The Buzz|Spring 2019

Spring 2019

Glam Old Hollywood glam is a timeless trend that continues to influence fashion in the modern era. This issue’s shoot combines glitz with neutral tones, exploring how to bring an individual flare to the foundation style of glam.

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Spring 2019 City

8 Teched Out

A Look Into the High-Tech Industry in Boston

Wellness

32 Time to Cut Back Reevaluating Social Media in Your Life

Culture

78 The Emergence of Asian Representation in Hollywood Rising Inclusivity in the Film Industry

12 Crossing the Finish Line

36 Reaching Out

82 Sexpectations

Campus

Fashion

Opinion

A Refresher on the Boston Marathon

16 Represent

Exploring the Political Influence at BU

Balancing Alone Time with Social Engagement

62 Fashion as a Force The Growth of Casual Wear in the Workplace

20 The Inferiority Complex

66 Spicing It Up

Food

Travel

Grappling With Anxiety at an Elite Institution

24 Food for Thought

Aiding the Development of Food Culture Through Social Media

28 Stirring the Melting Pot

The Evolution of Cuisine in America

What are Sexpectations and Why Do They Exist?

86 Fed Up, Fired Up

Demanding Justice, from Classrooms to Campuses

Boston’s Rise to a Fashion Forward Future

70 Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

Tips For Having an Environmentally Friendly Vacation

74 Across the Globe

How Elite Athletes Experience Competitions Overseas

Music

88 Maybe Its Time to Let the Old Ways Die

Addressing the Treatment of Women in the Music Industry

92 Rising Above the Noise The Effects of Piracy on Artists and Their Music

Contents 3

Ariana Quihuiz Editor-in-Chief Creative Director Valentina Wicki Art Director Katie Hong Managing Editor Ashley Griffin Head Copy Editor Caroline Smith Publisher Mari Andreatta Print Photography Director Noor Nasser Online Photography Director Amanda Willis Section Editors Campus Geneve Lau City Kate Thrane Culture Noemi Arellano-Summer Fashion Melony Breese-Forcier Food Vanessa Xu Music Kaylie Felsberg Travel Vanessa Ullman Wellness Riley Sugarman Opinion Anu Sawhney Publishing Team Event Coordinator Samantha Cartwright Marketing Manager Alejandra Aristeguieta Social Media Manager Hannah Leve Creative Team Asli Aybar, Lucy Baik, Solana Chatfield, Kate Dankert, Amber Jared, Ting Wei Li, Shaina Schnog, Alicja Wisniowska, Zoe Zheng Copy Editing Team Ally Bryant, Madeleine Dalton, Mia Etem, Sabrina Weiss 4 the buzz

Photography Team Brittany Bauman, Ember Larregui, Carina Lee, Aqsa Momin, Minh Anh Nguyen, Thuy-An Nguyen, Diego Pereira-Cardoso, Richard Royle, Sahana Sreeprakash, Ece Yavuz Editorial Team Campus Amille Bottom, Carlee Campuzano, Anna Cavallino, Stella Lorence, Kami Rieck, Isaac Word City Shubhankar Arun, Sabrina Weiss, Marissa Wu Culture Mackenzie Arnolds, Hailey HartThompson, Riley Lane, Hannah Lee, Ananya Panchal, Elsa Scott, Vanessa Ullman Fashion Amy Bocos, Solana Chatfield, Madison Duddy, Guenevere Dunstan, Rebecca Golub, Anika Ramchandani, Mandy Vasquez Food Riley Holcomb, Julia Yang, Alyssa Yeh Music Aathil Chaturvedi, Nica Lasater, Minh Anh Nguyen, Austin Pak, Cole Schoneman, Elizabeth Scott, Rhoda Yun Travel Noemi Arellano-Summer, Amille Bottom, Neha Chinwalla, Roma Patel, Jackie Shannon Wellness Anjali Balakrishna, Kiana Carver, Amelia Murray-Cooper, Katherine Wright, Opinion Ella Malvino

Contributors Our Spring 2019 issue would not have been possible without the help of many outside students and partners who shared their talents, insights and time. We would like to thank each and every new and existing relationship, and we look forward to our continued parnership in the future.

Supporters Dean Thomas Fiedler Elisabeth Symczak Dean John Battaglino Student Activities Office, Boston University Allocations Board, Boston University Blaze Pizza, Boston (BU) Stores LIT Boutique 223 Newbury Street Boston, MA 02116 (617) 421-8637 @litboutique

On the Cover Clockwise from the top left: On Dennis: Model’s own blazer in black, sweather in navy, trouser pants in black, dress shoes in black.

On Jiayi: Stylist’s own velvet maxi slip dress in emerald. Model’s own peep-toe pumps in nude. Stylist’s own jewelry.

On Sarah: LIT Boutique, sequinned gown in blush.

Model’s own pumps in nude.

On Tareq: Model’s own knit blazer in black, turtleneck sweater in black, trouser pants in black and green shepherds check, chelsea boots in grey. Model’s own jewelry.

On Brittany: LIT Boutique, fauxfur long coat in peach. Model’s own jumpsuit in black, pumps in black.

On Jorge: Model’s own wool long coat in camel, sweater in black, trouser pants in black, dress shoes in black.

Models Dennis Karpovitch (Questrom ’21) Jorge Nario (CAS ’20) Jiayi Ma (CFA ’20) Brittany O Woke (Questrom ’20) Tareq Alkhudari (COM ’20) Sarah Feather (CAS ’21)

Masthead & Contributors 5

“... so live your life the

way that you intended to live it. Work for your goals, do something that scares you, chase the things that inspire you, give yourself the room to think and create.

�

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Milestones. A collection of moments that mark the most important events in our lives.

When looking back at your life it’s easy to focus on the milestones and the moments we felt we accomplished something on a greater scale. But, the milestones aren’t the most significant part, it’s the journey itself.

Milestones don’t just happen. It takes hard work, perseverance, and a lot of patience.

The Buzz was created in 2009, making 2019 our 10th year of being a publication.

It’s been a long journey to get to where we are now. It has been through the hard work of our entire team, past and present, that we were able to make it this far. As we’ve been able to grow our audience and team, we’ve continued to progress in our ability to tell great stories and foster a community of acceptance, collaboration and determination. It’s always been important to us that we tell as many stories as we can, as honestly as we can.

The brilliant poet and activist Maya Angelou once said, “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.”

Words, articles, poems, etc. are written all the time, every minute of every day someone is out there trying to put their thoughts into words. But, what really makes written work stand out is the person who’s writing the words. How they were feeling when they wrote them, how they wanted a reader to perceive them and the story they’re trying to tell. How something made you feel stays with you much longer than the words themselves. While we always like to include lighthearted and fun articles in our issues, it’s the more emotional articles that stick out over the last 10 years. If anything that has been written by a member of our team has stuck with you, made you think, made you feel, inspired you, then we’ve done our job.

In the Spring 2019 issue of The Buzz we continue to explore the topics and issues that we feel are important. From the discussion of women’s mistreatment and underrepresentation in the music industry in our Music section, to the rise of Asian American representation in Hollywood in our Culture section, to learning how to balance anxiety at an elite

institution in our Campus section, and the dangers of becoming addicted to our social media in the Wellness section, this magazine is dedicated to telling impactful stories.

In our Fashion section, we explore what it means to be glam in the modern age. Our spring shoot combines under and overstated pieces, layering soft neutrals with deep undertones. Capturing the essence of timeless Old Hollywood glam with a modern twist.

We are all experiencing our own journey, so live your life the way that you intended to live it. Work for your goals, do something that scares you, chase the things that inspire you, give yourself the room to think and create. When you can, share those experiences with the world.

The Buzz has worked for the last 10 years to share as many stories as we can, hoping to inspire and motivate our readers in some way or another. It’s been a long journey, but it’s only the beginning. There is an endless amount of stories waiting to be told and I can’t wait to see where we go next.

Letter from the Editor 7

A Look Into The High-Tech Industry in Boston

by Sabrina Weiss photos by Sahana Sreeprakash design by Shaina Schnog

The culture of Boston’s tech industry reigns as one of the most rigorous in the country. It is easy to see the connection between Boston’s booming tech industry and the magnitude of universities in and around the city.

The city has proven to be an attractive location for tech companies to either set up shop or to move their headquarters, given the immense population of students in STEM and business programs at topranking universities. As technology continues to grow, we need to recognize the pivotal role Boston and the universities within and around the city have in the tech industry.

Dr. Gerry Fine, professor of engineering and manufacturing at Boston University, works with BU’s Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC) and Innovate@ BU. He has seen just how large of an impact tech students have had in the industry.

“With EPIC, one of the larger maker spaces on the East Coast, next to the brandnew innovation space, we are able to give students all that they need in experiences in entrepreneurship and engineering” Fine said.

EPIC and Innovate@BU create two important spaces for students to build businesses and products while learning skills such as collaborating in teams, pitching, receiving funding and raising consumer

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interest. Celebrating Innovate@BU’s first birthday this past January, the initiative already has over 3,000 students involved each semester and nearly 80 teams of students working for companies or non-profits, Fine said.

Howard Kaplan, Director of Advising at Harvard Innovation Labs, aims for similar hands-on student training with Harvard University’s lab. Kaplan described the Harvard Innovation Lab as a “magnet” for students from all 12 schools at Harvard, seeking a diverse group of students and thinkers.

“The best innovations are the most diverse,” Kaplan said. “That have the widest variety of perspective on the leadership team.”

With workshops, entrepreneurial events, office hours with advisors and other resources, Harvard Innovation Lab hopes to transition students from mere interest in entrepreneurial endeavors to actual interest in pursuing a career in innovation. This is a goal that many universities in Boston and Cambridge hope to galvanize in students.

“Students are learning to search for the truth behind a real, meaningful problem for people and an innovation that creates a tangible solution to that,” Kaplan said.

Fortunately, students feel prepared for the rigor of the industry before they even enter a startup office. While the

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mathematics-centered lessons are obviously essential, students also learn about problem solving and critical thinking.

Karen Muraoka (CAS ’20), for example, said the lessons she learned in economics courses at BU allowed her to meet the expectations of her recent internship with a tech startup in New York. Last summer, Muraoka worked for UDog, an application similar to Wag or Rover that connects dog owners with dog walkers in their area. Muraoka spent her entire internship observing the stress of a startup, which launched their app in the App Store at the end of last summer.

“A lot of what my Economics education has stressed is problem solving and thinking on your feet,” Muraoka said. “What I’ve really taken out of [my classes] is the ability to think logically and that with every problem there was going to be an answer. Even if I did not think it was the right answer, there would be an answer, and my education has

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really prepped me to find that [solution].”

But, despite the work of students and professionals in the tech industry of Boston, a hurdle still appears to remain for Boston to reach California’s Silicon Valley expansion.

When comparing Boston to California’s Silicon Valley, the vast number of colleges is not the important contrast. There are many innovation institutions around the West Coast tech center.

Oftentimes, it seems as though California’s Silicon Valley overshadows Boston and New York, two major contributors to New England’s “Silicon Alley.” New York, Boston and Silicon Valley spearhead our country’s tech industry, Fine said, but there are definite discrepancies amongst the three locations.

With stories of Mark Zuckerberg coding and launching Facebook in Cambridge before moving to Silicon Valley to develop his company, Fine said that it is easy to misconstrue Boston as a passing spot for tech startups, but this

is not the case for many creators.

“There are a lot of undergraduate and graduate students that go to school in Boston [who] form companies here and stay here,” Fine said.

Kaplan finds the innate allegiance of Boston to be the defining feature between the East Coast tech industry and Silicon Valley. This type of environment fosters more intimate relationships between businesses.

“There is a lot more loyalty in Boston compared to the West Coast,” Kaplan said. “This is a pretty small town; everyone knows each other.”

Fine agrees that the most notable element of Boston’s tech industry lies in the “vibrant community of the city.”

The logistics of high cost and competition for resources in Silicon Valley are other appeals for tech companies to settle in Boston rather than the West Coast, from the relatively lower costs of office and living

spaces to the large body of intelligent youths willing and excited to learn while working.

“Boston has people, universities, fairly inexpensive real-estate, technology incubators and accelerators,” Fine said.

Part of the loyalty that ties companies to Boston’s location relates to the teamwork of the companies. Kaplan associates Silicon Valley’s companies with being somewhat “transactional” through observations of engineers transferring to other companies more often on the West Coast. Boston companies, on the other hand, “go out of their way to not poach other engineers,” in Kaplan’s opinion. However, Kaplan finds an innate competitive nature to the tech industry, no matter the location.

“The ability to maintain talent is tough when the bar keeps getting raised,” Kaplan said.

The constant modernization of the tech industry is tough to follow, and so

is the uncertainty of each innovation’s success. There’s typically little to no job security in the early stages of a start-up.

Muraoka noted a particular moment that clarified the uncertainty of startups after speaking to a woman who worked full-time at UDog. “She said that if the app launch wasn’t successful, she was going to have to look for another job, and that was kind of eye-opening for me,” Muraoka said.

“You could work so hard for something with very little security behind it.”

Despite the unreliability, Muraoka recognizes the important role that startups play in the advancement of the tech industry.

“They’re amazing for the economy and necessary for innovation,” Muraoka said.

Beyond the innate positive aspects of startups, Fine said he finds the overall tech industry reflective of the general culture of New Englanders in the attitude, helpfulness

and thoughtfulness of their innovations.

“New Englanders have a reputation for being scrappy people, lots of original ideas and, frankly, lots of community to support people,” Fine said.

During his years working with the tech industry, Fine said he has noticed a necessary independence in innovation, but at the same time, Boston engineers collaborate with and assist other determined workers, even beyond college innovation labs.

“We work hard, but when we need others, we find others,” said Fine.

While Boston and the Silicon Alley may not currently have the same eminence as Silicon Valley, they have the esteem of respect and unity of our community. We are Boston Strong, through our successes, our tragedies, our discoveries and our drive. The unity of Boston residents rings true in all areas of the city’s culture, including the tech industry.

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CROSSING THE FINISH LINE A Refresher on the History of the Boston Marathon

by Kate Thrane | photo by Thuy An Nguyen | design by Ting Wei Li

Boston, one of the most famous and In revered traditions is the Boston Marathon.

Known to BU college students as Marathon Monday, the day begins with an early rising (yes, I’m talking sunrise) and is full of fun, frivolity and the infamous “Allston Crawl.” However, there is so much more to this most beloved institution, and the event is integral to the history of the city.

Inspired by the Summer Olympics, where the first modern marathon was held in 1896 in Athens, Greece, the first Boston marathon took place the next year on April 19, 1897.

It has been held every year since then. It has never been canceled due to weather or war or any other circumstance, making it the world’s oldest annual marathon.

It is a day filled with fun traditions, starting with the day itself. Patriots’ Day, which is an official Massachusetts holiday, commemorates the opening battles of the Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord. The holiday, always the third Monday of April, has been the official day of the race since 1969.

In its debut, there were 15 runners competing in the race; this year there will be close to 30,000. The first year, American John J. McDermott won with a time of 2:55:10, and the course was 24.5 miles long. Last year, the winner of the women’s race was Desiree Linden, who was the first American woman to win in 33 years, and she finished with a time of 2:39:54. The men’s champion was Japanese runner Yuki Kawauchi, with a time of 2:15:58. The race was 26 miles and 385 yards long, as it has been since 1908.

To compete, you must be 18 years old on the day of the race and need a qualifying time in a previous marathon of 3:05:00 for men and 3:35:00 for women ages 18-34. The greater your age, the more time you are allowed. For example, if you are an 80-year-old woman, you can qualify with a time of 5:25:00.

The marathon itself runs from a town

in Middlesex County named Hopkinton through Kenmore Square, all the way to the finish line at Copley Place in Boston.

While the majority of the runners qualify for the race with their times, twenty percent of the marathon participant spots are reserved for those raising money for charitable causes.

Boston University student Shannon Brooker (Questrom ’19) is one of those fundraisers and she is running the marathon for the first time this year.

“I’ve wanted to run a marathon since high school, but when I witnessed the Boston Marathon first-hand in 2017, I decided that I would run it before I graduated,” Brooker said.

“I was so inspired from the crowd cheering for thousands of runners they didn’t even know. That energy and sense of community is the main driver behind my pursuit of this.”

Brooker is raising funds for the Martin Richard Foundation. Martin Richard, who was an eight-year-old boy at the time, was one of three people who died during the 2013 Marathon bombing that occurred when explosives were detonated among the crowds along the marathon route. The foundation was created by Richard’s parents in an effort to promote sports and education in the community.

“The core values of the foundation are kindness, community and peace and they strive to instill these values through many different initiatives, including a Kindness Library, Bridge Builder, Sports and Service Learning programs,” Brooker said.

Brooker has set a personal fundraising goal of $7,500. She used creative methods in addition to direct donations from peers, including holding fundraisers at Chipotle, Blaze and California Pizza Kitchen.

“In terms of fundraising, my friends and family have blown me away by their generosity and support throughout this journey,” she said. “I have received gift cards

and products from companies to raffle.”

Brooker said she is most excited to experience the camaraderie between the runners and the crowd.

“The sheer energy and community that spans the 26.2 miles is an experience that will be hard to match,” Brooker said.

The race is, of course, the main event, but there are plenty of the other exciting events throughout the day.

If you would like to experience the marathon’s course but have no desire to run it, you can take part in the Midnight Marathon Bike Ride the night before the race. Bicyclists start in Hopkinton at midnight and cross the finish on Boylston street about two hours later.

The Wellesley Scream Tunnel is a tradition said to have started way back at the very first marathon when some Wellesley students turned out to cheer on a couple of men in the race. They’ve come back every year since, and now the young women make so much noise, some say you can hear them a mile away. In addition to screams, they greet the runners with colorful signs, high fives and sometimes kisses.

Boston University students take advantage of the warm weather by fleeing to Allston, where they wander down the three main streets, Gardner, Ashford and Pratt from the early morning until mid-afternoon hours.

“I love Marathon Monday because we get the day off of school and everyone wakes up super early to celebrate,” said Audrey Cortes (CAS ’19). “It’s a great way to kick off the beginning of summer in Boston.”

The Red Sox add to the hoopla by playing their only morning game of the season on this day. This year, they took on the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway. The stadium streamed a live feed of the race, so baseball fans could keep an eye on the race and cheer for the runners, too!

So, however you choose to commemorate the big day in the future, buckle up because Boston on Marathon Monday is unforgettable!

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boston in 72 hours

Giving Family and Friends the Full Boston Experience for Graduation Weekend

by Liz Harmison photo by Diego Pereira-Cardoso design by Asli Aybar

Sights to See Faneuil Hall If you like street performers and an endless array of food stalls, look no further than Faneuil Hall.

Located between Government Center and the harbor, Faneuil Hall is always bustling with tourists shopping and eating their way through Quincy Market while listening to live music.

Freedom Trail For a taste of U.S. history, take a walk along the Freedom Trail. This 2.5-mile red-bricked path runs through downtown Boston and features some of the most historical landmarks in the city, including the Paul Revere House, the Bunker Hill Monument and the Old South Meeting House.

Places to Eat Union Oyster House Opened in 1826, the Union Oyster House is the oldest restaurant in continuous service in the U.S. and is known for serving up classic Boston cuisine. They have a wide selection of seafood, all incredibly fresh and high quality.

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Mike’s Pastry At the end of a long day of exploring Boston, you’re going to want to save room for dessert.

Located in the North End, Mike’s Pastry is known for their customizable cannolis, sure to satisfy anybody’s sweet tooth.

Activities to Do Red Sox Game There’s no better way to celebrate the superior sports teams in Boston than attending a Red Sox game at the iconic Fenway Park. Make memories singing “Sweet Caroline” in the ninth inning with one of the most dedicated fan bases in baseball.

Samuel Adams Brewery Take a little stress out of the weekend with a tour of the Samuel Adams Brewery. You will learn about Samuel Adams and his life as a founding father, as well as the beer making process.

There are also plenty of opportunities for of-age guests to sample the product throughout.

BE BOLD BE MINDFUL BE GENUINE BE EXPRESSIVE BE UNITED BE YOU 15

REP RES ENT

A Look At The Political Influence Of BU: Past And Present

by Stella Lorence | illustration by Katie Hong | Design by Alicja Wisniowska

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (CAS ’11) was sworn into the House of Representatives, representing the 14th district of New York, on January 3 of this year. That same day, an anonymous Twitter user circulated a video of her dancing on the roof of the College of Arts & Sciences, and Ocasio-Cortez was thrust into the limelight, along with her alma mater, BU. Ocasio-Cortez, affectionately nicknamed AOC by supporters, has made quite a splash as a freshman representative, but a look at her BU career suggests she has always been an outspoken leader.

According to BU Today, Ocasio-Cortez was “a leading student ambassador” for the Howard Thurman Center for the Common Ground program. She majored in economics and international relations, according to an article from The Boston Globe, and was also president of Alianza Latina, a Latin American student organization.

Ocasio-Cortez is just one product of what has been a fairly politically active and progressive campus. This activism, which can be traced through the line of presidents who have shaped the school into what we know today, is rooted in BU’s early history.

“The early founders were very committed to this idea that everyone was equal,” said Ryan Hendrickson, the Assistant Director of Manuscripts at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.

Like most universities founded in the early nineteenth century, BU was founded as a religious institution, incorporating Methodist ideals into its charter and curriculum. One such ideal was that of social equality, which was proven during the term of BU inaugural president William Fairfield Warren.

“During Warren’s presidency, Boston University awarded the first Ph.D. degree to a woman, graduated the first black psychiatrist, awarded the first theological degree to a woman and graduated the founder of Goodwill Industries,” according to lecture materials prepared by Daryl Healea.

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“ During Warren’s presidency, Boston University awarded the first Ph.D. degree to a woman, graduated the first black psychiatrist, awarded the first theological degree to a woman and graduated the founder of Goodwill Industries ”

The “utopian” idea that everyone deserves equal access to education carried through to the 1920s and into “old-school liberal” Daniel Marsh’s presidency, Hendrickson said.

Marsh was president from 1925 to 1951, during which time he remained true to the early ideas of social equality and promoted the idea that students should give back to their city and society. In the postWorld War I political climate, Marsh was accused of being a Hendrickson said.

Additionally, during the time of Case’s presidency, BU began laying the foundation for the large international presence still prominent today. Because of the school’s Methodist roots, BU maintained connections with many missionary families who channeled international students into the school, Hendrickson said.

In the late 1950s, the racial tensions in the U.S. and in Boston began to rise. Case tried to keep BU inclusive, which seemed like a radical concept in the 1950s, but many students felt BU was not doing enough, Hendrickson said.

It was at this time that BU, with frequent sit-ins and demonstrations in the streets, experienced a “surge of political activism” and developed a reputation as a radical school, Hendrickson said.

The surge of activism continued into the 1970s, shifting focus toward the Vietnam War and the Nixon administration. Due to safety concerns related to bomb threats, and a nationwide student and faculty strike, more than 400 BU classes were suspended, according to BU

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Today. Final exams and commencement for the class of 1970 were canceled at BU as well as several other schools across the country.

John Silber, BU president from 1971 to 1996, ushered in a new era in BU history, and an effective end to student activism, said Hendrickson. Silber, who was not religious, fired all left-wing professors who were not tenured, and he turned the police onto student activists.

“There was a lot of violence on the BU campus for about a year,” Hendrickson said. “[Silber] changed the character of the campus.”

Under Silber’s presidency, political activity happened “under the radar,” Hendrickson said. “The school had become so big that you could definitely find your people, but they wouldn’t really do anything.”

Political activism remained diminished in the ’90s due to a lack of major social issues or controversy in the political sphere, Hendrickson said.

This lull ended in in early 2000s, when, spurred by the Gulf war and developing Iraq war, there was a “renewed interest in what’s actually going on in politics,” Hendrickson said.

A lot of the renewed activism stemmed naturally from the Howard Thurman Center, where students of different backgrounds came together wanting to get involved, Hendrickson said.

This activism has continued through the 2010s, propelled by the 2016 election campaigns and results. A lot of recent

BU activism has been characterized by careful deliberation rather than spontaneous demonstration.

“BU doesn’t boast about [its prominent political alumni] a lot” because many of them were “quiet” during their time at BU, Hendrickson said.

“A lot of students who come here are here to learn,” Hendrickson said. “They work hard at BU, then get involved.”

The established political clubs on campus have continued this more academic approach to political engagement.

“We try to create a space that’s free from judgement,” said Anna Stroinski (CAS ’19), the president of BU College Democrats.

BU College Democrats, which is a chapter of College Democrats of Massachusetts, offers a place for students to debate and discuss ideas while also giving more motivated students the opportunity for further engagement through internships and grassroots work.

“It’s important to know that while we always offer a platform to be heard, it’s important to not pressure people to share their ideas because you feel entitled to them,” said Eva Jungreis (CAS ’19), the Director of

Communications for BU College Democrats.

BU College Republicans, a chapter of the College Republican National Committee, offers a similar atmosphere focused on providing students with a place to discuss politics, said Matthew Arsenault (COM ’19), secretary of the organization. “[BU College Republicans] is just a place where [members] can speak their mind or maybe open up a little more about a part of their lives,” Arsenault said. “A lot of people like to come where they can, not just talk with like-minded people, but more talk about what’s going on in current events and things of that nature.”

BU College Republicans also aims mainly to support local, state and national candidates by being the “college activism wing” of the party, said Arsenault. Both BU College Republicans and BU College Democrats see their membership and activism wax and wane with the election cycle.

“If it’s election season, people are way more engaged,” Stroinski said. “There’s nothing more binding than a canvassing trip.”

Stroinski said she tries to encourage wellrounded debates and to argue the opposing

side, because it is easy to fall into a pattern of general agreement. She said you learn more from these kinds of debates.

Learning as much as possible is the common theme in BU activism, especially recently.

Even those who are more actively engaged, like Nicolas Suarez (CAS ’21), try to learn as much as possible through their engagement.

“I think one of my priorities is gaining experience so I can learn more about the political and legal process,” Suarez wrote in an email.

Suarez got his start in politics in eighth grade when he joined Students Working Against Tobacco to help his mother overcome her tobacco addiction. He has experience interning with Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) and is currently interning with UK Member of Parliament Catherine West.

“I think that BU has never been more interested in politics until now,” Suarez wrote.

“If I were to tell students anything, it’s to not only learn about the current political atmosphere, but also become involved!”

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THE INFERIORITY COMPLEX Grappling With Anxiety at an Elite Institution

by Kami Rieck | photo by Ember Larregui | design by Amber Jared

A globally recognized institution comprised of a diverse student body, offering a world-class education and innumerable opportunities creates an ideal university to outsiders. Little do strangers know, Boston University’s flawless public facade masks the private despair common among its students.

The hustle to Mugar Memorial Library begins at dawn, an overloaded class schedule starts at sunrise and extends towards the afternoon, extracurricular meetings convene at twilight and the immense amount of homework gets underway at dusk. At the same time, students can’t neglect to maintain a stellar grade point average, balance a part-time job and hunt for internships.

The hectic schedule is not foreign to Boston University students and while the never-ending obligations spike adrenaline rushes, it often leaves Terriers feeling inadequate Even the individuals who appear to excel on every

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metric are not immune to the inferiority complex.

Meredith Varner (COM’ 21) said concerns emerged before arriving on Commonwealth Avenue freshman year.

“One of my fears coming in here was that I just wasn’t up to par with a lot of the people,” Varner said.

Despite being nervous to dive right in, Varner quickly dabbled in a variety of activities on campus. As an advertising and journalism double major, Varner writes weekly columns for BU’s student-produced newspaper, the Daily Free Press.

She is also Vice President of BU’s HeForShe chapter, works for a campus campaign and secured a spot on the Dean’s List.

Embarking on her sophomore year, Varner realized the demanding price she would pay for her success. Her schedule was comprised of niche classes relating to her major, including visual storytelling, news writing and communications writing, which caused some feelings of intimidation.

“There’s a little bit more anxiety just looking

around and seeing all these students who are all trying for the same thing here, and now it’s going to start getting a little harder,” Varner said.

Faculty and staff at Boston University are not ignorant of the academic rigor and the stress it breeds for students. The on-campus Behavioral Medicine clinic provides mental health services and refers students to outpatient programs in the area. The Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation is one of the outpatient services that strives to help college students cultivate resilience and develop strategies to support their wellness.

Dori Hutchinson, Director of Services, has worked in the Center at Boston University for over two decades. A common struggle she has noticed while there is BU students attempting to cope with academic demands while also trying to find purpose and community. Hutchinson acknowledges the huge emphasis on a lofty grade point average at the cost of wiggle room for having fun or taking a break.

“Anxiety is a huge issue,” Hutchinson said.

“We live in a time where success is valued over character and a sense of purpose.”

Engaging in outside activities and organizations involves making a commitment, but excelling in every single pursuit is an unrealistic expectation that is bound to lead to inevitable disappointment. It is easy to subconsciously equate success with perfectionism and only view growth through achievements. Individuals beyond the Boston University bubble grapple with constant pressure to succeed, too, especially students who attend an elite university.

“When students who have excelled in secondary education come to a rigorous institution where they are no longer in a bell curve, but a flat line, where everyone did well on their SATs, where everyone is accomplished in something, it is jarring for many,” Hutchinson said.

Ciel Tatoyan (COM ’21) said her feelings of insecurity stemmed from a different root. After attending a competitive college preparatory school, Tatoyan was well acquainted with classmates who bragged about the minuscule amount of sleep they got and their perfect grades. After transferring to BU, she did not undergo the same competitiveness over academics, but rather through extracurricular activities.

“I felt inferior when I didn’t get into a music group I was very passionate about, and the reason I felt so small was because it seemed like they were only taking people they considered to be the best,” said Tatoyan.

Rejection is never easy, but Tatoyan does believe the large and diverse student body create space to relentlessly embrace one’s own passions.

Much like Tatoyan, Varner also believes valuable lessons can be gained from these struggles, like the importance of abandoning one’s comfort zone.

Growing up in a small town in New Jersey, she believes attending Boston University has stretched beyond her expectation and forced her to embrace discomfort, especially through her extracurricular involvements.

Varner had no prior journalism experience and never led an organization before joining The Daily Free Press and HeForShe. After immersing herself into a challenging environment, it takes her less than an hour to compose her weekly column and she is scheduled to lead the gender inclusive club as president next fall.

“All of that stuff I wouldn’t have done if I didn’t think I needed to get out there and do more,” Varner said.

Arduous trials during undergraduate years offer the opportunity to discover themselves and to map out one’s own ambitions. Hutchinson said these difficulties can reveal strengths, areas for improvement and a journey towards growth instead of perfection.

The value of a 4.0 GPA diminishes post-graduation, and one’s willingness to contribute and translate their values into action is far more important, said Hutchinson.

“This is a time of life when students begin to realize that they may want something different in life than what their family wants,” Hutchinson said. “They begin to realize who they are humans and people.”

Overcoming the inferiority complex is a continual work in progress. For some individuals, doubt and uncertainty dominate their conscious. For others, the root of their suffering is unknown.

In order to make great strides towards curating a supportive environment at BU, students, professors and staff must collectively exercise empathy for one another.

Instead of fixating on titles and achievements, champion the uniqueness and differences that every person brings to the table. With these efforts working together in harmony, students will adopt a sense of belonging, all while redefining the Boston University community along the way.

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Monthly Resolutions

How to Achieve Your Small Goals

by Kami Rieck | photo by Ece Yavuz | design by Valentina Wicki

Do you have a personal pet peeve you’d like to overcome? Or a habit you desperately want to break? It’s time to adopt monthly resolutions! Research shows it takes 22 days to form a habit, so you can utilize the 28–31 days in a month to your greatest advantage. It’s easy to view perfectionism as the only form of success, but small victories cumulate to long-term growth, so take the first step towards your desired lifestyle.

Write down your goals Whether you’re striving to consume eight glasses of water per day or practice meditation every morning, it’s important to write down your monthly objectives. Pin the list to your wall to make it easier to keep track of each month’s goals. You’ll hold yourself accountable and be able to track your progress!

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Tackle them every day To truly experience transformation, it’s essential to implement your new actions daily. Longterm goals are commonly neglected, but if you engage in minuscule exercises each day, your compound efforts will lead to huge improvement. Trying to limit your showers to only 10 minutes? Exercise this goal every day because your mind and body will become accustomed easier. You’ll actively approach your goals instead of passively abandoning them.

Create new resolutions Each elapsing month calls for a fresh set of resolutions: no social media, making your bed every morning or taking cold showers are a few ways to start, but the options are endless.

The new goals will not only invigorate you to withstand obstacles and old habits but also provide a challenge to keep up with your previous goals. You’ll reap many rewards if you continually seek challenge in this process.

join The Buzz is hiring writers for Fall 2019!

We are looking for dedicated and experienced students to join our design and photography team for the online and print magazine!

Email the.bu.buzz@gmail.com for more information about the variety of available positions.

@thebubuzz | thebubuzz.com

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: FROM SWIPING UP TO SITTING DOWN 24 the buzz

How Social Media Has Aided the Development of Food Culture

by Julia Yang Photos by Brittany Bauman Design by Katie Hong

Whether scrolling through the explore page on Instagram or swiping past stories on Snapchat, an unsuspecting viewer will, in one way or another, encounter a brightly colored food post. During this process, all sorts of questions come to mind: “Where is that from?” or “What is that dish?”

The familiarity in composition and allure in aesthetic sparks an immediate curiosity. Images and videos of food attract attention like no other visual stimulant.

Factors such as color, lighting and presentation of the dish entice audiences into looking down the rabbit hole. It is then shared, screenshotted and discussed among the social circle of that viewer.

At any given moment, there is someone out there who would only hope to expand their knowledge about where to dine during the weekend. Through social media, they are able to make that decision within just minutes. All they have to do is scroll through their social feed and see which posts catch their attention.

The wave of social media developments in the 21st century has drastically changed the way people view, experience and share food culture. Food culture is known as the love for all things food by so-called “foodies.” It explores interests such as where people want to eat, where in the city they want to eat, what they want to order and what can be done to amplify the role of the food community online.

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Social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat increase the involvement of food culture in the everyday lives of individuals and accelerates the expansion of the culture.

It has transformed into an irreplaceable component within media platforms and has grown into an outlet by which people can share their love and adventures with food.

Without the spotlight that food holds in the online world of today, the development of food culture would not only be delayed but also not have expanded into the community that it is today. Food has taken on a crucial role in the lives of social media participants as it is constantly on explorer pages and stories.

Although social media mostly involves the younger generation, the approved restaurants they see from social media travel to their parents and the older generation, altering the way other age groups select restaurants as well.

Snapchat and Instagram have significantly increased the discovery of new restaurants and niche food places. Before the digital world was popularized, information about a restaurant’s reputation traveled by word-of-mouth, approvals from its attendants or published reviews from critics. This can be a slow and tedious process, as a verbal recommendation from person to person would never achieve recognition on a national or international level.

With the aid of social media, one can go to any city, walk into any restaurant and know exactly what they would like to order.

It allows people to experience new cities like never before and offers exciting new adventures that can be shared with their surrounding peers. The days of not knowing where to go for brunch or dinner are no more. Now, with the help of Instagram, one can type in a location or hashtag and thousands of choices will pop up with picturesque dishes to prove their delectability.

Nora Jerett (CGS ’21) said when she traveled to Europe during a school break, social media accounts influenced her choices about which restaurants she visited.

“Since it’s hard to find places to eat when you don’t know the language or the area, I followed some food accounts of students studying abroad on their Instagrams,” Jerettt said. “I was able to find a lot of local favorites as well as a few hidden gems, which I otherwise would have known nothing about.”

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Food accounts with local focuses such as @bostonfoodies or @chicagofoodauthority have fanbases of more than 200,000 people.

These accounts post aesthetically pleasing pictures of food and tag the location of its origin. This information is then shared to thousands of followers who spread the news about the latest restaurant or the hottest bar into their extended social circles and beyond.

Graham Rodes (CGS ’20, CAS ’22) said he heavily relies on social media in his day-to-day discovery of new eateries.

“Social media takes me to my restaurants, at this point,” Rodes said. “It’s a digital food taxi if you will. It has made me value food presentation a lot more than I used to. If it’s pretty or unique, I will consume it.”

Kelly Wang (Questrom ’22) has had similar experiences with the positive impacts that social media has had on food.

“Social media platforms, especially Instagram, have helped me expand my horizons when it comes to food,” Wang said. “I’ve discovered so many more restaurants not just around me but anywhere I visit, and because of that, I’ve been able to experience so many more good eats!”

One reason that social media has facilitated the development of food culture is that food brings people and communities together.

Unlike certain social media posts, where the intention of content can be superficial or to promote a fake reality, food allows people to bond over a common interest that is solely based on personal enjoyment. There is a sense of community amongst individuals who love to share their fondness for food and to enjoy it with others as well. The competition is a quest to find the best food in town!

There is a sense of community amongst individuals who love to share their fondness for food and to enjoy it with others as well.

The Instagram account, @spoonuniversity, operates from the perspective of exploring the best places to go to in different college towns. With over 250 campus chapters across the country, Spoon targets a college audience and provide details on the best locations to go to. From booming college towns like Boston and New York to more quaint areas such as Indiana or Missouri, there are dishes out there waiting for everyone.

Additionally, Instagram food accounts often post features of quick mini recipes that viewers can save for later. Compared to the old-school way of searching through a cookbook or looking at Giada De Laurentiis’ complicated recipe on The Food Network, Instagram has transformed aspirations for cooking at home in an easy and manageable way.

Not only are there restaurant

recommendations, but there are also food accounts dedicated to a variety of focuses, with the most popular ones being desserts, sushi, beverages and brunch. These platforms allow students and locals in those cities to explore new places and try new cuisines. Loving and discovering food has never been so easy.

The popularity of Snapchat also contributes to the promotion of food culture. Often times, when an individual is presented with their dish of choice, they will publish an image or video to their story with a geotag of the restaurant’s name. Snapchat stories function as an outlet to allow friends and family member to see the events and locations of an individual’s life and stay updated with their activities. As these contents are posted, viewers may become tempted to visit these specific locations as well. This leads to a

growing acknowledgment of the restaurant and confirms the idea that social media has made a positive impact on food culture.

Another platform that has contributed to the food community is Yelp. Yelp is an online search service provided to offer recommendations on local businesses through crowdsourced reviews. It allows an individual to see which restaurants are popular in their area through customer ratings and reports.

Although this also gives coverage to local restaurants, biased reviews from one person may unfairly skew the restaurant’s reputation.

The rise of social media has given the food culture a boost into the spotlight like never before. With people striving to find the best places to eat and to share the latest spots in town with others, food has become a uniting agent for people with similar interests.

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Stirring the Melting Pot The Evolution of Cuisine in America

by Alyssa Yeh | photo by Aqsa Momin | design by Lucy Baik

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At a surface level, the words “American Cuisine” may bring to mind a smattering of vivid images.

The classics: Betty Crocker cake mix, juicy steaks smoking on a grill, a “Big Mac” burger, oozing egg yolks at Sunday Brunch and “Wonder Bread.” Maybe the thought of a red-checkered blanket in a wicker basket rings a bell. However, when we look at the actual fabric of our nation, American cuisine extends so much further than fast food or brightly-colored boxes.

The foundations of cuisine in the United States started, of course, with the native foods found and eaten by the first occupants of our land. Beans, corn and squash (the “Three Sisters”) originated in the New World and were staples in the diets of many Native Americans.

When British colonists first settled on America’s east coast, they stuck mostly to their traditional meat-and-bread-heavy diets. However, as time passed, the colonists adapted New World foods to Old World recipes, and dishes like cornbread were born. The United States began to develop its own cuisine separate from Great Britain at the same time as it was fighting for

autonomy. By the mid-1800s, there were many distinctly American cookbooks in print.

As Americans spread and settled across the country, the unique crops, livestock, climate and demographics of each region began to influence the new cuisines produced. One of the most integral parts of our country’s culinary history, “soul food,” originated in the South.

During and even after slavery, many African Americans were denied access to ingredients and cooking materials that were available to most white citizens. In spite of their circumstances, African Americans created a vibrant cuisine that has persisted through the years and connects the culture back into its African roots.

For Camryn McMurtry (COM ’22), soul food is an important aspect of her family and history.

She has fond memories of eating macaroni and cheese, greens and sweet potato pie with her family, especially during the holidays.

“While soul food was established because of slavery in the U.S., I don’t really think of it as American cuisine, probably because white cuisine is usually seen as the normal American cuisine,” McMurtry said. “My family

has been in the U.S. since the slave trade, so I should consider [soul food] American cuisine, but my mind creates a separation.”

This leads to one of the American cuisine’s biggest conundrums: what counts as “American”? If our country is called a “melting pot,” full of diverse cultures and backgrounds, does our current portrayal of American cuisine truly represent this?

“The culinary environment in America is more about taking something that already exists, … modifying/fusing it with other things and then creating something new,” said Melissa Ye (CGS ’17, Questrom ’19), who works as a barista at Caffé Nero in Fenway.

Caffé Nero is an Italian-style coffee shop founded in London that is now popular across the nation’s East Coast. It is a striking example of how cuisine exists in the United States: different cultures surrounded by an American overlay.

An early example of this is “Tex-Mex” cuisine, which developed in the late nineteenth century and is a blend of North Mexican and Texan “cowboy” fare. Texan chefs began to adapt Mexican foods to the American tongue, such as altering frijoles refritos into refried beans. They also invented their own dishes, like chimichangas and nachos. Tex-Mex is known to some food historians as “native foreign” food, a contradictory term, but one that is representative of American cuisine.

During the mid-nineteenth century, Americans began venturing West in greater numbers, in hopes of a better life. As a result,

“Western cuisine” was created, which is similar to today’s camp fare: bacon, beans, coffee and sourdough bread. However, the Gold Rush also attracted many Chinese immigrants, who brought with them the ingredients of their homeland. In the face of culture shock and racism, Chinese chefs began to open restaurants in order to make money and to remind them of home. Over time, Westerners became more open to Chinese cooking, and Chinese chefs began to cater dishes to American tastes. This was the birth of chop suey, orange chicken and other dishes typically found at restaurants like Panda Express.

In recent years, America has turned away from “Americanized” fare and has come to embrace more authentic ethnic cuisine. Boston is well-known for its larger culture-specific areas, such as Chinatown for Chinese food and the North End for Italian food. However, there are also other lesser-known opportunities to expand your palate and experience American cuisine.

Head to East Boston for some tasty Salvadoran food, or venture out to Dorchester for some fresh Vietnamese eats. Boston’s growing immigrant population assures us that there are many more exciting culinary adventures to come.

Another newer development is “fusion” cuisine, a trend catalyzed by esteemed American chefs Roy Yamaguchi and Wolfgang Puck.

At fusion restaurants, chefs borrow elements from different cultures or culinary traditions and blend them together to make innovative, delectable dishes. Although Boston is known

for its more “traditional” American cuisine such as clam chowder and lobster rolls, it has a burgeoning community of fusion restaurants.

Mei Mei, a Chinese-American restaurant just south of Boston University’s main campus, combines the comfort of traditional Chinese dishes with the freshness of locallysourced American ingredients. Coreanos, located on Harvard Street in Allston, is a Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant. Even Boston University Dining Services is striving to represent its diverse population.

“On certain days, the dining hall will showcase a certain culture’s cuisine, such as the African Diaspora night or Chinese New Year,” said Alex Tian (SAR ’21, ’24), an employee at the Fresh Food Co. at Warren Towers.

Growing up in a Chinese household, Tian appreciated the effort the university’s dining services put into the Chinese New Year celebration menu.

“It couldn’t compare to home, but it was a good reminder of home,” he said.

As citizens of America, we are privileged to have access to so many cuisines of different cultures; we are lucky to live in a “melting pot.” Regardless of how you define “American cuisine,” it is important to remember that the diverse set of ingredients in our grocery carts, picnic baskets, MicroFridges and to-go boxes is a reflection of what makes our country unique and beautiful.

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SATISFY YOUR SWEET TOOTH Desserts Made Popular in New England

by Riley Holcomb | photo by Ece Yavuz | design by Solana Chatfield

Dessert is one of the best ways to wind down a day. It’s the time when you can relax with a bowl of your favorite ice cream and watch a movie on a rainy night. There are thousands of tasty treats around the world, but some of the most popular originated right here on the East Coast.

One of the first desserts made famous from the East Coast is New England Apple Pie. The recipe was brought over by British settlers and is now one of the most enjoyable parts of Thanksgiving dinners. Many people go apple picking in local orchards in the fall and use the fresh produce to make their own delicious homemade versions.

The city of Boston is known for many things, but one of its most popular is Boston Cream Pie. It is one of the most iconic desserts, made with two layers of yellow cake separated by a thick layer of gooey custard and topped 30 the buzz

with a warm chocolate glaze melting down the sides.

This treat became so popular that it was named Massachusetts’ official dessert.

Nothing is better than coming home to the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, but where did the famous cookie come from? Ruth Wakefield created the mouth-watering recipe in the 1930s at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. This premade dough now holds a special place in the refrigerator of hundreds of people around the country.

The Whoopie Pie was originally created by the Amish and Dutch people of Pennsylvania, but it became popular along the East Coast. The sweet sandwich features two layers of rich chocolate cake and fluffy marshmallow cream. It became renowned in Maine, whose government later announced it as their official state dessert.

BE ACTIVE BE IMPACTFUL BE BALANCED BE COURAGEOUS BE CARING BE YOU 31

TIME TO CUT BACK Reevaluating Social Media in Your Life

32 the buzz

by Kiana Carver photos by Carina Lee design by Ting Wei Li

College culture largely revolves around social media. It has infiltrated our daily routines and settled into our lives. Many of us don’t even realize how much time is consumed when checking our phones, whether we’re waiting for our class to start, sitting on the shuttle or just simply relaxing at home.

While social media is largely a positive invention for society, there have been many negative consequences that have emerged as well. Social media has changed the way we think about relationships, careers and self-image, and it’s becoming harder and harder to draw the line between healthy and unhealthy usage.

Manipulating Bodies Our generation has always been exposed to images that have been altered by Photoshop, whether you realize it or not. In the early 2000s, the body image that was desired by young women was to be unnaturally thin.

Stars like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were plastered on tabloid covers, promoting unhealthy body standards for young girls.

In reality many of these celebrity images had been significantly Photoshopped before reaching the eyes of the public, making the stars we looked up to seem drastically thinner than they were in real life.

Manipulating images has not gone away; in fact, Photoshop has never been easier to use, and can now be done on a cell phone.

Apps like Facetune have features that allow users to whiten their teeth, slim their bodies, blur their acne and more. Many celebrities and online influencers, such as the makeup gurus James Charles and Nikita Dragun, promote the use of such apps to enhance one’s appearance on social media.

Many social media users look at these images and forget to differentiate between what is retouched and what is organic. This is especially damaging to young girls, who see perfectly Photoshopped images and compare themselves to these unrealistic images.

Promoting Self-Love Aerie saw this growing problem and launched the #AerieReal initiative, in which the company promised to never retouch its models. Aerie continues to hire models of all shapes and sizes, showing that it isn’t just a one-time publicity stunt. The company recently created #AerieReal Role Models, consisting of celebrities to promote their message of body positivity and self-love.

Jameela Jamil, an actress and activist, is one of those models. Jamil has been vocal about the negative impact that social media continues to have on young girls by calling out huge influencers, such as Kim Kardashian, for promoting appetite suppressant supplements.

In an interview on the Ways to Change the World Podcast, Jamil said, “[The Kardashians are] selling us an ideal, a body shape, a problem with our wrinkles, a problem with aging, a problem with gravity, a problem with any kind of body fat. You’re selling us self-consciousness.”

Emma Kopelowicz (COM ’22) cites singer Lizzo as a star that has contributed to the recent wave of body positivity and self-love on social media by posing candid and unfiltered content.

Wellness 33

Fear of Missing Out Many college students have developed an unhealthy attachment to social media. Social media now follows us wherever we go, seldom leaving us a moment in privacy. Whether it be someone stopping you from taking your first bite of waffles to take the perfect brunch picture, or having to watch a concert through other people’s phone screens, it’s becoming harder and harder to live life in the moment rather than through social media.

A lot of people find themselves feeling excluded from events when the people they follow post about what they are doing. This has lead people to create the term “FOMO”, the fear of missing out, which officially was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013.

Checking social media relentlessly to merely be disappointed is an unhealthy habit that unfortunately plagues many online users. It’s important to remember that most of what is posted online is not what has authentically happened in real time; it has been reviewed and edited to seem perfect. Instead of thinking ahead to what will look good on your social media, focus on what can make you happy right now.

While Amanda Bittles (CGS ’22) tries to avoid lurking on other people’s profiles, she admits to having experienced FOMO before.

“It hurts when your friends don’t think of you,” Bittles said.

Most of the time, college students post the most photos and videos when they party. “People want to prove to other people that they go out and have fun,” Bittles said. Often times, the motives behind posting excessively are shallow.

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Influencer Culture Many of the images posted by our favorite social media users are ads, and not all of them are listed as such. Within the past few years, social media has gotten so lucrative that people now do social media as a full-time job.

While some of them are obviously sponsored, such as the Sugar Bear Hair vitamins, there are many posts that are advertisements and are so discreet it’s hard to even tell.

With the spotlight on many young creators, they are now subject to scrutiny by a huge audience. This has led to a phenomenon called “canceled culture,” where people deep dive into influencer’s archives to find old content that may hurt their reputation now.

Imagine if some of the things you said and thought five to ten years ago were to resurface online, would you still think the same way?

The problem with the so-called “canceling” of celebrities and online personalities is that many forget that, as people, we must learn from our mistakes and miseducation in order to evolve. While some things are important to bring up, it is important to remember as a consumer of online content to take into context what we are viewing.

Social media is supposed to be fun.

It has allowed us to stay in touch with friends and family who live far away and serves as a creative outlet. However, social media should not damage our self-esteem or mental wellbeing. It’s up to us to break the cycle of unhealthy social media use.

“FOCUS ON WHAT CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY RIGHT NOW”

Moving Forward Sometimes it’s hard to realize how much time social media takes up in our lives. Typically, it is used in addition to another action, such as checking while eating or doing homework.

In order to make people more aware of their phone usage, Apple has added a feature that allows iPhone users to see exactly which apps take up the most screen time.

Users can even set a limit on how many minutes they are allowed to spend on each app per day, making them more mindful about the ways they pass their time.

Many celebrities, like Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande, have also advocated for taking short breaks from social media and deleting the apps from your phone altogether.

If you’re not able to easily access an app, it can make it less difficult to put down your phone and experience life in real time.

Alara Akisik (CAS ’21) decided to stop using social media altogether before going to college, because she never found much use in it anyway.

She said that not having social media has had a really positive impact, which allows her to fill her time doing more productive things.

“I see a lot of people scrolling through [social media] while on the T, waiting on lines or when it gets quiet in a group setting,” Akisik said. “But I’d suggest just trying to spend that time talking to the people around them or just practice being at peace with not having something to distract them.”

With finals season just around the corner, this is the perfect time to rethink how you’re balancing your time. If you’re looking for a sign to delete your Instagram or Twitter app, even it’s just for a week, this is it.

Wellness 35

REACHING OUT Balancing Alone Time with Social Engagement

by Amelia Murray-Cooper photo by Brittany Bauman design by Yiran Zheng

36 the buzz

Comfort can be found in solitude for introverts and extroverts alike. It’s an opportunity to get to know yourself better and recharge your mental battery. Setting aside time just for yourself, embracing quiet moments in your own company and withdrawing from the world to regroup every once in a while is healthy.

However, if you constantly lock yourself up in your dorm room, you’re bound to miss out on fulfilling experiences and connections.

As an introvert in college, maintaining a social life can feel like a balancing act. Finding a medium between overstimulation and isolation is no simple task. While extroverts are typically

“It’s super helpful to have a friend who knows what’s going on if they’re with me to help me segue through a conversation or situation,”

energized by social engagement, introverts feel drained if they spend too much time with other people. It often feels like the only way to have a successful social life in college is to be outgoing, which leaves introverts at a disadvantage.

It’s easy for introverts to feel overwhelmed at a massive school like Boston University, where the undergraduate population currently exceeds 16,000 students. Many first-year students arrive at college without knowing anyone, so the added pressure of making impressions and establishing connections can be daunting.

Despite these challenges, college is a great opportunity to step outside your comfort zone.

Emma McGraw (CAS ’20) considers herself an introvert, but knows that social interactions have proven health benefits. McGraw’s fear of social events began to fade as she forced herself to attend them throughout the semester.

“I listened to a TED Talk about how relationships were proven to be the most important thing in maintaining good health in life, according to one of the longest research studies ever performed on humans at Harvard University,” McGraw said. “I realized I needed to work on having good, positive relationships, and I wasn’t going to do that by being scared of talking to people.”

The Harvard Study of Human Development began in 1938 and has continually tracked the health and happiness of surviving participants for about 80 years. Through medical records, interviews and questionnaires, researchers found that close relationships are the number-one factor in helping delay mental and physical decline. While introverts may crave solitude, this study suggests that people cannot thrive without socialization.

McGraw explained that transitioning from high school to college was initially difficult for her, but she adapted to the challenges and now feels more comfortable. McGraw even takes comfort in the fact that BU is such a large school, because most people don’t know anything about her or where she comes from.

“At the beginning, I was actually drained by trying to have friends, but now I find it really reenergizing, even though it can still be draining at times,” McGraw said. “This made it so much easier to be outgoing.”

For those who struggle with anxiety, maintaining a social life in college can pose additional challenges. According to a 2013 survey by the American Psychological Association, anxiety is the top presenting mental health concern among college students, affecting about 41.6 percent of survey participants. This is particularly evident at Boston University, where the 2018 BU Healthy Minds Study reported that, “84 percent of Terriers have felt overwhelmed by all they’ve had to do.” This constant worrying can affect all areas of life,

from academics to health to social interactions.

Arianna Ortiz (COM ’21) said she feels like a mix between an introvert and extrovert, but her anxiety often makes her seem more introverted.

“Literally every day, I’m a little afraid to put myself out there,” Ortiz said. “Granted, some days are worse than others, so I have to sort of talk myself through that fear, but I have to remind myself that there isn’t as much focus on my words and actions as I think there is.”

When living with anxiety, even basic interactions can seem intimidating. Ortiz recommends identifying coping techniques to navigate through stressful situations, including calming mantras that help with grounding in the moment.

“It’s super helpful to have a friend who knows what’s going on if they’re with me to help me segue through a conversation or situation,” said Ortiz.

Mustering up the courage to introduce yourself to new people may be nerve-wracking to some introverts, but there are plenty of places on campus to find people with common interests. Ina Joseph (COM ’20) recommends attending events, discussion panels and lectures or joining clubs to meet students.

“I think it’s about really about doing and finding things that you like regardless of whether or not you’ll meet people and letting yourself enjoy those activities, then letting relationships come out of those activities naturally,” said Joseph.

While introverts may face a fear of reaching out, they can also share a fear of missing out. Bruna Giampietro (COM ’20) considers herself to be extremely extroverted. She encourages other college students to take risks and expand their boundaries because learning to feel comfortable when feeling uncomfortable is a valuable skill.

“College is the perfect time to explore and meet new people since everyone is trying to figure themselves out,” said Giampietro. “I never hold back from talking to someone I want to be friends with, because would I rather regret something I had the courage to do than regret something I wish I had done.”

Ultimately, everyone in college is looking to be accepted and find meaningful connections. Try not to be too hard on yourself for wanting to spend some time alone, but, also don’t hold yourself back from making the type of college memories you’ll want to look back on in the future.

“If you have a ‘friend crush’ on someone, don’t be afraid to reach out! Talking to someone is easier than you think,” Giampietro said. “Start with a compliment or by asking a question, and conversation will flow so easily. Besides, you never know, you might end up making a best friend!”

While college is an opportunity to make connections, it’s also a chance to get to know yourself better and find what makes you happy. Have patience with yourself and never feel pressured to be someone you’re not. Being an introvert in college may present challenges, especially at a school like BU, but it is nothing to be ashamed of.

Wellness 37

FINDING YOUR WAY Adjusting to Life Away From Home

by Riley Sugarman | photography by Amanda Willis | design by Katie Hong

Whether home for you is a 30-minute drive or a long plane ride away from BU, moving to a new city and acclimating to university life can be taxing for any students’ mental health. Adjustment can be a difficult obstacle to overcome.

However, it’s a necessary step toward making BU truly feel like home.

Schedule time to chat

Chatting with friends and family from home can make them feel a little less far away, whether it’s calling Mom while walking to class, setting a weekly video chat with family or hosting a massive Skype session with high school friends.

Find a support network

Finding people you can trust can make school and acclimating infinitely easier to handle. If you’re feeling extra homesick, keeping to yourself will only make it worse.

Invite some friends over for a movie night instead! Student Activities Office regularly hosts social events on campus that can be a great way to meet new people.

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Get busy!

Finding activities to get involved in can lessen time otherwise spent missing home.

Joining a club, heading to FitRec for some extra workout sessions or finding new hobbies are just a few ways to get busy.

Reach out for help

Feeling perpetually down, fatigued or unmotivated to focus on school can be warning signs that what you’re feeling is more than just homesickness. Friends and family are helpful, but speaking with a mental health professional is the best way to ensure your emotional and physical wellbeing.

Head to Student Health Services to get a referral to a therapist if homesickness begins affecting too many aspects of your life.

At the end of the day, homesickness is a natural part of moving to a new place.

Instead of ignoring your feelings, finding healthy ways to deal with them will make them exponentially easier to accept and move past.

join The Buzz is hiring for Fall 2019!

We are looking for dedicated and experienced students to join our design and photography team for the online and print magazine!

Email the.bu.buzz@gmail.com for more information about the variety of available positions.

@thebubuzz | thebubuzz.com

Wellness 39

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glam Glam. The foundation of high fashion and a trend that has continued to influence people’s style even today. When we think of glam, the sleek curls, velvet dresses and red lipsticks of Old Hollywood come to mind. Trends that people like Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe brought to life and made some of the most reinvented styles in fashion over the years.

In the spring shoot we capture our models, both familiar and new faces, in styles that are reflective of Old Hollywood.

Mixing neutrals and metallics with subtle pops of jewel tones, while layering basic pieces: coats, sweaters and jumpsuits with more formal pieces: suits, velvet dresses and heels adds a modern twist to what we saw as the foundation style of glam.

The prominence of soft neutrals added a warmth to the stark and vibrant architecture of the MIT Strata Center. Mixing a variety of fabrics from velvet to silk, added an individual and modern flare to the wardrobe, allowing us to capture what we see as timeless glam.

Photo by Noor Nasser Art direction by Katie Hong Creative direction by Valentina Wicki Editorial direction by Ariana Quihuiz Styling assisted by Falaknaz Chranya

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revious page: Brittany wears: Lit Boutique, fauxfur long coat in peach. Model’s own jumpsuit in black, pupms in black

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iayi wears: model’s own cowl-neck slip dress in black.

Model’s own block heel sandals in black. Stylist’s own moon necklace in gold.

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orge wears: Model’s own blazer in black.

Model’s shirt in white. Model’s own trouser pants in black. Model’s own dress shoes in brown.

Dennis wears: Model’s own wool coat in black.

Model’s own sweater in beige. Model’s own pants in khaki. Model’s own dress shoes in brown.

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arah wears: Model’s own wool coat in black. Model’s own off-the-shoulder top in taupe. Model’s own faux leather skirt in black. Model’s own heels in black.

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areq wears: model’s own wool coat in gray tartan. Model’s own sweater in cream. Model’s own jewelry.

Brittany wears: Model’s own silk slip top in cream. Stylist’s own cropped pants in white. Model’s own jewerly.

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ennis wears: Stylist’s own velvet blazer in emerald. Model’s own sweater in beige. Model’s own pants in khaki.

Jiayi wears: Model’s own cowl neck slip dress in black. Stylist’s own moon necklace in gold.

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arah wears: LIT Boutique, sequinned gown in blush. Model’s own pumps in nude.

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areq wears: Model’s own blazer in black. Model’s own turtleneck sweater in black. Model’s own pants in black and green shepherds check. Model’s own chelsea boots in grey. Model’s own jewelry.

Jiayi wears: Model’s own cowl neck slip dress in black. Stylist’s own moon necklace in gold.

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revious page: Jiayi wears: Model’s own cowl neck slip dress in black. Model’s own block heels in black. Stylist’s own moon necklace in gold.

Jorge wears: Model’s own blazer in black. Model’s shirt in white. Model’s own trouser pants in black. Model’s own dress shoes in brown.

Sarah wears: Model’s own wool coat in black. Model’s own off-the-shoulder top in taupe. Model’s own faux leather skirt in black. Model’s own heels in black.

Brittany wears: Stylist’s own wool coat in mixed color. Model’s own silk slip top in cream.

Stylist’s own cropped pants in white. Model’s own pumps in blush. Model’s own jewelry.

Dennis wears: Stylist’s own velvet blazer in emerald. Model’s own sweater in beige. Model’s own pants in khaki. Model’s own dress shoes in brown.

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orge wears: model’s own wool coat in camel. Model’s own sweater in black. Model’s own trouser pants in black. Model’s own dress shoes in black. Model’s own watch.

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rittany wears: Stylist’s own wool coat in mixed color. Model’s own silk slip top in cream. Stylist’s own cropped pants in white. Model’s own pumps in blush. Model’s own jewelry.

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areq wears: Model’s own blazer in black. Model’s own turtleneck sweater in black.

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ennis wears: Model’s own blazer in black. Model’s own sweater in navy.

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iayi wears: Model’s own cowl neck slip dress in black. Model’s own block heels in black. Stylist’s own moon necklace in gold.

Sarah wears: Model’s own wool coat in black. Model’s own off-the-shoulder top in taupe. Model’s own faux leather skirt in black. Model’s own heels in black.

Brittany wears: Stylist’s own wool coat in mixed color. Model’s own silk slip top in cream. Stylist’s own cropped pants in white. Model’s own pumps in blush. Model’s own jewelry.

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orge wears: Model’s own blazer in black. Model’s shirt in white.

Model’s own trouser pants in black.

Model’s own dress shoes in brown.

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FASHION AS A FORCE

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The Growth of Casual Wear in the Workplace

by Madison Duddy photos by Amanda Willis design by Valentina Wicki & Katie Hong

Elegance and class hardly begin to describe the essence of the New York City Metropolitan Opera House. From the rich, red velvet walls, the sparkling crystal chandeliers and the champagne flutes in each attendee’s hands, nights spent there are magical and timeless. Walking through the doors, one would expect to be surrounded by a sea of tuxes, suits, gowns and cocktail dresses.

Well, you know what they say about expectations.

When I recently arrived at the Opera House to see Aida, I discovered the newest take on “evening wear”—blue jeans, baggy sweatshirts and running sneakers.

While about half of the attendees were dressed in beautiful garments for a night of elegance, I could not help but look around and wonder: when and why did everyone start dressing so casually?

According to Jay Calderin, the Founder and Executive Director of Boston Fashion Week, the popularization of casual dress began after World War II. “The whole idea of American dressing, American sportswear and separates happened because we were in the United States and disconnected from Paris, so…we started to discover what we value in fashion like practicality and comfort,” Calderin said.

Calderin also noted that the 1970s and 1990s were milestones in casual wear.

Air travel in the ‘70s introduced design influences from all over the world, and the ‘90s gave us grunge and vintage clothing.

In more recent years, experts say the growth of casual dress stems from the effects that tech giants had on business attire.

Michelle Simpson, the Executive Director of the School of Fashion Design in Boston, ascribed the world of business casual to Mark Zuckerberg.

“That sort of Silicon Valley casual style in the workplace is a recent example of something that has really impacted not just men’s fashion but youth fashion and culture,” Simpson said.

“Once Mark Zuckerberg, Seth Rogan and men like them made it okay to wear that kind of stuff to work, fashion really changed.”

Simpson even added that casual Fridays are not even needed in most workplaces anymore.

With the growth of casual clothing in the business world, many white-collar professionals traded in their Armani power suits for button downs and jeans as their day-to-day uniform.

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For me, when I put on clothes I am passionate about and connect to, there is this whole new extension of myself; fashion expresses who I am deep down and on the inside 64 the buzz

William Pressuti, the Senior Vice President of Asset Management Distribution at a New York City finance firm, has witnessed first-hand the introduction of casual wear into fashion over the past 29 years.

Pressuti said when he first started working on Wall Street in 1990, “everyone wore nice, shined shoes, nice pants, a suit and a tie all day every day.” Only four years later, his company implemented casual Fridays which allowed employees to wear “a button down, pair of pants—but no jeans—and nice shoes.”

Since casual Friday’s began at his company, Pressuti said changes in business attire came in the 2000s as hedge funds gained notice and the technology industry obtained more success.

Hedge fund managers would wear outfits like jeans and a blazer, even to business meetings.

“As hedge funds grew more popular and heads of companies were leaving to work at them, dress became more casual,” Pressuti said.

Pressuti also, like Simpson, mentioned the technology industry’s influence. “The very successful men in the technology industry were causal and those in finance wanted to emulate successful people, so they started to dress more like them,” he said.

With many successful people in the business industry adopting casual dress for their day-to-day style and considering the ease in that choice, one might wonder if true fashion and formal wear have a purpose in daily life. While concerning oneself with dressy fashion may seem time-consuming and the clothing can be less comfortable, professionals and people have proven how powerful fashion can be. From fashion industry professionals to finance bigwigs to Boston University students, fashion is valuable.

As a designer for Boston University’s Fashion and Retail Association, student Johannah Coichy (COM ’21) said fashion helps her break through her shy exterior and feel confident to succeed every day.

“For me, when I put on clothes I am passionate about and connect to, there is this whole new extension of myself; fashion expresses who I am deep down and on the inside,” said Coichy. “When you dress well, you feel good about yourself and [are] prepared to take on the day.”

Simpson agrees about the power of fashion, emphasizing that fashion creates a connection between who people are, inside and out.

“It is amazing how people show up in the world. If you can match who you are on the inside with how you look on the outside, there is this alignment, and that is where confidence comes from,” Simpson said referencing the TEDx Talk “Change your pants, change your life” by Stasia Savasuk.

Similarly, Calderin mentioned how fashion changed his life and can change others’.

“The fit, the tailoring and the fabrication and how it makes you feel is an incredibly powerful vehicle,” Calderin said. “I remember the first time I wore something tailored to me, and I felt amazing, completely different. Most people don’t appreciate high end fashion because they have never experienced it, but it is art.”

Calderin also stressed that the life changing fashion he referred to is not daily dress. He said there is a stark difference between casual apparel and fashion.

“Apparel is an industry like the jeans and t-shirts we get,” said Calderin. “Fashion elevates it to a whole new place of selfexpression over practicality and comfort.”

Despite casual trends in business, Pressuti poses a similar argument for formal wear.

He continues to believe in its power in and out of the workplace to keep people on their “A-game” insisting that “you want to look and feel the part to produce your best work.”

Pressuti also said fashion plays a large role in job interviews, so applicants should “do their research” so they dress appropriately

for the business they interview for.

“Especially when I am interviewing young people, I expect them to look professional. If someone comes in for an interview not dressed for the job, they’ll get dinged,” Pressuti said.

Dressing well helps not only adult professionals, but also students. Coichy stressed that when she does not dress her best, she feels horrible and much less confident, even unrecognizable to her friends.

“Today, for example, I had an 8 a.m. [class], and I stayed up really late trying to finish an assignment, so I woke up 10 minutes before my class,” Coichy said. “I didn’t have time to pick out clothes, so I wore sweats and felt awful. If someone who knew me were to look at me, they would say ‘She is not ok. We need to call somebody.’”

Considering where fashion has been heading since the 1940s and even more so in the past few decades, many people continue to value formal wear; in no way is it going away.

Although Simpson said she has seen a growth in interest in street wear design classes at the School of Fashion Design, she noted that students have not lost their interest in couture.

“In the fashion industry, our graduates are often working in knits and knitwear which is much more ready-to-wear apparel than what would be considered couture apparel,” Simpson said. “[However], our program does specialize in creating a high-quality garment and many of our students take classes in couture.”

Casual wear may be all the rage now, but Simpson is the convinced fashion history will repeat itself.

Simpson said, “I would say the pendulum always swings,” Simpson said. “Fashion and culture are always responding to what came before, so since we are at a very casual period right now, I think the trend can only be towards something a little more formal.”

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SPICING IT UP Boston’s Rise to a Fashion Forward Future

by Melony Breese Forcier photos by Richard Royle design by Asli Aybar

When one thinks of Boston, certain characteristics come to mind, such as the city’s rich history and its winning sports teams.

But, frankly, fashionable is just not one of the words that are often used to describe Beantown—until now. Slowly, Boston is transforming into a new hub for fashion.

Several factors have gone into this sudden surge of fashion and creativity in Boston, but most have to do with the increase of new stores and pop-up retailers in the city, as well as the rise of Instagram bloggers, making fashion ideas and inspiration more accessible to all people in different areas not traditionally known for fashion.

It has been apparent that more and more retailers are heading to Boston as a location for their stores. Last spring, Reformation opened its doors on Newbury Street. The store is best known for its appeal to millennials and its eco-friendly mission. It is also a favorite among many of those who are in high fashion, including Emily Ratajkowski, Karlie Kloss and Kaia Gerber. The different store locations are stationed in the most fashionable cities across the country, and it was a surprise to see one pop up in Boston’s shopping district.

Kate Hadley, an employee at Reformation, said that she sees a rise in the changing style of Bostonians.

“People will come into the store looking for a new piece to spice up their wardrobe and they really want to push the limits,” Hadley said. “Some of the pieces that we sell I would never see on people walking down

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the streets of Boston even just last year.”

Other retailers are also seeing this shift to a more high-fashioned side of Boston and they are setting up shop as well. More trend focused brands such as LF, Brandy Melville and Uniqlo are all stores that might not have been seen in Boston a decade ago, but they are now thriving with a push towards stepping outside of a fashion comfort zone that has been associated with Boston natives. These retailers make Bostonians more accessible to new trends that may have already popped up in other cities.

In addition to traditional retail stores, there has also been a rise in thrift stores across the Boston area, which is beneficial for college students and those seeking more affordable and sustainable fashion. Thrive is a new store on Newbury Street that carefully curates a selection of used and thrifted pieces for their store. It appeals to the more street-style focused individual.

Keely Missinne (COM ’21) believes that thrifting in Boston makes it easier for college students to find the clothing that they are looking for at an affordable price.

“Not many people think that Boston has great thrifting but you just have to look in the right places,” Missinne said.

“Thrive and The Garment District are both hidden gems in Boston where you can find great fashion forward pieces.”

These stores aren’t the only thing changing the landscape of Boston. Last year, two fashion-forward individuals, Erin Robertson and Nicole Fichera, opened a

pop-up shop in Boston’s Fenway area.

The pop-up was one-half a small boutique and one-half a small content studio where customers can take Instagram photos and experience the store as something more than a traditional shopping experience. Robertson was a contestant on Project Runway, and she wanted to bring her passion to Boston to show that it is an up-and-coming fashion hub that should not be overlooked.

The Instagram-worthy shop was so successful that it opened a second pop-up shop later in the year with the same concept.

The goal: to show people that Boston can be a place where fashion and culture thrive.

Another array of pop-up stores, named The Current, has found a location in the Boston Seaport area. The idea is to have a rotating village of pop-up stores to inspire locals. The most recent pop-up village within The Current was She-Village, which are various pop-up shops of “female-founded” and “fashion-forward brands” with a mission of empowerment and passion.

This rise in creating a more fashionforward culture in Boston exists right on our own campus, as well. Students are creating clubs and Instagram accounts to promote their own personal style as well as other styles they see around the Boston area.

Emilie Hibbard, Meghan Cronin and Luc Bleder, run an Instagram called @fashionatbu.

The Instagram page showcases the unique style of different students around Boston University and just further proves the prevalence

“The rise of social media, like with everything, has greatly increased the accessibility of street style and the outlets people can seek inspiration from”

of fashion in the Boston community.

Emilie Hibbard (CGS ’19, CAS ’21) attributes the rise of fashion in Boston to the sheer number of students present in the city. These young adults often sport more experimental, trendy or alternative styles.

“With such a large chunk of the population [in Boston] lying in the 18 to 22 age group, you’re bound to see a generally newer, riskier personal style,” said Hibbard.

Hibbard explained that the large increase in fashion in Boston can also be attributed to the rise of social media, which is a place where all individuals can find and draw upon different outfit inspirations.

“The rise of social media, like with everything, has greatly increased the accessibility of street style and the outlets people can seek inspiration from,” Hibbard said.

The increase in Boston-based fashion bloggers and Instagrammers has created more content for street style inspiration amongst younger people in the city. When a person sees someone posting several photos with bold outfits, they are probably more willing to do the same. This creates a domino effect within the area.

While there will always be the natives true to Boston with their casual get-ups, it is exciting to see the landscape of the city slowly changing towards a future of boundless fashion, which only encourages the strong and empowering personality of Boston.

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MILLENIAL MAKEOVER The Rise of “Experience” Stores

by Solana Chatfield | photo by Aqsa Momin | design by Solana Chatfield Customers are no longer drawn to traditional clothing stores purely because of the clothes they sell. The millennial customer flocks to a new kind of retailer: one that considers the aura of a boutique, the essence of an all-encompassing shopping experience. These new kinds of boutiques— called “experience stores”— emphasize the one-on-one relationship between the retailer and consumer by turning shops into a place to enjoy and hang out in rather than the previous purchase-and-leave culture. Below are a few examples of experience stores worth checking out:

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ROOTS 344 Newbury Street

GLOSSIER. www.glossier.com

SUITSUPPLY 240A Newbury Street

The Canadian sportswear chain Roots recently opened a location on Newbury Street that is centered around a sensory experience.

Customers begin by walking through a tunnel made of different Roots fabrics, then enter the store to find a customizable leather shop and an interactive timeline of the company’s history flowing from room to room.

Glossier is a beauty products company that emphasizes enhancing consumers’ natural beauty instead of covering imperfections.

Their stores in Los Angeles and New York City epitomize this experience store aura with an entirely light pink aesthetic complete with private rooms dedicated to taking photos. The goal: high sales rate and earned media via Instagram photos.

The European men’s fashion brand recently opened its first store in Boston: a threestory complex on Newbury Street, complete with a café on the first level. The café, Café Susu, has an inside eatery as well as an outdoor patio. Café Susu offers an array of coffee, juices, snacks and a fullservice bar for customers. This is the first experience store of its kind for Suitsupply.

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REDUCING YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

How to Enjoy Your Vacation Without Destroying the Planet

by Vanessa Ullman | photo by Carina Lee | design by Valentina Wicki 70 the buzz

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It can be easy to ignore the effects that travel has on our climate. However, sometimes simple swaps can make a difference in shrinking our carbon footprint. Switching from a car to a bike is plausible for a trip to the grocery store or the beach. Taking a bus to Maine or a train to New York City for the weekend can reduce the strain on the environment.

Sadly, there are times when air travel is necessary. There are only so many ways one can travel over oceans to visit places like Europe or Asia, and almost all of them involve an airplane. Although there are cruises that can take you to your destination via the seas, the negative effects of the human waste products typically released from large ships are comparable to the carbon emissions from planes.

So, the question becomes less about how to eliminate air travel and more about how to travel in a more sustainable way.

The first tip is probably the most obvious, but it is worth stating: bring reusable items. Whether it is a water bottle or a grocery bag, your sustainable lifestyle does not end once you leave your hometown. Not only do plastic bags have an extra charge in many places now, including Boston, but abandoning a sustainable practice while on vacation is inconsiderate, if not reckless.

A reusable water bottle can also be beneficial in countries where the water quality is not fit for drinking. In places like Brazil or Mexico, the water is not always safe to drink on tap.

With a reusable bottle that cleans your water for you, your vacation will be plastic free, and your water will be portable.

Buying large packs of plastic water bottles to avoid water contamination creates unnecessary waste, but a reusable water bottle can relieve your stress and your plastic intake.

Another way to practice sustainability is to reduce your driving time while in a new location. Many cities have highly functional bus, train or even tram systems. In London, the Underground, or

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the “Tube,” is a clean, efficient and speedy way to get from Big Ben to Buckingham Palace. The transit system is known for being a reliable source of transportation for Londoners and tourists alike.

If you are weary of using public transportation in cities where residents speak a language that you are not familiar with, do your homework beforehand. Although you might not speak Chinese, you can still navigate the newly created and expansive subway systems of Beijing. You might feel out of place speaking English on the InterCity Express in Berlin, but you will still be able to navigate the railway system just fine. Most European and Asian cities have a nicer public transportation system than those of the U.S., so it will not be difficult to get used to using a faster, and more effective, subway system.

Language still might pose as a challenge for riding an unfamiliar tram or bus, but fear not. In large cities popular with tourists, there are usually locals who speak your language or other tourists nearby who can help you out with buying or figuring out train tickets. If not, a quick Google Translate search can help you find your way. In preparation for the trip, you can also make sure you understand the currency of your country and how much a train, bus or tram ride will cost before you arrive.

Opting to ride a train might already be part of your travel routine, though for greater cultural integration or to stay budget-friendly, and not for sustainability reasons.

But there are other realms of sustainability that might seem harder to integrate into one’s travel routine at first.

Walking along the beaches of Hawaii, it might be tempting to want to buy a rock at a tourist shop, or worse, pick up a random rock and keep it for yourself. Not only are there superstitions against stealing earth products, but it is not beneficial to you or the Earth to do so. In Hawaii, it is often said that stealing a piece

of volcanic rock can curse the person who steals it. Whether or not you believe this, it would be unwise to test out the theory.

Even if you choose souvenirs that look harmless, there are sometimes unsustainable practices that go into how the sellers obtained the item. Ivory, for example, is a material that is taken from illegal elephant trades in West and Central Africa.

This practice remains a threat to elephants today, and ivory is a material one should avoid when in a souvenir shop.

Other animal materials, such as turtle shells or tiger skins, are often made using unethical practices. These practices have left both species under threat of extinction since, sadly, many animals die due to human involvement.

Plants are a trickier item to buy, specifically when it comes to cacti and coral. While some of these are obtained legally, many are not, and buying them would be inadvertently supporting an organization that favors tourism over saving earth products.

The final step in planning a sustainable vacation is choosing a hotel, hostel or Airbnb that practices sustainability. It could seem tiresome to have to research which hotels are ecofriendly, but luckily an organization, Green Hotels, has already done that for you. Their website finds hotels that have “environmentallyfriendly properties whose managers are eager to institute programs that save water, save energy and reduce solid waste.”

Green Hotel’s mission expands past the U.S. alone, and even finds hotels in Indonesia, Switzerland and India. Their website provides an expansive list of hotels, sometimes multiple per city, that show how each hotel chooses to utilize sustainability practices. It’s simple, easy to use interface is perfect for travelers who want to live a sustainable lifestyle while on vacation, but might not have the time to conduct research of their own.

If a hotel is not what you are looking for, Airbnb might be a better option, especially for those traveling on a college student budget. Though it is not heavily advertised, the company practices sustainability with reducing water waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

Started in 2017, the Airbnb Sustainability Advisory Board strives to create a sustainable experience for their guests and the planet. After learning that 72% of their guests were supporters of ecofriendly practices with home sharing on Airbnb, the company took the initiative to focus on ways to incorporate sustainability.

Their commitment has already paid off. In 2016, Airbnb reported that travelers who stayed with them instead of hotels, “achieved energy savings equal to nearly 900,000 homes, reduced water usage equal to 10,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools and reduced greenhouse gas emissions equal to 1.8 million cars.”

Next time you choose to plan a vacation, think about implementing some of these practices into your itinerary. Bringing a reusable water bottle is an easy start, and can be a great roadtrip hack to avoid buying large packs of plastic water bottles. Stay at an Airbnb if you venture to New York for a weekend, and opt for a bus or train as your mode of transportation to get there.

No matter how you get to your destination, it is about the practices you can implement that matters. Many overseas vacations require airplane travel, but your hotel can still be ecofriendly. By purchasing only sustainably sourced souvenirs, you can help the planet in other meaningful ways.

The last, and most important step, to sustainable travel is to inform others. Let your friends know that it is not okay to take a seashell or rock from the ground and remind them to bring reusable bags to a night market. It only takes a few small changes to make a difference, and when it comes to saving the planet, we need all the help we can get.

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ACROSS THE GLOBE

How Do Elite Athletes Experience Competitions Overseas?

by Vanessa Ullman | photos by Erica Wu | design by Kate Dankert

When Kathleen Rice started synchronized ice skating at eight years old, she did not ever think that her path would one day lead to representing her country overseas under Team USA. Similarly, Erica Wu never anticipated her passion for rhythmic gymnastics would end up taking her to places like Armenia and Luxembourg.

What does it mean when athletic competition expands beyond a home town, state or even country? Do these highly trained athletes get to enjoy the streets of NYC or Paris while competing there, or does the sport always have to come first?

For Caleb Robinson (CGS ’22), being a member of the Olympic Level Sailing Team is truly an exciting accomplishment. Being on the Olympic Development Team for the Laser has taken him all over the globe.

Although there are U.S.-based competitions in destinations like San Francisco, CA and Norfolk, VA, it’s the international endeavors, in places like Antigua and Trinidad, which take his sport to the next level.

Like most athletes competing at such a high level, Robinson did not always get to

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take in all that the destination had to offer.

“I went [sightseeing] as much as I could,” he said. “But more often than not, I would not have the time to go sightseeing without cutting competition times close.”

His advice to fellow athletes? Over preparing helps in the long run.

“Know where everything is and when you need to get there by,” said Robinson. “I have become a big fan of showing up five days prior to an event to get used to the venue, as well as getting over any jetlag.”

While some travel sports require no more than car or bus transportation, some trips require airfare, for either domestic or international travel, and that brings up the issue of cost.

Some elite sports teams do receive partial funding from large organizations, such as the support that U.S. Figure Skating provides for the Team USA skaters. Others turn to fundraising for themselves, which is how Robinson’s sailing team was able to cover some of their travel expenses.

Once these athletes arrive at their destination to compete, there often is limited

to no time for any activities unrelated to their sport, Kathleen Rice (CAS ’21) said.

“We always tried to do some sightseeing when traveling for competition, but the main priority was obviously [synchronized ice] skating, and we often had practices and time to rest on days leading up to competition,” said Rice.

Sometimes the best memories come from the more mundane experiences, as noted by Angelina McNulty’s (SAR ’22) memory of a bus ride in Austria with her synchronized ice-skating team, which, like Rice’s, was also part of Team USA, even though the athletes were on different teams.

Last winter, McNulty’s team was heading back from a practice session before the international synchronized skating competition started. “[The rink] was a two-hour bus ride away in Germany,” McNulty said. “The practice was early in the morning, and the scenery was so beautiful as the sun rose over the mountains on our way to practice.”

Though Rice shared similar experiences and was not always able to go out and

explore a new place, both athletes still appreciate the times they were allowed to explore a European town in the midst of a typical synchronized skating competition.

“I still really enjoyed the experiences of competing in another country, and the places I was able to explore were truly amazing,” said Kathleen.

McNulty also commented on one of the big questions people have of elite athletes who are still in school: how do they manage to stay on top of their schoolwork while away at competitions?

“Plan ahead and stay organized with homework,” McNulty said. “Professors will usually try to help out if it is evident that you have a plan as to how to stay on top of work and not lag behind in class while you are away with your team.”

Time management is an important skill for all elite athletes to perfect. While not all of them struggled academically in high school or college, it was sometimes difficult for them to balance not only their regular sport practices and events, but national competitions as well.

“As long as I communicated with my teachers before leaving for competition, it was very doable,” McNulty said. “Our coaches set aside some homework time at competitions, and plane and bus rides are also a great opportunity to get work done at competition and not get behind.”

Rice had similar experiences, noting how important down time was for her in order to get her homework done. She said that if she wasn’t at school, she was busy practicing. And if she wasn’t at the rink, she was finishing her school work at home.

For many athletes competing at the elite level, time management is a skill they have been developing for years. For Erica Wu (Questrom ‘22), that involved having to narrow down on one sport to focus on.

“When I was little I swam, danced, did ballet and rhythmic gymnastics,” Wu said. “Shortly after I started rhythmic gymnastics, I had to stop other sports because rhythmic was a big-time commitment.”

From Armenia, to Russia, to Germany, to Luxembourg, Wu was able to compete as an elite gymnast throughout high school.

Traveling for a sport at an elite level does not only include international competitions.

Eli Spevack (SAR ’21) ran track and field at the national level in high school, which took him to National Championships across the U.S.

“My favorite memory of traveling was probably just going through the NYC subway system with my friends and exploring the city with them,” Spevack said. “Usually, I just go on vacation-like trips with my mom, but doing that with my friends and being able to relax in the hotel and mess around was really fun.”

Whatever the sport, from track and field to rhythmic gymnastics, elite athletes are proud of the dedication and hard work they put in. While traveling for competitions is certainly impressive, for the athletes, these trips represent opportunities to showcase their effort and skill in sports they have trained in for years, perfecting each move day by day.

Even though they might not take a grand tour of the Colosseum in Rome, or get to try unique Caribbean cuisines while at competitions, their experiences abroad are still worth all of the gritty practice hours in their home town.

Not everyone could consider traveling for a sport a vacation, but it’s clear from looking at the stories of these athletes that the memories made in destinations across the globe are just as meaningful as a traditional retreat.

Travel 75

HELLO. HOLA. BONJOUR. Tips for Learning a New Language Outside the Classroom

by Noemi Arellano-Summer | photos by Carina Lee | design by Solana Chatfield

Language skills are important in today’s global world, but you don’t have to learn them in a classroom. Instead, surround yourself with the language and learn in a more natural way. Here are some helpful steps for picking up a new language off of Commonwealth Ave.

1 2

Read newspapers and magazines in the language.

As you start to pick up the basics, reading the news in the language you want to learn keeps you up to date on the country and sharpens your grammar and vocabulary skills. It’s a way to practice reading without diving into more intimidating pieces, like a novel or textbook.

Change your device settings to the language.

Setting your devices to the language of interest ensures that you see it nearly every day and get familiar with it. Even if all you are learning is technical telephone terms, that’s something you didn’t know before. Just make sure you know how to switch it back!

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3 4

Listen to local music in the language.

While it’s comforting to listen to familiar American music, there’s value in listening to music in the language you are learning.

When you sing along or look up the lyrics, you are learning phrases and colloquialisms that are used by locals, ensuring that you’re acquiring the modern version of the language.

Practice, practice, practice!

Native speakers and locals are your most valuable resource. Trade language lessons with people who want to learn English, chat with people on the street or find a tutor who could use your own expertise in another skill. Whatever you choose to do, make sure you’re practicing—that’s the overall goal.

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77

THE EMERGENCE OF ASIAN REPRESENTATION IN HOLLYWOOD

How the Industry is Striving to be More Inclusive

by Hannah Lee | photos by Anh Nguyen | design by Solana Chatfield

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After the release of the 87th Academy Award nominations on January 15, 2015, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite was formed.

April Reign, managing editor of Broadway Black, first tweeted this phrase to express her frustration about the continuous lack of diversity in the Academy nominations.

While Reign coined this hashtag for the underrepresented black community, it’s also relevant for the Asian community, who also represent a racial minority.

Of the nearly 150 Oscar nominees that year, six were of Asian descent, with only one nominee, Tom Cross, being of Asian-American descent. Cross was also the only individual of Asian descent to win; he was awarded an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for Whiplash.

However, none of these six nominees were nominated for the Big Five Oscar categories, which include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best (Original or Adapted) Screenplay.

Statistically speaking, that means only four percent of that year’s award show was in recognition of artists of Asian descent.

According to the 2018 Hollywood Diversity Report, studies conducted by UCLA’s College of Social Sciences highlight findings of the lack of diversity within Hollywood. In 2016, 86.1% of the industry was represented by white lead actors, with only 13.9% being represented by people of color.

Additionally, from a poll of 1,057 Hollywood actors in cable scripted roles, 28 were of Asian descent—17 men and 11 women.

Though the racial statistics of Asian and Asian-American recognition in the Academy Awards have remained fairly stagnant, the onscreen representation is making headway.

This past year, Netflix released a film adaptation of Jenny Han’s novel To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before starring Lara Condor and Noah Centineo. It became one of Netflix’s most viewed original films, according to an article by Variety, scored a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and received many positive reviews from critics.

The representation of a female Asian protagonist in this romantic comedy is astonishing and atypical alone. The film further stuns the audience when she successfully draws the attention of her crush, an attractive white boy. This representation of an Asian minority was widely received and achieved nods from both the audience and critics.

Searching (2018), starring John Cho, Michelle La and Debra Messing, became the first mainstream Hollywood thriller headlined with an Asian-American actor.

Aneesh Chaganty, an Indian-American, wrote and directed the film as his first feature debut. Searching won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and topped the box office with $75.5 million against a $1 million budget.

Eric Moots (COM ’19), a graduate student studying Television Producing and Management at Boston University, conveyed his hope for representation in the industry.

“After watching Searching, I think what struck me most is I didn’t even notice that it had such great Asian representation,” Moots said. “To me, that’s the end goal: getting to a point where we don’t notice it.”

Additionally, Crazy Rich Asians (2018) topped the box office as the highest-grossing romantic comedy in the past decade. It was also the second film produced by a major Hollywood studio since The Joy Luck Club (1993) to feature a majority Asian-American cast. The representation of an Asian ensemble cast brought excitement to those in the audience who felt their recognition was long overdue since it’s rare to see Asian culture represented on a Hollywood screen.

“Especially in Hollywood, where most onscreen and off-screen actors, directors, screenwriters and filmmakers are white individuals, it’s refreshing to have a minority group be recognized for their artistry,” said David Kim (Questrom ’20). “We’re definitely underrated, and I know a ton of amazing Korean filmmakers who should be awarded not only in their home country

Culture 79

but also in America because America claims to welcome diversity,” he said.

While receiving critical acclaim and holding a Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%, the execution of Crazy Rich Asians was still debatable to some, however.

Sundong Kim (CAS ’20) likes to watch movies and create short video snippets during his leisure time. He explained that while he enjoyed the representation depicted in the film, that was one of the only things he enjoyed about it.

“I thought it was highly overrated; it wasn’t justified as a movie but as a social movement,” said Sundong Kim. “I felt it was graded as a cast, not for the quality of the movie. I guess it is a stepping stone in representation but approached the wrong way.”

Ideally, family and love remain parallel to each other, but, in certain cases, they contradict. The general audience, particularly those not of Asian descent, would recall Crazy Rich Asians as an emotionally feel-good rollercoaster as Nick fights to simultaneously win the approval of his mother and hold onto his love for his

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girlfriend Rachel. However, the meaning of this film differs for individuals who can relate to Nick and Rachel’s story.

Jessica Byun (CAS ’19), an international student from Korea, explained that the film showcases the pressures of dealing with wealth and Asian traditions.

Though she is unable to directly relate, Byun still empathizes with the film on a familiar level, having grown up as an Asian woman with traditional parents.

“We are able to reference this movie with our peers because it’s not only just a movie for Asian-Americans but also for the general public,” said Byun.

For Asian-Americans whose traditions, morals and culture intertwine, Crazy Rich Asians stands as a true representative example of what it’s like to live with status. This is a reality that many Asian and AsianAmerican couples have to deal with.

Alina Woo (COM ’19), a member of BU’s cinematic fraternity Delta Kappa Alpha, is an avid moviegoer who has noticed the improvement in Asian representation but is unsure of the longevity of the progress.

She created the hashtag #AsianAugust to represent the accomplishments in film made in August of last year, including the release of Crazy Rich Asians, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Searching.

“I’m excited about the progress made, but I think there’s still a long way to go,” Woo said. “I’m not entirely sure, yet, if it’s just a temporary fad or if Hollywood is trying to capitalize on the ‘trend’ of Asian Representation. #AsianAugust should be #AsianEveryMonthOfTheYear.”

Other notable accomplishments came from Asian-Canadian actress Sandra Oh and Asian-American actress Nora Lum, known by her stage name Awkwafina. Both women were recognized for making hosting history. Sandra Oh was the first Asian actress to host this year’s Golden Globes alongside co-host Andy Samberg and in October 2018 Awkwafina was the second Asian woman to host SNL after Lucy Liu in 2000.

On the same night, Oh won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress on a Television Series Drama, playing the role of an MI5 officer named Eve Polastri on the television series Killing Eve. She became the second woman of Asian descent to do so and the first Asian individual to win two Golden Globes. She made headlines for her win, as well as her acceptance speech.

After receiving her award, Oh thanked her parents in Korean in front of a majoritywhite audience. This memorable moment acknowledged her Korean background in America, merging both cultures together.

She shamelessly exposed her culture and respected her parents by saying “I love you” in Korean. To some, this symbol of respect represents an Asian tradition.

According to a Huffington Post article published after Oh’s win, she admitted to being surprised after receiving the role of a title character with a white last name. She didn’t expect to win the role of a character with a “non-Asian” last name because “she had internalized the discrimination in the entertainment industry,” and “it deeply, deeply, deeply affects us. It’s like, how does racism define your work?”

In order to create diversity in Hollywood, the industry should recognize minorities in casting of all types of films. While some argue that it is risky to create unfamiliar films with racial minorities, it’s even more problematic to remain stagnant when our society is changing. The research done by the Hollywood Diversity Report uncovers the reality in the industry and it is about time that the percentage of minorities rise to meet the white majority halfway.

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Sexpectations What are Sexpectations and Why Do They Exist?

by Ananya Panchal photo by Noor Nasser design by Valentina Wicki

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Everyone dreams of that perfect The Notebook-esque “first time” experience.

Maybe without the eeriness of an abandoned mansion, but still. The summer romance, the candles, the piano—the whole works.

We dream that everything will turn out in a complete romantic fashion, and we hope that nothing will go wrong or spoil that perfect moment that we are sure is waiting for us.

As a society, we have romanticized and idealized sex through all forms of media. As youth become teenagers, they begin to view more media portrayals of sex. They come to view these dramatized depictions as the norm because it is their only introduction to the topic thus far. Very few of these portrayals, however, are an accurate or helpful representation of reality and thus perpetuate what I would call our sexpectations.

Slang Define describes sexpectations as “the expectations one has regarding sex.” But where do these sexpectations come from? We have grown up watching movies and TV shows and reading books in which the characters have perfect “first time” experiences. However, for most, losing their virginity does not adhere to this glorified ideal, and these depictions can lead to unnecessary worries.

Jamie* (CAS ’22) said her first time was far from what she expected. Everything she had read, seen and heard through media only contributed to making her increasingly nervous and anxious.

“There’s so many portrayals about this whole concept of sex being such a big deal, especially to girls” Jamie said. “In movies, you hear that sex is this super special moment, and there’s always a huge build up. That impacted me a lot.”

For many teens and young adults, sex is somewhat forbidden and taboo both as an act and as a topic of discussion. But with continuous exposure to sex-related content at every corner, the assumptions and attitudes around sex have begun to change.

Kaylee* (CAS ’22) agreed that there shouldn’t be so much “mythos” around sex, and that modern media should portray it in a more realistic way.

“Most movies show that if you’re in love with the person that you’re about to have sex with, it’s going to be perfect because you’re in love, and it’s just going to be natural and you’re going to do the right things and you’ll feel connected,” Kaylee said. “But then I went

When thinking about having sex, think less about how the media has portrayed it. Focus on what you feel comfortable with and what makes you feel safe. Take your time.

into my first time, and it sucked. Not enough media shows that sex ain’t that easy.”

In 2011, the US Department of Health and Human Services released a content analysis showing that of the content airing between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. MST on 10 channels in the 2004–2005 television season, 70 percent of programs contained sexual content.

“Media exposure will influence behavior through shifts in behavioral intentions, which are themselves a function of attitudes, norms and perceptions of selfefficacy acquired through media and other sources,” the study stated.

Shawn* (CAS ’20) said that when he was a 16-year-old, he expected his first time to go a certain way because of all the teen movies he had watched. The reality of losing his virginity, however, was far from his plan.

“Movies like American Pie definitely create an expectation around [sex] and a stigma about when you should lose your virginity,” Shawn said. “[Movies] always have these wild sorts of ‘sex scenes,’ if you will, and I think it could be shown as more realistic so people don’t think it will go a certain way.”

In a similar vein, Jamie emphasized the potential damage of the “perfect” sexual experience that has been ingrained in the minds of youth.

“There’s such an expectation for [sex] to be this perfect thing or maybe even more than perfect,” Jamie said. “[It’s] this thing that’s supposed to happen a specific way and [there’s an expectation of] how two people are supposed to interact. Thinking about what it was supposed to look like, especially when it was about to happen for me, it was totally different than what I expected.”

While several studies have proved a direct correlation between violence in media and child development, there are fewer studies with the correlation between sex and development. However, according to the Journal of National Medical Association, it is reasonable to suppose that if children can learn aggressive

behavior by watching television, some of them should be expected to learn heightened sexual behavior, as well.

“Social Learning Theory suggests that children learn by watching, imitating and assimilating. Television may teach positive or negative messages to children about conflict resolution, gender roles, courtship patterns, and sexual gratification,” the journal observed. “The large quantity of television viewed by youth and the quality of the programming are instrumental in shaping children’s attitudes pertaining to methods of conflict resolution, sexual behavior, drugs and alcohol and stereotypes of men and women.”

Kaylee said she believes violence is “too normalized” in media in ways that sex, on the other hand, should be. Media targeted to teens should show that there is no one perfect way to engage in sexual activity and dispel some of the pressures teens feel to have sex before they are ready.

“With sex, there should be less emphasis on how important it is early on in life,” Kaylee said. “Teen dramas show people having sex so young and portray it as a cornerstone of life, but there shouldn’t be so much pressure on young people to act a certain way or have certain attitudes toward sex. It’s more a mature decision than something you should rush into.”

When thinking about having sex, think less about how the media has portrayed it. Focus on what you feel comfortable with and what makes you feel safe. Take your time. Abandon the sexpectations placed in your mind by outside sources and really center yourself in this place, with just you and your partner. The “right” way to have sex is something you won’t get from the media, but is something you will discover together. *Due to the sensitivity of the topic, source names have been changed.

Culture 83

IN HARMONY A Snapshot of One of the Largest Collegiate A Cappella Scenes

by Vanessa Ullman | illustration by Katie Hong | design by Katie Hong With 13 a cappella groups on campus, you would think that Boston University is basically Pitch Perfect. From on-campus performances to competitions, the talented singers use their voices in harmony in between the hustle and bustle of Commonwealth Ave. From what you have seen or learned, how does BU’s a cappella scene compare to that of other universities?

“The biggest thing […] is the sense of community we have here. There are so many incredible groups at BU that each bring their own special flare to this form of art, and it is really exciting to see friends from other groups appreciate that.”

Solomon Frey (SHA ’21), Vice President of The Treblemakers What is the biggest misconception about a cappella?

“I think the biggest misconception about a cappella is that any song could function well as an a cappella song. Certain songs lend themselves really well to a cappella arrangements, but some songs are really difficult to translate into only voices.”

Greg Bond (CFA ’21), President of In Achord What is your group’s favorite part about performing?

“Getting to share with the world all the hard work we’ve been putting in for months and months. I think it’s really special when we get to perform and finally see all of our hard work being appreciated.”

Paula Segovia (CAS ’19), Business Manager of The Allegrettos

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Why should more people come see a cappella groups perform?

“Each a cappella group has its own unique sound, energy and personality on stage.

The choices they make take pieces from familiar to revitalized, give us a fresh sound and pull in audiences of all ages, musical tastes and backgrounds.”

Amelia Griffiths (CAS ’20), Member of Terpsichore

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FED UP, FIRED UP Demanding Justice, from Classrooms to Campuses

by Anu Sawhney | illustration by Katie Hong | design by Katie Hong

On February 21, 2018, the Attorney General of West Virginia, Patrick Morrisey, sent a stern and clear warning to the teachers of West Virginia who were planning to go on strike in many of the state’s 55 counties.

“This illegal work stoppage affects hundreds of thousands of students and families across our state,” a press release from his office said.

“Our office is prepared to support any relevant state agency or Board with legal remedies they may choose to pursue to uphold the law.”

But back in their classrooms and homes, these teachers had been busy organizing the first statewide strike since 1990. By February 22 of that year, demonstrations began to take place with thousands of participants outside of the Capitol Building. Picket lines formed outside of schools and demanded better pay and working conditions for teachers, according to NPR. Their response to AG Morrisey was resounding in their actions, and the only ones startled by their hostility were those who have not been paying attention to a problem that’s been brewing at the hands of elected officials for decades.

West Virginia had the lowest pay rates for teachers in the nation in 2018, with average salaries ranking at 48th in the U.S., according to the Associated Press. Many teachers in the state relied on federal assistance to make ends meet. However, there was another issue at the core of the battle. With their health premiums soaring, many were waiting with baited breath for a chance to lobby lawmakers directly.

“It’s an insult to every public employee, school teacher and service personnel at how little we value them,” Isaac Sponaugle, a Democratic state official, told West Virginia

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Public Broadcasting. “I’ve compared it to handing out Christmas hams. We’re giving them nothing. Their insurance, we haven’t made it a priority. We haven’t made pay a priority, but we want to cut taxes and continue to cut taxes for businesses.”

Many news outlets were quick to remark that, in fact, the state had never seen labor activism of this kind. By early March 2018, through lobbying alone, teachers had negotiated a 5% pay raise from the state and compelled a ‘Red for Ed’ Movement across the nation. Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky and North Carolina—all Republican-controlled, traditionally “red” states—witnessed teachers turn into activists.

From making meals for students to negotiating on behalf of bus drivers and lunch staff, the labor activism went far beyond the scope of demanding a better pay for their hours on the job. It leaves us with this painful question: why is the influence of partisan politics so strong that this can happen to our schools and our education system?

A poll conducted in April last year by the AP Center for Public Affairs found that 78% of adults in the U.S. think that teachers earn too little. Other surveys also show that support for increase in teacher salaries and benefits are on the rise, but having the majority of support does not always translate into legislation.

Despite the current and prominent political discourse in the U.S., matters such as those of gun violence prevention, health insurance and education reform are not actually that divisive among Americans.

With the number of political movements— from the Women’s March to the March for

Our Lives and the Sunrise Movement— that have amassed in the last year it’s an important time to deliberate on the efficacy of direct political action and understand we can learn from these movements.

Spencer Piston, a professor of political science at Boston University, explained in an email that direct actions are a good way to hold elected officials accountable, since American politics are not immune to legislators acting against the direction of public opinion.

“Policymakers don’t think the issue is important enough to much of the public to threaten their status,” Professor Piston said. “Policymakers think the benefits of rewarding their base will outweigh the costs of going against majority opinion.”

This kind of insight sheds light on the importance of the militancy displayed by rank-and-file teachers in a union, fighting an unjust attack propelled by those who wield their decision-making power in this biased, partisan way. It may also help us understand why people in power often do not address several issues that play a prominent rule in our day-to-day lives.

This understanding is a form of power Owen Woodcock, Minister of the Interior at Divest BU, argues. Divest BU is a group on BU’s campus that has been lobbying BU’s Board of Trustees to make BU divest from fossil fuels since 2012.

An important part of their efforts has been to rally the BU community around the climate crisis and help members realize their role and ability to affect change. It’s not been lost on them that the decision of the administration has a direct consequence on their lives.

“Students support this university financially, and it is only right that we are part of the decision-making process of our university”

“The climate crisis is only getting worse and it is doing so more quickly,” Woodcock explained. “BU itself does a lot of research into the effects of climate change, and we know that fossil fuels are one of the main drivers of this current crisis that threatens the futures of all of the students attending the university.”

The campaign to Divest BU from fossil fuels has involved correspondence between the coalition and BU’s administration, as well as organizing students on campus. Their efforts this semester have revolved around the increasingly grim climate situation, as a UN climate report released last year showed that unless countries take serious preventative measures, the Earth is likely to see catastrophic weather events as early as 2030.

“Students support this university financially, and it is only right that we are part of the decision-making process of our university,” Woodcock said.

“As large, powerful institutions that are inherently forward-looking, universities like BU are perfectly placed to have a really positive impact on our society and our world.”

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MAYBE IT’S TIME TO LET THE OLD WAYS DIE

The Treatment of Women in Music Hasn’t Changed; Is There a Solution?

The music industry hasn’t been very careful with women. Take, for example, the 2018 Grammy Awards. Neil Portnow, the president of the Recording Academy, made the narrowly-minded comment that women needed to “step up” in order to be recognized at the award ceremony.

Those two words, “step up,” led to an avalanche of bad press and an outcry for him to step down. Sheryl Crow tweeted, “I’m not sure it’s about women needing to ‘step up.’” P!nk wrote on Instagram, “Women have been stepping up since the beginning of time.” A group of women executives in the industry even released a joint letter that called for his resignation.

Following Portnow’s now-infamous words, artists, professionals and executives pledged to make the music industry a more welcoming home for women. However, the question remains if those who made that promise have kept their word.

The short answer is: no, the industry has not kept true to its pledge.

The long answer is provided by Stacy Smith, an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Communication and founder and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.

Smith, in an annual report, found across 700 popular songs on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end charts from 2012 to 2018, only 21.7% of artists were female.

What is even more staggering is that songwriter and producers are vastly outnumbered. The study found across seven years, 12.3% of songwriters of the songs were female. The researchers also focused on how many songs were missing a female writer—more than half, 57%, of the 633 songs examined did not credit one woman as a songwriter.

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by Kaylie Felsberg | photo by Anh Nguyen | design by Valentina Wicki

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“Women are shut out of two crucial creative roles in the music industry,” Smith said in a press release. “It was critical to understand what factors contribute to the lack of women songwriters and producers in order to open up more opportunities and create sustainable change.”

The numbers become even more disheartening when turning to producers.

In 2018, only 2% of producers across 400 songs were female. This statistic translates into a gender ratio of 47 male producers to every one female producer.

This number may shock those who do not work within the music industry, but it does not surprise Chrissy Tignor. As a producer, engineer and songwriter, Tignor has worked with artists such as Bastille and Julien Baker, but she has still been asked the question: “so, what if someone calls you a bitch?” by her male bosses and coworkers.

“Although we are making moves in the right direction, there is still an underlying assumption that women cannot perform technology-based jobs as well as men,” Tignor said. “Because of this stereotypical and the lack of visible women as role models in the industry, many young girls assume automatically that they cannot pursue a career of this type.”

While working in London, Tignor had one particular experience that involved a male boss not paying her a salary, but instead buying her a pair of boots.

“One day, I was struggling so badly with money that I could barely afford a bus pass,” Tignor said. “I begged him to pay me, and he responded with ‘soon, soon.’ That same day, he said he would walk me to the bus stop after I worked.”

Tignor continued her boss pointed out shoes to her in a shop window and insisted she try them on.

“I was so shocked, I actually did it,” she said. “He bought them for me after he refused to pay me for my work.”

It’s an instance where the lived experiences of women in music all intersect. Girls, who are just learning about their love of music, are dismissed or discounted. As they continue to emerge, they are continuously stereotyped and sexualized—starting the impediments to their careers.

“When I was young and expressed an interest in music, I was encouraged to sing.

The instrument offered to me was the piano,”

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said Susan Cattaneo, a Boston-based singer and songwriter and an associate professor of songwriting at Berklee College of Music.

“When my brother showed similar interests, he was given a drum set and electric guitar.”

The music business has a strict dichotomy that is set between men and women. For an industry that speaks a liberal tongue, it is woven in a conservative language.

Last year, the former A&R executive of Atlantic Records, who was also the first woman to hold this position, Dorothy Carvello, published the book Anything for a Hit: An A&R Woman’s Story of Surviving the Music Industry. The book chronicled her lengthy career and the multitude of harassment she witnessed which would garner investigative stories in today’s world.

“Whenever I complained about sexual harassment to the president or chairman of a company, I was fired,” Carvello wrote last year. “I was never offered a settlement or given a severance package.”

The sobering Anything for a Hit is a stark reminder that toxic masculine work culture begins at the top and slowly starts to trickle down to the bottom where it then affects everyone else. The book showcases the excess of who has to clean up the mess when said toxic bosses indulge in their worst impulses.

It brings attention to the most recent accusations that have rocked the industry: R. Kelly and Ryan Adams. Both artists have been accused by multiple women whom the men pursued when the girls were young. The men promised them fame and great songs in return for sexual favors.

There is a hierarchy of power and privilege built, making the men who could not resist their urges, untouchable.

“Ryan had a network, too,” singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers wrote in a statement released after The New York Times piece against Adams came out. “Friends, bands, people he worked with. None of them held him accountable.

They told him, by what they said or what they didn’t, that what he was doing was okay.”

In the wake of the R. Kelly scandal, who was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse—to which the singer has pleaded not guilty—his defense lawyer, Steve Greenberg, said, straightfaced, “He’s a rock star. He doesn’t have to have non-consensual sex.”

“For me, the most striking thing about

the Ryan Adams story wasn’t just that those interactions had happened,” said Cattaneo.

“But that the women involved chose to give up their musical aspirations after having their encounters with him. It makes me wonder how many other aspiring female artists at the beginning of their careers decided not to pursue music after similar incidents.”

It’s hard to estimate how many careers Adams and Kelly ruined or destroyed. The recording studio has long been a site of objectification and the perception of women is the stereotypical belief they are without skill.

In the study by Smith, quoted earlier, she found, through interviews with 75 female songwriters and producers, more than 40% stated that their work or skills were dismissed or discounted by colleagues and 39% said that stereotyping and sexualization were impediments to their careers.

Based on these numbers, it is fair to make the claim the industry is a cesspool for tortured artistic geniuses who do whatever, whenever all at the expense of the women. It begs the question of what can, and should, be done to remedy these grueling numbers.

Cattaneo argues the answer is to simply “showcase more female talent. The singersongwriter sees the country genre as “the saddest indicator of where we are” as a nation.

However, besides showcasing, there also need to be mentors whom women in the industry can rely on. It’s been said women cannot rise without men in the music business.

Men aren’t the enemy, but they do have to mentor and train—in the proper way. Or simply in Carvello’s words the industry “needs to close down like Starbucks and do that unconscious gender bias training.”

“It is crucial for those in positions of privilege to support women and all underrepresented genders in this field.

This same is true for race, ability and other protected characteristics,” Tignor said. “Women need to fight every day, but it doesn’t mean we can’t succeed. We just have to keep pushing and paving the way to change the culture.”

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Rising Above The Noise

Piracy and Its Effects on the Music Industry

by Minh Anh Nguyen| photo by Amanda Willis | design by Alicja Wisniowska

In 1999, a music streaming service named Napster came into existence. Founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing internet service, Napster was designed for sharing digital music files. It only took about a year for the music industry to realize the negative effect this new platform had on business. In response, the companies came together to bring Napster down.

Over a dozen record labels, including major players like Warner Brothers, Sony and Universal, filed a lawsuit claiming that Napster was complicit in the rampant theft and infringement taking place online. The service also got tangled in a lawsuit with heavy metal band, Metallica. Napster, unsurprisingly, didn’t win any of its court cases.

However, the concept of the program continues to exist today as one of the many legitimate streaming services. While Napster, functioning as an illegal streaming website, had been shut down, it set off thousands of similar websites that allowed peer-to-peer sharing over torrents.

Music piracy, as defined by The Economic Times as “the copying and distributing copies of a piece music for which the composer, recording artist or copyright-holding record company did not give consent.” Napster gained popularity because most listeners, at that time, did not care to consider the impact piracy had on artists and companies.

Listeners wanted a way to get music as fast as possible and as cheap as possible—a testament that speaks to our time of accessibility.

Piracy is hardly ever driven by rulebreakers; rather, it is often a practice used by people who cannot affordably or easily

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get the content they want. For example, many high school or college students with access to a computer and WiFi. Neil Sadhu, (Questrom ’19), is prime candidate for music piracy as an avid user of the services Pirate Bay and Utorrent.

“I pirate music much less now that I have Spotify,” Sadhu said. “It is usually anything you cannot get on Spotify, like Kanye West, or brand-new releases that aren’t on Spotify yet that I need to have.”

“People don’t like to pay for things when they feel they can get them for ‘free’ with no potential recourse” Over the past ten years, sharing music piracy grew in leaps and bounds and reached dimensions that even governments and institutions were unable to control. A 2018 study by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry found that 38% of consumers are obtaining music through illegal means.

Professor George Howard, who teaches music business and management at Berklee College, attributes the inclination to the lack of “meaningful connection to the content creator.”

“People don’t like to pay for things when they feel they can get them for ‘free’ with no potential recourse,” Professor Howard said.

Digital copyright infringement is not going anywhere. In fact, it is just getting stronger and is one of the most significant challenges facing the music industry. The demand for music streaming will not be declining any time soon, so with it, people will continue to obtain music through any means possible.

The effects of music piracy on record companies’ profits are none to be laughed at.

Often, companies must lay off employees and designate less funding to recruit and develop new talent. Labels are forced to focus their finances and time on already established artists instead of scouting new artists.

“Artists have to make money beyond just the music,” said Cam Meekins, a recording artist and founder of Lamp City Records.

“It’s more about how you can use social media and use your brand to create value.”

The music industry is forced to combat this by adopting new tactics and finding other ways to make a profit outside of music sales. This solution has led to the popularity of tours, selling merchandise and promotional deals. Meekins mentioned that music listening platforms are constantly changing and artists have to be aware of how people listen to music and adapt to it.

Last year, Andy Chatterley, CEO of the British anti-piracy company MUSO, wrote in an Op-Ed for the website musicbusinessworldwide.com, that music piracy might actually pose a “huge revenue opportunity” for artists, labels and distributors if they think of copyright infringers as “highly intentional and committed fans who are willing to go any lengths to find the content they desire” and adjust their strategies to meet their listeners needs.

At the end of the day, no matter which way the recording industry throw the dice, illegal music sharing is still going to rise above all the noise.

Meekins, as an artist but also a listener, suggests right now is “one of the best times to be a fan of music because it’s a lot cheaper than it used to be.” He understands the need to, not only enjoy the music, but listen to it as quickly as possible.

In order to support the smaller, lesser known artists-that flood our spotlight playlists-, it is crucial to keep the music industry alive.

The only requirement of using services like Spotify, Apple Music or Tidal is to pay a small price—a small price that gives these artists the spotlight they so rightfully deserve.

MUSO, a global technology company providing anti-piracy, market analytics, found in 2018 that while music was the third most pirated medium, with a 15.87% share, the U.S. was the nation with the most visits to pirate website with well over 17 billion.

It’s not clear if the music industry will ever find a solution to this ever-evolving problem, but Professor Howard does

offer one, albeit not simple, answer.

“The price of music will never go up.

However, we must endeavor to create more licensing opportunities for artists,” Professor Howard said. “We need, for example, a music database à la the SABRE database for travel, and, thus, a plurality of top-of-stack search services that better connect those who desire to consume or license music with those who create it, with less transaction costs.”

However, the operation of music piracy will always be like polio: beaten back but not quite suppressed for a long time to come.

Music

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A DECADE OF HITS… AND THE BUZZ A Playlist of Songs Turning 10 in 2019 by the Music Team design by Katie Hong illustration by Katie Hong Music is a transitory experience. Hearing a certain song can cause a feeling or place from our past to reemerge in our memories. When the 20 following songs were released, most of us were in the early stages of puberty, desperately trying to relate to “Heartless” by Kanye West and clumsily jazz-handing our way through “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” by Beyoncé.

With The Buzz reaching the big 1-0 this year, the Music team saw it fit to bring you a collection of bangers, bops, ballads and jams that most likely found their way to the gymnasium speakers during the middle school dance where you swore this was the night you would talk to your crush—like we said, music is a transitory experience.

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“Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” by Beyoncé “Fireflies” by Owl City “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift “Best I Ever Had” by Drake “Empire State of Mind (feat.

Alicia Keys)” by Jay-Z “TiK ToK” by Kesha “My Life Would Suck Without You” by Kelly Clarkson “Party in The U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus “Down (feat. Lil Wayne)” by Jay Sean “Day ‘N’ Night” by Kid Cudi “Disturbia” by Rihanna “Obsessed” by Mariah Carey “Gives You Hell” by All American Rejects “One Time” by Justin Bieber “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay “So What” by P!nk “Don’t Trust Me” by 3OH!3 “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon “Heartless” by Kanye West 95

staff

Ariana Quihuiz Editor-in-Chief

Noor Nasser Print Photo Director 96 the buzz

Valentina Wicki Creative Director

Amanda Willis Online Photo Director

Katie Hong Art Director

Ashley Griffin Managing Editor

Caroline Smith Head Copy Editor

Falaknaz Chranya Fashion Shoot Stylist

Mari Andreatta Publisher

Anu Sawhney Opinion Section Editor

Melony Breese-Forcier Fashion Section Editor

Alejandra Aristeguieta Vanessa Xu Marketing Manager Food Section Editor

Noemi Arellano-Summer Geneve Lau Culture Section Editor Campus Section Editor

Kaylie Felsberg Music Section Editor

Vanessa Ullman Travel Section Editor

Staff 97

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