BVSW - The Standard - Volume 9 - Issue 7

Masculinity Massacre men shouldn’t be restrained by the typical views of masculinity pages 5-7

THE STANDARD blue valley southwest | volume 9 | issue 7

2 | contents / the standard / april 2019

contents features

12 | Fashion funk 16 | Why the aux?

opinion 05 | Masculinity massacre 14 | Gimme the aux

News 08 | Fostering friendships 10 | Got talent? senior issue - coming May 2

on the cover Men shouldn’t be restrained by the typical views of masculinity volume 9 / issue 7 www.bvswnews.com

photo illustration by jonah mccormick

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4 | editor’s note / the standard / april 2019

editor’s note L

ooking back on this year’s success of the The Standard, I have never really expected this newspaper to be considered like a work of art.

Each and every page tells a different story and represents our school in a special way. Not to mention that feeling of excitement each and every one of us feels when we see the issue being delivered to the room. Our creativity sparks ideas and colors that turn a blank page into a colourful unique story.

Everyone experiences this sort of creativity or passion for what they love to do, and you shouldn’t be afraid to show it.

In this issue, we explore talents that make us stand out in a good way as well as fashion trends that inspire others to follow or start a new trend of their own. We also break barriers in telling the truth that it is OK to show your creative style or likings when it comes to playing your own personal playlist in the car with your friends. It doesn’t matter what others think as long as you express and stay true to yourself.

As a member of the staff for the past two years, I have seen the different creative styles and capabilities each and every person has. It is noticeable that they all put in a lot of hard work and effort into making The Standard the best it could be. I am glad to have shadowed the seniors for this long and will miss them so much next year but am super excited to see what The Standard brings to life next year!

the standard editor-in-chief emma olinger online editor lauren urschel design editor jonah mccormick copy editor elianna oliver social media editor sadie putnam staff writers jessica bell jenna hope luke hottovy karley kent peyton moore isabelle muir isha patel ashlyn wakefield staff designers isaiah tarwater liam olinger adviser rachel chushuk The Southwest Standard is published seven times a year for students, faculty and surrounding community of Blue Valley Southwest. It is an open forum for student expression. Therefore, the opinions expressed within this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the administration of Blue Valley Unified School District #229.

Letters to the editor and reader responses are encouraged for publication. The Southwest Standard reserves the right to edit all submissions for both language and content and encourages letters to be no more than 350 words. All letters must be signed and names will be published.

| staff writer

The Standard 17600 Quivira Road Overland Park, KS 66221 Website: bvswnews.com Email: bvswnews@gmail.com

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CAUTION CaUti opinion / the standard / april 2019 | 5

DANGER PROCEED WITH CAUTION Masculinity Massacre men shouldn’t be restrained by typical views of masculinity

Acan be defined as a “narrow and repressive description

ccording to The Good Men Project, toxic masculinity

of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex, status and aggression. It’s the cultural ideal of manliness, where strength is everything while emotions are a weakness.” Before going any further with explaining what toxic masculinity is, it’s of the utmost importance to note that masculinity in itself is not toxic — it is when the cultural expectations and pressures placed on men are distorted to

the extreme and become dangerous to both men and society as a whole. Senior Patrick Fowler said he finds masculinity to include good, natural traits of all males as a whole.

“One of the big things I see of masculinity is the ability to have to exclaim your emotions and thoughts and what you believe in through masculinity, and I see people taking ownership — like on the football field — taking ownership and command of the team as a captain, things like that,” Fowler said.

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ion CAUTION Ca 6 | opinion / the standard / april 2019

While it’s important to realize that masculinity on its own is not dangerous, it is necessary to realize the growing issue of toxic masculinity in our society. There are certain aspects of what it means to be a man that have been warped into a dangerous weapon against boys in our culture. This is when masculinity can be labeled as toxic. Senior Jada Harper said our current way of thinking about masculinity is “pushing [men] into a corner.”

“Toxic masculinity is when boys and men suppress their feelings so that they appear to be ‘manly,’” Harper said. “This is important because this is a damaging status quo that we place upon them, trying to change who they are and shape them into something that they aren’t.”

The harmful impacts of a dangerous view of what a man is supposed to be can be seen every day. There’s a common stereotype of women being overly emotional, while men never shed a tear. Like any stereotype, it is confining and prevents men from saying or doing things that aren’t manly or have been deemed as feminine. Harper said she’s seen how the views of masculinity and femininity impact boys in her daily life.

“Another female classmate comes in and I notice her pants so I told her that they were super cute and that they were a great color on her,” Harper said. “She said thanks and got the stuff she needed to go back into the hallway. Once she left, the guy in my classroom started saying how I was lucky to be a girl so I can say stuff like that and if he did then he would be classified as ‘gay.’ I immediately tried telling him that there isn’t only one group of people who can say that they look nice because that’s just absurd, but he insisted on not doing anything like that.”

While this is just one example, it’s not rare to see similar instances occur in daily life. Although the boy in this story felt as though he wasn’t allowed to make a comment on a feminine topic for fear of the judgment from others, boys are also prevented from partaking in certain activities if they are seen as being typically a girl’s activity (i.e., fashion).

Senior Claire Rips-Goodwin said she’s seen an example of this in her own family.

“My nephew’s mother is forcing my nephew to do wrestling and baseball even though he doesn’t like them,” Rips-Goodwin said. “He’s openly said he hates them, even though he’s expressed interest in things like dance and

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music. I just think that especially young kids should be allowed to explore what they want to do freely instead of having to fit into a strict and archaic binary.”

Clearly, this is an issue that is not being imagined. The results of toxic masculinity can be seen everywhere, in every aspect of social interaction for men, yet many people doubt its existence or that it is actually harmful to men. Therefore, the question of how exactly toxic masculinity hurts men must be addressed.

According to the newly released APA Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men, “Traditional masculinity ideology has been shown to limit males’ psychological development, constrain their behavior, result in gender role strain and gender role conflict and negatively influence mental health and physical health.” The ideas that come with toxic masculinity are that men should suppress their emotions, toughen up, and be strong. These expectations can have long-term psychological damage, as men don’t feel as though they can express their emotions and be vulnerable. Harper said the media plays into placing certain expectations on men, and not being able to express emotions is one of the main issues represented.

“Some pressures that I think they face are suppressing their emotions which in turn leads to violence because they don’t have any other way to express themselves,” Harper said. “Even if they try to express themselves, it needs to be something ‘manly’ like shooting, ax throwing or shouting at the TV when playing games. Society doesn’t allow them to do anything besides fill their given role of being the brave homemaker.”

It’s easy for the term “toxic masculinity” to be upsetting to some men, as at first glance it seems as though they are being attacked for being masculine. Yet, this is not the goal. The groups fighting against toxic masculinity want to reverse the harmful impacts it has on men. Every group of people has certain stereotypes and expectations assigned to them by our society, whether they are consciously recognized or not. In many cases, these are traditional views of thinking that have never been challenged, but perhaps should be. Rips-Goodwin said the pressure to fit in — which impacts everyone — influences men when it comes to toxic masculinity as well.

“I don’t necessarily think it’s about every single boy being

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AUTION CaUtion like, ‘I want to be a big, strong man,’” Rips-Goodwin said. “I think that’s also a big thing with that, is that a lot of people — especially most young people — don’t really know who they are, so they’re just like leaning into what society tells them they should be. I think a lot of young boys do want to be what society tells them to be, and I think a big process of growing up is realizing that our culture can be flawed and complex and you don’t have to fit into its archetypes to be considered a fully-fledged, complex human being.”

While the most important aspect of the damage toxic masculinity can do is its impact on men, it’s important to acknowledge how it hurts other groups of people. When a man — or anyone — chooses to shove their feelings down, those emotions often come out in an unhealthy and unwanted manner later on. Rips-Goodwin said toxic masculinity impacts women as well as men.

“The biggest thing is that it directly bleeds into violence against women,” Rips-Goodwin said. “Because men aren’t allowed to have healthy and suitable outlets for aggression and anger and sadness and depression even, sometimes they end up taking it out on women. Domestic violence or even big, large-scale acts of violence like school shootings can be linked to this as well.”

Equally as important as toxic masculinity’s affect on women is its harm to young children. As children are incredibly impressionable and are constantly learning how to be a part of society and finding who they should be, the ideas of toxic masculinity form their view of gender differences. Harper said young boys internalize these ideas.

“This view is dangerous for young children because it can be imposed on them and then they can start to inhabit these ideas,” Harper said. “Especially if they start to hear these ideas when they are really young, then they will keep those ideas for the rest of their lives unless we change it.”

Toxic masculinity can harm young girls just as easily as it harms young boys. If boys are learning what they can and cannot do from what it means to ‘be a man’, young girls are also learning what they can and cannot do. Rips-Goodwin said how boys handle themselves and their emotions harms girls.

“It can also hurt young girls, because toxic masculinity also bleeds into ideas of how women should be, so young girls can be prevented from pursuing science and math,”

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Rips-Goodwin said. “It holds children back from things that they could be really good and really passionate about, and that’s without getting into the, ‘Can boys wear skirts?’ thing.”

As any student taking a psychology or biology class would know, sex is a biological concept, while gender is a social construct. In an article discussing toxic masculinity, Teaching Tolerance explained that despite the deeply felt identities of being male or female, the differences in behaviors often seen between the two genders are not because of biological differences, “but because of rigid societal norms created around femininity and masculinity.” Realizing the truth in this is important for taking the first step to undo the harm toxic masculinity has done. Rips-Goodwin said she’s seen groups of people begin to be more critical of what our society expects of men, and believes an attempt at change has begun.

“I think we could change how we view violence in particular,” Rips-Goodwin said. “I think we could stop proliferating the idea that violence is a noble means of expression and defense for young men, that violence is a solution to your problems and that it’s admirable, or that it’s a solution over healthier outlets like talking about it or crying.”

We as a society have the power to release the iron grip toxic masculinity currently has on men. Once we recognize the issue and see the harm it has done, we can begin to allow all men to be fully themselves, in their actions and in their own minds. Men should be allowed to feel their emotions, be comfortable with them, and express them in a healthy manner. As a society, it’s time for us let go of the ancient view of masculinity and allow men to be men. Harper said she’s begun to see groups of people fighting for change, but more time and recognition is necessary.

“I think that people are starting to see what we are doing but at the same time, I think that it is a slow process,” Harper said. “This is also a somewhat new thing that is coming through and it may just take some time for people to see what we are doing. I think that if we also have more men that start to come forward and say that they won’t take part in this and show their true selves, we might start to get some progress.”

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| laurenurschel

AUTION CaUtion

8 | news / the standard / april 2019

s p i h s d n e i r F g

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Best Buddies club members discuss their first year

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ounded in 1989 with the vision of creating one-on-one connections between individuals with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities, the Best Buddies nonprofit organization has expanded across America, and has started another chapter at the school.

Senior Anna Hansen is the president of the club, and said she has worked to help build the foundation of it throughout the year. Hansen said that although they are a new chapter, they have already made an impact in Kansas.

“I’m really excited that this chapter is here at Southwest because this is the first high school chapter in the state of Kansas,” Hansen said. “The only other chapter in Kansas is at KU. We actually are planning something to do together. The fact that there are only two chapters in Kansas is kind of a big deal.”

Special education teacher and club sponsor Jackie Malec, said she wanted to have a role in the club because of the profound impact the students have had on her. Malec said the Southwest Best Buddies chapter has had an awesome first year thus far.

“We’ve had a super great start,” Malec said. “I’ve been surprised by the turnout.

All of our students, like, the majority of our students, and the intensive resource program, are signed up. And we’ve been able to pair all of them up with buddies and even had more buddies than we have students.”

The process of pairing up buddies is based on a multitude of factors. Hansen said that once paired up, both individuals have the potential to create a lifelong friendship.

“What we do when we’re first setting up buddies is we go through and review,

like if they have similar interests and it’s also based on how they interact with each other,” Hansen said. “Once we get a pair, then that’s your buddy for the rest of the time that you’re in Best Buddies. If you’re a freshman paired with a freshman, you’ll be together for all four years. It’s super awesome to do that, because you create a rock-solid friendship and that’s the goal.”

Malec said that through having the same buddy all four years, one is able to create a strong connection.

“The chance of that relationship going past high school greatly increases when you’re with someone so long,” Malec said.

“Every once in a while that naturally happens with peer tutors or other students in the school, but having something that kind of holds both parties accountable is so meaningful to the kids. I just love that.”

Senior club member Alynn Bratkiv was paired with her best buddy Ashley

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Schuster at the start of this school year. She said that she has always been friends with many of the kids in the special education program through peer tutoring. Bratkiv said she knew instantly she wanted to be a part of the club.

“My whole life I’ve been in and out of the SpEd classrooms because I’ve always been really good friends with the kids that are in there,” Bratkiv said. “And I found out that they were starting this club at Southwest, and it was something that I was really passionate about and so I thought it was a great idea to join.”

Malec said many of the members, like Bratkiv, have been previously involved through classes like peer tutoring.

However, Malec said she hopes to expand this to more of the student body.

“I really think [the club] just promotes inclusion,” Malec said. “We have a lot of awesome students here that work as peer tutors and that have gotten to know students in the special education programs well. But that’s still a pretty limited amount of students in the building. I think this gives students who maybe haven’t had a chance to do peer tutoring, haven’t been able to fit it in their schedule ... a chance to work with these kids and have that experience.”

The club meets during Timber Time and collaborates to put on many different group events. Hansen said that these events help to ensure that the buddies are working together and building their friendships.

“We had an event where we all met and signed the poster for spread the word to end the word,” Hansen said.

“We’ve had game days, and we’ve made Kahoots together, and we’re hoping to have a picnic now that it’s starting to get nicer. It’s just a bunch of really fun social activities to just get in and get to know each other.”

Through socializing with those in the club, Bratkiv said she has learned and has gained more insight and understanding on others’ lives regardless of their disability.

“I have found some of my best friends through Best Buddies club and just talking to some of the paras talking to some of the kids in the classrooms,” Bratkiv said. “I really encourage just getting to know people before you automatically assume things about them because you never know what is going on in their life or what they’ve had to deal with. So just like yourself, you’ve been through your own challenges, so get to know people and just like, get yourself out there.”

Hansen also said she believes this club can make a big difference through bringing awareness and acceptance of others. She said she hopes it will change students’ perspectives.

“I hope to be able to just grow as a chapter and just grow as a community at Southwest,” Hansen said. “To be able to build that bridge between disabilities and

non-disability. I would love to be able to just show that everyone has something to contribute and everyone is super important and matters. And I just really hope that everyone will be able to see that in future years.”

Malec said mutual understanding is a main factor when working to create a strong lasting bond between the buddies.

“You know, there’s a big push for social emotional learning and building relationships,” Malec said. “And that goes for both parties, whether they have a disability or not. Just learning to work with those other people and making those lifelong friendships.”

Hansen said she is considering pursuing a degree in special education and is even planning on joining the Best Buddies club on her future campus. She said she has big dreams for the Southwest Best Buddies chapter and is excited to see how it promotes inclusion.

“I hope that it spreads more, because just the fact that people see students with intellectual and developmental disabilities as just different or like, you’re unable to communicate with them, it makes me really sad,” Hansen said.

“Some of the people that I’ve met that have special needs are some of the best people that I’ve ever met.” | jennahope

10 | news / the standard / april 2019

Got talent? freshman Sam Illum competes in Olathe’s Got Talent

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rom the early ages of freshman Sam Illum’s life, there has always been a drive and intent to perform and showcase his various talents. Through doing so, Sam has cut out numerous opportunities for himself, including Olathe’s Got Talent: a local talent competition for people around the community.

Sam sang his way through the preliminary rounds, meaning that he, along with three other finalists, would compete for a grand prize of $1,000 in college scholarships.

Junior Danielle Illum, Sam’s older sister, said he began his singing and performing career at a young age. “[At] first I thought it was just really annoying,” Danielle said.

“But once he started actually performing and once he got bigger roles in plays and musicals, he was actually good at what he did.”

Despite her feelings toward Sam’s singing, Danielle’s opinions on Sam’s personality are virtually the same. “[He’s] nicest sibling I could ever ask for,” Danielle said.

She said she loves how nice and generous Sam is. Sam has performed in the popular musical “Newsies” as Jack Kelly, along with many other plays and musicals in which have progressed him to the place he is today.

Through performing, Sam is capable of much more than receiving compliments and winning awards. He said he enjoys being able to meet new people and build new relationships with others who enjoy the same things he does.

“I like to make people feel happy, feel sad,” Sam said. “I love the opportunity to change people’s views on things.”

Through Sam’s years of singing, he has met many influential people who have helped him enhance and better his talent. Sam said choir teacher Taryn Gervais has left a significant footprint on Sam’s impression of singing and performing. Within Sam’s first semester at Southwest, he was enrolled in Chorale, where his opportunity to work with Gervais presented itself. As any aspiring performer, continuous improvements are crucial to their individual goals. Gervais’s time working with Sam consisted of just that.

“I think his musicianship has progressed to where he is better able to read music,” Gervais said. “Also, his confidence has grown quite a bit.”

Although enhancing Sam’s skills was the objective, Gervais’s and Sam’s time together went beyond scripts and music sheets.

“He’s a freshman with a bunch of potential,” Gervais said. “He has a positive energy and is really just a delight to have in class.”

Even though Sam didn’t win the grand prize at the Olathe’s Got Talent show, Sam said he is thankful to have the opportunity to have made it as far as he did in the competition and to have an enjoyable time as well.

“I had a crazy good experience,” Sam said. | peytonmoore

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12 | feature / the standard / april 2019

up mixes r e t a ls Tarw m pol saiah a I r r g o i a t n se h Ins hroug t e l y t his s

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ach morning when I wake up, I get out of bed and rustle through my closet and drawers to find the hodge podge of clothes I will wear that day. Some days, I feel great about the outfit, things fall together well and I have a good day. Other days, I hate the outfit and the rest of my day is thrown off and feels like a mess. Clothing sets our days and nights off. For many, including myself, it can dictate how life goes. I believe that clothes are very unique to the person who purchases and wears them. I regularly wear an eclectic vintage style with a wide majority of my clothes coming from ebay, thrift shops and estate sales. And like anyone else, I often wear the same outfits over and over. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average American only wears 20% of the clothes they own. In an attempt to change that, I gave up my unique closet to my Instagram followers for a few days, in an effort to combat the monotony of day-today fashion. Four nights in a row I posted polls with possible shoes, pants and shirts to wear the following day. From there, 200 plus people voiced their opinions, ultimately deciding what I would wear the following day.

Star rating represents my personal beliefs on a scale from one to five.

Shirt: green hiking button up

Pants: shredded blue jeans

Shoes: black Converse

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Shirt: light denim button up

Pants: drop hem yellow jeans

Shoes: red checked Vans

Shirt: vintage Nike quarter zip

Pants: hounds-tooth fit joggers

Shoes: white Nike Cortez

“I pretty much dug all the outfits

Shirt: floral

abstract hoodie Pants: denim

because all the pieces were really fun and fresh. And then the fact that you

can just put random things together. I really liked it.” -senior McKinley Barr

overall shorts

“A lot of what's big is just super retro

Shoes: grey New

of button downs and vintage styles.”

Balance runners

stuff. So I’d say, for men, it’s a lot -senior Matt Lowry | isaiahtarwater

14 | opinion / the standard / april 2019

x u A a d e m m i G students discuss the dilemma of music stereotyping

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usic plays a very important role in the life of almost any modern teenager.

Regardless of who or what they may be listening to, not one high school student I can think of has any trouble pulling out a pair of headphones during an independent work day in class. In this generation, there are infinite amounts of artists and genres you can listen to.

Everyone should feel comfortable listening to whatever music sounds good to them without a fear of being judged by their peers.

One genre of music that seems to have a large fan base amongst high school students in our area is country. However, there is one senior, Scott Sawaya, who hasn’t quite hopped on this trend.

“I really enjoy a wide range of music. I don’t have a specific genre that’s my favorite,” Sawaya said. “I really like to listen to the content of the lyrics, so if I don’t really like the lyrics of a song, even if it’s catchy, I generally don’t like the song.”

Pop and rap — music that is more upbeat — tends to be more popular at a high school level.

However, there is an even larger percentage of people who enjoy listening to music that isn’t necessarily as mainstream. In some cases this

taste can be inspired by a parent or perhaps the student feels more inclined to explore music genres from before their time. This is exactly the case with junior Jackson Salin.

“I definitely feel like I’ve been judged about my music before,” Salin said. “Some people will say things like ‘oh, wow you think you’re so cool because you listen to different kinds of music.’”

People are taught to assume listening to music by artists like Twenty One Pilots labels someone as an angsty emo kid, or showtunes makes someone a theatre nerd. These presumptions create negative judgment between friends and can make some people feel really self conscious.

This is true of freshman Makena Price who said she sometimes feels judged for enjoying country music.

“I think music shaming is a common thing,” Price said. “It’s very negative. I feel like it could be changed if everyone just got to listen to their own music and weren’t made fun of for it.”

Music shaming affect those who take part in creating it even more. For example, students who are in band, orchestra or choir. Making music in any way, or even just being interested in it,

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can completely shape the things you enjoy listening to. Music has the potential to be much more emotionally impactful on a person when they aren’t just listening to the songs that are considered “cool.”

“I would say [my taste in music] is better because in today’s music there’s not a lot of different genres.

There’s two main ones which are basically pop and rap,” Salin said. “Back in the 70s, 60s, 50s and even a little bit in the 80s there were way more different genres that were widely listened to.”

Listening to music can also be a great way to express yourself. It can be a statement of who you are as a person. It can be a reflection of your current feelings toward things going on in your life. Some people see music as a way to escape, and it is unfair that the opinions of their peers can impact what they choose to listen to. No one deserves to get so much as a dirty look for their music preferences, let alone be verbally ridiculed by people who are acting small-minded.

“I live in a more country part of Kansas — in Stilwell — which is a pretty small town. I feel like my music taste kind of reflects where I live,” Price said. “I feel like music expresses who you are, what you like and what you have an interest in.”

People should be more open to listening to others favorite jams. This could create a different kind of community surrounding music, and would eliminate a stereotype of what is popular. Just because of the vast array of options there are of things to listen to, trying a new playlist every once and awhile wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“I do think everyone should at least listen to different types of music,” Sawaya said. “They don’t have to listen to it regularly, but it’s good to be exposed to things that you don’t like so you can understand the things that you do better.”

| karleykent

16 | feature / the standard / april 2019

Why The Aux? what’s made and used in the realm of music

If one has a taste in music, some might wonder how that music is made. If one is interested in how music is made, they’d probably be interested in music theory.

Music theory, by definition, is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. The base components to a song are the tempo, how fast it goes, the key signature, what note is the starting note, a.k.a. the root. From there is the time signature, how many beats go into one measure.

The four important pieces to almost any song would be the percussion, which are usually drums or along those lines, a bass, a lower tone used to keep the key in mind, chords, which are used to clearly note the key and the melody, the lead that one remembers the best. For example, most rock songs have drums as the percussion, an electric bass for the bass, a rhythm guitar for the chords and the lead tends to be shared by a lead guitar and the lead singer.

In the most basic terms, the chords can be two different types: major or minor.

Major chords feel brighter, and minor chords feel more dark.

When asking both teachers and students about their taste in music, they all said they listen to a variety of music.

There are two classes available for music theory: Music theory and honors music theory, a semester long and a year long respectively.

The two teachers for both classes are Brandon Lesando and Taryn Gervais.

Senior Tyler Rapavi said he was drawn to music at a very young age, and wanted to gain a broader spectrum of how music works.

Rapavi plays concert percussion (bass drum, marimba, vibraphone, xylophone, chimes, snare, etc.) and guitar. Rapavi plans on making music later on in his life, and has already created some of his own pieces.

Sophomore Thade DeYoung said he started the class with not the brightest opinion, but later found the class very interesting. DeYoung said he has learned a fair amount of music theory in the aforementioned class, he’s also learned some specifics about jazz music theory in jazz band. His primary instrument is the bass clarinet, but he can also play alto, tenor and baritone saxophone.

“With any song I listen to, I have a different mindset,” Rapavi said.

“I’m able to tell what key it’s in, what chords are being played, and I can even predict what’s coming next.”

Lesando is one of the teachers of the class, and said he has always been drawn to music. He’s known music theory well for almost 20 years, and has been teaching for four years. He teaches wind ensemble, jazz band, marching band and music theory.

“I feel like I just have a magnetic pull toward music,” Lesando said.

| liamolinger