March 2022

The Boomerang

March 2022

Empowering or Objectifying? Nudity in the Music Industry

by Nina Alberti

When Miley Cyrus came in on a wrecking ball almost ten years ago, people were shaken. In her previous music video, Cyrus had been dressed in a skimpy, white ensemble, worlds apart from the quirky Hannah Montana that she used to be. Next time she'll be naked, I thought to myself. And she was.

Nowadays, it seems like nudity is almost expected. Music can only exist if it's accompanied by someone's bare ass. This assumption is once again confirmed when I scroll through the endless colons of thumbnails on YouTube's music page. As my cursor hovers above the videos, racy women start dancing as if on command.

The song I want to hear is not on display, so I type it into the search bar. 'Are you suffering from a vaginal yeast infection,' I swiftly turn down the volume and click on 'skip'. Sometimes it seems like the whole world is a sly marketing campaign targeted at women.

I turn the volume up again. 'I am woman, hear me roar', Helen Reddy bursts out. 'It's a general empowerment song about feeling good about yourself,' the singer told an Australian daily back in 2003.

But the 'Up Next' panel presents a different kind of empowerment. Megan

Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Saweetie. These are the women that we look up to today when the camera is angled from below, enabling the perfect booty shot. As a feminist, I feel conflicted. Sure, I enjoy the music, but I wonder why their videos are always this explicit. And why we, as a society, have normalised this type of content. Should this be normal? In all honesty,

I have seen so much of Cardi B's ass that I would notice if one of her birthmarks grew into a malignant melanoma. And that worries me.

"These are the women that we look up to today when the camera is angled from below"

When I was younger, I would secretly watch Nikki Minaj music videos on my mum's phone, videoclips that now seem almost modest to me. Yet YouTube would always ask me to verify my age. But since I have surpassed this age barrier, I have never again been asked for my age, and I have even watched 'WAP'...

This development surprises me. It's like twerking, which with time has become a casual move in most nightclubs. Girls mindlessly push their asses into the crotches of strangers as if it's just another version of the sprinkler. But is it really a bad development? The type of art that these popular musicians create conveys the comfort women should feel when it comes to their own bodies.

Over the past centuries, female anatomy has never truly belonged to women. Our bodies have always been objectified, sexualized, or claimed by others. So the reappropriation of the female body is analogous to female empowerment. Yet do we really need to be naked to finally feel free?

When model Emily Ratajkowski joined the music video for 'Blurred Lines', she was told her part would be empowering. The three artists, Robin Thicke, rapper TI, and Pharrell Williams, were surrounded by beautiful models, who were instructed to ignore the men or even mock them, shifting power to the women. Instead, Thicke placed a non-consensual hand on Ratajkowski's breast. 'With that one gesture, Robin Thicke had reminded everyone on set that we women weren't actually in charge,' Ratajkowski told People magazine.

The incident marks the dark side of female nudity in the music industry. How much power do female musicians really have over their own bodies? Can their scanty outfits and risqué dance moves even be seen as empowerment? Ratajkowski called it out for what it is 'a double-edged sword'.

Reappropriate your body, own your sexuality, and do whatever the fuck you want! Female musicians are wholly justified in asserting their autonomy. I wish I had their level of comfort and confidence. Women, there is nothing wrong with your body. Flaunt it, if you want. But remember who you are flaunting it for. Is your body really a canvas, or is it a man's money making machine?

Illustration © Cici Zhong

Why We Need More Gen-Z Women in STEM

How can we expect to fill, or even outgrow, the shoes of today’s scientists, as we stand in the dawn of Generation Z joining the workforce? What are we aspiring to change, and where are the girls going to be?

Science and technology sustain most of the advances in our welfare and civilisation. And, there have been advances: more scientists, more funding for science and more scientific papers are published today than ever before. Women scientists are greatly contributing to this growth with groundbreaking research. Despite this, the female underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) seems to persist.

Where are we now?

Unsurprisingly, women in academia are still the target of rampant sexism, according to Scientific American. The results from this 2012 Yale study continue to ring true: “biologists, physicists and chemists are likely to view a young male scientist more favorably than a woman with the same qualifications”. If any scientist (note: male OR female!) did decide to hire her, they set her salary nearly $4,000 lower than the man’s, on average.

Today, less than 30% of scientific researchers worldwide are women, according to UN data. But how supportive and welcoming is the climate towards young women in science? In other words, what kind of future can they look forward to? In an increasingly enlightened modern world, you would expect the prognosis to be positive. But alas, it isn’t.

by Jana Fragoulis

It turns out that women, according to the U.S census bureau, make up half the workforce and earn more college and graduate degrees than men. Meanwhile, dozens of studies show that women in leadership positions, including the science sector, outperform their male competitors on every measure of profitability, as this Goldman Sachs study found.

Unsung heroes

The absence of girls in science is tragic, and felt in every way. Even the rats used in scientific experiments have mainly been male (which is a public health problem all in itself). The paucity of young girls opting for a STEM major at university is often justified with genetics. For centuries, biologists promoted incorrect theories of female inferiority. While it is true that there are differences between male and female brains, the resulting effects on the female aptitude for science are minuscule. Still, it’s a sad fact that, because of such conspiracies, many girls are discouraged from going into science. But, in order to gain diverse perspectives on looming global issues, we require a diverse set of input.

algorithm in the 1840s. Mary Maynard Daly, who deepened the understanding we have of cholesterol, sugars and proteins today, and was the first Black American woman to earn her PhD in chemistry. There is Jane Goodall, the most famous primate scientist in history and Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician, who calculated the trajectory of the Apollo 11 mission by hand. Hedy Lamarr was the inventor of the frequency hopping spread spectrum which acts as the basis for WiFi and Bluetooth. She was also an actress and today is, frustratingly, remembered as “the most beautiful woman in the world”. All of them, and thousands more, are unsung heroes, showing that women have been integral to transforming our world in the name of science.

Into the future

Role models are desperately needed. Or are they? Why we rarely hear about women in science is another question waiting to be answered. In actuality, the STEM realm offers an abundance of inspirational women throughout history. Take Ada Lovelace, who created the world’s first machine

With changes in family legislation, like maternity and paternity rights alongside flexible and remote working, we are in the process of making the science sector a natural and accessible environment to exist in for both women and men. This process could lead to a huge efficiency boost in the pursuit of sustainable development goals. Most importantly, it could inspire generations of young women, set to change STEM more than ever before, in ways radical to our current thinking. Young women, knowing full well that they can pursue any career that they want – regardless of current gender stereotypes.

"Even the rats used in scientific experiments have mainly been male"

"the STEM realm offers an abundance of inspirational women throughout history"

Illustration © Jana Fragoulis

Daughters of the Bloodshed

by Monserrat Martinez Medellin

“It’s so good that you live over here now, since so many women die in your country. It’s horrible,” said the lady at the counter in the GGD office when I stated my nationality. I robotically nodded, half-ashamed, yet willing to overlook the sting of irritation her comment had caused. I thanked her for processing my Dutch QR code, yet her words lingered in my head throughout the rest of the day.

inhabitants — were all located in Mexico. More than 36,000 homicides were reported in 2020. Unfortunately, Mexico often features within the top 10 of countries with highest levels of gender violence. In 2020, 969 out of the out of the 3,752 murders of women reported were investigated as femicides. Today, at least 10 women are murdered in Mexico every day.

A lot of the perceptions about how violence affects Mexico have been reinforced by popular culture. Country songs praising the crimes of drug kingpins — known as narcocorridos — have become increasingly popular since the 1970’s, as has other narco-related content. Narcos: Mexico’s third season was the most viewed show according to the first of Netflix’s Top 10 lists of November 2021. In the span of a week, it had collected 50.3 million hours of viewing, beating Squid Game by 7.5 million hours. Showcasing drug lords’ lavish lifestyle and the depiction of gruesome turf wars satiates viewers’ morbid curiosity. The overrepresentation of Latines in stereotype-plagued roles, which is yet another facet of the issue, also remains: a 2019 study showed that 29.8% of Latin-speaking characters and 39.5% of top-billed Latines across 100 movies of 2019 were depicted as criminals.

As much high-production value, glamorized media abounds, the numbers remain… and they speak for themselves.

As of today, Mexico is the 4th highest-ranking country in criminality levels, according to the Global Organized Crime Index of 2021. By April 2021, the world’s six deadliest cities — meaning, cities with the highest number of homicides per 100,000

Like most Mexican women, I’ve grown to remember that number, as if it has become a duty not to forget. I thought of it as the GGD lady uttered her indiscreet sympathy. While she had seemingly good intentions and a valid source for her argument, I was hurt.

However, as I wrote this article, thinking about the lady’s comment — and how it acts as a microcosm of prevailing thought about the country in general — my emotions became somewhat… ambivalent.

I was initially angry at the misinformed impression that I was nothing more than the violence of my country. To me, this continuous practice overshadows noteworthy achievements and strides made by Mexican figures. For example, 22-year-old figure skater Donovan Carrillo recently made history for being the first Mexican to advance to the final round of the free skate program at the 2022 Winter Olympics. LGBTQ+ activist Fausto Martinez was the first person to receive the non-binary gender marker in their birth certificate after winning a constitutional appeal process — a significant step toward legal recognition of non-conforming genders in Mexico. Seven Mexican students were selected by NASA to join an exclusive group of 60 scientists at the International Air and Space Program; the three selected initiatives are all led by women. News like this gets constantly drowned out by alarming figures and depressing rankings.

Now, as I watch footage of the feminist march that took place on March 8th, as areal shots of the downtown streets in Mexico City show rivers of lavender- and greenclothed protesters, as mothers raise banners with the faces of their missing daughters, it strikes me that in becoming offended by matter-of-fact-laced condolences (as patronizing as they were), I have deliberately overlooked that number 10. Those ten women murdered every day. The protesters — grieving parents, groups of young, starry-eyed girls, indigenous women chanting for the victims — wailed and cried, they screamed the names of all the abducted and massacred women in a desolate yet moving roll call, and raised their clenched fists to the scorching March sun.

"Was keeping my patriotic ego intact worth refusing to recognize the conditions that affect thousands?"

To refuse to acknowledge this systematic violence is a disservice to the dissatisfied masses who demand change from a complicit, neglectful government. I understand this is a contentious opinion, and I don’t condemn any Mexicans who refrain from speaking about the issue out of discomfort.

In my case, was keeping my patriotic ego intact worth refusing to recognize the conditions that affect thousands? What makes that different from when government officials insist on burying the truth about cases of disappearing civilians in lieu of more palatable news?

I lack the right of overlooking the acts of perpetrators and feeling defensive for as long as families in my country have lost daughters to grieve.

You Cannot Ever Explain War to Yourself

by Taisiya Brundukova

It gets worse day by day, your head is messed up and your feelings take up so much space that articulating becomes impossible, but also needless. All you know is that life has changed. It has changed in a day. And I always feel ashamed for saying this in relation to myself. I feel a lot of pain, but my pain is not the pain faced by the Ukrainian people. Yet I fear, yet I do not understand, yet I am

completely lost and do not believe that all life from the 24th of February was interrupted so violently, that this war is ruining the lives of so many Ukrainians and Russians. I have learnt that you cannot ever explain war to yourself. You cannot grasp it because it is not a sum of terror and pain, it is much more, and far beyond comprehensible. And no one can ever spell out to you what to feel,

how to act, what to say, how to speak, how to live with it. You only know that living like you used to is no longer possible. You know there is evil. An evil so great that it is hard not to be crushed by it.

article continues on page 4

"Today, at least 10 women are murdered in Mexico every day."

You understand that you have to appreciate being alive and being in safety, that you have to nurture love and do good, but at the end of the day, when you pretend to have a normal life, you feel immoral and disgusted with yourself. When you fully let your feelings in and all that is happening inevitably breaks you, you suffer and you mourn but you know that it is absolutely senseless, destructive and unfair. Unfair to the people of Ukraine. And then you just do not know how to live with this painful dilemma of the human feeling. And no one can tell you how to live with war.

"You know there is evil. An evil so great that it is hard not to be crushed by it."

My language cannot encompass all that is happening and my pain revolves around different things everyday. Today I am fully rewriting everything that I thought was the most important yesterday. But every day I fear, I am disgusted, I feel helpless and I feel angry. Every Russian who understands what is happening grieves learning each day how Ukraine is being killed, but our Russia is also disappearing. Our home is being destroyed, not with arms and bombs but with moral suffocation and evil.

Here I say “our Russia” because if before the war it was still possible to imagine that those supporting Putin and those opposing him shared the same country, now it has become hardly imaginable. The internal division is horrifying, no one knows any longer if the people who support the “special operation” – the language of Newspeak – are so brainwashed by the propaganda and full of hatred, or are mistaken that deeply.

Every one of us who was against the war became “a stranger among his own”, a Russophobe, an enemy, a traitor. Russia is split and now I know that there is no home for us. We are the villains, within Russia and outside of it.

And I cannot believe that I am saying this, and these words paralyze me, but as Russia, soon to become completely shut off from the world, is turning towards fascism, we await mass repressions and internal genocide.

Outside is not our home either and I guess it never will be. We do not know the ways to stay abroad yet and we do not know what reaction we are going to face for our nationality and for the deeds of our country. We know that we will have to carry this stigma and we are unsure about our future.

Many of us are terrified of living under the current regime. Many people had to flee, for all of them it was a forced exile. Some were too scared and too devastated to stay, some afraid of mobilization. Many of my friends left into the unknown. Many made such a hard decision in 5 hours or in a day. And none of them were ready for this decision. But many stayed, some out of bravery, some out of not having a place to go, out of not having the sources, out of having commitments and family, and I am really scared for them.

"Our home is being destroyed, not with arms and bombs but with moral suffocation and evil"

Many of my friends stayed. My family stayed. Now I do not know when I am going to see them, I do not know if they will be free or even alive. And I am scared of these thoughts, I am scared to use these words but they became a part of my reality. Now I know that the future is not guaranteed for all of us but I hope we will somehow find a way in it.

I wish peace, I wish love. Glory to Ukraine, freedom to Russia.

There Is No More Russia, There Is No More Home

Disclaimer: I am not Ukrainian and I, of course, cannot even imagine what people who are in Ukraine right now have to go through. I can only express my complete and unconditional solidarity with them but obviously I cannot speak for them and their experience. In everything that will follow in this article, I will share my own perception of the current situation, of how it develops and how it affects my home (Russia), my future, and the future of the people I love.

On the 24th of February, I woke up and my life was divided into two parts: before and after. And not only my life of course: the lives of millions of Ukrainians, Belarussians and Russians have changed forever. Every day I am reading the news, every day I am calling my family and friends to check on how they are doing (or more to check that they are doing at least something) and every day I feel anxious, terrified, weak, powerless, guilty, and more and more hopeless.

What do I see in the Russian news? I see the ongoing bombings, I see photos of Ukranian people hiding in shelters, I see reports about missiles hitting residential buildings,

by Ilya Genov

hospitals and schools. And then I see videos from protests in Russia: I see how people are being arrested and beaten up by the police for speaking up against war, I see how students are being expelled from universities because of their participation in anti-war demonstrations, I see how more and more independent media sources are being blocked and shut down by the government, I hear the recordings of political detainees being physically tortured and humiliated at the police station, I see huge rises in prices and empty shelves at the supermarkets. I see no justice. I see no future. I see no hope.

Russia, leaving the vulnerable groups within the country protected even less against their own government – now their worst enemy. In various places all over the world, Russian people become ineligible for student grants, get boycotted from academic conferences, artistic communities and social organisations. Our reputation is stained by the ugly mark of Putin’s terror, I myself am now hesitant to tell people that I am from Russia.

What else is in the news? Big corpora tions are leaving Russia, leaving millions of people unemployed. Bank cards stop working for Russian people abroad, making their survival in forced exile even harder. The Europe an Court of Human Rights stops pro cessing violations of human rights in

We are hated for the war which we did not choose, a war which millions of Russians find inhuman, horrifying and completely unacceptable, a war which we now see in our nightmares, a war which again and again makes us cry from our own helplessness. Because we are helpless: for participating in anti-war protests one can go to jail for up to 6 years now, and for spreading ‘fake information’ (read as truth) about war on social media, for up to 15 years.

article continues on page 5

"the lives of millions of Ukranians, Belarussians and Russians have changed forever"

Illustration © Jana Fragoulis

We are paralyzed by fear, by guilt for which we cannot make amends without losing everything that we still value – our families, our homes, the little bits of freedom that we have left.

So for all those who advocate for sanctions against all Russians so the regime is changed from within, you are mistaken. The sanctions only give Putin and his gang of criminals more power to do anything they want with people in Russia. With more borders being closed, more opportunities being cancelled, less visas being issued and more sanctions being imposed, Putin will get ex-

actly what he has always wanted – an isolated country, full of people who have nowhere to run and who will either be tortured and imprisoned or will have to stay silent.

"We are hated for the war which we did not choose, a war which millions of Russians find inhuman, horrifying and completely unacceptable"

Yesterday, when I was talking to my mum, we were discussing whether I should go home for the summer holidays. Of course, I would love to go back and see my family,

but obviously I would risk not being able to leave the country afterwards. In a way, it got me thinking about how it would feel to be in Russia right now during the current events. To be honest, I am scared to find out. I am afraid that I won’t find a home in Russia any more: there is no more Russia as I knew it, not with a humanitarian catastrophe – fueled by its people and resources – unravelling in the middle of Europe; not with an unchosen president waging an unwanted war against an imaginary enemy.

Нет войне!

Conversations with Friends in Russia

by Nina Alberti

On Thursday morning, February 24, shortly before my alarm was set to wake me, the New York Times daily briefing interrupted my sleep: ‘Day 1 of Russia’s invasion.’ For weeks Russian forces had been accumulating near the border with Ukraine. Whether it was a serious threat or just one of Putin’s terrifying bluffs remained disputed. But that morning this question was answered once and for all: Ukraine was under siege, as it continues to be until this day.

Watching videos of tanks, shelling, and the accompanying cries, it felt strange going to class. Never before had I been this close to war. And still, there were those even closer. The conflict affected our campus directly and the pain of the Ukrainian students among us was tangible, just like the unwarranted shame of those with Russian roots. Class discussions felt meaningless next to the complex feelings and fears these students were experiencing.

Suddenly every class began with a discussion of the war. This rightfully begged the question where these conversations were when some of our other classmates had conflicts brewing at home. In Myanmar, in Palestine, in any other country outside of Europe. But it was Ukraine that was everywhere. All my podcasts were covering it. All my news apps were publishing live updates. And all my light-hearted notifications suddenly turned dark and depressing.

"People were brutally beaten with batons, kicked, raped, tortured, fired from work"

On Saturday, I decided to text a friend in Saint Petersburg. She had been my host sister during a high school exchange program and I still talked to her online from time to time. While she was surprisingly open about traditionally taboo topics such as gay rights,

the subject of Putin had remained off-limits during my stay with her, and my attempts to discuss him were repeatedly answered with silence.

Within minutes she replied. ‘Putin has gone completely mad. It was clear a long time ago, but no one realized the degree of his insanity. I can hardly call him human.’ Never before had she spoken this candidly to me about her political views. But wasn’t she scared to communicate via social media? ‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m not afraid to speak the truth on any platform!’ Her Instagram posts, alternating between pictures of her cat and anti-war slogans, attested to this.

"Putin has gone completely mad. It was clear a long time ago, but no one realized the degree of his insanity. I can hardly call him human."

‘We have protests here every day.’ She told me about the rallies in St. Petersburg, which were still relatively small, and those in Moscow, where her sister lives. ‘The police very cruelly detain people, even though they only shout “no to war”.’ People have become even more scared to voice their opinions in the streets since the pro-Navalny protests. ‘People were brutally beaten with batons, kicked, raped, tortured, fired from work and expelled for participating in the protests.’

Today, Russians risk being beaten by numerous policemen solely for carrying a ‘no war’ poster and, as most news outlets have already covered, are forbidden from calling the war a ‘war’. Assistance to Ukraine is also prohibited. So in order to help the Ukrainian cause my friend joined OVD-info (ОВДИнфо), a project that supports truthful reporting, offers information on how to join the anti-war movement, and extends legal help to those detained at the protests.

Besides OVD-info there are several other helpful projects, such as the ‘Committee Against Torture’ (Комите́т по предотвраще́нию пы́ток), which helps victims of torture by law enforcement agencies. Until recently there was also a project called ‘Look for Your Own’ (Ищи своих) which enabled citizens to track Russian soldiers. Yet this service was quickly taken down by the state. ‘We are not told the number of Russian deaths,’ my friend told me at the end of February, ‘only one was officially announced.’

For those unable to join physical rallies or projects there is the ‘quiet picket line,’ a concept created by the poet Daria Serenko. ‘The idea is to use slogans and express thoughts natively. Inscriptions on clothes and bags, posters in the subway. It helps people to see like-minded others.’ On her social media page my friend shares some of these subtle statements.

But when I wrote to her mid-March, she sounded more forlorn than before. She spoke about the Navalny trial, how ridiculous it was. About martial law, saying that she hadn’t heard of any plans. And about the indefinite departure of some of her friends and the ‘craziest detention stories’ of others. She still couldn't believe how much her life had changed in two weeks, gravely concluding her message: ‘the future of Russia is dead.’

НЕТ

For independent news sourc es reporting within Russia check out: DOXA, TV Rain, Varlamov news, Meduza, and Mediazone.

ВОЙНЕ!

Behind The Scenes

by Giulia Martinez-Brenner

The next time you watch a movie, try asking yourself these three questions: Is there more than one woman character with a name?

Do these two women talk to each other?

And do they talk about something other than a man?

If you answer yes to all three, congratulations! You’re watching something that has passed all the steps to the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test can be applied to shows and books as well, of course, but the premise is the same: to what extent does this story give me a well-rounded female character? I would not go so far as to mention feminism, but does the plot at least attempt to humanise the women on the screen?

that fail the test, but I dare you to search for more. Check your favorites and see.

The Bechdel test has been around since the 1980’s, proposed by the homonymous American cartoonist as a simplified criterion to judge the representation of gender diversity. Recently, other tests have emerged to question ethnic and racial diversity in Hollywood films, like the Shukla test or the DuVernay test. These both require similar conditions in which “African-Americans or other minorities have fully realized lives rather than serve as scenery in white stories.”

These little rules should not be taken as a set of strict binary requirements. They serve as a push for you to be critically attentive to who is presented to you and how, in the stories being shown on the big screen. These debates have become increasingly mainstream in recent years, and the issue of diverse rep-

resentation is not such a far fetched concept anymore. However, representation cannot be based purely on presence on camera: we must expand our image to include who is behind it. Casts have been growing progressively heterogeneous, albeit still not to satisfaction. Yet the number of women and people of color on the production side has remained stagnant, or even declined. Research shows that these groups are highly underrepresented in the roles of director, producer, writer, and cinematographer, and are given smaller budgets compared to their white male counterparts, regardless of previous experience. What does this say? Characters may be more diverse, but they are still created by and through the typical white male gaze. In a world already built upon these constructed representations of Others, tokenism in film is not just a lazy effort, but an extended form of symbolic violence in itself.

You may be surprised at just how many great, award-winning movies are not up to these standards. Or maybe this is just depressing old news. Some are more obvious than others, like al right, Shawshank Redemption was set entirely in an all men’s prison, what can you do. Then there’s The Avengers, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Whiplash – although there are multiple women, they never speak to each other. Others may have an interesting female character, but that is it, just one woman throughout the whole thing. This is the case for The Imitation Game for example, or, my personal heartbreak, Ratatouille These are just a few blockbuster films

Dearest Campus,

Hollywood is not the only industry guilty of presenting limited perspectives. Publishing and translation houses are also areas dominated by a very specific group of people. This is not to say that men can only write about men, women can only write about women, and people of color can only shape characters of their own ethnicity. The issue is not that there cannot be space for imagination, but that there is an incredible disproportion of who gets that creative space, a fact that cannot be ignored.

Stories matter, along with who gets to tell them.

Sun at last! The quad is alive and you all look beautiful. I’m sure the spring break flew by, as it always does, and I hope you are all settling back in with a fresh mind and rested body. Read the section of articles about Ukraine and Russia or about the different feminist perspectives on the film and music industries. Elections are coming up so be sure to take the quiz about which student board you should run for, and of course, put off your readings by having a go at LogiCo’s sudokus and puzzles!

(Also a quick disclaimer and open suggestion to Ukrainian students: if you feel like your point of view is missing from these pages, please do not hesitate to submit your own perspective. We would love to hear from you, as I am sure all of campus).

Finally, our next edition will be the much anticipated and much loved collaboration with Scope, the Scoperang! This year’s theme is bloom and we cannot wait to see the art, articles, and creative writing you come up with.

As usual, send your submissions to boomerang@ucsa.nl and make sure to follow @theboomerang.ucsa for more information and updates!

Now go get that vitamin D and I hope you enjoy this issue.

Yours always,

Giulia Martinez-Brenner Editor-in-Chief

"the issue of diverse representation is not such a far-fetched concept anymore"

Illustration © Jana Fragoulis

Pondering With Jane Sustainability Got You Down?

This Spring break I felt guilty about driving to a forest in France and trying a piece or two of cured beef. I have been pondering, as I often do, about my impact on the environment. At UCU we bike, eat plant-based diets, protest climate change, and participate in sustainability week only to turn around and buy our foods packaged in hard plastic, not separate our waste, and fly to a European destination that easily could have been reached by carpooling, bus, or train. Granted, every little change in lifestyle counts (does it?), but do we really practice what we preach if we don’t even compost?

There are many ways to swap our habits for more sustainable ones, but is every lifestyle change as impactful as the next? Take traveling for example. Not taking that flight will probably lower your carbon footprint more than not eating meat for a year (depending on how much you like meat). Flying accounts for almost 3% of global emissions, which is quite a lot when considering only 20% of us are even able to fly. The large amount of

by Jane Cole

CO2 emissions is mostly thanks to the takeoff, meaning taking a flight to Paris is as ridiculous as driving to the Jumbo. And like with carpooling, an emptier plane is even less sustainable than a full one (that’s why riding first class is an extra “fuck you” to the environment). All of this being said, thanks to high competition between airlines, it is appealing to choose to fly within Europe. I can get away much cheaper if I fly to Spain than if I choose to drive or take a train. Does excluding meat all semester justify taking that flight for my spring break vacation?

So I’ve been pondering… since chances are whatever I eat has some impact on the environment (be IT CO2 emissions, water use, or land use), I would make the least impact if I didn’t eat at all. The question is how can I exist while minimizing my impact and living sustainably? Do I then need to be an absolute purist vegetarian, or are my habits more important? A diet very low in meat, or pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan diets all have very similar

Cinematic Waffle

by Yağmur Zubaroğlu

vagabond •/'vagəbond/ noun a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job

Agnes Varda’s Vagabond (1985) starts with villagers finding a young woman’s frozen body in vineyards of France. Throughout the film, we figure out this nameless young woman’s story, told through flashbacks and interviews with strangers who met her at different points of her travels. We listen to what these people have to say about Mona in the hopes of finding out her story.

As we accompany Mona through her adventures, she is always one step ahead of the camera. She is always going somewhere or doing something; the frame can only follow her and try to catch up with her pace. She is uncontrollable, unhinged, and extremely free. On the other hand, the narrators are fixed in the frame. Varda shows us who decides the narratives and how the history is written. It’s not Mona who tells her story, it’s all the others. She doesn’t get a say on what happened. But how much can we

know a person from the stories told about them? The film is about Mona, but also not. What people say about her says more about themselves rather than the real story.

On one of her adventures, Mona finds herself squatting in an old but luxurious mansion with a boy. Mona writes her name with her finger on a mirror covered with dust. The boy quickly erases her name, telling her “You should leave no trace”. As he leans to erase Mona’s name, he also covers her reflection on the mirror. Her name and her face both disappear from the frame. Varda manages to fit the entire feminist historiography in one sequence. Men have been writing history and erasing women meanwhile. How far can we trace back the story of a woman without history? How much of her story can we know and how much of it we should accept as unknown? Varda suggests, maybe, at some point we have to accept that we will never know some things about the past.

Varda describes Mona as “the incarnation of the great NO!”. From the beginning

outcomes when it comes to CO2 emissions (compared to a diet with lots of red meat).

And what about where my food is sourced? Those grapes I’m snacking on have to travel from South America. And what about packaging? Buying unpackaged veggies from our local Sweet Green store instead of the supermarket could be an easy change (it’s “reduce, reuse, recycle” in that order for a reason). And what about how processed my foods are? Am I a sustainable vegetarian if I buy processed meat substitutes that are packaged in hard plastic when I could buy tofu and tempeh that come in soft plastic or beans that come in cans?

There are so many nuances to being sustainable. It is a difficult balance to not overregulate ourselves at the cost of our health and personal growth while still being mindful of how our decisions will affect the environment. We are sustaining a system that includes us and our wellbeing. After all, we can’t be sustainable if we’re dead.

to the end, Mona is cold and lonely, and she stays that way. There is no character development, some would say. Regardless of all the people she met throughout her journey, she refrains from forming any connection (and even when she finally makes a friend, she fails to sustain the friendship). We find ourselves thinking “what if Mona had a friend? What if the seasonal worker, the cleaner lady, the villagers… were more than strangers?” Maybe then the vagabond life could be possible.

Besides the feminist ideas, the film also comments on the lack of solidarity between the workers of the French countryside. Unlike the story we see on the screen, Varda compares the filming process to being on the street barricades in Paris in ’68. Telling Mona’s story to the audience was a product of solidarity and cooperation.

Vagabond is a beautifully made film that asks many important questions. I’ll finish by asking a question myself. If you were to meet Mona, how would you tell her story?

Unfiltered

by Elisa Uccello

“Happy Women’s Day, mom” - send.

It was almost a formality. I had no idea what exactly I was wishing her. Nevertheless, I expected a “thank you” and, at most, a “you too”. Instead I got: “This annoys me. It makes me mad when men congratulate me.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s a social and political mark, not a celebrative date. I think it’s misused. It’s a day to think about prejudice and discrimination, not to give out vows and flowers as they do here.” Why had I never thought about that before?

On the 7th of March, I was walking back to campus with my best friend and we were arguing about whether there should be an international men’s day. We were both entirely convinced of our opposite views but continued aimlessly to discuss the matter, certain that precisely because of our gender, we can never see in the same light. His main argument: “It would be unfair to have a day for women and not for men. Double standards.” My insightful response: “It’s the same as having a white history month.”

I left my hometown last year, with the devastating realization that the abstract, socially constructed labels that segregate us have very concrete and painful consequences. Every single one of my female friends there has been assaulted, abused, or raped. Every. Single. One. I’m sure there is a thought floating in your mind about how Brazil is a developing country, how there is way more misogyny there than in Europe. That was the thought that brought me here, with two suitcases and a hopeful smile. Perhaps too hopeful.

To say that men do not suffer the consequences of patriarchy would be of incredible ignorance. Men are very much affected by the oppressive system they established, the social norms they created, and the unreachable standards they set. However, the impacts are different for women and other genders. The latter was completely disregarded for the longest time. The former was purposefully erased from all significant accomplishments and discoveries they contributed to. To say that men have been oppressive rather than oppressed is not to say that they, individually, don’t go through anything. Rather, it is a claim that this denominated group doesn’t need a day to be celebrated because they haven’t had to fight to be seen, heard, and appreciated.

For the woke dreamland UCU is proclaimed to be, I have been repeatedly shocked by the ignorance I’ve witnessed. Between being told to “stop being a feminist cunt” after calling out a prejudiced comment, and seeing a rapist joyfully hanging out with his friends who know, perfectly well, what he has done, I have been reminded one too many times that this fight is far from over.

I had always been amused by the 8th of March: a day when all the guys who I’ve watched make sexist jokes and claim sexual assault is just a mistake, post cute appreciation pictures with their mothers and pretend, for a day, that they give a shit. The 8th of March is not a day to celebrate but to mourn, to get angry, to grieve, to listen, to learn, to reflect on how far we still are from a minimally just society.

There is nothing wrong with the flowers and the vows. There is something wrong with the idea that that is what women want: flowers and not equality, vows and not recognition, social media posts and not justice, hugs and not security. We want more than empty words and nice gifts. We want you to hold your friends accountable, to hold yourself accountable, and to do better. That is the bare minimum, and it is exhausting to continue having to beg for common sense.

Letter Grades: UCU's Pineapple Pizza

by Mats Meeus

What do pizza and liberal arts education have in common? They’re both European inventions that were improved by spending some time in America. When pizza crossed the ocean, the Americans did away with Italian taboos, which gave us good things like sausage crust, deep dish, and slow-cooked tomato sauce. American liberal arts colleges grew out of the English college system, largely ridding themselves of religious dogma and solidifying their commitment to educational breadth in the nineteenth century. After spending a good amount of time stewing in the American melting pot, both pizza and liberal arts education came back to Europe in improved, modernized form.

In both cases, the journey back was long, and with long trips comes baggage. Every good American innovation had a questionable counterpart. Thick crust is held in high regard by most sensible people, but pineapple pizza tends to start fights. We sadly ended up with both. UCU was modeled on American colleges in order to take advantage of the best things they had to offer — academic breadth, the residential campus system, interdisciplinarity — but ended up bringing along some pieces of American baggage without good reason.

Letter grades are one such quirk. The Dutch system of affording numerical grades from 1.0 to 10.0 allows for a great deal more nuance, especially on the higher side of the spectrum (in addition to letting us fail more spectacularly, which is always a nice opportunity to have). But the system is stacked against UCU students: an 8.0 converts to a GPA of 4.0, although 11% of grades at the UU are 8.5 or higher. This allows UU students to compensate for lower results — an opportunity UCU students are missing, as an A+ is numerically identical to an A. As a Facebook commenter recently pointed out, the amount of steps involved in translating a test result into a GPA score is truly staggering; first, percentage scores are converted to letter grades, which are then converted to GPA scores, averaged out, and converted to letter grades once again.

I have a hard time explaining UCU’s system to my Dutch friends. What, exactly, is a B+?

A 7.5, officially, and a 3.3 in terms of GPA. But a B+ doesn’t feel like a 7.5. A 7.5 is half a point more than a 7.0, and half a point below an 8.0. There is an aesthetically pleasing fluidity to this system. These grades are tangible, inhabiting a location in one-dimensional space that I can visualize. A B+, on the other

hand, sounds jarring, elusive. There is no logical continuation from B+ to A. Letter grades have to be converted to GPA’s before they can be averaged out; numerical grades need no conversion, because they simply make sense. Do letter grade transcripts have some benefit over numerical grades for getting into international master’s programs? Not really: a number of UCU students end up pursuing a master’s degree in the Netherlands, where letter grades have to be converted to the Dutch system anyway. The second-most popular country for graduate studies is the United Kingdom, where most big universities accept Dutch grades. GPA’s can be calculated just as easily using numerical grades.

To sum up: letter grades are detrimental to our GPA’s, less nuanced, confusing, and aesthetically displeasing. They do not appear to have any real benefit over the Dutch system. What, then, is the point? Letter grades certainly contribute to our college’s international allure, which might be worthwhile in itself. Perhaps my preference for the Dutch grading system is a result of my own cultural bias. But the Dutch system has clear benefits, so I would argue that the old adage applies: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Austrian Goulash

by Céline-Christine Ekopf, Chair of GastronomyCo

Instructions

1. Mince onions and garlic cloves

2. Heat the sunflower oil in a large pot over medium heat and sauté the onions and garlic cloves for 5 minutes

3. Add tomato paste, paprika, cumin, marjoram and the bay leaf and cook for 10 minutes over low-medium heat. Meanwhile dice potatoes

4. Add white wine, water, potatoes, vegetable stock, dissolved cornstarch and pepper and cook over low-medium heat for 30 minutes

5. In the meantime, dice frankfurter sausages and add to the pot after the 30 minutes

6. Season to taste

7. Serve with sour cream

The Dish

How did you get the recipe? Does it have a special story to it?

‘When I was young, I was a pretty picky eater. So my mum introduced me to cooking by bringing me into the kitchen and showing me exactly what she did step by step. The Austrian Goulash was one of the first recipes she taught me as she knew that I liked potatoes.’

What is the best part of the recipe? Making it? Eating it? Or both?

‘To me, cooking is a form of meditating. I love standing in front of the stove and seasoning as I wish, trying new techniques and herbs to make it even better. The Goulash is comfort food that makes me happy on a bad day.’

A Love for Cooking

When did you start cooking?

‘From an early age on, my mum always brought me into the kitchen, and I made a whole production, commenting every step as if I am on TV. So I would say since I remember cooking was always a part of my life that I enjoyed and brings me closer to my family.’

Do you have any food traditions?

‘I love making soups in the winter and only in the winter, and salads in the summer. Every year my mum and I look forward to the seasons.’

Cooking tip of the month: a secret from Isabella

‘Sauces and soups are always better the next day. Boiling them up again makes the flavours get more intense.’

Ingredients

- 2 onions

- 2 garlic cloves

- sunflower oil

- 30 grams tomato paste

- 20 grams paprika

- 1 tbsp ground cumin

- 2 tbsp marjoram

- 1 bay leaf

- 700 grams potatoes, waxy

- 50 ml white wine

- 700 ml water

- 3 cubes of vegetable stock

- 1 tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tbsp cold water

- black pepper

- 4 frankfurter sausages

- 3 tbsp sour cream

Do you have a memorable story related to cooking?

‘When my cousins and I were kids, we always spent our summer holidays together in Spain or Italy with my grandparents. My grandpa is a professional chef and always made the best Wiener Schnitzel. They were small and tender, and when I was 10, I dared to ask him to show me how he made them.’

Are there any people that inspire you to cook?

‘Since I moved to Utrecht, I think the person that inspires me the most is Olivia. Every time I enter our kitchen, she cooks something delicious and inspires my grocery list for the week.’

With whom do you like to cook?

‘Honestly, I like to cook either by myself to destress or surprise my friends with dinner. Back in Frankfurt, I started cooking nights with red wine and techno music, dancing in the kitchen with my loved ones, having an amazing time.’

‘It is so simple, and the first recipe my mum taught me’

Illustration © Avantika Bhowmik

Love Is the Drug: a Dreamer's View on Hook-up Culture by

“You know I don’t want anything serious right? This was just a one-time thing”. The first time I heard this sentence at UCU I was a naïve nerd who really thought a hook-up meant love. Oh boy, was I wrong. My first reaction to this door slammed on my face was bursting into tears. It was embarrassing, but if I look back to that moment now and think of how I have learned to react to that sentence, I feel pretty proud of myself. Sure, a part of me still hopes the person lying next to me will care more than the others. But now I know that if you don’t want to get hurt, you must be more in control of your body and your heart.

I find myself wondering if I’m the only fool who reflects on hook-up culture. How can you get to know every single inch of someone’s body, and barely say hi to them the next day? It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Now, I don’t want to try encouraging people to stop a system that won’t ever change because it’s way too functional (“I don’t see the problem. It’s perfect for having fun!”). My purpose here is just to reach someone out there that might have the same mindset.

Trust me, you’re not the only one. The world is full of dreamers, just as it is full of emotionless jerks.

So, how can this mechanical system work so well? Three words: fear of commitment. Of course, I’m not saying I don’t have it too. Once I was talking with a friend about it and they told me every single time they go home, their parents ask them if they’ve finally found a partner. “Oh yes, Mom. By now I have collected maybe ten sexual partners. Not entirely sure about that number though.”

"the world is full of dreamers, just as it is full of emotionless jerks"

Fear of commitment at UCU is so thick you can literally cut it with a knife. Beware of showing even a tiny sign of affection. “You know, I might have a little crush on you”. “Ha-ha you’re cute, but keep in mind this is a one-time thing, okay?”. Right, my bad. Wouldn’t want to risk seeking some human empathy for once.

Agony Aunt

Perla Gioannini

I heard someone saying that this campus is too full of temptations to be able to catch actual feelings. Well, if we want to put it that way, then maybe we really are only mammals and should just “do it like they do on the Discovery Channel.”

But aren’t we more than that? I mean, why did people like Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters write pages and pages about marrying a man and sleeping with him for the first time? How did we get from making such a big deal out of it to not giving a shit so fast? Don’t worry, I’m not saying that we should all act like we were in 18th century England. If everyone waited as long as Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet did before getting laid, we would probably face extinction. But maybe, next time you are with someone, keep in mind you might be dealing with a dreamer. And instead of hitting them with the “onetime thing” stab, just smile and say thanks when they compliment your pretty eyes.

#blownawaybyeunice7k708 Expectations ruin everything for me when I’m trying to date. I get too anxious over how I act to really be myself. I am too enthralled by my date just because they’re my date and put them on a pedestal, or I impose an ideal image on them without seeing them for who they really are. It just makes things awkward for both of us. Such a nasty habit. How can I grow out of it? Any advice?

Expectations are a tough thing when it comes to dating. It is important to have some small expectations in your dating life: you should feel comfortable, your date should make you feel happy, etc - maybe standards is a better word than expectations in this case. I think small-scale expectations aren’t a bad thing, because they ensure that you’re being treated the way you deserve. But it’s important to avoid bigger expectations, like putting your date on a pedestal or creating a whole dream-fantasy world in your head where you and your date are married and have, like, three kids and a golden retriever - steer clear of that. It’s important to find a balance between being hopeful and being realistic - after all, dating is supposed to be fun and you should let yourself get some excitement out of that!

At the end of the day, it’s important to accept that dating is unpredictable, and there’s no way to determine what’s going to happen with someone - no matter how much you like them. Of course, that’s a terrifying thing to have to accept, and it can make you a lot more anxious than you’d like. But in that case, you have to remind yourself that odds are that the person you’re seeing is probably in the same boat as you. Hannah Montana said it best: “nobody’s perfect” - your date is likely having the same dilemma as you. And, if you really feel like your expectations are getting in the way of creating a real, genuine connection with someone, it might be worth it to talk to them about that. After all, communication is key in a relationship (very cliché, I know), and you never know what a moment of vulnerability can lead to!

And, if worst comes to worst, fake it till you make it (another cliché - sorry).

xoxo, Agony Aunt

What Board Should You Run For?

by The Boomerang Board

With Election Season now upon us, you might find yourself eager to throw your hat into the ring for the running of one of our beloved boards… but which board will it be?

Using state of the art scientific methodology and the most advanced of the psychological character assessments, we have crafted an authentic and meticulous walkthrough for you to find out which student board you really belong in, and what your result says about your personality.

1. Pick a clothing item to wear for the rest of the semester

A. UGG Boots

B. Oversized Scarves

C. Birkenstock Sandals

2. What is your go-to Jazzman’s/Dine In order?

A. A glass of milk, straight up

B. Latte with Oat Milk

C. A croissant or pastry

3. You’re going clubbing tonight. What song will you request at the Bar?

A. “Drank en Drugs” by Lil Kleine and Ronnie Flex

B. “We Are Never Getting Back Together” by Taylor Swift

C. “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira

4. Pick your fighter

A. Maintenance man

B. Noen Lady

C. A campus mouse

5. Pick your go-to grocery store

A. Jumbo

B. Albert Heijn

C. Plus

6. What is your opinion on the “no shoes inside” policy?

A. I love feet, show me those toes

B. I hate dirt, so yes

C. I don't care

7. It’s a Friday afternoon - where can your friends find you?

A. Off-campus, enjoying life far away from the bubble

B. At Voltaire, playing beautiful music that resonates through the building

C. At the Bar, taking a birthday shot

8. What’s your go-to dishwashing tool?

A. Fingers (au natural!)

B. Brush

C. Sponge

Disclaimer: if you are already running for a position in one of the student boards, and your answer to the quiz is different from that which you’re aiming for… you might want to reconsider your candidacy (sorry, we don’t make the rules) :(((

Tally up your answers, and get a glimpse of your destiny!!

AIf the majority of your answers

were A, you belong in… UCSA!

You know how to party, and no one parties like the Dutch! You are unapologetic about your preferences (from your music taste, your Dutch snack of choice, to your combination of majors), but that’s what makes you a joy to be around. Your friends can trust you to get things fixed when they break down. You are pragmatic but adventurous, chasing after the good deals and experiences (chances are you were voted “Most Likely to Travel the World Living in a Van”). What you’re known for is that you are not afraid to go out of your comfort zone, both in your unit and off-campus!

BIf the majority of your answers were B, you belong in… UCSC!

You’re known to be an academically engaged fashionista. You like the finer things in life, and your tastes are very refined. Despite what this might sound like, you’re so in tune with your emotional well-being and your thirst for knowledge. Out of your close circle, you’re the one constantly looking forward to learning more and more, but defend your principles like no one else. As a student, you are on top of readings, and never miss a meeting. Curiosity drives you and makes you a pro at handling any group project, no matter how stressful. You’re a loyal, reliable academic-in-the-making - knowledge has never been sexier.

C were C, you belong in… CAR!

If the majority of your answers

The crowd lights up as you enter the room. You’re charismatic, and everyone on campus knows who you are (just… maybe not what you do). Being so involved in helping out the campus, you are in-tune with nature and your surroundings, and can always find a silver lining even at the stickiest of units. Your preferred mode of learning is handson and practical, with no time for theory. Chats with you rarely get boring, but it might mean sometimes you might find yourself a bit over the place. You might leave stuff for the last minute, but we can trust you to deliver every time.

Illustration © Ida Zwetselaar & Imme van Beurden

QUAD QUIZZES WORD SEARCH

NUMBER PUZZLES

Which Number replaces the Question Mark?

Which Number replaces the Question Mark?

February's Crossword

Answers:

THE BOOMERANG BOARD

Giulia Martinez-Brenner | Editor-in-Chief

Nina Alberti | Managing Editor

Monse Martinez | Executive Editor

Mats Meeus | Executive Editor

Noor Hofs | Layout Manager

Jana Fragoulis | Art Director

Avantika Bhowmik | PR Manager

Boomerang uses wind energy printers

The Boomerang is a periodical newspaper. It comes out eight times a year. This is the fifth edition of the academic year.