NO. 17 • THE ME ISSUE NO. 17 • BAREMAGAZINE.ORG
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CONTENTS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Cecily Manson
BUSINESS DIRECTOR Natalie Chyba
CREATIVE DIRECTORS Kate Harwitz Lizbeth Ochoa
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jeanette Zhukov
LAYOUT DIRECTOR Charisse Celestial
ONLINE EDITORIAL DIRECTORS Anita Xu Catherine Zhou
VIDEO DIRECTOR Christiana Ko
MARKETING DIRECTORS Saige Wexler Snow Zhu
EVENTS DIRECTOR Christy Wang
STREET STYLE DIRECTOR Susan Lee
WEB DIRECTOR Benjamin Ortiz
CONTACT baremagazine.org facebook.com/baremagazine @baremagazine Published twice a year Berkeley, CA
STAFF Alisha Chou Amy Shimizu Ankur Maniar Annsley Matthiessen Audrey Linden Auzeen Abdi Briana Baptiste Caitlin Kramer Camille Aroustamian Catriona Lewis Celestine Griffin Chandler Le Francis Christine Oh Christina Svenson Clare Egan Cleary Chizmar Dakota Goodman Drew Mack Fiona Duerr Hannah Ricker Jenna Farrar Jon Caña Janet Louie Jasmine Barakat John Lawson Julia Burke Leah Hotchkiss Lieyah Dagan Lisa Inoue Louise Deboutte Lucy Paulina Chen Malini Patel Marina Chilingaryan Megan Lee Meghan Martin Meredith Zelaya Mia Kaminoff Michael Hyun Michelle Li Mimmi Lindquist Nadine Melamed Nigel Jones
Noah Chantos Noelle Forougi Reilly Ryan Sandy Campbell Sarah Noble-Spangaro Sawhel Maali Sonia Hamilton Sophie Curtis Sophie Gaito Sudeshna Barman Sue Ying Tay Taylor Anderson Taylor Kim Tierney Henderson Ting Chen Vanda Saggese Vivian Chuang
CONTRIBUTORS Adrianna Lewis Alex Nguyen Calvin Emerson Chi-Lan Tran Gurchit Chatha Huda Abushanab Jackie Iyamah J’adore Soleil Joseph Buchan Kate Vlessis Mar-és Maryam Rahim Maaz Uddin Maxime Boublil Nina Gustis Nicole Solis-Sison Rana Mohammed Reilly Ryan Zackary Harris
SPECIAL THANKS Deirdre English
ASUC SPONSORED
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08.
14.
LOST IN GENTRIFICATION
NÜ PREP
COLOR FEELS
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22.
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STRUTTING OUT OF THE BOX
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE URL AND IRL
IN THE RAW
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30.
THE GENERATIONAL PRECIPICE
FRAMING THE FEMALE BODY
LIFTING THE (METAPHORICAL) VEIL
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INVITE ONLY
OBJECTS OF DESIRE
LIFE ON THE PALE BLUE DOT
EDITOR’S NOTE
e chose “me” as the theme for #17 mostly because we liked the way it sounded. “The Me Issue” had that 1992 rawness— like the collaged, in-your-face videography of “The Real World” intro. Really, that’s an accurate way of thinking about this issue. In compiling editorial pieces and photographic content that focus on individuals and specific enclaves, our seventeenth issue functions as a reflection of the diverse, “real” world; it’s a space to present collectively some of the many different types of “me”s living on this earth. Though we examine the individual in relation to what are often considered hallmarks of identity: physique, sexuality, gender, religion, personal style; we also look at more abstract ways of understanding the concept of self. We’ve even found out in “Lost in Gentrification” (pg.6) and “The Generational Precipice” (pg. 28) respectively that both cities and brands also have a “me”— and it’s subject to change. “Color Feels” (pg.14) and “Objects of Desire” (pg.38) look at the way our individual psychology affects the way in which we perceive the world. Our photo shoots translate these questions of identity into a visual format. “Invite Only,” (pg.32)
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EXECUTIVE STAFF SPRING 2015
at first glance a lavish picnic akin to a vintage Ralph Lauren ad, is a statement about individuality in a group dynamic. Note the static positions of the models in “Nü Prep” (pg.8) as a challenge to the idea that identity is stable: are we always the same person independent of circumstance? It’s fitting that the “me” issue should present an image of “we”— the impression that emerges when looking at these individuals collectively. After all BARE is itself a “we” endeavour; our print magazine, website and events are all products of collaboration within our nearly one hundred person staff. This semester our “we” expanded. We’ve partnered with the brilliant art zine, Fault and Fracture, and produced our first ever flea-market by enrolling over fifty different vendors in our vision. For this growth immense thanks is due to Zach Hing and Nick Francis, the visionary duo behind Fault and Fracture; and to our events director, Christy Wang for her daring, and incredibly graceful leadership of our foray into open air markets. So don’t be fooled by the theme, #17 is far from solipsistic. Drink up our most expansive issue yet… and find out what happens when BARE Magazine stops being polite, and starts getting real.
LOST IN GENTRIFICATION
ONCE GLOBAL CAPITAL COMES IN, [GENTRIFICATION]
IS OAKLAND’S ART SCENE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CITY’S SHIFT IN IDENTITY?
riving through West Oakland, you see the all-too-familiar homes that characterize Oakland’s grittiness. Weatherworn, paint-chipped Victorians sit perched on little islands of concrete. There’s hardly any greenery. The high chain-link fences and rusted wrought iron bars over the windows solidify what you had already guessed about this area: better keep the car doors locked. But then you make a right on Pine street. You look ahead and see an expansive, white wall with large, artfully-placed windows glinting in the sun. Suddenly, you find yourself wondering where you are because the building facing you— a modern concrete and glass structure with freshly-stained cedar beams—is a little too Seattle-esque to fit with Oakland’s reputation. But it is exactly these neighborhoods in which sleek developments and the buildings of earlier years are juxtaposed that define what Oakland is becoming today. Oakland’s trajectory of growth may seem a little too déjà vu for politicians, city planners, and community members who are familiar with the fate of cities like Brooklyn. Indeed, gentrification has taken a foothold in Oakland and its inception, surprisingly, is at least partially rooted in the emergence and evolution of the artist community. Artists often find themselves as inadvertent agents in the transition of an area from its original identity to a newer and more generic version of itself. They
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are typically driven to relocate once high housing prices and limited space caused by gentrification make their former residences inadequate. As they settle into neighborhoods with lower property value, they highlight the worth of these areas. They see the potential in unrefined cities and have a knack for turning rundown warehouses into eclectic, red-brick abodes for their easels or revamping shabby Victorians into pops of color on previously steer-clear streets. These artist enclaves develop charm and character that give a city a personality that is easily recognizable even to those outside of the creative community. But unfortunately these niches don’t remain quaint colonies of artistic ingenuity. These diamonds in the rough that have been so carefully honed and revitalized catch the eye of real estate moguls and developers. San Francisco, Oakland’s bigger, tech-savvy sibling across the bay,is a breeding ground for many of these developers; global capital spills over and causes gentrification in the east bay. This artistically molded identity and authenticity of places like Oakland becomes decidedly trendy, and it’s only a matter of time before cafes and distinctly bourgeois restaurants make their way onto the scene. Shortly thereafter chic apartment and condominium complexes take root, like the enclosed, exclusive Pacific Cannery Lofts in the Lower Bottoms. Altogether, housing prices and cost of living surge dramatically, and
HAPPENS VERY QUICKLY MALO HUTSON
the artists who so carefully crafted this appreciable identity are eventually priced out. It seems like these niches were transformed overnight, but this evolution actually takes time. “Gentrification really is a process,” says UC Berkeley Urban Studies professor Malo Hutson. “It can take decades, and then all of a sudden it happens quickly once the synergy gets going. Land speculators will buy land and sit on it until the value appreciates. The next thing you know, it’s a cafe here, a restaurant there, and a condo complex pops up. Once global capital comes in, it happens very quickly. Essentially it just needs a catalyst.” For Oakland, that catalyst is tech money from San Francisco. We don’t visibly see the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of land speculators; this process becomes apparent once they decide to take action and direct that capital into physical changes. What we do see is what’s taken form because of the artist community. The tech money may be the catalyst to this change, but it is the artist influences makes these spaces attractive to the affluent tech world. These hip neighborhoods give the generic corporate money an interesting trend in which to invest and a culture to adopt. This process seems to pit artists against their replacement gentrifiers, but this simplification fails to address the divisions that exist within the artist community. While artists are often thought of collectively as one distinct group, their community is far from homogenous. As
this general gentrification process unfolds, certain groups manage to headline the transition and keep up with the rapidly evolving economic composition of the area. Others only make a brief entrance and some are excluded altogether from the blooming economic conditions. This success is by no means an accident: certain groups have had more success because of the resources and opportunities with which they have been provided earlier in life. These opportunities ultimately boil down to greater issues of race and class. The affluent artist groups, which coincide largely with the white community, have been more successful because of deeply embedded, systemic resources provided throughout their lives. There can be many interpretations of what these systemic advantages are and the source of their origin. Roy Robles of Career Ladders Project, an Oakland-based NGO dedicated to promoting trade-based training and educational reform, believes these advantages are all cultivated through the education system. For Robles, the success of these sub-communities exists because the system is designed to allow affluent whites to succeed; education in business practices and a general knowledge of how to navigate the system has worked in their favor. These affluent groups have the savoir-faire to obtain financial backing and maintain consistent social capital through networking. Their success is obvious in the proliferation of communal studio spaces and cooperatives like the
25th street collective and other galleries part of the Oakland Art Murmur. More marginalized groups do not always have access to the education that will provide them with the advantages to start their own co-ops or galleries. Robles sees the solution to the imbalances within the artist community as a reform in the education system. His work involving vocational training at Laney College and K-5 after school enrichment programs has shown that a hands-on approach to learning coupled with disciplines like math contextualize the importance of both types of learning and revitalize worth in trade work. But, it’s difficult to say with any certainty if that’s enough to remedy the situation at hand. In many ways, this nationwide trend of gentrification has enabled global capital to thrive at the expense of artists while simultaneously bifurcating the artist community by race and class. Moving forward, it’s hard to predict how this intersection of race, class, and art will play out. For Oakland, questions prevail about whether the artist community will become more unified and what the fate of the community will be in the face of global capital. How the marginalized groups will incorporate themselves into the successful factions remains to be seen. Perhaps education is one way of getting there. But as this internal struggle continues on one front, artists will have to keep up with the rapidly expanding neighborhood change that is squeezing them out of their space.
- HANNAH RICKER 6 THE ME ISSUE • BAREMAGAZINE.ORG
NO. 17 • BAREMAGAZINE.ORG
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MODELS: REILLY RYAN, JACKIE IYAMAH
PHOTOGRAPHER: LIEYAH DAGAN
NU PREP PRODUCTION: LIEYAH DAGAN, LOUISE DEBOUTTE, VANDA SAGGESE , ALISHA CHOU, REILLY RYAN, DAKOTA GOODMAN, MEGHAN MARTIN
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JACKIE WEARS SWEATER JAMES ROWLAND. SKIRT AMERICAN APPAREL. SHOES STAN SMITH FOR ADIDAS. WATCH STYLIST’S OWN. REILLY WEARS SHIRT AMERICAN APPAREL. SKIRT MARS. SHOES ADIDAS.
SHOES AND SOCKS STYLISTS OWN.
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JACKIE WEARS DRESS MARS. SHOES AND WATCH STYLIST’S OWN. REILLY WEARS DRESS MARS. SHOES STYLIST’S OWN. JACKIE WEARS PANTS AND JACKET AMERICAN APPAREL. SHOES AND WATCH STYLIST’S OWN. REILLY WEARS OVERALLS AMERICAN APPAREL. JACKET BUFFALO EXCHANGE. SHOES STYLIST’S OWN.
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JACKIE WEARS DRESS AMERICAN APPAREL. COAT MARS. SHOES, SOCKS AND WATCH STYLIST’S OWN. REILLY WEARS SHIRT AMERICAN APPAREL. SKIRT MARS. COAT JAMES ROWLAND. SHOES AND SOCKS STYLIST’S OWN.
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COOL/WARM: The color wheel can be broken up in a few ways but the primary distinction is between the two sides: cool and warm. Satterthwaite notes that “violet and blue, in their pure and lighter forms can make a person feel happy and peaceful.
TRIADS: Triads are colors equally spaced on the wheel, in the form of an equilateral triangle. Satterthwaite claims that the Red/Blue/ Yellow triad in its pure form looks juvenile because of its frequent usage in items geared towards children (eg.
toys, kid’s meals, clowns, etc). If the D&G show had substituted yellow for black in their designs, perhaps I might have felt like going to McDonald’s instead of heaving into a brown paper bag.
FIND OUT WHY THE BRIGHT RED IN THE S/S 2015 RUNWAY COLLECTIONS ARE SETTING AUZEEN (AND MAYBE YOU TOO) ON EDGE ark room, red floor, here comes the bride, except she’s in all black: blazer, high-waist briefs, T-strap heels, her hair (also black) is in a bun with a bouquet of red flowers tucked in it. More models follow, looking as if they had been teleported from Spain directly onto the runway. One-by-one, the color combination changes, black, white, red, gold, red, RED, RED, RED. Why am I violently screaming in my head while watching the Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2015 fashion show? Now there are waves of models, swells of red. The audience members sit with their mouths wide open and their hands come together in applause. My own eyes refuse to shut. I’m like a little boy seeing pornography for the first time--so help me God for I have sinned! I wasn’t even upset because I can’t afford that pair of corseted shorts and gilt crown-- it’s not even that I would never be able to pull them off (they’re not exactly Cal appropriate attire anyway). I was instantly reminded of color theory. I learned about it in a watercolor class back in junior college, but I only understood it in the context of painting. When I found myself questioning my extreme reaction to the red color scheme, I found that color theory also offers a way
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of understanding how colors make us feel. First I spoke to oil and watercolor artist, Monica Satterthwaite to get a breakdown of color theory, and an artistic perspective about the relationship between color and emotion. I then spoke to Adam Alter, a professor of marketing and psychology at New York University who consolidates his research on the effect of color on human psychology in his book Drunk Tank Pink. Though he discusses many colors, red popped up in the most places throughout the book. When I asked him which color he was fascinated by the most, he responded: “Red-- I find red most fascinating.” I’m not the only one with this intense, involuntary reaction to red. As it turns out, researchers have found that “people eat more in the presence of red; athletes are more effective when they wear red; men and women attract more mates when they wear red.” Maybe everyone’s jaw dropped at the D&G show because red often signals “the rush of blood to a person’s face that comes from engagement, interest, aggression.” Interesting, because I wasn’t feeling too aggressive. Instead as the models stomped towards me (virtually at least) their red ensembles had me falling to my knees begging Dolce and Gabbana for more.
- AUZEEN ABDI 14 THE ME ISSUE • BAREMAGAZINE.ORG
COMPLIMENTS: Compliments are colors that oppose each other on the wheel. “They to be more dynamic, energetic, dramatic,” says Satterthwaite.
ANALOGOUS: Analogous colors, sometimes called bloodlines, are a group of three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. Satterthwaite says that, “[analogous] are typically harmonious.” These color combinations are often found in nature which may make them more pleasing to our eyes. NO. 17 • BAREMAGAZINE.ORG 15
STRUTTING LUNA, J’ADORE SOLEIL, AND BUKI HO BLUR GENDER BOUNDARIES, BREAK NORMATIVE LANGUAGE, AND OVERALL, CHALLENGE OUR ABILITY TO CATEGORIZE OTHERS...AND THEY DO IT ALL IN A PAIR OF HEELS.
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f you happen to glance at Luna, J’adore Soleil, or Buki Ho at Free Speech Movement Cafe on a sunny Thursday, you do not see divas. You see busy Cal students in a sea of the like. You might register that Luna is tall and sporting sparkly nail polish, or that Buki Ho has a chic black and gold backpack. But stirring beneath J’adore Soleil’s bro tank, Buki Ho’s hip sunglasses and Luna’s curly hair, is fierceness brought most sharply to life by a makeup brush and a pair of heels, and the confidence with which to thoroughly ‘work it.’ The three Berkeley Juniors, unknown to daytime eyes and passersby, are drag queens. As we sit down to talk, I’m hoping none of them will notice my total ‘basicness’ when it comes to drag. I’m tall and gangly, very blonde, and straight; I’ve generally accepted my unavoidable ‘white girl’-ness. But something indescribable drew me to drag, and I mean that quite literally. My vocabulary was failing me. As I tried to describe drag, my brain was left desperately scrambling, digging furiously through various labels and adjectives picked up in a lifespan of categorizing people. In trying to define people who both defied yet embraced stereotypes, every label and stock J’ADORE phrase in my mind fell short. In this case, the definition of ‘Drag Queen’—“a person (traditionally male) who dresses in exaggerated femininity and often acts with exaggerated female gender roles”—does not account for this scrambling moment. Nor does it explain the process by which one becomes a Queen. Luna, J’adore Soleil, and Buki Ho all began practicing drag after coming to Berkeley and joining Sigma Epsilon Omega, Cal’s gay fraternity. After weekly house viewings of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” caused an interest in drag to ripple through the fraternity, the three, along with a few other brothers, began experimenting on their own. A year later, Buki Ho and J’adore Soleil accepted first prize for their performance at a drag contest hosted at Clark Kerr; they had succeeded in becoming “Berkeley’s Next Top Drag Queens of 2014.”
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Being a drag queen, however, is more than the performance—the dance routines, lip syncing, and complex outfits. J’adore Soleil, who says he picked his drag name because he “wanted a character to really look up to, one that had the confidence and energy [he wants] to put into [his] personal life,” describes feeling almost like a different person when wearing drag. “I’m more quiet and reserved out of drag,” he reflects, “but in drag an energy comes out of me that keeps me going.” Buki Ho says that his already loud and brash personality doesn’t change much when he’s in drag, but admits that he does enjoy “getting to stomp around in heels and tell people you’re better than them.” He also relates the strangeness of being occasionally taken for a woman, saying, “It’s just weird when people are catcalling you and you’re like, ‘excuse you!’ Like one time I was walking down the street, and I had just come back from a drag show and was wearing girl clothes—booty shorts with my long hair and acrylics still on and my hair in a bandana—and this guy is like, ‘Oh, dat ass. I love it when a girl smokes.’ And I’m just like, ‘Oh, me! This is weird!’ and I didn’t say anything—I was just scared and caught offguard—like why would someone just say your ass is nice?” SOLEIL As a woman, I can relate to creepy comments about my appearance; I cannot relate, however, to seeing others react when they realize you’re actually a man, though they first thought you to be a woman. “It’s very frustrating for people,” muses J’adore Soleil, “because they think —‘oh, you shouldn’t be like this’—but there’s no real reason. They think, ‘oh, you’re a man, why aren’t you acting like a man.’ I think there’s a good amount of underlying fear associated with that.” These three queens take interest in this reactive moment, however. Luna’s decision to “almost never do full femme drag again,” and instead retain male traits by not shaving beard or legs, reflects their gender queerness. They make a conscious effort to encourage others to question the very nature of the assumptions made about sexuality, gender, and identity construction. Luna highlights times when even positive reactions to
IN TERMS OF DRESSING MYSELF, MAKEUP IS THE MOST FUN PART. SEEING YOUR FACE – STRIPPED OF ALL ITS FEATURES AND THEN REDRAWN DIFFERENTLY – IT’S VERY INTERESTING TO SEE.
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AS SEMI-PROBLEMATIC AS IT IS I LIKE REPRESENTING CHOLA BECAUSE THAT’S THE CLOSEST FEMINITY THAT I’M ATTRACTED WITH. SO HIGH EYEBROWS, GOLD HOOPS… LUNA
J’ADORE SOLEIL WEARS SCARF SAVERS. DRESS STYLIST’S OWN. LUNA WEARS SHIRT STYLIST’S OWN. JEWELRY AND HAT SAVERS.
drag expose resistance to blurring gender boundaries; in the drag community, others still grasp onto the labels ‘man,’ ‘woman,’ or ‘man-passing-as-woman;’ meanwhile, Luna identifies as “an and or an inbetween.” For example, Luna describes a time at San Francisco’s Gay Pride Parade: “I looked really good— high black hair, gold hoops, beard, full makeup, a cool see-through, lacy black tank, and a black bra— and this girl was like ‘Wow, you look so good. You would pass as a girl if you didn’t have your beard.’ I took it as a complement because I understood where she was coming from in her own context, but also an affirmation because that’s what I want people to think about and question.” “Identifying as a gay man when I was in eighth grade, my friends started saying, ‘Oh my God, I’ve always wanted a gay best friend!’” Coming out, Luna realized, meant that suddenly people expected their interests to include dressing up and doing makeup, planning shopping trips and worshipping all things Beyoncé. Not that some of these aren’t true—Luna does admit a love for Beyoncé—but after identifying as gay, they felt acutely “the expectations and negotiations pushed on us as soon as we say,’oh, I’m this.’ ” “Inherently in having an identity,” Luna continues, “bound work has to be done, saying ‘this is what this identity is, that is what that identity is.’ So when I first started doing ‘genderfuck’ drag and people were
saying, ‘Oh, that’s not drag; you don’t look like a real woman,’ I was like ‘Exactly! That’s not what I’m going for!’” I feel exposed. Looking at Luna showing off sexy (albeit hairy) legs with a short skirt, male-bodied chest flaunting a bra, and my brain realizes its lack of boxes in which to place them. But Luna is quite aware of my moment of brain-scrambling… and fully embraces it. In a way, I begin to feel that drag speaks for anyone who has ever felt that their identity surpasses definitions used in resumes and Facebook ‘about’ sections; it speaks to anyone who feels that language can only distantly circle around what it means to be the real ‘you.’ Because what are identities, anyway, if at the end of the day, a whole persona, cinched and caked on, can be stripped and scrubbed off, leaving one altogether transformed and yet still completely intact? “My whole hope in doing drag and having these types of conversations,” Luna continues, “is to have people stray away from identities and just live in the complexities. In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to say, ‘I’m a queer, gender-queer, Chicana, low-income rooted, upwardly mobile, privileged institution-ed person.’ That would just come up organically in conversation, experiences, interactions…. The labels would be less important because we’d be having real genuine interactions instead of going off of assumptions.”
- TIERNEY HENDERSON 20 THE ME ISSUE • BAREMAGAZINE.ORG
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SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE URL AND IRL
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PERFORMATIVITY AND IDENTITY IN THE INTERNET AGE
’ve been thinking about those pictures of Ryan Gosling grocery shopping in that People Magazine segment called something like, “Celebrities—They’re Just Like You!” Instead, though, I imagine unedited pictures of myself with the headline “You—You’re Just Like You!” This is because I’ve recently considered the idea of myself as split between the ‘me in real life’ and the ‘me on the internet.’ Even though I’m the one posting statuses and pictures, I wonder if there is a difference between how I interact with people ‘in real life’ and how I present myself on internet platforms. I interviewed Molly Soda—a digital artist and online celebrity whose internet persona has been expanding since she first joined Facebook in 2006—to get her insight on performativity and authenticity in the digital age. I see the relationship people have with the internet as very related to performance theory. “Performativity” suggests that when we carry out our daily activities, we are all subtly performing. As Molly put it, “The way that I perform for my roommates is going to be different than the way that I’m performing for the cashier at the grocery store or my grandmother or my parents.” For a lot of people this is troubling because performativity—by definition— means that putting on makeup in the morning is performance, shaving your legs is performance, changing your voice for a phone interview is performance. They believe that thinking of their actions in this way somehow undermines the “realness” of their identities. But the idea of performativity has been around a long time, probably even before Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” So, I guess my question is, do these things we do online have this performative element to a higher degree, since we can edit ourselves way more than we can ‘in real life’? Many of us spend the majority of our time online managing social media pages. We are, in a sense, our own agents, publicists, and managers. Every time we post something online, we have an opportunity for self-expression; we are constantly adding to our online identities with images and statuses of what we consider to be our identities ‘in real life.’ When you post a picture of yourself laughing and having a drink at the bar, you might want people to see that you’re carefree and fun.
M O L L Y S O D A D E S C R I B E S H E R O N L I N E S E L F. Or maybe you choose the one of you lying on a field reading Foucault to show that you’re cultured and ‘into nature.’ These images have been carefully picked, and make it easier to shape people’s first impressions or perceptions. When I asked Molly about how performance theory relates to her own media, she said “I’m sure I’m consciously presenting myself in a certain way. It gives me some sort of control. It’s more subconscious, but yes, it’s curated.” Like a curator does in an art gallery, we pick and choose, edit and manipulate ourselves in this empty virtual void. For some, the internet can be very freeing because it makes it possible to construct any persona through photos and text. Molly said she finds it “incredibly liberating, but some people [she] talks to are very stressed out about it.” Even though it allows you to build an ideal virtual self, online performance can induce social anxiety. ‘Likes’ start to amount to other’s validation—or lack thereof— of your entire identity. The most common fear of many with strong internet personas? Being perceived as fake by others. Molly attests to this saying, “I always used to get nervous that if I only posted attractive pictures of myself, that wasn’t real… I always had this anxiety that I wasn’t being my real self because I was editing and curating.” But why is this abstract ideal of ‘authenticity’ given so much value? On this, Molly says, “Like what is real? We’re all presenting ourselves differently…[with the Internet] you’re taking social anxiety out of the equation, but there’s a whole new level of intimacy. There is editing, there is a bit of a curatorial process, but it’s just as real. I think that a lot of people have trouble understanding that your online self is just as real as you in real life.” There is a perceived binary of the real versus the fake; the human versus the artificial; the online versus the IRL (In Real Life). To me, this is the center of the entire argument about performance and ‘real-ness’ online. If the internet is considered as divided from your ‘real life,’ then it’s easier for it to become a space that is associated with artificiality. Molly rejects that binary entirely, telling me, “Sometimes I get tired of this whole IRL versus internet argument. You decide that you like to use the internet the way you like to, and it becomes part of your real life.”
-C H R I S T I N A S V E N S O N 22 THE ME ISSUE • BAREMAGAZINE.ORG
THIS SPRING IS ABOUT MESSY MAN BUNS, UNTAMED BEARDS, AND BARE FEET.
GURCHIT WEARS SHIRT AND POCKET SQUARE WELCOME S T R A N G E R. J E W E L R Y S T Y L I S T’S O W N.
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GURCHIT WEARS SHIRT WELCOME S T R A N G E R. P A N T S S T Y L I S T’S O W N.
MAX WEARS SHIRT DRIES V A N N O T E N, M A C S F. P A N T S W E L C O M E S T R A N G E R.
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MA X WEARS SHIRT WELCOME MAX WEARS SHIRT WELCOME STR A N G E R. P A N T S S T Y L I S T’S O W N. S T R A N G E R. P A N T S S T Y L I S T’S O W N. C ACLAVLIVNI NWWEEAARRSS SSH IRT WELCOME HIRT WELCOME STR A N G E R. P A N T S S T Y L I S T’S O W N. S T R A N G E R. P A N T S S T Y L I S T’S O W N. GURCHIT WEARS SHIRT WELCOME S T R A N G E R. P A N T S S T Y L I S T’S O W N.
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S O L I S-S I S O N M O D E L S G U R C H I T C H A T H A, M A X I M E B O U B L I L, C A L V I N E M E R S O N
A B K I N, A U D R E Y L I N D E N, S U D E S H N A B A R M A N, I R E N E K I M P H O T O G R A P H Y N I C O L E
P R O D U C T I O N C A I T L I N K R A M E R, C E L E S T I N E G R I F F I N, N O A H C H A N T O S, K E L S E Y
M A X W E A R S S H I R T D R I E S V A N N O T E N, M A C S F. P A N T S W E L C O M E S T R A N G E R. C A L V I N W E A R S S U I T D R I E S V A N N O T E N, M A C S F. S H I R T S T Y L I S T’S O W N. P R O D U C T I O N C A I T L I N K R A M E R, C E L E S T I N E G R I F F I N, N O A H C H A N T O S, K E L S E Y A B K I N, A U D R E Y L I N D E N, S U D E S H N A B A R M A N, I R E N E K I M P H O T O G R A P H Y N I C O L E S O L I S-S I S O N M O D E L S G U R C H I T C H A T H A, M A X I M E B O U B L I L, C A L V I N E M E R S O N
CALVIN WEARS SUIT DRIES V A N N O T E N, M A C S F. S H I R T S T Y L I S T’S O W N.
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at first, life begins to look like a scene from the twilight zone as it reaches near universal adoption. Gap’s evolution into a corporate super-power is, in a sense, a magnification of this process by which trends can transform the individual into the generic; it is a powerful example of the appropriation unique youth culture into popularized homogeneity. This story begins in San Francisco, 1969. The moniker ‘The Gap’ was an appeal to a youthful market; it was a reference to the generational gap in ideas, tastes, and lifestyles between the youth and their parents. The Gap became one of the first fashion retail outlets for blue jeans. At the time, denim was primarily worn by workers, but it quickly became a fashion statement that the disaffected youth used to symbolize their rejection of capitalist culture. As the youth began to wear jeans en masse, they were transformed from workers garb, to counterculture wear, and finally into to a fashion staple. After several decades of expansion, the The Gap began to distance themselves from their ideologically charged roots. It was rebranded as ‘Gap’ and the store’s signature, punky-orange interiors were painted over with neutral grays and whites; and private labels were purged from the stores. This dramatic change of image was incredibly successful; the company expanded internationally, acquired more brands, and opened hundreds of stores. Gap established itself as a dominant force in the fashion scene—National Post reports a 24000% growth between 19841999. It was a complete 180. The Gap became a manifestation of the very thing it had been born to stand against. The initial rebellion of the Gap descended into unadulterated corporate worship, and today it appears that even today stores like American Apparel echo the Gap’s exploitation of the revolutionary spirit. It too utilizes minimalist clothing and the worker as a symbol to appeal to the frustrated youth.That is to say that the appropriation of our resistance is endemic, and will continue to be successful as long as idealistic young people keep consuming whatever is marketed to them without question. If we apply critical analysis and stay hellbent on change, perhaps this generation can produce a revolution that will be more than a fashion statement.
THE GENERATIONAL PRECIPICE HOW THE GAP CO-OPTED YOUTH CULTURE ONE WHITE T AT A TIME
ou buy a white V-neck for $14. In the store, nearly identical garments are packaged into a simple, logo-stamped bag by an underpaid student. As the sales assistant prepares to hand you your purchase, she haughtily demands to know whether you would like the receipt in the bag. You decline, but she’s already stuffed it alongside the shirt. You’ve been given the full retail experience at Gap. Gap seems to be the first brand to enjoy cult status by selling high-priced, minimalist clothing to rebellious youths. Even bearing in mind the underlying ideologies that promote this highly simplified style, its popularity is still baffling. Effective marketing is one thing, but how are whole generations compelled to purchase something as simple and easily replicable as a white t-shirt for an exorbitant price? The answer may lie in the minimalist aesthetic; basic garb doesn’t distract from the person who wears it, and is easily adapted to the style of each individual. So you shell out money not so that the garment can create your identity, but for the transparency that simple T- shirt affords you in trying to define yourself. Here’s the irony though: as more people decide to purchase simple garments to showcase their “true self” the style transforms from a clean statement of individuality into a ubiquitous uniform of conformity. While the simplicity of a white shirt may have seemed classic
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- SARAH NOBLE
FRAMING
THE FEMALE BODY WOMEN’S RIGHTS MAY BE SHAPING SILHOUETTES MORE THAN YOU THINK.
t’s easy to look to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” music video or Kim Kardashian’s instagram posts as examples of our current conception of the ideal feminine physique. But if someone were to ask me right now what the physical standard for women in 2015 is, I’d be at a loss. Though female pop icons contribute to beauty standards it’s important to consider that changes in women’s rights have coincided with the most dramatic transformations in body ideals. This was the pattern in the twenties, and again in the sixties, but how does this trend affect the woman of the 2010s? The beginning of the twentieth century favored the “Gibson Girl”: the demurely dressed woman with a tiny waist (the work of a tightly cinched corset). Her sinuous body had sex appeal and hinted at future success in childbirth; while her modest clothing proved her respectability within the social sphere. The “Gibson Girl” look defined women in virtue of their relation to men. After women’s suffrage was earned in 1919, the twenties challenged the “male-serviceable” physique. Women expressed their new found autonomy both in their dress and their figures. Long gone was the desire to perfect a curvaceous figure and cover it up with chaste dress. Instead, women celebrated boyish figures, small breasts, slight hips, cropped hairstyles. They showed more skin and dropped the waist in their dresses. In the 1950s and the aftermath of WWII, the country seemed to steer away from the plight of the women and instead returned to an almost “Gibson Girl”-esque ideal of beauty. Fashion magazines filled their pages with ads offering advice about gaining weight to attract men. The 1960s mobilized feminist movement which championed equality in the workplace and sexual liberation for women. Like the shift in the idealized female form in the 1920s, the 1960s reintroduced the slim as sexy. Waifs like Twiggy were the “it-girls.” As women claimed ownership of their sexuality they showed more skin—and thus the mini skirt was born. Feminism has yet again come to the forefront of public discussion. In 2014, Times declared the word Feminism the most annoying word of the year. This misunderstanding of the concept of feminism re-opened the conversation about female rights and empowerment. Here in Berkeley, I see my female peers reaffirming their positions as leaders, particularly in their fight to empower sexual assault survivors. I rarely hear them discussing the female figure or racing to meet any type of beauty standard proposed by the media. Which makes me think: is it possible that for the first time in history, we are straying away from standardizing beauty? Has the path for the perfect body simply become inconsequential in a decade that encourages acceptance and celebrates all forms of beauty? I simply can’t imagine any of my fellow, strong, independent women pondering how they can fit into some arbitrary standard of beauty and I couldn’t be more proud of it.
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- SAWHEL MAALI NO. 17 • BAREMAGAZINE.ORG 29
LIFTING THE (METAPHORICAL) VEIL aryam began wearing hijab when she was in the eighth grade, but she had been thinking about starting for a while before that. Her reason for finally putting it on? A change in Taekwondo instructors. It was sort of a weird reason,” she admits. Summer had come, and she had taken a month off from her class to travel. “My old teacher had seen me without my headscarf, so I would’ve felt weird suddenly showing up with hijab one day. And so I had a new teacher, so I’m like, ‘Oh, this is a good opportunity for me to start wearing the scarf.’” “Everyone has their reasons,” I say. Maryam sits next to me at one of Caffe Strada’s patio tables, with a pretty but simple maroon scarf covering her hair. She’s wearing a multi-colored, long-sleeved tunic dress and straight-legged black pants. She slowly sips a watermelon and peach Italian soda and answers my questions as they come. I’m not sure what direction this interview will take. I’ve never interviewed a hijabi before. Neither, it seems, have the majority of people in the U.S. Because of the lack of dialogue between hijabis and the general public, a pervasive and misinformed belief about “The Muslim Woman’s Story” persists. This story holds that all of these women are forced to live their lives shrouded in a black veil of silence and oppression. It is a view-point that homogenizes members of this community and passes over the stories like Maryam’s. I ask Maryam if she feels like wearing hijab has hindered her self-expression in any way. “I thought it would,” she says, and launches into a story. “I remember this one day, I was wearing the scarf, and I thought ‘This is just weird, everyone’s looking at me,’ and so I took it off, I was so self-conscious,” she says.
HUDA ABUSHANAB
MAINSTREAM DISCOURSE IN THE U.S. GETS A LOT OF THINGS WRONG ABOUT MUSLIM WOMEN WHO WEAR HIJAB. AMY SHIMIZU SITS DOWN TO TRY TO RIGHT SOME OF THOSE WRONGS.
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And then, when I started wearing it for real, I realized: no, it really doesn’t [limit self-expression]. When you wear hijab, you sort of feel representative of Muslims. If someone sees you, they think of all Muslims in the world. And so in my Taekwondo class, I’d have to push myself harder, because I was the only girl in my class, and also a hijabi. So I was like, ‘I need to be the best, so that everyone knows that Muslims can be the best, and not lazy or something bad.’ It made me work harder, because I felt like I was representing more.” I look at Maryam’s scarf. It’s still pretty, but no longer looks simple. Instead, I see it as a mark of Maryam’s pride in her identity as a Muslim. She takes a sip and adds, “I became a black belt [...] while I was a hijabi, and I was the only one, and the only girl too, so hijab does not inhibit your ability to do anything you want to do.” I go to turn off the recording. Maryam stops me. “Another thing I wanted to mention,” she says in closing. “I feel like a lot of people who I got to know in my classes and stuff, they always tell me, ‘I never thought you were like this, I was too quick to judge.’ And so I just wanted to tell everyone: don’t judge people. Talk to people.” To the untrained ear, it sounds obvious. It’s not as though talking is particularly hard. And yet, when faced with the choice between talking to Muslim women and talking over them, too many Westerners choose the latter option. Why? Perhaps it’s an insidious combination of Islamophobia and U.S.-centric
feminism, that results in the mindset that any woman who describes her personal style as “hipster,” and very who makes the choice to wear the hijab and adhere to “Berkeley/Oakland.” When I ask her to elaborate on the a strict, modest dress code is too brainwashed by her different styles she sees, she begins to speak animatedly. “You’re gonna see Muslim women who are completely religion to be a reliable source for her own thoughts and feelings. Perhaps it makes us believe that the hijab hipster [...]. There’s Muslim women who are really into their fashion. They’re in stilettos. They’re very nit-picky can speak louder than the woman who wears it. But hijabs can get pretty loud, at least in terms of on what they wear, and they have to have the matching style. They come in all sorts of bright colors and bold scarf, they have to have the matching shirt. And then, patterns—some even have sequins—but they still don’t there’s the Muslim women who are Hollywood. I’m steal the mic away from the words and actions of the talking about Chanel, Burberry, all decked out, and that girl, she is into that fashion.” women who wear them. Rana also stresses that in the U.S., there is no Huda, a freshman at Cal, describes her style as “lots of skirts and dresses” in “bright colors,” but adds, compulsion for Muslim women to wear hijab. “You’re “Recently, it’s been kinda dark. I’m wearing a lot of gonna see Muslim women dressed in skirts, and shorts, black. You know, maybe it’s midterm season, that’s and they don’t have to wear hijab because they choose why.” She says of her loud hijabs, “I have [a] bright red not to wear it. You’re [also] gonna see some women [one], and at the Cal game I wore a bright yellow hijab, completely veiled. They don’t care what [others] think.” Rana is the founder and I painted my face of CalVeil.com, a blue.” Berkeley-based clothing On how hijab has site that strives to bring influenced her look, Bay Area hijabi fashion Huda says, “I feel like to the rest of the U.S. hijab makes everything and—eventually—the fancier. It could be a world. simple sweater and a Of her decision to skirt, but hijab makes it start the business, Rana feel like so much more. says, “We’re embedded It adds a little flavor to in that American my outfit. The other day, social fabric, and we’re I wore a simple, casual expressing that. We can red dress, and I just show that we can be added this sparkly hijab, American and still not and everyone was like RANA MOHAMMED transgress the bounds ‘Oh my God, I love your of Muslim modesty.” outfit!’ and were asking Rana’s business is not alone in its endeavor. The Dubai me, ‘Why are you dressed up?’ and I was like, ‘I just Chamber of Commerce recently released a statement wore it,’ you know.” I ask Huda how many different ways of tying a hijab that globally, Muslim fashion is quickly growing into a multi-billion dollar industry. Designers are catering there are. She gushes, “Oh my God, there’s so many! Some more and more to the “hijabistas” of the world--hijabis people tie little bows, it’s super cute. Some people who are passionate about expressing “the internal make it really big and fancy. There’s lots of different through the external,” as Rana says. The success of ways to wrap it, like, you watch tutorials on YouTube. this global industry destroys the Western idea that no Especially when special occasions come around, people Muslim woman has the ability to express herself the are always looking up YouTube tutorials to change it way that she wants. Clothes don’t make the man. They don’t make the up.” Bold, bright-colored hijabs, patterned hijabs, and woman, either. But they do provide, no matter how sparkly hijabs—it seems like there’s no end to the types modest or revealing, a small window into the story and and styles of hijab that are out there for Muslim women personality of the person who wears them. They are a starting point for dialogues that can help increase our to wear. And there really isn’t an end to these imaginative and understanding of our fellow human beings. And in that innovative hijab styles. Nor is there an end to the ways sense, the clothes a hijabi wears are important: they in which Muslim women can express their personalities open the floor for her to express what she has to say. through their clothing. I meet Rana, a Cal fourth-year And she has a lot to say. Just ask her.
WE’RE EMBEDDED IN THAT AMERICAN SOCIAL FABRIC, AND WE’RE EXPRESSING THAT. WE CAN SHOW THAT WE CAN BE AMERICAN AND STILL NOT TRANSGRESS THE BOUNDS OF MUSLIM MODESTY.
- AMY SHIMIZU 30 THE ME ISSUE • BAREMAGAZINE.ORG
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LUSH SWEATERS, CRISP SHIRTS, AND BLAZERS. YOU MIGHT NEED MORE THAN THESE TO JOIN THIS PRELAPSARIAN PICNIC. PRODUCTION Leah Hotchkiss, Cleary Chizmar, Sonia Hamilton, Vivian Chuang, Malini Patel, Lucy Chen, Noelle Forougi PHOTOGRAPHER Nigel Jones MODELS Nina Gustis, Adrianna Lewis, Nadine Melamed, Joseph Buchan, Maaz Uddin, Zackary Harris
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ON NINA: BUFFALO EXCHANGE SWEATER, JAMES ROLAND SKIRT
ZACH SWEATER EXCHANGE BUFFALO EXCHANGE, ROLAND ON WEARS ZACH: BUFFALO SWEATER,PANTS JAMESJAMES ROLAND PANTS
NINA WEARS SWEATER BUFFALO EXCHANGE, SKIRT JAMES ROLAND
NADINE WEARS SKIRT JAMES ROWLAND
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OBJECTS OF DESIRE wore a sheer, yellow chiffon top with an aqua-blue tank top when I first kissed a boy. It was a cold winter evening and we snuck out to explore the mountain range at midnight with a few friends. This same shirt I would use later for my first job interview, my first school conference, and my first band performance. I look at that shirt hanging in my closet and realize it has been with me through critical moments in my life, and although I rarely wear it, I cannot bring myself to sell it. Clothing becomes intricately tied with our identities and memories, taking steps along the way and announcing who we are and what we want. Style isn’t just utilitarian; it speaks for us, and carries our memories in its threads. This emotional attachment to clothing is closely related to the theory of fetishism, which is the exaltation of objects and the arbitrary attachment of meaning to things; it is the belief that man-made objects have immense power. Many Berkeley students I interviewed agreed that clothing holds a place in their hearts, and plays a huge part in their identity and memories. Leah, a first year at Cal, says the staple in her wardrobe are black long sleeve shirts: she “always feels just the right amount of sophisticated”, and it “makes [her] feel like [she is] doing the fashionable thing but that [she] can also jump into a professional setting.” Adrianna, a junior at Cal, says that one of her favorite pieces is a dress her “best friend bought [her] for her birthday” because “every time [she] wears it [she] thinks of [her]”. In examining fetishism, we have to question the degree to which large-scale forces shape our perceptions. Our consumer decisions are never made in a vacuum; advertising is one of the most pervasive agents of socialization, and is integral in the creation of ideologies that allow us to imbue things with significance. Last year, an estimated $500 billion was spent on advertising worldwide, and fashion brands utilizes a great amount of ad space to send messages about themselves. Advertising
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FETISHISM AND HOW CLOTHING BECOMES A PART OF US
directs our understanding of what specific articles of clothing might signify, and tells us that we can supplement our experiences and express ourselves more fully with the clothing we wear. These advertisements simultaneously neglect to make visible the manufacturing process that brings these items to fruition. The majority of our clothes are produced in foreign countries by low-wage workers often working under dangerous factory conditions.This is one of the central complications of fetishism: while we glorify our things, we often forget about the human labor that creates them. We instead create relationships with our clothing and let them become a part of us, and tend to focus on the end product without critiquing the companies that make them or how they are made. But what exactly compels our fetishism anymore? Market brand loyalty now accounts for just 25% of making a buying decision, meaning less people are buying clothing based solely on the meaning of the product and their loyalty to the brand. Paired with the rise of fast fashion and the higher intake in secondhand stores (over 193,000 tons of clothing are thrown out or given away each year in just New York City), it seems as if clothing isn’t significant to our identities anymore. When I spoke to a Cal first year, Maaz, about his clothing choices, although he cares about how he looks, he feels that if something were to happen to his clothes, “they could be replaced.” Our personal relationship to our clothing and its role in our identity may be more problematic than we thought and warrant a critical look at our motives for consumption. But it’s not entirely unhealthy to hold our possessions in high esteem, it’s just a part of our culture and who we are. I’ll most likely continue to cherish my clothes, but be more conscious when it comes to my consumption or what I do with the clothes I wear. As I said before, that yellow chiffon top hasn’t moved from my closet, and I don’t think it will anytime soon.
“STYLE ISN’T JUST UTILITARIAN; IT SPEAKS FOR US, AND CARRIES OUR MEMORIES IN ITS THREADS.”
-C H A N D L E R L E F R A N C I S
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LIFE ON THE PALE BLUE DOT “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.”
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he gravelly, cadential voice of Carl Sagan filled my kitchen with at once a sense of unimaginable importance and inconceivable insignificance. Silently, nearly reverently, my mom, my dad, little brother, boyfriend and I watched playing on the screen of my dad’s ipad the breathtaking image of outer space– a sea of black engulfing a tiny dot–captured by the Voyager 1 a quarter of a century ago. A few times I thought that little dot could have been very easily a fleck of dust on the screen – and when I reminded myself that it was Earth, all I could do was shake my head in disbelief. To give some perspective, The Voyager 1 is, while you read these words, over 10 billions miles away from the earth, moving at 10 miles per second. 1 Ten miles per second. And, going at that rate, it took nearly 40 years for the spaceship to leave our solar system.1 In a universe that huge, how can one species, on one tiny dot, suspended in a sunbeam, mean anything at all? More importantly, how can one individual on that tiny dot find any gravity in a personal identity–a “Me”? Sagan continued: “Our posturings, our imagined selfimportance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.” These musings, to some, prove immutably that we are more inconsequential than we will ever fully understand. I think differently. The lonely speck in a tremendous
universe proves to me conclusively we are also poignantly significant. Humankind is a sundry animal. We have an unending amount of diversity and depth and soul right here in one city, on one small fraction of that tiny dot. The thousands of religions, cultures, monuments – even the mundane life of an individual – are empowering examples of our capabilities, especially considering how negligible we are on a grander scale. Humankind has flourished so entirely on this dot, that we’ve extended ourselves far beyond it. Our vivacity and ambition for greatness (Voyager 1 itself a paragon of our initiative) continues to send us to the edges of the galaxy, all while reminding us that there is so much more to see. We are so important. “It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience… To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” And just like that, Mr. Sagan’s voice disappeared. Instead of surrendering to our chimeric, albeit rational, fear of insignificance, remember that you were born with your identity, your “You,” on this planet– this pale blue dot in the infinite black–in this lifetime, with these people, in this galaxy. The chances of that ever occurring are astronomical – you are both the most significant and the most insignificant, and that is truly incredible.
-J U L I A B U R K E
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