB losing African-American players at a high rate JULIAN HARDEN Sports Editor
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n 1981, the percentage of African-Americans in the MLB was 18.7 percent – its highest in MLB history. In 2016, the percentage of African-Americans dropped to an abysmal 6.7 percent. Many have taken notice to the limited response by the league to address the sharp decline. The percentage of African-Americans playing baseball are falling while those of white race remain steady and Latin American participation continue to skyrocket. “They’re basically no black bench players anymore, let alone many black stars,” Terence Moore, Forbes and CNN writer said. The league has gone from Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby breaking the color barrier to African-Americans stars such as Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas and Derek Jeter dominating, to African-Americans not even being prominent on MLB benches
In 1981, African-American bench players such as Oscar Gamble, Cliff Johnson and Jerry Mumphrey were regarded as some of the best bench players in MLB history. African-American men were at the forefront when it came to the MLB in the 70s and 80s. In 2014, the San Francisco Giants became the first team to win the World Series without an African-American on their roster. Their opponent in the National League Championship Series, the St. Louis Cardinals, didn’t have any African-Americans on their roster either. The issue has hardly improved as some playoff teams only have one African-American player on their roster. In 2017, the Houston Astros had two on their roster in relief pitcher Tony Sipp and George Springer. The 2015 Royals and 2016 Cubs had six African-Americans on their roster for the World Series. Today, in 2019, the 40-man roster for teams like the San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies have no African-American players. However, the percentage of Latin American baseball players continues to increase. In the late 70s, teams started to build baseball academies in the
Caribbean, especially in the Dominican Republic. Teams with large payrolls such as the Boston Red Soxs for example spend an unrelenting amount on young Latin prospects. Before the 2015 season, the Red Sox signed Cuban prospect Yoan Moncada to a $31.5M signing bonus. Moncada at the time was only 19 years old at the time, and the Red Sox all together committed $63M (taxes included) to Moncada. The highest signing bonus by an American prospect is $8M in 2011, and ,today, no American prospect has ever gotten a $10M signing bonus. The Los Angeles Dodgers, another high payroll team, is currently being investigated by the Department of Justice for making bribes and side deals for Cuban prospects. MLB teams will high payrolls such as the Red Sox and Dodgers will spend top dollar and risk Federal charges than actively look for players in their own backyard to develop. African Americans in the MLB has risen one percent to 7.8 percent. Mookie Betts, the right-fielder for the Boston Red Sox is now MVP of the American League and a World Series champion but MLB hasn’t shown urgency to attract young African-American kids to the game.
SPORTS
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Football recruits its 2019 class from the inside out 12 three-star players join the Panthers as they look to rebound JERELL RUSHIN Sports Editor
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eorgia State football closed its 2019 recruiting class by adding seven more players on National Signing Day on Feb. 6, bringing its total to 20. 247Sports ranks the Georgia State Panthers 105th in the national recruiting rankings and fifth in the Sun Belt Conference. The highest rated recruit joining the program is three-star defensive lineman Miles Dickens out of Deerfield Beach High School in Florida. Auburn, UCF and Illinois also offered Dickens. Dickens, who signed on Feb. 6, is just one Deerfield Beach product to sign with the Panthers. Head coach Shawn Elliott and his staff also courted 6’0 243-lb. Defensive lineman Javon Denis from the same high school, which is a staple of Elliott recruiting. Two Deerfield Beach players signed to Georgia State last year, offensive lineman Despelado Alexandre and Cornelius McCoy, the team’s second leading receiver in 2018. “[When] you treat guys right and do things the right way and word gets back to those programs, and that’s certainly what’s happened there,” Elliott said. “We’re thrilled to death to have Miles… He turned down a lot of big schools to come here to Georgia State. He came here and he felt this is his home.” 12 three-star athletes signed letters of intent to come play for Georgia State. Cornelius Brown is the lone quarterback in the recruiting class. Brown, the No. 43 rated pro-style quarterback, also received offers from Alabama, Troy, Louisiana and Vanderbilt. Tahji Gilbert, the only junior college recruit, is one of two recruits that will participate in spring practice. He was a standout in high school when he led Morton High School in tackles as a senior with 105 tackles. The other early enrollee is Denis. “We’ve watched them work a little bit,” Elliott said. “[They’re tremendous workers, both in the classroom and on the field right now. Because we’ve been on the road recruiting, we haven’t had a whole lot of interaction with them on a one-on-one basis, but all reports indicate they’re doing well.” Football is very focused on the quarterback, protecting the quarterback and rushing the quarterback. Injuries and inexperience in the latter areas had huge effects on the 2-10 2018 season. Eight of the 20 recruits play on the line of scrimmage. Five play on the defensive line and three play on the defensive line. Building depth in the trenches was a task that the staff needed to address, and they did so. “A great defensive line push makes for a great secondary,” Elliott said on the first day of the early signing period in December. “You can call it what it is. Those guys can’t get back and cover all day, so we got to have some presence and some run stopping ability and some pass rush ability. On offensive side of the ball, we’ve got to move people out of the way, so we’re looking to build that on both fronts.” Eight skill position players enter program, but no running backs. The program is confident in the three true freshman running backs that played in 2018, Destin Coates, Tucker Gregg and Seth Paige. The secondary was another position group that struggled in 2018. Most of the starters were freshmen and redshirt freshmen because of injuries. Four defensive backs join the Panthers, including safety Antavious Lane and 6-foot-1-inch cornerback Cameron Sims. Plackicker Michael Hayes is the first specialist that Elliott has brought into Georgia State since taking over as head coach after the 2016 season. Hayes can also punt and kick field goals just like Wright. Current placekicker Brandon Wright is a redshirt-senior, and Hayes will be called upon to replace fill starting role in years to come. Every signee is The January signing period was a skill position except Hayes and Dickens. The 2018 Georgia State freshman class was forced into playing time. But Elliott said he wants, first and foremost, to see good effort from the class of 2019 class, and if they do produce on the field immediately, then that’s a plus.
Georgia State football head coach Shawn Elliott spoke to the media after the class of 2019 recruiting period ended on Feb. 6.
name
Pos. ht, wt
PHOTO BY JERELL RUSHIN | THE SIGNAL
hometown
school
february CAMERON SIMS
CB
6-1, 180
CORDOVA, TN
MILES DICKENS
DL
6-2, 249
DEERFIELD BEACH, FL
DEERFIELD BEACH
S
5-9, 180
WEST PALM BEACH, FL
WILLIAM T. DWYER
CADARRIUS THOMPSON
WR
6-3, 180
FLORENCE, AL
FLORENCE
MICHAEL HAYES
P-PK 5-9, 186
FLORENCE, SC
WEST FLORENCE
ANTAVIOUS LANE
LAUSANNE COLLEGIATE
AVERY REECE
TE
6-2, 273
ANDERSON, SC
BELTON-HONEA PATH
JAMARI THRASH
WR
6-0, 180
LAGRANGE, GA
TROUP COUNTY
JORDAN VENEZIALE
ILB
6-0, 209
DALLAS, GA
LUIS CRISTOBAL
OL
6-0, 301
MIAMI, FL
JAQUEZ PENNIMON
DB
6-0, 185
MACON, GA
TREY BONNER
OL
6-3, 278
GRAY, GA
TAHJI GILBERT
DL
6-0, 282
MORTON, MS
JAY LEPKOSKE
OLB
6-1, 204
SAUTEE NACOOCHEE, GA
THOMAS GORE
DL
6-0, 285
ANTIOCH, TN
JEFFERY CLARK JR.
DL
6-0, 265
POWDER SPRINGS, GA
MCEACHERN
JAVON DENIS
DL
6-0, 243
DEERFIELD BEACH, FL
DEERFIELD BEACH
MARCUS ANDERSON
ILB
RONALD FOLKES
OT
TYREKE HARRISON
DB
CORNELIOUS BROWN IV
QB
december
5-10, 215 NORMAN PARK, GA 6-4, 270
PORT ST. LUCIE, FL
5-10, 180 PLANT CITY, FL 6-5, 180
CALERA, AL
NORTH PAULDING CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS SOUTHWEST MACON JONES COUNTY MORTON/NW MISSISSIPPI CC WHITE COUNTY BRENTWOOD ACADEMY
COLQUITT COUNTY WILLIAM T. DWYER PLANT CALERA
SPORTS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
SPORTS BRIEFS men’s basketball •
• •
The team fought back from a 15-point deficit against Louisiana but still lost 7672 on Feb. 8 Late threes by UL-Monroe gave them 82-76 victory over the Panthers on Feb. 6 Only seven conference games remain before the playoffs on March 12
women’s Basketball • • • •
Women have now won six of their last eight They’ve won three straight, beating southern by 17 and ULM by 22 They have two road games coming up at Troy and South Alabama The last three wins put them at 7-4 in the Sun Belt Conference
Softball • • • • •
•
Started the season 0-5 in the Hawaii Paradise Tournament Closest game was its first in Hawaii, a 7-5 loss to Saint Mary’s College Panthers scored three runs in their next three games Outscored 28-3 in the final three games Lost 1-9 to both conference opponent Texas-Arlington and to the No. 1 ranked team in the ation, UCLA Face Georgia Tech on the road on Feb. 13 at 5 p.m.
Track and Field • •
• • •
Competed in the Samford Bulldog Open in birmingham, Alabama Angela Alonso broke the Georgia State record in the 1,000 meter with a time of 2:53.27 Lotte Meyberg placed first in the mile with a 4:59.15 time Jada Watson tied for second in the high jump at 1.65 meters This meet was the last before the Sun Belt Conference Indoor track and Field Championships from Feb. 18-Feb. 19
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