Escape February 13 2014

ESCAPE

smile. EXPLORE. relax. / Feb. 13 / weekend

SEX

4

hate v-day?

We’ve got something for you too

busting the myths

+

ROMANTIC VIDEO GAMES

more online @ oudaily.com/weekender

the

issue

ESCAPE

let’s talk about ... ... love, sex and everything that goes along with tackling the subject of Valentine’s Day and relationships.

With the sweetest (literally) day of the year approaching, it’s a good time to analyze the romance in your life.

Whether your spending your V-Day single (pg. 4) or living it up with your significant other (pg. 5), we hope you’ll enjoy yourself no matter what. If V-Day just isn’t your jam, see some of our sex-related articles (pg. 6,7).

You may notice this week’s issue is a bit brief. Go online to OUDaily.com/weekender to find even more romantic content. megan deaton, escape editor @meggiejennie

Feb. 13

contents 3 Virtual romance 4 Playlist: set the mood 4 planning a last minute v-day 5 A single’s guide to v-day 5 playlist: lonely tunes 6 a history of sex in film 7 busting sex myths 8 media to keep you company

taylor bolton/ou daily

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photo by Megan Deaton Escape is a student-produced publication of OU Student Media, a department in the Division of Student Affairs. Copyright 2014 OU Student Media.

keaton bell @kildebell

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3

virtual

5

MIranda Sanchez | gaming There’s a video game for just about everything; fighting demons, conquering planets, cooking, saving cities and not to be left out, finding love. If you’re needing a little extra loving this Valentine’s Day, check out one of these games. Though each of the following games vary in their level of romance, each has a special feature that is sure to make your heart flutter.

things to do this

weekend 1.

Support art students as they show off their work as part of the “100th Annual School of Art and Art History Student Exhibition.”

If you’re looking for …

light high school romance “Persona 4 Golden” for PlayStation Vita Though the relationships in this game may be light and playful, be ready to work for them. “Persona 4 Golden” is a turn-based Japanese RPG that can take 70+ hours to complete, but they’ll be 70 enjoyable hours. “Persona 4 Golden” is murder mystery mixed with the Japanese high school experience you never had, all topped off with a bit of romance.

While you (regrettably) won’t be able to date any of the male characters, you’ll be able to choose between eight girls that become available as you progress through the campaign. Though finding romance isn’t the focal part of the game, it complements the rest of the game, which places a heavy emphasis on building relationships.

something complicated “Catherine” for Xbox 360 and PS3 “Catherine” tackles themes rarely seen in video games, including commitment to relationships and cheating. Playing as Vincent Brooks, a man who is not quite ready to commit to a settled life with his girlfriend Katherine, you’ll navigate through his guilt-induced nightmares after he cheats on his girlfriend with Catherine, a beautiful woman he took home with him after one too many drinks.

This game is just as clever as it is sexual. Much of the gameplay occurs in Vincent’s nightmares where he’s flung into challenging puzzles that, when failed, lead to his real life death. In addition to being a puzzler, “Catherine” also features light dating sim elements.

refined men

2.

“Hakuoki: Memories of the Shinsengumi” for 3DS While this version of the Hakuoki series is the newest release, any of the Hakuoki games will leave you swooning for these beautifully drawn samurai. The games are based loosely on the historical Shinsengumi men and their exploits in Japan’s Edo period. In each of the games, protagonist Chizuru Yukimura ventures to the then-dangerous Kyoto disguised as a boy to find her missing father. There, she becomes a prisoner of the feared Shinsengumi and eventually assimilates into their group.

As an otome game, or a “maiden” visual novel dating sim, there isn’t much gameplay in this game, but there are plenty of choices to be made that determine which of the six men your character will ultimately end up with. Other variations of this game are also available for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita.

what: UPB Valentines when: 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday where: oklahoma memorial union’s first floor lobby

Make a free handmade valentine for that special someone — or even just your best friend — courtesy of the Union Programming Board.

3.

what: second friday art walk when: Friday night where: NOrman’s Main Street

Spend your Valentine’s Day enjoying art and the company of fellow Norman-ites at the Second Friday Art Walk, hosted by the Norman Arts Council.

4.

a real person

what: chocolate factory when: 7 to 9 p.m. friday where: Oklahoma memorial union’s will rogers food court

Whether you’re flying solo for V-Day or wanting a cheap place to take your date, free chocolate is pretty much always a good option.

“World of Warcraft” for PC and Mac “World of Warcraft” may have a reputation for causing problems in relationships, but it is developing a reputation for bring people together. The “New York Times,” “The Guardian” and many more publications reported on successful “World of Warcraft” relationships that evolved from in-game parties to real life marriage.

“World of Warcraft” has over 7.7 million players as of July 2013, according to IGN. Finding someone to connect with is a real possibility, but while making these connections, be cautious. You don’t want to end up on the next episode of MTV’s “Catfish.”

what: student film screening when: 7 to 8 p.m. thursday where: mary eddy and fred jones auditorium

5.

what: free movie, “Gravity when: 7 and 10 p.m. Saturday where: oklahoma memorial union’s meacham auditorium

“Gravity,” starring Sandra Bullock, got great reviews, so be sure to see it for free before it comes out on DVD.

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5

PLAYLIST: FOR THE LONERS keaton bell | music

N

ot everybody is in a loving mood around Valentine’s Day. There are some who would rather shoot cupid than be shot by his arrows of love. And besides, who would rather hear a sappy power ballad when you could sing along with other jilted lovers? So if you’re riding solo this Valentine’s Day, here are some songs to make it one to forget: 1. Fleetwood Mac — “Silver Springs”: You could fill this entire list with Fleetwood Mac songs, but “Silver Springs” captures the way people you used to love can still haunt you.

2. J. Geils Band — “Love Stinks”: Even if you’re more familiar with Adam Sandler’s cover from The Wedding Singer, “Love Stinks” is a downright fun rock number about how terrible love really is.

3. Soft Cell — “Tainted Love”: A thumping new wave number, “Tainted Love” is about the heartbreak of loving someone, but not feeling it in return.

4. Taylor Swift — “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”: “The Queen of Break-Ups” bubblegum pop anthem is as annoying as it is impossibly likable. I mean, even if you hate T-Swizzle, how can you not hum along?

5. Cee-Lo Green — “F*** You”: If you combined a sunny Motown hit from the ’60’s with an expletive-filled Eminem track, you have the ultimate kiss-anthem in “F*** You.” 6. R.E.M. — “Everybody Hurts”: Best listened to in a dark room while it’s raining, “Everybody Hurts” is a culmination of all the negativity you feel after a breakout in one downbeat track.

7. Judy Garland — “Down With Love”: For a song called “Down With Love,” it is surprisingly upbeat. It almost makes a sour love affair sound like a good time.

SEE MORE ONLINE AT OUDAILY.COM/WEEKENDER

PLAYLIST: single’s guide

or

couple’s guide

kate mcpherson | valentine’s day

megan deaton | valentine’s day

If you’re single and awesome — like I am — you’re probably way over Valentine’s Day. Like, if-Ihear-Celine-Dion-one-more-time-your-heart-will-cease-to-go-on over Valentine’s Day. I don’t begrudge anyone happiness, but I do kind of want to puke every time I see cute couples making out in the Spoonholder and planning their futures and sitting together at dinner holding hands.

But you know what? We, single people of this campus, should not be punished for failing to Lady-andthe-Tramp our Caf spaghetti. If anything, we should be rewarded for our excellence. Here’s how to have a better Valentine’s than all your stupid couple-y friends.

Don’t let the Valetine’s Day grumps get you down. If you’re in love (or even just in like) with your significant other, Valentine’s Day is the day to make sure they know just how much you appreciate them.

Yes, Valentine’s Day probably is a holiday created by greeting card and candy companies to sell disgusting “Sweethearts” that you wouldn’t eat otherwise because they taste like chalk. However, you can make the best of it.

Choose any of these activities happening in Norman or Oklahoma City to make your Valentine’s Day a unique experience.

Host a Galentine’s Day Party: The wise and beautiful Leslie Knope, from NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” hosts a Galentine’s Day party every year, where she celebrates all the awesome ladies in her life. Get all your single lady friends in one place where you can serve them delicious food and tell them how great and perfect they are. Put together a girl-power playlist for maximum awesome. Recommended menu: waffles and mimosas.

Oh, and guys, you could have a Guy-entine’s Day. It just doesn’t flow as well as Galentine’s.

Go do that weird thing you’ve been meaning to do: Maybe you really want to go see “The Lego Movie.” Maybe you enjoy playing laser tag with a bunch of 12-year-old boys, or you’re really into Bobo’s fried chicken. You do you, friend, and revel in the knowledge that if you were dating someone, they’d probably think you were weird for doing that thing.

Treat yourself: Order yourself flowers. Buy yourself some fancy chocolate. Get a massage. You are awesome, fabulous and special, and you don’t need a significant other in your life to remember that.

keaton bell | music

For the frugal date: Chocolate Factory When: 7 to 9 p.m. Friday Where: Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Will Rogers Food Court This free event in the Oklahoma Memorial Union is a night devoted to chocolate, which seems like the perfect chance to build sweet memories with your date.

Free screenings of “Gravity” When: 7 and 10 p.m. Friday Where: Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Meacham Auditorium See Sandra Bullock and George Clooney perform in their critically-acclaimed film before it comes out on DVD. Your date will give you extra points for ingenuity, and you can use meal points to get movie snacks.

For the artsy date: Second Friday Art Walk When: 6 p.m. to at least 9 p.m. Friday Where: Norman’s Main Street Local vendors and artists open their doors for the monthly art walk. Venues will be hosting everything from karaoke to a couple’s dance, so you’re sure to find something fun and local to fill your evening. See the Norman Arts Council website for more info.

Go on a trip: Conveniently, V-Day is on a Friday this year. Skip town and go on a weekend trip. Been meaning to see the blue whale in Catoosa? Want to camp at Palo Duro Canyon? Grab a buddy, or go alone.

Take the car, the train, the Greyhound — whatever. Go big and head out this weekend.

illustrations by kelly rogers

FOR THE LOVERS

For the sophisticated date: Murder Mystery Dinner When: 6:30 p.m. Friday Where: The Railhouse, 102 W. Eufala St. Tickets for this dinner will cost you $75 a person, but this interactive performance of “Death in a Double Wide” is sure to be a memorable experience.

L

ove songs honestly get a bad reputation. People say they’re sappy, sentimental, unrealistic and just plain bad. It is obvious they have just been listening to the wrong ones, then. There are some truly beautiful love songs out there, and here’s a handy playlist to help set the mood for your Valentine’s Day adventures: 1. Stevie Wonder — “My Cherie Amour”: Such a sweet and simple melody augmented by an absolute master. Add a smooth rhythm guitar and you have one romantic classic that sets the mood for a perfect date night.

2. Fleetwood Mac — “Everywhere”: Christine McVie has one of the most unique voices in rock music, and “Everywhere” is the perfect showcase as she sings about her desire to spend every second with the man she loves.

3. Jackson 5 — “I’ll Be There”: With such a delightfully retro feel and near-perfect vocals from a young Michael Jackson, “I’ll Be There” is like a warm blanket for your ears.

4. Al Green — “Let’s Stay Together”: Before lyrics about sex left nothing to the imagination, Al Green was the master of musical intimacy. With “Let’s Get Together,” Green’s balances the line between love and sex with soulful precision.

5. The Righteous Brothers — “Unchained Melody”: I’ll admit this song only makes the cut because it’s so closely associated with that pottery scene from “Ghost,” but even then the Righteous Brother’s song about unrequited love packs an emotional punch.

6. Tears for Fears — “Head Over Heels”: Grand and cinematic, “Head Over Heels” is not your usual love song. Powerful, passionate, and forceful, Roland Orzabel’s vocal delivery is, in a word, breath-taking.

SEE MORE ONLINE AT OUDAILY.COM/WEEKENDER

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SEX in film keaton bell | film

Back in the 1920s, under the incredibly strict Motion Picture Production Code, there was an enormous set of rules imposed on American movies.

You could not show illegal drugs, mixed-race relationships or have the words “hell” or “damn” uttered in any way. But the rule to be upheld among them all? Under no circumstances could there be nudity or sex present, whether it was shown or suggested.

Oh how times have changed. I mean, have you seen “The Wolf of Wall Street”?

1933

ECSTASY This one is technically a cheat since it is a German film, but “Ecstasy” needs to be mentioned because of the enormous amount of controversy it wrought. Among it’s “offenses,” the lead swims in the nude and proceeds to run through the countryside naked. It was also the first non-pornographic film to include sex and the female orgasm, done by never showing more than the actor’s faces.

1946

THE BIG SLEEP The classic film noir starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall is most remembered today for shattering sexual boundaries. Because of the strict laws against sex in American films, there was plenty that was hinted at but not much actually shown. For example, a conversation about horse racing between two women is an allusion to sex while a key plot point involving stolen photographs never directly mentions that they are pornographic.

American movies today are filled with sex scenes, innuendo, nudity and other forms of sexuality once completely absent from the silver screen. It’s interesting to see the way sex has progressed onscreen, once considered a subject so taboo that kissing was barely allowed. Compare that to today when sex scenes will sometimes get thrown into a movie because hey, why not? To help make some sense of it all, here’s a look at the silver screen’s long and delicate relationship with all things sexual.

1967 I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW) To compete with the influence of television in the 1960s, sex became the newest star on the silver screen with the dismantling of the Production Code in 1968, which was what originally banned sex in film. Whether it was Jane Fonda stripping down to nothing in the opening scene of “Barbarella” or the numerous sex scenes in “Midnight Cowboy,” sex was slowly becoming a much bigger presence in mainstream cinema.

1972

1980s

The Swedish film, which follows a freewheeling woman in the 1960s, was seized at customs because officials were concerned the scenes of full-frontal nudity and simulated sex acts were pornographic. Although many movies before had alluded to sexual acts, “I Am Curious” was the first mainstream film to show a couple having sex.

While American movies were experimenting with sex in the ’60s and fighting the legal battle it brought in the ’70s, the ’80s were the time to bask in it. There are the girls running naked through the woods in slasher films (“Friday the 13th”), the gratuitous nudity in almost every sex comedy (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High”) and the tastefully done sex scenes in prestige pictures (“9 1/2 Weeks”). By this point, Hollywood had fully embraced nudity and the appeal sex had to the moviegoing public.

ALMOST LAST TANGO EVERY MOVIE IN PARIS

SEE THE FULL TIMELINE ONLINE AT OUDAILY.COM

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busting kate mcpherson | sex It’s no secret that sex education isn’t necessarily informative. Whether your parents sat you down for an oh-so-awkward “birds and the bees” chat or you relied on your weird health teacher with the mustache, you probably missed a few things. You’re in college now, so it’s time to bust some of these sex myths: Two condoms are better than one.

FALSE. Many people think a second condom decreases pregnancy chances, but the opposite is true. The condoms rub against each other, causing friction, which increases chances that both condoms will break.

Lipstick can damage condoms.

TRUE. Any oil-based product — lipstick, sunscreen, moisturizer — can cause a condom to rip. For the same reason, you should make sure your lube is water-based.

You can’t get pregnant in a hot tub/standing up/in the bath tub.

FALSE. People. You can get pregnant anywhere: in a house, by a mouse, in the rain, on a train. There is nothing magical about your hot tub/wall/tub that is going to kill sperm.

Masturbation makes you go blind.

FALSE. According to the BBC and also anyone who’s ever met a teenager, masturbation won’t make you go blind. It also won’t make you have zits, grow hair on your palms, go crazy or stunt your growth. Again, just take a look at the lack of blind, crazy, short people with zits and hairy palms on our campus.

You can get pregnant even if your partner pulls out.

TRUE. If you always, 100 percent of the time, pull out in time, you still have a four percent chance of getting pregnant, according to Planned Parenthood. Also, pulling out doesn’t protect you from STIs, so show some love and wear a glove.

If you have sex, you will get pregnant and die.

FALSE. But that’s still a really excellent scene in “Mean Girls.”

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The Grumpy

media that goes behind the scenes in the arts:

couch Potato keaton bell | entertainment Valentine’s Day has snuck up on us unsuspecting singletons. While your friends plan out their dinner reservations, you are most likely making your way through season two of “Scandal” with your cats. But hey, no shame. Right?

Right. And ESCAPE is here to make sure you don’t spend Feb. 14 eating your way through Russell Stover’s and singing “Drunk In Love” on repeat. These will be your trusty sidekicks for the evening:

“(500) Days of summer” You could easily watch any number of movies about bad romances. From “Fatal Attraction” to “Blue Valentine,” there is no shortage of films that talk about negative relationships. But “(500) Days of Summer” manages to tell the story of a relationship gone awry with humor and hopefulness.

The story of a man’s memories of a failed relationship, “(500) Days of Summer” manages to make you feel not so bad about being single yet hopeful that there is someone out there just waiting to bump into you.

“30 Rock”

“tiny beautiful things” by cheryl strayed Before she penned her incredible memoir “Wild,” Strayed wrote this fresh book on life and love. Instead of writing like a self-help motivator looking to solve your problems fast, Strayed comes off more like a sassy older sister/straightforward BFF offering advice with stories and essays. With such a “straight to the heart” way of writing, “Tiny Beautiful Things” has something for everyone seeking a little encouragement.

This quote pretty much sums up how relatable 30 Rock’s heroine Liz Lemon is when it comes to romance: “I just want to start a relationship about 12 years in, when you don’t have to try anymore and you can just sit around and watch TV and go to bed without anyone trying any funny business.”

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