The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

BUZZSAW May 2015

View: Geena Davis pg. 6

I MUST CONFESS

The Framing Game pg. 26

Reveiw: Death Grips pg. 37

Buzzsaw presents...

EDITORS’ COMMENT

The Seven Deadly Sins Issue Life is full of sinful pleasures.

The envy of someone’s status, looks or life. Lusting over a friend, colleague or stranger. Lounging like a sloth for days on end. Beaming with pride over life’s accomplishments. Gluttonously gorging on a favorite meal, past the point of comfort. Going off on someone in a wrathful rage. Hoarding wealth and riches into a personalized pile of greed.

From an early age we’re taught to idolize saints; but life has taught us sinners have more fun.

The United States has been referred to as a “nation of immigrants,” but the wrath many Americans feel toward undocumented immigrants often makes the phrase a misnomer. From harsh legislation to negative media coverage, immigration discussions in the U.S. are tinged with racist and unwelcoming remarks. (The So-Called Nation of Immigrants, p. 14) Families and individuals who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are often portrayed as lazy or unmotivated — discriminatory stereotypes that can hinder the operations of government welfare programs and cause would-be recipients of aid to avoid seeking help. (The SNAP Stigma, p. 18) While scrolling through various social media, it’s easy to fall into a pit of envy. College acceptance posts, vacation pictures, people generally appearing to live a better life than you. It can sometimes be a healthy motivator, but for some it’s a detrimental staple of modern life. (Social Media Envy, p. 32)

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the graffiti that sparked conversation about IC Giving Day and the increasing costs of tuition in Snow Falling Down, Tuition Going Up (Online).

BUZZSAW News & Views

Taylor Barker Evan Popp Upfront Jessica Corbett Natalie Shanklin Ministry of Cool Kellen Beck Prose & Cons Robert S. Hummel Sawdust Grace Rychwalski Layout Chelsea Hartman Art Lizzie Cox Website Lexie Farabaugh Christian Cassidy-Amstutz Seesaw Jennifer Jordon Social Media

Kaley Belval John Jacobson

Copy Editor

Alexa Salvato

Production

Tylor Colby Erica Moriarty

Advisor Founders

Jeff Cohen Abby Bertumen Kelly Burdick Bryan Chambala Sam Costello Thom Denick

Buzzsaw is published with support from Generation Progress / Center for American Progress (online at GenProgress.org).

Buzzsaw is also funded by the Ithaca College Student Government Association and the Park School of Communications.

Vanguard Printing is our press. (Ithaca, N.Y.) Buzzsaw uses student-generated art and photography and royalty-free images.

Divider and Table of Contents Photography

By Hristina Tasheva Hristina Tasheva is a freshman cinema and photography major. She is still developing her style of photography, so she mostly just experiments. She likes to photograph things that catch her eye.

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Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editorial staff or of Ithaca College.

Feedback and contributions should be sent to buzzsawmag@gmail.com.

Front cover, back cover and center spread art by Lizzie Cox

Write Us Our magazine exists to inspire thoughtful debate and open up the channels through which information is shared. Your comments and feedback are all a part of this process. Reach the editors by email at: buzzsawmag@gmail.com.

Table of Contents Seesaw ..........................................................4 Print media is dead, check out multimedia on the web.

News & Views .................................................5 Current events, local news & quasi-educated opinions.

Upfront .......................................................13 Selected dis-education of the month.

Ministry of Cool ........................................30 Arts, entertainment and other things cooler than us.

Prose & Cons ............................................39 Short fiction, personal essay and other assorted lies.

Satire threatening the magazine’s credibility since 1856.

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BUZZSAW News & Views

Sawdust .......................................................45

Snow Falling Down, Tuition Going Up

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

The recent rise of tuition at Ithaca College raised questions of the spaces on campus for both liberty and learning. A masked artist, known as The Kid, questions the availability of these spaces at the college through his artwork.

Seeing Sin

A collection of photos by Gabrielle Cosentino displaying each of the seven mortal sins outlined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

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www.buzzsawmag.org/seesaw/

Wrong Decision Made on CAPS Counselor Students need to continue activism on issue Evan Popp, News and Views Editor

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perative both the college and the student body follow through on this issue. It is too easy for students to take the administration at its word and let the issue be moved to the backburner. There needs to be continued activism to ensure the administration realizes giving CAPS the resources it needs is important to students.

And so far students have demonstrated their commitment to this issue. Following the administration’s op-ed, the Get CAPS Ready campaign published a response letter to Rochon and Petrosino.

In the letter, the organizers of Get CAPS Ready wrote the op-ed was not the response the campus was looking for. The students argued it’s harmful to spend a long time considering improvements to an issue as immediate as mental health.

In addition, senior Jared Wolf sent an email April 15 to Rochon, Petrosino and Thomas Grape ’80, chair of the Ithaca College Board of Trustees, asking for the administration’s participation in an open forum event with representatives from CAPS and the administration talking to students on a panel.

However, in an email April 17, Petrosino wrote the administration was not interested in the open forum and directed Wolf to the administration’s op-ed. Petrosino also wrote there would be more specificity regarding CAPS when the administration reexamines the issue over the summer.

The administration’s curt response to a reasonable request by students to hold a panel cuts to the core of the problem. Mental health is an essential issue to address, especially in the environment of a college campus. And while the administration is doing the right thing by re-examining the issue, it was a wrongheaded decision in the first place to deny the request for an additional CAPS staff member, and the administration should have more appropriately responded to student interest in the issue.

The simple truth is CAPS needs additional staff, as some students have said the process of securing an appointment at the center can take weeks. For the administration to reject a request to address these delays is unacceptable.

CAPS can be, and should be, a resource for the entire campus community; not just for those who are depressed and/or

suicidal, but also for others who just feel burned out.

However, following all the stories of students who have had to wait significant amounts of time for an appointment at CAPS, the result will be a student population that is less likely to request supportive services. Why go and seek help when everyone is telling you the place that can give it to you is backed up and will be for the foreseeable future?

Because of this, many students may believe they have to cope with mental health problems alone. And I think everyone can agree fewer people requesting psychological services, even though they need them, is not beneficial for a college.

The administration should have approved the CAPS request when it was first made and not agreed to only re-examine this issue after the barrage of complaints following the decision. If the administration claims students’ mental health is a top priority, these are the kind of choices that should be easy, regardless of the complexities of creating a higher education budget.

And this situation is not an isolated occurrence, but instead just the latest in a string of questionable decisions by the college. From its continued support of the Integrated Core Curriculum, despite the fact that it is wildly unpopular among students, to its tepid response to activism by the student body for the creation of a structured Native American Studies minor, the administration has shown a habit of ignoring student voices on these larger issues.

While thus far the signs are encouraging that the college will do the right thing and address the inadequate number of staff at CAPS, what is important is not what they say now, but what they do in the future.

And in the meantime, students must continue to push the administration to make the right choices, both on the CAPS issue and other problems on campus that are impacting the quality of education. ___________________________________ Evan Popp is a freshman journalism major who thinks Tom Rochon’s salary should be used to fund CAPS. You can email him at epopp@ithaca.edu.

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News & Views

ollowing the administration’s denial of the request by the Ithaca College Faculty Council for funding to hire another staff member for the college’s Center for Counseling and Psychological Services, the campus community has express its disappointment with the administration’s decision, and rightfully so.

In response, a student-run, social media campaign called Get CAPS Ready has provided a place for students to express their discontent with the administration’s decision. The campaign’s petition, requesting the college re-evaluate its decision, received more than 700 signatures in its first 24 hours of circulation alone.

Although I am only a freshman, in my experience this year, Ithaca College students have shown a tendency to be apathetic when it comes to politics and activism. Whether it be the minimal amount of students who voted in the past year’s midterm elections, or the degree of student participation in the protests advocating for the creation of a structured Native American Studies minor, many students don’t seem to be bothered by issues that don’t directly impact them.

But it is evident from the rapid formation and support of the Get CAPS Ready campaign that students are leading on this issue and urging the college to actually make mental health a priority.

And while there is plenty to criticize regarding the administration’s decision, to the college’s credit, they are not completely ignoring students’ activism.

In a commentary in The Ithacan April 8, President Tom Rochon and Linda Petrosino, interim provost and vice president for educational affairs, responded to the CAPS controversy. Rochon and Petrosino wrote the college didn’t have enough resources to add a CAPS counselor. The two administrators said part of the decision was the cost of adding a counselor would have been levied on students through tuition payments. However, in the commentary, Rochon and Petrosino did acknowledge the student outcry over the decision and vowed to revisit the issue this summer.

While it is encouraging the administration responded to student concerns, it is im-

Geena Davis Addresses Gender Inequality

Actor doesn’t talk about women of color enough

Kathryn Paquet, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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ward-winning actor Geena Davis took the stage in Ithaca College’s Ford Hall March 31 to discuss the portrayal of women in the media. That’s right — actor. Davis said she doesn’t use the term “actress” because “in the dictionary, ‘actor’ means a person who acts,” she told the crowd matter-of-factly after introducing herself.

That Davis acknowledged the impact of gendered terms is indicative of her sharpness, awareness and dedication to improving the portrayal of women in the media. As she stood at the front of the packed auditorium, Davis spoke to the audience about what is wrong with Hollywood’s treatment of women, and why it absolutely must change.

Davis is certainly no rookie to the entertainment industry; she’s had a long and wildly successful acting career, with defining roles in films such as Beetlejuice, The Fly, Thelma & Louise, Stuart Little, A League of their Own and The Accidental Tourist, for which she won the 1988 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Davis discussed everything from her upbringing in Massachusetts to her beginnings in Hollywood to later founding the Geena Davis Institute in 2007. The Institute is the only research-based organization working within the media and entertainment industries to educate and influence those behind the camera to reduce gender imbalance and stereotyping in the media.

Throughout her speech, Davis repeatedly emphasized that the ratio of male to female characters in film and television has, shockingly, remained the same since 1946. That’s not only absurd, but it’s inexcusable. While females make up just over 50 percent of the U.S. population, males outnumber them 3 to 1 in family films, according to the Geena Davis Institute.

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“If you grow up seeing this wildly imbalanced ratio,” Davis said, “that looks normal.”

The issue is certainly not limited to lead roles, either. Davis lamented that, according to a study by the Geena Davis Institute, in crowd scenes, only 17 percent of characters are female. “That must mean that women don’t gather,” she joked.

With over half the country comprised of females, this is not only an inaccurate representation, but a troubling one. There’s no explanation other than the glaringly obvious.

“Right now, without even realizing it, the message we’re carrying around is girls and women are second-class citizens,” Davis said.

In addition to being significantly underrepresented in the media, women are also victims of hypersexualization. Davis told the crowd about a new study that found by age 6, girls are beginning to think of themselves in sexualized terms. She went on to explain the function of females in film is usually to serve as eye candy, and female aspirations in G-rated movies are almost always to find love.

Research conducted by the Geena Davis Institute in 2008 found in popular films rated G, PG, PG-13 and R, 21.3 percent of females wore sexually revealing clothing. The research found females were five times more likely to wear sexually revealing clothes on screen than men. The Institute also found females were three times more likely than men to have a thin figure, with 33.5 percent embodying this image.

One might think when looking solely at G-rated films, these numbers would drastically decrease, but they don’t. In fact, they remain virtually the same. In the same study, the Institute found when narrowing the focus to those films with a G-rating, the amount of females wearing revealing clothing dropped exactly 1 percent, while the amount of female

characters portrayed with a thin body type dropped a whopping 0.4 percent. We know G-rated films are made for kids, so exactly what message is Hollywood sending young boys and girls? Basically, that women are here for the viewing pleasure of men. This is detrimental, dangerous and frightening.

On top of being so often sexualized, female characters also tend to be given lesser ambitions than males when it comes to careers. According to a 2012 report from the Institute, only 29.6 percent of characters working as doctors in prime time television were female, while 70.4 percent of the characters holding that position were male. And while 72.2 percent of high-level politicians on TV were male, only 27.8 percent were female. So, not only are we sending children the message that women are less important and are the sexual objects of men, but we’re also telling them women have fewer aspirations than men.

Davis said these troubling messages are precisely why the Institute focuses on entertainment media made for kids 11 and under.

“I wanted to focus on them because I want to fix the problem from the beginning, rather than having to fix the social ills that it causes later,” she said. “If we could show kids — boys and girls — sharing the sandbox equally, taking up the same amount of space, I think it would tremendously impact how they feel about each other when they’re adults.”

The fact that Davis is looking at the big picture here is extremely important. It’s undeniable that the media has the potential to both create and reinforce attitudes of misogyny and gender discrimination in viewers, particularly young ones. Late media scholar George Gerbner, who originally introduced this concept, referred to academically as cultivation theory, stated the stories that

trayal of women in the media is indicative of the fact that the Institute itself has not adequately addressed this issue in its research.

Only one reference to women of color is found in the Institute’s published research — in the report entitled “Gender Roles & Occupations,” which contained a small section that assessed gender imbalance within ethnic groups. It found, of course, that across all ethnicities, men are indeed significantly more numerous in the media than women.

However, one small section is not enough. It does not address how women of different ethnicities are actually portrayed in the media, which is equally important since we know these groups are often subject to extreme stereotyping. The Institute has consistently produced detailed, indepth reports on the stereotyping of females, but using the blanket term of female both oversimplifies the issue and obscures an integral part of the picture.

The problem is, not all women are treated equally in our society; therefore, when examining how we’re presenting them in film and television, it’s extremely important that we dig deeper. If we’re going to attempt to fix the problematic portrayal of women in the media, we cannot simply group all women together and hope to bring about some miraculous change. If this is the approach we continue to take, it’s likely women of color will be almost entirely left out of any progress we make. And if that’s the case, then we’re not truly making progress.

Of course, it’s not just the Geena Davis Institute that is neglecting to include diversity as a factor in its research; it’s remarkably difficult to find any data at all on the portrayal of women of color in the media, which is both puzzling and profoundly troubling. While there are a meager number of studies on the depiction of minority groups as a whole, research specifically focusing on the women in these groups is virtually nowhere to be found. Not many have seemed to

make it a priority to investigate the portrayal of Asian American women, Native American women or Latinas in the media.

Likewise, it’s very difficult to find solid research on the portrayal of black women in the media. And the limited research that is available doesn’t paint a pretty picture. One study conducted by Essence Magazine found respondents were receiving an overwhelmingly negative image of black women from the media they consumed. Based on the portrayals they saw of black women in film and television, respondents put them into the following categories: gold diggers, baby mamas, angry black women, mean black girls and black barbies, among others.

These are startling results, and they are just the tip of the iceberg.

More research on both the prevalence and portrayal of women of color in the media is absolutely necessary if we ever want to improve the fairness and equity in Hollywood’s treatment of women. While the burden does not lie solely on the shoulders of the Geena Davis Institute, it certainly has a significant responsibility to expand its research in this direction.

The bottom line is while the Institute’s current research is immensely important, it needs to make ethnicity a central factor in its studies. There is no doubt Davis is an exceedingly brilliant, insightful woman, and the fact that she is using her position to effect important change in the industry is extremely admirable. This oversight certainly does not diminish all of the valid and important points she made; however, if she had brought women of color into the discussion, Davis could have made her good speech a fantastic one. ___________________________________ Kathryn Paquet is a senior TVR major who is still waiting to be cast in a movie. You can email her at kpaquet1@ithaca.edu.

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News & Views

“animate our cultural environment” have three functions: to reveal how things work, to describe what things are and to tell us what to do about them.

Therefore, if a 6-year-old boy regularly watches television and movies, which we know portray men as more numerous, aspirational and powerful than women, it’s likely going to affect his understanding of women’s status and roles in the world. He might begin to see women as less than him, as mere background characters in real life.

This sort of gender discrimination and misogyny forms the very basis of rape culture. It fuels male entitlement to female bodies. It’s why men grow up to think it’s okay to catcall women on the street, to grope them on the dance floor, to drug their drinks and take them home barely conscious.

It’s also why the American Association of University Women reported in 2013 that women in the U.S. were being paid 78 percent of what men were paid. And it’s why only 4.6 percent of those holding CEO positions at S&P companies are women, according to the S&P 500 list. Making female characters in the media more numerous and substantial is absolutely key to solving this problem, and it’s comforting to know Davis and the Institute are committed to doing just that.

However, there’s still a considerable obstacle in the way before we can adequately fix the issue. While Davis brought up countless compelling points, there was one important area she didn’t quite delve into: the portrayal of women of color in the media.

Blacks, Asian Americans, Latinos/ Latinas and Native Americans are among those most plagued by both underrepresentation and stereotyping in movies and television. And, following the unfortunate trend, the women of these groups are starkly outnumbered by the men.

The fact that Davis did not address the issue of diversity within the por-

Sweet Briar College to Close

Women’s colleges across the country declining in number Sabina Leybold, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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he administration of Sweet Briar College, an all women’s school in Sweet Briar, Virginia, announced on March 3 the school would close after its summer session, with the Class of 2015 being the last graduating class.

According to a statement issued by the college, Sweet Briar is facing “insurmountable financial challenges” due to decreased interest in single-sex education and the college’s rural setting. The college’s Board of Directors considered merging with another college or becoming coed, but ruled out both options as “not viable,” according to The New York Times, because of the financial burden they would present. James F. Jones Jr., Sweet Briar interim president, told The New York Times the school would need a $250 million endowment to survive, a number significantly smaller than Sweet Briar’s current $85 million endowment.

Paul Rice, board chairman, said a shift to being coed would be just as difficult.

“You don’t just take ‘ladies’ off of every other bathroom door and put ‘men’ up,” he told The New York Times. “You have to add programs and facilities, athletics. All of these things take significant investment and time.”

While Sweet Briar’s situation is difficult, it isn’t unique. Other women’s colleges have faced similar financial challenges, but chose a different solution. One of those institutions is Wells College in Aurora, New York, which began enrolling men in the fall of 2005.

“Our enrollment at the time was frighteningly low,” Milene Z. Morfei, professor of psychology and Wells alumna, said. “The College hoped that allowing men to enroll would bring us a much-needed increase in our student body … [It] was deemed necessary for our survival.”

Single-sex colleges used to be the only available institutions for women

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seeking higher education, but they’ve been on the decline. Fifty years ago, there were 230 women’s colleges in the U.S., according to the Women’s College Coalition. However, Sweet Briar’s closure will leave only 44 all women’s colleges in the U.S., according to a March 26 article by National Public Radio. With those figures, many have begun to ask whether single-sex education is economically and socially feasible.

Susan Scrimshaw, president of the Sage Colleges, including all-women’s Russell Sage College in Troy, New York, said, “I’ve been predicting that by 2020 there will be fewer than 30 women’s colleges, but the ones that remain by then will be strong.”

She identified characteristics of women’s colleges that detract from their success.

“There are certain characteristics of [women’s colleges] that will and won’t survive,” Scrimshaw said. “[Sweet Briar is] geographically isolated with no access to a bigger community where students can interact with a coed environment, [and] it may not have moved in the last 20 years to create the curricula to attract a wide variety of students.”

Scrimshaw said graduate programs help to make a school competitive, but by law they must be coed.

“Graduate programs change the campus, which I don’t think [Sweet Briar was] willing to do,” she said.

While Scrimshaw wasn’t completely surprised at the announced closure, Sweet Briar’s students and faculty felt differently.

“Up until [Paul Rice’s announcement], nobody had any idea that they were planning to close the school,” Marcia Thom Kaley, assistant professor of music, said. “It was a complete shock.”

Others reacted with a combination of sadness, anger and proactivity.

“There was a lot of sadness at first,” Holly Nadel, a junior music major at Sweet Briar, said. “Classes were cancelled for the day so that people could get the tears out of their

systems. Then the anger showed up, causing the emergence of the Saving Sweet Briar movement, and, eventually, legal action against the college.”

The legal situation around Sweet Briar’s intended closure is complicated and has changed rapidly since March. According to The Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia, Amherst County Attorney Ellen Bowyer filed a lawsuit March 30 alleging Sweet Briar’s Board and President breached their duties as trustees of the will of the college’s founder, Indiana Fletcher Williams.

She also asserted the administration is misappropriating funds that were collected for the operation of Sweet Briar for purposes of closing it down, which The Richmond TimesDispatch reported is a violation of Virginia’s charitable solicitation law.

On April 14, Judge James Updike granted a 60-day injunction, which will prevent Sweet Briar from using charitable contributions in the closing process. The order does, however, allow the college to use funds to help students transfer to other schools.

Sweet Briar College now must navigate what to do with its sprawling 3,250 acres of land after its closure. In her will, Williams mandated her land be designated for an all-female school and could never be sold or used for any other purpose. Business Insider reported a judge may apply cy-prés law, which would allow Williams’ land to be transferred to another organization that shares the goal of educating women.

In the meantime, members of the Sweet Briar community are trying to figure out their next steps too.

For professors who own houses on Sweet Briar land, that means likely being forced to move, adding insult to the injury of a sudden layoff. A group of faculty have also announced their intention to sue Sweet Briar College for breach of employment contracts, The Rich-

likely to choose them. And therefore, they never find out how wonderful those institutions are. Unless the institution has a national reputation like Smith or Wellesley, they don’t seem to be economically feasible.”

However, one example of a thriving women’s college is Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia University in New York City.

“Admissions numbers are higher than ever, so there seems to be a place and demand for single-sex education at the college level,” Lauren Beltrone, a junior cognitive science student at Barnard, said.

Many agree all-women’s education still has an important function despite the social progress that women have made since single-sex institutions first opened.

“Education is still not equal by gender, and women need places to become leaders,” Nadel said, “Women’s colleges are a safe space for women to grow.”

Morfei said the advantages of women’s colleges are that “women assume all leadership roles, there is no opposite-sex ‘distraction,’ [and] women who might be reluctant to assert themselves — in or out of the classroom — learn to be strong and confident.”

Amelia Ley, a junior romance languages and literature student at all-women’s Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, also appreciated the activist culture on her campus.

“A movement called MoHonest launched a huge campaign last year about confronting microaggressions as well as active antagonism against women of color on campus,” she said. “…How many [colleges] have a student body that is so politically aware, so passionate that they are constantly bringing problems to light and trying to do something about it? I’d rather be here than at any campus where problems are ignored for the sake of preserving the status quo.”

Nadel also found that open-mindedness important.

“Women’s colleges are LGBTQ* safe places, even in the South,” she said.

Yet despite these advantages, women’s colleges continue to decrease in popularity.

“Most young women don’t go looking for women’s colleges,” Scrimshaw said. “Most of our students look for the programs, then do our campus visit and fall in love on the tour.”

Very few female high school graduates actively seek out a single-sex environment, Scrimshaw said, and Ley is in that minority.

“I think there is the problem of part of the student body seeing being a women’s college as being a downside and the other part seeing that as a draw,” Ley said.

Nadel, on the other hand, didn’t see it as either a downside or a draw until she actually arrived at Sweet Briar.

“Sweet Briar was the only women’s college I applied to,” Nadel said.

“I found the gender composition of a given school to be a neutral factor, but … almost all of my transfer options are women’s colleges. I far prefer the [single-sex] environment,” she said.

Keeping that environment alive is important, Thom Kaley said.

“If you can show intrinsic value of a single-sex liberal arts education and how it translates into growth and empowerment in a young woman’s life, you can begin to see what a consultant simply cannot,” she said. “Young girls enter Sweet Briar College and graduate as grown women. They learn to have a voice and how to use their voices in every area of their lives. You don’t get the same result in a huge university setting or in a coed environment.”

Although the rapidly changing legal details leave Sweet Briar students in a complicated tug-of-war between hoping for the best and planning for the worst, one thing is simple and constant: their pride.

“No matter where I end up next, I will proudly call myself a Sweet Briar woman,” Nadel said. __________________________________ Sabina Leybold is a sophomore speech-language pathology major who wishes Ithaca College would just kick out all the males. You can email her at sleybol1@ithaca.edu.

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News & Views

mond Times-Dispatch reported.

For students, it means deciding where to continue their education.

“I plan on holding out as long as I can to see if Sweet Briar is going to stay open,” Nadel said, “However, if I have to, I’ll transfer to another college.”

Nadel has been on medical leave during the 2014-15 school year, but she decided to return to Sweet Briar for her final year of college a week before the announcement of its closure.

“Needless to say, that [announcement] was a bit gut-wrenching for me,” she said.

Sweet Briar has attempted to smooth the transition for its students by creating a “teach-out” program, which is an agreement with 15 colleges and universities — some of which are women’s colleges and some of which are coed — to accept Sweet Briar transfers under an expedited process for fall 2015 admission.

While the program’s intention is clear, many have questioned its efficacy. “[It’s] supposed to offer a seamless transition to the students, and the teach-out schools are doing the best they can … but a lot of our students are getting an inordinate amount of financial aid [at Sweet Briar] that teach-out [colleges] can’t match,” Thom Kaley said. “Almost every day I have a student in my office who is wondering how they can afford to stay in college … Some are considering dropping out.”

Concerns about survival and student cost are prevalent at every college, regardless of its gender demographic.

“Any college president isn’t doing their job if we’re not always thinking about sustainability,” Scrimshaw said. “It’s our job to think about the long-term future, but I don’t think about it in the context of a women’s college alone. It’s a very complicated environment today, and keeping a college on the leading edge while keeping cost down for students is challenging.”

Concerns about sustainability and long-term success may be universal in higher education, but women’s colleges have to especially prioritize their reputations in order to thrive.

“Somewhat lesser-known women’s colleges have become unsustainable,” Morfei said. “Young women are less

Military Open to Repealing Transgender Ban Advocates say ban is archaic and discriminatory TinaMarie Craven, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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here are 18 different nations that allow transgender individuals to openly serve in the military, but the United States is not among them. However, Ashton Carter, U.S. secretary of defense, has not ruled out the option of lifting the ban.

During a question and answer session in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Feb. 22, Carter said he was “openminded” about allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military.

Carter also spoke at a press conference at Fort Drum March 30, where he said the ban on transgender military personnel is under review.

“Those who can contribute to our mission should be allowed to serve,” Carter said. “And that’s the principle from which I begin with respect to this particular matter and every other matter.”

The White House echoed Carter’s position during a press briefing.

“I can tell you that the President agrees with the sentiment that all Americans who are qualified to serve should be able to serve and for that reason, we here at the White House welcome the comments from the Secretary of Defense,” Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, said.

In 2011, Congress repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a government initiative that prevented gay, lesbian and bisexual service members from openly serving in the military, making it so gay and lesbian service members were permitted to be out and serve. However, individuals who identify as transgender were not granted the same opportunity.

Luca Maurer, the program director for the Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services at Ithaca College, described transgender individuals as feeling like they don’t fit with their birth assigned sex.

“Their inner sense of who they are doesn’t … correspond to the sex they were pronounced at birth,” Maurer said.

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Captain Sage Fox is a transgender activist who served in the U.S. Army.

Fox originally enlisted in the army in 1993 as a man but after serving a tour in 2012, chose to go on leave and begin her transition to female.

During her transition, Fox realized the military had not yet lifted the transgender personnel ban and believed her military career to be over.

However, in 2014, she was called back to duty. She informed her commanding officer that she would come back as long as she would be allowed to serve as a woman. Fox said she was told by her commanding officer that wouldn’t be an issue because she was a “good soldier.” Two weeks after returning to duty, Fox said she was dismissed and placed on inactive status without any explanation.

“They just sent me away,” Fox said.

The five branches of the military each have the power to determine who meets their enlistment requirements and do not allow openly transgender individuals to serve within their ranks. The military reserves the right to determine what makes an individual fit for military service, and they do place restrictions on mental and physical health.

One condition used to deny transgender individuals the ability to serve in the military is “gender dysphoria.”

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, used to diagnose mental disorders in the U.S., gender dysphoria is “a marked difference between the individual’s expressed/experienced gender and the gender others would assign him or her, and it must continue for at least six months.”

Gender dysphoria is a mental condition associated with transgender individuals, Mauer said. Because gender dysphoria is classified as a mental disorder, the military has the power to ban transgender individuals on the grounds that they do not meet the military’s mental health standards.

Maurer said while gender dys-

phoria is classified as a disorder, it doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with transgender individuals.

“Most of the stigma and discrimination they [transgender individuals] face is actually because society is still learning what [being transgender] means,” Maurer said.

While the military does not permit transgender personnel to serve, that doesn’t mean transgender individuals are not serving in the military. The Palm Center released the Transgender Military Service Commission report, published by three retired military generals in March 2014. The report revealed there were 15,450 transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military as of March 2014, based on the data collected through survey results.

The report explains how the ban of transgender military personnel is out of date and how lifting the ban would benefit the service members currently hiding their transgendered identity in order to serve.

“Removal of the military’s blanket ban on transgender service members would improve health outcomes, enable commanders to better care for their troops, and reflect the federal government’s commitment to reducing disparities in health care access for transgender people,” the Palm Center report stated.

Fox argued the ban is hindering the military. She said she felt she would be a better soldier now that she is able to accept herself in her chosen gender, and that because she is stronger mentally, she would be able to serve the military better.

“I feel more complete now as an individual and more comfortable in my own skin, which I never had before,” Fox said.

According to a BBC News article, the U.S. Department of Defense is the world’s largest employer. Maurer said since the military is such a large employer, banning transgender individuals further limits their employment opportunities.

has pledged itself to act as an equal opportunity model, it still refuses to allow transgender individuals to openly serve in the military.

However, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James was quoted by USA Today on Dec. 10, 2014, as saying she believes the military’s policy on banning transgender personnel will change in the future.

“From my point of view, anyone who is capable of accomplishing the job should be able to serve,” James said.

Master Chief Petty Officer Mike Stevens of the Navy has not publically supported lifting the ban. But on March 12, The Navy Times reported Stevens said the Navy would have to make an effort to ensure that transgender individuals would be treated with dignity, like any other recruit, if the military lifted the ban on transgender military personnel.

“I don’t pass judgment on any sailor and I don’t hold anything against sailors but what I do as a leader is set conditions ... for them to be successful, plain and simple,” Stevens said.

Fox said the countries that already allow transgender individuals to openly serve in the military have disproved the American military’s reservations about allowing transgender people to enlist.

“Here we are saying we’re the greatest military in the world and yet we’re not,” Fox said. “Our actions proved we’re not. How can we say we’re fighting for equality when we’re not?” __________________________________ TinaMarie Craven is a senior journalism major who is not craven when it comes to writing about the military. You can email her at tcraven1@ithaca.edu.

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News & Views

“Unemployment and underemployment are such huge issues for transgender people,” Maurer said.

“The military represents a terrific job opportunity with lots of room for advancement … and benefits to support you and your family.”

In addition to the debate over whether gender dysphoria makes a person unfit to serve the military, The Associated Press reported some anonymous Department of Defense officials have raised objections about lifting the ban on transgender individuals serving in the military. These objections focus on which gendered bunks and bathrooms transgender individuals should be permitted to use and how their presence would impact how small units work together. However, Fox argued the military’s objections to permitting transgender individuals to serve in the armed forces are part of an outdated belief system.

“It’s the same arguments and same old tropes they have given for the last seven or eight years,” Fox said. “If we do this we’re going to lose soldiers, it’s going to affect the quality of our service. They said the same thing about racial integration, the same thing about gender integration, the same thing about women in combat arms, the same thing about repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. It’s the same story with the same people over and over again.”

The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for an interview. However, the Department of Defense’s Human Goals Charter states the military and Department of Defense will work toward making “military service in the Department of Defense a model of equal opportunity for all regardless of race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin.” The document was signed on April 28, 2014, by the leaders of the five different branches of the military and the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense. But while the military

Ithacash focuses on kickstarting local economy Amanda Hutchinson, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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t’s no secret the ongoing construction on the Commons has not been kind to the businesses on it. Torn up surfaces make it difficult for shoppers to meander their way through like they used to, and events that once brought in thousands of visitors are rerouted to other sites downtown. But Scott Morris, the founder of Ithacash, wanted to rewrite this narrative.

“All the complaining about it does is make people feel more icky about the idea of going downtown,” Morris said. “It doesn’t actually help the people who were hurting the most, who were those downtown businesses, so we did Presents on the Commons to offer something constructive to the conversation.”

During the month of December, customers armed with a map visited participating businesses around the Commons in search of hidden presents. The businesses got more traffic –– Morris said Alphabet Soup got more than 200 visits from the contest alone, and shoppers were rewarded with Morris’ local currency startup, Ithacash, which they can spend at the shops they visited when it launches in May. Through Presents on the Commons, Morris was able to promote the benefits of this local currency system before its upcoming launch.

Local currencies are just like they sound: money spent and earned locally, and Ithacash aims to encourage residents to promote the Ithaca economy. Once the currency launches in May, Ithaca Dollars, stylized as i$, can be spent in place of U.S. dollars at participating businesses:The Ithaca Voice reported in March that more than 55 local merchants, including Autumn Leaves Bookstore and Cinemapolis, will be accepting Ithaca Dollars.

Ithaca Dollars are connected to U.S. dollars on a one-to-one exchange rate, which Morris said is a general rule followed by other local currency systems such as the Bristol and Brixton Pounds systems in the United Kingdom and BerkShares in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. However, participants can purchase them at a bonus rate of i$125 for U.S. $100, and they can also earn discounts by becoming members of Ithacash or supporting

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Ithacash grants for nonprofits. Ithacash will also have a digital format in which members can use their phones to make payments via txt2pay.

Local currencies like Ithacash support the local economy by keeping the cash on “Main Street” where people conduct their daily lives, as opposed to on Wall Street, where Morris said the money put into the system usually doesn’t return to Main Street.

“So many people are struggling to make ends meet, to make rent, to afford enough food to eat, to pay for tuition, much less enjoy the lifestyles they know they could enjoy,” Morris said. “These kinds of models come in to help fill in the gaps where regular dollars are failing us for one reason or another.”

Local currencies have a long history in the United States, Morris said. He said after gaining independence, states used them to engage in commerce before the establishment of a federal currency system, and citizens during the Great Depression used them to keep their livelihoods going. According to a 2013 study called “Ten Square Miles Surrounded By Reality? Materialising Alternative Economies Using Local Currencies,” by Peter North, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool whose research focuses on alternative economies, these systems regained popularity in the 1990s. In his paper, he explained that activists of Local Exchange Trading Schemes sought a way to return economic power to their communities and provide local resilience in the wake of neoliberalism and globalization.

In the United Kingdom, currency systems such as the Manchester “Bobbins” and the Canterbury “Tales” gave these LETS activists a venue for discourse on the role of money and the value of work in local economies. However, since business participation was limited due to the complication of using an additional currency, LETS was confined to exchanging household goods and services, and most of the currencies died out, according to North.

Ithaca also had a local currency system before Ithacash called Ithaca HOURS, in which shoppers and businesses could utilize paper bills called HOURS in place

of U.S. dollars at a rate of $10 to 1 HOUR. North included Ithaca HOURS as a case study in his examination of local currencies because it had been functioning since 1991. Ithaca HOURS eventually fell out of use by 2009, as the founding organization discontinued support. But with Ithacash, Morris is trying to continue their philosophy of promoting the strength of the local economy and community.

“You can gauge the value of a currency system based on the outcomes that it generates for society,” Morris said, pointing out that much of the U.S. currency is in warfare, oil and Wall Street rather than social programming. “It’s clear that the U.S. dollar isn’t meeting all of our needs, and there’s nothing standing in the way of us creating other models to meet and fill those needs of our own accord.”

BerkShares, another local currency, launched in their present form in 2006 and came from a long town history of alternative currencies in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. They are now accepted at more than 400 businesses in Western Massachusetts and bordering towns in New York and Connecticut.

Alice Maggio, program coordinator for BerkShares and the local currency program director at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics, said BerkShares as they exist now came out of a desire of area businesses to bring back the local currency offerings on a more permanent scale. Maggio said many small business owners like local currencies because they keep spending local and help such businesses survive in an economic climate dominated by multinational corporations.

Local currencies are on the rise, and Morris said he encourages Ithacans to become familiar with these kinds of economic systems.

“It’s definitely the way of the future,” Morris said. “These things are a part of our economic future, and we will have a much more diverse experience with money in the future.” ________________________________________ Amanda Hutchinson is a senior journalism major who got rid of all the U.S. dollars in her bank account. You can email her at ahutchi2@ithaca.edu.

Image by Grace Rychwalski

Ithaca Currency System to Launch Soon

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Upfront

PFRONT. UPFRONT. UPFRON

Selected dis-education of the month.

The So-Called Nation of Immigrants Why undocumented people are unwelcome in the U.S.

Alexa Salvato, Staff Writer

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BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

This fence has electricity on the top, on the inside and the outside, 220 volts,” Dr. Mike Vickers, Brooks County rancher and veterinarian, said in a Texas Department of Agriculture YouTube video. “It won’t kill anybody, but it’ll sure rattle their teeth.”

This fence, however, isn’t to keep cattle or horses inside; instead, it’s to keep illegal immigrants out.

“It keeps them from climbing over and tearing my fence down,” he continued, gesturing toward the top. “Consequently what they do, they dig under the fence.” The dirt is disturbed, looking recently dug up.

Vickers is one of many who work against immigrants to the United States who cross the border from Mexico to Texas. Vickers’s passion for preventing illegal immigrants has earned him a national audience, including interviews with Fox News. In a 2011 segment of “On the Record,” Vickers showed host Greta Van Susteren pictures he had taken of skulls and dead bodies he had found on his private property, which he said belonged to primarily illegal immigrants attempting to cross: VICKERS: This is a dead illegal alien that was found on private property in the area that we conduct our operations.

VAN SUSTEREN: How far from the border, about?

VICKERS: This was about 70 miles from the border.

VAN SUSTEREN: About how long ago?

VICKERS: Probably about a year ago.

VAN SUSTEREN: And how do you know this an illegal — that this person was illegally in this country?

VICKERS: Well, this is a common pathway. This is a pathway that is frequently used by illegal aliens.

I don’t think there was any identification on this child. This kid I think was 12 years old. And quite

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frankly, a lot of children are coming down in these groups, and some of them are being left behind to fend for themselves if they can’t keep up with the group. And this is probably what happened with this young man right here.

In a so-called “nation of immigrants,” how did such a zealous, violent trend to keep new people out of the country arise? If you search “illegals” on Twitter, a common derivative of the term “illegal immigrant” used in a denigratory manner, you’ll be met with many alarmed U.S. citizens.

“The #IRS is asking congress for more money. How about they quit giving refunds to #illegals who’ve never paid taxes? #TaxDay2015,” @MTItalian1 tweeted.

Or, as @ColoradoRight tweeted on April 12, “It simply becomes a way of life- #Illegals can ignore the law, and soon the law applies to no one.”

It might be that the U.S. isn’t nearly as much of a “nation of immigrants” in its current makeup as it would seem based on cultural platitudes. Irene Bloemraad, associate professor of sociology at University of California Berkeley and an immigration expert, has done much research on social movements of immigrants in the United States.

“Today, about 13 percent of the people living in the United States are immigrants,” she said. “So this is still a small minority of the population. Adding on those who are born in the United States but who have one or two foreign-born parents, we find that about a quarter of U.S. residents are ‘first’ or ‘second’ generation immigrants.” Thirteen percent of the population is not a substantial, or even visible, segment.

According to the American Pie Council, 13 percent of the population prefers pumpkin pie as their absolute favorite; in more somber news, News.Mic reports that, as of 2013, 13 percent of the population still did not condone interracial marriage.

But we still do live in a country

where most people trace back their ancestry to a country outside of the U.S and proudly display it on certain holidays and celebrations, ranging from the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day to Mardi Gras celebrations of French origins in cities across the country each March.

Most of these nationality-based populations have the ability to not only trace back their ancestry, but can also pinpoint both the reasons why their ancestors left their home countries as well as the prejudice they encountered once they got here. Although we don’t have “No Irish Need Apply” signs up anymore like there were in East Coast cities in the early 20th century, being an undocumented immigrant today can prove to be just as much of a detriment when applying for jobs.

Saying that undocumented immigrants are taking our jobs is one of the dominant arguments against immigration into this country. Bloemraad, however, said the economic concerns against illegal immigrants often serve as a cover-up for more systemic issues.

“Social science research suggests that anti-immigrant attitudes tend to be linked with cultural fears rather than economic ones,” she said. “For example, conventional wisdom might suggest that someone who is unemployed would be worried about immigration, fearing that immigrants take jobs from the native-born … Rather, those more worried about immigration tend to be those who see immigrants as a cultural, religious or racial threat.”

Ryan Opila, a freshman at Ithaca College and volunteer with the local Immigration Services Program of Catholic Charities in Tompkins County, agreed with Bloemraad’s sentiment.

Opila grew up in Arizona, where he said immigrants and discussions surrounding immigration played a large role in his daily life. He said one of the biggest misconceptions he’s faced in his educational work about immigrants is they steal our jobs, which is “completely false,” and a just masks racism against immigrants.

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how expensive it is to file for necessary documents like green cards, work authorizations and citizenship documents — some applications are close to $1,000! It discourages many people from pursuing things like citizenship.”

Education for immigrants on these bureaucratic policies is important as well. “While a fee waiver application is available for those that qualify, applicants tend to not even know that it exists,” she said.

Opila has done legal research at the Immigration Services Program to support applications for waivers. He discussed the case of two immigrants, one documented and one undocumented, both from Latin America.

“They got married so now she qualifies for United States citizenship,” Opila said. “But when she comes forward to apply for United States citizenship it’ll become clear that she’s been living here illegally and as a result of that she will be deported. She has to leave the country again before she can become a U.S. citizen.”

This because when an undocumented immigrant is applying for a green card based on marriage, their previous immigration status matters. “Whether the immigrant can ‘adjust status’ — that is, apply for a green card without leaving the United States — depends on whether he or she fits into one of a few narrow exceptions,” Ilona Bray, lawyer and author of U.S. Immigration Made Easy, writes in “Can an Illegal Immigrant Get a Green Card?” Those exceptions include legal entry to the United States. According to Bray, if the period of unlawful stay was more than a year, this person could have to remain in their home country for more than 10 years and have their immigration processed by their home country’s government.

A waiver could forgo the 10-year time span. “Basically what this waiver says is, ‘Yes, I’ve been living here illegally, but I’ve been an upstanding citizen while I’m here, so you can waive that bar of limitations that limits you from coming back in the country for 10 years and then you still have to leave the country but you don’t have to wait for 10 years. It will be like a 1-year process or a 2-year process, not a 10-year process,’” Opila said.

Most immigrants are upstanding members of society who obey laws; if they were engaging in illegal activities, such as the drug trade, they wouldn’t want to become documented at all.

“People aren’t just coming to the United States to mess around and hang out and party. The journey’s too tough for that,” he said.

He does understand, however, why ranchers like Vickers take such drastic actions in an attempt to protect their property. “From the rancher’s perspective, it’s very dangerous for some of these ranchers living very close to the border, with like drug trafficking and stuff. Ranchers get killed all the time, cattle get shot up, their cars get stolen, their houses get raided, and so it’s understandable, a lot of backlash,” he said, but emphasized the immigrants trying to make a better life for their families and those engaged in drug cartels cannot be placed into one group.

Even peers of Vickers, other ranchers in the region, think he could be going too far in his efforts. Ranch administrator Lavoyger Durham, when interviewed in The Guardian’s series of investigative YouTube videos on the Brooks County ranchers called Beyond the Border said he has come to “accept it as a way of life.” He works with activists to provide water for those on their journey from the border to the immigration checkpoint 70 miles north, even though he fully apprehends what they’re doing as illegal.

“Dr. Vickers is a nice guy, but I think he’s kind of like on the rough side, I think he’s obsessed with it too much,” Durham said in the video. “I’m not obsessed with catching people, no. I’m a human being, they’re a human being.”

Editor’s Note: The writer interned for the office of Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney during the summer of 2014. ____________________________________ Alexa Salvato is a sophomore journalism major who celebrates St. Patrick’s Day, Mardi Gras and Cinco de Mayo.

You can email her at asalvat1@ithaca. edu.

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Upfront

The 2010 enactment of Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona, also called the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” has emphasized for him how racialized immigration is, Opila said. SB 1070 allows police officers to ask anyone they encounter for documentation that they are legally living in this country, and it was only approved on the condition that its execution would not involve racial profiling.

“You can say that you can’t racially profile,” Opila said. “I run into police officers all the time. I’ve never been asked to present documentation. I have friends who are brown and from Latin America who have been asked to present documentation.”

This racist sentiment has allowed dominant conservative assumptions about Mexicans as a threat to the American economy, he continued; it’s not based in reality.

According to a November 2014 article, “5 Facts about illegal immigration in the U.S.,” released by the Pew Research Center, “Mexicans make up about half of all unauthorized immigrants (52 percent), though their numbers have been declining”; these immigrants certainly do not comprise all of the illegal immigrant population.

Due to racial profiling, however, these immigrants have a more difficult time than European/white immigrants navigating legal paths to citizenship.

Programs like the Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship Program at Johns Hopkins University have been created to explore the role of racism in acquiring citizenship.

Opila said most undocumented immigrants want to become legal U.S. citizens, and that the path to that end is what needs to be altered. From complex paperwork to high costs to inaccessible information, there are many obstacles for new immigrants.

Genevieve Kessler, who is the deputy district director with a background in immigration services for Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY18), said that the financial cost of the immigration process is a frequent issue for the people she works with.

“The most common problems tend to involve the fees associated with immigrant applications,” Kessler said. “Most people do not realize just

Plant-based Pride

Debunking the vegan superiority complex

Jamie Swinnerton, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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eople for the Ethical Cameron Wells, a dietitian with the Treatment of Animals, Physicians Committee for Responmore commonly re- sible Medicine, a group focused on ferred to as PETA, has preventative medicine and ethical a long history of pull- research that doesn’t use animals, ing obnoxious, often has been vegan for several years. sexist, stunts in order to campaign She started as a vegetarian in high for going vegan. In 1991, PETA paid school, but the research she conthe Des Moines Register $11,214 to ducted while becoming a dietitian run an ad comparing the gruesome led her to cut out all other animal crimes of serial killer Jeffrey Dah- products as well. mer to practices of the meatpack“When I say plant-based, or vegan, ing industry. In 2003, the group I’m really emphasizing more of that launched a campaign called “Holo- whole foods, low-fat, not a whole lot caust on Your Plate,” juxtaposing of added oils or processed and fast pictures from Nazi death camps with foods being the real template of what images from factory farms. Last but you’re taking in,” Wells said. not least, the ongoing “I’d rather go When speaking with other people naked than wear fur” campaign ob- about being a vegan, Wells said she jectifies women to further the rights likes to emphasize they’re not simof animals. Because t h e s e ply missing out on meat; they’re stunts make headlines, PETA and its image are what many people associate with the vegan lifestyle.

But not everyone who calls themself a vegan identifies with, or even likes PETA. Its tactics are often off-putting and insulting, and it furthers the negative stereotype that vegans are obnoxious, combative and can only talk about being vegan.

Image by Lizzie Cox But for some people, vegan simply means changing your diet to be entirely plant-based.

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adding to their plate, too.

“Look at all the veggies and beans and this and that that you can put on, rather than take these things away,” Wells said. “I think to be more encouraging is far more effective, at least in my experience.”

Wells said the stereotype has affected her personal life, too.

“I often hear, ‘You’re the first vegan we’ve met who didn’t have that be the first thing that came out of your mouth,’” she said.

To counter this negative view, she said she tries to be open-minded and ready to discuss the benefits she believes come from being vegan.

“Whichever side you’re on, better to be the friendly advocate for whatever you’re pushing,” Wells said.

But some people aren’t convinced a plant-based diet is any healthier than one that includes meat and dairy. In her book, The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet, investigative journalist Nina Teicholz said she found much of what we believe about

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style. Gary Francione is a professor at Rutgers University, a vegan for almost 33 years and a long-time animal rights activist. He said he doesn’t believe people can stick to a vegan lifestyle unless they hold it as a moral necessity.

“The reality is, do I think that a vegan diet is better for your health?

Yes. Could I also be eating some meat and some dairy and still be as healthy as I am? The answer is probably,” Francione said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve never met a vegan who was a consistent vegan on health grounds or environmental grounds. It’s the moral ground or else you just lapse.”

As for the negative stereotype about vegans, he said it stems from two things: obnoxious vegan groups like PETA and the discomfort people feel when they are confronted with the idea that not living a vegan lifestyle is wrong.

“I think the primary problem is that people feel guilty about not being vegan. They feel guilty about not having a good explanation,” Francione said.

Francione said he doesn’t associate himself with any particular vegan group, PETA included. He said he finds its tactics to be misogynistic, sometimes racist and counter-productive. To avoid the negative vegan stereotype when discussing veganism with others, he said he makes sure not to bring it up if people are eating, but he will discuss it with anyone who asks him about it. He said he continues to be an outspoken vegan and animal rights activist and still teaches law classes about animal welfare at Rutgers.

Unlike Francione, vegan writer Gary Smith’s activism happens predominantly online. Through his blog, The Thinking Vegan, he engages predominantly with the vegan community on internal issues and ideas. Smith has been a consistent vegan for the last eight years and has run the blog for the last three.

“It’s kind of a mix of trying to inspire vegans to become more active, as well as some of the problems I see within the community. Things

like fat shaming, things like vegans confusing non-vegans with the idea that it’s about health when it’s really about ethics,” Smith said.

Through The Thinking Vegan, he started a mentorship program for anyone interested in becoming a vegan themselves. He said the response he received from people looking to go vegan surprised him. Most people wanted answers to questions about the social aspect of being a vegan, Smith said. For example: “I have to go out to lunch with coworkers, now I’m the weird vegan; how do I handle that?” and “I want to go vegan, but my husband eats meat and pressures me to as well; how do I handle that?”

Smith said he believes the negative stereotype around vegans, that they are prideful and can’t stop talking about being vegan, stems from passion. He said he became vegan after seeing disturbing pictures of what happens to farm animals before they are sold to the public. Once an image like that finds its way into people’s consciences, Smith said they just want to tell everybody about it because it disturbed them so much.

“You want to tell someone about it, because it just changed your life,” Smith said. “You’re like, ‘Holy crap, I can’t believe this is happening. I need to tell people about this.’”

The vegan community, like any community, is not of one cohesive mind. Smith said the reason there’s a stigma surrounding veganism is because people don’t like it when it is pointed out to them eating animal products is wrong.

“I think a lot of people saying, ‘Vegans have an attitude,’ is really just the fact that someone is holding up a mirror to you and saying, ‘You eat animals and you don’t really need to,’” Smith said. “‘You’re part of this system of exploitation and it makes you really uncomfortable.’” ___________________________________ Jamie Swinnerton is a senior journalism major who likes her veggies with a side of humility. You can email her at jswinnerton1@ithaca.edu.

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Upfront

nutrition today is based on questionable studies.

“What I was shocked to find were egregious flaws in the science that has served as the foundation of our national nutrition policy, which for more than 50 years has all but forbidden these delicious and healthy foods,” Teicholz said in an interview with Dr. Frank Lipman, an expert in Integrative and Functional Medicine.

Teicholz herself used to be a nearvegetarian, but then she started writing a restaurant review column and began eating things she had previously sworn off, believing them to be unhealthy. This began a decade’s worth of research into nutrition, she said.

“The most rigorous diet trials clearly show that a high-fat, low-carb diet is better for fighting obesity, diabetes and heart disease,” she said in an email.

On vegan diets specifically, Teicholz said there isn’t enough research to determine how good they are for us.

“Vegan diets haven’t been studied in rigorous, randomized, controlled clinical trials, so we really don’t know if they are healthy or safe,” she said.

Trials of a near-vegan diet created

by Dr. Dean Ornish, a professor of medicine at the University of California, show these diets may be good for weight loss, but they have other concerning health effects, Teicholz said.

These diets reliably lowered good cholesterol which could increase the risk of heart disease, she said.

Other researchers have attempted to replicate Ornish’s findings but have been unable to.

“Replication is the hallmark of good science; findings that cannot be replicated are considered highly questionable,” Teicholz said.

But she said she understands there are reasons other than health that someone might go vegan.

“Of course there are ethical and other reasons that people become vegans, but if they are eating that way for better health, then this is mistaken,” she said.

Taking on a vegan diet is very different from taking on a vegan life-

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The SNAP Stigma

Challenging the stereotypes around welfare benefits

John Jacobson, Social Media Editor

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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wyneth Paltrow sent out a Tweet on April 9 feeding into a large time-held debate on programs that provide government aid.

Paltrow had purchased $29 worth of food, as would have been allotted to her for weekly grocery money, through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps in everyday discussion. Paltrow announced this purchase in honor of The SNAP Challenge, which was originally created as the #FoodBankNYCChallenge by Mario Batali. Batali served as an Honorary Chair and Board member at the Food Bank for New York City’s latest Can Do Awards.

Paltrow broke on the fourth day of the challenge and discussed the results on her newsletter, Goop. Paltrow made a point to connect her disappointment to women’s low wages. “Many hardworking mothers are being asked to do the impossible: Feed their families on a budget which can only support food businesses that provide low-quality food,” Paltrow wrote.

The piece is one recent example of many privileged attempts at filtering the experiences of those in poverty to an understandable level. Paltrow has been criticized by numerous news outlets, from Time to ThinkProgress, for her participation in the challenge and its social repercussions. ThinkProgress discussed how Paltrow’s challenge would have been problematic beyond the capacity of what food she purchased.

It went on to say issues facing SNAP recipients, including public transportation and limited time to prepare meals, were not represented in a challenge done by such a celebrity.

SNAP and other government aid programs have been the subjects of stereotyping and social misinformation in more than just this latest well-meaning challenge. This stereotyping and misinformation has bled into our culture to the point where recipients of SNAP and other aid programs fear their personal circumstances being misrepresented to

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the public.

Justina Ireland, an author with family history in SNAP, has experienced this on a personal level.

“From about the age of 16 until I left home at 19, my family was on SNAP benefits,” Ireland said. “My mother was actually on full cash assistance, but food stamps — they used to actually be those awful paper coupons — were part of our benefits package.”

Growing up in a SNAP household, and seeing others use it led Ireland to perceive the stereotypes presented around her. Stereotyping and shifts in behavior, from professionals and private people alike, is often directly related to someone revealing they require assistance from SNAP. “I’ve seen it first-hand in line when someone pulls out their access card and I’ve experienced it myself,” Ireland said. “It isn’t fun…especially when people already know you’re broke, yet getting food stamps makes you something of a pariah.”

The United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service served 46,536,000 people in 2014 with SNAP. Each of those individuals received, on average, $125.35 dollars per month in benefits. In New York State, SNAP worked with 3,170,465 people on average per month in 2013. SNAP and other government aid programs provide benefits for a substantial amount of people within each state.

A traditional nuclear family in the United States has four people in its household. To qualify for SNAP, a fourperson U.S. household must have an average gross monthly income of $2,584 or less. This means the average income of the household before taxes and eligible deductions must be $31,008 or less per year for the family to qualify for SNAP benefits. Once allowable deductions like legally owed child support payments and shelter costs for some homeless households are factored in, the household has to make $23,856 or less to qualify for SNAP benefits. This threshold net income amount accounts for 100 percent

of the households considered to be in poverty within the U.S. Rebecca*, a stay-at-home mom in upstate New York with a family on SNAP benefits, said she felt similarly to Ireland in regard to the perceptions placed on those who receive SNAP benefits.

“I was raised by conservative people who loved the bootstraps sentiment, so I grew up hearing that food stamp/welfare families were lazy moochers, drug addicts, bums, etc. I think I thought this was isolated thinking just among Republicans and conservatives until I got out there in the world a little more,” Rebecca said.

However, she said in her experience, the negative perceptions are not limited to political leanings.

“I’ve heard liberal-leaning [people] express the same beliefs…maybe phrased nicer, but the same thinking,” Rebecca continued. “Among liberal people, they tend to think SNAP people are ‘stupid’ more than lazy. Or both. Or they lack motivation, don’t understand the power of positive thinking, or are just uneducated. I’ve been told, ‘You’re too smart to be poor.’”

Rebecca runs a website called Poor as Folk, a professional space in which she discusses having a family on SNAP and therefore a U.S. household considered to be in poverty. Her personal hands-on experience discussing SNAP online has shown the stereotypes of laziness, lack of education and lack of motivation hold a racial bent to them as well.

“I’ve been blogging for the past few years about poverty/food insecurity with some emphasis on SNAP,” she said. “It’s opened my eyes to the racist perceptions many hold. I have been mistaken for a woman of color many times solely because I have said I get SNAP. The racial slurs and racial-based harassment said to me online are pretty common. The statistics don’t support this myth that people of color are primary recipients.”

The racial breakdown of SNAP is based on individual reporting of race. A Pew Research survey found that 15 percent of adults who have ever received

SL OT H Nutrition Service website, it is also the job of caseworkers to administer information to SNAP recipients.

“The most read posts on my blog are posts that inform SNAP recipients what they can and cannot buy with their [Electronic Benefits Transfers] and other practical info about the program.

The feedback I get is that this is the only source they have since caseworkers are unreachable,” she said.

While the variance in caseworkers and their perception of SNAP recipients is a major factor in how the program is administered, the way the government handles, distributes and constructs the benefits of SNAP is just as variant. For instance, SNAP defines eligible foods based on The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. From the SNAP website: “The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (the Act) defines eligible food as any food or food product for home consumption and also includes seeds and plants which produce food for consumption by SNAP households.”

The construction of this allows for a broad range of foods to be eligible on the program, but does include hot foods, medicines, or vitamins and supplements. Because of the average amount of benefits given per person per household, it is often unlikely that SNAP recipients can purchase healthy foods because of their pricing. This definition of food allots for “junk food” as per the website, which means that SNAP recipients can purchase the food, but the lack of vitamin and supplement eligibility means that SNAP recipients cannot supplement their lack of affordable health food options with vitamins.

SNAP and the stereotype of lacking education on nutritional eating are more connected than this disparity. Frequently, different programs will provide nutritional education in the hopes SNAP households will make better choices. Rebecca, a former worker at Head Start, saw this with the program’s administrators reacting to low workshop attendance on topics like budgeting and healthy eating.

“They assumed that not enough families cared about nutrition,” Rebecca said. “I had a light bulb moment one day when casually talking to a few parents about gardening and food. Many

low-income families don’t need cooking or nutrition classes because they already know what they need to know.

It’s widely assumed the lack of nutrition in low-income families stems from lack of education. It seems more likely to me now that they already know how to cook and eat healthy — they just don’t have the food budget to make it happen.”

Currently, there is a movement in several states to reintroduce a 3-month limit for 2016 on unemployed benefits for adults ages 18 to 50 not considered to be disabled or raising minor children. Those in SNAP that meet these qualifications have an average gross income of about $2,200 a year, which is 19 percent of the poverty line. This is in comparison to the gross income of 58.5 percent of the poverty line for the average household on SNAP. The Government Accountability Office has also found that those in the affected demographics are more likely than other SNAP recipients to have the reading, writing and basic math skills important for jobs, creating an even more difficult experience for these adults to move out of unemployment and attempt to create sufficient food budgets for their households.

Stereotyping SNAP and other government aid programs as programs for those who are lazy and uneducated creates an environment where society, program administrators and lawmakers take away necessary benefits and opportunities for those in poverty to stay afloat. Ireland expressed this sentiment when sharing her first-hand experience with SNAP stereotyping and its dangerous implications.

“Everyone has to find a way to survive,” she said. “We have a lot of hungry people in this country. Without SNAP we would have a lot more.” *Source did not wish to disclose her last name. _____________________________________ John Jacobson is a sophomore integrated marketing communications major who thinks Gwyneth needs to get off the internet. You can email them at jjacobs1@ithaca.edu.

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Upfront

SNAP identified as white. While recipients like Rebecca can identify as white, the racial associations with the SNAP stereotypes are pervasive whenever the identity of the SNAP user, like Rebecca, has an online profile with no distinguishing information. The self-reporting of race among SNAP participants means the racial data of the program is subject to individual interpretations and desires, all of which can be affected by the stereotypes associated with SNAP. Programs like SNAP are government aid programs and thus subject to regulations in their practice, as well as the variability of those in the government.

Those who work to provide these programs are just as subject to view the recipients through the lens of stereotypes.

“My experiences with the programs themselves have been fine,” Ireland said. “Like any government program, it’s administered by overworked, underpaid civil servants who have become apathetic to most everyone’s plight.”

“I helped a co-worker fill out the paperwork when I worked at Target, and she confided ‘I’m really scared people are going to think I’m lazy.’ In the end, she was more worried about feeding her kids,” Ireland added.

Rebecca’s experiences reveal a similar insight into the attitudes of the government workers administering SNAP. “In another county we lived in for a bit, the case workers were awful and the input I’ve gotten is that this isn’t rare,” she said. “I’ve never felt so humiliated and dehumanized. It’s terrible… when you desperately need help, you can’t just walk out because you were treated badly and never go back. You have to put up [with] it in order to get help.

“In Tompkins County, the workers are helpful, courteous and compassionate, she continued. “I hear this is the exception rather than the rule. In other parts of the country, some SNAP recipients will go the entire duration of their assistance without ever speaking to an actual worker.”

Her online blog has also led Rebecca to communicating with other SNAP recipients through providing them with essential information about the program. Though much of the information is also available on the USDA Food and

The Art of Studying Abroad How not to behave beyond the U.S. borders

Charlotte Robertson, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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ecord numbers of college-aged students are beginning to take advantage of study abroad opportunities. According to the Institute of International Education (IIE), the number of American students studying abroad has tripled in the past two decades, with nearly 300,000 students leaving the United States annually to explore the world as of the 2012-13 school year.

Places of higher education, like Harvard Business School, have begun making study abroad mandatory for MBA students. Their program, Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD), allows Harvard students to work with global partners in their field, as well as immerse themselves in an international experience.

Schools across the country are pushing study abroad programs and with good reason. The statistical benefits for students who have studied abroad are impressive. According to University of California Merced, about 85 percent of study abroad students think their experience gave them skills for their job market.

About 97 percent of students who study abroad find employment within 12 months of graduating, compared to 49 percent of their peers, according to UC Merced. A fourth of those study abroad students start with higher salaries. However, of American students, about 76 percent of those studying abroad are Caucasian, according to IIE. Jennifer Simon, a graduate student at Georgia State University, and James A. Ainsworth, an associate professor of sociology at the same school, published a study in 2012 titled “Race and Socioeconomic Status Differences in Study Abroad Participation: The Roles of Habitus, Social Networks, and Cultural Capital.” They found black and lower socioeconomic students are largely underrepresented in study abroad programs, denying them

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access to valuable resources that the researchers claim are “increasingly important in our globalizing world.”

Simon and Ainsworth found this inequality spurred from the way study abroad programs historically were initially established. They were often seen as luxuries and were available only to the children of the higher economic classes, since the programs were typically expensive. Study abroad was initially only offered at highly exclusive schools, often made up mostly of upper class white students. Other factors that lead to the exclusion of minority students and those in lower socioeconomic classes included the elitist perception of study abroad and the duration of the programs, which were often for at least a semester.

Study abroad is often thought of as an exchange, rather than a power imbalance. However, in reality, study abroad is a system with unequal power dynamics that interrelate with social, political and economic factors. This is both true at home and abroad. At home, certain students have access to study abroad, while others don’t, with white students disproportionately participating in study abroad programs.

Abroad, unequal power dynamics can be seen between travelers and natives, especially in developing nations.

The point: travel, in itself, implies privilege. David Jobanputra is an anthropologist and filmmaker in London. He has done considerable work in Rajasthan, India, researching collective action. He also wrote extensively about a range of topics, including international development and travel.

“Travel requires time and money, both of which are the preserve of the privileged,” Jobanputra said. “In fact, the dictionary definition of ‘privilege’ is something akin to ‘a right, immunity or benefit enjoyed by a person beyond the advantages of ‘most,’ and since most people, globally, do not have the surplus time or money to dedicate to travel, the latter is necessarily indica-

tive of privilege.”

He noted, however, that power imbalance varies depending on who the traveler is, as well as who the native people are. Jobanputra said studying in London is drastically different than studying in a place like Lesotho, the landlocked nation completely surrounded by South Africa. According to IIE, currently, the majority of study abroad by American students takes place in Europe. However, studying in developing countries is becoming increasingly more popular, demonstrated by an increase in study abroad in Southern Africa by about 17 percent.

However, Jobanputra said that tourism, by nature, is imperialistic.

“Travel is born of inequality, of gaps of power and wealth,” Jobanputra said. “Like imperialism, travel involves territorial expansion and the occupation of foreign lands.”

No matter where one travels to, local livelihoods are transformed. Jobanputra said it becomes a guesthost relationship in which the guest has economic power, putting the host at its mercy. This applies especially to situations in which Westerners travel to developing countries that do not share the same cultural practices as countries that are considered “developed” by the Western travelers.

“Swimming pools, beach bars, English breakfasts and banana pancakes — these are the wants of imperial travellers,” Jobanputra said. “If the good sahib wishes to eat a hamburger in Hyderabad, or if ma’am sahib is wont to wear her miniskirt in Marrakesh, so be it! As ever, the West knows best.”

Jessica Namakkal is an assistant professor at Duke University in the International Comparative Studies program. Her research focuses on decolonization in the 20th century. She has done work on a project that expands the understandings of decolonization from the relationship between conqueror and natives, moving it to a global context.

“There are many practices of tourism that benefit from the colonial sys-

GR

EE

tem.

Courtes One simple y of Cre ative Co mmons example is economic: Wealthy people like to be tourists in less wealthy places because they can ‘get ics colonial projects of knowledge exmore’ for their money,” Namakkal traction — the model of sending in a said. “The fact that the USD or the Western expert to extract knowledge Euro or the British Pound is worth from local people and bring it back more than an Indian rupee or a South to the center of Empire,” Namakkal African rand or the Mexican peso is said. “This is often recreated in study abroad programs that place students directly linked to empire.”

Namakkal said this economic im- as more knowledgeable than the local balance becomes more apparent to people.”

However, Namakkal said not all students when they travel abroad, especially in comparison to places that study abroad programs are this way may have significantly fewer resourc- and there are some programs that es than a typical Western university. purposefully try not to replicate coloThough this realization may prove im- nialist models.

Namakkal also said there are ways portant, many — including Jobanputra and Namakkal — claim the system to travel better. One of her suggesof study abroad itself is structurally tions is to know something about the culture and the history of the place to imperialistic.

“Study abroad, especially to non- which you are traveling prior to your Western countries, sometimes mim- arrival.

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“For example, if you’re studying abroad in Nigeria, take a class on the history of Nigeria — understand what has happened there for at least the past 50 years. Recognize the struggles and issues that affect the daily lives of the people you may interact with while abroad,” Namakkal said. “The annoying man on the street trying to sell you something may be doing that job because his farm was lost due to the growing prevalence of big farming.”

Another suggestion by Namakkal is to understand what life is like in the country you will be visiting for people that share your identities.

“If you’re a woman, or queer, or a person of color, find out what life is like for people like yourself in the community you are going to visit. Instead of looking around and declaring there is no one like you where you are going — go find them and see what matters to them,” Namakkal said. “Don’t just accept what you see as truth — find people to talk to, ask them what they care about, learn from them instead of teaching them.” ___________________________________ Charlotte Robertson is a freshman integrated marketing communications major who spends her spare time crossing borders and checking her privilege. You can email her at crobertson@ithaca.edu.

Upfront

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Fashion Fiasco

The commercialization of cultural objects

Celisa Calacal, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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ith the onset of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April, issues of cultural appropriation have caused public debates.

Evidences of this can be found in the wearing of Native American headdresses, bindis and henna tattoos.

Women and girls at these festivals can be found donning colorful bindis on their forehead, solely for the sake of trendiness and “modern fashion.”

This wearing of bindis has become a popular fashion trend in modern American culture, with girls donning the colorful beads upon their foreheads at concerts and music festivals. However, despite the presence of the bindi in fashion culture, this was not its intended purpose.

The adoption of the bindi is only one example among many of cultural appropriation, which is defined as “the adoption of icons, rituals, aesthetic standards and behavior from one culture or subculture by another,” according to the online zine on culture, respect, allyship and racism, titled “Cultural Appreciation or Cultural Appropriation?”

Social right activists on social networking sites have brought the conversation regarding cultural appropriation to the forefront by raising awareness of racial inequalities between cultures. In response to the controversy surrounding the issue, social media movements such as “#ReclaimTheBindi” and “#CoachellaShutdown” have been gaining popularity to combat the cultural appropriation present at infamous festivals such as Coachella. The posts with these hashtags are dominated by selfies from South Asian women wearing bindis, a sign of pride and a way to maintain and protect the ownership of their culture.

The increased commercialization of cultural objects such as bindis in popular music festivals has prompt-

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ed the rise in social justice blogs to increase awareness about the harmful effects and the general problem with cultural appropriation.

One such blog is Reclaim the Bindi, founded in October 2014 by a woman who requested to be referred to as “M.” The blog is dedicated to the empowerment of South Asian cultures and taking back their culture from the dominant hands of society. It was founded after seeing a “reclaim the bindi” post from a diasporic Desi style blog called Bangle Banger. While she had experienced instances of cultural appropriation throughout her life, M said she had been formally introduced to it about a year ago and started the blog primarily as an informational space.

“It just became an outlet to talk about these issues,” she said. “It became a safe space for other South Asians.”

Accompanied with this increased exposure are debates about where the line of acceptability lies between appreciation and appropriation. Examples of cultural appropriation can be blatant but subtle, depending on one’s awareness of the phenomenon. However, it is this gray area around cultural appropriation that makes it difficult for many to discern between what is acceptable in adapting or borrowing from another culture.

The offense in cultural appropriation lies within the borrowing of culturally significant practices, beliefs or objects, stripping them of their rich history and unintentionally turning them into mere objects of popular culture

with a trivialized significance. The appropriation of different cultural practices can especially negatively impact the culture of origin if it is the dominant group taking or borrowing from a minority group.

This appropriation can be seen as another, subtler form of discrimination and yet another sign of the constant marginalization of certain cultural groups. The appropriation of a cultural practice or object can also be seen as a blatant disregard for that culture’s history and beliefs; it is taking an artifact or object of another culture, removing it of its symbolic meaning and turning into a marketable commodity.

The “Cultural Appreciation or Cultural Appropriation?” zine named cultural appropriation as a by-product of imperialism, capitalism, oppression and assimilation.

“In the case of cultural appropriation, culture is treated as a ‘natural resource’ to extract from People of Color,” the zine said.

In regard to assimilation, c u l tural appropriat i o n can be a cata-

Image by Grace Rychwalski

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why don’t I try it?’” she said. “The thing is the media doesn’t portray the flip side to it about how these things are harmful and how they do have so much meaning and significance, so since people are getting that one-sided kind of thing, it adds to that a lot.”

While cultural appropriation has recently been brought to the forefront of conversations on race relations, it has deep-running historical roots. During the mid-1900s, in a growing and industrialized America, the negative stigmas and continued racial discrimination of black musicians forced many record labels to employ white musicians to record black music. This disregard of the cultural and historical connection between black musicians and their music as a by-product of the oppression they experienced trivializes the injustices they often faced at the hands of the dominant culture.

The Tumblr blog, my culture is not a trend, is one outlet that has given the conversation about cultural appropriation some attention. The owner of the blog is a Native American who started the site after constantly seeing the dress and objects of her culture being appropriated by others who did not understand their cultural significance.

“Being a Native comes with a history of decidedly un-trendy events, such as the cultural genocide of an entire continent, residential schools, racism, stolen generations and the eradication of entire tribes of people and their cultural traditions,” she said in the blog’s description.

One of the damaging effects of cultural appropriation is the lack of understanding of its impact on minority cultures. Individuals falling under this category rely on arguments that race relations occur on a leveled playing field. However, this type of ideology ignores the continued existence of racism in modern society. To neglect the existence of racism and the systematic oppres-

sion of minority cultures counterproductively suppresses the status of these groups even further.

Despite the arguments defending the assimilation of the bindi and other cultural practices into mainstream culture, the cultural appropriation of ceremonies and objects can be seen as grossly disrespectful to the cultures from which they belong. It is important to recognize the cultural significance and value of cultural ceremonies, objects and practices. From the perspective of those whose cultures are becoming more commercialized, M said the casual appropriation of their cultural practices adds to modern-day racism and oppression.

“When we let these things kind of slide, they build up over time,” she said. “Thinking about the harassment that I and many other South Asians have faced for partaking in our cultures ... and then when you put it on someone who is not of South Asian descent and how it suddenly becomes this new kind of exotic, trendy thing, it reinforces ideas of how much we’re forced to assimilate while suppressing our own cultural identities.” ___________________________________ Celisa Calacal is a freshman journalism major who will not be found wearing a bindi at Coachella. You can email her at ccalacal@ithaca.edu.

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Upfront

lyst by forcing the minority group to fold to the dominant ideology. Oftentimes this can have negative ramifications on said group by tearing them from their cultural heritage.

Despite the harm associated with cultural appropriation, the motivation — albeit unintentional — lies within the high marketability factor in cultural objects. Appropriation involves an envy of other cultures, which possess objects seen as more desirable than ones of the dominant culture. One of the controversies surrounding cultural appropriation is the argument of appreciation, or the concept of trying to learn more about a certain culture through partaking in their cultural practices.

However, M said the line between the two lies in the invitation, in which individuals should only participate if invited.

“That invitation part is kind of hard to explain and for people to understand,” she said. “Definitely the invitation portion is something that people like to ignore. I think it’s easy to consider yourself appreciating something but you don’t realize you’re taking it out of context and that’s something that’s really important in this conversation. That context really matters.”

The increased awareness of cultural appropriation is parallel to the increased commercialization of bindis, Native American wear and other cultural practices. Their introduction and popularization by mainstream media is constantly perpetrated by celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Vanessa Hudgens, who M said are portrayed as trendy and fashionable for appropriating other cultures.

She said the one-sided viewpoint of cultural appropriation as the taking of something trendy suppresses its harmful effects on those who are being taken from.

“I think definitely the taking of things — that might stand out to someone as a trendy kind of thing, you know, ‘This looks really cool so

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Sex Tourism by the s

, bett Cor itor a c i Ed ess

By J Upfront

The details behind who’s crossing borders for companionship Though research has shown many men and women worldwide intentionally enter into some type of sex work, from pornography to prostitution, just how many people partake in the international sex industry — both its licit and illicit sectors — is highly disputed.

Media outlets, nongovernmental organizations, governments and international groups such as the United Nations often disagree when trying to estimate how many people are directly involved in any and all types of sex work.

The issue is complicated by the fact that laws regarding sex work vary greatly among countries. But with a global economy established by the spread of neoliberal policies, national borders have become more porous, which, according to many researchers, has caused a rise in sex-related trafficking.

As sex workers increasingly cross borders — some intentionally, some coerced or forced — seeking clients, there is also the reverse: Many Western tourists cross borders seeking sex with foreign men and women.

Research about this trend often plays into the dominant narrative of the Western white male

exploiting the impoverished female in a “developing country,” rendering LGBTQ participants invisible, while gendering, racializing and oversimplifying the general discourse.

This even occurs depending on whether the tourist is male or female: When males cross borders for sex it’s called sex tourism; but when the traveler is a woman, it’s often called “romance” tourism. Though there are many well-documented instances of exploitation of sex workers, stereotypes that create the Western white male/ Third World female victim scenario stifle public conversation about sex work across borders.

Many scholars of sex work claim more consistent and reliable information could come from a more inclusive treatment of gender, examinations of global systems that are conducive to sex work — particularly the global economic system — and discussions of consent that aren’t based on ingrained assumptions about why people partake in sex work and sex tourism. However, working within the limited field of research that does exist, Buzzsaw attempts to break down the global picture of sex tourism using some of the existing numbers.

50,000-55,000

women and girls work as prostitutes in Cambodia, where virgins are in high demand and many turn to sex work because of limited job options.

$2,000 2MILLION 70% 600,000 79%

is the estimated monthly income, in USD, of male prostitutes in Brazil who cater to the high numbers of LGBT tourists who travel to the country each year.

of males who travel to Thailand are visiting the country as sex tourists.

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children are exploited by the global sex trade, the U.S. State Department estimates.

of experts interviewed by the U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center reported that U.S. Western women engage in citizens or residents who are sex tourists commit sex tourism each year, often contact offenses abroad and engage in physical, traveling to Caribbean islands sexual, emotional and psychological abuse abroad. such as Jamaica.

brothels are located in the Lugano region of Switzerland, where prostitutes largely cater to Italian clients who cross the border.

Sources: U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center, U.S. Department of State, The New Statesman, Thailand Immigration Bureau, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Business World and Waguda: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies.

Overconsumption in America

GL UT

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How the U.S. gobbles up global resources

Jessica Corbett, Upfront Editor

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projects worldwide to share their stories and assist with meeting their goals. They selected 10 of 150 submissions.

“We looked for a few factors in evaluating projects: a compelling story, relevance to The Story of Stuff’s mission, potential for impact and creative, transformative ideas,” O’Heaney said. “We also sought geographic diversity.”

Overconsumption is not contained to the U.S. Only 12 percent of the global population lives in North America and Western Europe, but this population is responsible for 60 percent of private consumption spending, according to the WorldWatch Institute, an environmental research group. Conversely, a third of the world population lives in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, but this population accounts for only 3.2 percent of private consumption spending.

Consumption inequality isn’t just an issue between “the West and the rest” — it’s also an issue in the U.S., where consumption inequality is growing nearly as quickly as income inequality. Translation: the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and their income levels relate to their consumption habits.

Though this may sound logical, it was actually rather contested among economists leading up to the publication of an April 2012 report in the National Bureau of Economic Research titled “The Evolution of Income, Consumption, and Leisure Inequality in The US, 1980-2010.”

The paper’s researchers write there is mounting evidence to suggest the previous method of measuring consumption inequality, the Consumer Expenditure Survey, “is plagued by serious nonclassical measurement error, which hinders the extent to which definitive conclusions can be made about the extent to which consumption inequality has evolved over the last three decades.”

The researchers recognize that for reasons such as skill-biased technology changes, institutional factors and international trade, wage inequality has greatly increased since the 1980s. Using alternative measurement methods, the researchers concluded “consumption inequality within the U.S. between 1980

and 2010 has increased by nearly the same amount as income inequality.”

Erik Hurst, an economics professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and one of the paper’s three authors, said the economics community has embraced the paper’s findings.

“If you ask most economists, they will say consumption inequality and income inequality have been tracking each other,” he said. “It felt right to more people … They kind of knew that the findings in some of these other papers just didn’t seem to match some of their instincts.”

In the paper, they write, “consumption inequality might...provide a more reliable measure of inequality in long-term living standards than income,” and recognize the value in studying both income and consumption trends simultaneously.

“Consumption’s a better measure of well-being than income,” Hurst said. For example, he said, if someone loses their job, but has a large savings or seeks government aid, the income loss may not impact their consumption habits.

In his paper “The Retirement of Consumption Puzzle,” Hurst found, “declines in spending during retirement for the average household are limited to the categories of food and work related expenses… [but] even though food spending declines during retirement, actual food intake remains constant.”

Part of The Story of Stuff Project’s goal, according to O’Heaney, is to counter the myth “that the individual consumer is the problem and that the solution is for sale at the grocery store.” The Project, he said, presents both overconsumption and underconsumption as systemic problems.

“Too often we’re made to feel guilty for making the less environmentally or socially friendly choices we make,” he said.

“We see our job not as scolding individual consumers, but helping them understand the systemic underpinnings of the consumption problem. And from there, we hope they’ll start seeing themselves as part of the solution.” _______________________________________ Jessica Corbett is a senior journalism major who enjoys shaming the system. You can email her at jcorbet2@ithaca.edu.

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Upfront

he U.S. accounts for about 5 percent of the world’s population, but consumes 30 percent of global resources, according to the Story of Stuff Project fact sheet. From environmental activists to economists, many Americans don’t realize just how much ‘stuff’ they consume.

In December 2007, activist Annie Leonard and some folks at Free Range Studios decided to take on the process of consumption in an easy-to-digest form.

The group released “Story of Stuff,” a 20-minute YouTube video that has garnered more than 3.1 million views. The video explains modern manufacturing, “from extraction, to production, to distribution, to consumption, to disposal.” A key takeaway is: “You cannot run a linear system on a finite planet.”

The original video has led to a series of online videos and various other related projects. The Story of Stuff Project is a movement of at least 850,000 members worldwide. Michael O’Heaney, executive director of The Story of Stuff Project, explained their filmmaking process.

“We spend a lot of time figuring out how to distill complex topics without dumbing them down. We try to steer clear of tons and facts and figures and connect what we’re talking about to the viewers’ lived experience,” O’Heaney said. “The stick figures and humor help a lot too — environmental communications has tended to overdo it with the gloom and doom ... We try to be honest and treat our viewers like adults.”

In addition to the videos, the project produces podcasts and has released a book, facilitates community-based efforts through workshops, and partners with other organizations to fight corporate and government corruption. According to the project’s 2015 member poll, the top five priorities among members are: protecting clean water, fighting corporate corruption, eliminating toxins, protecting the climate, and less stuff.

Though the first video is U.S.-centric, the group recently began a project called Community Launchpad. The Project will work with leaders of community-led

THE FRAMING GAME Exploring the role of sins in modern society

By Taylor Barker

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here are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19 a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Proverbs 6:16-19

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

We all sin.

Most of us probably sin before we leave the house in the morning, if we base it off of the seven deadly sins.

While there is no specific list in the Bible that names the seven deadly sins, each of them are established in various ways. The seven deadly sins include gluttony, pride, lust, envy, sloth, wrath and greed.

The deadly, or capital, sins, were originally established by a Greek monk, Evagrius Ponticus, who created a list of eight evil thoughts.

These were then brought to Pope Gregory the Great, who altered the list slightly, combining some of the original eight into pride and sloth, and adding envy. This is the list that remained consistent until 2008 in the Catholic theology and was popularized by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem The Divine Comedy.

In 2008 the list of seven deadly sins received an update from The Vatican due to the increasingly globalized world and the lack of commitment by the Catholics to attend confession. According to an article on Bloomberg.com, the sins are qualified in a social category and include: bioethical violations, morally dubious research, drug abuse, polluting the environment, excessive weatlh, contributing to widening division between rich and poor and creating poverty. Though this list of sins is relevant to today’s society, they did not gain widespread popularity or catch on in popular culture.

Both people who are religious and non-religious have opinions and perceptions about the seven deadly sins. In 2012, Douglas Stenstrom and Mathew Curtis published “Pride, Sloth/Lust/Gluttony, Envy/Greed/ Wrath: Rating the Seven Deadly Sins,” which used survey results to rank the sins. The participants had to rank the sins’ severity on a scale from 0, being not a sin at all, to 100, being a complete sin. Based on data, Stenstrom and Curtis determined the ranking of the sins from least severe to most severe was: pride, sloth, lust, gluttony, envy, greed and wrath. This pattern was consistent over the different demographics they used to analyze their data.

The survey participants also indicated their degree of religiousness, which displayed another interesting

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aspect to the research. There was a consistent correlation between how severe people ranked the sins and their degree of religiousness. People who indicated they were not religious at all had the lowest sin severity and the people who were very religious had the highest sin severity, except for wrath.

The researchers concluded: “It is possible that the perception of SDS [seven deadly sins] is both a religious phenomenon and a cultural one, partly owing to popularization of the SDS in modern culture as well as SDS being expressions of basic emotions and desires (such as lust and greed), attitudes and cognitions (such as pride and envy), and behaviours (suchs as gluttony, sloth, wrath) that are relevant to everyone’s lives.”

While the origins of the seven deadly sins have a strong Catholic history, they have also evolved to mean much more. They come into play in different parts of society, and not just in the way they were originally imagined.

The broad idea of “deadly sins” has been used to describe business practices, DNA coding, computer research and leadership styles. When these concepts are described by deadly sins, they frequently have nothing to do with the actual codified sins; instead, different sins are developed to encapsulate things that should be avoided.

As described by the Catholic Church, if these sins are committed, the only way to reach salvation is through repenting; these sins are the most severe. People should feel bad if they commit one of them.

But what happens when these sins make you feel good psychologically or physically?

There are some people who argue the sinning can actually be beneficial or cause people to feel good. Simon Laham, senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne and author of The Science of Sin: The Psychology of Seven Deadly Sins (And Why They Are So Good for You), argued in his book that sinning isn’t necessarily all bad and broke his reasoning down by each sin. He doesn’t shy away from the idea of sinning and gets right to the crux of the role the sins play in our daily lives in his in-

troduction.

“I confess it; I am a sinner. I greet most days with a mix of sloth and lust (which, coincidentally, is also how I end most days); this morphs into mild gluttony over breakfast and before I know it I’ve been condemned to hell several times over, and it’s not even nine A.M. Pride, greed, sloth, gluttony, lust, envy, and anger, the seven deadly sins — these are my daily companions,” Laham wrote.

Laham goes on to explain in his book that most people, if not everyone, is not void of at least one of these sins throughout each day.

Each chapter of the book examines each sin and how it can actually benefit people. Laham wrote an abbreviated explanation of each sin for an article in The Huffington Post.

Laham said:

• •

•

•

•

•

•

Gluttony can be beneficial because the boosts of energy are beneficial to cognitive function.

Pride can be seen as an encouraging aspect of life that pushes people to engage in more difficult tasks and achieve further success.

Envy can be looked at similarly, by looking up to someone as inspirational, there is the potential to be motivated.

The most basic way to look at sloth is sleep, which as a necessary part of life improves daily action.

Anger, or wrath, while tied to violence, more commonly results in adaptive response to an obstacle or injustice.

Lust can result in the more commonly thought of physical pleasure, but lust also initiates detail-focused thinking, which can assist people with problem solving.

Greed is oftentimes tied to money, and research suggests spending money on experiences instead of material objects can lead to more happiness.

one of the seven sins. These people aren’t just occasionally lazy or eat too much every so often; these people take the sins to the extreme. The woman in the gluttony episode eats past the point of feeling full, to the point where she is aroused; the man in the lust episode lusts after elderly women; and the man in the envy episode believes he was born in the wrong body and thinks he should have disability, so he lives his life in a wheelchair.

While these examples may have been more exagger ated versions of the sin, is it fair to qualify their way of lives more sinful than w h a t someone w o u l d d e e m “normal”?

There is no concrete way to define the severity of a sin, just like there is no way to define what is good and bad, yet it is widely accepted that people should strive to be “good” and avoid sin.

The John Templeton Foundation recently released an essay series through Slate, titled Why Be Good?

Professors of biology, philosophy, psychology and ethics tried to explain why humans have the desire to be good. They grappled with the ideas of theology and evolution, trying to distinguish why the desire to be good is never absent.

Martin Nowak, professor of mathematics and biology at Harvard University, wrote one of the essays about how goodness comes from evolutionary competition. In his essay, he wrote: “The call for goodness is central to every culture and can be considered a human universal. We recognize goodness and prefer good to evil … We find it uncomfortable to break with goodness and goodness is a desirable and attractive feature in our loved ones.”

Nowak’s ideas about being good and the attractiveness of goodness can be related to why the examples

of sin on Spurlock’s show were portrayed as obscure and dark. The ways of life that were depicted could not be universally accepted and were displayed to make the viewers uncomfortable. When this is the way the seven deadly sins are portrayed in society, it makes it that much more reasonable that there would be the desire to avoid them — avoid evil and strive for goodness.

To combat the seven deadly sins the Catholic theology also established the seven Christian virtues,

“I sort of developed my own philosophy of the seven deadly sins … that they are putting a name to some of the most fundamental human impulses.”

- Robin Wasserman, a young adult novelist which include a combination of the cardinal virtues established by Aristotle and Plato, and theological virtues. These virtues include: prudence, justice, temperance, faith, hope and charity. Pope Gregory also established these to counteract his declaration of the seven deadly sins.

Following these seven virtues is another way people can strive to be good. Similarly to the seven deadly sins, these are ideas that are simply part of everyday life, and not necessarily something people think about trying to perform.

There is no clear way the seven deadly sins or the seven heavenly virtues should be interpreted, especially considering the different ways people have decided to use them in society. In the end it comes down to determining how good or bad someone wants to act, and if reaching salvation is even an attainable goal. ___________________________________ Taylor Barker is a junior journalism major whose favorite ice cream flavor is Bittersweet Sinphony. You can email her at tbarker1@ithaca.edu.

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Upfront

Laham’s analysis of the seven deadly sins exemplifies how they have evolved from their definition in the Catholic Church. They have also infiltrated popular culture through plays, television shows and young adult novels. Robin Wasserman, a young adult novelist, wrote her first book series about the seven deadly sins. The sins were not something she was particularly familiar with; she started with the idea of seven deadly sins and then did research to create a basis for her story.

Wasserman said she sat down with her friend at bar and was brainstorming book or series titles when the idea of seven deadly sins came up. She originally assumed a series must have already been written, but she was surprised when she found out there was not one. Each sin is represented by one book in her series, and she said the plot and subplots of the book are thematically related to each sin.

“Over the course of the series and the course of doing nine million interviews, I sort of developed my own philosophy of the seven deadly sins … that they are putting a name to some of the most fundamental human impulses,” Wasserman said.

“The sin comes from taking it to the extreme, which is what happens when you try not to acknowledge having them at all.”

She said the deeper she got into her characters while writing the villainous acts, it was easier to see the reactions as rational and comprehensible. The sins weren’t necessarily far off or abstract from daily life, and it was easier to be sympathetic to her characters. “[The sins] are at the core of our humanity, so you can’t actually expunge them and shouldn’t be expected to,” Wasserman said.

The book series was published in 2005, and then Lifetime adapted them to a television miniseries in 2010; the seven deadly sins infiltrating another entity of media. Wasserman’s television series was followed by another television series on Showtime produced by Morgan Spurlock, known for the documentary Supersize Me. Spurlock’s show was also a documentary, chronicling different people’s lives who actively participate in

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L. MINISTRYofCOOL. MI

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

Arts, entertainment and other things cooler than us.

Your Favorite Characters Having Sex The world of explicit slash and fan fiction

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Jackie Kazim, Staff Writer

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consume. Perhaps the television show is on a network that does not allow nudity. Maybe the publishing company of the book wants to make it marketable to younger audiences.

In this case, consumers who have accepted and are knowledgeable about sex may feel frustrated that these acts, which are a natural part of their lives, are not present in their media.

Tumblr user kansaskissedlips, who goes by the penname Kansas, has a blog dedicated almost purely to writing male slash for the CW show Supernatural. She takes requests from other Tumblr users who will ask her for a specific pairing or scenario for the characters to be placed in.

Often times she will also write up something in response to the week’s episode when the show is active.

“Explicit fan fiction in which two characters whom I love (from, for example, a television show) find themselves in increasingly sexual situations,” Kansas said. “These sexual situations, for me, act as a catalyst for resolving emotional tension between the involved characters. When the characters are satisfied, I am satisfied. One of the reasons why people write fan fiction is to ‘fix’ unresolved tension — especially emotionally draining sequences which do not end in favor of the audience.”

As a consumer of the highly intense and dramatic television show Supernatural, which is famous for its “boy melodrama” and high-stakes interactions, these sorts of emotional sequences are common. For Kansas, writing out sexual interactions with the characters is a way to feel like she has resolved some of the issues the characters deal with — but it is not just about the sexual contact. “…It would be meaningless if there were not a vast range of emotions involved,” Kansas said. “Are the characters scared? Sad? Happy?

In love? Why are they engaging in sex acts? These emotions must be conveyed, in my opinion, to really

grab a reader — so that is what I try to do when I write, and that is most certainly what I look for when I am on the other side of things — when I am reading fan fiction.”

The content of the fan fiction, therefore, becomes much more about the characters’ emotions and feelings as opposed to the sexual acts being described. It acts as a deeper exploration of the psychology of the characters.

Slash fiction, however, is almost overwhelmingly filled with male homosexual pairings. Ithaca College writing professor Jaime Warburton has been studying fandom and the culture surrounding it and teaches a freshman seminar on the topic. She has taken notice of how slash fiction is mostly composed of male pairings.

“Generally, because over 90 percent of [fan fiction] is written by people who identify as female, and the majority of them are straight,” Warburton said. “The same way it’s known that hetero men tend to find girl/ girl sex erotic, many straight women either find [male/male] interaction erotic (especially when it involves the emotional component created by canonical friendships) and also enjoy writing or reading scenes with the men they love being sexual with ‘another woman’ as the object of their affections.”

According to Warburton, most of the female/female slash fiction written comes from female authors who are queer, which makes up a smaller portion of the fan fiction writing community.

With boundless imaginations and a desire to see more than just what’s constantly shown in entertainment media, it seems safe to assume that the slash fiction trend will not die out any time soon. _____________________________________ Jackie Kazim is a freshman film, photography and visual arts major who spends her free time mashing action figures’ faces together. You can email her at jakazim@ithaca.edu.

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Ministry of Cool

ome people turn off their televisions after a show or video game and just post a status about how good it was. Some people finish a book and decide to give it a review to let other readers know what they are getting into.

Others take the characters introduced to them through these media and write them having raunchy, kinky sex all the way through the night.

The internet has bred unknown numbers of sites dedicated to the writing of fan fiction, and as time goes on, this phenomenon has become more and more well known.

Obviously, the writing of explicit fan fiction is bound to be the most shocking of all, especially since a large percentage of this fan fiction falls under a subcategory known as “slash.” Slash fiction is a term particular to the writing of characters in a homosexual relationship that are otherwise portrayed as heterosexual in the original source material. So why do people write it? And, is it really all that new?

The simple answer to the latter is no.

In the days before the internet, fan culture and fandom as we define it today was spread through fanzines — fan magazines. By putting yourself on the mailing list, you would essentially subscribe to these snail mail magazines that would oftentimes include fan fiction. A particularly popular example is in the case of Star Trek, where the slash pairing of James Kirk/Spock would be commonly written in an explicit way. But still, why?

Oftentimes, writers of explicit fan fiction are looking for a sense of completion and depth in the lives of the characters they see. Sex is an activity that many people engage in, and for most of the world’s population, sex is an important part of their lives.

However, many barriers prevent it from being present in the media we

Social Media Jealousy

All your friends have better lives than you do

Celisa Calacal, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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reshman Michelle Lee has her smart phone in hand, one finger casually scrolling through the copious amounts of photographs in her Instagram feed. The feed shows a variety of photographs showing expensive designer purchases, lavish vacations and her friends having fun at their respective colleges.

She releases a heavy sigh as she subsequently double-taps the photos, giving the posts a “like,” a sign of approval. She double-taps most of the photos, but despite this act of validation, another emotion settles in: envy.

These underlying feelings of jealousy can be described by the phenomenon known as lifestyle envy: the coveting of another individual’s life circumstances.

While the constant envy toward the lives of celebrities reflects this phenomenon, lifestyle envy has taken on a whole new face within the realm of social media. What differentiates it from its presence in social interactions is social media’s ability to provide exposure to another person’s life through pictures, posts and tweets. While users are provided the ability to choose who to follow, ultimately this level of control and autonomy stops there, for she no longer can control what these accounts choose to post for their subsequent followers.

The prevalence of lifestyle envy has its roots in humankind’s natural inclination to compare themselves to their peers, and the transparency of social media only makes it easier for one to assess the achievements of their peers.

This comparison is called “relative deprivation:” the perception of an unfair disparity between your own situation and that of another’s.

The acknowledgement of even the slightest unfairness between

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two parties can often result in onesided feelings of jealousy, envy and personal dissatisfaction. With social media quickly becoming synonymous as a replacement of social interaction, relative deprivation increases with every Instagram photo, Facebook post and Twitter update.

The ease associated with social media usage — often one of its most attractive qualities for people — can be concomitant with the feelings of lifestyle envy. With greater exposure to the lifestyles of other individuals comes a heightened awareness of socioeconomic inequalities, which can further increase the envy and covet of another individual.

Lane Anderson, writer of the Deseret News National article, “The Instagram effect: how the psychology of envy drives consumerism,” said social media makes it easier for users to feel envious due to the widened and extended avenues for comparison in which users have the ability to compare their lives to those of others outside their immediate peer group.

“Those opportunities for comparison have changed,” she said in an interview. “It used to be remotely just compare ourselves to our peer group, and now we have opportunities to compare ourselves to all kinds of people who have way more resources than we do.”

A study conducted in 2015 in Computers in Human Behavior, “Facebook use, envy and depression among college students: Is Facebook depressing?” tested the relationship between Facebook envy and depression amongst a group of 736 college students. The study spotlights “Facebook envy”: the envy felt after consuming other people’s personal information on the site.

Researches in the study analyzed this relationship through the social rank theory: a theory of depression primarily concerned with the aspect of competition.

The research study found envy is one of the most common emotional

consequences of social media usage, and also hypothesized that the more Facebook friends an individual has, the greater sense of Facebook envy that user will experience. Patrick Ferrucci, one of the researchers involved in the study, said individuals who use social media less for communication and more for surveillance are more vulnerable to becoming envious of others.

“You’re seeing all these images and messages about good things from other people, and obviously on social media the vast majority of people only tend to share positive things, because they’re concerned of their online identity, and so they’re consistently sharing positive things,” he said. “If you’re just kind of watching this consistently over time, and say something’s not going great in your life or maybe you’re thinking ‘why isn’t this happening to me,’ you’re more likely to become envious.”

Ultimately the study found that the relationship between Facebook surveillance and depression specifically amongst college students is further perpetuated by Facebook envy.

“Facebook users are exposed to successes, material goods, positive relationships, and other information that other users share on Facebook,” the study said. “Exposure to these pieces of positive information about others can lead to feelings of envy, as information consumers can feel subordinated to others who seem to publish positive experiences all the time.”

In addition to Facebook, the rising popularity of photo-sharing site Instagram is another prime example of lifestyle envy. With over 300 million active users per month, lifestyle envy has become synonymous with Instagram envy, characterized by the pang of jealousy Lee gets when she sees her friend post a picture from a lavish vacation.

The dominance of photographs

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lack of media literacy. “[They’re] not thinking as much about what they’re seeing, not thinking about how people could be presenting themselves in a way that’s not necessarily true or in a way that makes them look as good as possible,” he said. “Because of that, maybe they’re more likely to run into these issues.”

I n s t a g r a m ’ s photographic and visual component, Anderson said, contributes to both its appeal and downfall. She said it is the immediacy of a visual that heavily contributes to increased feelings of envy.

“There’s something about the visual, seeing what someone else has that is much more envy-inducing than hearing about what somebody else is doing,” she said.

For high school seniors teetering along on the bridge to college, lifestyle envy becomes especially prevalent when students post status updates of prestigious schools they have been accepted to. Reading where their peers got accepted can often elicit envy and even inadequacy, especially if it is a prestigious institution such as an Ivy League university. Anderson said these feelings of envy have their roots in the widened basis of comparison offered through social media.

“Instead of comparing themselves to their immediate 30 or 40 best friends, they’re comparing themselves to several hundred people and where they’re getting in,” Anderson said. “And so in a larger sampling, there’s gonna be more people who are getting into prestigious colleges to

be jealous of.”

However, envy can also serve as a source of motivation for people who wish to improve their lifestyles.

This method falls under the term of benign envy, in which individuals take feelings of envy and use them

The more Facebook friends an individual has, the greater sense of Facebook envy that user will experience. as inspiration for self-improvement.

Whether through reading words or looking at pictures, the prevalence of social media in today’s society has created a hyper-awareness towardsthe achievements in the lives of others. This increased exposure only influences individuals to further compare themselves to peers out of the inclination of self-improvement and competition.

“You know the thing about a lot of happiness in life is just being happy with what you get,” Anderson said. “I think Instagram makes that hard. Social media and Instagram in general do make that hard.” ____________________________________ Celisa Calacal is a freshman journalism major who is ready to throw her phone into the lake. You can email her at ccalacal@ithaca.edu.

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Ministry of Cool

on Instagram presents a modern-day voyeurism, allowing any individual to take a peek into the lives of others through streams of quick photos.

Similar to the Facebook study, the more an individual logs onto Instagram and scrolls through their feed correlates to the amount of envy welling up inside as they are able to observe the lifestyles of peers.

Whether a photograph from a lavish vacation, an expensive designer watch or even a mouthwatering meal from a five-star restaurant, slews of Instagram photos blatantly shove desirable items and lifestyles in people’s faces. With Instagram being a photo-dominated social media network, the sense of subordination and relative deprivation can rear its ugly head with each passing, filtered photograph. The pictures themselves become objects of desire.

“All that stuff is on Instagram,” Anderson said, “and we curate that stuff so that it looks really great.

We only put the best of that stuff on Instagram, so when you look at that kind of stuff your basis for comparison becomes a lot steeper.”

While historically it has always been a common occurrence to compare oneself to the lives of the rich and famous, Instagram allows average individuals to present their lives as if they were a celebrity. It is this sly deception that can easily elicit envy from those who share no personal connection to the person. The ability to essentially fabricate a life of glamour and luxury only through a series of photographs can be seen as both a cause and effect of lifestyle envy. What many users often ignore is the sheer fact that Instagram allows individuals to construct a false reality, and as a result, false perceptions, of themselves. For instance, websites such as InstaBuyaGram.com allow users to buy followers.

Ferrucci said social media platforms make college students more susceptible to lifestyle envy because of their larger networking groups and a

The Brand New Mystery

Band drops two new songs after years of silence

Grace Rychwalski, Sawdust Editor

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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fter 15 years on the music scene, Brand New has taken its fans on a thrilling and perplexing journey.

Through its elusive policies of little-to-no interviews, music videos or interactions with fans (except for sparse social media posts and chatting during concerts), Brand New has kept out of the public eye in recent years. However, within the past few weeks, it was revealed that Brand New has been anything but inactive, which stirred up a lot hype.

In the CD sleeve of its 2006 album, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me (TDAG), rather than including a lyric booklet, a simple message read: “Please send $1 to [studio address] for a complete copy of the lyrics.” While most were confused by the strange request, many sent in their dollars and awaited a response.

Within the nine years between then and now, Brand New released one full-length studio album and played countless shows, but the TDAG lyric booklets have remained in obscurity.

Even after the 2009 release of its latest studio album, Daisy, the band remained ambiguous about fulfilling their $1 promise to the fans.

Early in 2015, speculation about the booklets surfaced once more.

A picture of what appeared to be a finished lyric booklet was posted by recording studio UpStudio with the caption, “You will get it when it’s finished #pogolith.” The photo has since been removed from the recording studio’s Tumblr site, and many dismissed it as a hoax. However, April 3, fans were shocked to find the completed TDAG lyric booklets in their mailboxes, nine years after the release of the album. The booklets are laden with reimagined album art, encrypted numerical messages which all seem to point to July 10, 2018 (frontman Jesse Lacey’s 40th birthday and the band’s rumored death date), and the mysterious term “POGOLITH” (likely a reference to the studio where

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Brand New may be recording), as well as obscure references to locations on Long Island, the band’s home.

Included are the complete lyrics for all tracks on TDAG, as well as an advertisement for new cassette tapes of some of its demos leaked in 2005 (with the charming slogan “old technology? sure. but try and file share this!”), and, finally, the original dollar bills sent to the band.

On April 8, Brand New began their much-anticipated world tour, kicking off in Denver, Colorado. Earlier that day, the band’s Instagram was wiped of all its photos in favor of one photo of the ensemble and a few shots promoting their show later that evening. Through its Instagram, the band also revealed it was selling the fabled lyric booklets for $2 apiece, and they would be sold online as well. Many thought Brand New was trying to create hype for the tour, but it turned out to be something much larger. At that show, the band shocked its fans for the second time in two weeks by opening with a surprise new single — the first new music from Brand New in six years. The band continued playing the song (initially referred to as “Don’t Feel Anything”) without explanation at its shows until April 13, when the single was released

by Brand New via its website, officially titled “Mene.” Free downloads of the track were available for less than a week before it was uploaded to iTunes.

“Mene” itself is a hybrid creature of young and old Brand New, pulling in sounds from Your Favorite Weapon and Deja Entendu alike. It embodies the sound of the band’s first album in its angsty, loud guitar riffs and calm verses followed by screaming choruses, reminding fans of Brand New’s emo/punk roots. However, the lyrics are what bring the single up to Brand New’s current era; themes from both Deja Entendu and TDAG are clearly present, which make way for more refined, mature lyrics about religion and the significance of life rather than angry lamentation about

a bad breakup.

On April 15, two days after “Mene” was released as a single, Brand New surprised crowds yet again at its show in Los Angeles, California. When fans arrived, they were handed lyric sheets to a new song, which the paper entitled “Sealed To Me.” This song, however, was no hard rock opener; rather, it was a song Lacey closed the concert with in solitude. With only a microphone and his electric guitar, he dedicated it to his family and friends, saying that it is a personal song about how “it’s hard being 37 and learning a lot of hard lessons that you [should have learned] when you were 17.”

“Sealed To Me” is similar to tracks found on Deja Entendu in its raw, barebones, emotional nature, featuring mumble-whispered vocals and slight guitar interludes to accompany the lyrics. However, the biggest jump is unlike most other Brand New songs of the same variety, “Sealed To Me” has no climax or breakdown. While many of the band’s songs begin more delicately, there is almost always a point where the music kicks in strongly and forcibly (most notably heard in “Sowing Season” or “Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t”), but “Sealed To Me” is absent of this.

The music remains at a constant, low hum as Lacey’s vocals wash over it, eventually concluding the same way they began — in controlled repose.

Whether Brand New is building to the announcement of an album which will call back to its roots from an older perspective or sadistically toying with the emotions of their fans for fun, it’s safe to say that fans are all along for the ride, eagerly anticipating whatever it is the band has planned next. ___________________________________ Grace Rychwalski is a sophomore writing major who wants to know what the fuck is going on with this band. You can email her at grychwa1@ithaca.edu

RAW SAW

Seven

FROM THE

Film Review Jon Roberts Staff Writer

their work because it affects their entire life. The film isn’t just about catching a bad guy, but about humanity and how these characters try to fight against this unknown city filled with pure evil.

With only music videos and the forgettable Alien 3 under his belt, Fincher graced his early career with a phenomenal piece of fiction. The film depicts gruesome and grotesque murders based on the seven deadly sins, like forcing a man to eat himself to death (gluttony) and the polar opposite, starving a man (sloth).

Fincher knows how to play with the audience, for example when a character finds a clue that is extremely important he will hold back from revealing the clue right away. Much like the serial killer Miller and Somerset are searching for, Fincher plays with the audience, knowing what to give and when to give it.

Without ruining one of the best endings in cinema, the end of the film is a perfect example of this. Fincher knows that showing a character’s reaction to opening “the box” is more powerful than just showing what’s inside. As you are waiting and waiting you grip the blanket tighter and tighter, dying to know but really never wanting to know. This is the sign of a truly great director, much like Hitchcock. Fincher knows how to control his audience and where to lead them even if it’s not in the direction the viewer wants the film to go. This along with the powerful performances by Freeman, Pitt and Paltrow take what seems like a predictable detective story and turns it into one of the most nail-biting films ever made.

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Ministry of Cool

The grim and gloomy world David Fincher creates in his film Seven is one that’s hard to forget. The film stars Morgan Freeman as Detective Somerset, a man who hopes his last six days on the force go by without any hiccups. The story picks up right as Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) joins the force and becomes Somerset’s partner. From there the two embark on an investigation about a serial killer who leaves a trail of bodies based on the seven deadly sins. The film is a nonstop thrill ride full of misery and gore, leaving no time to take a breath. Almost 20 years after its release, David Fincher’s Seven is still one of the most compelling films ever made.

The world created in the just-over2-hour runtime builds into the misery and despair these characters are facing.

In almost every exterior shot in the film, the city with no name is being constantly drenched in a heavy downpour of rain.

What separates this film from most detective/serial killer dramas is not only the world-building but how the story is more about the characters rather than the murders themselves. Fincher takes viewers into these characters’ lives and shows how the new detective Mills and his wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) struggle to adapt in the murky new city.

Pitt and Freeman are phenomenal together, and it’s in scenes like their dinner with Paltrow’s character that these characters come alive. The score

by Howard Shore is skin crawling as these detectives get closer to the killer.

The writer, Andrew Walker, puts the characters first and thus gives the audience a chance to actually care about

World of Tomorrow Earl Sweatshirt

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

Film Review Robert S. Hummel Prose and Cons Editor

I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside Album Review Yane Ahn Staff Writer

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Don Hertzfeldt is the Davy Crockett of contemporary animation: a self-made man and a master of primitive tools with a legendary reputation. For years he’s been making short animated films all on his lonesome, acting as writer, director, artist, producer, sound designer and distributor without outside assistance. Using an ancient, 35mm film camera, he’s brought humor, majesty and life to an aesthetic largely centered around stick figures. For a craft as involved as animation, his process is as improbable as it is improbably independent. This artist works hard for his creative control, and has been rewarded for it with over 200 awards from major film festivals worldwide.

Now, after years of resistance, Hertzfeldt has come to embrace the possibilities of a digital workflow, a fitting evolution for a short set in the future. World of Tomorrow, which won top prizes at both Sundance and SXSW, shows no sign of creative compromise in the shift from analog. In fact, it may be his finest work to date — there is no overstating how much wonder, wisdom and bizarre humor has been packed into just 17 minutes of storytelling.

The premise is simple enough: 4-year-old Emily is contacted by her adult clone from the distant future, and is taken on a brief tour of the next several hundred years of life on Earth.

Indeed, World of Tomorrow is more concerned with exploring the possibilities of the conceit than with conflict or arc, but one can’t help but grow close to these characters — the clone,

robotic and matter-of-fact in her retelling of past sadness, and little Emily, innocent and unaware and adorable. Hertzfeldt had his 4-year-old niece provide the voice of Emily, and the result is one of the most realistic characterizations of childlike wonder on record. Emily sings songs, tells gonowhere stories and babbles non-sequiturs as her clone describes how the world will end. That contrast between the innocent and the clinically wise gives the film a human core that resonates loudly and clearly throughout.

The characters are so compelling, it is easy to undersell the visual achievement of World of Tomorrow. Hertzfeldt’s work is stuffed full of striking images, but he has some of his finest compositions here, from galactic landscapes to strange future limbos and burnt sepia memoryspaces. Animation has always been the medium of wide imaginations, but the scope of the film look is unprecedented — it makes for a fascinating, unpredictable setting to trip through.

World of Tomorrow is a trip, an experience. To give away further plot details would neutralize the bliss of randomness and discovery that makes it such a thrill to see. But Hertzfeldt has crafted more than just a fun ride: For all its wonder, the film’s emotional spectrum is as wide as its range of color, gracefully inciting curiosity, grief, amusement and warmth all in the same breath.

This has always been Hertzfeldt’s greatest asset: For all his gifts and talents in animation, he is a peerless storyteller, and with nothing but a computer, a microphone and a charming kid, he has made a dazzling work of joy.

Earl Sweatshirt’s new album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside is an expression of boredom and frustration with others illustrated through solid melodies and incredible lyricism.

In this album, Earl continues his expressively downcast venue of music from Doris. He utilizes his gloomy mood to rant about things personal and real to him.

None of his songs are about hype or making noise. They can be cocky, but there’s always an atmosphere of a depressed boredom in everything he says.

No one else expresses their feelings the way Earl Sweatshirt does. His lyrics are quite literally poetry, the most complex, intricate expressions. Earl is able to draw crazy lyrics from his dark mood.

He constantly talks about the fake people, the “serpents” or “snakes,” in his life, whether in “Faucet” or “Off Top.” The chorus of “Faucet” echoes that he doesn’t know whose house to call, and that it feels like “basic hoes try to cage him like the po’.” “Off Top” also states outright that he only “trust these bitches ‘bout as far as I can throw ‘em.”

The fourth track off his album, “Grief,” demonstrates his current state of mind. People are trying to be better than him, everyone

around him is acting fake or trying to be like him. Yet he also briefly raps about how he’s still struggling with drugs and he misses his grandma. This contrast between his confidence and his sadness continues throughout the entire album, including “AM // Radio.”

The songs on I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside use a lot of melodies and rhythms that are similar in stylistic form. In that way, his style is solidified and there is a continuation of the classic, dreamy, slow but emotional Earl Sweatshirt his fans have come to love.

The point of what he does isn’t to try to be easy to listen to. He really wants to express himself and not give anyone an easy way out of trying to understand him. He says that people always try to know him and it’s annoying — that’s literally what his first track, “Huey,” is about.

It makes me feel bad for him. He hates everyone around him, the girls and the fans. He likes the rich rapper lifestyle, but still finds that there’s a void within him that he can’t really fill.

He misses his mom, grandma and his friends.

He hates his ex. He misses having someone to compare his rapping against and he just wants to be happy. The most striking aspect of this new album is that he’s never sounded this sad before.

Death Grips

The Powers That B

Album Review Kellen Beck, Ministry of Cool Editor

The Powers That B is a two-part album.

The first part, Niggas on the Moon, was released in summer 2014; the second part, Jenny Death, released March 31 this year.

starts with a haunting guitar riff, slightly distorted and eerie, almost triumphant.

It’s a small hint of the guitar work found later in the album, until it’s crushed by an onslaught of percussion and distorted static. “I’m smoking cigarettes in the shower/ When they get wet I just light another/ Fatal cardiac over cancer don’t gimme no suffer/ Steal me over feel me linger until I’m six under/ Ain’t a fucking thing sacred when I get naked.”

The words manifest a motif of The Powers That B — an indifference to death.

On par with “Inanimate Sensations,” the sixth track “The Powers That B” is a driving, anger-induced track that pulses with power. It’s so prideful it almost seems like a joke, but given the quality of the album so far, it almost seems justified.

The song taunts competition, but what competition does a group like Death Grips have?

The following four songs give way a bit, defined by clear guitar work, with “Beyond Alive” having a weak sort of Radiohead feel. “Centuries of Damn” reaches into psychedelic territory, sounding like an uplifting understanding or discovery of something, but laced with malicious lyrics.

“On GP” is a torrent of emotion, inarguably the catchiest song off The Powers That B. It has haunting organ, hard rock-esque guitar that feels ripped off a Led Zeppelin song and percussion played perfectly, accenting high points with a triumphant flurry of cymbals. The group transforms into something different in this track, moving from frustration and anger into resignation, and something that almost sounds like happiness.

Appropriately, Jenny Death leaves off on the tenth track “Death Grips 2.0,” an instrumental song that is abrasive, erratic, heavily produced and intense like Niggas on the Moon. It doesn’t answer any questions, but it’s a satisfying ending. The title appears to point toward something on the horizon for Death Grips, considering their post on Facebook saying “We might make some more,” even though they declared earlier that The Powers That B would be their final production.

Death Grips is aloof, hard to pin down and experimental to a degree that leaves them with a very small following. This isn’t music that’s meant to be easily listened to; it’s difficult, abstract, confusing and dizzying. The Powers That B is their most difficult album yet, but contains some of their best compositions. It is a mystery whether they’ll release anything else, but, if not, this was a hell of a way to go out.

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Ministry of Cool

Death Grips is genre-defying — a twisted amalgamation of hip hop, electronic, industrial, hard rock, thrash and punk.

They are barely a band; instead, they consider themselves a performance art project that produces music. Within that, The Powers That B is a project consisting of two very different albums, combining to create a difficult, energy-filled message of frustration, anger and pride.

If Death Grips has any ties to a defining sound, Niggas on the Moon breaks them, mostly ignoring the notion of choruses, becoming a complex, disrupted flow of erratic sounds, punctuated by samples of Björk and manic vocal repetition. The album is too complex to hit home at a visceral level. It demands attention. There is no foot tapping, no fist pumping. If anything, it calls for determined pacing.

“Up My Sleeves” kicks it off, with sparse percussion and a haunting, repeating sample of Björk’s vocals. Its sound is angry and fed up, and is a sample of the entire album: rife with insane drumming from Zach Hill, MC Ride repeating the song title and an at-times overbearing presence of Björk. Like every song on the album, it flows directly into the next track.

“Billy Not Really” sits higher than any other track, with an almost airy feeling.

It’s rhythmic and is the only song that has room to breathe. Björk’s samples in this track are flighty, angelic and comforting.

Following the robotic, erratic mess of “Have a Sad Cum,” the sixth track “Fuck Me Out” is a different sort of mess. MC Ride intimately whisper-talks the lines “Death, fuck/ Let’s, fuck/ Just don’t touch me/ Just fuck-fuck me.” The track is an abrasive, personal crisis of emotions — the need for sex but the disgust of intimacy.

The album ends on its eighth track, “Big Dipper.” The fast beat, erratic percussion and Björk sampling continues under

and over the self-defining lyrics. “I’m a bullshitter/ I’m a shitty stripper/ I’m a silhouette lifter/ I’m a structure off kilter/ I’m a bit bewildered/ I’m a fucking downer/ I’m a binge thinner/ I’m a big dipper.”

As this verse repeats four times over the song, the tone becomes increasingly inyour-face and out of breath.

MC Ride ends with a bomb: “It’s my pyre, agoraphobe if you want to/ Afford to be consumed/ This pyre’s my costume/ get too close it’ll lick you/ Like it likes you/ ‘Cause it loathes you/ Even more than I do.” And then the fast beat, percussion and samples play until silence. It’s an open ending, awaiting closure.

Niggas on the Moon leaves an amphetamine-like high fueled by racism, pent-up sexual energy, and frustration with self, society and sin. It’s finely-tuned yet difficult, faring much better on a contemplative level than a visceral one.

If Niggas on the Moon is the first act of The Powers That B, then the second act was a middle finger. In the months spanning the release of the first part and second part, Death Grips canceled a tour, didn’t show up to gigs and released an uninspired instrumental album entitled Fashion Week, whose song titles spelled out JENNYDEATHWHEN. The group left fans biting their nails, waiting for some sort of redemption to the shit they’ve been handed since the first part dropped. And then a few days before the scheduled release, Death Grips put Jenny Death online.

Jenny Death is an exploration of style not unlike Niggas on the Moon, although in an entirely different direction. Death Grips regains its catchiness, choruses are heralded and the sounds of a heavily damaged guitar lead a number of tracks into territory previously unexplored by the group. And it starts with a punch.

“I Break Mirrors With My Face in the United States” is a track that lives up to its title. It immediately ramps up with the energy dripping off of “Big Dipper.” The unrelenting percussive beat, repetition of the title and declaration of “I don’t care about real life” being driven by backand-forth heavy guitar chords builds up energy until it fizzles at 2:30. And then one of the best songs off The Powers That B rips forward.

“Inanimate Sensations” revs up repeatedly with crescendoing vocals and fat, shredding metallic noise. They drop away to heavy lyrical bombs, dripping with frustration and insanity. The crescendos repeat, incessantly driving up energy until the third track, “Turned Off.” The song

Modest Mouse

Strangers to Ourselves Album Review Taylor Ford

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

Kendrick Lamar

Contributing Writer

To Pimp a Butterfly Album Review Tylor Colby Staff Writer

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Strangers to Ourselves is Modest Mouse’s sixth full studio album, and its first in almost eight years, since the 2007 release of We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.

The band has been working on the record for five years, and the amount of time and effort that they put into the record is staggering.

As the band’s frontman and songwriter, Isaac Brock is largely the driving creative force of Modest Mouse. Strangers to Ourselves is a project that Brock was deeply invested in. Along with writing 14 of the 15 songs on the album, he took the time to record commentary for each track, short explanations of what they’re about and his inspiration for writing them. These short tracks were released as a companion to the album.

Many of the songs on the album deal directly with Brock’s personal life. He tells the heart-wrenching story of the last time he saw his brother before his death, and all the things he wished he could’ve done differently during this event. In an interview for Buzzfeed with Jonathan Valania, when asked about the process of producing the album, Brock said: “I’ve killed myself making this record. Fuckin’ literally thought I was

going to die. I wrote a will on an airplane, and I was like, I know I’m dying.”

Musically, Strangers to Ourselves is as powerful as anything that Modest Mouse has released so far. The album is dynamic, flowing easily between alternative, folk and hard rock.

In classic Modest Mouse style, the songs are often driven by catchy guitar riffs, which pair well with Brock’s fast-paced and intricate lyrics.

While there are a few tracks that stand out, this record feels like it was meant to be listened to straight through rather than just a collection of songs. The experience of listening to the album is greatly enhanced with the addition of the commentary for each track.

While the content of the songs varies greatly, the album explores one larger theme: It seeks to explore (and, to a degree, critique) the way in which we as a society relate to nature, each other and the outside world.

On the commentary for the track “Coyotes,” Brock says simply “One of my biggest wishes is that we could figure out a way to live with the natural world instead of on top of it.” The album expresses Brock’s regrets related to the way in which our culture has developed, and he pulls no punches in this mission.

With good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar established himself as a lyrically gifted songwriter, but with his newest release he emerges as a hip-hop visionary. If that weren’t enough, he tackles the complex issues of modern black culture as a collage of different experiences condensed into one story.

Soundwise, To Pimp a Butterfly spans one of the widest spectrums of sound and style ever released in the hip-hop world, transitioning smoothly from free-form bebop to Parliament-style funk, sometimes in one track. In “For Sale? (Interlude),” a fluttering alto sax plays underneath synthesizer tones and arpeggios; the song completely lacks a backbeat, making Lamar’s verses flow in a stream of consciousness. This music-heavy production may come as a surprise to fans of the artist’s previous, more simplistic hard hitting raps, but the album is not without some big, lyrical moments as well.

While good kid, m.A.A.d city works as a personal narrative with political undertones, Lamar’s new album works as a political narrative tied in with personal experience.

But the moments of political aggression are balanced well with optimistic anthems. “i,” a song about having black confidence in an oppressive world, wouldn’t be complete without ones like “How Much A Dollar Cost,” which sees the artist having a crisis when asked for money by a struggling crack addict.

“The Blacker the Berry” has a solid beat and catchy chorus, but the emphasis is

clearly on Lamar’s verses. He traces his own behavior, and the images propagated in media about people of color, showing that he has moments of hypocrisy as well. In a tense moment, he asks himself why he weeped about Trayvon Martin’s death, when he himself has played a part in unnecessary and deadly gang violence.

Lamar has been earning comparisons to the late hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur since his last album, in his political edge combined with a steadfast dedication to his hometown of Compton, California. Toward the end of “Mortal Man,” which explores the legacies of black revolutionaries like Nelson Mandela, he confronts the comparisons head on, in a mock interview with Tupac about racism and activism. Shakur’s audio is provided from a 1994 interview, but the track feels eerily like an actual conversation from beyond the grave between Lamar and his idol, as a symbolic passing of the torch for cultural revolution.

In the new album, Lamar dwells long and hard about his relationship with race, love and hate, often coming to uncomfortable truths about humanity. Yet his intentions are earnest; his new album balances equal parts love and concern for black communities everywhere, and in that a double-edged sword. To Pimp a Butterfly doesn’t come up with an answer for how to solve the epidemic of violence and poverty it speaks about from track to track, but as a whole is a provocative work that balances pride with urgency in a beautiful way.

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Prose & Cons

CONS. PROSE&CONS. PROSE

Short fiction, personal essay and other assorted lies.

TENTH ANNIVERSARY

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

By Jodi Silberstein

It’s a room down the stairs and second door on the left. People set up chairs while the smell of coffee swirls around the room, masking the smell of wet mops and stale beer.

The whole family shows up. The daughter with the curls, the son in the sweatpants, the wife with the thin hair and tired eyes and his sister because she’s in town.

He was on the phone with his brother a few hours ago. His brother said he wishes he could be there but something about work and the commute and he’s sorry. He tells the brother it’s okay and that he appreciates the phone call. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

It’s death that always brings people together. It’s not always the funeral kind of death, though. It could be the death of a place brought on by a hurricane, tornado, or maybe just the death of what used to be. The death of one chapter. And maybe that isn’t such a bad thing. In a lot of cases, or more specifically, in the case of all these people in that room, the death of one chapter is why they are still alive. And so they come here every day because they know how easy it is for history to repeat itself and how so many people redo all the chapters they never let die.

There is a man here praying the person next to him can’t smell the alcohol crawling out of his pores. He’s praying to a higher power who just saw him four hours ago making bets with the devil. There are old men who quit the drinking but not the leather attire, girls who never made it out of high school, and moms forever grateful for the anonymity. But despite the different backstories, by the time the leader gets up to the podium, everyone is joined together, suffocating in the warm, coffee love.

It starts with a reading of the rules, the steps and the prayers. The leader talks about her day and whatever small epiphany she had after spilling green tea in the car on the way to see her father in the hospital. Some people nod their heads and give her understanding smirks. Others shift their weight on the metal fold-up chairs contemplating the difference between what can and cannot be changed. She introduces the speaker.

His wife squeezes his hand and kisses his cheek. His kids sway back and forth in their seats, feet dangling. The sister has tears in her eyes because she was there that night sitting up with their mom waiting for him to come home when the phone rang and it was the cops. They said, “Lucky to be alive.” And she said, “I’m so tired of this.”

And then it was detox and rehab, and he stands up. Everyone claps for him. His cheeks are red because crowds make him nervous. He places himself behind the podium and looks at his kids, his wife and the sorry, pale teenagers standing in the back visiting from rehab. The clapping echoes between his ears. He looks at the kid he sponsors. He touches his tie and thinks for a second about his job. He coughs a cough that reminds a person of rusting pipes and then he starts to talk.

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F E E D I N G H E R S O U L B E F O R E I T WA S STO L E N AWAY

By Samantha Brodsky I’ve been told I resemble my Grandma Norma, her dark, fierce eyes the shape of fat almonds, her oval face thin and fragile like rice paper.

I’ve been told she was ferocious, a lioness, festering bitterness packaged by her petite frame, masked by jarring, lustrous beauty like the breathtaking blue of an electric lightning bolt. Time eroded away all traces of enchantment from her skin and so I don’t recall this beauty.

I only remember the tingling in my feet arched on tip-toe as my tiny fingers pinched the coldness of the metal silver spoon raising the offering of yogurt and blueberries toward her faded lips, dry and cracked like a pink river scorched of all its wetness or the sunsoaked sands of a desert.

I fed her spoon after spoon steadily slow because she could not feed herself and I didn’t know about the tumor growing behind her dim eyes, like the rotting bitterness that lurked in the shadows of her brain deep in the thick, tangled roots of her skull. The only thing I knew as a mere child was the darkness of the tangy berries against the cream of the plain, sweet yogurt against the cold of the heavy bowl against my young palms so naïve and pure. So maybe that’s why I must always dot my sea of white yogurt with blueberry buoys.

Prose & Cons

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Little Girl, Big City

by Celisa Calacal She gets off the bus at Port Authority, a heavy backpack on her shoulders with the cold black handle of a small suitcase in her right hand and her small iPhone clutched tightly in the other. She looks around her, and although she is surrounded by people — men, women, children, families, employees — she still feels very much alone. None of the people around her belong to her. She is alone within the crowd.

She looks around and attempts to take in her surroundings, but nothing moves slowly enough for her to register much except for the noise — the incoherent conversations, the frantic yelling through a phone, and the click, tap and stomps of feet upon the hard ground. The bodies are all in motion, with nobody standing still long enough for her to really take them in. All this motion and all this noise made the environment so frantic — everybody had a schedule, everybody had a bus to catch, a person to meet, a house or a family waiting for them outside in the cold winter weather. She had a schedule as well, a bus to catch and a plane to catch even later, but she was not frantic. She knew she had time, time to breathe and relax.

But the people around her seemed to be running against time, trying to beat it as if in a frantic sprinting contest.

She knew better than to try to beat time, however. She knew it was always best to take time and mold it like a formless glob of clay in her hands, instead of trying to outrun it.

She goes into the bathroom to collect herself and calm her nerves. She tells herself over and over again in her head, You can do this, don’t be intimidated. She exits the bathroom with a determined mindset, her eyes quickly darting around and focusing on the signs, which were numerous and confusing and colorful. Even the signs seemed to never stop moving to her. After walking around the area for a few minutes, she finds an information desk and with relief flooding her body, approaches the men sitting at the desk.

She asks at a ticket booth to buy her ticket to go to the airport, and they answer accordingly. But they do not stop there.

They continue speaking, their mouths proceeding to spit rapid-fire directions of where the bus station is located. Names and numbers tumble into the air, and she finds it difficult to take in everything that is being said to her. The men finish and the girl, too flustered and too intimidated to ask for them to repeat themselves once more, simply nods, says thank you, and walks away, pretending to know where she is going even though she definitely does not.

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

She proceeds to walk around the bus terminal, her determination replaced with dazed confusion and a struggle to get a grasp on her environment. She has never been in such a frenzied environment before. Both her eyes and ears are overwhelmed by the commotion: the rapidly moving bodies, the constant roll of stuffed suitcase wheels on cement floor, the click and stomps and squeaks of worn shoes on the floor.

She closes her eyes, takes another break and looks around one more time. This time, she sees it: a ticket booth. In a fit of excitement and relief she speed-walks towards this saving grace, a relieved smile on her face as she approaches the ticket counter.

The girl asks about the airport bus and the man gives her the answer she needs without rapid-firing any additional information. She then pays for her ticket right then and there for the sake of convenience, and that is when she is told that there is a bus to the airport leaving every 15 minutes. After finishing her business, she allows this helpful piece of information to rest on her. She looks at the bright white numbers on her phone reading 1:00.

Her brain quickly calculates the time she has left: a flight that leaves at 7 p.m. with the current time barely surpassing 1 p.m. This is when she realizes that she has time: time to herself, time to relax and time to explore the greatest city in the world. She thinks fleetingly about just staying inside the confines of the bus station for the sake of staying safe, but quickly decided against it. To spend all this time simply sitting in the bus station would be a crime against time itself.

With a newfound sense of adventure, she weaves her way down multiple escalators and through various hallways until she pushes her way through the glass doors and out into the city — New York City.

This is an excerpt from a longer piece. For the full story, please visit buzzsawmag.com.

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A Russian poet in a death camp could not write his poems down so his wife memorized them by heart

by Gillian Wenzel

Poetry is a train Gathering from the ghettos The gangs the prisons and the households of xanax Stuck in the quicksand, the mud Caking itself on my privileged calves The lotus cloud of a-bombs And monks incinerating themselves And the subtle room where two nuns meet to kiss Praying with their honest bodies We are all on our way Crossing the border with our words And our calloused feet We hold accents like swaddled infants We discard them like my grandmother Who celebrated citizenship alone After years in the war And years in the home that she never felt at home in And years in the skin she never felt at home in Some poets grow up fast Trauma nipping at their heels Like the stray dogs in sicily Like the grief that refuses to ever pay rent, move out or move on 30 poets meet to talk about oppression And I can do nothing but exhale the words that live in my chest My poet heart was a recycled heart Given to me the single sari’ed mother untouchable and poor The gay child in uganda The man who leads his family in odyssey across tijuana and past the first mcdonald’s of san diego and into the strawberry fields of The young school girls stolen in the night The protesters under batons and tanks of tiananmen square Or the round pearl of the roma misnamed enslaved and held in shame This poem is for all of them For every soul experiencing genocide of the body or mind Poetry is a train Headed towards and away from auschwitz But always a small freedom Even in the darkest moon

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Prose & Cons

4:36pm 4/8/2015

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

Hi, I’m Taylor. Yes. Yes, I would love to! Yes, I can hang out Saturday night! I love horror movies.

I’m free later. I’m free tomorrow. I’m free Tuesday.

I love Indian food. Want to hang out tomorrow night? No, it’s really okay, I understand. I’m fine!

You’ll have to make it up to me. Yes, I can hang out Thursday after work. Want to come in? Yes, it’s okay. Yes, I want to. I’ve never really done this before. Friday is good for me, I’m not busy! I’ll see you tomorrow! Dinner Wednesday sounds great.

Let’s get coffee tomorrow! Can’t wait! It’s fine, I wanted to. No, I really did. I haven’t figured me out yet, and I don’t let others get close because I’m scared they’ll figure me out first. I feel like I can tell you anything. I think I like you. I like you. I really like you. This is my mom. She thought you were sweet — it really meant a lot to me that you met her. Yes, I’ll come inside! I love Iron & Wine.

Will you come to this thing with me? I’ll go with you. I’ll see you tomorrow. Tonight was really fun.

Today was really fun. Dinner Thursday? It’s okay, I understand. Want to go to the movies? It’s okay, I understand. Any dinner plans? Yeah, let me know when you’re free! Nothing. Hey, haven’t talked to you in a while, how are you? I’d love to get dinner!

Saturday sounds good, I’ll see you then. I missed you. Did I do something wrong? Is there something wrong with me? No, I understand, I always thought so too. It’s fine. No, it’s okay, I just didn’t expect you to feel like that. It’s like when you think the worst things about yourself, and then someone else thinks them and it makes it worse. But I want you. I didn’t expect you to want this. No, I wasn’t being serious, I didn’t really want it either.

Monday’s fine, I’ll see you then! I had a nice time tonight. No, I can’t tonight, maybe tomorrow? No, I’m sick. No, I’m busy. No, it’s not that I don’t want to, I just really can’t. I’m not feeling well again. No, I’m tired. Nothing. Nothing. I miss you. I’m sorry, I was too sensitive. It’s okay. It’s really fine. I’m fine.

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to try this again. No, it’s not fine. I don’t want to do this. I don’t think we should see each other anymore. I’m done. Goodbye. Nothing. I miss you.

44

Things I Wish I Hadn’t Said

By Amanda Livingston

Sawdust

AWDUST. SAWDUST. SAWDUS

Satire threatening the magazine’s credibility since 1856.

45

Seven Deadly Celebrities

Audio file surfaces, showing icons’ true colors

Michael Villani, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

H

ollywood, California, 2015 — in this town of dreams and big business is a car carrying seven of the most popular media icons of this century. Seven people who all, in their own way, embody a trait that society deems a vice, a sin.

Recently, an audio recording has surfaced on the internet of seven celebrities while they were on their way to the Studio A lot in Hollywood, California. These celebrities — Kanye West, Guy Fieri, Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian, Charlie Sheen, Dave Franco and Simon Cowell — were all in the same vehicle while driving to a shoot for their newest film, The 7 Deadly Sins, when the driver of the vehicle, the valet, took a wrong turn. The audio from the vehicle was deleted almost as quickly as it was posted, but through … connections … this reporter was able to get his hands on it before it was removed.

The audio begins with Guy Fieri realizing the car is lost. Immediately the other celebrities pounce on him with a barrage of insults. Cowell begins the rampage: “Oh, shut up, you spikey-haired moron. You’re the one that made us late because you had to get chicken fries from Burger King.” Fieri takes the defensive and replies, “Take it easy, man. I’m just trying to grab some grub. A man’s gotta eat!”

Cyrus cuts in, defending Fieri: “I like a man who can eat. Something about that just turns me on in all the right places, you know what I mean?” Shortly after, West steps in and condemns the rest of the car: “All of you stop talking. I, me, the infallible genius Yeezus, am trying to concentrate on solving the problem of us being lost.” Cyrus lashes back at West and says, “You can’t make us stop and we won’t stop!”

Franco attempts to be the peacemaker of the group: “Kanye, you should be a tad nicer…” But,

46

oddly enough, Sheen begins to attack Franco: “Ah shut up, worse James Franco.”

Franco t a k e s obvious offense to this and replies, “Hey, I’m in movies too!”

Kardashian gets a word in edgewise: “Oh yeah, because Warm Bodies was so good.” The tone in Franco’s voice seems to be getting angrier as he retorts, “Okay, Kim, let’s talk about your filmography. And you couldn’t even act well for that!”

Sheen adds his two cents (and promptly takes it back), saying, “It must be hard not being as famous as your brother — or myself for that matter.”

With that, Franco loses it: “Hey! 21 Jump Street was a national treasure!

That movie made $138 million at the box office! All you did was get drunk on TV and try to sleep with 20 different women at once.” Sheen lets out a chuckle in response, “That sounds like the life to me.” The audio fades a little, but Franco’s whimpering is still audible.

It was then when West snapped at the group of celebs: “Okay! You all really have to shut up now! I cannot concentrate on the matter at hand with all of you talking nonsense!”

Kardashian, in a yawn, says, “Take care of this one, Kanye baby.”

Fieri then makes an irrelevant comment toward the group as a whole, asking again when they’re going to get to the restaurant. When the rest of the group makes it clear to Fieri that they are not on their way to get food, he responds, “Well, can we?”

Cyrus, still upset at West’s

comment from earlier, Image by Lizzie Cox snaps at Fieri: “You’re gross!

Diners and dives are filthy! Why would anyone ever eat there?” Fieri seems taken aback, but replies calmly: “They’re less filthy than a sledgehammer.”

The audio cuts out after that, but not before Cowell begins cursing things that this reporter has not heard since his days in the Navy.

Although Sheen and Cyrus make no more comments, a faint lipsmacking sound can be heard in the background.

This is followed by indescernible fighting sounds, Kanye ranting about his “lyrical genius,” Kim snoring and Franco continuing his pathetic whimpers. ___________________________________ Michael Villani is a freshman television-radio major who isn’t afraid to admit he gets a thrill out of licking hammers. You can email him at mvillani@ithaca.edu.

Doppelgängers in Our Midst

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VY

Natalia Kills retrospectively calls out Adam and Eve Kayleigh Jones, Contributing Writer

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atalia Kills was overheard screaming at the Special Snowflake café earlier last week about something astonishing.

“This is ridiculous. You cannot tell me this is true. I am absolutely disgusted,” she said, looking around the café for confirmation. “Adam and Eve were the first to get married!?

Are you kidding me? I am absolutely disgusted to be hearing about this right now.”

Witnesses claim that she ended up storming out of the café and running through the streets screaming that she and her husband were the ones that created Holy Matrimony and that Adam and Eve could not even fathom in their wildest dreams what a good marriage was.

Luckily, I was able to get a meeting with her to talk more about what she meant by this loud outcry in the café last week.

“Well, it’s preposterous that these people think that they invented marriage.

It’s ridiculous,” Natalia said as she downed her second chai tea latte.

“I mean look at this pic-

continued: “I feel like they couldn’t handle what comes with marriage which is why they ate the pear or whatever and got kicked out of Paradise. It’s just absurd.”

After an hour of Natalia saying the exact same things and Willy just looking at me unnervingly, they finally allowed me my freedom.

When I left their home, I came across a church that had a sign on the door. Written in very large letters was, “Natalia Kills is forbidden from the premesis.” That was enough for me to inquire why that sign needed to be posted.

I walked in and was introduced to the priest, Neil B. Formee. I asked him if he could tell me more about Natalia Kills and, before I could even finish my question, the priest shook his head and whispered a swear under his breath.

“This woman is blasphemous!

She’s absolutely insane. Every Sunday when I stand up to do my sermon, she waltzes herself up to the pulpit with me and starts asking if those who are married know that she is the one who created marriage.

‘It’s Natalia and Willy,’ she says, ‘not Adam and Eve.’ I also caught her trying to hang one of her pictures in the hall, which I immediately threw away. It’s all kind of funny in an ironic way, but God help her, she needs to get herself checked out.”

Whether or not Natalia Kills and Willy Moon invented marriage is unclear, but this reporter can say one thing with certainty: leaves across the genitals will definitely not make a comeback anytime soon. ___________________________________ Kayleigh Jones is a sophomore speech-language pathology major who knows The Incredible Hulk is the only “green-eyed monster” she needs in her life. You can email her at kjones4@ithaca.edu.

Sawdust

Image by Hristina Tasheva

ture that Michelangelo painted of them on the Sistine Chapel!” She dramatically pulled her iPhone 6 out of her knockoff Prada bag to show me the evidence. “Look! They aren’t even attractive enough to be married.”

She proceeded to flip through all of the pictures in the gallery on her phone, giving me different examples of how she and Willy are far more attractive. One was a Pic Stitch of Natalia and Willy on Halloween a few years earlier. They were completely nude with only leaves covering their genitals, mirroring a picture of a painting of Adam and Eve in the same pose.

We left the Special Snowflake café and I walked with Natalia to her Dlist house to speak with her husband about this matter a little more.

“What I just don’t understand is how much they copied us!” We sat at their kitchen table as she foamed at the mouth even thinking of the copycats that the first two people on Earth were. “They are just a laughing stock. It’s cheesy and it’s disgusting.

They have no sense of originality!”

She said this as she took an Instagram pic of her Starbucks cup while wearing last season’s Uggs. “I mean, just look at Adam, he completely stole my husband’s style.” She sighed dramatically, continuing: “Once I heard that they copied our look and called it ‘Renaissance,’ I nearly threw up. It’s embarrassing to think that Adam must have thought he looked good.

He never will compare to my husband, Willy Moon.”

“I mean it’s just creepy!” I jumped out of my chair at the sudden voice behind me. I turned to look and there I saw Willy Moon completely nude with a leaf covering his nether region. Willy sauntered closer as he

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LU ST

How To Catch A Man

7 steps to reeling in your husband, whether he likes it or not

Lisa Laffend, Staff Writer

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ou’re sexy! You’re flirty!

You’re fun! That’s everything a man wants, right? So why can’t you seem to catch the man of your dreams? Like most women, you’re probably going about it all wrong. Next time you spot “the one,” follow these simple steps and he’ll be all yours.

1. Keep your eyes on the prize

Someone likely once told you, “there are plenty of fish in the sea.”

Well that’s great for fish, but you’re a woman and you have needs. Find the finest gentleman at the bar or the cutie who sits two over from you in biology of sex, and don’t let the mildly attractive guy eyeing you in the dining hall distract you from your man. It’s important to pick one and only one target. Sometimes you can’t narrow your choices down, whether you’re chasing five or stuck between two. The more men you’re trying to please, the wider the net you’re casting is, making it far easier for them to swim right on out.

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

2. Study hard

Once you’ve got his name, it’s time to begin your research. This could take anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks depending on your tracking experience. Find out everything — his favorite movies, his closest friends, whose Facebook page he visits most frequently, where he lives. You could also try following him home, breaking into his house or documenting his daily routine.

Don’t forget to snap lots of pictures.

Using these as your screensaver or phone background will serve as great motivation.

3. Lure him in

You’re already familiar with all his usual haunts, so turn these into your daily routine. Take it slow; spend the first week just following his schedule, then increase your interactions by elbowing him in the coffee line or giving his bumper a love-tap when

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stuck behind him in the parking lot.

In a month or two you might even be ready to start speaking to him.

Don’t worry too much about content or trying to become friends; as long as you only talk about things he likes and agree with him on everything, you should be fine. Remember, words are just the sound your mouth makes when it’s not busy exploring your dreamboat’s body.

4. Make your move

long enough — offering them lavish feasts and showering them in gifts — eventually they’ll not only grow accustomed to living with you, but also fall madly in love with you.

Once again you can monopolize the knowledge gained through your research to make sure your man’s stay is everything he could ever dream of.

Before you know it, he’ll be getting down on one knee, ready to pop the question.

Don’t wait for him to make the first move; you are your own woman.

When he’s least expecting it, toss a silky pillowcase over his head and take him home. Chloroform is your friend. Once in your house, make sure all the exits are well blocked and there’s no escape. After that, wait patiently for him to come-to and be sure to play it off like he slipped and hit his head on your coffee table. This will explain why he doesn’t remember going to your place. Depending on how naïve he is, you may be able to just invite him over. This doesn’t tend to be a guaranteed way of getting him to your house, so only use this method if you’re extremely confident it’ll work.

7. Happily ever after

5. Cover your tracks

Happy hunting!

Before your man wakes up, “borrow” his phone and log back into his email. Now, you probably know your man better than he even knows himself; come up with a spontaneous trip he’s decided to take and contact his family, friends, coworkers and his boss. Inform them about your future husband’s sudden plans and make sure you emphasize that he’ll be abroad, uncontactable, and, most importantly, unsure of when he’ll be home. Remind yourself how much you will all laugh about this later.

Who knows, maybe you just came up with the perfect honeymoon, which, at this point, is just around the corner.

6. Tame your beast

As Beauty and the Beast taught us, if you keep someone hostage

Although he should still be kept on a tight leash, you’ve officially caught your man. It should be another year or two before he resists being your foot servant, starts asking you to do things and clutters your house.

But divorce is messy; as long as he still has his looks, there’s no need to fret since it’s not too late to save your marriage. After all, it’ll be hard for him to back-sass if his mouth is sewn shut. There are many methods of taxidermy, and it isn’t hard to find the perfect guides to poisons, punctures, and hiding the stitching. Now you can enjoy your textbook-perfect family without the hassle of having a man hold you back.

___________________________________ Lisa Laffend is a sophomore integrated marketing communications major who is currently looking into starting her own taxidermy business. You can email her at llaffen1@ithaca.edu.

Home Is Where The Video Streaming Is

SL OT H

College grad moves back home to watch Netflix

Rachel Mucha, Staff Writer

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s friends exchanged tearful hugs on commencement day, newly graduated Ethan Lacey had an advantage that nobody else had. Lacey had already landed not one but two job offers.

“It’s all pretty crazy,” Lacey said, a sheepish smile on his face. “I only sent out those two applications, and I didn’t even have to go in for interviews.”

These companies had apparently liked Lacey so much that they offered him positions immediately, along with very high salaries. However, the grad felt that none of these jobs fit in with his current lifestyle of bingewatching shows on Netflix, so he regrettably had to turn them both down.

“It was a real shame,” the young man admitted. “But what was I to do? If I had a job, there’s no way I’d be able to watch the entire new season of House of Cards in one day.” It’s also during this time that Lacey works on perfecting his Southern accent.

Lacey’s first offer was a business position in New York City, paying $100,000 a year. (This is a bit of a mystery, seeing as how his

major was philosophy.) Anyhow, Lacey had always expressed his love of the city and of high salaries, so this job seemed like a perfect fit.

Unfortunately, he just couldn’t take it.

“There would be a good deal of travel involved, such as going to London a few times a year. I just didn’t feel comfortable with that; since a few of our words are different, the language barrier would just be too much for me.” Lacey went on to say that seeing the world would get in the way of his Netflix time.

“When I start a binge, it usually lasts between 10 and 14 hours. A new, exciting city would just be a terrible distraction.”

Lacey also expressed he was afraid he’d make new friends and would have to leave behind his besties on The Office. “I mean, how will Jim prank Dwight without me?! And Erin would be lost without my guidance.”

The second offer seemed better suited for his lifestyle: an entertainment blog writer. This would be a virtual position, so he wouldn’t have to leave home. He also would be able to write about and review his favorite TV shows, while getting paid $60,000 per year. His friends and family were confused as to why he turned this job down as well.

“I just

Image by Grace Rychwalski

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Sawdust

couldn’t work from home,” Lacey said, exasperated. “You can’t have your work space and leisure space be the same; it would absolutely ruin the binges for me. I’d feel like I could never wind down.” He also went on to say that blogging and binging would put too much strain on his computer and there was a very high chance of it overheating.

However, Lacey did have to get a job of sorts — that $7.99-a-month Netflix subscription wasn’t going to pay itself. He got his old high school job back at a local carwash, accepting a salary of minimum wage. “A job like this lets me pick and choose my hours, allowing for the most binge time and the least amount of work possible.” Lacey enjoys this kind of work; he can pretend he’s Walter White, and he likes reminding everyone to have an A-1 Day. Since he is back at home, many are wondering how his parents are reacting to this lifestyle.

His mother, Eileen Lacey, enjoys having her son back. “It’s like he’s a baby again!” She gushed excitedly.

“He just lays there and I can bring him food or comfort him when a beloved character dies. And when he’s watching Lost, he sure requires a lot of comforting.”

Eileen Lacey went on to say that it’s nice to have the company again; ever since her husband has been working more hours she barely sees him anymore. Lacey added that it’s nice to watch Lost with his mother, but she seems more interested in ogling the island hunks. “The other day I found a pro/con list she made, trying to decide between Jack and Sawyer for Kate.” All in all, Lacey is having the time of his life wasting it. ___________________________________ Rachel Mucha is a sophomore journalism major who has been wearing the same pair of sweatpants since 2009. You can email her at rmucha1@ithaca.edu

PR

Patriot, Pinhead or Saint?

ID

Jesus criticizes Sean Hannity for blasphemy

Tylor Colby, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Seven Deadly Sins Issue

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ean Hannity, host of Fox News’ “The Sean Hannity Show,” was surprised to learn last night that Jesus Christ is not the staunch supporter of ultra-conservatism as he once thought. In fact, He is not a supporter of the news pundit at all. The Almighty Son descended from the heavens in the middle of a Ted Nugent interview where he condemned Hannity for his incompassionate, xenophobic interpretation of the word of God. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” Jesus said, quickly giving the sign of the cross to everyone nearby, “but, I was worried that if I waited any longer my followers would think I was a real jackass.”

Not missing a beat, Hannity kept his slick, contemptuous demeanor as he asked the Christian messiah to reconsider. As a devout Catholic himself, he has been dedicated to promoting issues like unjustified prejudice toward police departments and those awful feminazis. Hannity probed the Lamb of God for His views on the United States’ involvement in the Middle East where American soldiers have been keeping the utmost peace for more than 100 years.

“Jesus, buddy, just think for a minute,” Hannity said. “You haven’t been down here for a while. Don’t you think you’re a little … out of touch?

There are riots out on the streets every day by these Arab extremists.”

Hannity then double-took, realizing Jesus was of Levantine-Middle Eastern descent.

“What do you mean, these people?” Jesus asked, growing more irritated. Hannity mumbled something vaguely Islamophobic before changing the subject.

As the conversation went on, talks turned to the debate in Indiana about business’ discrimination of LGBT customers. While Hannity

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expressed his cautious acceptance of “gays” from afar, he asserted the validity of “separate but equal,” a practice considered unconstitutional since 1954.

“But come on, lord. You can’t possibly believe those liberals have the right to tell businesses how to do their job! If they were Jewish, you wouldn’t tell them they have to make signs for the Nazi party.”

Jesus responded by burying his head in his hands. “You don’t actually believe this, do you? Have I not been doing my job?” He said.

Christ procured a bible out of thin air and held it up to the camera. “It’s all right here!” he said, pointing at the New Testament that spoke of turning the other cheek.

“Woah, guy, slow down,” Hannity said, placing a hand on Jesus’ shoulder while winking to the stage producer on stage left, who promptly gave him the thumbs up. Jesus withdrew from the host’s grasp, becoming cagey. He stood up and put his hands together in prayer.

A crack formed in the floor directly underneath Hannity’s news desk, sending him falling into the pit of hell.

“I guess some people are beyond help,” Jesus said with a sigh. “He’ll have more fun down there anyway.”

But one thing they could both agree on, Jesus later joked, was their lack of support for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. It turns out she can’t even win over a diehard liberal like the son of God. “I’m waiting for an announcement from Bernie Sanders,” Jesus said.

“For his socialist-leaning platform, he’s got my backing.” ___________________________________ Tylor is a junior writing major, who ha never, ever sinned. Not even once.

You can email him at tcolby1@ithaca. edu.

E

BUZZSAW ASKS WHY…

People think bisexuals are sinful How does my sexuality have anything to do with my vices? (No religious commentary, please.)

Okay, I guess I kind of get it: you’re pissed off and envious that I’m capable of pulling in twice or three times as much potential suitors as you are.

But just because I can doesn’t mean I am.

Bisexuals aren’t “greedy.” Our orientation in no way implies polygamy and just because I like more than one gender doesn’t mean I’m somehow inclined to be with more than one person at a time.

And even if I was, who cares? Polyamorous bisexuals certainly exist, and that in no way makes them “lustful” or worth less than any monosexual or monoromantic person. How exactly is someone else’s sexual/romantic life your business anyway?

While we’re on the topic, why exactly do you think that I need to “make a decision”? If sexuality is the fluid spectrum people keep arguing it is, why is it that I, someone who is using the whole spectrum, suddenly needs to “choose”? And when did sexuality become a choice anyway?

One concession that I can make, though, is that I am absolutely filled with wrath by the treatment of my sexuality. Just because bisexuals don’t fit into the strict sexual binary that’s forced upon us doesn’t mean our identities and experiences are somehow invalid. And it’s pretty damn shameful that even those within the LGBTQA+ community are oppressing bisexuals in the same way that our heteronormative society is.

So, no, bisexuals are not greedy, lustful or any other sin you want to apply to us. Suggesting that we are is not only harmful to us as a community, but it also makes you a pretty gross person in general. Think about that the next time you try to turn your vices around on us.

Your (sometimes) sinful Sawdust Editor, Grace Rychwalski

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ONLINE

WWW.BUZZSAWMAG.ORG BLOG OF THE MONTH This Isn’t Sequelitis

by Will Uhl

“Instead of moving from cave paintings to grand tapestries, modern advancements move from statues to slightly more refined and polished statues.” http://www.buzzsawmag.org/category/blog/

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www.facebook.com/BuzzsawMagazine

@buzzsawmag

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