The High 77

THE HIGH EDITION 77 | NOVEMBER 9, 2018

BRETT FOR STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT Illustration by Artémis Faulk-Antonakis

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Hannah Besson DEPUTY EDITOR

Suhasini Mehra

MINORITY REPORT

JAKE PAUL

IN THE INTERIM

Off white

Sociopath?

Making the grade

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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s we welcomed a new season we simultaneously welcomed increased quantities of leg hair, an outbreak of chickenpox, and even the very first letter to the editor since the transition of power. While of course we stand by the well-written article and eloquent journalist that the letter addressed, we are grateful that Mr. Lloyd took the time to engage in dialogue with The High. We encourage everyone else, student or teacher, who has an opinion in agreement or disagreement, with any of the articles we publish to follow in his footsteps.

Hannah Besson

TABLE OF CONTENTS Kavanaugh Letter to the Editor Minorities Moral values Mom cliques Success / SEL Grades

In this issue you can look for things to agree with, things to disagree with, and even things to feel impartial about. We confront the issue of parent cliques based on ethnic groups, the experience of being a minority at ISL, and the school’s over-emphasis on grades. Additionally, we address the infamous Shane Dawson documentary on Jake Paul, consider whether or not ISL favors introverts or extroverts, and give an insight into the ISL production of Little Shop of Horrors.

Little Shop of Horrors

So, read. Let the conversations ensue, debate and argue, possibly cry or laugh. Either way, if this issue evokes enough emotion in you, whatever that may be, that you feel it necessary to share your views send a response to my email: hbesson@islstudent.ch. And your response will be printed in our next issue.

Yearbook

Inclusivity/ Disclaimer In Brief Jake Paul Maturity Introverts / Gender Male fashion Art and the artist Red Dead Redemption 2

03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

EDITORS Joseph Nobs Maddie Johns Ally Hatcher Raquel Muzquiz

Khwaish Vohra Leonardo Engvig Eleanor Payne Artémis Faulk-Antonakis

INTERNATIONAL DAYS IN NOVEMBER 2: International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists 5: World Tsunami Awareness Day 6: International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War 10: World Science Day for Peace and Development 11: Remembrance Day 14: World Diabetes Day 15: World Philosophy Day 16: International Day for Tolerance 18: World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

19: World Toilet Day 20: Africa Industrialization Day and Universal Children’s Day 21: World Television Day 25: International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 29: International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 27: World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 30: Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare

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BLASTED FROM THE PAST

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r. Foley recently tackled the issue of change and how who we are today as ISL students does not need to define our futures or who we choose to become. Of course, for a school aiming to encourage students to feel at ease and express themselves, we would not expect any different from an individual in a leadership position.

Now, let’s switch up the context. We’re no longer discussing a troublemaker who turned out to be a successful, compassionate member of a boy band and mentor to troubled adolescents. Let’s say that we were discussing an alleged sexual offender who was elected (and appointed) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

We’ll leave the intricate controversy of whether or not Kavanaugh committed the crime he has been accused of to the US government - though we all have opinions about it. However, we have to be honest, no one would really have cared what Kavanaugh wrote in his high school yearbook, or how many beers he drank unless they thought that perhaps those behaviours reflect who he is today and impede his ability to be a judge on the Supreme Court. Some of you are probably thinking, wait, but what about what Mr. Foley said about high school not defining who we become? Even Kavanaugh claims - possibly justifiably so - that he is not the same person that he was in his senior year of high school. Yet, when a handful of the behaviours he demonstrated as a high school student are perpetuated by some of his behaviours as an adult in a political position, his argument is weakened significantly.

Even giving him the benefit of the doubt, and attributing some of his extreme reaction to the stress of the situation, during his hearing the then nominee for the Supreme Court became emotional and political. This being a reaction no better than his 18-year-old self would have exhibited in response to the accusations, may put into question his ability as a judge to remain professional during any and every case brought to him in the future. When it comes to a situation that holds such gravity both in the context of an alleged sexual offense as well as a nomination to the Supreme Court, can we afford to separate the person from their past?

Kavanaugh’s case inspires another thought. Perhaps the issue is not that people don’t learn or change from their high school years. Perhaps they simply find ways to do things that they did or said in high school in more sophisticated ways as an adult - more politically correct ways. They learn that as long as they know how to play the system and what the right thing to say is, they’ll never be caught out.

I would argue that this mindset begins now. It’s no secret that certain things that shouldn’t happen do indeed occur at ISL. The school commendably chooses to publicly discuss these

Hannah Besson hates beer

issues at times, and at others, the school takes a more secretive approach - in some cases, for justifiable reasons. However, if someone in your year makes racist comments, inappropriate sexual advances, or exhibits any sort of demeaning behaviour towards other students, their ability to get off with a minor scolding is harmful to those around them and allows perpetrators to believe that they will never be held responsible for any harm they cause. Thus, the dangerous mindset of believing that one is above the law begins. While this mindset occurs innately at some point during teenagehood, there comes a time when it can get out of hand - as seen, for instance, in the context of the now successful members of the Oxford Bullingdon Club.

This mindset and cycle can breed a different creature in these students’ peers - those who wish to bring forth issues but don’t for fear of being ridiculed and their claims serving for nothing more than fuel to the perpetrators’ fire. These students become scared, prioritizing their social well-being over their moral duty to hold those around them accountable. Which may be an element of the answer to a question we’re all familiar with: “Why didn’t she just report him at the time that it happened?”

I am not encouraging snakey behaviour - ratting people out to fulfill a personal vendetta, nor am I suggesting that we all become outraged for the smallest of issues - I would be contradicting myself and an article I wrote about the overuse of outrage. A false accusation can hold the same gravity of consequence for the wrongly accused as for a victim and should be reprimanded equally. Nonetheless, I am of the opinion that had Kavanaugh and his group of friends not been placed on a pedestal by their peers, and had their peers believed that they could have approached the school to report these behaviours, the mindset of being above the law could have been avoided.

While the argument that our brains aren’t fully developed may be true, this can only be used as an excuse for so long, and at some point, we have to be held responsible for our actions. This excuse may be just as justifiable as “boys will be boys” in some cases. An added issue for our generation is that while yearbooks can be burned the Internet cannot. You wouldn’t want to find yourself in a situation such as Kavanaugh’s for an unfortunate Instagram comment.

So, will it matter in ten years who your friends are now? What your aspirations are? What you drink or don’t drink at parties? Who you look out for or who you bully? Should these four years of our lives define us for the rest of our existence?

Perhaps not everything you do in high school matters, but something should.

4

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

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read with considerable interest Suhasini Mehra’s article in the October issue of The High. My first thought was that the English department must be doing something right to have helped produce such an eloquent, persuasive writer as Ms. Mehra. However, we must always remember that, just because an argument is persuasive it does not mean it is right.

Let me first make it clear, as I did in when I was interviewed

by Ms. Mehra for her article, that the English department is acutely aware of the need to create a curriculum that is both international and diverse. The range of nationalities, ethnicities and genders represented in our curriculum is always an important consideration when we review our text choices. It is a shame that, when Ms. Mehra listed the factors we consider when selecting texts, she chose to selectively edit this out, presumably because it helped her portray a department which is not woke about diversity.

Secondly, I would dispute the picture of the curriculum that Ms. Mehra presented in her article. It is important to point out that half of the units taught in the MYP focus on either poetry or non-fiction; to take just a list of the novels we study and extrapolate from there was not good reporting. In the current year 10 unit on identity poetry, over half of the poems are by writers who are non-white including poets who identify as Afro-Guyanese, black British, Indian-Jewish, Indian-American, and Native American. Of the white poets included in the unit: one had significant mental health difficulties, one came from a coal mining family in the North of England, and one from rural Northern Ireland. Diverse enough? In the year 11 unit on protest poetry and song, teachers commonly cover works by Langston Hughes (African American), Maya Angelou (African American), Wole Soyinka (Nigerian), Tatamkhulu Afrika (South African), Tracy Chapman (African American) and Public Enemy (African American). Thus the statistics cited by Ms. Mehra in her article are, at best, selective and, at worst, misleading.

It is also worth pointing out, in relation to the novels and plays that we select, that to cite the ethnicity of the writers as a way of assessing the diversity of the curriculum is an unhelpful over-simplification. In year 7, we study short stories by Beverly Naidoo. Naidoo is white South African but her short stories in the collection Out of Bounds focus largely on the experiences of the black population during the apartheid regime. Indeed, Naidoo had to flee South Africa and live in exile because of her anti-apartheid writing. In year 12 we study Othello by Shakespeare (probably white – who knows?) in which the main character is black; this is a play which is largely about the complex issues surrounding race, identity, and belonging. In year 13, Language and Literature students read Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee – another

Jeremy Lloyd is the Head of the English Department white South African – in which the entire narrative is an allegory for the power dynamics that occur between races in imperial settings. Just because a writer is white it does not mean that the curriculum is peopled with white characters, Western settings and familiar situations. It may be true that only six of the plays and novels on our curriculum are written by “people of color”, but many more than that number lead us to engage students with the complex issues that surround race, identity, power and representation. Do authors “of color” have a monopoly on helping us to establish “a solid foundation of intercultural awareness”?

Finally, I’d like to point out that when we choose plays and novels for students to study they have to be accessible: students have to be able to read and understand them. I rank The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy and Dangerous Love by Ben Okri among my favourite novels, I am currently re-reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai and my best read of the summer was White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Do any of these books belong in the MYP curriculum? No. They are either too long or too complex. Does the fact that Of Mice and Men was written by a white man mean it should be taken off the MYP curriculum? No. It is a beautiful story with a lot to teach us.

Remember that to include any new text, you have to remove something that is already there. If we include Malice by Keigo Higashino, then what do we chuck out? The Outsiders – an inspiring story written by a sixteen year old woman, a universal narrative that year eights relate to, a tale challenges the stereotypes and beliefs that limit us? What about Romeo and Juliet – a story of love, hate, loyalty, violence and forgiveness; a cultural touchstone that has connected with actors and audiences all over the world for hundreds of years? Or maybe we ditch A Doll’s House – a seminal drama about the struggles of women for emancipation in nineteenth century Norway?

Ms. Mehra asserts that “English is about … the appreciation of really good books”: we think that all of the books on our curriculum are really good, otherwise we wouldn’t bother teaching them!

What goes? What stays? If we were to add No Longer Human

by Osamu Dazai, what do we gain and what do we lose? As I tried to explain to Ms. Mehra, these are complex questions.

We do not shy away from these questions; the English department welcomes debate and we frequently argue among ourselves about the merits of various texts. But to write an article which suggests that the English department is, through negligence or laziness, depriving students at ISL of a diverse curriculum because we do not teach enough novels with authors of color? To me this seems as narrow and ignorant as the mindset that Ms. Mehra set out to attack.

5

FIFTY SHADES OF WHITE

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hat picture should I post?” asks a student in Year 13. Her friend answers, “Personally, I think you should post that one. You look less Asian in it.”

ISL hosts 65 student and teacher nationalities, which sets it apart from other schools. We always hear about hate crimes and derogatory treatment of ethnic minorities around the world today, and I began to wonder about the ethnic minorities here at school. Does being an ethnic minority here at ISL affect your experiences in school?

I took my question to the student body and interviewed a range of students throughout our high school. The consensus was that as part of an ethnic minority, you are different from everyone else, as in, not everyone understands the place where you come from. A student in Year 13 explained to me, “I think because I have been a minority my whole life, it has affected my experiences, as in I see the world from that perspective. However, if you haven’t ever had that same experience, you have no way of knowing what someone else is going through, or where they come from.”

We don’t want to be a generation that thinks of other cultures as a bunch of ‘bad hombres.’

This lack of experience or perspective inevitably leads to certain outcomes, one of them being the many stereotypes we attach to various cultures and ethnicities. Asians are good at math, all Indians work as tech support technicians and smell like curry. In society, we often use stereotypes to group certain segments of people - that way we are able to create distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Throughout history, certain colours of skin have been deemed as inferior to others; white skin is deemed ‘better’ than darker skin. Yet this logic is entirely flawed because, in today’s world, no one is completely ‘white’ or ‘dark’. According to the University of Minnesota, it is estimated that about 80% of African-Americans have some white ancestry, 50% of Latin Americans have European or Native American ancestry, and, 20% of Europeans have African or Native American ancestry. So it seems that trying to define race by the colour of your skin is futile. Yet, despite this futility, clear divisions exist between groups of people.

Khwaish Vohra reports from the minority When interviewing students, I found that stereotypical comments based on ethnicity are easy to run into here at ISL. Many of the students explained that they have either been on the receiving end of a stereotype or heard jokes based on stereotypes. While jokes are usually in good faith, they do have a limit. A student in Year 10 explained how stereotypes bother her because it is as if her entire culture boils down to that one stereotype. To her, they act as a constant reminder that there are preconceived notions that people have of you, based on where you come from rather than who you are as a person.

Stereotypical comments can stir feelings of embarrassment and shame for the person receiving them, leading them to think that they should be embarrassed by where they come from because it is not what is considered ‘normal’.

Ignorance breeds stereotypes. There is a difference between straight-up racism and racism as a product of ignorance; only the former is politically incorrect today. Ignorance is deeply rooted in our society. Stereotypes are only one of the many examples of this phenomena. Take the example of modern beauty standards, where white features, such as light skin, straight hair, a small upturned nose are considered beautiful, and the rest as undesirable. Racism, discriminatory or not, is still ever present throughout our world, and in a way, we have become desensitized to ignorance in general.

As a student in Year 13 said, “ISL is great in the sense that everyone here is educated and are genuinely good people. I don’t think that there are any ‘bad’ people here. Yet there is this disconnect that exists between our words and what they really mean.” We don’t want to be a generation that thinks of other cultures as a bunch of ‘bad hombres.’ When I wrote this article, I wanted to know if my experiences were unique, or if racism exists within our school and, if so, how prevalent is it?

Through the numerous interviews that I conducted, I found that while people are not racist in the traditional sense of the word, they are so in a more discreet way. They are racist without intending to be; they are simply the product of society today. When you are surrounded by certain experiences or lack thereof, you begin to believe that your version of the world is the only version- which is not the truth.

Every person you meet brings a different set of experiences to the table, regardless of their nationality. Truth be told, it is likely that all of us have used stereotypes in the past. Regardless, it is time that we move past our differences to not only improve our school, but our future.

6

RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW

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magine attempting a moral discussion about the importance of life with a serial killer. A lot of us might not even consider trying due to the absurdity and inconceivability of any productive outcome. Unlike the significance the majority place on the value and protection of life, the serial killer may find himself completely reasonable in saying that, according to his conscience, there is nothing wrong with the murder of an innocent individual. This is a perspective and potentially even a value, one of completely unlimited freedom which in turn gives the murderer the right to take another person’s life away if he so chooses, a value most people would also undoubtedly and rightfully deem as immoral.

From a young age innate nature, our parents and the environment have instilled in us a sense of right and wrong. What they have been teaching us comes from a set of values linked to their culture and experiences. Whether it is exterior factors or inherent possession that play the most significant role in determining our moral conscience, it is the importance of there existing an objective morality, regardless of how it is acquired, that I wanted to explore. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that one’s perspective on morality can be altered through culture and environment, raising the question as to whether different perspectives regarding right and wrong can be equally valid, due to the culture that individuals come from.

One of ISL’s aims is to “be open to differing values, perspectives and traditions”. However, is this claim always applicable? Does it not threaten other missions of the school, such as ones of care and respect?

In order to broaden the scope from a hypothetical serial killer to a concrete example; there are certain nations and cultures in which it is illegal for women to leave the house if not fully covered, in which homosexuality is criminalized and where there are ongoing traditions which normalise the abuse of children.

The derivation of these ideas is rooted in a different set of values and perspectives inherent to the people within the culture; nevertheless, that does not mean that such traditions are unquestionably wrong.

It is important to understand the difference between practices that can be appreciated due to the fact that they do not infringe on the rights and freedoms of individuals, while acknowledging that there are certain fundamental values that are right and others that are wrong. The instillment of the idea of the existence of objective morality within a society capacitates being closer to achieving a peaceful world order and holding to account unethical cultural practices and traditions. Furthermore, a universal agreement on certain moral principles cultivates ongoing progress through changes in culture and belief systems.

Does there exist an objective morality?

For instance, no political candidate in the United States would campaign by proposing to revert back to slavery being legal. Whereas, looking back two centuries, slavery was the norm and the reality in almost a third of the United States. Resulting from a shift in perspective, there is broad consensus that slavery is wrong. Reaching agreements regarding concepts of right and wrong enables substantial changes resulting from discussions being based upon the same moral values, as well as being often directed towards similar outcomes, simply believed to be achievable through different means.

Referring to the same example, without the acknowledgment of African Americans as people, granting them civil or political rights would not be possible

Zofia Choinska searches for moral absolutes due to greater inconsistencies in the culture’s set of values. Similarly, a discussion on whether there is a problem regarding the amount of people of color in movies would not be effective if there were not a withstanding societal agreement that one race is not superior to the other. Point being, a balcony can not be instilled without a house and a house can not be built without bricks.

The moral decisions a society faces are based on other moral values that are already established within that society. The further we develop concepts of right and wrong, the more power a society has to become more just.

Coming back to the ISL intercultural mission statements, when speaking to Mr. Cairns, the person directly in support of those values as is represented though his position as the school’s director, he said he “is an opponent of what’s called cultural relativism”, and believes that “there are some things that are right and some things that are wrong”. However, he says that one “must not think, that [one has] the monopoly of good sense and therefore the right to dictate what is ‘right’ to others”. This conveys that the mission statements imply definite necessity for open-mindedness to what others believe to be “right”; however, they do not imply the existence of an objective morality.

In fact, the only way a whole population can ultimately come to a consensus on what is considered to be right and wrong is through conversation and generational alterations that will ultimately result in deeming certain traditions, and eventually systems of values, as wrong, and others as right. It is crucial to openly approach perspectives, while be aware of the importance to express and advocate for what is objectively moral and just in our views to come to an agreement.

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CLIQUE BAIT

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Tanvi Anand can’t sit with you

oing to the south campus café after school is an eye-opening experience. You get to see all the ISL mothers socializing with each other, waiting for their children to finish their homework or after-school activity.

Upon further inspection, the social groups are quite clear: you can see the Indian mothers discussing their 7-year-old child’s university options, you can see the American moms eagerly discussing the next PTA event, the Turkish mothers organizing yet another get-together, and the East Asian mothers complaining about the steep Swiss prices.

does not directly correlate with their nationality. Look at the British, French, and American groups of mothers. Do you see any women of color? The answer is a resounding no. One British-Indian mother told me that she felt isolated by the white British group of mothers because of her brown skin and her slight accent. She had to turn to the Indian mothers, but they had also shunned her, so she eventually formed her own group with other outsiders. This sort of alienation isn’t uncommon.. Other ISL mothers from multiple countries have reported similar experiences.

ISL has always been about bringing communities together.

At first glance, it seems as though ISL mothers are defying this by sticking to friend groups comprised of mothers from the same regions. If the students are in friend groups made up of multiple nationalities, why isn’t this the case with the mothers?

Just like high school cliques, drama gets spread like wildfire.

Most of the gossip is about the same things that high schoolers would gossip about. It can also be just as hurtful. I overheard a group of mothers discussing the fashion choices of an ISL student: “How does her mother allow her to wear such revealing clothing? This is a school, for God’s sake.” The gossip is endless, and there are no signs of it simmering down.

It all seems to boil down to communities. ISL is mainly made up of expat families who move to a new country every 3-7 years. This means that the only sense of familiarity they have comprises of their language, country, and culture. The diverse range of languages at ISL means that some people do not have English as their native language, which can cause them to feel more isolated when in an environment where English is the primary language. This is clearly the case with the parents from Latin America, who tend to converse in Spanish together.

Language isn’t the only thing classifying these cliques of mothers. Race also seems to play a factor, even when unintentional. This is the case for some mothers whose ethnicity

However, these “cliques” can tighten bonds between people’s families. Coming from an Indian family, I have always had to call my mother’s friends “aunty”. Even though these people are not related to me by blood, they have helped my family out during some tough times and provide unconditional support, just like members of my family would. This strong sense of community is evident throughout the school.

This is evident during international day, where all the parents work with each other to celebrate their culture.

The expat lifestyle means that a typical ISL mother does not have a job, and this gives her a lot of free time. However, even with mothers who are the main source of income, these groups are still present. Most fathers tend to stick to their work friends. Using my father as an example, his friends come from all different countries, but he also tends to gravitate towards his Indian coworkers. However, this dynamic is far less clique-y than that of the mothers.

These segregated groups aren’t intentional. People don’t go around wanting to start a clique out of the blue. It starts with people forming a strong bond and unintentionally closing people off. Being a stay-at-home mom or a work-from-home one is a lonely experience. These cliques are never meant to stay permanent, especially with the expat lifestyle forcing someone to move somewhere else every few years.

It makes me wonder about myself. As a third culture kid, I am ethnically Indian but I hold a British passport. I am British-Indian, but I have lived in Switzerland for most of my life. This begs the question: If I become a mother, what group would I join?

Illustration by Jade Tan

8

SUCCESS STORY

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argaret is a 45-year-old, middle-class woman. She has a family, a husband, a cat, and two children - a boy and a girl, Caren and Steven. She has a good, well-paid job: she works as a lawyer in an international company. Margaret and her family are healthy. She and her husband have enough money to provide a good education for their kids, as well as for holidays abroad, and they still manage to save some money. Margaret seems to have everything, but she lacks the feeling of fulfillment and gets an impression that her life is an endless routine. Why does she not feel successful?

We need to define what success is, but isn’t trying to come up with one definition pointless as the feeling of fulfillment is personal? Isn’t success a relative and immensely individual concept?

It definitely has different meanings for different people. Success is a feeling we

cannot have a general definition for, as everyone witnesses feelings differently.

But why is success so hard to obtain? It is mostly because we do not know what success means for us. We start making important decisions while still very young and often unaware of what we desire. We easily take it for granted that our own success is defined by those around us. Often our priorities and goals do not match our values. Social media, may give us the impression that fame and wealth should be our main objectives worth pursuing to make us feel complete. But we should be asking ourselves, is this really true? There is no one vision of success and we are the ones who need to create our own vision of fulfillment. We ought to think about what makes us happy and set our own goals accordingly.It is an easy thing to say, but doing it is more challenging. Realization of what we desire is a process. It is hard to sit down and

A HARD SEL

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his year, ISL has implemented a program delivered during homeroom for secondary school. The program predominantly focuses on the student as a whole through social and emotional learning (SEL).

“It is the goal of the school to integrate everything that we teach you, the potential for learning life skills, things that will help you with your social interaction and emotional development,” says Ms. Vivian, the high school student counsellor. Last year the school was looking at how to approach this goal in an intentional and evidence based method and, as a result, adopted the CASEL framework.

The framework splits into 5 core competencies: self awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making, allowing us to develop into balanced and healthy human beings.

In our formative years, we normally receive little to no guidance as to how to behave socially, let alone how to main-

tain relationships and be aware of our emotions; this is where SEL comes in.

“I think that the reality is that helping students develop with different tools will allow them to have better relationships, to know themselves better and to have more self confidence, and to have the ability to make decisions for themselves. I think that’s more important than anything else we do,” explains Ms Vivian.

However, many students believe that SEL is not as effective when put into practice. Ellie Parsons in Year 12 asserts, “The idea behind SEL is good, but the way in which it is carried out, during homeroom and so forced, makes the whole process seem vapid and inauthentic. If it were done in a more natural way, maybe students would not be so apprehensive about it.” Many students agree that the program feels forced and should be approached in a different manner.

Another student explains, “I feel like many students don’t take the program

Kaia Grabowska answer the question: what do I want in life? Look at Emma Slade, who used to have high-flying career in finance, but at some point realized that wasn’t what she wanted. She became an author and founder of the charity “Opening Your Heart to Bhutan”, as well as a yoga and meditation teacher. “I’m at my happiest,” said Emma in one of her interviews. She is happy now, but we can see that the journey towards feeling successful was a challenging process for her. Clearly, the urge to always be better and better is embedded in our culture. We constantly try to improve, as we cannot stop comparing ourselves to others and their achievements. We always imagine looking better, working harder, getting better grades.So are we the only barrier that restrains us from feeling fulfilled? Will Margaret, ever feel content with what she has achieved?

Tindra Österling seriously, and it ends up just wasting time we could be using in homeroom.”

A popular characterisation of SEL is calling it a “waste of time”, but the program still has potential. Another anonymous student expresses, “I like the opportunity to talk about this kind of stuff, it’s important. I feel like I am connecting with my homeroom and homeroom teachers on some level.”

Ms Vivian continues to be optimistic about the program and concludes that, “My personal hope is essentially ability or growth in understanding of yourself and others. At the end of the day we all have to live surrounded by people.

Some of the most important parts of our lives come from our relationships and the care that we have for each other and so if we as a school only focus on the academic, then I think we are failing at helping students in development that is essential to your life.”

9

WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER?

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Pia Tiwari is off the EMAN scale

rades matter.

Of course they do. They show you what you’re good at, and what you need to work on. They decide which university you’ll go to, or if you will at all. Really, grades decide your entire future.

So, why wouldn’t you sell your soul to Satan, forget your old friendships, sacrifice your sanity, and shirk your innermost values for them?

ISL is hardly a selective school, and we certainly have a wide range of grades throughout each year group. In most friendship groups, too, a remarkable variety of intellectual abilities is to be seen. But then, we get some test back, or our reports, and the topic of grades becomes taboo amongst friends, despite, somehow, also being the hottest topic of conversation around.

Now, it’s one thing not wanting your parents to know about certain grades— we’ve all been there—but our friends are about as likely to berate us for a 3 on a math test as they are to burst into a Nightcore version of Despacito. So why, then, do we still hesitate to share our grades?

Well, we can’t not discuss how much work we put into a subject, and how much of what we learn we actually understand: this is just human nature.

But when someone who claims not to have studied for a test walks out with a better grade than someone who spent hours, something’s up. Or at least, so people think, regardless of whether the other person really was telling the truth. And so, a red-inked numeral can take away one’s trust and drive a wedge between friends. So instead, let’s avoid the topic of grades like the second iteration of the Black Death.

But this is, of course, a matter of self-confidence, too, since if you know you did the best you could, why would

Illustration by Quentin Bachelot

you care what anyone else’s grades are? Well, because people make it inescapable. Frankly, it is hard to walk down the corridor and not hear at least one group of people, usually the overachievers with all of Einstein’s intellect and Trump’s humility, discussing the test and how appallingly easy it was.

Really, we get it. You’re smart. Please stop.

Now there are also those who try to escape this very stereotype. These people may have profoundly higher grades than some of their best friends—a result of superior intelligence, or a dangerous lack of sleep and social interaction—and come reports season, they are walking on knives: do I tell them what I got? Will it look like I’m bragging?

Am I bragging???

There certainly are instances when disclosing your grades, good or bad, can have undesired consequences: people may share them without permission, and suddenly the whole school and alumni network knows; or someone who’s been trying to remove all recollection of their own grades can’t take it, and must walk away feeling disheartened. And for as long as this toxic culture persists around our grades, such attitudes will remain commonplace.

But be under no false pretenses here: plenty of people will be genuinely happy for their friends, and in some cases, an assumption that your grades can make someone else insecure may be a fine symptom of your head being lodged someplace it shouldn’t be.

In fact, it is important for us to remember: your MYP grade is not a great indication of where you’ll be 20 years from now, and your IB predicted does not decide if you’ll be happy, then. If you aren’t content with where you’re at right now, we’ve all heard enough about growth mindsets to say that you can improve, and well, if you are, complacency is the demon you must fight.

As someone who’s in the midst of university applications, I cannot, in good faith, tell you that grades don’t matter.

But their importance can, perhaps, be outweighed by other things like your relationships, and your mental, and physical health. Let us, then, reconsider our attitudes towards our grades— they are not the be-all and end-all of our existence. As difficult as it may seem, we can receive grades without hyping them up to hell and back. Or we can, you know, continue to make them a bigger deal than the moon landing of 1969.

10

COME AND SEYMOUR

I

SL usually tries to put on a musical once every two years. In late November and early December, it is presenting its latest, Little Shop of Horrors. The musical has four directors: Mrs Hannell for acting and general direction, Mr Guillet for technical aspects, and Mrs Griffiths and Ms Hoffman for music.

Over the last five months, the cast has been working tirelessly to quite literally get their act together.

“One of the great things about this musical is that it’s got students in it from Year 7 all the way up to Year 13. Some productions are restricted to certain year groups, but now we’ve got all these students together, and it makes a nice dynamic,” says Mrs Hannell. ISL has not put on a play of this scale before in the new auditorium. With over thirty students in the cast, five crew members and around ten people playing in the concert band, it is no wonder that the play requires four directors.

The musical follows Seymour, who works in a flower shop on Skid Row, and his attempts to impress his colleague and crush, Audrey. He discovers a new plant-type and names it Audrey II, but quickly learns that it lives not on water nor sunlight, but on human blood. “It’s definitely one of the more wacky plays I’ve put on,” says Mrs Hannell. “And the libretto [a musical’s script] is tricky due to the constant mixing of singing and dialogue in this musical.”

A variety of people have described their most exciting and entertaining parts of the play. Many cast and crew members cited Lucas Leach and McKenna Quam’s performances as being very funny. Mrs Hannell did not want to give away too many of the surprises, but did reveal that there would be an unexpected appearance from hit Biology teacher Mr Allen at some point in the play. She also requested a special mention for Jade Gavin, who is single-handedly playing the piano for the entire musical, which she has stated is a very vital part.

Moreover, the choreography is pointed to as being very good. “The opening number has everyone on set, and the choreographer manages to give them each their own bit, and the way it fits into the entire dance is great,” says Clara Schmidt, who is playing one of the Ronettes - the singing narrators of the play. “A four-times World Champion tap-dancer is choreographing a lot of the dance scenes,” explains Mrs Hannell. Fabrice Martin is the choreographer in question, awarded with a prize for Best Choreographer in 2002 by the International Dance Organisation.

“Initially we wanted to make the set,” says Mrs Hannell. However, this proved challenging for a number of reasons, the main being time. “A professional person was coming down from Lon-

Joseph Nobs spills the beans don with the plant puppet for another school production, but we managed to persuade them to get it for our show.”

Both the plant puppets and the set are being rented for the course of the play.

This has caused a number of problems, though. For one thing, Mrs Hannell and the cast have revealed that the rental price is “very expensive”. Moreover, by the time the set arrives they will only have a week of rehearsal with everything in place. “We’re worried we won’t make it, but we’ll make it,” says Rashid Baxter, who is playing Mushnik, the owner of the flower shop the play is centred around. He goes on to reference last year’s play, run by Mrs Hannell and Mr Guillet, Distracted, which, despite only having five weeks of rehearsal, successfully came together on the night. Nonetheless, for the moment, Mrs Hannell remains worried.

“I’ve never had to put on a play [of] this scale in such a short time,” she says.

Ultimately, though, the play has everything in place to be extremely successful. “We expect the whole thing to be packed out every night,” says Lucas Leach, who is playing the main antagonist of the play. The four front rows of the audience are being removed to make space for the band, so the auditorium will likely be overflowing for all three performances.

Little Shop of Horrors will be on over the 28th and 29th of November from 6:30pm, and the 2nd of December at 3:00pm (matinée). Entry costs 20 CHF for adults and 10 CHF for children.

11

COLOUR FILMS

D

iversity today has become quite the hot topic. Things like movies, TV shows and games are pressured by the media and most of society to have some level of diversity to them, otherwise they can get called out for their non-inclusivity - but should shows and movies get critical acclaim merely because they’re inclusive?

There seems to be a layer of double standards to the idea of diversity in film. A well known example could be Black Panther. Black Panther was extremely praised by viewers, with many people loving its black character leads and the way it challenged stereotypes of Africans, with the main character being a billionaire king of a highly developed African nation. It did so well that it is currently the ninth highest grossing film of all time, and it has a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the film didn’t meet the same levels in terms of critics reviews. On IMDb, the movie got 7.4 out of 10, or 3.5 stars over 5.

This doesn’t mean they thought it was

a bad movie, but it’s certainly quite a leap from what most viewers were rating it as: 5 stars. The opposite effect happened when the 2016 Oscars had no black nominees despite several films with black leads such as Creed or Straight Outta Compton. Many people were accusing the Academy of being purposefully racist, with the hashtag OscarsSoWhite spreading on Twitter.

One could argue that this was the case, but it could just as easily have been that there were other performers who the Academy simply thought met more of the criteria to be nominated who just happened to be white. Sometimes, the situation happens in reverse, with backlash being received for casting a minority or POC (person of color) just to be inclusive, despite the fact that the character was not originally a POC or minority.

A good example of that would be the casting for a TV series Netflix is creating based on the video game and book series, The Witcher. A few weeks ago,

THE DISCLAIMER How do I survive the IB? Er… hate to break it to you, fam… but… you don’t.

My friends don’t like my memes.

Mine neither, kiddo. The solution? Get new friends.

I do not understand TOK. None of us do, buddy. Just… just go with it.

I’d like to ask out my love to a jazz club, but I’m not sure if I should.

JUST. DO IT. And while you’re at it, be sure to ask her, “Ya like jazz?” You know you want to.

There isn’t much of a choice for vegetarians in the cafeteria.

As it happens, we now have a committee for this very purpose! From your full message, it seems you have some clear and specific ideas about how to improve vegetarian options. I would

suggest you email these suggestions and concerns to eturner@islstudent. ch, who has just established a Cafeteria Committee.

There are too many homeworks and assignments for different classes at the same time.

I would recommend you start using a Time-Turner, but, alas, they were all destroyed in a totally non-suspicious government accident. Instead, you could try switching up your organization system. I would recommend using the Stephen Covey matrix, which you may have heard of in Circle Time. It’s a pragmatic and simple way to keep track of what you need to do and when. If that doesn’t work, keep exploring different methods, or create your own. It may also help to discuss your struggle with your teachers; they understand that the workload is heavy, and will likely have their own advice, or be willing to extend due dates if necessary.

Salim Markabi Netflix announced that they were looking for a BAME (Black, Asian, and other minority ethnic) to play a character called Ciri. This angered many fans of The Witcher because in the book, the original source material, Ciri was white.

In the game, she is white with gray hair.

People accused Netflix of trying to push a political agenda and argued that a BAME actor would make no sense as the events of The Witcher are largely based on Slavic mythology and take place in a European-style world.

So, to answer the question: in my opinion, media shouldn’t get praise merely on the grounds of being diverse. While being inclusive can help deliver a positive message, people should focus on casting those who can play the part and, when doing an adaptation, fit the description. An even better idea could be to adapt more work about minorities to film, or even come up with original ideas starring people from these groups.

Suhasini Mehra I feel like I’m stuck in a ditch. It’s just that simple. I look at the successful people around me and then I see myself almost like a failure.

It is entirely normal to feel this way, especially at this age and in this schooling system. The IB is a challenge, whether MYP or DP, and all of us are entering a stage where we’re unsure of what we’re doing or who we even are. I think if you were to reach out to your friends, you might find that some of them are thinking the same thing. I would recommend that you talk about this with your close friends, and perhaps a trusted adult as well. It’s not easy to do, but I think you would feel a bit better, or at least more supported, at the end of it. That said, I am not a professional on this subject.

For professional advice, I would suggest that you please speak to or email Ms Vivian, the school counsellor.

12

HOROSCOPE

A

Suhasini Mehra

ries: An old friend may contact you out of the blue. What do they want? Why can you only speak over the phone? Is that scraping sound getting closer? Accept phone calls with a healthy degree of caution.

Taurus: Watch out for cats named Princess. They are watching you, too.

Gemini: If your reflection scowls at you, do not be alarmed. It is still adjusting to the job. It will learn its place soon enough.

Cancer: Treat your old toys kindly, would you? It’s for your own good.

Leo: An old dream will return to you this month. Something will be different this time. Pay attention to the difference. It’s part of the test.

Virgo: They are coming. They know.

Watch your back.

Libra: You will receive surprising news in the next month. Do not act on it. His time will come.

Scorpio: Love is coming for you this month. Prepare for it. Ambush it. Get it before it can get you.

Sagittarius: Give yourself over to The Lord Cthulhu. It will be good for you, in the long run.

Capricorn: Dispose of it immediately.

This is your final warning.

Aquarius: Your request has been acknowledged. Please stand by. She will find you shortly.

Pisces: Avoid anchovies.

FASHION POLICE

I

Raquel Muzquiz

t’s boot season girls! Finally! It feels like forever ago since we last saw the majority of the girls in the school wear either Uggs or knee-high boots, and thank god because we couldn’t have missed them more. Luckily, summer has just ended, and although we have already seen them during the time that we were supposed to be wearing sandals and shorts, don’t worry because you still have time to get some!

For this in-between season, I would advise you to get knee-high boots. Don’t get them in brown, nor ones which are a bit loose on your legs, make sure you get the black and tight-fitted kneehigh boots, and don’t worry if you don’t know where to find them, ask any girl in High School and I’m sure she’ll know a store or two! Sadly, it’s likely that some stores have already run out of these, but that’s not a problem: you can get Uggs instead, and you’ll be just as trendy!

For our cold winter days, these boots are just the ones you need. Although they’re a bit pricey they are so worth it! They are warm and stylish too, and although there is usually a preference for the brown model, any monochromatic color works fine too. Let’s take a moment to talk about their versatility.

Whether you are feeling yourself or you don’t want to put an effort into your outfit, Uggs will guarantee an effortless and put together outfit. Whether it’s a Monday at school or a cold day in the mountains, you’re set to go! Ugh, I can’t be more excited to be surrounded by this extensive variety of footwear!

ALL WELCOME

D

Jaina Patel raw a Red Line on Immigration or Else.”

“Halt the Asylum Tide Now.”

These are just two of the many headlines being used by the media to portray the increasing numbers of migrants trying to enter the EU. Some argue that this use of language towards them is ominous and demonizing. I completely agree.

In particular, British tabloids are displaying the crisis as some sort of problem, making out that these innocent refugees are going to be an additional burden to Western society. This should not be the case. Shameful is what I would call this hypocritical attitude.

Scaremongering words such as “swarm” are displaying immigrants as an infestation that urgently needs to be dealt with. In reality, we all know that these innocent minorities are only trying to seek refuge. The word “tide” only promotes the image of millions fleeing and flooding to the EU in order to cause a disaster, which is far from the truth.

Pure desperation is the main factor pushing them West. A life of violence, conflict and persecution should not be a life for any global citizen. If they are willing to integrate into European society, then why can’t everyone just be accepting?

The media want to spread their message. Their cruel and disproportionate message. These anti-refugee headlines are a disrespect to humankind. The picture of the innocent boy washed up on a beach was publicly displayed on the front page of many newspapers, clearly showing the result of how vulnerable civilians are suffering and dying as a result Europe’s anti-migration approach. Western tabloids are truly a disgrace. The media’s depiction of the refugee crisis should not be tolerated.

No individual should feel unwanted or unwelcome, like a wild animal!

13

S

ociopath is a word you have probably heard over the past few weeks. Shane Dawson recently uploaded an 8 part YouTube series investigating into alleged “sociopath”, Jake Paul. Quite frankly, I don’t care if Jake is a sociopath or not, and until now, I didn’t care about Shane Dawson. But I’ve found myself quite impressed; firstly, at the numerical success of Shane’s series - each episode amassing an average of 15 million views - and secondly, how well received the whole series has been. The latter, however, is concerning. After completing the series, its flaws became all too apparent. Sociopath is not a word that should be desensitised, dramatized or taken advantage of. Shane’s series does all three.

Discussing a mental health disorder in a televised and sometimes comedic manner isn’t the way such illnesses should be portrayed. Although Shane brought licenced therapist, Kati Morton, into the second episode to define exactly what a sociopath is, he spends most of the series interviewing people close to Jake and conducting brief analyses into his actions to prove that he is, in fact, a sociopath. There is never an in-depth analysis, or the inclusion of any other professionals in the series. To make matters worse, in episode 5, Morton comedically says, “This is not my speciality! I work with eating disorders.” Despite the absence of knowledge on the topic, the Internet caught on, throwing accusations of possible sociopaths left, right and center. One commenter even wrote

Ellie Parsons on the first episode, “Oh crap I have a personality disorder?!”

Boisterous behaviour, manipulative relationships and a lack of remorse may be characterised as sociopathic tendencies, but that doesn’t mean that Jake, or the tens of thousands of people who also experience these impulses, is a sociopath.

The hundreds of people jokingly tweeting about the topic and the overwhelming desensitisation of the word sociopath are a real indication of the disgusting impressionability of the Internet.

I also found myself conflicted with the intention of the series.

In the debut episode Shane describes his intentions as wanting to sit in a room with Jake and say, “This is what you did that was bad. I want you to tell me why you did it, be honest about it...” However, I don’t think Shane is being honest about his intentions with the series. I think he created it because he knew it would attract attention. If Shane had Jake’s best interests at heart, an old fashioned face to face conversation would’ve been more appropriate than broadcasting an 8 part series online with an ad in the first episode. The eerie music and editing throughout the whole series, intended to scare and shock the audience, dramatizes the disorder and makes it seem as though it was made to entertain and attract views.

We should be aware of the intention of the media we consume, and just how impressionable we are as consumers.

This social awareness could help us avoid turning a blind eye to the flaws of entertaining yet unethical content.

THE DEBATE: SOCIOPAUL

T

oday’s youth is growing up immersed in the world of YouTube, whether it be reaction videos, gaming channels, vlogs or makeup tutorials. With 17.5 million subscribers, Jake Paul dominates YouTube with controversial pranks and an insane life. Then there’s Shane Dawson, YouTuber for 10 years, who has cultivated his channel to reach 19 million subscribers.

I think that to say Shane Dawson is using the word “sociopath” in a televised and sometimes comedic manner is wrong. He himself has suffered from mental disorders, demonstrating his anxiety throughout the series, and would never intentionally make mental health disorders a source of entertainment.

Maybe bringing in an expert was a step too far, however I think as the series went on, it evolved and took on a whole new direction that maybe Shane himself didn’t think about.

By the end of the series, the expert’s role was pointless, and had he known how the documentary would roll out, maybe he would’ve rethought bringing her in. I do, however, think the expert was important in explaining what a sociopath is from a scientific point of view. Most of the people watching the documentary probably had no idea what it meant and it was important to understand the points Shane was going to make. Shane’s channel is also not one anyone would, or I hope wouldn’t, go to to find out about mental health. He has talked about it over the years, however only from his perspective, and has never claimed to be an expert. This is prob-

ably the reason he brought the expert, to be sure he wasn’t overstepping, something he would’ve been criticized for.

I agree that Shane made the series partly due to the fact that he knew it would gain lots of attention and therefore bring in considerable amounts of money. However I think he - along with many, many other people, including myself - was interested in learning more about Jake Paul and Team 10, because up until his documentary, all anyone knew was what his crazy videos demonstrated. On top of this, as a “YouTuber”, Shane’s job is to come up with new, interesting content.

Shane’s docu-series, when it first came out, appealed to a lot of people as it was something no one had done before, within the realm of YouTube anyway. It was exciting, so within seconds people clicked on the video.

Overall, I think what Shane did was positive. In my opinion, he tread carefully around the subject of sociopathy and actually found out interesting things about Jake Paul and Team 10. His editing was very dramatic, but I think the whole series should be taken with a pinch of salt. The editing made me smile at how dramatic it was, rather than think he was doing it to attract views, but who knows his real intentions. I think the fact he’s been doing YouTube for 10 years should be a testimony to his authenticity, and so what that he hyped up the whole thing excessively, it was refreshing to watch something new!

Eleanor Payne

14

GROWING PAINS Elif Civelekoglu is all grown up

E

ver looked at somebody and thought, “Why are they acting like that?” This is a question that a majority of people would probably answer yes to. The question can cross your mind during recess as you hear younger students play, or even during lessons when you have to put up with the constant disruptions from classmates. However, what we classify as a ‘mature’ or ‘immature’ person differs heavily depending on gender. This not only applies to one’s actions, but also to what we expect of them.

Take this scenario: A young boy is sitting a few tables away from you. He is yelling and screaming as his parents smile tightly, not wanting to cause a scene. I doubt many people would stare or think that this was a weird occurrence. Now, think of a girl doing exactly the same thing as the boy.

Much more people would be surprised by this than the scenario with the boy.

This is because boys are expected to be loud and not care about the rest of the guests who just want to have a meal, while girls are meant to be more quiet and well-mannered. This results in the girl receiving more judgement, despite the fact that she and the boy did the exact same thing. In this case, the girl is ‘immature’ while the boy is not. However, there are many other cases where such expectations are also demonstrated by younger children. While a girl being silent is accepted, with people reaching out to her so she can break out of her shell, a boy exhibiting the same exact behaviour is seen as weird.

These examples show just how much the expectations that we as a society have effects our treatment and judgement of others.

I expect a majority of the girls reading this can recall at least one instance where someone has told them that something that they do (usually their posture or how they sit) isn’t “ladylike”.

And as for the boys, they have probably been called “girly” at least once as an

insult, which is usually about their hobbies or the classic phrase, “You scream like a girl!” In both cases, the receiver of the backlash is humiliated and feels discouraged from doing the same thing again. We have all felt the frustration where we felt like we couldn’t do something without reprimandation, but someone else could. However, who decides what is “ladylike” or “girly” and what is not? There are no specifics on what is and isn’t classified as a “boyish thing to do” or a “girly thing to do”. It is purely subjective, and what this promotes is the constant self-doubt that many of us feel as we endlessly wonder if we said the right thing, acted the right way, and hope we didn’t do anything that would result in ridicule.

Our expectations affect our judgment of others ISL in general has reasonable expectations when it comes to maturity. Mr. Spinks explains it as “there are definitely expectations regarding maturity, and these get progressively higher, stronger, and different as students grow. In Year 7, the expectations would be way different than when students are in Year 13.”. This is reasonable, as it is true that as students get older, they change drastically as time goes on. According to Mr. Spinks, the expectations are high when it comes to respect and other values of the school. However, he does comment on how girls and boys are treated differently due to the “different developmental stages they go through at different times”. There have been instances of students judging each other’s maturity in ISL, which is mainly the classic stereotypes associated with

gender: Girls are ‘naturally’ more clean, organized, bossy and better at singing, while boys are more athletic, adrenaline-driven, and tougher. Sure, it is not as bad as in other schools; ISL is an open-minded place, however, it is still a problem that should be addressed.

What is worrying is that we still hold these opinions at ISL, a school that is supposed to be open-minded. We are meant to be beyond such outdated beliefs and opinions, yet we are still not.

What often happens instead is that the younger generation continues the same cycle, and forgets about how it felt to be young. We must do better than this. I do agree that as we get older, most of these beliefs are cast aside.

But, by the time that we can actually form our own opinions, instead of believing what others (mainly adults) told us during our most influential stages, our beliefs are deeply ingrained in us, and it will take a lot of time and effort to fully shake them off.

Finally, maturity doesn’t just “happen”.

It takes time and effort for a person to truly change., After a lot of criticism they will change their behaviour, but not for the reasons you might think.

If an animal in the circus does what it is supposed to, you don’t say that it is smart, because its intelligence didn’t change. It just does it for the treats that it will get after, which is in this case one’s adults and peers calling them ‘mature’. They do not understand why the thing that they did was wrong or unsuitable for a certain environment - they are just afraid to get criticized again. Overall, someone’s ‘maturity’ shouldn’t be judged by their gender, and nor should they be forced to act a certain way.

15

INTROVIRTUE

B

eing an introvert or an extrovert extends far beyond the results of that quiz everyone has taken. Introverts are depicted as people who enjoy spending time and working alone. Contrarily, extroverts are depicted as people who flourish in social situations and work well in groups. However, introversion and extroversion is a spectrum - nobody is solely one. Nonetheless, people who display more introverted behaviours are often perceived as ‘different’, even though a third to a half to the people is introverted.

This is due to the fact society places a lot of emphasis on one’s ability to work in group - forgetting that some people work best when they are alone. This emphasis makes introverts feel like they have to change themselves in order to be ‘normal.’ For example, there are numerous self-help books with the intent of helping people or children be-

come more outgoing. Additionally, people who are perceived as more charismatic and talkative are more likely to receive promotions than those who are softer spoken (despite a study by psychologist Adam Grant who found that introverted leaders often deliver better outcomes than extroverted ones do.)

At ISL, students are expected to contribute to group discussions. This makes sense as while working in groups, talking is essential to ensure that the work is a product of every member’s ideas. However, allowing students to think individually would help strengthen their personal understanding and force them be more independent in forming opinions; rather than relying on what the other person says, resulting in groupthink. For instance, according to contemporary psychology, we can not be in a group without mimicking adopting their opinions -

ACT LIKE A GIRL

H

e’s acting like a girl.’ ‘You hit like a girl.’

These comments we have heard before or may have even said ourselves. However, who defined what acting like a girl is? Who decided that doing anything requiring a certain amount of physical strength was exclusively for men?

The answer is society, and these stereotypes come from times that were far more sexist than today. These ideas were seen as the norm: girls play with dolls, enjoy playing dress-up and putting makeup on. Meanwhile, boys will play video games and play ‘manly’ sports (e.g. basketball, football).

The phrase ‘acting like a girl’ or ‘like a boy’ has been controversial and discussed during the recent years. The company Always started a campaign in 2014 called #LikeAGirl. The video shows a variety of people of different

ages, genders and ages. When the older ones were asked to do something ‘like a girl’, many of them immediately did ridiculous movements, such as flipping their hair, and throw their arms back and forth when asked to run, fight, or throw ‘like a girl.’ However, when young girls were asked to do so, the reactions were drastically different. The young girls kicked in the air, punched and threw energetically. The video proceeded to ask a striking question: When did doing something ‘like a girl’ become an insult?

Just a few months later, actress Emma Watson delivered her speech about gender equality at the UN. ‘When at 18, my male friends were unable to express their feelings,’ she stated. If a boy opens up about struggles, he will immediately be thought of as weak or sensitive. Why is it that when a boy cries, he is told to ‘man up’ and stop being ‘sensitive like a girl?’

Mark Besson even about personal matters, such as who you like. This is not to say that students should not work in groups, but group work should not be seen as the best source of creativity. For example, Theodor Geisel (otherwise known as Dr Seuss) wrote his stories alone, in a bell tower. Additionally, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Ghandi all described themselves as quiet and shy.

Giving introverts the chance to work indepently might allow them to come up with unique solutions to problems without worrying about what everyone around them thinks.

‘But introverts(...)you probably have the impulse to guard very carefully what’s inside your own suitcase. And that’s okay. But occasionally, just occasionally, I hope you will open your suitcases for other people to see, because the worlds needs you and it needs the things you carry.’-Susan Cain.

Coline Coubat Furthermore, men who take care of their skin, openly discuss their feelings, or do something ‘girly’ will be assumed gay and/or be called so. Recently, Ian Jeffrey, brother of makeup mogul James Charles, tweeted ‘(...) me painting my nails and dying my hair does not make me gay.’

The phrase ‘like a girl’ should no longer be a synonym of ‘weak’ and or be used as an insult, and for activities like shopping and wearing makeup to stop being accepted for girls only. To help gender equality grow, not only should the law in many countries change, but society has to as well. As a school, ISL should try and refrain the usage of the phrase ‘like a girl’ to try and encourage all students instead of reprimanding them with the use of the precedent phrase.

16

VICTIMS OF FASHION

G

ucci, OFF-White, Chanel, Jimmy Choo, and Comme des Garçons are all brands that students at ISL know and wear. They are known for their avant-garde pieces that have revolutionized fashion globally. However when it comes to men, most just resort to the BORING white [insert logo making you look rich here] t-shirt or the BASIC hoodie with a heart on it.

Almost nobody actually wears what made these brands mainstream in the first place, but who can blame us?

Some may say guys are just simply not into fashion - because it’s a woman’s world after all, right? When going shopping, you’ve most likely noticed the majority of stores have about four floors containing a diverse range of women’s garments and only one modest men’s section. Here, you are given the vast choice between a few mediocre shirts, black, blue and gray jeans, and during winter season, the privilege of buying either a beige, black or navy blue sweater. Nothing more.

If you are a guy who wants to dress originally, then you’re out of luck! Say hello to hours spent in thrift shops (which are basically nonexistent here in Lausanne) and bye bye to your wallet (if you can afford it) as you will most likely spend hundreds on brands offering you original clothing or “rare” vintage items.

And when you finally get what you’ve spent sweat and tears looking for (I’m not being dramatic here), teachers with cringey smiles of disapproval will tell you how “interesting” your outfits are.

Some may even think that you are gay, “camp” or even unattractive, which will just make you feel even more ashamed of wearing new and different things.

Having said that, in 2018, men and women are much less confined to only wearing a few socially accepted pieces of clothing. People now have more choice! Influential designers such as Yohji Yamamoto and brands like Zara and H&M have all adopted some form of gender-neutral clothing. More im-

portantly, this also reflects a shift in societal attitudes regarding fashion. Even in the small town of Lausanne, you can see more and more men experimenting with their fashion styles and pulling off bolder looks. But how does this translate to ISL? When asked if they thought men’s fashion lacked diversity, one student suggested that fashion varies depending on subcultures as “it depends on the crowd that you look at” and that while fashion may to some extent, lack diversity, “it is not true for all types of male fashion”. Another, answered by stating that “fashion itself doesn’t discriminate” but that it was rather the “brands and...men” who may encourage male fashion within the ISL community to be homogenous. Moreover, another student stated that male fashion lacks diversity since there are “more clothes for women than for men”. However, they also said that they did not really care because they don’t think that “fashion is […] the best way…[to] look good”. So, it is clear that mainstream male fashion at ISL does, in some aspects, lack diversity. But is it because men simply do not care about fashion and women are more biologically prone to enjoying it?

While there is no right or wrong answer to this, one study argues that “women are linked to shopping in the same way that men are linked to sports” as their respective success in the two branches would indicate their status among their peers. This would be supporting the stereotype that women adore shopping while men find it boring. Consequently, this would explain why boutiques contain more female than male clothing.

But if that’s true, What about Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, and Massimo Giorgetti? What about guys like me? And what about the women who do not care about fashion?

Are we just a few biological anomalies?

Maybe. But others believe that the con-

Leonardo Engvig struts his stuff cept of shopping is nothing more than a lure orchestrated by corporations.

Created to delude women into believing they are in control over their own lives by making them able to choose between different coloured dresses and shoes which feed on their desire to be in charge and to make choices for themselves in a world that repeatedly neglects their opinions.

Not only would this explain why “women have more pressure to look good compared to guys” and that at any given time, women “could be criticized” for what they are wearing but also explains why mainstream male fashion is not as diverse as women’s - as it’s not intended for them.

Another factor playing into why male fashion may be less varied than women’s is that some men may not be “bold enough to take risks, due to them being “scared of what other people can think of them” because, according to gender stereotypes, fashion is “not very manly” - which would explain why most men dress to fit the mold: no flashy colors, no unusual patterns and nothing too shiny.

Nevertheless, while men may be constrained by their fashion expression - so are women (no really?). Through fashion, women are often represented as being “petite models [who are] all skinny and super cute”, setting limitations to how they can look. Moreover, one student stated how women feel pressure to look attractive but if they do conform to that, people may react with an “oh you’re a slut or you’re a hoe”. Another wondered, “why [are some fashion trends not] acceptable in society? Who sets the rules?” And why are they “set upon our school, society, and culture?” In a contemporary society, where what you wear is no longer only about staying warm, having the choice to express yourself should not be in someone else’s hands but in yours as “we have to make our own rules!”.

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KANYE DIG IT? Jade Tan goes West

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verybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days,” sings Miley Cyrus, as Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana in her song, “Nobody’s Perfect”.

“I’m only human, and I make mistakes,” raps Dom McLennon of the boyband Brockhampton in his verse on their song “TOKYO”.

Alright, I’m done. I’ll end my relevant-lyric-referencing here. But it’s true; everybody makes mistakes, and that’s okay. It’s part of our human nature to do so. However, mistakes can occur on a scale from just a small slipup to inhumane immoralities, determined by how concerning our actions are. Nowadays, our mistakes and their relevant actions matter as we are surrounded by a rise in controversies and scandals, specifically in the entertainment industry. As an audience, we exist to consume the content that the creator(s) provide us, be it music, films or other sorts of media. However, when there are problematic issues tied to the content due to the creator(s), we may often find ourselves wondering, can we separate “the art” from “the artist”?

In coming to terms with the news that a favored artist may have done or did certain questionable things, it is common for us to feel slightly disappointed in that person, or to not be affected at all. Some may even go as far as to “cancel” that person, which in other words, refers to dismissing something or somebody, according to Urban Dictionary. I, myself, have fallen victim to this toxic “cancel culture” that has spawned from the Internet a few times, but that’s a different story.

A few real life situations (my apologies, for I have been consumed by TOK) of such controversial artists, come to mind. Take for instance, Kanye West, or “ye” as he declared his name change on Twitter. Despite many who regarded the rapper as an idol and/or a particularly talented musician (including me, as I quite enjoy his song, “All Of The Lights” and realize his potential in creativity), his endorsement of US Pres-

Illustration by Jade Tan

ident Donald Trump earlier this year, “has placed many of his fans in a predicament”, as described by Complex News in their video titled, “Can We Separate ‘The Art’ from the ‘Artist’?”. The POTUS has been accused on several accounts of racial discrimination including the time Trump said “black people were ‘too stupid to vote’ for him” in the 2016 US elections, as revealed by Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen when he spoke with Vanity Fair last Friday. In the same interview, Cohen also spoke of a past conversation with Trump where he reportedly said, “Name one country run by a black person that’s not a s***hole…name one city.” In addition to West’s approval of Trump, he has made contentious comments himself, claiming that “slavery is a choice” in a guest appearance on the popular tabloid TMZ live segment earlier in May. But I suppose all’s well that ends well, as ye has since apologized for his political outbursts and decided to step away from politics to continue creating music, announcing that “[his] eyes are now wide open”. In addition, he has realized that he has “been used to spread messages” that contrast with his beliefs in series of tweets posted last week. I’m just glad that he’s sticking to music for now.

When high school students in ISL were asked about their opinion on the subject, specifically whether those who

committed mistakes (including “controversial” artists) deserve second chances and should be supported, forgiven or forgotten about, it was collectively agreed amongst the students’ responses that everyone deserve second chances, yet anything else depends on the severity of the mistake and other factors such as “...scale and impact of the scandal, [whether] they apologize[d]... or remove[d] the offending comment, and [if] they [have] made changes”, as outlined by one student. Another student thought it was unacceptable while a different student raised the point that “you don’t have to like someone to appreciate their work.”

If there’s anything this article and everyone’s survey responses have taught us, it’s that you should still be able to support the artist’s art, even if the artist themselves are in the wrong for their behavior. Of course, the case would depend on the artist’s actions and words to dictate how severe the situation is.

However, if the art is separated from artist, it would not matter, nor would it be ignorant to support that art so long as the artist’s ideas and actions did not “leak” into their work. Therefore, it is possible to separate the art from the artist. It just comes back to you to decide where to draw the line. After all, “everyone knows what I’m talking about, everybody gets that way.”

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PHOTOSHOCK Poppy Harrison reaches for her airbrush

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hat happened to the yearbook? This question could be heard repeated across year groups as one walked down the busy corridors of high school over the last few weeks. There was an air of immense disappointment, and in some cases, mocking laughter as people flipped through the extraordinary colourful pages of ISL’s photographic summary of 2017-18. To give credit where credit is due, some of the pages were done extraordinarily well. The ECC pages had everyone chuckling at the cute kids, who were trapped in the continuous frame of an embarrassing moment. Unfortunately, the vibrant colours, carefully arranged angles and flitting smiles of portraits could not make up for the number of mistakes that fell across the board in this yearbook.

There are, of course, inevitable expressions of frustration within the athletic pages, but realistically, that is the beauty of sport. Some pages seemed to be filled with the grimaces of endless lines of people that looked as if they would like to be anywhere else other than trapped in physical pain as they pushed their bodies to the limits, all in the name of competition. Take the Cross-Country photos for example.

Luckily, the pictures were not of a high enough quality to highlight the frowning faces that drooped down to their feet, or to emphasise the eyes that were filling with tears, threatening to spill over at any moment. All you could see were a group of people, that while running fast, looked determined, but in a fair deal of discomfort.

Another frustration was one that should not really have been an issue. There were a number of mix ups between the faces of students and one case where a student’s face failed to even get onto the page! One might have thought that the biggest importance, and potentially the most straightforward part, was aligning each student’s class photo

with nothing more than their first and last name. This, when done wrong, caused one of the biggest upsets, as now Olivia will be forever remembered as Annika! A let-down because as Olivia rightly says, “My children are going to look back to the year book and not find their mom… so it’s a little offensive.”

What happened to the yearbook?

Now to tackle one of the largest, and most delicate problems with this year’s yearbook. Photoshopping. Everyone knows that the graduating class gets loads of gorgeous pages at the end of the book. Each page is dedicated to a graduate from ISL who has successfully (or not) completed their IB diploma and is now heading out into the deep, dark world. This page is supposed to pay tribute to the adventurous school journey that they have finally completed, and should be filled with childhood memories and flattering photos.

However, this year, the photographer decided to take it upon themselves to edit the pictures of the graduates. Of course, this raised concerns, ranging from issues about lack of influence on students’ own photos to the potential of causing body-shaming issues. It was an obvious violation of one’s privacy and independence from social “norms” that students should not feel forced upon them. Photoshopping someone without their permission is unbelievably rude and ought not to have been done in the first place, let alone in the yearbook of a school that is believed to be as inclusive as ISL. Of course, commendation where it is deserved, Ms Gereige almost single handedly assembled this year’s yearbook. “It’s all coming from my own

ideas,” she explains as she describes how she assembles the yearbook. But perhaps this is part of the problem.

We students often have our minds set on something so specific - and potentially unrealistic - that no matter how colourful, entertaining and vivid any yearbook is, we feel hugely disappointed. Many of us may subconsciously long for the American high school spirit that can be found in any of the numerous cliché movies or TV shows that we seem to endlessly be watching on television. Perhaps we are envious of the hustle and bustle that accompanies the releasing of the year book in so many schools in the States. Maybe we are jealous of the flourish of pens and sneaky notes that can be looked back at years from now and make us reminisce about “those good old days”. Ms Gereige is extremely open to student input, as it used to be several years ago. “I would love to have students help out,” she exclaims when the subject of student interaction was discussed. Maybe, if the students were more involved in the creation of the yearbooks, they could start up that creative spirit, and then, even if the year book was atrocious and hideous and unorganized, we would have nobody to blame but ourselves!

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RED DEAD REDEMPTION

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Rockstar employees working 100 hour work weeks, this game had to prove itself. And, for me, it has - not only through gameplay, but story, too.

This took place around 7 hours into Red Dead Redemption II, the new open world action game developed by Rockstar, released October 26th, 2018. It was at this campfire when I realized that Rockstar has created a masterpiece.

A little on the gameplay: it’s classic Rockstar, but with so much more depth, it can overwhelm. It’s a Western.

You ride horses, chase bounties, get drunk, rob banks and, of course, get into duels. But, Rockstar has added so much to that. You have to clean your horse, you have to eat, you have to rest, you have to wash. Every detail has been accounted for. To really drive the point home, here’s an example: if you get into a fight, people will remember you. Hours after I robbed someone in a town called Valentine, the residents remembered me, and kept their distance.

Considerable hype surrounded this game - it’s been two years since the first trailer for it was released. A prequel to Red Dead Redemption, which was released back in 2010, this game had a lot to live up to. And with news of

Through details like this, you are shown how American society is growing, and how the age of outlaws is dying around you. But Rockstar also puts this effort into the story too. Each character feels important. You care for each person in

fter a hard day of robbery, usury and other sins, I arrived back at camp. The moon shone, and the campfire smoke rose up into the night sky. I sat down by the fire, and talked with thieves, low lifes, murderers. These people are my friends, and we are being hunted by the law. But for now, I can take a breath, and talk with them at the fire, and maybe even sing with them. Just to forget the Hell that’s coming.

PRESS PLAY

Rashid Baxter

your gang. You want them to be safe from the law. You can feel the tension when the protagonist, Arthur Morgan, lies to his friends by telling them they are safe, to keep hope alive.

It’s a heartbreaking game. It shows the birth of civilization, but also the tragedy that springs from this. As the main villain in the game says to Arthur Morgan, he and his friends are “venerate savagery, and [...] will die savagely.” I’m only 25% of the way through the game at the time of writing. But already, I’ve had more memorable moments in Red Dead Redemption II than in my time fully playing games from EA or Ubisoft. This is more than a simple “video game”. It’s an ode to the time when modern civilization was born in America. It’s an ode to nature. While we may love society, faults and all, watching society be born in this game is heartbreaking. That’s why it’s one of the best games ever made.

Jade Tan

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WORDSEARCH

THE LAST LAUGH

Jade Tan