Fresh Perspectives Vol. 14 2021 Edition

VOLUME 14 2021 EDITION

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TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORS’ WELCOME .................................................................................................. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. 6 PERSONAL PIECES ....................................................................................................... 7 Two Hundred Percent ........................................................................................................ .8 Minken Angelica Austad Megalodon Was My Best Writing Teacher ..................................................................... .10 Angelina Cody How a Car Battery Scarred Me for Life............................................................................ 13 Yasmine Zubia HEALTH AND SCIENCES ........................................................................................... 15 Weary Worries: Anxiety in Children ................................................................................ 16 Alyssa Taylor Carino Music Therapy: A Cure for Mental Illness ....................................................................... 23 Tyanna Gutierrez How Decriminalizing Drugs Can Improve Public Safety and Equality in America ........ 28 Margaret Sayers Jessen The Impact of OCD Myths and Misconceptions .............................................................. 33 Kate Hurlbut Learning Disability: The Silver Lining ............................................................................. 38 Jordana Cadiz Is Cannabidiol an Effective Treatment for Anxiety? ........................................................ 43 Robert A. Rowe Why Steroids Should Be Legalized .................................................................................. 49 Edward Alexander Autism in Asian Cultures .................................................................................................. 56 Athena Mackey Is it Just Like Grey’s Anatomy? ....................................................................................... 61 Jessa Grace Sagun Hope in a World of Uncertainty........................................................................................ 66 Tucker Pellicci LOCAL MATTERS........................................................................................................ 72 More Than Just Ink ........................................................................................................... 73 Mac Leisher The Sacred Land, Mauna Kea ........................................................................................... 78 Hazel Manuel Bridging Hawai'i’s Health Disparities with Cultural Competence ................................... 82 Janina Abdelahad 2

Let Us Play on the Grounds of Hawai'i ............................................................................ 89 Miranda Merritt Save the Reef Fish ............................................................................................................ 92 Morten Andreassen TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND MEDIA........................................................ 95 Tangible Innovation from Playing Music Video Games .................................................. 96 Jesse Trias-Bacnis Social Networking Sites: Another World Beyond Reality ............................................. 103 John Visaya The Future of Technology and Education ...................................................................... 112 Richville Fagaragan Print in the Age of Technology: Why Use Print Media Over Digital Media? ............... 119 Jo Roberto Understanding the Journey for the Development of Self-Driving Vehicles ................... 125 Gil Minas ENVIRONMENT AND AGRICULTURE ................................................................. 132 Homelessness: Stereotype vs Truth ................................................................................ 133 Kylie Otsuka The Reality of Asian Transboundary Pollution .............................................................. 138 Austin Chun Should Greenwashing be Regulated by the Government? ............................................. 145 Chun-Ling Wu Saving the Manta Rays from Illegal Fishing .................................................................. 151 Troy Oshimo Wind Turbines: A Threat to Sami Culture...................................................................... 157 Sarah Balto The Food Self-Sufficiency Rate of Japan ....................................................................... 159 Ema Yamamoto Tiny Homes: Space Efficient or an Important Use of Space? ........................................ 161 Mary Rose Russo Deadly Gas ...................................................................................................................... 169 Simen I. Dahl SOCIETY AND THE HUMANITIES ........................................................................ 172 Bouquet of Lovers: Should Polyamory be Socially Acceptable? ................................... 173 Nya-Shayla Cachola Is Religion Hardwired into Our Minds? ......................................................................... 179 Arianna Corry The Misconceptions of Yoga and its Hidden Dangers ................................................... 187 Alice Sharon B. Minor

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Consecrated Beliefs of Homosexuality in Altruistic Religions: Comparing Attitudes in Christianity and Buddhism ....................................................... 192 Jo Roberto There’s More to it than Comedy ..................................................................................... 203 Renzelle Ponce K-Pop’s World Phenomenon .......................................................................................... 210 Karen Shimizu Universal National Service: Finding Common Ground in a Divided Nation ................. 213 Gregor Umhoefer

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EDITORS’ WELCOME We are pleased to introduce our thirteenth issue of Fresh Perspectives. Once again, we solicited essays from our first-year writing courses, covering a range of topics and approaches. Because these writers are relatively new to the academy, we do not expect disciplinary mastery. Our goal is to provide a venue for dissemination of ideas by our first-year students, who may still be learning the nuances of academic discourse yet who have compelling things to say and who offer, in the words of our title, “fresh perspectives.” Promising student essays were nominated by the students’ instructors and underwent a full editorial process by our interns. You will notice a wide range of views here, some of them perhaps contradictory; these pieces represent the opinions of the writers alone and are not necessarily endorsed (nor denounced) by HPU, the College of Liberal Arts, the Department of English and Applied Linguistics, or the editors. Rather than selecting pieces that toe any particular “party line,” we have attempted—in the spirit of academic freedom—to present a range of perspectives, some of which may be proactive. This is fitting for a first-year writing program that emphasizes argumentation. Whether you agree, disagree, or have a complex reaction, we hope you will enjoy hearing from the newest members of our HPU ohana!

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editors and contributors would like to acknowledge the support of the following people: Allison Gough, Dean, College of Liberal Arts Laurie Leach, Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts Elizabeth Vang, Assistant to the Dean Algeo Rosario, HPU Web Services David Falgout, Faculty Editor Gregory Kahofer, Managing Editor Renzelle Ponce, Managing Editor Tyara Pouncie, Managing Editor Hunter Ferner, Editorial Intern Infinity Jimenez, Editorial Intern Gil Minas, Editorial Intern Jo Roberto, Editorial Intern Lorraine Jimenez, Cover Design Nominating Instructors: David Falgout Tad Matsunaga Tyler McMahon Travis Nishii Deborah Ross Micheline Soong Christy Williams Caitlin Yamamoto

Contributing Artists: Lorrea Ancheta Hunter Ferner Jack Krizizke

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PERSONAL PIECES

Wave Walker by Jack Krizizke

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Two Hundred Percent

By Minken Angelica Austad When I was younger, I used to think of myself as halves. Half-American, Half-Norwegian. My mother would always dispute that word: half. “You’re not half anything. You are 100% American and you are 100% Norwegian.” How anyone can be 200% always stumped me. The idea of having a dual nationality is a complicated one for anyone, even more so for those going through it. Having two parts of yourself that are completely different can cause anyone an array of different struggles, feelings of loneliness, alienation from peers, and confusion of self.

Growing up with a Norwegian father and American mother meant I was always tilting either the one way or the other, depending on my setting, never feeling like I could stay balanced straight between the two worlds. I was always half something. In school, with my friends, when I was introduced and when I was introducing myself, I’m half American. When I did the Cultural Representative Program for Disney in 2017-2018, alongside other Norwegians from all over my little country, I stopped introducing myself with that label, and I let it organically come up in conversation. It would be like some puzzle piece they could use to make sense of what may have made me seem a little off. It explained why my English might have been “so good” or why I didn’t seem to have an accent like the other Norwegians I worked alongside at EPCOT. My language wouldn’t fit with my surroundings sometimes and that led to loneliness, as well as a feeling of loss and embarrassment. I would talk to my mother in English on the metro in Norway, getting a strange look here and there, but they were nothing compared to the looks people of other nationalities would get. Spanish, Arabic, Urdu or German spoke loudly into phones and ear buds on public transportation or waiting in line at the grocery store. People often condemn what they don’t understand, especially Norwegians, I’m afraid. We also don’t like loud noises, loud conversation or music, which usually comes hand in hand with those cultures we “look down on,” in these public settings.

At least when I tried to explain myself with an English word in a Norwegian sentence, I was sure the other would understand both languages. However, my friends with Pakistani and Lebanese backgrounds didn’t seem to have these problems talking to me or in school. If they did, they never shared them with me – which may have been lonely for them – which made me think I was using it all as an excuse. Maybe I was just dumb, or maybe I was just a self-pitying mess with other underlying mental issues, making a mountain out of a molehill, a spout of teen angst, “No one understands me!” Would I have been as socially awkward, as unsure of myself, if I’d only had one language under my belt? Or, would it mean that I would be even less capable of expressing my thoughts and emotions? Maybe my “problem” wasn’t necessarily with the languages, but with my own tongue.

Who was I? If I were to use the reasoning from Rodriguez’s “Aria,” what was my personal voice and what was my public one? Once upon a time they used to be the same. As I grew, I found my space in the English language; my personal one became English and my public was still the one of my countrymen. In America I was more unsure. I think back to my childhood a lot when I walk down this path. Was it as bad then, before my shift in personal voices? What about before I found my love for American pop culture and the English language? When my thoughts and dreams were 8

still in the same language as what came out of my mouth, did it have a say which language I learned first and which country I lived in? Is English just too powerful enough to overpower any other?

By embracing my personal voice as English, I felt that I, too, in a similar way to Rodriguez, had left behind my Norwegian family. Was it as simple as moving? Would that fix all my problems?

I am far from being the first to experience this, and far from being the last. We have read many essays in class about this specifically. None of their experiences have been exactly like mine, but that is not to be expected. This very personal journey I have figured out is no one’s but my own. I think though, that it helps to hear that you are not alone, and that you are still in the ballpark. What I think Americans are born with is the feeling that no one is just one thing. Everyone is born with parts from different places, but also knowing that their assembly in the US makes them not pieced together, but whole in a different way. I always felt that clear line between my own two parts.

Coming from Norway, Norwegians are usually Norwegian only. My father has no other nationality or ethnicity mixed into his bloodline. My mother on the other hand has always made the distinction of American to mean a melting pot or a salad bowl.

I think I realized the way to be 200% like my mother keeps reminding me. The world is so big, yet, we are the ones that have drawn lines down it that separate and divide up both ourselves and others. This is why I felt loneliness and embarrassment. I understand the roots that these feelings are tied to now, and I realize that my “problem” is bigger than myself; it’s bigger than my two countries combined. My “problem” is not a problem. It is a bubble big enough for me to bounce around in, never really settling down, realizing there are no real separations within myself because I belong in all of it. I just feel too small to fill up the space just yet. I admire those who feel like they can; I’ll continue growing and trying. I have plenty of time.

WORKS CITED Rodriguez, Richard. ”Aria.” Making Literature Matter, edited by John Schilb, John Clifford, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.

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Megalodon Was My Best Writing Teacher

By Angelina Cody I heard my heart skip a beat. What do you mean “research”!? So, you want me to waste three weeks looking facts up on Google!? Then write a boring paper on what I found!? I felt my heart start to beat louder as anger came over me. My brain started to cringe from the amount of constant thinking it would have to accomplish in the next three weeks.

I was disappointed, as I always was, in my English class. I wouldn’t come into this class until 5 seconds before the bell rang, and I turned all of my assignments in at the last second. The feeling of total dread that I felt from this class was impressive. I despised English classes and writing because I already know how to speak and spell for this language, so, in my mind, it’s a waste of time. Why do I need to know what an adverb is? Why do I need to write a “grammatically correct” essay, when you can understand what I am saying, without the “proper” usage of commas? Now, to have this paper on top of the daily hour of torture. To say the least, I was not pleased.

Everything changed once I read the syllabus for this paper. It read “Choose Your Topic - Research Paper.” The goal of the paper was for students to choose a topic that made them want to write about it. All of my anxiety drained out of me, like water out of a strainer filled with noodles. I was the noodles, and my anxiety was the water. The strainer was this newfound piece of information.

I won’t deny that at first, it was hard. Coming up with a topic and doing research was difficult. I knew what I wanted to write about, but I didn’t know how to put it on paper. When I finally figured out how to write about what I wanted to, it was the best feeling because it just flowed. I felt the words wanting to come out. When you are writing about a topic that interests you or you feel passionately about, all of those feelings of dread and anxiety go away. You feel the writing flowing through your fingers. It is almost like music, like when you play the piano, but, instead of playing beautiful music, you are writing an essay. That doesn’t sound like an improvement, but with enough passion, you could write something great. When you enjoy something, and you are writing about it, it is easy to let the words flow out. Everything goes smoothly when writing about an interesting subject until the grammar check comes along.

When you enjoy a topic, it just flows, and you won’t stop. You can go forever about a topic that means enough to you. That is a struggle that many writers today are facing. Writing is hard when you can’t find a passionate subject. You can’t make a reader passionate about something unless you can portray the passion you want them to feel. This happened to me when I was about to write a paper about a topic of my choosing. I chose something that was important to me; something I believed in, something I knew about before I did any research for the paper. It was a research paper about the possibility that Megalodon, a pre-historic 60-90-foot shark, could still exist and be living in our oceans without us knowing. I believe that this topic fascinates me out of fear that this creature still exists. If a shark that big still existed, that would be horrifying, and the fear would eat at me and many others; I know it.

This paper was very easy for me, because it was something that fascinated me. I had a base layer of knowledge about Megalodon, which made it that much easier to build information on top of it.

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The research not only fascinated me but was going to be used as a grade. It was like killing two birds with one stone.

When I was six years old, my mother and I would hurry home, excited to make some popcorn and sit down in front of the TV for the rest of the day and even the whole week sometimes. I remember the smell of buttery popcorn in the microwave, and the feeling of our very scratchy couch on my legs. We would turn the TV up really loud, so we could hear all of the statistics and descriptions.

It was the middle of June, which meant it was sunny and beautiful outside, but we sat inside anyways. This was the best time for TV, specifically the Discovery Channel since it was Shark Week.

When my mother and I sat down to watch Shark Week with our popcorn, we were both excited, for different reasons though. I was excited because it was my first time watching shark week. I would be on the edge of my seat, a Tupperware of popcorn in hand. The smell of the popcorn still in the air, but I was focused on the sound of the water splashing after a 16-foot, female, great white shark shot out of the water and breached. The sound can be magical sometimes. Only recently, had scientists caught it on video, and I was watching it.

My mom always wanted to be a Marine Biologist, but life got in the way. She is a large reason as to why I want to be a marine biologist. She struggled when she was younger and was in trouble with her family, and with committing to a life path. Even when she got good opportunities, she denied so many of them. Now, she regrets many decisions she made when she was younger, but she knows that her life is great, she has two daughters and a loving family, and a great guy who loves her and helps take care of her. She is my best friend and I wish she could have done the job she always wanted to do. Now that I am in her place, I want to make sure that I do what I love, and me and her both love marine biology. With me becoming a marine biologist, she gets to watch me become what she always wanted to be, and she will even be able to tag along with me on some amazing adventures.

We watched a documentary about a shark that was thought of as a myth. They believed it was over 30 feet long, which would be the largest shark ever to be recorded, which is a danger to humans.

There are sharks like the whale shark, but they do not eat humans; they eat smaller animals, like krill and shrimp. Watching documentaries like this one sparked the thoughts of what other creatures could be out there that were believed to be extinct.

When I got older, my mother and I continued watching Shark Week every year. As we continued to watch, I found a personal discovery learning about the Megalodon. Megalodon is a prehistoric shark. It is believed to be anywhere from 60-90 feet, but that has changed over the years with the discovery of more and more skeletons. This shark is believed to be extinct, but there are some theories among scientists that these sharks still exist but are just hidden among the depths of our oceans. With so much of our ocean not being explored, it is very hard for scientists to prove that Megalodon does not exist. Also, the event that is believed to have made them extinct has not proven that it killed them off. It is believed that they were killed by a supernova. This same event is believed to have killed off about one third of the ocean population. Still, there is no proof that Megalodon was made extinct by this event.

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I finished writing this paper, and I felt confident that it was amazing. I had written every fact down and described every piece of evidence I could. It took me almost the full amount of three weeks to complete it, but I put in hard work on it. When I was writing the paper, it just flowed, I was able to get the majority of the writing down, but the grammar and the actual building of the paper took the longest. As for the research, I did that over the process of writing; if I needed information, I went and got it, and added more and more as needed.

After finishing the paper, I had never felt this level of accomplishment and excitement. I knew I had done an amazing job; because it was something I wanted to do, something I was excited about, something I wanted to show other people. This paper was my chance to reach out to other people, and for them to see why I believe that they exist. I wanted to bring awareness to how inaccurate scientists can be at times, because we are all just trying to learn, and along the way we make mistakes. I walked up to the teacher’s podium, and I know I had a smile on my face. It seems silly, but I felt proud and excited for my teacher to read this essay. I quietly placed it on his podium and left. The next couple of days drove me crazy. I checked several times a day to see if my grade had been posted; when it finally did, I had chewed my nails down to the beds, and I had been nervously fidgety.

I wrote an amazing paper and got the best grade I had ever gotten in an English class, a 97%, and I do think this helped me enjoy my English classes a little bit more. My passion for the topic drove me to want to do a good job. This changed something in me, I wanted to write about it because it was a topic that brought me excitement and made me want to learn more. I wanted to share my knowledge with others, and I knew this would be a great topic. I always could go on for hours talking about my knowledge of the ocean, specifically sharks, and even more specifically Megalodon.

Now, I am attending the school of my dreams, Hawai'i Pacific University. I am studying marine biology, and this paper that I wrote years ago still comes to mind. Not only was it the first paper I ever enjoyed writing, but it also started my career as a marine biologist. I knew that the ocean fascinated me with the jellyfish and sharks, and so much more that is unknown, but it was not until this paper, that I knew what I wanted to do. My first A on an English paper was because of marine biology, more specifically my love for marine biology. This paper showed me how much I actually loved marine biology. This paper was nothing like work for me; it was a challenge that excited me. I grew from this paper, and I will remember that always.

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How a Car Battery Scarred Me for Life

By Yasmine Zubia Sundays are reserved for two things: church and working on Pop’s car. One Sunday in July was when I first learned that a car can bite back. Being woken up by the smell of pancakes at the tender age of eight had me jumping out of bed before anyone else could go down and leave me nothing to eat again. Once I made it down the stairs, I entered the kitchen to see my grandfather flipping the pancakes over. At that moment I had run so fast to sit at the table to get breakfast, I could’ve made The Flash jealous of my running skills. My Pop, with his salt and pepper hair and mustache gleaming from the sunlight window, gave me his usual side glance. With his glasses resting on his nose, I was given the “I know what you want, but you have to wait” look. So, I just had to sit there patiently, waiting until Pop put the plates of pancakes down so I could just dive right in and eat.

Once Popa put the pancakes right in front of me, I started to stuff my face; it must have taken me five minutes to finish all of the food at once. The next parts are a bit blurry for me, but I remember after eating I had started to get ready to attend church. The one thing that I actually remember about church was going to the donut sale and getting my favorite pink donuts with sprinkles. After church, my grandfather told me he was going to work on his car and had asked me if I wanted to come outside and play while he did that. Of course, I wanted to do anything else than be stuck inside and cleaning with my mom. I remember rushing up the stairs so I could change out of my church clothes into my ‘old’ clothes. These ‘old’ clothes were the clothes my grandmother always told me to put on if I wanted to go outside and play because the shirt was a plain black T-shirt that had multiple small holes at the bottom of it- from getting stuck on the brushes and light blue oilstained jeans.. Even though these clothes looked so worn out and old, this was my favorite outfit out of everything else I had. After changing I remember making my way down the stairs get to the garage door.

As soon as I opened the door, the first thing I saw was my Pop’s pride and joy: his 1947 Chevy Coupe. Pop had this car since he was 16 years old; he bought this car from the junkyard at Reseda for $150 at the time. Over the years, Popa had always worked on bringing that car back to life.

He had stopped working on his car because he got caught up with paying bills and taking care of his family. It wasn’t until he bought a house in Lancaster, California that he started to work on the car more. In my eyes this car was a beauty. It looked like it was black, but once in the sun, you can see it was actually a dark brown with red pearl paint within it. When you looked inside the car you could see that the car was all metal except the seats. The seats were your typical old school seats from the 50s; they were white leather with light blue fabric running across the top sections of the seats. To get into the back seats you would have to push the top half of the seat over then squeeze your way into the back seat to just get in. The car had no seat belts at all; it wasn’t until 3 years later that my grandfather and I had installed seat belts to it. Pop had just last week added the white wall tires to the car to give it more of that low rider vibe to it. The week before we had taken off the skirts of the car so we could put on the white wall tires. We were going to put them back on that day, or so I thought.

After seeing the car, I could hear the music Pop was blasting from the stereo. To this very day, I can remember what the song was, “Champions” by Queen. At first, I couldn’t find my grandfather anywhere. It was not until I started to walk behind the car that I saw my grandfather had the trunk open and he was underneath the car. I asked my grandfather what he was doing, and he then explained to me that he was moving the battery from the front of the car to the trunk, that way, if 13

someone was to try and steal parts from his car, they would have a harder time stealing it because the battery was moved to the back. He asked if I can help screw a bolt on the battery that belonged underneath to keep it in place. It was in a hard spot to reach if you had big arms, but lucky for us I had small arms and was able to fit in the small hole. I got down on my hands and knees and started to crawl underneath the car. That day was so hot I remember feeling the heat come from the top of the car, but surprisingly the concrete and the bottom of the car was cool to the touch.

Once I made it underneath the car, Pop had a flashlight that he switched on, pointing to where the bolt needed to be screwed on. Once I had seen where the bolt needed to be screwed on, I immediately put my arm through the small hole and got to screwing the bolt on. It wasn’t until I tried to remove my arm that I realize that maybe my arm was too big to actually go through that small access point. At first, I was confused as to why my arm wouldn’t come out. I remember turning to the right side of myself, to look at Pop and tell him I can’t get my arm out. The facial expression on Pop had gone from a happy one to one of disbelief at what I was telling him. My grandfather first thought I was joking, so he then decided to try and pull my arm out. No matter how hard he tried to pull my arm out, it just wouldn’t budge. Popa instructed me not to move while he ran inside to get some butter and see if that would help in this situation. I don’t know what Pop did or said inside, but somehow my grandmother got word of what was happening. This was one of the very few times I had ever heard my grandmother cuss out Pop in Spanish. In that moment, I saw my grandmother, and I burst into tears thinking that the car had taken my arm and we would have to cut it off. Popa started to un-wrap the butter and spread it all around my arm to see if we could grease it up then maybe I would be able to pull my arm out. After a few moments we decided to try once more to pull my arm out. After a couple of tugs, I could feel my arm was finally free.

After feeling that my arm was free from the hole, I crawled out from underneath the car then ran into my grandmother's arms tears still streaming down my face. After that accident I was afraid of going near my grandfather’s car for a week. When the following week came, I had just wanted to play outside and avoid the car at all costs. My grandfather decided that, instead of me playing outside, we will go cruising in the old car instead. It was then that I realized that my love for cars is far greater than my fear of them.

After going through that traumatic event as my eight-year-old self, I was most differently scarred by working with cars. It helped give me a different respect but also a new understanding for them.

Even though that memory was troubling for me when I was younger, my older self can laugh at that memory. When any of my cousins take their first step on working on cars with my grandfather, I always tell them this story. It’s not for them to be scared, but so they can be cautious and not underestimate whether their hand can fit through a small hole to screw on a bolt to a car battery that had been moved to the trunk of a 1947 Chevy Coupe.

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HEALTH AND SCIENCES

Roadside Health Education by Anonymous

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Weary Worries: Anxiety in Children

By Alyssa Taylor Carino In more recent years, anxiety has become very common in people of all ages. This essay will propose that we should be more aware of anxiety in children; although some forms of anxiety are normal, it can easily turn into something more. I will analyze common causes of anxiety in children as well as adults. As an individual that experiences anxiety as well as having many family members that suffer from anxiety disorders, I felt the need to determine if our childhood may have contributed to our current states of anxiety; separation anxiety, social media, parents, and genetics influence developing anxiety. I also felt the need to bring awareness of the possibility of common anxiety becoming a problem, especially in children. Whether it be separation anxiety, or the relationship between media and anxiety, anxiety can be deeper than it is perceived. This essay will utilize an academic article that studies anxiety in children as a result of electronic media use, as well as articles written by health professionals and individuals that have experienced anxiety.

As a whole, our current society has seen a major shift in transparency when it comes to mental health. Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser are writers for Our World in Data, and both specialize in research related to health. In their article “Mental Health”, they stated, “[M]ental health disorders are common everywhere. Improving awareness, recognition, support and treatment for this range of disorders should therefore be an essential focus for global health” (Ritchie and Roser). The transparency in mental health has helped people around the world in numerous ways. Although it may not be significant to everyone, mental health is an important aspect that everyone should care about. Among the top five mental health issues are: depression, anxiety, bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia, and dementia (Ritchie and Roser). Research also shows that anxiety is the most common mental health issue worldwide (Ritchie and Roser). The American Psychological Association is a scientific organization that represents psychology in the United States. They define anxiety as “an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure” (“Anxiety”). Although anxiety is defined as such, anxiety is truly a personal experience as everyone experiences it differently.

Anxiety, a normal emotion that is felt by everyone, can easily become a medical disorder. Adam Felman is a writer for Medical News Today and has experience in global health insurance. In his article “What to know about anxiety”, he states, “Anxiety is a normal and often healthy emotion.

However, when a person regularly feels disproportionate levels of anxiety, it might become a medical disorder” (Felman). Although anxiety is a normal emotion, it shouldn’t be an emotion that is felt more often than not. When one experiences excessive anxiety, they may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are described as having levels of anxiety that negatively impact everyday life. When it comes to anxiety disorders, there are various ways they are treated.

Whether it be counseling or medication, every individual has a treatment that works for them.

Childhood is often a stage in life where we typically do not have very many worries. Children are little sponges that soak up any and all information given to them. They are nearly invincible and will get up from whatever challenge knocks them down. It doesn’t seem to cross many people's minds that these little sponges that are filled with laughter and joy can suffer from an anxiety disorder, let alone and mental health disorder. The World Health Organization is an agency that strives to monitor and protect the public's health and wellbeing. In their article “Child and adolescent mental health,” they stated that, “10-20% of children and adolescents experience mental 16

disorders” (“Child and adolescent mental health”). Although anxiety is a normal part of childhood, it is usually a harmless phase. However, for 10-20% of all children worldwide to experience a mental disorder, this goes to show that anxiety can easily turn into something so much more than feeling nervous, thus developing into an anxiety disorder. Some common anxiety disorders in children include generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, social anxiety and panic disorder. Children with anxiety disorders typically experience feelings of nervousness and fear, but it also depends on the disorder the child has.

Anxiety can be brought on by numerous factors. Aaron Poppleton, Roshelle Ramkission, and Sidra Ali are doctors in mental health and psychiatry at the University of Manchester. In their article “Anxiety in children and adolescents,” they stated, “Environmental factors are significant in the development and maintenance of anxiety” (Poppleton et al. 635). The events and situations occurring in a child's day to day life affects their wellbeing. Exposure to trauma and stress in excessive amounts makes the child more vulnerable to mental health issues and specifically anxiety. Some common triggers of anxiety in children occur from their home; domestic abuse, bereavement, substance abuse and even frequent arguments have been identified as triggers for some children’s’ anxiety. Emotional abuse also has a strong association with the development in heightened anxiety in children (Poppleton et al. 637).

What others see as normal, can be the root of a developing anxiety disorder. Many parents experience mixed emotions when their child begins school whether that be preschool or kindergarten. All children will react differently to being in the school setting for the very first time, let alone without their parents. Some will be happy and curious to be around new faces to play with, while others aren’t so happy to be left in this new environment. Some children will experience a form of anxiety that is separation anxiety. “Separation anxiety disorder is an excessive fear or anxiety concerning separation from home, parents or caregivers” (Poppleton et al. 636).

Some children will refuse to go to school and insist on staying home with mom or dad, as to avoid this new situation. While this is a normal phase for children, it can worsen over time or return within a few years, causing a problem as a child gets older. Katie Hurley is a psychotherapist for children and adolescents and has experience working with children with anxiety. In her article, “Separation Anxiety in Children: How to Help your Child with Separation Anxiety Disorder” for Psycom, she mentions that, “Separation Anxiety Disorder is seen in 4% of children and 1.6% of adolescents, making it the most prevalent anxiety disorder among children under the age of 12” (Hurley). Although separation anxiety is common, many fail to see the repercussions. Kids that fear separation and are in a state of distress at the thought of separation, could be experiencing separation anxiety disorder. Having separation anxiety that is left untreated can significantly impact a child's life. The child may fear going to school which can lead to poor academic performance in the long run. Relationships with others can also be damaged leading the individual to rely on parents or other individuals and having difficulty in being alone (Hurley).

Separation anxiety is common in children, as well as adults. Rochaun Meadows-Fernandez is a writer for Healthline and specializes in sociology and health. In her article, “What Is Separation Anxiety Disorder in Adults?” she states, “You may be more likely to develop adult separation anxiety disorder if you were diagnosed with separation anxiety disorder as a child” (MeadowsFernandez). Separation anxiety in adults is similar to a child’s separation anxiety. An adult will experience anxiety away from their spouse, or children rather than parents, thus impairing their 17

work functionality rather than academic performance. Other than work, separation anxiety can also impact one's quality of life. Experiencing constant fears of loved ones passing away or being injured causes extreme amounts of anxiety. These fears can make it difficult for one to be away from loved ones in both small and large amounts of time (Meadows-Fernandez). The anxiety or fears about loved ones make it difficult to function properly and effectively. As an adult separation anxiety can be treated by different forms of therapy or medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy is common in treating various forms of anxiety in both adults and children. This form of therapy is one in which the individual learns to identify the way they are thinking and how it creates a problem in the way they behave (Poppleton et al. 638). Identifying what they are doing and considering it “wrong” will allow them to strategize ways to improve their thinking. Individuals learn to “employ strategies to challenge and overcome distorted thoughts and destructive patterns of behaviour resulting from negative thinking patterns” (Poppleton et al. 638). Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on improving negative thoughts to result in healthier behavior.

Electronic media has become extremely popular in modern years, along with the topic of anxiety and mental health. In a society where technology is advancing as quick as it is, many have come to question if the advancements are taking a toll on individuals. Being able to instantly see a picture of someone on the opposite side of the country, let alone the opposite side of the world was nearly unthought of years ago. As a society, we have become dependent on electronic media. Payton Q. Fors and Deanna M. Barch are researchers in psychological and brain sciences at Washington University. In their article, “Differential Relationships of Child Anxiety and Depression to Child Report and Parent Report of Electronic Media Use”, they stated that, “Electronics are undisputedly increasingly pervasive in peoples’ daily lives” (Fors and Barch 907). It isn’t just the adults who are hooked to the smartphones that give us infinite access to different forms of electronic media.

Children of various ages are hooked to it just as much, and the age seems to get younger and younger over the years. Many have begun to associate mental health issues with the use of electronic media, such as social media, however many overlook a rather important aspect of this.

Social media is a popular aspect of electronic media that many blame for causing anxiety. “[S]ocial media use could be contributing to increases in anxiety” (Fors and Barch 908). A common reason many link social media to anxiety is through social comparison. Some children are given access to the same social media platforms that adults use. Among these platforms are strangers as well as celebrities from all around the world. Social media has been known to have a set of unrealistic standards as to what you should or shouldn't look or be like. Children see these individuals, idolize them, and are put into the mindset of wanting to be something that is rather unrealistic. Dennis Thompson is a health reporter for HealthDay. In his article “Lots of Time on Social Media Linked to Anxiety, Depression in Teen”, he stated, “[S]ocial media harms self-esteem by creating the illusion that everyone else is much happier and better off” (Thompson). Older children are more likely to fall into this aspect of social media. It’s common, especially in children between the ages of 8 and into teenage years. At this age, children are beginning to learn more about themselves and how society perceives them. Some children are hard on themselves when it comes to appearance and even lifestyle; seeing someone's “oh so perfect” life can damage one's self-esteem. Children often don’t realize that social media allows people to paint their perfect picture in any way they want; influencing them to think they aren’t like everyone else, thus heightening their anxiety.

Commonly overlooked is the reason children use electronic media. Fors and Barch mention that individuals with anxiety or depression use electronic media to cope with their negative thoughts 18

(Fors and Barch 908). This is common in children and adolescents, as they may not know how to cope with their anxiety. Children are often found to escape their thoughts by going onto social media. The act of suppressing or avoiding unwanted thoughts, emotions, and experiences is referred to as experiential avoidance. Although some may think of this as a coping mechanism, it can cause anxiety symptoms to become progressively worse, especially in younger individuals.

Very few have thought of anxiety in children to develop due to a parent having an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety should not be treated lightly at any age. Jerome Kagan and Nancy Snidman are professors of psychology at Harvard University. In their article, “Early Childhood Predictors of Adult Anxiety Disorders,” they stated, “children with a panic parent were more likely than controls to show inhibited behavior in a laboratory setting” (Kagan and Snidman 1539). Children with a parent that experiences anxiety is more likely to develop anxiety themselves. Some may wonder how or why because anxiety isn't contagious. Or is it? Although not necessarily “contagious” per say, behavior as a result of anxiety can influence the behavior of others. Children with parents that experience some sort of anxiety disorder tend to have similar reactions to their parents in regard to other people and situations (Kagan and Snidman 1539). This is because children learn from and try to match their parents’ in terms of their reactions to different situations. “Learning and mimicking of parental anxiety-related behaviours, social interactions, and maladaptive coping strategies by children have been reported” (Poppleton et al. 635). Thus, parents with anxiety could possibly allow for a child to also become anxious without realizing.

Many overlook the possibility of anxiety and anxiety disorders in children as a result of genetics.

Although it is an extremely complex possibility to discover, many have found it to be true.

Individuals have expressed that multiple generations of their family experience anxiety and are even diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. It’s possible to be the only person in your family that has an anxiety disorder, but researchers have found more on the biology of anxiety. They have found that anxiety has a genetic basis, thus making it possibly hereditary in some individuals. Jordan Smoller is a psychiatric geneticist and professor of psychiatry at Harvard University. In his article “Anxiety Genetics Goes Genomic”, he states, “psychiatric disorders are highly polygenic” (Smoller 190). Anxiety disorders fall under the umbrella of psychiatric disorders. Studies show that anxiety traits are extremely heritable. “We see substantial genetic correlation between anxiety disorders and normal variation in anxiety-related traits” (Smoller 192). Smoller mentions this to highlight the finding that anxiety occurs with the presence of an inheritable component. As opposed to those without the component, others did not experience significant extreme anxiety or an anxiety disorder. Researchers have concluded that anxiety can be genetic, similar in the way that diabetes and allergies are. A significant overlap in the genetics of anxiety disorders and anxiety traits further support that anxiety and anxiety disorders are hereditary. Thus, children with family members that experience anxiety should be aware of anxiety and familiarized with it.

To no surprise, there are others that stand firm in the belief that anxiety and mental health is being blown out of proportion. Peter Shmigel is the CEO of Lifeline Australia with experience in consulting and mental health. In his article “Mark Latham Is Half Right on The Dangers Of A 'Fake Anxiety Epidemic’”, he states, “I believe that by lumping everything in the mental health basket we also -- unintentionally -- do a disservice to our emotional well-being and mental wealth” (Shmigel). Shmigel believes society as a whole is overusing the term mental health and depleting its real meaning. Anxiety is being used to explain nervousness. Don’t we all get nervous at times?

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Mental health was once a taboo topic and seen as even worse if you suffered from mental health issues. Nowadays, it seems like just about everyone wants to discuss mental health issues and whether or not they have one. Although the spike in mental health awareness can be deemed as both good or bad, there are definite upsides to this. Once seen as taboo, mental health is a silent killer. The transparency in mental health has allowed hundreds and thousands of people to receive the treatment they needed. Carl is an individual who has suffered from anxiety himself. In his article “Anxiety and depression took over my life”, he stated, “now that I’ve started to talk openly to people about my struggles, it's something I wished I had done sooner. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for anyone suffering with ill mental health to talk to others” (Carl).

Carl highlights the importance of building a community of individuals experiencing the same struggles. As someone that suffered from anxiety for 19 years, knowing he wasn’t alone was a huge weight off of his shoulders. Being able to be open about mental health allows individuals to feel safe about getting the help and treatment they need. When mental health such as anxiety goes untreated, individuals can turn to self-medicating. “I used alcohol a great deal of the time as a way to mask my anxiety especially, and cope with whatever was on mind, but all this did was pull me further down” (Carl). Untreated anxiety disorders leave individuals unable to live their day to day lives. It becomes difficult to do tasks that were once easy and even enjoyable. Some individuals with anxiety will turn to different substances in an attempt to rid their negative thoughts. As a result, many are left with severe anxiety disorders along with other problems when their mental health goes untreated.

In all, it’s important to be aware of anxiety in children. Although anxiety is a normal and even healthy emotion, it can easily turn into something more. At some point in our lives, we have all had our share of anxiety. As an extremely complex topic, anxiety should not be ignored. Parents want their child to experience the best childhood they can, providing different opportunities for them. Although new people and places may seem like the perfect opportunity to let curiosity take place, too much can easily become overwhelming for a child. The setting as well as the people and actions that a child is around is a lot more important than you’d think. Children pick up on the emotions and reactions exposed in their environment and learn from it. Although separation anxiety is a normal phase in childhood, it shouldn’t be taken lightly. Serious separation anxiety that is left untreated can do more harm than good to a child. They may become overly dependent on parents and have difficulty in being alone or with other people. In a time like now, where electronic media is making its way into many aspects of life, it’s to no surprise that it can be doing some harm. At a young age, children are being exposed to judgement and comparison at a different level through social media. They are idolizing and aspiring towards unrealistic and unhealthy goals. Social media can also provide an escape for children with anxiety. Although an “escape” sounds like a good coping mechanism, children are avoiding their thoughts and redirecting their attention. Anxiety that is not taken seriously and left untreated can worsen over time. Genetics, although unthought of when it comes to anxiety, can actually play a huge role. The genetic components of anxiety disorders have been found to be extremely inheritable. Considering this all, anxiety is not an issue that should be taken lightly and ignored. Thus, anxiety in children should be recognized and managed.

Anxiety in children is significant because anxiety disorders are among the top five health issues worldwide, and the number one mental health issue. Although anxiety is a rather normal emotion, experiencing heightened levels of anxiety more times than not is a symptom of having an anxiety 20

disorder. As of 2012 in the U.S. alone, more than 20% of children have experienced heightened anxiety, while only 7.1% of children have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder (“Child and adolescent mental health”). Anxiety disorders affect 18% of adults within the U.S. It is common for anxiety to develop in early adult years (18-24), but it has become present in children as young as 3. Anxiety affects children at a different level compared to adults and even teens. At such a young age, children are still developing and learning about the world around them, and themselves included. Their mental capacity does not register what anxiety is; therefore, children have more difficulty when experiencing anxiety. When children experience anxiety, it can greatly disrupt mental and physical development. Thus, it’s extremely important to be aware of anxiety in children.

WORKS CITED “Anxiety.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, www.apa.org/topics/anxiety/.

Carl. “Anxiety and Depression Took over My Life.” Time to Change, Time to Change, 31 Oct. 2017, www.time-to-change.org.uk/blog/anxiety-and-depression-took-over-my-life.

“Child and Adolescent Mental Health.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 28 Sept. 2018, www.who.int/mental_health/maternal-child/child_adolescent/en/.

Felman, Adam. “Anxiety: Overview, Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 11 Jan. 2020, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323454.

Fors, Payton Q., and Deanna M. Barch. “Differential Relationships of Child Anxiety and Depression to Child Report and Parent Report of Electronic Media Use.” Child Psychiatry & Human Development, vol. 50, no. 6, 6 May 2019, pp. 907–917., doi:10.1007/s10578019-00892-7.

Hurley, Katie. “Separation Anxiety in Children: Symptoms, Treatment and How to Help.”

Psycom.net - Mental Health Treatment Resource Since 1986, Remedy Health Media, www.psycom.net/separation-anxiety-disorder-children/.

Kagan, Jerome, and Nancy Snidman. “Early Childhood Predictors of Adult Anxiety Disorders.”

Biological Psychiatry, vol. 46, no. 11, 1999, pp. 1536–1541., doi:10.1016/s00063223(99)00137-7.

Meadows-Fernandez, Rochaun. “What Is Separation Anxiety Disorder in Adults?” Healthline, Healthline Media, 9 Sept. 2017, www.healthline.com/health/separation-anxiety-inadults#outlook.

Poppleton, Aaron, et al. “Anxiety in Children and Adolescents.” InnovAiT: Education and Inspiration for General Practice, vol. 12, no. 11, 30 Aug. 2019, pp. 635–642., doi:10.1177/1755738019869182.

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Ritchie, Hannah, and Max Roser. “Mental Health.” Our World in Data, 20 Jan. 2018.

Smoller, Jordan W. “Anxiety Genetics Goes Genomic.” American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 177, no. 3, Jan. 2020, pp. 190–194., doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.20010038.

Thompson, Dennis. “Lots of Time on Social Media Linked to Anxiety, Depression in Teens.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 11 Sept. 2019, www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-09-11/lots-of-time-on-social-medialinked-to-anxiety-depression-in-teens.

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Music Therapy: A Cure for Mental Illness

By Tyanna Gutierrez Music therapy is something that can be described best as a way to induce certain emotions and a way of remembrance. Music therapy can be used in many ways that include improving your dayto-day life. Music therapy is a useful avenue for a person to communicate their emotions. It can improve overall motivation and self-esteem, and reduce stress and anxiety, while also reducing symptoms of depression. In a medical sense, music therapy has been known to treat a multitude of medical conditions. For both anxiety and depression, it has been known to calm nerves, improve self-esteem, and motivation. In other ways, music therapy has helped patients who have dementia and people who have experienced strokes or Parkinson's disease. Music activates a part of the brain that might have been lost. In this essay, there will be use of diverse types of articles and research used, some of which being academic articles. Within these articles are case-based studies of patients that have undergone music therapy. Within these studies are their reactions to it and physicians' reactions to and thoughts about the therapy. Music therapy is beneficial for the reasons that it can help to regain skills that have been lost by improving parts of the brain that had lost function due to injuries, it is a way for emotional expression allowing a patient to feel their emotions through the music, and it improves self-esteem and motivation.

This kind of therapy is an outlet and process for people to be able to grow and regain skills that have been lost over time. A theme in music therapy is to let patients pick out the songs that they want, in order to observe and see how they react while listening to the song. In a case study done by psychotherapist Triona McCaffey on music therapy, we are introduced to an elderly woman named Ann. She had a long history of depression and anxiety spanning back about 40 years, including symptoms such as a lack of motivation or the will to do anything. When first attending a meeting, she came sporadically (McCaffey 3). When the therapist asked Ann to pick up an instrument or to pick a song that she would like to listen to, she was very timid and often just told the therapist to do it for her; this was a sign of low self-esteem and low confidence. But through support and encouragement, she was finally able to do it for herself. Through this breakthrough, she started making appointments more regularly and started to do things for herself. McCaffery, who has worked with the Music & Health Research Group, the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, and the University of Limerick, Ireland, said about Ann, “a re-emerging theme in music therapy for Ann has been ‘being able to.’” (3). In this example, music was used to regain confidence and to regain motivation. People who struggle with depression know that trying to do anything can be a struggle. To get back out and have the strength to do daily activities is a huge accomplishment.

Since music therapy can help people regain skills, music therapy is also a way for emotional expression. Music has been known to move people, whether this is from the way the tempo is, what kind of beat is being used, or the lyrics that are in a song. Musicians have a way to bring out emotions to listeners of their song. Songs have a purpose. In a case study of a man who had struggled with schizophrenia for years, starting from the age of 24. At 40 years old he was introduced to music therapy. Therapist Dominic Fannon (head of recovery team at Mayo Mental Health services) had asked the likes and dislikes of Kevin’s musical taste. Fannon had taken a song that Kevin liked, then had him make up and form his own lyrics. This being a significant breakthrough. As Fannon says, “these outcomes underline the importance of finding and 23

maintaining hope, re-establishing a positive identity, building a meaningful life, and taking responsibility and control during the personal journey of recovery” (3). This is what therapy is all about, being able to rehabilitate someone. Therapy works as a place to be able to work out the emotions that you have. In music therapy, this is just another way to be able to do that. In Kevin’s case, it had re-sparked a joy he once had for playing the piano. It gave him a hobby, something to be able to do, which he had not done in an exceptionally long time.

In addition, music therapy is a way to gain back some self-confidence and approve one’s selfesteem. Some may say that your worst enemy is yourself, that you are your biggest critic. In music therapy, a therapist tries to break down barriers, walls that patients have tightly guarded. There is a case of a man named Joe. He had extreme self-confidence problems and anxiety (Fannon 4). He wanted to learn how to play an instrument. The more that he had learned to play, the more that he learned to love himself in the way he played. As time went on, he improved at playing the instrument thus increasing his self-confidence. Fannon writes, “Joe's self-direction in his treatment highlights how an individual's motivation and interest can develop when they are central to their own care-planning process” (4). To finally have the motivation to play an instrument, Joe also had the motivation to be able to improve on himself. Distracting himself with something to work on made his mental state improve since he was using it to regain his confidence.

Music is a way to bring people together. In some types of therapies, there are individuals and there are groups. People who struggle with social interactions and social anxieties can benefit from group therapy secessions. This is a way for people to know that what they go through; this is not a struggle they deal with alone. Music is something that can be a generator of topics. Bringing people closer together over the bond of similar music taste. During group therapy sessions, this is an environment with incredibly low anxiety; so often patients can let their guard down. Michael J. Silverman, a psychiatric doctor, and academic at the University of Minnesota, said in his research, I think it’s the non-threatening approach that music can be. It’s something like they don’t feel they have to perform, it just is. It’s that comfort level, so because of that, they do feel like they want to participate... Music therapy is just something I think that’s different from traditional therapy in that most people like music, so when they see what it can mean to them, I think they look at it differently. (5) Thus, it allows for more interaction and collaboration with others. Listening to music can be a distraction, which allows for other interactions and other thoughts to be able to suffice.

While there are many distinct types of therapies, music therapy gives a connection from patient to therapist. They both have something that they share, which would be music. Most people have a relationship with music. It is a part of everyone's life, whether that be while watching tv, picking up your phone, or studying. Music has a rich history. In some ways, it was used as a way to communicate (Tomaino 1). Long ago, before music was accepted more as an art form, it was made to have healing properties. In life, everything has a rhythm to it or a pattern. For example, your heart beating has a constant rhythm to it. Music is also something that is widely accepted and shared, whether that be between race or culture. Everyone has their own music that they make that is original to them.

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In another case, there was a man who had experienced a stroke. He was in his middle to late sixties.

He was unable to use the left side of his body and struggled to walk (Tomaino). His physical therapist then began to play some of his favorite music and ones at a tempo that he could walk to.

Concetta Tomaino, music therapist and executive director and co-founder of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, said in her study, “I found music with a tempo that matched the pace of his stride. He knew the music and was comfortable walking to it. In fact, he told me how, as a teenager, he used to go dancing every week at the gym. As he walked, he became more confident of his movements. Amazingly, he began to add dance steps, sliding his feet or clicking his heels" (2). But as soon as it was turned off, he would go back to a small shuffle barely being able to pick up his leg (Tomaino). When Sam was walking with the music, he was not thinking about trying to lift his leg but about feeling the music and listening to it. The music kept him distracted so that the brain was able to send the right signals to the motor complex to be able to move better. Music can be a distraction to be able to let yourself focus on other things.

Music is a stimulus that affects the brain. In this aspect, music can help with memory and the ability to be able to improve memory. When you are listening to music, you can make an emotional connection to that song. Then, once you listen to it again in the future, it can bring you back to the time you had listened to that song before and to the way it made you feel. The hippocampus and the frontal cortex are the parts of the brain that deal with memories. We have so many different memories in a lifetime so it can be hard to recall one specific event. Author and sociologist Tiffany Jenkins wrote, “music helps because it provides a rhythm and rhyme and sometimes alliteration which helps to unlock that information with cues” (1). In our brain sometimes we need something specific to be able to trigger a memory. In this case, a song can trigger certain memories. Therefore, in patients that have dementia or Alzheimer's listening to a song could trigger something in their brain. In both these diseases, explicit memory is heavily affected. This one trigger can bring a memory back to them.

To continue, music is a coping mechanism. Michael J. Silverman said in an interview, “so it’s a coping thing too. If you are having a stressful day, go back to what works where music will set you off and calm you. If there’s certain music that agitates you, for you to gain that insight and say ‘Okay, that’s not good for me’” (2). You must know what sorts of songs are going to put you in different moods; you can use this to your own advantage and benefit. While you don’t always have to listen to happy music all the time, sometimes you must be aware of what you do listen to because music is a very powerful tool. In contrast, if you are listening to music that is sad or angry, this can help to better express your emotions and to get through whatever you are dealing with.

In contrast, some may not believe in certain benefits of music therapy. Instead, they may believe that music therapy can do more harm than good, in the way that it gives people a false sense of emotions or memories. Music is powerful, and artists make their music to tell stories or to make you feel a certain way, and that is not always necessarily a good thing. Music can also be an over stimulus, in the way that It prevents you from being able to focus on just one thing at a time. Music can be memory triggering, and memories that are associated with a certain song or genre of music may not always be wanted. For example, Keana Sena Moore, with a P.H.D in music therapy, said, “Clinically, there are certain situations where this can be incredibly powerful, as in cases where dementia is involved, and a well-known song creates a moment of lucidity. But it can also be unwelcome and unwanted” (1). Listening to a certain song or genre can cause a person in that 25

condition to have heightened anxiety. This can have extremely negative effects and could worsen the condition.

In comparison to other types and styles of therapy, music therapy has a trait that not many other therapies have. That is that the therapist and patient, during a session have a similar connection and bond because they are also listening to the music the patient is listening to. They are also interpreting the music as the patient does. In a study done by Michael Silverman at a mental institution, he tests the effects of music therapy. In the results of this study, Silverman said, “music therapy engages patients in a non-threatening manner, and, as a result, patients are able to engage with the music, the music therapist, and their peers” (4). Unlike other types of therapies both patient and therapist are sharing an experience together. To add on, Silverman said, “music therapy is just something I think that’s different from traditional therapy in that most people like music, so when they see what it can mean to them, I think they look at it differently” (5). It is not a traditional type of therapy, and that is why it has been successful thus far because some people do not always respond well to traditional types of therapy. For any patient, you must adapt to them and their needs.

In conclusion, what you can take away from music therapy is that it is something that helps your mind. Therapy is a way to help you release negative emotions and a way to deal with the problems that you are struggling with. Using music in a therapeutic setting can help release certain emotions and allows someone to express themselves. Music therapy helps to improve overall self-esteem and motivation since it is a way to allow oneself to make more meaningful connections with others.

It can be used for coping or regaining confidence that a person seemed to have lost. In support of my thesis, these articles were the most useful: “Staff and Administrators’ Perceptions of Music Therapy with Acute Care Mental Health Inpatients: A Qualitative Investigation” by Michael J. Silverman and “Cognition: How Music Can Reach the Silenced Brain.” by Concetta Tomaino.

Being academic in nature, Silverman's article had very interesting and extensive research on music therapy and the use of said therapy in a clinical setting. And, Tomaino’s article is a real-world example of music therapy working for patients and helping them get better. This was vital for this essay because it gave lots of proof and real-world examples of the benefits of music therapy. You can apply music therapy in your daily life. It helps with remembrance, which can be useful in studying or preparing yourself to go to work. Music therapy is exceedingly beneficial in certain circumstances, such as regaining skills that have been lost due to brain injuries, providing a way for people to express or cope with their emotions, and improving the lives of those with mental illnesses. Normally people listen to music every day, so why not let it be beneficial to you?

WORKS CITED Jenkins, Tiffany. “Why Does Music Evoke Memories?” BBC Culture, BBC, 20 Oct. 2014, www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140417-why-does-music-evoke-memories.

McCaffrey, Tríona, et al. “Is There a Role for Music Therapy in the Recovery Approach in Mental Health?” Arts in Psychotherapy, vol. 38, no. 3, July 2011, pp. 185–189.

EBSCOhost, doi: 10.1016/j.aip.2011.04.006.

Moore, Kimberly Sena. “5 Problems Music Can Create.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 15 Aug. 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-musical-self/201408/5problems-music-can-create.

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Silverman, Michael J. “Staff and Administrators’ Perceptions of Music Therapy with Acute Care Mental Health Inpatients: A Qualitative Investigation.” Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, vol. 13, no. 2, Apr. 2018, pp. 206–219. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/15401383.2017.1360815.

Tomaino, Concetta. “Cognition ~ How Music Can Reach the Silenced Brain.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 20 May 2009, www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/mi-blog/cognitionblog/cognition-how-music-can-reach-the-silenced-brain/31/.

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How Decriminalizing Drugs Can Improve Public Safety and Equality in America

By Margaret Sayers Jessen From a young age, individuals are taught the dangers of using illegal drugs. They grow up thinking that those who partake in illegal drug activity are "low-lives," violent, or people struggling with addiction. It is ingrained into their brains that these substances will have nothing but negative effects on the consumer's lives; this creates a false reality as this is not always the case. All drugs should be decriminalized in the United States because it encourages proper rehabilitation, public safety, spiritual healing, and equality among citizens. Substances have the potential to improve mental health, as well as many other debilitating diseases when used appropriately.

Decriminalizing drugs could also have the potential to improve public safety and help those who struggle with addiction. In many cases, natural drugs have been used in different religious practices and cultures for thousands of years. Lastly, the ongoing drug war has resulted in institutionalized racism and economic inequality throughout the nation. If drugs were to be decriminalized, millions of minorities who have been disproportionately incarcerated would leave jails across the United States empty. People often mention the dangers of illicit drug activity, but not enough attention is paid to how changing drug laws can help thousands of American people.

As explained by professor Douglas Husak, an American legal philosopher and author of The Legalization of Drugs, decriminalization can mean an assortment of things. Some may understand that decriminalization means a less severe criminal punishment or even the licensing of drug use.

In this paper, it will mean that the state should not punish people simply for using that drug (Husak 5). Drugs should be decriminalized in the United States because they provide abundant benefits for people's mental and physical health. Scientific studies indicate that psychedelic drugs such as LSD, magic mushrooms, and especially marijuana can help those who struggle with anxiety, depression, addiction, epilepsy, and even disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. An article written by a team of researchers studying neuroscience claimed that individuals who had been monitored in using various psychotropic treatments varied from healthy, addicted to nicotine, depressed, or anxious. They found that the overall results were positive and enduring for their psychological functionality (Aday et al.). Aday's study points to psychedelics as a boon for mental health. In another article, Offer Edelstein and a group of researchers studying complementary therapies in medicine at Ben-Gurion University also discovered that those who suffer from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease who used marijuana found noticeable benefits (Edelstein et al.). Furthermore, many people with epilepsy even found that certain compounds in medical marijuana made their episodes more bearable. In fact, Michelle Markle and Dona Nativio, two researchers with a doctorate in nursing, found that marijuana reduced the risk of seizures by 80% (Markle et al.). Like Aspirin and many other drugs, marijuana has the capability of easing the suffering of those in pain. Researchers specializing in the division of brain science at Imperial College London share how another natural medicine, psilocybin mushrooms, are serotonin receptor agonists. A serotonin receptor agonist activates hormones that produce positive moods and relaxation, which means that psychedelic mushrooms have the ability to actively treat mental conditions such as depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, smoking, and alcohol dependence (Carhart-Harris et al.). These psychotropic fungi have the ability to help thousands of citizens across the country. Dr. Paul Expert, a methodologist and physicist, said, "Much like ayahuasca, brain scans have shown that psilocybin can suppress activity in the brain's default mode network, 28

and people tripping on shrooms have reported experiencing a higher level of happiness and belonging to the world" (Scaccia). That is why drugs such as these should be decriminalized; they can improve the quality of life of those with debilitating diseases. It is important that people can gain access to natural pain-relieving drugs without fear of repercussions.

Another reason the United States Government should decriminalize all drugs is because it would lead to better public safety in the nation. Addiction is a serious concern involved in illicit substances. It is no secret that some people who participate in taking drugs can become dependent on the substance due to their attraction to the temporary relief it may give them. This addiction to some drugs, but not all, could lead to numerous health problems and, in some cases, death. Recent scientific studies completed by Nora Volkow and a team of researchers who specialize in mental health and substance abuse have shown that addiction is something that can be cured: [D]rug addiction [is] a complex multifactorial health disorder characterized by chronic and relapsing nature that is preventable and treatable...The Network's input for the Commission's preparation of UNGASS 2016 provided the scientific support for the concept that substance use disorders are brain disorders; that they can be treated; that people with even the most severe forms can recover with access to evidence‐based treatment and social supports; and that criminal sanctions are ineffective at preventing or addressing these disorders. Substance use disorders are fully preventable. The use of evidence‐based prevention programs, both universal and targeted to high‐risk individuals, have shown positive outcomes in reducing drug initiation and escalation of use. (Volkow et.al 213) Here we see that the United Nations has acknowledged professionals' research and is changing its policies to help its constituents. "The public health goal of reducing the world's drug problems cannot be achieved without addressing substance use disorders with the same scientific rigor, compassion, and commitment that other physical and mental health problems are addressed" (Volkow et al. 213). Decriminalizing drugs in America would be a step towards eliminating stigmas about individuals with substance disorders. By implementing evidence-based treatments and supporting drug-related research, public safety can improve exponentially.

While many Americans believe psychedelic drugs are dangerous, they have been safely used for millennia in religious practices. Drugs such as marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, and peyote have been used for thousands of years worldwide. Making these plants illegal is unethical and prevents people from growing spiritually and practicing their religious beliefs to their full potential. Phil Wolfson, psychotherapist and psychiatrist, shares just how long humans have had relationships with these natural substances.

Marijuana use dates at least to 4000 years BCE -- the earliest cultivated plant remains known having been dated to that time... The use of mushrooms and other psychoactive plants in Mesoamerica is undoubtedly thousands of years old… [The m]ost remarkable is the Amazonian creation of ayahuasca (yage), the admixture of two separate plants that had to be bundled to create the remarkable oral dimethyltryptamine-based experience that was practiced as divination and personal transformation by native shamans. (Wolfson) Today, native peoples keep their religion and culture alive by practicing similar traditions within the U.S. For example, some Native American tribes hold retreats. These retreats are made 29

specifically for the spiritual healing ayahuasca has to offer. People will travel great distances to have this plant help them overcome past traumas or find purpose in life. Peyote is another example of a psychedelic drug that has been used for religious and spiritual purposes in the United States.

Thankfully, due to its value in Native American culture, peyote is legal within the Native American Church. Yet, in many cases, U.S. law prohibits individuals and even cultures from practicing ancient and sacred traditions. Decriminalizing the use of the substances would allow people to practice ancient healing/religious customs freely.

Furthermore, the United States' outdated laws have impacted too many innocent lives of minorities across the country. Unfortunately, marijuana, a psychedelic drug, is slowly being legalized in the United States only because of its growing popularity in predominantly white neighborhoods.

Frontline, an educational show from PBS, released an article on the changes in drug laws on marijuana throughout American history. These laws against the use of marijuana were set in place by the United States to incarcerate Mexican immigrants targeted in the Great Depression. The New York Academy of Medicine reported that marijuana did not induce violent behavior, sex crimes, insanity, or lead to addiction to other drugs. Despite the research done in 1944 by medical professionals, the facts were ignored, and laws on the use of marijuana became even more strict.

By 1956 those who possessed the drug could be charged up to $20,000 and face a jail sentence of two to ten years (Frontline). All throughout American history, these injustices have taken place.

Noam Chomsky, a political theorist and activist, has often stated that drug laws have targeted people of color. Chomsky said that the fear of drugs is produced by business and state propaganda.

When marijuana was popularized in the 70s, rich white citizens were not thrown in jail. When the 80s rolled around and these "unhealthy" substances started to decline in educated neighborhoods, the poor Black and Hispanic sectors would abuse the drugs at the same rate as previous years.

While the crime rate was not increasing, incarceration rates were (Veit). The people in power clearly understood that when calling for a War on Drugs, only minorities would be targeted. In The Legalization of Drugs, Husak argues that all illicit products should be legalized in order to help solve racial injustice in the country.

About ten million whites and two million blacks are users of illicit drugs. Five times more whites than blacks use marijuana, and about four times more whites than blacks use cocaine. Whites outnumber blacks even in the case of crack, the illicit drug most commonly associated with minorities. In fact, the majority of users of any illicit drug are white. But even though white drug users outnumber blacks by a 5 to 1 margin, blacks constitute 62.7 percent and white's 36.7 percent of all drug offenders admitted to state prisons. (Husak 93) These numbers show just how bad minorities in America are targeted by police enforcement over drug-related crimes. Another article, written by Jag Davies, Director of Communications Strategy at Drug Policy Alliance, an organization that promotes human rights and drug policies using science, stated the following: U.S. law enforcement arrests about 1.5 million people each year for drug law violations – and more than 80% of those arrests are for simple drug possession. On any given night, there are at least 133,000 people behind bars in U.S. prisons and jails for drug possession – and 63,000 of these people are held pre-trial, which means they're locked up simply because they're too poor to post bail. (Davies 12)

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These statistics only prove how laws on drugs are still incredibly unjust, backward, and commonly abused by police officers across the nation to disproportionately incarcerate minorities.

Incarceration should not be taken lightly. Those who face jail time lose their rights, and they become demoralized and less employable; they also do not receive public benefits. Changing the laws to decriminalize drugs would mean that people of color would finally have a fighting chance to succeed in our society, and our tax money would not be used to keep innocent people behind bars.

In conclusion, medical professionals' scientific research shows that decriminalizing drugs in the United States could greatly benefit the country. Citizens who suffer from physical or mental disorders can use natural treatments like marijuana or mushrooms to help them, which they otherwise could not use if drugs remain illegal. Public safety in the United States would improve due to proper rehabilitation and education on illicit substances. People would also be able to practice their religious traditions legally and have the ability to grow spiritually. As expressed by Douglas Husak, "The single forecast we can safely make about the decriminalization and legalization is that they will dramatically improve the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who otherwise would be arrested and punished for the crime of using drugs for recreational purposes" (105). Minorities who have been the subject of great injustice in our nation would finally feel relief and have the ability to be just as successful as the privileged white folk in our society. It is important that the current system changes; copious evidence substantiates that decriminalizing drugs can greatly benefit the United States.

WORKS CITED Aday, Jacob S., et al. “Long-term effects of psychedelic drugs: A systematic review.” vol. 113, 2020, pp. 179-189. November 2020.

Carhart-Harris, Robin L, et al. “Psilocybin with Psychological Support for Treatment-Resistant Depression: an Open-Label Feasibility Study.” The Lancet, 17 May 2016. November 2020.

Davies, Jag. “4 Reasons Why the U.S. Needs to Decriminalize Drugs - And Why We're Closer Than You Think.” Drug Policy Alliance, 2017. November 2020.

Edelstein, Offer E., et al. “Beliefs and Attitudes of Graduate Gerontology Students about Medical Marijuana Use for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease.” Complementary Therapies in Medicine, Churchill Livingstone, 31 May 2020. November 2020.

Husak, Douglas, and Peter Marneffe. The Legalization of Drugs. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005. November 2020.

Frontline. “Marijuana Timeline | Busted - America's War on Marijuana | FRONTLINE.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service. November 2020.

Markle, Michelle, and Donna G. Nativio. “Medical Marijuana in the Pediatric Population with Epilepsy- What You Should Know.” Journal of Pediatric Health Care, Mosby, 1 June 2019.Accessed November 2020.

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Scaccia, Annamarya. “What Psychedelics Really Do to Your Brain.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2018. November 2020.

Veit, John. “The Drug War Industrial Complex.” The Drug War Industrial Complex, Noam Chomsky Interviewed by John Veit, 1998. November 2020.

Volkow, Nora D, et al. “Drug Use Disorders: Impact of a Public Health Rather than a Criminal Justice Approach.” World Psychiatry: Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), John Wiley and Sons Inc., June 2017. Accessed November 2020.

Wolfson, Phil. “Psychedelics, Spirituality, and Transformation.” vol. 26, no. 1, 2011. November 2020.

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The Impact of OCD Myths and Misconceptions

By Katherine Hurlbut OCD has become quite a phenomenon in modern vocabulary; the only medical condition to gain a second meaning and become a joke of sorts. According to the Mayo Clinic, an academic medical center, “Somewhere along the way, it not only became an adjective, but also a rather cool quirk we use in our day-to-day language. Phrases such as, ‘Oh, my OCD is acting out, I had to tidy the kitchen’” (Dorfner, par. 1). A problem arises when this use is seen as offensive or ableist, because the term is a medical condition and disability, not just any old word. Some will say that it is just that, a word, and the meaning has changed because it is useful as an adjective. Others will argue that medical terminology should be left alone and that using the word this way can detract from the serious nature of the condition. I will examine sources ranging from psychiatric medical organizations, such as the International OCD Foundation and psychiatric journals, to online dictionaries and blogs to determine what is the best way to use and respect the term OCD. In my essay I’m going to investigate the different viewpoints regarding what OCD really means, and more importantly, what exactly crosses the line between harmless change and offensive misuse when it comes to this term. OCD should be taken seriously, not thrown around callously or misappropriated, because it can cause harm to the lives of those who suffer from it by offending, infringing on their rights, and disregarding the toll it has on their day-to-day life.

OCD is widely misunderstood, often mistaken for a personality trait or an adjective describing someone neat or clean. But, if it’s not just being clean or organized, then what is OCD? Caleb W. Lack, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology writing for the World Journal of Psychiatry, explains: OCD is characterized by intrusive, troubling thoughts (obsessions), and repetitive, ritualistic behaviors (compulsions) which are time consuming, significantly impair functioning and/or cause distress. When an obsession occurs, it almost always corresponds with a massive increase in anxiety and distress. Subsequent compulsions serve to reduce this associated anxiety/distress. Common obsessions include contamination fears, worries about harm to self or others, the need for symmetry, exactness and order, religious/moralistic concerns, forbidden thoughts (e.g., sexual or aggressive), or a need to seek reassurance or confess. Common compulsions include: cleaning/washing, checking, counting, repeating, straightening, routinized behaviors, confessing, praying, seeking reassurance, touching, tapping or rubbing, and avoidance. (Lack 87) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a serious mental illness characterized by intrusive, and often disturbing thoughts (obsessions), and the behaviors, often repetitive, that are used to alleviate the anxiety that comes with intrusive thoughts (compulsions). OCD, while maybe creating fears about cleanliness and germs, is not just being organized. It is a mental disorder with complex symptoms that creates a lot of anxiety and disruption in the lives of sufferers. This shows that there are a lot of reasons we should understand it correctly.

To start off, OCD is not a personality trait, but a medical condition. According to the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF), an organization of medical and mental health professionals: OCD is not a personality quirk or a character trait — it is a very real mental health condition that affects about 2 to 3 million adults, and half a million youth, in the US alone. While 33

many people can have obsessive or compulsive traits, OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder, and people who are diagnosed with OCD cannot simply “turn it off.”

Research has shown that their brains are wired differently than the brains of people without OCD, and as such OCD strongly influences their thoughts and actions. (IOCDF) Unlike characteristics or personality traits, OCD is caused by physical abnormalities which create debilitating anxiety, as well as time consuming and possibly harmful compulsions. Most importantly it cannot go away or be ignored, even if patients want it to. OCD is not a characteristic of neatness or cleanliness, but instead a detrimental mental disorder that affects millions of people.

It should not be used improperly as that creates myths and misconceptions about what OCD really is, leading many to think that it is just about being clean when it is so much more than that, creating a cycle of misunderstanding and creating apathy for the real struggles of OCD patients.

Another reason why OCD should be taken seriously is that it is a disability and can impair patients’ ability to function and complete basic tasks. Jonathan Abramowitz, Ph.D., a mental health expert at the IOCDF, says, “Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is not only one of the most common psychological disorders, it is also among the most personally distressing, and disabling. OCD can be devastating to interpersonal relationships, leisure activities, school or work functioning, and to general life satisfaction” (Abramowitz par. 1). OCD affects all aspects of life for those with it, and can affect their ability to work, socialize, and even fulfill basic needs. Furthermore, OCD is an ADA protected disability. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the leading expert on workplace equity, explains the legal disabilities covered by the ADA: Although there is not an exhaustive list of disabilities under the ADA, the regulations identify medical conditions that would easily be considered a disability within the meaning of the law. These medical conditions are: Deafness, Blindness, Diabetes, Cancer, Epilepsy, Intellectual disabilities, Partial or completely missing limbs, Mobility impairments requiring the use of a wheelchair, Autism, Cerebral palsy, HIV infection, Multiple sclerosis, Muscular dystrophy, Major depressive disorder, Bipolar disorder, Post-traumatic stress disorder, Obsessive-compulsive disorder, Schizophrenia”. (SHRM par. 2) Legally OCD is a disability protected by the ADA. This means employers and educators must not be dismissive of OCD as a real disorder and must accommodate those with OCD to allow them to work, just as they would for someone physically disabled. To add on to the fact that OCD is a legitimate disorder, it is very impactful on patients’ capacity to function and work, making it a legally defined and protected disability. This means that in a formal setting referencing OCD as a joke or adjective could not only be offensive but also a breach of the ADA, which could cause serious repercussions.

Further breaking down this problem, people with OCD often aren’t actually clean. In fact, struggles with hoarding are commonly associated with OCD. In the media, OCD is often viewed as being obsessed with hand washing or organization, but that is simply not the case. In an article by BeyondOCD, an organization focused on spreading awareness for the disorder, they describe OCD related hoarding as: The obsessions and compulsions associated with OCD sometimes result in an individual’s having difficulty discarding and/or acquiring items or possessions. For example, some people with OCD have fears or feelings that something bad or catastrophic will happen if they throw something away. In other situations, individuals have feelings of 34

incompleteness if something is given or thrown away; they may have a need to document and preserve all of their life experiences (e.g., keeping all of the toys they owned as a child).

In some cases, a person’s fears of contamination lead to difficulties with discarding or acquiring items. Due to fears that items on the floor are contaminated, for example, an individual may be unable to touch them in order to throw them away. As a result, the floors in one’s home may be covered with items that should be discarded. Contamination fears may also lead to a person’s buying everything in a store he or she has touched – and thereby “contaminated” – to prevent others from becoming contaminated. (BeyondOCD) Obsessions can cause an unhealthy attachment to random items and trash, possibly leading to hoarding, excessive clutter, and eventually a dangerous and unhygienic living environment.

Despite the popular image of OCD, it has nothing to do with being clean and can even cause catastrophic hoarding and lack of hygiene.

On the other hand, many use OCD in daily speech as an adjective to describe someone who is being picky or overly detail oriented, and some even argue that it will probably be added to the dictionary with this new meaning. Brendan Stoodley, a writer for “The View From Outside” blog, which examines different perspectives on a variety of issues, explains “The passage of time provides plenty of opportunity for the human mind to experiment, both consciously and unconsciously, with usages which may either become staples of the English language or fade out of existence without a trace. This diachronic process seems a natural and fluid one, in which logical associations result in the logical development of meanings” (Stoodley, para. 9). Stoodley explains that the meanings of words change over time, usually based on logical connections that create a better and more understandable vocabulary. More specifically, OCD seems like a short and easy way to describe this type of situation. Dictionary.com explains this saying That one picture hanging slightly crooked on the wall. The car stereo volume left on an uneven number. The one floor tile that breaks the pattern. There are plenty of things that can make our skin start to crawl because they’re just a little bit … off. And, in these scenarios we tend to break out that little acronym that so perfectly describes those annoying little ticks: OCD (Dictionary.com).

Since OCD has been known to be associated with these characteristics, it is a short and easy way to convey feelings about this kind of situation. The changing of words over time is arguably beneficial, as it shows growth and development, and expands our lexicon to be more interesting.

“OCD” can be seen as just another term whose meaning has changed to give us ways to better explain and describe things in life.

While it may be convenient to use OCD as an adjective, it’s simply not an accurate representation of the disorder and it invalidates the real meaning of the word, which is a medical term.

Dictionary.com, one of the world’s leading online dictionaries, describes this saying: Note the word disorder in this definition...In this case, disorder means “a disturbance in physical or mental health or functions.” It’s not just an irregularity (although that is another definition of disorder). It’s a medical condition,” and “More often they’re not OK to use, as in using OCD as a joking way to refer to something other than that medical condition.

Ableist language turns a person’s disability or medical condition into a pejorative, which means to make something derogatory or to belittle something.

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Quite simply, medical conditions should not be repurposed, even if they seemingly work in other contexts, as this detracts from the gravity and integrity of the disorder. Some people might wonder why they should care about something as menial as a single word, but it can lead to negative consequences for those living with OCD. Many OCD sufferers feel that they are being invalidated and not taken seriously, which can lead to a further decline in their mental health and overall wellbeing. Using this language without the proper respect can even be seen as offensive and disrespectful to those with medical conditions and disabilities as it perpetuates the myths and misunderstandings about the disorder.

Based on the research and articles by psychology assistant professor Caleb W. Lack and members of the International OCD Foundation, such as Jonathan Abramowitz, I can conclude that OCD is a medical condition. Caused by abnormalities in the brain, it entails obsessive, uncontrollable thoughts and compulsions, which patients feel they must complete to counteract these thoughts. It is also an ADA protected disability, meaning that it affects those who have it enough to need accommodations as it hinders abilities in work, school, hobbies, and basic life tasks. One of the biggest myths about OCD is that it is just about being clean. While some sufferers might struggle with germaphobia and contamination fears, not all people with OCD have these obsessions, and many can actually have hoarding disorders associated with OCD that causes a lack of even the most basic hygiene. Despite all of that, many still view OCD as just a term, and the definitions of terms can change, often following the logical course of semantics, providing a new meaning that helps better convey thoughts and feelings. While that may apply, it doesn’t change the fact that OCD is not just any term, but it refers to a distinct medical condition that requires diagnosis and treatment. Using it casually and implying that it is just a part of some people’s personality or a way to describe a feeling creates myths and takes away from what the disorder really is. I believe that more care should be taken in using the term OCD to respect the real meaning and give credit to the perseverance of those who struggle through this disorder. What we say can have more impact on the lives of others than we realize, and, though OCD has been misunderstood for a very long time, it’s not too late to change the meaning once more and recognize it for what it really is.

WORKS CITED Abramowitz, Jonathan. “OCD and Depression.” The OCD Newsletter, International OCD Foundation, 2010. https://iocdf.org/expert-opinions/ocd-and-depression/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.

Beyond OCD. “OCD Symptoms OCD-Related Hoarding.” BeyondOCD, 2019. https://beyondocd.org/information-for-individuals/symptoms/ocd-related-hoarding Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.

Dictionary.com. “Is It OK to Say I’m OCD?” Dictionary.com, 2020. https://www.dictionary.com/e/ocd-offensive-term/ Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.

Dorfner, Micah. “Obsessively Pursuing Correct Use of Term ‘OCD’.” Mayo Clinic, 11 Feb. 2016. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/obsessively-pursuing-the-correctusage-of-the-term-ocd/. Ver. 3.3.6.2.3.2, Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.

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International OCD Foundation. “Help Separate OCD Myths from the Facts.” International OCD Foundation, 3 Oct. 2017. https://iocdf.org/blog/2017/10/03/help-seperate-ocd-mythsfrom-the-facts/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.

Lack, Caleb W. “Obsessive-compulsive disorder: Evidence-based treatments and future directions for research.” World Journal of Psychiatry, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, 22 Dec. 2012. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3782190/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.

SHRM. “Does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provide a list of conditions that are covered under the act?” SHRM, 5 Nov. 2019. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hrqa/pages/cms_011495.aspx Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.

Stoodley, Brendan. “How and Why Do Words Change in Meaning? Provide Examples That are Not Included in the OED to Illustrate Your Points.” The View from Outside, WordPress.com, 17 Sep. 2012. https://brendanstoodley.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/howand-why-do-words-change-in-meaning-provide-examples-that-are-not-included-in-theoed-to-illustrate-your-points/ Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.

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Learning Disability: The Silver Lining

By Jordana Cadiz Have you ever been genuinely interested in a subject to the point you spent hours studying the material? However, in the end, you end up failing the exam? Leaving you to ask yourself, “how did I fail?” Sometimes it is not your fault. It can possibly be the result of having a learning disability. According to American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, a learning disability is described as a “disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations.” When it comes to the topic of learning disabilities, it is important to highlight the two sides behind it. On one side, there is a belief they are incapable of success, creating the stereotype of them being “stupid” and “incapable of learning.” On the other hand, there are those who believe they are able to overcome these hurdles through higher education and services. In this essay, I will be using a variety of academic articles and a video about individuals with learning disabilities and their points of view in education. So, can individuals with learning disabilities triumph in life? To answer this question, I will discuss an insider’s perspective with their learning disability, how they deal with it, and the success attributes.

To have an insider’s perspective, Lexi Garrity, a junior at Vanderbilt University is a pre-med student who was diagnosed with a learning disability during her senior year of high school. Her disability would affect her memory, which caused her to process things slowly. In her TedTalk, “Learning Disability in Higher Education,” she explains that during college, she formed relationships with her professors. From this, her inability to comprehend sentences diminished.

Before meeting her professors, she was unable to remember what she said or wanted to say. At some points, this applied to others. Within her TedTalk, she says, “My best friend lives 40 minutes away from me. It was about three different routes to get to her house, each only 4 or 5 different directions so it’s relatively simple. I still cannot go to her house after 10 years of being her best friend without a GPS because I will get lost.” In other words, she struggles to process information into her mind. Despite having a disability, she motivates others to continue pursuing educational and professional dreams. In a way, she emphasizes the idea of persevering through life. However, it is important to highlight that she was able to overcome her disability through higher education.

After forming a professor-student relationship, she shared the factors needed to create one. These factors are “advocate, plan, power, and listen” (TEDxTalk). “Advocate” is the idea for a student to accept the fact they have a disability. From this, a student explains to their professor what they struggle in. Once you advocate for yourself, the next step is to formulate a plan (TEDxTalk). This plan will assist your professor in finding ways that will best suit you. An example of this is when her professor suggested using codes, mnemonics, and stories to help her understand the lessons (TEDxTalk). Proof of how these helped her was when she claimed, “I would have not got the 97% that I did on this upper-level bio test. In fact, I don’t even know if I would pass” (TEDxTalk). She described the power and listening to be the professor’s part. A professor has the power to believe in the student. At the same time, it is up to them to listen to the student. It is important to note that they should listen without feeling pity or bias. By doing this, the student will feel equal to fellow classmates.

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Besides a student-professor relationship, other ways of countering learning disabilities are the four success attributes. This includes self-awareness, proactivity, goal setting, and emotional stability.

Self-awareness is the ability to be aware of all the different aspects of one’s self. If an individual with a learning disability is self-aware, they could recognize the areas that they are strong in, as well as the areas that they’re weak in, and use them to make positive changes to lead to success. To support this statement, Goldberg at al.’s article “Predictors of Success in Individuals with Learning Disabilities: A Qualitative Analysis of a 20-Year Longitudinal Study” gives us more information.

Within the article, researchers at Frostig Center in California state that successful participants showed awareness of their strengths and weaknesses in both academic and non-academic areas.

From this, we can take away how they see their learning disability as their whole character. A successful informant said, “There are some things that I am good at, and things that I am not so good at. Some of my limitations are reading and writing. But boy, when it comes to putting things together, and understanding how things go together, reading plans, I’m really good at reading plans” (Goldberg et al. 226). In other words, successful participants recognized their talents, which prevented them from thinking negatively about themselves.

The second success attribute is proactivity. Proactivity is when an individual has control over the situation by taking precautionary steps. Being proactive improves an individual's career, health, and most importantly relationships. Successful individuals with learning disabilities are engaged with the world. They are involved with the community, family and friends, and leadership roles in the workplace. Goldberg believes that successful individuals are in control of their own destiny and could get whatever they want if they put their minds to it. One successful individual states, “I actually didn’t take classes as much as I took professors. The way I got through college was I looked at the classes I was interested in and I was over at the professor’s office just telling them my story and this is what I need” (Goldberg et al. 227). In order to be successful, the individual takes control by letting others know what they need just to do well in class.

The success group in the study also showed that they had perseverance. Perseverance is the ability to continue moving forward, despite the obstacles along the way. The students within the study struggle with memorizing and lesson comprehension, however, they continue trying. They aren’t “normal”, yet they aren’t phased by the adversity. A successful informant says, “I am most proud of my ability to keep going, I have learned to keep going no matter what people said. No matter if it was inspired by anger or revenge or whatever, still it’s the ability to keep plodding along” (Goldberg et al. 228). This is an example of how students display acts of perseverance. Successful individuals are driven by the “never give up and keep going” mentality. In doing so, the chains referred to as “learning disability” are unable to hold them down.

This leaves us with the final step, which is known as goal setting. Although both successful and unsuccessful individuals set goals, their methods are what differentiated them. Successful individuals are able to be specific and flexible, while also being realistic. One individual states, “I’m very realistic in terms of what I know I can do, what I possibly can do, and what I cannot do” (Goldberg et al. 228). This emphasizes the idea that being realistic improves the chances of success. On the other hand, unsuccessful people cannot achieve their goals. The reason being, their goals are too unrealistic with their current abilities. An example is a 35-year-old information worker trying to become a vice president of a company, even though he experiences difficulty in holding an entry-level job. At the same time, he has no management experience (Goldberg et al.

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228). With planning, specificity, and flexibility, people with learning disabilities can achieve their educational and professional dreams.

Another factor individuals with a learning disability must cope with is stress. Authors Catherine Thornberry and Karin Olson from the University of Alberta inform us on this subject. Their article “The abuse of individuals with developmental disabilities” explains how people dehumanize individuals with disabilities. Examples of these dehumanizing terms are deviants, imbeciles, morons, and retards (Thornberry and Olson 13). Within the article, they state, “More recently, other investigators have demonstrated that, although some families are at risk for experiencing high levels of stress-related to their child with a disability, many others actually do cope and adapt positively to this stress” (Thornberry and Olson 8). In other words, both parents and children experience the stress caused by learning disabilities. Parents try their best to understand their child’s struggles and needs, however, they have the perspective that they are not doing enough.

Children tend to feel fatigued or experience psychological difficulty from the stress. What separates a successful individual from an unsuccessful one is their ability to recognize the situation.

They are able to understand what triggers the stress, from there, they develop ways to cope with it.

Successful study participants referred to numerous other methods for reducing stress and coping with frustration and emotional problems, including getting others to do unmanageable tasks on the job, holding in their emotions so adverse consequences would not result, changing activities periodically so stress did not build up, utilizing peer support and encouragement, planning ahead for difficult situations, keeping away from negative or critical persons, obtaining medication, working out differences with friends and family, sharing with sympathetic family members, and so on. (Goldberg et al. 230) This highlights the numerous methods one can do to counter stress. Through these methods, an individual will learn to control said stress, which will later lessen the toll learning disabilities bring upon a family.

A major attribute in succeeding is having a support system. A support system is a network of people who provide emotional and practical support. Family, friends, and teachers are often found within these systems. Dale Rose, who has a Ph.D. in special education from Colorado Christian University, did research on this topic. In the article “Students with Learning Disabilities and Their Perspectives Regarding Reading Comprehension Instruction: A Qualitative Inquiry” we are able to discover strategies that are most beneficial to help students reach their academic potential.

Having a support system causes an individual to receive guidance, support, and encouragement. We can see how this system can work through one of the students he interviewed.

The participant says that he was “able to “ask the teacher or my classmates’ questions [about things] that I don’t understand” (Rose 145). Although he struggled at reading, his support system helped him to succeed, since receiving help from other students and his teacher improved his reading. Receiving support from your peers creates possibilities for personal growth and achievements.

On the contrary, numerous individuals have the perspective that those with learning disabilities are incapable of success. Sadly, they view them (individuals with learning disabilities) as the 40

outskirts of society. From this, those who have a learning disability are shunned and ignored by these groups. All because of the “label” they carry. Due to this label, individuals are given lower expectations and somewhat looked down on. To have a further understanding of this topic, M. Henley, R.S. Ramsey, and R.F. Algozzine said labeling can affect students in special education and how there are disadvantages. They state, “When a student is placed in a category, a teacher who knows some of the characteristics of a category may ascribe all known characteristics to each labeled child. This is stereotyping. Stereotypes harm students when teachers rationalize low achievement by citing characteristics of the label" (Henley, Ramsey, and Algozzine 2). Constant labeling eventually causes these individuals to accept the negativity that follows. This would later cause them to feel isolated from the outside world. Serious situations cause feelings of anxiety, shame, low self-esteem, and negative self-image.

From this essay, we can see that time, effort, and perseverance, are key factors in overcoming learning disabilities. By using these key factors, individuals with learning disabilities can succeed in life. From Garrity’s TedTalk, we have an idea of what she went through with her learning disability, and how she was able to form a professor-student relationship with higher education.

The relationship was built on mentorship, trust, and academia to stimulate growth. This resulted in her being able to achieve success with her memory disability. Furthermore, Goldberg's article, made us aware that individuals with learning disabilities can be successful. She identified four success attributes: self-awareness, proactivity, perseverance, and goal setting. Each attribute was gained from the qualitative analysis. They collected feedback from successful and unsuccessful individuals, how the attributes contributed to their success. Rose’s article helped us understand how important it is for students with learning disabilities to have support systems. It helps students have personal growth, achievements, and the mindset to keep going and never give up. Without the help of support systems, they often feel discouraged, and that they can’t be like a “normal” student. Imagine having dyslexia, which deals with having a difficult time reading or even an oral or written language disorder, that affects your understanding of what you read or what was spoken.

Early diagnosis of a learning disability in children could improve a child’s ability to reach their academic potential. Also, it prevents the development of low self-esteem and behavioral problems that could interfere with the ability to learn. People should be more aware of how learning disabilities could affect an individual’s life beyond academics, so schools should do their very best to help these individuals succeed in life.

WORKS CITED Goldberg, Roberta J., et al. “Predictors of Success in Individuals with Learning Disabilities: A Qualitative Analysis of a 20-Year Longitudinal Study.” Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, vol. 18, no. 4, 2003, pp. 222–236., doi:10.1111/1540-5826.00077.

Henley, M., et al. “Labeling and Disadvantages of Labeling.” pp. 1–2.

“Learning Disabilities: Issues on Definition.” American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 1 Jan. 1991, www.asha.org/policy/RP1991-00209/.

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Rose, Dale R. “Students with Learning Disabilities and Their Perspectives Regarding Reading Comprehension Instruction: A Qualitative Inquiry.” Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research, Cedarville University. 251 North Main Street, Cedarville, OH 45314. www.cedarville.edu/Jeqr, 30 Nov. 2018, eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1256879.

TEDxTalks, director. “Learning Disability in Higher Education...: Lexie Garrity: TEDxVanderbiltUniversity.” YouTube, 14 Dec. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSz_zjiS3E8.

Thornberry, Catherine, et al. “The Abuse of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities.”

Developmental Disabilities Bulletin, 2005, Vol. 33, No. 1 & 2, Pp. 1‐19, files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ844468.pdf.

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Is Cannabidiol an Effective Treatment for Anxiety?

By Robert A. Rowe According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in the United States, and they affect approximately forty million adults, equating to approximately eighteen percent of the country’s population (ADAA). In a recent academic article entitled “Use of Cannabidiol for the Treatment of Anxiety: A Short Synthesis of Pre-Clinical and Clinical Evidence,” authors Wright et al. from the University of Toronto describe anxiety as a brutal experience which can sometimes be accompanied by excessive fear, behavioral problems, disability, and even elevated risk of suicide (Wright et al. 191). Cannabidiol, also known as CBD, is an essential component of the marijuana plant, and it has become a very popular substance that has been marketed as a cure-all remedy for a variety of health issues. My objective for this paper is to explain what CBD is, identify misconceptions about CBD, explore and define anxiety disorders, and to find out if cannabidiol is an effective treatment for anxiety. The sources I will be using for this research assignment consist of scholarly publications and popular sources.

The most critical sources that I will be using as supportive evidence to identify the efficacy of CBD consist of scholarly publications written by Laczkovics, et al. in an article entitled “Cannabidiol Treatment in an Adolescent with Multiple Substance Abuse, Social Anxiety and Depression” and another article by Gulbransen, et al. entitled “Cannabidiol Prescription in Clinical Practice: An Audit on the First 400 Patients in New Zealand.”

I decided to write about a topic concerning anxiety because I experienced a panic attack in 2018.

A beloved family member of mine passed away, and one night I was awakened with an intense panic attack that caused me to tremble. Since then, I have not experienced any panic attacks, but I have gained much empathy for those who must deal with anxiety. There also are plenty of misconceptions regarding CBD. People may argue that CBD as a treatment does not work or is a marketing hoax. Others will claim that CBD is addicting, it will get you high, and that people should be discouraged from using it as a possible treatment. However, CBD can be an effective treatment for people who suffer with anxiety, and it often has minor adverse effects. This paper will first explore common anxiety disorders to provide general information about anxiety. Then, I will explore what CBD is, how it is produced, and identify and answer common misconceptions about CBD. Finally, this paper will examine case studies and clinical trials involving the efficacy of CBD as a treatment for anxiety.

So, what exactly is anxiety? In a medically reviewed Healthline article entitled “Everything You Need to Know About Anxiety,” writer Kimberly Holland describes anxiety as the following: [It is] your body’s natural response to stress. It is a feeling of fear or apprehension about what is to come. The first day of school, going to a job interview, or giving a speech may cause most people to feel fearful and nervous. But if your feelings of anxiety are extreme, last for longer than six months, and are interfering with your life, you may have an anxiety disorder. (Holland) It is common and natural for people to become anxious as it is the body’s natural response to stress; however, if you keep experiencing continuous anxiety, you may have an anxiety disorder. I discovered that there are many types of anxiety disorders that fall under the category of anxiety.

Holland identifies several anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder, phobia, social anxiety

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disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, separation anxiety disorder, illness anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

To clearly define anxiety, this paragraph will provide a general description of seven types of anxiety disorders mentioned in the previous paragraph. Holland says a panic disorder occurs when someone is experiencing recurring panic attacks at random time periods and may live in fear for the next panic attack. A phobia is a disorder that occurs when a person has an excessive fear of an object, situation, or activity (Holland). Another type of anxiety disorder, called “social anxiety disorder,” happens when a person develops an extreme fear of being judged by other people in a social setting. Holland defines “obsessive compulsive disorder” as another form of anxiety that occurs when a person has recurring irrational thoughts that lead an individual to perform specific, repeated behaviors. “Separation anxiety disorder” occurs when a person fears being away from family members, friends, or even their home. Holland defines “illness anxiety disorder” as when a person develops a fear about one’s own health; someone who has this disorder is also referred to as a hypochondriac. The last anxiety disorder mentioned by Holland is “post-traumatic stress disorder”; this is found when a person experiences recurring anxiety following a traumatic event.

There are many types of anxiety which seem to take control of people’s lives against their own will. Not only are there many forms of anxiety, but anxiety is more common than people realize.

Writer Lindsay Holmes, a senior wellness editor for the HuffPost, suggests that people assume that anxiety conditions are not that common, but, as mentioned in the introduction, anxiety affects over forty million people in the United States (ADAA). With anxiety being a common disorder that people can experience, there are many options people can pursue to cope with their anxiety.

Holland says that “[t]reatment for anxiety falls into two categories: psychotherapy and medication” (Holland). It is common for people to seek a therapist or take medication prescribed by their doctors. Holland also mentions that people have found natural remedies to help cure their anxiety, including getting proper sleep, being active, eating healthy, avoiding alcohol, avoiding caffeine, and avoiding cigarettes. Anxiety is common and it seems that people have more than one option to deal with it, and this paper will later discuss whether or not CBD may be an effective treatment for anxiety.

A misconception about anxiety is that it is the same condition as stress. In an online article published by HuffPost entitled “The Difference Between Stress and Anxiety”, senior wellness editor Lindsay Holmes talks about the difference between stress and anxiety. She states, “Still, despite the differences, many people use the terms interchangeably” (Holmes). People are unknowingly using the words “stress” and “anxiety” in the wrong context, and they may not even understand the difference between the two words. However, in an article published by Psychology Today entitled “Fear vs Anxiety,” Harriet Lerner, a Ph.D. psychologist and psychotherapist, elaborates on the differences between stress and anxiety. She says, “I'm sure you're aware that the neurobiology of fear is different than the neurobiology of anxiety. The sudden re-arrangement of your guts when an intruder holds a knife to your back (fear), is different from the mild nausea, dizziness and butterflies in your stomach as you're about to make a difficult phone call (anxiety)” (Lerner). In other words, anxiety and fear are different and are both experienced in distinct ways.

People may experience both anxiety and fear, but they may not be able to recognize the difference between them.

Next, what is Cannabidiol? According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Cannabidiol or CBD is a phytocannabinoid derived from the cannabis plant and is one of over 44

eighty-five active compounds that are found in cannabis (NCBI). CBD is only one specific compound that is extracted from the cannabis plant; meanwhile, the cannabis plant contains many other different compounds. CBD has the potential to be used for many therapeutic treatments. In an academic article entitled “Cannabidiol Modulates Serotonergic Transmission and Reverses both Allodynia and Anxiety-Like Behavior in a Model of Neuropathic Pain,” neurobiological psychiatry research team Gregorio et al. state, “The primary non-euphorizing and nonaddictive compound of cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD), has recently been shown to possess considerable therapeutic potential for treating a wide range of disorders such as chronic pain, nausea, epilepsy, psychosis, and anxiety" (136). In other words, CBD is the non-psychoactive compound of the cannabis plant, and it has shown to produce therapeutic potential for many disorders including anxiety.

It is common knowledge that people are now able to easily buy CBD from a variety of stores and even online retailers. In a popular Healthline article entitled “Here are 5 Harmful Things CBD Articles Get Wrong,” author Katie Macbride, a freelance writer and associate editor for Anxy Magazine, reveals some common misconceptions people have regarding CBD, such as how CBD is a marketing scam (Macbride). Macbride argues that the wellness industry is taking advantage of CBD and is trying to make money; as a result, CBD is unnecessarily ending up in cosmetic and wellness products. Because of how trendy CBD has become, many companies are implementing CBD into their products, and I would agree that CBD can seem like a marketing scam. However, people who do not believe in CBD should research reputable brands and produce high-quality CBD. CBD produced in bad quality could potentially discourage people from purchasing it, and it could also discourage people from believing in it as a treatment option.

This highlights another mistaken belief about CBD. Macbride references a statement from an unknown source that says, “I took CBD for 7 days and nothing happened, so it doesn’t work” (Macbride). Some people take CBD, decide that it does not work, and then discredit CBD as a possible treatment method. In the last section of this paper, we will delve into clinical studies that argue this exact misconception. Another misconception about CBD is the belief that CBD can get you high and that it might be addicting (Williams). The National Center for Biotechnology Information also states, “Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are two types of cannabinoids found naturally in the resin of the marijuana plant, both of which interact with the cannabinoid receptors that are found throughout the body” (NCBI). It is true that CBD and THC are both found in the marijuana plant, and it may be easy to assume that CBD can get you high because it is derived from the marijuana plant. However, a neurobiological psychiatry research team writes, “Unlike the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, CBD lacks addictive properties and euphoric effects” (Gregorio et al. 136). Gregorio et al. argues that CBD alone lacks the capability to produce the euphoric “high” that is produced from marijuana and also lacks addictive properties. Their research debunks the argument that CBD can get you high.

Finally, how effective is CBD for treating anxiety? Next, I am going to explore many recent case studies and clinical trials of CBD being administered to groups with anxiety. In a recent clinical study, Graham Gulbransen et al. administered CBD to 400 patients seeking cannabidiol prescriptions between 7 December 2017 and 7 December 2018. The study found that “patients with non-cancer pain and mental-health symptoms achieved improvements [from] patient-reported pain[,] depression[,] and anxiety symptoms... There were no major adverse effects. Positive side 45

effects included improved sleep and appetite” (Gulbransen et al. 137). The results of this study were positive and in support of CBD as an effective treatment for anxiety. In addition, patients living with anxiety-related mental health conditions reported a greater quality of life after their treatment with CBD. Patients that received CBD to treat non-cancer pain and mental health symptoms--such as anxiety and depression--reported positive improvements from their symptoms.

Although there were many positive outcomes in the New Zealand study, a few patients reported back adverse side effects. Gulbransen et al. stated that 25 out of 253 patients who followed up with doctors after the initial treatment experienced adverse side effects such as sedation and vivid dreams (Gulbransen et al. 140). Furthermore, the authors also stated, “A worsening of a preexisting condition was reported by 2 of 253 (0.8%) patients upon follow- up.” A small percentage of patients that participated in this study experienced adverse side effects, and approximately two percent of patients with a pre-existing condition reported a worsening of their symptoms. This information makes me think that CBD may not be for everyone. However, this study showed that most people did experience positive outcomes. I would suggest that people who are looking for CBD as a treatment for anxiety to talk with their doctor or care provider to determine if CBD is an appropriate treatment for them.

In another CBD case report, neuropsychiatric research team Laczkovics et al. administer CBD to an adolescent patient with multiple substance abuse disorders to treat the patient’s social phobia, depression, and narcissistic personality disorder. According to the case, the patient was a 16.9year-old who sought help from an urban clinic; once they were evaluated, the patient presented symptoms of severe depression, derealization, social anxiety, attention deficit, social withdrawal, and multiple-substance abuse (Laczkovics et al. 2). Furthermore, Laczkovics et al. says that “at his first appointment, he was using THC on a daily basis and indicated to consume MDMA, cocaine [,] and ecstasy once a week. He had a history of psychiatric treatment over the last 2 years and had been treated with [100mg of] sertraline... administered orally once daily for 6 months. No other medication was given to the patient” (Laczkovics et al. 2). An adolescent patient with many severe symptoms that included a few anxiety-related disorders fueled his symptoms by taking many illicit drugs throughout the week as well as by taking cannabis daily. Next, the adolescent teen decided to seek help to treat his depression and anxiety by using cannabidiol through a clinical trial.

Once the patient could be treated the doctors started dosing the adolescent with CBD. Laczkovics et al. reported, “we started the administration of CBD with an initial dosage of 50mg twice daily, in the morning and evening. Within 3 weeks, we increased the dosage gradually to 300mg twice daily… [while] evaluating [for] adverse effects and clinical improvement” (Laczkovics et al. 3).

The doctors gave the adolescent teen an initial lower dose of CBD twice a day for three weeks before bumping his daily CBD dose to 300mg. In addition to administering CBD, the authors mention that the patient was also given psychological assessments before and after being administered the CBD treatments.

After the treatment of CBD was given to a patient who showed many disorders like severe depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, the patient's post-treatment assessment yielded a positive result. The same neuro-psychiatric researchers state, “Upon treatment with CBD and cessation of the antidepressant medication, the patient improved regarding depressive as well as anxiety symptoms including simple phobias and symptoms of paranoia and dissociation. Furthermore, the patient stopped abusing illegal drugs including THC without showing withdrawal symptoms” 46

(Laczkovics et al. 3). The adolescent patient was able to improve his depressive and anxiety symptoms after being treated with CBD. Moreover, the young patient was able to cease his substance addiction without showing withdrawal symptoms. This case study shows phenomenal evidence that supports the efficacy of CBD as a treatment for anxiety and other mental disorders.

Anxiety is the body’s natural response to stress, and it produces a persistent feeling of fear or apprehension toward anticipated events. There are multiple types of anxiety disorders such as panic disorder, phobia, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, separation anxiety disorder, illness anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. This paper debunked the argument that anxiety is not a common type of illness or disorder. In the United States, approximately forty million people--or 18% of Americans--experience some kind of anxiety disorder in their lifetimes (ADAA). A common misconception about anxiety is that it is the same condition as stress. However, anxiety and stress are different conditions, and they are both experienced in distinct ways. Some people may have experienced both anxiety and stress, but they may not recognize the difference between them. People have found nontraditional natural remedies to help cure their anxiety, such as getting proper sleep, being active, eating healthy, avoiding alcohol, avoiding caffeine, and avoiding cigarettes.

Moreover, CBD is a phytocannabinoid derived from the cannabis plant and is one of over eightyfive active compounds that are found in the marijuana plant (NCBI). CBD is the non-psychoactive compound of the cannabis plant and has shown to produce therapeutic potential for many disorders including anxiety. One misconception this paper debunks was that CBD products are a marketing scam. In my research, I found that there is a difference between good and bad quality CBD products, and I also found that the mass marketing of CBD paired with bad quality CBD products could be a strong reason for someone to be discouraged from using cannabidiol as a possible treatment option. Another CBD fallacy is the belief that CBD is addicting and can get the user high. Although CBD and THC are both found naturally in the marijuana plant, research indicates that CBD alone lacks the capability to produce the euphoric “high” that is produced from THC. The last misconception about CBD covered in this paper was that CBD is an ineffective treatment for anxiety. One case study spotlighted an individual that used CBD for a short period of time and decided that the treatment method does not work for them. However, the misconception that CBD does not work for all people was debunked in the two case studies where CBD improved anxiety symptoms in patients that used it for a longer term.

This essay covered two separate CBD case studies that supported the efficacy of CBD for the treatment of anxiety-related disorders. In the first case study, four hundred patients in New Zealand with non-cancerous and mental health symptoms, including anxiety, were given CBD treatments.

The study stated that the patients who were administered the CBD treatment reported positive improvements regarding their depressive and anxiety symptoms. The next case study exhibited a detailed analysis of an adolescent patient who was administered a CBD treatment for his severe depression, anxiety disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder. This case study showed remarkable results which concluded with the patient showing improvements with his depression and anxiety. Both case studies show hard evidence that strongly supports my argument that CBD may be an effective treatment for those who suffer with anxiety, and CBD also presents minimal adverse side effects.

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WORKS CITED Anxiety and Depression Association of America. (2020). Facts & Statistics. Retrieved January 02, 2021, from adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics Gregorio, Danilo De, et al. “Cannabidiol Modulates Serotonergic Transmission and Reverses Both Allodynia and Anxiety-like Behavior in a Model of Neuropathic Pain.” Pain, vol.

160, no. 1, 2019, pp. 136–150., doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001386.

Gulbransen, Graham, et al. “Cannabidiol Prescription in Clinical Practice: An Audit on the First 400 Patients in New Zealand.” BJGP Open, vol. 4, no. 1, 4 April 2020, doi:10.3399/bjgpopen20x101010.

Holmes, Lindsay. “10 Things People Get Wrong About Anxiety.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-myths_n_4899290.

Holmes, Lindsay. “The Difference Between Stress and Anxiety.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/stress-anxiety-difference_n_4833172.

Holland, K. (2020, September 03). Anxiety: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, and More. Retrieved January 02, 2021, from www.healthline.com/health/anxiety Laczkovics, Clarissa, et al. “Cannabidiol Treatment in an Adolescent with Multiple Substance Abuse, Social Anxiety and Depression.” Neuropsychiatrie, 12 Feb. 2020, pp. 1–4., doi:10.1007/s40211-020-00334-0.

Macbride, K. (2019, November 18). 5 Myths About CBD That Need Busting Now. Retrieved December 30, 2020, from www.healthline.com/health/myths-about-cbd National Center for Biotechnology Information. (n.d.). "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 644019, Cannabidiol" PubChem. Retrieved January 02, 2021, from pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Cannabidiol Williams, Frank. “7 Common Misconceptions About CBD (Myths or Facts?).” CBD Packaging Store, 21 Dec. 2020, cbdpackagingstore.com/misconceptions-about-cbd/.

Wright, Madison, et al. “Use of Cannabidiol for the Treatment of Anxiety: A Short Synthesis of Pre-Clinical and Clinical Evidence.” Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, vol. 5, no. 3, 2020, pp. 191–196., doi:10.1089/can.2019.0052.

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Why Steroids Should be Legalized

By Edward Alexander The bodybuilding community is a group of people that share the obsession of developing and sculpting their muscles to perfection for sport. Bodybuilding should not be confused with powerlifting, which is when a person lifts heavy weights to gain strength. In the words of bodybuilding celebrity Arnold Schwarzenegger, “The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else” (Schwarzenegger). There are many ways to stand out and gain a competitive edge in the bodybuilding world, including taking various supplements, performance enhancing drugs and anabolic steroids. Formally known as anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), these chemicals are a combination of natural and synthetic testosterone, and they are mostly used to grow muscle. Steroids are the supplement of choice in most young male and female bodybuilders because of their efficacy; an individual can gain a significant amount of lean muscle mass in a short period of time with AAS. I personally had a twenty-pound gain in ten days, and that was proof enough for me that they worked in the way that my buddy said they would. It was easy to get me hooked on steroids with those kinds of muscle gains. Bodybuilders often don’t consider what can happen when they abuse steroids because they are so preoccupied with their results.

Because steroid users are using these illegal, Schedule III substances without regard for side effects, I believe that sports medicine doctors should produce, prescribe, and manage steroid regimens for professional bodybuilders so that users may take them in safe and effective ways.

Small doses of steroids are already being used for medical purposes to treat various conditions; therefore, they should be legalized for use by sports medicine physicians so that bodybuilders can use them under their doctors' supervision. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is a federal research agency that conducts scientific research on drug use and its consequences.

“Steroids were first synthesized to treat various medical conditions such as inflammation and depression in 1935 in Germany” (NIDA). It was not until 1954 when athlete trainees for the Olympics began to misuse steroids for the performance enhancing abilities. Afterward in the 1980s, steroids gained mainstream use among athletes, particularly in bodybuilders because of the muscle growth they would achieve in such a short amount of time. Only a year later, though, they became illegal. Oliver Bateman is an accomplished freelance writer, lawyer, former college professor, and bodybuilding enthusiast who has published many works on the sport of bodybuilding. Statistics gathered by Bateman from the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition-the most prestigious of its kind--show “the most advantageous age for a bodybuilding champion is thirty-four years old” (Bateman 63). Men and women between the ages of twenty-three and forty-five who suffer from a diagnosed medical condition called muscle dysmorphia (MD), a body image disorder, would use anabolic steroids to gain the perfect body image. Growing up, I would get teased because I was so skinny, and I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) at a young age. Hating my body and having way too much energy was what led me to bodybuilding. Although I did not get into bodybuilding until I was thirty-two years old, some would say I was a late bloomer, because I did not have the dedication or the discipline, I needed to transform my body. I completely transformed my body from a mere 165 pounds to a beastly 250 pounds of raw lean muscle. After my first year of commitment, I grew fast right away, but around year two I plateaued, so I began eating larger meals, taking more creatine, and I doubled up on the fat burners I was taking; at the time they still had ephedrine in them. The ultimate goal was to gain weight and muscle fast but stay lean enough to compete. I was introduced to steroids by my buddy Turbo, and I immediately experienced what they could do for my physique. I dropped 49

all the other supplements and went exclusively with anabolic steroids. My gym buddies continued using all the over-the-counter supplements in addition to cycles of AAS without acknowledging the damage that the combination of enhancers was doing to their bodies. The problem with my gym buddies and I is that we honestly believed, despite all the gains, that we were small and weak and thus needed more steroids. This thought process is what led to my abuse of AAS. Had I been under the supervision of a doctor that was calculating my dosage and schedules, I think I would have gained faster, and I would have been in better physical health.

The obsession my gym buddies and I had with our muscle size and strength was an addictive behavior, and that led us to steroid abuse like most other bodybuilders in our situation. With every workout, lift, and repetition I felt less and less physically adequate. My muscles were growing, but my self-image and self-esteem as a man had diminished. I never thought I would feel so awful about my body--the body I had worked so hard to achieve--as I did at that time in my life. A team of doctors that conduct research and analyze data for the Journal of Addictive Behaviors reported in a study on muscular dysmorphia (MD) that those experiencing muscle dysmorphia strive for maximum fat loss and maximum muscular build. MD can have potentially negative effects on thought processes including depressive states, suicidal thoughts, and, in extreme cases, suicide attempts (Foster et al.). MD is a real psychological disorder that distorts people’s mind and leads to a misconception of one’s body image regardless of what they see in the mirror. It is no wonder that bodybuilders with severe MD turn to steroids for more rapid results and to help them accept their bodies as they are. Steroids have been prescribed to patients for years for many reasons. I believe steroids can be formulated especially for different sports and prescribed by a physician to help bodybuilders that are suffering from MD. The only reason doctors have not done so already is the stigma that surrounds steroid use in sports. Opponents of steroids say that it gives the athlete an unfair advantage over the competition. It is time to level the playing field and legalize the use of steroids in sports.

Steroids, in the bodybuilding community, go by so many different names, such as gear, juice, roids, and stackers, to name a few. There are many myths surrounding steroids, and one of the most common is that steroids are only injected in the veins of the user, so therefore they must be dangerous. However, most steroids can be taken orally, but, when they are injected, they are delivered directly into the muscle of the user to deliver a quick, local boost of testosterone where it is needed. This efficacious delivery system is why steroids are so beneficial to a bodybuilder's routine if used in safe doses and on a monitored schedule. The medicine is delivered directly to the muscle, and it causes rapid transformations in the muscles. The changes in the user's body often makes them want to use more steroids. The positive emotional response a user experiences after observing the results of steroid usage can create a vicious cycle of emotional dysfunction. For example, MD can cause an individual to obsess over how their body looks so much that it can motivate them to change their workout and their diet; after not seeing their desired results, the individual can start to obsess and add a supplement or two; as the cycle continues, they obsess over their body more until they eventually try steroids; finally, they positively respond to their results and instinctively want more.

The bodybuilding community is a tight-knit community; often, friends share their secrets to success, but just because a regimen works for one person does not mean it will work for everyone.

It is also common for steroid users to feel they must keep up with their buddies in the gym or with their competitors during the competition season. Their desire to better themselves drives their 50

obsession even more, and users often try anything to be the biggest and the best. Once the user achieves the results from their first cycle of steroids, they typically want more; this is called the steroid high. A steroid high does not actually cause the user to feel intoxicated, but the euphoric feeling that bodybuilders feel when they achieve their intended results is called a roid high.

Bodybuilders get hooked on steroids so easily because they typically take them at very high doses-high enough that they acquire a dependence on them. As reported by NIDA, “Steroids are a synthesized strain of the male sex hormone [,] testosterone” (NIDA 1990). Most bodybuilders do not perceive a consequence to steroid usage because they see it simply as the synthetic version of a hormone that the body already generates. I looked at steroids as a productivity accelerant to a hormone that my body made naturally, so I did not think it could be harmful. “The chemical makeup of synthetic testosterone, the H compound that is naturally made by a male’s body [,] is replaced with CH3 strain which is the compound that causes muscles to grow more rapidly in steroid users” (NIDA 1990). If I had a doctor that could prescribe the right combination and dosage of steroids for me, it would have prevented the anxiety I felt over the regimens I abused.

Just like how bodybuilders have workout routines and very specific eating habits, they also choose from a handful of steroid abuse regimens known as cycling, pyramiding, stacking, and plateauing. These regimens are just as precise and calculated as everything else in a bodybuilder’s life. Cycling describes taking multiple doses for a period of time, stopping for a period of time, and then starting back up again. Pyramiding is the gradual increase of steroid doses until the user reaches a maximum dose; at that point, the user works their way back to the original dosage by gradually decreasing their intake. There is also stacking, which is mixing injectable and oral steroids for maximum results. Finally, plateauing is where the user overlaps the use of different steroids by alternating between different steroids, substituting one substance for another, to avoid the inevitable plateau that typically occurs when the body has built up a tolerance for steroids.

Psychiatry team, Dr. Adam J. Trenton and Dr. Glenn W. Currier conducted and analyzed data that found that “most bodybuilders use 10 - 100 times the testosterone the male body makes naturally” (Trenton and Currier 572). With such excessive use, steroid use comes with an inherent risk to the user’s physical and emotional health.

Although there are long term effects associated with the use of anabolic steroids, doctors could monitor their use so that they are effective and not harmful to the user. When bodybuilders try steroids alone, they often overlook the “long term effects of steroid abuse like, liver damage, heart disease, increased cholesterol levels, kidney failure, enlarged heart, and are prone to blood clots” (NIDA). There are some additional effects of excessive use on men and women separately, but if doctors were to monitor the use of anabolic steroids, it is likely that these side effects would be dramatically reduced. “Male users may experience severe acne, breast growth, shrinking testicles, infertility, and increased risk of prostate cancer, while women may experience changes in their menstrual cycle, deepening of their voice, reduction of their breast size, facial hair or body hair growth, and possibly male-patterned baldness” (NIDA).

Although steroids do not cause a high like other drugs, users can become addicted to them because of their positive psychological and emotional responses after achieving their desired results. I believe that steroids can be used safely, especially with professional help. There could also be side effects when a user decides to discontinue the use of steroids. Being monitored by a doctor for this process would prepare the user for possible side effects, such as “fatigue, loss of sex drive, loss of appetite, steroid craving, and sleep problems” (NIDA). People should advocate for the regulation 51

of steroids to protect users from addiction and withdrawal symptoms, because they would be prescribed the proper combination for their desired results before they ignorantly try the drugs.

When using steroids, people can often experience mental health problems that may lead to mental health illnesses or disorders. The steroid high can be very dangerous to users as they may experience many psychological side effects; this is mostly caused by using too much and mixing steroids with other supplements and or illicit drugs. Extremely negative psychiatric behaviors like paranoia, unreasonable jealousy, extreme anger, irritability, aggression, delusions, and or impaired judgment are experienced by many steroid abusers (Trenton & Currier). Steroid users most often abuse other addictive substances that can also be harmful to their bodies, namely alcohol and other illicit drugs. Dr. Miguel Garcia-Argibay, a Swedish professor at Örebro University, conducted a study of AAS users and non-users to show a relationship between personality traits and impulsivity in steroid use. The study showed that “AAS users are generally unaware of the negative effects upon their health and even display unconcern… users expressed mistrust in physicians’ knowledge… this may be their way to justify the use of AAS by belittling and devaluating the severity of the medical warnings about its usage” (Garcia-Argibay). Steroids are a controlled substance and can only be obtained by medical prescription, so where can bodybuilders, individuals without a medical need for steroids, get their androgens?

Bodybuilders typically do not obtain AAS legally, so they must turn to other sources to obtain their steroids. A team of journalists with a focus in medicine and harm reduction state that “a primary consequence of illicit drug markets and the absence of regulation is the variable quality or purity of the final product” (Frude et al.). While the Mr. Olympia competition has plenty of vendors with a plethora of bodybuilding supplements, the competition has been a Mecca for illicit drug sales since its early days. “In an age of widespread contempt for steroid use… bodybuilding represents the outlier, its highest-profile competitors are not just performance enhanced but almost superhumanly so,” said Matthew Weise, a World Wrestling Entertainment athlete and actor (Bateman 62). Because steroids are scheduled and controlled for medical purposes, recreational users must turn to illegal markets to get their drugs, and those markets are not tested nor regulated, which adds significant potential for product contamination. The unregulated market could lead to the production of inferior and possibly dirty steroids, which could also be chemically combined with other drugs to increase their efficacy; it is often difficult to distinguish a laced steroid from a pure one because there are usually many layers of separation between the manufacturer and the buyer. Because of the associated risks, many bodybuilders do not ask their supplier whether or not their product is pure, nor do they inquire where they get their product from. Steroids that are sold on the black market could also be counterfeit, meaning that they contain less of a specific ingredient or a different active ingredient all together. The sport of bodybuilding has two distinct seasons: one half of the year leads up to the Mr. Olympia competition, and the second half of the year leads up to the Arnold Classic; both events draw athletes, clothing vendors, nutritionists, and supplement vendors to conventions centers for weekend-long shows that display huge muscles and fake tans. Weise describes these events as “a kind of bodybuilding prom, where the community flocks to see the competition and their dealers to load up on kratom” (Bateman 63). There is a tremendous amount of risk for the user when purchasing their steroids on the black market.

Bodybuilders, especially those with severe MD, depression, and anxiety, typically ignore the risks associated with the sport, and they say that there is a whole lot of reward for using steroids; the ultimate benefit that steroids provide for bodybuilders is being able to obtain the perfect body.

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Although there is a stigma surrounding the use of steroids, most bodybuilders are willing to ignore their naysayers to achieve the body they need in order to win grandiose competitions. Often, bodybuilders that struggle with MD also suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

Steroids provide a little relief from their OCD symptoms, but it creates a lifestyle that comes with some associated danger because they use their results from steroid use as a crutch for the negative energy that comes with MD, OCD, and depression. Matt Weise summed up the sentiment of most bodybuilders that use steroids in saying that “bodybuilding isn’t a ‘steroid sport’; bodybuilding is the official sport of the steroid lifestyle” (Bateman 63). Steroid use is a negative lifestyle that most users feel overwhelmingly consumed by. Steroids can give users the results they desire, but they can also ruin users' lives just as quickly; this is another side effect of steroid usage that users are apprehensive to admit. However, I believe legalizing steroids can enable safe steroid use in strict bodybuilding regimens that can help the athlete achieve their desired results. I also believe it will clear up some of the public stigma that surrounds steroid use in bodybuilding.

If steroids can be used to treat other medical conditions, then it should be legalized for use by bodybuilders. In an editorial work on steroid use and policy change, a team of European medical researchers wrote that “the US [has] a complete prohibition on the use, possession, and supply with doctors facing imprisonment for prescribing anabolic drugs for non-medical reasons” (Littlepage et al. 1470). Steroid use is almost as old as the sport itself, and the trend is not projected to slow down. There will always be new perfectionists that call bodybuilding their passion, so why not legalize and regulate the use of steroids in the bodybuilding community to protect future generations of bodybuilders? The longer steroids remain illegal for recreational uses, the higher the demand will rise. The European medical research team compared AAS to the illegal opioid, heroin, to show parallel consumption trends between the substances since “domestic heroin consumption in the US [rose] every year since 1923 when it [was] prohibited” (Littlejohn et al.

1470). The longer steroids remain illegal, the longer bodybuilders will be forced to abuse them, and they will do so without supervision of a medical provider. Bodybuilders deserve the same treatment access as men suffering from men’s health issues receive. Revibe Men’s Health began treating patients in Honolulu and are now spread out across the country in ten different cities to treat various male health-related issues. A team of educated doctors trained in men’s health issues are prescribing testosterone replacement therapy--or steroids--in low daily doses to men with erectile dysfunction, low-T, and premature ejaculation. If they can safely prescribe steroids in treatment plans for these conditions, then why are physicians unable to prescribe bodybuilders similar steroids safely? The demand for testosterone and steroids is a growing market in the United States. Why are prescription hormonal steroids acceptable for men that want to perform better sexually, but they are not acceptable for men and women who want to perform better at a sport? I do not believe that the health benefits are limited to the enhanced performance in athletic settings, but they are also helpful for bodybuilders in treating underlying health conditions like muscle dysmorphia, depression, or anxiety; this is accomplished by not only providing an athletic opportunity to aspiring bodybuilders but also by bringing the bodybuilder to a physician that can help diagnose behavioral issues that have otherwise gone undiagnosed. Additionally, with abundant medical research and technology advances in modern medicine, it is not unreasonable to think anabolic steroids could be legalized and prescribed to bodybuilders in the United States. The opportunities would be endless for future bodybuilders to make a name for themselves within the community.

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In conclusion, anabolic-androgenic steroids should be legalized in the United States for use in sports medicine so that doctors can produce cutting-edge products that are safe for the user, prescribe them to bodybuilding athletes as a part of a total health regimen, and closely monitor the results. By implementing this framework, doctors can ensure their patients are achieving their desired results while avoiding negative side effects and addictions. The aforementioned European research team wrote in their editorial that “the more countries try to regulate and prohibit the use of anabolic steroids, the higher the demand to obtain them illegally, and the more drug cartels will increase the price while decreasing the quality of the product” (Littlepage et al. 1471). If the United States legalized steroids as prescribed by physicians, they would spare steroid abusers from a life of long-term negative psychological, emotional, and physical effects.

WORKS CITED Revibe Men's Health. About Us. Conditions & Treatments. 2021. Revibe Men’s Health. www.revibemenshealth.com.

Accessed on 07 Jan. 2021.

Bateman, Oliver. “Steroid Solidarity: The Culture of Juicing at the Mr. Olympia Competition.”

Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 93, no. 3, Summer 2017, pp. 60–72. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=123906402&site=ehostlive&scope=site.

Foster, Andrew C., et al. "Muscle dysmorphia: Could it be classified as an addiction to body image?" Journal of Behavioral Addictions, vol. 4, no. 1, 2015, p. 1+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A459058479/AONE?u=hono53192&sid=AONE&xid=2003c0f3.

Accessed 10 Jan. 2021.

Frude, Evelyn, et al. "A focused netnographic study exploring experiences associated with counterfeit and contaminated anabolic-androgenic steroids." Harm Reduction Journal, vol. 17, no. 1, 2020, p. NA. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A627410380/AONE?u=hono53192&sid=AONE&xid=2b4b7615.

Accessed 31 Dec. 2020.

Garcia-Argibay, Miguel. “The Relationship Between the Big Five Personality Traits, Impulsivity, and Anabolic Steroid Use.” Substance Use & Misuse, vol. 54, no. 2, Feb. 2019, pp. 236–246. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10826084.2018.1512630 Hauger, Lisa E., et al. “Anabolic Androgenic Steroid Dependence Is Associated with Impaired Emotion Recognition.” Psychopharmacology, vol. 236, no. 9, Sept. 2019, pp. 2667– 2676. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s00213-019-05239-7.

Ip, Eric J et al. “Psychological and physical impact of anabolic-androgenic steroid dependence.” Pharmacotherapy vol. 32,10 (2012): 910-9. doi:10.1002/j.18759114.2012.01123

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Littlepage, B. N. C., and H. M. Perry. “Misusing Anabolic Drugs: Possibilities for Future Policies.” Addiction, vol. 88, no. 11, Nov. 1993, pp. 1469–1471. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.1993.tb03131.x.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Anabolic Steroid Abuse.” Edited by Geraline C Lin and Lynda Erinoff, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1990. hpu.on.worldcat.org/oclc/679988236. Accessed 29 Dec. 2020.

Trenton, Adam J., and Glenn W. Currier. “Behavioural Manifestations of Anabolic Steroid Use.” CNS Drugs, vol. 19, no. 7, May 2005, pp. 571–595. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2165/00023210200519070-00002.

Vaskinn, Anja, et al. “Theory of Mind in Users of Anabolic Androgenic Steroids.”

Psychopharmacology, vol. 237, no. 10, Oct. 2020, pp. 3191–3199. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s00213-020-05603-y.

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Autism in Asian Cultures

By Athena Mackey Autism is a behavioral disorder known by most and for years there was a set of symptoms that could help easily identify it. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), according to the Mayo Clinic is, “a condition related to brain development that impacts how a person perceives and socializes with others, causing problems in social interaction and communication” (mayoclinic.org). The way autism is diagnosed is the same mostly everywhere, but in other cultures, signs that could be identified as autism symptoms could be completely normal behaviors in different cultures. Culture does play a key role in the diagnosis of autism because certain “problem” behaviors aren’t seen as issues in Asian cultures and awareness towards autism is lesser known. This essay will utilize several sources such as Christina Kang-Yi’s research studies about autism within Korean culture, Mohammad Didar Hossain’s study about autism spectrum disorders in South Asia, and Xiang Sun’s study about autism prevalence in China compared to the Western world.

First of all, how exactly is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosed? According to the National Institute of Mental Health, to diagnose, doctors view the person’s behavior and development. ASD is known to be a developmental disorder, so it may appear during early childhood and it can be diagnosed by the age of two (nimh.nih.gov). Diagnosis in children is a little bit different because it’s a two-step process. First, there is a general screening that is contacted for the child every couple of months. If the child is showing signs of developmental problems, then they will get sent in for the second evaluation. The second evaluation is assessed with a team of doctors and health professionals that are experienced in diagnosing ASD. During this evaluation, the doctors will test the child on “cognitive skills, language ability, and age-appropriate skills like eating, dressing, or toilet training” (Hossein et al.). Diagnosis of ASD is monitoring skills that make individuals social, however, Asian culture is somewhat different when it comes to the development of social skills.

In Japanese culture, social skills are completely different from the west. According to an article written by Edwin R. McDaniel, a professor at San Diego State University whose specialty is in intercultural communication. In Japanese culture direct eye contact is mostly avoided in Japan unless a senior or superior want to scold a junior. He also mentions that “prolonged” eye contact is considered highly rude, threatening and disrespectful, and in Japanese culture they are taught to avert their gaze or look at a person’s throat at a very young age (McDaniel 13). This type of social behavior is also prevalent in other Asian cultures as well. This is one of the main reasons why it is difficult to diagnose ASD in Asian cultures because Asian social customs are completely different from the Western world.

A study was done by Christina D. Kang-Yi, Roy R. Grinker, David S. Mandell reviewing literature on early child development with children with ASD. In this study, it was said that the prevalence of ASD was estimated to be about 2.64%, which is the highest rate to be reported for ASD in any country (Kang-Yi, Grinker, and Madell 504). Around two-thirds of the children observed were enrolled in ordinary elementary schools and were undiagnosed and untreated. This is where the question of what exactly the diagnosis of ASD was lacking for Asians was raised. Autism isn’t really a behavioral disorder accepted among Koreans because its presence is less known. American clinicians most likely would diagnose children with autism, but in South Korea instead of diagnosing children with ASD, they diagnose them with Reactive Attachment Disorder, (RAD).

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(Kang-Yi, Grinker, and Madell 515). RAD is commonly known as being the concept of the “refrigerator mother,” which is the absence of the mother’s attachment to her child. RAD is also seen as imitating ASD in Korea. In Korean children, it was found that there had been differences in tonal patterns towards the end of rhythm and sound phrases and the rising and falling “slope” related to pitch form (515). Korean children also had hugely repetitive speech and it made it difficult for them to socially communicate. Korean women are also known to withhold emotion and withdraw themselves from social situations as a way to handle stress. When it comes to RAD, Korean mothers would rather have their children diagnosed with RAD instead of autism because RAD can be “cured” with love, compared to ASD where it’s a permanent genetic disorder.

In South East Asia, a systematic review was written about ASD and the epidemiological studies found in South East Asia by several South East Asian scholars. This study found that many parents of children with ASD were unknowledgeable to the disorder and did not know the symptoms.

According to the study, only one of 93 children have ASD in the region ranging from 0.09% in India and 1.07% in Sri Lanka (Hossain et al. 40). In Bangladesh, the health system is pluralistic and many people in the rural areas believe in traditional healers (Ahmed 4). This is possibly one of the main reasons why ASD isn’t diagnosed easily in South East Asia and why it could be a possible barrier to find the right treatment. In Bangladesh, prevalence in autism in children was 0.2%, 0.84%, and 0.15% (Uddin 3). There are also not that many trained professionals in the region. This study also critiqued some of the methods that were used to diagnose ASD. For example, the differences in methods in case definition, screening tools, and diagnosing criteria were obvious which made it difficult to compare the studies. One of the studies utilized a Level II screening tool which restricted the ages of 18-24 months. In South East Asia, it seems that lack of knowledge and certain traditions is limiting the diagnosis of ASD. There is definitely a fear of medication and even parents of autistic children would rather use “traditional” remedies such as herbal medicine instead of the traditional pill. Some believe the medication will decrease intelligence. This article does not explain why certain characteristics of children are not seen as issues to diagnose ASD, but it does explain why it’s difficult to diagnose a child due to the lack of knowledge and fear of medications. South East Asian culture is rooted more in traditional practices of medication and therefore ASD is less diagnosed and treated.

In China research was conducted to see Autism prevalence in China compared to Western prevalence. This study is mainly focused on children in the mainstream primary school system. In the study they used a validated screening piece of equipment, which is the Childhood Autism Spectrum Test or CAST and two diagnostic research assessment tools: the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). The children being observed in this study were not previously diagnosed with Autism. In Jilin City the prevalence of autism in the mainstream primary schools was 14.6% per 10,000 (Sun 4). In Shenzhen City, there were 6 students who were referred by others. However, these children did not meet the autism diagnostic criteria. For boys, the ASD prevalence was 38.8% and for girls 44.9%. In Jiamusi City, the prevalence for boys was 35.9% and for girls 3.2%. In China, there are several under- diagnoses of children due to lack of knowledge and equipment. Health care and education systems need major improvement to help support the families with children with ASD. The children being observed seem like ordinary kids because they have average IQs and are in mainstream primary school, but in the future, they will face difficulties because there will be challenges in school and future jobs. Special education isn’t very prominent in China, and therefore 57

there are hardly any special education teachers, and even the concept of Autism wasn’t even known to the parents prior to the study being conducted. Because of autistic children being placed in mainstream primary schools, the diagnosis of ASD is hard to conduct because many individuals do not know what it is and also see nothing wrong with their child’s behavior. Helpful resources, such as special education teachers, health centers, and professional doctors, are limited due to autism not being something well known within China.

In “Cultural Adaptation and Translation of Outreach Materials on Autism Spectrum Disorder,” written by several academic scholars educated in ASD, it describes the cultural adaptation and translation of the Autism Speaks First 100 Days Kit into the Korean language for the sole purpose of improving ASD diagnosis and assessment. In this study, one of their main arguments was that translating the materials required to address the beliefs and attitudes about ASD can be discovered systematically (Ahmann et al. 2334). Like the study done in South East Asia, Koreans have the same attitude towards medications, that is they fear it. They too also prefer using herbal remedies to help with restlessness or inattention. They tend to use herbal remedies more because it is less risky. In interviews, parents described their children as being isolated, in their own world, and having emotional blocks (Kang-Yi et al. 2333). The study did find that many Korean mothers did not want to reveal or find out if their child had autism due to the stigma it would bring and being blamed for bad parenting. What is interesting, however, is that the reasons being listed for autism

by Korean mothers are reasons that would be regular in the western world. For example, one Korean mother said she associated her autistic child with being a spoiled brat, breaking rules, being undisciplined, and caring only about themselves (Grinker et al. 2333). This definitely seems like the average American child nowadays. Koreans notice certain changes within their children that they don’t deem as normal, but they decide to ignore it due to the stigma and dishonor it brings towards their parenting. Since ASD is known to be genetic, it may cause problems in the future when it comes to marriage prospects as it can damage the family line and threaten marriage for their siblings. Many Koreans might know that something isn’t right about their child but fail to acknowledge it because of the judgement that will most likely come from it.

A disagreement that might be brought up, considering culture playing a key role in diagnosing autism, is that the test is good at pinpointing certain aspects for all individuals with ASD no matter what culture. For some individuals that are not from the western world, that is true. In the 100 Days of Autism kit study, Kang-Yi et al. did point out that not having eye contact was one of the ways they found some children with ASD. In most cultures however, eye contact, like I said before, is seen as being very disrespectful and rude. Asian cultures are not that open minded when it comes to certain things like disabilities and disorders. This is mostly why it’s hard to diagnose ASD in Asia due to the stigma surrounding it. Another disagree viewpoint could be that ASD is more common in the West then in Asia and therefore it’s not as important. This is very untrue because in the China study, the rate of ASD was almost if not the same compared to the Western world.

China makes up about 20% of the population of the world and therefore a lot of children are actually underdiagnosed due to not having the knowledge of others when it comes to ASD. It’s not that autism isn’t common in Asian countries, it’s that the world and symptoms of autism isn’t known because it’s not a very common thing one hears about in their own daily lives in Asia.

Autism comes in many shapes and forms whether it be from an individual who exhibits the “right” behaviors of ASD, to individuals who seem to be perfectly normal and fine. Asian cultures need 58

to have a certain diagnosis pertaining to the culture difference because not everything is considered an autistic trait, in the west it would be considered an ASD trait. Other cultures and not many Asian cultures don’t even know about ASD in general. In the first study utilized, Kang-Yi et al. reviewed literature studies pertaining to ASD in Korea and how a lot of the “common” autistic traits were mostly seen as normal and not a problem whatsoever. In the second study utilized, South East Asian scholars conducted research to find if they could find any relevant studies pertaining to ASD and how it was written. In this study they found out that there were hardly any individuals in the region that had ASD; however, that was before the people understood what the definition of ASD was, and later the rate would slowly climb up. In the Chinese study about ASD, it was argued that there were some special schools that assisted in the education of disabled children; however, there were children in the mainstream primary school system that hadn’t been diagnosed with autism, getting regular education instead of special education. In the fourth and final study, Kang-Yi et al. conducted a study to see if translating a 100 days autism kit in the Korean language would help diagnose Korean children with ASD. With this study, she found out that money mothers were ashamed to admit their child was different because of the stigma that surrounds disabilities. The subject of Autism diagnosis and culture is very important because no culture is the same and different cultures perceive things different from others. In order to diagnose ASD, there has to be a new and improved test for individuals of different cultures.

WORKS CITED “Autism Spectrum Disorder.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disordersasd/index.shtml Bauer, Sarah C., Winegar, Jessica, Waxman, Sandra. “How Cultural Differences Affect Autism Diagnoses”. Scientific American, 1 April 2016, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/how-cultural-differences-affect-autismdiagnoses/.

Emotional Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The Raising Australian Website, 31 January 2017, https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/development/socialemotional-development/emotional-development-asd#emotions-and-typical-developmentnav-title.

Grinker, Roy R., Kang-Yi, Christina D., Ahmann, Chloe, Beidas, Rinad S., Lagman, Adrienne, Mandell, David S. “Cultural Adaptation and Translation of Outreach Materials on Autism Spectrum Disorder”. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45, Springer Science+Business Media, 11 March 2015, https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10803-015-2397-6.pdf pp.2329–2336.

Kang-Yi, Christina D., Grinker, Roy R., Mandell, David S. “Korean Culture and Autism Spectrum Disorders.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 22 June 2012, https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10803-012-1570-4.pdf pp. 503–520.

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McDaniel, Edwin R. “Japanese Nonverbal Communication: A Review and Critique of Literature.” Department of Speech Communication, ED 367 014, San Diego State University, November 1993, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED367014.pdf Mohammad Didar Hossain, Helal Uddin Ahmed, M M Jalal Uddin, Waziul Alam Chowdhury, Mohd S Iqbal, Razin Iqbal Kabir, Imran Ahmed Chowdhury, Afzal Aftab, Pran Gopal Datta,Golam Rabbani,Saima Wazed Hossain, and Malabika Sarker. “Autism Spectrum disorders (ASD) in South Asia: a Systematic Review”. BMC Psychiatry, 17, 281, BioMed Central, 1 August 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5563911/.

Xiang Sun, Carrie Allison, Liping Wei, Fiona E. Matthews, Bonnie Auyeung, Yu Yu Wu, Sian Griffiths, Jie Zhang, Simon Baron-Cohen & Carol Brayne. Autism Prevalence in China is Comparable to Western Prevalence.Molecular Autism,10, 7, BMC, 28 February 2019, https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13229-018-0246-0.

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Is It Just Like Grey’s Anatomy?

By Jessa Grace Sagun As we begin to mature, we experience interaction with the world around us and people. One thing in life that could screw us up is expectations. In our head we begin to picture how it’s SUPPOSED to be, and, when that expectation isn’t what we imagined, we begin to be disappointed. Our expectations could come from television shows, and the way some shows are portrayed. We begin to fantasize on how our reality is supposed to be. One genre that remains popular today is fictional medical. Fictional medical television programs are created and broadcast in nations, viewed by attentive audiences extending into the millions. According to Lynda Bavin a professor at University of Auckland, department of Psychological Medicine, in the week of April 27, 2015 to May 3, 2015, about 8.7 million viewers in the United States tuned in to watch Grey’s Anatomy (Bavin 544). Shonda Rhimes, a creator, executive producer, and head writer of Grey’s Anatomy aired the first show on March 27, 2005 on ABC. Grey’s Anatomy is a medical drama television series that focuses on a group of young doctors at Seattle Grace Hospital, who began their careers as interns. However, as the episodes begin to go more in depth about health care, some things were portrayed incorrectly: death, resuscitation, and patient care. Beth L. Hoffman, a professor at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, states that most fictional medical television programs influence large exposure on viewers knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors related to health (Hoffman 108). Influences on viewers knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors could affect public perception of real-life outcomes.

One of the things we must accept in life is we all will have our time. As death becomes very common in television, video games, and social media, it isn’t quite serious until it happens in real life. Jennifer Freytag a professor at Baylor College of Medicine states that, in most medical television programs, mediated experiences of death have become very common. Death is commonly a touchy subject to discuss about, however, individuals may learn from family members or the internet. In the article “Are Television Deaths Good Deaths? A Narrative Analysis of Hospital Death and Dying in Popular Medical Dramas,” it is argued that studies suggest that most people witness death much more frequently through television than they do in the real world. In the real world, most of us would know that deaths are never easy --- it’s always complicated.

Gladys B. White is a professor at Georgetown University. In the fictional world, there are considerable discussions about what makes a “good” death (White 13). There are many factors that could shape an individual’s belief about death and dying: psychological, social, and cultural influences. In medical dramas, the way they execute death and dying is a current attention to engage patients to plan their end of life. Some stories of patients or the main characters are powerful and persuasive. Most narratives are powerful, and it could be too powerful to influence over individuals' perceptions and beliefs. Some death episodes of Grey’s Anatomy result in an accidental death, a crime, plane crashes, explosions, or chronic illness. One well known episode in Grey’s Anatomy is “Flight,”season eight’s episode twenty-four. In the episode, six doctors from Seattle Grace Hospital, Dr. Mark Sloan, Dr. Derek Shepherd, Dr. Arizona Robbins, Dr. Meredith Grey, Dr. Cristina Yang, and Dr. Lexie Grey, were selected to go. Those six doctors were invited to Idaho to help separate conjoined twins at Boise Memorial Hospital. As they were heading to Idaho, the plane suffered mechanical issues and crashed. Each doctor was severely hurt but they were fighting to stay alive. Dr. Meredith Grey was unscathed, Dr.Yang dislocated her arm, Dr. Robbin’s femur broke and could visibly be seen through her skin, Dr. Sloan had internal injuries, 61

Dr. Shepherd woke up alone in the woods with a mangled hand, and Dr. Lexie Grey was crushed under a piece of the plane. At the end of the episode, Dr. Lexie Grey had died, and thirty days after Dr. Mark Sloan had died. Death is common in Grey’s Anatomy. Dr. Melissa L. Thompson Bastin, a professor at UK College of Pharmacy, says the rate of death in medical dramas is about nine times what is expected in the average hospital (Bastin 308). A study conducted by Jennifer Freytag, analyzed deaths: season nine twenty-four episodes eleven deaths and season twelve twenty-six episodes fourteen deaths. In total for two seasons, death happened twenty-five times --- more than what the actual death rate is! To conclude from the study, the authors noticed themes of death stories are largely in terms of the relationship between the healthcare facility and the patient.

During most of the episodes, physicians and other healthcare providers are at the center of these dramas (Freytag 10). The key themes that occurred in their analysis were: (I) Faulting Healthcare Institution, (II) Faulting the Patient or Caregiver, (III) Dying a Hero, and (IV) Offering a Dying Life Lesson. Faulting Healthcare Institution situations often involve good intentions gone bad (Freytag 13). One episode that dealt with good intentions gone bad is Grey's Anatomy season sixteen episode eight, “My Shot”. Dr. Meredith Grey committed an insurance fraud to give an undocumented girl Gabby Rivera a lifesaving operation. As Seattle Grace Hospital having the changes of funds, Dr. Miranda Bailey writes up Dr. Grey, resulting Dr. Grey not being able to perform medical and postponing her medical license. With that being said, the episode shows how Dr. Grey goes beyond for her patients to give the best care and treatment. It is difficult to choose the option of death or dying because of financial issues and the likelihood of living. However, the “My Shot” episode shows the complete opposite on what a regular doctor would do. As people continue to see that television doctors ‘override’ their operation and don’t abide by the law, people will see how simple it is to take that route. Death and dying is such an important topic to discuss about and portray accurately!

In a blink of an eye, things could happen in one way or the other. Throughout the world, most would prefer to die at home, and a growing portion would prefer to die in the hospital or other health facilities. As death and dying is a serious topic to cover, resuscitation is important also.

Resuscitation, such as CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), is a fundamental component of initial care for victims of cardiac arrest. According to “Resuscitation on television: Realistic or ridiculous,” author Dylan Harris, a specialist in palliative medicine, states that there is evidence that the public largely base their perceptions about CPR on their experience of the portrayal of CPR in the media. With media influencing real-life options and not basing their answer on research and from medical professionals, it could lead to poor decisions. In the article, Harris conducts an observational study. He compares the patient characteristics, cause and success rates of cardiopulmonary resuscitation on medical television drama with published resuscitation statistics.

During the study, Harris reviews twenty-three episodes in Grey’s Anatomy and records: the patient’s age, sex, medical history, presumed cause of arrest, use of CPR, and immediate and longterm survival rate. Historically, doctors only involved 6-10% of patients and 36-84% of patient’s families or care givers in discussions of “do not attempt resuscitation” decisions (Harris 10). In the real world, medical professionals discuss the realistic understanding of the procedure, the risks, and the probability of likely benefits. As for television programs, the discussion of probability benefits between the patient and family doesn’t quite exist in the show. In the real world, the rates of immediate survival following CPR is around 40-47% with 10-21% surviving to discharge.

Amongst the twenty-three episodes, one episode includes CPR and the rhythm used while training CPR, “Stayin Alive,” season eleven, episode fifteen. In the episode “Stayin Alive,” an earthquake shakes Seattle and the hospital receives a call from an eleven-year-old girl whose mom is hurt; she 62

can’t seem to get ahold of 911 because the line is busy. As she calls the hospital, three doctors answerl Dr. Amelia Shepherd, Dr. Owen Hunt, and Dr. Richard Webber try to instruct the young girl how to perform CPR through the phone. In order to instruct the young girl, the doctors make an impromptu performance of the Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive,” so the girl could have a beat to follow.

As she continues to perform CPR, help arrives. According to the study, Grey’s Anatomy had: 17 cardio-respiratory arrests, 13 resuscitation attempts, 11 males, 4 females, age range from 14-85, and 46% immediate survivors. Based on the data, Harris concluded that, outcomes are generally portrayed as either full recovery or death and television viewers may not appreciate or realize that a proportion of those surviving will be left with long term sequela, hypoxic brain damage. From the study, it shows the portrayal of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in fictional medical television programs adds drama, suspense, and excitement for viewers. As for the data, the age distribution, difference in outcome by age and lack of intermediate and long-term outcomes shows potential to be misleading. As Grey’s Anatomy included the accurate CPR rhythm and instructions to the little girl, it truly shows on CPR should not be taken lightly. With that being said, I truly believe that everyone should learn CPR; it should be an essential skill. However, the survival and risks are not talked about and portrayed correctly, which should be included in order to inform the person who may be performing CPR to correctly perform it and know what could happen toward the victim.

“Communication is key” is a phrase that is commonly overused. However, that phrase has a true and important meaning. Communication is a skill that is used everywhere: restaurants, schools, hospitals, clinics, etc. Developing effective communication skills are essential to patient care as they enhance patient satisfaction, adherence to treatment and health outcomes. According to Roger Y. Wong, postgraduate medical education, department of medicine, states that, teaching communication skills in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education is an important component (Wong 5). Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in the United States and CanMEDS framework mandated by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada declared communication as one of the core competencies and roles of physicians. In the article “Using television shows to teach communication skills in internal medicine residency,” Roger Y. Wong conducts a study on his residents. Wong selected Grey’s Anatomy and featured them in conjunction with a brief instructional presentation of the Kalamazoo consensus statement on doctor-patient communication. The Kalamazoo focuses on three key areas: informed consent, disclosure of errors, and sharing bad news (Wong 8). Within the study, residents attend an instructional presentation and after, discussions would happen to discuss about what possibly could be wrong within the episode. One episode, season fifteen, episode twenty-three, portrays unprofessional communication skills while delivering bad news. In the episode, Dr. Jo Wilson had an important task to do: a little kid needs blood because he is anemic. Dr. Wilson receives a phone call that there is a patient in Canada with blood, and with excitement she delivers the great news to the kid’s parents. As Dr. Wilson contacts the hospital, the nurse asks one of the doctors if they will be traveling with the kid and she is confused. As confusion arises, the nurse asks Dr. Wilson, “How can an anemic boy donate blood?” With the confusion, it led to a huge mistake. Dr. Wilson misunderstood that the nurse was asking for blood, not offering blood. Due to her mistake, it is her responsibility to tell the kids parents. During the conservation, Dr. Wilson begins to weep uncontrollably while the parent apologizes for being unkind and unfair. Dr. Alex Karev and Dr. Miranda Bailey remove Dr. Wilson and console the mother. Within that episode, there are a ton of mistakes shown: miscommunication, delivering false hope, and unprofessionalism. The episode has taught what not to do, and it shows how people in the medical field begins to develop thick skin. To conclude, Wong proved that cinema education is an effective way that can enhance 63

teaching as it provides a dynamic and humanistic-clinical situation to the audience. Medical television shows capture attention and engage emotional experience.

As death, resuscitation, and patient care are portrayed wrong in medical television programs and are important subjects, it shows how inaccurate information should not be given out. According to Elena Strauman, a professor at College of Charleston, health care professionals should be part of the medical television shows narrative. Although medical television shows capture and engage the suspense and excitement throughout the show, sometimes the portrayal through media could affect someone and their decisions. According to the article, “Exposure to fictional medical television and health: a systematic review, Vol. 32, no. 2,” the author's overall goal was to examine published literature assessing the influence of medical television programs on health outcomes. Outcomes include, examining the influence of the large exposure on viewers knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors related to health. “With regard to fictional medical television programming, cultivation theory suggests that viewing these programs could influence public perception of real-life outcomes such as the behavior of healthcare professionals, the set-up of health care settings (e.g. hospitals, and the impact of medical interventions on disease progression” (108). To achieve their goal, the authors reported their study using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). However, to narrow down the selection of medical television programs, the authors included a selection criterion. “Selected studies were required (i) to be scholarly, peer-reviewed research, (ii) to involve an exposure to fictionalized United States (U.S.) medical television programming premiering in 1994 or later by individuals that are not students in a formal health professional training program and (iii) to assess associations between exposure and viewers’ knowledge, perceptions and/or behaviors” (108). There were researchers independently screening the studies and were able to complete accurate data. As they screened the studies and complete accurate data, the authors went beyond to prove their goal: “Four researchers independently screened all article titles and abstracts to generate a set of articles for which there was any possibility for selection. Then, two researchers independently assessed the full texts of these studies for eligibility.” During screening and assessing, the researchers used structured abstraction forms to evaluate comparison and differences. Throughout the study, the authors believed that “it may be valuable for medical and public health professionals to work with fictional medical television writers, producers and directors to ensure that programs are as accurate as possible while maintaining their entertainment value” (120). I truly believed that if producers start to reach out to health care professionals, it will decrease the misperceptions.

To conclude, there are numerous misperceptions shown in medical television programs, but the main three relate to death, resuscitation, and patient care. As there are numerous medical television programs, Grey’s Anatomy has a good storyline, is entertaining, has good characters, and is interesting. Although Grey’s Anatomy is one of the most well-known medical shows, the storyline is often the least accurate when it is about hospital life. Grey’s Anatomy misses the criteria on what is real. While medical dramas are suspenseful and exciting for viewers, accurate data being talked about and portrayed won’t hurt the show at all, and it could help lessen the misperceptions shown in the show.

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WORKS CITED Cowley, M., Naunton, M., Thomas, J., Waddington, F., & Peterson, G. M. (2017).

Does the “script” need a rewrite? Is medication advice in television medical dramas appropriate? Journal of Clinical Pharmacy & Therapeutics, 42(6), 765–773. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpt.12581 Hoffman, B. L., Hoffman, R., Wessel, C. B., Shensa, A., Woods, M. S., & Primack, B. (2018).

Use of fictional medical television in health sciences education: a systematic review.

Advances in Health Sciences Education, 23(1), 201–216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459017-9754-5 Jennifer Freytag & Srividya Ramasubramanian (2019) Are Television Deaths Good Deaths? A Narrative Analysis of Hospital Death and Dying in Popular Medical Dramas, Health Communication, 34:7, 747-754, DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2018.1434735 Lynda M. Bavin & R. Glynn Owens (2018) Complementary Public Service Announcements as Strategy for Enhancing the Impact of Health-Promoting Messages in Fictional Television Programs, Health Communication, 33:5, 544-552, DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2017.1283561 “Resuscitation.” Resuscitation | Journal | ScienceDirect.com, www.sciencedirect.com/journal/resuscitation.

Strauman, E., & Goodier, B. (2008). Not Your Grandmother’s Doctor Show: A Review of Grey’s Anatomy, House, and Nip/Tuck. Journal of Medical Humanities, 29(2), 127–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-008-9055-3 Thompson Bastin, M. L., Short, G. T., Cook, A. M., Rust, K., & Flannery, A. H. (2019).

Patients’ and Care Providers’ Perceptions of Television-Based Education in the Intensive Care Unit. American Journal of Critical Care, 28(4), 307–315. https://doi.org/10.4037/ajcc2019156 White GB. (2008). Capturing the ethics education value of television medical dramas.

American Journal of Bioethics, 8(12), 13–14.

Wong, R.Y., Saber, S.S., Ma, I. et al. Using television shows to teach communication skills in internal medicine residency. BMC Med Educ 9, 9 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/14726920-9-9

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Hope in a World of Uncertainty

By Tucker Pellicci The novel coronavirus made headlines on January 21, 2020 when the first confirmed case in the United States surfaced in Washington state. Flash forward to the day of this writing, December 10, 2020, where, according to the Center for Disease Control, more than 15.3 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19, and more than 289,000 have died as a result of contracting this disease (CDC). Since the initial case in America, the pressure has been on states to come up with ways to mitigate exposure and contain the virus; many states turned to lockdowns and stay-athome orders as a form of virus control. Contact tracing apps are also being developed by large corporations who have the capacity to distribute these applications to users across the globe. While this may seem simple, virus mitigation is a very complex process. COVID-19 has--and will continue to--create division throughout the nation, and it raises questions on how ethical and equitable mitigation efforts are. In addition, the federal government has also taken action in an effort to help the economy bounce back from the repercussions of COVID-19; to see if these efforts positively impact society, we will have to analyze the many factors behind them. How has the COVID-19 pandemic fed into the growing ethical, equitableness, and effectiveness concerns when implementing these government-mandated lockdowns, economic relief funds, and contact tracing applications?

Government mandated lockdowns can take many different forms. Since the responsibility has been placed on individual states, the word “lockdown” can mean a variety of things. Generally, these include stay-at-home orders and restricted business operations. According to Holly Secon, an editorial science fellow with a degree in media studies at Business Insider, all states except for Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming issued statewide stay-at-home orders. Additionally, with the exception of South Dakota, all states required nonessential businesses to close (Secon). When businesses were forced to close their doors, a wave of uncertainty and frustration ravaged the nation. Many questioned what rights the government has to shut down businesses and force people to stay in their homes. Opposers of these mandates claimed that these actions were unconstitutional and therefore against their civil liberties as Americans. This resistance has pressured state officials to roll back restrictions and regulations.

As of December 10, 2020, there were only seven states that operated under a partial lockdown while the others ditched the lockdown model completely. This left only Washington, D.C. and New Jersey as the only states/districts that still implemented a complete lockdown (Secon).

According to the United Nations, all humans are assured the right to reach the highest standard of physical and mental health under the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Governments are responsible for taking steps to protect and prevent public health crises and provide medical care to those in need (United Nations). The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights is a body of 18 independent experts that oversee compliance of these laws by countries who adopted the convent. As said by the committee: The right to health is closely related to and dependent upon the realization of other human rights, as contained in the International Bill of Rights, including the rights to food, housing, work, education, human dignity, life, non-discrimination, equality, the prohibition against torture, privacy, access to information, and the freedoms of association, assembly and movement. (United Nations) 66

Human rights laws recognize that certain situations can pose an unprecedented public health risk.

According to Human Rights Watch, an organization that focuses on investigating human rights violations across the globe, restrictions on some rights can be justified when they have a legal basis, are absolutely necessary, based on scientific evidence, respectful of human dignity, or when governments are actively pursuing a solution or cure (Human Rights Watch). When people are required by their government to isolate themselves and live a restricted lifestyle, they see these actions as detrimental to their rights as human beings. With that being said, it’s safe to say that the scale and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic satisfies said exemptions as a public health threat.

If we choose to focus on basic human rights, such as non-discrimination, transparency, and respect for human dignity, we can further develop a strong unified response to the uncertainty that is destined to arise in a crisis such as COVID-19.

Whether it be partial or complete, science has proven that lockdowns are an effective way to slow the spread of COVID-19. In a study conducted by a team of statisticians and infectious disease researchers at Imperial College London, data shows that, if no form of national shutdown was implemented, “the United States would reach peak mortality in about three months. Meaning, that in about three months' time, 81 percent of the population of [the] UK and [the] US would be infected by coronavirus, with the death toll reaching 510,000 in [the] UK and 2.2 million in the US” (Flaxman et al. 1). We can also look at real world examples that show how these strategies have worked. According to Sanjib Kumar Das, a senior editor at world news outlet Gulf News in the United Arab Emirates, several countries such as China, Germany, and Spain reported a drop in infections after lockdown measures were implemented (Kumar Das). According to a study conducted by a team of researchers, with respective backgrounds in medical and scientific fields at the National Library of Medicine, the time in which it took for the number of cases to double in China increased from two to four days. This significant increase in “doubling time” shows the positive effects imposing a lockdown can have on community health (Khosrawipour et al. 2).

Researchers specializing in biology and ecology at Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) also found that there was an estimated 45% decrease in virus transmission and roughly 200,000 hospitalizations that were prevented in Italy by enforcing a complete five-week, stay-at-home lockdown (Gatto et al. 1).

Equity is a major issue that closely relates to every factor in the United States' response to the pandemic. Analyzing how social equity applies to financial assistance provided by the government during these lockdowns is also very critical. Equity can be simply put as the quality of providing fair and impartial treatment to an individual or across a group of people. When the first stimulus package--otherwise known as the CARES Act--was approved in May 2020, many questioned how it would proportionally help those who were impacted the most by COVID-19. One of the most well-known sections of this Act was the stimulus checks that would be sent out to every qualifying citizen. Individuals who earn $75,000 or less in adjusted gross income would be eligible for payments of $1,200 each. Married couples that earn up to $150,000 in joint income would qualify for a base of $2,400 with an additional $500 per each child under the age of sixteen. The amount would scale down proportionally by income, phasing out completely at $99,000 for singles and $198,000 for couples. This was also accompanied by a flurry of other forms of financial aid that strived to bolster the economy.

For lower-class families who rely on jobs affected by COVID-19, $1,200 or similar amounts just isn’t enough to compensate for their losses. PBS Frontline ran a story presented by Patrice 67

Taddonio that showcased Becky, a single mother in Columbus, Ohio, and how her family has struggled for the past year. Becky and her two daughters have been living out of a guest room in a relative’s house since the beginning of the pandemic. They have been bouncing around from house to house due to the lack of financial stability her family faces. Their strife was heightened by COVID-19 when Becky was supposed to start a new job in March, but the pandemic caused the opportunity to fall through. As schools started to close, she still searched for work while having to take care of her two daughters and provide as much as possible for them. Becky’s youngest daughter, Kelia, expressed how she had grown accustomed to living out of her suitcase, saying “at this point, there is no point in unpacking it, so I just keep it packed. It's stressful, but I’ve gotten used to it, so it’s not anymore” (Taddonio). Since both of her daughters are above the age of sixteen, she was only able to get a total of $1,200 to help the family get back on their feet. She then realized that her bank had garnished the full amount to pay her previously overdrawn accounts. Meanwhile, people who have a steady income source and aren’t in dire need of these funds are receiving the full amount Becky and her family were entitled to. According to David Dayen, the executive editor at an independent, fact-checked public policy news outlet known as The American Prospect, Congress did not exempt CARES Act payments from private debt collection, and the Treasury Department has been reluctant to exempt them through its rulemaking authority.

This means that individuals could see their payments transferred from their hands into the hands of their creditors, potentially leaving them with nothing. (Dayen) In situations like Becky's, it's crucial to make sure that people who receive aid are the ones who need it and that they are also able to decide where their money goes.

Congress members have been made aware of these challenges and many speculate that the second round of these stimulus payments will be directed more towards the lower and middle class. While it’s still uncertain what will be included in the second Act, we can start to form a pretty good idea about what it will look like. Clifford Colby, an associate managing editor at Computer Network (CNET) who has published extensive research on stimulus payments, reports that “a new rule could potentially get you a bigger sum. But there may also be changes to your life circumstances -- such as a birth or death, starting a new job, or becoming unemployed -- that might also play a role in a different check amount” (Colby). There is also talk about expanding what it means to be a dependent. The CARES Act described eligible dependents as children of sixteen years or younger. One proposal is to expand the definition of a dependent to include any dependent regardless of their age. This would mean that families with older kids or older adults at home could potentially get $500 per individual more in their check total if the proposal is adopted. By taking these situational factors into consideration, we can make sure that the money is ending up in the hands that need it most while, at the same time, boosting the economy.

In addition to implementing lockdowns and administering economic aid, governments around the globe have been searching for better ways to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 when lockdowns may not be in place. Contact tracing applications (CTAs) tap into the tried-and-true method of contact tracing. App-based contact tracing is appealing in part because COVID-19 spreads so unknowingly. An infected person can transmit the virus days before they develop any symptoms. It can then take many more days for state contact tracers to be assigned a case and confirm positivity with testing on the individual. These teams of contact tracers have very little time to complete the entire process of interviewing the infected person, finding all of the recent 68

contacts, and getting those people to self-isolate before they too pass on the virus. By implementing CTAs to manage all close points of contact with others, contact tracers are able to be more efficient with who they reach out to and at what point in time they do so. With this comes a flurry of logistical, ethical, and equitable issues that need to be identified before releasing to the public.

In an academic article published by SAGE Publishing, Renate Klar and Dirk Lanzerath--ethics program leaders in Bonn, Germany--compose a piece entitled “The Ethics of COVID-19 Tracking Apps – Challenges and Voluntariness.” This specific article discusses how the distribution of contact tracing technology can be handled, and they “analyze the serious challenges of effectiveness, technological problems and risks to privacy and equity” (Klar and Lanzerath 1). In order for CTAs to roll out nationwide, they need to explain how privacy and trust concerns will be addressed, and they also need to explain what appropriate consent looks like for participants who choose to enlist in the program. Privacy and trust play huge roles in people's rights when it comes to how these new measures are implemented. In the past, citizens have learned the hard way when it comes to large corporations and governments misusing their data. Privacy concerns are heightened by the fact that CTAs can potentially be hacked. Klar and Lanzerath wrote that “scientists have warned against [the] creation of tools that enable large-scale data collection as the data is vulnerable to cyberattack and/or serious misuse in the form of unprecedented surveillance of society” (Klar and Lanzerath 3). There is also potential for this highly personal data to be used for more than just stopping the spread of the virus. Governments might try to exploit the crisis to establish and retain tracking data from citizens which could, theoretically, be used in other contexts such as law enforcement.

Although the barriers at hand may be intimidating, there are ways to prevent issues down the line.

Voluntariness must be at the forefront of the push to develop these apps. Klar and Lanzerath describe voluntariness as a “choice that is made in accord with a person’s free will, as opposed to being made under coercive influences or duress” (Klar and Lanzerath 4). This means that for the use of CTAs to be truly voluntary, each step of digital contact tracing must be completely free of any external influence. Proper authorization from the user's end is extremely important, and, by building a platform through a transparency model, full and proper consent can be obtained from everyone involved. Participants should be able to choose whether their data is stored locally on their device or in the cloud at the company’s data centers. This must also be coupled with the ability to uninstall the CTA at any time and permanently remove any data that has been collected.

A large factor that also plays into voluntariness is that users shouldn’t be sanctioned or restricted in any way by choosing to not participate in the program. Take China for example; initially, they seem to abide by the voluntary requirements, but over time they require all citizens to be using a CTA if they want to enter a public space. While on the surface it may seem as though they are satisfying the terms of voluntariness, these requirements make CTA’s compulsory.

Since the first case of COVID-19 surfaced in the United States, citizens had to adapt to a new normal. From early on, people have collaborated together to make sure a safe return to normalcy can be achieved. Individual states have pushed the envelope on what it means to contain the virus by implementing government-mandated stay-at-home orders and lockdowns. Stimulus packages issued by the government also aimed to help ease the economic hardship during the pandemic.

Furthermore, large corporations have taken on some of the responsibility by developing Contact Tracing Applications (CTAs) to help identify those who have been in contact with an infected person. With that being said, problems relating to equity and ethics need to be addressed for these 69

relief efforts to positively impact people in need. By analyzing research from accredited publications--such as Sage Publishing and Imperial College London--that acknowledge human rights, equity, and privacy concerns, we can ensure people are protected and proportionately aided in this time of need.

Throughout the research process, I battled with trying not to bite off more than I can chew. There are so many complexities that have manifested since the beginning of this research that have made the pandemic even more difficult to recover from. Along the way I have seen that the biggest fault in the United States' response has been looking at things through the wrong lens. When I say this, I refer to the overuse of structures that society has instilled into every American. Instead of being selfless, unified, and determined, some chose to be narcissistic, divided, and determined to oppose protections during a time of global crisis. The perception of the deadly coronavirus turned into a partisan issue that held back Americans from protecting one another. While I think the majority of Americans are doing their part to slow the spread, it takes everyone, Democrats or Republicans, rich or poor, to come together and defeat COVID-19 once and for all.

WORKS CITED CDC. "CDC COVID Data Tracker." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, 1 Dec. 2020, covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020 Colby, Clifford, et al. “Will Stimulus Check Eligibility Be Different with a Second Payment?

What You Should Know.” CNET, 20 Nov. 2020, www.cnet.com/personal-finance/willstimulus-check-eligibility-be-different-with-a-second-payment-what-you-should-know/.

Dayen, David. "Your Coronavirus Check Is Coming. Your Bank Can Grab It." The American Prospect, 14 Apr. 2020, prospect.org/coronavirus/banks-can-grab-stimulus-check-paydebts/.

Flaxman, Seth, et al. "Report 13: Estimating the number of infections and the impact of nonpharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 in 11 European countries." Imperial College London, 30 Mar. 2020, www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/mrcgida/2020-03-30-COVID19-Report-13.pdf.

Gatto, Marino, et al. “Spread and Dynamics of the COVID-19 Epidemic in Italy: Effects of Emergency Containment Measures.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 12 May 2020, www.pnas.org/content/117/19/10484.

Human Rights Watch. “Human Rights Dimensions of COVID-19 Response.” Human Rights Watch, 29 Sept. 2020, www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/19/human-rights-dimensions-covid19-response.

Khosrawipour, Hien, et al. “The Positive Impact of Lockdown in Wuhan on Containing the COVID-19 Outbreak in China.” Journal of Travel Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 20 May 2020, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32181488/.

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Kumar Das, Sanjib. "COVID-19: That Lockdowns Work is Undeniable." gulfnews.com, Gulf News, 4 May 2020, gulfnews.com/world/europe/covid-19-that-lockdowns-work-isundeniable-1.71317693.

Lanzerath, Dirk, and Renate Klar. “The Ethics of COVID-19 Tracking Apps – Challenges and Voluntariness.” SAGE Publishing, Journal of Research Ethics, 5 Aug. 2020, journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1747016120943622.

Secon, Holly. "An Interactive Map of the US Cities and States Still Under Lockdown — and Those That Are Reopening." Business Insider, 3 June 2020, www.businessinsider.com/us-map-stay-at-home-orders-lockdowns-2020-3. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.

Taddonio, Patrice. “‘I Don't Want to Live Like This Forever’: A 14-Year-Old's Story of ‘Hidden Homelessness’ Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 8 Sept. 2020, www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/teen-experiencing-hidden-homelessnesscoronavirus-pandemic-ohio/.

United Nations. “The Foundation of International Human Rights Law.” United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/en/sections/universal-declaration/foundation-international-humanrights-law/index.html.

Turner, Jeffrey L, et al. “COVID-19: US State Policy Report – October 27- November 2, 2020.”

The National Law Review, 3 Nov. 2020, www.natlawreview.com/article/covid-19-usstate-policy-report-october-27-november-2-2020.

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LOCAL MATTERS

Te Puna o Riuwaka – A Sacred Māori Healing Site in Aotearoa by Hunter Ferner

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More Than Just Ink

By Mac Leisher Finally, after years of hard work and dedication, I can finally get my Hawaiian tattoo to help guide and protect me as I start a new chapter in my life. I talk to my artist about my family and what I plan to do with my life. My artist decides what designs will tell the story of me and my family.

Several agonizing hours later, my tattoo is completed. As I look down on my bloody arm, it gives me a sense of calm; I can feel my ancestors looking down upon me because of the mana (power) that the tattoo holds. Three painful weeks pass, and my tattoo is healed; I can wear it proudly like a badge of honor. While walking around I notice a foreigner with a similar tattoo as mine. He shows it off proudly, but the spiritual connection is not there. Hawaiians judge him for having Polynesian designs on his skin, but they don’t know what it means to him.

While researching about tattoos and cultural appropriation, I found mixed opinions about both topics. I found some academic articles, research from nonacademic sources, and some personal opinions from people with and without tattoos. Some people believe that anybody can get whatever tattoo they want, and other people believe that only certain people can get particular tattoos.

Cultural appropriation has become very controversial in today’s society, and tattoos fall into that conversation. Tattoos, in some cases, seem somewhat like today’s black face because it is often seen as a façade—like someone trying to associate with a culture that is not their own. I did not see much about how someone can get another culture’s tattoo without it seeming like cultural appropriation. Although my goal in this paper is to prove that tattoos can be cultural appropriation, I want to show that it can also be cultural appreciation depending on the actions of the person receiving the tattoo.

To help me achieve this goal, I am going to separate my essay into a few different parts. First, I am going to define cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, and then I will outline the differences between them. Afterwards, I will explain how tattoos can be an example of cultural appropriation and how they can conversely exhibit cultural appreciation. Following that, I will talk about what people with tattoos and people without tattoos think about the topic. Then I will talk about Hawaiian tattoos, what they mean, and how people can appreciate Polynesian culture through the art of tattooing in Hawai'i. Next, I will speak to my personal experience by discussing my tattoo and what it means to me. Lastly, this paper will explain why culturally sensitive tattooing is an important issue and why people should care.

Examples of cultural appropriation are all around us, and we see it every day. When someone dishonors, demeans, and perpetuates stereotypes about another culture, they are committing acts of cultural appropriation. One example of cultural appropriation could be when someone dresses up as another culture for their own personal gain. Cultural appreciation is when a genuine effort is made to learn, understand, and respect another culture. There is a fine line between cultural appropriation and appreciation. Chari Chin Young-Caston, author of a Preemptive Love article on cultural appropriation, states that she wants to bring peace between communities. The article reads: Appreciation is to learn more about a culture so you can better understand it. This quickly transforms into appropriation the moment you try to use that culture for yourself.

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Appreciation has you looking to others to guide the conversation. It keeps you clearly in the role of student. (Young-Caston 1) To many people, dressing up as a hula dancer seems like a cute and funny costume for Halloween, but Native Hawaiians may perceive it as disrespectful and making a joke of an important part of Hawaiian culture. Cultural appropriation and appreciation are a new topic that has come into light in the last couple years, and people are still learning about what comes off as respectful and disrespectful.

Tattoos are very important to many cultures, and many people get tattoos so they can identify with their culture. Many believe that when someone gets a tattoo of another culture then they are appropriating that culture. Author of a Things & Ink article, Rosalie Hurr has been a writer for four years, and she likes to write about tattoos. Her article shows the opinion of a respected tattoo artist on how tattoos can be an example of cultural appropriation. The article states, “In my point of view, I think it’s wrong to profit from someone else’s culture, especially if you’re profiting from something you don’t actually have much knowledge about. Profiting off a culture is bad” (Hurr 1).

The artist says that cultural appropriation occurs when someone profits off another culture.

However, they also believe that if you receive a tattoo from an indigenous artist of that culture then that is considered an example of cultural appreciation because you are giving back to that community. I believe that the actions of the one receiving the tattoo determines if it is appropriation or appreciation. If someone invests a lot of time researching the culture and what the tattoo means, then it is seen as appreciation because they are learning about the culture. Lauren Etter is an academic writer and has a dozen articles that have been published. I read an academic article of hers that states that some artists are even putting copy rights on their work because they do not want other people misappropriating their designs. The article claims that “it's the tattoo design that cannot be misappropriated” (Etter 1). Tattoos and cultural appropriation are a growing topic, and there is still a lot to learn about what may be considered appreciation over appropriation.

I asked different people about what they thought about tattoos, their thoughts on people getting other cultures’ tattoos, and if people can do anything so that it does not appropriate indigenous cultures. I received mixed opinions about my topic. The majority of the people I asked are Native Hawaiian and Asian. Some believe that people can get whatever tattoo they want, and some believe that it is wrong for them to get a tattoo from another culture. The ones who think people can get whatever tattoo they want believe that more people getting tattoos from other cultures helps those cultures because it spreads indigenous art everywhere that person goes. Especially with Hawaiian culture, tattoos were a lost art for a long time; more people getting Hawaiian tattoos broadens the culture and expands the impact Hawai'i can have globally. People who think that only indigenous people can get traditional tattoos believe that it is disrespectful when non-natives get traditional designs since there is no spiritual connection; it is meaningless if the person does not share the blood of indigenous ancestors. This also ties into Hawaiian culture because a lot of the designs talk about lineage and people’s ancestors; so, when a non-Hawaiian gets a Hawaiian tattoo, it is disrespectful to wear someone else’s lineage. For example, many people will get lauhala—a traditional Hawaiian leaf pattern—tattooed on them to represent family and being able to stay strong together. Liz Wolfe is an editor from New York that has many years of experience, and her work has been featured in places like The Daily Beast and National Review. I stumbled upon one of her articles that talks about a guy who got a Japanese tattoo—who understands that it is 74

controversial—but he likes the idea of how people will get upset at him for it. The article says that “[p]eople might be offended by it, people might be scared by it, and I like that—I like the fact that it can be polarizing or controversial. I ultimately got it because it was something I liked, and I didn't feel like I had to justify it beyond that” (Wolfe 1). To many people, this would be disrespectful, but others may not see it as a problem.

Native Hawaiians have been practicing the art of tattoos for over a thousand years, and recently the tradition was revived. If you walk around Hawai'i, you will see many people with Polynesian tattoos. However, many people do not understand that each island in Polynesia has different tattoo designs with different meanings. One of the reasons why Hawaiian tattoos are so hard to understand is because the meanings behind the designs cannot be found on Google or in a book; you can only figure out the meanings from a teacher. I read an academic article that talks about what students think about tattoos and what tattoos mean to them. Three psychology students wanted to see how people perceived tattoos, and they asked many people what their opinions were.

The article reads, "My body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story" (Naudé et al. 1). This quote connects to Polynesian tattoos because the designs tell the story of a person’s ancestors and their life. Tattoos are also becoming more prominent, especially among emerging adults and student populations. The aim of this study was to explore a group of senior psychology students' tattoo-related practices and perceptions” (Naudé et al. 1). As mentioned earlier, many Polynesians see it as disrespectful to have someone else's lineage tattooed. However, I believe there is way for non-Polynesians to get Polynesian tattoos without conducting cultural appropriation. The person trying to get the tattoo should conduct a lot of research on the culture and what the tattoos mean.

As that person gains knowledge, they will also gain respect for the culture and the tattoo. People will question them for having the tattoo, but, if they can demonstrate they have knowledge and admiration for the culture, then others should respect them. It is the actions of the one receiving the tattoo that make traditional tattooing cultural appropriation or appreciation.

Getting a tattoo is a very painful experience and takes a lot of mental toughness to finish. I planned my tattoo since eighth grade, and I committed many hours to research and drawing to figure out what I wanted it to mean. Everything I know about my Hawaiian side is from my Grandpa, and he never told me much. He told us our ‘aumakua—our family deity—is a shark and that I needed protection ever since I was a baby. When I found my tattoo artist, I talked with him about what I wanted and how it relates to my family. Since my ‘aumakua is a shark, a lot of designs relate to the ocean. Some designs represent bravery and strength, while others represent family and being able to stay together. Some represent my ancestors, and some represent protection. I wanted to get my tattoo before I went to college because I wanted something that would help protect and guide me as I started my journey into adulthood. It also helped me have a sense of identity, too. I am half Caucasian, part Hawaiian, and part Okinawan, so I had a tough time as a kid because people would call me “haole” due to my lighter skin. This tattoo lets me show my story on my skin. Mara Raye Munro is an experienced writer who has studied the healing powers of various practices. Her article “The Healing Power of Tattoos” talks about tattoos having healing properties and how going through this painful experience can be beneficial to someone’s mental state. The article states that “most people who have undergone [this] uncomfortable to outright painful procedure attest to its intrinsic spiritual experience” (Munro 1). My mom always told me that my ancestors are watching over me and protecting me. As I got my tattoo, I could feel them by my side, and no matter how painful it got I always felt a sense of calm. This tattoo is only the start of my journey, and I plan 75

to add more to my Hawaiian design as time goes on. I also plan on getting a Japanese tattoo to represent my Okinawan side. Having a tattoo allows observers to look into someone’s mind and see what makes up a person’s life story.

People should care about traditional tattooing because tattoos are permanent, and it is important to understand what is acceptable and what is not in different cultures. At first, I believed that people could get any tattoo they wanted because they are entitled to making decisions about their body.

However, now I think that people should be more mindful of what they put on their body and how it may affect other people. After doing years of research, I started to understand that it is important to make sure to be respectful and to understand what is looked down upon. Since tattoos can be portrayals of cultural appropriation, that means there are people that have tattoos that are offensive to other cultures. Additionally, people need to do more research on what they want to get tattooed.

The more people can learn to respect one another, the more peaceful society will be, and it will also allow for a more productive society to blossom because everyone could work together more cohesively.

From researching about what cultural appropriation is and how it connects to tattoos, I was able to find that tattoos can easily fit into the ideals of cultural appropriation, but they can also become examples of cultural appreciation depending on the actions of the one receiving the tattoo. People should conduct their own research on the tattoo that they want to get so they can make sure they are being respectful. Not only will they gain respect, but they will also gain knowledge on indigenous cultures. Tattoos are just like words; they are powerful, and they can hurt people, so be careful about what you get on your body in the same way that you would be careful about what you say.

WORKS CITED Etter, Lauren. "Ink Inc.: as tattoos become big business, tattoo artists are asserting their copyright claims." ABA Journal, vol. 100, no. 1, Jan. 2014, p. 9+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A355558036/AONE?u=hono53192&sid=AONE&xid=c91 21d90. Accessed 28 Oct. 2020.

Hurr, Rosalie. “Heleena on Cultural Appropriation in Tattooing – Things&Ink.” Things & Ink, 23 July 2020, www.th-ink.co.uk/2020/07/23/heleena-on-cultural-appropriation-intattooing/.

Munro, Mara Raye. “The Healing Power of Tattoos.” Wanderlust, 5 Jan. 2016, wanderlust.com/journal/the-healing-power-of-tattoos/.

Naudé, Luzelle, et al. "'My Body is My Journal, and My Tattoos are My Story': South African Psychology Students' Reflections on Tattoo Practices." Current Psychology, vol. 38, no.

1, 2019, p. 177+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A573285309/AONE?u=hono53192&sid=AONE&xid=dbc 5ddb3. Accessed 19 Nov. 2020.

Wolfe, Liz. “Your Tattoos Are Problematic.” Reason.com, Reason, 24 Feb. 2018, reason.com/2018/02/24/your-tattoos-are-problematic/.

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Young-Caston, Chari Chin. “What Is Cultural Appreciation (and How It’s Different from Cultural Appropriation)?” Preemptive Love, 31 May 2020, preemptivelove.org/blog/what-is-cultural-appreciation/.

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The Sacred Land, Mauna Kea

By Hazel Manuel Hawaiians are speaking out to stop the TMT from being built on Mauna Kea, a mountain that Hawaiians consider a home. If it is built, the $1.4 Billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project is going to be the largest telescope that will exist in the world. This telescope will give astronomers the opportunity to look deeper into the galaxy and observe cosmic objects. The TMT project will aid the astronomers in studying the earliest moments of the universe, reaching as far back as to the Big Bang theory. Astronomers will have the ability to find the answers to their questions that they have been looking for. The TMT project will also identify other planets outside of our solar system. The TMT will be built on Mauna Kea which is an inactive volcano on the Island of Hawai'i. However, Native Hawaiians and their supporters are opposed to the project due to the location. Mauna Kea is considered a sacred land to the Native Hawaiians because it’s a place where the Hawaiians practice their cultural beliefs. The mountain is a shrine for worship and home of the Hawaiian Gods, Na Akua (divine deities) and Na Aumakua (divine ancestors) as well as the meeting place of Papa (Earth Mother) and Wakea (Sky Father) who are the ancestors of the Hawaiian people. That is why the TMT project should not be built on Mauna Kea because the mountain is considered as a temple to the Native Hawaiians.

The TMT should not be built on Mauna Kea because the mountain is considered to be a burial ground for the Hawaiians. According to an archeological survey that was conducted between 1975 and 1997, researchers have identified 93 sites of a shrine, adze workshop, and burial in about 3,000 acres, which represents 27% of the 11,288 acres of the Mauna Kea Science Reserve (MKSR) (“Malama Mauna Kea” 18). The MKSR is an area on Mauna Kea used to protect the Hawaiian species, plants, and culture. According to the TMT main website, the University of Hawai'i manages the land on Mauna Kea including the MKSR. The UH doesn’t occupy all 10,760 acres of land due to cultural preservation, but the remaining 525 acres of the land is used for astronomy research (TMT Documents). Supporting evidence shows that in the uppermost zone of the mountain there are burial grounds which, Hawaiians feel the government should be protecting and respecting, but instead, the government is prioritizing the addition of another telescope on Mauna Kea. The 525 acres of land that the University of Hawai'i is occupying are where the 13 telescopes are located. Adding the biggest telescope in the world could lead to a negative impact on the mountain and the Hawaiian culture because the construction to build the telescope could potentially damage hidden shrines and undiscovered bones of the Hawaiian ancestors.

Furthermore, building the telescope would also be disrespecting Hawaiians because the people of Hawai'i consider Mauna Kea their home, church, and a place where they can practice their culture. Proceeding to construct the TMT is not only destroying the Hawaiian culture, but they are once again repeating the history of the Hawaiian annexation. They are taking over Hawaiian land for the advantage of astronomy, not for the Hawaiians. We need to protect and preserve the Hawaiian culture and that is why the government should step up and stop the TMT from being built on Mauna Kea. Other people might disagree with my opinion and say that the TMT design should be built on Mauna Kea because it's the best location for the telescope to be constructed. According to the 78

Institute for Astronomy, “The atmosphere above Mauna Kea is extremely dry. which is important in measuring infrared and submillimeter radiation from celestial sources and is cloud-free, so that the proportion of clear nights is among the highest in the world. The exceptional stability of the atmosphere above Mauna Kea permits more detailed studies than are possible elsewhere” (University of Hawai'i). The other side of the argument might justify their opinion by saying that there is no other mountain that could be better than Mauna Kea. Even though the Mauna Kea is sacred, building the telescope in Mauna Kea would be very beneficial to the studies of our universe and also astronomers could finally learn the unknown. In addition, due to the clear sky at the top of the mountain, the astronomers could definitely discover other planets other than our solar system. Another advantage of building the telescope in Mauna Kea is that it can decrease the unemployment rate because once the project is done there would be a need to hire people to keep the place running and clean. According to its supporters, that is why TMT should be developed in Mauna Kea. However, even though Mauna Kea is the perfect site for the TMT project, the Canary Island in Spain can be the alternative location for the TMT to be built. According to El Pais Magazine, "Canary Island is just the same as Mauna Kea except La Palma has excellent conditions for observing space. Although they are not as good as in Mauna Kea (which is 4,200 kilometers above sea level – nearly 2,000 kilometers higher than La Palma), the operating costs in the Canary Islands would be half the $40 million needed for the site in Hawai'i, an important saving for an instrument that is expected to last 50 years" (Salas 3). While the Canary Islands may have some disadvantages, such as rough terrain and temperature, they are not considered to be sacred land to the Spaniards.

There already happens to be an operating telescope that was built on the Canary Islands that is currently being used for astronomical studies, which means that the Canary Islands can be considered an ideal place for astronomical studies. Furthermore, the Canary Islands relocation offers an agreeable compromise, and it could even be built for a much lower cost than if TMT were to be built in Mauna Kea. That is whyTMT should be built on the Canary Islands and not on Mauna Kea. The TMT should not be built on Mauna Kea also because it can disrupt Hawaiian cultural practices. According to a document created by University of Hawai'i at Hilo, “Mauna kea is still actively utilized for cultural tactics including the gathering of resources prayer and releasing cremated human remains” (University of Hawai'i at Hilo 108). TMT could disrupt Hawaiian cultural practices. During the construction phase, the noise pollution that will come from the construction site will disrupt the ceremonies and prayers because they would be unable to concentrate and hear their chant. In addition, Hawaiians who would be scattering the ashes of their loved ones could also be disturbed during the ceremony. People who usually scatter the ashes of their loved ones usually want the place to be quiet and peaceful to show respect to the dead, but with the noise pollution the Hawaiian people would be unable to say goodbye to their loved ones in peace. The other reason for how the TMT project could disrupt the Hawaiian cultural practices is that there would be too many visitors to the Mountain for the telescope. This could potentially damage the cultural practices because when there is a high influx of people that go to visit the telescope; they could possibly disrupt the offerings that the Hawaiians may have left for their ancestors. A tourist might not know that the food and shrines that are on the mountain are offerings. The tourist might think that it is just a cute sculpture and take pictures of the shrine and break it, especially the ones that don’t have a structure, like a sculpture, because Hawaiians use 79

rocks and wood as shrines. Then, tourists could accidentally step over them, destroy the shrines, and upset the Hawaiians.

Lastly, TMT should not be built on Mauna Kea because the species native to Hawai'i would be in danger. According to an author from the University of Oslo, the previous telescope development on Mauna Kea has constricted the habitat of the Wekiu bug and that resulted in the Wekiu bug being listed as an endangered species (Herhold 89). The thirteen telescopes that are developed on Mauna Kea have caused a significant decrease in the population of the Wekiu bug. Adding the biggest telescope in the world would only cause a tremendous decrease of the Wekiu bug and other native species, including the native flowers. Building the TMT would require using a large amount of land. Many of the species live on the mountain, which means, if they built the telescope on the mountain, the other bugs would have to relocate their habitat. In addition, relocating their habitat can potentially risk the bugs going extinct because the bugs will not be accustomed to their new habitat. The bugs would be very vulnerable because the bugs wouldn't know where to get their source of food since they are unfamiliar with the place where they would be migrating. Not to mention, during the TMT development phase, they would be digging to the mountain, which could also destroy not only the native flowers but also bugs that lived there.

There is a viable alternate location other than Mauna Kea for the TMT to be built because Mauna Kea isn’t just a mountain to the Hawaiians; it is a place where they practice their culture. Mauna Kea is a place where their ancestors have been buried. Building the TMT on that mountain is like a slap to Hawaiian faces. It would be an act of disrespect to the Hawaiians and their culture. Mauna Kea is a place where the Hawaiians can practice their beliefs and religion. Building the TMT Project on the mountain shows that their land is being taken away from them once again. Mauna Kea is their home; technically speaking the Hawaiian people are the rightful owners of the mountain, but they are once again being deprived of their birthright and their culture. Furthermore, TMT would cause great damage to the environment; the 13 telescopes that are currently on Mauna Kea are already causing significant damage to the mountain. The TMT project doesn’t benefit the Native Hawaiians or the citizens of Hawai'i, but once again the only people who would be benefiting from the TMT project are big companies and astronomers. This is why the government should open their eyes, hear the protestor voices, and stop the TMT from being built in Hawai'i.

The government should protect and honor Hawai'i and not turn a blind eye to their people.

WORK CITED “CDUP Documents” Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

Herhold, Abby. “Construction of the World Largest Telescope on a Sacred Temple” Abby Herhold Mauna Kea Thesis, October 2015.

“Malama Mauna Kea a Plan for Sound Management” Hawai'i. Dept. of Land and Natural Resources.

“TMT Alternate Site: Observatorio Del Roque De los Muchachos” TMT Documents, December 2011.

University of Hawai'i. “About Mauna Kea Observatories” Institute for Astronomy, 2018 Salas, Javier. “Hawaiian Gods Push Their Giant Telescope toward the Canary Islands.” EL 80

PAÍS,7 Apr. 2016.

University of Hawai'i at Hilo. “Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Thirty Meter Telescope Project” Hawai'i. Dept. of Land and Natural Resources, vol 3, 8 May 2010.

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Bridging Hawai'i’s Health Disparities with Cultural Competence

By Janina Abdelahad The Kingdom of Hawai'i has a rich cultural background that was nearly eradicated upon the illegal annexation of Hawai'i. Forced colonization has had a profound influence on the perpetuation of Hawaiian culture. The Hawaiian language and traditions were quickly being replaced by American historical narratives. With this, the practices of indigenous peoples have been erased, similar to that of Native Americans. This dramatic shift from a high functioning society with an organized culture to a strictly Westernized society had major negative implications. These effects range from loss of land and cultural trauma to a spectrum of health issues. Kanaka Maoli, or people who are of Native Hawaiian descent, suffered great cultural trauma, as they were forced to suppress their deeply rooted culture. The cultural trauma faced by Native Hawaiians contributes to the health issues seen today, such as high cardiovascular disease and obesity rates. This can be addressed by increasing the cultural competence of healthcare professionals through provider training.

The missionaries banned the use of the Kapu system, which was their main form of Public Health and resource conservation. The Kapu system was based on religious principles, where specific guidelines were set and strictly followed. For example, there were limits on fishing and cutting down of trees to maintain the land. Another public health issue faced upon Western contact with Hawai'i was dangerous epidemics. Foreigners brought deadly, incurable diseases to the Hawaiian people, who did not possess the antibodies to resist such strains of infectious disease. For example, strains of measles, smallpox, and other viruses were introduced to the islands. These illnesses have never been seen before in Hawai'i and led to a dramatic decline for the Kanaka Maoli population.

Laurie McCubbin, a Native Hawaiian associate professor published a study titled Native Hawaiians and Psychology: The Cultural and Historical Context of Indigenous Ways of Knowing.

This study looked at how cultural identity affected Native Hawaiians. She observes that “Over 90% of the Native Hawaiian population died within the first 100 years after Western contact" (McCubbin 375). Hawai'i faced a massive cultural genocide, as disease mortality rates were so high for the people of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

To this day, Hawai'i faces land struggles, as Western hegemony has dominated what once was the organized Kingdom of Hawai'i. Indigenous peoples have historically suffered upon Western colonization, making it challenging to live comfortably on their own land. Prior to Westernization, the land was not sold or bought but was rather shared by everyone and distributed based on who would need and maintain the land. As capitalism took over the economic sphere of Hawai'i, land struggles became more of an issue. With new industrial developments and expansions, Kanaka Maoli are being evicted out of their old homes to make room for the expanding infrastructure.

Juliet M. McMullin, PH.D., who is the Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside, has done extensive research on cultural identity and the inequalities faced

by Native Hawaiians. She has published a book titled The Healthy Ancestor: Embodied Inequalities and the Revitalization of Native Hawaiian Health, which examines how culture plays an essential role in Hawaiian health. McMullin states that "Making a spiritual connection regularly with the land and its power is an integral part of maintaining health" (McMullin 115). Land-based healing is a highly valued form of traditional Hawaiian medicine. In forms of traditional Hawaiian healing, a kahuna la'au lapa'au (healing priest) would integrate spirituality with āina (land) based 82

techniques. La'au refers to the herbs or other medicinal plants used for healing, which are gathered respectfully, keeping in mind the interdependence with the land. Given the importance of maintaining a cooperative relationship with the land, drastic changes can be an impediment to maintaining optimal health. When such rural areas face mass development, it prevents them from gathering resources that would normally have been used for their health.

The native diet was relatively healthy in comparison to the processed, sugary foods seen today.

George Kanahele, a well-educated Native Hawaiian activist, reports their diet as "Simple, high starch, high fiber, low saturated fat, low cholesterol, and low in salt" (Kanahele 1). Diets with high saturated fats, cholesterol, and salt all play a role in developing hypertension. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a major contributing factor to cardiovascular disease (CVD). With low consumption of these unhealthy dietary components, Hawaiians were generally able to maintain optimal health. In modern-day Hawai'i, diets like this are not as easily attainable due to high produce prices and land displacement. Instead, people are compelled to purchase affordable food options, which, unfortunately, are usually high in saturated fats, cholesterol, and salt. It is difficult to suddenly metabolize these dietary changes, which contributes to the onset of hypertension or CVD. From culture to culture, the concept of health can be perceived in different ways. It is common to see Kanaka Maoli being typically larger individuals in modern Hawai'i, in comparison to the thin body type idolized throughout the rest of America. McMullin compares these body types by noting, "We are presented with the pathologically large Hawaiian body as defined by modern medical discourse, and the ubiquitous body image of tourism in the hula dancer. These two images represent the intersection of capitalism (i.e., a body defined as an object of biological nature) and morality (i.e., a body defined as a subject of commodified desire)" (McMullin 142). Although the biological discourse of Hawaiian history brings the typical "large Hawaiian body," colonialism can greatly impact the body image of Hawaiians through tourism and overarching themes of capitalism. Hula has become a service commodity to tourists, and lean body types are only desired because they are more profitable. Nevertheless, recognizing that obesity is a health impediment is important as well, but must be done with good intentions. A healthy Hawaiian is one who feels a sense of connectedness with the land, through spirituality and constructive social ties.

Obesity is a complicated issue, as it is linked with other health complications such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes. The effects of the new refined or artificial products in Hawai'i are significant and may largely contribute to the shift from the leaner Hawaiian body of our ancestors to the current spike in obesity rates. McMullin believes that "Additives and processed foods have transformed the Hawaiian body as it becomes more like the bodies of foreigners: alienated from the land and, as a result, no longer healthy" (McMullin 152). Upon the colonization of Hawai'i, a day-to-day diet primarily consists of fast food and processed foods due to ease of accessibility. Being unable to access healthier resources such as taro or fish prevents Native Hawaiians from achieving their ideal dietary intake. An example of expansion impacting access to resources is the fencing and regulations at Ka'ena Point. This used to be an ideal fishing ground for lawai'a (fishermen) until the government began to file citations and fine these individuals for "interfering with wildlife." Being stripped of their traditional lifestyle has a profound impact on their diet, as Hawaiians are now forced away from their far healthier accustomed diet.

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Opposing views may claim that indigenous peoples are not affected (health-wise) by their history.

Admittedly, it is difficult to accurately document changes in health over extended periods of time.

There is no data to show what the health of indigenous peoples would have been like without the effects of colonization, but only predictions based on their health beforehand. What can be recognized, however, is the presence of multigenerational cultural or historical trauma.

Laurence J. Kirmayer, a professor who studied cultural psychiatry, published Rethinking Historical Trauma, which examines the psychological effects of common experiences faced by indigenous peoples. He argues that "Historical trauma serves as a way to think about transgenerational effects. The theory is that the traumatic events endured by communities negatively impact on individual lives in ways that result in future problems for their descendants” (Kirmayer 307). The historical oppression faced by Kanaka Maoli can be passed on throughout generations by ways of storytelling, parenting styles, traditions, etc. It is difficult to expect life to return to normal after facing such a distressing turn of events with Westernization and a loss of culture. Caring for the 'āina was a large part of everyday life, which made it difficult to see this being shaped into a mere tourist destination to be observed rather than cared for. Likewise, the land struggles, changes in political/ economic structure, and diet have a massive psychological impact as well. Nevertheless, this induced historical trauma that persists to this day. Cultural and historical trauma are burdening social stressors that interfere with everyday life. Stress is known to be linked with hypertension, therefore increasing the risk of CVD. As depicted in the graph below, being Native Hawaiian puts you at a much greater risk of experiencing fatal health complications. CVD is the leading cause of death in America. Moreover, it is worrisome that the associated mortality rate for Native Hawaiians is 68% higher than that of the total state population. Similarly, the onset of stroke and diabetes often accompany forms of CVD, which also give rise to higher percentages of Native Hawaiian mortality rates (20% and 130%, respectively).

Figure 1. Mortality Rates per 100,000 in Native Hawaiians (Look 9)

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Health disparities are a widely recognized issue in America today. With hopes of achieving equity in America's healthcare system, various national programs have been established, requiring healthcare providers to accommodate diverse backgrounds. The HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities was established in 2011 and aims to reduce cultural-based health disparities by achieving five strategic goals including: "I. Transform health care; II. Strengthen the nation’s Health and Human Services infrastructure and workforce; III. Advance the health, safety, and well-being of the American people; IV. Advance scientific knowledge and innovation; and V. Increase the efficiency, transparency, and accountability of HHS programs" (“HHS Action Plan”). Collectively, these goals are implemented nationally and highlight the importance of cultural competence in the healthcare setting.

Under goal I (I.C.3), there is an emphasis on preventing forms of CVD in ethnic minorities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is listed as the lead organization for this goal, so I followed up with this on the CDC website. A 2019 flyer was posted, describing the factors that contribute to CVD onset through easy to follow infographics and announcements. (“Infographics – Health” 1). The data is separated by race to analyze which populations need to be targeted for interventions. The Committee on National Statistics Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education presents that "Knowing which racial and ethnic population groups are most at risk can help more effectively target public health efforts” (“The Role of Racial and Ethnic Data”). However, the data presented here is not necessarily representative of Native Hawaiian health, as it is aggregated into large racial groups; Asian and Pacific Islanders combined.

Therefore, Pacific Islanders are presented as low risk for CVD mortality.

Samuel Wu, a Policy Lead at the HHS Office of Minority Health stresses that “distinct NHPI [Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander] health statistics are usually suppressed or aggregated with data on Asian Americans. Suppressing or aggregating data masks important health differences…” (Wu 607). If the data were disaggregated into more specific ethnic categories, Native Hawaiians would be more of a concern at the national level. Graph 1 shows that the mortality rate of heart disease alone is 350+ Native Hawaiians per 100,000 people. In comparison, the aggregated (NHPI combined with Asian American) data presented by the CDC shows a mortality rate of a mere 120 per 100,000 (estimated) for the same year. This is not a good indicator of changes that need to be made to bridge health disparities in Native Hawaiian populations. When Native Hawaiian health is recognized as a grand issue, more programs and funds can be created to work toward achieving health equity. However, there is a lack of national data about Native Hawaiians/ Pacific Islanders, and data collected by the State of Hawai'i is the primary source of reliable data.

Aside from national issues, much can be done in the state of Hawai'i to improve Native Hawaiian health. Within healthcare organizations, it is the provider's responsibility to initiate culturally competent healthcare. Cultural competence is especially important in Hawai'i, with patients of such culturally diverse backgrounds. The American Hospital Association explains that "A culturally competent health care system is one that acknowledges the importance of culture, incorporates the assessment of cross-cultural relations, recognizes the potential impact of cultural differences, expands cultural knowledge, and adapts services to meet culturally unique needs" (“Becoming Culturally Competent”). The goal of provider training is to ensure patient satisfaction and reduce health disparities between cultures. This also encourages providers to be receptive and understanding when it comes to the patient's medicinal preferences.

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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality published a comparative effectiveness review to determine the effectiveness of culturally competent initiatives in mending health disparities for a healthcare setting. After examining various studies, they voice concerns that "Traditional provider cultural competence trainings based on attributions of a culture have the potential for unintended consequences, such as reinforcing stereotypes or increasing stigma" (Butler 75). As a result, this study finds that there has not been enough research done to deem cultural competence as an effective solution. Provider training is recognized as a good method to broaden the knowledge of healthcare professionals, but there is no evidence to determine causation with improved patient health.

Despite the lack of evidence in a clinical setting, this should not prevent further research from being done. In Native Hawaiian populations specifically, it is essential for healthcare workers to allow room for the patient's cultural norms to be integrated with primary care. Joyce Vogler from the School of Nursing at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa published a valuable study titled “Native Hawaiian Attitudes of Culturally Sensitive Healthcare Provider Traits and Behaviors.” A sample of 61 Native Hawaiian individuals were presented a survey of 12 questions regarding their values/attitudes when it comes to healthcare. When the results were analyzed, researchers inferred three overarching themes from the subject's responses.

The first theme highlights the importance of respect for the patient and family inclusivity.

Participants hoped that their doctors would put patients at ease by being respectful and compassionate. Along with this, the participants' cultural and familial values are reflected, as they wished that doctors would be more open to acknowledging the patients’ preferred healing practices. It was also important that family history was recognized when looking at a patient's health. The second and third themes look at the value of a collaborative patient-provider relationship. The healthcare professional's ability to build trust and provide genuine care is important in making the patient feel comfortable. When these patients feel comfortable talking to their doctor without judgment, it's easier to open up about health issues. The Native Hawaiian participants of this survey also noted that it is helpful when their questions and concerns are openly accepted and taken into consideration.

Another Native Hawaiian health initiative was conducted by the University of Hawai'i’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), which worked on finding ways to teach Hawai'i’s physicians strategies to improve cultural competence. There was a specific concentration on Native Hawaiian health, given their often-poor health outcomes. This work began in the early 1990s where they found that a lot of physicians did not know that Native Hawaiian health was an issue.

This prompted JABSOM to design specific programs to help providers gain more insight into the Hawaiian culture. In response to this issue, JABSOM began developing a culturally competent curriculum to provide to medical students. This provided a random sample of students the opportunity to learn more about their culture through an immersion experience. Programs like this are a necessity in Hawai'i because understanding a culture helps physicians be able to better serve them. For example, learning about how the āina contributes to healing can provide physicians insight to a Native Hawaiian patient's perspective on medicine.

Everyone has a vital role in overcoming cultural barriers by respecting and welcoming other practices or beliefs. However, there should be a strong emphasis on ensuring that healthcare 86

professionals, specifically, can respond to the needs of all patients to achieve health equity. This is especially important because communication and respect can prevent patient-provider misunderstandings. In healthcare, cultural misunderstandings can have dangerous implications and can be prevented through individual efforts to increase cultural competence. Health professionals are responsible for taking as much relevant information as possible about a patient's life into account when providing a diagnosis or treatment. For them to do so, the provider and patient should maintain a trusting relationship in a safe, collaborative environment. After all that Hawai'i has endured, it is important to provide culturally appropriate care to mend Hawai'i’s health disparities.

WORKS CITED “Becoming a Culturally Competent Health Care Organization: AHA.” American Hospitalization, 2020, www.aha.org/ahahret-guides/2013-06-18-becoming-culturally-competent-healthcare-organization.

Butler M, McCreedy, E, Schwer N, et al. Improving Cultural Competence to Reduce Health Disparities [Internet]. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2016 Mar. (Comparative Effectiveness Reviews, No. 170.) 5, Models and Crosscutting Themes. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361115/ Carpenter, Dee-Ann L, et al. “An Innovative Approach to Developing a Cultural Competency Curriculum; Efforts at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, Department of Native Hawaiian Health.” PubMed Central, Hawai'i Medical Journal, Nov. 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3254230/.

“HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.” U.S Department of Health and Human Services: Office of Minority Health, Office of Minority Health Resource Center, 2011, www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/assets/pdf/hhs/HHS_Plan_complete.pdf.

“Infographics - Health, United States - Products.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 23 Apr. 2019, www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/spotlight/2019-heart-disease-disparities.htm.

Kanahele, George. “Reading Food Labels.” The Queen's Health Systems, The Queen's Health Systems, 2020, www.queens.org/health-wellness/reading-food-labels.

Kirmayer, Laurence J., et al. “Rethinking Historical Trauma.” SAGE Journals, Transcultural Psychiatry, 2014, journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1363461514536358.

Look M.A., Trask-Batti M.K., Agres R., Mau M.L., & Kaholokula J.K. (2013). Assessment and Priorities for Health & Well-being in Native Hawaiians & other Pacific Peoples.

Honolulu, HI: Center for Native McCubbin, Laurie D, and Anthony Marsella. “Native Hawaiians and Psychology: The Cultural and Historical Context of Indigenous Ways of Knowing.” Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Oct. 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19916672 87

McMullin, Juliet. The Healthy Ancestor: Embodied Inequality and the Revitalization of Native Hawaiian Health. Left Coast Press, 2010.

“Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Heart Disease.” Health, United States, CDC, Apr. 2019, www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/spotlight/HeartDiseaseSpotlight_2019_0404.pdf.

“The Role of Racial and Ethnic Data Collection in Eliminating Disparities in Health Care.”

Edited by M Ver Ploeg and E Perrin, Eliminating Health Disparities: Measurement and Data Needs., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 1970, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215740/ Vogler, Joyce, et al. “Native Hawaiian Attitudes of Culturally Sensitive Healthcare Provider Traits and Behaviors.” Journal of Cultural Diversity, vol. 17, no. 3, 2010, pp. 90–98 Wu, Samuel, and Alexis Bakos. “The Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander National Health Interview Survey: Data Collection in Small Populations.” Public Health Reports (Washington, D.C.: 1974), SAGE Publications, 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5692155/.

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Let Us Play on the Grounds of Hawai'i

By Miranda Merritt Oahu is the destination site for many family vacations and is also the place where large families raise their children. Here on the island, life just revolves around family, and, where families come and live, there are many places they like to spend time together at, such as destination beaches, botanical gardens, museums and lots of playgrounds- you can see that there is no shortage of places designed for large groups. Everybody likes to play; from young children to adults, playing is an integral part of life; many recent studies have even linked play to be a very crucial part of child development. That is why I believe playgrounds on Oahu should be maintained to the utmost of standards. As a mother, choosing a safe and clean playground to bring my children to has always been a top priority of mine, and unfortunately here on Oahu I have had a difficult time finding such a park. Playgrounds and parks fill such an important role in communities; they have the power to bring different families together and provide a place to celebrate all sorts of occasions.

Playgrounds allow children to learn, observe, and imagine all sorts of fun adventures and to create happy memories with their parents, siblings and peers. Maintaining these grounds will not only bring communities together, but they will also uphold the quality of neighborhoods and give that safe and clean environment that lots of families look for.

When discussing play and playgrounds, I can’t help but think about going on adventures.

Typically, an adventure is something that happens outside of your everyday life or routine. Think about the countless stories and movies that portray an epic journey filled with many experiences, but in our day and age it is unlikely to partake in such a grand affair, unless you decide to do a “derive,” defined by Guy Debord in the “Theory of a Derive” as “a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances" (Debord 2). My take on this quote is this idea or thought process where you purposefully act against your everyday routine and do something new. This something new can be as simple as thinking a different way or taking a walk to a place you have never been before, maybe even both. The activity you choose to experience and the takeaway from the derive is a change of perception, or possibly even feeling some emotion you didn't quite think you would feel by doing the derive. A derive is a way we can experience an adventure in our modern age, and that is why I immediately knew that I wanted to try my hand at geocaching for this assignment.

Geocaching is quite an adventure; it combines a scavenger hunt with many opportunities of play and learning together. Our geocache adventure brought us to Thomas H. Gentry Community Park in Ewa Beach, and we experienced this excitement of trying to find an item placed somewhere in the field of the park. Reading the coordinates and following the small clues that were given; we basically had to learn where this object was hidden. Unfortunately, we were not able to find the item described, but that did not stop us from having some fun at the playground that our derive led us to and where I experienced a change of perception; upon seeing the clean slides, the wellgroomed surrounding area, and the overall feeling of "safety," I felt glad to finally find a nice park.

The happiness I felt led to so many questions and observations that I hope to convey in this paper.

Watching my children learn and play, I have realized that there are no definitive lines between those two activities; learning and playing coincide with each other when it comes to the development of children. That is why playgrounds and parks are so important to the development of all children. Watching my children play at the park, I was able to witness my toddlers watching older kids play, and, not only that, but also observing how the older kids watched my husband and 89

I playing with our two toddlers. This watching and observing allows kids to mimic play, which allows all children opportunities to join in on different activities. My toddlers have learned many games just by watching and assimilating into the play of other kids, which all happened at playgrounds. Playing also gives parents the chance to connect and engage with their young ones by asking questions, problem-solving and even running around with their kids while chasing an imaginary dragon. When we were playing on the playground that Monday, my husband and I let our children take the lead in what we were going to do. They wanted to try out the slides, run around on the steps, and even bang on the built-in drums. My oldest toddler decided that we had to play the dragon, the prince, and the princess. She dictated who was who, and from there she created an entire story that involved saving the princess, running away, and slaying the dragon. On the outside, our playing looks just like regular fun, which it is, but, if you were to observe what was happening, you would see that my two-year-old toddler was mimicking my four-year-old.

You could also observe my four-year-old making decisions quickly and precisely just by the commands she would give. Lastly, we were able to observe two older children, around the ages of seven or eight, watching all of us play the game, asking questions, and making their observations about the storyline. This all happened on a regular old Monday at a public park in Ewa Gentry.

Children learn through play, and what better place to learn and play than at a park!

With families and playgrounds all around Oahu, you can bet that most public and community parks end up having a ton of traffic. I have even witnessed this myself driving around the different areas; large gatherings of family come together to celebrate all sorts of occasions. They seem to go big or go home when celebrating, with large amounts of food, bouncy houses, and it seems almost every relative in the family. Parks give large families, and even smaller ones, the chance to come together, and, when families come together, children come together as well. This gives everyone a chance to learn and grow. Smaller children can watch older kids play, and older children can learn how to interact with someone their age outside of their regular routines. Parents can even benefit from playground visits by talking with other parents. All these interactions, playing and family gatherings, bring the entire community together. Public parks are not just for children, but they are a place where many different families can go to celebrate happy occasions and to get to know the surrounding community. On my derive, my family and I were able to experience a small relationship being built between two young boys. They had never met, and, without hesitation, conversation sparked between them. They found out they didn’t live far from one another; they talked about siblings, and, once they got the "get-to-know-you" questions out of the way, their conversation led to a show of jumping off the playground equipment. Simple and relaxed interactions like the one between those two boys could easily develop into a friendship. Parks and playgrounds are vital to building friendships, bringing families together, and giving people a chance to get to know their community.

Maintaining the grounds of parks and playground equipment will not only increase the quality of neighborhoods but will also bring in more parents and children for playtime. As a mother, with agreement from my husband, we want a safe place that we can bring our children to and a safe place where they can play. Safety is one of the many important factors parents and guardians look for when bringing children because a child's safety is of the utmost importance. I have had many opportunities to visit the surrounding parks in my area; there is even a park behind my apartment complex. My family and I have had great experiences there and the other parks, but the reasons that keep us from going back are missing slides, boarded up sections, broken glass bottles and 90

graffiti of “bad words” written all over the surfaces, which do not foster a safe environment for young and old children. Often, I have found that, if the playground equipment is not in bad shape, then the playgrounds seem to be built for only older children. Playgrounds with portions that are high off the ground and no safe way to get up or down do not provide a way for smaller children to access the equipment and play. If all age types cannot play, then how can families with young children expect to have an enjoyable time? This question has crossed my mind more than once as I have watched other parents frantically race to their young child trying to climb up something that they cannot safely get up. If parks can be maintained and built for all ages, neighborhoods could see so many positive changes happen. Communities can come together and build one large family, which is not an abstract thought when you think about it. When people come together as one, everything around them prospers, and I believe it can all start with just maintaining parks and playgrounds!

My life, my derive, and my essay all revolve around family because, to me and many others, family is important. I was not expecting to come across a park when I decided to try out geocaching. I especially was not expecting to come across a place where I finally felt I could bring my children regularly. Being a mother, I find myself drawn to many places that revolve around safety and fun.

Many families want to be together and to go to places where they can just enjoy each other and play. Oahu is an island full of families and playgrounds, and, in my perspective, maintaining public parks to the best of standards should be a priority to the state and to the small communities that make up the island. If children have safe and clean places they can go to play, then their brains have more of an opportunity to grow and a better chance to develop the right way!

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Save the Reef Fish

By Morten Andreassen Fishing has been around for centuries making it an important source of food and even as a primary source of food for some people to be able to sustain themselves. Fishing has made it possible to live on even the most remote of islands around the world. To be able to live off fishing on these islands, it had to be done in a sustainable way, since the fish was most likely their primary source of meat. However, as time moves on the mentality of sustainable fishing has disappeared on some islands, since they do not have to support themselves on food made on that island, because most food is now being imported from other countries. One great example of this is Oahu, a very isolated island in Hawai'i, that imports around 85% of its food from both the mainland and other countries.

This has changed the fishing mentality from fishing for what you need, to fishing what you can catch. If there are not any stricter fishing rules and regulations put into action soon, it could be catastrophic for both Oahu`s fish population, but also the environment.

Hawai'i has an incredibly long fishing history, since fish has been essential for living in this area.

Without it, civilization would be impossible. So, a lot of the Hawaiian culture is built around fishing and different methods of catching fish. This culture of harvesting from the sea is still embedded in the families and minds of many Hawaiians. Not to mention that Hawai'i is surrounded by water everywhere, so naturally there is going to be a lot of fishermen around the islands.

According to marine ecologist Dr. Alan Friedlander in an interview with BigIslandNow he said that, “As many as a third of Hawai'i residents identify themselves as fishers” (2017). The big problem today is that the amount of fish people catch is not very sustainable, because Hawai'i is no longer relying on the food sources made in the islands, but instead from imported products.

This makes people fish less responsibly, since there is no need to live off of what you catch anymore. This makes it more important than ever to enforce stricter fishing regulations when fishing in the reefs. However, there is more to the decline of reef fish in Hawai'i than just overfishing.

Many people might think that the main reason for the decline in certain reef fish in Oahu is because of pollution or global warming and not overfishing. Though it is true that global warming and pollution are a great threat to fish in general, the prized food fish tend to decline in areas that are heavily populated by people. Marine Ecologist Dr. Friedlander has followed this decline in reef fish around Hawai'i and has since 2000 collected over 25,000 water surveys from multiple agencies and researchers. Friedlander says in an interview on the newspaper Mauitime, that these water surveys are, “The most compelling evidence that overfishing is the primary driver of reef fish declines in the main Hawaiian Islands” (2017). Friedlander's water surveys measure the biomass of each fish species around Hawai'i to see if the relationship between fish we eat and fish we don't eat differ around Hawai'i. Friedlander further mentions that: Data from the study clearly show that the abundance of food fish species (those primarily caught for human consumption) is lower in populated areas, while there is no difference in the abundance of non-food fish species (those not generally targeted by fishing) between populated and non-populated areas. (2017)

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This basically means that fish that are not being targeted by people to eat are equally as many in areas that are being fished quite often as in areas that are not being fished that often. There are less prized food fish in areas being more often fished and more prized food fish in areas that are rarely fished. In the same paper, Dr. Eric Conklin, the marine science director of The Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i, talks about the argument that pollution and physical damage to the reef would have been the main reason for these reef fish declines. Though he agrees that pollution is very damaging to the reef fish, he also mentions that, “These threats would affect all fish similarly. The only impact that would affect food fish and non-food fish differently would be direct fishing pressure” (2017). So even though pollution, climate change, and other manmade factors are great threats to the reef fish, high fishing pressure is a major factor in the decline of edible reef fish.

Though there is a definite decline in edible reef fish around populated areas, and what does this mean for the local environment and ecosystem? Well to put it into perspective, Friedlander mentions in the interview with Mauitime that their surveys showed, “Many important food fish species have declined by more than 75 percent across the populated Hawaiian Islands” (2017).

One of the fish that are struggling with the constant fishing pressure is uhu (parrotfish), and it is being heavily fished on the populated Hawaiian Islands. Dr. Friedlander says in the report he made about the decline of reef fish on populated Hawaiian Islands that, “The uhu, or parrotfish, biomass at heavily fished sites around Oahu is only 3 percent of that in remote parts of the islands” (n.d).

The parrot fish despite being a very good eating fish is also an important fish for coral reefs because of its ability to eat algae off of reefs with its beak-like mouth, explaining the name parrot fish. One uhu can poop out 800 pounds of sand each year and as marine biologist Eric Dilley mentions in the newspaper Soest written by Brooks Bays says that, “The vast majority of that very fine sand that we know and love in Hawai'i comes from the uhu” (2019). This fish, among many others, are being heavily fished all around Hawai'i, and are in a critical state.

To better protect the fish population in Hawai'i there needs to be stricter regulations when it comes to hobby fishing. Some great examples that would greatly improve the fish situation in Oahu is to add bag limits to the vulnerable fish in the reef. This means that you can only take out a certain amount of a type of fish per day. This would make people choose more carefully what fish to take home and puts less pressure on certain fish. This is already being practiced on Maui to control the amount of fish being taken out of the water. Secondly there should be a ban on night spearing or diving after fish. This is mostly related to uhu (parrotfish), since they are very vulnerable during the night, and can be picked by hand since they are sleeping in holes and some in a cocoon they make out of their own mucus. With these regulations in action, fish populations would get time to replenish itself and grow again.

If the fishing regulations do not get stricter soon, it could have a big negative impact on the environment, and naturally the fish population in Oahu. It is our duty and mission to protect and care for these reef fish and environment, not to mention that 20% of all the reef fish found in Hawai'i are found nowhere else in the world, which makes this task so much more important.

However, there is no need to stop fishing. Fishing is a good sport and hobby with great history and culture; it just needs to be practiced in a sustainable manner, no need to take out vulnerable fish.

So please, go out fishing and have fun; just remember to take out the fish you need, and not everything you catch.

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REFERENCES Bays, B. (2019). Marine biologists calling for updated laws regarding fish important to reefs, beaches. Soest. Retrieved from: https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/soestwp/ BigIslandNow. (2017). Study finds overfishing primary cause of reef fish decline in Hawai'i.

Retrieved from: https://bigislandnow.com/2017/10/02/study-finds-overfishing -primary-cause-of-reef-fish-decline-in-hawaiian-islands/ Friedlander, A. M. (n.d). Reefs and Overfishing. Malamamaunalua. Retrieved from: http://www.malamamaunalua.org/wp-content/uploads/Fletcher.

-Chapter-10-Reef-and-Overfishing.pdf Kayian, S., Friedlander, A. M., & Conklin, E. (2017). Hawai'i researchers tie reef fish decline to overfishing. Mauitime. Retrieved from: https://mauitime.com/news/science-andenvironment/hawaii-researchers-tie-reef-fish-decline-to-overfishing/

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TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND MEDIA

Red in Ruins by Lorrea Ancheta

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Tangible Innovation from Playing Music Video Games

By Jesse Trias-Bacnis Video games have almost always been viewed purely as a form of entertainment. As the world began to modernize, video games also began to become more purposeful—more developers create these products in hopes to spread something like a meaningful message, or an interesting idea, or an unconventional learning experience. I think it’s safe to say that the industry is past the point where they are making games simply for a profit. After all, they provide a distinct form of “fun” for its players, and, in many different ways, due to the nature of its genres that the industry continues to expand upon. Of course, as such genres are being expanded upon, so too are when new niches in the industry are found. One of those niches I would like to highlight has a sort of musical aspect to them—simply called “music games.” This video game genre centers its core gameplay around the action of playing with a musical track, song, or mechanics provided by the game. The player is involved with one or many musical elements in order to play—whether that be by utilizing rhythm, matching pitch with voice, composing, or solving a puzzle with the game’s musical mechanics, or simulating an experience to that of playing an instrument. Some notable and popular examples of music games you’ve probably heard of include Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), Just Sing, Guitar Hero, Rockband, and Tap Tap Revenge. There are so many new, unique, and refreshing music games on the market right now that I quite frankly regret not including more on the aforementioned list.

With all that being said, however, there’s a burning question that must be answered. As like all other genres: Is there anything to take away from playing music games? Of course, I believe that answer would be a definite “yes.” In what way though? I strongly argue that music games do in fact have a lot of purpose; they can be potentially beneficial to both one’s musical education and interest (by virtue of its informality and engagement factor) as well as one’s overall health and wellness (via cardiovascular and cognitive improvement). The types of sources that I will use to reinforce this stance will include scientific studies and experiments on relations between musical skill and music games. This essay will also include a variety of both academic and non-academic articles that explain the musical, educational, physical, and mental impacts from playing such games. In addition, this essay will incorporate interviews and perspective-based articles from both seasoned and novice music game players for the intent of interpreting their success or things they have learned along the way.

Firstly, I want to address the fact that music games can most definitely help to learn or improve one’s musical skills—or at the very least spur their interest in learning music. There are many aspects embedded within music games that the player has to utilize that are also closely tied to the actual arts of music. This may involve applying certain skills used in musical practice or assimilating a certain attitude and mindset that is essential to learning the art; For now, let’s take a look at how these games affect musical skill. A pilot study was conducted by Jen Jenson, who is the Director of the Institute for Research on Digital Learning at York University, Canada. She, alongside three other contributors, Suzanne De Castell, Rachel Muehrer, and Milena Droumeva, analyzed qualitative and quantitative results suggesting that skills were indeed applied and improved the players’ musical skills. As part of the study’s design, the designated players were high school students; were randomly broken up into groups of 6; were tasked to play only 1 game for the duration of the study (8 weeks); and were given pre- and post-assessments regarding how 96

they feel about their musical skills in four specific categories: pitch, rhythm, music literature, and improvisation and creativity (Jenson et al. 279). The games selected had distinct qualities that potentially warranted unique finding, respectively Rock Smith, Sing Party, Rock Band, Wii Music, and other sorts of music games—that involved theory, literature, or rhythm—on the iPad. They discuss their essential findings within their academic article titled “So You Think You Can Play: An Exploratory Study of Music Video Games.”

Based on the qualitative and quantitative data we collected from this pilot study, students who played the iPad games, Rocksmith, Sing Party and Wii Music all demonstrated improvement in different areas. Those who played Wii Music showed the highest positive change on the rhythm assessment (almost 2 points out of possible 8), followed closely by students who played the iPad games. In fact, students who played Wii Music improved their scores on both the rhythm assessment and the aural pitch section… The music literature assessment section was less successful. Students who played Rocksmith marginally improved their music knowledge scores… Finally, students who played Sing Party showed most improvement on the aural pitch section and slightly less improvement on the written pitch section. (Jenson et al. 284-285) From what can be gathered, it seems like music games don’t improve one’s general skill, but rather focus on a specific area. Though not disclosed in their findings shown above, the article also suggests that players who have had no prior musical experience had improved the most in terms of aural pitch. It makes sense, given how the nature of video games work to tailor towards a specific audience or player base, and that it is parsimonious enough to allow those of no knowledge or those at an entry level with the art to simply enjoy the game. Even children can improve gain an interest in music and improve their skills by playing such games; an academic article titled “Interactive Music Video Games and Children’s Musical Development” was written by education specialists Lily Gower and Janet McDowall, who are affiliated with the British Journal of Music Education. They too conducted an experiment about improvements in musical skills, but with children aged 11-14 years and music teachers’ participants instead. In their findings, they found that music games “are being used in the two teacher’s participants’ practice: to provide an environmental experience that encourages an understanding of music; to allow humans to produce and understand sounds to express feelings; and to entertain and engage children in a way that coincides with their culture” (Gower and McDowall 101). From this, it’s made apparent that engagement to relevant activities are suggesting boosting one’s motivation to learn, and that ties in with the ability to teach players skills used in music.

To add on, studies may also suggest that the informality of music games could enhance fundamental skills better than formal training. Using comfortable, natural, and instinct-based thinking, instead of orthodox, classical, and theory-based thinking, may help to learn beat-related and pitch-related skills faster. In the academic article titled “How Musical Are Music Video Game Players,” University of Nevada, Las Vegas assistant professors Amanda C. Pasinski, Erin E. Hannon, and Joel S. Snyder—who all specialize in experimental and cognitive psychology related to music, auditory, or sound—conducted an experiment that compared the musical aptitudes of a control group with no formal training nor frequent video game playtime: those who solely play music games (dubbed as “gamers” in the article); and those who were formally trained in music.

All three groups were tested in three categories: PROMS (Profile of Music Perception Skills— 97

tested via “same”-versus-”different” judgements in the subtasks of melody, tuning, tempo, and rhythm); Performance in each level of song difficulty in the game Rock Band; and a Big Five Inventory personality test (Pasinski et al. 1555). To paraphrase results across two out of three different tables provided by the article: PROMS scores indicate that gamers exceeded the musicians’ abilities in melody, tempo, and rhythm whilst musicians only exceeded the gamers’ abilities in tuning (Pasinski et al. 1555-1556). Gamers also exhibited the best performance in Rock Band across all three difficulties followed by the musicians. In both of the aforementioned categories, the control group expectedly exhibited the relatively lowest scores (Pasinski et al.

1556). These results suggest that gamers who play music games may become more skilled than actually trained musicians.

Based on my personal experience from playing music games (yes, I too frequently play these types of games), certain traits are involved that are shared between gamers and musicians. Those certain traits are consistency, commitment, and perseverance. This might lead to the possible idea that a formal environment or formal pedagogy may not be the most effective method for everyone; rather, an informal environment may incite the individual to learn through hands-on experience and creative, self-employed practices, which could very well strengthen their knowledge in music up to the same weighted level as one who was formally trained. That is not to say to forgo formal practices established by long-time musical traditions, but instead they should be re-adapted to befit the modern era more while keeping the 3 core traits that I mentioned before. Out of all types of music games in the market right now, those that are rhythm-based and those that utilize full-body movement (like DDR) seem to see the most promising potential for improvement—not just for musical skills, but maybe also for health too.

In addition to improving skills, music games may also help one to reach or maintain a healthy physical condition—specifically, a great method for cardiovascular workout. If one can execute the same physical commitment and dietary changes necessary for an average workout, it shouldn’t be that hard to execute. Journalist Luke Plunkett, senior editor of Kotaku, a gaming-related social media website, wrote the article “Dance Dance Revolution Helps Man Lose 125 Pounds.” Like the title suggests, Luke interviewed a man by the name of Xopher was once suffering an obese weight of 325 pounds—to the extent that he would’ve needed to have a heart transplant at the age of 50. Fortunately, his love to play DDR and his current circumstances at the time allowed him the opportunity to improve his physical wellness.

[He began] on standard difficulty and [was] playing just three games a night—”I hadn’t played in so long, this is all I could handle”—Xopher found that over time his skill and stamina were slowly improving. Combined with an improved diet, within six months he’d advanced from the game’s medium-tier difficulty all the way to pulling off Perfect Full Combos on Heavy Difficulty. From 2014-16 he kept this DDR regime up, which resulted in a loss of around 50 pounds. Then from 2016-18 the weight danced right off, as Xopher dropped down to under 199.8 pounds, a loss that has transformed his body. “I’ve gone from a blood pressure of 140/80 to 112/65", he says, with a “resting heart rate in the high 70s to a resting heart rate of 45-50. My goal was accomplished. I was healthy for the first time in my life.” (Plunkett)

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Note that the game alone wasn’t fully contributing towards Xopher’s weight loss. It was a combination of a dietary change and engaged physical activity. Conventional workout activities like going to the gym or utilizing fitness machines may be an easily accessible way to stay fit, but I believe that simply doing reps wouldn’t be as interesting or engaging compared to an interactive video game that: encourages body movement; includes a competitive and goal-objective element; rewards excellent performance; and is generally fun to play. A more relevant and recent example of a “fitness” music game would be Beat Saber—a virtual reality game where the player swings two in-game lightsabers (akin to the franchise Star Wars) to slice up incoming objects in time with the music. According to a short fitness review by the Virtual Reality Institute of Health and Exercise (individual author undisclosed), which its fitness rating was determined via heart rate tests, the game is said to be “a very viable option for a cardiovascular workout… From an exercise standpoint, the data supports that turning off the Fail mode results in more consistent exercise, since it allows users to play at harder difficulties - which tend to be faster - without having to start and stop regularly” (“Beat Saber”). It is interpreted that there is a strong relationship between the player’s skill level and their fitness performance; an endless cycle so-to-speak. The more skilled a player is, the more physically fit they become—and vice-versa. Both of these games are just two examples of how physically engaging music games can be—promoting to be a catalyst for healthy fitness activity.

But it’s not just physical fitness; music games may also improve one’s health—though in a very specific way. A postdoctoral fellow by the name of Valentin Bégel, who works in McGill University’s Department of Psychology in Montréal, Canada, researched on the topic of rhythmic music games. He found some interesting cognitive benefits, which inspired him to write up an academic article titled “Music Games: Potential Applications and Considerations for Rhythmic Training.” He, along with many other contributors, elaborate on what was found, and how it may serve to be a great benefit.

Because mere listening to an auditory rhythm, for example conveyed via music, activates movement-related areas of the brain, training with rhythmic stimuli may be beneficial to (re)activate the motor system in the damaged and in the healthy brain... Rhythmic auditory stimulation can be used as a tool to retrain gait in Parkinson disease... Stimulation using auditory rhythms shows promise also for training speech perception in children with Developmental Language Disorders… In addition, as rhythmic skills are linked to other cognitive abilities such as working memory and reading skills..., rhythmic training may foster improvements of more general cognitive abilities, which play a critical role in language learning and literacy. (Bégel et al. 2) It sees potential in relieving neurological disorders like Parkinson disease; or improving general cognitive functions and abilities such as memory, literacy, and speech perception. The memory aspect is especially held true, as a frequent player would be challenged to memorize patterns of the oncoming objects—or termed “charts” in such games—to perform better overall. Speaking from experience, I can say it is definitely a combination of muscle memory, reaction timing, and rhythmic literacy. Both physical and mental aspects are at play, which further supports the fact that such games may improve overall wellness.

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Of course, that is not to say that music games are the best in the two categories I have described.

There are apparent limitations that need to be brought to light. Michelle Woo—an award-winning journalist who is currently a senior platform editor at a Medium publication called Forge—wrote an article about the pros and cons of video games teaching kids how to play an instrument, which is respectively titled “Can a Video Game Teach Your Kid to Play an Instrument.” It explains two distinct cons about the subject.

Your kid might become a one-trick pony… jumping into songs before learning “functional skills”—music theory, sight reading and playing by ear—might hinder young musicians…

Your child can [also] develop poor physical habits. Instrument-teaching games and apps are becoming smarter. Some can listen to your kid’s performance and give him feedback on how to improve. But what they cannot do is watch your kid play. Good music teachers will make sure a student is not developing bad physical habits—they’ll check her posture, wrist position and foot elevation, and correct any issues along the way. They’ll look [at] her hands and fingers and decide whether fingering adjustments need to be made in certain music arrangements. (Woo) Music games in general (not just instrument-teaching games) may have developed a great deal, but, despite that, there are things it just cannot accomplish compared to an actual teacher, who may be well-versed in many musical topics and can tailor towards your own personal growth—making sure you are developing good musical habits and actually improving. That is very understandable; nonetheless, the spurious nature that can come out of this game genre should not be ignored.

They, most importantly, can generate interest in the arts of music or health improvement. A user by the alias of SWE3tMadness, who claims to be a classically trained pianist, gives their perspective on the matter of music games. In their article, “Music and Rhythm Games: A Classically-Trained Pianist’s Perspective,” they explain that “while music and rhythm games on their own can’t teach you how to play an instrument or give you any musical talent that isn’t there in the first place, they can certainly help generate interest in the next generation of kids, and maybe even help them practice certain drills and more physical aspects of playing music.” The most agreeable fact is that a game is still a game; they provide an entertainment factor to its users as an interactive medium. I feel it comes down to a balance between being entertaining (not to be confused with being passionate) and being effective (not to be confused with being productive)— except that it is meant to be unbalanced. Meshing one and the other together too evenly may inhibit the product’s weight in purpose; in other words, as long as a music game is meant to be a “game” at the end of the day, it certainly shouldn’t matter how effective it is with fostering practical applications.

Although this topic may have been heavily discussed throughout this essay, there may be some that may still feel mostly apathetic about it. They may think, “Why talk about such applications when at most these sorts of games only fulfill a certain niche in the market,” or something along those lines. But it’s because it's a niche that makes this an important topic to discuss about. If a product that is supposedly meant to provide nonchalant fun has the ability to also provide practical improvement, it can pave the way to foster more creative and enriching options in our lifestyles.

For example: An athlete may become bored of doing the same workout routine every day, so they may instead choose to vary it up by doing a different workout regimen every day; or listen to 100

workout music; or play a fitness video game as an alternative. Such methods may not be the most effective, but the sense of freedom to choose between one another can certainly make it a more purposeful life to live. In that sense: almost everything we do to improve ourselves is merely an option—even things like music games. Whether it be as a form of music education or interest, or as a way to maintain standard fitness, or even as just a video game genre; they can serve to be that “enriching factor” that one may need in their lives—regardless of how niche or mainstream it is.

To conclude, everything discussed here highly encourages the worth of playing music video games for tangible use. Respective academic articles and study experiments heavily from Jenson et al. and Pasinski et al. allude to that the fact that these sorts of games could very well hone musical aptitudes in specific, but essential areas; and may prove to become an individual’s start of musical interest, as explained in tandem with Gower’s and McDowall’s academic article about musical development in children. It is also disclosed that music games can be a great source for physical and mental health. Plunkett’s article about using DDR to lose over 125 pounds and Bégel et al.’s article regarding cognitive benefits from rhythm games proved to be especially helpful in making such a point. I must say that I believe every video game in general has some sort of use; it’s really just a testament to one’s creativity in both developing and harnessing such products for effective applications. Music games are no different. With enough creative and conceptual input, it can truly stand out on its own—like in the case of Guitar Hero’s instrument-shaped controller, or DDR’s musical dance-pad, or Beat Saber’s uniquely-modern gameplay. It’s important to note that these are still just video games—a product meant for entertainment when all is said and done. But regardless of that fact, there is an abundance of things that can be learnt from such games depending on which perspective you choose to view it with. I simply want to bring light to two of them: the possible uses to learn and reinforce basic musical skills, or simply for the sake of staying physically and mentally healthy.

WORKS CITED “Beat Saber.” Virtual Reality Institute of Health and Exercise, vrhealth.institute/portfolio/beatsaber/.

Bégel, Valentin, et al. “Music Games: Potential Application and Considerations for Rhythmic Training.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 11, 2017, doi:10.3389/fnhum.2017.00273.

Gower, Lily, and Janet Mcdowall. “Interactive Music Video Games and Children's Musical Development.” British Journal of Music Education, vol. 29, no. 1, 2012, pp. 91–105., doi:10.1017/s0265051711000398.

Jenson, Jen, et al. “So, You Think You Can Play: An Exploratory Study of Music Video Games.” Journal of Music, Technology and Education, vol. 9, no. 3, 2016, pp. 273–288., doi:10.1386/jmte.9.3.273_1.

“Music and Rhythm Games: A Classically-Trained Pianist's Perspective.” Destructoid, www.destructoid.com/music-and-rhythm-games-a-classically-trained-pianist-sperspective-110844.phtml.

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Pasinski, Amanda C., et al. “How Musical Are Music Video Game Players?” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, vol. 23, no. 5, 2016, pp. 1553–1558., doi:10.3758/s13423-015-0998x.

Plunkett, Luke. “Dance Dance Revolution Helps Man Lose 125 Pounds.” Kotaku, Kotaku, 4 Oct. 2018, kotaku.com/dance-dance-revolution-helps-man-lose-125-pounds-1829484016.

Woo, Michelle. “Can a Video Game Teach Your Kid to Play an Instrument?” Offspring, Offspring, 13 Mar. 2018, offspring.lifehacker.com/can-a-video-game-teach-your-kid-toplay-an-instrument-1823428734.

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Social Networking Sites: Another World Beyond

By John Visaya Growing up I had never been exposed to social media sites until I reached the beginning of my freshman year in high school. During the times when I did not have social media, I never felt like there was a need for me to have one. I always thought it would be a distraction and that I would never get my work done. Although, after being pressured by the people surrounding me at school, I decided to give in to this “virtual realm” and to make my first social media account, that being Snapchat. Being new to the platform site fascinated me; many of my friends from school started to add me, and I was able to see their “stories” that they put up.

Fast forward to this year, I have had the same experience of being pressured into creating another social media account, but this time it was Instagram. My high school friends and my new friends that I have made in college started adding me; I accepted their request. I was able to view their page and from what I saw in many of my friends’ pictures (mostly my female friends), all of them looked edited, either with the generic pre-installed filters or with editing apps that they downloaded. From what I have seen, I have never realized how much social networking sites can change an individual. These edited photos that I see look like they wanted to replicate a specific image. It has always made me wonder: why do they want to be depicted this way? Why do they enjoy the “look'' that they put up onto this online universe? Are they trying to mimic what they see online to feel “good” about themselves?

With the two accounts that I have made, I never had a purpose to add anything onto my Snapchat stories or post pictures on my Instagram. That is just who I am; I do not need anyone telling me how I look or how I am supposed to look. Throughout my childhood, even up till this day, my parents have always taught me to not listen to what other people have to say about me. They emphasized to me that the only people who I truly need validation from are the people I love. I took their word, and until this day I have not posted anything on the two accounts I have made. I personally feel that these apps do not identify who I am. All these social networking sites are just platforms that enhance who you truly are as a person. The only things that matters the most for me are my own feelings about myself and how I choose to express my individuality.

Regarding my concern as to why many of my peers edit their pictures to make them look “ideally” better than how they look now, it has raised the question: “Why do so many people fall into selfdestructive behaviors when it comes to “selfies” on social networking sites while there are others who are not sucked into this artificiality of it all?” Individuals, especially young girls and women, use social networking sites as a coping mechanism to try to seek “approval” from others to make them feel satisfied with themselves. As a result, they use these platforms to decide what is best for them, by seeing people who are perceived to be “ideally perfect” by others or by listening to their follower’s feedback to conform to those standards without realizing the harm that it can do to themselves.

From my findings, I have come to a conclusion about the nature of the drive that keeps young girls and women wanting to conform to the “ideal” standards seen on social media. Selfies are pictures of one’s self, and it is usually a way to show your followers what has been going on in your life.

Mark Griffiths, a Distinguished Professor of Behavioural Addiction at Nottingham Trent 103

University (UK), has written an article about research he did on the “Psychology of Selfies.” He discusses six reasons why an individual takes a selfie and establishes a point in the research on how selfies make up who the person is.

The selfie in general enables an individual to create a genuine identity or a perceived identity. Either way, this can be a positive source of boosted self-confidence, allowing the individual to express themselves in a way which adds to their identity or character and showcases who they truly are (or who they believe they are and/or want to be). (Griffiths) Griffiths utilizes this statement in his research to highlight the ways in which taking selfies can contribute to the identity of a person. As we, the individuals, take a selfie of ourselves and post it on social media, we are establishing the way we want to be presented and how we want to express ourselves online. Even if it is our true selves or this “identity” that we believe in, the selfie that we have taken gives us a sense of freedom of how this particular picture we post makes up who we are as a person. Whatever is posted on your timeline should not be used to represent what others think about you; what matters most is that it is your individuality that is being expressed. Griffiths also adds that “[The selfie] has allowed people to celebrate their hobbies, interests, and the aspects that make individuals who they are” (Griffiths). With that being said, it goes to show how we take selfies to give us an opportunity to discover who we are. We take selfies as a hobby and an interest for us because we feel that we have the need to have a snapshot of that very moment to keep for remembrance. This particular remembrance photo that we have posted online will constantly remind us of who we are and why we choose to represent ourselves that way.

So, what makes someone “ideal,” and why do individuals, especially young girls and women, want to live up to those “ideal” standards? From my research, I have come up with a conclusion on what makes a woman seem ideal in these social contexts. At first, I thought slimness was one of them, and according to Kristine Raymer, an M.A. School Psychology-Professional School Psychology graduate of Rowan University, she evaluates the correlation between the use of Facebook and its link with self-esteem in her research article “The effects on social media on self-esteem.” In Raymer’s research, she discusses some of the ways in which Facebook can affect different aspects within the individual and one of those aspects was body image. Raymer states, “A major influence on these perceptions is the role of the media emphasizing the thin ideal. Content analyses reveal that the ideal female body showcased on television, the movies, in magazines, and on the internet embodies the idea that thin is both normative and attractive” (Raymer 23). The exposure to what women see that is typically “ideal” is everywhere. From either television, movies, or even magazines, it goes to show that the idea of being “slim” seems to follow women in their day-today lives. I feel like with this much exposure that most women see every day, they use these models that they see to replicate this particular look of looking slim. What they are seeing is deemed to be “perfect” and “attractive.” I feel that, when women are exposed to these kinds of images that are being advertised, it encourages them to be drawn to the idea of comparing themselves to those images. They then strive to look like these ideological figures so they can also be perceived to be “perfect” and “attractive” to their viewers.

However, what I have concluded from my research is that slimness is not the only thing that they are encouraged to strive for. On top of being slim, it is also having a robust physique with a beautiful face. Dilara Bagautdinova, a current Graduate Teaching & Research Assistant at the 104

University of Florida, did an experiment on female participants in her research article “The Influence of Instagram Selfies on Female Millennials’ Appearance Satisfaction.” She interviews them about the experience they have with Instagram and the overall impact it has on the women’s ideal body image. Bagautdinova concludes in her research that, Although it might sound promising that women do not strive for the skinny body anymore, but rather for a fit look, it is not as simple as it seems. Participants have identified a specific range of requirements in terms of how the body should look like in order to be considered perfect. Being fit, having a flat stomach, and little to no fat are the attributes for a perfect body, while smooth skin and white teeth are the must elements of a beautiful face.

(Bagautdinova 45-46) These desires that most women want to achieve all seem to be out of reach unless they try to go on extreme diets and exercises to attain that physique that they want. They can also use makeup to cover up any blemishes or scars that appear to be on their face. These things might be hard to do for them as it may require a long time for them to achieve that ideal body they want and to also efficiently cover up permanent spots that are on their face. As a result, they tend to use editing apps to transform them into that ideal figure that they see on social networking sites. I feel that this idea applies to young girls as well because they are at that age where they are going through changes in their bodies. Due to the fact that many young girls are being exposed to social networking sites at a very young age, they are more likely to develop this desire of wanting to feel ideally beautiful very early in their lives. Because of the early exposure, it can make them more conscious about how they appear, giving in to this desire they have up until they reach adulthood.

Another way that young girls and women may conform to social networking sites is by the amount of “likes” and comments they get from their viewers. Daniel Halpern et al., a doctor with a Ph.D. in communications at Rutgers University and a master’s in political science, did a study on the individualistic use of social networking sites and how it can lead to two major conflicts in an individual’s relationship, which are jealousy and the idealization of an online persona. In his background research, he brings up information from another source stating, Research has shown that the goal of posting selfies, especially adolescents, is to get likes based on what they “like” about themselves (Mascheroni et al. 2015). This feedback, instead, may create a fantasy of themselves based on the “ideal persona” they construct online. (Halpern 117) The major reason why they choose to conform to this “ideal” person that they truly are not is based on the number of likes that an individual gets on their selfie. From my own experience, when I saw most of my female friend's Instagram posts, most of their pictures get more than one-hundred likes on them. The amount of likes they get, as well as the comments they receive on their posts, shows that these things that they are posting are most likely because they want to give their viewers what they want. Most of the time when I see their post, it shows a picture of them either in a swimsuit or a picture of themselves with a full face of makeup on, edited slightly to make it look better for their liking. When looking at the comments of their picture, many of their followers are mostly praising her for what she has put up, and, because of that, it makes me question the reason behind why they post it. Although it may seem like they wanted to do this for fun, it shows that 105

they are most likely doing this to feel “satisfied” with themselves. This appraisal that they are getting from their followers makes them feel more confident with themselves, thus causing them to conform to the comments and likes they see on their posts, helping them construct this “ideal look” for themselves.

With that being said, in Vincent Mascheroni and E. Jimenez’s article “‘Girls are addicted to likes so they post semi-naked selfies’: Peer mediation, normativity and the construction of identity online,” they conduct a study with 11 to -16-year-old girls in three European countries who present their online identities through their online photos and their interactions with peers. There were 24 focus groups and 48 individuals were interviewed. The interviews cover children’s online activities, children’s perceptions of online problematic situations, their own experiences of online risks, and coping strategies and preventive measures. In one of the interviews, Mascheroni questions a group of Italian boys aged 14-15 and according to what most of the boys said, they stated that “girls need social acceptance so much that they become ‘addicted’ to likes...”

(Mascheroni and Jimenez). This interview that Mascheroni conducted shows girls who use social media just for the “likes” is a way to conform to what they see online to feel “accepted” by a certain peer group. I feel that with this sense of conformity that most girls want to showcase when they upload their pictures through social networking sites, gives them the opportunity to feel like the person that they have always wanted to be. Since they do feel that certain type of way and that they are getting praised with all the comments and likes that they get from their own viewers, they have this urge within them to continue what they have started. Bagautdinova, who was introduced earlier, also states why young girls and women seem to use likes as a way for one to conform to this world that they are in. She states girls “perceive likes and comments as an indicator of her expectations from the society. Thus, getting a lot of likes and comments would mean that the society acknowledges her attractiveness which is a sign for her that she is actually the best version of herself right now” (Bagautdinova 48). The way in which these young girls and women try to conform to what they see online support the reasons why they choose to conform to these “ideal” standards. With the amount of likes and comments that these young girls and women are getting from their followers, they become more motivated in trying to live up to what their followers are saying to them. They are being controlled by their own followers and are listening to what they have to say about them just so they could feel good about themselves. Due to that feeling of acknowledgment from their own followers, it goes to show that this is what many females think they need in their lives. The fact that they are being acknowledged by their followers gives them an opportunity to feel content about themselves as they know that they have their online viewers to turn to for contentment.

With these ways by which young girls and women conform to social networking sites to gain "satisfaction" and "approval," there are, of course, negative consequences that can come with this conformity. There were three major consequences that I have found; they are jealousy, narcissism, and self-esteem.

Jealousy As I have previously discussed, the way in which the amount of “likes” a woman gets on their photos makes them feel content and accepted. One of the major consequences that they can face is jealousy from a significant other. According to Halpern et al.’s research,

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We extended these findings that jealousy was not necessarily an inevitable consequence of SNS use, but rather appears to be triggered by a specific use, such as taking selfies.

Applying the same logic, we theorized that partners may begin to question the volume of selfies shared by their significant others and wonder why there is such a desire for the partner to share more broadly with others something that is viewedas ““theirs.” Comments on those selfies, and replies to those comments, may engender yet more feelings of jealousy, promoting surveillance behaviors and subsequent conflicts that may jeopardize a more stable relationship. (Halpern 121).

With the number of likes that a woman gets on her photo, their significant other begins to question their relationship with one another. Since most women tend to post very provocative pictures of themselves on their social media accounts, their significant others can become very aggravated with the fact that they are getting appraisals from other people through that particular picture they have posted. Now, the significant other becomes jealous of how other people view what is rightfully “theirs,” causing them to be more overprotective to their girlfriends. Although they can be overprotective towards them, women do not feel like there is a need for their significant other to be overprotective of her because of that specific picture they post. This particular response that women give to their significant other can cause them to become angry, which can ultimately lead into an argument. I feel that women who constantly do this to gain appraisal from other people might not be happy with their current relationship with their significant other. As a result, they continue to show how they want to be portrayed on social networking sites just so they can gain the much-needed contentment for them to feel good about themselves.

Narcissism Another major consequence that effectively plays a major role in the lives of young girls and women is narcissism. When young girls get exposed to social media at a very young age, they tend to develop this feeling in which they need to post provocative pictures just so they can fit into their peer group. Skyler T. Hawk, an Assistant professor of Educational Psychology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, did research on how narcissistic tendencies develop at youth due to the access of social media in his article, “Narcissistic Adolescents' Attention-Seeking Following Social Rejection: Links with Social Media Disclosure, Problematic Social Media Use, and Smartphone Stress.” In his research, he discusses in the results of his experiment that, “The present results suggest that connections between narcissism, attention-seeking, and social media outcomes are stronger when youth experience ego threat (i.e., social rejection)” (Hawk 72). Since the youth are at the stage of trying to figure out who they want to be and how they want to present themselves, many of them are overly conscious of being rejected by their group of friends, or in general, by other people. Due to the fact that they are still at this stage of development of worrying about their appearance, they tend to use social media platforms to make it known how they want to be perceived. By doing so, they either go on editing apps or post inappropriate images, just so they can gain the attention they need to feel good about themselves. They use this as a way to stay away from social rejection and to feel validated. All they want is just to feel admired by other people and to just acquire confirmation that they are perfect by the way they represent themselves on social media.

As I have previously mentioned, most young girls are using social networking sites to conform to their peer group. At one point in Mascheroni and Jimenez’s research, some of the young boys have 107

claimed that “girls who post provocative pictures are usually not beautiful enough, nor are they conforming to cultural codes of femininity, and they just want to be accepted by their peer group.”

I feel that the true meaning behind many young girls’ posts on social media, even for many women, is that they do not feel like they are beautiful to themselves. So, in response to how they perceive themselves, they turn to make-up or editing apps to make themselves who they choose to be. On top of that, they often seem towant to use provocative images just so they can get a general idea of how others perceive them; if others do like what they see, they will continue to do what they are doing, making them feel confident with themselves. Also, with this confidence, they will start to have this mentality that, since their followers love the way she is presented, she can also love herself due to what she has constructed.

Self-esteem Concluding my findings on the negative consequences of social media on young girls and women is the issue of self-esteem. Young girls and women use social networking sites to build their selfesteem. Although they may think that social networking sites are a solution to help improve their self-esteem, it can actually lower it. According to the introduction of Raymer’s research she has found that, Research has indicated that more time spent on Facebook is related to low self-esteem. It appears that the more time that is spent online leads to a decline in face-to-face communication with family and peers which can lead to feelings of loneliness and depression (Raymer 1).

I feel that, with this research that Raymer has provided, having a low self-esteem can definitely have an impact on a certain individual. If an individual is seen to be spending most of their time on social networking sites, they tend to look at old friends they have on their friend’s list to see how they are living in their life. They use this mechanism to compare themselves and h lifeto what their old friend. If their old friend is living a happy and very positive life, the individual then begins to question their own life and wonder about their own worth. With that being said, they utilize social networking sites to try to “out-shine” their old friends by posting things that bring them positivity and worth. This tactic can bring them contentment, as they are being praised by their viewers’ likes and comments. As a result, this can boost their self-esteem level, causing them to feel like they actually have value in their lives because of the praise they get from their viewers.

The amount of time many spend on social networking sites can cause them to disconnect from their families and friends, due to the fact that they are too focused on boosting their self-esteem levels.

This certain issue can become relevant to young girls while they are still growing and developing. While young girls are too busy trying to make themselves happy, they can put a toll on their childhood as they are still growing. Francesca Gottschalk, an analyst for the 21st Century Children’s Project, did a research article titled, "Impacts of technology use on children: Exploring literature on the brain, cognition, and well-being" where she researched the issues regarding children’s use of technology. In her research, she states the detrimental effects social networking sites can have on a child and how it can affect their daily lives. She states, “Parents and educators should take notice of children “excessively” engaging with social media to the point that it interferes with daily activities, family time or schoolwork” (Gottschalk 21). As these young girls 108

are mainly focused on trying to boost their self-esteem, many of these girls and other children should be aware of what can happen if they continue to use social networking sites. The excessive exposure to social networking sites and taking pictures of themselves so they can feel “good” about themselves can play such a significant role in their lives. The fact that social networking sites can inhibit them from these important aspects in life that Gottschalk mentions shows that it can greatly affect how they will develop in the future if they continue to depend on social networking sites.

Since most of my research focused mainly on younger girls and women conforming to social networking standards, I also feel that men can be affected as well. In Raymer’s introduction of her research, not only did she comment on social networking sites’ effects on women’s body image, but she also comments on men too. “More men are becoming concerned with shape and weight as they become bombarded with media pressure, including that of social media” (Raymer 22). As men become conscious of their appearance, most importantly their body and shape, they tend to post pictures of them working out to show their followers that they are going to the gym to work on this “ideal” body that they strive for. When men are seen at the gym, posting selfies of them lifting weights or doing some sort of exercise, they want to be seen as “masculine” for their followers. This masculinity that they present online makes them more “appealing” and “sexy” to many of their followers, mainly their female followers. Most females think that when men go to the gym and work out it makes them more attractive because it gives them this mentality that these men are deemed to be “strong” and “powerful.” With those perceptions that women may have, men usually continue to post pictures of them doing these types of things just so they can attract more women. This way of attracting women shows that men are trying to display themselves as these “strong” and “powerful” individuals to gain recognition and validation from women to know that they are “good-looking.”

Overall, this research has answered my questions on what is considered to be “ideal” to most young girls and women, why they tend to fall into this self-destructive behavior when it comes to selfies, and how it also can have an impact on men as well. Although I have answered all the aspects of my inquiry, one major question that has arisen throughout my analysis is: what can individuals do to avoid conforming to social networking standards so that they do not face the negative consequences that can possibly harm them? Since individuals are conforming to the ideals seen on social networking sites, the possible consequences that can come with it can ultimately put one’s future at risk. With that said, more action to prevent these consequences from happening should be taken into consideration so that it cannot have an effect on an individual’s future.

As I stated earlier, my peers choose to edit their photos because they want to conform to the “ideal” standards they see on social networking sites. I have come up with a new interpretation as to why they choose to edit their photos. It somehow depends on the individual themselves when they post a picture online. I personally do not know why they chose to edit their pictures; it can either be for fun or to conform. I should not be assuming why they do these things on social networking sites.

Everyone on social media has different intentions for why they post. Their reason behind their post can either be good or bad; it just depends on how they feel about themselves.

After working with the inquiry about why the use of social media can lead people to conform to the “ideal” standards seen on there and the negative consequences it can come with, I have realized that I should provide information on how the use of social media can cause other serious issues 109

such as sexual violence (such as rape) or suicide. With this type of information incorporated into my research, it would have been central to the inquiry as part of the “negative consequence” aspect.

Statistics that pertain to rape or suicide cases caused by social networking sites would have made my research much more persuasive to both the youth and adolescents. I personally feel that interviewing my own peers who edit their pictures would be a great addition to a possible second essay on this topic. If I were to construct a second essay, I would definitely ask them to explain their intentions behind why they edit their pictures and to see if what they say fits with the idea of conformity to “ideal” standards seen on social networking sites. It could possibly help strengthen the points I have made with the current research I have done.

Individuals in today’s society who use social networking sites to conform to “ideal” standards online should develop self-acceptance of who they are as a person. From what I have mentioned at the beginning of my research, the only validation that an individual should be gaining is from the people who truly love you the most. The people that love you the most, most importantly your family, are the ones that see what your true identity is every day. An individual does not necessarily need any validation from people they barely know online. What individuals should be focusing on is what their loved ones have to say about them because they are the only ones that care about how you truly look inside and out.

WORKS CITED Bagautdinova, Diliara, "The Influence of Instagram Selfies on Female Millennials’ Appearance Satisfaction" (2018). Graduate Theses and Dissertations.

Gottschalk, F. (2019), "Impacts of technology use on children: Exploring literature on the brain, cognition and well-being", OECD Education Working Papers, No. 195, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/8296464e-en.

Griffiths, Mark. “The Psychology of the Selfie.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 5 May 2019, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201905/the-psychology-the-selfie Halpern, Daniel, James E. Katz, and Camila Carril. "The online ideal persona vs. the jealousy effect: Two explanations of why selfies are associated with lower-quality romantic relationships." Telematics and Informatics 34.1 (2017): 114-123.

Hawk, Skyler T., et al. “Narcissistic Adolescents' Attention-Seeking Following Social Rejection: Links with Social Media Disclosure, Problematic Social Media Use, and Smartphone Stress.” Computers in Human Behavior, Pergamon, 26 Oct. 2018 Mascheroni, G., Vincent, J., & Jimenez, E. (2015). “Girls are addicted to likes so they post semi-naked selfies”: Peer mediation, normativity and the construction of identity online.

Cyberpsychology; Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 9(1), Article 5.

Raymer, Kristine, "The effects of social media sites on self-esteem" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 284.

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Utz, Sonja, and Camiel J. Beukeboom. "The role of social network sites in romantic relationships: Effects on jealousy and relationship happiness." Journal of ComputerMediated Communication 16.4 (2011): 511-527.

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The Future of Technology and Education

By Richville Fagaragan Technology is one of the keystones that drive society’s progress and innovation. From the first time where humans started to use fire for cooking to the steam engine where humans started to use steam for heavy transportation, technology has changed the way humans established society. This does not exclude the modern, contemporary era. With the introduction of the internet, people all over the world can communicate with each other without the need to physically meet. The internet also allowed people to access huge collections of information almost instantaneously. The fact is that the internet has vastly transformed our society to the point where we rely on it for our day-today activities.

It may seem that the internet is a hugely positive thing, as it helps connect different people and inform them with different activities happening around the world. But it is not as straightforward as it seems. The internet, this era’s revolutionary technology, does have flaws coinciding with its potential benefits. But, this does not mean that society should simply stop using the internet. It is the task of society to help improve this technology for future generations while minimizing the drawbacks it has.

Before researching on the subject of the internet and how it affects people, especially as teenagers, or especially in adolescence, I thought the internet was a positive thing for society. In fact, the majority of my life revolves using the internet to research information, completing school assignments, and connecting with my friends. On certain days in elementary school, there were classes that focused on teaching students how to operate the computers and access the internet for academic purposes. These classes helped me become more adept to this new form of technology.

In middle school, the use of the internet expanded writing essays, posting video projects, and sharing PowerPoint presentations to our teacher’s online class site. In high school, writing scholarships, sending college applications, and researching different colleges were performed with the aid of the internet. The use of the internet throughout my life led me to believe that it was so positive because of how simple and easy it to complete academic tasks.

Even though my experience with technology is quite positive, I have no idea of the full range of its effects on students. Reading the article “The Role of Regular Internet Usage on Social Behavior of Students” opened my eyes to more of both the positive and negative effects of internet usage among young people. In the article Nasrin Talooki and her colleagues were doing an experiment with students at Payame University in Iran. They found that the internet does have positive and negative effects on young students. They even suggested for future researchers to examine the individual's differences with using the internet (Talooki et al. 55). This means that the effects of the internet on academic students is both negative and positive, but still needs further examination and potential improvements. The same holds true when trying to look into the social aspect between people and the internet. In the article “Teens, Social Media, and Technology,” Anderson and Jiangjiang have found from the Pew Research Center survey, only about 45% of the participants believed that the effect of technology and social media on teens are neither positive nor negative while only 31% says it is positive and 24% says it is negative (Anderson and Jiangjiang, 2). Finally, in the brochure titled “Adolescents and the Internet,” Louge was just trying 112

to describe the benefits of technology to parents. She describes the internet as “propels the development of youth leadership, communication, socialization, information, and learning to an international scale” (Louge, 2006).

These sources do not show definitive proof that the internet is positive or not. The authors of these sources do not try to claim something about the internet; they are merely trying to report a degree of information about the internet. But, it paints a bigger picture that we need to examine each effect of the internet more individually and closely.

Some people who use the internet would believe that it is a positive thing for society. I was the one who initially thought so. One reason that the internet is thought to have a positive impact on education. A research paper written by Brian Sutton titled “The Effects of Technology in Education,” he states that “The idea of implementing technology in the classroom is that it makes students feel more comfortable and makes the material appear more applicable in the real world since they can work on it through technology” (Sutton, 2013). Through his research experiment with students in All City High School, Sutton shows that technology such as the internet does have potential to benefit students because of increased availability of information and comfortability of learning. The use of the internet is a very different way of teaching and learning for students as previously academic studies have been physical. The students Sutton observed also did not have a lot of access to resources that would help them succeed in class.

Another reason the internet is thought to have a positive impact on is through a person’s cognitive ability. For example, Marcelo Dascal, who holds a doctorate of science and a professor of philosophy at Tel Aviv University, and Itiel E. Dror, who is a senior lecturer of cognitive sciences at the University of Southampton, examine the effects of technology on our cognitive abilities in their article “The Impact of Cognitive Technologies: Towards a Pragmatic Approach.” They found that, “In many fields technology’s contribution has already undergone a radical transformation: from aiding and assisting humans in their tasks to actually taking part in human activities” (Dascal and Dror, 2005). From their study, they show that technology has the positive potential of enhancing our human cognitive capability. Technology, such as the internet, allows people to efficiently process various information than ever before. This can be seen through the rapid access to a vast amount of information that previously would only be attainable through the library, encyclopedia, or a professional expert. By accessing this information, people can make more reasonable decisions based on the experiences of other people and the research they found through the internet. By coupling this with instant communication over long distances, people are able to process the information they receive on the spot. As a result, technology allows for an enhanced human experience through the extension of human cognitive abilities such as decision making.

Even though there are a lot of reasons to look towards the positive aspects of the internet, this does not mean that the negative aspects can be overlooked. These negative effects of the internet are sometimes viewed as detrimental to society. One of the reasons why the internet is viewed as detrimental is because it can worsen social skills and habits. Monika Cenamari, who earned a doctorate from the University of Tirana, and Poleta Taci, and an infectious disease specialist, examine the effects of the internet on adolescent behavior in their article, “The Impact of Technology on Adolescent Behavior.” They found that “In such cases, the internet becomes a 113

factor to separate teenagers from communicating with other people (family, relatives, friends, peers) by isolating them in social and emotional aspects and depriving them from face-to- face communication” (Cenamari and Taci, 2015). Even though the article research does demonstrate some positive effects from the internet such as new forms of communications, there are still negative effects. The internet has the potential to socially distance people from others which can lead to these individuals becoming lonelier or socially anxious. Most importantly, newer generations of teenagers do not view their online experience as any different to the physical world.

Instead, they view that their online experience is an extension to the world they are already experiencing. The lack of defining borders between the virtual and physical world has implications to the development of social abilities.

Another reason why the internet is viewed as detrimental is because the internet could result in adverse health effects for individuals. Analyst Franchesca Gottschalk tries to examine the impacts of technology on the health development of children in her article “Impacts of Technology Use on Children.” She found out that, “there was a negative correlation between Facebook peerinteraction levels and cortisol, and higher levels of cortisol were associated with network size” (Gottschalk, 2019). Even though her literature review shows that technology could affect an individual’s health such as their stress levels, the objective of her article was to determine if there is any correlation between restrictive screen time for infants and young children. Gottschalk found that there is not enough information to justify that screen time has an effect on brain development on children. This means that more scientific studies are needed to truly examine the adverse health effects for individuals. But, this leads to a bigger issue if we introduce technology to the education sector.

The final reason why the internet is viewed as detrimental is because the internet has the potential to negatively impact educational performance. A group of educational researchers from the University Sains Malaysia, Issham Ismail, Siti Norbaya Azizan and Nizuwan Azman, tries to examine how technology affects student’s academic performance in their article “Mobile Phones as Pedagogical Tools: Are Teachers Ready?” They found through their experiment with students in Malaysia that the use of technology in their classrooms raised skeptical criticisms among educators (Ismail et al, 2013). This means that teachers over in Malaysia do not see the benefit that mobile technology has on education. As such, they do not think that students are utilizing the internet and its respective technologies for educational purposes. However, it is noteworthy that they may not have experience with using these devices enough. Most importantly, there is a connection to be made between their article and Sutton. As noted by Sutton, the internet helps students become more confident in academia and are able to access more material than ever before.

This means that internet usage with education is possible. But also noted by Ismail, the internet drew criticism among the teachers in Malaysia. However, countries such as Malaysia are considered to be developing countries. Developing countries are countries whose industrial base and economic income are quite low. This makes it difficult for developing countries to have the infrastructure necessary for advanced internet. As a result, their perceptions on the internet tend to be skewed.

All of these sources showed that the internet is not as straightforward as stating it is positive or it is negative. There are a lot of factors to consider before definitively drafting a statement. Without a doubt, there are benefits with using the internet, such as accessing vast amounts of information 114

and communicating with other people who live far away from you. But, there are also harmful effects resulting from the usage of the internet, such as increased stress, less developed social skills, and the potential to not be useful in the education sector. This has changed my point of view towards the internet from primarily positivity to that of neutrality. The internet itself is a doubleedge sword; it has positive and negative aspects.

However, this does not mean that scientific research on the internet should be done and society should research something else. As with anything in science, there needs to be continued research in order to definitively draw a conclusion. In fact, many of the sources used in this paper, such as Sutton and Ismail, deeply noted that even though their research does show negative and positive effects, more studies are needed to definitively prove anything. As I see it, the true effects of the internet can only be seen with vast amounts of data from studies that are conducted. After examining my personal experience with technology such as the internet as well as researching the potential effects it has, there are several gaps in society that are still needed to be addressed. One of them is regarding the relationship between the internet and education as discussed with the connection between Ismail and Sutton earlier. The other is with the relationship between education and the internet.

In America, the educational system is based on the industrial age concept of preparing workers for factories and basic commerce. We are assigned to take certain classes and are expected to pass them through the methods that our teachers taught us. For example, in math class a teacher would expect students to follow a certain procedure such as lattice multiplication in order to pass an exam with credit. This industrial age method of education will not work in our modern society because our modern society requires collaboration, communication, and creativity rather than individualism. Additionally, our modern society utilizes more and more of newer technologies to efficiently operate as seen in many large corporations like Google. In the end, it does not matter whether or not a person was able to pass all their classes in school. What matters is the application of their knowledge to real world issues and whether students have the skills to utilize newer technologies. With the rise of the internet and gradual introduction of internet devices inside school facilities and student households, the knowledge of different subjects can be easily accessed by the user. This means that anyone with access to the internet is able to develop their skills and knowledge at their own pace compared to traditional school systems. With the help of the internet, it has the potential to provide students with the necessary information they need to succeed as well as the potential applications to utilize their knowledge for real world problems. This is something unprecedented in our education system and it has the potential to transform our system to fit our modern society needs. However, America does have an inequality problem that prevents the further introduction of the internet inside our educational system. In fact, there are many places that do not have adequate bandwidth connections, such as those in rural America and in communities with minority races such as blacks, all because of corporate inequality and lack of incentives to provide these communities with the adequate infrastructure.

But, I do believe that it is possible for the internet to be used in our American Education system by making sure that every community has access to the internet. Currently, corporations and the national government do not have an incentive to offer everyone access to the internet, but, as more and more mobile technologies are improving their wireless capabilities and the demand for more bandwidth is increasing, there is a possibility for the coverage of the internet to increase. In fact, 115

the United States does have the money and power to provide companies an incentive to provide broad internet coverage. We are just not optimally allocating these funds to the public infrastructure and education sector. By allowing students of all ages access to the vast information and connectivity network of the internet, they are able to change the world around them with the experiences and knowledge of other people. Due to rapid improvements of mobile technologies and increased demand for bandwidth, the internet and its ability to help in education should be seen as an integral part of society.

The other aspect in society that needs to be addressed is in regard to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since late December and early January, China warned the world of the potential spread of an unknown coronavirus that caused respiratory problems to people. During the months of February and March, countries such as South Korea, Italy, and even the United States reported cases of COVID-19. At the time, there was no sense of urgency to proactively react against this virus and normal life was operating as usual. People would go to school for education or go to work to earn income for their families or go visit popular tourist destinations. This all changed as more and more state and national governments issued stay-at-home orders and the closure of nonessential services to stop the spread of COVID. The stoppage of daily activity is something that no Americans would expect. Many people who work at nonessential services, such as beauty salons, musicians, and people in ride-sharing operations like Uber, lost their jobs. In fact, most of these families require assistance to get through the stay-at-home orders such as food deliveries. For educators and students alike, many schools switched to online learning. However, some schools do not have the ability to switch to online learning as some of their students do not have the adequate equipment for it. This leaves a dilemma where, for the first time, many Americans are essentially restricted to their households until the situation is over. Not only does America have to experience a lockdown of daily life, but there is not enough testing and contact tracing done to flatten the curve of the virus.

But, this does not apply to places such as South Korea where the government acted proactively to stop the spread of the virus. Using the latest technology and increasing transparency between government and the population, many Koreans were notified about people who are infected and whether or not they are also infected. They also massively produced the necessary diagnostic tests needed to test their citizens. In fact, these test kits can be performed in practically any facility.

With their collective efforts, the number of COVID cases in South Korea remains lower than countries such as Italy and with the benefit of not locking down the country.

This disparity between South Korea and the United States signaled a vast wariness for me. If Americans continue on this path of unwillingness to invest in the infrastructure to more adequately improve universal connectivity, then the implications of our actions would be very detrimental.

The ability to prepare for unforeseen circumstances is imperative. In South Korea, they were able to develop the medical tools, procedures, and practices necessary to curb the spread of the virus.

Not only does South Korea prepare medically but they also prepare for the eventual case of social distancing efforts. South Korea built up their internet and wireless infrastructure so that the majority of the population are able to access it freely. This means that the normal day-to-day activities are still operating in online conditions which is something that Americans are not used to.

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In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic and my research that leads up to now shows that American society should focus on improving the internet so that it can be used as an alternative option. This would allow Americans to continue operating their day-to-day activities without disturbances such as a pandemic. Before researching this paper, I thought that the internet is solely a positive thing for society as it allows for easier access to information and communication with people who are far away. However, the different research and literature review studies have shown that the internet is not solely positive or negative. Their needs to be extensive scientific studies to determine the overall effect of internet usage. With the research done, I changed from having an optimistic attitude to that of skepticism. This changed with the COVID-19 pandemic, as I see the weakness of our digital infrastructure as seen with the lack of coverage in our country compared to other countries. Many of the daily American activities require physical contact to operate normally, but, with COVID-19, it requires most of us to halt our physical contact. As a result, many Americans are left with no ability to produce income and operate their normal lives without adequate internet coverage. COVID-19 also shows how unprepared our educational system is in response to emergency situations. Our education system depends on physical contact with our educators in order to have higher chances of success. But, once physical contact is eliminated as seen with lockdown orders, many students in the country suddenly lose their ability to effectively communicate and be educated by their teachers. Those who have internet connection may not experience these changes compared to those who do not have internet. With the event of COVID19, I changed my view of the internet from that of skepticism to that of necessity. I see that broad internet coverage is necessary because it helps America to continue to operate normally and helps students learn even without physical contact. America could achieve this by incentivizing and promoting the improvement of our digital infrastructure just like the success of past infrastructure improvements, such as widespread electricity from the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s.

WORKS CITED Anderson, Monica, and Jingjing Jiang. “Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 31 May 2018, www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-mediatechnology-2018/. Accessed 9 Apr. 2020.

Cenameri, Monika, and Poleta Taçi (Luga). “The Impact of Technology on Adolescent Behavior.” Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Aug. 2015, doi:10.5901/ajis. 2015.v4n2s2p288.

Dascal, Marcelo, and Itiel E Dror. “The Impact of Cognitive Technologies: Towards a Pragmatic Approach.” Cognitive Technologies and the Pragmatics of Cognition Pragmatics and Cognition Pragmatics & Cognition, vol. 13, no. 3, 2005, pp. 451–457., doi: 10.1075/pc.13.3.03das.

Gottschalk, Franchesca. IMPACTS OF TECHNOLOGY USE ON CHILDREN: EXPLORING LITERATURE ON THE BRAIN, COGNITION AND WELL-BEING 31 Jan. 2019, www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=EDU/WKP(2019)3& docLanguage=En. 117

Ismail, Issham, et al. “Mobile Phone as Pedagogical Tools: Are Teachers Ready?” International Education Studies, vol. 6, no. 3, 23 Jan. 2013, www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ies/article/view/24170, 10.5539/ies. v6n3p36.

Accessed 9 Apr. 2020.

Louge, Nathalie. “Adolescents and the Internet.” ACT for Youth Center of Excellence, ACT for Youth Center of Excellence, Oct. 2006, www.actforyouth.net/resources/rf/rf_internet_1006.cfm.

Talooki, Nasrin Nazari, et al. “The Role of Regular Internet Usage on Social Behavior of Students.” Indian Journal of Social Psychiatry, vol. 33, no. 1, 2017, p. 53., doi:10.4103/0971-9962.200094.

Sutton, Brian. “The Effects of Technology in Society and Education.” Digital Commons Brockport, 2013, digitalcommons.brockport.edu/ehd_theses/192/.

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Print in the Age of Technology: Why Use Print Media Over Digital Media?

By Jo Roberto Media messaging, conveying your message through media platforms to your audience, has changed the way people receive and process information. It is a constantly moving factor in many of our lives, adapting to the innovation of our global society. There is no argument that our generation has been brought into an “age of technology,” which largely immerses the eyes of our younger generation into the digital world. Companies have made the shift to email marketing, blogging, and video/, and social media marketing to appeal to the trends in the newer generation. News stations utilize digital news applications and television broadcasts to pander to a larger audience. What does this mean for physical and print media, however? Many people believe that print media has become stagnant-- a largely overlooked medium that doesn’t have the same magnitude that digital media does. Subjected to the “boring black and white,” print media finds itself in a difficult position; the younger generation projects such a medium to die out as we grow older. By contrast, journalists, marketers, and many business professionals would argue that print media still holds a valuable place within our world today. Their digital news reports, public relations reviews, articles, and research studies provide critical evidence, and reasons why print media should still be utilized today. Print media provides physical and visual appeal, new information retention, audience relationships, and revenue in ways that digital media cannot.

To better understand the dilemma regarding print media, one must first identify the various media forms within the industry. A.H Sagar is an operations manager at CYONWO and has over six years of digital marketing experience who further blogs about marketing in businesses.

Sagar notes the press industry consists of “1) newspapers, 2) magazines, 3) consumer publications, and 4) reference books, which today form the basis of the structure of periodical press industry and can be used as a form of marketing.” (Sagar, 2017). Additionally, Dr. Patrick Dixon is a futurist and keynote speaker, and physician who identifies trends within various industries to strategize and advise global companies. Dixon has a variety of speeches and articles which refer to the print industry, identifying “newspapers and magazines” as two primary forms of print media (Dixon, 2020). Specifically, Dixon notes that newspapers and magazines are effective in the news and marketing industries. While the press and its industry are large, many professionals recognize that newspapers and magazines are the primary forms of print media. Both of these mediums make a lasting impression to the audience primarily because of the nostalgic physicality and visual influence of print media.

Print media considers the consumer’s sense and preference for visual, haptic, audio, and olfactory experiences. Newspapers and magazines share a hyper-sensory experience that digital platforms fail to address. Mario Medina is a creative director who has successfully managed content portfolios for large companies. From relevance.com, Medina writes that “sixty-five percent of people are visual learners. Marketers can appeal to a majority of the population with print media full of great visuals. Visual, printed media is especially attractive in a time where consumers have to read so much” (Medina, 2019). Visual appeal and the format of media is important to individual consumers, and print media utilizes design and spatial consideration that delivers large bodies of text in a way the consumer can appreciate it. David Klein, CEO 119

and President of Macromark, Inc., is a specialist in market response. Magazines display “high quality images that are printed onto glossy magazines that attract readers and get them to observe the product or service you are selling” (Klein, 2018). These images are accompanied by an experience only found in print media; by being printed onto glossy magazine pages, the audience is more attracted to the images. Print is a tangible media, where consumers can pick up the paper, flip through it, and smell the ever-ingrained scent of ink on paper. While print media provides these sensory experiences, the physicality of newspapers and magazines also allow for longevity of the medium.

Print media and the information portrayed always remains eternal, whereas digital media is constantly updating, meaning the content is subject to the deep sea of information on the web.

H20 Media Inc., an advertising agency that deals primarily with print advertising, finds that print is “more than just something to read; they’re a trip back in time, and they never disappear.

Yes, the Internet has made it possible to go back in time and look up just about anything.

However, looking at a vintage [magazine] cover on your smartphone just isn’t the same as holding something that was printed before you were born in your hands” (H20 Media Inc., 2017). It is this sense of nostalgia that appeals to many people today-- this same feeling is not present in digital media. The physical version lasts until you dispose of it or it is archived in some collection, whereas digital copies may be deleted or misplaced. When you refresh the page, the content might change if it is an ad. A large proportion of the population tends to keep print media within their vicinity. They are more likely to have print media, whether it be for academic, professional, or recreational purposes, over keeping a digital copy of the information media bookmarked.

In terms of advertising, people either disregard the ad or are unable to find the ad again because of the shorter lifespan. While many individuals are always on the web, “online ads are very easy to miss because people are looking for specific things when they go online, and will scroll past or close pop up ads… people are less likely to quickly toss a magazine in the garbage than they are to close a pop-up ad online… also, readers are more likely to keep an issue if it contains interesting and relevant information to them.” (Klein, 2018). To better understand the body of people in a population who overlook these ads, HubSpot, a provider to consumer marketing digital software, conducted a study on 2020 population marketing trends. A reported, “91% of users find digital ads pushier today than previous years, 70% do not like mobile ads, and 81% have closed or exited a browser because of digital ad” (HubSpot, 2020). Because newspapers and magazine advertisements are streamlined to provide only the most important information with lack of distractors, there is a small chance that print media marketing goes overlooked.

There is another case in which consumers of digital media utilize ad blockers to prevent ads from popping up, essentially making digital advertising stagnant. Rob Errera is an editor for the company Cash4Toners, who published an article about the importance of print media, found, “27.5% [of all US web surfers] utilize an ad blocker” and that because there is no ad blocking for print, “you do not have to worry about your ads not getting seen with print” (Errera, 2020).

There is no way for a consumer to “close,” or turn away from the print, and they remain within households or offices much longer. Consumers have a physical appeal to print media which allows them to keep and interpret the information provided to them more effectively than digital media can.

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While digital media is expansive and informative, print media has been proven to present new information in ways that digital media cannot. The Pews Research Center Journalism and Media section dedicates demographic research to find trends in consumer behavior, media analysis and impact, and journalism. In an investigation of how news functions in Baltimore, MD., most major news outlets “contain no original reporting. Fully eight of ten stories studied simply repeated or repackaged previously published information… of the stories that did contain original content nearly all, 95%, came from traditional media, most of these newspapers… that set the narrative agenda for most other outlets” (Pews Research Center, 2010). In retaining new information, newspapers and other forms of print media set the standard of communication.

They are considerably more credible, more fact-checked, and processed before shown to the general public. Print newspapers generally gather hyperlocal data and report on many issues.

With the presentation of this new and unique information from print media, consumers are consequently more attentive, aware, and responsive to the information they receive.

Since users of technology are required to conjugate multiple tasks at once with great speeds, like scrolling through website pages and ocular movement, they do not retain as much information as consumers of print media would. A leader of a company is reported on average to read “a maximum of 500 words a minute on-screen but could easily make sense of an entire 40,000-word publication in less than five to ten minutes” (Dixon, 2020). Due to the larger spatial reasoning of print media, as opposed to the confined space of a smartphone or tablet, in addition to the bright visual distractors in digital media, individuals tend to intake more information at a time. In addition to reading the information, consumers are found to be more aware and attentive to this information. A survey conducted by TwoSides finds that consumers of media “responded indicated that they understood, retained, or used information better when they read print on paper (88% for print media) compared to lower percentages (64% and less) when reading on electronic devices.” With higher percentages of people reporting they understood, retained, or used information through print media over digital media, it is evident that print media still holds a powerful position in providing information. Julie O'Neil and Marianne Eisenmann, both actively involved in public relations work and study (both members of the Measurement Commission for the Institute of Public Relations), wrote within Public Relations Review that a “test indicated that knowledge levels were slightly lower only for native advertising (M = 3.52) compared to traditional advertising (M = 3.82)... and blogs, websites, and online catalogs sitting at (M = 2.76). [M representing the mean number of correct answers the consumer gave when reporting the information back out of 5]” (O’Neil & Eisenmann, 2017). Both of the print media numbers are significantly high means, which indicates the information retention is relative to the use of different forms of media. The blog, website, and online catalog mean sits lower than the print media which is evident of print media being more effective for information retention over digital media. With the effectiveness of information, consumers grow to depend on and have positive emotions with print media.

One reason consumers depend on and have positive emotions in regards to print media. Is the fact that print media is specific and relative to the audience, they focus on specific generations and industries to develop relationships with them. A common misconception is that younger generations do not appreciate print media because they grew up with technology all around them. However, that is proven wrong because “the average Gen Zer will still read magazines for about an hour every week. Plus, 61% of Gen Zers believe that their peers will benefit from 121

unplugging more… they see the value in print media and unplugging when consuming content” (Medina, 2019). Additionally, according to OmniPress, “89 percent of millennials say they ‘consume print for educational purposes,’ and a vast majority of them choose to consume at least a part of their content in print” (H20 Media Inc., 2017). Gen Z and Millennials generally utilize print media to update themselves about life, current events, and for other dedicated research purposes. While the Internet is still a heavy proponent of this, print media is still preferred by the younger generation. Generation demographics show that print media does target the younger audience, but it also targets the specific interests that said audiences have and provide them with great consistency.

When considering the different types of stories, you may find in newspapers and the publications of magazines. Newspapers have different genre formats such as “business newspapers, social and political newspapers, industry newspapers, advertising and industry newspapers, entertainments newspapers, and a mix of them” (Sagar, 2017). Consumers of these genres are able to subscribe to a certain publication they trust, which allows them to be more active and engaged with the newspaper. The same case exists with magazines, whose publications are specific to “certain interest groups, professional groups, businesses, news followers, trade journals, entertainment, literary and art, and science” (Sagar, 2017). Although the internet also panders to specific audiences, the consumers have to actively search for such information, whereas these publications arrive to your mailbox without much effort from the consumer. Mailed print media is far more looked at considering “direct mail open rate is between 80-90% compared to 20-30% email open rates.” This shows that more people are likely to pay attention to print media, and that the industry is still useful compared to digital media.

By utilizing print media, you are able to market your products and services with ease by using the right genre or publication of newspapers and magazines respectively.

With the immense volume and traction of physical and sensory appeal, provision of information, and the construction of audience relationships, publishers of newspapers and magazines are able to generate high levels of revenue. One would think that the production of paper creates a senseless vacuum of money, but in fact quite the opposite is true. An advantage print media holds over digital media is how advertising favors print. When an ad makes it into a publication, the payment is one-time and secure, whereas on the internet, “once the advertising budget runs dry, digital ads stop working for you. They simply cease to exist on the Internet until you fuel them with an additional budget” (Errera, 2020). This means that since the rate of advertising is a set and fixed value, you will not have to pay too occasionally. The upfront value is a better deal compared to a recurring payment that would eventually surpass the print advertisement. You do not even need a hefty budget to advertise through print because “with only a few hundred dollars, you can begin advertising in some of the nation’s top publications.

Working with an agency also dramatically reduces the cost of advertising, as your agency will likely be able to offer you lower rates” (H20 Media Inc., 2017). Comparably, your investment to advertise would have a greater return value in print media than digital media.

Print media has a measurably larger “Return on Investment (ROI),” because of the contribution of publication purchasing, mail-in advertisement, and subscription. These categories of print advertising have an invested revenue, which is used to determine the ROI; this value is found by the formula “net profit/cost of investment.” Another helpful term is the “Return on 122

Advertising Spending,” which is essentially the net profit. Figures show “print ROAS is the best among all media,” as an investment in average campaign budgets for magazines will be $1.9M with a ROAS of $3.94M as compared to a lower investment in cross media being $1.1M only resulting in $2.62M (Errera, 2020). This shows a nearly $2M return on advertising spending for magazines, which is greater than a $1.5M return for digital media campaigns.

Additionally, “direct mail boosts by 20% more when included in an integrated campaign,” which sets “a strong 125% ROI in print media compared to an ROI of 87% in digital advertising” (Errera, 2020). Overall, print media meets and exceeds the ROI, which shows print media is still effective and greater in revenue return than digital, as digital media falls shorter.

In conclusion, print media still provides effective and profitable advertising for consumers. The use of print engages the audience with a sensory and nostalgic experience which digital media fails to address. This experience has shown that more of the readers pay attention and retain information and messages through a physical medium, which in turn increases consumer loyalty. For advertising and media companies, this ensures that the investments made for marketing are more worthwhile and more beneficial than using digital media messaging.

REFERENCES Dixon, Patrick. “Why Print Media Still Has a Future - Truth about Books, Newspapers, Magazines and Print Advertising - Why the Paperless Office Is Such a Last-Century Idea.” Futurist Keynote Speaker - Patrick Dixon, 2020. https://www.globalchange.com/why-print-media-still-has-a-future-truth-about-booksnewspapers-magazines-and-print-advertising-and-why-the-paperless-office-is-such-alast-century-idea.htm.

Dooley, Roger. “Print vs. Digital: Another Emotional Win for Paper.” Neuromarketing, July 9, 2015. https://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/print-vs-digital.htm.

Errera, Rob. “Print Is Not Dead: Why Print Still Matters [INFOGRAPHIC].” Cash4Toners, November 9, 2020. https://cash4toners.com/info/2019/02/10/why-print-matters/.

Inc., H2O Media. “7 Reasons Why Print Media Is Your Best Best.” H2O Media Inc, June 12, 2017. https://www.h2omedia.com/7-reasons-why-print-media-is-your-best-bet/.

Klein, David. “The Benefits of Newspaper Advertising vs. Magazine Advertising.”

Macromark, February 12, 2018. https://macromark.com/blog/the-benefits-ofnewspaper-advertising-vs-magazine-advertising.

N.A, HubSpot. 2020 Marketing Statistics, Trends & Data - The Ultimate List of Digital Marketing Stats, 2020. https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics.

Medina, Mario. “Print Still Matters in 2019.” Relevance, October 3, 2019. https://www.relevance.com/print-still-matters-in-2019/.

O’Neil, Julie, and Marianne Eisenmann. “An Examination of How Source Classification Impacts Credibility and Consumer Behavior.” Public Relations Review. JAI, March 15, 2017. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811116301606.

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Pew Research Center. “How News Happens.” Pew Research Center's Journalism Project, May 30, 2020. https://www.journalism.org/2010/01/11/how-news-happens/.

Sagar, A.H. “Press Advertising: All You Need to Know About Print Media.” localadvjournal.

Local Advertising Journal, 2017. http://localadvertisingjournal.com/press-advertisingneed-know-print-media/.

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Understanding the Journey for the Development of Self-Driving Vehicles

By Gil Minas Self-driving vehicles (SDV) were initially conceived from many science fiction novels and movies, yet over the past 15 years many strides were made to turn this dream into reality. Currently, there are over 40 different companies that are actively working on developments for the SDV industry, from big car companies to small start-ups they all strive to get SDV’s out on the road and available to the public as soon as possible (CB Insights). The first autonomous vehicles (AV) that came out through the years were small, automated material handling vehicles, a platform to assist in the sorting of items in factories. These advances led to larger innovations, like an automated forklift and other AV’s operating in many factories and warehouses around the world. For example, AV manufacturer OTTO is responsible for a lot of automation in indoor warehouses, etc.

Yet still, they are constantly attempting to move outside and create a safe SDV for the public (Wunderlin par. 41). So, with all these companies developing SDVs, why is it that after 15 years SDVs are still not ready for the open road? The primary argument for this is that the technology required for the development of SDVs is still lacking. So, the best way to approach this is by delving into the aspects of SDV development and the various issues and restrictions, such as safety and cyber-security threats, that manufacturers are struggling with on their journey to a functioning SDV, as well as the issue of public opinion and how it hinders the development of SDVs. The number one reason that SDV’s are not seen very often in the public is the safety concern. Even though these vehicles are being marketed for development under the guise of a safer alternative for conventional driving, most importantly because up to 50% of all accidents are the result of distracted drivers, over 20% are the result of fatigue, about 30% are the result of drunk driving, and over 50% are the result of aggressive driving (Brown sec. 4). With these statistics in mind, it is obvious that creating a functional SDV would, in fact, decrease the number of car accidents since, as the name states, they are self-driving. While most conclusions from various articles and reports state that SDVs are safer than conventional vehicles, any accident involving SDVs led to the argument that the vehicle’s systems were at fault just as much as the engineer or driver in a vehicle would be. From this conclusion, it is assumed that, if the authority blames the person in the car for an accident involving an SDV, then what is the point of even making SDVs? As this concern grows, companies are still tweaking their products to prevent any future accidents or mishaps. Meanwhile, the focus and attention remain that human error is still the number one safety problem when it comes to vehicles regardless of whether it is a standard vehicle or an AV. Continuing the topic of safety, there are currently no standards of defining safety in SDVs or AVs, unlike conventional vehicles, which have many safety standards in place. Arian Marshall states, “Many observers have commented on the lack of real regulations or enforcement with regard to the reporting requirements associated with AV driving accidents.” Since reporting requirements are lacking and unclear, the information on the safety of these vehicles becomes uncertain, and companies do not advertise if anything is wrong with their products. Consumers only get the information that car companies release to the media, which is often only positive articles, instead of a full detailed analysis of the vehicles. This makes the issues of safety even more pressing since consumers and governing agencies are interested to know if it is truly safe to put these vehicles on the road for public use. Therefore, the United States Senate introduced a bill called “Security and Privacy in Your Car Act of 2019.” This bill directs the National Highway Traffic Safety 125

Administration (NHTSA) to regulate SDVs in the United States against any malicious acts of hacking and data farming. It also requires the labeling of a dashboard to inform consumers about any risks regarding their vehicle and directs the Federal Trade Commission to ensure all vehicle manufacturers notify the car buyers about data collection and give the buyers the option to opt-out from these options provided. Lastly, it requires the Federal Highway Administration to develop a tool for observing, shielding, and recuperating from any cyber-threats (Markey). This bill was put forward as a tool to combat safety and security issues as it pertains to SDVs. It shows that policymakers here in the United States set up a means to at least partially address some of these issues, as they devised a plan to assign several agencies with responsibilities to combat any potential risks with ease.

Concurrently, as production numbers of AVs are growing exponentially and more vehicles are becoming reliant on on-board computer systems, it is only logical to assume that they are susceptible to cyber-attacks. Many exploits and vulnerabilities were already identified by cybersecurity experts, and, even though car companies are doing anything in their power to remedy these exploits, it is nearly impossible to prevent some of these risks (Sheehan et al. 534). The reason why it is so difficult is that these vehicles rely on maps and connectivity to GPS systems.

These systems require a constant uplink from satellites, which in turn creates a small opening for hackers to infiltrate the on-board system and have full control of the vehicle. These threats are a concern for vehicle manufacturers and consumers alike, and the fact that this technology is still in the development stage is yet another reason why the United States Senate introduced the “Security and Privacy in Your Car Act of 2019” (Markey). As previously described, this bill was introduced to find and fight any potential cybersecurity threats. Yet still, there is a great need for better innovation, and extensive thought process solutions to rectify any potential hazards and threats of this nature (Qazi et al. 133028). This claim ultimately suggests that, even though cyber-threats are being combated, there is still a need for improvement on behalf of the manufacturers.

As many people eagerly await the time when SDVs are going to be a norm, there is still an ongoing debate over technological compatibility. Currently, there are five levels of autonomous driving, which are: Level 0 with no automation, which is the old-fashioned method of a person behind the wheel controlling the vehicle, Level 1 is driver assistance with small things like park assist and cruise control, Level 2 has partial automation in steering, acceleration, braking, and maintaining speed, Level 3 has conditional automation that can be looked at as autonomous, yet only if the conditions of the roads permit, and Level 4 is high automation where the vehicle can do the driving on its own, is currently the highest level of AV automation, and is the one being used by companies like Google, Waymo, Uber, and many others for testing. Finally, there is Level 5, which is full automation and is currently more fiction than reality (Borenstein et al. 385). When observing these levels, it is obvious that when anyone talks about SDVs, they refer to vehicles that are levels 3, 4, and 5, as levels 1 and 2 may have some minimal automation, but they are ultimately controlled only by the driver. For example, Tesla manufactures vehicles that are levels 2 or 3, which makes it more of an assisted driving system, yet their autopilot system has the potential to be upgraded to a level 4.

There are many different tools and systems that are being developed separately to improve the SDV experience. One such system is known as Light Detection and Ranging system, or LiDAR for short, which is the system used synonymously by 95% of SDV developers. It uses a combination of cameras, sensors, and radar and can perform calculations and evaluations to determine the best route and speeds while driving (Kumar et al. 11). This system along with other 126

crucial systems like GPS tracking, and satellite uplinks, all contribute to the effectiveness of the SDV. Although the cost of these systems, especially the LiDAR system is very high. Thus, increasing costs for the development of SDVs is why these vehicles are still far from being offered to consumers. Since the cost of an SDV would end up being upwards of a quarter-million dollars, concurrently, Tesla eliminated this issue by not using LiDAR and by providing all of its vehicles with the necessary equipment to become an SDV once the company has succeeded in creating the necessary autopiloting AI system, which in a sense will act as a plug-and-play feature in their camera system equipped vehicles; the best thing about this is that Tesla’s cars are a more reliable option, better valued overall because of its proprietary batteries and the upgrade options that come with their vehicles.

Tesla is constantly attempting to achieve its goal of having a level 5 SDV just as many other car manufacturers are attempting the very same. This in turn creates a sort of an unofficial race to see which company will be the first to achieve such a feat. A recent blog post called “The Race to Autonomous Vehicles” describes that, after years of improvements and getting approvals for road testing, major companies like Google’s Waymo, which is backed by Audi, General Motors with their cruise, Argo AI, which is backed by Volkswagen and Ford, and Uber, which is backed by Volvo, as well as some startups like Optimus Ride and Pony.ai employ excellent developers and have made several breakthroughs. Regardless, they are all looking at Tesla fly by in the race to commercialize autonomous vehicles (Goldman par. 3). The reason for this is quite simple as Tesla is using a camera-based system as the main component for its SDVs while all these other companies rely on the expensive LiDAR system. Elon Musk said this is crucial because “In cars, it’s freaking stupid, It’s expensive and unnecessary. And once you solve vision, it is worthless. So, you have expensive hardware that is worthless on the car” (qtd. in Hawkins, It's Elon Musk vs par.

9). This comment was said in context after establishing that Tesla’s camera system is not only working as well as the LiDAR system but is in all actuality much less expensive.

If Tesla is making great strides and doing such a great job without the LiDAR system, then why do the other companies persist on using LiDAR? Well, the answer lies with Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk’s persistence that Lidar is a waste of money, and because Tesla’s camera-based system is proprietary, meaning that only Tesla can use this exact system, thus making all the other companies resort to using a Lidar based system for their SDVs, even though not all companies are willing to settle for the so-called only other option and are starting to implore their employees to come up with other ideas. One such idea brought forward by GM is to replace LiDAR sensors in their pod with thermal cameras, while another one brought forward by Daimler is to replace LiDAR by researching the exploitation of gated imaging and machine learning (Rangwala par. 4). This shows that other companies are not willing to submit to either one or two options when it comes to determining the fate of SDVs but are rather looking forward to the future with open minds, constantly trying to improve and better the process so that they can provide the best possible vehicle. However, this constant need to better the product is also the reason why most companies keep pushing their estimated dates as to when SDVs will be available for consumers.

There is another topic that some would argue to be quite the controversial one, that being concern that no one singular company would be able to achieve the goal of creating a level 4 or 5 SDV all by themselves. This concern derives from the notion that to create a level 4 or 5 SDV there will need to be significant cooperation between software and hardware companies, as is explained in the blog post “How Autonomous Driving Impacts Software Development in the Automotive Industry.” True SDVs are still being tested and many years will pass before they become available, 127

even though level three cars are out on the roads. Thus, the process of making cars had to evolve and become more software-focused; moreover, engineering skills for the automotive industry now require more specific software orientation, this creates a gap since neither the tech companies nor car companies possess said skills on their own. A partnership of hardware and software companies is the only remedy in the current competitive automotive market (Bansal et al. par. 12). This shows that a partnership between software and hardware companies is not only recommended, but, in all actuality, it is a necessity if car companies truly wish to be able to manufacture true SDVs. Even Tesla learned this early on as they partnered with Panasonic to create their electric car batteries.

As the picture of SDVs becomes clearer, and the topic of attempting to achieve a true level 5 vehicle has been introduced, it is now crucial to delve a bit further into it. This endeavor requires the development and use of dedicated Artificial Intelligence (AI) into these vehicles as well as a better understanding of said AIs. The article “Self-driving vehicles: Many challenges remain for autonomous navigation” contains the claim, “Both driver-assist and robo-taxi approaches to selfdriving cars have promise, but they need to mature. That will require improvements in sensors and in artificial intelligence, and in our understanding of their limits, particularly AI’s weakness at dealing with the unexpected” (Hecht 33). The development of further technologies and AI is not only crucial but is also detrimental for the purpose of achieving a true level 5 SDV. Furthermore, several companies previously claimed that SDV’s will be available for consumers by 2021, yet these claims have all been proven false as the most current projections state that SDVs will not be available for the public at least for another 4 years, which would place it somewhere between 2024 and 2025. Although with several technological advances made by Tesla recently, it could be as early as 2022.

While all these companies are working to develop SDVs, the average consumer awaits their results in anticipation. Public opinion on the matter of SDVs had shifted many times from one extreme to the next. A study that was conducted in 2015 concluded: Various recent studies have documented the public opinion on automated driving technology. … we assessed cross-national effects for a large number of countries (109 countries, 40 countries of which had more than 25 respondents). We implemented a 63question survey … and we collected 5000 responses, 4886 of which could be included in our statistical analyses. Our results showed that respondents, on average, found manual driving the most enjoyable mode of driving, yet they found the idea of fully automated driving fascinating. Furthermore, respondents believed that fully automated vehicles would be able to drive on public roads by 2030. (Kyriakidis et al. 135-136) This study shows that public opinion around the world was quite apprehensive about SDVs in 2015, which means people simply feared this technology because they did not trust or understand it. Although the subject itself sounds interesting, most people just prefer manual driving because it is considered the status quo worldwide. This is something that is difficult to change. This type of public opinion is a big factor for companies developing SDVs because, if the consumer does not trust or understand the product, then they are less likely to be interested in it.

Change is inevitable, and public opinion has changed in the last five years since this study. For example, here in the United States, it seems that most Americans simply do not trust this technology; yet, as is evident by a recent poll mentioned in the article “Americans still don’t trust self-driving cars,” “Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE), A quick glance at the results reveals that they’ll have their work cut out for them. Nearly 3 in 4 Americans say 128

autonomous vehicle technology is not ready for primetime” (Hawkins, par. 2). Thus, Americans are not ready to accept this change. On the other hand, recent proposals made by the government in the UK indicate that they are ready to welcome these changes as they attempt to introduce a trial basis program to allow SDVs on their motorways, as is stated in the article “Self-driving cars could be allowed on UK motorways next year.” That article states, “While the technology has been envisaged to help navigate traffic jams at low speed, the government is considering legalizing it for use at speeds of up to 70mph in the slow lanes of motorways, with the cars automatically staying in lane and slowing down for vehicles in front” (Topham, par. 3). So, it seems like the UK is adopting this technology while here in the US the public responds with a degree of fear and disdain.

So, after describing the various aspects of SDV development and the various issues and restrictions, such as safety and cyber-security threats, that manufacturers are struggling with on their journey to a functioning SDV, and the concern that public opinion poses, the only thing left worth mentioning is that SDVs are a part of our future here on earth. Technological advances happen every day, and it is now the time for SDV to take up the spotlights; as more companies adopt different methods of research towards this endeavor, it becomes apparent that it is not only some distant dream that someone wished for, but in all actuality it is a venture to create the next best thing, and they do it all for the sake of comfort, curiosity, and advancement. As for the general public opinion, it is only estimated that once SDVs become available for consumers and these vehicles will be more integrated into society then finally more people will learn to trust and understand, and eventually be less skeptical or apprehensive about SDVs. While developing companies may need additional time so that they can be sure that when the product is finally ready, it will be the best possible product and nothing else. So, after 15 years of research and development, it comes down to the fact that the public may not be ready to accept the change, but there is a general consensus that this technology is inevitable, which makes understanding what this technology is all about much more crucial.

WORKS CITED Bansal, Nitesh, and Deloitte Research on Autonomous Driving. “How Autonomous Driving Impacts Software Development in the Automotive Industry.” Intellias, 5 Aug. 2020, www.intellias.com/how-autonomous-driving-impacts-software-development-in-theautomotive-industry/.

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Hecht, Jeff. “Self-Driving Vehicles: Many Challenges Remain for Autonomous Navigation.”

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Congress.gov, 18 July 2019, www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senatebill/2182/text.

Marshall, Aarian. “We've Been Talking About Self-Driving Car Safety All Wrong.” Wired, Conde Nast, www.wired.com/story/self-driving-cars-safety-metrics-milesdisengagements/.

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Rangwala, Sabbir. “Do Autonomous Vehicles Need LiDAR??” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 30 Apr. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/sabbirrangwala/2020/04/30/do-autonomous-vehiclesneed-lidar/?sh=5fce52c8613f.

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Topham, Gwyn. “Self-Driving Cars Could Be Allowed on UK Motorways next Year.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 18 Aug. 2020, www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/aug/18/self-driving-cars-allowed-motorwaysindustry-risk.

Wunderlin, Amy. "The future of self-driving vehicles: taking numerous shapes and forms, what does the future of autonomous vehicles look like for the food and beverage industry?"

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ENVIRONMENT AND AGRICULTURE

Friendly Koi by Jack Krizizke

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Homelessness: Stereotype vs. Truth

By Kylie Otsuka “Homelessness.” When this word is spoken, many different things come to people’s minds. We all think of homeless people differently, because of the stereotypes that surround them. However, according to the dictionary, homelessness means “the state of having no home.” So, if that is the meaning of homelessness, then why do we think other things about the homeless? We tend to group all of the homeless people together, and we think that they are all the same. Some think the homeless are lazy and do not want to work for their money. Instead of working they ask others for money and food. Some people think that the homeless are dangerous. We always hear parents saying, ‘be careful’ and ‘do not go near the homeless’ because they are dangerous. We see parents holding their kid’s hands tightly as they walk past. Just because there are some homeless that are dangerous, it does not mean that all homeless people are dangerous. Some may think that the homeless are dangerous because they are addicts, but that is not always the case. True, there are some people that are addicts, but not all homeless are. Most people do not choose to be homeless.

We think that the solution to homelessness is shelters, but, if you have never been to a homeless shelter, then how do you know what it is like? Homeless shelters are not always the best option for everyone. I am writing this to bring awareness to the stereotypes made about the homeless and why we should not judge them based on these stereotypes. This paper will provide explanations as to why we should not think all homeless people are the same. The homeless do not have a strong enough voice to help make a difference. I will be using interviews and stories from homeless people, articles, statistics, and academic databases as evidence to support my claim. Homelessness is a worldwide issue that has not yet been solved. It is a part of our everyday lives, whether we are homeless or we pass them on the street. According to Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser, researchers for Our World in Data, who researches and gives statistics of homeless people around the world, there are about 150 million homeless people worldwide, about 552,830 homeless in the United States of America, and out of that about 6,458 homeless in Hawai'i. We cannot start fixing the issue without understanding the relationships between the homeless and the non-homeless.

Let us stop comparing all the homeless to fictional stereotypes and instead try to understand their stories. Not all homeless people are lazy; some of them had jobs and somehow lost them. Many of those who are homeless are actually the opposite of lazy. They need to survive without money; they need to find food so that they do not starve, and they need to find shelter to keep them warm and safe at night. Weather changes as well as the changing of the seasons make this even harder.

People who are not homeless have a home to go to at night, no matter the size you know that you will be protected from the weather outside. You know that you will be safe and warm. Jurgen Von Mahs wrote in his book Down and Out in Los Angeles and Berlin, “[H]omeless people’s immediate survival strategies to generate income (legal exclusion) and find shelter and housing (service exclusion) as well as their long-term exit strategies to find residential stability and economic selfsufficiency (market exclusion)” (Mahs 6). We say that if the homeless want to get off the streets, then they should get a job and raise money for a home, but how are they supposed to find a job?

They do not have much money, and the money they do have normally goes towards food.

Sometimes they just need a little help from people who do have money to buy new clothes. The homeless do not normally have the right clothes to wear for an interview. Most people do not hire people who do not dress correctly at interviews. It is even harder for the homeless to even find a place that is hiring. The National Coalition for the Homeless is a group of people supporting those 133

who are currently homeless, have experienced being homeless, or advocates for those who want to end homelessness. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, “Lack of access to technology also serves as a disadvantage for the homeless individuals searching for work.” They do not have the electronics that we do. All we need to do to find a job is go on our phone or computer and go on a job-hunting website. We get notified when there is a job that we can interview for. However, the homeless do not have that type of technology. They need to find a job through newspapers or see “hiring” on a sign in a window. Some homeless people try really hard just to survive. It may not seem like it, but some homeless people work just as hard or sometimes harder than people with jobs. Their working hard just may not be what we consider normal.

Not only do some people see the homeless as lazy, but some may also see them as dangerous. Most homeless people do not want to hurt anyone; all they want is some help. We would not help them if they hurt us. In Europe, “20 percent had become homeless to escape violence from someone they knew” (Moss and Singh 47). However, we may think the homeless are dangerous because of the stories we hear from others, movies, television shows, or news reports. United Way, an organization that supports homeless people, stated “If we were to believe everything that they show on television is true, Homeless people would be one of the most dangerous species on the planet.” Yes, it is true that there are some homeless people that are dangerous, but that is only a small percentage of them. They may be dangerous because they have a mental health issue that makes them act differently than what we consider normal. They may scream and lash out at people for no reason. Some homeless may have an addiction to drugs or alcohol, which means they are not in their right state of mind, which may lead them to do dangerous things or make bad decisions while under the influence. They may be a danger to young teens by getting them involved in drugs or alcohol. On the other hand, they may be dangerous because they experienced trauma; if that is the case, then they may always be on high alert. They may take something out of context, like if they feel threatened, even if they are not being threatened, which may cause them to attack because they feel the need to protect themselves. However, this is just a small percentage of homeless people. Not all homeless have mental issues, addictions, or certain trauma. Not all homeless are dangerous; they are just trying to survive. People who are not homeless and view the homeless as dangerous actually end up hurting the homeless. They are people with feelings too, and it can really bring them down when someone looks at them differently. In reality, homeless people are in more danger than people who are not homeless. Just like us, homeless people have to sleep, and, when you sleep, you are very vulnerable. Kate Moss and Paramjit Singh write, “Sleeping rough is a dangerous and traumatizing experience. Rough sleepers have an average life expectancy of just 42 years, compared with the national average of 74 for men and 79 for women” (Moss and Singh 46).

Sometimes, we can come off scary to the homeless. There are people who beat the homeless, yell at them, throw things at them, say cruel words, etc. If they feel threatened, they will feel the need to protect themselves, since they live on the streets and have survival instincts. Homeless does not mean criminals; it just means they do not have a permanent home at the moment. Most people do not like it when they feel that others think they are dangerous. To have people walk past quickly trying to avoid you. There are some homeless who are really friendly; some will even help you out if you are short on bus money or will help you pick up the things you may have dropped. Some are willing to help with no expectation of something in return. Homeless people are still people who have feelings, and, like any other person, they do not like being judged based on stereotypes.

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There are so many homeless on the street, and, due to stereotypes, some people feel unsafe. When walking past homeless people on the streets, they say that, if you are homeless, then you should live in a homeless shelter. Jean Calterone Williams, a professor of Political Science, states, “Shelter residents often note the loss of dignity, status, and independence associated with homelessness.” When someone says I am homeless, the other person may say, “Go to a homeless shelter.” They do not think about why they may not want to live in a homeless shelter. “While 60 percent of homeless women have slept rough, only 12 percent have engaged with street outreach teams. 40 percent of homeless women reported having been excluded from a service and 10 percent were not using any service” (Moss and Singh 47). There are so many homeless on the streets that you would wonder why more do not go into homeless shelters. Williams interviewed a woman named Gloria who is a homeless woman that has experience with living in a shelter. Gloria stated in her interview, “Perhaps this explains why housing for the homeless is referred to as “shelter,” meaning a roof over your head, rather than “home,” which implies autonomy and emotional as well as material support.” There is not much space or privacy in a homeless shelter, they do not have anywhere to entertain or have guests when friends or loved ones visit, and they are always around other homeless people. Depending on the homeless person’s situation, it could also be unsafe to stay in a homeless shelter. Not only does being homeless affect that person, but it can affect the whole family, especially if that person has kids living with them. “Diane, a resident of the Family Shelter, explained: ‘I felt like a failure when I had to go to shelter. I felt like I let the kids down, disrupted their home of five years’” (Williams 197). If a homeless person has kids with them, then they are always worried about the child. Everyone wants their child to be safe and kept out of harm’s way. No one wants to see their child struggling. Being homeless with a child is one thing, but to be homeless in a place where your child is unsafe is a whole different story. There are people who live in homeless shelters that were or are addicts; these people sometimes have withdrawal symptoms. They are on edge and could lash out or do something to make a child unsafe because you have to be patient with children, especially if they are young. Recovering addicts often do not possess that kind of patience, which could also be dangerous for a teenager because teens are still figuring out who they are. They sometimes make bad decisions and do not think things through, so they crack under peer pressure. Staying in a homeless shelter and living with people who may be addicts could possibly make the teen turn to drugs or alcohol, turning them into addicts as well. You do not have to be a child or teen to feel unsafe in a homeless shelter.

Anyone of any age, gender, or size could feel unsafe.

So, if people feel unsafe walking past a homeless person on the street and the homeless shelters are not always the best option for homeless people, then how can we make it safe for everyone?

To do that we would need to take care of the homeless problem, which is a difficult problem to fix because we are talking about millions of people. So, how can we make this problem better? We can start by understanding the homeless and realize that the stereotypes about the homeless are not true for everyone. We say that they should get a job, but how can they get a job when they cannot get hired because of how they are dressed? They cannot change how they are dressed if they do not have money for new clothes. So, instead of throwing away your old clothes, you should donate them to a homeless shelter or another organization. If you do not want to go to an organization, then you could always give your clothes to someone that you see who is in need. There are some homeless people who have jobs, but they just do not make enough money to afford a home.

According to Jenn Savedge, an environmental author lecturer who used to be a park ranger, “There are myriad reasons why a person becomes homeless — lack of affordable housing, loss of a job, 135

divorce, illness, substance abuse, domestic abuse, etcetera.” If we learn the stories of homeless people, then maybe we will start to realize that they are just like everyone else. Maybe then we can stop comparing them to the stereotypes that were created. Everyone, no matter how rich or poor, needs help every once in a while. No one can live their life without getting help from someone else. We need to start spreading kindness and not judgment and help those in need. If we can help, then we should. If we have extra change that we can spare, even if it is just a little bit, then we could give it to a person in need and help them out. Every little bit makes a big difference.

There are many organizations around the world that are in place to help the homeless. If you do not feel comfortable interacting with the homeless personally, then you could always help an organization that helps the homeless. If you do not want to give a homeless person your change or any money because you are unsure if they will put it to good use or use it to buy drugs and alcohol, then you could always take that money and give it to one of these organizations. By doing so, you are helping them get the supplies and necessities they need in order to take care of the homeless.

Without donations, there would not be many places or shelters that homeless people can go to. In turn, this would mean that more homeless people will resort to living on the streets. Some organizations include Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, Aloha United Way, Angel Network Charities, Gregory House, The River of Life Mission, Women in Need, Ohana Ola O Kahumana, and more. These are organizations on the island of Oahu alone, and there are still more.

There are many more organizations worldwide that help the homeless get off the streets, provide food, give clothes, etc.

Based on my research, I conclude that the stereotypes that were spread about the homeless by stories, the news, movies, or television shows, are not completely true. Those stereotypes only represent a small percentage of the homeless population. While it is true that our world has many issues bigger than homelessness, it does not mean that we can push the issue aside and not make it one of our priorities. There are about 1.6 billion people in the world who are homeless or live in inadequate shelters. There are about 7.594 billion people in the world, and 2% of those people are homeless. 2% may not sound like much, but we are talking about millions of people. These stereotypes are spread by people who have homes and do not live with the struggles of being homeless. Williams stated, “They may have little personal experience or interaction with homeless people. Yet housed people play an important role in generating understandings of homelessness.”

We need to stop comparing all homeless people to the stereotypes made about them. Only then could we learn about their lives and stories in order to get a better understanding of how we can help them. Once we open our minds and allow ourselves to look past the stereotypes, we can start to solve the issues of homelessness.

WORKS CITED “Attitudes about Homelessness.” Attitudes about Homelessness | The Homeless Hub, Homeless Hub, 2009, www.homelesshub.ca/resource/attitudes-about-homelessness.

“Employment and Income.” Why Is Employment Difficult for Homeless Persons? National Coalition for the Homeless, 2020, nationalhomeless.org/issues/economic-justice/.

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“Here Is What Some People Get Wrong About the Homeless!” Career and Recovery Resources, Inc, United Way of Greater Houston, 5 Feb. 2019, www.careerandrecovery.org/here-iswhat-some-people-get-wrong-about-the-homeless/.

“List of Countries by Homeless Population.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_population.

Mahs, JÜRGEN Von. “Down and Out in Los Angeles and Berlin: Sociospatial Exclusion of Homeless People: Comparative Perspective.” JSTOR, Temple University Press, 4 Dec. 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bt9pc.11.

“Meanings and Myths of Homelessness: HOMELESS WOMEN SPEAK.” A Roof Over My Head: Homeless Women and the Shelter Industry, by Jean Calterone Williams, University Press of Colorado, Boulder, 2016, pp. 193–214. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ggjkbx.8. Accessed 17 Nov. 2020.

Moss, Kate, and Paramjit Singh. “Women Rough Sleepers in Europe.” JSTOR, Bristol University Press; Policy Press, 4 Dec. 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1t898px.10.

“Myths and Questions About Homelessness.” Myths and Questions About Homelessness | The Homeless Hub, Homeless Hub, www.homelesshub.ca/about-homelessness/homelessness101/myths-and-questions-about-homelessness.

Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban, and Max Roser. “Homelessness.” Our World in Data, 16 Feb. 2017, ourworldindata.org/homelessness.

Savedge, Jenn. “9 Ways You Can Help the Homeless.” Treehugger, 3 May 2020, www.treehugger.com/ways-you-can-help-the-homeless-4868830.

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The Reality of Asian Transboundary Pollution

By Austin Chun A majority of the population has heard of some form of pollution: plastic, air, soil, light, and many others. One specific form of pollution is transboundary air pollution. This is a form of air pollution that originates within the boundaries of one nation and is transported into the authority of another nation. For example, one country is ignorant toward certain industries, which produce smog as a byproduct of their work. This pollution is then transported from the wind or other methods into the atmosphere and across borders. The smog, now in another country, will continue to plague its original country with visibility and breathing issues, but will now enact a similar impact to whatever countries the toxic air has spread to. This pollution is a very serious threat, as this air pollution endangers the safety of over 2 billion people in Asia. Unfortunately, a large majority of these people are unaware of the issue. Not many people even know this type of pollution exists, resulting in them being oblivious to the many dangers it leads to. Transboundary haze pollution affects Asia through health impacts, additional spending, and food production.

Transboundary air pollution mainly stems from man-made activities. The main form of man-made transboundary smog is from the agricultural industry using the “slash-and-burn” method for land clearing for farmland. Environmental organizations project manager Colin Stief explains the method as “the process of cutting down the vegetation in a particular plot of land, setting fire to the remaining foliage” (Stief 1). This procedure provides an easy and inexpensive alternative to clearing land while also providing nutrients to the soil, beneficial for future crops. This process is used by over 300 million farmers (Silter 1) because it provides an easy opportunity for extra income and food. However, the smog and chemicals produced from the fires are transported from one country to another by the wind, causing the trend of pollution to develop. Other forms of human-made transboundary pollution develop as byproducts of energy production and factories.

A study by University of Gujrat Engineering Professor Naeem Abas and associates has shown that China and India, two of the largest Asian nations, produce around 70% of their energy through power plants (Abas 1). Another study conducted by Moon Kim showed China burns over 4 billion tons of coal annually, which produces massive amounts of smog (Kim 2). Transboundary haze pollution can also form naturally as a result of occurrences in the weather. The main natural form of the smog is from dust storms primarily located in eastern Asia, with deserts in countries such as China and Mongolia. This phenomenon results in the regional winds blowing the storms across borders and spread throughout Asia, which can be problematic as the particles in the air can greatly damage structures, as well as endanger people from reducing visibility and air clarity. This natural air pollution is very destructive resulting in about $15.5 billion USD in 2002 and is continuing to cause increased damage to Asia.

Transboundary haze pollution impacts people in Asia by damaging their health. Air pollution is one of the largest forms of pollution and poses significant threats to respiratory and cardiovascular health. Man-made air pollution involves burning coal in power plants and starting fires, which produce sulfur dioxide (SO2) particles that are released into the air with people eventually breathing in the toxic chemicals. A study, performed by the University of Singapore Mathematics Professor Kang Hao Cheong, showed the effects of the haze in people, explaining that for citizens the ingestion could lead to mild symptoms that include “sore throat or dry mouth, nose discomfort, eye discomfort, headache, shortness of breath, as well as skin irritation” (Cheong 3). The sulfur 138

poisoning can also lead to more adverse effects, with the study mentioning several subjects developing asthma and increased pulmonary issues. Similar effects are evident with the byproducts of slash-and-burn fires. A study performed by Tamara Sheldon and Chandini Sankaran analyzed the weather data of Indonesia and Singapore, two countries with prominent amounts of deforestation and land clearing. They found that the chemicals from the smoke, which include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and carbon monoxide, can result in “increased incidences of upper respiratory tract infections, acute conjunctivitis, lung disease, asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and pneumonia” (Sheldon and Sankaran 1). This ambient air pollution has shown to develop and exacerbate respiratory issues in people, an issue the World Health Organization cites as being the cause of death for over 1.3 million people in Asia for 2016 (World Health Organization 1). Thus, one can see the plethora of risks that transboundary pollution presents to human health.

The natural forms of cross-border pollution also affect the health of people in Asia. In the instance of East Asian dust storms, winds can bring dust and sand particles to distant nations. These countries, many of which do not contain deserts, now have to suffer the consequences of the natural occurrence from other areas. The haze, similar to the smog from fires and coal, also causes respiratory problems. Japanese dryland and arid land researchers, Shinji Otani, Yasunori Kurosaki, Masato Shinoda, and Tottori University health researcher Youichi Kurosawa published a study in 2017 outlining the effects of Japanese residents ingesting or coming into contact with dust from Chinese storms. Their research showed the storms transport metal and soil that can “induce symptoms such as itchy eyes and skin, nasal congestion, and sore throats in otherwise healthy subjects” (Otani et al. 3). Additionally, several species of fungi and bacteria cling onto the moving dust particles which can result in nasal symptoms, as well as increased sensitivity to these creatures. All of these effects demonstrate the severity of the issue to all people, even those who are healthy individuals, just from breathing or being caught in a dust storm (Otani et al. 3). This shows the health of people is at risk as a result of a natural occurrence that originates in another country.

In addition to the health of people, transboundary air pollution impacts Asia through spending, with one form being from government agencies. Since the chemicals and particles in the air pose significant health threats, various Asian governments have developed legislation to combat the issues. The main collective agreement that was developed was the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, put into effect in 2002. This agreement was signed by all ten countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and specifies that parties develop legislation or any necessary measures to combat the spread of fire pollution. Columbia Law School graduate student Kexian Ng explains the agreement being developed to “implement legislative and other measures to deal with land fires and land clearing,” (Ng 7) especially in fireprone countries such as Indonesia. It established the ASEAN Co-ordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control, an organization that acts as a source of communication for the countries, and other groups to help stop the pollutants from spreading across borders. The National University of Singapore Biological Sciences professor Lahiru Wijedasa estimates that the dozens of fire prevention projects established under this accord have cost approximately $30 million (Wijedasa 2) but have achieved little success. The international law was relatively ineffective from being voluntary and thus failing to combat the actions of Indonesia and other large air polluting countries, as these nations only agreed to the treaty a few years ago. This means over a decade has passed, and international law has done nothing to combat the issue in the areas with 139

the most pollution. Essentially, the law has wasted millions of dollars of taxpayer money to barely resolve the issue. This example shows how much money this issue needs and further impacts the spending of governments, which in turn affects citizens by an increase in the amount of taxes.

Other spending comes from Asian citizens, who must pay money to repair damages done from the pollution, as well as pay for medical bills. A study performed by Cheju National University sociologist Dai-Yuen Jeong analyzed many aspects of the dust and haze pollution from 2002 in South Korea, a country that resides close to countries that have sandstorms and evaluated the economic cost of each. The researcher estimated the costs of each person that died as a result of the pollution, the costs of all flight canceled, hospital and doctor’s appointments, and damages to personal possessions such as cars or clothing. The results of the researchers estimate that “US$5,600 million, is equivalent to 0.8% of GDP and US$ 117.00 per South Korean inhabitant” (Jeong 22). This data suggests that other neighboring countries also have similar damage estimates, meaning that the annual cumulative total of damages throughout Asia from the transboundary pollution is in the tens of billions of dollars, with each citizen having to face hundreds of dollars in damages every year. Therefore, this pollution affects people throughout Asia by making them have to pay for damages to property as well as lose money from flight cancellations and medical appointments.

Not only are Asian citizens impacted through health and property damage, but they are also additionally affected by cross-border pollution through their food. Agriculture plays a major role in providing income for many Asian citizens, despite only accounting for less than 15% of Southeast Asian GDP (“FAO Regional Conference” 17). Unfortunately, agriculture is one of the industries impacted most from transboundary pollution. The smog and chemicals in the atmosphere can stunt the growth of plants. The smoke from land-clearing fires can blow into the atmospheres of neighboring countries, resulting in blocking sunlight. A lack of sun rays greatly reduces the ability for crops to produce energy, leading to less growth and decreased fruit yield.

The pollution can furthermore harm plants from the dust storms, which result in burying the plants in sediment. World Meteorological Organization Senior Consultant Dr. Mannava Sivakumar researched the effects of this haze on crops in Asia. His findings showed that pathogens and plant diseases can be carried by dust particles, which are transported from dust storms. The storms then move the fragments throughout the country and to other nations, where “the limited diversity of plant genetics of globally distributed crops causes a problem of uniform susceptibility to disease and the intercontinental dispersal of pathogens may cause crop diseases on a global scale” (Sivakumar 6). Sivakumar suggests that the storm spreading pathogens from the pollution could result in all plants globally being at risk of disease from similar genetics, which could ultimately destroy the global food supply. Crops are moreover harmed from sand and dust particles tearing off leaves. A lesser amount of leaves results in less photosynthesis and energy creation, in turn causing a decrease in fruit or grain production. In extreme dust storms, the grains of sand and dust will entomb the plant, which will prevent the organism from gathering sunlight for the photosynthetic eventually leading to death (Sivakumar 4). These many effects all result in killing the crop or greatly reducing the amount of produce farms that can yield. Fewer harvest results in less revenue for farmers, as well as less food for consumers. Therefore, the pollution impacts both the buyer and the seller for food by causing food shortages and less income for growers.

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The Asian agricultural industry is hurt by pollution not only from plants, but also through damaging livestock. The toxic air harms the creatures in similar ways to humans, damaging the respiratory systems of the animals, resulting in many of the organisms dying prematurely.

Research by Otani et al. estimated that in 2008 Mongolia lost over 310,000 animals as a result of transboundary pollution from nearby China (Otani et al. 2). This means that in 2008 the Asian agricultural industry saw a drastic decrease in revenue, along with a decreased supply of meat for consumers. A decrease in meat supply results in a domino effect, providing farmers and store owners decreased revenue along with fewer food options for buyers, therefore impacting the food decisions of Asian citizens. An investigation conducted by Cornell University Economics professor Jenniffer Ifft showed that livestock such as cattle are susceptible to diseases that can be transported from dust storms. These conditions can be spread across borders through the atmosphere with the author stating that “Transboundary animal diseases, especially those of epidemic proportions, are of regional concern, if not global” (Ifft 32). Similar to the effect with plants, the quote highlights the quickness in which livestock can be sickened all from bacteria transported by the wind. Sickened farm animals result in disease-ridden meat, which can be overlooked and sold to the public. Ifft expresses that “Poor consumers who cannot substitute income or nutrition sources may face food security problems from livestock disease,” (Ifft 31) meaning that lower-income citizens will meet the risk of eating contaminated meat and endangering personal health. This shows how pollution impacts Asia, by providing unsafe food to customers and a decrease in supply.

The contamination additionally damages food supplies across nations from weather phenomena.

One particular occurrence is acid rain, the interaction between chemicals and the precipitation process. These substances are mainly byproducts of pollution and are mixed in with water vapor, to form acidic droplets of precipitation (Shah 3). When falling from the atmosphere, the chemicals in the droplets can cause damage to the surfaces including cars, buildings, and even crops.

Chemists and biochemical engineers led by Jitendra Shah analyzed this issue of acid rain in Asian countries, as a large amount of the toxic rain originates in China due to constant coal burning as an energy source. The chemicals produced as a result of the coal-burning can be spread throughout the atmosphere and can travel past borders of other nations, therefore developing into transboundary air pollution. They explain that acid deposition coming into contact with soil can result in damage to the roots of plants if there is insufficient alkali, a chemical compound that neutralizes acids. Damaging the roots of crops results in a lack of energy production and overall a decrease in growth and production. The acid encountering plants leads to physical blemishes to the crop or strips the organism of essential nutrients. The combined effects of acid rain falling into the soil and onto crops have led to large amounts of damage to crops, killing large amounts especially in China and its neighbors. Shah cites that “the Chongqing Environmental Protection Bureau in China reported that approximately 24% of the vegetable crop was damaged by acid rain in 1993, totaling a loss of 62 million yuan (estimated to be $11 million in 1993 US dollars)” (Shah 7). This research also highlights the loss of other plants, explaining that “Grain crop losses were estimated to cost 184 million yuan ($32 million), and losses in forestry were approximately 169 million yuan ($29 million) for dead trees and reduced growth (49,50)” (Shah 7). These statements highlight the struggle for Asian farmers, who already have to deal with the threat of dust storms and fires. If not already damaged by dust storms, their crops can be hurt from the acid rain, leading to lower yields of produce. A lesser amount of food production leads to lesser revenue for the agriculture industry, hurting the income of farmers. Transboundary pollution leads to this process 141

occurring in multiple countries, as the acid rain can spread throughout Asia, in turn impacting the lives of people from decreasing the amount of food available to the public.

In brief, seeing all the damage the pollution can cause highlights the significance of the issue, and the urgency to control the issue. If solutions are not implemented governments will continue to endanger the lives of their citizens, as well as continue to pay millions of dollars for damage repairs. Thus, these countries have taken substantial steps to lower their chemical emissions, especially with China, one of the largest producers of transboundary pollution. The country has accepted international assistance to the issue, allowing the United States and other countries to assist in developing renewable energy programs, desertification laws, and legislation for coal mining. Many environmental and agricultural activists will support the resolution of the issue since this will help to prevent further land damage and will ensure the protection of the health of millions of Asian inhabitants. However, big businesses will possibly object to the enactment of these policies towards transboundary pollution. More regulations on emissions will result in these large businesses losing profit. A study by the University of Malaya researcher Helena Varkkey showed that large Asian plantation companies intentionally set 80% of all illegal forest fires in Indonesia in order to inexpensively clear land for palm plantations that produce highly profitable vegetable oil. She states that “it is estimated that 80% of the fires were set by plantation companies or their subcontractors for land clearing purposes” (Varkkey 2). Stricter regulations will prevent these businesses from starting the fires, therefore reducing the profitability from having to pay extra for legal methods of land clearing, as well as getting fined for illegal activity. As a result, larger businesses with illegal procedures would object to this action of strengthening pollution laws throughout Asia.

Transboundary pollution has demonstrated to be a nightmare for Asia, impacting citizens, farmers, large businesses, and governments. The main effect of the smog is damaging the health of people, as the fires from illegal land clearing can be spread from the wind, resulting in respiratory damage and lung disease. Dust storms can similarly harm the respiratory tracts of people and are spread easily from wind, which can lead to damage being replicated in other countries. The pollution has already killed thousands of individuals in Asia and continues to damage the health and belongings of people. The research done on the form of the pollution was mainly derived from the paper by Shinji Otani, which was a brief overview of the health and agricultural impacts of the pollution, but still contained lots of data on how dust storms work, and how they transport materials that harm organisms. The research contributed to the thesis by explaining an overview of dust storms, but also reinforcing the data of the first thesis subtopic, the health impacts. The data from Otani provided significant detail into the statistics of death tolls and the numbers on the amount affected by the pollution. To fight the battle with the pollution, several Asian governments have come together to develop legislation to regulate the air quality, but, in turn, is extremely costly and ineffective according to research by Columbia Society for International Law board member Kexian Ng. This source analyzed the effectiveness of the main transboundary pollution laws by several Asian nations, which contributed to the thesis from stressing the amount of spending and effort some governments are putting in to resolve the issue. Ng showed that the laws developed have not done much from being enacted and focusing on the wrong countries. Additionally, there have been no laws developed to compensate businesses for their losses or damage to property.

This is especially negative to the agricultural industry, which is hit the hardest from the pollution.

Data for this was primarily found from Moon Kim in The Effects of Transboundary Air Pollution 142

from China on Ambient Air Quality in South Korea. This research gave a basic overview of the issue and helped to break down the process of the transboundary pollution while going into specific detail for each impact. Kim also provided a large amount of data for each area researched in this article, which included impacts of each direction of wind speeds, economic impacts for agriculture, and energy production. This source helped to contribute to my third subtopic of impacting the amount of food produced through the trove of agricultural data is provided. The smog and dust transported from nearby countries will either greatly decrease the amount of produce yielded per harvest from burying the plants and dropping acid rain or ultimately kill the plants, with farmers being unable to control or prevent the pollution. Livestock is also hurt from the plants, being susceptible to intake the toxic air resulting in large amounts of cattle and other animals dying. All this loss leads to a decrease in revenue for farmers, which in turn leads to a food shortage, affecting the general population in Asia. From the plethora of effects, one can see how problematic transboundary pollution is. Despite this, some people may argue that they do not feel the effects of the problem, feeling healthy with no respiratory issues and thus willing be ignorant towards the issue. They will argue that the issue is not important because they are not being affected by the pollution. However, these people should be conscious of the issue because it may not be a large issue now, but if it is exacerbated it could spread throughout the world at a much more rapid pace in the future. Developing stricter measures and cooperating with the public will help more people to realize the significance of the problem along with the future impacts. Further action such as more legislation and environmental organizations being developed will help reduce the severity of impacts on the people of Asia. Gradually, more policies will cost more money to develop and enforce, but they will ultimately improve the environmental condition of Asia, helping to make the region a safer, more viable place.

WORKS CITED Abas, Saleem, et al. “Cooperative Control of Regional Transboundary Air Pollutants.”

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Cheong, Kang, et al. “Acute Health Impacts of the Southeast Asian Transboundary Haze Problem-A Review.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 16, no. 18, September 2019. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/18/3286.

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Jeong, Dai-Yuen and Wouter M. de Jong. “Socio-Economic Costs from Yellow Dust Damages in South Korea.” 2008. Accessed 6 April 2020.

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Kim, Moon Joon. “The Effects of Transboundary Air Pollution from China on Ambient Air Quality in South Korea.” Heliyon, vol. 5, no. 12. December 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02953. Accessed 6 April 2020.

Lin, Yuan, et al. “Singapore’s Willingness to Pay for Mitigation of Transboundary Forest Haze from Indonesia Singapore’s Willingness to Pay for Mitigation Transboundary Forest-Fire Haze from Indonesia.” Environmental Research Letters, vol. 19, no. 20, 2017. Accessed 7 April 2020.

Ng, Kexian. “Transboundary Haze Pollution in Southeast Asia: The Effectiveness of Three Forms of International Legal Solutions.” Journal of East Asia and International Law: vol. 10, no. 2, November 2017. http://journal.yiil.org/home/archives_v10n2. Accessed 18 March 2020.

Otani, Shinji, et al. “Dust Storms from Degraded Drylands of Asia: Dynamics and Health Impacts.” Arid Land Systems: Sciences and Societies, vol. 6, no. 83, November 2017. https://doi.org/10.3390/land6040083. Accessed 6 April 2020.

Shah, Jitendra. “Integrated Analysis for Acid Rain in Asia: Policy Implications and Results of RAINS-ASIA Model.” Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, vol. 25, November 2000, pp. 339-375. https://doi.org/10.1146/. Accessed 6 April 2020.

Sitler, Ryan. “Providing an Alternative to Slash and Burn Agriculture.” Post Carbon Institute, 21 October 2013, https://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-10-21/providing-an-alternative-toslash-and-burn-agriculture/. Accessed 4 April 2020.

Sivakumar, Mannavana. “Impacts of Sand and Dust Storms on Agriculture and Potential Agricultural Applications of a SDSWS.” IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science, vol. 7, 2009. http://iopscience.iop.org/1755-1315/7/1/012016.

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Stief, Colin. “Slash and Burn Agriculture Explained.” ThoughtCo, 12 August 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/slash-and-burn-agriculture-p2-1435798. Accessed 4 April 2020.

Wijedasa, Lahiru, et al. “The Need for Long Term Remedies For Indonesia’s Forest Fires.”

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1, pp. 5-6. Accessed 8 April 2020.

Yim, Steve, et al. “Air Quality and Acid Deposition Impacts of Local Emissions and Transboundary Air Pollution in Japan and South Korea.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, vol. 19, no. 20, 2019. https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/19/13309/2019/.

Accessed 5 April 2020.

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Should Greenwashing be Regulated by the Government?

By Chun-Ling Wu In today’s society, we increasingly see the use of the word organic or eco-friendly, but how much of it can we trust? Jeff Gelski, an associate editor of Food Business News, published an article showing that in 2018 alone consumers in the United States had spent $128.5 billion on sustainable consumer goods. 86% of millennials between ages 21 to 34 said that “they would pay more for products with organic/natural ingredients, and 80% said they would pay more for products with social responsibility claims” (Gelski). These statistics show an increasing trend of consumers willing to purchase products that are eco-friendly, even if it means it would cost them more as well as a growing green market. Nick Feinstein, a lawyer, published an academic article in the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review in 2013 called “Learning from Past Mistakes: Future Regulation to Prevent Greenwashing.” In the article, he talked about “A 2010 study conducted by TerraChoice, a private environmental marketing firm, found that over 95% of the green products analyzed were guilty of some form of greenwashing” (Feinstein 233). The term greenwashing refers to a broad range of practices that includes “false assertions and claims that exaggerate, misdirect, or mislead consumers as to the environmental qualities of a product” (Feinstein 233).

Greenwashing has become a persistent problem due to the growing green market and the lack of government regulation to prevent it. Greenwashing drew the attention of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and lawmakers; in the past, however, even until today, Congress has failed to authorize any federal regulations for green marketing (Feinstein 231). To this day, with the lack of federal regulation, it is currently up to consumers to educate themselves and be informed about the products they purchase, which can be difficult with the lack of transparency with companies.

However, given our limited resources greenwashing should be regulated by the government instead of leaving it up to companies to have the social responsibility to end greenwashing.

The start of greenwashing is rather a new phenomenon, it all started in the 1980’s, when there was an increase in media attention on environmental issues which increased environmental awareness among Americans. A survey conducted in the early 1990’s revealed “a large majority of Americans worried about the environment and were willing to alter their purchasing behaviors to benefit environmental quality” (Feinstein 231). Americans believed instead of relying on government regulations they could help the environment through their own actions. The heightened public attention to the environment starting in the late 1980’s created a consumer trend that demanded environmentally friendly products. Green consumerism transformed the market overnight and became a mainstream industry. The business community responded to this new trend with environmental marketing in their product development and advertising campaigns (Feinstein 230).

As an exponentially growing market, many claims that are false, misleading, and unsubstantiated are still unregulated. Wahida Shahan Tinne, a senior lecturer in the Department of Business Administration at ASA University Bangladesh, published an academic article in the ASA University Review titled “Green Washing: An Alarming Issue.” In the article she discussed the need to raise awareness against greenwashing and the magnitude of the phenomenon. “In 1990s, a study published in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing found that 58% of environmental ads had at least one deceptive claim” (Tinne 83). This shows the magnitude of greenwashing and that since the 1990s it has already been practiced. An example of a greenwashing ad is the tv commercial produced by Fiji water called Nature’s Gift.

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The commercial depicts Fiji’s scenery in the shape of their water bottle while having the background as a cityscape that is dark and morbid. The contrast in the color shows Fiji as a perfect world untouched by man with the use of bright beautiful nature shots. It sends the message of Fiji as a part of nature. This, however, contradicts their practices; Fiji bottles their water using nonrenewable plastic and ships them all over the world, which offsets a high amount of carbon emission. With that being said, they have also overlooked the living conditions of the local Fijians with “47% of Fijians that don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water” (YouTube). This commercial is a perfect example of a commercial that depicts only a one-sided story that has successfully implemented greenwashing.

With the lack of government regulation, the FTC took things into their own hands and laid out guidelines for green marketing called “F.T.C.’s Green Guides,” which were first issued in 1992.

“Since the rise of greenwashing, organizations like Terrachoice, Greenpeace, and the Center of Environmental Health have been monitoring the issue and brought it to the public’s attention” (Feinstein 234). Due to the lack of regulations, organizations take it upon themselves to shine light on companies and products that are greenwashing. Although these organizations have been exposing high-profile companies, their products are still on the shelves of stores all over America.

In 2007 Terrachoice, an American environmental marketing agency devised the seven sins of greenwashing (Tinne 85). The seven sins consist of: sin of the hidden trade-off, sin of no proof, sin of vagueness, sin of worshipping false labels, sin of irrelevance, sin of lesser of two evils, sin of fibbing. The sin of the hidden trade-off: “a claim suggesting that a product is green based on a narrow set of attributes without attention to other important environmental issues” (Tinne 85). Sin of no proof is “an environmental claim that cannot be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information or by reliable third-party certification” (Tinne 85). Sin of vagueness is “a claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer” (Tinne 85). Sin of worshipping false labels is “a product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement exists” (Tinne 85).

Sin of irrelevance is “an environmental claim that may be truthful but is unimportant for consumers seeking environmentally preferable products” (Tinne 86). Sin of lesser of two evils is “a claim that may be true within the product category, but that risks distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole” (Tinne 86). Sin of fibbing is “an environmental claim that is simply false” (Tinne 86). It was very creative to use the seven sins that mimic the seven deadly sins. It gives readers the idea that these are similar to vices and similar to committing a crime. There are also the Lanham Act and the FTC Act that try to provide the means to eliminate greenwashing. The Lanham Act “provides a mean for companies to police on another with regard to greenwashing, consumers generally cannot bring their own false advertising claims under the Lanham Act. For the most part, only parties with commercial or competitive interests have standing under the act, and thus consumers are excluded” (Feinstein 240).

This allows companies who are trying to compete against each other to police one another in the hopes of eliminating competition; however, this doesn’t protect the consumers overall. The FTC Act, on the other hand, has the capability of protecting consumers; however, it is hard for them to prove the connection between a deceptive advertiser to the likelihood that a consumer would be misled, therefore this act acts as a watchdog over consumers interests because they do have the authority to take action. There are organizations and acts already implemented that try to prevent

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greenwashing; however, with the lack of authority and evidence, they merely make a dent in the greenwashing problem. They lack specificity and enforceability.

To put an end to greenwashing, there are multiple variables that need to be considered. There should be a department in the government made just to handle these cases and are able to deal with the magnitude of these cases. They should also hold the power to punish and fine those who do not comply with the laws and regulations. This department should also be in charge of overseeing how environmentally friendly the company really is. They can evaluate the companies by measuring sustainability performance.

A guideline should be provided for companies when they are making environmental marketing claims. Laws and regulations should be implemented at the federal government level to monitor the companies and punish those who are misleading. When making environmental marketing claims, they should be presented in a manner that is clear and can avoid consumer deception. The usage of environmentally friendly images, such as the FIJI water commercial, should be prohibited because companies should present an environmental marketing claim in a way that makes clear what part of the product is attributing to the environment, whether it is the product, product packaging, service, or a component of the product. All companies should be held accountable for their actions, and they should be revealed to the public instead of dealing with it under the table or in private. The general public should have the right to know about companies and their actions instead of being kept in the dark; that way they can use that to make purchasing decisions. The federal government should be the ones to implement and regulate the laws because, if the local government were to handle it, it could be handled differently depending on the different states.

That could lead to chaos which could ultimately lose the effectiveness of the goal.

There is also another perspective of leaving greenwashing up to companies to handle and let them meet the corporate social responsibility standard. Miriam A. Cherry, a professor at Saint Louis University School of Law, wrote an academic article “Beyond Profit: Rethinking Corporate Social Responsibility and Greenwashing After the BP Oil Disaster.” In the article, she talks about a BP oil spill that led people to rethink corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means “managing a business with equal regard for financial performance, environmental consequences, and social impact” (Cheery 1010). This means that on top of making money companies should also consider the environmental and social impact. Cherry goes into detail about the different levels of CSR, there are a total of six. First, “the focus is on profits to the exclusion of all other considerations and the firm may even deliberately violate laws in order to maximize corporate profits” (Cherry 1011). Second, slightly more socially responsible than the first type, complies with applicable laws and engages in small amounts of corporate philanthropy. Third, views CSR as a public relations matter, “moves beyond bare compliance but only does so where it would be profitable” (Cheery 1011). Fourth, “routinely balances economic, social and environmental considerations and does so not in order to comply with applicable laws or to make a profit” (Cherry 1012). Fifth, “integrate social responsibility principles into their strategy and business processes” (Cherry 1012). The last, which is also the highest level of CSR, fully integrates and embeds CSR in every aspect of the organization to contribute to the quality and continuation of life. The article explained the different levels of CSR that companies can be labelled with. The ideal being the last type which is also the highest level of CSR. In terms of greenwashing, the fifth and last type would probably be the level that doesn’t practice greenwashing. However, with that 147

being said, any company not living up to the standard of CSR does not suffer any consequences.

These levels of CSR are just used to reference companies however, they do not serve as a standard for companies to follow. Cherry wrote that hopefully, with the effects of the BP oil spill, there could be a positive change to CSR. The problem with CSR is there is no one making sure companies follow through on their words, which goes back to punishing those companies that do not comply with the laws and regulations.

Greenwashing may not seem like a dire problem that should be resolved immediately; however, it does affect everyone in one way or another. Consumers who spend their money buying a product also buy into the companies’ services. Companies are misleading consumers with their false claims about their products and services, and, as consumers, we are using our hard-earned money to promote their products. Without standards, consumers can’t tell which products and services are truly beneficial to the environment and to us. As consumers, we deserve the right to know how and where our products are made. It is essential that the federal government gets involved in regulating the standards to prevent companies from getting away with greenwashing.

The United States is in need of a reform to prevent greenwashing. The current guidelines, Acts, and corporate social responsibility have not had a large enough impact to put an end to greenwashing. This is when the federal government needs to step in and take control. The government needs to punish those who do not comply with the laws, regulations, and guidelines and ultimately protect consumers from being deceived by companies that spend large sums of money on marketing but do not follow through on their words. These companies have been getting away with it for too long and only paying a small price for their wrongdoings. Even after paying the price, many of the cases aren’t known to the general public because of how it is dealt with, which is usually behind closed doors. With that being said, companies should be as transparent as possible in regard to their products and services as well as their wrongdoings. This way the power is given to consumers to make their own decision about their purchases with the available information. At the end of the day, consumers have the right to know what they’re spending their money on.

WORKS CITED Ahluwalia, Pal, and Toby Miller. “Greenwashing Social Identity.” Social Identities, vol. 20, no.

1, Jan. 2014, pp. 1–4. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/13504630.2013.878983.

Butler, A., 2020. Council Post: Do Customers Really Care About Your Environmental Impact? [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesnycouncil/2018/11/21/do-customers-really-careabout-your-environmental-impact/#4cde09cd240d> [Accessed 5 April 2020].

Cherry, Miriam A., and Judd F. Sneirson. “Beyond Profit: Rethinking Corporate Social Responsibility and Greenwashing After the BP Oil Disaster.” Tulane Law Review, vol.

85, no. 4, Mar. 2011, pp. 983–1038. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=60166640&site=ehostlive&scope=site.

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Cho, Yoon‐Na, et al. “Enhancing Environmentally Conscious Consumption through Standardized Sustainability Information.” Journal of Consumer Affairs, vol. 52, no. 2, July 2018, pp. 393–414. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/joca.12172.

Dahl, Richard. "Green washing: do you know what you're buying?" Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 118, no. 6, 2010, p. A246+. Gale in Context: Environmental Studies, https://link-galecom.hpu.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A229861064/GRNR?u=hono53192&sid=GRNR&xid=3 abc660f. Accessed 7 Apr. 2020.

Datta, Pratim, and Erica Nicholl Diffee. "Measuring Sustainability Performance: A Green Supply Chain Index." Transportation Journal, vol. 59, no. 1, 2020, p. 73+. Gale In Context: Environmental Studies, https://link-galecom.hpu.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A616047346/GRNR?u=hono53192&sid=GRNR&xid=d 70f99e2. Accessed 7 Apr. 2020.

Delmas, M. and Burbano, V., 2011. The Drivers of Greenwashing. California Management Review, 54(1), pp.64-87.

Ekstrand, Susie Stærk, and Kristine Lilholt Nilsson. “Greenwashing?” European Food & Feed Law Review, vol. 6, no. 3, June 2011, pp. 167–173. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=61892614&site=ehostlive&scope=site.

Feinstein, Nick. “Learning from Past Mistakes: Future Regulation to Prevent Greenwashing.” Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, vol. 40, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 229–257. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=86276806&site=ehostlive&scope=site.

Gelski, J., 2020. Sustainable Product Market Could Hit $150 Billion In U.S. By 2021. [online] Foodbusinessnews.net. Available at: <https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/13133sustainable-product-market-could-hit-150-billion-in-us-by-2021> [Accessed 5 April 2020].

Lemke, Fred, and João Pedro Pereira Luzio. “Exploring Green Consumers’ Mind-Set toward Green Product Design and Life Cycle Assessment.” Journal of Industrial Ecology, vol.

18, no. 5, Oct. 2014, pp. 619–630. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/jiec.12123.

Meisner, Mark. "Blinded by ecoporn: pretty nature pictures stimulate desire, but misrepresent reality." Alternatives Journal, vol. 36, no. 1, 2010, p. 7. Gale In Context: Environmental Studies, https://link-galecom.hpu.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A216697832/GRNR?u=hono53192&sid=GRNR&xid=9 5265dba. Accessed 7 Apr. 2020.

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Northen, Greg. “Greenwashing the Organic Label: Abusive Green Marketing in an Increasingly Eco-Friendly Marketplace.” Journal of Food Law & Policy, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 2011, pp. 101–134. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=112542666&site=ehostlive&scope=site. Özsoy, Tufan, and Aviclar, Mutlu. “An Investigation of the Effects of Consumers’ Environmental Attitudes on Perceptions of Green Ads and Attitudes toward the Brand.” Journal of Academic Research in Economics, vol. 8, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp. 7– 37. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=120316183&site=ehostlive&scope=site.

Tinne, Wahida Shahan. “Green Washing: An Alarming Issue.” ASA University Review, vol. 7, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 81–88. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=116350613&site=ehostlive&scope=site.

Clair, Patrick, director. FIJI Water TV Commercial: Nature's Gift. FIJI Water TV Commercial: Nature's Gift, Fiji, 10 Feb. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeF134YMoS0.

“Greenwashing: A Fiji Water Story.” Greenwashing: A Fiji Water Story, Our Changing Climate, 28 July 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOpa8kd6fBI.

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Saving the Manta Rays from Illegal Fishing

By Troy Oshimo As Alyssa grew up on Nusa Penida island in Indonesia, she remembered being able to go to the ocean during the day to swim with manta rays. However, over the next decade Alyssa had progressively noticed that she had a hard time finding manta rays when she would go swimming.

Some days Alyssa could not find a single manta ray. One evening Alyssa watched a documentary called Racing Extinction by Louie Psihoyos, who is a director and photographer. Louie Psihoyos strives to bring awareness towards underwater life. This documentary was sent to Alyssa from her friend Stacy via email. Racing Extinction showed horrific video of manta rays that were being hunted by men who used spears to jump onto the rays, then striking them in the head; they followed the manta ray until it had bled out. This was happening all across Indonesia with little to no government enforcement on poachers’ actions. Alyssa fears that, if the world does not take action, manta rays will become extinct within the next decade.

Manta rays are beautiful majestic creatures that are now being illegally fished from our oceans. In the article “Global Population Trends and Human Use Patterns of Manta and Mobula Rays” by Christine A. Ward-Paige, who worked in the biology department at Dalhousie University, WardPaige, now the CEO/ lead scientist of eOceans, which is an ocean science collaborative platform for marine scientists, stated, “Of the regions surveyed by divers, almost half (47%) report declining mobula sightings over the last decade” (Ward-Paige 1). Leading to the question: why are manta ray populations declining and what we can do to stop them from becoming extinct? Manta rays are the world’s largest ray, with a wingspan of 29 feet. They are slow-growing, migratory animals with small, highly fragmented populations that are sparsely distributed across the world. Illegal fishing has endangered creatures such as the manta ray because of the black-market trading of gills, lack of government enforcement, and poor economies in third world countries. Illegal fishing has caused manta rays to decline in population, but how can the manta ray species be saved as they are continued to be illegally fished and consumed?

Illegal fishing is hard to end entirely. Illegal fishing economically supports poor people, mainly in third world countries such as Indonesia. There are many illegal fishermen; this makes it already hard and expensive to contain the problem. In “Plenty More Fish in the Sea” by World Ocean Review, which is a large research journal from forty scientists about the marine life and current state of the world’s oceans, it states, “Combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing at sea is generally extremely expensive and very complex” (73). Illegal fishing has caused creatures such as the manta ray to decline in population. Currently, manta rays are being threatened by commercial fishing and illegal fishing, mainly in parts of Indonesia. Asian black-market sellers and manta ray fishermen believe that it is acceptable to continue hunting these creatures. Manta rays are valued for their gills, which are then traded internationally through Asia’s black markets for a large margin of profit for both fishermen and sellers.

One of the major problems that is affecting the manta ray population decline is the illegal black markets in Asia. These black markets are similar to wet markets in China except that the products are hidden in back rooms, requiring credentials to even look at them. In the documentary Racing Extinction, Louie Psihoyos and his crew used disguises and fake IDs as foreign restaurant owners in order to gain access into a black-market dealer’s shop. In the back room there were all different 151

kinds of illegal marine animals, including manta ray gills. The main consumers of manta ray gills are regular people who want to eat them for “health benefits.” According to “Plenty More Fish in the Sea,” “Some experts put the annual figure at around 11 million tonnes; others suggest that it may be as high as 26 million tonnes – equal to 14 or 33 per cent respectively of the world’s total legal catch (fish and other marine fauna) in 2011” (70). They then trade this marine life through Asia’s black market.

Data is hard to find due to the lack of traced evidence such as purchases in the black market.

According to the article “Diagnosing the dangerous demography of manta rays using life history theory” written by Nicholas K. Dulvy, who is a professor at Simon Fraser University teaching marine biodiversity & conservation, Manta and devil rays are captured for their gill plates and a single mature animal can yield up to 7 kg of gill rakers which can be worth as much as $680 per kg in Chinese markets.

Much of the international trade goes to southern China, and to Chinese communities in other countries. For example, one of the authors has seen devil ray gill plates for sale for $396.80 per kg (under the incorrect taxonomic name Dasyatis centroura) in Vancouver, in 2013. (Dulvy 2) These numbers are evidence on why the black-market trade of manta rays is only growing increasingly popular. Additionally, tax is non-existent in these black markets. Illegal fishermen that supply the manta ray gills are the only ones being paid by the black-market distributors.

Liabilities and debt are other things that are non-existent in the realm of black markets. This entices black markets to sell manta ray products, as there is high demand along with a large margin of profit.

In addition to the decline in manta ray populations, third world countries play a huge role due to their poor economies. In the article “Sympathy for the devil: a conservation strategy for devil and manta rays” by Julia M. Lawson, who is currently a Ph.D. student studying fisheries and environmental policy at the Bren School University California Santa Barbara, Lawson reports, “Mobulids are filter-feeding planktivores and piscivores that range widely in tropical and warmtemperate waters” (Lawson 3). Countries such as Indonesia and Philippines, which are located in tropical waters, have the largest manta ray fishing populations. In countries like Indonesia manta rays have been primarily used as a source of meat, at least until locals figured out the black-market value of the gills. Now manta rays are being heavily over fished due to the low salary provided by regular jobs in Indonesia. As an alternative manta ray fishing has become increasingly popular among locals as it provides a good income for them. Manta rays are being increasingly over-fished such that most manta rays are fished for the gills and the meat is discarded.

Manta ray meat is a popular alternative to other meats such as beef and pig as it takes too much money to grow the animals. Also, there is not a lot of profit to be made by mammal meat due to the poor economy. According to Lawson, Mobula meat is used in traditional dishes as a cheap source of protein in Southeast Asia, and in South and Central America. In some countries, such as the Philippines, devil and

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manta rays are targeted both for their meat, which is consumed domestically, and for their gill plates, which are exported internationally. (Lawson 4) This is an example of how poor the economy already is in third world countries, such that they are forced to find alternatives for normal meat. Since locals in third world countries already knew how to fish manta rays, it was easy to fish more in order to provide for the manta ray black market gill trade.

Along with poor economies, the government is to blame for the decreasing manta ray population.

The Indonesian government is allowing this to happen due to not enforcing the law and poor supervision of fishing systems. According to Ward-Paige, as of 2013 “All rays are protected from exploitation in the Republic of the Maldives, Mobula spp. and Manta spp. are protected in Mexico and Ecuador, Manta spp. are protected in Hawai'i, and M. birostris and M. japancia are protected in New Zealand” (Ward-Paige 1). All these countries listed are not third world countries in a state of poor economy. This is concerning due to the fact Indonesia and Philippines are not taking action to better the manta ray situation, being that they are the leading countries in manta ray fishing. It is as if governments are allowing this as a way where they do not have to help support their people using their own money.

However, it may be too late to stop illegal manta ray fishing and the black-market distribution of manta ray gills. “In a comprehensive analysis of IUU fishing worldwide, researchers conclude that IUU fishing is mainly practiced in countries which exhibit typical symptoms of weak governance: large-scale corruption, ambivalent legislation, and a lack of will or capacity to enforce existing national legislation.” (“Plenty More Fish” 72). Indonesia is a poor third world country, which means that locals will do whatever they need to do in order to make a living, and this includes manta ray fishing. In Racing Extinction, the crew follow a few Indonesian manta ray fishermen.

Manta rays are speared and bleed out until dead locals at the village then help dismember the organs and limbs of the manta rays. This is a community job that pays well enough to feed the community. The gills are sent to the black markets in China while the manta ray meat is consumed by the community. Children grow up accustomed to this, therefore they become the next generation of manta ray fishermen. Indonesians have a choice, fish or go hungry; this is why manta ray fishing is popular in Indonesia.

Furthermore, salaries are low in Indonesia, and, having the large income from manta ray fishing, fishermen are able to pay off government fishing advisors similar to drug trafficking. In the effort to fight illegal fishing, “Combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing at the sea is generally extremely expensive and very complex” (“Plenty More Fish” 73). There are also oneto-many loopholes in the system. An example of this is fishing ports set up by the government that are used to check fishing vessels for illegal marine life. There are multiple loopholes to this, for example fishermen pay the inspectors off or fishermen load their catch onto other boats (which do not dock at the ports) while at sea. The fishing system in third world countries such as Indonesia is already very corrupt. Given all the efforts in an attempt to contain illegal fishing, it has done nothing. The manta ray population will continue to decline due to the large scale of the corrupt fishing system in third world countries.

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Personally, I have not seen a manta ray in through my 18 years living in Hawai'i. I have always seen people posting pictures on social media about their personal encounters with these creatures.

This is concerning because many of my local friends have not seen a manta ray or do not know what manta rays are. This shows the lack of awareness and information that is provided to us about manta rays. If more people knew about the declining population of manta rays, then more action will be done by governments across the world in order to protect manta rays. Furthermore, this will lead to the extermination of black-market trade in Asia. China’s black market is the leading distributor of manta ray gills. However, awareness could be so widely spread about these creatures that consumers of manta ray gills will give up their habits of consumption for the greater good.

The more awareness that could be spread about manta rays will lead to black market crackdowns in Asia and concerns to help the regeneration growth of manta rays.

An example of this is when whaling became outlawed by the International Whaling Commission in 1986. Whaling was popular due to whale meat consumption and the whale fat which was used as oil for lamps. Similar to whales, manta rays are currently facing this problem leading to their declining population. Before whaling was outlawed, roughly more than 50,000 whales were fished; this put the blue whale on the endangered species list in 1970. According to “Big Fish: A Brief History of Whaling” by Meghan E. Marrero, who is a professor of secondary science education at Mercy College with extensive knowledge in marine science, “Many species of whale have benefitted from the IWC’s moratorium. Dave Weller, a research biologist at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, says the eastern Pacific gray whale population has recovered” (Marrero 1). Due to the actions taken by the International Whaling Commission, the whale population has recovered since 1986. This shows what happens when enough awareness forces action to be taken. A situation like this is likely to happen to manta rays if more awareness about the illegal fishing of manta rays was shown to the public eye, leading to the illegal blackmarket distribution of manta ray gills being controlled.

Currently, there has been action taken in an attempt to control illegal fishing of manta rays. In 2014 Indonesia announced that they will be creating a 6 million square kilometers of ocean manta ray sanctuary. Knowing that Indonesia is the world’s largest illegal fishing of manta rays, Indonesia is trying to make a statement. In an article “Transforming Indonesia's Manta Fisheries”

by International League of Conservation Photographers, a group of photographers that spread awareness about marine life and animals in an attempt to start conservation efforts, it is stated, A peer-reviewed study led by WildAid, The Manta Trust and Shark Savers estimated that global manta ecotourism generates USD$140 million in annual revenues – USD$15 million per year in Indonesia alone – making the species highly valuable for many Indonesian communities who now rely on ecotourism for their livelihoods. (International League of Conservation Photographers 1) Indonesia is creating this manta ray sanctuary in an attempt to create better job opportunities for the manta ray fishermen. This is one of Indonesia’s only possible options due to geographical disadvantage. Since Indonesia is composed of many small islands, it will be too costly for this third world country to hunt down the fishermen men by boat. Having a large manta ray sanctuary manta rays can now be conserved through tourism. Furthermore, this will end black markets across Asia, stopping illegal fishing of manta rays and increase manta ray populations across the world.

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At the end of Racing Extinction, the crew comes back to Indonesia and sets up a large movie theater on the beach showcasing the footage they took of the locals killing the manta rays. This stunned the locals, as it was depicting the reality of what they were doing to manta rays. As the children watched this, they will remember this, as they had never seen a movie before; this will provide a turning point in the fight to save the manta rays in generations to come as the children now have knowledge that they will remember.

Overall, illegal fishing has endangered creatures such as the manta ray due to the black-market trading of gills. According to Dulvy, “Manta and devil rays are captured for their gill plates and a single mature animal can yield up to 7 kg of gill rakers (sic) which can be worth as much as $680 per kg in Chinese markets” (2), which gives a reason to why people in poor countries turn to manta ray fishing as it provides for their families. Lack of government enforcement is to blame as well since third world countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines do not have manta rays on their protected species list when they are one of the most trafficked marine creatures along with sharks, which are also sold to the Chinese black markets. Poor economies in third world countries are also to blame due to lack of salary wages. Locals in third world countries turn to manta ray fishing as a way to eat and bring in money. According to Lawson, “Mobula meat is used in traditional dishes as a cheap source of protein in Southeast Asia, and in South and Central America” (4). The state of the economies is already very poor, with many having to eat manta ray meat as an alternative to beef.

However, is it too late to stop illegal manta ray fishing and the black-market distribution of manta ray gills? Some may agree with this due to the lack of action taken by government authority, poor economy, and corrupt fishing regulation and enforcement. This is mainly happening in the country Indonesia where, due to the geological structure, it is hard to oversee fishing. A turning point to this grim situation is that in 2014 Indonesia announced that they will be creating 6 million square kilometers of ocean to use for manta ray sanctuary. Manta ray tourism is estimated at fifteen million USD in Indonesia before this sanctuary (International League of Conservation Photographers 1). With this new sanctuary, manta ray fishermen will turn to jobs in tourism as an alternative to fishing as it will pay more, which still leaves the question: illegal fishing has caused manta rays to decline in population, but how can the manta ray species be saved as they are still illegally fished and consumed? This all starts with people; the more awareness that can be spread about manta rays, the more that will be done to protect them. Everyone can contribute their part in saving manta rays by simply sharing photos of manta gills or mantas being fished on social media with a caption of what is happening; this will intrigue and eventually educate the public.

Governments will only act upon what most people will rally behind. If the world can rally behind manta rays, this will be a turning point not only in saving manta rays, but also exterminating the black markets in Asia and poachers around the world. If you want to make a difference with manta rays and the black market, start by researching and spreading the knowledge.

WORKS CITED Dulvy NK, Pardo SA, Simpfendorfer CA, Carlson JK. 2014. Diagnosing the dangerous demography of manta rays using life history theory. PeerJ 2: e400 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.400.

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Heinrichs, Shawn. “An oceanic manta ray captured in a targeted Indonesia manta fishery.” National Geographic, September 17, 2014. https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2014/09/17/transforming-indonesias-manta-fisheries/.

International League of Conservation Photographers. “Transforming Indonesia's Manta Fisheries.” National Geographic Society Newsroom, 14 Dec. 2017, blog.nationalgeographic.org/2014/09/17/transforming-indonesias-manta-fisheries/.

Lawson, Julia M., et al. "Sympathy for the devil: a conservation strategy for devil and manta rays." PeerJ, vol. 5, 2017, p. e3027. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link-galecom.hpu.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A543307114/AONE?u=hono53192&sid=AONE&xid=5 a1b79f3. Accessed 1 Apr. 2020.

Marrero, Meghan E.; Thornton, Stuart. “Big Fish: A Brief History of Whaling.” National Geographic Society, 15 Oct. 2012, www.nationalgeographic.org/article/big-fish-historywhaling/.

“Plenty more fish in the sea? Illegal Fishing.” World Ocean Review, maribus gGmbH, pp. 70-77. Hamburg. Accessed 31 March 2020. worldoceanreview.com/en/wor2/fisheries/illegal-fishing/.

“Racing Extinction.” Directed by Louie Psihoyos, performance by Louie Psihoyos & Heather Dawn Rally, Oceanic Preservation Society, 2015. Itunes, https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/racing-extinction/id1061208791.

Society, Wildlife Conservation. “Reducing Manta Ray Mortality in the World's Largest Targeted Manta Fishery.” National Geographic Society Newsroom, 27 July 2018, blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/07/26/reducing-manta-ray-mortality-in-the-worldslargest-targeted-manta-fishery/.

Ward-Paige, Christine A et al. “Global population trends and human use patterns of Manta and Mobula rays.” PloS one vol. 8,9 e74835. 11 Sep. 2013, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074835.

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Wind Turbines: A Threat to Sami Culture

By Sarah Balto Our planet is going through massive changes caused by air pollution. Wind turbines are a clean fuel source converting wind energy to electric energy, and wind farms have become one of the solutions to the problem. However, the best locations for wind turbines are by the coast, at the top of hills, open plains, and gaps in mountains, which in Norway often happens to be the traditional areas of their indigenous people, the Samis. The Samis have been living in these areas for centuries practicing their way of life, specifically reindeer herding. The country has a long history of mistreating the Sami people in an attempt to extinct them, and by supporting the wind turbines they keep threatening their culture. If it comes down to choosing between wind energy and preserving a culture, wind farms should not be considered a solution.

While many people think reindeer herding is a profession, it is actually a lifestyle. Samis have been living off of reindeers for centuries using them for their own survival. This lifestyle is dependent on large areas for their herds that they can use flexibly under different circumstances, especially with the climate change happening, but also because weather and snow conditions vary from year to year. The process of developing wind farms includes building infrastructures, which fragment and make areas unusable. These are areas Sami people use year-round, for grazing, calving, moving, and collection. The untouched areas the government allows to be used for wind farms are the best areas for reindeers, considering the amount of food and little human interaction, especially during calving season when they are the most vulnerable.

Research has shown that reindeer avoid areas with wind turbines. Because of the flat terrain in the areas, the reindeer will see the turbine from far away, making even more land unusable for them (Larsen, 2020 a). These reindeer have migrated the same routes for years, and one cannot just move them, or change their behavior. By observing the behavior and movement of the reindeer over the years, a herder knows his or her herd, and how different factors like wind, geography, and climate affects them. Therefore, the Samis are the only ones that know what is best for the reindeer, and, more importantly, what is not.

In addition to the climate and nature crisis, we all are fighting; the Samis are fighting for their foundation and culture’s survival as well. As official indigenous people of Norway, Samis have laws to protect their rights. One is “Sameloven,” directly translated to “The Sami Law,” a Norwegian law from 1987 “purposely made to create the conditions for the Sami people of Norway, to secure and develop their language, culture and social life” (Skogvang, 2019). Another one is “Reindriftsloven,” directly translated as “Reindeer Husbandry Law,” a Norwegian law from 2007 stating that reindeer husbandry must be preserved as an important basis for Sami culture and society” (Skogvang, 2018). The government is ignoring the laws they made, and their apologies for the history of abuse against the Samis are like it meant nothing. The government agreeing to build wind farms negatively affecting the Sami culture is like reopening old wounds they spent years closing. Even though Sami reindeer herders are offered large compensations, the negative consequences of the wind farms are far greater than money can compensate for.

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The number of wind power opponents is rising as people finally understand the sacrifices their development requires. Locals, organizations, school classes, and even politicians have reacted to all the wind farm plans. Some want to protect nature for its beauty, while reindeer owners want to protect their reindeers’ grazing areas. People are not fighting against green energy, but rather the developers’ choices of location for the farms. No matter the reason, fighting against wind turbines is considered fighting for a good environmental issue (Larsen, 2020 b).

Samis engage in both sustainable food production and protecting untouched areas from encroachment as we fight for a more sustainable world. Reindeers live in the wild as free animals, and the food they eat is all from nature with nothing added to it. Reindeer meat is one of the healthiest one can eat, being one of the leanest meats there is (Øvreberg, 2013). Reindeer meat is as healthy as fish, considering that it contains double the nutrients than other meats (2013). Taking away the untouched grazing areas from these animals will not only destroy the sustainable production of food, most likely it will end the whole reindeer husbandry, ruining a big part of the Sami traditions and culture.

There is no doubt that the climate crisis should be taken seriously, but there are better solutions that do not require choosing between climate and nature. Both are as important, and so is protecting an already threatened culture. There are other ways to produce green energy and at the same time leave nature untouched, preserving the traditional areas of a culture. Can destroying nature truly be sustainable?

REFERENCES Larsen, Dan Robert. “Det blåser opp til storm mot vindkraft”. 16 July 2020. a https://www.nrk.no/sapmi/mobiliserer-alle-krefter-for-stortinget-behandlervindkraftmeldingen1.15089324?fbclid=IwAR1PVC4wtBmhzSHW_eHoXukFVTFoJuDHKCg3BapU0hqQL5jnfiseNNOgvY Larsen, Dan Robert. “Rein og vindturbiner kan ikke sameksistere”. 19 Nov 2020. b https://www.nrk.no/sapmi/ny-forskning-viser-at-rein-og-vindturbiner-ikke-kansameksistere-1.15251145?fbclid=IwAR2K8Oa5U6WrVS7QDZ8emD0RshwII5qjvCwMPD8IXYcdRlcOm6AE1FZ-HQ Skogvang, Sunniva Funderud. “Reindriftsloven”. Store Norske Leksikon. 4 Des 2018. https://snl.no/reindriftsloven Skogvang, Sunniva Funderud. “Sameloven”. Store Norske Leksikon. 10 Sept 2019. https://snl.no/sameloven Øvreberg, Elisabeth. “Reindeer meat is as healthy as fish”. 24 Feb 2013. https://partner.sciencenorway.no/agriculture--fisheries-food-forskningno/reindeer-meatis-as-healthy-as-fish/1382454

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The Food Self-Sufficiency Rate of Japan

by Ema Yamamoto In ancient times, people acquired their food by cultivating the farmland and sowing seeds. But nowadays, we have the option to import food from other countries. The term "food self-sufficiency rate" was created as an indicator to show how much domestic food consumption can be covered by domestic production as food imports became more popular. Simply put, it is a ratio that shows how much of the total food consumed in the country is produced domestically. In some countries, the decline in food self-sufficiency is a problem. For example, Japan's food self-sufficiency rate is 38%, which is low compared to other developed countries like Germany with 95%, and the US with 131% (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, 2019). Why has Japan's food selfsufficiency rate fallen so low? And what is the solution to this problem? It is necessary to take a look at the diversifications of diets and the import of Japan.

The diversification of the Japanese food culture is thought to be the reason for the decline in Japan's food self-sufficiency rate. Originally, the Japanese staple food was rice. However, after World War II, Japan faced a serious food shortage. For the Japanese, who had traditionally eaten rice as their staple food, a stable supply of rice was a major challenge. It was no exaggeration to say that raising the production level of rice was a national problem, especially during the post-war period when food was scarce. In order to solve this problem, the government started to introduce technological innovations such as fertilizers and agricultural machinery in the 1960s (Yamada, 2019). As a result, the government succeeded in greatly increasing the amount of rice production. The American influence on post-war Japan meant the number of Japanese who ate bread as a staple food increased, while the use of rice had decreased.

As the dietary habits diversified in Japan, there was a surplus of rice that had been produced for the Japanese. Therefore, the government instituted a policy called the "rice reduction policy," which banned the establishment of new rice fields. This policy spurred a decline in food selfsufficiency. It made it difficult for farmers to use their own business decisions to produce rice and other crops, and this led to the discouragement of the farmers in terms of continuing their business (Yamada, 2019). So, how do we solve the decline in food self-sufficiency that has been reduced so much? It's about increasing food self-sufficiency. Food self-sufficiency is the food production potential of the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries industry. In order to increase food selfsufficiency, there are things that the government and each of us should do.

Firstly, the government has aimed to increase the rice production since in 2017; the government abolished the policy of reduced rice production from 1970, which was implemented for almost 50 years. This has allowed farmers to focus more on developing new varieties and other things, to produce rice that can be sold abroad, and to increase production if they determine that there is a need for it in the vicinity of large cities and other places (Ministry of Agriculture, 2020).

Next, what should individuals do to contribute to food self-sufficiency? They should choose food that is "in season." Seasonal products are grown when the circumstances are best, so it doesn't require extra effort. Therefore, buying in-season products can help with the consumption of domestic food. The next step is to make use of locally sourced food in our daily diet. Products that are grown close to the place of usage are fresher than imported ones. If each of us chooses local 159

food over imported food, we can promote local production for local consumption more easily.

Last, but not least, we need to reduce the amount of leftover food. Japan imports a large amount of food and throws it away in large quantities. In light of the current situation, reducing the amount of food wasted or leftover food at home will also help to reduce food imports (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 2019).

In conclusion, there is a decline in rice consumption due to the diversification of the Japanese diet and the increase in exports from abroad. Countermeasures include buying domestic products, buying as little imported food as possible, and promoting the production of our own agricultural products. Right now, Japan is working hard to increase its food self-sufficiency rate. The Japanese government has set a goal of raising our food self-sufficiency rate to 45% by the fiscal year 2023.

Japan's agriculture will continue to develop through the efforts of each individual to increase the food self-sufficiency rate (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 2019).

REFERENCES Ministry of Agriculture (2020, August 31). What is the abolition of the reduction in the number of rice fields? Why abolish it now? What's going to change? Retrieved from my navi agriculture: https://agri.mynavi.jp/2018_04_03_23474/#toc-3 Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. (2019). food self-sufficiency rate of Japan.

Retrieved from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries: https://www.maff.go.jp/j/zyukyu/zikyu_ritu/012.html Yamada, Y. (2019, August 27). How has the abolition of the "rice reduction policy" changed rice farming in Japan? Retrieved from SMART AGRT: https://smartagrijp.com/agriculture/247

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Tiny Homes: Space Efficient or an Important Use of Space?

By Mary Rose Russo Concerning the space efficiency of tiny homes, not many people believe tiny homes are space efficient. There are a few misconceptions about tiny homes and how effective they are when it comes to using space efficiently. Tiny homes aren’t always seen as space efficient, due to their small dimensions. Although, most tiny house advocates will argue that tiny houses are space efficient partially because of their size. In order to understand what it means to have a space efficient house, we must first understand the definition of space efficient. To start thinking about space efficiency, we also have to learn about space management and storage management. Space management is also known as space planning. Grant Pierrus, the founder of Pierrus Interior Design Agency and the Interior Style Hunter Blog, provides more information about interior space planning. The award-winning blog, Interior Style Hunter declares that space planning ensures efficient use of all the floor space without wasting any, whilst also defining what the space will be used for (Pierrus). Storage management is similarly used to plan out all of the storage available and what will be stored where. Returning to the topic at hand, it’s easier to understand why space management and storage management are so important for space efficiency inside of tiny homes.

In essence, the most common misunderstandings when it comes to tiny homes and their use of space come from misunderstanding space management and storage management, both of which also contain important knowledge about the overall design of the house, what types of tiny homes there are, and the personal relationship with the home. This important knowledge is often misunderstood or only partially understood, which can make it very hard to envision the ways that tiny homes can help provide a more space efficient community. Another factor that is equally important to defining space efficiency are tips to achieve proper use of a zone. Alexi Marmot Associates (AMA) happens to be a team that researches and designs new ways to produce better use of buildings and space. AMA published an article on their space management project called “Promoting space efficiency in building design,” in which AMA established some possible ways to strengthen your space efficiency. A great deal of people who are looking into designing their homes to be more space-efficient often misunderstand the key things that can help increase that efficiency. For tiny homes, especially, creating a space that is well designed and cost-efficient is very important. Four tips they mention increase space-efficiency are to “Appoint a ‘champion’ for space and cost-in-use, systematically collect and update space information, agree space targets, monitor their attainment and report to senior management, and collect standardized utilization data, including office space utilization” (AMA 13). Basically, their tips are to work as a group and carefully plan out all the costs and what part you are designing first. This is critical to creating a space efficient room, so it’s a perfect study to help learn about planning out your steps. If the design of the tiny house isn’t split up into different sections, it can easily overwhelm the builder, making it harder to create the space you want.

Moreover, now that it’s clear what space efficiency is, it’s valuable to look at how space efficient tiny homes can be. It’s clear that there are very space efficient homes, but there’s not much to reference when looking at tiny homes because the rising popularity of tiny houses is only recent.

Most of the tiny home exposure comes from YouTube videos or from new and upcoming shows.

This makes it hard to find articles with information about tiny homes. Oftentimes, the tv shows or YouTube videos include questions somewhere along the lines of: “Do you feel that you have enough space?” or “Why did you choose to go tiny?” When thinking of tiny homes, a person’s 161

first picture in their mind may be of a hobbit house, Winnie the Pooh’s house, or a small wooden cabin. Personally, it’s one of the first things that comes to mind when visualizing a tiny home.

However, creating these visions is yet another reason people misunderstand how tiny homes can be effective. These visions can create an immense amount of judgment towards the efficiency of tiny homes. The judgement can be pointed and automatically lead you to think that, no matter how interesting tiny homes may seem, they are not efficient enough to live in every day of your life.

Regardless of whether someone believes tiny homes are space efficient or not, it’s important to know general information about tiny homes first. Tiny homes have been surfacing and becoming more of a viable option for housing. To understand tiny homes and the amount of space efficiency they have, it’s useful to first understand the sizing. Measurements for tiny homes differ for many reasons. First of all, there is no official definition of how large or small a tiny home is. Ciara Turner, a professional in law, supports this claim by stating in her article “Designating ‘Tiny House’ Villages” that “The regulatory challenges facing tiny houses are immediately apparent even in defining the term: there is no standardized definition of what makes a house “tiny” but generally, any dwelling smaller than 400 square feet will be considered ‘tiny’” (Turner 3). This is a general observation on the space that tiny homes take up. However, it’s important to note that there are many different typologies and popular measurements that people base the design their houses on. Some typologies state that tiny homes can be as large as 600 sqft. Typologies are classifications that often include measurements and information about what the author believes defines the topic. In this case, tiny house typologies will include the idea of what classifies a home as a tiny home. Due to the large amount of different types of homes out there, it can be difficult to distinguish what counts as a tiny home. For example, an article that was posted in the journal Housing, Theory and Society introduces a possible typology for tiny homes. The article itself is a reflection of the authors’ Heather Shearer and Paul Burton knowledge and experience. Both authors have an abundance of academic research on urban sustainability, housing affordability, water and energy use, and planning, meaning they’re perfectly capable of explaining concepts regarding tiny homes. Their article “Towards a Typology of Tiny Houses” has important knowledge regarding what’s considered a tiny home, sizes of tiny homes, and the reason people choose tiny homes. This is all very helpful in explaining how tiny homes create a sufficient use of space. Space planning and storage planning doesn’t only apply to the inside of the house. They also are used to design the outside of the house. At the moment tiny homes are typically divided into two types: mobile and permanent (non-mobile). Inside of those two categories are more classifications of tiny homes (Shearer and Burton 18). According to a chart they use, mobile tiny homes include the iconic tiny house on a trailer, relocatable tiny homes, i.e. prefab, cabin, kit homes, shipping containers, or fully mobile dwellings, i.e. caravans, boats, buses, tents, tepees (see table 1).

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Source: Shearer, Heather & Paul Burton (2019) “Towards a Typology of Tiny Houses, Housing, Theory and Society”, 36:3, 298-318, DOI: 10.1080/14036096.2018.1487879.

Here are classified mobile tiny homes, but this chart also gives different examples of what tiny homes can be. Not only does this statement mention that tiny homes can be classified as relocatable tiny homes, but it also mentions the specific example of movable tiny homes. The fact that tiny homes can be moved means that they can be placed in more outdoor space-efficient locations.

Rather than only being space efficient on the inside, tiny homes can be space efficient outside as well. There are a few ways the outdoor space can be efficient. One of them is through the ways that the outdoor space can complement the house itself. Camilla McLaughlin, an award-winning writer who specializes in house and home, explains this theory. McLaughlin states that there is usually a side lot outside of houses that is seen as useless. The claim that the side lot is useless is easily cast aside by the fact that it is possible to use the space to unify the house with the yard (McLaughlin 1). It’s fairly common for the side lot to be between a fence and a room. An easy to use the outdoor space efficiently is by including glass in the design. The glass, whether fully transparent or translucent, can provide light that opens up the room it’s connected to, making the room seem larger. Another way that the outside of small homes can be efficiently used is by creating an eco-friendlier home that coexists with the environment. Jenny Pickerill, a Professor of Environmental Geography at The University of Sheffield, wrote an article on the purpose of eco163

homes. Although the article Pickerill wrote isn’t directly about tiny homes, it’s still very helpful information because tiny homes are commonly considered eco-friendly homes. She gives some ways you can identify eco-houses when she states that “The common functions of an eco- house are that a building, across its whole life cycle should: (a) minimize resource use (in materials, in embodied energy, energy requirements, water use); (b) minimize waste (in materials, space, energy, leakage); (c) maximize use of renewable energy (such as solar, wind, water); and (d) maximize use of renewable materials (such as straw, sheep’s wool, wood, earth)” (Pickerill 5).

From that one sentence it’s easy to find similarities between the definition of an eco-house and tiny homes. As for the minimization of resource use and waste, tiny homes certainly fulfill that requirement. One reason people choose to go tiny is due to the minimalist viewpoint where you take what you need and use. Many tiny homeowners maximize their level of renewable energy and reusable materials through solar panels and other things such as extra wood or rainwater (Pickerill 15). Through homemade filter systems owners can filter rainwater to use for showers and boiling water, therefore reducing the amount of packaged water homeowners need to use. The point of eco-homes is to coexist with the environment and use what the earth provides you while also taking care of the earth. Considering this, it’s not difficult to see how tiny homes can be spaceefficient outside. With more and more tiny homes becoming off-grid homes, it can be argued that the space used is more efficient. However, not all eco-friendly tiny homes can have everything you want. Pickerill brings up a drawback to living off-grid when she mentions, “As a result, they have had to make choices about which systems are feasible and which are not, and then adjust their daily practices accordingly” (Pickerill 15). It’s important to decide what you absolutely need in order to live happily in your home, and Pickerill is merely stating the fact that, when living in a complete or somewhat eco-house, you will have to make tough decisions on what you want versus what you need. Ultimately though, the house is space-efficient because you can design it to your needs and wants. For example, if you absolutely need water close to you, to be most space-efficient you can build your home closer to a source and create a water filter. Economically, these types of homes are cost-efficient and space efficient because they use the natural resources provided to them.

In actuality, many people also care about what the inside looks like, making interior design most important when influencing how people may feel about the home. The design is crucial to developing a plan that efficiently uses the space. With a creative mind, it’s possible to lose yourself in all the possibilities, but it is very important to think over how you will design the house. Inside the world of tiny homes, many people design and build their own. Lauren Boeckermann, a professor well-versed in health policy, published a collaborative article called “Dreaming big and living small: examining motivations and satisfaction in tiny house living,” in which she mentions a few reasons why people chose to go tiny and their satisfaction with living tiny. An important part of her article is when she voices the distress of tiny home builders when it comes to designing a space. Boeckermann mentions, “When ‘going tiny,’ builders of tiny houses find the minimum requirements for broad hallways, wide doorways, and rooms constricting, since efficiency is key in making the most of small spaces, especially when trailers are road-limited to dimensions of 8 ft wide, 13.5 tall, and 16–20 ft long” (Boeckermann 3). It’s very common for tiny house builders to be frustrated about this when designing their home. Not to mention, both tiny house advocates and larger house advocates can agree on the fact that it’s difficult to create an efficient layout without it being somewhat cramped. Most especially, it’s hard to create a space efficient layout when you

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only have 8 ft across. Moreover, it is possible to create a space and feel it is exactly what you needed within your demands.

Additionally, space efficiency is both helpful for economically and environmentally friendly homes. People choose to go tiny for many reasons, including to become more environmentally friendly and reduce costs. Tiny homes often have creative and cost-reducing ways to help the house use the room provided effectively. Another reason people go tiny is to follow the minimalist view of only taking what they use and absolutely need. Due to the lack of space in some tiny homes, this helps them cut down the amount of extra stuff and use the space efficiently for what they have.

In Texas State University’s Department of Finance and Economics, a Professor of Business Law discusses some of the difficulties that come with going tiny. Marc McAllister studies spaceefficiency and the legal issues that could occur with improper use of space in the house. He dives into the laws, policies, and regulations that are related to building and living in tiny homes.

McAllister’s article, “Go Tiny or Go Home: How Living Tiny May Inadvertently Reduce Privacy Rights in the Home,” discusses the issue with privacy rights in small homes. Proper use of a tiny space is quite a challenge while trying to match all the legal requirements. Legal requirements include building codes and zoning laws. McAllister points out that the luxury building and tiny home shows on YouTube and television do not show the true legal issues that builders run into along with the construction of the house. Being a professor of business law, McAllister mentions that “Building codes in most municipalities set a minimum size for foundation-built homes, effectively forcing tiny homes to be constructed on trailers, which often places them into the recreational vehicle (RV) category” (McAllister 2). He further refers to the zoning laws that limit where a tiny home can be placed and announces that building tiny homes on wheels can influence the Fourth Amendment, the amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

In a legal sense, tiny homes are not using the space efficiently because there is an abundance of regulations that prevent them from being built or placed in a specific location. In a portable sense, the movable tiny homes can be moved to a new location if need be, meaning their space capability is substantial. Observing this from the minimalist viewpoint, there are a lot of regulations to be aware of, so in a sense it is not always the easiest way to create a home with sufficient space use.

Minimalists typically take only what they need, so, if there was a minimal amount of changes needed to meet the regulations for a space, they’d alter it.

Furthermore, after meeting the legal requirements to consider a tiny home a sufficient use of space, there’s more to think about when designing the inside of the home to be efficient for your needs.

For example, there was a point where tiny homes were introduced as a possible solution to homelessness. To this day, tiny house villages are still talked about when it comes to creating housing. Similar to the building and design of the tiny homes, these tiny home villages have to meet the zoning requirements in order to be taken seriously. As mentioned before, there are legal requirements and laws that tiny homes on wheels must meet. Ciara Turner also discusses the legal regulations for tiny house villages.

She reports that “In addition to local restrictions on minimum footprint, tiny houses built on permanent foundations face strict regulation by other state and local zoning, building, and housing codes” (Turner 5). Local restrictions on the minimum footprint relate to the footprint the tiny house covers. Each state will have a different set of restrictions, however most of the restrictions are pretty standard. States have a different level of limitations. For example, Turner mentions that 165

Oregon is an example of a tiny house friendly state, while Michigan is a more restrictive state. The tiny house villages need to meet the requirements of the building codes as well as the state’s personal laws about zoning and land use. Tiny home villages are very space efficient, but depending on the state, the ways they are efficient might be prohibited. In particular Michigan is a pretty strict state that won’t allow the villages to be more space-efficient by sharing a common kitchen with the rest of the community (Turner 6). Sharing a common kitchen is a very efficient way of sharing and getting the most out of the area. By sharing a space and reducing the amount of resources the whole community uses, this is actually a very practical way to use the space. In regard to whether facilities can be shared at transitional campgrounds, Turner divulges that there was a law passed in 1999 in Oregon that addresses the issue for a couple states. Oregon passed a law that allows localities to gain control over the campground for transitional housing purposes.

This gives the community access to live in the tiny house village and have access to the shared resources (Turner 18). However, this law was passed before tiny house villages came into the picture, so the tiny house villages aren’t officially included in it. The law explains everything that a tiny house village would provide, making tiny house villages a sufficient use of space.

Regarding the belief that tiny homes are a space sufficient product, not everyone agrees that they are. While there are many strong tiny house advocates out there, there are also people who don’t believe that the home is practical, appealing, or space efficient. Modular homes, homes that are shipped in pieces and built on the site, are sometimes considered tiny homes. Missouri State University educator Krista Evans is a part of MSU’s Department of Geography, Geology and Planning. She introduces an opinion many people have about modular and tiny homes. In her article “Exploring the relationship between visual preferences for tiny and small houses and land use policy in the southeastern United States” she expresses that, “Many have argued that they are visually unappealing and feel that they bring issues associated with poverty, such as increased crime and decreased property values, with them” (Evans 2). Likewise, if the homes are allowed into the community, they need to fulfill the land use policy requirements of a certain square footage per lot and will most likely be placed in an isolated unwanted area. It’s further explained that small homes are not as highly desired by most because most people believe living with a small housing arrangement is not liberating and has undesirable living conditions that include overcrowding and safety concerns (Evans 2). That directly relates to the problem of tiny house safety policies. The safety inside of the house is all dependent on how the space is used and where there is storage. The interior design is very important to how the space is used effectively, practically, and efficiently.

Overall, it can be said that tiny homes are conceivably space efficient if the designers and builders contemplate all the possible ways to create the space. By paying close attention to the design of the exterior and interior of a tiny home, you can create quite the space efficient and practical home.

However, if someone were to misunderstand the design or laws regarding tiny homes, it could negatively impact the view that tiny homes are space efficient. As previously mentioned by Alex Marmot Associates (AMA) in their space management project, “Promoting space efficiency in building design,” it’s essential to think about storage management and space management when looking into designing a space efficient area. AMA provided the necessary tips to creating a plan and following it piece-by-piece to build an efficient space. Another important and helpful source of knowledge regarding tiny homes and the legal requirements was Heather Shearer and Paul Burton’s article, “Towards a Typology of Tiny Houses, Housing, Theory and Society.” The urgency of creating a design that follows the law and building codes of tiny homes is what needs 166

to come first when building the home. When it comes to the legal requirements of tiny homes, it’s often misunderstood how many need to be fulfilled in order for it to be a legal dwelling or home.

Another misconception is that a tiny home can’t be seen as part of the community. Ciara Turner addresses this misunderstanding head-on and explains that a space essential area can create a community and eco-friendly space, such as the tiny house villages that are spread out around the United States. Many significant portions of how a tiny home is designed will define whether that tiny home is what one believes is space efficient. By tailoring the house to one’s wants and needs, it’s possible to find the definition of space efficient for that person. It could be a completely different definition for someone else. With tiny homes and the considerable amount of laws and regulations that have be fulfilled, it’s often misunderstood and hard to believe that creating an effective and structured space could be possible. Nonetheless, by pushing through and following a carefully planned out procedure, it’s possible for a tiny home to be a logical and coherent use of space.

WORKS CITED Alexi Marmot Associates (2006). “Promoting space efficiency in building design.” UK Higher Education Space Management project. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.32842.57285.

Boeckermann, Lauren Michelle. "Dreaming Big and Living Small: Examining Motivations and Satisfaction in Tiny House Living" (2017), J Hous and the Built Environ (2019) 34:61– 71, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-018-9616-3.

Evans, Krista. “Exploring the Relationship Between Visual Preferences for Tiny and Small Houses and Land Use Policy in the Southeastern United States.” Land Use Policy 81 (2019): 209–218. Crossref. Web. McAllister, Marc Chase. “Go Tiny or Go Home: How Living Tiny May Inadvertently Reduce Privacy Rights in the Home” (December 2, 2017). South Carolina Law Review, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3081582 McLaughlin, Camilla. “Efficiency Is Best: Building Homes that Utilize the Most of Each Space” (2019). NewHomeSource. https://www.newhomesource.com/learn/building-homes-that-maximize-space/.

Pickerill, Jenny. “Eco-Homes for All: Why the Socio-Cultural Matters in Encouraging EcoBuilding.” Self-Build Homes: Social Discourse, Experiences and Directions, edited by Michaela Benson and Iqbal Hamiduddin, UCL Press, London, 2017, pp. 56–78, DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt1xhr521.10 Pierrus Grant, “What is space planning and how to create a space plan.” Interior Style Hunter. https://interiorstylehunter.com/what-is-space-planning-and-how-to-create-a-space-plan/.

Accessed 6 April 2020.

Shearer, Heather & Paul Burton (2019) “Towards a Typology of Tiny Houses, Housing, Theory and Society”, 36:3, 298-318, DOI: 10.1080/14036096.2018.1487879.

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Turner, Ciara. “It Takes a Village: Designating "Tiny House" Villages as Transitional Housing Campgrounds.” 50 U. MICH. J. L. REFORM 931 (2017).

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Deadly Gas

By Simen I. Dahl Science is a broad term, as one definition simply states that it is "the state of knowing,” or “knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding” (Merriam-Webster). Although this definition underlines the importance of knowledge in science, it does not tell us anything about the value of knowledge from different areas. This is why scientists sometimes study areas that to others might seem pointless and useless. One area of study is herring farts, which might have averted a conflict between Sweden and Russia.

In 1996, a Sweden-based team of researchers, led by professor Magnus Wahlberg from the University of Southern Denmark, started to research a mysterious sound that was picked up by their equipment. The sound was described to be similar to “someone frying bacon” (Sinelschikova, 2017), and, to the teams’ surprise, they eventually found out that it was caused by shoals of herring.

The discovery came when the research team went to the store and bought a Baltic herring, then the researchers held the fish underwater while squeezing its body. What they heard next was as being a “beautiful concert” (Sinelschikova, 2017), and was confirmed as the source of the mysterious sound.

Although herring farts seem like an odd thing to research, scientist Robert Batty and his colleges from the Scottish Association for Marine Science discovered the sound later on while monitoring captive herring. According to their research, the fish store air from the surface within their swim bladder, which they release from an opening in their anal cavity. They never seem to make the sounds during the day when they can see each other, but it could be heard when the fish were subjected to darkness. According to the team of scientists, “[W]e heard these rasping noises at night. They sounded like high-pitched raspberries” (Pilcher, 2004). Batty speculated that the passing of gas is a way to communicate in the dark, where the fish at the front of the shoal farts to direct everyone in a certain direction and stay together. This can in turn help them to avoid predators.

Scientists have been aware of and can monitor the sound of different animals’ bowel movements for quite a while now, like whales and seals, but no one had ever thought about monitoring herring farts. As Wahlberg put it, “[N]o one had suspected the herring was capable of passing gas at such volume” (Sinelschikova, 2017). It all makes sense, however, when you take into account just how big a shoal of herring can be. They are known to form so-called “mega-shoals,” which can consist of “hundreds of millions of fish, covering dozens of square kilometers” (Callaway, 2009). A hundred million of anything should be able to produce a substantial amount of sound. Combine this information with the fact that the sound the herrings make is distinct from any other large sounds in the ocean, and you can suddenly understand how this little fish’s bowl movements could be picked up and be misunderstood by someone who did not have this knowledge. That is just what happened to the Swedish army.

In 1981, after an error of judgment, a Soviet submarine managed to beach itself on the rocks of Swedish soil. Although the Soviet Union apologized for the incident, it did not leave a good taste in the mouth of Sweden and caused “a paranoid and obsessive fear of Soviet submarines entering its waters” (Sinelschikova, 2017). This also made the Swedish military step up the surveillance of 169

their waters. One of the methods used was listening to underwater sounds that could be a sign of foreign military activity, and, to the Swedes, their efforts seemed to pay off as their equipment now started picking up mysterious sounds that were unlike anything they had heard before. Could this be a sign of unauthorized underwater activity in their waters?

At the time, the Swedish military took the reports of this unidentified sound quite seriously. In 1982, for one whole month, the military used boats, helicopters, and even their submarines to track down the source of the strange sound that regularly appeared on their feed. However, the reports did not cease, but continued for several years, even though the Soviet Union denied having any involvement in the matter. Eventually, the Swede's patience ran out. In 1994, “Carl Bildt, the Swedish prime minister at the time, sent then Russian President Boris Yeltsin an indignant note, reproaching him for having poor control over the navy” (Sinelschikova, 2017). This note underlines the tension that had built up between the two nations.

(Fig. 1) Back in 1996 Magnus Wahlberg, who in all reality was hired by the Swedish military to research the sound, finally discovered the origin of the sound that had haunted Sweden. To the military’s relief, or perhaps to their embarrassment, it was now apparent that they had been using a lot of time, money, and resources chasing herring farts for the last 15 years, not to mention that this whole ordeal caused a great amount of tension to build between them and the Soviet Union, now known as Russia. Later on, a report came out showing the number of submarine reports through time within the Swedish military. Magnus Wahlberg used this report in his Ted talk, shown in Fig 1, where yellow represents the number of previous submarine reports now confirmed to be caused by herrings. As Magnus Wahlberg put it himself, “[A]fter we squeezed the herring in 1996, there have been no hostile activities at all in Swedish waters ever since of any kind” (Wahlberg, 2012).

This whole situation highlights how a lack of knowledge surrounding something as seemingly trivial as fish farts almost caused a disaster. Just like a textbook example of the butterfly effect, it 170

started with the fart of a fish, snowballed into a big scale hunt for Russian submarines, and could have ended very differently if it was not for Wahlberg and his team’s research. It is, however, quite ironic that a shoal of herring is called an “army,” as it was just what the Swedish military was expecting.

REFERENCES Callaway, E. (2009, March 26). Fish mega-shoals could be the world's biggest animal group.

Retrieved from https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16850-fish-mega-shoals-couldbe-worlds-biggest-animal-group/ How Herring Farts almost Lead to a Diplomatic Crisis: Magnus Wahlberg at TEDxGöteborg.

(2012). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ1Jr6QqSlE&feature =youtu.be Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Activist. Retrieved from https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/activist Pilcher, H. (2004, October 1). Flatulent fish net Ig Nobel award. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/news/2004/040927/full/040927-19.html Sinelschikova, Y. (2017, October 31). The strange and stinky mystery behind Russia-Sweden tensions in the 1980s. Retrieved from https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/326583stinky-mystery-russia-sweden

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SOCIETY AND THE HUMANITIES

This is Where We Are, That’s Where We’re Going by Hunter Ferner 172

Bouquet of Lovers: Should Polyamory be Socially Acceptable?

By Nya-Shayla Cachola One night, I was scrolling through the internet and found a series of videos called “Middle Ground,” a Jubilee series about bringing people of opposing views to debate and talk about certain issues. I specifically encountered a video entitled “Can You Be in Love with Multiple People?” and was absolutely intrigued with what I observed. As a monogamous person, I was purely convinced that love between two individuals is the only form of love that should be accepted.

However, in the video, a polyamorous woman by the name of Shan stated, “My relationship allowed me to love myself more…and that is the beauty of open for me, it’s complete acceptance for me and my decisions” (YouTube, 2018). The U.S American model of love is classified as the love between two individuals and only two individuals, also known as monogamy. However, there has been an uprising exposure about a group of people who are classified as a consensually nonmonogamous relationship. There exists a broad type of love called polyamory, which describes the practice of having sexual and/or romantic partners while you’re romantically involved with somebody else.

However, according to Léa Séguin (2019), an expert in human and gender sexuality, polyamory has been negatively portrayed as it’s usually described as, “psychologically damaging, immature, and unethical in several media sources” (p. 670). They are often stigmatized for having poor relationship quality related to issues of loyalty, commitment, and jealousy. It is perceived as impossible to love two people simultaneously, as they are known to have “perverted” lifestyles due to having sex with multiple people. After being exposed to polyamorous relationships, I constantly wondered why having multiple partners triggers so many people and why they aren’t as common in today’s society. My curiosity led me to research and analyze the work of six academic articles written by experts in the field of anthropology, gender studies, and human studies. In addition, some research from poly writers and activists. After researching and analyzing the work of six academic articles, I was able to get an understanding of the perceptions of polyamory and why it is highly marginalized and stigmatized. I decided that the stigmatization and treatment amongst certain polyamorous individuals are unfair. The wonders of being human and having our own ideals and values show that there is no one perfect style that fits everyone’s needs, which is what should be more understood in today’s society. Throughout the essay I confront misunderstandings about relationship quality, the roles of jealousy, the possibility of loving two people at once, and casual sex. I also describe how discrimination has negatively affected polyamorous individuals and their children.

Defining Polyamory Before discussing the stigma, I think it’s important to clarify the meaning of polyamory to avoid any misinterpretations. The definition of polyamory is inconsistent and used interchangeably with other consensual non-monogamies (CNMs). The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines polyamory as “[T]he state of practice of having more than one open romantic relationship at the same time.”

The keyword here is “open,” which is one of the main reasons as to why polyamory is highly stigmatized. The Merriam Webster Dictionary does not define what an open relationship is, however, according to the Medical Dictionary it is, “A domestic partnership…in which each partner is allowed by the other to engage in sexual activity with persons outside the relationship.”

This suggests the idea of casual sexual relationships commonly known as ‘fuck buddies’, ‘one173

night stands,’ or ‘friends with benefits,’ which is continuously looked down upon society despite being relatively common. Although there are relationships that characterize themselves as being “open”, not all people who define themselves as polyamorous engage in sexual activity outside of their relationships. For the sake of this paper, I define polyamory as a broad category under CNM that varies according to the number of partners, commitment levels, sexual frequency, communication, and other related needs. However, I do address certain kinds of polyamory throughout this essay.

Stigmatization Nevertheless, those who have experienced monogamy believe that relationship quality in polyamory is unstable and unsatisfying. Monogamous individuals claim that the role of jealousy and commitment prevents them from being happy when seeing their partner engage in intimacy with other people, which often results in a lack of relationship satisfaction. William Jankowiak and Helen Gerth (2012), both anthropology professors at the University of Nevada, have conducted a study that involved interviewing those who have experienced concurrent love. They asked each participant if there were any advantages being in love with two people, and according to the professors, “Everyone quickly answered “None!” They readily and easily admitted that their experience was “not pleasurable,” but something “emotionally stressful.” (p. 8). An unstable relationship is apparent considering everyone’s disapproval of concurrent love.

Although there are no direct studies that compare satisfaction with different types of relationships, there are fair amounts of research to suggest that polyamorous individuals can be equally satisfied and emotionally committed compared to monogamous individuals. In previous studies, David Blasband and Letitia Peplau (1985), both experts in the field of psychology, asked gay men in open and closed relationships to rate their satisfaction with their current partner(s). In the end, between open and closed relationships, there was no difference in satisfaction level. The authors claimed, “These findings provide clear evidence that both open and closed relationships can be experienced as both positive and rewarding” (p. 409). Although polyamorous love doesn’t fit amongst a number of people, this goes to show that there are individuals who are able to make their relationships work, by being equally satisfied to the U.S American model of love.

The role of jealousy can also play a slightly different role in polyamory. Léa J Séguin an expert in gender and human sexuality, collected and analyzed 482 comments to understand different perceptions of polyamory. Amongst those who have experienced polyamory, she found that negative emotions such as jealousy and insecurity play a big role in honest communication.

Interestingly, they use it as a way to improve relationship quality and promote personal growth.

According to the comments a poly individual named Erik claimed, “To be happy that your partner had an enjoyable sexual encounter away from you is even less socially acceptable. Yet, to me, it is probably the most sincere form of unconditional love.” The ability to feel “unconditional love” suggests a developed level of maturity (Séguin 2019). In some ways, jealousy can promote social bonds by motivating people to engage in behaviors that maintain important relationships. Which is what I believe many relationships, including monogamy, should understand.

Although it shows there could be levels of commitment and great communication between all partners, a lot of people believe it is impossible to emotionally love two people at the same time.

This is especially apparent with society’s negative view of cheating in a relationship, which heavily 174

associates polyamory with unloyalty and unfaithfulness. According to Pepper Mint (2004), a bisexual activist and a member of the “Poly” movement, he believes, “[T]he mark of a cheater is used as a threat to push individuals to conform to monogamous behavior and monogamous appearances,” suggesting that the standards of society force us to put on a monogamous lens that prevents us to love multiple people at the same time. To understand the question of whether it’s possible to love two people simultaneously, we first need to define our definition of love. The question “what is love?” has brought up a lot of philosophical issues because it is interpreted differently by many people.

Based on the responses of Jankowiaks and Gerth’s interviews, they were able to conclude a theme that distinctly describes two types of love—one being comfort and companionship, while the other is passionate and exciting. In the article, the authors stated the following: Passionate love refers to an intense attraction that involves the intrusive thinking about one person in an erotic context, with the expectation that the feeling will endure for some time into the future.” They have also defined comfort love as “—a deep affection felt…involved feelings of deep friendship, empathic understanding and a concern for another’s welfare.”

In fact, a lot of polyamorous relationships have different partners in order to fulfill these separate desires. Therefore, the question of whether it is possible to love two people at the same time, the answer is technically, yes. It is possible based on your personal interpretation of love. However, not all people see passionate love as love or an acceptable form of it.

This brings us back to the ‘casual sex’ stigma, and the belief that polyamorous people are mistaking their sexual desires for love or use polyamory as an excuse to ‘screw around.’ Unfortunately, there is truth to this statement. There are studies that show passionate love as a way to fulfill their sexual desires. According to the same study by Jankowiak and Gerth they have found that, “Men’s comments revealed a stronger, more empathetic, declaration of the importance of sexual fulfillment and how one woman…was more sexually satisfying.” Although I promote the acceptance of polyamory, casual sex is a factor that I don’t agree upon. This argument is mainly for polyamorous individuals who have a primary partner, who expresses companionship or comfort love, and a secondary partner, who expresses passionate or exciting love. Based on the same article from Jankowiak and Gerth, studies have suggested that most relationships that have “primary and secondary” characteristics don’t end well.

According to Jankowiak and Gerth, most interviewed subjects have said their relationships don’t end well because they adopt a different persona when meeting each of their partners. Because they value both kinds of passion and comforting love independently, they often develop different personas in order to keep each respective love “alive.” However, they also stated, “[A]n acute cognitive dissonance arises and, with it, an immensely psychological and ethical discomfort.” In fact, individuals constantly commented on their emotional frustration or confusion, and how they were “stressed out all the time.” When they are unsatisfied with their double life, they try to find the “best of both worlds” in one partner, meaning they would try to find comfort love in a partner who is considered to be passionate.

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However, this brought along many discrepancies as well as a 27-year old who stated, “I liked having multiple sex partners but once it developed into a close [companionship] relationship, I found I was not able to give up undivided attention to both lovers.” She also described it as timeconsuming and emotionally exhausting (Jankowiak and Gerth, 2012). This suggests that having two independent types of love in different relationships does not end well due to the emotional exhaustion of living a “double life.” In the end, you would need to commit to having one type of type between all partners. In my opinion, I don’t think the goal of polyamorous love is to fulfill sexual desires, because all love can come with great sex, but not all sex comes with great love. I believe the most acceptable form of polyamory involves partners mainly sharing companionship and comforting love for one another.

Effects of Discrimination Now that we have a good understanding of the stigmatization that has been placed upon polyamory, let’s take a look at destructive elements of discrimination and how detrimental it is amongst polyamorous individuals. With a lack of polyamorous presence in the community, they often suffer in terms of health, welfare, service, and legal support. As a result, they have a very hard time being exclusive about their relationship. Pallotta-Chiarolli (2013), an independent researcher of gender and sexual diversity, linked up with the polyamorous couple Peter Haydon and Anne Hunter. She was then invited to Polyvic, a support group for polyamorous parents in Victoria, Australia. Upon invitation, she was able to listen in on their discussions and collect data about polyamorous parenting. For example, Pete a parent of two children, describes his involvement with a counselor, “I attended a counselor who obviously thought that polyamory was a problem…She suggested I try monogamy cos she didn’t think I was polyamorous—that lasted about eight months.” Later on, he said the experience with his counselor only proved to him that he was, indeed, polyamorous and that therapists really don’t understand polyamory (p. 126).

Throughout this source, many other similar experiences were shared by polyfamilies about their concern for their children and their own well-being. It’s not as if all therapists are against the idea of monogamy, but a number of them are ill-informed about their lifestyles and needs. In conclusion, polyamorous individuals are sometimes unable to receive proper help from certain services.

In addition to health services, polyamorists also have the disadvantages of the law. They can be accused of adultery when they are legally married, which may result in several civil lawsuits, job termination, and loss of child custody. Not only do these individuals take the bad rep, but there is also a growing concern for the well-being of their children as well. The term “polyfamilies” will be addressed, which refers to a broad range of inclusive or open group marriages/relationships who live communally with their children. According to Pallotta-Chiarolli, an independent researcher of gender and sexual diversity, conducted research wherein “13% of the polyparent respondents had experienced (or knew someone who had experienced). Therefore, polyamorous relationships tend to keep their relationship a secret with the fear of their children being taken away from them. discrimination in contact with Child Protective Services” (Pallotta-Chiarolli, Haydon, and Hunter 2013).

A lot of poly parents also keep their love life a secret because they’re scared of damaging their children’s social status or reputation. As it is, children already have to watch what they say and analyze their actions in order to show their worth in social acceptance. They experience anxiety 176

when they have their guard down, which would sometimes lead to negative consequences. One of the parent’s responses to a group discussion says, “And what happens when someone at school says, ‘Oh, your mum’s a slut!’?” Parents fear that their family status would be too much of a burden for their children to handle, thinking about their self-esteem and self-worth. Abigail Garner, an advocate for children of LGBT parents, stated, “Our families currently lack the ‘luxury’ to be as openly complicated, confusing, or dysfunctional as straight families” (Pallotta-Chiarolli, Haydon, and Hunter 2013). Therefore, the stigmatization that’s brought upon polyamorous couples forces them to hide their hidden desires and interests in order to survive today’s society.

I know there are a handful of readers who believe that polyamorous individuals deserve the treatment that they’re getting. “They shouldn’t flaunt their perverted lifestyles,” “They shouldn’t be teaching this to our future generations,” or “It goes against God(s) morality.” Although I agree that we shouldn’t embrace casual sex relationships, discrimination is unfair to those who are in committed, loving, and intimate relationships with one another. Those who keep their relationship(s) inclusive, as well as those who only seek the needs of a monogamous relationship, except in multiple people. The idea of discrimination for non-monogamy suggests that there is only one love that fits all and that dyadic love is so great that we don’t need alternatives for it. Yet, the wonders of being human and having our own ideals and values show that there is no one perfect style that fits everyone’s needs. My goal of this essay is to promote that neither type of relationship is better than one another. All types of relationships come with their own sets of pros and cons that each individual encounter. This is not an attempt to say that polyamory is more mature or better.

However, it’s an attempt to express how they’re different and it works for some people. Being respectful towards one another’s decisions may benefit society greatly by reducing hate crimes and damaging behaviors.

After exploring the perceptions of polyamory through various individuals, I have come to learn that polyamory is not as narrow as it is presumed to be. Through a monogamous lens, it’s difficult to understand how a polyamorous relationship can be successful due to the established roles of loyalty, commitment, and jealousy. It has been suggested through previous studies that those who experienced multiple relationships, are able to receive the same satisfaction compared to those who experienced monogamous relationships. According to Séguin, polyamorous individuals are also able to use jealousy as something positive, as a way to improve relationship quality and promote personal growth. Monogamous individuals also find it difficult to understand how it is possible to emotionally love two people at the same time. Although there is no clear-cut answer, a study conducted by Jankowiak and Girth comprised two types of love—comfortable love and passionate love. However, passionate love can often be mistaken for lust, and a way to fulfill their sexual desires, which is something I personally do not promote. In addition, being attached to both a comfortable and passionate partner can result in psychological and ethical discomfort. Instead, I found myself in support of polyamory that is primarily used for comfortable love amongst all partners.

After researching different stigmas, I started exploring the effect discrimination has on polyamorous people. To no surprise, I found that polyamorous individuals suffer disadvantages in terms of health, welfare, and legal support. Oftentimes, when relationships seek help from a counselor, the counselors don’t know what to do because they’re either against polyamory or not informed about it. Polyfamilies often lack the support because they can be discriminated by Child 177

Protective Services, and are therefore susceptible to lawsuits, job termination, and child custody problems. Parents in polyamorous also feel responsible for their child’s mental health and claim that it would cause a great burden to them in terms of social reputation, self-worth, anxiety, and many more mental health discrepancies.

As weeks of researching polyamory comes to a close, I have debated numerous times about what is considered right or wrong. I couldn’t stop comparing the discrimination of polyamory individuals with those of the LGBTQ community. You can say I have more sympathy for them because I know that many people who are not necessarily accepted into society go through extreme measures to hide their sexual orientation. The amount of psychological and emotional trauma is unbearable, and I can imagine it would be the same for polyamorous individuals. Therefore, I switched my thinking from considering what is right or wrong, and I established polyamory as “different.” It doesn’t follow the majority of people’s preferences, but it works for a great number of people. In order to establish a less violent and more hate-free society, I think we should all learn to respect others’ choices and life decisions.

WORKS CITED Blasband, D., & Pepelau, L. A. (1978, January 1). Sexual exclusivity versus openness in gay male couples. Retrieved April 9, 2020, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01542001 Gerth, H. (2012). Can You Love More Than One Person at the Same Time? A Research Report.

Retrieved April 9, 2020, from https://www.academia.edu/1567654/Can_You_Love_More_Than_One_Person_at_the_S ame_Time_A_Research_Report Mint, P. (2008, October 4). The Power Dynamics of Cheating. Retrieved April 9, 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J159v04n03_04 Pallotta-Chiarolli, M., Haydon, P., & Hunter, A. (1970, January 1). "These Are Our Children": Polyamorous Parenting. Retrieved April 9, 2020, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-4556-2_8 Polyamory. (n.d.). Retrieved April 9, 2020, from http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/polyamory.

Séguin, L. J. (2017, September 21). The good, the bad, and the ugly: Lay attitudes and perceptions of polyamory - Léa J Séguin, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2020, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1363460717713382

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Is Religion Hardwired into Our Minds?

By Arianna Corry Amidst the Age of Enlightenment, there was a cultural emphasis on logic, reason, and science.

This directly inflamed the ideation of individualism and skepticism amongst scholars. Expansion of metaphysical and psychological understandings gave birth to materialistic beliefs, sparking the separation of religion and science. Intellectuals who radicalized the reasoning of science branched away from theological beliefs, focusing on logic of and inquiry into nature, relying on facts and rationality aside from any affiliations with higher beings or any aspect of spirituality. Against contemporary beliefs, this was introduced to the Western culture of the 18th century as atheism and agnosticism. In 1768 radical enlightenment philosopher Baron D’Holbach wrote his “System of Nature or Laws of Moral and Physical World” as a co-opt based off the Newtonian System of natural theology. Instead, D’Holbach wrote it from the perspective of a completely materialistic system of nature. From two different perspectives of very intelligent men, Newton and D’Holbach, the relationship between theology and science exists in unison while also being on different planes.

Thus, the question arises: does emotional or social intelligence correlate with religious orientation?1 Social intelligence and emotional intelligence go hand in hand since they are both heavily dependent on the externalities in which an individual is raised. Religious orientation is often passed down to us by family as an initial way of life, shaping our worldviews from a very young age; such beliefs heavily impact an individual’s perception, self-awareness, conformity, and tolerance for uncertainty. The influence of religious viewpoint as an external impact on an individual’s intrinsic qualities suggests that religious orientation does have an influence on social and emotional intelligence. This paper will investigate the research on religious orientation as a contributing factor in forming a person’s social and emotional intelligence due to its influence upon the development of an individual’s perception, self-awareness, conformity, and tolerance for uncertainty.

In the simplest of terms, there are three main religious views: theism, atheism, and agnosticism.

Theism is the belief that one or more deities exist. Theism is classified into two groups as monotheism, the belief in one god such as in Christianity, or polytheism, the belief that a higher power exists as multiple gods, such as in Hinduism. Those, who refused to conform to theistic beliefs, were referred to as atheists or agnostics. As intellects used the science of nature to determine their place in the universe, atheism became more and more represented in culture by those who believed there was no such thing as a god. Between the extremes of theism and atheism is a frame of mind that is quite complex and not easily explained; others believed that determining the existence of a higher being of the universe is beyond the limits of human objection and that we do not have the adequate knowledge to determine if there is or is not a deity that waits for us in the afterlife. To clarify, agnosticism is an “attitude of committed neutrality more so than just an absence of belief” (2019), says Dr. Avery Archer, an epistemologist, in his article “Agnosticism, Inquiry, and Unanswerable Questions.” Atheists and agnostics tend to base their non-conforming attitudes on the ideation of materialism, the belief that everything real and true is fundamentally 1

For the sake of dealing with such a complex issue of psychological impact of religion on intelligence spectrums, the definitions of social intelligence and emotional intelligence, as they are mentioned throughout this paper, are meant to be understood in general terms of common knowledge. “Theistic,” “atheistic,” or “agnostic” influences are not depicted as positive or negative aspects upon social and emotional intelligence, but more so as “tradeoffs” in a horizontal spectrum of how people process and respond to stimuli.

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physical and material. This is similar to the theory of atomism, the idea that any whole can be broken down into separate parts, revealing the physical relationships between each part of the whole. It is clear that atheistic perspectives strongly conflict with theistic perspectives, while the agnostic frame of mind originates from a complex and unique perspective that is unlike both poles of religious orientation.

One of the biggest influences religious affiliation has on an individual is the perception of their self and social identity. Bernard Lightman, a department of humanities professor at York University, focuses his research on the cultural history of Victorian science. In his article “Does the History of Science & Religion Change Depending on the Narrator,” Lightman interprets the perspectives of agnostics and atheists after the publication of Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species” in 1859, a backbone for disbelievers. For the first time, atheists had revolutionary evidence that supported their non-conforming, logic-driven stance. Unlike the Newtonian system, Darwin separated science from religion and his discoveries inspired the works of radical enlightenment philosopher Baron D’Holbach, who defended atheism as the “logical consequence of a rational inquiry into nature” (Lightman 152). In 1768 D’Holbach wrote his “System of Nature or Laws of Moral and Physical World” in hopes of reconducting perspective “back to nature, to experience, and to reason” (Lightman 152). D’Holbach professed that “nature was entirely composed of selfacting matter, in which the universe presents only matter and motion” (Lightman 155), compromising the “natural divine order at the core of Newton’s system.” Lightman displays polar opposite perspectives on the atomism theory between D’Holbach and Newton, as he explains Newtonianism as a “stable social constitutional order, preventing atheists from opportunistically hijacking atomism and fitting it into a materialistic system” (Lightman 153). Lightman’s indicates that Newton’s applied constructs of society’s beliefs maintained order and viability through his evaluation of atomism, implying that there can be the same understanding of a certain idea, but the perspectives of each man are affected by the social constructs in which they are surrounded.

Although two men can have the same understandings and experience of the same social construct, the causation leading to such different religious perspectives derives from the internal social intelligence that drives the conforming or non-conforming behavior to contemporary beliefs.

In order to break away from social construct, one must display a sense of inquiry upon what J. Adam Carter describes as “doxastic logic” in his article “On Behalf of Controversial View Agnosticism.” Carter explains doxastic logic as the reasoning of beliefs in which an individual, who inquires upon the notions of truth, faith, and justification through its relationships to the nature of knowledge, may be inclined to develop a conforming or non-conforming attitude towards social constructs such as religion. “There are only three doxastic attitudes: belief, disbelief, and withholding. Once you’ve considered a proposition, there are, intellectually speaking, only three options open to you: you either believe it, disbelieve it, or withhold judgment” (Carter 1359). In his article, Carter mentions that “we are rationally obliged to withhold judgment about a large portion of our beliefs in controversial subject areas” (1358), but he responds to this view by claiming “most of the interesting things we believe are controversial” (1359) and “suspension of judgment upon [such interesting subjects] is pessimistic” (1359). It can be inferred that Carter is defending the right to hold a non-conforming attitude towards what may be expected of contemporary traditions. This is supported through Carter’s depiction of conformism as a “reasonable response to peer disagreement to the unwanted implication that we must withhold judgment” (1360). In other words, it can be understood from Carter that, with the power of inquiry, 180

an individual’s social intelligence spectrum may shift, representing an ability to deviate from the normal belief system and expand upon intellectual outlooks. A direct relationship is recognized between the social intelligence of questioning popular belief and the development of a nonconforming attitude. A non-conforming attitude reflects an emotional intelligence that develops a religious perspective comfortable to the individual. Moreover, what differentiates the nonconforming agnostic and atheistic frames of mind from the conforming theistic beliefs is a comfortability in not knowing, in other words, a tolerance for uncertainty.

Religious uncertainty is taken to be a strength to some people, typically amongst atheists and agnostics, for it inclines a questioning attitude that seeks the development of bigger questions and deeper understandings. On the other hand, religious uncertainty may be seen as a weakness in faith that should be avoided. This is further explained by philosopher Leslie Francis and researcher Susan Jones of the Center for Theology at Trinity College Carmarthen in their study “Psychological Type and Tolerance for Religious Uncertainty” where 315 participants were tested on levels of personality and spirituality through a Myers Briggs Type test that “indicated preferences between extroversion and introversion” (Francis and Jones 255). Subjects also completed a ten-item questionnaire, with five-point scales of agree to disagree, on the topic of spirituality. This experiment was based off their previous study that concentrated on the “relationship between the perceiving function and potential triggers of religious experience” (Francis and Jones 254). Subjects were also tested on scales of traditional spirituality and experiential spirituality that classified subjects into sensors: those who displayed an inclination towards sensation, and intuitivists: those who are inclined to inquire on intellect. Their results supported that “intuitivists are intrigued by complexity and are likely to have greater facility in construing phenomena in different ways [and] doubting the truth of religious beliefs is less likely to be seen as a crisis” (Francis and Jones 255). What Francis and Jones convey by this is those who intellectually question their existence in the universe typically have a higher tolerance for uncertainty and use it to their power to discover other possible truths about nature, the cosmos, and ourselves. This behavior is seen amongst the non-conforming attitudes of agnostics and atheists, whereas “sensors are more inclined to hold traditional beliefs such as going to church every Sunday” (Francis and Jones 254). Thus, they are more likely to endorse the attitude that religious uncertainty is a doubt towards faith and should be avoided in respect and honor of their beliefs. It is understood from this study that intuitivists are more tolerant of religious uncertainty than sensors, where each type is a function of psychological type. If the “perceiving process is key component of psychological type fundamental to individual differences in tolerance for religious uncertainty” (Francis and Jones 257), then it can be assumed that tolerance for uncertainty is a function of perception of societal beliefs and conformity. This develops a religious orientation that is influenced by extrinsic social intelligence and intrinsic emotional intelligence.

Having a tolerance for uncertainty and an attitude of non-conformity comes with negative connotations from society as “atheists are viewed as one of America’s least trusted groups,” says Catherine Caldwell-Harris, a professor of psychology at Boston University, in her article “Exploring the Atheist Personality” co-written by Angela Wilson, Elizabeth LoTempio, and Benjamin Beit. In this study, 42 Atheists, 22 Christians, and 18 Buddhists were studied on their interpersonal levels of well-being, awe, and magical thinking in order to criticize the preconceived thoughts of non-conformists “lacking experience of awe and a basis for morality” (Caldwell-Harris et al. 659), causing atheists to supposedly feel “unhappy and alienated from society” (Caldwell181

Harris et al. 660). Their defense was that “atheists are closed to spiritual experience” due to their tendencies to “investigate ordinary experiences without a sense of sacredness” (Caldwell-Harris et al. 661). Caldwell-Harris reports that “75% of atheists reject religion not because of cynicism towards life or negative experiences with spirituality,” but because of their intellectual reasons for reflective cognition. “[A]theists found it difficult to respond to questions regarding “sacredness and spirituality” as they “strongly disagreed with questions suggesting the existence of a higher power” (Caldwell-Harris et al. 665). “Spirituality has evolved from a term synonymous with religion, moving to an association with a search for meaning and purpose, extending to the inclusion of relationships and recognition of holism, and finally to a connection to the environment and cosmos” (Caldwell-Harris et al. 662). This reasoning entails that atheists don’t have a drive for establishing a connection between themselves and the world through means of faith, as they would rather prefer to base their perception of existence through scientific truths and intellect. This conveys that non-conformers do not prioritize social acceptance and do not seek the comfort of faith shared amongst a community.

Social intelligence associated with the behavior of preferred intrinsic beliefs over a sense of belonging in a community is evaluated by Mark Landau, a psychology professor at the University of Kansas. In his article “Embodied Metaphor and the True Self” Landau studies self-perception and self-awareness to determine if “priming entity expansion and protection produce consistent effects on intrinsic self-expressions in interpersonal behavior” (Landau et al 83). Landau believed that if people “conceptualize the enhanced expression of their intrinsic self metaphorically as a physical entity expanding in size, then priming perceptions of entity expansion should lead people to perceive themselves as more self-actualized and less concerned with satisfying extrinsic standards of worth” (80). When participants were exposed to visual depictions of entity expansion, results showed they were “more willing to express themselves in ways that ran counter to social preferences” (Landau et al. 84). Landau also discovered that participants who “wrote about their inner personal qualities showed lower levels of conformity” (83), allowing him to come to the conclusion that “intrinsically oriented aspirations were positively related to self-actualization” (85), this complements the behaviors of non-conformists by supporting ideations of individuality and its positive associations to self-actualization overcoming differences in dismissal of social acceptance and community. Landau’s research further supplements Caldwell-Harris et al.’s statement that non-conforming beliefs are “as likely as Christians and Buddhists to find meaning in life experiences, have a sense of purpose and be happy about personal existence” as well as “live in harmony with nature and feel one with the universe” (Caldwell-Harris et al. 663). In short, non-conformers still have positive outlooks on life, are fulfilled with the meanings of their existence, do not differ from the emotional stability, happiness, compassion, and empathetic concern of those with theistic beliefs. In contrast, “rather than contemporary unbelievers, agnostics valued religion as an intrinsic dimension of the human condition” (49), says Lightman as he distinguishes between the atheistic and agnostic frames of mind.

D’Holbach’s atheistic perspective deemed matter itself as “eternal, immutable, self-existent and infinite” with the understanding that the “essence of matter is to act as an immense, uninterrupted succession of causes and effects” (Lightman 155). His materialistic beliefs on atomism and nature lead to his atheistic claim, namely “the first notions of divinity had derived from fear of natural catastrophes,” in which “unenlightened of the powers of nature, humans allowed their ignorance, alarm, and calamity to suppose causation by unknown deities, giving birth to the gods” (Lightman 182

155). In contrast to the extreme assertions of D’Holbach, Voltaire, a French Enlightenment philosopher and writer renowned for his advocations towards freedom of speech and religion, was especially known for his criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and Christianity. Voltaire opposed both religion and atheism for he believed “stability of social and moral order was dependent on the acknowledgment of a benign creator” (Lightman 154). Unlike D’Holbach, Voltaire argued that “Newton’s theories revealed the divine design in nature” (Lightman 154), but Voltaire did not conform to Newtonianism. Voltaire did not claim an absence of belief but rather displayed an attitude of committed neutrality. Similarly, John Tyndall, a 19th-century physicist famous for his study of diamagnetism, rejected Christian doctrines and sided with D’Holbach.

However, Tyndall was more agnostic than atheist, signifying a new group of unbelievers who rejected atheism. Even with religious doubts, Tyndall “could by no means get rid of the idea that aspects of nature and the consciousness of man implied the operation of a power altogether beyond my grasp – an energy the thought of which raised the temperature of the mind, though it refused to accept shape, personal or otherwise, from the intellect” (Tyndall 382). It is logical to assume that Tyndall displayed a commitment to the notion of a divine being but did not classify as theistic because he believed the understanding of “God” was beyond the limits of human knowledge.

Despite Tyndall’s rejection of contemporary materialism, he was “branded as a dangerous atheist” by the Church and many Christians (Lightman 160). It can be deduced that perception and selfawareness of those who opposed Tyndall’s works were threatened by the “dangerous” agnostic viewpoints, highly intolerant to the uncertainty of theism that Tyndall expressed. It can be understood that those who agreed with Tyndall beheld a frame of mind towards society that greatly differed from those who consoled in their theistic beliefs. This supports the argument that religious orientation influences the socially intelligent aspects of conformity and inquiry, impacting the emotionally intelligent aspects of the individual’s behavior towards the uncommon and the unknown.

In regard to the unknown, the controversial idea of a guaranteed afterlife is the gamble that religious orientations revolve around. “The human impulse to gather for sacred rituals arose as humans shifted from seeing themselves as part of the natural world to seeking mastery over it,” says Charles Mann in his 2011 National Geographic article, “The Birth of Religion.” This relates back to D’Holbach’s statement of religion as a derivative of the human innate fear of natural catastrophes. During the Neolithic Revolution, the success of crops and luck of the hunt was critical in avoiding death. The fear of an unknown afterlife drives people to seek mastery over the natural world through rituals and religion in order to connect with the divine forces they believe to have control over their survival. A fear of the unknown afterlife is a shared commonality among everyone at some point in their life, regardless of religious orientation. It is the matter of how one’s emotional intelligence processes and compiles this fear within their mind that allows them to settle with a belief, or lack thereof. When discussing the topic of an afterlife, is it wrong to believe that god exists? Thomas Donaldson, assistant professor of philosophy at Stanford University, addresses this question in his video, “Epistemology: The Will to Believe.” William Clifford, mathematician and writer of “Ethics of Belief,” professes that religion is epistemically irresponsible because “it is wrong to believe anything upon insufficient evidence” (Donaldson). Therefore, Clifford claimed that belief in a god, whose existence can’t be proven, is “blind faith, leading one to ignore other facts and arguments, causing them to live an unexamined, unthoughtful life” (Donaldson). What Clifford means by this epistemic responsibility is that spreading faith is synonymous to spreading lies. American philosopher, William James, criticizes Clifford’s “Ethics of Belief” in his article, 183

“The Will to Believe,” which James presents an “alternative way of thinking about what one should believe when evidence is inconclusive” (Donaldson). This was done in the form of managing risk when forming a belief, where you “risk believing a falsehood, but if you refrain from forming a belief, you risk missing out on the truth” (Donaldson). James’s statements suggest that it is up to the individual’s intelligence on their connections to society and their connections within themselves to weigh the two risks against each other. In consideration of fear of the afterlife, it makes sense for people to believe in god, “even in the absence of evidence, simply because the potential gains from the belief are so large” (Donaldson). Through the understanding of faith in religion as a wager of believing in an everlasting afterlife, it can be inferred that the fear of death is perceived differently among the spectrum of social and emotional intelligence, which then determines whether an individual will associate their life after death to a theistic belief or scientific law.

Unlike the theistic and atheistic behaviors densely described throughout this paper, agnosticism endorses an open frame of mind that is neither for nor against the idea of a higher being. In Tyndall’s final section of his 1874 “Belfast Address,” he asserts the boundaries between science and religion. He believed “materialism could not be a complete philosophy of life as objective knowledge belonged to science, and religion yielded inward completeness and dignity to man” (Lightman 160). Tyndall was an assertive agnostic who adored the works of Michael Faraday, an 18th-century scientist who was devoted to religion. Tyndall respected Faraday’s religious fidelities and was “impressed how Faraday contemplated nature and his relation to it, in which produced a spiritual exaltation in Faraday, that Tyndall admired” (Lightman 162). Rather than their opposing beliefs creating a barrier between them, the “relationship to nature bonded the two men” (Lightman 162). Tyndall believed “science and religion were not at war as long as long as each remained in their own spheres of authority, where religion belonged to feelings and science to intellect” (Lightman 162). It can be understood from the relationship between the two men that it requires an open-minded perception, tolerance for uncertainty, comfortability for inquiry, and understanding of self-awareness to manipulate the religious orientations that are hardwired into our brains from a young age [and come to a position that answers questions of our own].

A great deal of religious orientation, whether theistic, atheistic, or agnostic, is influenced by the social and emotional intelligence of our mind in regard to what we make of the external and internal effects of the environment around us. This argument is greatly reliant on Bernard Lightman’s article, “Does the History of Science and Religion Change Depending on the Narrator?

Some Atheistic and Agnostic Perspectives,” which had a strong arm in providing evidence further used throughout this paper. The works of Caldwell-Harris and additional co-authors in their article, “Exploring the Atheist Personality,” also provided a tremendous amount of research and studies that supplemented this paper and was a backbone to the defense of the argument made throughout.

In today’s society, there are an abundance of religions that each exist in many forms, leaving the intellect of man to explore and adopt to each their own morals and values established within an endless variety of philosophies, theories, and divine bodies. The 21st century has shifted to a larger acceptance of many religions, and the act of following multiple religions is much less looked down upon by society, varying greatly from the zeitgeist of the 17th,18th, and 19th centuries. The drastic change in society that intertwined faith and law to a society that completely separates government from religion warrants the underlying implication of a shift to the modern-day acceptance of religious freedom. It can be implied that more people have gradually become more open-minded, 184

thus having possible influences upon overall social intelligence among this century. By all means, no religious orientation is better than the other. There are infinite reasons and endless rationales behind every human’s outlook on their purpose and meaning in this universe. With the thorough investigation of dense research on complex topics of theism, atheism, and agnosticism, it is concluded that religious orientation, which we associate with from a very young age, has an initial influence upon our worldviews. It is the development of emotional and social intelligence throughout the growth of an individual that allows their initial beliefs and worldviews to be questioned through changes in perception, self-awareness, conformity, and tolerance for uncertainty, positioning an individual to their beliefs.

WORKS CITED Archer, Avery. “Agnosticism, Inquiry, and Unanswerable Questions.” Disputatio, vol. 11, no.

53, Nov. 2019, pp. 63–88. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.2478/disp-2019-0012.

Buzdar, Muhammad Ayub, et al. “Relationship between Social Intelligence and Religious Orientations of University Students.” Journal of Educational Research, vol. 19, no. 1, June 2016, p. 5. Gale OneFile: Nursing and Allied Health.

Caldwell-Harris, Catherine L., et al. “Exploring the Atheist Personality: Well-Being, Awe, and Magical Thinking in Atheists, Buddhists, and Christians.” Mental Health, Religion & Culture, vol. 14, no. 7, Routledge, Sept. 2011, pp. 659–72. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/13674676.2010.509847.

Carter, J. Adam. “On Behalf of Controversial View Agnosticism.” European Journal of Philosophy, vol. 26, no. 4, Wiley-Blackwell, Dec. 2018, pp. 1358–70. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/ejop.12333.

Donaldson, Thomas. “Virtue Epistemology (Video) | Epistemology.” Khan Academy. www.khanacademy.org, https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/wi-phi/wiphimetaphysics-epistemology/wiphi-epistemology/v/virtue-epistemology. Accessed 1 May 2020.

Francis, Leslie J., and Susan H. Jones. “Psychological Type and Tolerance for Religious Uncertainty.” Pastoral Psychology, vol. 47, no. 4, Springer Nature, Mar. 1999, pp. 253– 59. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1023/A:1021395211229.

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82, no. 3, May 2011, pp. 674–96. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1933-1592.2010.00426.x.

Landau, Mark J., et al. “Embodied Metaphor and the ‘True’ Self: Priming Entity Expansion and Protection Influences Intrinsic Self-Expressions in Self-Perceptions and Interpersonal Behavior.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 47, no. 1, Jan. 2011, pp. 79– 87. ScienceDirect, doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.08.012.

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Lightman, Bernard. “Does the History of Science and Religion Change Depending on the Narrator? Some Atheist and Agnostic Perspectives.” Science & Christian Belief, vol. 24, no. 2, Paternoster Periodicals, Oct. 2012, pp. 149–68.

Mann, Charles. “The Birth of Religion.” National Geographic, June. 2011, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2011/06/gobeki-tepe/.

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The Misconceptions of Yoga and Its Hidden Dangers

By Alice Sharon B. Minor There is more beneath the surface to the kind of yoga people encounter today. When people envision yoga, they most likely see a stereotypical scene of a group of people in leggings doing a sequence of poses on their yoga mats. Western cultures have manipulated and formed yoga into a market that is popularized and detached from yoga’s true origins and purpose. Imagine practicing something you love for years not knowing its original purpose and meaning. What would you do if you realized that such practice involved hidden dangers? Lastly, how would you feel if your culture and religion were being continuously disrespected and misunderstood? This is what is happening with yoga. This essay will address the debate whether or not yoga is a serious religious discipline that involves hidden dangers. As a Christian who practices yoga, I was continuously warned about the potential dangers of yoga, especially its spiritual dangers. This first-hand concern is what pushed me to investigate this topic and learn more about yoga’s consequences to practitioners who do not think of yoga as a serious religious practice. This investigation argues that yoga is a serious religious discipline that is facing the problem of cultural appropriation by Westerners and that yoga possesses physical, psychological, and spiritual dangers. This may affect Christian practitioners and those who do not associate yoga with its religion. A combination of descriptive and causal arguments will be utilized: the descriptive argument discussing the definition of yoga in relation to religion and the causal argument expounding on the consequences of yoga’s potential dangers. The purpose and intent of this essay is not to compare or criticize the Hindu and Buddhist religions in terms of Christianity. Academic journals, articles, and testimonies will be utilized as supporting evidence to discuss this issue.

Yoga is a religious practice that should not be taken lightly, as many yoga practitioners today do not know the holistic meaning and implications of yoga. The use of yoga today is widely used for its physical benefits, feeling good, or just for the “aesthetic.” However, yoga is a complex practice in several religions that involves potential dangers if not taken seriously and wisely. This topic is important because one’s safety is at risk, especially for Christians who practice yoga. Showing genuine concern for this topic allows people to be aware of the dangers involved in the practice. It will also give people the ability to gain true knowledge about the cultural, religious, and spiritual aspects of yoga. The issue of cultural appropriation is very evident in yoga as Westerners are popularizing the practice, while not understanding the culture and religion attached to yoga. This issue is concerning because one can be oblivious to disrespecting the culture and religion yoga is associated with. This can also be seen as discriminatory by those who genuinely practice yoga in their religion and culture.

For many Western cultures, yoga is simply an outlet for physical exercise, relaxation, meditation, and finding mindfulness. They believe that yoga is whatever you make of it or want it to be.

However, yoga is much more than a system of gaining physical benefits. According to the article “Yoga and Christianity: Are They Compatible?” written by Christian writer and apologist Michael Gleghorn (2002), “Yoga is an ancient path to spiritual growth. It is a path enshrined in much of the sacred literature of India” (p. 1). The practice originated in ancient India and is performed in several religions, primarily Buddhism and Hinduism, dating back to between 1000 B.C.E and 500 B.C.E. According to tradition, the term “yoga” literally means ‘union,’ specifically the union between the finite ‘jiva,’ transitory self, and the infinite ‘Brahman,’ eternal self. The writer 187

continues to explain that “Brahman” is a term often referring to the Hindu concept of “God” or Ultimate Reality (Gleghorn, 2002). During the year 150 A.D. the sage Patañjali systemized yoga into eight “limbs” in his Yoga Sūtras, which were about the theory and practice of yoga. Gleghorn summarizes that “These eight limbs are like a staircase, supposedly leading the yogi from ignorance to enlightenment. In order, the eight limbs are: yama (self-control), niyama (religious observances), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing exercises), pratyahara (sense control), dharana (concentration), dhyana (deep contemplation), and samadhi (enlightenment)” (p.1).

Looking at such information, one can see that yoga is an ancient religious or spiritual discipline that is deeply rooted in the Hindu religion.

If yoga cannot be detached from its roots, why are Westerners manipulating and misinterpreting the practice? One reason as to why Westerners do not associate yoga with religion and its original purpose is because they believe that yoga can be separated from its philosophy. According to “The Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali” translated by Georg Feuerstein (1979), It is not merely a system of logically related propositions dealing with the meaning of reality in its entirety (which is one possible definition of philosophy). It contains also strong ethical prescriptions and, above all, includes a method for the systematic transformation of consciousness with the ultimate purpose of achieving ‘liberation’ or ‘Self realisation’, postulated by Yoga ethics as the highest good. These various aspects cannot be separated from each other, except for analytical purposes in order to understand better how the whole system hangs together. (p. 6) This viewpoint believes yoga does not have to be religious if you do not want it to be. They argue that the practice is open to anyone and is an outlet for people to satisfy their own purposes and intentions, whether that be for themselves or for something else. Most practitioners in the West are not Hindu or Buddhist but still participate in the practice for their own purpose and reasons, such as its physical benefits. According to the academic article published in the Journal of Contemporary Religion entitled, “Spirituality and ‘Mystical Religion’ in Contemporary Society: A Case Study of British Practitioners of the Iyengar Method of Yoga,” written by a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, Suzanne Hasselle-Newcombe (2005), “Even within the Indian context, yoga need not be practiced alongside the worship of any Indian deities (although some choose to do so).

Buddhists and Jains have also long used the techniques of yoga while maintaining their own metaphysical beliefs” (p. 306). This is very controversial as many contrastingly argue that true yoga practitioners have to embrace the Hindu lifestyle and study or be a part of the religion as it is originally an ancient practice. It means understanding the culture associated with yoga. Would it be okay if a person continuously participated in a religious ritual but not follow the religion? The ultimate goal of yoga does not change despite Westerners manipulating and popularizing the practice.

An additional reason why Westerners do not associate yoga with its religion and culture is because they solely practice yoga for its physical benefits. With this, they exclude the other spiritual or religious aspects of yoga except the postural side of the practice. Gleghorn recognizes this and puts it into context of Hatha yoga. He explains that “Hatha yoga is primarily concerned with two things: asana (physical postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises)” (Gleghorn, 2002). This is what the popularized western market of yoga is primarily based on, excluding the six other limbs in 188

Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras. Such a popularized form of yoga only keeps the appealing postural part of the discipline. The Journal of the American Academy of Religion is an academic journal published by Oxford University Press and is considered to be a top academic journal in the field of religious studies. The article published in this academic journal, entitled “Who Is to Say Modern Yoga Practitioners Have It All Wrong? On Hindu Origins and Yogaphobia,” written by Andrea R. Jain, a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University and Purdue University Indianapolis, explains, A growing movement courts fear and suspicion of yoga in its popularized forms, arguing that people have been duped into thinking that yoga is simply a product for enhancing wellbeing. Protesters target the most popular forms of modern yoga today, those of postural yoga, which are based on sequences of asana or postures that are, through pranayama or “breathing exercises,” synchronized with the breath. The movement warns that yoga, in all forms, is in fact religious and, more specifically Hindu. (pp. 428-429) Yoga postures and breathing exercises are an integral part of Patañjali’s Raja or “royal” yoga.

Despite popularized forms of yoga only concerned with yoga’s physical aspects, the sole purpose of Hatha yoga does not change and is exclusively for the attainment of Raja Yoga and to suppress physical obstacles on the path of getting to that destination (Gleghorn, 2002). This again proves that one cannot separate yoga from its religious Hindu roots. The goal of yoga does not change.

The issues discussed thus far involve problems of Western cultures separating yoga from its philosophy, using yoga solely for its physical aspects, and not understanding that the religion and culture associated with yoga creates a greater problem: cultural appropriation. “Cultural appropriation” is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture.” It involves making one’s own of another culture’s elements. As yoga becomes more popularized in Western cultures, the risk of cultural appropriation grows as yoga is being made into an industry to generate money and simultaneously not teach or practice the true religious roots associated with yoga. Mary Grace Anthony (2014) is an assistant professor of communication studies at Western Washington University whose research includes intercultural communication, globalization, and new media discourse. Anthony, a featured academic writer in the Journal of Communication and Religion, expounded in her article, “‘It’s Not Religious, But It’s Spiritual:’ Appropriation and the Universal Spirituality of Yoga,” that “Hinduism, in particular, has a strained history of Western appropriation that is often characterized by misunderstanding and misinterpretation” (p.66). The writer also elaborates that relocating and embedding another culture’s artifacts within an entirely different environment inevitably impacts how it is subsequently perceived and received. “Whenever there are discontinuities in the knowledge that accompanies the movement of commodities, problems involving authenticity and expertise enter the picture” (Anthony, 2014, p. 65). Yoga is greatly misinterpreted by Western cultures, and this can be seen as disrespectful and discriminatory to the Hindu or Buddhist religion. This supports the holistic argument that yoga is a serious religious discipline.

Now that we have discussed and defined yoga as a religious discipline, one should be aware of the potential dangers involved in yoga. Despite yoga’s meditative, health, and physical benefits, yoga can be physically, mentally, and spiritually harmful if not taken seriously and practiced wisely.

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Firstly, there are physical dangers associated with yoga. Besides the risk of sprains, strains, and the like, there are potential dangerous physical effects that result from yoga breathing exercises.

There is a good chance of injuring the brain if breathing exercises are not done accurately.

Additionally, if not done with proper supervision there is a risk of suffering an incurable disease (Gleghorn, 2002).

Along with this, psychological and spiritual dangers are involved in yoga as well. Many practitioners have warned that yoga can endanger one’s sanity. Because one cannot extract Hindu spiritualism from yoga, there are many mental and spiritual dangers, especially for Christian practitioners. One example is the awakening of one’s spiritual energy called “kundalini.”

According to the academic article “Kundalini and the Paranormal: Proceed with Caution” by Paul Pond (1989), who is associated with the Institute for Consciousness Research, “Kundalini is held to be the mechanism by which an enhanced flow of prana reaches the brain. Under the right conditions, this enhanced prana operating in the brain can lead to higher states of consciousness such as genius, psychic abilities and mystical experience” (p. 1). The kundalini is awakened at the bottom of one’s spinal column and travels through points until it reaches the brain. Gleghorn (2002) records a practitioner’s experience of the kundalini, and it states, “It was variable for many years, painful, obsessive… I have passed through almost all the stages of… mediumistic, psychotic, and other states of mind; for some time, I was hovering between sanity and insanity” (p. 2). Yoga is spiritually harmful especially to Christian practitioners as it confuses and blurs their beliefs due to the spiritual Hindu roots of yoga and even its poses as well. The kundalini can be seen as similar to “divinizing” oneself and attaining a godlike stature (Gleghorn, 2002). This greatly goes against the teachings of the Bible and is an outlet for temptation and sin because of this. If not taken seriously by Christian and non-Christian practitioners, they may be greatly harmed by yoga’s spiritual dangers. Holly Vicente Robaina (2007), a Christian publication writer, wrote in her article, “The Truth About Yoga,” about a testimony by a former Christian yoga practitioner, Laurette Willis. Her testimony discussed her experiences in yoga and how she came to realize its spiritual dangers. An excerpt from her testimony reads, Before she became Christian, Laurette used subliminal tapes to train her mind to empty itself. These tapes are often used in yoga classes, she says. She also taught yoga classes and instructed her students in astral projection, or “stepping outside” of the body, which Laurette says poses a serious spiritual danger. “If there’s nothing in your mind, you’re open to all kinds of deception. After coming to Christ, I wondered who-or what- came into my body when I ‘stepped out.’ While I don’t believe Christians become possessed, I do believe we can become oppressed by demonic spirits of fear, depression, lust, false religion, etc.

These are all things designed to draw us away from Jesus Christ.” (Robaina, 2007) The physical, mental, and spiritual dangers of yoga can affect Christian and non-Christian practitioners unexpectedly. The Hindu spiritualistic aspects of yoga and the religion it is rooted to can cause such dangers to arise if practitioners are not aware of the true origins and purpose of yoga and do not take the practice seriously.

In conclusion, the issue whether yoga is a serious religious discipline that involves hidden dangers was investigated through the use of academic journals, articles, and testimonies. The investigation was divided into two arguments. The first argument defined and explored yoga’s origins. We came 190

to realize that yoga is indeed a serious religious discipline as it is practiced in religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. It was discussed that the reasons why Westerners do not associate yoga with religion and its original purpose is because they solely practice yoga for its physical benefits and because they believe that yoga can be separated from its philosophy. One major source used, “The Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali” translated by Georg Feuerstein (1979), greatly supported the argument that yoga cannot be separated from its philosophy and roots. This issue of Western cultures manipulating the practice of yoga is a prominent issue that causes greater controversy regarding cultural appropriation. The second argument investigated the types of dangers involved in yoga. There are physical, psychological, and spiritual dangers involved in the practice. This argument is supported by academic sources such as “Kundalini and the Paranormal: Proceed with Caution” by Paul Pond (1989), discussing the dangers of awakening of the kundalini. Christian practitioners are harmed the most when it comes to spiritual dangers as it interferes with their own beliefs and values, confusing them due to the distinctly Hindu spiritualistic aspects and roots of yoga. If the religious practice of yoga is not taken seriously by Western cultures and practitioners, consequences can occur. Discrimination and disrespect from Westerners remain as yoga is not recognized as a religious discipline but is instead morphed into what they want it to be: a popularized industry. This issue regarding cultural appropriation and the hidden dangers involved in yoga needs to be recognized and acted upon, as one can now see such consequences result if not treated critically.

REFERENCES Antony, M. G. (2014). “It’s Not Religious, But It’s Spiritual:” Appropriation and the Universal Spirituality of Yoga. Journal of Communication & Religion, 37(4), 63–81 Cultural appropriation. (n.d.). In Cambridge Dictionary. dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dicti onary/english/cultural-appropriation Feuerstein, G. (1979). The yoga-sūtra of patañjali: A new translation and commentary.

Folkstone, Eng. Gleghorn, M. (2002). Yoga and christianity: Are they compatible? – a biblical worldview perspective. Probe for answers. probe.org/yoga-and-christianity-are-they-compatible/ Hasselle-Newcombe, S. (2005, October 1). Spirituality and ‘Mystical Religion’ in Contemporary Society: A Case Study of British Practitioners of the Iyengar Method of Yoga. Journal of Contemporary Religion. doi.org/10.1080/13537900500249806 Jain, A. R. (2014). Who Is to Say Modern Yoga Practitioners Have It All Wrong? On Hindu Origins and Yogaphobia. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 82(2), 427–471. doi-org.hpu.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/jaarel/lft099 P. Pond, ‘Kundalini and the Paranormal--Proceed with Caution’, presented at 14th ARPR Conference, Rosemont College, PA., 1989.

Robaina, H. V. (2007). The Truth about Yoga. Today’s Christian Woman, 27(2), 40.

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Consecrated Beliefs of Homosexuality in Altruistic Religions: Comparing Attitudes in Christianity and Buddhism

By Jo Roberto Human sexuality--which encompasses attitudes, values, and feelings in sexual physicality and mentality--is becoming a larger and more recognized aspect of society today. With modern social developments in marriage and sex concepts, as well as the acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) people, communities learn to be more perceptive towards human sexuality. These developments, however, are not met without some resistance constructed by social standards. Religion remains a large factor in the formation of morals, beliefs, and behaviors within society. We recognize that a variety of these religious morals, beliefs, and behaviors are dictated and measured according to the original sacred texts, the interpretation of these texts, and their application to concepts of life today. Human sexuality is considered one of these ‘concepts of life’ in which religion prescribes a set of rules outlining how people should treat the idea. To varying degrees of religiosity, some practitioners exacerbate the idea of homophobia and apply it to their daily lives within society. While these faiths constitute a wide variety of different gods, practices, rituals, and other forms of reverence, a pattern is static between them: various faiths discuss how mankind should treat each other.

Two largely practiced religions in the world include Buddhism and Christianity. The teachings of Buddhism derive from the founder Siddhārtha Gautama--who later became popularized as the Buddha. Buddhism observes the idea of suffering as natural and inevitable. With a focus on equality, enlightenment, and compassion, the Buddhist teachings, named dharma, influence the way followers of Buddhism treat other people. The sacred teachings of Buddhism can be found within the Pāli Canon, also known as Tripitaka [in Sanskrit]. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an organization dedicated to matters involving human dignity, rights, and just living for LGBTQ+ members, notes that while there are many schools of Buddhist thought--Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana--the practices all follow special guidelines such as the following: Three Universal Seals (premise of existence), the Four Noble Truths (philosophical enlightenment), the 12 Links of Dependent Origination (laws of existence) and the EightFold Path (guide to enlightenment). As a branch of the Eight-Fold Path, the Five Precepts serve as voluntary guidelines for life and are the bases of Buddhist morality. ("Stances of Faith on LGBTQ Issues: Buddhism") The emphasis on compassion and respect towards others in the Four Noble Truths and the EightFold Path ensures that Buddhist practitioners maintain a positive outlook towards others.

Christianity uses the Bible as the religious guideline for morality and reverence in order to understand the idea of God’s ideal of human living. Furthermore, the Bible highlights the creation of sin, the arc of redemption [or penance] in Christian life, as well as how Jesus Christ is recognized as the savior of mankind from sin. The teachings within Christianity are often referred to as biblical scriptures or verses, but more commonly known by deuterocanonical books in the Old and New Testaments. There are many denominations of Christianity such as Catholicism, Presbyterianism, Methodism, and so forth, but they all interpret readings of the Bible in conjunction with the Ten Commandments.

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A fascinating detail found in most religions, the idea of the ‘Golden Rule’ which is also known as the Universal Law, is pertinent to how people treat others. Primary examples of such are found in altruistic religions--religions that practice selfless concern in regard to the well-being of others-such as Christianity and Buddhism. The prime reference of the Golden Rule in Christianity is stated as “[a]lways treat[ing] others as you would like them to treat you” (Matthew 7:12).

Furthermore, Buddhism has a similar Golden Rule in which followers “[h]urt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful” (Udanda-Varga 5:18). Interestingly, while these sacred texts highlighting the Golden Rule are recognized as concrete expressions of divine viewpoints and teachings, the altruistic text seems to be overlooked in the case of homosexuality. Often, religious teachings produce some type of homophobic behavior in the ways individuals treat each other.

This brings into question about the causes of these various attitudes and behaviors toward homosexuality. Why do these religions that preach kindness and altruism still have homophobic followers? Is this a result of the religion itself, the structure of the religion, or the modern religious standpoints on homosexuality? Since this type of research is based on the social and behavioral aspects of human nature, academic studies on the attitudes and testimonies from various demographics are analyzed to draw a conclusion on how each religion exemplifies homophobic thoughts. Many of these academic studies are compiled by experts in psychology since homophobia is an aspect of psychological and sociological behavior. In contrast, some studies provide insight onto how religions contain or develop inclusiveness and positive attitudes toward homosexuality in both Christianity and Buddhism. This paper will use the concepts of religiosity and religiously constructed concepts such as the Golden Rule, scriptures, and structures in Christianity and Buddhism to find that, although surface-level analysis indicates that they both follow altruism and exemplify homophobic attitudes, Buddhism is still more accepting of homosexuality than Christianity.

Religion develops a relationship between the deity, the teachings, and the follower. Many times, these relationships create two of the largest factors in creating or influencing homophobic behavior, such as gender concepts and religiosity. A submission in the Journal of Homosexuality discusses these two factors in correlation with homophobic behavior. The journal is dedicated to integrated and multidisciplinary research that seeks to identify nuances and intricacies of homosexuality to educate the audience. The article was written by Eric W. Lindsey, PhD and Evan Harbaugh, BA. Eric W. Lindsey is a professor of Applied Psychology as Penn State University, Berks, and specializes his research on applied developmental psychology, relationships, and sex roles. Evan Harbaugh graduated with his BA in Applied Psychology, which allowed him to coauthor this entry with Lindsey since this research was supported by a research grant from the College of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences at Penn State Berks. The team notes that there is a large difference between “individual differences in attitudes towards homosexuality [that] have been linked to numerous personality and demographic variables,” and that the concepts of homosexuality, homophobia, and heteronormativity are deeply enveloped in sociologically informed teachings (Harbaugh and Lindsey 1098). This research seeks to utilize these facets of socially constructed gender and sexuality to explain challenging perspectives and ideas of homosexuality in various demographics.

When discussing the role of gender concepts and its effect on attitudes toward sexuality, the authors substantiated the correlations with a high degree of explanation on how that may affect religious attitudes towards homosexuality. Firstly, the authors identified the relationship between 193

gender identification and respective gender-typed activities. Harbaugh and Lindsey shared that “greater identification with masculine and feminine gender roles was positively associated with involvement in gender-typed employment and recreation activities” (1107). This supports the idea that the two concepts are closely interrelated, and the teachings of gender and gender-typed activities are socially constructed as factors in the actions and behaviors of individuals, which may be derived from religious teachings. Knowing this, the authors looked at how these played a part in the attitude towards sexuality. Their findings show that “individuals who identified with a masculine gender role were significantly more likely to report homophobic and heteronormative beliefs and were less likely to endorse support for gay rights” (1109). This result is in agreeance with the culturally ingrained notions of masculinity and femininity that play an essential role in attitudes toward sexuality, where those who identify strongly with masculinity tend to have heteronormative behavior. However, the study confirms that this case is largely plausible for masculine identity, because “beta weights revealed that only higher masculine gender identity, not feminine gender identity, was significantly related to higher homophobic attitudes” (1110).

Interestingly, the statistical analysis shows that mostly masculine-formed gender roles and masculine-typed activities formulate homophobia and heteronormativity, but no data points to that being entirely true of feminine-formed gender roles and feminine-typed activities. With gender concepts defined and applied to individual practice, the commitment and spirituality an individual had--their religiosity level--was also examined to determine the influences of homophobic behaviors.

Religiosity was another area where Harbaugh and Lindsey investigated, which looked largely at an individual's commitment (IC) to religion and their personal spiritual meaning in life as well as their influence on homophobic behavior. Throughout the investigation, Harbaugh and Lindsey were able to find that religiosity plays a large part in forming homophobic or heteronormative actions. Interestingly, they found that both do not account for these behaviors: There was a consistent pattern of associations between both religiosity measures and attitudes toward homosexuality, with individuals who reported more individual commitment to religion being significantly more likely to score higher on homophobia and heteronormative beliefs, whereas individuals who reported more spiritual meaning in life were significantly more likely to score lower on homophobia and heteronormative beliefs.

Neither religiosity variable was significantly associated with attitudes toward gay rights.

(Harbaugh and Lindsey 1109) This association shows that the individual connection to a religion is an important indicator of level of homophobia or negative attitudes towards gay rights, where IC may be associated with a religion where homosexuality is outlined as an immoral action. In contrast, a higher level of spirituality may be seen as parallel to higher emotional sensitivity and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community, or, in this case, lower levels of homophobia and heteronormative beliefs.

With a greater understanding of how religiosity plays into influencing ideas of human sexuality, the interpretation of the Golden Rule and the understanding of the rule can have an immense impact on the how individuals are informed of homophobic behavior. In the article titled “Do Unto Others: Effects of Priming the Golden Rule on Buddhists’ and Christians’ Attitude Toward Gay People” written by Vilaythong et al., a comparison was made between religions and attitudes, as well as 194

how different religious teachings affected homophobic attitudes. Ong Vilaythong is a professor in the Department of Psychology at York University, and both Nicole M. Linder and Brian A. Nosek are also professors in their Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. In this study, the effects of priming--which is the influence of the Golden Rule on the follower’s tolerance level towards gay people--were compared in Christianity and Buddhism. A hypothesis from the team suggests that “the impact of the Golden Rule comes, in part, from its direct link to one’s religious identity—that is, I am Christian and a follower of Jesus; Jesus taught the Golden Rule, therefore, I will follow the Golden Rule” (Vilaythong et. al 496). In theory, this assumption of piety primes Christians and Buddhist people to maintain compassion for others, and in turn they might allow for more tolerance towards gay people in comparison to how priming the Golden Rule in other religions might affect attitudes towards homosexuals. Interestingly enough, the findings show that before the priming of the Golden Rule on the religions, “Christians (adj-M = 2.44) reported significantly more negative attitudes toward gay people than Buddhists did (adj-M =1.99) [adj-M representing the adjusted mean of a six-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) on various questions like ‘homosexuality is bad’” (Vilaythong et. al 499). The questionnaire indicates that followers of Buddhism had a lower average negative attitude towards homosexuality as compared to Christians. The team later subjected the participants to priming, shared the Buddhist-taught Golden Rule to Christians, and vice versa. After doing so, Vilaythong et al. rejected their original hypothesis as stated here: [P]riming the Golden Rule would decrease negativity toward gay people… the Golden Rule priming had no effect when communicated by one’s own religious leader… when the Golden Rule messages were attributed to the Buddha (a religious outgroup leader), Christians self-reported being more explicitly negative toward gay people and more likely to believe that homosexuality is a choice. Buddhists were unaffected by the Golden Rule priming. (502) Before and after the priming, attitudes towards homosexuality remained predominantly more negative in Christian followers and more positive in Buddhist practitioners. Regardless of the two religions sharing a respective altruistic teaching of the Golden Rule, they both have different levels of homonegativity.

Buddhist dharma does not concretely define homonegative attitudes, but discrimination and challenges for LGBTQ+ people exist largely on a personal level for Buddhist practitioners. The Pāli Canon can be ambiguous, and there is no body of text that can be referred to or interpreted as condemning homosexual activity.

Sexual orientation, specifically, was not elaborated upon by Siddhartha Gautama, nor is there any reference or guidance for lay people regarding sexual orientation or same-sex behavior within the Pali Canon... These textual references do not target LGBTQ people specifically, as everyone within the monastic order is expected to refrain from all forms of sexual relations... This practice is especially common within Theravada Buddhism, which focuses heavily on the monastic tradition. ("Stances of Faith on LGBTQ Issues: Buddhism")

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The dharma expects that, within the Buddhist monastery, monks and nuns are expected to refrain from any sexual relations. This does not identify specific relationships between men and women, same-sex relationships, nor those between gender fluid identities. This guideline states, “instead, the expectation is not to harm, exploit or manipulate others, which would directly violate the third precept” ("Stances of Faith on LGBTQ Issues: Buddhism"). This again reiterates the fact that the dharma does not explicitly state homosexuality as suffering, but rather that sexual misconduct can cause suffering. However, generalization of the deeper meaning of the text does not indicate that homophobia and anti-LGBTQ+ opinions do not exist within the faith. While an ambiguous statement seems to encapsulate all sexual activity as negative, some interpretations of the text note that LGBTQ+ issues are immoral. The Dalai Lama stated in 1997 that “from a Buddhist point of view [lesbian and gay sex] is generally considered sexual misconduct” ("Stances of Faith on LGBTQ Issues: Buddhism"). Similarly, interpretations are done in the same fashion regarding same-sex marriage and ordination in the Buddhism faith. In the case of same-sex marriage, “because of Buddhism’s core theme to attain enlightenment, the path one chooses to take within the religion is largely personal, as is one’s beliefs. Hence, most Buddhist literature indicates that opposition to or support for marriage rights for same-sex couples is a personal, rather than religious, statement” ("Stances of Faith on LGBTQ Issues: Buddhism"). As practitioners of Buddhism generally follow an autonomous way of practicing the faith--which means they can choose how they want to practice the faith through rituals and such--this means that there are large varying beliefs of what may be considered proper consummation of marriage. Some people within the Buddhist faith think that same-sex marriage is wrong. Another aspect of Buddhist monasteries is the ordination of the clergy; furthermore, “some select temples and monasteries may prohibit the ordination of LGBTQ people” ("Stances of Faith on LGBTQ Issues: Buddhism").

Discrimination based on sexuality and gender identity does prompt personal homonegativity within Buddhist monasteries, which lessens the amount of clergy that are accepted to be a part of rituals and ceremonies. The expressed negative attitudes towards homosexuality are, in essence, more personal in nature than they are religiously based. The ambiguity of Buddhist dharma, which does not definitively condemn LGBTQ+ people, allows for different interpretations that could lead to homonegativity.

In contrast, Christianity seems to have even more contextually clear evidence that homosexuality may be deemed immoral and unacceptable within the Christian faith. Throughout both the Old and New Testament of the Bible, there are various books that describe gender complements and the seal of love between men and women. Myles Markham, a Christian educator with an MA in Practical Theology from the Columbia Theological Seminary, provides examples in his article that include how “marriage is a primary symbol of the love between Christ and his ‘bride,’" and because of such, “same-sex couples are uniquely excluded from participating in this symbol on the basis of a failure to perform one or more dimensions of an often-vague category referred to as ‘gender complementarity” (Markham). Gender complementarity assumes that marriage and reproduction are exclusive only between a man and woman; therefore, the concept provides the basis of homonegativity across Christian viewpoints on sexuality. According to the Pews Research Center, reiterations of the same reasoning also remain static among different denominations such as Catholicism: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposes same-sex marriage on the ground that ‘marriage is a faithful, exclusive and lifelong union between one man and one woman.’ In 196

2003, the conference stated that ‘what are called ‘homosexual unions’ [cannot be given the status of marriage] because they do not express full human complementarity and because they are inherently nonprocreative. ("Religious Groups’ Official Position on Same-Sex Marriage") Marriage between a man and another man does not fulfill the complement of Christ and the bride, and further does not produce more of God’s children in his blessing of life. The interpretation of Bible scriptures is often associated with homophobic behavior in Christians as well.

Christians use clobber passages, which are passages used to condemn homosexuality in order to advance the idea that homosexuality is a sin. Robert Karl Gnuse is a well-established Ph.D. holder from Vanderbilt University with expertise in the studies of the Old Testament; he is also a professor in the Department of Humanities and Religion. He has written a large collection of books describing the intersection of gender and slavery, women, and homosexuality as described in the Bible, and he elaborates on the deeper meaning of such topics. One of the most prime examples of clobber passages occurs in the book of Leviticus 18. Within the Bible, it is stated that “man shall not lie with a male as would a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22). Gnuse finds that the unique placement of this verse is within two other interesting Levitical laws; ones pertaining to infant sacrifice and bestiality: [H]omosexual prohibition occurs between two laws describing cultic rituals… the word ‘abomination,’ … often describes foreign behavior, especially cultic activity. If so, then what is condemned by the homosexual prohibition is … cultic homosexual relations in particular, and a strong indication of this may be that it follows the prohibition of infant sacrifice and precedes reference to sex with animals by women. (Gnuse 76) By observing the contextual placement of this verse, it can be assumed that alongside general homophobia, the interpretation of homosexual activity in Leviticus 18:22 can be compared to the likes of cultic behavior. The effects of these negative attitudes can be evident in the discrimination and mental health influence on LGBTQ+ people in the Christian faith.

Looking deeply at how the structure of Christianity affects the livelihood of LGBTQ+ individuals, the impact of homonegativity shows the severity of the interpretations and practices throughout the Bible. Nasrudin Subhi, Ph.D. and David Geelan, Ph.D. are both faculty members of the School of Education at the University of Queensland. The pair conducted interviews to understand the connection between their experiences as a member of Christianity. They also noted if there was any significant intrapersonal conflict, such as how the participants felt as a member of the Christian community despite them also being a part of the LGBTQ+ community; they also assessed the presence of interpersonal conflicts, such as how the participants felt interacting and reacting with other members of the Christian community as well as their beliefs as members of the LGBTQ+ community. Of twenty participants, four (or 20%) managed to bypass the conflict between Christianity and homosexuality, and the majority of the respondents (16 of 20, or 80%) faced conflict between Christianity and homosexuality (Subhi and Geelan 1399). The difference in struggles indicate that a majority of people have some sort of interpersonal or external conflict, as well as an intrapersonal conflict as a member of the LGBTQ+ community in the Christian faith.

According to their study, the five most reported feelings among the participants who dealt with 197

both homosexuality and Christianity “were depression (11 of 16 or 68.8%), self-blame and guilt (6 of 16 or 37.5%), anxiety (5 of 16 or 31.3%), suicidal ideation (4 of 16 or 25%), and alienation (4 of 16 or 25%)” (1395). The following chart shows the percent of participants (out of the sixteen participants who found struggle) that were affected by the various mental afflictions.

(Subhi and Geelan 1395)

The large number of participants who indicated a struggle with being LGBTQ+ in a Christian community as well as the high level of mentally afflicted peoples show that homonegativity greatly impacts the lives of those in the community. Evidently, there is a stigmatization that Christians reserve toward homosexuals that negatively impacts their mental health in society. While there tends to be more homonegativity in Christianity, some practitioners notice and accept homosexuality due to their understanding of misinterpreted texts.

The attitudes maintaining positive viewpoints of homosexuality in Buddhism and Christianity are much different than they are similar. Homopositivity in Christianity often is a result of understanding the cultural and timely manner of the text when it was written. In the same case of Leviticus 18:22, the text coheres to “the context of a society anxious about their health, continuing family lineages, and retaining the distinctiveness of Israel as a nation” (Markham). In other words, the interpretation of immoral homosexual action in Leviticus 18:22 is not definitively homophobic in nature but could instead be conveying the abhorrence of pedophilia or prevention of sexually derived sin. Furthermore, the gender complementarity concept is discussed in Genesis 1 and 2, but it fails to consider the implications of gender in relation to marriage. Markham’s analysis of the Bible highlights how “God began by creating human beings of male and female sex (defined as the complex result of combinations between chromosomes, gonads, genes, and genitals) but there 198

is nothing that indicates in Scripture that God only created this binary” ("What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?"). While many Christians follow the assumption that man and woman were created by God for a union to come into fruition, there is still the idea that marriage and consummation could have been inclusive to much more than the two genders. This could encompass individuals who are homosexual or those who place themselves along a large spectrum of gender identity, and interplay between sexuality, gender, and marriage in Christian blessings.

As these concepts are explored in modern day society, a greater portion of the Christian community has also become more accepting of homosexuality.

Many denominations of Christianity have been found to have a better and positive attitude towards homosexual people within the last decade.

Americans who identify as Christian, a majority of U.S. Christians (54%) now say that homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged, by society… the Christian figure has increased by 10 percentage points since we conducted a similar study in 2007.

It reflects a growing acceptance of homosexuality among all Americans – from 50% to 62% – during the same period. (Murphy) The increase of the acceptance of homosexuality over time shows that denominations of Christianity have grown over time with current societal and cultural trends. The following picture shows the increases in denominational acceptance of homosexuality over time.

.

A large contributor to this growth is the youth population. The Pew Research Center reports that, “[a]mong Christians, this trend is driven partly by younger church members, who are generally 199

more accepting of homosexuality than their elder counterparts. For example, roughly half (51%) of evangelical Protestants in the Millennial generation” respect homosexuality (Murphy). Younger generations have been exposed to more impartiality of LGBTQ+ people, such as the federal legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States of America as well as recognition of the gender-fluid spectrum. In turn, more of the elder generation is also noting how younger generations are more accepting of these changes in society. The Pew Research Center records their findings on the following: [A] larger segment of older adults in some Christian traditions have become accepting of homosexuality in recent years, helping to drive the broader trend. For instance, 32% of evangelical Protestant Baby Boomers now say homosexuality should be accepted, up from 25% in 2007. (Murphy) The seven percent increase in homosexuality support from evangelical Protestant Baby Boomers is representative that the number has increased a lot. The homopositivity in Christianity addresses the development of personal interpretations of texts and the influence of social change in regard to the LGBTQ+ community. However, as Buddhism focuses on the aspects of individual behavior towards the community as acts of compassion, homopositivity is more evident.

Buddhist dharma often points to attitudes towards homosexuality as a positive interaction. In fact, these guidelines allow for Buddhist practitioners to have a more accepting worldview, and therefore are more compassionate towards members who are part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Kung Fei Cheng is an independent scholar who wrote “Being Different in Dignity: Buddhist Inclusiveness of Homosexuality.” Studying how Buddhists perceive homosexuality and how it is accepted in the faith, Cheng first notes that "such acceptance, especially from religious leaders, is prominent; therefore, Bhante Dhammika ascertained that 'from a Buddhist point of view homosexuality isn’t necessarily dirty, evil, or sinful… I always try to explain what the authentic Buddhist position is'" (Cheng 6). By noting the original Buddhist position on homosexuality, the interpretation leads practitioners to find it acceptable to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community and to also be Buddhist. One Buddhist perspective from Susan, a heterosexual Buddhist in Cheng's study, states, "Buddhists’ attitudes towards LGBT are acceptance and love. Love only happens when we see others as equals with understanding and acceptance. The word tolerance isn’t even needed in this context. Support just comes naturally if one loves another, seeing it from a Buddhist perspective" (5).

The acceptance of homosexuality carries true even in practitioner's faith, as there is a deeper understanding that altruism in Buddhism trumps any notion of gender or sexuality that does not follow traditional notions of men marrying women. Furthermore, the idea of homosexuality does not necessarily disturb any of the precepts according to members of the Buddhist faith. One of the precepts is to not self-harm or harm others, even in the means of sexual misconduct. Again, homosexuality is often associated with a form of sexual misconduct in some interpreters of the dharma. However, Cheng provides an alternative perspective: In the case of sexual behaviour, it’s not what gender your partner is . . . but rather what your intention is… to give and share, please, and express love and affection, and if there

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was mutual consent, then that action would be good … I just couldn’t see what would make that action immoral . . .If intentions were negative, that would be negative. (Cheng 6) Buddhism pays more attention to the thoughts and actions of the individual practitioner and is therefore worried about the intention of them. Homosexuality is not clearly defined as immoral or a violation of any of the precepts, but it is instead used as a means of preventing harm in sexual misconduct. Buddhism uses the dharma teachings of love and compassion in order to show that moral intentions prevail over any notion of homonegativity, and therefore prompts positive attitudes towards homosexuality.

Regardless of the similar structures of various religions, there are still many differences in how attitudes and behaviors are formed. In the case of homosexuality, it is assumed that altruistic religions such as Buddhism and Christianity would be kind and compassionate towards members of the LGBTQ+ community, specifically highlighting homosexuals receiving the same treatment as heterosexuals do. However, in Christianity, many of the biblical interpretations allow for the Bible to be applied to sexual expectations in society which condemn homosexuality. Christians are often associated with mentally burdening members of the LGBTQ+ community who have faced struggles with the Christian faith. However, there is a growing number of people in Christian denominations that are more accepting of homosexuality today than they have been in the past. On the other hand, Buddhism does not establish homonegative attitudes or behavior. The interpretations of texts allow for personal beliefs and viewpoints towards homosexuality to germinate independently without necessarily being parallel to religious reasons. Yet, many Buddhist practitioners recognize how compassion and kindness in line with the precepts and dharma are more important to the individual and community than not accepting others for who they are, even if they are homosexual. In conclusion, Christianity has more text that has been interpreted to be homonegative, and there are no scriptures to clarify that homophobia and negative perceptions towards them are bad. This allows for the ambiguity of Buddhist texts regarding sexual conduct to be overlooked and interpreted only on a personal level, and therefore it can generate an overall positive viewpoint.

WORKS CITED Cheng, Fung Kei. “Being Different with Dignity: Buddhist Inclusiveness of Homosexuality.”

MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 21 Mar. 2018, www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/4/51.

Gnuse, Robert K. “Seven Gay Texts: Biblical Passages Used to Condemn Homosexuality.”

Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture, vol. 45, no. 2, 22 Apr. 2015, pp. 68–87, 10.1177/0146107915577097.

Harbaugh, Evan, and Eric W. Lindsey. “Attitudes Toward Homosexuality Among Young Adults: Connections to Gender Role Identity, Gender-Typed Activities, and Religiosity.”

Taylor & Francis, Journal of Homosexuality, 22 Apr. 2015, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00918369.2015.1021635.

Markham, Myles. “What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?” HRC, www.hrc.org/resources/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality.

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Murphy, Caryle. “More U.S. Christians OK with Homosexuality.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 17 Aug. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/18/most-u-schristian-groups-grow-more-accepting-of-homosexuality/.

“Religious Groups Official Position on Same-Sex Marriage.” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. 7, December. 2012. www.pewforum.org/2012/12/07/religious-groups-officialpositions-on-same-sex-marriage/ “Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ Issues: Buddhism.” HRC, www.hrc.org/resources/stances-offaiths-on-lgbt-issues-buddhism.

Subhi, Nasrudin, and David Geelan. “When Christianity and Homosexuality Collide: Understanding the Potential Intrapersonal Conflict.” Taylor & Francis Online, Journal of Homosexuality, 15 Nov. 2012, www-tandfonlinecom.hpu.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.1080/00918369.2012.724638.

Vilaythong T., Oth, et al. “‘Do Unto Others’: Effects of Priming the Golden Rule on Buddhists’ and Christians’ Attitudes Toward Gay People.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 49, no. 3, September. 2010, pp. 494–506. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.14685906.2010.01524. x.

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There’s More to It Than Comedy

By Renzelle Ponce William Shakespeare’s work has greatly influenced the way modern English language is shaped, such as the way we pronounce our words, use of grammar, and spelling. However, there’s more to Shakespeare than just his creation of vocabulary and contribution to the fundamentals of the modern English language; he is a master of puns and wordplay. Many of the puns found in Shakespeare’s plays are filled with sexual innuendos and double entendres, typically spoken by the lower class (i.e. clown) to provide comic relief. These characters often speak in a bawdy language filled with indecent and lewd jokes that are humorous.

Although sexual puns and wordplay are typically used to entertain theatre audiences by providing comic relief, to a certain extent bawdy language can also provide character depth by creating a foil in comparison to the main protagonist. For example, this language provides contrasting views of love in Romeo and Juliet and contrasts sexual and innocent relationships in Hamlet. The bawdy interactions provide insight of what the protagonist and surrounding characters think of the tragic situation they’re in. Furthermore, bawdy language can be used to acknowledge the underlying issues and tragic elements of the play by using contrasting themes to create tension and direct the story, which help to unify the play’s theme.

First and foremost, I’d like to point out a few examples of sexual wit that is hidden within plain sight in Shakespeare’s two tragic plays: Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. When people initially read the dialogue between characters we think of the literal meaning, but there are multiple layers of meaning that Shakespeare hides. I plan to dissect and interpret the double entendres and sexual innuendos in 16th century context, pointing out specific words and their double meaning as they were intendedly used in Shakespeare’s day. The word definitions will be based on Frankie Rubinstein’s book, A Dictionary of Shakespeare’s Sexual Puns and their Significance.

The opening scene in Romeo and Juliet, often overlooked of its sexual wit, is the interaction between Sampson and Gregory. To Sampson the feud of the Capulet and Montague is only between men, but to Gregory, regardless of gender, a feud between the families of Capulet and Montague will be fought. In this particular scene, Sampson speaks what he would do to Montague women in a crude way: SAMPSON. ’Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought the men. I will be civil with the maids. I will cut off their heads.

GREGORY. The heads of the maids?

SAMPSON. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads. Take it in what sense thou wilt. (Shakespeare 1.1.22-27) In literal context Sampson will fight the Montagues whether male or female in an aggressive brutal way to assert the power of the Capulets, but the double meaning is hidden away in Sampson’s last line, “the heads of maids, or their maidenheads.” According to Rubinstein “maidenhead” means, “a psychologically inaccurate description for deflowering” (52), or in other words: virginity. It’s further supported when Sampson proudly jokes of his member. “Me they shall feel while I am able to stand, and ’tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh” (Shakespeare 1.1.29-30). Sampson jokes that, 203

when he is done fighting with the Montague men, he will be civil with the maids by taking their virginity and that he is the man with the sturdy member for these maids to “take it in sense.”

A similar dynamic can be seen in Hamlet. For this example, I will focus on Hamlet and Ophelia’s interaction in 3.2, just before a play starts Hamlet asks Ophelia if he could ‘lie’ in her lap: HAMLET. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

OPHELIA. No, my lord.

HAMLET. I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPHELIA. Ay, my lord.

HAMLET. Do you think I meant country matters?

OPHELIA. I think nothing, my lord.

HAMLET. That’s a fair thought to lie between a maids’ legs” (Shakespeare 3.2.119-25).

When I first read this scene, I never really understood why Hamlet would mention the word ‘country,’ but ‘country’ back in Shakespeare’s time was a slang for female genitals. During the play ‘country’ would be pronounced ‘count-ry,’ with an emphasis on ‘co’ making it sound like the modern word ‘cunt.’ Another key term in this dialogue is the word ‘lap’ according to Rubinstein lap means, “female genitals” (287). The double entendre within Ophelia and Hamlet’s interaction is filled with sexual undertones. In the first half of the dialogue, when Hamlet asks Ophelia if he can lie in her lap, Ophelia thinks Hamlet is asking for sex. To this Hamlet responds back the literal meaning; he just wants to lay his head on her lap physically. The second half of the dialogue Hamlet acknowledges the sexual wit he just did by asking Ophelia the question in mind, ‘Do you think I meant cunt matters?’ And when Ophelia says nothing, it is another slang for female genitalia.

As a result, the sexual wit hidden in what seems to be normal dialogue between two characters is carefully used to provide comic relief. The function of innuendos is used to make subtle or indirect comments about the person of subject, which can be sexual, innocent, or accidental. In Shakespeare’s case sexual innuendos are used to insult or provide comic relief, but “everything depends on dramatic context” (Charney 8) for the sexual wordplay to provide relief from the audience.

In Romeo and Juliet, the Nurse often provides jokes filled with sexual undertones to take away from the serious tone of the play. For example, in 1.3, when Lady Capulet tells Juliet of a potential spouse, the nurse tells a story of baby Juliet: “Yea,” quoth he, “Dost thou fall upon thy face?

Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit, Wilt thou not, Jule?” and, by my holy dame, The pretty wretch left crying and say “ay” (Shakespeare 1.3.45-8) In Elizabethan context a woman would fall backward to have sex, but, since Juliet was a baby at the time and when she says ‘ay’ it is funny in a sense, the truth is being spoken right out of a baby’s mouth without her knowing.

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Furthermore, sexual innuendos often include allusions of mythological and divine figures which can be turned sensual as sexual banter or filler talk before an upcoming dramatic scene. In 2.2 in Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet speak of Fortuna (the goddess of fortune and luck) and the lands of her privates: GUILDENSTERN. Happy, in that we are not overhappy.

On Fortune’s cap we are not the very button.

HAMLET. Nor the soles of her shoes?

ROSENCRANTZ. Neither, my lord.

HAMLET. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favors?

GUILDENSTERN. Faith, her privates we.

HAMLET. In the secret parts of Fortune? Oh, most true. She is a strumpet. What news? (Shakespeare 2.2.246-54).

The overall tone of Hamlet has been melancholic and tragic up to this point where Hamlet sees his friends. Hoping to lighten the mood of the play and Hamlet himself, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz engage in sexual banter with Hamlet. Guildenstern says they’re not overly happy or sad since they’re not at the very top or very bottom of Fortuna’s luck; instead they’re in the middle. Hamlet jokes they’re in the middle of her favors, and Guildenstern goes along with the joke, saying, yes, we’re in her privates receiving an average favor. Fortuna is usually depicted with a wheel of fortune where the top represented luck and the bottom represented bad luck. When Hamlet calls Fortuna a strumpet, usually a prostitute or harlot in Elizabethan context, Fortuna often gave favors randomly.

Critics often associate Shakespeare’s use of sexual puns and bawdy language with clowns and people of the lower class. This specific use of the lower class is known for their “witty, entertainment value” (Charney 186), which provide comic relief that critics dominantly identify.

Although bawdy language can be used to provide comic relief, Charney argues bawdy language can also be used as foils to “provide a symmetrical contrast with their overblown, romantic masters and mistresses and balance the expression of deeply felt love” (188). A character who exhibits such bawdy language is Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. There are several instances of Mercutio and his sexual wit in various interactions with the Nurse and Romeo, where he speaks to create comic relief, but also provide insight of the tragic situations and relationships around him.

In 1.4 when Romeo is melancholic over the unrequited feelings for Rosaline, Mercutio uses one of his sexual puns to tell Romeo he is taking the burden of love too seriously: ROMEO. Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.

MERCUTIO. If love be rough with you, be rough with love.

Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down (Shakespeare 1.4.25-28) At first glance, Mercutio tells Romeo that when love is rough which causes great pain, Romeo must take control to stop the pain. In actuality, this is one of Mercutio’s sexual puns that has a sexual meaning; in context ‘prick’ is a slang for male genitalia. Mercutio’s solution for Romeo to get over Rosalind is to go out and have sex to the point he stops thinking that he needs to be in 205

love. The sexual double entendre and wordplay used by Mercutio provides a contrasting view, “who see love in a more practical sense, as inextricably connected with sex and lust” (Charney 188). The bawdy language used by Mercutio provides different views of love where Mercutio and Romeo are juxtaposed, making Mercutio a foil to Romeo.

In addition, the use of bawdy language to juxtapose two characters who are each other foils can strongly be seen in Hamlet. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy when dealing with the grief of his late father King Hamlet, Hamlet makes several allusions and sexual notions of King Claudius’ relationship to Gertrude compared to King Hamlet and Gertrude’s relationship. Hamlet grieves how incestuous and rotten King Claudius and Gertrude’s marriage is, “so that the play [Hamlet] begins in an aura of sexual sin” (Charney 198). In 1.2, Hamlet compares the social images of King Hamlet versus King Claudius: So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr so loving to my mother, ………………………………………

She married. O most wicked, speed to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! (Shakespeare 1.2.143-44,161-62) Although ‘bawdy’ can be defined as a humorous way of joking in a sexual way, ‘bawdy’ in this context is referred to as “acts that are lewd, obscene, or unchaste” (DiGandi 131). ‘Bawdy’ here is used specifically in a way to juxtapose the two different types of relationships Gertrude has; one that is innocent (King Hamlet) and the other filled with sexual sin (King Claudius). Colman argues that ‘bawdy’ “has a place here not simply as comic relief but because of the whole dramatic process … The two kings are equal and opposite, as Shakespeare emphasizes in juxtaposing” (Colman 57).

Furthermore, Hamlet describes his father in a divine manner filled with righteousness as Hyperion goes against King Claudius who is named a Satyr for his beastly and bawdy incestuous actions.

Similar to Mercutio and Romeo’s contrasting views on love, the ‘bawdy’ in Hamlet’s case provides insight on his contrasting view of women and relationships. Due to the sexual relationship of Gertrude and her late husband, the sexual disgust in women is transferred onto his own relationship with Ophelia. Hamlet turns the imagery of women as something tainted and sinful mocking his own mother and Ophelia in the later acts.

Aside from providing foils of the protagonist emphasizing the contrasting views and differences, ‘bawdy’ can be used to acknowledge the issues and tragic elements of the play. Perret analyzes how ‘bawdy’ is used for plot development arguing, “The punning of the bawdy wordplay comically introduces serious values” (5). In Hamlet the sexual wit and wordplay can also be used to acknowledge the “fatal consequences of sexually contaminated blood” (DiGandi 135). Hamlet is set in a tone with an aura of sexual sin with images of Gertrude and Hamlet’s rank/lineage stained in association with King Claudius. In 2.2. Hamlet describes King Claudius as, “Bloody, bawdy villain! / Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindness / villain!” (Shakespeare 2.2.60709). The alliteration of bloody and bawdy portrays King Claudius’ character as one who is filled with murderous lust and corruption. As someone who was driven to kill his own brother and seduce Gertrude into a sexual relationship to attain high aristocratic rank. The consequence of the contaminated blood of late King Hamlet is mentioned in 1.5, “Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand / Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched, Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,” 206

(Shakespeare 1.5.81-3). Due to King Claudius’s murderous bawdy act, he robbed King Hamlet of his rank, his wife, and his life. Colman further argues that plays like Hamlet, “use bawdy as a way of making it clear to the audience that larger issues are at stake than those which the dialogue is explicitly acknowledging,” (45). The bawdiness used within Hamlet signifies the sexual disgust that Hamlet experiences, taking the reader into a personal level of understanding the issue of Gertrude and King Claudius’ sexual relationship.

Lastly, bawdy language can be used to unify the play’s theme. Mario DiGandi argues Mercutio’s bawdy can also be used, “as an element in an analogy” (138) in Romeo and Juliet about the theme of fate and time. In 2.4, when the nurse comes to look for Romeo, Mercutio takes the opportunity to make a sexual pun: NURSE. God you good morrow, gentlemen.

MERCUTIO. God you good e’en, fair gentlewoman.

NURSE. Is it good e’en?

MERCUTIO. ’Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon,” (Shakespeare 2.4.111-15).

It’s apparent that Mercutio often speaks in a lewd manner with sexual overtones to poke fun, but the mention of time unifies the theme of fate in Romeo and Juliet. To understand the multiple meanings of Mercutio’s pun, dial sexually represents a female’s genitals and hand in this context is another slang for the male genitalia. When Mercutio mentions the time “upon the prick of noon,” he makes an inappropriate joke that the ‘prick’ (penis) stands erect at ‘noon’. Focusing on the theme of time, the sexual pun can be used as an analogy to talk about the untimely tragic events of Romeo and Juliet. In the prologue of act 1 the audience is told there would be “a pair of starcross’d lovers take their life; / Whose misadventures piteous overthrows” (Shakespeare Prologue, 6-7). The “bawdy hand of the dial” that is “upon the prick of noon” can metaphorically refer to Romeo and Juliet’s fate in a race of time where the star crossed lovers hurry to marry but end up dying due to a undelivered letter and Juliet’s fake death because their time does not align for them to be alive together.

Furthermore, the bawdy comments that Hamlet directs at women specifically Gertrude and Ophelia unify the imagery and theme of hatred at female sexuality. I’ve provided examples earlier in my paper of the bawdy interactions Hamlet has with Ophelia and the indecent language he uses to speak about his mother. To add more to the sexual disgust and hatred of women, Hamlet speaks in full disgust of his mother’s sexual relationship to King Claudius: Nay, but to live In the rank of an enseamed bed, Stew’d in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty! (Shakespeare 3.4.103-06).

The imagery of corruption and sexual sin from King Claudius is strongly influenced in the closet scene where Hamlet talks to Gertrude. Rank used in this context refers to King Hamlet’s rank and his former relationship with Gertrude that was innocent and righteous. Now the rank of Denmark and its royal value is corrupted through the ‘honeying’ and love making from King Claudius 207

contamination. Hamlet’s view of Gertrude and women in general is tainted with a heavy religious tone that women are weak, lustful, and quick to be corrupted.

Colman argues that “those plays use indecency mainly as ironic parody, to look at some others in which it helps to place major issues in perspective but does so without arrogating the role of ultimate—truth teller” (68). The use of ‘bawdy’ in Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet focuses on the interactions and perspective between characters to help the audience realize the issues of the tragedy in each of the plays, without explicitly telling the audience, a perfect example of showing and not telling. In Romeo and Juliet, the ‘bawdy’ used by Mercutio gives insight to the audience what Mercutio really thinks about the Romeo and his relationship with Juliet and the general direction of the story, foreshadowing the tragic moments. Whereas, Hamlet uses ‘bawdy’ to emphasize the issue of contamination and the sexual tainted imagery of women that was relevant during the Elizabethan Era and its heavily religious influences.

Shakespeare’s use of sexual wit and bawdy language can be used for more than providing entertainment such as comic relief to contrast from dramatic scenes. The sexual innuendos and double entendres can also be used to create character depth and foils in comparison to the protagonist, such as Mercutio to Romeo. Mercutio’s sexual wit and interaction with Romeo shows just how different these two characters are on the idea of love. Mercutio has a more practical and aggressive view of love, whereas Romeo is much more naive and into the idea of divine love that’s meant to be, which ties into the idea of ‘star-crossed’ lovers. For Hamlet the bawdy language is used in a different context to make a distinct contrast of King Hamlet and King Claudius, as one is more divine and righteous versus the other who is sexually deviant and lustful. Shakespeare’s indecencies create character depth without putting too much emphasis on physical detail or action, but by focusing more on the language and topic each character speaks about.

Furthermore, the differences in comparison can be used to acknowledge the underlying issues of the play and the tragic elements that make the play a tragedy. Colman argues, “it has become the dramatic function of bawdy to direct the audience’s attention to questions of value underlying the drama” (91). In my example of Hamlet, the bawdy language filled with sexual innuendos and double entendres brings attention to the audience the issue of King Claudius. Aside from killing King Hamlet, King Claudius’s contamination of Denmark has detrimental consequences on the characters and their views like Hamlet. The contamination of King Claudius’ devious and sexual nature taints the image and association of marriage and women to Hamlet, and he transfers the sexual disgust onto his own relationship with Ophelia.

Lastly, all the bawdy interactions can also be used to unify the play’s major themes and imagery.

Charney argues, “The late romances of Shakespeare all have strong sexual themes, but they function allegorically rather than psychologically; in other words, extreme lustfulness is set against extreme virtue and innocence without any middle ground” (195). This can be said for Romeo and Juliet where the theme of lust and love is used at their extreme as contrast to direct the play into its tragic ending. The tension of the two feuding families added with the romantic yet forbidden relationship of Romeo and Juliet, their fatal sexual attraction to each other, and Mercutio’s sexual wit unifies the whole play’s theme of fate and time. Charney’s argument cannot be applied to Hamlet, where innocence and lust are intertwined, which fuels Hamlet’s sexual disgust. The idea of innocence and lust are not used as a contrast but are mixed in Hamlet’s view of women and 208

relationships. His view of Gertrude’s relationship to King Claudius, as innocence being corrupted and taken away, envisions it as filled with lust and sexual sin. It is then transferred onto his relationship with Ophelia and his new view of woman as weak, easily controlled, and tainted.

WORKS CITED Charney, Maurice. Shakespeare On Love & Lust. Columbia University Press, 1983, p. 8, 186, 188, 195, 198.

Colman, Ernest Adrian Mackenzie. The Dramatic Use of Bawdy in Shakespeare. London Longman Group Limited, 1974, p. 45, 57, 68, 91.

DiGangi, Mario. "Shakespeare's 'bawdy'." Shakespeare Studies, vol. 43, 2015, p. 131+. Gale Academic OneFile Accessed 10 Apr. 2020.

Perret, Marion D. “Of Sex and Shrew.” Review of Taming of Shrew, written by William Shakespeare. University of Calgary Journal Hosting, 1982, p. 5.

Rubinstein, Frankie. A Dictionary of Shakespeare’s Sexual Puns and their Significance. 2nd ed., MACMILLAN LTD, 1989, p. 52, 287.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet from The Folger Shakespeare. Ed. Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. Folger Shakespeare Library, April 27, 2020. https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/romeo-and-juliet/ Shakespeare, William. Hamlet from The Folger Shakespeare. Ed. Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. Folger Shakespeare Library, April 27, 2020. https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/

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K-Pop's World Phenomenon

By Karen Shimizu K-pop spread all over the world rapidly, and a lot of K-pop boy and girl-bands have been succeeding recently, especially in the past five to ten years. The K-pop boy band called BTS, one of the most successful K-pop groups, broke thirteen Guinness World Records. The all-female Kpop band, BLACKPINK, broke a record when they released a new song off their latest album on YouTube. The list goes on and on. K-pop successes seem like a coincidence; however, if they are not, what makes them popular? In other words, what makes K-pop culture spread all over the world?

‘K-pop’ is an abbreviation for Korean Pop. It was developed as a music genre in the 1990s. It was designed by mixing R&B and hip-hop, which were popular music genres in America at that time.

In the late 90s, Asian countries experienced the Asian Financial Crisis. As a solution to the crisis, the Korean government took a lot of political measures. One of them was the establishment of the Ministry of Culture to build its pop culture and image. They protected K-pop music and K-pop stars to stimulate South Korea’s economy. The Ministry helps K-pop companies find talent, train the stars, financially support them, and protect them from defamation. Furthermore, the government protects the groups' intellectual property rights. In 2019, the K-pop band BTS made around $4.65 billion USD in South Korea’s GDP (Miniano, 2020). BTS would go on to break many world records, but they couldn’t achieve them without the Ministry’s assistance. So, how do K-pop companies find talented teens and train them for stardom with the Ministry of Culture’s support?

After South Korea’s democratization in 1987, K-pop began to emerge. Becoming a K-pop star started to manifest as one of the most ambitious dreams Koreans could have. Nowadays, many teens in South Korea and in many countries around the world want to become K-pop stars, so Kpop companies hold many auditions worldwide. Why do K-pop companies go to other countries for auditions? Corporations want to hire stars from foreign countries because they theorize that members abroad could draw in fans from their homelands. This is one of the reasons that K-pop groups became popular in foreign countries. For example, a worldwide popular boy band NCT has ten Korean members, two Japanese members, five members from China, and one member each from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao, the United States, Thailand, and Canada (SM Entertainment, 2020) After teenagers get accepted into K-pop companies, they start their trainee period. During the trainee period, companies train teenagers to improve their singing, dancing, and even language abilities. However, many trainees give up on being a K-pop star during this period because the training is a very difficult process for teenagers. They cannot have a normal teenage life. Instead of playing football at the playground with friends, they go to lesson rooms and train themselves for many hours every day. South Korea even has schools for idol trainees to learn about performance and to protect their privacy. They live in dormitories near their lesson rooms to practice hard until late at night. Not only is practicing meticulously and living without their families hard enough for teenagers, but the most challenging part of succeeding as a trainee is controlling their weight. Most K-pop companies have a limit of body weight to be a trainee or to debut, and trainees have to keep their weight under those limits. If they gain weight, they have to follow a weight loss diet. With how little they eat on these diets, it makes sense to call it ‘fasting.’

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Trainees often skip meals to lose weight. Of course, they like dancing or singing because that is what they want to do in their future, but who enjoys skipping meals? They have to report their weight to their trainers and to other trainees while living with them to motivate each other. They have to follow these strict diets because people in Asian countries perceive thin women and men as the standard of beauty. K-pop idol trainees try to be the “standard” of beauty when they debut as members of K-pop bands, and they continue to uphold that standard after their debut to draw in more fans (Chong, 2020). One member from the K-pop band TWICE was told by a trainer that she had to lose fifteen pounds in a week to perform at a showcase. She ate nothing the whole week.

She became afraid of sleeping because she thought that she would never wake up considering her poor health. The effort K-pop idols put into their successes as stars generates passionate support from their fans (Koreaboo, 2018).

Another reason for K-pop’s success comes from the exposure it receives via social media. K-pop companies release their groups’ music videos, performances, and dance practice videos on YouTube. The videos have made many groups famous because of idols’ high-quality performance, which is a product of their hard training. However, the artists’ performance skills are not the only reasons that the videos make people love idols; K-pop companies spend a lot of money to make the videos more attractive. They hire talented camera operators and editors to produce videos with high-quality lighting, cutting, and coloring. The companies also employ very talented stylists to make K-pop idols appear their best (Toit, 2020). After watching K-pop videos, fans share the videos on Twitter, which allows social media platforms like Twitter to make K-pop groups famous and their bond with their fans stronger. In 2017, BTS became the first artist group from South Korea to receive the Top Social Artist award at the Billboard Music Awards, and they have stayed at the top of the ranking on Twitter for a long time. Throughout the decade, Girls’ Generation, PSY, BIGBANG, Super Junior, and Wanna One have also trended on Twitter, and they have recently been called the “legends of K-pop” because they are said to have formed the foundation of the industry and introduced K-pop to the world (Herman, 2020). Another popular social networking app that makes K-pop globally popular is Vlive. This app is used by K-pop companies to provide fans with their official videos, including comedy shows filmed by companies and offshot videos. The quality of the content is as great as what is broadcasted on television. Furthermore, idols do online live videos through the app often. Idols use these live videos to communicate with their fans by reading their comments and try to stay close to their fans (Ji-Eun, 2018).

The K-pop boom spread rapidly worldwide because of the hard work of K-pop companies and their stars, as well as with the support of the South Korean government. Critical points are that Kpop companies used digitalization effectively and succeeded in staying close to their fans. As a result, the relationship between K-pop and social media has proven to be powerful. Maybe someday soon we will hear K-pop music in the streets of America, even if few people can understand Korean.

REFERENCES Chong, Elay (2020. February 13th). BBC News. ‘I could have been a K-pop idol- but I’m glad I quit.’ Retrieved from www.bbc.com/news/stories-51476159

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Davenport, Jen. (2020. September 18th). The Bagpipe. K-pop Groups Continue to Break Records. Retrieved from www.bagpipeonline.com/arts/2020/9/14/k-pop-groups-continueto-break-records Herman, Tarmar (2020. September 21st) Forbes. 10 Years on, Twitter Is Shaping the Spread of K-Pop. Retrieved from www.forbes.com/sites/tamarherman/2020/09/21/10-years-ontwitter-is-shaping-the-spread-of-k-pop/#6f52329699a7 Ji-Eun, Seo (2018. August 1st). Korea JoongAng Daily. For K-pop Streamers, V Live is the Place to Be. Retrieved from koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2018/08/01/industry/ForKpop-streamers-V-Live-is-the-place-to-be/3051369.html Koreboo (2018. May 13th). Koreaboo. TWICE’s Momo Went Through Extreme Length to Lose 15 Pounds Before Her Debut. Retrieved from www.koreaboo.com/news/twice-momowent-extreme-lengths-lose-15-pounds-debut/ Miniano, Mercy. (2020. May 14th). TripZilla. Here’s How the South Korean Government Helped K-pop Rise to Global Fame. Retrieved from www.tripzilla.com/koreangovernment-k-pop/110010 SM Entertainment. (2020). NCT Official. Retrieved from nct.smtown.com/Intro Toit, Wouter du. (2020. June 12). Fstoppers. Why Do Kpop Music Videos Look So Good Compared to American Music Videos? Retrieved from fstoppers.com/composite/why-dokpop-music-videos-look-so-good-compared-american-music-videos-492870

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Universal National Service: Finding Common Ground in a Divided Nation

by Gregor Umhoefer The United States as a whole has been split along many axes. Political polarization, racial and gender inequalities, and socio-economic stratification have divided the population into subcategories so disparate that those on one side cannot understand or connect with those on the other. This has created a tension that has escalated into violence with ever-increasing frequency; but it wasn’t always this way. In the midst of World War II, a large percentage of Americans from all walks of life were conscripted to fight, and many of those who remained in the U.S. also contributed to the war effort to support those overseas. Following the war, community connection & support, and engagement in civic activities like voting, volunteering, and public service, were at an all-time high, leading the generation to be called “The Greatest Generation” (Bridgeland and DiIulio 5). This type of solidarity comes not from war, but from sharing experiences and having common goals, which is more powerful than the differences that divide us. Since World War II, the definition of national service has evolved to include non-military programs like AmeriCorps and The Peace Corps. What’s more, national service provides young people with valuable skills that can help them excel in their careers, and studies have shown a connection between military service and reduced risk of mortality when compared to the non-military population (Waller and McGuire 935).

Service in the military brings citizens together and creates understanding across cultural and class divides. However, it is not an ideal path for many people, and the modern recruitment and retention methods create new divisions in society. This essay will look at the positives and negatives of military service, and how it might be adapted to create a universal requirement for national service that would benefit society as a whole. By increasing funding to existing non-military humanitarian programs alongside the military, a combined mandatory universal national service program could be created that would provide the same benefits to everyone, without the negative effects that frequently come with the military. Such a program would not just help to bridge the gaps in our society, it would also improve the health, knowledge, and employability of the population, and provide personnel to support critical areas, especially in times of crisis.

The original purpose of universal military service was to maintain a consistent force to fight in the defense of a country or its allies if an armed conflict arises. Despite the reduced frequency of armed conflict in much of the industrialized world, many countries still maintain their universal service program (“Field Listing”). Of these countries, those that offer non-military alternatives in their service programs have received greater public support. For example, in Austria, one can choose a variety of non-military options lasting from 9 months to two years, including work in environmental protection, medical care, or serving in developing countries, all of which provide training (Bridgeland and DiIulio Appendix 24). A 2013 vote in Austria- a relatively small, neutral country whose military annually conscripts 22,000 of its young men- showed nearly 60% of the population in favor of maintaining their universal national service program, while France has roughly the same support for bringing back their national program with the option for alternative non-military service (“Austrians Vote”; Williamson).

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Life in the military can be challenging and is not necessarily a good fit for everyone. Deployments are long and keep families apart for extended periods. There is an element of risk associated with many jobs, which can lead to physical and mental health problems (Sanders, 729). The United States has relied on two extreme recruitment methods, starting with the involuntary draft and later changing to an incentivized volunteer force in 1973 (Rotsker 2). The draft forced some people into service that were not suited for the rigors of military life, but it did so neutrally and without regard to their socioeconomic or ethnic background (Bridgeland and DiIulio 22). In contrast, with a volunteer military, the burden of national defense rests mostly on the lower and working classes, and by proxy, their families (Mittlestadt 95). While this provides benefits and opportunities for education and employment for those who may not have many options, it also means a much smaller proportion join from the middle and upper classes who have little need for those benefits (Mittlestadt 96). This serves to widen the existing divide between the socioeconomic strata in our society. A universal service program would require that everyone participate, regardless of background, would, as William Galston states, “cut across class lines” and promote better understanding and appreciation between classes (323).

The compartmentalized benefits that incentivize the volunteer military force have created another divide, this time between the military and civilian worlds. Military bases are often set up as selfcontained cities. Their tax-free shopping centers and grocery stores, post offices, medical facilities, and housing create an exclusive microcosm. A soldier and their family’s health care, housing, financial and legal advice, childcare, and children’s education are paid for by taxes, accounting for nearly 50% of the annual defense budget (Mittlestadt 95). This creates a military bubble, in which all the support required by families is localized and isolated from the civilian community and there is little incentive to leave the base and interact with the civilian population. This difference of experience leads to a lack of understanding on both sides. The military members and their families don’t experience what life is like for civilians who don’t have the safety net and conveniences provided for them by the military. The civilian side does not realize the challenges faced by these families in terms of time spent apart, the risks, and the stress associated with the demands of the work involved.

This gap in understanding is evident in the challenges faced by military personnel who are retiring or transferring from military to civilian life. Military members are sometimes viewed by potential employers as too structured, or their skills untransferable (Davis and Minnis 7). While much of the formal military training is specialized and sometimes lacks a civilian equivalent, there are many undocumented skills that are common in all military training. These include holding leadership roles, planning, communication, and managing risk (Davis and Minnis 8). Employers also frequently view veterans as damaged; while PTSD has been diagnosed in 20% of veterans, this condition is present in the civilian population as well. Despite this, it is very disproportionately connected to veterans. In a 2012 survey of Human Resource professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management, 42% of the respondents stated that veterans’ mental health problems posed a “challenge in hiring” (Society for Human Resource Management 18).

These problems stem from a fundamental misunderstanding caused by a lack of shared experience and are the source of many preconceptions and prejudices. Most people naturally associate mostly with those who are similar to them, and it’s true that those who come from similar backgrounds or who work in the same field can understand and connect more readily with others that share the 214

same experiences. Unfortunately, this means they don’t get to experience the challenges and contributions made by people from backgrounds different from their own. National service would provide the opportunity to work with and learn skills from classes of people they may never have met otherwise. Working together toward a common goal would allow them to build an appreciation for those from other classes and backgrounds (Hess 146). This would challenge those preconceptions and prejudices and help to reduce the division between subsets of society (Galston 323). With a universal national service system in place, rather than keeping sticking to their social circles, U.S. citizens from every background could bring their unique experience to collaborate and solve problems together-- fostering appreciation and understanding. If everyone shared a point in their lives, be it six months or a year or more, where they performed a civic duty in their community, another country, or in defense of the nation, it would be far easier for people to find a common ground. The shared challenges of national service also create strong, lifelong bonds between people from drastically different backgrounds.

Military service provides a broad spectrum of experience, transferable skills, and knowledge that extend beyond the time in service. It teaches people to be more self-reliant, but also to work as a team-- often with people from many different cultures. Young recruits have access to a chain of command that provides mentors and leadership examples (McCausland et al. 6). They are given opportunities to lead, train others, and to be responsible not just for themselves, but for others in their office or command. Working as a team toward a common goal is fundamental not just in training, but also in practice, and to be effective requires an understanding of those you work with (McCausland et al. 59-60). The military builds decisiveness and the ability to make difficult decisions quickly, improving confidence and the understanding of accountability (McCausland et al. 51). It teaches persistence, to not give up when things become difficult, and to work through challenges, which provides a different perspective of what it means to fail (McCausland et al. 8).

Developing these skills creates a solid foundation for future careers, especially early in life. It allows people to better understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie and may help them decide their future career goals. Building these skills and self-awareness would make deciding on a career or education path much easier.

Maintaining physical fitness is also a key component of the military. From initial induction, and throughout their service, military members are required to meet a set standard of fitness. This establishes healthy exercise habits that in many cases last a lifetime. Originally this difference between the overall health of those who had served in the military and the general population was termed “The Healthy Soldier Effect.” More recent research of veterans from past conflicts has supported this observation, showing that those who served in the military have a lower rate of mortality when compared with the general population, often for many years after leaving the service (Rolland-Harris et al. 36). A retrospective study by McLaughlin et al. showed that this difference in mortality rate between military veterans and the general population tends to decrease with time out of the military, but in some cases, the effect lasted nearly 40 years (935). Establishing a pattern of healthy exercise habits for more people would also reduce health care costs. A study

by Carlson et al., that compared health care costs between people with low and high levels of activity, showed an average annual increase in expenditure of 11.1% for those with “inadequate levels of aerobic physical activity” when compared to those who exercised regularly (319).

Improving the overall health of the general population and reducing disease and health care costs is a benefit of a greater percentage of people performing military service.

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While mandating military service is one way to attain some of these benefits, it is not the only option, nor is it necessarily the best one. In the last century, many ideas have been put forth, and programs established, to increase civic involvement, volunteering, and humanitarian efforts. One of these efforts, which began humanitarian action, was President Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933 and was most notably continued by President Kennedy’s Peace Corps in 1961 and President Clinton’s AmeriCorps in 1993, among others (Bridgeland and DiIulio 4; McCain 61-62). With sufficient funding, these programs have the potential to provide many of the same opportunities and benefits for Americans as the military. Bridgeland and DiIulio report that among those who previously served in AmeriCorps, at least 80 percent say it made them “more likely to attain a college degree, vote, volunteer, care about community problems, and know how to effect practical solutions to such problems” (7). Senator Blumenthal recently echoed a similar sentiment, saying “Participating in service helps reinforce the value of community and fosters important skills that benefit young volunteers for the rest of their lives” (“Sen. Coons, Colleagues”). AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps also provide disaster support and recovery both domestically and internationally (Bridgeland and DiIulio 7-8). Programs like AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps can also provide support in key areas like education, logistics, food programs, and public health (“Sen. Coons, Colleagues”). The humanitarian support and response that these programs provide are not unlike those of the military or National Guard. Yet despite their clear value and the growing interest, funding for these programs is very limited, and each year they receive several times more applications than there are positions available. In 2011 more than 580,000 people applied to AmeriCorps, yet the number of positions available was only 82,500 (Bridgeland and DiIulio 7).

A major reason for this financial shortfall is political: national service programs like AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps have, as John McCain said, “been largely identified with the Democratic Party” (62). Indeed, they were introduced by democratic presidents, and it has resulted in limited bipartisan support that has hindered the growth of these programs. In 2019 the Executive Branch proposed removing the Corporation for National Community Service, the agency that is “home to AmeriCorps, VISTA and Senior Corps” from the budget altogether (Bridgeland and DiIulio 3-4).

Securing adequate funding for these programs is a challenge, but necessary for their impact to be fully realized. Another barrier these programs face is that they are not generally viewed as essential or impactful. Most people do not experience the positive impacts these programs provide, nor do they recognize the many areas where their efforts can be applied. In his article “Patriotism Means Reaching Beyond Our Self-Interest,” late Senator John McCain summarizes the need and opportunities for support: And it is not true, as the cynics suggest, that our era lacks great causes. Such causes are all around us. Thousands of schools in our poorest neighborhoods are failing their students and crying out for talented teachers. Millions of elderly Americans desperately want to stay in their homes and out of nursing facilities but cannot do so without help with the small tasks of daily life. More and more of our communities are being devastated by natural disasters. (61) With adequate funding and expansion, national service programs could help solve problems that range from everyday challenges to disasters. One way to accomplish this would be to further 216

develop and incorporate them alongside the military into a universal national service program with a shared budget.

The impacts of COVID-19 have brought a new set of challenges: increased unemployment, and shortage of public health workers (“Sen. Coons, Colleagues”; Target Point 5). The expansion of national service programs has been proposed to help to solve both of these problems by providing training and jobs to high school graduates and those who are unemployed to assist in contact tracing, unemployment assistance, childcare for healthcare workers, and emergency response. One of the proposals dubbed the “Pandemic Response and Opportunity Through National Service Act” would “Fund 750,000 national service positions over a three-year response and recovery period, in part to meet the projected need for as many as 300,000 public health workers” (“Sen. Coons, Colleagues”). The expansion of national service programs like AmeriCorps has been discussed as a possible solution to the current situation and future crises. In a recent poll by Target Point, 92% of Democrats, 70% of Republicans, and 76% of independents among those polled supported this as a potential solution (5). Such a positive bipartisan response is unusual, and it demonstrates how having a common goal can be a powerful force for unification and collaboration. With luck, this support can be harnessed to provide increased funding and capacity for these programs.

Much like the military, national service programs such as AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps have proven that they can effectively provide community support, disaster relief, and recovery, and change the lives of those who serve in them. If these programs were expanded, they could provide many critical jobs that support health care workers, contact tracing, and community relief during a year that has seen a record-high unemployment rate (“Unemployment Rate”; “Sen. Coons, Colleagues”). A lifetime career in these programs is not necessary to realize their benefits to society and those who serve. It would be better for everyone to have this experience for a short time. These civilian national programs need their budget and capacity boosted, perhaps through a shared budget with the military. One solution would be to incorporate funding for AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps into the Department of Defense budget. The 2020 budgets for the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps were $452 million and $1.1 billion respectively (“Peace Corps” 24; “Fiscal Year 2020”). By comparison, the 2021 budget for the Department of Defense is 4% lower than its 2020 budget, at $706 billion (“Long-Term Implications” 1). If just 0.7% of the proposed DoD budget were allocated to the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, it would effectively quadruple their combined annual funding. The clear bipartisan support for both the military and other national service programs could allow for the creation of a combined DoD and national service budget, a step toward a universal program. This would help ensure that more people will be able to provide even greater support for their communities alongside their peers from all walks of life.

To make this possible and produce the maximum benefit to both society and those who serve, these programs should be incorporated as options along with the military into a mandatory universal national service program. This would allow high school graduates, and those who are older who have deferred enrolment, the opportunity to train, learn transferable skills, support, and connect to their communities and fellow citizens. A program like this should require that everyone eligible serves in one of these programs for 12 to 24 months. In addition to the pay earned through the program and skills gained from training, the program should provide benefits similar to those provided to veterans, such as financial assistance for future college or trade training, and publicly funded health care. Doing so would produce a new generation of healthier, better educated, and 217

more capable citizens. It would align people toward common goals, a sense of mutual contribution and ownership, and a shared experience that would build greater community and national cohesion.

It would connect people to their neighbors, communities, and the world by challenging them to move beyond their comfort zones, and across the barriers that currently divide the United States.

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