EDITORS: Ella Welsh, Haley Moreland, Sophie Davis, Kylie Adedeji, Yewon Hong
DESIGN DIRECTOR: Anika Dua
STAFF WRITERS: Anika Dua Josephine Vanry, Catie Scott, Waverly Brannigan, Samayee Gupte, Tori Baker, Nickaylia Anderson, Gia Rebstock
SOCIAL DIRECTOR: Alexandra Taitano
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Giana DiTola
SOCIAL TEAM: Elizabeth Calvo, Christian Slowinski, Madison Harp, Maya Espinel, Molly Meisner
CREATIVE
DESIGN DIRECTOR: Megan Radakovich
DESIGNERS: Jenna Sweeney, Eva Aurnhammer, Lang Delapa
ILLUSTRATORS: Matt Latvis, Nicole Cheah, Abigail Shim, Mara DuBay, Ande Wittenmeier, Kate Tang, Eva Aurnhammer, Freddy Toglia, Lucy Lee-Moore
PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTORS: Maya Lockwood & Abby Johnson
PHOTOGRAPHERS: L.J. War, Isabel Lamporte, Sky Zhuang, Ella Fling, Ashlyn Garcia, Kailyn Peng, Diana Valdivia, Juliana McDonald, Tara Binte Sharil
Harriet Brown ADVISOR
Through its content, Jerk is dedicated to enhancing insight through communication by providing an informal platform for the freedom of expression. The writing contained within this publication expresses the opinions of the individual writers. The opinions expressed herein are not those of Syracuse University, the Office of Student Activities, the Student Association, or the student body. Additionally, the ideas presented in this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Jerk Editorial Board. Furthermore, Jerk will not be held responsible for the individual opinions expressed within. Submissions, suggestions, and opinions are welcomed and may be printed without contacting the writer. Jerk reserves the right to edit or refuse submissions at the discretion of its editors. Jerk Magazine is published monthly during the Syracuse University academic year. All contents of the publication are copyright 2021 by their respective creators. No content may be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the Jerk Editorial Board.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Being a queer kid in the Midwest isn’t fun.
First off, it’s mind-numbingly boring. There’s only so much you can do when you’re surrounded by corn and soybeans, and you can only go down so many backroads before it becomes muscle memory, and quite frankly, a waste of gas. Secondly, there’s only a handful of other queer kids in school, which makes dating, well, awkward.
My high school experience was plagued by a chronic desire to fit in, yet a yearning to fully express myself in the ways I longed to. I didn’t cut my hair, I wore a dress to prom, and I even had a long-term boyfriend my freshman year. It wasn’t until I plopped on Syracuse University’s doorstep that I had the freedom to experiment with my identity, and eventually came to terms with being non-binary.
I don’t tell this story to pat myself on the back, far from it. Despite high school being four years ago in my rearview mirror, queer kids like my 15-year-old self are facing a far more dangerous world than they did.
Nex Benedict was 16-year-old non-binary student and member of the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, when they were brutally beaten in a girl’s bathroom at their high school. They received little to no care, and eventually succumbed to their injuries the following day.
In 2022, the Oklahoma State Legislature passed a “bathroom bill,” rigidly defining where students could use the restroom in public schools based on their sex indicated on their birth certificate. Governor Kevin Stitt doubled-down on the issue last year, implementing an executive order requiring government agencies to identify people exclusively by narrow definitions of “male” and “female.”
Nex was the victim of “months of bullying” at their high school, yet still followed state rules
dictating where they were allowed to be.
When I look at pictures of Nex, I can see tiny pieces of myself; in their small smile and their baggy clothes. Unlike me, however, Nex had the courage to be themselves during a time where being queer is more than discomfort, but a target on their back–from their peers, from their community, from the government who is supposed to represent their interests and protect them.
This issue is dedicated to people like Nex–the youth who is fighting the hard battles for themselves and for others everyday.
Eden Stratton Editor In Chief (they/them/theirs)
Miguel
Listen to Jerk’s weekly podcast, Hit and Bitch — where Zoë, Emma, and Kenny discuss the things you hate to love and love to hate — on Spotify today!
JERK ON THE INTERNET
HIT
What we love
"CHALLENGERS"
APRIL 26
Who knew tennis could look so hot? In Luca Guadanino’s new movie, two hot men are caught fighting for Zendaya’s attention while she simultaneously degrades and patronizes them. Sounds like a plot straight out of my dreams. We’re not really sure who we'd want to be in this situation—but we can’t wait to watch to find out.
"LOVE LIES BLEEDING"
MARCH 8
The new Kristen Stewart lesbian thriller/drama by A24 might be just the right thing to get me out of the house during these cold, dark winter days. If Kristen is in theaters, so are we.
"MONKEY MAN"
APRIL 5
From his debut role in "Skins" to starring in Wes Anderson films, Dev Patel has shown us that he has the range. And what’s more exciting than him making his directorial debut with "Monkey Man" this spring. We can’t wait to see what he has in store.
FESTIVAL OF COLORS
MARCH 25
Holi, also known as the Festival of Colors, will be celebrated in late March as the mark of the beginning of spring. This vibrant holiday cherishes the triumph of good over evil, honoring the divine love of the deities Radha and Krishna.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & E STREET BAND TOUR
MARCH 22
An all-American, high-energy world tour returns to America in March. Labeled as the essence of Rock and Roll, Springsteen is said to give one of the best concerts of all time. We’re not about to fumble any more concerts this year, so you better believe we’re going to buy some tickets!
Words by Maddy Brousseau
"DUNE PART 2"
MARCH 1
If "Dune: Part Two" is anything like "Dune: Part One" (i.e. a big worm earns more screen time than Zendaya), we’re walking out of the theater. If you thought Austin Butler as Elvis was a little scary, a bald Austin Butler with black teeth will not be any better.
THE OSCARS
MARCH 10
After Jo Koy’s catastrophic failure of an opening monologue debuted at the Golden Globes, I won’t be trusting a man with a microphone claiming they have a “tight ten” for maybe a decade. We’re looking at you, Jimmy Kimmel.
20TH SEASON OF "GREY'S ANATOMY" MARCH 14
If you are tuning into the premiere of "Grey’s Anatomy " season 20, we’re begging you to do anything else. Pick up a book, call your Mom, or do your homework—it’s been sitting there for weeks and it’s long overdue.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE'S NEW ALBUM
MARCH 15
Justin, you peaked with the "Trolls" franchise, and we’re not sure that’s saying much. For the sake of everyone’s ears, and for the sake of Janet Jackson, give music a rest, Mr. Timberlake. You’ll thank us later.
SPRING BREAK FOMO
MARCH 3–10
We here at Jerk are so sick of people acting like a quick trip to Cabo is manageable (and affordable) for students during Spring Break. We have to check our bank’s app to make sure we have enough money to pay for our iced coffee. Leave us alone.
Mar. 21 - Apr. 19
TAURUS
Apr. 20 - May 20
ARIES GEMINI
Aries, it's your time to shine! With Aries season underway, allow time to prioritize yourself. Work hard, play hard — but don't forget to rest and relax in between. Allow yourself to indulge in the simple pleasures of life. This is a sensitive time for you, Taurus! Ever so emotional, perhaps as the final semester is coming to a close you’re feeling a little sentimental. Hit up your favorite spots on and off campus, reach out to friends, maybe go a little crazy at Lucy’s. Remember, there's always more time to make memories.
May 20 - Jun. 20
Gemini, you little gossip! You’ve been spilling the tea left and right. Karma is real tho, so tread lightly. Other than that, this is a great time to get into work mode. Your ambition is at its peak, so don’t let it go to waste. Get into Bird or Carriage, hunker down, and you’ll be sure to pass your finals with flying marks.
Jun. 21 - Jul. 22
Your spending has been a little out of control this month. With the TikTok shop purchases, Amazon impulse buys, and emergency Doordashes, your bank account is quickly losing funds. It may be time to start looking into jobs to fund your lavish lifestyle, or consider cutting down some costs. Your wallet will thank you, and you can save up for the things that really matter.
Jul. 23 - Aug. 22
CANCER LEO VIRGO
Aug. 23 - Sep. 22
Darling Leo, we can hear your houseplants screaming for water all the way from here. Get proactive and find yourself a plant-mama in the tofu aisle at Trader Joe’s like the rest of us. You could probably use a little water yourself, fire signs need hydration too.
Oh, Virgo. We just know your upper traps could use a trip to the chiropractor. Maybe that’s because you spend your nights staring at the wall reliving when you peed your pants at your second grade spelling bee. Drown yourself in a bevvy and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, babycakes. We’re sure there will be something else to relive soon.
Sep. 23 - Oct. 22
Libra, that imposter syndrome is ruining your lovely skin. Stare deeply into the mirror and remind yourself that you’re more than just a pretty face (much prettier without stressinduced hives though!). Nothing a little lavender incense can’t solve.
Oct. 23 - Nov. 21
LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS
Let’s embrace cuffing season as it approaches, Scorpio. Allow yourself to be intimate and stop leaving that sweet boy from Recess Coffee on read (he wrote you a poem for God’s sake!). Let him take you out for an overpriced oat milk latte and have your hot girl moment. A free coffee’s a free coffee.
Nov. 22 - Dec. 21
We know you’re the main character, Sag, but you need to stop sharing your location with everyone on Find My Friends. We love to follow your coordinates as they prance around campus, but it’s getting old. The cute barista that took your order doesn’t need to know that you live on Walnut.
Dec. 21 - Jan. 20
Miss Capricorn, your mom told you to find a new hobby and stop watching every gruesome crime documentary on Netflix. We know it’s tempting, but we agree with mama bear. Apparently juggling is good for the soul, so maybe that’s a good start?
Jan. 21 - Feb. 18
CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES
Feb. 19 - Mar. 20
We know you’re feeling lucky, Aquarius, so it’s time to take some risks! Channel your inner Whitman and invest in some stocks or something. Who knows, if you start now that Victoria Paris Pinterest lime-green kitchen could be yours.
Words by Emane Haque | Art By Freddy Toglia
It’s a bit too predictable to be a fish out of water right now, Pisces. Share that google calendar with us and let’s get after it! We’ve seen you girlboss before, and we have no doubt that you will do it again. **Insert inspirational Lizzo lyric.**
NO UTERUS, NO PROBLEM
Through female fearlessness, MRKH Stars, a charity for those affected with MRKH syndrome, shines a light on the universal community of young women who are ready to share their stories
Words by Cecila Catalini
Art by Kate Tang | Designed by Lang Delapa
Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser, or MRKH Syndrome, is a rare condition where the femaleborn has an underdeveloped and shortened vagina and a small or absent uterus. While doctors have not found a cause for MRKH, it affects one in about 5,000 female newborn babies.
MRKH Stars is a charity that supports and helps younger and recently diagnosed women with MRKH Syndrome. The team is made up of over 50 volunteers from the U.S. to U.K. The Co-directors, Vics Lane and Tk Kennedy, create a space for women to feel comfortable sharing their stories.
“Having a best friend who just gets it has been the biggest blessing for us, and that’s what MRKH Stars is all about,” founder Vics Lane said.
A diagnosis may not be certain until women have started puberty around the ages of 13 to 18 years old. The process of diagnosis looks different for everyone, but the most common first sign is the absence of a period occurring, and then
undergoing a pelvic ultrasound or MRI scan to confirm the diagnosis.
“The doctor said, ‘Maybe you just don’t have a womb.’ I was absolutely shocked. I just kept thinking you can’t be born without a womb,”’ Codirector Kennedy said.
A day that Kennedy says feels like a “new life” comes after the diagnosis, with the revelation that although women with MRKH syndrome have functioning ovaries, they are unable to get pregnant. Surrogacy is possible through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or through the freezing of eggs, but there is still no possibility of pregnancy.
How do you tell other people, especially your loved ones, about something that fundamentally changes how you live your life?
“I have had a few people not want to be involved with me or my life because of my diagnosis (both romantically and platonically), and at first I found that difficult to accept... I know now that whilst
MRKH can make me struggle to trust people, letting the right people into your journey is the biggest blessing,” Lane said.
As some of the youngest people in the community, MRKH Stars creates a space where young women have the freedom to feel. No judgment, just listening. Lane and Kennedy have also had the opportunity to share their stories with Maddie Zielger, star of the coming-of-age movie "Fitting In," which tells the story about a young teen diagnosed with MRKH. The charity is included in the final credits.
“We have found it tough being the youngest members of our community, there are times when it can feel difficult to feel heard, which is why we make as much effort as we can to make sure that we are heard and seen within the community and respected in our role rather than being seen as the ‘young ones’ or less serious about what we do... it’s so important to feel all the difficult feelings, no matter what age or stage of the journey we are at.”
JESS YENAWINE
Words by Joelle de Poto | Photos by L.J. War and Sky Zhuang
Jess Yenawine is an artist who is no stranger to random acts of kindness. She fosters community among her artist friends by giving them gifts, such as her own prints with heartfelt and inspirational messages on them. It is clear that care is at the heart of her practice as an aspiring art educator.
“I want to implement recognizing my students’ opinions and their capabilities and use that as a base for my projects.”
As an Arts Education major, Yenawine takes a variety of courses, including art-intensive studios that help her develop both her skills and creativity. She is situated with Studio Arts majors in several of her courses, which allows her to observe other artists learning.
“I learn a lot about how people learn. After critique, I love asking about what worked and what didn’t work and using that information in my practice.”
After teaching ceramics to fourth and fifth graders at a summer camp, she was inspired by her students’ ability to make art thoughtfully. She responded to their enthusiasm by continuing to
engage her students:
“I gave them more complicated stuff, and they finished it before the period was even over!”
On the subject of sentimentality in art, Yenawine is a proud supporter of creating intimate and vulnerable work through the sentimental.
“I put my everything into all my art. I want you to feel me in my art.”
In the spring of 2023, she created a “process drawing” in which she compiled all of her poems from over the course of several years into one book, which she bound herself. She explained that this process was like her own form of therapy.
Yenawine’s studio practice is both inspired and diverse—in both materials and content. One of her preferred forms of art is printmaking: “I love working with paper; I love working with words, and getting what’s in my crazy-ass brain onto the page.”
An enthusiastic learner, she loves learning new techniques, especially those that combine her interest in textiles and printmaking.
“I’ve recently figured out that I can make patterns and prints on fabric, and sew and quilt it, and make images out of smaller images!”
In the fall of 2023, she created a wedding dress and wrote a poem as a reflection on her heartbreaking experience of finding her mother’s wedding plans that she never got to use.
“Making this dream wedding dress felt like I was moving past it. Now the dress exists, and I can’t say it never did.”
She considers personal work, like making this dress, to be cathartic: “It was like a release.”
It is easy to get the sense of catharsis when looking at all of Yenawine’s work because of her honest mode of expression. Her commitment to transparency in her work complements her belief in emphasizing communication in teaching. She sets a powerful example for young artists looking to create work that engages the audience emotionally and with great care.
“I want everyone to feel seen and heard in my art because I want people to know love in art.”
JACOB ELORDI’S BATHWATER COCKTAIL
Barry isn’t the only one screaming for more
Words by Gia Rebstock
Photo by Ella Fling and Maya Lockwood
The most important season of the year is quickly approaching and here at Jerk, we love to spice things up— especially our drinks. Let’s be real here, everyone’s favorite spring combination is a good cocktail with a side of hot gossip (or vice versa), but what if I told you that those two can be mixed together... literally. I’m sure we’re all aware of the winter Blockbuster, "Saltburn" that is, if you haven’t been living under a rock all of 2023. What makes "Saltburn" so special for the girls and gays are the controversial scenes involving objectively hot men. Especially the one where Oliver, played by Barry Keoghan, indulges in some... let’s just say, Jacob Elordi. But haven’t you wondered what Mr. Quick could have possibly tasted in that bathtub? Well, wonder no longer, because this refreshment will be the perfect addition to any crazy night out or movie night in.
HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED
• Ice (unless you prefer it lukewarm)
• Rum
• Pineapple juice... obviously
• Lime juice
• Cream of coconut
And we Jerks prefer our rim dipped in the cream of coconut and salted. Then shake that all up, and maybe close your eyes and you might just get to taste some of the Elordi magic.. or something close to it.
DEBUNKING
THE TEENAGE SEDUCTRESS TROPE
How “Lolita” pervades popular culture
Words by Madeleine Oliveros
Art by Lucy Lee-Moore | Designed by Eva Aurnhammer
The doe-eyed 17-year-old walks into the classroom, school books under her arm. The other students file out of the classroom one by one, until only she and her teacher remain. She walks up to his desk and tucks a strand of hair behind her ears. Her teacher meets her gaze, poorly suppressing his attraction to her. She looks at him, blushes, and bites her lip. He smirks.
Thirsty for more? We at Jerk can’t say the same.
While some may salivate at the storyline of the high school seductress flirting with her adult male teacher, I find it a bit bothersome. It is a storyline we know all too well. The young girl finds her teacher irresistible and acts as the instigator while the male teacher attempts to, but eventually fails to rebuff his underage pursuer. Then, after the teacher’s moral compass kicks in, he insists that the relationship must come to an end. However, the female student cannot resist the rush of the relationship and she tries to convince him that they can continue their risqué business in secret, an offer to which he eventually succumbs. How could the teacher be in the wrong when SHE is the one tempting him?
Whether you love it or hate it, the romanticization of the teacher-obsessed student trope has permeated popular media. With shows such as “Pretty Little Liars,” “Gossip Girl,” and even “Gilmore Girls” playing into the bit, there is the question of whether the normalization or even fetishization of these relationships has an effect on the adolescent viewers of these popular shows.
In “Pretty Little Liars,” Aria, a 16-year-old high school student, pursues a physical and romantic relationship with her male teacher. Her friends
too are in support of the relationship. In fact, the relationship is so romanticized that when Aria’s parents try to break up the relationship, they are made out to be villains. After all, they are getting in the way of “true love,” given the student and ultracreep teacher are married by the show’s finale.
The reliance on inappropriate (even illegal) sex to appeal to viewers lacks a sense of morals and provides impressionable viewers with a harmful and falsely romanticized view of intimate studentteacher relationships. If students are conditioned to believe that such relationships are cool or hot, it could make them more susceptible to predatory advances. Without a proper acknowledgement of terms such as “age of consent” or “statutory rape,” students aren’t being properly taught and protected by massive media outlets, which push out so much of the content that is consumed by adolescents.
In 2024, movies like “Miller’s Girl,” starring Jenna Ortega and Martin Freeman, have become more “legally correct.” In the film, Jenna Ortega plays an 18-year-old student who forms a relationship with her teacher, so it feels as though producers have over compensated to avoid qualms over statutory rape charges for Freeman’s character. Still, the film clings to the archetype of the quiet, yet seemingly matured and witty girl. So forgive me if I sound repetitive, but it’s bothersome.
But why does this narrative style continue to be used in mainstream media? Because it sells.
Charisse L’Pree, an associate professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said that this archetype in media is not a new phenomenon.
to describe a young girl of promiscuous nature, which stems from Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita” about a middle-aged man who develops an obsession with a 12-year-old girl. L’Pree said that the archetype of “Lolita” “emerges from a long history of gendered relations.”
contribute to the popularity of such portrayals in the media, according to L’Pree, who said that women are often viewed as “simultaneously unintelligent and conniving.”
L’Pree said that the enduring presence of this trope in mainstream media works “because we [the audience] like watching young women in both sexualized scenarios and submissive.” However, she said that people sometimes feel uncomfortable or guilty about portraying women as totally submissive, so “we [the creators] make them very proactive and rationalize it.”
But even in attempts to vindicate these relationships in the media, the emphasis on autonomy or the character being of age falls short time after time.
“Legality is not the same as human psychological processes,” L’Pree said.
Brain development has been shown to continue up until the age of 24, which would categorize the ages of 10-24 as adolescence, according to a study done by the National Institute of Health. Under these conditions, total adulthood would not technically begin until the age of 25, which questions the validity of using the legal age of “adulthood” to justify a storyline.
Predatory behavior should not be glamorized because of two hot actors. About 10% of students in grades K-12 experience some form of sexual misconduct at the hands of a teacher, according to a 2017 study from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
That is a number that should not be overlooked or downplayed by the media’s constant need to shock audiences and appeal to the human fascination with excitement and risk-taking behavior.
By reversing the roles and turning the student into the pursuer, film, television, and other media distort the real issue. The fault is placed on the child rather than the adult with a fully developed frontal cortex. That same adult has a responsibility to act as an educator and conduct themselves in a professional and morally sound manner. The chronic regurgitation of the “Lolita” archetype is misleading, dangerous, and creates a diversion from real instances of the gross misuse of authoritative positions.
WHY WE CAN'T "DEFINE WOMAN"
Debunking the sensationalist motif of gendered
Republican social policy
Words by Brenne Sheehan
Art by Freddy Toglia | Designed by Jenna Sweeney
In 2022, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sat in front of the US Senate for her confirmation hearing, a political process abided by 1939 with the admission of Justice Felix Frankfurter. A dually ceremonious and cautionary exercise, the four to five day process is intended to review a potential justice’s work within the justice system.
It was there that Senator Marsha Blackburn, on the 13th hour of Brown’s hearing, asked Brown to “define the word ‘woman.’”
Surprised, she responded rather elegantly to the several lines of questioning she received pertaining to critical race theory and the college athlete Lia Thomas, a trans woman who swam for the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team.
She replied, “My job is to address disputes about legal definitions and interpret the law.”
But even this was not enough for Senators Blackburn, Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham, and many
other Republican senators who spent hours pinning fundamentalist discourse onto the appointed justice.
Despite this being a blatantly racist, performatively regressive charade of reactionary conservatism to prevent the first Black female justice to the Supreme Court, this verbal cliche of “please, define a woman” is a rhetorical tactic used by reactionary conservatives to pin their victims into logical corners.
But asking such a question proves an innate logical fallacy behind the notion of asking the question: we can’t. We can’t define a woman, define the word woman, or even truly answer “what is a woman?” Because even the act of “defining” a woman, or any given gender identity, reduces the capability to which we live as human beings.
To debunk the discourse of definitive womanhood, let us recognize the implications of the question at hand. These conservative figureheads want one thing: to prove that being a woman means you are “born as a woman” with conventional
XX chromo-anatomy and the capability to bear children. This, to them, is someone with a vagina, a uterus, ovaries and all other gynecological anatomy; where the opposite is someone “born a man,” with a penis and... really nothing else.
This fundamentalist idea of the pseudoanatomical gender binary originates in Western sociology, where various institutions of power such as the Church, governments, and white supremacy fabricated a social system of oppression. This was, and still is, to keep what they designated as “men” in power of the political and economic sphere and what they designated as “women” as a means to build a population to compete with other growing nations.
So, truly, nobody is “born a woman” or “born a man.” Instead, from their birth, they are allocated a social role of gender expression which defines their social perception.
And from this argument of anatomy comes another logically unsound claim of universal composition: where all cisgender women are born with reproductive anatomy and all cisgender men are equipped with fertile, fully-functional penises. Many cis women, even one in every 4,500 women, according to Penn Medicine, are born without uteruses, and even more without one or more of the gynecological reproductive organs. This premise also ignores the anatomical reality of intersex people, who are forced to take on a polarized gender identity even with components of mixed sexual systems.
We can see that there is not truly a “reality” of the gender binary in terms of biology; but rather, it is completely social and is upheld by a system of capitalism and the imperialist mindset.
Beyond this argument, there lie fundamental misconceptions of gender even within the premises set forth by this anatomical and binary school of thought. This ignores the systematically marginalized identities and their unique experiences to that of their elevated counterparts.
In a binary gendered system, there is an assumed role of homogeneity. That is because when the structures of gender were in their infancy in developing Europe, to what extent was identified as human was based on their whiteness. In enslaving Africans in the colonial periods, Black gendered
identities have been morphed to fit a subhuman identity of servitude and labor for centuries. Black men were deemed hypermasculine in allocation of copious brute, physical labor and Black women were also defeminized in their indiscriminate labor comparable to that of the men’s.
Even in this fundamental gender binary, we have allocated different modern roles associated with intersectional identities. Cis women, who possess all the criteria for a singular gender expression of a “woman,” are not seen equally in the eyes of the West.
Trans women, trans men, and people of any gender expression are not breaking any of these rules. Queer people have always been demerited of their status as cisgendered individuals in the gendered system; seen as sexually deviant and incompatible with a masculine power structure. To say that trans women are men or separate from a “real” woman, is to compare an individual identity to a set of roles that does not exist. The only reason we deem trans individuals as something separate of cis people is a reaction to the social construct of gender itself.
It is also important to recognize the unique weaponization of femininity in the debate on transgender identity. The reason we need to “define a woman,” instead of “define a man,” is because of the allotment of oppressive roles we assign to the feminine instead of the masculine.
This manifests itself in many ways. For one thing, trans women are seen as a threat to cis women because of an innate assumption of masculine predatory behavior. “Men” are taking the role of women to take advantage of femininity and sneak into women’s spaces in an associated role of queer sexual deviancy. Cis women are physically incapable of cis men’s athleticism, so trans women enter women’s sports to take advantage of cis women’s “genetic inferiority.”
The laziness of reactionary conservatism is also necessary for upholding a white, cisgendered and heteronormative structure of power. By refusing to recognize the reuse of gender linguistics with the use of “liberal pronouns,” and placing restrictions on what trans kids can receive healthcare, Republican social policy works in the interest of capitalism and white supremacy within the US.
FOR THE WRONG REASONS
“The Bachelor” was my first love, thorns and all
Words by Sophie Davis
Art by Mara DuBay | Designed by Megan Radakovich
I couldn’t tell you what I had for breakfast the morning of February 13th, 2017 or what I learned at school or anything like that. All I know is that night my parents took my little sister to basketball practice, which left me free to watch whatever I wanted on T.V. Surfing through the channels, I fell in love. Not with a person, but with “The Bachelor” franchise. That night, when Corinne Olympios, a (now-canceled) influencer, declared to the world that “[her] heart is gold, but [her] vagine is platinum,” my whole life changed.
“The Bachelor” mansion was like holding a funhouse mirror up to my own house: cramped and loud and emotionally exhausting. But it was also alluring – everyone in it seemed to be acting with a self-assuredness I couldn’t even begin to fathom.
As with all great loves, “The Bachelor” couldn’t have come into my life at a more perfect time. Seventh grade was making it increasingly clear that I was never going to fit in – anywhere, ever. It seemed like everyone had a rulebook I didn’t get for how to dress, who to hang out with, and which boys (if any?) to have crushes on. For many, it seems, that rulebook was a mom who paid attention or a big sister or neighbor or aunt or literally anyone. In my house, though, femininity was a faint whisper – with dinner table tears suppressed and tampons hidden in purses.
I know now that this isolation is somewhat universal at this age, but at the time I felt like the most alien being in the entire universe. Gaunt and dirty – with crooked teeth and tangled hair. I still carry with me this undeniable awkwardness, a layer of grime I just can’t scrape off. But the lovely ladies of “The Bachelor” provided a glimmer of hope in the midst of the seventh grade slog. I studied them: the way they dressed, the way they interacted with
each other, the way they interacted with whatever interchangeable white dude was calling the shots that season.
I extracted the most value from “The Bachelor” simply by watching the girls exist. Nobody taught me how to do my makeup and my mom seemed even more embarrassed than me when I asked to shave my legs for the first time (a request that took me months to muster up the courage for). As my classmates made it evident that these coveted symbols of womanhood were here to stay, I got with the program by following the girls from “The Bachelor” on Instagram and learning how they did their makeup. To this day I follow their routines. With all these dental hygienists from Miami and “content creators” from L.A. acting as my surrogate big sisters, I could learn to perform womanhood. Maybe I wouldn’t be a total loser forever after all.
The show never existed in a vacuum – I was always aware of its total ridiculousness and often dismissed it to my family as “ironic viewing.” I’m having a laugh at this circus of perfectly tanned, sculpted people with their shiny, quaffed hair and their outrageous musings about connection and intimacy. What I didn’t say was how desperately I wanted to join the circus too – or at the very least to understand it. This cheese-ball franchise with its grease-ball host was serving as my script for my greatest performance yet: adulthood.
For a long time I followed this script to a tee, interspersing its corny clichés and notes of melodrama into every situation that seemed to require some maturity. It was all I had. Let this article be a formal apology to the boy I gently rejected in eighth grade by telling him “at the moment I couldn’t reciprocate his feelings for me” or “meet him where he was.” What I thought at the time to be paramount
phrases of emotional intelligence were actually hollow and sanitary. Cooper you kind of sucked but you probably did deserve better than that!
As you can imagine, using a dating competition show as a roadmap for my adult life has left me with a lot of questions I’m still grappling with: Do I still treat romance like a game? Am I too strategic with my smiles and my close-talking and my double exclamation point text messages? Am I constantly measuring myself up to the arbitrary goalposts curated for the plastic people of reality television who taught me everything (read: very little) I seem to know about love? Outside of the circus of ABC absurdity, how does the real world factor into these “milestones?” More importantly, how will I reckon with the deafening silence I’m met with once I’ve checked off these boxes (though admittedly in a different order and probably with less catamarans involved)?
My torrid love affair with “The Bachelor” lasted four years, longer than roughly 81% of the couples that actually came out of the show according to Cosmopolitan – embarrassingly, this is a statistic I can conjure up with relative ease given my predilection for useless knowledge and Total Inability To Like Things In A Normal Way. But as I exited my sophomore year of high school, my
interest in it seemed to dissipate. The girls got younger and meaner. Their eye rolls and taunts felt crueler and realer. I started to have trouble figuring myself into the aggressive heteronormativity that the show was rooted in. Had the circus always looked like that or was I just growing up? Either way, it wasn’t one I wanted to run off to anymore. So, as Pilot Pete’s (dreadful and bland!) season came to a close, I hopped in my own metaphorical limo and rode away.
I wouldn’t say I still love “The Bachelor,” but I love the part of myself that loved it. I want to hold her shaky hand and brush her snarly hair and tell her she doesn’t need any of this bullshit. There’s no one to perform for. No viewers at home to cry to.
With some distance from it, I realize “The Bachelor” was just the first of many things I thought I loved deeply that are now a hazy memory. No longer a part of my daily life, but indelibly intertwined with the way I do everything. Like a boy whose name makes me flinch, but whose quirks have become my own. An album I could still recite but haven’t listened to in years. I don’t wish to love these things any longer, but I’m grateful to have loved them at all. I love myself for being capable of loving them and I love the way they shaped me, but for right now I’m okay with letting the limo drive away.
“I’M
JUST A GIRL”:
EMBRACING FEMININE WEAKNESS
Are you just a girl or are you just
patriarchy’s next victim?
Words by Kaileigh Strong
Art by Mara DuBay | Designed by Megan Radakovich
You enter Schine Student Center, battered. It’s been a long day of classes. You trudge to Halal Shack and order a rice bowl to satisfy your ravenous need for sustenance. You meet your friend and chat like always. “Bio will be the death of me. I’m so tired,” she laments, “I’m literally just a girl, how do they expect me to do this.” You’re taken aback. Knowing that your beliefs tend to align regarding feminism, you wonder how she could have stooped so low. Naturally you bring this up to her, and she responds, “I’m just a girl.”
Now, we (should) have all seen “Hidden Figures.” We all know that the journey to allow women in science was not an easy one, especially not for women of color. We are at a point in history where women have made a lot of progress in STEM fields. To say that you’re incapable of completing your bio work directly undermines all the progress that’s been made to give women a space in STEM classrooms and professions. Don’t get me wrong, bio is hard. You can use literally any excuse for not understanding the material. Your dog had to go to the vet the day you went over chapter 3 so of course you were distracted. You left your favorite pen in Bird Library a few days ago. Your outfit isn’t hitting the way you wanted it to. There are literally so many options. Just stop using your girlhood as the excuse.
Ah yes, girlhood. The romanticization of being passive, innocent, pure, and fragile all tied in a cute, pink, coquette bow. This construction of femininity
is based on the assumption that women are weak. Not only is it assumed, but it’s expected. By saying you can’t complete a task because you’re “just a girl” is directly complying with the narrative placed on us as women. It’s basically saying “Oh you think I’m weak? Ok, fine then I’ll be weak.” At first, this feels empowering. But really all that this is doing is agreeing to the demands and also stooping lower. Not to mention, what do you mean by just a girl? As if being a girl automatically makes you lesser than. It doesn’t, BTW, in case you forgot.
If you use the phrase “I’m just a girl” you probably understand the concept of “boys will be boys.” The difference between the two phrases is that “boys will be boys” is used to excuse ridiculous, misogynistic behavior whereas “I’m just a girl” is very lighthearted in nature and simply puts women in a place of weakness, which is admittedly not as bad as excusing harmful behavior. However, the problem with “I’m just a girl” that I‘m pointing out is that by saying you’re “just a girl,” you’re agreeing to be put at a lower position than men. You’re actively complying with patriarchal systems that put men at the top.
Wow I can’t believe I wrote this whole thing by myself. That’s almost too much for me, I’m literally just a girl. SIKE. Do you see how stupid that sounds? Yeah, that’s what you sound like when you say it. You might be just a girl, but I know your bio notes look baller like no man’s ever could. I said what I said.
SMUT
GIRLS GET IN FREE
...or do they?
Words by Kaileigh Strong
“Alright I need tits out tonight ladies or else we’re not getting in,” your friend says to you as you glare at your ever-trusty (or so you thought) closet of flannels and dresses you’ve never worn, but you packed for college “just in case”. You think to yourself that you must have something to wear, or maybe you can borrow something from a friend. Among your humble group of three, there has to be something.
You, a relatively sheltered child, had never realized how serious this whole “tits out” thing was. Sure, you always knew that you can’t just pull up to the frats in a T-shirt and jeans, but why not? Where did we go wrong? What happened to fun with your friends?
...
Oh, girl, if you only knew.
...
When I look at the system of frat culture as a whole, I’m reminded that the gist of this problem is that the desires of men have always been the priority. When it comes to frat culture, it comes down to who is allowed in the frat and who isn’t. The fact that a drunk frat boy can look you up and down and deny your admission based solely on looks is insanely fucked up. As a girl at the frats, your body is a main determinant of whether you deserve to be let in, and more importantly, your worth. Not for nothing, let
me just mention that it's gonna be borderline pitch black once you get inside. So really, one would think who gives a shit what you’re wearing anyway. Much to my surprise, everyone actually!
Let’s break down what it really means to go to the frats these days. First, you hear from a friend of a friend that they heard on YikYak that everyone’s favorite frat is throwing.
That’s Step 1: Locating the party.
Step 2: Plan out your pregame. Who’s buying what, who to venmo, etc.
Step 3: Spend all day mentally scanning your wardrobe for an outfit to wear.
Step 4: Eat something. Carbs ideally.
Step 5 (and arguably the most important): Get ready. This is where dreams are crushed and a fun time with your girls turns into a nightmare. So here’s the thing: I’m not really one to go out. I’m more of a “Gilmore girls” on the couch type. But every now and then I enjoy a change of scenery. Especially considering this is college and life won’t be like this forever. A little music and a mosh pit can be good for everyone. The problem is that going to the frats has become so much more. Now it’s an entire ordeal. If you’re unfamiliar, girls get in free, guys have to pay, which in itself is an issue because
it establishes an inherent inequality between men and women. No surprise there. Girls getting in free poses the question of if they have to pay in other ways. In a sense, yes. It’s expected that girls pay with their bodies. Sure, everyone should have to pay some kind of fee to get into the party. But you’d think that we would’ve come up with a better solution by now.
Expectations regarding going out do not only manifest in what girls have to wear to the frat houses. Frat culture and its expectations also extend from clothes to behaviors of boys and girls. As a boy going out, you’re most likely a frat boy. If you’re not a frat boy, you’re basically shit outta luck. Boys either pay whatever ridiculous fee the frats demand, or rely on their pretty female friends to get them in. Most boys I know just cut their losses and go to Mudpit or Redgate instead. As a guy going to the frats, the foolproof strategy to get in is to walk in with a group of pretty girls. Which again perpetuates the exploitation of women’s looks and beauty standards. This can lead to uncomfortable relationships where girls who have guy friends feel used for being the golden ticket into the party.
Obviously there is an expectation for girls to dress provocatively at the frats, but the expectations
do not stop there. Many girls find themselves having to act a very specific level of drunk in order to be let in, or “acting tipsy enough to be taken advantage of but not too tipsy,” as a friend of mine described. Right from the start, girls are seen as objects. To frat boys, girls are only an opportunity. Frat boys tend to think that they have the right to any girl that comes into their house. My friend once had an unfortunate run-in at the frats. As the girls were leaving, the frat boys were giving high fives to each of them. My friend did not want to high five them, so she decided to act drunk so that she wouldn’t have to interact with them directly. As she “drunkenly” stumbled past them and eventually walked away, one of the boys complained, “man I thought she was going in for a hug, bro.” This sequence of events brings up a couple of concerns. First off, the fact that my friend had to act drunk as a reason not to interact with a boy speaks volumes. Had she not been “drunk” she would’ve been expected to fulfill her feminine duty of maintaining a polite conversation with the boys and give them what they wanted in the form of a high five. The fact that a boy thought a drunk girl was his throughway to physical contact, also speaks volumes. The boy saw a girl who was unable to walk or control her movements and thought that meant
it was ok to hug her. When he was rejected, he was disappointed and verbally expressed this. This is a problem because not only did he operate under the belief that a girl owed him a hug (or anything for that matter), but he felt comfortable sharing it out loud because he knew his friends would be on his side. These kinds of behaviors exacerbate objectification and violence against women.
What we have to realize is that there is not one single problem brought on by frat culture. There is an amalgamation of problems that frat culture enforces. And yet, in the presence of all these harmful issues, we continue to give in. We still go to the frats because the feeling of getting dressed up outweighs the negativity. The notion of “tits out” can be very empowering to a woman. Going out on the weekends allows for experimentation and a space to feel confident. This agency and selflove is a major benefit of partying. Danger comes in when the reasoning changes from self-love to objectification for the benefit of men. As women we have to be aware of the ways our decisions are influenced by men. There is nothing wrong with the desire to have fun with friends and show some skin. As soon as this desire is driven by men, that is when we lose progress.
YOU HEAR US. BUT ARE YOU LISTENING?
Examining bias at Newhouse
Words by Daisy Polowetzky
Art and Design by Lang Delapa
On January 31st, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Office (IDEA) invited minority journalism associations including The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), and The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) to the IDEA Unity Gathering: Stop Bias Information Session.
Broadcast and Digital Journalism graduate student, founder and president of AAJA SU, Patricia Duong, organized the meeting with the IDEA office after overhearing biased comments directed towards Asian students during the Fall 2023 semester. She heard students on campus remark that “Asians can’t walk right,” and another saying “why can’t these cat eaters shut the fuck up?” in reference to multiple Asian students who were speaking in a Newhouse class. Duong envisioned the gathering of the journalism associations and the IDEA office to be a safe space where students could share their concerns, and work with Newhouse staff to create proactive solutions. However, the event fell short of that vision.
The Stop Bias Information Session opened with a slideshow presentation facilitated by Kofi Addai, Associate Director of SU Stop Bias Education.
SU Stop Bias Education is, according to SU’s Community Standards website, “a University-wide initiative that educates the campus community about bias and hate, and provides resources to report and receive support for bias-related or hate incidents.” Addai was joined by Newhouse’s Director of Recruitment and Diversity, Wes Whiteside, along with Newhouse’s Associate Dean of IDEA, Rockell Brown Burton. Addai outlined the steps students can take to report and stop bias that they or others encounter on campus. To report bias, Students can fill out the STOP Bias Report Form, which can be found on SU’s Community Standards website, and it will then be reviewed by the Bias Response Team (BRT). Then, if the reporter provided contact information BRT will work with the reporter to create a bias response plan. While students can report incidents of bias anonymously, this does make it harder for BRT to intervene during a bias situation. During the Stop Bias meeting Addai stressed the importance of students offering the most amount of information possible, so that bias reports can be handled productively and effectively.
Although the event was informative, some students demonstrated frustration with the way the meeting was conducted. “I wish the Stop Bias
meeting went in a different direction, not in educating the minority associations on what bias is, but [rather] hear[ing] our concerns and figur[ing] out a way that [Newhouse] can be proactive about it,” explained Duong.
It’s no secret that Newhouse and SU in general are predominately white. According to the Student Enrollment by Career and Ethnicity Fall 2023 Census, 55.6 percent of undergraduate students at SU were white, compared to only 11.4 percent Hispanic/Latino students, 7.5 percent Black/African American students, and 7.2 percent Asian students. For Newhouse students not in the 55.6 percent, navigating a predominantly white institution (PWI) can be difficult.
Luisana Ortiz, a junior at Newhouse studying Magazine, News and Digital Journalism, is president of NAHJ at SU. For Ortiz, having imposter syndrome from time to time is something that comes with attending a PWI. “You try not to let that affect you, but... it does, that’s just something I didn’t acknowledge maybe until well into my sophomore year.” Others, like Duong, who are used to being the only Asian person in class experience just plain ignorance: “There’s some people that
think Chinese is Asian, and if you’re Vietnamese, you’re not Asian. I get very confused because I’m like, ‘have you looked on a map?’ Then there’s also people who are like, ‘if it ends in ‘ese,’ it’s Asian.’” This points to the greater need for spaces within Newhouse for students to voice their concerns.
Overall, Newhouse students want to see change. The general consensus among students is that diversity should be recognized and incorporated throughout the entire student body, or, as Duong put it, “we should coexist.” Change in terms of diversity and inclusion are always complicated to enact, let alone in private, higher education. This is not to say that Newhouse isn’t trying, it’s just to say there is much more to be done.
Newhouse is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion through various means such as its curriculum, the IDEA committee, and the IDEA Strategic plan. For example, all Newhouse undergraduates are required to take COM 346: Race, Gender, and the Media, a course that examines issues with diversity in the media. The class consists of students discussing topics such as the social psychology of difference, gaining tools to combat identity issues in media diversity, and
developing an appreciation of diversity as future communicators. “In the public communications field, where there is kind of a lack of diversity... I feel like it’s really important to promote diversity starting from where you can learn the most, which I believe is higher education,” expressed AAJA undergraduate representative and secretary, Iris Araki.
Araki’s words reign true–journalism is still a highly white dominated field. Data from a 2022 Pew Research survey focused on journalists’ beats, found that out of the almost 12,000 reporting journalists who were surveyed, 76 percent identified as white, 8 percent as Hispanic, 6 percent as Black, and 3 percent as Asian. This presents Newhouse with an opportunity to recruit and prepare the next generation of journalists of color.
Besides COM 346, students can choose from seven other diversity courses to take as electives in Newhouse. COM 344: Diversity and Hip Hop explores hip-hop culture, politics, and associated stereotypes. COM 348: Beauty and Diversity in Fashion Media explores beauty standards in the media, self-expression through clothing, and the media’s effects on body image. No matter what
course a student chooses to take, Newhouse’s well-rounded diversity curriculum is a good starting point for students and staff to have larger discussions around equity and inclusion. This does, however, rely on students actually wanting to seek out these kinds of classes in addition to the mandatory COM 346, and their other Newhouse course work.
In the end, minorities at Newhouse want their concerns listened to. Newhouse affinity groups such as AAJA are ready and willing to collaborate with Newhouse staff to make a difference–they just need someone to listen. Duong put it best, saying, “you hear us. But are you listening? You’re not listening.”
GRAD STUDENT UNIONS SPEAK OUT
Jerk revisits the issues facing grad students at SU
Words by Grace "Gray" Reed
Art by Matt Latvis | Designed by Eva Aurnhammer
Less than a year ago, graduate student workers at Syracuse University voted to elect Syracuse Graduate Employees United (SGEU) as their representative union. The election, which gained campus-wide attention over the course of the Spring 2023 semester, was the result of over a year of organization efforts inspired by various other graduate student movements across the country. The recognition was considered an overall success; a seemingly perfect fairytale ending to the story of student workers advocating for fair pay and respect from their employer.
But this was only the beginning.
The advancements in unionization at SU are a small part of a much larger picture that’s sweeping college campuses across the country. Graduate students at universities such as Duke, Northwestern and Stanford have formed unions affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. As of September 2023, the National Labor Relations Board certified the formation of a union at Duke University.
According to the American Association of University Professors, graduate students workers made up over 320,000 of those employed at universities across the country as of 2022, making them the second-most populous demographic. The group only follows part-time faculty, which in the same year made up over 560,000 employees nationwide.
At SU, graduate students advocated for unionization while citing unfair financial compensation, lack of workplace protections, inadequate healthcare, and more as the basis for the movement. The phrase “SU works because we work,” quickly took a hold on those advocating for
such improvements and became a staple of the movement.
Now that the union has been officially secured, organizers are continuing their advances and have expanded routes in which individuals can get involved with the SGEU’s bargaining efforts. According to their website, options include partaking in any of the following: organizing committees, standing committees, contract issue groups, and department representatives.
The union, with over 1,000 members and affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, is in the midst of bargaining efforts with the university. Negotiations currently involve discussions on the topics of sick leave, health and safety, tuition and fee waivers, workload and more.
But beyond dialogue centering around basic worker rights also comes timely conversations about non-discrimination and academic freedom. The union has placed a heavy emphasis on improving the working conditions of international graduate student employees and graduate workers of color, as well as those who are a part of other marginalized groups.
The SGEU reports on their website that 17.56% of graduate student workers at SU have experienced some form of workplace discrimination or harassment during their employment. These harassments have been based on factors such as their race, gender and sexual orientation. Further, 34.2% of international graduate student employees reported having to rely on food pantries at one time or another, compared to 7.3% of domestic student employees.
In a recent statement uploaded to their website, the union noted rising tensions on
campus surrounding but not limited to racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and antisemitism, and how the increasingly divided climate potentially poses threats to the working rights of graduate student employees as well as their academic freedom.
The conversation surrounding academic freedom for faculty and graduate student workers on college campuses has recently gained national attention following multiple universities making headlines for their statements and actions regarding current international conflicts. Syracuse University is no exception to this subject matter.
This past October, SU chancellor and president, Kent Syveurd, canceled a teach-in event hosted by the university’s Middle Eastern studies department citing safety concerns for the campus population. The decision sparked divided response among the student body, with many arguing the cancellation as an attempt to restrict academic freedom.
Due to instances such as the one previously stated, the union remains concerned for the free speech rights of teaching assistants and earlycareer scholars in the classroom. While the university had previously expressed protections for individual students and faculty in this area, there had been no similar refuge for graduate employees.
The statement, titled “Statement on Campus Climate, Academic Freedom, and Your Employee Rights,” shared the introduction of a proposal concerning academic freedom to the bargaining table with SU as recently as October 31st. A proposal regarding non-discrimination had also been submitted. As of now, tentative agreements have been reached with both proposals.
But despite these advancements in the negotiation process, it is important to acknowledge where the union continues to fall
short. For instance, the SGEU does not include graduate students workers from the university’s school of Visual and Performing Arts.
Kirstin Dunlap, a graduate student worker in VPA, expressed over a brief email exchange that, “The organization allowed VPA individuals to do much of the heavy lifting in terms of getting cards, signage and more before informing us that the union is unable to include any VPA grad students in the terms.” Further attempts for elaboration on said statement were unsuccessful.
The union also does not appear to serve as an umbrella for all working graduate students. According to Professor Joel Kaplan, the head of the Newhouse graduate student program, the union is primarily made up of PhD students.
As a result, the Newhouse School does not hold as much representation in the union as other SU colleges such as the College of Arts and Sciences. This is because a majority of Newhouse graduate students are masters students, meaning they are only enrolled in their respective programs for a short period of time. As a result, even if they do work for the university, they are less likely to get involved with thee union.
“They come in July. Here in the summer, there are no IA positions,” Kaplan added when discussing the Newhouse masters student timeline. “It’s like a bootcamp.”
Additionally, according to the online SGEU bargaining tracker, attempts to reach an agreement on subject matters such as moving and relocation expenses, waiver and entire agreement, as well as summer appointments and assignments have proven unsuccessful. They either have been rejected by negotiators or have been withdrawn from the table entirely.
So while the work currently being undertaken by the Syracuse Graduate Employees Union is honorable and crucial to improving the current
working campus environment, it is clear that further work needs to be done in order for the group to properly reflect the needs of all graduate student workers.
The past year has shown immense evolution in the efforts currently being undertaken by the SGEU. The organization has not only made strides at the negotiation table with the greater
university, but has also taken the time to properly respond to integral national conversations with an educated approach and care. In doing so, the union has progressed to be a reliable voice and representative actor for graduate student workers on Syracuse University campus, and clearly has a bright future as it works to fill in remaining gaps in representation.
PHOTOESSAY: THE HUSBAND STITCH
Words by Sophie Davis
by Ashlyn Garcia and Diana Valdivia | Designed by Jenna Sweeney
“There are two rules: he cannot finish inside of me, and he cannot touch my green ribbon.” So says the unnamed narrator of Carmen Maria Machado’s “The Husband Stitch,” a haunting re-imagining of the urban legend of the girl with the green ribbon.
As the protagonist falls in love with her husband and, later, has her son, she finds herself sacrificing more of her autonomy to meet their needs. Still, she consistently refuses to give in to her husband’s desire to take off the green ribbon tied perpetually around her neck. At the end of the story, she sees that this is the only thing that will make him truly happy and allows him to remove her ribbon, sacrificing her last shred of agency. With this, her head tumbles to the floor – ending with the line “and I am as lonely as I have ever been.”
Machado’s imagined world in which all women are born with a ribbon tied somewhere on them, regardless of the inconvenience it may cause, brings to mind the increasingly popular coquette aesthetic. Often referred to as ballerina-core, the aesthetic, marked by bows and frills of all kinds is often described as “reclaiming femininity.” However, many of its critics argue that it merely depicts forced infantilization as a means of catering to fetishizing male fantasies.
This set of images takes an absurdist lens to the way Machado’s story and the coquette aesthetic both contradict and work in conversation with one another. After all, the balance women are forced to strike in society is often just as delicate as the ribbon around the narrator’s neck.
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The story borrows its name from an outdated medical practice that made women “tighter” after having babies so sex was more pleasurable for men, despite immense pain at the woman’s expense.
smut photoessay
Machado’s writing is itself a manifestation of society’s perceived entitlement to women’s bodies.
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BECOMING A BESTSELLING AUTHOR
Willow Wren shares her experiences
Words by Samayee Gupte
Photo by L.J. War and Isabel Lamporte
Willow Wren became a bestselling author at the age of 14. Currently a first-year student at SU, she is working towards her second book. Sitting down in one of Sadler Hall's study rooms, Willow showed me a paperback with the first few papers dotted with colourful and intricate illustrations.
She described her book "The Dauntless Chronicles" as a story set 100 years in the future about three characters trying to escape their home planet. One of them crash-lands on Earth. Others follow and get captured by humans. The rest of the book revolves around their journey to get home and save their planet.
I was intrigued by the concept and wondered how she created such complex characters with unique voices. She emphasized the importance of personality as a starting point and let me in on a little secret:
"As authors, we say our dialogue out loud to make sure it sounds like something the character would say, and you get into the character yourself while you're writing them."
Delving deeper into her writing practice, she described her worldbuilding and process as chaotic.
"When I get an idea, it will not leave my brain until I write it down. It'll keep me up until I write it down and at least get the outline of it done. So
when I first started writing the book, I was up for 52 hours straight, just writing constantly."
She further commented on the time scale and the various actions involved before getting to the publishing stage.
"It took about 10 months to write the manuscript, and then another six months to do the editing, the print work, the formatting, the art, getting everything together, the reviews, before it was finally published."
With so much effort into preparing for the final product, marketing was vital. Thanking her mom for her guidance, she talked about the importance of building an audience.
"Throughout those six months, we were slowly building an audience. So when we finally had a date, everybody was clamouring to get a book because we've been teasing it over these six months."
Currently, Willow is writing another novel called "The Renaissance" and has been active on Bookstagram talking about it.
She encouraged aspiring authors and writers to do what they love, stating "You want to put your heart and your soul and your blood, sweat, and tears into that story. You want it to be your literary child. You want to be proud of what you've created. And that's really the main thing when it comes to writing something. Be happy with it. Love it."
DISCOVERY SYR:
THE NOISE SOURCE
A one-of-a-kind, one-man business
Words by Miguel Rodriguez
Photo by Tara Binte Sharil and Kailyn Peng
As a kid, Shane Boulos was told the music he listened to was “noise.” Merriam-Webster defines the term noise as a sound “that lacks an agreeable quality or is noticeably unpleasant or loud.” Boulos doesn’t believe in that restricting definition, a thought that is personified through his independent drum machine and synthesizer shop: The Noise Source.
Born in Tokyo, Japan but raised in New Jersey, Boulos is a lifelong musician and graphic designer by trade. Armed with a love for music and a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Boulos decided to open The Noise Source in February of 2022 after moving from New York City to Syracuse with his wife.
“I just wanted to open up a cool shop,” Boulos said of his motivation for opening the store. “I'm trying to represent brands and manufacturers that I believe in what they're doing.” Boulos does all the branding and design for the store himself, combining all his loves into one venture. Aside from a technician who aids him in the repair of products, Boulos is the only employee of The Noise Source.
“You won't find a lot of these smaller brands that I carry in major retailers,” Boulos said. “People are making these in their basements, but they are such clever, innovative devices.” The devices that Boulos platforms at the Noise Source are each unique in
appearance and sound.
Inside, the store is arranged to appear both naturalistic and laboratory-like. The products found within The Noise Source—electronic and synthesized—appear to the average person as futuristic pieces of equipment one might find in an early 80s sci-fi flick. Bright wires protrude from electronic boards that produce walls of sound. Light-up pads on midi-keyboards compose sequenced drum patterns. Juxtaposing these sterile pieces of instrumentation are fake, but endearing, walls of ivy and chandeliers that contrast to a point of comfort, as if to say that all belong here, no matter their origin.
Through his store, Boulos’ goal is to share his love of these kinds of sounds with the world.
“A lot of people around here have been sort of really hungry for something like this where they have the interest, but could never try it out in person,” Boulos responded when asked about the most rewarding part of his job.
“If you have any interest in these kinds of instruments, I'd love to meet you and if you want to come in and hang out and just check out the stuff for an afternoon please feel free to,” Boulos said. The Noise Source is located at 306 West Jefferson St. in Syracuse, NY. It's open by appointment Wednesday through Saturday for all to enjoy.
GREGG ARAKI
by Juliana McDonald and Ella Fling
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BALACLAVA BACKLASH
A ban that's anything but warm and fuzzy
Words by Sophie Davis
Art by Abigail Shim
Even in the bitter cold, the fashion scene in Syracuse makes sure to keep certain trends red-hot. Among the most prominent examples of these winter status symbols are balaclavas. Not to be confused with the delicious Greek pastry, a balaclava is a piece of cloth headgear intended to protect one’s face from the elements, covering most, or part of their head. From dotting the promenade to popping up in the shopping cart of the girl who sits in front of you in your astronomy lecture, the Russian nesting doll look has never seemed more chic.
Balaclavas originated in 1854 in the town of Balaclava, Crimea, where British soldiers wrapped themselves in knit headpieces to keep warm during the Crimean War. However, nearly every culture on earth has some form of traditional face or head covering. Today, balaclavas are sold in a number of colors and fabrics in a myriad of interpretations, or they can be fashioned by tying a scarf around your head approximately six times until you finally get it to look somewhat normal.. Seriously, though — how are the girlies on TikTok doing it so effortlessly?!
Balaclavas haven’t just been making headlines for the scores of models wearing them on the runway. This past December, the city of Philadelphia enacted a law that effectively banned the wearing of balaclavas, ski masks, sheistys, and other facial coverings. Failure to comply with this law in all public spaces could result in a $250 fine. This law was passed without Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney’s approval.
Evidently, Philadelphia legislators don’t just happen to be passionate about limiting your coziness while you wait at the bus stop or walking from one class to another, they’re concerned with
targeting people of color and limiting freedom of expression. The ban is allegedly intended to limit bank robberies and other crimes committed by people with face coverings and help police in identifying criminals, according to Philadelphia
Across a number of cultures, balaclavas and other face coverings carry a rich history, serving as a mode of self and cultural expression for many people of color. A city-wide ban on face coverings is just another example of the increasingly creative manner in which lawmakers are trying to criminalize and police Blackness and brownness. In a post on X, Jamie Gauthier, a member of the Philadelphia City Council defended her vote against the law saying "I could not [in] good conscience vote for something that I feel criminalizes and marginalizes young Black men."
As much as Syracuse students love to ride the wave of whatever fashion trend is coasting through, they’re rarely encouraged to think about the
implications of what they're wearing in their ivory tower of orange. For now, it’s safe to say no one is coming for balaclavas at Syracuse University, but it’s important to acknowledge that it’s probably due to the school’s overwhelmingly white student body. Balaclavas, just like countless other fashion phenomena, are praised when worn by some, but ruthlessly critiqued and even criminalized when worn by others.
All we here at Jerk have to say is the next time you dawn one of Free People or Urban Outfitters or some sketchy Tik Tok shop’s newest take on balaclavas or whatever their equivalent will be three years from now, remember to recognize your fashion privilege.
FORM AND FUNCTION: How to dress like...
A LITERARY ICON
Words by Julia Reedy
Photo by Diana Valdivia and Juliana McDonald Modeling by Marissa Carello
PEN, PAPER & POISE
If you’re as well-read as you say you are, then you’re probably familiar with the works of Joan Didion, Eve Babitz and Clarice Lispector. But what do all of these famous female authors have in common, aside from their love of pen and prose? A distinct chic style which cements their status as literary icons. It’s time to take a page out of their book.
TYPEWRITER (OR ITS MODERNDAY EQUIVALENT): Your most trusted confidante and most intimate relationship. No one else can read your mind quite like your typewriter (or Macbook) can.
SUNGLASSES: You find that sunglasses add to that air of mystery (and hide your under-eye bags from staying up all night to finish your highly anticipated novel — hello, you’re on deadline!)
CIGARETTE: Arguably the perfect accessory to any outfit. (Bonus points if they’re Marlboro Lights, Didion’s choice of cigarette).
MARTINI GLASS IN HAND: When you’re not typing or chain smoking, you’re meeting up with your equally famous friends for an aperitivo (nothing like a stiff drink to get those creative juices flowing!)
ALL BLACK ENSEMBLE: To mourn all of the things you did not say — or rather could not fit — into your debut novel.
TIMELESS TIMEPIECES
Words by Megan Carr
Photos by Isabel Lamporte and Sky Zhuang
When sifting through the three-dollar bin at a local vintage shop, or rummaging around in grandma’s jewelry box, your eye catches a glimpse of something worn – something with character.
It may have broken glass or a rusted face — but it has a story.
The preference of vintage clothing and thrifting has dramatically changed the fashion world. It is centered around a prominent shift towards repurposing, recycling, and re-wearing old clothing and accessories.
Shopping new became old. Secondhand sites and stores began to flourish. Timepieces became timeless.
Nergis Davar, a freshman at Syracuse University, cherishes her generational watch from her mother. Most of Davar’s jewelry are family heirlooms, but this piece specifically stood out because of the meaning behind it.
“When my mother and father were dating in 1994 in the Middle East, he gave this watch to her as a gift. It’s a vintage gold Guess watch,” Davar said. “I was looking through some of my mothers
old jewelry and saw this watch, and really thought it was amazing.”
Wearing it is a constant reminder of the significance and presence of love in her family, Davar said.
Aydan Sipe, a freshman at SU, explains that his fifth-generation 1920’s pocket watch is a reminder of his family, and a nice conversation starter. Wearing old jewelry, paired with modern styling, can alter its meaning. It is unique, not only because nobody else has it, but because it tells a story.
Thrifting can provide a similar, inquisitive feeling.
“I found a vintage Ralph Lauren Polo watch at a flea market. It is real gold, and enormous. I’ve always wondered how it ended up with me, and if the previous owner ever would have thought I would be wearing it to a university formal,” Gwen Taylor, an SU junior, says.
Watches have made their way from producers to families, Goodwills to secondhand sellers, and grandma to granddaughter. They have passed through generations and memories alike – a unique preservation process for an unforgettable artifact.
STRIKING THE HEART OF CREATIVITY
The student-run Matchbox Films invites all to join them on their voyage of creation
Words by Miguel Rodriguez
Photos by Kailyn Peng and Tara Binte Sharil
Somewhere in Manhattan, on a subway train, Jaden Vann and Mia Ignazio are lost. Their phones are dead and they must return to their friends. They have a movie to shoot. Somewhere on the other side of the subway system is the rest of the crew they find themselves a part of. They call themselves ‘Matchbox Films’ and despite having only been established in October of 2023, they are currently over 100 members strong. All of this has been the creation of four Syracuse University students: Audrey Weisburd, Kyra Zabretsky, Mia Ignazio, and Sophia Lucina.
The initial idea for Matchbox Films came from Lucina who intended to start it as a solo project. It wasn’t until the sending of a simple text that she forged the concept into what would become a group effort powerhouse.
“Oh, Idea: Matchbox Films” Lucina recalls texting Weisburd over the summer.
“I texted Audrey, saying that we should start a film club and I remember we went back and forth with ideas and finally settled on Matchbox.” The two immediately knew who to call for help. The fab-four—the name which I’ve decided best fits this unique group of creatives—makes up the entirety of Matchbox’s executive department: Sophia as Executive Producer, Kyra as Head of Production, Audrey as Head of Screenwriting, and Mia as Head of Art And Design.
Zabretsky and Lucina met in the online group chats that litter the path before one's first year of college.
“I've always seen Sophia just being such a creative person and just very kind and cool,”
Zabretsky said. "From the moment that we met; I knew that we were going to be friends. I knew that I wanted to be her friend."
Later, Weisburd and Zabretsky would meet on the first day of their freshman year.
“I have not experienced college for more than 12 hours without knowing Audrey,” Zabretsky said. “It is literally the first person I've met, and it'll probably be someone I'll know forever.” The two girls would go on to connect over their shared interests in creativity, eventually working together on short films.
“We were both excited after that film, to make things that were beautiful and to make things that were sensitive and vulnerable and dialogue. So, it was just the beginning,” Weisburd said on what the film meant to the two friends and their filmmaking journey.
In her sophomore year, while modeling a photoshoot for an on-campus magazine, Audrey meets the soon-to-be fourth link in her inventive chain of friends: Mia Ignazio. “[Audrey] was telling me that it was really scary. But there was this one sweet girl who just kept giggling,” Zabretsky said of her and Weisburd’s first impression of Ignazio. "Then she showed me the photos and said 'She's the most talented too. Isn't that crazy?’” A lifelong photographer, Ignazio is one of those people who appears to be naturally good at their job. Her work, which centers on the human experience, spans many different avenues and publications–from magazines to independent photobooks, and now film productions. Ignazio and Weisburd would continue to collaborate on a variety of
photoshoots. These experiences allowed the girls to grow even more comfortable with one another and primed them for what was to come.
The crew launched their operation in October of 2023 with one simple goal in mind: create. Immediately, Matchbox began attracting interest from all types of students on the Syracuse University campus including Jaden Vann, a secondyear sports Management major. An avid film fan with an interest in screenwriting, Jaden signed up for Matchbox’s writing team after hearing about the production company around campus.
At the first Matchbox writer’s meeting, the team behind the vision encourages all their writers to bring in their best ideas, no matter how untraditional. The next time they met, Jaden pitched his idea for what would become the production house’s first film: "Ace."
“We just really want it to be the place in Syracuse where people who aren't studying film can come and learn about it because so many people love it,” Weisburd said. “A place to be as funky as you want and as wild as you want with your ideas and not get shut down,” a sentiment that, according to Vann, was immediately felt as he pitched his idea.
“People were asking questions and people
were getting really into it and the more I kept talking, the more I was like like 'This could actually be made,'" Vann said.
The staff fell in love with Jaden’s idea for a blackand-white film about love and yearning presented from a split-screen perspective, encouraging him to go all-in. Audrey and Jaden would spend the majority of November co-writing and perfecting the script, meeting consistently to iron out anything they perceived to be kinks.
“We were very ambitious, approaching it and writing it and producing it all in the span of about two months,” Weisburd explained when asked about the process of creation that drove Ace. “It was very much everybody helping everybody, all of us having this one vision that we had that we just wanted to follow through.”
Matchbox is built on how trusting they are of their staff to work beyond their boundaries, allowing them to reach spaces previously unexplored despite any lack of experience. This mentality was made clear when Audrey approached Jaden about directing the film they had worked hard to bring to reality. “I had no idea I was going to direct it until she told me she wanted me to,” says Jaden “We were thinking outside the box, and I wouldn't have
done that if I wasn't working with them." Despite initial feelings of unease, Jaden attributes his accomplishments as a director to the crew that supported and encouraged him during the filming of "Ace": “It was a real team effort. Sophia and Kyra, and Mia would chime in and say 'hey, what if we do this,' I really loved having an intimate team working with me."
At the beginning of December, Matchbox began filming its first film with a small crew of six people. Working under a time crunch, the team did everything in its power to get the shots they needed. “We went down to the city for like a 24hour period to shoot the majority of the film and so that was a time crunch,” recalls Sophia about their time spent filming in New York City “We drove as soon as the sun rose in the morning and as soon as we got there we shot until 11 p.m., then woke up the next day at 8 a.m. to shoot as much as we
could.” For two days, the sextet ran around the city getting all the shots they needed, primarily using the resources they could find littered throughout the city.
As a unit, they braved the difficulties of lowbudget independent filmmaking. The anecdote that best represents the crew’s guerilla approach to shooting can be found in the form of a dirty couch in an alleyway. Needing to find a discarded couch for the weekend’s final shot, the League of Matchbox filmmakers darted around Manhattan in separate cars looking for a thrown-out sofa, that everyone would later feel thrilled to have.
“The sun was setting, and we had to go home,” Lucina said on their big couch hunt. “Finally Jaden says 'Oh, I found the couch. It's really fucking dirty, but like, we have it.’” Following their time in the Big Apple, the gang reconvened in Syracuse to shoot the film’s interior scenes before calling an official
wrap on "Ace." They celebrated reaching the finish line by going together to eat at Syracuse’s own Funk 'n Waffles, a cathartic moment for the crew.
“We each had a plate of chicken and waffles, watching random jazz,” Lucina said. “I just remember how happy and relieved everybody was.”
What followed the wrapping of "Ace" was a months-long post-production process that involved editing and planning.
Much of the editing work was done by Tristan Riley and Mickey Maroulis, two second-year students involved with Matchbox. Riley oversaw assembling the film’s shots into an absolute sequence while Maroulis focused on the smaller details. “It meant a lot to me to edit the first production,” Maroulis said “You work together
towards a greater vision and things come together and fit together really nicely. It’s just really rewarding.” The editing duo turned in the final cut of "Ace" just in time for its big premiere on February 13th of this year.
The premiere in question was primarily organized by Zabretsky, who doubles as Matchbox’s head of events. A formal black and white attire was encouraged, and most everyone who came to watch the inaugural screening of "Ace" showed up in their Sunday best. Before the curtains are lifted on the film, Vann sends the audience into the experience by disclosing to them his feelings regarding the people at Matchbox: “This is a family.”
"Ace" can be streamed for free on YouTube at @ByMatchbox.
HOW CULTS WORK
Words by Sierra Huff
Art by Ande Wittenmeier | Designed by Eva Aurnhammer
College and Cults. Two words that when positioned together bring to mind long weekends avoiding homework in front of the TV, watching the horrors of someone else’s life unfold in a bingeable documentary format. It's sad of course, but also, necessarily entertaining, to see these people be manipulated like that. There’s comfort in the otherness of those behind the screen. They aren't like you, your family is normal enough and you're strong-willed enough. You would never fall victim to influences so sinister from where you sit on the couch. They're fun to watch though.
For this reason, Guinevere Turner spent most of her life avoiding sharing specifics about her childhood. She grew up in compounds, with almost no contact with the outside world for the first 11 years of her life. It would be another 11 years before it was even brought to her attention that the
community in which she was raised might be called a cult. Her first thought when presented with the idea was, “Rude. That's rude. She doesn't know my family, the people I grew up with.” Turner’s specific situation is fairly unique, but anyone who has lived with roommates can testify that people are raised with different versions of normal.“It is a dangerous space when you are calling a community of people, something that they would not call themselves so there is no cult that calls themselves a cult.” Turner said.
Jerk talked to Professor Meredith Martin, who has dedicated much of her life to studying developmental psychology. Emerging adulthood, the time we find ourselves in right now and the time that Turner found herself in when she first started to question the way she was raised, is distinct. Characterized by a struggle between
two fundamental needs: to be accepted and to have autonomy. Teendom is defined by the need to rebel and try new things for a reason. The way people go about it varies, but the need is inherent. Through this process of becoming, humans remain social animals, from first breath to last, a sense of belonging is as essential as air.
So where does that leave a person when their need to break down everything they know and restructure themselves into an individual identity is hindered by their need to be accepted by the people they love? Love withdrawal- the withholding of affection and acceptance when someone does not act, speak, or think the way they are “supposed to” is a familiar tool that cults employ liberally.
Growing up Turner was told that the world was supposed to come to a righteous end that the devoted would be spared from. The world’s insistence on continuing to be was proof of their unworthiness, of her unworthiness. In the community she grew up in, to think of oneself was an unforgivable character failing. The most basic human instinct is held in contempt. Proof of inadequacy. When the requirements for love of the people surrounding you are all-encompassing
there is no room for the identity development that would allow a person to disagree with those requirements.
Even without the ability to suppress this quest for self, cults have historically found other means to use these human needs for their ends. Unimaginable as it may seem, you are considered easy pickings. Cults, when presented correctly, seem an easy solution for many of the anxieties that may plague you. You don't know who you are? They'll tell you. You don't know who your people are? They’ve got you. You don't know what your purpose in life is? They’ve got one ready for you to take on. No one means to be manipulated. No one tells you the thing they are trying to get you to join is a cult.
When Turner tells people about her upbringing she is often witness to strange phenomena, their eyes light up as they proceed to tell her they are in some way enamored with cults. She feels herself becoming “someone behind a screen”-- fascinating but foreign, her life experiences a leisurely diversion. She gets it, she too has been captivated by the terrible ways that people can treat each other, but “Cults are not fun weird spaces, cults are actually people who have been coerced and or born into, like I was, environments that are not healthy that are damaging in all of these ways.” It's important to think critically about this interest.
These are things that happen to people. At the end of the day, as disconnected as you may consider the people involved in cults to be, as Turner says they are “not not us.”
THE CULT OF SARAH LAWRENCE
The nightmare college cult
Words by Madeleine Oliveros
Art by Ande Wittenmeier
Designed by Megan Radakovich
College is labeled by many as the final stretch between adolescence and adulthood. In a time set aside for self discovery and practice for the real world, one of the last things one would likely anticipate would be to become a member of a cult. However, that was the fate of a group of students at Sarah Lawrence College during the fall of 2010.
Sophomore students Isabella Pollok, Daniel Levin, Santos Rosario, and Claudia Drury had their lives changed when they met Talia Ray and her father, Larry Ray, according to Zach Heinzerling’s Hulu docuseries, "Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence."
Larry Ray, an ex-convict, moved into these students’ dorm in 2010, forming a bond with the group. Eventually, Ray began preaching his guide to becoming one’s best self, recording one-onone conversations with the students to help them through their struggles. His guidance led students to slowly develop a resentment for their families, which in turn limited their communication with home.
Stephen Kent, a professor at the University of Alberta, has discussed in some of his research that weakening familial ties is a common technique used
by cult leaders. Once individuals are detached from their past, leaders are more easily able to take advantage of their social vulnerabilities.
According to Kent, the use of “false memory” tactics can be used by cult leaders to alter the memories of members in order to scare them of their pasts, creating an extra sense of trust and protection in the leader.
Once Ray gained the group’s support, he began exploiting and sexually abusing them, both verbally and physically. He even extorted millions of dollars from the group over a span of ten years, some of which came from coercing one of the members into prostitution, according to a Vanity Fair article entitled “The “Sickening” Story of the Sarah Lawrence Sex Cult.”
While the conditions of this cult may sound unbelievable, Kent said that it is a common misconception that those who are in cults lack intelligence. He said that people of different ages and backgrounds have their own problems and reasons for joining a cult and that the social climate they are in may impact their views.
According to Kent, the common notion of
the “third person effect,” which means a person believes media will not have an effect on them but will affect others, is not sound in this case. In simpler terms: it can happen to anyone.
“It’s not a matter of being smart, it’s a matter of the social connections one has and what people are smart about, ” said Kent.
Ray’s exploitation was simply a matter of his manipulation and desire for attention and praise, according to Kent.
In 2022, Ray was convicted of extortion and sex trafficking and was sentenced to 60 years in prison, according to CBS News .
According to The New York Times, in November of last year, two former cult members filed a lawsuit against Sarah Lawrence for negligence, but the school denied the allegation.
CULT OF WELLNESS
Your life could change forever: by buying a vagina jade egg?
Words by Chloe Langerman
Art by Eva Aurnhammer | Designed by Jenna Sweeney
Picture this: it’s 2016, your iPhone still has a home button, and when you scroll on Instagram your feed is flooded with posed pictures of the Kardashians promoting SugarBear Hair gummies. Since then, the wellness industry has catapulted to a worth of $5.6 trillion and formed militias of MLM sellers willing to risk it all for you to buy their share of Herbalife supplements.
For some, the rise of the wellness industry in the 2000s was a welcome change from the diet culture and fatphobia of the late 20th century. However, the idea of “wellness” as we know it today embodies an all-encompassing sphere of attributes that women are expected to achieve (a fit body and a mind clear of any chemical imbalances to name a few). With these requirements comes a slew of products that people can buy to achieve this created perfection. And instead of only seeing wellness products in infomercials or magazines, social media means that
wellness culture has truly perforated the fabric of everyday life. So much for “protecting our peace,” right?
These products are curated to suit a particular demographic: women who are white, thin, and wealthy. The cult-like nature of the wellness industry rests on the fact that it caters to this group of people, and has no problem excluding those who don’t fit the aesthetic. However, much of the allure of the wellness industry lies in this exclusivity: you can join the club when you strive for a flawless, healthy life.
Dr. Natalie Jolly, a Professor at UW Tacoma, says that despite flaws in the wellness industry, it’s not women who should be blamed for their participation. She says that women’s experiences in the medical industry have long been riddled with
that traditional medicine won’t grant them. “Being dismissed is a central experience that women have while seeking medical care. The wellness movement is one way that women can try to find solutions and build a community that values them, which is rare in conventional medicine,” says Jolly.
The wellness industry doesn’t always cause harm – for many women, wellness products are fun and can provide relief that medicine has failed to. Ultimately, the medical and wellness industries are capitalist machines that serve to profit off of women’s pain
ANOTHER ROUND OF POPCORN, PLEASE
Who else is deeply afraid of movie fanbases?
Words by Nadia Weller and Kathryn Hendry
Art by Eva Aurnhammer | Designed by Lang Delapa
Have you ever thrown toast at the screen of your local movie theater? Or perhaps loudly yelled back at a film in response to certain characters’ choices? To be fair, this is a little before our time. However, there is a chance you may have heard of the cult classic “Rocky Horror Picture Show” (outside of "Glee," that is). Historically a show categorized by its quirky characters and, by proxy, cult following, the show has inspired a list of silly fan-made traditions from toast throwing to a “virgin auction.” The eccentric “Rocky Horror Picture Show” is just one of the many classic films with obscure mainstream audiences that many would go so far as to consider cultish. It sounds dramatic, but we’re not kidding; it’s cutthroat. If you even dare to utter naysay about a cult classic, watch out. The fans will get you. They will bully you until you forget your name, or worse, leave threatening comments that feel weirdly personal on your Letterboxd account.
Junior Television, Radio, and Film major Amanda Koehler sure has a lot to say when it comes to movie cult followings.
“As much as I’m passionate about particular films and love to share that passion, I wouldn’t go as far to say that I’m part of any cult followings,”
says Koehler. “I have respect for a lot of cult followings because they establish certain films as classics, which I think is particularly important for any form of art. Being a part of a cult following of a film also provides a sense of community for likeminded people.”
In addition to individuals selecting certain films to gravitate towards, certain directors and writers reciprocate these sentiments by often creating films with the innate desire to acquire cult followings for them. If viewers relate to the niche subject matter that these directors and writers focus on, they feel seen and selected by the creators of the film. In turn, this results in a feeling of comfort and a desire to join that movie’s cult following.
Yes, it can be easy to poke a little fun at these followings, but who are we to act all high and mighty? Loving something so much that you become part of its following, albeit a slightly intense one, is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the sense of community and belonging that being part of a fandom brings people actually correlates to higher levels of happiness in their lives.
Just because we may not know every single character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or who Ghostface was in every "Scream" movie doesn’t
have what some would consider to be cult followings. For instance, Taylor Swift’s fan base (guilty), or even Trader Joe's fanatics could be considered cultish depending on who you’re asking. And you know what? At least these fans have passion in their lives. Ask yourself if you would die on a hill for something before you judge. That’s called commitment, and I think we should all be inspired by their intensity. Or maybe a little spooked? Your call.
TRIPLE DOG DEATH BARRAGE
Words by Sierra Huff
Photos by Maya Lockwood and Ashlyn Garcia
“When the conductor lifts the baton, everybody breathes in. And then when he puts down the first beat, everybody breathes out and moves together in unison,” Juliet Cunnington said. “It's the most euphoric feeling in the world to kind of be united under that same kind of beat.”
The members of the band are in position, right before the drummer starts them off. The crowd’s chattering gives way to a wall of sound.
At the helm of that swell, an electric bass in hand, stands Cunnington, losing herself to the carefully orchestrated clashing of instruments in a children’s Paw Patrol shirt. For as long as she is wearing it, she can easily be found by following the pastel glow and copaganda jokes. An homage to her band, Triple Dog Death Barrage, debuting tonight.
The opening song is a lesson in dichotomy. It’s raucous but grand, making you wonder if Juliet, who picked up the cello in middle school and has since played professionally, has figured out a way to bottle the instrument's effect. Somewhere in their set was a descent into another world, the melody cavernous in the Dollhouse’s cramped basement.
The ubiquitous college house stairs are the gateway to an ephemeral underground. I have never been to a DIY venue in Syracuse, but people are quick to explain why the Dollhouse is special. “There is a focus on the music.” It’s “punky.” It's experimental. As I found out firsthand, it cares for its audience. It's the kind of place that reminds Juliet of The Blue Room, a venue she visited in her first week at SU that would define her life here. Within a week Juliet had found a secondhand bass and was ready to throw herself into something. Two years later she has found her “little spot” playing with Triple Dog and working with Dollhouse, literally living in the scene.
OOPS!... SHE DID IT AGAIN
Pop star Tate McRae is bringing back sounds of the 2000’s one hit single at a time
Words by Kiran Hubbard | Art by Nicole Cheah
From "So You Think You Can Dance" to the NHL All-Star Game intermission, artist Tate McRae has been killing it in the entertainment world since 2016. Her breakout single “You Broke Me First” shot up to No. 17 on Billboard’s Hot 100 list shortly after its release in 2020, and her new work has only gained more popularity.
After the drop of her album "THINK LATER," McRae has drawn comparisons to 2000s-era icons such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. In a 2023 interview with People, McRae agreed that she was inspired by both while choreographing the video for the album’s song “Exes.”
Fans of the singer appreciate the familiar feelings of her songs; for SU senior Kayla Wojslaw, Spears’ influence is apparent through details as minute as McRae’s tonal inflection.
“Even though her singing and performance style is really similar to [Spears], I love that she puts her own twist on those older styles,” said Wojslaw. “Her kind of hyper-pop genre definitely feels like a throwback, which is great because I think 2000s music is superior.”
Syracuse University music industry
Professor Todd Herreman expressed his belief that people are drawn to the familiar because they enjoy consuming what they already know to like – making this a profitable strategy.
“It’s kind of hard to ignore Britney’s place in the history of pop music… so if it was a formula that was successful then, maybe it will be successful now,”
Herreman said.
However, as we all know: whenever inspiration becomes apparent, accusations of copying will follow. There have been numerous copyright lawsuits against songwriters in previous years, including Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for “Blurred Lines” and Ed Sheeran for “Thinking Out Loud.” The variable success of these suits has led to confusion over what counts as plagiarism.
Professor Herreman posited that certain musical elements, such as the harmony of a song, are similar across genres and should be protected from accusations of copyright infringement. Under this definition, McRae seems pretty safe.
