The Sex Edition — Technician 02/09/23

TECHNICIAN

THE SEX EDITION

OPINION

WHAT YOU MISSED:

A quick look at the headlines in and outside of NC State

Second lawsuit filed against former NC State trainer

A second sexual abuse lawsuit was filed against Robert Murphy, a former NC State assistant athletic director and trainer. Murphy allegedly performed massages without medical needs or the student’s consent. Kerry Sutton, who is representing an unnamed student, said she has spoken with four other athletes with similar claims.

SOURCE: WRAL

Large hog caught in Orange County, needs home

A large furry pig was caught by Animal Services in Efland, North Carolina after it was first seen in a resident’s yard. A spokesperson for Orange County Animal Services said the owner has been identified but cannot take the hog, so they’re looking for its new home

SOURCE: THE NEWS & OBSERVER

Stray Emu found in Missouri Neighborhood

Animal rescuers said they captured a loose emu roaming a neighborhood in Missouri. Residents of the neighborhood had cornered the emu in a yard after he was on the loose for several days. The owner turned custody of the emu over to the animal rescue group, citing his ailing health and old age. The rescuer said the emu’s name was “Ugly,” but they changed it to “Reggie.”

SOURCE: LEADER PUBLICATIONS

14-dog conga line breaks Guinness World Record

German dog trainer Wolfgang Lauenburger won a Guinness World Record for most dogs in a conga line after he led 14 dogs to form a conga line. The previous record was nine dogs in a conga line, also achieved by Lauenburger’s dogs. To achieve this record, the dogs must keep one paw in contact with the dog in front at all times, and once the conga line is formed, they must march 16 feet and five inches.

SOURCE: GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS

THE RADAR

Events to keep an eye on for the week of Feb. 9

CLOTHING SWAP

Friday, Feb. 10, 3-5 p.m.

LGBTQ PRIDE CENTER, TALLEY 5230 Free

Stop by the LGBTQ Pride Center to find a fresh outfit that makes you feel like you. All clothes are donated by NC students and community members.

BLACK HISTORY MUSEUM

Monday, Feb. 13 through Wednesday, Feb. 15, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

TALLEY STUDENT UNION

MOUNTAINS BALLROOM Free

Join University Housing in celebrating Black History Month with an immersive display of key moments in Black history.

STUDENT BODY DEPARTMENT ON MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTION MEETING

Monday, Feb. 13, 6-7 p.m.

TALLEY STUDENT UNION, 4251 Free

Student Government invites all to join the Student Body Department on Mental Health to discuss mental health crisis prevention methods on campus.

CANDY, CONDOMS AND CONSENT

Tuesday, Feb. 14, Noon-2 p.m.

TALLEY STUDENT UNION LOBBY Free

In honor of Valentine’s Day, the Women’s Center and The Movement Peer Educators will be tabling in Talley to pass out candy and safe-sex resources and discuss consent.

Campus experts advise prioritizing safety and well-being while dating

Matthew Burkhart Staff Writer

Dating in college comes with many expectations including expectations of wild hookup culture and practicing unsafe sex. Experts say the truth about dating on campus is much less chaotic and offer advice on how to approach dating in a safe way.

Dr. Kami Kosenko, a professor in communication, does research and teaches a class on sexual communication. Kosenko said being direct and making your intentions clear is always the best approach to a date, whether through words or the way you compose a dating profile.

“The research would suggest that you’re most likely to be effective if you take a direct approach,” Kosenko said. “So you don’t beat around the bush, you don’t hint at your interest in someone — express your interest in them directly and ask them if they share an interest in you or that you would like to spend some time one on one with [them] … and also being direct about the lack of interest is important.”

Mak Rink, a fourth-year studying communication, is the vice president of The Movement Peer Educators, a group of students trained to educate other students on issues of interpersonal violence.

Rink said not every date or relationship has to look like they do in pop culture.

“You don’t have to do all the things just because you see it on social media, or you see it on rom-coms,” Rink said. “I think that’s one thing that especially dating in college and dating in general is a lot of things get misconstrued, and you feel like you have to go in, you know, ABCDE order when you’re on a date, which is not the case at all.”

Rink said she advises certain precautions when seeing people you are unfamiliar with,

like choosing a public setting for the date, during the daytime, in an area where it would be easy to dismiss yourself and letting friends or family know where you are, who you are with and when to expect to hear back from you. She said these precautions can vary from person to person and to be aware of your own safety concerns and limits.

Kosenko said the newness of college can render new students at risk of interpersonal violence, citing the metric that individuals are most likely to be victimized within their first six weeks on campus. She said much of this results from unfamiliarity with college and expectations of hookup culture.

“Research would suggest that there really isn’t [a hookup culture], in fact, students of college, the general college age, tend to be having less sex than their parents,” Kosenko said. “Don’t feel like if you’re not having sex, or hooking up every weekend, that you’re

alone; there are plenty of people who are not hooking up [and] have no interest in hooking up or are in long-term, committed relationships. But that’s not the message we get, we get the message that college is this wild place where everybody is hooking up and having these unprotected sexual encounters. And I think that sort of infantilizes students — like you’re adults, and college students make a lot of good adult choices.”

Rink said it is often difficult to make reasonable judgments about your own situation, due to the feelings that attention gives. She advises students to reflect on how they feel after dates and to seek input from friends and family.

“Being very mindful of the way that you feel afterward,” Rink said. “Was it fulfilling? Was it uplifting? Or did you feel like you had to mold and be a different person and say certain things. … Was it natural? Did that person try to demean you in any

way or make comments that just didn’t feel totally great? … Talking to trusted people in your life is helpful — kind of divulging with them. If they get the chance to meet that person and how they felt about them … people that you trust will really give you an honest answer.”

Rink said consent is essential and elevates the quality of a relationship.

“Regardless of if you’re initially dating or not, communication is always important, and it always needs to be enthusiastic,” Rink said. “At least from my friends, consent is very attractive. When somebody is asking you if something is OK to do to them, that is a very respectful thing that not many people may have experienced.”

Kosenko said setting time aside to speak about consent is necessary for the comfort and success of a relationship and future sexual encounters.

“Having conversations about consent and the process of consent outside of the context of right before you’re gonna get busy, like if you do it in a nonsexual situation. … To have that conversation where the stakes aren’t as high tends to set the stage for a more pleasurable and consensual and safe sexual encounter if one evolves from that,” Kosenko said. “Trying to think ahead and try to do things to make it so that when you’re in what you know to be a safe setting to have the conversations that might be more difficult when you’re in a setting that’s more questionable in terms of its safety.”

Kosenko recommended Planned Parenthood for its online resources concerning navigating a relationship and safe sex.

Check out plannedparenthood.org/ learn for more information.

Innovation and VR studios allow students to use holograms to display art

Matthew Burkhart Staff Writer

The Innovation and Virtual Reality Studios in D.H. Hill Library offers a space for students to bring their artwork and photos to life through the use of new, accessible hologram technology.

Jeff Wilkinson, a graduate student in graphic and experience design, and NC State alum RJ Washington created holograms for an exhibit with University Li-

braries, showcasing their artwork through holographic displays from the company Looking Glass.

Colin Keenan, a University Libraries specialist who works with the Virtual Reality Studio, built the exhibit to showcase University Libraries’ high-tech spaces and the work of students like Wilkinson and Washington. Keenan said holograms are 3D representations of virtual content that are 3D to the perception of the real world. He said Look-

ing Glass uses light field displays (LFDs), which are dense fields of projected light, to give multiple vantage points of the same 3D object represented in the displays.

“Someone who’s standing one meter to your right or left is seeing a different segment of the of the full 3D picture, as if you were looking at a boat coming over the horizon through a picture frame,” Keenan said. “You have 2D-ified your view of the thing, but that you can step to a side and have an

entirely different view of the object.”

Washington said holograms can be easily understood through quilt images, which display every angle of the image that is meshed together and displayed in the Looking Glass screens.

Although similar to the concept of virtual reality, Keenan said holograms provide a more accessible alternative to the medium.

VR STUDIO continued page 4

GRAPHIC BY AVERY SZAKACS

GLBT Center rebrands to LGBTQ Pride Center, celebrates 15 years

Kate Denning Correspondent

On Tuesday, Jan. 31, The GLBT Center celebrated its 15-year anniversary on campus and announced its new name, the LGBTQ Pride Center. The name was revealed at Our Journey Forward, an event honoring the accomplishments of those involved in the creation and the furthering of the center and its mission.

Chancellor Randy Woodson and Provost Warwick Arden announced the center’s new name in a video presented to the attendees, to which the crowd responded with cheering and applause.

“This milestone, marking the center’s 15th year, is a great opportunity to pause and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community,” Arden said. “As we look to the future, our campus will continue to be a dedicated center that embodies inclusion and pride, community and belongingness.”

Dr. Bill Swallow, an emeritus statistics professor and an advocate for the creation of the center, said his involvement in the movement was met with far less support from the student body when the movement began in 2006.

Swallow said once word got around that faculty members such as himself were draft-

VR STUDIO

ing a resolution in favor of the center, Facebook groups and message boards formed immediately.

“These were groups that were for and against the creation of the center,” Swallow said. “The biggest groups were the ones that were against. The content was just appalling, but I made good use of it. I cut and pasted from those and took out some that I wanted to ensure reached Holladay Hall. I put some

“Virtual reality is by its very nature kind of inaccessible … if you don’t have equal vision in your two eyes, if you don’t have a powerful desktop to develop things on, if you don’t have a range of motion that the VR companies designed for, suddenly you’re on the outside, looking in,” Keenan said. “You can’t really look at virtual reality very easily with three other people and see the same thing. And a library is all about sharing experiences, right? Light field displays to us feel like the multi-user version of virtual reality.”

Despite the futuristic connotation behind holograms, Washington said creating them is relatively easy. Most 3D images can be translated into holograms with minimal effort, along with pictures taken with cameras with LiDAR scanning technology, a feature that comes with new iPhones.

Wilkinson said much of the technology University Libraries uses to create holograms originates from the Triangle. One of Looking Glass’s founders is from Raleigh, and one of the main engines students use to create 3D images is Unreal Engine, which is developed by Epic Games in Cary.

Wilkinson said he has seen the newness and ultramodern undertone of holograms inspire artists on campus.

“It evokes in a lot of people that kind of thrill of experimentation that here’s a new thing we can try and see what works,” Wilkinson said. “There are people who I know have started to test game design … there’s people who have experimented with creating visual puzzles that only sort of look correct from a certain angle.”

together and sent them over so they could see the worst of what was appearing.”

He said one post had stuck with him over the years.

“‘I was kind of undecided, but when I saw that over 500 people could rally together over Facebook to be against it, I became for it,’” Swallow read. “‘I’m not sure how much gays at NCSU need this center, but it’s something the rest of the population in

Keenan said beyond public art, LFDs have been used by NASA and MIT and are currently being used to display 3D medical imaging, such as MRIs.

“99.9% of 3D models ever made have only ever been seen in 2D because we’re looking at them on TV screens,” Keenan said. “It really makes you think about how much lost information is there.”

Keenan said the driving force behind University Libraries’ openness to new technologies like Looking Glass is due to the academic diversity at NC State.

“This is a really opportune university for multidisciplinary use of these technologies, not just engineering students having their hands on it, and not just designers having their hands on it,” Keenan said. “Working on those topics together — that’s what’s always excited us about it.”

Keenan said he invites all students to take advantage of University Libraries’ technology, whether their majors relate to digital design or not.

“If you’re a photographer, you’re already a hologram maker, if you’re a 3D modeler, you’re already a hologram maker,” Keenan said. “You’re about to see your project in the way it’s always been meant to be seen. We have thousands of hologram makers already walking around our campus and we’re excited to engage with them.”

The student-made holograms are on display in the Innovation Studio in D.H. Hill Library and the Lawrence and Ella Apple Technology Showcase in Hunt Library.

To create your own hologram or use other technology owned by University Libraries, complete a University Libraries Technology Consultation form.

the area needs, apparently.’”

The center has made its mark on campus through the daily support it provides to countless students and through events like the Pride Walk, in recognition of National Coming Out Day, and the Lavender Graduation, a special ceremony that celebrates the achievements of LGBTQ individuals. The ceremony honors those of a gender identity which may not be recognized at NC State’s official commencement ceremony.

“As we celebrate today and look forward to the future, please know that we will continue to support the LGBTQ+ community,” Woodson said. “Pack pride means a lot to all of us, specifically today with the renaming of the center.”

Director of the LGBTQ Pride Center Charla Blumell concluded the evening with a toast.

“Thank you to everyone who poured into us, thank you to everyone who started and will continue this journey with us,” Blumell said. “We are now to be known, and hopefully for the foreseeable future, as the NC State LGBTQ Pride Center. Go Pack.”

More information about the LGBTQ Pride Center and its services can be found at diversity.ncsu.edu/glbt/home/

HALLIE WALKER/TECHNICIAN

The main speaker for the event, Bill Swallow, gives a speech about the journey to creating the LGBTQ Pride Center during its 15 year anniversary reception in Talley Student Union on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.

Wolfpack Pickup discusses lack of accessibility across campus

The conversation of walkability and accessibility has been a hot topic in North Carolina and the U.S. recently. Wolfpack Pickup discussed how it makes campus more accessible through it’s service, how it works and how it views accessibility on campus.

This is an organization at NC State dedicated to providing golf cart transportation for students with injuries or disabilities. According to its website, former student Paige Maxon started Wolfpack Pickup in 2014 as she struggled with a physical disability and getting around campus. With the administration’s and private donors’ help, Student Government partnered with Maxon to launch a pilot program that became the organization it is today.

Brock Derrow, the new full-time program coordinator, has been with the organization since 2020. She said Wolfpack Pickup has recently expanded its services.

“I oversee the program on a day-to-day basis, and I’m in charge of managing the student drivers, making their schedules and getting in contact with riders,” Derrow said. “I’m involved with the recruitment and staffing of hiring student workers. And also, we’ve been collaborating more, [and] we actually just expanded our services to Centennial.”

Derrow also explained the hiring process for student drivers. She said the organization put out applications on it’s website before the beginning of a semester. These applications hone in on people’s availability — essentially, the more availability they

have, the more likely Derrow is to reach out. She also measures applicants based on if they’re a good fit for the program, if they would be good ambassadors for accessibility and if they’d be good drivers.

Derrow said one of the difficulties she has faced while working for the organization is time management. This is something noted in an article by Technician from 2016.

“We ride in 10-minute increments,” Derrow said. “Basically, you have 10 minutes to pick up someone, take them to where they need to go and then get to your next rider. So I think the most difficult part — and I’m sure the student drivers would say the same thing — is really just time management and getting to places on time because golf carts can only go like 10 miles per hour.”

Katherine Neilson, a fourth-year studying English, is currently a student driver for the organization. She explained how the dayto-day of the job looks for her.

“I might have a shift on Monday from 3 to 6 o’clock, so I’ll meet up with whoever was just working, I’ll grab the golf cart from them and then pick up whoever’s on the schedule,” Neilson said. “We try to make it as accessible as possible to everybody. I just pick up whoever has scheduled a ride, and it’s been really great. I think my favorite part of the job, besides obviously driving the golf cart, which is fun in of itself, is … I’m really able to talk to a lot of diverse people from different majors and different communities on campus.”

Neilson said part of being a student driver requires you to be a people person and recognize when students want to talk and don’t want to. She said every day differs because of who you’re picking up, which is part of

the fun.

Both Derrow and Neilson said the process for scheduling a ride is easy and accessible for all students, faculty and anyone else who requires the service.

“We’re really trying to raise awareness because not a lot of people know about who we are and what we do,” Neilson said. “You pretty much just schedule a ride and you say ‘Hey, this is the location I need to be picked up at [and] this is the location I need to be dropped off at.’ You put what time in and then you’re kind of all set; we don’t really ask for anything other than that.”

Concerning accessibility and walkability, both Derrow and Neilson had similar thoughts on what the University could improve on.

“We have a lot of difficulty with just getting around to buildings on campus,” Derrow said. “Withers Hall, at the front of it, there’s this huge staircase, and if you need an accessible entrance, you have to go all the way to the right side because the left side only has stairs too. So I think there are definitely improvements that could be made to make NC State more accessible, [it’s] just mostly the buildings.”

Derrow said the University could also make the campus roads more accessible for people with injuries and disabilities, offering up the idea of letting people drop off students at the building they need. She said the Brickyard is an example of where students need this help. Neilson also said the buildings and general architecture of NC State could be modified to make campus more accessible.

“I don’t know what NC State’s response could be other than saying, ‘OK, we’re just

gonna have to go building by building and implement these changes’ because yeah, we have wheelchair access in certain areas, but there needs to be more,” Neilson said. “There needs to be more [of] everything. There needs to be more elevators, more ramps, and there needs to be more awareness for Wolfpack Pickup as a whole because people, unless they’re already injured to the point where they’ve seen somebody or happened to notice one of our advertisements, they’re not scheduling with us.”

Derrow said she’d also like to encourage students, staff and faculty to use Wolfpack Pickup as much as they need to.

“We don’t care if they have one ride a day, we don’t care if they have 10,” Derrow said. “Book as many rides as you need, because that’s what we’re here for. And if there’s ever a time that you don’t see open on the website, you can always email me and I can see what we can do. I just want people to know that we’re very willing to work with them.”

Wolfpack Pickup can be reached at wolfpackpickup@ncsu.edu , and their Instagram is @WolfpackPickup. They operate from Monday through Friday on Main Campus and Centennial Campus. Their hours are as follows:

Main Campus

Monday to Thursday: 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Friday: 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Centennial Campus

Monday to Thursday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Friday: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

COURTESY OF BROCK DERROW

Mariana Fabian Opinion Editor

Hey Hollywood, let’s stay horny

It’s been 55 years since the Hays Production Code was removed from the realm of Hollywood and MPAA ratings came along. It’s hard to imagine a time when sex, nudity and anything that’s considered taboo was once censored in cinema. However, it seems like there’s a current rising trend of the sanitization of sex on screen and even people who outright hate sex scenes in general. To this I say, why, and when did we start being so anti-sex?

Mariana Fabian Opinion Editor

Let’s backtrack. The Hays Production Code was a self-imposed, rigorous set of rules and guidelines that films had to follow from the early 1930s to the late 1960s. It harshly prohibited cinema at the time from covering controversial, taboo topics. For example, the films during this time were not allowed to show any kind of nudity, sex in pretty much any manner, interracial relationships, violence, crime, profanity, and the list goes on. LGBTQ characters, which were far and few for films during this era, were depicted with stereotypes, villainized or killed off.

This is not to say filmmakers at the time didn’t make racy, controversial or sexual films. For example, in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Notorious,” the main characters, played by Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, share a series of kisses in a pas-

sionate three-minute sequence. The code specifically limited kisses on screen to only three seconds long, so Hitchcock had them do just that. Instead of having them kiss once, he separates their kisses into these increments throughout their entire conversation. Grant and Bergman’s characters are practically glued to one another throughout the scene, hugging and touching each other, whilst merely talking about dinner plans. Hitchcock never broke the code because the kisses are only three seconds, but the scene is chock-full of passion.

In “Everyone is Beautiful and No One is Horny,” R.S. Benedict extensively critiques the modern superhero film and how the genre currently desexualizes its muscular, conventionally attractive head honchos. While her article focuses more on eating disorders and the way bodies are portrayed on screen, Benedict offers an excellent point of how sexless current blockbusters are. In fact, I don’t think I could come up with a blockbuster of the last decade that depicts sexuality in a non-sanitized and horny manner.

While I understand some of the arguments against sex in films and TV, such as plot importance or the exploitation of performers, I’d argue showing sex on screen is more healthy than not seeing these depictions at all. Why should we try to revert to a time when healthy portrayals of sex never existed? Up until the

end of the Hays Code, filmmakers had stopped taking it seriously and saw it as a joke, and that’s how it should be remembered. It was restrictive and moralist — which is why this resurgence of anti-sex attitudes is concerning. Sex happens, and it’s a completely normal, human thing. It’s only weird and uncomfortable because we’ve made it that way, and so have the institutions around us.

Part of it has to do with the severe lack of proper sex education existing in the U.S., which inadvertently creates a bubble of confusion and insecurity around sex. When I took this class, we barely went over condom use, STI prevention or any other sex than penetrative. The foundation of the course was abstinence, which is a ridiculous teaching method to offer hormonal teenagers.

Additionally, this anti-sex attitude correlates with the way society treats and views pornography as something to toss to the side or as something to be ashamed of. While pornography has a history of fetishization, poor representations of women and other marginalized groups, it’s still incredibly significant to our culture for its technological advancements and more.

It also doesn’t help that sex in media is almost never accurate to the actual experience, which is a valid reason why it’s heavily critiqued. Sex is vulnerable, awkward and messy, so why can’t we let

it be this way on the silver screen?

Thankfully, companies like HBO have long been dedicated to showing sex and nudity on the screen since its beginning. With “Dream On,” one of its first shows, HBO utilized uncensored nudity as the punchline. Even though it was aimed at male audiences, it was groundbreaking to show nudity on cable TV. HBO also saw a huge rise in popularity with the premiere of “Sex and the City,” which is heralded for its representation of the female body, pleasure and sex.

HBO is also a trailblazer as they set the standard for hiring intimacy coordinators in 2018, following the #MeToo movement; all of their shows since then have staffed an intimacy coordinator to aid actors in sex scenes. Having an intimacy coordinator helps the actors feel more comfortable performing simulated sex scenes, and it lets performers have someone to bounce ideas off of. The role is one that’s evolving, and it’ll hopefully continue bettering sex representations in film and TV.

At the end of the day, you can consume whatever media you like. If you don’t like the random sex scene on your screen, just skip forward, try to grow up and move on with your life. For the rest of us sexpositive cinema and TV watchers, I’ll cheer for a random sex scene, because I’ll remember a time when they weren’t allowed at all.

Smut in romance novels gives unrealistic expectations about sex

When I walk into a bookstore, I go straight for the romance section. The idealized version of love and sex portrayed in romance novels is a means of escapism for me — as it is for many people — making it my genre of choice. But as much as I recognize these depictions of sex, referred to as smut, aren’t realistic, it’s difficult to fight the unreasonable expectations instilled within me.

Some of the most popular romance novels are also some of my favorites: Emily Henry’s “Book Lovers” and “Beach Read,” Sarah J. Maas’s “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, Colleen Hoover’s “Ugly Love” and Ali Hazelwood’s “The Love Hypothesis.” I’ve enjoyed reading all of these books, but the sex scenes in them aren’t representative of sex in real life.

“Ugly Love” is a book essentially centered around sex, as the two main characters establish a no-strings-attached sexual relationship. One section of the novel reads, “We’re doing exactly what we agreed to do in the beginning, which was to have sex. A lot of sex. Shower sex. Bedroom sex. Floor sex. Kitchen-table sex.”

The average person certainly isn’t having kitchen-table sex, and even if they are, I can’t imagine that it’d be comfortable. Colleen Hoover doesn’t show a scene where the sex is anything but orgasmic — pun intended — for either character.

I won’t deny that I absolutely loved this book regardless.

One thing that really bothers me when I’m reading smut is that the female characters will have multiple orgasms through penetration alone. In reality, according to a 2017 study, only 18.4% of women reported vaginal intercourse alone as sufficient for

orgasm. Moreover, The New York Times states that most studies record only 15% of women having multiple orgasms during intercourse. It’s also interesting that 80% of women say they’ve faked reaching orgasm at least half of the times they’ve had sex.

Another issue I’ve found is that the male characters in these books seem to be far more interested in pleasuring their partner than the average guy. For example, in “A Court of Silver Flames,” a novel in the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, the male love interest, after receiving oral sex, wanted to return the favor to his female partner.

I would need more fingers than I have to count on hand how many times I’ve heard women complain about the men they’ve had sex with only caring about their personal pleasure. Conversely, I could count on only one hand how many times I’ve heard women talk about their male partners ex-

hibiting similar behavior and interest in the bedroom as the character in “A Court of Silver Flames.”

A lot of men are selfish in bed, and romance novels don’t reflect that. If anything, this simply sets women up for disappointment in the bedroom.

I’m not condemning reading romance books and their related smut in any fashion. I certainly won’t be abandoning the genre that has brought me so much joy in tough times. However, it’s important that we don’t hold ourselves to the standards set in these books.

Sometimes I feel discouraged when finishing a romance novel because the love and sex portrayed are nearly, if not completely, perfect. But since I don’t plan to stop reading these books anytime soon, I’ll just have to remind myself that perfection isn’t attainable in any aspect of our lives. After all, it’s called fiction for a reason.

Skye Crawford Staff Columnist

Sexist advertising misleads sexual health

Jordan Birkner Correspondent

I’ve noticed a trend of sexist stereotypes in ads on streaming services over the past few months — notably, from the sibling brands Hims and Hers in the marketing for their direct-to-consumer medications.

For anyone unfamiliar with these ads, Hims primarily markets sexual health medication for erectile dysfunction and libido towards men. Hers, conversely, markets medications for anxiety and depression towards women.

There is a clear sexist binary present, both in what is shown and not shown. The Hims ads seem to imply that a man’s value is correlated to sexual performance. They attempt to open a conversation about sexual health but capitalize on insecurities to promote products. The medications shown in Hims advertising are not representative of the full mental health and skincare options actually found on the Hims website.

Hers ads pose a similar sexist binary, primarily promoting mental health treatment. Leaving out sexual health medications from advertising implies where the most profit is expected within each targeted population.

The desexualization of women and destigmatization of men’s mental health is incredibly significant in our current era. Care of both should be taken in congru-

ence, not by marketing only one category when options for both are offered.

Concerns with the company’s marketing aren’t new — numerous articles have critiqued the content of these advertisements and their implications. The target audience is also important to consider in context.

In research by F. Hedon, anxiety is shown to play a major role in symptoms of erectile dysfunction despite anxiety medications not being marketed in Hims ads. Age also plays a significant role in the presence of erectile dysfunction, with psychological factors directly related to the condition’s presence in younger populations.

I want to emphasize where I see these advertisements — on streaming services such as Hulu. Over half of adults aged 1834 say they use the service, with 17% of their audience from Generation Z and 37% being Millennials.

It is unlikely the populations that encounter Hims would need the medications

being marketed to them at all, according to Hedon’s research on sexual health. Ironically enough, their erectile dysfunction symptoms may be remedied by the same mental health medications marketed via Hers.

Additionally, fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone levels have been shown to contribute to symptoms of anxiety and depression in women. Sexual health medications like birth control have previously

reduced the need for mental health medications for some people, such as the types advertised in Hers ads.

The company may be able to offer something genuinely useful to some people — medications without the hassle of doctor’s visits. Considerations of both sexual and mental health needs often overlap in ways that would not be obvious from sexist marketing, regardless of your identity.

Your partner is not your parent

It’s Saturday night. My friend and I are on our way to a frat party. We’ve spent hours picking out the perfect outfits and delicately styling each other’s makeup. Right as we’re about to leave, she sends a picture of her outfit to her boyfriend for approval. The answer comes almost right away: she has to change.

An estimated 40 million Americans have been labeled as co-dependent. Among college students, the rates are higher among men, but the rates are nationally higher among women. Perhaps it’s the fact that many students get into their first serious relationships in college, so they’re less likely to know the warning signs of an unhealthy relationship. maybe it’s the fact that we live in the South and antiquated expectations surrounding relationships have yet to die. Whatever the reason, evidence shows that college students are more vulnerable to unhealthy relationships. What’s worse is that these

behaviors have lasted because of societal norms.

It’s time we stopped pretending this is OK. We need to set a new standard for our peers, one that does not tolerate controlling, co-dependent behavior for the sake of love.

Co-dependency is a relationship in which one partner has the role of caretaker to the other. This can manifest as people pleasing, lacking boundaries, emotional caretaking and more. If unchecked, co-dependency can sometimes blossom into flat-out control.

You may think you’ve never experienced any dependency in your relationship. But co-dependency can often manifest in much more subtle ways, such as feeling like you can’t miss a text from your partner because it will make them feel ignored, keeping them constantly updated on where you are and who you’re with or changing your behavior because you know it will make them jealous.

All of these behaviors are often ignored, but are common signs of a controlling or co-dependent relationship. They may

seem insignificant, but these little tradeoffs chip away at one’s self-esteem and individualism detrimentally. Victims of these unhealthy relationships often have higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. This is why it is so crucial we radically reject normalized codependency; in extreme cases, it is a matter of life or death.

When we have higher relationship standards, we’re less likely to fall prey to manipulation. A 2013 study published in Couple and Family Psychology investigating how to prevent divorce found that the most effective way to do so was by educating individuals on healthy relationship skills before they even found a partner. Being able to recognize unhealthy behavior is not only imperative for individual health, but also a relationship’s longevity. We need to encourage our peers to stop turning a blind eye to controlling behaviors, and we need to empower ourselves to know when controlling behavior is unacceptable. It’s the 21st century. Instead of settling for the bare minimum, it’s time to accept that we deserve the very best.

If you or someone you know is experiencing relationship violence, sexual violence, stalking or any other form of interpersonal violence and are in need of advocacy services, the NC State Women’s Center has trained advocates available to offer crisis intervention, emotional support, resources and referrals. Students can contact the 24/7 Sexual Assault Helpline at 919-515-4444 or email ncsuadvocate@ncsu.edu to schedule an appointment with an advocate.

Advocacy services through the NC State Women’s Center are available for all students inclusive of all gender identities and sexual orientations. For more information on advocacy services, please visit go.ncsu.edu/ supportsurvivors. If you would like to talk to a confidential resource, you can also connect with the NC State Counseling Center at 919-515-2423. You may also visit go.ncsu.edu/safe for additional information on resources and reporting options.

Amelia Russell

Correspondent

GRAPHIC BY ANNA LUKING

With You Avery Szakacs, staff cartoonist A second-year studying art and design

Letter from a Friend Lucy Osborn, staff cartoonist A second-year studying art and design

Festive Feasts: Chocolate Mousse

Wylie Phu, staff cartoonist

A second-year studying art and design

Nova and Comet: Beauty Rest

Pearl Knight, staff cartoonist

A fourth-year studying art and design

Love Language

Sophie Gabriel, staff cartoonist

A second-year studying art and design

Valentine Harrison Burstion, staff cartoonist

A second-year studying art and design

A Sweet Sight

Jacinto Sho Hernandez, staff cartoonist

A second-year studying art and design

Rom-coms suck now — what happened?

Erin Ferrare Correspondent

With every single person’s least favorite holiday rapidly approaching on Feb. 14, many will turn to their TVs in order to fill the time with romantic comedies that can transform any heartless cynic into a pile of tears and good feelings. Unfortunately, Hollywood hasn’t been living up to the standards set by rom-com enthusiasts in recent years.

Lindsey Reich, a graduate student in English, said rom-coms are largely simplistic.

“I would define a rom-com as a film that has a relatively simple plot,” Reich said. “They’re typically mid-budget films, so they’re not in the upwards of millions of big box office movies.”

It is hard to determine when rom-coms began. According to ReviewGeek, even the works of Shakespeare (think “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) can be placed within this genre, but the rom-com movies we think of today got their start during the 1920s with stand-out silent movies like “Sherlock Jr.” and “Girl Shy.”

Meredith Bateman, a fourth-year studying communication and president of the Student Film Society, said that rom-coms have definitely changed over time.

“A lot of old Hollywood films kind of portray love as something you have to chase after constantly. … It’s a constant tug and pull,” Bateman said. “I think

now there’s always a misunderstanding, something always gets in the way of love.”

The beginning of the so-called golden age of rom-coms occurred during the 1980s and 1990s as studios kept pumping out classics for all ages, but the movies released in the early 2000s cleared out any competition. While some of these movies have a certain outdated themes within them, there is a general understanding of nostalgia and hope that leaves viewers wanting more.

Early 2000s rom-coms have become part of a renaissance with the rise of social media and streaming services. It seems like every month, there’s another resurged rom-com being gushed over and used to create new trends.

“I think late ’80s to early ‘90s, and then the 2000s stopping right at 2010, was the height of the rom-com,” Bateman said. “I liked how rom-coms transformed into a new kind of genre as time went on. An example would be ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,’ as that one kind of explored the drama and sci-fi that can go into romantic movies.”

Modern rom-coms include the likeness of “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Set it Up,” “Isn’t It Romantic,” and the “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” franchise. While some of these, specifically “Crazy Rich Asians,” have been met with critical acclaim and definitely deserve a spot on a potential top rom-coms list, others have been met with a completely different reception by audiences.

It seems like rom-coms released on streaming services and in theaters aren’t being made with the same wit and classic romance an audience would like to see.

“It’s interesting because I think a lot of the reason why we enjoy classic romcoms so much is because they are so simple,” Reich said. “I feel like more modern rom-coms are trying to make things complicated by bringing them into the modern world. Romance is one of those things that’s really timeless, you don’t have to include millennial or Gen Z jokes in order for the audience to understand.”

No matter what your favorite genre of movie is, the classic rom-com will always move even the toughest of people into a puddle of happiness and good feelings. While they’re not always accurate, love stories give a sense of hope and belonging to many.

“People want love so bad that they can’t realize [it] when it’s right in front of them,” Bateman said. “All of the movies … it’s somewhat of an internal thing. ‘What love do I deserve?’ When you see it reflected in front of you in another person, it’s a really beautiful moment.”

Sex ed: what students wish they could have learned

Emilia Rivadeneira Correspondent

For some students, the idea of sex education brings back memories of middle school class discussions on abstinence, outdated and boring videos explaining

how babies are made and PowerPoints describing the most marketed forms of protection: the birth control pill and condoms. These assumptions regarding sex education demonstrate that for many students, it hasn’t been taught ef-

fectively or at all.

“From what I remember, [sex education] was very much not talked about heavily,” said Travis Espinoza Mundo, a second-year studying elementary education. “I just got like, ‘This is X. Here’s the parts. This is what happens. Here’s the negatives. Here’s a protection and another protection,’ but there’s not much.”

stinence-only ideology, which elicits judgment and shame around premarital sex. But sex happens, even before marriage, as a physical bonding activity that is an important part of many relationships. Sex education should be more comprehensive and include the non-reproductive aspect of sexual relationships.

Let’s

get real about what sex

is One of the main things students agreed on is the fact that we should stop seeing sex as just a means for reproduction, because it’s not.

Brianna Brandle, a fourth-year studying psychology, said a lot of discussion surrounding sex concerns reproduction only.

“Yes, that’s a thing,” Brandle said. “But also, sex is not just about reproduction. Sex is about relationship dynamics.”

By perceiving sex as only a means to reproduce, we are promoting the ab -

“In high school, I would have liked to have more of an intersectional perspective on sex and how it’s not just something that’s in the bedroom, it’s something that affects people’s lives,” said Maeve Hennessy, a third-year in international studies.

If we talk about sex, we should be inclusive

We should stop pretending that sex only happens between men and women. Instead, sex education should be taught from an intersectional perspective that includes all races, genders and sexual

What is ‘rizz,’ and do you have it?

Mariana Fabian Opinion Editor

Not to be confused with the Rizz Ranch in Raleigh, “rizz” is a new popular term started by famous Twitch streamer and YouTube personality Kai Cenat. Rizz comes from the word “charisma” and is defined as your ability to flirt with someone you’re interested in.

According to Kami Kosenko, associate professor of communication, rizz started out as more of a communication phenomenon than a non-verbal or unspoken one.

“What [Cenat] was saying was that there are essentially better and worse ways of attracting a person,” Kosenko said. “I think people are likening it to the idea of having a spit game. It seems to have taken on a new life on TikTok, and the original creator of the term, so to speak, is not necessarily happy with how it’s evolved. Because it’s evolved to include things that are noncommunicative, [things] that are unspoken.”

As far as the unspoken signals of attraction or unspoken rizz, Kosenko said these rules are pretty consistent with the evolutionary psychologist and biologist views of attraction, which is largely governed by our need to procreate.

“It’s a very cis[gender] and heteronormative view of sexuality and attraction,” Kosenko said. “But, it’s built on the notion that we have this innate need to see our genetics carried on and passed on to the next generation. And so it reasons from there that what and who we’re attracted to is based almost on entirely unconscious factors that have to do with the relative fitness, genetically speaking, of the person that we might find ourselves attracted to.”

Kosenko said that a lot of flirting is done through nonverbal communication, especially through eye contact. She explained that eye contact should be at the Goldilocks level: not too much, but not too little. You don’t want to come off

SEX ED

continued from page 10

orientations.

Sexuality wasn’t a main focal point in sex education for some LGBTQ students, as their identities weren’t addressed in class discussions about sex.

“Someone in my biology class for high school asked about intersex individuals,” Brandle said. “I will always remember the teacher saying, ‘I’m sorry, I legally cannot answer that question.’”

It’s important to allow everyone to ask questions and to be curious without judgment or restriction, since limiting sex education to a heteronormative

as creepy, but if not enough, the person won’t recognize if you’re flirting. Positional cues are also a popular nonverbal way of communicating.

“By positional cues, I mean things where you’re positioning your body in such a way that it’s mirroring the body position of the other party,” Kosenko said. “That tends to lead to synchroni -

perspective adds yet another layer of hardship for the LGBTQ community to overcome.

“If you don’t include those conversations about how sex is different, based on who you are and what your identity is, you’re really taking away an opportunity for those people to be safe,” Hennessy said.

Having safe sex

Although safety has been one of the most frequently discussed topics in sex education, it’s important to recognize how birth control can affect women.

“Everyone’s like, ‘just take birth control,’ but they don’t talk about the implications that has on the people taking

studying business administration, said rizz is all about how you approach someone you’re interested in and your confidence level.

“I think one thing about it is that some people can have [rizz] and just not know,” Velasco said. “Some people are somewhat flirtatious naturally. When they’re speaking to someone, they can inadvertently be rizzing them or another person up and not know that. I think for some people, it’s a very subconscious thing, and when other people actually do pursue someone. … They’ll tell their friends, ‘Watch me rizz this person up,’ and then they go for it.”

Velasco explained that when rizzing someone up, it’s important to be at your comfort level and theirs as well. He said as cliche as it may sound, a smile goes a long way as long as it’s maintaining that Goldilocks level. It’s important to be able to read body language when flirting as well.

“Be very observant and look for social cues, because it’s a big problem in college students,” Velasco said. “Consent is a pretty big thing. If the person’s feeling uncomfortable, if they’re not feeling your rizz, then just stop. … You need to make sure the person is actually feeling what you’re saying and not just like, listening to what you’re saying.”

If you’re worried about how much rizz you may or may not have, Kosenko has some advice for you.

GRAPHIC BY HEIDI REID

zation in body movements. So, if you see two people that seem to be getting on really well, we would tend to see them doing things that look like they’re in synchrony. They’re moving the same arm in the same manner, at the same time, crossing their legs or crossing their arms in the same way.”

Eric Romero Velasco, a fourth-year

birth control,” said Jajhayra FoncecaRoque, a second-year studying political science.

Simply looking at the double-sided information leaflet that comes inside the packages of birth control pills reveals a huge list of potential side effects that women face when taking it. Discussing these side effects more often can help educate women who are unsure about taking it.

Sex is empowering

Sex is power. Knowledge about sex is power.

“If I have knowledge about my own sexuality, my own needs, my own wants, my own desires, I have the power to go

“I think the question about whether or not someone has rizz and then the W rizz, the L rizz and all that stuff — I think it could get out of hand and be another source of insecurity for people and sexual insecurity is very high,” Kosenko said. “There is someone out there for you if that’s what you want, and don’t get hung up on whether or not you’re able to attract a lot of people. Get hung up on whether or not you’re able to find that one person or if you’re polyamorous, those people, who are going to be good for you.”

out and seize that opportunity,” Hennessy said. “And, you know, that means probably not relying on as many maledominated institutions anymore and not relying on interpersonal relationships that don’t fulfill our needs.”

Teaching comprehensive and accurate sex education can help individuals become sexually empowered, provide them the knowledge to make healthy informed decisions and respect their needs and desires.

Ultimately, what students wish for is a safe environment in which conversations about sex and sexuality start happening — not only in classrooms, but in everyday life, taking every individual into account.

No. 22 NC State men’s basketball falls 63-50 at No. 8 Virginia

No. 22 NC State men’s basketball came well short of an upset in Charlottesville, Virginia, falling 63-50 at the hands of the No. 8 Cavaliers.

From early foul trouble to allowing Virginia (18-4, 10-3 ACC) to control the pace of the game, just about nothing went in NC State’s favor. Coming into the matchup as the ninth-best team in the country in fastbreak scoring with 15.83 points per game in that fashion, the Wolfpack (19-6, 9-5 ACC) only managed two points in transition all night — a microcosm of NC State’s problems in its first game as a ranked team since 2019.

Granted, John Paul Jones Arena isn’t an easy place to play, and head coach Tony Bennett has turned the Cavaliers into one of the ACC’s premier programs, but NC State looked like a shell of itself in its most important road game of the season. Coming into

the night with an opportunity to close the gap on first place in the conference, the Pack sputtered out of the gate and never found its footing to make a run back into the game.

Jumping out to a 20-9 lead in the first 10 minutes of the night, it was all Virginia early — a trend that wouldn’t cease until the final whistle. Led by 18 points on 50% shooting, five rebounds and a steal from forward Jayden Gardner, the Cavaliers found a way to keep NC State playing at a pace they were comfortable with for the entire 40 minutes. Guard Reece Beekman and forward Kadin Shedrick rounded out Virginia’s double-digit scorers with 15 and 10 points, respectively, combining for four assists and nine rebounds to add to Virginia’s dominance in all facets of the game.

Perhaps the biggest killer for the Wolfpack on the evening was graduate forward DJ Burns falling into foul trouble early, forcing junior forward Ebenezer Dowuona onto the court for more minutes than desired against such a physical Cavalier unit. In 16 minutes

of action on the floor, Dowuona looked out of his league, finishing the contest with zero points on 0-4 shooting from the floor, six rebounds and a pair of fouls. While his rebound total tied Burns for second-highest on the team, the clear step back in offensive presence when Burns wasn’t on the court hurt the Pack tremendously.

Adding to the inability to find a way back into the contest, graduate guard Jarkel Joiner had an off night, shooting 2-14 from the floor and 1-7 from downtown to total five points. Like Dowuona, Joiner found areas to be impactful despite his cold hand, adding six boards and a team-high six assists to his stat line. But as a final score of 63-50 suggests, NC State desperately needed his scoring prowess in such an impactful matchup.

Sophomore guard Terquavion Smith and junior guard Casey Morsell made up the list of double-digit scorers for the Wolfpack with 19 and 18 points, respectively. Smith’s green light was on full display, only connecting on seven of his team-high 20 shot

attempts from the floor and three of his 11 tries from 3-point range. Morsell had a much more efficient showing against his former team, finishing 6-11 from the floor and 4-9 from deep, adding three rebounds and an assist before fouling out with 50 seconds left to play.

As much as Virginia found ways to keep the Pack down, NC State beat itself with an atrocious shooting performance. Shooting 33.3% on field goals, 29.6% from 3-point land and 57.1% at the free throw line isn’t going to be enough to take down one of the best teams in the country.

Fortunately for NC State, there’s a lot of basketball yet to be played. Getting a chance to work through some kinks in a road matchup against Boston College, who stands as a bottom-five team in the conference, and a worse-than-usual Syracuse squad before returning home for a rowdy matchup against North Carolina at PNC Arena, the Wolfpack has the potential to end the season as a 25-win team.

HALLIE WALKER/TECHNICIAN

Sophomore guard Terquavion Smith shoots the ball around an opponent’s block during the game against Wake Forest in Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023. Smith scored 16 points and NC State beat Wake Forest 79-77.

Wade Bowman Managing Editor

The Shnaider effect, stellar weekend help Wolfpack women’s tennis make a statement

Ethan Bakogiannis Sports Editor

After a narrow 3-4 upset defeat at the hands of then-No. 21 Vanderbilt, the thenNo. 3 NC State women’s tennis team hit an early-season crossroads, one that didn’t bode well for the immediate future of a team with national championship-level aspirations.

Over the weekend, though, the red-andwhite responded to the loss in a big way, pulling off two statement wins over ranked programs due to its relentless mindset and a little help from star freshman Diana Shnaider.

Granted, the loss against the Commodores to any other team wouldn’t be a big deal, even after the Pack dropped to No. 10 in the rankings. Many other programs would take a spot inside the top 10 in a heartbeat, but for NC State and head coach Simon Earnshaw’s rigorous standards, the loss to Vanderbilt was a setback. Not only was it an upset loss, it eliminated NC State’s opportunity to compete in the ITA National Indoors Tournament, where it would’ve had the chance to build its resume against even tougher opposition.

Since then, however, NC State’s reversed its fortunes and went on a tear, dominating both of its ranked opponents in its two must-win matches following the loss. The red-and-white outscored then-No. 15 Oklahoma and then-No. 22 Tennessee 12-2 in terms of match score, on back-to-back days no less, reminding everyone of how dangerous this squad can be.

“We really needed [those wins] now because with us not having advanced to the National Indoor, there’s a level of urgency that we have to get these wins,” Earnshaw said. “We needed these wins, for sure.”

So, what happened? What’s the difference? Well, a large part of the Pack’s burst of success comes from Shnaider, who finally joined NC State’s lineup in its fourth match of the season after officially gaining eligibility from the NCAA. The three-time junior grand slam champion and renowned recruit was a breath of fresh air for the Pack, one that rejuvenated its lineup after its loss to Vanderbilt.

Shnaider’s unrelenting attacking skills, uncanny instincts and thunderous forehand make her a force to be reckoned with, allowing her to go blow-for-blow with the best in college tennis. There’s a reason she’s ranked No. 94 in the world — she’s been there, done that and is now determined to dominate at the collegiate level.

Shnaider’s insertion to the lineup doesn’t just impact her court, though. She provides an instant boost to NC State’s depth as a

whole, especially in singles. With the freshman rightfully assuming duties on court one, the rest of the Pack’s talented singles roster moved down a court, creating an airtight roster stocked with experienced players from courts one through six.

“The Diana move at [court] one, because she put everyone down a spot, is definitely why we won these last couple of matches,” said graduate student Alana Smith. “Our lineup on [courts] four, five and six is just pretty solid. I think we can definitely compete with all the top teams down there.”

Smith, who played at the one spot during Shnaider’s absence, has moved down one place in the lineup just like the rest of the Pack’s singles players. The No. 13-ranked Smith, who embraced Shnaider’s incorporation, cruised in her two matches on the weekend, winning 6-1, 6-3 and 6-4, 6-2 against her respective Sooner and Volunteer

opponents. NC State’s singles domination as a whole proved that like Smith, the rest of the lineup seemed to benefit from the Shnaider effect as well.

The Wolfpack’s desire to respond to the Vanderbilt loss was not only evident with its play over the weekend, but with the team’s determined mindset as well. NC State knew its potential, and made a statement against Oklahoma and Tennessee by claiming the pair of ranked, 6-1 wins.

“We definitely had a ‘come together moment’ after Vanderbilt,” Smith said. “And we were like: we still have a pretty strong schedule. And we’re pretty much playing 10 out of the 15 teams going to endorse so if we know we can just stay solid and get some wins against those teams, we’ll still be in a good position.”

With the Sooners and Volunteers in the rear view mirror, NC State won’t have the

opportunity to play more ranked teams at the ITA Indoors but has many more chances to replicate the weekend’s performances and add to its resume even before ACC play begins.

“It is a bit risky to play that level of a nonconference [schedule] if you have eight nonconference matches and six of them are top25 opponents,” Earnshaw said. “But I think we can handle it and I think we showed this weekend that we can more than ever.”

With Shnaider and a reinvigorated lineup, the Wolfpack is riding as high as ever and hungry for more. While the road ahead won’t be easy, especially with the beginning of conference play quickly approaching, NC State’s statement weekend bodes well for its chances to get right back to where it was at the beginning of the season — vying for a national championship.

REILLY WITTE/TECHNICIAN

Freshman Diana Shnaider celebrates after a set versus Tennessee at J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. Shnaider won her singles match and NC State beat Tennessee 6-1.

Wrestling is now a must-attend sport for all Wolfpack fans

edge is, the environment that is on display in Reynolds Coliseum is one that all fans should experience.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last four years, NC State wrestling is really good. Like four-time reigning ACC champion, must-see good.

Wolfpack fans never fail to show up for the big sporting events like football and men’s basketball, and in the last few years they’ve even started to fill up the seats for some of the more successful non-revenue sports like women’s basketball and baseball. All of the aforementioned sports are events NC State students and fans should make an effort to attend. Now you can add wrestling to that list.

I’ll admit, it wasn’t until I got to college and began writing for Technician that I really started to learn the rules of wrestling, and even after four years of watching it, I still have a lot to learn. However, even if you don’t know much about wrestling, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it.

With as successful as NC State has been the last few years, wrestling has become a must-attend event for all Wolfpack fans. No matter what your level of wrestling knowl-

For one, there’s no better atmosphere for college wrestling in the country than the Old Barn, and perhaps the best example of this was the February 2020 matchup between NC State and UNC. That match drew the largest crowd ever for a wrestling match in Reynolds with 4,383 fans, and the competition itself did not disappoint as the two teams went down to the wire with NC State pulling it out thanks to a heavyweight win by junior Deonte Wilson.

While not every match is that crowded, fans still always show up and make it a great atmosphere for college wrestling.

In addition to the crowd element, the event organizers put on a show that has to be experienced. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think you’re in a professional wrestling setting with the spectacle that’s created. When each wrestler runs out onto the mat, he is accompanied by shooting flames beside the tunnel, much like the NC State football team’s entrances in CarterFinley Stadium.

Any event in Reynolds is going to be good,

especially when the band is there, which it has been for some of the Pack’s top matchups. The band adds an extra element to college athletics that isn’t even remotely matched in professional sports, and for the fans, there’s no better sound than hearing the NC State fight song during a big event.

Still, with all of the pageantry aside, wrestling is as exciting as it is primarily because of how successful the team has been, especially in recent years. As mentioned, NC State has won the last four ACC Championships and has placed in the top 10 in three of the last four NCAA Tournaments, making itself known as a wrestling powerhouse.

The Pack also hasn’t lost a home wrestling match since 2019, so if you go, you’re likely going to see a win.

Even if you don’t know anything about wrestling, you’re still going to be entertained. The guys are absolutely ripped and are going after it hard, and I’ve come to find that other than maybe football, wrestling is the most physical college sport.

If there’s a time for you to get into NC State wrestling, it’s right now because the team needs your support. This Friday, Feb. 10, the No. 7 Pack takes on No. 18 Pitt in

what is perhaps the biggest home match of the year. The Panthers are the only ACC team that has not lost a conference match this year and just recently beat Virginia Tech, the only team that has beaten NC State this season.

It’s Senior Night, there are eight ranked vs. ranked matchups, and the top spot in the ACC is on the line, making for what should be a must-see event in Reynolds. After Pitt, it’s a road match at North Carolina, who NC State has beaten in the last nine matchups and will be going for a 10th on Feb. 17. How cool would it be to fill Carmichael Arena with red and watch the Pack beat up the Tar Heels?

And finally, the 2023 ACC Wrestling Championships will be in Reynolds on Sunday, March 5. It’s right here on campus and students get in for free, so what excuse do you have not to show up and pull for the Pack as it goes for its fifth straight title?

No matter your wrestling knowledge, all NC State fans should make an effort to attend at least one wrestling match. The wrestlers will try and entertain the crowd much like Russell Crowe in Gladiator, and you won’t be disappointed.

KAELA BELINGON/TECHNICIAN

Freshman Dylan Fishback slams his opponent during the 184 bout against Duke in Reynolds Coliseum on Jan. 27, 2023. Fishback won his individual match by fall. NC State beat Duke 46-3.

Ben Ellis Sports Editor

Non-revenue sports deserve more hype

Mariana Fabian Opinion Editor

NC State’s football and men’s basketball teams are our school’s pride and joy. It’s for all the right reasons; our teams are incredibly talented, with the stats to show for it, and the revenue that each of them bring home each year is astounding.

However, it’s time Wolfpack fans start passing around the love for the NC State’s non-revenue sports, which practically consists of any sport other than the aforementioned pair. Some of these sports include swimming and diving, track and field, baseball, softball, tennis, wrestling, gym

2022, the Wolfpack men’s swim and dive won 12 straight ACC titles; it also was the most titles for the sport in ACC history. As for women’s swim and dive, it’s earned four ACC titles in program history. Notably, senior Katharine Berkoff currently holds the American and US Open record for 100yard backstroke with a time of 48.74 seconds. She was the first woman to break the 49-second barrier in this event. Additionally, these teams have produced Olympians, Olympic medalists, USA Champions, NCAA Champions, All-Americans and title-holders. Both men’s and women’s teams rank in the top five, with the women sitting at No. 4 and the men at No. 5.

Katelyn Tuohy. At 20 years old, Tuohy is decorated with NCAA Champion, ACC, All-American honors and more. She’s broken several records throughout her career, and there’s arguably not another athlete as gifted as her at NC State right now.

In fact, on Jan. 29, Tuohy broke an NCAA record by finishing third in the women’s indoor mile with a time of 4:24.26, beating Jenny Simpson’s past record of 4:25.91, set in 2009. Tuohy’s record is now on the U.S. top mile times list.

Now, a quick run of other non-revenue sports that deserve some more attention: wrestling has been ranked among the top 10 for the last seven years, women’s tennis just earned a No. 6 ranking while men’s tennis was ranked at No. 19 and our gymnastics team is currently ranked No. 23 in the nation. The women’s track and field squad ended up ranked No. 4 in the 2021-22 season as well.

While I understand that some of these non-revenue sports may have lower viewership when compared to football and basketball, it shouldn’t diminish their relevance. Because these sports don’t get as much attention as the previous sports, it’s even more important that Wolfpack fans show these incredible athletes that you care about them

The events are usually free of charge and lots of fun, and you’re supporting NC State Athletics even more. Even if you don’t understand the rules of wrestling, swimming, tennis or any other non-revenue sport, you can be a part of something bigger by helping these athletes feel appreciated.

JERMAINE HUDSON/TECHNICIAN

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