perspectives
THE FOURCAST
DECEMBER 19, 2013
WE LOVE IT, WE LOVE IT NOT
Two unexpected SNOWDAYS kept us without a full week of school between breaks.
The countdown to the holiday break has ADVISORIES DECORATING accordingly, no contest required.
It’s this time of year that makes us miss our BELOVED BLANKETS that are no longer allowed. We will never forget you.
STAFFSTANDOFF
22/23
Does X2VoL Meet Expectations?
OO
Anisha Anand Business Manager
Katie Payne Managing Editor
vs.
I
n a rapidly-advancing world, we need to be prepared to quickly adapt to the changes technology springs on us every day. The Community Service Board has provided girls with the perfect way through which we can learn to be prepared for the daunting adversity and change of our lives. The switch to a digitized system for community service event signups through OrgSync last year and a quick turnaround to x2VOL this year has kept us on our toes. In the hullabaloo surrounding x2VOL and sign ups, we are more involved in community service than ever before. First off, while OrgSync required each student to make her own separate account, x2VOL is already linked to Naviance’s college counseling system, Family Connection. Now, we don’t have to re-memorize a username and password for yet another new account. For several years now, St. Mark’s has been using x2VOL. Because Hockaday has many joint community service events with St. Mark’s, using the same system allows for better coordination between the schools and their students. x2VOL is also easily accessible through an app. The program’s email reminders don’t give us any excuse to miss events “because we just forgot.” It was way too easy for me last year to hit “attending” on OrgSync because an event looked fun. x2VOL will automatically add an event to your calendar and send you an email reminder before an event. You can also easily see how close you are to finishing your community service requirement with the percentage bar on the right. Visuals help me grasp how far off I really am from where I need to be. x2VOL’s appearance is also much more pleasing to the eye with the calming colors of dull blue and subdued mango orange. In contrast, OrgSync’s icky green was not inviting to sign up for community service events. Nobody should be discouraged from helping her community by a disorienting color scheme. It is clear that the switch to x2VOL, though unpopular among minuscule slivers of the Hockaday population, will ultimately be greatly beneficial to our community. Let us embrace this change in our lives and make the most of it for ourselves and for those we serve.
D
ifficulty signing up for community service hours may sound like a first world problem, but before you give me one big eye roll for complaining about x2VOL, hear me out. When you think about the success of the past systems the board has used, you’ll soon start to agree that our current system, the dreaded x2VOL website, actually undermines the community service program. Last year, I was a huge OrgSync fan. I liked the ability to view other attendees on the event page just in case I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t be stuck at a preschool carnival for four hours on a Saturday morning without a friend. Each of the opportunities on the website displayed the maximum number of participants that could volunteer, and I believe that’s what initially fueled the fire to click the sign up button. You felt a rush of adrenaline and hastily pressed “attend” before someone else took your spot. This increased incentive also occurred with the paper system two years ago, an era now long gone. Girls would run in first thing in the morning and spot sign up sheets for the top community service opportunities being pinned up by the board members. And while I don’t miss rushing to find a pencil in my backpack at 7:30 in the morning in order to get the last spot at Jubilee, there were some serious perks to the paper system. For one thing, it certainly increased student accountability. Crossing your name off was most definitely frowned upon, and students would have to find replacements to avoid getting hours deducted. It was entirely public, and the board could more easily monitor who found a replacement and who didn’t. These days with the computer system, you can easily get out of an opportunity with just a click without any repercussions. With x2VOL, the rush to sign up for Feast of Sharing, Austin Street or Jubilee has been hindered by the inability to see a list of upcoming activities and number of participants, and the pressure of committing to a particular event has been eliminated by the anonymity of the x2VOL website. As much as I hate to hate on something that saves both paper and time, x2VOL simply does not cut it. On another note, I still have not figured if it’s X2vol, x2Vol or x2VOL, or why it sounds like the name of a workout machine. But regardless, I vote we return back to the paper system or OrgSync. Otherwise, we’ll see a definite decline in service hours.
MOVIE RATINGS
Rating Women’s Misrepresentation
The never ending slew of LOST PHONES AND CHARGERS EMAILS has reignited our schoolwide fear of “clogging the server.” It’s time to use Sharepoint.
The BAN ON USING CELLPHONES in the Wellness Center has left us questioning our abilities to functionally walk and talk at the same time.
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Senior Anisha Anand
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arents check movie ratings for language, violence and sexual content before watching films with their children. While offensive language and gratuitous sex can be deleterious for society, what about sexist ideals that movies often portray? Before watching movies, we don’t think twice that they could potentially offensively derogate women. Sweden’s state-funded Swedish Film Institute has begun to implement a system through which it can rate how women are portrayed in films. The Bechdel test identifies if a conversation
takes place in a movie between two females about something other than a man. If at least one of these conversations occurs, the movie receives an A. While this may seem an easy enough test for most movies to pass, many popular movies you’d expect to pass do not. In fact, the list of movies that have failed the test includes blockbusters like “Avatar,” “The Social Network” and seven of the eight “Harry Potter” movies. While the test was invented in 1985, only recently is it being implemented in Sweden. Some proclaim the Bechdel test has taken feminism to an extreme. If the movie is a romantic comedy, they argue that the conversations between females would naturally surround men. But the film industry instills the idea in society’s minds that two females have nothing better to talk about than a man or love. I mean, what more is there to a woman’s life than finding true love, right? Young women and even men grow up with the notion that they are at their happiest state when they are in love. Movies that fail this test
aren’t necessarily all about a girl losing her heart to a guy. But what Hollywood does is tell society that in order for serious business to be conducted, there must be at least one man present. A woman in a position of power in a movie is usually surrounded by male colleagues and only means business when talking to men, not other women. Women are there for her to talk about her love life or other men conducting business. USA Network’s show Suits is a prime example. Media has the biggest influence on our lives. We may go to school and learn about sexism and tell ourselves we aren’t sexist, but the media portrays sexism in such a subtle way that we internalize the messages we receive until our thoughts and actions become subconscious. Sexist ideas are more dangerous to society than the act of sex itself. Sexist ideas are what promote the malintent behind sex: female objectification or rape, for example. And when ideas as such are presented in movies, they send society a signal that
such behavior though illegal, is socially acceptable. While the Bechdel test is a good start to begin evaluating movies and the prejudices they can instill in society, an A rating doesn’t mean a movie is clear of all sexism. It needs to go farther. Compare the number of times men applaud each other for sleeping around versus the number of times women derogatorily call each other sluts . Count how many times a woman is happy in a movie for a reason other than a man or love. Because what movies project often translate into real conversations and reality. We as a society look to Hollywood to create the “cool image.” The movie industry should be sending positive messages about sexuality and feminism. Not to say that it already hasn’t. Movies such as The Help, The Hunger Games and Divergent are all good examples of female leads who look to accomplish more than just find the perfect guy. I would give those movies an A+.