The Pitt News
Professors of all ages Pg. 2
The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com |October 3, 2017 | Volume 108 | Issue 36
FAUX FLORA
PHARM STUDENTS TOLD TO ‘BREAK THE RULES’
Amanda Finney For The Pitt News
Two women photograph a glass art piece by Jason Gamrath at Phipps Conservatory’s ‘SUPER. NATURAL.’ exhibit. Issi Glatts | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Students talk cultural beauty perceptions Bailey Frisco
For The Pitt News Maria Beniaminova said many Americans have an interest in big butts that people in her home country of Russia would find peculiar. “There is a small population [in Russia] that is into curvier women, but I think that has to do with the fact that Russia used to be the USSR, so there are people from different cultures that live there,” Beniaminova said. Beniaminova, a senior communications major, moved to the United States with her parents at the age of 6, leaving Moscow — and the very strict standards of beauty prevalent in the city — behind. Traditionally, Russian beauty standards favor women who are tall — about 5 feet 8 inches — with long
blonde hair and a thin figure. Women are expected to have dresses and skirts in their wardrobes. Men should also be tall, with a triangle-shaped figure — broad, muscular shoulders and arms and a lean waist — and have dark hair. “Being from Moscow specifically, just what you wear also depends on who you are. That’s not really what it is like here,” she said. Pitt’s population includes several thousand international students and foreignborn citizens pursuing degrees and participating in the community. They each bring with them to Oakland different ideas of what makes good food, good music and good entertainment — and of what makes a person good-looking. Beniaminova said she does not match
the traditional standard of how a Russian woman should look, and she doesn’t really want to. She has darker features — some people even tell her she looks Italian — and considers herself more of a tomboy. She also said as people in Russia — specifically women — age, their involvement in upholding beauty standards seems to change. “Most older women in Russia are overweight and don’t care about their look anymore,” Beniaminova said. “It’s almost like they attributed their whole lives to looking good, that when they start aging it doesn’t really matter anymore.” Yeree Lee — a junior Korean and political science major — said the pressure to See Beauty on page 3
Students gathered in a lecture hall Monday night to hear a health care professional tell them to defy authority. Looking out at about 30 students assembled before her, Jesabel Rivera-Guerra summarized her entire talk in six words. “Life is short. Break the rules,” Rivera-Guerra said. Phi Lambda Sigma, Pitt’s pharmacy leadership society, and Pitt’s chapter of Rho Chi — a pharmacy honor society — held their second annual Young Professionals Lecture event at Scaife Hall Monday night. The lecture series aims to highlight young professionals that have made a significant impact in the health care field around Pittsburgh. Rivera-Guerra, the community health director at the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association in Pittsburgh, was the guest speaker Monday. Rivera-Guerra — a Pitt graduate from the School of Public Health — said most rules are purposeful and necessary. But she said some rules, or the status quo, need to be broken, specifically those that are obstacles between equality and equity — whether those rules challenge civic rights, equity, better protocols or better policies. “There’re so many rules, you tend to lose your focus on the people,” Rivera-Guerra said. Shannon Ye, a graduate student in Pitt’s school of pharmacy and member of Phi Lambda Sigma, said she enjoyed the talk because it promoted challenging social norms as a way of bringing innovation into the health care field. “It’s really refreshing to see a leader — she herself is a sign of authority — to tell us, people younger than her, less experienced than her, that her advice is to break the rules,” Ye said. Ye said America’s health care system is unbalanced, and people need to put a lot of See Breaking Rules on page 3