The Dartmouth Mirror 02/27/15

MIRROR 02.27.2015

AN “F-WORD” BUT NOT A CURSE|3

WHEN SISTER SINGS

BY BROTHER|4-5

BODIES, REIMAGINED|6

ARE CAMPUS SPACES GENDERED?|8 Shuoqi Chen/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

2// MIRROR

EDITOR’S NOTE Writing about how gender infiltrates campus life requires nuance, empathy and a willingness to reconsider your most core beliefs.

Thank heavens I am no longer a writer. I would have seriously screwed up a story

on this topic.

Accept a new point of view on a challenging topic?

I’d wilt. Although all my beliefs are poorly formed, I’ll defend them vociferously. Empathy? Maybe not. After all, if I truly cared about other people’s well-being, I could immeasurably improve their lives by terminating this column immediately.

“What about nuance?” my readers pant. “Surely, the Editor values sensible pieces that refuse to accept easy conclusions.”

Or nah. My idea of sophistication is a 200-word listicle slamming a cause célèbre du jour. (Not to mention that the fact that I felt compelled to include two French expressions in one swoop should speak volumes about my writing ability.)

It’s a wonder, then, that campus hasn’t been roiled recently. During the festivities for V-February — an entire month devoted to programming that elicits unusually thoughtful discussions about gender across campus — my viewpoints were loudly expressed.

For you see, kindly reader, I’ve grown into my role as Editor-cum-agent-of-chaos-on-campus (my official byline on the masthead), and I’ve come to relish the venom spat in my direction after the weekly publication of this very column. But as readers settle into a jejune Editor’s Note, their anger has chilled. Time heals all wounds, I suppose — even those incurred when an egomaniac hijacks Page 2 of The Mirror to front his idiotic musings.

Gone — gone! — are the days when I couldn’t even enter One Wheelock without a coffee mug hurled in outrage at my ungroomed visage over my latest column.

Thus your Editor rests not. I was determined to make a splash this week by pronouncing my unfounded views on gender into every nook and cranny on campus.

It was a tragedy. Despite my best efforts, I was not met with anger or dismay. Whenever I uttered an unfounded opinion, my debating partner politely thanked me for raising the point and refuted it considerately.

This Mirror is filled with that sentiment. If you’re like me, and you can’t stand to have your shapeless thoughts met with sophisticated and thoughtful writing, you should steer clear of these pages.

follow @thedmirror

MIRROR R MIRROR EDITOR CHARLIE RAFKIN

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF KATIE McKAY

PUBLISHER JUSTIN LEVINE

EXECUTIVE EDITORS LUKE McCANN JESSICA AVITABILE

How has V-February evolved?

Sex? Identity? It’s Complex.

Identity colors perceptions about students’ sex lives SPOTLIGHT

B y JAMES JIA

Slut, creep, tramp, player — these are all words that have been thrown around to describe students who engage in sexual activity at the College, often in conjunction with those who participate in the perceived hookup culture. For years, activists and students on college campuses across the nation have decried the double standard to which men and women are subjected in relation to their sexual activity — or lack thereof.

Namely, society often censures women who have casual sex, while men are frequently encouraged to do so.

Despite activists’ best efforts, several students said they believe this standard persists at the College.

“Definitely I think girls who sleep around here are called ‘sluts’ or ‘promiscuous,’ whereas guys who sleep around get high fives,” Helen Nam ’17 said. “There’s not that much slut shaming because I would like to think that a lot of us are educated about it, but I think it does happen.”

While gender may often appear as the most prominent factor that determines how students are perceived in regard to their sexual decision, there are various lenses through which we can examine hookup culture at Dartmouth. Other factors such as age, ethnicity and sexual orientation also come into play in determining perceptions of others with respect to the sexual dynamic on campus.

When asked whether age plays a role in dictating impressions of people in the hookup scene, women’s and gender studies lecturer Michael Bronski described his experiences teaching at Harvard University.

“If you look at the finals clubs at Harvard, which are kind of like fraternities, freshmen women have no problem getting invited while freshmen men never get invited — ever,” he said.

The concept of underclassmen women receiving more attention from upperclassmen men is nothing new. In fact, the gender dynamics found within Harvard finals clubs uncannily resemble those that many students said can be found within Dartmouth fraternity basements. This phenomena brings to mind the “Dartmouth X” — a maybe-true, maybenot bit of College apocrypha that dictates that the social value of a male student starts at the lowest possible point and increases over time, while the social value a female student, on the other hand, starts at the highest point and decreases over time. As Bronski’s experience demonstrates, however, this myth does not describe a phenomena unique to the College.

“The Dartmouth totem pole just mirrors

Is Dartmouth hypermasculine?

the sexism in society,” Bronski said.

In terms of hookup culture, there appear to be mixed opinions regarding how upperclassmen and underclassmen are regarded.

Nicole Simineri ’17 said that there is a double standard when it comes to dating younger people. While the word “cougar” describes women who date younger men, she said there is no analogous signifier for men who date younger women.

On the other hand, younger people who find themselves in relationships with older people often face a similar stigma.

“If there’s a freshman girl who’s sleeping around all the time, they come off as too eager,” Nam said. “If a senior girl does it, it’s more acceptable because she’s older and has more experience.”

Nam said she has also observed stereotypes that some races might be “more promiscuous or ‘easy.’”

While the student body includes people from a variety of races, nearly 50 percent of the total enrollment for the 2014 fall term was white. With an unequal representation of various backgrounds, certain groups of students may feel marginalized or unable to fulfill certain expectations because of their race.

“It seems like the closer you are to the white standard of beauty the more desirable you are,” Rashid Alhassan ’16 said. “There’s this ideal that if you’re a minority you are not as good looking, or even if people do find you good looking they might objectify you because of your race.”

Simineri said she, too, thinks that a “white standard of beauty” characterizes sexual norms at the College.

Race, however, is only one of several categories that can affect how one’s sexuality is perceived. Gender non-binary and queer students, for example, may have additional expectations and stereotypes placed on them.

When asked about how perceptions of heterosexual and homosexual hookups differ, Bronski points out that some may choose to ignore the existence of homosexual hookups entirely.

“I think many people might rather not think about it, even though what they do is exactly what heterosexuals might do,” Bronski said.

“They’d rather not think about two men or two women doing it.”

A member of the Class of 2017, who selfidentified as a queer woman but preferred to remain anonymous because she has not come out publicly, said she thinks discussions of queer hookups are trivialized.

Is gender performative?

Once just a week long, now the Excellent question, Judith ButThere’s no question that this place festivities encompass a month’s ler! I’m so glad you asked. Here values masculinity. But it’s also a wor th of events, including mulat The Mirror, we too consider non-traditional masculinity — after tiple performances and panels. In gender to be produced and regulated all men feel comfortable wearing addition to excellent programming, through a constant repetition of aca dress and “prancing” for the they’ve upped their design game. tions. For fear of delving too deep into Salty Dog Rag during trips — Those flashy posters with a capital the production of a heterosexual matrix, and more complex than simply “V” framed by brackets? Positively let’s leave it as a “yes.” You might say that “hypermasculine.” eye-grabbing.

Judith Butler is The Mirror’s patronus.

“The fact that we don’t have an open discussion is problematic,” she said. “I’m in [Sigma Delta sorority] and I’m in a coed, and those are two spaces where it isn’t true, but in general campus life I don’t think [the queer experience is] discussed to the extent that it should be.”

She echoed Bronski, saying that this aversion to openly discussing queer sexuality may be because it’s an uncomfortable topic that people would rather avoid.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily because people are bigoted,” she said. “People just don’t want to make things awkward.”

Ivan Hess ’15, who identifies as gay, said society perceives queer people to hook up more frequently, although he noted that he was wary of issuing generalized comments about Dartmouth culture.

“I will say that in our society queer people are perceived to be promiscuous and that does carry over into Dartmouth,” Hess said.

Simineri noted that it’s much harder for non-heterosexual people to meet potential romantic or sexual partners.

“Homosexuals need a doorway into that community, while heterosexual hookups or relationships can happen anywhere,” Simineri said.

This dynamic also comes into play within the Greek system, and several interviewed noted that the system as a whole often prioritizes certain identities. Most Greek houses, students said, cater to heterosexual students, which can often leave queer students feeling uncomfortable or marginalized.

As a result, Greek life can, at times, be uncomfortable or awkward for queer students.

“There’s such a system that strongly benefits young girls and affiliated men that really facilitates hookup culture for those two groups assuming they’re straight,” the anonymous member of the class of 2017 said. “Freshman pong was awkward for me because the assumption is that you play pong with a brother and something will happen as a result of that. There’s this whole layer of stuff going on about not leading people on while trying to be social.”

For Bronski, the complex identity politics that govern sex at the College are only brought into focus because the intercourse occurs in a tiny New Hampshire town.

“I’m sure people at Columbia [University] have as much sex as people do here, but it’s all over the Upper West Side, not two blocks,” Bronski said.

Simineri is a contributing columnist for The Dartmouth opinion section.

An “F” Word, But Not A Curse The meaning of feminism, here and elsewhere, is not easy to pin down SPOTLIGHT

B y Sam Forstner

As one of the last Ivy League institutions to become coeducational, women have only been members of Dartmouth’s graduating classes for 42 years. For 15 of those years, the celebration of V-Week — now extended to VFebruar y — has sought to bring to light issues of gender equality, sexual violence and various aspects of life that are affected by one’s gender identity to light.

Contemporar y feminist discourse and ideology has influenced many aspects of V-Feb, par ticularly the programming’s emphasis on the intersection of gender with other facets of identity like race, sexual orientation and religion. For example, V-Feb’s “Trans* Women Day of Visibility,” which occurred Feb. 11, highlighted how gender identity influences the discourse of a marginalized group.

As feminist theor y continues to develop, it also has begun to address individuals who may identify outside of the traditional gender binar y, discussing how transgender or genderqueer individuals are influenced by these various categories of identity.

Julie Solomon ’17, a self-identified feminist, said that dialogue around the purpose and definitions of feminism is most prevalent — or at least most visible — at the College during V-Feb. Solomon said this isn’t the only time the topic comes to light, however, and she believes that feminism has become more prevalent on campus in general.

This, she said, is a result of American culture’s growing tendency to embrace the ideology of equality among all sexes and genders.

“People in 2015 feel safer saying ‘I’m a feminist,’” Solomon said.

While many students may identify as feminists, there is certainly a discrepancy in how students define the term. This disparity is not limited to students at the College, however, as even within the feminist movement and feminist academic circles, the word seems to cover a broad spectrum of beliefs and ideas. Students, therefore, must often determine for themselves what it means to be a feminist.

Histor y and women’s and gender studies professor Annelise Orleck wrote in an email that definitions of feminism var y widely, and in her experience many students who have had academic training in areas that study inequality through a critical lens perceive the term no differently than many faculty. For students without this background, however, she wrote that there can be a much wider gap between how students perceive the feminist movement and how academics and activists view it.

Nicole Collins ’16 said that feminism’s definition differs widely.

It can mean anything from being active in various campaigns across campus to believing in equality in the most basic sense. For her, she said that the most important aspect is simply “not not being a feminist.”

Collins said, however, that she sees a divide at the College between what she calls “true feminists” and those who buy into the movement as a fad.

“Being a feminist at Dartmouth can mean anything from ‘I took one women’s and gender studies class, and now I feel really good about myself’ to actually being active in support of various causes,” Collins said.

Still, you don’t have to understand the minute dif ferences between the ideologies of Judith Butler and Martha Nussbaum to wrap your head around feminism, Solomon said.

“Saying ‘I’m a feminist’ just means you care about your own rights and empowerment,” she said.

Collins added that it is only once we get past the various stigmas around the term that we will have the opportunity to show people the perspectives they are not seeing.

“Feminism has an opportunity to show people where their privileges are and what they are blind to,” Collins said.

Amara Ihionu ’17 said she also obser ves a rift between those who are feminists in theor y and feminists in practice.

“Putting our ideas into practice isn’t happening as much as it should,” Ihionu said. “I wish we saw more physical action.”

Margot Yecies ’15 has taken action — she directed this year’s Vagina Monologues.

Yecies said that she firmly believes women have still not reached equality at the College.

“The fact that there are women who say they feel unsafe in certain places on campus, women who experience sexual violence and women who feel discriminated against in the classroom and other places on campus makes it relatively obvious that we have not achieved equality,” Yecies said.

Those inter viewed emphasized that there are some spaces on campus that reinforce and inequality between genders.

Ihionu said the simple fact that Greek life separates males and females is problematic, and she believes that having most events that ser ve alcohol and are hosted in male-dominated spaces are evidence of this problem.

Despite this emphasis on gendered spaces, campus feminists are not necessarily opposed to Greek life or any particular aspect of the system that is in place at the

College.

Solomon is a member of Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority, which is local. She said that local sororities do not follow what she called the “outdated” rules of their national organizations.

“A lot of what we do is influenced by our desire to empower women on campus,” Solomon said.

Solomon said that being a feminist might lead people at Dartmouth to believe you have certain preconceived ideas about social life.

She said she has had interactions with those outside her friend group that she considers “shocking and frustrating.”

Collins said she’s seen a great deal of fraternity members who are receptive to and well-versed in feminist ideology — but she’s also seen examples of students whose views stand in direct opposition to those promoted by feminism.

Solomon said there also seems to be a relatively per vasive discrepancy between how people align themselves in public and how they actually speak and behave in private.

“It’s all underground,” she said. “On the surface people are ver y accepting, but on Bored at Baker and Yik Yak, there’s a lot of underground misogyny.”

For those who do not necessarily align with the ideals of the movement, feminism is also often construed as male-bashing or a campaign for feminine dominance.

On this campus, many feminists inter viewed expressed a desire to make known that this is not the case.

Chris Gallerani ’15 said he thinks some women and men might be hesitant to align themselves with feminism for fear of being seen as someone who hates men.

“There’s a stigma that all feminists at Dartmouth want to abolish the Greek system and think all men are rapists, which is not true,” Gallerani said.

Though many only consider binar y notions of gender when analyzing or critiquing feminism, the intersection of feminism with race and other forms of identity fur ther complicates the movement.

This focus on the intersection of identities and the effects this can have on individuals and large groups, Orleck wrote, is an integral aspect of feminism.

Orleck wrote that feminist theories link inequality with investigations of how various aspects of identity align with gender. She further noted that feminism also seeks social justice through political movements.

Ihionu, who is black, said she feels that this intersection is almost always neglected at Dartmouth.

“I can’t choose between my womanness and my blackness,” she said. “They are inseparable.”

Gallerani, who identifies as queer, said that in addition to race, it’s important to recognize queer rights and minority rights as they relate to feminism and women’s rights.

Collins said the fact that there are fewer female professors is evidence that women “haven’t been in the game as long.”

“Women have not had a place here for long, and I don’t think we’ve been allowed to forget it,” Collins said.

Solomon echoed the sentiment that progress requires time. She added, though, that she thinks bias toward the status quo can hinder progress.

“It’s just time,” she said. “Everyone loves tradition at Dartmouth.”

MIRROR //3

THE D RUNS THE

NUMBERS 4

The number of panel discussions held under V-Feb.

37 The number of synonyms for the word “vagina” that “The Vagina Monologues” mentions in the introduction for the 2008 version.

31

The percent of female faculty m e m b e r s at Harvard University in fall 2011.

39 The percent of the College’s total faculty who were female in fall 2013

36

The number of people who participated in this year ’s “ Voices” performance.

Tiffany Zhai/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

This week’s Mirror Photo Essay explores how gender affects performance groups.

MIRROR //5

4// MIRROR

When “Sister Sings By Brother.” Or Not. Greek spaces aren’t the only places on campus where gender makes an imprint SPOTLIGHT

B y caroline berens

It’s early December. You’re relieved that finals are over. You’ve been restored by a Thanksgiving feast, and you’re looking forward to gifts and family time over the coming holidays.

Like many of Dartmouth’s performance groups, the Dodecaphonics — one of the College’s coed a cappella groups — goes on tour during the early weeks of the winter interim to spread the holiday spirit by performing in various cities and towns nationwide.

Among the numerous travel considerations — including pinning down venues and sight-seeing opportunities as well as meeting Dartmouth alumni — one element remains crucial: sleeping arrangements.

While some of the group’s members may have considered the coed nature at length while others have simply never given it a second thought, the prospect of traveling and living together for a short time puts this aspect of the Dodecs on the forefront. The mix of genders is accentuated during traveling as gender-specific rooms are designated for each of the members.

Rory Page ’16, a member of the Dodecs, said that this is one of the few times he sees the gender lines in the a cappella group.

“Gender comes in a lot when we’re figuring out people sleeping in the same room — sharing beds, sharing showers, things like that,” Page said. “We try to be sensitive to it.”

Although Dartmouth’s Greek life is often the first social activity that comes to mind when considering gender-specific groups on campus, other activities frequently organize themselves along the gender binary.

With the exception of many gender-specific a cappella groups, like the Dartmouth Aires or the Rockapellas, the majority of Dartmouth’s performance groups are like the Dodecs, which welcomes students of all genders. Yet, while many of these groups might be gender-inclusive, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the effects of gender are erased.

“I think gender plays a role in everything we do, whether we like it or not,” Page said.

Page said that the Dodecs — currently balanced evenly between eight men and eight women — do not have a quota when admitting people to the group during auditions.

“We keep balance in mind, but mainly we assess what we need for the group and what the pool of people auditioning look like,” Page said, adding that the group typically accepts two men and two women each fall.

Page also that the Dodecs’ genderinclusive nature was part of what initially attracted him to the group during a cappella auditions his freshman year. He said that part of the Dodecs’ pitch was their ability to provide a unique experience, as there are innumerable opportunities for all-male activities, including joining a fraternity or living with a male roommate.

It can be easy to insulate yourself with one gender, one sex and one perspective, but the Dodecs, they argued, could help.

“I got this pitch that I can have ‘bro-y’ experience with a frat. It’s easily done and there are many places to do that,” Page said.

“But this would give me a chance outside of that, to get more flexibility in range and sound to build more valuable experiences.”

Max Gottschall ’15, a member of both

the Aires and a single-sex fraternity, echoed the idea that all-male performance groups can be similar to fraternities and said some things are done in a “masculine” sort of way at the Aires. He cited a group within the Aires that exercises together, which he said stems from the group’s masculine identity, and he noted that members often discuss fitness and alcohol use.

“A disadvantage [of having an all-male group] is that any time you get a bunch of guys together, you probably will get some hyper-masculinization,” Gottschall said.

Chris Gallerani ’15, also a member of the Aires, had a somewhat similar opinion on how gender affects the group.

“Any time you’re in a monosexual environment, gender dynamics will play a role in your interactions,” Gallerani said. “For example, there are things males might be more comfortable speaking about with other males.”

Savannah Maher ’17 is a member of the Rockapellas, an all-female a cappella group.

She said she has noticed that gender especially influences dynamics within all-female and all-male groups during the fall when they accept new members.

“From what I can tell, when all-male groups get new members it tends to be more intense — a little like a frat — whereas for us it’s very relaxed and definitely about making everyone feel welcome,” Maher said, although she noted that male groups also hope to make new members feel welcome.

Colin Walmsley ’15, a member of the allmale a cappella group the Brovertones, said gender roles will exist in almost any group.

Walmsley said, however, that he believes some aspects of a cappella defy gender stereotypes, even in single-sex groups.

“A cappella provides a comfortable space to discuss and share things that you might not discuss with other guys,” Walmsley said.

“Gender stereotypes exist that say that it’s not okay to say, feel or do certain things if you’re a guy, and I think a cappella brings guys closer together and loosens those stereotypes.”

Yet, while the gender makeup of a group can affect its social and personal dynamics, it’s also an important facet of the group’s musical identity. Gallerani said that the allmale aspect of the Brovertones affects its ranges of sound and sometimes campus’s perception of the group in comparison to all-female or coed groups.

“There is sometimes a stigma in a cappella that all-male groups have an advantage over all-female groups — or even sound better — because we have a wider range of sound,” Gallerani said.

Dodecs member Aver y Feingold ’17 echoed a similar concern for the group’s vocal sound, and he said that the coed group must keep balance in mind when considering their sound.

“There is almost a little bias towards accepting more male members, because there is some bias for the idea that in a mixed gender group you end up with a fuller sound if there’s a stronger lower register,” he said.

With this in mind, however, he noted that it rarely poses an issue for the Dodecs in considering who they will accept in each new class.

For Feingold, gender makes itself apparent once one evaluates the group’s

leadership. Perhaps due to self-selection or underlying intentional bias, he said the leadership tends to appear more gendered, often with a male business manager, for example.

He also noted that men sometimes dominate discussion.

“In terms of male/female dominance, I’d say all mixed-gender groups are male dominated in conversation,” Feingold said.

He qualified his statement, adding that, “We have a lot of women who are comfortable making their voices heard in the group.”

Feingold is also a member of the Rude Mechanicals, a gender-inclusive theater group that performs Shakespearean plays.

While the group is roughly two-thirds female, he said it is similarly affected by gender dynamics.

“Many people who are often comfortable speaking the loudest are males, which is true in essentially any group of men or women,” Feingold said. “It could even be the fact that there are fewer men — thus, less competition for men — that exaggerates this.”

Feingold explained that the Rude Mechanicals are subject to an interesting historical intersection with gender and performance, as Shakespearean roles were played by all males during the Elizabethan Era. Today, the group often “gender-bends,” which means that women take on male roles or (more rarely) vice versa.

Theater and women’s and gender studies lecturer Aaron Thomas explained that gender-bending is common in performances of Shakespeare’s plays and that there are three different methods of the practice.

“One way is to change the gender of a role completely — Horatio becomes Horatia, for example,” Thomas explained. “Another way is you could have a woman pretend to be a man, do drag performance — a woman pretends to be the man playing Horatio.”

The last method, Thomas explained, is less common but consists of having women play male roles but not pretending to be males at all — someone will call the actress “Father” for example, but the person is clearly presenting as a woman.

Feingold explained that he thinks it’s possible for some women in the Rude Mechanicals to feel frustrated sometimes.

Shakespeare’s works tend to feature fewer strong female characters, and with a group that has more female members, that can often make the process for doling out roles very competitive.

“Although most women have no problem playing a male role, it can cause frustration if you have a senior woman who has never played a female role,” he said.

Luke Katler ’15, a member of the Rude Mechanicals, said he gives the group’s gender dynamics little thought.

“We don’t really focus on gender as much as the individual personalities of people in the group,” he explained. “I think everything is contingent on personalities of those involved — there are some people who are naturally more submissive, some who are naturally more outspoken.”

Katler also noted that the president of the group is a woman, so he feels that the influence of gender is fairly evenly dispersed.

“It’s a completely coed group, and I don’t give the ratio that much thought,” he said.

“We cross-cast often — males play female

roles, female play male roles. Everything is largely contingent upon the cast’s gender makeup and the play.” Katler emphasized, though, that he speaks for himself and not the entirety of the Rude Mechanicals.

Connor Lehan ’18, a member of Casual Thursday, an improv group, said he has had a similar experience with gender in his group.

“The president of the group is a girl, and a lot of the seniors are girls,” Lehan said. “I’d say it’s pretty balanced in terms of leadership and male roles.”

In fact, Casual Thursday has one more female than male in the group this term, an unusual distribution in the often maledominated realm of improv comedy.

Lehan noted, however, that this makeup is not common for Casual Thursday — it’s the first time that there are more men than women in the group’s history.

Lehan said that gender often goes unnoticed because in improv — somewhat like Shakespearian gender-bending — females will often play male roles and vice versa.

“I play girls. Girls play boys. It’s all very spur of the moment and mixed, and all very imaginative and creative — you can be anyone,” Lehan said.

Lehan said that the only times he’s very aware of Casual Thursday’s gender-inclusive nature is when the group is spending time together socially, outside of a performance setting. He said these moments allow him to see how many different social spaces the group’s members encompass, which can often reflect the mix of genders among the students.

He also noted that the group has strong feminist views, and that overall, “there is good representation on both sides.”

Libby Goldman ’18, another member of Casual Thursday, agreed with Lehan.

“Honestly I’ve never thought about gender in Casual Thursday,” Goldman said. “I think it’s equal and balanced.”

Goldman said that the group could hypothetically be dominated by the male members as there are more upperclassmen males than females. Older members, she said, tend to be better at improv than freshman purely by virtue of having more experience in the group and thus could take more control of the group. Such a dynamic, however, doesn’t play a role in how the group functions, she said.

In terms of the humor of the group — namely, whether it can be gendered or if one gender can get away with a certain type of humor more than the other — Goldman maintained that gender has little effect on the group’s comedic style.

“We’ve definitely had instances where people make inappropriate jokes, but we try to establish what’s okay to say and what’s not, and if someone’s uncomfortable with something,” she explained.

She said that gender, though, is irrelevant to the humor.

Regardless of the role that gender plays for coed performance groups, Gottschall said performing brings about unique friendships and can even transcend gender.

“Especially when we sing the alma mater with a female group, that line, ‘stand as sister stand by brother,’ that really hits in a different way,” he said.

Anthony Chicaiza/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

6// MIRROR

Bodies, Reimagined STORY

B y victoria nelsen

“Please cross the line if you have ever felt uncomfortable with your body.”

The entire group of women stepped into the circle.

The group’s affiliation is meaningless in this case. I have led this facilitation five times with various groups of self-identifying women, both at Dartmouth and beyond, and this prompt is the only one in which 100 percent of women cross the line each and every time I facilitate the exercise.

It is no secret that we are not always taught to love our bodies. Bombarded by the images of mass media, from magazine covers to children’s dolls, we often idolize a peculiar notion of beauty that elevates a figure that is slim — but not too slim — above all else.

According to Spanish professor Israel Reyes, who also teaches courses in the women’s and gender studies department, the idealized body image for both men and women in the West is an athletic build. For men, that means a larger size and a muscular build, while the standard for beauty for women is smaller and skinnier.

Several students interviewed said that the idealized body image at the College varies slightly from the one often perpetuated in mass media.

Eating Disorder Peer Advisor Bridget Lynn ’15 said that she feels that Dartmouth’s culture often values health and fitness, which sometimes translates into unhealthy behaviors.

“It’s not a desire to be thin but a desire to be healthy,” Lynn said. “It’s harder to detect the problem [when unhealthy behaviors arise].”

As a result, when people do exhibit unhealthy behavior, they can cloak a disorder behind a veneer of fitness and dieting. For people who don’t meet Dartmouth’s standards of fitness, it is easy to become discouraged and self-conscious.

Coordinator of nutrition programs and mental health counselor Claudette Peck said that many students come to Dartmouth with preformed notions of body image. She said that sometimes these ideas change, and students try to fit into what they believe the College expects of them.

“A certain weight doesn’t equate healthy,” Peck said. “Healthy is about all of you being healthy, including your mind.”

Lizzy Southwell ’15 said she suffered from an eating disorder for a year and a half when she was in high school. It began with a diet and exercise, but after receiving positive feedback, it escalated into something more dangerous. She said she became obsessed with counting calories and was easily able to hide the fact that she was struggling from others.

By the time Southwell arrived at the College, many would have considered her to be recovered, but she still was not completely stable. She said a two-year relationship allowed her to get to her current healthy state.

“I’m definitely in a much better place even than I was when I started at Dartmouth,” Southwell said. “I definitely think that Dartmouth, in terms of bodies and general attractiveness, is not like the rest of the world.”

Southwell said that there is an emphasis on being your best in every capacity at Dartmouth, which can be healthy in some ways and unhealthy in others.

To help improve body image on campus, Southwell said it is important to encourage a healthy view of exercise, create more forums for people to discuss the issue and provide safe spaces and communities for people to talk about the topic.

Lynn added that a high-achieving and fastpaced environment can result in problems with eating habits and body image. Though Lynn said that issues with one’s body image can be easier to hide on a fit campus, she emphasized that topics of how people perceive their own

bodies are still prevalent on this campus. As an EDPA, she advises several students each term on concerns with eating disorders, exercise and nutrition.

Delta Delta Delta sorority’s body image coordinator Mandy Martin ’15 said that the level of physical activity among many students is both a blessing and a curse. Though it leads to a healthy lifestyle for some, it can intimidate others, Martin said.

The national chapter of Tri-Delt requires a body image coordinator position, and Martin said that she is in charge of the sorority’s Fat Free Talk, a week each October dedicated to promoting healthy body images with various programming, including guest speakers.

As body image coordinator, Martin also serves as an advisor in the house on issues of body image and self-perception, and she believes that spreading awareness of the pervasiveness of the issue is important.

Despite the stereotype that only women grapple with body image, Peck said men struggle with body image as much as women, though they often don’t verbalize it in the same way or make use of the same resources.

Peck said that many factors affect one’s body image, including race, socioeconomic background, family dynamics and gender. She noted that people begin thinking about their bodies very early in their lives.

While it affects nearly every student in some facet, body image has a particular resonance in the Greek system. Panhellenic Council president Rachel Funk ’15 said that women who fit a stereotypical image of beauty tend to succeed in sorority recruitment more than others.

“We obviously can’t quantify that,” Funk said.

“It’s just based on how we see things shaking out.”

Still, Funk said that the College’s recruitment process is more informal than other universities, so body image might be less central here than elsewhere. She added that Greek houses can provide safe spaces for men and women to discuss concerns they have about their own body image.

Funk said that many of Dartmouth’s traditions outside of the Greek system can exclude people because of their body or fitness level, citing First Year Trips and the Homecoming bonfire.

One event that strives to disrupt body image norms on campus is Tabard coed fraternity’s Lingerie, an event that occurs each big weekend that Tabard president Connie Gong ’15 described as a combination of a runway show, dance performance and more. Gong said that the performances range in discipline, and performers are given the opportunity to be as clothed or unclothed as they like.

Gong said that Tabard discourages any disrespect for the performers. The house, she said, hopes to construct a place where people can feel free of their inhibitions and refrain from judgment of themselves and others.

Gong performed every term during her sophomore year but has not performed since.

“It was very liberating,” Gong said. “Having done that and knowing that I have the capability of doing that has led me to be a lot less self-conscious in my day-to-day life.”

Lynn said that EDPAs have been taking a new approach to combating body image issues this year. Instead of organizing events, which are not often well-attended, the focus is now on building more peer-to-peer relationships.

These relationships, she said, are facilitated by the wellness office’s new programs, Thriving@ Dartmouth and Thriving Together.

Thriving@Dartmouth, which offers students a P.E. credit, is a an eight-week program that focuses on an interactive and experiential way to

Alison Guh/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

teach students about wellness. Thriving Together is aimed at students with an interest in being peer advisors for issues like body image and drug and alcohol use, and the program’s goal is to equip students with the skills to support peers on issues of wellness. Both programs are aimed at a holistic approach, hoping to facilitate students physical, emotional and social health, among other aspects.

A major strength of the programs, Lynn said, is that they suggest small shifts in students’ lives — they meet students where they are.

Chris Meyer ’17 said that constructions of body image at Dartmouth are so implicit that he is unsure whether he has ever heard a conversation about it. He said that men are either supposed to be muscular and athletic “superheroes” or “frat stars” with receding hairlines and beer guts.

Center for Gender and Student Engagement men’s project fellow Logan Henderson ’17 said that men do not usually discuss body image on campus. He said not fitting the typical masculine body type might be alienating and hurtful — though it might only be seen regularly through NARP jokes.

Gender is not the only identity that intersects with body image. Reyes said that both race and socioeconomic class can impact body image. He said that African American and Latina women, for example, are often more curvaceous, and their body types do not normally fit within a dominant

culture that glorifies a petite frame.

Reyes said this can often lead to a more difficult struggle toward body acceptance but that a larger representation of women of color in the media have provided more positive body images that don’t align with more traditional ideas of beauty.

He cited Jennifer Lopez and Michelle Obama as examples.

Peck said that body image can vary by race based on different cultural idols and different ideas of traditional beauty.

Across racial lines, men tend to value a more similar body type, Reyes said. He added that socioeconomic class affects people of all genders because access to healthy foods is often limited for people of lower classes, both through economic and geographical availability.

Lynn believes that a shift in one’s mindset is necessary to address the problematic ideal of what the body should look like on the College’s campus. She suggests refraining from commenting on people’s appearances and from competing conversationally about fitness and healthy eating.

She added that this issue is not independent of others, stressing the importance of mental health overall.

“A lot of times, eating disorders are borne from desire for control,” Lynn said. “I don’t think all these issues are discrete things. There’s a lot of overlap and cause and effect between all of them.”

FRIDAYS WITH MARIAN

MIRROR //7

BOOTS AND RALLIES COLUMN

By Aaron Pellowski

COLUMN By Marian Lurio

John Travolta needs to keep his hands to himself. What is he trying to prove? We all know your only type is male masseurs, J.T. Travolta just couldn’t keep his hands — and lips — off of Scarlett Johansson, creeping up on her from behind on the Oscars red carpet. He puts Vice President Joe Biden to shame. (What would Joe’s Somali cab driver friends have to say about this?)

As if to redeem himself from having called her the “wickedly talented, one and only, Adele Dazheem” at last year’s Oscars, Travolta presented on stage with Idina Menzel and held onto her chin for dear life. I’d like to caress Travolta’s makeup-laden face and smooth his penciled-in brows. But I truly hope I never come that close to J.T. Speaking of eyebrows and unwanted [nuclear] advances, have you seen our friend Kim Jongun’s hot new look? Seems like someone needs a new cosmetologist. I once lost half of my right eyebrow — temporarily — in an unfortunate waxing incident. My advice? Just fill them in like John Travolta. K.J.U.’s new haircut does, however, frame his face beautifully.

Chris Brown has been denied entrance to Canada, the country that has produced such class acts as Nickelback and Justin Bieber. Chad Kroeger, Nickelback’s lead vocalist and guitarist as well as fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne’s current husband, threw some shade at the Biebs.

Kroeger told some obscure news source (i.e.

I’ve never heard of it, so it’s trash) that Bieber’s life choices are unfortunate. I’ll tell you what else is unfortunate, Chad — those untrimmed golden brown locks don’t look as great on a man of 40 . One can only assume that U.S. secret intelligence protocol for torturing enemies of the state involves playing a continuous loop of Nickelback songs until the prisoner snaps. No waterboarding or bamboo shoots needed! Take that, ISIS! Their critically-acclaimed 2008 album, “Dark Horse, included the song “S.E.X” as well as the song “Something in Your Mouth.”

“Animals,” the unforgettable banger from the 2005 album, “All the Right Reasons,” includes the lines “Your mom don’t know that you were missing / She’d be pissed if she could see the parts of you that I’ve been kissing.”

Scandalous!

Benji Madden, who recently wed Cameron Diaz, revealed his newest ink. He’s not the only one embarrassing himself publicly or doing something he will undoubtedly regret when the marriage crumbles in T-6 months, though, and this newly revealed tattoo is not the only vomit-

inducing declaration of love I’ve seen recently.

I am, of course, referring to the couples photos that appeared in this very publication two weeks ago.

Michael Phelps is also engaged to the former Miss California, but he’s a total freak so I really don’t want to waste column space talking about that.

One more crazy Canadian to talk about — former Toronto mayor Rob Ford. Ford has recently put a variety of novelty items up on eBay, some of which include a sign that reads “Keep calm and carry on” and a pair of his pajama pants.

Unfortunately, there are no crack pipes up for sale yet. He has, however, listed the tie he wore for his crack confession speech!

He puts some of our hopeful politicos to shame, and he was actually elected. Oh, Canada.

Onto the craziest, most delusional U.S. citizen of them all — Kanye West. He may have just debuted his fashion line, but West is the ultimate renaissance man (and married to Kim Kardashian who leaves no business stone unturned) so it should come as no surprise that he’s already moved onto a new frontier. West has just announced that he is in the process of creating a video game in which the sole objective is to guide his mother Donda West (R.I.P.) through the gates of Heaven. Can’t wait for it to hit stores!

Some of the Kardashians (Kim, North/Nori, Khloe and Kylie) — sans Kanye — drove their Yukon GMC into a ditch in Montana. Luckily for them, they didn’t cause a fatal accident like stepfather/ father Bruce Jenner (which happened exactly two weeks earlier). As a quick aside, congrats to little 17-year-old Kylie for buying herself a multimillion-dollar mansion!

I’m sure people find me to be similar in raw talent and beauty to many Academy Award winners, but I’ve found I’m quite similar to a certain business tycoon. This is because we both have been known to eat ice cream for breakfast (sorry, Mom). While I’ve never been to Omaha, Nebraska, Warren Buffet and I simply must be related (although I think I do prefer a more lavish lifestyle). It’s going to be hard to walk in the familial footsteps of the greatest investor of the twentieth century (thanks, Wikipedia!), but some brilliant individual with the business acumen that only comes once in a generation (so there is someone in the generation between me, a 21-year-old lass and my 84-year-old kindred spirit) must step up.

In case I haven’t made it abundantly clear, that someone is Phil.

I’ve always illustrated my personal taxonomy of jerks with the example of the equestrian statue. The first tier of jerks — i.e. people who are not jerks at all — will simply holler, “Hey, look at that cool statue of a fellow riding a horse!” At this point there’s likely some dude who pipes up with the following factoid: “Did you guys know that if you look at an equestrian statue, you can tell how its rider died by looking at how many of its legs are raised in the air?”

This kind of jerk — the tier-two jerk — often overlaps with how I’d define a nerd. A nerd, especially a history nerd, is an odious sort of imp who does not look to the chronicles of human events in order to discern sublime truths of power, passion and political life. Rather, the history nerd views history as an endless series of interesting facts, details to be collected and presented in social contexts as a substitute for a personality. This nerd probably spent his or her youth doing things like “reading the dictionary” or wearing those glasses that turn dark automatically in the sunlight. On their own, none of these traits inherently breeds an individual who poses hazards to anyone but themselves.

It is when they emerge in the world of human interactions that we find the Jerknerd, who peppers conversation with needless trivia in order to hook as much attention toward himself as possible. Tragically, since he is in possession of no original ideas, insights or anecdotes, he is unable to sustain any of this attention except with more trivia (“Hey, do you know what a ‘sesquipedalian’ is?”), leaving his audience feeling hungry and cheated.

There are plenty more subtypes of tier-two jerks beyond the Jerknerd, but I’m choosing to focus on him because it is with him that I have acquired the most experience. The essential characteristic — whether it is a matter of empty pretension in history, fashion, social justice or what-have-you — has to do with making a selfish grab for attention or respect without reciprocating in any way. The third and final tier of jerks, Hero-Jerks, are the jerks society needs but does not necessarily deserve. This is the guy, sensing the moment of his peers’ awe at the Jerknerd’s unveiling of the fascinating facts of horse-hooves encoding types of death, who is quick to shut it down by exclaiming

“Actually, that thing about horse-hooves is a myth. And you’d know that, Jerry” — Jerry is our Jerknerd — “if you’d actually read a real book someday instead of getting all your knowledge from popsicle sticks.”

Brimming with smugness and righteous nimbus, the Hero-Jerk has in fact done a service to his friends by stoppering the flow of misinformation and, hopefully, discouraging the Jerknerd from ever again speaking of that which he knows not. Yet there is anyway a lingering feeling that the former has somehow done something mean or cruel.

This framework has structured my quest to become an Interesting Person with multiple dimensions of fear. I don’t want to be or be perceived as any of the types of jerk: the ignorant, the pretentious or the punisher of the pretentious. Frequently, though, the situation leaves one with little choice. All one can do is adapt one’s conduct in order to disguise what kind of jerk one happens to be at the moment.

Even this has its shortcomings. You can pretend to be knowledgeable if you’re afraid of being perceived as some ignorant jerk, but then you run the risk of transforming into a Jerknerd who doesn’t have any fundamental understanding of the topic at hand. You can try to avoid that snafu by being extra-cautious when it comes to asserting your intellectual prowess in social environments, but then you’re just whipping yourself in the form of a HeroJerk from the inside out. You will cringe under simultaneous feelings of anger, discomfort and sympathy when you see Jerknerds in action, spitting out dumb junk to a cluster of listeners, knowing that he or she is damaging people with bad thinking. Simultaneously you also worry that you are, have been or will be that person, such that calling them out would not just enact their humiliation but your own hypocrisy.

It is thus the case, in the event that you happen upon an equestrian statue or some other such large-scale curio, that one has any choice about leading an authentic existence or avoiding ethically problematic actions.

Therefore I conclude that we ought to collectively agree to limit our conversation exclusively to sports and the weather, and we may all sleep more easily.

8// MIRROR

Are Campus Spaces Gendered?

Your faithful reporter discovers how public spaces like KAF are touched by gender SPOTLIGHT

B y mary liza Hartong

Eliza McDonough/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Eliza McDonough/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Some students consider KAF to have a feminine undertone, but Hartong thinks otherwise.

The “dark side” of FoCo, often a loud and crowded area, may present a more “masculine” vibe.

Like the illustrious David Guetta, you may look around this campus and wonder “Where them girls at?” You may also wonder “Where them guys at?” or “Where them people who fall somewhere else on the spectrum of gender at?”

While your personal musings probably do not “feat” Nicki Minaj or end with a preposition, Mr. Guetta poses an apt question in the midst of Dartmouth’s month-long look at gender dynamics on campus.

The question I set out to answer was not so much, “Where them girls at?” but was more so an inquir y as to whether or not there are female- and male-dominated spaces on campus.

Hold your horses, everybody. I’m not talking about Greek houses. I’m talking about the other nooks and crannies of campus, the Facetimey floors and the quiet hollows of the school, beginning with my own favorite study space: Baker Lobby.

I found Alexa Escalona ’18 in a green chair, poring over a book about 19th-century Parisian art. She took a look around the lobby, thought for a moment and noted a nice balance of gender in the space.

“I think ever ybody tends to come here to work,” Escalona said. “It’s a good place to be able to work but not be totally silent, which appeals to all genders.”

Missy Cantave ’16, whom I found checking emails at one of the tables on the left side of the lobby, concurred with Escalona.

She added, though, that the time of day may influence the numbers.

“Usually when I come in here there’s balance, but in the mornings when I come through to get breakfast I do find that there are more women here,” Cantave said. “I don’t

people feel more on display, but I don’t think that’s gender-specific.”

Sam Cheng ’16, on her way to a study session with friends, echoed Smith.

“I’ve never felt like I’ve been only surrounded by men nor only surrounded by women here,” Cheng said. “There’s nothing particularly suggestive or conducive to one gender in the room. It’s not the décor. It’s not the location. It’s a student center, so ever yone comes here.”

Once again, the votes indicated that the space didn’t lean too far in favor of either gender, so I decided to go for a locale I had heard many a comment about in my other inter views: KAF. Oh, KAF, sacred hall of croissants, croutons and coffee. Surely this space would point towards dominance of some gender.

Escalona noted that if there were a gendered space on campus, KAF would have to be it.

“There are a lot of ‘frou frou’ drinks at KAF,” she said. “It’s like bringing the ‘Starbucks basic girl’ you see on Instagram into Dartmouth. A guy would have to be ver y secure to hold a croissant.”

The term “basic” is an insult often used to describe people who are dull and unoriginal, and it is a word frequently flung at women.

Thus, I felt a little troubled — although admittedly not that surprised — that the term would be applied to the only space my interviewees had cited as female-dominated.

Una Lee ’15, however, disagreed with Escalona that guys might not choose KAF because of the food selection. She also disagreed with the idea that KAF falls under the term “basic.”

“If you look at the line it’s more female,

know if girls wake up earlier or what.”

I thought I’d get an expert opinion on the subject, so I sauntered over to Br yan Thomson ’16, who works at the front desk.

“There are usually more women sitting down, but not amazingly more,” Thomson said. “One of the big uses of this space is for group projects, so I think that accounts for the mixed nature of the space.”

With three votes for gender-neutral, it seemed the general consensus was that the first floor of the librar y presents a balance for students of all genders. Having crossed off the first spot on my long list of campus hotspots, I moved on to One Wheelock to gather additional intel.

There I found free hot chocolate, a Portland coffee shop ambiance and Joy Zhong ’15.

She gave the couch-laden haven of acoustic guitar a once over and determined that the space was pretty balanced, even if it leaned a tad more toward female-dominated.

“It’s pretty balanced in general, but if I had to say, I’d say female,” Zhong said. “It’s in Collis, so people like getting food and eating here and doing work. In general, I feel like more girls eat at Collis because there are salads. I see a lot of girls getting salads.”

Andres Smith ’17, whom I found preparing for his open mic night, disagreed with Zhong on the matter. As he placed a variety of pies on the bar — and I took generous helpings of each one — he explained himself.

“I don’t think it’s dominated by any specific gender,” Smith said. “I don’t think there’s anything gender-specific about a nice place to study where there’s free hot chocolate. I can’t think of any study space that is gendered... Maybe there are certain high-traffic places like FFB [where] maybe

Cherry Huang/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

but I feel like both genders eat here,” she said. “I’ve seen a guy eating a [brie and apple] sandwich. I don’t spend too much time thinking about what’s ‘basic.’ When I think of gendered spaces I think of the discussion based around fraternities and sororities.”

It was reassuring to me that for the most part, my inter viewees did not identify the spaces they frequented as gendered — rather, they saw them for the purposes they ser ved. Still, when they perceive a space as colored by gender, they often thought it was the food that lent a gendered feeling to the room.

Many noted that KAF foods, for example, were feminine because of their fanciness, Collis foods were feminine because they were light and healthy and Hop foods were masculine because they were full of protein.

While clearly a silly association, these ideas make an incorrect — and potentially harmful — assumption that all women are healthy, image-conscious eaters with a taste for the fancier things in life, an affinity for leafy salads and coffees with a long list of specifications.

On the other hand, all men are apparently tr ying to bulk up, with their tastes leaning toward the fried, meaty options on campus.

Most people, I assume, like to eat in all three of these locations. After all, sometimes even a weightlifter craves a croissant.

Thus, in response to Mr. Guetta’s question and my own, I say, “The girls are ever ywhere” — but we should quit assuming that they are where they are because they want lattes.

Andres Smith is a member of The Dartmouth opinion staf f.

Tiffany Zhai/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

In two excerpts from this week’s Mirror Photo Essay, staff photographer Cherry Huang and Tiffany Zhai observed Street Soul,left, and the Cords, right, in rehearsal to illustrate how gender affects performance groups.