1 March, 2018
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YAA GYASI In Conversation By Eve Milusich ‘21 Staff Writer
stating “I needed to find a voice large enough to contain all of this history.” Overall, Gyasi’s book offers a uniquely layered look at family, exploring race, womanhood, motherhood, queerness, and class difference. Speaking with interviewer Myriam Chancy, Gyasi made it clear that her writing, while not at all autobiographical, was focused on her own questions about how she came to be, living in Alabama as a Ghanaian-American woman. While it’s hard to believe, Gyasi initially didn’t think Homegoing would be published; at the time she first started writing, she said that her “audience was very much herself.” Beginning the novel in her sophomore year at Stanford, Gyasi explored her personal curiosities through years of research into what she referred to as “absences” in traditional accounts of history. “So much of what I was reading was books written by British white men using very pointed language that I had to kind of read around.” With Homegoing, Yaa said that she “was hoping to fill a space, to give voice to people who hadn’t been able to speak for themselves.” Just as Gyasi expressed her emphasis on writing for herself, she also advised aspiring writers in the
audience to stay true to their own visions. Though she acknowledged the cliché of this advice, Gyasi stated how she believed in keeping her work guarded to avoid being influenced and transformed by others’ perspectives. She also encouraged writers to “keep connecting to the thing that made you want to write in the first place” and stressed the importance of reading whatever books you love, whether they are the classics or paperback romances. By connecting both her passions and intentions to her work, Gyasi made sure to keep Homegoing authentically hers while also shaping it into a reflection of present issues. Though she began working on the book before the 2016 election (and the longstanding racial injustices that it brought to national attention), Homegoing has an uncannily up-todate relevance. When questioned about this, Gyasi gave an insightful answer, stating how she wasn’t writing towards this particular social/ political moment, but rather going off of an understanding that this moment is always here. Today’s issues “did not appear out of nowhere.”
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Yaa said that she “was hoping to fill a space, to give voice to people who hadn’t been able to speak for themselves.”
Photo courtesy of Time Magazine
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Inside This Issue:
Ghana’s Cape Coast. The novel follows the family tree of an Asante woman named Maame, whose lineage splits across either side of the Atlantic when her two daughters, Effia and Esi, befall very different fates. While Effia is married to a British officer who runs slaving operations at the nearby Cape Coast Castle, her sister, Esi, is brought into slavery, held in a dungeon at the very same castle and then sent across the Middle Passage to America. With one chapter dedicated to each generation, Effia’s descendants go on to be part of the ruling class in Ghana, and Esi’s line is followed on the other side of the Atlantic, through slavery, emancipation, segregation, the Civil Rights era, right up until modern times. Perhaps some of the novel’s success is due to this ambitiously split narrative; Yaa explained her choice,
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Photo courtesy of bookhemia.net
earing up to begin her novel, Yaa Gyasi flew 7,500 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to Ghana’s Cape Coast beaches, only to arrive there and realize that inspiration was not in the mood to strike. For many authors, simply starting to write is one of the most daunting obstacles of the process; yet on February 20, reading the first passage of her debut novel Homegoing to a hushed Garrison Theater, Gyasi demonstrated just how deftly she had overcome these barriers. Though many of the students, faculty, and community members in attendance had already read Gyasi’s debut novel, those who hadn’t were soon swept away by its prismatic narrative, and quickly brought up-tospeed. Homegoing begins in the 1700s and is initially set in Asanteland, a village involved in the slave trade on
Scripps Colleges announces the 2018 Commencement Speaker.
Why do Girl Scout cookies have different names from coast to coast?
1030 Columbia Avenue | Claremont, CA 91711 | Box 839 | scrippsvoice@gmail.com | Volume XXI | Issue Six
The Scripps Voice Staff Editors-in-Chief Maureen Cowhey Mel Gilcrest
Features • 3
Charlamayne Hunter-Gault to be 2018 Commencement Speaker By Sasha Rivera ‘19 Staff Writer
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Advisor Christopher Dennis Design Editors Ali Bush Becky Hoving Emilie Hu Sarah Wong Copy Editors Anna Gao Rena Patel Business Manager Anna Liss-Roy Webmaster Bergen Carloss Columnists & Staff Writers Elena Lev Erin Delany Eve Milusich Eve Kaufman Hanna Kim Hayley Van Allen Ittai Sopher Leta Ames Lizzie Willsmore Luena Maillard Priya Canzius Rose Gelfand Sasha Rivera Ziz Murphy Photographers Emilie Hu
cripps College announced that the speaker for the 88th annual commencement would be Charlayne Hunter-Gault, an award-winning journalist and civil rights activist. Hunter-Gault was the first African American woman, and one of the first African American students in general, to enroll in 1961 to the University of Georgia. She later became the university’s first African American commencement speaker as well. Hunter-Gault is best known for her journalistic work with PBS, NPR, and the New York Times, but she has also written several books, such as To the Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement (2012), about her activism and developments in Africa. Some of the awards she has received include George Foster Peabody Broadcast Awards and national news and documentary Emmy Awards. Hunter-Gault was born on born on February 27, 1942, in Due West, South Carolina, and she grew up mostly in Georgia. Inspired as a child by the comic strip Brenda Starr, which was about an adventurous reporter, she decided to pursue journalism, although her college options while living in the South were limited. In a movement to integrate the all-white colleges in the South, civil rights activists approached Hunter-Gault, who was ranked third in her class, and she requested to attend the University of Georgia for its journalism program. Although initially denied, after a court ruling, she and another African American classmate were admitted. Despite facing many challenges such as protests, little aid from law enforcement, and segregation, she was able to graduate in 1963 with a journalism degree. She went on to work for the New York Times after graduation, where she eventually became the head of the Harlem Bureau and made progressive changes in how the paper wrote about African Americans. In 1978, Hunter-Gault began working for PBS, covering national and international news stories for the MacNeil/Lehrer Report; alongside her reporting she hosted the human rights-focused show called Rights and Wrongs. In 1997, she began working for NPR as the African bureau chief, which relocated her to Johannesburg, South Africa. She quit NPR a couple years later and became the Johannesburg Bureau chief for CNN until 2005, after which Hunter-Gault returned to NPR. Alongside her journalistic career, Hunter-Gault and her husband also produce wine that is exported to the US from South Africa. Natalie Johnson, a Scripps senior and a member of commencement search committee, met Hunter-Gault at a party through her aunt. In an interview, she stated
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Photo courtesy of Life Magazine.
Photo courtesy of Case Western Reserve University.
that she suggested Hunter-Gault for the role as a way to push Scripps College towards inclusive feminism and practicing what is taught in the classrooms. When asked about the journalist’s character, Johnson said, “Charlayne is a force of nature. She is vivacious and has an unmistakably strong presence in any room. I could tell she was a journalist the first time we spoke. She has this intuition and laser focus in her eyes that made me feel like I was the only person in the world. She spoke to me as if she had seen something in me that I had yet to see or learn about myself.” Moreover, when asked why Hunter-Gault is a good choice and how her being the commencement speaker would affect the Scripps community, Johnson replied that “she embodies the tenacity that Scripps empowers women to cultivate. In reading her biography In My Place (1992), I came to appreciate the bravery and heart she carried throughout her time integrating the University of Georgia and throughout her career. Breaking glass ceilings is a theme in her life and something she does with an amazing amount of grit. In the midst of the #MeToo movement and one year into the Trump presidency, I beleive Hunter-Gault will inspire the audience to be brave and find ‘their place.’ In addition, Scripps values challenging dominant narratives. Charlayne’s contributions to the civil rights movement are quite amazing to say the least. Recognizing her for her activism helps to emphasize the role of women in the movement in ways outside of the dominant narrative.” Having someone like Hunter-Gault, who played a significant role in the civil rights and integration movements, as the commencement speaker is an important step for Scripps College. Despite having the Histories of the Present: Violence Core classes, which focused on racism and colonialism, the college has received backlash for past commencement speakers like Madeleine Albright. The 64th US Secretary of State seemed on the surface like an impressive choice, but students and professors argued against the decision because of Albright’s foreign policy roles during the Clinton administration, as well as her comments that women who did not support Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016 deserved a “special place in hell.” Albright was critiqued as a representation of US imperialism and toxic white feminism because she supported US sanctions that led to the deaths of millions of people, especially Iraqi children. When students are required to take classes like Core that often discuss colonialism and imperialism, it is a shocking contrast when the school then chooses an imperialist as a commencement speaker. While it is unknown if the decision to choose Hunter-Gault was genuine and not an attempt to cover up Scripps College’s problematic past, it is a step in the right direction; hopefully the college will continue to choose speakers that empower marginalized people and represent the values actually taught at Scripps.
1 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Six
4 • News
Krista Suh Pussy hat creater grabs back in Scripps Presents
By Anna Liss-Roy ‘20 Business Manager
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n Wednesday Jan. 31, Scripps Presents hosted Krista Suh, an Asian-American screenwriter based in L.A. who has risen to prominence since co-founding the Pussyhat Project last year. The “pussy hat,” a pink knit hat with ears, is a widely recognized symbol of the 2017 Women’s March; photographs of both the 2017 and 2018 Women’s Marches are a sea of pink. Ignatz Award-nominated comic book artist Yumi Sakugawa joined Suh as her interviewer. At first glance Suh herself resembled a giant pussy hat, sporting a pink dress and pink shoes, completing the look with a pink pussy hat (obviously). As she sat, she turned her purse toward the audience; “pussy grabs back” was spelled out across it in blinking lights. Suh described the pussy hat as a unifying symbol for the feminist cause, sharing anecdotes from the march and discussing the large showing of women who knitted and wore the hats. Though the idea stemmed from the younger generation, “many women learned to knit from their grandmothers,” Suh said. “It is meant to be for everyone.” The Pussyhat Project website echoes Suh’s rhetoric in its description of the hat as “a symbol of support and solidarity for women’s rights and political resistance.” However, the design has faced criticism from many who feel that its color and emphasis on genitalia are exclusionary to female-identifying and non-binary individuals who may not share the same anatomy and to black and brown feminists whose genitalia may not be pink. Criticism of the pussy hat project has spawned a retaliatory movement of its own: “Pussy Hats: The Confederate Flags for White Feminists,” proclaimed a headline on Medium. com. Pussy hats are “white-focused and Eurocentric” and “based around the idea of biological essentialism,” wrote the Pensacola
Women’s March in anticipation of the 2018 Women’s March. After talking about Suh’s personal experiences with the Pussyhat Project, Sakugawa pressed her to address the project’s critics. “Pussy is a derogatory term that we’ve reclaimed,” said Suh. “When a dude says ‘you’re such a pussy’ he’s not saying you have a vagina. He’s criticizing feminine traits.” Suh responded to the accusation that pussy hats cater to white feminists: “The pink was never meant to be a flesh tone thing...pink is certainly not the color of my vulva.” Suh discussed the erasure of Asian-American identities that occurs when people assume white women launched the project. “At first I was confused because, one, I’m a person of color,” she said. Suh addressed the argument that pink hats are a “frothy, unsubstantial form of activism,” a point often paired with the critique that the hats infantilize women. “Pink is historically associated with blood and power,” she said. “The feminine needs to be respected.” In response to trans critics, Suh referenced the Pussyhat Project website, which clarifies the nonliteral intent of the genitalia symbol. “[We] specifically had language and manifesto about welcoming cisgender, transgender people…we had the language…” she said. Suh’s responses to these several different angles of criticism strengthened her argument in support of the project, yet at times it felt like she emphasized the geographic diversity of pussy hat supporters and her own AsianAmerican identity to maneuver away from open reflection and analysis of criticisms coming from black and trans communities. To her credit, even as she defended the pussy hat, Suh warned against telling people how to protest. “If it brings attention to [the trans] cause I’m happy to be a part of it,” she said. “You realize you need to do something even if others might not like it,” Suh said. “Symbols are meant to be used to further the conversation and so I’m so proud of the pussy hat for doing that.”
Photo courtesy to Elisa Ferrari
1 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Six
Features • 5
Interviews With the Children of Immigrants By Sasha Rivera ‘19 Staff Writer
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Image courtesy of Sohni Kaur
ccording to the Center for American Progress, about 43.3 million foreign-born people live in the United States. Low-income immigrant households rely less on government aid programs, with only 9.3% of these families receiving income from Social Security and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, in comparison to 15% of US-born households. FBI data and a study from the Cato Institute indicated that immigrants have significantly lower crime and incarceration rates as well. Economically, they added two trillion dollars in 2016 to US GDP, 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants and their children, and across three generations, the net contribution of immigrants to state and local budgets has been 900 dollars per person. Despite the positive impacts immigrants have had on the US, they still face hardship and discrimination, especially with the Trump presidency. Additionally, however, race and ethnicity also majorly impact the way certain immigrants are treated. A white man from France, for example, will have a very different experience from a Mexican woman. While all immigrants undergo unique difficulties when coming to the US and having to adjust to a different culture, it is important in these conversations to recognize how things like racism or islamophobia affect their experiences. To further explore this issue, I interviewed other students from a variety of backgrounds who had at least one parent that was a first-generation immigrant. I became interested in this subject because my mother is from Russia and has been living in California since 1996 after marrying my dad. She did of course struggle with assimilating into American culture, being a mother, and being away from her entire family. However, she was overall treated quite positively by the people she met and was not discriminated against for being Russian. When people would hear my mother’s accent or her speaking Russian to me, their reactions would be ones of fascination and excitement. In one incident at Target, a woman praised my mom for teaching me Russian at a young age, and then went on to shame her kindergarten students for having parents who spoke little English and primarily Spanish at home. As for me, the worst I’ve ever experienced for being half-Russian is the occasional fetishization and being asked a couple times if my mom was a mail-order bride. Those situations were uncomfortable, but not dangerous. (Alyssa Rowshan SC ‘21) described the difficulties her Iranian father has faced in the US. From having his accent mocked to having to take on a more “American” name in professional settings, her father has been treated negatively as an immigrant. She stated that she wished she could take pride in her culture without being labeled as a terrorist. “For two months [after 9/11], my father could not take me or my sister to school, the park because he was so afraid of being physically beaten or murdered in front of us due to the rise in hate crimes caused by unwarranted backlash against middle eastern and Muslim individuals. The rise in xenophobic and racist sentiment under our current president also stands
out in terms of his experience. On a systematic level, the Muslim Ban instated by Trump had a large impact on my family, as my aunt and uncle have one son with US citizenship and one who was drafted into the Iranian Army and is therefore unable to leave. These racist policies have undoubtedly affected the way individual middle eastern immigrants are treated. Recently, while just walking our dogs, my father was physically threatened and told to ‘go back where he came from’ by one of our neighbors.” (Sohni Kaur SC ‘21) detailed the experiences of her parents, who both came from India, with racism and discrimination. She said that even though they don’t get a lot of trouble nowadays because they do not have very distinct accents, her father will still get strange looks when he wears his turban. In one instance, one of her father’s patients even joked about him being in the Taliban due to his turban. Kaur described a particularly disturbing incident that her mother underwent: “Once one of my mom’s patients refused to share his entire patient history with my mom and demanded to see her supervisor, who happened to be an African-American man, and then told one of the nurses ‘First an Asian woman, and now a black doctor? Am I in America anymore?’ My mom’s incident happened when she was finishing up her fellowship in Alabama.” Kaur also added in her personal experiences. “I haven’t been treated that bad as a child of an immigrant, because I grew up in a fairly liberal area. But I still get nervous any time we go through TSA at the airport or if I see anyone looking intently in our direction. Also when I was in elementary school, my friends would tell me my lunch looked or smelled weird whenever I brought food my mom made.” Isaiah Twolands (CMC ‘20) also spoke about the experiences of his parents, who emigrated from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He described situations where his parents were assumed to be unintelligent due to their immigration status,
despite their degrees and medical professions. He also explained that ”what is the probably the most notably, consistently prevalent thing that relates to my parents being immigrants is how people react when they hear their accents. They are so quick to ask my parents where they are from and view them as representative of their country or they tell my parents some irrelevant detail to show how they almost have some personal stake in the country as well. This definitely comes across as a colonial ‘Look, I am taking part in your culture just as you are taking part in mine!’ as though my parents aren’t Americans citizens, they are exotic and therefore only to be interacted with from a position of ignorant intrigue, and whatever detail they brought up is equivalent to the daily cultural shifts my parents navigate/to the vast expanse of the culture of my parents country.” Twolands also elaborated on the specific difficulties his parents face for being African immigrants: “It plays upon an interesting dichotomy because they are African-American (as opposed to Black-American) so at first glance people may have a certain set of banal beliefs and stereotypes associated with them, but when they realize they are also immigrants from Central Africa, there’s immediately another set of preconceived notions put along with that. Sometimes even favorable treatment by people of different ethnic backgrounds has a dehumanizing, negative effect because they are not seeing my parents as their unique, individualistic selves, but rather as their background and their culture.” He described the phenomenon of existing in two cultural worlds as a child of immigrants. Despite being born in America, only visiting his home country once, and not speaking his parents’ native language, Twolands stated that his home life and daily customs “differ greatly from that of most Black-American households, so I spent much of my formative years trying to bridge that gap and figure out where I fall within it. Also, of course kids at school when you’re young are going to make fun of you for being different. I do believe that those years of figuring out how my background constitutes who I am helped me figure out who I want to be.” Through these interviews, one can see the nuance and variation in immigrant experiences. While immigrants from Europe and Slavic countries are glorified and embraced—despite the occasional fetishization, immigrants of color often face deeper struggles and dangers due to factors like racism and islamophobia. The situations of these immigrants’ children are also unique because of the challenges that come with living multiple cultures at once. It is essential to keep these things in mind when discussing the treatment of immigrants in the US.
“I spent much of my formative years trying to bridge that gap and figure out where I fall within it.” - Isaiah Twolands CMC ‘20
Image courtesy of Alyssa Rowshan
1 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Six
SPOTLIGHT
6
Tastes Like Home? A Nation Divided...
Erin Delany '20
By Girl Scout Cookies
F
ebruary is coming to a close, which means that Girl Scout cookie season is well under way. If you have left your dorm at any point during the last three weeks, you have probably been accosted by some adorable little moppet in a Brownie vest asking you if you would like to support their troop. I personally fell prey to the Scouts’ genius marketing tactic–after all, when a group of eight yearolds in uniform ask you to support their camping endeavors, I find it very hard to say no–and decided to buy a box. I approached the red wagon that a frazzled-looking parent was helping her Scout troop haul across campus, scanning the assortment of cookies and looking for my favorite Tagalongs, only to find… Peanut Butter Patties? Maybe the Girl Scouts are going through a rebrand. I Venmoed the troop, took my cookies home, cracked open the box, and realized that the chocolate and peanut butter morsels which I had so selflessly purchased were noticeably different from the cooki e s
that I grew up selling and eating as a child in the suburbs of Chicago. Naturally, I was curious and slightly bewildered, so I Googled the cookies that I purchased, only to discover that the United States is divided and a Girl Scout cookie turf war has been developing right under all of our noses–and it wasn’t until I moved to California that I could see its effects. There are two bakeries that supply the Girl Scouts of America with cookies every year: ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers. These bakeries, while both licensed to manufacture and distribute cookies for the Girl Scout brand, are free to formulate their own recipes for each type of cookie that the Girl Scouts sell. As a result, while many of the cookies sold by Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers may appear similar at first glance, the taste, texture, and caloric value of each cookie varies drastically between bakers. In
an attempt to place a finger on the subtle differences between physically similar cookies such as Samoas and Caramel deLites, the Los Angeles Times drew up a comparison between the two bakeries and the cookies they manufacture. The Times describes the nuances of flavor between each pair of equivalent cookies, describing the Peanut Butter Patties which ABC Bakers manufactures as having a “vanilla flavor [and a] lighter peanut butter layer,” while Little Brownie Bakers’ Tagalongs have “more layers of peanut butter inside,” creating the flavor distinction. Even the two factories’ Thin Mints–the only cookies that share the same name b e -
tween Little Brownie and ABC–have different tastes. According to the Times, ABC Bakers’ Thin Mints are “crunchier, with more mint than chocolate in each bite,” while Little Brownie sells a variety that is “richer, [with a] smoother chocolate coating [and a] distinct peppermint taste.” These differences, although they may be minute, can have a jarring effect on consumers who buy a b o x
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of cookies from one bakery while expecting cookies from the other. Scripps second-year Indigo Olson, who hails from Bellingham, Washington (supplied by Little Brownie Bakers), was disappointed to discover that the Thin Mints which they found in Claremont were vastly different from the cookies to which they are accustomed. They recounted that they could not place exactly what distinguished these particular Thin Mints from the cookies that they remember, quipping that their “taste buds were blinded by rage. It was gross. Even if the cookie is objectively good, it’s such a let-down to not have it taste the way you know and love.” In the divide between Girl Scout cookie manufacturers, Claremont is of particular interest. The territory distribution between ABC Bakers and Lit-
Photo Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times
1 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Six
Brownie Bakers is not determined geographically, but by the decision of each autonomous regional Girl Scout council. As a result, two individuals residing in the same state–within a few miles of each other, even–may grow up eating two different types of Girl Scout cookies. This is the case in Southern California, where the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles is supplied by Little Brownie Bakers, while the Girl Scouts of Orange County source their cookies from ABC Bakers. Although Claremont technically exists within the jurisdiction of the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles, because of the town’s location, troops who sell cookies within the village are supplied by both Little Brownie and ABC Bakers. With this in mind, an individual with no knowledge of the differences between suppliers is essentially playing a lottery: there is no guarantee that you are purchasing a box of the cookies which you grew up eating. In some cases, the cookies which the two bakeries produce are not even
physically similar. ABC Bakers’ S’mores cookie, a nationwide Girl Scout staple, takes the form of a chocolate-covered graham cookie with a layer of vanilla frosting inside. By contrast, the Little Brownie Bakers’ rendition of the S’mores cookie is an oblong sandwich cookie composed of two graham cookies with a swirl of chocolate and vanilla frosting between them. The stark difference between these two products left Scripps first year Lindsay Marye Canaday, who hails from Wellesley, Massachusetts–supplied by ABC Bakers–sufficiently confunded. “I am from the East Coast where our s’mores have the chocolate on the outside. I am very passionate about my Girl Scout cookie preferences, and the ones I bought from a girl in the Village this weekend were honestly disappointing." Expecting the cookies she received to parallel the cookies she would buy at home, Lindsay was surprised to find that the S’mores she purchased had been manufactured by Little Brownie Bakers. Lindsay is not the only Claremont student who has had a run-in with an unfamiliar selection of Girl Scout cookies this season. Scripps firstyear Gavi Silverman, who came to California from Houston–supplied by ABC Bakers–explained that the discovery of other types of Girl Scout
cookies has been eyeopening. “[Growing up] I always ate Peanut Butter Patties, but to be honest I feel a little cheated because I had no idea that there were two kinds." After experiencing Girl Scout cookie season in Claremont, Gavi’s opinions regarding her cookie preferences have evolved. “The bakery with the Samoas is much better,” Gavi said, referring to the classic chocolate, caramel, and coconut cookies which go by the name of Caramel deLites when they are manufactured by ABC Bakers. “The Samoas taste like there is real caramel in them.” While Gavi’s allegiances have shifted solidly to Little Brownie Bakers, Scripps first-year Gloria Choi’s bakery preferences have always straddled both ABC and Little Brownie. Gloria is from Orange County, California, and while she states that her favorite cookies growing up “were Thin Mints and Caramel DeLites,” there was one cookie that she would cross county lines to obtain. “I’m also a big fan of the Savannah Smiles, but they were only offered in LA County, so I had to find people from LA who would sell them to me,” she explained. Luckily, now that Gloria is living in Claremont, she has access to the best of both worlds. As for the rest of us, Claremont’s unique location presents the opportunity to either look for our favorite, familiar cookies or to expand our horizons and go for the Peanut Butter Patties instead of the Tagalongs–or vice versa–and see how the other half of the country lives.
8 • Features
THE GRAMMYS ARE A DISGRACE, WHAT’S NEW?
Photograph courtesy of Getty
By Ali Bush ‘19 Music Columnist
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n high school, I was president of my school’s only music club, the Jam Club. Even though it was only a loosely organized group of ragtag kids who were into alternative music, it was my pride and joy. The climax (and only organized event) of the year was the Jammys, our version of the Grammys, where we could nominate and vote on musicians that we really thought should deserve to win a Grammy that year. We knew every year that our favorite bands would not be represented, be it alternative bands, female musicians, musicians of color, you name it, we knew, even before nominations came out, that they would all lose out to Mumford & Sons. Years have passed since, and this year’s Grammy nominations and winners have only further disappointed me in the Grammy’s inability to support talented female artists or even grasp the idea of good music at all. It has been a momentous year for women to say the least, and at first, the Grammys ceremony seemed supportive of the Times Up movement and empowerment of women in general. The evening started hopeful as female nominees performed moving, tear-jerking pieces. As a young music lover, I vividly remember watching televised Grammy performances like Beyoncé and Tina Turner’s 2008 duet and the impact they had on me. Kesha’s performance was strikingly moving and was truly an emblem of the #MeToo movement as women like Cindy Lauper, Camilla Cabello, and Andra Day performed beside her, supporting her story of healing after sexual assault. Although the Grammys recruited a killer roster of female performers, it is clear that this was a night of hypocrisy, as few women were nominated and even fewer took home awards. A recent academic study from USC reports that between 2013 and 2018 only 9.3% of Grammy pop nominees have been women. Gender bias is apparent in in this year’s nominees. Major categories including, song of the year, album of the year, and record of the year each featured four male performances and only one woman. Unlike the film industry, which recognizes women and men separately, women compete alongside men, and it is disturbingly blatant when the Grammys favor men.
Performance-wise, the ceremony this year proved to discriminate against women. Lorde, the only woman to be nominated for album of the year, was not allowed to perform at the ceremony unless she participated in a Tom Petty tribute. While every other (male) nominee of this category performed their own work, Lorde declined the offer and did not perform at all. The work done by women this year is monumental and particularly impressive. For example, Lady Gaga wrote about dealing with the loss of family; Kesha sings about recovering from sexual assault and forgiving her rapist; SZA, the most nominated woman of the night, sings about the beauty and struggle of being a black woman; Lorde wrote an album about heartbreak and being a teenage girl; Lana del Rey wrote her first political record that is equally insightful and poetic. The list could go on and on, but none of these women won any awards. The only women to be given a major award was Alessia Cara, for
“FOR A YEAR THAT PRODUCED SOME OF THE MOST MOVING MUSIC BY WOMEN, THE GRAMMYS RECOGNIZED ALMOST NONE” Best New Artist. In an industry where women compete with men within the same categories, women not only held their own this year, but they rose above the frivolity of the male nominees. However, they were overshadowed by money-making machines like Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars. Yes, Bruno Mars brought James Brown soul back to pop music, and I’m sure we can all dance real hard to Ed Sheeran on a drunk Saturday night, but does that even compare to the sincerity and passion that the female nominees so gracefully put into song?
It seems to me that the Grammys are rigged by some 20-something LA producer guy, but the problem lies in the National Recording Academy and their trustees. Their leader, Recording Academy president Neil Portnow responded to a question concerning #GrammysSoMale by stating that women in the music industry “should step up” and “they would be welcome” to the music industry, as if women are fearful and holding back their creative abilities. Cleary, Portnow is lacking a nuanced understanding of ways in which women are intimidated and discouraged in the music industry, or any male dominated industry for that matter. Thankfully, a letter authored by six of the most powerful women executives of record labels like Universal Music Group, Atlantic Records, and Sony Music claimed that the Recording Academy’s board of trustees are “woefully out of touch with today’s music, the music business, and society in general.” Published on behalf of these executives’ respective companies, this had the backing of billions of dollars’ worth of power, and ends on a hopefully note urging the creation of a task force within the Academy to obliterate obstacles for female musicians. The Grammys lost 6 million viewers this year, and it’s obvious to me that the Grammys are totally out of touch with what real people listen to and want to see at a ceremony. Until they meet resistance like that of the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, only a select group the billboard’s top artists will be rewarded for their work, and real talent produced from real struggle and emotions will remain taken for granted. For a year that produced some of the most moving music by women ever to be accepted in the mainstream, the Grammys recognized almost none of them. While celebrities donned Times Up pins and white roses on the red carpet to support female empowerment, the institution of the Grammys might as well have condemned the entire movement. Women truly turned out some amazing music, but were overshadowed by male, money-making popstars. When the Grammys snub these women’s albums, they not only reject their work as musicians, but they ignore their stories, silence their voices, and invalidate their experiences.
1 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Six
Features • 9
Mental Health Column By Rena Patel ‘19 Staff Writer
ExessiveTriggering
A
few weeks ago, I took my sister and her friend out to dinner. Being the two 14 year olds that they are, innocent and influenced by media they don’t particularly understand, they were bickering about something. I zoned out. If I’m going to be honest, my job was just to keep them alive. It was only when I heard the phrase “I’m so triggered right now” come out of my sister’s friend’s mouth that I snapped back to reality. “What did you just say?” I asked. My sister rolled her eyes, sensing a lecture coming, and oh boy were they in for it. That is, until I realized that it wasn’t just 14 year olds that said things like this. I’ve heard similar phrases coming out of my peers’ mouths. The meaning of triggers, what constitutes as a trigger, and what it means to “feel triggered” has been removed from its original roots in mental health vocabulary and undermined in societal situations. Triggers, as defined in the world of mental health and by mentalhealth.net, are “external events or circumstances that may produce very uncomfortable emotional or psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety, panic, discouragement, despair, or negative self-talk.” While triggers are incredibly real and trigger warnings are necessary to ensure that everyone remains aware and has the option to opt out of situations that can make them
uncomfortable, society has normalized the use of the word “trigger” and in consequence, diminished its significance. This normalization has led to many condemning safe spaces and trigger warnings on content, calling individuals who call for those labels and warnings as “infantile” and accuse those who support and accommodate for those individuals as “coddling them,” reported The New York Times. And this is due mostly to the fact that people are using the term “trigger” as a general phrase to express discomfort as opposed to having actual negative effects to mental health. “Being triggered” is not and should not be an expression to convey mild discomfort, negative emotion, or awkward moments. Triggers are moments or objects that produce an intense reaction from those who are affected. Using triggers in everyday speech in a normalizing way undermines the necessity and importance for those who actually experience an adverse emotional or psychiatric reaction.
Resources: Lakes Center Tigger Coping and Relapse: https://thelakestreatmentcenter.com/ trigger-warning-preventing-copingrelapse MentalHelp.com
Skincare in the Age of Pop Feminism By Ziz Murphey ‘19 Media Analyst
W
hen we assign feminism to products and people, we are bound to lose. In Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, bell hooks suggests that we proffer the phrase “I advocate feminism” over “I am a feminist.” The former understands feminism as a continuous, dynamic commitment; the latter holds feminism as an identity, stagnating it and reducing it to stereotype. This the disturbing trend of the pop feminism of today- a brand of feminism that is just that, a brand. It’s using feminism to move product, to limit one’s concept of feminism to one’s own body as a site of struggle, as opposed to a body working in conjunction-- and sometimes opposition-- with those around it. Pop feminism represents one of the greatest roadblocks to phenomena and sells the idea of individualized womanhood, but fails to interrogate the structures of oppression that continue to bind even the most “empowered” women. I often associate pop feminism with the realm of makeup. The connection was most visible circa 2014 when phrases such as “weaponize your femininity” reached their peak. It was in this moment that Beyoncé’s self-titled album introduced the song “***Flawless,” which samples writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie giving her own definition of what makes a feminist. Beyoncé’s use of feminist rhetoric in a capitalist musical enterprise represents a microcosm of 2014’s pop feminism, the moment that feminism was mainstreamed and so, commodified. In order to do so, the work of feminism, the “advocacy,” had to be taken out to make room for this false notion of liberated individualism. You can’t sell action and coalition.You can, however, sell “eyeliner sharp enough to kill a man.” For the price of a tube of lipstick, swaths of young girls were indoctrinated to the notion that their salvation lay not in deconstructing femininity but instead, in making an armor out of it and never questioning the integrity of its metal. And now, in 2018, the question becomes: is the same thing happening with skincare? Krithika Varagur of The Outline argues this point in her recent piece, “The Skincare Con.” Taking aim at both specific brands and even the general concept of skin
Photo courtesy of Nylon
needing “care,” she argues that capitalism and societal structures have elevated “perfect skin” to a both desired and unattainable level only possible of glimpsing through lengthy routines and chemical violence. I see a lot of merit in her viewpoint, earning particular favor from me for its quoting of Scripps’ favorite Discipline and Punish. We understand burning sensations, stinging, and inflammation to signify that a product is “working.” As Julie Beck writes in her The Atlantic article “How St. Ives’s Apricot Scrub Plays on People’s Shame,” “Acne is inevitably a public affliction and in its its gnarliest forms can breen shame and low self esteem… It makes me feel ugly. It makes me feel like I’m dirty and I need to be scrubbed raw to be clean again.” Varagur sees skincare as only promoting beauty through the pain exemplified by Beck’s experience. There is no potential healing, only a stripping away in the hope that something presentable might be uncovered. Varagur rightly caught a lot of backlash for her piece, particularly among those who best understand that looks really do matter: folks who spent years
on accutane just to feel comfortable, dark-skinned women constantly confronted with Eurocentric beauty standards, and anyone who was bothered by her patronizing tone and what Janet Mock once called “pretty privilege.” But I do think her argument can’t just be thrown away. Varagur brings up an important, if polemic, point: we need to acknowledge that skincare exists at the nexus of self-hate, self-care and capitalism. No side of that triangle can be ignored. However, there are far more options than “do nothing” and “scrub away your face on a regular basis.” And that’s where this column—my attempt at a beauty/wellness/health corner, if you will, for which I already have an interview lined up with a skin care specialist - will hopefully intervene. I do not claim to be the expert on any of this, but I love critical analysis, and will do my best to make this a useful, healing space for learning to take care of ourselves as we dismantle what that has to embody.
1 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Six
10 • Features
Q A
The idea of sex always sounds fun, but then when it’s about to happen, I’m suddenly not that interested. Help!
Hey anonymous! First off, I want you to know that this isn’t an uncommon thought. The idea of sex might sound fun, but actually being in that situation can create a range of emotions depending on your environment, the person it’s with, or even the headspace you’re in that day. The most important thing you can do for yourself, is to listen to your needs in that moment and stay true to how you’re feeling—do not move forward with sex if you’re feeling uneasy, uncomfortable, uncertain, unsafe, or even uninterested—and anybody you are with in that moment has to respect your emotions and subsequent decisions. There’s also nothing wrong with feeling these emotions— most often, feelings such as these are trying to tell you something about either the situation, or yourself, and being able to introspect or talk to someone about them is the key to understanding what they are stemming from. I would also like to gently introduce the idea ( if you haven’t already thought of this) of asexuality. I want to be clear that I am in no way labeling you as asexual or saying that this is the answer to your question (because it might not be)—I just wanted to put it out there so YOU can explore this idea further. If you are interested in learning more, Scripps FAMILY or the QRC (queer resource center) of the 5Cs are wonderful organizations full of wonderful people who are open and willing to chat privately or publicly about asexuality. If that is too intimidating—The QRC also has over a thousand LGBTQIA-related books to do research from, and there’s always the good old internet ( I suggest the Asexual Visibility and Education Network www.asexuality.org).
Q A
Is using your roommate’s bed/space for hookups gross?
Hey anonymous! Yeah.
Q A
My SO asked me to choke her recently and I got really nervous, how do you know when you’re choking her too much?
Hey anonymous! Well the first thing to do if you haven’t already is to establish a safe word. Now, since choking can make verbal communication a bit tricky, I would suggest also agreeing on a physical gesture to use as a safe word, like holding up a fist or tapping their arm three times. You can also play around with the idea of a “yellow light” signal, which would mean go easier/less pressure/slow down etc. Another thing you could do is have your partner put their hand around your wrist as you grasp their neck, and agree that if they squeeze or remove it etc, you stop. Now, if you’re new to choking, the general rule of thumb is to put pressure on the sides of the neck, not the middle. So that if you are using one hand, your fingers will be applying pressure, but your palm shouldn’t be pressing straight down or applying basically any pressure. If you put too much pressure on the middle of the throat chances are your partner is going to start coughing, and if you continue to put pressure after that you can actually do some damage because throats are very fragile. I hope creating a safe word/ movement will calm your nerves a bit, as well as really understanding how you’re supposed to choke—and I’ll say it again—lightly squeeze the sides, don’t press down.
Pun Column
ask Lue
Luena Maillard is a sophomore at Scripps who is passionate about holistic health and education. In high school, she was employed by Planned Parenthood as a Peer Health Educator to teach sex ed classes to high school health classes. She is currently working as a PHE here on campus, and you can find her during her office hours at Tiernan Field House for one-on-one conversations!
Original Puns by Elena Lev Why’s the ocean salty? Because the land doesn’t wave back. What’s another name for a speed circumcision? Brisk! What do you call a new book? Novel.
1 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Six
By Elena Lev ‘21 Pun Columnist
Arts & Entertainment • 11
fiction spotlight
ANYA COOPER The Wave: Susie’s Story A
nya stared at the shimmering scales on Susie’s forearm, mouth slightly open and forehead wrinkled with tension as she tried to wrap her mind around what Susie just told her. “But,” Anya murmured, her eyes flitting between the scales and Susie’s face, “but you don’t – you don’t have a tail? And you – you look so human, how did you-” her words were cut short by a burble of laughter, as Susie realized that Anya’s naive incredulity made her the perfect first human to tell her story to. “I’m half-human,” Susie responded, after her giggles had settled, gently rolling the sleeve of her blazer back over the glinting scales on her arm. “I grew up north of Seattle, on the coast near the Olympic Peninsula. My mother’s family lived in the shallows there, just beyond the rocks surrounding First Beach. Back then the area was still relatively quiet, and humans rarely ventured out beyond the sand whenever they visited.” For an instant, Susie’s intense gaze softened as she recalled the crisp briny air of her childhood, the wind whipping her long, wet, black hair into a frenzied halo around her head. Anya’s eyes were riveted on Susie as the latter took a deep breath, the air shuddering slightly on the exhale as a singular lock slipped free of her tight bun. Hesitantly, Anya reached out and gently placed a hand on Susie’s shoulder, feeling her tense at the gesture, before relaxing back into her story. “I barely knew my father,” Susie began again, her eyes unreadable in the dim basement light. “My mother told me he worked for the oil companies, in their environmental impact office. He was out surveying the beaches and ocean levels when they first met. Most people didn’t get out past the rocks, but he was looking to see how the tidal patterns changed deeper out to sea and he found the shallow area where my mother lived.” Susie paused, her eyes growing darker as she recalled the details. “Until then, no humans knew Mer-people existed. Even now, knowledge of us is confined to a limited few, mainly conservationists and marine biologists, but my father was the first human to directly make contact. “Things were fine until my mother got pregnant – something neither of them had even thought was possible – and then my father made the mistake of telling his company what happened.” Susie’s voice broke slightly at the end and she shuddered at the memory of what happened next. “I’m sorry,” she murmured softly, turning briefly to glance in Anya’s direction, “it’s just I’ve – I’ve never told this to anyone – to any human – before.” Reflexively,
Susie reached up and gently rubbed the part of her blazer above the patch of scales on her arm, her fingers circling the outline of her wrist in a soothing, rhythmic gesture. Anya’s brow furrowed in concentration as she gazed at Susie’s features, normally so well composed and controlled, and which now looked soft and vulnerable in the dim light. “Why are you telling me this, Susie?” Anya whispered, eyes narrowing in concern as she continued to study the latter’s expression. “I - I’ve never - I’ve never told anyone - exactly,” Susie began haltingly. “And after what you told me, about your grandfather, I just - I felt it was right to tell you, in a way.” Susie glanced over at Anya, whose eyes remained fixed on Susie’s face, as she gave a slight nod, as if to signal Susie should continue. “Within twenty-four hours of learning what happened,” Susie began, “the oil companies arrived at my mother’s grove. They sacked the place, taking the entire Mer-group captive, destroying the home my mother’s family had lived in for centuries. Everyone, her parents, siblings, and extended community, was taken to a research lab and placed under observation and testing for ‘scientific’ purposes. Years later, we learned most of them died within that first year, since the researchers didn’t know how to maintain the climate necessary for them to survive on-land.” Susie stiffened as she uttered those last few words, her voice raw and vibrating with the pain of saying the truth out loud. On instinct, Anya gently removed her hand from Susie’s shoulder and placed it on her back, moving it in comforting circles across the smooth material of the blazer, which seemed to shudder at each interval of Susie’s breath. The lighting felt almost eerie as the two women sat in the silence, bathed in a half-earthly, half-marine glow that illuminated the piles of artifacts and objects which Anya realized in horror had likely belonged to Susie’s family before that awful day. “Fortunately, my mother managed to escape,” Susie continued, her voice less shaky than before. “She never saw my father again, but she knew he would try to find us, and the longer she stayed that close to shore the easier it would be for the oil companies to return and capture us. So, she sought refuge with a group living deeper in the ocean, and stayed there until I was born, when it
“Within twenty-four hours of learning what happened,” Susie began, “the oil companies arrived at my mother’s grove. They sacked the place, taking the entire Mergroup captive, destroying the home my mother’s family had lived in for centuries.
A Serial Story by Elizabeth Willsmore became clear my half-human half-Mer respiratory system couldn’t handle that type of ocean pressure. I grew up next door to her old grove, outside Second Beach, in the shallows where I could go sleep on the rocks if my lungs were feeling especially weak.” “I stayed there until I was about fifteen, by which time it was evident I could pass as human, provided I wore discrete enough clothing.” Susie gestured to her blazer, at the long sleeves which left her arms completely covered, and her nylons, which disguised her legs well enough to attribute any strange shimmer of scales to just a trick of the light. “After that my mother decided I should try to integrate fully into human society. I’d already been making trips into the nearby small town for years, and knew one of the shop-owners, so I was able to rent out a room in her house in exchange for working in her store. Flash forward ten years and here I am, passing as a human, working for Clarke Industries as a representative for their biggest project yet.” Susie smiled dryly, her dark eyes unreadable in the dim basement lights. Anya stared at her for what felt like years, a single russet curl falling across her cheek as she absorbed what Susie had just told her. She turned and glanced around the room, taking in its piles of Mer-artifacts, the tridents stacked haphazardly in the back, and what looked like a collection of children’s toys scattered across various countertops. Finally, Anya turned back to face Susie, the latter standing exactly as before, her dark gaze direct and unyielding. “But Susie,” Anya whispered, her voice sounding almost-alien in the still air. “I don’t understand how you think I can help you. As the engineer of this new underwater base, I’d be building where the Mer-people live.” A smile unfolded across Susie’s face as she replied, “Exactly, Anya. But your building this base could be the chance my people need to be included in the dialogue on climate change.” Susie’s eyes sparkled with a fire Anya hadn’t seen until that moment. “When I heard they were considering you for the engineering position, I applied to be the representative. You also know what it’s like to feel at fault for the death of your family, and I knew if I could get anyone to understand and advocate for my people, it would be you.” Susie reached over and took Anya’s hand, her gaze never leaving the latter’s face. “You could be the chance the Mer-people need to regain our power in this climate war, Anya. That’s why I need you to build that base, not only for the humans, but for my people, the Mer-people, as well.”
Anya stared at her for what felt like years, a single russet curl falling across her cheek as she absorbed what Susie had just told her.
Check back next issue for the next installment! 1 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Six
12 • Arts & Entertainment
Four Obama Bros Explain Politics to Me
Photo Courtesy of The Michigan Daily
By Zizzy Murphy ‘19 Media Analyst
I
block out time every other Friday night for a trip to West Hollywood. At first, I tried my hardest to convince people from campus that witnessing a “gay Jewish disaster and former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett yell at you” and maybe even seeing celebrities that you know (like Sasheer Zamata of SNL or Roxane Gay) was enough of reason to skip out on Claremont for the night, but it has yet to work. Instead, I have made new friends through these outings to the live tapings of Lovett or Leave It, a “very loose” weekly comedy podcast featuring a panel of guests who range from activists to comedians to journalists, including all possible permutations of the three. Lovett or Leave It exists under the company Crooked Media. Established in 2017 in the wake of 2016 presidential election, its founders are Jon Favreau, former head speechwriter for President Obama; Jon Lovett, speechwriter as noted and showrunner of the overlooked NBC comedy 1600 Penn; and Tommy Vietor, former US National Security Council spokesperson. The most popular Crooked pod is easily Pod Save America, the flagship program that is a twice weekly breakdown of current political news, which also features Dan Pfeiffer, who served as senior advisor to President Obama. Crooked Media podcasts are the exact kind of thing I should hate; they exist in a realm of politics that I had long since given up on as a progenitor for any sort of “real” change. They are not the kind of thing I will ever bring up in campus organizing spaces or political theory classes, classes in which I have critiqued speeches of Obama, aided and
abetted by both Favreau and Lovett. Yet, I can not stop listening. The ease with which they navigate policy, the camaraderie between them, and the way that they make you feel in on the joke of what a farce our government currently is proves irresistible when combined. They’ve often been spoken of as left’s answer to conservative talk radio(the Rush Limbaugh types) but there’s something more holistic in Crooked’s approach that is missing in that comparison. Whereas Infowars and its ilk seem to occupy a space adjacent to reality, the pod bros are steeped in the here and now, negging each other on Twitter, posting videos of their dogs on Instagram, and, most crucially, agitating. They tour, they canvas, they call senators and talk to candidates; it’s entirely possible that they should be credited for the first shutdown over the dreamers. The hosts themselves hold immense social capital, and, with an audience of roughly 1.5 million, Crooked seems poised to only continue growing in influence. It’s despicably easy to take issue with Crooked Media, four white (as if the world of podcasting
“Crooked Media podcasts are the exact kind of thing I should hate; they exist in a realm of politics that I had long since given up on as a progenitor for any sort of “real” change.”
weren’t white enough!), well-off men who have clearly grown fond of the sound of their own voices seem to be the exact thing that we need less of in this moment. But there is also a deeper level of unsettlement in their rhetoric and vigor, the part of it that triggers in me an impulse to romanticize the days before 45 as though those were not full of deportations, police violence, and mass incarceration, as though the work would have been done had Hillary been elected. I’m reminded of the protest sign that “if Hillary were president, we’d be at brunch,” and I know that that’s true for many listeners. I am more bluntly reminded of the recent left edits of Obama’s presidential portrait in which his background of lush greenery is replaced by drones. I want to believe there is a path to walk between the two, and would wager that there is almost a necessity for such. We’re allowed to count small victories as long as we see bandaid solutions for what they are. That’s just a part of organizing. It’s worth taking the time to understand the audience captivated by the Crooked Media crew and to praise their mobilization; that doesn’t have to go handin-hand with male hero-worship and undying patriotism. Like any other up-and-coming millennial brand, Crooked Media sells enough t-shirts to make it through two weeks without doing the wash. There is no requirement that you buy that many or any at all. The podcasts are free to download-- do with them what you will.
THE SCRIPPS VOICE IS HIRING! Now accepting applications for Spring 2018:
- guest contributors - staff writers - photographers please direct inquiries and resumes to: scrippsvoice@gmail.com 1 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Six