Online classes

Another teen girl violates society’s dress code

Billie Eilish made big news this week. She did the unimaginable – she went outside in a TANK TOP?! Can you believe that this 18-year old woman dared to leave her home in clothes that she felt comfortable in? How can we, as a society, have any respect for her anymore after she did something like this?

I am totally not being serious.

Eilish has been trolled quite a lot this past week because she was photographed in public wearing clothing that is unlike what we usually see her in – the baggy hoodies, big jackets, high neck tops, and baggy pants. Instead, she wore a camisole, shorts, socks and slides. I personally take more issue with the socks and slides than the tank top.

As a young woman, 18, Eilish has said in previous interviews that she dresses is such big and baggy clothes because she does not want to be sexualized or have her body be talked about by the entire world – and yet here we are.

From as young as the age of 4, girls are sexualized like this in all areas of society. Part of the pattern is the dress codes imposed by schools, which tell girls to cover up so they do not “distract the boys or male teachers.” What I have never understood is: why are girls being taught to cover up, while young boys are not taught to keep their eyes, comments, and hands to themselves? This makes girls feel uncomfortable and unsafe in their own skin, making them Heading into the fall, I think we all knew things would be different this year, and it would require some getting used to. The one thing I wasn’t expecting, though, was the gross mishandling of online classes by many profs here at the University.

The first case of mishandling is how many profs have implemented weekly forum posts as assignments. Where classes used to give out marks for in-class discussion and interaction, more and more profs are now demanding extra work outside of classes – researching and writing up forums posts week by week. For a handful of marks, students are required to put in extra time outside of class, sometimes an hour or more, just to replace in-class discussion. This seems counter-intuitive. Teachers have this wonderful resource known as Zoom where students can speak up if they question what they wear and the possible consequences for the rest of their life. If you wear too much, you’re not desirable and a prude, but if you wear something too revealing, you’re a slut. It is a never-ending cycle that women like Eilish, deal with their entire life.

Eilish wearing a tank top should not have been in the news at all. It was just a reason for people to be able to put her down for having a less than “ideal” body.

The media in our world has created an unhealthy image of what a person is supposed to look like; this is something that goes for both women and men. There are kids around 14 years old who are developing poor relationships with food and exercise, because they want to look thin like Charli D’Amileo and Taylor Holder. The unhealthy, unrealistic obsession with being “perfect” has caused people to body shame and bully those who are not 5’5” and 120lbs. This is not okay. We need to be lifting others up and building confidence for one another when it comes to the diversity of bodies, rather than tearing each other down.

Eilish, along with every young person, should be able to go out in whatever she feels comfortable and confident in, and should not be facing the hate and judgement that the internet has given her recently. The comments made put added pressure on Eilish and will likely make her second guess what she is wearing the next feel confident, or type their answers if they don’t. Why don’t more teachers use our allotted class time for our class participation mark, instead of putting extra work on students week after week?

The next issue is in regards to quizzes. Some profs have decided to get rid of in-class quizzes in favour of open-ended “do-it-when-you-want” style quizzes. Quizzes that are open from one hour to another, so that students can take them anytime. That’s great, except for the fact it is – again – more work for students in an already busy and stressful time in their lives. Now, not only do they have to study for this quiz, they have to find a time outside of class time to do the hour-long quiz. It altogether makes it a lot more chaotic. Trying to fit studying, classes, quizzes (and for many of us, work) into a day is stressful

time she is leaving the house. No woman nor anyone else should have to deal with body shaming, yet I cannot imagine what it would be like in Eilish’s position when the entire world is looking at you.

We need to focus on a different narrative showing that there are many versions of a healthy body. What you see on Instagram or Facebook is not the only way there their information. What it will do is incentivize them to find new innovative ways to

Lucrezia Carnelos

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reese estwick staff writer

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Working from home means living at work to say the least. We’re in a glorious age of technology,

Finally, there are the myriad of ways and I would encourage all teachers to exteachers are trying to handle exams. Don’t periment and try new things. Please listen get me wrong, it’s good that teachers are to students when they say something isn’t trying to find creative and innovative solu- working. What is learned here will be used tions to online exams (all of those except in classes to come. COVID-19 has redethose that decide an invasive third-party fined the classroom, and even when this data-leaking software is the solution, of pandemic ends, things we are innovating course). But some solutions are plain silly. now will be carried on into the future. This My least favourite of these is when teachers semester right now isn’t just about student make exams extra long and extra hard, in learning, it’s about all of us learning to use order to keep students from looking at their the technology we have to our best abilinotes. This is flawed thinking. If you make ty, and create new ways of teaching and an exam longer and harder, it won’t en- knowledge assessment that will hopefully courage students to study more and know be beneficial for future generations. ing you. Tribesh Kayasta via Unsplash cheat or look through their notes, just so they can complete the exam on time withisaac tamlin out failing it. staff writer

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