Misc.12.02.2021

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The Miscellany News

Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866

December 2, 2021

miscellanynews.org

Volume 156 | Issue 11

SJP poster sparks controversy HBO show filmed at Vassar Will Sorge

News Editor

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n Nov. 14, the VSA brought forth, and ultimately tabled, a censure motion against Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The censure motion concerned SJP’s usage of a cartoon by Jewish-American artist Eli Valley, entitled “Diaspora Boy,” on a guest-lecture poster that the student organization had circulated around Vassar’s campus. Several Jewish students on campus found the cartoon, which satirizes Jewish stereotypes, anti-Semitic. According to VSA Vice President Ryan Mazurkiewicz ’22: “I got a lot of emails that were basically like, ‘Hey, this is an anti-Semitic caricature.’” A Jewish student, who asked to remain anonymous, described why he felt the image was anti-Semitic: “It is clearly representative of a Nazi-era depiction of the Jewish ‘subhuman,’ with a big nose and big ears, a witch-like hunched back (think Gargamel from the Smurfs), black hair and a unibrow, and a gait, among some other potentially concerning and offensive traits reminiscent of anti-Semitic propaganda.” After numerous complaints, the VSA raised a censure motion, the least punitive disciplinary measure possible, against SJP during their weekly Senate meeting.

Ganesh Pillai

The VSA asked SJP representatives to attend that meeting, and over an hour of debate led to an alternative solution: SJP would publish a formal apology in The Miscellany News for their use of perceived anti-Semitic imagery. SJP did not anticipate backlash against the poster: In an interview with The Miscellany News, Tomás Guardia ’22, an SJP member and the main organizer of the lecture said: “[The backlash] took us by surprise.” Guardia described that various students reached out to them about the poster: “We had a complaint with the VSA Judical Board placed against us, alleging anti-Semitism. Other than that, we received 1 or 2 angry DM’s on our Instagram.” Guardia said that, as a Jewish student, he empathized with the anxiety and fear surrounding anti-Semitism but felt that there was sufficent information to contextualize the image as non-Zionist Jewish art. “The title of the lecture—Drawing the Dystopia: On Non-Zionist Jewish Art and Politics —clearly implies that the guest was a Jewish artist creating work to interrogate and problematize the false equivocation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism,” he believed. The anonymous student disagreed in part: “Whether you agree with using that type of ‘advertising,’ which I personally See SJP on page 4

Arts Editor

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wo weeks ago, HBO released the first season of “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” a dramedy co-written by Mindy Kaling of “The Office” and Justin Noble of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”. The series follows the college life of four first-year suitemates: Kimberly, Bela, Leighton and Whitney. The comedic crux of the show is the crude, vulgar dialogue and interplay between the students set against the backdrop of the prestigious, hallowed Essex College—or as it exists in real life—Vassar College. According to co-writer Justin Noble, the production team chose to film at Vassar because it has the type of university aesthetic the producers were seeking. As “Sex Lives” takes place in Vermont, the producers sought the characteristic look of colleges in the area. Noble elaborated, “[B]ecause Vassar is as old and prestigious as it is, it found itself on the shortlist, and then they were such great partners to us that we were thrilled to produce the outside scenes there.” The producers thought that Vassar’s gothic architecture and stone buildings were a perfect living representation of Essex. Noble expanded on specific spots that the crew liked, and the Thompson Memorial library was the first space he men-

Photo courtesy of Karl Rabe. tioned. The majority of shows such as this one film exteriors at secondary locations and build interiors back on set in Los Angeles. However, Noble noted that when they needed interiors at Vassar, the library was exactly what they were looking for. He stated, “Thankfully the Vassar interiors were so beautiful that that made it easy as well. There was a day where we had a rainstorm, and instead of the girls having a conversation out on the quad, we had to move it inside the library and make it a study scene.” Perhaps the most crucial task the series See HBO on page 4

Ensembles return to in-person rehearsing: A reflection Madi Donat

Humor Editor

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ast fall, I would’ve given absolutely anything to perform in front of a live audience on the stage of Skinner Recital Hall. Now, after the college has begun lifting guidelines for ensembles, music groups across campus have reunited in person and I’ve had the privilege of rehearsing and performing with Vassar’s three faculty-run choral ensembles. It still feels like a dream. When we first returned for an in-person semester last year, no one really knew how rehearsals would work. All of my choir rehearsals were initially on Zoom. Singing

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delightful Isabel Stowe

Guest Reporter

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he dorm room is Davi 333. It is an exceptionally nice dorm room. Of course it is. It's Davi. Davi is an exceptionally nice dorm. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Davi is, overall, the best dorm. Highest quality. Cleanest. Superior to all other dorms on campus. Perhaps even to all other dorms created throughout the existence of mankind. One cannot talk about Davi 333 without mentioning the meme door. This is before

alone in my room felt alienating and depressing, and on the few occasions when we rehearsed outside, we stood in small groups 12 feet apart from each other, double-masked, in a tent, trying to fend off the Poughkeepsie October chill. In other words, it was not much better. Spring 2021 showed some improvement–– we were at least indoors, in person, all together. But we still struggled to adapt. “It was very hard to hear,” shared Chair of the Music Department and Director of Choral Activities Christine Howlett, who directs two of the choral ensembles I’m in––the Vassar College Choir (VCC) and the Vassar College

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Women’s Chorus (WoCo). “As people began to be vaccinated, we moved to six feet apart,” she continued. I was personally ecstatic to return to some semblance of singing with others. Still, what I’d come to expect from my previous choral experiences had been turned upside-down. I felt lost and alone, even though I was technically back to singing with my friends. I didn’t know half of the people I was singing with, which had never happened in semesters past. It was certainly tough to get used to. In addition to distancing, we confronted issues with our rehearsal spaces: “Last year

review

you even go inside; a staple of the third floor of Davi, various small mammal memes plaster the wooden surface. Some cats, a couple racoons, a sloth, lots of opposums. They say things like "Why do sexy people (ME) have to suffer so much??" and "They hate to see a girlboss winning." If you do not love that meme door to an extent far exceeding the amount recommended by any normal person, you and I simply can't be friends. When you walk in, the floors are wood. There are two beds, one lofted. Two desks. Two dressers. Two windows. Our windows

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we would move locations [after 30 minutes] to avoid contaminating the air for too long,” recalled Christopher Story ʼ22, a member of VCC as well as a flute player in the Vassar Orchestra. Rehearsals were difficult for the orchestra as well. “Last year with COVID, we were only doing strings, really. We were in the Villard Room so we could space the strings… eight feet apart and with masks,” explained Senior Lecturer in Music and the Director of the Vassar College Orchestra Eduardo Navega. “For the winds, it was a bit more complicated…. I would stand on stage [in See Music on page 6

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are fantastic. When you look out of these windows, you can see a green expanse of lawn, beyond which a parade of the twinkling taillights of passing cars washes, at night, into a singular blur of red. Over the windows subside the scourge of Davi 333: the shades. White and plasticky, they raise up and drop down fully in accordance to their own prickly will. I am unshakably convinced that some hate-filled sprite resides in these monstrosities. Like spoiled children, they only ever endeavor to do the opposite of what you want. No amount of skillful tugging, vengeful yank-

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ARTS

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Read about Guest Reporter Anna Terry and the language interns FEATURES of Vassar College!

16 SPORTS

Davi

ing, stubborn glaring or desperate pleading can convince the elastic to move the way in which one desires it to move. If you try to lower it in order to block out sunlight and take a nap? The shade only lifts up and away. You want to raise it to let in sunlight and do your work? Too bad, it adamantly refuses to lift a single inch. On the windowsills, there are two collections of the various random objects and miscellaneous items gathered throughout half a semester. On one side, a russet apple sits, uneaten. A bruised spot, where it has See Davi on page 8

Inside this issue See what Arts Editor Nina Ajemian has to say about Vassar fashion!

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Check out our sports roundup to read about Vassar's women rugby team and men's fencing!


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