BARNARD
BULLETIN SEPT/OCT 2021
SOPHIA D’URSO ‘22, MADISON GUZY ‘23 EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
LINDA CHEN ‘23 MANAGING EDITOR
LUCY O’CONNOR ‘22 CREATIVE DIRECTOR
MEDIA DIRECTOR JANE MOK ‘23
HEALTH & STYLE EDITOR
MEDIA ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR
ENTAINMENT DIRECTOR P&O ASSOCIATE EDITOR
JENNIFER YU ‘24
HANNA CHU ‘25
SWATI MADANKUMAR ‘22
KRISTEN SANTARIN ‘24
H&S ASSOCIATE EDITOR
POLITICS & OPINION EDITOR
FEATURES EDITOR
FEATURES ASSOCIATE EDITOR
ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
LAYOUT DIRECTOR
LAYOUT ASSOCIATE EDITORS
SAMANTHA ARCHONTIS ‘25
AASHIKA MEHTA ‘24
LILIAN CHIU ‘24
GAVRIELLE WIND ‘25 MEGAN JEN ‘25 CLAUDIA LIHAR ‘25 AUDREY DAI ‘25
GRACE STONE ‘23
ARIEL WEINSAFT ‘25 ABBY SULLIVAN ‘25
A&C ASSOCIATE EDITOR
ARAIYA SHAH ‘24
YASMIN OTTAR OLYAEE ‘23
WEB EDITOR
PHOTOSHOOT CO-DIRECTORS
LEELA CHARI ‘24
FRANCES COHEN ‘25 ROXANE CARRE ‘23
THANK YOU TO THE RUTH BAYARD SMITH ‘72 MEMORIAL FUND FOR ITS SUPPORT OF THE BULLETIN
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A LETTER FROM
T H E E D I TO R S Dear readers, We’ve missed being here on this campus, and, most of all— we’ve missed you. Almost two years have passed since we’ve been able to safely place our magazines into your hands in front of the Barnard gates or distribute them in the magazine stands scattered across campus, keeping a silent tally of which dorm has been reading us the most (we <3 you, Sulzberger). And it’s been even longer since our last IRL Launch Party; we’ve also missed flipping through our latest issues with you in the basement of Milstein as we munched on Jolly Ranchers and Sprinkles Cupcakes. Campus has changed quite a bit since then: we’ve got new class years and faces, a new system for eating in the dining halls on campus, and mulch and a new tent on our beloved Futter Field. Not to mention, the scaffolding on Milbank is gone, revealing a gorgeous ivy-clad exterior. Regardless of these changes, though, and what campus was like the last time we saw it— whether we’re upperclassmen returning to something beautiful but a bit unfamiliar, sophomores experiencing our first real school year after exclusively attending classes virtually, or first-years stepping onto campus for the very first time— it still feels like we’re coming home. For this issue, we wanted to explore the sensation of navigating Barnard’s campus as we come into a home that has adapted and grown as much as we have over the past couple of years. Home is where the heart is, as the old saying goes— and for the Bulletin, of course, our heart is on this campus with our readers, whether we’re Zooming into our classes or stepping into our Barnard Hall lectures (always, of course, with a cute jacket, since it’s perpetually freezing in there). So this year, come back to your cherished campus spaces; claim your rightful spot on a green Milstein throne; grab a coffee at Peet’s with the person from your virtual seminar last year that you thought was really cool. And don’t be afraid to find new spaces on campus to discover and grow into— we’ll be right there with you, reader. Welcome back, and welcome home. Soph and Maddie THE BULLETIN -
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A LOOK INTO
T HI S I SSU E
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Behind
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CAMPUS To the Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors alike who may be more familiar with Zoom screens than their college campus, qhiz yourself on your knowledge with this crossword!
Across: 2. Avenue you will frequent as a busy Barnumbia student 3. An eclectic menu including a range of options, from Burrito Bowls to Ben and Jerry’s pints, can be found here 4. Simultaneously outdoors and indoors at once. Eat here in COVID Safety 5. Controversially considered by some to be the best dining hall Columbia University has to offer a greenhouse. A bit of a trek from the quad though.
Down: 1. The 117th Street _____ are likely how you enter and exit campus 2. Classic Navy crewnecks and hoodies, mugs, and lanyards sold here 3. The best dorm. Temperature controlled. 4. Objectively the best library out of Columbia’s nearly two dozen. I am sitting in a green chair in this location now! 5. Testing, testing, one, two, three. Walk in here weekly with
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CROSSWORD
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Protecting Abortion Access without Roe v. Wade By: Lily Sones
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n 1973, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution protects a pregnant person’s right to choose to have an abortion as their right to privacy. Still, Roe v. Wade did not guarantee absolute access to abortion and left the decision to the states to decide how to balance the pregnant person’s health and prenatal life. Almost fifty years after the Roe v. Wade ruling, access to safe abortions is again on the line. Abortion laws vary greatly from state to state and force people who become pregnant to travel long distances or resort to unsafe abortion methods when they cannot easily obtain abortion health care. On September 1, 2021, Texas officially enacted the Texas Heartbeat Act, which not only is the first six-week abortion ban in the United States, but it also encourages people to sue anyone who in any way helps facilitate an abortion for $10,000 or more. Althought the patient themselves cannot be sued, anyone from the doctors, nurses, persons donating funding, and even Texas Uber or Lyft drivers can be subjected to a lawsuit for aiding a person getting an abortion. Lyft and Uber have both agreed to cover any legal fees their drivers may face, but overall, this law essentially discourages anyone from helping people trying to get an abortion, leaving them on their own to find alternatives to safe abortion in Texas. It is important to note that these laws will disproportionately affect low-income people, people of color, immigrants
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and the undocumented, and LGBTQIA youth including trans men and non-binary people because they may not have the resources or time to safely travel miles outside the state for abortion health care. The U.S. Supreme Court, with its conservative left-leaning judges, has ruled 7-4 to uphold the Texas Heartbeat Act as constitutional. Now, pro-choice activists worry that this law will act as the precedent for other anti-abortion state legislatures to follow, and it may even lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade itself. Citizens and states are now left to wonder: how can we protect abortion access state by state if the time comes when Roe is overturned? Many states, including California, Connecticut, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, have passed the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which protects the right to abortion in their state. FOCA prohibits “the interference by the government with a woman's right to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes.” Even if Roe v. Wade was overturned or significantly weakened, abortion rights would be protected in states that have passed this statute since the laws would be up to the states, not the federal government. Still, since federal law preempts state laws, if there were a federal abortion ban, these protections would no longer stand. Nine states—Alaska, California, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico— have already amended their state-level constitutions
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to protect rights to abortion. Other states can follow suit to amend their constitutions to explicitly include the right to aborition. States can also officially recognize that their existing state constitution inherently protects abortion rights. Like FOCA, this measure would protect abortion state by state if Roe were to be overturned but not if a federal abortion ban is enacted. While these are viable options for protecting abortion rights in many states that could be set in place as soon as now to preempt Roe’s overturn, some states— Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Dakotas— have “trigger” bans set in place that would immediately ban abortions statewide in the event that Roe was overturned. Some states that had pre-Roe bans have expressed intent to revive these bans, and even if the state courts had blocked their pre-Roe ban such as in Utah and Rhode Island, the state
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could go to their courts to revive it non the less. Abortion justice activists agree that the best and easiest way to protect and provide access to abortion healthcare is to pass laws or ideally a constitutional amendment to protect these rights but with the current Congress this seems infeasible. The House recently passed the Women’s Health Protection act in reaction to the Texas abortion ban, but most expect it to be rejected by the Senate. Overall, protecting abortion access has been left entirely up to state-by-state constitutions and law. For those living in the 29 states that are hostile to abortion access or do not have laws protecting access if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned, it is up to the citizens of these states to make their support clear to their state legislatures and governors that they support accessible abortion.
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Motivating Voters in Off-Year Elections By: Talia Traskos-Hart
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One hundred sixty million Americans cast their ballots last November, marking a higher number of votes than any election in American history and the highest turnout rate in over a century. Turnout boosts in recent years have been particularly pronounced among college students, as a study by the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tufts University found that college student turnout rates more than doubled between the 2014 and 2018 midterms. However, the Tufts University study also found that as many as 60 percent of college students chose not to vote in 2018. NPR White House Correspondent Asma Khalid reports that college students often find themselves feeling disconnected from politics in both their home states and the states in which they attend school. This could contribute to voting rates among young people consistently measuring as much as 30 percent lower than rates among middle-aged Americans. Less people also tend to vote in offyear elections, which can harm our system of representative democracy. Political scientists generally agree that low voter turnout in off-year elections often leads to an overrepresentation of whiter, wealthier, and more conservative constituencies. When those who vote represent only a small part of the population, the resulting policy is less likely to serve communities in need. And even if the issues on the ballot in off-years are seemingly smaller, voting every year is still valuable. A study from Yale University’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies found that voting in off-years is “habit-forming” and “create[s] behavior-
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al patterns that persist over time.” Thus, voting in off-year elections increases the chances that one will vote in midterm and presidential elections. Consequently, keeping student turnout high this November matters. Any Barnard or Columbia student over the age of eighteen is eligible to vote in New York State and can register with their school address under current state election law. Barnard and Columbia students can vote this fall in on statewide ballot measures such as Proposal 2, which would pass a constitutional amendment adding a right to clean air and water, or Proposals 3 and 4, which would authorize the legislature to pass laws allowing same-day voter registration and expanded eligibility for absentee voting. Students can, alternatively, register to vote by mail in their home states, where important elections are also taking place. This November will see gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, and important ballot measures in states like Texas, where Proposition 3 would prohibit the government from enacting any restriction on religious services. Whether they choose to vote in New York or their home states, Barnard and Columbia students can register on their respective state’s board of elections website and request absentee ballots from most states. Studentvote.org provides state-bystate details to help students participate in democracy by casting their ballots this November!
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The Case of Gabby Petito a “Missing W by Amelie de Leon
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he case of missing 22-year-old pharmacy technician Gabrielle Petito recently took the Internet and mainstream media by storm. Petito was reported missing by her family on September 11, after embarking on a cross-country road trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie. At the onset of the case, amateur Gen-Z detectives on TikTok amplified Petito’s disappearance, posting “explainer” videos and conspiracy theories, many of which went viral. Hashtags, including #JusticeforGabby and #FindBrianLaundrie—as Laundrie’s whereabouts were unknown—proliferated among social media platforms. The New York Times and CNN, among other news outlets, issued alerts and live briefings, respectively. On September 19, the case reached its apotheosis when Petito’s remains were found in Teton County, Wyoming. Despite its conclusion, Petito’s case continues to spark waves of discourse. As netizens have pointed out, the case calls into question mainstream media’s disproportionate attention to missing cases of white cisgender women, as compared to marginalized groups. Although some have claimed that the “internet vigilantism” of Petito’s case contributed to its galvanizing interest, when placed in the context of the thousands of Americans reported missing every day, it is revealing of mainstream media’s exclusive and prejudiced THE BULLETIN -
tendencies. What made Petito’s case more newsworthy than other cases, and ultimately, whose stories tend to be more broadcasted and whose do not? Consider the murder victims that have dominated mainstream media, spanning from the infamous 1989 Central Park jogger case to Sarah Everard’s disappearance in London to Gabby Petito. What do all these women have in common? The “missing white woman syndrome,” a term coined by journalist Gwen Ifill, may explain this phenomenon. According to a Northwestern University study conducted by Zach Sommers, the missing white woman syndrome (or MWWS) is “the belief that white women tend to disproportionately receive the most amount of news coverage” in both mainstream media and social media platforms. In this case, Petito’s identity as a young, middle-class white woman contributed significantly to the media’s sensationalist reporting on her disappearance. What mechanisms fuel this phenomenon? Some academics posit that Petito’s media coverage should be examined through an intersectional framework, which Sommers defines as “the idea that members of multiple historically marginalized groups are subject to a unique type of subordination.” White women, who evidently occupy higher rungs within the so-
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o and g White Woman Syndrome” cial order, are treated as universalized victims that viewers and readers may easily empathize with. Society’s general association with white women as innocent, pure, and valuable holds a particular allure within the public consciousness, making headlines like Petito’s so newsworthy. This is in stark contrast to indigenous, Latinx, and Black women, whose scant coverage on press outlets reinforces this ongoing social hierarchy. On the other hand, Politico writer Jack Schafer offers a different analysis, asserting that Petito’s case surpasses America’s racial and ethnic hierarchy. Schafer consequently hones in on America’s narrative trope of a damsel in distress. The Disney princesses appearing on your screens as children—whether that be Snow White, Rapunzel, and Sleeping Beauty, just to name a few—all fall under the archetypal damsel in distress. The respective princesses were perceived as helpless victims, imprisoned by evil entities, and awaiting rescue from a handsome prince. The damsel in distress is a story that universally captivates viewers, and Gabby Petito’s disappearance, suspected to be at the hands of her boyfriend, was the perfect reincarnation of this narrative trope. Petito’s case fed into our deep-seated need to save the damsel in distress and spring into action; thus, it is easy to see how these media tropes have extended to our current perception of newsworthy stories.
This is not to say that stories of abduction are insignificant—while, of course, they should be covered, it is evident that the roster of victims paid attention to is unsurprisingly homogenous. Would a missing Black man get the same attention? Or a transgender woman? Unless the media undergoes a radical shift, it is unlikely that the press is willing to reexamine their prejudiced tendencies. Instead, as consumers of mainstream media, it is up to us to examine headlines critically and speak up for the stories that are being left in the dust.
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AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Met Gala Dress: A Display of Performative Activism?
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his year’s Met Gala, hosted in honor of the museum’s Lexicon of Fashion exhibit, featured a dazzling lineup of celebrities, philanthropists, sponsors, and even politicians - all dressed in homage to the 2021 theme: American Independence. While some guests interpreted the theme as a celebration of the American dream and cultural diversity, others took it
by E Jen Liu as an invitation to critique the event as a flagrant display of wealth built on capitalism and inequality. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to attend the gala in a white, off-the-shoulder dress with the words “Tax the Rich” graffitied across the back ignited a flurry of criticism. Many, on both sides of the political spectrum, called her out for engaging in
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performative activism. Some pointed to the irony in declaring one’s allegiance to the working class while attending an elitist gala with tickets priced at $35,000. Others argued that simply wearing the slogan did little to promote social change and could not be equated to the gritty and often dangerous work of “true” activism. While there was understandably some cogni-
tive dissonance upon seeing a champion of the working class partying alongside America’s top one percent, it is worth unpacking what invited such strong reactions. AOC’s ticket and dress were both free. There was nothing hypocritical about the content of her message, which was very much aligned with her efforts to push for tax reform. She did not presume her stunt would, in her words, do more than “deliver a message” and did not see her dress as a substitute for legislative work. As a prominent, progressive congresswoman, she did not need the help of the dress to signal her virtue. Therefore, was the outcry against her truly just because her stunt was “performative,” or was it yet another instance of crudely repackaged classism and misogyny against women in posi-
tions of power? Why was she attacked for being there when politicians are routinely invited, and the others in attendance that night were largely left unscathed? The Washington Post urged AOC to “get back to work” and stop being “distracted by pompous institutions that, in the end, are trying to resist change.” However, in AOC’s words, “the medium is the message,” and the irony is the point. She worked within the system— instead of trying to dismantle it—by using a “pompous institution” as an opportunity to promote the interests of the working class. She brought those with the most power into the conversation, promoting values in ways that can bridge class divides instead of increasing polarization among liberal elites and the working class. While the dress itself will not result in long-term change, the attention it re-
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ceived and the conversations it started can. Following the gala, there was a surge in searches for the phrase “Tax the Rich.” This kind of attention can catalyze changes in public perception, moving ideas that were previously seen as unthinkable and radical toward being sensible and popular through making them mainstream. What was truly performative was not AOC’s efforts to use the Met Gala as an opportunity to bring awareness to her work in Congress, but the misguided criticism it elicited.
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Answers to
C ROSSWO R D
Down: 1. Gates, 2. Barnardstore, 3. Sulzbergerhall, 4. Millstein, 5. Altschul Across: 2. Broadway, 5. Diana, 7. Futterfieldtent, 8. Hewitt. 9. Millbank
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