The Antlerette October 2019 Volume 94 Issue 2
Pretty in Pink Lorelai Paige, Staff It’s happened to countless young girls: they start off adoring princesses, ballerinas, and the color pink. But somewhere along the line, usually from third to sixth grade, they take a dramatic shift to “tomboy” and assert that they aren’t a “girly-girl”, which includes denouncing pink as the worst color on the color wheel. What changed between these two periods of time? It wasn’t an actual change in personal style, it was the young girl learning that society looks down upon most feminine things, including pink. Pink suggests all kinds of things, as with all colors. But most people can agree that most things pink are associated with femininity, which gives a clue to why society looks down upon it as a color. It’s clear that most things known to be enjoyed by women, especially teenage girls, are immediately dismissed as shallow or immature. A similar thing happened with the Beatles, where people hated them for the longest time while teenage girls gravitated towards them until adult men started listening to them more, and then society deemed the Beatles an “acceptable” band to enjoy. The same idea goes for pink. As long as it remains a color that is mostly liked by girls, it will continue to be considered a lesser color by the rest of society.
All the connotations associated with colors can feel meaningless when we look at the history of pink and blue as girl and boy colors respectively. In the 1920’s, pink was considered a boy color because it was a more vibrant color and blue was considered a dainty girl color. This all switched to what we have today for largely unknown reasons in the 1940’s, with blue being masculine and pink being feminine. Like whatever color you want to like. Especially as a girl who was taught to renounce pink and become a tomboy in order to be accepted, I’ve rediscovered my love for pink that I had as a young kid. So, if you think a color is simply nice, don’t let patriarchy put down your interests.
https://aminoapps.com/c/zelda/page/blog/to mboyzelda/PJwt_mudjE5L5oxz73EjXLQj8JNn2x 0
Combatting Racism with A Color-Coded Symphony Jordan Ritchie, Editor-in-Chief Racism, in my opinion–and surely, in others’ too–is one of our world’s greatest issues. So many people of every age are faced with hateful discrimination because of the color of their skin, the shape of their eyes, the style of their hair, or the language they speak. Racism, by definition, is: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. There are very few things I’ve encountered in my life to be more ludicrous than this concept. Why am I deemed “less than” in comparison to someone else because my skin is a different color when we both bleed red? I’m not the only one who questions this and strives to fight this. Protests, rallies, books, and movies/TV have proved to be great weapons to fight this seemingly never-ending battle, but I spoke with Aireene Espiritu, a Philippine-born American folk singer, who’s forged a weapon of her own to join in on the fight. It’s called A Color-Coded Symphony. “A Color-Coded Symphony is a 3-part performance piece. The first part is in the dark where we listen to familiar and unfamiliar sounds, maybe… a lullaby in different languages. So you don’t see anything, you’re just listening. And then we turn the lights on. We feature a different country every time. Last time we did the Philippines, this time we’re going to do India. So we’re going to play music from India. And then the third part is where we have the audience fill out an ethnic origin card because we all come from somewhere. I pull out a card from a jar and then I play a 30-second piece from that country and then the band improvises a brand new piece. The mission is to basically encourage people to be less judgmental and more open. I want people to have a mindset to be more curious about other people’s cultures. How we do
that is through music because sometimes you listen to music you might not understand the words [to] and you can still be touched by it. So I figured, through music I want people to just have a curiosity about other cultures and so, this is kind of one way to do that.” After hearing A Color-Coded Symphony’s objective, I was curious about what made her want to pursue this endeavor. “I’ve experienced some racism myself with somebody that I loved, a boyfriend of mine and he wouldn’t take me with him to visit his family because he was afraid that they may not be so accepting of me. And I was really hurt and I thought, ‘You know, if you really got to know me, I think you’d really like me; I’m a good person. So you’re judging me even before you get to meet me, which is so unfair.’ As a kid, I’ve heard people say, ‘Go back to your own country’. I think it’s human nature to be judgmental, but how do we create the mindset so that we’re first open, rather than immediately judgmental? I had a gig at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and I was telling this woman, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a concert in the dark? So people can just listen and when we’re listening, I think we’re more focused on what we hear rather than what we see, and if we hear more than see more, than maybe we can be less judgmental.’ And the woman from the museum said, ‘Hey, I have an opening at the museum in nine months. You can have the spot if you want it.’” In the world we live in today, the idea of racism is not foreign to me, but I’m still deeply disturbed and angered when I once again am told another story about someone’s racist experience. I’ve had friends spurned and spat at derogatively because of their race–whether they be black, white, Asian; racism happens to everybody–and why this still happens puzzles me. Why does this still happen? “It’s a mindset. I don’t think we’re born racist. It’s the idea that one is better than the other because of the color of their
skin or what country they come from. I think it’s something history [or] a community creates this mindset [of] that ‘I’m better than you because of the color of your skin’ and then it gets passed down through generations. I also think that the more you stay in one place and the less open you are, you’re not exposed to different things. So I think racism is perpetuated through that. If you’re not expanding your mind and yourself, then it can get passed on through generations.” While speaking to her, I found myself nodding along to Ms. Espiritu’s explanation. Each time I’ve encountered racism, whether it be towards myself or others, it roots from ignorance or a sense of superiority. And I find that this isn’t the case with just racism. All forms of discrimination, whether it’s because of social status, gender, religion, or physical appearance, are built on this belief that one person is better than the other based on these features, which is so untrue, and leads me to my next question. Why is it so important to take a stand against not only racism, but all forms of discrimination? “Because I think we’re all human beings, you know? And I think we should be treated as equals. No one is better than the other…We all shit in the same pot! We all go to the bathroom at the end of the day and we’re all humans. If we were all blind and we couldn’t see visually, then maybe we [would] be able to “see” each other as equals. Just because you have more money doesn’t mean you’re better than me. Just because you have lighter skin doesn’t mean you’re better than the other person. I think the basic rule is just to be kind to each other.” A little bit of kindness… that’s all it takes. But what else can we do to help combat racism and discrimination? “I think we need to make an effort to get to know one another. One basic thing that anybody can do is to travel. Travel to different countries and try new things and if you see somebody crossing the street that
might not be the same as you or might not look like a friendly face, smile at them. Each of us, by a simple gesture of smiling at somebody, traveling helps a lot, participating in activities that involve something outside of your tribe, just going outside of yourself. For example, sometimes I go to a place and I might feel like I’m being judged. I might be the only Filipino person there. I might be the only colored person there. I make an effort to talk to somebody and just having a conversation can change a lot. You [could] develop a conversation that might change people’s minds. I think the basic thing is to have a conversation. It’s the simplest thing we can do.” So now we know what we can do to help combat racism. What can we do to help support A Color-Coded Symphony? “To help us out, just come to the show in Berkeley or if you want to donate money, you can go to the website, colorcodedsymphony.com. Or you can just buy a ticket and the ticket will go to us. And spread the word… spread the word about ‘let’s listen more to each other regardless of the color of our skin.” A Color-Coded Symphony is November 12th at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, where you can take a step closer towards racial and cultural understanding and integration. We should all learn to open our hearts to one another, get to know one another, and accept one another, because while we may all look different, we are all the same when we close our eyes. So let us judge one another by our character and not our color. Let us learn to love one another as if we are blind and all we can “see” is what is inside.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/321929 14/a-color-coded-symphony
Being Gay at School Sucks! Chelsea and Chad Addams, Staff Whether it concerns your homelife, ethnicity, or other personal issues, every child faces challenges while going to school. However, the relentless challenges gay students face is insufferable and degrading. The multitude of challenges these students meet on a daily basis is overwhelming and absolutely painful for the student. Despite this, these problems in school are not being talked about enough in the media; no one seems to care about the issues with being a lesbian or gay teenager in high school. The main issue on the table is the fact that no one will do anything to protect a gay kid while he’s being bullied or ridiculed by people at school. A friend of mine has had multiple negative experiences at school simply because of his sexuality. He stated that he got “food thrown at him by a couple of seniors” and were judged in the halls by his peers. This type of behavior is unacceptable, yet we as a nation has still yet to do anything at all to give more rights to people that are lesbian or gay at schools of any kind. Private schools especially are known to not bat an eye when it comes to protecting people who are a part of the gay community. Private schools are legally required to protect you against discrimination for your race or gender, but are not legally bound to do anything for someone who identifies as
gay, or has parents who identify as gay. Private schools do not even have to admit someone who has LGBTQ+ parents or is LGBTQ+ themself. And even though in our country you have the freedom of religion, that does not excuse the fact that the people who run these schools pick and choose what rules in the Bible they are going to follow. The Bible is an important, powerful, and revolutionary book, but it is very outdated. Many of the practices and ideas are outdated in our society, since they were literally made hundreds of years ago. Times move on and it is about time that someone recognizes that just because it is stated in the Bible does not make it the overall rule. Public schools aren’t perfect either. Although states and the board of education legally require you to accept LGBTQ kids at school, it doesn’t make the process any easier to come out of the closet and tell people you’re gay. Most closeted kids I know suffer from more anxiety and depression than a straight kid would. According to a study by Childmind Mind Institute, gay teenagers on average are four times more likely to commit suicide than a straight kid of the same age. And with that same study, it was shown that LGBTQ+ kids are also bullied more on average because of their differences. And although there are GSA’s (Gay Straight Alliance) at most high schools that make it easier, many kids that are gay don’t go due to the risk of being outed by the club indirectly. Although the GSA is trying to protect and make the troubles that come with LGBTQ+ easier and give kids a safe environment, kids that aren’t in the GSA automatically assume that anyone in there is a gay kid who’s outcasted. Although the effort and attempt is a kind gesture of acceptance and trust, it doesn’t make anything easier. But the toxic and negative stereotypes that people face on a daily basis because of others in their community might be the hardest part of being gay. Constant ridiculing and unfairness from others is the hardest part
of being gay by far. The world does not realize that the gay stereotypes portrayed by the media are harmful and toxic to people who are trying to discover their sexuality and find themselves. You start feeling like you need to fit the mold of the “Gay Best Friend” or “Butch Lesbian”. For example, some kids choose to express their sexuality through their hair color and chosen form of expression. But the issue is that other teens don’t see it that way and call that kid a faggot or queer behind his or her back. This behavior is unacceptable. Just because they dyed their hair or do theater, or wear traditionally masculine or feminine clothing it does not make them gay or a lesbian. Selfexpression does not equal sexuality and is ridiculous that people think otherwise. This scares kids even more to go deeper into the closet since it is the only real safe space they have until they feel secure and safe enough to not hide their true selves. The taunting is disgusting and unacceptable and shouldn’t be tolerated at any point during a gay person’s lifetime. Although when people grow and mature the issues that homosexuals face can be easier to overcome but the lasting impact from being LGBTQ+ at school is unacceptable. Luckily, by surrounding yourself with open minded people, the world will feel much warmer and more open to accepting LGBTQ+ people into society.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8jCOy e7bSE
Horrifically Funny Horror Movies Calvin Wilber, Staff The spine-tingling Halloween season is right around the corner. Ghoulies and goblins will be spooking our socks off for an entire month. Many like to enjoy this season by watching good scary movies with a lot of jump scares, psychological thrills, and cosmic terror. People will turn to Insidious, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and many other genuinely terrifying movies. But personally, I enjoy a different side of horror movies: horror movies that are so bad... they’re good. Some horror movies are so awful, so irredeemably cheesy, that they become enjoyable. These movies’ awful writing, effects, and timing can be even funnier than some comedies. So here are some great bad horror movies to help you get your spook on. Friday the 13th: This first movie in the Friday the 13th series is terrible. The characters are completely obnoxious and have funny/terrible interactions, the editing switches between spooky and goofy erratically, and has completely terrible writing. On the positive side, the movie has some genuinely scary moments and a great plot twist. Overall, it is a very amusing example of how many horror movies are thoughtless low effort projects. Nightmare On Elm Street: Nightmare on Elm Street is another terrible classic. It has some of the worst effects ever. Not to spoil too much but keep your eyes peeled for the hilariously long armed version of Freddy Krueger. Besides the awful effects and awful twist ending, this movie has a genuinely interesting story that is clumsily told. This movie was also Johnny Depp’s debut role so we can thank this movie for that too. Evil Dead: Although this came out around the same time period as these other movies, Evil Dead is criminally underrated. This was director Sam Raimi’s first movie and his friend Bruce Campbell’s debut role. This movie has hilariously drawn out cheesy
massacre scenes, hilarious timing of lines and actions, and completely random writing. The one thing that could maybe be considered good is the camera, which is very creative thanks to Raimi’s beautiful vision. I highly recommend all of these movies and hope you give them a try. These films will give you an hour or two of hair-raising, hilarious entertainment. Have a spooky Halloween!
https://www.sideshow.com/blog/nine-daysof-maniacs-monsters-and-madmen-day-1freddy-krueger/
have to make everything complicated when it comes to English. We need to all rally together to fix this atrocity. Call your family, let your friends know. Heck, even tell the children about this. The spelling of this "word" is just flat-out wrong and needs to be corrected. If we need to get the government involved, we should, because they have power and humans are useless without power. If you think that this idea is stupid, let me tell you why it isn't. Firstly, English is already a hard-enough language on its own and this so called "word" makes it even harder since it's spelled differently than it's pronounced. Secondly, it dishonors the two gods it was named after because it combines the two names and the word should just be from one of them. Lastly, it's just plain wrong because the look of it is nasty. Please help me save this generation and the next from this ugly interpretation of Wednesday.
Wednesday Should Be Spelled "Wensday" Yasamine Yusufzai, Copy Editor You are about to hear one of the saddest things that has ever happened to the history of mankind. Wednesday isn’t spelled the way it’s pronounced. It's mind-boggling, right? How can a simple English word that is pronounced "Wensday" be spelled "Wednesday"? Well, let's go back to how the "word" came to be. According to Dictionary.com, the word came from the two gods, Woden and Mercury. From Middle English, the "word" is spelled Wednesdei and this spelling makes sense because it sounds how it's spelled, but some Americans decided to combine that with the Old English term Wodnesdaeg to create the disgusting spawn of Satan Wednesday. I don't know what went through these people's minds to combine these two because Wednesdei seems great enough on it's own, but apparently, we Americans just
https://www.thestateclub.org/event/two-for24-wednesday-24/
Fixing Racism Dayana Ruiz, Staff Racism has always been a problem all around the world, discriminating people of different races, color, and ethnicities, prohibiting them from living a life with comfort and hospitality. America has had a long history of racial disputes. From the time the colonists arrived to present day, we have had not too many people attempt to fix the problem, but the sad truth is that there will always be a group of people who just won't accept different cultures. Despite this, we
need to keep trying to better our society, making everyone feel welcomed to live the American dream despite our differences. Our cultural differences are what make America great. Without its diversity, we wouldn't be able to share new ideas of living and different aspects of life. But by making people feel as if they are not welcome in a society that is supposed to be open for all, it often starts to create conflicts between each race. Often times, racism can affect a person's wellbeing, making it easy for them to think that the negative things said about them are true. We all have the ability to make our own decisions and we can't just label a person and assume they are some type of way because of their ethnicity or color. When we label a person, we are not only making the rest of society feel uncomfortable around that person, but we are also making it difficult for them to live around those who think they are bad people. This makes it hard for those being affected by racism to find jobs, commute, or even feel safe in the community because they are afraid someone will confront them and scream at them just for being who they are. We won't ever be able to get rid of racism completely, but we can definitely improve our society by helping others understand that America is a place where all can find opportunity and they should feel safe and welcomed by doing so. Fixing racism can start with just one person getting up and standing up for it, comforting those affected by it, recording incidents, and reporting incidents, but you never want to put yourself in dangerous situations that can hurt somebody, as it can worsen the situation. Let’s better the world we live in by fixing racism today.
https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/14thamendment/
Halloween: At What Age Should You Stop Celebrating? Amarra Brown, Staff In the United States, Halloween, although not an observed holiday, is celebrated widely among people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, etc. However, there is still the controversial question regarding Halloween that more and more find themselves becoming curious about every time October 31st rolls around: What age is considered too old to still be celebrating Halloween? This question at first mention may seem easy enough to answer with a simple number. Still, what is this magical number exactly? Is it 18? 21? 35? 60? Depending on who you ask, the answer varies. In my opinion, the answer is NEVER!!! You’re never “too old” to celebrate something or do something you love. But as was mentioned earlier, this is a very controversial topic. Age is only one factor in determining who should still celebrate Halloween. This is mostly because of the fact that there are many aspects that go along with celebrating the particular day. For instance, some feel that there is a definite cut off age for trickor-treating which is usually done by younger children and their families. While it can also
be said that teenagers can “trick-or-treat” up to the age of 18 or basically after graduating high school, there are loopholes to this as well. Say you’re a teen that has a younger sibling who is considered still the “appropriate” age for trick-or-treating. Do you take your sibling out to fill their pillow cases, buckets, or bags full of candy and conform to the standards on age set by your peers and adults around you, thus missing out on the fun? Or do you partake in the candy receiving and use your sibling as the excuse? Decisions, decisions. Now we move on to the other maybe a little more foreign end of the age question phenomenon: Should adults still be trick-ortreating? Well, I don’t see why not. Except, there is a side of the argument against adults trick-or-treating that can be agreed upon by many. Some adults, as do some teens, take it a little too far. Drinking, vandalizing private property, stealing candy from children, etc. While this does spoil the entire theme of the day for everyone, I don’t believe a few people from a certain age group doing something inappropriate should warrant all adults being banished from celebrating. Adding to the subject of certain ages being said to be “too old” to celebrate, we must not forget there are many ways to celebrate Halloween. Yes, trick-or-treating is a big part of Halloween, but there are also the costume parties, religious events, and some who just would rather be passing out candy or snuggled up with their significant other watching the latest horror movie that’s a remake of the classic. Are these forms of celebration also forbidden once a person reaches a certain age? Like I said, controversial. My point is, Halloween is about safe, cavity inducing, sometimes impractical, FUN. Think about it, if you’re not having any fun NOT celebrating Halloween, no matter your age, then why do you do it? Why allow yourself to conform to what society says is right? It doesn’t matter if you’re 15 or 50. If celebrating Halloween is
what makes the day fun for you, then go grab your best “witch” broomstick, green face paint, raggedy old pillow case (or satin if you prefer) and wreak havoc!! In the safest way possible, of course.
https://grist.org/living/2011-10-28-trick-ortreat-why-you-should-love-the-littlemonsters-at-the-do/
K-12: A Great Movie Tess Sommer, Design Manager Melanie Martinez recently wrote a movie that was officially released on September 6th, 2019. She’s made it free and available to watch on YouTube and released her album on Spotify, iTunes, and more! I really enjoyed the movie. I’ve been a huge Melanie Martinez fan for a really long time and I’m really happy to see her put creativity in what she likes to do, which is writing new songs and writing her first movie for people to enjoy. Although, I will say that her movie is not geared towards the younger audience because there are some parts that contain nudity and there are a lot of F-Bombs in most of her songs featured in the movie, but other than that, her script was well written and the actors did an amazing job. In the movie, there was a message in one of her songs called “Orange Juice” that touched upon eating disorders. These lyrics spoke to me because one of the characters in the movie didn’t see herself worth anything, but the main character, Crybaby (Melanie
Martinez), wanted to show the girl that she was beautiful in her eyes and Crybaby wishes the girl would appreciate herself more instead of making her throw up to make herself skinnier. This song spoke to me because there are a lot of people that don’t appreciate themselves because they feel as if they aren’t worth anything or compare themselves to stars on TV. However, this movie, and this song specifically, really touch on this topic as if to say that you should appreciate who you are and don’t take yourself for granted because you may not think you are beautiful yourself, but in other people’s eyes, you are a beautiful person to them, inside and out. This message is one of the main reasons why I really like this movie. While there may have been some odd parts about it, with the swearing and the scenes of nudity, the message was very obvious to me and I really enjoyed watching it.
https://seatgeek.com/tba/music/melaniemartinez-k-12-tour-dates-tickets/