Volume XXXII Issue 2 October 28 2022

The Return of Family: Scripps’ Queer Affinity Group Is Up and Thriving

because it's a progressive place,” said du Manoir. “There’s a clubhouse called Hot Donna's Clubhouse. It’s a queer-inclusive space that creates a community for underrepresented groups in gay social and nightlife, including [but not limited to] trans people and lesbians that does not have enough funds to be established in West Hollywood. I brought it up at the meeting yesterday and people seemed to receive it well.” The club plans to hold fundraising events for establishments like these.

Family also wants to host events that allow queer students to con nect and have fun. “We also have plans to have queer movie nights or PowerPoint nights that can either be about queer history or just for fun,” said Boles. “One of our first events that we're going to have is a mixer to let people know that we're back and we're here.”

By Belen Yudess '25 Staff Writer

Family is back, and stronger than ever! After being dormat for two years, the queer affinity group has been revived through Scripps Comu nities of Resources and Empower ment (SCORE). Although this club revolves around a community that is near and dear to the hearts of many, a majority of the student body have never heard of Family.

“I actually only came across it be cause I was desperately searching for a queer organization on campus,” said club president Alexandra Le Pel ley du Manoir ’26. “Then I realized they hadn't posted in years, so I was really surprised.”

Upon discovering Family’s inac tivity, du Manoir took matters into their own hands and went to SCORE to work on bringing the club back to Scripps. After getting approval, they began building an executive board to begin the planning process.

In addition to du Manoir, the club’s executive board includes event coor

IN THIS ISSUE

Although new to Scripps, running a queer affinity group is nothing new to both du Manoir and Boles. The two leaders have been cultivating spac es for queer students since middle school. du Manoir and Boles’ past experiences gave them confidence to enter into their first meeting with many ideas and expectations.

The group hosted their first meet ing on Oct. 12 in the SCORE living room. The majority first year team decided what they wanted Family to stand for and events to hold. “There was definitely a consensus for [it to be] a space for queer joy and social interaction,” said du Manoir. “But at the same time, also being able to or ganize politically and be involved in the queer scene in LA through either fundraisers or social action.”

The group also wants to focus on internal Scripps-specific improve ments. “Making Scripps a more

trans-inclusive space is really impor tant for our affinity group because we're making a space for queer peo ple,” said du Manoir. “[Changing how Scripps] defines itself as a women's college [is one way to do this]. There's a way to provide a safe space for women and female identifying peo ple that is inclusive of identities that are not women on campus.”

Boles echoed this sentiment and elaborated on Scripps’ identity as a historically women’s college ver sus a women’s college. “I know that Scripps now and admissions refer to it as a historically women's college, which is good, but a lot of our merch and advertisements for the school in general still refer to it as the Women's College of Claremont, which is a bit contradictory.”

The club also hopes to support the emergence of more spaces for the wider queer community besides cis gay men in the greater LA area. “There are currently no lesbian bars in LA, which shocks a lot of people

Although allies are also welcome to these gatherings and meetings, du Manoir and Boles remind them to be mindful of the space they are in. “We do welcome allies, but this is a space that is meant to center the voices of queer people,” said Boles. “So set ting boundaries within our meeting space, and saying this is a space for queer people to build community. And while allies are important to helping us build our community we need to amplify the voices of queer people within our space.”

Family has many goals for this year, but its most important longterm goal is its presence in Scripps’ future. “[We want Family to be] a queer affinity group on campus that can withstand time,” said du Manoir. “As people come and go we'll be able to continue this space and make sure that it's a core part of Scripps’ work for inclusivity and intersectionality. I also think that no matter how liberal your school is, it still is important to hold spaces [for queer students] re gardless.”

Boles also invited people to partici pate in the beginning of what the club hopes to be a long lasting legacy. “There's definitely a lot of joy involved in our club and that's something that we are going to actively work to maintain.”

For more information or updates about Family’s meeting dates/times and upcoming events, their Insta gram is @familyatscripps.

commitment to inclusivity and justice.

dinator Gabby Boles ‘26, community coordinator Abigail Gothard ’23, and treasurer Lucy Wang ’26.

Taylor Swift’s “Midnights”

Yik Yak might be Fizzing out

Belen Yudess '25 • The Scripps Voice

Senior Trip to Las Vegas Sparks Controversy

Senior Trip to Las Vegas Sparks Controversy Between Students and Admin

By Julia Parsa ‘26 Staff Writer

O

n Sept. 24, Scripps students received news via email that their senior trip to Las Vegas had been rejected. Students had taken a Google poll to choose their trip location, with about 50% of the senior class voting for Las Vegas. Yet, the administration stated in the email that “such an excursion does not align with Scripps ide als.” The rejection confused and enraged a majority of seniors.

Each year the Scripps senior class has several options to choose from for their senior trip destination. This year there were four options: Santa Barbara, Hun tington Beach, Palm Springs, and Las Vegas. It was detailed that the Las Vegas trip would most likely have been coordinated in con junction with the senior classes of Pomona College and Claremont McKenna College.

Many seniors were drawn to this idea because of the opportunity to spend time with their friends from other campuses. One anonymous

senior said, “I love that I would have the option to hang out with all of my friends across the 5Cs instead of just my class. The con sortium creates these friendships across campuses and having a final trip would be a great send off.” When seniors received news of the rejection of Las Vegas, they were quick to voice their opinions via anonymous comments of pro test on a Google document. Stu dents raised questions like, “what ARE the values of Scripps admin?” Some even called out the rejec tion as “hypocritical and sexist” and accused the administration of lacking faith in their students as grown adults.

“The administration has said they believe a trip to Las Vegas does not align with Scripps val ues. Las Vegas is a city like any other,” one senior wrote in the doc ument. “I would hope the adminis tration has enough faith in this se nior class to believe us capable of acting appropriately and in a way which honors Scripps, no matter where we are.”

On Oct. 23, the senior class

received a follow up email from class presidents Ishi Gupta ’23 and Elaine Yang ’23 that declared that the senior class will be going to Santa Barbara for their senior trip and addressed the Las Vegas trip controversy.

“I would hope the administration has enough faith in this senior class to believe us capable of acting appropriately and in a way which honors Scripps, no matter where we are.”

The email stated, “after consid ering all costs, accessibility fac tors, and certain requirements, we have decided not to pursue Vegas,” and revealed that admin had expressed being open to ap proving Las Vegas, but revealed a list of reasons unrelated to their complaints that would hinder the senior trip and future gradu ation activities. These included an increased cost per person in comparison to other destina tions, putting future constraints

on the senior class event budget, the need for senior chaperones, exhaustive time constraints, and the possibility of other 5C senior classes changing destinations as well.

“We know this news might be really disappointing for some, but we tried our best to hear every one’s opinions and consider all the possibilities in pursuing Vegas,” the co-presidents wrote to con clude the follow-up email. “We sin cerely apologize for anyone who was looking forward to Vegas, but we wanted to be as transparent and honest with you all about the logistics of the senior trip.”

Despite this disappointment, some students also were glad to not go to Las Vegas, as they were concerned about the accessibility of the trip. “In all honesty, I’m kind of glad we’re not going to Vegas,” said an anonymous senior via text, “it is super inaccessible for people with sensory issues or mobility is sues and it feels really ableist that those people were not thought about when they initially made the proposal to Scripps.”

“Home” is a Hit: A look at the 5C’s First BIPOC Musical Showcase

By Belen Yudess ’25 Social Media Manager

T he Black, Indigenous, and peo ple of color (BIPOC) Musical Showcase: Home ran from Oct. 21 to Oct. 23 at Pomona’s Large Studio Room. The showcase con sisted of 10 numbers from a wide array of different musicals such as Rent and High School Musical. From heartfelt ballads like Alad din’s “Proud of Your Boy” (Vicente Valdez HMC ’25) and tick tick… Boom’s “Why” (Aydin Mallery PZ’ 24), to upbeat showstoppers such as Coco’s “La Llorona” (Destiny Ri vera ’24) and Purlie!’s “I Got Love” (Perrin Williams PO ’22), this mu sical was a love letter to the pow er of BIPOC voices.

When deciding upon acts for

“We spent a lot of time togeth er within that month [rehearsing] and there was so much respect for each other in this space.”

-Isha Singh ‘23

this inaugural production, the directors were very intentional about the songs they chose. “I think they tried to get a variety of styles of shows. But I think one of the things that they really wanted to do was select songs centered around characters that were white or musicals that were traditionally cast for white roles or actors,” said performer Isha Singh ’23. “I think the reason for this was that we were given the space and oppor tunity to be a part of roles that we may not have had the opportunity to be in.”

The actors were also given a chance to explore songs that were important to their own identities.

“They also did select some songs that were culturally important to some of the actors,” said Singh.

“Part of that was being able to honor and respect the beautiful music from BIPOC artists as well.”

Singh, who performed an emo tional and tear-jerking rendition of Hamilton’s “Burn,” was grateful for the opportunity to work through her own feelings and past experi ences.

“I have had personal experi ences with infidelity and I tried to tap into that, how I felt when that happened to me and being able to channel the anger, sadness and confusion I felt about all of it,” said Singh. “In the song, I wanted to be able to tell a story [as] she’s enter ing different stages of grief. You have repeated words in the song, such as burn, [but] not all the burns mean the same thing. She’s literally burning things and she’s burning her past metaphorically. It’s very interesting to go through that. It felt very powerful.”

Singh recognized how this showcase allowed members of the BIPOC community to come to gether and demonstrate the need for further chances of representa tion within the theater community at the Claremont Colleges.

“We spent a lot of time togeth er within that month [rehearsing] and there was so much respect for each other in this space. Even though our experiences are dif ferent, there’s a baseline shared experience of being a minority at a predominantly white institute (PWI),” she said. “In terms of a BI POC cast that does not happen within the 5Cs, and it was a strug gle to even get it to happen. And

I think afterwards, a lot of people recognized there actually really is a lot of BIPOC talent.”

Even the interludes between each number were intended to am plify BIPOC voices within a theater setting. “Instead of typical music for the transitions, we wanted to reflect on our experiences of what it means to be BIPOC at a PWI in general and what it means in a performance space; how this ex perience has been unique.”

time into it outside of the rehears al spaces,” said Singh. “The lyrics themselves are talking about em bracing who you are and I think that’s a lot about what the show was about.”

Although Home has concluded, Singh hopes that BIPOC showcas es become an integral aspect of the 5C performing arts program. “I hope there’s more of these shows like Home Two, Home Three, Mov ing Homes, Rental Homes!,” said Singh.

“I would hope that a lot of in dividuals who want to do theater who are BIPOC coming into the Claremont Colleges can do this their first year and be welcomed into this space.” -Isha Singh ‘23

The musical included several impactful pieces, but for Singh, one in particular stood out due to its complicated choreography and overall message. “[ The Greatest Showman’s ] ‘This is Me’ was really hard to put together. Our chore ographer could only be at like one rehearsal, so we had to learn a lot of that in one rehearsal, watch videos back and really put a lot of

“I would hope that a lot of in dividuals who want to do theater who are BIPOC coming into the Claremont Colleges can do this their first year and be welcomed into this space. There’s some peo ple in the cast who were first years and they were like, I’m gonna con tinue doing this. That’s awesome because they were supported. I also want to recognize that they can be supported outside of this space, but there is something very special about being in a space that is only BIPOC as well.”

-Anonymous Senior

Belen Yudess ’25 • The Scripps Voice

Lego Stepped on Me

By Ellen Hu ’24 Editor-in-Chief

A month ago I was stranded in the middle of Jutland (mainland Denmark), stress-eating a pizza at the bus station of a town I could not pronounce, and thinking that I was never going to make it to my final destination. The sad thing is that I did this twice. On the same day.

Worriedly eating entire pizzas on the side of the road was the result of a brash decision I made to visit Billund: home of the Lego and the first-ever Legoland. A friend and I finalized our plans, booked all of our transportation, housing accommodations, and tickets less than eight hours before I headed to my train the next morning. I would be traveling alone on the way there, and we would meet up at night.

Everything went well at first: I woke up at 5 a.m. and grabbed all of the final toiletries that I needed to pack. By 6:30, I was out the door and headed to the train station with lots of time to spare.

As my early morning implies, I’m usually someone who has everything planned out. I create itineraries down to the minute, print out all documentation in case my phone dies, and create a packing list at least one week in advance so that I’ll have everything I may need while I’m away.

While you can never ensure your trip runs smoothly, I’ve found that those three steps act as a recipe for success in at least getting through the foundation of your trip — in other words, getting there and back. Unfortunately for me, I had done none of the above.

As a result, I found that I was missing my phone charging cord and portable charger about five minutes into my train ride out of Copenhagen. Great. My phone was already at 65%.

In my first challenge of the day, I sat through the rest of my three hour train ride researching where I might be able to purchase a phone charger. If I had not been wearing an extremely heavy backpack, my movement to the nearest electronics store the moment I stepped off of the train would have been considered a brisk run. I’m sure all of the local Danes were wondering what was going on, including the man who I first tried to purchase a charging cord from.

That attempt was a failure. The man seemed genuinely apologetic, but in the end he couldn’t sell it to me because the store’s network connection was down. What? How does that have anything to do with selling me a charging cord? My patience, courage, and resilience were being tested.

I was eventually able to purchase a cord from a store down the street and made my way back to the bus station for the second half of my journey. That’s when I ran into my second challenge: getting on the bus.

All of my travel ticket purchases so far had been through an app, so my heart dropped when that exact app said “no tickets available” for all of the buses leaving that day. At this point I was on the verge of tears, trying to decide whether I should buy a train ticket back to Copenhagen or find a different way to get to Billund.

My next move was to purchase a pizza for lunch and jump into more research on how I could get to my final destination without taking a bus. I eventually figured out that I could take another train north and then take a bus from there. One step forward — I would not be giving up on this trip.

The only problem was that I had a noon reservation for Lego House, an interactive Lego exhibition, but the soonest I was going to be able to get there was around 2 p.m. My stress levels were through the roof, yet I was proud of myself for having figured out how to get there in the first place. It was one win in a day filled with so much that had gone wrong.

As I sat there eating my pizza, I started to get curious. Surely someone on the internet would have given the heads up that you needed to purchase your bus tickets to Legoland well in advance, right? I whipped out my computer to do some research, only to find that bus tickets weren’t available to purchase on the app because you had to pay for the ticket in cash.

I could have hopped on the next available bus and made my way to Lego House only an hour after my reservation had I not already bought my train ticket. Now I was feeling stupid as well as stressed and overwhelmed.

A rollercoaster of emotions piled on my plate as I boarded the train on the second leg of my journey. As tense as I was, I couldn’t help but remind myself that I had made it this far – I was officially in a part of Denmark that I had never experienced before!

Even in moments of true chaos on the trip, I found ways to settle into a state of calmness and take it all in. For the first time that day, I sat back and focused on enjoying the views at hand. I had no idea what I was going to see, but I loved every second.

I arrived in Billund a few hours later. The joy I felt after arriving in the city center was insurmountable. I had made it, and that was all that mattered. Lego House, here I come!

Except for the fact that I accidentally attempted to get into the Lego headquarters, located about 10 minutes in the opposite direction, rather than Lego House. Usually I’d be embarrassed by this, but I’d grown numb to any sense of self-consciousness throughout the day. It felt good to move through life without constantly worrying about how other people perceived me.

Once I entered the correct building, I had the greatest time of my life. I spent hours in the building: watching Legos being made, building my own Lego creations, and staring in awe at the amazing Lego creations on display. I wasn’t even halfway through my trip and my troubles had already been worth it.

However, the building must have been a little island of paradise because my problems started up again the moment I stepped outside. The final stretch of my journey was to make it to my lodging, so after grabbing another pizza for dinner I walked back to the bus stop as it began to rain.

10 minutes. That’s how long I had before the next bus was supposed to come, and yet when I arrived at the bus stop, a bus with the exact same name as the one I was looking for pulled up on the other side of the street.

My split second decision to run across the road after figuring it was the bus I needed came with no avail – the bus pulled out of the driveway right as I reached the sidewalk. There I was with a giant pizza that was quickly beginning to go cold

and my heavy backpack that I am sure is going to give me back pain for the rest of my life.

The next bus to my destination wouldn’t arrive for another hour. After panic texting my friend, all I could do was sit in the rain and eat my pizza. It must have been a sad sight for everyone else at the bus stop.

However, if the first half of the day had taught me anything, it was that I couldn’t give up on myself. I had already gotten through so many mishaps, I was going to get through this challenge as well.

As a result, I got up and walked back over to the side of the street I had originally started at after swallowing my first piece of pizza. I would wait with the rest of these Lego employees and hope that my first instinct was correct.

I should have trusted my gut all along. It turns out that the bus that had previously arrived on the other side of the street was just 20 minutes later than scheduled. In my antsy state I had thrown all of my intuition down the drain.

I’d like to say that was the end of my adventure, but it wasn’t. I missed the bus stop I was supposed to get off at and struggled to get into my Airbnb because my phone died moments before I was able to read the last few digits of the entry code.

All this being said, I had the greatest adventure of my entire life within those 24 hours. It challenged me every step of the way and pushed me to get around problems

I could not have even imagined the week before.

I figured out ways to look on the bright side and problem solve through it all. The way I overcame issues and emotionally responded to each bump in the road revealed more about how I act under pressure, something I’ve begun to use in my daily life.

While it tested every ounce of my being, this experience has taught me the value of jumping in headfirst and putting an effort into creating adventures for myself. Hear me out: we should all take at least one spontaneous trip in our lives. Not only does it provide you with great stories to make you more interesting, it also forces you to be resilient and shows you just how capable you are.

Ellen Hu ‘24 • The Scripps Voice

Ellen Hu ‘24 • The Scripps Voice

A Review of Pomona College’s “If nobody does remarkable things”: A Surprisingly Unremarkable Production

By Juliette Des Rosiers ’26 Copy Editor Intern

Over the weekend of Oct. 6th, the Pomona College Theater invited audiences to the first show of their 2022-23 season: If nobody does remarkable things, a play by Emma Gibson. Staged in the Allen Theater, the play was set in a future not too far from now where the climate crisis led the planet to “the point of no return” (a phrase used throughout the play with seemingly some grand meaning attached to it).

The story focuses on protagonist Anna, a former climate activist who, on a whim, invites her ex-boyfriend Joel to take refuge in her house when a category 6 dust storm strikes her town. The audience is taken on a journey through Joel and Anna’s relationship to each other and to the climate advocate movement, guided by a narrator and accompanied by Anna’s husband Paul.

The show bounces between present and past, with the narrator offering intermittent insights into Anna and Joel’s tumultuous past. We learn of Anna’s leadership in the climate movement and how, although they were in love, Joel sold an unflattering picture of Anna dramatically crying to the Times, who twisted it into a scathing article that had disastrous consequences. The climate movement was viewed as fraudulent and in shambles, while Anna’s authority was destroyed and her safety put at risk by threatening skeptics. Lastly, we learn how Anna had a baby, June, just months after the article was published.

The narrator, played by Emily Cummings PO ’23 and seated above the stage between two murals of galaxies, uses monologues to capture both Anna and Joel’s past, holding emotion in her voice that offers perspective for both characters. The narrator is dynamic even when silent, remaining an active observer, sitting and standing with the ebbing tensions of the play. At the end of the play, we learn that the narrator is in fact Anna’s daughter June, all grown up and an astronaut, achieving her dreams of writing (and narrating) the “first play from space.”

Onstage, the audience observes the products of 14 years worth of tension bottled into one room. Over the course of the play, Anna and Joel argue, Joel receives comical intimidation from Anna’s husband Paul, and gets to know Anna’s presently teenage daughter. Most importantly, however, Joel asks Anna to reenter the climate crisis movement. We watch as he attempts to apologize and undo her heartbreak, while simultaneously advocating for

the resurgence of those attempting to wrestle the planet back from “the point of no return.” We watch as Anna slowly learns to forgive and says yes.

The shining star of If nobody does remarkable things is lead GiGi Buddie PO ’23. Buddie proves herself a skilled actor, holding deep emotion in her face that is relayed even when in profile. She also plays well off her scenemates, adding intimacy to Anna’s scenes with Paul and emotional insecurity to scenes with Joel. During arguments, Buddie’s face portrays Anna’s deep turmoil, but somewhat more impressively, her projected voice contained a huskiness that was extremely evocative in such a small space, drawing the audience even closer to her performance.

Another notable display of expertise during the production were the technical elements of the show. The set shows an unremarkable house without futuristic elements, subtly signaling to the audience that this post-apocalyptic world is not too distant from our current one.

The galaxy murals positioned on a balcony above the stage establish a physical distance between narrator June and Earth, establishing two separate timelines. In the lighting design, the orange, crackling light used for the dust storm evoked tense unease that was skillfully exacerbated by the inclusion of sound effects and music, such as the recurring sonic motif of a heartbeat. Additionally, galactical music played over the narrator’s final monologue catapulted the audience into June’s version of the future, where climate change is no longer an imminent threat since Anna made monumental progress through her activism.

The supporting actors of If nobody does remarkable things also had the opportunities to shine in the production. Seb Barnhill PZ ’25, who played Anna’s husband Paul, exemplified how an actor can and should use physicality to establish their character. They used their entire body to establish Paul’s confidence and altered it depending on whether he was talking to Anna or Joel.

Secondly, Xiangyi “Jazz” Zhu PO ’24, portraying teenage June, expertly used her voice to portray her youth in a way that didn’t feel forced nor a mockery. Lastly, although Aydin Mallery PZ ’24, playing Joel, did not employ physicality as masterfully, his ability to play off his scenemates and react well to lines or movements built humor surrounding his somewhat sweetly awkward character, especially in Joel’s scenes with the more acerbic wit of Paul.

The biggest takeaway of If nobody

does remarkable things is… well, that there isn’t one. At the end of the show, I felt as if I didn’t know what the play wanted me to walk away with. One would assume that, in a play advertised as a commentary on our current climate crisis and the trajectory of our planet if we remain listless in climate policy, climate change would have been the focus. Instead, the climate crisis was used as a setting or, in the worst of instances, a mere plot device. It felt like a play more about finding forgiveness with the element of Anna and Joel’s relationship driving the plot, rather than climate activism being the primary driving force of the play. If the play had been set in another apocalyptic environment, say, a zombie apocalypse or alien invasion, my takeaways as an audience member would be comparable.

I wish to emphasize that the message misalignment with the intentions of the play was less at the fault of the actors than it is the playwright. It demonstrates a misunderstanding of audiences similar to the disappointing 2021 film Don’t Look Up; such a literal allegory actually disconnects audiences from the theme of climate change. In my opinion, we as a public audience have become so unfortunately desensitized to the calls for climate action that spoken art such as films and theater fail to move us into action.

Although the attempt at a compelling story of climate change did not land, If nobody does remarkable things exhibited student skills both onstage and offstage and was an enjoyable space to spend my Saturday night.

Juliette Des Rosiers ‘25 • The Scripps Voice

The Surprising Story Behind “Bound Goat Thursday”

AJ Jolish

Staff Writer

B etween Elm Tree Lawn and the Humanities building, a bronze goat sits contorted in pain.

Kaia Stannard-Stockton ‘25 walks by the sculpture, titled Bound Goat Thursday, every day. “It kind of freaks me out, and I’ve always wondered about the meaning behind it,” she said.

The plaque accompanying the sculpture lists the name of its creator, Jack Zajac, and that it was a gift from the Fine Arts Foundation and the National Foundation for the Arts in 1979. There is no information, however, on the meaning of the statue.

None of the art on Scripps’ campus comes with artist’s statements, but none of the other art seem to need one. Just feet away from Bound Goat Thursday is another bronze statue: Man and Nature, by Albert Stewart in 1965. The statue depicts an elongated male figure surrounded by leaflike geometric shapes and a tiny, roughly-hewn raccoon. Overall, it is pleasant to encounter as it surveys the Humanities courtyard serenely.

On the other hand, there is nothing serene about Bound Goat Thursday From the spindly legs thrust out at crooked angles to the head thrown back in anguish, Bound Goat Thursday makes a dramatic statement. But what is that statement, exactly?

I spoke to Kirk Delman, the Interim Director of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, to learn more. “Zajac was very interested in the sacrificial animal as the subject of

his sculpture,” Delman said.

Along with Bound Goat Thursday, Zajac sculpted a Bound Goat Monday, Bound Goat Tuesday, and Bound Goat Wednesday, as well as the equally tortured Bound Goat (Santa Cruz Series XI) and Easter Goat I

Delman hypothesized that this fixation on suffering was rooted in Zajac’s military service in World War II. “For many of those artists that lived through World War II, much of their work was significantly altered. When they came back, many of them were trying to find peace within themselves or looking for something optimistic and hopeful for the future. Others were, for the rest of their lives, either somewhat tormented and needed to express what they experienced,” Delman said.

I shared this newfound knowledge with a few fellow Scripps students.

“I would never have guessed that Bound Goat Thursday might be about World War II. I always saw it as funny; I used to wish my friends a happy Bound Goat Thursday every week,” said Grace Gitau ‘25.

Along with learning about what inspired Zajac’s art, I also learned that he had the surprising experience of being a cisgender male student at Scripps College. Zajac started as a student in Scripps summer classes, which did not employ Scripps’ usual restrictions at the time of being a female undergraduate student.

Soon, Zajac became what ceramics

professor Paul Soldner called a “special.”

In the words of Kirk Delman, “specials” were “students who didn’t complete their college or graduate studies for a variety of personal reasons, who would pay 500 or 1000

dollars to use Scripps facilities and sharpen up their skills.”

Zajac would go on to win a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rome Prize and become a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Yik Yak might be Fizzing out

Aviva Maxon ‘24 Staff Writer

Yik Yak is a (mostly) anonymous social media site where people can post their thoughts viewed by people within a five-mile radius. Fizz is also a (mostly) anonymous social media site, where people can post their thoughts and pictures with people who are verified to go to the same college (or set of colleges in the case of the Claremont Colleges). Yik Yak originally started in 2013, made a comeback in 2021, and quickly gained popularity at the Claremont Colleges.

People were drawn to Yik Yak for the ability to talk freely, ask questions, and learn what was happening around campus. Not long after returning to campus this fall, rumors of a new Yik Yak-like app started, which then turned into the launch of Fizz. As the day approached, people were bombarded with advertisements and DMs telling them to download the app. For a few days on Yik Yak almost every Yak was about Fizz, its publicity stunts, and the push to switch to Fizz. The conversation on Yik Yak mostly

centered on whether Fizz would still allow the amount of free speech that people had become accustomed to on Yik Yak.

There are a few things that make Fizz different from Yik Yak: it makes you verify who you are (though posts are still anonymous) and has moderators. The need to verify your identity on Fizz scared many who were worried their words could be traced back to them.

Now, this poses the question: what are you posting that you would not want connected to you on Yik Yak? Yik Yak’s lack of moderation allows anyone to say anything, which includes harassment and sexual content. At one point last winter, a student who runs a popular Instagram account on campus was a debated topic on Yik Yak, which led to the student’s name and dorm building being posted. While the student had some supporters, they were generally outnumbered and quieter than the harassers.

The sexual content on the platform is also problematic. From hypersexual discussions to objectification, mostly of women and queer people, Yik Yak can be triggering and put people in conversations they do

not belong in. There is a feeling that Yik Yak is not a safe space for marginalized people. One user, Ella Lehavi ‘24 said, “It can be funny and a good way to get input you wouldn’t otherwise get on things you don’t want attached to yourself. It’s useful for updates on dining halls, parties, or other aspects of campus life. Like a traffic app. But it’s also not a safe space.” While Lehavi has not been able to use Fizz, as it is only available on iPhone, others said that Fizz has less cyberbullying and is generally a safer space.

The case for free speech is always a hot topic on campus and compels us to unpack the difference between free speech, hate speech, and harassment. The consequences on an anonymous platform for hate speech and harassment are much less, if any, than on a traceable platform or in person. This lets people say things they would not say in other contexts because there are no punishments. However, being able to say whatever you want does not mean there are no consequences to what you say.

Yik Yak is a platform that is regulated by its users through up and down votes, but has no other

backup to check if the things being posted violate the terms of use or are harassment. While Fizz also uses the up and down vote system, it has moderators to check that harmful content stays out of the space.

The general consensus around Fizz is ambivalence. It exists as a generally free space to share thoughts, events, and updates while not having as much harassment. However, it seems that Fizz inflates the number of users on the app. Posts will regularly have upwards of 200 upvotes within a few hours of being posted, even though most people are not checking Fizz that regularly. Fizz also allows different types of media, such as polls, photos, memes, and text, which widens possibilities on the platform. The posts on Fizz are generally more appropriate and tend to not contain the sexual material that is so prevalent on Yik Yak. The moderating does make Fizz a safer place for most, although Fizz has a smaller user base than Yik Yak.

In the anonymous worlds of Yik Yak and Fizz, it is important to remember both platforms have their issues but can be utilized if we all agree to go forward with kindness and think before we speak.

AJ Jolish ’25 • The Scripps Voice

“It kind of freaks me out, and I’ve always wondered about the meaning behind it.” -Kaia Stannard-Stockton ‘25

“Barbarian”: My Least Favorite Movie about Motherhood

By Anna Peterson ’25 Staff Writer

TW: SA, Gore Contains spoilers for Barbarian

As we approach the season for all things spooky, ghoulish, and otherwise grim, I have highly anticipated the horror movie selection at my local Harkins theater.

Among popular options like Pearl and Halloween Ends Barbarian ’s trailer stood out as the championing watch.

The film begins when Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) arrives at her Airbnb on 467 Barbary Street. But, oh no! The key to the rental is missing, and in its place is the hunky Keith Toshko (Bill Skarsgård), who has coincidentally also booked the home. Keith invites Tess into the house while the two try to contact the booking agency and plan their respective living spaces. With no luck, Keith suggests that Tess stay the night.

After some light flirtation and a bottle of wine, our main characters finally warm up to each other: Tess divulges a prospective job offer with a filmmaker, and Keith mansplains jazz. At this point, I was hoping for some strangers-to-lovers fanfiction twist. However, the night ends with Tess retreating to her room while Keith roughs it on the couch.

The next day, Tess finishes her

interview and returns home to a local man charging at her, begging her to leave. But, as most horror movies go, she, of course, stays. She then intelligently decides it is in her best interest to investigate the basement, the presumably spookiest part of any building.

One hidden door later, Tess discovers an underground tunnel system complete with an HGTVdesigned torture room with a bloodsoaked bed and film camera. Like any sane person, she immediately exits the situation and finds Keith to explain what she found. However, he kicks into man mode and determines that he must see the torture room himself.

Keith disappears into the darkness, prompting Tess to follow him in the most brutal game of Marco-Polo. When the pair unite, Keith tells her that something bit him. Then, we see “The Mother” erupt from the foreground, smashing Keith’s head into the pavement and effectively killing him. The screen goes black.

A man in a cherry red convertible appears. Screenwriter AJ Gilbride (Justin Long) gets a call from his colleagues regarding their current television project. To his surprise, they alert him that a co-worker has accused him of rape. Within five minutes of screen time, the audience watches as AJ’s life takes a nasty spill with the allegations’ publicization. In a desperate attempt

to dodge the heat, he flees to his property in Michigan: 467 Barbary Street.

Met with the belongings of Tess and Keith, he enters the basement to explore the premises. Upon discovering the aforementioned underground tunnel system, he begins to measure the square feet in a comedic attempt to scrape some extra money together. The Mother chases him down and holds him captive with a frightened Tess.

Thus far, the narrative, artistic technicalities, and jump-scares had paralyzed my body in the reclining movie theater chair. After a series of disappointing thrillers, I thought I had finally escaped Hollywood’s lazy attempts at the “scary movie.” This film seems to embody a tasteful combination of satirization and suspense.

Unfortunately, this movie quickly crushed my dreams with a trope seen too often in modern horror. I was content accepting this “Mother” figure as a supernatural being, a creature beyond reasoning. For me, the allusive nature of The Mother made her so much scarier. The audience’s foreign understanding of her presence made us wonder what lurks behind the obvious in our lives. It is the same effect as the monster under the bed.

Instead of preserving this emotion, director Zach Cregger utilizes a backstory that explains away all the

lingering questions of the audience. In a flashback scene, Cregger reveals that an atrocious serial killer known as Frank (Richard Brake) once lived in the 467 Barbary Street home. He would target women to attack, sexually assault, and impregnate to produce inbred children. The Mother is one of Frank’s inbred children whose only desire is to be a maternal figure to her captives.

As this background unfolded, I felt a gut-wrenching turn in my stomach, but probably not in the way Cregger intended. This superficial narrative about women’s abuse was unnecessary to funnel an understanding of The Mother’s character. Instead, it retracted my fear of the unknown and replaced it with disgust. With Netflix’s recent Dahmer , it seems apparent that current film trends tend to capitalize on abusive men while ignoring the real-world implications of magnifying this abuse. Additionally, Cregger seems to further this culture with AJ’s somewhat sympathetic storyline as a literal rapist.

When the silver screen flashed off, I felt disappointed that an initially innovative movie was so quickly ruined by a faulty anecdote and a sloppy ending. If you choose to watch Barbarian this spooky season, set up an appointment with your therapist afterward. That’s what I am doing.

“Pearl”: More Than the ‘Female Joker’

By Frances Walton ’26 Copy Editor Intern

F rom TikTok to Letterboxed, Pearl is heralded as the female Joker, giving unhinged women the spotlight next to men.

All of the features required of the unhinged genre are there: a complex character, misunderstood by society, unable to adapt to everyday life. However, the film gives Pearl’s character a more complex, relatable, and terrifying background than the Joker . Additionally, Pearl is an impressively crafted film, making it a joy to watch despite its gory subject. It is the perfect Halloween horror film for angsty 5C students.

Pearl , set in 1918, follows the titular character, Pearl (Mia Goth), a young farm girl with an overbearing mother (Tandi Wright), a disabled father (Matthew Sunderland), and a deployed husband (Alistair Sewell). Opening the film, Pearl goes about her day, doing chores and talking to the farm animals, but when she carelessly stabs a goose and feeds them to the alligator on their farm without remorse, the realization that Pearl isn’t quite normal strikes audience members.

Following this jarring opening scene, we soon learn that Pearl’s ultimate dream is to be a famous dancer and escape the dismal farm life she knows. However, this seems

impossible as her devout Christain mother demands more and more labor from Pearl. All the while, their family and the world are coping with a pandemic (relatable, I know) and World War I. Shaped by these personal and societal struggles, Pearl follows a heinous path to her future.

Pearl touches on many important themes that relate to 5C student struggles, including a pandemic, a war, mommy issues, religion, repression, and womanhood, among many others. What makes this film so extraordinary is the line Pearl toes between a horror villain and a young woman with whom we identify. The film expertly shows Pearl’s duality: she’s relatable yet evil, forcing the audience to contend with their commonalities with Pearl and their distaste for Pearl’s feelings of selfishness and isolation.

In a technical sense, Pearl stands

out as a phenomenal horror film, aligning stylistically with the likes of Midsommar and Suspiria . In Pearl , the cinematography is an ode to the technicolor world of the Wizard of Oz, lending the movie a sense of lush color where most horror movies lurk in the dark. Most terrifying shots happen in the light of day, contributing to the film’s unsettling vibe. The bright look of Pearl is accompanied by exceptional costuming, set design, and music, adding to the atmosphere and interacting effortlessly with the film. Pearl is often highlighted amongst the other characters, wearing a bright red dress or donning a top hat, separating her from the rest of the world.

Even more impressively, Pearl is director Ti West’s second movie in 2022. As the prequel to X, Pearl again shows how Ti West brings a unique and fresh vision to the horror

genre, which is often bogged down by carbon-copy, gore-filled movies. Pearl was filmed simultaneously with X, but it was kept a secret until the teaser trailer at the end of X But don’t let the fact that Pearl is a prelude dissuade you from watching. It stands on its own as phenomenal, and it does not require one to have watched X

However, one aspect of the film emerges above the rest — Mia Goth. Goth is a relatively fresh face to Hollywood, yet her performance in Pearl is legitimately groundbreaking. Many of her lines, which would sound cliche and kitschy delivered by anyone else, pack a serious punch. Goth perfected her character, pinning down her facial expressions and mannerisms to a T. If I saw her on the street, I would probably walk the other way (as a compliment to her acting skills). Not to mention, Goth delivers a monologue to rival Gone Girl or Hereditary , chilling audience members to the bone.

From the intriguing themes to the excellent craftsmanship, Pearl is a chill-inducing movie featuring an unhinged protagonist that I recommend to anyone in a Halloween mood. As a young adult, Pearl has even greater resonance as it forces the audience to confront themselves with an oft-considered question: how far would you go for acceptance and love?

Courtesy of pearl.movie

Another Glorious Sequel Makes Me Sick (With Enthusiasm): "Hocus Pocus 2"

By Belen Yudess ’25 Social Media Manager

Contains spoilers for Hocus Pocus 2

S IIIIISSSSTTTEEERRRSSS!! The witches are back! Hocus Pocus 2 premiered on Sept. 30 on Disney+. The sequel to the 1993 classic Hocus Pocus follows the Sanderson Sisters’ return to Salem, Massachusetts, this time facing 21st century technology and culture. The legendary leads of Winnie (Bette Midler), Mary (Kathy Najimy), and Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), along with their delightful musical numbers, promotion of Roombas, and immense sisterly bond ensured that this movie ran amok with success.

As many of my friends can attest, Hocus Pocus has definitely put a spell on my heart. The look of horror on my face when many of them told me they had never seen the classic could have given Thackery Binx a run for his money. Therefore, when I saw the sequel’s announcement earlier this year, I immediately sent it to them with a string of random capital letters expressing my excitement.

After months of antici…pation (I know, wrong Halloween movie), I curled up on the Frankel living room couch with my suitemates to see what spells were in store.

The movie opens with a young Winifred Sanderson storming back to her cottage as her kid sisters Mary and Sarah await to celebrate the latter’s 16th birthday. The three are interrupted by Minister Traske (Tony Hale) who wants Winnie to agree to her arranged marriage. Winnie refuses which causes the Minister to attempt to separate the sisters. To avoid this fate, the sisters escape into the forbidden woods where they run across “Mother” witch. Mother gifts the girls with Book (a living spell book), warns them against the Magicae Maxima spell, and reminds

the sisters that they are stronger together.

Although the sisters are given plenty of comedic dialogue within the first movie, they are mainly depicted as vain child-eating murderers. By giving them a backstory, the Sanderson women are painted in a new light. Their ultimate goal is to protect and be with one another. The movie in no way shies away from their devotion to their devious or witchcraft ways — and that’s a good thing. They are not meant to be traditional heroes or role models.

Winnie, Mary, and Sarah never stray away from their true selves; this is their “villain” origin story, but it is meant to be empowering, not sympathetic. Although this flashback also reveals why the Sanderson sisters started stealing the souls of children (warning: ordering a Bowl of Soul will never be the same), it primarily shows the love rooted within their relationship.

The film then jumps to Halloween day, 2022 in Salem. Echoing the Sanderson Sisters intro, high schoolers Becca (Whitney Peak) and Izzy (Belissa Escobedo) prepare to celebrate Becca’s 16th birthday. Unlike the original movie, whose main protagonist and favorite virgin, Max Dennison, was a skeptic of all things mystical, Becca and Izzy embrace the magic of the season.

The two teenagers, along with their ex-friend Cassie (Lilia Buckingham), usually spend Halloween performing a birthday ritual for Becca.

The dynamic between Becca, Izzy, and Cassie allows younger viewers who may not be familiar with the original movie to form a connection to the characters. Cassie has drifted away from the former two in favor of her new boyfriend Mike, who unknowingly insults Becca and Izzy by commenting on their inclination towards magic. This plotline provides a modern-

day perspective into an otherwise fantastical story.

To prepare for the evening, Becca and Izzy head over to a magic shop, where they receive a special candle. The two decide to light the candle, which turns out to be everyone’s favorite virgin-shaming Black Flame candle: the only tool that can bring the Sanderson Sisters back to life. To avoid being the Sister’s appetizers, Becca and Izzy convince the three that they are also witches, and take them to the prime place to shop for beauty creams infused with the souls of children: Walgreens! Walgreens: the home for all of your cannibalistic tendencies, *sponsored by Armie Hammer.*

The Walgreens scene is not only a cauldron of laughter, but it also shows how fast technology and cultural knowledge changes. During the first film, the witches were exposed to a lot of current innovations (for the 90’s) such as automated vehicles, television sets, and fire alarm systems. Although it is only a 20 year difference, the Sisters’ confusion about the Amazon Alexa (the modern witch) and Roombas (which Mary adopts as her broom and children) reflects the feelings of a majority of the older generation. It can be very hard to keep up with today’s ever-evolving advancements, especially if you were born when the word “thou” was a part of the daily vernacular.

Winnie later realizes that the only way to ensure the Sister’s survival is to perform the Magicae Maxima spell, which requires the blood of one’s enemy. After a scuffle involving a themed drag contest, Roombas, and salt, Becca’s powers are ignited, revealing that she too is a witch. Becca and Izzy save Cassie, and obtain Book. Book reveals that by inducting the spell, Winnie will lose the things she loves most: her sisters. Although the witchlings race

Courtesy of deadline.com

to stop Winnie, they are too late, leading to Mary and Sarah’s death. Winnie then begs Becca to reunite her with her sisters, which leads to Winnie’s death. As she gladly departs from this cruel world, Winnie reminds the new Sisters that they are nothing without each other.

As Winnie dissolved into glitter, the four of us (and I mean mainly me) sobbed on the couch. Going into this movie, I thought it would follow the witches return and end in a budding romance between Becca and Izzy (go gays!). Although I am always in support of another queer couple to fangirl about, I really appreciated the movie’s emphasis on sisterly bonds. In the first film, when Max is about to sacrifice his life for his sister, Dani, Winnie berates him; “how foolish to give up thy’s life for thy sister.”

Yet that is exactly what she does. The witches were never meant to realize the error of their soulsucking ways and repent. Winnie’s salvation does not come from a shift in her conscience, but with the understanding that no matter who you are or what you do in life, it is not as meaningful without sharing it with the people you love. The passing down of Book onto Becca, Izzy, and Cassie showcases the value of chosen family. Family does not need to be determined by blood. Any coven can be formed, as long as it stems from trust, acceptance, and love.

Hocus Pocus 2 was definitely worth the 19 year wait (better than 300 years). The end credits scene revealed a third black flame candle, which means a third installment may be in the works. Another day, another virgin to embarrass! This spooky sequel promises to make you cackle, cry, and call your nearest Walgreens to purchase your own pet Roomba today!

Scripps Halloween Fashion: A Boot-iful Collection

By Ainsley Harris ’26 Staff Writer

As Halloween weekend rap idly approaches, it is not spooky decorations, haunted houses, or horror movies that send shivers up our spines, but the task of ex ecuting a Halloween costume.

For many students, due to CO VID-19 protocols and concerns or because they are first years, this is their first real Halloween weekend at The Claremont Col leges. But not to worry! Whether you wanted a sneak peak at the costumes you will see this week end, some last minute costume inspiration, or just to get hyped for Halloweekend, you came to the right place. Some very prepared Scrippsies already completed their costumes, and shared their spooky, sexy, and stylish Halloween weekend fits.

Coming up with a Halloween costume is different for every one, and for Miriam Akhmetshin ’26 it looks like coming up with three Halloween costumes, one for each night.

“Due to the length of Hal loweekend I really needed to go all out, so I started ordering stuff at the beginning of Octo ber,” Akhmetshin said. Staying

sustainable and ethical with all her purchases was a major fo cus of her costume process.

“I tried to mostly get second hand stuff, because I only con sume second hand or ethically produced things … I don’t shop at Amazon,” Akhmetshin said. Halloween costumes without Amazon? She has my respect.

For her first costume, Akhmetshin dazzled me with a Miss Piggy costume, complete with an adorable little black dress paired with white evening gloves, a homemade pearl neck lace, and a pig ear headband from Etsy. The costume is com pleted by her on-theme pick-up line: “Looking for my Kermit.”

“I feel that I am a lot like her. My personality is very Miss Piggy-esque.” Akhmetshin said when asked about her inspira tion for this costume.

For her second costume, Akhmetshin dressed as Mary Antoinette in a fabulous corset, skirt, and eBay wig with rings and jewelry galore. But her cos tume did not end there; Akhmet shin plans to bake homemade cupcakes to hand out à la ‘Let them eat cake.’

“I wanted to combine my love of baking and also my love for

attention,” Akhmetshin said.

Her grand finale was a sexy Karl Marx costume. “It’s hon estly very anti-Marx … it’s prob ably making him turn in his grave right now,” Akhmetshin said. The costume consisted of red lingerie, another eBay wig and beard, a blazer donated by one of her suitemates, and was completed with a strategically placed Communist Manifesto to keep it TSV appropriate.

“It’s an homage to my Rus sian identity … I was thinking how can I have a sexy costume, but also make it funny. Karl Marx seemed like the most per fect combination of those two,” Akhmetshin said.

embroidered with ‘THE FAUCH’. The final piece of the costume, a stuffed dog, is a reference to the relationship between Fauci, who lives near Howe-Goldstein, and her dog.

“My dog Jordan basically thinks that he’s his best friend, hence the stuffed dog,” HoweGoldstein said.

The last costume profile fea tures Audrey Weeks ’26 as Prin cess Leia in a mini-dress ver sion of Princess Leia’s classic white dress with the iconic high neckline, bell sleeves, and silverdecaled belt.

“I love Star Wars, and I have since I was young, like I was into the TV shows, comics, ev erything. I wanted to be some thing I really liked and would be excited to wear, so being Prin cess Leia was an easy way to do that,” Weeks said.

I’m certainly excited for the costumes I’ll be seeing this Hal loweekend! If you’re itching to see more costumes, want to compete in a costume compe tition, or just want to continue the Halloween festivities past the weekend, make sure to at tend the Mudd Makerspace’s costume competition on Oct. 31 at 7 p.m.

Five

Belen Yudess ’25

Media Manager

Hi Spooky Scary Scrippsies! Another Halloween has creeped up on us, this year filled with the Motley’s brew of pumpkin inspired drinks! But something much more terrifying than the fear of not getting a wristband to the 5C Halloween party looms in the air: my horror-ible puns! Here are five 5C frightening fun nies to help you pass the time *warp*!

Don’t feel overwhelmed! A costume for every night is an impressive feat, but not every one goes all out for each night. Focusing all your attention into creating one costume also pro duces incredible results.

For Halloween, Nina HoweGoldstein ’25 will be donning a Dr. Fauci costume she cre ated herself at the Mudd Maker space.

“Being in the public eye as a health official is neither an easy or safe endeavor, so I wanted to play lighthearted homage with my fit,” Howe-Gollstein said. Well, I for one think Fauci would be honored by her fabu lous costume — jeans and a T-shirt paired with a lab coat

Frightening Funnies

What did the Pomona studets dress up as for Halloween? Frank-enstein and the Frary Godmother

Why did the skeleton PERM into Histories of the Present: Crossroads?

To find their Core-pse bride

Why was the Scrippsie dressed like Dorothy afraid to stop by Mudd? Because they didn’t want to run into the wicked witch of West

What did the witch say when she was late to her innertube water polo game?

“My broom was Mc-gone-y’all!”

What did Medusa sing at the 5C Halloween party? Collins all the Monsters

BONE-US JOKE: What was the Sand erson Sisters’ favorite drink from the Motley?

A Bowl of (a child’s) Soul

Thank you for making it through these somewhat thriller, kind of killer puns! And to paraphrase the words of Jack Skellington: This is Hallow een, where dining hall signs get sto len in the dead of night! (lol, but how Professor Novy would pronounce it)

Ainsley Harris ‘26 • The Scripps Voice

Ainsley Harris ‘26 • The Scripps Voice

Ainsley Harris ‘26 • The Scripps Voice

A Summer with the Ellen Browning Scripps Papers

By Isabel Li ’25 Staff Writer

S he was an educator, feminist, and philanthropist. Though she was reserved and bore a tendency to avoid the public spotlight, she knew when to be outspoken about her politics and perspectives. Her views were ahead of her time — she opposed systems of socioeconomic inequality and vehemently promoted education and freedom of knowledge.

She was Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932), the woman who endowed and founded not only Scripps College but also many other institutions across Southern California: Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Scripps Memorial Hospital, Scripps Research, and The Bishop’s School, among many others. Although Scripps College adopted and promoted her views of progressivism, feminism, and education, many of its students, me included, knew very little about her life or story.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to conduct primary source research about Ellen Browning Scripps (EBS) at Denison Library, which harbors a large collection of Miss Scripps’ letters, diaries, papers, receipts, photographs, and news clipping, among many other documents. Fittingly titled the Ellen Browning Scripps Collection, these archival documents are stored in the EBS room, a small room featuring storage drawers, bookshelves filled with her personal book collection, and, most notably, her marble bust.

As an intern, I worked alongside fellow second-year Amalia Koch ’25 to collect information about her life, digitize and catalog relevant archival materials, and produce

digital content about EBS. Our goal in this digital humanities project was to better understand Miss Scripps’ background and values, demystify her story, especially for Scripps College students, and provide our college’s website with a more detailed account of her life.

One of the first things I did to prepare for my research was reading the biography Ellen Browning Scripps: New Money and American Philanthropy by Molly McClain to understand a general overview of Miss Scripps’ story. Although I finished the book within a day, the information about her still felt new and unfamiliar. It wasn’t until after I had delved into the archival materials and sifted through drawers of letters that I began to feel familiar with aspects of her life.

The biography’s bibliography section cited many of the EBS papers, and I learned to pinpoint sources by cross-referencing the

19th century. During a time when it was rare for women to receive a higher education, she attended Knox College and graduated with honors in mathematics. Women also typically led their lives in domestic roles at the time; Scripps, on the other hand, played an active role in writing and journalism, becoming one of the most prominent female journalists in the United States in the post-Civil War era.

she had delivered to the La Jolla Woman’s Club in the wake of the 1912 San Diego Free Speech fight, in which she encouraged the women in her community to influence local politics despite their inability to vote at the time. Documents such as the 10-page speech clearly illustrated Ellen Browning Scripps’ relentless attitude towards advocating for feminism and justice outside of philanthropy.

book’s citations to the specific paper documents that McClain used. After spending a couple of weeks in the archives, I could easily navigate the large collection using the collection’s finding aid, spending most of my time with biographical materials in Drawer 1, letters in Drawers 11-13, photographs in Drawer 25, and materials about the Claremont Colleges in Drawers 29-30.

In many ways, Miss Scripps was a woman who challenged traditional gender norms and roles of the

The more I studied her primary source papers, the more I identified recurring figures from her life and the nature of her relationships with these people. Ellen Browning Scripps came from a family with many siblings, and she worked closely with her older brother James E. Scripps and her younger half-brother Edward Willis (E.W.) Scripps. The siblings had a strained relationship over control of the Detroit Evening News, the newspaper business that contributed to the Scrippses’ eventual wealth. Ellen sided with E.W. in many legal troubles, complicating a feud that bitterly divided both the family and the business. Ultimately, James removed both Ellen and E.W.’s control of the business; the two moved to Southern California together, while James remained in Detroit.

I also analyzed many letters featuring her attorney and agent, Jacob Chandler (J.C.) Harper, who was a key figure in her philanthropic endeavors. He helped her connect with many educational institutions and community organizations after she moved to San Diego, regularly communicating with her and keeping records of her contributions. Harper’s correspondences were also useful for understanding her process in founding Scripps College and paving the way for an Oxfordlike consortium of affiliated colleges — which eventually led to today’s Claremont Colleges.

The research did come with its challenges. Amalia and I struggled to interpret Miss Scripps’ handwritten documents, especially because her cursive was difficult to read. Most of her diaries and personal letters had not been transcribed or typewritten into easy-to-read documents, and we had to spend large amounts of time deciphering them. However, the effort was worth it; I found and examined a handwritten speech that

Unlike a standard research paper, our deliverables for this project included a 3-part multimedia webpage detailing Ellen Browning Scripps’ life and presenting digitized images of her documents, which we displayed using a program called Shorthand. I added images on Historypin, a site for sharing historical images, and edited preexisting Wikipedia pages that referred to her, including Ellen Browning Scripps, Scripps College, and Scripps Health. Amalia and I also curated and captioned select documents from the archives to post to Denison Library’s Facebook and Instagram — keep your eyes peeled for these upcoming snippets of our research!

Researching the life of Ellen Browning Scripps was an unforgettable first experience working with historical and archival materials, especially in an environment as beautiful as Denison Library. Being able to hold centuryold historical documents in my hands and immerse myself in these snapshots of a completely different era was incredibly eye-opening as a student of Scripps College.

After all, Ellen Browning Scripps, a philanthropist who opposed inherited wealth within families, considered Scripps College students to be her true beneficiaries, the ones who would further her progressive values and continue to enhance communities.

Courtesy of Scripps College

Scripps played an active role in writing and journalism, becoming one of the most prominent female journalists in the United States

Isabel Li ‘25 • The Scripps Voice

Taylor Swift’s “Midnights”: The Marvels, the Melancholy, and the Monotony

Aanji Sin ’24 Editor in Chief

Unless you live under a rock or go to Harvey Mudd, you might’ve heard about a little thing released last weekend called Midnights by Taylor Swift. The popstar released her milestone tenth studio album on Oct. 21, consequently crashing the Spotify app and doing what Swift does best: dividing the Internet. Midnights is her return to the pop mainstream, a synth-rich, murky deep blue record — a far cry from the woodsy austerity of folklore and evermore, yet still lyrically, honestly, Taylor Swift. The album has largely been a critical success; however, even as a self-proclaimed Swiftie since adolescence, I can be honest about exactly where Midnights succeeded, and where it fell short.

Midnights may have been Swift’s move back to her comfortable pop parameters, but it’s a vastly different monster from her past works. Each track is deeply reflective, electronically pressurized and sensuous in a way that only a few scattered Swift songs across albums have previously embodied. It nearly sounds her age — I say nearly because Swift will never fully shake that vaguely cringe, cat sweater, Facebook mom selfie angle, millennial energy, and we would never want her to — she’s almost graduated from the vapid bubblegum, easy radio hits that infest every one of her past albums, and is exploring deeper themes. That and the 29 (29! She's all grown up!) swear words across 13 tracks signal a new era of Swiftian songwriting.

However, Midnights is almost … too cohesive. The record as a whole has a very distinct, tenacious sonic theme that hinges on electronic synths, reverb, heavily edited vocals, and the same kick drum effect. While the songs lyrically touch on a wide variety of subjects, they all sound jarringly similar. It’s cohesive, yes, but it lacks sprawl, electronic motifs growing more and more tiresome on the ears as the album progresses. Missing are the poignant piano ballads, the slow and the simple, the raw acoustic touch where Swift has her roots. As a result, listeners of Midnights can miss out on its genuinely captivating messages and sentiments, turned off and emotionally uninvested in the syrupy layer of glitter and synth that pervades each track. Why change the formula when it’s already been perfected nine times over?

This is, ultimately, a blunder on the part of Jack Antonoff, Swift’s close collaborator and main producer on Midnights . One would expect that Antonoff’s close involvement on a sizable majority of Swift’s previous records and his gorgeous work on folklore and evermore meant that we could trust him to deliver another satisfyingly empirical, authentic Taylor Swift album, instead of an overproduced reiteration of sounds that Swift has already explored and perfected. Antonoff produced eleven of the thirteen tracks on Midnights, and you can tell which ones are his and which ones aren’t — and not in a good way. He seems to stick to the same three to five production techniques on each song, occasionally throwing

in the stray vocal effect that can warp Swift’s voice into indistinguishability and pluck you straight out of the zone.

With the album good and humbled, I must specify that despite whatever misgivings I have, I do love Midnights I would even say that lyrically, it’s one of her strongest. folklore and evermore still take the cake, but Swift’s ever-evolving writing style has taken on more contemporary, clever, experimental skins, continually proving herself to be one of the greatest songwriters of all time.

Swift consistently excels with songs that examine herself in reality, the one that the world doesn’t get to see, verus the metanarrative: Taylor Swift, global pop star sensation, polarizing public figure. She’s startlingly hyper self aware: “Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism, like some kind of congressman?” she sings in “Anti-Hero,” the first single off of Midnights, described by Swift as the song that delves the deepest into her insecurities. In the album’s closer,

“Mastermind,” paints her villain origin story as something of a scheming overlord, a control freak who just wants to be loved. It’s that perfectly paced, unfolding narrative that Swift has always excelled at: building herself up to be the manipulator the world sees her as, waiting for her lover to realize that he’s been tricked into a relationship he doesn’t actually want, only to realize that he saw her trap from the getgo and loved her because of it — she isn’t the mastermind she always thought she was.

The main thing we can come away from Midnights with is that, regardless of how much you actually enjoyed the album, it’s a Joe Alwyn record at its core — sorry, Gaylors. I want to see her kiss Dianna Agron as much as the next bisexual, but six years is an unbelievably long time to fake a beard relationship. Sure, he’s unbearably British, but he loves her for her mind! And if she keeps putting out albums as iconic as Midnights about him, then really, what more can we ask for?

The Interim Dean’s Guide to Posting Through It: Nina Beats the Allegations

Nina Howe-Goldstein ’25

13th Century Nomadic Warlord

W ay back in the dark days of 2020, I was an “election judge” at my local high school — which is to say, I was a poll worker. Deep in the blue suburbs of Washington, D.C., where everyone voted by mail and the stray few Republicans wrote in John Kasich for president, I was tasked with manning the check-in station from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., with two snacks and one lunch as my only interruptions from monotony.

Election law was such that no voter ID was needed — in fact, if a voter offered their driver’s license, I was obliged to reject it. A grand total of 50 citizens passed by my humble folding desk over 13 hours.

By the time that I stumbled out into the cold night again, as the electoral college map still looked blindingly red and I craved McDonalds, I was only more excited to pull my phone from the glove box.

“Let me check on what my friends are posting!” I exclaimed from the warmth of my car. “My friends are smart. Surely they’ve come up with some genius ways to recognize the moment and support democracy.”

Reader, I was amazed. In 12 hours, my entire “Stories” tab on Instagram had been transformed into a collection of bonafide experts on electoral law — all boldly sharing important information with pastel-

colored infographics, and not fucking it up at all. I witnessed nary a single misunderstanding of a provisional ballot or one’s right to vote with one, for example. And my suburban-D.C. teenage friends definitely knew that hundreds (if not thousands) of voters in swing states were watching their stories — rendering their “IF YOU’RE IN LINE, STAY IN LINE” posts absolutely critical. Maybe they all know a handful of Floridians who might change the course of history with their hanging chads, Bush vs. Gore style. Who was I to judge?

“Posting” is the boldest and most beautiful of the virtues — this is universally acknowledged — and 2020 was probably the peak of the art form. With Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the nation, it seemed as though the whole world was suddenly getting informed… which we all did sensitively, carefully, and without any dumb ideas whatsoever.

The most powerful weapon of an infographic is its intellectual rigor — which, we all know, is unimpeachable in quality. Nobody has ever spread misinformation through an infographic; nobody has ever shared one without verifying its contents just because it affirms their preexisting worldview! You, our brave poster, have absolutely nothing in common with the phenomenon of QAnon conspiracy theories spreading via the same Canva aesthetics as

that #activist slideshow on Hispanic Heritage Month.

Furthermore, you as a poster are deeply self-sacrificing, and your commitment to social justice should be lauded. Because we absolutely do not curate bubbles in our social media presence, your reputation could very well suffer for the sharing of a post about intersectional feminism. It’s not at all performative — none of your friends share your worldview. Nobody else posts as well as you do. Nobody else is talking about this. Your friend’s lowkey-racist boyfriend is gonna have his mind blown when he hears about this fucking oil pipeline.

It seems as though I learn new and true things every day. When I see shared posts declaring that conservation of Ancient Egyptian art is actually a front to whitewash the figures through repainting, or am told that my Achilles tendon will surely be slashed by human traffickers as I walk across the Target parking lot, I know that my friends are not idiots, but rather devoted intellectuals committed to bringing down the whole problematic system via 24hour reposts on Instagram.

That is why I wholeheartedly endorse “Posting Through It.” Because none of us follow each other on Instagram, if we would only unite our forces through the power of posting, we could surely change the world. When the “Amy MarcusNewhall Rose Garden” turns out not

to be the actual famed Scripps rose garden, but rather a decrepit 10-by10 patch outside of Denison (you deserve better, queen), we shall post through it. When our beloved SAS event chair resigns after Halloween (surprise!) we shall post through it too. I already look forward to the allegations of sexism bringing both of these treasured Scripps girlbosses down — via pastel pink infographic, of course.

“The performance of moral righteousness on social media has NOT broken my generation’s brains,” I whisper every morning in the mirror. “We ARE educating each other. We are NOT just doing it to seem woke.”

Get posting, Scripps.

CORRECTION : In last month’s article, Nina delivered a heavyhanded, unnecessary critique of the September Deloitte DEI networking event held in the Motley. In doing so, she failed to appropriately make space for the voices of women, femme-aligned people, and CMS dudebros who might have been interested in affecting change by seizing these systems of wealth for 2SLGBTQIA+, BIPOC, FGLI, and other marginalized individuals. You can find her full apology video on YouTube — search “fuck you Deloitte you’ll never take me alive 10/30/2022.” The Scripps Voice sincerely apologizes for the diversion from our core values. The dissenter is being dealt with.

Courtesy of celebmix.com

The Eluding Nature of Peace

By Anne Friedman ’25 Staff Writer

Alistair liked most evenings, especially in the winter. Darkness would descend, the earlier the better, leaving him alone to his thoughts and able to wander aimlessly without the prodding questions and inquiries from anyone else. Even the chilly nights of winter never seemed to bother him, or at least he’d rather take the solace of the cold night over the meddling tactics of others.

However, tonight Alistair sulked through the halls of the manor. Tonight, when evening and darkness descended, he would not get his peace and quiet like the rest of the city would. No, tonight he’d get the opposite: guests whose pleasure was chit chat, gossip, and no sense of personal space or boundaries. The family was throwing a party, their annual winter ball, and Alistair was expected not only to attend but to interact and be present, neither of which he was keen on doing.

He thought he could try and pretend to come down with a cold or sickness of some sort, but that just infuriated his parents. How could he come down with something tonight of all nights?

His mother was frantic: “What would others think of our family if you don’t attend?”

His father was annoyed: “You walk all evening in the cold. You must have gotten it from that. How would you be so foolish?”

No excuse worked as Alistair’s tactics just pissed off his parents. They cared about appearances and social functions, which Alistair found stupid and a waste of time. However, they forced him to go, no matter how he felt, dragging him down the stairs and handing him off to his nosy aunt to babysit him like he was a toddler again.

Being with his aunt was almost worse than his parents. His aunt consistently pestered him; she had no sense of boundaries. He was forced to endure his aunt’s countless questions about any possible girlfriends (there must be at least one girl he likes!),

his late walks (he wasn’t getting up to trouble or partaking in any illicit activities, right?), and his school friends (you have friends, right?), among other topics. Alistair did his best to talk as little as possible. His aunt had no right to know anything about him. However, he needed to satisfy her curiosity a bit with some truths. Last time, he had tried to have fun and just make lavish claims, but she was furious when she learned of their falsehoods. Yet, now, his lack of engagement and somewhat vague answers only irritated her too.

“How could you throw your life away? After all your parents have done for you?” His aunt scolded him.

There was no winning with his aunt or even his parents for that matter.

Finally, he took a chance and fled to the kitchen, deciding he could “help out” there (more like hide) and could argue that he would still be present for the party. But, he would no longer have to deal with nosy, aggravating party members who questioned every decision he made. His parents already

judged him. He didn’t need everyone else doing so as well. And the kitchen had all the food.

Alistair soon became bored. There was little to do in the kitchen (besides eat) and there was no way he was stepping a foot outside of the room because if he did, he would surely be confronted by some family member or stranger who’d rope him into a conversation he definitely did not want to have.

Why did people care to know about his life? Why couldn’t he just be left alone?

Soon his parents made their way into the kitchen for their own reasons and were very unhappy to find their son evading the party and lurking in the kitchen. They dragged him out to the party, babysitting him themselves. As his parents socialized with guests, they forced Alistair to participate as well.

He faked enthusiasm as he chatted with guests about discussions he did not want to have. He learned about so and so’s interest in politics and

how the current government was a disaster. He learned that another guest detested her husband, but he had all the money, so what could one do?

He found it all so foolish and pointless: what everyone valued was so stupid.

Finally, his parents became preoccupied with other tasks, allowing Alistair to slip away. He climbed the stairs up to the top floor, sneaking out a window onto the roof. As he lay on the roof surrounded by darkness and the stars, Alistair was finally able to breath and relax, alone with only his thoughts.

Eventually, the quiet lulled Alistair into a peaceful sleep only to be woken up the next day as the rays of sun burst through his window. He got up and went about his morning as usual, finally sitting down on his windowsill with a book to read. He only got through a couple pages before his parents burst in, nagging him about the ball they were hosting that evening: their annual winter ball.

If nothing Hoping

By Rebecca Allen ’25 Staff Writer

If nothing means anything Then maybe the river Is the answer, maybe The bikers and the joggers And the people Who walk with a Certain purpose Are just as lost As I am.

Maybe if ease is Just a mindset Then I can Have the moments That I dream of When no one is Watching.

By Aviva Maxon ’24 Staff Writer

Home and longing Somehow always lead me back to thinking of you And wondering When we will reconcile

The warm fall air, Wraps around my arms Like the leaves you would throw And the dog that would chase us And the songs we would sing

And now years since we’ve talked The air isn’t so comforting And neither are my memories And a text hello Means so much more Then I could’ve ever imagined

The warm fall air, Feels like summer And the memories of us Playing in the park Running after the dog And down the slide

And the dark empty nights Remind me of when you first left, Running to our parents’ bed Wondering when you would be back Hoping you wouldn’t forget me.

Hoping Hoping Hoping

Courtesy of Vilmantas Bekesius via Unsplash

Courtesy of Aaron Burden via Unsplash

Claremont from Above: A Guide to Scripps’ Feathered Residents

By Olive Gaetz ’25 Staff Writer

N o matter if you’re a freshman or a senior, you may not know your college campus as well as you think you do. Sure, you may know where your classes are, where to pick the tastiest oranges, and you might even be able to name a few kinds of flowers, but how often are you looking up? Claremont is not only home to flocks of students looking to enjoy the beautiful California weather, it’s also the ecosystem of many species of native birds. These creatures of all sizes, shapes, and diets play crucial roles in every ecosystem on the

Allen’s Hummingbird: Perhaps one of the most distinctive birds out of the lineup, the Allen’s Hummingbird packs a big influence in a little package. Though barely larger than a tube of chapstick, it’s not difficult to spot them zipping around between tree branches and flowers looking for pollen or small insects. My favorite place to look for them is the trees right outside of Toll, it’s a great space to space out and birdwatch awhile as they tend to chase each other among the branches. If you get a close enough look, you might even see the beautiful yellow, teal, and vermillion feathers that make the Allen’s Hummingbird unique. Starvation is the main cause of death for hummingbirds so if you’d like to help, consider putting out an artificial feeder or getting involved with campus gardening clubs.

American Crow: Californian beauty, I would be remiss to not include these infamous Scripps residents: the crows. Frequently spotted stealing tortillas from the Malott trash cans or causing a racket in the trees by Seal Court, crows are known for their mischievous nature and intelligence. It’s thought that crows can remember human faces for years and are also capable of using simple tools, so maybe think twice before messing with one on campus or else you may have a crow with a baseball bat knocking on your door. Crows are also helpful in managing the populations of rodents and small reptiles but will often go after human leftovers as well when living in urban areas, so keep an eye on your plate!

Lesser Goldfinch: Pale yellow in hue but just as charming as its American counterpart, the lesser goldfinch is a little dollop of sunshine in a feathery package. Though their yellow feathers are enough to distinguish them from other native songbirds, the lesser goldfinch can also be identified by one of their calls resembling a telegraph beep. Surprisingly, the lesser goldfinch has actually benefited quite a bit from human influence, adapting easily to new habitats and taking advantage of high availability of bird seed to sustain them over the winter. Their populations now span across the West Coast and even down into South America, though Pomona’s Marsden Quad seems to attract quite a few of them with the plentiful seeds and tall trees.

eyed junco is a very common bird in Claremont that I never knew the name for. Depending on the season, juncos can be found all across the United States and is actually one of the most common “passerines” (perching birds) in the country. Juncos can be spotted by their slate grey feathers with a circular patch of white on their belly and are often very round little birds. If you’re out and about, you should keep an ear out for one of their calls that sounds somewhat like a car alarm: a series of quick, high-pitched tweets. The best fact about the junco, however, is their nickname “snow bird.”

Thought to be messengers of winter, seeing a junco is supposedly a sign that winter is on its way as they migrate across the country which will hopefully ring true for Claremont as well.

California Scrub Jay: If you’ve ever seen a flash of blue feathers in your periphery, you may automatically assume it to be a blue jay or bluebird if you’re not from the West Coast. The California scrub jay is very similar in color to these other two species but has much more widespread splotches of white on its belly and chin. The Birds of the World database describes them as “bold and confident” which is quite fitting as they have easily adapted to urban environments and are seemingly barely affected by human activity at all. Scrub jays are most active in the morning and late afternoon and will forage for fruit, arthropods, and seeds, making that the best time to venture out of your dorm to try and find one.

Dark-Eyed Junco: A personal favorite of mine, the dark-