ROR R OR
FEBRUARY 14, 2014
CLASSES AND CAMO // 2 OLD SCHOOL // 3
DARTMOUTH’S HOLY TRINITY// 4 THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS// 6 REJECTION// 8
JIN SHIN // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
2// MIRROR
EDITORS’ NOTE
TRACY WANG//THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
We may or may not have been cyborgs in high school. We somehow managed to attend every meeting for each club even vaguely related to our interests, won awards for sports and woke up chipper at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. We didn’t have to sacrifice anything, because for some reason, everything was possible. It all fit snuggly into the 24-hour day, with time in between for snacks and naps. Things are different now. Dartmouth students, ourselves included, constantly battle to squeeze an hour’s worth of activities into each minute on campus. We want to get straight As, run table at every frat and then come home at 6 p.m. to watch Netflix in bed and fall asleep before the moon comes up. But Dartmouth has given our high school selves a reality check — here, everyone needs to make sacrifices. Personally, we’ve never been consistent with what to give up. We’ve let up on academics during big weekends and on the nights when our friends really needed us. We’ve spent our Saturday nights with textbooks and blankets instead of a fracket when the midterms piled too high. And we’ve certainly had our share of late nights and early mornings. Yes, we all make sacrifices to get by at Dartmouth. But we can also decide what we should prioritize. Giving things up is always difficult, but Dartmouth has taught us that it can feel good to throw caution to the wind and just choose what will make us happiest. If that means spending Friday night in a Snuggie, so be it.
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MIR ROR ERIN LANDAU MIRROR EDITORS MARINA SHKURATOV EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LINDSAY ELLIS PUBLISHER CARLA LARIN EXECUTIVE EDITORS
MICHAEL RIORDAN STEPHANIE McFEETERS
OVER HEARDS
CLASSES AND CAMO
JOSH RENAUD//THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
By CAROLINE HANSEN
I met Cady Whicker ’17, a sunny, blonde Californian, in King Arthur Flour cafe on the Saturday of Winter Carnival. We both wore infinity scarves and chatted briefly about the previous evening’s festivities. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed, at first, that Whicker spends her Dartmouth Days working hard in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, a program geared toward creating officers for the U.S. Army. Whicker grew up in Lancaster, Calif., a town completely shadowed by the Edwards Air Force base 22 miles to the Northeast. Whicker credits the base, which played a large role in developing nearly every plane to enter the Air Force Inventory since World War II, for piquing her interest in Dartmouth, which includes both a strong ROTC program and a diverse and accomplished student body. Whicker said her involvement in ROTC has been essential to her Dartmouth experience. Not only does the program bring her closer to achieving her dreams of becoming a future Army surgeon, it also provides her with the camaraderie of fellow cadets, she said. “It’s awesome to see a group with so many specific goals and ambitions get together in the context of the Army,” Whicker said. The program’s physical component includes rigorous physical training every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Whicker said. During these workout sessions, cadets work on their upper body, lower body, cardiovascular fitness and, according to Whicker, a tremendous amount of ab training. Chris Aguemon ’17, a member of the football team, must balance countless hours of football with spending time with cadets. This give-and-take relationship is surprisingly manageable thanks to open communication between both groups’ leaders, he said. Aguemon said he first discovered ROTC through friends involved in similar programs at Clemson University and Syracuse University. These friends told Aguemon about the ROTC program’s opportunities throughout his time in high school, allowing him to speak with officers who had completed the program at other schools. Aguemon said he was also inspired to join the program by his father, who served in the army for a number of years. In addition to workouts that I couldn’t accomplish in my dreams — like ab circles and
’16 Girl: If you ever want to hide your sexuality from your grandmother, I’m looking for a nice Jewish boy to marry.
Blitz overheards to mirror@ thedartmouth. com.
laps alternated with push-ups — cadets must take part in weekly classes. Freshman cadets are required to attend hour long classes, sophomores two-hour classes, and juniors and seniors three-hour classes. Classes revolve more around discussions than lectures, and focus on learning army characteristics, land navigation details and leadership strategies. Jonathan Marinelli ’16, another ROTC student, said that class is his favorite aspect of the program because it builds skills that can be applied outside the classroom. “It’s definitely refreshing to go from a class where you’re ... writing a five-page research paper to one where you’re learning to read maps,” he said. On Friday afternoons, cadets leave Hanover and apply the material they learned in the classroom to real-life settings, affectionately referred to by cadets as “lab” time. Examples include going to the gun range and shooting or taking to the woods to practice land navigation skills learned in class. Aguemon said he particularly enjoyed a lab during which the group went on a fake mission to the football stadium, treating the field as a battleground. Leaders told the cadets to “lay low” and “do 360s,” and Aguemon said he appreciated the opportunity to view his home turf in a different context. Getting outside and having to live out the things they had only read and discussed was surprisingly difficult and confusing at first, Aguemon said, but was both educational and rewarding once the cadets were used to applying their skills. Between cadets’ junior and senior years, they participate in a 29-day leadership development and assessment course in Fort Knox, Ky. Upon passing, cadets become officers. The size of the College’s program, which is composed of only 17 students, ensures that cadets have a personalized ROTC education. The small class makes it easier for cadets to ask specific questions and engage on a personal level with the material, Whicker said. For instance, she said they have had the opportunity to interact closely with retired General Carter Ham, the former head of U.S. forces in Africa, who visited the College to provide advice and personal stories. Many cadets cited walking around campus in the ROTC’s camouflage uniform as the group’s most unifying feature.
’16 Girl: I blacked out at AD, and I blacked in lying on the floor of a second floor Collis study room next to four mozz sticks.
Gov Prof: I had an x-hour once and I hated it. There wasn’t disco music playing.
Whicker said that though wearing the uniform around campus elicits stares, she is open to people asking questions about the program. People are often surprised to hear that Whicker is in ROTC, she said, and she enjoys answering questions about what it means to be both a student and a cadet. Aguemon agreed, saying that the uniform gives him pride and support, and makes him realize how thankful people are for his choice to serve the country. Captain Gregory Wortman, a visiting assistant professor of military science at Norwich University who will be teaching at the College for the next year and a half, said the Dartmouth community is supportive of ROTC. He emphasized the importance of leadership training over any particular skill or tactic learned through the program. “We’re not as much concerned with what [cadets] know, but how they go about thinking in the field,” he said. For future officers who will command 30 or more people and handle millions of dollars of equipment, having confidence, common sense and applicable, universal skills is invaluable when in the Army. “You say you want to go to Maryland, and you get sent to Germany,” Wortman, who has been deployed to Yusufiyah, Iraq, Kuwait and Fort Meade, Md., said. While all cadets will eventually become officers if they successfully complete the program, the leadership skills learned in ROTC also translate to other occupations both within and outside the Army. Wortman said the media perpetuates the misconception that everyone who enters the Army is fighting on the battlefield. After serving as an infantry officer, Wortman became a communications officer by his third deployment, during which he helped organize and manage battlefield technology. “Many people don’t see the huge project management behind the army besides war fighting,” he said. For the students studying this ROTC management process and the technical skills that underlie it, Dartmouth offers a unique opportunity. It brings together a close-knit community of aspiring officers who learn and apply it all together, be it in a seminar room or on the football field. ’14 Girl: Are vegans even real? I mean, when was the last time you met one?
’15 Guy at the Princeton hockey game: You guys are number two in undergraduate teaching.
Geography Prof: Helvetica dominates the world.
MIRROR //3
TRENDING @ Dartmouth POLAR VORTEX #2 B@B
We really came together this week, taking a stand against sexual violence.
OLD SCHOOL By LUKE McCANN Time and experience, however unnoticed they may be, are perhaps the most integral aspects of Dartmouth’s culture and image. We’re older than the U.S. itself, and our 1769 date of establishment is proudly emblazoned across a myriad of surfaces around campus. We’re a college that’s doused in tradition, and we’re proud of it. As a student, it’s nice to think that each of us will leave an individual and lasting effect on the College while here. Four years, however, is a small snapshot in the long and continuing histor y of Dartmouth. There were thousands of students before us, and there will be thousands more after, but is the Dartmouth that previous generations experienced the same one that we live in now? Older generations seem to find satisfaction in preaching to us younger folk about the personal struggles they had to endure to succeed. We’ve all heard the same stories of more reading and more corporal, less forgiving professors. Par ticularly confusing and horrifying are the tales of completing assignments in a pre-Google era, where people had to do research using books. Real life, actual books. I shudder at the thought. Chemistr y professor John Winn addressed the rumor that we have it easier these days, saying that current students are far better prepared to enter college than their predecessors. Students at Dartmouth, he said, have always been academically talented and driven. In fact, Winn, who has been teaching at the College since 1982, praised recent students for their increased levels of interest in taking graduate-level courses and doing independent projects and research. “I have seen a higher level of preparation among current students than those 30 years ago,” he said. “Many students nowadays are even more capable of advanced study, research and publication
than they used to be.” Geography professor Jennifer Fluri, who has taught in the department for nearly a decade, said she has added projects to reflect shifting interests toward experiential and community-based, hands-on learning. “I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of intellectuality or any less academic than it used to be,” she said. “More than anything, I’ve noticed a change in the ways that students want to learn. But not that they want to stop learning.” Fluri said she now incorporates projects into her qualitative research class that involve students going into the Upper Valley to conduct inter views and personally collect data. This move outside the traditional classroom reflects students’ increased involvement and interest in extracurricular activities. Instead of focusing on homework after attending classes, students now spend their precious daylight hours participating in a wide variety of extracurriculars not offered during earlier periods in College histor y. Winn said that professors are aware that students today often have countless obligations outside the classroom, with some spending most days wrapped up in activities unrelated to academics. Though an increased emphasis on extracurriculars reflects greater student engagement, it can also have negative consequences. “When we have famous speakers, the events are always packed,” Fluri said. “Sometimes, though, when we invite a public intellectual or a guest speaker, there are definitely less students than there used to be.” Fluri was quick to mention that this does not necessarily indicate a lack of intellectuality. On the contrar y, she said she believes many students are simply too busy with other activities to attend optional lectures and events. Though students’ increasingly packed schedules may seem like
Courtesy of Rauner Special Collections Library
an attempt at beefing up a resume, this isn’t the way economics and public policy professor Charles Wheelan, who has worked at the College for seven summers and two full years, perceives the trend. “From what I’ve seen, the increasing attention to extracurriculars from students comes from genuine interest,” he said. “It’s not the same high school attitude of becoming the vice president of the French club to put on your application.” Growing attention toward extracurriculars, however, isn’t the only change these professors have noticed in students. Grade inflation at the College is frequently discussed in hushed tones and in the privacy of teachers’ lounges, but it has come to national attention as the result of growing competition in the job market. With this trend comes a growing student obsession with receiving an “A” in ever y class. Last year, a common practical joke featured a website called “What would my Har vard grade be?” that featured only a giant red “A” in the center of the page. Fluri said she has resorted to creating a formal system for student grade complaints because of how often students feel the need to confront their professors about grades. “Another faculty member in the department has this joke that giving a student a B is a declaration of war,” she said. “I don’t necessarily agree with that completely, but it certainly feels like that sometimes.” As a member of the chemistr y department, Winn sees many premed students pass through his classrooms. The pressure medical school puts on students, he said, can be rather frightening. Today’s students feel pressured to receive perfect grades in order to get into medical school or do well in the professional sphere. “One day, when Western civilization collapses into a big heap,
we will be able to trace it back to the MCAT exams,” he said. Winn, along with other members of the chemistr y department, has been plotting GPA medians for both his department and the College since he first came to Dartmouth. If the current trend continues, he said, the average grade point average will be 4.0 by 2040. This growing grade obsession among students connects to anxieties about professional futures. Wheelan, a member of the graduating Class of 1988, said this change is evident in students’ increased and earlier attention to corporate recruiting. “Corporate recruiting is creeping earlier and earlier into the Dartmouth cycle,” he said. “For us, it was a crazy time, but it was almost only senior year, and even then senior winter and on.” He said he now sees sophomores who are interested in corporate recruiting, and that the old adage that sophomore and junior summers were a last chance for fun and adventure has started to disappear. Wheelan said his wife, another member of the Class of 1988, biked from Mexico to Canada over her junior summer. Many juniors now spend these summers at internships to secure a job after graduation. While the old traditions have not yet failed, it’s obvious that Dar tmouth’s academic culture has changed in many ways. Even in the last decade, professors have noticed obvious shifts in student culture and attitudes. It’s important to remember, though, that these evolutions aren’t always negative. While we may be more interested in our extracurricular activities and our blossoming futures, students now aren’t necessarily less academic. And I certainly look for ward to telling the younger generations about my struggles of walking a mile in the snow, uphill both ways, just to find a working GreenPrint station.
VALENTINE’S DAY
Whether you’re single and ready to mingle, looking to take your hook-up to the next level or comfortable in a committed relationship, there will be plenty of love to be found this V-Day.
RECOVERING FROM WINTER CARNIVAL
Regardless if you spent the weekend pretending to be Daenerys Targaryen or pulling a human bobsled, you’re probably spending a lot of time this week curled up in bed.
DARTMOUTH OLYMPIANS
In case you missed it, Hannah Kearney ’15 and Sophie Caldwell ’12 are killing it at the Olympics. While the rest of America struggles to medal, these Dartmouth ladies are exceeding expectations.
COURSE SELECTION
Spring is looking pretty far away right now. To tide us over, we’re signing up for Intro to Astro and pretending it’s sophomore summer.
V-MONTH
4// MIRROR
Dartmouth’s Holy Academics & Extracurriculars By Victoria Nelsen As we gear up for week seven of the term, the days of pretending we couldn’t care less about academics are far behind us. With second-round midterms and final projects already on the horizon, let’s not act like it’s easy to find a place to sit on third floor Berry. Everyone loves sleep, and sure, U.S. News and World Report did proclaim Dartmouth one of the nation’s frattiest colleges. But let’s get real. Academics and extracurricular activities are important to (almost) everyone on this campus, and they will always be a priority. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we pay $60,000 a year to attend one of the nation’s top universities. To learn. To study. To graduate. And no matter how hard you see someone raging on Friday night, you will likely find that same person in the 1902 Room on Sunday at 3 a.m. There’s always a trade-off, but academics will rarely be the odd one out. And why should they be? With Dartmouth’s limitless opportunities, both through academics and extracurricular activities, there is a never-ending supply of chances to learn. With Tucker programs, the Dickey Center, study abroad
opportunities and countless trips and activities through other clubs, Dartmouth gives its students the chance to explore what the world has to offer. Why waste that by choosing sleep and partying over school? As a freshman, I have spent a lot of time over the past two terms trying to find my place on campus, and I am constantly exploring new communities from the Dartmouth Outing Club to the ultimate frisbee team. Each group offers a totally different type of community and new people to befriend. Not one meeting has been unwelcoming. The search to find my place would be far more difficult if I did not conduct it with the help of extracurricular activities and the people they have introduced me to. For those students who choose to pursue athletics on campus, sports are a tremendous commitment that serve as a natural extension of academics and extracurricular activities. The athletes I know are far more organized when it comes to work and time management. Furthermore, needing to maintain a certain GPA while excelling in their sport ensures that athletes, especially when inseason, will be the first to drop
partying in favor of academics and getting enough sleep to perform well. But if you’re not in a sport, who really needs sleep? I had friends in high school who would stop working at midnight if they hadn’t finished their assignments, but here, that’s really not an option. It’s pretty common to hear, “You can sleep when you’re dead” or “Sleep is for the weak,” and I adopt these words as my mantra when I hear the library’s closing announcements at 1:45 a.m. My Day 14 blitz from Dartmouth on Purpose’s 21-Day Challenge told me that “jet lag, late nights and subsequent napping can disrupt gene expression, which controls bodily functions like metabolism, inflammation, stress and immune response.” I was nervous for a hot sec, but then I realized that if you eliminate “subsequent napping,” you will probably be okay. Plus, it’s winter. We only have like four hours of daylight anyway, so why waste these precious moments with a nap? Even if all these health warnings about lack of sleep are true (unlikely), then we should probably ignore them, just like we ignore any health implications of drinking and tanning. People are
Dartmouth Students Weigh In: The Mirror surveyed 402 Dartmouth students to find out what we would give up (and what we actually give up) when it comes to sleeping, partying or academics/extracurricular activities. We polled 102 members of the Class of 2017, 99 members of the Class of 2016, 105 members of the Class of 2015 and 96 members of the Class of 2014. 242 of the respondents were self-identifying females, and 160 were self-identifying males. The results speak for themselves — as much as Dartmouth students may want to give up partying for higher pleasures, we just can’t seem to resist the allure of the College’s tempting social scene.
constantly preaching about living in the moment, but that’s sort of a struggle if you’re too worried about future health problems. It’s also a struggle if you’re sleeping. On the other hand, partying is fun, and there is a reason that the library is basically empty every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night. But we’re at Dartmouth for a total of 12 terms, which is almost 120 weekends and, counting Wednesdays, 360 nights spent in frat basements. That is almost an entire year of inhaling toxic fumes, trying not to let the frat juice soak through your shoes, waiting to get on table or trying to avoid that guy from your math class at dance parties. When looking back on our Dartmouth days, will we be proud if our best times were moments we can’t even remember? Personally, I’d rather spend my time in a mountaintop tent or in a compelling classroom discussion. I’ve been at Dartmouth for less than two terms, but my most meaningful times have been spent coming across new interests in a class or discovering myself through activities. These things define our futures and our times at Dartmouth, and we should never give them up, despite being tempted by frat basements and our pile of pillows.
Social Life By Jake Bayer Social life at Dartmouth comes in many forms, but the first thing it makes me think of is our prevailing social standard of “hanging out.” Dar tmouth is inherently intertwined with students’s social lives, offering a stereotypical college experience. We care about this image so much that we’ve retained the “college” in our name despite the potential prestige associated with a “university” title. Dar tmouth is unquestionably isolated, geographically and intellectually, from the majority of the U.S. Historically, this has kept our social bubble limited to the few thousand people that make up the good old College on the Hill. Though hanging out may be on the decline, I believe there is a good case to be made for why we need to keep partying. Sleep is just sleep. Sure, you’re supposed to get eight hours each day. But in reality, we only have so much time in Hanover — we have a unique, limited-time chance to socialize with intelligent,
driven and multi-di al people. The op to talk to and get students whose int and interests have them to our Ivy haven only comes lifetime. While the process here at D can be replicate school, medical s anywhere else, ou social experienc exist anywhere be bubble. The opportunit out at all hours fo ever y reason ena Dartmouth stude plore different lifes friendships. The p meet while in a basement range complished entre to published scho diversity of minds riences naturally le to quality convers Of course, it w wrong to say th conversation in a b revolves around t curing cancer. In could probably sa posite. Dar tmout be the only scho alumni come back t to drink brothers u
What Students Say They Would Give Up ... And What They Actually Do
MIRROR //5
Trinity... Pick Your Poisons
e & Partying
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table and then return to their six-figure jobs hungover. The number of readers who could probably name an alum who did something along these lines would surprise most non-Dartmouth people. Dar tmouth alumni are Ivy League powerhouses when it comes to donating to their alma mater. The bonds that socializing creates between Dartmouth students are so strong that ever y big weekend, alumni flock back in droves, not necessarily to the basement, but always to see old friends. The real question is, what can the other options really offer you? Sleep is for the weak — most of you are done growing, and we’re all full of youth. Planning ahead of time can reasonably keep your sleep safe without sacrificing the social scene. And to those of you who sacrifice ever ything at the altar of academics, I hope you’ll take a few of my words to heart. Dar tmouth proudly presents itself as a liberal ar ts college that creates a closely-knit and diverse community. Sleep isn’t a
Rest & Relaxation communal activity, and doing schoolwork is increasingly becoming a solitar y exercise as we spend more and more time hiding on four th floor Ber r y. The ties between Dar tmouth students fray as they spend more of their time sleeping and working and less time just hanging out together. Reser ving specific time and effort to be social ensures a college experience that is as memorable and impactful as a liberal arts education promises. For many of us, our personality and our understanding of the world comes from our interactions with other people — interactions that occur both inside and outside of the classroom. Meaningful friendships are the most important takeaway from college. Even the smartest kids need days off, and at Dartmouth, we are afforded the opportunity to party alongside the best and brightest. Relieving stress with friends is a necessar y part of the college experience. Without it, Dartmouth would lose a small but crucial part of its distinct character.
By Mary Liza Hartong As I write this, I am snuggled beneath no fewer than seven blankets, four pillows and a fuzzy woolen garment that I fondly refer to as my sleeping cap. I’ve just woken up from a typical night’s sleep — nine hours of sheep-counting, pillowdrooling, dream-laden bliss. Yes, I did say nine. Go ahead and curse me, you miserable six-hour-getters, you midnight coffee drinkers, you 1902 Roomers. Ask me why. Ask me how. Ask me what the hell my major is. I can see the jealousy seeping out of your tired, tired pores. But here’s the thing, my baggy-eyed brethren. To live the way I do, you have to throw caution and just about ever y other priority to the wind. You have to face your fears, more specifically FOMO, the fear of missing out. And as you tuck yourself in and drown out the merr y voices of your hall mates, roommates and lovers, you must believe with all your heart that you’re doing the right thing. The obvious argument for making sleep your one and only is the sheer happiness it brings. I think we can all agree that wrenching your body from the sheets is quite possibly the
What Women Find Themselves Giving Up
worst part of the day. Fluffing the pillows and re-stacking the blankets often brings tears to my eyes. I feel like a soldier heading off to war, and my bed the significant other I’m leaving behind. All day, I long for our loving reunion. When it comes, it is so, so satisfying. You know that expression, “He woke up on the wrong side of the bed”? Nobody wants to be that guy, the one who yells at someone for putting mustard instead of ketchup on his hot dog because he’s tired and cranky. It turns out waking up on the right side of the bed and being a functional human being sometimes means simply making yourself get into bed in the first place. Going to bed early may make you feel like a little kid, but this childish curfew comes with a childish freedom to forget ever ything you need to do. All of the thoughts, fears and expectations that permeate your day are put to rest. Let’s face it, guys. We need a snooze button. With so many people piling on extracurriculars like sandwich toppings, the pressure to do it all and make it look easy is enormous. Why do we feel like by getting sleep we’re not tr ying hard enough? I know that when I tell someone how much I sleep, I
immediately get one of those, “You’re one of them” eyerolls accompanied by something like, “So what do you do on the weekends? Play Twister?” or “That’s so cool that you don’t worr y about grades.” In response, I usually make a joke about my English major and shrug my shoulders. I don’t doubt my lifestyle for a minute, and I certainly don’t see these people as better than me. Why? Because they’re not. Getting nine hours of sleep doesn’t just happen. It means planning ahead, staying focused and having the maturity to know when to stop working. Sure, there are hoards of scientific studies extolling the benefits of sleep on the body and the brain. Parents and teachers alike will give you the same spiel, usually punctuated with the slogan, “You’re a growing girl/boy!” Maybe that’s the reason so few people our age take the advice seriously. “Sleep? Pshaw! I’d rather ride my skateboard down to the juice bar and chill with my homies,” you may be thinking. But take it from me, a youngster with the sleeping pattern of an 84-year-old woman. You’ve already made it to Dartmouth. Don’t you think you deser ve some rest?
What Men Find Themselves Giving Up
VICTORIA NELSEN // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
6// MIRROR
Through the Looking Glass
HERE AND QUEER B y ANDREW McKEE Ever y Dar tmouth student probably remembers the day they arrived on campus as a wide-eyed freshman. For me, however, the day I flew up to Dar tmouth for Dar tmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips was also the day I came out of the closet as gay. In addition to feeling the ubiquitous first-year sentiments of anxiety, pride and anticipation, I dreaded the possible repercussions of my recent revelation. Would my sexuality define me in other students’ eyes? Would people treat me differently now that I was out? Would Dartmouth be more accepting of gay people than Texas, the place that I had always called home but had been so eager to leave? Even though I had a great time on my trip, I was too scared to talk about my sexuality with my tripees for fear that it would change their perceptions of me. Flash forward two years, five months and six days. I’m now a jaded junior who is much more intimately acquainted with both Dartmouth and myself. I’m no longer worried about whether my sexuality is the first thing people notice about me. In fact, I hope people notice. Though my sexuality does not encompass my whole identity, there is no aspect of my life that is not affected by it. Why, then, should I hide? Before I proceed any further, I think it’s important that I qualify the terms that I intend to use. First, I use the word “queer” to refer to identities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans that do not conform to “conventional” sexualities and/or genders. Gender is all of the traits, actions and expressions of identity that have been traditionally tied to biological sex (masculinity and femininity). Contrary to the popular conception of gender and sexuality as binaries of male-female and straight-gay, respectively, I see them as spectr ums without poles. I argue that no person can be purely straight or gay, masculine or feminine. What’s more, I subscribe to the idea of the performativity of gender pioneered by Judith Butler, who proposed that gender is a performance whose imitation precedes its existence. This means that rather than being concrete, gender is a constant process of emulation with no original. Someone who fits into the mold of the gender that is associated with their sex is called cisgender, while those who identify with the gender linked to the opposite sex are transgen-
der. Homophobia is the latent or expressed fear of queer people, while heterosexism is the preference for heterosexual identities, acts or expressions over others. Now that we’ve had a (very) brief introduction to queer theory, let’s put it to use. What could the performativity of gender and the fluidity of sexuality possibly have to do with the average straight cisgender Dartmouth student? A lot, actually. Homophobia is going out of style as more and more people are coming out all across campus. In fact, it’s becoming socially acceptable and even sometimes expected to be tolerant of gay (if not queer) people. But what forms the difference between basic tolerance and true allyship? Being an ally to any oppressed group or minority is not a certificate or status that one simply receives after doing a certain number of good deeds. It is a constant process that requires one to acknowledge one’s privilege, listen to others’ stories and needs and make space for others rather than taking it up. Just saying that you’re not homophobic or heteronormative doesn’t make you an ally. Actions speak louder than words. I’m always shocked but pleased to see a straight friend or acquaintance wearing a Dartmouth Pride or DartmOUTh T-shirt. It takes a great deal of courage to publicly associate oneself with the queer community in an often homophobic and heteronormative society. But what if allies went even fur ther? What if straight allies, in order to acknowledge that sexuality and gender are spectrums whose ends are unattainable, identified as queer themselves? Chaos, some might say. Absurdity even. How terrifying, to have to discover people’s identities on an individual basis rather than being able to assume they’re straight until proven gay. In such a world, homosexual and heterosexual would just be adjectives describing actions, not identities. I don’t expect to see such a world anytime soon, of course — why would people who can comfortably fit into the majority give up their privilege to identify with an oppressed minority? I’ve heard that in the “old days” at Dartmouth, all the queer students knew and protected one another against a hostile and homophobic environment. As more people started to come out and be accepted by their straight peers, however, queer people (or at least cisgender gays) began
Courtesy of Singer Horse Capture
Courtesy of Andrew McKee
While Dartmouth has certainly made important strides toward embracing queer students and identities, Andrew McKee ’15 encourages people to go even further and to emphasize building stronger communities. to find other supportive sources of community. The Dartmouth that I have come to know is one where gay students may be found even in traditional bastions of heterosexuality and “normal”-cy (sports teams, other single-sex institutions, et cetera). There is no longer an urgency to form community based on a unifying queer identity. In fact, there is a palpable lack of queer community at Dartmouth. Many people feel this absence, but few seem to be ready to commit to building such a community. Last fall, when I started Dartmouth Spectra, a social group for queer and allied students, I felt this absence most sharply. The effort it has taken to work toward a strong sense of community has made Dartmouth’s current lack thereof glaringly apparent. Some might argue that if there is no expressed desire for community between queer students,
then there is no point in trying to make it happen. I think, however, that many queer students across campus wish they were part of a stronger community, but refrain from associating themselves with anything explicitly queer because they either prioritize other commitments and communities or don’t want to associate themselves with their sexuality. They don’t want to be “that gay kid.” They want to be that bro who doesn’t mess with the status quo except when doing things with other bros in the privacy of their rooms. Since my first nerve-wracking day at Dartmouth, I have found numerous sources of community that love me for who I am and keep me going when times get rough. I have come to feel safe and comfortable coming out to just about anyone. But does that mean that Dartmouth is some kind of queer paradise? That it’s easy coming out
and feeling accepted here? No. So I end with a call to Dartmouth. To the straight cisgender Dartmouth student — realize how your identity predisposes you to be accepted as a “typical” Dartmouth student. Be conscious of how you can strive to be a better ally. To the out cisgender gay Dartmouth student — don’t be afraid of your identity. Embrace it. Coming out is a lifelong process. But also, check your cisgender privilege, and don’t project your stories onto the whole queer community. To the closeted Dartmouth student — know that you are not alone. In fact, there are a lot of you. If and when you decide to come out, you will be in good company. To all other queer Dartmouth students — hang in there. This place wasn’t designed with people like us in mind, but little by little, we’re changing it. We’re here, and we’re queer. Don’t forget it.
MIRROR //7
COLUMN
WHAT HAVE WE DONE? IN CASE By SEANIE CIVALE and AMANDA SMITH YOU WERE WONDERING
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KATIE SINCLAIR
Like many of our peers, we keep a mental list of all of the big things we need to accomplish at Dartmouth and beyond. Due to this ambitious mental life list, we often think of ourselves as being destined for greatness. College graduation used to seem like a respectable deadline, so one of the strangest things about senior winter has been coming to terms with how far we are from our lofty goals. Amanda: I have a fondness for making excuses. Usually they sound something like, “I’m sorr y I did not do X, for you see, I was napping.” But my friends were not willing to let my excuses prevent me from completing the polar bear plunge, and I promised myself that I would do it. I really thought I would, too. I’ve spent the past three winters convincing myself that as a senior, I would do anything and ever ything I could to make my Dartmouth experience as enriched and complete as possible. I was wrong. As the date of the plunge drew nearer, my list of excuses grew longer. This is the final, convincing case I made to my friends: 1. I hate water. Temperature aside, I simply hate water. 2. I despise swimming. This is not because I don’t know how. I used to swim competitively but burned out at age 12 and never really got over it. 3. I am sick. This is true. I swear. 4. I have to run errands. I actually only had to turn in my earth sciences homework to my professor’s inbox by 5 p.m., but I did not disclose this detail to my friends. 5. I no longer want to. Maybe this makes me the worst Dartmouth student ever. I hope it doesn’t. I think my friends stopped listening and/or taking me seriously after, “I hate water,” but they let it go. I turned in my homework on time, they got a new prof pic/cover photo/Instagram out of the polar adventure, and we all checked something off our senior year bucket lists. For most, it was to do the swim. For me, it was simply to avoid it. Seanie: One of the few type-A qualities I possess is my fondness for making a good list. There are countless saved in my Stickies from the past few years — a lengthy one from junior fall is poignantly
titled “List of things that must be finished instantly or else your academic life will crumble into a pit of doom and be lost forever.” Making lists allows me to feel that I am being vigilant and systematic. So at the dawn of Winter Carnival, I made a list. I mainly hoped for a more memorable carnival than that of 2011, from which I only remember inexplicably eating a lot of Pringles and doing the Polar Bear Swim on Sunday to redeem the other wise unremarkable weekend. Here is my list, made last Thursday and annotated for you now: - Do the Polar Bear Swim (Done.) - Shower in the Choates after the Polar Bear Swim (This was a throwback to freshman year, when we thought getting back to the River might kill us, so we showered in the Choates instead. I hope that the ’17s of Bissell 1 enjoyed the rendition of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” coming from the men’s bathroom at 1 p.m. last Friday.) - Be pulled in the dog sled race. (Completed without success. I specified that my position needed to be inside the sled, but the team did not listen and forced me to be a puller — not my mistake.) - Occom Pond Party. (An opportunity eclipsed by eating a bagel in bed.) - Go skiing. (I don’t have ski pants and don’t want to be the next person to blitz out for them. Will someone lend me ski pants?) - Throw surprise birthday party for my roommate. (My room is now infested with black ants from the cake smashed into the carpet. So far I have conducted several ant massacres with the vacuum. The ants prevail.) - Get a job. (Okay.) And so our great big mental life list remains jumbled, wild and unfinished. We look at the things we set out to do and feel disheartened. Then, we see all our unplanned accomplishments and feel a little bit better. At the end of the day, maybe all the little things we’ve done right or wrong along the way are just cogs in this wheel rolling toward something huge and transformative and self-actualizing. Or maybe they just are what they are. Yours in bullet points, Lucy & Ethel
In case you were wondering, Feb. 13-15 used to mark the Roman feast of Lupercalia, during which two young Roman men would sacrifice a dog and two goats, dress in goatskin and run around the city whacking people with bloody strips of skin from the aforementioned goats. If you happened to get hit by a bloody goatskin strip, you would avoid infertility and pain in childbirth. While Lupercalia seems like a pretty great festival, we have since moved on to St. Valentine’s Day, which commemorates the martyrdom of St. Valentine, who was thrown to the lions for marrying Christians. In the made-for-TV movie we used to watch in a stuffy Sunday school classroom, St. Valentine was shown restoring vision to some blind girl. Before being eaten by lions, he gave her a paper heart, signed with “Your Valentine.” I strongly suspect the made-for-TV movie was not historically accurate. Sometime after St. Valentine but before the invention of mass-produced Hallmark cards, Chaucer wrote a poem stating that birds found their mates on Valentine’s Day. This is problematic, because February is still winter in England, and it’s not prime mating season for birds. Yet somehow, by the early modern period, Feb. 14 had gained vague connotations of having something or other to do with love. And by the 19th century, before Hallmark even came onto the scene, there was a thriving industry in Valentine’s Day stationery. But we are not birds, nor do most of us use stationery, so we have to celebrate Valentine’s Day in our own way. Might I suggest Valentine’s Day pong? It is a thing I just made up, where the cups are arranged in a heart and filled with pink Andre. And there’s always the tried and true “hide in the library all day studying for a midterm” method, though that’s not super likely because this year’s V-Day falls on a Friday. There will be dates at Canoe Club and Pine. There will also be dates in FoCo for those in less committed relationships. There will be guys who forget about it entirely and girls pretending they don’t mind. People like to go on and on about how “no one dates at Dartmouth,” which for the most part seems true. People are either “casually seeing each other” (a.k.a. hooking up) or have been devoted to each other since sophomore summer.
Some people always seem to have a significant other, while others still pine after that chick they asked to formal once. We could blame the D-Plan, or the undateableness of the late adolescent American male. We could blame the fact that no one has any free time due to pledge term, labs or corporate recruiting. We could blame the hookup culture, though studies show that it is a made-up entity that exists mostly in the minds of undergraduates and New York Times trend piece writers. Or we could stop assigning blame. There’s no rule that says you have to have a significant other in college. There’s no requirement to bring someone you are moderately attracted to to formal. One of the great things about the fact that “no one dates at Dartmouth” is that no one dates at Dartmouth. Being in a relationship is by no means a reflection of your self-worth. A lot of awesome people are single. And many are in relationships, though they tend to be slightly less awesome because they have boyfriends and girlfriends to distract them from drinking wine and watching Netflix with you. Very few people are actually contemplating getting a “ring by spring,” no matter what those people you sort of vaguely remember from middle school are posting on Facebook about getting engaged at SSU (Stereotypical Southern University). Of course, a lot of people are single and would really like a Valentine’s Day buddy or have had a crush on one person forever but can’t reveal their unrequited love. I feel you, unhappy single folk. I haven’t been that successful navigating the Dartmouth love scene either — I’m more of a Brienne of Tarth than a Margaery Tyrell. But what would we talk about if everyone was in happy, boring relationships? What would we do with all that time we could no longer spend agonizing over text messages or asking someone to semi? Being single when you don’t want to be can suck, but it also means you’re free to do the things that you want to do, regardless of what anyone else thinks. Go shamelessly flirt with that cute guy from your computer science class. Wear PJs to a frat. Abstain from nightlife and watch all nine seasons of “Scrubs.” So, single Dartmouth students, let’s all get off Friendsy and watch some violent, epic movie where no one falls in love. Romantic comedies are overrated. My parents also sent me Valentine’s Day candy, so feel free to hit me up.
8 // MIRROR
REJECT E D D E T C R EJE
R EJEC T By LAUREN HUFF Growing up in a town sardonically called “Swellesley, Mass.,” I never had much exposure to rejection. As a kid playing sports, I made ever y team, played ever y game and won ever y trophy. My hockey league’s “A” and “B” teams were inevitably renamed to teams “A1” and “A2.” Ever y year, each member walked away with a congratulator y certificate. Blissfully ignorant of the harsh realities that soccer involved running and that I was an atrocious athlete, I continued to play happily among those who were actually good at sports. Then middle school rolled around, and life became focused on belonging. Amid cliques and clubs and fate-sealing boy-girl parties, some semblance of rejection slowly began to seep into our lives. It per vaded the social scene — hopeful boys were constantly turned down at slow dances with aver ted eyes and tur ned cheeks. So-called “friends” were regularly ditched in stores at the mall and exiled from social circles on a weekly basis. At the time, it seemed like a big deal. We treated bat mitzvahs like VIP parties — I still remember how embarrassed I was admitting I didn’t get one invite that all my friends had received. In high school, the rejection became academic. Students were separated by aptitude and standardized tests suddenly became relevant. Academic societies and school groups were selective when choosing members. Nearly ever ything was a means to an end — attending a college as prestigious as possible. I rarely ever heard others say they were satisfied with their SAT scores and knew ver y few people who took the test only once.
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The college admissions process marks many people’s first encounter with significant rejection. Students spend dozens of hours crafting applications they hope will meaningfully represent them. They are forced to fit into a certain set of guidelines, dictated by the requirements of the applications. Then, they are judged in an instant by someone who knows nothing about them. Applicants gauge their selfworth by admissions officers’ snap judgments and are then devastated by the frequent rejection that is a product of college exclusivity. In this culmination of adolescence,
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competitive. Whether you didn’t make it into an a cappella group or were turned down by a prospective DFMO partner last weekend, I can almost surely say that, as a student at this school, you have experienced rejection. So why do we see rejection as such a bad thing? Failure and not living up to our own expectations are parts of life, and we must learn to deal with them instead of fearing their existence. At Commencement in 2011,
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dreams hinge entirely on the decisions of others. This lack of agency seems to be what makes rejection so terrifying. We are often sheltered from rejection at a young age, and the failures that we do experience are hardly life-altering. As we grow older, we are slowly held accountable for our actions and decisions. When they aren’t accepted, we feel personally criticized. Vulnerability, I believe, is therefore an inherent part of rejection. College admissions is only an introduction into a world fraught with rejection and ostracism. Here at Dartmouth, students are constantly denied membership by clubs and societies, Greek houses and potential employers. Student groups and clubs often have multiple selection rounds, and the processes are always highly
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Conan O’Brien said that rejection and disappointment can help us grow and change for the better. He enlightened students about his own experiences with rejection, emphasizing the liberation he felt upon having his worst fears realized. “It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique,”
of my family members graduated from or attend the College. I felt ostracized by a place that had been home for as long as I could remember. I felt like a failure for not being able to carr y on my family’s unspoken tradition, and, most of all, I was angr y that I hadn’t lived up to my own ultra-concrete goals. I had wanted Dartmouth and only Dartmouth for years, so much so that it caused me to break down in front of my dad two days before all my other applications were due because “there was nowhere else I would be happy.” Although in the end I did choose to come here, this experience, which I initially viewed as not only a setback but a total failure, ended up being an opportunity. It forced me to fall in love with other colleges, proving to myself that happiness doesn’t lie in the completion of specific goals, but rather, what you make of your experience. It showed me that Dar tmouth wasn’t guaranteed, thus completely transforming my experience once I got here. We all have a choice. We can view rejection as a setback or view it as an opportunity. I urge ever yone to choose the latter and field rejection with an open mind. It is easy to feel upset and dejected in light of a disappointing outcome, but chances are we won’t remember those losses 20 years from
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O’Brien said. “It’s not easy, but if you accept your misfor tune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound reinvention.” O’Brien later said that it is this ver y failure that can help us realize our potential. “Through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality,” he said. Hearing O’Brien’s speech gave me solace after my own experiences with rejection and significantly altered my view of great disappointments. The experience during which I felt most rejected wouldn’t even technically be considered a rejection. Last December, being deferred from Dartmouth was the greatest disappointment I had ever encountered, especially since eight
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now. We’ll remember the things we chose to do instead. The best things in life often come out of being vulnerable and stepping out of your comfort zone. They are often surprising and may not be a reflection of the goals you originally had your sights set on. Dreams and desires are not static, and they can change as time moves for ward. If we blindly and fiercely pursue one set of goals, whether it is getting a job at Morgan Stanley or joining an A-side frat, we run the risk of missing out on spontaneous and novel pursuits. If we are able to accept the fluidity of our objectives, however, we can better react to disappointments and even use them as building blocks for our own success and happiness. CHRIS YIH //THE DARTMOUTH STAFF