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Spring Fashion

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Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969  March 21, 2013  Volume 48 Issue 10  georgetownvoice.com

2 the georgetown voice

march 21, 2013

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Voice Crossword “Guts Bus R’ Us” by Andrew Duverney 38. Spoil 39. Newest shuttle 42. Black gold 43. Talking instrument from Moulin Rouge 44. Miscarriage (abbr.)

46. Manhattan fuzz 48. Our sister campus 52. Exist 54. Faithfully 56. Least densely populated state 60. Area airport (abbr.)

61. ___ de France 63. 38th ____ (Korea) 64. Breathing disorder 66. Like the Pope 67. Novel 68. ___ Karkaroff DOWN

ACROSS 1. Beyoncé song 5. When a tampon isn’t enough 8. Dwarf leopard 13. Crazy look in your eye 14. Soccer position 15. I have one at Tombs 16. One ___ wonder 17. Peregrine for example

19. Holds out 23. Amurika (abbr.)

24. Sell to us for a quick buck 26. Small constellation of a bowed instrument 29. King in português 30. Supernatural board 32. Coy 33. Bus from Kober Cogan 37. Alexandria, LA airport code

1. See House Hunters Int’l here 2. ______ carte (2 wds.)

3. Our artisitc representation of Healy 4. ___ fire (beer pong status) 6. Breaking ___ (on TLC) 7. Purple transforming Pokémon 8. Opposite of 4 down 9. Italian for aloha 10. Moray or electric, for example 11. Enterprise that is corp. + partnership 12. British smell or fragrance?

16. Part of H.R.H.

18. DeciphersintelligenceforDOD 20. Female ovine creature 21. ___ remarks (superlative) 22. Plastic bottle cap 25. Karma ___ (not religious) 26. Common business aircraft (abbr.)

27. New Orleans dialect 28. Largest continent 31. Sudeikis or Meyers might say (3wds.)

34. Ancient Mayan city 35. Rockband or boat propelant 36. Harry Potter pets 37. In the thick of 40. Bit Cleopatra 41. Fellatio 42. Adhering to 45. Home Lil’ John and Ying Yang Twins 46. Hoops org.

47. Short, sharp cries 49. Wednesday is his day 50. 28 day ___ (not the moon’s) 51. Virtual Alcoholics Anonymous? (abbr.)

53. Jamaican music genres 55. ___, far, wherever you are 57. Alpha, beta, gamma, or delta organic compounds 58. Indian title like Mr. 59. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” 62. 7/22-8/22 sign 65. Archimedes constant

Answers to last week’s sudoku

Answers to last week’s crossword

editorial

georgetownvoice.com

VOICE the georgetown

Volume 48.10 March 21, 2013 Editor-in-Chief: Keaton Hoffman Managing Editor: Gavin Bade Blog Editor: Connor Jones News Editor: Matt Weinmann Sports Editor: Steven Criss Feature Editor: Julia Tanaka Cover Editor: Neha Ghanshamdas Leisure Editor: Julia Lloyd-George Voices Editor: Sara Ainsworth Photo Editor: Miles Gavin Meng Design Editors: Amanda Dominguez, Madhuri Vairapandi Projects Editors: Alec Graham, John Sapunor Back Page Editor: Tiffany Lachhonna Puzzles Editors: Andrew Duverney, Tyler Pierce Contributing Editors: Leigh Finnegan, Kevin Joseph Assistant Blog Editors: Isabel Echarte, Ryan Greene, Caitriona Pagni Assistant News Editors: Lucia He, Julia Jester, Jeffrey Lin Assistant Sports Editors: Chris Almeida, Chris Castano Assistant Cover Editor: Lauren Ashley Panawa Assistant Leisure Editors: Alex Golway, Kirill Makarenko Assistant Photo Editors: Andres Rengifo Assistant Design Editor: Teddy Schaffer

Staff Writers:

Emilia Brahm, Will Collins, Emlyn Crenshaw, Brendan Crowley, Alex Lau, Lindsay Leasor, Keith Levinsky, Claire McDaniel, Liana Mehring, Dayana Morales-Gomez, Joe Pollicino, Cole Stangler, Sam Wolter, Claire Zeng

Staff Photographers:

Rebecca Anthony, Julian de la Paz, John Delgado-McCollum, Kat Easop, Robin Go, Kirill Makarenko, Tess O’Connor

Staff Designers:

Karen Bu, John Delgado-McCollum, Christy Geaney, Mike Pacheco, Tom Pacheco, Sebastian Sotelo

Copy Chief: Morgan Manger Copy Editors:

Kathryn Booth, Grace Funsten, Tori Jovanovski, Rina Li, Natalie Muller, Sonia Okolie, Caitriona Pagni, Ana Smith, Dana Suekoff, Kim Tay, Suzanne Trivette

Editorial Board Chair: Patricia Cipollitti Editorial Board:

Maitane Arana, Aisha Babalakin, Gavin Bade, Nico Dona Dalle Rose, Lucia He, Keaton Hoffman, Quaila Hugh, Julia Jester, Caitriona Pagni, Julia Tanaka, Galen Weber

Head of Business: Aarohi Vora The Georgetown Voice

The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

This newspaper was made possible in part with the support of

Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, online at CampusProgress.org. Campus Progress works to help young people — advocates, activists, journalists, artists — make their voices heard on issues that matter. Learn more at CampusProgress.org.

Mailing Address: Georgetown University The Georgetown Voice Box 571066 Washington, D.C. 20057

Office: Leavey Center Room 424 Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057

Email: editor@georgetownvoice.com Advertising: business@georgetownvoice.com Web Site: georgetownvoice.com The opinions expressed in the Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Unsigned editorials represent the views of the Editorial Board. Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of the Georgetown Voice. The University subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. The Georgetown Voice is produced in the Georgetown Voice office and composed on Macintosh computers using the Adobe InDesign publishing system and is printed by Silver Communications. All materials copyright the Georgetown Voice. All rights reserved.

On this week’s cover: “Spring Fashion” Cover Photo: Maria Miracle (SFS ‘14)

the georgetown voice 3 UNPAID = UNFAIR

Unpaid internships unlawfully exploit Hoyas The season of applying for summer internships is upon us, and with it come questions about the legality of these positions.

Many will be unpaid, forcing cash-strapped students to choose between valuable work experience and making enough money to pay rent. Last Monday, the Kalmanovitz Initiative and Georgetown Solidarity Committee cohosted a panel of experts and activists who offered their unique insight on the lawfulness, economics, and ethics of unpaid internships.

All things considered, their consensus was clear: Pay your interns.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, unpaid internships must meet very specific criteria, including that the employer providing the internship obtain no immediate advantage from the intern. Additionally, the work completed by an intern, which should be more akin to educational training than work, should not displace any employees and must be done for the benefit of the intern. Unfortunately, the unpaid internships taken on by many Georgetown students do not qualify as legal.

As unpaid internships become normalized throughout the world of work and in-

terns grow accustomed to being exploited in this way, students become used to justifying them by claiming, for example, that the work experience gained from an internship is more valuable than the work gained by the employer. We can’t fail to acknowledge, however, that an intern’s energy, intelligence, and dedication are immediate advantages for an employer. And though acquiring experience may be the most important feature of an internship, students need to understand that it does not replace monetary compensation.

Thanks to the toxic professional culture that promotes this kind of self-degrading practice, the phenomenon of “permanent interns” is spreading. Students and recent graduates take internship after internship without demanding the pay that they are rightfully owed, leaving an educated, youthful workforce without health insurance or workplace protections from harms like sexual harassment. In addition to the minimum wage, these are hard-earned labor rights protected by the law for workers in any industry, for-profit or nonprofit, which are wrong-

ly being undermined by the proliferation of unpaid internships.

This is not to mention the fundamental unfairness of this practice. Unpaid internships are financially accessible only to those who can afford to work for free, and in this way, they allow systemic socioeconomic inequalities to thrive.

Despite their questionable nature, unpaid internships are flourishing in our weakened economy. Georgetown students certainly make up a significant portion of the unpaid workforce in the District, and as such, the University should do more to protect its students from having their basic workers’ rights violated. Georgetown should not only be more supportive of students with internships by making it easier to receive credit, for example, but it should counteract the culture of unpaid internships by being proactive in informing students about their rights.

Most importantly, though, students must organize their voices and demand what they deserve: a safe and healthy working environment, valuable educational training, and fair pay.

ENWAGED

District living wage legislation shows promise This Wednesday, businesspeople and activists crowded into City Hall for the D.C. Council’s public hearing for the Large Retailer Accountability Act. This groundbreaking piece of legislation, introduced in January by D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) would require large retailers, or firms with stores larger than 75,000 square feet whose corporate parent rakes in profits upwards of $1 billion, to pay their D.C. workers a living wage.

In other words, the bill would require large businesses to pay their employees an income sufficient to afford the costs of living in the District. The living wage proposed by the bill, $11.75 per hour plus benefits, greatly surpasses D.C.’s minimum wage of $8.25 per hour. In addition, unlike the minimum wage, the living wage would actually be updated yearly according to the Consumer Price Index to account for inflation.

The unfortunate reality is that low-income individuals are often forced to work multiple jobs to be able to sustain themselves and their families. When overwork fails to keep them out of poverty, workers resort to utilizing welfare benefits to compensate for depressed wages. In other words, taxpayers are forced to subsidize companies and their exploitation of a vulnerable workforce.

Perfectly timed, the bill is being presented as the District starts to permit corporate giants like Walmart to set up shop in the city. Of course, large retailers like Walmart are helpful in the economic development of a city. This is especially true in the case of D.C.’s Ward 7, where one of the proposed Walmart outlets promises to alleviate the area’s food desert and 14.7 percent unemployment.

The bill has not been without opposition.

Though no Walmart personnel testified at Wednesday’s hearing, the retailer along with pro-business groups such as the D.C. Cham-

ber of Commerce have been vocal in arguing that the proposed legislation will alienate investors, counteracting employment creation and hindering D.C.’s development.

However, this issue obviously extends beyond mere job creation for the District’s underprivileged, who face tough battles in a progressively wealthier and more gentrified city. It is essential that incoming companies establish just and dignified employment opportunities for District residents, especially if they are as large as Walmart, and it is the city government’s responsibility to guarantee that this happens.

Currently the bill has 11 co-sponsors in the D.C. Council, which makes its approval likely on the 13-member body. Its passage is imperative as a first step to ensure that worker’s rights are respected in the District, setting a poverty-alleviating precedent for other cities and states with poverty-level wages nationwide.

A DIRTY HABIT

President disappoints on environmental front In his February State of the Union address, President Barack Obama forcefully declared that the U.S. government can no longer afford to ignore key environmental issues. While the significant emissions restrictions for new power plants proposed last March by the Environmental Protection Agency could lay the foundation for much-needed progress, insiders have made public that the Obama administration is looking not only to delay implementing regulation, but also to reduce restrictions and allow for more lenient greenhouse gas emission standards.

Instead of embracing the opportunity to make valuable environmental policy impact without the shadow of re-election looming on the horizon, this move makes it obvious that Obama is engaged in a disingenuous balancing act between the environmentalists he claims to support and powerful industrial interests.

The president’s failure to adequately tackle environmental challenges is evidenced in his recently proposed the Energy Security Trust, a $2 billion, government-sponsored plan for clean transportation energy research. Though seemingly proactive, a closer look reveals the trust will be funded by royalties received from offshore oil and gas leasing. This is a backhanded and insufficient effort to fight climate change.

Instead of triangulation between polluters and the planet, the White House should seriously consider the carbon emissions tax proposed by a group of Democratic congressmen earlier this month. Issuing a carbon tax would be the easiest, most effective solution to environmental as well as energy and budget concerns.

A carbon tax has the potential to both improve air quality and reduce the deficit.

Research conducted by the nonpartisan think tank Resources for the Future points out that taxing $25 per ton of carbon emissions could

raise roughly $125 billion per annum, allowing for a reduction of the deficit by $1.25 trillion over the next 10 years (the so-called sequester aims to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion in the same 10 years).

Central questions surrounding the proposal still remain, including the best allocation of carbon tax revenue. However, the idea is simple and effective: government taxation of fossil-fuel emissions that would shift the cost of pollution from the public to the corporations.

Without the concern of reelection, there is little reason for the president to appease dirty industries, even if their leaders have political clout. Rather, Obama should be thinking in terms of socially and environmentally just policy. Because in as little as 30 years, when the planet is wracked by more extreme droughts, storms, and rising seas, our posterity won’t accept that it wasn’t politically convenient enough to act.

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march 21, 2013

DPS Chief in the dark surrounding blue light system

by Ryan Greene The recent Georgetown University Student Association executive election brought a significant amount of attention to the issue of sexual assault policy, a problem faced by many campuses across the country. One way Georgetown has addressed this issue is through its Blue Light Alarm System, an initiative developed to increase students’ ability to reach first responders if they feel threatened or unsafe.

However, the reliability of the blue light system at Georgetown has been questionable in the past, and even today there is still a considerable disconnect between the Department of Public Safety, University Information Services, and University Facilities and Student Housing about the system.

When asked about the number and locations of the blue lights in Georgetown, DPS Chief Jay Gruber initially could not provide the Voice with such information. “I do not have this list [of blue light locations] handy,” Gruber said. “It is maintained by University Information Services and University Facilities and Student Housing.”

Even after getting into contact with members of UIS, Gruber did not have a list of blue light locations available. He provided an approximate number of how many blue lights there are on campus. “While we do not have a publicly available map of the blue lights, we have over 150 blue light phones across campus,” he said. However, the Health Education Services website states that there are only 34 blue light phones across campus and provides the location for each.

Gruber believes an expansion of the blue light system is unnecessary.

“The current number is sufficient,” Gruber said. “This is especially true in light of cell phones, smartphones, and apps that are designed to sup-

plant the use of blue light phones.”

Gruber did not have any statistics on blue light phone usage, but said they are rarely used.

Georgetown is currently working on a mobile emergency smartphone app for Georgetown. Both Gruber and newly sworn in GUSA President Nate Tisa (SFS ‘13) confirmed the ongoing work on the app.

“UIS and DPS are working together to identify a mobile app solution that would enable students and members of our community to better access campus police and other first responders in an emergency from their smartphone,” Gruber said. Tisa also sees potential for a mobile app.

“Sexual assault risk reduction and safety overall are a huge priority for

There are concerns some blue light phones may not work.

health education services

us, and while blue lights are crucial they will never be able to reach everywhere incidences occur,” he said.

A significant problem with Georgetown’s blue light system is the lack of any in Burleith. “The blue lights require connectivity to the campus phone system,” Gruber said. “Connectivity to the campus does not exist in Burleith.”

Despite the fact that DPS seems to lack a comprehensive list of blue light locations, Gruber maintained that DPS officers are capable of responding to the exact location of any blue light emergency.

“We have a computer that supplies the location of the phone when we are called,” Gruber said. “We immediately dispatch officers to the location of the phone. This is done whether or not the person who activated the phone answers.”

According to Gruber, officers are trained exactly on how to do this. “Officers are well trained to respond to emergency calls for service and are told which phone was activated and they respond directly to that location,” he said.

Broken and malfunctioning blue lights are repaired by UFSH, according to Gruber, and testing of the blue

lights is conducted regularly. “All emergency call boxes are polled daily by the system server,” he said.

“Additionally, the facilities management electronics shop manually inspects blue light phones monthly …

I do know that when there is a problem with a phone it is addressed by UFSH in a very prompt manner.”

Shavonnia Corbin-Johnson (SFS ’14), who finished third in the GUSA executive election, has joined Tisa’s administration as coordinator for group outreach and will be working on reforming sexual assault policy.

Corbin-Johnson recounted one time when she tested a blue light phone.

“Being curious, I decided to try a blue light system and was planning on generating a great excuse and calling DPS right after the ‘emergency’ sounds went off,” Corbin-Johnson said. “Nothing happened. It didn’t work.”

It might take University Facilities and Student Housing longer to fix the blue lights than Gruber believes. “At any given time a number of [the lights] don’t work—last year I think a survey revealed up to a third were broken,” Tisa said.

“We’re going to work with the University to get those repaired.”

Georgetown new member in EPA’s Green Power Leadership Club

by Jeffrey Lin Since 2009, Georgetown has been purchasing green energy as part of a larger initiative to reduce the University’s carbon footprint.

Because of Georgetown’s work in creating a more environmentally friendly campus, in February the Environmental Protection Agency Green Power Partnership awarded the university membership in the Green Power Leadership Club.

“We are very proud to receive this recognition, which reflects Georgetown’s ongoing commitment to sustainability,” said Robin Morey, Vice-President of Planning and Facilities Management. “Georgetown now ranks fourth among universities in the nation for green power and thirteenth among all reporting businesses, municipalities, and institutions nationwide.”

The EPA recognizes organizations with this award when they meet or exceed a minimum percentage of green power use that corresponds to their purchased electricity.

This green energy can only come from eligible renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low impact

hydroelectric sources. Georgetown purchases this energy through renewable energy certificates, which ensure the power flowing into outlets and light bulbs on the Hilltop comes from renewable sources.

“We achieved this award by purchasing over 113 million kilowatt hours of Green-e certified renewable energy certificates—equal to 109 percent of our electricity use on the Main, Medical and East campuses,” wrote Georgetown Sustainability Coordinator Audrey Stewart, in an email to the Voice. “We were able to achieve greater than 100 percent because Georgetown also owns the environmental attributes for some power that is supplied by the university to the MedStar hospital.”

Although Georgetown has been purchasing green energy since 2009, the university has only just recently begun to increase campus sustainability by making green power the standard for university electricity to increase.

“Green-e certified RECs for 100 percent of Georgetown’s electrical load is a key requirement of our procurement process,” said Xavier Rivera, Director of Utilities and Energy Programs at Georgetown.

Although Georgetown has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by a significant amount, the University still wants to do more to address this issue.

“The University has reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent since 2006, and we are committed to cutting our carbon footprint in half by 2020,” Morey said.

Buying green energy, however, is not the only method Georgetown is using to reduce its carbon footprint. “We also try to [upgrade] the equipment we have and make it more energy efficient,” Morey said. “We try to manage the University demand for energy to have programs that reduce the electrical requirements as it is used.”

The University has also teamed up with student groups like Georgetown Energy to make the campus more environmentally friendly.

“We recently collaborated with the students in Georgetown Energy who helped install the solar cells, so that is a program that shows we are committed to the goal of energy sustainability, and that is another way we are doing many multifaceted things to increase sustainability,” Morey said.

Yet despite Georgetown’s efforts to increase energy sustainability on campus, the administration has yet to respond to GU Fossil Free’s letter asking the University to begin a policy of divestment from fossil fuel companies. When asked if the administration’s lack of response to Fossil Free and the Georgetown push for sustainability conflict, Morey believed that divestment could be a part of sustainability but the University does not believe that should be the only way to promote green energy policy.

“Our objective is to take a holistic approach. We are doing some of the more common sustainable things such as recycling, green cleaning products, green energy, reduction in inefficiency gains and use of energy,” Morey said. “Obviously, divestment could be one of those approaches as well, but we want to look at it from an overall perspective.”

Morey also thinks sustainability should include social justice programs and initiatives. “We are also looking at social justice as part of a sustainability program and how that ties to living wages, so we do not look at it as one individual piece,” he said. ”By applying sustainability in

many ways, we can have the proper outcomes for the community.”

Georgetown has many plans for furthering its goal of green energy sustainability, including the creation of an Office of Sustainability to find new ways to implement green energy policy.

“As for what is next in sustainable energy, we are excited to help switch on Solar Street, Georgetown’s first solar panels on campus townhouses, later this spring,” Stewart said. “And in accordance with new District Law, we are currently benchmarking Georgetown’s buildings of 100,000 sq. ft. or larger on their energy performance in the EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool, which will provide us with a powerful data set to help identify and prioritize future opportunities.”

Although the University has made attempts to reduce its carbon footprint, it realizes that students and faculty must take initiative.

“I think demand-side management is an area we can really manage,” Morey said. “‘If I leave the room I should shut the lights off.’ These very small things cost no money, but they can have a significant payback.”

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the georgetown voice 5

On The Record with GUSA Execs Tisa and Ramadan

by Matthew Weinmann The Voice sat down Georgetown University Student Association President Nate Tisa (SFS ‘14), and Vice President Adam Ramadan (SFS ‘14), both sworn in Saturday March 16.

Why did you decide to appoint some of your former opponents—Jack Appelbaum (COL ‘14), Spencer Walsh (MSB ‘14), and Shavonnia Corbin (SFS ‘14)—to your cabinet, creating a “team of rivals?”

Tisa: We wanted to make sure we were surrounded by the most passionate people who are the most qualified and the most able to make change. Most of the people in the field qualify in all those ways.

Ramadan: Rivals I think was an interesting word, because I think it was only fair in the course of those three or four weeks. Before we paint ourselves out to be rivals, ultimately we’re Georgetown students. They were all willing and choosing to do the things Nate and I hope to do.

Why did you expand the secretary of neighborhood relations to a secretary for D.C. relations?

Tisa: The first thing Clara [Gustafson (SFS ‘13)] and Vail [Kohnert-Yount (SFS ‘13)] told us when we were transitioning

is how important neighborhood relations are going to be this year and for the next, five, 10, even 20 years. That’s really going to be the next big thing for GUSA and the University.

When we brought on [our staff], a lot had been involved in organizations that look at the city as a larger entity and they said there was a huge void GUSA hadn’t really been addressing.

Things like the noise ordinance we could have seen coming from a mile away if we had been paying attention, but we weren’t.

How concerned are you about the apparent lack of plans for moving student groups out of New South, and what do you see as your role in this process?

Tisa: Because there is only a month and a half, extremely concerned. This is urgent. This needs to happen now. The good news is that finally the administration realizes that. A lot of the groups have been doing good advocacy on their own. We’re just getting in touch with them, finding out what they have done and giving them the push they need to get it done.

What are your objectives from now until May? Ramadan: In the course of our first staff meeting we laid out a 40-day plan, which brings us right to the end of classes. There

Beyond marriage equality

Last week, many liberals were ecstatic after hearing the news that Sen. Rob Portman, the reactionary Republican junior senator from Ohio, had changed his stance to become supportive of gay marriage.

The abrupt volte-face was apparently provoked by family reasons; after his college-aged son came out to him, Portman came to the realization that he could no longer in good faith work to deny equal rights to millions of Americans.

Many of those same liberals are even more ecstatic now that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has declared her support for same-sex marriage. The former first lady and expected 2016 presidential contender made the remarks in an interview with the Human Rights Campaign, the most prominent organization that lobbies for marriage equality.

As one commentator on Facebook put it while linking

to the video, “If the LGBT community needed more reasons to support Hilz in 2016!”

I can’t help but genuinely wonder what those other reasons are. I imagine the millions of other LGBT Americans whose lives don’t revolve around their ability to someday get married would too—the ones who have to struggle to get by in the increasingly unequal America of the 21st century, the ones who have to pay off tens of thousands in student debt as they join the growing ranks of the precariat, who have to find a job in spite of existing labor laws that allow employers to discriminate based on sexual orientation.

So would the transgender population whose daily preoccupations still aren’t politically in vogue or the homeless youth deeply impacted by the withering social safety net.

A recent study showed that 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBT. For all of these groups—the

rYan Greene

Former GUSA president Clara Gustafson swore in Nate Tisa last Saturday. we went through our platform and determined short-term, medium-term, long-term, and then longest-term [objectives].

Tisa: Things we start on—free speech. We need to lay out what our goals are and then start that advocacy because if we don’t start that now, its going to take a while to get there. We have to start that now in order to see successes.

We think that given the campus plan we will see a short term win on alcohol policy, or party policy on campus. [We’re working on] getting some kind of, maybe mostly symbolic, but some acknowledgement from the University that in tandem with this increased off-campus enforcement, there needs to be some kind of tangible acknowledgement of that in policy. So what about real “LGBT community” that politicians are referring to every time they use that phrase—neither Clinton nor Portman have shown any evidence that they are allies.

It is, without question, both a major achievement and a remarkable testament to the successful organizing efforts of the gay rights movement in the U.S. that such high-ranking figures now support marriage equality.

union Jack

by Cole Stangler

A bi-weekly column about national politics and policy Even as recently as six years ago, Clinton was dodging a question about whether she thought homosexuality was immoral. Today, it seems that support for marriage equality is becoming a part of the basic litmus test for any serious Democratic political contender. Polls show more Americans support gay marriage than ever before, evidence of a historic

on-campus party hosting is going to be easier? Will it have a later cut-off time? Will the noise restrictions be reduced? We have already had some discussions on those, and we’re confident that this semester we’ll get at least one big change there. You have to rock all the right boats now, so they expect you to rock them.

Another thing we are trying to do in the short term is look at the biased reporting system and get an updated interface for that. That is something we’re going to start conversations about immediately.

Nate, in The Hoya this Tuesday, you said you expect to face a lot of voices on campus that haven’t been heard before. What objections or challenges do you think will be raised and who will raise them? and undeniably positive transformation in social consciousness.

But there is a tendency for many in the gay rights movement—most often, the upper middle class white males who provide financial backing to multi-million dollar foundations like the HRC—to boil down the LGBT struggle to the issue of marriage. With their insistence on marriage above all else, these LGBT advocates and their high-powered allies often pledge their support (which is then taken as the LGBT movement’s de facto blessing) to politicians that have otherwise shoddy records when it comes to defending low and middle income people—that is, most gay people.

Take, for instance, Democrats like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo or New York City mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, both neoliberals to their very core. Cuomo earned support from mainstream gay groups for his stance on marriage. And yet, his budgets have included historic levels

Tisa: I meant a couple things by that. One thing that we want to continue is taking groups that GUSA hasn’t represented well in the past and making a substantial effort to do that. So facing those voices in a positive way. In some of the programs we want to move forward on, more accessible housing, getting a gender neutrality option and to make sure everyone has a living environment that affirms their dignity, there are some things that are a little more controversial than food trucks, or raising the keg ban.

Adam, in the same article, you said we are at a crossroads with our Jesuit identity and who we are as a school. Why did you say that and do you really believe we are in danger of drifting away from our traditions?

Ramadan: I think the true nature of being as old as we are, 224 years, we are different as a nation, as a university than when we were founded. While I think that advances are necessary, inevitable, and good, at the same time we are proud of our Jesuit heritage. Something that we [Nate and I] emphasize is the Jesuit identity as one of “yes” rather than one of “no.”

Rather than fight the tide, move with it, but remembering where we come from.

of cuts in social services and laid off tens of thousands of state employees.

Christine Quinn, a lesbian who supports gay marriage, has earned the backing of groups like Emily’s List and the Human Rights Campaign. And yet, Quinn has used her position as City Council Speaker to single-handedly block the passage of legislation that would provide paid sick leave to millions of city employees. And as Harry Enton recently pointed out in The Guardian, Quinn has one of the least progressive voting records of any council member.

Marriage equality is a good thing, but it’s far from the only issue that matters to gay people. So long as the major gay rights organizations and the more privileged LGBT people pretend that’s the case, they’ll likely be giving more and more corporate-friendly politicians a free pass.

Send Cole a proposal at cstangler@ georgetownvoice.com

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6 the georgetown voice

march 21, 2013

Long and winding road to NCAA title begins with FGCU

by Chris Almeida As Jason Clark’s jumper fell short of the rim, Hoya hopes were again dashed in the first weekend of the NCAA tournament as the 2011-2012 squad fell to underdog NC State 63-66. Tournament time has not been kind to the Georgetown teams of the past few years, as the Hoyas have failed to reach the Sweet 16 every year since the magical run to the Final Four in 2007.

“I can talk about the tough losses to VCU, NC State,” said junior guard Markel Starks. “Those hurt.

You sit in those locker rooms, and you’re saying, ‘For the seniors, this is their last chance of being able to be in this situation.’ And then you look back and you say to yourself, ‘I don’t want to be in this situation come my senior year.’”

In 2008, a highly regarded team that included Roy Hibbert and Jonathan Wallace was slain by sharpshooter Stephen Curry of Davidson. This marked the beginning of postseason disappointments for the Hoyas. After missing the tournament in 2009, Georgetown returned as a 3 seed, only to be blown out by Ohio University in their first game.

The next year, the Hoyas were seeded sixth, but were upset by VCU. Starks said, ”I want to have a smile on my face, going deep in the tournament, constantly having people talk about Georgetown basketball. So, having those losses, it puts an extra chip on your shoulder.”

The Hoyas have been placed in the South region of the tournament, the Kansas Jayhawks’ section of the draw. In the “second round,” so called because of the “First Four” play-in games that take place the two days before the main field, the Hoyas play Florida Gulf Coast, a school that only opened in 1997, and moved to Division I two years ago.

But don’t write off the 15-seed ed Eagles because of their age. FGCU played a surprisingly strong schedule, facing Duke, VCU, and Iowa State, while defeating the ACC regular season and tournament champion Miami Hurricanes. The South region features a host of big names.

The Hoyas and the Jayhawks are joined by 3 and 4 seeds Florida and Michigan. North Carolina and Villanova, both having off years, will meet as the 8 and 9 seeds. UCLA and Minnesota will meet in the first round as well. VCU, having another successful season under Shaka Smart, is the 5 seed in the region.

If the Hoyas defeat FGCU on Friday, they will play the winner of the matchup between 7-seeded San Diego State and 10-seeded Oklahoma. In the Sweet Sixteen, the Blue and Gray could very well face Florida, with whom they played a tight half of basketball in the intended season opener on the USS Bataan.

The Gators, despite their loss in the SEC championship game to Ole Miss, are the favorite to advance from the South region.

Looking to the Elite Eight, the Hoyas could meet a number of dangerous opponents. Kansas is the favorite in the top half of the draw, and rightfully so. The Jayhawks won a share of the Big 12 conference title and won the Big 12 tournament. They also sport the country’s top freshman in Ben McLemore and one of the nation’s top defensive players in Jeff Withey.

Also lurking in the draw is Michigan, who finished the season cold, losing two of their last three games, albeit to Indiana and Wisconsin. However, it would be unwise to count the Wolverines out.

With a trio of NBA draft picks, including leading Player of the Year candidate Trey Burke, Michigan could make a run at the title this year. VCU, after their Final Four run in 2011 that included defeating the Hoyas, is tough to call a dark horse, but will have an outside shot at winning the region.

In the grand scheme of things, Louisville is the overall number one seed and Vegas’s favorite to win the tournament. Indiana, the top seed in the East region, is not far behind. Regardless, this year’s field is wide open. Any number of teams could cut down the nets in Atlanta, providing for the most intriguing tournament and most frustrating bracket challenge in years.

ABIGAIL GREENE

Markel Starks looks to use his experience to help lead the Hoyas in the tournament.

Starks said, “When you get to the tournament, it’s about everybody playing their best basketball. Nobody can have an offnight. There’s no off-nights come tournament time. This is the playoffs. You win, you stay, you lose, you go home.”

The Hoyas have overachieved all season. Projected to finish fifth in

the Big East, the Blue and Gray won the regular season title and cracked the top-five in both the AP and Coaches polls. Sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr., who was expected to be the focal point of the team, emerged as a strong contender for the Wooden Award. The loss of sophomore forward Greg Whittington due to academic suspension

didn’t start a slump, but sparked an 11-game winning streak. While nothing in March is guaranteed, this Hoya squad is poised to make some noise over the next few weeks. With a bit of luck, this just might be the year the postseason heartbreakers come to an end. Said Head Coach John Thompson III, “We’re planning on being around for a while.”

the Sports Sermon “Cavs up 21 over Miami!!! Should Cleveland fans be allowed to storm the floor NCAA-style if they win? I say yes..” -Bill Simmons via Twitter before Lebron happened this rule needed to go. The most famous “Tuck Rule” controversy came in the 2002 AFC divisional playoff game between the Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots. New England was down three with only a few minutes left when quarterback Tom Brady was hit and lost the ball as he attempted to tuck.

The play was originally called a fumble, which would have given the Raiders the win, but the call was overturned in accordance to the rule. The Patriots then went on to kick a field goal to force overtime and then kick another field goal for the win.

The second and most controversial rule change is the new Yesterday was voting day regulation that players outside for NFL owners as they atof the tackle box or at least three tempted to clear the slate of isyards downfield can no longer sues that needed to be decided lead with the crown of their helbefore the end of their winter met. And with that vote, every meeting. Of the several topics running back in the NFL will that were put on the table, two now have to alter the way he controversial decisions look plays the game. The league had to make significant changes to already ruled that defenders the game. could not crack their opponent’s The first is the eliminahead with the tops of their heltion of the “Tuck Rule” which mets and now the offensive side stipulated that any forward of the ball has been brought up motion in a quarterback’s arm to the same standard. constitutes a pass, even if he’s Although this is a great just trying to tuck the ball. stride in improving player safeTherefore if the ty and moves the Pete Rose Central ball was knocked violent game in the out in the process, “right” direction, Da bettin’ line it is ruled an inthis rule change Dookies Margin Hoyas complete pass inwill cause a whole stead of a fumble. (favorites) new set of strife (underdogs) (duh!)

The voting yesterfor players and ofEagles day decided that Running Founded ‘97 ficials.

Hoyas this rule no longer Miami Heat The Rest King’s Orders backs will now be need apply and if expected to crush Old Big East Wassup MSG! the defender trying the quarterback New Big East is attempting to tuck the ball But this past season, the to tackle them only by lowering and loses it, the ruling will be rule caused tension once again their shoulder, but be careful! a fumble. As it should be. when the Denver Broncos lost Don’t let the top of your helThe logic behind the “Tuck to the now Super Bowl Cham- met touch the helmet of the guy Rule” was incredibly lacking. pion Baltimore Ravens. Denver who’s lurching straight at you!

It gave the quarterback who QB Peyton Manning had just Running backs have enough to changes his mind when in the begun his throwing motion worry about when they are runpassing motion an unnecessary when he was struck by a de- ning full speed into a group of crutch to rely on. If the quarter- fender and lost his handle. The massive linebackers. Forcing back decides that he does not Ravens recovered and because them to adjust mid-contact so want to throw the ball anymore Manning had not been able to that the crown of their helmet and tries to tuck the ball in or- get his other hand on the ball does not hit the defender is under to protect it when hit by a in an attempt to tuck, the refer- due and illogical. defender, it shouldn’t be consid- ees ruled that the “Tuck Rule” It is completely underered equivalent to a pass. did not apply and therefore the standable that the league wants Having the ball knocked fumble stood. to make the game safer, but this away after deciding not to pass So to put things in context, new rule is trying to solve an and then getting a do-over be- because Manning had been in inevitable problem. When a cause the play was ruled an a throwing motion when he running back lowers his shoulincomplete pass cuts too much dropped the football instead of der, his head has to lower as slack for the quarterback. It also trying to tuck it into his body, well. Football is an inherently does not properly reward the the play was not ruled an in- dangerous game and that is defenders, who were able set an complete pass. Had he stopped why only a select group of effective pass coverage and halt his passing motion and made guys can compete in the NFL. the quarterback. an effort to tuck the ball instead, The league should do its best Apparently it just took one the call would have been an in- to improve safety, but some asmore game-changing play in or- complete pass. Good riddance pects of football are and always der to get the league to realize “Tuck Rule.” will be unsafe.

by Steven Criss

sports

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

One step forward, one back for men’s lax Baseball tobegin BigEastplay

by Maria Lappas and Joe Pollicino There is no better way to start off conference play than with a dominating win in the opener.

Georgetown men’s lacrosse (3-3, 1-0 Big East) secured their first Big East win against the Providence Friars (5-1, 0-1 Big East) this past Saturday. After a slow start in the first period with a close 3-2 lead, the Hoyas launched an aggressive attack against the Friars, setting the tempo for not only the rest of the half, but also the remainder of the game. Getting ahead early had been a fundamental goal desired by Head Coach Kevin Warne coming into the contest.

“I think, because of their transition game, we wanted to dictate the tempo, and I thought we did that today,” Warne said. “And I think you do that a lot by scoring and a lot with Tyler Knarr, who had a fantastic game.”

Due to the outstanding offensive performance by sophomore phenom Reilly O’Connor,

who scored 4 goals and notched 6 assists, and the powerhouse face-off wins by redshirt junior defender Tyler Knarr (17 of 25 at the face-off), the Hoyas were able to dominate on the field and also keep the Friars from reaching their usual double-digit score.

Prior to the matchup, the Friars were averaging 13.4 goals per game in the previous five.

With the help of Knarr maintaining the Hoyas’ possession, the dynamic duo of senior attacker Travis Comeau (4 goals and 2 assists) and O’Connor was able to capitalize on offensive opportunities.

Fellow Canadians Comeau and O’Connor proved to be a force to be reckoned with, given the remarkable skill and finesse displayed on the Multi Sport Field that resulted in a resounding 16-8 win.

Despite this victorious Big East debut, the Hoyas fell at home to defending national champion and No. 9 Loyola (MD) (6-2, 2-0 ECAC) 13-8 on a brisk Wednesday night.

MILES GAVIN MENG

Tyler Knarr was essential to acquiring possessions off the faceoff for the Hoyas.

Miami Heat’s divine ruler

Just like everyone else, I’ve got the Madness that comes around every March. It’s my favorite time of year; the weather gets nice outside, and I spend all day inside watching college basketball. But instead of having this be the 80th article you have read about March Madness, I want to approach another basketball topic that, dare I say it, is almost just as important.

The Miami Heat have won their last 23 straight games, and with an relatively easy upcoming schedule, they look to be on their way to beating the NBA record 33 straight wins set by Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and the Lakers during the 1971-72 season, a record that many thought would remain unbroken forever.

The Heat had one of their closest scares against the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday night. The Heat trailed by 27 points before storming back

to win the game The main reason should not surprise anybody: LeBron James.

Forgetting that the Cavaliers are NBA bottomfeeders who happened to be missing their top three players, including phenom point guard Kyrie Irving, this comeback was an impressive feat. After being outplayed in the first half by Daniel Gibson and company, the Heat stormed back behind a Lebron triple-double. This is the largest comeback by any LeBron-led team.

James has been absolutely dominant as of late, averaging 26.9 points, 7.6 assists, and 7.9 rebounds per game while shooting 57 percent from the field during the winning streak.

He further asserted his dominance this past Monday, as he tallied 37 points, 12 assists, and 7 rebounds. He also capped the win with an awe-inspiring dunk, absolutely posterizing Celtics guard Jason Terry,

After a goal by sophomore midfielder Charles McCormick to open the game and put the Hoyas up 1-0, the Greyhounds proceeded to rack off seven unanswered goals to go into halftime with a 7-1 lead. Loyola capitalized effectively on Georgetown turnovers and scored some easy goals on fast breaks.

“Loyola is very good in the transition game,” said Warne. “We definitely emphasized it in practice the last couple of days. We didn’t execute what we needed to do and they jumped up on us.”

The Hoyas came out with more energy in the second half and outscored the Greyhounds 7-6. But, the first-half deficit was too much to overcome, despite two secondhalf goals from O’Connor and goals from junior midfielder Grant Fisher, senior midfielder Dan McKinney, and Comeau.

“You got to take something positive out of every game … and we won the second half,” Warne said. “I think that’s good for us to build on. It’s a 60-minute game, not a 30-minute game. If it was a 30minute game, I’d be a lot happier.”

The Hoyas will look to bounce back when they travel south this Saturday to take on Duke at 1 p.m. in Durham, N.C. Warne sees similarities between Loyola and Duke and looks forward to the matchup.

“I think on Saturday we will see more of the same. I think it gives us a blueprint to see what we are going to see down in Durham on Saturday.” who ended up helpless on the ground. James then proceeded to stand over Terry, which earned him a technical but served as the perfect symbolic moment for how unstoppable and powerful he has been.

It seems as though winning a championship last year has done more for LeBron than any of us could have imag-

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

by Alex Lau

A bi-weekly column about sports ined. For years, we questioned his clutch play, whether he could win it all, whether he could make the last shot.

After the train wreck that was “The Decision” as well as the declaration that the new Heat would win “not five, not six, not seven” championships, James was not only doubted, but ridiculed for his over the top antics and inability to produce on the highest

by Chris Castano March 20 marked the beginning of spring, a time when the nation’s consciousness turns back to its pastime. Luckily for Hoya fans, the Georgetown baseball team aren’t disappointing supporters.

The Hoyas have played quality ball in the past month, fighting to an overall record of 13-6, with conference play to begin this Friday. One highlight so far has been the excellent pitching displayed by senior Thomas Polus.

Head Coach Pete Wilk said of the men on the mound, “[Our] guys have pitched really well and that’s why we are where we are. We’re getting decent starts, Thomas Polus’s last two starts have been exceptional ... and our bullpen has been our saving grace so far.”

Polus believes his preseason preparation made the difference this year. “We took the numbers, we took the mechanics and looked at different things coming in. We focused and made plans about those things that we wanted to accomplish. For me in particular I needed to throw more strikes early in the count and get my pitches down.”

Despite personal improvements, Hoya baseball hasn’t changed its style one bit. The team is sticking to the same core philosophy as previous seasons,

stage. And for all those years it seemed to break him down a bit as he struggled to get over that final hump and prove the haters wrong. It has to be one of the main reasons he felt pressured to choose the superteam in Miami rather than take over a team that would be unquestionably his. But he has finally got that huge monkey that kept asking those questions off his back, and now it seems as though he is poised to enter his prime—as if he wasn’t good enough before.

This sort of play from James and the rest of the Heat is the type of dominance that should strike fear in opposing teams not just this year, but for years to come. To compare him to Jordan is obviously a stretch at this point, but LeBron’s current career trajectory matches up almost eerily well with MJ’s.

Both started off their careers with little to no help from their squads, which led to great individual accolades but no titles. But, once they got some

with the defensive side focused on limiting free bases due to walks and errors, and the batting side placing advancing runners as a top priority. “That hasn’t changed, it’s just we’re getting it done better than we have in the past,” said Wilk.

The Hoyas are gearing up for their first foray into conference play when they host the UConn Huskies for a threegame series at Shirley Povich Field in Bethesda, Md. this Friday at 3 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m.

But even if they stick to their signature style, Wilk acknowledges some changes have to be made going into conference play. “We’re going to have to step it up offensively,” he said.

“In the 18 games we’ve played already, we’ve probably only faced three or four guys who are Big East caliber pitchers... And I think the older guys know that we’re about to see some big time arms.”

Although the Hoyas’ offense has been performing well, much of that production is coming from the same core players.

The team has been carried by big hits from senior outfielder Justin Leeson and junior outfielder Christian Venditti. With the level of competition imminently on the rise, working that offensive success deeper into the lineup will be a must for Georgetown to continue its winning ways in Big East play.

support—Jordan’s from Scottie Pippen and James’ from Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh— they started to not only thrive individually, but also win.

If James stays in Miami and Wade keeps his health for a few more years, it’s hard to imagine that this team won’t continue to win titles. Of course, they’ll have competition from Kevin Durant and the Thunder, and perhaps even the Clippers, Bulls, and Knicks, but none of them seem capable of keeping up with LeBron.

I realize this streak’s only a month long and it’s easy to get excited about such a talented player, but history may well look back on this coming record as the moment James stopped being simply a superstar and became a legend. And for a guy who has already won the MVP Award three times, that is a scary, scary thought.

Find out how long Alex can streak at alau@georgetownvoice. com

This season we ventured into the District to showcase a mix of vintage and new. From Malcolm X Park to cafes in Adams Morgan to the Sculpture garden at

the National mall, d.c. is the perfect place to get out anD explore. Now is the time to shed your winter layers and strut spring styles, combining classic pieces with current trends.

8

9

Pages 8-9: Maria: Dress: Rock it Again Sweater, shoes: Model’s own Jescinta: Shirt: H&M Overalls, jacket: Treasury Ceren: Hat: Treasury Shirt, shorts, shoes: Model’s own Freddie: Scarf, jeans, shirt: H&M Nico: Shirt: Banana Republic Tie: Zara Vest: Rock it Again Josh: Shorts: Zara Shirt: H&M Sweater vest: Treasury Pages 10-11: Maria: Top, pants, bag: H&M Shoes, scarf, vest: Model’s own Ceren: Pants, top, sweater: H&M Necklace: Zara Jescinta: Shirt, shorts, shoes: Model’s own Blazer: Zara Necklace: H&M Josh: Shirt: H&M Vest: Rock it Again Nico: Shirt: H&M Sweater and pants: Massimo Dutti

From left to right: Maria wears a mint shift dress from Rock it Again and a denim Levi’s jacket from Treasury. Ceren wears a peach dress from Rock it Again, shoes model’s own. Jescinta wears a necklace from Zara, red linen ‘80s crop top, and a floral skirt from Treasury.

13

leisure

14 the georgetown voice

march 21, 2013

Mari Vanna opens a portal to the Motherland in Dupont

by Kirill Makarenko Borsch—a beet and assorted vegetable soup with beef—is perhaps the most iconic dish associated with Russian cuisine.

Indeed, the image of a wooden spoon resting casually in a steaming bowl of the red staple, along with a surrounding crowd of bustling relatives, is common in the motherland.

Dupont Circle’s Mari Vanna aims to recreate this cozy atmosphere with an establishment boasting traditional décor, the friendliest of staffs, and hearty home-cooked meals that transport patrons to the old country.

Of course, a journey into the past is impossible for customers who have never experienced Russia.

Even so, Mari Vanna is marked by an unmistakable authenticity anyone can recognize merely upon entering.

From busy Connecticut Ave., Mari Vanna immediately catches the eye with Russian signs, white curtains, and a collection of assorted doorbells lining the doorway. Inside, white chandeliers, wooden support beams, and antique Russian trinkets create a mix of a Soviet apartment and a typical village cottage on the outskirts of Moscow. Peeling wallpaper that occasionally reveals sections of brick wall adds to the immersive experience made deeper by Soviet-era film clips on the flat-screens behind the bar.

As I was enveloped in this warm atmosphere, an overwhelming nostalgia seized me as an iconic song from Irony of Fate, or, Enjoy Your Bath!, a 1975

Mosfilm production shown every New Year on TV channels across Russia, played over the speakers. Vivid memories of sitting at my babushka’s kitchen table watching the classic film as snow fell lightly on the empty, streetlamp-lit world outside flooded my mind, a deluge triggered by none other than the first spoonful of borsch.

The bright red soup was perfect in its distinctly homemade style. Darker shades at times imply improper preparation techniques, but this bowl radiated quality before the initial beet-dominated, carrot-accented taste. Chunks of potato added a hearty texture while chewy pieces of beef contributed occasional bursts of flavor always mildly present in the broth.

Each meal begins with a classic starter of a selection of white and black grain bread, a leek stem, sliced radishes, and salt with sunflower oil for dipping.

This fresh assortment, which arrives on a wooden cutting board, accompanies the remainder of the lunch or dinner.

Following the borsch sample, I opted for three pirozhki, pies stuffed with either meat, eggs, or cabbage. The meat-filled pirozhok offered a mild spice that complemented the borsch while the eggstuffed option presented an even combination of tastes between the still steaming, soft pastry exterior and the finely diced hardboiled egg inside. The cabbage pirozhok, on the other hand, had a potent sour nature that dominated, but did not overwhelm, the surrounding bread. All three were comfortingly familiar.

KIRILL MAKARENKO

Come to Mari Vanna to verify that all Soviet Russia jokes are true.

Chicken kotletki—cutlets— garnished by warm, creamy mashed potatoes and moderately salty cornichons comprised the entrée. The cutlets themselves were somewhat loosely put together, allowing them to melt in the mouth.

A sharp bite of the onions mixed in with the otherwise subdued chicken flavor added

contrast to what otherwise could have been a monotonous dish, resulting in a well-constructed and well-rounded main course.

Homemade comforts outside the home do, however, seem to come at a price; the borsch weighs in at $12 and the kotletki cost a full $20. In spite of this arguably significant caveat, the Mari Vanna experience

Bitch, don’t kill my vibe

Take a shot every time someone says bitch, a punch is thrown, a nipple or vagina is blurred, the girls take a shot, or a weave falls on the floor. So go the rules of the Bad Girls Club drinking game, Oxygen’s genius idea to put a bunch of misbehaving girls (coke whores, sex addicts, alcoholics, etc.) together and hope they can rehabilitate themselves into better citizens.

If it sounds like a women’s prison, it’s not. It’s worse. Because on top of being ineffective at stopping “recidivism,” the girls are put up in a mansion and have nothing to do all day but put on makeup at “stations” the size of a twin sized bed and slap any ho who gets in their way.

Currently in its 10th season in the glitzy suburbs of Atlanta, BGC is the definition of trashy TV. Half of the words are bleeped out, everyone’s inebriated, and the show lacks any real mission other than making a mockery of girl gone bad.

That being said, BGC is perhaps one of the funniest hours of TV I’ve ever watched. It mixes everything you love about Jersey Shore and The Real Housewives with a heaping helping of Jerry Springer. The cast’s complete inability to resolve any of their problems in an effective way other than self-medicating and dragging a girl along the floor by her hair makes each episode an even hotter mess than the one before.

But as I curled up with my bottle of Fireball, I began to wonder what enjoying this show says about me, and whether I can call myself a feminist if I enjoy watching and mocking women behaving badly. One minute I’m writing my thesis about boardroom equity legislation in the EU, and the next I’m

tuning into girls berating each other as nothing more than dumb bitches.

It’s a thought that extends to a wide variety of issues and media. Can we call ourselves supporters of racial equality if some of our favorite comedy programming predicates itself on poking fun at hurtful stereotypes? Can we say that we respect the struggles of mentally handicapped people, and then dance the night away to

Paper View

by Keaton Hoffman a bi-weekly column about television

“Let’s Get Retarded”? Can we shun using the n-word in daily life, and yet go on listening to Lil Wayne and watching Django Unchained as if those words aren’t there?

While some would argue that music, TV, and film are art forms, and any advocacy for censorship stifles civil liberties, with all entertainment media, there is an expectation of interaction.

These artists are making their art for consumption.

There’s nothing passive about the content artists produce, and there’s also nothing passive about our media choices.

With reality television, though, the disparity between “art” and “reality” is more blurred than ever. Listening to a song about someone being disrespectful to women is at least partially fictionalized, but a show that portrays real women in the same light is at all more unnerving.

Whether it’s giggling about Honey Boo Boo’s nutrition-devoid life in poverty or the over the top flamboyancy of almost any character on any Bravo show, these are real people with real lives, deserving of respect.

Or are they?

measures up to the high price tag. The staff treats each customer like family; I was even presented with a key to the restaurant’s front door—an honor reserved for a select few—before I returned to the American world outside. Though babushka’s cooking and love are irreplaceable, Mari Vanna is a worthy contender.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching countless hours of reality TV, it’s that there isn’t anything real about it. All of these shows have scripts, staging, blocking (a friend of mine in L.A. just landed a gig writing for a Hillsesque “reality” program). Add onto that layers of sound editing, scene re-sequencing, and directorial advice, and it’s hard to say that reality programming is any less artsy than other video content.

Art can still be offensive, and BGC definitely treads that line, but the show is funny largely because of how far it deviates from the norm.

Fifty years ago, a bunch of girls with no goals, staying at home, not working, and largely wasting their brains away wouldn’t have been funny. It would have been life for the typical woman. BGC depicts a reality that has largely disappeared for women today, who are educated at higher levels than men.

Look to the plethora of other “bizarre” programming and the trend continues. 19 Kids and Counting—make that 20, the Duggars just popped out another one—is entertaining principally because it is so far from the four-person nuclear family norm. Swamp People is popular because no one lives in swamps anymore. It’s called urbanization.

For the majority of female viewers, BGC is a far cry from a representation of girls today.

It’s outlandish and exaggerated.

In a paradoxical way, perhaps nothing is more indicative of a world comfortable with powerful, educated, and assertive women than a show mocking women who buck this monumental gender shift. I’ll raise my glass (or bottle?) to that.

See what’s under Keaton’s weave at khoffman@georgetownvoice.com

georgetownvoice.com

“Story of my life—I always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop.” — Some Like It Hot

the georgetown voice 15

Ginger & Rosa: Love in a Cold War Hilltop Horoscopes

by Julia Lloyd-George There’s something about 1960s London that smells like teen spirit.

Caught in between the heyday of the Beatles and the stifling atmosphere of ‘50s conservatism, the title protagonists of the sharply intelligent Ginger & Rosa relish the tide of change that is just beginning to roll in at the start of the decade. Best friends since birth, they are restless 17-year-olds that sniff at their mothers’ bourgeois domesticity and yearn for freedom.

Theirs is a familiar narrative, filled with the same rebelliousness and shattered illusions of adolescence, yet it’s a coming-of-age tale that explores an emotional landscape far broader than that of mere tension between generations.

The threat of nuclear conflict generating the sense of anxiety that pervades the film becomes a rather literal marker of a new

era; the opening image of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima serves as foreshadowing of the bomb’s coming role in the Cold War, as well as a potent symbol of instability. The established institutions and old way of life are resting on fragile ground, the potential for their destruction the impetus for change.

When we first meet Ginger and Rosa, however, they are carefree teenagers blissfully unaware of this growing tension.

Almost wordless shots of them hitchhiking to the shore, kissing boys in alleyways, or sneaking cigarettes are the visual highlights of the film and perfect vignettes of innocent teen rebellion. The buildup to the loss of that innocence seems to be the central interest for director Sally Potter, whose Oscar-nominated Orlando, released in 1982, fol-

“Um, are you totally sure this hitchhiking thing was such a good idea?”

IMDB

lowed the transition of a character from man to woman.

That journey is contained in the evolving friendship between Ginger and Rosa, whose differences in personality make them two sides of the same coin. The flame-haired Ginger (Elle Fanning) is a sensitive poet and budding activist that dutifully attends Ban the Bomb meetings, while the fatherless Rosa (Alice Englert) channels her own rebellious tendencies into ignoring schoolwork and chasing boys.

Both girls gravitate to the magnetic presence of Ginger’s glamorous father, Roland (Alessandro Nivola). An intellectual bohemian who was once imprisoned for refusing to submit to the draft, he becomes the lightning rod for the inevitable conflict in their friendship. The film devolves into the soap-operatic at this point, forcing the storyline to come to a head that could have been achieved with less artificial means, but this failing is minor in the context of the film’s expansive scope.

The two actresses emerge as genuine talents, Fanning a veritable force of nature whose astounding emotional range beautifully complements the film’s impressionistic feel. It’s the negative space between the dialogue and the moments of ambiguity between the melodrama that makes Ginger & Rosa feel like a microcosm of intangible melancholy.

Cancer: 6/22-7/22 There’s a midterm in your future. We’re not 100 percent sure, but it’s statistically probable.

12/22-1/19: Capricorn Gtown will meet Western Kentucky in the Final Four. Fill out your brackets accordingly.

Leo:

7/23-8/22 You don’t need us to tell you that vegan meatloaf is just not a good idea. Stay away.

1/20-2/18: Aquarius In spite of your sign, avoid swimming next month. No hot Axe commercial guy will come to your rescue.

Virgo:

8/23-9/22 Feel free to pursue your own personal happiness, even though it’ll result in resounding disappointment.

2/19-3/20: Given a choice between chicken and fish, choose fasting. Do not trust Leo’s food, especially in April.

Libra:

9/23-10/22 Stressed by work, school, and extracurriculars? So is everyone else. Deal with it.

5/21-6/21: Gemini No plans for Easter Break? Not so. Sitting in bed with a jar of Nutella and Netflix is a legitimate activity.

Scorpio: 10/23-11/21 Next month, you get a free pass. Step on the Georgetown seal as often as you’d like; you’ll stay curse-free.

4/20-5/20: Taurus If you’re in the MSB, research investment bank jobs. Otherwise, read up on unemployment benefits.

Sagittarius: 11/22-12/21 Jupiter’s long passage through the apathy sector indicates that the stars couldn’t care less about your future.

3/21-4/19: College is truly a time for experimentation, but make sure your adventures don’t explode in your face.

Pisces

Aries

Corcoran photography examines the state of the world

by Dayana Morales Gomez So exactly, how is the world?

This is the question one of the Corcoran’s newest exhibits tries to answer through a small assortment of contemporary photography. Bringing together a diverse group of photographers with styles that range from self-portraiture to exclusively using the life on the streets as a subject, How is the World? is an eclectic yet cohesive collection that offers a powerful insight into an age when both the world and the artistic medium used to capture it are constantly evolving.

Since nearly every phone has more megapixels than your old Sony Digital, it’s hard to forget just how prevalent this kind of persistent documentation is in our lives.

Because it’s easy for anyone with an iPhone to take high, almost pro-

fessional quality photos, a timely exhibit of contemporary photography like How is the World? cannot ignore this new level of accessibility that characterizes the craft.

Though rather compact (the whole exhibit exists in a space roughly the size of Uncommon Grounds), the Corcoran does an excellent job of artfully arranging appropriate pieces of truly timely photography, all of which carry subtle undertones of social justice.

One of the walls is dedicated to photographer Kate O’Donovan Cook, who acted as both the subject and the artist in her work; posing nude as a model for an art class, she takes an unconventional approach and makes effective use of shutter speeds to portray art in the making.

On the opposite wall, there were much larger photos, these depicting moments in time of daily events in the world. Here, British

photographer Tom Hunter contributes The Vale of Rest, an image of two young persons imitating John Everett Millais’s The Vale of Rest quite cleverly.

I had two favorite pieces in the tiny exhibit. The first was Edward Burtynsky’s “Oxford Tile Pile #9ab, Westly, California, USA.” Burtynsky has long been fascinated by our global dependence on oil, and with “Oxford” captured what, at the time, was “the largest pile of waste tires in the world.” The image is about 4’ x 6’, and rightfully disturbing.

The next piece I really enjoyed was Lalla Essaydi’s “Converging Territories #30.” Essaydi used sheer passion in pictures to create a powerful critique of contemporary Arab and Islamic society. She took women, white sheets, and henna to construct an odd, creepy scene in which women posed behind the

sheets and were covered head to toe in henna calligraphy. Since only males in Islamic culture use henna art, Essaydi creatively makes a critical point about the gendering spheres of her world.

Throughout the exhibit, photography proves to be an effective medium for expression of various global viewpoints, sometimes very literally and other times more cre-

atively. Though not all of the photographs are immediately moving or shocking, they were all clearly carefully selected and cohere nicely in a small space. The central theme of social justice ensures that every portrait is not merely descriptive but normative—every picture is a representation of the world as it is, but it also contains an implication of how it should be.

CORCORAN

“Just don’t make any sudden moves and try not to say anything controversial.”

leisure

16 the georgetown voice

march 21, 2013

C r i t i c a l V o i ces

Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience, RCA Records There will always be something a little seductive about the prince of pop, and Justin Timberlake fully capitalizes on this magnetism to bring a heavy dose of hype to his new album. The former ‘N Sync singer brings sexy back in full force with The 20/20 Experience, which features an eclectic variety of songs that vary from R&B, pop, Latin, Eastern, and even a little slow rock. One may think the selection might make the record messy, but Timberlake makes every transition flawless.

The album starts with “Pusher Love Girl,” a hybrid tune that artfully incorporates the energy of spirited pop with the sentimentality of a ballad. After five minutes of Timberlake singing, you think the song

is over, but instead he carries on with three more minutes of production and rapping, displaying a bit of his versatility.

Timberlake then speeds up the album a bit with the R&B single, “Suit & Tie” featuring Jay-Z, the Eastern inspired “Don’t Hold the Wall,” and the Latin influenced “Let the Groove Get In.” These are the radio-ready, catchy hits that Timberlake became known for on FutureSex/LoveSounds. Additionally, the variety of genres and rhythms that govern these songs demonstrates Timberlake is not afraid to test the boundaries of his signature style.

This is also apparent in the Radiohead inspired song, “Blue Ocean Floor,” which marks a complete stylistic departure for the singer. The song seems to have a soft rock feel to it and highlights Timberlake’s vocal talent, featuring only a gentle tune playing in the background as his raw voice dominates the track.

But while the variety may make Timberlake seem ingenuous, he takes the time to go back to his southern roots of Memphis, Tenn. “That Girl” which includes Timberlake’s band, the Tennessee Kids, is the shortest song on that album, but it packs a lot of punch for its length.

Green is the new blackout

“I’ve been a wild rover for many’s the year! I’ve spent all me money on whiskey and beer! And it’s No! Nay! Never …”

Oh, hey readers. I keep forgetting St Patrick’s Day is over. Well, the first thing I want to do, as the monitor of drunken debauchery on campus, is congratulate the student body on a job well done.

While the weather was not nearly as glorious as the freak summer day that blessed us last year, we did not let the weather gods hold us back. This year’s two day long party fest last weekend was another one for the records—that is, records in green kegs crushed or teeth chipped while attempting Irish Car Bombs that I don’t think we’ll ever learn.

One reason for all the record breaking is that we collectively decided that one day would simply not be enough for celebrating our Irish heritage. Another is that the whole campus seemed to decide the real holiday was on the 16th.

I will admit there was some confusion. No one really knew what to call Saturday when drunkenly spilling beer on and yelling “Happy Pre-St. Pat’s Day” at innocent bystanders touring Georgetown.

Personally, I think St. Fratty’s Day is a pretty solid choice. Not only do I feel it captures the ridiculousness of the holiday, but also, as someone who is glad that there are no fraternities at Georgetown, I like the irony of it.

On a more serious note, I somehow managed to sneak in some self-reflection and scientific research into my two day long drunken rampages. I thought I would share these preponderances with the rest of y’all, who I doubt are as efficient as I am while drunk.

One of the more popular Irish folk songs of the holiday, “The Wild Rover,” was always consistently greeted with cheers at any party I attended, no matter the composition of the guests or how

Filled with seven-minute love ballads characterized by a contented vision of romance, The 20/20 Experience is Timberlake’s best album to date, and it gets better. Earlier this week, Timberlake confirmed rumors that this is only part one of a twopart album, and he plans to release the second half later this year. If this is truly music you can see, he is certainly setting his sights far.

Voice’s Choices: “That Girl,” “Let the Groove Get In” —Zakiya Jamal

Alpha Rev, Bloom, Hollywood Recordings Formed in the wake of the breakup of frontman Casey McPherson’s previous band Endochine, the stalwart crew of Austin rockers known many times the song had been played before. And what’s not to like about it? It’s Irish, catchy, mentions booze, and has a chorus that is easy to blare out at the top of your lungs while toasting all your chums. The irony of it all is that it is a song about giving up the drink.

But the more I thought about the lyrics, and the more Guinness I downed, the more I found the song to be an allegory for college life. While it is a song about tem-

Loose Cannon

by Cannon Warren a bi-weekly column about drunken debauchery perance and getting your life in order, the song’s subject doesn’t seem very regretful of his roving past and it seems more like a tongue-in-cheek denunciation.

We have all been in the wild rover’s position, poor college students with a tendency to imbibe too much, yet college is the perfect place to come to terms with booze.

One time during freshman year,

as Alpha Rev has climbed the Texas indie chart with three full-length LPs built around McPherson’s vocal range. Alpha Rev’s most recent album, Bloom, utilizes his practiced voice against a soothing musical backdrop to bring compelling soft alternative rock into the world.

McPherson boasts pleasant and consistent talent, serving as the force holding the LP together.

At times he even matches Coldplay’s Chris Martin for crafting a sweet tone to accompany lighthearted lyrics, driving all ten tracks. Instrumentation takes a clear backseat to singing, occasionally fading behind high-pitched backup harmonies and McPherson’s overwhelming volume.

From the album opener, “Lexington,” the listener cannot escape this dominance. The entire song builds up an increasingly droning musical background to the chorus, broken only by a brief guitar solo near the end. Though subdued, the instrumentation also manages to demonstrate a palpable virtuosity.

The album’s single, “Sing Loud,” for instance, showcases the depth of the band’s rhythm section. Alpha Rev combines an organ, drums, piano, and acoustic guitar to follow McPherson’s triumphant chorus. on the arduously long walk back from Leo’s to Darnall, I had the (then) awful realization I wouldn’t be able to get piss drunk every weekend for the rest of my life for obvious health and career reasons.

Yet, enough bad hangovers since then have taught me my lesson, and I now no longer can empathize with what the hell I was thinking earlier.

College provides a uniquely safe space to learn this due to the physical and cultural environment that would be hard to reproduce anywhere else. It’s pretty hard to drive drunk on the Hilltop (obviously, scootering is a different matter), and no one is going to judge you while you figure out your unique relationship with alcohol.

Lastly, I’ve heard that there is no correlation between binge drinking in college and alcoholism later in life. I’m not sure how scientific those studies are, but I refuse to look them up, preferring my cognitive dissonance.

The second subject that grabbed my attention on St.

The rhythm on “Highways” perpetuates this role in a similarly masterful manner as pounding drums provide a welcome contrast to a soft piano pattern.

Lyrically, Bloom is a vivid reflection of Alpha Rev’s Texan origin.

Many songs, like the uniquely dark and moody “Lonely Man,” tell of rides across the country and paint scenes of the surrounding natural beauty. For every line of imagery detailing a sprawling countryside, however, there are two romantic eye-rollers. In spite of vocal prowess, this diction lacks the seriousness required to add any manner of emotional depth to Bloom.

While Bloom certainly will satisfy anyone looking for a pleasant soft rock and a focus on varying vocal styles, it can hardly be described as worthy of a second listen. Alpha Rev’s focus on pouring nearly every instrument into the background noise succeeds in creating a complex rhythm, but alternative rock demands more. McPherson’s knack for singing sweet tunes simply fails to bloom in this hostile environment.

Voice’s Choices: “Stuck Together Pieces,” “Ingenue” —Ryan Greene Pat’s Day was the curdling taking place in my Irish Car Bomb.

Why does Bailey’s start to curdle in the Guinness but not when mixed with the Jameson whiskey? I pulled over a chemistry major who was clueless (why did we buy those dumbasses a new science building?). Next, I turned to Google.

Long story short, Bailey’s is a dairy product that has casein, a protein which wants to clump together. The main thing stopping that is fat—the more the better— however acids work the opposite way. The Jameson isn’t acidic, and the two liquors can be mixed well in advance. The Guinness is acidic, like all beer, so once the shot is dropped, you better chug quick, or you’ll get a stomachache. So, if you learned anything today, I hope it was that college is good and that, when mixing cocktails, use cream instead of whatever milk is in your fridge.

Paint Gtown green with Cannon at cwarren@georgetownvoice.com

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the georgetown voice 17

- Christy Geaney

voices

18 the georgetown voice

march 21, 2013

Angels of the desert illuminate humanity of immigrants

by Kendra Layton Walking solemnly into the courtroom on a warm Arizona day, I’m immediately confronted with the smell of sweat and the sight of 40 migrants seated in the rows to my left. Their clothes drape loosely off their shoulders and they all wear translation headsets, their only recourse to understand what’s going on. They’re currently being tried for the crime of illegal entry into the U.S. under Operation Streamline.

As a result of a 2005 Department of Homeland Security policy, those who enter the country unauthorized face criminal prosecution and prison sentences. In states like Arizona, this takes the form of expedited mass trials. In groups of five, the migrants trek up to a row of microphones followed by the public defenders they’ve just met. The judge asks, “Are you a citizen of Mexico?

On or about March 2 did you attempt to cross the border illegally?

Do you or do you not plead guilty to the charges?” One after another we hear voices echo: culpable, culpable, culpable. Each culpable seals one person’s fate; together they shuffle out of the courtroom,

the chains around their legs clinking as they walk.

Observing the courtroom proceedings in Tucson, Ariz. formed part of Kino Border Immersion, a Georgetown Alternative Spring Break intended to increase students’ knowledge of immigration. Thirteen participants and I met with various groups in the area including the Sierra Club, ranchers, and the U.S. Border Patrol. We also toured a detention center in Florence, a prison complex in the middle of the Arizona desert. While it may be true that the center complies with over 400 governmental regulations, there exists a schizophrenic disconnect between the rhetoric and reality of the facility.

In our tour guide’s opinion, their mission is to “protect our country from terrorists or others who threaten the livelihood of our children.”

Ironically, many of the migrants there have no criminal record. They migrate to work to reunite with their families, and then return to Mexico.

Throughout my visit, I kept asking myself, are they the ones who threaten us most? How can those who share the same human needs be menaces to society? The rest of

the trip continued to illuminate the prevailing discourse surrounding immigration and the need to humanize the discussion.

After the migrants serve 30 to 180 day sentences in Florence, they’re loaded on buses and driven to the border. They’re herded like animals down cattle-chute fences.

Now 180 days without work, they often have no money or knowledge of the area.

To meet not only the basic needs, but also the social-emotional needs of hundreds of migrants deported daily, Kino Border Initiative offers them food, clothing, and medical assistance. Named after Fr, Eusebio Kino, S.J., a Jesuit missionary who served Arizona and Sonora until 1711, Kino Border Initiative provides refuge in an otherwise hostile and too often violent world. Fr. Peter Neeley, S.J., Assistant Director of Education, emphasized the importance of their work. In Mexico’s eyes, migrants who return are failures; no one is there to say welcome home or job well done.

On the other hand, KBI recognizes the deeper human needs of the migrants and provides them with welcoming smiles and a home

away from home. Moving beyond the opinion that migrants are “aliens” and “failures,” KBI understands the difficulties of a transient existence, which often get lost among governmental policies and societal discourse.

Migration patterns also illuminate the disconnect between government policy and the situation on the ground. As border walls continue to be erected and strengthened in the cities, migrants are funneled to areas where they have little knowledge of the land and are left to the harshness of the desert. Their journeys subsequently become more costly and dangerous.

While crossing they rely on organizations, such as No More Deaths, to combat the dangers of the desert by providing food, water, and medical attention. Similar to other volunteers along the border, Gene Lefebvre, co-founder of No More Deaths, attests to how transformative it is to work with migrants on a personal level. He shared a story of a woman and her children left behind by their guide in the desert. She dreamt angels would rescue them, and the next morning several No More Deaths

volunteers found the family. The volunteers were so moved in that moment that conversely, she was their angel of the desert. Lefebvre’s story demonstrated that until we engage with immigration on a personal level, policies will continue to ignore the human dimension of immigration and the needs of migrants.

The most important takeaway from my Alternative Spring Break is the imperative to humanize immigration while advocating for reform, work visas, and other legal pathways to citizenship. This must address the multifaceted needs and diverse perspectives of those involved, but should not result in further schizophrenic policies.

Moving forward, we should be inspired to know there are angels in the desert who do their work day after day, and understand that their fight for a more just, compassionate world is ours as well.

Kendra Layton is a sophomore in the College. While other children made snow angels, she was making sand angels. #Rebel.

Foreclosure a reminder that four walls do not make a home

by Kat Kelley

We have to be out of our house

by August 1. The word “foreclosure” sounds so foreign—it brings to mind images of credit rating agencies and the “millions of Americans” facing similar fates. I hear the word in the voice of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) or President Barack Obama, in lofty sentences about job creation and the recession.

I hear of these millions, and I don’t number myself among them; their stories seem so distant.

This unfamiliar word is thrown around with terms like “personal responsibility” and the implied stigma. It’s made to sound as though we were financially irresponsible, and we’ve brought this upon ourselves.

The word rings of mortgages,

however our loss is not a document or a title, it is a home. Foreclosure is procedural, yet nothing about this feels that way. It is messy, inevitable, and unfair all at once.

My parents bought this cheap little beach shack when I was fresh out of preschool, and I struggle to wrap my head around how preposterous it is that an institution can take it from us. This is the house in which we built our secret paradise. I remember months of hammers, the lingering scent of sawdust, and using my father’s power saw for the first time. We pored over paint strips and were besieged with endless splinters from the temporary floors as we renovated. My mother chose every tile and my father framed it himself. I remember my sister’s hair, caked and pasty white, when she

TEDDY SCHAFFER

This is why children need to invest in plastic piggy banks, unbreakable.

dumped her head into a bucket of wet cement as we laid the foundation, and the afternoon my mother and I came home to find our living room open to the public, a threewalled diorama. Now strangers will paint over my rainbow walls and open it up to careless tourists who will smile and remark about how “quaint” it is.

It has been a long process, stalled with negotiations, and after nearly 18 months of waiting, in many ways, it feels as though the Band-Aid is being ripped off. They have given us a concrete date, the inevitable is no longer an abstract obstacle we will one day face, but our reality. However, there is the constant feeling that we really aren’t ready.

I’m not ready to say goodbye, and while I have not spent more than three weeks at home since coming to Georgetown, I feel a melodramatic sense of homelessness. I’m so frustrated—I want to be angry, to blame someone, some intangible aspect of society for doing this to my parents. I want to curse the mythical American dream, because despite decades of hard work, my parents were able to bring themselves out of their own families’ poverty, but never quite achieve comfort or security.

Over these 18 months, I’ve learned immensely. I’ve learned about privilege and perspective, the real meaning of home, and that people are my priority.

At Georgetown, I find I am both incredibly privileged, and yet more

disadvantaged by my family’s income than in most communities.

Here, unpaid internships are the norm, and expensive brunches and Spring Break rendezvous are expected. I often struggle to explain to my peers why I can’t go to every concert, or why I crawl into work even when I’m sick. And yet, as a Georgetown student, my opportunities are endless. I do have to make sacrifices, but I am not held back, as my outstanding support networks enable my choices. I have learned that in this environment, my will is enough.

As my material possessions get stripped away, I’ve learned to define my priorities. Growing up, I never understood why my mother, feminist-extraordinaire, chose a career of convenience once she settled down.

I now realize that there are so many things more important to me than money. I don’t believe in economic primacy. I don’t believe that money will make me happier. Money is merely a facilitator. It can make one’s choices significantly easier or more difficult, it provides and eliminates various opportunities, but it should never be the end goal.

I won’t sell out passion for security, or people for comfort.

In many ways, growing up is about internalizing all the clichés you’ve ever heard, and I’ve been learning that home truly is where the heart is. This process began with my journey to Georgetown. I knew then that I was saying goodbye to

my home. When I go back, everything will have changed. Dad will still walk in every evening wanting to know if the dogs have been fed or walked, and our doormat will inevitably be saturated with sand, but I will return with new eyes. Everything in my world will change, and I will return to find the residents of Cayucos, my community outside of San Louis Obispo, Calif., haven’t skipped a beat. And yet each time I return home, I find I truly need it. I find myself reflective and contemplative, examining my path and the choices I’ve made.

In many ways, the foreclosure feels like a betrayal. I thought I needed that home base, that town where I cannot help but to be the rawest, truest form of myself. However, since the first notice of foreclosure, I’ve learned that I’ll always find home submerged in the ocean, or driving up the coast listening to James Taylor. And I’ve learned that my home was never comprised of walls and a lot; but rather in the love that seeped through those walls, and the adventures I had on that lot. The comfort of home was never derived from stability, but rather in that it was a family, and a safe space to grow into who I am today.

Kat Kelley is a junior in the NHS. She would gladly take up residence in the ocean like Ariel, if only that were possible.

voices

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice

19

Transparency of social media puts rapists on the record

by Julia Lloyd-George On Aug. 12, 2012, a 16-yearold girl named Jane Doe woke up naked in a Steubenville, Ohio basement she didn’t recognize.

From what I can imagine, she felt shame and confusion at the state of her bare body. She had never felt more vulnerable in her life, holding her knees to her chest and shaking as she tried to clear her head of the heavy cloud that surrounded her thoughts.

I can imagine this not because I have an intimate knowledge of Doe’s memories, but because, just a few weeks ear-

lier, I was in a similar situation.

It was the second night of a music festival and I had just seen The Killers perform a monumental set, finishing with a burst of fireworks and a rendition of “When You Were Young” that left me ecstatic. I was gliding on an adrenaline rush that had me craving more, desperately wanting to keep that feeling from fading.

Perhaps that’s what gave me the dumb courage to, after the friend I was with decided to turn in early, drift toward a source of music just a few steps from our tent and strike up a conversation with a group of people there.

AMANDA DOMINGUEZ

Ever wonder what language computers speak in? Hashtags on hashtags.

Insecurity in the unknown

Among Georgetown seniors, the conversations tend to get a little repetitive—who did what with whom at Tombs last night, who’s going to Tombs tonight, how awesome it is to be a part-time student so you can go to Tombs every day for 99 days, you get the idea.

Among those conversations, you’ll frequently hear anxiety-inducing comments about “the real world,” a place that nobody wants to go to but everybody knows is rapidly approaching. At this point in the year, however, this conversation is confined to a rapidly shrinking population of senior Hoyas, namely those of us who haven’t found jobs for next year quite yet.

In theory, college is supposed to prepare you for “real life.” After almost four years of it, I can say with certainty that I have absolutely no idea where this theory gets its credibility. Aside from no

longer living with your parents, the college world bears no resemblance whatsoever to the one where you have to get up for work every morning and come home every evening. There are no such familiarities as a spring/holiday/ summer breaks, homework, and Georgetown Day, where pulling all-nighters and wearing lacrosse pinnies and using every even minor holiday as an excuse to get drunk off of vaguely festive liquor are no longer acceptable forms of behavior.

The interesting part is that, aside from the select few who plan on attempting to treat their graduate school experience as Georgetown round two, these changes are going to be there for all of us.

But there’s a reason why the sighs about graduation and becoming a real-live adult aren’t heard from the masses who have already

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It was a mixed crowd, friendly post-grads who seemed more than happy to have me join in their drinking games and dancing. I felt utterly free, living out my youth the way I thought I should. The last thing I remember was a guy spinning me around as we danced—“Stop, you’re making me dizzy,” I laughed.

I was later told that I had been wandering around the campgrounds naked until a girl, whom I have never been able to thank, gave me some clothes and notified festival officials. I was later told that the police had shrugged it off— “Oh, but she was really drunk, right?” What I do remember is that the visit to the hospital was a garish blur, an awful memory of being poked and prodded under fluorescent lights. What I do remember was that I was only one of a couple hundred cases that week alone.

To this day, I do not know what happened to me that night.

I don’t even know who my attacker was. In many ways, though, I was lucky—besides a fear of being alone in crowds that persisted with me for a while, I came out of that experience with no major physical or psychological trauma.

For Jane Doe and many others, the overwhelming amount of virtual evidence makes that impos-

sible. Nevertheless, that same evidence can also lead to retribution.

When she first woke up, Doe had little more to do than look at her cell phone to piece together the details of her own awful experience. The texts, the photos, and the videos involved became viral, spreading around like wildfire. In the ensuing weeks and months, the community was in an uproar on both sides—the case made national news because so many people linked to the star football players involved were unwilling to come forward, yet the evidence splashed across the internet was glaring. In the end, though it most certainly magnified the horror of rape by thrusting it into the public sphere, social media won the case. Without it, it’s easy to imagine justice grossly failing Doe. When justice does fail, as it often does, internet outlets provide victims with agency they would otherwise be denied. Savannah Dietrich is perhaps the greatest example of someone who used social media to make a public statement and identify her attackers. The bravery required to do that against Louisville, Ky. court orders and risk the consequences cannot be overestimated, and doing so empowers the many others whose voices have been stifled.

signed their hiring papers at PWC. Although we try to mask it under a fear of having to pay taxes and go to sleep at a reasonable hour, it’s not growing up we’re afraid of—it’s the unknown.

For the majority of the Georgetown senior population, up until now our lives have been pretty stable. At the beginning of every January, we could give you a rough outline of where we’d be during the next year. Sure, summer plans could sometimes be

I learned quickly about this pervasive fear of the unknown when, in February, I turned down the first real job offer I got.

There were a lot of factors that kept me from wanting to do it—a salary that was hardly livable for DC and far less than what many of my peers are going to be making, work that seemed cool at first but would doubtlessly get mundane in a matter of weeks, and the requirement of wearing horribly unflattering scrubs to work every day.

But, the decision took me weeks, and even after I’d realized all of the reasons why this job wasn’t the right fit for me, so many parts of my indecisive mind wanted nothing more than to take it. Taking it would mean being done with the nervewracking, time-devouring, confidence-annihilating process of applying and interviewing for jobs, in which you’re asked to tell somebody all of the reasons why you’re amazing and allow them to decide if you’re telling the truth. If I’d taken this job, I could be done with the application process. I could stop going to career fairs, stop refreshing Hoya Career Connection as frequently as I do Facebook, and start go-

Carrying On

by Leigh Finnegan

A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

up in the air, but there were only a limited number of options, and come September we always knew we’d be back in a classroom.

Even during that hectic college application process—which, in retrospect, seems like a stroll through the goddamn park, with all of its hard deadlines and coaching from guidance counselors—most of us at Georgetown knew that we’d be going to school somewhere. It was just a matter of figuring out where. We were going back to school, just like we always had, and seemingly always will.

From a position of victimhood and weakness, Dietrich gained agency and strength. Speaking out like she did is the best possible way to start a conversation about the rape culture that exists in our country, and there is no better forum for that than social media. If every victim did the same, that conversation might be loud enough to convince those with political clout to change the way many of our state laws favor rapists. Though that might be a naïve point of view, it’s difficult to identify a greater avenue for change, besides possibly raising every man to be a decent human being in the first place.

If I ever think of that July night, it’s when I read about the rape cases that, through high public involvement and controversy, have become front-page news on a national scale. What concerns me is not these cases, but the countless others that fall by the wayside because victims are afraid to speak and the law fails to protect them. It’s the ghosts of the anonymous that haunt me.

Julia Lloyd-George is a sophomore in the College. She would like to warn all babies out there about the dangers of Snapchatting. ing to Tombs on Monday nights with the rest of the Blessed Ones.

Wouldn’t that be the life?

The temptation was much stronger than it should have been, given that the tradeoff was three months of comfort followed by two years of boredom, frustration, and ramennoodle dinners. But it was more than just a job offer—it was an offer of sureness, of knowing where I was going to be come August, just as I have for each of the past 21 years.

That lack of security in your near future is the real reason for fear of graduation. Because, from the looks of it, the real world doesn’t actually seem so bad. It’s a world of work, sure, but also of more disposable income than ever before, of no homework or papers or studying, of 5 o’clock happy hours without the guilt of weeknight drinking when there are things due the next day.

I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds a hell of a lot better than gossiping about who was DFMOing at Tombs last weekend. Maybe, once we all get over our fear of the unknown, we can be ready and excited to burst the Georgetown bubble open for good.

A Special thanks to: Treasury & Rock it Again for providing vintage pieces Fashion Editors:

Neha Ghanshamdas

Julian De La Paz Photographers:

Maria Miracle

Julia Tanaka Models:

Maria De Lera Fernandez

Joshua Sattel

Nicolo Dona Dalle Rose

Freddie Brodermann

Ceren Ates

Jescinta Izevbigie Fashion Assistant:

Sara Ainsworth Graphic Design:

Lauren Ashley Panawa