Engendering Debate

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I ns i de : S e le s , Ge nde rEq ui t y , a ndS po r t s

E n g e n d e r i n gDe b a t e

03.05.15 VOL. XLVI, NO. 15 CONTENTS

FORUM 3 The Anti-Selfie Movement 4 E-Mail Etiquette 5 Feminism for All 6 Feminism for All NEWS 7 The Untold Side ARTS 8 South Asian Satisfaction 9 A Lizard's Tale SPORTS 10 Hit or Miss 11 At(track)ting the Best As Harvard College's weekly undergraduate newsmagazine, the Harvard Independent provides in-depth, critical coverage of issues and events of interest to the Harvard College community. The Independent has no political affiliation, instead offering diverse commentary on news, arts, sports, and student life.

For publication information and general inquiries, contact President Albert Murzakhanov (president@harvardindependent.com). Letters to the Editor and comments regarding the content of the publication should be addressed to Editor-in-Chief Shaquilla Harrigan (editorinchief@harvardindependent.com).

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The Harvard Independent is published weekly during the academic year, except during vacations, by The Harvard Independent, Inc., Student Organization Center at Hilles, Box 201, 59 Shepard Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Copyright Š 2015 by The Harvard Independent. All rights reserved.

The Indy is gender inclusive.

03.05.15

Inside: Selles, Gender Equity, and Sports

Engendering Debate

Cover design by Anna Papp

President Vice Presdient Editor-in-Chief Director of Production News Editor Forum Editor Arts Editor Sports Editor Design Editor Associate Forum Editor Associate Arts Editor Illustrator Designers

Staff Writers

Albert Murzakhanov '16 Farhana Nabi '16 Shaquilla Harrigan '16 Sean Frazzette '16 Aditya Agrawal '17 Ritchey Howe '17 Michael Luo '16 Caroline Cronin '18 Anna Papp '16 Caroline Gentile '17 Andrew Lin '17 Yaara Yacoby '17 Alice Linder '17 Abigail Parker '17 Whitney Gao '16 Manik Bhatia '16 Terilyn Chen '16 Yuqi Hou '15 Chloe Li '16 Dominique Luongo '17 Orlea Miller '16 Carlos Schmidt '15 Frank Tamberino '16 Jackie Leong '16 Madi Taylor '16 Shreya Vardhan '17 Peyton Fine '17 Eloise Lynton '17 Hannah Kates '18 Chris Riley '17 Andrew Adler '17

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Ditch the Stick The proper way to take selfies.

By RITCHEY HOWE

T

he first time I saw a selfie-stick I thought to myself, “This must be a joke.” As a tourist stopped in front of the John Harvard statue, I kept my head down, praying she wouldn’t ask me to take a picture of her. However, she simply picked up a stick with a camera attached to the end and took a quick picture of herself.

My first thought was that the tourist had cleverly taped her camera to a three-foot stick. But I quickly discovered that “Selfies on a Stick” can be purchased almost anywhere: Amazon, Best Buy, Opening Ceremony, you name it.

Although in the moment I was pleased to not to have to take the tourist’s photograph, I believe that the invention of the selfie stick exemplifies one of our culture’s greatest problems. My issue with the selfie-stick is not how ridiculous people look with them, although that is an undeniable fact. The selfie-stick exemplifies how narcissist we have become.

Why couldn’t the tourist simply take a picture of the John Harvard statue?

No, she needed to be included, even if by herself. While none of my friends or family members admits to using a selfie stick, a tourist interviewed by the New York Post explained that with a selfie stick, “You can see yourself, and you look prettier.”

The Harvard Independent • 03.05.15

Her quote perfectly encapsulates my problem with this invention. Why should we put significant care into how we look? As we spend more time on social media, posting, commenting, and liking our own and other people’s pictures, we feel the pressure of tak-

ing “pretty” pictures. We want to look as beautiful for our Facebook friends or Instagram followers. We will even walk around with a ridiculous stick to improve our chances of taking a “pretty” picture. We will even potentially hurt other people just to snap a good picture. In Times Square, I have witnessed tourists bumping into other people when using their selfie sticks, completely unaware that they have hit another human. They are so focused on taking this “pretty” picture of them-

selves, that they are often oblivious to the harm they cause.

Our ease of taking and sharing pictures has changed how we experience all worldly things. For example, when we visit a tourist site, like the John Harvard statue, we can no longer simply observe and appreciate it. We must take a photograph for evidence or proof. “Photo or it didn’t happen” has become a popularized phrase. The selfie stick enables us not only to take a picture of the site, but also to include ourselves within it! So now we take the picture not only to capture the site, but also to capture ourselves: we become the main focus.

I don’t want to sound like I am better or above selfie sticks; I have taken many selfies, yet thankfully without a stick. However, when travelling or with friends, we should seek to emphasize the present moment rather than taking a good selfie. I applaud the National Gallery’s recent decision to ban the use of selfie sticks in the museum. I hope many museums, sports arenas, and hopefully just society in general bans these sticks.

Ritchey Howe ‘17 (ritcheyhowe@college.harvard.edu) asks everyone to try to live in the moment and away from the selfie stick.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. harvardindependent.com

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Forum

Not Even Regina George Would A Response to calling people out over e-mail.

By ANONYMOUS

E

arly this past Sunday morning at 2:26 AM, March 1st, the email that has had all of Harvard talking for the last few days was received over an underground mailing list. The message was short and simple.

Subject Line: “Dear Ten man” Body: “Thought that was a party suite? EOM”

email as a personal attack and many students voiced their opinions over the long thread. Some described the message as “f***** up”, while others took a moment to recognize Party A’s positive character.

Yes, this email was a personal attack on one student. But, I think the reason why it blew up is because it felt like it an attack on Harvard. Harvard’s community is predominantly upper middle class. Regardless of whether you belong to the upper middle class community or not, students at Harvard are often painted by outsiders as rich, pretentious snobs. That’s what the whole “H-bomb” is about. But within the Harvard bubble, it’s supposed to be a safe space; a space where your character is not labeled before your actions are observed. This email violated that space.

On March 1st, 3:19 PM, Party B, issued a formal apology. Even Regina George knew better than to publicly a shame person, that’s what the burn book is for.

Below are the things I from this unnecessary drama.

Yes, that was the entirety of the original email.

Shots were fired. Shade was cast.

For those unfamiliar with the story, a student decided to publicly complain about the lack of parties hosted by a particular Harvard suite. There is an unspoken rule that the larger suites on campus will host several parties during the year because there aren’t very many large social or party spaces on campus.

This late night, probably drunk, email was described as both “entertaining” and “brutal.” That is, until Party B sent out a long seven paragraph response to Party A’s initial email.

This email, which we will not display here, was distributed on many social lists on campus and even BroBible, the holiest of all the bibles. It had been so widely circulated that it prompted a response from house deans on March 3rd, who described the message as reflecting “very poorly on our community”.

So what exactly was in Party B’s email? The beginnings of the email were decent. The student explains why they haven’t had parties recently and the administrative limitations they’ve had to face. Fair. But then, the email gets more personal and honestly, a little creepy. It goes through much of Party A’s personal life like what colleges they were accepted to, where they’ve worked in the past, and even their parents’ occupations. It then goes on to label Party A as “entitled”, “privileged”, and If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, regarding this ar“arrogant” in provocative and harsh language. ticle, please email editorinchief@harvardindependent.com.

Students at Harvard were quick to recognize the

1. Don’t drink and email. (DDE) 2. Don’t publically insult people. Feel free to do this in a private sphere.

3. Long emails take time to write…midterms anyone?

4. Maybe we should have more party spaces on campus. What do you think President Faust?

5. Harvard doesn’t even party hard enough for this to be a serious issue.

6. If Regina wouldn’t do it, neither should you.

4 harvardindependent.com

03.05.15 • The Harvard Independent

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The Fourth Wave

Men, Femmephobia, & the New Wave of Feminism.

By W. POWELL EDDINS

I

just got through one of the most difficult and dehumanizing weeks of my entire life. For around two years, eight dresses that I borrowed from my mother have hung idly in my closet. Beneath them lay two pairs of shoes, a pair of bright “flamingo” colored peep-toe heels and a pair of pale nude pumps (something a little more professional), both of which I purchased at the outlets in Mebane, North Carolina. To soothe the shock of the cashier, I assured her the purchases were for “my girlfriend.”

The only time I’d wear these clothes were alone in my room doing homework, in the presence of a few friends during the occasional gossipy, drunken Saturday evening gathering, or the time I performed as “Carolina Del Gay” during Harvard Drag Night.

The reason this week was so hard was that I decided to try and be honest with myself and with the world: I donned my feminine attire not as a joke or performance, but as part of my identity, and that’s when it became a problem.

As soon as I walked into CVS to buy my makeup before the week started, a masculine man (i.e. “bro”) walked by me in the makeup aisle, laughed, and visibly mocked me. That would be just a taste of the discrimination I would face from that point on. Packs of bros passed me as I strutted by them in heels and erupted in laughter. People on the street stopped in their tracks and glared at me with disgust. A stranger walked up to me and grabbed my ass from behind.

A friendly acquaintance of mine even told me, “You look like a freak of nature. What’s wrong with you? You repulse me.” Mind you, this is “progressive” Cambridge, MA. After just a week, simply walking outside of my room became an exhausting and scary task, but in some ways, this was nothing new.

I figured out from a pretty early age that my femininity, as a “boy”, was not something to embrace, but to hide. Whether it was my parents immediately deleting the video of my dance performance to Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” scolding me “that’s not something boys do,” my friends making fun of me because my favorite board game was “Pretty, Pretty Princess,” or some of the folks in high school not wanting to eat the “faggot housewife” brownies I baked for advisory period (and all that’s just the tip of the iceberg), by high school graduation I thoroughly hated myself.

The thing that most people don’t recognize about this experience is that I was not being bullied or marginalized because of my sexual orientation–I wasn’t sexually active until college–I was being bullied because of The Harvard Independent • 03.05.15

my gender. And by “gender”, I don’t mean maleness; I mean my place on the spectrum of gender expressions that male-bodied people can perform. When people say to me, “Powell, how did everyone in your high school not know you were gay? You’ve been gay since you came out of the womb!” or “Powell, your voice is so gay!” or “Why do you walk in such a gay way?” they’re telling me that I am a feminine man, which they perceive to indicate something about my sexuality. In the same way, during the past year when 11-year-old Michael Morones attempted suicide and permanently disabled himself after being bullied for liking “My Little Pony” or when 12-year-old Ronan Shimizu took his life after being bullied for joining the cheerleading team, they were not killing themselves because of anti-gay bullying.

They killed themselves because they could no longer bring themselves to live with the

has some problems with racism and transphobia, is mainly about feminine people who were assigned a male gender at birth embracing and celebrating their femininity–especially because there aren’t a lot of places where they can do so safely. A lot of people, especially gay men who have internalized femmephobia, are uncomfortable with this femininity because it’s a part of these drag queens’ identities that they take home with them after the show instead of just a performance.

The Pudding’s style of drag, on the other hand, focuses on laughing about how ridiculous men look wearing dresses: that a “man” would have the audacity to break the norm of masculinity and “degrade” themselves to something feminine. And that’s why the Hasty Pudding’s style of drag has been able to exist since the 18th century.

But men wearing dresses as part of their

“I figured out from a pretty early age that my femininity, as a ‘boy’, was not something to embrace, but to hide.” stigma and dehumanization that accompanies expressing a feminine gender in a male body.

The reason that these young, feminine boys are killing themselves and the reason that the FBI has determined that being a gay male (or being perceived to be a gay male) is the most common identity victimized by hate crimes in America (4x as high as gay women) is the same reason that a trans woman has a 1 in 12 chance of being murdered in her lifetime and why at least six trans women and male-assigned-atbirth-gender-non-conforming people have already been murdered in 2015 alone. Trans women, especially trans women who do not “pass” as cisgender women, are being killed because they are expressing femininity in a body that is perceived to be male. And the values of Western society have determined that expression to be a joke–something to be disposed of and laughed at instead of respected.

One of the roots of this cultural idea of feminine male identity as a joke is misogynist drag. I find it incredibly interesting that the events thrown by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals are massively attended by Harvard students, yet shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race have almost no place in popular Harvard culture, LGBTQ or otherwise.

RuPaul’s Drag Race, while it absolutely

identity were expelled in the Harvard Secret Court of 1920–once femininity becomes part of your identity instead of something to be laughed at, that’s when it becomes attacked. (As an aside, I also don’t doubt that many feminine men, regardless of sexuality, may use the Hasty Pudding as a place to explore feminine gender safely, and that the Hasty Pudding likely doesn’t have bad intentions–there’s tons of wonderful, caring people in the Pudding!–but that also doesn’t change the fact that their institution has historically promoted femmephobia and transphobia.)

Although there are certainly a few exceptions, by-and-large Harvard final clubs do not accept feminine gay men into their ranks. The only time I’ve ever been invited to a final club was when one club invited over all of the queens who had performed in Harvard Drag Night after the show. I’ve been rejected at the door trying to attend parties at final clubs countless times, but for some reason once I donned a dress for the misogynist entertainment of the men at this particular final club, I could be admitted. While I did not attend the after party, most of the drag queens, desperate for social acceptance, were incredibly excited to go and to be socially validated by the final club scene, even if in a demeaning way. continued on pg. 6 harvardindependent.com

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Forum Not only are exclusive social spaces like final clubs generally dismissive of feminine men, but so are “progressive” campus organizations and social groups. The general rhetoric promoted by groups like First-Year Urban Program (FUP), Queer Students & Allies (QSA, of which I formerly served as co-chair), and quite frankly the Harvard College Office of BGLTQ Student Life is that gay men, especially in the context of a “progressive” university like Harvard, don’t face a lot of adversity because they have male privilege and same-sex attraction and relationships are becoming increasingly normalized. And homosexuality absolutely is becoming normalized–but at the expense of feminine gay men.

The origin of homosexual stigma, beyond religious persecution, is that homosexual attraction meant that you were feminine and thus not conforming to male expecta-

with “masc[uline] only”, “no femmes”, and my personal favorite, “if I wanted to sleep with a girl I’d f*ck a woman not a feminine faggot like you.” In my own experience, I started an LGBTQ business group at Harvard, and one of my board members reached out to a gay man he knew was interested in finance and asked him why he hadn’t attended any of our events. He responded, “I don’t want to be in an organization run by a feminine faggot like Powell. It’s unprofessional, and none of you are gonna get jobs because of it.” Constantly, at LGBTQ diversity professional events, masculine gay men, who realistically don’t face a lot of stigma in the workplace because their masculinity prevents them from being “visibly gay,” express implicitly or explicitly, as in the example above, that they are uncomfortable with my femininity and find it unprofessional.

The people in my community that are sup-

“But more than anything else in the world, I want a feminism which allows that little boy who walks into his mom’s bathroom and puts on her makeup, that little boy who joins the cheerleading team, that little boy who wants to act like or be a woman to be celebrated instead of killed.” tions because of this attraction (and vice versa for women). Increasingly, the narrative surrounding coming out for gay men has shifted to coming out despite feminine gay stereotypes associated with homosexuality, and how masculine gays are breaking the barriers of this stereotype. Gradually, homosexuality is becoming something that is not limited to feminine men, but also something that masculine men can pursue.

As more and more masculine men engage in homosexuality, the feminine stigma associated with the actual attraction itself is being removed, and homosexuality for masculine men is being normalized.

If you search on Google “gay men and loud femininity”, you’ll see what people think of feminine gay men. People say things like “They’re hurting the cause” and “I don’t understand why they feel the need to act in that embarrassing way.” We’re the ones everyone is distancing themselves from; we’re the bottom barrel of the gay community; we’re the wrong kind of gay.

Femmes like me have barely had the opportunity to come out in the first place – I’ve been getting called a faggot since I was in second grade because of my gender expression. And then femmes like me get told “you’re too obsessed with your sexuality”, that “there’s more to a person than who you’re attracted to”–and there absolutely is, but the problem is that feminine men never get to explore that part of themselves because they’re constantly reduced solely to their perceived sexual orientation by the world around them because of their gender expression.

And even within the gay community, feminine men are constantly attacked. Profiles on gay dating apps and sites are littered 6 harvardindependent.com

men works against feminine men.

Ultimately, the issue that feminine men are facing is that we are not only dealing with misogyny for our femininity, but also discrimination against our gender-nonconformity–it’s a double-edged sword (i.e. you’re feminine and unlike a woman you’re not even supposed to be feminine by social standards). This femininity, contrary to popular belief, is not something I can switch off. Even when I go to an interview wearing a navy suit and black shoes and putting on my best “masc bro” drag, my femininity still shines through, and the interviewer usually makes a comment. When I express femininity, it’s not respectable like when a woman expresses it. It’s that lack of respectability in feminine male expression that has caused gay men’s hate crime rates to be four times that of gay women, and for us to be so unemployable. After all, just like they say on gay dating apps, if employers wanted a woman, they’d hire one, not a feminine faggot like me.

Third wave feminism clearly isn’t working for feminine men and trans women. I want a feminism that defines the reason why femininity and gender-non-conformity are stigmatized across all genders, instead of forcing people to distance themselves from the expression that is causing them discrimination. Gay men should not be forced to act masculine to avoid workplace stigma and be considered normatively attractive, and women should not be forced to balance their femininity and masculinity in a certain way to make their identities consistent with “professional” standards.

I want a feminism that encourages society to embrace those expressions so that those expressions lose their stigma. Once stigmas against feminine expression for men is broken down–which looks like me being able to wear a dress and pumps in a professional setting–trans women will be taken more seriously as women, just as many trans men find it easier (not easy) to be taken seriously as men because of reduced stigma about women wearing a suit or expressing in a masculine way. I want a feminism that stops lip servicing the idea of gender as a spectrum and actually starts treating it like one, instead of like a binary. This is the feminism that lies beyond achieving legal recognitions like marriage equality and employment non-discrimination–it pin points and breaks down the stigmas that caused people of marginalized gender backgrounds to face legal discrimination in the first place.

But more than anything else in the world, I want a feminism which allows that little boy who walks into his mom’s bathroom and puts on her makeup, that little boy who joins the cheerleading team, that little boy who wants to act like or be a woman to be celebrated instead of killed. As Gloria Steinem said at the conclusion of her famous essay that ushered in the second wave of feminism, “Because the idea is, in the long run, that women’s liberation will be men’s liberation, too.” It’s time to liberate all genders.

This is the fourth wave of feminism.

posed to be helping me find jobs are actually blocking the diversity recruiting pathways that should be helping femmes because we are the ones who are systematically disadvantaged in the workplace, not masculine gay men.

And that sort of stigma for feminine men translates over into not only the absurd hate crime and violence statistics I mentioned before, but also to the realm of discrimination that most folks think only women face.

In my own experience, this includes everything from microaggressions about my gender presentation in job interviews, to being sexually assaulted (and more than once–it’s happened to varying degrees throughout my whole life), to anorexia, to not feeling safe when I walk home at night. And these aren’t only my own personal experiences: they’re clearly illustrated in various statistics. Gay and bisexual men, according to the Williams Institute, earn up to 32% less than straight men, controlling for race, education, occupation, and work experience. That’s even greater than the 23% gap between women and men. And given that a lot of that gap for women can be explained away by differences in household labor division, that a significantly higher number of gay men don’t have children for which to devote household labor, and that this statistic includes gay men of both masculine and feminine gender expressions, this statistic is deeply alarming. Matt Bomer might be able to get an investment banking job and do just fine, but this barrier to occupational success is still very much a reality for the Carson Kressley’s and Miss J’s of the world. The sort of male privilege that “progressive” Harvard says applies to If you have questions or comments about this article, all men only advantages certain men, and in please email editorinchief@harvardindependent. fact the maleness that privileges masculine com.

03.05.15 • The Harvard Independent

News

Side by side, hand in hand

Attending the launch of the UC’s new gender-equity campaign.

By ADITYA AGRAWAL

T

he Undergraduate Council launched its gender inclusivity campaign ‘Side by Side’ on the evening of March 2nd with a panel discussion on cementing inclusivity at Harvard and beyond. After some remarkably tepid introductory remarks by Dean of Student Life, Stephen Lassonde, Nina Davuluri, 2014’s Miss America, addressed the gathering as the keynote speaker.

Davuluri focused on how her role as Miss America had allowed her to focus on cross-sectional gender issues in America and India. Davuluri recollected her experiences lobbying for women in STEM initiatives with lawmakers in DC. “They would be like ‘that’s cute.’ It was hard to present myself from an educational background.” Davuluri, however, focused exclusively on a strictly male­female binary, and side­stepped the entire idea of a gender spectrum that the campaign seeks to promote.

In fact, the ‘Side by Side’ campaign found its roots in the United Nations’ ‘He­For­She’ campaign and was initially named ‘Harvard He­For­She.’ Further consultations prompted the UC to re-craft the campaign as one that seeks to build a community inclusive of all gender identities. It is this precise binary that Davuluri reinforced in her speech; it is, at the same time, important to recognize that her speech was largely based off her own experiences, and how those experiences relate to the goals of the UC’s campaign. However, I do wish that she had focused more on the idea of gender­as­a­spectrum. Davuluri herself went to the University Michigan, and was an active member of a sorority.

Social organizations like these are some of the biggest culprits in molding an unwelcoming community on college campuses.

Davuluri’s keynote was followed by a truly riveting panel discussion that featured panelists who focused on more pan-gender issues, including former attorney general of Massachusetts Martha Coakley, Director of the LGBTQ office at Harvard Van Bailey, and prominent venture capitalist Hugo Van Vuuren ‘07. All panelists presented their opening remarks alongside their preferred gender pronouns, an aspect that I felt created a tangibly and immediately more welcoming environment. Bailey, speaking from personal experiences of stigmatization and ensuing homelessness, provided the very insightful perspective that “allyship can’t be switched on or off.” Continuing, Bailey stated that we have to “Cater the program towards the most vulnerable person in the room.” He also included that growth in campaigns for mutual allyship come from the “discomfort, joy and pain” of being corrected and called out.

Van Vuuren and a co­founder of the MenSpeakUp club at the College brought some of the most uniquely incisive ideas to the table. “Campaigns need to be positive and aspirational, just like a start­up, and should sell a vision for the future.” He encouraged audience members to have conversations about gender issues once a week with people who might never talk about such issues.

Such an effort, he believed, would ensure a “growth coefficient of more than 1” which will ensure that “more than one person joins for every person who drops out of the campaign.”

The Harvard Independent • 03.05.15

Photo by Aditya Agrawal

Allyship campaigns have often faced accusations of ironically being hostile to outsiders and the very groups they seek to impact. Conceptualizing an inclusivity aimed campaign as a person­to­person viral movement was both refreshing and promising. According to a trusted source, Vuuren was a member of a final club during his time at Harvard. His active advocacy work for gender issues, during his time at the college and even today, serves to underscore the fact that the membership in male­only clubs and fraternities is not oppositional to reflection and action on issues of gender inequities.

While I was incredibly thankful to the UC, the South Asian Association, and the Harvard College Women’s Center for cosponsoring a fascinating panel discussion, I was ultimately left with more questions than answers about the initiative itself. While the campaign ultimately seeks to ignite conversation about gender inclusivity on campus, how precisely it aims to do that remains unclear. But any beginning is a good beginning.

Getting people to talk is a crucial precursor to reformation, and if nothing else, I hope that ‘Side by Side’ succeeds in getting people to talk and reflect.

Aditya Agrawal ‘17 (adityaagrawal@college.harvard.edu) doesn’t want people to side-step gender issues. harvardindependent.com

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Ghungroovin’

The 26th Production of SAA’s Ghungroo.

By CAROLINE C. CRONIN

W

hen I decided to go see the Ghungroo performance run by the South Asian Association last weekend, I truly did not realize what I was getting into. What I expected to experience was a sort of exotic cultural demonstration by Harvard students connecting with heritage. What I found was a hilarious and outstanding celebration of group effort and crosscultural ties–because nothing brings people together like dancing.

I arrived a tad early and sat in my seat, anxious to be transported to the mystical land of India through colorful costumes and exotic music. When the emcees walked onto the stage and let loose a torrent of surprising humor amid goofy skits, I was taken aback. No one had told me how funny the show would be! I could do nothing more than sit back and laugh at the jokes filled with cultural allusions and innuendo. I looked around the audience to see if I was the only one so surprised and found to my relief (among the Ghungroo veterans) a few faces mirroring my shocked delight. As the show continued, I was in for more surprises…

The talent that graced the stage at Agassiz Theater was diverse. There were soulful singers and rocking musicians–not too mention an a cappella mash-up that had me singing to myself for days to come. The dances varied from a modern routine in which the costume was black leggings and a sparkly top to a classical dance with the traditional dress. In between were dances that combined the choreography of contemporary dance with the moves of popular Bollywood movies. Regardless of the style, every dance had me itching to join them on stage.

I was able to talk to a few dancers 8 harvardindependent.com

and participants of Ghungroo, and was equally pleased by the enthusiasm each emanated. Jane Jacob, one of the producers this year touched on the challenges of producing and the responsibility that came with it this year but she would still “do it all over again in a heartbeat.”

She also stressed the attraction that Ghungroo has had for all sorts of students over the years, stating, “there is something about South Asian culture because it’s so colorful and the music is so lively, and it’s also something that is not very Americanized that people don’t have access to it in other ways. So having shows like this is very interesting to people.” After, watching the show just once, I agree full-heartedly.

Senior Upasna Sharma and junior Sreeja Kalapurakkel both took part in the classical dance and have had years of training in the art form–making them eligible for the only dance in the production that requires previous experience. As Kalapurakkel informed me, Indian classical dance is the oldest form of dance, dating back “almost 2,000 years.” Sreeja and Upasna described for me the required dress of classical, which included multiple pieces all pulled together–making the intricate moves of the dance all the more impressive given the getup. And as difficult as it is to perform and choreograph, the girls were very proud of the final product.

Sophomore Kavya Pathak, one of the assistant set designers, dancers, and skit-performers, told of how she got into Ghungroo. “I originally signed up last year because every upperclassmen on our [SAA] board told me how amazing it would be, and that I would regret not dancing in the show, so I signed up, and it was one of the best experiences of my freshman year. This show is now one of

my favorite parts of the year, and I’ll keep dancing and being involved for the rest of my time here,” she said. Among many of the perks to joining Ghungroo, Pathak emphasized the community– something that will keep her coming back year after year.

The participation and involvement that the show produces is a wonder in itself. I was amazed at how many people I never would have expected to see dance in front of a large audience joined Ghungroo and danced their hearts out up there. Pathak spoke of this quality as well, saying, “For all of the amazing shows on campus, Harvard has very little geared towards students without dance or performing experience. Ghungroo gives everyone, regardless of prior ability, the chance to shine on stage, and for many people, Ghungroo is their only opportunity to perform in front of an audience. In addition to the chance to perform, the performers are attracted to the show because of the incredible energy of every performance.” She continues, “The Saturday night show is an experience that no one forgets, and the energy from the dancers and the crowd is incredible.” It sure was!

In its twenty-sixth year, Ghungroo is as strong as ever, with over 400 students involved! What originally began as a charity fundraiser has turned into an annual staple of Harvard life. Ghungroo is actually the word for the small bells attached to the feet of the dancer, but now means so much more to many Harvard students.

Caroline Cronin ‘18 (ccronin01@college.harvard.edu) might be seen Ghungrooving in the years to come…

03.05.15 • The Harvard Independent

Dessert for Dinner

Short Fiction: A sandy alternative to sweetness.

By MICHAEL LUO

D

id you get it?”

“I think I got something.”

“You probably missed.”

“We’ll see about that.”

RJ wanted to come, but I told him to stay. Then I forgot he was my brother and not my dog, so he came along anyway.

For all the rational thinking we could’ve done, rationing our food was not one of them. Now, we were dependent upon ourselves to hunt. Thankfully, those archery lessons in War Corps were worth something, if naught for all the cute boys I never impressed.

We approached our prey at different rates. RJ sprinted up, grossed himself out, and then acted like nothing was wrong.

“Oh, not bad. I could’ve done better,” he called back.

As I got up to the see our pre-cooked meal, RJ gently positioned himself behind me with his head poking out from my side.

“What, scared of death?”

“Nah, just making sure the zombies get you first.”

I took one glance that became a gaze.

It was almost smiling. A crescent crease swiped across its dried, tender scales with cerulean-tainted eyes, looking like matte marbles stuck in time.

Lying limp on its side, the beast looked comfortable, as if to say, “Do not disturb.

Just casually dying.”

Staring at a dead lizard was not worth my time, given the lack of food and water, but for reasons unknown to my injured spirit, I decided to kneel down and acquaint the creature. RJ stood his ground. He didn’t ask, so I didn’t answer.

For something that had just skipped across miles of sand for who knows what, it had deceptively short legs. The The Harvard Independent • 03.05.15

bend in its knees depicted a run lost of purpose. Maybe it was looking for family, for adventure, or for food like us, but just so happened, on an arbitrary day when the sun still chose to rise and gravity still thought to come to work, a calculated, steel arrow had found the fortune to pierce its abdomen. Tough luck. Out here in the desert, there was a queen somewhere, and I had to make that point clear.

The pierce wasn’t even that good. All hunters know a shot well placed doesn’t leak blood. For Mr. Dead Lizard-soon-tobe-dinner, trails of life drained out from where my hunger had found its cure.

I once heard that a desert lizard could change color depending on its mood. Tan must’ve meant pretty dead.

It just laid there, like an idiot, with its scales flopped back and a tail curled down. I almost felt sorry, but I didn’t. If it had run any faster, the bastard wouldn’t have felt sorry for me; its sneaky snout still pointing up as if I owed it some post-mortem respect.

Screw you. The desert is dry, hot, and rarely friendly, so if you want a funeral, you’re not getting it. Remember the time RJ let the rabbit go? Or when he told me the cow had told him that the chicken had been on vacation and that’s why we didn’t have any eggs for breakfast?

That was when we had a farm. Now all we had were hunger and motivation, and believe me, Lizard, those two aren’t working in your favor.

I had stared at this passed-away reptile long enough. Picking it up by its tail, I pulled my arrow out like any Good Samaritan would. There was a prolonged shtick sound, matched by an “ughhhh” from RJ as I watched some of the lizard come along with the pull. That was rather unfortunate. Now my arrow smelled

of sulfur.

In my left hand, the rotting body unrolled like a string puppet held by a single limb. Its four legs swung while its head bobbed in the desert gust, imitating a metronome at mercy to the sway of its tail held by me, and the draught of the dry, hot air prescribed by God. He was supposed to be dinner. But something about the asymmetrical hole in his chest caused by my own doing made me lose my appetite. Had I really killed this beast? All six inches of the last descendant of dinosaurs that once dominated my planet? Now in one hand I held a weapon of my choosing forever stained with killing while in the other, a memory of how death was committed in hopes of life.

Involuntarily but not out of passion, I dropped the arrow as I took a seat into the sand, one leg crossed over another.

Placing the cold, scaly lump into my lap, I unfolded his retired talons and brushed closed his frozen eyes to artificially make peace out of murder. Treating him like he was a toy, perhaps one that belonged to RJ, I violated his being by bending his corpse into as natural a position as I could imagine. He looked almost comfortable. Without his consent, I tucked his body into the desert, tail first like any mother would. The ceremony wasn’t quite complete, but I decided to leave it at that. The rest was up to wind and sand.

“C’mon, let’s go,” I said to RJ. He didn’t respond, but I know he followed.

Michael Luo ‘16 (michaelluo@college.harvard. edu) last had a rice crispy with a side of Lamont for dinner. harvardindependent.com

9

Sports

Indoor-ing a Long Season Harvard Men and Women finish the Indoor Track season with wins.

By PEYTON FINE

T

he Harvard track program went across the river to Gordon Indoor Track for the Ivy League Indoor Track and Field Championships. As the weather outside remained cold, the competition inside the track kept the temperature up with some incredible performances. In the team competition, the women’s team was the cream of the crop cruising to its third straight Ivy League Championship.

Some individual men were the torchbearers for their respective events, but the team as a whole found itself well behind the standard finishing the weekend fifth.

Within Gordon Indoor Track, a dichotomy was quickly evident to the observers between individual successes and team success. On the men’s side of the championships, Harvard individuals began to dominate the sprint events. Freshman Malcolm Johnson finished first in the 60-meter dash and fellow Freshman Matthew Hurst took second in the 200-meter dash. Hurst also placed fourth in the 400-meter dash. In the 60-meter hurdles, senior Jarvis Harris took another Ivy League Championship and in the preliminary round bested his own Harvard record in the process.

However, in all of the above examples, Harvard as a team was not coming out on top. In the 60-meter dash, Princeton put three sprinters in the top six, giving the Tigers thirteen team points to the ten given to the Crimson by Johnson. The trend continued to the 200 meters, where Princeton garnered two more team points than Harvard. To cap it off, Princeton took fourteen team points in the 60-meter hurdles to Harvard’s ten points even with Harris’s record setting performance. After the sprint races though, Harvard’s individual success even faltered. Harvard failed to place a single runner in the top three in any track event longer than the 400 meters. Harvard also placed outside of the top three in all of the team relays. With each of those events, Harvard lost significant ground to the rest of the field even with the success of the sprinters.

On the field events, the Crimson also lacked the firepower to keep pace with the rest of the field. Sophomore Efe Uwaifo used a triple jump of over 52 feet to propel himself to an Ivy League crown. But, like the distance runners, Harvard throwers failed to place a single individual in the top three.

After the dust had settled, and even with the success of the early sprinters, Harvard placed fifth, almost 100 points behind the champion, Princeton.

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The women’s team told a much different story. Like the men, Harvard’s female sprinters set the early standard. Senior Danielle Barbian set the all-time Ivy League record in the 60-meter dash and followed it up by winning the 200-meter dash. Junior Autumne Franklin won the 60-meter hurdles and also placed in the top five of the 400-meter dash.

However, unlike the men, the women did not have a dichotomy between individual and team success. The Crimson took the top two places in the 60-meter dash, three of the top five places in the hurdles, and placed in the top three in two of the three relays. The Crimson women also succeeded in placing a runner in the top five of all but one distance run.

For the field portion of the women’s competition, the story was truly sophomore Nikki Okwelogu. Okwelogu, who is a member of the Nigerian national track and field team, was in a class of her own in the shot put. Her throw of over 56 feet bested the second place finisher by over eight feet. The throw shattered Okwelogu’s own Ivy League record and was good for ninth in the nation this year. Harvard senior Taylor DuPont also placed second in the weight throw with a throw that outpaced close competitors from Yale and Columbia.

For their individual successes, Barbian was awarded the track athlete of the meet and Okwelogu the field athlete of the meet. However, it was the sustained team success across the board that gave the Crimson women a commanding victory. With the additional placing of athletes in the high jump and two athletes in the top five of the pentathlon, the team scored 125 points, which was a new program record.

Both the men and the women will move on to the IC4A/ ECAC Championships next weekend at Boston University.

Any athlete, regardless of placing, who received a time at the Ivy League meet that met a particular standard, will be a part of the team for the next championship. From there, the Crimson athletes will look to cross an even higher threshold to qualify for the NCAA championships. Look for many of Harvard’s individual successes to translate all the way to the national stage.

Peyton Fine ’17 (peytonfine@college.harvard.edu) watched as the Crimson track and field athletes turned in some unbelievable individual and team performances.

03.05.15 • The Harvard Independent

Sports

indy

A Bittersweet End

HMV splits St. Francis and Penn State matches.

By SHAQUILLA HARRIGAN

C

urrently ranked third overall by the EIVA, the men’s volleyball team has an impressive 8-5 record this season. Not only has the team come together for some decisive victories about midway through their season, but the team also boasts several players who hold individual records and accolades. The Crimson’s athletic prowess could be seen during last weekend’s matchups against St. Francis and Penn State. Despite splitting victories between the two teams, the team should feel proud of themselves as they head into an upcoming matchup against Springfield on March 11th.

Last Friday, Harvard men’s volleyball easily beat St. Francis 3-0. The closest margin within the three sets was nine points. The Crimson’s defense allowed St. Francis to have a meager-at-best .062 hitting percentage, while getting a season-high .525 hitting percentage. Junior Branden Clemens led Harvard with the most number of kills and digs, clocking in ten and eleven respectively. Other standouts during the St. Francis game include brothers Casey White ‘17 and DJ White ‘15 in addition to Caleb Zimmick ‘15 and Nick Bendell ‘17. DJ White and Zimmick both contributed seven kills. Zimmick also turned in four blocks. Casey White emphatically scored the set point in the third set.

The Harvard men’s volleyball team was not able to ride the high of their win against St. Francis for long because the next day they faced one of their top nemeses: Penn State.

The Crimson have an unlikely rivalry with the Nittany Lions. Every year both student sections are filled to rowdy, rabble-rousing capacity. Harvard and Penn State fans ardently heckle from the stands as their respective volleyball team vies for dominion over the court. This Saturday’s battle not only had pride at stake, but also the chance for the EIVA’s coveted top ranking.

Harvard started out incredibly strong and edged Penn State out off a first set victory. Unfortunately, the Nittany Lions would later come to sweep the remaining three sets.

Even though Harvard may have lost the game, the team didn’t go down without a nasty fight. Fans, students and their visiting parents alike, were at the edge of their seats because of the rapid turnover—in one instant Harvard was two points way from victory, but minor mistakes cost them the set.

DJ White, Casey White, Zimmick, Bendell, and Clemens each were major contributors during the match up. Each The Harvard Independent • 03.05.15

player left everything he had on the court, and were smart, yet strong leaders for the rest of the team. DJ White recorded his third career double-double. White also proved crucial in tying the Crimson and Penn State 22-22 during the last set. Sadly, the Nittany Lions were able to take advantage of Crimson errors and find a couple open spaces in which to slam the ball to the wood.

Despite the ups and downs of this past weekend’s matches, this past week has been a great one for Clemens. Not only did he score his second career double-double in the matchup against St. Francis, but he was also named the MVP of the Hall of Fame Morgan Classic Tournament and the February 16-22nd COOP Athlete of the Week. Additionally, Off the Block/Springbak has named Clemens as a nominee for the National Volleyball player of the Month.

After their March 11th battle against Springfield, the east will meet the west as the Harvard men’s volleyball team travels to California over spring break for a series of tournaments.

Shaquilla Harrigan ‘16 (sharrigan01@college.harvard.edu) is proud of her Resident Tall Person.

Photo Courtesy of Shaquilla Harrigan

harvardindependent.com

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DRAWN & QUARTERED

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