STIR Magazine Fall 2014

STIR FALL 2014

[ THE SPACE ISSUE ] CLARK

WORCESTER

MIND & BODY

6 // The Space Inside My Head 8 // Clark Then & Now 14 // Community Thrift Store Upgrade

28 // Time with the Trees 30 // Urban Decay 37 // Main South: Safe or Scary

ARTS & CULTURE

FEATURES

62 // Being Aware of Gendered Spaces 63 // What Makes a Home?

64 // How to Turn Your Dorm Room into a More Peaceful Space 66 // Long Distance 68 // Finding a Place in Cyberspace 70 // On Kissing 72 // Sexuality, Virginity, and a Woman’s Space in Society 73 // Writer’s Block 74 // Cosmological Love

18 // Close Encounters of the B-List Kind 19 // Disparate Environments 22 // Motern Media 24 // A Guide to Music About Space

40 // Feature: Consent 41 // Rape Culture & the College Experience 44 // #ContinueTheConversation 46 // Fuck the Police, Love the People 52 // Peter Martel 54 // Catcalling 55 // On Revenge Porn, Victim Blaming, & Nude Celebrities 57 // The Silent Killer

STAFF

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Paul Puiia

ASST. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

letter from the editor

Rose Gallogly

HEAD COPY-EDITOR

Dear STIR Magazine readers,

Laura Matthew

Since its conception, STIR has strived to serve the Clark community by providing a progressive, informing, and contemporary magazine that’s free to explore relevant issues in a variety of creative ways. The STIR editorial staff and I have made a few changes for this magazine—we are experimenting, looking for new ways to improve the focus of the finished product as well as the scope of STIR as an organization.

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Dominique Pratt

SECTION EDITORS Laura Matthew, Features Audrey Dolan, Mind & Body Matt Newberg, Clark Lloyd Schramm, Arts & Culture Sofia Dobner-Pereira, Worcester

LAYOUT STAFF Rose Gallogly Sofia Kromis Nora Turok Sofia Dobner-Pereira

COPY EDITORS Matt Newberg JoAnna Pearson

CONTRIBUTORS Abby Cummins Andrea Boffice Audrey Dolan

COVER PHOTO BY LAURA MATTHEW

CONTACT INFORMATION STIR Magazine 950 Main St. Worcester, MA 01610 stirmagazine@gmail.com facebook.com/stirmagazine

Christian Ramos Dominique Pratt Elyse Waksman Faith Kelnhofer Jonathan Edelman Juliana Gluck Kate Summers Katherine Landesman

We’ve added themes. Each semester, our magazine will delve into a topic in a variety of ways. This issue, we’ve chosen the topic of “space.” Our staff was challenged to think outside of our usual conception of “space”—we examine the celestial, personal space, the urban landscape, and many other variations of the theme. As you read, I hope that you feel compelled to consider each article’s connection to “space” and the synthesis of the topic as a whole.

We’ve reconsidered our “features” section. With the intent to create a more meaningful and in-depth exploration of a specific topic, this section explores a pertinent idea that is a subset of our overall theme. This issue, our featured topic is “consent.” We’ve also removed the “STIR It Up” section. We were reluctant to let go of the eclectic content that this encompassed, but decided that it ultimately diluted the goal of achieving a more focused reader experience.

In the coming year, STIR Magazine will be more widely available to purchase, opening doors not only to more Clark students and faculty, but also the Worcester community in a greater context. We’re currently considering distribution options—we’ll announce our retail locations officially as soon as we know.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, STIR is looking to broaden its influence as an organization, moving beyond existing solely as a magazine. Starting in the Spring of 2015, STIR will stand as a patron of creativity and curiosity, curating and sponsoring programming with a mission to bring the talents and unique outlook of our community together in creative new ways. STIR will also be expanding its output, working with writers and artists in various media to release content throughout each semester as we prepare the magazine itself.

STIR wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of our talented writers, photographers and editors. I’m incredibly proud to be working with such a skilled group of artists in a community that is so forward-thinking and open to new ideas. This semester above all, STIR’s team organized their efforts and created a beautiful, engaging, and cohesive work of art.

I hope you find what we’ve made meaningful.

Thank you for reading.

Lance Yau Laura Matthew Lloyd Schramm Marisa Natale Matt Newberg Molly Caisse Sara Davidow Sean Tatar Skye Wingo Sofia Dobner-Pereira Sydney Tanguay Tricia Wise

Paul Puiia Editor-in-Chief

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the

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space inside MY HEAD

WRITTEN BY MOLLY CAISSE PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOMINIQUE PRATT

The space provided in improvisation is open and endless, and it gives performers infinite opportunities to let loose. Give the nine members of Shenanigans! an empty room, and their imagination will spill out, easily turning it into a living, breathing landscape with only a wave of their hands and a quickly worded sentence.

“When you first get on stage, right away you establish the setting, your relationship to your scene partner, how you feel about them, and what you’re doing,” Liz Crowther explained.

Along with these components, it’s also about intertwining real-life elements with the absurd. During the group’s show at the Little Center on the 18th, several of the cast members played a game called “Stunt Doubles.” It starts with two members front and center and two members on opposite sides of the stage.

The scene builds up to two improvisers naming a simple task that needs to be done and then calling the stunt doubles in. They rush forward to take on whatever the task may be and in the most extreme way they can.

“It could be something like, extreme cow milking,” Anthony Senesi said. “This game really solidifies what we can do with space.”

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But reality does play its part, and it’s an important one.

“It really grounds you. I love to act out my grandmother on stage,” Emily Denny said.

“She has a really heavy Jewish accent that’s fun to imitate.”

“When coming up with characters I think of my friends,” Liz said. “It helps to think of someone you’re close with—then you can have a character completely. And no one has to know that’s who you’re acting out.”

The game “Two Describe a Third” also allows performers to provide this gift, as two people on stage work to describe a third character.

This person starts off as a clean slate but ultimately has to embody the traits they are provided with. Both collaboration and a blank canvas to manipulate are essential for the scene to go in a positive direction.

The performers find themselves developing characters in other ways as well.

“Hip movements make weird characters,” Liat laughed. “I lead with my body.”

This meshing of fact and fiction is one of many methods Shenanigans! uses to come up with new ideas and develop scenes, but it seems the most important thing is their reliance on each other.

“A suggestion for a location from the audience helps. Then you can ask, ‘why is this person in this place?’ And get a feeling of the character,” Liz said.

“I can’t imagine doing improv with people I didn’t like,” Charlotte Maxwell said. “You feed off of your scene partner and discover things together.”

The audience may occasionally call out an idea or two when prompted, but their involvement in each created space delves a little deeper than that.

“It’s having fun with friends; there’s a lot of listen-and-response,” Megan Jones added.

“It’s fun for the audience to fill in the gaps,” Liz continued. “When I pretend I’m holding something terrifying, the audience reacts to that. They can relate to it in their own way.”

“It’s all about teamwork with your partner,” Liat Graf agreed. “They give you the gift of who you are during the scene.”

“Radio Play” is a game that plays very heavily

on the audience’s imagination, as no images are provided for them. It challenges the traditional availability of space in improv by taking away the reliance on it. With the lights off, three performers—two characters and one person making sound—narrate a story using only their words, without the ability to be physical. This game gives the audience the opportunity to imagine the world and characters in their own way, flipping the common style of improv, as the actors usually develop the space as they see fit.

Charlotte said. “I go into a flow space where I’m just responding.”

Liz thought differently: “If I’m in a bigger room, I can feel it. I feel like I can take bigger steps. And I feel closed off in a smaller room.”

But what they could all certainty agree on was their love for the craft.

The performers have various ways in which they themselves interpret the space they act in.

“It’s organic,” Emily said. “You can never be good enough, you can never reach a highest point. As students, we’re pressured to reach this highest peak, but in improv there’s no validation.”

“It’s hard to look at the bigger picture,”

“You can’t mess up,” Anthony added. “Even

little things like someone coughing, you can ask ‘are you ok?’”

“Everything is up for grabs on stage,” Megan said. “It’s all about imagination. It’s like when you’d play as a kid and make Barbie a superhero, you know it’s not, but—it is.”

“It’s the freedom,” Corey Gomes agreed. “Anyone can be doing anything at any time. There are no restrictions; if Godzilla is in the middle of the library, you just have to accept that.” 

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CLARK

THEN&NOW

Freud’s Installation, 1999

CURRENT-DAY PHOTOS BY ABIGAIL CUMMINS & JONATHAN EDELMAN HISTORICAL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CLARK UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

Annie’s Clark Brunch circa 1920

Annie’s Clark Brunch 2014

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Freud 2014

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Jonas Clark Hall circa 1895

Goddard Library 1968

Jonas Clark Hall 2014

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Goddard Library 2014

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Spree Day 2014 Spree Day 1992

Library Exterior (circa 1960s)

Library Exterior (2014)

Spree Day 2014

Spree Day Late 1960s

Spree Day Late 1960s

Spree Day 2014

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[ CLARK ] Lloyd’s involvement with the Thrift Store started long before the redevelopment, which took place just a few months ago. Starting in the spring of his freshman year, he began volunteering in the store, doing odds and ends that helped with general upkeep. Because of that work, he was eventually hired in the fall of his sophomore year. In addition to becoming a paid employee, Lloyd also did some unpaid graphic design work for the store.

These two jobs really helped show initiative and dedication to the betterment of the store.

So, when Jenny Isler put out a LEEP Project opportunity mid-semester of spring 2014 looking for someone to work extensively on reopening the Thrift Store this fall, Lloyd was the perfect candidate.

Community Thrift Store Upgrade: Beloved Space Reinvented WRITTEN BY AUDREY DOLAN // PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOMINIQUE PRATT

F

or the past four years, the Clark Community Thrift Store has been a much beloved space by the students and for the students. Started in 2010 by two alumni, the thrift store has been a great place for buying and selling clothing, as well as becoming further involved in the campus community. During the past year, as part of an overall push for campus growth and improvement, there have been many changes to the space around Clark. One of these changes heavily impacted the thrift store. Its first and former home, across Main Street just beyond the front gates, was torn down. Over the summer, a skilled team came together to create a new face and space to this unique and special part of Clark. Under the guidance of Jenny Isler, Lloyd Schramm (’16) took on this incredible project to bring new life to the fittingly renamed Community Thrift Store.

So much went into this project. It was not simply about finding a new location for the store, but also meant to examine what was making the store successful, and what could be done to give the space a new image. So before anything could physically done, a new location had to be found. According to Lloyd, it was “actually kind of scary” having nowhere permanent location at the beginning of spring. While the store was having a pop-up location in the University Center and Clark Bookstore, everyone was working on the new home. As the search continued, it became clear that the new spot would 930 Main Street. The building is currently owned by Clark and is in a great location. It’s still situated very close to campus, close to other popular spots like Acoustic Java and the Bookstore while still being integrated among other community stores. This was a key objective for the move and renaming of the store. With a new start came a better opportunity to really become a community store, not just exclusive to Clark—hence the rename: The Community Thrift Store.

Once a location was found, it was time to get down to research. Lloyd and his advisers had a multitude of aspects to considering going into the new space. Physical plant was consulted to make sure everything was safe and orderly, a new business model and objective was made, the logo was redesigned, and extensive research was done on how to

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make the store aesthetically pleasing and professionally organized.

This last aspect led Lloyd to do a lot of research on how to “create a space.” This meant doing online and field research about thrift stores. It definitely sounds like this was the most fun and interesting part for him.

One main source of inspiration was Buffalo Exchange, a popular consignment chain that can be found in most major cities across the country. Going to locations in Boston and New York City really helped give Lloyd ideas on how to model the store and what sorts of design aesthetics seemed to be successful for them. Things like use of space, color scheme, and display techniques were all important elements that were considered. Additionally, Lloyd also looked at psychological theories behind shopping and branding. These little details were all key in creating a new space that would be welcoming to customers old and new. The main focus was to look and feel “organic”. Earthy tones, such as green and brown, as well as using rough wood and tin helps tie in this aesthetic and the main values of the store. As Lloyd states, “the whole purpose of the store is to divert waste from landfills by encouraging people to not buy new, and instead recycle useful pieces.”

As the process started to wind down and opening day drew nearer, the reality of what Lloyd had done really became apparent to him. It was “really scary” to see so much hard work come to life. Part of this did involve consulting Thrift Store employees for feedback on how they thought the new store was coming together. Good feedback from valued members of the team was necessary.

However, most decisions were executive decisions because he was the knowledgeable person put in charge. “I did what I wanted to do,” Lloyd says confidently. And he should. He helped father this new change, a great redefinition of an important Clark and community space. September 5th was the grand opening of the new and improved Community Thrift Store at 930 Main Street.

Lloyd lights up recalling the event: “It was pretty gratifying and Jenny said I was glowing. I really was ecstatic to stand back and appreciate what I had done and see it being so well received. I really want to say thanks to the team I worked with for making it all happen and I just hope to see the store continue to improve.” So next time you stop in to casually browse the racks, maybe take a minute to appreciate all that went into creating a beautiful space for The Community Thrift Store. 

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Close Encounters of the

B-List Kind

DISPARATE DISPARATE

ENVIRONMENTS ENVIRONMENTS

An out of this world description of the B-list science fiction and horror genre

STYLED & WRITTEN BY LLOYD SCHRAMM PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOMINIQUE PRATT

WRITTEN BY TRICIA WISE

N

ot a long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, there was the peculiar and bizarre genre of science fiction and horror. B-list science fiction and horror to be exact.

Wars between worlds, body snatchers, killing tomatoes, redneck zombies, killer klowns, et cetera, et cetera. These films and countless more incorporate eccentric plots, which are staples in the fantasy worlds of science fiction and horror. The crossover between science fiction and horror has become one of the most common hybrid genres in cinema. The intertwined genres are inherently misunderstood because of their over the top and extravagant plots, dialogue, characters, etc. These films are usually seen as a source of humor. However, these two genres are essentially eclectic.

In many modern films, they are in fact humorous, as well as invariably satirical, tongue-incheek, and overtly self-reflexive. B-list movies, along with mainstream, A-list sci-fi/horror films all encompass unusual and fantastical plots, which countless viewers are drawn to as an outlet for escape from the mundane reality of life.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark has been the most prominent spokeswoman of B-list movies for countless decades. She is notorious for her late-night television program, in which she hosts the screening of uncommon B-list movies. During commercials she makes witty gags,

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cringe-worthy yet comical puns, and a plethora of sexual innuendos. These colorful remarks are commonly found in the B-list genre.

Many of these underground films were created from anxieties and fear within society, which were due to the specific current events taking place. Fear of an atomic war and a post-apocalyptic world have played a key role in the inspiration of many films at specific times. Cultural, political, and social issues have ultimately led to various films about space and scary entities. Anxieties about a nuclear attack led to post-World War II movies like Night of the Living Dead. Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, played into the fears and anxieties of 1950s society. His plots and dialogues are metaphorical for the fears specifically relating to the Cold War, as well as various social issues. Horror and science fiction films have inherently mirrored the fears of real-life epochs.

Technology is ultimately a large factor in the creation of sci-fi/horror films. Seminal films such as George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon and the Lumière brothers’ Le Squelette Joyuex are considered two of the first science fiction and horror films. These impeccable short films were essentially limited due to the technologies of the time. With various essential technology advances, like CGI and the dolly cam, new films were able to be created with as

many realistic features as possible. From Metropolis (1927) to Dune (1984) to present day films, such as the Evil Dead remake (obviously not as good as the original), it’s easy to see the progression of film technology.

People often underestimate the power of clothing and how it can inform a social environment. Social norms, the rules by which our society maintains itself in social settings, dictate how we should dress in any given situation. Using dress to create contrast between the environment’s prevailing code of dress and the wearer, or social offender, can cause the viewer to feel uncomfortable. While taking these photos, I, the wearer, received multiple expressions of this sentiment from strangers in the environment. I invite you to take on the perspective of both the viewer and the wearer in viewing these photos.

There are varying inspirations for the creation and viewing of science fiction and horror films. Science fiction and horror films are not only perpetually entertaining, but they also present a commentary on society and reflect the technologies of the time.

What’s Your Favorite Scary Movie?

Dune, Return of the Living Dead, Eraserhead, The Spookies, Critters, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Evil Dead, Galaxy of Terror, Trip To The Moon, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Attack of the Killing Tomatoes, Troll 2, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Metropolis, Mars Attacks, The Green Slime, They Came From Beyond Space, Night of the Living Dead, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds, Creature From the Black Lagoon, Re-Animator, The Thing, E.T., Scanners, Night of the Creeps, Videodrome, Brainscan, The Lost Boys, Arachnophobia, Creature, Basket Case, The Stuff, C.H.U.D., Class of Nuke ‘Em High, Redneck Zombies, Surf Nazis Must Die

The Color Black

Hopefully after watching these films, they will give you, as Elvira says, “unpleasant dreams…” 

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[ ARTS & CULTURE ] Country Club Kid

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90s Vintage

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MOTERN MEDIA WRITTEN BY MATT NEWBERG IMAGES COURTESY OF MOTERN MEDIA

HH

umble Apology Songs For the World to Enjoy is a sprawling thirty-seven track masterpiece by The Sorry Apology Song Person. Standout tracks include: “I’m Sorry For Misbehaving and Being a Bad Person,” “I’m Sorry I Crashed Your Car,” “I’m Sorry I Stole Your Money,” and “I’m Sorry I Lost Your Dog.” The tone of the songs range from sincere remorse to indignant sarcasm and the musical styles are also all over the place but are generally in the Randy Newman/ Elton John/Billy Joel/early-Tom Waits man at a piano tradition. Few of the songs make it past the three-minute mark and many barely skim two minutes, resulting in a string of light and easily digestible potato chip music—bet you can’t have just one. And that really is the point because here’s the kicker: although there is only one Sorry Apology Song Person album, the man behind the music Matt Farley , a suburban dad who makes music out of his basement in Danvers, Massachusetts.

Farley has written by his own estimate at least 16,200 songs under approximately 70 different monikers, all of which are signed to one record label, Motern Media—which he also owns—and all of which are available for streaming on Spotify. Like the Sorry Apology

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Song Person, many of Farley’s other projects are based around a specific theme. The Toilet Bowl Cleaners, one of the more popular acts to come out of Motern Media, writes exclusively songs about poop, pee, and puke. The Singing Animal Lover writes songs about animals. Papa Razzi sings about celebrities.

There’s even the Boston Sports Band of New England whose sole album Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and the Media contains songs entitled “Tom Brady’s Back” and “Zdeno Chara is a Giant Hockey Playing Man.” So why would someone go through the trouble to do all this? Well, Matt Farley actually collects over $20,000 a year from Spotify from people streaming his songs. The key is that his songs contain terms and words that people might search for on Spotify: from curious fans looking for songs about specific celebrities to ten year olds searching for songs about poop and pee. All of this is designed so that as many people stream these songs as possible.

How else could you explain the existence of The Prom Song Singers whose entire discography is just “[insert first name here] will you go to prom with me?” Farley acknowledges this and even calls himself out on it in songs like “Matt Farley is a Musical Scammer Con Man,”

[ ARTS & CULTURE ] “Matt Farley is a Liar and a Thief and a Jerk,” and “Down with Motern Media.” This may seem like a lot to digest, and more importantly, how does any of it relate to this issue’s theme of space? Well, I caught up with Matt Farley (who is ridiculously easy to get in contact with: he not only lists his cell phone number on his website, but includes it in several of his songs and invites anyone to call him) spontaneously on a Monday evening, about an hour before the first draft of this article was due, and asked him the same question.

Matt Newberg: What Does Space Mean to You? Matt Farley: So this is a wide open question of space, whether it means outer space or space in general?

MN: Absolutely.

MF: Okay, well I guess I see space as something that needs to be filled.

MN: Describe your workspace.

MF: The space where I work—it’s the basement of my suburban house.

Keyboard, microphone, recording equipment. That’s about it. It’s really cozy, so yeah.

MN: You have a lot of songs. Do you know how many specifically?

MF: It’s more than 16,200.

MN: Do you feel like your music takes up a lot of space digitally?”

MF: Yeah, I want to keep Spotify on my good side because I don’t want them to ever have a meeting and say, “This one guy is clogging up...all our servers.” I like Spotify anyway. I think if no one was listening I’d feel worse about it but, you know, people are listening so it’s working.

MN: What about the space in your mind? Can you easily keep track of all 16,200 of your songs?

MF: I’m obsessed with making music so I’m pretty good at being able to identify all of my songs. I think about it constantly. My poor wife has to deal with, you know, anytime I start a conversation there’s a 75% chance it’s going to be about my music. It’s an obsession. It takes up a lot of space in my mind.

MN: And, finally, do you have any songs about space?

MF: I have a song called “The Moon is a Spaceship” so that works for outer space. And then for space in general I just did an album about office supplies, sort of describing the space where people work and the stuff that’s in that space.

MN: Cool, thanks Matt. 

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A

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(LESS THAN COMPREHENSIVE)

GUIDE

MUSIC

TO

SPACE ABOUT

WRITTEN BY MATT NEWBERG

ANGELS & AIRWAVES WEEZER In between their much-beloved self-titled debut album and their much-beloved second album Pinkerton, for over a year Weezer worked on what was supposed to be their second album: a space-themed rock opera titled Songs From the Black Hole. The album is unfinished and unreleased but is extremely easy to find online. The unfinished versions boasts over thirty tracks, many of which are definitely not completed. Amid the rubble, however, there are early demos of tracks that eventually made it onto Pinkerton including “Tired of Sex” and “Getchoo” as well as some gems that stand out on their own including “I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams,” which features Rachel Haden of that dog. on vocals. Ultimately Rivers Cuomo became depressed and found the space rock opera concept “too whimsical,” and abandoned it in favor of the darker, more emotional songwriting that turned into Pinkerton. Cuomo has since included several demos of songs from Songs from the Black Hole on various b-side compilations, stating that he has no plans to complete the album or release the unfinished demos because “it wouldn’t really stand up, like it wouldn’t be a very good listen.”

Cracked.com did this amazingly convincing piece about why Tom Delonge was probably abducted by aliens, and you should totally go read that because I feel bad for summarizing it here, but it’s such a ridiculous case that it should be known. Basically, the Blink-182 guitarist had written a few songs about his belief in aliens for Blink-182 including the bluntly titled “Aliens Exist.” Then he went missing for a year and no one knew where he went, and now his new band Angels & Airwaves play songs that are exclusively about space. All four Angels & Airwaves albums feature space on the cover. But there was no way I was going to sit through that much music. To generously quote Cracked, “Some of the song titles seem to document DeLonge’s Klaatu-esque journey (‘The Adventure’) to bring a message to the Earth (‘The Gift’) and save us from mutually assured destruction (‘The War,’ ‘Behold a Pale Horse’) before he is forced to eradicate us for the greater good of the universe with his robot friend Gort (‘Start the Machine’). Others reference the beginning of the space age (‘The Flight of Apollo’) and an otherworldly fascination with confoundingly specific celestial bodies (‘The Moon Atomic,’ ‘Moon as My Witness’). The bottom line is, Tom DeLonge is now all about space, and he wants you to know that shit.”

PIXIES In their later years (and by later years I mean 1991 through 1994, completely ignoring the awfulness that has been their recent output), Pixies frontman Black Francis became increasingly fascinated by UFO’s and outer space imagery. On Bossanova, we get “The Happening,” which opens with the line “They got a ranch they call / number fifty-one” – a thinly veiled reference to Area 51. Despite the fact that their fourth album Trompe le Monde returned to their earlier, more aggressive style, the songs Francis wrote still contained elements of space, especially in tracks “Planet of Sound” and “Space (I Believe In).” Both Black Francis’s solo material as well as the (ugh) new Pixies stuff pretty much abandons the whole space thing though, meaning that Francis’s obsession with UFO’s was more of a passing phase than Delonge’s.

PARLIAMENT / FUNKADELIC George Clinton was responsible for some of the funkiest must to come out of the seventies and much of it centered around the idea of afrofuturism. In an interview, Clinton had said, “I figured another place you wouldn’t think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang.”

This approach manifested itself most coherently on Parliament’s 1976 masterpiece Mothership Connection and most prominently in the album’s title track and the song “Unfunky UFO.” Although George Clinton may have pioneered this style, he was not the last to employ it, and we still see remnants of afrofuturism from Janelle Monae to Kid Cudi.

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DAVID BOWIE David Bowie was another big name in the seventies for music about space.

Despite the fact that much of his discography has little to do with outer space at all, many of Bowie’s most popular tracks are space themed including “Life on Mars?” “Space Oddity,” and “Rocketman.” And of course, The Rise and Fall Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars has a motherload of outer-space imagery. Bowie’s image is largely characterized by his affinity for the great beyond. This is parodied by Flight of the Conchords in their song “Bowie,” which has Bowie literally floating in space communicating with another David Bowie over a radio, asking each other questions like “Do you have one really funky sequined space suit Bowie/ Or do you have several Ch-changes?”

UFOS & ALBUM COVERS This one isn’t a band but I want to address it because it doesn’t make sense to me. Why are there so many classic rock album covers with UFOs on them? Multiple albums by Boston, ELO, ZZ Top, and even Hall and Oates depict these gargantuan spacecraft on the covers for seemingly no reason at all. Unlike the bands I mentioned above, little of these bands’ output has anything to do with space or space travel or UFOs or anything at all.

Even seventies cock-rock revival band The Darkness pays homage to this inscrutable classic rock tradition by titling their debut album Permission to Land and putting a big old spaceship on the cover. I have tried to do a little research to explain the origin of this trend, but nothing comes up. 

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time with the WRITTEN BY SOFIA DOBNER-PEREIRA PHOTOGRAPY BY SOFIA DOBNER-PEREIRA

Broad Meadow Brook

trees

Massasoit Road This is the largest urban wildlife sanctuary in New England. The Audubon Society of Massachusetts maintains it cooperatively. With more than 400 acres of land, it has everything from open fields to woodlands and marshes.

Throughout the area there are signs to help you identify the various wildlife and plant species. Plus, there are 7 miles of well-marked hiking trails.

Cities are great, but sometimes we all need a break from the seemingly endless concrete and activity. Fortunately, we live in a city that is filled with little spaces to escape. Worcester is home to many fantastic parks and conservation areas. I hope this brief guide will help you find a few new places to hang out with Mother Nature.

Coes Pond Park Ave to Mill Street

Cascades Green Hill Trail System Park

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Olean Street

Belmont Street to Skyline Drive

Maintained by the Greater Worcester Land Trust this is a group of five parks: Boynton Park, Cascades West, Cascades, Cascades East, and Cascading Waters. All together it encompasses over 300 acres and expands into Holden and Paxton. You can find waterfalls, ponds, and huge boulders throughout this land.

Built on land given to the city in 1903 this is one of the parks older cities. It is also the biggest, covering over 480 acres of land. It is home to a skate park, playground, golf course, zoo, two ponds, and the Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

I have to admit I wouldn’t normally include this park on a list of this nature, yet it must be done because of its proximity to Clark. It is less than a mile from campus and includes part of the Major Taylor Bike Trail. Plus it has a tiny beach area. If you don’t have access to a car this is the place for you.

Honorable Mentions Crow Hill, Elm Park, Perkins Farm, Bovenzi Park, Kettle Brook Conservation Area

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[ WORCESTER ]

[ WORCESTER ]

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAURA MATTHEW AND SOFIA DOBNER-PEREIRA

Urban Decay PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAURA MATTHEW, SOFIA DOBNER-PEREIRA & PAUL PUIIA

Worcester is home to many forgotten spaces. Scattered throughout the city, abandoned buildings contain an element of mystery as well as beauty.

They are filled with stories that silently remind us of what was. These images explore this concept through three sets of eyes. Ultimately they serve as a reminder that Worcester is a city that is constantly living and evolving, even when parts of it are dying.

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[ WORCESTER ]

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[ WORCESTER ]

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[ WORCESTER ]

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[ WORCESTER ]

[ WORCESTER ]

MAIN SOUTH: WRITTEN BY ANDREA BOFFICE

C

lark advertises to its students that Worcester and Main South are dangerous places. That’s why we have the Escort van service (although I would argue students use it more often because they’re cold then because they’re unsafe). I hear people swapping horror stories of Worcester at night. It’s true that there is crime in Worcester, and there are spaces in it that are safer than others, but Worcester’s reputation might be worse than its record. Worcester may be an unsafe city, but it’s not that different than other cities.

Main South, while improving, is still considered to be one of the more dangerous areas of Worcester. Worcester police data shows that there is a cluster of drug-related crimes in Main South, and most calls to police regarding prostitution also occur around Chandler Street in Main South. And unfortunately for Worcester residents, violent crimes are starting to disproportionately affect youth.

Before I scare you into staying into your dorm, know that Worcester is not more dangerous than other cities around it. Worcester is in Neighborhood Scout’s “100 Most Dangerous Cities in the U.S.,” but it made the list at number 91. To put this in perspective, Worcester is safer than either Miami or Washington, DC. If the crime rate in Worcester is relatively normal for a city, I wonder why Main South gets such a bad rap around Clark’s campus.

SAFE OR SCARY?

cities in general. When asking students whether they feel safe in Main South, their answers usually depended not only on the student’s exposure to Main South, but their previous experience with city life. When I interviewed two students, one from Main South and the other Queens, NY, both stated that Worcester felt reasonably safe. On the other hand, as someone who grew up in a suburb of New Jersey, when I first came to Clark I thought that Worcester was the most dangerous city I had ever seen. However, the first time I actually witnessed a violent crime was a year after I started college, in the city New Brunswick, New Jersey, only 10 minutes from my home.

Even if Worcester is like a “normal” city, I still wouldn’t recommend that students risk having a false sense of security. As my mother would say, you can never be too careful. But Main South also has many exciting places to offer Clark students. My main goal when it comes to Main South is to be safe, but also not to let it intimidate me into staying within Clark’s gates. One student from suburban Connecticut, Alexandra Gray, gave her opinion on Main South for those who also aren’t from cities: “While most of us have not been a victim of a crime, the streets of Main South can still be uncomfortable to us. Even if we are technically safe, it is still important to feel safe. The main reason I feel unsafe is the catcalling, whistling, and men yelling extensively

from the street or cars almost every time I walk on to Main Street. It’s horrible that people will do that to girls, but I would recommend to new students not to be discouraged from Worcester because of it. Not all residents are like that, and there are a lot of great parts of Worcester.” This isn’t to say that verbal harassment should not be taken seriously—it should. But if students let catcalling prevent them from going out, it would heavily restrict the spaces we could explore.

The main lesson to take away is that Worcester is dangerous and scary at times, but if you keep your head on you will be just fine. In Worcester there is a 1 in 100 chance of being victim of a violent crime. Most crimes are related to thievery. So use common sense that us suburbiates aren’t used to. When I asked people who lived in cities about staying safe, the general rule was don’t go out alone at night. I knew I was going to be safe in Worcester, my biggest problem was not feeling safe.

Main South became my new home, and it was heartbreaking to be intimidated by it. But the more I explored Main South the more comfortable I became with it, and I learned what parts to avoid altogether. Taking self-defense classes, even though I have never once needed them, made me feel more comfortable walking in some of the not-so-nice parts of Worcester.

As long as you don’t do anything stupid or reckless, there is no reason why you shouldn’t feel comfortable in your own home. 

Our reservations about Main South may be attributed to the fact that Clark’s campus is beautiful and well kept, and the comparison between campus and the area surrounding us is stark. Also, most of Clark’s non-international student body comes from New England suburbs, which are statistically safer than

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[ FEATURES | CONSENT ]

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[ CONSENT | FEATURES ]

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[ FEATURES | CONSENT ]

FEATURE: CONSENT WRITTEN BY LAURA MATTHEW

Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz has been carrying her mattress across campus, and will continue to do so until her rapist is expelled from the university. Jennifer Lawrence, among many other celebrities, had nude photographs of herself leaked after a hacker broke in to her iCloud account. In Ferguson, Missouri, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer while walking down the street with a friend—and both boys were unarmed at the time. In the past month, at the time of this article, a YouTube video featuring a woman being catcalled over 100 times as she walks through New York City went viral. What do these incidents have in common? Other than being some of the most talked-about topics in the recent news media, each of these incidents depicts in some way a violation of consent.

In this semester’s issue of STIR Magazine, we have been working with the theme of space, thinking broadly about the many different ways that space can be interpreted. One such interpretation is physical or personal space— in other words, the space that an individual can occupy or take up, or the space that someone feels they have ownership of. Though it is not visible, everyone has a sort of bubble of space surrounding their physical being that they feel belongs to them. Before someone or something else enters this space, consent should be granted. If someone or something

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enters this space without consent, the results can range from annoyance to fear to trauma to even dehumanization.

What is consent? Webster’s dictionary defines consent as “permission for something to happen or be done.” While this definition is generally understood by all, there tends to be much confusion that arises when it comes to the details and semantics of consent. Who gives consent? What does consent entail in the situation? When should consent be given?

Does it always have to be verbal? Can consent be taken away?

In a perfect world, consent would only be given by sober adults, entailing only what each individual desires, given verbally and enthusiastically before and during whatever they may be consenting to, and could be retracted at any time. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world, and we are not perfect individuals. However, I believe that for the sake of ourselves and our fellow humans, we should strive to view consent this way—something valuable and even sacred, something that should always be upheld to the best of our abilities.

Consent is arguably a fundamental human right, yet it is something incredibly intangible and often hard to truly define. It is advocated for, dissected, celebrated and condemned

by countless voices from every generation through every sort of outlet. Especially recently, it is a topic that has been on the minds and tongues of many individuals, given the various news stories that have been and are currently unfolding that involve consent in some way. To me—as a college student and emerging adult—I see the current dialogue about consent as one that reflects great societal change: a transition into a new era of social justice, human rights and equality.

Obviously we still have a very long way to go, with leaps and bounds still needed to get there. But the fact that this conversation is occurring seems indicative that change is on the rise.

The following articles in this section provide a glimpse of this conversation about consent—with articles ranging from a discussion of rape culture on college campuses to a reflection on racially-driven police brutality to an interview with an individual who had been living in solitary confinement (with a look at what life is like without the ability to give consent). These articles represent a collection of student voices—our interpretations of what consent means to us as young adults, as well as what consent means in our larger society.

It is only a glimpse, but each of these articles provide a viewpoint about consent grounded in our current reality, influenced by our current changing world. Read on, and join this dialogue, as it is only just beginning… 

[ CONSENT | FEATURES ]

RAPE CULTURE

&THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE WRITTEN BY AUDREY DOLAN

E

verywhere you go on a college campus, you are surrounded by people.

Your best friends, acquaintances in your dorm, classmates and many others you still have yet to meet.

It’s hard to imagine that one of these people could potentially assault you. But statistically, it’s possible. One in five women will be sexually assaulted on college campuses. It’s a staggering statistic that has recently come to permeate our minds as we are made more aware of the rampant sexual assault problem our country faces. What is even worse is that so many people have not only been subjected to such an act, but are also forced to remain in the same environment as their attacker.

Imagine going to the gym, the dining hall or a class and being confronted with the person who assaulted you. This is the reality for all too many. In the wake of the increased spike in campus assault, students around the country are coming together to take a stand.

It has become clear that we are living in a world where we have to teach young people not to rape. What seems like such an outrageous thing to have to explicitly explain to someone is apparently becoming a necessary life lesson. It shouldn’t be like this, and yet that’s the case. Because of the shift that our society has taken, we have started telling young girls how to act to avoid sexual assault and only afterwards telling their male counterparts not to assault in the first place.

I don’t think that this spike in rape on college

campuses is a random occurrence. As technology advances, we seem to regress. More than ever before we can do things “anonymously,” seemingly without a face to it. We can hide behind our technology and not be forced to do everything personally. Because of this, we have started to dehumanize each other. It’s so much easier to hurt someone if you do not see them for who they are. It’s too easy to be surrounded by people and yet not know anyone. There is no longer the push to understand the people around us, whether it be deeply or even superficially. We have come to crave instant gratification regardless of the consequences that follow.

Alcohol plays into so much of this. It is the “normal” for young college students to spend their weekends drunk off their asses, seeking attention and exploring the adult world. But we are all doing adult things while still possessing the minds of children. We can rationally understand that sexual violence is awful and unacceptable, yet our ways of thinking change in the moment when hormones, alcohol, and bad decisions dangerously collide.

The places where these components are most prevalent on college campuses are fraternity and sorority houses. According to an investigation by BBC America, girls are statistically three times as likely to be sexually assaulted at a school where fraternities are popular and are seen as highly important among the student body. In another article published by

The Guardian, they found that men who join fraternities are three times more likely to rape as well as the fact that women in sororities are 74% more likely to experience rape than other college women. Though many proponents of these long-running institutions would like to refute that they are not a problem, the information doesn’t appear to lie. Fraternities are built upon exclusivity and borderline by dehumanizing in order to be accepted. Boys are knocked down and built back up with a sense of entitlement and invincibility. Unfortunately, those traits are not that hard to instill in these young men as they are also characteristics normally found in emerging adults. Combine these feelings with access to party houses, young women and alcohol and bad things start to happen. But this should not be. No young woman should go into college walking on eggshells around the men she sees every day. She should not feel restricted in who she should be or where she should go because of the fear that something might happen to her. Unfortunately, that fear is being instilled in many women.

There are many schools under investigation for mishandling of sexual assault, some which have occurred in fraternities and some which have not. Well known colleges such as Yale, Georgia Tech, Harvard, UConn, Berkeley, UNC and countless more have been under fire for incidents that have either made the media or are part of a larger problem of campus sexual violence. There are currently 85 colleges across the country that are under

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[ FEATURES | CONSENT ]

[ CONSENT | FEATURES ] understand that their experience is just as serious as those who have been raped.

federal investigation for how they’ve handled these cases. 85 schools means thousands of students whose voices are not being heard or taken seriously on such a serious issue.

Two of the most notable investigations at the moment are taking place at Columbia University and Florida State University. At Columbia, the issue of mishandled sexual assault cases has been brought to light by a brave senior named Emma Sulkowicz who has undertaken the project of carrying around the dorm mattress that she was raped on. Her story is just one of many affected at Columbia. The school currently has a 23 person lawsuit against them stating that Columbia has not correctly handled sexual assault cases under Title IX compliance. Title IX was established in 1972 by the federal government to assure equal opportunities for women in athletics programs funded by the government. Since then, it has come to span other gender-related issues that affect federal institutions. At just this school alone, there are 23 people who have all experienced unwanted sexual encounters and are now painfully struggling to gain the justice they deserve. However something positive has come from this. In the wake of her one decision to carry her mattress, she has sparked a movement. Schools across the country have chosen to stand in solidarity with her by also carrying mattresses and pillows to bring awareness to this epidemic.

At Florida State University, star quarterback Jameis Winston is finally being investigated for rape after a claim was made 2 years ago but ignored by both school and county police until now. According to CNN, Winston sexually assaulted a woman in a bar close to campus in 2012. She reported the incident the next morning, and shortly after named her attacker as Jameis Winston. Since then, she has only been met with many roadblocks from the university and county police who are making efforts to unfairly protect Winston, not the victim. She was been accused of lying and trying to “defame” him and has since left Florida State University because of harassment and failure to have a fair and or-

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ganized hearing. Currently, Winston’s legal team has made it their mission to publicly release her name as a scare tactic to force her to back down. In too many ways, this case has been shockingly mishandled. Just like too many others, this incident violated Title IX, and no one was held accountable until recently.

A

s previously mentioned, such a major part of this issue is how Title IX is supposed to protect students against unfair treatment in cases of sexual misconduct. A site called knowyourix.org aims to get people educated on what this act does and how it can be used to protect them from these injustices. In relation to sexual misconduct, Title IX mandates that schools take seriously all allegations, that there cannot be any discrimination against victims, that victims have the right to a safe environment, and that the school cannot retaliate against complainants. It is clear that just the mentioned standards have undoubtedly not been upheld by most schools, especially those under federal investigation. These regulations are there for a reason. Those in power positions need to start following this important act, as students have become increasingly more in danger on campus, and have been equally ignored.

According to an article published just last week by Time Magazine, MIT did a survey regarding sexual violence on campus and found that an overwhelming percentage of people are not sure what behaviors are constituted as sexual violence and sexual assault. Not knowing how to classify certain inappropriate or unwanted actions is a significant reason why there is such a discrepancy between the incidents that are reports and the incidents that actually occur. Many people are making a push to use words like ‘sexual violence’ or ‘sexual misconduct’ to broaden awareness. Most believe if a victim was not raped, it doesn’t matter or count. Any sexual behavior that is unwanted is not acceptable.

Unfortunately, most do not know this. By using more inclusive language, more people can understand what they have been through and

Last month the Huffington Post reported that only about one third of sexual assault cases lead to expulsion of the attacker. How does that seem right or fair? This forces victims to be constantly confronted with what happened and by the person who committed the crime. It seems more common that those attacked leave school due to consequences of sexual assault, rather than the attacker leaving due to sexual misconduct. Most often this is because incidents are kept within the walls on the institution, not being handled by outside authorities. By allowing universities to independently handle these cases, they have all the power to quietly deal with allegations improperly until they go away, one way or another.

In reaction to all of this, President Obama created the It’s On Us campaign and the Not Alone initiative. Both of these bring awareness to the epidemic that is at hand and provides resources for all. It’s On Us showcases celebrities taking a stand against the injustice that has been occurring and motivates people to become allies for each other. The campaign’s site gives people ways of taking back sexual rights, identifying what is considered inappropriate sexual behavior, how to intervene in an unsafe situation and resources for those dealing with sexual violence. This site then leads people to other sources of help and groups that also pledge to be a part of the solution of this growing problem. Not Alone is one of these partners that provides information on how to receive medical and mental help, how to aid others, how to file a complaint with your school as well as other organizations and hotlines to assist those in suffering. When redirected to data.gov, there are 127 databases dealing with sexual assault.

That’s 127 possible places to find refuge and understanding after experiencing something so difficult and life-changing. These are just a few resources that have recently been established by our government, but there are countless more that also have the mission of helping those dealing with sexual violence, on and off college campuses.

It’s not enough to just know what is happening at other schools or with our government.

As a part of a close college community, we should be aware of what Clark is doing to keep us safe by preventing this from happening, as well as how it is dealt with when it does.

Whether or not we would like to admit it, Clark is not immune to this issue. Through interviews with Professor Kathleen Palm Reed and Dean of Students Denise Darrigrand, I found volumes of information on how Clark addresses sexual violence on campus. Professor Palm-Reed is a co-founder of CAVE, Clark Anti-Violence Education, which was started in 2009 to help prevent sexual violence through bystander training and aid awareness. With funding from the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, CAVE not only works to change people, but also ideas.

It’s important to give students and staff the tools to handle these types of situations, but attitudes and ideas must also be shaped. It’s not enough to provide resources but to also provide a way to shift the culture that is perpetuating the violence.

CAVE has sponsored so many initiatives to make these goals possible. Many things that are done are in compliance with the Obama Task Force, which is creating federal regulations about bystander training and sexual violence policies on campuses around the country. An incredible statistic is that when the program started just 6 years ago, 0% of those who had reported sexual violence on campus were seeking help for it. Now, through better counseling services and more connections to outside resources, 33% of those affected report seeking some form of help. That is something that Clark should be immensely proud of. They also have partnerships with Choices, Daybreak and Pathways for Change and other organizations that create different connections beyond the Clark community to seek private help.

New training and new school boards have also helped to better address this issue. Now all University Police is trained, as well as new faculty and all Resident Advisors on how to deal with sexual violence. By making more authority figures better informed, they are

better equipped to prevent occurrences and help when it does. There are also new conduct boards that handle policy making and hearings about sexual misconduct. A major change is that no students can serve on conduct boards, which allows for minimal conflict of interest and maximum safety and confidentiality of students facing sexual violence. All of CAVE’s goals are ultimately designed to protect students and create advocacy and alliances in the face of this growing issue.

Speaking with Dean Darrigrand was just as informative. As a Dean of Students, she deals with helping with prevention, but mainly reporting and handling misconduct in the aftermath. As previously mentioned, a new conduct board separate from the University Judicial Board was created to allow for more student confidentiality. The board works to handle allegations of sexual misconduct and works to make the victim was comfortable as possible, whether that be moving residence halls or classes, taking time off from school, or taking issues to campus and city police. Another important change made in 2011 was having a Title IX officer and appointing members of the Board of Trustees and Student Affairs as “deputees” who have immense knowledge on who to talk to and how to handle cases of sexual misconduct. An important goal with these changes is to handle allegations better, as well as make people feel that they can speak up about sexual misconduct. Dean Darrigrand expressed, “I hope that people will be more comfortable coming forward and now that they are cared for here. I give people who do come forward so much credit.” It is by no means easy and even in such an open and accepting community, it can still be incredibly hard to say something. As noted by Dean Darrigrand and many others, there is still a stigmatization that exists about victims of all kinds of sexual misconduct. Through all these programs, initiatives and boards, the goal is to change these ideas on Clark’s campus. Once again, though we are not immune, by trying to foster a community with the ideas of mutual respect and kindness, we can all work together to minimize the occurrence of sexual misconduct.

What is extremely reassuring and has been expressed by Professor Palm Reed, Dean Darrigrand and President Angel himself is that our president is making this issue his number one priority. In Dean Darrigrand’s own words, “President Angel has this at the forefront of his agenda and absolutely does not hide from the issue.” In a statement released directly from the president, he is adamant about “…assistance in strengthening efforts to prevent sexual assault on our campus and to better support members of our community who are victims of such crimes. Work is underway to expand primary prevention, awareness, and training programming for faculty, staff, and students.” Along with this, President Angel outlined the different ways Clark is already attacking this issue such as with CAVE, our Title IX officer Jacqueline Capomacchio, changes to the student handbook regarding sexual misconduct and administrators that can be sought out if a case of sexual misconduct arises. While sexual assault is relatively low here at Clark, it is important to know that it is a main priority of the administration and that many people are working hard to have been prevention and methods of handling sexual misconduct when it does occur.

There is an overwhelming amount of information here. If nothing else, please realize that you do have a voice and you can make a difference. Like with so many other causes, it only takes a few to make a big change.

If we all take a stand together, we have the power to generate change and set an example for so many. Do whatever you can to be a part of the solution. Take a pledge to end sexual assault. Be aware of fellow students in seemingly dangerous situations.

Do not perpetuate these societal norms. No individual deserves this pain. We prepare our whole lives to come to college, to make new friends, to find a path that we’re passionate about. These dreams should not be derailed due to an incident of sexual violation. We all deserve the dignity and respect of living free from fear and harm while on campus. The time is now to say that enough is enough.

It’s on us to make the difference. 

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[ FEATURES | CONSENT ]

[ CONSENT | FEATURES ]

#ContinueTheConversation WRITTEN BY ELYSE WAKSMAN PHOTOS COURTESY OF CLARK UNIVERSITY COUNSELING & WELLNESS CENTER

D

uring Week One this year, all incoming students took part in a new program called Consenting Communities. Last year, Sarah Dys and Sarah Philbrick, two students active in Choices—a sexual health and education organization on campus—envisioned an orientation session that would encompass both sex education and consent, as the two go hand-in-hand. They approached Timothy St. John, Director of Student Leadership & Programming, with their ideas and he supported them in putting consent into Week One programming. When Maddy Friga, an orientation coordinator, heard about this session, she was quick to jump on board. During the process, the sex ed program morphed into a session focused on consent and healthy relationships, which would still give participants the tools they need to talk about sex.

Peer advisors and other students interested in the issues surrounding consent volunteered to lead the program, each pair of volunteers facilitating a discussion for about 30 new students. As one of the facilitators, I think that the majority of students received it fairly well. Everyone in my group participated and contributed in some way. Towards the end of the session, we read aloud two testimonials of real students’ experiences with consent and the surrounding issues. They were tough to get through, but I didn’t expect to see students whispering, laughing, and walking out of the room. While that was disheartening, most people were responsive and respectful, some even thanking my co-facilitator and me at the end.

Because of the overall positive response to the program, Dean Denise Darrigrand approached

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the team to see if there would be any way to continue the conversation on campus.

Erin Dolan of the Counseling and Wellness Center and senior Imogene Winkleman both got on board. These powerful women have

been working to address the difficult issue of raising awareness of consent throughout the Clark community. The team’s two ultimate goals are to create a sustainable program and to make their messages ubiquitous. “This is

what’s going to make a healthier community,” reports Sarah Philbrick. However, both goals pose their own challenges.

Unfortunately, all four students in this group are seniors, making the sustainability goal quite pressing. They need to recruit more students to carry on their legacy after this year. The other challenge is that, in order to spread healthy, positive, and safe messages about consent and relationships, this group must somehow incorporate people from all different nooks of Clark’s vast community.

In Week One, it was simpler to address a wide variety of students, because all the new students were required to attend. But now it’s much more challenging. Of course, there are students who are interested in the topic like those who facilitated Consenting Communities, students who attend TOPICS meetings, and members of CHOICES, to name a few.

But generally these individuals are already educated on the issues and involved in some way. The challenge is to reach people who have little to no prior interest or knowledge on these issues in order to create a safer, healthier environment for all.

One tactic is to collaborate with other on-campus presences, such as athletics, International Student Association (ISA), OPEN, and Clark Anti-Violence Education (CAVE).

On CAVE, Erin Dolan says, “We look to them for guidance and approval and collaboration.”

As the team of active participants grows, they will have an exponentially greater reach within the Clark community. This is an issue that affects everyone. As such, they aim to frame conversations in such a way that everyone has a stake in it. There may even be some incentives for attending events later on, but this begs the question of whether those students would truly be engaged.

While they’re still working out the kinks, the #continuetheconversation team has a few ideas up their sleeves. For instance, a poster campaign is underway, with a gallery opening in January. These posters will feature Clarkies in different situations that pertain to consent,

with taglines like “Consent is” and “Consent is not.” These images will represent a variety of aspects of relationships to broaden and clarify our community’s view of consent and healthy relationships. They want this campaign, along with all other future projects, to be as attainable, inclusive, and positive as possible.

Raising awareness of consent is not an easy task, but this strong team is up for the challenge. With the end goals of universalizing healthy, positive messages and carrying on this campaign for years to come, these women are determined to #continuetheconversation. 

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[ FEATURES | CONSENT ]

[ CONSENT | FEATURES ]

E C I L O P E H T FUCK LOVE THE

PEOPLE

WRITTEN BY SKYE WINGO PHOTOGRAPHY BY KATHERINE LANDESMAN

This article is accompanied by a series of songs that exhance an understanding of the text. A playlist of this music can be found here: http://bit.ly/1tqugPQ

PLAY “HIS PAIN” — BJ THE CHICAGO KID “Remember. When a cop comes up to you, you keep your hands on the wheel. You don’t ever move them from that steering wheel. You greet him. Call him sir; I don’t care if you are not in the wrong, I’m not losing you over a cop that lost his cool from his so called authority. When he asks for your information, you tell him that it is in the glove compartment and that you are reaching for it. Do it slowly...”

“Mom. I know. I guess I should hide the weed as well?”

“SKYE!” “I know, I know. Keep it in the tin can, in the trunk. Can I drive now?”

“You know that I do this because I care.”

it as a statistic—a statistic in that one day I will die from this.

From a cop. From a gang. From someone “accidentally” shooting me because I stepped on their new tulips...

PLAY “TOUCH THE SKY” — KANYE WEST, LUPE FIASCO I’m the picture you see on MSNBC, with text underneath debating if the reason I was shot was justified. I’m fighting for my and others’ privilege to the American Dream, when it’s truly not yet equal for all peoples of America. Most importantly, I’m a black male, and that has power. I’m a part of a movement that has provided an immense amount of change in America and how it works today. In my opinion, this has worked well for black culture in that it expresses itself. Music, writing, dance—black culture left a mark on the American lifestyle while still speaking to the horrors of inequality. Looking back to the Harlem Renaissance, we used art to visually convey the difference between the average American and the black American. Jazz took the city by storm, and later the country would get a sense of a black lifestyle through visual cues. Dance, music, and spoken word was able to play right in the homes of the American people. And best of all, if you lived near a diverse neighborhood in the city, you could go to a club or a jazz concert and participate in the black experience. Today, black art still remains a dominant visual cue in America’s history. Hip hop is bigger than ever, influencing many different musical genres, dance, writings, and other pieces of art. And today is far from what it used to be. Want an example? Tell me how many of your friends openly know the lyrics to “Hot Nigga” by Bobby Shmurda, (he performed on The Tonight Show for Yeezus’s sake!). And yeah, a black president, but c’mon, we can’t keep using that excuse anymore. Why? Because WE, the American people, can make more of a difference.

PLAY “MARIA” — RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

“Yeah, I know. Hey, could you hand me that aux cord, please?” ….....................................................I don’t know why.......................................................

PLAY “M.A.A.D CITY” — KENDRICK LAMAR I was 15, getting into my mom’s car to practice driving for my permit in Cleveland, Ohio.

This conversation was the first thing I heard getting in the car that day, but it wasn’t the first time that I heard it. I’ve been told about the danger of the police. For me, the fact that I might get shot over a pack of skittles is a possible inevitability. I could have already been shot and not be around to write this if I was in the “wrong place at the wrong time.” I see

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Police violence exists because we allow the police to fear us from the propaganda that surrounds us as African Americans. Humans judge people at first glance every day of their lives, we are made with this skill. If a kid sees constant pictures or videos of black violence on the news and are not taught that’s not us, they will assume that all Blacks act like that. Now have someone who grew up like that being given a gun and told to protect and serve? It’s that scary. We have laws like the ‘Stop-Question-and Frisk pro-

gram’ in the NYPD to prove how afraid they are of minority violence. When law enforcement thinks that every black individual has a vendetta against them, law enforcement will connotate danger with ‘black.’ Yet, when it seems like black culture is getting picked off one by one by what is supposed to be our protector, it isn’t surprising to see a rebel by us.

Ever since I was young I remember that I’m either not supposed to like the police, or not supposed to trust them. Not just being told this in person, but through black media, hip hop, ghetto stereotypes, and anything that could be an event that happens within the urban community. It’s a racial homeschooling that is taught by family members and friends.

It helps you feel safe. It helps you feel apart of something.

Fuck the police isn’t just a statement, it’s a comfort.

PLAY “LICK SHOTS” — IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE, CROOKED I, CHINO XL It’s this idea that makes me wonder: is what we see in media labeled “gang violence” a culprit of police brutality? When we have neighborhoods that are labeled as “ghettos,” filled with minorities that could be stereotypically taken advantaged of by the justice system, and a motto to go against the police, it’s no surprise that groups would form to act violently against the system.

To step back a bit, it may be interesting to try and see the influence, from a political view, of both gangs and artists.

For an example, lets look at the word Nigga. A word that is said to be used by one culture and banned by another. It’s how we as minorities that have been used or punished by the system can use this word to easily separate ourselves from those who have not. (Of course there are many other interpretations of the meaning of a Nigga, but I’m going to focus on this personal definition). Is an artist, who has not been given the same opportunities that they should be given as an American, a Nigga? How about a gang member who uses the visual appeal of a gun to show how they are the alpha male of justice? They both have been used by the system, but one feels right to call a Nigga, while the other seems a bit insensitive, does it not? The truth is, the word Nigga—made for those who have had their American freedom and rights taken away—has actually now been taken away from us. The

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PLAY “NEVER CATCH ME” — FLYING LOTUS AND KENDRICK LAMAR *NOTE: WATCH THE VIDEO, THEN READ ON.*

word now correlates to the nastiness of black culture, while also doubling as the mascot of fighting against ignorance.

The violence that comes from black culture is now considered animalistic.

Our shots against the police are now summed up in one word, and we are put into a stalemate. If I don’t use the word, it still exists as a label towards how black culture is supposed to act. And if I do say Nigga, then I am embodying all of the violence that the public has come to expect from the sharp history Nigga holds.

Bottom line? People are dying from a misuse of a human intimidation technique, and the ironic and scary part about this is that it’s coming from our justice system.

The stories are sad, the stories are real, and there are new stories being made as we speak. We, as American people, need to look back on these stories and see the trend of these people who are no longer with us.

Because, the truth of the matter is that each of these people who have been shot down take their future with them. Just to name a few stories... Ramarley Graham, 18, New York; Reynaldo Cuevas, 20, New York; Ezell Ford, 25, Los Angeles; Eric Garner, 43, New York; Oscar Grant, 22, Oakland; Timothy Russell, 33; Malissa Williams, 30; Manuel Angel, 25; Michael Brown, 18; ...and finally Joseph Howard, Victor Davida, and Cristino Vernandes—Worcester, Massachusetts.

PLAY “GLAM” — CHUCK INGLISH, CHANCE THE RAPPER, MACIE STEWART” We’re stuck between violence we see from the police, who are reacting in fear, and a fear of the police from this word— and this fear is what is killing us. Take the recent events from Cleveland, Ohio, where a twelve-year-old boy named Tamir Rice was shot and killed. The officer (who’s name has not been revealed at the time of this article, so we’ll refer to him as Dumbass) saw the boy pick up what looked like a gun and place it in his waistband. This “gun” was actually a “airsoft-type” gun, and when Dumbass ordered the boy to put his hands in the air, the boy reached for his airsoft gun, and the officer fired twice at the boy. I’m from Cleveland, and this happened five minutes away from my house. Five minutes from where I grew up. Five minutes from where my mom and dad yelled at me to not use my neighbors water gun because it looked “too real.”

This unfortunate incident needs to be talked about, because it is an obvious example of a police officer reacting to the fear he has become accustomed to.

He feared for his life from this twelve year old boy, Tamier Rice, and shot him.

Tamier Rice feared for his life, and pointed a toy gun at the officer. Our fear controls us, and pushes us to react

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to events without thinking. If the boy wasn’t black would the police officer shoot him? If the officer was just a regular guy, would the kid point a gun at him? However you answer those questions, remind yourself of who has the position of power—the position of our protector, not our executioner.

God Loves All My Niggas.

Imagine, a culture filled with Niggas. Funny right? For a short second, you feel as if you are a part of a larger group of people who are all acting to fight against the same thing. And though I’m not keen on using violence to solve a problem that is killing a culture, fighting can also project the heroic. In a world where racism will always exist because of our human condition to stereotype others for our safety, it is necessary to have a hero who will fight against those who stereotype selfishly. It is selfish to take someone’s life on the assumption that just because one person looks like someone who would act violently, that every single other person that identifies in that group will want to harm them.

Some of us just want to dance and celebrate our differences, and share that creative experience with the public. We do not want to dance amongst caskets of our fallen brothers and sisters.

These people carry stories with them. What they were doing during the incident. If they were breaking the law. If they were wrongfully accused… why kill them? Like an animal who was let loose to be hunted for sport. Or a pet that you care for dearly that now needs to be put down because they bit another dog and the owner is suing. The animalistic view of black culture carries the same empathy as a view of household pets. And though I know that not everyone may see me as a cute little puppy with dreads and dark fur, the scary thought is that there are people who do. Racism still exists, and those who know this are helping cure America of this awful disease of ignorance. Because you see, being a part of the majority means that you have power. White culture can see the struggle that black and minority cultures are trying to promote with the sacrifices of those who call themselves Niggas for the sake of being a statement of their lack of freedom. Those who identify with the majority have an equal opportunity to help out minorities who are facing injustice. And those who identify with the minority have a chance to teach, mix, and create a diverse culture with the majority. The violence will never stop until we rid ourselves of minority and majority. As people self-identify with their own race, they are doing so to keep their part of culture alive—to keep it from becoming extinct, and keeping human interaction intact. You see, we all want our culture to survive. We want to teach our culture, and expand our culture to have it gain a wider audience. It’s one of the few things that makes us equal. Interacting as a human race is where we will see police brutality fall, and where we will see judicial equality, before they shoot you down and You’re Dead!

Fuck the police. Love the people, nigga.

PLAY “MOBIUS STREAK” —HIATUS KAIYOTE

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y memSouth communit n ai M d an ts en der of Clark stud ilson for the mur November 25th, W y, n da re es ar D Tu ct d di an e in ember 24th it known that th decision to not e ’s ad ry m Ju e w nd , On Monday, Nov ra ts G an e th n riety of ch street to protest ching down Mai Matter” and a va ar s m ve s, Li et ck bers took to the re la st e “B th space in With signs saying t police brutality. on. By taking up si ns ci ai de ag Michael Brown. is ts th es h ot it pr w d States in as NOT happy rest of the Unite e general public w th ed in jo e w king traffic, Street, and bloc ESMAN KATHERINE LAND RAPHY BY

MAN // PHOTOG

THERINE LANDES WRITTEN BY KA

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PE TER MARTEL WRITTEN BY KATE SUMMERS

A seven by ten foot cell. A stainless steel fixture with a sink and toilet. A one by one foot concrete block that comes out of the wall.

A concrete slab that runs across the length of the cell with a foam mattress on it. This is where Peter Martel lived for 10 years during his time in administrative segregation (solitary confinement), for an attempted prison escape.

Martel, a white male, is from Dryden, MI and now resides in Flint. He entered into the Department of Correction due to armed robbery charges in 1994. He was just turning 20. He was in prison for 14 years and during his time he was in over eight different facilities.

Rules Days in segregation would begin at 6:30am when the guards would come around with breakfast. They would push a tray through a “food slot” If Martel was there and up, then he would get his breakfast. If not up they’ll pull the tray back out and close the food slot.

“You know, better luck at the next meal,” said Martel.

Meals were at 6:30am, 11:30am, and 3:30pm.

From the time Martel turned in his dinner tray at 4:00pm, he would go without food until

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the next morning. If caught keeping food off his tray, in case he got hungry later, Martel was put on what is called “food loaf.” This is where the kitchen takes everything that was for the meal that day, blend it all together, pour it into a tray, and then cook it. This could be a fish patty, applesauce, brussel sprouts, two slices of bread, a carton of milk, all mixed together for you meal for the next five, seven, or 30 days. All to “teach you a lesson on how to abide by the rules.”

When in segregation Martel was allowed four visits a months, with the hours usually in the morning. “If we look at where we incarcerated people are from and then we look at where the correction facilities are. It makes it almost impossible for family member to visit. We lock up disproportionately young black guys from...southeast Michigan for the most part, and we don’t really have any facilities left in southeast Michigan,” said Martel. Most of the Segregation facilities in Michigan are located in the Upper Peninsula. In order for the families to make the 8:30am visit they would often have to take a couple of days off work and rent a hotel, so they could get to the prison on time. “It makes it incredibly difficult for people to actually visit,” said Martel. The visits would take place through a plexiglass window over a telephone.

Martel was allowed three seven-minute showers a week. Two guards would come to his cell and Martel would have to back up to the cell door. They would open the food slot and handcuff Martel behind his back and escort him to the shower cage. If a prison-

er takes more than seven minutes and the guards wanted to “flex their muscles” inmatess could be written up for misconduct.

If written up prisoners were put on shower restriction, where they were not allowed to bathe for up to 30 days.

Martel and his fellow inmates were also allowed five one hour periods of recreation yard per week. Again, Martel would back up to his cell door, and if he was not at the cell door when the guards were ready to go when the guards get there, Martel just gave it up. The guards would handcuff him, open the door, escort him out to a yard cage, which is a little cage outside that was approximately 10 by 12 feet. Depending on the facility, there were approximately two lines of eight cages, with prisoners back to back to back for two rows.

The Daily Life Reading was a way for Martel to get his life back on track. “I was on a mission...I screwed up my life so bad, because I blew off high school, because I didn’t read all that stuff that I was supposed to read,” he said. Once Martel was ended up in isolation he realized all the time he had and decided to go back and read the books he missed out on. “[It] keeps your mind busy, but...it can also cultivate your mind,” Martel said.

“I am absolutely blessed, and fortunate, and privileged,” said Martel. His father was a UAW worker, so his family could afford to send him books and subscriptions to newspapers and magazines.

In addition to reading, Martel would spend his time exercising, writing, listening to music, and talking with other inmates through the doors. Martel and his neighbors would play chess together. Each of them would have a chess board, numbered 1-64, and they would call off their moves.

themselves to make a living. He met many people who could not figure out how to do time and would continue to go back into Segregation. “There’s a lot of people who didn’t have the opportunities I had,” Martel said.

The Hard Times

“Hey Martel, you ready to go to yard?” A guard stuffed a green duffle bag through the cell block. “Yeah, yeah, hell yeah!’ said Martel. He began packing everything his stuff, 10 years worth of a life, as fast as he could. Martel was being transferred from segregation to General Population. He, and his bag, walked down three flights of stairs to the new housing unit.

The door was left open, so Martel closed it behind him. The officer was making his rounds shortly thereafter and the door had not been locked, and Martel was starting to get worried.

There were times when Martel thought about killing himself. “This is never going to end and it’s horrible and I’m just tired of it. What am I doing here?” he would think to himself. Martel would contemplate different ways to do it. But he would then think about his family.

“I have already hurt them so much. What’s it going to do now if I kill myself?” Martel said.

People Everywhere There’s a saying author Dostoevsky told his brother when he thought he was going to be shot to death by a firing squad. He said, “Life everywhere is life.” Martel thinks this is absolutely true. “People everywhere are people,” Martel said. He compared the friends he made in solitary to a group of friends one might find in college. “You’re going to find good people, you’re going to find bad people wherever you are, you’re going to find people you get along with and you develop close bonds with,” Martel remarked.

Through learning about the stories of the friends he made in prison, Martel was able to acknowledge his privilege. “I’m just an asshole and I felt like the world revolved around me, what I wanted, what I wanted to do, I was the most important. I never had two thoughts about how it affected other people back then,” he said.

Martel understands why many people do and sell drugs, steal stuff, or rob people. “There’s so many people that we lock up who are pathologized, simply because they’ve got no good shot at the American dream or whatever you want to call it. It’s not fair. It’s not right,” he said. Martel believes that there is a black market and that one must regulate the streets

The Release

“You know you can clean your cell? You can go over to the porter closet,” the officer told Martel.

“Really I can just walk over there? Without handcuffs on?” Martel replied.

“Yeah that’s general population. You can just walk over there. We’ll lock you down before yard or whatever, but you got about half an hour,” the officer said.

This was huge for Martel. “When you’re released from the hole after that kind of time then space is just this huge tremendous thing for you,” he said.

Space was something Martel was in denial about when he was in Segregation. He did everything he could do to ignore and mentally block it, because there was such a lack of it.

This is where pacing came in. He would pace for hours. Four steps forward, four steps back.

There was not a lot of movement from the Segregation to prison, but for Martel it was unbelievable to have a recreation yard, where he could run laps compared to trying to jog around a small circle in a 10 by 12 foot cage. “Where you could run and there

was this expanse of prison yard. The fact that there were benches, gun towers, and everything else, who thought about that? It was like I’ve got all of this space I can just get out and run and exhaust myself and how wonderful,” Martel said with a smile.

Privilege and Post Prison After being denied parole four times, six years after his earliest release date, and a total of 14 years, Martel was released from prison in 2008. Since being released he has graduated from University of Michigan-Flint, got a job with the American’s Friend Service Committee, and is currently in law school at Wayne State University.

He attributes his success to being a white male and having a solid home to go back to.

There were no drug deals, that resulted in shooting, going on the neighborhood where Martel’s parents lived. “If anything goes on and you’re on parole, you’re the one that’s getting picked up and it doesn’t matter. You’re going back to prison whether you did it or not,” he explained. Martel is positive that if everyone had the same opportunities as him the rate of return in the prison system would look a lot different.

While Martel thinks that someone spending 10 years in segregation is “ridiculous,” he views the time he spent productive. “I got a lot of good stuff out of it and I’m a better person because of what I was doing during that time,” he said.

Martel is recently engaged. He hopes to pass the bar exam, and his dream job is to work at the State Appellate Defender Office doing criminal appeal. “I’m awfully happy with what I’m doing right now... I really [have] no serious complaints about where I’m working and what I’m doing and how I’m living right now. Shit,” Martel said with a laugh. However, he once again acknowledged his privilege. “There’s obviously so many people who don’t have the support that I had in there and it’s really really sad,” Martel said. 

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CATCALLING

ON REVENGE PORN, VICTIM BLAMING, & NUDE CELEBRITIES

WRITTEN BY MARISA NATALE This article was originally published in the November 20, 2014 issue of The Scarlet.

I

f you’re a person who has been on the Internet any time recently, you will be fairly familiar with the issue of catcalling.

Unwanted sexual or “romantic” comments that women experience on the street have become the target of comedy sketches, online comics, and Facebook rants, especially after the viral “hidden camera” video showing street harassment in NYC. Catcalling is a form of street harassment typically involving men making sexual comments at female passersby, following them and attempting to engage in conversation, or shouting out racially fetishizing slurs as they walk by. Though it typically stops there, oftentimes these behaviors escalate into flashing, groping, stalking or worse.

Despite the fact that some women insist that such comments are flattering, the majority consensus tends to stand by the view that catcalling is unwanted, and that it makes women feel unsafe when we are just trying to go about our lives.

As Clarkies, most of us have a basic familiarity with this concept. And though I was disappointed by a recent article in The Scarlet on the subject of catcalling, I was glad to see that the author did not disagree on this fundamental point: catcalling is abusive behavior and it needs to be stopped. However, it is necessary to address two major issues about street harassment that this article brought up.

Firstly, it is important to clarify the legal framework for discussing catcalling and street harassment. Sexual harassment is illegal in all

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fifty states. It is not a “free speech” issue. As Political Science Professor Cynthia Enloe said in one of her recent lectures, “It’s not just bad manners anymore. It’s a crime.” Your right to free speech ends when your speech is hurtful, threatening, or making someone feel unsafe.

The legal change that many feminists are suggesting involves making it explicit that catcalling is harassing behavior. Many courts and law enforcement officials who witness (or engage in) street harassment don’t consider it to be harassment, and therefore no legal recourse exists for women to expect protection.

Now, not all feminists agree on this; however, the important point to take away is that catcalling is not a “free speech” issue.

Which brings us to the second point that needs to be addressed. According to last week’s [November 13, 2014] Scarlet article, “nonthreatening verbal confrontation does not constitute genuine harassment” and that “real issues” were not being discussed in favor of catcalling. Though I believe the author of this article is a well-meaning individual with good intentions, I take real issue with these statements.

As someone who experiences catcalling, it is not “nonthreatening verbal confrontation.” It serves to reinforce existing power structures, make the target feel unsafe, and remind women (and LGBTQ+ individuals, who are also disproportionately affected by harassment) that they are vulnerable to assault.

In Hollaback’s College Campus Harassment Survey, twenty percent of students said that harassment experienced on campus caused an inability to concentrate in class, and 23 percent said it prevented them from attending class or extracurricular activities.

As any woman who has been shaken up by a particularly vile comment can attest, this is not just “nonthreatening verbal confrontation.” It prevents us from fully participating in public life, in our education, and affects our daily lives. We choose our outfits more carefully because of it. I know women who take particular routes to get to work to avoid harassment. I know one woman at Clark who decided not to take an opportunity that would have benefitted her professionally because she has so often been harassed on the bus that she does not feel safe.

Catcalling is a real issue. We come back to the old adage: trust women. If we say that something is harassing behavior, and a real issue, listen to us. It is not the place of men to tell women which issues are “real issues” and what we should be prioritizing in our own struggle for equality. Obviously, we are aware that catcalling is symptomatic of patriarchy, but as a good friend of mine pointed out, patriarchy isn’t a tangible thing. It’s a collection of experiences, patterns, and behaviors that add up to the subjugation of women, and one of those behaviors is catcalling. Catcalling is symptomatic of patriarchy, but it also perpetuates patriarchy and keeps women out of public spaces.

So yes, we need to increase women’s representation in politics, in STEM fields, in academia, in media in positive ways—things feminists are all working on and all talking about in conjunction with street harassment.

But to be a good ally to women and a male feminist (if I may drop the F-bomb) the most important thing a man can do is to listen to women and what they say their priorities are.

Trust women, and we can all work towards a harassment-free future, together. 

WRITTEN BY LAURA MATTHEW

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n today’s ever-growing global society, the ways in which we communicate are evolving all the time. Because of this, relationships change; quite often we find ourselves in situations where the people that we love are halfway across the world.

Thanks to the latest and greatest technology, people are able to stay in touch and relationships can thrive despite the distance.

Practically everyone knows that long distance relationships are hard. Whether you’ve yet to even meet your partner in person, or you’ve been living together for years and circumstances have just now put a physical distance between you two, it can be difficult to maintain a relationship when someone is so far away. But whatever the circumstances may be, people have been and will continue

to maintain long-distance relationships, and one of the many ways that people keep their long-distance relationships alive is by sending each other photographs.

Okay, it’s not just people in LDRs. I’m betting most of you reading this article have done it at one point—snapped a pic in minimal clothing or even in the nude—whether to send to your significant other or maybe just because you felt really cute in that new pair of underwear you just bought. Almost everyone has done it, or is doing it, or probably will do it at some point in the future—even celebrities.

by someone else) while in various stages of undress, they were doing so without any intention of sharing these photographs with the whole world. These photographs were personal and private, and they were intended to stay that way. When these photographs were leaked by a hacker who took advantage of a security breach in Apple’s iCloud online storage, they were leaked without the consent of the individuals in the photos. The private lives of these women was made public—similar to the way that paparazzi will do anything to get a good shot of a celebrity out and about, but on a much more extreme level.

This is an article about victim blaming. When Kate Upton, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kirsten Dunst decided to photograph themselves (or allow themselves to be photographed

Yet I noticed a disturbing trend as I scrolled through my various news feeds once these photos were leaked. These women, as well as many other celebrities who found themselves

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THE SILENT KILLER WRITTEN BY SOFIA DOBNER-PEREIRA // PHOTOGRAPHY BY SOFIA DOBNER-PEREIRA

These photographs were created out of the raw desire to visually

victims to this disgusting act, were being blasted at all angles by many people who felt as if these women were being “sluts” and setting bad examples through their actions.

According to the general media, it was the women in these pictures who were in the wrong, not the gross creeper who’d shared them with the world, and certainly not anyone who’d downloaded or saved these images on their own devices.

Whatever reason these women had for taking these photographs, it doesn’t matter. They had no intention of sharing these photos with the world. Why should everyone criticize them for doing something that almost everyone does? Celebrities are human, and they should not have to be held to higher moral standards than others. As an audience, we have the power to turn away, to tune out, to stop listening when we see things that we

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don’t want to see. Rather than hurting these women even more by lambasting them when they’ve already been made vulnerable, we should be criticizing the person who made these private images available to the public.

We should be clicking away from them when they are posted on Tumblr dashboards and Twitter feeds. We should be deleting the links to them that may be shared with us. By taking these images in, we are continuing to assault the private lives of these women— and we should share the blame instead of forcing it on to the victims.

This brings me to another disgusting phenomenon that is in a similar vein to these leaked celebrity photos—revenge porn. This is a whole category of pornography made up of nude photographs shared by disgruntled exes in order to “get back” at their former partner (or maybe even at the supposed “homewrecker”

that ended the relationship). Revenge porn is more than just victim blaming, it is just plain wrong. If someone sends you a picture, no matter what happens or no matter what they do to you, sharing that picture publicly is wrong. It is a violation of their consent.

At the end of the day, no matter the person— whether they be famous, or whether they be that ex-partner that you still haven’t gotten over—everyone deserves their right to privacy. If someone shares something with you, they are trusting you. Be a good person and keep whatever they send you to yourself.

And if somehow, someone’s pictures end up in your hands—and you’re not sure where they came from—think twice before saving them. Because let’s be honest, would you want the whole world seeing a nude photograph of you without your consent? Yeah, didn’t think so. 

conceptualize domestic abuse. ​Some believe that individuals “consent” to abuse by staying with their partner after repeated incidents of violence.

These images seek to display the much more complex nature of these relationships and the emotional, mental, sexual, and economic abuse that often accompanies physical violence. The silent killers—the words and actions that destroy an individual’s ability to feel safe in their own home and in their body.

They eventually become faceless victims, because all anyone can see are the bruises left behind. No one consents to this.

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[ MIND & BODY ]

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What Makes a Home?

Being Aware of

Gendered Spaces

WRITTEN BY ELYSE WAKSMAN WRITTEN BY SYDNEY TANGUAY & AUDREY DOLAN

I

work part-time in the art room at an after-school program for young kids.

One day when I couldn’t make it, no one covered my shift because the other female staff members were busy. What does that even mean? Why a male staff member couldn’t have led an art project is beyond me, but apparently having a Y chromosome deems one suitable for work only in the gym and on the playground. This baffled me and brought to my mind the intersection of gender and space.

Gender and space are both social constructs.

There is no scientific or logical reason as to why gender and space should affect behavior, but this happens all the time while we remain oblivious. Next time you sit in a restaurant, look around to see how many of the servers are women and how many of the female customers are positioned with their legs crossed and their hands together, while men sit with their legs open. Notice the volume with which men project their voices

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G and the silence to which women aspire. These trends are real. Such often unnoticed behaviors conform to our society’s expectations for men and women.

Both space and gender have magical methods of setting expectations for behavior. I have researched and written about these patterns of behavior in the Academic Commons at Clark. I found that men take up more space with their positions, gaits, and gestures than women do.

Men would greet each other loudly across the room, their voices filling the air over the quiet chatter. Women, on the other hand, mostly just waved and smiled or talked quietly face-toface. Further, most of the women were sitting in traditionally polite, proper, and feminine positions, while men’s open stances and confident swaggers conveyed a different message.

I could go on and on about my observations in this one particular space, or ramble about the gendered trends on the streets of Worcester. But I don’t want to bore you with my own

personal observations when you can observe and interpret such behaviors for yourself. I urge you to put on the glasses, take the red pill, and open your mind to the truths about gender and space. But before I conclude, I want to make clear what I am not saying.

I am not saying that women have no voice.

I am not saying that men are to blame for the oppression of women. I am, however, saying that opening our eyes to the expectations of masculinity and femininity is the first step toward understanding gender issues. The patriarchy oppresses people of all genders, not just women. Women may feel the patriarchy’s wrath the strongest and the most directly, but men have a stake in this too. We hold men to standards of masculinity that are not only damaging, but also impossible to ever actually acquire, leaving men in a constant competition to be the manliest in the room.

What I am asking is simple: just look around.

Think about what you notice. That’s it. 

rowing up in a split household, bouncing around from apartments to school and back again, and having parents move thousands of miles away, I’ve lost my sense of home and what it truly means to be there or have one. Is it a place? Object? Person?

Required to live within the dorms here at Clark for a minimum of two years, many college students find themselves facing the same dilemma.

At this point in my life I’m learning to downsize. Minimizing clutter in my life simplifies the transportation of all that is sentimental and necessary. Living in three different states over various times of the year, it’s comforting to know that I have all I need on my person constantly. Yet, even with that foundation I still can’t define where or what my home is.

Currently molding the idea into a situational interpretation, it depends on the people and physical state around myself.

I’ve found that the more homogenous my life becomes, the more I realize what is truly important to me. Without family being within the close vicinity, I often make it a point to pick up the phone and call or send letters just to say hello. To remedy homesickness, listening to genres of music my mother used to play every damned Saturday morning to

wake me at the crack of dawn is no longer seen as a nuisance but a nostalgic memory to take me back to that homey feeling. Tea with some girlfriends is a must in order to calm our nerves of upcoming anxieties about what’s to come in regards to where I might find myself.

It’s those little things that keep me connected to my association of home.

All of this reminds me of a quote from my favorite movie, Garden State. In a moment when the main character Andrew is completely lost among all the thoughts and feelings he’s being confronted with, he has a philosophical breakthrough with a girl he was just recently met. “You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn’t really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone…

You’ll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it’s gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It’s like you feel homesick for a place that doesn’t even exist.”

There is truth to Andrew’s thoughts, but there’s also more to it. It’s important to have a place to “put your shit” but home should go beyond a physical space. A large part of the appeal and necessity to have a home has so much to do with a place that you belong.

Being “home” brings a sense of relief and ease.

You can relax and de-stress. You feel yourself

and you feel wanted. Those are things that a literal home cannot give you.

In contrast to Sydney’s experience, for most of my life I lived in one place. Though my parents divorced right before I started middle school, both of my homes were in the same town and I lived there until I graduated from high school. After that, my mom moved out of the state. Recently I have felt like I don’t have a physical home, though I do have places where I feel the love and ease that comes with feeling at home. While my closest friends all live together in one place, I am now slowly becoming an outsider. This shift in living situations and being in college has made me really pay attention to the emotions that transcend the brick and wood that make a house.

That’s what we should all look forward to.

When you feel lost in the world, when you feel like you have no place that you feel permanently settled into, just think about the places that bring you the most ease. Where you are wanted, loved, respected and allowed to be most yourself is really your home. All those other things are simply that; just things.

Houses get older, people move, situations arise that we cannot control. The emotions and memories that we take with us is what allows us to build a home wherever we may find ourselves. 

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[ MIND & BODY ]

How to

Turn Your

[ MIND & BODY ]

Dorm Room Into a More

Peaceful, Stress-Free

Space

T

he summer going into my freshman year at Clark, I lied on the roommate preference form. I submitted that I like to keep my room neat and with as little noise as possible. Those answers I gave were the complete opposite of what my current bedroom at home looked like. I never made my bed, there was trash everywhere—not to mention that I liked to neglect my closet by throwing my clean clothes on my floor. Thankfully, my freshman-year roommate had also lied on her preference form. By nature, we were not organized people. We both procrastinated folding laundry and taking out the trash. But that was the old us, and the new us (according to our

false answers on the preference form) were clean and neat. In order to not reveal to each other that we had lied, we kept our dorm room immaculate. And the weird thing was that it wasn’t hard for us to keep the room neat.

Peace of mind is essential. There is nothing more stressful than walking into your room after multiple hours of class and tons of homework to do, only to find your room completely a mess. A cluttered living space creates an unorganized mind. In college, living spaces

are even smaller and more cramped, which is inconvenient since the majority of dorm rooms act as living rooms, dining rooms and party rooms. A messy living space distracts your mind from what it should be focusing on—academics.

Lying on the preference form was probably the best thing I’ve ever done for my sanity.

Ever since freshman year, each of the dorms/ suites/apartments I’ve lived in have been serene spaces. My bedroom is my home. And my home is my sanctuary. The following are tips and ways to de-stress your dorm and turn it into your own ideal haven:

Take Out Your Trash

Make Your Bed Every Morning This sounds a little like an over-controlling parent commanding their kid to keep a tidy room, but in truth, a clean, made bed can seriously alter the way you view your room. Pick your pillows off the ground, fold your blanket, and tuck your covers under the mattress.

There are few things nicer than jumping into a freshly made bed.

Utilize Natural Light Draw back your curtains or turn on some lights. Most dorms are equipped with a main florescent light in the middle of the room. Those things can emit hideous lighting for trying to relax, and there’s nothing better than what the sun can create.

Yes, even the little pieces of wrapping that used to contain a handful of Skittles. When trying to clean up a huge mess in a short amount of time, always get the trash first. Trash smells and can clutter your mind just by being in the presence of it. If you’re feeling extra savvy, create a recycling bin as well.

Decorate With Plants Plants create fresh air, a calm environment, and look nice. If you’re thinking that you might kill the plant by forgetting to water it, buy succulents. Little cacti are the perfect plants to show off and can be colorful and cheap.

Re-Organize

Create a Peaceful Atmosphere with Nice Aromas Nice smells can calm you down. Take for instance lavender, chocolate, or peppermint- all are known to calm the mind and body. If your school doesn’t allow candles or incense in your dorm, try a diffuser—they emit no smoke and last longer than most candles.

Open the Windows Fresh air is essential for de-stressing, but can sometimes be hard to find during finals time, especially during the winter. Crack open your dorm room windows and breathe in, it’s surprising how one deep breath can clear your mind.

Pick up everything off the floor and neatly put it all away. If your drawers are overflowing with unfolded shirts or crumpled papers, take everything out and find it a clean new place to be stored in.

WRITTEN BY FAITH KELNHOFER // PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTIAN RAMOS 64 // STIR FALL 2014

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LO N G DIS TA N CE WRITTEN BY ANDREA BOFFICE

C

oming to college, I was shocked at how many people I met who were in a long-distance relationship.

Little did I know that long distance relationships have been becoming a larger phenomenon among college students.

Seventy-five percent of all college students have been in a long-distance relationship at some point during their college years. But even without including romantic relationships, the move to college involves long-distance relationships because it usually means leaving everyone you know for the first time.

When going to college, students also learn

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that long distance relationships aren’t as easy as they seem. Friends from home that you sobbed with at graduation and promised to stay in touch with, now you may never hear from. Part of this is that college is a time of self-discovery, and many realize that they do not have as much in common with their friends or partners from home as they thought. However, another reason that these relationships fall apart is just the strain of the distance in general. Now that we are past the times of writing love letters, I was curious if nowadays absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

a nighttime “I <3 u” text from your girlfriend, these informal technologies do have their benefits. Texting, calling, or snapchatting allow you to be constantly connected with your partner and can add normalcy. To one international student, Maria Luisa Escobar, technology is essential to contacting her family and friends in Colombia. “There are phone apps that I can message or call my parents without paying a lot of money for international rates.” With an increased global job market, friends studying abroad, going on birthright, or just getting jobs after college, international travel no longer has to be a death wish on your relationship.

For those who decide to stick out, it seems it can lead to loneliness and frustration, or a stronger relationship in whole.

As much as we would like one, there is no secret formula to a successful long-distance relationship. For some people, long-distance relationships do not work at all. According to Maria Luisa, “One of my closest friends I never talk to when I’m in the States, the context of the relationship defines it (i.e. friends from high school) and it is difficult to know what they are like now that they are outside of it.

We never can communicate long-distance, but when we are together it is like no time has passed.” It seems that different ways of

communicating are best for different people.

My mother likes for me to call her on Sundays.

I am in a group text with my friends from home. I skype my sister in Taiwan once a month. This girl that I used to work with solely communicates with me via Snapchat.

And my grandmother would be happy to know that one of my friends and I send each other letters. Whether you are in a long-distance relationship, or if you don’t believe long-distance relationships can even work, we all better get used to the idea. Because in just a few short years all these wonderful friends we’ve made in college won’t be living down the hall from us, and once again the distance will put these relationships to the test. 

Technologies like Skype advertise as being just like talking to someone, but can it really replace the intimacy of being with someone in real time? It remains to be seen if the multitude of new technologies actually helps the emotional strain of being apart from your friends, family, or partner. What makes some long-distance relationships last and some don’t? One sophomore, Stefanie Farrington describes the work she puts into her long distance relationship with her boyfriend from home, “We text all the time, call every day or every other day, once a week we Skype. It seems like a lot, but it’s harder not to talk to someone when you miss them. Technology helps so much. The quicker responses make it seem more normal.”

Part of the reason that long-distance relationships are becoming more popular is because of the emergence of new technologies that promise to make these relationships easier. Skype, Facetime, even things such as email and Facebook are shrinking the spaces between people and places more quickly.

We take for granted that our parents had to wait by landlines for their friends to call at a certain time. My grandmother laments how my generation will never have the experience of looking through a hatbox of a decade’s worth of love letters from their youth. While perfumed letters may be more romantic than

Even the most successful relationships require a lot of work. Maybe this is why the “Turkey Dump” (breaking up with your high school sweetheart over Thanksgiving) is a very common practice over the Thanksgiving break during your freshman year. Always skyping, texting, and calling your partner pulls you away from new experiences you might have in college. It’s up to each person to decide what their long-distance relationship is worth.

Says Stefanie, “To me it is important to have a strong foundation for when long-distance relationships get rough. You need trust, respect and clear communication about what you want from a long distance relationship.”

STIR FALL 2014 // 67

[ MIND & BODY ]

[ MIND & BODY ]

Finding a Place in

CYBERSPACE WRITTEN BY SARA DAVIDOW & LANCE YAU

F

or as long as there have been issues in society, there have always been members of the greater community fighting for change. From boycotts to sit-ins and petitions to rallies, activists have always been there, seeking to be the change they want to see in the world. The core essence of activism comes down to your voice and your say in an issue that you feel attached to, a topic that you feel strongly enough about to either spread awareness about or even go far as to push for change.

Think about the sixties and seventies, when a nationwide cry for political and social is-

sues (Vietnam, Martin Luther King Jr., Harvey Milk) emerged. Not only did that generation simply stand up for things they believed in, they braved going against the rule of law for their respective causes and got something meaningful accomplished.

Now think about activism today. In America, we haven’t had something at the level of the Civil Rights Movement for a long time. Instead, the idea and practice of cyberactivism has emerged. With the introduction of technology and more specifically, social media, it has become easier for everyone to share

their voice on whatever issue they might feel attached to. Not only are people easily sharing their opinions and ideas, but with the introduction of the internet more and more people are able to read and understand said ideas. Because internet activism is such a widely-used method for enacting change today, the ways in which it shapes our society need to be understood. As with anything of this magnitude, there are both benefits and disadvantages to the emergence of cyberactivism. Below is a (fairly) in-depth look of the pros and cons associated with cyberactivism:

THE PROS • Revolutions and mass social movements benefit greatly from the mobilization of Internet users. A great deal of the revolutions during the Arab Spring benefited from the Internet and social media, most notably the movements in Egypt. Despite efforts by the Mubarak regime to inhibit the spread of information in and out of the country, Twitter helped play a massive role in garnering global attention.

• The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is perhaps one of the most recent examples of a successful cyber activist campaign—by going viral and requiring the physical action of pouring a bucket of ice water over your head, awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis increased dramatically. It also helped raise over $100 million within thirty days, an impressive feat all by itself.

• Cyberactivism allows people who don’t have the time or resources to mobilize their own movements to connect and join larger ones with an immense amount of ease. Imagine a similar movement for Lou Gehrig’s disease, or any movement for a condition, before the dawn of the internet. Unless it was a pivotal social issue (women’s suffrage, racial equality, a grossly unpopular war) that affected the lives of millions, it was difficult for anything on a lesser scale to gain traction. With today’s ease of communication and networking, funds and resources are a lot easily arranged for movements of all sizes.

• With the growth in how the awareness of issues are spread, the audience that it reaches is widely diverse. No longer are movements generally targeted toward a specific demographic or social class - they’re now made for everyone with basic access to the internet.

And with the number of internet users around the world growing at a rapid rate (currently 40% compared to 12% ten years ago), the nature of movements is moving towards global populism, where the mobilization of people from widely different backgrounds actually strengthens and increases the visibility of the issue at hand.

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THE CONS • How much good are we actually doing? “Liking” or “Sharing” something on one of the many social media platforms has lost much of its value because of how easy it is to show one’s support. When people mobilize in a town center to effect change, they are donating valuable time to show that they truly care and are willing to commit. This dedication makes an activist more powerful, and makes their cause more well received. Slacktivism is the concept of donating time or taking action without expecting to actually change anything, but simply to feel like you have contributed. By liking a Facebook page or sharing a dosomething.org campaign, we are not committing anything more than a few seconds of battery life, but we are also not changing anything but our own self-esteem.

• We have turned our support of online social causes into ways of social advancement. Supporting a cause by changing ones profile picture has become a form of peer-pressure. When everyone has access to which members of a “followers” list have not changed their profile picture, it can cause a riff in ones online persona which could lead to ostracizing someone in real life. The notion of doing well, by “doing good” comes into play here. After the introduction of the internet, it became much easier to see what everyone is up to. Thus social pressures have begun to amount because of how easy it is to discover if someone is advocating for the same missions as you. Too often now, people tweet and hashtag for a cause not because of the message behind the 140 characters, but because of the social implications that come with not forwarding the message on.

• Cyberactivism can spread too quickly. In order to plan a rally, gain signatures on a petition, or lobby for a systematic change, leaders had to spend a lot of time planning the events and drafting the documents. With the development of the internet, it is too easy to submit something for judgment and approval from the world. This can lead to uncrafted and ill-prepared campaigns for social change. Take KONY 2012, a campaign that ignited the activist in millions of people and gave people power to accomplish something.

The idea to stop Joseph Kony from enslaving children to be his personal army was a noble one. However it was not able to monopolize on the support it garnered, and resulted in a mental breakdown for the Invisible Children founder, and a murderous dictator still at large. KONY 2012 is an example of numerous campaigns that are unprepared to manage the large amount of support that the internet can provide. Without proper management, a cyber operation can crumble under pressure of gaining too much popularity and not having enough resources to control it all.

There are three essential types of cyberactivism. The first, awareness and advocacy activism, is shown through liking and sharing a campaign. This is crucial to change because increasing awareness and gathering support is necessary for the steps to follow. The second type of cyberactivism, which is the next step on moving towards real systemic change, is organization and mobility activism. These are expressed through online calls to action!

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is an excellent

example of how people were able to gather and mobilize in an online space to organize a financial solution to cure research. Finally, action and reaction activism comes to fruition when people use the internet to truly effect change. During the Arab Spring, social media—amongst other online tools—was used to unite people against the dictatorship of Egypt.

The Internet is a fantastic platform for ideas, an excellent means of communication, and

is always in a constant state of evolution. As it increasingly fuses itself into our daily lives (if it hasn’t enough already, as some might argue), cyberactivism will virtually become activism. And just like activism in the physical space, there are plenty of pros and cons that go along with it, but it hasn’t stopped change from progressing or awareness from spreading. The future of social change is in cyberspace. We just need to know how to use it wisely. 

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conversations with random strangers, hoping to make some kind of common ground. Is kissing someone that you barely know a part of this process?

On Kissing:

The Strange and Unknown WRITTEN BY SYDNEY TANGUAY

A

first kiss is always something that sticks out in your mind, as well as the thoughts that come after that initial invitation to enter into someone’s personal space. Liliath Pllieva captures two strangers sharing a kiss in an interesting video entitled First Kiss that transcends relatable feelings of intimacy, awkwardness, humor, and flir-

70 // STIR FALL 2014

tatiousness. Like the twenty various couples within the video, most college students can look back to a moment (or wish they couldn’t) where they have experienced similar kisses.

From the heated, passionate smooches in the corner of a doorway to that uncomfortable time when someone slobbered all over your face after a quiet dinner, we’ve all been there. Where it would be found inappropriate

to randomly make out with a person in the “real world”, it is seemingly common on a campus such as Clark’s. College is a place of connection between people from all over the world, making it virtually impossible to know everyone you may encounter throughout your years. In order to make acquaintances, join clubs, go on dates, and so on, emerging adults must take a leap of faith when striking up

Drawing from my own memories, I found the video extremely amusing. I could recall the miniscule details of each first kiss ranging from the smell of the cologne a guy was wearing to who made the first move and how. In reference to the couple with height challenges, I couldn’t help but snicker at my own disadvantage. This poor girl on her toes, in heels no less, in her leopard print dress trying to stretch herself out like laffy taffy to kiss this guy a head taller than her reminded me of a boyfriend I had who was 6’ 3” whereas I am only 5’1”. I can only apologize to any onlookers of our first encounter for making him look like a hunched over gargoyle to meet me halfway. Don’t judge a book by its cover though; he was a wonderful kisser!

The woman stating “Let’s just look at each other for a second, okay?” gives this random kiss a touch of sensuality. Whether this stare goes on for seconds or hours, no one can deny the love for a little eye fucking. It creates an intense feeling of excitement for what kind of kiss you’re about to get into. The act of staring into someone’s eyes is a bold move for a first kiss in any scenario. One night out at a club with a few friends, I was approached to dance by a rather strapping young gentleman.

After a few songs he placed his flat brim hat on me and asked if I would watch over it until

he returned. Throughout the night, we proceeded to steal glances of one another across the dance floor. Needless to say, when he came back to retrieve his property it wasn’t the only thing he left with. Any instance involving eye contact may or may not lead to different outcomes but that minor detail may be what tips the scale to something more, whatever that means. Creating that personal connection, these two ladies took the time to acknowledge the other as not just a random hookup, but as a person. Although they may not have known where the other was born or what their favorite color was, that miniscule moment made such a random act meaningful by their standards.

ing tongue and pursed lips. Sometimes just ending it quickly and slipping away quietly is the best method. Option number two is to suggest a certain way of being kissed. For the most part, people aim to please the other of interest, so letting them know your preference and encouraging them to do the same will only enhance the experience. If all else fails though, option three has got your back. If the picture isn’t made clear, or someone is just trying too damn hard, it can be best to give them the cold hard truth about their lack of kissing skills. Although it doesn’t need to be rude, taking someone off their high horse can be humbling and beneficial in the long run.

Personal space is one of those things where everyone has a limit, especially when being intimate. Watching the former actress and shy gentleman in glasses, her body language in comparison to his was not a match to say the least. It’s so important to find chemistry when kissing a person, regardless of the relationship, to make it work. Those small hints of body language are key to making the most out of your kiss with the person of your desire. Seeing as the guy in the video didn’t get this cue, the woman could only laugh in response to his declaration of “That was a good kiss.” There are only three ways to deal with such a situation, number one being to suck it up and just take that god awful kiss like a champ. We’ve all felt too awkward at one point or another to tell the person that it’s no fun playing tonsil hockey with a dart-

The dating realm of college and what it entails is a fluid spectrum where everyone has a unique set of personal values. Finding another or others that are on the same level as yourself is key to enjoying whatever kind of connection you’re looking for. Is it wrong to appreciate a simple makeout session or a nice date with no strings attached? Of course not! Should one be searching for a committed relationship and seek out others who feel the same way? Sure! As long as those involved are clear on the terms, savor those frivolous kisses goodnight and the flirtatious actions surrounding them. To experience these moments of clashed teeth and romanticism is to appreciate the humiliating, along with the precious, stories as a whole. So pucker up ladies and gents and give a kiss! You never know what you might discover. 

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[ MIND & BODY ]

Sexuality, Virginity, Woman and

a

Space in Society

’s

WRITTEN BY JULIANA GLUCK & SEAN TATAR

L

uckily, we are growing up in a world where women’s rights are being taken more and more seriously. This is especially relevant to us as Clark students because we are surrounded by events and clubs dedicated to furthering this cause.

However, although it is sometimes easy to forget on a campus as liberal as Clark’s, we still have a long way to go in terms of erasing stigma and creating a more equal world. A woman’s space in society has undergone radical changes in the past hundred years but popular culture is still rife with numerous harmful concepts that perpetuate sexism. A woman’s sexuality is at the forefront of these controversial topics.

Back in the good ol’ days when women basically had the same rights as farm animals or property, women were expected to remain virgins until marriage. This idea is problematic in several ways. Firstly, it implies that women are supposed to remain “pure” until marriage, thus equating women’s sexuality

72 // STIR FALL 2014

with immorality while men remain unconstrained. This idea ostracizes women who are openly sexual and encourages others to repress sexual feelings. These ideas created a construct in which men are seen as being entitled to women’s sexuality while women themselves are not. Additionally, the concept of a woman’s virginity being one of her biggest assets as a wife removed value from her worth as a person and placed it, instead, on one sexual act. This cultural disempowerment of women might be something we think of as a relic of the past, but our history has shaped present day popular culture in a variety of different ways.

Today, most women are familiar with the double standard of being seen as a “slut” for engaging in sexual activity but falling into the category of “prude” by remaining abstinent.

This policing of sexuality occurs constantly for women but men are believed to be almost unable to control themselves when it comes to sex. The media constantly reaffirms the idea

that men’s sexuality is something to be expected and even encouraged. This leads men to gain a sense of entitlement to women’s bodies but women are caught in a catch-22; they are supposed to submit to men’s desires, yet they are not supposed to acknowledge their own.

Though it is difficult to reconcile the fact that there is this double standard in our society, we have to recognize it and attempt to overcome it. Your body is your own and you should act in any way in which you personally feel is appropriate. Virginity is something that is very personal and there is no ‘one-size fits all’ scenario or age in which someone has the right to have sex for the first time. Societal pressures tend to push men to have sex at the first opportunity, and women to cling to their virginity until marriage. It’s key to remember that people don’t lose something when they have sex. This is an extremely dated concept.

Respect your own body and respect what others choose to do with theirs. 

WRITER’S BLOCK T

here it is again. That monolithic boulder of a condition that strikes out of nowhere, like a mental assassin that only wants to annoy the crap out of you. It’s often called writer’s block, a nasty little cloud that prevents your creative juices from flowing freely. You feel mentally lethargic, confused, and maybe a little troubled—if you had a mental version of a tongue, your creativity would be on the very tip of it, stubbornly holding on for dear life. As aggravating as it may seem, there’s no need to be distressed by it. Anyone can suffer from a stoppage in creativity, from aspiring artists staring at a blank piece of paper to professional writers who rely on their craft for a living. What’s important is that a stoppage in creativity is far from a shortage in it. As wonderfully cheesy as that sounds, it’s kinda true.

It’s been said that in order to combat this phenomenon, you have to be creative about it. Wait, what? It’s a lovely paradox, where the only way to get around the very inhibition of your creativity is to be creative, so maybe you should hold off on brute-forcing your way out of the situation. Take a breath, both physically and mentally. Being imaginative or inventive on the spot is incredibly hard, so take your time. Find a place where the notion

of inspiration is at least somewhat possible, whether that’s a place in the physical plane of existence or a faraway land in your mind. It really comes down to finding your own space and excelling at what you do best, whatever that may be.

For physical spaces, you have a variety of choices. I can’t tell you the exact type of space you should look for and settle (unless we’re soul mates and prefer the same type of everything), but the general rule of thumb is that you should be at least relaxed to the point where you’re not stressed but still focused, energetic enough to get stuff done but still toned down enough to focus, and inspired enough to fuel the target of your focus (it’s almost like a mathematical formula, except it’s way more abstract and probably nothing like a formula at all). Places can be everything from either the most remote part of a library, the cordial bustle of a café or the solitary confinement of your room.

For mental spaces, things get even trickier.

Depending on what you’re working on, a specific mindset is required for it. A long assignment for class usually brings up frustration and annoyance, and in order to get around writer’s block you need to place your mind in

the opposite direction. Using brute strength to force it hardly ever works unless you’re hardpressed for time and you pump something out with little regard for its quality (totally not what this author did with this article). Find a space in your mind that reflects the work you’re attempting to complete, maintain a healthy degree of focus (don’t lose track of time and starve like some writers have done in the past) and take your time with it. Bypassing your writer’s block might seem like a gargantuan mental effort at first, but once you find that space in your mind, a place where you begin to feel in sync with the task at hand, it becomes a lot more easy.

Finding the next word to write or where to place that next stroke is sometimes a joyful experience when you actually feel like you’re creating something and enjoying it immensely. Other times, however, it can be a struggle (which can be very real). This is where you need to take a step back, look at what’s not working and try to reach the spaces in the physical and mental realms that fit you. It sounds incredibly new-agey, but these aren’t extreme concepts. Soon enough, you’ll be back to enjoying the process of creativity—at least until you reach the next nuisance of a roadblock. 

(THE AUTHOR COULDN’T THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE) WRITTEN BY LANCE YAU

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Cosmological Love WRITTEN BY AUDREY DOLAN

“Love—

if it is the right kind—has the greatest power, even over the universe and the divine itself, and is

the source of happiness and harmony for human beings.”

—ANONYMOUS

W

e are not unfamiliar with love.

We see, experience and feel like in many ways, from many people. But we rarely stop to look at love on a more intellectual level. Most people don’t spend time reading about what famous thinkers and writers perceive love to be, because they’re too busy out in the world trying to find it. In my endless search for knowledge and love, a certain kind of love was brought to my attention: this idea of “cosmological love.” It comes from one of Plato’s many famous works, The Symposium. At a prestigious dinner party with all of his friends, Plato and his fellow philosophers get into a deep discussion about love and how it came to be. Everyone offers their own interpretation of love, its creation and how it’s come to be such an essential part of human existence. Among the ideas and theories, Eryximachus introduces the concept of heavenly and earthly love.

Though it may seem archaic to us now, Plato and his many philosopher-comrades were really on to something.

Eryximachus sees a clear division between earthly and heavenly love. One is very much physical and superficial. To love someone

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on an earthly level is to physically connect, to see the surface of a person and appreciate it. And we do this every day. If we really stopped to think about it, a good majority of the connections we make are superficial. We feel connected to people because we share physical space, because we have received a warm smile, because we know where they’re from and have perhaps shared a meal or quick conversation. These connections save us from loneliness. They make us feel comfortable in our environment. But they don’t get at what lays underneath the surface. This kind of love does not get at our core, our soul.

Heavenly, cosmological love transcends it all.

It is a love designed by the greater universe that allows us to have a deeper, more spiritual connect to others and the world around us.

Being able to love on this level allows for our souls to be understood. Because it is not enough to be seen, but be heard. To feel touched without touching. When someone is able to love on a cosmic level, a very deep and lasting connection is being made. It gets at the parts of us that make us who were are, the parts that are craving to be validated by others. But this heavenly love is not just about

people, it’s also about creating profound connections with the world around us. Eryximachus believes that a deep appreciation for music and nature, these things of pure beauty, are divine and therefore felt by this cosmological love.

Honestly, I can see how it can be easy to dismiss this. The idea that you can love someone, or love a piece of music so deeply that it can only be explained by a cosmic, unearthly force seems crazy. But if you really think about it, is it really that bizarre? We’ve all been there.

We’ve all loved something so much that if felt like, at least momentarily, that there were no words for it. It’s possible that when you like or love something superficially, the words come easy because it’s very simple and clear why you feel this way. But it’s the more complicated, deeper love that takes the effort. Because it speaks to something in you that is not so readily accessible. It touches on some part of your humanity that cannot always be named.

That’s what it means to experience cosmological love—when it feels like the moon and the stars have come together to create something so right that a clear verbal expression just isn’t necessary. 